Dominion Over Her (BennyQ x Sketchyequine)

[BennyQ]

It must have been a dream. I love you too. It had to have been a dream. Who had ever issued forth those three words to Kordavo Chenoweth, Lord and fighter pilot that he was? A mother’s love he did not even know. A father’s love was stern and unrelenting, focused on results. There was no other love, except of abstract notions and concepts. This love was a physical, real love. It seemed almost too good to be true. Perhaps it was not. It felt shocking and terrifying once it registered in his psyche during the night. He had a mingling of dreams between utter indulgence of that love and utter loss of it. It was a warm embrace to his cold demeanor and logic. It did not belong. There was no place for it beforehand. Great upheavals would come of it. But it was real. And true.

He slept long and deeply. The ending to the night was hazy in his mind. Had he taken Solstice again? Had he slain her by an excess of passion as she had warned? The body that his strong arms clutched so possessively felt warm and throbbing with life so evidently not. That too seemed a murky notion. Was he physically holding her still, embraced tight enough to squeeze the air out of his lover or was it all still a dream? It surely must be as he slept right through her departure from his grip, still used to sleeping alone but never so long and indulgent. He was spent and exhausted, garnering a full night’s rest and more. Why not let it continue? He did not stir, even when Solstice returned from her motherly duties. Not until she decided to wake him with a loud crash and assault upon his sleeping form.

Urgency and danger all mingled into one within his state of mind in that waking second. Was he being attacked? Was he still on Skarvis with the beasts having gotten the better of him? Assassins in the dark with knives? With teeth bared in his own bestial reaction, Kordavo shot up into a sitting posture, one hand clutching the covers and another clasped into a fist ready to strike back. He was only in his bedroom, with the sound of laughter resonating from somewhere beyond the edge of the bed. He could not see her but he could hear her, just over the lip of the mattress, giggling like a school girl who thought she discovered the greatest comedy of all. Kordavo, naked entirely, heaved with intensive breathing for a second as the adrenaline wore off. Very funny. Well, she won’t be laughing for long. Brow furrowed and teeth still gritted, he threw his long, muscular legs over the side of the bed and rose.

He reached down, grabbed her under the shoulders, and in one heave put Solstice right on her feet. Was that one of his shirt’s that she was wearing? “You think you are so clever.” He sneered, morning crankiness in his face and tone but he had a new urge in which to relieve himself. It was indeed morning on Vorzania, clear skies and a strong, swift sun on the rise. And with it, something else was risen and hard. “Sneaking around like a spy in the dark. Do you know what we do to spies, Solstice? We interrogate them. And you’re going to tell me everything that you’ve been up to.” He put his hand around her neck, tight but not chokingly so, and he began to smirk as he pushed her back, driving her towards the bathroom. He could still feel the sweat of their previous night’s bouts upon his flesh. She already showered. He hadn’t. But she would need one again by the time he finished his lessons with her.

Even with the shirt on, he pushed her back into the shower and stood there blocking her in as he turned on the water, soaking her and the shirt. He laughed, uncaring that it was his. She took it. It was already lost. Now she was going to pay the price for it. He crossed his powerful arms over his broad chest, just watching her. First the water came hot, then he made it icy cold just to shock her for half a minute, before turning it back to tepid and warm. Then he finally stepped in and closed the glass door behind him. Kordavo soaked himself and looked her over. “And what exactly have you been up to, funny girl?” He said as steam swirled around them.

Kordavo took hold of her neck again, his hand gripping the side of it. His thumb came up and brushed against her lower lip. “This mouth of yours is getting you in terrible trouble. This early in the day? You’re crazy, little bird. We’re going to have to do something about it to silence you.” Kordavo said softly but with utter mischief and guile in his tone. He smirked louder and leaned forward to catch her first in a very hot kiss, driving her against the shower wall and molding their bodies together. “You’re going to have to clean up the mess you made last night on me.” He whispered to her and then forced her down on her knees, right in front of his groin, brushing against her face. Kordavo grinned and sighed, looking up as he closed his eyes. Life was good. Life was great.

~

And life went good for the next several weeks. It was a family life, a tranquility of sorts that Kordavo Chenoweth had never endured and was perhaps the first in his family to do so in a generation or more. He lived with Solstice and Kezra, doing nothing in those days but attending to them and relishing each hour as it came. But beneath his seemingly passive demeanor, still serious and stoic, there was always a restlessness and an uneasiness growing. Idleness, as joyful as it had become, was never his strength. To not work was considered a degradation of the values he had been raised on, especially when it seemed now to be founded on happiness and mirth. A shadow began to creep over his mind and to taint every waking moment he spent with his new family. As much as he relished it, he knew he could not remain forever. He would lose a piece of himself if he continued, even if it gave forever his presence to Solstice and especially Kezra.

So when the call came that the Sixth Dominion Sector Fleet had need of a new Flight Commander, Kordavo put in his application and received the transfer. At first he was not far from Vorzania and would only be gone for a few hours or even a day, always returning. He didn’t speak much of this to Solstice. He didn’t feel the need that he should. She ought to understand he figured duty and responsibility to the State. She was Royal herself, was she not? He simply told her that he had work to take care of and would be soon trekking long into the distant excesses of space. And then one day, perhaps two or three months after that night of the Ball, he was gone. Fully deployed, he would not be returning anytime soon. He left only a message of his departure for the morning, describing where he was sent, his uncertainty of when he would return, and his love for his daughter.

Selfish perhaps, pursuing his own happiness. But if Kordavo wanted to be the fullest of a man and father that he could be, then he needed to do this. Otherwise, he would simply…deteriorate.

The months went by.

There was little news of interest, either of Kordavo on the HoloNet or of Fraundia even. The war was over and it back to internal squabbles and crisis’s for the Dominion. If they weren’t fighting some external force, they seemed geared to fight themselves, one half set against the other half. Speeches by war hawks of oppressing these interest groups seeking power or change through violent means filled the hours. Sometimes they were intermittent by another Chenoweth, Lord Janus himself, as he persecuted some corrupt official on a live stream before the entire Conclave, quite harshly disembodying his opponents with indisputable facts of their crime. He had a special talent for connecting the dots and overlaying a narrative. Even though he lived but a few floors away, it was the only contact Solstice and her daughter got of the man who was Kezra’s grandfather. And the grandmother was completely absentee as well. And what of Kezra’s other grandfather?

One evening, late, a summons came for Solstice Nabeshin from Lord Janus Chenoweth himself. It was the first ever and indeed possibly the first time she would be meeting him without Kezra or Kordavo present. What would he want with her? It was to his office, a circular chamber that jutted out from the side of the building, albeit still symmetrical and perfect in its structure. There was a long walk along a carpeted foyer to his U-shaped desk, of which he sat in the midst. Monitors and screens, upon the desk, built into the desk, and flashing upon the paneled windows showed various scenes. Some were of Fraundia. One showed an entire city district smoking and on fire. Dominion troops patrolled the streets of the Fraundian capital. Some stood guard at the gates of her own familial castle. Keeping others out or locking others within?

Lord Janus Chenoweth was brisk with her and surprisingly indifferent in his personal opinion. This was work and he spoke to her like a commander to a subordinate. She served their family now, did she not? If not Janus, if not Kordavo, then for Kezra Chenoweth at least, no? He told her that another Conclave family had attempted to incite trouble and caused unrest. Fraundian dissidents had been armed and used as a pawn in the struggle. Now the current Fraundian administration, with the King, her father, as a figurehead backed by Dominion interests were threatened. Certain influences on Vorzania wanted the entire structure dismantled and replaced by corporate bidding, which would severely dilute Chenoweth control, not to mention completely drown Fraundian culture and society which was at least tolerated by the current planetary occupation force. They needed to put someone else, someone with links to both sides, in charge. If confidence couldn’t be restored, the entire situation would be lost to the Chenoweths and someone else would take charge. All its riches would be for them and not with those who could at least control it.

Janus was frank with Solstice. He was sending her back to Fraundia as this lead person. She knew the Fraundian culture, which no Dominion official had even deigned to try and learn. She was known by the Dominion contacts there. Those interest groups already embedded on Fraundian were a part of the Chenoweth camp and faction. She had to find a balance or her title would be an honorific with no prestige or power. Only the memory of loss. A shuttle was being made ready. She would depart in five days. Kezra Chenoweth, Janus said, would join her later on once the situation was clear and safe under her leadership. It was a reasonable excuse. You didn’t send an infant to a potential war zone. Would he renounce the future heiress of his family to her though when it was safer?

He didn’t allow questions. He didn’t care if it was vague. There were no ready and easy answers on what to do or even what was really going on. The Fraundians were sore from their loss. The Dominion, fractured into their own factions, were all competing with complete disregard for the locals and the Chenoweths were losing ground. Balance had to be found. Solstice had to find it. It seemed a desperate decision for Janus to choose her. But perhaps there was an opportunity to be garnered here however.

 

[Sketchyequine]

The coming days were blissful. Solstice had her new little family all together. Kordavo provided for her and their child by giving them his presence and his protection from the outside world through his influence. They cared for their baby girl by day and made love by night. Sleep, wake, repeat. Solstice couldn’t think of a time since the war had begun that she had been as happy as she was in those days: laughing and roaming the halls of the Chenoweth estate with her significant other and truly feeling like the queen that she was by blood.

But, as was so often the case in Solstice Nabeshin’s life, her bliss had to come to an end.

It started out as a few hours a day, one day out of the week, but she knew what was coming. Especially since Kordavo didn’t bother to explain to her what he was doing all those hours that he was away. All he ever did was comment about work and duty in passing. Did he really believe she was too small in his life to compare to his military brat lifestyle? Or was it something else? Has his mother damaged him so completely that even now, in a time when he was finally loved without strings attached by both Solstice and Kezra, he was afraid to feel content in his own happiness for any length of time? Solstice questioned his psyche regularly, in the hours she sat alone with Kezra swaddled in her arms. Wonder as she might: she knew she wouldn’t get any answers from the young lord.

She tried like hell to keep herself from feeling disdain for Kordavo when he finally left. She didn’t want to hate him for it, but there was a part of her that always would. She hated him for not putting their family above his duty, but she loved him because he was her family. Especially on Vorzania, Kordavo was her only friend in the world, yet he left her behind time and time again to go shoot at people. Pathetic. Why couldn’t he just be normal with normal human values? Family before work. Always. That was one of the most important lessons taught on Fraundia.

The longer she sat in her own stagnancy the more she grew to hate him again. Not the kind of hate that had lead her to shoot a blaster at him like upon his prior return, but just enough for her to question if this man would ever really be able to have a family. A wife. Solstice wanted to marry someday. Perhaps even soon. Would she be able to settle down happily with a man like Kordavo Chenoweth? It remained to be seen.

When Janus called upon Solstice, she was shocked. What could he possibly want? He had always treated her as though she were some general inconvenience thrust upon him. When, in reality, the Chenoweths had been thrust upon her more than she had been thrust upon him. She was here because Kordavo Chenoweth couldn’t keep his hands to himself. Some things didn’t change. The memories of their consensual coupling were enough to initiate lip biting. But her mind was quickly torn away from her romantic partner when Janus gave her the news. Solstice was going home.

***

***

Solstice served as a bridge between the gap of her own people… and Kordavo’s. She had to make sacrifices. Usually one side or the other was angry with her whenever she made any sort of decision. In fact, most of the time both sides were mad at her. Her father had been a loved king. The disciples of the planet had loved him and respected each and every call he made. Solstice? She might have been the most hated monarch in Fraundian history. There had been a handful of assassination attempts: both by Fraundians and by Dominion folk. Most of the people seemed to want her to drop dead just for existing and never ruly picking a side.

In her heart, Solstice’s loyalty laid with her native people. Any time she agreed to bulldoze a village to build a vacation home for the Dominion nobles, she would sob into her pillow at night. Whenever she agreed to clear farmland for the sake of power plants or military bases she would feel a lump form in her chest. Every time she demanded the resign of an insubordinate fraundian power, she could feel her heart tearing. It was a horrible thing she was being asked to do to her people for the sake of the Dominion. But she knew that her loyalty had to be branched now. She had a man and a child on the other team.

As days went on, the job never got any easier, but it did become less heartbreaking. Solstice became more numb to emotion and tried her best to think logically about things. To think the way that Kordavo would have wanted her to think. Would he have been proud of her? Would he have approved? But, despite the objection of the Dominion wealthy, there was always room for Fraundian tradition. She stood strong and unmoving on issues concerning her culture. Her religion. She would let them desecrate some of their land for their luxury vacation spots, but she wouldn’t allow them to tear away the values in the hearts of her people. The values that resided, even still, in her own bosom. She fought for religion, biology, and the sanctity of wildlife. This was her home. They were only guests here.

Eventually her people began to respect her again.

She fought long and hard battles to maintain parts of her home that needed to remain unscathed. Sometimes even getting into debates with Janus Chenoweth himself, though usually in private meetings. Janus was one hell of a politician, but Solstice was growing into a personality almost just as powerful. The only thing stopping her from surpassing her baby’s grandad was a matter of seniority and experience. Solstice just hadn’t played as many of these games as Janus had. Yet. But there were some issues she just wouldn’t compromise about: including the idea to demolish her family castle and rebuild something far more modern.

Solstice was growing from a princess into a queen.

Eight months had passed. The day of Kezra’s birth had come and gone. A holiday that Solstice was not able to celebrate with her infant. Communication with Kordavo Chenoweth had ceased, though Solstice still thought him fondly when the fleeting memory would pass through. Her disdain for him leaving had faded away. He worked. As did she. There was little time for fickle things like sending hologram messages for one another. If Kordavo Chenoweth wanted his queen, he would have to come for her. Until then there was no time in Solstice’s day for romance. She was loyal in that way. One couldn’t cheat if one didn’t have the time or energy for flirtation or coupling. Though there were a few who had had their eyes on the young, nubile queen.

***

Aspen galloped joyous between the trees that he was named after. Colors of orange and red were seemingly painted over the leaves: the work of a goddess in the eyes of the fruandian people. Soon winter would come, but before the cold hit it was time for this hunt. They were in search of a great beast, and they would not return until they had the carcass strapped over the back of the queen’s steed. It was a stag they were after. A product of original earth genetics mixed with the altered climate of the planet, Fraundia. It had hair as black as soot and a double set of antlers mounted upon its massive head. It was the most beautiful creature Solstice nabeshin could think of, and she aimed to sink an arrow into its heart.

It was tradition. The first fall season of a new monarch’s reign would host a great hunt for a beast of the royal’s choosing. Her father had sought after a boar as large as a man, now Solstice was hunting the great Fraundian stag. The species could not be found on any other planet, nor would Solstice allow these creatures to be exported to other Dominion land. The diverse and unique species that could be found on Fraundia were sacred to her people, and there were some far too precious to be shared. This particular species of deer was one of them.

Solstice lead the group with two low ranking hunters hand picked by Solstice herself for this expedition on each of her flanks. One, a young girl no older than fifteen that was of noble blood was out on her first hunt, had a grin spreading from ear to ear as she rode atop a stout bay gelding. Solstice was fond of the girl’s spirit, one that reminded her much of her own in her younger years. On the other side was a man. Handsome in his own rugged way, but much on like the clean cut attractivity of Kordavo Chenoweth. He had mop water blond hair that hung messily to the top of his shoulders and his chin was peppered with sprigs of facial hair that made the area akin to sandpaper in texture. He had a boyish grin and a soft spot in Solstice’s heart. He was the stableboy for the royal beasts, and this was the first time he had been invited to anything.

The girl, Gertrude, and the young man, Stark, both slowed their horses upon the queen’s signal with a gloved hand. The world fell almost silent as the horses, well seasoned in such activities, stood as still as stone beneath the weight of their riders. There, ahead between the white and black dappled trees stricken with autumn, was the stag. Coat as black as obsidian and even with his head lowered in the act of crazing, his proud antlers tood high: peeking above his shoulders. A fine beast, unmatched by his kin. He would be the perfect trophy for this hunt. Solstice dismounted aspen, crouched in the forest undergrowth, and crept forward to get a better shot as Stark held the reins of her beast and remained back with Gertrude.

Closer. Closer. Closer. Soon, but a dozen yard from the beast, Solstice ducked into a patch of tall grass: cloaked in tanned hides that blended in seamlessly with her surroundings, and she loaded the wooden strung bow with a tradition, almost aboriginal, wooden arrow with feather quivers. She drew back the bow, her fingers brushing her supple lips as she lined up. Her breath caught and her heart pounded in her chest as her locked on the area behind the elbow of the stag.

One.

Two.

Three.

Let go.

The arrow flew silently through the air and hit its mark into the beating heart of the creature.

