10. Bracken
Chapter 10
Bracken
I t was a small grace that I didn’t return from the hunt empty-handed nearly two weeks after our rendezvous with Sun’s friends and their strange nocs. Winter had set in, in force, strangling what little life had been struggling to survive in the Celestial Forest. Kiar and I had separated this morning on the prowl, but the prey I brought back wouldn’t fill us for more than a night.
Thankfully, death and sex filled our bellies while tethered, and Sun had been on something of a rampage by the second day we’d been traveling to this General Hideyoshi. Fucking our brains out, that is, like he was worried he could never do it again. Not that I would ever complain.
At first, we hadn’t tried after that failed night when Clem had been acting so strangely. What did that human put in the wine? Poison? For a few days, Sun had been unable to stiffen his puny cock for us, prone to dizzy spells. He’d refused us, claiming he’d hurl until Clem nearly fainted from hunger, and then he’d been on us every night.
But not the complete, penetrative bliss we could usually partake in. I didn’t know what was worse, Sun the tease, partially for our survival, or Sun the slut who robbed me of any other desire but to fill him again and again until he wrung my balls dry.
So, we hunted as much as we could, so we wouldn’t all be driven mad from the kisses and touches and sliding of slippery cocks without ever getting to finish inside him. Sun cared more about reaching Hideyoshi before the whole of Naran’s standing armies got to us first. He was relentless about reaching him, and we all fell in line.
Oh, Sun , I thought as I gazed up at the sun, landing near the River Yang. It would never cease to amaze me how strange it felt to move during the day.
Despite my mounting sexual frustration, I was pleased that neither Kiar nor Hadi had been able to take him either. I’d enjoyed watching Sun get under Hadi’s skin and the sexual trysts we’d had since. The way Hadi received a kiss for his efforts to court Sun instead of lips wrapped around his dick infuriated our lord. Now, he was a perpetual bundle of cooling embers constantly ready to reignite, waspish at every turn.
Maybe it was my natural born sadistic temperament, but watching the king silently seethe as I had, unable to enter Sun or break through his defenses, filled me with glee.
Though eventually, he would have his turn, and Sun would cave. Goddess above I hoped I was there to watch Sun get split open then. It would be…
“Delicious. Delightful,” I said out loud. More so than the rabbit head I ripped off, eating the body whole, the crunching bones drowning out my thoughts.
But we had no time to think of sex, according to Sun. World-ending battles and the like should be our only concern.
There was so much to be concerned about; I knew this; I was not a fool. But damn if I didn’t care. Saving the world and nation-building after we burned it to the ground took away from what I wanted to do—have my mates on their knees at my beck and call.
I felt nothing when I rampaged and slaughtered those little worms who used to defy Hadi. I needed a challenge. I needed to feel my blood pumping through my veins and guide my wings in battle. And the war of the flesh was the most sumptuous battlefield I’d ever met, better than all my kills.
In other words, the only battle I needed to win right then was taking Sun to bed.
“Who’s there?” I called out as leaves rustled beside me from within the forest. Sun had told us the clearing meant we were close to the human encampment, and I braced, not wanting to slaughter human vermin today.
Or ever again, if I could avoid it, the thought knocked the wind out of me.
“It’s me.”
Sun emerged from the shadows, and all my coiled tension unraveled all at once. His hair was slightly damp, and he smelled of soot. He must have heated snow for a quick bath. He did not like to be dirty, which I found amusing, seeing as Sun was some legendary warrior who’d dived head-first into naga pits and slashed his way through battlefields bloodied from head to toe.
It boded well for our future. Once this was all over, he wouldn’t have to fight anymore. He’d be more pampered and locked away. I thought he would enjoy that as I rubbed the backside of my furred hand down his hair, and Sun sighed, using it as a makeshift brush. He nuzzled me with affection, defenseless, and the low grumble I emitted signaled my pleasure at watching him groom himself against me.
I marveled at a flexing pec peeking from his robe, a deep bite mark embedded around his nipple, one part of me wanting to wrap him in my furs to stay warm, protective with the urge to pamper, and the other half that warred with me to force his face into the snow and fuck him senseless. My blue balls were at historic levels. He had been with Kiar, maybe Clem too not too long ago, but not with me.
“Hence the wash,” I thought out loud.
