Chapter 29: The Spoils of War

Ash’s exhausted muscles ached as he led Khukri back to the road, unable to bear the sight of Via’s eviscerated remains any longer. Via had to die. He’d never lived under the delusion there was any other way this nightmare could end, but it still felt as sickening as his first kill. Technically Khukri killed her, but for the first time, Ash felt the weight of wielding Khukri as a weapon. The specific method hadn’t been exactly what he’d planned, but in the end, he’d wanted Via dead, and he’d used Khukri to do it.

She clung to him now, hanging off his arm with a head pressed to his shoulder, so covered in blood it soaked his shirt and fell off his fingers in drips. Her contented sighs continued as he led her to the District 4 warehouse, their home. It was obvious now how people came to fear wolves, or started this nonsense about ‘going feral.’ One look at her snarling over a splayed-out corpse was enough to make his skin crawl and stomach lurch, but dead was dead. Who was he to judge her methods? The damaged girl clinging to him was Khukri; someone willing to abandon a lifetime of conditioning to be his saviour a third time. She was worthy of love and protection, regardless of what the world thought.

The sun dimmed as they stepped inside, covering them in shade as he showed her what he’d been up to while she handled Via. After he determined Via wasn’t a threat, he’d left Khukri to her meal while finishing his plan. All her packmates were here, some more bruised than others, but each alive.

Ash had left their weapons and armour in a pile, then restrained the girls before they came down from their high. For safety, he’d bound their hands to the railing on the floor above, then tied their ankles to the railing on this one. Lacking proper muzzles, he’d opted for tying their mouths shut and wrapping the rope once around the back of their heads so it wouldn’t slide off.

All thirteen were strung up with backs to the middle of the warehouse and given enough slack to sit on the railing should they tire of standing. Khukri pushed away, looking over the row of dog-girls as they wriggled in panic. “Master...” Khukri said, in a tone far from the gratitude he’d hoped for when saving her friends from suffocating on a smoking field.

A sad sigh escaped as she leaned down, withdrawing a long knife from the equipment pile. She sauntered forward, running a thumb along the blade’s edge before Ash intercepted her. “What’re you doing?”

“I’m finishing the job,” she explained. “I know you can’t trust a feral wolf, but I’ll prove my loyalty by doing the things that are hard for you.”

Ash swallowed, eyeing her as she fidgeted with the blade. “Those are your friends,” he reminded her. “I don’t want them dead.”

“They’re your enemies, Master.” Khukri’s eyes fell, staring at her blood-soaked visage in the blade’s reflection. “They’re weapons, like me. They’d kill you the second they had a chance. They’d kill me too, as a favour.”

“We’re not killing them.” Ash gave her a hard stare. He wasn’t a good man, but as skewed as his moral compass was, Khukri’s had been calibrated by a company that punished free thought. If they were establishing a new dynamic without ‘the order,’ he needed to be the one making the moral decisions, at least for now.

Her eyes narrowed at him as she gestured with the blade. “You need-”

Ash’s fingers wrapped around the sharpened metal, causing Khukri to go still, unwilling to accidentally cut him. “I know what I need.” He leaned closer, the sharp taste of iron filling his mouth as their lips pressed together. For a moment he held her, tongue brushing against sharp, bloodied fangs before she relented and received him. Khukri groaned softly as she held back, shyly playing with his tongue. He pulled away, licking blood from his bottom lip as she glanced uncertainly at her friends. “Right now, I’m exhausted. I need your stamina,” Ash said, gently touching her chin to guide her eyes back.

“R-right now?” Khukri asked.

Ash’s hand flowed down her chest, slipping over her coat, so slick with blood it left nothing to his imagination, to rest on her breast. “Right now,” he insisted, gently running a thumb across her nipple.

Khukri let out a low whine as they kissed again, squirming while he played. Droplets passed through his fingers as they dragged through her fur, scattering to the ground with a barely audible patter. Finally, he released the blade, bringing his other hand behind her head and turning her reluctant whine into a hesitant moan.

When Ash retracted again, she set her arms on his shoulders, cradling the knife behind him with a placating smile. “I understand, Master; let’s go to bed.”

