The Coward and the Wolf Ch. 01

She stopped there. At some point during the speech she had placed one hand on Steve's shoulder, and was now squeezing quite painfully. He assumed that this was a shut up and let me do the talking squeeze. It certainly wasn't a comforting squeeze. He couldn't think of anything to say anyway, as most of his mental faculties were focusing on trying not to wince.

She turned to Michael for an answer, and he scowled at her. If her eyes could speak Steve was pretty sure it would essentially boil down to:

"Checkmate, motherfucker"

Steve could see that Michael really didn't want to delay Steve's 'induction' into his pack, as he was not doing a particularly good job of hiding the deep scowl on his face, but it eventually became clear that just as the Oracle couldn't outright deny his right to claim Steve without upsetting a lot of rules and etiquette, he could not outright deny her right to claim Steve for the week either. Just as he had created a shield against her by endangering both their public standings with his obscene actions, she too was now was endangering them both by forcing him to accept her proposition, or deny it and open challenge her authority, while making himself out as a paranoid control freak.

He contemplated all this for a second, before taking a knee and solemnly bowing his head again. Steve found it hard to take this show of respect at face value considering the werewolf still had a raging erection, and had not more than minutes ago been smearing his seed all over the object of his now solemn attention.

"I understand that the Oracle must desire to once again speak to another being of divine origin. Very well, for five days and five nights, he may remain in your home and you may converse as you wish. I will claim him on the morning of the sixth day."

He grinned at Steve and the Oracle as he said 'claim'. It sent shivers down Steve's spine, but the Oracle seemed unaffected, she seemed as confident as when she had first arrived, which considering semen and vaginal fluid were dripping off her, was pretty impressive.

She nodded to him, and began walking, steering Steve gently in the direction of the gigantic tent. He noticed she had not relented her grip on his shoulder, the other hand was firmly still holding his chain. It was as if she feared he might run away. She need not have bothered. When Steve escaped, he was going to make sure no one was aware he was gone until he was well out of reach. His only relief was that his boner had finally had enough, and finally gone flaccid by the time she steered him through the tent's entrance. This seemed to him like progress.

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The insides of the tent seemed obnoxiously bright compared to the poorly lit darkness outside. Steve was blinded for a couple of seconds, and in those few seconds he tripped. At least his wishful thinking said he tripped, in reality he felt a heavy push on his back and took an unsteady half step forward, before his foot collided with something soft and he fell to the floor with the tinkling sound of dropped chains. He gradually opened his eyes, letting them become accustomed to the well lit room.

Looking around the room he was immediately struck with the idea that it would not have looked out of place in a Viking drinking hall, or at least his idea of what Viking drinking hall looked like. Bright torches were connected to each of the supporting arches of the room, and everywhere he looked seemed to have fur padding attached. The room itself was pretty massive and could have been used to entertain a dozen people, as the large number of sofas adorned with cream cushions could attest to.

He was honestly surprised the wolf people didn't get a bit bored of the color cream, but it seemed to be the color of the century, for almost every object in the room was cream. Steve noted that the reason there was any variation on the color cream in the room was due to the fact that every spare horizontal surface was occupied by brown wooden cups, mostly empty, but some half full.

He tentatively reached over and grasped one of the half full ones. He saw that inside was an amber liquid, it smelled sweet and distinctly alcoholic. Was it mead? If this Viking aesthetic was anything to go by it might be. He took a quick sip. Yep, definitely mead. He had a sneaking suspicion that whoever lived here was something of a drinker, and a slob. As based on the fact he had seen no one else present in the building he was pretty sure only the Oracle lived here, but that was impossible. The Oracle couldn't be a slob. He had already realized that perhaps the Oracle was not the angel she originally appeared, based on a number of unsettling clues. He optimistically ignored them all.

