Reborn From the Cosmos

Arc 8-10 (Alana)

Before meeting Lou, Alana could never imagine herself as an informal actress with her lovers, weaving stories around indecent acts. She didn’t imagine anything related to the bedroom aside from being grateful to collapse into a decent bed after a long day of training. A condition wholly unique to her. The north was a place of passions. The stark reality of dying young coupled with the extremely cold nights meant that it wasn’t rare for a bed to have two or more occupants at night.

She’d received offers. Lou wasn’t even the first woman to proposition her; marriage between women wasn’t common but the Stars had seeded a strong tradition of female soldiers finding comfort in each other. No one would have blamed her or shamed her. Rather, a little intimacy would have drastically improved her reputation amongst the other trainees.

They didn’t think bad of her, as nothing was respected more than a burning desire to fight titans, but she certainly didn’t have the favor of her sister. They didn’t invite her out for drinks or ask to dance with her during the rare parties hosted by the orders. No one made small talk with her in the mornings or offered to wash her back in a steaming bath before bed.

To the people who watched her grow up with seemingly no passion for anything except war and glory, the sight of her standing with her eyes tightly shut, her bottom lip between her teeth as she struggled to hold in her moans, would have been unthinkable. She could scarcely acknowledge it herself, though that was mainly because thinking while Lou was doing everything possible to erase her ability to think was a challenge too great for even heroes.

It wasn’t fair. Alana knew exactly how ridiculous Lou’s prime form was. She’d designed it to be irresistible and addictive, helped by a creature that had been seducing intelligent beings for who knew how long and, by the ancestors, it was effective.

As that sinuous muscle pushed into her, reaching deeper than a tongue had any right to go and moving in ways no tongue should move, Alana’s mind blanked. Forget their little game. She was struggling to remember words. Orderly thoughts were far beyond her, but the last bit of stubborn in her heart refused to let her demeanor be shattered so easily. She locked her knees and swallowed the sounds that wanted to escape her throat as the familiar pleasure washed through her.

“The Lady isn’t so strong when the enemy makes it past her armor, is she?” she heard through the ringing in her ears.

Lou really was a pervert. Alana didn’t understand how she could say such embarrassing stuff with a straight face all the time. Or how she could sit on all fours, mimicking an animal, and still look so smug. It probably had something to do with the evidence of Alana’s pleasure that coated her lips. Or the fact that the fur liberally covering her body didn’t hinder her beauty one bit. The woman had a literal tail and she was still the most gorgeous thing Alana had ever seen.

It really was unfair.

She hadn’t even worked for the sculpted muscles of her stomach that Alana itched to trace. If that unfairness didn’t belong to her, Alana might have hated her, consumed by the same envy that had plagued her as a girl in the face of Yulia’s undeserved popularity. However, since Lou was bound and determined to share as much of her good fortune as Alana could take, physically and metaphorically, the blond could only find it endearing.

A sharp prick of Lou’s nails pushing into her thigh focused her thoughts, bringing her back to a curious violet gaze. The game. Her persona. Right, she was supposed to be some kind of noble lady and Lou was playing the monster she’d forcefully tamed.

Briefly, she wondered what they would do if she dropped the act, threw herself on the bed, and begged them to take her every way imaginable.

…she’d save that for later.

For the moment, she was enjoying the playfulness in the air. Lou wasn’t the only one who’d been moping about. Kierra had been similarly tense. Alana never thought she’d see the day that the chaotic elf would behave, but she’d been one-step away from demure for days, cowed by the presence of her parents. Talia had also been quieter than usual, which was saying something as she wasn’t the most outspoken to begin with.

Alana didn’t think that she had let the situation affect her too much, as she knew for certain that she’d be just as driven to train whether they’d leveled the city or not. That didn’t mean she didn’t appreciate the break. They all needed this. And in a way, this was also training.

Rolly insisted that she needed to develop a persona, to forge a reputation and wield it alongside her sword. She’d asked why the lueorale was so focused on her, not pushing her story-telling agenda on the rest of the clan. The response had been annoying; Lou and Kierra didn’t need the help. Both were stars that would blaze amongst the mediocrity of the night sky regardless of their intentions or efforts to do so. Talia had no interest in competing with the monsters of potential, but Alana wanted to walk ahead of them. If she didn’t take drastic action, her plain and dutiful tendencies would be forgotten in the wake of the purple titan that leveled cities and the green death that danced along its dozens of limbs.

For all those reasons, she forced herself to stitch together her shattered mind, tugging on the strands of their narrative to stretch it a little further.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” she said, forcing contempt into her voice, using her foot to push her lover backward. She trailed it down Lou’s body, stopping over her navel and pushing her toes in, luxuriating in the soft fur there. Lou’s squirming was entirely unintentional, but she grinned at the bonus. “Those talents of yours are the only reason I keep you around.”

“It seems the Lady is just a beast herse—"

Alana moved her foot to Lou’s crotch and ground her heel, grinning at the moan that interrupted Lou’s words. “Quiet, or I’ll send you back to your cage.”

“Yes, Lady.”

If only that were true. Governing a territory, she could do without, but she still wanted the title that was owed to her.

“Get up.”

Lou followed the command and Alana grabbed her by the back of the neck, like an errant pup, guiding her back to the bed. Kierra was lying on her back, watching the two of them with a smile, but when she noticed the change, she slipped back into character, false terror and apprehension coloring her expression. It was so exaggerated, Alana almost burst into laughter, just barely managing to keep control of herself.

“Sit,” she commanded, settling Lou at the foot of the bed. She bared her teeth at Kierra who flinched and curled up, as if she was really an ignorant village girl being stared at by a beast. Alana’s lips twitched as she stepped around the bed to the audience of one.

Talia glanced at her and Alana bent over, whispering as softly as she could. Not that it would stop the monsters on the bed from hearing her. “I need to borrow some of your ribbons.” She tried not to laugh at the tiny frown on the woman’s face, but a small chuckle escaped her control. For the woman with a face like a block of ice, she might as well be scowling. “If anything happens, I’ll replace them three times over.”

That mollified the flower who pushed the tray closer. Alana grabbed two of the ribbons she’d rejected putting in her own hair. She was about to return to the bed, but stopped, turning back to give their mistress a kiss. While Talia didn’t care for intimacy with the same enthusiasm as them, she enjoyed it, enough that Alana imagined she would have some small amount of longing being left out. More importantly, everyone liked knowing they were desired, wanted. Being ignored was a unique pain.

Whether Talia appreciated the gesture or not, she returned the kiss with sharp professionalism, exploring Alana’s mouth with a confident efficiency that was hard to distinguish from passion. Alana’s face was flushed as she pulled away, ignoring the unspoken promise in Talia’s actions and thinking to herself that she was a ridiculously lucky woman. A thought reinforced by the falsely pleading eyes staring up at her, more green than gold in the weakening light of the evening, as she tied Kierra’s wrists to the headboard. The delicate knots couldn’t hold back the woman’s prodigious strength but that was the point.

“Don’t think about escaping girl,” she hissed, bending over the elf. “If you dare break your bonds, you’ll face a far worse punishment than the beast.”

Kierra’s eyes lit up with amusement as she understood the rules of the game, but a fearful whimper escaped her lips. Satisfied, Alana climbed off her.