48

* Almost at the end of volume 4, currently writing chapter 50.

*

46 - First Flight

'I don't like the smell of this.' said Ulric when he went a few steps down the stone stairs in the wall. 'It smells as if something old and menacing lurks down there, awaiting fools with an abundance of curiosity and not of weaponry.'

Susi sniffed and growled softy. 'Susi not like it. Nasty smell.'

He looked up at Iphigenia and Elzbieta standing in the opening. 'We should be very cautious when going down here.'

Iphigenia stroked Susi's head. 'Then I suggest we take a good rest and stock up on ammunition.' she said, and smiled a little playfully at him. 'We need to recharge ourselves as well.'

He chuckled. 'Yes, you have a very important point there.'

Back in the space transformed to the common room inside the Cat, they told Isazea about what they found. She pondered for a little while. 'I don't remember anyone ever mentioning something like that. There's also nothing about this tower in the books I have in any case.'

'We'll need lights down there.' said Ulric. 'Do we have anything useful apart from burning torches or lanterns?'

Valdys checked her library. 'I might be able to create light spheres.'

'Problem with that could be the light shining in our eyes, unless you can limit it.'

'It's basically a ball of light, nothing else.'

'A flashlight would be useful now.'

Isazea looked up. 'What's that?'

Ulric gestured the shape with his paws. 'It's sort of a tube, a lamp at one side, and batteries, which have power in them like mana stones, inside it to power the lamp.'

She twitched the tip of her tail. 'Let me try.' she said, and left the room to head for her workspace.

Iphigenia nudged Conchim. 'So, ready to tell?'

She looked a little puzzled at her. 'Tell, what?'

'Why you really came with us, of course.'

Elzbieta raised one eyebrow and everyone, even Susi, gazed at Conchim while her cheeks turned hot. She had practiced telling Ulric in her mind several times, but she still couldn't make herself speak the words, and she glanced around, not daring to look him in the eyes.

'It's okay if you can't tell us.' he said and smiled gently at her. 'You can do that whenever you feel you can. You're one of us now and something like a little secret won't change a thing.'

She imagined a real strong mate would want to know and not trust someone hiding things from the others, but her heart also wanted that warm feeling of care he gave, and she groaned in frustration. She moved forward and pushed him back into the pile of cushions he sat in. 'I only wanted a strong mate in my life but then you came along and I thought you were strong but then we also had to help you so you're not that strong but I still want to be at your side and how can you be so nice when you could take so much more!'

He chuckled and blushed. 'I could say I'm sorry, but I also don't feel so sorry about being wanted by a lovely creature such as yourself.'

She gripped the fur of his chest. 'But I'm just a harpy and I don't even know why I want a bloodwolf instead one of my own kind!'

Valdys laughed. 'Girl, did you look around you? You know by now how we feel about for each other. What we are has nothing to do with it.'

Kaui smiled softly. 'I think Master's kindness and his trust in us is his strength.'

Elzbieta cleared her throat. 'I know many warriors who are stronger with the sword or warhammer, but I still think darling is the strongest man I've ever met. Well, man as in relatively speaking.'

Iphigenia giggled. 'I second that. Wolfie is more than strong enough for us and he's making us stronger as well. And I'm not just talking about our tallies.'

Conchim looked back at her. 'He raises your tallies and more?'

Iphigenia smiled playfully. 'If you really want him for a mate, you'll find out.'

Conchim looked at Ulric, and he grinned sightly in embarrassment. 'I have this certain ability, but it also means you'll bond with me and it seems that can't be broken, so I don't want you to regret it later when I can't fulfill your expectations or hurt you in any way.'

Her imagination of what a strong mate was and his honest kindness clashed in her mind, but the memories of what she witnessed at the pond resurfaced along with her desire for his touch and wish to feel that same happiness the girls felt, and she kissed him hard.

She pulled back after a moment. 'What do we do?'

Ulric chuckled when Conchim didn't hesitate to make the familiar bond with him, even after understanding the consequences, and he caressed her cheek, and looked at every one of his lovers. 'Sometimes I think I'm blessed as much as you're cursed to be with me.'

Iphigenia poked his cheek. 'All the more reason to do everything you can to make us stronger and please us, Wolfie.'

'If this is a curse, I don't ever want to be blessed, Master.' said Kaui.

Valdys smirked. 'I know about a lot of curses and have been subjected to some, but I'm glad to experience this one.'

