The Morning After
The first thing Theodore noticed when he woke up at the crack of dawn was the lack of any tension whatsoever in his body. The sensation, so unfamiliar to him, triggered a bout of self-examination. It took him a moment to remember what had happened. The events of the night before came rushing back as he pulled himself to a sitting position, his elbows resting on his knees, his legs bent. With one hand, he chased the recent memories away, wiping his face and pressing his fingers briefly against his closed eyes.
‘Chased’ was a strong word. His wolf whined as Theodore nudged him to wake up; it looked like he was satisfied for a change, but the reason for that satisfaction was what troubled Theodore the most.
He had let go of any inhibitions and mated with the two humans under his roof. Not completely, not all the way, but he had found exquisite pleasure in using their bodies, so willingly offered up to him.
He must have been mad to let such a thing happen. But he had no one to blame but himself. Such indulgence only made him weak and steered him away from his path. His duty was to the pack that no longer existed. A bitter pain blossomed in his chest just thinking of them and the past, but those – not this silly feeling of satisfaction – were familiar to him.
His first impulse was to dash out of the bed and the cabin, but once he moved a smidge he sensed the others stirring. No, he was unable to face them and look them in the eye after last night. Theodore barely stopped a whine from escaping his throat as his body and mind alike remembered Jack’s lips on him, Vince’s tongue exploring forbidden places…
Carefully, he got out of the bed and walked down the stairs. The flames in the hearth had died overnight, and only soft embers still showed that a full-fledged fire had burned inside it until only hours before.
Like that fire, Theodore’s absurd passion had vanished now. Although he couldn’t deny its practical value, of staving off desires that could turn dangerous in the long run, he hoped he wouldn’t have to face a repeat performance. His wolf would definitely love it, but Theodore didn’t have time to indulge his beast. For him, everything was simple; the mutt enjoyed the company of the two humans and wouldn’t mind forgetting all about his duty in favor of a life of pleasures with such people by his side.
Humans. Theodore growled the word silently at his wolf. Had he turned into such a wretched soul that he’d be happy with scraps? Their shared soul needed revenge, not whatever this was.
He walked out of the cabin, ignoring how cold the floor felt underneath his naked feet. Training in harsh conditions would remind his wolf, would remind both of them, of the only important thing: duty.
***
Vince opened his eyes the moment his ears heard the door downstairs closing with a thud. He couldn’t say he was particularly surprised to see the place between him and Jack empty now. Theodore wouldn’t be easy to tame, he thought with a smile. However, as a guardian, it was his duty to offer the alpha the space he needed to come to terms with his own desires in his own time.
Last night, he mused, had been amazing. Theodore was a giving lover despite his otherwise cold persona. Vince shivered as he recalled the desperate kiss Theodore had given him. No, not given, shared. What had Theodore’s life been like without a pack? Vince couldn’t even begin to imagine it. An orphan’s life was already as hard as it could be. A wolf without a pack had to suffer immensely. Even more, since the wolf in question was an alpha, it was no wonder Theodore feared and craved intimacy so much, at the same time.
Slowly, carefully, he moved closer to Jack, who was asleep under a couple of furs with only the crown of his head peeking from underneath. His soft snores assured Vince that all was well on that side of the universe.
Should he go after Theodore and attempt to have a conversation with him about last night? No, that wouldn’t be right. As much as Vince understood his true nature now, his protectiveness needed to take a step back and allow Theodore the space he required to deal with his own emotions. Vince would intervene only when the burden became too much to carry on his own.
He caressed Jack’s hair softly, as he pondered these things.
A loud yawn told him that the clairvoyant was waking up, too. Wasn’t it a bit early for Jack, who seemed to enjoy sleeping in?
“Hey, Vee,” Jack asked in a sleepy voice, “did you catch the license plate of the truck that just ran over me?”
Vince chuckled and pulled the furs down so he could see Jack’s face. “As far as I recall, Theodore didn’t fuck you last night. Your ass is fine.”
Jack threw him a guilty look. “Okay, if you say so. Although, all night, my dick must have got to my brain, because all I dreamed of was Theodore giving it to me hard.” He lifted the furs off his body and looked down. Next second, he let out a long breath of relief. “At least I didn’t soil myself. Although my dick is so hard right now, I’m sure I could break bricks with it. The softest bricks, but still.”
Vince grinned as he pulled the furs off Jack completely. Indeed, the clairvoyant’s predicament was as clear as the day breaking outside. “Do you need some help with that?”
“I do,” Jack moaned helplessly as Vince grabbed his cock and began sliding his hand up and down slowly. “But since we included Theo in our games, don’t you think he’ll get mad if we play by ourselves?”
“Something tells me that Theodore might be choosing to pretend last night didn’t happen,” Vince said. “But I understand your concern.”
