The cool winds of Auster's winter heralded the changing of the seasons, marking a year since their first litter was born-and the return of her heat. Even though their first litter had been large with enough pups to keep them extremely busy for the last year, there was no doubt that she and Artorias only wanted to continue growing their family. They were fortunate enough to have the resources here in the Hallows to accommodate their numerous children and not fear overwhelming their pack by adding a few more. When she woke up to an empty bedroom with Artorias already off for his usual morning patrols and meetings, Briar already knew what they were going to be doing with their day. She just needed to get him back into bed-the sooner the better.

Slipping out of their room after quickly smoothing her fur and combing through her tail, Briar trailed down the stairs and glided through the halls of the castle as she tracked down her husband. There was only a few places she figured she'd really need to look for him if he wasn't still out on a patrol and luckily she found him in the newly furnished council chamber, having a discussion with Ezra as he undoubtedly prepared for the council's next meeting or perhaps planned for hunts to prepare for the newly dawned winter. Regardless, pack business was certainly the last thing on her mind at this given moment. Slipping quietly into the chamber, she stepped over to Artorias' side and leaned into him, her tail curling around the back of his thigh since it would be out of sight of the Adravendi man. "Sorry to interrupt, Ezra, but I'm afraid I need to steal Artorias away. I hope you don't mind."

Once the speckled, russet brute excused himself and walked out of the otherwise quiet chamber, Briar cast a grin up at Art and tipped her muzzle up to his ear to nibble teasingly along the edge of it. "We can hurry back up to bed or we can get started here. Your choice," she purred quietly into his ear, her silken tail continuing to wrap around the back of his thigh to tease her handsome mate and hint toward her already obvious intentions.

"Artorias & Briar Carpathius"

Artorias knew what a change in the seasons would bring with it. As Boreal summer babies, he and Briar both had plenty to enjoy when Auster’s cooler months came. Their birthdays, their children’s birthdays… Briar’s heat season. The reigning Carpathian couple had already discussed their plans on having another litter and expanding their family this year, so Artorias was eagerly counting down the days until the seasons officially changed over and his wife inevitably came to pounce him to get what they both wanted. So far, the days had remained mostly normal, with preparations for their first litter’s birthdays well under way and the main focus of their attention for the time being.

That is, until one cool morning as early winter crept over Auster. The Aegis rose from his slumber just before dawn for his morning meditation and patrol as he always did and set out into the brisk morning. After his patrol, he had a brief meeting with Ezra to discuss scaling back some of the double patrols now that it had been several months since Sephiran Saxe had been seen around these parts and his pups were turning to yearlings. It was during his conversation with Ezra that he suddenly felt the soft brush of pristinely groomed fur leaning into his side and glanced down in surprise to see his beautiful Briar pressing himself into his side. He smiled and was about to greet her when he felt the silky brush of her tail snaking up over the back of his thigh, cutting off his ability to speak with a sharp inhale as shivers shot up his spine. Her sudden forwardness in her sultry behavior could only mean one thing, and a quick sampling of the air confirmed his suspicions. Briar’s heat had begun.

Artorias kept himself as composed as he could while Briar’s tail continued to tease close to some very sensitive parts of his anatomy, even though his muscles were tensing under her touch and his claws raked against the stone floor while he tried to act normal under Briar’s surreptitious teasing. Briar asked to borrow her husband and Ezra left with no protest, leaving the alpha couple to themselves in the council chambers. As soon as they were alone, Artorias felt Briar nibble at his ear, drawing a shuddering breath from the dire brute as she worked him up with expertly placed strokes of her tail to his thigh, nips to his ear, and sultry words purred to him promising him all the wonderful salacious things he loved. She gave him the choice of whisking her back off to bed or getting started right here, and the azure brute responded by rising to move over to the heavy mahogany doors and pushing them closed, latching them shut so they wouldn’t be disturbed. Now locked away in total privacy, Artorias turned to fix Briar with a heated, lecherous gaze and grin, quickly closing the space between them again to capture her muzzle with his own in an intensely passionate kiss. When their lips parted, Artorias spoke in low, rumbling tones to his perfect mate, "We’re not making it to the bedroom."

"Artorias Carpathius" | "Carpathian"

They were only alone for a moment before she teased her husband with her sultry offer of hurrying back to their bed or taking advantage of the now empty chamber and almost immediately her easily tempted mate broke away from her side for a moment to go close the heavy door, latching it shut and ensuring that they would have their privacy. A lecherous grin pulled across her lips before he hurried back to her and claimed her lips with a deeply passionate kiss, pulling a humming murr from her in response as she more than willingly returned that kiss. It never really took much to have them practically falling over one another to have each other, but this time of year certainly made that fact even more true. Shivers of desire trembled through her as she barely kept herself from pushing him to the floor then and there while they made out. Their lips eventually parted, a soft gasp escaping her as they did, and her heated turquoise gaze found his once more with a sultry, heavy lidded look.

