Chapter Eighteen
“It is imperative that you keep Arcus’s interest,” Luthian tells me, not for the first time. He’s almost as nervous as I was before we entered the throne room this morning.
I look myself over in the mirror, check my gown from one side then the other. For my private audience with the king, I’ve chosen a dress similar in style to the one I wore that morning. This one is bright, screaming red, with a deep V that reaches almost to my waist, and nothing beneath it. My breasts are barely contained by the laces across the bodice. “You don’t think this is a bit...seductive? After the throne room, I assumed he wanted innocence to despoil.”
“If that were the case, you’re already spoiled,” Luthian says, fluffing my ringlets over my bare shoulders. “He’ll view your beauty tonight as a gesture of good will from me. And besides, he thinks you’re my mate. He knows you’re not innocent.”
“True.” I go to the immense jewelry box Luthian gifted me this afternoon. He was so pleased by my performance, he said I deserved a reward.
The only reward I want is for him to fuck me. I’m beginning to feel slighted.
I know it isn’t crucial to our scheme. Still, the feeling of his cock pushed against me, so close to giving us both what we desperately want from each other, haunts me.
Luthian stands behind me and holds my gaze in the mirror. “Give him what he wants. I need him to trust you.”
“He will.” I’ve worked too long at my lessons to fail now.
“Good girl.” He leans down and kisses the curve where my neck meets my shoulder. I shiver.
We walk downstairs, to the great hall, where a new egress appeared upon our return. It’s tall, with a pointed arch, and swirling, colored glass fills two windows in the gleaming silver door. Luthian opens it onto a long, deserted gallery with black walls and black-and-white checked marble upon the floor. Two sylphs wait for me, reach out to snatch my wrists as they did that morning.
I jerk my chin up and say haughtily, “You will not put a hand on me. I am a guest of His Most Gracious Majesty.”
They float back, but they flank me as I walk the length of the gallery, and they open another set of doors when we reach the end. I want to look back at Luthian. I try not to. He would not want me to.
I can’t resist.
What I see stuns me. The same rage, the same pain from the throne room twists his features as he watches them deliver me to his enemy. But there is no one to see him here, no one to act for. And when our eyes meet, he looks away and closes the door.
I’ve seen something I wasn’t supposed to see.
There’s no time to wonder about it; the sylphs have delivered me directly to the king’s chamber. The walls are black with long panels of ruby satin. Various implements are displayed proudly in the way a trophy hunter hangs his conquests. There are rods and canes, whips and paddles, restraints attached to the walls. Various objects for pleasure are there, too, from phalluses of varying sizes and materials to potions like the ones in Luthian’s study. One entire end of the long room is a vast bed, made up with black silk and mounds of pillows. Shackles dangle from every post and from the headboard. A wide arch divides the room in half, and I stand before a long, black dining table set with a mouthwatering feast.
At the head of the table is King Arcus.
“Welcome, my lady,” he says, gesturing to the seat at his right. “Do come join me.”
“It would be my pleasure,” I say, swallowing with exaggerated force so that he can see, even from where he sits, that I am afraid of him.
“You look beautiful,” he says as I draw closer. “Did you pick that out for me, or did your mate?”
“I chose it. Luthian did not approve.” How strange it is to say his name.
“You dressed this way for me.” Arcus smiles, transparently pleased with himself. Of course, a king would have no shame. There is no need for it when one holds all the power.
Power.
That’s what drives his lust. That knowledge is the key that will unlock my understanding, and therefore, my control, of him.
“He was so angry with me, but I wanted to impress you,” I say as Arcus moves the chair back for me with magic. I sit and the chair slides to the table, where there is a plate set before me. Sorry, Guardian , I think. I must disobey you .
I wish I would have paid better attention at Brujon’s lessons.
Arcus’s eyebrows lift. “And he didn’t? I would have thought that ridiculous climber would have sent you here to seduce me.”
I shake my head. “Oh no, Your Majesty. He was frightfully upset with me at what transpired in the throne room today.”
“With you?” Arcus pours some wine into the goblet before me.
“Because I liked it.” I toy with a fork and don’t look at his face. I simply hope that my words have had the intended effect and continue. “He’s a fine lover, of course. But such a display of raw power, the way you dominated him and made him look a fool in front of those courtiers... well. You felt the evidence of my appreciation for your skill.”
“I sense I’m being played with,” the king says, and I glance up to find him studying me with undisguised suspicion.
