[Beast forest]
Situated deep within the beast forest, Neandra's lair presented an imposing sight. Standing at nearly five hundred meters tall and about a fourth as wide, the cylindrical tower into which it was built towered over the surrounding trees by a mere hundred meters. Furthermore, it was surrounded by at least two hundred meters of clearing in all directions, making it stand out even more.
Its sides were decorated with a series of archways that connected at the base to form a ring of them. These rings varied greatly in height between the different layers, with some being large enough to fit a fully grown peak fourth rank wyvern while others only measured three or four meters in height at their center.
Furthermore, the individual archways on the same level also often differed. Some few of them allowed entry into the structure, others had an inward rounded stone wall behind them that left place for statues beneath the arch, while the rest were filled with different kinds of regular stone walls. These included ones with windows, some with intricate designs on them, and a few more.
Inside this structure, or more precisely on one of its human-sized floors, Darganth sat on a cushy couch, his arms slung around the shoulders of Allaire and Jennia who sat by his side. Next to him, Serania stood attentively, listening with him as Odrei recounted the events from a few days ago.
"So Melidra has made good progress, that's great to hear." Darganth said after Odrei finished.
"Still, the little horde she currently calls her army won't be enough for our purposes." Neandra interjected from the side.
"There is still time." Darganth said confidently.
Despite his words, Neandra and Venrie were understandably still reserved. After all, though they were fine with it when there hadn't been an alternative, with Melidra's undead being an expendable option to partially bear the pressure their people would face in the coming battle they certainly weren't going to say no to it.
"My empress, if it helps, I informed her of her role in your plans and she agreed. So she might focus a bit more on reducing the losses her forces take, exceeding our current expectations for what she'll achieve till then."
Raising an eyebrow in response to Odrei's words, Darganth was slightly surprised by the drake's initiative. Reconsidering his expectations a moment later, he briefly fell into thought."
Seeing this, Odrei quickly added, "If I wasn't supposed to, I appolo-"
"No worries." Darganth interrupted him, "I was just thinking whether this might allow us to change the plan a bit, but I don't think it'll change much. Originally I had planned to wait for her to get a first great success like taking a city, but I doubt the pressure we're putting her under will affect her much anyways."
"Right, she's rather new to this." Neandra said in response.
Nodding in response, Darganth thought back to the day he spent in the city of Aleta with a small smile. Though the situation back then hadn't looked that way in the slightest, in retrospect he couldn't help but look back with some fondness on the events that led to his short stay there.
"Well, we currently have the time to wait for her to find steady footing. Though it will probably get annoying to keep our more impulsive allies in check, especially the feral beasts."
"Yeah, Ermir already didn't take the news that Arkuns is hiding well. But at least we don't have to worry about his loyalty despite this, something I sadly can't say about all of them." Neandra said with a low growl.
"Should I take some precautions?" Odrei asked.
"No, you're already helping me with my subjects. If any one of them starts anything I'll take care of them myself." Neandra said.
Odrei nodded in acknowledgment of this, content to keep his focus on his fellow beasts. At the same time, he felt a tinge of pity for anyone who might cause Neandra to take action, though he didn't care beyond that. Though she hid her annoyance over their antics when interacting with anyone she didn't trust and didn't allow them to see how far they could go, they were still the ones trying to test the limits of her patience.
"But enough of that, maybe I'll get lucky and can spend the couple of days we have before our intervention is needed again in peace." Neandra added, pulling Yldra who sat next to her closer along with those words, and placing an arm around her waist.
Seeing this and noticing Neandra's focus shifting to the dragoness by her side, Odrei excused himself.
"I'll be taking my leave then, I don't want to be stopping anything and there are still some things I have to get done anyways." He said.
"Thank you. And take the day off yourself if you want, the forest won't break apart if you don't keep an eye on it for a few hours." Neandra said in response.
Acknowledging her words with an unsure shrug of his shoulders, Odrei vanished through the room's door a moment later. Walking down the corridor beyond it, he reached the edge of the tower within a few seconds. Though a leisurely pace for him, the agility he could display even in a transformed form made his steps fast enough that this was all the time he needed to cross over a hundred meters to his destination.
