Date: Fri, 27 Aug 2004 04:00:23 -0700 (PDT)
From: CloseTheCellarDoor <closethecellardoor@yahoo.com>
Subject: Evil is a Man:    Dog Eat Dog No More  ---- Chapter 12

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Important chapter here.

Do me a favor.  I'm curious to see how many people are still reading this
drivel. :)

After you finish the chapter, send me an e-mail, even if it just contains
one word.

My e-mail address is: "closethecellardoor@yahoo.com."

If you've recently sent me an e-mail, then don't feel obligated to send me
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for some time, drop me a line.  I write long chapters for you, you send me
an e-mail letting me know you're reading.  Sounds like a pretty good trade
to me.

Hope you enjoy this one.



CHAPTER TWELVE


I sat in a daze watching mindless TV from the first moment I got up in the
morning, sitting right beside Cougar.  He guarded the remote from me like a
pitbull, but I didn't care--I wasn't paying any attention to the screen.  I
wasn't in that living room; I was stuck somewhere in the recent past.  The
pain of being tied up and violated by Matt, Malcolm, Russ, and Case hadn't
yet started to fade.  While I once considered all of them my friends, they
had moved over into the `enemy' category, right under Hadrian.

But, surprisingly perhaps, my mind lingered upon my relationship with Will
more than the torture I had been forced to endure the day before.  Through
the last few weeks, my tenuous friendship with Will had grown into a
sturdy, solid one.  Instead of coddling me like a child, Will treated me
like an equal--with real and honest respect.  He challenged me to better
myself.  I valued his friendship beyond measure.

When we had each other wrapped up in our arms, cock to cock, it had seemed
so perfect.  It was such a simple touch, yet it held more pleasure for me
than anything that had preceded it.  Just like our friendship, the touch
had been equal, completely mutual.  It had been about bonding.  It had been
about true affection while every other sexual experience of mine had just
been about getting off.  Even though I had learned to like getting fucked,
it still felt empty emotionally.  I knew that whoever was fucking me really
didn't give a damn if I liked it or not; the only thing on their mind was
some quick release at my expense.  With Will, it had been different.  We
brought each other to climax simultaneously, in a completely equal,
symmetrical union.

Because our union had been so powerful for me, Will's cryptic reaction had
pulled me into a shadowy mood.  I really wanted to discuss with him all of
my feelings, but I was worried I might start an argument.  So, I sat there
with Cougar, hoping that Will would come talk to me instead.

I was pretty sure that as long as I had Cougar by my side, none of the
others would try to talk to me about yesterday, which is how I wanted it.
Malcolm wouldn't look my way as he went through the room that morning.
Case nodded at me, trying to get my attention, but when I refused to look
at him he went on his way.  Even Matt had enough sense to avoid me that
day.

When I was in the kitchen, pouring myself a drink, Russ happened to walk
in.  I glanced at him as he marched to the frig.  His stare was cold and
penetrating.  I turned myself around away from his eyes, facing the
counter, pouring my soda into a glass.

I felt his body push into mine from behind.  "Excuse me," he growled,
opening the cabinet over my head, pushing his crotch into my ass as he did.

I spun around and knocked him away.  "Get the fuck back," I said.

He faked surprise.  "I'm just trying to get a plate," he said.  "You need
to learn some fucking manners, boy."  He took a threatening step towards
me.

"You watch yourself, Russ, or I'll have Will throw you out on your ass."

He smiled, seeming to relish my threat.  "Oh yeah?  You got Will wrapped
around your finger, huh?"

"That's right," I said.  "We're buddies, him and me.  He'll do what say."

Before Russ could respond, Will came striding into the room.

"Well speak of the devil," said Russ, turning away towards the counter and
his food.

Will glared at Russ's turned back for a moment before looking at me.  "You
wanna train some?" he asked.

My heart lifted.  I had thought the training between him and I would be
over after the turn the last session had taken.  "Um, okay," I said.

After I had changed into my gym clothes, I went down into the basement,
anxious about the high probability of having an awkward talk with Will
about boundaries.  It would be embarrassing, I thought, but it needed to be
done.  I hated living in ambiguity.

But when I got down to the gym, Will made no attempt to talk about
anything.  "I thought we'd have another match downstairs," he said.  The
words were like candy to my ears.

I nodded as he led me down.  If he wanted a repeat of our last fight, he
must have gotten comfortable with the idea of physical intimacy.  I was
thrilled.

I started to pull off my shirt as we got to the place in the kennel where
the floor was stained red.

"Keep it on," he said.  "We'll fight with our clothes on for today."

Immediately my exhilaration was shattered.  Asking for us to keep our
clothes on, well that was nothing but a clear sign that he absolutely did
not want a repeat of our last fight.  He was trying to avoid as much close
contact with me as he could, and even worse, it was clear that he didn't
want to discuss anything either.  He was just going to sweep the whole
incident under the rug and forget about it.

"You ready?" he asked me.

"Okay," I said, thinking that at least my annoyance for him would make me a
better fighter.

He leaned forward, arms in an aggressive stance, and face menacing.  "Go,"
he said.

I stood my ground, waiting for him to come to me with his mock-Cougar kung
fu moves.  He came towards me alright, but not in any way I could dodge.
He flew at me, knocking me down onto the ground and hurling his heavy body
on top of me.

That was okay--close contact is what I was supposed to obtain.  I knew how
to fight in close contact.  I swung back into action, trying a quick hold
on him.

But he deflected every hold I tried on him.  And he had put me into a hold
of his own, squeezing me so hard that I cried out.

I realized that I wasn't fighting Will as Cougar today.  I was just
fighting Will, and I was losing horribly.

I tried to raise me head, but he put his hand over my face and pushed my
head to the ground.  He had his legs locked around my torso in a vice.
"Wrapped around your finger, huh?" he snarled angrily.

I tried to speak, but only let out a weak gasp.

"We may be friends, Rick, but first and foremost, I'm alpha.  This is my
fuckin house.  I'm king and you're my motherfucking subject."  He pushed
against my face harder.  "I don't ever want to hear you say anything like
that to anyone again, hear me, pup?"

He loosened his hold on me and removed his hand from my face.  "Yes," I
said.  "I'm sorry."

"I don't care about sorry.  I care about obedience."  He grabbed my hair in
his hand.  "Open your mouth," he said.  "Open it!"

I was scared.  I hadn't seen this side of Will's personality directed
towards me since he had kidnapped me in Baltimore.  I opened my mouth.

His face was directly over mine, hovering about a foot and a half above me,
his eyes digging into me and his breath heavy against my skin.  He grabbed
my chin, pulling my mouth open wider and holding it there.  He just stared
down at me, and I had no idea what he was going to do.

Then he spit, a long train of saliva passing over his lips and slowly
drifting down towards me.  I felt a bit grossed out as it landed in my
mouth, on my tongue.  He clamped my jaw shut tightly.

"Swallow it," he growled.

I swallowed his spit.  After that, he kept on holding onto me, and I
thought he might spit again or try something else.

But, he stopped, and got off of me.  Once I had proven that I was obedient,
he didn't push things any further.

"We're through with practicing for today," he said, climbing the stairs.

I was still lying on the mat after he had left, thinking how stupid I had
been to threaten Russ like I had.  I had let Will's friendship get to my
head.  After he rescued me last night, I felt like he would save me from
anything.  It was the same old trap I always fell into.  I had to stop
jumping from protector to protector.  I needed to take care of myself.

*****

That night Matt and Cougar were downstairs drinking and laughing and rough
housing while I tried in vain to sleep on my couch in the study.  Honestly,
I wasn't even tired, I just didn't have anything else to do but sleep.  I
wasn't about to join the fun; Cougar was alright company but Matt was no
longer.

Will poked his head in from the entryway.  I hadn't even realized that he
was still up.

"You still awake, huh?" he asked.  "Noise bothering you?"

"Yeah," I said.  "But don't worry, I'm not going to ask you to do anything
about it."  There was a slight amount of venom in my words.

"Good."  He started to go, then he turned around again.  "You could sleep
in my room if you want.  On my couch.  It's nicer than the shit you got
here."

"Is that an order?" I asked.  "Are you scared of me being down here by
myself?"

"No," he said, laughing.  "Really, I don't give a fuck where you sleep.
Stay down here, that's cool."

He started to walk away.

I jumped up and grabbed my things.  "Hold on, I'm coming!" I yelled.

When we got to his room, I spread my blanket out over his couch.

"Now," he said after he had shut the door.  "If you're gonna be stayin in
my room then you'll have to abide by some ground rules.  First off, there's
no snoring in my room.  If you snore then you can get the hell out."

"I don't snore," I said, crossing my arms.

"Fantastic."  He ripped off his shirt and tossed it on his dresser.
"Second, you keep your shit over there by the couch.  I don't want your
dirty laundry all over the floor, either."

"Don't worry, Will, I'm a neat person."

"Good."  He pulled his jeans off, leaving him in his boxers.  Even though I
had seen him dressed in less, the image of the front of those boxers
bulging out with his heavy package still turned me on.  "And lastly, if
you're gonna be bunking in here, you have to do what I say."

"I already have to do that," I reminded him.

"Yeah, I guess you do.  You can start by going downstairs and getting some
toilet paper from the pantry.  We're all out in here."

"Alright," I said.

I ran downstairs to get a refill on toilet paper.  When I returned, Will
was already in his bed.  After I had gotten onto the couch, feeling spoiled
from the soft cushions, Will walked over to the light switch.  "Ready for
lights out?" he asked.

"Yeah," I said.

He switched off the lights.  I sighed, digging my face into the pillow.
Will's authoritative side wasn't all that bad, but I missed the friend I
had in him days ago.  I had a feeling that friend would never return.  I
had crossed the line and now I had a price to pay.

Sadly, this was when I needed a friend the most.

*****

The next day, after a long, fully clothed training session, Will had me do
a number of chores and errands for him.  Not enough to tire me out or make
me feel dehumanized, just enough to keep it clear that he was in charge.

That night before bed, he was in his bathroom taking a shower as I lay on
the couch flipping through the channels of his TV.

He opened the door and stuck his wet head out of the bathroom, focusing on
me.  "I'm out of clean towels," he said.  "Could you run down to the garage
and get mine from the drier?"  He didn't wait for me to respond, he just
shut the door, of course knowing that I would do as he said.

Annoyed at being roused out of my bed and furthermore forced to go outside,
I didn't exactly hustle through the chore.  After I was back with his
fresh, clean towel, I knocked on the bathroom door.

"Here's your towel," I said, hearing nothing but running water through the
door.

"Bring it in!" I heard him shout.

I opened the door, passed through the sink and tub area, and went to the
shower portion of his large bathroom.  It was a walk-in shower with a
clear-glass wall dividing it from the rest of the bathroom.

Will was standing in the middle of the shower, his back facing me.  I
noticed how the water poured over the ripples of the muscles in his back,
along his dragon tattoo, and down into the crack of his firm ass.

"Here's your towel," I said.

