The Best Possible Heir - Part Two

Story by guardian-hawk on SoFurry

, , , , ,

#2 of The Best Possible Heir


Hildora was just getting up from her nap when she heard a sound coming from out on the street: the sound of a car engine, and judging by the low pitch and vibration it was a very large car. Vehicles only ventured onto the narrow street outside her alley once a week or so, and she couldn't help but keep glancing towards the end of the alleyway, waiting to see what was coming... Eventually she yawned, then stretched and walked out of her corner to get a better view of whatever was about to drive by.

It was big, about the size of a human city bus, but sleeker and lower to the ground, painted white with big black-tinted windows all down the sides. She stepped forward for a closer look, only three or four lengths away from the thing now, when there was a hiss of brakes and it came to a stop with its side door even with the entrance to her alley. The bus was still for a while and she cocked her head to one side, trying unsuccessfully to see through the windows at who could be inside. "...hello?" she said.

No response, and now her tail was beginning to flick back and forth of its own accord, betraying her nervousness. The vehicle's engine was still running, though it wasn't going anywhere, and this was the only door she'd noticed on her side of the bus... It couldn't be a coincidence it'd stopped next to her alleyway.

Something wasn't right, and she growled, spreading her wings to take flight. But just as she crouched to leap into the air a massive weight crashed down on her hindquarters and the doors in front of her burst open, three big dragons all jumping out at once. She snarled and tried to back up to give herself some room to fight, but the weight on her back was too heavy for her to move against it--a dragon, she realized, as a thick tail wrapped itself around her hind paws and pulled them tight against each other. She growled and turned to fight that dragon off, but then the three in front of her came forward, seizing her by the neck and paws and lifting her bodily off the ground. She roared and thrashed, trying to fight back, but the four of them were too strong for her to shake off when they teamed up against her and after a little struggling they managed to get her into the bus.

Another dragon waited for her there but she only caught a glimpse of blue and black scales before he pulled a thick cloth bag over her head, blinding her. Hildora finally managed to wrench her head away from whoever had claws around her neck and curled her throat to breathe fire and hopefully burn the bag away, but then when she made to open her mouth a thick strap of some kind pressed against her snout from outside the bag, keeping her jaws firmly shut despite her best efforts. She howled and lashed out blindly at her attackers only to feel metal cuffs click shut around each of her ankles, and though she fought hard to break out of their grip they managed to lock the cuffs to the sides of the bus, binding her spread-eagled on her back.

She grunted with effort and pulled as hard as she could against the restraints that kept her helpless, flailing back and forth with her head, but her breath was starting to feel very warm in her nostrils and she knew she was running out of time to escape, making her still more desperate. She lashed her tail back and forth, feeling it score a couple of glancing blows on the dragons by her hindquarters before strong paws grabbed onto her tail and pinned it against the floor. Hildora managed to get out a muffled roar and fought with all her strength, squirming, bucking and thrashing as hard as she could, but it was no use; the cuffs and the other dragons held her securely and now she found herself panting, the air she was getting not doing enough for her to keep up her exertions... Her struggles grew weaker, and she couldn't find the strength to fight anymore as the unseen dragons pulled some kind of thick rubbery gloves over her paws, then one by one they unlocked the cuffs on her ankles only to immediately tighten straps around her legs, forcing her to keep her legs folded against her body at the joints and preventing her from lashing out at them anymore.

Finally one of them pinned her neck against the ground and the hood was pulled off her head. She gasped for air, squinting at the sudden light, and before she could recover enough to start fighting again one of the dragons jammed a metal bit into the back of her mouth, then tightened the straps of a bridle over her snout while another kept her neck pinned against the floor. She growled and tried to headbutt him, but he just struck her on the end of the nose with the back of his paw. "Stop that, or I will hit you again," he bared his teeth at her. She growled at him again, but it was all she could do now that they'd tied her up, and she was helpless to stop them as they rolled her onto her belly and bound her wings to her back with leather belts.