Elzbieta looked at Susi, whom Valdys had already put to sleep before explaining all the intimate details of Ulric's familiar bond. 'Don't make us wait, darling. We've been in need ever since we fought at the castle.'

He chuckled. 'As have I, my sweet girls.'

They retired quickly to the bedroom where they had made a bed from a large pile of cushions they had bought in the village, and Ulric helped them undress.

Conchim felt the same blush as he did when he removed her garment. 'I don't know anything about harpies, but I do know you are beautiful.' he said, and she kissed him hard again.

'Master?' said Kaui, and held out a choker in her open hands.

He smiled softly at her as he took it. 'Thank you, my cutie.' He turned to Conchim. 'I could say you don't have to if you have any doubt at all, but I realise you don't have them.' She looked straight into his eyes while he fastened the choker around her neck, pitch black contrasting with her sensual black skin, the three oblong red jewels seemingly shining even brighter, and she placed her forehead against his when he bowed his head to her.

She said the words of familiar bonding, and gasped at the overwhelming sensations washing over her. The need of everyone to be one with Ulric, his desire reflecting into their hearts, her heart. Intertwined, yet seperate, unbreakable. This was the strength that attracted her to him, and hers was now a part of it.

Her senses returned in his embrace. She did not just see his momentary worry in the depth of his eyes, but also sensed the warmth of his caring throughout her body. She smiled lovingly at him and ran her fingers through his cheek fur. 'I am yours.'

He smiled and ran his fingers through her head feathers. 'Mine, to love and protect.' he said, and kissed her with newfound passion.

He let her down gently on her back, and although something told her she should be embarrassed by the other girls watching her and him become intimate for the first time, she felt secure in their presence. She closed her eyes and hummed a smooth melody when Ulric kissed her in her neck and one of his paws found its way to her breast, and gently stroked her hardening nipple. Shivvers ran down from her neck through her pounding chest and into her lower abdomen. Her song became more urgent when he moved down and licked her breasts, then licked and sucked on her taut nipples. The thrill building up inside her was more than what she felt the first time flying high up in the sky. Fear and excitement mixed in the expectation of him pushing her even farther up above the clouds.

And his tongue did. His hungry growls for her. His teeth marking her folds his territory. The deep penetration of his agile muscle. The caresses and rough strokes against her sensitive and hot flesh. She sang out loud in her flight amongst the stars.

She clawed at him in a daze, the barely functioning base instincts wanting nothing more than him deep inside her. His hard and hot flesh filling her freed a new thrilling song from the depths of her chest, the pitch of her voice rising and falling with the tempo of his thrusts into her and the intensity of his growling. She wrapped her wings tight around him when his guttural growl filled her mind and his burning seed set her insides on fire, and her song turned into a lustful melody as she plunged down with him into another feral climax.

She relaxed the grip around the cushions in her talons slowly, and gazed through the blur at the other girls around her. Iphigenia chuckled and panted. 'So, this is what flying is like.'

Conchim giggled. 'No, flying is much less exciting.' she breathed and pulled on Ulric's head, kissing him until she ran out of breath again.

She spread her wings above her head in satisfaction. 'I'm glad you needed to come to our territory,'

Ulric chuckled and slipped his paw up from her stomach to her neck and cheek. 'I'm glad I fulfilled your wish.'

Valdys wrapped her arms around him from behind. 'Will you fulfill my wish to fly now?'

He turned his head to kiss her. 'Consider it granted, my beloved.' he said.

She pulled him between her legs as she laid back, and moaned in pleasure when his hot and slick flesh slipped inside her cool and needy body, and Conchim gasped at the new sensation inside her. 'Is this what's it like?' she breathed.

Iphigenia barely giggled as she gripped between her thighs. 'Yes, we all feel what it's like for each other. Be ready for the barrage of bliss.'

Valdys held tight onto the hot bloodwolf pounding her and providing the single source of heat she wanted in her life, and moaned hard in his neck. 'Melt me, my love.'

He growled and all the girls gasped when he bit in her neck. 'I'll burn you with the fire of my desire.'

Valdys held him tighter and uttered her guttural moans. Her desire had grown intenser with every day they couldn't be intimate, and now all she wanted was him devouring her. She clamped down hard around him and the other girls tensed and groaned with her at each shockwave forcing pleasure through her body.