 

[BennyQ]

Just as the arrow struck it’s mark, there came the roar and scream of a supersonic burst, as yet another Dominion craft pervaded the once clear skies of Fraundia.

They ought to be used to it by now. Capital ships prowled in orbit like misplaced sharks in the air, in hues of black, grey or scarlet red. Minor craft flew in formation over fields and cities, streaking across the blue sky. A space elevator was being constructed, using a railgun to send cargo or people into space when vessels and ships weren’t available. They were loud devices and though there was much greenery and wilderness about the site, no animal or creature dwelt there, driven off by the noise. Little by little, the Dominion was sinking its low fingered claws into the pristine earth of Fraundia. And now coming to the world was a man near the center of it all.

Kordavo Chenoweth was coming to Fraundia. Or rather, returning, for it was not his first visit to the world that the mother of his child hailed from. He had been here before, in orbit and elsewhere. He had killed people from this world and seen comrades killed in turn. But the war was over now and he had come on personal reasons. It did occur to Kordavo that it should have been done earlier or much sooner, yet he had not comprehended the need in the beginning. Moreover, he had much to do to keep him busy these past few months, as a flight leader or far beyond the confines of Dominion territory. New systems were explored and star lanes mapped. He had pushed the borders of his great state, by his own vigour and stoic zeal. But his term of office in those positions were coming to an end.

And it seemed fitting to him that he should visit his baby’s mother, to not only give an account of his absence but also driven by other needs. Base needs. And perhaps, if he would not admit it openly, a desire for companionship and intimacy, which he was coming to crave. He had not even returned to Vorzania yet. He had come straight here, in his personal fighter craft, and after checking with Dominion archives, was coming straight to the Queen’s own castle. It was indeed fairy tale, which he noted and scoffed at, an ugly collection of stones set among the forests. Like something out of an old history book of ancient Earth. He knew people had a fascination with the old ways of living on the homeworld of humanity but this just seemed over the top. A castle?

There might have been landing bays, smartly disguised or integrated into the countryside. Kordavo didn’t know. And he didn’t think much about it, instead piloting his craft over the castle and landing right within the courtyard of the fortress, just past the gates and before the doors. The cockpit rose and he climbed out, hopping down onto the ground. He was dressed in a black flight suit, helmet tucked under a shoulder, and he looked relatively the same though he had lost some weight. But he was still tall, strongly built, and possessing deep reserves of energy and emotion, ready to burst out in any moment. He ignored the servants and whatever courtiers might frequent the castle of the Queen of Fraundia. He was here only for her. And these people, like the servants of his own home, did not filter into his mind.

“Sir?” Someone said to him. “Sir, you cannot park your vessel there. By the authority of the Queen, you must remove it.”

Kordavo looked at the man and raised a small control pad. He pressed a button and the glass canopy of his ship lowered and then locked. The ship was staying. The guard just looked back at him. He couldn’t do anything directly to a Dominion citizen, nor did he know this pilot’s identity. But the Queen would deal with him for his insolence, he assumed. But Kordavo was neither worried nor afraid of Solstice, though he expected her to scream and cry and thrash as she usually did, being so dramatic. There was always something with her. And if she came from a place like this, he thought it made sense to him. Who lived in such a place, in their era of technology and expediency?

It was at that moment that the clear ringing of silver trumpets were heard. People exclaimed the Queen returns and rushed to whatever duties they had to attend upon her return. But Kordavo remained in the courtyard, turning to the gate to confront the little Queen. He smirked to himself, wondering how she might take his appearance and presence here. But he was not expecting, or even ready, when the gates swung open and in came…horses! The beasts were large and Kordavo flinched as hooves kicked up clots of mud and dirt that nearly struck him. It certainly splattered the hull of his ship. Immediately, he lost his arrogance at the sight of Solstice on her steed. Instead, he was filled with a cold rage. Castles. Horses. Was that…a bow she had? He looked at her more sharply, saying nothing. He worked and served the state. She seemed to be relaxing and going on pleasure hunts. The contrast did irk him but it wasn’t true.

He didn’t move from where he was, center of the courtyard, his fighter craft so out of place within that construct of stone and green. He didn’t follow to the stables, from where a horrendous stench seemed to emit and where dirty looking men strode about. All smiles and cheers despite it. Kordavo marveled at their tolerance and thought that perhaps they weren’t really men at all. This had to be some backwards step in the stair of evolution or something that he was beholding. No wonder his people ruled over Fraundia and several other worlds. They were better than this.

So with this air of haughtiness and arrogance, he didn’t move to approach the Queen. She could come to him, her overlord and father of their child, and address him. Don't make me chase you down in this...castle of yours.

 

[Sketchyequine]

The animal began to fall just as the sonic boom echoed through the ears of Solstice, Gertrude, Stark, and all the people of the neatby fraundian royal court alike. It made Solstice look up, cursing under her breath at the circumstances at hand. Just a few seconds sooner and the bastard pilot of that ship would have ruined her hunt. Her royal hunt. She had spent three days out on the land looking for this beast, and it had almost slipped between her fingers on account of some more Dominion scum invading her homeland.

“These assholes know no shame.” She muttered, getting back to her feet and pulling her bow over her shoulder. Her eyes traveled to the sky then, looking to follow the trajectory of the unwanted guest. They weren't supposed to enter the atmosphere this close to the castle and the sacred forest. Someone was going to get their head torn off… or at least they would have if Solstice Nabeshin didn’t recognize that ship. A grin painted itself over her lips. “Time to strap this baby up. We gotta hurry home. I’ve got company waiting for me at home.” She said calmly, not spilling the beans to her companions just yet.

Solstice approached the beast, using the watch upon her wrist to snap some shots of the carcass and the scenic surroundings. Her father would want to learn all about the hunt that his daughter had gone on. Plus, she wanted to keep some memorial photos for herself as well. Using the same watch she sent a holographic message home, which was projected to the staff and residents of her castle.

“Attention, my subjects. The royal hunt is complete and your queen is coming home. Please prepare yourselves to receive me and begin preparing our royal feast.”

They would dine on the flesh of the black stag that night. The staff of fraundia was incomparable to the magnitude of people working under the chenoweth empire, a mere 20 people worked for Queen Naabeshin’s empire. Atop that, any remaining noble family members would be invited to join the feast. There were only five of them left: most of them killed in the war alongside Solstice’s brothers. This royal family was incredibly small now, but it was still incredibly tightly knit. It would be interesting to see how the family would react to the presence of Kordavo chenoweth at such a traditional and sacred ceremony of feasting on this royal kill.

Once the stag was loaded on her horse, Solstice mounted the stead and the trio of riders galloped toward home. It was a relatively short trip, and they arrived home within the hour while running their horses at full speed. Once they rode up, the staff opened the stone gates and Solstice, Gertrude, and Stark entered the royal grounds sitting tall and proud on their beasts. Solstice herself had used the blood of the stag to paint traditional war stripes down her cheeks and nose, with a dot upon her chin and forehead. Such face painting could be found on the portraits of every king or queen that had ever ruled over the planet of Fraundia. It was all a matter of tradition: An incorporation of primal and modern living.
She saw the man, and his ship. Obviously waiting for her, but this was her moment of glory, plus no one else recognized the man. So she would use this opportunity to keep his pride in check. She rode past as her people cheered for her, clapping and reaching out to stroke her thighs and the carcass of the stag as well as the rear haunches of the beast. Through touch they showed their respect. She didn’t even react to the irritated expression on Kordavo Chenoweth’s angular face. He had lost weight and condition. Solstice had done the opposite. She was spectacularly fit: busied not only with worrying over her people, but also with preparing herself for overcoming the many royal traditions. If Kordavo stuck around he would witness some of these rials during his visit.

The horses were taken to the stables where the trio dismounted. Stark hauled the beast over his broad shoulders and followed a stride behind Solstice as she approached the front door of her home. The stable boy was not nearly as tall as Lord Chenoweth, but he, at this point, had more muscle mass on account of Kordavo’s weight loss. Was the man forgetting to feed himself? Solstice wondered as she approached. Her face was stoic, offering him no sense of excitement or rage. Am I still such a dramatic girl? She wondered, taunting the Lord beyond his knowing.

Closer. Closer. Closer. And then she was upon him. Would she embrace him? Attack him? No. Kordavo Chenoweth didn’t need her to put in any of that effort. Instead, she mere walked right past him, and the stable boy bumped shoulder with the lord ‘accidentally’ though most likely in a challenge of his authority.

“I’m having your ship towed, Lord Chenoweth.” She said, the sound of her commanding voice easily traveling to the ears of the man. He could come to her.

 

[BennyQ]

He hardly recognized her as she approached, flanked by a man-servant.

Solstice Nabeshin had changed and Kordavo was not fond of these changes. He recalled his display of her in a green dress and jewelry the worth of a planet’s revenues. He remembered her regal presence at his side during the Dominion ball, chin high and concealing weakness behind fortitude and trust in him. Where had that trust gone? Beside him, she had seemed powerful. And now here, she looked like any commoner. Dirty, with blood stained upon her face like some barbaric pagan ritual of some fringe world cult. She had been out hunting. Were she not a Queen, with the power and authority of delegation? Why had his father sent her here? And would he have, had he known what she was like? In fact, probably. Better her here in the wild forests than in a place of culture and sophistication like their home.

She did not acknowledge him at first and his anger grew. What of their moment during the Ball, where she wept and he comforted her? Yet she seemed eager to forget the debts she owed to him, believing some misconception he had put it all on her. He was the one with the cock who got her pregnant. But who was the one kissing and seducing him on Skarvis? The list of grievances spun in a circle but he fully believed she had brought this on herself and he, as ever, was the one to fix it and protect her. That was his role. And this ungracious attitude of hers was unbecoming.

And the woe he was to inflict became tenfold in severity, when the foolish man-servant had the nerve to bump into him, carrying his dead beast of burden and nearly swiping the mighty Lord Chenoweth with its dead carcass and flesh!

He grumbled a deadly noise in his throat as he was forced a step back. Solstice threatened to have his ship towed and he looked at her back as she walked away. Did she think he had no power here? If not on the soil…then above it. Immediately he pulled out his sidearm, faster than her own guards could react, and shot the youth in the side of his foot. It was a mid-powered blast, burning through the boot and burning the flesh of the foot pretty badly. Whether he stumbled to the ground or kept his balance, Kordavo didn’t care. But he soon had every eye and gun of the guards there on his presence and form. And he was sure that was something she could not ignore. He gave a low chuckle of mockery and holstered his sidearm a second later, knowing he was outgunned. But they wouldn’t dare. He held his jaw high, watching Solstice, even if she kept on walking. Would she ignore the insult to her man-servant?

“And I shall have your castle towed Queen Nabeshin, unless you remember who your power brokers are.” Kordavo called out to her, his voice booming, speaking not only to her but for all ears to hear. Effectively he was reminding her that she was here, as Queen, because his family allowed it. “Tower by tower, stone by stone, uplifted to be sank into the indomitable fires of your star, if you so much as lay a hand upon my ship or any other property of Kordavo Chenoweth, Lord of the Conclave, Captain of the Dominion…and the father of your child.” He said pretty loudly, looking aside to the nearest guard. And with his stare alone, icy green, he cowed the guard into lowering his gun with that statement.

“So you can turn around and invite me in for news of our daughter and leave this…” he gestured to her man-servant, “blundering idiot away from me. Or I can get in my ship and go home without completing the errand I came here to do. Which I might add, was of my own volition and no one else’s. For I wanted to talk to you, you, Solstice Nabeshin.” Kordavo said, flashing a low smirk. “And I don’t think I will be making such a journey again, by myself or with others, if this is the welcome the father of the Queen’s daughter is going to receive.” He added, quirking an eyebrow in challenge. It was dramatic. But if she wanted to fight and argue with him, she should know it ought to be done behind closed doors.

It was good statesmanship, trying to flip Solstice as being the villain, if he really was the father of her child. And therefore, the one who held the Queen’s heiress to him. Everyone would want to hear Solstice answer this and soon all attention drifted to her. Kordavo, arrogant in this display, only raised his jaw and placed his hands on his hips, near to his gun again. It was not usual for him to speak. This was all her grounds, her turf. Everyone was loyal to her. They would die for her. But the fact they were all in her camp and therefore likely to be opposed to Kordavo made him bold, as bold as one could be when faced with superior enemies and numbers. What did he have to lose now? He said it all, with all his wit and inner strength behind it.

 

[Sketchyequine]

She heard him fire the shot and her heart sank. Was he really so cold as to murder someone because she had made an innocent threat? More importantly, did he really respect her so little that he would fire away at one of her people? She had never behaved in such a manner on his turf. She turned around, eyes glazed over and narrowed in the purest form of betrayal. “Kordavo…” She whispered. Stark, the stable boy who had been shoot keeled over in pain, but he never let the ceremonial stag fall from his shoulders. This kill was precious to Solstice and her kingdom. Letting it hit the lawn would be a huge disappointment or everyone, so Stark mustered up the remainder of his strength and stood tall despite the burn on his foot, and stared ahead dutifully.

It was no secret that Solstice was a mother. In fact, most of the staff already knew seeing as a large portrait of Kezra hung proudly in the queen’s quarters. She was not ashamed of her heiress daughter, nor was she ashamed of Kordavo’s role in her life prior to this very moment. She was simply shocked by how far he was willing to go to make his point to her: a point that he didn’t even need to make. How dare he behave in such a manner in the presence of a queen, no less. Yes. He was the father of her child. A past lover as well, for he had become much more than her rapist in their time together, but now it was as though he were a stranger to her again who was willing to bury a knife in her back at the slightest sign of discontent. Who was really the barbarism?

As her people looked on, Solstice wrapped an arm around the stableboy, helping to take some weight off of his wounded foot. They all wanted to see her reaction. Just how would their queen handle foreign affairs as complex as this one. “Ladies and gentlemen, as many of you may already know we have been blessed with the presence of Lord Kordavo Chenoweth. The father of our very own heiress and proud Chenoweth noble. Undoubtedly, many months spent fighting senseless battles and sitting alone in the hull of his ship have had a negative impact on his manners, so you’ll have to forgive him.” She spoke to everyone but Kordavo, but her eyes never left him. They was an undeniable sadness hidden in those deep blue pools.

“I ask that you all offer our guest your forgiveness and your deepest respects for we are a humble and forgiving people. Displays of aggression and masculinity such as this do not phase us. We are under Dominion rule now, that is true, but we do not have to adopt the negative attitudes of their people, including my ex lover.” Ex. EX. The word slipped so easily from between her lips though the pair had never discussed a breakup of any sorts. Though, what else could they be? He had left her behind to chase stars and shoot at people and she him to maintain the sanctity of her people. He was a Dominion military leader, and it had long become clear that that was what he prioritized as the most important use of his time. And with his military rank, apparently, he had to be an outright bully.

“Lord Chenoweth,” She addressed him formally, not as a lover might. “Since my teasing is obviously beyond your mental capabilities let me rephrase.” She stated, though her tone never wavered. It was as though she were giving a speech rather than having a conversation. “As you’ve probably already been told, your ship is not allowed here. Move it to a proper loading dock. Or I will use some of these fancy Dominion gadgets put on my planet to make sure it is moved. Fight me as you will, I will remind you that I am the single bridge between your family’s power on these grounds and total political chaos. If you start defiling my grounds I can assure you that I will no longer bridge that gap. The same remains true if you make another shot at any of my people. Shooting them is shooting me. We are all one in the same.”

She rose her free hand and signaled the guards to lower their weapons. Reluctantly they all did so. There was no point in shedding any more Chenoweth blood on that day. “Lord Chenoweth, since you cannot behave with a weapon on your hip you will not be allowed entrance into my home so long as you have your sidearm. Move your ship and leave behind your blaster and we can have a chat. Otherwise, take yourself and your news back to Vorzania. We need not waste any more of each other’s time.”

She looked towards Stark, her eyes gentling as she did so. She obviously had a fondness for the man, though it was not the type of fondness that would lead them to lay together as she had with Kordavo almost a year prior. She nodded to him and they turned back towards the gates of the castle. She moved slowly with him as he hobbled along on his injured foot. Gertrude, the young lass who had also been a part of the hunt, took up Stark’s other side and as a trio they gradually made their way to the door. No one offered Kordavo another glance. He had been discredited by their queen, so they would forgive and forget him so long as he didn’t cause any more trouble. But if he ever attacked Solstice as he had just done Stark, he would have an entire nation of people who wanted his head on a platter. One Lord vs. thousands of Fraundians would be no contest.

