Written by
\n\t\t\t\t\tbenjaminmahir and \n\t\t\t\t\tKindar\n\t\t\t\t\tbenjaminmahir and \n\t\t\t\t\tKindar",
"writing": "\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n[b]Minneapolis, University of Minnesota area, January 13th[/b]\n\n\n\nShould that have qualified as a famous last words line? He was still alive, but the decision to go to that party had changed just about everything, it seemed.\n\nHe shouldered the door leading out of the covered walked way and almost backed right inside. As cold as it has been in there, the wind made the outside worse. But he had people chasing him so they’d be behind him, and ahead of him was the entrance to the metro with a crowd of people.\n\nHe ran. People meant, among other things, body heat, and right now, he needed it. It also meant he could get lost among them. Get in, jump the gate and lose his pursuers among everyone heading home after a day of work.\n\n“I’m telling you,” a far too close voice said, “this is where I see him.”\n\nThomas looked around for the monkey just as another voice he knew replied to him.\n\n“I don’t know how you can see him among that crowd,” Kuno said. “I can’t tell anyone apart.”\n\nHe found Limbani as the monkey looked in his direction, the margay at his side. “Thomas! Wait up!”\n\n* * * * *\n\n[b]Minneapolis, Sigma Theta Gama Frat House, September, 5th[/b]\n\n\n\n“I told you he’d say yes!” The monkey hugged Thomas as the rat was still getting over the way the margay who’d checked his ID had looked him up and down like he was a prime cut of meat.\n\n“How about you wait to molest the Freshman until after I’ve marked him?” the collie holding the bowl with dark ink and brush said. “I need to know if he leans to the left or the right.”\n\nThomas eeped in surprise as Limbani groped him. “The right,” the monkey said.\n\nThe collie rolled his eyes. “The wrists, Adesida, the wrists. Do you want him to rub it off and get kicked out?”\n\n“That isn’t what’s getting rubbed.”\n\nThomas retreated from the hand reaching for his crotch again and stepped into the margay.\n\n“Sorry.”\n\n“You’ll get your turn, Richard,” Limbani said.\n\n“Freshman, you don’t belong here,” the collie ordered. “This is for processing the arrivals, and you’re in the way. Go wait for your pick-of-the-minute down the hall.”\n\n“What’s that about me getting kicked out?”\n\n“Give me the hand you jerk off with first so I can mark you.”\n\n“It’s sounding like he isn’t going to have to use either, the margay said without looking in their direction.\n\n“I swear. Freshmen don’t take this job seriously anymore. Richard, stop commenting and check IDs.”\n\n“I can multitask, Brukhammer.”\n\nThomas processed the names as the collie drew a design on his left wrist. The grad student teaching his economics class was named Brukhammer, and Richard he knew from—”\n\n“We have a history of underage guys crashing our parties,” the collie said. “Dares, sexual explorations. We don’t need the aggravation. Anyone who looks too young and doesn’t have that gets escorted out.”\n\nThomas stepped aside so Paul could get the mark, and ignored the monkey motioning for him. He delayed by a few seconds by comparing the two marks. They were identical, something abstract that had to have taken the collie a lot of practice to be this accurate.\n\nPaul pushed him toward the monkey, and this time, the hug came with a hand on Thomas’s ass and the grinding of hard cocks. “I knew he’d let you come. Let me give you the tour.”\n\n“Actually, my mom was who made it happen,” Thomas said as Limbani pulled him along and away from Paul, trying to forget her expression as she’d whispered something to his father, and the way he’d escorted her up to their bedroom, her hand on his ass.\n\nHe shouldn’t know how sexual his parents were. That was just wrong.\n\nHe collided against the monkey’s back in time to someone clearing his throat before them. A bat stood in their way, arms crossed over his chest.\n\n“Limbani, what have I told you about taking for granted what someone else wants?”\n\n“That’s not what I’m doing.” He pulled Thomas next to him and put an arm over his shoulders. “I’m just going to show my undecided freshman the house so he can decide where we’re going to have our fun”\n\n“That is exactly—” the bat shook his head. “You know what. You get a pass for tonight.” He offered Thomas his hand. “Henry Hendrick. If this one pushes too far, come and tell me. I’ll make sure he’s punished properly.”\n\nHe shook the hand. “Thomas Hertz. And you don’t have to worry, I am okay with what we’re going to do… it’s just all a bit new. Came out of the closet at prom, so not exactly an expert at… you know.” Thomas’s ears burned so hot he could probably keep food warm with them.\n\n“Nevertheless,” Henry said, smiling affectionately, “you don’t have to say yes to the first offer just because this is your first time. At Sigma Theta Gamma, we believe sex is an important part of life, and I would hate for you to be scared into being a lifetime virgin by one of my charges.”\n\n‘Charges’ made Henry sound like he was an old man looking after children when he couldn’t be more than a few years older than Thomas. Even if he was a grad student, that would make him in his mid-twenties, maybe early thirties, if he’d taken his time getting there.\n\nThe bat stepped aside, and Limbani was pulling Thomas along again. He looked over his shoulder once, feeling Henry’s eyes on him, but the bat was talking with Paul. Then he was looking ahead again as he nearly tripped from the speed he was being pulled at.\n\nThe monkey stopped in the living room, filled with guys talking and laughing. He only saw one couple on their way to first base among them and wondered where all the sex was happening. Then he remembered that most guests were freshmen like him, so he might not be the only one with low sexual confidence.\n\nThen there was a glimpse of the kitchen, and they were through another living room.\n\nWhat?\n\nHow large was the frat? And hadn’t they made it past the townhouse’s wall to reach this room? The frat stood on a row of townhouses he and Paul had walked by since the only parking at been at the end of the block.\n\nThomas tried to find the breath to ask, but he needed it to keep up with the monkey and they reach stairs. The second floor had bedrooms, a lot of them. How many guys were in the frat? Opposite one bedroom was an open door, and he was the one to nearly yanking the monkey off his feet as he looked into the bathroom.\n\nIt was one large room with overhead showerheads in the center. On one side were sinks on the other, the only stalls there, but much too small to be other showers.\n\nLimbani poked his head in, then smirked. “What? Did you think we’d have individual showers? Where’s the fun in that? And it isn’t like we’ve never seen what the other guys are sporting.” He paused. “Well, except for one.” He smiled. “I’ll introduce you later.” Then he was pulling Thomas again at something that had to approach warp two.\n\nThey were through a lounge where guys were watching sports on a large screen. Then Thomas had a plastic cup in his hand and the afterimage of dark brown, lustrous fur.\n\n“Keep him hydrated,” the otter yelled after them.\n\n“I was planning on it, Felix!” the monkey replied.\n\n“Your cum doesn’t count!”\n\n“There’s water in that!” Limbani gave Thomas a shrug. “You have to excuse him. Chouteaus think they run everything.”\n\nThomas didn’t bother trying to figure that one out, sniffing the cup. As the otter implied, this had no alcohol, only a fruit cocktail, which he sipped as best as he could at the breakneck pace the monkey was imposing.\n\nUp another set of stairs, past doors that Limbani said were bedrooms. Then he was in one of them, taking in the bed, desk, and dresser. An unusual sound made him turn around; the monkey was leaning against the door, letting go of the knob.\n\nThe sound had been that of a lock. And Thomas fought the irrational giggle at the idea he’d confirmed there was such a thing as a bedroom door lock. He could bring the information home and his siblings could rejoice and then demand they get some too so they could have privacy.\n\n“And this one is my room,” Limbani said with a tone of ‘there are many like it, but mine is the best’. \n\nThomas’s nod stop midway. “Wait, how did you rate a room in a frat? I thought you had to be a sophomore to get one.”\n\n“You’re in my room and that’s what you want to know about?” the monkey asked suspiciously.\n\n“Well, yeah.”\n\n“You saw how our booth didn’t have signs and all we did was talk about the party, right? We don’t take outsiders, so that means there’s always room available, unlike the other frats that have the kind of waiting lists the Al-khatib accumulate outside their bedroom doors.”\n\nThomas finished the nod and looked around again. On the desk was the picture of three monkeys hugging. It changed to one of two of them in the process of throwing the third in a lake.\n\nThe bed creaking made Thomas look over his shoulder and freeze in the process of looking at the frame again. How had the monkey gotten naked in the few seconds he’d looked at the pictures?\n\nThe innocent expression was in stark contrast to the erection fully on display. The large erection. Was it a foot long? Should he be dancing at the chance of a lifetime, or… his ass bumped the desk as he took a step back. He felt his tail wrapped around his leg. Okay, it was the ‘I might not survive the experience’ feeling that won.\n\n“I… you…” he swallowed. “Please tell me you have smaller dildos in a drawer. Like a dozen of them, so I can work myself up to…” he motioned to the monkey’s cock. “You.”\n\nLimbani’s small ear canted back in confusion, looking down at his cock.\n\nDid he not realize how big he was?\n\nThe expression cleared as the monkey looked back up and grinned. “Oh, I’m not fucking you.” He got a faraway expression, then nodded. “No, I’m not.” He put his hands behind his head. “I’m just going to sit here and let you do whatever you want to me.”\n\nThomas looked into his cup and wondered if he should go see if there was alcohol in the house. He drained it and put it on the desk. He was doing this. “So…” maybe not? “Am I really that obvious, or is gaydar an actual thing? Because even at the park, you were after me.”\n\nLimbani raised an eyebrow. “Maybe you’re just that gorgeous.”\n\nThomas stared at the monkey, not finding the joke funny.\n\nSurprised, Limbani hesitated, then said. “Okay, I shouldn’t tell you this. It is kind of a no-no, but I know stuff. It’s mostly who I’m going to have sex with, and when, and where.” He motioned around them. “I saw this coming that morning.”\n\nThomas considered that one of the worse come-on-line he’d ever heard. And he was already here, in the bedroom of a naked guy offering him his cock to…\n\nOh fuck, what was he still doing on that side of the room?\n\nHe dropped to his knees between the monkey’s legs and stared at that cock up close. What was he expected to do with something that long, that thick? He wrapped a hand around the firm and hot shaft. His index barely touched his thumb. With this other is hefted the monkey’s balls and they fit in his hand perfectly. This was the kind of specimen he’d only seen on the net before, and those pictures always left him wondering if photo manipulation had been used.\n\nLimbani chuckled, and Thomas looked up at an amused monkey. “It’s not made to be admired. It’s made to be used. Just be careful of your gag reflex.”\n\nHe licked the tip, not pausing at the salty taste of the precum. He moved down, wrapping his lips around the head. Pushed and pulled, his tongue roaming the surface while his lips teased the crown. The monkey sighed, and Thomas prepared himself for a hand on his head to guide him.\n\nIt didn’t come, and a glance up showed him Limbani with his hands still behind his head, eyes closed, and with a contented smile. He was true to his word not to interfere with what Thomas wanted.\n\nAnd what he wanted, was more of this cock.\n\nHe pushed down, taking in more, feeling the texture with his tongue. He liked the feel of it in his muzzle, and he kept pushing down. Then he pulled up in a fit of coughing.\n\n“You okay down there?” Limbani asked, and Thomas nodded while still fighting the mix of gagging and catching his breath. The monkey chuckled. “I did warn you to be careful.”\n\nInstead of commenting, the rat went lower and licked the heavy balls. It was… interesting. The taste of sweat and the musky smell was appealing in a way Thomas hadn’t expected. He suckled on one, then the other, before licking his way up the shaft. At the top, he found more beading precum, the bait at the end of a hook.\n\nHe took the bait, then swallowed the cock, but stopped before the head reached the back of his throat. He moved his head up and down, his tongue pressing it against the textured roof of his palate.\n\nLimbani moaned, and Thomas echoed it around the thick cock. Why hadn’t he sucked off Paul before? Fuck, why hadn’t he offered to suck off Nathan at any point? It wasn’t like it would have mattered that the rat wasn’t a girl for a blow job, right?\n\nThe monkey said something in a language Thomas didn’t recognize as he swallowed around the cock, then. “Slow… down. Oh, fuck… I want this to last.” He groaned. “A little.”\n\nThomas nearly stopped to point out the deal was that he got to have his way, but that would give the monkey what he wanted, so he gave him a raised eyebrow, a tilted ear, and picked up speed. He closed his eyes and focused on the texture of the cock, the moans. He realized it let him anticipate the thrust and hold Limbani down, controlling how he deep throated him. The monkey was speaking in that other language again as Thomas went back to bobbing up and down, catching his breath.\n\nThe hand on the back of his head and the start of a groan were the only warning Thomas got. Then the cock pulsed, and on the second one, hot, salty, bitter cum filled his mouth.\n\nHe swallowed, then swallowed again. Just how much cum did the monkey have? Had he abstained for the weeks leading up to this party? Had he and the margay making out only been about teasing each other to have more cum?\n\nFinally, the jet of cum slowed, then stopped. Thomas kept sucking for a second, then licked every inch of that cock clean so none of that bitter and salty nectar was wasted. Only then did he fall back on his ass, making him painfully aware of the rock-hard cock in his pants.\n\n“Wow,” Limbani said, looking down at Thomas in what seemed like amazement. “I didn’t… that was not…. Why didn’t I?” he seemed to give up. “Wow.”\n\n“So,” Thomas said, suddenly slightly self-conscious, “Not too bad for my first time?”\n\n“Well.” The monkey had to pause, still catching his breath. “You broke my top ten.” He flopped on the bed. “So, very good for your first time.”\n\nFeeling better, Thomas stood and noticed the plastic cup on the desk. He realized he was thirsty, but not for juice, or alcohol or anything he’d get out of a cup.”\n\n“I want more,” he told the money, and in a feat of gymnastics that could have landed Limbani the Olympic team, if they started a naked version, he was on his feet.\n\n“You are so in the right place for that.” He unlocked the door and started pulling it open, but Thomas slammed a hand on it, closing it back.