King set me down just outside of the cabin, carrying the fox carcass inside and tossing it on the floor. He looked back to me, then to the wolf, who had grown restless in her loneliness, having relieved herself several times in the cabin. The interior reeked of pheromonal urine and feces, and she was panting loudly as King let the door slam against the inside wall as he entered.

"Start a fire. We will cook her something, and we will tend to her for a bit before we make use of her."

"Now?" I asked, looking past him to the restless beast inside. I hated her, but I didn't want her to die, and it all felt as if it was happening so suddenly. She would look to me as she looked around the room, and I couldn't help but feel a chill as I wondered if she understood what was about to happen. and I asked "are you sure we shouldn't...ensure she has a healthy birth before we kill her? What about your child?"

"My child? Who cares? It was a test, it means nothing to me. I can make a new one with my partner, the one who belongs to me."

"Yeah, but...you're over halfway there, King..." I began to speak, and he would turn to me and yell over me, causing the wolf to grow especially restless and begin to whimper, her eyes and lips pulled back in an animalistic nervousness, her tongue drooling profusely.

"God damn the bitch and her half-feral child! I will not have my first child be as simple-minded as she is. Now, go start a fire. We are wasting daylight."

I took a few steps backward, heading to the fire place and collecting the wood, starting the fire as told. It was afternoon at this point, late afternoon, and he was right, we only had a few hours of sunlight left. If he wanted to do this tonight, he was going to have to act quickly, and I was going to have to decide quickly how I was going to get out of being cut open and stuffed with feral organs. The fire was lit, and King would stand at the porch and yell for me to spear some fish for the three of them as he lead the wolf out into the yard by her leash, the animal struggling a bit as he yanked at her, seeming to be losing patience with her difficulties now that he had had some sort of "reconnection" with me. She had, at one point, been my replacement, but now I replaced her once more, and it showed in how he jerked her along through the yard.

"I will take her for a walk and tend to her as she wishes, and we will eat together. After that, we will begin the transferral." he called out to me. In a bout of uncertainty, unsure of what was more dangerous for me, I asked "aren't I supposed to stay close to you at all times now?"

King would bristle with frustration as he snapped "yes, YES I know, but there's so little time. Just go get the fish! There is no time to waste! Prove to me that you are loyal."

As much as I didn't want to do so, I knew I had little choice. Running now, when King was seemingly entering a manic state, would've been one of the worst decisions I could make. I had to play my role until I figured out what could be done. My mind was such a blur, though, my thoughts entering and exiting my mind so frantically, that I had no idea how I was going to escape this. There was a part of me that had begun to accept my potential fate, though, and just wanted to surrender. I almost considered letting it happen. King knew how to keep me alive, after all, and it was of utmost importance that I survived. I saw no realistic way the womb would be functional, though, and the potential infection would surely kill me. Even if he could successfully stick a womb somewhere in my body, it would not last, and he would never want to admit that. Something had to stop it.

Still, I went to the lake, I speared the fish, and I had them roasting when he returned with the wolf, who still seemed to be growing progressively frantic, whining loudly and consistently, only seeming to stir King into a more agitated state, and several times he raised a hand to her as if he was going to strike. She would cower, leading me to believe she knew what his hands could do, as I did. King brought her close to the fire and tied her to a stump, taking a seat beside me as he looked down at me. His breathing was a bit faster than usual, and his mouth was open, as if he was smiling.

"We will burn the child, rid the evidence it ever existed. It was merely an experiment to see if the wolf could carry my seed. If she can, then surely your body can. I will remove her womb, and we will implant it in you."

"Where?"

"I don't know. I will have to look at the layout of your organs and make a decision. Perhaps we can reroute the esophagus to the womb, then from the womb to the stomach, so the child will be nourished first, then yourself."

He had no idea how pregnancy worked, as if that wasn't obvious before now. Hearing him detail the clueless ideas he had only filled me with a deeper fear, having it confirmed that he was going into this assuming I would be fine, as he had with the serpent all those months ago.

"What if this kills me?" I asked, hoping it would buy us some time.

"It won't. There's no risk, I'll simply use my saliva to seal the wounds. You'll recover, as you always have."