He turned sideways, giving me a profile view of him, and I was surprised to
see his cock was hard and he was stroking it rigorously with his hand.

"Oh, sorry, I'll go," I said, obviously embarrassed.

He looked me in the eye.  "No, stay," he said.

My pulse raced as I wondered what he was going to have me do.  I watched
his hand work his cock while I waited for any request he was going to give.
His dick was a good eight inches, and thick.  Completely gorgeous, really.
His massive balls were pulled tight against his body.

I wanted so bad to touch him, to touch his cock, but he never offered an
invitation.  When his breathing became sharp and erratic and his muscles
began to tighten, I was let down.  He was going to cum and I would have no
part in it.

He turned towards me as he came, not looking at me, just turning to face
the glass wall between us.  His eyes clamped shut, he started to moan, and
he shot onto the glass.  He kept stroking as he expelled more and more cum
from his dick.  Just like last time, I was shocked how much he was able to
produce.  It was dripping down the glass in large heaps.

Once the shots of semen had fired, he leaned towards the glass and wiped
the remaining cum leaking out of him onto it.  He opened his eyes and
looked at me as he rubbed his cock against the partition.  Again his
expression was completely unreadable.

Afterwards, he quickly rinsed his off dick, turned off the water, and
walked out into the bathroom, his dick starting to soften.

"Towel," he said.

I handed him his towel and he started drying off his head, face, and upper
body.

"I'm hitting the hay," he said.  "I want you to clean up the shower before
you do the same."

With that, he put the towel around his waist and walked out of there.

I turned towards the shower and walked in.  It was clean except for the
mountain of sperm stuck to the glass wall.  I turned on the showerhead and
sprayed in the direction of the glass.  Unfortunately, the water didn't
even come close to reaching it.

I was going to have to do this the messy way.

I went over to the glass, and stuck my hands against it, scooping up as
much warm, slimy cum as I could hold.  Afterwards, I rinsed off my hands in
the water, and returned for more until I had gotten all of it.  Then I took
some wet toilet paper to clean off the semen residue and left the glass
sparkling.

When I went to bed, he was already asleep in his with the light off.  I
crept to the couch and snuggled into my blanket.

*****

"Today," said Will during our next training session, "I want you to focus
entirely on your lower body.  Until now, I've taught you how to hit, but
not how to kick.  If you're attacked out there, your legs can save your
life.  A good kick can keep a dangerous enemy at a distance.  I want you to
forget about your arms today, you won't be needing them."

"Okay," I said.  "I'll try not to use them."

"I brought some insurance."  Will pulled out a pair of handcuffs from his
back pocket.  "Hands behind your back, pup."  Will was grinning ear to ear.

"Ah jeez, can't I just hold them behind me?" I asked.

"No, this way's more fun.  It's just for today."

I groaned as I placed my hands behind my back, and Will locked them
together in the steel cuffs.

"Good.  Now, let's get started."

We spent a couple hours going through kick drills.  He taught me several
techniques, showed me how to best kick a weapon from an attacker's hand,
had me practice with my shoes on to simulate normal self-defense, and
without shoes to simulate a werewolf match.  Finally, the two of us had a
little spar.  I was flat on my face in a matter of seconds.

"You need more practice," he said.  "You're still relying too much on your
hands.  But that's enough for today."

"Great, get me out of these things," I told him, wiggling my hands behind
me.

He laughed deeply.  "No way, kid.  You're staying in those.  You need to
get used to not using your hands."

"What?  But you said it was only for today's training!"

He shook his head.  "Uh-uh.  I said it was only for TODAY."

"This sucks," I said.

"Stop crying about it and get used to it."

Walking through the house up to Will's bedroom was a real lesson in
mortification.  I was hoping no one would see me following Will through the
house in cuffs, but of course Cougar and Matt were watching TV.  They
stopped, of course, when they saw me.

"Whoa," said Cougar.  "Somebody get arrested?"

"You been naughty, Rick?" chimed Matt.

"He's training," said Will.  "Learning how to get by without his hands.
I'd teach you two the same skill but I don't want to ruin your love lives."

"Ha ha," mocked Cougar as we went upstairs.

Will took a shower when we got into his room, leaving me to fumble with the
TV remote behind my back.  I was sweaty too, but showering wasn't an option
since I couldn't even remove my shirt.

After a few minutes he called me into the bathroom.  As I walked in,
wondering what service he expected me to perform with no hands, I saw he
was jacking off again and I wondered if this was his daily routine.  Just
as he glanced my way and nodded at my arrival, he started to explode again
all over the glass wall.  After the eruption had waned, he washed himself
off and turned off the water.

As he stepped out of the shower, his body was dripping all over the tile
floor.  "Get me my towel," he said.

"With my hands?" I asked hopefully.

"Nope.  No hands.  With your teeth."

I walked over to his towel on the rack, bit into it with my mouth, and
carried it over to Will's naked form.  He took it from me gently, and
started to dry off.

After he had wrapped the towel around his waist, he said, "Don't forget to
clean the shower."

I glanced at the heaping amount of fresh semen on the glass wall.  "I need
my hands for that," I said.

He smiled coyly.  "No you don't."

I stepped into the shower.  "Should I use my feet?" I asked, trying to
figure out if it was logistically possible.

He leaned back against the counter and folded his muscular arms across his
chest.  "Not this time.  Eat the jizz."

I looked at him through the glass.  "Are you serious?"

"Do you think I'm fuckin joking around?" he asked, laughing.  "I know you
like the stuff.  So eat it."

"Okay," I said, once again feeling that unmistakably familiar combination
of sexual excitement and personal degradation.  Obviously these cuffs
weren't exclusively for training purposes.

I got down on my knees and started at the bottom, where a large amount of
cum had dripped to the floor.  I stuck my tongue into the pool, feeling its
warmth, and then just sucked the whole bunch of it into my mouth.  Even if
this was his entire load, it would have been huge.  I let it linger for a
second, definitely getting turned on, before I swallowed it down.

I peered up at him through the glass.  His face was obstructed by cum, but
I could see he was watching me with interest.

I began licking the dripping jizz up the wall, cleaning off the glass with
my tongue.  It took me a long time to get it all, and afterwards I was sure
I had swallowed enough semen to have a meal's worth.

"Nice," he said after I had finished.  He pulled his towel off his waist
and hung it up on the hook.  His cock was completely soft yet completely
alluring.  Eating his cum had been hot, but I wished I could have a taste
of its source.

I followed Will out into the bedroom.  He just sat on his bed, still naked,
and started watching TV.  I sat down on the couch and did the same.  An
awkward silence filled up the space between us.  The sexual tension was so
thick, and yet it threatened to destroy the last shreds of our normal and
healthy friendship.

It was late evening before Will said anything to me again.  Still on his
bed naked, he patted his belly and said, "I'm fuckin hungry."

"You think anyone's gotten any dinner?" I asked, diving for this meager bit
of communication like a bum for coins.

"I smell pizza downstairs," he said, once again amazing me with his
olfactory skill.  "Bring up a few slices and a beer, will you?" he asked.

"Why don't we just go down and eat together?" I asked him.

"Cause I don't want to bother getting dressed when I can just eat up here."

So I ended up having to brave going through the house once more, hoping
that this time nobody would see me.

As soon as I had gone downstairs into the second story, of course I pass
Malcolm as he walked through the hallway.

He laughed deeply when he saw the cuffs.  "Look at that!  You liked being
tied up so much you gonna wear handcuffs around the house now?"

"Shut up, Malcolm," I said, striding passed him.

Cougar was the only one in the kitchen when I came down.  He was stuffing a
large slice of pizza into his mouth.

"You still in those?" he asked, a glob of sauce dripping out of his mouth
and onto his chin.

"Yeah.  I need to get a plate of pizza and some beer," I said.  "Could you
help me out?"

He laughed.  "Is that what Will meant when he said you were learning to get
by without your hands, that you'd just start begging for favors?  I don't
think so."

"Fine, thanks for nothing," I said.

Amazingly, I was able to stack a bunch of slices on a plate, hold the plate
in one hand, and grab a bottle of beer from the frig with the other.

"Here," said Cougar, pulling off the bottle cap for me.  "Now you can't say
I didn't help you."

I thanked him and ran back up to Will's room.

Will was pleased and thankful when I presented him with dinner.  He grabbed
the plate from me and set it down on his bed.

"You want some of that beer?" he asked me.

"Okay," I said.

He jumped up and grabbed a glass that was sitting on his dresser.  Then he
sat back down on the edge of his bed and held the glass up to his chest
level.  "Here, pour me a glass and then I'll help you with the bottle."

I turned around, backed into him, and lifted up the bottle.  "I can't see
what I'm doing here," I said.

He grabbed my hand and moved it until the neck of the bottle was over the
rim of the glass.  "Okay, pour now," he said.

I started pouring the beer into the glass, completely blind, trying
carefully not to spill.

"Whoa, man, whoa!" yelled Will.  "Don't overflow it!"  I heard the sound of
liquid splashing onto the floor, and quickly upturned the bottle.  "Fuck,
kid, I wanted the beer in the glass, not all over me!"

I turned around.  Beer had splashed on Will's body from the top of his
chest down to his crotch and thighs.

"Shit, I just took a fucking shower," he said.

"Well, I'm sorry," I said.  "But you could have told me it was going to
overflow."

"Don't apologize," he said.  "Fix it.  Clean it up."  He grabbed the bottle
from my hand and set it down on the floor along with his glass.

"Okay," I said.  "Let me get a towel."

"Nah, man," he said, a wicked smile coming across his face.  "Lick it up."
He leaned back onto his elbows.  "Come on," he said.  "Like a good pup."

I hesitated momentarily even though his request couldn't have been any
clearer.  I moved up to the edge of the bed, standing in between his legs,
and started to lean towards his chest.  He grabbed onto my shoulders and
guided my head towards his right pec, where the beer splash began.

I licked at his pec, getting a mixture of beer and his hair in my mouth.  I
noticed that the beer had sort of dribbled down his nipple.  He moved my
head down towards it and I took it into my mouth, feeling it harden into a
point under my tongue, sucking up all the beer flavor and leaving behind
nothing but saliva.  Will let out a slight hiss as I did this.

He moved me lower-- I licked up the beer that had dripped along the
under-ridge of his pec, and down into his abs covered by his thick, black
treasure trail.  I licked his straight, fine hair clean, as he pushed my
shoulders further and further down.  I had to suck out the beer that had
collected in his belly button, and then I licked the last droplets out of
it before he pushed me further down.

When I got to his bush, where his fine, straight hair turned more coarse
and wiry, I could see that it was soaked with beer.  I bit into it, sucking
as much liquid into my mouth as possible, feeling the base of his dick
against my chin.

I dropped to my knees and he pushed my head towards his inner thigh,
opening his knees wide.  The leg hair there was wet and sticky, and I
lapped at his skin, his dick rubbing against my cheek and my nose against
his balls.

He pushed my head towards his beer-covered dick, and I licked eagerly at
his shaft, and then dove into his balls, licking at his scrotum even though
there was no evidence of beer there.  They were just so huge and low
hanging, how could I not give them some of my attention?