She was able to catch a glimpse of her captors, her restraints and the interior of the bus for a moment: the bus was surprisingly nice inside, with soft cushions behind her and in front of her--the other dragons were sitting on them while they bound her. They were all big and muscular, three male and two female, and all except the one who'd hit her wore blank expressions on their faces as if whatever they were doing to her was as normal as getting up in the morning. She couldn't see much out the windows, just the sky and the occasional top floor of a building or electrical wire, though the window tint made everything darker, and there was a door in the wall to her right. It was less than the length of her tail away, but it may as well have been as far from her as the horizon with all her legs bound in half. She tried to wiggle her claws and get at the straps on her legs with them, but she could see now that her paws had been locked inside thick black rubber mitts, so thickly padded inside she couldn't even dig her claws against the rubber that surrounded them, much less the rest of her restraints.

Then one of them blindfolded her, and held her head firmly in his claws. "We are taking you to our headquarters, where you will be staying for as long as we choose. Our flight leader has ordered me to beat you if you struggle, and after what you did to one of my good friends this morning I must say I'd love an excuse to carry out his wish."

She growled again and tried to speak, to threaten them of what she'd do to them all as soon as she broke free, but her words were garbled beyond recognition when her tongue and lips caught against the bit in her mouth and her captors didn't respond. Hildora sighed, clenched her claws the little that she could within their mitts and put her head down on the floor; wherever they were taking her, she had no choice now but to go along for the ride.

The bus carried her for another ten minutes or so before coming to a stop and turning off its engine; when it did, the five dragons who'd bound her moved to hold her by the neck and legs--as if she could hope to fight back against them, bound as she was. Then the door next to her opened and they picked her up again, transferring her to a flat metal surface of some kind. The other dragons whispered to each other for a moment, then she could hear little squeaks of metal and felt the surface beneath her begin to move her forward: they'd put her on a cart. This ride was much shorter, only half a minute or so, and at its end they put her on another hard, cold surface, possibly cement. One of them closed a collar around her throat and tied something to it that wouldn't let her raise her neck more than a paw's width or so from the ground, then finally removed her blindfold.

Hildora glared up at the big black-and-blue dragon and snarled, thrashing in her restraints. But he just snorted and turned away, walked over to a door in a wall in front of her, passed through it and closed it behind him, leaving her alone. She sighed and looked around: the cinderblock walls and cement floor around her were unbroken aside from the door the other dragon had just left through, with nothing to give her any clue of where she could be.

She tested her bonds next, now that she could struggle without having to worry about her captors beating her. She rolled onto her back and threw her legs against the leather straps pinning them, fighting with all her strength and grunting at the effort, but they didn't budge in the slightest despite all her strength. Stymied, she curled up to get her hind paws against the straps on her forelegs only to see the mitts closed over her hind paws that rendered them useless. The mitts were big thick ball-shaped things, not only taking away the use of her claws but also keeping her from grasping anything with her paws themselves. They buckled over the top of the ankle, but without being able to pick at the buckles with her claws or teeth she had no way of taking them off.

She gave up trying to break free and wriggled on the middle joints of her legs, managing to squirm forward towards the door, slowly, but after just a little movement the leash on her collar went taut and she couldn't go any farther. She tried to bend her neck to get her teeth at the strap--the bridle may have kept her from opening her mouth, but she still had a couple fangs that poked out from beneath her lips and if she could just start scraping at the leather with those big sharp teeth, maybe after some work it would come apart... But her neck wasn't flexible enough. Maybe one of her legs instead? But no, that wouldn't help, and she growled in frustration; she'd still have the mitts on, and couldn't even leave the room, much less stand a chance in a fight, with them on her paws. She was helpless.

So all I can do is wait, she sighed, pushing uselessly against the restraints on her legs more to take the edge off her anger than for any hope of escape. But how long will they hold me, and why have they brought me here? From what the one dragon had said in the bus, they must have been from the same flight as the dragon she'd beat up that morning. So now she must be at their headquarters, wherever those were...