Stepping across the small walkway that extended from the door there and letting himself drop from it, he gracefully landed at the foot of the tower a moment later. There, he returned to his true form before darting off into the forest.
Back in the tower, Venrie had already moved toward Neandra by then. Taking a seat between her and Allaire, she leaned back into the backrest with a sigh.
"I can't wait for this to finally be over, these past weeks were so repetitive yet exhausting."
"That's something I still can't fully understand. Not just you and most emperors throughout history, but in general the majority of rulers who gained their position due to their power still insist on governing themselves. And while it might not be the fairest of comparison, I mostly leave dragons to their own and I think no one can argue that my kind hasn't been doing fine, so what's the point."
Rolling her eyes at Darganth's words, Venrie was about to respond when Neandra interjected, "Gotta agree with him. Arguably the last time I actually ruled the beasts was back during the whole fiasco with the group of humans that invaded and managed to kill a beast lord and they're doing fine."
At her words, Venrie shrugged helplessly.
"Well, I can hardly start with that in the current situation, not that I think it would work even in normal times. And usually it's not that bad so I'll just have to deal with the stress for the coming weeks." She said.
"I know the perfect way to do that."
With those words, Darganth suddenly vanished from where he sat on the couch and teleported behind Venrie. Leaning over the backrest, he bent down to gently nuzzle against the side of her neck and placed his hands on her shoulder.
Slowly drawing circles there with his thumbs, he lightly kissed her neck before whispering in her ear, "So, what do you say?"
Humming a light moan in response to his massage, Venrie answered by leaning her head to the side and exposing her neck while lightly nodding.
//Authors Note:
The rest of the chapter is a smut scene.
//End of Authors Note
Seeing her response, Darganth slid his hands further down her torso. Trailing his fingers along her side, he caressed her skin through the thin fabric of the flowing robes she wore as he moved them all the way down to her hips. Moving his arms around her body from there, he then lifted her onto the top of the backrest with one quick pull.
With her belly now only a bit lower than his chest, he slid his hands through the different layers of her robe. Feeling her bare skin on his fingers, he traced over it as he moved toward the knot holding the overlapping parts of her clothes together in front of her.
Undoing it, he let the uppermost layer of her robes unravel to the sides, revealing a shirt that covered the upper half of her torso beneath it.
"Let me take care of it."
Stopping Venrie from sliding the loose layer of clothes off her shoulders by whispering in her ear, Darganth instead did it himself. Sliding his hand up over her still-covered breasts, he placed them onto her shoulders and beneath the silk before moving them down along her arms, dragging the robes along with it.
As he slid this layer of her clothes off her and let it drop to the ground, Venrie reached for the form-fitting shirt that covered her upper torso. Hooking her fingers under it, she pulled it up and over her head.
With her torso now completely naked, Darganth teleported back in front of her. Landing with his knees on the couch, he wrapped his arms around her waist as he leaned toward her exposed midriff.
Trailing kisses across Venrie's skin, he rolled his shoulders back to help her slide his fur and scales-decorated coat off him. Beneath, he wore a rather simple shirt that fit him loosely enough to allow Venrie to slide it over his head.
Briefly untangling himself from her to fully shake it off his arms, Darganth was about to lean back forward when Venrie got off the backrest and dropped onto his knees. Taking a seat on them, she placed her own knees to the left and right of his hips as she leaned her chest against him.
"Eager today, are you?" He whispered into her ear.
Moving closer by rising up and shifting her body over her knees, Venrie looked down on Darganth as she responded with a teasing smile, "Or I'm trying to push just the right buttons."
Leaning down along with those words, she pressed her lips on his. Pushing against him in a passionate yet aggressive kiss, she simultaneously ran her fingers over his back.
Matching the passion of her kiss, Darganth moved his hands down to her ass in response. Firmly grabbing her cheeks, he held her up as he also rose to his knees. But
instead of sitting her down back on top of the backrest, he pushed Venrie's back into it, bending her over it by pushing back against her kiss.