As I took one of his massive nuts into my mouth, his soft cock started
hardening against my face.  His balls raised up against his body as I was
licking them.

"You missed the beer on my dick, pup." he said.

I returned my attention to his cock.  I took the head in my mouth, sucking
the last remnants of the spilled beer away, and even when my clean-up job
was complete, I still kept sucking.

He pulled his cock out of my mouth and held me back.  "That's it, man, you
got all the beer."  He laughed and shook his cock in front of my face.
"What, you weren't done?"

"You know I wasn't done," I said.

He whipped me in the face a few times, getting his precum and my saliva on
my cheek, nose, and forehead, before sticking it back in my mouth.  "I know
what you want," he said.

I took as much of it into my mouth as I could.  He shuddered and groaned in
response.  "Jesus Christ, they really taught you how to suck dick, didn't
they?"

I wasn't surprised that he knew.  After all, finding me tied naked to a bed
wasn't exactly subtle.  As Will's hands grabbed my head, sticking his
fingers into my scalp as he held me down, a nagging voice in the back of my
head reminded me that I was, once again, being used.

"Holy fuck, kid, I'm gonna shoot.  Can you take it or do you wanna pull
off?"  I shook my head and pushed further down.  "Okay, don't say I didn't
warn you."  He dug his fingertips into my scalp and cried out.

When he came into my mouth, I almost choked on his load, it was so big.  He
produced many more spurts than I would have, and I had to swallow with each
surge or two just to keep up.

"That was fuckin fantastic," he said once it was all over.  "Haven't had
one of those since Joyce."  He pulled his cock out of my mouth.  "You
okay?" he asked.

"Uh-huh," I said.

He walked over to his dresser and pulled out a small key.  "Alright," he
said as he unlocked the cuffs.  "Go take a shower and then go to bed."

You can bet I jacked off in the shower.  After I was done, after I had come
out of the shower and found Will already asleep and laid out on the couch,
I wondered, was this really better than what I had with Russ?  Sure, I
found Will more attractive, and we were a whole lot closer than Russ and I,
but I was still giving away sexual favors and getting none in return.

The only thing I knew for sure was that Will's couch had Russ's bedroom
floor beat.  I took one last look at Will's naked body illuminated by the
streetlamp outside, and fell asleep.

*****

It had been a lazy Wednesday, but Will and I made up for it by training
late into the night

"Can you do me a favor, Will?" I asked him after we had gone up to his
room.

"I'm not much for favors, pup," he said, his back turned to me as he went
over some notes on his desk.

"Well, humor me for once.  I want you to transform for me."

He laughed and spun around to face me.  "Why would you want me to do that?"

"Because I've never really seen it.  Well, I saw you guys that one time
during the full moon, but it was dark and I was scared and I didn't get a
chance to take it all in."  I wasn't sure I was convincing him.  "Come on,
Will.  Consider it a part of my training.  You want me to understand what a
wolf can do, right?  In case one attacks me sometime?"

"Alright, you can stop begging now.  I'll do it."  I smiled thankfully as
he started to undress.  "This hurts like fuckin hell, you know, so you
should be thankful."  Once he had removed all of his clothes, he looked
down at his body.  "Here it goes," he said.  "Watch carefully."

His body started to tremble, and I could tell by his expression that he
wasn't exaggerating about the pain.  The transition from man to wolf didn't
look smooth and easy, in fact it looked quite messy.  First, it seemed, his
bones sort of shrank and pulled back into his body, leaving a pile of loose
flesh and skin on the outside.  Then, his muscles and skin contracted as
well, as he fell onto his hands.  Fur burst out everywhere, a tail popped
out of his ass, his ears grew and lifted above his head.  Finally, I saw
his muzzle pull out, his teeth growing along with it.

And then, after about fifteen seconds, there was this large black wolf
looking me in the eye.

"Awesome," I told him.  "I hope that wasn't as painful as it looked."

He made a slight howl sound, surprising me.

"Oh, I guess you can't talk when you're like that, can you?"  Not knowing
what else to do, I reached my hand towards his head.  "Good dog," I said.

Will flattened his ears and growled at my hand.  I pulled it back as he
transformed once again into a man.

"Nobody pets me without losing a hand," he said.

"Show me the other way," I requested, as giddy as a child at the zoo.  "Can
you turn from wolf to werewolf?"

"Of course," he said.  "But this time I'll just go straight to were form."

He winked at me as he started to transform.  Really, it was just like the
process of him turning into a wolf, except he was growing bigger, not
smaller, and he kept on his two feet.  He grew to about ten feet tall
(luckily the whole third story of the house had high ceilings), and was
covered in black fur.  Looking up at his nightmarish face, I recalled how
scared I had been when I had seen six of these creatures in the kennel.

"I don't suppose you can talk in this form," I asked him.

He let out a low growl, and dripped some saliva onto the floor in front of
him.

Something caught my attention on his pelvis.  "You're tattoo," I said.
Unlike the rest of him, the fur here was thin, and the tattoo clearly
showed through.  My eyes couldn't help but drift down to his cock.  It was
mostly covered in fur, but I could tell it was ridiculously huge.

He started to transform back into a man, his fur leaving his body, his
shape returning to normal, and then he started to shrink.

But he only shrank about a foot or so, and then stopped cold.  "Look what I
can do," he said in a very strange tone of voice.  It was deeper than any
man's voice I had ever heard.  "I can stop halfway between the morph," he
said.

I laughed at the odd sound of his voice.

"What are you laughing at?" he asked, insulted.

"You're voice.  You sound like Darth Vader."  Actually, his voice was much
deeper than Vader, but he got the point.  "That's really cool, though.  You
look just like a larger version of yourself."

"Most wolves can't do this, and even I can only do it when I'm turning back
into a man.  It's not particularly useful, but it's a great party trick."
He walked around, looking down at his oversized body.  "Sometimes I just
stay like this for long periods," he said.  "I think I'll stay like this
tonight."

"It must be annoying to be so huge," I said.

He started walking around the room, his weighty footsteps so loud against
the wood that I was sure he was waking the guys sleeping below.  "This
perspective renews my confidence.  Everything seems so small from up here.
Even you, pup."

The naked giant peered down at me, grinning.  Then he lifted his arm and
smelled his armpit.  "I need a shower," he said.

Seeing him try and fit through the bathroom door was sort of like watching
an adult try to fit inside a child's fort.  He had to kneel down and
squeeze his body through sideways.  "Don't break the house down, Goliath."

"Give me a hand in here," I heard him say once he was inside.

By the time I got into the bathroom he had squeezed himself into the
shower, the walls constricting him on both sides of his body.  "Good thing
I'm not claustrophobic," he said.

He turned on the water, but the showerhead only came up to his chest.  He
laboriously kneeled down to get his head wet.

"Why don't you just turn back to normal?" I asked him, thinking him very
foolish.

"Who needs normal?  This way is much more fun."  From the smile on his face
I could tell he was really enjoying himself.

The bar of soap just seemed to get lost in his huge hand, but he managed to
soap up his body anyway.  When he got to his crotch, I just stared as he
washed his cock and balls.  They looked just like they had before, only now
they were huge.

He must have seen me looking, because he smiled and said, "You want to give
it a feel?"

I shrugged, trying to play it cool.

"Come on, who are you tryin to fool?  We both know you want to.  What are
you waiting for?  Get your clothes off and hop on in!"

The time for playing it cool had gone--I frantically pulled my clothes off
and came into the shower.  I looked up at his face, and he raised an
eyebrow and gestured towards his dick.

I raised my palm underneath the head.  "It's so heavy," I said.  And it was
long two, I guessed a foot long.

His cock jumped under my touch and I marveled at the power inside of it.
Will pushed my hands away.  "If you keep touching me like that, I'm gonna
get hard.  If I get hard, I'm gonna want to cum.  And, believe me, you
don't want me to cum when I'm this size."

I wasn't so sure, but I didn't object.

"Look at you," he said, pointing to my crotch.  I had gotten an erection
without even realizing.  I was getting worse and worse at controlling those
recently.  "Seems like the little pup has a bone," joked Will.  "You wanna
get off?"

"Here?" I asked, a little surprised that Will was showing any interest in
my sexual needs.

"Why not?"

I nodded, and with Will's supersized dick as inspiration, I wrapped my wet
hand around my cock.

"You're just gonna beat off?" asked Will, his deep voice sounding terse.
"I ain't never seen a pup beat off before."

"Well, what do you suggest I do then?"

He smiled.  "Do what any good pup would do to his master."  He lifted me up
by my armpits and it was like being a small child again, being lifted by
one of my parents.  "Wrap your legs around my thigh," he said.

His thigh had truly grown to the girth of a tree trunk.  I encircled it
with my legs, sticking my cock against his wet skin.  I wrapped my arms
around his waist, and he pressed a massive hand into my back.  It was all
too obvious what he wanted me to do.

I had had many sexual experiences since I came to that house in Philly, but
that was the first time I had ever humped a man's leg.  I couldn't decide
if it was a new low in humiliation, or just harmless fun.  Regardless, with
his encouragement, I took it all the way to climax, my cum mixing with the
wet black hairs of his thigh after I had finished and slid down his leg to
the ground.

He washed his leg off and got out of the shower awkwardly, drying his
massive body with a proportionally tiny towel.

I stepped into the spray of the shower and shut my eyes, putting my
forehead against the tile wall.  I let the hot water comfort my worn out
body, wishing it would have the same effect on my worn out soul.  It was
always the worst for me after an orgasm--the sex ceased to matter and the
sickening feeling of loneliness took hold.

"You okay?" came the deep voice from the bathroom.

"I'm fine," I said, wanted him to leave me alone.

He did soon enough, and I washed my body, feeling a little better
afterwards.

When I went out into the bedroom, he was watching TV in the dark on his
bed--a king-sized Will filling up his king-sized bed.  Without looking at
him I flopped onto the couch, ready to sleep.

"Hey pup, you wanna sleep up here for the night?"  asked Will a minute
later, patting the mattress under him.  From his tone of voice I gathered
it was an insistent request.

"Okay," I said as I hopped off the couch and onto the edge of his bed,
bringing my pillow with me.

He grabbed my pillow and tossed it back on the couch.  "You won't be needed
that," he said.

He only had one pillow, which was buried beneath his giant head.  "You want
me to share yours?" I asked, disbelieving.

"No.  You sleep on my bed, you get a different kind of pillow."  He turned
so he was lying diagonally across the mattress.  Then he spread his legs
wide open.  "Get down there between my legs, where you belong," he said.

I sighed as I crawled into the space between his legs, looking at his
giant-sized cock.  I sort of curled my body up beneath him.

"Put your head on my dick," he said.

My head turned sideways, I stuck it upon his huge dick and balls, my cheek
against his shaft and his pubes against my forehead.

"You comfortable?" he asked me.

I grunted a little.  I didn't want him to think I was enjoying this.  But,
honestly, his enlarged genitals made an alright pillow.

