they had a mind of their own and understood we’d been talking about embedding them in Ophelia’s skin. Despite her encouragement, her scent hadn’t lied. The idea turned her on, but scared her a little at the same time. If I’d learned one thing recently, it was that I hated Ophelia’s fear. It smelled repellant to me, everything in me demanded I make whatever the threat was go away.
Damen was speaking to Ophelia, but I couldn’t hear the words he was saying over the ringing in my own ears. Or perhaps the growling in my own ears. Was I making that sound out loud? Having Ophelia near so many other Shades who may want to claim her for themselves, to bite her with their teeth, was aggravating me.
It wasn’t sustainable to live like this. Every second of my day that was spent away from Ophelia was an exercise in torture.
″Perhaps we should go for a walk,” Ophelia said softly, patting the back of my hand. “Get some fresh air.”
″Mm, he certainly needs something,” Damen chuckled, his amused expression making me contemplate gouging the eyes out of his skull.
I knew I was behaving strangely, but my wife took it all in her stride. She kept her body pressed close to mine, stroking my skin softly as she guided me back towards the corridor. She moved like she was going to lead us down to the courtyard, but that didn’t give me nearly enough privacy for what I had in mind so I steered her back through the palace towards the gardens instead.
The sweet scent of her arousal filled the air, and a purr erupted from my chest without thought, my cock swelling so uncomfortably that it took everything in me not to stroke myself while I walked through the palace corridors where anyone could see me.
″You are insatiable,” Ophelia teased, her voice breathy with lust.
″You have no idea,” I growled. “It’s worse being around others. Every dinner is misery. I’ve never hated my claws before, but now I want to rip them off at each meal so I can bury soft fingers in your cunt while you eat.”
Ophelia blushed scarlet, her grip on my arm tightening as she stumbled slightly. “Perhaps we should both be grateful for the claws then. Perhaps the whole court should be grateful for them.”
″Perhaps we should start dining in private,” I countered. Already, the urge to throw her over my shoulder and march back up to her rooms was riding me, but there were other private places in the palace that we could enjoy and she had mentioned wanting fresh air.
There was always too much I wanted to do with my wife, I didn’t know where to start. I wanted to do everything. I wanted to fuck her tits, her mouth, basically everywhere. I wanted my cum on her face, her body, down her throat. I already knew I wouldn’t be able to resist burying my knot in her this time though.
″Where are we going?” Ophelia asked, panting a little to keep up with me. I stopped, frowning at her.
″Would you be opposed to me carrying you through the palace? You have very short legs.”
″You like my legs,” Ophelia threw back, before looking like she was going to self-correct, perhaps worried she’d spoken too freely with me.
″I do like your legs,” I agreed before she could speak. “But they are very short and it takes a very long time to get anywhere.”
Her lips twitched. “Well, I think it’d be a little undignified for you to carry me around, so you’re just going to have to walk slower.”
I grumbled my assent, slowing my pace so she could keep up and tucking her hand into the crook of my elbow. I didn’t think it would be undignified. What was even the point of being the king if I couldn’t say what was dignified and what wasn’t?
″Are we going outside?” Ophelia asked as we rounded the corner into the entrance hall.
″Yes,” I grunted. I knew Ophelia liked spending time outdoors at least once a day, and I had my own selfish motivations for leading us to the garden.
Levana hung back as I guided Ophelia away from the usual path she took through the gardens, leading her to a high wall a hundred feet away from the palace.
″Oh, I always wondered what was behind here,” Ophelia murmured, craning her neck. Lush gray and silver leaves hung over the top of the black wall, hinting at the jungle that grew beyond.
I loosened a coil of shadow to sink into the discreet lock, and the hidden door swung open, making Ophelia gasp.
″What is this?” she asked, pulling out of my grip to rush forwards. So she could walk faster when she wanted to.
″It was my father’s garden. Technically, it’s mine I suppose, but I rarely come out here. It’s only accessible to me.” The door swung shut behind me, and I glimpsed Levana standing at attention outside, her back to the wall.
″We’re all alone in here?” Ophelia asked, eyebrows rising.
