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Standard disclaimer: This story contains consensual sex between anthropomorphic characters. If that is illegal where you live, or you are too young to view it legally, then don't read it.

So, here we go again. This takes place in the same continuity as Exit Gibraltar. Timeline wise I haven't decided where I want to put this one yet, so for now it's shroedinger's smut. Set before, during, and after Exit Gibraltar all at once.

This was my first attempt at writing light dom/sub, something I discovered in the story Little Bug by Eddie (Link to story and author/artist found here: https://www.sofurry.com/view/104814 {story} https://eddie.sofurry.com/ {author}) I'm not entirely pleased with it, the dom/sub thing didn't seem central enough to the scene for it to totally work the way I originally intended it, but I'm okay with the final result which went off in its own direction without any real input from me, which most of my stuff tends to do.

I've also had some pretty serious problems with the story uploader (it kept deleting the text whenever I hit the upload button, so if there are some weird formatting errors, that's probably why.

If you like this, please rate, comment, and check out my other stuff.

My footsteps echoed off the polished marble tiles as I made my way through the labyrinthine palace corridors towards my new master's bedchamber. Numerous torches kept the darkness at bay, but the Italian night air was still chilly enough to bite through my thin pink silk robe and loincloth. While I walked, I noticed the usual palace guards posted in the halls at regular intervals. They stood still and alert, as their duty required, though their eyes followed me hungrily. Their leering didn't bother me much. As a priestess of Mira I had long ago become used to lustful, envious looks from any male that crossed my path. They didn't even faze me anymore.

What I cared about was my duty, or rather, to whom that duty lay. The Roman Emperor, in an unprecedented bout of cultural tolerance, had actually opened up the ancient city of Rome to outsiders for the first time in centuries. He even allowed those who didn't worship the Roman gods to enter his lands without being executed. The action thoroughly shocked the neighboring countries, who were used to Ambassadors from Rome being unobtrusive and generally a non-entity, except when war was about to erupt.

Even more shocking than the opening of Rome, though, was the envoy sent specifically to the Miran High Temple in Karsha. The messenger, along with his four Praetor guards, just showed up one day and politely asked to meet with the most senior priest or priestess available at the time in order to discuss 'the theological implications of a number of legislative decrees within the Roman judicial system along with their concomitant effect on relations with the Temple of Mira and her adherents'.

I myself had not been privy to the meeting that took place between the Italian Vulpin and the bewildered High Council, but I had been among the crush of bewildered priests and priestesses called in not a minute afterward.

As it turned out, the Emperor was meeting with delegations of all the major religious entities worshiped in the regions near Rome in a little over a month, barely enough time to put together an entourage and hash out a plan for them to follow. There was, however, an additional problem. Romans were infamously xenophobic, new law notwithstanding, and their gods of logic and reason did not approve of Mira's doctrine. Sending a group of Karshans, with their (well-deserved) reputation for...uninhibited, sexual dispositions, was sure to cause a major issue. Thus the High Council decided that it had to send only Vulpae to Rome, in the hope that we would not start off at a disadvantage.

Which was how I, the low ranking priestess born to a Roman expat with no unique qualities besides the ability to read people well, found myself on a boat for my ancestral homeland with no clear mission other than 'support your seniors and try to act as Roman as possible.'

With that frustratingly pointless goal I found myself in the awkward position of having essentially nothing to do. The Temple had so few Vulpae in its ranks that we had barely managed to collect the two dozen indicated by the Roman Ambassador to be sufficient for the mission, and I was among the lowest ranked among them, being as I was nothing but a lay priestess with strictly modest ambitions of achieving sufficient rank to be allowed to start having kits.

In theory I was supposed to provide cultural insight about the strange new land me and my fellows found ourselves in, but since my Roman father died when I was young I essentially grew up Karshan, and most of the other priests and priestesses were much more familiar with Rome and its culture than I was, which meant that I actually had to study in order to get up to par with them. I was grateful for that though, it gave me something to take my mind off the seasickness on the boat from Karsha to Rome.

Once we actually got to Rome, I expected to do nothing but sit around and occasionally provide a nice background object for some equally-plebian Roman counterparts to stare at while our betters talked about things beyond our ken. Which was really the only thing about seven tenths of the retinue could realistically be expected to do given our low rank and lack of serious religious training.

However, fate, and Roman Emperors, make fools of us all, which was how I found myself walking down the hallways of the Emperor's palace.

The much-anticipated meeting with the Emperor turned out to be just as grandiose as I expected. When the time came we were led from our Spartan but comfortable living quarters through the grid like maze that made up the halls of the palace to a dining hall that must have cost more to build than half the Karshan Royal Palace. The whole room was nothing but white marble liberally carved with the ruthlessly precise geometric designs that Romans called art, the table and chairs were made of at least three different kinds of wood magically blended together, and the tableware was some kind of corrosion-proof steel washed with gold.

The Emperor himself was waiting for us when we arrived, and bid us all to sit down before the head of our envoy could begin spouting his well-rehearsed platitudes. The food was, as if to spite the unfailing austerity of the rest of the place, hearty peasant fare more appropriate for a rural eating house than the palace of the Emperor.

Roast sardines dressed in salt and olive oil, fish stew, chewy bread, wheels of hard cheese, seared ox tail, bottarga, and a kind of baked onion, pepper, and cheese pie with tomato sauce. The wine was good, and there were many bottles from which to choose, tea was available for those who felt they had consumed enough wine, and for dessert there were large cauldrons authentic Karshan-style Sweetmilk, a beverage made out of sweetened cream infused with spices. By the time we were done, everyone was in a significantly better mood than before, and rather sleepy, which was probably the Emperor's intent.

After the last plates were cleared away the serious business began. The Emperor began by inquiring about general Miran doctrine, being sure to engage everyone, much to the consternation of the senior priest Vanek and the absolute terror of the rest of us. The only silver lining, in my opinion, was that he questioned me early and did a fine job of keeping the Vanek from starting his platitudinous speech. The interrogation took most of an hour, and by the end of it I seriously began to question whether he knew more about our doctrines than we did despite his apparent ignorance. I did not dare look at him closely enough to try and get a good read on him, but the way he questioned us made me feel as though he was testing us against what he already knew.

Then, abruptly, just when the line of questioning seemed to be at an end, he mentioned that he was looking to fill a space in his son's Harem and asked if any of us would be willing to take it, but the priestess had to be chosen immediately.

In hindsight, either he was probably testing us for that purpose the whole time. Either that or our reactions to the sudden offer amused him. I suspected it was both. The decision was made somewhat easier by the fact that there were only five priestesses in the delegation, and by dint of being the youngest and in my prime kit bearing years, I was put forward.

It was, I reflected later during a rushed tour of the Harem building before meeting the Prince himself, not the situation the High Council would have wanted. Still, it was an opportunity I could not pass up and I tried to work out the implications of my newfound position in my mind as I went to meet my new master.

The pace my escort set through the halls was quick, not a run by any means, but at the speed the guards insisted on going and the mazelike layout of the place I did not have much time to gather my thoughts before I was at the Prince's room. I took a second to take a few deep breaths while my escort and the Prince's personal guards exchanged what had to be security codes in a form of Latin I could not understand. When they were done, two Praetor guards in decidedly utilitarian and battle-scarred armor opened the doors. Sparks of magic flickered back and forth between them, signaling some kind of ward built into them, and the guards themselves kept one paw on the hilt of their weapons at all times.

Taking the wordless hint I walked through the portal into the Prince's chambers. The doors closed behind me just as quickly as they had been opened, and then I was alone with the Prince in a room that looked like it came right out of a stage play. The room looked exactly like an outsider's stereotype of Rome. It was carved directly into the white stone of the cliff face upon which the Emperor's castle was built, and the wall opposite the entrance had been turned into a kind of extended balcony supported by carved pillars and a waist high guard rail. The floor was strewn with woven rugs depicting either geometric patterns or solid earth tones. There was a large fireplace to the right of the entrance which was merrily crackling away to ward off the nighttime chill.

Further back in the room a long shelf-like table had been carved out of the stone and was set with food that wouldn't spoil very quickly interspersed with jugs of wine. Beyond that was a private bath large enough for four Vulpae to lounge in comfortably, the runes providing the heat that kept the water steaming glowed visibly, a purely aesthetic touch that struck me as odd for the typically utilitarian Romans .

Woven verses of battle poetry adorned the walls, along with frescoes of all sorts, though erotic works were slightly more frequent than most, showing acts that, as a priestess of Mira with considerable exposure to a wide variety of carnal activities, struck me as...unfeasibly acrobatic. A large rectangular table occupied a great deal of floor space, surrounded by matching chairs. Maps were strewn on top of it and a few heavy iron chests were stowed underneath.