“Huh?” he asked. I brushed his question aside.
“Where are the others?” I asked, not too concerned with finding them. The feeling of fullness before eating the rabbit meant the rest of the meal I caught would be put to use another day. Sun must have found them before me.
“By the river still, where the ice is thin and breakable. Clem said he needed a fish and water that flowed from the Ice Dragon’s left claw or something like that, for a spell.”
I sighed. The meeting with that fellow winged bastard had changed my sweet Clem into something approaching a fanatic. He would sit, snuggled in Kiar’s tail, and pepper the naga prince with questions he couldn’t begin to answer.
It would be endearing if it weren’t paired with a slightly crazed look in Clem’s solid black eyes as he read spells and spouted nonsense from his little black book of secrets.
One day I’d find that Nguyen and wring that chickenshit’s neck. I hadn’t caught everything he’d said but saw him mouth ‘pathetic’ to my mothian. Clem’s face had crumpled, and I almost tore off the nightwing’s head before Clem schooled his expression and walked away.
But now he couldn’t seem to get the other noc out of his mind, and I couldn’t untangle feelings of jealousy from my murderous intent. His thoughts should be filled only with us, and primarily with me.
“I see. Well, hopefully, his spellwork comes in handy again,” I said in a measured tone, and Sun agreed since his rudimentary spells had proven more than helpful. Maybe Nguyen was onto something, whether I liked the bond they had formed under my nose or not.
I wondered what they’d talked about the last time they were left to themselves by the river but quickly shook the thought away. The closer Kiar became to Clem, the better. I’d decided that a while ago. I no longer cared about passing our pets between us, within reason. And Kiar was a very reasonable naga.
Kiar protected what was his with bloodthirsty fierceness. Since he didn’t like much of anything, and I’d never known him to direct a loving energy towards another being rather than things he hoarded in his nest… Not before Sun, anyway. If he liked Clem, he’d protect and kill for him, and that set my heart at ease.
“Where is our reclusive king? Where is Hadi? I don’t sense him in the trees. Did he slack on guard duty?” I teased, and Sun half-shrugged, avoiding my gaze. He’d told me that Hadi was supposed to always stay near him while Kiar and I hunted, yet here he was, alone.
“Oh, that? I lied. Hadi never agreed to watch me,” he said matter-of-factly. “Don’t worry; I waited for Kiar to return before leaving Clem.”
“You what?” I growled.
“Hadi was too busy scowling at the clouds, and I was hungry, and you were far. It’s not the end of the world, Bracken.”
I wanted to smash his head against the rocks and force some sense to seep into the crack in his skull. Did Sun not realize how small he was, how fragile even now? The image of him sobbing curled into a tiny ball on the mountain, was seared into my mind.
How many times had he slipped away from us for the briefest moment only to be physically and emotionally wounded?
“You should be punished,” I said before I could catch myself.
“I should be. Thoroughly.”
He flashed a vivacious smile and reached up and over much too boldly, stroking the pocket of fur that sheathed my cock. My moan of surprise erupted without warning.
“We should finish what we started. I… I’m sorry I’ve been so distant. But we’re close now. So close to General Hideyoshi. Once we’re there, there… I think we should?—”
I growled.
“You wouldn’t let me,” I said too forcefully, already ready for more. How was I possibly that pent up when I’d been ravishing Clem in the meantime during this long sexual drought?
“I know, and I’m sorry for that. I wanted it, you know,” he whispered, and his eyes flicked up, framed by his long eyelashes. It should be illegal to be so gorgeous. “I wanted you.”
He got closer, so both of his hands were on me now. He stared intently at the thick black fur that hid my cock and licked, enraptured as he rubbed the slit harder and harder, my cock head peeking out, his eyes widening with lust.
“Don’t try to seduce me when you lied to Kiar and Clem,” I moaned again, pushing him away from me as gently as I could.
He huffed, and I reached to hold him to stop him from stroking me any longer. Sun had it in his mind to suck the fur-lined pocket that held my cock from view. I didn’t know where he’d gotten a new kink for touching me there, but I did not like it. It was too close to being fucked by him, and that would never happen!
Sun folded nicely into my arms. Perfect, like puzzle pieces slotting together. Could he not see it now?
“Ouch!” I released him at once. Something hard and stiff and most definitely not a cock nicked my thigh.
