Cruelty is the mercy of the untested.

Valentina paused considering her next words. Vakenroth had hunted for her, and given the length of time, put some effort into it. There was some consideration for her there, her continued life measured beyond a few days.

She inhaled, steadying herself. She had trained for this. "Lord Vakenroth... your generosity is appreciated. I thank you for this feast, and the effort of its preparation."

Vakenroth snorted. Smoke trailing up from his mouth as he watched Valentina.

Valentina looked at the horse and saw herself. Was she this injured when Vakenroth dropped her on the treasure piles the day before? Would a potion also bring this horse back to full health?

There was some chance that she could save this creature. But what then? It would be trapped here, the same as her. She tried to imagine Vakenroth carrying back a hay bale to feed his horse prisoner-bride.

No. There was no future here for this horse. And the future for Valentina herself was narrow. And caked with blood. She kneeled down in front of the horse, cradling its neck in her hands.

"I am sorry." She whispered to the horse. It didn't deserve any of this. But then, neither did she. Valentina pressed her hands against the horse's neck, pushing. She didn't know how to kill a horse, nor how to kill at all, such a thing not being in her royal education, though she wondered if her older more accomplished sister ever received more practical lessons in such.

The flesh gave way to the strength of her hands, tearing and crushing. She watched the way the horse struggled, it's injuries already too severe to actively resist. It was in pain. Great pain. And everything that Valentina was doing to it was making it worse.

She wanted to give it mercy. To free it from this terrible cave. She closed her eyes, and flexed the borrowed strength of her arms, pushing, and then punching deeper, breaking horse flesh around her hands. Finally grabbing onto something that felt important, a tendon, or perhaps a vein, and then she twisted, ripping it apart, ripping it free. Her hands so warm, her arms slick with blood.

The horse was dead within the minute. She would have to be faster next time. Valentina opened her eyes, looking down at her blood caked arms. The blood was still warm. And she felt for the first time in this cave the pangs of thirst.

Thirst. She remembered reading about this. It would kill her far faster than starvation would. She brought her arms up to her mouth and started to lick the blood clean, wanting to drink it down before it started to cake and dry.

Vakenroth watched, ever curious. Ever enjoying the cruelty before him. "You are stronger." He commented. It was a rare human who could rip apart a horse's neck with their bare hands. Who needed no claw or tool to do so, even if the attempt had been clumsy.

"...Yes." Valentina replied, pausing in the licking and looking up into Vakenroth's amber eyes. "It is time we spoke of that." She responded, trying to steady herself. Vakenroth had known exactly what that potion would do when he pointed it out to her. He likely knew about what the belt would do already. Trying to deny it, trying to hide it would only lead to it getting removed, or even worse destroyed.

"That is my belt." Vakenroth replied, with a slight growl and glow of flame flickering between his teeth.

"Worn by your princess. Both displayed all the better. Or would you rather the belt languish, buried away under so much gold?"

Vakenroth snorted, looking around the room. "You broke things. Vases. A tapestry. Coins." His knowledge of his own hoard was impressive.

"A pathetic effort, I admit. Though my rage, however impotent, is one I think you can understand."

This earned a laugh from Vakenroth. "Impotent yes. Even now, you are so frail. Untested. Your mother did not teach you to hunt."

Even the dragon understood her parent's failure. And if anything, actual hunting lessons might now be of use.

"You wanted to hurt my family. Why?" She asked, pushing the subject back to Vakenroth.

"Because they thought themselves strong. Strongest of the border kingdoms. They had ambitions, they coveted their neighbors lands. They thought themselves a dragon in their own way."

He snorted, flame leaking out from his nostrils. "Their arrogance annoyed me. So I broke them of that. Had them sacrifice something precious to them."

Arrogance made Vakenroth angry, pride drove him to action. It wasn't that Acre sought to conquer others, but that the king saw himself as strong as a dragon. And so he was humbled, by being **** to sacrifice Valentina.

Valentina knew that she was no great sacrifice, however symbolic. But she didn't need to let Vakenroth know that.

"We should discuss terms." She said at last, ripping off a chunk of horse flesh and biting down into the warm muscle. A rudeness and breach of etiquette at her old court. But here? She wished to show acceptance of the Dragon's ways.

"Of your surrender?" Vakenroth tilted his head, amused and curious still, watching Valentina eat.

"Of our alliance." Valentina risked, still sitting and licking blood off the back of her hand.

Vakenroth laughed, raising his head up, jubilant flame flicking across the walls of the cave, ashes descending slowly from the roof like gentle snow.

