27. Twenty-Seven

Ryurikov stirred awake to darkness. Although that being the natural state of the room, he didn’t know if it was night. A hot slather trailed up his good arm, the long tongue ending with a flick across his already drenched cheek. Wrapped up in blankets, he lay nestled in Awimak’s hold. A good way to wake up.

“What time is it?”

THE SUN HAS SET PAST THE TALLEST TREE.

He shifted in Awimak’s hold to peer up into fiery eyes. “You seem calmer.”

I BURN HOTTER WITH ANGER THAN VALE’S CORE, RYURIKOV.

With a confused look, Ryurikov laboured upright. Most of the pain had subsided, but fuck he was sore, in particular his right arm. Even in the low light of the yielding fire, it looked raw. “I didn’t die, and more importantly, neither did you.”

Awimak followed, sitting up, his horns catching on the silver canopy. YOUR PLAN WAS FLAWED IN THAT IT WAS NO PLAN. Cutting words contrasted by the gentle touch to his knee. I SHOULD HAVE COME WITH YOU.

“You need a forest to work your magic, and I don’t know if you realise this, but forests in particular are flammable. And it was a fine plan, if the dousing magic had worked.”

NEXT TIME, I WILL REMAIN BY YOUR SIDE.

Ryurikov shook his head. “I can’t have you with me.”

Ignoring the frustrated snort, he struggled free of the blankets, sliding off the other side of the bed. He’d been robbed of his boots and breeches, entirely nude aside from the dressing covering his back and chest. Hooves thudded across the floor behind him.

WE HAVE TRIED IT YOUR WAY.

“I can’t have you with me,” he said again, more strained, the nascent of fear tightening his chest. He walked to the window, gazing through soot-dirty glass, down at streets now lit by lanterns. A group of townspeople had gathered outside.

I WILL NOT STOP YOU FROM DOING WHAT YOU FEEL YOU MUST, BUT NEITHER WILL I ALLOW YOU TO GO WITHOUT ME AGAIN.Firm words, once again softened by gentle claws sliding around his sides to stroke across Ryurikov’s stomach. Heated breath raked down his nape, and bone nuzzled the side of his face. FROM NOW ON, I REMAIN BY YOUR SIDE.

Ryurikov scoffed, softly, turning in the embrace. “Allow?”

He craned his neck, unresisting when Awimak eased him closer to the window, until his back bumped into cool glass. Those same claws came around his ass, raising him off the floor with ease. Like he weighed no more than a broken twig. He sought horns for support, rough under his touch, his legs slinging over powerful arms as his head dropped backward to rest against the ceiling’s wood beam.

Awimak’s tongue slid across the inside of Ryurikov’s thigh, curling around his balls and vining the shaft of his stiffening cock. He groaned low, tightening his hold on the horns as Awimak’s mouth enveloped him in full, the heat of it nigh scalding. Nasal bones dug into the skin of his pelvis before Awimak sucked back up to the tip. Pointed tongue dipped into the slit, teasing until Ryurikov helplessly bucked his hips.

Awimak’s claws dug into his rear, eliciting another groan. The long mouth swallowed him again, and though sore, Ryurikov released his hold with his right arm to let his fingertips search for an elongated jaw, hoping to feel his cock slide inside that mouth. He couldn’t, only felt the motion of muscle under the chin, a quick rhythm building. Wet slurps accompanied his groans, Awimak’s low, hungry growls.

The wood was rough against the back of his head, catching Ryurikov’s hair with every movement. Up there, the heat of the room lingered, intensifying the dizziness brought on by pleasure. Arching forward, he squeezed his eyes shut, pressing an open-mouthed kiss to Awimak’s forehead. A gasp against bone, heavy with need, laced with surprise, and he spilled himself. Under his aching fingertips, Awimak’s throat bobbed with a thick swallow.

They shifted back to the bed and ever so gently, Awimak eased him down. Sat on the edge and facing tenting cloth, Ryurikov reached up. He trailed his fingers over the muscular abdomen, to a stomach barely featuring a navel. More like a scar.

“I wouldn’t mind returning the favour.” He leaned forward to mouth the bulge, leaving the fabric damp. “To taste you.”

A colossal claw cupped his face, thumb brushing his chin, prompting him to look up.

I WANT ONLY TO MAKE YOU HAPPY.

The words echoed in the room, in his mind. Pinging his heart with the understanding that Awimak did make him happy, more than he could ever confess to. Ryurikov licked his lips, slowly easing the fabric out of the way, stopping when a stem, like that of overgrowing ivy, snapped where fabric met skin. He sucked in a breath, flicking his gaze up in question.

IT HAS BEEN A LONG TIME, Awimak murmured.

Ryurikov didn’t know why that broke his heart, just a little. How long had Awimak been on his own before they stumbled across one another?

He tried not to wince every time something broke or snapped as he pulled the fabric away. Woodsy dupion rustled to the floor, revealing a thicket of dark silken hair cloistering a girthy erection leaking with excitement. It radiated heat and smelled strongly of earth, each inhale like drawing in the steam of a hot drink. Ryurikov set his hands on powerful thighs, where the beginnings of fur blanketed skin, and brought his mouth to the mauve tip. He swirled his tongue around, lapping up the taste of nature.

It was Awimak’s turn to groan, blunted fingers dragging across his scalp. Ryurikov slithered his tongue along the underside, relishing in the heavy, velvety texture. Awimak must have taken it for teasing, grunting with restlessness.

