Cam's Coterie

The one with the sword stopped when we were fifteen feet apart, and I drew up on the reigns as well, as the second man took a bead on me with the bow pulled back.

The swordsman said, "You will come with us, and you will not be harmed."

I snorted, "Until those crazy bitches suck out my life, and toss me a shallow grave? I don't think so."

He narrowed his eyes, and then turned his head toward Cassia, his voice boomed, "Cassia? You travel with the abomination of hell? What betrayal is this?"

Wow, do people really talk like that? I also wasn't all that surprised that he'd recognized her, they'd worked for the same coven after all.

Cassia said, "He's a good man, of strong morality and even kindness. He may hold the power of hell within him, but he is a man of principle of this world. It is the coven who are the abomination, who throws lives like mine and yours away without a shred of guilt. They are no longer even human, after stealing lifetimes for millennia, or at best they are the worst of humanity, selfish, cruel, and unfeeling. Ride away Brandt, or you can die. The choice is yours."

It felt good to hear her unvarnished opinion of me, with her soft and sweet voice laced with an honest admiration.

Brandt sneered, "You're just an enslaved slut now, aren't you? Take her!"

The bow shifted as I drew a throwing dagger in a very controlled panic, as I kicked my horse to lunge forward. My arm shot out like a cobra strike, and the dagger spun through the air carrying my hopes and fears. I'd been trained not to fear during a fight, and I never did, not for myself, but the thought of that asshole shooting her with an arrow had me seeing red.

The throwing knife dug into his thigh, it'd been too far to try for a throat shot, and the armor on his torso would've stopped the knife cold. The archer cried out as he released his shot, and I held my breath but didn't dare turn around.

Brandt raised his sword and I screamed like a crazed man as my sword whipped out and knocked it to the side, and I leaned his way. He got his sword up again to block my second swipe, but by then my horse crashed into his, and my left hand struck out in a blur, and the second dagger I'd drawn disappeared into the bottom of his chin and up into his brain pan.

His eyes went glassy as he released a death rattle, and I looked up as the archer with a pain filled face was once again drawing his bow. That is, until I felt Cassia's familiar magic shoot past me and hit him in the chest. He froze, dropped the bow, and collapsed off the horse dead.

I turned my head, and let out a breath of relief, my leg shot must've made him flinch and miss the shot.

"Are you alright?"

She smirked, "Thanks to you I am. I don't like having to kill, but they aren't giving us any choice."

I nodded in relief, and then dismounted quickly to retrieve my daggers and the weapons of the mercenaries. The bodies went in the woods for the animals, and the horses were driven off with a sword smack to their rumps.

I'd thought we could sell those too at first, but Cassia told me they were owned by the mercenary company, not the individual mercenaries in the company, so it wasn't worth risking the attention for a few extra gold coins. It was also clear that Cassia couldn't be more pleased by my violently protective and possessive nature, which was good because that would never change.

It didn't take long, before we were back on the horses and heading for Mythfall.

Mythfall was truly a vast place, with eight separate districts and markets just for the people that lived in those sections. Lower, middle, and upper-class areas for mostly humans, then the noble district, the castle, Fishtown, Shantytown, and the dock district where the fishermen and merchant sailors called home. Besides those eight, there was the temple district, warehouse district, and the government district which had the jails and courts, tax office, and permits for businesses. The king and the royal family only oversaw the judgement of nobles, while the nobles took care of the rest of us that way.

In short, the city was vast, and the only major city in the Cyrene kingdom. Around Mythfall was the Rolling Hill Farms to the west, to the east was the sea, to the north was the border with the elves in Ironwood forest. The southern border was on the Enigma Forest, which was where all the shifters were, or at least the ones that had a pack, shifters were rare in Cyrene, and usually only present in the human kingdom because they'd been banished from Enigma for one reason or another.

To the far west, past the rolling hills, was a mountain range called the Scarlet Highlands. The mountains were rich with iron, hence the name, but they were also the home to dragons, so most of the races avoided the place as much as possible. That was just common sense, compared to the dragons, the rest of the races were just bit sized crunchy morsels. They were highly magical, and their scales were proof against any manmade steel, so they were given wide berth, and left Cyrene alone for the most part.

