Chapter Fourteen
Pip scrolled listlessly through the Google search on his phone, reading about the community colleges surrounding Riverside, without much interest in any of them.
The dog slept on his pillow, inches away from Pip’s head. He lay on his back, feet up, and now and then he’d twitch or kick. Pip kept far enough away that he wasn’t hit. He couldn’t bring a wolf-like dog on campus; he couldn’t imagine that would go down well.
Without the woods nearby, what was the pup going to do?
What was he going to do?
It wasn’t like Riverside was a day trip away. Eight-hour round trips weren’t sustainable. Even if Pip bought a car, he didn’t think he could manage it. And if he left on Friday night and came home early Monday morning to attend class, what explanation would he give to his aunt and uncle? He couldn’t tell them the truth without sounding crazy.
Pip buried his head in the pillow, defeated.
What was he going to do if he stayed behind? Without a job and with no savings, he couldn’t even afford groceries, let alone an apartment. He couldn’t tell them he intended to live in a magical cabin in the woods… a cabin without electricity. How would he charge his phone and keep in touch?
No.
He couldn’t see any way to make it work. He wanted the Hunter, no doubt about it, but he didn’t want to sever contact with the life and family he knew. He couldn’t see how he could keep both.
Someone would get hurt.
What would the Hunter think if he left? He’d waited years and years to be reunited with Pip, and for what? So Pip could leave him again? But then again, what difference would it make, just a few more years apart?
But Pip didn’t want a few more years apart. He didn’t.
Pip groaned. The pup rolled onto his side and stretched his arm over the top of Pip’s head. His tail thumped Pip’s shoulder.
“You’re not helping,” Pip said into the pillow.
The pup wormed closer and licked the side of Pip’s head.
“Still not helping.”
The animal huffed and rolled back over. When he was still, Pip turned onto his side and tugged the pup close to his chest.
No matter if they should part, he feared not, for the Hunter was in his heart.
Early the following afternoon, and with a heavy heart, Pip found his way to the rotted stump, still undecided between his options, and not clear what those options really were.
This time, he didn’t need to speak for the Hunter to know he’d arrived. Firm hands linked around Pip from behind, and Pip let the air escape his lungs as the Hunter pulled him close.
“Pip,” the Hunter murmured into his ear.
“Hello.” The weight of his problem crushed his enthusiasm and showed up in his voice.
“What is wrong?” the Hunter asked. The forest bled away, replaced gradually by nothing, until nothing became filled with substance again. The hut walls offered privacy, even if the eyes of the Hunter’s dogs were on them. “Are you unwell?”
“I’m not sick,” Pip said. “I just… I feel anxious.”
“Ah.” The Hunter guided him to the bed, and they sank into its furs together. Desperate to know he was loved, to feel loved, Pip straddled the Hunter’s lap. The Hunter wrapped his arms around Pip’s waist and held him close. “If you feel that way, then you are unwell. Health is not only physical.”
“That’s super modern of you,” Pip remarked, managing a half-grin. “Are you trying to get in touch with my century?”
“No,” the Hunter said plainly. “That belief is old. It predates modernity. It has simply fallen out of favor with Man as he is blinded by the evil he fosters.”
“Oh.” That was a little less charming. Pip frowned. “Well. Good. I guess.”
“Something is wrong. Why don’t you tell me what it is?”
“Can you kiss me first?” Pip asked. More than anything at that moment, he wanted and needed the reassurance of feeling cherished and valued.
“You shall never have to beg for my lips,” the Hunter whispered.
They sank into the furs, and the Hunter kissed him in the slow, heartfelt way that made Pip’s toes curl. He moaned, and the Hunter devoured the sound from his lips. Their tongues met.
Clothing bled away. Pip felt vaguely aware he was nude, but it had become such a natural state of being with the Hunter that he barely noticed. It was never long before the Hunter did away with his clothes, and Pip never once missed them.
But today, as the Hunter’s slipped a hand between their bodies and palmed at Pip’s cock, Pip couldn’t bring himself to let things go any further. He ended the kiss, and squeezing the Hunter's hand he guided it away from his body. The Hunter, panting with want, stopped.
“I can’t,” Pip whispered. “I’m sorry.”
“What has changed?” the Hunter asked. “I thought this is what you wanted.”
“It…” It was exactly what he wanted, if Pip was honest. If all he did was spend his life beside the Hunter, he felt like he’d be happy. But he couldn’t ignore what was happening. The Hunter was his most important person from a life Pip could barely remember, but he had a life and a family who he couldn’t cast aside and ignore. Aunt Lauren and Uncle Joe were just as important to him, albeit in a different way. “It’s not so simple.”
“We have all the time in the world,” the Hunter said. “All I ask is you share your pain with me so I may help you. I do not want you to suffer.”
Pip smiled and tried to mean it, but the joy didn’t make it to his face. “It’s just…what would you do if I needed to leave for a little while?”
“Leave?” the Hunter asked. “The same as I always do—wait for your return. We are never apart for long.”
“No. Not like that. I mean…” Pip held his breath, then let it out slowly. The exhalation disturbed the furs under his head. “For a long time. Weeks. Years.”
“I do not understand.”
“My aunt and uncle are moving away,” Pip said. “I live with them, so I have no choice but to move, too. They’re offering to send me to college. I wouldn’t be able to see you regularly. I… I could probably come back a few times a semester, but it’s a long way, and I’m not sure what the workload would be like with school, and I’d probably have to get a job, too.”
The Hunter’s expression dimmed. The light in his eyes disappeared, and as it did, his expression hardened. Pip didn’t think it was because he was upset—he had the feeling that the Hunter walled off his emotions, so he wouldn’t let his vulnerability show.