"If you get the urge to suck on that baby during the night, you go right on
ahead."  He laughed at himself.

We both knew that was pure fantasy.  Nobody's mouth was big enough for
that.

He patted me on the head, and I fell asleep as soon as the anger over the
degradation subsided and all that I felt was a warm comfort achieved
through close physical contact.

*****

I woke up in the morning feeling constricted.  I opened my eyes and
realized why.  Will's body hadn't switched positions, he was still asleep
on his back and I still had my face against his cock.  But somewhere in the
night he had changed back to his normal size, and now his thighs were
pressed into my cheeks.  Now a full night since his shower, I could clearly
smell the masculine musk of his crotch.

Feeling a bit horny after waking up with a hardon, I decided to take
advantage of my position here.  I opened my mouth and let Will's dick slip
inside it.

It hardened in my mouth, and as I pleasured him with my tongue, he moaned
and woke up.

"I knew I wasn't dreaming," he said, raising his head to look at me with
his cock in my mouth.

I gave him a nice long blow job that morning and swallowed his cum.
Afterwards, he patted me on the head.  "Thanks, pup," he said.  "I can't
think of a better way to wake up in the morning."

He stretched his beefy arms and got out of bed.  Sucking his dick had been
fun, but I was still left horny as ever.  I was pissed off at myself for
just handing out a sexual favor like that when I knew I wouldn't get
anything in return.

As I watched Will get dressed in front of me, I was overcome with that ever
constant feeling that things just weren't right.  Clearly my relationship
with Will had taken a wrong turn somewhere, and now we were headed down a
road that I knew led to a dead end.  Before, during all my struggles with
the rest of the house, Will's friendship had been the only thing keeping me
motivated.  Now that our friendship had seemed to dissolve into something
much more basic, I felt a crushing, burdensome urge to make a change.  I
needed to act, to do something significant with myself.  There was only one
thing I could think to do.

"I want you to tell Cougar that I'm want to fight him this Friday," I told
Will.

He poked his head out of the shirt he was putting on and looked a little
confused.  "Friday's tomorrow," he said.

"Well then, we'll fight tomorrow."

He shook his head.  "Nope," he said.  "You're not ready yet."

"I don't care, I don't want to wait."

He turned his back from me, putting on his watch.  "No way.  You'll just
throw it all away if you fight him before it's time."

I hopped off the bed and walked towards him.  "So, that's it, huh?  Since
you're alpha you make all my decisions for me?"

"It's your decision.  I'm just telling you it's fucking idiotic."

"I don't care.  I'm doing it anyway."

He sighed, nodding.  "Okay.  I'll tell him.  I hope you're more ready than
I know."

He started to walk towards the door.  "Wait," I said.  "How bout you call a
house meeting, and tell him during it?"

"Why involve the rest of those fucks?"

"Please, just do it this way," I said.

"Okay."

*****

Upon my request, Will called a house meeting in the dining room to announce
that I was challenging Cougar to a fight the next day.  As everyone grabbed
a seat around the table, I purposefully positioned myself across from
Cougar.

"Alright, assholes," said Will once everyone was seated but himself.  "I
have an announcement to make."  He paused, letting them wonder for a second
what it could possibly be.  "Rick has told me that he wants to fight Cougar
tomorrow."

Cougar's expression went from bored to alert immediately.  Everyone else
seemed stunned.

"What?" asked Case.

"He can't do that," said Cougar, not looking at me.  "He can't, can he?"

"He can," said Will.

"But he's not a wolf, Will," said Case.

"That don't matter," said Will.  "He's not a guest or a prisoner here, you
yourself said that he was number seven.  He has a right to challenge Cougar
if he wants to."

Case scoffed.  "You're going to get he kid killed, Will.  Have some sense."

"He can handle it," he responded.

"Hold the fuck up," said Cougar.  "Are you telling me that I can't pick
wolf to wolf or were to were, since he can't morph?"

Will shook his head.  "No.  It's your right to chose to fight in one of
those forms.  If you did, he'd have to forfeit the fight."

Cougar laughed, obviously intent on forcing me to forfeit.

It was time for me to speak.  "Cougar, I thought you might choose to fight
me man to man."

"Why should I?" he sneered.

I leaned forward, as close to his face as I could manage.  "Because,
Cougar.  I'm asking you as a friend.  For this favor.  Are you my friend,
Cougar?"  The way I emphasized the word friend, I knew he got my drift.  He
skittishly glanced sideways at the rest of the wolves, knowing I was
threatening to release our secret.

I saw the memory of that night in the hotel room flash through his eyes.
"Sure, we're friends," he said, with a phony smile.  "I'll do it."

I sat back in my chair and smiled.

"What the fuck are you thinking, dude?" Matt asked Cougar.  Perhaps the
only thing more unexpected than me challenging Cougar to a fight was Cougar
agreeing to it.

My blackmail had succeeded.  Ironically, the people who Cougar worried he
might ruin his reputation with were the same people that had done far worse
with me than he ever had.  For once, I thanked my good luck that this house
was so secretive.

"We'll fight man to man," Cougar said to me.  "But I'm not going easy on
you.  And you better not start with that friend shit after I've beat you
half-way to fucking death."

"Deal," I said.

"This is nothing but a bad joke," said Cougar.

That seemed to be the general consensus among the wolves.  I had suddenly
turned insane, possible suicidal, and was about to make a foolish mistake.

Only Will gave me any meager amount of credibility.

"How'd you do it?" he asked me after we had gone up to bed that night.

"I threatened Cougar's biggest pride--his untarnished masculinity."  That's
all I would tell him.

After Will took his shower he came out naked, and I remembered what a
pleasure it was just to see his beautiful form in motion as he walked to
his bed and jumped upon it.  I figured he probably didn't want any more sex
after the morning blow job I gave him, so I went into the bathroom to take
my shower, wanting to get to bed and get as much sleep as I could before
the fight tomorrow.

After I was freshly clean and left the bathroom, Will was sitting up
against his headboard, his feet flat on the mattress and knees bent.  He
was squeezing his semi-hard dick with his right hand and rolling his balls
around with his left.  Obviously he was trying to get himself hard.

"Hey, come here, would ya?" he said.

I climbed upon the bed, my mood shifting seamlessly from tired to horny.
"Want me to suck you off again?" I asked, figuring that's what he needed.

He shook his head.  "Nah.  You've already done that once today.  Why don't
you just jerk me off tonight?"

I shrugged, reached between his legs, and he handed me his cock.  Instantly
it grew to its full length.

"Look at that," he said.  "I've been trying to get it up for ten minutes,
and all you have to do is touch it and it's hard as fucking steel."

I started moving my hands up and down his shaft, just enjoying the feeling
of holding it.  It seemed to me to be an object of perfection.  I had
thought Russ's cock had been perfect, but now that I had seen Will's, I
knew Russ's to be inferior.  Maybe that was just a bit of psychological
projection on my part--associating the man's dick with my feelings for the
man himself.  But, I had a hunch total strangers would have been in just as
much awe of Will's dick as I was.

I looked at his face.  His eyes were shut, and his mouth was twisted into
an unabashed smile of pleasure.  As I stroked, he started to breathe
deeply, excitedly, and his mouth fell open.  Precum began oozing all over
my hand--Will was an all around cum machine.  The precum started doing its
job, lubricating Will's cock as I stroked.

Finally, Will started to give out little moans, and then I felt his dick
twitch in my hands.  His cock was pointing up towards his body when his
orgasm came.  His first shot went the farthest, landing on his forehead
with a sticky plop, and then his second hit him on the mouth.  More and
more shots came flying, landing on his neck, his chest, and then pouring
into a messy pool around his navel.

"Jesus, Will, how can you have so much cum after already getting off once
today?"

He laughed.  "I don't know, maybe it's because I've got such big nuts.
They always seem heavy with spunk."  He peered down at his body.  "You
should have caught it in your hand or mouth or something," he chided me.
"Now, how bout licking this stuff off of me before it starts to get messy?"

I quickly lowered my head and lapped up the pool of warm cum that had
collected around his navel.  I licked it off his stomach and chest, then
moved my lips up his neck, taking in the semen that was dripping down his
adam's apple.

I looked at his face.  There was a large glob on his forehead, which I
quickly licked away.  All that remained was the cum that was covering his
closed lips.  I had never had contact with a man's mouth, and I was
uncertain if he wanted me to continue.  He looked up at me, urging me on
with his forceful eyes, and I licked at his stubbly chin, moving my tongue
over his lower lip, and then, taking my time, his upper one as well.  His
didn't have any distinct flavor, but somehow I never wanted to stop licking
them.

Then, with his resolute expression never leaving his face, Will parted his
lips just slightly as I licked at them.  My tongue slipped a tiny bit
between them, and I could still taste his cum on the inside of his upper
lip.  I felt the tiniest flick of the tip of his tongue against mine, a
small touch which couldn't have had a bigger erotic effect on me, and then
it was gone, and I pulled my tongue away.

I lifted my head up and looked into his eyes, the eroticism of the moment
fading into awkwardness.

"There," I said, eagerly turning away from him.  "I've done it, I'm done."

As I moved away from his body to the side of the bed, I completely lost my
bearings as he tackled me, wrapping me in his arms, and pinned me under
him.  I looked up at his face; desire had completely overtaken it.  That
look was unmistakable to me--I had seen it on Matt, Russ, and Case.  I knew
when I saw it I was going to get fucked.

I hoped he wasn't planning on doing it without any lube.  "Hold on, I'll go
get--"

My sentence was eclipsed as he pushed his lips against mine and his hot,
wet tongue invaded my mouth.

At first I was stunned beyond response, feeling his rough tongue force its
way around my mouth.  Then, realizing how absolutely delightful this action
was, I responded with my own tongue.  I tasted the difference between his
mouth and mine, and our tongues seemed to be engaged in a sort of dance as
they licked and teased at each other.

Soon, our tongues were doing more than just dancing--they were fighting.
He was violently thrusting his into my mouth, flicking his tongue against
my own, and I tried my best to keep up.  Meanwhile, he pulled our bodies
tightly together, so that we were once again cock to cock.  The kissing had
gotten mine rock hard, and his was starting to come back to life.

He removed his tongue from my mouth and started biting at my lower lip, his
breath snorting out of his nostrils like a bull into my open mouth.  Then
his lips were back against mine and his tongue back inside me.

We rolled around the bed, our bodies struggling together, for at least
fifteen minutes.  The kissing was completely new to me and all too
fantastic for me ever to want it to end.  How was it that it seemed ten
times more erotic than anything sexual I had done with any of the other
wolves?  This is just what I had dreamed about with Will, not servicing
him, but completely equal lovers locked in a mutual embrace.  All those
feelings for Will that I had started to doubt in the last few days came
rushing back as I realized, this was the man for me.

But then it crossed my mind that kissing, like any other form of contact,
could be completely empty.  Forced with this unhappy uncertainty, I pulled
myself away from Will's mouth.

"What are you doing?" he asked me with a touch of hurt in his voice.

"Look, Will, I have to ask.  What does this mean to you?"

