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When they brought Phuwin to his husband’s quarters, the guards standing at the door had their spears up in the position of a cross, a clear refusal to entry, while growling like feral beasts.
“Alpha,” his second-in-command, military general Perth sighed out in visible relief, “Pond’s scent is driving everyone crazy, you have to—”
Phuwin didn’t need to be directed; he held up a hand, steady, and Perth immediately ordered the guards to drop their weapons in a mixture of words and snarls. The guards resisted for a moment, but the presence of Phuwin’s grounding scent was enough for them to come out of the haze that Pond’s had put them into, and they fell away from the door like confused pups.
Phuwin bared his teeth, feeling the thick coy of Pond fold around his throat like a scarf, or a collar, tugging him in that direction he already wanted to follow. It was unnatural, overexcited—far from Pond’s ordinary blanketing scent—now a relentless provocation, a spectacle.
In four long strides, Phuwin had crossed the last threshold, and the doors opened and closed like the blink of a giant cyclops-eye. He made his way towards the center of the room at once where his husband lay on top of blood-red silk sheets, covered by drapes of a thin translucent lace of the same color, white and orange trimmings and intricate designs rising up from the fabric and seemingly spreading outward, a fabric filigree, to the rest of the ceiling. Phuwin struggled to keep his attention wide but it insisted on narrowing down to just the writhing figure on the bed, behind the lace curtains, whose hips were bucking up in a furious rhythm into his own fist. Pitiful whines, drawn-out groans and pleading whimpers. Phuwin’s wolf rumbled with pleasure.
He dropped onto all fours, an animal approaching another animal; a man crawling towards another man, climbing into the bed slowly, parting the curtains with care, one-handed. He thought he was prepared for it, but he still shivered, dizzy in the snare of Pond’s proximity. A low rumble escaped him: a question.
Sweat smeared Pond’s body, and a painful tension held him from head to toe. His hair was tousled, some of it stuck to his temples or the rise of his forehead, short and black and glistening with moisture near his ears. The stunning, creamy expanse of his arms, his shoulders, his stomach; jumping muscles under flawless skin; the countable ridges of his abdomen tight with pleasure—each flogging detail made a mark on Phuwin’s skin.
Pond’s eyes were still shut tightly, as if he were ashamed of looking. At Phuwin’s prompt, he let out a scraped moan, and when his shoulders relaxed completely into the give of fluffy pillows behind him, and his legs spread farther apart as his fist gripped and stroked his whole length up and down, faster and faster, Phuwin realized that his husband wasn’t listening to him. He was listening to a fantasy he was lost in.
The disadvantage of being married for a political alliance was that Phuwin knew very little about how to take care of Pond while he was in such a state. It’d only been a year since they’d been wed and assumed charge of their empire as king and king, and already Pond’s rut had passed them without the least bit of interference from Phuwin, and Phuwin did not yet know if it would be the same when his rut came along in eight months. There were so many things Phuwin did not yet know.
But perhaps he should’ve known that someone would slip in too much of the wrong herb into Pond’s cup of liquor at the winter solstice festivities, thinking that under his disguise Pond was only some poor commoner to play tricks at. And what Phuwin should’ve also know was that his dear husband would drink it because he was “curious about its effects”.
“Phu- Phuwin,” Pond murmured, gasping, bunching the sheets in his other fist as his pace grew almost punishing on his engorged shaft.
Arousal slammed into Phuwin with such ferocity he almost sat up. His fingers kneaded absently into the bedsheets Pond was already ruining before he crawled up his husband’s lap, hovering there still fully clothed with the heat of Pond’s hardness palpable and wet and inches from his belly. “Alpha,” Phuwin whispered, surprised at his own breathlessness, and the way his heart slammed against his ribs. He was really doing it. He was about to— “Pond,” his hands came up to hold his husband’s face without a second of hesitation, and a low, ragged groan thundered from Pond’s throat to Phuwin’s chest, “you’re drugged.”
“Hah—” Pond’s head fell back as his muscles, sinewy and thick, flexed along his broad shoulders and neck, and down the swell of his arms. His flushed face was a pink that lapped all the way down to the sharp dips and hollows of his throat and collarbones, and his red-bitten mouth opened on a blissed-out gasp of release. Phuwin’s wolf howled with the need to have Pond’s spend coat his royal clothes.
But Phuwin’s voice seemed to have brought Pond somewhat closer to the surface, although he stared at Phuwin through dark, hooded eyes that showed none of the familiar fluster and guardedness Phuwin could dismantle, only an animal hunger. “Phuwin?” He let go of the sheets and ran his fingers along the line of Phuwin’s temple and jaw, thumb hooking around the sharp canines of his mouth while he pried apart his lips. Phuwin touched the tip of his tongue to the pad of Pond’s thumb, helpless. Pond’s tone shifted, and Phuwin felt a hint of danger, something he’d never felt from Pond before, “Phuwin. Hm.”
Strong arms wrapped around his waist, pushing him into a hard, glistening chest. “Mine,” Pond’s voice nipped at Phuwin’s earlobe, making him squirm. A tingle started from the base of his spine and swopped into his groin, blood filling the softness in his trousers until it ached while Pond trapped him between his damp thighs and licked the vein pulsing in his neck. Phuwin tried to extricate his hands from the crushing embrace but he was distracted, and suddenly, he was being flipped over, and pinned on his back.
