A Biography of a Human

Chapter Twenty-Seven:

“The Matriarchy"

The next thing I knew, I was rolling out into light and open air, which felt so cold compared to the cramped, humid interior of that sack. At this point, I did not even know, nor did I care; maybe I was getting used to this all since the last scare in the tomb of Aha'hor. Though it sounds as if I was dismissive, I did have one care: the hope that Gernan was safe.

I did not get to ponder on that thought for long as my clearing sight focused on what was now before me. A dark form seated on a throne created from four white tusks, their points capped with gold beaten in geometric shapes, but it was the seated figure itself that really took my focus.

A large hyena! Not just any hyena, the Candace Queen of the Koguana Lake Matriarchy! She looked like a male, but I could just feel in my soul this was a female, whether it was my gut or the information I overheard about the hyenas in passing before, I do not know! All I knew that I was before this warrior Queen now and her wild eyes locked with me as she stood up, towering in her masculine tribal dress, bare-chested with a hide cloak draping down to her skirt-covered thighs.

By this time I regained my strength and casually brushed the dust of my legs, putting up an air of being unfazed, which was half true. I had lived in this wild land for some years by now and was used to being confronted with raw strength and power aired by such beings of the Southern lands. But still, even I was partly taken in awe by this queen, for she had a brute air about her, a barbarous air! The lions had more of a dignified air to their wildness, but with her it was pure brutality. This was a creature who was heavy-handed and liked to show off her raw power on others.

Which I felt I was going to experience any moment then. Without fail, she spoke up, a surprisingly feminine voice, but steeped in a deep, watery brusqueness that did not betray her dominating looks.

“I was just thinking how lonely I was and look what the Gods dropped in my lap!" she spoke in the common language in the North of Afika, which was shared among the lions. I counted my blessings in being able to understand her when she spoke.

“What do you mean!?" I barked back at her in the harsh tone of a human fed up with it all and just wanted know what was what.

“And where is my wolf!?" it was shocking to me, my gall in not only demanding answers from this barbarian Queen but referring to Gernan as mine!

“Oh, that mutt!? He is in my prison, don't know what to do with him yet, he did beat my best hunter! Maybe he will be a good sacrifice for the gods?" the facade of my strength instantly fell and it was clear to her my shock.

“Awwww, little human wants his puppy? How adorable!" she dripped in a mocking jest.

“Lets make a deal, I am a lonely Candace and you are quite handsome. If you were to marry me, I could let your dog live?"

I was dumbfounded and she sensed that. “Perhaps some persuasion will convince you"

She shoved her brunette face right into mine and I saw everything, the spareness of the fur on her muzzle, which was so thin it was showing almost more of the skin that was beneath it; those ears, which were bear-like in shape but still having a point at the tip, were decorated with golden rings. What caught my eyes the most were the scars she brandished. Not just a few, but many scars, more than I have ever seen on the lions or even my Gernan! I could tell from that alone she was in her position by fighting.

Her breath overcame me as she opened her maw to give a low hyena laugh under her breath while coming in closer, pressing her cold nose against my cheek, which quivered under it.

After that, she wrapped her burly, spotted arm around my unwilling shoulder, which desperately tried to lower itself from her until I could no longer move any more down and it was forced to make contact with her coarse arm. She led me to a window in mud-baked wall that was painted with tribal motifs.

There, in a large, dusty clearing was the undeniably form of a wolf, Gernan! He was strapped to a large block and was struggling to free himself. Above him rested a massive slab of stone held aloft from a primitive wooden crane.

“GO AHEAD!" the she-hyena yelled out to a group of amassed others, who quickly scrambled to the spokes of a large wooden wheel and began moving in unison. This in itself was nothing to me, but what followed was what almost threw me into a horrified panic!

The large slab, which hung pendulously above the struggling form of my tied-down Master began to move…

Downwards!

Downwards onto Gernan! Who, now realizing what was happening, started to thrash about even more as I just stood there in the windows of the Candace's palace, watching in mortified silence as I heard my captor giggle in delight at this sight!

