Cam's Coterie

She looked wiped out, and totally fucked into submission. The look of sated warmth, deep vulnerability, and what looked to be sweet devotion in her warm brown eyes blew my mind. It told me I wasn't the only one that had fallen in our relationship, and I had. Absurd as it was, I'd just realized how very much I loved my Cassia, while I'd rutted her like a wild animal.

"My Cassia, you are mine," I said half possessively, and half adoringly.

She smirked, "For now, I am yours, Cam. We'll see what happens when we get the tomes."

I shook my head sharply in negation, that wasn't good enough for me anymore.

"No. You are mine, always," I said confidently, in a voice that brooked no argument.

Her eyes widened, and she tightened around me again involuntarily, her body clearly saying yes, even as she looked up at me with wonder, fear, and a little doubt.

"I love you, my sweet one. Tell me you don't want this, tell me you don't want to share your life with me, tell me you don't wish to bear my children, and I'll never mention it again."

It was probably insane, but I could see the loving devotion in her eyes, and I wasn't afraid to tell her how I felt, what I wanted. I was confident she wouldn't leave me, not because I ordered it, but because I was also hers and I could see it in her eyes. The look there wasn't just the shallow after bliss and awe at how much pleasure my cock brought her, there'd been true surrender in her eyes, and a deeply vulnerable devotion and connection in her eyes.

She bit her lip, and her eyes misted as she swallowed nervously.

"You love me?"

I kissed her softly, sweetly, and with just a bit of longing in it. The kiss I gave her made my heart ache.

"Always, my sweet one," I whispered, "It hasn't just been about sex for the last couple of days, and I know you feel the difference too. I am everything you want and need, and joyful to be so, my sweet love."

She was my sweet one. She could also be a wiseass, and cold when she needed to be, but she was sweet to me. She was complicated to be sure, but we certainly had morality, ambition, and many other things in common. I knew she wanted a husband to adore her, be her partner, give her children, take her with passion, and protect and cherish her.

I wanted to be all those things for her, I was all those things for her already, save the husband and child part. The thing was, I was also more than that, she'd have to share. That was my only real doubt.

She sighed softly, and caressed my face and chest, "I do love you, Cam. The sex is insanely good, and you swept me away in a world of pleasure, promises of the future, and you cherish me and keep me safe. You spin me around, and you fill my life with promise and joy. I want all that with you, I do. I even like Faith, and the way you treat her absolute obedient devotion shows me even more what a good man you are.

"But... how many more will I have to share you with? It scares me, I know your coterie isn't complete, we aren't enough. The power you gained from the coven during the sacrifice was a huge initial boost, but that's mostly gone now after the fight tonight, it would take the two of us weeks to recharge you that high."

I smirked, and ground down into her, "What would you suggest? Would you like the power of refusal? If you or Faith rejects anyone I try to add, I will let them loose, no argument, no questions."

She asked surprised, "You would do that?"

I smirked, "Don't you get it, woman? I am yours as well, I love you. I want you to be my mate, with Faith. Plus, you know, I can't have my women arguing."

She snorted, then started giggling, "Ass."

I nodded easily, "That's your true fear though, isn't it? That another you don't like will turn my head, or you'll lose my interest, love and protection? That won't happen, you are first remember, and that is only truer, now that I love you. I will pick them, then you and Faith will tell me if they don't fit. You just have to promise me you'll give it a real chance."

I started to fuck into her a little bit, gentle and shallow strokes, couldn't help myself, she felt so good around me and I'd recovered.

She smirked, but her voice was vulnerable, "Yes, that is my true fear. It's not about you fucking them, which is kind of hot to me actually, it's about security and fearing losing my place. I suppose under those conditions I can be yours, but I'm going to keep the conception spell in place for now, if you don't mind. Wait for things to settle down and until we establish ourselves, before we talk about our future children"

I smirked, "My sweet witch."

Cassia laughed delightedly, "Yes, Cam, I'm all yours, for life. I do love you too, you know. Thank you for... compromising."

Faith interjected in a confused tone, "Conception spell?"

