Chapter 3
Barbasa scratched his belly idly as he stretched out in the grass.
Although he preferred his forest, he did enjoy frequent ventures out in the thick grassy areas to hunt out easy game that nested in the ground there.
Pheasants and quail were particularly his favorite, but then there were the odd rabbits and occasional deer, the latter of which fed him easily for days once he hauled it back home and butchered it.
He studied his claws reflectively.
Perhaps he should hunt.
He wasn’t particularly hungry at the moment, but he would be and there was a restless itch crawling up his back that demanded that he get ready for...
something.
Rolling over onto his side, he gave a jerk of his head as the thick straw of the surrounding plants caught on his horns and squinted into the distance.
His tongue stroked over his sharp teeth thoughtfully as his eyes drifted shut and he drew in a deep breath, savoring a hint of something...
intriguing...
on the wind.
Something sweet and utterly familiar with its feminine richness that sent a shiver through his frame.
He inhaled deeper, a soft growl trebling in his throat.
Something was coming.
Something... female.
His growl rolled through him, growing deeper as his lust hit hard.
It had been so long...
too long since he felt that desire.
He hadn’t been able to bear touching another female since his mate’s death centuries ago.
He had lost the taste for indulging in release with males in his company shortly after that.
He’d been so long without feeling that special little response of true desire rather than his cock just spewing its lust defiantly at whim that it took him by surprise, but no more so than picking up the scent of a lone female so close to him.
Naturally, since escaping the labyrinth he’d seen small groups of males and females together, both human and fae.
But a lone female was intriguing.
Too intriguing to ignore.
It made the predator within him stretch hungrily, eager for the hunt.
He could chase her down—capture her—and once he had her, he could run his tongue rapturously over her most intimate of places where he would be able to feast upon her sweetness.
His cock swelled and twitched within its sheath, to the tip threatening to extrude and spill evidence of his climbing lust everywhere.
And it would be no small thing.
Rather, he would recklessly waste it by bathing the grass around him with the copious amounts of precum and lubrication that made large satyr cocks easier for smaller beings to take.
Something that the little female out there would definitely need.
It had been so long since he savored a female cunt, he was certain that it wouldn’t even take much time or effort for him to reach engorgement and true rut.
His stones tightened at the base of his sheath, a small tingling sensation racing from them.
His hips flexed in the air, a heavy indrawn and exhalation of breath making his frame jerk in response.
He blinked in response to it, a small measure of his sanity returning through the blaze of his lust.
Since when did he react so strongly? Like any satyr, his desires were a driving force, perhaps a bit more than others due to his size and age, but he didn’t recall having such a powerful reaction.
A small frown pulled at his mouth as he rolled into a crouch, his hooves digging into the dirt as his gaze peered over the top of the tall, reedy wild grass.
Air rippled across the surface of the blades, sending a fresh wave of scent directly to him, portending something beyond his keen scope of vision.
His nostrils flared to pinpoint her location and his pointed ears tipped forward as he strained to listen.
She was in the meadow, but she was far from the shelter of his woods and the boundaries of his territory markers.
Barbasa glanced back at the nearby tree line uncertainly.
Did he dare leave his territory undefended? His tongue ran over his fangs again, contemplatively.
His absence would be all the opening another would need to move in on his territory and make a claim for it.
A wise male would not.
He was fortunate to find a comfortable spot.
A thick tangle of forest with an abandoned human dwelling in surprisingly good repair nestled safely within it.
Was a female truly worth risking it?
He drew another breath and moaned as he caught the richness of her scent on a swelling breeze.
It sparked a longing within him...
and he could not say that it was entirely of the carnal sort.
That he could probably ignore.
Instead, it caused a curious reaction in that, as much as his loins ached, the emptiness within him that had come with his solitude now ached even more.
A satyr alone without a flock was a sad thing.
Shaking his head so that his horns tossed lightly, Barbasa stood and stretched.
This was ridiculous.
He turned away, fully intending to head back to his woods but blew out a long sigh as he stared at the deep shadows of the trees.
Wouldn’t it be good to have a companion?
Yes. It would.
Decided, he spun around on his hooves and hurried at a bounding pace through the grasses, stopping every so often to give a few strokes of his cock to release a thick stream of precum upon rocks to mark his route before continuing on.
Not only would it give him a clear path of return, but he also hoped that his scent trail would discourage any other who might think to approach his territory until he returned.
If not...well, he was not averse to eating his enemies.
Quite literally.
His only concern was that it might overly distress the female he returned with.
But that was a matter to worry about later.
Picking up his pace, he lowered into a hunting stance allowing for quicker movement as he raced forward, following the enticing scent.
A darkness expanded within his belly in response to it, so subtly that he wasn’t aware of it at first.