″We are. You like to spend time outside. I like to spend my time eating your cunt before burying my knot in you. This way, we can do both,” I stated factually, already looking around for the most comfortable spot for Ophelia to lie down. Most of the ground was stone paths, and that wouldn’t do. I experimentally made some vines from shadows and draped them over a tree branch, pushing a little power into them until they solidified.
″Did you just make me a shadow sex swing?” Ophelia laughed, watching me work with wide eyes. “Whenever I think I’ve already had all the fantasies there are to be had, you show me new things I hadn’t thought of yet.”
I was more than a little smug about that.
″Why don’t you tell me more about these fantasies you’ve already had?”
A vivid pink blush stole across my wife’s cheeks, a rare spot of color in this gray garden. Though were those leaves looking a little green? Faint splashes of color had been showing up all over the realm. “No, no, the swing is good—”
″Indulge me,” I purred, closing the distance between us and running my claws down the side of her face before catching them under her chin, lifting her face up so I could better admire her rosy cheeks.
Ophelia chewed on her lower lip for a moment, making blood rush to the spot where her teeth had been. She was so vibrant. Lush and beautiful and alive with color.
″I guess I always had this one recurring fantasy,” she admitted, her eyes looking at everything except my face despite me still holding her chin in place. “You might not be into it though. Or you might think it’s weird—”
″Tell me, wife.”
″It’s just that if there’s no one else here, maybe I could, you know… run.”
″Run?” I repeated, tilting my head to the side.
″And you could, I don’t know, catch me.”
My cock swelled so suddenly, it almost hurt. “Little huntress, are you suggesting I hunt you?”
Ophelia’s pupils dilated, the pulse in her neck beating wildly. “Yes, please. That would be great if you could… do that.”
″Will you be afraid?” I asked, pulling strands of her hair loose from her updo. “I don’t like when you’re afraid.”
″Because I smell gross?”
″That’s certainly part of it,” I replied, not wanting to admit just how much there was to it.
″I don’t think I’ll be scared. It’s just us here, right? And if you smell my fear you can stop.”
″And if you want to stop?” I pressed.
″I mean, I won’t. But if I do, I’ll say ‘raven.’ Deal?”
This may be my favorite version of Ophelia—when she was practically salivating for me, pressing her thighs together, her nipples beaded into tight points visible through her dress, yet she was acting like she was entirely calm and in control.
″Raven,” I agreed, releasing her hair and taking a step back. “I’ll count down from ten.” I leaned forward into her space, snapping my teeth slightly. ”Run.″
She didn’t waste any time, spinning her heel and sprinting through the garden far too noisily to evade anyone. I loudly counted down from ten, listening to her take a right and crash through some of the overgrown brush.
I palmed my cock impatiently, forcing myself to take an even breath and not rush as I hit ‘zero.’ It would be more fun to take my time, to toy with my prey a little before I pounced. On silent feet, I began winding my way through the garden, taking a different route so I could cut Ophelia off further down the path.
She must know that this game played to my basest instincts. Her kind may call themselves ‘hunters,’ but that didn’t mean Shades were the ‘hunted.’ We stalked our human prey through the shadows, letting their fear build and fester until they were at the perfect level to harvest. Hunting was deep in my bones, as natural to me as feeding.
Perhaps this was why Ophelia had never made it as a Hunter. Aside from her fascination with the intimate parts of monsters that she should have never been fantasizing about, her nature was more prey than predator. She liked being prey.
Her heavy footsteps came to a stop, and I heard rustling as she attempted to disguise herself amongst the foliage, her labored breathing giving away her position.
I crept up to where she was peering around a tree trunk at the main path, totally oblivious to my presence behind her. Had she chosen this particular spot on purpose? The ground here was covered in a soft mossy plant that would be comfortable enough for her to lie on, and it was hidden away by tall trees on all sides, making it feel like we were in our own world entirely.
She began to turn as though she was going to look over her shoulder, and I pounced, pressing my front to her back and wrapping a hand over her mouth to capture her scream.
″Caught you,” I murmured, my arm wrapping around her front, fingers splaying possessively low over her stomach.
Ophelia moaned against my palm, a hint of sour fear almost immediately drowned out by the sweetness of her arousal.
