Chapter 14 Missing out.
Missing out.
“Alastair was the first viable subject of the Revival Project. The very first mutant to be named, but not the first to be born. We used the Kraken’s DNA to create mutated embryos, and a great number of them were abject failures.
Most were terminated in the early stage of their development, when it was obvious they wouldn’t make it.
Others turned out to be mistakes after birth, to our regret.
Most were too monstrous to look at, much less to be raised.
They were deformed. Creatures from nightmares with more scales than skin.
With more teeth and claws and limbs than expected.
We had to get rid of them, as humanely as possible.
We all knew what we were doing was unethical—horrendous, really—but the Rise had just happened, and we were desperate.
Human civilizations were crumbling at an alarming rate, and despair has a way of turning us into brutes.
To create monsters, we turned into monsters ourselves.
In retrospect, the Kraken’s DNA wasn’t the easiest starting point for the project.
But Alastair turned out to be one of our most successful subjects.
His healing abilities are unparalleled.”
ALASTAIR
Tonight, I don’t know if my enhanced hearing is a blessing or a curse.
I sit by the fire to keep watch, but Stellan and Perri’s gasps and moans reach me easily through the quiet night.
Their names, uttered feverishly, pull at the invisible strings of my body.
I’m a puppet to their whims, even from the distance.
“Perri…” Stellan growls.
And I can’t help myself, I angle my head towards the truck.
The door to the camper is wide open, and I can see the outline of two bodies on my bed.
Stellan appears to be lying on his back, and Perri’s head is bobbing up and down, giving him an enthusiastic blowjob.
I’m torn between wanting to be the one giving Stellan head, or to be at the receiving end of Perri’s devotion.
But I’m just me, alone by the fire. I grab a discarded bottle of wine and drink it to the dregs. A faint shimmer in the air is the only sign of the Beetle standing farther away on the hill, at rest. Griffin and Helios are probably in there having fun, too.
“Come here…” Stellan says. “I’ve missed you so much.”
A shiver travels from between my shoulder blades to my groin. How I wish I was the one he was saying this to. They’re kissing now, wetly. This is torture.
I look for another bottle of wine when Perri says, “I need you to fuck me… Stellan… please…”
“We have no lube.”
“Spit will be fine…”
I close my eyes, defeated, just as I hear Stellan spit in his hand, followed by Perri’s moans.
I get to my feet and walk to the truck. The sight of them both in my bed—Perri on his back, his legs thrown over Stellan’s shoulders as the other man fingers him—will fuel my fantasies for the entire night.
I climb in the camper. Stellan stops what he’s doing for a heartbeat, holding my gaze as if wondering what I’m about to do. Would he get mad if I asked to join?
Tonight, I won’t risk rejection.
I open one of my drawers to grab a bottle of oil and throw it on the bed by Perri’s thigh. “Use this for lube.”
Perri reaches for me and says, “Thank you.”
I let him pull me into a wet kiss. He tastes amazing, and I get hard thinking about where his lips were minutes ago, wrapped around Stellan’s cock. When I straighten up, Stellan is still watching me.
Invite me to join, I think.
We hold each other’s gaze for a moment, but he says nothing.
“Have fun,” I say before walking out, a fire burning under my skin.
“Stellan, we—” Perri starts, but Stellan must have interrupted him.
Sure enough, when I look over my shoulder, the bigger man has folded his large body in half to wrap his lips around Perri’s cock while still fingering him. Perri turns into a begging mess in seconds, and his moans go straight to my erection.
I sit by the campfire and look at the stars above, in turn cursing and blessing the day I met the two lovers.
Stellan fucked Perri maddeningly slow for a while, until he turned into a blathering mess.
When both of them could not take it any longer, he sped up and pounded into him mercilessly.
The sounds of flesh hitting flesh was like music to my ears.
Then they gasped and whispered I love you as they both came.
I was left unmoored.
Now I stare at the flames devouring the logs in the campfire as I keep watch—Griffin cut down a dead tree during the evening to make sure we had enough wood for the night. He was tense at first, and almost unresponsive, but as the evening unfolded, we talked.
He asked me questions about my past. About the lab where I was born.
To him, I told the truth unfiltered. Beet is right.
If there’s someone who can understand me, it’s him, my ‘brother’.
We lived similar lives, both cared for by a surrogate family—Griffin, the scientists who created him, and me, the Traveling Market’ founders.