“P- Pond,” Phuwin’s eyes were wide, his voice weak and rough, embarrassing tremors running through his body where Pond’s big hands roamed, rucking up tunics and slipping into clothes. “P’Pond, it’s me. I—”
Pond growled, nosing into the crook of Phuwin’s neck and shoulder while his hips swung downwards, grinding their erections together through the cotton and silk. Phuwin’s toes curled, and his breath hitched. He was not in control here.
“You look jus’ like him,” Pond said between pleased rumbles that set off hot bubbles popping under Phuwin’s ribs. Without conscious thought, he fell into the slow, languid rhythm that Pond had created, humping into him while he scented Phuwin, nipping at bare skin just to make Phuwin growl, and slowly taking apart Phuwin’s outfit piece by piece. For a drugged alpha, he was remarkably patient, even slowing down or stopping completely to rub at a new area of naked skin that he’d uncovered. “Sound jus’ like him, too,” he laughed hoarsely at the startled yelp Phuwin let out when his nipples were pinched, and licked, because he was patient, not gentle.
Phuwin’s head was swirling. Pond’s intense, spectacular scent was pulling him under, and the harder it pulled, the more Phuwin wanted to fight it. This would surely trigger his rut—Pond’s alpha musk, dark and heady, was too potent and too close. He bared his teeth, a thundering, deep growl building in his throat, and in those few moments, he was aware of his own animalistic urges but couldn’t understand it. He tackled Pond onto his back.
Pond, caught unawares, faltered and fell, blinking up at Phuwin like a lost pup. Phuwin snapped at him with his teeth, half-playful, and palmed at his defined pectoral muscles in a gesture that could be misunderstood as soothing. The sudden switch from determined dry humping to a betrayed, soft look of confusion almost made Phuwin laugh. Leave it to Pond to be cute at the most ridiculous moments.
“I am him.” Phuwin pushed himself upright on his knees, and slipped off his inner robes, and whatever else his husband hadn’t managed to dismantle with his very humanly strong paws, “And I thought we agreed that we would take this slowly but you went and got yourself drugged.” Phuwin leaned in again, closing the distance between them, the heat a welcome invader, and reveled in how it burned to meet Pond’s gaze and know the intent writ there, “Naughty pup.”
The hungry blackness in Pond’s eyes expanded.
It was not a surprise when Phuwin fought Pond to literal exhaustion before giving in to him, but he was a little taken aback at how much Pond seemed to enjoy it, and even, at times, instigate it all over again. Outside of the bedroom, as now Phuwin could use these words in full power, Pond was a gentle, careful alpha, more interested in playing than in winning. It was one of the many reasons why their partnership was supposed to work—two equally headstrong alphas couldn’t rule an empire together, but Pond and Phuwin were headstrong about different things, always being reined in by the other. However, in the bedroom, all Pond wanted to do was make Phuwin physically submit in playfighting again and again and again, with a focus and passion that meant it was obviously sexual.
After the fifth consequent loss, Phuwin resigned himself to the floor, panting and laughing, Pond on top of him, a little clearer-eyed than before, both of them so starkly naked and sweaty it was hilarious.
“Phuwin … oh my—” Pond stammered, blinked, and stumbled off him. He landed ass-first on the feather-soft rug, and groaned in pain with his head in one hand. Phuwin glanced down to confirm that he was still erect, and despite the pain, the arousal was not receding. Wonderful how such a clinical observation could start wildfires in his body. “Why are you here? Uh, you should’ve just left me alone to deal with it.”
Phuwin didn’t attempt to get up, “Your condition was so strong that the whole palace would’ve been with child by your scent alone.”
“You’re not with child,” Pond pointed out, and then seemed to remember the situation they were currently in, and groaned again. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have—But I thought it would be fine! They sell insanely strong drugs in the black market.”
Phuwin trilled a laugh in his direction, eyes crinkling as he watched Pond’s gradual surfacing into reality, “And you didn’t know that before? Pond, the drug is for alphas to make them more potent. You’re already potent. What else did you think was going to happen?”
“Don’t call me potent,” Pond grumbled, angling his lower half away from Phuwin, “I don’t want to drag you into this again.”
“You did,” Phuwin agreed. “You dragged me. Like a doll. Like a toy. Like I was your lavish dinner.”
Pond groaned again, louder, but it was broken with helpless laughter, which made Phuwin’s grin wider. After meeting Pond, he had to say that he’d come to adore every version of him, and now, he found that he didn’t dislike this other version, either. He’d been surprised, yes, but he was quickly starting to see the upsides to finally consummating their marriage. If before he’d been perfectly tolerable of the idea, now he was impatient.
But one look at his husband, and he knew that that wouldn’t happen today. He didn’t want to overwhelm Pond with too many sensations at once, and while he was still under the influence. He wanted to respect their decision, and he knew that he must honor it especially when Pond wouldn’t know how to ask him to do so. Especially when he knew that Pond wouldn’t ask him to leave, if Phuwin didn’t want to go.
“I’m going to go and prepare a relaxing bath for you.” Pond watched him stir into action, silent, gaze heavy with affection (Phuwin would not think of the stronger word—yet), as Phuwin slowly collected his clothes and put himself back together piece by piece in Pond’s bedroom, “Come down as soon as you can.”
“I will,” Pond replied. He was staring at Phuwin with such intensity that it was somehow more intimate than everything they’d done. Phuwin’s heart gave a painful, frightening lurch in his chest, and then he slipped out of the room with that incessant beating under his throat, unable to think a single coherent thought.
Except the knowledge that everything was alright, and it would always be alright because they had each other. For a young emperor, Phuwin’d really achieved every single thing there was to achieve.