The Hawk Lord by Amy Sumida
Chapter Thirty-Nine
I woke up in chains. Silver-lined iron manacles bound my wrists and ankles, and my cheek was pressed against a thick tent post. The chain between my wrist manacles had been looped over a hook, and I dangled from it. I groaned and got to my feet, feeling woozy even as I alleviated the pressure on my wrists. Something was wrong with me. Finally, I realized that it was my magic. The hawk inside me was gone, pushed down by my proximity to iron. My fae strength had dwindled too, and I felt like a human again.
“Ravyn,” Dalsharan called to me, worry tinging his voice.
“Ah, there he is,” a familiar voice purred.
I blinked as my hair was grabbed roughly and my head yanked to the left. “What the fuck?” I growled.
“Hello, pretty bird,” the Coyote Lord drawled.
My stare shot around me as I tried to process. In addition to the Coyote Lord and Dal, Kervel was also in the tent, sitting on the ground, his wrists bound to his ankles and his whole body a bloody mess. Dal's knight was naked and his eyes had a haunted look that twisted my stomach. A few feet to my left, Dalsharan was chained to a tent pole like me except that he faced outward. His face and chest were bloody and his hair hung wild around his bare shoulders, the pale strands stained red in places. He had pants on, but the rest of his clothes lay in a pile nearby, along with my tunic, sword, and satchel. Yeah, I was bare-chested like Dal, but I didn't feel any injuries. Maybe the Coyote Lord wanted me conscious before he started beating on me.
Dal met my stare with regret and apology.
“Kervel was just investigating the possibility of a traitor here. And there is one! We chased a Farungal into your tent,” I said urgently to the Coyote Lord. “I swear, we were trying to save you. Please, you have to listen to me. He could still be here!”
The Coyote Lord laughed as Dal hung his head.
Help me, the voice of the soul stone came again—the Coyote Soul. He has betrayed me.
“You fucking traitorous bastard,” Dalsharan whispered as if in confirmation of the stone's accusation. “How could you do this?”
“Wait. What?” I stretched my neck to try to see Brendallen better.
He has betrayed us all, the voice of the Coyote Soul held profound sadness.
“It was a trap, pretty bird,” Brendallen purred and stroked a finger down my cheek. “The Farungal Queen wanted the Hawk Lord, and I wanted you. We came to an arrangement.”
“What?!” I roared.
The Coyote Lord chortled. “Oh, don't get too full of yourself. I didn't ally with the Farungal just to get my hands on you. Gremara has found a way to unite our races and end this war. A child of mixed blood will break the curse and end their suffering. It will be a bridge between our races, one that will lead to a truce.” The Coyote Lord went grim. “I'm loyal to my people, but I knew they wouldn't understand. I trusted only my officers and guards with my plans. Most of them, at least,” he grumbled. “I had to kill those who didn't agree with me. I couldn't let them warn our king.”
“You actually want Gremara to have a mutant baby?” I growled.
Someone hissed nearby. I swung my head and saw a Farungal man step around a partition. Fuck, Brendallen really was in cahoots with the monsters.
Help me, his stone said.
Yeah, I'm a little tied up at the moment, I growled back in my head.
The Goddess and her Beasts are with you.
“Easy, Habbern,” the Coyote Lord held up a hand toward the Farungal. “You know he's mine.”
“Fine, but then you must stop marring the Hawk Lord,” Habbern grumbled. “My Queen will not be pleased when I bring him to her injured.”
“Queen?” I looked at Dal.
He nodded grudgingly. “We don't like to give her the title, but yes, Gremara is their Queen.”
“So, the fucking Farungal Queen wants to have a mutant baby, and you think this is a fabulous idea?” I snarled at Brendallen. “You're totally batshit!”
The Coyote Lord stepped around the pole I hung from so I could see him without straining. His stare wandered over my face and then my body. “You will be so much fun to train.” He drew a fingertip along my jaw, and I jerked away from him. That didn't go over well; he grabbed my hair and held me still. “I'm going to show you what a real man can do to you.”
“Yeah? I don't think so. You look like a pussy to me,” I drawled.
The Coyote Lord growled—as in seriously growled like an animal—and bared his teeth. Kervel whimpered and rocked himself.
“Ravyn, shut up,” Dalsharan hissed.
“He's mine now, Dal.” Brendallen's eyes flashed gold as prowled away from me and went to my lover. His black hair was loose, hanging around his slim shoulders; he flung it back with a toss of his head before he declared, “I will handle his rebelliousness.” Then he backhanded Dalsharan, who shook off the blow and bared his teeth. “Oh, it's such a shame they took your amulet away, you might have had the power to fight me. Alas, you're just another fae Hawk now. Even less than that in these manacles.”