Near the table of food there stood an armor stand currently supporting a rather embellished, but well used, set of armor with the telltale engraved pauldrons, greaves, and breastplate of the type favored by soldiers gifted with magic, and a weapon rack held a number of swords, knives, spears, javelins, and even a vicious looking axe that had to have come from one of the Lupine tribes in Germania somewhere. A shield embossed with what must have been the Prince's personal heraldry, more geometric shapes with runes interspersed, rested against the rack, ready to be grabbed at a moment's notice.

In the center of it all was the bed. A very ornate, highly carved bedframe of some dark wood I couldn't recognize supported a mattress large enough to sleep five or six depending on how intimate they were, which was in turn covered in russet blankets and an abundance of pillows of a similar color. The four corners of the bed supported curtains that could be pulled across for privacy. The pillars themselves were carved in the likeness of twining lovers. The prince, it turned out, was already waiting for me. Sitting on the bed wearing nothing but a plain white robe left unbelted and watching the entrance to his chambers intently

My first impression of him was...not what I expected.

"Oh. Hello. It was...Pesha, right?" He spoke Karshan perfectly, even managing the trilled consonants that were notoriously difficult for canine races to pronounce. His voice was on the low end of a tenor, and the only way I could describe it was rich, like a softly plucked guitar string. Physically he was an excellent specimen of our species: rich carmine red, deep mahogany brown, and perfect ivory white covered his body in exactly the right proportions and in exactly the right places. His frame was neither light, nor heavy, and the muscle he had was only slightly visible through his rather long and thick coat. He bore a few scars here and there, including a particularly nasty looking one on his left shoulder that had to have been inflicted by some sort of horrendous burn.

The way he kept swaying slightly back and forth, and the slur in his voice indicated that the goblet in his paw had been drained more than once over the course of the evening, as did the stupid grin on his face.

None of that threw me off the fact that was also faking the lot of it, and afraid to boot.

He was hiding it, but his body language spoke volumes. His ears were canted back just slightly too much, trying to lay flat against his skull, He kept unconsciously curling inward, defending his bare chest from view, and his paws were trembling ever so slightly as he clutched the ornate goblet. His speech was off too. The drunken slur was too uniform, like he had learned how to act drunk by rote and was affecting it like one would affect an accent, and his Karshan was too perfect for a drunk for that matter.

"Greetings Prince Gaius." I demurred, bowing in the Roman style, bending at the waist and pressing my right paw to my heart. "How may I serve you tonight?"

"Ah, well, that depends." He was trying his utmost to appear blasé, but it wasn't quite good enough. His mildly perverse smirk was just a tiny bit fixed, and there was a tightness about his eyes that spoke of fear instead of anticipation. "I have heard a few things about your faith and how you worship your goddess, and I must admit I am most intrigued."

"What do you mean my lord?" I asked, keeping my gaze appropriately lowered while continuing to analyze him. There were three jugs of wine on his bedstand, and splotches on the wood indicated continual indulgence, but I could see a coating of dust about them and the smell coming from them was too strong, they were still rather full. His chest was covered in wine as well, but it was too perfectly placed across the white patch where it would easily be seen and give off enough alcohol smell to fool the nose of an astute observer, and what little of it on the bed only fell on the top blanket. It was an old spy's trick to disguise how drunk you really were, and something I would not have noticed if one of the more experienced priests warned me about it.

"Well, do you really act as a whore? Just giving yourself to whoever puts coppers in your temple coffers?" A half-amused, half-condescending chuckle rolled out of his throat and would have stung my pride if I hadn't noticed the slight twitch of his ears as he said it and the way his right paw was balled up into a tight fist judging by how taught his upper arm was.

"Mira is a goddess of love and fertility." I explained calmly, having heard the same barb many times before. "We serve her by taking in orphaned cubs, helping troubled females conceive, or helping lonely people find mates. Worshipping her through the physical aspect of love is only the most visible of our work."

"Your 'work', eh?" He laughed. "That is an interesting way to put it."

"Yes my lord."

"Well, there is one rumor confirmed. Tell me, did you yourself act as a...ah, loose female?" He asked with an affected leer.

"I did, yes." I answered honestly, probing for his reaction. His perverse smile only widened, but his eyes dimmed further. That was another problem with his act, he was too alert, his eyes weren't dull enough. It wasn't something most people would notice, but I've had a lot of practice. Festival nights in Karsha are always busy for the Temple, and Karshans being Karshans alcohol is always involved.

"Hmm, well, I can't say as I wholly disapprove. Teaching a female her way around the bedsheets gets bothersome quickly, not that I haven't given a few grand tours in my day if you get my meaning." He laughed again. "Still, I prefer a female who actually knows what she's doing, granted she's clean of disease. I've seen the kinds of rot you can get if you are not careful. You are clean of disease...right?"

"Yes, if I were not I would not have been given over to your harem my lord." His ears and tail twitched at the word harem.

"Heh, yes, father has always been a bit of a collector, even if he must get his thrills vicariously through me these days. Have you met any of your peers yet?"

"Yes, though not for very long." In fact, I'd spent half an hour among the gossiping harpies while I moved my meager possessions into the room I had been granted before the call to the Prince's room came, and I had been glad of it.

"Lovely bunch, easy on the eyes, if a little less intelligent than the norm. Still, that makes them a bit easier to deal with I suppose. I can't imagine what it would be like if they were all learned like the Russians, ugh." Now he was deliberately pushing me to see how far he could go without garnering a reaction.

"So you do not mind if I have been with other males?" I gave him an easy target.

"Oh no, like I said, I do grow tired of virginity." He rolled his eyes. "Honestly, whoever thought marriage could be improved by having horrible sex in the beginning was obviously celibate. No, as long as you do not have any disease and you do not have a baby in your gut I do not care about your history. It is only fair after all, why should I expect you to be faithful to me when I certainly make no attempt to remain monogamous?" That was too honest a statement for a shallow prince to make, even when drunk.

"I see." The jab he took at marriage was to probe how much of my Vulpae heritage I clung to. Officially, having sex with anyone but your wedded mate was punishable by death in Rome and its territories, though the rules were bent for aristocracy of course.

"Say, when you say you met the others in my harem, how...intimately, did you meet them?" He grinned and leered at me again.

"How do you mean?"

"Oh do not try to play innocent." He waved an impatient paw. "If you spent some time as a whore you must know about, shall we say, 'non-traditional' pairings."

"I did not mate with any members of your harem." I did, in fact, know all about such pairings, but I had always favored the opposite sex.

"Oh, pity. Would you, perhaps, be one of those who enjoys your fellow females? I have always enjoyed watching such spectacles but my girls always resist so when I bring it up. I am the only one they want to bed...not that I can blame them." He preened. Honestly, he could have made a living as an actor, it was only by dint of my knack for reading body language that I saw through him, and I was not entirely convinced that he was not deliberately making mistakes to test me...or maybe that was just the paranoia I had sprouted since I stepped foot here.

"I prefer males my lord." I'd been with a female, once. During a curious phase in my late adolescence not long after I joined the clergy I agreed to experiment with one of the older priestesses who very much enjoyed her fellow females. It ended up being...educational, but ultimately something I had no interest in repeating.

"Ah, blast. I was hoping for someone who didn't mind going nose to tail with another female. I guess I will just have to fall back on my oldest ally when I want to get a few of my girls in an adventurous mood." He refilled his goblet and gulped pointedly, wiping his mouth with the back of his paw. "Oh well, no use in worrying about what I cannot change...though, for future reference, do you prefer red wine or white?"

"Either my lord." He played his part well, that was of no doubt, but I had to consider how to get him to drop the act. It was getting extremely irksome if nothing else.

"Good to know. Ooh, have you ever, perhaps, had a male explore under your tail?" Apparently he thought that being disgustingly blunt he would push me beyond what I was willing to bear, and if I was honest he was getting rather close.

"No my lord."

"Mmm, interesting. Oh, don't worry, I'm not in the mood for that tonight. Maybe in the future after a few jugs of wine." He continued quickly. "I would, however, like to see what's hiding underneath all that silk you're wearing."

"What would you like me to do?"

"Ho now, that's a question I like to hear." He leaned forward predatorily. "Why don't we start with a dance, that is, if you've been taught that sort of thing."

"The temple doesn't teach its priestesses dance my lord." I said, affecting a little nervousness, just obvious enough for him to think it was part of my act, which it was, just not for the reasons he thought. "They do teach us...other things, though."

"Do tell, do tell." His eyes drifted over my breasts and down to my unclothed thighs.

