Virgin Outcast: Bred to the Beast (2 page)

The blacksmith's apprentice pulled her to her feet and turned her against the workbench.  Her bare breasts touched the cold, dark steel of an anvil, and she wrapped her arms around it
s heavy weight
to steady herself as Mykal pulled her dress up to bare her ass.
  She tensed, expecting to be taken from behind.  His lust was on him; could he resist?

T
o her surprise, he sunk to his knees, and she gasped as he squeezed the white mounds of her buttocks in his powerful hands and kissed her soft white flesh, biting and sucking as he moved his mouth lower.  His hands lifted her upward until she stood on her toes, and he spread her cheeks apart. 
Kara arched her back, giving him more of what he wanted as h
is face pressed between her legs
. 
This felt dirty and shameful, but that only heightened her arousal as c
oarse stubble brushed against smooth skin that no man had seen
.

Then h
is mouth found her sopping
slit
.
  She cried out in shock as he kissed her, and his lips pushed apart her pink folds as his tongue cupped the swollen pink bud, a throbbing little bundle of sensation that erupted at his touch.  The texture of his tongue drove all thought from her mind as he moved it back and forth before tilting his head back to probe deep into the dark hole that craved so much more of him.  She knew that only his thick cock could fill the void of desire down there.

Kara had sworn not to take a man before marriage, but in that moment, she knew she would give Mykal whatever he wanted.  And she could tell, from the abandon with which he plunged his face between her legs, from his squeezing hands on her buttocks, that Mykal would take it, no matter how she pleaded or tried to writhe out of his grip. 
Tonight, lust had driven them both mad.

The motion of his tongue brought her quickly to climax, and Kara tightened her grip on the anvil, writhing against the workbench as she thrashed and cried out, pressing down against Mykal's mouth.  His tongue pressed harder, moved faster, fanning the flames of her ecstasy until it was wildfire sweeping through her body, leaving nothing but exhaustion and the ashes of sated desire.

She slumped against him then, and Mykal stood and wrapped one strong arm around her to cup her firm breast.  Two fingers flanked her firm nipple, and he squeezed them together around that hard bump of flesh until she felt an ache that throbbed with each beat of her heart.

At the same time, he pressed his manhood against her buttocks, and she could feel him quivering, hard and hot in her crack.  His shaft was wet and slick with the first pearly drops of his seed, and he moved against her, every part of his body craving more.

"I need to be inside you," he whispered in her ear, his breath hot against her neck.

"Yes," Kara said.  "
P
lease Mykal.  Do it
now
."  She pressed her bottom against him, ready for him to take her virginity.

At that moment, wavering orange light filled the forge, and Kara spun to squint into the light of four burning torches.

"What's going on in here?" Mayor Shen demanded, thrusting his torch forward, bathing them in light.

Mykal exposed her naked rump as he turned to face them, his own trembling hardness betraying his intentions.

Kara heard several gasps, but she couldn't see the faces
beyond the bright light.  Then
Rela the Wise Woman
stepped forward, her pale yellow hair glowing like a halo in the torchlight
.
  "Fornication in the dark of night, it seems."

"We did no such thing, we only..."

"Silence, oaf," Rela hissed.  "We saw what was happening here."

"Kara, your father will have your hide," Shen said, his voice trembling with anger.

Mykal hurried to lace his trousers, and Kara covered herself as well as she could, but her dress kept slipping off her shoulders.  She crossed her arms over her breasts and tried to hide her face, still red with arousal even in her shame.

The Wise Woman looked down at
Kara
, imperious and stern despite her youthful beauty.  She shook her head, then turned to Shen.  "
They are of age, Mayor.  Their parents
can no longer decide their penance
. 
This must
go before the Elders."

Shen frowned for a long moment, then gave Rela a reluctant nod.  "As you say, Wise Woman.  What shall we do with them tonight?"

Rela stared at Mykal for a long moment.  "Mykal is a virile young man, unable to temper his desires," she said.  "Put him in the stockades
until morning
, and let him reflect on what he has done
."

The mayor gestured to two of the men with him, and they stepped forward to take Mykal by the arms.  Half his size, they looked frail next to his massive frame, but he went meekly with a last apologetic glance for Kara.  She felt a pang of sympathy, but she could do
nothing for him
.

"And what of the girl, Rela?" Shen asked.

The Wise Woman
looked out at the darkness beyond their small circle of torchlight
. 
In a low voice, she spoke with an almost hypnotic cadence.  "I have seen signs and omens on the wind and in the clouds.  The death of our livestock, our poor harvest, these things are not simple misfortune."  She turned to Kara.  "A darkness lives in Krall, Mayor Shen.  A moral decay, as our youths forsake their honor for carnal pleasures."  She took in a deep breath that made her ample bosom rise, and Kara shivered.

"The boy can hardly be blamed, of course.  Men cannot help but be led by that thing between their legs, but women must hold them in control."  She glared at Kara.  "Who are we if our women give in to their own desires?  How can we survive if the gods punish our people while temptresses walk among us?"

Shen shifted uneasily, and a deep frown shadowed his face.  "You speak dire words, Wise Woman.  What would you have us do?"

Rela met Kara's eyes for a long moment as though daring her to speak, but Kara could not find her voice.

Rela's eyes blazed.  "The women of Krall are the gatekeepers of our morality.  Only they can contain the lust of men," Rela said.  "Let no woman know a man's bed before her marriage, and let all who fling their virginity away be banished from Krall."  She spun and pointed a long finger at Kara.  "Start with her."

Mayor Shen cleared his throat nervously.  "What, now?  In the middle of the night?  Her father..."

