Dominic N. Ashen

Vampirsm

Vampires. Evil, demonic, creatures of the night, known for drinking the blood of the living. Or at least that’s what some people say. The truth is far more boring: they’re just people, like the rest of us. People who need to drink blood to survive, so I guess that’s true. And so is the “creature of the night” thing. And the demon thing.

Often spoken of in the same breath as werewolves, vampirism is also the result of a curse. However, the magic behind it is not natural, or even Terran in origin, but demonic.  Vampires are created through the act of draining most of a living person's blood, and then before death feeding them some of a vampire's own blood. This action acts like the signing of a contract, infusing the body of the bitten person with demonic energy - energy that then transforms their body after death, which is soon to follow. There are obviously great risks involved, when creating a vampire, as the vampire-to-be has mere seconds to drink before dying.

Often thought of as inherently evil, a vampire’s personality is not changed by the transformation. Their bodies will read as hotbeds of negatively-aligned demonic magic, but they are still the same person, with the same wants and feelings. However, the longer they go between feedings, the more difficult it is to avoid falling into a state of bloodlust, a feral-like state where the vampire will view anything living as a potential meal. Though this will not kill them, going through extended periods of not feeding can actually physically alter the vampire. Without blood, their body must subsist slowly on demonic energy, and as a result, growing more demonic and some even say bat-like in appearance.

Though the true origin of the first vampire is unknown, legend holds that many years ago, during a great war, Terrans and demons found themselves on the same side. Who or what this common enemy was is unknown, but they proved dangerous enough that the two armies found themselves in an alliance. During a particularly destructive battle, the two armies were each down to their last man. Whether the terran was human, dwarf, or orc changes depending on who is telling the story, but as they both lay dying, the demon made an offer: They would offer up the last of their essence to the Terran, which would grant them great strength, but also change them irrevocably. The Terran accepted, and so was born the first vampire, who went on to turn the tides of the war.

Becoming a vampire grants a person immense increases in their physical strength, speed, and dexterity. They also receive better eyesight, smelling, and hearing. Vampires do not need to breathe, and the only sustenance they require is the blood of a living creature. Though they are still capable of eating, many vampires find that after the transformation their tastes have changed. Although technically undead, vampires are not in the same category of undeath as zombies or ghosts. Indeed, their entire physical form is preserved to be the way it was at the time of death, sans any injuries. Their hair and nails will also continue to grow, though weight loss and other physical changes will no longer be possible. Any injuries sustained (except for those that are fatal) will heal over time, until the vampire’s body is restored to its original form.

Similarly to werewolves, vampires are also weak to silver as a result of the metal’s magical purifying quality. They are also weak to direct sunlight - specifically ultraviolet light - which will actually cause them to combust. This has a side effect of also making them extremely flammable in general, more than other creatures. Holy symbols and objects  themselves cannot harm a vampire, but any object charged with positive divine energy can due to the demonic energy powering them being negatively aligned. Vampires have an allergy to garlic, breaking out in rashes and hives when even near it. Though they can heal from any physical damage, complete decapitation is fatal to them, as is a wooden stake to the heart - said to be because the wood was once a living thing.

Vampire communities do not exist in the traditional sense, as the public largely views them as dangerous monsters to be exterminated. They remain in the shadows, their covens communicating across territorial lines in the dark of night. It can be dangerous for too many vampires to amass in one area. The more vampires sharing the same feeding pool, the easier it is for vampire hunters to notice the signs of their presence. Not to mention that the very act of creating a vampire removes someone from the feeding pool entirely. The act of creating a new vampire is not one to be undertaken lightly, and those who overdo it are sure to be on the receiving end of some swift retribution from their fellow undead, lest they risk their cover being blown.

Despite these precautions, the population of Terra still largely fears vampires as a whole, and are often willing to lend more credence to fiction and fables than the so-called “monsters” themselves. And so, in order to protect themselves, vampires choose to remain hidden - the resentment pushing some of them into violence and vengeance. Some say the vampires are just biding their time, waiting for the right moment to reveal themselves to the public at large. But whether this is to live alongside them, or something much darker, only time will tell.

Forest Fungus Fornication, Chapter 2

“What...” I look around nervously at the group. “What should I do?”

“First, we will need to figure out the order we are doing this in,” Khazak says, more to the other rangers than me.

“I’ve got some dice in my bag,” Ragnar responds, turning back to his tent.

“That should work.” Khazak nods.

I then watch as all ten men take turns rolling a pair of eight-sided wooden dice, determining the order in which I am apparently going to...assist them. More than once do a few of them have to reroll when there ends up being a tie, but after a few short minutes, we had it worked out. It was kind of surreal to watch them decide my “fate” like that for the next...however long this is going to go on for.

“Wait,” I start as Khazak and Ragnar help me into position on my knees. “How long is this supposed to last for?”

“At least twenty-four hours,” Khazak answers with a grimace.

“Twenty-four hours?!” My eyes bug out at the information.

“The more someone is able to...finish, the faster they are able to work the poison out of their system,” he continues.

“How am I supposed to survive this for a full day?!” I can’t help the panic in my voice as the visibly horny orcs begin to crowd around me.

“It will be alright, David,” Khazak reassures, kneeling down on one leg and petting through my hair. “I will be right here to watch everything, and more than one of us is a healer. I promise, I will keep you safe.”

“O-Okay.” I nod nervously, just as Ragnar steps up before me - he won the first position with the highest roll.

“Thanks for this, David,” Ragnar says, right before he feeds his dick into my mouth.

Things start off with more restraint than I expected given the circumstances, and I suppose it’s nice that the first of these guys is at least someone I’m already familiar with. Still, as Ragnar’s thick green prick pumps in and out from between my lips, it’s hard to ignore what’s going on - and the way everyone else is staring at us. I try to keep my eyes forward, focusing on the others isn’t going to put me any more at ease.

“Uh, Captain?” one of the other rangers - L’gan it sounds like - starts to ask Khazak something. “Not to be rude, but going one at a time doesn’t seem very efficient.”

“I think you’re right,” Khazak answers with a sigh. “Alright, the next two in line, get on either side of Deputy Captain Rockfang. Deputy Rockfang, you could also stand to...pick up the pace.”

“Yes sir,” Ragnar responds with some reluctance. “Just wanted to start things off easy for him, knowing how long this is going to go.”

“I appreciate that, Deputy.” I can hear Khazak clap Ragnar on the shoulder above me. “But I know that my pup can handle it.”

That makes one of us. I don’t have time to think of anything, because with that encouragement from his captain, Ragnar starts to pump his hips forward faster. My mouth is stretched wide around his cock as the next two rangers step into place, their shadows blocking the light of the campfire.

From the corner of my eye, I can see them fumbling with their flies, fishing themselves out of their pants. Both my hands are unceremoniously removed from Ragnar’s thighs, redirected to either of their crotches. They are both already rock hard, which is probably true for the rest of them as well. It’s going to be a long night.

I do my best to work both rangers’ appendages, but it’s a little difficult to get a good rhythm going with the way Ragnar is fucking  my face. It’s not the roughest I’ve ever taken it, but the speed is certainly up there. His hurried humping is enough to make me gag a few times, drool dripping down my chin to the forest floor below.

“Deputy, move to his rear,” Khazak orders after letting this go on for a few minutes.

“Yes, sir,” Ragnar agrees, pulling himself from my mouth.

As he walks around to my back, the rangers in my hands take a step back, forcing me to release them. A second later, Rangar’s hand on my shoulder pushes me forward and onto my hands as he settles on his knees behind me. Now needing my hands to hold myself up, both rangers shuffle forward to either side of my head, turning it back and forth as they take turns plunging into my open mouth.

Behind me, I feel a cool, slick finger trace down the cleft of my ass - thank gods someone remembered the lube. As the first finger breaches me, I’m also a little thankful for the double breeding Khazak just gave me in the tent. I’ve already been lubed and opened up tonight. Let’s just hope it was enough.

I whimper when Rangar removes his fingers, replacing them with the tip of his cock. I have to breathe through my nose as he presses forward, the ranger on my left currently lodged between my lips. As soon as his head pops in, Ragnar doesn’t wait for a second, driving in the rest of his shaft right behind it.

I’m overwhelmed, stuffed to the brim at either end. With the way these two rangers keep swapping my head back and forth, I’m starting to get a little dizzy too, but Khazak’s plea for help keeps ringing in my head. I want to help them!

“Hmm,” my owner hums to my left. “L’gan, come with me.”

I hear the two men moving away, but to do what I’m not sure. Behind me, Ragnar is plunging almost the full length of his cock in and out of my hole. The bursts of pleasure I feel as he scrapes over my prostate have my eyes rolling back in my head, and of course it doesn’t take long for the pressure of an orgasm starts to build.

I whine around the cock in my mouth as I feel it finally overtake me. I almost try to cross my legs in a feeble attempt to stave it off further, but Ragnar’s strong grip on my hips keeps me firmly in place. It’s not that it doesn’t feel amazing, but once these orgasms start, they don’t stop, and won’t be long until it becomes too much for me.

It might be that same knowledge that causes Rangar to suddenly pick up speed, no longer using the full length of his cock to spear me open. Instead, he rapidly humps forward, faster than a rabbit during mating season. Before I can feel a second orgasm start to build, Ragnar suddenly cums with a growl behind me, his cock expanding as it unloads inside of my hole. He keeps humping forward until he’s finished, finally pulling out after taking a deep breath.

“Thanks, David,” Ragnar tells me, patting me on the ass before standing.

“I’m next!” the ranger on my left says excitedly as he pulls out of my mouth.

“Hold on.” I turn to see Khazak is back. “Bring him over here.”

Khazak points to a spot on the ground between him and L’gan, where it seems they’ve set up a bed of sorts, made of several bedrolls stacked on top of each other. There are some pillows, though. I’m helped over to the makeshift mattress and settled on my back, while the rangers gather around me at the edges.

“Alright, we will continue two at a time,” Khazak instructs everyone. “Once you have finished, you move to the back of the line. No drawing things out, no showing off, you do your business and then move over for the next person. Understood?”

“Yes sir!” all nine rangers say in unison, before turning their gazes back to me.

Without another word, the next ranger in line kneels down on the “bed” between my legs. He then reaches for my thighs, lifting and pushing them back, spreading me wide. Offering me a small look of apology, he aims his cock at my still-open hole, and pushes inside.

Fuck, his dick is smaller than Khazak or Ragnar, but it still feels huge inside me. What is it with orcs? Are they all this well hung? Looking around at the gathered rangers, all of them now stroking themselves, it really seems like that might be the case!

Before I have a chance to really take in my surroundings again, my mouth is guided back to the prick of the next ranger in line. With me on my back, the angle doesn’t quite allow him to fuck all the way into my throat, but I think I’m okay with that, not wanting to worry about something like my gag reflex right now. I think the same sentiment is shared by everyone else too, all of them focusing on my ass as their salvation.

Fuck #2 thankfully doesn’t last even half as long as Ragnar’s. Just a few minutes in, I can feel the ranger’s hips start to stutter, until he suddenly releases my thighs, falling to cover my body as he frantically humps into me. I can feel his hot breath against my neck, my face turned in the opposite direction to orally service my next top. I’m also realizing that I could really stand to learn more names in the office.

When the ranger finally finishes, he pushes himself up and off of me, having caught his breath. I hear a muttered “thank you” as he stands, the ranger in my mouth pulling out with a wet pop. As he moves to my lower half, I look up, waiting for the next orc in line.

“I’m up next, kid,” a ranger I’m familiar with, Arik, tells me as he lowers himself to the mattress. “But I’m not gonna use your mouth - don’t need you nicking your teeth on the wood.”

He settles himself near my head, but makes no attempt to use my mouth, instead using some oil to slick up the wooden shaft attached to his harness. Arik is a transman, his harness a shaft magically enchanted to provide him all the feelings and sensations that come with topping someone. Given the almost lust-crazed look in his eyes, I’d say there’s little to no difference in the way these mushrooms affect either gender.

My third fuck lasts about as long as the second, the ranger grunting into my ear as he cums. My hole feels like a sloppy, loose mess when he finally pulls his thich green orc cock from it, not even able to close on its own. I can’t help myself and whine as Arik moves into position, knowing what still awaits me.

“Take care not to be too rough, Ranger Deepfist,” Khazak tells the man as he reslicks his cock. “I know you can go on longer than most.”

“Don’t worry, Captain,” Arik assures him while sidling up to me. “I won’t draw this out.”

I can't help myself, tensing up when I feel the thick, blunt head of Arik’s cock push up against my hole. The last time Arik fucked me, I was worn out for days - he really knows how to use that thing. As I’m stressing about this, a shadow overtakes me and I see L’gan moving into position near my head, and I am thankful for the distraction.

I can feel Arik stroking his thumb slowly over my hole, patiently waiting for me to relax. When I finally do, he wastes no time in pressing forward, my hole quickly swallowing up the first half of his thick tool. My eyes bug out as he bottoms out, looking up at L’gan as he starts to stretch my lips. The young man, barely older than myself, offers me a sad smile, petting through my hair as I suck.

The thick, unyielding nature of Arik’s cock quickly has me feeling like I'm being stretched open further than ever. My mouth already filled to capacity, I try to fight my own body's desire to give in, but it's no use. Before I know it, I'm cumming with a muffled cry, my sore hole pushing weakly against the solid invader.

With L'gan's cock in my face, it's all I can do to look down and see Arik's thick green fingers digging into the meat of my thighs. When L'gan leans back to give me a moment to breathe, I can see ten different sets of eyes, each one hungry, wanting, and locked into my body. It’s hard, if not impossible to not feel overwhelmed, my own eyes frantically searching for Khazak and the warm reassurances I know he will give me.

“It’s alright, puppy, I know,” he speaks to me softly, though I know everyone can still hear. “It’s becoming too much, isn’t it?” I nod as best I can.

“Alright, hold on.” He moves away from the group for a moment, Arik still fucking away at my ass, and then he’s back, a strip of black cloth in his hand. “Do you trust me?”

I nod again, more hesitantly.

“Good.” He reaches down, wrapping the black cloth around my eyes. “This will help with your anxiety. Rather than anticipating what is to come, all I want you to focus on is taking what you are given. I will be right here the entire time, watching and taking care of you. Do you understand?”

“Y-Yes, Sir,” I say with some hesitation, my vision nothing but a black void. I feel his hand stroke through my hair for a moment, before it grips me more tightly, pushing me back on to what I think is L’gan’s cock.

Arik finishes his turn not long after I’m blindfolded, shuddering on top of me before rolling away. I’m not sure who takes over in my mouth when L’gan moves to my ass, but the men seem to have found their rhythm as they swap me around. It’s only when Khazak finally enters the lineup (last in line, no doubt by choice) that I realize I’ve worked my way through all of the men once.

By the time they rotate through me a second time, I’m no longer coherent enough to even attempt to keep track of who is in me, or how many times they’ve gone, or how long it’s been. With my world reduced to taste, touch, smell, and sound, I focus my talents on service whichever two men are inside of me at the time. As the night goes on, I feel their hands petting over me, their whispered words of praise making me feel warm, and wanted. Laying there, my body covered in sweat and cum, listening to them thank me, want me, I wonder how I could have even considered saying no to any of them.

The night is young, and I have a lot of work ahead of me.

July Updates

Hello readers! Hope you’ve been doing well since we last talked. After last month’s double audiobook release/preorder reveal, I don’t have a whole lot for you this month. But hey, sometimes no news is good news, right? Still for reference, here is where you can find the Arenas & Monsters audiobook, and here is where you can preorder Before the Storm.

As far as actual updates go, I’m currently in the middle of one of the projects I’ve been hinting at for a little while, which should be finished and turned in by the end of the week. Then I start on another of those projects... You’ll still have to wait a little longer for all the info, but let’s just say Dominic N. Ashen readers are going to have a very plentiful and busy 2024!

Also, Twitter seems like it might actually be dead-dead soon, so make sure you’re following me on my other social media channels! I’m in the process of setting up my Bluesky account, you can find me here: https://bsky.app/profile/dominicashen.bsky.social

Until next month!

This Month on Patreon

What is coming to Patreon in July:

• 7/10: The second chapter of Forest Fungus Fornication - As the amorous mushrooms begin to take effect, David is put to work on a whole different kind of “duty,” taking care of all the ornery orcs at the campsite.
  
• 7/17: Vampires - Are they evil, cursed creatures of the night, or just misunderstood?
  
• 7/24: The sixth chapter of Caged Among the Stars - After spending a day worried about Kaylin’s condition, he and Vaiken finally reconnect... Or at least they would, if Kaylin’s overprotective brother would back off for a second.
  
• 7/31: A poll to pick out/recommend worldbuilding articles for the months of August, September, and October!

Caged Among the Stars, Chapter 5

“You liiiiiiike him.”

“Shut up.”

I’m in the gym with Tuck and the rest of our class, who despite no evidence to the contrary, is sure that I have feelings for Cadet Kaylin Zekram. Sure, he might correct, and maybe I am being a little too obvious with the way I’m watching him on one of the weight machines, but like hell if I’m going to admit that. Especially if he’s gonna act this annoying about it.

There’s also the fact that I promised Kaylin himself that I wouldn’t say anything about our... Well, I don’t know what to call it, exactly. Whatever this thing is that's developing between us.

Compared to the relative shitshow that happened on Mannot, the rest of the week has gone better. Not perfect, but better. After seeing that he was still just as capable as he was before (and sadly, more likely because I wasn’t stopping him from doing anything), most of our instructors began to acknowledge him again. Most, but not all.

It’s still clear that Kaylin is still being held back. He’s pretty good about dusting off his shoulder, but I can tell it’s really been getting to him. I just wish there was more I could do.

We’ve only hooked up once since our quick little tryst. It went down basically the same way, a hurried, out-of-the-blue moment two days ago, right after class. It still didn’t go further than oral, hair pulling, and a little ordering around with light praise, but at least this time I managed to not embarrass myself afterwards when he made to leave.

Truthfully, I don’t know what is really going through Kaylin’s head. I hate to say that Tuck is right, but I do like him. More than I thought I would, and I'm not sure those feelings are reciprocated. Maybe he’s just stressed and looking to blow off a little steam. That’s fine, we all need to sometime. But if that’s the case, I need to figure out where I stand in all this before I make an ass out of myself again.

“Whatever you say man...” Tuck finishes with a knowing smirk.

“Everything okay?” Kaylin asks himself, passing us on the way to the holo-treadmills.

“Yeah, Tuck’s just being a dick, like usual,” I cover with a roll of my eyes. I have got to get myself together.

Even though the hope is that we’ll never have to see an actual fight, we still receive combat training a few times a week. Between our blasters and personal shields, we’re well equipped to handle most threats, but we’re expected to excel in hand to hand combat as well. Because of that, it's become a sort of unofficial tradition for our cohort to end the week in the gym together, including some one-on-one sparring.

Or at least that’s how it usually goes, because for the last fifteen minutes, I’ve been watching Kaylin search high and low for a sparring partner, only to get told no over and over. When I see him across the room starting to get angry, I worry I might need to step in, but in the end he turns on his heel and comps stomping my way instead.

“What's wrong?” I ask, just getting off a weight machine myself.

“I can't find a sparring partner,” Kaylin angrily complains. “Everyone says they’re too worried about injuring me and pissing off my dom. Even the non-cabrians turned me down. I even asked Malprin, who just told me to go ‘practice my kneeling positions’ instead!”

“Shit.” I never considered that. “Do you need me to... Give them permission or something?”

“Yeah, because that wouldn’t be humiliating at all,” the sub grouses with a glare.

“I’ll spar with you,” Tuck offers from my side. “You don’t wanna fight Malprin anyways, I’ve seen toddlers punch harder than him.”

“Alright,” Kaylin answers after a moment of consideration. “But you better not go easy on me, Balock.”

“Wasn’t planning on it, Zekram,” Tuck replies.

I watch the two walk out to one of the empty sparring mats at the center of the room. I appreciate Tuck’s assistance, not just with lightening the mood, but his offer to Kaylin. I don’t think he would have agreed if I had asked Tuck to do it, or even offered myself.

I;m not the only one watching them either - multiple heads turn to watch the match that is about to unfold. Sady, I can read from a lot of expressions that some of them are hoping to see the sub get knocked down a peg.

The two combatants take their positions and begin to circle each other. There’s not a name for the style of hand to hand combat taught at the GUA. It's an amalgamation of several different types of combat, with different techniques cannibalized from combat styles originating from several of the GU’s member planets.

Kaylin is the first to strike, striking at Tuck with a punch he quickly dodges before returning with a strike of his own. Our sparring matches follow pretty standard rules. No weapons, no blows to the head or groin, and no intentionally causing serious injury. They typically go until someone taps out, or one of the combatants has been grappled for a sufficient period of time.

I’m not sure how this one is going to end. Things quickly get intense, with both Tuck and Kaylin coming at the other with seemingly their full strength. Tuck’s always been a bit of a musclehead, but Kaylin’s not slouching in that department himself, and whatever advantage Tuck might have is minimal at best. Kaylin certainly seems to have him beat in agility, twisting around his attacks with ease.

“That got serious real fast,” Astella comments on my left, having joined me as people began watching the match.

“I think Kaylin has something to prove,” I say offhandedly, watching the exertion on his face.

The two continue trade blows, dodging and deflecting like it's nothing as they dance around the mat. They’re both giving it their all, sweat flying in every direction just like they're limbs. They seem to be evenly matched, at least until Kaylin surprises Tuck and everyone else watching with a sudden trip attack. He quickly leaps onto Tuck’s prone form, twisting their bodies until he has the other man grappled in a submission pose beneath him.

“Fuck, I yield!” Tuck shouts as his arm is wrenched back.

Hearing that, Kaylin releases the slightly-larger man, rolling off and offering him a hand to stand. As the two spoke to each other, all around us the spectators can be heard murmuring about the match. Though I'm sure he can hear them, Kaylin ignores them. All I felt was impressed, and like I want a shot at him myself.

“You up for another round?” I ask Kaylin, the man sizing me up as I approach the mat.

“Sure,” he answers after a brief pause. “But you better not hold back either.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” I reply.

Tuck moves off to the side with our other friends, eager to watch himself (and probably hoping I embarrass myself at least a little). The crowd seems to have gotten larger, with some people now even openly rooting for the sub. While that makes me happy, I ignore them, focusing entirely on Kaylin as we both step into position.

That match starts and we begin to circle each other. Kaylin tries to strike first, trying to surprise me by coming at me head on. I take a page out of his own playbook and side-step him and attempt to trip him. But he’s ready for me, hopping over my leg and shoulder checking me in return. I can barely scramble to my feet before a fist comes flying in my direction.

Fuck, Kaylin’s got a mean right hook - the arm I took that punch to is gonna be sore tomorrow. Clearly even I underestimated his strength, and this is after he's already been in one fight today. I have to quickly respond with a punch of my own, just barely knocking his side with my fist.

We’ve sparred before, I have with all of my classmates over the years, and I don’t ever remember them being this intense. It's like a terrible dance, with him landing punch after punch to my torso, while constantly slipping just out of my reach. The more this goes on, the more frustrated I get. I’m getting sloppy. Hell, I’m doing even worse than Tuck did.

I try to correct myself, not slowing down but making more deliberate choices with my movements while I regain my footing. If Kaylin could sense my hesitation before, hes not showing it, and not letting up either. He’s more focused than I’ve ever seen him - or had I just not been paying enough attention?

I realize too late that he’s not actually giving it his all - he’s just matching me, waiting for me to make a mistake so he can pounce. And of course I do. I overextend myself, taking too short a step forward and aiming just short of Kaylin’s chest. When he sees the opening, I can’t blame him for taking advantage.

He starts with an uppercut to the arm I barely nicked him with, knocking me off balance. He follows this by quickly checking me in the chest, before tackling me the rest of the way to the ground. Before I can so much as wriggle, he’s got my left leg pulled back, the rest of his weight pinning me to the ground on my back.

“I yield!” I cry out after unsuccessfully trying to dislodge him.

Kaylin immediately releases my limbs and rolls free of my body as our gathered audience applauds our efforts. He gives me a moment to collect myself before offering me a hand up. I’m sore, and if I'm being honest, my pride is a little hurt - but I don't regret it.

“Losing to your own sub?” Of course, not everyone feels the same way. Like Cade Malprin. “How pathetic.”

“Think you can do better?” I challenge the dom. “Go right ahead. You have my permission.”

“I...” Malprin sizes up the sweaty but still raring to go Kaylin. “Nah. If you can’t put your own sub in his place, I don't see why I should do it for you.”

“Uh huh.” I make a show of rolling my eyes and turning away from the tool bag to face Kaylin. I can even hear some of those around us scoffing at the pathetic excuse. “You need more, or you're ready to get out of here?”

“I’m good to head out.” Kaylin nods with a smirk, not even looking in the fuming Malprin’s direction.

“That was great,” Kaylin tells me in the privacy of his room.

After a quick shower, we headed here to decompress. I also wanted to talk about what happened in the gym, worried Kaylin might be stewing like he did at the start of the week. Thankfully, he seems to be in good spirits about everything.

“Did you see the look on Malprin’s face?” he asks with a grin, handing me a cold aqua-ration.

“Which one: shocked at how you beat me, or scared at having to fight you himself?” I reply with a grin.

Fuck, pick one.” He finishes his own ration and tosses the empty container into the recycling chute. “I swear, seeing that was better than sex.”

“Well, I don’t know about better...” I tease, finishing my own water.

“Oh yeah?” Kaylin takes a sauntering step in my direction. “You got something to show me?”

“Maybe...” I reply with a grin. “But first, I think we should--”

I’m interrupted by someone knocking loudly on the door. Whoever it is is pounding loud enough to make us both jump. Kaylin gives me an apologetic look as he goes to answer.

“Who is--” He freezes as the door slides open to reveal a tall cabrian man in a suit on the other side. “D-Dad?!”

“So this is where you’ve been hiding?” The man pushes his way past his son and into the room.

“I-I haven’t been hiding,” Kaylin stammers as he follows the man. “I just--”

“Then you want to explain why I learned from the damned news that my own son is a sub?” He spits out the last word. “I’m the laughing stock of the entire firm!”

“I-- I--” Kaylin looked like a lost child in a crowd. “I wanted to tell--”

“I might be impressed, if I weren’t so disgusted.” Is this man ever going to let his son speak? “To think that I had a sub hiding under my own roof for all those years. If I had known, I would have had you shipped off to the Wrex Boarding School the second you were old enough.”