"Well, the first thing they teach us is...how to use our mouths." I stage whispered the last part, feeling disgustingly melodramatic.

"Sounds like this temple of yours has its priorities straight then." He laughed, hopping to the edge of the bed and sitting with his legs splayed. "Why don't you come and put that education to use?"

"If that is what you want." I walked towards him, swaying my hips dramatically as I did.

"Oh, I want a great deal more than that, but this will be a nice appetizer, or, rather, aperitif." He chuckled. "What exactly do they teach you to do?"

"Many things." I said, kneeling in front of him and getting his attention by looking him square in the eyes. "Including how to tell when a client is putting up a façade."

"A façade? I hardly see how-"

"You've been acting this whole time." I took a risk by interrupting him, but I was thoroughly sick and tired of his act. "You've been testing me to see if you could get a rise out of me by acting like a lecherous chauvinist. I would like to know what is going on."

"What the hell are you talking about female?" He asked, anger beginning to stir in his voice, but his ears and tail gave him away, both twitching mightily.

"You have a good act, but your ears and tail keep twitching and giving you away."

For a second he was able to keep his charade up, but after a moment of angry, self-righteous sputtering failed to change my stern expression he stopped and dropped the mannerisms he'd been adopting. The slur in his voice disappeared and he began carrying himself with the precision and casual grace of a trained soldier. Most telling, though, was the expression of rueful exhaustion that settled across his face, making him look markedly older. The change was so drastic that I almost had a hard time believing it was the same person.

"Saw through me, huh? Damn. I can't even act the gigolo anymore." He sighed and belted his robe, sounding annoyed.

"You concealed yourself well." I contradicted. "I've just had a lot of experience reading people."

"I suppose you would, given your vocation." At that point guilt stole over his face and he gripped his paws together tightly. "I am sorry about those vile things I said. It is expected of a spoiled prince to have certain...views of females, though that does not excuse me in any way. I do not know how things are in Karsha, but here you will find that females are not given their due."

"I am aware of the status of females in Rome." I informed him, surprised that a prince would lower himself to apologize to a member of his harem, especially a foreign one.

"Is it true that in Karsha females are the ones to propose marriage?" He asked with every bit of apparent interest, further throwing me off my game.

"Marriage being what it is in Karsha, more like an informal agreement to mate within a group of people and no others unless specifically approved, there is no distinction made between one sex or the other in that regard."

"Fascinating. Here, such a thing is seen as shockingly presumptuous at best and unforgivable at worst." He sighed again and rubbed at his eyes. "For the past five centuries it's been that way."

"The way you say that indicates there is change coming." I said carefully, steering the conversation back on track and counting my blessings that my exposure to temple business gave me valuable experience in the verbal sparring that constituted all politics.

"Attempted change." He corrected. "Father is trying, but just opening up the city cost him a great deal of goodwill on the Senate floor. He will not be pushing any major reforms through any time soon. Probably not for the rest of his life."

"I find it interesting that you would be willing to tell me that."

"Well, you did all but ask for the information." He huffed a quiet laugh. "Besides, you are a Miran priestess. The temple has been trying to gain ground in Rome since time immemorial. Father's strategy for affecting long term change is to work from the ground up. Start with the people at large and eventually the Senate will have to pull its head out its ass and change with the times...or one of us will have to have them all put to the sword. It all depends on whether the Senators' collective hardheadedness outlasts my ability to restrain Father's temper." He added with what I was quickly finding to be typical Roman black humor.

"So my assignment to your harem was a political one?" It would hardly be the first time something like that had happened, but I certainly never thought I would be one of the priestesses attached as a half spy/half courtesan to some lordling. I was far too low ranking for that.

"Yes, or partly anyway. When I mentioned father's propensity for trying to get vicarious thrills I wasn't exaggerating. He's gotten rather pathetic in his old age and you do fit his tastes perfectly."

"How so?" I couldn't help but ask.

"Father has always preferred...mmph, Karshan does not have an equivalent word. Your fur is russet instead of carmine, your socks are smaller than normal and your white patches are more sand than ivory. In Rome you would be called Rusticus."

"A country bumpkin?" I was not exactly sure how I was supposed to take that.

"Not precisely. In this context the implication more along the lines of 'matronly country wife' but a little more...exotic, I suppose. Your coloration puts you from the northern part of the Empire, where bloodlines are intermingled with Paganus outsiders despite the laws forbidding such unions."

"If that is the case, then will the rest of the Senate and your harem not dislike me for my supposed mingled blood?"

"Oh of course." He said bluntly. "If there is anything Father likes more than getting his way, it is getting his was_and_ rubbing it in the face of the rest of the aristocracy. He seldom indulges himself in the interest of keeping the majority of them on his side, but occasionally he cannot resist the urge to tweak their tails." As he spoke I noticed that the unease he felt earlier was gone, replaced by a sort of weary amusement. "That is partially why he began his changes in the first place."

"Now that you mention that, I would like to know why the sudden change of policy." I jumped on the chance to get more information and got more than I bargained for. Instead of the mild condescension I expected for being so overt about fishing for information his body language went carefully still and his voice flat.

"That...is a story in and of itself."

"What have we but time?" If I had angered him there was nothing I could do about it, and there was always the chance that he was just lying to me about everything, but still, I had to take that risk if I wanted to deliver a good report back to the High Temple.

"Fair point." He said, standing. "Come on, the chairs by the fireplace are the most comfortable." He waved towards a collection of deeply cushioned chairs carved exquisitely. He paused long enough to drain the goblet of wine before joining me by the fire.

"Part of it was Father's dissatisfaction with the state of the Empire, he has always been progressive. The Senate wants to cling to old glory and maintain tradition at all costs while my Father argues that our old glory was brought about by innovation in the first place. Tale as old as time really, but that was just the start. He has been making small changes almost all his life, but he did not start really pushing his agenda until recently."

"So, what caused the change?" I asked after he settled into his chair, an incongruously plain one with brown cushions.

"My sister, Perenia." His face lit up when he mentioned her, a warm smile that made him seem young again, though there was an achy sadness in his voice and eyes. "She was the most beautiful little kit, I wish you could have met her."

"Could have?" I could hazard a guess as to what he was getting at, Roman politics were infamous for a reason after all.

"Yes, she...died. When she reached her first estrous she was married off, like every other noble female. Father arranged it for politics, again, as usual. She didn't want it, but father didn't give her a choice. I tried to talk him out of it, but he refused. She used to come into my room every night and cry because she was so scared. I used to hold her while we sat on that couch over there." He gestured with a paw to a small blue couch that could only have held two and only if they didn't mind getting very close. "I tried to cheer her up and tell her everything would be fine but it never worked. Then the wedding came and she moved to live with Senator Valerian's son. For a few weeks everything seemed fine, but I could tell by her letters she wasn't happy. Then, about a month after the wedding we got the news that he had gotten drunk and killed her."

His voice was still tinged by the grief he was obviously still feeling. I pointedly looked away while he wiped away the tears that had fallen from his eyes. My thoughts involuntarily turned to my own sister and how I would have felt under similar circumstances.

"I'm sorry." I whispered, unable to think of anything else to say.

"Father was stunned at first. He couldn't believe anyone would do that. Wife beating is practically a hobby amongst the Senators, but I doubt he ever thought that any of them would ever lay a paw on his daughter. I think the news broke something inside him, because he retreated to his rooms and refused to speak to anyone for two days. It left the palace in a complete mess."

"What happened to the Senator's son?"

"Ventus Valerian." He clarified, something dark and ugly in his voice. "I woke up on the third night to someone pounding on my door at a little past midnight or so. When I answered it I saw father standing in the hall, wearing his armor and flanked by his personal guard. He told me to get kitted out and meet him at the front door."

"You went to get Ventus." I made the obvious connection, I could guess where this particular tragedy was going to end, but I couldn't help but be morbidly fascinated all the same.

"Yes, backed up by the Imperial Regiment. We marched across the city and right up to Valerian's manner house. The Senator was furious. He and Father have never seen eye to eye, which has been a problem considering that he has the most seniority of all the Senators by a significant margin. The marriage was supposed to be a way to appease him, but, well..." He flipped a paw idly. "Anyway, Valerian marched out of his manner backed up by his own household guard and demanded to know what father was thinking. Or he would have if father hadn't bashed him in the mouth with his shield and knocked out about half his teeth. The household guard had the good sense not to try anything after that. Then we marched in and sought out Ventus. I found him first and dragged him out of the pantry, then Father had me haul him into the courtyard and hamstring him."

"That's brutal." I said, vaguely nauseous.