Ulric growled harder in her neck when he sensed her grinding need against him and her shaking as she neared her peak, and his heightened urge to fill her only spurred her on. She loved dying every time in this manner, and threw back her head to release the deep moan along his low groan in their duet of gratification.

He panted while he licked the bitemark in her neck and she ran her fingers through his fur. 'I feel much better now, my love.' she breathed.

He chuckled lightly and caressed her cheek. 'I'm happy to hear that, my dear.' He looked at Elzbieta, Kaui, and Iphigenia. 'I feel more and more energy to love you all.'

'Good.' said Elzbieta and gestured for him to sit on his knees. 'I expect you'll need all your energy when we go down there in the tower.'

He chuckled when he sat ready for her to straddle him. 'You make it possible for me to run to the other side of the planet and back, my dearly beloved ones.'

Elzbieta took him in her hand as she straddled him and already breathed deeper in her desire to ride him. 'If you have that much energy, you should spend it on something better than pointless running, darling.' she said, and sighed at the relief that his penetration brought to her itching insides and chest. His hungry growls resonated through her chest as he licked and bit her breasts and nipples, while sliding slow inside her and grinding hard against her mound. She gripped the longer fur of his nape between her fingers and buried her face in the side of his neck, inhaling his scent and pressing herself harder against him. 'Use me instead, darling.' she moaned in her hoarse voice.

He rocked his hips and ground hard against her mound. 'I'll gladly do that whenever I can, my love.' he growled in her ear and gripped her behind. 'Very gladly.'

Her heart pounded harder knowing he would, that as a member of the proper Elf race, she bonded and became the property of a human in bloodwolf body, a demon, a disgrace in the eyes of everyone she knew. But she didn't care. She loved it and couldn't let go while relishing in the physical thrills he brought her. She wanted all of him, to submit to his animal instincts, and experience it over and over again. Her control over herself slipped from her hands and she moaned loud in his neck while her body yearned for his essence. 'Give me, darling.' she pleaded. 'Give me.'

Her begging was enough to trigger the pressure that had built inside of him, and with a low growl the hot stream released inside of her, and she shuddered at the heat filling her and her mind.

Ulric held his trembling elf tight while she contracted around him in her climax and squeezed every drop out of him.

She kissed him deep and danced with his tongue even before her senses fully returned, and only pulled back when she needed to breath again. He smiled softly at her as he gazed deep into her eyes, and she wished for him and the others to live as long as they could, and never have to lose even a tiny part of the love they shared.

Kaui looked at Iphigenia, and she grinned while breathing deep from the shared climaxes with the others. 'Go on. I want to see Wolfie please himself with all of you before taking me.'

Kaui giggled. 'I love to see Master satisfying himself as well.' she said and watched Elzbieta slip off of Ulric's lap with a deep, satisfying sigh.

'The only reason I can feel satisfied is because you are, my sweet girls.' he said, took Kaui's hand, and pulled her against him and kissed her plump tummy while sliding his paws over her buns.

She smiled and ran her fingers through the fur on his head and stroked his ears. 'Master is all I need to be satisfied.' she whispered with butterflies in her stomach.

Ulric swept her down on her back and grinned. 'All the more reason for Master to give lots of himself to his beloved cutie.'

Kaui's giggle was cut short by her gasp when he slid easily all the way inside her wet pussy, and moaned cutely when he moved back and forth inside of her, grinding against her mound each time his hilt pressed against her. She held on to his knees and bit her lip while he laid his paws on her breasts and massaged her nipples between his fingers. 'I, love, my Master.' she whisper moaned.

Ulric smiled, bent forward, and kissed her. 'And Master loves his plump cutie.' he growled softly against her lips.

Shivvers ran up and down from her toes to her head, and Kaui kissed him again, opening up for him to do as he pleased with her. All doubts she had about herself were erased by his genuine desire for her and his sincerity when he called her beautiful and cute. His paws left invisible traces on her body that she would feel for a very long time and covered her inside and out in lightning magic, and the touch of his fur against her skin surpassed that of the finest garments she'd ever touched. Her hips buckled and she twitched around his firmly thrusting and grinding flesh, and he growled deeper again in reaction to her. 'Come in me, Master.' she uttered in her barely audible hoarse voice. 'Please.'