The door opened and a dragon walked inside. He was long and thin but well-muscled in his legs and tail, his scales mostly dark green with a few black stripes visible where his pants didn't cover them. "Hello," he said, closing the door behind him before walking over to her. "I am Essal, and I lead the Dark Sky flight."

Hildora thrashed and glared at him, trying to threaten him and forgetting for a moment in her rage that the bridle gagged her; she snarled something unintelligible at him before he growled and pressed one paw against the top of her collar, pinning her head to the ground until she fell silent.

"If I wanted you to speak," Essal said calmly, "I would not have kept you gagged. You will sit and listen to me, and if there's ever a time I want you to respond to me I will remove your bridle. Until then, be quiet."

She growled and thrashed again, and he jabbed her neck with a paw; white-hot pain lanced through her whole body and she howled, struggling helplessly out of reflex until the burning finally faded away, leaving an unpleasant tingling sensation in her limbs. "I am an expert duelist and know the best ways to hurt you," he hissed. "I don't want to do so, but I will if you continue to disobey me, and since you cannot fight back I suggest you listen to me."

Hildora didn't want to give up, but with such terrible pain still fresh in her mind and no way of stopping him or escaping, she had no choice. She groaned, slumped to the floor and tilted her head to one side, submitting.

"Thank you for being reasonable." Essal let go of her neck and sat back on his haunches. "I have had you brought to my home and flight headquarters because I need you to help me with something that no other dragon or dragoness can do. If you are cooperative I will allow you to live here in much more comfort and mostly do what you please, provided you continue to help me with my problem. Good full meals will be provided for you, we will let you shower to clean out your scales, and you will be allowed to move about within this building mostly unhindered. We hold regular dueling competitions here and you would of course be allowed to enter if you wanted to--and I have to say, I've seen you fight and your strength and speed are incredible. With a little training, you'd be nearly unstoppable."

He paused for a moment and lowered his head to look her in the eye, then said, "would you like to know what I want from you?"

She smiled a little at his compliment and nodded.

"Let me give you a little background first, then: I have led this flight for nearly forty years now, and ever since I rose to that position I've been known as the greatest duelist in this entire city. But I'm past my prime now and growing older, with no successor ready to take my place, and it's my responsibility to have capable claws ready to handle the difficulties of leading this flight once my time comes."

Hildora picked up her head as much as the leash would let her. He wanted her to replace him at the head of his flight?

"So I sought out the best fighting dragoness in the city, which would be you, Hildora. And I have brought you here because I want the two of us to make the best successor this flight could possibly have."

She froze, then realization of what he was asking for hit her and she snarled again, shaking her head back and forth and reaching forward the little that she could with her bound paws as if she could somehow hold him off with them. She wasn't so weak that she could just be taken and bred through without her consent!

Essal lowered his head again and touched the tip of a claw against the end of her snout to get her attention; she quieted after a moment but still glared at him. "I must be sure you understand that if you do not want to mate with me, then I will not force you to. But I think I can convince you that mating with me is the right choice for you to make, so I will take off your bridle now, you may tell me why you do not want to, and I will do my best to account for your concerns. I realize you may not think so right now, but it would be the best choice for both of us if you agreed to help me."

She snorted, but held still and let him remove her bridle.

"Now," he put the restraint down, "why don't you tell me why you have refused me?"

"I have no interest in mating with you or anyone else and that will not change for some time," she growled. "Just because you claim to have once been powerful doesn't mean I'll let you do whatever you want to me."

"I'm not trying to make you my personal sex-toy, I want you to be my mate, for as long as it takes for us to produce an egg. You should feel honored that a dragon of my power and reputation would choose you to have an egg with me. Keep in mind that my actions won't be only known to you; by mating with you, it would validate every rumor of your own strength currently spreading through the city and everyone would know from that point on that you are to be respected for your strength just as I am. Nobody would dare attempt to order you around after that."

"Except you."

