Chapter 44

At Lino’s trembling, terrified whisper, Grondil finally looked down at his own hand, letting out a soft ‘Ah—’ of realization. He tilted his head, looking back and forth between his mutating hand and Lino.

“How bizarre.”

“Yes… Your Highness’s hand is incredibly bizarre. Shouldn’t we call a doctor? The f-fur is spreading rapidly…”

Attempting to match Grondil’s eerie calm, Lino’s composure instantly shattered as he watched the ash-gray fur aggressively consume the Duke’s wrist, swarm over his elbows, and engulf his forearms. Both arms… no, not just his arms. His feet, his legs, his broad chest, his abdomen… and finally, his face.

The transformation from human Duke to terrifying beast took less than a few seconds.

“Haha. Dear me, I hadn’t intended to reveal myself quite like this… It seems I’ve been caught. How incredibly bizarre. It is far too early for my rut.”

Grondil casually clicked his newly elongated, razor-sharp claws together as he spoke.

“Sir Cliff. No, Lino. Regarding the confession I mentioned earlier.”

Lino was paralyzed with terror at the colossal beast occupying the space between his thighs, but hearing the Duke’s familiar, composed voice emanating from the monster’s maw allowed him to finally release the breath he had been holding.

It took a Herculean effort of sheer willpower not to scream. Lino barely managed to force out a trembling, “Y-yes.”

Grondil thrust his hips forward, grinding his crotch against Lino’s groin. The incredibly soft fur rubbed sensuously against Lino’s groin and thighs. The sensation of fur sliding against bare skin, rather than skin-on-skin, felt completely surreal. Lino twitched under the bizarre, feverish friction, yet he couldn’t tear his eyes away from Grondil’s. He was utterly convinced that if he closed his eyes or turned his head, the beast would instantly rip out his throat.

Chuckling deeply, Grondil leaned his upper body down over Lino. Even in his human form, his massive size had always made Lino feel crushed beneath his shadow. Now, transformed into a colossal beast, merely leaning over completely imprisoned Lino beneath him.

The beast’s wet, black nose brushed against Lino’s neck. Hot, damp breaths blasted against his shoulder and ear. Gasp! Lino inhaled sharply in panic. He vividly recalled the razor-sharp fangs that had glinted when the beast chuckled moments ago. Terrified that his throat was about to be torn open, he squeezed his eyes shut. His blackened vision spun sickeningly.

Grondil whispered softly into the trembling knight’s ear.

“I believe I must proceed with it immediately. Will you listen?”

Issuing from a beast’s maw, the polite, interrogative phrasing sounded far less like a request and entirely like an absolute, inescapable command.

Not only had he spontaneously transformed into a terrifying monster, but now he was demanding to give a confession. Completely at a loss for how to handle the surreal nightmare, Lino maintained a terrified silence.

Using Lino’s silence as a canvas, Grondil began his confession.

“Humans do not possess it, but we beastkin experience a cycle known as a rut. Ah, by ‘beastkin,’ I am referring to those like myself. Beasts blessed by the gods.”

The beast’s pronounced snout refused to leave Lino’s neck. Perhaps his sense of smell was drastically enhanced in this form; he buried his nose in the crook of Lino’s neck, inhaling deeply between sentences. Intermittently, a long, thick tongue slithered out to drag a wet path across the skin. Given the abrasive papillae coating the tongue, Lino flinched violently at the rough, sandpaper-like sensation with every single lick.

“When the rut arrives, we are biologically compelled to revert to our true forms to mate. Because this is a primal, instinctual reproductive drive shared by all beastkin, it is exceptionally inconvenient and tedious.”

“M-mate…?”

Having remained utterly silent, Lino finally squeaked the question out. He couldn’t not ask. Mating? Instinct? Reproductive drive?

Was he saying he was going to mate in this form? But with whom? Surely not.

Ominous premonitions are never wrong. And for Lino, this rule was terrifyingly absolute.

“As I mentioned earlier. My rut occurs in the winter. It is still the height of summer, so it shouldn’t arrive for quite some time, which makes this highly anomalous. My cycle has never once deviated from its schedule in my entire life.”

Grondil opened his maw, lightly nipping Lino’s shoulder before pulling back slightly. Though those razor-sharp teeth could have instantly shredded Lino’s skin and muscle, they left only the faintest, playful indentations.

