Chapter 18
Barbasa ran, his hooves carrying him quickly over the ground.
The sound of elven horses following close were the only indication that the goblin guards who had detained him were keeping up.
Dealing with them had been inconvenient but they had responded to a hasty, if somewhat maddened, explanation with a gratifying speed.
He was not so lost to the taint that he was entirely unaware of it, or unappreciative even if he struggled to communicate it.
There had only been a brief exchange regarding recovering his leash before the males were mounting up.
He was not even sure whether to be offended or not that they called his mate a leash, but he laughed and laughed with a wild glee that made the goblins shudder and exchange uncomfortable glances.
It did not matter to him if they feared him.
It only mattered that they followed him now to help him recover his Tiffany.
He did not require their aid to find her—only to burn whatever human town that stole her to the ground.
He certainly had no trouble tracking her.
Even though many hours had passed since she was carried off, his nose found her trail with ease.
And so, he ran tirelessly with the taint giving him an unnatural endurance.
His heart hammered in his chest until it felt about ready to burst with exhaustion, and still he ran until he collapsed into short periods of fitful, nightmare fueled slumber.
Dreams of being stuck back in the labyrinth haunted him but this time the howls of the hunt had a more sinister cast as he searched for his mate in the dark, torch-lit corridors.
Desperate to find her before another.
And gentle Asterion had been maddened in those dreams, his sharp teeth tearing into his victims.
The minotaur found Tiffany more than once in those nightmares, Tiffany’s blood coating him as he ripped her apart before Barbasa’s eyes.
He jerked awake with the inability to do anything but run again.
He could not pause to eat or drink, despite the grumbling from the goblins following him.
He could not do anything but hunt.
And now that the human town was rising up ahead of them, he felt a sense of dark triumph and hunger rise sharply from the hollow pit of his being.
It was a desire to rend the flesh of those he encountered and sink his teeth deep—but no, that was merely the taint speaking and somehow, he managed to shake himself free of the drive to refocus on his mate.
Tiffany.
He would find his sweet Tiffany and take her far from there and back to their territory.
“Is that it?”
one of the goblins shouted.
He did not answer in any intelligible sense, but they must have understood his blood-curdling growl because they drew their weapons and urged their horses faster as he sprinted for the gate that the humans laughably thought would keep him and his kind out.
He did not wait for the trolls to dismount as he leapt and clawed his way effortlessly to the top of the gate.
He perched at the top for only a moment to be aware of the males following after him with their own dark snarls before he was dropping to the ground at the other side as he followed his mate’s scent along the darkened streets.
The sun was dipping lower but there was a strange urgency that flooded him now.
He had to find her—now.
In the fog of his madness, he did not understand why but the need consumed him so that he was running blindly ahead.
His pointed ears pricked at the sound of human shouts.
There was something not right about them, an underlying cruelty and excitement that sped him forward, rushing toward the structure up ahead as he bounded off the sides of buildings and climbed over every obstacle in his path.
The human squeal of fear when they caught sight of him was gratifying as was the stench of their terror as they backed hastily away from the edge of the roofs they were crowding as if concerned that he would climb up the side and devour them.
It was a tempting prospect.
These were the humans who stole his mate.
They deserved punishment.
They deserved to be sacrificed to the hunger of the taint painfully clawing his insides into shreds.
But it was the bellow of something beyond a high wall that made his hooves skid to a stop.
His eyes narrowed as he peered up the side of the wall.
A prickle of alarm made the small hairs on his body stand on end and he growled softly to himself as he scented the air.
His mate’s scent was there, but so was another musk that coaxed his fury into a flood of rage.
The creature that they had captured was no simple monster but a terrible flesh eater far beyond even the worst of the tainted within the labyrinth.
There was no madness that obscured reason for this thing.
There was nothing but rot and endless hunger.
It was nothing for a prisoner of the labyrinth to overcome, still maddened by the taint, but for an innocent, soft female, it was a death sentence.
And the humans had thrown his mate to it!
With a howl of rage, Barbasa threw himself at the wall.
Humans with weapons rushed toward him but the battle shouts of the goblins and the wet sound of blades striking flesh amid the screams were the sweetest melody to his ears as he clawed his way up the wall’s side and flung himself over the top.
He dropped to the ground, his hooves sending up sparks as they hit the ground.
