Date: Sun, 15 Aug 2004 23:02:18 -0700 (PDT)
From: CloseTheCellarDoor <closethecellardoor@yahoo.com>
Subject: Evil is a Man:    Dog Eat Dog No More  ---- Chapter 11

AUTHOR'S NOTE

This is less a new chapter than it is a supplement to chapter 10.  I
decided to break chronology here in order to split up the two chapters
thematically.  I hope I won't lose anyone with the time shifts.

Chapter 12 will be lengthy and very important.


Send comments or suggestions to "closethecellardoor@yahoo.com."


CHAPTER ELEVEN

All I could think about was getting my freedom from this hellish bed.  I
struggled again against the ropes, but they were consistently unyielding.
My mind wandered back through the last few weeks, combing through
everything Will had taught me.  There had to be something there, some
technique or piece of advice that would get me out of these bonds.

*****

The morning after Will became alpha, I was watching Star Wars on TV when
Will walked into the room and turned off the set.

"Hey, I was watching that," I said.

"You just planning to sit around watching the tube all day?"

I shrugged.  "I don't have anything better to do."

"Now you do.  Come with me."

I was sure he was going to make me clean something or run an errand.  "Give
me a break, Will.  I'm still in recovery," I said, referring to my attack
in London.

"Boo-fucking-hoo, you look fine to me.  Get off your lazy ass and come on!"

He led me down into the gym.  "What's this about?" I asked as he stepped
over to the punching bag.

"A while back, I got the idea that us wolves should teach you how to fight.
To try and teach you how to defend yourself.  I told Case I'd be willing to
show you what I knew.  He thought about it some, and told me it would be
too dangerous for us to teach you how to protect yourself.  He said, to
protect you, we needed to keep watch over you.  I think that's complete
bullshit.  Backwards logic, if you ask me."

"I agree," I said.  "I need to learn to rely on myself."

He nodded, and a sly smile spread across his face.  "Well, guess who isn't
alpha any more?  I don't want to change much but this is something I gotta
do.  You in?"

I was thrilled.  If Will could teach me how to defend myself then I was
willing to put any amount of effort into learning.  It was exactly what I
knew I needed most.

"Where do we start?" I asked.

He held onto the punching bag.  "I want to see how much strength you got.
Why don't you lay a few hits right here."

I walked over to the bag, uncertain.  I had never hit one before.  "Don't I
need boxing gloves for this?" I asked.

"You think you're gonna have a goddamn pair of boxing gloves when some
vampire comes your way?"

"Good point," I said, making my hands into clenched fists.

"Just stop before you feel your fingers break," he said.

I gave him a sarcastic nod, and tossed my punch into the bag.

"Come on, you can hit harder than that," Will complained.

"That was just my warm-up," I said, hitting again, this time harder.

"Again," he said.  "Again.  Again."  I kept punching.  "Now really hit it,
like it's your fucking enemy."

"The bag is my enemy?" I asked.

He nodded.  "It's not the bag anymore.  It's Russ, and he just ordered you
to shove his breakfast into his mouth.  Give him what he deserves."

I tried to visualize Russ in front of me, but all I saw was the big red
bag.  I hit at it anyway.

"That's all Russ deserves?  A few friendly jabs?"

I stopped.  "Hey, this aggression visualization won't work on me, I'm too
smart for it."

"Too fucking smart, huh?  Shuttup and just hit the motherfucker."

As I lay into the bag with as much fury as I could muster, Cougar came into
the gym with a towel over his shoulder, obviously ready to work out.
"What's he doing?" asked Cougar to Will, nodding in my direction.

"He's learning how to fight," Will said with pride in his voice.

Cougar laughed sarcastically.  "Oh yeah, I can see that.  That kid's
fucking fierce."

"He's just starting."

Cougar stepped towards me.  "You show that bag who's boss, Ricky.  He'll
rue the day he picked a fight with you."

I stopped hitting.  I didn't want to be the target of Cougar's sarcasm.

"Why are you stopping?" asked Will.

I rubbed my forehead.  "Cause I look stupid."

"Damn right," said Cougar.  Will locked eyes with Cougar.  "What?"

"Get the hell out of here," said Will.

"I was gonna lift weights."

"I don't care, get out, and from now on, if me and Rick are down here
training, I don't want any of you fuckers coming down here."

After Rick had stormed off, Will told me continue.  "See, first of all,
you're hitting all wrong," he said after he observed my next jab.  "Don't
you know how to throw a punch?"

"No," I said.  "I've never had to before."

"Well, don't just hit it with your arm.  Use your shoulder, tilt your whole
upper body.  Like this."  He shot a couple of hard hits into the bag.  I
tried my best to imitate what he had done.  "Good, that's better," he said.

I kept hitting at the bag, breaking a sweat.  I knew my hitting had
improved, but he looked discouraged.  "What is it?" I asked.  "Aren't I
doing good now?"

"Yeah, you're throwing good punches for a man.  Problem is, if your just a
man, there's no fucking way a punch is gonna help you against a vampire.
If a man wants to kill a vampire, he'd better be fucking strong and
well-armed."

I nodded.  "Well that's what I am, a man."

"No, you've got the gift.  You should be stronger than this.  Maybe if you
started lifting weights?"

I shook my head.  "I have been lifting weights ever since Russ got me into
it.  I'm still not particularly strong."

He looked at me up and down.  "There's power inside you.  We just have to
find a way to let it out.  Forget the punching bag."  He walked over to the
large floor mat.  "Let's fight, you and me, right here."

"You want me to fight you?  You'd kill me!"

He laughed.  "I'll go easy on you.  Look, I'll keep my hands behind my
back."  He put his hands behind him, as if his wrists were held together by
invisible bonds.

I walked onto the mat and raised my fists into the air.

"Go ahead and hit me," he said.

I hesitated, trying to think my first attack through.

"Hit me!"

I darted forward, trying to land a blow on his left shoulder, but before I
could make contact, he ducked out of the way and swiped my feet out from
under me with his leg.  Before I knew it I was on my back, looking up at
him.

"Ow," I said, just lying there.

"You have five seconds to get to your feet before I start kicking.  Five,
four, three..."

I jumped back onto my feet.  "There's no point in this," I said.

"Keep trying," he said.

I swung at him again, and again ended up on my back.  "That's it," I said
after I had gotten up.  "This is unfair and stupid.  I quit."

He stood up tall and began to yell.  "You will not leave this gym until you
land a solid blow."  It was the alpha in him talking.  I knew there would
be no bargaining.

I tried hitting him again, and again landed on my back.  Once more and he
swiped me again.  He was being unfair; he was trying to torment me and
nothing more; he was just showing off.  "Stop doing that!" I yelled.

Then, after I had lost count of how many times I had fallen to the ground,
my anger and my frustration reached its pinnacle, and somehow created in me
an odd sort of adrenaline-laced focus.  I swung again, missing like usual,
and then jumped over Will's swinging leg.  When I landed on my feet, I
threw a punch with the force of all my anger towards Will's head before he
could get up again.

The rage on both our faces subsided as Will stood up.  I had hit his nose,
and the tiniest drop of blood dripped out of his right nostril.  He wiped
it away, and looked at the red on his hand, a smile coming to his face.
"See?  An ordinary man never made me bleed before.  That was a fucking
strong hit."

I was thrilled with myself.  "How'd I do it?"

"It's the aggression," he said.  "I thought that might be what it took.
Aggression to wake up the strength inside you.  Raw testosterone."

I knew he was right.  "How'd you know that?"

"By your behavior.  You've never shown any instance of real aggression as
far as I've seen.  When I kidnapped you, you were scared off your ass, but
you never tried to fight back.  When that flying monkey thing attacked you
in London, you just ran from it, right?"

"Yeah," I said, embarrassed.

"And when Hadrian beat the hell out of you?"

"I just took it.  Wow."  It was true.  In every instance, I had just rolled
over and let myself be victimized.

