by Loki Renard
She crumbled under his tongue lashing, her defiance fading as he forced her to confront what she knew was true. Had she simply married Isodor, none of this would have come to pass. There would have been no need for an invasion of the other world. Her father might even still draw breath.
“I’m sorry,” she said, tears filling her eyes.
“It is far too late to be sorry,” Maxim said mercilessly. “Get in the cage. You will not be permitted to be free for a very long time.”
She lowered her head, went to her knees, and crawled obediently into the iron enclosure. It was just barely long enough to stretch all the way out in, and she supposed she should be grateful for that mercy. There was a silken blanket that made her slightly more comfortable, but the heavy bars between her and the rest of the world were oppressive. She curled up in the far corner of it, where she could wrap the blanket around her and avoid his angry gaze.
She did not see Maxim for several long hours. In that time, servants came and brought her food and water. She did not know if he had intended it, but that was the moment of true humiliation. These were the women who had obeyed her, fawned over her, catered to her every whim, and now they were attempting to curtsy outside her cage while shooting obvious looks of amusement at one another. The word of the caged princess would spread far and wide, Sabine was sure of that.
Left alone to her regret and remorse, she wondered if he would ever forgive her. Did his love for her and for Ere outweigh his loathing for his admittedly loathsome brother? She had forced his hand, but only because it needed to be forced. Whatever the reason for their current circumstances, they were what they were. Ere needed more than a mad dog like Isodor on the throne. It needed someone brave and wise and strong to balance and contain that aggression. It needed Maxim.
A long while later, he returned to her along with several sturdy men who dragged a bath into the room and then set about filling it with hot water and a decent dash of the plant liquid that gave the water cleansing properties. When it was filled and they were dismissed, Maxim let her out of the cage. He had not said a word to her yet, and she was rather afraid of what the word would be when he did say it.
He was dressed in noble leathers, black armor and gold trim across the arms and down the thighs and a tall stiff collar that made him look even more stern than he already did, those sharp green eyes so brilliant and bright between dark clothes and dark hair.
Maxim opened the door and pointed to the floor in front of it, indicating that she should go there. She was eager to leave the small confines, so she did as she was silently told, even though she was certain that nothing good would ultimately come from it.
Crouching on the floor at his feet, she very much wanted to rise, but knew he would likely censure her for it. Sinking through the floor entirely might have been a better option, but that was impossible.
“Get in the bath,” he said, his rough tones making her shiver as she did as she was told, stripping off the now quite filthy remains of her once fine dress. She slipped into the water with no small amount of relief, finding it soothing and warm. Almost immediately the smudges and smears of dirt began to slip from her skin, mixing with the cleansing water.
* * *
She was filthy. Maxim couldn’t imagine how she had survived the past two weeks wild in the peasant lands, traveling without protection. If her appearance was anything to go by, she had crawled through every ditch in the countryside.
Standing beside the bath, he watched as she dipped beneath the water and slipped up again, water streaming from her hair, already restoring the pale hue that had become muddied. Her glances toward him were nervous and did not reach his eyes.
His meeting with Isodor had gone surprisingly well. Isodor seemed relieved, and when he allowed Maxim to see the reports from the other world, Maxim understood why. Their soldiers were under constant assault, not just by military appliances, but by the people of New New York themselves. There was a malicious chaos that Ere troops were particularly sensitive to, having only defeated peasants before. The New New Yorkers were a much tougher lot, and they needed different handling. Isodor’s brutality was backfiring in a big way—as Sabine had suggested it would.
In truth, she had not been wrong. Not about a single thing. She had been right to flee marriage with Isodor. They would not have suited one another in the slightest. And she had been right to attempt a return to the castle. Another month or two and there would likely have been Nile drones outside their hovel’s door.
She still had to be punished and made an example of. This was bigger than all of them. Bigger than rights and wrongs. And he would not encourage her impetuousness for he knew that one day, if she continued to do precisely as she pleased, when she pleased, the cost would be her life.
Sabine set about bathing herself without being told to, and when she was sufficiently clean, he bade her step out of the bath.
She did so, dripping onto the stone floor, rivulets of scented water running over her breasts, down the tips of her nipples and to her toes.
“Look at me, pet.”
Her eyes lifted to his, clear blue gaze meeting his with a modicum of shame, but all the regal possession she still had. Nothing truly left a mark on Sabine. She could be crawling at his feet and begging for his cock one moment and return to this composed creature the next, a princess to her very soul.
There was a certain awe he felt whenever he looked at her, an appreciation for a creature of pure breeding and beauty. What was to come would not be easy on her. It could not be. She had forced his hand and put them in an impossibly dangerous situation. He would have to make an example of her, both for her sake, and for the sake of Ere.
He picked up a towel, stepped toward her and began to dry her, attending to her hair first and then moving down her body, over her shoulders, her breasts, her tummy, her arms, her buttocks, the slit of her sex, all the way to her feet. No words passed between them and he was glad for her silence, which seemed to him to be an admission of her shame. She was accepting what was to come with royal fortitude, and for that he admired her.