“Hey, that’s enough!” I shout at the man.

“Who the hell are you?” He finally acknowledges me, looking me up and down.

“D-Dad, this is--”

“Don’t tell me youre already bending over for someone.” He shakes his head in disgust. “Pathetic.”

“What the hell is your problem?!” I can't hold back my words any longer. “He’s your son!”

“He was my son,” he says without blinking an eye. “I didn’t raise a pathetic, sniveling, sub.”

“No, you didn’t,” I challenge him. “You raised a--”

“Save whatever speech you’ve been working up.” He holds a hand up in front of my face, turning to Kaylin. “I only came here to confirm the news, which I have. Don't expect an invitation home next Ugalnocht.”

“Dad, wait--” Kaylin calls out, but the man is already leaving the room without another word.

“Holy shit, what was wrong that guy?” I watch the door close in shock, the man having just uninvited his own son home for the holidays.. “How did you grow up--”

I cut myself off when I turn and see a wide eyed, fearful Kaylin still stuck staring at the door. “I-I’m sorry...”

“Oh shit,” I mutter to myself, barely able to move fast enough to catch Kaylin before his body crumples to the floor. This isn’t good - he’s dropping.

Sub drop is something that can happen to all submissives and some switches. While on the receiving end of someone’s dominance, should they experience something extreme or traumatic, there's a chance their hormones can become extremely unbalanced, pushing the sub into sub drop. It's not unlike a panic attack, though the only way to relieve it is to have the sub guided back up through subspace, which can take some time.

“Kaylin, can you understand me right now?” I gently ask the hazy-eyed boy in my arms.

“Uh-huh.” He nods, movements sluggish.

“I think you’re going into sub drop,” I start to explain.

“N-never r’lly dropped b’fore,” he slurs, his brow furrowing in worry.

“That’s okay,” I assure him. “If you’ll let me, I’m going to help you through it. Can I do that?”

“Okay, sir.” He nods.

“Good. That’s very good,” I praise him gently. “Would you like to kneel for me?”

“Okay.” I flinch at how hard his knees hit the floor, silently cursing at myself for not being more specific. In this state of mind, subs are incredibly suggestible.

“Good boy,” I praise, kneeling down to check myself if he’s hurt or not.

I reach for his desk chair and pull it over, taking a seat next to the kneeling boy. I gently guide him to rest his head on my knee while stroking my fingers through his hair. This really isn’t how I thought the night was going to go. It's also a great example of why we really need to talk about what our actual limits are.

Helping a sub through a drop is extremely intimate. It’s something you do for your partner or family member. Not the dom who you’ve been forcibly assigned to and know next to nothing about. He can barely even really consent right now. It's going to be hard enough to pull him out of this without knowing his limits. But I’ll manage.

“You were amazing in the gym today,” I praise. “You worked really hard and showed everyone just how capable you are.”

“Thank you, sir.” He nuzzles gently against my thigh, which is doing all the right (and wrong) things for me.

“You're a great sub,” I tell him next. “Any dominant would be lucky to have you like this for them.”

I spend the next couple of hours with Kaylin, petting and praising him through his drop. It's not hard for me to believe that this is his first, considering how hard it seems to have hit him. I make sure he stays hydrated, have him stand and stretch so he’s not on his knees for too long, and at one point I even consider getting dinner delivered to feed him, but he actually seems like he might be too tired for that. Just as I’m deciding to put him to bed, there’s another knock on the door.

“Hello?” I answer hesitantly, Kaylin sitting on the edge of his bed.

When I open the door, there’s another cabrian man on the other side. I don’t recognize him either, but he’s at least a bit closer to our age. He looks at me in confusion, before peering over my shoulder at Kaylin behind me.

“Can I help you?” I ask, annoyed and attempting to block his view.

“Can I help you?” The man replies, offended. “Mind telling me what the fuck you’re doing in my brother’s room?”

“Your brother?” My eyes go wide in realization. “Oh, you’re Kaylin’s--”

“Kaylin?” He pushes past me to his brother. “What’s wrong?”

“Len!” Kaylin said happily with a dopey. “It’s so good t’ see you?”

“Are you...?” He angrily turns to me. “Did you drop him?!”

“What? No!” I reply angrily. “You can thank your father for that.”

“Dad was here?” Kaylin brother looks shocked. “Shit, what did he--”

“He basically disowned your brother,” I try to say in as low a voice as possible. “It sent Kaylin into a tailspin and he dropped, hard. I’ve been trying to take care of him since then. I don’t think he’s ever dropped like this before.”

“He hasn’t,” Len confirms. “I helped him through a few smaller drops when we were younger, but--” He suddenly pauses. “Why am I telling you any of this? How do you even know my brother?”

“We’re in the same class, the officer’s program,” I start explain. “And as of last week, I became his custodial dom when the truth about his dynamic was revealed. We’ve actually been trying to get in touch with you for almost a week now.”

“I... I’m sorry. I was off-planet,” he tells me what I already knew. “But I’m here now. So thanks for stepping up, but I can handle things from here.”

“Look, I’m happy you're finally here, but I think we need to at least talk about what’s been going.”

“What I need to do is take care of my brother.” His tone started to get angry. “I don’t know who you think you are, but now that I’m here, you can fuck off to whatever it is you were doing before.”

“Who I am is the guy that took care of him while you were MIA!” I’m getting angry myself. “Maybe you could spend less time yelling at me and more--”

A distressed whine has us both turning to Kaylin, currently looking between the two of us with wide, confused eyes. Shit, two doms trying to out-dominate each other isn’t going to help him at all. And sadly, the truth is that he will probably be more comfortable with his brother right now.

“Look, I’m not the bad guy here,” I tell Len more calmly. “I just want to help Kaylin, same as you do. Can we talk - all three of us - after he’s more himself?”

“You’re right,” Len agrees with a sigh. “But for now, I’m sorry, but I think it needs to be just me and him until he comes back up from his drop. We can talk to morrow, okay?”

“Great.” I nod in agreement. “We can talk tomorrow.” I turn and drop to one knee in front of the still dazed Kaylin. “Kaylin, I’m going to leave you with your brother now. He’s going to take good care of you.”

“Okay.” He nods dazed, and I swear he almost looks sad that I'm leaving.

“You were a very good boy today,” I tell him, unable to pet my hand through his hair one last time. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

“Talk to you tomorrow, sir.” He nods dopily.

With a final nod of acknowledgement to Len, I leave the room, barely making it halfway down the hall before I have to stop and lean against it as I process the events of the last few hours. This is not how I saw this week going. I’d be lying if there wasn't a part of me that enjoyed taking care of him like that, but I’m worried about Kaylin. If that’s what his father is like, what about his brother?

Full Color Arenas & Monsters Map

Here is the full color map of Northeastern Avural Ug'dol/Nova Mundus. This is the location where most of the events of Steel & Thunder Book 4, Arenas & Monsters takes place. Black and white versions of this map can be find in all print versions of the book.

This one was a lot of work, basically three maps in one. Hope you like!

Forest Fungus Fornication, Chapter 1

“Another boring night.”

“Better than an exceptionally eventful one.”

“Yeah I guess,” I say with a sigh.

It's been another uneventful day of patrol duty for me and Khazak. And I know he’s right that I should be thankful for the quiet night, but there's only so many times you can walk past the same set of trees before you start to feel like you’re losing your mind. I’m about ready to start giving them names.

It's late and any active patrols ended a long time ago. All the rangers are back here in camp, with most of us gathered around the fire waiting for dinner to be served. A new ranger to the force, L’gan, offered to cook for everyone tonight, and we were all happy to agree.

“Dinner’s almost ready,” the chef orc announces as he stands over a large stew pot.

“What are we having, anyway?” Ragnar asks, peering into the pot himself.

“A family recipe,” L’gan tells him. “Venison, potatoes, a little onion... but the key ingredient is fresh mushrooms.”

“Sounds delicious,” Khazak comments in agreement.

It is delicious. It’s so good that almost everyone has a second bowl, myself included. By the time I crawl into my tent with Khazak, we’ve both got full, satisfied bellies.

I’m just in the middle of a good dream, one featuring my sexy half-elf friend Nylan, when I’m jostled awake by the arm thrown over my chest. Still half-asleep and with a lot more roughness than I'm expecting, Khazak manhandles me until I’m lying on my back underneath him. Then, without saying a word, he kisses me.

That’s when I notice just how hard he is - rock hard. Having sex in the middle of the night isn’t exactly unheard of for us, and I certainly don’t have a problem with my owner here taking “liberties” like this, but there’s usually a little more warning or talking before we get to it. At least enough time to finish waking up.

“I’m sorry,” Khazak apologizes, sounding breathless when he manages to tear his face away from mine. “I need... I need...”

Instead of finishing, he reaches for his satchel, quickly digging inside and pulling out our bottle of oil and my cleansing charm. He quickly pushes the charm into my hands, watching almost desperately as I put it to use. Before I even toss it to the side, he’s already slicking himself up and bringing his fingers to my hole.

He looks apologetic as he works fast to prepare me, barely waiting seconds before pushing his full length into me. I can feel my eyes bug out at the sudden intrusion, my limbs flailing before clinging to the large green body above me for support. I barely have time to get used to the stretch before he starts to fuck me.

And fuck me is what he does. He starts to pound away at me hard and fast, like a man desperate for his last meal, if his last meal was fucking my ass. Thankfully (I think) I don’t have to worry about making too much noise, because Khazak’s mouth almost immediately seals itself to mine, his tongue desperately plundering my mouth. I don’t know what’s gotten into him, but this is intense.

I almost don’t even notice that I’m getting close myself and am completely caught off guard by my own dry orgasm, all while Khazak continues to slam away at my poor, still mostly asleep body. And of course, my cock stays almost fully hard the entire time. I mean, I did sign up for this sorta treatment. But I might need a bit of a breather after this.

I should hopefully get it soon. Khazak doesn't seem far behind me, his thrusts turning shorter and more urgent. When he presses himself as tightly to me as he can, I can feel every last pulse as he cums inside of me. The warmth of his load spreads inside me as he pants heavily against my neck.

“Wow,” I manage to get out between breaths. “That was--”

“I’m sorry, but... I need...” That’s all I get before I hear a frustrated growl, and then Khazka starts to fuck me again.

Did... Did he even go a little soft? It’s hard to think straight when your getting fucked within an inch of your life for the second time in fifteen minutes. Don’t get me wrong, Khazak is an excellent top normally able to go on fucking me for ages, but this seems out of the ordinary even for him.

That’s about the last coherent thought I have as Khazak fucks into me at full speed yet again. I start to have anal orgasm after anal orgasm, my hand holding on feebly to his back and shoulders every time another one rolls through me. Above me, Khazak is pure animal, just a series of grunts and growls attached to a sweaty, green, muscley body.

I’m not sure how long that second round lasts, but it’s longer than the first for sure. By the time I finally hear the tell-tale ragged inhales Khazak makes when he’s about to cum, I’ve had at least a dozen orgasms of my own. I can’t even see straight when he plunges in one final time, stuffing me to the brim with even more of his hot, sticky cum.

As we lie there and once more catch our breaths, I notice for the second time that Khazak’s cock hasn’t seemed to flag at all. When he starts to move again, I panic, looking up into his face and finding nothing but pure animalistic lust. This isn’t right...

“Khazak...” I barely manage. “I don’t think I can go again. I need at least a little bit of a break. Please.”

My pleading manages to snap him out of his stupor, his eyes suddenly clearing as he watches me with concern. “Something... Something is very wrong.”

With what looks like great effort, Khazak pulls himself from my hole. After he does, he starts to back away like he's afraid of being too close. We’re both panting, and while I’m still half-hard from you know, just having sex, Khazak’s cock is harder than I’ve ever seen it, jutting straight out from his groin and pulsing in time with his heartbeat.

“Get... Get dressed,” he tells me through clenched teeth. “We need to speak with the others.”

I’m not sure I understand what’s going on, but I do as he asks. After getting our clothes on (which for Khazak seemed to take a lot more effort than it did me), we crawl out of our tent and are greeted by the sight of the two rangers assigned to the first watch shift sucking each other off. Or one of them is sucking the other one off - you know what I mean! Looks of horror cross their face as they realize they’ve been caught, but Khazak seems too preoccupied to be scandalized.

“Everyone,” he announces to the camp. “I need you all to make yourselves decent and then join me by the fire. We have a problem.”

One by one all of the rangers begin to slowly emerge from their tents, each one looking more bashful than the rest. Most of them stand awkwardly, attempting to use their hands to cover the very obvious lumps in the front of all their pants. Whatever affected Khazak seems to have gotten to the rest of the rangers too.

“Is it safe to say everyone here has been overcome with a near uncontrollable level of lust?” Khazak asks bluntly, making no attempt to hide his own erection.

“Yeah, think so, Captain,” Ragnar is the first one to agree, the rest of the rangers too embarrassed to answer.

“L’gan,” Khazak turns to the new ranger. “The mushrooms you used in our dinner... Do you still have them?”

“Yes, sir, I was going to take some home.” The man nods a little hesitantly.

“Show them to me,” Khazak demands.

L’gan leaves the group for hsi tent, returning a moment latter with a small pouch that he hands to Khzak. “Here you go, Captain.”

“Godsdamnit,” Khazak curses as he inspects the pouch’s content - and he never curses, so whatever is in there, it’s bad. “It is exactly what I was worried about. These are amorii mushrooms, L’gan.”

A groan moves through the group at Khazak’s declaration, except for L’gan who just looks mortified.

“What’s wrong with amorii mushrooms?” I ask, maybe a little stupidly.

“Well for one, they’re poisonous,” Ragnar informs me.

“You poisoned us?!” I almost shriek accusingly at L’gan.

“Yes, but it’s not your standard poison,” Khazak starts to explain with a sigh. “Rather than making you ill, it acts as an extreme aprohdiasic. Anyone who ingests it is overtaken by an almost uncontrollable lust for twenty-four hours.”

“You... You mean we’re all going to be crazy horny - literally - for the next two days?!” I ask in a panic.

“Well, we are,” Ragnar responds. “It doesn’t look like it’s having the same effect on you.” He nods to the soft cock in my pants.

“It must not affect humans the same way it does orcs,” Khazak hypothesizes.

“So what do we do?” I ask next. “Is there a cure?”

“I’m afraid not.” Khazak shakes his head with a frown. “And if the condition of those poisoned is not monitored and, ahem, ‘taken care of,’ it can lead to serious complications or injury.”

“So if you guys don't do what, get off regularly in the next two days, you’ll suffer permanent damage?” I ask hesitantly. “To your... dicks?”

“Yes, precisely that,” Khazak confirms, which I wasn’t actually expecting. “And I’m afraid masturbation will not be enough either. The only way to alleviate the symptoms caused by amorii mushrooms is to interact with a person who is not affected - being in close contact with their natural hormones causes the poison to stabilize.”

“So you need to have sex... With someone who isn’t affected by the mushrooms...” I’m starting to put two and two together.

“Yes, David,” Khazak continues, obviously reluctant. “I am sorry to ask this of you, but even making the several hours trek back to the city would be too great a risk. David, please, will you help us?”

“Uh...” I look around at all ten rangers, all with a combination of lust and fear in their eyes, and what else can I say? “Yes sir. I’ll help you.”

Audiobook Release & Novella Preorders

Summertime is here! Hope everyone is getting a chance to relax, at least for a little while. I myself just got back from a weekend in Chicago for International Mister Leather, and now I’ve got months of pool parties to look forward to back home here in Florida. But you aren’t here to read about my partying schedule. On to the news!

First up is the Arenas & Monsters audiobook! It just released last week, and is nearly a full twelve hours long. Ken, my narrator, put a lot of effort into this one, and I couldn’t be prouder of the results. You can buy it on Amazon, Audible, and everywhere else you find your audiobooks online. Give it a listen, and leave me a review!

The other piece of news I have is that Before the Storm is receiving a physical and ebook release this December! You all are already familiar with the story, but if you want a physical copy, here is your chance! The preorders are up on Amazon and all the usual locations, so get your copy today! The chapters here have also been updated to include edits as well as the new cover art.

Hope you all have a great summer and find a nice book to lay out with by the pool. Until next month!

This Month on Patreon

June’s Patreon Offerings:

• 6/12: The first chapter of Forest Fungus Fornication - David and Khazak are out in the V’rok’sh Tah’lj forest for their weekly patrol duties, but there’s something funny in the air...
• 6/19: A map of the Northeastern shores of Avural Ug’dol - where most of the events of Arenas & Monsters take place!
• 6/26: The fifth chapter of Caged Among the Stars - Although classes are still going rough, the connection between Kaylin and Vaiken continues to grow. Which is of course the perfect time for an unexpected face to show up and shake things up...

Worldbuilding Article for July

Time to pick your next worldbuilding article! Because of the way the calendar is working out and some upcoming maps I will be posting, this is just for the month of July!

I'm always looking to hear more ideas for future worldbuild articles, so please, leave me some suggestions in the comments!

Caged Among the Stars, Chapter 4

“So what are you thinking?”

“Maybe some CTF?”

“Nah, I bet it’s gonna be something with hostages.”

It’s Mannot afternoon, almost 15:00, which means the final class of the day is about to start. It’s been an okay day, for the most part. Given the amount of people they admit, all of us in the officer’s program have an almost identical class schedule. Still, outside of lunch I haven’t had much of a chance to say anything to Kaylin beyond a friendly nod from across the room.

After our discussion the day before, there were just a few things in class that I couldn’t help but notice. Things that just felt sorta ... off. I’m used to hearing Kaylin’s voice once or twice in each class, when he’s answering or asking a question, or just adding to a group discussion. But there were a few times in our morning Astrophysics class where I saw his hand up and Cmdr. Junpat seemed like she was just ... ignoring him. The same thing happened in the first half of Advanced Xenobiology, but Professor Olin at least called on him once towards the end.

Lunch itself was good, it arguably went even better than I expected. Kaylin sat down with me and my friends this time. He didn’t “talk” anything beyond the occasional grunt or change in facial expression, but that also meant he didn’t insult anyone. Sure, I was probably the only person at risk of being insulted in the first place - I’m still counting it as a win!

Our afternoon Quantum Geometry class was just like our morning classes, but now it’s time for our usual start-of-the-week field test. We have one at the start and end of every week, where we’re split into squads of five, with each group given an objective to accomplish. Sometimes those objectives are different, with all of us needing to work in concert to achieve larger group objectives, but other times they are competitive, pitting each group against each other to see who can achieve their goal first. And I think today, we’re going to be dealing with the latter.

“I think Tuck’s right,” I share my own guess. “We haven’t had a hostage run in a few weeks.”

“The probability of that seems pretty high,” Rev agrees, probably after running a simulation or two. “I’m with Vaiken.”

These training sessions all take place on a large holofield. Left on its own, it appears like any normal grass-covered field, but beneath the surface are thousands of cameras and other sensors, and just as many hard-light projectors. When programmed to work in concert, you can create just about any scene or scenario you could imagine. Buildings, roads, creatures, even people, the projectors can create anything you need.

The field is connected to the academy grounds, but it’s not actually ours - it belongs to Monika City, technically, which uses it for all sorts of holidays and celebrations. Still, we probably use it the most, with training sessions scheduled months in advance. We’re all outfitted in our full tactical uniforms, but since nothing we’ll be interacting with is real, our weapons are for little more than show. Seriously, I’m pretty sure the lasers we used to play tag at my twelfth birthday party packed more power than these.

<Incoming,> Gax-On warns us.

“Fall in!” Cmdr. Geeta orders as she walks onto the field.

All thirty of us line up, shoulder to shoulder, awaiting the next of her orders. Geeta, a Cabrian, is a tough, no-nonsense dom who takes her job as our instructor very seriously. While we all rotate through different roles, now in our fifth year it’s more clear where our skills lie, so most of us end up in the same positions and working with the same people. Our squad assignments come in over our OCIDs, the small cybernetic contact lens that all cadets are outfitted with. It stands for Optical Communication and Information Display, and in addition to allowing us to easily communicate with each other, provides an easy read out of maps, environmental readings, and other information. I’m confused to see Kaylin in my group, instead of leading one of his own.

“Ma’am?” And of course, he noticed too. “I think there’s been a mistake.”

“No mistake, Zekram,” Geeta responds sternly. “You’re with Urmatin today and for the foreseeable future. “

Kaylin’s jaw tightens as she walks away without another word, but he says nothing.

“About time someone put him in his place,” I overhear Cadet Falkin mutter to his own squad.

“The fuck did you just say?” Kaylin angrily questions after hearing it himself.

“No one was talking to you, sub,” he sneers, rolling his eyes and turning away to laugh with his friends.

“Ignore them, Kaylin,” I try and offer support.

“Don’t tell me what to do,” he snaps at me before glowering at the back of Geeta’s head.

I share a look with Tuck, but otherwise keep my mouth shut. No need to antagonize him worse. Once we get started, we’ll have too much else to focus on to worry about it anyway.

“Today’s exercise is a standard insurgency scenario,” Cmdr. Geeta starts to explain, walking back and forth in front of us cadets. “A group of raiders has attacked a recently established settlement near the edges of the GU’s territory. They have captured several key locations and taken numerous hostages.”

“Told ya.” Tuck and I share a quick fist bump.

“Your objective is to take back as many captured points as possible, with the ultimate goal being to end the insurgency while keeping civilian casualties to a minimum,” Geeta finishes explaining. “Details on your assignment will be sent to your OCID. Proceed to your squad's starting point, and then the exercise will begin. Move out!”

“See you out there, bro,” Tuck says, having his own squad to lead.

“Good luck.” We clap the backs of our right wrists together twice, a handshake all our own.

Aside from Kaylin, I’ve also got Gax-On, Astella, and Cadet Tv’kom, a Numerian. As we move to our starting positions, I decide to have Tv’kom and Gax-On both running point. Numerians have long, cone-shaped ears that can hear about five times better than a Cabiran’s, and while Gax-On won’t be able to read the actual thoughts of the holo-constructs, they are programmed to give off enough of a psi-signature that he’ll at least be able to pick up on their location. That’ll leave Kaylin with me just behind them, and Astella will bring up the rear, her natural Yarlatan size allowing her to easily dwarf the rest of us.

Once we’re in position, I tell the rest of my squad their marching orders. There are no complaints, not even from Kaylin, though it looks like he wants to say something. But before he can, blue lights begin to flicker all around us as the holo-projectors kick on. All around us, trees begin to sprout from the ground, each flickering in an outline of blue light until the images settle into place, and we’re suddenly standing in a forest.

We’re not on a planet I’m familiar with, the trees each bearing square and orange-colored leaves. The sky is a hazy pink, and off in the distance I can see some tall buildings topped with rounded glass domes. I also see plumes of smoke, which means our target is that way. After confirming everyone understands the assignment, we move out.

Not to brag, but things go exceptionally smoothly for our squad. Just like I hoped, between Gax and Tv’kom, we’re able to not just avoid and raider parties in the forest, but are also able to locate a few of the locals who are in need of first aid or protection. Obviously these holograms and their injuries aren’t real - but neither are the first aid kits each of us is outfitted with.

It doesn’t take long until the five of us are traveling with four of the “local” inhabitants, intending to find a good defensive point to drop them off in until the danger has passed. This is exactly what we would be expected to do in the actual field - help people. For all the flash and grit that might come with this job, that’s really what it’s all about.

“Wait.” Gax announces, pausing  as we near the settlement. “I’m getting some weird readings.”

“Hail!” Before he can continue, a Cabrian in a GU uniform walks out of the brush, his hands raised. “Finally, reinforcements.”

“We’re here to help however we can,” I assure the man. “Where are--”

“Get your hands up,” Kaylin orders on my left, his stun pistol aimed at our holo-ally.

“Zekram!” I shout! “What are you--”

“His uniform is untucked, the pistol at his hip isn’t standard issue, and even if there was a person alive who actually greeted someone with ‘hail,’ he should have used his OCID to establish contact first - not walk right up to us in the middle of an active engagement.” He takes a step forward, still aiming at the man’s chest. “He is not GU.”

I’m at a loss for words, shocked that Kaylin would do something like this - until the GU officer’s face flips to an angry grimace.

“You offworlders think you’re so smart, don’t you?” he snarls, putting his hands in the air.

Immediately the rest of us all aim our pistols at the man.

“Good eye, Zekram,” I praise before turning my attention to our current target. “Take us to whoever you stole that uniform from.”

The man, his hand still up, begrudgingly leads us to a small home just outside the city limits. Inside are several of his fellow raiders, who are all forced to surrender given that we outnumber them and already have one of them captured. There are also a few hostages along with a few GU officers - including the one our friend stole his uniform from.

After freeing our colleagues (holograms just like the others), we make sure the area is secured and hand over the civilians we’ve rescued so far. They should be safe here until we are able to evacuate the area. By which I mean we finish the exercise and this all goes back to being a grassy field.

With that handled, we continue on. The streets are empty as we move further into the settlement, which is not a good sign. We avoid any open areas, staying close to the walls as we try moving closer to the colony’s center. Just as we start to approach one of the larger buildings, Gax stops us again.

<I am getting a strange reading from inside.> He looks towards our current target. <I can sense something, but not what, nor how many.>

“I can hear voices inside,” Tv’kom says, cupping a purple hand around one ear. “Three, maybe four? They don’t sound very calm.”

“Front entrance is a no-go then,” I decide. “Let’s scope around and try to find another way inside.”

We don’t have to look very long, finding an unlocked door on the east side of the building. It seems to be some sort of public square, once that’s seen better days. There are different stands (maybe shops) but most of them have been destroyed or toppled over, produce and other items scattered on the ground.

As we move further inside, we see that the center of the building is a large, open air space, currently occupied by what appears to be more of the raiders - along with a few hostages of course. Tv’kom silently signals us towards our left, and we move carefully and quietly around the perimeter until we come across an open alcove with ample cover. There are also more civilians hiding here, who immediately cower away when they see us.

“Wait, we’re here to help,” I speak-whisper, flashing the insignia on my uniform. “We’re with the Galactic Union.”

Though that doesn’t calm them entirely, they at least stop cowering, an older Ataxian woman approaching me with fear in her eyes.

“Please, you have to help us,” the terrified woman begs. “They arrived two days ago and have been ransack--”

“What’s the situation?” I turn to see Cadet Falkin and his squad entering from the same direction we did.

“We just arrived a few minutes ago,” I explain in a low voice as the others gather close. “The lead raider is the man ranting in the center there, and he’s holding the settlement’s leader hostage.”