Will let my body loose from his embrace.  "What, the kissing?  If you think
it means I'm gay, well I'm not."

"I didn't say that," I said, then added, angrily, "How come every straight
guy is terrified of being called gay?"

He shuddered.  "I've been in prison.  I know what that word really means."

"Whatever, I don't care what you call yourself, fact of the matter is you
just kissed me.  I want to know what I am to you.  Am I just some sort of
experiment to you?  A quick fix for your celibacy?"

He gave me a serious look.  "Come on, Rick.  Do I even have to answer that
question?  You know you mean more to me than that."

"Yeah, well, it just seems to me that before, we had gotten really close.
We were like best buds.  More like equals.  Then, everything changed."

"Fuck yeah everything's changed, what did you expect?  Everything changed
during that practice fight between us in the kennel."  He let out a deep
sigh.  "Before then, I thought you were the best friend I had been lucky
enough to make since I was turned.  I had my suspicions that you might have
been gay--"

"You did?" I interrupted.

"Of course, I'm not a complete moron.  You staying in Malcolm's room all
the time.  Then Russ's.  I thought there might have been something going on
in those rooms besides sleeping.  But, I figured it wasn't any of my
business, and left it at that.  Then came the wrestling match in the
kennel.  You sprang wood, and that got me all excited too.  As we were dick
to dick, getting each other off, I just thought, hey, it's two close
buddies helping each other out.  But then, as I was cuming, I got to
thinking about how it was probably your plan all along.  Get close to me,
make me comfortable with you, and then get sexual with me.  Yeah, I was
fucking pissed off at you.  It stung like hell."

"Wait, wait, wait right there," I said.  "I never intended to for any of
that to happen.  When we started to get close, sure I was attracted to you,
but I was never planning to act on it.  All that mattered to me was your
friendship."

"Then why did you turn the match sexual?" he asked, accusatory.

"Because I couldn't help myself.  Your body naked, all over mine.  I tried
to stop myself from getting hard but it was impossible."

"Oh.  That means a lot."  He snuggled back up to me on the bed.  "But,
after that, well, you only pissed me off more.  Making me come to your
rescue the next night like that was lower than shit.  I figured you were
throwing everything in my face, how our relationship was anything but
special, that you were getting fucked by most of the goddamn house.  Then,
the next morning, I walk in on a conversation you have with Russ, about how
I'm wrapped around you're finger.  You basically told him I was your
bitch."

"I didn't mean that," I said.  "I was just trying to protect myself.  And
believe me, if there had been any other way to get out of those ties, I
would have done it.  Calling you was just a last resort."

"Well, you should have told me that before."

I laughed.  "I tried to, but you never let me talk to you."

"I'm not any good at talking," he said defensively.

"You're fine at talking.  You're great at talking, as long as you're being
open and honest."  He was looking away from me.  "Look, all of this since
that, all of these sexual demands you've been making of me, it makes me
feel like shit."

His eyes shot back to me again.  "I thought, hey, if you wanted to turn the
relationship sexual, then I'd really turn it sexual.  What, you don't like
it?"

"No, I liked it all, but that's not the problem.  It makes me feel
worthless."

H grabbed the back of my head and his eyes tunneled into mine.  "You're not
worthless," he assured me.  "You mean more to me than I think you know or
understand."

"Well, great then, I thought before that you meant the same to me.  But I
don't want to be degraded anymore.  If you want a relationship, then that's
great, but I don't want to be your slave."

He took a moment to think about that.  "I want a relationship," he said.
"But I went through eleven years of prison without ever having to suck dick
or take it in the ass, and that's not gonna change.  If you want a
relationship with me, it's gonna go my way, on my terms."

I sighed.  "So, basically you're saying that there's no way we're going to
be equal partners."

"Right.  If you can't accept that, then we should go back to just being
friends."

"I don't know," I said, lying back and covering my eyes with my hands.  I
knew what I wanted and needed in a relationship was equality.  But, here
was Will, completely ready to start my first real relationship with me, and
the bond between us was valid and powerful.

I felt his lips against mine.  His tongue softly licked along the inside of
my upper lip.

"Okay," I said, taking my hands off my eyes.  He smiled happily as soon as
I answered him.  "How can I refuse you when you ask like that?"

"At-a-boy," he said.  "It'll be my way, right?"

"Your way.  I can handle that.  But no more ordering me around like you
have been."

He laughed.  "That was just because I was pissed off at you.  It's already
over.  But, don't forget, in front of any of the others, I'm still alpha,
and you do what I say."

"I know, I know."

Will kissed me again.  "This is the first time I've ever kissed a guy," he
said.  "It's just like kissing a woman.  I enjoy it."  He kissed me again.

"Yeah, well, this is the first time I've kissed anybody," I said.

"Really?  Never even kissed a girl?"

"Not like this I haven't."

He kissed me again.  "How do you like it?" he asked.

"It's perfect.  Better than any sex I've had."

He yawned, stretching out his arms above him.  "You ready for bed?"

"Uh huh.  Do I have to sleep with my head on your dick again?"

"No, you'll sleep up here in my arms."

He stretched out sideways on his left side with his hand under his head and
his bulky arm and elbow sticking out in front of him.  With his right arm,
he pulled me against his body, back first.

"I'm taller than you, so I'll put my head on the pillow," he said.  "Why
don't you try sleeping on my arm?"

I rested my head on his large bicep.  It was surprisingly cozy. Even though
he had just showered, I could smell his slight scent coming from his open
underarm.  Instead of being erotic, his smell was simply comfortable.  It
made me feel at ease.

He spooned his body against mine, his soft dick hitting my ass.

"I have a feeling this is the start of something really great," he said,
very simply.

I had a feeling he was right.

*****

The next morning I woke up before Will, my head ringing with the loud voice
of my suppressed conscience.

I shook Will awake.  "Will, wake up, there's something I gotta tell you."

He stirred and groaned.  "Later," he said, keeping his eyes firmly shut.

I shook him again.  "Will, I poisoned you!"

His eyes opened wide at that declaration.  "What the fuck are you talking
about?" he asked, obviously thinking I had gone completely nuts over the
course of the night.

I had to set things straight.  "It was me that poisoned you before your
second fight.  Me, not Matt."

He sat up against the headboard.  "You did that?"

"Uh-huh."

He shook his head.  "But why?"

"Malcolm convinced me to do it.  He wanted you to lose so you wouldn't be
able to fight him.  It was stupid of me to just go along with him like
that.  Really it was the stupidest thing I've ever done and I'm sorry."

He wrapped his arm around my neck.  "Hey, it's okay.  You were just a naive
kid back then who would have done anything anyone asked of you."

I smiled, feeling the warmth of his arm spread through my body.  "That's
true.  I've changed so much in such a short period of time."

"That's what happens when ordinary people are put into extraordinary
situations."  He pulled me against his body.  "You know, I've been a total
asshole to Matt ever since that incident."

"You're a total asshole to everyone," I reminded him playfully.

"Yeah, but to Matt I've been the biggest asshole that ever was."  He
groaned.  "Maybe I should go talk to him about it."

I shook my head.  "No, just let sleeping dogs lie," I said.  "It'll just
make things worse for me if you drag this out into the open."

"Okay," he said.  "But I'm gonna start treating Malcolm like shit in
retaliation.  I always thought he was the nice one."

I laughed.  "You really don't know him at all."

He started to get out of bed.  "You'd better get up.  You have a fight
today."

*****

Cougar was in the gym all day practicing.  I didn't get in his way.  I was
convinced that no last-minute training would win the fight anyway.

Before the fight, in his bedroom, Will went over every pointer he could
think of with me.  I realized he was more nervous than I was myself.

"I'm heading down," he said.  "I'm alpha now, so I've got to get things
going.  Good luck."

"Will?" I asked before he could leave.  He turned around.  "Am I going to
win?"

He thought about it.  "I don't think so," he said.  "But you'll try.
Hopefully you won't lose any teeth today."

He smiled and left.  I knew he was just being honest, but I really could
have used some vote of confidence.  I took a deep breath or two, and went
downstairs.

My heart pounding in my chest, I walked down the stairs and into the
kennel.  Matt, Malcolm, Russ, and Case were all on the outside of the bars,
and they all turned to look at me as I walked in.  None of them said
anything, and I had no idea who they were rooting for.

 I walked passed them through the gate.  Will was in a dark corner,
standing tall, ready to officiate.  Cougar was hopping around, getting
pumped up.  He scowled when he saw me.  I looked away.

"Alright, let's get things started," said Will.  "Clothes off!"

I took off my shorts, my shirt, and my boxers, and put them in a corner.
Cougar undressed as well, pulling off his wife-beater and shorts--he wasn't
wearing any underwear.

It had been a long time since I had seen Cougar naked and his attractive
body preoccupied me.

"Ready... Go!" yelled Will.

Cougar bounced around lightly, leering at me, trying to intimidate me.  I
stood my ground.  I knew I needed him to come to me.

"What's wrong," said Cougar.  "Are you afraid of me?  Frozen stiff?"

I didn't answer, I just held my ground.

Cougar sprang at me, kicking me square in the jaw.  I took a step back.
Then a punch hit me in the eye.  I tumbled back again.

Dodge, I needed to dodge.  Angry at myself for getting caught up in the
moment and not holding my focus, I planted my feet firmly into the ground,
and concentrated.

The next punch Cougar threw I dodged successfully.  I heard the spectators
gasp in surprise.

This just angered Cougar further.  "You won't be doing that twice," he
said.

He hit me again, but this time his punch was entirely expected.  I easily
dodged the blow, and grabbed his outstretched arm.  With just a simple
takedown he was on the ground, with me on top of him.

It hit me that his dick was touching my stomach, and I froze.  I had almost
no experience fighting in the nude, and the one time I had done it, the
match had degenerated into sex.

Cougar took advantage of my anxiety and started to hit me, trying to get
out from under my body.  When I took another blow to my face, my hesitance
was replaced by angry aggression.  I pinned his arms down, and sat across
his chest.  Holding his arms against the sides of his body with my knees, I
started hitting him in the face.  The first hit wasn't that hard, but then
I went harder and harder.  The watchers gasped as blood started to pour out
of Cougar's nose and mouth.  It wouldn't be long before I knocked him out.

But then I caught myself, and stopped hitting.  What was I doing?  What had
I turned into?  I didn't want to hurt Cougar, and yet here I was with his
blood all over my knuckles.

That's how I learned never to take time out to have a moment of
psychological reflection in the heat of a fight.  Before I could finish my
line of thought, Cougar had reversed our roles, sitting on top of me,
hitting me in the face.

Each blow seemed more and more painful.  Fear coursed through me as I was
reminded of my run in with Hadrian.  I tasted blood, blood stung my eyes.

"Cougar, stop that," I heard Case say.  "You've proven your point."

He was still hitting me.

"Jesus, Coug, he's just a weak little man," said Matt.  "Take some pity,
bro."

I started to scream in pure anger.  I was NOT a weak little man and I would
prove it.  I summoned every ounce of frustration that I had inside of me
until I felt the power surging through my blood.  I was completely ignited.

