Chapter 46

Mating and the punishment.

Lino blinked slowly. Not ‘punishment and mating,’ but ‘mating and punishment’…? Lino desperately did not want to analyze why Grondil had prioritized the word ‘mating’. However, as the beast’s scorching breath blasted against his neck and the arms crushing his upper body tightened, he was forced to confront the reality.

The Duke was placing infinitely more importance on the mating aspect rather than the punishment. Lino had genuinely hoped this was merely a punishment, because Grondil seemed remarkably unbothered and un-angry toward him. Therefore, even if it was a punishment, Lino had assumed Grondil would torment him moderately—which was still agonizing for Lino, obviously—and then be done with it.

But to prioritize mating?

Releasing a trembling, ragged breath, Lino tightened his arms around Grondil’s neck. If he couldn’t break the beast’s hold and flee, his only option was to beg for mercy.

“Ah, it hurts, so… please be gentle… okay? Your Highness…”

Burying his flushed, tear-streaked face deep into Grondil’s fur to hide his humiliation, Lino whispered in a tiny, pathetic voice. He was burning with shame.

Have I ever acted this coquettish in my entire life?

No. Absolutely not. It wasn’t in his nature to act cute or beg for favors, and he had never been in a situation where acting coquettish would have solved anything anyway. Therefore, he literally didn’t know how to act cute. He simply tried to make himself look as pathetic and pitiful as possible.

“Gentle. Ah, of course. I will be gentle.”

Fortunately, Grondil seemed entirely willing to grant the request. He slightly loosened the crushing grip of his arms, allowing Lino a desperately needed gasp of air. The massive hand trailing down the curve of Lino’s spine gave his buttocks a reassuring pat. Even that light touch triggered a flare of pain from his entrance, which was currently stretched to its absolute limit, swallowing Grondil’s cock to the root. Lino decided to focus on the comforting intent of the touch rather than the agonizing reality of their connection.

It will be okay.

He had survived his entire wretched life by forcing himself to think positively during the worst circumstances; he just had to do the same now. His body was reacting bizarrely, but his anus hadn’t actually torn, and he wasn’t bleeding to death, so that was a win. The Duke had suddenly mutated into a giant beast, but he could still communicate, so that was another win. By all appearances, he was a massive carnivore, but it didn’t seem like he was actually going to bite Lino’s head off and eat him. Well, he was being ‘eaten’ in a very different sense, but still.

“Haaa.”

Burying his snout into the nape of the knight clinging desperately to his neck, Grondil inhaled a massive lungful of air. He lazily licked the sweat-drenched, flushed skin. It smelled intensely erotic, and the taste was so cloyingly sweet it made his tongue ache.

Gentle? It was utterly laughable. Grondil chuckled darkly to himself. The sight of a tiny, fragile herbivore acting docile and desperately begging for mercy was so incredibly pathetic that it violently ignited his sadistic urges. If Lino had possessed even an ounce of Grondil’s true intent, he would have thrashed wildly to escape. However, entirely oblivious, Lino continued to unknowingly pour gasoline onto the raging inferno of the beast’s lust.

Slurp, slurp, slurp.

The long, thick tongue repeatedly dragged across Lino’s shoulder, leaving it slathered in thick saliva. Lifting his snout from the shoulder, Grondil firmly nudged Lino’s head.

“Ngh?”

Lino, who had been hiding his face in the beast’s plush fur, cautiously lifted his head. The moment he did, as if it had been waiting for the opportunity, the wet, abrasive tongue thoroughly licked across his lips. It didn’t stop at the lips, dragging wetly across his philtrum and chin.

“Stick your tongue out.”

“……”

Lino flinched violently at the command. Yet, he obediently parted his lips and extended his tongue. A prey animal possessed absolutely no ability to refuse a predator.

I can’t breathe.

The beast’s tongue—so massive and rough it was impossible to mistake for a human’s—aggressively invaded, filling his entire oral cavity and cutting off his air supply. Lino had always considered himself a decent kisser, but his experience was strictly limited to humans; it was entirely useless against a beast with a fundamentally different anatomical structure.

“Hnngh…”

Whenever the abrasive papillae coating the tongue scraped agonizingly against the roof of his mouth on their way out, a nasal whine leaked past Lino’s desperate gasps for air. It was a sensation entirely distinct from being scraped by fingers, and it was currently ravaging the inside of his mouth.

The long, thick tongue plunged violently down his throat. The moment the tip struck his uvula, triggering a violent gag reflex, it would swiftly withdraw and scrape the roof of his mouth again, establishing a sickening rhythm. Before long, his brain began to anticipate the bizarre pleasure that followed the deep invasion. He feared that if this continued, his gag reflex would be entirely overridden by pleasure, even without the palate scraping.

