by Jamie Lake
Andrew hit the ground at my feet. Magnus lay on the ground, his eyes dull, his blood pooling around him. The pumas broke ranks to subdue Buck and I glimpsed the trail once more.
I sprinted through my enemies and flew down the dirt trail, the familiar path reminding me of my newfound solitude. I’d warn the pack. Buck’s sacrifice would be for something.
A black shape dropped from a tree ahead of me, shining sword in hand. It was April, the princess’s failed personal sentry. She grinned as if about to consume a long-desired meal.
I stepped back, hand reaching for my dagger, and ran headlong into a hairy puma chest.
“Where is your hero now, special one?” The fat puma warrior stared down at me with dead eyes, his clawed hands scraping my back.
“Just try me.” I drew my dagger out and focused on his heart.
The pair of puma warriors exchanged glances and burst into laughter.
“Oh my, he might cut your finger,” April said from behind me.
“Today, you die,” the fat puma warrior said. “But first, we play.” His mouth spread into a toothy grin.
I swallowed hard. I didn’t like the way he looked at me. I didn’t like the way he towered over me and the bulging mass behind his loincloth terrified me.
“We start with funking his mouth.” A third warrior emerged from the bush. A scar ran diagonally across his face from eyebrow to cheek and he towered over the fat one.
“No, his ass,” the fat one said.
Rape. I’d never worried about it before. But now I had to do something. My dagger was my only chance to save my skin before they turned me into a piece of meat. I backed into a tree. I waved my blade at the fat one.
The scarred one got behind me and yanked my pants down, my bare ass showing in the wind. The fat one grabbed me by the arm and pinned me against the tree. He grabbed for my cock.
I kicked them away. “That's not yours. It belongs to my man.”
“Loyal, are we? We'll see about that,” the fat one said.
The scarred warrior grabbed my butt cheek and squeezed. “Nice and ripe! Can't wait to fill them with my juices.”
I relaxed and raised an eyebrow. “Two men at once? I've never had that before. I might like to try it.”
The pair of horny pumas looked at each other. They tossed their loincloths to one side. Their cocks grew and stiffened before my eyes. Their mouths hung open, their breathing raspy, their eyelids drooping.
From behind my back, I drew the dagger. I urged them closer, their hard members pointing straight forward like monster sausages. I raised my blade and sliced both their cocks off in one smooth stroke. The wasted meat hit the ground, useless. I stepped back, the thrill of victory coursing through me.
The pair fell to their knees and I sprinted towards camp.
Nobody would touch me. Nobody but my man.
CHAPTER 5
I headed off the trail, jumped over exposed tree roots and pushed deep into the forest. Something roared ahead like a machine eating the Earth. I jumped over a hole and avoided a boulder, my lungs burning. Buck was gone. That I couldn’t change now. But I could get home to the pack and warn them, maybe even save them.
Maybe that would count for something. Maybe then I could find purpose once more.
I slipped in the wet dirt and found myself face down in a bush, a snake slithering inches from my nose. Behind me, a warrior landed, its fury-filled human face completing the transformation to dark-haired puma. It opened its mouth wide, yellow incisors glistening in the daylight, and growled.
April appeared behind the pair of dickless beasts. “We’re going to make you suffer now, special one!”
I pulled myself to my feet, leaped forward over a wide ditch and found myself face down in the dirt again. I brought my hand to my face. Blood. They’d hit my leg with something. My energy flagged.
The wolf pack faced certain death and a traitor in its midst because I’d broken the centuries-long truce with the pumas. Nothing else mattered but to save them, not my own life, not my pride. Nothing.
Buck’d been willing to die for me. He’d proven that once more. I had to be willing to die for his people. I had to get up.
Trees cracked behind me. I ran again, puma claws on my shoulder, urging me forward, demanding I run faster.
The canopy grew dark ahead, the trees meshed together. I threw myself into the twisted mess and fell headlong into a chasm.
