“I am willing to learn,” I protest. “I simply am the greatest and the best warrior in all Ulfaria. The most suited to rule.”
“Might makes right? Might isn’t everything.”
“Sometimes, might is necessary.”
She raises a blonde eyebrow, a sly look on her face. “So if I fight you in hand to hand combat and win, I become king?”
“No.” I have learned to be wary when she wears this expression. I need to stop this conversation before she gets ideas. “That bird, on your leg.” I trace it gently. The brilliant colors shimmer on her pale skin. “It’s beautiful. Were you born with it?” I haven’t seen Emma completely naked, so I have no comparisons with other Hoo-man women. Do they all have such pictures on their skin? “We Ulfarri are born with our markings.” I indicate the bare slice of my chest not covered by the robe.
She lets out a little laugh. “No, we are not born with these. It’s a hummingbird. I don’t know why I got it. My memories are… messed up. For instance, I know that this is a tattoo, that I went and had it done, but I don’t remember where, or why. Why I chose this image.”
“Did it hurt?”
“Probably. They make loads of tiny holes in your skin and fill them with ink. That’s how it stays. Forever.”
My cock twitches as I recall her vocal and wet responses to pain when I’m rutting her. “Did you enjoy it?”
She shrugs. “Honestly? I don’t remember.”
Interesting. I make a mental note to ask the magicians whether memory loss will likely be an issue for all the new Hoo-mans we bring to Ulfaria.
There’s a knock on the door and then three servants enter, all bearing trays. Taking the nearest goblet, I gulp the wine down greedily, then motion for Kim to have some. “My special wine,” I explain. “Try it.”
She takes a sip, then scrunches up her face. “It’s sour. I prefer the other stuff.”
“Other stuff?”
“What they gave me at the harem.”
I raise a questioning eyebrow at one of the servants.
“Himajuice?” she supplies, although it sounds like she’s not sure.
“Bring us some,” I command. Kim is already halfway through a bowl of soup. She eats the same way she fucks: greedily, and with abandon. Not ladylike at all. Her lips purse as she slurps the broth.
Ulf, I’m getting hard again. I distract myself by filling a plate with food.
“You may leave us,” I tell the servants, once they have set everything down.
“Yes, your Majesty.”
“This is good,” Kim says, still chewing. She is nothing like the elegant, submissive courtesans I’m used to—and yet I can’t take my eyes off her. Even her lack of manners is somehow alluring. Even now, as she sits cross-legged on my bed, a cushion balanced on her slim thighs to cover her nakedness, her golden hair unkempt, my cock aches with my desire to be inside her once again.
“I’m glad you like it,” I say, deciding to send her back to the harem the moment we’re done eating. While she clearly enjoys some forms of pain during the rut, I do not want to injure her, and if my cock is sore, I dread to think what kind of a state her cunt must be in. She needs a rest.
Ulf knows, I need a rest myself.
“It’s stew—”
Kim holds up her palm to silence me. Nobody has ever dared evenattemptto stop me from speaking, let alone managed it. Which is why I’m so incredulous that I obey, and wait to see what she says next. “I don’t want to know,” she tells me, bossily. “If it’s some kind of animal, I don’t want to know. I just know that it’s good, and it would go great with beer.”
“Beer?”
She huffs. “It’s brewed with… hops? I guess? Maybe you’d call it ale? I don’t know. It’s a golden drink with thick white froth on top. I just know I’d really like one right about now.”
“I will have the magicians look into it,” I say. “I’m sorry I cannot offer you one this instant.”
She looks at me suspiciously, then swallows her current mouthful. “Are you actually apologizing for something?”
