Deep within a forest in Romania…
The Carpathian mountains rising above the dark green silhouettes of the three-hundred-year-old trees were no match for the splendour of the castle, protected within the virgin forest. On its intricately carved balcony, a young woman stood trembling. She’d sensed him, and her toes curled on the cold grey stone.
He waited in the shadows, naked, admiring her beauty highlighted by the silvery moonlight. The night wind danced between them, and the scent of her arousal wafted toward him.
“I smell you, my queen.”
He drew near. His hands gathered her hair and braided the ebony locks, waving messily about her shoulders. His hard-edged yet handsome face unravelled her, and his hungry lips brushed the nape of her neck. “You did well today.” Light touches to her heated flesh followed. Roughness mixed with gentleness always kept her guessing his next move.
She turned her head, desperation in her eyes as more wetness gathered within her folds. “Will you have me beg? You know I’ve been suffering.”
He gripped her jaw and kissed her hard on the mouth.
“It was what you needed, brave Nadia.”
He wrapped an arm around her waist when her knees buckled from another passionate kiss.
“When I deny your release, it gives you that edge — that aggressive fire — that served you well for the negotiations. I know harshness isn’t your true nature.”
She faced forward again but lay her head back on his shoulder, pulling his arm tighter around her waist. “You know me better than I know myself, Dragan.”
Her hips rotated in slow circles, lightly grinding her arse against his hardening cock. He moaned, and she increased the pressure.
“So needy, my queen. Perhaps I should remind you who’s in control.”
He curled his fingers, summoning the vines further up the balcony wall. Nadia looked down, and her pulse quickened as the vines wound tightly around her ankles, securing her legs against the concrete balusters.
Dragan grasped her hands and stretched her arms to the sides like a bird flying. “I’m leaving your wrists unbound tonight. A symbol of the freedom you’ve given us all.”
She turned her head toward him again, offering her best pout. “I need you, Dragan. I’m aching.”
She was ripe. He released her hands and ripped the back of her dress open with his long nails, revealing her slender shoulders, waist, and shapely arse. She trembled, feeling his possessive gaze on her naked backside.
“You’re mine. Say it.”
She panted, “I’m yours.” All her stresses disappeared, and evidence of her arousal trickled down her thigh. Only with Dragan could she free her mind, relinquishing control.
He grasped her hips and squatted, then rose, dragging his stiffening cock up the valley between her cheeks. “Bend over,” he growled, his arousal quickly reaching its peak.
She obeyed, bent over the balustrade, and he wasted no time thrusting deeply inside her molten core.
Her head dipped, and as he penetrated her, he grasped her throat, squeezing gently and keeping her head raised to the breathtaking panoramic view that was now theirs to enjoy forever.
With a powerful thrust of his hips, Dragan buried his hardness deep and held it there, letting her enjoy the sustained fullness and stretch of her insides. A deep, guttural moan escaped her lips. She’d been starving for his cock and hugged it tightly with her muscles; dare he try to withdraw.
Dragan spoke with pride in his voice. “Look, Nadia. Look at your lands — the sanctuary you’ve guaranteed for us all.”
Tears of joy pooled in her lower lids. They were finally safe and at peace with the villages lining the forest. Boundary lines had been drawn. The treaty had been signed.
Then, his fuck began in earnest. Braced against the stone, she fully absorbed every forceful thrust.
Her screams of ecstasy drew the ravens from their perches; they dived and twirled, mixing with the blackness of the night. Soon naked bodies appeared below, writhing in pleasure on the leaf-carpeted forest floor, fucking hard, and celebrating with their queen.
~O~
More than a century later…
The rising sun stretched its rays through the open doors to warm the chilly stone floor where tips of toes rested. Bruised wrists hung limp from their iron chains. The bound one whimpered, exhausted and sated, with her orgasm continuing to ripple through her body as a substantial cock thrust upward, overflowing her well-used pussy with the last drop of seed.
Moments earlier, when he had deemed her ready, the flick of a crop against her most sensitive flesh had propelled her over the edge. He always knew what she needed. As her alpha mate, it was his role to know.
He withdrew from her, and his slick appendage collapsed against his meaty thigh; it, too, was exhausted and sated.
After releasing his lover’s wrists, he scooped her into his arms, holding her tightly. She nuzzled her nose against his neck and whispered words of love and adoration.