\n\n“Pants,” he instructed. Even in his needy state, he wasn’t about to let the monkey parade in his fur in front of other guys.\n\nLimbani smiled and moved the hand. When he opened the door. Moaning and groaning entered. “I don’t think I need them, do you?”\n\nThomas stared at the empty section of hall he could see, trying to understand how none of those guys had been heard with the door closed.\n\n“The soundproofing in this place is top-notch,” Limbani said. “You might want to leave your clothes in here before we exit. That way, you’ll know where they are by the end of the night.”\n\nThomas looked down. The front of his pants was wet and tented. Opposite it was Limbani’s cock, back to being hard. He reached back for the tail strap but stopped. “I think I’m going to keep them on for a while longer.”\n\nA raised eyebrow and amused shrug was the response. Then the monkey was in the hall. Thomas followed past closed doors and by a lounge where guys were fooling around in various states of undress. He licked his lips at the sight of the cocks being fondled, then noticed the three only fully dressed guys in a corner of the lounge looking nervously at what was going on. Two were rubbing the front of their jeans, while the third looked stunned.\n\nThomas figured this was where he’d start. Those two, maybe three, if him sucking cock snapped the other out of his stupor. They looked like he’d felt with a naked monkey offering himself to him, so he was in a perfect position to help them through it. And Limbani said his cock sucking skill was decent, so…\n\nHe turned to the monkey to let him know what he was about to do and froze.\n\n“Is he real?”\n\nDown the hall, a tall hyena stood, no posed. Perfect abs and deltoids, square shoulders to which were attached massive arms. Before him were three guys on their knees worshiping a cock so long and thick it couldn’t belong on a real guy. That was the kind of cock painters of old put on gods.\n\nLimbani chuckled. “That’s Chima. When they tell a guy, another guy won’t have something he hasn’t seen before. He’s the exception. And yes, it is all very wonderfully real.”\n\nThomas turned the monkey around and looked him in the eyes. His hand shook as he realized this might be the most important question of the night, maybe of his life. “How do I get myself some of that?”\n\nThe smirk appeared and vanished as Limbani studied Thomas’s face. “You just have to ask him nicely.” He grabbed the rat as he started heading in that direction. “But trust me with this, Chima is someone you want to work your way up to, not choke on from the start.” He grinned. “And I know just the chain of guys to get you to him.”\n\nThomas forgot about the boys in the lounge as that thirst returned with an unexpected vengeance. “Take me to them.” Ordered the rat. “Now.”\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n[b]Moorhead, MN, January 13th[/b]\n\nThis had definitely not been the right choice.\nA small commercial lot had been next to the residential area, which had given way to a larger commercial strip, which had, in turn, become an industrial park. With the sun close to the horizon, Thomas had had to make a decision. Press forward through the industrial park, or go back and look for a place to spend the night.\nHe’d pressed forward, figuring the park couldn’t be too large and that any westward travel he could do today reduced the chances his pursuers had of finding him. He’d looked for a motel or hostel in the next commercial zones.\nThat had been when the sun was still in the sky.\nHe’d still been walking through the industrial part when it dropped below and he found out that the reason for the lack of traffic among the buildings wasn’t that this was a slow day, as he’d thought, but, as it got even darker and few of the streetlights came on, that the park was abandoned.\nAlong with the sun going down, so did the temperature, and even changing his brisk walk to a jog did little to keep the cold from seeping through his clothes and fur and into his bones.\nThe city lights seemed equidistant ahead and behind him, so either could give him warmth, so the question was did he push ahead and hope those lights include stores he could go in for warmth, and maybe a cheap motel, or did he go back where he knew there were stores like that because he walked by them, even if there was a slim chance his pursuers might think to check that area?\nHe guessed it would be an hour either way. So take a chance, or go with a sure bet, that had potential risks.\nThere were always those abandoned buildings, he thought, turning around to go the way he came. But he’d had enough of the cold, and he wanted something to eat.\n* * * * *\nHe stepped through the rare working street light and noticed a second shadow stretching. He clamped down on his fear to avoid ending up somewhere else along the road. It couldn’t be his pursuers. It didn’t matter how rich the guys at the frat were. They couldn’t hire so many people they’d be everywhere.\nCould they?\nThe shadow suddenly veered left and Thomas looked over his shoulder, catching the taillights of a car turning in down a side road. He chuckled to himself. Of course, it had been a car. He was walking along a city road, after all. Even in a deserted industrial park, there had been some traffic earlier.\nHe was relaxing again when the sound of cracking snow reached him and this time he kept from looking over his shoulder. It was just snow snapping under the increasing cold. Snow did that if it was packed hard enough. And it was just a coincidence it sounded like someone walking behind and to the side of him. \nHe looked ahead, trying to make out details he could use. Why hadn’t he just kept on teleporting north? They couldn’t have anyone in Canada yet looking for him, right?\nHe thought he had enough details in the flickering light at the edge of what he could make out, and was trying to decide if he should risk a teleport when a car turned onto the road, blinding him in the process.\nCursing, he rubbed the spots out and when he looked ahead again, he thought he made out the form of a pickup approaching. He almost tried to jump without being able to make out anything beyond it anymore, thinking Laurence was who had tracked him down. Then he made out the crack in the still working headlight, the way the front grill was held in place with cords, and that the hood was crooked and he relaxed again.\nHe didn’t care what the armadillo might have to do to get here. He cared too much about his truck to let it ever look like that.\nHe was still trying to get his heart to slow when he noticed it was slowing, and that the back side was held in place with barbed wire and was scratched to the point it might qualify as art. He was stuck still trying to decide if running or teleporting blind was the best option—could he teleport with his eyes closed—when the pickup came to a stop and a form barely illuminated by the lights from the instrument panel reached for the passenger side and the window came down. Grunting came through the opening, timed with the pulses of the window lowering.\nWait, this thing was hand-powered?\nThomas looked at the side again, wondering if he’d see a gas tank attached. Only those kinds of antiques would have hand-cranked windows.\n“Hey,” the man inside said. Thomas cautiously looked in, staying away. Dark pickup with a stranger in it. Yeah, he wasn’t getting too close. Hints of motion accompanied the banging on the ceiling, then a light flickered on as the open palm was about to hit it again. “There, that’s better.” The kangaroo smiled at him. “Sorry about that. Light’s temperamental and doesn’t come up without the threat of a spanking, or, tonight, an actual one. Didn’t mean to look all spooky in here. I’m guessing you have enough of that out there.” He looked ahead and seemed to search the darkness beyond the headlights.\nThomas couldn’t make out the cracking snow over the surprisingly soft purr of the engine, but he had no trouble imagining them. Weren’t old gas engines supposed to be loud?\nThe man looked to be his father’s age and had on an old jacket that had been patched often over a plaid shirt. When he spoke, his breath fogged. \n“Can I drive you anywhere?”\nThomas took a step back, the alarm bells going off in his head so loud it was a good thing this was an abandoned area, otherwise, the inhabitant would call in the police on his location.\nDamn it, why couldn’t he be in a well-populated area right now?\n“I’m good, thanks,” Thomas replied, fighting the urge to run. Multiple warnings from his parents as he grew up, television ads during the kid’s shows, and countless reports of kids vanishing on dark streets, maybe in the car of someone who looked friendly and offered help, ran in his head.\nHad he imagined the cracking of snow this time? Had that been a shadow at the edge of his vision, or someone moving in time with the cracking?\n“Under other circumstances, I’d call you smart for what you’re doing,” the kangaroo said. “But do you really want to stay out there, with whoever’s sneaking about in the dark over there?” He nodded to where Thomas had thought he’d seen someone. “It’s quite a ways back to working lights. I’ll take you there if that’s as far as you want me to take you, but you have the look of someone heading further. I can do that too.”\nThomas lost the fight and looked in the shadows, trying to make out anything. There was no cracking anymore. No motion, but…\n“Where are you heading?”\n“Got nowhere I need to be anymore. Made my stop so I’m heading where ever the road goes. Or where you want me to take you.”\nThe warnings rang again, but not loud enough to cover the definite sounds of someone breaking the hard snow as they walk closer to him. He pulled the door open and nearly wrenched his arm out as it jammed partway. The steps picked up speed and Thomas forced himself through the gap rather than fight with it.\nThe pickup lurched forward as he pulled it closed, then cranked the window shut. Only then did he realize he might have made a mistake in getting in. The man was still a stranger and—he made out the form of someone in the darkness.\nOkay, it might still be a bad decision, but it had to be the least bad of those he had. Relaxing slightly, he reached for the seatbelt and found a broken strap.\n“Sorry about that,” the driver said. “Never got around to fixing it. Can’t say I often have passengers.” He clicked the dome light off, but it stayed on. “Oh, you have got to be—” His fist had almost reached it that it turned off. And the kangaroo muttered something unflattering.\nThomas thought the light almost flickers back on in response.\nNow the only light came from the instrument panel, and instead of electronic readouts, he was looking at needles.\n“It’s old,” the driver said, chuckling, “but with some tender love, a bit of care, and a stern attitude, it keeps on rolling.”\n“Is this even electric?” Thomas asked. Hadn’t gas cars been made illegal back when the threat of climate change had been raised? He didn’t even think old-world countries relied on gas anymore.\n“It is,” the driver said proudly. “Did the conversion myself. I didn’t put in a phone slot since on something this old all it’d be good for is charging it, and a remote charger’s much more practical.”\n“You have a phone?” Thomas asked, ears up in excitement.\n“Kid,” the kangaroo glanced at him, “I’m not that old.”\nThomas’s ears burned. “No, I mean, can I borrow it?”\n“Who do you need to call?” the driver asked in what sounded like a very cautious tone to Thomas.\nHe still stared to reply, then realized he didn’t have a ready one. Who could he call? His family was the only ones who knew he was on that bus. His father was the only one who knew which one. Thomas didn’t consider his father would have told them, but they could have the information from his phone, which meant they had his phone. Could he risk anyone else in his family? His grandfather? No. They knew he was headed for Bozeman, so they’d know it was where his grandfather lived. Paul? No, everyone in the frat knew he was Thomas’s best friend.\nHe was sounding like his father’s talk of money allowing people to do anything was truer than Thomas had wanted to believe.\n“Hey,” he protested as the driver reached for him, “keep your hands to yourself.”\n“Calm down, kid. I’m just turning the seat’s heating on.” The hand moved lower and searched along the front of the seat. “As you can tell, the cab’s heating’s about as effective as pouring water in a sieve when you want a tall glass of refreshment.”\nThomas remained alert until the hand moved away. “You have a heated seat on the passenger side, but never bothered fixing the seatbelt?” Maybe his thing was coming to a sudden stop so Thomas would be knocked unconscious and then—”\n“Came as a pair,” the driver said. “I practiced with putting the passenger seat one in. That way, I knew mine would work. So, yeah, sorry if you don’t get any heat. Haven’t tested it since that one time after I installed it.”\nOh, that made sense. And the seat was warming up. So at least he wouldn’t freeze.\n“You never said who you wanted to call.”\n“No one,” Thomas replied, unable to keep the defeat from his voice.\nThey were silent for a while. “If you feel at your feet,” the kangaroo said, “there’s a thermos with chicken soup in it. It’s supposed to be great to warm body and soul.” He reached behind Thomas’s seat and pulled a wool blanket. “This should help you keep any of the heat the seat will give up.”\nThomas hesitated, then took it.\n“Also, the name’s Grant.”\nThomas felt at his feet and found the thermos. He looked at it and the blankets. “This is looking a lot like you expected to have a passenger, Grant.”\nThe kangaroo shrugged. “So, where am I taking you?”\nThomas thought as he tucked the blanket around him. Grandma Royer was in the Twin Cities, so as much as she’d want to help, there was little she could do. He could go to Victor, he was in—no, Madoc had met him during thanksgiving, and he’d think to have his brother checked on. Someone had even mentioned him and his nephews when they were talking about how they had done this to Thomas. Nerio had been there with his husband, so they were out too. Corina was engaged to one of Madoc’s relatives, so definitely not.\n“Bozeman, I guess.” At this point, his grandfather was the closest unless he was willing to return to the Twin Cities.\n“You don’t sound particularly sure.”\nThomas shrugged. It seemed at he was stuck making the best of bad situations. Hopefully, this one would turn out as well as Grant seemed to be. He opened the thermos and nearly burned himself before he breathed in the steaming aroma. \nGrant tapped the dash and a full-color LCD came on. Thomas stared as it flickered.\n“Don’t even think about it,” Grant threatened.\nThe display became solid, giving a streaming station name, as a woman sang a rapid Spanish beat. Thomas still stared as Grant flipped through sites until a soft orchestral piece played. It wasn’t state-of-the-art, but it still felt utterly out of place among the antique the truck was.\nThomas thought about asking for the singer again, but decided he’d rather stay quiet. The music filled the silence, so he didn’t feel the need to, and if he spoke, he might feel the need to tell Grant his story.