Chapter Twelve
No matter who he’d been in a previous life, Pip couldn’t let his current life fall into ruin. Immortal godly boyfriend notwithstanding, Pip needed an income.
When he woke up the next day, still in his own bed and feeling extremely refreshed, he was determined to take a grip on the things he could control and attempt to find a job. With freshly printed resumes tucked safely in his new pouch, he made the rounds and, by mid-afternoon, had visited everywhere he could think of in Beaumont.
Nowhere was hiring. It didn’t surprise him. Pip retired his search before the end of the day, with time left to take his puppy with him to the woods by the football field. As much as he’d wanted to spend the entire day in the Hunter’s presence, he knew he needed to get his life in order first. Finding work was important. Pip wasn’t sure what his next steps were, but no matter what he chose, money was essential for his survival.
He picked his way over the raised roots and low shrub while the pup led the way.
As if trained, the pup behaved well in public. Amazingly, no one had questioned his presence or raised the issue of his breed. Pip was set to deny and explain away. He wasn’t all that good of a liar, but he felt sure the domesticated and trained creatures that looked like wolves must be dogs. Now, back in the woods, it didn’t matter. No one was going to question him out there.
The pup ran twice around a tree, then darted forward and pounced on a leaf up ahead. Pip trusted him to know the way. Like Pip’s eye had been marked by the Hunter, the dog’s eyes were marked, too, and Pip liked to believe the dog could act as a homing device. So far, he hadn’t been proven wrong.
Eventually, they came across the rotted stump. The pup nosed at it, and Pip stood still. He listened, hoping to hear the Hunter approach, but when he was met with silence, he bowed his head and called out instead, “Hunter, where are you?”
“Never far,” the Hunter’s deep voice promised just beyond Pip’s shoulder. He should’ve known; the Hunter’s movements were always silent. The chocolate-thick, warm voice washed over Pip, making him shudder and smile. He leaned back, and the Hunter wrapped him in his arms.
“Come to bed with me?”
Startled by the abruptness of the invitation, Pip held back from suggesting they should date and get to know each other a little. The Hunter had waited so long and knew him better than Pip knew himself. Pip didn’t need to be bashful or hold back. “Yes,” he replied.
The world around them faded away, back into the place Pip considered the in-between, and then reformed into something different. Pip stood with the Hunter in the hut, facing the fire pit. The pup made the transition with them, and he scampered across the hut floor and launched himself at the bed of furs, burrowing in between two wolves sleeping at the foot of the bed.
Pip blinked. He breathed in the fresh air and held it in his lungs, knowing what he experienced was a place disconnected from the world he knew. This was another dimension, another subset of reality that the Hunter knew—maybe the one he’d been born to.
“You are quiet,” the Hunter said.
“I’m just thinking,” Pip admitted. The Hunter’s arms loosened, and Pip turned around in them, so they were chest to chest. “It’s a lot to take in, all of this shifting-realities thing.”
“You take it well,” the Hunter said. “There are those who take the shift to Elsewhere a little less gracefully.”
“Mm,” Pip hummed, lacing his fingers through the Hunter’s hair. “I think that’s a compliment. I’ll take it. So, what did you say about bed?”
The Hunter’s arms locked around him quite suddenly, making Pip gasp. The Hunter lifted Pip and carried him to the bed, where he lowered him down into the furs. Pip twisted to get more comfortable, and once he’d settled down, the Hunter kissed him once on the forehead.
“I was nervous you would not listen,” the Hunter said.
Pip couldn’t imagine this calm and magical person experiencing nerves. “Was I stubborn in my past life, too?” Pip asked. The Hunter thinned his lips in reluctance, and Pip burst out laughing. “I’ll take that as a yes.”
“You were spirited. Stubborn is perhaps too harsh. You accepted correction and had an open mind. You were not set in your ways beyond reason. But if you wanted something, or you got a notion into your head…”
Pip held up a hand to signal stop. “I get it,” he said. “I guess that’s the same now. Am I like him?”
“Very much.” The Hunter ran his fingers fondly through Pip’s hair, and Pip leaned into the touch. “You are him. Your physical appearance, the sound of your voice, even the way you speak—although, admittedly, your vocabulary is more modern than his.”
“And our likes and dislikes?”
“He enjoyed wine,” the Hunter said. “But I imagine he was from a time when such things were cherished and unrestricted. I suppose, in time, you may develop a taste for it as well. Otherwise, so far I’ve noticed no difference.”
