Page 13 of Up from the Earth (Equinox Seasons Duet #1)

Twelve

When A Path Is Presented Before You, Why Not Make Your Own?

T he sting of pain pinched right where The King's claw touched my skin. I vaguely sensed the warmth and wetness of blood creeping down my chin, but if anything, it only made me more ravenous for everything this ancient being could do.

My ancient being. My King. My other half, made of infinite forms in the swirling chaos of light and dark.

Meeting his eyes, I stood proudly, unwavering and wild. Wind surged, called by my spirit, and a smirk spread across my face as blazing as wildfire.

“Feed me life's ambrosia. Show me… depravity .”

Being claimed by The Wolf had been ecstasy and wonder. I would not back away from it. In fact, I yearned for more. I demanded every experience my body could fathom. I wanted it all—pain, lust, taste, unbearable need.

It was as if I stood at the edge of a rocky cliff, the face shorn by centuries of the vicious battering of waves. It was beautiful because of what it had endured, monumental because of the testament of strength.

And so was I.

The King chuckled, that dark melody ringing through my veins. Time worked differently here. Lost to my thoughts, it could have been several moments on the mortal plane. But here, it was only the blink of an eye.

Because you are not mortal anymore, Cerri. It is as it was destined to be. Unending and expansive.

I squinted slightly as I peered up into the glowing eyes of The King. Our stares met, and quicker than a thought, he lashed out his hand, tangling his fingers in my long, pale locks.

“And if it is depravity you seek,” he leaned in, dragging his forked tongue across my neck and eliciting goosebumps, “I will fill you with it until your screams pierce the realms.”

He struck like a cobra, fangs hitting the same mark his other form had left. Electricity sparked through my veins, a swirling rush of pierced flesh and surging adrenaline. A euphoria all its own spread over me, a pulse of sensual release as The King gulped me down.

Stranger still, it did not tire me. I didn't feel my life force slipping away.

Yanking back, The King tore his fangs from my neck, smearing blood over my lips as he then crashed them against me. The salty burn of my blood was dizzying, creating a potent cocktail when mixed with his saliva.

I moaned against his lips, practically roaring. I wanted to taste it all, needed it.

The warm liquid smoothed over my skin, the injury still leaking, if slightly. I was knitting back together, but it was like The King's desire to see me bleed, and my want to please him kept me from healing entirely as I had earlier.

Fascinating.

“Get on the table, little beast.” The King hauled me toward it by his grip on my hair, tossing me against the side enough that it bit into my hip. “I shall devour you—completely.”

With a solid sting echoing through my bones, I climbed onto the table, shoving back the feast's contents haphazardly. A ripping sound echoed in the quiet space as the fabric of my dress tore, but I couldn’t have possibly cared less. The neckline was already stained red, the deeper color reminding me of the pomegranate I had taken from this very spread.

Turning toward The King, I perched on the edge of the table, desperate to feel him in my body, against my skin. I swelled with need, slick coating the insides of my thighs.

“I can smell that delicious cunt of yours, little beast.” He craned me backward, shoving my legs apart with his black-clawed fingers. “You're fucking dripping for me, sweet, little whore.”

Pricking my skin, tiny trails of crimson steadily wove a path down my flesh toward my seam. The King leaned over me, licking through my blood and winding his forked tongue lower and lower. Just as he was about to reach me, I snapped my hand out and grabbed his hair.

His blinding white stare whipped up to mine, and he snarled, desire and surprise mingling in his stare. I smirked down at him, reaching with my free hand to my right. His eyes tracked me as I plucked a pomegranate from the tumbled mound of fruit beside me.

Cocking a brow, The King waited long enough for me to dig my fingers into the flesh of the sangria-colored orb. I cracked it in half, crushing the beads inside and hovering them over my core so the tart juice decorated my intimate skin.

“Such a devious little thing,” he crooned, the enigmatic bass of his voice rumbling through my bones. “Scream for me, Cerri. Scream as I dine on your slick essence.”

With no other preamble, The King struck, sinking his fangs into the delicate flesh of my seam. I cried out, shaking the entire forest with my scream, and then the warmth of my blood mixed with the pomegranate's taste. The King languidly swirled his long tongue through the growing wetness, sliding over the impact point of his fangs before dipping down between my folds.

My mind was a foggy mess of overwhelming sensation, the agony and ecstasy feeding off each other. The dextrous wonders of The King’s tongue drove me wild, reducing me to a writhing tangle of limbs that he gripped as tight as vice to control. It slid in and out of me, reaching deep inside my cunt and twirling.

“Ugh!” I bucked against him, arching up off the table.

The King released one of my legs, which I immediately wrapped around his head. With this free hand, he groped blindly over the table until he’d found the object he sought. Just as he yanked his tongue free of me only to coil the prehensile appendage around my clit and squeeze, The King snatched his arm back, the heart of a stag coming with it.

The beast had been a part of the feast, a sacrifice willingly given, and my King now coated my already drenched skin in the heart’s blood of the loyal creature. I could sense the innate power of the animal—the magic of the deer—weave through my skin, absorbing into my very being.