I could feel a tingling sensation in my hands and feet, my breathing rising to a faster pace. I was panicking again. No ideas had come to me, no means of escape. All I could do was run, I was certain of that, but I had no means of running. I knew the direction of the truck, but I didn't have my keys. Besides, King was beside me, now, and was not leaving my side until the surgery was done. Even if I lived through it, there is no way my body would be able to handle having my organs rearranged. He was going to kill me, and there was no way I was going to be able to convince him otherwise.

I couldn't even eat the fish, but he insisted I try to do so. Every attempt to bring it to my mouth filled me with nausea and left my hands trembling. He watched me with a perplexed tilt to his head, as if he didn't understand why I was anxious, which only made me more anxious. I managed to eventually get him to leave it alone, though, by warning him that having food in my stomach could complicate the surgery. He agreed, and fed my portion to the wolf. After that, he took her into the house, standing at the doorframe as he insisted "Come! Come inside! Let us tend to her before we begin."

I sat at the fire, looking back and forth between the glowing flame and King, before asking him, in a purposely hopeful tone, "could we...go for a walk first?"

"A walk?!" he asked, in an opposing, rising manic tone.

"Please, just a short one, my nerves are shaken and I need a breather before we begin" I asked, and King would look back to make sure the wolf was secured before stepping out in the yard to join me. I went to him, and took his hand in mine, holding the massive digits in my fingers as I looked up to him with a sheepish smile, my brain trying to do anything it could to heighten my odds of survival.

"I don't mind a short walk, but we must hurry. " he said.

"I can't believe we're really doing this, me having your child, after all this time. I'm so excited, but i'm nervous. I just need a short walk to calm my mind" I said, meaning none of it. He squeezed my hand in his and took me, to the creek, through the water, on a short walk together as we talked. I tried to make the conversation as intimate as possible, expressing how much I loved him, how happy I was that we were finally going to make a child together, how attractive he was fighting so hard for me. I could see it stroked his ego, and I leaned into it quite a bit, expressing how I was aroused at the thought of being bred by the man I'd admired for so long. The words tasted like shit, leaving my mouth, but I wanted him to really have my best interests in mind in the event the surgery did indeed happen. Perhaps, I hoped, I could convince him to spare the surgery for another day. 

"You haven't seemed like you loved me for quite some time. You were just hitting me a few days ago, you know."

"I was just so jealous, King. I hated seeing you with the deer. I've wanted you so badly, I just...didn't feel like you wanted me."

"Oh, my love, I've wanted you all along. I have been wanting nothing but you." King said to me, my teeth gritting as I wanted so badly to curse him for such dishonesty. As we walked together, his hand would leave mine, and he would begin to rub my back, down to my butt, grabbing at my backside and playing with my tail as he told me more explicitly how excited he was to have me be fertile for him, and that one child would surely not be enough. I couldn't imagine the thought of ever having him inside me again, let alone several more times. I remarked about how wonderful that sounded, and how I wanted to show our children the cave.

"And the Forest's Heart" he said, looking down to me. I nodded.

"...Forgive me for how horrible I was about that, the other day. I didn't understand, and I've been bottling up how much I missed you. I hope Athair can forgive me as well."

"You have been ill with jealousy, it is unsurprising how you lashed out. He likely will come around once he sees our children. He will be amazed that we were able to do it, two males."

King went on to ponder about the concept of me even being male, descending into a rather erotic conversation about how he could potentially alter that, if he so desired, and make me female. It all hinged on if the womb went well, he imagined, and that if it did then we could likely continue further. He remarked about what he'd said before, about how perhaps I could have my anatomy changed entirely. 

"Why even stop at just adding a womb? I could truly make you my bride. You are already so small, so lithe, it would not be hard to make you appear a female, especially if we find an anthro with parts to use."

It all was so horrifying, how he talked. He was so comfortable discussing bodies in terms of resources and usefulness, how one could be altered or modified to be more beneficial, or how one could be deconstructed in favor of another. The way he talked about living creatures as if they were just instruments to him, tools to better serve his sadistic behavior, I despised it, but I let him talk freely, nodding along, agreeing with it all, letting it enter one ear and exit the other as I thought long and hard about how I was going to survive this surgery.

"Are you going to miss the wolf?" I asked.

"Oh, no, not really. She's stupid, clueless, unengaging. She's a warm body, and I can't complain about that, but so are you. I'm delighted to have us growing closer again, and I've no problem letting her be a sacrifice toward that."

