by Shannon West
“We can if they’re directional. Quick! We have a few minutes yet before they get here—come on!”
He ran back about two hundred meters and began taking off his teruga. “Take yours off too,” he said nodding over at Janos. “And that necklace and your circlet. And you, Taran, give me that coin!”
“You said it was mine!”
“It is, and you can have it back, but for now, give it to me!”
Mumbling under his breath, Taran dug the coin out of his pocket and handed it over as Bastion fell down on his knees and grabbed a stick on the ground to start digging in the dirt. “Come on, Taran, keep digging this hole as deep as you can get it. We need to bury these.”
“But your cuffs and collar.”
“I can’t get them off, but I can hide behind one of the stones and hope for the best. One of those big sarcophagi.”
Trembling, Janos dropped his teruga, his necklace and his circlet in the hole Bastion had dug and then clung to him a moment before letting him go. “I’m frightened. They’ll kill us all if they find us,”
“First they have to find us,” Bastion said with a cocky grin, using his foot to kick the dirt back in the hole and over the metal. “And then they have to kill us, which won’t be easy—I doubt they brought enough men!” He gave Janos a quick kiss on his startled lips and pushed him down on the ground behind one of the large stones. “Now hide! And stay quiet. Hold your breath if you can when they get close!”
The LVs slowed down as they reached the small wooded area and one of them came to a stop. The soldiers inside the vehicle pointed a large, hand-held device that was about the size and shape of a small paddle like Larz and Nicarr used to use to play with when they played one of Blake’s games he had the traders bring him from Earth and called “Table Ten-S.” After a moment the first LV moved on, speeding off down the road. The other lingered a bit longer before it slowly began to move away. Janos was about to breathe a sigh of relief when Taran chose that exact moment to sneeze.
It wasn’t a loud sneeze, but he looked over at Janos in horror and Janos gasped. The LV slammed on its brakes and both men inside jumped out and began running toward Janos and Taran’s hiding place. As they got close, Janos stood up and one of the guards, a big, burly soldier with a black beard, began to grin and called out something to his companion, who changed course to head directly toward Janos as well. They roughly laid their hands on him to pull him back to the LV, when suddenly a loud roar rent the air. The sound was a cross between a man’s angry shout and the noise an animal might make and it was truly chilling. It made the hairs on the back of Janos’s neck stand up. Bastion, in a form like Janos had never before seen, leaped out from behind the stone.
He was still in the shape of a man, but he moved in slow, slinky strides like a tiger. His face was completely transformed, however, with long fangs coming from his mouth and his whole face somehow pushed in and rounded like a tiger’s. His eyes were fierce and frightening.
The soldiers began backing away so quickly they fell over their own feet. They both turned to run, but it was far too late for that. Bastion grabbed one of the men and roared in his face. Then he used his claws to tear out the man’s throat. The soldier’s eyes rolled back in his head as blood burst from his throat and he dropped to the ground, already dead. A scream of agony rent the air as Bastion fell on the next man, a blur of teeth and claws and blood. Janos pulled Taran’s face to his chest to shield him from the sight and they clung to each other, trembling.
The terrible noises ended quickly, but Janos was almost afraid to look back up and see if Bastion had regained his human form again. Janos had heard of this transformation to the Tygerian tiger, but he never thought to see it for himself. Few who had seen it had lived to tell the tale. He felt a hand on his back and flinched all out of proportion, but found the courage to raise his eyes when he heard Taran laugh out loud.
“That was exciting!” Taran was yelling in his ear. “How did you do that? You have to show me how to do it!”
Bastion was trembling a little as he put a hand on Janos’s back, ignoring Taran, who was still jumping around him, bouncing with excitement. “I’m sorry if I scared you. I didn’t think that transformation was even a possibility now—Kelan has been giving me injections to prevent the shift, and I didn’t transform all the way. But when I saw you being manhandled like that, it just suddenly came over me. Don’t be scared—it’s still just me.”