Still screaming, I grabbed Cougar's chest with my left hand.  Then he was
the one who was screaming as the hits stopped coming.  His body started
convulsing under my hand, and then he had fallen over, his head landing
sideways on the ground.  Everyone gasped.

"Match over!" yelled Will.

The other rushed through the bars.

"Is he dead?" asked Malcolm.

"What the hell did he do to him?" asked Russ.

I sat up, breathing hard.

"Look at that," said Matt.  "It's like it's burnt right into him."

On the middle of Cougar's chest was my handprint, engraved in red into his
skin.

"It's okay," said Case.  "He's still alive."

Will helped me to me feet.  "How did you do that?" he asked.

I just shrugged.  I had no idea how I had done it or even what it was I had
done.

"Come on," he said.  "Let's get you into the shower."

"Hold on," I replied.  "I want to make sure he's okay."

I turned to look at Cougar's limp body.  Case was trying to revive him.

He started to cough.  "What the fuck happened, man?" he asked.  I noticed
that the handprint was starting to disappear, and I was glad for it.

"Rick hit you with something I've never seen before," said Case.

Malcolm and Russ were getting up to go.  Will was ready to help me to the
shower, but I didn't need any help.

When I cleaned up my body in Will's bathroom, I scraped away the bloody
scabs from my face.  Underneath them, the wounds had healed.  I laughed
happily as I washed my face clean.  You would never have known that I had
just been in a fight.

Later on, before the high of winning my first fight had started to dwindle,
I went downstairs and knocked on Cougar's door.

"Yeah, yeah, come in," he said.

I opened the door.  He was shoving his things in boxes, trying to organize
the mess of his room.  He didn't look at me as I came in.

"I'm almost done," he said.  "That's why you came, isn't it?  To remind me
to get the fuck out of your new room?"

I shook my head.  "No, I just came to talk."

"What is there to say?"

"I have no idea what that was, the thing I did to you," I said.  "I didn't
plan it.  It just happened."

"Yeah, well, you didn't break any rules, did you?  So I guess I can't
argue.  It's back to the bottom for me, after losing to a fucking teenager.
Back to the motherfuckin bottom, and now I won't even have a room."

He shoved a baseball cap into his box.

"Look, stop packing," I said.  "Keep the room, I don't need it," I said.

He perked up and looked me in the eye.  "What?  Really?"

"Yeah," I said.  "It's a crappy room anyway.  No big loss."

He cracked a small hint of a smile.  "Thanks, dude," he said.

"But that's the only thing I'm giving up," I said.  "No more ordering me
around.  And if I want to use the 2nd story bathroom, I'll use it, whether
I'm sleeping on the 2nd story or not."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," he said.  "I get it--you're the boss now.  At least the
boss of me."

"Yes, that's right," I answered.  "Luckily for you I'll be less of a jerk
to you than you were to me."

He laughed.  "Aw, I don't deserve you," he said mockingly.

"Just shut up and unpack," I said.

*****

That night, Will took me out for dinner and drinks to celebrate my victory.
It was like our friendship had picked up where it left off after the odd
interlude that we had just passed through.  The celebration continued later
on in his bedroom, long after everyone else had gone to sleep.

We were both naked on top of his bed.  He was on his knees and I was
stroking his hard cock.

"I still can't believe how hard you nailed him," he said.  "I thought he
had you, but I guess I underestimated you.  You're the motherfuckin one
with the gift, so I should have known."

"It was no big thing," I said.

He laughed.  "Don't downplay your victory," he said.  "You were a fuckin
stud today."

He jumped out of bed, and grabbed some things out of his desk.

"Here," he said, after he had gotten back onto the bed and was kneeling in
front of me again.  He handed me a large, black marker.  "I want you to
give me your autograph."

"What?"

"Come on, you were an all-star today and I want your goddamn autograph."

I pulled the top of the marker off.  "Where?"

"On my dick, of course," he said.

I looked down at his hard cock.  "I can't do that," I said.

"You sayin there's not enough room for your fuckin signature?" he asked,
acting insulted.

"It's a permanent marker," I said.

"Who cares?  Come on, it'll wash off eventually.  Until then it'll be like
my third tattoo.  Everyone will know who my dick belongs to."

I grabbed a hold of his dick with my left hand, and signed my name with my
right.

"Fuckin beautiful," he said.  After he had admired my John Hancock, he
stuck a cigar in his mouth, and stuck one in mine as well.

"I've never smoked before," I told him, taking the cigar out.

"Well then you need to catch up for lost time."  He grabbed the cigar and
stuck it back into my mouth before lighting it with his lighter.

I started to cough as he lighted his own.

"Don't inhale so much," he said.

We lay there in bed, side by side, staring at the cigar smoke rising to the
ceiling.

"I think you became a man today," he said.

Aside from the boost in ego and a new sense of confidence, I really didn't
feel any different.

I didn't want to talk about the fight anymore.  I pulled the cigar out of
my mouth, and rolled on top of Will.

"Will?" I asked.  "Can I kiss you?"

He pulled his cigar out of his mouth, grabbed mine, and put them on the
nightstand.  "You don't have to ask," he said.

So, I kissed him, tasting his cigar in his mouth as I stuck my tongue
inside.  Or hands explored each other's bodies, and we rolled around the
bed, still lip-locked, until he was on top of me.

After a few minutes of blissful kissing, he broke apart our lips.  "I want
to fuck you," he said.  "I've wanted to for so long."

"Okay," I said.

"Don't be so quick to agree," he said.  "I don't mean to brag, but I got a
big dick.  I don't want to hurt you."

"I think I can take it," I said.  "I've had some practice."

He smiled wickedly, and ran into the bathroom to get some lotion.

"Shall I turn over?" I asked once he had gotten back onto the bed.

"No," he said.  "I want you to see my face when I fuck you."  He lifted up
my knees.  "Here, put your arms under your knees."  I did as he asked,
holding my legs up.  "You comfortable like that?"

"Yeah," I said.

"Good, because you'll be holding that position for a long time."

He felt his fingers against my hole, applying the cold lotion.

"I'm not much of a talker when I'm doing this," he said.  "But just because
I'm not saying anything, that don't mean that I'm not enjoying it.  I just
focus on all the pleasure I'm feeling."  He started lubing up his dick.

"That's fine," I said.  "I'm not a talker either."

"Good," he said.  "Really, how can fuckin words describe what I'll be
feeling anyway?"  He stuck the head of his dick against my asshole.  "Now,
this is your last chance to back away.  I won't be upset if you do.  Once
I'm inside you, I'm going all the way in.  I want you to feel what it's
like to have all of me, completely."

"I'm okay," I said.

"Are you sure?  Because once I start I won't be able to stop.  It's been
decades since I've done this, and I plan to fuck you hard."

All of these warnings were making me feel uneasy, but I fought it off.  "If
you want to fuck me, then I want you to fuck me too," I said.

He smiled, and locked eyes with mine.  Next thing I knew he was pushing in,
his dickhead feeling smooth and warm around my hole.  As he pushed into me,
I felt pain.  It was probably a combination of not having fucked for a good
while, along with the simple fact that Will was very well endowed.  I cried
out a little as his head pushed into me, questioning whether or not this
was such a good idea, but then once his dickhead was firmly inside, the
pleasure returned.

He very slowly eased his cock all the way in, and then looked down at my
face.  I smiled at him, and he returned the smile.  He pulled his hips
back, and his cock started to move out of me, a new wave of pleasure
hitting me.

He started to rock back and forth, going in and out with slow, deliberate
strokes.  He grabbed my knees and put them over his shoulders.  I felt his
sweaty back under my calves as he continued to slide gently in and out.

Needless to say my cock was painfully erect between our bodies.  I breathed
deep and concentrated on the wonderful feelings he was creating in me.

He pulled out again, pausing with just his dickhead inside of me, and
lowered his eyebrows into an intense look.  Then, he slammed his cock into
me, making a loud slapping sound against my ass with his body.

I knew this was the hard fucking he had warned me about.  His touch changed
from gentle to wild and rough as he pulled back out and slammed back into
me again.  The pleasure I had been feeling began to be laced with pain
again as he continued to collide his body with mine.

But the pain was irrelevant.  I couldn't have stopped Will if I tried.  He
was possessing me, and was completely in control.

He reached up with both hands and pinched and twisted my nipples.  Just
like the fucking, it was a forceful touch, it was both painful and
pleasurable.  I cried out, and he fucked me harder and harder.

Every muscle in my body rocked and pulsed as my orgasm hit me, and I
emptied my semen onto my stomach.

He kept on going, thrusting his sweaty body against mine again and again.

Then, he stopped moving.  His eyelids started to droop, and his mouth
opened and a long moan escaped his lips.  He was filling me up with his
cum.  There was so much of it I could actually hear it oozing out of me.

His heavy body collapsed onto me as my knees slipped off his shoulders.  He
looked down at my face, a drop of sweat falling from his chin to mine, and
then kissed me, fucking me just as hard with his tongue as he just had with
his cock.  I wrapped my legs around his body and squeezed, not wanting this
moment to end.

He broke the kiss finally, panting and smiling at me.  "Was it worth it?"
he asked.

"It was," I said.

He lifted my legs back up, and twisted me around until I was lying on my
left side.  He twisted his own body, his hard dick never leaving my ass,
and then laid down and spooned me from behind.

"I never want to be out of you again," he said, his dick starting to soften
as it lay buried inside of me.  He pulled me back against his body, and put
his arm under my head like before.  "I want you to tell me," he said into
my ear, "that you're mine and only mine.  I don't want you ever to fuck
around with the others again.  Will you promise me that?

"You're alpha," I said.  "You make the orders, and I follow them."

"No, that's not good enough," he said.  "I'm not ordering you, I want you
to promise and I want you to mean it."

"I promise," I said.  "But I expect monogamy from you too."

"No shit," he said.  "You're the first person I've had sex with in thirty
years.  Believe me, there's no one else, and there probably never will be."

I was amazed how quickly things turned around for me.  I knew I was wrapped
up in Will, and not just physically this time.  Happiness, joy, and all
those other fabulous emotions that had eluded me my entire life now filled
me to the brim, and it almost made me cry.  Surely, this was some sort of
mistake made by fate.  Surely I wasn't meant to be this happy.

He kissed the back of my head.  "I hope you meant what you said before,
about not leaving me.  Because, especially now, if something happened to
you, I'd be completely fucked on my own."

"Nothing's gonna happen to me," I reassured him.

He kissed my shoulder.  "Good.  Let's get some sleep."

I almost didn't want to sleep, knowing that I wouldn't feel his body
against mine in my dreams.  But, eventually the comfort overtook me.

*****

The next day was spent telling Will everything in detail that had happened
between me and the other wolves, sexually or otherwise.  He already had a
good idea, but I filled him in on the details.  I thought I owed it to him
to be completely honest.

After we had gone out for more cheesesteaks, Will asked me, "How come you
didn't tell me all of that sooner?"