He was brutally honest, it seemed, now that he assumed he had me back where he wanted me. Our walk had turned a corner, though, and we were heading back to the cabin, and I could feel that panic rising, that flighty feeling in my body like my limbs were going to float away from me. I felt certain I was about to die, like my life was about to end, and yet all I could do was keep putting one foot in front of the other and let my husband guide me back to the cabin, back to what would most likely be my final resting place. King, however, had a spring in his step, and as he walked he would look to me and ask "are you ready?"

"As ready as i'm gonna be..." I said, audibly apprehensive.

"Why do you sound afraid?" he asked.

"Because I am afraid, King. It could seriously kill me, even with...even with your skills. What if I get an infection, or my body rejects the womb, or...or...anything, really?"

"It will be fine," he assured me, "I am certain you will handle it alright, and your body will accept it because the Wild wills it so."

The Wild, I thought, how comforting. The Wild had been so brutally unkind to me so far, so indifferent. It amazed me how King thought I'd find that to be pleasant. Before I knew it, though, we were standing at the cabin door, and he stepped inside, looking back to me. I stood there, frozen, feeling as if I was standing on top of a cliff, and that the next step would be a plunge to my untimely demise

"Well?" he'd ask.

"I...I'm coming" I stammered, my feet taking one small, shuffling step at a time. The wolf inside was whining, pacing about, tugging at her leash, and I could barely bring myself to pass the doorframe. I finally did, though, feeling as if I was falling thousands of feet, through clouds, to the earth, to my death. I felt dizzy as I took the step, and I stood in our reeking cabin, full of dust and waste, full of memories, full of the smothering tension of sins and misery having been birthed within the four walls. I could feel the weight on my shoulders, like the pressure inside the home was denser, more imposing, than it ever had been before, like I had rapidly descended, like I was sinking. King watched me as I shuffled past him, taking a seat on the bed. He then closed the door, and looked to the wolf, who was avoiding him, stepping backwards as he would approach her.

"Nico, this is it. Our day is finally here." he said as he stood before the wolf, looking down at her. He looked so terrifying in the low light of the cabin, the windows being the only source of hope in this room. I had spent over a year with him and yet, only now, did his towering bestial form terrify me as it should have all along. Tall, skull-faced, salivating, stinking, looming over his prey, truly a monster before my eyes. If only I had seen this sooner, perhaps I wouldn't be dangling from the jaws of death over it's chasmous maw, feeling the boiling steam of a waiting stomach below me. I needed more time, just a few more minutes. I felt like a fish, pulled from the water, thrashing about in some bucket, looking up all wide-eyed and begging, please, please. Just a few more minutes. Not yet. 

"I will take the bitch to the yard and dispose of her, you just make yourself comfortable." he said, heading for her leash when I expelled a sudden "wait". He turned to me. My subconscious had taken the reigns, and I felt, for a moment, like I'd lost control of myself. The words fell from my mouth like survival instincts.

"Can we mate first?"

King's hand hung in the air for a moment before he turned to me, cocking his head, asking "really?"

"Well, after we go through with this, we'll have to wait a while. My body will have to heal, and adjust to the womb, and we wouldn't wanna risk damaging it while it's healing by trying to mate. It could be weeks, months even. Let's...do it one more time, before then." I said, squirming nervously on the bed as if I was itching for something.

He looked at me for a moment, quietly stating "I will tether her in the yard, so she doesn't have to watch" before he took the wolf outside, returning shortly after. It was all coming together. He approached me, the hulking frame of my certain undoing, licking his tongue across his exposed skull and teeth, across the fungal fangs, and crawled onto the bed, sitting on his knees at the foot, while I reclined onto my elbows. My body was on display for him, intentionally, and he looked at me with a salacious groan rolling from his throat, his body lurching forward like a tidal wave about to crash into the shores of my smaller frame, my helplessness. I eased onto my back, and he would crawl onto me, looking down at me as my arms slid upward, under the pillow, underneath my head, an exposing surrender. 

"I have always admired your smell, Nico," he would say as he leaned downward to sniff under my arms, rubbing the bushy body hair around on his snout. My back would arch some, showing off my ribby stature to him as his elbows rested on the bed, his hands laying limp on my chest as he sniffed at me, arousing himself on my aroma. I stared up at the ceiling as I felt his fingertips groping at my fur, at my chest, at my nipples, attempting to arouse me as well.

