FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

An anonymous commission.

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The stink of the slave pens had been an assault on her senses when she was first brought in, but Saiya's nose had grown accustomed to the miasma of too many bodies being kept in too small a space, not to mention the rusty tang of blood rising from the bodies of those deemed unruly or disobedient enough to deserve to be put to the lash. The Kosith were quick to punish but hesitated to damage those of their captives who they believed would be worth more without scars. The lioness knew she was such a one, so her own quiet defiance had been punished with pain and humiliation that didn't mar her body.

And it was that body that was now on display as she stood naked in a line with a dozen girls and women of various species. The Kos matron wasn't wearing her best dress while conducting business in such a filthy place but the garment and her jewelry were still costly enough to convey her wealth, whereas her importance was indicated by her haughty look and the proud way she carried herself. Her nose was very much not used to the stink of a slave market, and as such a furtive marten trailing after her made sure to gently wave a fan woven with fragrant herbs meant to mask the stench of the people she was here to buy. The eyes of the wolf-woman were keen and dispassionate, staring at the bodies of slaves who dare not meet her gaze for fear of punishment. The other females cast their eyes down in submission but Saiya made it a point to gaze above the skyline, avoiding the Kos woman's eyes as she was instructed but looking prouder than the rest of the women in the line. The proudest cow in the pen... she thought bitterly.

"This one looks promising..." the Kos said, finally breaking her silence, if one didn't count hums and murmurs.

"Ahh, you have a discerning eye, matron!" the slave master said, fawning at a respectful distance, possibly because the fan that could deal with the stink of a slave pen would be of little use against the cloying perfume wafting off him. "A Hatar captured in the recent raid. Just observe the symmetry of this form, the firm curves, the muscles of a dancer..."

"Dancer? Surely you mean 'killer'? Weren't all those females warriors? I'm not here looking for a gladiator, you know..." the Kos said, but she didn't move on to the next woman in line.

"Yes matron, some sort of backwood militant order... but I assure you the rumors of these fighters has been greatly exaggerated." the salesman insisted.

"Greatly? I've heard about how many of these were sold by the legates to pay the widows' pensions. She's of little use to me if I have to keep her on a chain like a rabid dog..."

"I swear on my life matron, every slave in here has been broken and taught their place. Whatever she was before she came to me she will leave here as docile as a kitten!"

"It is a curious salesman who brags about selling broken goods. You - turn around, let's see your back..." the Kos woman said, sucking her teeth at the sight of the thin lines marring the fur on the lioness' back. Noble or no, you haggle like a spinster at a fish stall... Saiya thought to herself.

"Yes, some minors scaring is... unavoidable. We take care but you know what soldiers are like. But you know my good lady that the slaves never look their best when taken from a pen. I assure you once she's washed this fur - a fine coat, I'm sure you'll agree- will spread out and cover any unsightly marks. But just look at the curve of those buttocks, the firmness of her flesh... whose eyes would be drawn to fading scars?"

"Firm flesh bordering on hard... but the best one you have. So how much are you asking for her?" the Kos said with about as much enthusiasm as if she were buying a sack of grain.

"For you matron, no more than six hundred dhall" the slave trader said, his voice as sweet as honey as he named the price in the Kosith silver coinage.

"I see you've worked on your sense of humor since last we met, for that price couldn't possibly have been serious..."

"Ahhh, as you say madam... perhaps five hundred would be more reasonable?" he said, sensing a sale as the Kos matron circled Saiya, casting a critical eye on her. "If you will matron, observe that bust. As nubile a form as you could find, isn't it?"

"I should think so..." the lupine lady said in a critical tone, hefting one of the lioness' breasts as if it was a piece of fruit from a salesman's stall. "But not maidenly, even though your price would suggest a fresh virgin. This one's a mother at least once over."

"You wound me, honorable matron! The virgins went fast to the brothel owners, and I assure you I took a fat purse of auri for each one. Ahhh, but those buyers were commoners and I always have an easy time bargaining with them. But before you matron I am helpless, so much that I'm willing to let this one go for four-hundred and fifty dhall. She has yet to go into heat, but as you have noticed she is fertile, and if you take her I can provide a good Hatar stud for only a symbolic fee..."

"That will not be necessary. I have no desire to breed her and considering there will be no cubs to offset the cost, I'm sure you'll agree that four hundred dhall would be a most generous price." she said, the tone of her voice making it clear that she was the one demonstrating generosity.

*******

Saiya's new fate had been sealed with clinks. First with the clinks of sixteen gold auri, the equivalent of four hundred silver dhall and apparently the equivalent of one Hatar. Then it was the clink of chains as she was manacled and hobbled before being forced to follow her new mistress on a leash. The irons had been the only thing she wore while walking to the mansion of her new owner, and Saiya wasn't sure if the Kos matron had simply been inconsiderate of her new slaves modesty or if she'd wanted to show off her new purchase to the gawking crowd. Once they got there the feline was bathed thoroughly, brushed scrubbed and rinsed behind the house like she was a dog too messy to allow inside until he was washed. She was then brought to her new mistress who circled her several times before deigning to address her.

"You'll do. Do you speak any Kosith? You seem to understand it well enough?" the matron asked.

"Well enough, mistress."

"Ughh, with an atrocious accent. Fortunately you weren't bought for conversation. I purchased you as a present for my son, Lucian. It's his birthday today, and in the evening we will celebrate the day he becomes a man. Unfortunately my son spends too much time looking at scrolls and not enough looking at girls so he'll need a bit of a push if he is to actually become a man. I will present you as my gift to him later this evening, his personal slave to serve him in any way he desires, even if he has trouble acting on his desires. To be blunt, I'll expect you to bed him this very night. His first taste should serve to whet his appetite and from then on I'll expect you to let him have you any way he desires. He is a handsome young man and probably gentler than a savage such as yourself deserves. I hope you appreciate what an easy life you will lead here - serving the pleasure of one noble-born youth instead of being chained to the bed of some whorehouse?"

"Yes, mistress." Saiya replied, her voice steady and dispassionate.

"Good. Because if you fail to make a man of my son I assure you I will sell you off. And will ask for a lot less than four hundred silvers..."

*******

Lucian was relieved when the last in a stream of well-dressed guests was announced, his muzzle cramping from the polite grin he'd held while welcoming every visitor and thanking them for the pleasure of their company. It wasn't his first birthday celebration, of course, but it was his first one as a man rather than a boy. Every other fete had been thrown by his mother in his honor and the Kos matron had the odious duty of playing hostess while the person whose birth was being celebrated was more or less a decoration. Of course, playing hostess had never been a hardship for the woman who'd ran a wealthy and venerable household for almost as long as he could remember. The young wolf had dim recollections of his distant and formal father, and he sometimes wondered just how well he knew the woman who'd raised him.