“Have you scoped out any tactical positions yet?” Falkin asks next, already reaching for his pistol.

“No, because nobody needs to start shooting people,” Kaylin responds in disgust. “Maybe we should try talking to him first?”

“He’s clearly an immediate threat,” Falkin, another dom,  responds. One of the other cadets with Falkin rolls her eyes.

<The use of force should be seen as a tactic of last resort,> Gax-On adds, agreeing with Kaylin, and he’s right.

“We don’t even know why they’re doing this yet,” I point out. As officers (in training) of the Galactic Union, we’re expected to use every tool at our disposal to resolve situations like this - and diplomacy is just as much one of our weapons as our stun-pistols.

“Of course you’d agree with him,” Falkin sneers.

“What is that supposed to mean?” I poke him in the chest, speaking a little too loudly.

“Who’s there?!” The raider leader shouts in our direction. Shit.

“Way to go,” Falkin grouses. “Alright, we’ll fan out.”

“Seeing as we arrived here first, that makes me the lead on this,” I remind my fellow cadet. None of us outrank each other, so the leader of whichever squad reaches the objective first is the one in charge - meaning me. “That means the rest of you are standing down while we try talking to him. Zekram, you’re with me.”

I ignore the looks of anger Falkin and some of his squad give us, Kaylin and I both walking out from behind our cover with our arms up, weapon’s holstered.

“Don’t shoot,” I start as we carefully approach who I think is the leader of this raiding party. “We just want to talk.”

“That’s all your people ever want to do.” He sounds a bit crazed as he talks, gun still aimed at his hostage. “Talk. Meanwhile, my people are starving, dying, while your government sits back and does nothing!”

“What’s your name?” Kaylin asks in a friendly tone. “Where are you from?”

“Don’t pretend like you care,” the man mocks. “It has been six months since the Galactic Union stopped delivering supplies, since they stopped even responding to our messages for help. Your word means nothing.”

“That’s not true, we want to help you as much as we do the people of this colony,” I try to assure, piecing together the holo-raider’s backstory. “There has to be some explanation.”

“I don’t want excuses!” he cries out, though his grip on the old man seems to loosen. “I want my family to survive.”

“We both know killing that man isn’t going to get you that,” Kaylin tries to explain calmly. “But if you all will stand down and tell us where you’re from, we can--”

“Up there! They’re going to shoot!” one of the other raiders shouts, pointing at the second floor balcony - where Falkin has his pistol trained on our hostage taker.

And then everyone starts shooting.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

To say that we failed the exercise in an understatement. As soon as the first shots were fired, the entire area became a battlefield. All of the raiders went down - but so did a lot of the civilians. And the fact that we only failed because of Cadet Falkin disobeying protocol doesn’t matter - we all got dressed down by Cmdr. Geeta. She made us run laps around the field’s perimeter afterwards, and most of us are only finally hitting the showers now.

“What a shitshow,” I complain as I lean forward, letting the hot water run over my back.

“Sorry I missed most of it,” Tuck says on my left. “My squad never even made it out of the forest thanks to a raider in a stolen uniform.”

“This was a rough one.” I don’t mention that thanks to Kaylin, my own squad didn’t fall for that same trick.

Kaylin hasn’t really spoken since the scenario ended, and is currently quietly seething on my right. All of the showers at the Academy use a special water that’s been treated with additives that help with soreness and improve muscle growth. It always feels great after a workout, but I’m not sure it’ll work on our wounded prides.

“Can’t believe how badly you all fucked that up for us,” Falkin loudly declares as he enters, taking up a spot on the opposite wall.

“The only reason we failed was because instead of following protocol you decided to literally get caught pointing your gun at the person with a hostage,” Kaylin corrects him with a glare.

“Well we wouldn’t have failed if we had just done my plan in the first place,” Falkin scoffs, taking a step towards us. “That’s what we get for letting a sub dictate our orders.”

“Your plan got all of the hostages killed!” Kaylin shouts, closing the space between him and Falkin.

“Hey, that’s enough.” I decide to physically get between the two of them before a fight starts.

“Better listen to your dom, bitch,” Falkin sneers.

“What the fuck did you just call me?!” Kaylin flies into a rage, trying to practically climb over me to get to him.

“Kaylin, stop!” I shout, physically holding him in place so he doesn’t swing at Falkin.

“Un-fucking-believable!” he growls when he finally gives up, stomping off to a far corner of the shower and glowering at the wall. I don’t see him again until we’re both finished with our showers and getting dressed, when he follows me out into the hall.

“We’re not done talking,” he tells me, and with a sigh, I silently lead us back to my dorm room.

“What the fuck was that?” he asks as soon as the door is closed.

“You mean me stopping you from punching Falkin in the face?” I ask with one eyebrow raised.

“Yeah.” He rolls his eyes. “I can take care of myself. I don’t need your fucking help.”

“I never said you couldn't.” I try to reason with him. “I was just trying to help you avoid a fight.”

“I can handle fighting a prick like Falkin.” He points in the general direction of the showers. “Or do you suddenly think being a sub makes me weak like everyone else?”

“I know you can handle yourself!” Why is he so frustrating?! “I’m just trying to help you not get expelled!”

“Why do you even care!?” he shouts, practically in my face. “Why are you doing any of this?!”

I don’t have a verbal answer - I grab the sides of his face, and kiss him. And for a second, he kisses me back. But then it stops just as quickly, and he’s shoving me away.

“So you do...” He stares at the floor with a hurt expression. “The only reason you’re doing any of this is because you want--”

“This is new,” I try to assure him that my intentions to help him really were pure. “It didn’t happen until after. And if you’re not interested, we don’t have to--”

I’m silenced by another kiss, one that quickly turns aggressive, even frantic. Still standing in the middle of my room, we wrap our arms around each other, our hands gradually moving lower and lower. It isn’t until I feel Kaylin start to stroke me through my pants, his fingers moving towards my fly, that it occurs to me we need to set some ground rules first.

“Wait, what are your lim--” I start after breaking our liplock.

“Oral only. You can pull my hair, but it all better stay attached to my scalp, and if you try to hold my head down, I will bite your dick off,” he states with a look of warning. “And don’t expect me to call you sir. That work for you?”

“Uh, yeah.” I nod like an excitable teenager. “I’m okay with that.”

Without another word, he drops to his knees. His hands return to my belt, making quick work of it and the zipper of my fly. He tugs my pants halfway down my thighs, taking my underwear with them. Reaching in to fish out my already erect cock, he aims it himself as he opens his lips.

I let out a soft, involuntary moan as I enter his mouth, the heat more soothing than the shower we just finished taking. As I move one hand to his hair, I can’t help but consider that this is not how I would have expected this to go, given our respective dom and sub levels. But if this is what Kaylin is comfortable with, I can make it work.

He looks so good on his knees, his plump red lips wrapped around me. I use my hand to guide him up and down my shaft, giving him the occasional tug on his hair, but taking care never to pull him too roughly or down too far. I start to give him small words of encouragement, petting through his hair as I tell him what a good boy he is, and hearing the low whines and moans that escape from his mouth in return. When I look down between his legs, I can see just how hard he is.

“Take your cock out,” I finally give him my first official order, and it feels good. Right. “Show me how much you’re liking this.

My words make Kaylin shudder, never taking his mouth of me. His hands quickly scrabble at the front of his pants, fumbling as he tries to open his zipper. When he finally manages, his cock springs out, his bright red skin making it look almost hot to the touch. He takes himself in hand, struggling at first to find a rhythm that matches the one set by his mouth.

I’m still happy to let Kaylin set the pace here, at least until I get the chance to learn more about what he likes. But I’m not complaining as I start to rock myself in and out of his lips, and neither does he. In fact, he uses his free hand to reach up and start to fondle my balls, bringing me closer and closer to finishing. Which makes another important question flash in my mind.

“Do... Do you want to swallow?” I ask the sub on his knees with some hesitation, grinning when I receive an almost frenzied nod in return. “Of course you do, because you’re such a good boy.”

The vibrations around my cock from the moan he gives at that praise are what push me over the edge, and with a low goan, I start to cum. My hand still in Kaylin’s hair, I’m careful not to hold him down as I unload. I don’t really need to be though, because Kaylin forces me all the way down his throat all on his own, swallowing every drop. I’m panting when he finally pulls off with a wet pop.

“I need... I need you to...” He sounds breathless as he continues to stroke himself. “Tell me I can cum.”

“Cum,” I quickly order. “Cum for me.”

With a low groan, Kaylin doubles over on himself, his free hand cupped right in front of his cock as he unloads. He squeezes every drop from himself before sitting back on his heels and exhaling deeply. Then, with pants still half undone and a hand full of semen, he gracefully stands, walking to my sink to wash his hands and face.

“Phew.” I let out a breath of my own, watching him clean up from behind. “That was... Great.”

“Thanks, you too,” He tells me over his shoulder, a playful glint in his eye. “And for the record, those aren’t my full limits. Just my limits for this time.”

“Does that mean there will be a next time?” I try not to sound too hopeful.

“Maybe,” he teases, stuffing himself back in his pants. “Do I look alright? The last thing I need is for someone to figure out what we’re up to.”

“What would be wrong with that?” I’m confused. “We’re not doing anything wrong.”

“We know that, but it won’t stop anyone else from making assumptions,” he points out. “It’s just easier this way.”

“Who cares what anyone else thinks?” Since when did other people’s opinions start mattering?

“I have to care about what they think.” He fixes me with an unimpressed look. “Or did you miss the part where the only way most people think a sub can make it anywhere in life is by sleeping their way to the top?”

“But we’re not... You’re not...” Even I’m surprised by my reaction, not expecting to feel this hurt.

“I should go,” he says with a sigh.

“Wait, I’m sorry,” I try to stop him as he heads towards the door.

“It’s okay, Vaiken,” he assures me. “We’ll be fine.”

When the door closes, I know I want us to be much more than fine.

Werewolves & Lycanthropy

Welp, this article ended up being a lot longer than expected, so I'm splitting vampires into their own article!

Also, content warning for mentions of miscarriages below.

Lycanthropy, and perhaps therianthropy in general, is one of the most widespread and well-known magical afflictions. Once a month, on the night of the full moon, those affected will transform into a monstrous, half-wolf form, whether they like it or not. While many werewolves are able to control themselves in this state, others cannot - and there are some who may not even be aware they are cursed at all.

The lycanthropic curse is believed to have originated somewhere in eastern Europa, though the identity of the “first'' werewolf is unknown. Given the connection to animals, it is easy to understand that the magic that powers the curse is Natural in origin. Even today, druids, witches, and shamans are all capable of afflicting these curses on an individual - a serious offense in most jurisdictions - but the true danger lies in the curse being passed on from one werewolf to another, through biting.

Fortunately, it isn’t just any bite, but one that must occur during the night of the full moon. It only takes a single bite to pass the curse on, and as the effects will lay dormant for a full month until the next full moon, which is why an uninformed person may not even realize they’ve been cursed. However, the bite does not always turn an individual into a werewolf; for some people, the bite means death. Lycanthropy is also passed from parent to child, and the children born from werewolf parents often find it easier to control their shifting and other abilities than someone who was bitten later in life.

However, werewolf pregnancies can be dangerous, as can pregnancies that result from a pairing of wolf and non-wolf. For expecting werewolves, it is the early months of pregnancy that are the most dangerous. During the full moon, while they are forced to transform, their children are not. This can lead to an issue wherein the werewolf’s body cannot recognize the child growing within as their own, leading to a miscarriage. For non-werewolves, similar complications can occur during the later months of pregnancy, as their fetus will shift during the full moon, while they do not.

Werewolves who are able to control their abilities can shift in and out of their half-wolf form at will - except of course, during the full moon. Werewolves are also faster, stronger, and have better hearing and smelling even when not transformed - and those abilities are amplified further when they are. In addition to being faster and stronger even when not in werewolf form, the magic that powers their body’s the ability to shift forms also causes them to heal three to four times faster than a non-werewolf.

There is a common misconception that werewolves can assume the form of a wolf, or that they can control regular wolves, but these are myths or were actions assisted by magic. There is no known cure for lycanthropy, though werewolves can be weakened with silver or aconite, also known as wolfsbane. While aconite will weaken a werewolf’s supernatural abilities, silver will in fact prevent them from transforming, with the exception of during the full moon.

You can find werewolf communities all over Terra who work together to help one another control their abilities and overcome the more difficult parts of living with this curse. These communities do not actively seek to grow their numbers by passing on their curse, though they will often bring people into the fold who they feel may make good additions to their pack. At the same time, they understand all of the potential dangers that come with accepting the bite, and never act to force it on anyone.

There are different types of therianthropes also prevalent in other regions, each with their own rules and supernatural abilities. The werecats of Bhuvarsha are said to transform every night - but they are also said to have stronger and more inherent control over themselves. The werehyenas of Alkebulan, also known as bultungin, are said to have no such compulsions on when they can transform at all. Though the specific rules may vary, these curses all share the common thread of being bound to an animal - and often feared by the rest of the world.

The Crown and the Collar, Chapter 2

“I can’t believe that just happened.”

“Me neither,” I respond. “It did happen though, right?”

“Believe me, I had to stop myself from biting into the gold right in front of him,” Daddy confirms. “It was real.”

We’re headed back to the farm several hours earlier than we normally would be after a day at the market, Momma driving the cart behind us. Both of them are completely empty, except for the crates we used to carry the crops, which are also now empty. We’ve had good days before, but we’ve never sold everything—not until Prince Makseka.

I still can’t believe it. Why was he even there? He was just ... wandering around the market. Until he saw me. Then he kept asking me all those questions until he decided to just buy everything. He was probably the one person at the market who didn’t need a single thing there!

The way he kept looking at me, his eyes, his smile... They’re burned into my brain.

He and his knights got everything loaded pretty quickly—must be all that werewolf strength—and then returned all of the empty crates. Which makes me think that one of those carriages must now filled with loose fruits and vegetables just rolling around on the floor. I guess it’s not really my problem. He can do whatever he wants with his food.

We make the turn at the mill, home just ahead in the distance. Lamplight Farm isn’t the biggest, but we’re still a decent size at fifteen acres. About half of that is empty fields of grass, but the rest is still a lot of land for the three of us to work. We’ve got a small stable for our two horses, a decent sized barn for our three dairy cows, and a small wooden chicken coop. The farmhouse where we actually live is an old wooden building with two floors, covered in a layer of faded blue paint.

“I don’t know what you did to get the prince’s attention like that,” Momma says as we park the carts next to the farmhouse, “but I think it just paid for a new roof.”

“Whatever it was, you’ll have to do it again the next time we have a royal in town,” Daddy jokes as we step off.

“I’m going to put this away,” Momma tells us, hugging us both before she steps inside. “It feels dangerous carrying around this much money.”

While Momma stashes away today’s earnings in the safe, Daddy starts to pull the empty crates from the carts, stacking them in the shed near the fields so they’ll be ready for the next harvest. They’re light enough that he can handle it on his own, so I unhook Bess and Kino from the carts and bring them to our small horse stable.

We’ve had these horses for as long as I can remember, and they’re both getting up in years, but they’re gentle-natured and hard workers. I get them both in their stalls and make sure they’ve got fresh water and plenty of forage to eat. Before I leave, I feed them both an apple, a reward for all the work they did today.

My stomach starts to rumble after I leave the stable, so I head back to the farmhouse for lunch. Momma usually packs us sandwiches and a few snacks to eat while at the market, and I join her and Daddy at the dinner table to eat. When we’re finished, we each head off to take care of what we need to on the farm.

Even though we woke up early to finish a few things, since we normally expect to spend most of the day in the marketplace selling, there’s still plenty to be done around farm. The chickens and cows were taken care of this morning, so with the horses fed, that should be all of the animals. I think that just leaves some hay bales in the barn that need to be stacked.

“Good afternoon, ladies,” I greet the cows as I enter the barn. “Don’t mind me. Just moving some hay.”

“Mooooo,” Holly greets me in return, coming up to the edge of her stall with her sisters Molly and Polly at her side.

“Yeah, it was a really good day,” I start to tell them about our morning as I pick up the first bale, starting a pile in the corner. “You’ll never believe it: Prince Makseka was at the market today. Just wandering around like it was nothing.”

“Moo?” Polly asks while I grab my second bale.

“Yeah, he came up and started asking me all these questions about the farm.” I move another, already starting to feel the familiar burn in my arm muscles. “He seemed really interested for some reason, and then he bought everything. That’s why we’re home so early.”

Okay, I know the cows can’t actually understand me, and no, I can’t understand them either, but that doesn’t mean they don’t like being talked to. They’re friendly girls, always eager to say hello. Sometimes I feel like they understand me anyways, and even if they can’t, it’s just nice to have someone who listens, you know?

“Moooo.” Sounds like Molly wants to hear more about the prince.

“He was really nice, actually,” I tell her as I pull off my shirt, already soaked through with sweat, tucking it into the waist of my pants. “Not that I expected him to be mean. He was maybe a little weird, too. Kept asking me about what it’s like living and working on a farm, how much I liked it. And then like I said, he bought everything we brought with us. Down to the last onion.”

“Moo?” Holly seems skeptical.

“No, that was the other weird part. Even though Momma and Daddy were right there, Iwas the one he kept talking to.” I finish with one pile and move onto the next. “I’m not sure why he was so interested in hearing from me. They’ve been doing this a lot longer, especially Daddy.”

“Moo.” Polly always did get to the right to the point.

“Yeah, okay, he was nice to look at, too,” I admit, stopping for a second, taking off my shirt, and using it to wipe my brow. “He’s really tall, and he has these bright blue eyes I noticed from all the way across the square. I don’t think he’d shaved in a couple of days, but it looked really good on him.”

“Well, that’s a nice thing to hear.” The voice makes me yelp in surprise and drop the bale in my hands. Turning around, I see Prince Makseka leaning against the barn door. “Though I swear, I shaved just yesterday.”

“Your Highness!” I blurt out, probably a little too loudly. “What are you doing here?”

“I happen to have it on good authority that you were given the rest of the day off, so I thought I’d come and see what your farm was like for myself.” He steps farther inside the barn, his icy blue eyes scanning my body again. “Though it kinda seems like you’re still working anyway.”

“I... I’m sorry, sir.” Why am I apologizing? “There’s just a lot of work to be done on a farm.” I gesture to the half-finished stack of hay bales.

“I can see that.” Instead of looking there, his eyes are glued to my sweaty, shirtless torso, my chest hair matted to my skin.

“W-Would you ... like a tour of the farm, sir?” I’m right back to feeling that mix of nervousness and being drawn in, just like in town.

“I would.” He nods once, stepping closer. “I really enjoyed meeting you today. So much that it made me start to consider some things.”

“What kind of things, Prince Makseka?” It feels like he wants me to ask.

“Please, call me Max,” he says before his expression turns more serious. “How much do you know about consorts to the royal family?” He looks almost worried about what my answer might be.

“I... I know a little,” I lie, the question making goosebumps break out over my body. “I’ve read a few stories and heard about some other things from other people in the village.”

“Well, I can promise you that only about half of them are true,” he teases, putting back on his charming smile. “But I’m glad you’re at least a little familiar because I have another question to ask you.”

“Sir?” My throat suddenly feels very dry.

“Would you do me the honor of becoming my consort?” he asks, taking a step toward me.

“I... You... What?” There is no way I just heard him right.

“I want to claim you as my consort,” he repeats, stepping closer.

“But... But why? We just met today. Why me?” Everything around us has gone dead silent. Even the cows are watching the two of us closely.

“To start with, Sunshine, you’re gorgeous.” He grins at me cockily. “But even if I didn’t find you incredibly attractive, you also seem kind, and gentle, and you’re obviously a hard worker. I think I wanted you from the moment our eyes met across the town square. And your scent?” He leans in and inhales through his nose, a pleasant smile crossing his face. I knew he was smelling me at the market!

“Th-thank you, Your Highness.” I reel in my shock enough to force the words out. “B-But I’m sorry, sir. I c-can’t be your c-consort.”

“What?” His head swings around at the obviously unexpected answer. “Why not?”

“Well, my... my family. The farm.” I look around the barn and over at Polly, Holly, and Molly. “My parents are getting older, and they can’t do as much around here as they used to. They need my help. I quit school to be here for them. I can’t just leave.”

“Of course you’d be selfless too.” He sighs, wearing a sad but still hopeful smile. “But maybe we can find a solution for that. Come with me.”

“W-Where are we going?” I follow as he turns and strides swiftly out of the barn.

“To talk to your parents,” he answers without ever looking over his shoulder. What is he going to say to them?

We reach the main house, walking in through the already open back door and through the kitchen. Seated around the dinner table are both my parents, Kamo, and two of the royal knights, with the other two on our couch. The knights and Kamo all stand when we enter, my parents hastily doing the same.

“Is everything alright?” one of the knights asks Prince Makseka, looking concerned.

“Yes, I just need to discuss a few things with Mr. and Mrs. Lambert here.” The prince takes a seat in the only empty chair at the table. Everyone else returns to their seats as well, leaving me to stand awkwardly behind him. “So, to cut to the chase, I have asked your son if he would do me the honor of becoming my consort.”

“You did what?”

“You did what?!”

Kamo’s question sounds a lot angrier than my mother’s. The knights all look surprised, their gazes moving between me and the prince, while Momma and Daddy are a mix of shocked and confused. Just like I was when he asked me. And mostly still am.

“I would like your son to come back with me to the capital, live with me in the castle, and claim him as my consort,” Prince Makseka explains in the simplest terms possible. “Unfortunately, he told me that he can’t because you need him to keep the farm running.”

“Yes, he’s a big help around here.” Daddy seems hesitant to answer. Both my parents are looking at me confused and worried, like neither knows what to say.

“That’s something I can understand. He’s obviously devoted to this place and to the two of you.” He nods. “So what I would like to propose is that in exchange for bringing your son home with me, I compensate you with a monthly stipend you could use to hire a farmhand to work in his place. Would a thousand gold cover it?”

I feel like the air is knocked out of me. One thousand gold a month!? That is the kind of money we could only dream of. We’d be able to get new equipment, new horses, fix up the house... With money like that, every month, my parents would never have to work a day themselves ever again!

Both of their eyes go just as wide as mine, sharing a look. Daddy starts to speak for them both. “I... I’m sorry, Your Highness, but there is no amount of money that could replace our son. I’m afraid I have to—”

“Wait,” I cut Daddy off, all eyes in the room turning to me. “Your Highness, could... Could I have some time to think about it?”

“Of course,” Makseka agrees with a too-quick nod, hope plastered across his face.

“Your Highness!” Kamo, who glares at me and my family in annoyance, puts his foot down. Literally, he stomps on the floor. “You cannot honestly be considering making this boy—”

“Do you think you get a say in this, Kamo?” The prince challenges his “keeper” with a cool look and a cocked eyebrow.

Chastised, Kamo takes a deep breath before continuing. “All I mean to say, my prince, is that we cannot delay our return to the castle any longer. We have already wasted enough time in this village and need to return home. The king and queen are expecting us.”

“My parents aren’t going to miss me if we stay one more night.” The prince scoffs and rolls his eyes. Then he stands and turns to me. “I can give you until the morning. Would that be enough time for you to make a decision?”

“Yes, sir,” I agree even though I know that’s not nearly enough time for something this big. “Thank you. I promise I will give you an answer in the morning, Prince Makseka.”

“I told you: call me Max.” He gives me a smoldering look before taking my hand and kissing the back of it while Kamo and his knights stand, the group of them moving to the front door. “I’ll see you in the morning. Sleep well tonight, Sunshine.”

My parents and I are at a loss for words after he leaves, standing in silence in the dining room.

“Is today real?” Momma shakes her head and falls back into her seat.

“I need a drink.” Daddy steps into the kitchen, returning with a bottle of whiskey and glass.

“What... What should I tell him?” I ask nervously as I sit down.

“You tell him no,” Daddy tells me as he fills a glass.

“But ... he offered us so much money, Daddy.” A thousand gold a month... I still can’t wrap my head around it.

“And you are our son,” Momma asserts, taking my hand. “All the gold in the world couldn’t replace you.”

“But Momma...” I know what she’s saying, but I still shake my head. “With money like that we could finally hire some help around here. We could expand the fields. You could both retire.”

“I don’t care.” Daddy takes my other hand. “You’re our boy. This is your home. Nothing and no one is ever going to change that, even the dammed prince.”

“We love you,” Momma says with a squeeze to my hand.

“I love you both, too,” I respond, even though my mind is still reeling. “Is it okay if I go into town for a little bit? I kind of want to talk to some friends about this.”

“Go right ahead, son.” Momma nods with a smile. “Just make sure you’re back in time for dinner.”

“Yes ma’am.” I stand and hug them both.

I jog upstairs to my bedroom to replace the shirt I took off in the barn—I need to remember to grab that or it’ll smell like the cows for days. Once I’m redressed, I head back downstairs and out the front door, walking down the dirt road away from the farm. Here, away from everyone else, I feel like I finally have the space to breathe.

What... What the heck just happened? Why was the prince at my house? How did he even find it? Okay, so maybe it’s not actually that hard to find. But why would he want me to be his consort? I’m nobody, just a dumb hick. He talked to me for maybe fifteen minutes. What could he have possibly seen in me?

I head straight to Violet’s house, knocking on the door way too hard. She looks surprised to see me when she answers, and behind her I can see two of our other friends, Monica and Ricky. Suddenly, I’m a little more hesitant to ask for advice.

Monica and Ricky are the same age and went to the same school as Violet and I. They’ve also been a couple for a few years now. They’re fine, but the way they baby talk to each other can get a little gross. Monica is the daughter of the town baker, with brown eyes and mousy brown hair that she keeps in a ponytail. She’s a nice girl, usually very quiet and shy, at least when she’s not around Ricky.

Ricky is ... fine. Okay, honestly, he can be kind of a jerk sometimes. Don’t get me wrong, I like the guy. He can just be kinda ... snobby. Which is saying something in a small town like ours. His family owns another farm in town, about twice the size of ours, and he lives there with his parents and two younger siblings. He’s a few inches shorter than me with a slimmer build but just as much muscle, and he has light brown hair and green eyes.

“Peter!” Violet pulls me inside and leads me to where our friends are sitting. “I am soglad you came over. I was just telling them about what happened with the prince at the market this morning. I didn’t have a chance to talk to you before you left!”

“I might have some more news about that...” I grimace as I take a seat on a chair next to the couch.