“The taste of death upon you, little beast,” he slurped up the mess, tossing the organ aside and returning his commanding hold to my thigh, “it is the perfect compliment to your body that has given life.”

Life and death, pleasure and pain. I was all of it, all of it was me, and I shattered beneath The King’s sinful touch, the orgasm raking through me like being pulled over hot coals. They could never burn me bright enough. I needed more. I reeled up, gripping my King’s head and grinding my cunt against his mouth. Breath was clearly something he didn’t require because he devoured me with such incredible fervor, never once coming up for air.

That long tongue of his snaked deep into my channel, reaching my cervix and nudging at me as it circled. His teeth pricked at my lips, and then fingers were joining the efforts. I couldn’t sense the claws, thankfully retracted, and his fingers hooked into the sensitive bundle of nerves at the top of my walls.

“Fuck!” I screamed, and my arms were torn away from The King’s head in a flash of movement.

I couldn’t track the activity, it was so fast, and before I knew it, thick ropes of his endless black hair had woven around my wrists, pinning them down to the table. The change only distracted me from my orgasm for a moment before The King was pressing into that magic spot and flicking his tongue over my clit. The need for release burned through me, a torch in the darkness of my body.

“Come for me, wife. Drench me.”

The voice in my head was a harsh demand, rough and potent. And my body obeyed.

Intoxicating pressure, that slick in and out as his tongue pinched my clit, it was all so much, and I stood no chance against it. Bucking against his tongue, every muscle in my body went haywire as I came. It split me apart, my nerves laced with a fire so intense that I’d be feeling it for days. Warmth gushed from my center, a torrential storm that rained over my King’s lips and tongue and face.

He drank me down, wickedly smirking as he was painted with my cum, tinged pink from the blood and juice that still clung to me. I couldn’t believe my eyes. The sight was so depraved, so raw and filthy. But it was also this profound act, my King on his knees pleasuring me, consuming me, wearing me.

As much as he had claimed me, pulled what he wanted from my body, I had claimed him right back.

“My sweet, tasty little beast.” He crawled up my body, his locks still holding my arms in place. “And that was just the beginning.”

My eyes widened; even through all of this, I found that hard to believe. Still, I knew all too well that my King had a way of surprising me—in the best possible ways.

“More.” I glared hungrily at him. “ More .”

That intoxicating chuckle rumbled through his glistening lips. As he hovered above me, his height placing his hips right at the edge of the table in perfect alignment, his hand—claws dressing his fingers once more—snatched away the stained fabric of my gown, bearing me to him. A deep rumble emanated from his chest, equal parts growl and purr.

“Look at my precious little slut. I should have you like this always.” His stare raked over my body, lighting sparks through my flesh wherever his eyes landed. “Dripping and bloody and aching for my cock.”

Acknowledgment rang through my head for each of his thoughts as he studied me.

Such fair skin stained red. The yellow-white color of your curls masked in blood and cum. Full breasts with their pinprick nipples. The soft curves of your hips, your motherly form. I will see you break apart for me. I will see you sob as your body is consumed with pleasure.

My legs were suddenly wrenched apart as ropes of black hair circled my ankles and spread me wide. I yelped, my pulse ticking up yet again. The squeeze on my limbs was enough to constrict, a hint of paint settling over me in an undulating wave. I couldn’t move, held captive by The King—prey to his predator.

“What was that you said, little beast? More?” He smirked—evil glee and ravenous desire. “Remember you said that when you’re ready to die from the bliss.”

His hands went to his hips, slowly unraveling the fabric of his coverings. It was a painfully slow tease, inches of skin revealed over what felt like years. When at last the damned things were gone, my jaw dropped. There was hardly more I could do than simply gawk at him, and embarrassment lanced through me as I realized how enraptured I was by just the sight of him.

The King’s pale skin continued over his entire body, save for those black-tipped fingers and toes. Or so I’d thought. Beyond that deathly white gleam to his torso as well as his arms and legs, right at the core of him, was yet more obsidian flesh—this particular appendage swirled with lines of gold like marble.

My stare widened, and my King chuckled at me once more, his proud shaft thoroughly erect and large enough to have dread crawling up my spine. His black cock, decorated with those veins of shimmering white-gold running down the shaft, was also ringed in a thicker section of pale skin. It resembled a…secondary shaft.

I swallowed hard, my cunt clenching around nothing.

Right at the tip, arousal dripped, creating a glimmering trail that ran along the underside of his shafts and drawing attention to the twin gold balls that hugged his flesh just beneath the head.

Pierced…two sha—holy fuck.

“Hmm,” he considered me, that devious smirk still proudly displayed on his gorgeous face, “I believe a change in positions would serve.”

The ties holding me forced my body into movement, craning my legs up into a wide V-shape while my arms were pinned behind my back, causing my breasts to press outward. That rumbling groan left him again, and I could do nothing but watch as he stalked up to me, closing those few inches before he lined himself up with my entrance and leaned over my breast.

“Scream for me.”

