Rules For Spanking: MMF Bisexual Romance

by A. Anders

  “Seriously, Brad. Shut up,” I ordered.

  “I have to admit, it is kind of funny,” Thorin said from my other shoulder.

  “See, he gets it,” Brad said proudly.

  “Everyone, seriously, shut up!” I said in a hushed tone. “I think something’s following us.”

  Everyone froze, standing very still. I wasn’t sure what I had heard.

  “It’s the rain,” Thorin suggested.

  “Shhh!” I hissed.

  Thorin was right. The rain had gotten harder. It battered the leaves high above us and then hit the ground in large splashes, but I searched the millions of tapping droplets and heard it again.

  The noise stopped my breath. It sounded like someone desperately trying to suppress their laughter. My heart pounded as the image appeared in my mind: hyenas. We were being hunted.

  “Go!” I shouted knowing that they had heard it, too.

  We all moved as fast as we could. I knew I was slowing everyone down, but I couldn’t do anything about it. Even if I escaped the two men’s grasp, I was sure that Rose would lag behind to protect me. If she died, it could kill them all.

  No, the only thing I could do was block out the shots of pain that pulsed through me as I ran. Our attackers’ mocking laughter helped. I didn’t have to look back to know they were getting closer. With one almost on top of us, Brad did what I always guessed he would.

  Supporting me by the waist, Brad shifted his grip under my arm and pushed it over his head. Though I expected him to run off, I wasn’t quite prepared for it. I couldn’t yet support my weight. So when I slipped in the wet dirt, I took Thorin down with me.

  Unable to stop my momentum, I slid face first through the mud. Needing to see what was coming, I anchored my fingers and twisted. As I turned, a lone hyena burst through the branches. Its manic eyes were focused on me. Knowing I was defenseless, I decided to give Thorin as much time as I could to escape.

  Two steps away, and then one, it leapt towards me. Its fangs and teeth were aimed at me. Its yelps enveloped me and then gunfire exploded.

  The hyena continued forward, lowering its head. I froze as its muscular body enveloped me, collapsing on top of me. Though I expected to feel the familiar rip at my flesh, I felt nothing. With one shot, it was dead.

  I looked around to see who had done it. Brad lowered his gun. I was stunned.

  “Come on,” he commanded, helping me back onto his shoulder.

  Running again, we didn’t have to guess if more were behind us, as their cries assaulted our ears. We could hear a lot of them. I wondered if scaring them off the first time had caused them to bring in reinforcements.

  “Over there,” Rose shouted from ahead.

  I looked to our right through the curtain of rain. I could make out a clearing, and on the far side, I could see a cave with a four-foot opening. It would be a perfect place to hide if not for one problem; it was the only dry spot on this island. The odds of finding it empty were zero to none. But what choice did we have? We would have to fight our way in.

  “Someone with a gun go first,” I ordered.

  “I’ll do it,” Brad volunteered, again making me wonder if I had known him at all.

  Brad handed me to Rose, and we watched him run ahead. I knew that the next few seconds would determine our fate. We didn’t have enough guns to fight off the approaching cackle. If Brad found something similar inside, our trek was about to end.

  Brad scurried into the cave gun first. Consumed by the darkness, he didn’t make a sound. His silence was swallowed by the yipping behind us. Succumbing to the moment, Rose began to shake under my arm.

  Feeling Rose’s fear cleared my mind. As weak as I was, I remembered my purpose. I was going to do everything I had to do to keep her alive. I was about to blindly order everyone in, when Brad’s voice echoed out from the cave.

  “Come in! It’s safe,” he yelled.

  Running to the opening, I shifted my weight onto Thorin. Pushing Rose forward, she crouched and slid in.

  Falling to the ground, I scurried in after her. As I crawled, Thorin pushed me forward. As I crossed the opening, Brad grabbed me under my arm and pulled.

  “Hurry!” Brad demanded before tossing me aside.

  With Thorin climbing in on top of me, Brad crouched by the cave’s opening, filling it with his body. A deafening gunshot echoed off of the claustrophobic walls. My ears felt like they were bleeding. When Brad fired a second shot, it made it worse.