“College is four years long,” Pip said. “After that, I could come back here, and we could live together if that’s what you want. It’s just… I don’t know how to tell my aunt and uncle about us. Not now. I don’t think they’d understand, and I don’t want them to worry.”
“Is going to college something you wish to do?” the Hunter asked. “Is it something that carries value in your heart?”
“I…” Pip hesitated. “I don’t know. I used to think it was a good idea, but that was back when I didn’t understand what the lack in my soul meant. I thought if I went to college, I’d discover what it was I was meant to do, and that it'd fulfill me. I didn’t realize my soul ached for a reason. Everything changed when I met you.”
“If going to college is something you want to do, then I encourage you to do it,” the Hunter said. “I have come into your life suddenly. You did not wish for me.”
“I did,” Pip murmured. Wisely, the Hunter had identified the problem. Pip didn’t want to go to college. Previously, he’d thought of it as a means to an end. The goal was to find his vocation. Now that he knew his destiny lay with the Hunter, a college had no value or purpose whatsoever. “All my life, all I’ve wanted is to know why I felt this way and what it meant to me. Now I know. I found you.”
“But you will find me again,” the Hunter said. He spoke softly. “Even should you decide never to return, to live out your life with another, you would find your way back to me in another life. Another hundred years. Another two hundred. We will never be apart for long.”
Pip frowned. When the Hunter spoke, he did so with composure, but behind his calm exterior, Pip heard his pain.
“I don’t want to live out my life with another.” Pip didn’t understand how the Hunter could say such a thing. “It’s not forever; it wouldn’t be forever. I promise.”
“You never need to promise anything. I am sworn to you, but you are not sworn to me. I gifted you your human life hundreds of years ago so you could live it the way you want. You are a man. Never once did I intend to keep you caged.” The Hunter rolled onto his back, arms tucked behind his head. “You are free, Pip. You may do as you wish.”
A fine sentiment, but Pip didn’t know what he wanted, except for one thing. Pip leaned forward to kiss the man and distract them both from the painful thoughts of parting. He could hardly bear the thought of months apart, and he needed the Hunter to know it.
With such great emotions churning and threatening to overwhelm him, Pip lay beside the Hunter, turning his face away to hide his fears.
Despite his anxiety and sadness, he wanted to feel the Hunter’s love in a tangible way. From the time of their initial meeting, Pip had longed to feel their union completed. He needed it to be real, in this life, not just know it had happened in the past.
“Please. Make love to me. That’s what I want, more than anything.” He rolled onto his stomach as he spoke, making his desires clear, while giving himself the opportunity to bury his face in the fur if he couldn’t hold back the tears.
A low grumble rolled over the bed as the Hunter appreciated what Pip offered.
The Hunter took an age to prepare Pip with caresses and kisses, applying attention to every inch of Pip’s body until he quivered with needy anticipation.
“Love me, now, please,” Pip pleaded.
“I love you always,” the Hunter replied with a chuckle, the pain of their earlier conversation set aside for a while.
Nevertheless, the Hunter took a firm grip on Pip’s hips as he settled in behind him, before releasing to wrap one hand around Pip's erection and testing the way inside with his fingers. Pip felt a tingling wetness behind and inside him. He wasn't sure where it came from, but he knew the lubricant was needed before the head of the Hunter’s cock could make its way inside Pip’s hole.
Taking a while to tease, the Hunter slowly pressed forward with his hips, only hard enough to let a tantalizing amount in, and then pulled back out, leaving Pip hollow.
He did so again and again, promising and then taking away, until the anguish of being empty had wrapped Pip up in its clutches and dragged him into desperation. A sob caught in his throat, this time from helplessness. “Take me,” Pip begged. “Take me; I want you in me.”
The moment he felt his ring swallow the head of the Hunter’s cock, Pip knew there was no going back.
It didn’t matter if the Hunter came inside him. Pip would never take another lover for as long as he lived—not when his soul sang out like it did when the Hunter touched him. Not when he felt so complete.
The Hunter pushed further. Inch by inch, he sank deeper, until at last the Hunter bottomed out inside him and Pip felt full. His body had been made for the Hunter. There was no other way to rationalize how good it felt when the Hunter strained forward inside him, stuffing Pip full of him like never before, or how Pip’s body craved more of him as the Hunter pulled back to thrust into him again.
They started slowly. The Hunter grabbed Pip’s hip again while the other pumped Pip’s cock, and he used it to brace their bodies as he let his length caress Pip’s insides. Pip stayed as still as he could in order to savor the way the Hunter made love to him, but it wasn’t easy. His instincts demanded he thrust forward into the Hunter’s hand and impale himself back on the Hunter’s cock.
It was like the Hunter welcomed him home after a long, long time apart.
Lips met the back of Pip’s neck. The Hunter kissed him wherever he could reach, each kiss lasting and passionate.
Gradually, their passion changed.
The Hunter’s thrusts gained speed, and he moved inside Pip faster than before, Pip pressing back against him.
When the Hunter drew out, Pip allowed himself to relax, sometimes bucking into the Hunter’s hand. When he felt the inevitable clench of orgasm start to tighten in his gut, he bit down hard and rode it out.
As his balls drew up and seed raced along his shaft, Pip felt the Hunter’s cock. Pip seeded the Hunter’s hand as he was seeded in turn. Warm, soothing cum sank deep into his gut, and Pip knew it would stay. The Hunter was in him now, more than he’d ever been before.
Pip loosened for him, allowing their bodies to work as one. The afternoon bled into the evening. And then they made love again.
At last, they were one.