He put his hand on my shoulder.  "Don't feel bad.  Aggression just isn't in
your nature, you're too nice.  And that's fine if you want to be an
engineer or a mathematician or something like that.  But, for someone like
you, who's supposed to be kicking ass all over the world, nice just doesn't
cut it.  So we've got to change that if we're gonna get you strong.  That
punch just now may have been superhuman, but it was still pretty pathetic
compared to the shit the last gifted guy could pull.  When you fight,
you've got to make yourself angry.  I don't care how you do it."  He nodded
towards the stairs.  "If you want to quit now, that's fine."

"I don't want to quit," I said.

"Good.  This time I'm using my arms."  He raised them up in front of him.

We fought for a couple of hours, and I tried to harness my aggression as
much as I could.  Will made it easy for me; like before he was taking cheap
shots and knocking me over whenever he could manage too.  By the end of our
fight I had somehow gotten substantially stronger.  Will's body would give
way to my hits instead of standing motionless like steel.  And I was faster
too.  I started to be able to see Will's body shift from move to move
instead of just seeing a series of blurs.

Not that I could have ever really held up a fight with Will.  He was going
easy on me from the beginning, and even with this handicap I could only
manage the occasional hit.  But, by the end of the fight, his pride for me
was quite visible as a huge smile spread across his face.

"See?  Only one session and you've already gotten stronger.  Amazing,
really."

I punched the air excitedly in front of me.  "You think I can take down a
vampire now?"

Will laughed and shook his head.  "No fucking way, kid.  You're still way
too weak.  And, even if you get stronger, you need to learn the technique.
That I can teach you."

"Thanks, Will," I said.

"Yeah, sure, whatever kid."

"No, I mean it.  Thanks for actually giving a shit about me."

He smiled.  "Hadrian would kill me if he knew I was doing this.  Case
called him yesterday to tell him that I had claimed alpha.  Of course,
Hadrian already knew me from when I was alpha in Baltimore.  So, Hadrian
gets me on the phone yesterday and chews me out about keeping you weak and
in control.  I guess that's what really motivated me to start training you.
I don't react well to being pushed around."

I patted my stomach as we were leaving the gym.  "I'm hungry after all that
fighting," I said.  "Do you want to go grab something to eat, Will?"

He raised an eyebrow.  "Go out?  You and me together?  Wouldn't you rather
go eat with Matt and Cougar, or Case or someone?"

"No, I've hung out with them plenty.  You and I have never gone anywhere
together."

"Okay, whatever.  Where do you want to eat?"

I shrugged.  "I've haven't yet had a cheesesteak."

He nodded.

We rode to Jim's Steaks on Will's bike.  After waiting through a line that
snaked down the street, we each got a sandwich and sat to ourselves on the
curb up the block.  As I bit into one end of my sandwich, a large bunch of
cheese-covered steak oozed out the other end and fell onto my sneakers.

"Good?" asked Will.

"Yeah," I said after swallowing.  "But this has to be the worst food on
earth for you."

"Who gives a shit?  There's no such thing as a fat werewolf.  And I don't
think you have anything to worry about either."

The conversation stayed impersonal until I was halfway through my sandwich,
and decided it was time to try to get to know him better.  "So, Will," I
said.  "How'd you become such a good fighter?"

He looked away from me.  "That's sort of a personal question, kid."

That seemed ridiculous to me.  "What's personal about it?" I asked.

He turned to face me.  "It just is."

"Okay," I said, trying to think of something else to ask.  "You go to
college, Will?"

"Nope.  Didn't even get through high school.  Why, you think you're better
than me cause you did?"

"No, just asking, jeez," I said.  "I don't care how much education you
have."

"Then why did you ask me?"

"I don't know.  Just to get to know you better."  He stared straight ahead,
taking a large rip out of his sandwich.  "How come you didn't finish high
school?" I asked.

He shook his head.  "What is this, an interrogation?  Wolves are never this
nosey, kid."

I sighed in frustration.  "Hey, I thought we were friends.  Friends get to
know each other, right?"

Will finished his sandwich.  "Well, friend, how bout I ask you some
questions for once?"  It sounded like a threat.

"Fine, I don't mind if you do," I answered.

"Okay."  He looked at me for a moment, his eyes burrowing into my skull.
"What thing in this world are you most afraid of?" he finally asked with a
certain boldness that made it seem like he was questioning whether I'd be
willing to answer.

"Hmm," I said, thinking about it thoughtfully.  "Hadrian kicking my ass
again, or worse."

He looked completely unsatisfied.  "That's it?  You're scared of a person?"

"Not a person.  The strongest wolf in the world, that's who I'm afraid of."

He laughed.  "You can't bitch out with that answer.  You've gotta give me
something more psychological than that.  Something embarrassing."

"You should have specified that in the first place, then," I said.
"Alright, let me think.  Psychologically speaking, I suppose I'm scared of
being alone.  And I don't mean physically.  I mean, I've always had a fear
that I'd never be really close to anyone in my life.  That no friendship of
mine would ever rival the books I always used to read.  I guess that's what
all loners like me fear."

He just stared at me for a moment.  "Woah.  I can't believe you just told
me that.  One thing a wolf learns to do is to never show his weakness to
another wolf."

"Well, I'm not a wolf.  Why, do you think less of me now that you know what
I'm afraid of?"

"No," he said.  "But anyway, it all changed since you got here, right?" he
asked me.  "It seems like you're friends with everyone in the house pretty
much."

"Yeah, I guess so," I said, not wanting to delve into the truth.  "Okay,
you asked me, so it's my turn to ask you."

"What is this, fucking truth or dare?"

I ignored his complaint.  "How did you get to be such a good fighter?"

He sighed.  "Fine, you persistent little bastard.  But this stays between
us."

"That goes without saying."

"Good.  I was a championship wrestler in high school."

"What's so personal about that?"

He looked at me crossly.  "I wasn't done.  I wrestled in high school, and
boxed in prison."

"Oh, I didn't know," I said.

"How could you have known?  You're the first person I've told that to in
Philly.  Hell, you're the only one alive that knows now.  I know what's
coming next.  What did you do and how long were you in for, right?"

That is what I was going to ask.  "If you don't want to tell me, that's
cool."

"No, you've gotten me in a sharing kind of mood.  I killed someone.  Beat
him to death with a large stick.  I was only seventeen then.  When I was
your age, I was behind bars, just trying to stay alive.  I paroled after
eleven years."

I was completely silent.

"Don't you want to know who I killed?"

"Okay."

"I killed a nineteen year-old college kid that didn't know how to mind his
own goddamn business."  He gave me a psychotic look that scared the crap
out of me.  Then he laughed.  "I'm just fucking with you.  I killed
neighborhood mugger.  My dad was stabbed and killed in a mugging gone
wrong.  Knowing him, he probably put up a fight and got knifed for it.  He
raised me single-handedly for most of my childhood in a tough neighborhood.
I didn't have anyone else.  Anyway, the cops never made an arrest, but I
knew there was only one guy who would have done shit like that to someone
who was as respected as my dad.  One day, when I saw him on the street, I
accused him, and he bragged about it.  Just admitted the whole thing to me.
So, I grabbed the only weapon I could find, just a fucking stick, and I
beat him to death right there."

"That's insane," I said.

"What's insane about it?  He killed my father, kid.  You gotta be prepared
to kill anybody who fucks with you or yours like that.  I may have been in
a penitentiary for eleven years, but God knows I was never penitent.  I was
proud of what I did."

"Wow, that's rough," I said.  "How come you only got manslaughter?"

He shrugged.  "I was seventeen, good looking, charismatic.  I convinced the
court that I had only wanted to beat him up, but got carried away."  He
kicked an empty can of soda into the street.  "Besides, I couldn't imagine
my life any other way.  I became a man in prison.  I became who I am now."
He raised his eyebrow.  "Does that frighten you, that I'm an ex-convict?"

"No," I said.  "You had to do what you had to do."

"Damn right."  He stood up.  "Enough talk.  Let's get back."

*****

A couple of days later I was in Will's room before going down to the gym to
get my first instruction in wrestling.  He looked me up and down briefly,
checking to make sure my outfit was appropriate for wrestling.  I had worn
shorts and a T-shirt at his request.

"We really should be wearing singlets, but since we don't have any, that
will do," he said.  "Except the shoes, lose them.  We'll go barefoot."