I grabbed a branch and stopped, suspended in a cool mist. Far below, perhaps three hundred feet or more, a waterfall roared.
A knife cut through the canopy above me and I freefell before the branch caught me again, like a bungee cord.
April poked her head through the leaves. “There he is. Look at this special one, boys!”
“You’ll pay now, little boy,” the fat puma intoned in his baritone voice. “We’ll start with your toes. Then we’ll rip off your fingers. You know what comes next. And we won’t stop there, will we?”
I hung over the abyss, my palm sweaty and slipping. The beasts above shook the branches and I knew it was my end.
CHAPTER 6
Death below me. Death above me. My hand slipped on the slim tree branch, my pinky finger with nothing to grab anymore. I reached my other hand up to grab the branch and it cracked.
The pumas chopped again, the ting of metal clashing against the thick wood.
“We’ll send him down there and pick up the pieces,” April said.
“Stop, April! We want him alive,” the fat puma warrior said.
“He will fight less if he is stunned,” April replied.
“He won’t fight at all if he’s dead!”
My shoulders ached. My hand went numb. I commanded it to squeeze tight but it was no good. My pinky finger had slipped off again. Buck was gone. I had to face my fate.
But I had to hold on as long as possible. I reached up my other hand to grab the branch, missed and fell.
Free at last, the forest disappeared above me and I entered a blinding white world of mist and cloud. Everything within me cried and a scream burst from my lips of its own accord. If this was the end, at least I might be there with Buck.
The world went silent. My eyes worked but my body refused to obey.
I entered a new world of ice, pain-free. Cool water filled my mouth. The light, I knew I had to follow it. I had to swim up. Down here was Buck. Down here I might find him again.
But I couldn’t abandon the pack. I kicked hard, coughed up water and drew breath, the first one of a new beginning.
I was in a deep pool, surrounded by gray rock. The calm water emptied into a great river that flowed down the valley beneath me, its rapids churning, white, through twisting rocks. A few feet to the left and I’d be dead. Above me, the dark pumas pointed and shrieked. They’d be down here soon.
I swam for shore but the undertow dragged me towards the river, the deep blue water flowing like silk. I grabbed for anything I could. I swam harder but it was no use.
The pumas burst through the trees and landed on the shore.
“Grab him,” April yelled.
“You grab him,” the scarred one yelled.
I let go. The raging river took me. I could not die. Not yet. I had to stay alive for Buck’s sake. I owed it to him.
I fell into open air once more and the world went black.
CHAPTER 7
My lungs screamed for air. I coughed and water poured out of my mouth.
A hand patted my back and someone spoke next to me. Buck?
The last of the water came out and I sucked air, my lungs inflating and deflating in rapid succession, as if out of my conscious control.
I rolled over onto my back, the cool forest breeze evaporating the water from my soaked body, the roar of the rapids next to me blanking out everything but the sound of my own breathing in my ears.
Elijah’s long blond hair appeared over me and I shot to my feet.
“You did this, didn’t you?” I screamed.
&nb
sp; Elijah stepped back, shaking his head. “Did what?”
I swung at him and collapsed into a heap on the rocky shore. My guts ached and my knees shook.
“What are you talking about, Nathan?” Elijah offered me his hand and I kicked it away.
“How did you know I would be here? How did you find me?” The puma. I climbed to my feet and searched the forest. Something escaped into the underbrush and I fell backwards
“I’m here to save you, Nathan.”
“Save me? You betrayed us! You told the pumas where to find us. I have to— Buck!” I saw him again, the last moments of his life and it was too much to bear.
Elijah kicked me over onto my back, the gleaming blade of his sword scraping my neck.
I wasn’t afraid to die anymore. I kicked the sword. It clattered to the rocks and slid into the water with a swoosh. “Just like a traitor to kick a man when he’s down.”
He kneeled and slapped me. “Where are Buck and Andrew!”