″Now,” I began, shifting my hand from her mouth down to cup her throat, “what shall I do with you now that I have you?”
″Anything you want,” Ophelia replied breathily.
″Silly little huntress, you have no idea what you’re asking for,” I told her, grabbing her wrists and pressing her palms against the tree trunk in front of her. Ophelia caught on quickly, steadying herself and bending forward, looking over her shoulder with hooded eyes.
Without giving her a chance to protest, I raked my claws through the silky fabric of her dress, shredding it into plum-colored ribbons that pooled at her feet. Ophelia gasped, eyes widening in surprise as I repeated the moment with her delicate lace bra and panties, leaving her wearing nothing but the faint red lines from my claws on her skin.
″Pretty,” I remarked, walking around behind her, wondering if she’d be comfortable with me tying her up. Perhaps another day, this was all still very new for both of us after all.
Not that Ophelia seemed to be having any difficulty adjusting to our new dynamic. Her hips were raised up and pushed out—not the position of a meek or hesitant lover, that was for sure.
I took my time admiring her in the silvery light of day, enjoying the way it made her squirm before forming a shadowy blindfold that drifted slowly into place over her eyes.
″Okay?” I confirmed.
″Holy fuck, yes,” Ophelia replied instantly. “You come with built-in accessories!”
I snorted at her description, moving silently behind her before quietly dropping to my knees and scraping my claws down her inner thighs. She startled briefly at the touch before relaxing into it, spreading her legs wider without encouragement.
Not for the first time, I wondered if it was actually me who Ophelia was interested in, or if this was just a monster-fucking experience to tick off her list. Perhaps part of me had hoped she’d reject the blindfold, wanting to see exactly who it was that was giving her pleasure.
Shaking off the irritating thoughts, I dug my claws into Ophelia’s ass cheeks, separating her so I could bury my tongue in her pussy without warning. She let out a squeal of surprise that trailed off as a groan, scrambling for grip against the tree trunk while I pulsed my tongue in her cunt, letting the sweet taste of her dripping slick pool in my mouth.
Heaven.
I wanted to walk around with her taste on my tongue every minute of every day. It was a travesty that I wasn’t doing so already.
″Oh my god,” Ophelia gasped. “You are… very, very good at that.”
I withdrew my tongue slowly, angling my head so I could lavish attention on her clit. Ophelia went up on her tiptoes, trying to find a better angle to ride my face but too short to get where she wanted. I swatted her ass lazily.
″Settle. You’ll get what you need.”
My pretty wife threw her head back, loose strands of hair cascading down the pale skin of her back. Putting on a show for me. Too bad I didn’t have a good view, and I wasn’t about to give up my spot between her thighs for anything, not until I felt her clenching around me, drenching me with her scent.
I tightened my grip, enjoying the way her ass filled my hands so nicely, my claws pricking at her skin as I went to work, holding her in place while I devoured her. Ophelia’s legs wobbled, and I encouraged her to lean her weight against me, more than able to carry her.
There was no self-consciousness in the way she writhed, nails digging into the bark of the tree as she attempted to fuck herself on my face. Perhaps later, she could. Not when we were playing this game though. Not when she was my prize and I’d so thoroughly won her.
″Bend,” I snarled, my voice coming out thick and rough because my fucking teeth seemed to be growing, desperate to get to my wife’s neck. Ophelia bent further forward, wriggling her hands down the tree trunk to steady herself, pussy gushing slick while I attempted to lick up every drop.
She’d unlocked the beast inside me when she’d asked me to chase her, and there was no wrestling him back now. At least in this position, with her leaning forward and me tongue fucking her like a savage from below, I couldn’t get my teeth in her throat where I wanted them.
I had no doubt that the sounds she was making could be heard from the other side of the garden wall as Ophelia completely gave herself over to her orgasm, and I kept her in place, licking her from one release to the next, wanting her thoroughly dominated by the pleasure I’d given her. I’d caught her, and now she was mine to play with. The urge to mark and keep was riding me harder than ever, spurred on by her words in the library and the thrill of the chase coursing through me.
Dangerous. This was a very dangerous game.
Even just keeping my grip on her thighs gentle was a struggle when my control was being so thoroughly tested. There were red indentations in her pale skin where my claws had dug into her flesh.