While I took off my shoes and socks, I looked at his outfit.  He was
wearing a pair of gray shorts that ended a few inches above his knee,
showing his hairy legs underneath.  On his upper body he wore a white
wife-beater, which showed off his huge arms.

"Are you wearing a jock?" he asked me.

"No," I said, thinking it a rather personal question.

"You always wear a jock when you wrestle.  Do you have one?"

I had never owned or worn a jock.  "No," I said.

He turned to his dresser and dug through the top drawer.  "Here, I have an
extra one."  He pulled it out, a plain white thing, and tossed it to me.
"It's a little tight on me so it should fit you."

I stood there, a bit amazed that I was holding Will's jock in my hand.

"Don't freak out about it, it's clean.  You can change in my bathroom."

I went into his bathroom and put the jock on, discarding my boxers.  Even
though I knew it was clean, there was something slightly erotic about
wearing Will's strap.  It did give me good support, but it felt really
strange not to have anything covering my ass.

Once my shorts were back on, we went down to the gym together.  Malcolm was
down there, nonchalantly lifting weights.  This was during the time when I
was sleeping in Malcolm's room and he stuck to me like paste all day.  He
had been a bit ticked when Will told him that I was going to train with him
that morning, but couldn't do anything about it.  Now, I was sure he had
come down to the gym just to watch over me.

"Out," said Will, pointing towards the exit with his thumb.  "We're
training down here."

"This gym is for everyone," complained Malcolm.

"Everyone can use it when we're done, then.  Get the fuck out."

Malcolm left in a sour mood.  Then we were free to start.  Will led me to
the mat.

"Now, I've already taught you some boxing techniques, and those are great
moves.  But wrestling comes in to play if you're in close contact with your
enemy.  When us wolves fight in man form, we're almost always wrestling.
You know the object of a wrestling match, don't you?"

"To pin your opponent."

"Right.  On their back.  Well, technically on their shoulders.  Although,
if your actually fighting someone, pinning them on their front is just as
good.  But for today, let's try and stick to the normal wrestling rules,
just until you get comfortable with it, okay?"

"Sure," I said.

"Let's start with the referee's position.  I want you to get down on all
fours."

As I got into position, I thought about the irony of the situation.  Just a
couple of days ago Matt had made the same request from me in this very
spot.

Will crouched down behind my body, putting one hand on my elbow and the
other on my stomach.  This position seemed entirely sexual to me--he was
pressed up against my rear.  I could smell just a hint of his scent--a sort
of sweaty, but manly, odor.

"In order to get out of this, you could do a basic stand-up escape."  He
showed me how to stand up into him and spin around to face him.

After I had learned this, we went through move after move.  Takedowns, in
which he would tackle me in a standing position and force me to the ground
with his body.  Breakdowns, to force me flat on the ground.  Headlocks,
which resulted in his sweaty armpit hair against my neck.  The cradle, the
arm bar, eventually I stopped trying to remember the names of all the moves
and just concentrated on the techniques.

Needless to say I found every move demonstrated on me to be extremely sexy.
Our bodies touching, our limbs intertwined--what's not to like?

"Okay, I think you've got the basics down," he said.  "Ready to wrestle?"

"I guess so," I said.

We went for it.  He wrapped his arms around my thigh and pushed his
shoulder against my lower abdomen to knock me down.  "There's the
breakdown," he said.  As soon as I realized I was on my back, I flipped
over and got on my hands and knees before he covered me again.  I think he
was just letting me get out of an embarrassingly quick pin.

Next he jumped on my back, pressing his whole weight into me, and pulling
at my forearm until I was flat on my face.  "The breakdown," he said.

Still pressed against my back, I felt his hands reach around my waist,
gripping me hard, and then the spun around, flipping both of us onto out
backs.  "That was a gut wrench," he said.

Then he was on top of my body, his chest on top of mine, holding me to the
ground.  "And that's the pin," he said.  "I win."

*****

After that we practiced several times more until I could put up more of a
fight for him.  He started grabbing and twisting my body into painful
positions instead of outright pinning me so I would have more motivation to
get out of his holds.  It worked; I stopped thinking about his body as an
extremely sexy object that I didn't mind tangled up with mind, and started
thinking about his body as a painful enemy that I needed to repel.

Even though I was putting up more of a fight and getting stronger, I still
wasn't ever winning any matches.  But Will promised me that I would
someday, with a lot more training and practice.

Outside of our training sessions, Will would ask me out to eat
occasionally, pulling me away from whatever else I was doing.  One such
time Will had removed me from Russ's chores, which I was very thankful for
but hesitant to discuss, and we went to get ribs for dinner.

"So, what did you do right after you got out of prison?" I asked after
wiping the BBQ sauce off of my mouth.  "Did you pretty much immediately
become a wolf?"

He shook his head.  "Nope.  I got out when I was twenty-eight, and I was
bitten when I was thirty-six.  Those eight years were the best time in my
life.  I moved to Baltimore and made a living driving trucks.  I met my
wife, Joyce, through mutual friends."

I had heard him mention his wife before but had never gotten the details.
"What was she like?"

"Absolutely fucking incredible.  She was a tattoo artist, a really great
one, and her whole body was just one fuckin big tattoo.  She was really fun
to be around.  You know the kind, one of the guys practically.  Except she
was fucking sexy as hell.  Anyway, we were married after six weeks."

"That's fast," I said.

"Yeah, but when you really love someone, you know it right away.  Those
years with her, those were some happy times.  She taught me how to laugh
again.  We were always broke, but that didn't matter.  It felt like those
days would last forever."  He sort of trailed off into a melancholy
reminiscence.

"What happened to her?" I asked.

He looked away, and I could tell that is was something tragic.  I felt bad
for Will.

"Was she murdered?" I asked, suspecting vampires.

He shook his head.  "No, nothing like that.  Anyway, everything changed
when I was kidnapped by the wolves in Baltimore.  It was almost full moon,
and they were collecting victims ahead of time.  They were targeting
ex-cons, and somehow heard I was a convicted killer, so they took me and
locked me up.  The pack there was so big that they needed a lot of victims
each month, not just a meager three like we do here, so they started
rounding up their victims a week in advance."

"How did you get out of that?" I asked, always enthralled by the stories he
would tell me.

"I talked with them, convinced them that I wasn't the evil person they
thought I was.  They liked me and let me go.  Of course, they couldn't just
let me go back to my life with the things I had witnessed.  So, they turned
me into a wolf.  It was some fucked up shit, but better than being eaten, I
guess."

"What happened to your wife?"

He sighed.  "I went back to her.  Showed her what I had become.  She was
freaked out at first, but then she dealt with it.  So, I split my time up
between her and the den, and things were going okay."  He looked down,
chuckling briefly to himself.  "She was crazy in bed.  Even though we'd
been married for years, we'd still fuck all day long.  It was one of the
best things about our marriage, I guess."  He was being so candid with me.

"You still had sex after you turned into a wolf?" I asked, a little
surprised.

"Yep.  But I knew about the dangers about getting her pregnant, and so did
she.  She was on the pill, so we knew we were safe."  He looked away.  He
was always just looking away like he could see into the past.  "But
somehow, she still got pregnant.  One day she just started bleeding like
crazy.  I raced her to the hospital.  She died in the car on the way
there."

He was looking out the window, and I gave him a moment before I said
anything.  "Will, that's tragic," I said.  "I'm sorry."  I felt awful.

He looked at me and smiled.  "Hey, it was years ago," he said, brushing it
off.  I knew he was downplaying the effect it still had on him.  "But I
learned my lesson that day.  Sex is fun as hell, but its not worth
someone's life.  Most wolves still go out there and get laid, being careful
to use condoms.  But condoms break.  No contraceptive is fool proof, you
know?"

"Couldn't you get a vasectomy?" I offered.

He shook his head.  "Nope.  The surgeons would notice that something was
off as soon as my flesh would start to heal itself around his scalpel.  Too
risky.  That's why I've been celibate since Joyce died."  He smiled at me.
"You should enjoy your life, kid.  Get out there and meet a special girl.
Be thankful that you aren't a wolf."