Or maybe Ryurikov had misread and he’d upset him, since Awimak moved away and lowered to his haunches between Ryurikov’s widely spread legs.

I WISH TO ENJOY YOU FURTHER.

Through half-lidded eyes, he watched his demon, trailing his fingertips over the long jaw. “Whatever makes you happy.”

Awimak placed an open claw against his chest, so large the base of his palm pressed into his stomach, encouraging him to lie back. Ryurikov ignored the sharp pain in his shoulder blade, focused on the way Awimak grabbed the underside of his knees, hoisted his backside up, and exposed him to the fullest. His eyes rolled into the back of his head when that devilish tongue trailed from thigh to thigh, then to his centre, slathering up his hole. A wraith-like growl of satisfaction, and the slick muscle pressed into him.

Ryurikov could feel it swirling inside, curling upward into his prostate, repeatedly. He released a series of curses in an attempt not to squirm too much, hoping to spare himself the agony of reopening his wound.

Fingers enclosed his cock, pumped, and with a startled, loud moan, he came again. Still, Awimak’s tongue pushed up against the sensitive cluster of nerves, until he’d spilled all he could, and Awimak lapped up his pleasure as though he were starved.

Panting, Ryurikov let his hands flop down on either side of his head, too tired to flinch away from that slick tongue vining his cock again. Fingers pushed into his asshole then, and he careened onto his side, too sensitive and exhausted to fight it much more than that. He moaned instead, loudly, almost miserably.

A raspy rumble of a laugh. I AM NOT DONE WITH YOU YET.

“I can’t come again.”

And yet his cock was hard once more, and those fingers opened him up, twisting and prodding and delving deep. The bed dipped under Awimak’s weight while Ryurikov buried his face into the many blankets. The tip of a thick cock replaced fingers, eased inside, so slowly he was convinced his demon’s intent was to torment. Awimak straddled one leg, lifting the other far enough to strain thigh muscles, and pushed further into him.

“Oh, fuck!” Ryurikov helplessly bit into a blanket, wool itching his tongue. Awimak was deeper than ever before, the slide of balls hot across his thigh when he shifted back out.

Ryurikov braced himself for the inevitable, yelped regardless with the hard thrust into him. Merciless. He twisted to lie on his stomach, giving his demon access to push and pull his hips as he pleased. To fuck him so soundly, all Ryurikov could do was grunt and shudder while Awimak pistoned him with relentless mastery. A massive fist gathered his cock and he whimpered, utterly helpless.

The third orgasm neared, and at that point he wasn’t even sure he wanted it. Awimak slipped all the way out of him, long enough for Ryurikov to catch his breath, to feel a sense of loss.

YOU ARE BLEEDING, MY DRURY.

“It’s–It’s fine,” he gasped. “I don’t care.” He couldn’t even feel it.

He could feel that tongue sliding up from the cleft of his ass, tracing the line of his spine to end on his shoulder blade. His cock hadn’t yet been released, and the thought that Awimak was stealing a taste of his blood while simultaneously thrusting deep into him horse-kicked Ryurikov over the edge.

With a cry he came, so violently his body convulsed, thighs quaking and limbs too weakened to keep himself upright. Not that it mattered, since Awimak lifted his limp body and manoeuvred him onto his back, unmindful of the blood staining the sheets. He wasn’t done yet, and Ryurikov could only lie there while his demon held him by the thighs and hammered into him. Awimak doubled over, tongue now lappingacross his sweaty chest, up to his throat, into his open mouth. He met it with his own, tangled with the taste of earth and metal, before it pulled back.

LET ME CALL YOU MINE.

Ryurikov forced open his eyes. Blood smeared the lower half of Awimak’s skull, orbits blazing like a forest fire.

What could he do but nod?

Awimak thrust into him hard, jerking free another a strained shout. It was a demand for a verbal response.

“Y-Yes,” Ryurikov managed.

Another forceful drive of demon hips, sweat-slick fur peeling away from the underside of his legs as Awimak pulled out to the tip again.

LET ME PROTECT YOU.

Awimak drove back into him. The bed trundled, creaking in complaint. Fulgent breath raked Ryurikov’s already feverish body, teasing sweat from him in places he didn’t even know could sweat. He fisted the blankets, bit down on his lower lip to keep from crying out, his frustrated, “Fine!” spinning into persistent swears as Awimak’s rhythm turned frantic.

His demon arched back, bright orange flames erupted. Ryurikov was far too enwrapped to worry about the bed’s canopy catching fire or the claws that had regrown their nails, now digging into his skin. Drawing blood.

One last, harsh plunge and a roar. So loud it trembled the surrounding wood, the glass of the windows, his skull. Awimak’s cock inside him pulsated with the thrum of a thunderstorm. A sweltering deluge followed. Ryurikov’s legs twitched involuntarily while Awimak pushed more and more of his seed into him, until he thought he might burst.

At long last, his demon released a great exhale, then slid free, leaving Ryurikov shivering and gasping for breath. He groaned weakly at the hot fluid spilling from between his legs, too tired to do anything about it.

A panting Awimak settled beside him, wasting no time in gathering him into musclebound arms to hold him close. The chill of his skin seemed less so, now reminding Ryurikov more of a pleasant spring evening.

Slickness trailed across his sweaty neck, to his equally sweat-damp face.

In a satisfied murmur, Awimak said, MINE TO PROTECT.