“Leave him be!” the Farungal snapped.
“Hawk Lord,” Kervel groaned. “I'm so sorry.”
“This is not your fault, Kervel,” Dal said gently.
“His dick is fine! That's the only part of him she needs,” Brendallen snapped at the Farungal. “Besides, I'm done with him.” He grinned at me as he undid his belt. “I've got a new toy to play with.”
“No!” Dalsharan roared and pulled at his restraints. “You want to hit someone, you hit me, Brendallen. You leave Ravyn alone!”
The Coyote Lord chuckled. “Oh, my, do you love him too, Dal? What a strange twist of fate. You'll get to watch me train two of the men you love.” He let his belt drop so that the end without the buckle smacked the floor. “You're lucky I'm an exhibitionist.”
The Coyote Lord drew back his hand and brought the belt down across my back. I grunted from the blow, but it wasn't so bad.
“You fucking bastard!” Dal shouted, blood spraying from his lip. “I will kill you for this! I will fucking kill you!”
The belt hit again. Again and again. Then it stopped suddenly. My back was hot but it still wasn't awful. Was that it? Brendallen's impressive training skills? Whatever. I'd been right, he was a pussy. Then I felt something wet run up my spine.
“Get away from him!” Dalsharan was practically frothing. His wrists started to bleed where he pulled at his manacles.
I looked over my shoulder and saw Brendallen licking my back. He groaned, his hand splayed over my skin as he traced every red mark with his tongue. The Coyote Lord's eyes opened and shifted up to catch my gaze. They glowed like candlelight as he grinned and slid his hand possessively down my leg. I turned back toward the pole and grit my teeth as that hot tongue continued to lave me, like an animal licking its wounds. Brendallen's hand moved around my hips to grab my cock. He squeezed it through my pants.
“You can have me!” Dalsharan shouted.
Brendallen went still.
Kervel moaned.
“No!” I roared.
The Coyote Lord lifted his head, straightened, and pressed his body against my back as he contemplated us both. “Hmm, isn't this a quandary? Is the great Dalsharan Arandel truly offering to be my whore just to save his consort? The man who refuses to suck cock because he's the dom?” He winked at me. “Oh, yes, I know all about your lover. Poor baby, he won't suck you off, huh? I'll take good care of you.” He kissed my cheek and whispered in my ear, “And then I'll fuck your ass so hard that you'll forget his name.”
Dal's jaw clenched and his eyes narrowed at Brendallen, but he snarled, “Let him go, and you can have me. I'll even suck your cock.”
“Dal, no,” I growled. “No, I can take it. I'll be all right. It's just sex.”
Brendallen laughed gleefully. “Oh, this is so sweet. Both of you offering yourselves to me. But the thing is, boys, it's out of my hands. I've already told Gremara she can have the Hawk Lord, even if he isn't the Hawk Lord anymore.”
“If you're so eager for this mutant kid to be born, why don't you fuck her?” I growled.
“I tried. Believe me, I tried. I sacrificed myself for the good of our races, but it wouldn't take. She consulted some fucking seer, and they said it had to be the Hawk Lord. Something about a Hawk starting the curse and so one has to end it.”
“You're lying,” I said. “Gremara told us it could have been any warlord.”
“Of course, she did, you little fool.” Brendallen rolled his eyes. “She couldn't very well tell you that I stole the Lion Lord's amulet and gave both it and mine to her so she could use the golden soul stones to lure the Hawk Lord across Alantri and capture him.”
“Holy fuck,” I whispered.
The Coyote Lord howled with laughter. “What's so funny is that the Lion Lord is enraged because you believed him to be in league with the Farungal, Dal. But you were right; someone is allied with the Farungal, it just isn't Hadrian.”
“I never thought one of you betrayed us,” Dal said wearily. “I believed it was some human in your camp.”
“Oh?” The Coyote Lord cocked his head at Dal. “Then you weren't right. Darn. Not so funny.” He shifted his gaze back to me. “You, my pretty bird, nearly fucked up our plans when you freed Dal. But then you saved his life, and we need him to father the child. So, in a way, you helped to bring peace to our world. You should be proud of yourself.”
Brendallen stroked the belt buckle down my back, then abruptly wrapped the leather around my throat and threaded the end through the buckle. As Dal shouted for him to stop, begged him to, the Coyote Lord slowly tightened the leather strap around my neck.