\n* * * * *\n[b]Gackle, ND, January 13th[/b]\nThomas jerked away to the sound of metal creaking. He looked around. The light from a Seven-Eleven sign illuminated the kangaroo exiting the pickup.\n“Sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you.”\nThomas mumbled a reply, trying to work out where they were. For all the help the sign was, Grant could have driven him back To Minneapolis.”\n“Since you’re awake, do you want to go in and get properly warm? We can sit awhile and enjoy coffee, or tea, if you prefer.”\n“Coffee.” The idea of coffee was enough to help him wake. He forced the door open as Grant tapped on his phone and the truck shut down. He directed his grandmother’s favorite curses at the cold as he pushed the door shut, then he outran Grant to the store.\n“Where are we?” he asked once the kangaroo entered.\n“A couple of hours west of Fargo. Take a seat. I’ll see to the coffees.”\nThomas sat at the furthest of three tables from the door, and Grant returned with two cups, along with creamers and sweeteners, and two pastries.\nThomas took hold of the cup and will the heat from it to fill him. He didn’t remember falling asleep. He’d put the thermos down once he’d finished the soup and had looked at the passing houses as he enjoyed the music, and here they were.\nHe bit into the strawberry danish and his stomach rejoiced.\n“I didn’t want to press while I drove,” Grant said. “You looked like you needed time with your thoughts, but I’m curious as to why you feel the need to go to Bozeman when you don’t sound particularly eager to go there.”\nHe couldn’t tell the truth. Thomas knew that. Even if Grant wasn’t a complete stranger, the truth just made Thomas sound insane, and he wasn’t giving a demonstration to prove he wasn’t. He picked the little he could say that wouldn’t have him lying and hoped it would be enough.\n“I… got in trouble with some people, and I had to leave Minneapolis in a hurry.” He hesitated. “My dad thought that hiding out at my Grandfather’s until things quiet down was the best thing to do.” If not for it being at his grandfather, saying he was hiding out made him sound like he’d been exposed as a secret agent while infiltrating some evil organization.\nHe looked up as it registered Grant wasn’t speaking. He was holding his cup close to his face and had a contented expression.\n“You’re not going to ask for details?”\n“I don’t need to know.” The hint of a smile as Grant sipped his coffee made Thomas wonder if it was because of the drink, or… he looked at the door. Could he be in on it? “But even as you told me why, it still doesn’t sound like you want to go there.”\nThomas pressed his lips together. Where was he going to run to, anyway? Or teleport? It was still night and fucking cold out there.\nHe took a swallow of the wonderfully hot coffee. “They shouldn’t have known I was on that bus. Only my dad knew. If they know where I’m going…”\n“If you can’t go to your grandfather,” Grant said, starting on his chocolate-filled croissant. “Is there anywhere else that would be better?”\nThomas shook his head. “I went through everyone I can think of, and someone from… those people met each of them.”\n“And that would tell them everything they’d need to know to find you there?”\n“Yes…” Thomas hesitated. Would it?\nWhat had come up during thanksgiving? Niero and Karlos were married. Had Oregon ever come up? Niero was his mom’s brother. But had it ever come up that he’d taken Karlos’s last name? That wouldn’t be on any of his family’s phones. In Thomas’s phone, they were Uncle N&K. Mom had them as ‘bros’ and he didn’t want to think what Judith had them under in her phone. And it wasn’t like they lived in the city. Like his grandfather, they were on the outside.\n“Yes?” Grant said as Thomas looked at him.\n“My uncle and his husband live outside of Eugene. They were at Thanksgiving, but no details came out, and I doubt they would have said anything when they were with…” his ears burned. The inquisitive raise of the eyebrow from Grant only made them hotter. Maybe they could use them to melt the snow all the way to Oregon.\n“They left with one of them, but… well, talking wasn’t their plan.” Better not to say anything about Ettore being his aunt’s fiance, or that she’d watch the event. There was only so much a normal person could take. “Even if they search for them. I doubt they’ll have an easy time finding them.”\nThe kangaroo turned pensive, then nodded. “Okay, Oregon isn’t all that out of my way. I can take you there.”\nThomas lowered the cup down, narrowing his eyes. “How exactly is Eugene, Oregon, not out of your way?” He searched Grant’s face for any clues. “That’s like the end of the country. The only way to go further West is to get on a boat. I appreciate the help, Grant, but couldn’t your response have been “okay, let me take you to a bus station”?”\nGrant’s chuckle surprised Thomas. “I’ll do that if it’s what you want, but that’s not who I am.” He paused and seemed to think. “I’m something of a wandering good Samaritan. Helping people with their problems is what I do.”\n“For real?” Thomas asked, his tone dripping with incredulity.\nGrant sighed. “Yes, for real.”\nThe man had to be messing with him. Wandering the country helping people? Who, outside the movies, did that? Then again, who could teleport? And what were his options; take Grant’s help or walk? Have him drop him off at a bus station, the train? And if the kangaroo turned out to be some weirdo biding his time, Thomas still had an easy way out.\n“I’m Thomas. I noticed you never asked for my name.”\n“I figured you’d offer it when you were ready. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Grant wiped his muzzle and dropped the napkin in his cup. “You ready to get back on the road?”\nThomas wanted to laugh, or maybe cry. What he was ready for was to crawl into his bed to the sound of his family moving about the house. He’d even take his parent’s loud lovemaking over this.\nBut he couldn’t go back to that.\nHe stood and took the empty cup and plate. “I am.”\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n[b]I94, heading west, ND, January 14th[/b]\n\nThomas fought against looking at the kangaroo. Grant hadn’t even glanced his way once since getting back on the I94, and that proved to be more unnerving than if he kept looking Thomas’s way. Sure, he said he didn’t need details, but how did someone hear “I got in trouble with some people” and not follow that with ‘who, how, why?’. He hadn’t even asked about how Thomas had ended up walking at night in an abandoned industrial park.\n\nThomas would demand to know the details if the positions were reversed. Even if he was happy not to have to figure out what he could and couldn’t say so he wouldn’t end up convincing Grant the only place he needed to be driven to was the loony bin. And would a demonstration land him in Area 51? Or whatever the real-life equivalent was.\n\nHe wished he was in a movie right now. With that, would come the knowledge that in the end, everything would be fine. This was just an adventure of discovery. He’d be a man able to save the world by the time he was done.\n\nAt least the music out of the car’s system would be something recent and with some pop to it, instead of this boring old instrumental stuff.\n\n“So,” Thomas said, needing to hear something that wasn’t putting him to sleep, “just how does someone go about becoming a wandering good Samaritan?”\n\nGrant glanced at him then focused back on the road. “I don’t know that I can explain it in a way that would make sense to you. Say it’s a calling.”\n\n“Really? Like you’re some sort of priest?” Thomas asked in disbelief, and Grant seemed to find that amusing.\n\n“Your family, back in Minneapolis, you get along with them?” Grant asked.\n\n“They aren’t who I’m in trouble with,” Thomas replied defensively. Of course, since Thomas had asked a question, he was now fair game in return.\n\n“Didn’t think they were. You said it was your dad’s idea to go to your grandfather’s. I don’t think you’d be going along with it if they were.”\n\n“Okay,” Thomas said tentatively.\n\n“So?”\n\nThomas sighed. Well, so long as he didn’t go into details about what his parents got up to, this should be as safe a topic as any.\n\n“I get along as well with them as anyone gets along with their family. My dad’s a little overbearing, especially since he’s a teacher at UMn, where I’m going. My younger brother hates my guts, my older sister can’t stop poking in my business. My mom has a cooking channel online. She started it around the time I came along. Three was too many to only be home part-time.”\n\n“What did she do before?”\n\n“She was a journalist.”\n\nGrant tilted an ear. “Seem to me that’s something she could have kept with even while being home.”\n\n“The way she says it, she couldn’t just sit at a computer looking for the story. She had to be out there, wrestling it to the ground and shaking it until it gave up the good.” He chuckled as he remembered her on her knees, acting out what she’d told him. Then he sighed. “Dad tried to be more involved in raising me, but… nothing bad,” he said at the look Grant threw his way. “He wasn’t neglecting me or anything. But dad can’t not focus intently on what he does, and he only has so much focus to go around. With teaching, and planning Victor and Judith’s entire life, there wasn’t much left for me. But to be honest. I think the real fear was that he would find the energy to add me to his portfolio and then mom wouldn’t be around often enough to distract him and one of us would end up suffocating under the expectations. He had the entirety of the Encyclopedia Britannia lined up for Judith to learn. Or so the story goes.”\n\n“Your father sounds like a man who doesn’t let others distract him.” The pickup slowed enough Thomas glanced at the dash, and from his position, the needles said they were going seventy-five now. It had to be stuck because an old clunker like this couldn’t go that fast, let alone how fast they’d have to have been going before Grant slowed.\n\n“Mom knows how to press his buttons if you know what I mean.” Thomas realized what he’d implied and prayed Grant didn’t press. They crested the hill and grant drifted into the fast lane to pass the state cruiser parked on the side of the road.\n\n“That sound less like press his button,” Grant said, smiling, “and more pull his stick.”\n\nThomas sank into the seat. “Well, because of mom, me and Roland were hover-free until I graduated and started getting ready for university. All of a sudden, it was like he’d discovered we existed, and we were about to ruin our lives if he didn’t immediately take control of it. Roland blames me for it since as soon as dad was done establishing how he was going to guide me through my classes, he was taking over his training, telling his coach how things should be done, and adding a few hours every day to his weight and game training. At this point, dad knows more about how to play football than Roland does, I’m sure of it.” He chuckled. “I finally got out of the house and moved into a frat, only to forget he works at the university I study at. I’m amazed he hadn’t shown up at the frat and demanded to take charge of my study time there.”\n\nHe chuckled again at the image of his father talking with Henry, then stopped; his father said he’d looked into the frat and that he would find out what was going on. Was that how the frat had gotten their hands on him?\n\nThe pickup picked up speed and Thomas looked behind them. The trooper was no longer visible.\n\n“You sure your brother hates you?”\n\n“Oh, yeah.” Thomas didn’t have enough hands to count all the times his brother had walked out of a room the instant Thomas entered it or turned around if he saw him there. And having to share a room at Grandpa’s for Christmas.\n\nWhat a disaster that had been.\n\n“How old is he?”\n\n“Two years younger than me. He’s on his high school’s football team and he’s made MVP a few times.”\n\n“Good for him,” Grant said, sounding impressed. “You think he’ll go for a football career?”\n\n“Dad definitely thinks—thought so.” He sighed as Grant looked at him.\n\n* * * * *\n\n[b]Bozeman, Grandpa Royer homestead, December 24th[/b]\n\n\n\n“Will you stop being my adviser for five minutes?” Thomas demanded, his breath fogging.\n\n His father looked at him. The light from the grotto’s entrance highlighted the surprise on his face. “Thomas, all I did was say that you don’t have to worry about your grades. That’s me as your father, saying that, not as your—”\n\n“And you don’t get how worse that makes it!” All he’d wanted was some quiet away from the men in his family, and Ettore, who his grandfather was evaluating by getting him to instruct Roland on how to properly handle a rifle. But his father had tracked him down to the grotto of his childhood like the homing helicarrier that he was. It had been nice, at first. Reminiscing about how he’d found Thomas in here after they’d gotten separated. \n\nBut Eric Hertz, being who he was, had had to follow that with a comment about Thomas’s school work.\n\nThomas rubbed his face as his father’s confusion increased. Screaming didn’t help, he knew that. “I spent all of grade school and high school managing fine, Dad. That’s twelve years of getting good grades without once needing you to tell me how to do things. Then you were in my face, constantly reminding me I had no ideas what I was going with my life.”\n\n“Thomas,” his father said, immediately switching into instructor mode. Thomas wasn’t sure Eric even realized he did that anytime he was about to ‘lay his wisdom’ on his son. “College is more demanding than high school. Yes, the classes seem easy since you’re just starting, but—”\n\n“They get exponentially harder as you are expected to manage your time as well as retain and apply what your previous classes taught you.” Thomas even kept the monotone delivery, which he considered a feat considering his mood right now. “I’m fine with the lessons, Dad. It’s the constant hovering over my shoulder and expecting me to be valedictorian.”\n\n“Son,” his father replied. “Just because Judith and Victor were both valedictorians doesn’t mean I—”\n\n“You know what?” Thomas cut him off. “Since you’re bringing them into this, there’s something I need to know.” His father was confused again. He didn’t always know how to respond when his ‘script’ was interrupted. Thomas should give him time to register and refocus, but he wasn’t giving him the chance to take hold of the conversation again.\n\n“I know you’re treating me and Roland just like you treated Victor and Judith while they grew up.”\n\nEric closed his mouth, and the confusion resolved itself. “Thomas,” he said conciliatory. “If you ever felt that I neglected who you were growing up I—”\n\n“I was grateful!” Thomas yelled in exasperation. He ground his teeth. He took a deep breath. “Maybe I’m just remembering the good times, but I grew up around you, Dad. I saw how you are. How having to focus on Victor and Judith seemed to be everything to you. Fuck, I think it’s a miracle you managed it, considering how much of a handful they both were. I didn’t expect to be one of them, one of your great kids, Dad. Mom was there for me and Roland.”