Gnoll/hyena boy (Brenn) Part Four (nsfw) (Patreon)

Here's 7528 words of post-whump fluff for your enjoyment! I really hope you like it! Again, a slightly tweaked aesthetic for this chapter. 

N.B. This post was for $5 tier patrons only, as an early release, but when I tried posting it on Tumblr, there were technical difficulties, so I decided to make this post public so that they could read it. This is not a normal occurrence, but since it was going to be 'public' on Tumblr anyway, I figured it wouldn't matter this time. 

You formulated a plan as best you could while your mind spun from the shock of finding Brenn here of all places. Gods, what must he be feeling? He’d been bred like a hound for these pits, had escaped before his first fight, and now he was back here, after losing everything – you, his territory, his whole life… Just thinking about it made you feel like you were going to be sick. 

The duke, clearly egged on by the meddling queen, came over to you but you barely registered his approach. “My lady?” he said, looking concerned, touching your elbow. He turned to the servant beside you and then looked back at you. “Are you unwell? Perhaps the sun is too strong?”

“What? Oh, yes, forgive me, your grace,” you said, offering a slight curtsey and pulling back from his touch. “I fear the excitement of the games suddenly became too much for me, and I will have to retire.”

“Of course,” he said, not bothering to mask his disappointment. 

You curtseyed deeply at the royal couple, the king already turning to look excitedly at the arena, where an orc and a minotaur were preparing to wrestle each other. Ignoring the queen’s sour looks as gracefully as you could manage, you left, making your excuses, and once outside in the relative privacy of the corridor, demanded of the guard at the door to be taken to the gladiators’ quarters. 

You knew it was something the rich gentry did for enjoyment, being taken down to the cages to view the gladiators between fights, and the guard only nodded and took you straight to the lanista, the owner of the gladiators. 

“Ma’am,” the lanista began, simpering. His oiled beard glistened in the strong midday sunlight streaming through the high open arches of the coliseum here, and his forehead and balding head reflected the sun almost blindingly.

Disgusted, you cut him off before he could squirm and simper any more. “I wish to be taken to the gnoll’s cell,” you said. “The one who just fought the troll.”

“That demon?” he clarified. 

You nodded sharply, putting on your sternest face. It obviously worked, and the lanista knew you meant business, because he sighed and said, “Very well. This way, ma’am.”

“It’s ‘my lady’,” you snapped. ‘Ma’am’ or ‘madam’ was for a countess, which, as the wife of the current Duke’s late younger brother, you were not. You’d never been petty about formalities before, but you wanted to establish your authority over him. It was part of your plan. 

“Apologies, m’lady,” said the obsequious man. “This way. Please, watch your footing, it’s a little… rough down this end.” That was putting it mildly, you thought as you eyed the dank walls the further you went into the complex. Away from the public areas, the whole place was truly awful. The clink of chains filled the air, accompanied the groan of prisoners in cells as you passed, and the stomach-twisting sounds of a lash somewhere. Bile rose in your throat at the thought of Brenn being here all this time. Would he even recognise you? Was he even the same person? Being in a place like this had to change someone…

The lanista had signalled for a couple of guards to come along with him, and the silent party made its way through a maze of tunnels and staircases, until you eventually came out in a corridor with only a few cells. Each one had a heavy oak door, banded with iron, and a small, barred window in the top to look through. 

“This is where we keep him,” his smile sickly as he turned towards you, hands wringing almost nervously. Good, you thought. Let him squirm. “I’d advise you not to get too close to his cage though,” he said. “He is muzzled at all times, but still, you can never be too careful. He’s a wild animal this one.”

“Open the door,” you said. 

“I’m sorry?” the man blinked, flabbergasted. 

“You heard me,” you said calmly. “And un-muzzle him while you’re about it.”

“M’lady, I’m sorry, but I cannot…” 

Your eyes flashed and you rounded on him. “You will do as I ask, and you will do it now,” you said, voice as cold as unsheathed steel. “Do you understand me?”

“I…” His piggy little eyes darted to the two guards, who looked as astonished as he did. 

You ground your jaw and balled your fists at your sides. Taking a steadying breath, you said in a very quiet voice, “Do you know who I am?”

“Yes, m’lady,” he simpered, backing half a step away. 

“Then you know that I can ruin you.” It was a chance, but a good one, and you took it. Someone like him had to be a weasely little shit, up to no good. “I’m very well connected, and any dirty little deed you’ve ever done can be easily brought to light. Any skimming money, any off-book betting you do: anything at all, I can have paraded through the streets like the poor creatures in that arena. The arena may continue without you, but not you without it. Now you open that door and un-muzzle him.”