Oh, shit. My cock twitched at the idea that my foxy mate could be pregnant already. I'd shot more loads of my life-giving seed into her in the last two days than I could conveniently count. Call me stupid, but my half-demon sex-obsessed mind hadn't even considered that idea before.

Cassia smirked, and correctly interpreted the meaning of the hard twitch of my cock in her tight pussy.

"Go ahead and take her, I'm pretty sore and sated already, in a good way. Just make it a good show," she teased.

Yup, I'd totally fucked Cassia into submission, and made her my life-mate. The compromise was worth it, and it was also not really a compromise at all. Not in my eyes anyway. In my mind she'd already had that power, I'd just planned to watch out for conflict and trouble and dump them myself. My sweet witch never would have come up second best to a new person who brought conflict to my coterie. There was no real difference there, except in Cassia's mind. If it made her feel more secure in officially having the veto power, it made no difference to me.

I kissed her softly, lovingly even, and then winked as I slowly pulled out and rolled off.

As I rolled off the bed and stood up, I ordered my exotically beautiful Faith sternly, "Bend over that table, now. I'm gonna fuck you, and turn that sweet ass red."

Faith complied eagerly and bent over the table with a breathless anticipatory desire, and she arched her back and stuck her ass up high with lewd abandon, as I walked over and my cock adjusted to her perfect size, eight inches and thick, but not quite as thick as Cassia liked it. Tiny bit longer, tiny bit thinner, all in all they almost had the exact same preference that way.

Damn, my cock twitched when I noticed she'd even bent over at a spot on the table that had the perfect angle to the bed, so that Cassia would have a perfect view of my cock pounding into her hot and tight little sex, and her breasts shaking and rubbing on the wood table. Naughty fox, so damned hot.

After I fucked her brains out, I'd carry her back to the bed to make love to her gently, and then the three of us could finally get a few winks before the new day started.

Chapter Twelve

The servant walked off with a glassy eyed stare, and I turned and shook my head at Cassia for what felt like the hundredth time, but what was probably only around the fifteenth.

We'd spent most of the morning casually questioning the staff, I'd used my full compulsion ability for the first time that day, which thankfully didn't take all that much power at all. It was disturbingly effective, apparently not only could I bind slaves during sex, I didn't even really have to seduce them first. Compulsion would get just about anyone in my bed, unless they were shielded from magic. Not that it was a temptation, the idea turned my stomach a bit in truth, a lot like binding itself.

The inn's servants would never remember the important question we asked, if they'd overheard us about the tomes, or much else about our discussion, except that we were a bit of a pain in the ass as customers went, and that we'd asked them annoying questions about the Inn.

Perhaps needless to say, we hadn't found our eavesdropper or snitch yet, or any leads towards finding who last night's thief was.

Cassia frowned, "I think that was the last one."

Faith said, "Not quite. We got all the workers and servants, but the whores won't be up for a few hours."

Right, I tilted my head, "We'll, look into that then. For now, let's grab lunch, it's been a long morning."

At first, I was a bit dubious about it being one of the whores, but the more I thought about it the more it made sense. If a whore was particularly enterprising, they'd be perfect spies through pillow talk, and could easily provide information about merchants and other customers to a thief or thieves for a price. Of course, that only explained the connection to a thief. What made it unlikely though, was why would one of them have been spying on us? That seemed like an unnecessary risk, they'd have no reason to be lurking by our room, and unlike a cleaning servant they'd have no ready excuse as to why they were in an adjacent room with their ear stuck to the wall.

Still, it was our last shot, if it was no one from the Inn, then it would be another customer that was long gone.

We headed down to the common room and sat in a table. We still needed to find the tomes of knowledge, but then what? It was a thought born of the idea I seemed to be safe now, my childhood enemies were now in the past, and in the ground. I needed a larger coterie to make myself even more powerful, but... to what end?

I still had plenty of coin, we'd only spent the smallest part of it so far, less than three gold in truth, including the two gold I'd spent to free my mate Faith. Point being, we'd need to come up with a plan or business to actually make coin. For the moment, I was content to work on Cassia's end of the deal, but the thoughts of what came after that, started to churn in my thoughts that day. I'd been so focused on revenge, I hadn't truly given the future any thought, outside of keeping my ladies and gaining more that is.

