Taken as prizes, they've been herded and bound together

With Marcus trapped under her arm and wrapped up like a parcel, Hespera stepped through the open doors of the throne room, following the slithering tail of the snake. He gasped in shock into the gag at what he saw strutting about in the large hallway. Even more of these monsters, creatures of every shape imaginable. Maybe twenty in all, each stranger and scarier than the last. The young prince's eyes flickered across fur, scales and naked womanly flesh, hardly able to believe what he saw.

Just across the hall a hulking, muscled woman with a long, brushy tail and wolf ears in her messy black hair was standing against a pillar with her huge furry arms crossed. Next to her, a slender girl with two massive wings instead of arms, her feathers sleek and vibrant blue. She was totally naked, with a pair of small, perky boobs on display, but her legs were like those of some massive eagle, complete with vicious talons that made the young prince shiver. And so many others too, things he could hardly believe were real. Part of him was still insisting this had to be some weird nightmare, but already he knew it all just felt far too real. A lot of the monsters were chattering to each other in eager voices, the hum of their conversations filling the air.

"Sisters, your Queen has returned!" Naja called out, her voice cutting through the din. The noise died down slowly, as each monster in turn looked towards Hespera. Marcus shivered in her grip as he saw many of those stares flickering down towards him instead, and taking on a rather hungry quality.

"Sisters! This has been a day of great triumph, for all our kind." The spider spoke suddenly, raising her spear above her head. Instead of the playful cooing of before, she sounded sharp and commanding, like a Queen. "As I promised, we took the Castle with ease, and found many young males within! Their human mothers and wives could not defend them, so they are ours by right, to mate with as we please!" The hall erupted with raucous cheering from all the monsters. The wolf-woman even let out a long, eerie howl, throwing back her head as her voice echoed around the hall. "Sisters, I rejoice with all of you." Hespera continued, speaking even louder to be heard above the noise. "But now is the time to return home. We must take our darling, adorable mates with us and retreat back into the tunnels."

"My Queen, why leave now?" One of the monsters grunted the question, her heavy steps seeming to shake the stone. She was huge, towering above even the others on hooved, hairy legs. Two long, gleaming horns protruded from her auburn hair, curling up into the air. Her boobs were just massive, bigger than any Marcus had ever seen, barely restrained by a scrap of fur tied across them. Even still, there was so much tanned flesh on display, bouncing and jiggling as she stepped forward. The young prince blushed as her gaze flickered down to him for a moment. Had she caught him staring at them? "There are many young males hiding in the town yet, ripe and ready for mating. I smelt them from the walls." The cow continued, huffing hungrily between each word. "We should drag them out of their holes and make them ours too. These human females cannot stop us." There were more cheers at this as well, but rather subdued, like the monsters were unsure if they should or not.

"No, Alcela." Hespera shook her head, her arm tightening slightly around Marcus. He could feel her muscles tense against his bare skin. "Dionaea's scent will not have reached that far. We are still so few, and the humans are many. In numbers, they can threaten even the strongest of us. Their darling males fight us too before we teach them we do not mean harm, as we have learnt to our cost before. If even one of us should fall in battle, it is a dear loss we cannot afford."

"You are too cautious." The cow huffed, stamping her hooves against the stone. "First you do not allow us to mate yet, even though we have taken many young males and my body aches with the need. Then you say we cannot move outside this stone house and find others. If I were Queen, I would allow it. We could each of us have many more males to mate with." There was a sharp, indrawn breath as she spoke from the monsters. Naja reared up and made a vicious hissing noise, her golden eyes gleaming. The cow-woman stiffened and snorted, giving the snake an angry glare. She lowered her head slightly, presenting her long horns. Marcus shivered at the sight. Were they about to fight?

"Please, sisters!" Hespera skittered forward, thrusting her spear between the angry pair. "Do not let our day of joy be soured by conflict between us. If I am cautious, it is only to keep all of you safe! That is why I led us into this castle, through secret tunnels only I had discovered. I knew it would fall without much of a struggle, and look, not one of us was even injured in the fight, just as I promised. Then I kept you from mating, yes, but only so we could be ready to leave before more humans arrived to fight us. Will you not continue trust my wisdom now, Sisters? Have I not led you true?" There were nods from many of the monsters and grunts of agreement. The bull made another snorting noise and scraped her hoof along the floor, but then retreated back and lowered her head, seeming to sense the mood of the room was against her. "Come, gather up our new mates." Hespera continued sharply. "It is time to go, before any more humans discover we are here."

She waved a hand towards the throne that had been the King's. Marcus glanced over there and squealed in shock into the gag. With all these scary monsters strutting about, he hadn't even noticed the just as disturbing sight waiting for him on top of the platform there. A large group of naked men, perhaps thirty or so in total, grooms and servants, as well as guards and even a few young noblemen Marcus recognized from his Father's retinue. Those he knew were all around his age or just a bit older, and even the others didn't look past twenty-five. They must have tried to fight, but it clearly hadn't helped in the slightest. All of them were gagged and bound, some with silk like he was, others with simple rope and scraps of cloth. They'd been lashed together, hands tied firmly behind their backs.

As the young prince stared in horror, the wolf-girl loped over to them and dragged one to his feet, sniffing at his skin hungrily. She darted in and licked his shoulder, her long tongue flickering over his muscles. The poor boy shrank away, but she'd grabbed his arm tightly with her furred hand and yanked him back to her. Other monsters moved among them, yanking the men up with groping hands that lingered on bare flesh. Even the bird-woman fluttered over with beating wings, cooing softly as she rubbed herself against a shuddering young nobleman. It took longer than it needed to because of all the groping, sniffing and licking but at last the men had been herded to their feet. The wolf-girl marched to the front and grabbed a loose rope tied round the waist of the boy she'd been feeling up. When she gave it a sharp tug, he was pulled forward, along with all the others too. None of them seemed to even try to fight the bonds, even the guards just stared meekly at their captors or the floor.

Marcus yelped into his gag as Hespera stepped forward, carrying him under her arm. Her spidery legs clicked along the stone as she turned to give the line of naked men a long, appreciative stare. When he glanced up at her face, she was smiling with delight, a sharp sigh escaping her lips that sounded so very relieved.

"Follow me, sisters." The spider waved her spear. "Let us take these males home so we can mate as we please!" There was another raucous cheer of triumph, the moment of conflict forgotten. The bound line of males was dragged forward, surrounded by crowing monsters. Marcus shivered like a leaf against Hespera's muscled skin, his heart pounding in his chest. What was going on? All this talk of mating...and now they were taking him away, and these other men too! Was he...going to be some kind of sex-****? To these monsters? Just the thought made him blush red-hot, his gaze flickering back to Hespera's large, round boobs, barely hidden by her thin metal bra. No, they couldn't take him away! What about his Mother and Father?

He screamed again into the gag, trying to kick his legs or wriggle out of the spider's grip. If she just took off this awful silk, he could tell her this wasn't okay! Or scream loud enough that his parents would come save him! With his limbs trussed up so tightly, he could hardly even move. Hespera didn't seem to notice his feeble struggles, and carried him back down the hall, her arm wrapped around him like she never meant to let him go.