He paused and looked at the floor between them. "Can't you just see this as the mutually beneficial agreement it is? I give you food and shelter for however long you need and the respect of other dragons that will help you go out and earn further wealth and power for yourself, and you give me one egg. That's not so bad, is it?"

"What good would all of that be to me? If I want power and respect then I'm going to earn it on my own, much less food and shelter. Only the weak depend on others for survival."

"And what did the rest of your old clan think of that philosophy?"

"That's different," she flicked her tail. "All the dragons of a clan are equal, and all of them are like family to each other. But here... Things are different here."

"Yes, things in the city are different," he got to his feet and looked down at her, "but not in the way you seem to think."

She tried to stand and meet his gaze, but the leather straps kept her pinned against the floor and she could only look up at him to deliver her response. "Dragons here are responsible for their own well-being, and the dragons who deserve the most respect are those who can feed and shelter themselves, without having to depend on anyone else to get by. Only those strong enough to sustain themselves are powerful."

"Wrong," he snorted dismissively. "Strength earns you respect, through duels of physical strength and of intelligence, and that respect gives you the true power to order lesser dragons--and humans--around however you see fit. Your philosophy can be correct if that powerful dragon begins to neglect the skills that got him or her to such a position, but as I'm sure you can see I have worked hard to keep myself both strong and smart at my age. Nothing would prevent you from doing the same."

"I don't care. There are better ways to become respected and powerful here than to let you fuck me."

"Very well," he backed away. "Clearly there is nothing more I can do to convince you right now, so I will let you think over my offer on your own for the rest of the day and overnight. Until then, I'd hate to see a dragoness like you starve to death, so let me bring you something to eat."

She snarled and started to fight her bonds again. "I don't want food, I want to go back to my territory! Let me go!"

"No. You have not yet examined the costs and benefits of my offer with an open mind, so I cannot take your refusal as anything more than stubbornness at this point." He went to the door, opened it, then wheeled a cart inside; on that cart was a large bowl of water and a cooked flank steak, coated in sauce and spices and nearly the size of her head.

Her mouth watered at the sight and smell of the meat and she strained reflexively to reach the cart, stomach suddenly growling at her. "Something tells me you're hungry now," Essal laughed, and put an empty plate before her. She whined in complaint, but he only cut the steak into bite-sized chunks with his claws before putting them onto her plate for her to eat. She gobbled them down eagerly, only stopping after the tenth morsel to notice the flavor of the spices, the thick texture of the meat, and that satisfaction in her belly as bite after bite filled her stomach and gave her the wonderful full feeling she hadn't felt, it seemed to her, since her clan had broken up eight months ago.

Essal fed her the last piece straight from his claws, then put the plate back on the cart and put a trough of water in front of her instead. She drank her fill, and he took the trough away again before wheeling the cart back over to the door. "Some of my dragons will stop by later to partially untie you and give you a chance to use a toilet." He walked back over to her and picked up her bridle. "Other than that, you will be staying tied down here until I return to talk to you again in the morning."

"My answer will not change."

"You still are not viewing the offer practically, and unless you can convince me from a logical standpoint that you would be better off without accepting my offer then I will not let you go."

"Why bother arguing?" she snarled. "Why not just duel me, if you think you're so great? If I won you would let me go, and if you won I would let you sire that egg you want so badly."

He sighed. "I was once great, and though I'm still in good shape I'm not the duelist I once was. If I was fifteen years younger, maybe I would accept that challenge, but we both know that I'm too old now for it to be a fair fight. I duel differently now, using words and intelligence, and that's not going to change."

"You coward!" She struck forward with her head, fangs out, but he was just beyond her limited reach. He roared right back at her and dug his claws into her neck, pinning her head against the floor again.

"Do not call me that again, or I will show you just how strong I am," he snarled. "I am going to put your bridle back on, you will not try to stop me, and you can consider yourself lucky I didn't just kill you for insulting me like that." He pushed the bit of her bridle roughly into the back of her mouth and tightened the straps, locking her mouth shut again, then tightened her leash so she couldn't raise her head even an inch off the ground. "I will return in the morning," he growled, then left, closing the door behind him.