"And what have you to offer me? You are already mine!" He growled, that ire building inside of him again.

"My body is yours. My life is certainly yours, you could toss me about or gobble me up right now. And you have considered doing so every moment. But you took great risk to get me here alive. You hunted to bring me blood and flesh."

"There is something you still want from me, Vakenroth." Valentina continued. "You wanted me as a symbol of humiliation, and you got that... but only for a moment. In a year, my sacrifice will be forgotten, and what then, do you demand my sister too? It's going to sting less the next time."

"Mmm... or I could just kill your kingdom outright. Cook them inside the stone walls they think will save them." Vakenroth responded, but his anger was less than before, he was thinking, plotting things through.

"But you haven't yet. Because with ****, it's over. It no longer matters. My corpse has less value to you than this horse."

"You would barely satisfy as a meal." Vakenroth acknowledged.

"What you don't have is my will. My devotion. My soul, if such a thing really exists."

Vakenroth laughs again, but less boisterous than before, confusion behind that mask of control. "You would offer me such a thing, even after I stole you away? After I killed so many of your kingdom?"

"Yes." Valentina nodded, before pausing long enough to take another bite of horse flesh. "If my demands are met."

"And what demands would those be?" Vakenroth asked, eying her with those large amber eyes.

"You can pin me down and rut me like you did before. I cannot stop you from that... but if you abide my wishes, I will touch you willingly. I will serve you, as a wife to her husband. Honoring this twisted marriage of ours."

Valentina struggled to swallow the bile at the idea of this negotiated surrender, of calling any such creature her husband. Or, at this point, honoring any husband at all.

"And I will join you, to bring doom to the family that betrayed me. You can keep me as a symbol, now fully yours. Not just as a subjected piece of flesh, but as an eager ally."

"You would betray your own mother for... me?" Vakenroth asked with confusion, while they were no stranger to preying upon humans, it seemed that their own family was far less treacherous.

"Gladly. For I am already betrayed." Valentina admitted. She remembered again her ideal prince. One that listened to her. One who acted with agency on her behalf.

Vakenroth cut an unlikely figure.

Yet.

He had a strength beyond most princes, and certainly the handsome ones.

"You mentioned wishes. What is it that you require for this... alliance." Vakenroth asked skeptically.

"That you allow me to wear what adornments I find among your hoard. They are still yours, as am I... but I will borrow them from you when in your service. Display them. Both their beauty across my frame, as well as the power that they bring, power that you have hidden away."

Vakenroth growled as he considered this. Trusting a human with such power was dangerous, yet it was largely wasted there, buried under so much gold.

"That isn't all of your wishes."

"Indeed. You have ripped apart my clothing before, soiled it with your seed. And for such mundane garments, I would not deny you your indulgences. But for such things as these..." She gestured down across her belt and cloak.

"I would ask that I be able to strip myself down first, that the garments remain unharmed and untainted."

Vakenroth laughed again, something of a pleased giggle. "You would strip yourself down for me?"

Valentina inhaled deep, steeling herself for the most dangerous part of this. "Gladly. I will lay with you here and now, without a moment of ****... provided you do exactly as I say."

"You would command me?" Vakenroth growled, that flame starting to flicker again.

"No. I will tell you what is required for my eager participation. I cannot stop you from knocking me over and rutting me again... but I will barely be present for such a deed. You own my life, my body, but my action is still my own to determine."

Vakenroth looked at Valentina curiously. Past humans had never made such an offer. Perhaps it would be amusing? And nothing was stopping him from simply pin her down later.

"Fine." Vakenroth said with a slight growl of warning.

"Roll over onto your back."

Vakenroth paused, staring at Valentina in disbelief. In confusion. What sort of demand of surrender was this? Did she wish his throat exposed as well? Was she going to try and punch through it like so much horse flesh? He paused, but he did not say no just yet.

"You are heavy and mighty, and nearly crushed me to **** last time. If you wish me to move across you, to worship you, I will need to be on top. On top, you will find my lust far more eager."

Valentina bit her lip. She was eager, wasn't she? There was a thrill to rutting with this great, terrible beast, to feel that cock sliding between her legs. Surely some sort of abomination in the eyes of Acre, yet one they had willingly sold her too.

"Fine." Vakenroth growled, with more eagerness than he intended to portray. "We can try that.... for a moment." He shifted back slowly, before rolling over onto his back, revealing his great scaled underbelly, his wings spread out beneath him, taking up much of the lair with their full extended span.

