Athaniel's Libation Ch. 05

I looked to the men, now loudly jesting and laughing through their beards as they slapped Kaelfred on the back. He had managed to rise to his hands and knees and was staring at a puddle of wet, red clumps in front of him. "I fear those lessons would be quite beyond them, my lady."

She nodded, following my gaze. "You are likely right, Lord Athaniel."

Feeling that our conversation was over, I bowed once again and moved on. Whatever had passed between us was clearly best forgotten.

The din of the crowd, the shouts and high-pitched laughter carried a sense of excitement, even if it every loud cackle made me flinch. As I stood there amidst it all, I had another moment where I imagined picking up that brute of a sword and hacking around me until they were all down. Fallen like grass.

I tried to focus. Breathe. Let it go. I needed to get to my chambers. To my bath. To Freya's waiting arms. All the energy coursing through my body converged. If I wasn't going to kill someone, I needed to fuck someone.

"You just couldn't do this the normal way, could you?" Forna grumbled from behind me.

I rounded on him, but when I was confronted with his startled face, I tried to hide my agitation. "Sorry," I quipped. Then, in a softer tone, "I tried."

He spread his hands and shrugged. "You were doing all right."

"I was losing."

He grimaced, then dropped his hands by his side. "Either way, well fought. If your kind had our numbers, I think the war may have turned out very differently."

I looked at him flatly. "We all know that."

"Right..." He stared at the grass.

"I need a bath." I said.

He sighed. "Very well then." He sounded defeated. "Best get to it."

-

The lust was upon me again, pounding through my veins like molten lead. I strode through the castle keep, barely noticing the men headed to the ale hall. Visions of Freya's soft flesh danced before my eyes, tormenting me. Trying not to look like a man possessed, I shoved past two maddeningly slow, chatting servants, taking the stairs two at a time in my haste. At the next landing, a familiar voice stopped me. "Lord Athaniel."

"What?" I near growled as I turned around.

It was Brika, the servant that had once guided my riled up, raging self all the way to my door, where she had propositioned me. There, I had made my last stance in the battle against the female half of humankind. I had won that battle, but lost the war.

With her was another servant, who I vaguely remembered attending to my bath before. They both gawked at me, startled.

"We heard... we heard you won the fight. Congratulations," Brika stammered.

"Thank you." I was already turning back to the stairs.

"Will you need a bath?" Brika asked.

I stopped in my tracks and turned back to her. She stared up at me, the intensity of my gaze jolted her. But to her credit, she stood her ground and asked me, "remember our agreement?"

I froze, staring at her, remembering our last encounter. She had offered herself to me and was doing so again now. Maybe she deserved it. I could drag her into my room and use her willing body to exorcise my demons.

But what if Freya was waiting for me?

She could watch. I'd fuck her after I was done with this one. Together with Hinde, they would be the beginning of my human zinthrasa, women so utterly devoted to me they would do anything I asked of them.

My mind, clearly, was unraveling.

Brika's friend, her eyes tracking me like I was a hungry predator, slowly, carefully lifted her hand to put it on Brika's arm. "I think we should leave Lord Athaniel be for today," she said under her breath.

I let go of a long shudder of a breath. "Yes, thank you."

Turning away from them, I started walking up the stairs, slower this time, as if I balanced over a gaping precipice.

If I didn't control myself, I may destroy someone.

I finally calmed the trembling in my limbs enough to make it to my chambers, only to find them empty.

Panic welled in my chest as I searched in vain for Freya. My growl of frustration bounced off the walls as I remembered how I had just denied Brika, again. Did I even find her attractive? Something about her was off. But if she'd been there with me, none of that would have mattered. I was ready to descend upon the nearest woman to sate my needs and pivoted wildly back to the door like a starving man preparing for the hunt.

Then I heard it - a splash and a low moan from the bathing chamber. I walked over, slowly, as if time itself had ground to a halt and the air had become a viscous thing.

But there was Freya, draped in a soaked shift that clung to her ample curves as she arched back in the tub. "Lord Athaniel," she whimpered, "I can't make myself come as well as you do." 

Curse these human women and their lush bodies that called to me so. The way they surrendered their ripe bodies so completely to my touch, how they drowned in the bond's ecstasy. I didn't understand this strange power they held over me, but now was not the time for reflection. 

"Out. Now." I ground out through clenched teeth. She rose slowly from the water, rivulets tracing paths down her body to pool between her legs as she stood before me.