On the edge of the Scarlet Highlands, was the Runestone Chasm, that was purported to be the home of the Drow, and where the entrances to their underground cities lied, though that was mostly just rumor, because no one that goes there ever comes back. Drow were even rarer in Cyrene than shifters, and were almost bound to be up to no good. Their society was truly amoral.

That made Cyrene about a thousand square miles, twenty miles wide north to south, and about fifty miles east to west, and the city itself on the seaport compromised about thirty square miles of it, around six miles long, and five miles wide. There were other human kingdoms on our world, but they were only accessible by port and those kingdoms mostly stuck to trade. I wasn't even sure when Cyrene was attacked last by sea, and certainly not within my lifetime.

The shifters, elves, and dragons assured that Cyrene wasn't invaded from land.

We also needed to be careful, there's no way we could get the law involved since the coven would just accuse me of being a demon, and the coven was also connected to the nobility in some ways. That would make things rather difficult, we not only needed to stop the coven, we needed to not get caught ending the bitches' lives.

We made our way into the city, and we stabled the horses and sold all the stuff. Three bows, six swords, six armors, and six daggers, as well as other assorted equipment, and even valuables from home I'd taken with me. Anything left behind, including the furniture, belonged to Reah's father at that point. We had a decent amount of gold and silver, not to mention bronze, after it was all said and done, from my family's savings to selling the farm and equipment, and the mercenaries' stuff.

The Lady Unicorn inn and tavern was a large building. Three stories high, and much wider than the stores surrounding it. The sign was worn, and the building itself had some pit marks on the stones, but it was clean, and obviously well maintained and just showing its age along with the rest of the buildings in the city's middle-class neighborhood. There were twelve windows on the second and third floor, so I assumed forty-eight rooms in total if there were twelve in front and twelve in the back, twenty-four per floor.

We walked in, and the place smelled of beer and whiskey, as well as perfume and the slightest hint of sex. The common room was pretty vast, comprising over half the bottom floor, with the exception of the kitchen in the back. There was a long bar along the back wall, with a break in it for the serving wenches to head to and from the kitchen, as well as a stairway on both ends of the room which no doubt led to the rentable rooms above.

There were several support columns, and a large stone central fireplace that was open on all four sides, there was no fire in it on that evening, but I bet it was used daily in the wintertime. Around the fireplace, most of the rest of the room was filled up with two, four, and six-person tables. Along the left wall, there was a slightly raised dais or stage, which was at that moment taken up by a man and woman both with lutes. Their subtle music and soft dulcet voices gave the place a somewhat relaxed atmosphere.

On the right wall were a few couches, which were occupied by the Inn's lounging whores. There were several attractive women between eighteen and thirty who'd gladly join us overnight... for a price. They all looked a bit jaded, and I really wasn't interested anyway, until my gaze landed on her.

She stood against the wall, which had a mirror along it. She looked like red-hot and petite sin, and couldn't have been over eighteen, and was clearly my age. She had wavy long bright red hair, striking ochre eyes, with a thin mischievously beautiful face and slightly pointed ears which marked her as a half-elf, it was rare but it happened.

Her body was lushly inviting, and waspish. Her breast were a little smaller than Cassia's, both ladies were sumptuous in their way, but the sexy redhead was clearly at least a generous C cup, and they were proportionally larger on her petite and curvy five foot two body. Her waist was tiny, and her hips flared out sexily, and in the mirror, I saw the sexiest and most petite bubbled ass in existence.

Despite all that, it wasn't her incredible sex appeal that caught my eyes, although that certainly helped. It was the tight collar around her neck, that marked her as both a slave and a shifter. Shifter slaves were often collared, to prevent the shift, even if it wasn't a requirement of the law, it just made sense to most humans to do so. The second thing about her that started my blood boiling, was that the impish and thin beauty of her face, and other parts of her fair skin, had been marred by silver burns, and she looked out at the crowd without seeing them, with hopeless eyes. Silver burns didn't heal on shifters, not as quickly or as completely as normal weapon wounds did.