The thing crept at a snail's pace and it was tearing my insides up at the sight! I was so frozen with shock that all semblance of speech was reduced to just cracking, the fluids building up in my back of my mouth making a rattling groan with each breath!

How many minutes did I just stand there watching in that state? My mind was screaming action but my body was paralyzed, was I going to just idly sit and watch my Master die like this!?

Why did I choke? Was it the sheer abruptness of it all, or was it hesitation about the fact I would be a sex slave yet again, but this time to a domineering Hyena Queen? Or it could just been my backbone just devolving back into childish fear.

“I'LL MARRY YOU!" I finally shrieked out, breaking the internal stalemate that was leaving me stuck down, just after the foreboding shadow of the suspended slab fully engulfed the then resigned Gernan!

“I changed my mind! Lift it back and take the wolf away to his cell!" with that order, all anxiety left me and seeing Gernan being dragged off, still very much alive, furthered this feeling of relief but this was not to last long. The creeping muzzle of the she-hyena violated the space of my ear, her warm breath engulfing it.

“You can call me Ayeshatu from now on…" she paused, savoring what would be her next word and when it did came out it dripped with prideful lust.

“Mate," I shivered from head to toe at the word and how it was spoken.

I had done it again. Again falling into the hands of a domineering chimera, but this time it was a female Hyena Queen with an extra long clitoris and she would surely use it in that way.

“Guards, take my new husband to his rooms," not a moment later after this, I was grabbed by a pair of burly females and carried of down the hallways of this tribal palace, through rush doors and hallways of ebony lamp fixtures.

A door was thrown open and I was unceremoniously tossed in, landing roughly on the hard floor of this gilded cage. It was a comfortable room, a floor bed made of up woven pillows under a small net canopy to ward off nightly bugs, drawers of fine wood in which I would no doubt be placing clothes if I had any besides the rags I was wearing now.

But it was still a prison. The windows were bordering the ceiling and were barred. Behind me, I heard the sound of the door being bolted shut by the guards. I stood while rubbing my sore backside from the rough landing and massaging my forehead in a nervous tick, as I was now often finding myself doing in moments like these.

Slowly making my way to the mound of pillows, I fell forward face-first into the soft surfaces. What else could I do? Sure, I could have tried the windows, but most likely I would have fallen and broken an arm or a leg by trying. I could have rammed the door but even if I did manage to break it down, no doubt would my view would be replaced my those guards-women who would drag me to Ayeshatu, who would scold me like some kind of child for being a bad boy!

The only thing I could do was just to rest, clear my mind and ready myself for what was to come. Sure, this was defeatist, but one must pick their battles! If I chose to fight now it would only make things worse for me and Gernan! But if I waited and acted submissively I could scope out my options. Surely there must be an opportunity to escape, maybe if I could gain the Hyena Candace's trust? But before I could even begin to ponder such things I needed to clear my head and rest, regain my strength and then see what can be done.

I let ideas and thoughts flow through my head, if I could gain her trust and she lets me get my freedom of moment back, I could wait until night, rescue Gernan, and then flee! That idea was quickly discounted. A human and a wolf would be found by daybreak and no doubt sent back to this palace and that's if we even found a way out, this place must have had round the clock guards.

“Well, looks like I will just have to wait and see for the best chance, but until then will have to get used to all of this now," I finally thought in a logical air, it was the only way to view this situation.

After a while I heard the rattle of a chain outside and then followed by the door jiggling as it was unlocked, voices emerged from behind, a harsh, familiar one.

“Come on you mutt! Crawl faster!" I heard the Candace Queen Ayeshatu say, as I, growing perplexed, sat up, eyes focused on the opening of the door.

Coming in from the hallway was her, that amazon-like Hyena and she was holding something, a lead attached to a chain and that which it was attached to soon came in as well.

Gernan!

A broken wolf on his paws and knees, naked and leashed to the domineering hyena, crawling in to the room like a dog while his holder beamed with the pride of a suitor bearing a gift for her sweetheart.