The lady Julia was even now corralling those guests he'd welcomed, ushering them from the spacious atrium into the more welcoming environment that was their courtyard garden. Putting names to faces had been a chore for the pup-turned-man who - while excelling at studies - always had trouble with the little social niceties that seemed to come so easily to the other nobles. His mother not only knew everyone under their roof but could and did inquire after children and relatives, and kept a catalogue of rumors concerning each guest, from the true ones she hoarded and the false ones she propagated. She insisted it was a skill he needed to start cultivating, because now that he was a man grown the next milestone would be his investiture - the handing over of their household's affairs into his hands. Mother insisted he should be well prepared for it, no doubt concerned what may come of her intrigues and schemes once they fell into the hands of her kind and trusting son.

"Well then pater, you seem to have run out of dignified guests to greet. Does that mean you have time to waste on scoundrels such as us?" asked Ticius, a thoroughly irresponsible young Kos but a good enough friend to Lucian to recognize just how drained the duties of a host had left him. And while most of the guests flitted around the lantern-lit courtyard with its night blossoms and tinkling fountains chatting as they accepted food or drink from the trays of attentive slaves, Lucian stuck to an informal tradition and settled down at a table with a dozen of his peers. Noble children were allowed wine at affairs such as this one, but only as much as their parents permitted. But all those at the table were young _men_or were to become ones in this year, and as such were allowed to drink their fill, usually to excess in the belief that a truly vicious hangover was an important and effective lesson in overindulging. Bowls of olives and savories smelling of fish and garlic covered the table, but it was the brass decanters kept full of excellent vintages that the young men most often reached for. The loud and boisterous company of the other young nobles was normally something Lucian enjoyed in small doses, but the drunken rowdy lot seemed a better option than the mix of forced politeness, hushed gossip and social intrigue that marked the conversation of the more mature guests.

A few hours Lucian's revelry was interrupted as he took up a seat of honor while the guests filed past, offering him congratulations on becoming a man along with appropriate gifts. Those who knew him had brought tomes and scrolls and those who didn't brought gold, and when everyone had filed past it was his mother smiling serenely in front of him. When she ordered his gift brought in he wondered just how far overboard the lupine matriarch had gone. He wasn't naive and knew that this was for the guests' benefit as much as his - a show of wealth as well as her esteem for her only child and heir. And when her mother's handmaid entered the garden leading his gift Lucian stared in surprise along with everyone assembled. His mother's gift wasn't a something, but rather a someone.

"Lucian, my dear, on this eve you become a man, and to nurture your masculine instincts I present you with this lovely creature to serve you personally any way you see fit." she said, and even without her innuendo it was clear the lioness standing calmly as the noble-born Kosith gawked at her was meant as a bed slave.

The two wisps of sheer linen she wore hid nothing in the light of lamps and lanterns - not the full, supple flesh under it not the hints of bare flesh in tawny fur shining in shades of copper and gold in the warm light. Lucian had grown up around slaves, and his family certainly owned many, but this was the first one that would serve him personally, and one look at the Hatar made it clear that she hadn't been purchased to cook and clean. Hatar slaves were uncommon, but the female in front of him was not just any Hatar. Her figure, her posture and the dignified and not quite defiant way she held her ground even while she was leered at by every male in the room left little doubt that this was one of the warrior-women captured in the recent raid in the lions' territory. It was only when eyes turned from the statuesque feline to him that he realzied he'd been staring slack-jawed, mute when he was expected to express his gratitude.

"T-thank you mother, you are very... generous." he said, suddenly aware that while most eyes were on the statuesque feline, a few hadn't failed to notice his slack-jawed expression.

"A princely gift! She'll need a good name, a slave as pretty as this..." said an elderly voice, the careful and slow enunciation hinting that the speaker had indulged liberally in the fine wines being decanted. All eyes turned to Lucian, and after an expectant silence the boy finally found his wits and his voice.

"Esha..." he said, grasping for a name that he'd read of recently in his study of history, the founder of some long gone city-state from across the seas. "Thank you once again mother, for such a fine gift."

"I am glad you approve. She will be waiting in your chambers..." the lupine matron said, gesturing to her handmaiden to lead the feline away. After she was gone she was forgotten by most of the guests, apart from the young men sharing his table.

"By the Gods and Goddesses! Did you all see that?" asked Imris. The Kos was the loudest and most obnoxious of the group, but the sight of the Hatar seemed to have awed him into relative respectability.

"We all saw it Imris..." Ticius replied.

"You know what I got from my parents when I became a man? Tunics!" the Kos insisted, draining another glass of wine.

"They were pure silk. And anyway, you're the third youngest in your family. Lucian is his mother's one and only child..."

"Fine so he gets a bedslave and I don't... but did you see that cat? She must be from that new lot that came in... some heathen priestesses or some such. Lucian, would you mind if we traded places, just for tonight? You can find out what it feels like to wear silken tunics, and I can..."

"...stop right there. Lucian had waited long enough to become a man, and now that he has a chance to take that step with that glorious creature you want to step in? Just drop the subject, don't make our host throw you out..." one of the others said and thankfully the conversation strayed from the subject of the newly bought Hatar, even if Lucian's thoughts didn't.

*******

By longstanding tradition, fetes finish by midnight and the celebration of Lucian's adulthood was no exception. The young Kos had seen his guests off in a much less formal atmosphere since the wine had been flowing all evening and most of the gathered nobility was too fatigued and inebriated to mind the proprieties. Most of his friends on the other hand were quite clearly drunk and had left him with good wishes on the rest of his night, and in the case of Imris some very specific and unwelcome advice on how to go about it.

The young wolf had imbibed more than usual, but as he made his way back to his chambers anxiety seemed to flush the haze of wine from his mind, leaving him a fidgeting mess rather than a staggering drunk by the time he reached the door of his room. He tried to tell himself that he was being foolish - the woman he knew was waiting behind the door was his slave, his property. She was there to serve him, not judge him and if anyone should feel ill at ease at what was about to happen it should surely be her.

It had made so much sense, but when he opened the door to find the lioness standing by his bed, her tawny fur bare save for the two strips of sheer linen and accentuated by the light of a single oil lamp, the idea fell apart. The Hatar was calm and collected, her yellow eyes settling on his own and filling with the same unease he'd just barely suppressed a moment ago. So it was that the bookish young man who considered his keen intellect to be his greatest strength found himself dumbstruck and standing in the doorway like some befuddled simpleton.

"Master." The lioness said, a pleasant voice in spite of the flat tone the word was uttered in. It showed no awe or deference, but also no sneering defiance or suppressed hatred. It was a simple acknowledgement of their positions and the situation they found themselves in.

