Kingdom of Lust and Lies

Chapter Twenty Eight

"My, my. Did you use your entire arsenal on my poor pet, Tarian?"

Alayna roused at the sound of Xanth's voice, Tarian already awake behind her. His big arm tightened around her, hand covering her exposed breast possessively.

"I gave it my best efforts. I had no idea how responsive she would be."

Alayna opened her eyes just in time to see Xanth smirking. "Indeed she is."

"I don't suppose I could convince you to let me keep her for the day? One night wasn't nearly enough."

"Have mercy, old friend. She looks half dead. Besides, we have business to discuss today."

She felt half dead. Everything on her ached and she was in sore need of a bath. Despite the aches, Alayna forced herself out of the bed, Tarian making a great show of reluctantly releasing her. Her muscles screaming in protest, Alayna walked over to Xanth and went to her knees before him, head lowered submissively.

"Fair enough. But you should expect my visits to increase after last night. I'll be needing more of her, soon."

"You know I'll expect payment in return."

"All you have to do is name your price. It's yours."

Xanth went silent for a moment before speaking again. "You're that pleased with her? Even knowing she started out unwilling?"

"I am. You were right, Xanth. She was made for our kind. Whatever support you need from me, you have it."

"Rise, pet. We'll leave Tarian to bathe and dress for our meeting later."

Alayna did as he bade her and followed him dutifully from the room. They made it halfway to her room before he stopped and commanded her to get on her knees. Alayna dropped down immediately and opened her mouth. He had his cock free with a swiftness that surprised her, the whole of his length invading her mouth not a moment later.

She would have closed her eyes to block out the servants and guards who stepped around them in the hall, but knew he preferred them open. So she kept them trained on him, even while her eyes watered and she choked on his cock. He gripped her by the hair and used her mouth hard, his thrusts punishing and cruel. Alayna remained as still as she could, letting him take his pleasure from her.

"Ughn!" He surged forward once last time, cum erupting from his cock before he could even bury it all the way down her throat. "Fuck!" He held her with her face buried against his pelvis, his entire body shaking with each hard pulse. When he'd finally spent himself, he pulled back and wiped a bead of cum across her lower lip, using her mouth to clean himself.

He pulled her to a stand and pressed a kiss to her forehead, then righted his breeches so they could continue the trek to her room.

"I'm very pleased with you, Fox, very pleased. I knew he wouldn't be able to resist your charms once he'd sampled them, but I never imagined you would sway him that much."

"I'm happy to have been of service."

"You have been. In truth, I'd gotten the impression that Tarian's friendship had been waning, almost to the point he'd grown suspicious of me. An unfortunate side effect of... doing what needs to be done to lead my people back to greatness."

They came to a stop outside her door. "Thanks to you, I now have all the support I need to claim the High Chair."

He gathered her up against him, holding her tightly, his face nestled against the top of her head in a surprisingly tender embrace. She could almost feel the good mood radiating off of him.

"You've earned your rest today, Fox. I know you must be exhausted, but I'm giving you permission to pleasure yourself if you need it."

"You're too kind." She was amazed at how well she kept the sarcasm from her tone.

"Just don't overtax yourself." He reached down, cupping her backside in one big hand, his voice dropping low. "Tonight, after I've finished with my meetings, I'm going to pump your sweet little body so full of cum that it will have no choice but to breed for me."

With a last kiss to her forehead, he opened the door to her room and motioned her inside. "Sleep well, Fox. I'll see you tonight."

***

Alayna was fairly certain she'd only been asleep a few hours when she woke to the sound of harsh knocking on the door. Perplexed, she rose and quickly donned a fresh set of silks. Xanth didn't knock. Madam Dolanus and the maids always knocked softly. She couldn't think of who might be pounding so fiercely on the door right now.

She crossed the room and opened the door, her entire body going cold at the sight of Bast standing on the other side.

"What do you-"

"Xanth wants to see you," he interrupted gruffly, his ruggedly handsome face hard as stone. "Immediately."

She frowned. "He said I was to rest today."

"And now he's changed his mind. Come on." He tried to grab her hand, but she snatched it away.

"Why would he send you, of all people?"

"Who can he trust if not his best general? Anyway, I'm not in the habit of questioning him. Come."