“Oh. And Kordavo.” Solstice said over her shoulder as the trio of hunters crossed the threshold of her grand main entrance. “You have a very funny way of treating the only woman who has ever loved you. You’re burning all the wrong bridges, my lord. And over a simple jest.” She nodded her heads to the gate guards and they shut the doors behind the returning queen and her fellow hunters. Kordavo has tried to embarrass her before her own people, yet it was he who always scolded her for being dramatic. Now not only was he beaten in this lashing of tongues, but he just might me humiliated as well. Good.

“Take Stark to the healers in the southern wing. They can treat his foot. Relieve him of the stag’s carcass and take the body to the chefs to prepare for tonight’s feast. The head and rack are to be preserved and taxidermied as per tradition to hang in the great hall. Today is a good day: the hunt is complete and no one was killed.” Solstice reassured the staff waiting for her in the foyer, many of which still seemed distraught. “If Lord Kordavo Chenoweth behaves himself and heads my instructions he is a welcome guest in this castle and will be escorted to my quarters upon his arrival. We will treat him with kindness as soon as he has earned it. Deep down he is a good man who seems to have just lost his way.”

 

[BennyQ]

The response was slow in the coming, almost as if Kordavo wasn’t worth her time. His resentment only bubbled at his own perception of that. What, she was a Queen now and easy to forget her past relationships? Was he not owed a more fitting welcome? Yet he was made to stand here, nearly trodden by horses, slapped by mud, and finally above all insults to have his shoulder brushed by a careless man-servant bearing the carcass of a dead beast, sullying his hands with the rot. He felt justified in his indignity. How could she make him feel so intensely about her, over her, and yet when he finally failed to resist her siren call, she treated him as if he were naught. The confusion incinerated his patience to bits.

Slowly she spoke, speaking to all, answering his challenge. She gave her own and he was not blind to the trends at work. To his wrath, she called immodesty, taking his own offence and spitting it back at him. She must be slacking in the mind if she thought this pile of stone and backwards living tribe of human specimens could be thought of as mannered. Worst yet was the feeling of disappointment however. She was trying to shame him, yet Kordavo did not feel such. He was confident in himself, alone even against so many. It was only with his back to the wall that he became truly dangerous, acting more on instinct than logic. On primal desire than rational thought.

An ex-lover the Queen called him, but Kordavo only smirked. The passions of the flesh were not easily forgotten. He held close many memories of her own cries and moans singing in his ears. He held immense surety that a rekindling would be close at hand. It was that hope that was the source of his presence here. A rekindling, of the body, heart and soul, after many years among the black abyss between the stars. He needed this. No word or statement or insult would persuade him otherwise. She issued stringent decrees on his behavior, chiding him like an unruly child before her court. He made outward tokens of promise to adhere but only as a ploy to insert himself deeper. He would be a parasite, he swore, on Solstice that she would not find an easy cure to, no matter how much control she thought she might exert here.

“Dramatic as ever. But fine Queen Nabeshin. Your house, your rules.” He simply answered, eyes straight and tone unfaltering when she warned him of burning bridges over a jest. If her jest was to humiliate him with a challenge by a commoner huntsman, then his action of shooting the boy in the foot could be deemed so as well. He was not worried. She thought she held power here. A lion like him was not concerned with the opinions of the sheep, of his own hill or any other hilltop. Like Fraundia. Her power was a façade. He could shatter it but he would not get what he came for.

He turned his back as the Fraundians congregated to the castle. He climbed back into his ship and took off from the courtyard, leaving scorching marks upon the grass and stone walls. He simply lifted up and moved a short distance into a clearing within the woods, parking his craft there. It would be safe there with its built in security measures. It had survived deadlier beasts on the surface of Skarvis than whatever Fraundia had to offer. It was a short trek back to the castle, not a problem with his long legs, and at the gates he handed over not only his blaster in obedience to the Queen’s laws but his combat knife as well. The guards took one final authorization from the Crown before they admitted him.

He stepped into the castle foyer, sweeping his eyes over the interior décor. Carpeted corridors, vaulted windows, painted murals upon the walls of what he guessed were moments of Fraundian history. They too had a generation sleeper ship that brought them from ancient and distant Earth. A servant arrived with the intent on leading the Lord Chenoweth, as per the Queen’s orders, to Her chambers. But Kordavo ignored him at present, following a corridor at random and roaming the halls while the servant shuffled behind, nervous at this man’s waywardness. Kordavo toed the rules for a brief moment, until his steps brought him to certain chambers frequented by castle staff. Not a place for any Lord and seeing how this detour brought him nowhere especial, he assented at last to the servant’s beckoning and allowed himself to be transported to the Queen’s chamber.

Up stairs, across a great hall, it felt indeed like walking in pages of a fairy tale. Yet he espied hidden technology cunningly disguised in the garb of simple devices or machinations, no doubt having cost more to design them so. There was in fact a very quaint and cozy modernity to it all, like the villa of some decadent noble of the Dominion who spends millions more to theme his pleasure resort for immersion. But this was more. There was a culture here, built around a ruling family that earned their place as royalty through their love and care for all living things. No wonder they were so easily defeated in battle. They placed so much sanctity on life that they forgot how to destroy it. The Dominion perfected that art long ago, practiced against others and amongst themselves.

At last they came to the Queen’s chambers. Guards on either side of the massive, almost twelve feet double-doors opened it and Kordavo stepped through. Cleverly designed, one needed more than a handful of explosives to break through that. No doubt it was honeycombed with battleship-quality metallic. With a slow rumble, they shut behind him. He stood in a small foyer, red carpet underfoot, with smooth stone tiling beneath that. Vases of flowers and various other vegetation lined the corners of this room, which soon opened up into a greater room. The Queen’s bedchamber. Kordavo walked through the threshold and stood within, looking around. He noted the fireplace, covered with arched stone and a mantle. There was the bed, with posts reaching to the ceiling, curtains between. A balcony opened up to overlook the forest. There was a table with white cloth, a many candled chandelier above, a cordoned dressing area full of radiant colours of silk and gleaming gemstones.

He imagined Solstice alone in this room, going about her ordinary day. He imagined her strutting naked from the baths to the wardrobe. He thought he could taste the touch of her skin under sunlight on his fingers. Kordavo thought of others who might come into this intimate chambers, like that stupid boy. “If that monkey ever comes near me again, I will blow his entire foot off if he can’t use them properly. I didn’t make a journey of one hundred and thirty light years to be snubbed and then collided with by a bumbling fool. Don’t tell me you didn’t plan to humiliate me the moment I returned. Among my own kind I tried to protect you from the worst excesses. You could at least return the favor and keep me safe from the idiots among your own.” Kordavo stated when he laid eyes on her at last.

 

[Sketchyequine]

Solstice could hear the ship taking air once more from her chambers, and her communications informed her shortly there after the exact coordinates of where he had parked. She received word when he entered the gate then again when he come through the door. She also learned of his aimless wandering and it made her roll her eyes as she sat perched in her room. It was just like him to explore even if it was uninvited exploration. Once an expeditionary always and expeditionary. Solstice had been no different when it had been Kordavo’s home she had been dropped into.

“Let him wander, Clarence. He won’t hurt anything.” She spoke into the watch on her wrist, easily communicating with the staff in that manner.

She could be patient for a few more minutes if it meant not having to argue with the man. She had already gone nearly a year without any word from him. Another half an hour was practically nothing. Especially if exploring her home would make him find some sort of appreciation in his heart for her people and their culture. His interest in her couldn’t be purely physical… right? She wondered, pulling up screens on the mirror above her vanity, watching Kordavo wander through the halls and foyers through the security cameras.

She smiled as she watched him, perching on the vanity desk in nothing but her panties and a firm fitting tank top that she had been wearing under her hunting garb. She still had the blood painted on her cheeks and dirt on her hands and fingernails, but it was still her and she was still just as beautiful as she had been when Kordavo had left her. She was different, yes, but so was he. They were a little older now, significantly wiser, and a little more grizzled by age. Solstice was back in here element while Kordavo was out of his. The tables had turned in that way.

Solstice pulled a rag from a bowl of warm water sitting at her flank. She began to slowly scrub the blood and dirt from her face and hands. She had seen the way that Kory had looked at her: as if she were barbaric. She didn’t want him to look at her like that again. As angry as she was at him for trying to take out her stable boy’s foot, there was still love in her heart for the man. Would they rekindle? She didn’t know. She didn’t know if Kordavo cared for her anymore or if he had found a new muse in his travels through the universe. After all, it wasn’t impossible. That was how he had found her and put a baby in her womb after all. Maybe he had done the same to another.

She exited the screens on the mirror once she saw him finally approaching her room. Her face and hands now cleans she wiped down her legs and gave herself a shave as she waited. Most of Solstice’s unwanted hair had been lasored off years ago, but she still grew some rogue peach fuzz on her legs. Once Kory walked in she busied herself with rubbing moisturizer into her flesh. The room was lined with lush furs, delicate decorations, gorgeous floral arrangements, expensive silks, and warmly stained wood that flowed in the flickering of the candlelight that lit the room. Old fashioned in appearance, yes, but beautiful and laced with modern technology. This was the way Solstice had been raised, and in her eyes Vorzania would never shine when compared to Fraundia in terms of beauty.

“Good evening, my lord.” Solstice greeted him once his rant was over, still perched on the wooden surface of her vanity. “Oh yes. Please tell me more about how I wronged you, my love. It really turns a woman on to hear her man whine like a babe.” She hopped off of her desk and approached him: still wearing the bare minimum as before. Her hips and thighs were bare: a reminder of some of their shared intimate moments. She wasted no time in closing the distance between them. Her hand brushed his chest as she curled him, looking him over as though he were stock. “You’ve gotten skinny.” She noted before she stopped in front of him again: pressing a hand on his chest and pushing him back until he sat at the foot of the bed.

“You ought to know that nothing soaks my panties like your bitching.” She let out a little chuckle as she closed the gap once more. She straddled him: one knee on either side of his lap and digging into the soft, lush mattress. She lowered herself down, perched upon his thighs now as she held onto his shoulders gently, just gazing at his face. She was soaking in his every feature once more and noting the slight alterations that had come from his travels and time away. She reached up, one finger tracing the faint scar on his face that she herself had given him. “You don’t get to come here and expect me to bow down to you. You also don’t get to come here and disrespect my people or shoot at my staff.” She whispered, staying incredibly close. Body to body.

“You may outrank me, Kordavo Chenoweth, but my influence here is invaluable to your family’s estate. Piss me off and the whole thing crumbles. But you must know that, huh? You are the smart one.” She mocked him, leaning forward to steal a quick and gentle kiss. “Act like that again when I have my bow on me and I’m aiming an arrow at your cock.” She cooed to him, leaning down to trail her soft lips over his neck.

 

[BennyQ]

His Queen had transformed herself at least, preparing herself for his visit as he put it. No more like some forest savage dressed in furs like some ancient homo-sapien on earth. Finally a civilized woman, though her fancies and fashions might be a bit outdated and backwards by his standard. Unlike his own living conditions, nothing here was metal. Or if it was, it was cleverly disguised. Instead he was assailed by the odour of wood, the fragrance of flowers, and the ominous shadows of stone. All the many years of human evolution and the progress was made redundant by the choice to live in so antiqued a manner. It was…bemusing. Its flair was certainly dramatic.

And despite his harsh words of critique, his eyes could not help but wander to those smooth legs she displayed so openly for him. Did she greet every visitor with such lack of decorum or was this, he thought with a cold thrill of excitement, a show just for him? It certainly took a great deal of venom out of his words and out of his mood. And rather than return his fire and spite with equal measure, she greeted him with calm and observant sarcasm. His expression was fierce once more. If her beauty still enticed him it was not with a desire for passion no longer but a desire to dominate that beauty now. Kordavo did not whine. He did not make threats. All that he said was bound to become an eventuality. That was how he operated. She ought to know to walk a fine line with her false prosecution.

Thinking she might be justified, Solstice trotted right up to him like he was nothing more than a beast in a stall, to be inspected upon growth and development and no more. Skinny she called him. He simply shot her a look. What do you know about it? Hunting and relaxing, while I served. And then she tried to push him back. His body betrayed him. There was that cold thrill again, responding like leaping icy fires at her touch and craving it. Tingles fluttered in his spine and all gave way. He was forced back, his arms unmoving, though his eyes never left him. She thought he was bitching, whining, yet he was paralysed in thought and word as that smooth leg began to straddle him. Kordavo was lost suddenly. No, he ought to take control or something. Do something, at least. Yet he fell back and Solstice was upon him.

Kordavo was hard for her. Very hard.

Yet only in such a compromising position could Solstice finally admit to sense. He outranked her. Good. That’s what he wanted to hear. His lips quirked into a slow smirk. She thought she had power, power over him and his family, but he was not concerned. His family put her there. So what if it was more trouble to find another puppet? She should be grateful to him. She would be grateful to him. She was his Queen. He was the smart one? She was the one risking all her authority to act resentful towards him, trying to snub and snide him on her very doorstep. So quick to forget her favors and debts to him. Well, Kordavo wasn’t helpless as the icy thrill turned into a red wrath of want and need. She kissed him and then pecked at his neck, while his hands came to her sides.

With one furious motion, he rolled them over on the bed and pinned Solstice under him. One hand pinned her shoulder down, another clamped over her throat. And Kordavo smirked at her. “What a lost, hopeless little Queen you are.” Kordavo sneered and though his hand was on her neck, his fingers caressed along her lower jaw. “You should know that I don’t bitch and whine. When I have a problem, I go and solve it. I don’t cringe or complain. I don’t underperform. Never, little Queen. You’ll do well to remember that.” Kordavo said. His hips had slide between her thighs in the roll over. His groin was up against her pelvis. Something very formidable was rubbing against her. Kordavo knew though that if he didn’t keep feeding that fire, he would fall prey to the seduction. Maybe he already had.

“You are right about one thing though. I do outrank you. I am Lord. I am your Lord. And whatever your rank is, little Queen, you are going to bow down to me. Not physically, I don’t care about that. You kneel enough for me in the bedroom.” Kordavo reminded her, smirking again with a chuckle. “But I do expect your deference. You have influence you say? Are you threatening me with treason then, little Queen? Perhaps you need to be reminded of how you got here. Through me. So,” Kordavo said, bumping his hips up against hers in a soft grinding rhythm, “I expect an apology. Or I will spear something in you much bigger and longer than your stupid arrows.” Kordavo snarled, giving her a squeeze on the neck a moment before loosening up and moving his hand, both his hands, to either side of her head, giving her some freedom of movement and action now.

But Kordavo was still a hulking, tremendous presence and shape over Solstice. What could she do that he won’t see coming? He was expecting a show of subservience. He was also expecting defiance.

“Apologize to me, bow to me, call me Lord.” Kordavo said more quietly to her, leaning down as if to kiss her. His lips brushed hers and he almost did, before drawing back to tease her with that. His groin was still nudging against hers, evident of what sort of submission he wanted. “Or I’ll make the Queen crumble into pudding within her very bedroom if I have to. You know…I think you would like that regardless. Wouldn’t you, Solstice, my little bird?” Kordavo mocked ever so lightly and teasingly in a soft whisper, inches above her face, as his body bore down on hers from above. He wondered if he slid his finger down her abdomen he might not feel a soaked set of panties anyways.

 

[Sketchyequine]

Solstice chuckled as he rolled them over, hulking over her and taking his position of authority over her. They had been apart for some time, but Kordavo’s superiority complex was not unknown to the Fraundian Queen. In fact, she would be a fool not to expect it. She knew plenty well that Kordavo always felt the need to best her, to dominate her, but he underestimated the power she had by being the submissive. As she had to do was deny him, to say no, and his new found family would crumble around him. Losing her, truly losing her, would surely cut deep. After all, his had admitted his feelings for her some months back as she had done to him. Her feelings for him still burned bright, and she couldn’t imagine his were any different. If they were… why would he be here.

Solstice was more than happy to listen to his rant as he threatened to choke her or fuck her, but her hands rested calmly on either side of her head as she lay beneath him. She made no attempts to fight or escape. Instead she just looked up at him calmly with her knowing set of blue eyes even as his grinding threatened to steal a moan from her lips. She had not felt a man since the last time she had lain with Kordavo. Her body craved an orgasm again, but now was not the time. She had to keep it under control.

However, in the way she always did, Solstice chose to ignore everything that Kordavo had said to her. His threats were of no merit to her.

“You missed me. I can tell.” She whispered, letting her eyes flutter closed as she remained calmly beneath him. Her breath trickled over his lips as their lips hovered barely far enough apart to even call them apart. In fact, as she talked her lips periodically brushed against his like the kiss of a butterfly. “You finally got some time off, and the first thing you wanted to do was rush back to my side. You can pretend to be mad and aloof all you want, Kordavo, but you missed me. You don’t think I’ve been watching the Dominion newscast to see when you returned home? There’s not a word of you being off duty. You came here first. To see me.”

