By nightfall, Nicky was dead on his feet. He’d been afraid to go back to his campsite, high in the mountains of the state park, near Gabe and Zack’s home. He made camp there two weeks ago, and this had been the first time he’d come down in all that time. He was out of most everything, but especially liquor and drugs. Food didn’t mean too much to him anymore, but he had to have something to help dull the almost constant pain in his gut. He had scored some Oxy just before he climbed up to his camp site, using almost the last of his money. Gabe had told him how bad the pain would be and he’d wanted to be ready. Now that was gone, along with the last of his booze, and he wasn’t sure what he was going to do next. He’d thought Gabe would help him, not rat him out to his wolf. Damn submissive bastard! He would have thought that Gabe, of all people, would have sympathy for him, knowing what he was going through.
The change had come on just three nights after he’d made his camp. He had felt prickly all over that afternoon, and as the evening came on, his bones began to ache and grow stiff. When the change finally came over him, it was quick, just one moment or so of the most intense pain. Pain so horrible it took him to his knees and he lost consciousness for a few minutes. He woke up to a feeling of rage. A bestial sound that he recognized as a growl forced itself past his lips, and when he opened his mouth to gasp in shock, a wolf-like whine issued forth, inhuman and brutish. Getting up on his knees, he let his head fall back and a loud howl issued from his mouth. The howl reverberated through the hills around him and filled him with satisfaction. He looked around at his surroundings and realized he wasn’t seeing in color anymore, yet his vision was sharp and bright.
He tore off his constricting clothing, which was suddenly too tight, the shirt choking him. His body had morphed into something not quite human. He still had a human shape, but his face felt wrong. He raised a hand and saw long, inhuman claws on his fingers in place of nails. He moved those fingers to his face and felt a snout where his mouth had been. For a moment, bl
ind panic filled him, and he ran around in circles, whining and making terrifying animal-like noises. Finally he managed to calm down, and remember that he wouldn’t stay this way when daylight came. Gabe had assured him he would change back.
He grabbed onto the idea, which soothed him enough that he was able to drop back down to all fours, still panting in fear, but managing to stay calmer than before. After a few minutes, he was able to crawl into his tent, and stay there the rest of the night, though the moonlight still kept up its siren call. He had enough humanity left to know he was too close to people to heed it. If he ran into someone on the trails…in the moonlight. . . his mind shied away from what he might do.
Instead he took all of his fear and rage and focused it on one person—one man whom he hated above all others—Marco. Marco had done this to him. He had taken away his life nearly two years ago and created this monstrous thing that he now was. Then when he’d tired of him, he’d thrown him away like a broken toy. Fury swept over him and all he could think of was killing Marco, slowly and torturously. All night he stoked the fiery anger and toward dawn he finally fell into an exhausted sleep. When he woke up, hours later, his body had resumed its prior form. That had been two weeks ago, and his determination and resolve to stay away from Marco hadn’t faltered since.
Now as he sat on a rock by the trail, trying desperately to catch his breath, he thought again about how much his life had changed in such a short time. He’d be damned if he was going to crawl back to Marco now or ever. He’d make his way back to Atlanta just as soon as the next full moon was done and over with, and peddle his ass on the street if he had to. Whatever it took. Anything to get the drugs and alcohol he would need to be able to survive.
He heard a distant howl and pricked up his ears. Another howl answered from a different direction. Wolves! They were calling to each other. Could they have already picked up his trail? Shit! Lurching to his feet, he began to run, looking back over his shoulder, scared to death that he would see one of them coming after him, hunting him down. His shoes, wet completely through, squished in a nasty way on his feet and his jeans, which were wet through to the knee, clung to his skin like leeches.
Only escape was on his mind at that moment. He stopped his headlong flight for a moment and tried to picture the trail maps he’d studied when he first came up here. Actually, they had made little sense to him, and he’d probably been a little drunk at the time. He gnawed at his lip.
Hearing a noise off to his left, he whirled around and saw a huge silver wolf stalking him through the trees, coming right for him. He was unable to stifle the scream that tore from his throat. He looked around him for a weapon, but nothing came to hand. He turned to run, expecting to be taken down at any moment, and he wasn’t disappointed. A powerful blow to his back took him to his knees. He twisted wildly, throwing his hands up over his face. He felt the hot breath on his throat, as he took one last deep shuddering breath and then everything faded to black.
He awoke minutes later to find himself lying on his back, his hands tied in front of him with the rags of his own shirt. Looming over him, Marco stood looking down into his face, as naked as the day he was born, his body every bit as beautiful as Nicky remembered.
“Let me go!” Nicky kicked out with his feet, but Marco simply stepped back out of reach. “No,” he said quietly. “Settle down, Nicky. We need to talk. ”
“I have nothing to say to you! I hate you!” Nicky turned his face to the side, trying not to look at Marco’s beautiful body.
