5. Call the Reapers

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.

- Psalms 51:5

*****

~ CASIMIR (Pronounced “CAZZ-uh-MEER”) ~

I desperately needed to piss.

As I stalked into my room, Ghere scuttling in my wake, I took a few seconds to pry my boots off, then made straight for the adjoining bathing room, undressing as I walked because when I returned to the festivities it would be in wedding garb.

Fuck.

I sighed as I passed my huge bed, a stone platform long and wide enough that even the tallest wolf would have plenty of room to sprawl…with friends. The thick mattress was covered in furs and plush pillows.

And my toys.

My stomach began to thrum and I smiled, diverting my path to trail a finger along the lush body of the first—the brunette who was still fast asleep.

She lay on her back, bare to the waist, her full breasts rising and falling slowly with her breath. A few strands of her dark hair lay over her face and fluttered as she snored quietly.

I let my finger trail from her shoulder, down, over her nipple, then along her body. She instinctively arched, then sighed and rolled over without waking, but the movement raised the furs and a waft of her warm scent reached me.

The wolf in me, already tense, woke up whining as I continued down the side of the bed, past the second toy, the blonde, curled like a puppy at the end. I almost reached for her, but my need for the toilet was greater, so I picked up my pace as I stepped away from the bed of sleeping females and strode naked into the bathing room, Ghere at my heels.

The wolf of power plans while his enemies sleep.

My rage sizzled at the sound of my late father’s voice in my head, so I dismissed the thought. But his voice wouldn’t leave me. They should be up. Attending me. Ready…

No.

My toys only purpose was to serve me. They were free to sleep whenever I didn’t need them. It was the rest of the pack that I needed to worry about.

I glanced over my shoulder as I approached the bathing room and gave a grim smile at the sight of Ghere faithfully following.

My servant and Advisor, he was the only other wolf more disciplined than me.

Small and slight, Ghere was the runt of his litter. He should have been nose to the dirt—never hold the ear of the King. But in order to make up for his fine frame and delicate constitution, God had given the fucker a mind larger and sharper than any I knew.

He never failed to step into my room each morning at the exact moment that I arose. And he never shyed away from following me into the darkness…

“Is she preparing?” I asked him quietly.

“Yes, Sire.”

“How did she smell?”

“Nervous,” he said quickly, licking his lips in a anxious habit he had that always made my nose wrinkle.

I stepped into the bathroom, leaving the door open for him so he could follow. I was desperate to piss. The man had shadowed me into far darker spaces than this.

“Will she run before the vows?”

“I don’t believe so, Sire.”

I huffed, uncertain whether that was comforting or not. But Ghere shifted his weight like he had thoughts, and the back of my neck began to itch.

“Then what is making your balls retreat, Ghere?” I asked, sighing with relief as I began to relieve myself into the bowl.

The humans had so many things wrong, but indoor plumbing and electricity were not numbered among them.

“Sire, the Queen… I… I believe she is different than her predecessors.”

“That was the point,” I grunted, guarding against the rush of rage and frustration that always overwhelmed me when I thought of my two previous mates. It wouldn’t do to lash out at Ghere. He was necessary.

For a moment I was transported back to that morning, just weeks ago, when he’d come to tell me the fate of my previous mate.

…He stood in front of me, chin low, but eyes wary on me, holding a piece of paper, a note that had been left by my dead mate.

I snatched it out of his outstretched hand, opened and read it, scanning it quickly. But there was nothing new.

Pitifully weak.

Crying for attention.

Miserable. Depressed. Unable to cope, blah, blah, blah.

Just like the last one.

Fuck.

I crumpled the paper and tossed it at Ghere, who snagged it deftly out of the air, but the tension in his features didn’t ease.

“Sire—”

“She was too weak. Just like the others.”

“Yes, obviously. But—”

“Call the Reapers.”

“Of course, but I just wonder—”

“This time tell them to hunt the poor areas. The trailer parks and slums, Ghere. The women there have suffered already. They’ll be stronger.”

He looked shocked. “But... your offspring must be of the noble bloodlines. Taking a human I understand, but—”

“There will be no noble bloodline if they keep dying before they bear young,” I snapped through clenched teeth. “Find women who have lived in the darkness before. My blood is noble enough for both of us.”

“Sire?”

I was jerked back to the present with a scowl on my face. “What?”

Ghere’s throat bobbed, but he looked out the door of the bathing room toward the bed, then back at me, a question in his eyes.

My toys.

I snorted. “There seems little point in abandoning them when we know she’s a virgin and won’t be up to… soothing all my itches.” I smiled.

Ghere sighed. “Cazz—”

I strode past him, into the bedroom, my body already hard with anticipation of what was to come. Namely, me.

When I reached the bed and shook the toys awake, Ghere sighed again and I had to resist the urge to snarl at him.

Miraculously, the blonde curled at the end of the bed was still wearing the wisp of lace and silk I’d given her yesterday. When she sat up, frowning and blinking, one side of it fell away where I’d bitten through the strap last night.

