The Sanguine Prince: Chapter Two

Story by DraconicXeno on SoFurry

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#35 of Story Commissions

The next part of a long story commission: Jkbscopes123 on FA: Featuring the canon backstory of his sona; Sanguine, and later on probably some canon for Xeno too! Expect updates to this as my commissions open! Thanks for commissioning me!


If there was one thing Xeno hated it was feeling like the whole world was bearing down on him to do something, yet he was really bad at doing it. As small as that world may be under the supervision of those above him, he still felt as if failure was always just one misstep away, and if one thing scared him more than ever, it was that idea. For years his life had been littered with little issues, lacking the confidence to do what was expected of his kind. One would think the ability to change his body to look like whoever he wanted would be an easy way to avoid such things, but as always, he was pretty suboptimal in that regard too.

It's not like I want to be bad, I try my best. He thought as he paced up and down the dank cell. She just expects so much, so much for family love!

Nyra, the fur-coated head of the Syndicate, was no more, her fake form replaced by the sleek, slender body of the true perpetrator. Xeno hated it, everything about how he looked under all of the disguises his kind boasted was alien and wrong. From dark, chitinous scales, spines, and venomous fangs, right to the fact he had an extra pair of eyes compared to every other dragon he'd ever seen.

And Xenna says it's for what? So we can see better? We're hardly ever out where we need to see better in pure form. The dragon's mind raced as it often did as he flopped down on the damp cobbles with a huff, glancing up at what lay cocooned in a prison of green resin before him. I should just brood him and get it over with, Xenna will be happy if we meet hive quota.

The vesper prince was still out cold, his legs and wings splayed out at his side like a star as he was pinned to the wall by the vicious green goo Xeno had secreted. Only his head, rump, and fluffy underside were exposed as he drooped and muttered in his restless sleep. Yet it was common for those bitten by the venom of a xeno-drake to be out for some time, enough time for the drake in question to fill the host with a belly full of eggs and expand their hive. Only when it came to that, Xeno was just as bad at it as he was with everything else.

At that, he glanced down between his hind legs, seeing the bulge of his ovipositor. He'd never laid a brood; he'd never had a mate. As far as he was told, love was not a thing his kind often partook in. They simply pretended to have it all, just to trick a host into the hive, where they'd stay forever, cocooned to a wall to pump out more drones.

So much for love at all. He thought with a huff, shaking off the last of the luxurious robes he'd adorned as Nyra. Do I really just want to be some parasite who makes babies?

If his sister had her way, that's all he'd be. She'd impregnated many hosts, often tending to prey on males that got too forward at the taverns around town. That was her way of justifying things, Xeno supposed it was some twisted punishment for how they'd treat her. Not that she'd pass up any prey that was so foolish as to wander into her lair. A lair that Xeno was still deeply in the midst of, as proven moments later as the barred door to the cell was flung open.

"So help me, you better be doing what you're supposed to in here or I'll stick you to the wall next!" J'risha declared as she barged into the room, wings ruffling in a fluster as she fixed her eyes on Xeno. "Oh, look who finally decided to show himself!"

Xeno wilted like a small puppy under the sharp sapphire eyes of his sister's dark blue disguise, sure she'd not be happy, just like she was every time he failed.

"What's that supposed to mean, I've been here," he squeaked, folding his hunched wings over his shoulders. "I did just what you asked, went to the tavern, and caught some prey."

The narrow slits that were J'risha's false eyes closed tight as daggers as she lashed her tail and huffed.

"In my prime form no less. You know Nyra is head of the syndicate, yet you flaunt her around like she's some two-bit whore!" She jabbed a wing at his chest. "I told you she wasn't for you."

"Oh yeah, because they listen to anyone else," Xeno reasoned, and J'risha rolled her eyes as she drew back.

Her neck arched, her wings flared, and a cyan fire rolled across her body. Like bubbling magma every blue scale writhed and ebbed, melting off her sleek form like dripping hot wax. Yet her face was hard as stone as her two eyes warped into four, her rounded snout bulge from J'risha's narrowed muzzle, and her pale horns molded into view. Xenna was smaller than her younger brother, her spines more rounded and her chitin smoother. She adopted the more feminine look often, surely to spite the males she toyed with.

Yet alpha predator or not, she was still his sister, he loved her in his own way, and he hoped she did too, no matter how much of an incompetent drone he could be. Either way, the baleful scorn of her four cyan eyes was far more intense than the previous two as the small spots along her snow-white body flickered red with anger.