Hildora fought the straps for a moment, but knew it was pointless and settled again after a little while, breathing hard through her nostrils. How was she supposed to escape now?


Hildora woke up the next morning--at least, she thought it felt like morning--to her cold, empty cell, still bound in place but with the added indignity of her joints aching from being trapped in place for so long. The big meal the previous afternoon had restored her strength for a little while, but she'd used much of it trying to fight the dragons who'd come to escort her to the bathroom. It had all been a waste; they had only removed the leash and the straps on her forelegs, not giving her the slightest opening to fight back against them--not that she hadn't tried, of course, but it had been in vain and she'd just been returned to her room with some new bruises and scratches for her trouble, without a single proper cut torn through the scales of her captors to pride herself for. They'd even blindfolded her again as punishment for fighting them, so now she couldn't even stare at the walls while she laid there.

With nothing else to do, she thought again about Essal's offer. Would accepting be so bad? She knew she enjoyed sex, and while she couldn't remember exactly how long it had been since she'd last been in heat she knew her next cycle was six months off at least, meaning they'd be doing a lot of mating if she did say yes to him. But bearing and laying an egg... That would be much less enjoyable, not to mention he might not even let her help him raise the hatching that resulted--and if she was going to lay an egg then she was determined to be a good mother to it.

But to be a good mother I'd have to have the resources to properly care for a child, she thought, and that's something I don't have right now. But of course the only way I'd be a mother anytime in the next few years would be if I accepted his offer, and clearly Essal would be willing and capable of seeing to a hatchling's well-being. And she didn't think he'd really refuse to let her raise her own hatchling; he seemed to like her, even though he'd ordered her tied up like this, and if she agreed to mate with him he'd probably be a lot nicer towards her...

Which she could use to her advantage. If she agreed and he untied her, she could let him think she was cooperating, then in the throes of sex, when he'd least expect it, she'd make her move. Turn and attack him, disable him, then fight her way out of the building and fly back to her old territory. He'd even said himself he didn't think he could win if he fought her!

No, she shook her head, she had to be careful and could only resort to that if he was just as stubborn as he claimed she was--or if they got to a point where she couldn't argue against his offer any further. But even then it should be her choice, she growled; it was her body, after all, and he didn't have the right to use her just because he thought it would be better for her. Why couldn't he just let her say no and be done with it? It wasn't like he was her clan elder... She didn't even have proof he was as powerful as he said he was.

It was just the principle of the thing, really. Hildora didn't want him or anyone else responsible for her survival and didn't see that changing anytime soon. Even if it was an obsolete principle, as he claimed, it was still one she believed in and she didn't plan to change that. There was just the problem of making him accept it...

Finally she heard the door open, then close again, and the heavy footsteps and breathing of a dragon walking across the room. "Good morning," Essal's voice said, and after a moment he removed her blindfold. "One of your guards broke a paw trying to subdue you last night. I'm impressed, because those mitts are rather soft on the outside and you really must have hit him hard to break bone like that. I am disappointed, though, that you're still so resistant... Unless you've changed your mind overnight?" He cocked his head hopefully to one side.

She grunted and shook her head.

"Well, then, let's talk things over again," he sighed, and took off her bridle. "Do you have an actual argument for me today?"

"What does it matter whether I can convince you it's a flawed agreement or not? If I don't want to mate, you shouldn't make me."

Essal sat back on his haunches. "You misunderstood me before, I think. The point of telling you not to reject the offer immediately was to make you actually think about what I was offering you. Did you actually consider the costs and benefits, or did you spend all of yesterday wasting your strength by trying to fight?"

"I thought," she growled, lashing her tail. "It's nice of you to respect my strength and to want to care for me, but I still would prefer to take care of myself."

"And you can, if you want to. If you really want to be responsible for yourself I will let you fight duels for money, buy your own food and pay me rent for your room. But would you really prefer to spend your days fighting duels and flying all over the city to buy your meals before spending your nights mating with me than to live easily with the free benefits of food and shelter? You'd be too exhausted to move after a week of living like you seem to want to, and if you lost a duel, just think of what would happen to your reputation..."