"Do you wish to follow in your parents' footsteps?" I asked Cassia.

Cassia shook her head, "It was a good life, and I want what they had personally together, with you, but I have no wish or inclination to become a healer that constantly walks on eggshells around humans."

Right, which meant she wanted to be mine, protected, cherished, even start a family, but the revenue generation ideas needed to be mine. Sure, there'd be other tasks for us to do, perhaps important things, in exchange for other women joining my coterie, but something told me we wouldn't be making coin off the idea. Clearly, I'd been too focused on the means, and not the ends. Or rather, I'd been thinking about the coterie and lots of women on my dick to harvest power from as the ends, but clearly that was just the second step, towards something else.

Something meaningful, that would make a difference, and preferably make us a lot of coin.

Yeah, I had nothing. I didn't want to be a farmer, and my only experience besides that was fighting and fucking. Fighting for my life was one thing, but I didn't want to become some mercenary and fight for gold, or work for some evil bastards like the ancient witch coven just to put food on the table.

I dug into the meal, we had time to figure it out, and who knew what would come next. There were still tasks to do, and at the end of it I envisioned a powerful group of women connected together in support through me, but to do what? Support each other certainly, but to what end once all the initial goals and reasons for connecting in the first place had been met?

The food was decent, a venison stew, with soft dark bread rolls. Something would come up, who knows what doors would be opened once we got our hands on those books. I'd just let that stir in the back of my mind for the moment, since nothing occurred, and instead focused more deeply on my body during our meal. Which was weird, the whole digestion thing I mean, from breaking it down in my stomach, to the way it was dispersed in the body and fed all my cells with energy.

"How much for Kimberly for the night?"

It'd been both harder and easier than I'd thought. The whores all hung out together on the couches, so a quick private conversation wasn't easy to be had. However, when I'd walked down the line and looked them all in the eyes, pretending to look them over for some company, Kimberly had been the only one of them that clearly didn't want to join me for the night. I found that suspicious, because even the jaded whores were obviously affected by my pheromones and presence. A cambion was naturally attractive to all women.

More than that, while she hadn't been interested, her body clearly had been interested, because of said pheromones. In short, she was avoiding us for some reason. I knew there were a lot of assumptions in there, but if she turned out not to be our spy, I could still cut her loose, or hell, I could even fuck her first and have a little meal.

Kimberly was an attractive woman after all, about twenty-five, lissome and leggy, with brown hair and eyes. Cassia put her to shame of course, but it was what it was.

The bartender grunted, "Half a silver."

I nodded, and then pulled out five bronze and handed it over.

He nodded to Kimberly across the room, and the color drained from the woman's face, it was a little amusing as Cassie and Faith helped her up and kept her boxed in as they headed to the stairs.

The bartender snorted, "How the hell do you do it?"

I just laughed, and let him wonder, as I followed my ladies up the stairs.

Once the door was closed and locked, they put Kimberly in one of the chairs at the table. To my amusement, Faith stood over her shoulder in a rather intimidating way. My Faith was petite, five foot two and lushly curvy, with an exotic unsurpassed beauty to her face. In other words, it was her shifter aura and presence that was intimidating, not her looks or body.

I said, "I'll give you one chance to explain, before we use magic on you to get at the truth."

She shivered, "What are you talking about? Aren't we going to fuck? Are you..."

"Shut up!" I ordered, suddenly pissed off, at her and at myself for even bothering to give her a chance to come clean. It was just that the whole compulsion thing bothered me a bit.

I took a deep breath, and stared into her eyes, then ordered calmly, "Now, tell me what you overheard and why, and what you did with the information."

I let out a deep breath of relief, when she opened her mouth and started talking. I hadn't been positive after all, that she was the one behind it. It'd just been an educated guess based on circumstances and my ego.

Kimberly said, "Her face. I thought it amusing when you bought the dirty shifter. I figured she was getting abused properly and her days were numbered. Their kind don't belong around us. When that maid spread the word that you'd healed her silver burns, I wanted to know the truth of what was going on, so I snuck into the room next to yours.