"They listen because I've put years of work into those personas. J'risha, Nyra, Cinder, all mine, not yours." She listed the forms on each long, sickle-like foretalon, before abruptly turning and whipping her brother's shoulder with her tail. "You can go be some glamorous stud, or drop-dead gorgeous dragoness, that'll work just as well on these drunken fools."

"Yes, yes, I know," Xeno reasoned, rubbing his shoulder with a forepaw as he added. "But when I heard them talking about who this dragon was..." He jabbed a wing at the cocooned prince. "I couldn't just leave him, they were gonna lynch him!"

Xenna glanced at the vesper still out cold in his cocoon, all four eyes studying his furry form with far more scrutiny than Xeno could ever imagine. The self-proclaimed, male glanced between the two, before one sly look from his sister forced him to splutter.

"He's a prince, Xenna. Like... The lost prince of the night kingdom!" He was sure she couldn't be too mad at him now, yet from the way her eyes popped wide, and she looked rather flustered, he could hardly tell.

"What!?" She rounded on him fast as lightning. "You found the lost prince of Noctstiriacus!?" She asked that as if it were something impossible.

"Yeah, I guess... I thought you'd be happy about that?" Xeno responded with a shrug.

"I... I..." She glanced at the vesper, then her brother, muttering something under her breath.

Xeno tried to catch the words, but she hid her muzzle with a wing as she huffed and finally added.

"You haven't brooded him yet?" Xeno shook his head, shrinking away into his wings as she rolled her eyes.

"I... Well, no... But... I..." Despite all of the personas and facades he could present out in public, words often still failed him, and his sister snorted.

"Of course, you haven't. Fine, I'll do it myself," she declared, glancing back at her rear. "A royal womb for my eggs seems fitting."

"Since when have you cared about royalty?" Xeno asked as she rolled her hips, sleek fluids dripping from her vent as she morphed the more masculine tools she'd need.

"Since his family were backstabbing tail-holes," she growled, voice low and dangerous as Xeno cocked his head in confusion. Meanwhile, she took one look back at him and said condescendingly. "I'll explain when you're older."

Oh, like I've not heard that one before. Xeno inwardly remarked as his sister slithered over to the cocooned vesper. She always gets the prey... Though, he'll look good with a glowing blue belly, should make a nice night light.

Even so, there was still a part of him that didn't see fit to just let her take his prey. She always wanted him to be strong, just like her. Not to mention, the prince was... Not the worst-looking dragon around.

What I want to fuck him for more than just eggs? It was the least instinctive thought to ever cross his mind. Maybe I am attracted to him, we can feel that, right?

He wasn't sure, Xenna had always told him those feelings were for non-hive fools. Either way, he didn't see a way to stop his sister as her vibrant blue ovipositor slipped out, bulging with eggs.

"You know, you're going to have to brood soon, Xeno. Otherwise, they'll take inside you, and I'm not taking time off to look after your fat tail while you're broody," she muttered as she prowled up the wall.

He glanced between her and the unconscious bat. Licking his fangs as he bit his bottom lip, before blurting.

"Well, then let me have him!" Xenna's eyes swiveled to him faster than a gunshot as she hung from the wall like some pale daemon.

"You're serious, you're really gonna do it?" she asked, slinking along the roof to loom above him.

"I... I..." Xeno swallowed his anxiety, ruffled his wings, stomped a forepaw hard, and declared boldly. "Yes, I'll do it... I'll fill him until he's about to pop!"

"As if you could do that first time," she remarked with a smirk. "Then again, you must be pent up after so long."

She elegantly dribbled to the floor like hot treacle as she materialized before him, jabbing the tip of her tail at his chest as she declared.

"But you better, I..." The sound of heavy claw steps and the clatter of a commotion outside cut her off, and the two siblings glanced to the door.

"Do you have guests?" Xeno asked, as his sister's muzzle wrinkled into a snarl.

"No, I don't." She withdrew, cyan fire flashing over her body as Nyra's form melted into existence upon her. "I'll go see, but he better be full of eggs when I get back or so help me, I'll shove mine up both your tail-holes."

"Okay, okay, I will," Xeno assured, waving her down with his forepaws as he not to subtly coiled his tail around his rear.

She frowned, but nodded, slithering out the door like a deadly serpent, leaving it to creek closed behind her. The moment she was gone, Xeno turned to his prey, licking his fangs in anticipation as he rubbed a forepaw on his bulging slit.