On the other side, Serania was already waiting, having moved toward Darganth before he had teleported back onto the couch. Letting Venrie's head land on her bosom, he broke their kiss before she could react and pulled down her pants.
Getting rid of his own pants by teleporting them away, Darganth rose to his feet and towered over Venrie. With Serania having understood his intent and now holding her in place, his elven lover could watch with feigned struggle as he stepped between her legs and slapped his member onto her belly.
"Now, tell me how much you want this." Darganth said, his hands slowly sliding up along Venrie's sides, "I can smell it, but I want to hear you say how much you long for me."
Squirming under his touch, Venrie barely managed to string together a coherent sentence in between her soft moans, "I want you inside me, I want your fingers to play with me, I want you all over me."
Listening to her words with a smile, Darganth pulled back his hips and lined up his penis with Venrie's pussy. Foregoing any further teasing, he directly slammed into her, entering her depths and slapping their hips against each other.
"Agh~" Humming in satisfaction as he felt Venrie's warmth around his member, Darganth briefly savored the feeling before leaning forward.
Ever so slightly supporting himself with his hands that were resting on her breasts, he started moving a moment later. Thrusting into Venrie, he elicited a muffled moan from her lips as he speared into her depths.
Rapidly picking up the speed with which he moved in her, he simultaneously started digging his fingers into her breasts. Kneading her soft flesh, watched with delight as her back arched even further in response.
But seeing her still keep her lips shut despite this, Darganth kept going, "Don't hold back those lovely sounds."
Along with those words, he let his hand slap down onto Venrie's belly. This caused a jolt to shoot through her body that made her twitch, though it still wasn't enough to elicit more than a muffled moan through closed lips from her.
Sliding his other hand up and cupping her by the chin with it after this, he leaned in closer and stared into her eyes as he lifted his hand for a second slap. Again bringing it down onto her midsection, he watched her eyes and lip quiver slightly with delight.
Directly moving his hand again, he placed a crisp smack onto one of her breasts.
"Ahhh~"
Finally drawing out a clear moan from Venrie's lips, Darganth immediately increases the force of his thrusts further. Pounding into her depths while her mouth still hung open in bliss from the last slap, he made her cry out in pleasure.
"Aargh!"
Letting out a surprised yelp at his actions, Venrie threw her head back. Though as it was already resting on Serania's chest, this pushed her torso up, something Darganth immediately used to hook an arm under her back.
Using it to hold her body up, he simultaneously moved his other hand ever so slightly down from her chin. Letting it rest on her throat with his fingers around her neck, he briefly paused and looked to her for agreement to continue.
Only when he saw her meet his gaze and nod did he then close his hand. Within seconds he felt a shudder go through her body, with her knees clamping down on his hips from the sides.
Soon after Venrie's eyes started to roll back, her mind becoming consumed by bliss as Darganth kept pounding into her. At the same time, Serania's hands started roaming her body, with her touch blurring together with everything else she experienced in the minutes that followed. Dipping in and out of consciousness, feeling fingers explore her entire torso, all the while Darganth kept thrusting into here all became one wave of pleasure that kept building up inside Venrie.
Barely even registering it when she was approaching her climax, she tensed up with yet another shudder, clamping down on Darganth's shaft while a slurred moan escaped her lips. With it, her already blurry vision darkened completely as she lost the strength to keep her eyes open.
When her consciousness returned, she felt Darganth still in her but not moving. His hand was meanwhile caressing her cheek, while Serania was gently massaging her head by moving her fingers through her hair.
"Ready for round two? And this time I won't stop before I pain your inside white." Darganth whispered to her after Venrie had a few moments to catch her breath.
Smiling dreamily, she nodded eagerly. Immediately, she felt Darganth resume where he had left, with his hand moving behind her head and grabbing her by the neck.
Before she could consider what he was planning, Venrie was already turned around and bent over the backrest on her belly. Feeling one of Darganth's hands on her ass and seeing Serania step forward to fill her entire field of vision, she shivered in excitement as a hand grabbed her by the hair and pulled her head back.
Without any further words, Darganth then plunged his member into her ass, signaling the start of yet another round of pleasure and bliss.