That asshole locked me in with all these tigers. They stand. This time, I catch that giggle and turn it into a cough. I’m locked in a room of shirtless, buff, tigers. They advance on me and I try to will myself through the door. Why are there so many of them? I jump at the shrill whistle that stops them moving. “Come on, people! Don’t crowd him. Can’t you see you’re scaring him?” They were. I was borderline freaking out. But why? It’s my dream. Why does it keep throwing stuff at me that can wake me when I don’t want that? The tigers step back until there’s only one left half a dozen feet before me. Broad shoulders, defined pecks and biceps. The white belly fur’s longer than mine, but there have to be hard abs under it. Man, he’s hot. The face is… well, a tiger’s face with amber vibrant amber eyes, the orange fur’s lighter than mine. The white around his eyes stretched down to his muzzle. I haven’t enough tiger’s faces to tell if it’s a good face, but it’s definitely a man’s face. The bulge in his pants makes that obvious. He gets just within arm’s reach and his smile looks nervous. “Hi.” His voice is deep, it shakes slightly. I notice how sharp his teeth are and run my tongue over mine. Yep, just as sharp. How did this place turn hot as a desert all of a sudden? I have to swallow before I can return a hesitating, “Hello.” “I’m Lucas.” I have no idea if the dream needs me to do something special with that, so I offer him my hand. “I’m Ke—Kristoff” Dream me, remember that. This is dream me. He takes my hand. I swear it trembles as he tightens it. Then I’m against him, his other arm around my back and holding me tight. He’s taller than I am, so that my nose—muzzle?—lands in the crook of his neck and I take a deep breath in reaction to what happened and…. He smells good. Manly, spicy, earth, and other things I can’t place. But it’s fucking good. I relax against him, and when his other arm tightens against my back, I hug him, too. A guy, no. A hot tiger guy, that bulge pressing against my crotch doesn’t leave any doubt, is holding me. The hug isn’t crushing, but it is strong. What’s pressing against my cock feels as big as the bulge implied and I have this vision of him putting his hands on my ass, lifting me, his hard cock slipping under my balls, between my cheeks and into my— Oh, thank God, he lets go and steps back without noticing my painfully hard cock. I don’t look down, in part because I don’t want to draw attention to it, but because his eyes are wet. “I’m so glad you’re finally here.” Okay, so there’s that to take my mind off him fucking me senselessly. The dream’s sticking with me having arrived. “I’m…glad to be here too.” This has to be the most linear dream I’ve ever had. I fucking better remember it when—let’s not go there yet. He wipes his eyes. “This has to be strange. I know it’s different from—” “No, no.” Will you stop bringing that up? I smile. “It’s fine, I like it.” He beams. “I’m glad.” “Uncle said my family’s here.” I look around him at the wall of tigers. “We are. I…” he swallows and I pay attention to him again. “I’m your father.” “Oh.” My mind’s blank for a second. Then it brings up the vision of his cock grinding between my cheeks. I had just imagined my father fucking me. Got rock hard at the idea. That’s embarrassing. “Wait.” The rest of the implication slams into me and propels me against him. “You’re my dad.” I hug the life out of him and my current hardon can go fuck itself. I breathe in his smell. My dad. My dad! Smells so good. When his arms are around me again, I feel safe. But I’m glad he doesn’t step into the hug and feel my erection. I might have told it to go fuck itself, but it’s not listening and remaining at attention. Someone clears his throat and I open my eyes. Uncle’s standing to the side. I’ve been too busy to notice him getting in. “You’re an asshole.” The asshole has the gall to give me an ‘who me?’ look. “He’s taking this better than you predicted,” my father says. “He does. Although it seems to be the shock of not waking in—” “Who’s everyone else?” I hurry to cut him off. I’ve told you to stop that! “Of course.” My dad moves behind me and places both hands on my shoulders. “Everyone. I’d like you to meet Kristoff Orr. My son.” There is so much pride in those two words I feel my eyes sting. The wave of hello and, hi and, cool and… it melts into a