It rose through him like a hot tide, dulling his thoughts even as his hunger spiked and his cocked filled to the point of pain and was no longer containable within his sheath.
Extruded fully, his long shaft bobbed with his bounding gait, a trickle of hot precum slipping down over it, dripping from him as he ran.
Closer.
His prey was getting closer.
He could almost taste the heat of her now as he closed in.
Sweet, hot, and wet.
He would drink fully from her once he had her in his arms and satiated himself fully on her flavor.
There, a flutter of pale gold hair in the breeze.
He charged for it, his need eclipsing his thoughts.
He would claim what was his and take her home.
He would seed her and keep her.
His female. His.
A snarl burst from him as he leapt, and the female whirled on him with a flash of startled amethyst eyes.
He nearly purred at the sight, his arms reaching eagerly for her when something dark and heavy rushed out of nowhere and struck him with enough force to send him dropping, ungainly, to the ground.
His breathing wheezing out of him, he managed less than a croak as his gaze lifted and pinned the female standing just a short distance away and some sort of large bag held defensively in front of her.
She stared back at him in shock and scrabbled further away as his hooves twitched and slid across the dirt as he pushed himself back up.
Straightening to his full height, Barbasa blinked at her bag in confusion and a mild sense of betrayal rising through the confused bewilderment lingering in his mind.
“You struck me!”
Her lips parted to gape at him, but she shook her head and brought her weapon up higher in a threatening position as she scowled back at him.
“And I’ll do it again, you...
you....”.
Her brow knitted with confusion as her gaze continued to skim over him.
“Whatever you are.”
Her eyes drifted down to his cock that—much to his private amusement—hadn’t diminished the slightest bit.
In fact, if he was not mistaken—exactly the opposite.
Fresh precum drooled from its tip, his lust curling tightly within his belly.
The darkness that had fogged over his mind with blind instinctual need, however, remained wherever it had retreated to within him.
For the second time, her mouth dropped open and this time he scented a delicious thickening in her scent that betrayed her interest.
While she was not eagerly leaping into his arms like the nymphs that he had consorted with the past had, that hint of desire drew him in stronger than he had anticipated.
Barbasa eased toward her, his cock waving with his every step.
He paused when she took a step back and drew her pack up higher.
For a moment he peered at it in amusement, wondering what exactly weighed it down to have such a powerful strike.
“Stay back,”
she warned.
Though her voice was slightly unsteady, and she bore a trace of fear souring her intriguing scent, there was a bite to the way she spoke that made him pause and stop in his tracks.
He suddenly had the impression that she was fully committed to going down fighting.
As much as he enjoyed a good tussle, he was not of mind to hurt the intriguing little female.
Shockingly, he found that he did not wish to scare her either.
Cocking his head, he peered at her for a moment before his gaze drifted back to her bag.
His lips quirked, unable to further restrain his amusement.
“What exactly is it that you have in there?”
he asked, betraying his thoughts aloud.
Surprise flickered in eyes that dropped briefly to her bag.
“Rocks, among other things,”
she admitted so blatantly that it surprised a laugh from him.
He crept forward at a pace, unfazed that she lifted her bag higher in threat.
Other than peer at it—and her—curiously, he gave no further attention to it, his eyes instead fastened on the fascinating creature in front of him.
“Rocks? Truly?”
he murmured.
“What would a delightful little thing like you wish to carry rocks around for?”
Pink climbed into her cheeks, and she shrugged, her arm lowering only a fraction as she considered him.
“Some rocks,”
she clarified slowly, and her lips pinched.
“My supplies did not last as long as I believed they would and then yesterday, when I noticed there was someone following my trail again, I decided it was better to at least make an attempt to arm myself.”
Her lips twisted bitterly.
“Should have thought to steal gun,”
she muttered quietly, perhaps in the erroneous belief that he could not hear her as her gaze moved past him in the direction of her path through the grass.
Though Barbasa did not know what a gun was, the fact that it was likely a weapon was not lost upon him.
He might have given it more attention and inquired as to why she wandered without better protection than a sack of rocks except that two details caught his attention.
One was that his little female had probably not eaten in some time, which was concerning enough.
The other was that someone was in pursuit.
His ears perked and he attempted to draw in the scent of anyone else nearby and was foiled by his own obsession with the female’s scent.
He could not seem to push it away long enough to focus on other distant scents before it drew him back in.
He was beginning to pant, his cock slowly engorging with the lust tripping along his spine.
His eyes turned back toward her and the sweetness in her scent ripened with her heightening arousal.
She swallowed, her gaze flicking over him while studiously trying not to stare too openly at his cock.
“W...what are you, anyway?”
she asked at length.
His brows snapped up because he had never met one who did not know what a satyr was and had plenty of preconceived notions about them.
His eyes narrowed on her slightly in an attempt to determine if she was playing some clever game.
“Do you not recognize a satyr when you see one?”
he queried.