"He killed my sister. He deserved it." Came the growled response, his voice was cold and hard, and there was something unsettling in his eyes as he stared at the wall just behind me. "Anyway, after that father just...lost his mind. He must have stabbed Ventus twenty or thirty times. He died after the fifth one, right through the eyeball, but Father just kept going. He finally stopped when the tip of his gladius snapped off. Then he calmly wiped the blood off the blade and gave the order to return home. He started making his reforms during the next senate meeting."

"That...must not have gone over well." An angry, grief-maddened Emperor couldn't have garnered much support in a group as treacherous as the Roman Senate.

"Oh no, the Senate tried to get him declared Non Compos Mentis and firmly out of the picture. Father responded by ruining the careers of roughly half the Senate by exposing some of their more...undignified, secrets. There were riots for days, it was quite the scene."

"Does he plan on continuing like that?"

"Not unless he has to, no. He is many things: angry, bitter, and tactless spring immediately to mind, but he isn't stupid. Most of the Senators he ruined were the less important ones, the really powerful ones were for the most part careful enough not to try anything so overt. He'll go after anyone who interferes with his plans for change, but otherwise he won't waste the resources."

"I take it you support him?"

"Yes." He said bluntly. "The Empire is dying. Every year our borders shrink, our coffers dwindle, and more of our people die. We have been stagnant for centuries, if we do not change, and do it soon, there will not be an Empire much longer. I do not want to go down in history as the last Roman Emperor. I have no delusions of the Empire lasting forever, nothing does, but it will be around a damn sight longer if I have any say in the matter." There was fire in his eyes as he spoke, and for a fleeting moment he looked his age, but the change was brief and he quickly deflated again, looking all the more exhausted and pained for the contrast.

"I am sorry about your sister, and I like the idea of a modernized Rome, but I still fail to see how I figure into this."

"Oh, quite simple." He said with a tired smirk. "Father and I need allies with the power to sway the common people. Our people live lives controlled relentlessly by the Temple of the Sacred Rationality, who would have them believe that any stray impure thought will have them dragged down to hell right where they stand. We figure that Mira's...conflicting message, shall we say, will be quite popular amongst the populace. By giving you a position in my Harem we are offering the Miran temple a chance to further its own interests in the region, gain a measure of power over me, and a chance to spread its roots to the fertile soil of Italia. In exchange, you will act as a conduit for discreet messages to be passed back and forth and for the Temple's occasional support in matters of economics and diplomacy."

"That is a lot to ask of a low-rankinng lay priestess." I said, struck by the enormity of the deal.

"It is, and to be honest I would have preferred someone with a higher status within the Temple, but in a way this has its advantages. Since you are, by your own admission, a lay priestess instead of a senior ranked priestess the leaders of the Temple will not feel threatened by your presence in the matter. They will see you as a middleman and a nuisance, no doubt, but a harmless one."

"That does make sense I suppose." I agreed, biting my lower lip as I thought over the implications.

It took me a long time to digest all of this. Everyone knew Rome would have to open its doors to the outside world eventually, but I didn't think I'd see the day, let alone end up as a member of the Prince's harem. Then there was the other duty the Prince wanted me to undertake. If I accepted I would be in a position of power rivaled by only a few in the temple. I could easily make the planting and protection of Miran temples the price of my acceptance. It was an offer I couldn't refuse really. If I didn't take it, some other faction would end up as the Prince's favored ally and I would not go down in Temple history as the one who lost such an important opportunity. My only regret was that I wouldn't be able to see the High Priestess' face when she got the news.

"I want express permission for Miran temples to be planted, and protection for them." I said firmly, looking him square in the eyes again. It may not seem like a poignant gesture, but most royalty are not used to people doing that, so I felt it would be just insouciant enough.

"How very pious of you..." He commented dryly. His tail twitched contemplatively for a second, and then he smirked. "Done. I will have to spend some of my own political capital as well as getting father to exert his, but it is doable."

"Good." I smiled, happy in the knowledge that I had secured permission for something the Temple had been trying to do for generations. Now it was time to build on my success. Strike while the iron is hot like my mother always said. "Now that the political part is out of the way we can move onto more pleasant conversation."

"If you wish." He shrugged. "I thought you would want to return to the Harem to rest and compose your victory letter to the High Priestess."

"Wouldn't it appear odd if I visited your chambers and went back without mating you?" I pointed out, with interesting results.

"You could tell them I drank too much and passed out before anything could happen." His tone was light and his body language relaxed, but it was an act again. The tightness that had disappeared from his bearing when he was talking about politics came rushing back.

"I haven't been in here long enough for that." I said, watching him intently.

"Well, you could tell them that I was still conscious but couldn't get it up." He leaned back in his chair, affecting disinterest to mask the fear.

"A young male in his prime not springing to attention at the chance to mate? Unlikely."

"I've used that story before." He said mildly, but the way he didn't quite look at me made me think that the story hadn't been a story, or at least not always.

"Why?"

"You have met the other females in my Harem, correct?" He scowled at the mention of his Harem. "They are enough to put anyone off of mating."

"They are abrasive, yes." His tail twitched again. He definitely had a problem with his Harem. "But that bad?"

"All they care about is being the first to produce an heir." He explained, his voice becoming ever so slightly strained. I was getting close. "Whoever does that will become my official consort while the others are sent home. During their estrous cycles they fight over my attention constantly and will try to sneak in here even if they know I'm hosting one of the generals or if I've made it known that I want to be left alone. Outside of their seasons they enjoy the benefits of being in the Harem and do their best to avoid contact with me."

"Really. I would have thought they would try to get on your good side."

"Oh they do, but not if it interferes with their plans for the day." He rolled his eyes. "Their idea of getting on my good side consists of coming here whenever I call and lying on their backs like dead fish while I do all the work, and then talking about how wonderful it will be when they are the one to have my kit." He growled, anger joining the fear he was showing. "In their minds I'm just a stud, and the kit is their ticket to the position of Royal Consort and the ultimate life of leisure."

"So you want something more." It was a statement, not a question.

"I do not expect my Consort to be in love with me or vice versa, I am a Prince, I mate for politics instead of love. I do, however, expect to like my Consort...and vice versa."

"I see your dilemma." He was right of course, those in positions of power often forfeited the luxury of marrying for love, but having met his options I couldn't blame him for not wanting to pick one at all. His dislike did offer me an opportunity however, and though I wasn't sure Mira approved of taking advantage of it I went for it anyway. "But you are forgetting that your Harem just got a new member, who happens to be quite versed in all matters of the flesh."

"Subtle." He chuckled, apparently unaware of how the cant of his ears revealed his anxiety.

"I am serious." Manipulating someone into mating is absolutely forbidden in Mira's doctrine, and I did not want to compromise my faith to get a good start in my working relationship with the obviously uncomfortable Prince, but at the same time I couldn't let the opportunity go to waste. "I am a priestess of Mira so I have experience, by my own doctrine I cannot attempt to coerce or manipulate you in order to get a cub, and though this is a political arrangement I would like to make it an enjoyable one...besides, it has been a month since I have last enjoyed a lover's company and I am getting a little frustrated." I added the last part as a self-deprecating joke to ease some of the tension.

"I appreciate the sentiment, but you do not have to do that, I am sure you are still tired from your trip over here." He was definitely starting to worry now if he was pulling that flimsy an excuse. Real fear was coming into his eyes despite his attempts to control it. Part of me wanted to stop and let him off, but I had a feeling that whatever he was afraid of was tied to sex, and as a priestess of Mira it was more or less my duty to try and help him, which meant getting him to talk to me about it.

"Not at all." I returned, watching him continue to tense up. "I am perfectly recovered, and we will both feel better afterwards I am sure."

"I would not want to burden you. You are going to have your paws full dealing with my Harem, and you will need the energy." He was desperate, practically shaking in his seat, a startling contrast from the jaded but collected politico he had been moments earlier.

"It would not be a burden at all." I said, careful to keep my body language passive and open. "Unless you think it would be."

"I would not want to take up any more of your valuable time or energy." He could not look me in the eyes, and he was actually wringing his paws. I had seen some people with fairly strong aversions to sex in my time in the Temple, but seeing someone go from calm and collected to an anxious mess this quickly was a first even for me.

"I would consider it time well spent." I smiled warmly and varied my approach. "Like I said, I would like our relationship to be an enjoyable one. I do not expect to be your Consort or your exclusive lover by any means, but I would like to get to know you and be your friend."

"Friendship does not necessitate mating." He pointed, latching on to the point of logic like a drowning man to a log.

"No, but there is no better way to get to know someone and to cement a friendship."

"I really would not want to trouble you." He looked like he was about to panic. Time to stop beating around the bush.

