12. Garrek
12
GARREK
I found a large tree to throw myself behind and proceeded to wrench my trousers down so violently I nearly ripped the leather. The stiff, agonized organ that was my cock sprang free. My cock tail spasmed and writhed as I took myself in my hand.
What was she thinking, running her fingertips along the edge of my ear that way?
What was I thinking, letting her?
I stifled a groan, stroking myself so quickly, so hard, it almost felt like punishment. Maybe punishment was what I deserved for nearly ejaculating in my trousers simply because someone had touched my ear. And not just any someone.
My cousin’s intended bride.
Empire help me.
If it had been anyone else, I doubted I would have responded this way. Darcy or Cherry touching my ear would have been nothing but a shivery sort of annoyance, like the feeling of brushing fur backwards .
If it had been Cherry or Darcy, I might not have even let them do it.
And Killian appeared to be having no real trouble with it. He’d submitted himself without complaint to Magnolia’s examination and seemed to suffer no effects besides some painful tenderness from whatever ailed him.
But me?
Lucky me, I’d nearly climaxed, untouched, in my leathers.
I was close to climaxing now. Panting, lungs burning, I used my other hand to graze against the still-pulsing edge of my ear. My cock jerked, eager for even that mere echo of her touch, and blinding ecstasy built inside me. My hands occupied, my tail slithered up to my vest, dipping into the pocket and retrieving the soap Magnolia had made me.
The one that smelled like her.
I shoved the soap beneath my nose and held it there with my tail. Huffing a hard and desperate inhale, I exploded, painting the bark of the unfortunate tree with hot and viscous jets of my seed.
The shuddering relief lasted only a moment, almost instantly swallowed by the specifically gloomy feeling of post-masturbation shame. I adjusted my trousers and put the soap back in my pocket in hateful silence. Hateful because, at that moment, I hated too many things to even count. My ears and my cock and myself. Myself, because if I’d only said yes to the bride program in the first place, then maybe she could have been mine from the beginning. Something I hadn’t dared to acknowledge until this moment.
I even, for a terrible beat, hated Oaken. Oaken, my younger cousin whom I’d always loved and had made it my mission to protect when we were children.
I’d failed him then.
I would not fail him now.
But I had someone besides Oaken relying on me right now, and that had to be my focus for tonight. Killian, with his potential infection.
As I turned myself back towards camp, I became aware of noises. The sound of Magnolia’s voice uncharacteristically edged with exasperation calling, “Killian, come back!” and then the scrambling sound of running footsteps.
Two sets of running footsteps.
After more than half a cycle spent as Killian’s guardian in this world, it was not precisely a surprise to return to find him running as fast as possible around the perimeter of the camp. It was not even a surprise that he was now naked, a bare-skinned, blue-green blur streaking like a spooked shuldu.
The new element in the scene was the tiny human female who was chasing him.
Magnolia’s human legs stood absolutely no chance against Killian’s, but you’d never know it by the look of her. Her hair flew behind her, her arms pumped swiftly. One hand was curled into a fist around a container of sorts. Her face glowed with a beautiful, fearsome sort of determination that drew me up short.
I paused inside the treeline, just for a moment, watching. When Magnolia ran by me next, the tip of her boot caught on a stone, and then she was reeling, falling, flying forward.
My tail was a whip and it snapped faithfully forward without me even having to command it. It looped tightly ’round Magnolia’s waist, halting her chaotic tumble before she could get hurt. I wrenched her back and she collided with my chest. When I wrapped my arms around her, I told myself it was merely to steady her.
Even though I did not let go right away, even once she was steady.
“Garrek?” Magnolia asked, breathing heavily in my arms. She turned her face up to mine, exhibiting surprise, and then an expression that could only be described as elation. She was happy to see me, and her happiness punctured something in me. Letting light into places that should have stayed hidden in the dark.
“Why do I have a naked child tearing up my camp?” I asked her. Horrendously, my voice did not come out as the stern growl I was accustomed to, but rather a warm rumble that was entirely unfamiliar to me.
“He doesn’t want the ear drops,” Magnolia lamented, her smile dropping. She sighed, and briefly leaned sideways against me, as if I were something solid to support her. I felt her next breath against my skin.
My arms and tail were still around her. Why, why were they still around her?
Why could I not let her go?
“I just about had a heart attack trying to chase him around,” Magnolia said, chucking her chin towards the escapee in question. Killian had halted his mad dash and was watching us warily, eyes bright and hair wild from wind, from across the camp.
“And I definitely would have broken my head open, or at least broken a tooth, if I’d taken that fall,” she went on. “Thanks for grabbing me.”
I ignored her thanks, because they made my stomach hurt. Instead, I darkly muttered, “I, for one, am glad you are finally getting a glimpse into what my life has been since before the winter. You have had things far too easy with him so far. Now you can suffer his defiance like I usually do.”
She laughed, loudly and freely, and the sound was a pour of glorious heat over my skin. I wanted to catch the sound in my hands, hold it tight, keep it somewhere safe.
Her laughter died down, and she stilled in my arms.
“Well, it’s good that you’re back. There’s no way I’d be able to catch him on my own.”
“You can’t catch me with him, either!” Killian howled from across the camp. For a brief moment, his frantic gaze went to where the shuldu were tied, as if he meant to mount one and gallop far away from here.
But he no doubt knew that would be a mistake. For his age and experience levels, he was a good rider.
I was better.
“I’ll get him,” I said to Magnolia. My tail reluctantly unravelled from her waist. I gave her back a hesitant pat, the way I’d pat a nervous shuldu, before I moved to let her go .
Before I could do so, Magnolia threw her arms around my ribs and squeezed. When she released me, she was smiling broadly, revealing the tiny dark gap between her blunt front teeth. A space I wanted, rather horrifically, to trace with the tip of my tongue.
“Just for the record, Garrek,” she said, beaming and backing away from me. “ That was a hug.”