  Even after removing my hands from my ears, it took five minutes for the buzzing to diminish. When it did, the first thing I heard was the crackle of horrific laughter. I had preferred the buzzing. A minute after that, all of it fell silent to the hush of drumming rain.

  Finally having caught my breath, I looked back up at Brad. He now sat in the entrance, though he was still focused and aimed. Looking past him through the curtain of water, I saw the hyenas. The drenched beasts paced wildly, plotting their way in, but with Brad standing guard, I knew we’d be safe.

  Turning back toward the darkness, a few shapes appeared. My eyes were beginning to adjust, and I could see Rose and Thorin leaning against the wall. Still lying in the mouth of the opening, I chose an open space to the side, and I crawled towards it.

  I grunted and groaned as I moved and had to catch my breath again once there. My panting became the only sound breaking our silence. After that, we all sat quietly focused on the rain-battered hyenas moving back and forth beyond the opening. We were protected from them for now, but we all knew that we weren’t really safe.

  “We’re running out of time,” Thorin announced, barely softening his voice.

  “Do you have any bright ideas? Because I’m all ears.” Brad mocked.

  “There are less of them now,” Rose pointed out.

  I looked past Brad at our wet jailers. She was right.

  “We’ll wait for them to leave, and then we’ll all go,” Rose continued.

  “No,” I corrected. “You all will go. I’ll stay here.”

  “Are you abandoning your men again, commander?” Rose taunted.

  The words pierced my heart as suddenly as any bullet could. It was as if she had had them locked and loaded, ready to fire. At my first attempt to speak, all I could do was swallow.

  “No,” I eventually said. “I’m helping you all survive.”

  “You can’t help us if you’re not with us. And you certainly can’t help us if you’re dead.”

  Brad snorted his derision. Rose looked at him but didn’t respond. Her favoritism toward me was obvious. I wanted to equalize things, but I didn’t know how.

  When she had offered to sacrifice herself, I had stopped her. Now that I was trying to sacrifice myself, she was blocking me at every turn. I had no more right to be upset with her than she had to be with me.

  “We’re gonna stay here. Ford will have time to rest and maybe those things will lose interest,” Rose explained.

  “All of us might not survive until then,” Thorin pointed out. He was saying what everyone else was thinking.

  “Then what do you suggest we do?” Rose challenged. “Do you wanna kill me? Is that what you want?”

  “No. I never said that,” Thorin replied meekly.

  “Then what? Fight past what’s outside? I don’t remember you doing so well the last time we had to do that, Thorin. In fact, I remember you on your knees crying like a baby, and the man who saved your ass needs more time to rest. So tell me, do you want to head the charge and lead us where we need to go, Thorin?”

  The darkness hid his true humiliation, but it was as clear as a stench that threatened to suffocate us.

  “Yeah. I didn’t think so,” she concluded, allowing the cave to again fall silent.

  No one dared speak for hours after that. Every so often, I checked for pain. My miraculous recovery continued on pace. I still couldn’t walk on my own, but I wasn’t sure if magic dust could have done much better.

  The rain continued as the sun set, an
d the daytime gloom was replaced by the tower’s light. It was as we stared at the diminishing cackle that the tower shifted from white to pink. When it did, Brad and Thorin looked at Rose. I did not.

  Brad snorted. “You can never guess how your life will end up, can you?” He released Rose from his gaze and became surprisingly relaxed.

  “You know, I call myself a botanist, and maybe that’s what I once was. But I know that all I am now is a glorified drug dealer. And I’m not even very good at that. There’s one rule, ‘Never get high on your own supply.’ But I guess I’ve never been much for following rules.”

  I listened to Brad wondering what he was doing. But seeing the light redden behind him and his grip tighten on his gun, I had an idea.

  “I’m with you, Ford,” Brad said, drawing my attention. “I didn’t come here looking for love. I don’t even know what that is. Do you all wanna know how I made my living before these game shows? I was an entertainer. And when you’re sexually liberal, you can always find work.