"I've always enjoyed yours as well, King. I didn't expect you to ever be the type to admire musk, though, especially not a fox's. You're quite the peculiar male."

I said it with intention, and his body froze, his nose lifting a bit from under my arm, the corners of his vision looking at the underside of my jaw as he asked "what did you just call me?"

"Malleus Galair." I spoke it as a smile crept up the corners of my mouth, showing him my teeth, "the loveless Peculiar Male I've read so much about. I wish you'd told me sooner."

King rose up suddenly, his palms sliding off my body as they found stability on the bed, his knees digging into mattress as he splayed himself over top of me, looming down at me as I rested with my arms behind my head, casual, grinning up to him. Though he had not eyes, I could see shock in his expression, disbelief.

"You are not to ever refer to me as that ever again, do you understand?" he spoke, and I could hear his fingers curling, digging nails into the mattress as I looked into those hollow eye sockets, those empty holes where vision resided.

"You could've told me sooner, you know, about the man who used to watch you. The one who called you Malleus."

"Cease this."

"Were you ashamed? Were you embarrassed that the only company you'd ever had was your own rot?"

"Nico! Shut your mouth!" he barked suddenly. I could see it in his shoulders, in the way his posture stiffened up. He wanted to bite me, he wanted to rip me apart, but without me he would have nothing left, nothing but his own violence.

"You are no king of any wild, nor are you a guardian for anything but fungus. You're king of only your own decay. That's why you never found love."

His throat emitted a guttural snarl and he lunged forward, his open mouth aiming for my exposed neck, and it was finally time. My hand reached between the mattress and bed frame and produced the knife, my grandfather's knife, the knife I had tucked away all those months ago, in that solitary paranoia, in fear of the noise that was never there, and I thrust it into his neck, into the carotid artery. Blood bloomed like roses from the blade of the knife and the meat of his neck, spraying across the bedsheets, across the walls, spilling from his open mouth that hung frozen in terror just above my throat. I withdrew the knife and he pulled back just a bit, leaning onto his elbow as his other hand rose to press his palm to the wound. I thrust again, piercing through his guarding hand and into his neck a second time, feeling the warmth begin to pour between his fingertips as he fell to his side, his knees drawing inward, his hand clutching the severely bleeding wound as crimson spilled from his mouth and neck. 

The irony of it all, now seeing his blood pouring over top of the stains of my own, layering over my suffering with his. I shoved him onto his back and straddled him, both hands clutching the hilt of the knife as I faced him, as I looked into his helplessness as he had mine, all this time.

"MALLEUS GALAIR, FOOD FOR WORMS", I thrust the knife into his neck, into the space between his collarbones. Blood burst forth from him like spring flowers as I pulled back the knife, his hands both grasping at the new wound as a fountain freed itself from the confines of his rotten body. His body arched, his head looking up and away from me.

"KING OF NOTHING, FOREVER LOVELESS!", my second thrust plunged into his chest, having missed the neck. My third thrust would puncture his chest as well, as would the fourth, and the fifth, and the sixth, rubies bursting forth from the ravines opened in his body.

"I HATE YOU, MALLEUS, I HATE YOU" I cursed out, thrusting the knife the seventh time into his chest again before I grabbed his skull, yanking it to force the eye sockets to face me as I shook him about violently, my eyes wide and staring into his. I cursed at him to brandish that supposed power he had, to strike me down like he had the shepherd, like he had all those animals, for all those years. He only struggled, gargling blood that sputtered from his maw like boiling water.

"DO YOU HEAR ME, PARASITE? I HATE YOU! ", I cursed as I shook him, his hands beginning to tremble as their grip guarding his throat loosened, slacking, finally growing still. Blood continued to spurt from the various open wounds in his body before it began to slow as well, turning to trickles, weakening as he had. His lungs released a rolling, agonized rattle of death before his body would grow still, his arms limp across his chest. I stared at him in amazement, amidst the now rising silence, at the view I had never seen before. Malleus, conquered, beneath me, the bedsheets saturated heavily in red now, having pulled from him the same red he'd pulled from me. As I let go of his head, it would fall lifeless against the pillow, blood pooling in the back of his throat as he laid facing the ceiling.