He seemed torn for a moment, but at a slightly raised eyebrow from you, he closed his eyes and nodded at the guards, who tentatively unlocked the door and stepped inside, gripping their halberds like they were their only lifelines. 

Instantly, a feral snarl rent the air, the sound of An easily-280lb gnoll leaping at them, the chain catching and tightening suddenly making you flinch, but soon you heard the clank of an iron muzzle hitting the floor, and they backed out of the room, halberd tips pointed at him. 

“M’lady, please,” one of them implored, “Don’t –” but you pushed the door open and stepped inside, nudging the door to close a little behind you. 

The stench hit you first, and then there were paws on your chest and teeth in your face.

You fell back, winded, bashing your head on the filthy stone floor hard enough to make your ears ring. Drool dropped onto your cheek as his jaws gnashed and he pressed his weight down upon you. Your ribs creaked painfully.

“Come to stare at the beast?” he snarled, eyes glazed and blazing. “Paid your pretty penny to come and gawp at the demon?”

You had raised your hands instinctively, losing them in the deep fur of his chest as you tried to fight him off. “Brenn,” you sobbed, suddenly going limp beneath him. “Brenn, stop. It’s me.”

He froze. 

“Brenn?”

The wild light in his eyes flickered out and he stepped back, retracting his paws and lurching away like you had the plague. 

“No,” he whined, shaking his head, as though to clear his vision or his mind. “No, you’re not real.” His chest heaved and he shuffled back into the corner of his cage, whimpering and not looking at you. “It can’t be you. It wouldn’t. You wouldn’t come here… You…” he choked off. “Not you,” he finally finished in a tiny whisper.

“Brenn, shh,” you said, rising tentatively and realising the door was still ajar. 

You stood, dusted yourself off, wiped the flecks of his drool from your skin, and crossed to the door. They were all standing white-faced in the corridor, clearly thinking how they were going to explain to Duke Philip how his sister-in-law had been mauled to death by a gnoll. 

“I’m fine,” you said simply. “You will wait at the end of the corridor for me though,” you said, jutting your chin towards the far end of the line of caged rooms. “I will come out when I’m ready, but under no circumstances are you to open this door or look inside, do you understand me?”

They nodded, mute with utter astonishment, and you shut the heavy wooden door in their faces. Only then did you let out a little puff of breath. If Brenn turned on you, if he was no longer the gnoll you remembered, there would be no way they could reach you in time. You just had to trust him.

Turning back you saw that Brenn was watching you, his large ears pricked forwards, the sight of that familiar nick in one making your stomach lurch. He seemed bigger than ever, perhaps because the stone room was so small, but he looked tired too, ragged somehow, despite his brutish appearance. 

His dark eyes glittered in the dimness of the stone chamber, and one paw was held off the ground as he stared, unbelieving, at you. He had a massive iron collar around his neck that was connected to the wall by a brutally heavy looking chain, but his metal muzzle lay open in a corner as though he’d hurled it there the moment it was off his face. 

“Brenn,” you said. “Do you know who I am?” you asked, fighting back tears and trying to remain calm. 

His jaw hung softly open, his white teeth showing in the shadows, but he didn’t speak. 

“Brenn?” you said again, stepping closer to him. He remained utterly still as you approached, and when you stood immediately before him, he raised his muzzle a little and snuffed the air around you. 

His ears went back and tears filled his eyes. “It really is you, isn’t it?” he croaked, setting that raised paw down and leaning even closer. “I…” and then he began to cry. 

Without hesitation, you embraced him, arms around his neck, tears flowing down your cheeks now, and let him cling to you. How long you stayed there, locked in each other’s arms, you couldn’t have said, but eventually you leaned back, sniffing and wiping your eyes.

“I’m so sorry,” you said. “If I’d come here sooner, I… I might have found you…” Your words dissolved into another fit of sobbing, and he licked the tears tenderly from your face just as he had the very first night you’d first parted. 

“Shh,” he said. “You’re here now. I can’t believe it,” he rasped. “You look… Oh gods,” he said, adding your name in a harsh whisper. “You look so beautiful.”

You couldn’t quite say the same for him. “Brenn, I’m going to get you out of here. I promise. I’ll take you out of the city, and you can live with me.” 

He blinked, but he didn’t look like he quite believed you, or that it was even possible.

“I promise,” you said fiercely. 

He sighed. “How?” 

You gritted your teeth. “As distasteful as this sounds, I’m going to buy you from the gladiatorial school.”

He blinked again, surprised. “You… No offence, but… You have that kind of money?” Then his eyes fell on the rich embroidery on your dress and he seemed to reassess you. 

You sighed. “Yeah,” was all you said. “I’ll tell you everything once you’re out of here.”