My eyes trailed the cascade of liquid, catching on her heavy breasts and the flare of her hips before finding her sex. I pointed a shaking finger at the floor. "Here. Now." Her eyes slid from my hand to my face, a question in their depths. Fear or lust, it mattered not. I would have her, propriety be damned. My control hung by a thread as I prepared to lose myself in her soft flesh.

"You seem... tense," she whispered, the fear in her voice now unmistakable.

"The fight." I explained, trying to steady my breathing. "It has left me... tense."

"But you won?" she asked.

I gestured down at my unscathed body. "Clearly."

Her eyes slid down the muscles of my torso, so tight I could feel them tremble. Like the rest of me.

"Then I can be your reward." Her eyes caught mine and held there.

"Are you scared?"

"Yes."

How one word could both cut and arouse, I had never considered. While one part of me was horrified by her fear, the other only relished it like fire relishes oil.

"I would never hurt you."

"You can hurt me. I want you to."

I took a step closer and searched her face for a sign of lucidity. But only I saw a tangle of emotions even she had no hope of unraveling. "That's why I'm scared," she whispered.

"You can always tell me to stop, always. Whenever you feel uncomfortable."

She scoffed. "Never."

"Now you're scaring me," I breathed.

She pulled the hem of her shift up and peeled the wet fabric from her skin. Goosebumps followed in its wake. "That's... strangely comforting," she said as she let the fabric fall onto the water, where it spread along the surface like a wet, vulgar flower.

My hands freed my breeches, and they fell to the floor as she kneeled before me. Her eyes were enthralled by the sight of my manhood. "I thought I had dreamed this," she breathed. "But it's true."

"No," I murmured, bending to grasp her hand and raise her up. 

"It isn't true?" she inquired, puzzled.

"No, don't kneel," I entreated, pulling her against me with more force than intended. 

"Oh!" The breath rushed from her lungs as our damp flesh collided. Diminutive, her eyes level with my chest, breasts crushed against the tip of my cock. I explored every inch of her skin, roughly with my hands, grasping her shape, claiming her as mine. She sighed, melting into my hands, but her eyes flew open as I twisted her hair around my fist and wrenched her head back. "Unngh!" A throaty sound emerged from deep within as she went limp in my arms.

I held her there, half-contorted, muscles straining and trembling, slowly lowering my face to hers. She dampened her lips and my eyes fixated upon them, their shape sending shocks into my fevered mind. Her eyes were tearing up as she gasped in ragged breaths. Our mouths met. Ravenous mouths, devouring mouths. Soft, wet, urgent. I craved to have my cock in her mouth. But I craved it everywhere. Craved it inside her. My hips jerked forward of their own accord, rutting against her rippling flesh. Pressure threatened to burst through and for a moment I wished to spill all over her there and then.

But no, my seed belonged inside her. With a growl, I wrenched our lips apart. Her head lolled back in my hand, eyes closed, tears streaming freely down her cheeks. Was she crying?

"Freya, I must have you," I rasped.

"You have me," she crooned, then her eyes fluttered open and focused on me.

"The floor," I commanded, releasing her. She stumbled back and dropped gracelessly to her knees.

"How?" She gazed up at me questioningly. I didn't answer, moving behind her instead. Again, I seized her hair, bending her backwards until her upside down gaze met mine. My other hand slid my cock between the soft, slick flesh of her thighs, finding her entrance. "Are you ready?" I peered into her bulging eyes. Her answer was a push with her hips. "Please..." she pleaded, gazing at me as she started working my cock into her abdomen. 

As soon I pushed she halted, awaiting me. "Fuck me," she whispered. "Fuck me."

Our eyes were locked together as inch by inch I invaded her. No doubt lurked there in her pink depths, only complete submission to pleasure.

'Never.' Her admission earlier still rattled me. It was too much power to give to me. But were we not both thralls to the madness of the flesh? To its demands? Did I have any other choice but to fuck this beautiful, glorious creature that answered my desire so utterly and completely?

To that question, there was only one answer. I wrapped an arm around her chest and the other around her neck. With all my might, I hauled her onto me, crushing her against me as I drove deeper and deeper still until we were utterly ensnared in ecstasy's stranglehold. The more we struggled, the tighter the snare became. We tottered together, breathless, expiring. Her muscles quaked and a guttural sound ripped from her throttled throat. I growled, a feral noise joining the rattle. I withdrew, only to plunge into her even harder. Again. And again. Each punishing thrust came with the force of my whole being, ready, willing, to destroy itself to the last breath. I was already plunging into the abyss when her spasms began to milk my cock.