“The pumas got them! You were right, okay? It’s all my fault. I should have left when you told me to. I screwed up, alright?”
He collapsed on the shore next to me. “Are Buck and Andrew…?”
“Dead! Thanks to you!” I screamed. That wasn’t fair. “And to me, as well.”
“They said they wouldn’t hurt anyone. They said we could restore the peace. They just wanted you to leave. They have Buck?” His face changed. He still loved my man.
“And you said I was naive?”
He stood up and offered me his hand. “We have to do something.”
That wasn’t news to me but the desperation in his voice was. I wanted grab his neck and hold his head under the raging currents until he stopped breathing. But the pack needed every able body it could get against these ferocious pumas. I took his arm and found my balance once more.
“Can you fight as well as you complain?” I asked.
“We have to return to camp.” He headed downriver, stopped and turned. “My sword.” He ran to the river’s edge, kneeled and ran his hand along the bottom.
I started off towards the camp.
“And now we’re defenseless. Great work, special one!” The traitor trotted up behind me.
“Don’t put a sword to my neck next time.” The wind rushed through the pine trees to my right. It was too quiet. Where were the pumas?
“We have to get some warriors and chase them down. They may have taken Buck and Andrew prisoner.” Elijah rubbed his nose, his eyes darting from side to side.
“Japheth will know what to do.”
“What if he doesn’t? What if he won’t help us? I have to— We’ve got to do something!”
“We’re going to do what Japheth says and that’s it!” I looked back at him to punctuate my point, a newfound confidence surging inside me.
Elijah held up his hands. “Fine! Whatever you say, special one.” He pointed ahead of me. “There’s the path to your right.”
I found it and stepped into the forest once more. The birds sang their songs here and the bugs trilled. I was empowered again. I had something useful to do. I didn’t have to be useless and vulnerable anymore.
A puma stepped out into the path and jammed his spear at my neck. Two more came at me from the side and multiple spear tips jabbed the back of my neck.
Elijah sighed behind me. “What do we do now, special one?”
CHAPTER 8
A rough hand pushed me into the hut. Warriors filed in behind us and around us. Elijah fidgeted next to me, one hand scratching against his forearm. It was making me nervous.
“You have to speak for me. Please.” He grabbed my wrist and squeezed, his face slack.
A wave of pity hit me like a weight to my heart and Buck’s face popped into my mind, surrounded by warriors, begging for my help.
I ripped my arm away from the traitor. “You’re on your own.”
The hut door opened and in walked Japheth.
“Are you hurt?” He grabbed my tiny hand and held it between his two giant palms.
“Just a few bumps and bruises but—”
“We’ll take care of that later, just you and I.” He winked at me and turned his fearsome glare on Elijah.
“But Buck—”
“I know, Nathan.” He narrowed his eyes at Elijah.
I took a step back from the traitor. Japheth was capable of anything and I didn’t want to get caught in the middle of it. “He might still be alive! We need to rescue him, now.”
“He knew the risks. And the consequences. What about you, Elijah?”
“I was trying to—”
“Shut up!” Japheth grabbed the traitor’s neck and hefted him into the air. “The pack is everything. And I am the leader of this pack. You have betrayed every mother who put meat in your mouth, every warrior who patrolled while you slept safe in your warm bed. You are a disgrace.” Japheth dropped him and Elijah drew a deep breath, coughing, his face red.
There was never a good time to disagree with this beast of a man before me and this was probably the worst. But, Buck. “Japheth, I know that the two of you have your problems. But he’s your brother. You can’t leave him out there, not with the pumas. You know what they’ll do to him.”
Japheth strode over to me, the steel bars he called arms tensing and flexing at his sides. “I have other matters to deal with, such as the camp and you.” A hint of tenderness crept into his voice.
I wanted to slap him stupid, the arrogant bastard. But then I warmed to him and my cock stiffened. Buck, remember Buck! “I’m going out there so if you want to protect me then you’ll come, too. I’m going. I don’t care how many wolves you send after me. You and Buck have given everything to protect me. I’m not going to stand by and let him be killed.”