“I know you were once a slave to this mutt, so what better gift for you than being the Master for once!" she spoke softly with a hint of humor in her voice at her own gift. Meanwhile my jaw could not be anymore open or it would have have reached the floor!

“Show your new Master your tricks! Roll over!" she spat downwards to the nude wolf while she shook the leash. Gernan never looked up while on the ground like that, he looked totally defeated and made not a single sound as he just sat there.

Ayeshatu's face filled with an impatient rage at the lack of activity on the part of Gernan, “I said, ROLL OVER!" and gave his furred thigh a sharp kick, eliciting a pained yelp from the wolf who I had always known as strong and resolute, aside from when he told me his secret back among the lions, but this was so much worse than that.

He slowly rolled onto his back and swayed from side to side with his paws in the air, exactly like a feral domestic dog would do! I wanted to look away, this was so awful, I could feel the humiliation from my Master by just seeing this happen before me.

“Good boy! Good boy!" she mocked as she walked to me, dragging Gernan by the neck who was still on his back, being slow to get back to crawling position.

“See how I have trained him! He is a bit slow but you know how old dogs can be? They have such a hard time with new tricks, right mutt?" when he did not do anything the hyena Queen pulled out a little bundle of reeds and wracked the wolf on the head.

“Woof! Woof! Woof!" he barked. I now felt sick, sick to my stomach!

“Good boy! Now you be good and obey your new Master or else I will have to put you through some more training and you would not want that, would you?" at the mention of the world training he recoiled and nodded his head and muzzle frantically while whimpering.

I was handed the leash and she bid me goodnight as she withdrew from the space again, bolting the door behind her and leaving us together.

It was all silent until the sound of her paw steps faded into nothing.

A pained howl beckoned forth from my broken Master! The most awful sounding thing ever, not loud but soft, though the pain was undeniable and heart-wrenching, hearing that sound as he knelt forward into the pillows, which muffled it as it became whimpering snorts.

“Gernan! Gernan!" I jumped forward, embracing his bare-furred back, caressing it with my fingers as I began to try and sooth the wolf, stripped of all his pride and self-worth. I found myself shedding tears for him. I can only imagine what he was feeling: that this was divine judgment for what he did so many years ago.

My attempts were not working, he continued on whimpering, the sound of it was becoming even more guttural sounding and he started to shake his head while his muzzle still stayed embedded into the pillowed mass. From my view, it almost looked as thought he had no ears and I grew fearful that they had cut them off in the process of breaking him into this state, but to my relief they were there, just flat against his scalp in shame! I have never seen them so flat before in my life!

“Gernan! Please! It's okay, I'm here now."

Finally he spoke, in a voice of deep anguish that was hard for me to even comprehend at first due to that and the fact he was still snout-deep in the mound of pillows.

“I can't."

“I can't."

“I can't."

He said this again and again, causing me great concern, “Can't what? Tell me! Please!" I responded back, the fear growing within.

“Look at you!" he muttered out “I am no wolf, I am a dog! I should have let them kill me before letting them treat me like that!"

“You are still a wolf!" I tried countering to no avail.

“No, I am not! What wolf would allow himself to act like that!"

“Gernan I need you! I did that so you could survive and still be with me! Don't say such things!" I threw myself on top of him, shook him and ripped him from his cavern of self-shame and took him into a tight hug as he rested his muzzle on my shoulder.

“Gernan, Gernan, we will survive this, just hold out and be strong, I will think of something!" I said, assuring him.

“You are a wolf! No matter what those beasts do to you! You will always be a wolf!" with that, he finally made eye contact with me, though shame still stained his amber irises which were covered with snot and gunk.

I raised my hand up to his face and wiped the stuff from his eyes and muzzle, “Let's find you something to wear."

Getting up, I made my way to the dressers hoping it would have something in it to put on Gernan, I was not going to let him be naked like this.

“Oh thank Gods!" I muttered under my breath when I pulled back the drawer and was greeted by the sight of folded cloth. I pulled out a shirt of some kind and then a pair of pants. Both were rather plain-colored but they were more than good.