I was thankful that I wasn't a wolf, but not because it meant I was free to
have all sorts of sex with girls.  "Thanks, Will, that's good advice."

*****

The next time I trained with Will in the gym, he had me do a dozen or so
strength building exercises that he said would hone my skills.  Some were
sort of fun, like when he held my arms together while I tried with all my
might to open them.  Others were just plain irritating, like when I had to
stand on a stool without falling while he pushed and shoved at my
upper-body.

My favorite exercise had to be the bear hug contest.  "The object is to
squeeze your opponent so hard, that they must give in," he told me as he
wiped the sweat from his bade head.  "It's a strength contest in some parts
of the world, and it really gets your aggression going."

We stood on the mat, facing each other, and grabbed each other lightly into
a mutual embrace.  It was a very sexy position, with our bodies chest to
chest and out heads cheek to cheek.  I noticed he smelled sort of sweaty,
which was a smell I had learned to enjoy in a man.  To me, he smelled
completely masculine.

"Okay, when I tell you to start, you're going to squeeze me as hard as you
possibly can.  I'll give you a short lead.  Ready?  Start."

I flexed my arms and started to squeeze his chest like a vice.

"You can do better than that.  You have to squeeze with your whole body.
Let me show you."

He began to squeeze me, pulling my body tight against his, closing his arms
behind my back.  My chest crushed against his, and he dug his chin into the
crook of my neck.

I felt like he was going to break me.  "I give!" I yelled.

He released me.  "Let's try again.  This time, give it some fuckin effort."
He lifted up his arms.  "Go ahead and get a head start."

I put my arms under his and around his body.  I realized that my upper arms
were completely embedded in his wet armpits, something that turned me on.

After he told me to start for the second time, I had my aggression flowing,
and I really went for it.  I pulled his body against me like I was drowning
and he was a life preserver.

"That's better," he said.  Then he started squeezing me too.

In the process of squeezing the crap out of each other, our whole bodies
were pressed together into tight contact.  I could feel his heavy package
through his shorts against my lower abdomen.  But, my mind didn't have time
to linger on this erotic touch, as my face was burning and my vision was
starting to fade from not breathing.

Unable to speak, I slapped him on the back to let him know I was through.

He let me go.  He was breathing hard, and his face was red, so I could tell
I gave him a good fight.  "I could feel you getting stronger in a matter of
seconds with that one," he said.  "It really is an aggressive exercise."

He led me through several more exercises, none of which had the effect on
me that the bear hug had, until it was mid-afternoon and the humid summer
heat really filled up the room.  That was when we usually stopped, but this
time, Will prodded me on further.

"Come on," he said.  "Time to wrestle."

I looked down at myself.  My t-shirt was soaked with sweat, especially
around my armpits.  "I'm really sweaty," I said.

"So am I," he said, and I noticed that his wife-beater was so wet that the
white fabric had turned to a sticky gray.  "Us wolves always get sweaty
when we fight.  It's no big deal."

He pulled off his wife-beater and tossed it off of the mat.  I realized it
was the first time I had gotten to see him shirtless.  His skin had a light
tan, except for his shoulders and arms, which were darker, presumably from
wearing those wife-beaters all the time.  His muscular arms led to muscular
shoulders, and great pecs that were big, firm, and capped with small dark
nipples.  His abs were noticeable but not as defined as Russ's, but his
lower abs and his hip muscles met to form two thick crevasses that
disappeared beneath his shorts, and seemed to point right to his crotch.

He was covered with glistening sweat, which matted all of his black body
hair into straight clumps that stuck to his skin.  He was pretty hairy.
Aside from his hair-covered forearms and bushy underarms, which I already
knew about, he had a large clump spread out over the top of his pecs, and
then some light hair stretching horizontally on the underside of his pecs,
covering his nipples.  From his chest, his hair traveled down into a thick
treasure trial, spreading out a bit around his navel.  Although there was a
lot of hair, the way it stuck to his body it didn't obstruct my view of his
muscles at all.  In fact, it almost seemed like it was drawn onto his skin.

I took off my own shirt and walked off the mat to set it on a bench while
Will stretched out his arms.  From this side view I got an eyeful of color
on his back.

"You have a tattoo?" I asked him.

"Huh?  Yeah."  He turned his body away from me so I could see the large
dragon inked over his broad, hairless back.  "My wife did it."

"It's beautiful," I said.

"Yeah, she was really talented," he said.  "Nowadays, an oriental dragon
tattoo would be all too common.  But back then, it had some originality."

"No, I've never seen one like that," I said.  "The way it seems to fit the
contours of your muscles, instead of just using your skin as a flat canvas.
It's really cool."

"Yeah," he said, turning back around to face me.  "She was into astrology,
and I was a dragon in the Chinese zodiac.  Not exactly my style.  Sometimes
I thought about getting another one, something more wolf appropriate.  But
it seems almost disrespectful somehow."

"I understand," I said.

"Yeah, well.  Let's do this."

He darted forwards, grabbing my shoulders.  This time, as we wrestled, as
we grabbed at each other's bodies and locked our arms around one another,
our upper bodies were so wet that they became almost too slippery to hold
onto.  This made us have to work harder and grab at each other with more
strength.  The feeling of his slick arms and chest sliding all over me
almost made me lose my focus on the match.

At one point, he had me face-down on the ground, and he was on top of me.
I could feel his wet nipples against my back, his drenched chest hair
rubbing between his and my skin.  Then he wrapped his arms around my chest,
his forearms rubbing around my nipples, sending a wave of electricity
through me, as he flipped me over.

He pressed his chest horizontally against mine, and I was too tired to
fight.  "You're pinned," he said.  He just lied there across me for a
minute, catching his breath.  Then he got up, grabbed my hand, and pulled
me up to my feet.  "That's enough for today," he said.

I looked down at his shorts.  They were dark with sweat, and sticking to
him, showing off his package.

"Look, I gotta admit something to you, Rick," said Will.

"What is it?"

"I'm afraid I had an ulterior motive for teaching you to wrestle.  I mean,
you must have guessed that, right?  You think you're ever gonna be
wrestling a vampire when they attack you with swords drawn?  No, you're
gonna have a weapon of your own."

What was he trying to tell me?  "I hadn't thought about that, I guess."

"I've been wrestling with you, not because I want you to learn how to
defend yourself.  But because, well, this is going to sound really weird,
so just hear me out."

"Okay."

"I want you to fight Cougar."

I was stunned.  "What?  Why?"

"Fight him for his rank.  With some more training, well, a lot more
training, I think you have a chance against him."

I didn't know what to think.  "Is that even allowed?  I mean, I'm not a
wolf."

"But you're one of us just the same."  He pointed a finger at me.  "The
only thing is, if you challenge him, he still has a choice about which form
to take for the fight.  If he picks were or wolf, you wouldn't be able to
change into those forms, obviously, so you'd forfeit the fight.  Do you
think you could convince him to fight you man to man?"

I thought about it for a second, going over in my head everything I knew
about Cougar.  "Yeah," I said.  "I think I could."

He patted me on the shoulder.  "Good.  So, you see?  Wrestling will be
really useful for that match.  Are you willing to try and fight Cougar?
Only agree if you are prepared to take another beating, Rick."

"I can handle it," I said.  "If I won, I wouldn't be at the bottom of the
heap anymore."

"Right.  But you still have a long way to come before your ready to
challenge him.  Until then, I want you to keep your head low.  Don't tell
anyone about your plan.  We don't want Cougar to find out about this, or he
might start training too."

Again I was astounded at Will's selfless desire to help me.  He wasn't
getting anything out of this deal except having to put up with putting me
through hours of training.  There was absolutely nothing I could offer him
in return.

Well, I had one thing to offer him.  Before we had started to bond, he had
always seemed lonely out of his mind.  Now, thanks to me, he was really
coming out of his shell.  I knew my friendship must have been important to
him, so I made a pledge to keep that friendship strong.

Besides, I needed his friendship as much as he needed mine.