I shrugged.  "I thought you'd be angry at me.  Maybe a little ashamed."

"Why should I be?  You're gay, you can't help it, and because of that they
took advantage of you.  You can't blame yourself."

"I don't blame myself.  Really."  A new thought crossed my mind and a broad
smile crossed my face.

"What are you so happy about?" he asked.

"I just realized that you know everything about me now."

I noticed, behind Will and down the street, there was a man standing
against the side of a building, reading a paper.  But every now and then,
his eyes would leave the paper and land on me.  I ignored it.  Will had
firmly placed himself at the center of my attention.

"You pretty much know everything there is to know about me, too," he
answered.

I smiled at Will, but again I noticed the man checking me out.  At first I
thought he might have been a vampire, but he didn't look like any that I
had seen so far.  He was a skinny but attractive man in his forties with a
receding hair-line.  His clothes were casual, something a tourist might
wear.  All the vampires I had seen had been younger looking, more
attractive, and dressed with a certain flare.

But that didn't mean he couldn't be a wolf, or (as my heart jumped) one of
those other things.

I nodded towards the man.  "Hey, check out this guy standing with the
newspaper," I told Will.

He laughed at the request.  "Oh no.  So, I find you attractive.  That
doesn't mean I want to start checking out all the hot guys you notice."

"No, not check him out like that.  Just look at him!"  I pointed towards
the man's direction, but he was gone.

"Where?" asked Will.

"Never mind, he must have turned the corner.  He was creepy, he kept on
looking at me."

Will laughed.  "Maybe he was checking YOU out."

I laughed and brushed away my concerns over the strange character.

"What do you say we go home and have an early fuck?" asked Will as he
finished his sandwich.

"Sounds good to me."

*****

The days that followed might be considered the honeymoon period of our
relationship.  We were constantly together, either going out and having
fun, or staying in and having great sex.  Really I couldn't have asked for
more, and Will couldn't have been more devoted to me.

Finally, a week after the official beginning of our relationship, I was
able to pull myself away from Will and function on my own, settling in to a
healthy and comfortable normalcy.  Will had a pack to run, and I turned my
focus back to my training.  I still had a lot of improving to do.  I had a
lot to prove and I was determined to keep on working my up in the pack.

One day, I was training alone in the gym, knocking around the punching bag
as skillfully as I could.  Matt came down the stairs, a towel around his
neck.  He nodded to me.  I kept hitting the bag.

"It's just a waste of time, man," he said, stopping in front of me.

I stopped hitting.  "What is?" I asked.

He nodded to the bag.  "Training like that.  You're planning to fight me,
aren't you?"

I raised my chin.  "Maybe so."

He smiled.  "When you do, I'll just pick wolf and you'll be disqualified."

"Come on, Matt," I said.

He shook his head.  "No.  I don't know how you got Cougar to fight you, but
it's not gonna work on me."

"Come on, Matt.  If I'm stronger than you, than I deserve to be above you.
It's only fair."

He smiled lewdly.  "Yeah, so?  When have I ever played fair?"

I racked my brain for any ammunition I had against him.  "If you don't
fight me, Matt, I'll tell Cougar everything about you.  He already calls
you `pretty boy.'  What do you think he's gonna start calling you when he
hears you like sex with guys?"

He smiled and pointed a finger at me.  "Look at you.  Making threats as
good as any wolf.  But, the problem here is that I don't give the slightest
fuck what Cougar thinks about me.  Tell him whatever the hell floats your
boat, man.  We're still not fighting.  Not now, not ever."

Not seeing any way for me to get what I wanted from him, I left the
conversation at that and went upstairs to vent to Will.

"There's nothing you can do," he said after I relayed to him our
conversation.  "You'll just have to wait until Matt changes his mind or you
find a way to change it for him."

I sighed deeply, jumping onto the bed.  "That could take years."

"So what?  One thing we all have is time."

"I don't want to wait."  I clenched my fist around a handful of Will's
sheets.  "Basically, no matter how hard I train or how strong I get,
there's nowhere for me to go here."

That seed of discontent that I had always pushed to the back of my mind
during my happy times with Will took root and started to grow.  I knew I
was happy with Will.  But was romantic happiness worth sacrificing my
personal glory?

"I don't belong here," I said to Will.

"Of course you belong here," he said.  "Things are great for us here."

"That's easy for you to say," I said.  "You're alpha, you're at the top.
I'm practically at the bottom and I have no way to improve myself."

"Just give it some time," he said.  "Everything changes with time."

After several more days, I was positive that the situation between Matt and
I would never change.

One thing that did change with time, however, was my happiness with my
relationship with Will.  Obviously, he thought things couldn't be better
between us--something that he found amazing because he had never had a
relationship with a man before me.  And while my respect, admiration, and
attraction to Will never wavered, I felt a little bitter about being the
submissive one in the relationship.  I felt that if he really felt as
strongly for me as he said, he would want us to be equal completely.

But, I had agreed to his terms, I remembered.  I had made my bed and now I
was lying in it.  And, hell, it was a damn fine bed to lie in--I had no
real cause for complaint.

*****

I was out shopping for clothes, something I detested because I had no
fashion taste and no taste for fashion, but I needed to replace some of my
old, worn-out rags.  I had asked Will to come along with me, but he
refused, handing me a few hundred dollar bills instead.

I was walking down the street, weighed down by clothing bags, when I got
the odd feeling I was being watched.  I turned my head behind me, and
almost jumped when I saw the same man that I had seen when I was eating
cheesesteaks with Will.  He was about twenty yards behind me, weaving
through the crowd.

I didn't know what he was or why he seemed to be following me, and I wasn't
going to stick around to find out.  I quickly ducked into another clothing
store, a hip, trendy one that I would never have gone into unless, like
today, I was chased into it by a potentially dangerous villain.

"Can I help you?" asked the horn-rimmed glasses woman who was dressed all
in black.

"Do you have a back exit?" I asked her.

"Yes," she said.  "Just for the employees."

"Could I use it?  There's this weird guy who's been following me and I just
want to disappear."

She smiled.  "Of course."

She led me back into the `employee's only' part of the store.

"Do you want me to call the police?" she asked.

"No thanks."

The back exit led me to a back alley.  I walked out to another major
street, caught a cab, and went home.

I told Will what had happened after I had gotten back.

"I wouldn't worry about it," he said.

I was shocked how relaxed he seemed to be.  "Not worry about it?  Who knows
how long he's been following me around."

"If he was a threat to you, he would have acted by now.  The guy probably
just wants to talk to you."

I wasn't reassured.  "Well, I'm not going out for now unless your there
with me."

*****

Later that night, after Will had fucked me, he sat beside me in bed, a
cigar in his mouth and ashes falling on his stomach.  This was as good a
time as any; I brought up everything about our relationship that had been
weighing me down recently.

"Will, I have something on my mind," I said.

"What's on your mind?"

I took a deep breath.  "Well, frankly, I'm sick of getting fucked."

He laughed.  "Oh yeah?  That's not what it sounds like when I'm fucking
you."  He laughed.

But I was being serious.  "I know I said before that we'd do things on your
terms, but I'm sick of being submissive.  I've been submissive my whole
life.  I want something else."

"What do you want, then?  To be dominant?"

I thought about it.  "No.  I want equality.  I want us to be equals."

He snickered.  "Equality has no meaning among wolves.  I'll always be your
superior."

His irrelevant response frustrated me.  "Well, fuck the wolves.  I'm not a
wolf, I don't want to be a wolf, and I think the wolf hierarchy sucks."

"It's not just the wolves, the rest of the world has hierarchies of its
own.  In a heterosexual couple, men traditionally are in charge of the
relationship.  They pay for the dates, they make the big decisions.  Hell,
even my wife, who I loved to death--that was a horrible word choice."  He
rubbed his brow.  "Even my wife never forgot who wore the pants."

"But I'm not a woman," I said.

"You think it's any different for gays?  You don't know shit about it.
There's tops, and there's bottoms.  The tops are aggressive and the bottoms
are submissive.  It's just like us."  He wound me up in his arms.  "Are you
gonna tell me you're unhappy with what we got?"

"No," I said.  "I'm happier with you than I ever have been."

"Good.  Because to me, things are perfect."

"I guess I'm just hoping for something that doesn't exist," I said.

But I wasn't convinced.  I still had that nagging sensation that I didn't
belong here, not with Will or any of the other wolves.

Like always, I pushed my discontentedness into the back of my head, not
wanting to upset Will by talking about it.  He told me he hadn't been this
happy since before he was turned.  I was happy that Will was happy, and I
convinced myself that that was enough for me.

*****

One morning, Will and I went to eat breakfast at a coffee shop not unlike
the one in Baltimore where we had met.  We sat in a booth together, and as
Will finished his omelet and me my pancakes, I saw my stalker-man enter the
restaurant behind Will.

"There he is!" I muttered to Will.

"Who?"

The man scanned the restaurant, briefly locked eyes with me, then asked for
a table from the waitress.

"The man who's been following me!  Look, there.  In the blue-button up
shirt."  I was determined that Will not miss him again.

Will twisted around and looked at the man who was just sitting down.
"That's him?" he asked.

"Yeah.  Do you smell him?  What is he?"

Will took a pronounced sniff.  "Human.  Besides you, me, and the hash
browns burning in the kitchen, there's nothing that smells unusual here."

I kept my eyes on the man.  He was looking at his menu now, not at me.
"Well then, why is he following me?"

Will started to get up.

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"To the bathroom, to take a nice long piss.  Let's see if he takes the
opportunity to introduce himself to you."

"Wait," I said.  "What if he attacks me?"

"I'm sure you can take care of yourself.  He's only human, after all."
Will smiled, winked, and headed for the restroom.

I watched the man watch Will leave.  He looked at me again.  I was looking
right at him--it must have been clear that I knew he was watching me.  He
seemed to come to a decision, and then he set down his menu and walked in
my direction.

"Mind if I sit down?" he asked when he had approached my table.

"Go ahead," I said, playing with my silverware nervously.

He quickly sat down, and looked around with shifty eyes.  "We don't have
much time before he gets back.  Do you know what he is?"

I nodded.

"Good.  Do you know what you are?"

I nodded again.  "Yeah.  But I don't know who you are."

He leaned in close to me.  "I'm here to help you.  I want to help you find
your strength."

Excitement and possibility fluttered through me.  "You can teach me?"

He nodded.  "But there's no time to talk about this here.  Meet me in
Fairmount Park today.  I'll be waiting in the Wissahickon Ravine all
afternoon.  Can you get away?"

"I can."

"Good.  Come alone."

The man's nervous eyes flew towards the direction of the bathroom as Will
came out of it.

"I have to go," said the man.  He got up quickly and quietly, and exited
the restaurant before Will sat back down.

"What was that about?" he asked.

I looked to the table to my right.  A plump woman in her forties was
looking at us out of the corner of her eye, obviously trying to make sense
of the conversation she was overhearing.

"Let's go home and I'll tell you about it," I said, craving privacy.

"Fair enough."

We got up to go.

