Flare returned to his den, a little more banged up than how he had left it. But there was new energy to him as he walked, victory on his tongue and burning through his veins. He entered the den and found Demelza waiting for him there. He trotted up to the pretty, wee girl and smacked a paw across her muzzle. “That, is for not turning up at my rank challenge.” He informed her, and then grinned. Patting the spot he had just smacked. “But you're getting off lightly, my victory is more important than your failures.”

He moved past her, and continued on into the cellar. Moving into a box she was forbidden from touching. A quick glance at it assured him it was undisturbed. He flipped open the lid, showing some of most precious belongings. Including a very fine bottle of alcohol he had been saving for a special occasion. This seemed like the right time for it. He exited the cellar and placed himself by the lowered eating table in the centre of the den. “Glasses, Demezla. Two.” He ordered her. In this instance, he would allow her to celebrate his success.


"Speech"

She had polished his armor, cleaned herself up, tidied the den, and cleaned the dust off the trophies. She napped lightly while she waited for his return.

She was still clean and fresh from their bath by the time he arrived. She heard his steps at the door and dropped herself to the floor in time for the door to open. He greeted her with a hefty smack but she merely drew a breath in sharply. He had told her to wait here! Hadn't he? Right? She winced as he cradled the new bump and told her he was victorious! She hated to think what he might have done to her if he had lost.

Demelza pointed her nose to the ground as he stalked past her, continuing to the cellar. She let her green eyes linger on the shadows he had disappeared to but flicked her gaze back to the ground as he reappeared with a bottle she hadn't seen before.

She pushed her ears forward in surprise that he asked for two glasses! Quickly she moved to the glasses and set them down before him. She looked up at him for a moment as she smelled the strong alcohol. Was this what her father and uncle were constantly drinking? Her previous masters had passed it between them, but this had a finer scent, smoother than the rank type of beers and liqueurs she had smelt before.

"Speech"

He opened the aged bottle with a couple of claws, and poured it into the two glasses Demelza had placed for them. The strong scent of it mixed well with the herbs his slave left around the den to freshen things up. Still bruised and bleeding, the newly made lead warrior tipped his glass back and had a hearty sip. It burned on the way down, strong and full bodies, leaving a hint of spices on his tongue.

“Sit. Drink.” he ordered her, not wishing her to wait until he was finished this time. Had she had liquor before? What he set before her was strong, potent and aged. Likey wasted on the likes of her, alas.


"Speech"

The scent filled the den as the dark liquid poured into the cups. Her eyes lingered on a few of his cuts and bruises. She'll have to tend those soon if he wishes it. She half started as he invited her to sit and drink with him. Her? She sat by the goblet that was meant to be hers. She took a greedy sip but immediately sputtered and coughed. It had hit the back of her throat with such force as to wind her! Though it was smooth on the way down! She could almost feel it in her nose!
It made her wince and curl her toes!

"How-how do you- drink it?" She coughed and sniffed, "How do they all like the taste?" She asked, wiping a tear from her cheek.

"Speech"

He chuckled as she struggled to swallow it down, coughing at that first burning sip. That answered that question, with much the answer he already expected. He took another slow sip of his own glass, savouring the flavour. She didn’t know it, but this bottle had travelled a long way with him.

He raised his glass “To the pack's new Lead Warrior.” Hopefully, this was a stepping stone to yet greater things. His ambition was far from quenched. “You grow to like it, you’ve got to get past the burn, and savour the flavours.” He informed her, waiting to see if she would dare another sip.

"Speech"

She tentatively lifted the glass to him, unsure if this was the right move he wanted of her. He was the new lead warrior of the pack! That was quite the title, she had to admit.

She looked at the glass, unsure how one would get used to such an acrid burning sensation. She lifted the glass to her dark lips again and took a smaller sip then winced. She pursed her lips with determination and took a gulp. It made her shiver. The sensation tingled in her mouth. Ohhh, it was the sensations they enjoyed! Her head was getting faintly light, perhaps from the gasping and coughing she had done earlier. Her eyes still watered.
"Ohh... I see now. What will your duties be as the Lead Warrior, my Lord?" She asked, perhaps bravely, perhaps curiously, mostly naively. She had never been part of a large pack. Her family had been loners on the edge of one though.