Suspicion curled in her stomach. Her eyes narrowed. "I'm not sure I believe you."

"I don't give a single fuck. He told me to bring you, so I'm bringing you." His hand shot out, faster this time, and grabbed her wrist. With one mighty jerk, he pulled her from the doorway and into the hall.

Her eyes immediately went to the guard stationed outside her room. The man quickly averted his gaze. She'd get no help from him.

"What is this about?" she asked as he pulled her down the hallway, towards the stairs.

"Didn't ask," he grunted. "Perhaps if you asked fewer questions, you wouldn't have that thing 'round your arm. Whatever it is, he's angry and it'll go easier for you if you don't keep him waiting."

Angry? When he'd been all but glowing with praise for her this morning? Oh Gods, what if he'd somehow discovered she had been with Beckett all night? Or that Tarian had been spying on him? The thought made her grow lightheaded with cold panic. He would kill Beckett without hesitation.

Alayna didn't fight him as he led her down the stairs, not far from where Tarian was staying. The closer they came to Tarian's room, dread curled in the pit of her stomach.

But then Bast made a sharp turn, pushing a small door open. He used his grip on her wrist to propel her into the room so hard she nearly stumbled. The door slammed behind her, leaving her all but blind in the darkness. The heavy smell of dust tickled her nose. Behind her, a candle flared to life.

She had just enough time to see crates and barrels lining the walls of the room to realize he'd shoved her into a storage room. Alayna whirled as he placed the candle on a dusty crate.

"You bastard." She launched herself at him.

Foolishly, Alayna let fury take over her mind, making her forget for a moment that Bast was bigger and stronger. He caught her by the throat before she could land a blow and slammed her up against a wall so hard her vision wavered. His big fist held her there, cutting off her air.

The pain brought clarity to her thoughts, helped focus her. Blind rage wouldn't get her through this, but all her training would. She brought her fist down on the inside of his elbow, breaking the hold he had around her throat. At the same time, she brought a knee up between his legs.

He anticipated the move and his free hand shot out to block her from kneeing him in the groin, but she knew he would. While both hands were occupied, she swiped out with her nails, aiming for his eyes. Bast jerked his head back enough to keep her from blinding him, though not enough to stop her from raking bloody marks down his cheek.

He bellowed in anger and she used that brief moment to slip around him. Bast proved to be fast on his feet despite his muscular build and whirled quickly, his big fist swinging around. Alayna ducked a blow that surely would have knocked her out and delivered a swift, hard kick to his liver with the heel of her bare foot. The leather armor he wore blunted some of the force behind it, but it was still enough to make him double over. She seized the opportunity and darted for the closed door, her mouth open to scream.

The sound was cut short as he somehow managed to recover enough to grab her by the hair and flung her into the stacks of cates and barrels. Wood splintered and broke, pain radiating through her head as it struck something hard. She was so dazed from the blow that she couldn't move, couldn't think. Instead of pulling her from the rubble, he pinned her atop it with his full weight, making it difficult to breathe.

The pain in her head finally began to ebb, leaving room for conscious thought, but he'd already snagged both hands and dragged them above her head. She struggled beneath him, but he was simply too heavy to budge.

"I guess that rat bastard taught you to fight, eh? I'll have to thank him for that. I love it when they struggle," he snarled in her ear, his voice hoarse and breathless. She felt rough material against her wrists and realized he was binding her hands with a length of rope. "Scream if you want. Tarian's the only guest in this wing of the castle and he'll be in meetings with Xanth for hours. No one will hear you."

"Xanth will kill you for this!"

"Not if he doesn't find out. And you won't tell him."

He shifted to his feet, taking her with him. Bast kept her in front of him so she couldn't try to knee him again, working to attach another long rope to the one keeping her hands bound.

"You're soft in the head if you think I won't tell him. I'll enjoy watching him disembowel you."

Bast jerked her hands high above her head and swung the rope up until it looped over one of the support beams. "Wouldn't do that if I were you. Not if you want your old lover to keep his head on his shoulders."

She went still at his words. "You wouldn't dare touch him."

"Accidents happen in war all the time." He pulled hard on the rope until only the tips of her toes touched the stone floor. Her shoulders screamed in protest as they were forced to bear all of her weight. "Men die every day. Wouldn't be hard to believe he fell in battle."

