by Eric Vall
Alyona and Laika shared mischievous smirks, and I grinned in pleasure as I grabbed a leg of each woman and moved them into position so I could start fucking each of them again.
I couldn’t believe this was my life.
I woke up the next morning with both women asleep on my chest. I watched them as they slept and noticed how different they were, even in sleep. Alyona looked peaceful and had a faint smile across her lips. She was relaxed and carefree. Laika, on the other hand, looked stressed. Her hands were clenched in tight fists, and her brow was furrowed. She mumbled incoherently as she slept, and she moved around restlessly.
I tried to slide out from both of them, but at the slightest jostle, Laika’s eyes sprang open, and she looked around wildly for any sign of danger.
“Good morning,” I told her gently as she finally seemed to remember where she was and relaxed.
“Good morning, Lord Evan,” she whispered back and ran a hand through her sleep tousled hair.
“Did you have a good night?” I whispered with a smirk.
“Oh, yes,” she sighed. “I can still feel your warmth inside of me, and my tunnel feels a wonderful soreness that reminds me of the pleasure you gave me.”
“My, my, my, Laika. So naughty.”
The wolf-girl blushed deeply, and then her tail began to wag slightly against the mattress.
“You are too kind to me, my lord,” she whispered as she looked down.
“Nah,” I snickered. “You are a wonderful lover, and I enjoy pleasuring you.”
“As I said, too kind to me,” she sighed.
I slowly and carefully moved Alyona to the mattress. When I was free of her long hair and sexy limbs, I stood from the bed, and Laika and I dressed quietly. Sadly, she ignored the incredible sexy lingerie for her usual leather armor. I was so distracted last night, I didn’t even notice her armor or Alyona’s white dress draped across a wooden dresser pushed against the wall in a corner.
We silently walked from the room and left Alyona to sleep. Then Laika pressed a hand to her gorget and after a moment looked up to meet my confused eyes.
“I have summoned a guard to watch over the princess until she wakes,” she explained.
“Oh, thanks,” I told her. “Let me know when you hear back.”
“Of course, Lord Evan.”
We walked in silence as we reached a staircase, and while we ascended the steps, I suddenly remembered Aleksey.
“So, we haven’t really had the chance to talk since I returned to the city,” I began, “what with the horde of killer insects and all. How was everything while I was away?”
“Fine,” Laika answered with a smile. “The reconstruction continued as planned. Hopefully, there wasn’t too much damage to the city after the attack yesterday.”
“And Aleksey?” I asked. “Did anyone question him while I was away?”
She froze on a step, and a dark expression crossed her face.
“Yes,” was her simple reply, and even though I’d told them not to do that, I decided not to press for more information at the moment. No need to spoil a good morning.
“I want to talk to him today,” I told her and left no room for argument.
She nodded in response.
“We can visit the traitor,” she spat the word, “after breakfast.”
“Sounds like a plan,” I replied.
It took us no time at all to reach the dining area for breakfast. The citizens milled about, and almost everyone wore smiles on their faces. From what I’d gathered at the party last night, we hadn’t lost a single soldier to the echidnas, and the people who were injured would quickly recover.
As I smiled and nodded to a few of my people, I grabbed a couple pieces of toast, jam, and a few sausages before I sat down at a table and dug in.
Laika sat next to me, and her plate was full of just bacon and sausage. I judged her plate as she sat down, and she just shrugged.
“I like meat,” she explained simply.
“I know you do, especially mine,” I whispered to her.
She was quiet for a moment before she caught on and blushed scarlet.
“That was not what I intended to mean!” she cried in embarrassment.
“You didn’t deny it, though,” I snickered.
“Of course not, honesty is important,” she shot back with a small smirk, and all evidence of her previous embarrassment was gone.
“You also like cream?” I asked as I winked at her.
“Yes, if it is yours.” Her face somehow managed to turn a few shades darker red.
“Oh, this is too good,” I laughed, and the stoic warrior woman joined me as she covered her mouth with her hand.
But then I refocused on my plate. There was a lot to do today.