“Oh my god, what happened?” she asks with excitement as she takes her own seat on the couch next to me.

“He came to the farm,” I start to tell them about my afternoon.

“What!?” Monica jumps up from the other side of the couch to move closer to me. “Why was he there? What did he want?”

“He... He asked me to be his consort.” I let the words spill out of me. No point in beating around the bush.

Violet lets out a high-pitched squeal and clamps her hand over her mouth. “WHAT?!”

“Holy shit, seriously?” Ricky asks from his spot on the middle of the couch.

“Yeah, he said he ... really liked meeting me at the market and...” I can feel myself start to blush, and I trail off, remembering his words. He called me Sunshine. He said he wanted me from the moment our eyes met.

“You?” Ricky continues to sound shocked. “What did he see in you?”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Violet defends me, slapping Ricky on the arm.

“Honeybun, that wasn’t very nice.” Monica turns and pouts at him.

“Aww, I’m sorry, pumpkin. I didn’t mean it like that.” Might be nice if he apologized to me... “I only meant that it doesn’t make sense for the prince to want anyone from Weston as a consort. There’s nothing special here.”

“That’s what I thought...” I ignore the way his words bring me down. “It doesn’t matter because I told him I no.”

“You did what?!” Violet is scandalized.

“I told him that I couldn’t leave the farm, that my parents need me here,” I explain, even though that was far from the end of it. “So then he offered my parents money. A lot of money. Enough for them to hire some farmhands to replace me and then some.”

“How much?” Ricky asks and is smacked on the arm again. “Oww. Sorry.”

“A lot,” I repeat, not wanting to tell them everything. “And I’m supposed to give him an answer in the morning.”

“This is amazing!” Violet claps her hands together in excitement.

“No, it’s not!” I look at her like her head just exploded.

“What are you talking about?” She fixes me with a stern look. “You can’t tell me you’ve never thought about this before.”

She knows I have. We used to talk about it all the time. Moving to the city, being swept off my feet by the prince, getting to live in the castle ... and then the other, more private things that take place behind closed doors. It was one of the only ways I knew boys were even allowed to like other boys.

“That was different.” I curl in on myself. Ricky and Monica both know, but it still feels weird to talk about with them. “Before, it was just a fantasy. It was never going to be real. What am I supposed to do: just say yes? Leave the farm, my family, all of you?”

“Yes!” Monica exclaims, jumping up again. “I... I mean...”

“She means it’s an opportunity,” Ricky explains for her. “One you should really think about taking.”

“Come on. Isn’t there at least some part of you that wants to say yes?” Violet fixes me with a knowing look.

“Maybe.” I sigh and shake my head. “But I still can’t do it. I can’t just leave everyone. This is my home.”

“Yeah, alright.” Violet sighs, disappointed. “I understand. But I still think you should—”

A series of loud coughs suddenly rings through the house—Violet’s father. She mumbles a small apology as she exits the room to take care of him. Violet is an only child like me, and her mother died when she was really young, so it’s just been her and her father most of her life. She’s the only one here to take care of him.

He first got sick a few months ago. It was just a small cough at the start, but then he started coughing up blood, and since then he’s gotten much weaker. He’s always tired, and he’s lost a lot of weight. Violet has tried to step in for him, but her blacksmithing skills aren’t nearly as good as his yet. She comes by the farm about once a month to reshoe the horses, and after paying her my parents always send her home with a box of food. She’s having an even tougher time than we are.

The three of us sit quietly and awkwardly until she comes back, no one mentioning her father or his mystery illness. We hang out for another hour or so, talking more about the prince and some of the other things that happened at the market today. The girls in particular needle me for more details, pushing me to admit what I found attractive about him. I tell them a little bit, like about his eyes, and his stubble, but after I look out the window and see how late it’s getting, I say my goodbyes and head home.

I’m glad I had the chance to talk to Violet and the others, but I’m not actually sure if it helped. It seems like they just wanted to talk about all the fun and scandalous bits, and not the “leaving behind everyone and everything I’ve ever known” part. I sigh to myself when I reach the farm, no closer to making a decision one way or the other. I head for the open back door, pausing when I hear my parents talking inside.

“I can’t believe we’re even considering this.” That’s my mom.

“We’re not considering this.” And there’s Daddy.

“He is!” Momma corrects him.

“Well, can you blame him?” Daddy counters, trying to see things through my eyes. “The prince did offer us a lot of money.”

“Money that would go to us, not our son.” She makes a good point, but it’s one that makes me lean toward saying yes. “If he accepts, it’s only because of us.”

“We raised a good son, Mary,” Daddy tries to console her.

“Too good.” I can hear her sad smile. “We can’t let him do this. We’re supposed to make sure he lives a better life than we did, not the other way around.”

“I don’t want him to leave either, hun. He belongs here with us.” I won’t lie. It feels really good to hear my parents want so badly for me to stay. “But that’s a decision he’s going to have to come to on his own.”

“I know. Why do you think I’m making fried cod and scrunchions for dinner?” That’s my favorite! I knew I smelled something good.

“We’ll have to hope that’ll be enough,” Daddy jokes with a sigh. “It would be a lot of money, though.”

“What are you saying?” Momma sounds annoyed now.

“Not that we should take it. But you can’t blame me for thinking about what we could use it for,” he defends himself, sounding wistful. “We could hire those farmhands like we’ve been talking about for years. Replace all our old equipment. And you know the horses are getting up in years. Just like us.”

“All the new horses in the world aren’t worth our son,” Momma says with finality. “He was our miracle, Ron. We thought we would never—”

“I know, hun. I know.” Daddy sighs again.

As good as it is to hear my parents’ words, I also can’t help but think about everything they could use that money for. They’d never have to work again. With even more to think about, I quietly take a few steps backward, making sure to stomp my feet when I step onto the porch this time so they’ll be sure to hear me arriving.

“Oh good, you’re back!” Momma calls over her shoulder as she stands over the stove. “Dinner’s almost ready.”

“It smells great, Momma.” I lean over to kiss her on the cheek.

“Son, I want to make sure you know you don’t need to say yes to the prince,” Daddy tells me as I join him at the table.

“I know that, Daddy.” I nod, pulling in my seat.

“But you’re still considering it,” Momma says as she sets a plate for each of us on the table before grabbing her own.

“It’s just ... so much money.” It would change our lives forever.

“We’re doing just fine on money,” Momma insists, even though I know that isn’t entirely truthful.

“I know we’re okay,” I lie with her. “I’m just trying to think about the future.”

“We’re the parents here.” She reaches out to take my hand. “You let us worry about the future.”

As nice a thought as that is, it’s not realistic. What the future holds is them getting older, and my needing to take care of them, on top of running the farm by myself. I can’t even wrap my head around that. At least if I accepted the prince’s offer, I’d know they’d both be taken care of, even if I wouldn’t be here to do it myself.

We spend the rest of dinner talking about the work we need to do on the farm. Daddy wants to till the east field tomorrow so we can put down our first batch of potatoes for next season. The conversation feels a little like they’re just trying to distract me, but I go along with it anyway.

When I am finished helping clean up after dinner, I decide to call it an early night and head up to my bedroom. My parents both hug me longer than usual, and I can tell they both want to ask me about my decision, but they don’t. I’m glad because I still have a lot to think about.

I flop down on the bed once I’m upstairs and in my room. I keep thinking about what Momma said about the future. And it’s not that I don’t want to do those things—I really do love the farm, and I love spending time with both of them—it’s just going to be a lot of work. Not to mention expensive. And ... would saying yes to Prince Max really be all that much worse?

I mean, if I say yes, I’ll get to travel outside of the village and see a real city. I’ll get meet new people and try all sorts of new things. I wonder what the food is like? But if I stay here, then I know exactly what my future is going to be. Staying in this small town, on this farm, in this old house ... alone forever.

I know I’m making that sound like a bad thing. I don’t mean to. I’ve just never really thought about the possibility of doing anything else. I know I’d basically be signing the rest of my life away to someone else but ... maybe it wouldn’t be so bad? Like Violet said, it’s not like I’ve never fantasized about it.

That brings up another memory. I roll over to the side of the bed, sticking my hand under my mattress and feeling around. When my hands land on an old book, I pull it out, running my fingers across the worn-down cover and creased edges. This was one of my favorites.

It tells the story of a prince and the love he had for another prince of a country far, far across the ocean. The two had met only briefly, shortly before war broke out between their two nations. After learning that his love is being held captive by his tyrannical father, our hero travels to the country in secret, seeking to free him. The story is filled with all sorts of action and drama, and I swear I must have read it over a dozen times. In the end, our hero manages to defeat the evil king, end the war, and rescue his love—who he of course claims as consort. I’ll let you figure out the rest.

I slowly flip through the yellowed pages, the details of the story coming back to me like an old friend. I used to eat this stuff up, constantly daydreaming about what it would be like if I could meet a prince of my own. And now I have ... so is it really so crazy if I take a chance and say yes?

I can already tell I’m going to have a hard time sleeping tonight, no closer to making up my mind one way or another. I lay there, trying to read, trying to think, trying to sleep, but none of it takes. I turn and look out the window at the night sky. The house is quiet, my parents already in bed themselves. With a sigh, I roll out of bed and throw on some clothes.

I don’t always sleep great, so sometimes at night I’ll take a walk around the farm to clear my head. And I could really use it tonight. I can’t believe I’m actually considering telling him yes. I can’t believe that this is even a thing I can say yes to. It’s a fantasy I used to think about a lot... but that’s all I ever thought it would be.

I stop and lean against the fence, looking up at the moon. It’s only about half full, the moonlight pouring over the fields. Almost on cue, a wolf howl fills the air. One that sounds almost lonely. If I say yes, I wouldn’t just be the prince’s consort. I’d be a werewolf’s consort. And I have no idea what that means. But maybe I’m ready to find out.

Hardcovers Now Available!

Happy May everyone! As the subject line should tell you, you can now purchase hardcover editions of all four Steel & Thunder novels! You can find them in all the usual places online. That’s not the only good news I have though: both the hardcover and paperback editions of every book will now contain a printed map! Now, there are some places like Amazon that order books ahead of time, so I do apologize if the copy you purchase is still missing them, but all new printings should have them. Of course, you all know you can find high-resolution and fully colored versions of these maps right here on Patreon.

I’ve also just finished reviewing the Arenas & Monsters audiobook! There are a few corrections to be made, just some mispronunciations, but as soon as those are fixed, it’ll be ready to be uploaded! Ken did a great job as always; I honestly can’t believe some of the stuff I have him reading. As soon as the audiobook is online, I’ll have a link for ya. :D

Summer is right around the corner: see you all then!

This Month on Patreon

Here’s what you’re getting in May on Patreon:

• 5/8: The second chapter of The Crown and the Collar! Ater an electric meeting at the town market, Peter receives a personal visit from the prince on the farm - and an extremely unexpected proposition.
• 5/15: Lycanthropy, Vampirism, and Other Curses - All about the similarities and differences these magic afflictions have to normal diseases.
• 5/22: The fourth chapter of Caged Among the Stars. Back in class, Kaylin is finding it tough to remain top dog in the eyes of his teachers and peers, while Vaiken finds himself caring for the embattled sub far more than he expected.
• 5/29: A poll: it’s time to pick out some new worldbuilding articles for the next few months!

Caged Among the Stars, Chapter 3

I check the clock above my desk and sigh. It’s getting late... It’s Sepnot, which means the two day weekend is coming to a close and classes resume tomorrow. With a second, heavier sigh, I lift myself from my bunk and pull on my shoes. There’s something I’ve been putting off doing all day, because I was really hoping it would take care of itself.

I leave my room and make my way through the dorm wing of the academy, coming to a stop in front of a door I;’d only visited for the first time yesterday: Kaylin’s. I hesitate before knocking, already trying to convince myself to turn around. He told me he was going to take care of this with his brother. Maybe he already has and just hasn’t gotten around to telling me about it yet.

Before I can turn around and leave, the door slides open, revealing a surprised Cadet Zekram on the other side. We both stare at each other for a moment, dumbfounded. Expecting him to join me in the hall, instead he backs away from the doorway.

“Come in,” he offers, taking a step to the side.

The door slides shut as he follows me further into the room. Even though I was just here yesterday, the inside already looks different. It’s messier, the bed unmade and with clothes scattered haphazardly on the floor. I turn to face him and for a moment the both of us just stand there at the room’s center in an awkward silence.

“So--” I start.

“I was--” So does he, at the same time.

“Go ahead,” I tell him.

“I was just coming to talk to you,” he continues. “About this temporary arrangement... It might need to be temporary fora few more days.”

“What? Why?” I had a feeling that’s what was going on, seeing as he didnt come speak to me earlier, but I’m still surprised. “I thought you said you were going to talk to your brother about taking over foe me?”

“I am going to talk to my brother.” He sits on the edge of his bed while I take his desk chair, swiveling it around to face him.

“What’s going on?” After the way he acted yesterday, this attitude seems waaaaaay too relaxed.

“Nothing’s going on,” he answers calmly. “It’s just taking a little longer than expected.”

“Why?” I narrow my eyes at his odd behavior. “Is he not willing too-”

“I’ve been trying to contact him since yesterday,” he says quickly, running both his hands through his hair. “He’s off-planet, on some kind of retreat with his lawyer buddies on Klarion-8. Apparently it’s one of those ‘no comms, no pads, no unnecessary electronics” deals. He’s not supposed to be back until Gulnot.”

“So what, we have to keep doing this for three more days?” I ask, ignoring that we haven’t even talked about what “this” is yet.

“Yeah,” he admits, frowning at his lap. “Sorry. I really was on my way to come talk to you about it so we can figure this all out.”

“I mean, it shouldn’t be that complicated, right?” Seeing him so crestfallen, I try to lighten the mood. “The tribunal already ruled that you could keep going to classes.”

“It wasn’t exactly a unanimous decision,” he points out, finally meeting my eye to give me an incredulous look.

“Sure, but they still ruled in your favor.” I don’t get it, why isn’t he happier about that?  “What’s the worst that could happen?”

“You’re kidding, right?” He rolls his eyes. “You know I don’t exactly have a lot of friends in the program, right?”

“So maybe a few people are gonna give you a hard time,” I admit his attitude isn’t completely wrong, but I don't think it’ll be as bad as he thinks. “Just tell them to fuck off.”

“And what happens when it’s the instructor who;s being a dick?” he challenges.

“Why would they do that?” The question throws me.

“Why wouldn’t they do that?” He leans forward in his seat. “You heard Admiral Milok and Admiral Ranock, right? Do you really think they’re the only doms around here with that kind of attitude?”

“So because some doms are an asshole, you automatically the rest of us think the same way?” I’m starting to get annoyed. ”If we’re such assholes, then why have you been pretending to be one for so long?”

“What else was I supposed to do?” he rolls his eyes again.

“What does that mean?” He’s not making any sense.

“Besides me, how many subs are there in the officers program?” he asks instead. “How many subs do you think get into the academy at all?”

“What?” The question catches me off guard and I try to think. “Well, there’s uh--”

“How many do you think work here in leadership positions?” He keeps going. “Or go on to become captains or commanders after graduating?”

“I... I don’t know.” I’m completely thrown by the sudden change in subject. “I’ve never really thought about it.”

“Dom’s outnumber switches in the academy two to one, and subs four to one,” he starts to give his own answers. “The only departments that have ever had a sub heading them up are the Health and Administration offices, and the number of captains in the Cabrian fleet is and has always been a big, fat, zero.” He holds up one hand, making a circle with his fingers and thumb for emphasis.

“Falkin!” I shout when the name finally comes to me. “Cadet Falkin, he’s a sub.”

“Great. So you know the name of one of the other two subs in our class.” His praise doesn’t sound much like praise. “Do you even have any sub friends? And people dating your dom friends or family members don’t count.”

“Of course I do!” I maybe haven’t seen or talked to them in a while, but I had friends of every dynamic before I entered the academy. There’s Garf, and Heran, and... “Look, I know there are some shitty doms out there, but I told you. I just wanted to help.”

That makes him pause and look at me - really look at me - before he sighs and shakes his head. “I know. I’m sorry, It’s hard to not be on the defensive about things right now.”

“Is that why you’ve been pretending?” I decide to use his moment of vulnerability to learn more. “Because you wanted to make sure you moved up as an officer?”

“I want to be a captain,” he flat out states.. “I want my own ship and crew. I want to lead them all over the galaxy. And that wasn’t going to happen as a sub. And now it won’t ever.”

“Just because it hasn’t happened before doesn’t mean it can't happen now,” I offer the defeated sub. “You said it yourself yesterday, you’re the top of the class. They’d be crazy not to give you a ship one day.”

“I wish I could live in that fantasy world.” He sounds completely defeated. “I’ll be lucky to even get a ship posting after this.|

“I mean it.” I can’t help the urge to cheer him up. “I can’t even fathom how you’ve managed to go so long without anyone realizing, especially. It’s impressive.”

“Honestly, it’s easier than you’d think.” My words get him to perk up a little. “No offense, but dom’s can be kinda dumb when it comes to how subs actually work”

“How do you mean?” I’m happy to move the conversation away from depressing matters.

“Dominance only affects a sub if that sub has a connection to the dom,,” he explains. “They have to actually care about the dom’s opinion for that opinion to affect them.”

“I know that.” It’s basic cabrian biology. “Just because I give a random sub an order, that doesn’t mean they’re going to be compelled to obey it.”

“Yeah, but most doms around here seem to think otherwise,” he adds. “And seeing as I don’t actually give a shit about the opinions of any of our classmates, it's been pretty easy to keep ym cover.”

“I guess that makes sense for keeping it a secret, but what about when you actually need a dom? You still need to experience dominance sometimes to stay healthy, right?” I’ve been single for a couple of years now - academy life doesn’t really leave much time for romance - but even I make sure to have a “date” here and there with a sub a few times a month.

“Vaiken.” He gives me an unimpressed look. “We’re basically enrolled in a military academy. We’re literally graded and praised on everything we do here, and half our instructors are doms. It’s really not that hard to get a dominance fix around here, the dom’s just don’t really realize that’s what’s going on.”

“That’s really impressive,” I repeat with a smile. “But... I hope you don’t mind me saying, it still doesn't seem like that’d be enough to survive on alone.”

“Yeah. Do you have any idea how many rumors I’ve heard just this weekend that I’ve got a dom on the academy  staff taking care of me, or that I’m using drugs or stims to keep myself level?” He laughs at himself. “It doesn’t happen often, but when I need to, I grab a shuttle out of the city, hit up a bar, and find a nice dom to bring back to the room I rent for the night. I’m back before the weeknd is over and no one's the wiser.”

“You really had it figured out.” Almost sucks that it all went up in smoke. Still, I’m curious for more. “But what about before the academy?”

“My brother,” he answers. “He was the first person I ever told I was a sub. I expected him to tell everyone, but when he saw how much I didn’t want it, that I wanted to hide it, for some reason he helped me instead. If things ever felt kinda rough or I just needed it, I’d go to him and he’d put me down.”

“He sounds like a good brother.” Dominants taking care of the subs in their families is pretty common. It’s not sexual in any way, just providing things like discipline and praise, things to keep them level until they’re old enough to start seeking out their own partners. “What about your dad?”

“He... Didn’t know.” All the energy he just had telling me everything is gone in an instant, his shoulders slumping. “Neither did Mom.”

“Shit, you were hiding it from them too?” How do parents not recognize their own child’s dynamic?

“So anyway, we should talk about tomorrow,” Kaylin doesn’t answer and circles back to the main reason I came here.

“Right...” I don’t want to press when we’re actually starting to get along. “If any of the doms in class start to give you a hard time, I--”

“They’re not who I’m worried about,” he cuts me off. “The instructors. The officers. That’s who I need your help with.”

“What do you want me to do?” It’s not like I have some kind of authority over our teachers.

“Nothing,” he answers.

“What?” Back to being confused.

“Doms, students and instructors, aren’t happy that I’ve been pretending to be one of you,” he explains in more detail. “And they’re going to use the fact that you're my acting dom to get to me. They’ll insult me, ignore me, and defer to you for just about anything. And I need you to do nothing.”

“But why?” I’m still not following his logic.

“Because I can stand up for myself,” he continues. “And I’m more than happy to remind them of that, but I need to know you’re not gonna try and jump in as my white knight again and destroy all my credibility.”

“You know, it kinda seems like you’re just as worried about appearances as the doms you keep insulting,” I point out. “But I can do that. You can fight your own battles.”

“That’s because appearances are all most of them seem to care about,” he finishes. “Thank you.”

“Alright then.” We both stand and I hold out my hand for him to shake. “It’s a deal. I’ll see you tomorrow, Zekram.”

“See you tomorrow, Urmatin.” After shaking my hand, he walks me towards the door.

I head back to my own room, fresh questions about Kaylin’s past already crowding my mind. Our talk tonight actually went pretty well, better than I had hoped. I could actually see being friends with a guy like Zekram. Let’s just hope tomorrow doesn’t turn out as bad as he thinks it will.

Map of the Ruins of Karthani

A high-resolution, full color map of the ruins of Karthani from Steel & Thunder Book 3, Secrets & Spires!

These should be showing up in paperbacks and hardcovers very, very soon!

The Crown and the Collar, Chapter 1

“I think that’s everything for this one.”

“Okay, I’ll go help Daddy finish with the other cart.”

It’s Astraday, which means it’s time for another day at the Weston market. It’s early in the morning, just after dawn, and I’m doing what I’ve done every Astraday morning for the last six weeks: helping my parents load this week’s harvest so we can cart it into the town square. It’s hard work, but it has to get done.

I don’t really mind it though, even when I have to wake up extra early to take care of the animals. Things are usually pretty busy during the week, so I really look forward to when I finally get to go into town and catch up with everyone. It’s one of the only times I get to see some of my old school friends these days.

“Just gotta load the last few crates on,” Daddy tells me, already lifting one onto the back.

“Do you think these will sell well?” I ask, handing him off another crate.

“I think so. I can’t stop eating them.” He grabs two of our newest crop from the next crate I hand over, tossing me one and eating the other himself.

It’s a small fruit, bright red in color and very sweet. I bring it up to my mouth and bite in, loving the way the sweet flavor bursts on my tongue. They grow on the mainland in the forests farther to the south. “Strawberries” is what they’ve been named, though I’m not really sure why. They don’t look like straw or anything, but gosh are they good.

“We’re not gonna sell any if you two keep eating them all!” Momma tells us both, hand on her hip. “Finish loading up and let’s get moving!”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Daddy and I both answer, sharing a grin as we load the rest of the boxes.

After we finish, I run up and hop onto the front cart with Momma. Once I’m in my seat, she whips the reins once, and we’re off, our horse-drawn carts following one after the other on the dirt road. As we round the mill and the town comes into view, I’m already wondering what kind of day to expect.

If it’s anything like it has been the past few weeks, we’ll sell almost everything we’ve brought. It’s been a good season so far, with all of our harvests having great yields. Most of the crops aren’t native to Litkalaa, and my family was actually the first to cultivate some of them here: radishes, carrots, onions, and now strawberries.

I like living on a farm. I mean, I’ve spent my whole life on one, so I guess I don’t really know anything else. We wake up early most days, and spend almost all day in the fields and stable. It’s a lot of hard work, but the reward of watching something you planted grow from nothing but a seed really does feel amazing. I know it sounds cheesy, but I love it.

Lamplight Farm isn’t the biggest farm in Weston, but we are one of the oldest, and one day I’m going to take over for my daddy, just like he did for his daddy. Even if I didn’t want to stay on the farm (which I do!), there isn’t a whole lot else to do around here. Weston is a small village located on the (you guessed it) western side of the island of Litkalaa. If I’m remembering it right, it’s also one of the earliest villages built, founded over two-hundred and fifty years ago. But other than that, we aren’t really known for much of anything.

“Peter, look.” Momma nudges me with her elbow then points ahead. “Aren’t those royal carriages from the capital?”

Just on the outskirts of town are three black carriages, each bearing the crest of the royal family: a black wolf head over two crossed swords. The vehicles are big and fancy looking, painted in red and black, each one pulled by two brown horses. They’re large and muscular, and put our horses Abby and old Kino here to shame.

“What do you think they’re doing here?” I ask, my mind racing.

“I don’t know. I didn't hear about anything.” She shrugs. “Maybe they’re just passing through?”

“Maybe...” I bite my lip, eyeing them as we pass by.

Kino pulls us through the open gates and into the village. Most of the buildings look the same with wooden walls and roofs, though a few of the older homes are thatched with straw. Old memories are stirred up when I see the schoolhouse, the red paint on the walls having long since faded. They’re mostly good memories. I’m not the smartest, and I was never really very good at it, but I miss school sometimes. I dropped out when I was sixteen, three years ago. I had to, for my family.

My parents had me a little later in life than a lot of my friend’s parents, when they were both in their thirties. They’re both in their fifties now, and every year it gets harder and harder for them to do things around the farm. Daddy’s actually been talking about maybe hiring someone to help us out, but I’m not sure how he’d pay them. Sales have been good, but not that good.

I shake off the thought; none of that matters right now. I wave to a few people as we pass the church on the way to the town square. It’s a good thing we’re not very religious because working on a farm doesn’t leave you a lot of time for church. We always make sure to say a prayer to Father Sun and Mother Moon on the solstices and equinoxes, but I know Momma and Daddy wish we did more.

We pull into the square and make our way to our usual spot west of the center fountain. Wooden stalls have been set up courtesy of the village council for us and other merchants. I help Daddy unload while Momma brings the horses to the nearby hitching post so they can rest. Daddy has a bad habit of pushing himself, so I try to do most of the heavy lifting when I can, stacking the heavier crates closer to the stand.

Ronald Lambert, my father, is about 5’8” and 140 lbs. He’s got blue eyes, brown hair that’s already starting to gray (including his beard), and while he’s not out of shape, he did just turn fifty-five. My mother, Mary Lambert, is four years younger at fifty-one. She’s two inches shorter and a little stouter, weighing a little more than Daddy does. She wears glasses over her brown eyes and usually keeps her dark blonde hair pulled back in a tie. My hair is just about the same color as hers, though I hear it get called “dirty blonde” more often than not, and I have blue eyes like my dad. I’m only nineteen, but I’m way taller than both of them at six feet even, and I weigh almost 250 lbs. Most of that is muscle—I’ve got a bit of a tummy. Momma says I’ve always loved eating.