"Speech"

She took another sip, and he wondered what version of her she would become once the drink was flowing through her veins. Would she become more timid, more meek? Or would she toss aside some of the chains around her soul? He regretted how much of her personality he had stripped away to shape her. More of it had been lost than he had expected. Assuming she had any personality at all beneath her fear.

He grinned with a hint of bared teeth, the liquor already starting to affect him. He felt light headed, and the bruises and cuts were fading from his awareness. “The strength to hold it, first and foremost.” He said, mildly amused. “After that? Likely training and shaping of the wolves that need the experience. I haven’t had the rundown yet, that will come later. First, I had to prove myself.” Only the strong took power in this world, and he had proven to his Sultan that he had the strength. He took a long sip of his glass, and refilled both of their cups.

"Speech"

She took another sip as he spoke, getting used to the taste now. A buzz started to tickle the back of her neck, like a tiny bee burrowing into her brain and causing her eyes to glass over.

Another sip, it's nearly empty, she's nearly enjoying this. A plaintive smile plays on her lips and she giggles as he mentions that he had to prove himself.

"Well, you certainly proved yourself then!" She replied with a notch of volume higher than her typical quiet, hesitant voice. She played with the glass in her paw, her movements more fluid and languid than usual. She would have been an accomplished herbalist, with the most delicious rose-infused honey and mead this side of the continent. A sassy farmer's daughter made to dream of princesses and extravagant social events but would settle to provide the royal family with roses and mead. The best in the world in fact.

Instead, her ambitions died when the waters broke and she entered the world.
She would instead be whore and nurse simply by the luck of the draw.
Her body was warm and fuzzy and light all over.
"Ohhh... I see how you like this now." She mused with a smirk, dropping the cup to the table with some accidental force. A little toxic poison entered her eyes, untethered from behind her carefully curated masks.


"Speech"

“I did” he agreed coolly, though that victory warmed his stomach. Or was that the alcohol? It had been a long time since he had had a drink. It seemed to be affecting more than usual. Strong stuff, and a long time between. Throw in a little excitement and blood loss, perhaps not the greatest mix.

Her voice was bolder, and was that a hint of life he could see in the corners of her eyes, the crease of her smirk? He reached a paw out to touch her muzzle, and missed by a mile. He almost knocked over the bottle instead. Spilling some over the size as he hastily caught it. “Good ‘stuff. Stole it from a man I killed. The first man ‘tah have his way with me.” He saluted her with his glass as he said it. Spilling the recently filled liquid across the table and a smattering into his fur. “‘S’ad I’d open it the day I proved I could go somewhere.” When he had the strength to gain and hold something.

"Speech"

He moved and instead of cowering she narrowed her eyes and watched him miss her by a mile. A playful grin danced over that marred muzzle as she quietly watched him catch the bottle he almost spilled. For Demelza, being drunk was a new experience, experiencing drunks was not.

She tilted her head and observed him more critically. This was the second time he let her know some of his past. She licked her lips and softened her gaze at him. Her head was a little swimmy but it made her bolder.

"He had his way with you and you decide to do the same to those beneath you? A slave becomes master in the face of victory?" She goaded, swirling the booze in the cup. She downs the rest of her cup. Her body is braced subtly under the table to move.

"Speech"

He slammed a fist down on the table, and something broke. Hopefully in the table, and not his paw. But he heard the crunch. He ignored it as he glared at Demelza through intoxicated eyes. “You're strong, or you're weak. You take or you give. I am never giving again. So I’ll take, and I’ll take whatever the fuck I want, because I will never be at the bottom again.” he snarled at her, his voice louder than it needed to be. The words were a little slurred, but he made them stand out by the force of his emotion. That pull, that need. He would never be weak again.