He nodded. “I can’t believe it,” Brenn whispered. 

You took his soft – if matted – cheek in your palm and he leaned down into your touch, shuddering. 

“Believe it, Brenn. Gods, look at you,” you said, eyeing the open sores on his shoulder and the barely healed bite marks. “I thought today’s was your first fight this season?”

He shook his head. “First public one. Got to train beforehand, haven’t I?” he said wryly. 

You felt sick, and it wasn’t the foul stench of his unwashed cell. “That’s it,” you said. “Wait here.”

“Don’t have much choice,” he said wryly, his old sense of humour flashing briefly as he tugged on the chain. 

You smiled back grimly. “Still, hang on, alright?”

He nodded and sat down on his haunches, one ear twitching. 

“I won’t let you down, Brenn,” you said with a quietly unshakable determination in your tone. 

He smiled. “I haven’t heard that name in a long time.”

“I’m going to give you back more than your name, Brenn,” you said, turning on the spot and stepping calmly outside. 

The guards’ faces were an absolute picture. 

“M’lady?” the lanista said, scurrying forward as you took a moment to compose yourself in the corridor outside. He was wringing his hands and clearly checking you for signs of injury. When he found none, he looked inside the dim room behind you and nearly passed out when he saw Brenn sitting calmly in the middle of the cell, head cocked curiously to one side, meek as a puppy. “What…?”

“How much do you think he is worth to you?” you asked matter-of-factly. 

“Beg pardon, m’lady?”

“The gnoll,” you said, jerking your thumb over your shoulder and affecting nonchalance. “How much is he worth to you?”

“Well,” the man said, clearly not following. “Um… His fights bring in a good crowd, though not everyone likes his style – I mean, he’s vicious, m’lady…”

“Clearly,” you said flatly, looking over your shoulder at him. 

On cue, Brenn whined and lay down, putting his muzzle on his paws. When he rolled over onto his back, paws in the air, and wagged, you had to bite back a laugh. “Stop it,” you mouthed at him, and he grinned wolfishly at you, tongue lolling. It was a relief to know that he was still Brenn, despite everything he’d been through. 

When you turned back, the lanista’s mouth had dropped open and he stared, slack-jawed at Brenn. He looked like he’d been slapped round the face with a wet fish. “Lanista?” you prompted politely, and he jumped. 

“What…? Uhh…?”

“I’m going to make you an offer. I will… purchase him,” the awful word sat on your tongue like sludge, “And you will release him to me.”

“M’lady, I can’t advise owning an animal like –”

“Duly noted,” you said frostily. “Now, name your price and we can talk.”

You had been running Tristan’s estates for years, and were not one to shy away haggling. The slimy lanista demanded a ludicrously high price, obviously in the hopes of dissuading you, but eventually you paid him less than he wanted and more than you’d intended, and Brenn was muzzled again so that you could lead him out of the gladiatorial ring and into the city without flouting any more laws or conventions. 

“I’m so sorry,” you hissed as you locked it in place yourself. The locking screw was one that could only be removed by a blacksmith or with a saw, but you were so keen to get out of there, you didn’t register that fact at the time. 

Brenn only closed his eyes, shuddering into a tense stillness, and nodded once. “It’s alright,” he said quietly. 

You took the end of the chain in shaking fingers, and led Brenn past the guards who stared at you like you were the very embodiment of insanity. “Show me to a quiet exit,” you said. “I have no desire to parade myself through the public areas of this vile establishment.”

You were led out down back stairs and corridors, until you came out onto an empty street behind the fighting pits. The cheers of the crowd in the distance made Brenn and you both flinch, but you turned and proffered silver coin to each of the guards. “For your assistance,” you said coolly. They heard the hidden message in those words, and nodded their heads in thanks. They would keep quiet. 

And then you led Brenn through the streets towards the townhouse which you and Tristan had owned, separate from the large, city mansion where his brother dwelled. You had no desire to see Phillip now. 

Brenn didn’t speak as you walked him through the city, but he drew a lot of stares. People gazed in wonder, some recognising him and pointing, others just marvelling at the enormous gnoll who padded silently on all fours beside a young noblewoman. 

The moment you got to the courtyard entrance of the little townhouse, you were met by a gangly stable boy and he skidded dramatically to a halt the moment he saw you, his eyes going wide. “Is that… Is that a gnoll?” he asked. “Wait… isn’t that the Demon –”

“He,” you interrupted testily, “Is called Brenn, and we will be leaving for the Vineside estate immediately. Please have the carriage readied.”

“Yes, m’lady,” he yipped, backing away and still staring at Brenn. 

“‘M’lady’?” Brenn asked, voice muffled by the iron bars of his heavy muzzle. 

