Chapter Nine
The pup boldly scampered across the forest floor. Pip progressed with caution, picking his way through the raised roots as he searched for anywhere that looked familiar, hoping the dog would lead him to Hunter. Pip didn’t know his way around. Not at all.
As he walked, Pip considered the story Alex had told. If the walls between this reality and another world were thin in this place, did the Hunter slip back and forth between dimensions as and when it suited? Or did another force control which side he materialized on?
Had the Hunter taken Pip elsewhere, to a rustic abode in another dimension?
The pup came to a stop and howled—or, at least, it attempted to. Pip stopped, recognizing the rotted tree stump as the same one that took the place of the fire pit on the morning he’d woken up in the woods.
“Hunter!” he called out. He wasn’t sure if the antlered Forest God would recognize the moniker Pip had assigned him, but he didn’t know what other name to use. Calling out for the “Antlered Forest God” sounded crazy…thought the man who went on to shout, “Hunter, if you’re here, show yourself! I need to see you!”
The woods remained silent.
Lifting his chin, Pip breathed in deeply. His lungs filled with the peaty smell of moss and the decay of seasons past. The earthy scent grounded him, and through it, he felt the pulse of the earth. The air buzzed. The hairs on the back of Pip’s neck stood on end, and out of instinct, his head lolled to the side, exposing the curve of his neck.
A warm breath traced across it, and hands slid along his sides from behind and dipped toward his pelvis. The breath caught in Pip’s throat, but it didn’t matter. At that moment, the air wasn’t enough. He felt suspended in space, as if his very cells had divided from the passage of time to leave him somewhere other.
Lips traced across his neck, following the passage of the hot breath before them.
“Hunter,” Pip breathed.
There was no mistaking him. He didn’t need to see the Hunter to know he was there—Pip’s body throbbed with life in a way it had only ever done in the Hunter’s presence. It was as if Pip had slept for years, and just now opened his eyes.
The lips pressed against his skin, a warm and silent confirmation without words.
Pip closed his eyes and let his body go slack. The Hunter held him steady, his strong arms supportive and protective. The Hunter’s solid chest met Pip’s back. Sparks, the kind Pip never dreamed existed, arced across his skin.
He’d found home.
The Hunter didn’t speak. His lips pulled away from Pip’s neck, then kissed a spot just beneath Pip’s ear, making Pip’s knees go weak. A tiny moan broke free from his lips, and he leaned against the Hunter, even more dependent on his support than before.
“What do you want from me?” Pip whispered, his breath already ragged. He gasped as the Hunter made contact with Pip’s ear, and when hard teeth grazed the ridge, Pip let out a shuddering breath.
By way of an answer, the hands sitting low on his pelvis pulled him closer. He relaxed his entire body against the solid figure behind him. Feeling the Hunter’s erection pressed against his ass upped the eroticism of the experience.
At the same time, the Hunter’s hand caressed him through his pants, and he realized he was hard. So hard and so needy. In retrospect, it should’ve been obvious. The Hunter’s presence was an aphrodisiac, and Pip had become addicted.
Pip no longer felt shy; after all, he didn’t start this. There was now no question whether or not the Hunter wanted him.
There were no words exchanged between them.
In the strange in-between, the world bled away, and with it, things no longer of consequence bled away, too. His clothes peeled away easily by the experienced masterful hands of the Hunter. The clothes, the wood, the world all seemingly dissolved into the ether. The Hunter stroked bare skin, his palm sinking down around Pip’s hardened shaft and stroking slowly, but firmly, like he’d known Pip’s body since the dawn of time.
Never touched in this way by anyone before, Pip never expected his first time would be with a stranger. Yet, without apprehension, caution, or shame, Pip didn’t attempt to stop it. Instead, he let himself give in to his desires. Though he knew nothing about him, the Hunter didn’t feel like a stranger.
He moaned, the sound stretching out around them like ripples through a pond. The Hunter’s hand pumped, ever sure of itself, and coaxed those noises from Pip’s throat.
Pip’s head fell back. With a gasp, he ground back against the Hunter, then pushed his hips forward, shaft sinking against the Hunter’s hand. The sensation overwhelmed him. The sparks he felt when the Hunter touched him weren’t limited to innocent places—Pip had never been harder before, nor more eager to come.
“Hunter.” Still standing, Pip gasped, writhing in pleasure. He’d never felt like this before, never felt so free. “God, oh my God.”
“Shhh…” the Hunter whispered. He caressed the top of Pip’s ear with his tongue before he nipped it, and Pip’s head spun with pleasure. He’d never so much as been kissed by another man, yet he knew no other lover would compare with this one.
The Hunter knew his body and took control.
Pip merely obeyed. Right then he’d do anything, but the Hunter asked nothing of him. The Hunter only gave and gave. Breathless and silent, Pip panted and gasped as the Hunter pumped him, keeping him on the edge of ecstasy but skillfully not pushing him over the precipice.
The Hunter’s thick shaft pressed between Pip’s cheeks, and he longed for more. He’d given little thought to losing his virginity, as it had always seemed a far-off and unlikely event, but now he wanted to experience that connection. It seemed as though the Hunter heard his wish. As the Hunter pumped him, his hand dipped to caress one of Pip’s ass cheeks. Pip moaned and stiffened as the Hunter’s fingers dipped inward and grew bold. Not only did Pip feel the ridged head of the Hunter’s cock press against him, but he felt his fingers, too. They circled his hole and teased until Pip threw his head back and rutted back against them, desperate.
Desperate for more.
He was dry. Did the Forest God carry lube? Because Pip certainly didn’t.