I had a rougher start of life, but purpose found me.
Griffin was alone for a few years before meeting Helios.
The way he looks at the young man reminds of the way Stellan cherishes Perri, and it sparked the same kind of envy.
The crescent moon has traveled halfway through the night sky when I hear soft steps behind me. Stellan walks into the halo of firelight, fully clothed and his blonde hair tousled.
“I’ll keep watch, you can go to bed,” he says, sitting opposite of me by the fire.
“Are you sure you slept enough?” I grin.
He gives me a pointed look. “I’m sure. Go. Keep him safe from his nightmares.”
I get to my feet swiftly, holding his gaze for a heartbeat. “Thank you.”
When I enter the camper, Perri’s asleep face down on my bed, his naked body barely concealed by the rumpled sheet.
His long hair is untied and falls over his small shoulders.
The narrow space smells like sex, and my lungs expand greedily.
My cock hardens again, it has been waiting for its cue all night.
I take my clothes off and climb on the bed. Perri moans sleepily as I kiss his spine.
“Alastair?” he mumbles.
“Yes, sweetheart, it’s me.”
He hums appreciatively. “I missed you.”
I smile against his skin. “Did you really?”
“Yes, a lot.”
“Can I touch you? Or would you rather sleep?”
“Do as you please, my King. I’m at your mercy. I wanted you to join us earlier, but—”
“At my mercy, huh?” I growl. “You just sold your soul to the devil, pretty little hacker.”
I kiss his back again, and Perri gasps as my mouth finds its way to his ass, leaving a wet trail along his spine with my tongue.
As I get closer to his entrance, he warns, “Wait—Stellan came inside me earlier and—”
“Oh, I know,” I say before burying my face between his cheeks.
I groan as the first taste of Stellan’s release touches my tongue.
It’s all I could think about all night since they had sex.
I wanted to savor their combined scents, taste it, feel it, devour it…
Mix it with my own. I know I’m a total pervert, but I think Perri and Stellan will forgive me. I am but a monster, after all.
“Holy shit!” Perri says. “Yes—yes! Fuck—that’s hot…”
He arches his body on the bed as my tongue enters him, over and over again, licking Stellan’s cum.
The tentacles at the base of my cock wrap around his calves possessively, wanting to keep him in place as I feast on him.
I’m painfully erect now. I want to plunge inside him and chase Stellan’s scent like a bloodhound.
I hope he’s hearing us from the campfire. I hope we’re driving him as crazy as they drove me earlier.
“Alastair… Alastair…” Perri chants my name.
I hum against his skin. “You fucking taste amazing.”
“Please…oh—fuck me, please…”
“Aren’t you sore?”
“No! Yes, a little… but I don’t fucking care…”
I laugh and bite his ass cheek. He pushes his hips back invitingly.
“Very well,” I say. “I won’t pretend I haven’t been thinking about this all night.” That and imagining wrapping my lips around Stellan’s cock as I fucked you. But we might get there yet, one day.
Perri moans loudly as I give him one last lick, then I climb on top of him. My tentacles let go of his calves and encircle his thighs. Everyone knows I’m a mutant, I could never hide my origin, not with my hair and eyes, but I don’t let just anyone see the extent of my differences.
The first night we had sex, Perri took one look at me naked and whispered, “Wow, that’s hot. What can you do with them?” and he grinned mischievously.
The two tentacles, usually tightly wrapped around my cock, have now acquired a mind of their own as they extend to pull Perri closer to me.
“Lube,” I say. I’m not small by any standard.
Perri fumbles with the sheets before finding the glass bottle containing the oil and handing it to me. I pour a generous amount on his taint and my right tentacle, making sure it’s slippery, before letting it stretch him.
“Oh fuck fuck fuck…” he moans. “So much better than fingers…”
I chuckle and angle my hips to get closer. My tentacles are full of nerve endings, and I can feel his warmth and tightness, even if the center of my pleasure still resides in my cock. It rests on top of his lower back, hard and veiny, patiently waiting.
Perri sobs as my tentacle reaches deep, hitting his prostate. I pour lube on the second one and it enters him, too. With my enhanced vision, the darkness in the camper doesn’t prevent me from seeing Perri’s ring of muscle stretching to accommodate them.
“Hmm look at you, taking me just right,” I say.
Perri can’t form words anymore, and just moans and sobs, hands fisting the sheets on the bed.