"Are you going to move out of the entrance, or am I going to have to push you again?" Steve froze, the voice behind seemed familiar, but that was impossible. That was definitely the Oracle's voice, but she had spoken with a soft voice that commanded attention and seemed to imply an almost otherworldly wisdom and understanding. The voice that had spoken carried none of the authority of the matronly Oracle, rather it sounded like the irritable and slightly bored tone of a teenager who wanted to use the bathroom.

Slowly, he turned around. It's quite a difficult thing to have your realities shattered so many times in one day, especially when you have done your absolute best ignore anything contrary to your preconceived concepts. Never the less, Steve looked up, bringing himself to gaze upon the slightly bored expression of the Oracle. She stood over him, her face was so close he could feel her breath on his face. He quickly glanced down to see those perfectly sized breasts, jiggling inches away, like the melons of god's own fruit bowl.

Now that the flaps behind her were closed, and she was no longer in the public eye, she seemed to have changed from the persona of the motherly priestess of her society, into a slightly mischievous and domineering older sister-esque character.

She no longer held herself with the fine poise of a queen, rather she looked like all the tension had drained from her body. She was almost slouching as she looked him up and down in the improved lighting of the tent.

She was also grinning widely, a sight that sent a jolt of joy and fear straight to his core, as while it showed she was somewhat happy, it also showed a lot of teeth. Steve had a feeling this was intentional. He shuffled back a bit into the pile of cushions and toward the center of the room, where he stayed in the middle of the surrounding sofas.

She strode over to the largest sofa directly opposite him, casually letting what little clothing she had been wearing drop to the floor with it. Steve was instantly torn between the joy at this amazing sight as he watched the careless strides of her long legs move in time with the swish and bounce of her tail, which in turn drew his attention to the perfect shape of her wide hips that framed her perfect ass, as she strutted to the center of the room, and his irritation that his painfully hard erection had now returned with a vengeance.

She planted herself on the sofa with a loud thump that suggested that if she had been attempting to maintain even the slightest modicum of grace, it had disappeared that the second her rear had hit the sofa.

She spread herself out to such an extent she was almost lying across the sofa. She casually crossed her legs as sat, giving him an entirely intentional view of something moist and pink between her legs. At the same time, one of her hands was placed across the cum stained warm and gooey fur of her stomach, just below the navel. Steve couldn't help but note that she had not attempted to remove the globs of semen Michael had left on her, despite her show of disgust at him when she received them, if anything she was taking great interest in scooping up sticky strands of it with a thumb and forefinger, and rolling it back and forth between them. Some of it had started to dry on her fur, but he could still see a large dollop jiggling about with her breathing in her navel. The other hand was kneading her left breast, and occasionally she used a claw to delicately pinch at her nipple, he would like to say she was doing this while ignoring his presence, but she was staring him right in the eyes with a grin as she did it. Steve's was pretty sure any more of this crap, and his hard-on would tear through his poor pants if it had to. He had also come to the conclusion that she was toying with him.

She spoke first "Well Steve, if this little venture of mine could have been fucked up any further, I don't know how you could have done it."

Steve was shocked. Not just by this knowledge of his name, complete change in demeanor, cum-play and her casual breast-fondling. It was the insinuation that anything that had happened in the last day could be considered his fault. He had decided that his none intervention policy had run its course. Now that being eaten seemed to have been staved off for the very least five days, although how long a day on this planet was, he had no clue. Hopefully being eaten may not happen after that either, provided that Michael's 'claiming' didn't involve dinner forks. Now was a moment for action. He needed to speak words that conveyed his confusion, outrage, desire to learn more as well as his desire not to be eaten.

"What the fuck is going on? And for that matter what the fuck am I doing here!?"

Yep, nailed it. He would have continued, but honestly he had been surprised by the sound of his own voice after so long listening quietly. Also he still didn't want to annoy the Oracle. He figured his statement would be allowed considering what he had gone through today, but a full tirade may be pushing his luck.