That wouldn’t do. Khukri was an animal taught in the language of controller and controlled, not equal partnerships. If he let her lead, it’d be a signal he needed to be controlled. On another day, Ash might’ve enjoyed letting Khukri use him to stretch her claws, but with his fight only half-over and thirteen hostages on the line, he needed a language she’d understand.

His fingers threaded around her collar, pressing knuckles into the nape of her neck as she tried to lead him away. “No.” Ash firmly tugged the collar. “I said I need you, right now.”

“M-Master?” Khukri whimpered as Ash moved her toward her friends, then released her so he could remove his shirt and toss it into the pile. She gasped softly as his arms folded around her, pressing his chest into her back with a soft squish of damp fur. His arms tightened under her breasts in a possessive squeeze. “Master, please,” Khukri begged. “They’re watching...”

Ash nuzzled the side of her face, running his maw up her head with a chuckle. “What? Oh, now they’re not just my enemies?” His fingers found her nipples, pinching them sharply as he bit one of her ears, prompting a mewling cry as he displayed her to his prisoners.

“No...” she whined, shielding her breasts from their sight with both arms.

“Of course they’re not, they’re your friends.” Ash released her with one hand, quickly pulling his pants to his ankles and kicking them away. Free from the fabric, his stiffened dick emerged, urged on every time Khukri’s squirming ground her warm, wet back into him. She wriggled harder in protest as his hand trailed down her stomach and slipped between her thighs. A fresh patter of liquid flowed around his hand and spilled onto the ground as he pressed his palm into her. “You’re eager today,” he teased.

Another embarrassed whine escaped as she lowered the knife, trying to cover her pussy from their audience. “That’s blood. I’m not...” She trailed off, ears folding as she made herself as small as possible.

“You’re not... what? Wet? Let me see.” Ash pulled away, wrapping his fingers around her collar with one hand and the base of her tail with the other. Initially, she resisted, tensing with a whimper, but when he pushed harder, she fell to her knees, then forward. The blade clacked against the ground as she landed on all fours, clenching her eyes shut and turning her face away. “Down,” he demanded, leaning on her collar until her face pressed into the floor.

She whimpered as he leaned back, holding her tail to admire her as he gently guided her thighs apart. “They shouldn’t see this...” she begged.

Oh, that’s what the problem was? She was willing to gut them like strung-up aibax, but letting them watch her cum? Perish the thought. “There’s no way this is all blood.” He pressed his fingers between her pussy lips, running a slick finger from her entrance to her clit before gently teasing her.

“I’ll do anything,” she whimpered with a shiver. “Just, not here, please.”

That last one wrenched his heartstrings, making him hesitate. Maybe he’d gone far enough. If she decided to stay with him, he didn’t want to spend that time making her miserable. The trouble was, Khukri saw compassion as weakness, and Ash suspected she’d manipulated him before. Today was too important to leave to chance, and she knew he wouldn’t hurt her. For things to go properly, Khukri needed to listen, so he needed to make her. Ash bent over her, setting one hand on her shoulder and the other between her ears, pressing her into the ground as he buried himself inside her.

Khukri gasped as he started rocking his hips, forcing meek grunts as she took his entire length. Her hands fanned out, scraping the stone with her blade at each thrust. The light eagerly welcomed his return, forcing her walls tighter as his throbbing cock pressed against her womb and siphoned directly from its source.

Goddess, how he’d missed her light. He’d only been without it for half a day, but its absence left an increasing ache, like she’d taken a part of him when she left. Ash let out an ecstatic breath, thrusting harder and faster as a flood of energy banished the aches and pains of the day’s battle. Fangs of pleasure ripped through him as her pussy fought to keep him inside, tightening and shifting as pink light pulsed through his veins, her silky symphony urging him on every time the bloodied bitch moaned beneath him.

Khuri’s eyes clouded, tongue rolling from her mouth to rest on the ground as she panted, eagerly bouncing her hips as she tried to get him inside her harder, faster, and deeper, if that was even possible. After two weeks of casting Dusk, manipulating the pink light within Khukri had grown as easy as the green. He could feel how much she had left and how thinly throughout her body it was spread. Soon, she had so little left she could barely manage to drool and writhe in pleasure, eager for him to rip away the last sliver and leave her an empty twitching shell.