Jack caught his wrist before he managed to pull away. “Wait. I mean, he already knows we’re a pair of sex fiends. I hope he doesn’t expect us to cosplay monks while he’s all broody and denies himself the simplest and most awesome pleasures in life.”
“Are you worried Theodore might think we’re cheating on him if I give you a hand when you’re in need?” Vince asked, laughing.
“Yeah,” Jack admitted. “I mean, now that we started doing the nasty together, he has no reason to hold back, right?”
“Save for his many hang-ups about what he feels is his duty, no, no reason whatsoever,” Vince shot back promptly.
Jack sighed. “Well, the good part about this talk is that my dick is starting to go down. I will practice self-restraint for Theo’s sake,” he declared.
“Are you sure?” Vince teased.
Jack nodded energetically. “That will give me the motivation to stop being shy around him and ask him to get freaky right to his face.”
Vince knew he wouldn’t be able to live without Jack now that he knew the guy so well. He was way too entertaining to give up, regardless of circumstances.
“I appreciate your self-restraint,” he said. “We’ll practice it together. Although Theodore might put us through the wringer before he allows us to come near him again.”
Jack’s face fell. “Oh, no. What if that part of him wins? You know, the part that’s all like a monk and stuff? I bet he has lived without sex for decades. Or centuries!”
Vince laughed. “I doubt he’s that old. And I believe there have been a few rumors and gossip pieces in Glasstone tabloids regarding his lovers.”
“For real? I don’t read tabloids. I mean, not all the time.”
“Neither do I, but I couldn’t help overhearing my coworkers when they talked about it.”
“Okay, okay, now I can’t help myself. I need to hear the juiciest pieces of gossip you have on him. Were his partners dudes or women?” Jack made a bundle out of the furs that had covered him until a little while ago and piled them in his lap, assuming a position that told Vince he had the clairvoyant’s full attention.
“Both men and women. Although I believe the women were just for show. Don’t worry about our alpha’s inclinations.”
“So, he’s gay,” Jack concluded on his own. “But he should only be gay for us, you know? Now I’m getting jealous. Who were those guys he got to fuck behind our backs?”
Vince laughed out loud. “Come now, Jack, let’s be fair to poor Theo,” he teased. “When he fucked those guys, he had no clue we even existed.”
“Yeah, but,” Jack retorted, “I mean all alpha boys have mates for life, and they need to search for them, like Ryder did, when he came to the big city to find Danny.”
Vince pinched Jack’s cheek hard. “And do you think Ryder was chaste until the moment he met Danny?”
Jack rubbed his cheek and complained for a moment. “He must have had other guys before,” he admitted. “Am I the only virgin left in the world?”
“Virgin? Virgins don’t suck cock the way you do,” Vince teased Jack again.
“True. Only my butt is still a virgin,” Jack said, nodding sagely. “My mouth has been around the block, for sure.”
Their banter was interrupted by Theodore coming in. Vince and Jack both followed Theodore with their eyes as the stern-looking CEO of Pembroke Industries began preparing breakfast on the stove downstairs.
“In ten minutes sharp,” Theodore informed them, “get down here. Breakfast will be ready.”
Vince exchanged a look with Jack, who made a show of hiding underneath the furs again.
***
Okay, okay, so Jack had never had the experience of a morning after before, and this was awkward with a capital ‘A’. Vince was right, as he usually was, and Theo had just reverted to the behavior and attitude of a human-sized porcupine. Although he had been so eager last night to give them his cum, now he looked like the world had frozen over in the span of hours.
“Don’t expect me to serve you,” Theodore said in an ice-cold voice. “Everything is here.”
Vince didn’t say a word but he was quick to find plates and utensils. He filled two plates with food and brought them to the table, placing one carefully in front of Jack.
“Argh, I’m so useless,” Jack complained. “I mean, Theo made the food, and you set the table, Vince, while I--”
“You will wash the dishes,” Theodore ordered.
“But I hate washing dishes,” Jack murmured, making himself small in his chair. “That’s why I only ever use the disposable kind.”
Theodore gave him a look that said Jack had been single-handedly killing the environment for years.
“I will wash the dishes,” he said, squaring his shoulders and grabbing his fork. “How hard can it be?”
He stole a look at Vince, who gave him a solid thumbs-up. Well, at least he had an ally, because frankly, Theo scared him a little, not in the sense that Jack thought the alpha might get it in his head to attack him or anything, but in the sense that it was difficult to guess how to behave around him.
That was one weak point for Jack. His behavior rarely matched other people’s expectations, so he always felt inadequate. Last night, he hadn’t felt like that at all. On the contrary, he had felt so good, so… part of something important that he couldn’t wait for the whole thing to happen again.
Only Theodore looked like last night hadn’t happened, and Jack was dying to remind him of it.