"Okay, this is it, eggs in his butt... She does it all the time." He talked himself up as he edged closer, ovipositor flopping free of his slit as he crept up the wall. "Not because I kinda like him... No, no way, xeno-drakes don't like other dragons."

The prince's head rolled to the side, his furry muzzle twitched, and his eyes flickered open. Xeno imagined that coming face to face with some stranger while locked to a wall by hard, sticky bounds would be weird enough, but to see four eyes peering back? It was safe to assume the vesper was not going to so easily be impregnated anymore. Nonetheless, there was no time to hop into a new disguise, all the xeno-drake could do was conjure the most pleasant smile he could and lean back nervously.

"Urg, my head... Nyra... the bar... What happened to...?" Sanguine's crimson eyes flashed wide as blood moons as they fixed on Xeno, all the while the four-eyed drake could only wave a wing and mutter sheepishly.

"Hi, this must look pretty strange to you, but I assure... I'm not going to hurt..." The prince's thrashing shook his cocoon so much that Xeno's sticky paws almost lost their grip, and he was sent staggering back.

"What in the night's name are you!?" the vesper demanded, frantically glancing around as he started to pant and tug on his restraints. "What is this place... Gah, why can't I move!?"

Xeno wobbly reacquired his grip on the cocoon, shaking his head as he winced, waving a wing as he exclaimed.

"Whoa. Calm down this is..." He glanced around at the room; walls slathered in green goo. "Well, I suppose this is exactly what it looks like."

"What!?" Sanguine grunted, trying to tug free. "What is this, I can't move!?"

"It's my resin, a rapidly solidifying biological agent I can cough up," Xeno elaborated, tapping his foreclaws together. "Do you like it?"

"What, no, why would I like this!?" Sanguine retorted, his ferocious struggle continuing. "What are you!?"

"I'm a xeno-drake... Name's Xeno, unoriginal, I know. Blame my sister," he began to explain, only to almost be knocked to the floor by the prince's thrashing once more. "Stop that, you're not going to be able to break free, you'll just exhaust yourself."

"Yeah, then what, so you can eat me, monster?" He snapped and Xeno recoiled, a foreclaw pressed to his chest.

"I am not a monster!" he snapped, eyes narrowing. "I am a brood drone, loyal to my sister. Not to mention..." He jabbed a talon at the prince dismissively. "I can stomach some pretty large prey, but you're way too... Fuzzy."

"So what, you just leave me here as a decoration!?" Sanguine challenged, and Xeno rolled his eyes.

"I mean, that's what my sister considers her brood toys, yeah. But you're mine," Xeno responded.

"I belong to no one, least of all some... Four-eyed thing!" Sanguine hissed, and once more, Xeno mocked insult.

"Didn't say that when I was Nyra," he purred, prowling back from the wall and dribbling to the floor in a far less impressive manner than his sister, as the furry form of the Syndicate's leader bubbled into reality over his scales. "Would you prefer she fuck you?"

"You shape-changing liar!" the prince spat as he struggled harder, before it clearly started to wear him out. "I'll... I'll break free... and..."

"You'll what, honey? Hurt poor, little Nyra?" He ruffled his feathered wings and pouted. "That resin won't break without me, so you better just behave."

"I'll become some cum dump for a changeling slut when I'm dead." He snorted frost, yet even that seemed weakened by his prison.

"Please, my kind don't just cum. You'll have my eggs inside you... Or my sister's if we don't get on with it," he reasoned, and the disgust was clear on the vesper's face.

"What... That's... sick!" he hissed.

"No less sick than your kind and their war. I don't actually kill anyone," Xeno reasoned, and Sanguine shook his head as he added.

"Do you even know who I am? I'm not some..." Xeno lifted a wing to cut him off.

"Oh yes, I do, Prince Sanguine of Noctstiriacus. The runaway royal; after your mother was assassinated," he confirmed.

"Don't you dare speak about my mother, creep!" the prince growled dangerously, but Xeno shrugged.

"I mean, my mother was eaten, so don't act like I don't get it," he responded, then huffed. "Either way, little prince, you're mine now. Gonna give me a brood of princes and princesses."

Sanguine's head drooped, a slow breath escaping as he was all but exhausted by his struggle. He lifted his head just enough to peer at Xeno, and his captor paused.

From prince to a host to be forgotten in my hive, what a fall? He bit his bottom lip; sure he could write a tragic story about it if he'd been born as anything else. Do I really want to do this?

"Well, what are you waiting for, do it?" Sanguine asked in utter defeat.