"Prince, what is the matter? You seem very nervous about this."

"I am not nervous, I am just being polite." He tried to reclaim some of his regal bearing but failed miserably, looking more like a kit about to be punished than a Prince.

"You are wringing your paws, your tail is curled around your middle, and you've been leaning back into your chair like you wanted to get away from me since I brought this up." He glanced down at himself and winced, apparently just noticing all of that for the first time. I quickly continued before he could order me out. "You can tell me, it is alright. Remember the goddess I serve, helping those with difficulties regarding mating is my calling in life."

"I..." He did, apparently, know that, and bringing it up was enough to give him pause.

"I guarantee you cannot shock, offend, or disgust me." I said assuredly before meeting his eyes and moving in for the metaphorical kill.

"Your problem, whatever it is, will stay between us. Even if I was not strictly forbidden from sharing such details without your express permission by Miran law, you have the power to make sure I do not talk. Prince, earlier, when I said I want our relationship to be enjoyable I meant it. We are both playing politics, there is no doubt about that, but please remember who I am and whom I serve. There is no reason we cannot be friends as well as political allies. I swear upon my goddess I will never repeat anything about our matings to anyone else."

I smiled as comfortingly as I knew how, and after a split second of indecision on his part I knew I had him. That little speech may have sounded ridiculous out of context, but I had actually meant it, which went a long way towards making it sound convincing.

"I...I told you already, sort of." Now instead of a jaded politico or a regal prince he was just a nervous young man talking about a very personal issue. The quiver in his voice made me realize how young he actually must have been and the kind of willpower it must take to put up the façade he must have had to keep on a daily basis. "My mates come in and expect me to do everything. I have to be flawless, I have to make them beg for more, I have to have the magic paws. If I fail to read their minds and do exactly what they want they get huffy and disappointed, it is unbearable." He growled resentfully.

He was unconsciously wringing his paws progressively harder as he spoke. Looking closer I did not like what I saw, his pawpads were visibly irritated and the fur across the backs of his paws down to his wrists was neither as thick or uniform as it should have been, this was obviously a bad habit of his.

Taking a risk I leaned over and gently laid my paws on his. He flinched and looked at me in surprise, but stopped regardless. I pulled his paws apart and set them down on the arms of his chair. The simple gesture had a profound effect on him, it stopped him in his tracks and he stared at me in shocked silence long enough that I had to prompt him to keep going.

"So the problem is that they expect you to 'do all the work'?" I echoed him, but he shook his head.

"No, it's not that. Well, yes it is, but it is not..." He growled furiously and all but jumped to his feet, whirling around with his arm extended. I flinched, thinking he was taking a swing at me, but relaxed when I saw that he was actually casting magic. Tiny pinpricks of light manifested around his arm as he swept it in a wide arc.

Runic symbols of a kind I had never seen before flashed to life in the walls and door, as well as the space between the pillars of the balcony, which was suddenly covered by a thick red curtain that moved of its own accord. The result was immediate, a strange pressure deep in my ears that made me wince and work my jaw reflexively. It was a silencing spell, albeit of a type that was not generally employed due to its unpleasant physical side effects and the difficulty of execution.

"All the time, every damn time I am the one who has to be perfect. I am sick of it."

"Sick of what?" I asked when the pressures in my ears stabilized.

"Every day I go around giving orders, either I am out in the field with the legions, or dealing with some political problem father gives me as a test to see if I am worthy of his throne, it is the same way in the bedroom. If anything goes wrong, it is my problem, my fault. I deal with that all day everywhere else. I cannot take any more of it from my mates. I am not perfect, but I am not allowed to make mistakes and I cannot stand it. I do not want to be in charge." He half-whispered the last part almost tearfully and I felt a pang of sympathy for him as I finally understood what he was getting at.

Rome's culture was patriarchal in the extreme, males were expected to dominate in everything from the battlefield to the marketplace, but especially sex. Males were expected to make conquests of their partners, and that mentality only became more pronounced in the upper echelons of society where sex became more of a social requirement than a pleasurable activity. If you did not have mates, and mate them hard, you were not a man.

As Prince, he was expected to embody everything the Empire stood for, which was too much for any one person to do. No wonder he had problems with his Harem. If they expected him to be their conqueror they had no incentive to contribute anything to the relationship, putting the burden of performance solely on him, and for a male to admit that they did not want to be dominant would be seen as perverse, if word got out he would quite literally never live it down.

I could not blame him for being reticent, that kind of pressure would make it just as stressful as ordering soldiers around or playing the political game. If I were in his sandals all I would want to do at the end of the day would be to have a goblet of wine by myself and go to sleep, not spend what little time and energy I had to myself trying to figure out how to please someone else.

I could help him with this though, and after seeing how upset he was about it I really wanted to, as a Miran priestess my job was making others happy through love, and he definitely needed some help. I knew what I had to do, but I would have to go about it carefully, lest I make it worse. Keeping that in mind I gave him a moment to compose himself before I stood up and walked over to him, telling him what he had probably wanted to hear for a long time.

"I understand." I said simply. It was amazing how many people just wanted someone to tell them that.

"You...do?" He asked, half shocked, half skeptical.

"Yes." I nodded. "You are being expected to, as you said, 'do all the work', and that puts you under enormous pressure. Anyone would get sick of that."

"That is right." He nodded. "I am sick of it. I want to enjoy...well, you know. Right now it is just one more thing I have to get right."

"I can help you, if you want." I offered again.

"How?"

"I can be in charge." I said, fully aware of how scandalous the offer must have sounded to him. He licked his lips nervously, and his face told me I'd offered him exactly what he was looking for.

"How would that work?" He asked, curiosity warring with anxiety and anticipation in his voice.

"I would take over." I'd played both sides of the dominance game before, not as often as some of the other priestesses who liked that kind of thing, but more than enough to handle something like this. "I would be take charge. Starting from the beginning. No judgment, no blaming, no scoring. I lead, you follow."

"You would take command?" He whispered breathlessly.

"Yes, I would take command, but only if you want me to." I waited and let him hash it out internally, watching the play of emotions roll over his face. Eventually it settled on nervous anticipation and he met my eyes squarely with an audible gulp only to pointedly look down in a gesture of submission.

"T-tell me what to do." He whispered, equal parts fear and excitement. I gave a few seconds of thought to exactly how I would play this before I started. Nothing extreme, no matter how submissive he was he was still a Prince and would not be pushed too far. I would have to map him out carefully over a few matings before I could really start to nudge him a little, even more so than I usually would in this situation.

"Well first of all, we need to be clear about something." I said authoritatively, stepping closer to him and setting my paws on my hips. The key to this kind of thing was to remember that the submissive one is always in control. Unlike what many people thought, these games are not about one partner selfishly taking the attentions of the other, they are about the dominant one taking responsibility for the submissive one's experience as well as their own. They could, and should, push their partners occasionally, but trust is priority. The submissive is making themselves as vulnerable as a person can be, and if mishandled they can be hurt more surely than if you take to them with a knife. "If either one of us is uncomfortable with something, we stop. No questions asked. Understand?"

"Yes." He continued to look down.

"Good. Now, in the interest of clarity, we are going to have a special word, if either of us says that word, we stop. Immediately. It has to be something unlikely for us to say in the heat of the moment, so I think 'ocean' is a good choice. Any objections?"

"No."

"Alright, any questions?"

"What should I call you?"

"Pesha will do, or Mistress."

"Yes M-Mistress." He actually shivered when he said it.

"Now, let us move on to how this will work." I paced back and forth in front of him, careful not to appear threatening, just purposeful. "It is very simple. I am going to give you orders, and you will obey them. If you do so promptly you will be rewarded, if you do not there will be consequences. Understand?" He surprised me by raising his paw tentatively, like he was in a classroom. His whole body was periodically trembling too, he really was getting into this. Still, I could not break character. "There is no need for that, just ask your question."

"W-what kind of consequences, ma'am?" Instead of falling into parade rest like I thought he would, he curled in on himself like a nervous kit.

"Nothing violent. I do not believe in bringing violence into the bedroom. If you do not follow orders you will be reprimanded, let us leave it at that."

"Yes ma'am."

"Good, now, go lie down on the bed." I was getting into the spirit of things myself. He really was enjoying himself, or at least starting to now that the initial shock was wearing off. There was the tiniest smile playing around his muzzle as he settled onto the bed, but I pretended not to notice it. Now to start the important part. "Very good!" I praised, walking over and sitting down next to him, smiling happily.

"Mistress?" He was confused, blinking at me stupidly.

"You obeyed your orders, you have earned a reward." I said. Effusive praise helped set a pattern, and besides, if his confidence was as shaky as I thought it was a little praise would be exactly what the healer ordered. "Would you like a glimpse of my breasts?"