Valentina took a breath and nodded, walking slowly towards him. Stepping her bare feet upon his leg and slowly climbing up onto his body. She looked down towards the dragon's crotch, and was for a moment confused.

Didn't Vakenroth have a massive cock, even bigger than her? Yet, instead of such a large member, there was something nearly feminine between the dragon's thighs. Nearly. Not quite a pussy. Valentina crawled closer. She sniffed at the opening, and she smelled that same overwhelming musk.

His cock was there. But hidden away, perhaps? That made sense, having such a large thing out and extended would get in the way while flying, while hunting. She reached her hand out, rubbing across, well, it wasn't a labium, but she could imagine it as such for a moment. Petting and toying with the sensitive flesh with both hands.

What would it be like? To have a cock like that which could erupt out of her pussy when she required it? She gave a slight laugh at the thought. The belt was a method of agency for sure, but much of her life had been denied due to the absence between her legs.

As a third son, she would have been a spare perhaps, most likely sent off to train as a cleric, but it would have at least been a path at all, rather than being kept as some cheap token.

How different those encounters with the stable boy had been were she able to rub such a cock against him? She shook her head. Such dreams were gone and dead. She was here now, envious once more of Vakenroth's power. Of his sexuality.

Of what she would claim as her own had she the strength. She leaned forward cautiously, kissing along that sheath, exploring with curiosity, but also open lust. There was something almost pleasant about the dragon like this. Laying back. Patient. Obedient.

At her gentle touches, the dragon slowly stirred, that shaft extending out and hardening still, the sword emerging from its sheath. Even now, Valentina was impressed by the size of the thing. She reached down to unlatch her belt, to save her clothing, her power safe from the damage that Vakenroth might inflict.

No. She didn't want to be weak. She wanted to be strong for this, to show the dragon what she could do with her new strength. Valentina stood up on two feet, raising herself up, one hand braced across Vakenroth's cock, before she finally swung a leg over that girth.

Straddling his cock now, much like she had been **** to do before, but now of her free will. Riding the creature beneath her, like so much still living horse, dragging her pussy along the saddle of the beast.

She hadn't realized just how turned on she was, until she saw the marks of grool she left in streaks across Vakenroth's cock. In a way, it was her dreams come true, though only through a mirror's twisted reflection.

A husband, at least of some kind who listened to her, who respected her wishes, and allowed her to act through him. One who allowed her to explore her sexuality at her own pace.

At least until he decided he would rather devour her later. But what husband was truly perfect?

She braced her feet against his belly, and began to ride Vakenroth hard, dragging her clit across Vakenroth's growing cock, holding her thighs and knees tight around his girth. Imagining, not for the first time, that this great organ between her legs had sprouted from her own form, rather one borrowed from another.

Imagining that agency in her own hands, instead of merely by proxy. Increasingly sure of herself, her stance, her balance, what she was doing, she stopped using her hands to balance herself, and instead stroked them across the cock as well. Exploring the texture of the thing.

It wasn't scaled, but it didn't quite feel like human skin either. There were patches of hardened textures, little knobs almost, protruding from the flesh. Valentina learned that she particularly enjoyed grinding against them. Perhaps they were intended for such pleasure? For Vakenroth to please some true mate of his?

There was a pang of jealousy that Valentina did not expect. Vakenroth was her captor, and even if that captivity had the echoes of marriage to it, Vakenroth was sure to find another of his own kind eventually. To have dragon young. Eggs perhaps? Valentina had no idea.

But, for the first time, Valentina had something... someone perhaps that felt like hers. And she was loath to give that up so easily. That, and she was sure any dragon mate that Vakenroth found would kill her quickly to remove her as a complication.

Perhaps she should do the same.

Valentina blinked as the ruthlessness so readily was dreamed up by her mind. It was... tactical. Like something her sister might have uttered. A brutal efficiency that once scared Valentina.

She thought back, thinking about her sister even during this inopportune time, even with this contrasting pleasure. Her sister Theodora too was considered lesser for that lack of maleness. But instead of hiding away in a fantasy realm where such a lack might not hurt so much, Theodora had doubled down, had tried to study the ways of the world in all its excruciating gory detail.

If the world was going to deny Theodora, then she would find the ways to twist the world about to get what she wanted. By tongue or by nail. Valentina shivered at the thought, that shiver earning a pleased exhalation from Vakenroth.

Valentina was scared of her sister. Even now, so far away. Even with a dragon laying out underneath her. Theodora had a ruthlessness to her, that Valentina had tried to deny to herself. And there was practice to it too. Not just in the way Theodora had preyed upon and manipulated the servants, but also any potential courtiers.