He knotted the rope so that she hung suspended from the ceiling. When he was finished, he moved to stand in front of her as though admiring his work. "If I even think you're going to tell Xanth, your little lord won't make it back to this world for another rotation."

His tone told her he was deadly serious.

Bast wiped sweat from his brow from their struggle, plainly admiring her body through the torn and dirty silks. "If he won't give you to me, then I'll take you myself. That's what I've done with all his other bitches. It's my right after the things I've done for him."

He reached out and tore the silks from her body until they were nothing but a pile of ruined fabric on the floor. His gaze ran over her naked body hungrily before he stepped in close, palming both her breasts.

"Y-you can't." Her mind cast about desperately for a way out of this. "The... the cilice! He knows when I orgasm without permission. He'll come find me."

As if he hasn't heard her, he lowered his head to one nipple and sucked hard on it. She gritted her teeth against the feeling of it.

"Did you even hear me?" She snapped. "He'll know!"

Bast pulled his mouth away from her breast with a wet pop, his dark eyes heavy-lidded. "I heard. I heard him tell you you're free to cum. He'll think you're just touching yourself and you won't let him know any different. Not if you want your lover to survive."

He took a step back, his eyes still raking her from head to toe. He began undressing slowly, as if savoring the growing apprehension on her face.

"I'm going to ruin that tight cunt on my cock," he said as he began unlacing the chest piece of his armor. "I've seen the way you look at me. Like I'm beneath you. We'll see if you still feel that way when you're cumming all over it."

He discarded the chest piece and his shirt soon after, his muscular chest and abdomen littered with scars. "Do you remember the night I first saw you? When Xanth gave me one of his bitches. Do you remember how hard I fucked her?"

When she didn't answer, the look on his face grew dark, threatening. "Do you?"

"Yes," she said through gritted teeth.

"Do you remember the way she was trying to crawl away from me on the floor? Tears running down her pretty face. She was trying to get away and yet she couldn't stop cumming on my cock."

His fingers began unlacing his breeches. "That's nothing compared to how hard I'm going to fuck you." His breeches hit the floor with a metallic clang from his sword and dagger as he stepped out of them, the tip of his rigid cock already glistening with precum. "There's no potion to save you from my seed now. Maybe I'll put a bastard in you before Xanth does." He took a step forward.

The door burst open in a splintering of wood and metal. Bast whirled and Alayna lost her breath.
Beckett stood in the shattered doorway with a look of cold fury like she'd never seen before.

His gaze raked over the room, quickly assessing the way she hung naked from the support beam, the broken crates and barrels, the tiny cuts she'd sustained in the fall, Bast's discarded clothing and weapons on the floor. His eyes returned to the naked man standing between them, that muscle in his jaw twitching.

"The fuck are you doing here?" Bast demanded.

Beckett didn't say anything. She saw Bast's head turn in the direction of his discarded weapons, like he might try to lunge for them. He'd never make it in time before Beckett was on him.

Instead of speaking, Beckett slowly drew his sword from its scabbard. Bast tensed, but instead of trying to run him through in the small room, Beckett held the sword out and dropped it on the floor. Alayna sucked in a breath at the obvious message.

Bast growled. "I'll beat you to death with my bare hands and fuck her while your body cools on the floor."

There were no more words as the two men launched themselves at each other in a flurry of fists and elbows. They were so fast Alayna could barely follow their movements as they crashed about the confined space, shattering more crates, stumbling over the ruined door. Alayna winced every time Bast landed a blow, but Beckett didn't seem to even feel them. While Bast grunted and bellowed, Beckett remained perfectly silent. His lethal grace was both beautiful and frightening to behold.

Their fight spilled out into the hallway, beyond her sight. She could still hear the blows, but could not tell who held the upper hand. Panic set in at the idea of Beckett being hurt. She had to do something, anything to stop this. Their fight would end up with one of them dead and then they'd all be fucked.

Alayna tilted her head back so she could see the rope keeping her suspended. Her eyes narrowed as she focused on it, calling forth her magic.