* * *
“Sabine.”
He said her name and she felt her stomach erupt into fresh nervousness. The soothing, caring touch of his hands as he dried her had lulled her into a more relaxed state, but hearing him speak brought back all the trouble she was in with a vengeance.
“Yes, m’lord?”
He slid his fingers under her chin and directed her to look up at him. When she did, she no longer saw anger in his eyes, but instead there was a tender sternness. He brushed a few damp strands of hair away from her face and pressed his lips to hers in a kiss that reassured her with his passion.
“Isodor and I have agreed to form an alliance,” he said. “You have gotten your way, my pet princess…”
She could hear the ‘but’ in his voice before it was said.
“But first you must both pay the price for your disobedience. It cannot be a private affair. All know of your disobedience in refusing to marry Isodor. All know of your involvement in the destruction of the first gate. All know that you returned here on foot in defiance of Isodor’s proclamation, and my will. Atonement must be made, pet. And it will be made now.”
He led her to the throne room where the highest in the land had gathered. The raised dais upon which the thrones sat had been largely cleared aside from the main throne, allowing space for a small plinth upon which she imagined she was to be displayed.
Isodor sat on the king’s throne, wearing the king’s crown. None of it seemed to fit him quite right. The crown sat too low around his ears, falling too close to his brow. The throne was too narrow, but he had squeezed himself into it regardless. He looked every inch a usurper.
There were far more people there than she had expected. Isodor and Maxim she had understood to be present, but there were at least twenty generals and high-ranking nobles present as well, their eyes locked with curiosity on her naked form, and on the gold collar and chain t
hat linked her to Maxim’s hand.
She could feel the king’s gaze on her too, darker and heavier than the others. There was some depth to Isodor she had always felt and never quite been able to explain, but the force of his gaze made her move closer to Maxim still. He was wearing the mask that was beginning to earn him the moniker Isodor the Iron Face, largely behind his back. She had heard the servants whispering it in the shadows, even some of the lower guard giggling along with the comely palace maids. Palace gossip was against the king, but she imagined he did not care for such things.
“By your leave, your majesty,” Maxim said, bowing briefly to his brother.
Isodor pulled himself from the throne and stood to address their audience. Sabine dared sneak the smallest of glances under her lashes as the new king made his address, and she was sure she saw thinly veiled contempt in the eyes of those who had once served her father.
It was as she had suspected. Isodor had not made the necessary diplomatic connections. He had not yet garnered true respect, if he ever would.
“This is the dawn of a new day,” Isodor declared. “A new alliance, one born of our blood and that of King Savik. This is an alliance of strength and submission. The old must bow to the new, and the new must work in allegiance. There can be no weakness in our ranks, no curs without courage. We have taken part of the other world, but the battle is not yet won, nor will it be in our lifetimes. We must settle to war, we must become accustomed to blood. We must let it flow freely…”
“And we must be willing to make a place for peace,” Maxim interjected. “The other world is already a place where powerful factions sit at one another’s borders. We have an enclave, a port of trade which can be maintained through might and diplomacy.”
“Indeed,” Isodor said with some gruff reluctance. “Diplomacy.”
“We will be the wolves at their door. The hounds at the gates of their hell. We will never surrender the green lands of Ere,” Maxim continued. “And we will live among them, our forward guard ready to repel any form of invasion.”
There was an air of excitement in the room, Sabine could sense it. There was an admiration and respect emanating from the nobles and generals, those who saw the brothers Maxim and Isodor as representing the most powerful aspects of any warrior leader.
“This snake has two heads,” Isodor said, raising his fist. “And we will bite and bite and bite again if need be.”
“But first there is the matter of the sex sacrifice. The princess of old Ere, she who set these events in motion. The destroyer of gates, the seducer of men…”
Sabine looked up at Maxim under her lashes. He was laying it on thick, but she understood why. This was more than a punishment for her, or a proof to Isodor. This had become a ritual, a true passing of the crown from one bloodline to another. Such things would never have taken place in the palace under her father’s rule, but this was a new world and her place was still very much central in it.
“On the plinth, Princess,” Maxim ordered at a volume only she could truly hear. “Hands and knees. Show them what a truly trained pet can be.”
She crawled up onto the raised surface, covered with a satin cover that made it slightly softer for her knees—a small mercy, but a welcome one. A murmur passed through the crowd, titillation and excitement growing as Maxim ran his hand over her back and down to her bottom, his fingers dipping between her thighs to check how wet she was.
To be taken naked before the people she had once commanded, to feel their gaze on every part of her, to know that she was to be sexually used and punished before them, all these things sent waves of hot emotion through her body, set her senses aflame and made the slit between her thighs begin to gleam with desire.
“She was your princess, but she is a pet to me,” Maxim rumbled. “The old king has fallen, but his daughter may still serve.”