"I...yes, Mistress." He was still confused, but he was all too happy to enjoy it when I pulled my top open to show him my breasts. I let him get a good, but short, look before covering up again.

"There, now just keep up what you're doing and you will get much more where that came from. Now, how much experience do you really have?"

"W-with what exactly, if it is okay to ask?" He looked away submissively.

"It is always okay to ask for clarification." I patted his shoulder gently. "And you are right to do so, I was too general. How many years have you been regularly mating?" I gave him a second to work things out in his head.

"My father gathered my Harem when I was old enough to start undergoing the changes. He caught me..." He trailed off, embarrassed.

"Keep going." I ordered.

"Do I have to say it?" He whispered.

"Yes."

"He caught me...m-masturbating." His facial fur puffed up in mortification, but he continued regardless. "A month later my Harem was ready and I lost my virginity."

"How long ago was that?"

"A little over a year."

"A year?" I couldn't hide the surprise in my voice. "How old are you?"

"I turned fifteen a week ago." He said, looking at my expression intently. "Is something wrong?"

"No." I reasserted control, hardly able to believe someone that young was as mature as he was. I was four years older than he was and I hadn't become nearly so adult until barely a year ago myself. "I just did not expect that is all. Now, judging by your comments about your Harem you do not find them to be satisfactory partners?"

"No."

"So it is safe to assume you have limited your contact with them."

"I only call on them as much as I have to in order to keep up appearances." He confirmed what I was thinking.

"I thought as much." I made a show of pondering something before continuing. "Alright, I will just have to do what they should have done. I will teach you about our bodies and how they can be touched in order to please a lover." I grinned and scooted closer to his head. "Your first lesson will be how to properly appreciate a female's tail."

"Whatever you want Mistress." He said dutifully, gently taking my tail into his paws as I moved it into position.

"Good answer. Now, contrary to popular belief, the tail is not nearly as sensitive as the rest of the body. That does not mean you should ignore it though. Just because it is not like the breasts or the phallus does not mean it cannot be pleasing. The thing to remember about tails is that there is very little in the way of muscle, they are mostly bone, skin, and fur. Tails can be very intimate and very erotic, but generally that is among a subset of those who have a fetish for such things. I am going to teach you a more general approach. Just pet my tail at first, explore and get a feel for it."

"Like this?" He began doing exactly as he was told, running his paws all over my tail.

"Yes, like that. Notice how long and relatively soft the fur is. That means it can easily get tangled and tugged uncomfortably. What you are doing is very good, combing it with your claws feels good to almost everyone, including me. Slow down just a little and use longer strokes...there you go, very good. Keep that up for a few minutes and you will get your next reward."

I embarked on a short lecture about the anatomy of our species' tail; how many bones were in it, how it interacted with the spine, and how these factors could be turned to one's advantage in bed. He seemed perfectly content to play with my tail, and as I surreptitiously watched him I saw the small smile on his muzzle getting a little bigger. Closing my eyes I focused on the sensuality of it, feeling him repeatedly grasp and stroke my tail, slowly stoking the fire between my loins. After my lecture was complete, maybe five minutes, I decided it was time for his reward.

"Alright, that's enough. You have been good and you get another reward." I turned to face him and opened up my top again, allowing him an unobstructed view. I watched him watching me and felt pretty good about how things were working out so far. After I covered up I hopped on the bed and, rather awkwardly, placed my hindpaws on his belly. "Now, next we will start on hindpaws and lower legs. To put it simply: massages are good...go ahead and touch, it would defeat the purpose of this little exercise if you didn't touch me, now wouldn't it?"

"Like this?" He took one of my hindpaws cradled in his paws and started manipulating the pawpads, squeezing and rubbing each one individually.

"Yes, very good." I praised. He had obviously spent some time in bathhouses getting medicinal massages himself and was trying to apply that here. I recognized the technique he was mimicking, a very old one used on those who spent too much time on their hindpaws. "Everyone likes to be massaged, and when done correctly it can be quite erotic. For instance, I know a priestess who can be brought to orgasm through hindpaw massage alone, or having them licked, though she is in the minority."

"Mistress?"

"Yes?" I pulled my hindpaw out of his paws only to replace it with my other one. He was actually quite good at it.

"Will you expect me to do that?"

"No. I like a good massage as much as everyone, but I do not like my hindpaws being licked. Keep going now, you are doing very very good." He smiled at the praise and redoubled his efforts while I sat back and enjoyed it. It really was amazing how much difference even a little praise makes in the bedroom. I will always remember how first my lover, a more experienced priest with whom I had become rather enamored, talked to me throughout the coupling. He told me how good I felt and how lucky he was and how honored he was. Then, during the afterglow, he cuddled me and told me everything I had done well, leaving the painful but necessary constructive criticism until later.

As I watched him massage my paws I considered my next move. His swollen shaft indicated just how excited he was, and it wasn't a good idea to keep him waiting too long, especially if he had not mated in a while. It just was not fair, besides, it had been quite a while since I had a mate as eager as he was. Add to that my own dry spell and I felt my loincloth becoming a little damp. His next reward would be a physical one, yes, best to start the more serious touching now. Hell, the massage he was giving me was more than worth a treat, and using foreplay as his reward would only build good habits. I waited long enough to make it seem plausible before pulling my hindpaws back and making the next move.

"Excellent." I smiled down at him. "You are being a very cooperative tod. I like that." I rested a paw on his chest and buried it in his fur. "So, for your next treat, and the next part of our fun, I think you deserve something extra. Sit up."

He did so, sitting with a straight back and submissively lowered eyes. The next part I was a bit tricky, but I managed to straddle him without either kneeing him painfully or alarming him.

"Good, now take a good look." I pulled my top off and tossed it off the bed. He was suitably enthralled. Next I held out my paws. "Give me your paws." He obeyed, swallowing his confusion. I took his paws and gently pulled them to my belly, stroking slowly upward and out, skirting around my breasts before bringing them back around until his paws covered my small mounds. "Just explore, do not worry about performance, I will tell you how you are doing."

"Yes Mistress."

He started to caress and stroke my breasts smoothly, showing that he did have at least some experience with the members of his Harem. He was unsure though, constantly looking up at me for reassurance that he was doing well. I played my part well, smiling happily and making no bones about how I was enjoying myself.

As he gained confidence his touches became firmer and less hesitant, homing in on my nipples with increasing regularity. Soon I was leaning into his paws as he tweaked the pink nubs of fur poking through the fur of my breasts. It felt good, very good, and I made sure to tell him that. The look on his face when I praised him was amusing in a sad sort of way, as he obviously was not used to such compliments in bed. Eventually he started to lean forward and opened his mouth like he was going to start nibbling on me, but he checked himself and leaned back, giving me a nervous glance.

"Very good." I said, petting his cheek. "You may not do that without permission."

"May I?" He asked a bit nervously.

"Yes. Since you realized your mistake and asked for permission like you should have, I will let it go this time." His mouth found my right breast scarcely after I finished speaking. This was something he clearly had less experience doing, and he made the usual mistakes of someone who has not learned how to properly appreciate breasts orally. Too much, too fast, too hard. Fortunately for him I was perfectly able to start teaching him properly. "Easy, easy, you are going too quickly. Gently now...there you go."

His tongue and teeth slowed their assault and became much more enjoyable. I wrapped my arms around him and allowed myself to enjoy the sensations blooming in my chest and the growing passion in my loins. After mating as many times as I had, you had to learn to appreciate the little things if you wanted to remain interested in sex. The quickening of the breath, the tense warmth between my legs, and the distinct scent of arousal all fascinated me. My scent was familiar and usually forgettable, but his was rather different. I had been with many of my own kind, and a great deal of Karshans and even a human, but I had never met a male quite as...potent, as him.

"Ooh my but you are musky." I inhaled slowly through my nose a few times to familiarize myself with his particular scent.

"Is that bad?" He paused in his ministrations, waiting nervously for my verdict.

"Some like it, some do not." I said truthfully. "I, personally, like a musky male."

"Then I am doing well?"

"You cannot control how you smell, aside from bathing of course, which you have." I took another deep breath and felt myself becoming a little hazy, just the barest resemblance to the driving need of an estrous cycle. Most males could not do that to me, but his musk was so strong I could not help but be effected. I could only imagine what it would be like to mate him during a heat cycle, when his scent would be just as potent as wine. "You just happen to produce a great deal of musk when you are aroused."

"You smell very nice as well." He nuzzled the valley between my breasts, an area he had not previously explored, and drew in a slow breath of his own.