We finished our food quickly, and about ten minutes later, we were on our way to Aleksey’s cell. We walked hastily as Laika led the way through the ship, and each guild member we passed gave a respectful salute to Laika and a slight bow to me. When we finally reached the door to his cell, Laika sighed and turned to me.
“I feel I should warn you, it’s not pretty,” she said. “Without your magic we couldn’t heal him. Also, without you here, Pyotr and Anton had no restraint when it came to their creativity.”
“Let’s go,” I replied with a nod. I wanted to see the damage for myself.
The wolf Demi-Human sighed again before she slowly pushed open the door.
I immediately had to hold back a gag as the scent of the room hit me. Urine and the sour tang I recognized as infected wounds reeked in the air, and I coughed hard a few times to compose myself before I walked inside.
Aleksey sat in his cell, and his hands were chained together and pulled up above his head. He was covered in dried blood, his left eye was swollen shut, and his right eye was closed in what appeared to be sleep. The tips of a few fingers had been cut off, and blood still dripped slowly from the wounds. His legs were riddled with different sizes of stab wounds, a few of which oozed green pus.
Then I noticed a small chamber pot sat in the corner of the cell. It was turned on its side, and the contents inside spilled out across the floor. That explained the smell.
“You all really did a number on him,” I told Laika as I felt my magic travel along his body.
Classification: Human.
Condition: Lateral broken ribs. Broken clavicle. Hairline fractures along the humerus, radius, and tibia. Shattered left orbital socket, range of vision impaired. Multiple lacerations to legs, blood and tissue loss in fingers. Fever due to infections.
Priority: Healing required.
Danger: Wounds have become infected. Death possible if left untreated.
Status: Critical.
I frowned at his condition and sent out my healing magic to him, and I heard him sigh in relief as I drained the infections from his legs. I wouldn’t have bothered to heal the traitor, but I needed him conscious. The way his wounds looked before, he wouldn’t even be coherent enough to speak his name, let alone answer questions.
“We knew we’d gone too far, but the damage had been done,” Laika said with no remorse in her voice. “We brought some medicine from the infirmary, but nothing seemed to help. We just hoped he wouldn’t die.”
Aleksey whimpered in his sleep while I continued to heal the worst of his wounds. Part of me felt sorry for him, but then I remembered that all of this was his own fault. He betrayed Hatra, and this was his punishment, so I pulled my magic away from him. I healed the broken bones and his eye, as well as the infected wounds and the tips of his fingers, but I decided to leave the rest. His own body could heal that for him easily enough.
“I can’t deal with the smell in here,” I told Laika as I scrunched my nose in disgust. “Have a bath prepared for him.”
She frowned but nodded and placed a hand on her gorget. A few minutes later, Pyotr came in.
“I heard you want to bathe our little prisoner here?” he asked gruffly.
“Yes, I don’t know how you a
ll deal with the smell in here,” I replied.
“You get used to it after a few years,” Pyotr said with a dark laugh.
The noise woke Aleksey, and he pulled on his chains.
“Let me out of here!” he yelled as his shackles rattled. “I am a noble of Leyte, you cannot keep me in here!”
We all watched him for a moment before we ignored him and turned to one another again.
“Pyotr, I was told you an Anton were in charge of questioning the prisoner?” I asked.
“Yes, sir.”
“I thought I said not to interrogate him until I returned,” I said with a raised brow.
Pyotr pursed his lips and averted his eyes. His ears and tail twitched as if he was nervous, and I could see he was struggling to find an appropriate answer as to why he disregarded an order from me.
I didn’t let him flounder for long.
“Never mind,” I said with a wave of my hand. “What’s done is done. Now, did he answer any questions?”
“Of course not,” Pyotr snorted. “Do you think he’d look this bad if he did?”
“So, you disobeyed my order, and still did not get results?” I asked flatly.
“Uhhh,” Pyotr said as his face went white. “Well, sorry, my lord, but he really deserved it. Eh?”
“Probably,” I said with a laugh, and Pyotr’s face got its color back as he laughed with me.