  “Not having a chip in my head was a problem, of course.” Brad looked back at Rose. “She knows what I mean. The viewers want to be able to switch perspectives. What is she seeing? Now, what is he seeing?” he paused. “Eh, I got by.

  “I was proud of not having a chip, though. It allowed me to believe that I wasn’t like her,” he said with a nod. “Giving people access to every moment of your life can fuck you up. No offense.” He looked at Rose and held up his hand apologetically. She waved him off with a head nod.

  “But I was sitting at home, probably high, and my assistant tells me that a game show was looking for contestants. Since there was no chip required, I was excited. If there was one thing I knew how to do, it was hold a viewer’s attention. I could barely wait.

  “This show felt like all of the others when I came in for the interview. All the usual questions. All the same paperwork. And headed here, I was already planning the fun I would have. Viking funerals don’t just happen, you know,” he said with a smile.

  “Meeting Rose, though, that was a problem. I recognized her from her vid feed. I mean, who wouldn’t recognize Rose? She was famous. She was everything I wanted. And here she was looking for love. She was genuinely looking for love. How could I resist that?

  “If there was anyone I would consider my perfect partner in crime, it was Rose Kaitlyn. I could understand her, and she could understand someone like me. I was sure of it. And then hanging out in her cabin every night, holding her in my arms, there was nothing I couldn’t tell her.

  “Yet, here we are.” Brad looked back at Thorin. “The guy who’s gonna save her life…” He turned to me. “The hero… and me. How do you like them apples?”

  The cave echoed with the sound of rain pounding on the limestone outside. The storm was picking up again.

  “I’m not a hero,” I contested.

  “Not a hero?” Brad balked. “You couldn’t be more heroic if you were wearing a cape and spandex. It’s no surprise that she chose you. Hell, I would have chosen you if I could.

  But then, somewhere in there I got confused. I began to believe that I could be you. If I was, maybe Rose would look at me half the way she looked at you.” Brad huffed and looked into the reddening sky.

  Firmly gripping his gun, he turned facing Rose. “Be honest with me. Am I next?”

  She didn’t reply.

  “I saved his life for you, goddammit! I earned the right for it not to be a surprise. I deserve to know!”

  Rose hung her head in anguish.

  “Leave her alone, Brad,” I said, half-heartedly.

  “Yeah. You’re the hero. We get it. But the rest of us aren’t nothing. I mean, we might not be as good as you. But we aren’t trash.”

  “You’re next,” Rose said immediately. She didn’t say it with contempt or anger, but with sadness and compassion. His plea had gotten to her.

  “I’m sorry,” she concluded, lowering her head into her hands. “I’m so sorry!”

  Brad had asked, but he hadn’t been prepared for the answer. His shaking, stilted breath broke my heart as I considered what I could do. As the storm clouds opened and the torrential rains began, I was sure that there was nothing.

  Brad took a strained, deep breath and looked out at the reddening light glowing through the howling downpour. His time was short. Staring out, his head bobbed as if making a decision. Turning back, he lifted his gun as he shifted to his feet.

  “Brad, what are you doing?” I asked preparing to take him down.

  He ignored me and stood over Rose. She looked up, offering no resistance. I was about to launch myself at him when he crouched, and the reddish glow illuminated his face. His cocky smile was back.

  Bracing her chin between his thumb and index finger, he oozed charm. This version of him was the one that no one could resist, and Rose listened intently.

  “When you think of me, and I know you will, remember me as a hero.”

  Rose opened her mouth to speak and got a kiss instead. She squeaked but only for a second. After that, she seemed to be enjoying it. I knew that the last thing that I should be feeling right now was jealousy, but hey! He was kissing my girl!

  It was the shock of it that had kept me from responding. By the time the shock wore off, he was done. He stepped away, and Rose’s head wobbled from his kiss.

  The way she swayed, the way she touched her lips and looked at him. It was obvious. She was aroused. What the hell was it about him that could turn her on, even now? Incredible!

