Corruption of the Rose

by S. J. Sanders

  Smiling at his fierce tone, Rose left him to deal with the gathered townsfolk as she looked back up at her enormous lupo mate. Her fingers brushed through his fur, bringing his straying attention, that was warily watching the men depart, back to her.

  “My love,” she murmured, her power vibrating out of her with every word. “This place is not for us. Shouldn’t we go home?”

  His teeth released her, his fangs skating along her neck.

  “Mine,” he growled in her ear.

  “I am yours, and you are mine. You are my mate…” she raised her voice to include the lupi listening from where they stood. “You are my family. I recognize and name you each my kin, and as such I ask that you give me your alliance on this hallowed night and every night ever for so long as I am worthy of it.”

  The night air cooled the side of her face as Saris pulled back to look down at her. The red had bled completely away, leaving his beautiful yellow orbs staring down at her. His teeth were no longer bared as he regarded her. A quiet emanated from him amidst her magic rather than the feral frenzy that had pushed back at her magic so fiercely. Now there was nothing but calm acceptance.

  “I love you,” she whispered. “Be mine, as I will be yours, forever.”

  His eyes slowly shut and a tremor ran through him.

  “Mine. My mate,” he rumbled. His eyes opened and peered down at her. “But our Mistress of our choosing.” He turned to look at the males gathered behind him, their ears pricked. The aggression had melted away and they watched curiously. “By our choice!” he called back to them.

  The lupi straightened, each of them raking claws down their chests, bloody gashes tearing into the muscle.

  “By our choice,” they repeated, their raspy voices echoing like the cries of some angry spirit.

  Saris set her down gently on her feet, his eyes bright with desire and longing as he slashed his claws across his own chest. His blood ran in a thick stream, and Rose felt a heat of desire rise through her at the sight of it. Drawing up her own hand, her claws unsheathed and she swiped them across the center of her chest.

  Her skin slickened with her hot blood, and the wound stung, but at that moment, the pain barely registered as Saris placed his warm hand over her wound. Taking her hand, her claws stained with her blood, he set it over his own chest as he met her eyes.

  “I am yours. You have my allegiance and loyalty. I will rise to your command and take any enemy of yours as my own.” He shivered as an invisible link of power twined through them that made Rose’s body tighten with desire. He dropped his head and nuzzled her cheek, his hot breath stirring against her neck. “Now we are bound forever, for as long as the gods will it. You are mine.”

  “And you are mine,” she whispered back, watching as his eyes flared with pleasure.

  He slowly pulled away as the other lupi edged forward eagerly. His eyes however never parted from her.

  “Never before have I enjoyed even a moment of lucidity on a hallowed night. It will not last long, and I shall descend once more into the madness, but you will be safe and I will know you. And I will keep this memory with me for the rest of my days of how beautiful you looked on the hallowed Night of Veils crowned in the light of the goddess of the moon.”

  He gestured, and she glanced into the heavens, her breath catching as the moon hung directly overhead, bathing them all in its silvery glow. A small laugh escaped her, and she faced Jalis, who smiled at her in his usual friendly fashion as he placed his hand over her wound. They repeated the oath, and then she repeated the vow with Aigra and the other lupi as they filed forward one by one. Each one created a new link with her, binding her close to them, although none of them quite as strong and vibrant as her link with Saris.

  As the last lupo stepped away from her, Saris shivered, his head turning as he glanced around the town as if really seeing it for the first time.

  “Let’s leave and get far from here. Our lucidity won’t hold long, and I require to join with my mate before we reach the mountain. I don’t wish for anyone to be endangered by being too near.”

  He glanced at the pack meaningfully and the lupi departed, sliding into the shadows. Jalis winked at her before he too took off after his brethren, leaving Rose alone with Saris on the street. It was only then that she saw two strange males emerge from the shadows, propelled forward on massive tails serpentine tails. She stilled, her eyes widening at the sight of the nagas closing in on them.

  “Saris?” she murmured in question, her magic rising defensively around her.

  His hand stroked down the center of her back soothingly.