\n\nEric was silent, and instead of silently goading him, Thomas turned and focused on breathing. On being ready for whatever his father was about to lay on him.\n\nOnly when his father spoke, he didn’t sound like the instructor or the college adviser. He didn’t even sound like the Father, layer on of wisdom. He just sounded like a man.\n\n“It sneaked up on me. Tomorrow was always the day I’d have time to apply myself to you and Roland. Then, as I was helping Judith plan her thesis and Victory with raising the twins, you appeared with a high school diploma in one hand and a college acceptance letter in the other. Tomorrow had just arrived, and it was about to become yesterday.”\n\nThomas swallowed, unsure he’d wanted that level of honesty from his father. Unsure what he’d wanted from his outburst. He sighed. “I’m not against you pushing me, Dad. Even Paul’s realized I need the occasional nudge to go anywhere. But you’re pushing me when I don’t even know what direction I want to go into. And I’m not saying I want you to pick it for me. But fuck, it would be nice if you gave me the space to at least figure that out, instead of showing me how all the possible directions can be great. I’d like… I’d like the luxury of being allowed to not pick one, if that’s what I decide.”\n\nHis father’s sigh was melancholic. “I guess I should be more attentive in supporting whatever decision you make. And until then, you still need the right classes to build toward a Liberal Arts degree should you decide on that.”\n\nThomas hung his head. Even when he was doing what Thomas was asking, his father found a way to remain far too involved.\n\n“Have you considered Madoc’s offer to build you into the next Mister Universe?”\n\nThomas rounded on his father. “No. We are not going there. And you know what, if you’re going to grab at the lowest hanging fruit, let me return one to you. Does Roland want to play for the NFL?”\n\nEric stared at him, shocked. “He loves football.”\n\n“But does that mean he wants that as a career? Have you even asked him? Like you said, he loves it, and if it comes down to him going along with your ambitions for him or quitting, it’s going to be easy for him to just go along.”\n\nHis father flinched but didn’t look away. “It’s not just me. His coach thinks he has what it takes to make it there.”\n\nThomas shrugged. “He’s a Hertz. He’s going to excel at whatever he puts his mind to. But that doesn’t mean it’s going to be football.”\n\nHis father was thoughtful before nodding. “Just remember that you’re a Hertz, too.”\n\n* * * * *\n\n[b]I94, heading west, ND, January 14th[/b]\n\n\n\n“Your father sounds like a ‘do things my way’, kind of guy.” There was something in Grant’s tone that made Thomas uneasy. \n\n“No,” he protested. He didn’t think that was what his story had portrayed. In fact, it was about the only time he remembered his father stopping and thinking about what he’d done. He still didn’t know if he’d talked with Roland. He hadn’t wanted to pry after he’d nudged in what he hoped was the right direction. “Well, a bit.” That was the first time, after all. Grant must have picked up something from his tone. “He gets hyper-focused. So he does everything he can think of to make sure you succeed, but it means he forgets he’s making decisions for you.” He almost added that his father always meant well, and while true, it came across as something lame to say. “What about you?” he asked quickly before he lost his nerve.\n\n“What about me?”\n\n“I told you about my family. Only fair you tell me something about yours.”\n\n“I don’t have one,” Grant answered in a flat tone and without looking away from the road.\n\nOh yeah. There was a story there.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n[b]I94, heading west, ND, January 14th[/b]\n\n“Everyone has a family,” Thomas said. When the kangaroo didn’t react to the statement, he added. “Even people raised by quads in the wild have their packs.”\nThat caused Grant to glance in his direction. “You read a lot?”\n“Not as much as I used to,” Thomas replied. “A lot of my time’s been taken with—” he stopped, realizing what the kangaroo had done. “You’re dodging the question.”\n“You considered there’s a reason for that?”\n“I spilled the beans on my family, so I think it’s only fair you give a little, but if you don’t want to speak about it, you could simply say that, instead of redirecting.”\nGrant remained silent for a few seconds, eyes fixed on the road. Then he sighed. “My parents died when I was too young to really remember them.”\nThomas felt his ears burn and wondered if they could get hot enough to melt him away. That was not what he’d expected.\n“I remember New Orleans. I had to read up on when the hurricane hit. It was Jezebel.”\nOh great, that he’d made him remember their death was bad enough, but in a hurricane? Thomas vaguely remembered Jezebel as the one which had nearly destroyed the city a second time. No wonder he’d said he didn’t have any family. Still, there had to have been some good to come from it.\n“So some family out of state took you in?”\nGrant stared at him. “What?”\n“You don’t have an accent.”\n“I do have an accent.” The kangaroo refocused on the road. “Just not the one you’re listening for. We were on vacation in New Orleans. We were from Boston. And,” he added as Thomas felt worse for his preconception. “I was raised in the Midwest.” Grant then added. “Your father sounds like the guy who raised me.”\nThe way he said that made it sound like it wasn’t a good thing.\n“He’s not bad,” Thomas protested weakly.\nGrant shrugged. “I guess I was stuck with him long enough to lose more of my East-coast accent. Should have left sooner,” he muttered.\n“Sorry,” Thomas whispered.\nGrant startled and shook himself. “I’m the one who should apologize. You couldn’t know.” He patted the dash. “I found her, fixed her up, and we’ve been traveling the country ever since.”\n“You’ve been living out of your pickup since then?” Thomas asked in disbelief. “How much older than me were you?”\n“A little. And I also crash on couches, when they’re willing to let me while I help around the house. What’s your uncle like?”\n“Nerio’s a nice guy,” Thomas answered. “He and his husband have a carpentry business.” Thomas realized Grant had redirected the conversation toward him and didn’t care. Fewer chances of him putting his foot in his mouth that way. “I get to see them every few years at one of the holidays.”\n“Do you think me driving you there will earn me enough brownie points to merit the couch for a couple of days, or will they need me to help around? I’m pretty decent at carpentry.”\nThomas chuckled. “Oh, I think they’ll offer better than the couch for a lot less than housework.” The tilted ear was enough to make him realize what he’d said, implied, and that he couldn’t just wave it aside. At least, this foot in his mouth embarrassed him, not brought up bad memories for Grant. “My uncles are well, pretty open with sleeping with other guys, other than the two of them agreeing to it and being there at the same time. They’ll enjoy other guys, so if you’re into guys, you can score their bed without much effort, I think.”\n“You…” Grant hesitated. “Seem to know a lot about your uncle’s sex life.”\nThomas sighed. “Nerio’s a Royer.”\n“I’m afraid that doesn’t tell me as much as you think.”\nHe sighed again. “My mom’s side of the family is quite… frisky, and they aren’t afraid of recounting their exploits.”\nGrant smiled. “So those holidays get…”\n“Too damned embarrassing,” Thomas muttered.\n“In that case, I’m a little surprised you haven’t been regaling me with stories. A good-looking kid like you has to have quite a few exploits under his belt at this point.”\nThomas stared at the kangaroo, mouth agape, and ears broadcasting enough heat to start up climate change again.\n* * * * *\n[b]Lewiston, MT, January 15th[/b]\n\nThomas watched the city sign pass, the name remaining embedded after it was behind them. When Grant had said they’d stop for the night in the next town, Thomas hadn’t expected that name to be the one.\n“Are you sure this is where you want us to stop?” He tried to keep his voice steady. The name meant nothing. “I can take over the driving for a while. I have my license.” He reached for his phone to show him and remembered he didn’t have it.\nThe kangaroo chuckled. “You have something against the city of Lewiston?”\nThomas wanted to say no. The fact that was Madoc’s last name meant nothing. It was just a coincidence. Grant pulled into a parking lot with half a dozen stores, and three times that in parked vehicles.\n“I was serious about taking over the driving,” Thomas said, eyeing the white van parked between a blue sedan and green SUV. Gilbert wasn’t the only one with a white van, he told himself. There were thousands of those, just around Minneapolis, probably.\n“I’m going to guess your experience is with cars.” Grant stopped the car in one of the many free spots before the Subway. “Pickups aren’t the same and winter’s not the time to learn.” He took a crumpled bill from a pocket and handed it to Thomas. “Get us something to eat while I drive around for a place to park for the night. I’ll be back in ten minutes.”\nThomas stared at the twenty-dollar bill. What were the odds two adults would hand him physical currency in two days? He opened the door and immediately considered closing it, but he was getting hungry, too. He tightened the jacket and hurried into the restaurant, where it was warm.\nWell, Siberia probably felt warm compared to the outside. How could anywhere be this cold?\n“Welcome to Subway,” a muscular wolverine around Thomas’s age greeted from behind the counter. “What can I satisfy you with today? We have a two-for-one special on cold cut and all-veggie foot-longs.”\n“So I get two feet?” Thomas turned to the door, but the pickup was already pulling out of the lot. He’d forgotten to ask what Grant wanted.\n“That is what two foot-longs means,” the wolverine replied, still smiling. “Does that mean you’ll want two foot-longs?”\n“I don’t know if I can swallow two feet,” Thomas answered, looking at the menu on the wall behind the counter. “The longest I’ve had at this point is sixteen inches.”\n“Excuse me?” the wolverine said.\n“I didn’t even gag,” Thomas added. The clerk’s surprise and confusion only now registering. “How much do you have to offer?”\nOh, dear God. What had he just said? There was no way he could have told a stranger that. He wasn’t like his parents. And to hit on him like that? He wasn’t that needy, was he? It had only been what… three days since the frat?\nThe wolverine looked around furtively, and Thomas found himself mimicking him and confirming that they were as alone as when he’d entered. Would other customers have kept him from staying that? Thinking back on the few similar experiences he’d had, he concluded the only chance would be if they were women.\n“Not that I’m into guys,” the clerk said, in a casual tone, “but nothing near that.” He leaned forward. “You are joking about that, right?”\n“No,” Thomas said, a mix of indignation at having his word suspected and amazement at how not bothered the wolverine was. “Sixteen-inch, right down the gullet.”\nThe clerk looked at the cabinets holding unbaked bread. “I wonder if I can make one that long that’ll fit in the oven? Because now that you’ve said it, I kind of want to see it.”\nThomas laughed, his unea vanishing. “My ride’s going to be back before it’s ready, and I can’t stick around for it. But I will have two cold-cut foot-longs, regular bread. And no, I’m not deep-throating one of those. Twelve-inch isn’t much of an exploit anymore.”\nThe wolverine stared for a second before turning to get the bread out of the tray. “Just where are you from? I’ve never caught a glimpse of a guy that big in gym class.”\n“Me neither. He’s an international student in my frat.”\n“He from Australia?” the clerk asked. “You know,” he added as Thomas tried to work out what he meant. “Because everything’s big down under?”\nThomas imagined Chima as an Australian, or any of the other guys in the frat. “Now you just made me wish there was someone from Australia in my frat.” Instead of blushing, he grinned as the wolverine laughed.\nThomas had the clerk add vegetables, then paid and left with them.\nHe felt good. He’d never spoken this freely before and not ended up as a puddle of embarrassment. Maybe the road trip was doing him some good. If he could get through a dozen conversations like this, maybe he’d start over-sharing with his family, too. Of course, it remained to be seen if he could be this free with a girl around. Only then could he know if he’d be able to do this with his mother and sister in the room.\nThe cold hit him with a hammer and he looked for Grant’s pickup. The ten minutes had to be up at this point. His gaze was drawn to the white van, and he wondered where the owner had gone to. None of the stores here lent themselves to long stays. Maybe it was abandoned? If he checked, it would be on blocks.\nHe’d taken a step in that direction for something to do while he waited as the side door slid open. “I told you, this is where we parked.” A monkey bundled in a heavy jacket exited. Too much of him was covered, Thomas couldn’t recognize him. Even the accent and the dark brown face fur with the pale cream around it couldn’t be enough to explain the certainty he felt as to who that was. “Arguing with me for twenty minutes about moving doesn’t change what I saw. It just means we aren’t eating any sooner. Get dressed. Even I need to eat something that doesn’t come out of a cock.”\nHow? How was Limbani here, glaring inside a van that couldn’t be Gilbert’s. \n“No,” Thomas whispered, as the van shook and he saw a form within it move. “There is no fucking way.” He made out voices, indistinct, but definitely more than one. “They can’t be here.”\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n[b]Lewiston, MT, January 15th[/b]\n\nThomas ran, cursing having to do it in such dry cold.\nHe had no idea where he was going, other than as far as he could manage from them. How the fuck had they found him when even he had no idea where in this state he was? Even if he believe in Limbani’s constant talk of knowing stuff, and considering his own teleporting, it was getting harder and harder to. By the monkey’s admission, he saw when and who he was going to fuck.\nWhat had the monkey said as he’d exited the—\nThe screeching of tires made him look over his shoulder as Gilbert’s van rounded the corner. The monkey was in the passenger seat, excitedly pointing at Thomas.\nNo-no-no. He glanced far in the alley he was passing. He wasn’t letting them catch him. He focused, tightened his chest, shivered—\nHe slammed into a wall.\nRight. He pushed through the pain and away from it. Momentum. He ran again. Instead of screeching, he heard a door slammed shut. Good. On foot, he had the advantage. That, he knew from how he’d escaped them over and over on the way to his parents.\nHe stopped as he exited the alley, found the furthest flat spot free from snow. Willed himself there, and was running again. He smiled. Like the one before, he was barely more out of breath than the running was causing. And he was sure this time, he’d barely had to cause the physical reaction to trigger it.