Hildora shook her head the tiny bit her leash would let her. "What about your reputation? You've told me enough times about how great a duelist you used to be, but you haven't done anything to prove to me that you're as strong as you say you are. You may know how to argue, but that doesn't make your claws sharper or your scales thicker, and I'd never even heard of you before Giln or whatever his name was tried to recruit me. How am I supposed to know for sure you're as strong a dragon as you say?"

He snorted. "If I was a liar, how would I have gotten so many other dragons to follow my orders, and how would I have made the money to buy the limo that brought you here and the warehouse I've lived in all these years? How would my flight have avoided being broken up by the police for so long? They know exactly where we make our home, yet have never come to arrest me or any of my followers, and that's the kind of power you can't pretend to have."

"Yet you won't let me just duel you myself to find out."

Essal growled warningly before she could insult him again. "I'm not the fighter I used to be, it's true. But you are raw and untrained, and while you're incredibly strong and fast you lack the experience to win against the city's best duelists, to say nothing of myself. I could defeat you, I think, but I would rather not sink my claws into a dragon I intend to mate with, and I'm sure you would rather not to lose to me in front of a crowd of dragons. Granted you'd be losing to a living legend, but then when I mounted you right in the middle of the ring... That is humiliation you don't want to face."

"I would not lose to you."

"So you say. But my skill is proven, while you have not faced a dragon as accomplished as me before in your life. You should know to always bet on the side that usually wins, even if you haven't been in the civilized world for long."

Hildora growled and stood as tall as the belts would let her; clearly he wasn't going to be dissuaded, and she was getting tired of arguing. "You know what? Fine. You've made your point. I accept your offer, and I will mate with you."

If he was surprised, he didn't show it. "Really?"

"Yes," she tugged against her leash. "Now let me--"

But she didn't get a chance to finish the sentence; he jammed the bit of her bridle back into her mouth and pulled the straps tight, ignoring her howl of protest and holding her head too firmly for her to wrench it away from him. She thrashed and wriggled as hard as she could, but his claws felt hard as iron wrapped around her snout and soon the bridle was buckled over her head again, gagging her, and to make matters worse he tightened her leash again, pulling her neck all the way down to the floor. She howled again and bucked desperately against her bonds, flailing at him with her tail and doing her best to kick at him with her bound legs, fighting every way she could; he wasn't going to do this to her, he couldn't! "No!" she tried to say, but the bridle turned her plea into a meaningless moan, the straps on her legs kept her from kicking at him, and he just chuckled softly at her efforts.

"What's the matter?" Essal bared his teeth and pressed the end of his snout against her cheek. "You said yes, and I never said I'd release you immediately if you agreed... You had to know this was coming. Or were you hoping I'd be stupid enough to let you out first so you could attack me instead letting me mount you? Besides, most old clans had impregnation rituals based around bondage, so it only makes sense for me to leave you tied up." He raised his head again, then unzipped the flap of his pants between his hind legs and spread the cloth apart to let his full erection slip through.

She tried to say "no" again, repeating it over and over even though her gag wouldn't let the word come out properly. Her claws flexed uselessly in their mitts and she pressed herself against the ground, to keep him away from her, but she knew that wouldn't slow him down more than a moment...

"Come now, Hildora," he said, sitting down again and seeming to make a point of letting her see his cock, his big, fully erect cock... She couldn't help but stare at it as he continued, "what is so bad about mating with me and letting me provide for you? It's what humans have done for thousands of years and it suits them perfectly well; now that we live among them, what's so bad about adopting that system?"

She quivered and moaned again, eyes wide.