It was bizarre to think his life had already played out before, and that someone could know him so well based on a time Pip could barely remember. He let his hands trace down the Hunter’s bare back, enjoying the contact. Whenever they touched, the longing in Pip’s soul abated. This was where he was meant to be.
Here, in his lover's arms, Pip found all he needed.
The Hunter bowed his head, bringing his warm lips to Pip's cheek for not one kiss, but a feathering of many. They trailed to the responsive spot just beneath Pip’s ear.
A tiny moan fell free from Pip’s mouth, and he arched his back slightly as his brain and body left the conversation behind. There were other ways to communicate. Pip longed for the physical completeness that only the Hunter could give him.
Their clothes had magically melted into the ether at some point—Pip wasn't sure when, but it must have been when the antlers disappeared too. He didn't notice the change of material against his skin, from twenty-first-century cotton to fur. Although Pip came from an era of scientific explanations in his everyday life, he easily accepted the magic, hardly noticing it when it happened.
While Pip succumbed to kisses around his neck, the Hunter's touched across Pip's stomach over his hipbone and down into the hollowed groove beside. The teasingly light touch almost tickled his bare skin.
Only now did he realize his cock throbbed and bobbed, needing contact. Pip sucked in a breath and held it, unable to continue breathing with what he anticipated. Thankfully, the Hunter didn't move slowly, not this time, or Pip might've just died of waiting.
Not making him suffer because he understood Pip's needs, the Hunter grasped Pip's shaft with a firm, confident hand, and progressed the kisses down his torso, over Pip's chest, to linger at a nipple.
Just as the Hunter always moved in silence and with elegance, so it was when he made love too. Gracefully, he glided into a new position above Pip and then lower down the bed, and Pip hardly knew the man moved.
But his mouth.
The mouth seemed set to explore, and Pip wouldn't refuse it.
Couldn't.
Subconsciously somehow, his legs spread wider apart, offering the Hunter an open invitation. He moved his arms out of the way as if his wrists were pinned either side of his head. Although they weren't pinned, he didn't want to move them.
Splayed out on the bed of fur, he wasn't held captive and immobile by invisible magical ropes, but he may as well have been. He was powerless to resist the charm or the experienced caresses lavished on him by his lover.
He wanted everything and more. For the Hunter to take him and own him, possess him and fill him. He craved it and needed it like oxygen.
“This time, please,” Pip uttered his thoughts out loud.
If the Hunter heard, perhaps he understood, because he didn't question the comment. Instead, he sucked Pip's shaft into his mouth. Wet and tight and soft at the same time. An incredible sensation. Pip wasn't sure what happened in that mouth to make it feel as it did exactly, with the tongue, the powerful mouth itself, and the magic.
He wanted to prop up his head and watch the ministrations upon his body, but it was difficult to concentrate or keep his eyes open as he became lost in the sensations worked upon him. Lost and losing it.
From talking on a bed to experiencing the first blowjob of his entire life, understandably, Pip was just about to come within minutes. It was almost embarrassing, but Pip had few, if any, inhibitions in the presence of the man who knew him better than he did himself.
Last time, the Hunter had brought Pip to the climactic edge and kept him there, teetering on the precipice for so long, holding him back from falling headlong. Not this time. It all suddenly went so fast. Taking Pip by surprise. He lost control and shot cum into the Hunter's mouth before he realized it was about to happen.
Perhaps the Hunter was taken by surprise too, if so he didn't show it. If anything he looked pleased.
After swallowing it all, the Hunter held on to Pip's sated cock with his lips and cleaned it at a languid pace using mouth and tongue. Too surprised by it all, Pip didn't open his eyes; he just enjoyed the experience via his other senses.
After a while, the Hunter climbed on top, straddling Pip with his large body. As they kissed, Pip could taste himself. However, his mind was focused less on himself and more on the man above him. How the Hunter had obviously enjoyed giving sexually, just as he gave everything to Pip. It seemed the Hunter took his pleasure in doing things for Pip and would do anything for him.
Pip honestly felt the same way. He'd do anything for the Hunter, anything he asked. He didn't know what that might be, but he had ideas that related to the Hunter's evident need.
While he kissed with a hungry passion, the Hunter's hard shaft pressed against Pip's stomach. Hard and slippery wet. For just a moment, he wondered if the Hunter had come, too, right there on his stomach.
No longer frozen by his lustful longing, Pip slipped one of his newly freed hands between them. Emboldened by his knowledge of their past history and future destiny as lovers, he wanted to take some initiative in their lovemaking.