“I’ll explain everything on the way there, I promise,” you said. “But the sooner I get packed and sorted, the sooner I can take that fucking thing off you,” you spat.

His ears went back in surprise. You rarely swore, and the word coming from the mouth of someone dressed like a lady was an obvious surprise, even to him. He nodded. “Can I help?”

You smiled and said, “I will arrange for a bath to be run for you before we go,” you said as you stepped into the kitchens and your cook dropped a tray with a shriek when she saw his silhouette fill the doorway. “Oh please, Girda, let me help you with that,” you said rushing forwards. “I’m sorry for frightening you.”

Brenn sidled up behind you and muttered, “I don’t think it was you, sweetheart…”

You chuckled and petted his ears before turning back to help Girda pick up the silverware on the floor. 

Bathing Brenn was both a trial and a delight. 

It was a thrill to be so close to him, so intimate with him again, but he still had the muzzle on, and it was locked in place for now, but you did your best. 

He had a few lice in his thick, filthy, matted fur, and it took you a long time to comb him and treat him. His injuries ranged from open wounds to nearly-healed scabs, and you even had to stitch one up on his back that he’d earned from his fight with the troll and which had been weeping down his back and into his fur unnoticed. 

When he was finally clean, you heard that the carriage was ready, and that a packed supper had been prepared for your journey. 

“Ready?” you asked Brenn, and he inhaled deeply. His fur was still a little damp to the touch, but it would dry in no time. 

He shook himself and stepped up close to you in the privacy of your bedroom where you’d spent the last quarter of an hour gently towelling him off and massaging his sore muscles, petting and fussing him too, sliding your fingers through the iron of the muzzle and scratching his scalp between his large ears, and just generally treating him with the love and respect he’d missed for all these years. 

You’d cried too. You’d bent forwards and sobbed desperately into his coat, telling him how much you’d missed him, how you’d lost so much after that night when you’d parted, and how you thought you’d be alone the rest of your life. 

He’d pulled you into his arms and held you. You stayed there, locked together like that on the embroidered comforter of the four-poster bed for almost a half an hour, but when a knock had come at the door to remind you that the carriage was still waiting, you sniffled and pulled back. He smelled of lavender and of that beautiful scent that was uniquely him now, and not of the filth of the fighting pits. 

“I love you,” you said, and the words came as easily as breathing. 

He nuzzled your cheek with his neck, careful not to bash you with the metal of his muzzle, and licked softly at your lips with his long tongue. “I love you too,” he smiled. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.” He paused, and then playfully nudged you in the buttock with his nose. 

He was still on all-fours, and you tried not to worry that he’d grown too used to it. He’d always gone up on his hind legs before around you, saying that he felt like an animal when he went on all fours. Had that changed in his time at the arena? Brushing aside your fears for now, you led the way back out to the courtyard. 

He hopped up into the carriage behind you but soon discovered that he would have to stoop if he wanted to sit on the seat with you, so instead he slid easily onto the floor and placed his head in your lap. The muzzle dug into your thighs but you ignored it, stroking the top of his head and fussing his ears. Within moments of the carriage swaying and rocking into motion, exhausted, he fell asleep. 

It was only an hour or so out into the countryside, but you woke him gently as the carriage pulled up the long drive to the former hunting lodge, wanting to give him time to acclimatise before the next assault on his senses. 

Brenn jolted to consciousness with a vicious snarl, twitching and lurching, eyes darting fearfully around the interior of the carriage until they landed on your face and he went still. 

“Shh,” you smiled, reaching gingerly for his chest with trembling fingers. 

“I thought…” he choked, shaking all over like a leaf. “I… I thought it was all… all a dream…”

“No,” you murmured, “It’s real. You’re free.”

“Not yet,” he said, shaking his head and making the parts of the iron muzzle clank against each other. 

You ground your teeth. “True. Not yet.” 

The moment the carriage drew to a halt, you flew out and practically dragged Brenn – who actually seemed to want to stop and marvel at the buildings around him – towards a door in the stable block where you knew there would be a hacksaw. There was no way that muzzle was staying on him a moment longer than necessary. You could give him the grand tour after that. Heck, he could run off into the wilderness after that if he wanted, though you sorely hoped he’d stay, but that fucking muzzle was coming off. 

You did the job yourself, finding the stable master’s tool box and fishing out the hacksaw. The moment the blade bit into the metal, you began to draw the saw steadily back and forth, Brenn keeping utterly still while you worked, until the pin fell free and the muzzle dropped off with an awful clank. 