“I’m sorry to hear that, baby. I love you,” Marco said softly.
“Bullshit! Don’t try to hand me that crap. It won’t work anymore. ” He began to struggle wildly, pulling at the rags on his hands and kicking out with his feet again. Marco knelt beside him and put a hand on Nicky’s chin, turning his face toward him. “Stop it. I’m not letting you go, and you’ll just hurt yourself. ”
Breathing hard, Nicky subsided, but glared hard at Marco before he rasped out one word. “Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why do you want to take me back? Is it to make yourself look better to everyone? Like you’re so generous you let me stay even though you don’t want me anymore?”
“I do want you. I was a fool to let you go. I love you, Nicky, and I always will. ”
“Yeah sure, you love me so much you asked me to dissolve our union. ”
“I was wrong, baby. So wrong. If you’ll give me a chance, I’ll spend the rest of our lives making it up to you. ” Falling to his knees beside him he cupped Nicky’s cheek in his hand and kissed him firmly, but very gently. Even that much contact was enough to make Marco moan with desire. To his surprise, Nicky moaned too, but softly and almost reluctantly, as if the sound were being wrung from him.
With his other hand, Marco reached for the bulge in Nicky’s pants, stroking his cock through the material. Nicky tried to pull his mouth away, but Marco followed his every move, teasing his lips with his tongue. “I love you,” Marco whispered against his lips again and again Nicky sighed. His mouth fell open and he welcomed Marco’s tongue inside, meeting it with his own. Marco unzipped Nicky’s jeans, and slipped his hand inside freeing his cock. Dizzy with desire, Nicky allowed him to stroke his shaft and pushed up into his hand. Marco lay across his body, angling so that his rock hard cock rubbed alongside Nicky’s. His hand moved inside his pants and down to cup Nicky’s balls. He dipped down further to tease his rim. Nicky gasped and bucked against him.
Keeping his gaze on Nicky’s, he put his fingers in his mouth, wetting them thoroughly before dipping one back inside Nicky’s tight hole. A few seconds later, a second finger joined the first and started moving up, searching for the spot Marco knew how to find only too well. When he found it, Nicky cried out, waves of pleasure washing over him. He pushed down on Marco’s fingers, wanting more fullness, more stimulation. Meanwhile his cock was sliding against Marco’s other palm, driving him seriously out of his mind. He couldn’t decide which way to thrust, whether to push forward or back. His mind swirling with pleasure, he felt his orgasm clawing at him. He lifted his ass up off the ground as he came, screaming out Marco’s name.
Marco fell over on top of him and nuzzled his face in his throat, trying to catch his breath. Suddenly he stiffened, seeming to hear some sound that Nicky couldn’t hear, and he quickly raised himself up from Nicky’s body, bending over to tuck Nicky back inside his pants and tug up the zipper. He pulled him up to his feet then and up against his side, hiding his erection. Nicky was glad for his arm around him so tightly. He didn’t think his knees would have held him up otherwise. He saw Ian and Zack emerge from the trees, back in their human forms, and he lowered his head, not willing to meet either man’s concerned gaze, and a little embarrassed at their nudity. They must have only shifted back moments before.
Marco turned him around in his arms and held his face against his chest. Nicky’s mind was in a whirl. He heard the excited voices of the men around him, but he felt himself fading. He was so tired, so worn out. Blackness crept up in his peripheral vision, but shied away when he tried to focus on it. His legs sagged a little more, and soon he felt Marco’s arm go under his knees and his body was picked up and held tightly to his chest. Only then did he allow himself to sink deeper and deeper into the blackness that was coming for him.
Nicky was furious. Since he awakened, he’d been trying desperately to escape, fighting everyone, and now he was sitting exhausted in a room with Gabe, his wrists in Gabe’s fur-lined cuffs. He was cuffed because he kept trying to wreck the room before they restrained him. His ankles were bound too, because he was still trying to get up and run. Gabe looked over at him nervously. “Nicky, I wish you’d try to eat something. ”
“I want a drink, Gabe. I keep telling you I need a drink. Take these fucking cuffs off me and let me go. ”
“Damn it, Nicky, you know I can’t do that. ” Gabe indicated the tray next to Nicky on the table. “I got you some beer though. See, doesn’t it look good? I know you must be hungry. A bottle of beer and a variety of meats. Wouldn’t that be good?”
Nicky sneered at him. “Sounds like the working title of your memoirs, Gabe. ”
Gabe smiled. “Very funny, Nicky. You always did have a way with words. Yes, actually it could well be the story of my life before I met Zack. I know you must be feeling better if you’re cracking on me. ”