He patted the chest of the hyperventilating Lino with a massive paw, before using a single sharp claw to press down sadistically on the nipple that was already rock-hard from fear and tension.

“Urk…!”

A sharp, stinging pain pierced straight into his chest. Did he draw blood? Before Lino could even check, the beast’s abrasive tongue lashed out, rasping over the agonizingly sensitive nipple. Shhhh, shhhk— It sounded exactly like fine sandpaper grinding against flesh. Unlike the flat expanse of his pectorals, the fiercely erect nipple was mercilessly battered by the rough tongue, screaming in agony.

“It h-hurts.”

“It will feel better shortly.”

“?”

Despite Lino’s complaint, Grondil made no move to stop. Guaranteeing it would ‘feel better,’ he continued to torment the nipple while dragging his other hand downward.

“!!”

Lino’s member was enveloped in unbelievably soft fur. The beast’s hand began to rhythmically stroke the flaccid cock that had just climaxed, mercilessly forcing it back to rigid attention.

The moment Grondil transformed from human to beast, the fundamental nature of their interaction suffered a catastrophic shift. What had been ‘receiving a punishment from Duke Grondil of the Empire’ instantly devolved into ‘mating with the beastkin Grondil.’ This was no longer a situation that could be adequately summarized with a despairing ‘Fuck, my life is ruined.’

“Hah, ah…! Your Highness, Your… hnnngh… Is this… a punishment?”

Or is it mating? Lino couldn’t bring himself to vocalize the second half of the question, his hips bucking wildly under the stimulation. Grondil’s tongue, which had been licking and rolling the abused nipple, froze. The obscene, wet slurp, slurp sound instantly ceased.

“Hmm… I suppose it is both.”

“…Pardon?”

Blinded by sheer panic, Lino recklessly grabbed the face of the beast currently latched onto his chest and violently shoved it away. Whether this creature was a Duke or a beastkin, Lino absolutely could not let that answer slide.

Yielding to the push, Grondil lifted his head from Lino’s chest and waited in silence for whatever the knight desperately needed to say.

“Y-you called it a reproductive drive, did you not?”

Grondil nodded once in confirmation. His hand never stopped gripping and stroking Lino’s member. Slick, slide— The damp fur clung to the smooth skin of the shaft, dragging up and down in a rhythm that conjured a bizarre, terrifying pleasure.

“Ah, hah, wait a moment. Your Highness. Ah!”

“Speak. I will continue with my task.”

“……”

A punishment or mating. Or a punishment and mating.

Either one, or both. Lino desperately prayed Grondil was only intending to deliver a punishment. Mating—a reproductive drive—was something that absolutely could not, and must not, occur between the Duke and himself.

“I am… a m-man… ngh… so I cannot… bear a ch-child… ah, ah! Sir…”

He barely managed to force the entire sentence out. Though fragmented and punctuated by desperate moans, the meaning was undeniably clear.

“Hmm.”

Grondil seemed to genuinely ponder Lino’s desperate argument—that as a male, he could not conceive. However, his hand never ceased its relentless violation of Lino’s body.

Coated entirely in Lino’s own pre-cum, the hand abruptly stopped just a fraction of a second before Lino reached climax.

“Ah…”

A pathetic, anguished whine escaped Lino’s lips before he could stop it, but that sound of deprivation instantly warped into a scream of shock.

Abandoning the handjob, Grondil aggressively shifted his hand downward to the most intimate, vulnerable location. The terrifyingly dark, razor-sharp claws seamlessly retracted into rounded, blunt nails, and in a single, brutal thrust, he buried his middle finger knuckle-deep into Lino’s entrance. Without a second’s hesitation, he hooked the digit upward, ruthlessly crushing the swollen prostate.

“Haaak!”

Lino shrieked a high, piercing scream, his hips launching off the mattress. It was a primal, instinctual reflex to escape the sudden, blinding explosion of pleasure detonating inside his walls. The muscles of his suspended thighs locked hard, creating deep, shadowed definition. Sweeping his long, thick tail forward, Grondil sensuously stroked along the rigid lines of Lino’s trembling thighs.

“Lino, I am a Duke of the Empire, a beast, and a beastkin. Executing your punishment is a given, and I must satiate the unexpected, primal instincts of my rut… How could I possibly choose only one?”