″Why do you sound so weird?” Ophelia asked—or moaned, rather—struggling to keep herself upright. I hadn’t even noticed a steady growl of frustration had been rumbling out of my chest. I attempted to stop it, but it was an expression of my frustration that I couldn’t seem to quite shake off. My teeth must have scraped a little close to Ophelia’s clit for comfort, as she jolted away and as much as I fucking craved her, I’d never pin her against her will. I threw myself back on my ass, forcing myself to put some distance between us, my chest heaving like I’d fought the hardest battle of my life.
I had. Nothing had ever been more difficult than resisting the urge to bite Ophelia.
I dissolved her blindfold, and Ophelia blinked at the sudden light before focusing her gaze on my face.
″Holy canines, Batman,” she whispered, spinning to look at me, her back pressed against the tree and eyes wide. I could feel that my teeth were larger—and sharper—than usual, and I dug my claws into the dirt beneath me, silently chanting ‘stay put’ in my mind over and over so I didn’t chase Ophelia again when she inevitably ran.
Except she wasn’t running. Her thighs squeezed together, and her pink tongue darted out to swipe her bottom lip as she stared at my mouth.
″Wow. I mean, your teeth always appear to be designed for mauling creatures great and small, but right now… They’re just really impressive,” she said, her own blunt teeth worrying her bottom lip, eyes hooded. “Like you could really take a chunk out of me if you wanted to.”
″Ophelia,” I warned, practically salivating at the thought of sinking my fangs into her flesh.
″Allerick,” she replied, mimicking my tone.
We both startled, staring at each in other in realization. She’d never called me by just my first name before. I growled possessively, my body lurching forward so fast I nearly ripped my claws off before I forced myself to still.
Instead of running, my perfect, trusting wife sauntered over to me, climbing into my lap, her slick sliding down me as she pressed her hot center over my cock, rocking her hips with a needy moan.
″I’m wrestling with my self-control right now.”
″I know,” she assured me, leaning forward and running her blunt teeth over the spot in my neck I so desperately wanted to mark on her’s. “So am I.”
″I don’t want to hurt you.”
″It hurts when you hold yourself back,” she countered, nipping harmlessly at my skin before making the most adorable growl of frustration. “This is a weird and unusual urge, yet we both feel it. We’ve seen the evidence that it’s a thing, or it was back in the olden days. I’m okay with it. You need to get okay with it too.”
I was too okay with it, if anything. I flipped her onto her back, grabbing the back of her head to cushion the impact with my hand, and loomed over her, my teeth bared.
″Bite me,” she demanded, tipping her head back to expose her neck, her legs wrapping around my hips so she could continue to grind her cunt on my knot.
I dropped my head to the crook of her neck, my muscles shaking with the effort of keeping myself still as I inhaled her delicious molten sugar scent.
″It’s going to hurt.”
″You can kiss it better,” she murmured, her breath hitching at the first scrape of fangs against her sensitive skin. Her legs tightened around me, hands gripping my biceps, but there was no sourness of fear to be found.
My teeth pressed down, not quite breaking the skin.
Ophelia’s scent sweetened.
I reached between us, pressing my cock to her entrance and pushing forward with no resistance.
Ophelia groaned, using her thighs to leverage herself and take me deeper.
Too good. Too perfect. Too irresistible.
My teeth clamped down before I could give her a final warning, and I nearly came at the sudden tang of blood hitting my tongue. Ophelia relaxed in my hold, sighing contentedly like she’d just received a hit of something potent to her system.
Please don’t let this be hurting her.
″So good,” Ophelia moaned. “Now fuck me.”
″So demanding,” I teased, my voice muffled as I extracted my teeth and lapped at the mark with my tongue. It was huge and distinctive—dominating the right side of her throat. An unmissable, unmistakable claiming.
Mine.
Ophelia was all fucking mine.
The ferocity of my need to possess her took me off guard as I braced myself on my forearms on either side of her and started savagely thrusting into her, fucking her into the ground. My wife gave as good as she got, nails raking down my arms as she attempted to meet my movements, flattening her feet on the ground for better leverage.