“So,” he said as he dug into his plate, “is this the reward for my stellar performance in bed last night?”
Vince choked on his water. Theodore looked like he was about to drop his fork or worse, throw it at Jack as a deadly weapon.
“Come on,” Jack doubled down, because he was that stupid, “are we really going to have breakfast like nothing happened? Like we didn’t spend the whole night sucking each other’s cocks?”
“Jack,” Vince said in a playful, yet reproachful tone, “let’s not talk about things like that at the table, okay?”
“No, let’s clear the air,” Theodore intervened in his haughty, annoying tone that Jack decided to start hating on the spot. “What happened last night will never happen again.”
“What? Are you condemning us to a sexless life?” Jack expressed his indignation by putting down his water glass a little too fast. “Ha! I challenge you to resist us. What do wolves like, Vince? They like meat, right? I might be skinny, but I have meat in all the right places!”
Theodore gave him a look sharp enough to cut through granite. Jack swallowed hard.
“Okay,” he said hurriedly, “it’s not like I want to have sex right now. Down boy, down.” He whispered the last words, still giving Theodore a brief look just to check on the level of anger the alpha was displaying right now.
Theodore began eating. He did so with measured moves, while his eyes never left Jack. Awesome. How was he supposed to eat now? A wolf was staring at him. Jack began pushing his plate slowly toward Theodore. “I don’t think I’m that hungry,” he said in a forced cheerful tone.
“Eat,” Theodore growled, so menacingly that Jack grabbed his fork and began shoveling food into his mouth without even thinking.
“Slow down,” Vince advised him. “And I’ll help you wash the dishes.”
Theodore was the first to finish. He got up and walked outside the moment he swallowed his last bite. Jack really felt guilty. It hadn’t been his intention to ruin breakfast, but too many things were on his mind, like how he had no idea about how to handle the morning after.
“I think,” Vince teased him while grabbing him by the shoulder and massaging it to dispel the tension accumulated in its muscles, “one of these days, you might just get yourself killed.”
Jack shrugged, his good mood returning. “Well, if that happens, it’s going to be worth it, don’t you think?”
Vince laughed. “Don’t worry so much about Theodore. He puts on a tough act because that’s how he’s lived his entire life. But we’re going to wear him down. It wouldn’t hurt to be a little more tactful though.”
“You’re right,” Jack said with a sigh. “That’s a skill that I lack completely, though.”
“Don’t worry. I will negotiate peace for all of us, and I actually think that it’s good that you can rattle Theodore’s cage so easily. He needs to get used to us, just like we need to get to him.”
***
He was practicing a few fighting moves when he sensed the guardian’s presence close by. Although he could tell Vince was there to have one of the dreadful conversations humans liked to have all the time, he didn’t interrupt his training.
“What do you want?” he asked.
“We should talk about it,” Vince said.
“It?”
“Fine. If you need me to spell it out for you, I don’t mind doing so. Jack might use crude language, but he’s not wrong. We did suck each other’s cocks last night. Are you going to pretend it didn’t happen?”
He felt tempted to say ‘yes’, but his wolf was in quite a funk and didn’t want to be ignored. Theodore had struggled to get this new technique he had just learned right, and his wolf was at his most uncooperative self. Whether he liked it or not, he needed to talk to the guardian and do so in a manner that wouldn’t put his wolf into an even more annoying funk.
“Last night changes nothing,” he said in a clipped tone. “Inform the clairvoyant that we leave before nightfall. I don’t want to hear another complaint.”
“You can’t do that. Last night happened and that’s a fact.”
“You are free to choose as you want,” Theodore said. “As far as I’m concerned, last night was a terrible lapse in my judgment. It will not suffer a repeat.”
“Have you asked your wolf?” Vince asked.
Theodore stopped briefly. The guardian was a kind man, but he could cut to the bone when the situation required it.
“My wolf is my business,” he said.
“I see,” Vince replied. “I’ll get Jack ready. You will hear no complaints from us. However,” he added, moving closer and whispering the last words in Theodore’s ear, “you might hear other things from us while we’re on the road, stuck together. Such as moans and whimpers of pleasure.”
Theodore felt his resolve shaking. Vince’s breath was hot on his cheek. If he turned, he’d end up pouncing on the guardian and having his way with him. His wolf whined in excitement.
Down, boy, were two good words Jack had uttered by accident. But his wolf was no house pet to be controlled so easily.
“I will ignore them without a problem,” he said.
Vince had already moved away. It surprised Theodore to realize that he hadn’t noticed when that had happened.
TBC
@Derek - Jack will be fine for a while :) Adventure will take over, so maybe Theodore has enough time to deal with feelings, too.
@Mark Mortland - he-he, maybe Jack will need some serious magic, after all! Feelings will be harder, though. But, spoilers alert, Jack will survive :)
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