“Are you ready for more?” I ask.
“Yes! Yeeeeeees…”
“Good, because I really need to fuck you.”
He whimpers as my tentacles pull out, slippery with oil, and I guide the tip of my cock to his entrance and thrust slowly.
I meet no resistance and bottom out on the first try.
Stellan stretched him well for me earlier.
Just thinking about his cock being inside Perri just hours ago threatens to make me come already.
I pull Perri up into my arms, his back to my chest, and say in his ear, “I was so worried about you, it almost sent me into a rage. When I smelled your blood in the dirt… The only thing that kept me sane was having Stellan with me. He was losing it, too, and he needed someone to do the same for him.”
“Thank… thank you…” He kisses me wetly. “Thank you, my king.”
I growl. “Stay with us from now on.”
Us. How I wish there was an us.
“Yes… yes… I promise…”
Perri shouts as I push him back on the bed and I place a hand over his nape.
I hold him down as I pound into him. I wish we could take our time—that I could make love to him and not just fuck him like a beast—but I can’t control myself, not when I spent the night with blue balls, listening to them having sex in my bed.
I have him now, under me, and I wish I could crawl under his skin.
Short of that happening, fucking will have to do.
I’ll fill him up with my cum, mix my scent with theirs, so that I’ll be able to smell myself on him for the days to come.
Some of my scent might even rub off on Stellan, if I’m lucky.
I want to mark him as much as I want to mark Perri, but I’m not sure he’ll let me.
And yet hope is a tenacious little thing.
Perri chokes on his moans as I fuck him into the mattress. My tentacles wrap around his cock of their own accord, tightening around his erection possessively. He’s coming on the bed in a matter of seconds, crying my name. His scent is headier than before—addictive and sweet.
I speed up, chasing my own orgasm.
I look up sharply when I hear a faint noise. Stellan is standing in the dark outside the camper, holding firewood in his arms. He must have grabbed it to have an excuse to come closer—for it was an excuse, undeniably, as he’s staring at us having sex, transfixed.
I hold his gaze and lick my lips as I keep on fucking Perri. He knows I’m watching him, too, he can see my pale eyes glow in the dark.
This is what you’re missing out on, I say without words. If only you weren’t so scared to join. Stellan’s smell reaches me in the breeze. His arousal is in the air, too. I see you, I think. Now see me.
I let out a deep moan as I come deep inside Perri, my hips snapping back and forth. Perri has lost his voice, but he’s holding my hand, the one on his waist. My orgasm is mind-numbing, and I blink feverishly. From one blink to the next, Stellan has disappeared. He ran away.
Scared of your own desires? I want to shout at him.
Perri whimpers, and I gather him in my arms. He’s pliant and soft, well-fucked by the both of us tonight. I lick the sweat off the back of his neck.
“I’m sorry, sweetheart. I couldn’t hold back,” I say.
“Don’t be sorry,” he mumbles. “That was fucking amazing… let me sleep a little, and we can go again…”
I chuckle. “Let me clean you up and we’ll sleep.”
“If you’re sure…” he says, already dragged down by exhaustion. He whines as I pull away from him. “Don’t go too far…”
I smile and kiss his shoulder. “I’ll be right back, I promise.”
I stand up in the narrow camper, find a rag to clean us both, and come back to bed immediately.
For as long as we’ve been seeing each other, Perri has always been honest with what he wants and feels.
He’s needy and earnest, and never plays games—unlike Jude who was a mastermind.
I liked that about Jude, at first. It was exhilarating.
But now I know it wouldn’t have worked in the long run.
It made me sharp around the edges, while Perri’s particular brand of honesty and quirky sweetness soothes me. I want to protect and care for him.
Our world is harsh, but Perri never lost his spark. I definitely have Stellan to thank for that.
I clean both our bodies—tentacles included—before pulling Perri to me. He sighs happily and buries his face in my chest.
“Thank you,” he mumbles, “for being so patient with him.”
“What?” I ask.
“Stellan. He’ll come around…”
I chuckle. So he saw Stellan watching us, too. Of course he did. They’re attuned.
“I love you,” he whispers.
After a minute, he’s fast asleep, as if he didn’t just dropped a love bomb over my head.
I realize I would have crossed the entire north American continent to save this man, without regret.
And I’ll follow them farther still. The Traveling Market can function without me for a few weeks.
I close my eyes and let his steady heartbeat lull me to sleep.