The sound escaping her throat rose into a ragged scream as her hands clutched at my hips, striving to pull me deeper. And then I was there, the pressure releasing as a rhythm started in my belly's depths, pumping my need into her. She convulsed violently beneath me, but I crushed her tight, kept her with me. Her face purpled. A vein pulsed at her temple. Wild crimson eyes gazed up at me as I emptied all of myself within her.

With a final growl, I let go the breath that had been choking my lungs. I released everything, even her. Together, we collapsed to the floor in a pile of powerless limbs. Silence reigned but for our labored breathing. She lay on her side facing away, her curves collapsed into delicious disarray. Dimples marked where back flowed into buttocks, unseen before. Their beauty struck me; my need rose anew. I was crawling behind her when her shoulders twitched, and again.

Was she still cresting the wave? A sob sounded. She was crying. "Freya?" I breathed, abruptly aware of the ambiguity of our earlier conversation. Another sob. Horrified, I scrambled over her to gaze down at her tear-stained face. 

"No...don't look at me," she mumbled feebly, hiding in her arms.

"Easy, beautiful," I soothed, as shocked at the endearment as she was. "What troubles you?"

Her eyes shot open, glistening. "No..." she muttered and curled into herself, hiding her face.

I gazed down at her, at a loss.

"Here." I bent over her and gathered her up. "What are you doing?" she murmured as I rose with her in my arms. "Bringing you to a place more suited for tears than this cold stone floor." 

Round eyes watched me as I carried her to the bed, slowly laying her down before joining her. I reclined against the pillows, opening my arms.

"Here, come." She crawled over, head on my chest, as I wrapped her in my arm. "I didn't think you were going to be nice to me too... I'm sorry, I..." 

"Sshh." I stroked her back. "It's alright." We were silent but for quiet sobs and my caresses. 

This is the price of careless bonding, I thought. Treating real people as unwitting pawns. The bond is an enormous experience, even after decades of courtship. And human women seemed to feel the bond even stronger, the experience shattering. There's no going back. This woman is yours, your responsibility, forever. And you don't even know her. Rules exist for this very reason. Proper mating requires care.

The thoughts flogged my mind like the strokes of whip, increasing in pace with every stroke. And all this time, I still did not even speak to the woman who wept in my arms. All I'd done was shush her.

"Why do you weep?" I asked, trying to calm myself, knowing that we must discuss. 

She placed a warm hand on my chest, meeting my eyes. "You brought me greater pleasure than I've ever known. Ever."

"And that made you weep?"

She nodded. "Yes. I wasn't even sad. Just grateful. It's like... I have found purpose in my life."

"Purpose?" I mumbled.

"Yes, I am yours. I mean, I am still Mala's. I love her still. But when you fuck me, everything else disappears. I am just there for you to use. And to feel you... use me."

Her words changed nothing. Yet they placated my guilt and so I relaxed and stroked her hair. "For me, it also feels like that," I agreed.

She jolted up, turning to look at me. "Truly? But you're like... a god. And I'm just me."

I twirled a lock of her hair around my finger and thought about her words.

"I'm not sure if I agree with being likened to a god. But if we assumed gods existed, then surely they would be just as intoxicated by the earthiness of the ground. If you spend an eternity in the heavens, the realness, the dirt, the smells of things growing and dying, wouldn't they all hold the same fascination?

"Growing and dying... You have a way with words."

I snorted. I was no poet. Just a man.

Her hand stroked along my hip, leaving humming skin in its wake, stirring my cock into a a few lazy twitches.

"So I like you because you are 'other', and you like me because I am 'other'" Her finger traced my hardening length. "But I don't have this."

My hand found the roundness of her hip. "You have this. And these." I circled the dimples on the small of her back. "These." My other hand brushed her breast and then lifted it.

"So you like my body?" She gave me an impish smile before her eyes dropped to my straining cock.

"'Like' is not the word I'd use."

"What word would you use?" She lifted my cock off my stomach and slid the skin down to watch the whole thing swell in her hand.

"Want... need," I gasped. "Maybe there is no word..."

One stroke of her hand was enough to have a lazy rivulet appear and flow down across her fingers. "Maybe you can only show it," she whispered.