Retracing my steps to the kneeling form of Gernan, I pulled the tunic over his muzzle first, then over his head, but after that I had to pull the chain out from under his shirt. The sound of it made the wolf cringe and I found myself pulling it out from the neck of tunic quickly as to make the pain be as short as possible for him.

After that, I had him put his legs out and began putting on the pants while he still was seated on the floor, then pulling up the waist up his dark-furred legs until it was blocked from movement, “Gernan can you lift yourself up please?" he complied and I got the rest of the fabric over the legs.

I was so engrossed in my task of helping I did not even care about the fact that his genitals were in clear view, I did not even care as I was now facing his back and fixing the drawstring closed over the base of his tail, making sure the tail went into the small cut meant for it.

“Finished!"

“Thank you, Xander..." Gernan quietly responded in a voice showing he was starting to pull himself together now.

I began rubbing his shoulders for him so as to help him relax further, “Gernan, I want you to take it easy, we won't be here forever, I will think of something and get us out of here but for the meantime we must play along, okay?"

He nodded his head.

“I know it's hard and we are both suffering here, but I will think of something! I just need time."

“Xander you are no longer a child…" he paused and then spoke again.

“I believe in you."

Content and docile.

That was the act I was to put on, quite simple since I knew full well what was expected from a “good" human. Those lectures back at the slave dorm finally were of some use now! Those dogmatic morals and teachings which were rammed into our heads. When I think back to those early days I am amused by how some of them were so antiquated with things being told to us that have not been in practice since bygone days.

Ancient wolves were so strict with their rules for humans!

“When you greet your wolven Master, you are to grovel before him or her and press your forehead against their paw. Only stand when you are given permission!"

“A human should always be on their hands and knees around the air of ones Master or Mistress. When you enter a room which you know he or she is in, enter on the floor and move about in a crawl until you have received grace to stand and walk."

“Never use the word, “I"! It is forbidden! Only refer to oneself as 'this loathsome human' when you need to say something regarding oneself," I could go on and on about such horrible things, the fact they still thought such instructions would be used at all by us humans was silly.

Thank Canis such trifles were relaxed by the Hegemon Alphas of many centuries ago.

Absurd antediluvian customs aside, I needed to gain some freedom before I could even ponder a realizable escape and I was not going to get it by being reckless. If this was me some years back I would have been that way but now…now I have matured.

The first evening I was called by Ayeshatu I was escorted by guards, as I expected from a new acquisition such as myself. Before leaving, I glanced at Gernan's face, his eyes burned with shame, not a shame for himself but for me as he feared I would be made no better than a human who does business in the red district of Lupercal.

I was expecting that myself, to be blunt, but was unconcerned about it as I traced my path before me with a steadfast sight. As I passed through the bland walls of this small wing of the palace, the decor began to gradually increase on the walls: painted geometric symbols and decorative shields made of animal hide, making it known that the chambers of the Queen would be near.

The single thought that occupied me was how it would be done! Would she mount me or I mount her? I assumed the former, as she did not impress me as the type that would want me for the latter, to be honest.

So I resigned myself to that fate well before the ebony doors to her room swung open before me and ushered myself within.

My senses were filled with a canopy of amber and musk that wafted past in the lit room. First my eyes fell on the center of the room, the bed of the wild Queen, its trapezoid patterns of orange and brown forming a feeling of movement within its confines.

Though such wanderings did not go on, for my sight fixed itself to a large form in the corner. There, resting on a floor lounge of ample cushions with tassels, dressed in a lose agbada of pearly white resplendence, was her: Ayeshatu.

Her eyes gazed up from what she was doing at a low table, they lit up when they fell upon me and she wasted no time in beckoning me over by flexing her index finger in a sultry manner. I was a bit surprised, for I was more expecting to see her in bed waiting for me to take me for herself, but no, she was preoccupied already.

As I drew near, what she was doing became more clear, atop the surface of the table she was hunched over were rows of paper, cards! Rows of cards stacked flatly in columns as a pile of unused cards sat afar and a few were within the claws of Ayeshatu.