"Thank you." I petted his ears, bemused. "Now, I think it is my turn."

"Turn to do what?" He ventured timidly.

"You just spent a fair amount of time touching me and getting me ready to mate, now it is time for me to do the same for you." I grinned and licked my lips melodramatically.

"Y-you do not have to do that Mistress." He demurred. "You do not have to waste your t-"

"It is not a waste of time." I said firmly, pressing a paw to his muzzle to silence him. "Foreplay is not just something males give to females to get them ready, it is something both partners give each other. Refusing to help your partner is selfish. Besides, you have nothing to hide." I made a show of looking him over appreciatively and placing an affectionate paw on his cheek. "Give yourself a little credit my Prince, all that soldiering you do has done marvelous things to you." I stroked his arm with a smile. "I would hate to let such things go unappreciated."

"Yes Mistress." He looked a little confused, but his whole demeanor brightened at the compliment and hastened to do as he was told.

I got off him and watched in amusement as he laid down. It was not every day that you had the Prince of the Roman Empire following your every order, much less in such a subservient fashion.

When he was done and looking over at me with barely-concealed anticipation I crawled over to him and, after a moment of consideration, grabbed a pillow from the head of the bed. I lifted his head with one paw and made sure his neck was in a comfortable position and had good support. He was confused at first, but the puffed facial fur and shy smile he gave me were all the indication I needed that it had been the right decision. Then I smiled wickedly at him and began exploring him. Starting at his chest and moving outward I kissed, nibbled and licked my way across his entire body. He tried to bite back his moans at first, but I put a stop to that.

"Do not stop yourself. Your voice can be a powerful tool. Everyone likes to hear the results of their work." I punctuated each sentence with a lick to his left nipple, and from then on he was more vocal, though he did stay a little quiet.

As I explored him with my mouth and ran across his scars I could not help but feel a brief pang of pity. I was no healer, but some of the scars had to have been unbelievably painful when he first got them. I was careful not to pay them too much attention, as I did not know how he would take that. In the future I could explore that particular venue, but since this was our first mating I did not want to bring up any painful memories. On the plus side, I got to experience his physique quite clearly, and he was, to be honest, in very good shape. He still had the lankiness of youth, but he was well on his way towards filling out, and though his muscle definition was hidden under his fur for the most part there was palpable strength in him.

When I got to his waist and hips I very carefully avoided his member, though I gave it a very obvious glance as I skirted around it. He began squirming impatiently but I did not deviate from my course. Traversing his outer thigh I made my way down to his knee, which I had to skip over when I wrung a surprisingly kittish sounding giggle out of him. By the time I had switched over to his other leg and started working my way back up he was practically vibrating with tension, broken only by his frequent squirming.

"Relax." I commanded gently, looking up at him and seeing the disbelief in his lust-clouded gaze. "I promise I will see to you, but you need to learn to relax and enjoy the buildup. Take a deep breath." He did so, filling and emptying his lungs completely. "Good, now just close your eyes and let me explore you."

I realized my mistake only after I spoke. He would have had to deal with assassination attempts for his whole life, and I was already asking him to extend a great deal of trust, but my worry turned out to be groundless. He met my eyes briefly and then closed his, going completely slack. I was oddly touched by the gesture, and found myself smiling as I resumed my exploration.

"There you go, good boy." I said soothingly as I made my way up to his hip. "Good boy. You did your part and now you get your reward." Over his belly. "I am eager as well, you smell very good, and I cannot wait to feel you inside me." Soft words and gentle commands for this one. He wanted to have the decisions made for him, and a little companionship as well. I could do that and enjoy myself along the way. Yes, we could have a mutually beneficial relationship, Prince Gaius and I. "Your hard shaft sliding in and out of my slick body is going to feel incredible. Then we will tie and I will be able to savor your seed as you splash my insides. That will be the ultimate pleasure." I planted a kiss over his heart. "Soon, very soon. Just a little more left to explore, then you will get your relief."

Moving from his heart I made my way down his left arm, pleased to see that he was not as desperate as he was before. He was smiling widely, panting hard, and stiff as a board, but he was calm. His soft sounds of pleasure fell pleasantly across my ears as I went down his bicep, nipping it once or twice for good measure. As I got to his wrist I noticed that he became a little more vocal as I got to more sensitive areas, but I certainly did not expect him to suddenly climax when I kissed his paw.

His back arched and he gasped, his erection twitching and squirting his chest with four ropes of sticky white fluid. After his moment of bliss he flopped down to the bed, gulping air almost frantically. Then the realization set in and he almost panicked. In an instant he became the nervous wreck he had been before we started, he drew his paws in as he scooted back, clasping them together and wringing them painfully hard, confirming my earlier assumption about it being a nervous habit.

"I am sorry, I should have held it in but I-" Not wanting to let him build up momentum I touched my paw to his mouth, stopping him instantly.

"It is alright, it happens." I said reassuringly. He did not look at all reassured, rather he looked like I was about to punish him, and his paws bore the brunt of his worry.

"Still, I should have held it in." He insisted, squeezing his paws painfully tight. Judging by his behavior and a few of the comments I heard in the Harem while I stayed it was not hard to figure out that this was a recurrent problem for him. Not at all abnormal for a young male, but if his mates acted the same when they were with him as they did when they were alone with each other it was no wonder he had a nervous tic. I was about to say something about it but I was interrupted when his right wrist made a sound like a wet log being broken in half. He hissed and went completely rigid, a few tears springing from his eyes as he clutched at it with his other paw.

I let out a hiss of my own and reached out to grab his arm without thinking, but he twisted away from me and his arm started glowing again. Instantly the swelling that had started to build up reversed itself and his paw moved back into its natural position with another equally sickening sound that drew a searing bout of profanity through his clenched teeth. When it was finished he let out his breath all at once and slowly extended his arm, rotating his paw to check and see if everything still worked.

Ignoring the pounding of my own heart I reached out and gently took his paw in my own, clasping it gently. He just looked away guiltily.

"That needs to stop." I told him softly, not bothering to hide the unease in my voice.

"I do not mean to." He said quietly, covering his face with his other paw. "It just happens from time to time."

"It is not normal to be that anxious about sex." I said, stroking his paw, ignoring politics in favor of my duty as a priestess. "What happened was perfectly normal for a young male. You will learn control as you get experience, and finishing quickly is no reason to do that to yourself."

"Like I said, I do not mean to. It just...happens." He replied miserably.

"You need to stop." I repeated, still holding his paw. "There are other, better, ways to work alleviate your nerves."

"So father keeps telling me." He grumbled, taking his paw back and burying his face in it. "Dammit, I completely ruined this."

I made a quick decision and gently rested my paws on his chest, stroking slowly. I would not let the matter go, but he was obviously changing the subject and now was probably not the best time to try talking about it further. Current activities notwithstanding we only just met after all. If I got things moving towards sex again it might make him feel better.

"No, not necessarily." I threaded my pawpads with his and giving him a reassuring smile. "I would still like to keep going if you do."

"Even after that?" He glanced at his wrist.

"Does it hurt too much?"

"Well, no, it does not hurt at all. It will be stiff in the morning but I know healing magic better than that."

"Then I would be more than happy to pick up where we left off." I squeezed his paws ever so gently.

"What if I'm too fast again?" He asked, once again showing his age and inexperience.

"You've already had the one, so you should be fine. Besides, if you do not mind my saying, I believe your problem stems from lack of confidence more than anything else."

"I...what?" He was still confused. My my, he really did need someone to talk him through things. I suppose that fell to me.

"Despite what I am sure you heard in the barracks, males do need to have their heads in the game. If you are too nervous, you will have trouble mating." I said gently, stroking his chest. "The only way you will get better is practice, and I would be happy to continue where we left off. You are a good tod, just a little inexperienced is all, no shame in that."

"I...thank you for that." He said with a genuine smile. "And...yes, I suppose I would like to keep going."

"Good." I said in my dominant voice. He grinned and resumed his subservient posture, his member already sluggishly rising again. "Now, hold still while I clean you up." I grabbed a corner of the blanket and began wiping the residue off his chest as best I could. Inevitably there was a fair amount that got ground into his fur, but that was unavoidable and nothing a bath would not take care of.

"I am sorry Mistress, I will try harder in the future I promise."

"I expect you to." I nodded. "But if it keeps happening there are techniques we can employ to help you learn, it is really not that big of a problem. It just takes a little time and patience. Now on to the interesting part." I grinned wickedly. "Did you finish because you were already close, or did you finish because you like your paws."

"A...a little of both Mistress." I did not blame him or comment on his return to the game, if that was what it took for him to be comfortable enough to speak then so be it.