*****

Once I had a concrete goal that I was working towards, I started pushing
myself consistently through every practice.  Our wrestling matches went on
longer, became more heated and more intense.  On the mat, Will and I became
fierce opponents to each other; he was my rival and I wanted to unseat him,
to beat him, although it never happened.

Contrasted with the strict competition in the basement, above ground Will
and I were becoming closer and closer friends.  Whenever he wanted to go
out, he asked me to come along, and it always made my day.  As the weeks
passed, I felt like I knew him better than any of the wolves.  Hell, I
thought, I knew him better than anyone period.  The way he seemed to
oscillate between intensely serious and extremely silly.  The way he held
himself up with the strongest sense of pride, yet at the same time seemed
completely down to earth.

Most of all, I enjoyed my time with him because we just had fun.  He didn't
have Case's inflated sense of self-importance or Matt and Cougar's tendency
to blend friendly teasing into annoying mockery.  I was angry at myself for
not trying to become friends with him before.  I had really been missing
out on a great one.

"You're getting closer to being ready for your first fight," Will said to
me one hot afternoon in the basement after we had both taken out shirts
off.  "It's important not to forget the importance of strategy.  Strength
will only get you so far.  You've got to use your head if you really want
to win.  Half of winning is knowing your opponent, knowing his weaknesses.
Take Cougar for instance.  When I fought him, he came at me with all sorts
of crazy kung fu shit.  He'll do the same to you.  The trick is to get in
close enough to him so that those moves become useless.  Use everything you
know about wrestling.  Just get him to the ground, cover him with your
weight, and then knock the hell out of him.  Can you handle it?"

"Yeah, I think so," I said.  My confidence had really been on the rise
lately.

"Good.  Now, when you fight Cougar, remember you'll be fighting naked.  The
first time or two you do that, well, it can be uncomfortable.  I've seen
beginner wolves lose fights just because they can't get passed the fact
that the other guy's dick is touching them.  How bout you, kid?  You gonna
be uncomfortable fighting nude?"

I would most certainly be uncomfortable fighting nude, not because it would
gross me out, as Will was insinuating, but because it would most likely
turn me on.  Cougar was a hot-looking guy, and I'd be rolling around naked
with him.  "Yeah, it would be weird," I told Will.

He nodded.  "That's perfectly natural.  Believe me, after you've fought as
many fights as I have, you don't even notice the nudity anymore.  That's
why, I thought for today, we could start to ease into it, start to simulate
a real wolf match."  He looked down at my crotch and gestured.  "I want you
to take off your shorts.  We'll fight in our jocks today."

With that, Will pulled his gray shorts off and off, leaving him naked
except for his white jock.  Immediately I noticed how huge his jock pouch
seemed to be, and the straps didn't cover up the straight black hair that
covered his inner thighs.  On his thigh, at the same level with where I
imagined the base of his dick would be, he had another tattoo.  This one
was much smaller--a scorpion.

He turned around and walked off the mat to set his shorts down.  I took the
opportunity to look at his ass.  It was shaped like Russ's, big and
muscular, only Will's was lighter in color, and covered with a light amount
of hair.  When he turned back around, I was still staring at his crotch,
watching the bulge in his jock shift slightly as he walked towards me.

He must have followed my line of sight, because he said, "I see you noticed
my other tattoo."  He pointed to it.

Immediately I played it off like that was what had drawn my attention to
his crotch.  "Yeah, it's really cool," I said, which was honest.

"Like I said before, my wife was into astrology.  I'm a scorpio, so she
insisted on putting this one on me."  He rubbed at it with his finger as if
he thought it might rub off.  "Aren't you gonna take your shorts off?" he
asked me.

That's right.  I pulled my shorts off and tossed them aside, a little
embarrassed that the pouch of my jock wasn't nearly as filled up as his
was.

"Let's fight.  I'll be Cougar."  He started punching and kicking the air,
using moves that definitely seemed more Asian than I was used to seeing
from him.  "I'm really gonna hit you this time, kid, cause you need to
learn to take it.  What you need to do is dodge, grab, and push me to the
ground.  Try and pin me like you would him."

I walked towards him, and he delivered a sideways kick in my direction,
holding his bare foot in front of my face.

"Don't try and go to him.  Let him go to you."

I backed off, enjoying the sight of him standing there with one leg raised
in the air, before he put his foot back on the ground and came at me with a
jab.  He hit me square in the chest, sending me flying backwards.  "Dodge
it," he said.

Again he came at me, only this time his fist made contact with my forehead.
"That's gonna leave a bruise," he said.  "Don't let me do it again."

The next time he tried to hit me, I jumped out of the way, grabbed his
outstretched arm, and pulled it behind him into an arm bar technique.  But
then I froze when I noticed my jock was poking into his sweaty, bare ass.

Will took advantage of my hesitance and escaped from me, wrapping his arms
around my bare thigh and knocking me down.  I snapped back into focus,
arching my back up so he wouldn't be able to pin me.

We kept on wrestling until our bodies were once again soaked with sweat.  I
don't think he was giving me his full effort, because eventually I found
myself on top of Will on the ground, as he lied face down.  Feeling his
wet, bare ass under me was almost more than I could handle.  In order to
flip him over, I used a crotch lift on him, sticking one arm down into his
sweaty asscrack, and the other around the front of his thigh, clasping them
both together right at the level of his crotch.  The back of my left hand
was pressed firmly against his jock pouch.  Then I flipped him over onto
his back, and straddled his chest.  I pulled my hand back and into a fist,
ready to hit him in the face.

"Good, that's good enough for today, you don't really have to knock me
out."  He was laughing as I got up off of him.

"You held back on me," I said.

"I always hold back on you.  Next time, I'll fight you at Cougar's level.
But not today."

As he stood up, I noticed that his jock had completely soaked through with
sweat, making the material stick to his form.  I could see the darkness of
his pubic hair on the top.  Lower down, his dick really looked massive as
it hung to the left of his balls.

I looked down at myself.  I was in the same situation with my jock.

"That's enough fighting for today," he said.

"Ah, come on, Will," I said.  "We usually go much longer."

He smiled.  "I didn't say we were done training.  Just done with fighting.
Time for another round of the strength exercises."

"Ah, man, I don't want to do those again."

"Do you want to get your ass beat by Cougar?"

"No."

"Then you'll do them."

And so, even though it was a million degrees in there and we were both
sweating our asses off, Will made me go through all of those dozen or so
exercises.

After doing a number of them, Will announced, "The bear hug is next."  I
remembered how much I liked this one.  He stood there in front of me and
lifted up his arms.  "Grab on," he said.

That was all the invitation I needed.  I reached under his arms and wrapped
my arms around his slick chest, feeling the dragon of his back under my
hands.  As I squeezed his body into mine, I stood on my tip-toes so I was
more at his level.  My chest against his chest, his wet sticky hair between
us, and the lump in my jock pressing against the huge load in his.  I
squeezed harder, and he let out a little grunt.

Then, my head-start ending, Will's arms encased me.  Suddenly we were
locked even tighter together, our cocks digging into each other through two
sweaty layers of fabric.  Our cheeks touched--I could feel the raspiness of
his stubble against me.

I started to gasp, barely able to breathe beneath his clutches, but I kept
going, squeezing him with all my strength.

Finally, I gave in.  "Enough, you win," I said.

He let go of me and pulled his body away from me.  Actually, because our
torsos were stuck together from all the sweat, he sort of peeled himself
off of me.

"Next exercise," said Will.

*****

That night Will grabbed a half-dozen bottles of beer and took me to the
river.  We sat there by the water drinking and laughing, having the river
all to ourselves except for the occasional late night jogger.

"You know what I was thinking, pup?" he asked me, slurring just a little as
he finished his third beer.

I was a little taken aback.  "Did you just call me pup?" I asked.  I had
never heard anyone calling someone that before.

"Yep.  So what?"

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"It's just something that the older wolves used to call the young wolves in
my old den."

I nodded once I was sure it wasn't anything insulting.  "Oh, okay.  What
were you thinking, Will?"

"Oh, right."  He sat up and looked at me.  "Just that you and me, we're
really similar when you think about it."

I laughed.  "Are you kidding me, Will?  We're night and day."