“You’re right, but he was too pretty to leave unscarred.”
“Then how about we get some answers today,” I said with a smirk.
“Sounds like the perfect idea to me,” he responded, and a dark glint gleamed in his eyes. Then Pyotr pulled the keys from his side and unlocked the cell.
Aleksey immediately shrunk back in fear, and he turned his good eye to me.
“Lord Evan!” he pleaded. “You can’t allow this to happen! I’m a nobleman! This is an act of war against the king!”
“I’m pretty sure King Rodion will be okay with this,” I told him with venom. “You are, after all, a traitor to not only Hatra, but to all of Rahma.”
He clamped his mouth shut and glared.
“I’ll make sure you pay for this, everyone in Hatra will pay for this!” he screamed as Pyotr unlocked the chains, and his arms fell limply at his side.
“Get up,” Pyotr commanded and all but dragged Aleksey to the chair against the wall.
Then the older wolf chained Aleksey’s arms and feet to the chair and stepped back with a cruel grin.
“Anything you want to tell us before we begin?” I asked as I crossed my arms over my chest.
Aleksey spat in my direction.
“Okay, then. That was your only chance. Pyotr, if you will.” I gestured to Aleksey as I stepped back.
“With pleasure,” Pyotr replied and pulled out an arrangement of knives from his pocket.
Aleksey’s good eye widened in fear as Pyotr pulled out the largest knife in his collection.
“Wait … ” he rasped as his eye followed the glint of the knife.
“Do you have anything to say?” Pyotr asked.
Aleksey noticeably swallowed but then seemed to compose himself and glared at the wolf Demi-Human.
“I have nothing to say to you,” the traitor snarled.
“That’s fine, because nothing you say really interests me anyway,” Pyotr responded before he thrust the knife down into Aleksey’s thigh.
Aleksey screamed as blood trickled down his leg. Pyotr pulled the knife out and more blood spurted from the open wound.
“How about now?” Pyotr knelt down to look Aleksey in the eye.
I could see the slight tremble in Aleksey’s hand as he tried to control his emotions.
“I will not betray them,” he said in a low voice. “They need me.”
“Who needs you?” I asked. “The Green Glass Sect? Aleksey, they don’t give a shit about you. If they did, do you really think they’d let you rot away in our cell? You were nothing more than a pawn to them. You failed to serve a purpose, so they no longer have a need for you. They’ll let you die here.”
My words seemed to break through to him for a flash of a second, but his face hardened again.
“You lie,” he spat, and his good eye burned with hatred.
Then he screamed as Pyotr stabbed him again and pulled the knife out quickly.
“I’m not,” I assured him. “I don’t know how they convinced you to help them, but you’re nothing to them. They knew you were a coward, and they used you. You failed to acquire the weapons they wanted, do you really think they’ll forgive you for that?”
“I--” He stopped himself, and his eye widened in realization. “I … failed.”
“Yes, and they’ll kill you for that,” I tried to convince him. “If you want to live, your best bet is to help us stop them. Tell us what you know, and you can live the rest of your life in comfort in this cell.”
My attempt to bargain with him led him to scoff.
“To live in a cage is a fate worse than death,” Aleksey replied.
His voice was low, like he finally understood no matter what happened now, he was a dead man. Either we would kill him or the Green Glass Sect would.
I racked my brain and looked to Laika. She stared back at me, and we seemed to share the same thought. She nodded to me slightly, and I looked back to Pyotr and Aleksey.
“Aleksey, I’ll offer you a deal this one time.”
He turned his head to me but didn’t respond.
“Tell us what you know, and we’ll let you go,” I offered. “You will never be allowed to step foot inside the country or Rahma again, or else I will burn you alive myself, but you will be free. What happens to you after that, will be on you. The Green Glass Sect will still probably hunt you down, but if you’re smart, you can evade them. It won’t be a glamorous life, but it will be a life.”
Obviously, I was lying to him. Everyone in this room, probably including Aleksey himself, knew he was going to die as soon as we got all the information we needed from him, but I had no qualms about lying to get what I needed.