“Oh shit, sorry, Bracken,” he said in a rush, a razor-sharp dagger falling to the ground.
I sucked my teeth. Sun had fashioned an impressive arsenal, deadly to nocs and humans. And I could tell, by the darkness haunting the corners of his eyes, that he would kill anyone and anything that stood in the way of taking the false emperor’s head. And the thought of killing humans unnerved him.
Sun stilled beside me, fingers flexing for some invisible dagger. Knowing my little warrior, he’d probably stowed one away in his boot, gifted to him by his friends, near his ankle for good measure.
“Do you hear that?” he whispered.
“Hear what?” I asked, feigning ignorance like I didn’t know Hadi was leaping through the woodlands nearby.
Instinctively, Sun stepped in front of me, and I suppressed my snort. I had to concede he was strong and worthy of the warrior title by human standards. But every time he moved to protect me, I couldn’t help but laugh.
The rustling of leaves stopped, and Sun exhaled a sigh of relief. Though he shouldn’t. Hadi was near, and he was not pleased. It never ceased to amaze me how such a large body maneuvered so quietly, damn near daintily. All the better to rip his prey’s heads off without warning. It was probably only because of the tether that Sun heard him at all.
“You should show Clem more affection,” I said to distract him, curious to see if Hadi would come closer. “He’s been lonelier than all those jealous fools combined.”
“His nose has been buried in his book. Where did he get that thing, anyway?” Sun asked as I began stripping him bare, like a present wrapped up for me—no need to wait anymore.
I didn’t answer, pivoting the conversation.
“Why don’t you strip down yourself? I’ll keep you warm,” I offered, and he tugged away.
I frowned.
“Bracken…” I peered down at my bonded with hooded eyes, elated to see him peering up at me with a heated gaze.
A horny Sun was always more welcome than one who was moody or lost in the minutiae of battle strategies. So why did he pull away?
“What?” I asked as he approached again, stroking the skin above my fur, on my belly, while his tantalizing lips hovered too close to my cock. So close, in fact, I couldn’t suppress a growl in anticipation.
For Sun would always be a better noc fucker than he’d ever be a killer in my eyes, no matter how many he slayed.
My bonded was skilled, quick, and efficient, learning how to manage our combined lust as if he were king of a tiny lecherous court. And I supposed he was the center of our sexual universe… and our hearts. Though once again, I’d never admit how deeply I felt for Sun other than at the doorway of death.
He cleared his throat, coughing, wetting those full lips that needed to stop talking and start sucking before I burst.
“We’re nearing General Hideyoshi’s encampment, and you know how it is between us,” he said, waving his hand up and down my body. “I figured the others are away, so?—”
“We might as well play?” I finished because, for once, he was too shy to be straightforward when he was always so bold. He’d lost his nerve from even a moment ago.
It was almost endearing, this change of pace, this shyness as I lifted him into my arms and kissed him gently, knowing we had an audience but no longer caring if I appeared weak and foolish to my undead king.
I tasted him and groaned, that taste of bellflower coating his lips. It was confirmation that he’d been with Clem not long ago since everything was dying or dead in this frozen forest by now. I clutched his firm ass and ground that puny cock against mine as my cock exploded from my furs. Sun nipped at me and grunted, growing more needy and demanding.
This was more like the Sun I knew.
“We’ll be close to the general soon,” he repeated breathlessly, and I rolled my eyes. Was he drunk again? Repeating himself over and over again…
It was then I fully gathered the double intent behind his words. We’d either be hunted down and slain or supported by those vermin. And Sun was more confident than not we’d be dead.
“So, you’re going around fucking our brains out as a last goodbye, just in case? You’re one delectable, horny pet, but even you should have limits.”
He growled, and I matched his growl with a sneer. I’d never been mistaken as an optimist, but his lack of belief in us was beginning to rile me when he was usually so sure of himself and his ability to win. I supposed the fact that we’d all died once didn’t exactly inspire confidence. But by now, Sun should know that not I, nor Kiar, nor Hadi, or hell, even Clem would stop short of death to keep those vermin’s filthy hands off him.
We may not live through what was to come, but as Clem learned, our dying did not endanger his life if he uttered the right spell. Another fact I tucked away and didn’t share, least Sun sink into depression again. He was our sun; we would revolve around him alive or as corpses like Naran to the stars in the heavens above.