She reached up with one hand to run her fingers through his hair even as he remained hulking over her. Solstice had lost her fear of Kordavo long ago. He could pulverize her in bed, leaving her beaten and bruised, but it hadn’t been since Skarvis that he had laid a hand on her in vain. He was infatuated with her, and it was hardly a mystery to her or anyone who had seen his mannerisms around her.

“Stop acting like I’m a burden to you, my Lord. You love me.” She whispered and slid her legs along his thighs until she could hook them tightly around his waist, keeping him pinned in close. They were both culprits of showing their toughness to the world to avoid vulnerability, but it was no use to do so in private quarters. “I’ll bow to you and call you my lord just as you will bow to me and call me your queen. The mother of your child. The only tie between you and basic human compassion. I’m a piece of you now, Lord Chenoweth, and it’s time you stop acting as if I’m negligible. If you didn’t want me anymore you wouldn’t be here now. So just enjoy my company and stop acting like an ass.”

She arched her neck, tiling her jaw such that their lips pressed together in a sturdy kiss. His arrival to her home planet had been less than impressive or admirable: prancing ablong like a prized stallion with his cock out, but now, wrapped in the warmth of his body, Solstice could feel herself being sucked back in and longing once more for the comfort she felt in his arms. Kordavo had dragged her off of a planet that would kill her, out of the pits of IB where her life as well as Kezra’s life were in danger, and hen out of her cell of a room where she surely would have rot if she had remained stagnant. As crude as the man was, he had that woman bound to him by the heart.

“Though as much as I would love to allow you to pierce your arrow into my depths, darling, there is no time for that now. A feast is being prepared in celebration of the royal hunt. If you fuck me now, surely we’ll be late to dinner… if we even make it at all.”

 

[BennyQ]

Solstice answered all his threats, promises, and statements in a way that he, Kordavo Chenoweth, never imagined. He was completely unprepared for it. Like some sage or all knowing seer, Solstice spoke the truth so accurately too him. And within him, it seemed to awaken proofs and evidence to match it. Yes, he did miss her. And yes, he could have gone anywhere in all of Dominion space, though he chose to come here. He finally had time to himself and he rather spend it kicking at the doors of the Queen of Fraundia, who did not return the hidden passion and flame to him outright. Maybe that was a cause for his own urgent madness in this moment. In either case, she was touching the truth as firmly as she was touching him, hand in his hair and legs about his own.

Kordavo hitched a sharp breath through his nose, leaning back a little as if her revelations were a form of anathema to him. Her terms were fair and only a measure of pride remained in the way of Kordavo’s assent, though that was rapidly degrading. She knew what he wanted, deep in his heart. All his actions, no matter how hostile or confrontational to Solstice, were only in desire of Solstice. She knew it and she openly declared that she knew that he knew it. There was no hiding it. Their bodies betrayed more than words ever could. Her legs were spread. His girth was hard and against her. Their bodies grated, agreeing to their natural state despite the warring between their minds.

Just get it over with. You’ll both feel much better afterwards.

He was still above her. His strong arms pinned her down. His body anchored her to the bed by sheer bulk and size. Now she was playing her games again. Kordavo hated how she could pinpoint the desire so accurately, admitting to it, which to him seemed a consent to all that it implied. Yet with her final remarks, she forbid it. Duty called, a feast was preparing, a hunt must be celebrated. And to celebrate the killing of animal, they then feast upon said animal. That sounded ridiculous to Kordavo. Was that more vital than the moment they were sharing now? Slowly, he leaned down towards her face, eyes darting from her own orbs, to her lips, and back to her eyes. More slowly, he smirked.

“You are a Queen.” He said at first. “And this is your house, fine. I deny nothing of what you said. But if you know so much of my desires and motives, do you actually think it is wise to dangle my long sought after prize then shut it behind the lid of a treasure chest? There is no if here.” Kordavo told her firmly, his hands coming down to her hips. As he looked into her eyes, his fingers got into the hem of her panties and began to slid them down. “But I’ll play your game. It is…amusing to me, to see you trying to act so superior to me. You always were a dramatic little girl. But here you can be Queen. I shall even…” he leaned to her ear to whisper the final part, “…bow to you.” He said, before leaning back and smiling.

Then he reached up to her cheek and pushed her face aside into the bed in a playful gesture, a light shove and slap, before leaning back up. The smirk was ever fixated upon his features. Then like a mighty tree creaking in the wind, with deliberate slowness yet never giving way, Kordavo sank down to his knees. His hands came up her smooth legs, finding her panties dangling upon her calves and helping to fully remove those from her ankles, tossing them aside. He raised her legs up and apart. And his eyes went from her pretty face down to her pretty sex. He looked back up, but drifted his face forward, until his open mouth glomped right upon her womanhood.

Dessert before dinner? Who taught him manners? But here on Fraundia, he figured Dominion laws of civility didn’t apply. He would have dessert before dinner. And his tongue with a firm stroke dragged up her sex. By the stars, she tasted as ravishingly as ever, unable to deny the sensation. His eyelids fluttered and then closed as he dug in further. His tongue stroked up and then down, first firmly and slowly, before picking up a vigorous pace. Soon he was lacerating her clit, flicking the thick and pointed tip of his tongue up and down rapidly, beating her sex this way and that. His hands wrapped around her firm thighs, hugging them to either side of her face. Try and escape this.

He made love to her womanhood with his tongue. He was very urgent and desperate, as if she might be snatched out of his grip by some unseen force. It compelled him to taste as much as he could, to lash his tongue over as much as he could. He burrowed it deep inside of her and twirled it all about, in small yet intensely fast circles. He alternated directions, he drew random patterns, he kissed and nibbled everywhere upon her outer folds. No part of her would remain untouched. It was all his. He did love her perhaps but he wouldn’t so easily say it. Yet his actions implied it. So much so that he felt he still couldn’t get enough of her.

 

[Sketchyequine]

Everything went quickly. It was as though the clock were ticking faster than ever before. He spoke to her, condescending as always. He pushed her around a little, as per usual. Then… took what he wanted anyway: typical Chenoweth behavior. They had such structured laws and a well armed and prepared military force. Yet… the Chenoweth men seemed as misbehaved as ever. She had told him to wait, that she wouldn’t allow it until after the feast, yet he was digging into his own kind of feast well before he had explicit consent to do so. Solstice would have been mad, really… if it hadn’t of been so long.

Or if it hadn’t have felt so marvelous.

Solstice’s back arched and her breath hitched as his tongue worked it’s magic on her waiting pussy. Oh how weak she was when it came to Kordavo. They had sex so many times before, it shouldn’t have been so surprising how it felt to have him lapping at her most intimate parts, but each flick of his tongue or movement of his lips sent her absolutely reeling. Her room, thoroughly soundproofed, began to echo with the cries of her voice as she lay squirming on her own royal bed.

“Kory… Baby… You have to s-stop.” She breathed out, but she struggled to form the words. Her body didn’t want him to stop, and it wasn’t getting any easier for hr mind to convince her nether regions otherwise. She was sopping wet and more than ready to get drilled hard after just a few minutes of his licking. Even now, after months apart, she was still just as push button for him as she had been back in their times together of Vorzania. Only now it had not been countable hours since the last time he had laid her, it had been a ridiculously long time since Solstice had last been taken. She was far too attractive to go this long without a man pleasuring her at her request. Perhaps her cunt was punishing her for not treating it like a queen.

Then a chime sounded in the room, and it gave Solstice just enough power inside her to hook her foot onto Kordavo’s shoulders and push him away from her hard- breaking contact between his lips… and her own.

She sat up quickly and tucked her legs under her. Sure, Kordavo could pick her up or throw her around like a rag doll… but the moment was passed, right? She looked up at him, eyes wide and her forehead pricked with the tiniest beads of sweat as a result of her ecstacy. She sat there a few lingering moments, attempting to catch her breath before she stood and replaced her panties around her hips before clearing her throat- almost pretending nothing had happened.

“I ordered you a suit to wear to the feast. You have to wear… something better than that if you want to it at the head of the table with me.” She gave him a playful wink has she began to drift on slightly shaky legs to a dumb-waiter of sorts tucked away behind wood paneling. Inside was a suit in deep green color, not so unlike the dress that Solstice had worn to the ball with Kordavo many moons ago. It was an intentional touch that she wasn’t sure that Kordavo would even notice. However, the most important detail of the tailored set was the Fraundian Emblem that was embroidered over the breast pocket of the suit jacket.

***

It hook some time for Solstice to get ready. Her ensemble was elegant, only fitting for a queen as she descended the grand staircase with her arm hooked through Kordavo’s elbow. He got to escort the queen to her table where her father and the rest of the royal court and select guests waited their arrival. It was quite special, really, for Kordavo Chenoweth, her long lost lover, to be allowed to escort her before their relationship even had any real merit, but Solstice took comfort in knowing he was there. He had been gone for all of her achievements. He had been gone when she became a mother. He had been gone when she had become a queen. But tonight, right in that moment, he was there as she won over the hearts of her people by completing this sacred ritual hunt.

They approached the table, which was carefully polished oak that had been intricately carved from wood many generations ago. It was surrounded by fifty chairs, each hand crafted as well, and every single one of them was shadowed by a man or woman standing respectfully as Solstice Nabeshin approached save for two: one a throne with a tall back and beasts, some of which the likes of Kordavo had probably never seen before, were carved into the shined wood. That was Solstice’s chair, it it was a great honor to be able to sit in it for the first time on that eve.

She stood before alongside Kordavo in front of his own and she gave her people a nod. “Thank you all for joining me on this very important day.” She announced, her voice powerful yet feminine as it traveled over the room of her respectful followers. “You may sit.”

There was a clamering as all fifty men and women placed buttock to seat and made themselves comfortable. And no sooner was the room quiet that servants began carrying in the massive and extravagant dishes in a parade that circled the table for all to see before placing the food on the table. There were breads, fruits, vegetables, and starches: each one beautifully displayed on its respective platter. There were plant dishes that were so fresh that they had been picked by farmers that very morning. And the grand finale, the reason they were all there, the carcass of the great stag was brought in on a platter big enough to hold even Kordavo’s body despite how long and lean he was.

The integrity of the beast was mostly intact, its body was skinned and gutted, of course, braised to perfection in a way that a millennia ago would not have been possible without roasting the animal over a fire for an entire day. Its body was mostly intact, save for the head and the hooves which had been removed, and it was positioned in such a way that it looked as though the animal were laying down peacefully. All around it flowers of varying color and shape were strewn over the platter. It made it quite beautiful, indeed, to look at despite the fact it was indeed a meal to be eaten. The animal’s last bed.

“It’s out of respect.” Solstice spoke in a low one to Kordavo. “We give the animal one last resting place of beauty before it transfers its energy, it’s life, to us. Each and every plant or animal we eat is respected, and we are thankful of our ancestors who have blessed us with the ability to fill our plates with such diverse foods that are beautiful before and after they are used to fuel the sacred bodies of the people. Nothing ever goes to waste… no energy ever goes unused by our people.” She tried to explain, but she doubted he understood… or even cared. In reality, Kordavo probably thought the entire thing was stupid anyway.

As stupid as he might have thought it was, there was no doubt how important this moment was to the woman at his side. In fact, a single tear of joy began to glisten in the corner of her eye.

“We must thank the Earthlings for the energy that flows through our veins this day, my beloved subjects. Our very ancestors, scientists and godly people, thought nothing more important than bringing the exquisite ancient life forms to our humble planet as well as introducing the genetics of many exotic beasts as well. They are blessing our mouths with this meal. It is to them we owe our everything. May this food heal our souls.”

”May this food heal our souls.” The phrase was repeated as a chorus in the room, echoing off of the walls before everyone bowed their heads respectfully, sending thanks to the ancient ones. To their Fraundian ancestors.

“It is now time to eat.” Solstice announced, and the heads were raised from their bowed position before the servants hurried in to begin serving the group. Carving the stag, dipping the dishes, and filling the wine goblets of the royals, Including Solstice, Kordavo, and Jebediah who sat on the other side of Lord Chenoweth, right around the corner of the table.

As servants filled their plates with more food than Solstice believed even Kordavo could eat, Jeb reached out and squeezed the young lord’s shoulder with a firm yet knowing hand. The prior king did not have any disdain for Kordavo Chenoweth. If the man was good enough for Solstice and good enough to save the last remaining fruit from his loins, then the young man was plenty good enough for Jebediah. “I’m glad you could make it, son.” Jeb whispered with a smile hidden in his white facial hair. “It means more to her than you know to have you at her side tonight. The only way this could be more a blessing for my daughter was if her own daughter could be at her other arm. But having you here? I think that will be just enough to keep her smiling tonight.” The wise old man nodded, removing his hand from Kordavo.

“Now if you two would hurry up and have more children you would make this old man’s heart happier.” He muttered under his breath before shooting Kordavo a playful glance. It was the old man’s first time meeting the lord. He would have no idea of Kordavo’s general lack of a sense of humor.

 

[BennyQ]

He had to stop? Kordavo didn’t have to do anything, His hands kept her thighs spread, his tongue and mouth relentlessly issuing praises upon her sex. How could he have parted from such a magical sensation for so long? To think he could ever have gotten bored of this. Now he had to make up for lost time, to atone for his idiocy and pursue the deepest and strongest passions he could muster for Solstice. His mind raced with the possibilities and his hands tinged with the want of possessiveness and domineering. There was the sound of a chime. He ignored it. He only had ears for Solstice, fool that she was, trying to fight the pleasure.

But she put a stop to it. Slowly, Kordavo rose from where he had been, licking his lips several times, looking over the half-naked Queen on the bed like a piece of meat he was going to devour. This was her doing, putting a stop to it. She denied herself the finish. Well it didn’t matter. Kordavo would. It seemed clear to him Solstice was a mess. She needed to be reminded of the joys they could share together. She pulled her panties up but he only smirked. That wouldn’t stop him. “Dinner?” He said with a measure of annoyance and impatience in his tone. Is that what she preferred over this? He puffed his cheeks and blew air before acquiescing, snatching the outfit she presented to him.

Fine, he’ll play her stupid game. But after they’ll be playing his. And only his. He slapped one of the bed posts (very sturdy indeed) as he went to the center of the room and boldly changed into the Fraundian uniform right there.

Needless to say the uniform was not to his liking. Sure, it fit well and was comfortably, but they were not his colours. She hooked her arm around his and together, like old pros, they entered into the grand chamber and dining hall together, with all eyes upon them, including the old King, Jebediah, who had to step down after the war. Kordavo was not bothered by the crowd of strangers. The throne, albeit fancy and exquisite, he thought as being extravagant. Monarchies were strange to him. Rather than worship one person and their family, why not the entire State, which provided for all? No single person should have that sort of power to themselves. She brought him alongside and despite everyone still standing and afoot, Kordavo seated himself without a care, eyes roaming the faces of those present. Maybe he had fought against some of these. He wondered who.

Servants brought food and drink to the table. Kordavo took wine the moment it was offered, not reaching for any food, and enjoying his drink. The vintages were different on Fraundia but altogether decent and good. It was nothing he hadn’t tried before but the work and craftsmanship they put into preparation and appearance was something else. The stag was the main course, cooked and ready for consumption. Solstice explained the ceremony and custom behind it. He didn’t respond, casting his eyes towards her, quirking his eyebrow in unspoken questions. But you’re going to eat it anyways. Why bother with the display and pomp? But that was their tradition and he left it alone. On Vorzania, such a beast would have been chopped and diced by robotic servitors into bite-sized morsels ready for immediate consumption. Food was for nourishment, not a spectacle like jewelry or dresses.

“The only food I want so delicately prepared,” he whispered back into her ear, “is you.” He smirked and drew back. Evidently he didn’t care about the custom but endured it anyways. No, he just thought about Solstice bound on her own bed, with himself above her with any and all possibilities under the sun and moon available to him.

He quirked another eyebrow to the ritualistic prayer issued before eating. He at least put his cup of wine down, understanding at least it was not proper to consume anything before the tribute was respected. Soon everyone was digging in and servants cut portions to divide for each guest, ladening each plate with piles of it. It was indeed a Kingly, or Queenly, meal. It definitely was starting to rumble his stomach and water his mouth, more greatly than his desire for Solstice as a meal. He looked over to her, in all her glory as a Queen. These people harkened to her, followed her every word and thought as a command, and loved her dearly. And she clearly was moved by their dedication and the whole scene. Were her eyes bright with tears? He knew because he had seen it before. He was on the verge of opening his mouth to say something to her when a strong hand grabbed his shoulder and averted his attention.