"Do it?" Xeno cocked his head.

"Yeah, eggs, or whatever. This is all clearly an act just to get me to agree, you don't really care, same as everyone else," he sighed, and Xeno felt a deep pit of sorrow yawn in his chest.

This really is his rock bottom isn't it, he has no one? He shifted his paws, and twitched his tail. All an act, it's not really me... I...

A sigh left Xeno's fanged muzzle, and Sanguine's head perked up, ears standing tall as he stared at the drooped xeno-drake.

"I... I..." Xeno glanced at the door, sure his sister would barge in again any moment. "I can't," he finally admitted.

"Can't what, be some parasite? That's your role, you just said it!" Sanguine challenged.

"Oh, and you'd know all about fitting a role, you're a prince in a hive dungeon!" Xeno countered and the bat seemed stumped as he admitted.

"Okay, got me there." He glanced to the door. "So let me go."

"I can't do that either, my sister will kill me. You'll just have to carry her eggs like everyone else," he confessed.

"Oh, my hero." Sanguine rolled his eyes. "So, you're just a coward then, hiding behind that mask?" He nodded to Xeno's feathered wings.

"Hey, you said this form was sexy!" Xeno hissed, clutching a wing around himself like a cloak.

"Yeah, when I thought it was real!" Sanguine retorted.

"It is real, I'm real... I just..." Xeno trailed off with a sigh. "I just wish I had a reason to be more real."

"Okay then, let me go. Do something on your own for once?" the vesper insisted, but Xeno wasn't going to budge.

I can't, Xenna will kill us both! He was sure he'd end up stuffed with eggs right next to his prey. But maybe I can convince her to do something different, this one time?

It was a futile idea, he knew his sister would never agree to let prey go, royal prey most of all. Yet Sanguine was right, he had to do something for himself if he ever hoped of getting out of this dank hive.

"Look, maybe I can say something to her, but she's like... Very instinctive and..." Xeno's words trailed off as he noticed Sanguine's eyes fixed on the door, and the sound of heavy paws and shifting armor met his ears too.

That doesn't sound like Xenna? He noted, sure his sister would never wear heavy armor. It makes it too hard to shapeshift.

"What, you have guards down here too?" Sanguine asked, but Xeno shook his head.

"No, we run the town, there's no guards." He crept to the door as the sounds stopped outside and Sanguine added.

"Well, looks like you have company either way." At that, there was a loud knock on the door, as if whoever was on the other side wanted to break through and Xeno, tentatively approached, sliding open the viewing shutter.

"Hello, who's there?" he asked, peering through the narrow slit.

The corridor outside was still dark and gloomy, cobblestones dripping wet as the humid air hung over everything in a thick shroud. Yet what was not so normal was the armored soldier, his plate dark as night, studded with rubies and a golden trim. There were no guards in town, Xeno was certain. Therefore, the fact that the one outside his door was covered in damp fur, bearing fangs and ears exactly like Sanguine's, made him think twice about exactly who he'd chosen to prey on this time.

"Names are not important, citizen, I'm a soldier of Noctstiriacus, this area is under inspection by order of the King," the armored vesper stated bluntly.

"The King?" Xeno blinked in false confusion, sure the forces of Noctstiriacus hadn't captured anywhere near this area in the war. "I don't think we have a king here?"

"Watch your tone, citizen. The King is the King of all things, now, open up!" growled the guard, stomping a metal-clad foreclaw.

"Urm, okay... But what are you looking for exactly?" Xeno glanced around, spying Sanguine still cocooned to the right, the look on the prince's face one of silent concern. "There's nothing in here, and I wouldn't want to waste your time."

"That's none of your concern. You're in there for one, and I..." The guard narrowed his eyes. "Wait, don't I know you? You were at the front desk!"

Oh no, Xenna must be in this form too! Xeno winced, ruffling his feathered wings as he did his best to improvise. Come on, think how the infiltrators do it, they always have to think on their feet!

"O-oh... You must mean my twin sister, yeah, hard to tell us apart if you don't know us," the disguised drake forced, rubbing his fluffy forepaws together as the unconvinced-looking guard gave a nod down the corridor to the left.

He's signaling to someone, there must be more than one out there! Xeno noted, hearing the subtle steps of more soldiers and worrying about his sister for a moment. No, no, Xenna can take care of herself, she'll be fine. It's me I have to worry about!

"Anyway, just let me get the door for you," he muttered as if he'd not noticed what the soldiers were up to, sliding the shutter closed and falling to the floor with his back pressed to the door. "Oh, by the hive, oh dear, oh dear."