Lucian was eager under the fear and unease. The body of the feline was a thing of beauty, and the scraps of linen failed to hide the swell of her breasts or the curve of her hip. The warm light of the burning taper was bathing the left side of the Hatar and suddenly Lucian was struck by the memory of sunsets at his family's country estate. The terrace commanded a breathtaking view of the mountains, and he remembered how one peak would look as the sunk sank at the western horizon - most of it shrouded in shades of deep twilight while one side blazed defiantly with the warm colors of the dying day. The lioness standing behind his bed looked no less majestic, and no less imposing...

"I..ahh... I hope you haven't been waiting too long..." the Kos said, a phrase he'd uttered out of polite habit before realizing how stupid it sounded. This woman was hardly waiting with anticipation for his arrival, knowing what would be expected of her.

"I am here to wait on your pleasure master, for as long as it may take..." the feline said, her calm seeming to only make Lucian feel more awkward. His brain seemed to fail him when he had dire need of it and the training his mother installed in him took over, his mouth forming the polite, routine phrases without involving him in it.

"What... what is your name?"

"Esha, master. Surely you haven't forgotten?" the feline replied in a cold quip, throwing the name he'd given her earlier that night back at him.

"Ahh, yes. I'm sorry it's just that... it's my first time..."

"...with a Hatar?" the lioness asked, finishing his sentence after Lucian had trailed off, leaving an uncomfortable silence between them.

"No, just... my first time." he said, and he wondered if the fact that the Hatari female's only response was an arched eyebrow was encouraging.

Truth be told, most young men of his station were expected to lose their virginity on a slave much earlier. Young or mature, there was never a lack of females who had to obey whatever the young master of the house told them to do, including letting a horny boy get between their legs. The idea of being with a woman who couldn't turn him down had never appealed to Lucian, and his mother didn't protest much about him being a virgin boy, but seemed to think that it wasn't suitable to be a virgin man, hence the gift even now starting expectantly at him.

"Should I be... honored?" the lioness asked, bringing his thought back to the woman standing in front of him, wearing very little apart from lamplight.

"M-more like... patient." Lucian said, hating how pathetic he sounded.

Slave or not, he _wanted_this woman. The confidence she radiated even in her circumstances fascinated him, and the sight of her stirred both his lust and his imagination. He couldn't string a sentence together because he was trying to imagine what that firm body would feel like under his palms, what the lioness would smell and taste like and if passion would melt this icy woman or if the act of mating would awaken the strength and fierceness he could see under the veneer of docility.

Lucian wasn't entirely ignorant about sex. Most of his friends had done this years ago and a few of them had gone into great detail when recounting their exploits. Allowing for poetic exaggeration, the young wolf had a good idea of what to do, but that didn't stop his hands from trembling as he laid one of them on a supple leonine mound, his ears twitching at the sensation of the Hatar's bare areola against his paw pad. He wanted nothing more than to let his fingers sink into the lush mound, and a part of him knew there was nothing stopping him from taking whatever he wanted. This woman was his to do with as he pleased, and she seemed to understand that. Better than he did. But as obedient as she was there was something in those eyes and her posture that seemed to make him doubt that he was the dominant here. Even when the lioness parted her toned legs and he awkwardly slipped between them he didn't feel like he was in power.

For one, he had little illusions that he was Esha's first. Although firm-fleshed and exquisitely toned her body gave little signs that she'd mated before and had a cub at least once. While nubile there was nothing maidenly about her, and the fact that she knew what he should be doing and he didn't did little to steel the young man's nerves. Several inches of his shaft were slipping out as he gently groped the lioness' breast, her eyes only occasionally glancing down at the flash of rosy-red in the creamy fur of his belly and crotch. No reaction in those eyes, leaving Lucian to wonder what sort of males had this lioness chosen when she still had the freedom to? Had her eyes been drawn to young and eager ones, or mature and experienced males? Would she lay back and let her mates take the lead, or would she pounce on them and take what her body desired. The subtle play of muscle under her fur was evident when one looked for it and Lucian doubted the warrior-feline would have had much trouble dominating most males. Certainly him...

He tried to keep that notion out of his mind as he laid himself across that body, firm in some places and thrillingly soft in others. He considered stealing a kiss form the lioness, but the fact that he was having a hard enough time breathing deterred him. He shifted his hips awkwardly, his shaft mashing against the feline's mound until he pulled back far enough for the tapered tip to fall between her legs. He could feel the heat of her, the thrill of it temporarily clearing the awkward fear from his mind as Lucian braced himself, ready to take the first proper step into manhood. The first thrust poked a smooth-skinned leonine labia, but his next one managed to slip between those folds, if barely. She wasn't wet like some of his friends had mentioned girls getting in this situation, but the heat of the silk-soft flesh was a thrill like nothing the Kos had ever imagined.

His body moved driven by instinct and need which proved less useful than experience or muscle-memory. The thrust was wild and he felt the tip slip along bare flesh and fur as he completely missed his mark. When he mustered the courage and looked at the lioness face the same cold expression drained what masculine confidence he had. This woman didn't want him, she was just waiting for him to take what he wanted. She wasn't a maiden who felt as awkward as he was, she wasn't a older woman attracted to him and willing to be patient... While he was making his way to his room he'd dared imagine himself climbing on top of the lioness, spreading her legs and sliding in and thrusting madly until he was spent. Not exactly romantic, but at least possessed of some masculine dignity. And when he positioned himself once again only to find his shaft had slipped almost all the way back into his sheath, the young Kos gave in to humiliation.

"I... I think I've drank a little too much to... uh... manage..." he said awkwardly as he rolled to the side of the lioness, hoping to blame the wine even though anxiety had flushed the drunken haze from his mind. The Hatar woman rose to her elbows and regarded him without relief or disappointment, just the same steady feline gaze she always seemed to wear.

"Very well master..." she said, and when she began to rise Lucian was sure she would retire to the tiny room adjoining his chambers.

He was surprised to instead see a shapely leg flash gold in the warm lamplight as the nimble feline moved to straddle him. Her gaze remained dispassionate but it had a different effect now that he was under the woman with those golden eyes looking down on him. The speed and grace with which she'd moved had caught him off guard and he felt his pulse quicken once he realized that he was very much at the mercy of the enslaved warrior-woman. Her hands came to rest on his chest but no claws showed themselves, the full feline breasts looking even more tantalizing now that they were pressed between the toned arms of the lioness. She was straddling his hips and Lucian became aware of the heat of her bare sex against his sheath even before she started grinding it against him, letting her weight rest on him as she began to swivel those shapely hips.