\nPractice made better.\nThe van rounded the corner ahead of him. Come on. Couldn’t they all have picked up the chase on foot? Why did Gilbert—he nearly tripped when he made out a rat behind the wheel instead of the armadillo. What had happened to Gilbert for him to let Madoc drive his van?\nFocus. Escape, worry about what happened to one of your frat brother when they aren’t trying to kidnap you anymore. He looked around for another—\nThe impact sent him to the side, and Thomas barely stayed on his feet as the capybara pulled him against his chest and held him there. “It’s okay, Thomas. You’re safe now.”\nThomas tried to push against Olavo, but couldn’t get the leverage. “Let go of me.” He couldn’t even turn his head.\nHe tried to will himself out of the capybara’s arms, but even as scared as he was, nothing was happening.\nOlavo shushed him. “We’re here to help, Thomas. Madoc’s elder sent us.”\n“Let me see,” he snarled, trying to figure what an elder had to do with this or why he’d even cared about him.\nOlavo whispered something that sounded like a lullaby, but in his native language. The idea his friend was treating him like a child infuriated Thomas, but didn’t give him the strength he needed to push away. Wriggling force them to step around, and Thomas realized his leg was now behind Olavo’s. He planted his other foot and pushed.\nOlavo let out a yell of surprise as he lost his footing, but didn’t let go of Thomas until he hit the sidewalk and had the breath knocked out of him. Thomas manage to turn his head, see something that wasn’t Olavo and will himself there.\nHe was on his feet on the other side of the street, then running again. He teleported a series of time to add as much distance as he could, and in random directions.\nHe was utterly lost, but he would love to see them catch up to him now.\n* * * * *\n[b]Lewiston, MT, January 15th[/b]\n\nThomas leaned against the dumpster, panting. Another lesson learned. One teleport might not take much out of him, but when he chained them, he eventually felt them. He should have counted how many had gotten him to this state, but he’d been too busy evading the monkey every fucking time Thomas thought he was safe.\nHow was he doing it? Clearly, he could see more than just the sex he was destined to have. \n“You have got to be fucking kidding me,” Thomas said as a vehicle came to a screeching stop at the far end of the alley. He peeked around the dumpster as Madoc exited the passenger side. Olavo was behind the wheel.\nWhere the fuck was Gilbert? Thomas was getting worried now. The Armadillo never let anyone drive his van. He and Laurence had gotten in shouting matches over it more than once. So it was Olavo, Limbani, Madoc, Gilbert had to be in there.\nWas that all of them?\n“We just want to talk, Thomas,” Madoc called.\nHe looked at the other end of the alley. He could see all the way to the other side of the street. There he’d have a lot of possibility. Maybe he could even see the Subway and meet up with Grant again. If the kangaroo was even there. Would he think Thomas had just run off and continue on his way?\nHe panted as he tried to focus.\nWhat would happen, if he exhausted himself completely teleporting? Fall unconscious for them to pick up? Not reappear? He peeked again, and the rat hadn’t moved from in front of the van and Limbani had joined him. Olavo had his arms crossed over the van’s dash in what Thomas thought was meant to show he wouldn’t gun it toward him.\nThey seemed to mean it. And Thomas needed the time to catch his breath. It would be nice to know why they wouldn’t leave him alone. He stepped into sight. “Then talk.” Behind them, on the other side of that street was a three story building with what had to be the the roof’s stairwell entrance visible. If this turned bad, he was teleporting there. He’d kept his teleportations to the ground during the chase. There was no way even Limbani would think to look for him up there.\n“You don’t need to run anymore, Thomas,” Madoc said. “No one’s mad. Raphael just needs you to explain yourself. He’s a reasonable man, I’m sure he’ll understand.”\n“Who the fuck is Raphael?” First an elder, now this Raphael? Were they from some alternate universe? At this point, that would almost explain this craziness.\nMadoc and Olavo exchanged a look. “He’s our elder, Thomas,” Madoc said cautiously. “He’s the one you ran from.”\nSo it was only one stranger they seemed certain he knew. Was that better? “I don’t know any Raphael, and if you tell me he’s one of the guys I did, sorry, you know I’m not into old guys.” That only seemed to confuse the other rat. “It was Henry, I ran from. You know, because he went psycho on me after you called him to ‘help me’?”\nThis time, when Madoc looked at Limbani, he seemed worried. The monkey shrugged.\n“Did…” Madoc hesitated. “Did someone do this to you?” was that hope in his voice?\nThomas touched his neck as he remembered the pricking and then the bat on the other side of the room, Licking Thomas’s blood off his fangs.\n“I ran before he could do anything, Madoc.”\n“That’s good.” The other rat smiled. “Then you really need to come back to Kansas City. Look, Raphael has experts, and they’ll be able to figure out what’s going on with you.”\n“What? What does Kansas City have to do with anything?”\nMadoc stepped forward and Thomas raised a hand in warning, and the rat stopped.\n“I’m not going anywhere with you, Madoc. I have no idea what’s going with any of you, but right now. I don’t feel safe with you around.”\n“You tried, Mad,” Limbani said, then gave a nod to someone behind Thomas.\nThomas turned to see who it was and cursed himself as soon a he lost sight of his target. He had all the fear in the world and his chest was tight, but all he had in sight was the alley’s wall as his vision panned in what felt like slow motion.\nAs soon as he saw something else, that was where he’d be.\nUnfortunately, his vision was taken up by a jacket. He ducked, but it followed. He realized someone was holding it, then a hand grabbed his arm. The person behind the jacker cursed in Mandarin. Yating.\n“Don’t let him get it off his head,” Olavo yelled. “He needs to see to be able to pull a vanishing act.”\n“What do you think I’m tying to do,” the red panda replied as Thomas reached for the jacket with his free hand. It was batted away with more Mandarin cursing.\n“Stop fighting,” Madoc yelled, as someone took hold of Thomas’ shoulder. Thomas elbowed them as hard as he could and Madoc let out a pained oomph. The hand let go and Thomas pushed forward. With more cursing Yating fell, pulling the rat with him. As they landed and rolled on the ground, Thomas grabbed the jacket, but his hand was caught before he could pull it off.\n“Let go of me!”\n“No,” The red panda replied. “This is for your own good, Thomas. You need to go home.”\n“Oh, you just wait until Judith finds out about this,” Thomas snarled. “She is never going to let you fuck her again.”\n“Who?” Yating asked, and the confusion was enough of a distraction Thomas was able to yank his hand out of the grip. He jumped where ever he was looking. It was going to be better then where he’d had been.\nOr not.\nWeightlessness registered as Thomas looked at exactly the same thing he had been as the jacket went away. The clouds above him. The wind registered next, then that his body was turning.\nThis was definitely not an improvement over being in the red panda’s arms. Below him, way too far below him, his frat brothers were frozen in place.\nThe wind picked up.\nNo, he was picking up speed.\nWhat was terminal velocity? Fuck, he needed a landing spot before his momentum splattered him on appearing. He saw a large snowbank at the back of a parking lot and aimed for just above it. Oh, he really hoped it was all loose snow.\nSnow exploded around him the way the ground in Riverside park had when Gilbert had set off one of his fireworks to show Thomas what Texans called firework. It didn’t matter how loose the snow was, Thomas groaned. He felt like that firework had exploded under him.\nHe forced himself to his feet, then groaned again as Limbani, Madoc and Yating ran in his direction. Why hadn’t he looked for a snowbank further away?\n“That was impressive,” Gilbert said, approaching casualy. “I think Limbani called where you’d end up withing three feet.”\nThomas looked in the distance. There was a wall, and that was all he needed to determine where he’d land. He could deal with what he’d fall on once he was there. He squinted at it and when wanting to be there didn’t produce anything, he tried to tighten his chest, to summon fear. But he was too tired for the one, and trying the other only caused him more pain.\n“That’s not going to happen.” Felix grabbed Thomas by the arm and pulled him to his feet. “Lim saw me do this.” Something was around Thomas’s wrist, and zipped tight before he could react. “And as annoying as he gets about it, if he sees something, it happens.”\nBrake screeched, and Thomas looked up. The way his day was going, he expected the white van to skid to a halt next to him and then be thrown in the back. Instead, an old, beaten-up, pickup in primer gray sat at the entrance of the parking lot, Grant stepping out and reaching for the edge of the tarp secured over the bed of the truck.\n“Let go of him,” he ordered, undoing the corner.\n“Man,” Felix said in exasperation. “Go home. I really don’t want to have to deal with you.” He looked at the monkey. “How come you didn’t say anything about some bystander showing up?”\nLimbani was staring at the kangaroo in confusion.\nGrant reached under the tarp. “Can’t do that. I’m not that heartless. So I’m going to tell you kids this once. Go back to your Families. If you didn’t hear it, that’s with a capital ‘F’. As in, I have a good idea who you represent.”\n“You’re not getting my cousin!” Madoc yelled. “I don’t care what you want him for. He’s family.”\n* * * * *\n[b]Minneapolis, Hertz Household, November 24th[/b]\n\n“A Lewiston?” the older rat exclaimed angrily.\nThomas looked from his grandmother, who stood partway down the stairs, then to his aunt Carina, who had just finished introducing her fiancée to him, Ettore Lewiston. Thomas couldn’t remember ever seeing her this angry.\n“Ettore,” Carina said with an annoyed sigh, “this is Luisa, Nadia’s mother. Luisa this is—“”\n“Oh, I heard.” Luisa glowered at them.\n“I’m sorry,” Ettore said, letting out a nervous chuckled. “Have we met?” the man was good looking. Nearly six feet, with mottled brown and gray fur. The overcoat he’d just taken off revealed an expensive dark blue pinstriped suit that didn’t hide the muscles on his lean body.\n“Your family kidnapped my sister,” Luisa snapped.\n“I’m sorry?” Ettore asked, the tone making it clear that had been nowhere close to whatever he’d expected to have caused her ire. “My family did what?”\n“You heard me,” she said through gritted teeth and took a step down, and even though there was ample distance between them, Ettore took a step back. “Adelle went out with a Lewiston and she was never heard of.”\nHe raised his hands. “I’m sorry that happened, but why do you think my family did it? We don’t do that, not even now. And there has to be plenty of rat families out there with Lewiston as a surname.” He looked to Corina, but she too look unsure of why Luisa thought what she did. Then Thomas realized Ettore was looking at him, and he shrugged. For as much over sharing of stories as the Royer women were known for, his grandmother’s sister had never come up in any of hers.\n“If you want,” Ettore said, his tone gentle, “Maybe I can help you find out what happened to her? I have a few cousins and nephews involved in security work. They could find out. Her name is Adelle Royer?”\n“Fontata,” Luisa replied, some of her anger thawing. “Adelle Fontana, I’m a Royer through Marriage.”\n“Wait,” Madoc said, stepping around Ettore as he took his phone out, “are you talking about Grandma Adelle?”\n“So it was your family,” Luisa said, anger frosting over again.\n“You know who she means?” Ettore asked.\n“Grandma Adelle’s maiden name was Fontana, but I’m sorry, I wasn’t paying attention,” Thomas’s frat brother indicated the closet. “Why are you angry she married Jurrien?”\n“She was forced into it!”\nMadoc hesitated. “No, I mean, she probably isn’t your sister then. Grandma Adelle and Grandpa Jurrien were in Love. I mean Capital ‘L’ love. No one in the family could believe Grandpa stayed with her after the first four sons.” He raised a hand. “It’s a family thing. My grandpa wasn’t what you’d call faithful. But then again, I don’t think he’d ever met anyone who could leave him panting on the bed asking for a breather between fucks until Grandma.”\n“That’s a lot of details about your grand parents’ sex life,” Thomas commented.\nMadoc snorted. “Are you kidding? Grandma Adelle loved telling stories of what she got up to with Grandpa, or the guys before and while they were together.”\n“That does it, Mom,” Neiro said, leaning against the doorway leading to the kitchen. “She was a Royer alright.”\n“Then why didn’t she come with you?” Luisa asked, confusion slipping through the anger. “You thought her last name was Royer, so Corina told you who you were visiting. If she was allowed, she would have come to see her family.”\n“She’s dead,” Madoc said softly. “She and Grandpa died in a car accident twelve years ago. As to why she never contacted you or your family, I don’t know. I remember a handful of stories she had about her sisters, and they sounded like she cared about them. I…” he hesitated. “No one would have kept her from visiting, if she had wanted to.”\n“You’re sure she was with him because of love?” Luisa asked, and that seemed to make her hopeful.\n“Well, that or the size of his cock. Grandpa was among the bigger—”\n“Madoc!” Thomas exclaimed. “Don’t talk about your grandfather’s cock in front of my grandmother.”\nThe other rat smirked. “Why, worried she’s going to want to experience Lewiston cock the way you have, Cousin?”\n“Madoc,” Ettore said in a reproachful tone as Thomas’s ears burned from being outed had having had sex with him. “That wasn’t appropriate. You don’t even know if Luisa likes having sex with a kid like you.”\nThomas stared at Madoc’s some-times removed uncle as his grandmother chuckled. He’d been wrong earlier. This was going to be the most uncomfortable thanksgiving of the decade.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n[b]Lewiston, MT, January 15th[/b]\n\n“Come on,” Thomas protested, “we’re barely cousins, and we didn’t know that until—” He cried out in pain as Felix twisted his arm against this back. That had better be a large caliber Grant was about to pull from under the tarp. Because his frat brothers were pushing the limit of what he was willing to let slide.\n“Madoc,” Felix ordered. “Go kick the roo’s ass before he does something that’s going to delay us.”\nGrant pulled the item he’d reached for as the rat stepped in his direction and everyone, including Thomas, stared.\nInstead of a shotgun, or a rifle, the kangaroo held a piece of wood. From where Thomas stood, it looked weathered and broken in places, with—was that twine—holding pieces in place.