We only have about twenty minutes until customers will start arriving, so the three of us quickly get to work. We empty the first few crates in no time, filling the stand’s shelves with our best-looking offerings. Daddy always takes a little extra pride in the way he sets everything up. He says it’s like a puzzle, making sure the colors all blend together in a leafy rainbow.

Before I even realize it, we’ve started. I swear, I go to grab another crate of radishes, and when I turn back around, the streets are full of people, Weston citizens making their way to each of the market stalls, including ours. It’s practically a routine at this point. They come over, maybe make some small talk, pick out some fruit or vegetables, pay, and then leave.

“Hi, Peter!” Violet, one of those old school friends I mentioned earlier, steps up to the side of the stall with a wave.

Violet Ferrier is my best and probably oldest friend. We’re the same age, or I guess she’s technically older by a few months. She’s a short girl with dark brown skin, brown eyes, and black textured hair that reaches her shoulders. Like I said before, we went to school together, although unlike me, she’s smart and actually finished. Her father is the town blacksmith, or at least he was before he got sick, and she’s been trying to pick up the slack.

“Hey, Violet,” I answer her with a smile. “How are you? How’s your dad doing?”

“He’s alright,” she lies. He’s been really weak lately and tired all the time, but no one, not even the village doctor, can figure out what’s wrong with him. “Did you see the royal carriages on your way in?”

“Yeah, I did.” I look over at my parents to make sure they can handle the customers while I step farther off to the side. “Why? Do you know what’s going on?”

“I heard the prince is here!” she whispers to me loudly, looking around like she just revealed a big secret.

“Prince Makseka?” I pull back, not believing her. Why would the crown prince be in our dinky little town? “Are you sure? Why?”

“That’s what Monica said. And I dunno.” She shrugs, still smiling and leaning in to speak low again. “Maybe he’s looking for a consort.”

There aren’t a lot of things to do in a small town like this. There’s drinking, card games, and gossip, and you can do all three at the local tavern. Gossip is probably the most popular, and the only one I really partake in (I don’t really like the taste of beer, and I’m not very good at cards), and the royal family is a very popular topic in particular.

Like a lot of other countries, Litkalaa is ruled by a king and a queen. But unlike most of those countries, Litkalaa’s rulers and royal family are all werewolves. Actual cursed-to-turn-into-monsters-during-the-full-moon werewolves. Or at least that’s what they say. I’ve never met or even seen a werewolf myself before.

I remember the story from school. A long time ago, there were two groups of people living on the island: a tribe of werewolves, and a faction of non-werewolves. The wolves had been living here for hundreds of years, but this new faction had migrated to the island from somewhere in the east, across the ocean, to establish a new kingdom here.

The werewolves lived in the forests to the north while the others built their cities on the plains in the south. For a long time, the two groups lived in peace, not bothering each other or even interacting much, until the day the new kingdom came under attack. It started with seaside towns being raided, but eventually, these attackers started moving inland.

They soon learned the raiders had far more men and firepower, and that they wanted to control the island. The attacks became more and more frequent with themlosing more and more land to these invaders each time. Finally, just when everything seemed lost, their king traveled north to beg the leader of the werewolves for help.

The werewolves were not worried about these invaders. Not only had they not yet been attacked, the thick forests of the north provided a lot of natural defense. Still, the werewolf chief was not heartless and did not want to see these outsiders wiped out. So he agreed to help them, on one condition: their king would step down, and the werewolf king would rule in his place. He would even marry his queen, tying their two families together. Not having any other choice, the king accepted.

And that’s where this consort business comes into play. Because you see, the human king didn’t go away after stepping down. In addition to marrying his wife, the werewolf king claimed the former king as his consort. A consort is almost like the king’s second wife, with some, uh, key differences ... like being a man. Ever since then, it’s been a tradition for all members of the royal family to claim and collar a consort. From what I’ve heard, it became so popular that it even started to spread outside of the royal family with a lot of nobles and other upper class people taking consorts of their own.

“Are you blushing?” Violet teases me.

“What? No.” Oh gods, am I? I quickly turn away, stacking a few of the empty crates back on our carts.

“I always heard Prince Makseka was really good looking.” She keeps talking like I’m not trying to ignore her.

“People say that about all the royals. So what?” I try to play it off, but I know she’s messing with me. Prince Makseka is only about five years older than us, and to say that only a few of our school mates had crushes on him would be a serious understatement.

“Sooooo...” She just gives me a knowing look, swaying on her toes a little.

“Peter, go grab us some more strawberries, please.” Daddy touches my shoulder, rescuing me with his request. “Hello, Violet. How are you doing?”

“Hello, Mr. Lambert. I’m well. Thanks for asking.” Violet puts on her best talking-to-parents voice. “My father says hello.”

I take my time getting the fruit for Daddy, Violet’s words bringing back even more old memories. I used to maybe be a little ... obsessed with the royal family. Specifically the consort and collaring stuff. Like I said before, consorts can be men or women, and well... I like men. I’m gay, or at least I’m pretty sure I am, because I’ve never been interested in women. It’s not something I really talk about a lot. Some people can be weird or even mean about it. Violet was the first person I told, then some of our other friends, and eventually I got the courage to tell my parents. I was scared about how they would react, but all they did was hug me and tell me they’d love me no matter what. I’m less nervous about it these days, but I still don’t know anyone else like me, at least not in Weston.

But no one bats an eye when one of the royals takes on a consort of the same gender. Kind of the opposite, actually. There are a lot of books on the subject, romance novels, about the forbidden love between a royal and their consort.  Like the prince who risked war to bring his kidnapped love home, and the knight who fought through an army of demons to free his consort from a deadly curse. I used to sneak them out of the library and take them home, where I would read them over and over and over. I’d even hide them under my mattress, worried my parents might find them.

But that was years ago, and I haven’t read one of those books in ages. While I mighthave crushed on the prince myself when I was younger, I don’t give that stuff much thought at all these days. I have other responsibilities to worry about. Speaking of... I shake off the old memories and finally grab the crate of strawberries Daddy asked for. Thankfully, Violet is nowhere to be seen, so I can go back to work without feeling embarrassed.

Sales are pretty steady the first couple of hours. All our regulars stop by and catch up with us while they shop. Mrs. Osbourne’s grandchildren are going to be visiting from Eastport for a week, and she needs a good recipe for pie. Mr. Plakard needs to repair his fence after last week’s rainstorm knocked part of it over and asks Daddy if he knows where to find some cheap lumber. And the Rizzo family just got a new pet dog and want to know what they should avoid feeding it.

We help out everyone with the questions we know the answers to and direct them to others for the ones we don’t. Daddy always says we’re a community and that it’s important to support each other. Just as I’m handing Mrs. Marrow her change, I notice something happening on the other side of the town square. A lot of people are gathered around one spot in particular, and I can see those in the back whispering to each other. The crowd eventually parts to reveal the source of the commotion: Prince Makseka.

My breath catches in my stomach when I see his rugged face. I’ve never seen him in person before, only heard about what he looks like from stories and rumors but... wow. Violet was right—he is really, really good looking. Hot even. He’s tall, maybe even taller than me, with wide-set shoulders, muscular looking arms, and a natural tan. He’s got short, jet-black hair, and his face is covered in a dark layer of stubble, right below his bright blue eyes. He’s dressed up like you’d expect a royal to be, wearing a red shirt over a black pair of pants with a small red cape on his shoulders.

Standing around him are four knights in full armor—his bodyguards from the royal court, no doubt sworn to protect him. Not that he needs it. I’ve heard he’s just as strong and fast as any other knight, and I’d bet that would still be true even if he wasn’t a werewolf. There is another man with them, older and shorter, with graying black hair and dressed in similarly fine-looking robes, walking next to the prince. It seems like he’s trying to talk to the prince, but the prince either doesn’t hear him or is pretending not to, the shorter man getting more and more flustered.

The people gathering around to stare and whisper are sure to give them all a lot of space, parting around them automatically as the group moves through the market. The prince stops at the various stands, talking with the owners who can only speak back nervously. I don’t even realize that he’s coming our way until we lock eyes, and he smiles. I look away in a panic, already feeling my face start to heat. What was that?

“I told you, it really is Prince Makseka!” Violet says excitedly, joining me by the carts I’m trying to hide behind until my heart stops pounding. “What do you think he’s doing here?”

“How should I know?” I almost snap at her. Why do I feel so nervous? Anyone would after almost meeting the prince... right?

“Maybe I was right about the consort thing too,” she replies with a nudge to my side, before looking over my shoulder with wide eyes and then grabbing me by the arm and shaking. “Oh my gods, he’s coming this way!”

“What?!” I look up and see that she’s right. He’s coming right toward us, his eyes locked onto our stall.

“Quick, get over there!” Violet tells me with a stronger shove than you’d expect from someone so short.

“Good morning,” Prince Makseka greets as I stumble to the counter. “Is this your stand?”

“H-Hello, Your Highness,” I stammer nervously. “Everything for sale is ours, b-but the stand belongs to the town. Th-the council sets them up for us and the other sellers to use on days like today.” Why am I explaining this to him?

“I see. Well that sounds like a great way for your village to support its economy. I’ll have to make sure my father thanks them for it.” He flashes me another smile as he looks over the rows of fruits and vegetables. “Did you grow everything here yourself?”

“I... I helped?” I answer, confused as to why he’s asking me these questions, or anything really. “I live on a farm right outside of town with my family. Lamplight Farm. It’s just me and my parents.”

“Good morning, Your Highness.” Daddy steps forward and manages to not stumble all over himself like me.

“It is a pleasure to meet you,” Momma tells him next, holding her dress and taking a small curtsey.

“Please, no need for the formalities.” He waves them both off and shakes his head. “Just pretend like I’m any other visitor just passing through your village.”

“We appreciate your visit, Your Highness,” Daddy says next, ignoring the request to be informal.

“We have some farms near St. Kizis, but would you believe I’ve never actually seen one?” He picks up a radish as he talks, still aimed at me. “All the space you’d need for all the fields and animals, and having to tend to all of them... It must be a lot of hard work.”

“I-It can be,” I admit, swallowing nervously. “You have to wake up really early most days, and you spend a lot of time outside, no matter the weather.”

“But you like it?” He puts the tomato back down as he asks.

“I do.” I nod, feeling my heart start to beat faster again. “Sir,” I quickly tack on. Are you supposed to call a prince “sir”?

“Sir, huh?” He smiles with a warmth that reaches his eyes before he continues. “Well, I won’t pretend that I’m familiar with a lot of physical labor, but it looks good on you.”

“Th-thank you?” I’m not actually sure what I’m thanking him for, but I can feel that I’m starting to blush again.

He leans in close, smiling again (at my nervousness?), and... Did he just sniff me? He reaches for a strawberry and pops it into his mouth. His eyes grow when the sweet flavor hits his tongue. “Oh wow, that is really good. What are they called?”

“S-Strawberries, sir,” I answer him, not even caring that he didn’t pay for that. “Th-they’re new.”

“They’re very good.” The way he says it makes me think he’s not talking about the fruit. “Is this everything you’ve grown, or do you get to keep any for yourselves?”

“This is most of it,” I start to tell him. “We keep some of everything for our own pantry, and sometimes if a crop looks ugly or weird, we’ll feed it to one of our animals instead of selling it, but this is everything else from our last harvest.” Seriously, why am I still explaining all of this to him?

“Are you out here every weekend, selling your crops?” Part of me feels like he can’t actually be this interested, but his face and tone say the opposite.

“We actually only started a few weeks ago,” I start to explain. (I mean... he asked.) “We had to wait for the first of our spring crops to be ready for harvest. We will probably keep going until the end of fall.”

“How long are you usually out here for?” He turns to look at some of the other stands, and I only just realize how everyone nearby is staring at the two of us talking.

“Usually most of the morning and part of the afternoon,” I answer. “We will be here at least a few more hours today, unless we manage to sell everything. Sir.”

He chuckles, turning back to face. “I probably should have asked this sooner, but what’s your name, Sunshine?”

“I, uh, it’s P-Peter.” I almost choke on my own spit. Sunshine?!

“Peter.” He rolls my name around on his tongue, and I feel my chest start to pound again. “It’s nice to meet you, Peter. I think I’d like to buy your stuff.”

“You’d like some strawberries, Your Highness?” Daddy steps forward quickly, already prepared to do business.

“No, sir. I mean all of it.” His eyes move from Daddy to me with a pleased expression. “Everything you have here.”

“I’m ... sorry?” Daddy is as confused as I am. He wants to buy everything?

“Your Highness, no.” The older man who has been standing at the prince’s side finally speaks up, an exasperated look on his face. “We cannot purchase all of this man’s goods. We have no need for them.”

“Oh come on, Kamo,” the prince tells the old man with a sharp slap on his back. “We have a huge castle full of soldiers and servants, and even the stuck-up people in the court have to eat sometime. Are you telling me Mona won’t be able to find a use for all this in the kitchens? She’ll love it. Especially these.” He pops another strawberry into his mouth. “So good.”

“Your Highness, I just do not think we need to—”

“I’ve already made up my mind, Kamo.” He looks at me again with a grin, his lips red from the fruit’s juice. “Now pay Mr. Lambert here so me and the others can start loading everything into the carriages.”

The older man sighs, looking like this is an argument he’s had before. He adjusts his glasses as he turns to my father. “How much will it be for everything you have for sale here?” Kamo waves his hand over the stands.

“Well, let me see.” Daddy and Momma start to count everything on the counters, doing the math in their heads.

“Don’t forget about what’s in those carts either!” Prince Makseka calls out, stepping around to the side of our stand.

“Th-thank you so much but ... why?” I dare to ask him. “Why did you do that?”

“How could I not buy everything from someone like you?” He shrugs, but the way his eyes move down my body makes me shiver. “Besides, I figured this way, you and your family will be able to go home early today. I’m sure you could use a day off.”

“That’s very generous.” I don’t bother to tell him that there is no such thing as a “day off” on a farm. I don’t want him to change his mind. I’m glad my parents are handling the money because I can’t even imagine how much it must be. Probably more than our family has seen in years. “Thank you so much, sir.”

“There’s that ‘sir’ again.” He grins as he picks up the first crate of crops, the royal bodyguards behind him doing the same. “It was really nice to meet you, Peter.”

“I-It was nice to meet you too, Your Highness.” I stare at the back of his head as he turns and walks away, afraid that I might start shaking.

“Peter, get over here and help me get the rest of the crates for Prince Makseka.” Daddy’s gruff request snaps me back to reality.

“Yes, sir,” I reply, my body moving automatically.

As I help my parents unload the last of our crops and my brain starts to work again, I wonder what the hell just happened. I see Violet standing off to the side, looking like she’s ready to explode with questions, but I ignore her for now. I try to focus on the work and clear the silly thoughts from my head, but every time I close my eyes, all I see are a pair of blue eyes and a warm smile.

New Book Reveal - From Orcs to Werewolves!

Spring could not get here fast enough! Arenas & Monsters has still been doing great, but as I always do, I’m going to ask you again for more reviews! C’mon, I know there’s at least a few of you out there that keep telling yourselves you’re gonna write one - consider this a sign to do it now! But that’s old book news, and given the email subject, you’re here for new book news.

My fifth novel, which will be released later this year, has been tentatively titled The Crown and the Collar.  This book is the first in a planned trilogy about a werewolf prince and his human consort: Peter Lambert has spent his entire life in the small village of Weston, working the fields of his family-owned farm right alongside his parents. He always assumed that his life would be just like theirs, until the day Prince Makseka Blackclaw came to town. What does he do when this gorgeous prince offers to whisk him away from everything he knows to come live with him in the palace?

The first preview chapter of The Crown and the Collar will be posted right here next week, with the second posted in May. While this story does lean a little more closely to your traditional romance, it features themes and ideas very similar to Steel & Thunder, including all the fun kinky affection you’ve come to expect from my stories. The preview chapters will eventually be available to all readers on my main website in a few months, but until then, it’s just for you!

Now, I know some of you will be disappointed to hear that my next book is not Steel & Thunder Book 5. Please don’t be worried that the series is ending - believe me, it is far from over. I love David and Khazak deeply, just as much I’ve loved being able to share their story with you. But it’s also basically the only thing I’ve written for the past two years, and I need to stretch my legs a little. So, going forward, the plan is to release one Steel & Thunder book a year, allowing me to use the rest of the year to work on a different story. I hope you’re not too upset, and that you’ll enjoy the other stories I’ll be bringing to you between seeing our favorite orc and human. I know I’m enjoying writing them.

I’ll have more for you all soon, and until then, happy reading!

This Month on Patreon

April’s upcoming items:

• 4/10: The first chapter of The Crown and the Collar - farmboys, royalty, and werewolves: this story has a lot going on.
• 4/17: A full-color map of the Ruins of Karthani from Steel & Thunder Book 3, Secrets & Spires.
• 4/24: The third chapter of Caged Among the Stars. With a fresh week of classes approaching, Vaiken still hasn’t gotten any updates from Kaylin. It might be time to take matters into his own hands...

Caged Among the Stars, Chapter 2

“So... What should we--”

“We don’t need to do anything.”

“What are you-- Hey, wait! Where are you going?” I call out as Cadet Zekram pushes his way past me and out of the still half-full room, ignoring all the stares that follow him.

And once he’s gone, all of those stares turn to me. I try to do the same as I follow after him, but it’s hard to ignore the weight of everyone’s eyes. I don’t even think about my friends, I just want to get out of here. It’s a little easier in the hallways, since not everyone is aware of what’s going on, but there are still plenty of weird looks as I rush past them all to try and catch up with Zekram.

I can see him just ahead of me, weaving gracefully through the bodies of our fellow cadets as he heads towards the dorms. Meanwhile, I seem to be running into and tripping over every single person in my way. Which only causes more people to watch me in annoyance, but at least I'm catching up.

“Would you slow down?!” I nearly shout when I finally manage to catch him by the arm and he stops. “We need to talk.”

“What exactly is there to talk about?” he asks in response, barely looking at me over his shoulder.

“I dunno, maybe the fact that I just became your temporary dom?” Several people around us stop and stare at my words, but I don’t really care. What the hell is wrong with this asshole?

“Yeah, the key word there is temporary.” He rolls his eyes, shakes off my hold and resumes his long strides down the hallway.

“You know I’m trying to help you, right?” I ask, once again on his tail.

“Yeah, I’m sure you’re doing all this out of the goodness of your heart,” he scoffs, shaking his head.

“What is that supposed to mean?” I call ahead, seeing him finally start to slow down.

“It means I never asked for your help!” he answers sharply, coming to a stop. When the door next to him slides open, I realize we must have reached his dorm.

“I’m sorry, were we in different rooms just now? Because there wasn’t a single other person in there willing to stand up for you,” I point out, following him into the room, the door sliding shut behind me. “I just saved your ass from getting expelled!”

It’s a standard fifth-year dorm room, about four-hundred square feet when you count the small attached bathroom with shower and toilet. A holo-project and screen sit along one wall next to a desk, with a small kitchenette in the opposite corner. A standard-issue bed sits against the wall, comfortable enough for one but I know from personal experience that you can squeeze two people on if you try. The room is pretty much exactly the same as mine, except probably a little cleaner.

“Saved me?” He finally turns around once we’re inside. “They’re still going to try and expel me in two weeks! The only thing you saved me from was another asshole dom who gets off on pushing subs around. And the only reason you did that is because you want to push me around yourself - and to make yourself look good.”

“What the fuck?” I have no idea where any of that is coming from - we’ve barely ever even spoken before now. “What are you talking about? You don’t know the first fucking thing about me, where do you get off accusing me of something like that? I stood up because I thought it was the right thing to do!”

“You’re a hero,” he patronizes, rolling his eyes again. “Look, thanks for whatever you thought you were doing, but I didn’t need your help before, and I don’t need your help now.”

“Yeah, you seem like you’re doing really great.” What fantasy world is he living in? “I don’t even know how you were able to make it this long without a dom.”

Seriously, I told you earlier, for Cabrians to stay healthy, we regularly have to exercise the dominant or submissive parts of ourselves. For someone to have gone this long hiding that part of themselves, for a sub to not have any sort of regular dom, it kind of blows my mind. I’ve literally never heard of it happening before.

“Because despite what you and your entire designation seems to think, I don’t actually need a dom.” He steps into my space, locking eyes. “I think I’ve been doing pretty fucking good on my own so far, but its like as soon as any of you assholes sees ‘sub’ next to my name, you forget that I’m kicking all of your asses in every class and training session across the board.”

“Gods, you are so fucking full of yourself!” I almost laugh in his face. “You sure about not needing a dom? Because it really seems like you could stand to have someone put you in your place.”

“Oh yeah? And let me guess, you’re just the dom to do it.” He chuckles and shakes his head. “The only reason any of you even knows that I’m a sub is because that prick Malprin couldn’t handle losing and lied about me cheating! Maybe you should get over yourself. I told you, this is temporary.”

“Temporary how?” I make a show of looking around the room. “I doubt Admiral Ranock is gonna change the rules and let you defend yourself in two weeks, and I don’t see any other doms around here willing to help you.”

“That you know of, dumbass,” he sneers back. “My older brother is a dom, and a lawyer, and as soon as you get out of my room, I’ll be giving him a call to take your place.”

“Well until he does, you’re still stuck with me as your current dom.” I poke him in the chest for emphasis. “So how about you drop the attitude and show me some fucking respect?”

He narrows his eyes, looking down at my offending finger.

“Oh, I’m so very sorry, sir, for not showing you the proper respect.” He spits out the title like it was a slur. “Please forgive me sir, is there anything I can do to make it up to you?”

“Oh my god, you are fucking impossible!” I throw my hands up in frustration. “Fine, do whatever the fuck you want, see if I fucking care!”

“Great.” he rolls his eyes again. “Now get the fuck out of my room, sir.”

Growling in irritation, I turn on my heel and leave the room, the door opening and shutting automatically. I start to stomp down the hall, wanting to get as far from the room and that prick of a sub as fast as possible. I don’t think I’ve had a conversation with anyone before that was as frustrating as that was, let alone a sub. He managed to push all of my dom buttons without giving even a snippet of submission in return.

Feeling pent up and with nothing to do about it, I decide to head to the gym to see if I can work out some of this frustrated energy. When I get there I hop on a holo-treadmill and just start running, my surroundings all melting away as the program boots up. I run across beaches, through jungles, I even try entirely different planets, but when I’m finished, the only thing that feels like it's changed is that I’m tired, sweaty, and hungry. So after a nice rejuvenating shower, I head to the cafeteria.

It’s as busy as ever, but that’s not a surprise, it is lunchtime and this is usually one of the busiest places on campus. A large center room contains a number of different serving lines, while tables and chairs for those of us eating can be found in the rooms connected on either side. One side of the cafeteria is dedicated to local cabrian food, while the other half rotates between the cuisine of some of the other planets in the Galactic Union. There’s also a few replicators set up along the back wall next to the drink fountains for any picky eaters.

I give a passing glance to today’s imported menu - looks like stuff from Cornillia and Pacheko - before deciding to stick with what I know. Sorry but “chilled yompa stew” just doesn’t sound very appealing. Interested, I grab a plate of grilled reefgar and start looking for a place to sit down.

I don't have to look long, spotting Tuck, Prim, and Gax-On already sitting with some of our other friends, Astel, Brakis, and Rev. Astel and Barkis are sister and brother from Yarlat, making them both very muscular and tall (around seven-and-a-half feet) with thick grey skin and virtually no hair whatsoever. There is not a lot of sexual dimorphism among their species, and without genetic testing it is almost impossible to know their gender until they are around five years old.

Rev is a cybekin, which means that while his body looks humanoid, it’s actually entirely inorganic. Cybekins are one of the more...unique species to join the Galactic Union. Something like thousands of years ago, their species developed a way to digitally encode someone’s consciousness into a virtual environment. While this was initially only intended to be used by the terminally ill and dying, it eventually began to expand through their population, until eventually the entire species was digital.

From what I hear, this virtual world has all of the comforts of the real world and none of the limitations. They even learned how to “reproduce” in their virtual world, someone creating an entirely new consciousness from the digital genetics of two “parents.” They use cybernetic and robotic bodies to interact with the physical world, maintaining the systems for their virtual reality and meeting face to face with non-cybekins. It's traditional for all cybekins to one day leave that environment and spend some time in the real world, which is what Rev has been doing for the past four years. From what I understand, his body has been built to resemble what his species once looked like, with light blue skin, a flared nose, and three fingered hands and feet.

“Vaiken!” Tuck calls to me when he sees me approaching. “We were just telling the others about the uh...”

“Bizarre fucking decision you made back there,” Prim finishes for him, sliding over to make space for me to sit down. “But now that you’re here, maybe you can explain just what the hell you were thinking.”

“Let me just make sure I understand,” Brakis asks in his deep, gravely voice as I take my seat. “Cadet Zekram is really a submissive, and because of that he wasn’t allowed to speak for himself at his expulsion hearing, so you agreed to be his dom and speak for him?”

“I didn’t know they were going to make me his dom,” I start to try and explain myself. “I just thought I was helping the guy out, standing up for him when no one else would. I thought I was doing the right thing.”

“Are you sure that’s all you were thinking?” Astel’s question catches me off guard.

“What do you mean?” I immediately feel defensive.

“I mean, you’re a dom, he’s a sub... Are you sure the only thing you wanted to do was help him?” Her expression is as suggestive as I’ve seen on a yarlatin.

“I didn’t even know the guy was a sub until like three hours ago.” I point out, sounding maybe a little sensitive. “None of us did.”

“I’m still not sure I understand that,” Rev says next in his modulated voice. “Isn’t the whole dominant/submissive designation thing really important to your whole species? Why would he hide it for this long?”

“I wish I could tell you.” I shrug, pushing the grilled fish around my plate with my fork. “I know growing up sometimes kids would lie about their designation, but it never lasted very long. I have no idea how or even why he’s held onto it for this long.”

<Perhaps he has an aversion to public displays of submission?> Gax asks while he chews.

“As high as his sub level is, I doubt that there’s anything public he wouldn’t be into,” Tuck responds.

I don’t usually like to speculate on what a sub I’m not involved with might be into, but I know Tuck is probably right. Just looking around this room, I can see plenty of examples of the “public displays” Gax is talking about. Doms and subs eating together from the same plate - a cabrian tradition for established relationships. There are even some subs being hand-fed by their doms.