He pressed his hand against my shoulder and shoved me a little.  "Yeah, we
seem like complete opposites.  But come on, think about it.  We both are
second generation.  Your mom is from Venezuela.  Mine was Italian.  And we
both had American fathers."  He pulled his hand away from me again.

"Yeah, but I never knew my real dad.  You grew up with yours."

"True, but I'm not done.  We were both raised Catholic, and neither one of
us give a shit about religion anymore.  We're both loners by nature.  And
we both have the same ambition to be on top.  For me, that manifests itself
in my need to be alpha.  For you, you want to obtain all the power of your
gift.  But both of us want to be strong enough to kick plenty of ass."

"Yeah, okay," I said.  "There's like five things that we have in common
compared to the fifty billion things that are different."

"True, our lives may have taken us down different roads, but--"

"Different roads!  My life has been a cakewalk compared to yours."

He shrugged and gulped down some more beer.

"Will," I asked, my voice returning to a serious tone.  "We're you close to
any of the guys in your Baltimore pack that were killed by the vampires?"

He nodded, looking out into the river.  "Sure I was, in a wolf kind of way.
After my wife died, I didn't want to ever get close with anyone again.
But, those guys grew on me.  Being their alpha kicked ass."

I suddenly remembered Cougar's suspicion that Will had been the vampire
informant and had skipped out on his pack, letting them die.  "Will," I
asked.  "When the vampires attacked, how come you weren't there?"

He rubbed his eyes.  "I got this weird fuckin feeling one night, like there
was something menacing in the den and I didn't know what.  I thought I was
going nuts.  I went out to try and clear that shit out of my head.  When I
got back, everybody was dead."  I believed him entirely.  I knew he
wouldn't lie to me.

"I would have been devastated if that had happened to me," I said.

"I went to fucking pieces," he said.  "I still blame myself.  If I had been
there, maybe I could have fought them off."  He took the last swig of his
beer.  "When I got here, I told myself I wasn't gonna make any friends or
attachments, no sir, not in these fucked up times.  Any friend of mine is
likely to end up dead."  He was just staring ahead, out at the river.

I felt moved by his admissions.  He had just told me his biggest fear,
something that he swore a wolf would never do.  And I knew we had at least
something else in common.  We were both afraid of being alone.

I put my arm on his shoulder and gave it a friendly squeeze.  "I'm glad to
have you as a friend, Will," I said.  "And I'm not going anywhere."

"How can you be so sure?" he asked, still not looking at me.

"I have the gift.  I'm not gonna die anytime soon.  I'm not going
anywhere."

He gave me a half smile, and then put his hand over mine on his shoulder.
"Don't let me down," he said.  Then he got up and threw his last beer
bottle into the trash.  "We need more beer," he said.  "Let's go find more
beer."

We ended up walking to the nearest bar in order to accomplish that goal.
After we had gotten our new beers and sat down, Will leaned towards me with
a buzzed-silly expression on his face.  "Now's your time to prove you can
kick some ass," he said.

"What are you talking about?"

He laughed.  "Fe fi fo fum, I smell the blood of, well, a vampire."

I stiffened.  "Where?" I asked.

Will pointed out a man to me who was standing alone in a dark corner,
wearing a stylish suit.  He was quite good looking.

"Look at his eyes," said Will.  The man's eyes were open and staring
straight ahead, never moving.  "They're completely vacant," he said.  "All
of them are like that now."

"Like he's sleeping with his eyes open."  I watched the man, considering.
"Vampires can't tell the difference between me and a normal person, right?"

"Nope."

I got up.  "I'm gonna go talk to him."

"Hey, kid, don't do anything stupid.  You aren't strong enough yet to
survive a fight with one of those bastards."

"I won't."

It must have been a combination of the alcohol and the empowerment Will's
training was having on me, but I just walked right over to that fashionable
blood sucker.  As I neared him, he didn't ever move his eyes, just stared
straight ahead at nothing.  I tapped him on the arm.

"Hey man," I asked.  "You got the time?"

Suddenly his eyes rolled back into his head as his eyelids fluttered for a
moment.  Then, he focused his vision, turned and looked at me.

"No I don't," he said.  His tone of voice was kind, but I got the sense
that something evil inside of him was sizing me up.

"Oh, too bad," I said, turning to go.

He grabbed my arm.  "Hey, buddy," he said.  "I just bought a new car today.
You want to check it out?"

My heart raced in my chest.  This had been a mistake.  "Um, no thanks," I
said.  "I'm with someone, sorry."

Then, he let me go.  Once I got back to the table, Will was smiling at me.
"Weird as fuck," he said.  "What's with those eyes?  Look, he's doing the
staring thing again."

Sure enough, he was.

"Let's go home," I said.  "He makes me uncomfortable.  I think he wanted to
suck my blood or something."

"Let's get out of this joint."

After we had gotten home, joking and laughing and having a good time all
the way there, I went to bed in Russ's room like I had usually been doing
at that time.

Russ woke up when I got there.  "Where were you?" he snapped.

"Will took me out," I said.  It was the one excursion he couldn't keep me
from doing.

"Get to sleep."

I lay down on my miserable little bed that night, thinking about Will and
how much he had started to mean to me.  Without ever trying to, I was
beginning to fall for him.  Sure, he was great-looking, I had always known
that.  I had always been physically attracted to him.  But now, there was
an emotional bond between us that was so much stronger than anything
physical.  I laughed to myself at the absurdity of it.  Again, I was
falling for a straight guy.

Oh well, I thought as I turned over on the floor.  I wouldn't screw things
up this time by trying anything sexual with him.  He was obviously
straight; he had been married for god's sake.  I would be pleased just to
count him as a close friend.

The hard floor didn't bother my back that night.  I went right to sleep,
and had pleasant dreams.

*****

The next afternoon, Will and I had a long, intense match in the basement.
We had wrestled through the hot afternoon hours in our jocks, getting as
greasy with sweat as before, when Will stopped me and got up.

"Okay," he said.  "Time for the real fight.  You ready?"

"I'm ready," I told him.

"Let's go downstairs."

He led me down into the kennel as I stared at his sweaty ass parting and
bending with each step.

The lower basement was somehow even hotter than the upper basement.  He led
me through the bars, onto the wide-open concrete floor that seemed to have
a permanent red stain.  I wondered if it was from the blood of the wolves,
or the blood of their victims.

"There's no mat this time," he said.  "I'll fight at Cougar's level.  But
we're not gonna fight until one of us is KO'ed.  I don't want to spill any
blood if I can help it.  We'll go until one of us gives, okay?"

"Okay," I said.

Then, before I could anticipate it, he pulled his jock off of his body.  My
jaw almost dropped at the beauty of his dick.  His thick treasure trail
erupted into a wild black bush, his hair thick, straight, and matted,
sticking to his body and clinging up a third of his cock.  His balls hung
low under him, and they were mighty huge.  Bigger than I had ever seen.
His circumcised cock hung over them, and it was big.  Six inches long soft,
the same length as Malcolm's.  Its thickness was somewhere between
Malcolm's and Russ's.  His pink head was ample in size, and the whole thing
was shiny with sweat.  My heart started pounding just at the sight of this
monster.

Quickly I looked away and ripped my jock off, trying to retain my focus.
Getting an erection was simply out of the question.

"Ready?" he asked me.

"Yeah," I said.

"Go!"

I remembered to stay put, firmly planted into the floor.  He started to hop
around in front of me, and then tried to kick me, which I dodged.  Seeing
him lift his leg up, his cock and balls bouncing around beneath him, I
almost was too distracted to dodge, but I made it.  Then his punches
started coming.  One hit my chest, another hit my chin.

I backed off a little, feeling shaky, and he came at me again with a kick
of his right foot.  This time, I was ready for him.  I dodged, moving
towards his middle, and grabbed his leg before he could set it down.  With
my left hand wrapped around his right thigh, I pushed forward, while at the
same time wrapping my right foot around the outside of his left leg,
pushing against his inner knee.