The beast’s scorching breath blasted relentlessly against Lino’s face. The soft fur brushing against his philtrum, chin, and lips was surprisingly not unpleasant. He had only been terrified because his partner was a massive carnivore, but Lino—who inherently liked animals—gradually felt his terror ebbing as he realized Grondil had no intention of literally chewing him to pieces.

Yet, despite the comforting touch, the moment the heavy hand kneading his buttock brushed against their tautly stretched junction, Lino’s glutes locked rigid in anticipation of another violent wave of agony.

“Hah, hah…”

As the massive tongue that had been ruthlessly plundering his throat finally withdrew, a desperate rush of deprived oxygen flooded his starving brain. Coughing weakly, Lino dazedly questioned if that brutal violation could even be classified as a kiss.

Grondil rhythmically patted Lino’s back as the knight slumped completely against him, gasping for air. The beast purred his praise, commending Lino for enduring the monstrous kiss so beautifully.

“……”

Having never truly leaned on another living soul, nor ever received such gentle pats of praise, Lino felt a bizarre, suffocating emotion well up inside him. He needed to protest, to scream that his throat was raw and beg the monster to stop. Yet, the gentle touch and warm praise effectively gagged him.

“Lino.”

“Yes…” Lino exhaled the response like a sigh, feeling utterly pathetic for letting a few words of praise erase his agony.

“I apologize.”

“…Pardon?”

The abrupt, entirely unprompted apology caused Lino’s brow to furrow in confusion.

“It seems my beastly nature is unavoidable.”

“No, why are you suddenly… hnnngh…!”

The hand patting his back had seamlessly slipped down to grip his other buttock, ruthlessly prying his cheeks apart like splitting an apple.

No… Lino instantly realized the true implication behind the Duke’s sudden apology.

“Y-you told me to rest quietly!”

“Rest. I will handle everything else.”

“Then why did you apologize—ah, no. No!”

Gripping Lino’s buttocks, Grondil hoisted the knight’s body straight up into the air. Squelch— The impossibly thick cock, which had been suctioned tight against Lino’s internal walls as if they shared a single body, was forcibly extracted. The shaft was so monstrously long that the agonizing withdrawal seemed to last an eternity.

“Haaah… Please, just stop here.”

“Stop? You want me to stop?”

“D-do you mean it?”

Lino stared down at Grondil, his tear-streaked eyes practically shimmering with desperate hope. Because his hips were suspended in the air by the beast’s terrifyingly powerful arms, their eye levels were completely inverted.

The gaze meeting his wavered ominously. Perhaps because he had reverted to a beast, Grondil’s irises had darkened considerably. More terrifyingly, his rounded pupils had dilated to such a massive degree that Lino’s own terrified face was vividly reflected within them.

Staring blankly at his own reflection trapped in the beast’s glassy eyes, Lino’s mind raced.

Under what circumstances do a carnivore’s pupils dilate…?

Before his brain could supply the horrific answer, Grondil’s massive head nodded in a delayed, mocking response to Lino’s plea.

And true to his word, Grondil stopped what he was doing.

SMASH…!

“HAAAAAAAAH!!”

Is this what it feels like to have your body cleaved in half? Is this what it feels like to be struck by lightning? With zero warning, Grondil completely removed his supporting hands, causing Lino’s entire body weight to plummet downward. Without a millisecond to prepare, Lino swallowed the monstrous cock straight down to the root in a single, catastrophic plunge. His soft glutes violently crushed against Grondil’s rock-hard thighs.

“……”

Unable to produce even a whisper of sound, Lino’s entire body seized in violent tremors. His jaw hung wide open, desperately wanting to scream, Why? How could you? But the apocalyptic shockwave detonating in his core seemed to have permanently paralyzed his vocal cords.

A massive hand soothingly stroked his bright red, abused buttocks, mocking him with its gentleness. Every time the scorching, impossibly soft fur brushed against his entrance—now stretched beyond its absolute breaking point—his spine shuddered uncontrollably.

“Ah, it h-hurts…”

“You told me to stop.”

“I didn’t mean… for you to l-let go of me… haah…”

“I suppose I must resume what I was doing, then.”

“…?”

Before Lino could even process the threat, Grondil gripped his waist and hauled him violently upward. Haaaah!! He hadn’t even recovered from the apocalyptic sensation of being stretched open, yet the monstrous cock was already dragging his internal walls outward as it withdrew. The sudden emptiness was just as agonizing.

“No, stop. You can’t do this… ngh, ah… please stop…”

“Stop?”

“Hah, excuse me?”

“Understood.”

Accompanying the word ‘understood,’ the hands supporting Lino’s waist vanished once more. SQUELCH! A sickeningly wet, heavy slap of flesh colliding echoed through the room. It was the second freefall. Augmented by the gravitational force of his own body weight, the plunge drove Grondil’s cock to an unfathomably deep, agonizing new depth.