It’s not even unique to the cafeteria - it's common to see stuff like that all over the campus. Subs sitting at their doms feet during a movie night, or being made to stand or kneel in a corner of the recreation room as punishment. All extremely normal things for us cabrians, things that I’d honestly love to be able to do with a sub of my own one day. So I’m really not sure what Kaylin’s reasoning for avoiding it all is.

<Vaiken.> Gax looks at me, and then behind me. <I believe your new charge is about to join us.>

Almost on cue, the whole room around us goes quiet, several people all turning to look at the same place Gax is. When I finally turn to join them, I see Kaylin Zekram, who has just entered the room with a tray of his own food. He looks around with annoyance, no doubt seeing the way everyone has stopped to gawk and stare, and even whispering about him.

“Zekram!” Tuck shouts, making everyone at and around our table turn to watch as he waves the man over. “Over here!”

“What are you doing?” I whisper hiss to him, but before she can answer, he’s already at our table.

“You need something, Balock?” Zekram asks, using Tuck’s last name.

“Just thought you might want to sit with your new dom.” He gestures to an empty spot next to him at our table.

Zekram’s face falls for a split second before it turns icy and impassive as he turns from Tuck to meet my eyes. “I thought I made it clear that I don’t need anything from you or your friends.”

Without another word, he walks away, tray still in hand. All eyes are on him as he exits the cafeteria entirely, and it's only after he's gone that the volume level picks back up to where it was before. Only now, the scene at my table is one of the topics of discussion.

“Was that really necessary?” I wearily ask Tuck.

“What? I was trying to help!” he insists. “I thought he was looking for you. Didn’t you just say you were trying to help him?”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean he wants my help,” I explain, my appetite mostly gone. “I rushed out after the hearing to talk to him, and all he did was chew me out for my ‘help.’”

“But doesn’t he need your help?” Brakis points out. “They weren’t going to let him speak for himself, right?”

“I told him the same thing, and he emphasized to me that our situation was temporary,” I share the results of our after-hearing conversation. “He said he was going to contact his brother to replace me as his dom ASAP.”

“Does anyone know anything about his family?” Prim queries the table.

“It looks like his dad is a lawyer.” Rev offers, no doubt already using his internal circuitry to scan the internet for information. “A pretty high profile one, it would seem.”

“Whatever.” I shake my head, not really caring. “Whoever he gets to replace me, it can’t happen fast enough.”

<Are you regretting your act of altruism?> Gax questions me next.

“No, I just don't want to have to deal with his shitty attitude anymore,” I try and rationalize.

“Well, you better hope it happens soon,” Prim says with some concern. “Can't imagine that anything he does now is going to reflect well on you.”

“What do you mean?” I turn to her in worry. “You don’t think they'd hold anything he does against me, do you?”

“Well, you are his dom now, even if it’s only temporary.” Tuck points out. “I know they shouldn’t, but you know how older doms can get about that kind of stuff.”

“...I really hope you’re not right about that...” I grumble, even though I know she probably is.

The rest of lunch is uneventful, though I only manage to eat about half of my food before giving up. It's still our off day, so afterwards everyone makes plans to go into town and see a movie, but I politely decline. I had planned on spending the morning quietly reading, but that got screwed up by Zekram and his hearing, so I decide to make an afternoon of it instead.

It doesn't really work out as planned. I try to focus on my book, but my mind just keeps reaching back to that dick of a sub and his situation. So when I hit my second hour of reading the same two pages over and over, I say fuck it and do some research of my own on the Zekram family.

It doesn’t take me long to find what I’m looking for. Rev was right, Zekram’s father is a very high profile lawyer, with a lot of connections to Cabria’s bureaucracy. It looks like his brother is a lawyer too, just like he said. But the kinds of cases they work on... I think I might understand why the cadet has been hiding his designation.

Alias Zekram, Cadet Zekram’s father, has worked on a lot of big cases for our planet’s government in the past two decades. Almost all of of them were focused around the expanding rights of submissives - for which Alias was arguing against. It looks like he may have even had a hand in preventing a few submissive rights laws from passing.

His brother’s name gets listed in a few of these articles, so I have to assume he’s following in dad’s footsteps. Is that who Kaylin is hoping will come to save him? Does he really think someone like that is going to help him more than I can? I feel like I understand the guy even less now.

I really hope when I wake up tomorrow that this all turns out to be a bad dream.

Magic & Evolution

Evolution is the process in which living things develop new characteristics through genetic mutation and variation. Different factors, called evolutionary pressures, are what determines how successful these mutations are in propagating through the entire population Things like changes in food availability, environmental changes, an exposure to predators or even diseases. But on Terra, there are other factors, ones that don’t exist on Earth. Like magic.

It has widely been accepted by Terran scholars that most, if not all intelligent species on the planet share a common ancestor. However, where each of these species branched off is another question, one that has been studied for many, many years.

Of the six major species, elves appear to be the first to have split. With the exception of gnomes, their biology differs vastly from the others in this article. Their lifespans are ten times as long, they are naturally resistant to disease, and the gift for magical aptitude is more than three times as likely in their population, despite being a minority. Fossil records appear to indicate that the development of early elves was rather sudden, with variation occurring much faster and more frequently than it does in other species This, combined with the prevalence and strength of their magical ability, has led some to suspect an outside force of “creating” the elves, somehow infusing these early hominids with magic and affecting their growth.

Gnomes are unique in that they are actually believed to have evolved from the elves rather than these primitive ancestors, though because of their secrecy, this is even more difficult to confirm. According to their own records and legends, long ago, a group of elves, dissatisfied with their brethren for interacting too much with outsiders - something that seems almost laughable today. This group set off to make their own home, hiding in forests and mountains and other out of the way areas. Over time, their stature became smaller (some more than others) while their magic only seemed to grow, until we have the gnomes of today.

Orcs, dwarves, halflings, and humans as we know them today are all believed to have  evolved around roughly the same time period. Though they share more in common between them than they do with elves or gnomes, the reason for each of their varied differences is still the same: magic. The very presence of magic on Terra is thought to cause more frequent, stronger, and unique genetic mutations.

Given that everyone reading this will be human, we will be using them as a baseline. Being largely a group of nomadic hunter-gatherers, they evolved into the species we all know (and are a part of) today. Similarly, the environment and other differing circumstances is what lead these other species to develop on their own.

Orcs evolved while living in the forests and jungles of the world. Unlike other species, orcs were not agrarian until recent times, their diets becoming almost entirely reliant on hunting. Their skin being shades of green and other natural colors help to better camouflage among the flora, and their rough voices are well suited for imitating animal calls and growls. Their sharp and pronounced teeth are perfect for biting through meat, which suits their diets being more carnivorous than other terrans.

Halflings are believed to have come about for the opposite reasons. Rather than leaning into hunting, they became much more efficient gatherers and farmers, In fact, almost all early Terran farming techniques can be traced back to the halflings. Settling onto vast plains and turning their focus to their farming enabled this species to survive, and their natural resistance to poisons helped them to determine exactly which plants were edible - even as their stature shrank.

Finally, we have the dwarfs, the people of the mountain. Which is not just a saying, dwarfs are believed to have evolved from early hominids living inside of caves and mountains. The rough and uneven terrain led them to develop tougher skin and a sturdier build, and the time spent underground led to their increased lung capacity, and being in such close proximity to both the extreme cold of the mountaintops and extreme heat of a volcano granted them an increased resistance to the temperature variations.

Other terran species are believed to have evolved along similar lines. Merpeople are said to be descended from humans living near or even on the ocean, and the reason given for beastmen’s unique appearance is the fact that their home country of Dreamland is so isolated from everywhere else. There are many discoveries still to be made regarding Terra's past, and it's only a matter of time until someone does.

The Journal of Khazak, Chapter 6

Lunaday,  Virgus 5th, 4623

The past two days have been long, stressful, and exhausting. Ever since getting back to camp after the incredibly ill-advised attack on the Ragebloods, I have been on edge. It’s like I spend almost every moment constantly searching for a sign that a retaliatory attack may be on the way. Nothing has happened yet, but I have gotten very little sleep.

As I am sure it is only a matter of time before our enemies come calling, I think we may need to move the camp soon. It is much earlier in the season than we normally would, but I had already been considering it after the first attack all those weeks ago. If they already know our exact location, the longer we stay here, the more danger me and my fellow Proudhunters will be in. I have dispatched a number of men to scout for new areas to settle in, and I should hopefully hear back something by tomorrow.

Yesterday was particularly difficult. After spending the first few hours of the morning trying to rest but finding myself unable to, I got up. I left Vakesh in bed while I started the difficult task of speaking to the families of the Rageblood’s victims. Three Proudhunters died that night, Urmak, Timran, and Riktal, and all three of their families were understandably devastated when they learned the news. This was not helped by the fact that all three of their bodies are unrecoverable in our enemy’s territory. But it was the reaction of Riktal’s family that gave me the most concern.

Riktal has a very small family, consisting solely of Bura, his mother, and Mona, his... Well, she was his betrothed. They were not just sad, they were furious - with me. They blamed me for Riktal’s death, and would not hear otherwise. They could not believe that I was, as they put it, “playing house” with one of our mortal enemies - the same people who murdered Riktal. They wouldn’t listen to a word of his ill advised plan, or that he enacted it while drunk.

I was not surprised by the anger. Bura lost her husband when Riktal was still a small child, and after that her son became her entire world. But to hear them place the blame for his death at my feet was difficult.

Late last night, after a day filled with tears, anger, and worry, much of the tribe had gathered around the bonfire to reminisce over our fallen brethren. A memorial service was held this morning - last night was just an impromptu gathering to celebrate old friends. Or at least that’s how it started.

Bura and Mona were both in attendance, and it was not long before they began to vocally share their displeasure at the loss of Riktal, and more specifically, my handling of it. They accused me of leading the man down the path that led to his death, and even said that I was too cowardly to retrieve his body for a proper burial. With the ale already flowing, I could feel blood begin to boil with anger. Even though I could hear a number of my tribemates around me defending me, it was Vakesh who came to my rescue, leading me away before I could say or do something I would regret.

After sitting me down and getting me some water so I could start sobering up, he talked to me about Riktal. He told me that he understood Ritkal’s family’s anger, but that nothing good would come from me drunkenly and angrily confronting them. He also helped me realize that I still have not taken a chance to mourn the man myself. Even despite our differences, despite how he went against me, he was still my friend. My best friend. And now he is gone, forever. But when exactly am I supposed to grieve for him? When will I have the time?

Vakesh has truly been a bright spot in all of this. Even though I am still angry with him for going along with Riktal’s plan - and will be punishing him for it later - I have never been happier to have him with me. I have kept him by my side almost constantly the past two days, both to keep my eye on him and as a show of force to the rest of the tribe, practically daring them to challenge his place with me.

Though sometimes I can sense he is uncomfortable with the attention. So rather than force him to stay with me and endure, I have let him escape for a bit, usually to the healer's tent with my mother. He says she and the other healers are much nicer than the rest of the tribe.

For all the bad that has happened, I cannot help but be thankful for the good. I... I love Vakesh. It feels good to finally admit that, even if I have yet to say it out loud. The man just makes me happy. Makes me want to be a better leader, to do more for my tribe. I don’t care if the others can’t understand it, I want to be with him.

Even though I may be too cowardly to say it to him yet, I was determined to show him. Which is why earlier today, I picked him up from the healers tent and took him into the forest, for a picnic. Or at least as much of one as I was able to put together, mostly jerky and some leftover stew, along with some bread and ale.

I took him into the forest and found a nice clearing where we could both settle on the soft grass. He loved the idea in theory, but in practice, well... He could tell that my mind was occupied elsewhere. And so, before we had even begun to eat, he took it upon himself to distract me.

I was lost in thought, trying to remember if I had given instructions to sharpen the camp’s weapons that morning or not, when Vakesh took me by the shoulder and pulled us together, kissing me.  It caught me off guard at first, but I quickly recovered and returned it, the two of us rolling on the ground until I was laying atop him.

I do not know what came over me, but it was like a dam of need burst open. My kisses quickly became hungrier, my hands roaming all over his body and even taking a hold of his hair. Vakesh moaned into my mouth, relaxing and allowing me to manipulate his body how I wished.

I ground my body into his, our erections sliding against each other through our leathers as I pressed him into the forest floor. My mouth started to roam, nipping at his ears and biting into his neck, worrying the flesh between my teeth. I growled into the meat of his shoulder, savoring the taste of the sweat on his skin while he whimpered below me.

Frustrated by the access to his skin being cut off by his shirt, I lifted myself off of him, my hands immediately moving to rip off my own clothes. When he took note of what I was doing, Vakesh did the same. Tossing my pants to the side, I look down at Vakesh, naked on the grass, his legs spread and his skin flushed dark.

I dropped down, our mouths crashing together like two bucks fighting over a doe. I bit my way down his body again, this time able to move onto his chest, where I sank my teeth into his pec, swiping my tongue across his nipple. Then I moved down further, nipping at his stomach a few times before his cock came into view. I pointedly ignored it, sliding down further to bite into his thighs as it twitched above me. It was only when I heard a strangled “please” that I finally gave Vakesh what he wanted.

Holding his prick steady in one hand, I lowered my mouth over the hood. Vakesh moaned just as the salty taste hit my tongue, and I swirled it around the head a few times, making him shiver. I used my other hand to tug on his full sack, before sinking my mouth down to take him even deeper.

Though I may not partake in that particular activity very often, I still know what I’m doing. I managed to take about half of his cock into my mouth without issue, stopping just above my hand still gripping it. I bobbed my head up and down at a steady pace, running my tongue along the underside of his shaft. It was not long before Vakesh was writing underneath me, particularly when I would continue to tease his head.

When he started thrusting upwards, I knew I had done my job working him up. I pulled off of him with a cocky grin, enjoying his breathless facial expressions. He quickly gathered his composure though, fixing me with a determined look before making to get up himself while pushing me to roll onto my back beside him.

He quickly slotted himself between my legs, wasting no time in taking me in hand. He stroked my shaft slowly as we locked eyes. Then he placed my head against his lips, and while still watching me, he swallowed me down in one smooth stroke. My eyes went wide as I felt the heat of his mouth enveloping me so rapidly, my hands scrambling for purchase in the grass.

For all my boasting, he was so much better than I was, taking the full length of my shaft past his lips and into his throat without so much as a gag. He looked up at me with a glint in his eye, never faltering as he moved steadily up and down my prick. Knowing when I had been beat, I let my head fall back onto the ground and just enjoyed the sensations.

They stopped sooner than I’d like, but then I felt the wet, open mouthed kisses Vakesh plants on me as he climbed up my body, his tusks gently scraping against my stomach and chest. I wrapped my arms around his back when we were once again face to face, tasting myself on his tongue when we locked lips again. I’ve never kissed anyone as much as I have him.

He was the one to break our kiss first, lifting off of me and straddling my lap. He locked eyes with me before spitting into his hand and reaching behind himself. I could tell by his slightly pained expressions that he was stretching himself out on his fingers. Then he spit into his hand once more, this time using it to slick me up. After that he lifted up, took aim, and sat down on my cock.

I felt the urge to hold my breath as I pierced through the tight ring of his ass. Vakesh’s spit helped some, but it was still very dry going in. The man was biting his lip, his eyes screwed shut in concentration and probably discomfort as he sank down, only relaxing when he reached the bottom and was about to rest his full weight on me.

I ran my hands up and down his thighs, allowing him time to adjust and move at his own pace. After taking a breath, he opened his eyes and placed his hands on my chest, smiling down at me before rolling his hips experimentally. I could feel the way my cock was sliding in his hole, and had to fight the urge to thrust upwards.

Hands still on my chest, Vakesh began to lift himself up a few inches before allowing himself to fall back down. Each time he did, I could feel my cock slipping from his hole, only to be re-engulfed by that warm, tight heat a moment later. Once he had set a pace, I did my best to meet his thrusts with my own, and he gradually began to move faster, and faster, until he was practically bouncing on my lap.

Vakeh’s prick was hard and heavy, slapping against my stomach each time he bottomed out, the wet head leaving a sticky puddle on my belly. I took it in my hand, pulling back his foreskin and running my thumb over the head, making him shudder. He continued to ride me, now fucking himself up into my hand each time he fucked himself down onto my prick.

Soon, both of our breathing became labored, and Vakesh’s thrusts started to get sloppier, seemingly more focused on his cock than his rear. When I noticed his testicles starting to draw up, I knew he was close, and so I redoubled my efforts, stroking him quickly. With my free hand, I took him by the hip and forced him all the way down on me, holding him in place while I finished him off.

He came with a groan and an explosion, each shot of cum painting my chest in streaks of white. He continued his attempts to thrust upward, still bouncing on my prick, which was no doubt rubbing him in all of the right places. When he was finished, he collapsed forward in a heap against my chest, his head coming to rest right at my shoulder.

However, I was still not finished. Using both hands to hold him in place, I started to thrust upwards at a rapid pace. I would love to tell you that what followed was a long, drawn out masterclass in fuckin, but the truth is, I barely lasted another three minutes. The tightness of his ass, the scent of his musk, the heat to his breath on my neck - all of it was more than enough to send me tumbling over the edge. I am not even sure what sorts of noises I made, burying my face in his hair as I filled him with my seed.

I felt myself slip from his hole as I rolled us onto our sides, catching our breath on the forest floor. I pulled Vakesh close, running my hand down his sweaty back and smiling as he nuzzled into my chest. Right about then our stomachs started to growl, and with a chuckle, we broke apart and finally started digging into the food I had packed.

It was then that I shared with Vakesh my plan for our future: I wanted to release him from my service and formally induct him as a member of the Proudhunter tribe. I thought that would be a way to both show the others how I felt about him, and hopefully help them to more easily accept his presence.

“No,” was his response.

“What do you mean no?” I could not believe he was dismissing me so easily.

“I appreciate what you want to do, but it is not what I want.” He shook his head. “Yes, some people might more readily accept me as one of their own, but for those who are truly against me, it will only serve to push them further away. They will see it has a hollow gesture and view our relationship, and your leadership, even more negatively.”

“I only want my tribe, my friends and family, to accept you,” I responded, gently stroking my hand through his hair. “To see you for how amazing you are, the way I do.”

“I know, but some people will never be able to see me the way you do,” he answered with a sad smile. “And truthfully, though I know they are your enemy and I would never return to them... I am not ready to give up the only ties I have to my former tribe. They are still my friends, my family.”

“But... I do not like that people think you are beneath me,” I implored. “That you are my property.”

“Well, maybe I enjoy being beneath you and your property,” he challenged in return.

We had the rest of our picnic in a comfortable silence, his words sitting with me. Not about being my property - though I must admit, even I take a certain amount of pleasure in my ownership. About his former tribe. His family. It is the same way I feel about Ritkal, and the others in my tribe who would turn away from me.

Perhaps from now on, we can be each other’s family. I tried to tell him as much before bed tonight, though every time I tried, I just could not think of the words. Instead, I just wound up staring at him while we laid in bed together.

"You know, we may be falling for each other, but it's still weird for you to just stare at me like that," he said after having enough of my awkward ogling.

"You... I... What?" I was sure I misheard him.

"What, we're not still pretending we don't like each other, are we?" he asked with a sly smile.

"No," I quickly shook my head. "I... I like you very much."

"Good. I like you too," he responded simply, leaning over to kiss me before pulling up our blanket. "Now can we go to bed? I'm exhausted and we have a long day of packing tomorrow."

I would be lying if I said I did not find the annoyed huff I received in response to hold you up, very cute. He fell asleep a few minutes ago, and is currently drooling on my arm. Journal... I think I am in love.

Arenas & Monsters is Out Now!

March is here, and soon spring will come, and I am so very happy about that. Arenas and Monsters released three weeks ago, and it’s been a great three weeks! It got moved into some new categories on Amazon that have a lot more competition, so it hasn’t quite reached the same chart topping spots as the rest of the series, but sales are strong and it’s still early!

And you know what would help me more than anything? Reviews! I need your nice words, not just because it motivates me to write more (and they really, really do), but because it lets other people know that they might like my books too!  Seriously, just a few words can make all the difference.

I’ve also got a few other irons in the fire right now. I’m working with my publisher to get the hardcover editions of my books out - I should hopefully have more solid news on that front next month. I also posted the first chapter of my new Sci-Fi story, Caged Among the Stars, and am extremely excited to post the next chapter in just a few weeks. And of course, I have my next major novel release coming later this year...but you’ll have to wait until next month for more info on that too!

See you then! 😈

This Month on Patreon

March's Patreon Offerings:

• 3/13: The six and final chapter of this arc of The Journal of Khazak - Khazak and Vakesh  may have escaped the danger of the last chapter, but what does the future hold for the star-crossed couple?
• 3/20: Magic & Evolution - Learn some of the specifics behind how magic affected the development of life on the planet Terra
• 3/27: The second chapter of Caged Among the Stars. Fresh off of having the responsibility dropped in his lap, Vaiken attempts to direct the sub now in his care - only to find out the hard way that the boy has his own ideas.

Caged Among the Stars, Chapter 1

“Hey, Vaiken, did you hear?”

“Hear what?” I look up from my datapad to see Tuck poking his head around the corner.

“Zekram,” is all he says, excitement in his eyes. “He’s a sub.”

“What?” I pause the music I’m listening to, sure that I can't have heard him right. “Zekram’s not a sub. He’s a dom.”

“No, he’s not.” Tuck shakes his head as he enters the corner of the lounge area I’ve tucked myself away in to read. “Remember last week, when Malprin accused him of using stims during the last field test?”

“Yeah, but I thought that was just him bullshitting.” Malprin’s always saying shit like that when he comes in second.

“I mean, he was, but you know that it’s still mandatory for a blood test to be done when someone makes an accusation like that,” Tuck continues explaining rules I already know. “And apparently Zekram’s came back this morning, and they say he’s actually a sub. People are saying he's been lying about being a dom this whole time, maybe even since he was a kid.”

“There’s no way that's true.” There’s no way someone like Zekram could have hidden his designation like that for four years. I don’t think anyone could.

“Well that’s what everyone’s saying,” Tuck assures me with a confident nod. “The academy’s Leadership Council is even having a public hearing about it. It’s supposed to start any minute, that’s why I came to find you.”

“Alright, I guess we can go see what's actually going on.” I stand, folding up my datapad and slipping it into my pocket.

It’s another busy afternoon here at the academy, but that’s nothing unusual. Here on Cabria we have one of the larger academies for the Galactic Union, and with the planet located right in the middle of dozens of hyperspace lanes, we get a lot of traffic - and recruits - from other nearby systems. We’ve got cadets from all over this part of the galaxy here, but the majority of the students are local Cabrians.

Cabria is a medium sized planet revolving around a binary star, and comes with all the features you’d expect from a life-sustaining world: moderate temperatures, plenty of water, and a vastly diverse biosphere. We also have two moons, though neither is life-sustaining on their own, and we have almost no axial tilt, so there is very little that changes in the way of “seasons”

Cabrians share the same basic physical form as many other terran-descended species: a head on a torso with four limbs. Our skin tones range from a light pink to a deep, dark magenta, with all shades of red found in between. Our hair comes in blacks, greys, or even silvers, and our eyes come in reds and oranges. We have four fingers on each hand (counting our thumbs), pointed ears, and ridges along the bridge of our noses. We are split into male and female sexes for the purposes of procreation, but it isn't our physical differences that tend to draw the most interest from outsiders.

Cabrian society is divided into two groups: dominants and submissives. Each group is exactly what they sound like; dominants are more assertive and prefer to be in control, while submissives tend to be more passive and yielding to others. But it's not just about our personalities being distinct, there is an actual biological difference. Cabrians need to regularly engage in activities appropriate to their individual designation in order to properly regulate their body’s hormones, metabolism, and other biochemical reactions.

It's not easy to tell if a Cabrian is dominant or submissive just by looking at them. I’ve met submissives that seem large and imposing and dominants who are small and demure. But while there’s no outward physical characteristics that can tell you if a person is a dom or a sub, it’s not usually too difficult to figure it out based on their behavior and personality. Which is exactly why I have a hard time believing what Tuck has to say about Cadet Zekram.

Once a Cabrian child is of age, it’s normal for their parents to have them tested to measure their natural level of domicyclin and suboxane to formally determine their designation. These two hormones are present in every Cabrian, and are very similar in the ways they signal and affect the body, but they aren’t interchangeable. Normally an abundance of one indicates a lack of the other, thus telling you the individual’s designation. For example, my own domicyclin levels tend to top out around 85% of what is considered the natural maximum, whereas my suboxane is rarely ever above 10%. That makes me a level 8 dom. Though not very common, there are some Cabrians whose levels are practically equal and are thus able to “switch” between both roles, but for the most part, doms are doms and subs are subs, and we need each other to stay healthy.

Because of that, our dominant and submissive roles tend to permeate most aspects of Cabrian life. You’ll often find dominants in positions of power, working as doctors or heading up corporations, while submissives flock to more nurturing roles like nursing or teaching. Working in a role that corresponds to your designation can make it easier to maintain your d/s levels in your everyday life, but the far more common way to do that is within your romantic relationships.

Doms and subs will typically pair up according to their d/s levels, though it’s not unheard of for two doms or two subs to pair up. Typically, not long after learning you are interested in each other, a dom and sub will get together and compare their kinks and other needs and determine whether or not they’d make a good match. This can sometimes seem a little too business-like to outsiders, but it's just the way we do things. It's pretty common for someone to bring along their limit list or even a tentative contract to their second or third date. Collars are a common way for a submissive to indicate they are currently in a relationship with a dominant, and seeing Cabrians wearing other gear in public is not uncommon either.

Being a hub planet for the Galactic Union means we Cabrians get a lot of strange looks from offworlders as we go about our business. But as one of the larger and older members of the Union, accommodations have been made for our species at this branch of the academy and others, and Cabrians can be found all across Union-allied space these days. Not that it stops some of the new recruits from giving us a stink eye when they see one of us walking with a leash.

“How exactly did you learn about this anyway?” I ask Tuck after passing one of those recruits in the hallway, staring him down until he looks away.

“Muna told me,” he answers with a sly smile. Muna is a submissive working as a secretary in the administration office that Tuck has been seeing for a few months now. “Apparently his medical results came in this morning, and his suboxane levels were through the roof.”

“Aren’t test results like that supposed to be private?” I certainly wouldn’t feel good about my medical information being spread around the academy like gossip.

“Yeah, apparently his levels were so high that they leaked almost immediately.” He shoots me another grin.