″Legs up,” I demanded, barely recognizing my own voice. Ophelia immediately complied, grabbing the back of her knees and hauling them up to her shoulders, opening herself up to me. One hand slid between her legs, roughly rubbing her clit as she chased her release, and it might have been the sexiest thing I’d ever seen.
″Allerick!” she gasped, clenching around me as she came, and as much as the sweet sound of my name on her lips tempted me to follow, I wasn’t ready for this to be over yet.
The beast wasn’t ready for this to be over yet.
I shifted my weight so I was up on my knees, using my now free hands to grab her hips and bouncing her on my cock like she was a vessel for my pleasure and nothing else. The beast in me enjoyed showing off my strength, but it was more that I knew she liked it. She liked knowing I was bigger and stronger than she was. Her scent sweetened deliciously whenever I demonstrated the physical differences between us.
Ophelia’s gasps and breathy moans grew louder, her movements almost frantic, and her sudden orgasm taking us both by surprise. Too tight. My knot swelled, locking us into place like my cock was worried of being pushed out if I didn’t come at that exact moment.
Ophelia’s legs shook as I filled her up, and I immediately gathered her up to my body and rolled us so that she was draped over me, something settling in me as she slumped so trustingly into my embrace.
This felt right in a way that nothing ever had—there was a warm, pleasantly tight feeling in my chest that felt somehow permanent. Like I was attached to Ophelia in a way that I didn’t yet fully understand.
My tongue found its way to the bite mark, tracing the wound for a moment by instinct before I realized what I was doing and pulled back. Ophelia seemed just as surprised by the gesture as I was.
″Do you feel that? In your chest?” I asked, eager to draw attention away from my strange behavior. Ophelia nodded, looking a little dazed.
For a moment, she reached up, her hand ghosting over my hair before seemingly thinking better of it. Her cheeks flushed the prettiest shade of pink, and I almost reassured her that she could touch me wherever she liked, but she spoke before I had a chance.
″It’s weird that it doesn’t hurt,” she sighed, blinking sleepily up at me. “It just feels good. Like I’m all drugged up on happy hormones or something.”
She said it like it was a good thing, but the idea of drugging her in any form didn’t sit well with me. I couldn’t bring myself to regret the connection between us, whatever it was, but I was panicking slightly at the way it had happened.
We’d barely discussed it. What if Ophelia had wanted it in the heat of the moment but regretted it now?
She shivered slightly on top of me, her skin cooling in the breeze despite lying atop my higher body temperature.
″We need to get you inside,” I growled, banding my arms around her back, worried that she was going to freeze to death out here. “You’re cold.”
Ophelia shook with laughter for a moment before her laughs turned into a moan, a languid orgasm taking over, making her limp. With the bite, I hadn’t noticed that my power reserves were growing steadily again, Ophelia’s lust feeding me more than I probably took in months from humans. As soon as I could drag myself away from her, I was going to need to siphon.
″We definitely didn’t think this through,” she rasped. “This is an awkward position to relax in outside.”
I snorted, cloaking us in shadows and manipulating them until they solidified into a makeshift blanket. It wasn’t overly warm, but it would be enough to keep the wind off her skin.
How much clothing did human bodies actually require to keep them safe from the elements? I’d shredded Ophelia’s clothes with almost no effort, surely it hadn’t actually been doing anything to maintain her body heat.
″Thank you for indulging me with the whole chasing thing,” Ophelia said quietly, her head resting on my bicep. “Did you like it? I mean, you seemed to, but I just wanted to make sure you weren’t uncomfortable…”
Her words soothed something in me—a part of me that worried I was just a means to an end for Ophelia. A convenient way for her to fulfill her fantasies and nothing more.
″I enjoyed it very much,” I assured her. “You don’t, er, regret the bite? Hunting you brought out my most primal instincts. Perhaps it was unwise of me to agree to it when I was already so on edge—”
″I like the bite,” Ophelia interrupted. “It feels comforting.”
Good thing her head was still resting on my chest so she couldn’t see my smug grin. “And I wasn’t too rough?”
″You could be rougher, I wouldn’t mind,” she replied, a teasing lilt to her voice. I didn’t think I could be rougher. I liked the idea of hunting Ophelia, catching her, pinning her down and demonstrating my strength, but the idea of actually hurting her was abhorrent.