Brenn worked his jaw and then flew at you again. Standing on his hind legs this time, he wrapped you up in a crushing embrace and refused to set you down again for a long, long time. “I love you,” he hiccupped into your hair. “I thought about you every day.”

You’d not had the chance to tell him on the journey about your life, but when he eventually put your feet back down on the ground, you took his hand and led him back out into the late afternoon light. You made your way around the castle, and Brenn stopped abruptly. 

Your hands were joined, and you were yanked to a halt too as his paws planted and he just stared up at the former hunting lodge. “This place is…” he looked back at you. “It’s beautiful…”

You sighed, turning to look up at the four hundred year old sandstone castle – small for a castle, yet still grand and elegant – with its slate roofs and cylindrical towers, the glazing in the mullioned windows flashing in the sunlight. “Yes,” you said after moment, “It is.”

Open parkland stretched away from the castle on one side, through which cervitaurs would often race and show off in the autumn mist, while formal gardens surrounded it on the other. A sunny slope of grass led down from fragrant lavender beds and a gravel path to a croquet lawn where you’d played with Violet against her nanny the summer before. You hoped Ravi would keep her inside a little longer, just so that you could explain things to Brenn. 

“You married into all this, didn’t you?” he said, and you turned your gaze from the view to look at him. 

His black eyes were fixed on your face, and he was very still. 

“Yes.”

“Did you love him?”

You paused and drew a deep breath. After a moment, you let it go. “Yes,” you said cautiously. “Tristan was my lab partner at university, and he was my best friend.” You smiled sadly. “He wasn’t you, but he treated me well, and yes, I loved him.”

Brenn nodded and smiled, tugging you back into his arms like the clumsiest ballroom dancer. 

“You’re not jealous?” 

“Of course I am,” he laughed. “But what am I supposed to do about it? You’ve lived a beautiful life, with all this luxury and comfort, and you’ve been cared for and happy…” he nuzzled your neck, his soft cheek pressing against yours. “I’m glad.”

You felt your muscles turn to water with relief. “Come on,” you said. “I’ve got more to tell you.”

You sat on the top of the gentle slope below the castle, cross-legged, and Brenn lay on the grass with his head in your lap while you told him everything. 

“He was there for me when…” you said, eyes gazing at the forested parkland around the chateau, “When… After… I kept going back to the meadow,” you finished awkwardly. “The first full moon after you left, I went back, hoping you’d be there, but… I waited… He’d seen me leaving, and he followed me to make sure I was alright.”

“Oh,” Brenn said, his gruff baritone cracking. “You married him?”

You frowned. “What do you mean?” you asked, pausing as you scratched his ears absentmindedly. 

He laughed huskily. “I saw you that night. I nearly came to you. You looked so… broken. It was awful.”

“You were there?” you said, heat flaring in your eyes and in your chest. “You were there and you didn’t show yourself?”

“I knew you’d come back,” he sighed. “And I didn’t want you to get hurt. When I saw you with him, I thought ‘well, she’s not alone. She’s got someone to protect her, to look out for her…’”

“But…” your mind was spinning. He’d been there, just out of sight, out of reach. “Did you come back after that?”

He shook his head. “No. I spent the next month trying to find a new territory. I got captured for the pits not long after that.” He paused, wriggling slightly to get more comfortable. “Did you go back?”

You nodded. “For months.”

His dark, bitter coffee eyes rolled closed and he sighed, placing a heavy hand on your thigh beside his head and squeezing gently. “I’m so sorry.”

You returned his gaze and slid your fingers into his leathery palm. “You’re here now,” you said. “But, I have something else I –”

The crunch of little feet running at speed over the gravel path, accompanied by a high pitched voice yelling, “Mummy! Mummy!” cut you off, and you closed your eyes. She couldn’t have waited a minute longer for you to tell Brenn about her?

“Mummy?” he breathed, sitting up suddenly, eyes wide and glassy. “Mummy?”

“Yeah,” you said. 

He laid his hands on your stomach and looked wondrously up into your face. “You had… You have a child?”

You nodded. “A little girl. Violet.”

His black eyes brimmed with tears and he smiled. Then he backed away, releasing you as though he’d been scalded, and shot to all fours, retreating a little way down the grassy slope as she hurtled into view around the corner. 

“Brenn?” you asked, getting up, worried. “What’s wrong?”

“I… I’ll frighten her,” he said. “I don’t want…”

“Stop that right now,” you barked. “You stay put and meet my daughter, you hear me?”

He froze, and then nodded. 

You smoothed out your skirts and turned to see Violet skidding to a halt on the path, her eyes – just like yours – wide with astonishment. The four year old turned them on you, breathing heavily from her run. “Mummy?”

“Hello you,” you said, going down on one knee and opening your arms. “Where’s Ravi?” you chuckled as she tottered over to you and hugged you. 