"Of course, the information I heard, about your plans for the coven? I was shocked, but I'd sold information to the Silver Skulls before, usually pillow talk, but I thought this would be even more valuable."

I frowned, bigotry? That's why the bitch had stuck her nose in our business, and of course her greed had kicked in after she'd heard what we talked about. The most disgusting thing about it was Faith didn't look at all surprised, or even upset by the information, clearly my precious mate was used to it, expected that.

"Who is your contact, and... Silver Skulls?"

Kimberly said, "They're one of many thieves' guilds in Mythfall. I'm not sure how many there are, that's always changing, they fight like enemy kingdoms. The Silver Skulls have been around a while though, well established. I have no idea what my information broker's name is, he skulks outside of the main temple in the temple district around dawn. For all I know he's always there, but I can only get out there when my service is complete for the night, if you get my drift."

I sighed, "What does he look like?"

She replied, "Black boots and long jacket, threadbare light brown breaches and a dirty white shirt. He's usually sitting at the bottom step with a cup out. He's got crazy brown hair, and a beard."

I shook my head, "He's a beggar?"

That was another thing about compulsion, she could've just said that, but compulsion didn't allow free thinking, the questions had to be specific.

She replied woodenly, "Yes."

I exchanged a look with Cassie, who had hope in her eyes for the first time that this would work and we could figure it out. I tried not to be insulted.

I ordered, "You will not remember this conversation, or even that you betrayed us. Stay here, at that table, and don't get up for anything outside of the chamber pot. We'll be back."

She nodded a bit dully.

I didn't really want her around, but if I sent her back downstairs after paying for her it would look suspicious. It was mid-afternoon, and I had her as my personal whore until sunrise tomorrow. I didn't even want to fuck her, not really. Not with my mates. It wasn't a judgement about whores either, my mate had been one after all, even if only because of her slavery contract. No, the woman just disgusted me, her bigotry and small-minded meanness and greed.

I turned to the ladies, "Let's go, see if he's still there. If not, we'll have to wait for dawn. Unless either of you know where the Silver Skulls call home?"

They both shook their heads. Clearly, they'd never even heard the name before like me, much less knew where their hideout was. Still, I'd hoped they hadn't sold it yet, I imagined they'd try to sell it to the highest bidder, to one of the other witch covens in the city. Hopefully not, or this would turn into an even bigger mess, the last thing I needed was to have every coven in the city after us, and also probably fighting each other for the honor of killing us. Those tomes would be priceless to all witches.

After all, the best result would be for Cassia to have it and no one else know she had it, but I was afraid that wasn't a very likely turnout at that point. Still, it'd only been twelve hours since they'd stolen it, maybe they hadn't gotten anything lined up yet.

We moved out of the room, and downstairs and out the front door. The temple district wasn't far, there were a lot of temples to the gods, but the main temple was to the entire pantheon. I'd never taken a large interest in the gods, and I probably wouldn't be doing so any time soon. I was half-demon, it probably wasn't wise to walk into one of their temples, and I had no doubt the clerics would feel what I was. I didn't think I was evil, but why take the chance on some asshole smiting me?

Cassia looked tense, and I took her hand and gave her a calm smile. One way or the other I'd keep my promise, even if it did turn into a witch war of some kind.

Cassia said, "Kimberly is a bitch."

I laughed, "Agreed. I'd have already sent her away, if it wouldn't have looked wrong."

Cassia nodded in understanding, and I felt a little relief that she at least hadn't underestimated me in that.

Faith asked, "What's the plan?"

"Get the location of the guild from the beggar, go there, get the tomes, and kill anyone that gets in our way."

Cassia laughed, "That's a list of goals, not a plan."

"Can't plan until we know what we're up against, which won't be until after I question the beggar."

It bothered me a little bit, how my two ladies seemed to draw the idle eyes of every man on the street. Still, it was what it was, and wouldn't change, the price I paid for having such beautiful ladies at my side. Another thing I'd have to suppress in me, unless they touched my ladies of course, then I'd have to kill them. Or... at least hurt them.

What disturbed me even more, was about a quarter of the men looked at my wild Faith with both lust for how exotically beautiful she was, and in disgust for what she was, those men truly tried my self-control.