There were marks on her shoulder, scrapes in the shape of my teeth leading from her collarbone to the top of her full breast.

I smiled and reached for her, taking the weight of that pale globe and teasing her nipple with my thumb until it stood proud.

Flushed and messy from sleep, she still bit her lip, smiling, and leaned back on her hands, pressing her chest up for me.

Good girl.

I put one knee on the bed and her eyes brightened, so I crawled forward to kneel on it, nodding when she reached for me with a question in her eyes, burying a hand in her hair when she leaned down to take me in her mouth.

I let my head drop back and growled my approval of her talented tongue.

My second toy was also waking and crawling over to join us. I cut eyes to her to keep her from interrupting. The blonde was doing her work well. I would meet this dumpster fire of a wedding with my skin thrumming.

“Her senses are dull… she know nothing of this… Just make sure she’s ready… in thirty minutes…” I said hissing and tightening my grip in the blonde’s hair, guiding her as pleasure coursed through me, lighting my veins.

Ghere stood halfway across the room, clearly uncertain whether to leave or speak.

He was threatening to stifle my pleasure, so I let the power rise with the blood coursing in my veins and snapped a thread of compulsion at him—just a bare taste. But his breath rushed out of him and he bowed so low his hair brushed the tops of his feet.

“Yes… yes… of course. I only thought, perhaps when you’re done you should have the toys go—”

“Leave us, Ghere.”

He scurried from the room as quickly as he’d arrived and I turned my full attention to the women.

Or tried to.

Something itched at the base of my skull.

Frustration.

Anger.

And something… shakier. But I shook it off. We’d already been through this twice before.

Women killed themselves every day in the modern human world. If this new one failed me like the others… no. I wouldn’t consider it.

They had been weak. She was stronger. And even if she wasn’t, I wouldn’t let myself be disturbed.

I would not give up. I’d find her, the woman capable of this. I would force her to submit, bear an heir with her and no longer be tormented by the clock ticking over my head. The clock that counted down to my defeat.

“What’s wrong, Cazz?” the dark-haired toy whispered, coming to kneel next to me and leaning in to kiss my chest while her friend continued sucking me.

I hadn’t compelled either of them to reach for me. Yet the blonde was remarkably dedicated to her task.

But despite her talent, my thoughts were too disturbed to let me focus. We’d played late into the night, so I was sleep-deprived. And now I was… tense.

And I had things to do.

Or rather, people.

A new, weak, pathetic mate to train for pleasure.

Rage crackled through me.

“Fucking human women,” I muttered. “You’re always more trouble than you’re worth.”

Thrusting into the blonde’s mouth, ordering her not to gag—her body would obey me, even to the point of stopping her heart if I instructed it—I took a handful of the brunette’s hair and tugged her head back to bear her throat.

“Do you know why I bother?” I whispered to her.

She shook her head as best she could with the grip I had on her. She gasped as I leaned over her, pulling her head back until the tendons on her neck stood proud.

Her breath hissed in and out of her teeth and her chest rose and fell quickly. Unable to lift her head from my grip, she followed my progress with her eyes as I opened my mouth over that vein, pulsing thick, hot blood just under the surface of her flawless skin.

I latched on, sucking hard, needing to leave a mark. But I wouldn’t let her relax into the pleasure of my touch thinking there was no danger. I let my teeth graze her skin and she shuddered.

Then I kissed the skin, laving it with my tongue to soothe the pain where the beads of blood rose.

“Every time a human submits to me, my power grows,” I murmured breathlessly, the combination of the blonde’s attentions and this toy’s fear ensuring that my body was prickling with promised pleasure. I was beginning to sweat.

“I s-submit!” the brunette gasped. “I do!”

I tipped my head, staring down at her and her eyes widened further.

“You do,” I murmured, pretending to soothe her.

“I’ll always submit,” she breathed. “Always. I’m here for you, Cazz. You can trust me.”

A jolt of pleasure from the blonde’s ministrations rocked through me and my eyes closed. I tipped my forehead against the brunette’s, my breath rushing between my teeth and over her face.

“Yet, you human whelps also… confuse lust… with love…” I growled. “Every. Fucking. Time.” I dropped her hair, but whipped the hand around to close it on her throat, squeezing hard enough that her eyes bulged. “I don’t need a lover,” I hissed. “I need a fucking bitch in heat.”

She opened her mouth but no sound came out.

“I didn’t compel you, so why did you ask me what was wrong?” I snarled.

She was trying to shake her head, but I had her neck clamped in my hand, just one hair away from cutting off her air.

“Every fucking one of you decides that you have to give your heart, and then you break, and then you die. I am sick of your failure.”

I closed my eyes as the blonde redoubled her efforts and my body responded. For a moment I couldn’t speak. But then I opened my eyes and caught the terrified gaze of the brunette.

“Good thing you’re delicious,” I rasped.

The brunette gave a little sob and my orgasm detonated at the base of my spine.