He slowed, restraining himself. As far as he knew, he could keep her here indefinitely, though the longer he did, the darker his desires and cloudier his thoughts. It bored through to a shameful place in his soul he’d need to face when he was finally done with her. As he slid into her again, he returned some of her light, testing how much she needed to concentrate.

“Master...” she moaned, voice slurring in delirium. “Master, don’t stop now… I need to cum. Please...”

Before, he’d felt so tired, so weak, but every movement from Khukri made him harder. Every pathetic noise stoked fire within him, screaming to tear the light from her and imprint submission into her very core.

One of the terrified girls caught his eye. Maya, wasn’t it? Khukri’s old Whip watched as her prey claimed the bottom of her pack as his prize. “Not yet,” Ash told Khukri. “Your friends are scared. We need to explain to them you’re okay.”

A miserable, pleading whine left Khukri as Ash pulled free, leaving a trail of eager juices as he hauled her forward by the collar. He maintained eye contact with Maya as he stalked forward, half-dragging his stumbling slave until he pressed the girls together. Maya let out a muffled scream, twitching and jerking as Khukri relaxed against her, staining Maya’s fur dark with her owner’s remains.

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“Explain what happened with Via,” Ash ordered. “Let her know you’re okay.”

Khukri panted, raising her head back to talk. “Maya… I’m sorry. I went fer-aaaah!”

A surprised cry erupted from Khukri’s throat, echoing through the cavernous building as Ash roughly entered her. “Keep going,” he instructed, slipping his hands between Maya and Khukri’s breasts, squeezing and pulling his pet wolf to control the pace as he bucked.

“I… ah, I went f-feral...” Khukri wrapped her arms around her friend’s shoulders, pressing the flat steel against Maya’s back. “B-but I didn’t go crazy! Every-ah! Everything they said about the-the...” Khukri bent forward, forcing Maya’s ass onto the railing with a loud moan, struggling to speak as the rope around Maya’s wrists went taught, holding both girls precariously over the edge.

“So she can hear you!” Ash demanded, drip-feeding light into Khukri so she could barely concentrate.

“Everything they said was wrong. I don’t need to listen to them,” she whined, glancing back for approval.

“Good girl.” Ash started fucking again, making Khukri laugh breathlessly as she shuddered in anticipation of the coming orgasm. “Now tell her why she doesn’t need to be afraid of you.”

Khukri’s eyes rolled back as she went limp, twitching and panting as he drove into her harder. “M-Master! Please, I’ll be good! Let me cum! P-please!”

“You cum when I’m ready,” Ash reminded her, rolling her nipples in his hand as he held her on the verge. “Speak.”

“I won’t hurt you!” Khukri moaned. “I’m M-Master’s weapon now! I’m a good girl! I’ll obey!” Khukri pressed into Maya, letting out a wail of pleasure that echoed throughout the building. Ash drew in the last intoxicating wave, then with one final push, he slammed into her, pumping her womb to bursting with cum that gushed out around his shaft. A warm pool surrounded his twitching cock, climax extending as it flowed out of his girl, covering the railing and leaking down her thighs.

A loud clang rang out as the blade slipped from Khukri’s limp fingers and bounced off the floor below. She leaned on her friend, unresponsive as Ash held her upright, shuddering as waves of pleasure rolled down his spine. His twitching cock pumped endlessly into her as his vertebrate stretched and contracted, sending shockwaves through his body as each snapped into their new form. They continued past his tail, growing more until it matched Khukri’s, though with his far less beautiful fur. When he finished, Khukri lay limp in his arms, unconsciously pulsing as her body eagerly milked his cock, despite already being full to bursting. Ash braced himself as he looked into Maya’s eyes, barely restraining himself from speaking as he rode out a wild spike of aggression. The wolf is mine now, not yours.

Khukri’s breath slowed, feet gently relieving pressure from Ash as she touched the ground, though as always, she avoided provoking him until he relaxed. A minute later, his breathing settled, and aggression made way for guilt. The wolf is mine? What the hell is wrong with my head? Ash gently pet Khukri as he pulled out, releasing a fresh stream of cum that flowed past her pussy lips and down Maya’s thighs.