sound that says one thing. Welcome. Dad points. “That’s Kameron. He’s your brother.” I almost miss the next part as the idea I have a brother sinks in, but he’s pointing to a pair of tiger still on the couch. One sitting on the other’s lap and chuckling at something. “The one too busy with Lewis to greet you properly is Kurtis, another of your brothers. Lewis is my brother.” “Wait.” I look over all of them and notice that among the wall of men, there’s a woman. The breasts make that obvious, but that isn’t the important bit. “Is everyone here related to us?” “Yes.” I… “Just how many people are there in our family?” “Uncle?” Dad asks. “Do you want me to include those not currently on Earth?” There are people in space? “Isn’t that just Uncle Theo?” “Yes,” Uncle replies. “Do I include Eric’s illegitimate sons?” Someone in the wall replies with a loud, “Yes!” “Let’s wait on that,” Dad says. “Sorry Grampa, but we can bring them up later. Once my son’s gotten used to things.” His hands tighten on my shoulders as he says that, and I smile. “I’m fine, Dad. I really am.” Dad presses his muzzle against the side of my head and I can’t believe how hot that is. “It’s okay to take your time. We aren’t in any hurry.” And there’s the cold shower. Which is probably for the best with all my relatives looking at me like that. Now is probably not the time to pop the boner to shame all other boners. Especially not when it’s triggered by my dad. Thing is. They might not feel any urgency, being part of the dream and all, but I do. This is going to end at some point and want to experience everything this dream world has to offer first. Of course, I can’t exactly tell him that, so I go for the next best thing. “I just want to get to know everyone.” It takes exactly zero work on my part of sound eager at the idea. And Dad starts. And as eager as I am at meeting and getting to know them, there is no way I can take in all the hugs and the names and the how pleased they were to meet me and couldn’t wait to get to know me better. The woman did stand out, being the only one. Her name’s Violet. She hugs me just as tightly as everyone else. I’ve never had exposed breasts press against my bare chest before, not counting the fur on both of us. I have no idea how they rate on the breast scale, since I’ve also never looked at exposed breasts before, but they looked normal enough. The guys have a few things in common. They are buff, and their package is…really there. It’s not that there are arrows pointing to their crotch, but unless they’re all wearing cups under there. My family is…well equipped. They also aren’t all buff in the same way. Kirk’s lean, like a swimmer, while Tucker is Built, capital ‘B’. Everyone else falls somewhere between them, with Dad, along with a lot of them registers as ‘average’ in this crowd. I guess I fall somewhere in the average group, too. As much as I tried, those are about the only names I managed to remember. “Alright!” Dad yells once the crowd is mostly talking among themselves. “My son is probably hungry, so how about we move on to the next room?” “I’m okay, Dad,” I protest, and I’m immediately contradicted by the rumbling of my stomach. I guess the dream needs me to be hungry now. “I guess I am hungry,” I sheepishly admit. Although, now that I think about it, did it really have to include the memory of growing hungry, but not noticing it from all the guys distracting me? “Follow us, everyone.” Dad leads me through a door on the right wall and into a large room with a long table in the center covered with suspiciously familiar foods, and more tables and chairs spaced through the rest of it. “We have steak in garlic sauce, in blue cheese sauce. Lobster. Beef Tempura Curry. Raman soup. Meatloaf. German Fest. For desert a variety of pies, including your favorite, blueberry.” Okay, dream, what’s going on here? You have people in space and that’s what you come up for food? I can’t really ask my dad about it that way, so I go for, “How is it you guys eat basically the same foods as me?” “We prepared this for you. We figured we’d ease you in with foods you know. Once you’re used to the rest, we’ll introduce you to our favorites.” Someone snickers, but I’m not paying attention. My eyes are on that dish, and the idea of forcing myself to eat it? “Why do you guys have meatloaf if this to ease me into