\nThomas broke from the surprised and focused on the spot next to Grant. Nothing happened, and he cursed mentally. He wasn’t that tired. And even if he’d lose consciousness on arriving, next to the kangaroo, he could protect him. He tightened his chest, ignoring the pain. He needed the shiv—\nThomas slipped on the ice as he dropped next to Grant, barely pulling his arm before landing on his back. “Fuck,” he groaned. Great, he was about to lose consciousness. Everything was turning dark.\n“I’m glad you pulled that off, Thomas,” Grant said, barely glancing in his direction, “now, you need to get in the truck.”\nHaving to focus on the kangaroo made Thomas realize the darkness was because the clouds were growing dark. He reached up, and Grant pulled him to his feet as the wind whipped about. Holding onto the truck to keep from slipping again, he noticed the white van parked further down the road and the capybara who’d just exited it and was heading in their direction.\n“He’s with them,” Thomas pointed.\nAs if that was the signal the others waited for, Madoc, Limbani, Yating, Gilbert and Felix ran at them. Grant raised his—what was that thing—in their direction and the wind moved hard enough Thomas was pushed against the pickup. It hit the other, knocking them off their feet. Expect for Yating, who staggered a step, then was coming at them again as if the wind wasn’t there.\n“Thomas, in the truck.”\nThomas stepped around the kangaroo, the wind pushing them together. He raised the… what Thomas had thought was one broken piece of wood was actually many. Nailed together and held in place with varying twines. Thomas staggered, and Grant moved the collection of wood away from him and the wind lost intensity.\n“Don’t do this,” Grant told the red panda who was now standing on the other side of the pickup. The kangaroo realigned the… staff, Thomas decided, based on how Grant held it, and the wind picked up. \nYating reached forward for the staff. And Thomas wondered what he was trying to do. Even if he was immune to the wind, there was a pickup between— the panda stepped through the pickup’s bed.\n“Don’t!” Grant yelled and the wind increases.\nThomas stared. How could Yating be in the bed of the truck? The tarp wasn’t even pushed down where—fuck, Yating’s hand was nearly closing on the staff, Thomas had—\nThere was a flash of…something, and a sound like a folded leather belt snapping together and Yating was sliding on his back, pushing snow until it stopped him. He wasn’t moving.\nWith a curse, Grant shifted his focus to Olavo, who threw himself down as the barrage of wind sent a wall of snow in his direction. Grant looked up, pointed at the clouds, then down, and a lightning bolt struck the van.\n“Okay,” Grant said, panting. “That should—”\nThe van exploded.\nThomas stared. Had there been fireworks in the van? Even if there weren’t any right now, there was always something with gunpowder in it there. It was something of a joke that after fucking in Gilbert’s truck, you couldn’t stand near an open flame or you’d ignite all the gunpowder in your fur.\n“In the truck!” Grant ordered, his voice shaking. Thomas rushed in, over the driver’s seats and as he settled in the passenger side the staff went between the seats and Thomas pushed away from it, worried what it might do within the cab’s confines.\nThey drove off, then Grant grabbed the wool blanket and threw it over the staff. \nStaring at it, Thomas noticed some of the wood looked like siding from a house, while other could have been a part of a fence post.\nLooking behind them, Thomas watched as Yating staggered to his feet. He hoped there hadn’t been another brother in the Gilbert’s truck.\n“I—”\n“Don’t,” Grand cut him off. “I wasn’t going to let them take you, even if it turns out I’m wrong about you.”\n“Wrong?” Thomas asked. Then again, louder. “Wrong? You don’t know me, how…” Fuck, He looked around. He needed some place he could land and not kill himself from the momentum the pickup was giving him.\n“I was going to let you give me the details of what you’re mixed in, in your own time.” Grant was looking in the rear-view mirror. Thomas looked over the seat. His frat brothers were together, watching them. “I can’t afford to wait anymore. If I’m going to keep you safe, I need to know what’s going on.” Thomas opened his mouth to protest, but the look from Grant silenced him. “Everything, Thomas.”\nThomas studied the kangaroo, the comment about having been wrong about Thomas still not sitting well, but he’d just said he would protect him, so Thomas had to believe that, for the moment, he was safe. And this gave him time to rest. So if he needed to, the next time Grant slowed, Thomas would be able to leave.\nSo he told him what he’d told his parents.\n* * * * *\n[b]Highway 87, West bound, MT, January 15[/b]\n\n“A Vampire? Grant asked in disbelief.\n“He tried to bite my neck. That’s a vampire, right?” He considered. “Are those a thing?” It wasn’t like Thomas was certain what could and couldn’t be real anymore. Limbani knew stuff, Yating had stepped through a metal truck.”\n“Not the way they’re depicted in movies. They aren’t undead, for one thing. It’s complicated,” he added to Thomas’s tilted ear.\nThomas yawned. He’d gone into more details than he’d had with his parents. Grant had insisted on detailed description of the sex. Thomas had been quizzed about his feelings and impressions right after he was done being fucked, or fucking. It had left him with ears burning so hot he figured he’s illuminate the darkness from now own.\n“Alright,” Grant said after driving in silence for a few minutes. “You’re definitely Society.”\n“And that means what, exactly?”\n“Families of sex mages,” Grant replied casually.\n“You’re kidding right? There’s no way that… you know what, never mind. That explains the sex-crazy frat. But just guys?”:\n“Women fall under the purview of a different god.” Again, the answer was in a casual tone, as if it was a normal thing to say.\n“Gods?” Thomas wondered if he could pound his temples until the world made sense again.\nGrant sighed, but didn’t immediately elaborate. “Short version. Magic comes through gods, so anyone doing magic has a contract with one of them. Worship generates energy, which powers them and abilities, like that red panda used.”\nThomas rubbed his temple. Was that supposed to make any sense? “That can’t be what I am.”\n“Normal guys don’t teleport. Hence, you’re magic.”\n“But that just started one day.”\n“Stories are that your faction—”\n“Can we not lump me in with them?” Thomas demanded. “Even before things turned impossible, I was just the outside they allowed in. And now, they’re hunting me. That’s not exactly inclusive behavior.”\nGrant opened his muzzle, closed it and let out a breath. “That faction. From what I know of them, have ceremonies that they need to go through before they’ll come into their power. What you described happening in the basement, with the altar and the mask. That has a definite sense of a ceremony.”\n“But that was just a hazing,” Thomas protested. “I’m pretty sure Felix is who insisted on it, hoping it would scare me off.”\nHe shivered at the memory of Chima over him, moving inside him. Looking into those bottomless eyes sockets.\n“Thomas?”\nHe shook the memory away and did his best to ignore his hardon. “Look, that other time, I’m the one who put the mask on Chima’s head once in was on the stone.”\n“Why?” Grant asked.\n“Why what?”\n“Why did the two of you do it on the altar? Why did you put the mask on his head?”\n“I don’t know.” Thomas tried to remember what had been going through his head, but most of it had been euphoria of all the sex, topping all the guys at the frat for the first time. He remembered keeping Chima for last, but not why. He remembered him, standing by the door to the basement.\n* * * * *\n[b]Minneapolis, MN. Sigma Theta Gamma frat house, December 10th[/b]\n\nHe waited for Thomas next to the basement’s door. The naked Adonis, standing proud, hard, eager. Thomas smiled. There were be no hunting needed, unlike with the twelve others who he’d had stalked over the university grounds and frat house. Chima knew what came, what was owed. And he was there.\nWhen Thomas approached, the hyena moved down the stairs. Not running, moving to the proper place for this. They would close the circle where they had opened it. Thomas would claim him, where He had claimed Thomas.\nThomas’s eyes stayed on that perfect, muscular, ass. Perfect as Chima was perfect. His embodiment in every way. He was male. He was potent, and he would be Thomas’s.\nThe room was dark when they entered it. Darker than he remembered, but the block of stone was visible in the center of the room. The altar where Thomas had willing given himself over to Him, and where he would now claim Him.\nChima lay back across the stone block and Thomas stood between his legs, lifting them over his shoulders. He paused, studying the large balls, thick, hard and long cock. Something was … not right. He looked higher, those abs were perfect, those pecks, deltoids. Nothing should ever change about them. The face, those eyes…\nThomas searched around the dark room.\nBy the door, seemingly floating in the darkness, it waited for him. Mask in hand, he returned and put it over Chima’s head. Chima’s gray eyes looked at him through the eyes holes as Thomas took position between his legs.\nNow, everything was as it should be.\nThomas pushed his cock into the hyena’s ass and groaned. Chima’s head fell back. The hyena’s silence didn’t mask the pleasure he felt. The air vibrated from it around them, through them. He had been waiting for this moment; for Thomas to come and claim Him. And Thomas would perform for Him; show Him that Thomas deserved to own Him.\nHe thrust in and out, slow and fast, gentle and rough. He watched the perfect body tense and tremble with his thrusts. The thick, perfect cock bounce and leak; the heavy balls tighten. Thomas drove Him to ecstasy just as he pushed himself closer to it. They were one, the same. The same vitality, shared and owned.\nThe hyena raised his head, and in the low light, all Thomas saw were the empty eye sockets. The mouth moved, sharp predator’s teeth, long incisor, but no words came.\nThe approval hit Thomas viscerally.\nThomas had given himself over to Him when offered the chance, and now, He was giving Himself over to Thomas, if he wanted him.\nHe did.\nThomas raised his head as his orgasm hit and let out a silent scream that resonated through both of them.\nAnd then, Thomas crumbled on top of Chima.\n* * * * *\n[b]Highway 87, West bound, MT, January 15[/b]\n\n“Because it felt right.”\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n[b]Highway 87, West bound, MT, January 15[/b]\n\n“Felt right,” Grant said, sounding thoughtful, but in the dash’s light, Thomas saw the kangaroo smile.\n“He’s bigger than life, okay. Just look him up on Wild Frats dot Com. You’ll see what I mean.” Thomas closed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his muzzle. “But there’s another reason I can’t be part of that thing. You said it’s based on families and my dad doesn’t have any power and my brother’s straight.”\n“Victor?”\n“No, Roland. My younger brother. I know Victor’s been with guys, so he’s bi. And Judith—”\n“Wait.” Grant raised his hand. For the first time since he started asking questions, he sounded uncertain. “Are you sure she’s your biological sister?”\n“Yes.”\n“Maybe you’re adopted?”\nThomas rolled his eyes. “No. They’re my family. Whatever’s going on, I’m clearly not part of this Society.”\n“Except that you show all the signs based on what you told me. Extremely high sex drive with the ability to do it with barely any rest in between.”\n“No rest,” Thomas said, remembering some of the nights with the guys at the frat. Then he realized what he said and groaned.\n“That’s definitely Society,” Grant said with a chuckle. “There are magic ways to make that happen, but with them it’s innate.” He considered something. “How active is your father?”\nThomas snorted. “He can keep up with my mom, and that’s quite the feat.”\n“You’re mother’s Nadia, right?”\n“Yeah. If you want to know where I get my sex drive from, it’s from her side of—” Thomas winced as he remembered something.\n“What?”\n“Neiro, that’s who we’re heading to. He’s my mother’s brother, told Ettore and Madoc that he felt it was impossible to have as much sex as both claimed to have.” On the trail of that, another memory came to him, standing out by how out of place it felt around what was going on at the time. “And after the grease fire, while everyone was freaking out about what I’d done and how it was their fault, Madoc talked about my brothers and nephews as if they might be involved.”\nGrant nodded, which Thomas felt was a pretty mild reaction to him basically saying he was right. Then he was pulling over to the side of the road. Before Thomas could ask what he was doing, the truck has stopped, and the kangaroo was checking his phone.\n“We missed them,” he said to himself, scrolling through a list.\n“Who?”\n“With what you said, I’m not sure your uncle’s the best place to take you, but the person I need to talk with to be sure stops answering their phone at nine. But they should know how important this is.” He tapped an entry and placed the phone to his ear. The back of it was cracked, scratched, and patched with tape and what looked like glue and something that reflected the dash’s light.\nGrant shook his head and put the phone away. “We’re not important enough, I guess.”\n“Now what?” Thomas asked, a yawn distorting the question.\n“Now, you sleep.” Grant got the truck back on the road. “Your body needs to rest.”\n“You haven’t slept much more than I did.” Another yawn cracked Thomas’s jaw.\nGrant chuckled. “I didn’t use my magic to the point of exhaustion after not worshiping for… when was the last time you had sex?”\nThomas considered pointing out that since he couldn’t be part of the Society, that wasn’t a thing for him. Or that if Grant was so worried about it, he could just suck him off. He should unzip his pants and make the offer. With a muzzle like his, he had to be pretty good at it.\nHe smiled and realized that the gutter was a surprisingly comfortable place for his mind to rest in. Maybe he should spend more time there with thoughts of the kangaroo, his frat brothers, and others from university having sex with him.\nOr, he could simply sleep there.\n* * * * *\n[b]Stanford, MT, January 16th[/b]\n\nThomas woke with a start and a painful erection, then immediately forgot about it as light lanced his eyes. “Where?” he asked, eyes closed again. When no answer came, he cracked one open, and, blocking the sun with a hand, looked around.\nHe was alone in the pickup, which was running. Out of the driver’s side was the pole for the charging station. It was in a large parking lot of a strip mall. At their periphery so customers could charge their cars while they shopped. Beyond it, he saw two rows of cars. \nOn the dash, on his side, under where someone had written, ‘stay in the truck,’ in the frost, were four steaming burritos. His hunger didn’t let him question how they were still hot when the pickup barely qualified as warm.