“Good girl.” Ash stroked her as he pulled her from Maya, turning the wolf to meet her eyes. “I have a fight to finish, but I need you to make sure your friends stay here.”

Khukri let out a needy groan, resting her head on his chest. “Where are you going?”

“My predator exposed her weak point, so I’m going to her nest to make her pay for it. I need you to trust I can handle this, and make sure none of your friends get hurt unless they might escape, understand?”

She sighed, looking back at her friends. “Yes, Master.”

* * *

Ash marched through the outpost, cloak rolled around his latest prey and draped over his shoulder. Since his rather invigorating session with Khukri, he’d washed and replaced his clothing to blend in as another harvester dragging a kill to be butchered. He passed through the street, ignoring collared girls that openly eyed him before darting off to report to their mistress. Some tailed him towards the ruins, though they’d vanish moments after he saw them, leaving him with only observant bushes for company.

Issac’s manor, or, Ash supposed, Sashura’s manor, sat exactly as he remembered it in the afternoon sun. The wooden hatches caught sunlight, revealing a polished sheen that he admired as the team of navy-cloaked girls fanned out ahead of him, hands resting on sheathed sabres. During negotiations for his fake union, he’d learned these girls didn’t actually work for Sashura, but a security company responsible for the private manors of important members of the syndicate. In other words, they were pawns belonging to another player in Sashura’s game.

“Sashura!” Ash screamed, ignoring the dog-girl demanding to know why he’d come. “You’ve been looking for me, haven’t you? Well, I’m here!”

A sharp click announced his enemy’s arrival as she walked out the door. Her icy stare was made only harsher by her regal appearance, looking down on him as she stood straight. Like Issac, her coat was a full white littered with black spots, wrapped up in a long navy dress embroidered with gold trim. Unlike most wearing navy, the syndicate’s symbol was nowhere to be found, lest someone mistake her for a lowly employee.

“Nice to meet you!” Ash turned, jerking the edge of his cloak and sending the brutalized remains of Via spinning to the ground. Blood and viscera showered the security as they jumped away, sabres flying from their sheathes to level at Ash. “Oh, by the way, Via’s dead! Crazy, right?”

“Hands where we can see them!” One of the security girls yelled. A command Ash readily followed.

“Holy shit, Ruari...” Issac mumbled, eyes transfixed on Via as he emerged from behind his mother.

“Hey Issac, one sec!”’ Ash called, slowly turning his eyes to the girls ahead of him. “You know, I’m not threatening the house… so your company isn’t responsible for that.” Ash tilted his antlers slightly to indicate the gruesome sight. “Maybe go get outpost security?”

One of the girls came up behind him, pulling his arms down to tie his wrists behind his back. “We’ll take him to the security building. They can deal with him there.”

“You good with that, Sashura?” Ash yelled. “We’ll get outpost security down here? Have a nice long conversation about the woman who was supposed to be in jail for trying to kidnap a substandard supplier? Maybe find out why I’m dropping her on your lawn?”

With a single wave from Sashura, collared hunters emerged from the woodwork. At least thirty girls armed with spears crept from behind rocks and rubble, while others walked around Sashura after emerging from the front door. The security girls tossed nervous glances between them, unsure if their blades were pointed in the right direction.

“Don’t worry about your hunters,” Ash warned. “My friends would be happy to turn them over to security to help prove my innocence.” Aside from Issac and Khukri, Ash didn’t have any friends, but he suspected the idea that one man dropped fifteen battle-hardened women on his own wasn’t a gamble Sashura would take.

Sashura slowly strode over, taking a hard, disdainful look at Via before turning her attention to the guards. “Go. Get someone from outpost security.”

The girl behind Ash cleared her throat. “Ma’am?”

“Like he said, he’s not threatening the house.” Sashura’s arms raised, causing every hunter to level their spears simultaneously. “And we can handle him until the proper authorities get here. Leave. Now.”

Nervously, the girls sheathed their sabres and backed away. As they turned to run, Sashura came close to Ash, flanked by hunters that pressed spear points against his chest. Ash’s unflappable mask held, letting him feign a fearless stare at the woman while he waited for her to speak.