His eyes lifted and then he froze as his every nightmare suddenly became reality.
The walls were pieced together made of pieces of metal, stone blocks, and wood, but in his mind’s eye it was the dark, stone corridors of the labyrinth that had held him prisoner.
His breath panted in and out of him as his gaze flicked around his surroundings.
The darkness could hide little from his keen sight.
And even less from his other senses.
His nostrils flared, searching for her scent. There!
With a growl, he sprang forward focusing on nothing but her scent trail as the various corridors flew by him.
The human screams were getting louder, and the crackle of fire grew in the distance.
He grinned wildly at the mingling sounds as he bound through his nightmare, the twists of the labyrinth mocking him, whispering that he would be too late again.
He would be too late to save her from the beast hunting her.
Ah, but he was hunting her as well.
And no other creature could take prey from a satyr.
He bounded through the streets as her scent grew thicker and richer, her terror making him nearly crazy with bloodlust as the tainted roared higher through him.
Rounding another bend, he saw it at last.
Its large, emaciated body was hunched, its bones exposed through its flesh as it prowled forward.
Although it was currently stalking on all fours with the body hunched and contorted hideously, he could see the signs of a fae-like torso and clawed hands on its forelimbs.
It turned its head from side to side, clearly searching for its prey hiding nearby.
Barbasa could scent Tiffany clearly and he was certain that the beast was equally as aware even if it didn’t possess such a refined sense of smell.
In fact, it had no nose to speak of, so he could not even say for sure exactly what its method of hunting was, only that it had obviously located her and was closing in on her position, a rattling growl vibrating in the stretched skin of its throat beneath a wild mess of a mane that framed its face.
Its face was nothing more than a bestial skull, something vaguely wolfish but not with some sort of fleshy substance oozing from it, pouring from its eye sockets and from the gapping mouth full of sharp teeth.
Barbasa bared his teeth and laughed wildly.
This creature was nothing but a malicious parasite, a flesh feeder who hunted the weak and alone through its tricks, relying on darkness.
It thought it would make an easy meal of his mate? He ate things such as this, and worst, when he was a prisoner of the bloody labyrinth!
The creature’s head turned in his direction, alerted by his laughter, but Barbasa howled as he sprang forward.
Covering the distance with speed, he leapt onto the creature’s back as it began to twist toward as if curious.
If it detected the taint, it was perhaps confused by its unnatural mark.
Barbasa used it to his advantage as he howled and sank claws and teeth into its hide, the sharp edges of his hooves digging into its sides.
Its dark blood poured but still he tore savagely at it, his mate’s startled cry prompting him to rip chunks from its protruding bones.
He spat out bloody meat before going in again.
Blood and flesh splattered the ground as it stumbled and then finally collapsed.
Barbasa dropped from its back as it fell before surging in again furiously, his claws seeking its chest and belly.
The things head whipped with a low, rattling death moan and its belly parted and insides spilled out but still he clawed deeper, reaching upward into the chest cavity.
His fingers circled around the heart and squeezed, his claws digging deep.
He felt the moment its heart gave a final, shuddering beat before softening and liquifying in his hand.
Dragging his hand out with a snarl, he grinned down at the remains.
His eyes shot up from it at a small sound to his left and fastened on the dirty female standing there, her dress torn and bloodied.
He breathed her in, his cock which had been extruded in the excitement of his hunt, surged thick and strong from between his thighs as her scent filled with a sweet balm.
His growl shifted down into a purr as a shaky smile spread across her face.
“Barbasa.
Thank the gods,”
she cried out, stumbling toward him.
“I was worried for a second but watching you just obliterate that thing was hot as hell.”
Her arms circled around him with sweet familiarity and the taint curled low in his belly, heating him in entirely new ways.
Even dripping with blood and in the grips of madness she came to him and accepted him.
She was his and there would never be any doubt again! Baring his teeth in a terrible grin he clung to her, allowing a moment for their hearts to beat together before he spun around and draped her over the bloodied corpse at his feet.
She gasped in surprise, but he leaned over her, his tongue stroking the shell of her ear.
“Mine,”
he growled, and her scent bloomed richly with that single word.
He felt her body soften beneath his with acceptance even as her arousal rose swiftly.
The fire crackled in a loud roar nearby, urging him to be quick.