There was still no passion to what she was doing but the sight of her body in motion captured the young wolf's attention. Her shoulders were set as she leaned over him, arching and flexing her back as she rubbed her sex along his in a steady, tireless rhythm. His body reacted and something began to drive back the effects of both wine and awkwardness as his shaft began to slide out and the leonine slit pressed against something much more sensitive than his furry sheath. The touch of skin on skin was electric as her cleft splayed around him, the length throbbing as it was polished by the silken surface of the lion-woman's cunny.

Lucian could feel and see his chest rise and fall under the Hatar's palms and soon enough he could catch a glimpse of his tip staring back at him as the lioness continued to spread either his mess or her own over his emerging length. His hands remained at his sides, each paw tightened around a fistful of bed sheet as he surrendered to the woman on top of him. The hard pressure of the silken sex against him felt amazing, but the more she ground her slit against him the more desperate he was to feel what it would feel like to enter this amazing body his eyes were glued to. He wasn't sure if the lioness intended to let him, and so dumb-struck was he that it didn't even occur to him that the body of this woman was his property and that the depths of that silken sex were his for the asking.

He'd become convinced the Hatar was just going to tease him until he made a mess of himself when the lioness raised her hips, sparing his fully erect shaft no more than a glance as she grasped the tip and guided it between her legs. Lucian felt his claws pierce the bedding as she drove her hips down and took him easily in one smooth stroke, letting his still small knot slide in along with the rest of his shaft and stopping only when the soft fuzz around the opening of his sheath was pressed against the smooth pink folds now splayed around him. The lioness made no sound, at least nothing he could hear over his own groan, his vision of her lamp-light body blurring for a second as his eyes lost focus. He simply had none to spare, all of it centered on the sensation of the velvety grip her body had on his erection, the trapped length throbbing as every little movement caused the walls of the feline sex to caress the smooth red surface of his member.

A somewhat curious look passed over the Hatar's face, and Lucian could only imagine what he looked like under her, lost amid the final remnants of his virginity. The experience seemed to be less than profound for the lioness who gave a few experimental swivels of her generous hips, each one drawing gasps from the young man laying prostrate under her. Still Lucian didn't miss the way that firm feline belly quivered, the ripples of fine muscles that he could feel now that he was buried in the female as deep as he could be. His eyes drifted back to the tear-drop breasts of the graceful feline, and he wasn't sure if the brown nipples had been quite so pointy a few moments before. He doubted that in the best of circumstances he could have satisfied a woman like this on his first try, but he desperately wanted to think that she was finding some pleasure in the young lupine body under her.

The Kos had barely gotten his breath back when the lioness began to move and robbed him of it once again. She undulated her entire body, arching her back as she slid forward, thrusting those firm mounds closer to the awestruck wolf's face before drawing back and engulfing his cock again, the smooth red length sinking effortlessly into a feline sex that was becoming messier with every stroke. There wasn't any passion to what the lioness was doing, that was much clear, but there was a skill that made the young Kos shudder at the thought of what this woman was like when lost to need and lust.

Her eyes glittered in the low light of the lone taper and he had little doubt she could see him as clear as in daylight. For him the lioness seemed to almost disappear when she slid back onto his shaft into deeper shadow, only to emerge like a living sun when she slid forth and entered the small circle of warm lamplight, the fur he knew would mimic the colors of desert soil and grasses looking closer to gold and copper, all but the bare brown skin of the tip of each supple breast. At first it was the caress of her walls on his shaft that made stars drift at the corners of the young wolf's vision, but as the lioness rode him his knot began to swell, and soon enough the way the feline folds tugged it whenever she slid off him were what made his toes curl. His friends who'd passed this milestone some time ago had talked at length and often great detail about knotting the girls and women of their households, and as the lioness rose him he wondered if and how soon his knot would swell up enough to stay inside the feline sex. A look down showed him an already impressive bulge, enough to make the Hatar's folds dimple when she pushed herself down and back against him. He wasn't sure if she'd let him tie, but he had no doubt that it was her choice to make at this point.

When her next push back failed to make the mass slip past the now soaked folds he was sure it was too late, but the lioness sitting on his lap had other ideas. He could see her jaw set just before she slammed her hips down, barely even wincing as the engorged knot disappeared, leaving the wet folds distended as the knot grew even bigger now that it was caught in the silken vise that was the Hatar's sex. Lucian had been hoping the feline's cold disposition would melt at some point, but the sensation of her slick cunny straining around him was pushing him past the point of no return, and the lioness' face was still as spartan as it was beautiful. The Hatar leaned forward, her palms on either side of his head as she leaned over him, showing no sign of either pleasure or pain as her sex strained around him.

Lucian's breath left his lungs in a sharp, shuddering exhale at the same time his seed left the tip of his shaft, making him wonder how long he'd been holding it for. In the dim light and Lucian's dimmed mind everything but the face and body of the feline seemed to fade to black, leaving the young wolf gasping as those golden eyes focused on him, showing no passion even as the feline felt him twitch inside her, pumping stream after warm stream of lupine seed. For the first time this evening all awkwardness and tension drained from the youth, leaving him feeling giddy to the point of delirium. He tried to lift himself onto his elbows, suddenly struck with an urge to kiss the lioness he was tied with, and when she grabbed the back of his head for a moment he was sure that she had the same thing in mind.

That was why he was surprised to find his neck being bent and his muzzle and face pushed between the swaying breasts of the lioness. After an evening spent around perfumed women - Kos matriarchs and their daughters all - it was a relief to smell no trace of perfume on the tawny fur covering the heavy mounds. The lioness had been bathed thoroughly and the scent of her was clean, warm and thrilling as it engulfed him as surely as her sex engulfed his still throbbing member. He heart was somewhere inches from his face and he wondered if he'd made it beat any faster, anything like the way she'd made his heart race. It was still thumping wildly in his chest, its pulse echoed by the length of lupine flesh buried firmly between the feline's toned legs. She held him like that, silent as his breathing returned to normal, no doubt feeling every huff of breath against the chest his face bas buried in. When he met her eyes again he was stunned by the fact that her gaze hadn't changed. He felt like his mind had been shattered and pieced back together in the span of few heartbeats but the Hatar was still calm and collected, even as her womb took the last of what he had to give.

Dutifully she waited until the throbbing of his shaft calmed before straightening her back and letting his head fall back on his pillow. His nose and mind was still filled with the scent of those magnificent breasts that seemed to be rising and falling more prominently on the lioness' powerful chest, whether from exertion or some hidden passion, he wasn't sure. A hand slipped between her legs and Lucian tried to find some words, to think of something appropriate to say as she spread her slippery folds as wide as she could before lifting her hips and slipping off his still swollen knot. The sensation made him writhe, his eyes barely catching a small squirt of thin white seed as the lioness slowly slid off the glistening red length. As his tip slipped out, she pressed her hand to her sex, sensible enough to consider the mess his seed would make of the fine linens of his bed, or more likely who would be blamed for making it. It was a sour little thought in a moment as profound as this, and as the lioness rose and turned to leave, Lucian managed to find something to say as the day's exertions took their toll.