It was the King. Though Kordavo didn’t feel any particular emotion when he was called son, the King’s statement only added to his thoughts on how Solstice felt. This was enormously important for her. It was proof of her wisdom, that despite the war and turmoil all about her, she could still endure the storm and carry on with her people’s traditions. As long as that lived, in their hearts, the Fraundian people would always survive. They could lose their homes, their planet, everything. But as long as they carried that feeling in their heart, they would survive forever. And Solstice, she was their Queen. She was the living epitome of that Fraundian dream.

Kordavo rose both his eyebrows now at the King’s open suggestion. “You are worse than my own mother, Lord.” He said back flatly. He would be doing just that, practicing the art of making children, if it wasn’t for the mother. But he wasn’t going to tell the mother’s father that. But the earlier mention of Kezra put a smile on his face. “And perhaps I should have brought Kezra, if it would have satisfied your desire for that. Unfortunately, she remains a babe and has no inkling or concept of what goes on about her. This feast would have been nothing more than a panoply of sounds to disturb her precious slumber. And she is quite capable of making her annoyance known to the universe. I thought to leave her with someone of like mind for now.” He said, surprisingly quite talkative, since it concerned his daughter, who was still a marvel and a tremendous curiosity to Kordavo. He made that, after all.

Of course, he referred to his own father as well, who would make any annoyance known to the universe if he could. Together, him and Kezra were perfect for one another. They could complain together.

It was a strange concoction then that formed inside of Kordavo. He turned to look back at Solstice, with her bright eyes and Queenly stature, then towards the food. He wasn’t thinking of feast, whether food or the joys of bodily flesh. He saw unbidden images of his own family, of their feasts and simple moments of intimacy. He looked at the faces all around, all smiling and full of mirth, clinking their cups together as they drank to the good health of their Queen and the prosperity of their Kingdom. All of it felt warm. Not like the cold, hard feel of a Dominion warship or the far removed towers of Vorzania, lording over teeming millions so disconnected from them. He didn’t want that anymore. And he didn’t want Kezra to feel that anymore. They needed warmth, not of their bodies but of their…souls. Kordavo had never believed in such until now.

He shot to his feet, drawing the attention of many. “I have something to say.” He said firmly, looking at everyone in turn until he heard all of their attentions. He didn’t look at Solstice though, not in that first moment as he made his demand. He wanted silence for this. “Some of you may know me. I am Kordavo Chenoweth, a Lord of the Ruling Conclave of the Dominion. Like you, we are of ancient Earth, though we clearly espouse different elements of that mother culture than you. But nothing exemplifies our common heritage so well as the union of hearts…and souls.” He added, finally looking down at Solstice beside him. He reached out to cup her cheek, using his thumb to wipe any trace of a tear that might have escaped. An affectionate gesture, in front of so many. He didn’t care if it interrupted his words, that it drew on another silence, awkward or not.

“Our peoples fought a war, needled by the petty divides of this common heritage. But it was love and tolerance, not hate and strength, that ultimately brought it to an end. I don’t wish to see it started again. Solstice- Queen Nabeshin, and I, have had a complicated history together. We fought, we survived, rescued one another and hated one another. We also…loved one another. And it does not seem right to me that certain wrongs persist if this love is to endure, and the peace that it brought. I cannot bring back the lives that were lost. All I can do is ensure that the lives to come are guaranteed peace and security to pursue their own happiness and prosperity. Therefore, before this court, I have a proposal to make.”

Rhetoric wasn’t his strong suit but it was in his blood. He didn’t know what force or entity empowered him but it had been said. And now it was being done. He shifted his chair behind him further to give him space and he turned towards Solstice. And then he went down on one knee, staring deeply into her eyes, taking her hand between his two and holding it.

“I don’t have a ring or any other item to invoke this promise. All I have is myself and what is in my power to give, if you’ll accept it. Solstice Nabeshin…will you consent to be married to me, to complete the struggles we have already endured together, while taking a share of any and all struggles that are to follow, side by side, together? You are my soul, Solstice. You are the reason I have now for living, for doing anything that I do. You are what is behind my will, my dreams, and my ambition. You are the mother of my child but you deserve more than just that label. You deserve to have all that I have and more. Will you marry me?” He asked of her, eyes bright with a gleam, while his heart thundered and his mouth struggled to keep itself wet.

What would she say?

 

[Sketchyequine]

The dinner was going on without a hitch. There were merry voices and bright smiles everywhere that Solstice’s eyes could possibly travel, and it warmed her heart. She knew that the man at her side had no real affinity for these types of gathering. She could just see it now: he would comment later on how silly the entire thing was. That was typical behavior for the young and naive Kordavo Chenoweth. But there must have been something inside him that prevented him from acting up at this particular event. Even if it was something so simple as it being his first event on Fraundia, it must have been enough to stave off his sour attitude. However, it seemed that Solstice’s good luck concerning her date’s good behavior might have worn out the second he stood: announcing himself and demanding the attention of the room.

Instinctively she bowed her head, cupping her forehead in one hand as she prepared herself to be embarrassed by the lord in front of her people for the second time that day. She rubbed her hand over her face then looked up at Kordavo, preparing to have to apologize for his actions and cover up any insults he may make to her, her family, or the planet’s natives in general. She prepared for words like “idiotic”, “Barbaric”, or “pointless”. But, just like before, his behavior surprised her. He was appropriate, and she’d dare o say even sincere as he spoke. What was he getting at?

She allowed him to cup his cheek. The only remnant of a tear left were those formed out of happiness that the day for her royal feast had finally come and the pure joy she felt seeing her followers so happy for their new queen along with the meal they were being served. She leaned into his palm ever so slightly, returning his affection as she looked up at him, but in reality she was still utterly confused. This man was all over the place today. Just what could he possibly be up to now? She listened, intently, as he continued. Spilling truths and sweet rhetoric. He talked of the behind the scenes happenings of this war and how both her and him had survived, but not only that, how his influence and bloodline had ultimately put her into the seat she occupied now- though this audience likely wouldn’t know all the details to that extreme.

And once he dropped to one knee it was over. Tears streamed down Solstice's face as she cupped her mouth with the hand that Kordavo did not hold between his own and she knew exactly what his intentions were.

Marriage. He wanted to wed her, in in this spur of the moment desire he wanted her entire court to see his devotion to her and her devotion to him. If, that is, she said yes. He wore his heart on his sleeve, which was not a common occurrence for the young lord, and offered it to her. Now and forever. To marry her was to give her his privilege and burden as part of such a high ranking conclave family, and to make their names forever tie together whenever they were seen. Wife of a lord. Husband of a queen. It was a huge commitment to be had just for their nobility. But it also concerned their own hearts and the future of their young child. To marry meant a certain and bright future for Kezra, no matter which path she walked down.

But besides all of that, Solstice knew that her answer stemmed from her own desires. She had loved Kordavo. In his many months away she had forgotten it, but now, as he exhibited the rare softness seemingly reserved only for her, she remembered why it was that she loved that man. He had broken her. He had hurt her in so many ways both physically and emotionally. But he had seen something in her besides a lowly POW. He had come to see her that day in IB because he wanted to, not because he was obligated to, and in finding out she was pregnant he drug her from the depths of that hell and chose to love her in the halls of his own home. Now he chose to love her all over again in the halls of hers in front of all of these important people. He had chosen to love their child rather than discard it as a half-blood along with her as a savage. There could only be one answer to his question.

“Yes.”

She almost choked on the words before she rose to her feet, pulling Kory up from his knees as well so that she could throw her arms around him and bury her face into his shoulder to hide the tears of joy that trickled down her cheeks. She didn’t want anything more than to be close to him in that very moment. She could feel the warmth radiating off of his lean frame and she swore his heartbeat radiated through heer bosom. Was he nervous? Did he honestly fear her re? He had been gone for a long time, yes, but there were some undeniable truths at hand here: 1. He was the father of her child, 2. He had saved her life, and 3. They had survived Skarvis only because they had had one another. She couldn’t reject him at his most vulnerable.

“I love you.” She whispered into his ear softly so that only he would hear. “And I’m not going anywhere for as long as you are mine, my lord.” She added. One hand sliding up his back until it raked through his hair on the back of his head affectionately. In a fluid motion she moved back and pressed her lips into his. Perhaps he would be angry that she kissed him so publicly, but it mattered not. She needed to feel him- to taste him. And until they were laid up in her bedroom for the evening this was the best she could do. It was an innocent kiss, no tongue or force, but the passion in it was obvious as her lips traveled carefully over his.

Once the moment has concluded and the kiss had broken she turned back towards the royal court. Her cheeks were sparkling with her tears of joy and her teeth sparkled through her smile as she laced her fingers with Kory’s and raised their hands up together in tribute for all to see. “Ladies and Gentlemen, We’re engaged!” She announced, looking over at Kordavo proudly. One would have to be a fool not to see he was handsome, though the soft spots in his personality that really made him the catch that he was were hidden from strangers. He was guarded, and Solstice knew it, but it didn’t matter. He had her, and she could be his window to the soul. After all, water was the best artist when it came to molding cold, hard stone.

Applause sounded from around the table. Most cheered in support of their queen. For to them, any man she deemed worthy of her sacred hand was worthy of being loved by the people of her lands. If Kordavo treated his wife and her culture well he would be well revered by them until he died of old age and stagnancy. Everyone seemed joyous, even Jebediah slapped Kory on the shoulder in congrats. Everyone celebrated except for one sad-eyed stable boy at the far reaches of the table.

 

[BennyQ]

His own heartbeat felt like great drums pounding in anticipation of the answer. Each second felt a lifetime, enough to relive all of their shared experiences and memories many times over. What would she say? What would she do? It seemed to Kordavo that her answer would be the culmination of all that had happened between them, from Skarvis to Vorzania and now here. They had made love to one another. They had also fought one another. But most importantly, they could talk and trust one another. She had shed tears before him and he had made himself vulnerable and open in doing what he did here before her. What more proofs could be self-evident than those moments together?

She said yes and like a great clock striking the hour, Kordavo felt his whole life change. Great alterations were in store for him now. But he did not care, for he had Solstice now, tied to him for the eternity of their lives.

Before the gathered feast, she threw herself into his arms and his moved to engulf her, rising to his feet. His embrace tight to the point he nearly raised her off her toes, holding her close, feeling her tears fall yet again and soak at his collar and shirt. Mentally he rolled his eyes in exhaustion at these dramatics but outwardly he smiled, for he knew they were of joy and happiness, for him and for each other. Her simple answer put all the pieces in place. No longer did his heart beat with nervous anticipation. He had won. They had won. Their future was bright and he was confident enough to seize it all. Nothing would stop him. She whispered her love and commitment. Kordavo only returned a kiss upon her cheek. He would not speak the words. He would prove it. Tonight. And many nights over.

And then very openly, she kissed him more fully. For once, only once, colour flushed into his neck and cheeks but he kissed her back, enduring it all. He kissed her deeply and cared not what the Fraundians thought or said. She belonged to him now. No obstacle would impede him. If they had a problem, they could approach him direct. Otherwise, they could remain silent and sullen if not happy for them. Now hands clasped with one another, Solstice turned them to those people who all seemed to share their boon and she declared their engagement from that point forward. Kordavo stood tall and proud, gazing down at his bride-to-be. She was beautiful, Queenly, and powerful in her own way. Here was a wife he could not be ashamed of, to whom all would see the inherent royalty in her spirit, and he could proudly display before his own countrymen. They would acknowledge it. And Kordavo would be content with her at his side.

There were many congratulations to be had and offered. Jebediah, his new father-in-law, patted him on the shoulder and Kordavo did not even feel a measure of annoyance at the personal contact. Solstice was his. All this was just an episode, a memory, to be blown by the coming winds of joy once his life with Solstice began again. Truly began, on mutual grounds, and not one dragged behind the other. It would be on equal footing. With all said and done, Kordavo finally could sit and they could all enjoy their meals. But under the table, he could not help but seek her hand and hold it, not wanting to let go. He had come here for her. He did what needed to be done to have Solstice. Now nothing would take her away from him.

Moreover, Kordavo could not stop smiling. He felt what seemed like a never-ending flourish of butterflies in his torso, flushing tingles throughout all his nerves and limbs. The feast seemed now to pass like a dream. Had he really smiled so much before? Had food ever tasted so good? Did he ever relish her touch so much? Did they feed one another morsels of dessert and drink wine from the same cup? He showed them a HoloVid of Kezra on her birthday, where she either slept or cried the entire time despite all the attentions his father tried to give his granddaughter. It was amusing to see the elderly Lord Janus struggle. Kordavo could barely recall after that. In his mind’s eye, it was simply gold and silver mingled to create a beautiful effect. It happened, existed, and occurred. And when they retired afterwards and walked to their room and closed the door behind them, it could no longer be contained. He let out a great echoing laugh and seized Solstice under her arms, spinning her in the air before simply embracing her tight.

“You are mine now.” He whispered into her ear and kissed her with more passion than he ever displayed before, forceful and needy, practically wrestling her mouth and tongue for all the pleasures that could be had from their dancing kiss.

“Now you cannot deny me, if ever you could before.” He winked as he set her down, both his hands cupping her warm cheeks. “If one bone of contention I have, it is because you wept. Again. Surely a Queen must have more composition. You are beautiful. Do not ever let such things mar your grace and beauty again.” He said with a teasing smirk, his thumbs running over her cheeks as if to wipe away any remnants of tear streaks or trails. There was to be none of that tonight. No more. Just smiles and…pleasure. Leaving her be a moment, he cast his eyes about her quarters for a drink and moved towards it, loosening some of his garments. He picked up a cup to pour wine then discarded it immediately, deciding to drink directly from the bottle. He turned and offered it to her.

“Will you wear your crown for me, oh queen? And a throne we need to fetch for you. I had one in mind…but it seemed to me she did not appreciate it before the feast, since she got off a little too early. Perhaps that was not to her liking.” Kordavo kept on teasing her, referring to when she put a stop to his delightful kissing of her womanhood. Now if she ever wanted him down there again, legs spread or seated upon his face, she had to ask for it. Taking off his top, he unveiled his strong and lean torso, marked with scars, his cybernetic arm, and his chiseled abdomen. It all belonged to her now, flesh, nerve, bone, and machinery. Of body and mind.

 

[Sketchyequine]

Solstice watched joyously as Kordavo interacted so happily with her people, emerging himself in their ways, even if it only was for one night. He laughed, grinned, ate, drank, and shared a holovid of their precious daughter with the rest of the people near them at the table. She was precious as she slept in a peaceful state. She noticed the way she cried when Janus goaded her and she couldn’t help but chuckle. That was certainly Solstice’s daughter. The young queen felt the same way whenever she was forced to spend time with the older Lord. Though, it was a lot less acceptable for an adult woman to cry because she hated someone’s company.

When the time was right and the gathering began to collectively disperse, Solstice allowed herself to be escorted away by her fiancé back through the grand halls to the queen’s chamber. And when they got there, Kordavo could no longer contain his excitement. He scooped her up and spun her while he laughed. The pure joy in the air of his voice made Solstice giggle in unison as her arms wrapped around his shoulders securely to avoid being dropped of flung. “I’ve been yours since you got me pregnant, Korda-“ he cut her off when his lips pressed into hers so that they might share a magical kiss that must have been unlike the world had ever seen before.

Solstice had spent months on Vorzania during her pregnancy, the remainder of the war, and the months between Kordavo’s departure and her expertise being needed back here on Fraundia. In that time she had seen many married nobles like Kordavo, but she remembered very few of them appearing to be truly happy. It seemed as though marriage in the Dominion was based more on merit and influence than love or desire. But her and Kory? They were in love with one another. Often times they were apart, they fought, and sometimes they wanted nothing to do with one another, but Solstice had loved that man for quite some time. They were to be married because they wanted to be, not because it came with familial benefit.

She said seared on the bed where he had sat her while he fetched a bottle of wine, and when he offered it to her so in turn took a long swig directly from the bottle as well before handing it back to him. She let out a small chuckle at his commentary. Perhaps her betrothed had had a little too much to drink already. “The throne you give to me is a thrown every man gives to his queen. What makes your queen special is that in her monarchy she has more than one throne to sit upon, my lord. The one you offer me just has to be saved for nights alone in the bedroom.” She purred, watching as he peeled away his shirt before she stood, lowering the zipper of her gown and letting it fall into a heap at her feet.

Her flesh was beautiful. It was strewn with definable muscle tone alongside her wide, feminine hips and her bosom which was hugged to her ribcage with the strapless bra she had been wearing under the gown. Both bra and panty were simple and grey in color. The thing rather athletic as it hugged her hips and concealed her southern lips that he had been so adamant about getting to know again. Her body was his wonderland, and she belonged to him just as much as much as he belonged to her. They were a unit now, and they were not to be separated easily.

