Rosalie and Raener sat at the entrance of the cave with a pair of rabbits roasting above the fire. Normally, she would have eaten the rabbits raw, but since she had a guest for the very first time, Rosalie decided to follow what she assumed was the incubus custom.
To her surprise, Raener drew out some herbs that he had found in the forest and sprinkled them on the rabbits.
“It’s seasoning,” he said when he noticed Rosalie’s curious gaze. “It’ll give the meat more taste.”
“Y-yes,” Rosalie nodded as though she already knew. An unpleasant sensation emerged in her chest—embarrassment. It was the first time that she had felt such an emotion.
Lust, greed, hunger—these were common to all the intelligent creatures of the world; but embarrassment was something a wolf girl rarely felt since they almost always lived in isolation. If there was no one else around, there was never a reason to feel embarrassed about anything.
After a short while, Raener announced that the rabbits were done and handed the wooden stick to Rosalie. Again, this felt rather strange for her. A rabbit on a stick. Why did he do it like this, she wondered. It would have been so much simpler to just take it into her hands and bite into it.
She tasted the roasted meat and had to suppress a grimace. On an intellectual level, she could understand why Raener would prefer his meat roasted with herbs; the taste washed over her tongue like a mighty wave and the scent pinched her sensitive nose. But at the same time, the flames had brought the meat to the edge of rotting—the fresh scent of raw meat was all but gone.
She watched Raener feast on his rabbit and decided to remain quiet.
After the meal, he sat silently at the fire, gazing into the dancing flames. His eyes were vacant, his face a blank. Rosalie had hoped that he would speak to her; it was the first time that she had a companion for dinner and she wanted to know more about him; why was he walking in this part of the forest? Which tribe did he belong to?
“So...” Rosalie began. It was the first time in decades that she had to start a conversation, “Raener, right? I’ve wanted to ask you, what were you doing in this part of the forest? Usually incubuses and succubuses never come here.”
And she settled in this cave because no one ever entered this part of the forest, but she decided to leave that part out.
“I just came out for a walk... but then I saw the bear.”
Rosalie remained silent, waiting for him to go on, but silence was all there was.
Exasperated, Rosalie didn’t know what to say. She had expected for Raener to say more, but he refused to do so. She tried again.
“Which tribe are you from?”
“Why do you care?”
A spike of vexation shot to her throat. How insolent! After she saved his life, how dare he treat her like that. Rosalie’s wolf instincts rose to the surface and for a moment she wanted to attack him as though he were her prey. She bit her lower lip and with a grunt, managed to swallow the black hate.
“You owe me a debt,” Rosalie said quietly. “You may despise me and hate my kind, but you owe me your life. And I demand payment for my services.” Upon hearing the subtle threat in her words, Raener’s gaze shot up. He swallowed when he saw her amber eyes glow like ember, her wolf ears extended to their full height. In this single moment, fear filled his body—the fear of prey.
“Your wounds haven’t fully healed yet,” Rosalie said. “It’s a miracle that you are able to stand up—but don’t think that you can make it home without your wounds opening again or the bears and wolves finding you.”
Raener tried to hide the intimidation in his eyes and put on a face of indifference, but he could not fight back his instincts.
He had never felt so afraid in his life. In this moment, he did not feel superior to Rosalie; quite the opposite. His most basic and primitive instincts told him that this wolf girl was a creature to be feared and respected. The emotion of fear was so raw that cold sweat broke out.
“M-My name is Raener, just Raener,” he said after a moment. “My father is a teacher and my mother a succubus. We live in the northern part of the forest, beyond the river...”
Rosalie smiled and her fangs blazed in the light of the fire. She sat down and listened to Raener’s tale.
“What I said was the truth: I came to this part of the forest because I decided to take a walk... and well, I lost my way and came across the bear before I could try to make my way back. My tribe probably thinks of me as dead by now, and I should be dead, had you not found me in time.”
“Aye, if I had found you just a little later, you would have bled out.” Rosalie’s eyes glittered with an unrestrained hunger upon remembering that scene; a pool of blood surrounding this handsome incubus; his boiling guts; the scent of death. The roasted rabbit did not suit her tastes and just the thought of raw meat made her salivate.
A shiver traveled down Raener’s spine. He suddenly felt vulnerable.
“Worry not, Raener,” Rosalie said. “Once you are healed, I will see that you will make it home in one piece.”
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Later that night, when Rosalie had fallen fast asleep, Raener stood above her. He gazed upon her, his eyes tired and hungry. Just like Rosalie, the roasted rabbit had not satisfied him. What he desired was something more raw, something more primitive.
An incubus’s body, just like a nymph and succubus, required the life force of creatures of the opposite sex. Succubuses and nymphs needed the semen and life force of men to sustain their lifespans and youth. Incubuses needed to sleep with human women to gain this vital nourishment.
It has been more than a week since he last had a human woman. His bones ached and his throat burned. His hands trembled and he constantly bit his lips.
The desire he felt was different from the lust of a human man. A man needed a woman in his bed for his physical and emotion satisfaction. Raener needed a woman like a man needed water in the desert. His body would not be able to function without.
He gazed upon Rosalie’s sleeping face. Her expression was so peaceful and innocent that it was hard to imagine that just hours earlier, she had appeared as though she wanted to eat him.
He had never felt such a profound fear before.
Her thick golden tail covered her dainty body. He remembered how during the day, this tail glowed brilliantly in the sunlight, like the wheat fields in the summer. Before meeting Rosalie, just the thought of a tail and wolf ears on a human’s body would have roused disgust in him, but now he gazed upon her trademark featured with only apathy.
He turned on his heel and exited the cave. It was time to hunt.
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Thank you all so much for reading! Part 5 will finally be about how Raener satisfies his incubus needs with a woman ;)
If you want more stories from The Nymph’s Pleasure House universe, please check out Maura’s Pleasure House in the e-books section of my profile.