"T-thank you..." he said, the lioness turning around to look at him, almost surprised by the trite words.

"You're welcome, master." she replied in the same dispassionate tone before leaning over and blowing out the flickering taper, plunging both the room and the young Kos' mind into silent darkness.

*******

When Lucian awoke he found his new Hatar already up and waiting patiently by his bedside. He'd never had a slave serving him personally and it would take some getting used to. For one, getting startled by a scantily-clad woman standing next to his bed would become quite embarrassing in the long run if he didn't get a grip on his reflexes. The lioness made no mention of last night and had already brought in a washbasin and a jug full of fresh spring water. After he'd washed his face she helped him dress and followed him to the dining room where she personally served him his morning meal, all with a quiet efficiency.

After that the young Kos went back to his room, his head clear enough from last night to resume his studies, and even though he wasn't sure what the Hatar should be doing while he sat and read, he'd assumed she would leave the room on some business or other. Instead the lioness merely settled down next to his desk, her legs folded and her hand resting in her lap. The cat's golden eyes were closed, but the deep, measure breaths made it clear she wasn't asleep. They also made the young Kos keenly aware of the woman's presence, and the sight of her impressive chest bound in nothing but thin linen rising and falling did little to help him concentrate.

"I... uhh... I'll probably be at this for a while." He stammered out, breaking a silence marred only by the Hatar's steady breathing.

"As you will, master." The feline replied, eyes still closed as she took another deep breath.

"Only I thought it must be terribly boring just... waiting around for someone to ask for something." He ventured. There wasn't really much in the way of entertainment a slave would be allowed, but he still felt a need to suggest it.

"I'm taking the opportunity to meditate, master."

"What... what is that?" Lucian asked, his curiosity peaked enough to drive away the awkwardness he still felt around this strange female.

"It is a discipline that serves to bring the mind into focus, of sharpening one's awareness and purging it of distractions and unease." The lioness said. She might have hoped that the explanation would satisfy the young Kos, but the scroll he'd been studying was almost forgotten as this raised fresh questions in Lucian's curious mind.

"Is it... is it part of your religion?" he asked, and the lioness first response was to open her eyes and cock one eyebrow. She seemed to mull over her response, but could tell that his interest was genuine.

"It is not a form of worship in of itself, but it was part of life back... back in the temple. Those in service to Ishtra were expected to keep their minds as strong as their bodies."

"You were something like a priestess?" he asked.

"I was. Master." Came the response, calm but clipped and carrying a reminder of what the feline was now.

"So your... goddess, was it? You no longer revere her?"

"What makes you say that?" came the question, again with the same control that seemed in a way more intimidating than anger our outrage.

"Well after what happened to your temple. The other priestesses. Do you not feel... let down?" he asked, and the lioness took another deep breath before answering.

"We do not believe that Ishtra is all-powerful, that she holds the world in the palm of her hand. We know full well that there is harshness and cruelty in it, and that our Goddess can but teach us and guide us so that we might be strong enough to face the dangers that may befall us." She said, taking another breath before continuing. "My sisterhood had... failed. We had grown proud of our valor and our skill, confident of besting most any foe on the field of valor. We were the bulwark, the obstacle upon which conquerors would break their armies against as they tried to sweep over our people's lands, driven by the hunger for pastures, fertile fields and hunting grounds. Never had we imagined we might become prey ourselves, caught for the value our bodies had in a distant slave market." She said, her tone still level even though Lucian's mouth had gone dry.

"I believe my sisters and I are paying a price for our pride. The fortunate ones paid it with their lives on the battlefield. My kind hold suicide as the greatest sin, so the rest of us must endure along this humiliating and painful path, for Ishtra waits for us at the end of it. Why would you think I would stray form that path now, master?" she said, and Lucian nodded, understanding how childish his question was.

"So could you teach me meditation?" he said, fascinated by the strength and confidence of this woman past his usual curiosity.

"If you wish. Sit in front of me with your legs crossed and your hands in your lap. Close your eyes and try to clear your mind. This will take a while and the first lesson on this path will be the cultivation of deep patience. Concentrating on a repetitive sound can help, so for now try and breathe the same time I do - in through your nose and exhale through your mouth..." she said, watching as her master obeyed her. He seemed to be doing his best, but she noticed his eyes cracking every time she inhaled, the glimpse of her swelling chest proving too tempting a sight.

"The second hardest lesson is learning to ignore distractions..."

*******

To her distress and shame, Saiya found herself settling into her role as a personal slave to a well-born young Kos easily enough. It was -as promised- an easy life, or at least compared to what had befallen most of her sisters. It was a step-up from the slave pens at least, especially when it came to bathing. Since she was expected to be her young master's bedmate she was encouraged to wash often, as well as to help Lucian bathe. The Kosith were very keen on hot, spring-fed baths, and under the mansion she was serving in lay a stone-tiled steam-filled bathhouse for the convenience of its noble residents and their guests. After accompanying Lucian she was surprised when the young Kos invited her into the small pool with him, even though she understood that communal bathing was commonplace in Kosith society, even with people of the opposite sex.

Invitations like that were seldom extended to slaves, but the steam had a smell of minerals and sulfur and the lure of a hot, soothing soak was a temptation the lioness didn't wish to refuse. They sat in silence, the heat of the pool relaxing their muscles as fur and skin soaked in the healthful water. The sat opposite each other and Saiya could tell her young master wasn't having as relaxing a time as he might have if she weren't sharing his bath. The water was yellowish and the steam rising form the pool hid much of her but the young wolf still cast nervous yet hungry glances her way. The lioness wished he'd just come over and take what he wanted, but the young wolf hadn't stirred from his sunken bench as they soaked in silence.

After they were done they emerged on a small terrace with tall hedge guaranteeing the privacy of bathers who emerged naked from the steam-filled bathhouse. They each took a woven grass mat and spread it over stone tiles baked by the sun, laying down and letting the mid-day sun dry their fur. The hard hot stone under her felt perfect for the lioness after her muscles had gone slack in the bath, but she was surprised that the wolf next to her seemed to be enjoying the firm and unyielding surface as much as she was, both of them laying face-down with their heads resting on folded arms. It was only when they both turned to lie on their backs that the young Kos seemed to desire something soft...

"May... may I touch you?" the young male asked, his voice awed as he drank in the sight of her body drinking in the sunlight.