The result was just what I had hoped for; he fell backwards onto the floor,
and fell on top of him, my head landing at the level of his chest, and his
cock pressed against my stomach.  Normally, I would have just tried to pin
him from this position, but since my goal was to break him, I'd have to try
something else.  I wrapped my arms around his chest, and squeezed him
against me with all the strength I had learned from those bear hugs.  My
face was pressed into the crevasse between his pecs, and I could smell the
sweat that covered his body.  I became aware of his slimy cock pressed into
my abdomen, rubbing against me as Will started to squirm underneath me.

He wrapped his thighs around my hips, grabbed onto me with his hands, and
rolled both of us over so that I was on my back and he was covering me.  My
face was still at his chest level, and so I was gasping for air, trapped
underneath his heavy body.  I was desperate to breathe, but knowing I
wasn't about to give in, I grabbed onto the sweaty globes of his ass with
each hand, and pulled my body downwards.  Our bodies were so slick that I
was able to slide out from under him, through his open legs.  This meant my
body slid across his as I went, my face traveling lower and lower down his
body.  My lips grazed his treasure trail until my face actually became
implanted in his crotch.  The base of his cock rubbed passed my chin, and
then stopped for a moment on my lips as he wrapped his thighs around my
head, trying to keep me from escaping.  This left my nose buried deep into
his wet pubes.  I took his scent in, trying desperately to breathe.  Trying
to free myself, I desperately shook my head, which meant I was rubbing my
lips all over his sweaty cock.

He must have realized exactly where my head was because he let go of me
with his thighs, and I was able to slide passed him, his cockhead rubbing
across my lips and up my face.  Finally, I was free.

But not for long.  As I sat up and tried to catch my breath, he came behind
me and locked my sweaty arms into his and pushed me again into the floor,
this time face down.  He got on top of me again, pushing my face into the
concrete as I struggled against him.  Again I felt his cock against me,
this time pressed into my lower back, facing upwards and pinned between our
bodies.  I lost my focus as I concentrated on it, sliding my body up slowly
so that his cock fell into my wet asscrack.  It felt so heavy and so
magnificent against me.  As we continued to struggle against each other,
rubbing back and forth, his cock sliding up and down in my crack, I
couldn't help getting hard.  Perhaps it was because I knew my cock was
hidden safely under me, where he wouldn't be able to see it.  I felt Will's
dickhead brush passed my asshole, leaving a splattering of sweat against it
as it passed, and my own dick throbbed from the beautiful sensation.

Then, he did something I should have anticipated, but didn't.  He performed
a crotch lift on me, bringing his right arm through my legs from behind as
he reached around my thigh with his left arm.  He locked his hands
together, pressing them against my balls, and squeezed tight until his
right arm was driven up my crack.  Once he had a good hold on me, he spun
me over until I was on my stomach, and then lowered his body weight back
down onto me.

When his soft dick pressed firmly against my hard one, he stopped
wrestling.  I looked up at him, but he was looking away.  I knew he must
have noticed the state I was in when his face turned red.  I also knew my
own face was redder than his was.  I had made a total ass of myself, and he
must have been shocked.

Then, as quickly and awkwardly as it came, the moment was gone, and he was
wrestling me again, wrapping his arms around me, squeezing until I couldn't
breathe.  Apparently he had chosen to ignore my hardon.  I snapped myself
out of my mortification and returned my efforts to the fight.  I shook and
shifted my body around, trying to break free from his huge, crushing arms,
and as I did so, I unintentionally rubbed my hard cock into his soft one,
feeling both of them pressed together, slipping and sliding passed each
other between our wet bodies.

Then, amazingly, I felt his cock start to grow above me, which only made me
more excited, as I wiggled against him more and more.  Finally, I was sure
he was completely hard as our cocks were pressed together.  Was he enjoying
himself as much as I was, or was this an unavoidable response to all the
rubbing?

Pulling a move he had never shown me before, he quickly flipped me over
onto my front again.  I felt him on top of my back, his arms wrapped around
me again, squeezing me.  He slid his dick down my back and into my asscrack
again, only this time he was hard.  I felt his cockhead rub passed my
asshole again, making me gasp.  Slowly I felt him start to plunge his dick
lower, deep into my crack.  Then, quickly he pulled it up, then he lowered
himself again.  I wasn't sure if this was just random touching in the
process of his hold, or if he was purposely trying to pleasure himself.
But, either way I loved all of the touching.

I reminded myself that I was in the middle of a fight.  For the second
time, I was able the slide out from under him, this time exiting under his
left side.  Then, before he had a chance to react, I was on top of him,
pushing his face into the floor like he had done to me.  I squeezed against
his muscular body, exhilarating in the feeling of my wet dick rubbing
around on his lower back, being forced down by the weight of my body.  Not
able to control myself, I followed his lead and slowly lowered my body
until my cock slid into his sweaty asscrack.  In response, he tensed his
cheeks shut, but that attempt to expel me only ended up squeezing my dick
between the wet cheeks of his ass.  I lowered myself further until I could
feel his hole against the tip of my dick.  I teased at it, poking it
lightly.

Then I used the same maneuver he had on me, wrapping my arms around his
upper thigh and flipping him onto his back.  I had him on the run again,
and I could see plainly that he was still hard, with a pool of precum on
his belly mixing with the sweat, although from the fierce look on his face
you'd never suspect he was getting turned on.

I crawled back up his body until his cock was against mine, until I could
feel the sticky pool of his precum envelop my dickhead, and then wrapped my
arms around his chest again.  He squirmed, but this time I knew he wasn't
going to get free of my arms.  I wrapped my legs around and under him,
locking my ankles together under his ass, and squeezed as hard as I could,
pushing our cocks so hard together it was almost painful.  He groaned under
me, and I knew I was close to his submission.  I squeezed harder, beginning
to yell as I used every muscle in my body to crush him.

Because my legs were around his hips and my arms were around his chest, he
still had his arms and legs free.  He grabbed my upper body with his hands,
clutching his fingers into the skin of my back, as the bear hug became
mutual.  Then he got up on his knees, holding me against his body, and
stood up, lifting me in the air.  All the while, I still squeezed him with
every once of my strength.  All that moving and jostling he was doing made
our cocks grind together, and with every movement, I could feel his cock
twitch against mine.  He stood there for a moment, me hanging onto his
front, willing him down, wishing I was heavier, and then he dropped down
onto his stomach, pounding me onto the ground.

What would have surely injured me before just caused me a brief moment of
agony as I lay under him on my back.  I continued to squeeze him with both
my arms and my legs, knowing that if he couldn't shake me lose, I could win
this way.  Meanwhile, our cocks were still pressed together, rubbing
together, getting me very excited.

He pried my legs apart and pulled them open, using both hands.  Then he
wrapped his legs around the outside of my own, locking his feet around them
until each of my legs were intertwined completely with his, our cocks still
rubbing together.

Then, he slowly started to straighten his legs, causing my legs to feel
like they were about to break.  I cried out as he did this, and he loosened
the pressure, thankfully, as he wrapped his arms around my body once more.
Then, again I felt his legs straighten, again the pain, and again the
release.  He repeated this once more, and I realized each time he
straightened his legs, his dick slid up mine, and each time he released
them, his dick slipped back down.

Again and again, he straightened his legs, I cried out from a mix of
pleasure and pain, and he released.  His balls were hitting the back of
mine with each thrust, rolling back and forth against each other.  My face
was buried into the spot where his neck met his shoulder, and I just sort
of let go, letting him torture me in this oh so pleasurable way, taking in
again the smell of his sweat that now covered me entirely.  Both of us were
leaking so much precum that the space between our bodies became enveloped
in it, and our bodies made a slushing sound with each of his movements.

Again his dick slid up mine as he squeezed, and again it slipped back down
as he let go.  Finally, I couldn't hold it anymore.  Right as he flexed all
his muscles and held them, crushing my chest between my arms while at the
same time straightening his legs so much it sent new waves of pain through
my legs, I had this excruciatingly intense orgasm, and started shooting my
load.  But I realized that he was experiencing the same thing as he tensed
up, and buckets of semen shot out of his cock, at first shooting hot,
sticky globs all the way up our chests.  Then, once our chests and stomachs
were caked in it, he continued to dribble out more cum, as I felt it ooze
down all over my own cock.  I couldn't believe we actually came at the same
time.  I had never done that with anyone.