“Do you know that if you bring a man nearly to the point of dying, you can give him the most delicious orgasm?”
Kervel started whimpering, pressing his forehead to his knees.
“Oops, I think I broke your spy, Dal,” the Coyote Lord purred. “Don't worry, I'll be more careful with your consort. Ex-consort, that is. He's mine now.”
I choked, my neck muscles straining against the belt.
“Please, Bren!” Dal shouted.
The pressure eased. Brendallen left the belt dangling around my neck, leaving me gasping as he sauntered over to Dal. One elegant hand slid up Dal's chest, through the blood, spreading a crimson swath up his throat before he rubbed a finger over Dal's lips.
“Open your mouth,” Brendallen growled.
Dal opened his mouth, and the Coyote Lord shoved his bloody fingers inside. He started pumping them across Dal's tongue, gagging him.
“Suck me,” Brendallen demanded. “Show me how you'll suck my cock if I let your consort go.”
Dal's eyes flashed fire, but he closed his lips around Brendallen's fingers and sucked. He moved his head to draw them deeper into his mouth. The Coyote Lord growled in arousal and stroked Dalsharan's cheek, then leaned forward to grind his crotch against Dal's leg.
“You beautiful brute,” Brendallen purred. “If only I could take you up on your offer.” He drew his hand away sharply. “Alas, I cannot.”
“You've had your fun; I will take him now,” the Farungal declared.
“Not yet!” the Coyote Lord hissed over his shoulder. “Go back in the bedroom and wait. They are my prisoners now, and I will say when you can have him!”
Habbern growled but stalked back around the partition.
“Don't hurt him, Bren,” Dal begged gruffly. “He's not like Jaxon; he won't enjoy it. Please, if you need to beat someone, hit me.”
“So gallant,” Brendallen drawled. “And listen to you, using my nickname at last, trying to soften me. Do you think I care if he doesn't want it? I'm a master at this; Ravyn will be begging for my whip and my cock by the time I'm through with him. He will break,” Brendallen leaned close to Dal to add, “just like Jaxon did.”
Dal gaped at him.
Brendallen laughed. “Did you think Jax was always like that? That he went looking for me because he needed someone to hit him? No, Dal. I seduced him and then I turned him into my little monster. What's so delicious is that it made you into me.”
“No, it fucking didn't!” I growled. “You're a sick, rapist bastard who will betray his own people while Dal is a man of honor.”
Brendallen laughed again, scathingly. “You really are stuck on me being the bad guy. I didn't force Jaxon to cheat on Dalsharan. And I'm not betraying my people, I'm fighting for peace!” He shouted the last bit. “This war has lasted nearly forty years! Forty! Why am I a traitor for wanting to find an end to it? I've bled and killed for humans at the order of my king. I've left my home to live in this squalor to save us. But it never ends! I am getting us that end.”
“You're giving a fellow warlord to the enemy,” I snarled over my shoulder at him. “Spin it however you want, dickhead, but you are a traitor. Even your stone thinks so. It's been begging me to help it from the moment I woke up.”
The Coyote Lord's eyes widened in horror, but then he roared in fury and ripped the belt from my throat. He brought the strap of leather down on my back over and over as Dal pleaded for him to stop. I grunted and bore it. This time Brendallen wasn't trying to seduce, he was trying to hurt me. And he was succeeding. Blood started to drip down my spine. He abruptly stopped, but only to yank my pants down. I flinched as his hand drew up my flank and he pressed his erection between the cheeks of my ass.
“You have the perfect ass for fucking,” Brendallen purred in my ear. “Muscular but also plump.” He undulated his hips against me. “The perfect amount of give so I can take.” He bit my neck, and I thrashed. With a chuckle, he released me but only so he could smack my ass lightly with the belt. “Let's get you warmed up, my pretty bird.”
Brendallen smacked me gently across my ass, then harder, and harder. When I started to twitch, he stopped. Something cool slid over my warmed skin. I looked over my shoulder to see a dick made of pink stone in Brendallen's hands; it looked a lot like the one he'd given Dal. He lifted it to his mouth and licked it, holding my gaze as he slid his lips around the phallus and sucked it like a cock. Then he pushed one of my ass cheeks aside and set that thing at my hole. I faced the pole and grit my teeth.
“Don't, Bren!” Dal begged.
Kervel started sobbing.
Brendallen shoved it in my ass hard—no working it in slowly. I grunted. The Coyote Lord leaned his chest against my bloody back and pumped the stone dildo deep. His tongue traced the curve of my ear and his cock rode my hip.
