Chapter 8: Being Hunted

Flushed with embarrassment, I forced myself to cooperate as Ciarra scratched my ears, humming happily to herself. Overwhelmed and exhausted, both physically and emotionally, I cuddled into her arms, as she carried me along the abandoned road between the fort and Gravestead. I was so weary of fighting the fates. Surrendering had granted peace that I hadn’t felt since childhood.

I was happy back then. Protected by my parents, free to run and play when I finished my chores. Father and mother sometimes went hungry, but I never did. Back then, I felt caged, and longed for my freedom. So I ran away, and spent years cursing myself for not knowing real freedom when I lived it. My life turned into a nightmare. I fought, when the adventurers that I thought were my friends betrayed me. I killed them all, even though I was only a 13-year-old runaway. I thought I had become an adventurer, that’s how it worked in the stories, but my class didn’t match my stats, and they rejected me. I fought, but they beat me, and left me broken and bleeding on the streets. I fought, attempting to join the thieves guild, and they held me down and sliced open my face for daring to waste their time with stats like mine. Starving on the streets, I learned the harsh truth. Don’t fight battles you can’t win. Swallow your pride. I fought. For scraps found in trash tossed on the street. For a corner to beg on. For a ragged blanket to sleep in. I had learned to avoid fights I couldn’t win. When the first city guard cornered me, I swallowed my pride, and let him take what he wanted. It was a fight I wouldn’t have won. A year later, I ran when it became to much to bear. Then I fought to prove my worth to the bandits, not with daggers, but by taking the worse jobs and spreading my legs for their leader. Ciarra changed everything. She’s the ultimate example of a fight I can’t win. The oathbinding stops me from running away, deceiving her, or betraying her. Now it gives me what I needed most. Hope. When I swore the oathbinding, it granted understanding of how Ciarra interpreted my oath. I had hope because I felt the complete contempt she had for anyone who misleads someone in an honor bound agreement. That belief had infused her interpretation of my oath.

Ciarra wouldn’t deceive me about anything that touched my oathbinding, and she promised more than I dared hope for, all for the price of willingly submitting to what I couldn’t stop anyway. I tried to ignore the quiet part of me that longed for her touch, but it still reminded me that their were other benefits to serving her. I shivered again, this time from memories of mindless pleasure where nothing existed but her touch and pure ecstasy, it had lasted for an eternity. Part of me wanted to experience it again, but I didn’t think my mind would survive.

Without breaking stride, Ciarra flipped me onto my back, and I looked up from her arms into the eyes of an apex predator focused on her prey. Heart suddenly thumping in my chest, I froze. One button at a time, she opened my shirt, and stroked fingers through my exposed fur. She kneaded my breasts, and teased my nipples.

I moaned with pleasure.

Embarrassed, I turned my head to watch the passing trees. Her pace hadn’t slowed down at all. Firm fingers wrapped around my muzzle and forced me to face her again, then resumed playing with a nipple. Unable to meet her eyes, I stared at her mouth instead. Aching with need that I didn’t understand, I panted and moaned quietly. Red lips curved sensually, parting slightly, and her forked tongue snaked out and licked her lips. Exploring fingers slid down my stomach and reached between my legs.

I welcomed them.

My entire being was focused on her hand. Fingers slid inside, curling and stroking, while her thumb rubbed against me. Every step drove her fingers a little deeper. Pleasure pulsed from her touch, increasing moment by moment until I couldn’t bare anymore. Ecstasy exploded, and I screamed wordlessly, writhing in her arms.

“I never knew sex could be like that,” I whispered. Before her, I just spread and waited for them to finish. Other than trying to become pregnant, I never understood why any woman would willingly choose to have sex. It was uncomfortable at the best of times, and painful at the worse. At least I know better now. Her answering smile was predatory. She stroked the fingers still buried deep inside me. I moaned and squirmed, my center still painfully sensitive. “My little pet, I love the way you respond to pleasure.” Her expression didn’t change as she continued, “Just as I enjoy the way you respond to pain.” Without warning, her fingers twisted, and pain exploded where pleasure had just been. Curling up instinctively, trying to protect myself, I let out an entirely different kind of moan. Every step jerked her pinched fingers mercilessly, causing another spike of pain.

Releasing her painful pinch, she pulled her fingers out, and forced them inside my mouth.

“Lick them clean,” she said. Flushing with shame, I complied, and licked the thick liquid from her fingers. As I finished, and before I could get the strange taste out of my mouth, she kissed my muzzle, her forked tongue wrapping around mine for a few moments.

She pulled back, and licked her lips again. “Divine.” Her fingers slid back inside, and I couldn’t help writhing with pleasure as she moved inside me. She pulled back out, and licked them clean. “Exquisite. I’m not sure which tastes better. Directly from my fingers, or from your tongue. Fortunately, both are available anytime I desire.”

“It’s dinner time.” Ciarra announced, stopping without warning. She sat on the ground with her back to a tree, and plopped me down on her lap. From inside [Magic Storage] a plate appeared in her hand, followed by the still steaming drake steak we cooked earlier today. I held out my hand, hardly daring to hope, and she dropped a second plate and steak for me.

I can’t believe I’m eating the Greater Forest Drake that forced them to abandon the fort. Such a statement of power. She headed out for provisions, and came back with the Greater Forest Drake that caused the king to abandoned this fort in the first place. Killing it would have cost more lives than the fort was worth. Shaking my head in amazement, I found myself staring up at the beautiful predator.

I had been using my belt knife to cut off bite size chunks of steak, and had assumed she would do the same. I wasn’t expecting her to slice the steak into quarters with her talons, then swallow them hole. She summoned another steak, and ate it just as quickly. Then the plate vanished, and she turned her attention to me.