I stood next to her, unknowing what to do next for she said nothing as of yet, but her wants became evident for I was pulled down to the floor beside her swiftly into a place on a cushion right next to her. The whole time she did not once look away from her task, she only wrapped her arm around my neck and pulled me closer as she grumbled and drew out a single card from the unused stack.

Over her arm I saw the images on the cards, strange things, enigmatic images, drawings which impacted on me a feeling of some sense of ethereal nature. One image was a pair of towers engulfed in scarlet flame and ashen smoke, another showing a kingly looking figure holding a cup and the others a mix of images of numbers of cups, swords and sticks all together.

“What, what is this?" all my apprehension was replaced by a growing desire to know what these were, they did not look like normal, bland playing cards!

“It's Patience, I play it often when I have nothing much to do," she grumbled out, missing the point of my question entirely.

“No, not that, these!" I reached out and picked up one of the cards from its neat column, making Ayeshatu give a very low growl as to let me know I was not helping her game.

I snapped back, getting frustrated, “If all you were going to do was do this, why did you even bother inviting me!?" she jerked her snout to face me directly. “I came here expecting that you wanted to mount me or something!"

She paused, then answered back slowly, “Yes that is true, but we must be married first. I want you to be my mate officially before I make you really mine!" those last two words having particular emphasis when coming out of bone crushing jaws of Ayeshatu.

She turned back to her game but not before answering my question about the nature of these cards “They are special cards!" she said as she snatched from my fingers the card I had stolen from her without asking and putting it back where it was before.

“Special cards?" I furthered.

“Yes, they are very old and are even said to hold the secrets of the future."

Now even more interested I stared prodding even more, “How?"

She then, with a single swipe of her paw, scattered the game she was working on, “Curse it! I can play another time!" and then gathered up all the cards into a neat deck in her paws and started shuffling.

“I will show you," excitement came over me and I found myself clapping childishly at getting my way. She then moved onto cutting the deck and gathering it up again before setting them before me.

“What do I do now?"

“Pick three cards and set them out in a row" I complied and did as she said, choosing three and laying them out before me, “The first card is your past, the second your present and the third your future. Now turn them over, one by one."

Flipping over the first, I was greeted by the upside-down image of spotty, forest-green and dirt brown cart with a single long tube and manned by a stick figure wearing a green bowl helmet on his head and a vest of similar color. Thinking I had made a mistake, I was about to flip it around when I revived a sharp slap on the wrist

“It's meant to be upside down!" obliging, I moved to the next card.

It was a card of two humans, male and female, nude, holding hands and both reaching out to pick a fruit from a tree bound with a barred blue and red helix in its branches, “Ah the Lovers, how fitting! Now, the next one!"

Flipping over the final card, it was an image of a generic anthro figure dressed in queenly attire, seated on a throne and holding a wand.

“Ahahahahha! How fitting! How fitting!" Ayeshatu bellowed out in a husky, jolly voice.

“What does it meant?"

She started out pointing out the first card, “This is the chariot, reversed it means you have been through quite a lot and were in a state of loss, wandering without a goal or place!" She the moved to the one she called the lovers.

“This one is just clear, its right now!" Boasting as she gave a sly wink in a suggestive manner. “The finally one is me!" she continued.

“Sure, it can all be read many ways, but it's clear for even the blind to see! You were lost, and now you are finding you way by becoming my lover!"

“Oh…how wonderful!" I tried to respond joyously even though deep inside I felt like she was mistaken in her view. I still felt lost and she was not helping me find my way as much as she thought she was by making my Master a pet for my amusement.

Thinking back, I can say she was good to me, her treatment of my Master was insulting, but part of me admired her! But this was not where I wanted to be, I wanted peace for me and my Master, a corner of the world in which we could at least live out life in some kind of peace and this was not it.

She wrapped her arm around me and pulled me close, “I love you! You are mine and will be forever!" I was starting to feel guilt at wanting to escape her, but a sense of not belonging also compelled me to stay steadfast in my aims.