  “Easy,” he rumbled. “The nagas will not harm you.”

  He concluded the statement with a snap of his teeth in their direction as if emphasizing the point. To her relief, the naga nearest her smiled at Saris’s ferocity before inclining his head to her respectfully.

  “The nagas have come to swear our loyalty to the Mistress of the mountain who binds the worlds and keeps the boundaries separate with her holy waters. I, Nagathanal, swear an oath of fealty and service on behalf of my people. Our power is yours, as are our spears and venom. May the earth and all the sacred rivers that bind the worlds witness it.”

  He drew one claw against his palm, allowing his blood to drip upon the earth with his vow. He hissed in reaction to the current of power that suddenly flowed between them. It wasn’t like the links she shared with her lupi, but it was an undeniable connection between them. A small, pleased smile curved his lips and he nodded.

  “It is done.” His reptilian gaze turned toward Saris. “We do not need to… ah, witness whatever joining you have planned. We will return to the castle to await you there. The night has just begun, and the midnight hour is still yet to come, but the vulpi will not hold off their attack for long.”

  With another nod, this one directed toward Saris, he left, the other male who waited nearby following him as they disappeared into the shadows at the edge of the town. She watched them leave and then turned to take one last look at the town that had been her home for so many years.

  People peered from their windows and the lanterns shone. The smell of food cooking for the midnight feasts could be detected as everything seemed to slowly slip back into its familiar rhythms. She would miss this… but she no longer belonged there.

  Saris huffed, a rumbling growl drawing up from deep within his chest. “The human who had you?”

  Rose looked up at him and grinned, her hand patting the pocket on her robe. “Dead and taken care of. His queen will have to do without his assistance.”

  “Good. Let’s depart, Rose,” Saris growled as he swung her up into his arms.

  She laughed at the bridal hold in which he carried her, but he didn’t seem to be in any hurry to place her on his back to ride. She glanced up at him, her eyebrows winging up in a silent question. He huffed at her, his mouth curving in an answering smile.

  “We will not be getting far. Carrying you will comfort me when my rationality leaves me. When it does… do not fear me. There is no possibility now that I would ever be able to hurt you.”

  She nodded against his chest, leaning into him as he charged out of town, his loping gait rocking her comfortably as the streets and buildings fell away, and eventually the fields also disappeared behind them as the mountain foothills loomed closer.

  The trees closing around them brought with them a sense of returning home, and yet as they drew closer, she could feel the change coming over Saris as he was consumed once again by the magic that was strongest near the mountain. Even she could feel it, and it sent a ripple of hunger through her. Not just sexual hunger—although she felt that plenty for the male who held her—but the desire to destroy and tear flesh with her claws. They had already sprung from her fingertips once more, no doubt reacting to the need raging through her.

  Saris panted against her neck, his muzzle brushing against her skin and tongue stroking over her as he crashed through the woods until finally he stopped and lay her
over a fallen tree, her ass tilted up into the air. A sound rustling through the branches drew her attention, and Rose turned her head just in time to see the lupi converge around them.

  They milled aabout at a short distance, watching as Saris shoved her robe and cape up, baring her bottom. His tongue stroked over one cheek before dipping lower to slide against her sex. She gasped and lifted her ass higher, wanting more contact with his tongue as he eagerly swept it over her folds, lapping up the arousal that slipped from her.

  Saris’s low growl of pleasure vibrated against her sex, sending tiny electric pulses through her. A faint whimper left her, her claws digging into the bark of the tree as he tormented her with that tongue. Every so often, it pushed inside of her, only adding to the building ache from its slick slide against her. The occasional graze of his teeth only made her hunger grow, and desperate sounds escaped her as she shifted her hips in a silent demand. The light occasional tap of his tongue against her clit and the glide of an errant fang wasn’t enough to send her over, and she wailed with anger when he pulled away.

  He snapped his teeth against her shoulder in a slight reprimand as he settled over her, the weight of his enormous body bearing down on her as his cock notched and pressed home with a quick thrust. There was nothing slow or intimate about it. He rode her hard, pelvis slapping against her as he pounded deep.