\nHe was eating the third when Grant let in frigid air along with himself. The staff was no longer between them, and in the cleared space he dropped a bag with what looked like fabric around a name he couldn’t see with the way the bag crumpled.\n“How did you sleep?” the kangaroo asked, taking off gloves and blowing into his hands.\nThomas indicated the half-eaten burrito and Grant nodded. He pulled strips of cloth from the bag, then searched his pockets, finally pulling out a needle and bundle of threads he then had to untangle.\nThomas finished the burrito, watching Grant look through the fabric strips. “What are you doing?” He grabbed the last one.\n“I’m making you some protection.”\nThomas decided to forget the ‘rubber works better for protection’ comment that popped in his head and settled for and tentative, “okay.” As he started eating.\nGrant glanced at him, pulling a stripe from the pile and shaking it. “You’re safe while you’re in the truck, but you can’t stay in here all the time, and the instant you step outside, they’ll know where to find you.” He focused on threading the eye of the needed with a dark thread. “The fact they aren’t here already confirms I’m going to be finished with this before you need to step outside.”\nThomas considered opening the door, just to put that to the test, but thought better of annoying his benefactor. “Or it’s because you blew up Gilbert’s van.”\nGrant paused, his expression turning pained.\n“I doubt there was anyone in it,” Thomas said, hoping he sounded more confident than he felt. “Even in that van, six is something of a squeeze.”\nGrant nodded slowly, then started stitching the strip of fabric. “I don’t think it’s going to take them that long to replace the van. Most folks in the magic communities who aren’t at least comfortably wealthy do so by choice. The Society is renowned as much for their wealth as for the quantity of sex they have. As soon as they were able to dust themselves off, they would have called someone about getting them a new van.”\n“And that’s—” Thomas pointed to the fabric Grant was stitching into a loop. “—going to stop them?”\n“I’d be more confident in the results if I was working with wood, but I don’t—” he paused. “No, actually, for this, fabric’s better. The flow embodies the concept I need better than what I’d get from wood, even if I went with still-alive wood and connected to the concept of the forest versus the tree.”\nThomas stared. “Flow? Trees?”\nGrant pulled scissors from a pocket and cut another strip into smaller ones. He shook one. “Flow.”\nThe rat kept staring as the kangaroo started braiding the smaller strips together. “Care to explain a little better?” he asked when nothing else was forthcoming.\nGrant paused and looked thoughtful. “Okay.” He was braiding again. “Right now, you’re protected by my pickup. The… let’s call it a ward for the time being, that I set up draws on the concept of motion to keep scrying from finding anyone inside it. Basically, no matter how hard they try, we’re not where they’re aiming for, because in concept, we’ve already moved on to where we’ll be next.”\n“But we aren’t moving.”\n“The concept of motion, not the action of motion.” Grant pulled a knot tight with his teeth before continuing. “Don’t think too hard about it. It’s not that kind of magic. Now, because this is my truck, the concept of ownership lets me carry that ward with me, so I’m still protected when I’m outside, but you’re just a passenger, so I can’t use that with you. What I’m doing instead is this, which will make it difficult for your friends to track you.”\n“By using the concept of flowing fabrics,” Thomas said, dubious.\n“Now you’re getting it,” Grant replied.\nThomas sighed. “Not in the slightest.”\n“Anyway, with this one, and while you’re near me, you’ll be protected.”\n“Near you?”\nGrant nodded. “It’s my magic, and it would take too long to add the concepts needed for it to carry a charge, so it has to remain in range while I power it.”\n“If I’m magic too—and I’m not agreeing that I am—shouldn’t I be able to power it too?”\n“That’s not how it works. You’d have to use the magic from your faction, and the only ones I know of who could teach you how to do it are the ones I’m making this to ensure they can’t find you.”\n“This, you being from a different society, thing is really making this harder than it needs to,” Thomas said in a huff.\nGrant burst out laughing and Thomas stared at him, again.\n“They’re called factions. The Society is the name of the faction you’re part of. Mine is…” he trailed off, then shook his head. “Different.”\nBefore Thomas could ask for an explanation to that, Grant was focusing on his work with an intensity that doused his curiosity. Did he want to interrupt him when he did magic?\nThe store Grant had gotten the supplies from had to be Fabric Anywhere, since it had the same flowing fabric around the name that he could see on the bag. Next to it was a Subway, then an electronic’s store, and another restaurant, with its facade on the side of the building, so he couldn’t see the name, but there was a sombrero on the bay window, so Mexican of some sort. On the other side was a clothing store, and a shoe store, and then—\nHe hit the door, and his forehead smacked into the window. “Don’t scare me like that!” he was pressed against the window, except he hadn’t moved away from the kangaroo reaching for him. He’d… “why am I still here?” He swallowed and edged away from the kangaroo, who pushed Thomas’s jacket off his shoulder. “I was looking at the mall. I should be there now.”\n“I made alterations to my truck, and I’m sorry for scaring you. I wasn’t trying to do that, but at least I know they work. Teleportation isn’t a concept I’ve thought about until you explained what happened to you.”\nThomas jerked his arm away from Grant as he reached for the handle.\n“Wait until I’ve put this on before you run off,” Grant said calmly, but didn’t reach for him again.\nThomas forced himself to remember the kangaroo had helped him when he had no reason to. He had done nothing to give him reasons to doubt his good intentions. But then again, neither had the frat, until they were chasing him around Minneapolis.\n“Is that really to protect me? Or is it so I won’t be able to teleport?”\n“It’s to protect you.” Grant motioned and after hesitating, Thomas offered him his arm. “And the alterations I made aren’t to hold you prisoner. You mentioned how some of your teleportations happened accidentally, like when you’re startled. I thought it’d be good to keep you from vanishing unexpectedly while we’re traveling. I don’t think sixty miles an hour is safe for you to appear anywhere. Not to say that you might want to take this off when you’re in the truck and the next time they find us, I expect they’ll have contingencies in place to keep me from helping you.”\n“It’s kind of tight,” Thomas said.\n“You don’t want it slipping off.”\nThomas pulled his jacket up. “How far can I go? You said I needed to stay close.”\n“A few hundred feet should be safe,” Grant said after thinking it over. “So the Subway’s fine if you’re still hungry.”\nThomas hurried out the door. “I’m way more interested in their restrooms.”\n* * * * * \n[b]Stanford, MT, January 16th[/b]\n\n“Fuck, it’s cold,” Thomas stammered as he slammed the door shut behind him.\n“Welcome to Stanford, Montana,” Grant replied, phone in hand. “Now, be quiet. I waited for you because this is about you, but don’t speak.”\nHe tapped an entry and placed the phone on the dash. It rang twice, then was answered.\n“Yes, Grant,” a feminine voice answered.\n“Jules, I have Thomas with me. He’s a rat from the Society, and—”\n“Lewiston,” the person said. There was something about the voice that made Thomas unsure it was a woman.\n“Yes, that’s who’s after him. I need—”\n“No,” the voice interrupted him again. “Thomas Lewiston.”\nThomas shook his head.\n“His last name is Hertz.”\n“There is no Hertz family within the Society.” The voice didn’t leave room for doubt.\n“That’s…” Grant trailed off and studied Thomas. “That’s unexpected, but it’s something for later. Right now, he needs a safe place while he gets used to his situation.”\n“Define safe,” the voice said as soon as Grant stopped speaking.\n“Where the people after him won’t find him.”\n“No.” Again, they spoke without a pause once he was done.\nGrant sighed. “Jules, Help me out, here.”\n“I am,” the voice stated. “I need specificity.”\nGrant shook his head as Thomas opened his mouth. “Okay. I need a place I can take Thomas to so that even if they find him, they won’t be able to show up and grab him.”\nFor the first time, the voice did not immediately respond. “The Lewiston family is in a state of detente with Denton Brislow. Any action that can be linked to them in his city will have long-lasting and harsh repercussions for the Lewiston family. Take him to Denver.”\n“Where in Denver specifically, Jules? Do I take him to Denton?”\n“No. Take him to—”\nThe call cut off.\nThomas stared at the phone. “Did she disconnect?”\n“They,” Grant corrected distractedly, taking his phone and looking it over. “And no, they didn’t disconnect.” When Thomas saw the screen, it was dark.\n“Did you run out of power?” Thomas asked in a mix of disbelief and amusement.\n“I must have.” The musing tone killed the amusement, but Grant didn’t elaborate, and Thomas thought he remembered the kangaroo mentioning he was broadcast charging in the truck.\n“So… Denver?” Thomas asked.\nGrant ran a finger over the back and the repairs Thomas suspected were more than that. “Not ideal without having all the information, but Jules said that’s where you’re going to be safe.”\n“You can call them again, right? Once your phone is recharged.”\n“Yes,” Grant said in a tone that made Thomas think he wasn’t sure recharging it would be simple. “Once I can recharge it.”\nIf that was one of the contingencies his frat brothers were employing, was Denver safe?\nGrant pocketed his phone and buckled up. “But I’m going to want to have a look at it first.”\nThomas nodded and buckled up too. The kangaroo seemed confident enough that they should go there. “And you’ll be able to teach me about this magic stuff there?”\nGrant chuckled. “More the generalities of what it means for you to be part of the Society, and I’m not going to wait until we’re there since, for you, it starts with getting laid.”\nThomas narrowed his eyes. “Not that I’ll complain about sex, but is now really the time?”\n“For you, it could be a matter of life and death.”\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n[b]Billings, MT, January 16th[/b]\n\n“Is this really needed?” Thomas asked, fidgeting behind the kangaroo. The room beyond the reception was poorly lit, but not so much he couldn’t make out the object of his apprehension. The door with the electronic scanner and what lay behind.\n\nGuys. Naked guys having sex. Strangers he was expected to have sex with.\n\nHe shouldn’t be this nervous, he told himself. It wasn’t like sex with strangers was a new thing for him. But it had been at Sigma Gamma Theta’s parties, and then at the college. A good number of them had become friends, even discounting those now hunting him like he was a fugitive from the law.\n\nBut it wasn’t the same here.\n\nThe sex here came with the expectation that he’d never see the guy again. Sure, at college he couldn’t be sure he’d see the guy again, but there was the chance they’d cross patch, that they’d talk and strike up a friendship. This would be sex and then gone, never to see them again. That felt… odd. Having to pay to get in didn’t help this feel normal.\n\n“It is,” Grant replied, handing him one of the two towels. “Unless you know someone in Billings who can take care of it for you.”\n\n“The only guys I know outside Minneapolis are the ones we don’t want to meet up with.”\n\n“Then it seems like you’re low on options.” The kangaroo swiped a keycard over the door’s scanner and pulled the door opened, motioning for Thomas to precede him in.\n\nThomas hesitated. On Paul’s sixteenth birthday, once their friends had left and his mother was sleeping, the two of them had downloaded a porno that had taking place in a bathhouse like this one. Debauchery was the most polite term for what he’d seen, and four months spent living at the frat hadn’t contradicted what took place when a bunch of guys got together.\n\nHe forced himself forward, and instead of the ruckus of grunts and moans produced by fucking, soft conversations, locker doors opening and closing, and sound of running showered were what greeted him.\n\n“You’re coming in?” He asked when Grant followed him.\n\n“I’m paying, so yeah, I’m planning on enjoying myself, too.”\n\n“But…” Thomas hesitated and lowered his voice. “It’s just guys here, right?”\n\nThe name of the establishment was Ride’M Cowboy, and the animated image on the wall next to the outside door hadn’t shown the parts that would mark it as obscene, but it had been clear as to what said cowboy was riding. It wasn’t a horse, or a woman.\n\n“Yes.” The kangaroo pushed Thomas forward, and the short hall opened up into the locker room, on his left were rows of lockers, with benches between them and the showers at the back. What he could see the of the showers showed them to be individual stalls with curtains for privacy and that surprised him. Another way the prono had lied to him.\n\nIt had also had the guys going at it on the benches. While here, no one was even looking at the other naked men lewdly.\n\n“I didn’t know you were gay,” Thomas commented, forcing himself not to eye the naked guys.\n\n“I’m not.” Grant passed the card over the sensor of two lockers and opened them.\n\n“But you’re into guys?” Thomas asked, trying to reconcile the situation.\n\n“I am.” The kangaroo gestured to the door. “Put your thumb on the sensor.”\n\nThomas did so as he realized the assumption he’d fallen victim to even though he knew better. How often had he stood next to Paul as his brand of gayness came up as part of a guy hitting on the golden tiger and he then had to answer interminable questions about being demi-sexual?\n\n“Put your stuff in there,” Grant said, then started undressing. He put the shirt in and chuckled. “They expect you to be at least in your underwear.”\n\nThomas shook himself and had his jacket and shirt in when the kangaroo dropped his pants and boxers without even looking at who might be checking him out. The underwear had the same pattern as the shirt and he wondered if they’d come as a set before being distracted by the moderately sized cock and balls under them.\n\n“I’m not a quad,” Grant said with a chuckle.\n\nEars burning, Thomas hurried to get out of his clothes. Grant hadn’t even had to look in his direction to know what the rat had been thinking. That made twice in a few minutes and with the same guy, Thomas had made an assumption. And again, he’d known better. Sure, he’d never seen a naked kangaroo before, but he’d taken high school biology, and the difference between people and quads had come up, which had included kangaroos.\n\nGrant caught his hand as Thomas grabbed the armband.\n\nRight. Taking that off would make him visible to his frat brother and he didn’t think all the guys in the bathhouse would be enough of a distraction. Except Limbani, he would definitely be distracted by doing all the guys in here. But he’d somehow still manage to keep up the chase in the process. Thomas didn’t know anyone able to multitask with sex the way monkey could.