“You're mine and this is saying it! How happy you must feel, having fallen into my Queendom! That wolf must have made you his beast of burden! How proud wolves are, but from now on he is your slave! If he even so much as tries to treat you as a lesser again tell me and I will discipline him…"

“Some teeth or maybe a few claws pulled, or just cut off his tail! That would set him right!"

“No, he is good, he has not tried to make me a servant again behind closed doors, I promise!" I quickly spat out after hearing those awful things. I still remembered fallen consort Io and how she looked with her claws torn out and I shuddered at the thought.

“In a few weeks we will be wed and I will finally have you to myself!"

“I can't! I won't! I will not bend to the will of another Anthro again!"

“I want to be free, free with Gernan!"

Deep within the Imperial Palace of Lupercal, in the corridor outside the chambers of the Alpha Wuffrim, a group of figures moved swiftly. Ursines and wolves, headed by Consort Nu, her two daughters and the thirteen year old Crown Prince Ulric, who must have been racked with worry.

His father was dying, for the past few months he had been in a steady decline and he had recently confirmed his will.

The doors of the imperial bedchamber swung open by the ursine guards and the figures of Nu and Ulric passed the threshold into the chamber and wasted no time passing by the imperial physicians bearing grim faces saying all there was about the prognosis of his Imperial Majesty.

Nu's brother Titus was there, along with Chu Hege, who kept guard throughout the day, as to make sure that Noble Consort Jao would not receive admittance. This was their chance to put an end to his influence once and for all.

“Ah, Titus! Of course you are here to make sure I don't work my magic on my Alpha!"

“His Imperial Majesty is resting and only wishes to see his family!"

“You mean that bitch sister of yours and that brat of a pup she popped out? Family!? Ha!"

“If I were you I would be careful with your words in the near future, your protection is fading fast."

“Beshir, lets go!" Jao spoke in a huff, waving down his henchman, who clearly was growing furious at such insults to his Master, before Jao and his entourage turned to leave.

That had happened earlier in the day but now it was evening and the doctors had sent out notice that Wuffrim's condition was rapidly declining.

“Father!" Ulric yelped as he rushed to his Father resting on his bed, half conscious and raked with his affliction, his face patched with bare spots and the color of his fur drained of any hue and left a ghostly white.

“Son!" he reached out and grasped his pup's paw as Chu Hege stood close by, having spent the day talking to his Alpha about the Alphate and his legacy.

“Ulric, you will be in my place very soon and I am feeling regretful, I could have been a better Alpha!" he coughed up in a fit as an attendant wiped the dribble from his chin.

Father, son and mother spoke quietly for some time, the Alpha woefully speaking about how he could have been better and promising that his son would have nothing to fear and to place his trust in his family, namely that of Titus.

After that, the Alpha slipped into a sleep, a sleep from whence he would not wake. A new dawn was upon the Alphate, a new Alpha, young and untested. The announcement of the passing and the reading of the will was to be in the morning publicly, even though informal news was already spreading rapidly through the palace and so would be in Lupercal proper.

Even Jao was taken aback when hearing the news, his biography in the 'Book of the Kutlar Alphate,' written after the fall of the dynasty, states he was tending to his pitcher plants and venus fly traps when a low ranking Eunuch brought the news. He hunched over, clutching his stomach and Beshir, fearing he would collapse, rushed to his side but was waved off by Jao who said “I knew this was coming but it's still unbelievable!"

“Beshir! I'm scared! What will become of me, of us!" he is quoted, he knew full well that he had been out-moved by his rivals in the court and harem and was fearing for his future.

“We will endure, my Consort! We will lay in wait like the tigers do..."

The unease of the young Alpha Ulric must have been indescribable. His uncle, Titus, comforted him, saying that he will take care of everything and Nu agreed with her brother. The two were said to have looked at one another with a sense of victory.

Ulric was Alpha, though still not enthroned yet, but still Alpha! This was it, their time was finally here, the taste of final victory and of triumph was surging through the two of them.

“Is not the sun rise glorious, brother?" she said. “The night is over and we bask in the light of a new day!"

Responding in kind, Titus spoke.

“Hopefully a bright Spring day without any meddlesome humans!"