He reached out a paw as if to touch her, but again, didn’t go all the way. He let it grab at air as he looked at her. “You're the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen, and I took you. I will always be strong. I will have you, however I want. Whenever I want.” He had to, because it had to make sense. His trauma had to mean something, and he didn’t care who he broke to prove it.


"Speech"

The warmth in her body feels like electricity as she feels the table shudder under her elbow. She barely even blinks at his sudden movement, feeling as if everything is in slow motion. The snarl and his voice told her more than he was probably intending to share.

Her eyes followed his grasp at the air before her, intending to reach her but not getting far enough in the way the booze hit him.
They were more prone to crashing and shouting like this. Drinking themselves into a stupor and a deep unrousable sleep. With how much this stuff seemed to hit him, he was probably about to crash at any moment, right? And this stuff seemed to be pretty potent with how little they drank...

She had done this so many times before. Goad, jab, tease, run. She gets away eventually. It worked for her last masters, she had just been unlucky he was around to catch her.

He probably had seen a good many beautiful women in his time, but the phrase was getting old. She had been tossed around because she was too pretty. Her brothers and own father tried to tell her she was too pretty for her own good. They thought it would save her to send her to her uncle's family where he had little ones and a wife to take care of.
She set her teeth as he hammered in that he would take her however and whenever he wanted. She smirked.

She was playing a dangerous game and she forgot about one of the players involved. The booze was coursing through her emaciated frame this time. Sitting still she wouldn't realize its effects right away. She did like how time seemed to slow.

They always took what they wanted, these big strong men.
"Big strong man too scared to ask for what he wants? Maybe it'll be given if he's nice about it." She dared with poison on her lips. Her thighs starting to burn from being prepared to leap should he lunge. She had tried that line on her uncle, the next day he sold her. The next one won't be as bad as this one surely?


"Speech"

Flare’s smile showed a little more teeth every time he made it during their little drink together. A drink that went down too fast, and too foolishly. It seemed he was yet to learn his own limit. Perhaps she intended her words to be an insult, but in that moment they simply sounded like a challenge. One he was all too willing to answer. “Sweet Demelza, would you give me a kiss?” He crooned lightly, and with nothing to lose. She would give, or he would take and the world kept moving. This was the way of things, and how it would always be.

He leaned a little more forward across the table, resting a paw that didn’t seem to sit quite right against the wood. He didn’t even feel it, amongst the alcohol in his veins. Not broken, but he had definitely done something to the paw.


"Speech"

She blinked, sultry and languid, believing she was some highborn lady playing chess with the devil. She flicked an ear at his common advance. If they didn't try this route they tried the flat-out lunge and grab. She glanced at his paw, bleeding? Bruised? Sprained?

She slowly leaned forward.
"You didn't say please." She whispered.

She pulled back suddenly and swayed, giggling as she stumbled to her feet! her legs crossed as she attempted the stand and swayed back to the ground, suddenly laughing at her attempts to get up and scramble away from him. She didn't know if she was actually running now or just teasing him. She would sloppily scramble and push against him when she was accepting her fate as he would inevitably catch her in this state!

"Speech"

He let out a sound somewhere between a growl and a rumble, leaning towards her only for her scramble back out of his reach with a few defiant words. Only, this time, her defiance didn’t bring him to anger. It burned in him in a different way, and he pushed back from the table, leaving the half empty bottle as he scrambled after her.

Slow on his injured paw, but faster it seemed than she was. He caught her near the cave wall, and he swiped her with a paw that only partly worked, shoving her into the wall behind her. He leaned into her, his breath on her face as he looked into the cool pools of her brilliant eyes. “Can I have a kiss, please sweet Demelza?” He whispered, holding himself at bay, his eyes on hers. Looking for something in the lime green of her pools. What, he did not know.


"Speech"

The creak of the table against the floor was her only signal that he was after her.