“Let me draw you a soothing bath, my sweet Nadia.”
“Join me?” She said with a raspy voice, hoarse from their rough mating.
“Mmm,” he kissed her mouth, “when I return. I want to check your borders first.”
She wriggled free, standing on her own, her brows knitting together in concern. “Should I be worried, Dragan?”
“That’s what I intend to see. The outsiders are venturing nearer than ever before. Their lifespan doesn’t mirror ours, and I fear some have forgotten the treaty signed by their forefathers.”
~O~
A stick cracked underneath Bucur’s heavy boot, drawing a whispered curse from his cracked lips. Too late; the frightened buck leapt across the creek, which served as the border between peoples.
Imagining the earthy, rich flavour of venison on his tongue and the twelve-point antlers mounted above his fireplace, Bucur recklessly crossed into the forbidden territory, determined to kill the deer.
There it stood — a picture of serenity in a patch of forest undergrowth — seemingly believing itself safe.
Foolish creature, Bucur thought. Then he lined up the shot, held his breath, and pulled the trigger.
The buck fell.
Kraa! Kraa! Kraa!
Bucur jumped back at the shrill sounds, stumbled over a root, and fell on his plump arse. Looking up, he spied the raven eying him… screeching at him! Desperate to end the bloody noise, he drew his gun again and shot the raven.
The bird flew backward off its branch and spiralled downward with the impact mangling its body.
In the distance, Queen Nadia burst from her bath and stumbled, naked and dripping wet, onto the balcony. Her eyes were wild, searching, scanning the horizon.
“Dragan!” she screamed his name repeatedly, but no one came.
She clutched her heart and collapsed, uncontrollably sobbing. Dozens of ravens dove toward her, surrounded her in a protective cocoon and joined her ear-piercing screams with cries of their own.
Days of endless mourning followed with her becoming uncommunicative, unable to see a life ahead without her beloved. Then, her grief morphed into a rage — a rage boiling from newly created dark crevices of her soul. She knew what her fallen mate would expect from her and organised the flock.
~O~
Although the sun shone brightly upon the village, an early riser named Vasile noticed an isolated, menacing cloud in the distance, moving swiftly across the otherwise serene morning sky.
Vasile’s son soon joined him, inquiring what held his father’s intense gaze. Both froze with growing apprehension, watching the threatening cloud approach them. When the cloud broke apart into black flecks that began falling, their blood ran cold, and they ran toward their dwelling for cover.
A raven dropped from the sky onto a rooftop. Then another. And another. All loudly cawing. More dived at the windows, breaking glass and chasing the villagers from their homes. These ravens were nearly twice the size of typical ravens. Terrified men, women, and children huddled in the village centre while the ravens circled them, continuing their caws, unbearable to the villagers’ ears.
Then, the ravens suddenly fell silent. An elder, Timotei, pointed to the forest's edge where a statuesque group appeared. The woman in front wore a black dress moulded to deadly curves and an elaborate black mask with gleaming feathers sprouting from the top. She stood surrounded by men wearing metal chest plates with ripples of muscles proudly on display. They wielded varying ancient weapons.
As the masked woman approached the villagers, some whispered about her identity, but Timotei knew. She was Queen Nadia. He’d never laid eyes upon her before, but her appearance precisely matched the stories passed down by his ancestors.
“Tell me, villagers of Colti, why I shouldn’t have my flock rip the flesh from your bones?” Her voice was eerily calm while speaking the terrifying words.
Many gasped. Others drew their guns, drawing a raucous from the surrounding ravens. Timotei ran to the front of the villagers, placing himself between them and the strangers, wildly waving his hands.
“Please, my friends, put down your weapons! Let us discern what this is about. You are Queen Nadia?”
“I am.”
“Forgive us. Our village hasn’t seen you for over a century, yet time hasn’t touched your face. I believe you knew my great-grandfather Mahail.”
She drew closer to the man. “Yes, I remember your forefather — a reasonable man.”
“As am I. What has happened to bring your wrath upon us? Do we not still have a treaty?”
“One of yours spit on our treaty, murdering on my lands. Therefore, penance must be paid.”
Before Timotei could protest, one of the warriors pointed at Bucur. “It was him, my queen. It is his stench that I smelled that morning on Dragan.”