“I-I’m not. All right, that’s not true. I was frightened half to death, but I’m fine now. I’ve heard of the transformation but never actually seen it before. It was terrifying, I have to say.”
“It feels that way too, a little. It’s only the second or third time for me to do it, actually. But the good news is I didn’t transform all the way, because I’ve been told we don’t always know what we’re doing once it happens, though I’ve heard we still won’t harm the ones we love.” He shifted his feet nervously and gazed into Janos’s eyes. “I would never want to take the chance of hurting you.”
Janos’s breath started to come quicker and he stood up beside Bastion, putting his head on Bastion’s chest. Taran grabbed his arm and pulled at him. “Not this again! Come on, we have to go!”
Smiling Janos stepped away from Bastion and smiled. “Fine. We have ourselves an LV, at least, if one of you know how to drive it. But we need to hurry before the other one comes back to find out what’s going on.”
“That’s right. Hurry, Taran—get on board and we’ll go. I’ll drive! We’ll head west toward Athelon for a few kilometers, both to throw them off the scent and because the grassy terrain shouldn’t kick up so much dust. And let’s hope those soldiers in the other LV aren’t interested in becoming heroes.”
****
The journey back to Wirlo took two days. Things had gone remarkably well for them since they’d got the LV, and they made it to the outpost Janos remembered in no time at all. They never saw any other sign of the Athelonians, though they once saw the smoke from what they thought must be their campfires in the distance.
They kept heading north and found the outpost. It was deserted as expected, but they located some fuel for the vehicle, along with a few food supplies, bottles of water and blankets. Then it was simply a matter of figuring the nearest way to Wirlo and going across country to reach it. They’d had to spend one night on the road, pulling well off into some trees to hide the LV. They let Taran stretch out on the area behind the seats, while Bastion made a pallet out of the blankets he found at the outpost and spread them on the ground for him and Janos to lie on. Janos lay on his back beside Bastion under the stars, which were so numerous they looked like diamond dust scattered across the night sky.
After a while, Bastion turned to look at him and his lips lifted at the corners into a slow, sensuous smile. Janos smiled back at him. “What’s so amusing?”
Tension crackled between them. Bastion scooted over closer, challenging Janos with his nearness, and heat curled in Janos’s groin. “Just thinking about the first time I was close to you like this. Well, even closer.”
“Oh gods, you mean at the stream when we were bathing. I’d almost forgotten about that.”
“Had you?”
Janos bit his bottom lip nervously. “No, not really. It was embarrassing though.”
“Not for me.”
Janos hit him lightly on the shoulder. “You were entirely too forward. I should have had you severely punished.”
“I was punished. I had to walk across that stream with your hard typpid against my stomach and not react.”
“My hard what?”
“This,” Bastion said, reaching under the blanket and his soiled and ragged teruga to grasp him in his hand. Janos gasped as he immediately began to get an erection.
“It’s the Tygerian word for it,” Bastion said with a laugh. “Well, kind of. It’s what my friends and I called it anyway.”
Janos tried ineffectually to push his hand away. “W-we shouldn’t,” J
anos said softly and Bastion just grinned.
“Shouldn’t what?”
“You know.”
“I wasn’t planning on doing anything much. Maybe some of this,” he said, suddenly rolling over on top of Janos to seal their bodies from hip to chest, aligning them so their cocks were rubbing happily together. They were both nearly naked by this time, their torn terugas barely keeping either of them decent. Bastion’s skin was warm and his breath caressed Janos as he settled himself on top of him, his smug little smile growing broader.
“Or maybe I might do some of this.” He lowered his head to kiss Janos, his lips deliciously moist and sweet, his breath intoxicating. As he pulled away, he lingered over Janos’s mouth and Janos licked his lips and sighed into his mouth. He supposed there really was no reason he should feel shy around him. After all, they’d seen each other naked many times by now and indeed, there had been that incident at the stream. In fact, Bastion’s big, fat cock, long and broad, the head entirely black and his bush wiry and bright red like the hair on his head was the most exotic thing Janos had ever seen. And his balls lying heavy between his thighs were so... Janos sighed. Good gods. Bastion was beautiful. He curved his fingers around the length of Janos, preparing to stroke him, then he leaned in to kiss him again. A tingle slid down Janos’s spine, causing him to shiver.