Solstice strode foreword, pressing forward until she was abdomen to abdomen, pectoral to breast with her liver and she traced her fingers gently over his hips. “Your father is going to be pissed at you, my love.” She swayed her hips left and right in a danceliks motion as she stood sin to skin with Kory, spinning them slowly in circles to silent music as they took turns drinking from the bottle of wine. “And your mother isn’t going to understand why you’d marry when your duty is to the state not to a woman.” She added, her fingers gentle as they touched him. “In fact, I’m not certain you have a single family member that will want you to marry me aside from our daughter who deserves stable parentage.”

She reached up, cupping his cheek gently as he had done with her not long before. “But none of that matters, my love.” She whispered. “Because we have each other. I’m your family now, and if you love me and treat me kind I always will be.” She leaned up, pressing her lips to his. Of course, this still allowed for the depraved sexual behavior that Kordavo longed for, but there would need to be some more boundaries set between them: compromises made on both sides. Kordavo would need to make some changes if he wanted this wedding to happen, and Solstice thought it best to put the most important thing out in the open now.

“You have to put this family first.” She whispered, holding his chin gently so that he looked at her. “Your duty is to me first. Before your work, before your mother or your father. Me and Kezra need to be your top priorities. No excuses, my love.” She knew how much she was asking. She knew his immense sense of duty to the state and his reputation, but there needed to be something more important. “You can’t fly off for months and not bother to contact me anymore. You can’t forget about us ever again. Can you promise me that?” She asked, her touch gentle as she looked up into his eyes.

“If you can, I can promise you a welcoming party every time we reunite that will not be easy to forget.” She let out a small laugh before her hand moved south the clutch Kordavo’s cock through his trousers. She rubbed him gently as she looked up at him. She wanted to make love: to give her body to him completely again, but she needed to know that he would make her this promise before they could consummate their engagement.

 

[BennyQ]

This was a moment of vulnerability like no other. The wine, the food, the happy occasion, there was no amount of sheer stoicism that could keep the ripple of butterflies out of Kordavo’s body. He had a beautiful woman to call his own, with rank and prestige that none could shame or disparage. All the pieces of this jigsaw that had confused and irked him for the past year and a half were now all fitting together perfectly. What they had was a rare thing. What they had he would perhaps not truly appreciate until he didn’t have it anymore. He had some sense of it though and he was determined to make the most of it, for he didn’t want it to end ever.

Their clothing fell into messy piles at their heap, so uncharacteristic of the control and orderly manner they usually conducted their lives. That’s what this moment was, a period of sheer unbridled love and lust that would not be ending any time soon. Two flames would conjoin to create a much greater congregation. Kordavo came to her as Solstice unveiled her delights and curves for his sight and touch. His hands glided over her naked sides and their abdomens grated together. He had to look down at her, their height differences emphasised. She had no heels to reach his lips but he was generous enough to dip his chin down to his chest to give her that accommodation.

His hands roamed over the firm tones and sinew of her back, feeling how taut and slender she was. She spoke of his father and already he rolled his eyes in a dismissive, uncaring attitude. He was here. Janus was not. He instead focused on the minute movements of her body, feeling his own react without much coaxing on his own part. His hardness grew and his hands rested upon her own hips, swaying with her, taking turns with the bottle. She spoke on, about his family, about their views on her, but she was right. None of it mattered, because they had each other.

They kissed and that truth didn’t seem more evident than in that moment when their lips danced. No one would or could impede their heart’s yearning for each other. Not all the monsters of Skarvis, not the high and mighty Lords of the Conclave, or the royalists of Fraundia. She was his.

But she seemed to throw doubt on his commitment, forcing him again to agree to concessions. She had to be first. Kezra had to be first. All the indoctrination and upbringing that he had been ingrained with to forever serve the State that spawned him had to be set aside. It would not be easy. He could agree now but knew there would be cases where he might fail in that promise, simply because of his name. Chenoweth. Deeds and valour were expected of that name and he had to live up to it, just as she had to be Queen. He did not put any of that on Solstice. He let her come here, to be who she was meant to be. Could she not consent to him being who he was supposed to be? She wanted a promise and his eyes looked at her, unwavering even as she made to grab his formidable cock. He raised his chin then and looked at the ceiling. There was no answer there but truly, among the stars, he knew that was where his fate did lie.

But he was here, wasn’t he? He didn’t want to argue it with her. He caressed his hands up her naked body to rest on her firm shoulders, bringing his eyes down again, before kissing her forehead. “I have never forgotten. I came here, didn’t I? You want a promise. Always so dramatic. All I can say is that you have to trust me. Trust me to learn, to grow, and develop into what you want me to be. I am trying. I will not leave without notice or contact anymore. That is all I can promise. My effort and my determination to be with you is my chief goal in life, above all else. I love you.” Kordavo consented to say at least, hoping that would placate her. His life might not be his own in the future, if duty did call.

He leaned down to kiss her again, on the lips, as his hands shifted to under her shoulders. He put the wine bottle aside. There was so much of Solstice he wanted to grab and feel. Instead, he deprived himself of that wonderful sensation…by suddenly tossing Solstice back onto the bed, watching her flop and bounce, her hair all wild. He chuckled himself, relishing also the difference in strength. “Stay right there, my little Queen.” He snickered at her, as he tucked his thumbs into his trousers and dropped it all. Out sprang his cock, erect, firm, and endowed. But he didn’t join her yet. He went in search of implements. A Queen should have much fabrics and he found some silk. Poor her. He tore it into shreds and selected some choice lengths. He also picked up his belt. This was going to be a very vigorously night.

Kordavo came to the bedside and clambered down to grab Solstice. Cooperative or not, he was rough and playful with her as he dragged her where he wanted her to be. Off the bed in fact, bringing her down to her knees by one of the tall bed posts. He grabbed her arms and forced her wrists above her head, where he tied them with the silk shreds to the post. He took a step back to admire his handiwork, crouching to grasp her breasts, pinching and squeezing as he smiled into her face and shared a few more kisses. Then he gently caressed and stroked her crimson strands of hair behind her face, diligently and softly, before bunching all her hair together in one hand and holding it. He stood, her face level with his groin, and his cock pointed at her mouth.

He gave a single command. “Choke.” He ordered, as the head of his cock began to rub against her face and lips. He had the Queen, the sovereign of this world, tied and at his mercy.

He had been giving her this service but she had cut it off. That was her own fault. Now he would take his and if he felt generous (which he was feeling) he intended to finish what he started anyways. The night was young though and there was much else to do besides. He had one particular game in mind too, given how she enjoyed riding. For now, he watched with wide, unblinking eyes as he forced his length into her mouth, in and out, starting with slow, long thrusts. “Keep your lips open, little bird. When we return to my world, I’ll have ways of keeping them spread always. Shame it can’t be accommodated now but we’ll make due.” Kordavo said with a smirk, as he plunged his cock into her mouth and then pulled it all the way out. “But first I have to pay my dues to the Queen.” He said as he plunged into her mouth again, pushing to the hilt, uncaring for the gag or choke, for that is what he wanted anyways.

 

[Sketchyequine]

His response to her was perhaps a bit lacking in certainty, but Solstice had learned to expect nothing less of her Lord. He had a way of always answering her questions without giving her any certainty at all. He was an expert at beating around the bush and even making her seem unreasonable for even asking him such questions, calling her dramatic. All likely a result of being raised with a politician as a father. Politicians were experts at never answering questions. It was the most infuriating part of Solstice’s position as Queen on Fraundia, actually, to constantly negotiate boundaries and terms with Dominion politicians- Janus himself included.

Kordavo’s words, while vague, were enough. He loved her. He promised to try for her. Just as she would try for him. This wasn’t a match that could be made without compromise. They were two halves of a whole, yes, but each half had conflicting ideals and priorities. It should have been a disaster on all accounts, yet here they were about to indulge in the mingling of flesh once more for the first time in months. What an odd couple, but Solstice was determined to make them unstoppable so long as they had each other.

She giggled briefly as he tossed her on the bed. It was playful. Harmless. She had no fear nor aversions. She would give him anything for he had her heart. Every other part of her was simple in comparison to that. She stayed, as she was directed. And she watched intently as he dropped the trousers she had had tailored for him and out sprang his formidable erection. She licked her lips as she laid eyes on it. Gosh. It almost seemed like he may have even gotten larger since the last time he had lain her. All she could think was how heavenly it would feel for him to plunge into her sweet, royal pussy and massage her cervix with its magnitude.

When he tore apart the silk, however, she was ripped from her daydream and her brow furrowed. Such a waste. The royal purple fabric in his hands was fine and expensive, but it was nothing that couldn’t be replaced. This night with her fiancé was far more special than any bolt of fabric. Select strips and a belt. This was going to be a demanding night for Solstice’s body, and she was excited for it. The high that Kory got off of the roughness and unconventional treatment of his lover was delicious to Solstice, and she would happily please him in any way he asked. She was feeling generous too. A willing participant in his games.

She was easy to manipulate in his hands, and she went willingly off of the bed and onto her knees. She happily moved her arms above her head for binding, and didn’t protest no matter how tight he made it. When he kissed her she smiled against his lips and returned each kiss, giving him a soft moan as he grabbed for her breast, but it was obvious what was coming. He was going to fuck her face like a whore, and she was going to love every second of it. If he had just wanted a quick fuck he would have left heron the bed for his use. Down here? She was at the perfect height to suck on his cock. And when he stood she admired him for the split second before he made his demand. Choke.

“As you wish, my lord.” She booed to him, looking up to him with her bright blue eyes as he prodded her with his cock until she opened her mouth and accepted him a few seconds later.

He was big and hard. Solstice had not had a cock in her mouth since his departure from Vorzania, so when he pushed himself to the hilt she couldn’t help but gag on him. She shut her eyes tightly, trying to focus of relaxing her throat, but nothing she did to prepare prevented her from gagging when he pushed in to the hilt each and every time. Tears began to form in her eyes and spill down her cheeks as he continued to fuck his Queens mouth. Those lips had uttered countless speeches, given countless orders, and uplifted the hearts of so many Fraundia men and women, but now? They were filled with the cock of a Dominion lord.

If anyone would have ever told Solstice that this was where she would end up she would have called them insane. She never would have believed she would lay with an enemy soldier, but now he didn’t have to rape her to indulge in her charms. She would happily give them to him with even the slightest request. And now, even with her hands bound, she gave him her all. Makeup-stained tears trailed down her cheeks. Drool cascaded from her lips and drips down her chin until it landed on her ample breasts that had gown bigger ever since she had suckled a babe on them. She was gagging every few seconds as he pinned her between his cock and the bedpost, giving her no room to escape even if she had wanted to as he had his way with that sweet mouth of hers.

It lasted an eternity it seemed. Solstice’s jaw and throat were sore but the time Kordavo’s thrust got uneven and more frantic. She had learned in her experience with him that when he neared his orgasm he lost some of his rhythmic control. Want turned to need as his climax pushed him over the edge into almost insanity. The bucking of his hips got harder, rougher. It became more and more difficult for Solstice to endure his passions as her gagging got more violent and the trails of spit flowed even faster. When he finally pulled out of her mouth she looked a mess: covered in tears and drool all over her chin and tits. This queen looked like a class act who’re as her eyes fluttered open to meet the gaze over her lover.

Solstice knew his seed was coming. She wanted to see him watch her accept it, so she waited patiently with her mouth open and her tongue hanging out. When he finally came her eyes closed out of instinct as his copious load spayed over her face and landed in her mouth and upon her royal tongue. She didn’t know that a load of this size was possible, but when it spewed over her she couldn’t help but moan for him as he coated her in his claim. It seemed to go everywhere: painting her eyelids, cheeks, lips, chin, and even breasts while still giving her an ample taste of him- of her lord. Solstice swallowed, licked her lips, then swallowed a second time before she opened her eyes and looked up at him helplessly and covered in cum.

“More, my love. Give me more. Fuck me MORE. I want to feel you in every hole tonight. I am your queen, but I want you to treat me like your whore. Please…” she begged him, leaning forward to kiss his cock and give the bulbous head a little suckle in an attempt to make her point.

 

[BennyQ]

It was utterly without dignity or normalcy the way Kordavo decided to use the Queen of Fraundia in that moment. A ruler of millions of people was reduced to no more than a sleeve for his throbbing, thick cock. Her lips parted to accommodate his most eager request and he slid in deep, stretching her mouth and feeling his member snake down into her tight throat. At first there was little rush to the act. Kordavo glided to the apex that his cock could reach within her, before gently drawing his hips back to remove himself completely. Once more he lined up and pressed himself in, forcing Solstice to enjoy the entirety of his length over and over again without pause or halt.

He shuddered with each plunge, relishing the tingles that diluted back through his body. He started to like how it felt being embedded so deep down her throat and mouth, the warmth and wetness encompassing him on every side. Kordavo pressed his forehead to the bed post much higher than Solstice, eyes looking down at the little Queen sandwiched between the two hard places, his impressive lower abdomen in front of her face and the hard wood behind her. He watched the way her body would gag, how her wide, bright eyes would shed tears every time he clogged her windpipe with his length. It was rough and certainly not considerate. But such was the madness of his passion for her, his desire to release, and love.

And yet he punished her still, now a habit, rather than an intent. She could take it. She gagged and choked. He could feel her breath through her nose on his shaft. She endured it, without any sign of complaint. She could take it and more. So Kordavo began to give her more. He began to spear his cock faster and harder, dropping the length of the thrust for greater vigour and drive. Both his hands came to grip either side of her head and hair, holding her face steadily to receive his honours upon her tongue. He could feel the pressure mounting intensely within him, his abdomen rolling and flexing with each growing pant. He couldn’t restrain it for long. A tremendous, explosive outburst was coming and he barely saw her through studded eyelids as it began to wash over him.

His groaning and grunting were voluminous in scope. It echoed in the room. He had no filter, no need for control in this royal bedroom of privacy. So many months of waiting and frustration were unleashed like a shockwave as his cock expunged itself of its copious offerings. Mingled with her salvia and tears, it formed quite a broth upon her face and body. His body was still aimlessly thrusting throughout, though with little control. The first half of his orgasm blasted into her mouth and coated her tongue but his wild spearing caused his cock to slip free, running up her face momentarily before he finally halted his hips, the rest landing with soft splatters upon her face and onto her neck and breasts. His member throbbed and jerked before her, just like his strong legs, toes digging into the carpet beneath.

Kordavo felt so emptied, so hollow, within. It was as if his very life essence had been shot upon her, his desire to be one with her somewhat achieved by this thought. His head pressed into the bedpost, rubbing against its hard surface as if to find some purchase against the thunderous vibrations of pleasure that still racked his body. Only Solstice could do this to him, leaving him so vulnerable after such a lust driven madness that came over him. It was done. It was over. He let go of her hair, now disheveled from his grip, and raised a forearm against the bedpost to rest his head now, while he took a moment to recover. His eyes only popped open when she began to beg for more. More, she wanted. Everywhere. All night. He had his permission, merely a formality at this point.

Kordavo was already going to do all those things.

He couldn’t answer her request verbally as he shuddered and shook from the simple kiss upon his most sensitive head of his cock. He looked down and decided that she was being obedient and pleasing, more than he probably deserved. It was only fitting he gave her the heavenly bliss that she so desired. He quickly untied her bindings around her arms but only to adjust her positioning. He made her stand, his face impassive and stoic, before he turned her to face and hug the bedpost, while tying her arms further upwards again with his reach. He then gave her a clap on her ass, followed by a much harder smack that would resonate in the room. The whole cheek was battered red from it. That was only a preview of what he was going to do, as his hands then dug into her hips and yanked her rear outwards towards him. His cock pressed warmly to the soft valley of her flanks.

“You’re greedy today. Good. I will give you everything. Don’t you ever forget who grants you this honour. Never forget it. Me. Only me.” Kordavo whispered possessively into her ear, grinding against her backside, while his hands trailed up her slender abdomen and then groped both her ample breasts. He kissed the back of her neck then drew away. If she wanted to be a whore then this had to be impersonal. She would get no touch, no intimacy. Not for now at least. He was going to fuck her until this bug was out of his system. It might get another fuck. It might take hours of fucking. All Kordavo knew was that he had to keep going. Never stopping, never ceasing. He lined himself up and pressed the budding hot tip of his cock against her outer folds. Then he speared inwards, slowing impaling her, holding her body firmly in place so that she had to endure the thick organ entering her body, spreading her wide.