  She was startled, however, when one of his hands slipped under her to press one thick finger against her clit, rubbing carefully with only the slightly prick of his claw as the other hand flattened against her back, holding her in place.

  The swing of his hips behind her was powerful, driving his cock deeper into with his impassioned rut. Every thrust made her writhe against him, attempting to take him deeper as she submitted entirely to him.

  It was only fair. She had drawn him in and held him to her with her magic publicly as she claimed him. Now he was claiming her in his own primal way, placing his own brand on her permanently before their family. The lupi in turn encouraged his dominance with every long howl and snap of their jaws. Their excitement grew as Saris’s claws dug against her back, his cock knotting with such unnatural thickness that it stole her breath away. She whimpered and instinctively shifted. There was nowhere for her to go, not with his knot firmly inside of her.

  A twinge of discomfort filled her at the pull, and his jaws tightened around her shoulder, just enough to gain her attention as he reseated himself deeper inside of her, the knot ballooning further until her sex convulsed with an orgasm that ripped through her so fast and so hard that she momentarily forgot to breathe. She choked on a whimper, her sex pulsing around his knot as he ground deep into her in time with every hot spray of his seed releasing within her, grunts and deep growls loud in her ear.

  Drawing in a long, ragged breath, she cried out, overwhelmed at the constant flow of orgasms, her sex squeezing helplessly around the hard knot of flesh inside of her. Her eyes rolled back in her head, and she lay limp against the tree, body seizing with pleasure as Saris released her and bellowed with the final jerk of his cock within her spraying the last hard stream of cum. Holding her in place while his knot deflated, Saris nuzzled her, licking at the back of her neck as her channel continued to convulse with smaller ripples.

  He held her there for several minutes before his cock finally pulled free, the pressure of the deflated knot popping from her slick channel sending another tremor through her. She lay there panting, her claws unclenching from the deep furrows they had dug into the wood as his body slipped off hers.

  She jumped with a squeak when she felt his tongue graze her legs as he licked away all evidence of their combined fluids. Rose blinked at that show of tender care in his most feral state that she hadn’t recalled receiving before. Gently pushing his head away, she dropped from the tree, feeling the brush of fabric as her robe and cape fell back into place, and turned to face him. His yellow eyes glowed down at her with a predatory possessiveness. From his great height, he lowered into a half-crouch so he could rub his jaw against her shoulder.

  Rose wrapped her arms around his neck, drawing him into a hug, secure in the bond that rippled and spun between them. As Rose embraced Saris, her eyes fell on the watching lupi. Now that Saris has finished, the males had calmed and were watching her with a warm regard.

  “Let’s go home. There is much to do,” she said, to the pleasure of her lupi,

  who grinned savagely in reply.

  Chapter 32

  Rose felt watched as they returned to the castle, more so than normal. More so than the casual predators that had long infiltrated the mountain and called it home for as long as they could until the lupi thinned their numbers. The malevolence that bore down on them made her flesh prickle and her magic surge in warning to whatever was stalking them.

  Saris’s head turned, his nostrils flaring. She was in her customary place on his back as he stalked through the forest on all fours. He slowed, and his ears turned, listening attentively. He was also aware of it and a low growl rumbled from him.

  A vulpo dropped down from a ledge above the entrance into the mountain, his red eyes gleaming at them. His head cocked at her, his mouth tightening unhappily, tails whipping with obvious agitation.

  “I see that I erred in trusting the human to deal with you, mage,” he hissed.

  Rose grinned at him, enjoying the fact that she was there to witness the vulpi’s plans falling down around them. “Perhaps you should have been more forthcoming with him of what to expect, not just arming him with a few tricks and hoping it would be enough to dispose of me with minimal effort. I’m not so easy to get rid of, but it turns out that I should thank you for providing me with the perfect punishment for him.”