Tuck is a fellow Cabrian and while he’s not one of my oldest friends, he has become one of the best. I met him when we were both first year recruits and we quickly bonded over our similar interests - namely that we prefer to be in the field on-planet over being stuck on a ship like the others. We’re both vying for a Field Commander spot once we finally graduate at the end of our next year.

He’s a dom like me with a similar build. He’s tall at 6’2”, with a strong and muscular upper body. His skin is the color of burgundy, and his hair a dark grey that comes down past his ears. My own black hair is cut short because it's easier to manage that way, and I prefer to keep things low maintenance. My skin tone is a brighter red, one that an Ataxian student once creepily informed me was the color of her and several other species’ blood. Cabrian blood is purple, so I don’t really know anything about that, and I’d prefer to keep it that way. I’m just a couple of inches taller than Tuck (not that I keep track of that sort of thing) with the same muscular build, which makes sense because we’re workout buddies.

The closer we get to the room they’re holding this hearing in, the more crowded the halls seem to become. An annoyed Pachuk student glares at me with one of her eye stalks when I accidentally bump into her, but I just roll my eyes and keep moving. Judging by the uniforms, I’m seeing a lot of younger students around here. I thought Tuck said this was supposed to be a secret, but word always travels fast here.

When we finally reach the room, I’m shocked at how full it is. It’s built like one of the larger lecture halls, with a huge theater of seats arranged opposite a raised stage. A long desk sits on the stage, with three of the five seats behind it already occupied by some of the academy’s top brass: Admiral Halshu, Admiral Ranock, and Commandant Lurza. Seated at a smaller table in front of the stage and below the audience, is Kaylin Zekram, the supposed sub.

I still have a hard time believing it. I certainly wouldn’t have guessed by looking at him. He’s almost as tall as me and Tuck, and though he's a bit slimmer, it’s still very obvious that he works out. I mean, I’ve seen him take out guys bigger than me during sparring matches. His skin is a rosier color than mine, with just a tinge of pink, and his hair is black, except for a single streak of silver down the middle. I can’t see his expression, but from his posture, he seems angry.

The room is filling up fast while Tuck and I try and find a seat. Just when I’m about to resign us to standing here in the back of the room, we spot two of our other friends: Prim and Gax-On, who wave us over to them. We quickly squeeze through the crowd and slip into the two seats they somehow managed to hold for us.

“I thought this was supposed to be a secret?” I repeat as we sit down.

“Word travels fast,” Prim comments.

<Especially when it comes to matters pertaining to your people,> Gax-On adds. <Even non-Cabrians seem to get titillated hearing about this aspect of your society. I can feel a mixture of excitement and curiosity from the crowd.>

Prim is a Cabrian and dom like me and Tuck, with silvery gray hair she keeps cropped short. Gax-On is Lamanan, which means he doesn’t actually “speak.” At some point in their evolution, the people of Lamana developed telepathic and empathic abilities, and as they continued to evolve, they lost their ability to vocalize sound. Instead, they speak directly into the minds of those they wish to communicate with, even passing along some of their emotions. Their mouths are used solely for eating and breathing, and anything even resembling a vocal cord is purely vestigial.

“So do you believe it?” Prim is quick to ask the two of us.

“I dunno.” I shake my head. “We’ve been in classes with that guy for over four years now. and I’ve never felt even a hint of sub behavior from him.”

“Numbers don’t lie though,” Tuck points out. “And I trust what Muna told me about his results.”

<I am more curious as to the purpose of this hearing,> Gax-On interjects. <From what I have picked up, it would seem they mean to expel Zekram for this deception.>

“Not really a surprise there,” Prim adds. “No one was ever gonna be happy about a sub in the officers program lying about his designation.”

The officer program Prim is talking about is the one all four of us are in alongside Cadet Zekram and a few dozen other students. Normally, you attend the academy for four years before being placed either on a ship or in an office working for the Galactic Union on another planet. But if you want to do more than that, like say be a lieutenant, field commander, or even captain, then you have even more training to look forward to. It's an extremely competitive program that is very hard to even get into. Not everyone makes it, and a lot of people drop out, but I haven't regretted it for a single minute yet.

Zekram is actually considered the top cadet in our class. I wouldn’t say we’re even close to being friends, barely even acquaintances. To be honest, I’m not actually sure if the guy has any friends. I’ve never seen him in the mess hall or gym with anyone else, even studying for his exams all on his own. He’s always seemed kind of cool and detached to me. I know there are some people who think he’s arrogant, but I never got that vibe from him. I always figured he just liked being alone, and now I guess I know why. Still... A sub?

<I believe the proceedings are about to begin,> Gax informs the rest of us, probably picking up something from the staff.

He’s correct, and a moment later the two empty chairs on the stage are filled as holograms of Vice Admiral Milok and Captain Yit-ded flicker into existence, becoming solid images you could easily mistake for the real thing. Ranock, Lurza, and Milok are all Cabrian, while Halshu is Quxan and Yit-Ded is Kiaran. Together they oversee operations at this branch of the academy, and come together to make judgments on things like they are today.

“If we could please have silence,” Commandant Lurza announces to the room before banging his gavel down with a crack. “I was not expecting to have an audience today.”

“Yes, I thought this hearing was meant to be confidential...” Admiral Halshu looks down the table at her fellow council members, annoyed, as the room falls silent.

“Well, these sorts of things have a habit of getting out,” Admiral Ranock answers with a shrug. “Now then, shall we get started?”

“Kaylin Zekram,” Lurza begins, glancing down at the pad on the table in front of him briefly. “You have been accused of lying on your admission forms to this academy and using your dynamic to manipulate the staff here to your advantage. What do you have to say in your defense?”

“Sir, I never--” Zekram starts to say.

“Commandant Lurza,” Ranock interrupts, tapping his own datapad. “If you’ll look again at the test results, you’ll see that Cadet Zekram’s suboxane levels are in the 95% percentile.”

“Holy shit, he’s that much of a sub?” Prim  comments as gasps and murmurs fill the room.

Having suboxane levels so high is rare, and places Cadet Zekram in a special category of Cabrian submissive, one that people like to informally refer to as “super subs.” Super subs have a different legal status compared to other Cabrians, meant to protect them by placing them under the care of a dominant, even after they reach adulthood. The thinking is that because their sub levels are so high, they are much more susceptible to being abused or manipulated than other submissives. Though the fact that they are also accusing Kaylin of somehow manipulating people himself is a little confusing.

“I did notice that,” Lurza confirms with a weary sigh that says he hoped Ranock hadn’t.

“I can speak for mys--” Kaylin tries again.

“I’ll remind the sub not to speak unless spoken to.” Ranock quickly silences the cadet, whose neck I can see darkening as his back straightens in silent anger. “As a level 10 submissive, he is unable to speak for himself in legal or any other official matters.”

“Is this really necessary?” Yit-Ded asks, already sounding tired herself.

“I would have you remember that as members of the Galactic Union, all local laws and customs are expected to be followed when on-planet.” Ranock corrects her, with Admiral Milock nodding at his side. “We take the safety of our submissives very seriously here. Normally his guardian dominant would do the speaking for him, but as the cadet has been lying about his designation, I must assume that he does not have one.”

“I am aware of that too, thank you, Admiral Ranock,” Lurza answers, attempting to take back control of the proceedings. “Typically guardianship would default to your closest dominant relative, but given your age, I will allow you the opportunity to contact a dominant of your choosing, though you must register with them with the Department of Dominant and Submissive Services by the end of next week.”

“Thank you, sir,” Zekram finally gets to speak. “But I--”

“That still does not solve the problem of him speaking with us today,” Milock interjects, glaring at Zekram for trying to speak out of turn again.

“Yes, In lieu of him being able to present a defense, I’m afraid we may have no choice but to push forward with his expulsion.” Ranock does not sound too upset by that.

“I will remind you, Admiral, that today is only a preliminary hearing, where all we are deciding is whether or not the cadet may continue to attend classes for the time being,” Halshu hurriedly interjects next. “We will not be having the full hearing for his expulsion until Milock and I are back on Cabria in two weeks.”

“Enough,” Lurza silences the arguing at the table, before lifting his head towards the auditorium. “Would any of the dominants present be willing to step forward and speak on Cadet Zekram’s behalf?”

The entire room immediately falls silent. Like, completely silent. I swear it’s quieter than the vacuum of space in here. Looking around, I don’t see a single person raising their hand or even moving, other than to look around stupidly like I am. That’s not good. I know I joked about him having no friends, but I didn’t think it’d be this bad. But if I had to guess, there’s probably more than a few people in the audience that are happy about this. With Zekram out of classes, and eventually the academy, that means that top spot will be open again - and that there will be one less person around to fight for it.

I hate the thought of someone getting kicked out of school like this. it just doesn’t seem fair... Which is maybe why I start to stand from my seat a second later. As I do, all three of my friends, and then everyone else turns to look at me. Though I stay in place, I meet Commandant Lurza’s eyes.

“Young man,” the commandant speaks to me in the audience. “Are you willing to speak on Cadet Zekram’s behalf?”

“I... I am, sir,” I answer with some hesitation.

With a nod, Commandant Lurza gestures down towards Zekram, silently asking me to approach. Ignoring the sudden bolt of nerves I feel for some reason, I make my way towards the stairs. I can feel everyone’s eyes on me as I walk down, coming to a stop at the side of Zekram’s table.

“Thank you, Cadet...” Lurza starts.

“Urmatin,” I finish for him. “Vaiken Urmatin, sir.”

“Cadet Urmatin,” he finishes. “Now then, how long have you known Cadet Zekram?”

“Going on five years now, sir,” I answer. “We started the academy the same year.”

“Would you say you are close?” is his next question.

“Uh, no sir,” I admit with a shake of my head. “We’ve had a lot of classes together, but we’re really more acquaintances than anything.”

“I wonder why,” Ranock mutters under his breath.

“I see. Well, in that time, have you ever known Cadet Zekram to lie or cheat in any of his classes?” Lurza continues, ignoring him. “Have you ever witnessed him ‘manipulating’ instructors or fellow students?”

“No sir, I can’t say that I have.” I shake my head again. I’m not even sure what that kind of manipulation would look like.

“That’s enough for me,” Yit-Ded quickly says next, crossing his arms.

“Just because one student has not seen any evidence of--” Ranock begins to argue

“Evidence is exactly what seems to be lacking, Admiral,” Halshu cuts him off. “Or does this body now make decisions based solely on accusations?”

“I am afraid I am inclined to agree with them, Ranock,” Lurza states, and as the Commandant, the final decision is his to make. Usually, I’m not actually sure how that really works. “Lacking any evidence to the contrary, I rule that Cadet Zekram be permitted to continue to attend classes as a normal student, pending the results of our next hearing on the subject of his expulsion, to be held in two week’s time.”

To my left, I can see Zekram's shoulders sag slightly in relief - but not by much. Halshu and Yit-Ded look pleased, while Ranock and Milok look unhappy. But Comendant Lurza isn’t finished yet.

“In the interim, I appoint Cadet Vaiken as Cadet Zekram’s temporary guardian dominant, until a suitable replacement guardian has been registered.” He quickly bangs down his gavel. “Dismissed.”

Wait what? I turn and share a lock with Zekram, who seems just as shocked by that final order as I am. But the two holographic council members have already disappeared, and the other three are already leaving the room through a back door. Behind us, I can hear most of the audience starting to leave themselves, those who aren't hanging around to gossip at least.

What did I just get myself into?

Map of the City of Pákannon

Here it is, the full-color map of Pákannon from Secrets & Spires. More maps coming soon!

Also, happy Arenas & Monsters release day!

The Journal of Khazak, Chapter 5

Aerisday,  Leus 30th, 4623

It has been a tense week since my...revealing hunting outing with Vakesh. The tension has not been with Vakesh himself, but with others in the camp. Several people have been voicing their displeasure at the way I now treat Vakesh - as well as a few other changes I have started to make.

I have not been overly affectionate with the man, but I have made my intentions and feelings for Vakesh clear. I also have put a stop to anyone being rude to him, or needlessly cruel to any of the other Ragebloods in camp for that matter.  Vakesh has been appreciative, but I am not actually sure if I am really helping or not.

I cannot always be around, and I am sure there are still plenty of things going on behind my back. But more concerning than that, I have heard rumors that I am being called weak, or that this is about favoritism, but I truly do not care. Doing anything else, or even nothing at all, simply feels wrong.

I made a point to speak to the other Rageblood “owners,” in an attempt to improve their own captive’s circumstances, and was pleased to find that almost all of them had already come to some sort of accord. They were not as close as Vakesh or I, nor were any emotions involved other than a perhaps reluctant friendship, but it was something. I suppose it was bound to happen, spending so much time together in close quarters with someone in your care.

Of the few that seemed on less friendly terms, one was planning on releasing their captive in the next few weeks, and it did not take much to convince the others to start considering the same. Though their captivity is technically indefinite, typically once their captor has felt they have served enough time for their offenses, a prisoner is released back to their own tribe. It is rare for this type of “partnership” to last more than a few seasons. Rare, but not unheard of.

Knowing this, I visited the tents of Bazgon Firecaller. Bazgon is an older man and a savage former warrior of the tribe. He was forced to retire after sustaining serious injuries in battle - the loss of his left leg from the knee down. He is also the owner of his own slave, Yilkat, whom he “acquired” not long before that final fateful battle. Since then, Bazgon has been fitted with a modified walking stick that he can hold in the crook of his arm, but I had always assumed the reason Bazgon kept him around was for the now-needed extra assistance. And I witnessed firsthand that Yilkat did help him, to dress, to stand, but I also saw a warmth there. Not just camradere, or friendship, but...

They spoke of how things were when they first met, Bazgon defeating Yilkat after the two ran into each other in the forest, each on a scouting trip. Bazgon was the pride of our wartribe back then, and was thought to be next in line for warchief. After his defeat, Yilkat felt nothing but disdain for his new captor, while Bazgon only felt cocky at such a victory - and then only bitteress after it was all ripped away only weeks later, in that bloody final battle. He certainly did not seem bitter anymore as the two joked about his ability to hobble on one leg to their small dining table.  It was nice to see that a relationship like that was even possible. That it might be possible elsewhere.

Sadly, I do not think that speaking to those two, as well as the others in camp, has done anything to quell the dissidents that are beginning to question my leadership. Though a few have voiced their concerns directly, most have pretended like nothing is the matter, even though I inevitably find out from someone else what was said behind my back. Worse still, Riktal seems to be at the center of much of this, inciting many of the others to speak against me. I truly do not understand what has gotten into my friend, but I feel I may have to do something soon before this conflict between us turns into something much worse.

Astraday,  Virgus 3rd, 4623

Something is wrong. I awoke in the middle of the night to find myself alone in my bed, the first time that has happened for at least a week. He was not in his cot either, and after waiting a moment to see if he had just gotten up to use relieve himself, I threw on some pants and left my tent to look for him.

I could not find him anywhere, though I did find a nervous looking Tress. The second I saw that the man could not meet my eyes, I knew something was wrong. It did not take much interrogating to get him to tell me everything - that in a feat of drunken bravado, Riktal convinced the others to make a night time raid on a Rageblood camp - and he pressured Vakesh into joining and guiding them there.

I do not know what would possess him to agree to something like that, or that the others would have chosen to do something so stupid. Judging by the empty mugs near the campfire, I can only assume they must have had a lot to drink. It doesn’t matter now. Tress and the others I’ve gathered are ready to go after them. I hope we catch them before it is too late.

Solisday,  Virgus 4th, 4623

We did not catch them in time. Yet I am writing this entry from my own bed, with Vakesh asleep beside me. To say the last few hours have been trying would be an understatement.

Last night, I traveled through the forest as fast as I could with the group of four I had assembled. I did not initially know where we were going, but thankfully the first group was easy enough to track, getting sloppy in their drunken stupor. Still, it was the middle of the night, and even with all of us being able to see in the dark, it was difficult navigating quickly.

As we apparently drew closer to the camp, we ran into a panicked Yurga, who had sobered up enough to realize that what they were doing was a bad idea. He had even attempted to convince the others to abandon their cause, to no avail. And now he was running back to our camp to warn us.

Not quite trusting him with a weapon, but thinking he may be able to get us to the others faster, I had Yurga guide us back the way he came. When we finally approached the camp, I heard what sounded like shouting, and fearing we were already too late, took off towards the camp. I could hear several of the others behind me, but my only concern at that moment was finding Vakesh.

But of course, I was too late. We managed to enter their camp unaccosted, most people still asleep in their tents, or too groggy to notice that we were not of their clan, and followed the glow of a lit fire to the source of the commotion. There, near a campfire that seemed to be at the camp’s center, were Riktal, Vakesh and the others. And surrounding them were the Ragebloods, including their tribal leader - Mojpat Gorecrash.

I had no idea that Vakesh would be bringing them to the main Rageblood camp. The man, though obviously just woken up, was furious to see this group of invaders before him. Then he saw the rest of us come upon both groups as well, directing a glare towards me that alerts Vakesh and the others to our presence as well. The look of shock and guilt that crossed Vakesh’s face was almost enough to abate my anger. Almost.

“What is the meaning of this?!” Mojpat shouted at the assembled groups, with more Ragebloods starting to wake up and join us.

“Do you need me to r’peate myself?” Riktal slurred, reaching for his word. “I’m here to challenge you!”

“They are drunk and stupid,” I called out, drawing everyone's attention. “This was all a mistake, please, release them and we will leave.”

“Release them?” Mojpat started with a growl. “You would invade my camp in the middle of the night? And you would use my own brother to do it?!”

“Brother?” I had no idea what he was talking about.

“I assumed you and the others were dead,” he ground out after locking eyes with Vakesh. “You should be. To think that would actually allow yourself to become one of their dogs?” He spat on the ground in disgust, causing Vakesh to flinch.

“You planned this,” I growled out at Vakesh, having had what I thought was a sudden realization. “You knew I would come after you, and you led us right into your brother's arms.”

“No, I swear!” Vakesh finally spoke aloud - to me and not his brother. “I didn’t plan any of this!”

“Enough talking!” Riktal shouted before reaching for his axe and charging at Mojpat.

Seeing that we were out of options, myself and the others were forced to draw our own weapons, a battle breaking out right there next to the Rageblood campfire. For now we were evenly matched, but I feared that would not be the case for very long.

As I clashed swords with the Ragebloods, I did my best to watch as Ritkal fought Mojpat, while Vakesh... It was like he was frozen in place, unsure of which side to help. And then Riktal fell.

I did not plan on losing my best friend last night. I did not expect us to be so at odds beforehand, or that some of the last things we would ever say to each other would be so hateful. I am sorry, Riktal. I did not just lose a friend, I lost a brother. And so all I could see was red.

With a roar, I quickly dispatched the man I was fighting with a quick strike to the stomach, charging at Mojpat in a rage. The man easily countered my sword with his own, a sneer on his lips as we clashed. Though I could still hear the others around me, my whole world was focused solely on the man in front of me, and the rage I felt towards him.

“Please at least tell me you were the one to take down my brother,” Mojpat commented offhand between blows. “This is at least a challenge.”

“I will show you a challenge! I roared as I went back in for more.

“I supposed I really should not be that surprised,” he continued to talk as if we were walking through a grassy field and not locked in mortal combat. “He was always a runt.”

I did not have a response for that. It was odd enough the way he was speaking about his own family, but I did not know why he was specifically telling it to me either. Did he know about the two of us? Had Vakesh been feeding him information somehow? None of this made sense.

“The only reason I sent him out in that scouting party was to give him a chance to finally prove he was worth a damn,” he continues to insult. "I should have known better.”

“You are supposed to be this tribe’s leader?” I scoffed in surprise, deflecting his next attack but falling back. “This is how you view your people? Your family?”

“The only thing I need to worry about now is what to do with him after I kill you.” He held his sword aloft, ready to bring it down and strike when suddenly, he froze, the weapon dropping from his hand as his eyes opened in shock. “What--”

He crumpled to the ground, revealing Vakesh standing behind him, a bloody dagger in his hand. He stared at his brother as blood began to pool around him on the forest floor, and then back up at me, a mixture of confusion, worry, and guilt on his face. As the others began to realize what had happened, the fighting around us came to a stop, several of them rushing towards their fallen leaders as the rest of us began to step back. Before I or anyone else could say anything, Vakesh came to his senses and rushed to me.

“We have to go, now,” he pleaded, taking me by the wrist and looking towards the others before tugging me away from the camp’s center, and eventually out of the camp entirely

We ran as fast as we could, unsure whether or not we would be pursued. Our group, which combined would have numbered ten, had dwindled to only six, with Cragor, Hultu, and Rena falling alongside Riktal. I did not bother to keep track of the Ragebloods that fell, but even if we took out twice as many, this still would not feel like a victory.

As we rushed back towards our camp, my mind reeled with the possibilities of how the Ragebloods would respond. Their first concern would be saving their leader, if that was even possible... There was a lot of blood. Knowing personally the kind of upheaval that surrounds a new tribal leader being chosen, I also would not be surprised if the infighting for who would take over next had already started. It is unlikely Mojpat had already designated a successor.

We reached camp in the early hours of the morning, several of our brethren already starting to wake up themselves. They watched us with confusion as we reentered the camp, bruised, battered, and grim. I sent those with injuries to the healer’s tent, bringing Vakesh back to ours so that I could begin figuring out what to do next.

The first thing I did was confront Vakesh, ask him why he did not tell me he was the brother of the Rageblood chief. He explained his reasoning as best he could. For one, he saw no reason to be forthcoming, given that until this week we could barely stand each other. I could not entirely fault him for that.

Then there was the fact that he wasn’t sure how I would react. What if I no longer felt like I could trust him? What if I tried to use him for information on the Ragebloods’ movements or combat styles? I had to admit, I very well may have been tempted to do just that.  It was fairly sound reasoning...and pointed out that I wished he had used the same reasoning when he decided to bring Riktal and the others there behind my back.

I was correct in thinking that Riktal had pressured him into helping his group. The reason he agreed is he thought that if he could prove his worth to my best friend, he would be able to prove himself to me, and the rest of the tribe, and cement his place at my side. He was apologetic, and was even prepared to accept me banishing him from our tribe, knowing that after what he did to his brother, he would have nowhere to turn.

But I hadn’t planned that at all. I was hurt, and angry, no, furious, that several Proudhunters died today because of drunken bravado, but Vakesh wasn’t all to blame. I know Riktal had a hand in manipulating this. I just wish the man was still here so I could yell at him myself.

Another thing I took notice of was the fact that Vakesh was still very much in shock. The man had just killed his own brother, there is no way he couldn't be. I do not think he realized it, but he was still shaking, his skin looking pale and clammy. And so, rather than focusing on my anger towards him, or his future punishment, I put him to bed and grabbed my journal. He has been sleeping peacefully for a short while now.

I’ve made a list of the fallen, so that I may speak with their next of kin immediately. I expect even more anger than I have seen the past few days under these circumstances, but I will have to hope my people will listen to reason. I also need to start preparing for a potential retaliation by the Ragebloods. It may even be time to move the camp again.

I have no idea what the future is going to hold. I do not know if the events of last night will lead to more fighting or even a war, nor do I know that my tribe will continue to want me to lead them through it. But no matter what, I will be doing it with Vakesh by my side. That I can promise.

Arenas & Monsters Only Two Weeks Away - Paperback Preorders Available!

It’s February, and while I’m not happy it’s still fucking cold outside, we’ve only got two weeks to go until Arenas & Monsters is released! Paperbacks are now available for preorder at all of the usual sites. You may notice hardcovers are also being offered - that’s an error I’m fixing with my publisher, though hardcover editions of all my books will be available soon - but in the meantime, get those paperback orders in now!

With its publish date so close, I just wanted to take a moment to talk about Arenas & Monsters, and the Steel & Thunder series as a whole. I’ve been writing this series non-stop for over two years, and in those two years it has been a source of joy, frustration, exhaustion - but most of all pride. I honestly could not be prouder of the way the story and characters have connected with so many people. Though it is far from the end of the series, Book 4 is the end of an arc, and with David and Khazak’s relationship stronger than ever, it’s time to move on to the next.

One last thing, which you’ll notice if you read the update section below: I’ve finished another map! This one is of the city of Pákannon, and will be included in the (coming very soon) Secrets & Spires hardcover. I’m actually already finishing another very, very soon, so I hope I can help scratch your map-reading itches.

Happy reading, and see you on release day!

This Month on Patreon

Here’s what Patreon has for February:

• 2/13: The fifth chapter of The Journal of Khazak Uzi’lag - Now that Khazak and Vakesh have admitted their feelings for each other, it’s time for their Happily Ever After. It’s not like any of you already know how this story is supposed to go, right?
• 2/20: A full-color, detailed map of the City of Pákannon from Secrets & Spires!
• 2/27: The first chapter of my new Sci-Fi story, Caged Among the Stars (working title), set on the home planet of an alien species in which everyone is Dominant or submissive. When a young submissive cadet is discovered to have been hiding as a dominant for years, his whole world is thrown into chaos.

Your Choice for the Next Khazak's Storytime Tale

This arc of The Journal of Khazak is going to be wrapping up in March, so it's time to pick out which story I'll be writing in it's place next. Feel free to leave me some suggestions on what you'd like to read about in the comments!

Worldbuilding Articles for March & April

It's also time to pick out your next worldbuilding articles. As always, I'd love to get some new ideas or suggestions for more of these in the comments.

Dom's Little Black Book: Daddy D, Part 6

Daddy and I had continued to see each other when we could, though I think we were both realizing the realities of our situation. I was getting a little tired of feeling like a side piece. Still, when we did see each other, we always had an amazing time together.

Tonight was a quiet evening. I had moved out, into a place with a much more agreeable roommate. The three of us were hanging out in the living room together, watching TV and smoking some pot. Daddy was friends with my new roomie, Brian, and had in fact introduced us.

Brian was bigger than me, both in height and weight. A fuzzy bear of a guy, Daddy certainly knew where to find the cute ones. He was sitting in between the two of us on the couch, and it wasn’t long before the flirting started. He was in a simple t-shirt and shorts, and I was wearing the same, while Daddy had on a nice pair of jeans he really filled out nicely. The show we were watching had just wrapped up, and Brian had an idea of what to do with the rest of our night.

“Now that that’s out of the way... Do you guys wanna head up to the bedroom?” Brian coyly asked us.

Did we ever.

“Lead the way,” Daddy answered before I had a chance.