His rational brain still worked. He knew this big man couldn’t, or at least shouldn’t, penetrate his dry asshole.
Yet, he longed to be filled. If he didn’t have the Hunter inside him, Pip would surely break. The tug in his soul had gone, leaving him without his tethers for the first time. Without something to anchor him, without knowing someone was there, he would fall to pieces. The Hunter acted as the anchor Pip yearned for.
The Hunter’s hot breath disturbed the hairs on the back of Pip’s neck, and Pip panted and moaned. Despite his best attempts, the Hunter still only teased with fingers. They worked around his hole in languid circles, pressing, promising more to come.
Tears gathered in the corners of Pip’s eyes, not because he felt upset, but because he’d never needed something or someone so much in his life. He worked his hips in slow, desperate motions.
The Hunter nipped at the dip between his shoulder and neck, and worked his way lower, taking a step back as he went. The movement made Pip responsible for his balance as the man ceased to support him. He must’ve bent double as he planted kisses down Pip’s spine, until Pip realized the man no longer stood behind him at all.
Silently, Hunter had slipped to his knees.
While still working Pip’s shaft with one hand and pulling at an ass cheek with the other, the Hunter pressed his mouth against Pip’s hole. His soft wet tongue licked and probed, granting more pleasure than Pip thought possible.
Pip called out, “Hunter!”
The pleasure didn’t stop. Wantonly, Pip spread his legs a little and thrust his ass back against Hunter’s face, encouraging the tongue, hot and wet, firm and soft, giving and exploring.
Pip had never imagined Hunter would do this, or that it would feel so amazing. Licking him outside and in, Hunter penetrated him with his tongue. After timeless minutes’ worth of willingly enduring this soft assault on his ass, Pip felt something different.
Alongside his tongue, the Hunter inserted a finger, which at that moment became one digit more than Pip could cope with. Not that it hurt. Far from it. Mentally, it was too much sexy-feel-goodness for Pip to retain self-control.
He was gone.
Oh, fuck!
The tingling, inescapable pleasure.
He sucked in a breath. Tears fell down his cheeks as he strained his head upward. A single finger, barely enough to stretch him, provided bliss incarnate.
A single finger, and already he felt on top of the world.
“Hunter,” Pip moaned. He didn’t know what happened to his body, or how long the pleasure would last, but he rode it out as the Hunter worked his finger into him. It curled and twisted, putting pressure on parts of Pip’s body that he never knew existed. Each new touch became explosive. Pip couldn’t imagine he’d ever feel so good again.
In the strange, empty in-between where they stood suspended, Pip melted. He didn’t remember how he found himself face down with his stomach pressed against something firm but comfortable, or when the Hunter had descended on top of him. As soon as he realized the shift, he picked up his hips and worked himself slowly against the Hunter’s finger. The Hunter continued stroking his cock and fingering him from behind at the same time, so no matter which way Pip moved, he was met with blissful pleasure.
One finger became two, stretching him, probing to find the best places.
Pip gasped and strained his hips upward.
He crowed into the nothing, overcome by pleasure that radiated from his core. The tears kept flowing, joined by a single sob. It wasn’t that he’d changed his mind or he was in pain—he’d just found what he’d been looking for his whole life.
Home.
Like mint upon the tongue, it spread through his body and flooded him from head to foot, until he couldn’t escape the loss of control, the impending orgasm. He didn’t need to speak to let the Hunter know what was happening. At that moment in the in-between, their connection existed beyond words. Pip read the Hunter’s soul as plainly as he read his own, and he knew the Hunter was aware of everything within him.
The Hunter didn’t stop. Selflessly unrelenting, he worked Pip's body through the crest of wave upon wave. No orgasm had felt like that before.
When the Hunter withdrew his fingers, the tingling feeling remained. The Hunter’s chest met Pip’s back, and the head of the Hunter’s cock traced along the cleft of his ass once more.
“Hunter,” he sighed. He had no idea if the man intended to fuck him, or how he should feel about it. Somewhere, his logical brain said something about lube and condoms and not with a stranger like this for the first time.
And then there was how Pip actually felt.
The Hunter could do anything, and Pip would consent to it. He’d come, but he remained hyper-aroused. Longing to be taken, entered, and possessed by this man, Pip wanted the ultimate union.
If this was all the Hunter wanted him for, if this was all he ever amounted to in life, Pip didn’t care. Feeling loved, adored, and cared for, he’d found his place against this man's body, and had already come to crave his touch. All his life he’d been nothing more than average, always lacking in some fundamental way that stole greatness from him.
But here, in loving arms, he was on top of the world.
The Hunter used his hand to adjust himself. The man’s huge shaft slipped against Pip’s ass and down, missing the presumed destination and instead, nestled between his thighs. The Hunter thrust long, slow movements back and forth into the space, his thick, hard member nudging against Pip’s balls, making an entrance into the opening below Pip’s softening cock.
The Hunter grabbed Pip’s hips as he thrust. Pip stayed as still as he could to savor the way the Hunter held him, touched him, made love to him. Staying still wasn’t easy; Pip wanted to buck, to rut, to do something.
Lips met the back of Pip’s neck. The Hunter kissed him wherever he could reach, each kiss lasting and passionate, as the Hunter had only ever loved him. Pip let himself believe in the fantasy. It was too tempting to resist.
Gradually, the Hunter’s thrusts gained speed, and he moved between Pip’s accommodating legs faster than before. Pip pressed back against him and felt the Hunter’s body shudder and fall still the instant his seed spilled out to join Pip’s and nourish the ground below them.