Chapter 7
I’ve gained eleven pounds in the last two days. Eleven. Do you know how many carrots I have to eat to gain eleven pounds? A lot. A basket load, I think, is the actual number.
“Are you sure?” Esther asks, standing in the doorframe in her gauzy white nightgown. Her blonde waves lift with the gentle breeze, and she tugs the silken strands away from her face, smiling.
“I have to, Esther. I won’t be able to leave you alone if I don’t.” Tugging, I try and force my plaid work shirt closed, but it’s getting too small.
She giggles watching me, and she loved when my jeans tore down the thigh when I struggled to put them on this morning.
Her thigh peeks out of her nightgown, tempting me, making my nose twitch and my ears burn.
I reach down and fill my fist full of baby carrots from the ground, and shove them in my mouth, dirt and all. That’s how gone I am for Esther.
She waves me off. “Go, go before you, you know,” she teases, cheeks turning pink.
I still told her I’d help, so despite needing to hop through the fields and gorge on carrots so that my cock doesn’t have quite as much drive for her, I am still going to set up all the banners and streamers downtown.
I’m also marking trees and buildings for the scavenger hunt.
The job will only take an hour, but in the state I'm in, I’ll have to make it take half a day, otherwise I’ll be shifted on her sister’s cottage steps, hopping on my hind legs to get in.
The last three days I’ve been setting up chairs for the big Easter brunch, only stopping for breaks to hop through the woods and snack when I think of her too much.
Despite living in Carrot Creek for my whole life, only in the last few days have I felt at risk for being caught, for the town to discover I’m not just a hot handyman.
When I think of finally getting to mate Esther, my cottontail threatens to pop out of my ass, and that’s when I hop off and take a break, gorging on carrots, berries and anything else I can find.
Strolling through the street, saying hello to neighbors as I go, I’m stopped in my tracks when Mayor Goodall steps into the street, right in front of me. Peering around him, I try to see where he came from, but he bobs his head in front of my line of sight.
“Hello, Mr. Easter,” he greets, deadpan.
“Mayor Goodall,” I greet, dipping my head as I sink my thumbs beneath the strap of my toolbelt.
I have no respect for a man who chooses for his reelection campaign to be on the same day that this town’s beloved Easter celebration takes place.
He also just sucks. Last year I saw him take the last chocolate egg from a little girl’s basket and eat it, only to discover it was marzipan filled and then he just threw it away.
Wasting chocolate is a sin in Carrot Creek. It should be a sin everywhere.
“Do you know how you earned that nickname?” he asks, eyeing me head to toe.
I meet his gaze, my eyes narrowed as I force myself to look him up and down. “I don’t know, how?” I ask, not wanting to make a single thing easier for this Easter-hating monster.
“Because the town is calling your little girlfriend Mrs. Easter, and since you proudly stood by her side and railed against my reelection campaign, you’re now Mr. Easter.”
I shrug, and shove a hand through my hair, looking past him to the streamers I hung earlier, deciding on where the balloon arch will go.
“She is my girlfriend, you’re right about that, and we do love Easter, so I think those nicknames are apt.
” I pat the top of his shoulder and smile, loving the snarl curling his lips. “Thank you, I think they’re great.”
“I didn’t mean for them to be great!” he shouts at my back as I walk away, headed toward the station where all the balloons are bagged, waiting to be tied and strung up.
“I might have to call off the Eggstravaganza,” he tosses at my back, using the only words that would possibly stop me in my tracks.
Turning, I find an evil smile on his face, his fingers playing at the curled edge of his moustache. “Rumor has it, there’s an overgrown wild bunny on the loose, tearing through the community garden, eating all of our vegetables.”
My nose twitches, but I fight having a reaction, giving myself away. “Is that right?”
He nods. “That’s right. If I hear of one more sighting, I’ll have to cancel the Eggstravaganza, you know, for the safety of the kids.”
I cock an eyebrow. “And who has reported seeing this highly dangerous monster bunny?” I’m not dangerous, and I’m not a monster, and I’ve been so careful. Who saw me and who blew it all out of proportion?
He mimes zipping his lips. “Can’t possibly betray confidences,” he says, smirking.
“But if the Eggstravaganza’s cancelled, you’d still have your reelection campaign, I’m guessing.”