Japheth stopped and grinned at the assembled warriors. Deep chuckles, equal parts condescension and amusement, assaulted me from behind. They didn’t respect me and it made me boil.
“I did indeed make a vow to protect every wolf, even my brother. But there is something I must do first.”
He grabbed a fistful of my hair and flung me against the wall. The world went weird and my breath refused to come.
“No—” I put up my arms. I tried to say more but I was too weak. He was too strong. There was an insatiable hunger in his eyes and nothing was going to stop him from satiating it.
He dragged me into his bedroom, slashed the curtains closed and ripped off my pants. He pushed me onto the bed and held me down, his erect cock like a steel pipe.
All this chaos and he has time to do this? Now?
“I knew I should have been the one to go with you. My brother can’t take care of you like I can.” He licked his hand and rubbed my ass, leaving it dripping with his saliva. He took his cock and plunged it into my ass.
I was already sore from the fucking that Buck’d given me a short while ago and Japheth was always rougher than his brother. “We have to find—”
He rammed me hard and deep, the fibers of that delicious pain shooting outwards across my back and into my head. His hand connected with my ass and it hurt. Damn, it hurt, but it was good. He palmed the back of my head and pushed my face into the musty earthen wall. I was a slave to his cock, unable to protest, completely at his mercy.
I wanted to call out for Buck. I got to my elbows but he pushed his hot passion deeper into me. I glided my ass back so he could get as deep as possible. His teeth sank into the flesh at the back of my neck and he pumped. In and out. I was swimming in pleasure. Too much, it overwhelmed me and I lay there, subservient to his every desire.
“Mine.” He pumped hard, groaned and slammed his sweaty forehead against my back. He withdrew, strode out of the bedroom and I crumpled to the floor, gasping for my life once again.
CHAPTER 9
I stepped out of the hut, my legs wobbly. The air was thick with smoke and I coughed. “What the heck, Max, you run out of charcoal?”
But the grill was cold. Smoke poured from huts and warriors limped
towards the meeting hall. Screams pierced the air like the howls of wounded dogs.
A young warrior sprinted past me, no older than twenty, his cheeks smeared with blackened tears, his young chest rising and falling.
I grabbed his arm. “What happened?”
“Pumas.” He ripped himself away and sprinted off again.
I ran towards the smoke. Japheth waved boys carrying water in pig skin buckets towards the burned-out husk of Elijah’s hut, the fire raging yet like a wild animal.
“I need every able-bodied warrior in front of my hut with sharpened sword and a fighting heart in three ticks.” Japheth strode to me, a wry grin erupting across his muscled face. “Pumas hit us. Just a small attack, nothing serious.”
I fell into lockstep next to him. “It’s only a matter of time before they’re back with a larger force.”
Japheth nodded. “Tell me something I don’t know.”
“We have to strike now. I’m ready to fight.” I withdrew the dagger Buck’d given me and let the afternoon light dance on its blade.
Japheth slapped my hand and looked down at me, as if speaking to an uppity child. “No fighting for you. Put it away.”
I stopped next to the line of assembled warriors, at least forty of them total in five rows. Japheth took his place at their front and motioned to someone I couldn’t see.
A ripped gray-haired wolf, still strong after all these years, dragged something towards the front of the group. He tossed the bundle of blood, soot and blond hair to the ground at Japheth’s feet.
My first instinct was to run to the traitor but I held myself back.
“This piece of meat betrayed his own kind, my brothers.” Japheth paced in front of his army, hands clasped behind his back. “He led the puma queen to my brother. He almost got the chosen one killed. For all we know, he bears responsibility for this attack on our home. What shall I do with him?”
“Kill him!”
This army was becoming a mob and I didn’t like it one bit. I stepped forward and the warriors fixed me with their angry eyes.