"I am your slave, master. You may do with me as you please..." Saiya replied in a flat tone. This boy was frustrating her with his awkward politeness, a farce when they both knew he could take her any time and any way he wanted. The Kosith respected their own females but extended no such courtesy to their slaves, and so far she'd never seen a Kos show any regard for a female he desired. Tears, wails and pleas didn't make them hesitate to sate their lusts, so why was this one stuttering as he asked permission she couldn't deny him?

Her tone wasn't enough to discourage the wolf and soon enough he was kneeling beside her, a look of blank awe on his face as he carefully laid his hands on her still damp for and the firm flesh under it. He trailed his trembling paws over her belly, letting one slide along her hip and down a long, shapely leg. There was something hesitant about his touch, almost as if he expected her to balk or cry out...

Or to moan...

It was a random thought but as she studied his face it seemed more and more likely. He was hoping trying to see if touching some spot in some way would arouse her. Growing up in a sisterhood Saiya had no real contact with adolescent males, but she wasn't entirely ignorant about awkward touches of clueless youths. She'd seen this behavior in girls troubled by first stirrings womanly needs, and had never expected to see it in the face and hands of a male old enough to be considered a man, albeit just barely. He continued to touch her gently and awkwardly, accomplishing nothing but frustrating her with his all too timid touches. Finally Saiya parted her legs, hoping that the Kos would take the hint and take what he obviously wanted.

The young wolf didn't exactly take the hint, even though she could see the red emerge from his sheath as his fondling served to arouse his own passion. He let a par slide up her thigh, laying the tips of his fingers against the smooth skin of her bare sex before rubbing it far to gently for the lioness' liking. She supposed she should appreciate the fact he was obviously trying to be gentle, but she'd rather just get through with the humiliating duty demanded of her as quickly as possible. Pain was easier for her to endure than the humiliation of being this timid young man's plaything. When his finger finally slipped in he looked in awe as her folds parted around the digit, the tip of the digit prodding carefully inside her without any clue what he was doing. Clumsy as they were, his touches managed to coax some moisture form her sex after a minute of slow pumping, and the Kos either took that as a sign that she was ready for him, or had reached the end of his patience.

Saiya almost sighed in relief when he clambered on top of her, looking down as he aimed the tip of his smooth red cock at the pink cleft between her thighs. He groaned as he entered her whereas she barely sighed, knowing that the humiliating interlude would be over soon enough.

Her young master supported himself on his arms as he gently ground himself against her before pulling back and out of her. He was careful not to go too far this time and after a few shallow thrusts he managed to catch a rhythm. He went slowly than any wolf who'd taken her, making Saiya keenly aware of how different the shaft inside her was for that of a male of her own species. The red rod felt slick both sinking in and sliding out, featureless apart from the knot at the base which so far was no larger than a walnut. A Hatari male felt smooth pushing in when the barbs were slicked back along his length, but when the male pulled out the soft barbs would rub and rake a female's sex that would overwhelm the senses with sheer intensity.

As the smooth length pumped her sex the young wolf it belonged to was alternating between gazing into her eyes and staring at the breasts bouncing a little with every thrust he made into her. He was mesmerized by the firm mounds spread over her chest but to awkward to go for what he wanted. Even before her first cub, her mates had been drawn to the two firm mounds riding high on her chest, lavishing their affection with paw, tongue and occasionally a gentle nip of their teeth. She quickly pushed those memories away, unwilling to sully the pleasant memories of her heats spent mating with males she chose for the honor. She'd only ever taken a male while in heat, since her vows to her sisterhood had prevented her from mating for life, but she knew that wasn't why the boy humping her was failing to stir her passion. Flowering young women had needs that went beyond the desire mate, and even after an exhausting workout a sister could always be found to help sate such urges.

The tug of the young wolf's knot broke her from her reverie. She was sure the twinge of pain would be one of many to follow, but to her surprise the Kos kept the swelling bulb inside her, panting as he shortened his thrust to little more than a grinding of his sheath against the smooth lips of her sex. After the day of her sisterhood's defeat she'd taken the brutal knots of the wolves both in her slit and under her tail, and the lupine males in both cases delighted in the cries of pain and snarls their sadistic thrusts would coax from the captured felines. Even a few night ago when she had to take charge and please her new master she'd gone past the point of discomfort, hoping the pain of a vicious knotting would eclipse the shame. It was strange to feel the bulge almost gently grow within her without battering her folds first, growing until her body strained to hold it. She spent a dozen seconds or so feeling the heartbeat of the male swollen inside her before the length began to twitch and spray the groaning wolf's seed inside her.

A look at the boy's face told her she was feeling everything she wasn't, a mask of bliss and ecstasy staring at her dispassionate expression. The wolf leaned closer and Saiya was sure he was about to try kissing her again. Last time she'd been in charge so she'd guided his face to her breasts rather than her face and she was sure that this time she'd have to suffer a fresh indignity of being not only mated but kissed against her will. However, the young man spending his seed inside her either read her expression or Saiya had been the one to misread him. He just gently laid himself down on top of her and laid his head on her shoulder, his breathing still ragged as he rode out his climax. Feeling some relief, the lioness allowed herself to relax, feeling the gentle throb of the engorged knot as the tick of clock, counting down until it was ready to release her. It felt different without the soreness of a violent knotting, and supposing she should show some small gratitude the feline wrapped her arms around her master, the only form of real affection she'd showed him so far.

*******

"Esha? What are you doing here? I told you may spend some time the way you wished..." Lucian said, breaking the silence that fell on the table full of loud young nobles the moment the lioness walked past a vine-bearing trellis carrying a fresh decanter of wine.

"Your mother's maid insisted I should wait on you and your guests." The Hatar said, ignoring the eyes of half-drunk canines roaming her body. Lucian had little doubt the feline was telling the truth, and he was sure that her mother's handmaid had also instructed the Hatar how to dress. He'd bought Esha a light shift that she seemed to favor over the thing and gauzy wraps she'd been presented in and that she was once again wearing. The clothes left very little to the imagination but the feline wearing them bore the leering looks of the young Kosith with her usual quiet dignity.

"What a stroke of luck! My glass happens to be empty..." Imris said, gesturing with the brass cup even though his slurred voice suggested his last glass had been one too many. The Hatar glided to his side and filled it while the young man made a point of leaning back in his chair to get a better look at her behind.

"I have to say Lucian I was offended that you can so rarely make time for us these days, but now that I'm reminded why I can't really say I blame you..." one of the young nobles said, a subtle dig at their hosts that the Kos managed to grin through, but that served to encourage Imris who was lacking in tact even when sober.