Ulric growled loud in ecstasy as he came in her depths and watched Kaui's excited expression as she rode her own climax on his, and the deep satisfaction of her eyes glazing over in bliss. He kissed her neck and throat softly until she found enough energy to kiss him again.

Iphigenia smiled with deep lust in her eyes for him. Kaui rolled aside with a satisfied sigh and giggled. 'Master will be in for it now.'

Iphigenia moved on her hands and knees in front of him, and swayed her behind in slow seduction as she looked back over her shoulder at him. 'Don't hold back, Wolfie. Do me as if you don't want me to walk for a week.'

He curled up a corner of his mouth in amusement. 'In that case, I'll try to hold back, my sexy little girl.'

She bit her lip when his heat touched her needy and soaked mound, and gasped along with the rest when he ran his fingers into the back of her hair, grabbed it in a fist, and pulled her head back at the same time he thrust hard into her. The girls could hardly breath at the pounding they underwent in their shared link and clutched and gripped the cushions within their reach. Iphigenia's eyes rolled back in the overwhelming sensation of submission to the snarling monster controlling her and nearly breaking her hips with his relentless pounding. Shockwaves of pleasure under pressure bounced violently through her and kicked her mind away from her consciousness. She felt safe in his domination and use of her. She craved for him to break her, to reduce her to a state less than an animal. She became nothing more than carnal need. The need to fuck and fuck until she gave in to unconsciousness.

Lightning flashed through her mind when her body could no longer contain the barrage of sensations forced through her and she passed out with a primordial, guttural cry, and Ulric growled loud in the violent pulse of his release inside her.

***

Conchim hadn't realised she'd passed out until she barely woke up in the pile of cushions and the other girls around Ulric. She lifted up her head from Ulric's chest and he opened his eyes. 'Hey, love. How do you feel?' he whispered with a gentle smile.

She returned his smile. 'Exhausted. Energetic. Refreshed. I don't know. It's as if I had a really deep sleep after my first flight to the top of the sky and awoke with more strength than ever.'

He carefully pulled an arm free and caressed her cheek. 'We'll check out what effect this had on all of us later, after we're completely rested.'

She rubbed her cheek against his hand, and laid her head back on his soft chest. 'I think I'll love what you've done to me, dear mate.' she said, and closed her eyes with a smile.

47 - Down Below

'My tallies increased again, Wolfie.' said Iphigenia as she checked her own statistics after waking up satisfied with her head in his soft neck. She rubbed her cheek affectionately against his. 'What ability did you receive?'

He looked at his list. 'Black swan.' he said. 'So, wings, a long neck, or maybe webbed feet?' He wiggled his toes to see if they felt different.

Iphigenia giggled. 'You'll just have to try it all.'

Conchim gasped. 'My wind magic has always been minimal, and now it's more than I've ever heard of before.'

'That's the power of Wolfie for you.' said Iphigenia and giggled again.

Conchim turned her head to smile gratefully at Ulric and stroke his muzzle with the back of her fingers. 'Thank you, my strong husband.'

He chuckled and kissed her fingers. 'I'm just the lucky owner of an ability to make that happen, my dear.

'But you still have a heart big enough to enable it for all of us, my love.' said Valdys as she sat up and stretched, and ran her fingers through the fur on his taut abdomen.

He returned her loving gaze. 'How could I not give all of you that I can, my beautiful girls.'

Kaui sat up and bit her lower lip while she ran her fingers along his thigh. 'Could you do it again now, Master?'

He raised an eyebrow as a question, and the blushes and expressions of anticipated pleasure were all the answers he needed. 'I can most certainly, my cutie.'

***

When they arrived later in the kitchen space, complete with a large fireplace to roast large pieces of meat on a rotating skewer, Isazea sat at the table with several metal tubes and stones in front of her. She looked up from under her hood. 'I made something.' she said with her slight lisp.

Everyone sat down at the table to see what it was. She held up one tube, a little longer than the width of her hand, and pointed at the end with a black surface. 'This side is where the light comes out. I made it from a material that lights up when mana's channelled into it.' She turned the tube around, twisted off the end, and caught the roughly cylindrical mana stone that fell out. 'I selected strong mana stones that should provide the strongest light for weeks, just in case it comes in useful.' She returned the stone to the tube, twisted the cap back on, and rotated the end with the light stone. It lit up dimly at first, then became stronger as she rotated the end further, until it lit up bright hot and bathed the kitchen in an eerie white light that suppressed all other colour.