In the background, she distantly noted the grunting and bellowing had stopped. In fact, there didn't seem to be much movement at all, though she could still plainly hear the sound of something being struck repeatedly. There was no room to think about what that meant. A tendril of smoke curled in the air from the rope. It began to blacken and char in the middle before it finally snapped, sending her crashing to the ground. Alayna lunged for Bast's discarded clothing, her still-bound hands fumbling to get the dagger free.

She didn't bother taking the time to cut the ropes and instead scrambled through the doorway, the dagger held between both hands.

She stopped short at what she found in the hallway.

Blood had splattered so high up the walls it nearly touched the ceiling. Even more of it pooled on the stones around her feet, thick and hot on her bare toes. A broad, massive back hunched over a form lying on the ground, one foot twitching erratically.

"B-Beckett." She could barely whisper his name.

The figure rose to a stand and only the years she'd spent on the battlefield tending to the wounded kept her from being sick right there. Only one side of Bast's face was recognizable, the other having caved in so much she could see battered bits of brain inside the gaping gravity.

Beckett turned to face her, soaked from head to toe in blood. It dipped off his still-clenched fists, his knuckles covered in bits of chipped bone and brain. His chest rose and fell rapidly as he looked at her with eyes still full of murder.

"Beckett."

Very slowly, his expression softened. Not completely, but enough to let her know the bloodlust was fading.

"Are you hurt? Did he..." The question trailed off.

"No. You stopped him before he could."

"I heard you scream. I was in the servant's halls and heard you. I couldn't find you at first and it drove me mad thinking you were hurt or... worse."

He reached out as if to beckon her to him, but stopped when he realized his hand was still dripping blood. She reached out and took it anyway, giving it a hard squeeze.

"You have to go. Get away from this place right now before Xanth finds out what happened."

"I won't leave you here."

"He's going to kill you-"

"You're right about that," Xanth said.

A sudden burst of pain from the cilice had her crying out and dropping to her knees. Even through the pain, she felt the telltale tingle of magic being worked, but she couldn't gather enough breath to croak out a warning to Beckett. It hit him hard enough that he yelled, his entire body going rigid. The magic lifted him into the air and held him there, completely immobile.

Xanth's expression was tight and controlled as he stepped forward to toe the line of blood. His eyes, completely unreadable, darted between her, Beckett and the ruined remains of Bast's face. Soldiers flanked him on either side, not nearly as composed as Xanth appeared to be.

"I can explain," Alayna gasped, willing the pain to ebb enough that she could think.

"No explanation could possibly justify this." Xanth voice was a hard as his expression. "But you're welcome to try."

"Bast... He took me from my room. The guard outside my door can attest, Bast lied and said you wanted to see me. He brought me here and tried to take liberties with me." She fought to keep the quaver from her voice at the very real possibility they were both about to die. She held up her wrists so he could see the marks from the rope. "He tied me up. I called for help and Beckett heard me."

He barely glanced at her wrists. "That doesn't explain WHAT THE FUCK HE'S DOING HERE WHEN HE SHOULD BE IN THE GAP."

Xanth's roar felt like it shook the very stones of the castle. Alayna sucked in a breath. She couldn't tell him how Beckett was here, not without revealing Tarian's deception.

But Xanth had turned his attention to Beckett, who was clearly struggling to speak. With a wave of his hand, Beckett took a gasping breath.

"I left the Gap because I thought I could steal a moment alone with her." Beckett's steely eyes met Xanth's. "She had no idea I was here until I found her in that room. She didn't know I was coming. Alayna is innocent."

She shot him a hard look, but he didn't turn his attention away from Xanth.

"Why," Xanth said through gritted teeth. "would you do something so monumentally stupid."

"Because I love her."

Her surprised gasp wasn't feigned, but not for the reasons Xanth would think. The foolish man was protecting both her and Tarian, trying to make sure none of the blame for this fell on her. She swallowed past a lump in her throat.

"Beckett-"

There was that brief sensation of magic building again before she was lifted bodily into the air, immobile, her words cut off.

"I'll hear nothing else from you," he snarled at her, then turned to the soldiers behind him. "Take her to her room. Have the servants bathe and dress her. After that, I wanted her chained and three guards stationed inside her room. She isn't so much as to move without my permission."

"A-and him, m'lord?" One of the guards nodded to Beckett.

"I'll be escorting him personally to the dungeons."