I knew, though, he was still alive. He'd been alive when he was headless before, and this was no different. He may have been unable to move, but he was still conscious. I pulled the knife from his chest and dug it into his neck, carving at his meat, cutting through all the connective forces that had held together the monster he was. It was amazing how easy it was, now that he had been stilled. I grabbed hold of the skull and twisted the head aggressively, breaking the silence with a cacophony of crunches and snaps before tearing it off entirely. Holding his head in my hands, I stared at it as I had over a year ago, stricken with a comfortable familiarity. The longer hair on the head was already beginning to fall off, leaving only the fur, the skull, the meat, exactly as it had been when I had found it. I carried it to the table and set it down, facing the bed. I wanted him to bear witness to his fate.

I then returned to the body proceeded to carve downward, from the chest to the waistline, wordless. I was focused on the task. It was amazing, seeing him opened in such a way. He had the same anatomy I did, no more, no less. It was shocking to see just how mundane a beast he was, how normal these horrors truly had been. Supernatural or not, he was but a beast, as I was, and I cut open his stomach and retrieved my keys, tossing them over by my backpack before I dug around a bit more in his organs, confirming indeed there was nothing abnormal to him. There was nothing special about him at all. All that time, all that time I had spend bewildered by his mystical nature, he was nothing. He was nothing remarkable. There was no magic, there was no royalty, there was nothing worthwhile inside him. He was simply a creature, full of rot, and he'd been dying since before I'd ever met him. I had lost so much of myself to him, and as I sat before the opened carcass, I looked down at my hands and could barely register them as my own. Who was I? Who had I been? When had I lost myself? Was I even alive anymore? I wondered so much as I stared at my palms.

I looked to his head, on the table, knowing he was seeing everything that was happening, knowing he was watching his body be mutilated, and something about that knowledge only made me angrier, how little he had left me after all he'd taken. I ripped forth his intestines from the cavern of his body and threw them to the floor, followed by his stomach, other parts of his digestive tract. I threw them all across the floor, finally pulling forth his heart, still, unbeating. I held it in my hands, the life force that had driven this monstrous thing, the heart that had beat against my back when he had violated me, the heart that had beat against my lungs every time sank his teeth into my neck, the heart I heard beat every night when I thought about how wonderful it would've been if I was truly loved. That heart was in my hands, now, and I brought it to my mouth, turning to face the head of Malleus as my open maw sank down onto it, tearing it open and consuming it, pieces at a time. My stomach made no protest, as if it too had been waiting so long for this moment. I devoured his heart before his eyes, before his powerless, hollow eyes, feeling more alive as it sank into my body than I had since before I'd met him. I rose from his carcass, and proceeded to skin it haphazardly before donning it like a mantle, tying the arms around my neck.

His flesh hung wet off my body, bleeding all over me, soaking my fur in slime and residual life fluid as the pink, meaty carcass of Malleus lay on the bed, and I stood, draped in the heavy pelt of the beast. I took up his skull and brought him to the yard, calling out "WHO IS KING NOW" as I held his head before the cabin, shaking it about vigorously as I cursed him, cursed his uselessness, his severed head hanging slack-jawed as his tongue flopped out of his mouth. 

"What power have you now, Malleus?! You're nothing without me, you never were!" I cried out as I forced him to face the cabin before taking him by the jaw and hurling his severed head across the yard, the meat hitting the ground with a heavy thump as it rolled a few feet, collecting debris on the damp flesh. I went to the house and brought out my backpack and keys, setting them in the yard as well, then proceeded to approach the fire, still draped in his pelt. The fire, the fire that had given us life all this time, the fire that had been my life force through the cold uncaring of this relationship, it was so warm, so bright. I stood before it in his pelt, a new wedding attire, married to no one but myself now as I was overcome with vigor, overcome with the urge to consume, just as Malleus had. I wore his pelt, and I was him. I was the Wild King. I took a log from the fire, glowing with flame, and hurled it onto the porch of our dusty old cabin, followed by a second, a third. The flames began to spread, and I watched with wide-eyed mania as the cabin began to ignite, began to burn. My body threw forth from it a cackle as I ran to the head of Malleus, snatching it up and carrying it to the yard to see, to see our home was burning, rising in fire, engulfed in flames that fed off the dust we'd let collect for so long. 