The reasonable part of his mind whispered that he should get them to safety before renewing his claim, but he could not silence the taint’s demands for satisfaction for serving him well.
He rumbled in agreement and nudged his female’s backside with his cock experimentally.
Immediately her legs parted with an eager sigh, her musk hitting him in the nose.
“Fuck yes,”
she whispered.
“Take it all away.
Make me yours where everyone knows it.”
Her head lifted to a tall building, and she laughed.
“He is watching.
They all are even as their town burns down around them.
Let them watch you fuck me so that they know how little and insignificant they are.”
Growling his approval, Barbasa dragged up her skirt and tore away the panties she had fashioned to reveal her juicy cunt.
It was already wet and eager for him, her excitement evident in the puffy bits of her sex waiting for him to fill her.
He, too, could see the humans watching them as they fled from the roofs to escape the building under threat of the fire.
He grinned at them and stroked his long cock so that they all had a good view of exactly what a satyr offered to a lusty mate.
Seed dribbled from it as his cock jerked eagerly in his hand and he lined its swollen, purple head with her entrance.
Her cunt was open to him, weeping for him to breed and claim.
With another loud growl rattling in his throat, he hips slammed forward, burying himself deeply in her softness with one long stroke.
She cried out at the force, her cunt gripping him tightly as she moaned her encouragement.
Rumbling with pleasure, he rocked his hips in fast furious strokes, pumping into the dark well that flooded over his cock with moisture with every pulsing grip around him.
His lips curled back from his fangs as he leaned back to watch the massive girth of his engorged cock working in and out of her sex stretched tightly around it.
The blushing bud of her back entrance was left empty, however, taunting him that he was incapable of claiming both at once, that he would have to surrender the grip of her cunt milking him if he was to mark that as well.
He groaned, his head falling back as she cried out her pleasure, her body trembling beneath him even as her ass bounced with the force of pelvis striking it.
He grunted in excitement and dragged his claw lightly against her ass.
Her moan and the clench of her muscles decided him.
Without hesitation, he reached up and broke the tip of his horn.
Its thickness was no more than two of his fingers put together but when he dragged it over that little dark hole, her body jumped with pleasure and her cunt bore down on him so tightly that he had to close his eyes for a moment.
Bracing the lowest ridge of the horn tip between his fingers, he pressed the tip against that small bud, watching with growing arousal as his cock hardened and thickened further as it drove in out of her clutching heat.
Yes, that was what was needed.
Reaching down, he coated his hand liberally with their mixed juices and coated the tip of the horn liberally before returning it to its place.
Eventually he would carve it and drill a hole through it so that he can string it on a leather thong to use on his mate whenever he wished, but at that moment there was just thrill of watching his horn sink slowly into her bit by bit as his cock was swallowed repeatedly within her cunt.
Tiffany moaned as he pierced her twice, pushing deeper.
The horn could only go so far but he sank it into her with every eager rock of his hips so both horn and cock were plunging into her, taking her with the same rough urgency as he rutted his mate wildly for all to see.
And how sweet it was.
He could feel the tiny flutters of her sex as its channels slowly tightened more and more around him as her climax began to build to a newer, greater height.
His balls tightened and pulsed, and he felt his first true flood of seed erupt within her in a long, hot stream that had her moaning her pleasure even as her cunt clung tighter to drink him in.
He would feed it.
He would feed it well as a breeding male mounting his female in the height of the season.
He grunted deeply as his hands stroked over her back and belly, wondering at what it would be like to see her belly stretched with his young.
And with their mating, they would enjoy their long lives, breeding often beneath the moon of their woods.
And once their flock grew larger, perhaps they would venture forth to other lands.
All was possible and he saw infinite paths open up as his cock thickened and something deep within him sparked and coiled before flooding from him in a bright rush that poured from his cock, emptying into the hot flesh the gripped him hard embrace, gushing with a sweet river as Tiffany’s voice rose in a rapturous shriek of pleasure.
His cock continued to jerk, releasing his thick seed into his mate’s belly when the goblins appeared.
Smoke was beginning to rise in a thick cloud and the males smirked as they held a round human male between them.
Barbasa stared at the male as he swiveled his hips, withdrawing and plunging back into his mate’s sweet hole so that the male had plenty to see and know how badly he lost and why.
