Under Imperial Discipline: Courier to the Tsar - Chapter 2: Part 1

MIKAEL: Russian Empire, Moscow, July 7, 1872, 7:23 pm, The New Palace, the Grand Duchess Yekaterina’s quarters.

One moment He was in Asteria’s lair. The next He felt her warmth and weight, and one smooth thrust buried Him in her. The abrupt shock made Him come at once, deep inside the huge woman holding Him.

Yekaterina. The name came to Him, unbidden. Grand Duchess Yekaterina. Her cunt clenched tight around His cock as her climax tore through her; her enormous body rolled against Him in shuddering waves.

The bed was wide enough to lie across without reaching the edges. The bodies became clear. Sergei, a Captain of the Guards, lay on his back and drove up into the Duchess’s curves from below, his hips matching hers as she rode him. Two collared attendants braced Yekaterina as she bent between Countess Yelena’s thighs. Yelena gripped the Duchess’s hair and guided her in, pulling Yekaterina’s mouth tight to Yelena’s cunt and holding the Duchess there as the Countess moved.

As He looked at Yelena, He felt bound to her. It felt right, but also wrong. He had never inherited someone else’s bond before. Then He understood what was missing. There was no seed-bond tug, no trace of His craft in it at all. Only this body’s own love for her. It felt as strong as His bonds, only different.

Yelena cried out as she came against Yekaterina’s lips. Sergei thrust up one more time and released between the Duchess’s cheeks, his body tight with the effort as he jerked and flooded her arse. Mikael, buried inside the Duchess, felt the pulses slam into the crown of His cock. A collared man’s tongue worked deep into His arse, rimming Him as pleasure tore through His body.

He was riding the aftershock when He looked up and met a familiar pair of eyes.

Andriy lounged on a velvet divan, smiling as he watched the bed. A gold collar shone at the throat of the woman kneeling between his knees. Her mouth worked smoothly on his cock.

Andriy. A Colonel in the Life Guards Hussars. Fights. Jokes. Women. Andriy was as close as a brother to Him.

Then memories surfaced. A younger Yelena. Secret corners of the estate. Andriy running after them, laughing as he tried to keep up.

The Grand Duchess came down from her climax and pulled Him in until her breasts and belly pressed against Him, then she kissed Him, a touch His body recognised straight away. She held Him with possessive tenderness. His host’s memory knew that warmth on her face was pride, earned over years of knowing Him.

The Countess watched Them with a look His host knew was love.

The Duchess laughed, pushed Him back, and said something that sounded like, “Enough, my wolf.”

He stepped away, dazed, His mind full of thoughts that were not His.

Behind Him, the collared man stayed close and slid around His hip, taking His cock into his mouth. Mikael’s startled step back threw Him off balance; He dropped onto the velvet settee beside Andriy.

Andriy turned with a pleased grin. His hand closed around Mikael’s cock, and Mikael’s hips jerked at the contact before He could stop it.

He reacted without thinking, His fist closing around Andriy’s cock in return. The woman stayed on his tip. A memory surfaced: another room, Yelena kneeling between them, His hand guiding this same length into her mouth.

He tightened His grip. Their eyes met. Andriy’s expression eased.

This was His body.

This was His family.

This was His world.

This was Him.

He marvelled at his certainty, then shook it off. This was not why He was here.

Sound filtered in. The room filled with voices, breathing, and the wet sounds of mouths. The Grand Duchess sighed, satisfied, while Sergei suckled at one of her huge breasts. A collared man was between the Countess’s thighs, lips working against her cunt as she neared another orgasm.

The collared man sucked His cock steadily, lips sliding down His shaft as he took Him deeper. Within moments Mikael’s hips jerked involuntarily. He came hard down the man’s throat, groaning as it left Him breathless.

Andriy rambled about troop movements while the woman took the swollen head of his cock into her mouth. She sucked him slowly, urging him to keep talking as she drew back each time.

Mikael realised His own grunts of pleasure were encouraging him as well, and Andriy grinned, launching into a filthy story about his soldiers, his tone cracking with laughter.

One name kept recurring in the chatter: Dima, Dmitri, Lieutenant Dmitri Karavin. That was Mikael’s name.

Dmitri’s sense of smell hit before He could form a thought. Sex and perfume sat heavy in the air, and His mind sorted the scents: Yekaterina’s jasmine, Yelena’s rose, Andriy’s whisky, and the sharp metallic note from Sergei. Familiar. His people.

A new world usually took time to settle, but this body was already used to it. Under the musk, the room carried beeswax and incense. The trace of the day lingered on His own skin: ink, horse, oiled leather. Each note came with a brief flash of what Dmitri had done.

The Grand Duchess shifted on the wide bed. Two silver-collared attendants stepped in, silk sliding over her as they raised her. She found His eyes. Warm. Possessive. Something almost maternal.

The Countess slid off the bed next, fixed her hair, and gave Him a familiar look.

Sergei was already standing. He gave Mikael a curt nod, the sort a junior officer might receive, then turned to the Grand Duchess and addressed her with the respect due to a senior member of her house. Mikael stayed wary. Sergei seemed tied to everyone in the room, but Mikael could not yet see how.

The collared attendants went about their work, cleaning and readying the room.

Mikael touched the man’s head, pushed him off, and rose. He crossed the room to the mirror, wanting to see His own body. The Countess came to Him, kissed His shoulder, and rested her head there.

"What I’d give not to have to go to Uncle’s fête," she sighed. She kissed His cheek. "At least it’ll be just the two of us for the next few weeks," then moved to the dressing table where a silver-collared maid waited with a brush.

Mikael studied His body in the mirror. Strong. He ran His hand over His belly and found only muscle, startled at the absence of fat. He touched His half-erect cock and found it about the same size. His thumb brushed the head; it surged, thickening in His fist with a familiar pulse. Dmitri’s flesh, answering only to Him now.

Judging by how fast He recovered, His magical arousal was as potent as ever. When He searched for the bond, there was nothing. That did not surprise Him entirely. The link slept until it was shared. He reached for the Duchess and felt no echo either, which caught Him off guard. He must have come too soon after the shift for it to take hold inside her.

He cast His senses wider, looking for the collared man who had sucked Him dry earlier. That man should carry a trace. Even a drop was enough for an echo if he was close and focused. The man had drained Him thoroughly.

It was just noise until He learned how His bond worked in a new world.

Sometimes it came as a sensation, other times as emotion. In one world, it had even been scent. He’d forgotten how confusing the first hours were, and how much effort it took for a bond to become easy to recognise. Once one of His bonds had been accepted, the next ones would come quicker. Right now He had to be close to recognise the echo and its form.

Where was the gold-collared man? He looked, but the room had shifted and He could no longer see him. He forced His mind to quieten.

Gold collar. That was it.

The instant He fixed on the gold, the fog cleared. A dense slab of knowledge rose from Dmitri’s memory.

Those with gold collars belonged to the Imperial Court, serving the Tsar and his immediate family. Silver-collared staff belonged to the Grand Duchess’s household. The man had done his duty and left with the rest of the Imperial staff, leaving the Household silver-collared to prepare for the fête.

Holding still, He sorted through what had just happened. When His eyes wandered, the memories blurred into noise. When He focused, the memory became clear. Good to know.