"How long has it been?" I asked in an authoritative, but amused, voice.

"I was on a training rotation with the Crown Legion recently, so around three weeks."

"You were not able to satisfy yourself in the field?" I knew most soldiers had no problem using their paws in the field.

"Not in a shared tent." His facial fur puffed up again.

"I see." I nodded, electing to leave it alone. "Did you like what I did with your paw?"

"Yes Mistress." He answered in a small voice, clearly at least a little ashamed of the fact.

"Do you like paws in general, or is it that your own paws are very sensitive?"

"B-both." Fetishes were not approved of in Roman society any more than submissive males were.

"How much do you like them?"

"I...do not know how to answer, Mistress." He shuffled uncomfortably.

"Do you pay particular attention to paws in your fantasies? Do you do the same when you mate? Answer truthfully now."

"Not with my Harem." He admitted with the mortified yet relieved tone of someone getting something truly embarrassing of their chest. "But when I am by myself I will...sometimes, l-lick my paw as I do...it."

"I see. In that case..." I straddled him again, settling my slit on top of his partially softened member and took one of his paw in mine, bringing it up to my mouth. To say he looked shocked would have been a monumental understatement. I could not help but smile at the look on his face when I gave his paw a quick lick. "I will just have to be creative."

The next few minutes allowed me to gauge exactly how strong the Prince's paw fetish was, with interesting results. I sat still and did nothing but play with his paw, licking between the pads, suckling on them, and nibbling it all over. He moaned and writhed like I was rutting him and he quickly swelled to full mast underneath me. Admittedly, this was a first for me, but I hardly had a problem with it. I had seen much stranger fetishes after all. After a while I started rocking my hips and rubbing his cock with my slit, lubricating him and enhancing the experience for myself. When I felt his knot beginning to swell I knew I had run out of time for playing and it was time to get the main event underway.

With a wide smile of my own I raised my hips up and grasped his length in a paw, looking down to align my body with his. He groaned in anticipation and watched eagerly as I slowly lowered myself down until his tip just kissed my flesh.

"Ready Prince?" I asked, watching his face and enjoying the excitement there.

"Yes Mistress...please...please do not make me wait any more." He whimpered.

"Shh." I soothed as I began lowering myself down, taking him in an inch at a time. "I will take care of you, do not worry. I would not do that to you. Mmm, you feel just as good as I hoped." I interjected the non-sequitor as my body voiced its loud approval of his presence within me. "Now, work with me and help your Mistress make you happy."

I set a slow pace at first, to help him establish a rhythm. He matched me thrust for thrust, arching his hips up more-or-less in time with me. It was not perfect, but true synchronization only came with experience, and I was not one to let what I could have detract from what I did have, and what I did have was an extremely enthusiastic lover who was getting for the very first time what he really wanted in a mate. He was being physically pleasured to be sure, but there was more to it than that, and his happiness shone through like the sun breaking through clouds. He moaned, he writhed, and he bucked as his body's primal drives took over, but what really touched me was how he smiled.

He was smiling the pure, joyous smile you rarely get to see on anyone. In short, he was the kind of mate that made me proud to be a Miran Priestess. I was making him indescribably happy, and there are no words for how that made me feel.

Our mating did not take long, we only rutted a few minutes before his swollen knot began earnestly pushing against my entrance, and I knew there was no point in trying to postpone the inevitable, so I ground my hips against him hard, causing him to instinctively buck upwards to match me. After a few seconds of mutual effort he slid into me with an audible pop and a synchronized groan. Once he was lodged within me and held in place by his knot I began squeezing him with my internal muscles, urging him ever onward towards his peak.

"I am very close. Come on now, come on..." I moaned, eagerly anticipating what was coming. Then the pitch of his moans changed and I knew he was peaking. I spoke to him throughout his orgasm, enjoying the feeling of warmth inside me. "There you go, there you go. Yes!"

I grabbed his right paw and brought it down to my entrance and began stroking my most sensitive parts until I crested the wave. Rapture flooded through me and we both moaned as my body involuntarily clenched at him again, squeezing the last of his seed from him.

When all was said and done we looked a mess. I was straddling him, my head thrown backwards, panting like I had just run five miles and feeling fluids beginning to seep out of our conjoined bodies. He was not in much better condition, his fur was messier than mine, and visibly damp with sweat in some places, not to mention his still-messy chest fur where he had seeded himself earlier. Our pleasure-hazed eyes met and we enjoyed the afterglow together, softly petting each other as we regained our breath.

"You're about to pop out." I said when I felt him shrink enough to loosen inside me. "Be ready to move when I say so."

"No." He contradicted, a gleefully perverse smile on his muzzle. "When I come out just let it drain. I like having sticky fur in the morning."

"If you are sure." I moved slightly and let him slide out. He moaned again as our fluids soaked into his fur.

"Quite." He panted, reaching up and groping at the headboard for a moment until he found a hidden panel and popped it out, revealing a small stack of towels and a dagger. He caught my surprised look and laughed breathlessly. "They're everywhere. Father insists on them. The towels are my own addition."

"Sensible." I agreed, taking the proffered cloth and cleaning up the worst of the mess in my fur before hopping off the bed to gather my clothes.

"You are going back to the Harem?" He asked, sounding disappointed.

"Do you want me to stay?" My ears perked up, normally Harem girls did not stay the night in their Masters' rooms unless invited.

"If you do not mind." His expression softened, as did his voice. "You were very...considerate of me. More so than my Harem, or most of the palace residents for that matter, have ever been. If it is more comfortable for you to go back to the Harem then go ahead, but if you would like to stay...I am offering you a standing invitation."

"My, I must have made quite the first impression." I smiled as I walked back to the bed, pleased with myself and a little surprised to find that I was not considering the political advantages of the arrangement.

"To put it lightly." He smiled and lifted the blanket invitingly. I had to crawl over him, but that was probably his intention anyway, and I did not mind in the least. I settled down a comfortable distance away and arranged a few pillows to my liking while he did the same.

"I am glad that our relationship started off on the right paw." I realized the pun a second too late.

"Oh my, I do not know if I will ever be able to forgive you for that." He chuckled tiredly and flopped onto the bed with a smile.

"It was not intentional, I assure you."

"Well in that case you may just be forgiven, maybe." He turned and gave me a genuine smile. "Thank you Pesha, I realize this situation is quite strange for one of your vocation, and I appreciate your understanding."

"It is not as odd as you may think, nor as unpleasant as you seem to believe." I replied without thinking.

"You flatter me, but in all seriousness," He regarded me steadily. "I know I am an inexperienced and unskilled lover, but I would very much like to remedy that. If you would not mind teaching me, I would like to learn how to do for you what you did for me."

"Practice and communication, Prince. That is all there is to it." I replied tiredly, settling down and pulling the blankets up to my chin.

"I look forward to both. Good night Pesha." A brief flicker of indecision crossed his features and then he leaned over and pecked my cheek. "May Mira guard your dreams."

"And yours, Prince." I replied, resting a paw on his shoulder briefly. Then our eyes closed and we slept the sleep of the dead.

The next morning I awoke to an empty bed, apparently the Prince was stealthier than he let on. After the usual moment of confusion as I tried to remember why I was in an unfamiliar place I noticed a bit of parchment on the blanket, a note obviously meant for me.

Pesha,

I apologize for not being there when you wake up, but I am afraid sleeping past dawn is a luxury I cannot afford. Father has his reforms to push and as I am one of his more useful pawns I must be up and ready to serve whenever he needs me, which is often abominably early I am afraid to say.

I will tell him about our deal and will make sure to get written permission for your temple plantings and protection. Such things were already in Father's plan to begin with so it will not take much convincing to start with Mira.

Help yourself to the food and wine on the table, it is not the fare you would get in Karsha, but all of it is completely safe, I assure you, and I figured you would not want to eat with the members of my Harem, that is an experience for the faint of heart. Speaking of, by the time you read this I will have had some servants clear out a storage room in the Harem building to serve as your prayer room. I know full well Mira's doctrine does not necessitate one, but the servants do not know that, and more importantly neither will any of my Harem.

Thank you again for your understanding last night,

Prince Gaius Julius Sextus

P.S. Please burn this when you are finished reading it. Nothing I have said in this note is too important in the grand scheme of things, but it is a good habit to get into.

I grinned as I got up and strode over to the still-smoldering fire in the corner and dutifully immolated the note. Then I indulged in a brief, nude, breakfast before donning my harem clothing again and set off towards the Harem building to investigate this prayer room. I could not help but smile as I went, what could have been a seriously boring assignment had quite unexpectedly turned into something beneficial for the temple, but also looked to become quite...satisfying.