The Oracle reacted by sitting up a bit straighter, licking the cum off her fingers with a slight sigh of appreciation, and then sat forward, placing her hands on her knees. This had two side effects, first it brought her breasts right in front of Steve's face, twin pink nipples taunting him by peeking out of the light tufts of white fur, bare inches away. It also made her uncross her legs and open her knees exposing an engorged pink clit and labia lips that were indeed shiny with the moisture that was casually dribbling onto the sofa beneath her. Steve concluded she was either flaunting her sexuality to keep him off balance, or much more likely, she just enjoyed the exhibitionism on top of his discomfort. Hell it was probably both, she had certainly shown a talent for misdirection earlier.

"Well, it looks like you do have a voice after all. Very well, I will forgive that outburst, do you want the short version or the long version of the events that have brought you to this world?"

Steve didn't hesitate. Fast clarity, meant increased survival chances quicker. Also, he still had a pretty bad headache, and being told a long monotonous story may have resulted in him passing out from frustration.

"Short Version"

She seemed amused by his immediate answer, and responded in kind, she spoke quickly "I'm a two hundred year old figurehead of a multispecies religion that worships humans. I should point out that werewolves should have a natural lifespan that stretches to about 80, my bloodline is not fully werewolf however, which has the added advantage of a longer lifespan amongst other things. The humans my species originally worshipped as gods came to this planet in a starship two hundred and twelve years ago, at which point my primitive forebears chose to worship them, as with their space age technology they seemed as gods descended to earth. My society also coincidentally believes that I am a reincarnation of one of their human gods in wolfen form.

A series of events transpired, that I won't get into now, but suffice to say those humans aren't around now. I'm also able to wield powers that are beyond even the knowledge of that particular space faring race. Powers that according to all of my research, which I have uncovered from the computer terminals the humans left behind, that they had discovered magic to be a very real phenomena, able to be used by many of the alien species they encountered on their journey through the cosmos. In fact it seems they were originally here to study this exact phenomenon, before events transpired that rendered them unable to remain. In other words they were studying magical abilities that changed the rules of physics and allowed for events to transpire that otherwise would be completely impossible, all with no explanation except that they were able to discover that it is more or less able to be controlled by the willpower of the creature wielding it."

She paused, and looked expectantly at Steve as if expecting a retort or statement of disbelief at her story. What she found was him trying to find just the words to do that. Failing in that endeavor, he was in fact making an excellent impression of a goldfish, with wide eyes and an opening and closing mouth. She smiled to herself and decided continued on.

Steve on the other hand was internally trying to decide yet again, how wide his mind was willing to open to accept all this bullshit. Originally he just wanted to know if werewolves ate humans, and maybe some basic theology so he could keep pretending to be a mystical, and thus not edible, before finding a way back home. Even a man with his knowledge of fantasy tropes and mental adaptability could keep up with only so many clashes in genre and not wonder if someone was fucking with him.

"I have not in fact pulled you forward in time as you may have believed-" He honestly had been stuck at abducted and placed on an alien planet, time travel having not even occurred to him yet "-but rather I have pulled you from a different dimension altogether into this one, which I should note has likely damaged your memory, a natural side effect of being subject to large amounts of magical energy. I had hoped you would land discreetly here in this room, so I could explain to you what had happened and why you were her. This would have given me the added benefit of exposing you to the world when you and I were good and ready. As it was you landed with a thunder crack, a dozen miles away. At which point the single worst thing happened; Michael, head warrior of our tribe found you while he was out hunting, and having mistaken you for a fallen deity decided to use you for a power play, much in the same way I had intended to use you.

He has invoked the right of surrender on you. The right of surrender is an act that has been used by my species since before recorded history. It is basically the process by which a defeated foe may be absorbed into their conquerors pack. In other words Michael has chosen to adopt you as his underling, making him in a legal sense your liege. The process has a number of complex rituals to go with it. Most of which involve physically forcing you to submit to him through violence and humiliation. A process that you have already partially gone through, and a process you may have noticed he started to inflict on me for his own amusement.