Acting as one conscious, the people backed away from Bucur, leaving him quivering alone as an apparent sacrifice. “No, please, not me!” he begged, running from man to man only to be brushed aside.
The queen’s pupils devoured her grey irises, and she raged, spinning around, glaring at each frightened face. “You think the one with a black heart, the one who killed not one but two innocents on my lands, is a suitable replacement for my beloved!”
“Your beloved?” gasped Timotei.
“Yes, he killed my mate!”
Bucur yelled, “She lies. I only killed a deer and an ugly ra—.”
Before he had finished his sentence, a raven swooped down to his face, wildly flapping its wings while Bucur frantically tried to fend off the bird’s attack. It was over in a few moments, and the raven flew back to a rooftop with blood dripping from its beak. Bucur was left screaming with his eyeballs pecked out. The villagers shook in horror as a woman took pity on him and bound his eyes.
Queen Nadia pointed her finger at the blinded man. “Now, horrid monster, you cannot kill what you cannot see.”
“What would you have us do?” Timotei pleaded.
“You will sacrifice a male to me. A strong male, important to your village, as an atonement for violating the treaty.”
The townspeople gasped. Women clung to their husbands, sobbing. Then, Queen Nadia heard a male voice above the cries — a voice deep and steady. “I’ll go.” He shook off the pretty young woman named Daniela, fighting to hold him back, and fixedly walked toward the queen. He stopped when his toes almost touched hers. He loomed more than a head taller than Queen Nadia.
“I’ll go with you as long as you hurt no one else and forgive us this wrong.”
The queen admired his bravery. The lone man not soiling himself in fear. She grabbed his face with both hands and pierced his eyes with her own, peering inside his soul. She saw a man of great strength and integrity but a part of his Spirit (and she didn’t know how great a part) was broken in some way. He, in turn, recognised something in her eyes — the root of her anger — pain.
She raked a long, curved fingernail down his cheek, drawing a fine line of blood, to which he never flinched. “I grant you tonight to settle your affairs, then present yourself tomorrow at the border of my lands when the sun first peeks above the horizon.”
Before the queen and her flock crossed the tree line, she paused and looked back over her shoulder, again locking eyes with him. “If you don’t come… everyone dies.”
How can such nasty things come from such a beautiful mouth? Andrei wondered, not nearly as afraid as he should have been.
~O~
Andrei couldn’t stifle his disappointment. “I’d thought the queen would be here?” Part of his body stiffened, recalling his dream of her the night before that had him waking to a wet bed cover.
“The queen’s whereabouts aren’t your concern, mongrel,” responded one of his escorts, Ion.
“My name is Andrei.”
“Your name is whatever my queen wishes it to be for as long as she decides you shall live, mongrel.”
Ion tested his patience. “If your queen wishes it, I’ll give my life to right the wrongs of my people because I’m a man of peace…” he took a step closer to Ion, “...until I’m not.”
A raven cawed overhead, and Ion immediately backed away with a grumble. They spoke no more and started their journey, keeping pace with the ravens. Andrei was indeed curious as to their obvious connection to the birds.
Soon, he reached a clearing and saw something that stole his breath. It was the crowning glory of the ancient forest — a castle. His pace quickened for a closer inspection. Stacked stones, each unique in size and shape, formed the walls. Vibrant green ivy climbed the front, giving colour to the grey-stoned structure. It was as if he had stepped onto a page from one of his childhood storybooks.
His eyes soon discovered a sight that proved even more breathtaking — naked men and women fucking in and around a bubbling stream running alongside the castle. Each was uniquely beautiful but had identical black hair that the darkest night sky would envy. And then something extraordinary happened. A few ravens spiralled down from the trees, transforming into human forms. He continued watching as a couple who’d been fucking stepped out of the stream. Wings sprung from arms and claws from feet before the newly formed ravens flew to a nearby branch and perched. They dried their spread wings in the sun’s rays that breached the tree canopy.
Is this real? He spun in circles, struggling to keep up with the magical scenes unfolding around him.
A stunning woman introduced herself as Cristina, then tugged on his arm and told him to follow her with the few belongings he’d brought. Andrei followed Cristina through the enormous wooden door into the castle. She started up the steep marble stairs, and he struggled not to trip as the swing of her bare hips was quite mesmerising. He’d always admired the shape of a woman’s backside, in particular, the cleft that split her perfectly rounded buttocks in a most delightful way.