"Yeah Lucian, cat got your tongue? Or did she go for something else?" the drunken youth said a little too loudly, getting a round of laughter he should have been satisfied with. "All joking aside kitten I'm glad to see you up and about. I was worried that Lucian's first taste of a woman might have made him a glutton and that he's been at you so often that you couldn't walk properly..."

"Leave off Imris, wine always makes a lout of you..." Ticius tossed in, noticing that Lucian could no longer force a smile on his face and hoping to steer their drunken friend away from this subject.

"What? It was just a joke! Gods below I know these cats can take a rutting. I was in the square when they were first brought in and they put the worst troublemakers in the stocks for the commoners to enjoy. A crying shame to waste fine women on that lot but you should have seen the bloody mosnters those girls took with barely a yowl. Hey kitten, you didn't happen to be one of those naughty ones, huh? Cause some of them had tits almost as fine as y-"

"Esha, would you please go to my room and... and see that it is aired out and the bedding changed? You needn't return to serve us, I don't think we'll be much longer..." Lucian said, trying to keep his voice steady as he shot a glare at Imris. Everyone at the table could tell that the drunken Kos had gone past even his own low standard of decency, that is everyone but him.

"Oh what, so I have to watch what I say around the likes of her? She's only a slave..."

*******

"I'm sorry..." he said when he finally returned to find the Hatar waiting in his room.

"You needn't be master, it wasn't your fault."

"I mean I'm sorry you had to hear that. That was..."

"Do you really think that hurt me? The drunken words of a spoiled youth? Or that I don't know what my sisters are going through?" she said, surprising Lucian as she struck him with that flat, controlled voice she used so often. "We've been through worse on the long march to the slave market, and after that there is no indignity, no cruelty that can shock or surprise me. Do you know that if I had been a maiden when I was caught, I'd even now be a slave in some whoerhouse? Do you know that if I had been in heat when we arrived in the slave pens I would have been bred to a Hatar slave by force, to deliver a child into a life of slavery? What are the words of some drunken youth when weighed against all that?" she said, shocking Lucian into silence and shame. "Will you be needing anything else, master?" she asked, without any trace of grief or anger in her voice or on her face even though Lucian realized she must be carrying enough to break most people.

"No. You may retire..." he said, wondering if she'd have the same nightmares he was expecting to.

*******

"May I speak, master?"

The question struck Lucian dumb for a moment, breaking the tense silence that had settled in his chambers. She was naked, just as he was, with both of them forgoing their bedclothes on a night as warm as this. His attention was caught again by the grace of this woman, a posture that slavery could mar.

"Of course..." he said, sounding as eager as he was to hear her out. After that incident he'd become more awkward around the Hatar than ever and hadn't even considered asking her to share his bed.

"I... I hate the Kosith." She said, quietly but firmly, shocking the young wolf with the bluntness of the remark, even though it should have been obvious. "I hate them for what they've done to my people. I hate them for what they've done to those I loved... and I hate them for what they've done to me." She continued, her voice never wavering. "And you are a Kos. But I... I don't hate you." She said, and those words seemed to be hard to get out, even though it had been the former ones that could have gotten her whipped or worse.

"I..." Lucian began, but faltered when his keen mind failed to come up with a response.

"You are what you are, what you were born as. But you're also a kind young man who's done a very foolish thing, aren't you?" she asked and the young man could only nod bashfully. "And I have no idea what to do with you..." she said, a shadow of a bitter little smile playing across her lips as she uttered words Lucian was sure no slave ever spoke to their master.

"You... I don't understand..."

"I've never been a young man's first. My order's vows prohibited taking a mate, but bringing children into the world was a high form of worship for us. When a sister went into heat she ventured into a settlement, to a temple of Ishtar, and males would gather in the hopes of being deemed... suitable." She said, giving the word emphasis that made Lucian suddenly very aware that his body was bared before those keen golden eyes. "Tastes vary from sister to sister. Expectations as well. When I chose to mate I always picked males already well into their prime years. Males who knew very well what a woman needed and how to provide it. The temple would provide chambers for man and woman to do what nature insisted they should and after a day or two we would part..." she said, and Lucian hoped the shock wasn't visible on his face as he imagined spending a day or two in a room without anything but a mattress and a female like this in the full of her heat.

"I imagine the males I've been with have fond memories of our time together, but I'm sure none of them had ever fallen in love with me. And you have, haven't you?" she asked and this time Lucian didn't even find the strength to nod. "Would you like me to share your bed tonight?" she asked, a soft voice that made the young wolf's tail bristle. He wanted it more desperately than he was willing to show. He wanted to touch this woman, to smell her, feel the heat of her body against his as he slid deep into her. But he'd wanted something else since his first night with the Hatar female, and he felt like now was the time to ask.

"You said that you... picked males who knew what a woman needed and how to provide it. I... could you teach me?" he asked, his voice unsteady but sounding eager rather than anxious. The feline didn't seem to expect such a request, and it was several long, tense moments until she responded.

"Very well..." she said, her voice low and sensuous, her tail swishing as she walked past Lucian and climbed onto his bed. "I'm not in heat, and even if I was I'm not sure if that lupine nose of yours would react the same... but every mate I've had responded to this, so..." she trailed off, getting on all fours with her left side facing the still confused wolf before she arched her back and raised her tail. Lucian's breath caught in his throat at the sight of the Hatar female in this pose, every firm curve of her traced out by the lamplight - flawless and unmistakably inviting. His feet moved on their own, the feline's eyes following him as he moved behind her, his own gaze glued to her body as his heart began to race.

"Do you want to taste me?" she asked, her voice carrying a husk that made the young wolf's tail twitch. He barely even noticed that she hadn't referred to him as 'master'.

"Yes." He breathed out, surprising himself by how insistent his own voice was. It was either the right thing to say, or the right way to say it.

"You are my master, and I your slave. You are Kos, and I am Hatar. This will complicate things between us, so for this night, let us make things much simpler - you are a male, and I am a female, presenting. Follow your passion and do what feels natural..."

Her voice - so rich and alluring now that she allowed it to be - drew Lucian closer, his eyes never leaving the feline body as he climbed into bed behind her. He let his paws rest on the perfect curve of her rump, leaning down and bringing his muzzle closer to the pink-skinned cleft the she-cat was exposing for him. He could see his nostrils flaring as he took in her scent, his lungs filling with it as his chest swelled, his lips drawing closer and closer until he could feel the heat of her against the black nosepad at the tip of his muzzle.

Do you want to taste me?

The question form moments ago welled up through the haze of his mind and a heartbeat later the young wolf was doing just that, swiping his broad tongue against the hairless slit. After the first stroke of his tongue he was sure he'd imagined a gasp, but when his second swipe slipped between the soft folds his ears perked at the sound the lioness made.