“Cold, nobyo? Let me warm you up.”
Janos put his hand over Bastion, thinking that since he was older, it was only proper that he be the one to… Bastion grabbed his wrist, stopping him. “Oh no. I think you have the wrong idea here. It’s for me to pleasure you, not the other way around.” He ground his lips against Janos’s, stealing the air from his lungs. “I’m your slave, after all. I should make you feel good, yes?”
His hand cupped Janos’s face, holding it still for him as he kissed him over and over. He spread Janos’s legs with his knee and rutted against his cock. “But I think I may not let you up. I have you right where I want you.” He leaned over and whispered. “So that I can make you feel good, I mean.”
“Oh… Bastion, please!” he cried out, afraid he would come all over him. “I-I think we need to talk before we...oh, please, Bastion. Stop.”
Larz gently bit, then licked over his bottom lip. “Mm, no I don’t think you want me to stop. Not while you’re so hard. I think that you think too much. When I get you back home and this is all settled, I’m going to fuck you so hard you won’t have time to think.”
“Y-you are?”
“Oh yes.” He put a hand down between their legs and a broad finger found Janos’s hole, then tapped against it and smiled down at him. “Right there in this little hole. Would you like that? I think you would.”
Janos gasped but couldn’t close his legs, because Bastion wasn’t allowing it. He thought he should say something—get angry at this boy’s impertinence. Tell him it wasn’t appropriate for him to say these things to him, because he was the king after all. He should do something, but he felt boneless and his skin felt like it was on fire, and he was totally unprepared for the feelings sweeping through him.
“Please, Bastion.”
“Please what, sweetheart?”
“Umm, I don’t know. It just seemed like the thing I should say.”
Bastion smiled down at him. “It seemed as if you should be begging me? I like the sound of that.”
“Ohhh…make love to me, Bastion.”
“I can’t now, because we don’t have the proper supplies.”
“Supplies?”
“Oils and things to ease the way.”
A feeling of intense jealousy burned through Janos at the idea that Bastion knew about such things and had been like this with someone else before. “You know about the need for that? So you’ve done this before?”
“No, not exactly. Well, I’ve seen it done. And I’ve had a few blow jobs.”
“A few what?”
Bastion grinned down at him and kissed him again. “Blow jobs. That’s what my friend Luc calls them. It seems odd, because there’s more sucking than blowing going on, but that’s what he said it was. Of course, he’s human, so…”
“This friend of yours did that to you?”
“Oh no, not him. Others in my barracks. When we’d had too much to drink.”
“I don’t think I like this talk of other men having their hands and mouths on you.” He gave Bastion a sharp look. “But you haven’t done anything else?”
“I’ve done plenty, but not like what I want to do to you. Tygerians have to be careful not to imprint on someone they’re attracted to—we mate for life, you know. If we bond with someone, then it would be really hard, almost impossible, to ever be parted from them. The bond is unbreakable.”
“But you said you wanted to do that to me?”
“Yes. Because I’ve decided a while ago that you’re mine.”
Janos gasped and tried to sit up, but Bastion pulled him back down and tucked him underneath him again. “Don’t pretend you don’t feel it too, nobyo, and don’t be afraid of it. I’ve known it since that night at the stream, but I was waiting for you to figure it out.”
“B-but we can’t! You’re…”
“A slave?”
“No. A Tygerian. I’ve hated them for so long, it seems strange to feel any other way. Like a betrayal to that boy I used to be. But I can’t seem to help myself.”
“Do you hate me?”
