Chapter 44
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
Knox
My teeth ground together as I stalked up the stairs to the third floor. She’d refused to come down. No one disobeyed me… especially not her.
She didn’t get to decide what she wanted to do in my home.
I was halfway up the stairs when her scent hit me. It was so powerful it staggered me back a step, and I nearly lost my balance. My hand shot out to grip the railing before I plunged back to the second floor.
Last night, I smelled her arousal, but not like this. Tonight, it was nearly overwhelming and, like last night, I had no idea what brought it on.
I’d discovered her watching my friends last night, but I’d left them in the dining hall, and they couldn’t have made it outside already.
And then the reason for the intensity of her arousal hit me… her Needing.
I’d known it was coming and prepared a space in the training room for her, but I hadn’t expected it right now. Bertie had just been in her room, and I was sure she would have mentioned if she’d seen Briar in Needing.
I’d believed I was ready for what her Needing would do to me, but for a second, I couldn’t breathe as my body, mind, and heart all warred with each other. Blood flooded my shaft; not only did I want her, but so did the beast. Before I realized I’d moved, I’d ascended to the third floor.
When reality crashed over me, I restrained myself from going any further. Taking a few deep breaths, I fisted my hands. I hadn’t realized my claws had extended until they dug into my palms and blood welled.
While she didn’t smell like the other casters who entered the harem, the overwhelming aroma of her lust threw me back into that repulsive place. I loathed those monsters and would destroy every caster in the kingdoms… including her.
The beast clamored to go to her and ease her, but I wanted to turn away and let her rot.
She’s my only chance of discovering the truth.
And that was what stopped me from turning away. I wasn’t sure I could trust myself, or the beast around her, but I needed to know how to break the curse. Briar was my only chance of saving my kingdom.
The curse. I have to remember the curse when it comes to her.
I trudged up the steps to the tower and removed the key from above the door. I braced myself for what was on the other side as I slid the key into the lock and opened the door.
It swung inward to reveal an empty room with a neatly made bed, open drapes, and a single book on the table beside the chair. A small whimper came from behind the closed bathroom door.
The air reeked of strawberries and eucalyptus as I crossed the room, opened the door, and froze. Briar knelt on the floor with her arms above her head and her forehead on the tile.
I’d fully expected to find her masturbating or fucking whatever she could find until she could get a cock. Her nails had snapped off from where she’d left deep gouges in the tile. Blood oozed from her fingertips, and the jagged pieces of her broken nails lay scattered across the floor.
“Go away,” she moaned.
“That’s not going to happen. I have plans for you.”
Briar whimpered again as I crossed to her and plucked her off the floor. The sound she emitted was one I’d often issued in my head while in the harem; it was so full of suffering that my heart constricted. I hesitated before throwing her over my shoulder and leaving the room.
I ignored the enticing curve of her ass so close to my face as I kept my arms locked around her legs and carried her through the room and out the door. This close, her scent was overwhelming, and walking became increasingly difficult as my erection pressed against my pants.
My fangs extended as my knuckles popped and the beast sought to break free. If it had its way, it would lay her down and fuck her right now, but I wouldn’t lose my chance of breaking the curse to sate its animalistic impulses.
I made my way to the first floor without seeing anyone, but once there, a couple of sprites flew into the room. They stopped to hover as they gawked at us.
“Get out of here,” I growled at them.
Briar placed her hands against my back and tried to push herself up. When she moved, a shudder ran through her. She started to rub herself against me again, but stopped.
“Put me down,” she breathed, her voice hoarse and desperate.
I didn’t abide by her command as the sprites flew from the room and I entered another hallway. I carried her down to the door to the training room.
This room was one of the few in the keep without any windows, plants, or rosebushes. The design of the castle had made it so that everyone in this room was solely focused on their training. There were to be no distractions.
The walls were barren and white. All the weapons were stored in an attached room, almost the same size as this one. In preparation for this, I’d added chains I’d bolted into the ceiling and floor. They weren’t as vicious as the vines that once restrained me, but they’d keep her restrained.
I set Briar on the ground near the chains and grabbed one for her ankle. She jerked her foot away when I grasped it.
“Don’t touch me,” she whispered. “Please.”
I hesitated at the word please, but since I wasn’t given a choice, she didn’t get one either.
When I grasped her calf, she groaned again and her legs fell open, but instead of trying to get closer, as so many of her kind would have, she closed her thighs and jerked at her leg as she tried to free it from my grasp.
I refused to let her retreat and clicked the manacle shut around her ankle.
Briar curled in on herself but jerked back as if her touch burned.
Her fingers flexed as she clawed at the floor again, spilling more blood when she tried to crawl away.
The chain rattled when she jerked it tight, halting her movements.
Without a word, I shackled her other ankle before lifting her off the ground and locking her wrists into place. She stood with her arms stretched over her head while her feet remained solidly on the ground.
Her head rolled forward as she shuddered, and her fingers flexed.
Her body was as exquisite as I recalled it being.
Even after I learned about her betrayal and who she truly was, I’d dreamed incessantly of her.
I’d recalled every delicate curve, the silken feel of her skin, and the way she intrinsically knew how best to please me, like we were two pieces of one whole.
Unable to resist the lure of her scent and enticing figure, I traced the swell of her hip to the hollow of her belly and up to the delicate ribs barely visible beneath her ivory skin.
Beneath those ribs beat the most treacherous heart.
I never could have guessed it by looking at all her glorious beauty.
When she moaned, I snatched my hand back. I wasn’t here to give her release; I was here to make her suffer and learn everything she knew.
During the Needing, all casters were unable to stop themselves from constantly fucking. They sometimes spent days seeking sex over and over again. They never rested as their compulsion for more drove them from one eternal to another.
When it was over, they often collapsed and slept where they fell for at least a few hours and sometimes a day or more, before rising and returning home. The aftermath of their uncontrolled sexual impulses was felt for days in the harem as the rest of us came to terms with the frenzy we’d witnessed.
When the night casters returned to use the harem for their own twisted desires, they did so without the compulsion of their Needing driving them. They still used and abused whoever they chose in corrupt and vile ways, but they didn’t do it for hours upon hours on end.
I didn’t know how the casters pussies and dicks could keep going the way they did during their Needing, but they never relented in the pursuit of their orgasms. And now Briar’s Needing was upon her, and not only didn’t she have someone to fuck, but she couldn’t even play with herself.
It was the worst form of torture I could have devised for a caster.
I walked over and grasped the chair I’d placed in this room, just for this occasion, and set it before her. Sitting down, I rested my arms on my thighs and clasped my hands before me as I battled my own lustful urges.
It took a few minutes for me to settle enough to speak. When I did, my voice was hoarse and fangs filled my mouth, but I wouldn’t give in until I knew everything she did.
“So, Briar, what do you know about the curse?”