He struck like lightning once more, his fangs sinking into the flesh at the underside of my breast just as his cock speared inside me. I did scream, overwhelmed by the considerable stretch and the feeling of his teeth in my skin. It burned, it sang through my veins, it laced through my veins like the most potent drug and dragged me down into a world of lightless sensation and enervating stimulation.

Crackling thunder ripped through the sky, his spirit’s laugh rocking the atmosphere of the Great Forest, of the entire World of Below. The Beast King drove into me without mercy, bottoming out deep inside my cunt as he fucked me in ruthless abandon.

And I was helpless to do more than simply take it—a delectable torture I did not wish to see end.

Shuddering the trees and forcing fauna from their hidden places, my cries echoed endlessly. They shook the earth itself, stretching to the realms between and beyond it. The ridges of The King’s cock stretched me more than I thought possible, my body helplessly yielding to his demand. They rubbed against every nerve within me, the friction creating a sonic boom of sensations within my cells.

“Oh, gods, please …I can’t…I…”

Only that sadistic chuckle as he furiously fucked me. Claws dug into my thighs as he spread me all the wider. Tears streaming down my cheeks, I felt The Beast King’s forked tongue steal them from my flesh, a delighted sound blooming from him before he spoke.

“You will take it, little beast. You begged me for more, and you will take it all, every thrust,” he punctuated his words with pointed onslaughts from his hips, his cock reaching impossibly deep, that secondary shaft swirling against me, “every bite. Every claw. Every last drop of my spend. In every fucking way I demand.”

I was a mess of myself, reeling from the assault of his hips, and—if I was being honest with myself—loving every heinous moment of it.

But who, indeed, I wondered, deemed this wrong? Not I. Not The King in their many forms. Not the whole of this expansive domain past all things. I could sense it. The wild, raw joy of this ecstasy and how it was as much a part of the natural order as death or love.

Sex and death. Love and depravity. It was all bound, all linked. And yet again, it was all mine.

The orgasm crested over me as The King rocked forward, holding his cock pressed as deeply inside me as my body would allow. Movement within me forced out another scream, and then that smaller shaft slipped from me only to probe at my tighter entrance.

“In every way I demand.”

I was plenty slick for his other cock to spear into my ass effortlessly. I was so utterly filled, his mouth crashing down on my own to tangle his tongue with mine. There was no telling where I stopped and he began, inexorably the same in this divine moment of carnal lust. Should I die skewered upon him like this, it would be the most delightful end in all of time.

Eating up my moans and whimpers, swallowing them down as surely as he’d swallowed my release, The King yanked himself back, roaring into the overcast sky. The pounding fury made me pant, overcome with exertion and the need to climax that never seemed to dim.

“Give me your little deaths. Come for me.” He snaked his hand up my body, squeezing my nipple brutally before tangling his claws in my hair and holding my head up by the roots. “And when you think you cannot even stand one more, come again.”

Both of his shafts drove into me, sheathed up to the hilt in my cunt and ass. With his free hand, The King reached for a tall, dark bottle that sat on the table just beneath me. The contents were nearly all sundered by our passion, but the glass container hadn’t shattered. He hoisted it up to his mouth, pulling free the tan cork with his teeth.

The pungent smell of wine hit my nose, and nearly immediately, the flavor hit my lips as The King poured it over my mouth. I lapped at the liquid like a wild animal, caring nothing for the mess it was making of me.

“There’s my filthy girl.” The King’s words were a crooning whisper, and when I strained to look up into his eyes, they sparkled with malevolent delight. “Drink up.”

And I did. I did until The King took back the wine, putting it to his own lips for a hearty swig. His hips never stopped their thunderous pumps, not until he slid his thicker cock free with a fiendish smirk.

I watched as he poured the wine over his glistening erection, the liquid raining over him to drip down the underside, where it sprinkled off and landed on my cunt. I was ensorcelled, unable to look away, not wanting to protest, and then he laughed in a seductive boom that carried through the forest as he began to fuck me once more with his wine-soaked cock.

The world around me disappeared, lost to a thick veil that stood between me and reality. Throwing the bottle behind him, The King forced me to hold his stare, controlling my head by the hair, and used his other hand to pinch my clit. It was too much, it was not enough, and then I was detonating like a dying star, my orgasm tearing me to pieces.

My walls clamped down around his cocks, drawing a growling grunt from my King. “You belong to me, wife. Eternally.”

As the words wove through the air, threading together unseen bits of magic, I felt him thicken inside me, swelling impossibly as The Beast King’s release took hold. He jerked his hips forward, spearing me as profoundly as he could while I screamed my rapture to the realms.

Warmth flooded me as I fell apart around his shafts, and then still more as he shot ropes of cum deep into my womb, each twitch spurting more and more.

Still, our stares held the other’s, and I witnessed my King shatter as blissfully as I did. I belonged to him, yes, but he, too, belonged to me.

“I am yours,” I moaned through the swirling euphoria, “and you have been and will always be mine.”

A satiated smile stretched over his lips. “You belong off the path, Cerridwen.”

I grinned back, another chambered part of myself unlocked and set free.

“I am the path.”