If I had not intervened, you would have been taken back to his tent tonight. At which point each member of his pack would have chosen some way of making you to submit to them individually. With that long process complete you would have been painted with his markings and been a full member of his pack, which in a position that isn't alpha, amounts to little more than a slave.

As it is I have managed to delay that fate by five days. A fact you should be very thankful for. If he were to succeed and claim a holy being under his command he would have enough support amongst the people to take full control of this tribe, at which point he would likely claim me against my will as his mate, and go on a crusade of violence and subjugation against the other five species of our world. You will find that he is not nearly as enlightened as me and would not have made for a particularly pleasant master.

With you back in my possession I intend to use you for the original purpose I brought you here for: to stage an apparent revival of the God of Soldiers and seize full control of not only this tribe, but the five other species that for the most part make up the population of sentient life on this planet. The key difference here is that I intend to unite a world on the brink of war using diplomacy and just a little deception.

I should also note that to the best of my knowledge, I am the only one on this planet who is aware of the fact that humans are not gods, and intentionally keep my brethren ignorant of that fact" She stopped apparently satisfied with that explanation.

She was the only one. Steve rubbed a hand over his short hair. Then he did it with the other hand.

"What!?"

He even forgot to act humble as he made his retort. One could only swallow so much crap and keep smiling.

"Listen miss two hundred year old wolf wizard lady, I hate to break it to you but that explanation was missing more than a few important plot points, like I don't know! Where did the humans go? Why have you lived so long? Why do you know so much? Why am I apparently only a 'servant' of the soldier god, and not a whole god according to Mr. Dry-hump out there? Why the fuck is it the soldier god? Why do you need me? Or rather why did you pull me from another dimension for this? Why does that Michael guy out there have a figurative hard on for me, and a very physical one for you, aside from the obvious 'assets' you're swinging?" He could go on, but he figured he had made his point. A lot of shit didn't make sense and it was leaving him very unsatisfied. He finally settled on something that would make an immediate difference to his day.

"What's your name? And do you plan on eating me?" He felt much better for getting his priorities straight.

"My name is Talia of the Divine Pack and no eating would be a somewhat massive waste of my time and energy." Although looking down the human's body, she wouldn't mind devouring him in a way they might both find quite enjoyable. She had held onto her virginity for far too long, and fucking someone without the risk of pregnancy, and the negative effects it would have on her seemingly 'holy' public persona. It was an opportunity she did not intend to pass up, and part of the reason she had selected a young 'well endowed' male for her plan. She had planned to use this week to fuck like bunnies and satisfy two hundred years of repressed cravings, and had a number of easily administered aphrodisiacs hidden throughout the building, should the young man's vitality need 'bolstering'. Events had transpired differently however, now they were likely to only spend half of their allotted five days fucking like bunnies, she reflected sadly.

Ignorant of the wicked slant of his hostess's thoughts Steve had calmed himself admirably after his outburst. The knowledge that the creature in front of him was claiming to have plucked him from his own world, brought him here, nearly had him killed by fucking up the spell, and seemed to have a plan for conquering her world, with a plan that even a bond villain would be proud of was not lost on him. The fact that for now there was sweet fuck all he could do about it, was also not lost on him. He was for now sated by the knowledge he was not going to be eaten, and if he wanted to get home he knew he needed a wizard, and that others with the ability did exist on this world. The fact that he had just thought that ridiculous statement about needing a wizard depressed him, but fuck it. You play the hand your given. He had other questions.

"Right, so Talia then. Now that we have the most basic premise of our little play over with, world conquest and all that, is there anything I need to know that will make a direct impact on me for the most immediate of futures, like 'oh, and I also fart fairy dust that makes shit explode' you know information like that? Before I pass out on the floor, and pray third times the charm for waking up from this crazy dream"