The room was silent as the seconds dragged on, and Aleksey kept his good eye locked on mine as he looked for any sign of dishonesty. After a solid minute and a half, he took a deep breath.
“Fine,” he finally answered. “I accept the terms of your deal.”
I smirked and sent my magic out to heal his wounds.
“Good. Tell us everything you know.”
“I don’t know much,” he sighed. “They came to me in the night, dressed in green cloaks. They wore masks over their faces. They offered me a chance to join them, and they would save the life of my baby sister. She was sick, you see. A disease that has no name or cure. It slowly destroys is victims until there is nothing left to take. She was in the final stages of her life when they came.”
He winced in pain and shifted before he continued.
“I agreed to join them, and they healed her that night. She’s still alive today, and I still don’t know how they did it. Our parents claimed it was the mercy of the gods, and I never told them the truth.”
Suddenly, he inhaled sharply and leaned off the chair. Confused, I sent my magic to inspect for any wounds I missed. There was a strange sensation on his back, but there was no wound to heal.
“They began to come to me every month or so after that,” he went on, but now his voice was strained. “They told me their mission and how they wanted to overthrow the King. They told me … I could become the new King once everything was done. I realize now how foolish I was … to believe them.”
His voice had become tighter as he spoke, and then all of the sudden, his back arched off the chair again, and he screamed in agony.
“Pyotr, unchain him!” I yelled quickly.
The older wolf lunged forward, and a moment later, the chains clattered to the floor.
Laika and I grabbed Aleksey as he began to writhe in pain. His face was a mask of agony, and I watched as his good eye rolled back into his head.
“There’s something wrong with is back,” I growled. “Help me lay him down. Pyotr, cut off his shirt.”
Laika and I held Aleksey still as Pyotr grabbed a thin, sharp knife. Then he slid the blade under the threadbare fabric of the shirt and sliced it open in one smooth motion.
We all inhaled sharply as we looked at his back. The tattoo of the green leaf on his shoulder burned bright green, and the skin around the ink bubbled like boiling water. Giant red welts formed around the leaf, and lesions started to appear all over his back.
I reached out a hand to help heal him, but his skin seemed to melt under my touch. Aleksey sobbed in pain, and I quickly pulled my hand back.
“What’s happening to him?” I demanded as I looked to the two wolves beside me.
“The tattoo is cursed,” Pyotr explained with wide eyes. “He can’t talk about the Green Glass Sect. If he does, this will happen.”
I gnashed my teeth and pushed all of my magic into healing Aleksey, but nothing happened. The curse upon the tattoo seemed to be created with an ancient and powerful magic.
“I can’t heal him,” I told them as we watched more skin fall away from his back and expose the pink color of his muscle underneath.
I can help, Miraya whispered in my head. Nothing deserves to die like this.
“Okay, then let’s help him,” I said aloud and ignored the strange looks Laika and Pyotr gave me.
Suddenly, I could feel Miraya’s power as it coursed through me. It was similar to when we healed Asher of the miasma in my spiritual sea. My hand seemed to release a faint white glow, and I placed my palm onto Aleksey’s back, above the tattoo. I could sense the curse placed on it like a thread, so I grabbed hold of it and tugged. I distantly heard Aleksey scream, but I continued to pull the curse out of the tattoo.
When I finally pulled my hand away, there was no string in my fingers, but the glow of my palm had ceased. Aleksey was quiet, and I hoped he’d passed out and wasn’t dead. Then I saw the rise and fall of his breath, and I exhaled in relief.
I think it worked, go us, Miraya said, and I nodded in response as I took in the damage to his back.
The dim green glow of the tattoo faded away until there was just the ordinary tattoo on his back again, but his shoulders and spine were littered with welts, lesions, and deep cuts. I reached out once more with my magic, and it easily surged forward and closed all of the wounds. The skin stitched back together in the areas where we had exposed the muscles, and soon, his back returned to its original state, save for the green tattoo.