Once Pip's fingers made contact with it, he confirmed what he suspected: the moisture had the slippery lubricating texture of precum, not actual cum. Plenty of it coated Pip's stomach, making him feel dirty in the best possible way.
He liked the feeling.
He liked knowing his lover like this.
The Hunter's cock was in proportion to his size—long, thick, and hard. If he ever gave up being the immortal dude who lived in the forest, he'd have no problem getting started in a porn career. Not that Pip wanted to share him in that way. Pip would want to be the co-star.
Feeling it there, dribbling on him, turned Pip on in a way he hadn't expected. As if a switch flipped in his mind, Pip thought about his lover coming on him rather than in him. A thought that appealed greatly—something Pip wanted to happen.
Another way for the Hunter to love him and claim him, to mark him and own him.
When Pip wrapped his fingers around the Hunter's cock, the man gasped, pulling away from the kiss as he thrust into the hand.
“I want to know you better,” Pip whispered shyly, unable to give voice to the thoughts tumbling around in his mind.
The Hunter planted a kiss on Pip's nose and moved his body rhythmically with Pip's hand. “You will.”
“I want to know you as you know me.” Still too shy. Pip swallowed and then licked his lips.
The Hunter looked into his face and smiled as if reading Pip’s mind.
“I want to taste you like that, please.” Pip didn't intend for it to sound so pleading.
Still watching, the Hunter chuckled. He pulled away from Pip's grasp. “I love you. Whatever you want to do, you are free to make choices, and I will respect them.” Still straddling Pip, the Hunter moved up over the body beneath him until his cock was within Pip’s eyesight, and more importantly, within reach of his mouth.
Although his arms were free and his hands could reach out and touch, Pip remained trapped beneath the Hunter. He had no doubt the Hunter would move if asked. That wasn't what Pip wanted, though. Right then, it was the hottest position Pip could ever imagine being in, and he wouldn’t change a thing about it.
He reached out with his open mouth, wondering how the Hunter would taste.
A flavorsome sweet delight exploded on his tongue.
The precum kept coming, creating plenty of natural and delicious-tasting lubricant, which made Pip moan for more.
Having never so much as touched another man’s dick, let alone given head, Pip didn’t try to take the whole shaft his mouth. It would’ve been too difficult in that position, and he’d surely gag. There’d be another time for that. Another time for everything.
“I want this, please. All over.”
“Whatever you want, Pip, I will give you.”
“You, Hunter. I want you to take me and mark me again with your seed.”
The Hunter gripped his cock tightly above Pip’s face. Their eyes locked together and Pip could see the love coupled with sheer lust. The feeling was entirely mutual.
The Hunter continued to work his shaft just above Pip’s mouth. Pip licked it and muttered, “Come on me, Hunter. Please.”
The Hunter began to move a little faster, thrusting through his hand, the tip of his cockhead entering Pip's mouth. Pip lapped at the precum dribbling from the swollen glans. Unsure whether his thoughts were in his mind or spoken out loud, he realized he no longer cared.
“Cover me, Hunter. Come on me. On my face.”
The Hunter must’ve like the suggestion, as a deep rumbling groan escaped his lips. His body moved faster, his movements becoming less controlled. Seeing the mighty man losing some semblance of self-control was erotic in itself, but Pip didn’t want to take control. He liked the feeling of being a loved and treasured sexy object of desire. What could show that more than having his lover come on him?
“Please, come on my face.” Pip had just discovered how much he liked uttering his dirty desires out loud to his lover. He could feel his own cock stir with every word.
As if acting on instruction, the Hunter’s movements juddered to a halt and white ribbons of cum splashed over Pip. He barely had time to see the first jet shoot out before it landed on his left cheek. Immediately another followed it, pasting a stripe across his lips. At this, Pip thought to close his eyes. He shut them tight, even though he’d love to watch the look on the Hunter’s face and the sight of his magnificent erection as it came.
Pip wondered if the Hunter would be amenable, in the future, to home video recordings of their sexy times. He tucked that thought away for another time, while registering his own surprise at such a thought.
Pip had given himself to the Hunter entirely, and shown the Hunter how he felt in a display that was so much better than his words could convey.
Before opening his eyes, he licked his lips. The cum tasted so good, as he knew it would. It reminded him of warm popcorn bathed in salted butter; the perfect tasty snack to accompany the erotic show. They’d both come once, but Pip’s mind raced with more adventurous, erotic ideas.
And he was hard again.
No wonder, as he could still smell, feel, and taste his lover’s seed splattered across his face. He felt it cooling, dripping, and drying.