"Witness your weakness, Malleus! Witness who was stronger, all along!"

I held his head in my arms and began to run around the perimeter of the home, dancing, jumping about, screaming, howling, howling, howling out in freedom. The mold beast was dead, and the true Wild King was born. I waved his severed head about as I danced, forcing him to face it, finding my way back the front of the cabin, where I hurled him into the dirt again before collecting my belongings, pulling them away from the fire.

The wolf, the entire time, had been frantic, and I went to her, covered in his blood, covered in his pelt. She began to squeal as I approached, and I apologized to her as I struck her firmly in the stomach before freeing her. She yelped in pain and quivered as I did, her body drawing inwards as I certainly had ended the potential heir to Malleus, and I knew there was nothing I could do to explain it better to her, but it had to be done, and she ran free after I cut her rope. The cabin was collapsing behind me, Malleus' head laying upside down in the dirt, and I went to it, picking it up by the lower jaw as I asked "How does it feel to return to dirt, Malleus? How does it feel to have nothing left to ruin, to have nothing left at all?"

The skull, of course, said no more than it had when I'd first found it, but I knew. I knew it was alive, and I knew he heard and saw everything that was happening. I knew he saw me in his pelt, worn with a heroic mania. I knew he knew his peeled apart carcass was burning in the cabin he'd stolen for us. I knew he knew he was covered in twigs and dirt, and that his child had been aborted, and that his wolf was free, and that his husband was standing before him, holding him by the jaw as he watched as all the control he'd fought so hard to gather was burning down around him.

I wanted, though, to take from him the last power he had, his senses. I wanted to take from him his vision, his taste, his ability to thrive off the life of others. I threw the skull to the ground and searched about for a rock, a large rock, finding one not far from the inferno that was our cabin. The stone was heavy, but familiar in my hands, and I carried it back to the head of Malleus, bringing him to an upright position before squatting just in front of him, the stone at my side. He sat in my shadow, my body the darkness between his burning cabin and his limbless state, and I felt a rising feral excitement in witnessing how small he finally felt, compared to me.

Instinct would take over, and in a final act of dominance, I held the skull and relaxed my body, urinating onto him, onto his muzzle, onto his eyes, as he had done me so many times before, saturating his only remaining life in my scent, in my warmth, in my refuse. It was finally time to bring an end to this nightmare, and I wanted Malleus to crumble reeking of the man he'd tried so hard to ruin. I brought the stone upward in both my hands and dropped it down on the snout, smashing apart the front of his skull, teeth and splintered bone buried in the dirt from the weight of the stone. His jaws were destroyed, and his skull was left without a nose, the meaty tongue hanging freely in the soil as I rose the stone once more, throwing it downward onto the top of the head, shattering the skull cap and exposing the brain, which I proceeded to crush into a paste beneath the rock as I bashed the head, relentlessly, into the dirt. I threw the rock away from me and stared at my conquest, my defeat.

That was when, slowly, the pieces began to dissolve, like paper exposed to intense heat. The bones began to blacken and disappear, as did the brain, the paste of brain amidst the splintered skull. It all darkened to black and began to turn to ash, like paper, like nothing. His entire head, before me, reduced to a powder. The pelt on my back followed, burning at the ends, the burning creeping painlessly up my back as the meat sank to ash in my fur, dusting me in the remains of a man who no longer existed. Before I knew it, it was all ash, and I was covered in it. Malleus, our cabin, the fire near me, all had reduced to soot, to nothing, to an emptiness that crept through every vein in my body. My hands groped at the ash as I began to weep, to wail, to howl once more. I howled like the world had ended in biblical fire and I was the final dog, echoing through the trees, desperate for a voice to return my cries amidst the smothering smoke, but there was nothing. No one howled back, for there was no one there. They had all been burned. I was alone, in the woods, in the setting sun, with no home, no warmth, no love, and the feeling crept like crawling ice through my body. I could do nothing but cry, at the comfortless world around me, at all the things I'd sacrificed in a hopeless pursuit of love that never existed. For once, my burning nature had saved my life, but to what end? I'd finally harnessed my anger, my strength, only to end up on all fours, weeping over ashes in the woods, the woods that belonged uselessly to me, The Wild King.