He released his muscles, and fell on top of me, just resting as both of us
tried to catch our breath.  I was enjoying the feeling of our sticky cum
mingled between our bodies.

Finally, after I could breathe again, I decided to speak.  "I don't know
who won that one," I said.

He raised his body off of mine, holding himself up over me, his weight on
his hands.  Our skin stuck together so much it almost hurt when he peeled
off of me.  He peered down at my face, his expression completely
unreadable.

Then he got up off of me and ran over to retrieve his jock.

I sat up, wanting to say something, but not having the courage to say how I
felt.

He was covered in cum, it was dripping down his chest and covered his cock
and balls completely as he stuffed them back into his jock.  Then, without
a word, and without looking at me again, he went upstairs, leaving me alone
in the dismal kennel.

Obviously he was mad with me or something.  I wanted to cry, feeling like I
had just lost my only real friend in the house.  All because I had gotten
aroused.  How could I have gotten aroused during a fight?

Then, I remembered Case.  At least he had been accepting of my sexuality.
I had ignored him long enough.  I needed to face him, to talk to him, to
come clean.  I would do it that night.

*****

The next night I was in Case's bedroom, tied to the bed, still thinking
about everything that had happened with Will.  I hadn't seen him since he
left me in the kennel.  But, I wasn't in a mood to lament my mistakes.  I
wanted to break free.

Even with my improved, slightly superhuman strength, I could not rip the
ropes off, or break the bed, or anything so cool and dramatic.  I had been
trying all day long.

I remembered Will's words to me.  Strength could only go so far.  Beyond
that, you needed intelligence, strategy.  You needed to know your opponent.

Matt came in the room to fuck me next that night.  Fuck number four for
him.  This time, instead of giving him mean stares, I acted like I was into
it.  When I felt his cock push inside me, I moaned.

"Yeah?  You like my cock fucking you over and over again all day long,
don't you fag?"

I nodded my head and tried answering him, but of course the sound was muted
by my gag.  I wiggled my ass against him as he started to fuck me.

He dug his hands into my shoulders, pushing me into the bed.  "Yeah, that's
it, you little whore, push back into me, let me know how much you want it."

I pushed myself onto him further as he continued to fuck me.

"Yeah, baby, you want it bad, don't you?"

Again, I tried to say something affirmative through my gag, but it was
incomprehensible.

Finally, my plan worked.  He reached forward, and ripped the gag out of my
mouth.  I wiggled my jaw around, enjoying the freedom it had from Russ's
briefs.

"Fuck me, Matt, fuck me hard," I said, playing the role.

That got him going.  "Tell me how much you love my cock, baby.  Don't
worry, these wall are thick, nobody can hear you cry out."

"I love your cock, Matt, it's so perfect and so fucking big, I wish I could
have it permanently inside of my ass."

"Oh, I wish so too, baby, I wish so too."

And the conversation went on like that for a good fifteen minutes or so
until he finally came.

After he was done, he said, "That was great, baby, like always."  He
grabbed for the briefs.

"Don't put that back in my mouth, please," I said.

He shook them in my face.  "Come on, man, it's not so bad."

"Would you like to have Russ's dirty underwear shoved into your mouth?" I
asked.

He laughed.  "No fucking way, man.  Okay, I'll leave it off if you promise
not to scream or anything when I open the door."

"I promise," I said.

When he was about to open the door, he gave me a serious look.  I nodded,
and then he slipped out, without me making a sound.

Later, Malcolm came into the room again.

"Come to fuck me again, Malcolm?  We both know you can't get it up twice in
one day, right?"

He laughed.  "I came to get you some water.  Thought you might be thirsty.
Where's your gag?"

"It grew legs and walked away," I said.

He came over to me with a bottle of water in his hand.  "Here, open up," he
said.

I did, and he poured the refreshing liquid into my mouth.  It tasted like
heaven.

"That's all I came to do, don't worry.  I already had my fun with you."

"Wait, Malcolm," I said as he was about to leave.  "It's really hot in
here, don't you think?"

"Yeah, I guess so."

I willed myself to look flushed.  "I don't think any fresh air is getting
in here.  Check the vent to make sure it's open, could you?"

"Okay."  He walked over to the vent and opened it.  "It was shut," he said.

"Thanks, Malcolm," I said.

He left with a smile on his face.

Once I was sure Malcolm was out of earshot, I started calling out.  "Will!"
I yelled.  "Will, help me!"  I kept calling.  Nobody was coming.  Was he
even in his room?

Finally he opened the door and came inside, wearing his boxers and nothing
else, looking tired but concerned.

"What in fuck's name is going on in here?" he asked when he saw me.

"Will, thank god, just please untie me."

He shut the door and started to undo the knots of the rope.  "Which of
those bastards did this to you?  Case?"

"Everyone but Cougar was involved," I said.  "They tied me up as
punishment."  I was reluctant to give him any of the details.

As soon as I was untied, I got out of bed and put my shorts back on.  I
felt wobbly and weak, and almost fell over as I stood up.

"What's wrong with you?" asked Will.

"I haven't eaten in a day.  I've been tied up since last night."

Malcolm walked in, startling me.

"What the...?" he said when he saw I was off the bed.

"Shut the door, asshole," said Will.

Malcolm shut the door, looking somewhat nervous.

"Look, Will, you gotta understand," said Malcolm.

"I don't want to hear a goddamn word.  Strip out of your clothes."

"Why?" he asked, suddenly afraid.

"Because I fuckin said so!" yelled Will.

Malcolm took off his clothes, purposefully going as slowly as possible.

"Get on the bed, face down," said Will once Malcolm was completely nude.

Looking like he was about to be sick, Malcolm went to the bed and lied
down, obviously thinking he was about to get fucked.  Will rushed around
the bed and tied each of his limbs to the posts.  "Let's see how you like
that, you sick fuck," he said.

Matt and Russ came into the room soon after that.  They gaped at Malcolm on
the bed, completely stunned.  I wondered if their first thought upon seeing
him was that I had somehow transformed into a huge black man in their
absence.

Will pointed at Russ.  "You.  Go find Case.  Bring his ass up here."

Russ left quickly, still in shock, and not trying to argue.

"Look, Will, my man," said Matt after Russ had gone.  "I know what this
looks like, but you're not getting the full picture.  Rick, here--"

"I don't want to hear about it!"  Now Will was really yelling.  It looked
like his eyes would pop out of their sockets.  "I don't want you to say
another fuckin word unless I ask you a question, got it?"

Russ and Case came in a minute later.  I thought one or both of them would
probably try to talk Will down, but after seeing the rage on Will's face,
they stayed silent.

"This has gone too far.  Tying up somebody naked and not feeding them...
well that's seriously fucked-up.  What did he do to deserve this, forget to
wash your clothes or something?"

Nobody answered him.  Matt's face turned red.

"From now on, any orders you may have for the kid, any punishments you're
thinking of dealing out for him, all of it goes through me before they are
put into action.  Is that fucking clear, gentlemen?"

They all nodded.

"Great.  I'm going back to bed."

Will left the room without looking in my direction.  I walked out behind
him, glaring at the others as I passed.  Matt looked away, Russ scowled,
and Case just seemed concerned.

When I got into the hallway, Will had just shut his door.  I thought about
knocking, but I heard his door lock and figured he didn't want to see me.
I sighed, wishing I had someone to talk to, but there was no one.  Out of
the my six roommates, I now hated four of them, one of them I had pissed
off and scared away, and the other was just plain clueless.

I got my things out from Russ's room, knowing I wasn't going to stand to
sleep in there on his floor or in anyone else's room anymore.

Cougar was in the kitchen getting a drink when I came in to try and find a
meal.  "Hey," he said.  "Where have you been all day?"

"Don't ask," I said in a rude tone of voice.

He shrugged and left me alone.

I knew that if any of them tried anything sexual with me again, I was going
to go straight to Will.

That night I slept on my couch, falling asleep with the vindicating feeling
of freedom.


TO BE CONTINUED