"Relax," he murmured, tickling the soft spot behind her jaw. "I'm not going to mate with you if you don't want me to, so just calm down and actually think about what I'm offering you this time: safety, shelter, good food and the company of other dragons willing to be your friends, and all I ask from you in return is permission to sire an egg with you. Is that really so bad that you must fight me and the rest of my flight at every turn? You know you would enjoy mating just as much as I would, and surely you must have planned on becoming a mother someday... Why not now, when your prospective mate is more than wealthy and powerful enough to provide for you and the egg? You will not find a dragon more capable and more willing to raise a hatchling than myself, I assure you of that, so will you just mate with me?"

Hildora sighed, trying to calm herself down. He was right, and she knew he was... Yes, it went against how she felt, and she wanted nothing of doing things like the humans did, but she supposed she could argue with him about that later without affecting what he wanted and what he was willing to give her. He was entitled to his own philosophy anyway, and if she just made sure his deal satisfied both his and hers, somehow... And there would be time for that later, when she wasn't bound and gagged and when she wasn't staring at his very impressive erection, its head bobbing a little every few moments as if suggesting that she just nod her head yes to him. The sight of it was starting to make her aroused as well and she squirmed as a spot of heat formed in her belly, insisting just as consistently as he did that she accept his offer...

She looked up into his big brown eyes and nodded to him, saying "yes" for emphasis even though her bridle wouldn't let the word come out right.

"Oh, thank you!" he purred, and nuzzled her on the forehead. "I'll make sure you don't regret it, don't you worry about a thing. Now how about we get down to business?" He shook his hindquarters suggestively.

She nodded again, raising her hindquarters up off the floor for him as much as the belts on her legs would let her.

"You are so beautiful, even under all that dirt and grime," he said as he circled around behind her, pausing to zip open the fly of her pants and tug the fabric apart to give himself access to her vent. "The first thing we're doing after this is giving you a bath."

She snorted and swatted at him with her tail as if to say, "shut up and get on with it already."

"Or maybe not," he laughed, rearing up and putting his forepaws on her back, then stepping slowly forward, helping her move her tail out of the way, pressing down on her shoulders and nuzzling at the back of her neck... Then finally he growled and pushed himself into her, both of them moaning with pleasure at the sensation.

She bucked to encourage him and he readily accepted the invitation, thrusting smoothly in and out, in and out, creating that wonderful friction that seemed to resonate so powerfully through her entire body. Even though she had no reason to want to break free now her body started to fight her restraints out of reflex, the muscles in her legs clenching and trembling as she tried to hump against him, neck arching even though she couldn't raise her head off the floor... She moaned again and shivered all up and down her spine as he changed the angle of his thrusts, pressing more deeply and roughly into her, and her claws clenched tight in their mitts as the feeling intensified.

He kept going a while longer, growling, digging his claws through her pants and into the scales of her back, thrusting powerfully again and again and taking both of them to new heights of pleasure as his speed increased until he grunted, hunched over her and released himself, groaning with effort as he pushed his seed into her. His spasms prompted her own orgasm and she lost herself to the feeling, thrashing despite being pinned by her bonds and by his weight and screaming into her gag at the intensity of the sensation.

They collapsed in a heap, panting, and after a minute or so he finally rolled off of her. "Thank you again," he purred, and nuzzled her before sprawling out on his side on the floor. She purred back and smiled at him, but then when he closed his eyes she growled, struggling against her restraints, smacking him with her tail and grunting as loud as her bridle would let her... But it was no use. He'd fallen asleep.

Great, she snorted, trying to get comfortable, but that was impossible after being tied in place for all this time. He probably wasn't going to let her out at all, even though she'd agreed to mate with him...

But after a moment Essal opened his eyes and laughed. "Fooled you, didn't I?" He grinned, then stood, zipped both of their pants back up and started to release the straps that had bound her for so long. "Come on, let's get you cleaned up and into some new clothes; these rags lie terribly on you. Can't have my mate looking like this!"

She nuzzled him and licked his cheek once she was completely free. "I appreciate it. I think I might be able to enjoy mating with you after all."

"I had a feeling," he laughed, then led her over to the door and opened it wide. "Lotar," he called, "get everyone together so they can all come meet my new mate!"