"Your tongue is... smoother than I thought..." the feline husked, but her tail remained raised high and her back arched.

Smooth was good, or at least that was the impression Lucian got in the next few minutes as he pushed the aforementioned tongue into the feline cleft, getting as deep as he could as he pressed his muzzle against the older woman's sex. He only stopped when the now panting feline rose into a kneeling position, looking over one shoulder at the young man still on all fours with his face inches away from her rear. Lucian realized that he'd lost all track of time and that his muzzle and whiskers were soaked in the sweet-scented nectar almost dripping from the lioness' slightly parted folds.

Her lips were parted, and those golden eyes looking softer than he'd ever seen them as she glanced down at the red erection bobbing between his legs as he rose into a kneeling position behind her. She didn't say a word, letting the sight and smell of her push the young man to action, and to Lucian's surprise it worked. He felt drunker on her than he'd ever felt on wine, his anxiety and inhibitions wavering in the face of a burning desire for this female. He aimed his tip at the slick pink cleft, feeling the warm folds part around him and wrapping his arms around the lioness' waist as he slid closer and pushed into her.

It was a single, smooth stroke, feeding the feline every last inch of his shaft as she gave out a low murmur, thrusting her rear out at him and bring her rear flush with his hips. The young Kos buried his nose in her neck, taking in the scent of her as he pressed her firm body against his own. He wrapped one arm tighter around her waist while the other slid slowly upwards along her side until he was cupping a firm leonine mound. When he felt the feline's hands grasp his own he was worried he'd done something wrong, but that notion changed when the lioness pressed both of his paws firmly against her supple mounds.

Lucian gave the Hatar's breasts a squeeze, his fingers digging into the soft flesh as she pushed her chest out against his hands, swiveling her hips as she gave a low, almost growling purr. He could feel the sound with his chest pressed against her back and his shaft buried within her sex, his own hips moving as he slowly ground himself against her rear, all the while kneading the paw-filling globes gracing the Hatar woman's chest.

Lucian was too aroused to think but fortunately thinking was no longer required. He just moved his body - his hips, his hands, his muzzle - doing anything that came to mind and doing more of it if his ears caught an approving noise from his mate. Soon enough his ears caught the soft slaps of his hips hitting the feline's rear, as well as the wet noises of a still slim knot slipping with ease in and out of the Hatar's cleft. His hands remained busy on her chest, fondling the breasts and occasionally tweaking a stiff feline nipple between his fingers.

The feline's golden eyes were lidded, her muzzle lifted and her hips moving back to meet every thrust. The knot at the base of his shaft was growing, the wetness dripping from the almost purring lioness making it easier to push it in, but the bulge was getting harder to tug out every time. He could hear her groan every once in a while, and her teeth flashed in grimaces of pain and pleasure, but when he eased his thrusts she just pushed back against him harder, making it clear what she wanted form him.

His steady rhythm broke into wild thrusts that sometimes managed to push the growing knot into the slick feline sex, and sometimes failed to yank it out, but both of them were past caring at this point. The lioness pushing back against him would yowl every now and again but her purring also got louder as the wolf nuzzled along her neck, drunk on the scent of the aroused feline. When three sharp tugs failed to pull his knot from her they both realzied that it was there to stay. He could feel the lioness grinding her rear against him, her hips swiveling as the trapped shaft stirred the mess it was leaking into her velvety passage.

Lucian released one of her breasts and slipped a hand down, pressing his fingertips against her sex and feeling how taut they were, stretched around his bulbous knot now swollen to full size. His ears perked at her moan, a strangely weak sound from such a powerful female. He rubbed her folds vigorously, feeling his own knot behind the stretched, delicate flesh of her sex. The lioness golden eyes were closed, her muzzle lifted high as if she were the wolf about to howl at the moon. He released her other breast, his hand moving on its own as it slid along her graceful neck and settled softly on her throat just as the lioness snarled and the firm muscles of her body began to ripple.

The young Kos didn't need to be told what was happening as he felt the feline shudder against him, her sex clenching down and demanding a response from the male held within it. He growled softly into her neck, screwing his eyes shut as he released his seed within her, the feline sex seeming to grasp the red length hilted inside it every time the lupine member swelled and sprayed within her. He felt a hand on his cheek as the lioness lifted his muzzle and pressed her own against it, the two of them sharing a kiss even though what they desperately needed was breath.

He couldn't exactly remember if they'd laid themselves down on the bed or merely collapsed, but it didn't really matter. She was still pressed up against him and he was still buried in the heavenly warmth of her sex, and would be for some time. He felt the exertion catching up with him and tried to fight back toe siren call of oblivion, wanting to stay with this woman in this moment for as long as possible. When he commanded his eyelids top open only for them to refuse he knew the fight was over and put his last efforts into whispering a few words before sinking into sleep.

*******

"I... love you..." the young wolf said, or rather breathed out, lifting his head from between Saiya's breasts and looking up at her with eyes so hopelessly glazed that it was clear he was telling the truth.

They were both out of breath, with the youth's shaft engorged and buried between the Hatar's thighs as she straddled the young man leaning back against the headboard of his bed. She was hoping the last time he'd said it by accident, a near random muttering before sleep claimed him, but part of her worried he'd say it again. That was why she'd pushed his face between her mounds, hoping that her bosom would distract him the way it tended to and that he would satisfy himself with pressing his muzzle against a ripe globe and licking away at the stiff tips of her breasts.

"I... wish you wouldn't say that..."

The truth was that no one had ever said it to the Hatar, nor had she ever expected to hear those words following the wild release that followed coupling. The males she'd mated with had never said it, even after being struck by her beauty and the wild passion of a Hatar in heat. They knew what the vows she'd swore meant and that they were there to give her a child, not their love. And before that, after clumsy coupling with another sister there was no love shared that went beyond the sororial bonds and an adolescent giddiness. She certainly never expected to heart t from the young man who owned her, the boy who was still quite awkward and shy most of the time. But she supposed he felt more of a man in moments like these, with a panting woman sharing his bed as he released his seed into her.

"I know. But you are the only person I can say it to, aren't you?" he said, surprising her with his lucidity. Most of the times the boy seemed to ignorant of what their relationship truly was.

Saiya had to admit, the lines had blurred a bit for her. Teaching the boy how to please a woman had been her undoing, since she was the only woman he showed an interest in. She found herself willing to forget what she was and who the young Kos was during those minutes when passion ruled over reason, but their days were not made of such brief moments.

"I don't expect you to say it. And I know it would be easier if I didn't, but..." he said, trailing off. And he was right. She couldn't bring herself to say it.

"Saiya."

"What?"

"When we first met alone, you asked me my name. It's Saiya..." she whispered, stroking his cheek. Clever boy that he was, Lucian understood.