\n\nThomas closed the door and lowered his hand holding the towel until his crotch was covered. “So…” he trailed off, ears burning, as he noticed passing guys looking him over. A bear who had to be his grandfather’s age smiled at him. He looked down. “Does this mean we’re going to…”\n\n“No,” Grant said. “I’ll be nearby, but you’re on your own. You need to get used to doing this by yourself, since there’s no telling when you’ll be able to go home to your usual bedfellows. Start with a shower, then wander around until someone strikes your fancy. That’s the basic of just about every bathhouse out there.”\n\nThomas swallowed, ears still burning. “I don’t know if I can… perform while this nervous.”\n\nThe kangaroo snorted. “Thomas, if you aren’t hard by the time you’re out of the shower, you’ll have proved you’re not Society.” He grinned. “But even if you aren’t. Trust me when I tell you that in a place like this, you can find guys that’ll put even your frat mates to shame; in equipment and experience.”\n\nThomas swallowed as he envisioned someone bigger than Chima, or more masterful than Henry.\n\nThe kangaroo leaned in and whispered. “Are you hard?”\n\nThomas reflexively looked down, not that he had to, and nodded.\n\n“I rest my case.” Grant chuckled. “Now, go shower and remember that this is about having a good time first. The rest is just a… happy consequence of a happy ending.”\n\nOh sure, Thomas thought as the kangaroo pushed him toward the showers, it was have a happing ending, or just an ending to his life. No pressure. He was quite aware of the other guys in various states of undress as he approached the stalls. Maybe he could stay in there and just jack off? How many times would it take before he could get out and not be rock hard again at the sight of the next naked man? Fuck. He’d known his sex drive had cranked up to porn levels since joining the frat, but maybe Grant was right. It had to be magic for him to be unable to even contemplate getting soft at the moment.\n\nHe kept a mental lock on his nervousness as he felt and imagined eyes on him. He’d asked for him to add something like what he’d done to the pickup to the armband, but the kangaroo had gone on to explain about the contradictions in the flow of the fabric and the required rigidity needed to hold someone back. There had been more, but that was the extent of what the rat had retained.\n\nSo Grant had finished with telling Thomas he would have to watch himself so he didn’t accidentally teleport, utterly missing the contradiction inherent in trying to prevent something that, by definition, couldn’t be planned for.\n\nSo Thomas did all he could to remain aware of what happened around him, the guys happening and the grandfatherly bear approaching just as Thomas reached an unoccupied stall.\n\n“Hello, young man.” He had a deep, warm voice. “I couldn’t help noticing you’re nervous. Is this your first time?”\n\n“I’ve had sex before,” Thomas blurted out and barely kept from groaning.\n\nThe bear smiled. “That’s good. A place like this isn’t where you want to learn, and today I’m not in a teaching mood.” The bear ran a hand along Thomas’s shoulder, then past it to pull the curtain aside. “What I can do, is help you relax.”\n\n“Aren’t I young?” Thomas looked down, embarrassed at the attention from the older man, and comforted by his smell. Next to the tent in his towel, the bear’s cock stood at attention. From this angle, it looked average in length, but on the thicker side.\n\nThe man raised Thomas’s head with a finger under his muzzle. “We’re all men here. You tell me no, and I’ll sadly let you be.”\n\n“It’s…” Thomas backed into the stall, swallowing his surprise. He’d never even considered such a situation, but there was the man, old enough to be his grandfather, offering. “Are we allowed to do that here?” he asked as the bear followed him in, closing the curtain.\n\n“It isn’t forbidden, simply considered in bad taste to do it in the open. Too many movies have taught young men that anything goes in a place like this.”\n\nThomas opened his mouth, his face heating up, to explain that he hadn’t meant it that way, but the kiss happened first. Thomas closed his eyes as the tongue pushes his lips apart. He moaned as it entered his muzzle. A callused hand closing on his hard cock made him realize he’d dropped his towel, but he didn’t care.\n\nThe bear smiled, then broke the kiss. “Eager, I like that. What would you like to do?”\n\nEverything, he mentally screamed, unable to make his mouth work.\n\nThe man chuckled. “Can you say artichoke?”\n\nThe strangeness of the question derailed his thoughts hard enough he expected to hear the squealing of brakes, followed but the sound of metal slamming into metal. The bear was looking at him expectantly.\n\n“Artichoke?” Thomas said, the uncertainly making it a question.\n\n“Good. That’s your safe word. You seem to be at a loss as to what you want, so I’ll do things to you. I don’t plan on hurting you, but if you need me to stop at any point, just just say that word.\n\nThomas nodded, relieved and immediately tensed as the man reached for the armband. “Artichoke. It stays on, okay?” he added at the tilted ear.\n\n“Is it a mark of ownership?” the bear asked, sounding concerned. “I saw that the man you came in with insisted you keep it on.”\n\nThomas shook his head. “It’s complicated…. Do you believe in—” a finger on his lips silenced him.\n\n“You used the safe word and explained what you didn’t want me to do,” the bear said calmly and smiled. “That’s what it’s for. Oddities are what makes life interesting. Shall I continue?”\n\nThomas nodded and was pressed against the stall’s wall, the older man running his hands along the rat’s sides, stomach, chest, neck. Thomas responded by touching the bear, his hand impatiently wrapping around the balls and cock, biting his lower lip as the man played with his nipples.\n\n“Fuck me.”\n\n“Are you sure?” the bear asked.\n\nThomas nodded. \n\nThe bear took a condom and a packet of lube from a plastic bowl stuck to the wall, by the stall’s entrance. Thomas started to protest that he’d had his immunity shots, but stopped. If the man had taken it, it made him more comfortable to use one and Thomas wasn’t going to push him out of his comfort zone. The man handed him the condom, and Thomas dropped ot his knees. He licked the balls, then swallowed the cock to its hilt.\n\n“Oh, dear God,” the bear said. “I don’t object, but if you want me to fuck you, you’re going to have to stop.” Thomas looked up, grinning, as he took the condom out of the package. “That’s a talented mouth you have.”\n\nOnce the cock was wrapped, Thomas stood. He took the packet of lube and slicked it and then his hole, before turning and raising his tail.\n\n“Do you need me to loosen you?”\n\nThomas shook his head. He couldn’t remember the last time one of his frat brothers had had to bother with preparing him before they fucked him. The bear pressed against him and Thomas found himself against the wall again, but from the front this time. He felt the finger searching and finding his hole, then something pressed and stretched him\n\nA spike of sensation, that was never the pain he imagined even his first time should have caused, back when Limbani fucking him on that stone block, and the head was inside. \n\nThe bear hissed in pleasure. “You’re surprisingly tight, for not being in discomfort.”\n\nThomas pressed back, suddenly needing the bear to fuck him, to cum inside him. He was hungry as if he hadn’t eaten in days.\n\nThe bear initially thrust slowly, then picked up speed. Thomas tightened his ass and with a curse, the man tensed. The cock spasmed, and… something was off. Thomas didn’t know what, but something was missing. The bear panted in his ear for a second, then pulled out.\n\nBefore Thomas thought about it, he dropped to his knees, pulled the condom off and swallowed the cock again. Flavors exploded in his mouth, salty, tangy, wonderful. What had the man eaten for his cum to have such flavors? Not satisfied with the little he tasted, he was sucking him off, trying to coax a second load out.\n\n“You need to stop,” the bear said with some urgency, then pulled Thomas to his feet. “I’m afraid that at my age, I need a rest, and I get too sensitive.”\n\n“You taste amazing.”\n\nThe bear smiled. “I’m glad you enjoyed it. Do you need help with your shower?”\n\n“My what?” Thomas looked around and realized he was in a shower stall.\n\n“It warms my heart to know I have such an effect on a young man. If you won’t need my help, I’m going to go sit down.”\n\n“Can I fuck you?” Thomas asked on impulse.\n\nThe bear tilted an ear. “Do you top? With how quickly you offered your ass, I thought you were a bottom.”\n\n“Sometimes I just need to be fucked.” Thomas smiled wistfully. “The first guy I topped has spent the entire semester riding my ass like a workhorse.” The smile dripped as he remembered that Limbani was hunting him this very moment.\n\n“That expression is my sign to leave,” the bear said. “But how about this? I’m going to head tot the bar, and while I can’t promise I’ll be there when you get out, if I am we can find a bench and you can fuck me on it.”\n\nThomas smiled hungrily. “Okay.”\n\nThomas showered as quickly as he could, then settled for damp fur in his hurry to head to the bar.\n\nThe bar turned out to be better lit. A room with a counter on which naked men sat enjoying drinks, along with a few unoccupied tables and booths where the men might be doing more than drinking. The grandfatherly bear wasn’t among the men in the bar.\n\n“What can I mix you?” the antelope on the other side of counter asked Thomas once he stepped up to it. “Before you ask, nothing’s alcoholic, but I can make a virgin version of anything you can think of.” He leaned forward as he looked Thomas up and down. “And I’m not on the menu until I get off in three hours.”\n\nThe dalmatian on the stool next to Thomas snorted.\n\n“Did you see a bear?” Thomas asked. “Old enough to be my grandfather. Brown fur with gray in it.”\n\n“Bruce?” the antelope replied. “Yeah, he was here a few minutes ago. Stopped long enough to get the attention of a guy your age. They’ll be in a room somewhere.”\n\n“Don’t waste your time on him,” the dalmatian said. He was in his late twenties. “He never fucks the same guy twice.”\n\n“Oh,” Thomas said, disappointed, and immediately realized how misplaced the reaction was. This was a place where he could find anyone he wanted to fuck. What did it matter if it wasn’t one specific guy? The antelope had looked him over, and now so was the dalmatian. “Want to get fucked?”\n\n“As a matter of fact, I would.” The man escorted Thomas through a hall, then into a room with half a dozen low beds, only one of which was occupied. A lion slowly riding a tiger.\n\nThomas pushed the dalmatian onto his back on one, raised his legs over his shoulder and lined up his cock.\n\n“Whoa there, hold your horses.” The dalmatian handed Thomas a packet. “There’s some prep needed.” Thomas opened his mouth to protest it wasn’t needed, but noticed it was lube. Ears burning, he used it to slick himself and the man’s hole.\n\n“Do you need me to loosen you up?” Thomas asked, remembering the bear asking him.\n\n“I’m good with just lube,” the dalmatian replied with a smirk. “You aren’t my first guy today.”\n\nThomas realigned his cock and slowly pushed in.\n\n“Oh, yeah.” The last word stretched into a sigh. “No need to be too gentle. I can take some abuse.”\n\nThomas nodded, barely hearing the comment. This felt right and amazing. Flesh should be against flesh; heat on heat. He didn’t know how he wasn’t cumming right then and there. He bottomed and pulled back, pushing in again before his cock was fully out. He grabbed the guy’s cock and stroked it, causing the ass to spasm around his cock. \n\nHad it always felt this good? How was he still not cumming?\n\nHe fucked harder; the pleasure increasing. He moaned as the man under him said things, tensed and, just as Thomas finally came, the ass tightened around his cock. \n\nHe held himself there as his cock pulsed and whole body vibrated. That was… it was… fuck, was there a word? His hand was covered in the dalamtian’s cum, and he licked it. Fuck, did all the guys here eat the same thing for their cum to take this good?\n\n“I am never going to get enough of this,” the man said dreamily.\n\n“Really?” Thomas asked, mildly surprised someone outside the frat enjoyed it as much as they did.\n\n“Oh yeah. Cock up my ass, filled with cum.” He sighed. “There’s no better way to fill an afternoon.”\n\nThomas grinned. “Hold on then,” and he was thrusting again.\n\n“You’re still hard?” the dalmatian asked in surprise, then his head fell back and he moaned.\n\nThomas couldn’t believe it felt just as amazing as the previous time, all the way to the orgasm, even if he was the only one reach it. The dalmatian’s cock was still soft, but the smile on his face said he’d still enjoyed the ride. Once he was able to breathe again, Thomas pulled out.\n\n“Man, I miss being young,” the man said.\n\nThomas raised an eyebrow. “You could do this when you were my age?”\n\n“I could never do that,” the man said with a chuckle. “I’ve never been one for topping, but my back could take a dozen guys before it needed a rest. Now I’m going to have to stand and walk around for a bit before I lay back on it again.”\n\n“If you want another go at it, I’m going to be here all night.”\n\nThe dalmatian shrugged. “Sure, you never know.” Then he was walking out of the room.\n\nThere was a dry sauna at the end of the hall that reminded Thomas of Madoc and his room of worship… and that image took on an entirely new meaning now that Grant had told him of gods and how sex was like worshiping for the guy in the frat. Thomas entered and was sitting on a cock the moment the offer was accepted, then he had one in his muzzle. The man under him came and Thomas felt like his senses lit up. That was what had been missing with the bear. The man he was sucking off came, then Thomas had him bend on the bench, fucking him while someone pushed into the rat and fucked him.\n\nThomas found a communal shower after that, which put the one in the movie he and Paul watched to shame with the level of debauchery taking place. He eagerly joined in and fucked, was fucked and sucked off anyone and everyone in his vicinity. He was no cleaner leaving than he’d been entering it, just wetter, which felt appropriate since he then found the wet sauna.\n\nThere was the gym room after that, where on top of impressing the guys there with how much he could fuck them. He did the same with how much he could press. And how much he could be fucked while pressing weights.\n\nThomas slept.\n\nWell, he had to have slept.\n\nAnd the sex continued during what had to have been sleep. It took on the surreality of dreams, with extra lights that sounded virile and smells that prickled his skin and made his fur stand on end. And silent words that carried emotions.\n\nOr maybe he was high.\n\nNo, it had to have been sleep.\n\nBut the one thing Thomas was certain of was that the sex did not stop.",
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