The human paled and he cocked his head curiously.
“Who is this human filth? He smells familiar.”
“The one in charge I suspect, considering how heavily he was guarded,”
the male on the left answered with a grim chuckle.
“Not that the guards lasted long, but I believe he and his men are the ones who stole her from our town.
What should we do with him?”
Barbasa glanced questioningly down at Tiffany and lifted a brow as he leaned forward and lovingly brushed her hair from her face.
“What do you think my sweet mate?”
She blinked over at the male but then smirked unkindly even as she shuddered, and another moan of pleasure escaped her.
“Let him go,”
she panted.
“This town is done for, and his supporters that had bolstered since he had office before the Ravening are either dead or fleeing.
Let him struggle to survive out there now as others have.”
He grinned at her words.
How delicious.
Glancing toward the goblins, he gave a sharp nod, and the males chuckled with delight as the hauled the male away.
With vengeance taken care of, Barbasa felt a sense of calm return to him as he slowly lifted Tiffany up from the corpse and leaned her back against his belly as he continued to leisurely grind into her with every twitch of his cock.
The whole front of her was smeared with the creature’s black blood but somehow that was even more erotic that he would have guessed.
He petted her breasts and belly, painting in the blood as he peered down into her face with adoration.
“I was never so afraid than waking up to find you gone,”
he admitted in a low voice.
“I could not survive in that moment.
I could not breathe.
It is a miracle that the taint did not just turn me into a monster instead of giving me the strength that I needed to find you.
One thing is for certain, I will never take for granted having you.
You are mine,”
he whispered huskily as he pressed a kiss into her hair.
“And I will tear this world apart to keep you.”
“Well, you did tear apart a monster with your bare hands and burn down the city from the smell of it so I would say that you are as good as your word on that one,”
his female chuckled, her laughter making her cunt pulse around him in the most delightful way.
“It will consume the labyrinth soon too,”
he admitted.
“It needs to go.
Such depravity never should have been recreated by men.”
“Good,”
she whispered as she sagged against him.
“Thank you for coming for me.”
“I will always come for you,”
he promised roughly around emotion strangling his throat with its rising strength.
Turning her head with one hand, he pressed against her brow.
“My mate, my heart, my love.
I love you.
My heart is yours for the rest of our days,”
he rasped.
At his confession, a beatific smile stretched across her face and there was a shimmer of something that looked suspiciously like tears in her eyes.
“Thank fuck because I love you to,”
she breathed as she fully relaxed on top of him.
Her head eyes roamed lovingly over him as she grinned.
“So, are we now thoroughly claimed?”
His own answering smile lit his face.
“That we are.
There’s no going back.”
“Once again, thank fuck,”
she sighed as she twisted sideways on his lap, changing the penetration of his cock in a new exquisite way as she wound her arms around his neck to hold him close.
“Because I don’t think I can ever let go.”
Sinking into her embrace, he smiled as he pumped up into her with renewed vigor, finally feeling at peace and at home as the taint withdrew and settled so deeply within him that he could not even feel its presence.
“Nor I.
I could be stuck together with you like this for eternity,”
he teased giving a subtle twitch of his hips so that his cock pulled deliciously where it was seated deep within her.
Tiffany moaned in reaction and punched him lightly in the shoulder, drawing a sharp bark of laughter from him.
“Don’t even joke like that,”
she wheezed through her own laughter.
“As much as I love having you buried within me, that would get awkward after a while.”
She smiled up at him fondly.
“And besides, separation gives us all the more excuse to do it again and again.”
Grinning down at her, he lowered his head to brush her lips with his as he rocked his hips, drawing twin gasps from them.
“I like the way you think, my mate.”
He couldn’t wait to repeat it all again—after they were far from the human town, he reluctantly acknowledged as he gently lifted her from his cock and settled onto her feet.
His gaze immediately dropped to his aroused shaft, and he gave it a pained look that made his mate laugh.
Grinning up at her, he rose to his feet as well and took her hand in his as they left the labyrinth and the stench of the decaying city behind them.
The gods truly must have smiled on him to give him, a cursed and tainted male, a gift that he hadn’t dared to dream of having again.
Whispering a thank you to whatever deity was listening, he clutched her hand tight and vowed to revel in the destruction of anyone who tried to take her from him.