Janos looked up into those beautiful amber eyes and sighed. “No. No, I don’t hate you. Not at all. I think—I think I may love you,” he whispered softly, and hid his hot face against Bastion’s shoulder. How could he be saying these things? But it felt right. It felt more real and more true than anything had ever been before in his entire life. He loved this man, and that feeling had been coming on for so long he wasn’t even sure how or when it started. Maybe even from the first time he walked into that hallway and saw the gorgeous young captive, chained, with a leash around his neck and golden cuffs on his wrists and around his throat. Yet still so defiant, so bold. So gloriously insolent as he stared up at Janos and talked about annihilating his “piss-ant planet,” and then had actually spat at his feet! From that very moment, it had probably been inevitable. Only ever a matter of time until he was here like this, wrapped in his arms and submitting to the beautiful man. Ready to surrender everything he was, everything he had.
“What did you say?” Bastion grabbed his face with both hands and kissed him so hard, he swore he saw stars. “Say that again. Tell me you love me.”
“I love you. I do. I think I have for the longest time.”
Bastion grinned down at him. “I knew it.” He pulled Janos’s hips forward and ground against him, and Janos felt ready to match this enthusiasm. More ready than he’d ever been for anything in his life so far.
“You’re mine. Say it,” Bastion said, hovering over his mouth. “Say it.”
“Yours,” he said, sighing softly. “I’m yours.”
Bastion leaned down to bite and suck his nipple and Janos arched up into him. “Tell me you want this. Beg me to make love to you.”
“I-I do want it. I want you to make love to me. Please, Bastion.”
Another grin. “Wait right here. Don’t move.” He scrambled off him and moved away for a moment. Janos could make him out in the moonlight, digging through his argyss. He made a little sound of triumph and then was back on top of him again, holding up a small jar. “I have this. It’s a type of cleanser Luc gave me to take off the war paint from our faces, but I never got a chance to use it. It’s oily and smells nice. Do you think it would work?”
“Work? Do you mean to put that on me?”
Bastion laughed softly and leaned in to kiss him again. “Oh, I’m going to put it on you, all right. I’m going to take my time and enjoy it too.”
“Bastion!” he groaned, feeling his face flame.
“Are you all right, nobyo? I’d never hurt you—you know that, don’t you?”
Janos tried to answer him but cou
ld only nod and kiss his cheek. He craved the roughness of Bastion’s hands on his body and thrilled to his enthusiasm, and the feel of his lips on his. Most of all though, he loved the fact that no matter how rough Bastion was with him, he never stopped caring for Janos’s feelings. He had no need now or ever to be afraid of him. “I know,” he said softly. “I trust you.”
Bastion smiled down at his response and then flipped him over on his stomach, smoothing a hand over his ass. “I love this gorgeous ass,” he whispered to him in the dark. “It was one of the first things I noticed about you. That little way you have of twisting your ass.”
“Bastion, stop!” Janos said, laughing a little and squirming to get away. “I don’t do that!”
“Oh, you totally do. Now stop squirming. You need to just lie still and take this. Let me take care of you.” Janos could feel his fingers, wet and slick against his skin as he parted his cheeks and began to brush against the most private and intimate part of his body.
“Oh gods,” he choked out as Bastions’s broad fingers breached him gently and with way too much of the oily substance he had on his fingers. It dropped down between his thighs. He drew in a sharp breath as two fingers slid inside him and began to plunder around. He hid his face in his hands and moaned.
“Shh,” Bastion whispered in his ear, leaning over him. “You’ll wake Taran.”
Janos shivered in response and tried to breathe through these incredible sensations. No one had ever done anything like this to him before. He wasn’t sure if he should be ecstatic or horrified, but it felt so good. So sinful and so pleasurable and so decadent all at the same time. It was too much and yet not enough. Gods, it would drive him crazy soon! He needed Bastion to fuck him, to make him forget every man who had come before him, every person who had ever hurt him and made him suffer. He wanted to be hoarse from screaming Bastion’s name and begging him for more.
“Bastion, please! Please!”
“Please what, love? Ask for what you want. Say the words.”
“I-I can’t take it. It’s too much!”