For a time she continued silently stroking me, studying every inch-- vein, pulse, spasm--experimenting. But more was on her mind. 

"What else? There's more that turns you on, isn't there?"

"Yes..." I gasped.

"Tell me." She smiled, chin on my chest.

"You're so young."

"Young?" Her eyes widened as if that came as a surprise.

"So young." I gasped as she gripped me. "It's so wrong." 

"Wait... How old are you?"

I shook my head. "We don't keep track. Why would we?"

Her hand stilled on my cock. "I guess I knew you were older than my father. Maybe older than my grandpa."

"Oh, yes." I tensed and jerked impatiently within her grasp. "Older than this castle, likely."

She turned, peering up at me. "Then you are like a god." Shuffling down along my side, she stopped with her face beside my cock. She shook it playfully. "Is that why this is so good?"

"Perhaps," I gasped, eyes dropping to her lips, so close to where I craved them.

"It's all I've thought of," she said, sucking in her lip, "since you first took me. I leak and seep, thinking only of your dripping cock."

Her hand slid my skin down, and I thrust up into her grasp with a groan as a surge of early seed spurted out, landing inches from her face.

"May I have it, lord? More?" Pleading eyes gazed up at me. I grunted assent. She lapped the streaks from my belly.

"Mmm...so good. As long as you feed me this, I'll be your most happy and loyal servant."

Guilt pricked me, though she seemed to have no reservations about being enslaved to the cock of a relative stranger. 'As long as you feed me...' But what would happen to her if I failed to do so?

They were heavy questions, maybe too heavy for someone whose reaching cock is barely an inch away from the most scandalous pair of lips known to man and Fadal alike.

She snuggled against me, face on my belly, cock towering over her. "God, I love this thing," she muttered, gazing up at it. Again, she slid the skin down; I grunted, jerking, dripping into her mouth. She moaned, licking her lips and swallowing.

"I may have found the fountain of youth, I think." She giggled.

Confused, I let it pass, lost as she milked me slowly, drawing me ever closer to the precipice in a way that had taken Elliana years to master. 

"Did you enjoy fucking Lady Hinde last night?"

I froze. "You knew..."

"Irene wouldn't stop grumbling about tidying your mess." She teased out more drops, catching them on her tongue. "She must be frigid. The girl made it sound like you nearly crippled the lady Hinde. And all Irene could talk about was how she had to stay up, waiting for you."

She angled my cock down and wiggled her tongue back and forth across the slit with copious results. "I'm tempted to feed her some of this and see what happens."

"Please don't." Shock colored my voice; she giggled.  

"Not my proudest moment--I offered to clean the lady's camisole. I took it into a dark corner and licked up the seed you had pumped into Lady Hinde. All the while, I was frigging myself to an orgasm that would have been mind-blowing before you fucked me. I hope Irene didn't hear. But I guess she must have. I wasn't quiet."

With that, she closed her lips around me and started sliding them down along the shaft.  

"Oh!" I grunted. "You're committed."

"Mm-hmm," she garbled around me. Good as her word, she swallowed me deeper until she jerked back with a retching sound. Tears were streaking her face as she crooned in a broken voice, "this thing goes on forever. I'll need a helping hand to serve you properly."

"Sorry." I shrugged, hiding my smirk.

She slapped my thigh wetly. "No, you're not, mister intense."

"Intense?"

"Those raptor eyes--always looking ready to tear someone to pieces? Yeah, intense."

"Didn't realize..." 

Truly, I hadn't. To myself, I seemed entirely ordinary.

Mala's servant batted her doe-eyes at me, biting her lip. "You scare everyone, my lord. Save for those whose loins moisten at your passing. Perhaps them as well." 

I slid my fingers into her tangled locks and forced her lips to my manhood. Her mouth sprang open eagerly, but I held her there, just shy of her goal. "Do I frighten you?" 

"Not as much as I frighten myself." She said before urgently thrusting out her tongue to reach for the cum that slid down just beyond her reach. "The things I'd do for you..." Her eyes implored me as she strained anew to take me in her mouth.

"Like this?" I allowed her, immediately thrusting deep into her throat. She nodded with my cock lodged deep inside her neck and gagged but once as I found my release.

Afterwards, she sat back with a sated sigh, eyes heavy-lidded. She wiped her mouth and murmured, "My thanks, lord." Then she curled against me, nestling into my side. "Have I served you well? Are you content?"