“Well?” Sashura asked. “We don’t have long before security shows up. If you’ve got something to say, now’s the time.”

“Here’s the thing. My life’s over. Whether a company gets me or I flee into exile, rebels already seized everything I own and killed my family. You on the other hand? Lots to lose. I mean, attempting to murder another member of the syndicate is bad, and I’m thinking a massive expansion into Tythic isn’t the ideal time to hope the other members let it slide. I mean, I can't stop you from turning me over, but it seems like it’d help your competition equally, and only possibly hurt you...” Ash turned, lifting his bound hands. “So, assuming this wasn’t personal, how about we negotiate - like civilized people.”

Rough hands grabbed Ash, painfully twisting his shoulder to raise his bonds higher before a blade slipped between his wrists and cut him free. He turned, watching Sashura walk away, already halfway to the house.

Ash hurried after her, giving Issac a smile and a thumbs up before heading inside. The hunters directed him to Issac’s office, where Ash sat across the table from the woman, meeting her stern gaze with an amiable smile. When she didn’t speak, he sighed. If they had to play the ‘who talks first’ game every time there was a lull in the conversation, security would be here before they came to an understanding. “I know what you’ve done to me and my family,” Ash started, “but I’d like to let you know I don’t take it personally.” Considering it wasn’t actually his family he really, really didn’t. “I’d prefer we put that behind us as fellow members of the Direwood Syndicate.”

Sashura let out a derisive scoff. “It’s hardly my fault your family’s grasp on power was so tenuous. I don’t much care about your tribal squabbles, but this is apparently what it takes to get your family to negotiate. So talk.”

“I suggest we tell security Via’s first statement was true. That I’m some random peasant named Ashling and she thought I committed a crime. We transfer ownership of the substandard supplier to this ‘Ashling the farmer,’ and you go on record to attest that’s my true identity. I’ll tell them Via hunted me down on her own, and you sent your hunters to protect me.”

A hunter stepped close, setting a bowl-shaped glass with a long stem on the table next to Sashura before pouring from a bottle of white wine. The icy woman lifted the glass, examining it closely. “So… lie to security and give you blackmail material?”

“I could only blackmail you if I was dumb enough to tell them who I am.” Ash reached into his pocket, withdrawing a folded sheet of paper slowly so the hunters wouldn’t suspect he had a weapon. “A contract, stipulating a few minor things I’d like. Considering Via’s history, no one will be surprised she attacked me again. We can stop this right here, cut our losses and walk away.”

Sashura took a sip, holding the wrinkled paper as her eyes swept through lines of text. “So, you wouldn’t blackmail me later; that would be ridiculous. You’ll do it right now though?”

“You did send an assassin with a hunting team after me, with hunters more expensive than what I’m asking for.” He leaned on the desk. “Consider it giving me something to lose.”

“Who’s this slave?” Sashura asked, setting the paper down and tapping the number with her index finger.

“The pack’s wolf, a tracking specialist. She went feral when we captured her and I don’t want you charging me for putting her down.” Once she’d been written off the books, Khukri wouldn’t legally belong to anyone, although the collar would have to stay, at least for now. Ash wasn’t sure how widespread the paranoia about wolves was, and the last thing he wanted was some jackbooted thugs ‘protecting people from feral wolves.’

“Hmm, and this ship?”

“The Ambition. It belonged to Via. A cargo ship in the style of the Dusk Empire, small enough that she sailed it with a two-man crew. It’s not yours to give, but I imagine there’s a procedure in place for what to do with items left by missing hunters. A procedure you have some influence over.” Ash leaned back, glancing at the door as the hallway beyond it filled with discussion and stomping boots.

A squad of seven women in security cloaks opened the door. Their leader was an older, shaggy woman whose fur ranged from black to white over a gradient of browns. A scar across her muzzle and over one of her eyes unsettled Ash as her gaze fell on him. “Where’s the suspect?”

Ash stopped, glancing expectantly at Sashura.

The woman finished the glass, gently setting it down before producing a pen and scratching her signature into the paper. “Good evening. officer. Allow me to introduce a colleague of mine. Ashling, head of a substandard supplier, it seems he’s been mixed up in some unfortunate business we’d like to clear up...”