I ran my claws down her side, lingering at the soft dip at her waist and enjoying the light shudder that morphed into a gentle orgasm, her squeezing cunt draining my balls dry.
″You probably think it’s crazy that I used to be envious of the regular humans who were stalked through the night by Shades,” Ophelia laughed breathily. “I’ve always had weird thoughts like that. We used to have lessons about Shades and what was expected of us as future Hunters—”
Murder, I thought wryly.
″—and I’d be daydreaming about trying to befriend the Shades the whole time.” I could hear the smile in her voice, and I quickly hid my responding one in her hair.
Was Ophelia unique? Or had she just hidden her proclivities more poorly than her peers?
″I don’t think you’re crazy. Young Shades are always curious about the human realm, perhaps even a little idealistic about what their experiences there will be like. It’s something that is trained out of them for their own safety.”
″That’s sad,” Ophelia breathed, lazily drawing circles on my inner arm with a finger. I did my best to hold still, wanting my knot to soften as quickly as possible so I could get her inside where it was warm. “Though with the treaty in place, maybe it won’t have to be like that anymore, right? Maybe they can keep some of that idealism now.”
″Not in our lifetimes,” I murmured, hating to dash her optimism but not wanting her to get her hopes up. The treaty was a ceasefire, but there was no love lost between Shades and Hunters.
″Speaking of,” Ophelia said cautiously. “I’ve been meaning to ask, how old are you?”
″Worried you’re impaled on a thousand-year-old monster?” I teased.
Ophelia’s cunt clenched around me, her breath hitching. “Don’t say impaled.”
″Why? You like it,” I replied with a grin, forcing myself not to move. “I am thirty years old. Our life spans are not so different from yours, though we reproduce much less prolifically.”
Nowadays, at least. From our records, there used to be far more Shades.
″You’re a very young king,” Ophelia observed quietly.
″I was crowned five years ago. My father was killed while feeding in the human realm.” That was enough to make my knot soften, and I carefully pulled free, my wife sucking in a gasp of surprise at the loss of contact.
″I’m so sorry, Allerick.”
She meant it too. Her big brown eyes were filled with remorse, a faint sheen over them as if she might cry for my pain.
″It wasn’t your doing,” I replied wryly, helping her upright. “That’s what it is to be a Shade. We’re apex predators here, but we need to travel to the human realm to feed, and in your domain, we’re all but helpless prey. If there had been no connection between us, no attraction, I still would have respected our marriage as a critical element of the treaty which I will do everything in my power to preserve to keep my people safe.”
″I will too,” Ophelia agreed quietly. “Do whatever I can to preserve the treaty. I don’t want Shades to die either.”
″I believe you, Queen Ophelia.”
I covered my own body with my usual cloak of shadows before manipulating the blanket I’d made into a garment for her. My chest swelled with pride at the way she admired the makeshift dress—it was a big moment, although Ophelia didn’t realize it. She was wearing my shadows in public, soaked in my scent, wearing my mark on her neck.
Though just like after our coupling in the throne room, no one but Levana would see because I fully intended for her to go ahead of us and clear the way. As much as I liked the idea of parading my wife through the palace dressed in shadows and dripping with cum, I didn’t think she’d be as fond of the idea and I didn’t want to embarrass her.
Ophelia gathered up the scraps of clothing, giving me a withering look as she balled the material up.
″I’m leaking,” she complained with a sigh, using the material to wipe her inner thighs.
″Well, I could always carry you back to minimize the mess,” I pointed out, the now-sated beast inside me eager to carry his prize back through the palace.
″I swear you planned this all along,” Ophelia muttered, reaching for me automatically. There was that strange sensation in my chest again.
I picked her up easily, and she tucked some of the fabric between her legs, hidden by shadows, grumbling good-naturedly the entire time before wrapping her arms around my neck.
″Are you sure you can carry me all the way back?” Ophelia asked doubtfully as we moved towards the gate.
I snorted. “Remember, you’re in my realm and I’m the apex predator here, little queen. Besides, you walk so slowly. The sooner we are back in your room, the sooner I can knot you again.”