And the Hunter’s warm breath on his face. His hot tongue licked at the trails of semen that coated Pip’s skin.
Erotic or what?
What was the look on the Hunter's face after he'd come and as he licked up his own mess?
Opening his eyes, Pip lifted a hand to his cheek and wiped much of the cream onto his fingers. He couldn’t have the Hunter eat it all. He licked the seed from his fingers and, seeing how the Hunter watched him, he pushed three fingers suggestively deep into his mouth.
The Hunter smiled in appreciation. “You have not changed.” He moved from on top of Pip and got up off the bed. Pip watched as he went to a small pitcher that stood beside a couple of pots and pans. The Hunter picked up a cloth beside it and poured water from the pitcher onto the cloth, before returning to Pip’s side.
The Hunter wiped Pip’s face clean.
“It isn't fair that you know me so well, but I know next to nothing about you,” Pip said. “What do you like? What don’t you like? What does a day look like for you? A night?”
The Hunter smiled warmly. Pip soaked it in and committed it to memory. The tiniest twitch of the Hunter’s lips was enough to get his heart racing, and he hoped that would never change.
“It matters less what I do, and more why I do it. I do it for the love of Man. For the love of you. I am a silent guardian. A watcher. There will always be evil that feeds off Man, but I help inhibit it. But more than that, I want to keep you safe.”
“Then do you know what happened at my house the other day? About the man in the waistcoat?” Pip asked. He hadn’t gotten a sense of how omnipresent this particular deity might be. Or even if deity was the right noun.
“No?” The Hunter frowned. “Tell me what happened.”
“It happened after I got angry and stormed out of the woods—sorry about that, by the way. I went back home to find the back door unlocked and open. There was a man I didn’t recognize in the house. I think he was going to steal stuff, but then he just said strange things and left. He had white hair, and he wore a purple waistcoat and carried a pocket watch.”
The Hunter narrowed his eyes. “Megs?”
Pip frowned. “All I know is, I found him midway through trying to steal from my house. He had my aunt’s jewelry box tucked beneath his arm like he intended to walk out with it. I confronted him with a knife, and he sidled around the room until he was close enough to hold his pocket watch out… But then something happened, and he set the box down and ran out.”
The Hunter sighed. “Megs.”
“Who or what is Megs?” Pip asked. “Do I need to be concerned about him?”
The Hunter unlocked Pip from his embrace. He rolled over and grabbed one of the larger fur throws, then returned and wrapped it over their bodies. The effect was immediate—Pip relaxed. He stretched like a cat beneath the covers and grabbed a few of the smaller throws from above his head, plumping them together to use as a pillow. The lack of a traditional mattress wasn’t so bad. Whether it was because of a change in dimension or magic he was unaware of, Pip didn’t find their pile of furs any less comfortable than the bed he was used to back home.
And the fact that they smelled of the Hunter made them even better.
“Megs,” the Hunter said, “is harmless to you. There is nothing to be concerned about.”
“To me?” Pip asked. “So I should be concerned if I see him around my friends?”
“No.” The Hunter struggled with his decision. “Megs is relatively harmless. He is not part of the evil leeching into your world.”
“So he’s just going around thieving because he feels like it?” Pip said.
“You cannot rationalize the motives of all living things,” the Hunter replied. “Megs does what he wants. Chaos does not equate evil—it equates life.”
It was all too convoluted for Pip. With a sigh, he gave up, snuggling close to the Hunter instead. It felt like all the progress he’d made into understanding what lay beyond his own world was upended on the regular. Megs was a danger, except he wasn’t. Megs was chaos, but not evil. Pip only wanted to understand.
“Why isn’t he a danger to me?” Pip asked.
“Because you are mine,” the Hunter said. “Your eye bears my mark, as do the eyes of all who belong to me.”
“My heterochromia.” Instinctively, Pip reached for his eye and rested his hand on his cheek. “So that means people who know about you will know that you have marked my soul?”
“They will, and no harm will come from them. You are safe from most things except mankind. I am powerful—much more powerful than Megs. Even if he could, he will not harm you. He will not so much as cause mischief.”
Pip wondered about Megs, and what he had intended to do with the pocket watch before he’d recognized the Hunter’s mark. Pip suspected he had a lot to learn.
“Is this it for me? I mean, is this going to happen regularly now? Strange things coming into my life all the time? The impossible becoming possible? Am I ever going to be normal again?”
The Hunter’s expression grew somber. “Do you want to be normal?”