Theodora knew that she would be the prize of some foreign king. But she had long intended to enter the nuptial suite not as a blushing bride, but as a conqueror.

Valentina looked down at Vakenroth beneath her. Perhaps she could do the same? Though she lacked her sister's practice. The best time to start learning was now.

"Tell me Vakenroth. What is the best way to touch you?" She asked, curious to see if the dragon would give up his secrets. As she waited, she started to explore herself, still sliding her hips across his girth, but now testing with her hands, touching various parts of that colossal cock, trying to learn it.

Like so much territory.

"I... get pleasure from mounting others." Vakenroth responded. He hadn't been touched like this yet. A virgin too, at least in part. Valentina nodded. That might make this a little easier.

"Tell me what feels good, then. What you want more of." Vakenroth grunted, his claws digging through piles of treasure, not sure what to do in such a position, though enjoying Valentina's touch despite that.

Valentina watched Vakenroth's body, listened to the sounds, trying to determine what he enjoyed. The subtle touch, the barest whisper, barely seemed to register for the dragon. Perhaps his sense of touch was not as finely tuned as a human’s was. She tried rougher touches then, a more dedicated kneading.

Along the sides barely had any impact, but along the underside had great effect. Valentina played with some of the little knobs of calcified flesh. While they themselves didn't seem to cause much sensation, their manipulation still had an effect. As they caught on her thigh, they would get tugged along and in so pulled, would also tug at the surrounding cockflesh, earning a noise of satisfaction from the dragon below.

She slid slowly forward, towards that tapered tip, the head of the penis. It wasn't quite as round as a human’s, but still had the same general form. She tried tickling at first, under and along the ridge, which barely got a response. She remembered before how she had bitten him just underneath, and how he thrilled at that.

How he came at that. Were the dragon's senses so dulled that such a touch was pleasurable? Or did Vakenroth enjoy receiving at least some amount of pain? She dragged her fingernails along that under-glans flesh, raking across his skin.

Vakenroth cried out in a joyous roar. And fluid poured out from his cockslit. Not as much as a true orgasm, no, but enough to show that Valentna was doing the right thing.

She dragged herself forward across Vakenroth's cock, gripping it tightly with her thighs as she went, before finally she was perched just before the very tip.

She pressed her hands down, relying on that borrowed strength, to really start kneading the sensitive tissue, to leave the dragon squirming beneath her. Before some long buried instinct called out, and she brought her hand down with a slap, striking with stolen strength along the glans, leaving Vakenroth screaming.

The glorious noise of it turned Valentina on to no end. She paused a moment, curious to see if she had earned her **** with such a strike, but Vakenroth made no such attempt, and offered up no worded protest.

And so she struck again. And again. Tiny fists and open-handed slaps. Varying up the location. The pace. Building up a crescendo of strikes, grinding her own clit against a hardened nodule, before finally...

Vakenroth came, cum pouring out of his cock in something of a wave, crashing over him, painting his own face. And for the moment Valentina could imagine it was her own cum, painting her dragon bitch white.

Valentina came shortly after, adding her own fluids to the frothy mix, grinding her pussy hard against the still recovering dragon, pinning his cock down against his belly. Valentina wondered, with that belt around her waist, was she stronger than the dragon himself?

She certainly wasn't tougher, nor more experienced with ****. She let out a growl of her own, an affectionate mockery of Vakenroth's own gestures of dominance, dragging her pussy forward and across the tip of his cock, wetting her thighs with his cum, before finally standing up.

Walking forward across his chest, up his neck. Staring right down into his amber eyes. And at last, Valentina planted her pussy right on Vakenroth's scaly lips.

"Lick." She commanded the beast below. Vakenroth glared up at her, before finally parting his jaws, letting Valentina slowly slip back inside his mouth, and then, doing just as she demanded, extending that large tongue out, brushing it across her legs, across her pussy, large enough and clumsy enough to be unable to touch with precision, but the intent was still there, to clean the princess after her most recent messy orgasm.

To clean the princess of his own seed.

The dragon was submitting in his own way.

But a dragon still has teeth.

Vakenroth opened his jaws wider and nearly gulped Valentina down outright, teeth closing around her limbs again, trapping her there in that cage of teeth, her flesh, in no way reinforced once again held tight as that great and mighty tongue had its way with Valentina once more.

Valentina understood. She could command her husband. But only for so long. For now, that would have to be enough. She looked down into the flaming furnace of Vakenroth's throat.

Not with fear.

But with a **** hope.

No, not hope.

Ambition.