  Hunched over, Brad approached the cave’s opening. He checked the display on the side of his gun.

  “What are you doing?” I asked confused.

  “I might not be able to scare them all off, but I can take a few of them with me.”

  “You don’t have to do this,” I said, not believing what I was seeing.

  “Hey, you aren’t the only one who knows how to be the hero.”

  It was dark, but I was pretty sure that he winked at me. After that, he left the cave and entered the storm. He trotted towards the few beasts who took shelter under nearby shrubs, and he did it with full of bravado. In other words, he was Brad.

  His shrieking whistle pierced the rainy night. “You all waiting for something? I’m right here,” Brad proclaimed.

  One at a time, they woke up. When the others didn’t move, he shot them. When some blocked his way, he shot them, too. With the path clear, he took off into the trees dragging the entire cackle behind him.

  We heard three more quick shots and then nothing. Perhaps that was all he had time to get off. I didn’t want to think about the scene that may have followed. What could be worse than being eaten alive? Perhaps Brad considered that and had directed his final shot at himself.

  I pulled myself closer to the cave’s opening. No one deserved to die alone, least of all Brad. So, keeping guard, I watched the night sky. No matter what, his suffering was sure to end soon.

  It took an unbelievably long time for the sky to approach bright red. I looked back and found Rose shaking. Her eyes were closed in concentration, and she was fighting the chip with everything she had.

  I wondered if, this time, she was making a mistake. If he was still alive out there, he probably wasn’t in one piece. I considered telling Rose that, but I didn’t want to break her heart. So instead, I waited for her to let go.

  She held on for a while longer. Finally, a crack of lightening flashed through the sky and landed nearby with an explosion. Rose flinched, losing her concentration. It was then that the sky blazed blood red. If he wasn’t before, he was dead now. If nothing else, at least he was at peace.

  I looked back at Rose when the sound of her crying filled the cave. I turned to Thorin, who hadn’t made a move towards her. His callousness made me mad.

  “Take watch,” I ordered as I worked my way to Rose.

  Thorin did as he was told, taking a seat in the opening. He withdrew a gun from his waistband, and I took note of it, wondering how many shots he had
left. But then with Thorin’s attention focused outside, I moved beside Rose.

  As she sat hugging her legs, I put my arm around her. She fell into my chest. Wrapping her arms around me, she sobbed uncontrollably.

  I wasn’t sure how much more of this sorrow she could take. Luckily, it was almost over. Only two of us were left, and even in my weakened state, the compound was less than a day away.

  I was planning on making them pay for what they had done to us. I didn’t know how I would do it, but no one responsible was going to leave that compound alive. They were going to die even if I had to die there with them. So, one way or another, this show was going to end tomorrow.

  Chapter 13

  When I woke up the next morning, the rain had stopped, and most of my pain was gone. I was sure that I could walk on my own if I had to, but I was also feeling lightheaded and weak. Considering that Rose and Thorin felt the same, I contributed it to hunger.

  Thorin helped me out of the cave and onto his shoulders. Looking around, everything was lusher and more colorful than before. The calf-high grass stretched with new growth, and the moist soil looked richer. It was a new day, and if I had anything to say about it, it would be our last on the island.

  “Let’s go,” I ordered.

  Thorin pointed at one of the wet hyena corpses that littered the field in front of the cave.

  “Should we eat one of them? We could probably use the protein. You especially,” Thorin suggested.

  I remembered my butcher’s knife. I no longer had it. I tried to remember what had happened to it, but my mind struggled to work.

  “We don’t have time,” I said. “We can look for mushrooms on the way. We have to make it to the compound before…” I stopped myself. Everyone knew what we were racing.

  Although I was sure that I could walk on my own, both Rose and Thorin insisted that I accept their help. I appreciated it. Climbing the hills became much easier with someone to lean on.

  After an hour of walking, we found the mushrooms that Brad had once described to me. We collected a few and took a break to eat them. It wasn’t much, but it did clear our heads. I felt much stronger after that. I was beginning to feel ready for what lay ahead.