Now she was his. Like with her mouth, he started slow and deliberate. Long thrusts, rearing back out and then punching into her depths like a man trying to wad through water. In slowly, hard inch by hard inch, groaning softly above and behind her head. Once in, a hand raised to wound through her hair and press her cheek into the wooden post, not allowing her to wiggle much. She had to suffer. He began to buck and drive into her faster, her rear serving as a cushion for the hot thrusts of his pelvis smacking into her body. Not a few resounding smacks escaped from between them, indicating a growing violence of action. His teeth were gritted like some snaring beast, while his whole body was tensed and flexed as he focused on this single task. This time, they would cum together, hard and breathtaking.

He had the Queen of this world strung up like a common whore. It was remarkable how one could be both, expertly and ravishingly. “My Queen.” He hissed more than once, reminding her that only he had a claim to her and this body, so magnificent and strong. It was his to dominant and conquer, his to mark with his seed, his to fuck endlessly until they couldn’t stand on their own two feet anymore. His other hand was leaving firm finger bruising on her hip from how roughly he grabbed her. And his cock tirelessly ploughed into her sex, over and over again, adjusting her canal back to being suited only to his size. Kordavo grunted with the exertion, his hand above often grabbing her breast, pinching or twisting her nipple, doing anything to get a rise from her, as if his cock impaled in her wasn’t enough. There was never enough for him.

Like a man with a throbbing wound, Kordavo was groaning with increasing intensity once more. His stamina was endless, working up a sweat, and soon his strong body molded to her back as he moved closer for the shorter, faster thrusting that was typical when he was close to finishing. At least he remembered to bring his hand down from her breasts to begin rubbing the top of her clit, pushing her to orgasm with him if she might. Then came the grunting, the loud rasping of release, as his seed began to flood her womanhood, soaking her insides which might appreciate the coating after being battered mercilessly the past several moments. Kordavo let it all out, his hips hitting her backside hard. Her skin tone wasn’t the same after that. After this next orgasm had run its course, he withdrew from her with a very wet, slick sound and gave her ass another slap of appreciation.

He then untied her bindings and let her free, while he moved to step back, gasping hard. This was only the beginning and he was feeling the exhaustion and ache in his body. The loss of control had put him in this state of madness, where his actions even seemed to hurt him rather than just Solstice. “Go…go get a shower going…” he ordered her, one of his favourite activities to do with her. Water cascading down her body was a very beautiful sight and he was sure she would also appreciate some gentleness before they recovered and went hard again. His command was brisk as he turned to get a glass of wine, drinking one cup down heavily, some of it spilling down his jaw, while he poured another one to take to the bathroom.

 

[Sketchyequine]

It was easy to give in to him now. Once, many moons ago, she had done anything not to fall victim of his clutches. But now? That was exactly where she had wanted to be. Having sex like this had been entirely new to Solstice prior to her relationship with Kordavo. However, things had changed, and now Solstice craved this violent, impersonal fucking just as much as she enjoyed the tender moment that her and her fiance were capable of sharing. She wanted all of him. Every aspect, both sadistic and sweet, was hers to relish as no other woman was allowed to feel his passions the way that Solstice would feel them every night Kordavo’s lust graced her bed.

She moved with ease as he repositioned her, tying her to the bedpost with her sweet little ass displayed for him and her thighs instinctually spread like a bitch in heat ready to be covered. Even now, before he had touched her unmentionables, Solstice’s sweet cunt was glistening with her own essence. And when it was time for Kordavo to enter her he would instantly be coated in her warm wetness. The only resistance he felt was on account of her body no longer being accustomed to accommodating such an intrusion. It had been a very long time since Solstice had taken anything larger than her own two fingers, so the massive throbbing cock of the Chenoweth Lord would take some getting used to.

Even so, she moaned for him. Even with her cum-covered face pressed into the wooden bedpost she couldn’t help but sing him a song of her pleasure. Her joyous sounds were almost enough to muffle the sounds of his pelvis slapping into the ample mound of her backside, but it was no secret that he was fucking her very hard very deliberately. His power and strength left bruises on her body as she leaned up against the post with her eyes shut tightly and her mouth gaping open.

More… More… More… She silently begged. And he gave it to her as if he could hear every word.


When the time drew nearer for them both to release, her panting was just as erratic as his. Her body was trembling around him as her knees threatened to give out beneath her. She was in such a euphoric state that she wasn’t sure that she could be pulled out of it. She was little more than a sex toy to him at that point, but he loved it more than she could admit. He owned her. He would take her whenever he wanted her, and she would be in no control when it happened. It would be the only time in her day when she didn’t have to be completely put together and in a superior position. She could appreciate this domination now, as a queen, far better than she ever could have a year ago as a princess. Now she needed the release more than ever before.

As soon as he started to massage her throbbing clit, it was all over. Solstice’s orgasm hit her like a train just as Kory took to busting his own load deep within her without giving her a chance to slip away from him even once. His infatuation with her, the same thing thatgot them into this mess to begin with, had never faded they could fight and grow distant, but Solstice knew, standing there with trembling thighs as aftermath, that she would always be Kordavo Chenoweth’s girl. He had seen her as his, physically and spiritually, for a very long while. She wondered if he had seen her that way since he first laid eyes on that short little female pilot over a year ago on Skarvis.

As he untied her she smiled at the thought of it. Oh Kordavo. You never will get over the only pilot who ever shot you down. She looked to him in all his naked glory as she thought it. She would never get over him either, but neither one of them were the type to ever admit it. She’d admit her love and her desire, but there was a lot of power in knowing that if he ever saw fit to leave her or to go off and get himself killed running down starships, she would never be able to fix the crumbling foundation inside her soul. The spirits had bound her and Kordavo together to better this plane of existence if only for their child, but Solstice was dedicated to do just that.

She departed to start the shower, disappearing though a large open doorway into the restroom which was just as large and extravagant as the rest of her chambers with warm wooden decor, a large mirror over a set of his and her sinks across from a frosted glass shower. She started the water with a keypad imbedded into the wall and set it to the exact temperature she desired before stepping in where water cascaded from the ceiling at multiple points in warm streams almost like rainfall. She stood still at first letting the water wash the cum from her face and the remaining residuals from between her thighs. Her dark red locks stuck to the back of her neck as her mind wandered. Making a few quick realizations.

When Kordavo entered the shower she stepped to him, reaching up to drape her arms around his broad shoulder and she laid her head against his collarbone and let her pretty blue eyes flutter closed as she held onto him contently. She was fatigued from the poundings he had issued her, but her body could still take more if he wished it to. She would take anything for him. As angry as she had been just hours ago her feeling for this ass of a man would never really go away. She loved him and soon… she would wed him. Not having an expensive ring on her finger made no difference to the young queen. It was the promise that they made to one another that was of value.

But she had a confession to make, and it wasn’t a confession of her love.

“Kory.” She whispered before pulling her head away from his chest. “With becoming a queen of this world… a lot of things were piled onto my plate as I’m sure you know.” She reaches up to touch his cheek. “And I may have…. spilled a few things off of that plate.” She bit her lip looking up at him a bit nervously. Could he be angry at her for this? “...and contraceptives are definitely not something that has been top priority on this full plate of mine.”

 

[BennyQ]

Only a couple of moments were spared before Kordavo followed Solstice to the shower attached to the Queenly suite. His breathing still came a little laboured, surprising himself at how much he had exerted his body in so short a time. It was only Solstice indeed that could put him over the edge like this, causing his inner fire to burn so hotly and intensely that it drained itself. All his powerful and wrought muscles seemed to pale in comparison to the vigour he thought he needed to get the most out of her. But those were good qualities for a prospective wife, were they not? Someone who pushed and challenged. Kordavo never thought he needed such a thing until now.

The washroom seemed like any other, modern and sleek. He traced his hand over the smooth countertops by the sink before coming to the shower and stepping inside, finding it steaming and warm already. And possessing his most favorite thing in that moment and perhaps every other to follow. Solstice approached him and they both immediately put the other into an embrace. While she reached high around his broad shoulders, his hands came low about her waist, caressing down her back and onto her rear, which he squeezed and ran his hands all over. His cock was still hard and erect, pressing against her lower abdomen.

He didn’t want to say anything. Just do. But Solstice felt the need to speak and reveal some things to him. He wondered what she was going to confess. Had she betrothed herself to another because of politics? Did she have to leave somewhere on business? He looked down at her as water cascaded along their bodies, swirling into the drain below. Yet all she had to say was that she was lacking in contraceptives. Rather than be alarmed, he felt some measure of relief. There was no other betrothed, no other man in her life, or she would have been prepared. The intensity of their passion could only be so due to the growing absence since the last. There was no one else but Kordavo for her. That is how it should be.

As for the possibility of another child, his mind argued there was no sense in stopping, given how much he had filled her with already. Would it be so bad a thing to have another child? Kezra was a beautiful girl destined to be great. It felt something magical to him. But what part did he have to play, beyond being a sperm donor, as Solstice once put it. She was the one who had to bear the child and bring it to term, before birthing it. This was her concern. “Find and take something tomorrow.” Kordavo simply said, thinking it was so easy and routine. She was a Queen. Surely it would not be too difficult to obtain such things? Well that is if they remembered the following day. His patience was already at an end with this conversation. He wanted more.

His hands glided down to the back of her thighs and with a heft, he picked Solstice up off the shower floor and held her close to his muscular body. Her legs would be spread around his waist, his hands gripping them to keep her propped, with her breasts to his chest and her face on level with his own. He quickly pressed her to the cool shower wall to the side, where he began to grind against her and kiss her. The question of contraceptives was already forgotten to him by then, concerned only with reaping the fruits of her Queenly body. All of it was his, no one else’s. But he wasn’t going to fuck her like this. He had enjoyed her front plenty but was missing the taste of her lips. He kissed and tongued her deeply, while the warm waters soothed their aching muscles.

Only for a short time. Passion began to fill him, enraging all his senses and desires. He lowered Solstice back onto her own feet and then spun her around away from him. Kordavo could see the tight muscles of her back and the curvature of her ass, which he gave a very hard slap too that would echo in the tight shower space. His hand came around her neck, holding firmly, while his other directed himself into her womanhood from behind. Kordavo didn’t waste any time, pressing inwards and filling her up firmly, forcing her back to arch. His other arm was around her midsection, his hand coming over her clit, beginning to rub it as he thrust his hips back and forth into her. The hot water hit them from the front, adding to the hot, intimate embrace. Kordavo proceeded to ravish and enjoy her body as he mercilessly held her in his grip.

His hand on her neck occasionally choked her but moved to tilt her head upwards, to look up at his strong jaw and face as he peered down at her with a slight smirk. His teeth were bared too at times with the exertion as he continued to fuck Solstice again, building up towards another orgasm. It would be torturous for her, with the bend and stretch, to be forced onto her toes with every inwards press of his cock because of his height. They dipped forwards halfway, coming to press her again to the wall, with his hand moving to snake through her hair and take hold, keeping her face against the wet surface. His other hand, after rubbing her to hopefully an orgasm, moved to jut her hips out more towards him, before giving her ass another slap as he began to rail against her harder. If only he had something, a whip or belt or paddle, but his hand was hard and wide enough to substitute.

He drove himself to a most satisfying conclusion once more, moaning within the shower space and hearing it echo, as he pumped her full of his seed. Again, there was no thought of contraceptive in his mind. He had already been inside of her, deeply and heavy. There would be no difference now. As he groaned and expelled his seed into her, his hands came up her abdomen and grasped both her breasts, holding them secure and firm as he rode himself out on her body.

 

[Sketchyequine]

The look on the young lord’s face appeared to be one of relief rather than one of stress. It was always surprising to Solstice how Kordavo could seen so stoich in all things aside from love making… and beating her back in the day. If there was ever a man born who was the victim of impulse it was Kordavo Chenoweth. Luckily, however, he acted on these impulses by fucking her now rather than laying a knife over her flesh as he had done on Skarvis. And Sol herself found that she enjoyed Kordavo’s animalistic urges for sex for they were sincere and, as far as she knew, always directed at her. Did he bed other women in his time away? The question loomed in her mind. It would have been so easy for him to lay with another flight captain, but if he had would he be here now, asking for her hand and taking her body?

It was a question for another time, though even as he hoisted her from her feet it hung heavy on her mind. They had not promised loyalty upon Kordavo’s parting. In fact, up until now, their relationship had been fuzzy and undefined aside from that one conversation with Solstice’s father outside the Dominion ballrooms. If he had slept with another… or multiple others… would it even be considered cheating? Would he have broken any rules at all in doing so? Solstice knew that Janus was unhappy with her presence in his only son’s life. What if he had sent countless beautiful suitors to Kordavo’s arm while Solstice herself was out of sight and out of mind? She wouldn’t put it past the old man… he had hated her since the start. Her removal from IB may have been the worst thing that Janus ever had to do.

Yet he kissed her like she was the most important thing in the world. Above his parentage, abov his work, and above his children. He tongue danced with hers as his cock, which was erect for her even still after all of this time, slid between her labia, threatening to enter her at any moment to take her again, to fill her with his seed AGAIN. How could he ever treat another woman the same way? No other woman would ever have their history… their connection. This was a once in a lifetime bond between a man and woman. Once in a lifetime. No other women could have what Solstice had. This was hers, and she would not share it. In this moment she lived for Kordavo and the cock lingering between her thighs. She could drill this man on his fidelity later.

He set her down, and Solstice bit her lip in anticipation as he spun her around. Her body was sore from his ravaging, but it could handle more. Tomorrow she might walk crooked, but tonight there was nothing she wanted more than another spearing of his cock. She reached out, putting her palms against the wall to brace herself as Kordavo’s hand came down on her rear hard and the resonating sound of the smack lingered in the water around them. Solstice let out a small moan that was cut sort by his hand wrapping around her throat. Then he took her again… and then pleasure took over.

He was rough and needy. Anything he wanted, he took from her: choking her, spanking her, contorting her, and, most importantly, fucking her. Her body hailed under his wake, but she was happy to do for him. She would do so much more for him if he asked it of her, for she was always safe in his grip, and she knew it. He could hurt her, ravage her, and push her limits, but at the end his pleasure alongside her own were of ultimate importance: indicating in that moment by the way he rubbed her clit with intent to make her cum on him again. With a series of loud moans, her body obliged, and she came onto his visiting shaft. Then she took whatever he had left, soon finding herself filled with his seed once more and panting for air as her inner walls trembled from the overuse.

They gasped for air and came down from their high together with bodies still entwined. But once Solstice had regained feeling in her legs she pulled herself off of Kory’s hardy erection and stood straight: her spine popping as she straightened it back out and stood tall, her queenly aura about her once more before she turned to Kordavo once more. Her eyes were glazed over and her heart beat quickly behind her bosom. She came close to him and wrapped her arms around him once more before hopping up and hooking her legs over is hips, confident he would catch her rather than let her fall to the hard shower floor. Something she never would have entrusted with anyone else.. even if nakedness wasn’t a factor.

Eye level with her fiance now as he held up her much smaller body against his, Solstice smiled and leaned in for a gentle and simple kiss from Kordavo’s lips. There was no tongue or need for more. Solstice had had enough. In fct, she wasn’t sure that her body could take anymore. Now… Her desires were much simpler. She wanted his affection and company.

“I won’t be taking any pills.” She spoke confidently as the water continued to run over them, washing away the sweat and semen from their bodies. “If I am blessed by the process to be impregnated with another of your children, then we will have another child. It’s not as though we cannot provide.” She ran her fingers through his hair. “If I am pregnant, we will bring another child of superior genetics into the world, and if not then we know we already have the most beautiful daughter that we could ask for.” She smiled. “Kezra will grow to be strong and beautiful. With your sense of responsibility and my sense of everything else.” She teased, pressing her forehead against Kordavo’s and rubbing her nose against his gently. “And we can expect just as much out of any second child.” She mused happily, her hands massaging his shoulders lovingly.

“When can my daughter come to see me?” She asked, her hand wandering along Kordavo’s neck. “It seems to me that you will need to b having a conversation with your father soon anyway regarding our engagement. When you do, tell him it’s time for Kezra to visit. Fraundia is no longer unsafe to our child. I have dealt with the pressing dangers already. I want my entire family here together.”

It seemed a simple request. But… Solstice knew all too well that Janus would take some convincing, and Kordavo would be much better at that task than Solstice herself. She had already been trying for months to no avail.

 

[BennyQ]

With a wet noise, Solstice pulled ahead off of him and Kordavo staggered to the shower wall, breathing hard as he watched her with studded eyes. He felt cold not being encased so deeply inside of her, even with the hot currents of the shower all about him. His hands tingled with the need to hold, to grab, some part of her. His ears echoed with the sounds of her pleasure, testament to her love and the burning lust of his own. It was only a calm before the next storm, as Kordavo figured. She was turning towards him and his eyes beheld the ravaged state of her breasts and the battered look of her thighs, before coming up to her face, his own heart racing at the sight. She looked ready for more. He was ready to give more.