She was the exact kind of woman I looked for, in dire straits, needing our help, but also beyond sexy and hot. Even with the burns, she was still attractive, without them she'd be a goddess. In addition to those reasons, her shifter magic burned against my magical senses. She was powerful, and she'd be able to feed me a lot of energy. Shifters also healed faster, and did everything faster, with high metabolisms, which meant I'd be able to feed more, perhaps twice a day, if it could work out.

Shifters had three forms. Human, or half elf in her case, and an animal. They had two sets of instincts, always. The human instincts were about eighty percent of her in human form, but her animal would still have the other twenty percent of instinctual influence. That reversed in the full animal form when her animal would hold sway. The third form, or beast form, was a partial shift where the instincts would be split fifty-fifty right down the middle. It was also something they had to work for, not all of them could do it, or balance themselves so well. Beast forms were still humanoid, much like when I grew claws, horns, and wings, they'd just grow fur, shift to claws on their hands, perhaps sprout a tail, and it would also increase their senses sensitivity to the more sensitive animal forms, as well as the strength and speed.

Cassie looked startled as I changed direction, but she went with it as we approached the ladies of the evening. I thought she might be a good fit, but I really needed to see her greatest sexual fantasy to be sure. The look of emptiness in her eyes was a bit stomach churning, especially when she turned those eyes on me as we got close, and I tried to push down that anger at her mistreatment. I was sure she was guilty of something that got her enslaved for a time, but them putting her to work as a whore was hardly standard either.

Her eyes looked wary as well, and I wondered if the only men who picked her for the night were... less than nice. Bigotry could be like that sometimes, and I wouldn't be surprised if she was abused in this place at all.

"I'm Cam."

She replied in an alluring sultry shy voice, but I got the distinct impression she wasn't trying to be alluring, she just couldn't help it. It was her natural tone, much like Cassia's was naturally sweet, hers was naturally seductive.

"Faith."

I held out my hand, and she dubiously took it and shook my hand, as my vision doubled. I could still see her and took my hand back as the vision played out.

She was naked, and she was just as sexy as it appeared in her clothes, possibly more so. Her generous C cups were perter and firmer than a lot of B cups I'd seen, and the look in her eyes was fierce and challenging.

A beast form shifted male fox shifter growled as he entered the vision, and he jumped her. She fought back, violently, but he almost effortlessly overpowered her and threw her on the bed. He jumped on her, and he forced her legs open and impaled her with a violence that was almost disturbing, as he claimed her and took her as his. When it was over, she purred like a kitten and nuzzled into him joyfully, and she was a completely submissive minx.

It was clear enough, she wanted to be claimed by an alpha, and to be the submissive in the relationship. To be taken, owned, ruled, used even, but in the end, after all that, she wanted to be cherished and protected just as much as Cassia did, and she'd put even more authority in her mate's hands, her whole life. It was just... the way to that point of being cherished and protected was a completely different path in the young women.

It was a little shocking, the violence of what she wanted, but actually fairly standard for shifters. There was no getting to know each other, no dating, it was an elemental claiming. They female could always walk if they wanted, but unlike human marriage that just never happened. They were happy being submissive to their alpha. An alpha needed to claim his mate, and that's clearly what she wanted, her greatest fantasy was to be claimed, even if it was impossible. She'd never find a true alpha outside of the shifter inhabited Enigma Forest to the south, my guess was she'd also been banished, most likely for the simple reason she was a half-elf and not fully shifter.

Shifters could be just as bigoted as humans after all.

It was also clear shifter mating had a magical component to it, and I wondered if I used my loyalty binding power if that would be similar enough to satisfy her need. Not the full will suppression, or addicting her to my cock, just to ensure loyalty which would still leave her free will mostly intact, outside of betraying me or my stated orders.

I nodded to the young woman, and then headed toward the bar. It would be a risk, but as I'd said it was a claiming, it wouldn't work if I asked first. I needed to take her and fuck her brains out and stake my claim. Hopefully it wouldn't blow up in my face, because I was fairly sure once I bound her soul, I couldn't unbind it. Even then though, she just couldn't betray me, if she was really against it, I could let her walk.

The best part, was claiming her gave her what she wanted, she'd work with us to help us with our goals, and not add any more dangerous tasks to the list. Her fulfillment would be in being a part of my coterie, my sexy fox shifter. Fuck, this better work, I was as hard as a rock contemplating making her mine.