“That’s not what I was thinking, you know,” Sun said as I allowed him to wiggle out of my arms and onto the ground.
“Oh?” I taunted.
“I meant we won’t have much time alone. And it takes more prep with you than with the others.”
He was not a convincing liar, but I was done holding back.
“Sure… Well, enough talk, get naked and bend your ass over,” I barked as he stiffened, glaring.
“Batshit asshole. It’s cold you know,” he said, even as he eagerly stripped naked. “So, keep your promise to keep me warm.”
“Your insults are so creative,” I sneered, helping him. “But you’re the lunatic that approached me, not the other way around.”
He never propositioned me directly, and that used to piss me off. But it clicked, after a couple of rutting sessions, that he was afraid of what the barest hint of submission meant when it came to me. To Hadi, too, I’d gleaned from their bickering and other interactions.
Brilliant, lovely Sun, so afraid of his emotions.
I swept him up in another searing kiss and faltered at the ravenous look in his eyes as we pulled apart.
“I want you inside of me,” he breathed as we separated to share a breath.
I scented the air and nearly drooled. I didn’t know if humans called this scent pheromones too, but try as he might to deny it, Sun loved a bit of bullying. He loved being ordered around.
He had the fate of the world on his shoulders now. If I could take it off of him just for a little while, as he begged on his knees and gave into my orders, he felt relief. His embarrassment was just a little treat on top.
“I will do everything to please you. I will warm you from the inside out.”
He preened at that. So transparent.
Sun was happy and horny, the best possible combination. I let him slide from me and groaned. As he bent over, I took him into my arms and rolled into a ball. I lifted him and finally ate my fill. I suckled his puckered hole, holding him mid-air, and then lavished his straining cock with affection as he hung in front of me, alternating as Sun moaned and whimpered.
He complained with that filthy mouth of his, but Sun adored getting his ass eaten and his cock stroked, milked until he was trembling and crying for more.
“Mine,” I groaned and meant it deep in my soul. He parted his cheeks wider for me, as best he could upside down like he was the batbeast hanging from a tree.
I didn’t waste time prepping him for long since it was clear that Kiar had been inside him already. Taking him to the ground, I laid Sun out on my belly. He turned his face towards my cock, and I sucked him greedily as I squeezed his cheeks. He came in record time, abandoning even the pretext of pleasuring me, too, as his seed shot into my mouth.
But I didn’t mind. Pamper. Protect. I was in a good mood, too.
After his climax slammed into him, I spun him back around. I forced his essence between his stubborn lips, and he moaned loudly now, shivering body eclipsed by my own as I kept him as warm as I could, wrapped in my arms.
“Why did you make me swallow my seed?” Sun asked, slightly disgusted.
“Remember, it’s not a punishment if you enjoy every last second of it.”
He smirked. A challenge. Vexing little thing.
I held him close, squeezing the air out of him and wiping that naughty smirk from his face. I knew he preferred to be on his knees, but we’d do things my way today. Without much fanfare, I fisted my cock and forced myself inside his clenching hole all at once, taking immense pleasure in the sob that broke into a scream muffled by my chest.
And I didn’t hold back, slamming into him, eyes rolling back as he quickly sprayed my stomach with another load. But I wasn’t finished with him yet. My thrusts were deeper and more erratic than they’d ever been. I couldn’t control myself. I was completely and utterly lost in him.
Before, I had resisted the tether, believing him some weakling. But Clem, my sweet Clem, had found something else impressive in that dreadful book. A tether could not be formed against one’s destiny. Against their will, yes, but a tether was the physical manifestation of a shared fate.
A soul bond deeper than even the bonds nocs uttered to declare their claim on another. That’s what Sun and I, as well as Kiar, Hadi, and Clem, shared.
“You’re my bonded. Our bonded. My fated. You’re mine,” I growled, driven faster to climax by the familiar bulge of his stomach as I squeezed myself inside. It was so intoxicating to feel myself stretching him beyond his limits. We were limitless now.
“You keep, ah, using that word. If you love me, you can say it now— Fuck! Bracken!”
I paused my thrusts and ministrations. It was so very… human, that damnable word. Love . Bonded was better, stronger—fidelity beyond lust or the fickle desires of the heart.