The giddiness in her head did not abate as she found her self shoved against the wall. Her head rocked side to side with a wide grin until he pressed in soft and close. Her breath stumbled against the ribs of her chest, heaving from the efforts of scrambling so unsteadily. They never asked twice... they never tried again. The floaty giddiness fluttered into a fog of her mind as her eyes searched his coiling silver crucibles. Was that... genuine earnestness?

Her eyes danced between the triangle of his gaze and his lips. The giddy effervescent demon in her belly told her to see what would happen if she said no. The buzz was starting to wear off, running through her system like lightning.

She was actually startled by his please. Held against the wall she reached her nose forward, her eyes locked on his lips and her own seeking his. Maybe... She lightly brushed her lips against his. Seeking him, giving him the answer.

"Speech"

He pressed his lips to her offered ones, clumsy and inexperienced. He tasted the after effects of the whiskey in her breath as heat coiled throughout him, high and low. There was something intoxicating about being offered that which he would normally take. It would not stop him from taking it again another day, but he let himself enjoy the moment. The heat of her against him, their lips locked together. He didn't know the sensations that could burst to life from the pressure of her soft muzzle in his.


Soon, he was gasping. His head reeling with dizziness both from alcohol in his blood and the sensations around him. He wanted her, he needed her. His tongue tasted her as he pushed inside her mouth. “Let me take you, please, dear Demelza.” He broke off to whisper. His lips savoured these magic words that seemed to allow her to give. Denied, he would take regardless. But one would (probably) be gentler than the other.

Her offered kiss was grasped upon hungrily, clumsily. The sensations flooded her system like a wave of hot water. Her heart hammered as he took her very breath while drinking her in. Tongue running into her mouth, he could not be denied. The new experience was overwhelming! She could barely breathe! A fire roared down to her belly as the cool earth pressed into her back. The life that thrummed with their lips together burned with a heat she didn’t know was allowed. She wanted more… but that nagging tingle in the back of her mind wanted more than more. It wanted a voice. It wanted a choice. It wanted to taste freedom like the hovering honeybee on the wind. Like the rabbits on the moors.

Her lungs hungrily grasped at the air as they pulled away, burning her with their need for oxygen. She nearly slumped against him as she panted. She was dizzy and feeble as her paws tingled. They came together again, the zing of his tongue against her teeth made her tremble.

His begging whisper… a plea to let him go further. A fragile transfer of power made of spun sugar and fiberglass.
She almost wanted to… it would be so easy to give in to him like a match set to tinder. But the alcohol running through her system placed her paws set to his chest and pushed him back.
“No! You’re too drunk!” She tried to soften the blow with a teasing smile. When they were too far gone they couldn’t even get it up to try! Little did she know that it was hardly enough at the moment.

The moment was broken by her denial, and some of the heat died in his stomach. But a different hunger surfaced and he raised a paw to trace a claw down her too-thin cheek. He kept her locked in his den so often, was he feeding her enough? Like a flower you forgot to water, her body wilted. “You might have enjoyed it, if we'd pretended a little while longer” he said regretfully, as if this new course was inevitable, and entirely her fault.


He pushed her away from him then, giving her some distance. “Run, little flower. If I catch you, I'm plucking petals.” He left her to decide what that meant. She had thrown away the first game, but he rather thought he'd enjoy the second.

"Speech"

A light glittered in his eyes that she was starting to recognize all too well. She fucked up. The claw that traced her gaunt cheek felt like a razor blade over her skin, her shoulders shuddered against the wall behind her. Pretend? Of course, it was all pretend. She didn't know why she would have dared to hope it was something more. Her test melted like the candyfloss it was in the hot water of his eyes. They grew dark and he pushed her down to the floor. If he had accepted her no, if he had laughed and tossed her aside she would have probably rewarded him herself! But this was not love, or relationship like she had dreamed it could be. Pretending the reality before her was anything but, burned in her face at his challenge. She knew what he meant, she knew she would deserve it. Her eyes danced to the door, she lunged to the back of the room first, over the table, then back through the den as he chased her over the bed. She leaped for the door, knocking a trophy off a wall and she screamed with fear as she scrambled for the door!