His rumbling assurance that they weren't going to make it back to the bedroom made her grin and chuckle softly as she leaned closer to brush the side of her muzzle against his own and nuzzle into his cheek, tipping her head up as she leaned into him with her chest pressed to his as she ran a teasing kiss along the edge of his ear. "I kind of assumed that was the case when you locked the door, my love," she purred back in response, her flowing tail swaying and lashing behind her as the electricity dancing over her skin wherever they touched started to add on to this maddening feeling of desire. With a parting, teasing nip to his sensitive ear, Briar stepped back again and gave Artorias a lecherous glance. Using Art's chair at one end of the table as a step, she hopped first onto the chair and then gracefully stepped onto the large, stone table itself. As Briar laid across the carved map of Boreas and Auster and rolled onto her back with her gaze hardly leaving Artorias, she purred, "Vino să mă ia atunci, prietene," giving him a tempting grin as she presented herself to him, her tail trailing off over the edge of the table.

"Artorias & Briar Carpathius"

The way Briar looked at him with endless lust and desire after their lips had parted set Artorias' blood aflame in his veins, his core burning like an inferno and clenching with ravenous hunger for his gorgeous mate. The Carpathians were a highly sexually active couple to begin with, but during this time of year, it was like their natural libido had been amplified tenfold. Artorias loved Briar so, so much, and knowing that his Queen wanted him as badly as he wanted her was the greatest turn on to the Aegis. The teasing kisses and nips she expertly placed along the edge of his ear had Artorias trembling for her, little shivers of lust running like electricity through every neuron and synapse in his body. Art gave Briar an unapologetic grin when she made a comment about his eagerness to shut and lock the door, amber eyes smoldering with desire for his beautiful, sultry wife. He watched the way her long flowing tail whipped about behind her, showing off just how excited she was for this, and his own bushy tail couldn't help but begin wagging along with hers. Her mood and enthusiasm was infectious, and Artorias was highly attuned to Briar's moods by now. He knew exactly what she wanted and he was more than happy to give her what her body craved.

As Briar began to move away from him, Artorias gave a soft whine of disappointment—only for his confused look to change into an expression of rapt attentiveness as Briar shot him a lecherous look and began making her way towards his chair at the council table. With graceful movements, the Queen climbed onto his seat and then stepped up onto the expansive stone table, spreading her body out across the surface of the map carved into the table like she were presenting herself as a feast for him. And a feast she may as well have been to the starving lusts of her dire brute. Burning amber eyes roved with unabashed carnal hunger over the curves and planes of her body, drinking in her every feminine roll and dip to her form like she were his last meal. Briar rolled to her back, leaving nothing hidden from his lecherous gaze as it followed her flowing tail that hung off the edge of the table up to her shapely rump and hips, between her supple thighs, and then up the smooth taut muscles of her body until his gaze met those smoldering turquoise pools that fixed him with the hottest come hither look he'd ever seen. Her purred out words spoken in Carpathian tempting him to come get her were the icing and cherry on top of this cake, and Artorias was more than ready to have it and eat it too.

Without a beat of hesitation, the dire brute stalked his way closer to her, a low, lustful rumble building in his chest the closer he got to her. With one strong hind leg, Artorias kicked the chair away from the table to give himself as much room to help himself to his Briar, ignoring the clatter as it fell backwards somewhere in the room. The azure and obsidian male lifted his giant forepaws and pressed them down onto the table on either side of Briar's body, hoisting himself up to stand on hind legs above his scrumptious-looking mate. A wide, delighted grin pulled across his lips as he savored the sight of her beneath him, eyes still roaming and taking her in in all of her beauty and sexual splendor. Briar was so beautiful to him always, but when she was like this, she was like some sort of carnal goddess. And goddesses deserved to be worshipped. Leaning down, Artorias brought his muzzle to the base of Briar's neck, snuffling through her short fur to nip and kiss at her soft skin, ever so slowly working his way up her throat inch by inch while he brought his hips closer to hers. With his nose pressed to her skin, Art drank in the scent of her pheromones and her heat surrounding him, intoxicating him, filling his brain with primal desires to fill her with his puppies and keep expanding their family.

By the time his lips reached the underside of her jaw, Artorias was settled between Briar's thighs, intimate flesh pressing into her with tantalizing closeness. That same growl vibrating in his throat, Artorias lifted his muzzle to nip at Briar's ear, whispering in low, husky tones to her, "Să mai facem niște prinți și prințese, pereche mea." Giving her ear a bit of a firmer nip, Artorias held himself above Briar and gazed down at her as he pressed his hips forward and joined their bodies together with a grunt and a groan, starting his oh so pleasant work alleviating his mate's heat and creating new additions to the large family they both so greatly desired.

- fade -

"Artorias Carpathius" | "Carpathian"

Sprawled out on the council chamber table, intoxicated by her own desire, and riding the thrill from their scandalous location, Briar waited eagerly for Artorias to join her. She watched her mate as he stalked over to the edge of the table where she had hopped up from, grinning and chuckling as he came to join her and a clatter broke the silence of the room as he knocked his chair backward in the process. Her love for this brute was boundless, but so was her need and lust for him. As soon as his body settled over hers, her forelegs slipped around the back of his neck, her claws combing through the thick fur of his scruff with a trembling sigh at the nips and kisses he left on her neck. Her head tipped back and her body arched up into his, presenting all of herself to her wonderful mate and reveling in everything that their amazing relationship was. With the nip he left at the edge of her ear and the husky whispers in the Carpathian language, they immediately got lost in one another, melting together with a heated gasp as they began not only alleviating her burning desire, but beginning to create their next litter of pups. With any luck they would be blessed with the princes and princesses that Artorias mentioned and in the mean time Briar was going to have lots of fun trying for them.

-fade-

"Artorias & Briar Carpathius"