  The vulpo watched her silently, tails twitching behind him. From all around him, more vulpi materialized from the darkness, dropping down the mountainside, blocking the entrance that would lead to the safe harbor of the castle. But that didn’t make sense. If the vulpi wanted the castle, why were they just lying in wait? Why not just take the castle?

  “They can’t enter the castle,” she whispered to herself. “They had planned to ambush you while you were all out of the castle hunting and at the mercy of the power of the mountain.”

  Saris’s ear tipped back toward her, but he clearly could not understand what she said. But that had to be it. There was no other reason for them to lurk outside the entrance into the heart of the mountain unless they had no other choice.

  “If you were dead, would they be able to claim it?” she asked softly.

  “Yesss,” a naga hissed as she emerged from the kelpie’s lake. The kelpie watched from the middle of the water, a wary expression on his face as he clearly made an effort to keep a respectful distance from the naga.

  Rose didn’t recognize this naga, but she could feel the familiar current of energy that had been established flowing between them. The vulpo in front of her snarled aggressively at the naga, and the serpentine female hissed in reply before her dark eyes, with their peculiar yellow slit-pupils, met Rose’s gaze with a respectful nod.

  “They cannot enter, Mistress,” the naga hissed. “They would like to, but the magic of the hydra protects the castle. She has protected the castle from the intrusion of other creatures dwelling on this mountain while she slept, and she protects it now even more so in her fury. They have no chance to enter while the lupi live. Once you have bound yourself to the mountain, any claim they might have had will be absent.”

  Rose’s eyes darted to the entrance, but anything she was to say was lost beneath the wild shriek of the vulpo as he sprang at her. Saris jumped forward, his huge body taking him out as he brought the male down to the ground with a sickening crunch, his claws shredding him as his wicked teeth ripped out enormous chunks of flesh.

  The wet sounds of Saris tearing the vulpo apart spurred the vulpi into action. Shrieking, they descended in a dark cloud. The lupi tensed defensively around her, their fur bristling and their teeth bared in vicious snarls. S
aris turned to her, and she laid a hand on his jaw, forcing another current of magic through the bond as she addressed the lupi.

  “Protect the mountain.”

  Their eyes cleared, and their heads dropped in quick nods as they surged forward, bringing down any vulpi in their paths, their huge gray bodies wiping out the smaller males as they encountered them. Nagas burst from the water at that moment, spears at the ready, as they too joined the fray. All but her mate rushed into battle. Saris hesitated, looking at her worriedly.

  “Go,” the naga hissed. “I will see to her safety.”

  To Rose’s surprise, he nodded and spun away. As she watched him barrel into a pair of vulpi with an echoing roar, the naga’s hand closed firmly on her arm.

  “Come, Mistress, we must get you into the castle.”

  Licking her lips, Rose nodded. “Yes, I need to get to the workroom.” She hesitated, glancing at the naga. “You know the layout of the castle?”

  The naga nodded. “We were made aware of it when Darthar constructed it. Our hands assisted him.”

  “Is the workroom above the pools?”

  “Yes, Mistress. It is as he designed. Darthar had my kin bore holes with our magic to create channels between the two rooms. They are entirely connected.”

  “Take me there immediately, please,” Rose said.

  The naga nodded, her body whipping as she dragged Rose up in her embrace. She glided like rainwater over the ground, ferrying Rose away from the entrance.

  “Wait! Where are you going?” Rose demanded as she began to struggle against the arms tightly holding her.

  “We go the naga route,” the female replied, her body twisting as she evaded a vulpo charging them.

  They turned in place, the massive coils of the naga churning around them, whipping at the vulpi who dared to charge them. There were too many. Everywhere Rose looked, even with the lupi’s dominating presence crushing the vulpi left and right, more still spilled down the mountain. The bellow of a fallen lupi was a physical pain for Rose as the bond snapped between them, the male’s life passing with the wild shrieks of the vulpi piling over him. The naga forced Rose to turn her head away from the sight and spat venom at the seven vulpi herding them further from the kelpie’s lake, from which the naga had emerged and was attempting to return. One to the right of them yelped and fell away as a spray of venom hit his eyes.