I didn't tell Will about the conversation until we were locked safely in
his room.  Will removed his shirt and wiped the sweat from his brow.  It
was a hot day.  The meager AC pouring into the room was the only relief
from the heat of the afternoon.

"The guy from the restaurant, he says he knows what I am.  He says he wants
to help me get strong."

Will nodded.  "The last one with the gift must have had one hell of a team
backing him up.  I'll bet this guy is one of those.  He'll know how to
teach you things I'll never be able to."

"He asked me to meet him in Fairmount Park.  In the Wissahickon Ravine.
I'm gonna go see what he has to say."

Will leaned back against the wall.  "Are you sure this is what you want?"

"I'm sure," I said.

"Then you should go.  I'll drive you there."

I remembered the man's request that I come alone.  I shook my head.  "It's
okay, I'd rather take the bus."  I turned to go.  "I'll be home later on,"
I said.

"Hey Rick?"

"Yeah?"

"Be careful out there."

*****

When I got to the ravine, I had to search around for the man.  Finally I
saw him, sitting on a park bench in a secluded grove of trees, looking
mildly out of place.  He waved at me as soon as he saw me, cracking a
half-smile.

"Hello there Rick," he said.  "Please take a seat."  His tone was no longer
nervous, it was courteous and professional.

I sat beside him on the bench.

"I guess I have some explaining to do," he said.  "Don't worry, I'm here to
help you."

"How do I know I can trust you?" I asked, wanting to be as cautious as
possible.

He laughed.  "Because I'm the good guy.  Your guardian angel, so to speak."

"But you're human, right?" I asked, thinking how absurd my question would
sound to any normal person.

"Yes.  As human as you are.  Only I belong to an organization that has been
around for many centuries.  We call ourselves the Bridge.  Have you heard
of us?"

"No."

"Our main objective is to find, train, and support the one with `the gift.'
Right now that person is you."  He looked away, nervously.  "How much do
you know about this?"

I swallowed, thinking about the sparse details I had been told.  "I know
that I have some sort of gene that is only passed through men."

"Right," he said.  "That gene only becomes active in the oldest living man
that carries it.  That's you."

I nodded.  "And I know that this gene is supposed to give me certain
powers.  I've experienced some already."

"That is good.  You are starting to discover yourself intuitively.  But the
Bridge can train you, Rick.  We can bring out in you your full potential.
Our last pupil lived over a century, and kept the destructive forces of
this world at bay during the entire span of his life.."

"So that's it, you want me to become some sort of vigilante?" I asked.  "Or
an exterminator?  Killing vampires and wolves?"

His face looked grave and stern.  "To save the lives of all their potential
victims, yes.  You must kill to protect."

I wasn't about to be some puppet for a powerful organization.  "And if I
refuse?"

"Nothing will be forced upon you, Rick.  You make your own decisions."

I thought about this.  "Why did you wait until now to come and find me?" I
asked.

He shook his head.  "The Priory has been in shambles since our last pupil,
`The Red,' was killed.  It seemed to us that he would never be defeated,
and we got sloppy.  When he died, we were not prepared to locate the next
carrier of the gene.

"Since then, we've redoubled our efforts.  Our genealogists have tracked
down two brothers who carried the gene, along with you.  The younger one
has already been killed.  The older one has become a vampire himself.  The
vampires thought that they would prevent another one from gaining `the
gift' in this way.  But this was foolish.  Turning into a vampire, or wolf,
or whatever, is essentially the death of the human being and the birth of a
new creature entirely.  When they turned that carrier into a vampire, they
forfeited his claim to the gene, and that's when your gene became active.
We've been looking for you for weeks.  It seemed to us that you just
vanished into thin air.  Luckily, one of our agents spotted you here, in
Philly, and I've been on your tail for a while now.

"Unfortunately, our situation has now become quite dire.  As far as we
know, you are the last man alive with the gene.  And once the gene becomes
active, as it is in you, its carrier becomes infertile.  Do you know what
that means, Rick?"

I considered.  "It means there will never be another one with `the gift'
after myself," I said.

"Exactly.  So you are our last chance to finally rid humanity of its
predators.  That's a lot of pressure, not just for you, but for all of us."

"What if I was to fail?  What if I died?" I asked.

He shook his head.  "In the absence of a trained slayer, the vampires have
multiplied and spread across the world, showing their wrath.  The wolves
have been almost completely wiped out.  They are done for, the vampires
will exterminate them soon enough.  Then, we believe, the vampires will
make their existence public and take control of society.  Mankind would
become livestock to the physically superior animal, unless you were there
to prevent this.  If you died--well maybe there was someone else with the
gene who has slipped through our fingers.  But even if there was, we have
no way of finding them.  No, if you were to die, then I'm afraid things
would be very grim."

I couldn't believe all of this.  Here I had been living for weeks believing
my actions had very little consequence on anybody but myself.  Now this man
was laying the fate of the world upon my shoulders.  I didn't want the
burden, but I couldn't shrug it off.  I had to be heroic like the men in
all those novels I had read.  They always embraced their destinies.
Somehow, I knew this was the path I was meant to take.

"I'll go with you," I said.

He smiled.  "Excellent.  We will do everything we can to make you as
comfortable with the transition as possible."

"But I should go home first.  To tell the wolves where I'm going."  I had
to tell Will.  That would be one tough good-bye.  I had promised him that I
would never leave him, but I just didn't belong there.  Hopefully he would
understand.

The agent looked very stern.  "No, that would only endanger you.  We'll
leave right now."

"You don't understand, I have to go back."

He shook his head.  "You cannot.  If you're committed to this course of
action, you'll come with me right now."

"Fine," I said.  I'd just have to find a way to contact Will later.

The agent looked around, checking for any prying eyes.  There was nobody to
see him reach into his bag and pull out a gun, handing it to me.

"Do you know how to use this?" he asked.

I shook my head.  "I've never touched a gun before."  I held it nervously
in my hand, thinking it could possibly go off at any moment.

He showed me how to hold it, where the safety was, etc.  "It's loaded," he
said.  He patted his jacket pocket.  "I have one on me too, but I thought
it best that we were both armed.  It could be tough getting out of
Philadelphia.  Who knows what will be after you."

I thought he was being overcautious.  "Don't worry, I've been here for
months and I've never had a problem."

I could tell I piqued his interest.  "Do you have the ability to tell who's
human and who's not?  Psychically, I mean."

I had no idea what he was talking about.  "No."

"Then I'd rather trust my firearm than your intuition," he said.

Now my interest was piqued.  "Is that ability something I can learn?"

"It's something we can teach you."

"Oh, awesome," I said.  I couldn't wait to see what other tricks they could
teach me.

 He stood up.  "Are you ready?"

"Yes."

"My car is parked over by the bathroom."

He led me towards a public bathroom and a parking lot on the edge of the
park.

"How are you feeling?" he asked me as we were walking.  "It's a lot to take
in all at once, I know."

"I'm fine," I told him.  "Where I was before, with the wolves, I knew I
never belonged there.  I'm sure with every fiber of my being that I belong
where you are taking me."

I smiled and looked up towards the sunny sky.

"It's like a whole new life is about to begin for me--Ahh!"

I shrieked as I felt a searing pain in my ankle.  I stumbled and looked
down.  There was a pair of wolf jaws embedded into my flesh!

Silenced gunshots rung through my ears as the agent tried to hit the beast
with his drawn gun, but the wolf ran immediately out of sight.

"Are you okay?" he asked, grabbing my arm.

"No, it bit me!" I looked down.  Blood was running into my shoe and the
wound stung like hell.

"Holy crap," he said.  "Come into the bathroom."

He dragged me into the men's room, which was empty, and I sat on the floor,
looking at my bite.  "It wasn't just a wolf," I said.  "It was a werewolf."
Who would have bitten my and why?

"That's perfectly clear," he said, pacing around the bathroom as he broke a
sweat.  He took a cell phone out of his pocket and dialed.  "Hello?  Yeah,
he's here with me," he said into the phone.  "Look, he was just bitten by a
wolf.  I was with him the whole time.  Yeah.  Oh no, really?  Okay.  Yeah.
There's no other way."

He hung up.

"I'm going to turn into a werewolf, aren't I?"  I knew the answer, but
hoped somehow I would be wrong.

"I'm afraid so."

"You have to stop the transformation.  Please, or it'll forfeit my gift.
Isn't there some kind of treatment for this?" I asked.  My whole ankle was
becoming swollen and inflamed.

He shook his head, looking away from me, into the distance.  "There's
nothing.  I'm sorry.  This is the end.  The end for all of us."  His hand
was trembling as he took his gun out of his pocket and pointed it at my
chest.

"Please, don't hurt me," I said, crawling back away from him.

"I cannot let you live," he said.  "You will be far too terrible.  I'm
sorry."

He squeezed the trigger.  With the deafening blast of the gun, the hyper
reflexes that Will had trained into me kicked in.  I threw myself to the
right, trying to dodge the bullet.

The bullet hit me in the left shoulder.  At first, I wasn't even sure I was
hit.  Then I saw the blood, felt the pain.

His gun was locking onto me again.  I took the only action which ensured my
survival.  I pulled my gun out of my pocket with my right hand, and shot
the man standing over me in the face.

Blood seemed to pour out of his right eye.  Blood everywhere as his body
fell to the ground, dead.  I had just killed someone.  I had just killed
the good guy.  I wanted to cry.

I dropped my gun and stood up.  Clutching my hand to my shoulder wound, I
hobbled out of the bathroom.  Looking back, I could see I was leaving
bloody footprints in the cement.  I keeled over and vomited, unable to face
the horror of the situation without doing so.

I had to get out of here, away from the scene of the crime.  I moved as
fast as my ankle would permit into the ravine.

As I stumbled through bushes and brambles, tears started to come down my
face.  Everything that I was meant to do was lost to me now.  My fate was
erased.  The one place I would have belonged would never want me now.
Worst of all, I had killed an innocent man.

All because of a simple wolf bite.  Just a tiny little thing like that can
change someone's destiny forever.

I found it hard to believe that some random werewolf that had been passing
through the park chose that moment to bite me.  No, it was one of them.
One of my so-called brothers.

I didn't want to accept it, but I knew there was only one person capable of
doing this to me.  The tears came harder as the realization sunk in.

It was Will.

He had been the only one who knew where I was going and why.  He had
followed me here, eavesdropped on our conversation, and when he knew I was
about to leave his world for good, he bit me.  It was the only way he could
ensure that I would be his forever.  He had always been afraid of being
alone, and very simply refused to let me go.

Suddenly I realized what a selfish person he was.  He sacrificed my life to
make his more palatable.

"Will, are you out there, you bastard!" I yelled into the trees, thinking
he might choose to show himself.

He didn't.  He destroyed me, and now he was going to hide.  I hated him for
it.  He committed against me an act far more heinous than anything any of
the other wolves had done.  I hated him entirely.

And I wanted my revenge.

As I hobbled towards the road, I wiped my tears from my face.  I would get
my revenge.


TO BE CONTINUED