Rela's cool look made it appear that she was looking down at Shen, even though he stood head and shoulders above her.  "Punishment must be severe, Mayor.  Let this temptress show her face no more in the light of day.  If we allow young men and women to flit about, doing as they wish, who will care for the children that result?  How will we deal with the disease?  Before I came to Krall, I lived in a city.  I've seen how quickly ill repute leads to poverty and destruction.  Would you have that for Krall?  The omens war
n
me that you must make an example of her."

Kara's head spun.  She couldn't believe what she was hearing.  She was to be banished!

Shen
looked nervous, but he wouldn't meet Kara's pleading eyes
.  "
Very well," he said.  "But you must explain to her father.  I'll not bring this to the man."

Rela nodded.  "Then it is done."  She turned to Kara.  "Come, child.  I will escort you to the edge of the village."  She turned and strode out of the light, not bothering to look back.

Mayor Shen and the other stepped aside and watched
Kara follow
the Wise Woman out into the night.
S
he had no other choice
that she could see.

The night
felt
colder now, without Mykal beside her.  Musicians still played on the green, but their melodies seemed a shrill mockery now as she followed the Wise Woman along a cobblestone street.  The houses grew further and further apart until the cobbles thinned to a rutted dirt road.  Rela turned then and regarded Kara with her cold eyes.

"Child, would you have Mykal for your husband?"

Kara's jaw fell open in disbelief.  This woman would banish her, and now offer this?  She wanted to shout, to rage in her anger, but Rela's serene face stopped her.  What if the woman truly could see her with Mykal?  She bit back a cutting reply and simply nodded.

"Then you must do as I command," Rela said.  "Follow this road until you reach the stone bridge.  Beyond it, a footpath leads into the forest.  Follow that path, and at its end you will find a cabin
.  Sleep there tonight.  Tomorrow, someone will bring you food. 
He will demand that you leave, but stay until I send for you
, and Mykal shall be yours."  She stepped closer, and Kara felt the withering intensity of her gaze.  "
It is the only way.  I
f you disobey me..."  She left the threat hanging in the air and stepped away, hurrying back toward the village.

Kara's mind reeled.  Only minutes ago she had been in the heat of passion with her betrothed.  Now she was an exile.  "Rela!" she called.  "Will you please tell my
mother and
father that I love him?  And Mykal?"

Rela turned once more.  She looked up at the full moon, and her eyes shone in its pale light. 
When she looked back at Kara, her face was an emotionless mask. 
"Stay on the path, child.  Dangerous things walk in the darkness."
  Then she turned and was swallowed by the night.

Kara hurried along the road.  Scattered farmhouses sat well back from the road like dark beasts skulking at the edge of fields.  Krall was a small village, and Kara knew who lived in each one.  She considered stopping to beg for help, but their dark windows looked like black eye sockets, unnerving in their stillness.  Besides, Rela's threat was clear; if Kara didn't obey, she would never see Mykal again.

After a few miles, the road grew thin, with fewer wagon ruts.  Tall brown grass grew in a strip along the center.  The trees were closer, tall, slender sentinels that crowded either side, their bare branches like long, skeletal arms reaching for the bloated moon above, casting mottled shadows across Kara's path.  The still night air seemed to magnify every sound, from the mournful cry of a night owl to the skittering sound of some creature moving through the fallen leaves.

She thought of the disappearing livestock and the farmers' rumors of some terrible beast.  In the bright merriment of the festival, she had laughed those rumors away, but here they seemed more plausible.  She quickened her step, and when she heard the whisper of running water ahead and saw the stone bridge, she felt relief.

Kara crossed the bridge and stared at the narrow path leading into the forest.  She wanted more than anything to turn and run back to Krall at full speed, to burst into her parents' home and hug them, weeping as she confessed her sin.  To snuggle into the quilts on her little cot and forget that this dreadful night had ever happened.

She started to turn back, but as she did, the burble of running water grew somehow menacing, as though it obscured the quiet stealth of a predator somewhere in the darkness.  A horrible foreboding filled her, and she knew with certainty that if she fled back toward Krall, something dark and huge and violent would burst from the trees and take her.

With a shiver, she forced herself to go on, plunging off the road and up the narrow trail into the woods.  It wound like a snake through the old trees, their trunks twisted with age.  As she walked, she sensed movement in the forest to her left, something flitting through the shadows with deadly grace.  Something big.  Big enough to take down a cow, she realized.
  Maybe farmers knew more than she gave them credit for.

She moved faster, almost running now, her heart hammering in her chest loud enough that the pounding in her ears hid the quiet rustling of the night forest.  She kept her eyes locked on the ground ahead, refusing to look, knowing that something stalked her, keeping pace just out of sight.

The trees opened in a small clearing, and Kara almost wept with relief at the sight of a small, rustic cabin.  Its windows were dark, and she didn't know whether someone was inside, but she plunged heedlessly out of the woods and sprinted across the clearing.  Behind her, she heard something crash through the undergrowth, moving fast.  She scrambled up onto the porch and grabbed at the front door.  Behind her, whatever had stalked her grew closer, barreling across the clearing with unnatural speed.

A sudden feeling of dread overwhelmed her terror.  The door would be lock
ed tight, and she would be torn apart.

The latch gave smoothly, and the door swung open on well-oiled hinges.  Kara threw herself inside and grabbed the door.  She saw something outside, a darker shape against the ghostly gray of dead grass in the moonlight, huge and manlike.  For an instant, two yellow eyes shone like coals, wild and hungry.  Then the door slammed shut and the latch clicked home.  Her fingers scrambled in the darkness to find the crossbar, and she dropped it into
the iron brackets flanking the door
.