She practically leapt at him and as predicted, his hands slapped to the underside of her thighs to catch and hold her, his hands digging hard into her flesh. He felt her taut body press to his own, his hard breathing causing her figure to ride up and down gently with the massive heaving of his chest and shoulders. He tingled constantly when the perky nipples of her breasts grazed over his own naked torso. He looked into her face but she soon kissed him, soft and gentle. Beneath her, his cock seemed to regrow in size and strength. He was always hungry for more, a ceaseless appetite, for having been dormant and repressed for so long now it had been unleashed like a tidal storm.

Still and strong, keeping her holstered up against his chest, Kordavo listened to her decision. He thought he ought to feel more strongly about the prospect of another child. There was anticipation and excitement. Her words were so stately and perfect in their presentation to him. Why shouldn’t they bring another child into the world, given their own merits and virtues? Boy, girl, it didn’t matter, as long as they proved they were capable. Solstice certainly had high hopes and he felt the confidence be contagious to him, though he remained still and steady as she tickled his nose with her own. It was a primal gesture, one that felt strangely affectionately. Then she got into a discussion better saved for a table than for the intimacies of a shower.

“I do not need to report myself to my father for every decision I make in my life.” Kordavo said slowly, straightening up from the wall, before turning and pressing Solstice’s back to it, anchoring her between his bulk and the shower wall. His larger body also impeded much of the shower, leaving her untouched, with only the press of his torso as warmth. “I am Kezra’s father, not him. The next you may see her…is when you next come to Vorzania. I would not have her sent here alone. That means I have to go back and get her. After all, a Lady and Princess should have a proper escort.” Kordavo said with a smile and balancing her with one arm, used his other to shut off the shower. He didn’t bother with towels. Stepping out with water still trickling down their bodies, he simply walked back into the bedroom. They could dry off on the covers.

“If you want to see her immediately, then you should come with me. If I go to Vorzania, I am going to have to remain some time to settle business and make arrangements for our wedding.” Kordavo said, before falling silent. Now there was a powerful sentiment, simply saying those words. His wedding. Their wedding. He would not leave it to others. It would be done his way. Which, consequently, might indeed be better left to other people who had a grander sense of social graces than he. “So it’ll be some time before I can come back to Fraundia. You should come, if you can’t wait until then. I take it then that a double wedding would be necessary, on both worlds.” Kordavo added as well. Expense was no concern. It was only…time. He dumped Solstice on the bed but left her there, taking a look around for a moment.

Then he stuck his stern finger at her. “Stay right there.” He warned her with a smirk.

He picked up his belt along the way, signaling he intended to use that. She could give her answers to his suggestions as he proceeded to search her wardrobe of all places. He thrust her dresses and gowns aside, examining each one, as water dripped off of him still. While searching, he found a crop she no doubt used in her horsemanship and took that instead of his belt, while finally selecting what seemed a basic black cocktail dress from her closet. Coming out, he brought it to the bed and in clear sight of her, with all his arm muscles tensing and flexing, he proceeded to tear it into shreds. In the aftermath, he selected several lengths of cloth, which he would use as bindings for their next game.

Naturally, he could replace the dress a hundredfold, in both quality and quantity. Shopping is something he rarely did but Vorzania and no doubt Fraundia must have their large commercial districts with their fashion outlets by the dozens. He could send an agent. Stars forbid Solstice made him go. With her. “And we must decide when we will have the wedding.” He said as he took hold of her body and with his strength, dragged her to the edge and seated her there. First he picked up her ankles and began to tie them with one strip. “If you do fall pregnant, we must either have the wedding soon or after, which will be a year’s time from now. So tell me, which would you prefer?” Kordavo asked, as he rolled her over and then tied her arms behind her back, wrist to elbow. The last would be to blindfold her. She wouldn’t see what was coming next.

Laying her on her back, he dragged her to the edge so that only her rear hung off, with her legs raised vertically and resting along his chest and over his right shoulder. One arm wrapped around her thighs to keep them there, another lined himself up with her sex again, to which he entered slowly. Grasping the crop with his free hand, he could give her butt underhand lashes of the crop as he began to thrust into her hard. And if she was in the middle of answering his question on timing, too bad for her.

 

[Sketchyequine]

Solstice clung to her partner as he spoke and took it upon himself to relocate them once more to the bedroom as though they had not already christened the space already that evening. But, knowing Kordavo, he wasn’t finished yet, even if he was taking a break to respond to her comments and questions. She rolled her eyes at his mention of his dynamic with his father. Luckily, with her face tucked into his shoulder he could not see her sass- if he had he surely would have punished her for it momentarily. He always took her words and twisted them, but she knew that she was right. His father would be pissed. She wouldn’t put it past Janus to greet Kordavo at the gates with five other options he proclaimed a better bride than Solstice herself could ever be. If only he knew the primal needs of his son. Solstice grinned to herself. No other woman could handle him: not the way that she could.

Now. Back to a more pressing matter: Kezra. Any mother worth her salt would want to be present in the life of their young infant. Solstice missed her daughter dearly. Even when she was buried up to those pretty blue eyes of hers in work, thoughts of her child were never far away. But of course her daughter, her world and stars, was trapped on the dreadful planet Vorzania with the even more dreadful Janus Chenoweth. So, really, the answer seemed obvious. If to see her child sooner rather than later Solstice would have to go back to Kory’s home planet, then she’d be on the next ship. But who would handle affairs here in her absence? Could she get approval for her father to be her substitute? Or would it have to be some dreadful Dominion patron?

Nothing could ever be easy for someone in a position of power. A queen couldn’t run away on vacation with her sweetheart without any worries. There would be a long list of to-do’s before she could leave. Kordavo himself probably couldn't even understand how much work she would have to put in before she left as he himself was notorious for disappearing on a whim and, due to his military rather than political status, there were hardly any repercussions for it. She envied him for that. She had fought in the same war he had, but when it was all said and done she didn’t get to just go back to flying star ships. It would be nice to fly again: especially if she got to sit next to, or even in the lap of, her betrothed for the journey.

He dumped her on the bed and requested her obedience, to which she mostly obliged- only going so far as to sit up and follow him around the room with her eyes. He picked up his belt, which had rather obvious intentions in her mind. He had used a belt on her before to bruise the soft flesh of her bum; however, he soon traded that belt for the much harsher riding crop she had foolishly left in her room. Then he proceeded to her closet which was more of a mystery to her. Was he to request that she put on a set of lingerie for him? Perhaps he even wished to fuck her while she was adorned in one of her many exquisite gowns? His choice was a black cocktail dress. One she couldn’t even recall ever wearing before, which lead her to believe it was brand new. Were there still tags on it? Then he ripped it, and Solstice felt her jaw fall open.

“Now tell me, Baby, wasn’t ripping apart one thing enough for one night? You had to rip apart one of my gowns too?” She questioned him, raising her eyebrows at him quizzically. What a wasteful man. The purple strips of cloth he had bound her with just minutes ago were still strewn about the floor and even wrapped about the bedposts.

He asked her such an important question as he was moving and binding her. When would they wed? How would the possibility of another pregnancy affect their choice in date? “After.” She stated simply, even as he placed the blindfold over her eyes. “I don’t want to be huge for the wedding. Nor do I think our honeymoon would be nearly as fulfilling if I was heavily pregnant, or we had a newborn with us. But we won’t know for a few days yet if I am going to be with child. So no need to make such decisions now. We can figure that out when we get to Vorzania.” A simple slip: he now would know she planned to go with him. They would not be separated again so soon. She didn’t want to say goodbye to him again, not so quickly after they had been reunited.

She was then blinded, and from there she was entirely suspect to his every whim. He fucked her for the third time that evening: lashing her ass with the crop whenever the urge hit him. Over and over he thrust and struck her until her rear turned from creamy to pink to red and, finally, to a deep blackish purple. Even then, he didn’t seem to care. Every time he hit her she cried out in agony. If she were a weaker woman she would have begged him to stop, but she never did. No matter how he hurt her, the rhythmic thrusts of his length into her throbbing cunt was enough to keep her from succumbing to the pain.

It continued like that for some time until they had both had their share of releases and soon collapsed together upon the bed, gasping for air after the toll the ravaging sex had taken on the both of them. Finally freed, but with stamina drained, Solstice laid level with Kory, and allowed her eyes to flutter closed as one hand came to rest on the center of her lover’s chest. Panting for air and glistening with sweat neither of them could much stand to cuddle and endure further overheating, but at the same time Solstice couldn't stand to fall asleep without physical contact with the long lost Lord Chenoweth- her soon to be husband. Sleep overcame the both of them quickly and the soft light of the room dimmed, motion detectors in the walls and ceiling were able to tell that they had retired for the evening and would no longer need to be able to see.

Even though it was only a few hours away, Solstice awoke at the break of down and winced as she rolled over onto her haunches to place her feet over the edge of the bed. When she stood she felt instant relief as she took the weight off of the prominent bruises that stretched from her lower back all the way down the backs of her thighs. Solstice glanced into a mirror and inhaled sharply at the severity of her wounds.

“Jesus Kory…” She whispered to herself as she glanced at the still sleeping Kordavo in her bed: naked and peaceful. He had possibly gone a bit too far with the riding crop the night before. Solstice applied a pain numbing salve onto the purpled flesh of her backside before slipping on a simple cream-colored daygown and proceeded out of the chambers. By the time Kordavo woke she would likely already be deep into her queenly duties for the day.

 

[BennyQ]

Lord Kordavo Chenoweth awoke in the bed of royalty and at first did not know where he even was. It was a strange thing for him to wake up so naturally, without alarm or droning by some machine, entirely roused by the…singing of birds. It felt like a dream rather than reality, as he lay there naked in the midst of the bed. He was staring up at a stone ceiling and not the usual metallic panelling of the bedrooms he was used to. His mind was slow to tick despite how well rested he felt. But slowly it got rolling and the first issue he realized was that he was…alone.

Where was the Queen who’s bed he shared to such delights the previous night? The memories were still very vivid. His ears still rung with her moans. And his lashes upon her body. He remembered other details, like talk of children and marriage. He rose stiffly in bed like a corpse from the crypt, before wincing slightly at how sore he felt from the exertions carried out. He sighed and rolled his muscles, stretching and flexing them, getting the blood pumping. And down below, his morning hardness raised a very significant tent within the coverings. He couldn’t go out looking like this. And the one solution to make it go away was absentee. He didn’t like being left out of the lurch like that.

He went to shower, spent a moment studying the different Fraundian instruments for getting it started, and suffered under an icy cold cascade of it. Within a quarter hour, he was fully awake, alert, and soon dressed in the clothing provided to him, which had once belonged to her father. Though he did wear a Dominion belt along with his uniform trousers, he also sported a royal Fraundian longcoat that went down to his knees, with a simple undershirt beneath it. It was strange to have a mix of the two clothing styles. Alone in the room, he took a moment to explore it. He opened up drawers, closets, everything. There wasn’t much to discover about his lover, the mother of his daughter, and the Queen of Fraundia. After analyzing what he could, he finally departed the bedroom, in search of food. And that could be taken literally or…as the Queen herself.

~~~​

Around the conference room were about eleven angry looking Dominion officials and their attendants. They wore crisp blue tunics over their dark trousers, same style as Kordavo, with flashy gem-embedded medallions on their breasts that signified their administrative rank. They were apart of the local occupation authority, though in a civilian manner and not a military one. That usually meant the planet in question was already integrated into the Dominion confederation, but also signified…that the spoils of the world were now ripe to be plucked by the various economic and industrial entities of the Dominion. And the local agents in those fields could do nothing to stop it. It wasn’t as if any Dominion court was going to hear out their pleas over that of their own people, who were often the ones trying to despoil these worlds. And if a plea was taken up by a planetary native, it was usually to spark a vicious feuding between two Dominion families, with the poor locals caught between.

And it didn’t seem like Fraundia had any protectors within the Dominion system. Solstice might be a Queen, but on Vorzania she was only a media-gossip worthy figure and nothing more.

“So you see, Your Highness,” one of the officials spoke mockingly, “you must acquiesce to our demands. Failure to comply by these ordinances will see your planetary exports stopped at customs and turned back. Without them, your little world’s economy is sunk.” He pushed a single sheet of paper towards her. A contract, stipulating the surrender of certain economic rights to various Dominion corporations. It was only a start. Once they took an inch, they would start taking in miles, until there was nothing left. The men were blackmailing her with sanctions. But a single sheet? How could a document deciding the fates of millions, an entire world, be summed up in a single arbitrary page? It was exploitation backed by threats.

“Think of the recession. All this fine greenery you have here but how long do you think your people will survive on eating grass before they decide they need a leader more attuned to their needs?” Another on her left said with a smirk. He turned to look at the others. “Though it shouldn’t bother them none. They were pissing green during the war with how badly they fought.” He said, getting a collective chuckle out of the others.

“Sign the contract, Your Highness.” The first official repeated. “And maybe we’ll send you to some resort world to live out the rest of your…reign. Gedrosia seems a good place for you to find gainful employment. A Garden-World.” And the Queen might recall that Kordavo described Garden-Worlds as being pleasure bastions, where whores and escorts were abound, along with drugs, alcohol, and other decadence. Nothing to do with gardening. “Someone of your talents will certainly do well there, given your reputation of reaping on Vorzania.” They exchanged knowing smiles some more. Rumours were abound that she only survived by bedding a very high Lord of the Conclave. But the Conclave was far away and many of them condoned this course of action already. She had no protection as far as they were aware.

“Sign.” The first man said again, more firmly. “Or else the consequences will be dire. Would be a sad sight indeed if visitors came to find much of your world engulfed in bush fires.” He hinted in a very low yet snake like tone.

It was then that the door slid open and in walked Lord Kordavo Chenoweth, tall, proud, and thoroughly bored of his trek through the castle. At first the men gave him very disdainful glances, thinking he was just another Fraundian given his outfit. But one of the men near the back, one of those who had laughed at the Queen, recognized him and suddenly shot to his feet in the position of attention. “Lord Chenoweth!” He exclaimed and the others exchanged a glance, before all shooting up to their feet, heels clicked together and backs rigid. Kordavo simply waved them to sit down, coming to stand at Solstice’s right.

“What is the business at hand?” He asked in his deep, baritone voice, steady and slow.

“We were, uh, just discussing the economic future of the world with the Queen.” The first official said, reaching slowly to withdraw the very simple, very manipulative contract he had placed in front of the Queen. No need for competition. One more entity, political or otherwise, in the list of favoured corporations would dilute their profits! But that wasn’t what Kordavo was interested in. Not in sharing the profits. He was entitled to all of it, through a very special contingency. His hand snapped out faster than the official and slapped onto the contract, before dragging it towards him, eyes glaring at the official until he backed down. He picked it up right to his face, read it quickly, before lowering it with very narrowed eyes at the men standing before him.

“Legally, we have our rights to pursue these ambitions-“ the other official at Solstice’s left spoke out.

“Are you gentlemen aware of the Hybrid Inheritance Act?” Kordavo asked them quietly. “It stipulates that children bred between Dominion nobles and local parties allows legal protection and rights extended to their hybrid offspring. It was enacted in order to encourage the fostering of Dominion bloodlines, backed by economic stimuli, rather than outright nationalization of local industries, which have historically, in all cases, led to violence and wastage.”

“Y-Yes, I’m aware.” The second official stammered.

“Queen Nabeshin, please inform us the identity of your heir. Heiress, I should say.” Kordavo asked without looking at her. The answer was simple. It was their daughter. Who bore the name…Chenoweth. Once she had said that, Kordavo very loudly and visibly tore up the contract in two and laid it back on the table. One of the officials gulped visibly.

He had full rights to the world’s resources and economic bounty. Not them. It was still a form of colonialism, but at least it was easier to barter with Kordavo than with these fools. But the fight didn’t end there. They could not exploit her, fine. They would just have to fight the Chenoweth dynasty in Dominion courts then. But for now...relief.

“So you see, gentlemen, this contract is invalidated as there is already one in place.” Kordavo said to them in his quiet tone. “Unless you have any further prospects to discuss with my client, I think you have other duties to attend to. Good day, gentlemen.” Kordavo said to them and the men exchanged a glance, before collecting their items and departing. A few tried to weasel to him by coming by and giving him a more personal greeting but he just ignored them, staring at each one in turn. He didn’t know them but that could be rectified. And he would have to inform his father of an impending battle in the courts concerning their family name.

Soon the room was empty, except for them two. Kordavo walked around the conference table until he stood at the opposite end, where he sat down, spreading his hands on the table and peering across to her. “I don’t like being left alone in strange places.” He said flatly to her, referring to waking up alone.