“Not at all.” My heart begins to pound. I force myself to keep calm. “The only reason he returned to court at all was to please me. He knows how much I enjoy cuckolding him.”
“Is that so?” Arcus is intrigued. “The Luthian I knew would not have allowed a mortal to bring him so low.”
“Your Majesty, if I may be so bold.” I lift my skirts beneath the table and turn slightly, displaying my bare body beneath. “Half of your court would do anything to have this.”
The king’s hot gaze is fixed on the ring poking out between my labia. He takes a long breath. “You are bold. I enjoy that.”
I lick my bottom lip.
“I enjoy breaking bold creatures who reach above their station.” He sweeps the food and dishes near us onto the floor. Hidden among the crystal goblets and bowls of fruit are another set of shackles, these on thick chains.
The sylphs are upon me before I have a chance to react, but I wouldn’t have fought them, anyway. I gasp as they lift me up and toss me onto the table, but I don’t struggle, reaching my arms out helpfully so they can lock me into place. I am laid out before the king like a banquet, skirt tossed up, ass on the edge of the table and my cunt on offer to him.
He leans forward and takes a long, appreciative sniff. “You do bring a treasure with you. But be warned, you’re not the only human who has ever come here believing that their sexual value will keep them safe. I can do exactly as I wish to you, and your mate cannot protect you.”
I moan. “Yes, Your Majesty!”
He flicks my clit hard, and I can’t help my gasp of pain. I writhe my hips as the pain fades into hunger for more sensation.
That earns me a sharp slap across my mound. He spreads my labia wide and slaps me again, directly on my burning clit. I whimper, “Oh, yes. Thank you, Your Majesty.”
“You’re either a talented liar or a true deviant, like your mate.” He pushes his chair back. “We’ll soon find out. Bring him.”
Chained as I am, I can’t see what enters the room. I hear scraping and shuffling, then a deep, lowing sound like a groan of approval.
“Welcome, old friend.” The king claps one hand on whatever has entered. “Look at what I have for you.”
“Arcus, you shouldn’t have.” The voice is so low, it sounds distorted and far away, though I hear the creature breathing like a bellows. It uses the king’s name, so “old friend” wasn’t a kindly exaggeration. I tip my head back to try and catch a glimpse of the stranger, but they’re already walking around the other end of the table.
“Have you had a human before? They are so small and so tight. She might squeeze your cock right off,” the king says, and finally, the two of them walk into view.
My heart freezes. It’s a minotaur. He towers over the king, easily twice as tall as myself, and as broad as the table. There is a huge golden ring looping through his bovine septum, and his horns gleam with golden points. At the end of his neck, which is as wide as his head, is a body similar to that of a human, but more densely muscled than any I’ve ever seen. He wears a long robe open to the waist, and when he sheds it, I see that his legs are the same russet-and-white piebald as his head. Between them…
His head is not the only thing that resembles a bull.
Arcus leans against the minotaur and strokes the creature’s chest. “You may have her, and then we may both take her at once.”
The minotaur chuckles. “I would rather have her, then take you.”
“You may have me any time.” Arcus places a kiss on one of the creature’s human-like nipples; they’re both pierced, like the creature’s nose.
And, I see as he lifts his long, heavy cock in his hand, so is the tip of that .
Arcus picks up a knife and plays with it as he walks to my head. “Are you afraid?”
I hold his gaze. “Do you want me to be, Your Majesty?”
He brings the blade to my throat.
I do not blink. I do not waver. I gaze into the cruel darkness of his eyes, and I do not back away from it.
He takes the knife away and brings it between my breasts, slicing the cords that hold my dress together.
The minotaur makes a snort of appreciation and reaches out to cup both of my breasts. “I can see why you like her. She’s beautiful. And I know what you like to do with beautiful things.” The minotaur squeezes my flesh until I can’t help but cry out. He grabs my dress and rends the skirt in half, leaving me exposed in the ruin of fabric.
I’m in danger, with someone I don’t trust the way I trust Luthian. Why does it excite me so?
Luthian promised me that no harm would come to me. He knows Arcus, likely knew that such a scenario was possible, or worse. Luthian would not have made such a promise if he didn’t know he could keep it.
“Do I want you to be scared?” Arcus repeats my question with a happy little sigh. “I think you will be. I think you should be. But if you’re not, if you do truly enjoy what we do to you tonight… then I believe you’re the perfect mate for Luthian. And the perfect concubine for me.”
I smile serenely at him. “Well, then. Let’s put me to the test.”