Her flush rose higher on her cheeks.
“Oh, yes.
Well, sure,”
she stammered and paused as her brow furrowed slightly.
“Just so we both are on the same page...
perhaps you should tell me what a satyr is.”
She said it so magnanimously as if she were graciously offering him an opportunity for clarification that he bit back a startled laugh.
She didn’t know! Suddenly, a world of opportunities felt as if it were opening up.
He could keep her in his wood, and she would be none the wiser as to why she never found her way out.
She would never suspect him of being anything but a rescuer.
His eager cock aside.
He just had to play this right.
Using one hand to painfully force his engorged cock back into his sheath only for it to spring out again, Barasa gave her a hapless smile.
“My apologies. This,”
he gestured to his phallus, “is a blessing or a curse, depending on how you see it, from the gods in providing my kind with such primal natures.”
He gave her a sweet smile.
“Satyrs are creatures of the woods and fields... protectors, if you will,”
he added, “of those who cross through our territories and of the land itself.”
The latter was at least a little true.
And the former wasn’t exactly a lie.
There were cases of satyrs showing some kindness toward a traveler.
Sometimes.
A good lie was always best if it was fashioned with some truth if one wished it to be believable.
“My name is Barbasa,”
he said, extending his hand in greeting.
She peered at him and his hand suspiciously for a moment.
He maintained what he believed to be a sweet smile and waited patiently.
It seemed to be an eternity and he nearly crowed in triumph when she settled her pack over her shoulder and placed her small hand in his.
She gave his palm a quick squeeze before releasing his hand even quicker.
“I’m Tiffany,”
she replied in a rush.
He cocked his head, keeping his movements slow and unalarming as he regarded her.
“Do you need a place to escape to for a short time, little Tiffany? I have a dwelling some distance away, hidden in the woods.
If you are escaping pursuit, I would be pleased to offer shelter.”
Her brow wrinkled again but her gaze cut nervously back to the direction from which she came.
Her cautious nature was showing, and he rather applauded her for it despite her obviously desperate circumstances.
He wondered if she would tell him to shove his offer and leave him no option but to give chase again since he was not a male who gave up his prey easily.
He was more than a little relieved when she gave a jerky nod of her head.
“Okay,”
she mumbled as her gaze snapped back to him.
“For just a little bit.
A day or two maybe just so I can be sure I lost them.”
She lifted her bag at him meaningfully.
“And don’t try any sneaky shit.
I’m not going through all of this effort just to run right into the arms of a creep.”
He beamed down at her, careful to keep his possessive snarl buried within.
She truly was exquisite.
Small and dainty, smaller than even most human females he had seen, she possessed a slight figure that drew out every single one his territorial instincts and need to claim and protect, yet a touch of maturity in her features that spoke of strength and warmth.
It was as if she were a daughter of Helios, with her golden curls, and as powerful as Circe herself.
“Can I ask why you are attempting to elude other humans—I assume you speak of humans.”
She gave another awkward nod, and a worried look shifted briefly over her face.
“A small group of men, I think.
There were a couple of voices I recognized that had been following me for a while back.
They were shouting to each other about flushing me out of hiding.”
She glanced up at him uncomfortably.
“Are you sure that you can hide me well enough that they won’t find me?”
His grin widened and he hoped it did not show too much of the sinister or feral within him.
“Of course.
I guarantee no man will find you where I shall hide you,” he vowed.
Her brows drew down slightly at his wording but then her expression relaxed as she decided to overlook his phrasing.
He came very close to licking his teeth gleefully but managed to restrain himself at the last minute.
“Okay, then,”
she said at last, taking a wary step closer to him.
“I’ll go with you if you really think you can help me.”
He stepped in closer in turn.
“We will need to move quickly,”
he purred.
“Close your eyes, little female.”
Her expression turned suspicious. “Why?”
He leaned in closer, enjoying the slight tremble that raced over her skin.
“Because I can outrun any man easily even with the slight weight of a human in my arms.
I do not think you can boast the same,”
he rumbled in amusement.
Her lips tightened in annoyance and his grin widened.
“Besides, I think you might enjoy the experience.”
An intrigue he desperately wanted to explore lit up in her eyes and her tongue ran over her bottom lip as her eyes dropped very briefly to his throbbing cock before shooting back up to guiltily meet his gaze.
He wanted to croon to her that there was no need to be guilty of an action that gave them both pleasure but bit back his words and waited for her decision.
Finally, she nodded and stepped close enough to be swept up in his embrace.
He did not waste time in going slowly so not to alarm her human sensibilities.
Instead, he snatched her roughly to his chest and hefted her small body up high against him as he spun back around in the direction of home.
With a leap he set off with a soft feminine squeal of surprise warming his ear.
Ah, how he could not wait to get her hidden safely at home!