"What is it, soldiers, I recognize the tone?" Sanguine asked quietly, struggling to break free again. "Damn it, let me out or we're both going to be killed!"

Xeno pressed both forepaws to his fluffy chest, slowing his rapid breath as best he could as he glanced to the prince.

What have I done, why did I bring him down here!? He thought, mind racing as he assumed the King would do anything to find his lost son. The rabble from the tavern probably blabbed about him! Oh, I'm so stupid!

He pressed a forepaw over his face, running it down the furry features as Sanguine hissed and spat frost at the resin restraints.

"Didn't you hear me? If they're my father's guard, they'll stop at nothing to get me, they'll kill you?" he declared, before demanding. "Now, let me go!"

"Even if I did, where do we go?" Xeno asked, taking a step back from the door as he heard more sounds on the other side. "They have us trapped!"

"You're telling me you built an entire underground crime syndicate, and don't have a back door?" Sanguine asked, and Xeno bit his bottom lip, ears folded as he responded.

"Well, no. There's a way out through the caverns below, but it's half-flooded, and I don't know where it comes out. It's Xenna's secret!" There was a shunt on the other side of the door, and the disguised drake hopped back in alarm. "Maybe they'll just take you?"

"And kill you by association, now let me go!?" Sanguine repeated as Xeno glanced between him and the door. "Just trust me, you're not going to get out of this without me!"

"A-and what about my sister!?" Xeno demanded as he reluctantly slinked over. "They'll kill her too!"

"Well, let's just hope the way you talk about her holds true, I feel like she'll handle herself!" the prince retorted, before insisting he be freed once more.

He's not even met Xenna, and he knows she's better than me at everything! He thought with a weary sigh, before nodding.

"Okay, okay, fine. But what about the guards outside!?" he asked, and the prince smirked.

"Leave them to me," he assured as Xeno reluctantly started to bite and gnaw at the resin bonds, his saliva melting them like hot butter.

Oh, I hope I don't regret... The moment he was free, the prince lunged at Xeno, tackling the struggling drake under his forepaws and pinning him down.

"Gah, okay, I'd be mad if I were you too, but..." His whimpering was cut off as Sanguine shoved a forepaw over his muzzle and hissed.

"Shut up, I'll get you back for this little stunt later, right now just listen to me!" Xeno blinked as the vesper glanced around.

"You know what the royal Noctstiriacus family looks like, right?" he asked, and vaguely recalling some portraits they'd stolen over the years, Xeno nodded.

"Yeah, kind of," he mumbled through the prince's forepaw, and at that, Sanguine withdrew and flexed his wings.

"Good, make yourself look like my sister then," he asked, and Xeno cocked his head as there was a loud slam on the door, chains, and locks rattling.

"Y-your sister, how does that help?" the shapeshifter asked in confusion, but Sanguine just shot him a stern look, demanding he trust him. "Okay, okay."

Hard to trust someone who admits they're out to get revenge on me. He thought, yet with no time to lose, he rolled his body, arching his spine and flaring his wings.

Green fire bubbled and boiled, melting away the form of Nyra. Tan fur curled and coiled into a midnight black coat, his ears warped and shifted into vast replicas of Sanguine's, and his fangs poked free once more. The prince took one look at the new form and the urgency in his eyes faded for a second. Xeno meanwhile, shifted and ruffled, feeling like the most undignified princess ever.

Wow, looks like he's seen a ghost. He noted, looking at the bewildered prince, before pressing a forepaw to his throat. Oh no, her voice!

"I don't know what her voice sounds like," he hissed under his breath, and for a moment there seemed to be a flaw in Sanguine's plan as the prince appeared unsure.

Oh no, this is going wrong already! He thought, as with another shove the door cracked and splintered.

Then his ears perked, his eyes appearing to widen with an idea as he rounded on his false sister.

"Just talk as a girl, but like you've just been choaked, real horse, they'll hardly tell," he declared, and Xeno cocked his head.

"Why in the Hive's name would I do...?" The vesper pinned his fake counterpart to the cobbles and pressed a forepaw to her throat in mock assault as Xeno choked out. "Gah... Too rough!"

"Because they're gonna believe you're choaking!" Sanguine roared, muzzle wrinkled into a snarl as the door erupted inward in a shower of splinters and loose chains, and three very large, yet very shocked vesper soldiers barged in. "It's no less than you deserve for what you've done to me, sister!"