He drags his hands about his belt, tugging his trousers up. “Well, of course. After all, children wouldn’t be in attendance.” A woman with a shopping bag full of groceries passes by, wiggling her fingers at me.
“Hi, Jack,” she coos, smiling as the apples of her cheeks flood with red. She cuts her glance to Mayor Goodall. “Oh, hello Mr. Goodall.”
“Please, call me Jeffrey.”
The woman doesn’t call him Jeffrey. Instead, she brings her hand to her ear, signaling for me to call her. “Sinks broken,” she winks, and I just shake my head.
“Well Goodall, I need to get back to setting up for Mrs. Easter’s party,” I wink, using the nickname he thought would be a backhand, loving how much he hates it.
“I think it’s time we tell your sister about… us. And me. And, well, everything,” I tell Esther, sinking into a wooden chair at my dinner table. I called her over here for a quick talk, and told her everything that the Mayor said.
Esther felt the same way that I do. Goodall’s pissed that his town wants the Eggstravaganza, and more than that, he’s starting to realize that the town doesn’t even like him. This threat to cancel the party is really just a tantrum.
She nods her head, tucking strands of damp hair behind her ear.
Freshly showered, I pick up on her scent more than ever.
Daffodils and confectioners sugar, spices and brown sugar—Esther’s scent alters my brain, and when I close my eyes and take a noseful of her, I see my life before me, complete and perfect.
“I’m okay with telling her but… are you ready? I mean, I know I'm the first person to know… I just want to make sure you’re ready and that Goodall isn’t pressuring you to talk about something you’re not ready to talk about.”
I can’t help myself. Cottontail and thumping feet be damned, I take her hands in mine, feeling my body shift slowly to Hopper as I hold my mate.
“Even with gorging myself on carrots and trying to stay away, it’s getting hard to not constantly shift.
I don’t even need to touch you. When I was in the field the other day, on carrot number forty-two, I remembered licking you and shifted.
” I scratch my head. “That’s probably when someone saw me. ”
She shrugs. “I still don’t get it. So someone saw a bunny eating carrots. That’s what bunnies are supposed to do.”
The longer I hold her face, the more turned on I get, the rest of my flesh erupts in fur, my transformation complete right before her eyes.
“But darling, look at me when I’m him. Hopper is huge, and look,” I urge, reaching between my legs to pick up my furry cock. “Regular bunnies aren’t packing third legs, Esther.”
She nods, but nibbles her bottom lip, looking dazed as she stares down at my bunny dick. “He’ll cancel it if he or anyone else sees me as Hopper. He’ll do it. He’s just that petty.”
“Uh huh,” she breathes, stroking her fingertips around the fuzzy crown. I tip my head back, covering my eyes with my long ears. “Esther, listen to me.”
She nods, and I have to painfully swat her hand away. “I love that you’re starting to enjoy me in both forms,” I admit, “but I have to be more careful or we’ll lose the Eggstravaganza. Do you hear me?”
Her hooded eyes lift from my cock, and come to rest on my gaze. “I hear you. So what’s the plan?”
I reach out and tear her shirt off with one swipe of my paws, usually claws I’d never use on her. “I get you endlessly until Easter, until we consummate and I make you my mate, officially.”
She nods. “I can’t believe that’s going to happen in a few days.”
Nuzzling my nose into her neck, I whisper, “are you happy?”
Another nod as she reaches down, stroking the fur on my cock in one direction, then using the back of her hand to stroke it the other way. “Yeah. I’m happy to be with you, but I think there are things I could do that would make me happier.”
“What is it? What can I do?” Her scent is making me hop in place.
She shakes her head. “First, let’s help you release some of that pent up mating energy.”
I get to my feet and start digging through my kitchen drawer, until I find my egg timer, aptly shaped like an egg. I hold it up and confusion clouds her features. “What’s that for? You gonna cook something?”
I shake my head, and twist the top of the egg until it pops off, a large dildo erupting from the inside. She blinks at it, then takes it from me, turning the large purple sex toy over in her palm a few times. Esther looks up at me. “Is it a Rabbit?”
I smile. “Who do you think created those? Regular people?” I shake my head, and jab my thumb into my chest. “Rabbit’s were made my were-bunnies like me, who can’t have their mate just yet but are going crazy waiting.”
She smiles. “Okay, Rabbit, show Hopper how it’s done.”