A second later, a rakshasi with the black fur and features of a panther bounded around the corner and saw the two of you. “Oh thank the gods,” she laughed. “She caught wind that you were home again, and I turned my back for an instant, and she was off!”

You laughed. “No harm done, Ravi.” You picked Violet up and she latched onto your hip with her little chubby legs. “Now,” you said. “I’d like you to meet someone very special to me, Violet,” you said. “This is Brenn.”

You waved Brenn over but he didn’t come. He was staring at her with a slack-jawed, wide-eyed look of utter wonder on his handsome face. “She’s beautiful,” he breathed. “Gods, she… she looks like you.”

“Mummy?” she said. “Who is that?”

“He’s a very dear friend of mine, who’s been away for a very long time,” you said. “He needs a place to stay, and I’d like him to live here with us.” You turned to him and glared at him, mouthing, “Get over here…”

He smiled and padded over on all fours. You jutted your chin up and he rose slowly onto his hind legs. His puppy-dog-eyes made you melt as he reached out his clawed hand for your daughter. 

She, however, shrank back from him and he tried his best to mask the look of hurt. 

You took Brenn’s hand instead with your free hand, and caressed it fondly. “It’s ok,” you said to Violet. “He’s very strong, and very brave, but he’s ever so gentle.”

“I’d like to be your friend, Violet,” he said quietly. “But it’s alright. Take your time.”

She didn’t seem to understand that fully, but as you raised Brenn’s hand again, holding it the way a gentlemen held a lady’s hand before he kissed it, you said, “Go on, touch his hand. It’s very soft… you’ll like it…”

Violet looked at you with trepidation, but the brave little thing reached her pudgy fingers out and touched him. She gasped when her fingertips landed the back of his hand, and giggled, her face lighting up with immense delight, her other hand flapping. “Soft!” she exclaimed. 

Brenn laughed too, not taking his eyes from her. She reached a little further up his arm, but when she saw his big teeth, she shied away, suddenly uncertain again. “It’s ok,” you said. “Brenn has a big smile so he can show you how happy you make him.”

Brenn honestly looked like he was about to cry at that, and Violet seemed in danger of getting overwhelmed, so you looked at Ravi, who was watching the whole encounter with steady, emerald green eyes, tail swishing nervously back and forth, and nodded. 

She stepped forwards to take Violet from you. “Thank you,” you said to her nanny, and then you kissed Violet on her chubby cheek. “I’ll be up to read you a bedtime story after your bath, alright?”

“Can it be the one about the shapeshifting fish?”

“Tonight,” you said, “It can be any story you like. But only if you’re good and brush your teeth and let Ravi wash you.”

“I always brush my teeth before bed,” Violet said seriously, as though mortally offended at the very suggestion that she might not. 

“Good girl,” you said, thanking Ravi again. 

You turned back to Brenn, who was watching them go with what could only be awe on his adorable face, ears pricked forwards, his tail rigid but wagging ever so slightly. 

“Brenn?”

“You have a daughter,” he said. 

You laughed. You laughed like you hadn’t laughed in years. “I do,” you said finally, blinking through tears. “I do.”

He blinked, coming out of his stupor and looking down fondly at you. “She didn’t seem to like me very much, but I can’t say I blame her.”

“Give her time. She’s never met a gnoll before.”

“Her nanny’s a rakshasi though, so maybe it won’t be too much of a shock?”

You took him by the hand. “Come on, let me show you round the place a bit more.”

Brenn marvelled at the beautiful home, and you tried not to be embarrassed by the understated grandeur of it all. 

He stopped under the archway in the rose garden to smell the late summer roses, and he even went so far as to cut one off with his sharp claws and hand it to you. “I missed you so much,” he said in a hoarse whisper. His eyes tracked up and down your body, and you suddenly realised, as an all-too-familiar heat flared in them, that he had not a stitch on. He’d been kept without clothing in the arena, and when you’d been with him, latterly at least, he’d not worn even his loin cloth. 

“Brenn,” you murmured. 

He growled softly, lips closed, the sound like a little thunderstorm in his chest. “I want you,” he hissed, his ears pressed back with desire. 

You found yourself aching too, in a way you’d not felt in years. You tugged him by the hand and led him out from among the roses and into the water garden beyond. Under the privacy of a giant, ancient, weeping willow, whose fronds trailed in the koi pond below, you let him undress you. 

He laid you back onto the short, soft grass, and your hands went to your stomach. You were not the same person you had been all those years before when he’d knotted you in the forest. You had softer bits now; you had scars and stretch marks; but he didn’t seem to notice the difference, and even when he did, he just licked and kissed you all the harder, inhaling the scent of your skin, tasting you, worshipping you.