I followed them both upstairs and into the master bedroom. Brian had an exceptionally large bed, much bigger than mine, which was perfect for threesomes. He took his shirt off and climbed on, Daddy and I following suit right after, until Brian was once again sandwiched between us. Daddy took the lead, leaning over and kissing him while I ran my hands across Brian's furry chest and watched, waiting for my turn.

When Brian rolled over to kiss me next, Daddy moved his mouth down to his chest, latching onto his right nipple. While I wrestled tongues with Brian, I moved my hand down to his left nipple, squeezing and teasing it, making Brian squirm on his back as we toyed with him.

Brian's hands found their way onto both our bodies, moving down towards our crotches and rubbing us both through our clothing. Before long we were both stripping off our bottoms, and then the three of us were naked. Brian stroked our cocks, already fully hard, before rolling onto his front and moving down the bed.

Daddy and I inched closer to each other, putting our arms around each other’s shoulders. Brian settled himself between Daddy’s legs, first licking and then swallowing his cock. Daddy turned to me, kissing me as he groaned, and I could feel Brian’s hand reach over both of our thighs to stroke my cock once again.

As Daddy and I made out, Brian switched between sucking and stroking the two of us. Back and forth, he would swallow one of us down while using a free hand to stroke the split-slick dick of the other. He was talented, never gagging on either of our decently girthy cocks. After deep throating us for a few minutes he would switch to licking and sucking on our nuts, and then start back on our shafts. All the while Daddy and I kissed, rubbing the back of his head as he serviced us both.

“Why don’t you go eat his ass, boy?” Daddy growled out to me between kisses.

“Yes sir!” I answered with a final nibble at his lips.

I moved off the bed and behind Brian, sinking to my knees. I gave his furry ass a good squeeze and watched as it jiggled in my hands before spreading it wide. Delving my face towards his parted ass, I lapped at his hole and began my task of eating my new roommate out. I could hear his  appreciative noises between slurps above me, and I continued my ministrations.

I gave Brian a deep tongue fucking, his tight ring stretching around the wet muscle. I moved my tongue in and out slowly and rhythmically, much like I knew we would soon be doing with our cocks. Soon Brian was pushing his ass back to meet my tongue, signaling to me that he was more than ready to take some dick. With a spank I stood and looked at the bed.

“You’re up, Daddy,” I told him with a grin.

Daddy and I swapped places, with him now standing behind Brian and me laying on my back in front of him. As Brian took my cock back in his mouth, Daddy leaned down to give Brian  a quick lick of his own before spitting on his hole. Then, after grabbing some lube on the nightstand and slicking up his cock, he pushed inside.

Brian moaned as he was breached, happily bobbing on my cock as Daddy quickly began to thrust. Something told me they had done this before. Ever the patient one, I gripped my roommate by the hair as I waited for my own turn. Brian was still swallowing my dick down with ease, the only change being the occasional moan as Daddy D bottomed out in his hole.

I began to fuck up into his throat in time with his bobbing. Daddy and I made eye contact over his body and he looked at me hungrily, flexing his arms for me as he pounded the ass in front of him. That just pushed me to get rougher with my face fucking, but Brian took it all with ease. I really lucked out with such an accommodating roommate. Finally, Daddy gently extracted himself from Brian’s ass.

“Your turn, cubby,” he told me as he wiped the lube off his dick and presented it to Brian’s mouth for a more thorough cleaning.

Not needing to be told twice, I took my place behind Brian. Between the lube Daddy used and Brian’s spit, I was already more than wet enough to slide in with ease. I pressed all my weight forward as I sunk my cock in to the hilt, pushing Brian down into the mattress. Daddy was laying on his back, Brian's head in his crotch as he worshiped his sack. I planted my feet on the ground, pulled my hips back, and started to fuck.

Brian’s hole was nice and open. I’m sure the fact that Daddy had just got down stretching it out helped with that. There were no complaints about my fast pace, only more moans, so I didn’t waste any time getting fancy. I took his ass in both my hands, watching the way my cock slid in and out of his furry ass. I continued to pick up the pace and Brian continued to take dick at both ends, as Daddy and I continued to watch each other use the boy between us.

“Fuck, I’m getting close,” I loudly proclaimed.

“Breed his ass cub!” Daddy ordered encouragingly.

Like a good boy, I listened to my daddy and shot my load deep inside Brian’s hole. He groaned around Daddy’s cock, feeling my dick pulsate inside of him with each shot of my cum. I was laying nearly all of my weight on him when I finished, pushing him deep into the mattress as I caught my breath.

I pulled out and rolled over, allowing my body to collapse on the bed next to Brian. I felt Daddy move off the bed, presumably to finish the fuck he started with Brian earlier, using my load to lube the way. So when I felt his hand caressing my own as, I was a little confused. I turned my head towards Daddy, giving him a questioning look.

“You up for a fucking, cubby?” he asked with a smirk, his hand never leaving my ass.

I had to think about it for a moment. I wasn’t exactly prepared for it, or in the right headspace...but Daddy did have a really great dick.

“Yes, Daddy. Fuck me, please,” I answered, sticking my ass in the air.

“Good boy,” I felt Daddy take my ass in both his hands as he answered.

Squeezing, he knelt down to give me a quick rimming. Remember everyone, real tops eat ass! After I had relaxed a little, he re-slicked his cock with lube and positioned himself behind me. I could feel his wet head poking at my hole. I was still fairly new to bottoming, so he was gentle with me as he pressed inside.

I inhaled sharply as his cockhead popped through my ring, fisting the sheets and willing myself to relax, knowing it would be worth it once I did. Daddy pushed the rest of his cock into me slowly, stopping every few moments to let me get used to the intrusion. Before long, I could feel the scratch of Daddy’s pubes at my ass - he was all the way inside.

He ran his hands up and down my back while he buried his cock in me. I turned to look at Brian, who was slowly jacking off to the side as he watched the two of us intently. I felt Daddy pull back and then push back in slowly. I groaned a little, not quite in pain and not quite from pleasure. Still, it felt better than most other times I’ve tried to bottom.

Daddy started to pick up the pace after that, and my moaning and groaning got progressively louder. Fully on the bed, Daddy speared my ass over and over with long strokes of his cock, pulling almost all the way out before pushing back in. These thrust gradually became shorter and faster until he was pounding my ass at an almost furious rate. All I could do was lay on the bed and take it, gripping onto the sheets tightly.

“Fuck cubby, I’m getting close!” he announced to the room that was otherwise filled with only the sound of skin hitting skin.

I felt the hands on my hips pull me back, hard, at the same time that Daddy pushed himself all the way forward. I felt him give two, three more hard thrusts against my ass before collapsing on my back with a groan, the warmth of his load spreading within me. He nuzzled and kissed my neck as he recovered. Heh, I did that.

“Good boy, cubby. And you too baby,” Daddy said to both me and Brian. “We will have to do this again.”

As thoroughly fucked out as I was, I could only smile in response. Yes we would.

I’d like to tell you that there’s more to this story, that Daddy D and I somehow found a way to make this work, that we continued to see each other for some time. But the truth is that sometimes people are in your life for only a short time, and you should treasure that time you spend together, regardless of what may come later. Daddy D will always hold a special place in my heart, and I hope I do his.

Familiars, Totems, and Animal Companions

Magical creatures are a common sight on Terra. Some of them resemble animals you are familiar with, while others may seem more abstract or even alien. Natural casters, as their name might suggest, have an affinity for these creatures. With their magic they can connect with them in various ways, even calling them allies in battle.

Animal companions are perhaps the most common type of magical creature. On the surface, they are no different than non-magical animals, living among them without a care in the world. However, unknown to them, these animals contain the “spark” for magic, similar to humanoid spellcasters. This spark allows them to form a bond and even communicate with druids and magically-inclined rangers. It is exceedingly common to see these spellcasters on the field with wolves, bears, birds, or any other creature that may help them turn the tide of battle.

Next we have familiars. Familiars appear to be normal animals, similar to the aforementioned animal companions, but these creatures are in fact nature spirits who have taken on an animal form that relates to their abilities. They are summoned by witches, whom they are able to assist in their spells, rituals, and potion creation by adding their own magic to their master’s. Witches may form bonds with only one familiar,  or many, depending on where they live and their style of magic. It is not uncommon for a well-versed witch to have her familiar carry out almost the entirety of her spellcasting, never needing to leave her home.

Totems are very similar to familiars, in that they are also nature spirits. However, these creatures are far more abstract in their presentation and power. You could have a spirit, air, fire, wood, hunting - the possibilities are truly endless. The bonds formed between shaman and totem are less personal, with the spirits more independent and acting on their own until they are summoned.

And of course, there are even more magical creatures that exist in the land of Terra. Some of them live on the astral plane, elementals and other beasts that can be summoned by even arcane casters. These creatures share little resemblance with any of those that exist on our plane, and can be dangerous to summon and control. Not that it’s stopped the occasional power-hungry mage from trying.

Any natural caster will tell you, magical creatures are still wild animals, and can be even more dangerous. Even those under the care of a spellcaster should be approached with caution, lest they think you may be trying to attack your master and retaliate in turn. Trust me, you don’t want to go toe-to-toe with a hellhound.

The Journal of Khazak, Chapter 4

Aquaday,  Leus 25th, 4623

Hello again, journal. It has been several days since my last entry, days that have thankfully been uneventful. Vakesh’s health has continued to improve, and I would say he is almost back to normal.

Since making his recovery, I must admit that the two of us have been getting along great. I find myself being more patient, and there is a lot less grumbling from him when he is given an order. I even allowed him to come hunting with me yesterday!

Most of the camp’s healers returned the day after Vakesh’s fever broke. A few had stayed behind to continue helping the other camps, but those that returned reported that there were no issues with the recovery. I am happy to have them back, and in the future I will be sure there is at least one magical healer in the camp at all times.

Our own camp has completed the repairs to tents and fences that were needed after the Rageblood raid. Riktal is back to running the training sessions for the camp's warriors, and he has been pushing our warriors hard. While I had hoped he would take his punishment to heart, I have still overheard him and the others spouting the occasional hostility to our Rageblood captives, though they have at least pulled back some.

For all the good Vakesh seems to be doing, his fellow Ragebloods are not faring quite as well. They are (somewhat understandably) resentful of their treatment and capture. Which is not at all helped by the fact that each of their masters tend to be much less easy going than I am. I have not seen any signs of outright abuse, but I know that is not always readily apparent.

I can sense a conflict within Vakesh when he interacts with his compatriots. There is some obvious resentment on the part of the others, both at being held prisoner and at the fact that Vakesh has been clearly warming to me. I can feel Vakesh withdrawing from me at these moments, doing his best to show them that he is on their side, not mine. But I can see the conflict on his face each time he sees me after.

This is only made worse when the members of my tribe decide to belittle and mock the Ragebloods, something I fear is happening with increased regularity. Whenever this happens I can sense anger growing within Vakesh and the others, but I find myself unable to stop it. I already risked some of my men turning against me after punishing Riktal how I did. Worse still, I can see the way some of them look at me and Vakesh, and I find myself pulling away as a result, just as he does.

The two of us have been in this awkward dance for days, growing closer only to pull back suddenly when one of our friends begins to notice. I wish I could help, that I could fix this and have peace all around, but I am at a loss for what to do. Sometimes It seems like I’m doing the complete opposite of what would be considered helpful. Like my actions earlier tonight, which I regret so very much.

It was at dinner, when several of us were gathered around the campfire eating, Rageblood and Proudhunter alike. Do not worry, I made sure the food was prepared by the camp's cooks and not Riktal. It was a hearty venison stew, using the meat from the kill Vakesh and I had brought back the day before.

I was sitting around the fire with my tribemates, Tress, Ritkal, and Yurga, while Vakesh and the other Ragebloods were grouped together in a small circle off to the side talking.

It was then that I noticed our gear from our hunt yesterday was still out, the bows leaning against a chair. In the excitement of bringing in the kill, we must have forgotten to put them away. Thinking nothing of it, I stepped away from my group towards Vakesh’s.

“Vakesh, would you take that hunting equipment back to the tent and make sure it is put away properly?” I requested, pointing towards my gear.

“Sure, I \ll take care of it after I finish eating,” he accepted, and I figured that was that. It was only when I rejoined my group that I realized everyone else had gone silent.

“What was that?” Yurga says, disdain clear in her voice.

“Yeah seriously,” Tress told me next. “You gonna let him talk back to you like that?”

“Seriously, what is going on with you lately?” Riktal taunted, no doubt confident that the others were in his corner. “Why are you being so nice to them? Are you going soft on us?”

I hadn’t even considered that the others might see something wrong with the gentle way I spoke with Vakesh. But with everything that had happened lately, I should have expected it. My best friends, who I have known almost my entire life, were all poised to turn against me. And if the tribe were to turn on me as their leader? ...I panicked, and that is where everything went horribly wrong.

“What? Of course not!” I fire back, offended. “You know you cannot let them get too comfortable. I was just waiting for him to put his guard down. Watch.”

I walked back over to Vakesh, feeling regret for what I was about to do with every step, but was unable to stop myself. He was clearly dealing with his own problem that seemed similar to mine, the other Ragebloods all glaring at him. Before he could even notice me, I smacked the spoon he was using to eat from his hand.

“Let's get something straight here, worm.” I started, hate and anger bleeding into my voice. “You do what I say, when I say it. I don't care how hungry or tired you might be: I own you. You do something like that again and I will make sure you regret it. Am I understood.?”

The hurt was clear on his face the second the words started coming out of my mouth. That quickly turned to anger once he actually heard my words, before settling into a quiet resentment. He remained tight lipped until I was finished speaking.

“Understood,” he gritted out between his teeth.

“Good.” I nodded with a confidence I did not actually have.

“I seem to have lost my appetite.” He stood, his bowl of stew still nearly full. “May I be excused to the tent, or do you need me for something?”

“...No. You may go.” I tried to remain as passive as possible, nodding my head only once and turning away.

I eyeswatched from the corner of my as Vakesh stomped off to the tent without so much as a look back, his bow still on the ground where he sat. As I watched with regret, I could hear the other Proudhunters behind me laughing it up, while off to the side, the Ragebloods continued to glare or roll their eyes. Seeing no other options, I joined Ritkal with the others in laughing and joking as we finished dinner.

Afterwards, I made my way back to the tent to find Vakesh already in bed. He did not look up when I entered, specifically rolling over on his cot to face away. I found myself wanting to say something, anything, but again was at a loss.

Which is why I am writing in you while he pretends to sleep on the other side of the tent. It doesn’t seem like either of us is willing to say anything to one another, about this or any of our other problems. I don’t know what to do, but I need to fix this.

Astraday,  Leus 26th, 4623

Well journal, today has certainly been an interesting one. And for once I mean that in a good way.

As I said yesterday, I needed to find a way to fix things with Vakesh. I would like to tell you that I spent all night wracking my brains to come up with a plan, but I actually settled on one fairly quickly: a hunting trip.

Unfortunately, when I asked him to come with me, he refused. So with a sigh, I ordered that man to accompany me, despite his obvious displeasure. I was hopeful that I would be able to fix that in the forest, so we strapped on our bows and gathered supplies, and headed out.

Thankfully, this all happened without any peering eyes, so I knew we were alone once we were far enough from camp. As the two of us trekked through the forest, I did my best to engage the man in conversation, but he would refuse me at every turn.

“The weather feels nice today,” I attempted to start with small talk.

“Mmm,” he hummed, still walking forward without looking back.

“Hopefully that means there are plenty of bucks out,” I continued.

“Mhmm,” he mumbled his agreement, not stopping.

“It looks like the lavender is starting to bloom.” I point out the light purple flowers as we pass them on our right.

“Must be,” he grumbled, trudging de pere into the woods.

I tried that a few more times, pointing out every plant and animal we come across. I was so preoccupied with that that I was not paying attention to where we were going, let alone actually attempting to track something to hunt. But nothing worked. Finally, with a frustrated growl, I came to a stop.

“Would you just talk to me!” I shouted ahead of me.

“Why?” he responded cooly after finally stopping himself. “So you can punish me when I say something you or your friends don't like?”

“What is that supposed to mean?” I asked, suddenly offended.

“You know exactly what it means!” He finally turned around to face me. “The second I think we are finally understanding each other, you show your true colors.”

“You seem to think we are friends or even equals,” I growled, stepping into his space. “Need I remind you that you are my prisoner? You are not here so that I can understand you, you are here because you attacked my tribe.”

“I know exactly what we are to each other. Or at least what we’re meant to be.” He took a step towards me, our faces only inches from each other. “But are you really going to pretend that over the last two weeks you haven't felt....something growing between us?”

“I do not know what you are talking about,” I responded flatly through gritted teeth.

“Of course not,” he said with a shake of his head. “You are nothing but an arrogant asshole, a coward, a...” He paused and turned to look slightly over my shoulder. “Bear.”

“What?” I pulled back in confusion. “I’m a bear?”

“NO!” he shouted, pointing behind me. “BEAR!”

I turned my head to see a large black bear coming at us, only seconds before I felt Vakesh grab my upper arm and pull me out of its path. It charged past us, skidding on its paws when it missed before turning to face us again. When I looked into its eyes, I could tell that something was wrong.

Bears do not normally attack like that. They will defend their territory, certainly, but that is not what it felt like was happening. If I couldn't already see in the creature’s expression that something was off, the foam dripping from its jaws was an easy indicator: the bear was rabid.

It roared loudly, scratching one of its claws against the ground before running at us again. Vakesh and I only had seconds before we had to dodge its next attack, this one forcing us to separate sides as the bear ran between us.

I drew my battle axe, digging my feet into the ground as I prepared for its next charge. To my left, I saw that Vakesh had drawn his hunting bow and was already notching an arrow. Sharing only a brief look with each other, we turned to face our foe, who roared loudly before attacking me.

I was prepared to dodge out of the way, or even climb a tree to avoid its path, but before I could move Vakesh had already landed an arrow in its flank. The bear roared again in anger and pain, stumbling before it rallied and adjusted its aim towards Vakesh.

Sensing an opportunity, I sheathed my axe and drew my own bow, firing an arrow of my own into its back. This caused it to stumble again, allowing Vakesh time to retreat several yards away. Before it had the chance to fully train its ire on me, Vakesh saw the opportunity and attacked again.

We traded off like that a few times, each of us working to draw the beast away from the other as we are further separated. Still, the beast did want to give up, no doubt fueled by its rabies-induced rage. It showed no signs of even slowing down, and the longer we fought, the more the bear seemed to ignore our damage. Eventually I had to fire multiple arrows to get it to turn to me, and in my haste I became sloppy: one of my arrows zoomed past its intended target, landing solidly in Vakesh’s right thigh.

He fell to the ground with a cry of pain, one that immediately drew back the bear’s attention. I started to rapid fire arrows into its back to get it to turn to me. It worked, but it seemed that the bear had finally had enough of our strategy. It roared loudly as it charged me, and I reached for my axe, prepared for a bit of melee as I retreated backwards. And then I tripped. The heel of my right foot got caught on a tree root, causing me to lose my balance and fall backwards onto my ass.

The creature had over a dozen arrows in its hide and still showed no sign of slowing down. As I attempted to scramble backwards on my hands, the bear loomed over me, foam and spittle dripping from its lips as it growled. The ground shook under its heavy legs as it came towards me, and I found myself backed against a tree with nowhere to go. This is how I die, I thought.

Until suddenly, with a yell, I watched Vakesh leaping onto the creature's back. It shouted in confusion, ignoring me as it was forced to deal with the attacker on its back. It attempted to dislodge Vakesh with a violent shake, but that man was holding on for dear life. Perhaps sensing that it was a pointless battle, the bear once more turned its rage-filled gaze to me. As it prepared to charge one more time, Vakesh climbed up to its neck, and holding a loose arrow in one hand, plunged it into the bear’s eye socket.

The creature lifted itself up on its hind legs as it bellowed in pain, only for a second before it collapsed to the forest floor, sliding towards me and coming to a stop only inches from my legs. My heart still pounding, I scrambled backwards and away from the corpse. Which Vakesh was still on, clutching tightly to its fur.

It was only when the beast stopped moving that he finally released his hold, his body sliding off the bears and rolling onto the forest floor. I leapt up and rushed to Vakesh’s body, not even stopping to check if the bear was even really dead. I quickly dragged Vakesh away from it, his eyes closed but the noises of pain he made when I grabbed him at least let me know he was alive.

“Why did you do that?” I asked him as he groaned. “You should have run. Or at least tried to hide.”

“I was not going to let you die,” he answered with a wince.

I could not help but laugh at that as I laid him as comfortably as possible so I could inspect the wound on his leg. The arrow went cleanly into his upper thigh, a small trickle of blood escaping from the sides. A healer in camp would be able to take care of that, but getting back with him injured would be a challenge. Luckily I came prepared.

I reached into my pack, finding one of the wrapped healing poultices my mother gives me for emergencies like this. After first warning him, Vakesh attempted to muffle his cry of pain as I gripped the arrow tightly by the shaft and pulled it free. I quickly pressed one of the poultices to the wound, the pressure combining with the healing properties of the herbs within to stem the bleeding and provide at least some superficial healing. It would be enough to at least get him walking.

“I am sorry,” I blurted out. “You were right. I am a coward.”

“Yes. You are,” he replied with a smirk.

“I... I will change,” I continued, finding my confidence. “As soon as we are back, I am going to--”

“Khazak!” Vakesh cried out suddenly,

“What is it?” I asked after scrambling towards his head.

Without answering, he reached up and grabbed me by the collar of my tunic, pulling me down towards him and kissing me with a smirk on his lips. I was caught of guard at first, our tusks banging together, but he held me there and deepened it until I had no choice but to kiss back. I became so engrossed in what we were doing that I forgot about everything that had just happened - until I attempted to climb between Vakeshs legs and he hissed in pain, his leg still sore.

“We should not be doing this right now.” I started to pull away. “You are still hurt.”

“So be gentle,” he responded as he held onto my shirt and tugged me back down.

I could only nod, the words sounding as much like a request as they did a test. I adjusted myself so that I would not be laying on top of his injured leg and resumed our kissing. He wrapped one of his arms around my shoulder, and tentatively began running my own down his side. As our mouths started to more fervently, our hands started to slip into each other's clothing.

My hand roamed down towards his crotch, where I could feel that he was rock hard in his pants, despite his injury. My cock was equally hard in its own confines, and after gently coaxing Vakesh onto his side, I tentatively rolled my hips forward to rub it against his. He groaned into my mouth in response, and I decided to get a little bolder.

I reached for the buttons on his pants, fumbling to undo them. I could feel Vakesh smiling against my lips before he reached down to start to do the same. I never realized how difficult this is when you only have one hand to work with.  But soon enough, both our cocks sprang loose and were rubbing against each other.

Reluctantly breaking apart for a moment, I reached around blindly behind me.for my pack. Finding it, I fumbled around inside for the vial of oil I always bring with me. I don’t pack specifically for that purpose, but also don’t pack it not for that purpose.

I opened it with my teeth spitting out the cork and pouring the liquid into my hand and over our pricks. I fisted us both, grinding them together as Vakesh leaned back in for another kiss. I worked to keep us at a steady rhythm, but Vakesh kept humping forward in an attempt to speed things up, which would also cause him to occasionally wince in pain.

“Relax,” I finally had to tell him. “Let me do the work.”

“Yes, sir,” he half-joked in response.

I smiled as I returned to our kiss, continuing to fist us both steady as I rocked forward against him. He did, I asked, giving me full control of your movements, only tensing up occasionally. It was involuntary, and it happened more and more the closer I brought him to climax.

Finally, with a cut of swear, he spilled over my hand and onto my chest. I continued to stroke him through it until he collapsed in a boneless heap at my side. Then I quickly focused on my own cock, following with my own orgasm soon after his.

We laid there panting on the forest floor with only the sounds of nature around us. As I blinked my bleary eyes, the visage of the dead bear suddenly came into view, and I jumped back in surprise. Vakesh laughed as I cursed under my breath, and after standing and using my shirt to clean the both of us off the best I could, I carefully helped him to his feet.

It was a slow journey back to the camp, with more than a few confused faces at our state and Vakesh’s injury. I ignored them all, taking him directly to the healer’s tent so that his leg could be tended to. After my mother healed him and allowed him to be released, I requested that our dinners be brought to me in our tent, where I planned on both of us being for the rest of the afternoon and evening.

I laid Vakesh carefully on my bed, much more comfortable than the flimsy cot he had been sleeping on up until now. And he is still here next to me right now, fast asleep. I am not sure what tomorrow is going to hold, but I know it is going to be different, and I am both scared and excited at seeing what that means.

Happy New Year - Arenas & Monsters Preorders Are Live!

Happy New Year everybody! And Happy Arenas & Monsters Preorders Are Live Day too! Steel & Thunder Book 4 is almost here, and you can use this link to order your copy from any of the usual online retailers. Paperbacks should be available soon, as will the audiobook! All the other books in the series have topped the charts, I wonder how high we can get this one before release day?

Now with that out of the way: how was everyone's holiday? I hope you all managed to stay warm and toasty, and (if you’re into that sorta thing) saw all your loved ones and maybe got some new toys. I built myself a new computer! Which has been an absolute pain in the ass to get up and running. I swear they made this harder than it used to be. But I did it! And then I spent the last week reinstalling everything.

One last bit of news: I’ve got some changes coming here to Patreon. Dom’s Little Black Book is coming to an end, with the final chapter being posted this month. I’m not saying I’ll never write another of these, but for now, I’m closing the book. In its place, on the fourth Monday of every month, will be an entirely new story! These stories will be longer in format than what I’ve posted here in the past, coming to at least 10-12 chapters each. Theylll be available to patrons of the $4 “Just Here for the Porn, Sir” and $5 “Dom’s Little Black Book” tiers, which will also include access to all the Little Black Book archives. I already know what story I’m going to start with, A kinky tale with a sci-fi bent; think Starfleet Academy vibes. The first chapter will be posted next month, so if you’ve been thinking about raising your patron level, this might be a good time.

Thanks as always, and happy reading!

This Month on Patreon

Here’s what January brings:

• 1/9: The fourth chapter of The Journal of Khazak Uzi’lag - With Vakesh feeling better, Khazak is forced to confront his growing feelings - despite his best effort.
• 1/16: Familiars, Totems, and Animal Companions - magical animals and natural spirits form bonds with spellcasters.
• 1/23: Daddy D, Part 6 - The final chapter of my Little Black Book goes out with a bang - literally!
• 1/30: New Worldbuilding & Story polls! I would love to get some requests on this one, as I’m worried the idea well of worldbuilding articles is starting to run dry.