things?” “Isn’t it a regular dish for you?” “Used to be.” My stomach turns as I remember the screams over the thing. Fuck! I am not thinking about that now. “You know what? It’s fine. I’m hungry.” I ignore the looks I get as I head for the table. “I am not eating alone!” I pile food on a plate, ignoring that one, then head for a table. The others hurry to get food. Tucker drops in the seat on my left, and someone calls him a fucker. I think it’s Lewis, and he sits on Tucker’s left. Dad sits on my right. And two others I have no idea the names of join us. I grin, looking around. Everyone’s talking, some are laughing. A few wave when they see me looking, and I wave back. Things seem a little rough a table over, with two crowding a third between them, but while Dad glares in their direction, they look to be having fun. “This,” I say, unable to stop from smiling, “is awesome.” Dad looks at me, smiles, and we dig in. The food is amazing. Not only were they all foods I love, except for the meatloaf, but it was like they found the original recipes, gotten the best person from my childhood to make it, and had them cook it exactly as it should have been. When I lean back in the seat, I’m surprised the belt doesn’t press into my stomach. I’m so full. “This was good.” Dad scoots closer and pulls me the rest of the way with an arm around my shoulder before kissing the top of my head. “I’m glad you enjoyed the food.” My ears fold back and I look away so he won’t see me blush. That it’s a stupid thought, considering my face is covered with fur, evaporates when I see the sky through the window. “Oh, can we go on the roof?” Wait a minute. I search the sky for a sign, but all that’s there is it and some clouds, it’s a really blue sky. “What time is it?” Tucker chuckles. “Ten twenty-three.” I stare at the window again. “In the morning,” he adds. Now I stare at the empty plates. “This was dinner foods. Why are we having that at ten thirty in the morning?” “We knew you’d be hungry.” “And you guys don’t have break foods anymore?” This is getting to be really weird. “Oh, we have plenty of tasty things in the morning,” the tiger opposite me says with a smirk. Vincent, I think his name is. “You don’t eat breakfast anymore,” Dad says. I’m about to tell him it isn’t because I don’t want to. I just don’t have the time, but that’s about the waking world and I don’t want to think about that. Even if this dream seems to be determined to always bring that up. I told you, I’m not waking up. “Makes sense. So, the roof?” “I think you and I should talk first,” Dad says. “There are things you need to know.” “Can’t we do that later?” I give him my best puppy eye expression—kitty eye? “Please? I just want to look around.” He fights the smile, I can tell. The corner of his lips twitch even with his expression serious. His ears also twitch, his eyes shimmer, and his tail taps a chair leg. Expressions are whole body things with us tigers, it seems. He kisses the top of my head again. “Alright. Let’s go to the roof so you can see your world. Then we can have that talk.” We stand, and his arm goes back around my shoulder as we head through a door and into a hallway. We walk for a bit before an oddity occurs to me. “Where is everyone?” We can’t be the only ones here, can we? Even in my dreams the worlds is never deserted. “They’re working,” Tucker says, behind us. “This floor’s set aside for meetings and gatherings. Those don’t happen as often as you’d think, so it was simple to make sure it was just us.” “We didn’t want to overwhelm you with people.” I snort at the memory of the wall of tigers. “Sorry. Thanks.” When the doors part, the inside of the elevator is…well, and elevator. Four walls, the door, no panel thought. I guess those aren’t needed in dream elevators. With us are four other tigers and my ears fold right back as they have to introduce themselves again. Kade, Killiam, Kyrell, three of my brothers, and Eric, who, on top of having really bright gold fur with purple stripes, turns out to be my great-great-grandfather, even though he doesn’t look that much older than Dad. “How old are you?” I ask him. “A hundred and seventy-eight.” “No way!” my ears fold back so fast I think I heard them slam against my head. “Sorry.” He nods. “You know, Lucas. He’s dealing with this better than Theo ever did.” It takes me a second to place