His hands gripped your thighs so hard you knew he’d leave bruises, but it was perfect. He parted your legs and stared lovingly at you for a moment, dark eyes gleaming as the willow branches rustled around the two of you. 

“Don’t stare,” you mumbled, trying to shut your legs and cover yourself, but he growled. 

“Don’t,” he said, catching your hand with his nose and shunting it away with a rough gesture. Then he breathed out over you, his breath hot on your wetness, and your hips bucked as you came alive instantly. You trembled with want, and mewled. “Brenn,” you said. “Brenn, I want you.”

He licked his tongue over you – one long, loving, stripe over your lips and around your clit – and a broken yell left you. His nose caught your clit as he tasted you with a desperate hunger, tongue laving over you, drool dripping down over your sensitive folds. 

Brenn pulled back, strings of drool connecting you to him. He hooked his forearms under your thighs and hoisted your hips up, holding you easily, and began a regular rhythm that had your fingers tearing at the grass beneath you in minutes. 

He didn’t relent. He circled your clit and dipped his tongue inside you, up and down, side to side, then teasing around your swollen clit over and over until finally you screamed his name and came harder than perhaps you had ever come in your whole life. 

He stayed with his tongue covering you as you spasmed and shook beneath him, holding you firmly but letting your body buck wildly as your orgasm swept through you, carrying you away and leaving you breathless and light as a feather in his arms. 

When you finally managed to crack an eye open, you saw that he was fully hard, his cock standing erect and weeping against his abs, and you licked your lips, breathing hard. “Please?”

That was all it took for him to lower your hips back to the soft turf beneath you, and line himself up with you. Slipping inside you, he moaned and grunted, swearing and gritting his teeth. His lips pulled back to reveal his huge, sharp canines, and when he was fully seated inside you, when the curve of his swollen knot nudged against your entrance, you gasped. 

His hips rolled once, tentatively, as though he was sure he was going to break you, but when you groaned and smiled, angling your hips so that he got you in just that spot that only he could reach, he growled and grabbed your hips. 

He fucked you roughly, clearly revelling in the feeling of being inside you again, of having you beneath his strong hands, of seeing you blissed out with his hard cock filling you. Soon though, as you tried to tease him into coming with wandering fingers, hand sliding down his torso until you found the base of his cock, he shuddered, but hissed through clenched teeth, “Not yet… I want… I want to… fuck…” he broke off as your tight, wet heat clenched around him. 

“So fuck,” you laughed, and he did. 

He pulled you roughly onto his knot and sank fully inside you with a low, gnoll moan. 

“Yes,” you breathed, “Yes, make more of those sounds for me, Brenn,” you said as he began to make little soft yips and grunts, trying to move. His knot held him almost static, locking the two of you together, but those little movements must have been enough because as you passed a lazy fingertip over your clit and clenched tight again, sensitive after the ministrations of his tongue, he cried out, fell forwards, and you felt his hips spasm against you as he came. 

A rush of heat filled you, and he growled, lips pulled back once more in a viciously beautiful snarl as he emptied himself into you. His orgasm ripped through him and he came hard, his claws digging into you as he clung to you, releasing into you so hard he couldn’t make sound beyond a desperate, wheezing grunt or two until he was eventually spent and he slumped forwards, exhausted and drained in more ways than one. 

“Brenn?” you asked after a while, feeling his chest heaving differently now. He clung to you, wrapping his arms around your head and pressing you close to him. He was scenting you, you realised, rubbing his cheek against you, marking you as his. 

“I missed you so much,” he choked. “Gods, I missed you so much.”

“Shh, I’m here now,” you said, feeling his cock still twitching occasionally inside you. 

Eventually you had to ask him to get off you before he broke your ribs, and he rolled over, his knot releasing him just enough for him to pull out of you with a groan. 

The sun was setting by the time you got dressed again, Brenn having cleaned you tenderly. He made you come again while he was at it, and you finally led him back up to the house as the sky faded from dusky pink to deep lilac. 

“I need to put Violet to bed,” you said as you walked hand in hand up to the back door of the house. “And you must be tired too.”

He simply nodded, squeezing your fingers once. 

You left Brenn in your bedroom, and after a perfunctory wash and brush of your hair, you headed to Violet’s room. 

Ravi was just finishing putting her pyjamas on, and when she saw you, Violet’s little smile drew a mirroring gesture on your face. “All ready for bed then?” you asked and she nodded. “Teeth brushed?” you asked playfully, and she scowled adorably at you. “Of course, silly mummy. You always brush your teeth. Now, where’s that book?”