He plunged two fingers inside her pussy, pulled them out and held them high. They gleamed with her wetness. Had she been a virgin there might have been red streaks from the breaking of her hymen, but there were none. She left behind clear, pure arousal on his fingers.
“You see, there is no blood to be shed,” he said. “We have lost enough blood already. We have suffered enough. Let this be the beginning of a new era of pleasure and wealth for Ere and the world beyond.”
Sabine very much doubted anyone was listening to his lofty words, certainly all she could pay attention to was the way she felt, crouched there on hands and knees with her sex on display, the noblest and richest of Ere watching as Maxim stepped around behind her and spread her cheeks. He was, of course, well prepared for the display. A shelf below the plinth soon proved to hold her tail and lubrication. The latter, he began to dab at her bottom in preparation for the thick intrusion of the tail.
“We have been as wild beasts,” Maxim growled. “We must tame our more brutal impulses.”
He pressed the plug to her bottom and her well-trained muscles relaxed to accept it as it slipped into its customary place. She would never have admitted it, but she had missed the feeling of the tail. Since fleeing their home in Centillion territory she had been bereft of it and she had wondered if she might ever feel again as she had for those short, idyllic weeks. Completely owned, and completely safe.
Maxim slid the tail into her rear, the thick rubber stretching her anus wide. Isodor’s dark gaze was malevolent and yet also entranced. They had his full attention, there was no doubt about that.
There was a gasp and a rumble as the onlookers saw the result, the tail curling up over her back, her bottom spread, her pussy beginning to swell with desire. Her body knew what was coming, had been trained and conditioned to know that when the tail spread her rear, her pussy was soon to be fucked.
Isodor chuckled from the throne, his dark malice making a shiver run down her spine. The insertion of the tail truly did take her to a more animal state. It focused her on her senses rather than her thoughts, and now that she was feeling him rather than thinking about him, her sense of danger was increased many-fold.
“This is how you defile a princess properly,” he said loudly enough for Isodor to hear him. “You may conquer kings, brother, but I know how to dominate their daughters.”
The plinth put her bent-over pussy at the height of his crotch. There was another gasp as Maxim’s manhood was revealed, the hard proud shaft exposed through a slit in the fabric of his trousers. He was armored in all other respects. Of all the people in the room, only Sabine was naked and vulnerable.
He pushed his cock into her wet hole, spreading her pussy in one easy thrust and she cried out in a mixture of shock and pleasure. He leaned down over her back and murmured in her ear, “This is for running off without me, Princess.”
Her fingers and toes curled as he clasped her hips and started to fuck her hard and fast, his cock pistoning in and out of her wet little slit with no further fanfare or warning. This was not a time for foreplay or delicate gentle teasing. This was a punishment as much as it was a display. He was disciplining her pussy with rough thrusts that made her gasp and shriek.
* * *
Maxim looked down at his pet, the tail curving cutely over her back, her pussy wrapped tight around his cock. She was making a good amount of noise, gasping and crying out at the top of her voice. Her lips were gripping him tightly, every stroke out bringing them with his cock until they reluctantly released him and then gave way all over again. She wasn’t nearly as wet as she could be, or would be, but she was wet enough to have her pussy fucked nice and hard.
She needed to be taught a lesson, a long lesson she would not forget. The fact that Ere’s nobility was present, and even Isodor, suited him just fine. Isodor would never lay a finger on her, so why not have him watch.
He grasped the princess by the hair at the back of her head and seated his cock deep inside her, simply holding her in place, impaled on his shaft. He could feel her inner walls grasping at him and after a moment or two of being held motionless, her hips started to grind. She
couldn’t help herself. She needed his cock so badly she was prepared to not only be fucked publicly, but to fuck herself, work her tight little hole over his cock.
This was the capitulation he needed to demonstrate. He was not taking the princess against her will. Any brute could do that. It took a much rarer man to tame a princess. Never before in the history of Ere had anyone seen a sight like that which was now before them, the beautiful young princess working her wet pussy back and forth over the hard shaft of the man who owned her.
* * *
All thought of royal pride, all care for anything besides pleasing Maxim had fled Sabine’s mind. She found herself rutting on his cock, her breasts swaying as she bounced back and forth, her mouth open as she moaned almost constantly.
Maxim allowed her to take her pleasure for a few minutes, but ultimately Sabine knew it was not about her pleasure. It was about proving a point. He soon took her by the hips, flipped her onto her back and slid inside her with one rough thrust. Pushing her legs back nearly to her ears, he spread her pussy on display for all to see and fucked her tight cunt with a relentless pounding that made her wail.
Every time he slid inside her she felt a cascade of pure pleasure shooting down her spine, little sparks finding the very tips of her fingers and toes. He wasn’t just fucking her pussy, he was fucking every part of her, grinding her tender form against the plinth as her breasts heaved, the pink-tipped rises jiggling back and forth with every rough thrust.
He leaned down over her, his face less than an inch from hers, his eyes locked on hers as he pounded her pussy.