Another rustle. Another rush of air. I suppressed a manic grin, wondering when Hadi would finally breech the trees.
“Open for me, bonded.”
“That word again,” Sun whimpered as I commenced pounding his hole into sweet oblivion again.
Did he take too many knocks to the head? What was so hard to comprehend?
“It’s similar to a husband in the human tongue. Similar but not quite the same,” I offered a clue, and hell, maybe I was going to die soon because it was as close to confessing as I’d allow. “And you are my bonded now and forever, Sun.”
Sun went absolutely still, then squeezed me so fucking tight, so viciously, I could do a little more than whimper. Whimper! It was outrageous, and I couldn’t hold it anymore. My climax came all at once, like tipping over a mighty mountain and letting the winds guide me back to the peak.
We lay in a perpetual state of bliss for a long moment. Then, someone stirred again in the forest, menacing, and I smirked.
I wanted to use Hadi this time to the fullest extent and savor how hard Sun would come apart at living out his darkest, most forbidden desire?—
To be made low, like a whore, before his mortal enemy, the king of nocs.
But he hadn’t noticed him, too thrown off by me, no doubt. And he hadn’t cum again, even as I soaked his insides. Sun whined low and hard, trying to prolong the pleasure, as if I wouldn’t fuck him again and again until he couldn’t stand anymore if he desired it. And I wanted to, but…
But Hadi decided for me it was his turn now to taste him.
He propelled from his nest in the trees and landed beside us as I finished in Sun. My seed gushed from his slick hole as I was forced to pull out until only half of my cock was inside him.
I stared up at Hadi and nearly gasped. He was downright feral and wasted no time ripping the rest of Sun’s clenching hole from my cock by grabbing him. Sun made a weak, mewing sound, ready for the taking, too delirious to care.
But Hadi had his wits about him, even as his bigger purple cock strained in the air. I stood and immediately took my favorite position with Sun when we were with the others, plundering his backside as he took another cock in his mouth.
Sun made a gurgling noise deep in his throat as Hadi forced too much of his web-slick cock into his throat. A grand finale for Sun, I mused, who’d also gone a very long time without our cocks. It turned me on more, as my cock raised to attention, and I buried myself back inside him.
As much as I hated to admit it, Hadi, the bastard had more girth than even me. Imagining the ache Sun felt, his hole stretched wide and filled to the brim, and his mouth struggling to open for Hadi just sent volts of sadistic lust shooting down my spine.
How could I protect him from Hadi’s lust when I was a slave to this desire?
We exchanged no words, and we didn’t have to. I knew Hadi had pleasured himself in the trees, watching us. Our mutual lust reinforced the tether and, with it, the force of our rutting and thrusting inside our Sun.
And we both exploded back to back, and I trembled from head to toe. Sun couldn’t hold any of it, too full of cum. It slicked his thighs and dripped out of his mouth as Hadi released him as if burned as if ripped from a trance.
I didn’t fault him for it; it gave me time to capture Sun and horde him for a bit longer, all to myself.
It felt somehow… improper to lick Hadi’s cum, even if it was splattered all over Sun’s gorgeous face and my prize, his kiss-swollen lips. I didn’t have to force him this time to open his mouth and swallow the gossamer cum whole as our tongues warred for dominance.
“Freak,” Hadi breathed, but there was no hiding his delight at the twisted display.
Ultimately, we were sated after that. Sun’s eyes drifted, unfocused, then rolled into the back of his head. He snuggled contentedly into my fur, just as I always wanted, of his violation.
I spared a glance at Hadi and frowned. Something dark flashed in his gaze as he murmured, “I’ll fetch the others. I’ll carry him as we move tonight. No need to stop now. We are close.”
Hadi was angry that I was holding him, and I couldn’t stop myself from rolling my eyes as he moved to swing away, allowing Sun’s warmth to sink into my bones.
His fragile light was quickly extinguished despite our lives depending on him if Clem couldn’t master his magic. It was time for the others to get their heads out of their asses, for Sun’s sake. Why be jealous? He was ours !
But for now, I’d savor being his one and only master, the one he leaned on for protection, comfort, and warmth. The noc who made the slayer submit. It was fitting in a cosmic sense, just like our bodies pressed together, made for one another.