It was only Kalfr’s gasp behind her that cut through the haze, his clawed hands gripping at her bare hips — and oh fuck, he gave it. His cock straining and spasming inside her, spraying out hot jets of fresh molten seed, filling her, favouring her. While before her, Gaelfr hissed too, his body stiffening — and then he, too, sprayed out hard and deep inside her. His head tipping back, his fingers sinking into her hair, as Raye wildly fought to drink, to swallow, to take anything and everything they would give —
Until finally, her own euphoria thundered out too, shattering all through her, trembling her between them. Milking out every last drop of them, making them both hers, hers,hers.
She couldn’t have said how long they stayed there, straining and shuddering together, while the tension and the strength slowly slipped away. Until Gaelfr and Kalfr both eased back, and drew their softened bodies out of her. Kalfr’s releasing from between her legs with a lurid squelch, spewing a flood of liquid heat, while Gaelfr’s pulled out of her mouth with a slurp, leaving a string of seed and saliva streaking from her swollen lips, pooling off her chin.
It was a highly compromising, humiliating position, pouring out their combined mess onto the altar on both ends, and Raye’s wide-eyed glance up toward Gaelfr’s face felt uneasy, evenfearful. What… what would they do now? What had that meant? Had it truly been a prayer, a way to prove herself, or had it been a punishment? Or something in between?
She couldn’t read that look in Gaelfr’s eyes, or the slight quiver of his hand as he tucked his plump softened length back into his trousers again. But then his hand rose to pat her hot, sticky cheek, his thumb brushing against her lips.
“This was good,sæta,” he said, rough. “The goddess shall see your offering, and your anointing of her altar with our fresh seed.”
Raye’s exhale shuddered out, but the unease pulsed louder, closer. And when she risked a furtive glance backwards, Kalfr looked stunned, too. He was sitting back on his heels, his half-hard cock dripping white onto his sagging trousers, while his breaths heaved from his sweaty chest, and his glittering eyes held…there. To the mess he’d just made of her. To where it was still pouring liberally down onto the altar, surely pooling over the bloodstains beneath.
But then his eyes snapped up, and met Raye’s gaze — and in a jolting movement, he shoved backwards, off the altar entirely. He looked pale, hunted, panicked, especially when his wide eyes flicked up to the sky. It was well past noon now, but the sun was still bright amidst the treetops, and — oh. A slim, pale crescent moon, high in the sky above them, like a hidden watching eye.
Kalfr blinked at it for another frozen, dangling moment, one hand spasming against his heart, while the other yanked up his trousers. And his feet stumbled backwards, away, as if he was leaving, he was leaving…
“Kalfr,” cut in Gaelfr’s voice, low and firm. “Stay, but a moment, and help me tend her. She is yet your mate, and” — his voice dropped — “the mother of ourson.”
But even if Kalfr hadn’t shaken his head like that, those words still would have swung through Raye, thudding deep andsickening in her gut. His mate. The mother of his son. Who Kalfr had just fucked, and shared, andpunished. Who he’d told not to look at him, or speak to him. And who he couldn’t even bear to look at now, shaking his head, backing away, away, away…
“Kalfr,” Gaelfr said again, but it was too low, too late. Because Kalfr had already whirled around, and sprinted away through the trees.
31
Kalfr had left. Left.
The truth of it pitched and swayed in Raye’s belly, in her shaky body still on her knees, still dripping his mess. His leavings. He’dleft.
“Ach, naught to fret over,sæta,” came Gaelfr’s voice, along with a light pat to her cheek. “You did the same to him just this morn, did you not? And he will not go far now. He will only end up hunting us supper, I ken.”
But Raye suddenly couldn’t stand to look at him, and she hung her head, blinked at the wet-streaked stone beneath her. “He still — punished me, again,” she choked. “Didn’t he? To do that, to not even let melookat him, and then —”
She couldn’t finish, her words breaking, and Gaelfr’s hand settled beneath her chin, raising her head, making her meet his eyes. “I told you, did I not?” he replied, as he drew what appeared to be a clean cloth out of his pocket, and began wiping at her wet face. “Kalfr needs to learn to trust you again. Even if this means testing you, or wielding his power over you. And you offering this to him thus, without judgement or shame…”
His voice hesitated, as his hand lifted her chin higher, and gently wiped the cloth at her lips. “This was good,sæta,” he murmured. “This will help him. Thisdidhelp him.”
Raye grimaced and shook her head, but Gaelfr’s grip tightened on her chin, his cloth now carefully nudging at her nose. “You heard what he told us, before this,” he continued, with a crack in his voice. “How he wished us toleavehim, so he could offer himself up to his enemy. So he could meet his owndeath. Ach?”
Raye nodded, brief and miserable, while Gaelfr nudged her sideways, away from the mess beneath her, and then guided her down to lie on her back on the altar. A kind of proprietary handling that she should have refused, but she couldn’t muster the will, or even the ability to move.
“But this,” Gaelfr said, as he kept wiping, now down at where his seed had spilled onto her collarbones. “This has granted him more cause to stay. This will have soothed his bond, and deepened his draw toward you. And given him hope of yet more pleasure with us, thus. More peace.”
Raye grimaced and shook her head, and fought to ignore Gaelfr’s cloth slipping downwards between her breasts, still concealed beneath her ragged dress. “But he clearly didn’t find pleasure in it, with me,” she countered. “Let alonepeace.”
Gaelfr harrumphed and shook his head, and then picked up Raye’s slack hand, turning it around to where — oh. It was reddened and scraped, surely from the altar’s hard stone. And somehow, she hadn’t even felt it, amidst everything else.
“You did not see him in this, woman,” Gaelfr said, raising her hand to his mouth, and as Raye’s fingers spasmed, he began carefully licking her palm, his tongue slick and gentle against the scraped skin. “Nor scent him.”
Raye blinked at him, attempting to force her sluggish thoughts to follow, while Gaelfr kept intently licking her palm,until he seemed satisfied. And next, without warning, he slipped one of her fingers into his hot mouth, too. Sucking against it with surprising gentleness, stroking his tongue against the reddened skin, before moving onto the next finger, and the next.
“I have not yet scented him thus since first we came,” he continued, as he carefully set her hand down again. “Nor seen him thus, either. He was at peace in this, for even just these moments. And it wasyouwho granted this to him.”
Raye swallowed, and blankly watched while Gaelfr picked up her other hand and frowned mightily down at its also-scraped palm, and promptly began licking it, too. “B-but,” Raye protested weakly. “Kalfr was still… angry. It was still… a punishment. He wanted to… shame me. Humiliate me.”
But at that, Gaelfr paused his licking, and shook his head. “Ach, he was yet angry,” he replied, “but he did notshameyou, woman. In truth, he granted you a great honour. He yet gave you his prick and his seed, and allowed you to anoint the goddess’ altar with his fresh bounty. And he did this here, before another Bautul witness, beneath the goddess’ eye.”
He shot a purposeful glance up toward the pale moon in the blue sky above them, as though that explained everything, but Raye still wasn’t following. “Why does that matter?” she asked. “What difference does it make?”