The bartender cleared his throat and looked at me.

"I'd like a room for a week, I'd also like to know how much the Fox shifter is?"

The bartender said, "Five silver for the week, meals and baths included. The shifter will run you two copper a night."

I raised an eyebrow, and he shrugged, "She's free for us outside of keeping her fed, and... not very popular to most normal folk."

Right, that wasn't fucked up or anything.

"I meant how much, for her bond."

It tweaked my conscious a bit, but yes, I was attempting to buy her, not just rent her.

He scowled, "You ain't one of those bleeding hearts, are you?"

"No," I bluffed, "Me and the missus just don't like to share our toys."

Cassia blushed scarlet, even her neck turned red, and the look she gave me demanded an explanation. In hindsight, I should've talked to her about it first.

The bartender snorted in amusement, "Two gold. She's got three months left on her enslavement. Are you sure, she's kind of a dead lay, from what I've heard. Listless, she is."

"Oh, I think I can rile her up."

The asshole laughed at that, and it made me feel a little sick at the same time. Saving her and granting her heart's desire appealed to me, but I won't lie and say my Cambion side wasn't drooling over the idea of claiming her sexy body, her devotion, her ferocity, and her obedience as a mate. It was a bit disturbing, but on the other hand it was exactly what she wanted, she wanted a man to make all the decisions, to keep her safe, and to keep her well used and cherished by a firm hand. That appealed to her feminine instincts mixed with her animal instincts. Animals had a strict hierarchy they obeyed in packs.

Of course, the only wrinkle in my plan was I wasn't a true alpha shifter, or even a shifter at all, but I bet a Cambion was as close to one as she'd ever meet. I had no doubt I was an alpha male.

I paid the man, who gave us a key to the room for a week, room three oh two, and he also signed over and gave me the paperwork that made me the proud owner of a sexy eighteen-year-old exotic half-elf fox shifter with a lushly curvaceous and toned body, and an exotically beautiful impish face. Last but not least, I was given the key to her collar.

We walked over to a table, and it wasn't long before a sexy wench brought us our meal. I talked fast while we ate, and I went over it all from when I first laid eyes on Faith, to the vision, my thoughts about it all, and why I thought it would work out perfectly. Adding her to the coterie would in itself, give Faith what she wanted, and we'd gain another fiercely devoted and powerful ally. I'd probably have to train her to fight, but I bet her instincts and beast form made her quite a badass even without the training I'd received.

Cassia frowned, "Alright, the whole idea seems wrong, but you're also right about all of it. You didn't put her in such a shitty position, and you're offering her what she wants, even if I can't picture wanting that myself. Cherished, yes, claimed passionately, yes, but used and ordered about?" she shook her head, but I could tell she was trying not to be judgmental or bigoted about a shifter's needs and desires, "Do you want me to be there?"

"Do you want to be there? It's up to you."

Cassia sighed, "I'll watch. I... need to see, I just hadn't expected to lose your complete focus quite so quickly. If I'm to stay with you, I need to know, you know? How I'll react to you with another woman. I'm also glad you explained the different levels of binding, and thank you for not binding me, but I can see how she might need that, not to control her but to make her feel secure in your authority."

My cock twitched.

She smirked, "You like that idea, do you? Me watching?"

Oh, was she monitoring my body somehow? Nah, I'd feel her magic in my body, I must have a facial tell, when I harden and twitch for her. That was both amusing and annoying, since I tried not to show anything on my face, it'd been part of my training. Of course, that training hadn't included my ridiculously high libido or lustful desires.

"Yes. And as you're watching, know that I'll be fucking you and harvesting you right after."

Her lips slightly parted with a breathy gasp.

I teased, "Like that idea, do you?"

She laughed, "Bastard, let's go."

I nodded, and we picked up a very surprised but listless Faith on our way up to the room. We had to wait a few minutes, while she gathered her bag of stuff in the servant's quarters, then she followed us up the stairs. No dread, and no happiness, she was just... lethargic and apathetic at her lot in life. If I had to pick an emotion, I'd have said despair, but she didn't show it outwardly. I hoped I hadn't made a mistake, but the fact was if she was truly dead inside, then she wouldn't have had a greatest sexual fantasy, or any hope at all.