“If you don't rise for me, I'll take it out on Dal,” he whispered. “I'll strip him and fuck him as I cut his back to ribbons.”
I went still. Oh, fuck. I didn't for one second believe he was bluffing. But how did I get a hard-on for a man I hated while a man I loved watched?
“There you go, pretty bird.” He shoved his tongue in my ear. “Sing for me.” He moved the phallus in and out as he kissed my neck. “Isn't that nice? Good little whore, take that stone dick. We need to loosen you up for my cock. Take it nice and deep, and I'll give you a sweet reward when I'm done.”
“Ravyn, I'm so sorry,” Dal whispered.
“I'm okay, babe,” I said gruffly. “This guy can fuck me with his toys all he wants, it don't matter to me.”
“So tough,” the Coyote Lord purred and worked his pink cock faster. “Or could it be that you like it?”
His hand reached around and went for my cock. I angled away from him.
“Remember what I told you,” he whispered.
I went still. I imagined it was Dal touching me. His body pressed against mine. His cock in my ass.
“Good boy.” Brendallen grabbed my dick and started stroking it, greasing it up with fae nectar as he shoved that thing into me.
I let out a moan. My body trembled. Fuck, I was getting hard for him.
“Such a sweet slut!” Brendallen declared. “Would you like me to suck that big dick now?”
“Please, Bren, leave him alone,” Dal begged.
“He's hard, Dal. Your consort is loving this,” the Coyote Lord drawled.
“I'm sorry, Dal,” I groaned.
“It's okay, sweetheart. Take the pleasure. It's okay.”
“Fuck, that just makes it worse,” I groaned.
“Shall I give him your reward instead?” Brendallen asked me.
“No, leave him alone!” I shouted.
Brendallen removed his hand but left the dildo inside me. It started to slide out, and he slapped it back in. “Hold it in, Ravyn, or I will whip your lover bloody again.”
I clenched my ass.
“That's why he's responding to you, you twisted fuck!” Dalsharan snarled. “You're forcing him to get hard by threatening me!”
The Coyote Lord clucked his tongue as he undid Dal's pants. He shoved them down, revealing Dal's limp shaft. Then he knelt and drew his hand over my lover's beautiful flesh.
“Leave him alone!” I snarled. “Fuck me. I'll suck you off. Whatever you want. Just leave him alone!”
“Shut the fuck up, Ravyn!” Dalsharan snarled.
The Coyote Lord shifted his stare toward me as he lowered his face to Dal's cock. He gave it a long lick from tip to base but it didn't so much as twitch. Brendallen transferred his gaze to Dal's dick and scowled at it as he took it in hand. He stroked it and shoved its limp flesh into his mouth, sucking at it. He licked Dal's balls and sucked those too, but nothing worked.
“Don't feel bad, Gremara wasn't able to get him hard without the wild-rot either,” I said scathingly.
The Coyote Lord surged to his feet with a roar.
“He told me he'd take it out on you if I didn't get hard, Dal,” I said in a rush. “So I imagined it was you.”
“I know, Ravyn,” Dal said gently. “It's okay.”
“Ugh, I'm bored with you two,” Brendallen huffed and pulled up Dal's pants. “Habbern, take him away!”
Habbern came out of hiding with a menacing grin and hurried over to Dal.
“No!” I thrashed, that thing falling out of me. “No, don't you give him to those monsters, Brendallen!”
The belt came down on my back, “You do not get to call me Brendallen. I am your master.”
“Fuck you!” I twisted and strained at my manacles as Habbern walked up to my snarling lover and removed a slim, metal rod from his pocket. “What are you doing to him? Stay away from him!”
Habbern tapped the side of Dal's head with the rod, and the Hawk Lord went limp, his body crumpling to hang from the hook his wrists were chained to.
“What have you done to him?!” I shouted.
“It just a sleep stick,” Brendallen purred as he stroked my hair. “It's what we used on you when you first crawled into my tent. It feels like being struck, but it doesn't do any lasting damage. Dalsharan will wake up in a few hours, hopefully with Gremara riding him.”
Kervel started crying again.
“Oh, give me that thing,” Brendallen said as he took the sleep stick from Habbern. He went over to Kervel and smacked him with it. Kervel passed out instantly. “That's better,” he sighed and handed the rod back to Habbern.
“No,” I moaned as the Farungal unhooked Dal, tossed him over his shoulder, and left. “Dal.”
“Now, where were we?”