where the name had been mentioned before. “He’s the one who couldn’t be here, right? He’s in space?” “He’s dealing with something in the colonies,” Tucker says. “Which someone else should be handling,” Eric says. “At a hundred and thirty-two, he should have been retired for fifty years and be home with his family. I don’t understand why he keeps putting himself in the middle of those problems.” “Settle down, old man,” Tucker replies and earns a somewhat flat look. “He was elected to the position. You know they do things differently out there. It isn’t like he arranged for things to go sideways and he wouldn’t be able to come. I happen to know he was really looking forward to visiting me.” “He doesn’t need to run for those elections,” Eric said. The exchange confuses me somewhat. Tucker acted like Eric was accusing Theo, but there was no anger in anything Eric said. He didn’t even sound perturbed. “I’m sorry, but elections? Colonies? Should I know about that stuff?” Dad chuckles. Eric doesn’t even shrug. “Theo ended up in charge of the colonies’ intelligence division about sixty years ago,” Tucker says. “Just as he was supposed to retire,” Eric interjects. “Yeah, well, he took over from the previous one. It’s mostly a quiet job, and he comes to visit when he can, but when he has something to deal with, it takes precedence. I’d help, but with the colonies where they are. By the time I’d get there, it would be over.” The doors open and I look out at a flat floor without walls and a blue sky as far as I can see. I never even felt the elevator move. I step out and to the side, out of the elevator box’s shadow. My shadow stretches before me, nearly to the edge of the roof. There’s barely any wisp of clouds in the sky. I follow my shadow. Well before I reach the edge, I see the horizon in the distance, where water meets the sky. I stop at the edge. There’s water everywhere. Looking down, all I see is the side of the building. I lean forward, trying to see the ground. I lean some more because it’s taking a lot more than I expected. A hand is on my arm and pulls me back. “Careful there,” Tucker says. “How about we don’t put the safety net to the test? Your dad would be pissed if today was the day it failed.” I look over the edge, and Tucker mimics me. “There’s water down there, so I’m not worried.” “You realize from that this height, it would be like hitting a landing pad, right?” “No, it wouldn’t.” Before I can continue and explain that dreams don’t work that way, he pulls me away and leads me to the others. “How about we rejoin everyone?” “Okay.” “What’s your appeal in jumping? Plunging in the water or the fall itself?” “The fall,” I answer without hesitation. “I want to see if I can get myself to fly before reaching the water.” “Flying, huh?” he says with a mischievous smile. “Tuck,” someone warns. “Please tell me you aren’t thinking of taking our newest family member on one of your adrenaline kick.” “Relax, Gramps. We were just admiring the view.” The way Tucker is grinning, even I know there’s more to that, but it’s something else I want to know about. “How are you his grandfather? Didn’t someone say Francis is Eric’s father? And Eric’s your dad.” Wow, I can even recall the conversation all of a sudden. “Yeah, Francis’ my granddad, but all the old folk are just Gramps to me. I wouldn’t want any of them to forget just how old they all are.” “How is it your dad hadn’t wrung you neck yet?” Flint asks, smiling innocently. Wait, how do I know it’s that kind of smile? “He figures one of my stunt’s going to kill me and save him the trouble.” “How can your dad want you dead?” I thought they all loved each other. If that isn’t true, then this might not be— Flint bursts out laughing. “Eric would die for his boys, even this one. It’s just that Tuck’s been a handful from the moment he was taken out of the box.” “Box?” I feel better that they do love each other, but that is one confusing statement. “Don’t worry about that one,” Tucker says with a chuckle. “If it ever gets to the point you need to use them, you’ll know what they’re about. But right now, I have a question for you. How serious are you about wanting to fly?” “Tucker,” Flint warns. I grin. “Very.” He slaps my back, and I stumble. Fuck, he’s stronger than he looks. “I am so glad about that.” He raises his voice. “Everyone! We’re going to Vegas!”