“I’ve never put myself in a mundane’s mouth before,” I said, as if the rumor-fueled horror I was describing was as casual a thing to me as tending my plumage.
The lies my people fed the Aos sí were a twisted version of the truth, twisted enough to be able to feed into the cruel mind of the man across the table from me.
I ran one finger down her jugular. “What do you suppose it would do to her if I spent myself deep in her throat? Do you think she would suffocate first or perhaps her neck would break?”
Her entire body tensed, and her eyes widened. I could feel a tremor go through her body, but she didn’t react other than her breath coming quicker. I could feel her heart race through my palm on her belly.
She must not know of the rumors to react so calmly to my statement.
“That’s disgusting,” the Ard Rí laughed, his delighted tone a counterpoint to his words. “I didn’t know your tastes were so foul.”
“I heard what happened to your consort,” I said as I pushed the farm girl off my lap to the floor next to my feet.
She kneeled there, out of sight of the Ard Rí.
I put my hand on the top of her head and stroked it gently.
I couldn’t reassure her more than that. “Surely you are not condemning my amusement? It is in Proper Order to use the mundanes as we see fit, is it not? My kind are exceptional healers. I can just heal her and use her over and over again.”
“There is a line,” the Ard Rí grinned.
“What is this line to you?” I asked. “You laughed when I said I was going to fuck her to death. You smile even now.”
I plucked one of the chocolate donuts off the table and lowered it down out of sight.
I quickly cast a small poison detection spell, drawing the simple form in the air.
It settled on the donut, not reacting. Once I was sure it was safe, I held it in front of her face.
Instead of taking it from me, she leaned forward and took a bite out of it, her lips brushing against the edges of my fingers.
Another shiver of desire rippled through me.
I had planned to toy with her further at the table, enhancing my image of a cruel sadist who wouldn't think twice about fighting on the side of Order, but I couldn’t do that.
She was impacting me too strongly. If I continued like this, the Ard Rí might see through my game.
If he thought I genuinely desired her, he would try to stop me from taking her with me.
“They are made to be used as chattel,” the Ard Rí scoffed. “Wasting them is a nuisance. I won't allow you to waste her. If you are going to take that one, you will take her as a breeder.”
There it was. Technically, I didn’t need his permission to do what I wanted with a mundane, but if he decided to stop me, it would make honoring the boon much more difficult.
“I doubt she would catch my seed,” I said, and then held back a grimace as my cock twitched at the thought of bending the farm girl over and plowing her fields. “It would be amusing to see if she survived the attempts.”
“You can heal her afterwards if you're fast enough. Mundanes are exceptionally fertile,” the Ard Rí smiled as he reached for a slice of pizza, inspecting it and giving it a sniff. “There have been several that have survived lycans on the Blood Moons.”
“You let the lycans near mundane women during the Blood Moons?” I hissed, forgetting the character I was trying to portray for a moment. I quickly smoothed my expression as the Ard Rí glanced over at me, giving him a tight smile. “What an interesting choice. I imagine your retention rates are low.”
“Like I said, chattel,” the Ard Rí said. “There are plenty more in the mundane, and they are useful in their own ways. Now, enough pleasantries. Let us return to the idea of winged support. It intrigues me.”
I reached down and ran my fingers through the farm girl’s hair. I couldn’t give her a warning this time, but I made the motion brief, dragging her up to her feet as the wince on her face echoed in my heart.
“Go wait in my room,” I told the farm girl. “Prepare yourself as best you can to be mounted. Stretch yourself out if you can. Your survival will depend upon it.”
She got out and fled the room.
“We can station my units on the top of the wall,” I said, my thoughts following after the farm girl.
Soon, I’d be able to leave with her and abandon this pretense.
As long as the Ard Rí thought I might beget an heir on her, he wouldn’t interfere with me taking her.
A young heir would mean he could try to kill me and leave my people with nothing but a babe to follow.
"That way, they can be ready the moment the Chaos God shows his face. "
She would be safe.
The relief that trickled through me was a strange counterpoint to the hard throbbing in the stiff member between my legs.
I shouldn't be so concerned about some mundane woman, yet, here I was, worried about her, on the eve where my years of lying were about to put my army into an ideal position for the final battle.
Yet even as I focused on my adversary, my thoughts followed after her.