She fetched it for you, pulling it off the lowest shelf of the big bookcase in her room. She loved stories, and she wiggled into bed, burrowing down into the covers. You turned to Ravi before she left, and touched her lightly on the arm. “Thank you so much,” you said, and she smiled. 

“Pleasure,” she said. While Violet was still getting sorted, arranging her stuffed toys around her for story time, Ravi lowered her voice and whispered in your ear, “I take it I’ll be entertaining her tomorrow?”

You sighed. “I want her to get comfortable around Brenn,” you said, “But perhaps in the afternoon? I’ll see how she is with him at breakfast?”

Ravi nodded, her face guarded. 

“Something we need to discuss?” you asked. 

She shook her head. “I trust you, my lady,” she said. 

“Ravi, Brenn was the love of my life. I knew him before Tristan, and after I lost Violet’s father, I thought I had nothing left but her… I went to the fighting pits this morning, dreading what I would find there, but I never imagined he’d be there, and instead the gods gave me a blessing I never dreamed of.”

Ravi watched you for a long moment and then smiled. “You look happy again,” she finally said. “Tired, but happy.”

“I am,” you said quietly. “Both.”

She smiled again and nodded politely. “Goodnight. And goodnight Violet,” she added a little louder. “Sleep well!”

“Night, night Wa-wa,” she said, still finding the ‘r’ in Ravi’s name too hard. 

You lifted the covers back and tried not to disturb the small herd of toys gathered around her head on the pillow. She thrust the book into your lap and you opened the well-thumbed cover and began. 

“Once upon a time, in a forest far from here, there was a young fish. Some days, the fish knew it was a fish, and other days, the fish knew it was a bird. On days when the fish knew it was no longer a fish, it swam to the surface of the pond and looked at the bright blue sky. “Yes,” said the fish. “Today I am a bird,” and it rose from the water in a splash. Sparkling water glittered around it and it flew up into the sky, swimming there among the clouds…”

Violet was asleep, despite her most valiant efforts, well before the end of the book, so you tucked her up and slipped quietly from the bed, kissing her on the forehead, stroking her wavy hair – Tristan’s hair – out of her face.  

It was still early for you, but after the day you’d had, you were exhausted. The basket of bread and cheese and grapes had not been touched on the journey to Vineside, and as you pushed the door of your bedroom open, your stomach growled raucously. 

The room was finely, if simply, furnished, and as your bare feet passed over the soft rug beside your bed, you watched the curtains blowing in the soft evening light. Brenn was out on the balcony, leaning his forearms on the stone balustrade, his little stump of a tail flicking back and forth occasionally. 

His ear caught your arrival and he looked over his shoulder at you, smiling in that gnoll way that made your insides twist with joy. You stepped out and went to stand beside him, looping your arm around his narrow waist and laying your head against his chest as he draped his arm around your shoulders. 

“She all settled?” he asked.

“Mmm,” you murmured. You caught Brenn’s heavy sigh, and hugged him tightly. “She’ll come round – it’s all a bit overwhelming, I’m sure.”

He nodded. 

You knew he was probably overwhelmed by seeing you with another man’s child, recalling the way he’d very openly admitted to wanting you to carry his pups. You put your hand quietly on your belly and in that moment, decided silently not to take the herbal tea the next morning. 

“You hungry?” you asked after a moment of watching the dusk sink around the gardens, darkness washing over everything and painting it in monochrome. 

He nodded and you turned away from the window. “Yeah.”

“Let’s go find something to eat.”

He dropped to all fours and stalked up behind you. Suddenly, he trotted forwards and crossed in front of you, nuzzling between your thighs. 

“You can have me again afterwards,” you said, playfully shoving his muzzle away. “I’m starving.”

He laughed, and it was that bright, high, giggly gnoll laugh you’d missed so much. 

You stopped in the doorway to your bedroom and took his cheeks in both hands, since he was at your height now, and kissed him. He couldn’t kiss you in the way you would have kissed a human, since his lips just couldn’t move like that, so he let you press one into the cleft in his lips beneath his nose, and then he rose and backed you quietly against the wall to lick your face tenderly. 

As he shifted his attentions to your neck and clavicle, raking his teeth over your skin, you gasped, breathless, and whispered, “Brenn, stop. Stop, or…”

“Or what?” he chuckled. 

“Or I won’t be able to…” you muttered. 

He grabbed you by the waist and drew you back into your bedroom, picking you up, walking his hind legs to carry you to the bed. He all but threw you onto it, and you landed with an indignant squeak as you bounced softly, but he sprang up beside you in a heartbeat before you could recover from your surprise.  

A moment later you couldn’t even remember your own name, let alone why you’d tried to stop this before he started.