An Unauthorized Field Guide to the Hunt (8 page)

“Pack the wounds, Lore.” When Shane’s cat growled, the med tech continued. “I’ll walk you through how to treat his injuries, but you have to let us help him too. If he doesn’t get immediate care, you’ll cripple him. I’ll tranq you first. I swear it.”

Under the direction of the med tech, Lore jammed more moss into the wounds on Shane’s hip. He held Shane down when Shane arched his back, twisting with the miserable hurt. The med tech passed a comlink to Lore to scan Shane’s ruined wrists, and the tech only handled each wrist to check the positioning of splints Lore strapped to Shane to force the broken bones together. Lore, rather than the med techs, applied pressure bandages to replace the moss sopping up blood flowing from five deep punctures on Shane’s hip. The techs didn’t even administer the shots, two to Shane’s injured hip and the last to his biceps. Lore did. True to his promise, the med tech barely touched Shane.

Didn’t matter.

Shane screamed until his voice broke, regardless of how firmly Lore pushed him into the moss to immobilize him or how securely his face was buried in the cat’s chest. He didn’t have to see the others to know a stranger, a foreigner, an intruder—someone who was not Lore—touched him. He didn’t even have to smell them. Shane felt them there, the wrongness, to the marrow of his bones.

He screamed in that wounded rasp until the sedative finally knocked him out.

Chapter Four

“Life. Fear. Sex. In the arena, everything is confusing and surreal. Whatever you think you know is wrong.”

~ Shane West

Day 3

The canopy

The cats had been using the arenas and the Hunt for generations. Several had carved hollows from trunks in the upper canopy to use as mating dens, and a steady stream of cats had widened and improved dens to increase comfort since. Lore’s was wide enough for the two of them to spoon together in a curl of twined bodies, the hollow lined with fresh leaves under furs to provide a cozy nest. A tangle of vines thick with blue flowers as big as Shane’s missing flatscreen curtained the opening to the outside world, so he knew they must be very high in the treetops. Only small blooms that thrived in shade blossomed in the forest gloom below.

Tucked against his chest by the cat’s arms around him, Shane’s wrists ached.

Lore lapped at the bite in Shane’s shoulder, and Shane shivered at the sting. Then stiffened and sighed as the cat prodded his slick cock in Shane’s crack and smoothly slid into Shane’s ass. Astonishingly, with the cat’s dick filling his body, Shane could think more clearly—a first since the cat knocked him to the forest floor and mounted him what felt like eons ago.

His name was Shane West. He’d fled Narone after his brothers’ attempts to kill him had grown perilously close to succeeding. His grandmother had helped sneak him to Mariket, hoping to hide Shane in the Hunt. If he competed well, he would become a representative to the cats for his home world and too valuable to waste on the family business. One of Shane’s brothers would be named heir instead. Shane would never see Narone again, but he’d survive. Homeless. Alone. But safe.

Except he’d fouled it all up—by becoming Lore’s victor. Which was impossible.

Just like rogue beasts prowling the arenas was impossible.

And attacks on mated competitors by other cats.

Impossible.

But it didn’t feel that way. Shane felt as though, if he’d awoken without his cat cuddled against his back, without Lore slipping into his body, he would have lost his mind.

The gaping maw of his destroyed life stretched before him. The loss of who he’d been, coupled with the confusion of who he was now, was more bewildering and painful than the injuries that tormented him. He didn’t want to—couldn’t—think anymore, and for now, for this moment, he didn’t have to. “Fuck me,” he said, voice still scratchy from his screams.

There wasn’t room in the den for anything save the gentle rocking of his cat’s hips joining them together, but that was all right. Shane ached too much for the raucous sex of the first night’s chase. His hole stung. The tender stab of the cat’s cock inside him made him forget the soreness, though. Moaning, Shane squirmed to meet each thrust, the wicked tingle in his ass building, building, obliterating everything else. He arched his spine, a cry working from his throat when Lore bit into the shoulder wound, but the pain didn’t deflate Shane’s cock. He hardened as Lore’s teeth clamped like a vise. Blood trickled down Shane’s pec, too fast to be licked and sucked into the cat’s voracious mouth.

Their sex was beautiful, consuming. And cruel.

Lore hugged Shane’s wrists to his chest once in silent warning and then dropped a hand to Shane’s hip. He didn’t mark Shane there again. Pristine white bandages—odd in the untamed forest of the arena—covered the punctures the other cat had inflicted and were as impenetrable as Mariket’s defense shields. Lore wouldn’t risk scars on Shane that hadn’t come from him. Instead Lore swept his claws across Shane’s unprotected stomach just above Shane’s bobbing dick. He carved five grooves into Shane’s belly, then five more.

“Oh gods,” Shane moaned, pushing his ass back to welcome the dick filling him.

The cat grunted and bit so hard tears gathered in Shane’s eyes. Good, so good. Even the pain was a comfort, promising Shane that his cat craved him beyond today and this moment. He wasn’t alone. The certainty of the scar Lore tore into his shoulder offered solace, rest, protection. Lore shifted his attention from the wet agony of his mating bite to nip Shane’s earlobe, driving Shane out of his mind. “Want my spend, Precious?”

Shane shuddered, the pleasure from his ass streaking to his balls and then to his untouched cock. “Please. Yes. I—”

“I would give you the world.” While Shane, dazed and needy, grappled with how their
temporary
mating could have gone so
permanently
wrong, the cat looped an arm around Shane’s bloodied stomach and fucked him in earnest.

His mistakes, Lore’s, what had happened in the arena below—suddenly none of it mattered.

The smell of sex mixed with the forest scents as well as the sharp coppery tang of blood. The smack of Lore’s groin slapping Shane’s ass broke a quiet punctuated only by moans and their panted breaths. Shane quaked with each thrust, rocking his cock against Lore’s arm. Lore pumped into him in short stabs that jolted through Shane like lightning. Pleasure intensified at his dick, and when the madness took him, Shane groaned. He spilled into their furs in pearly ropes.

Lore stroked Shane’s stomach rather than holding him in place. He licked instead of biting him, the sandpaper scrape of his tongue on Shane’s skin electrifying and soothing all at once. The cock lunging into Shane’s aching ass slowed.

Shane choked back a sob.

The cat hadn’t come. Damn thing had the stamina of no species Shane had ever known. He needed it, though, required the cat’s semen inside him, painting his guts, drenching him in his cat’s scent.

Lore rolled to his back and manhandled Shane to perch on top of him. The rigid cock buried within Shane felt more necessary than breathing. Shaking, bloodied from Lore’s scratches, Shane tried to brace himself on the cat’s chest so he could work Lore’s dick deeper, but pain flared laser-hot in his broken wrists. He would’ve collapsed if Lore hadn’t caught him.

“Here.” The cat raised Shane’s hands and threaded them through vines overhead, anchoring his arms by the crooks of his elbows. “Ride me, Precious. Show me how much you want me flooding into you.”

After Lore had hunted him and their brutal first fucks, Shane’s hole was tender. His entire body was overstimulated. The throbbing of his wrists from the attack of the other cat had renewed. His scratches smarted, both from mating Lore and from branches that had whipped him during his wild race that first night. His balls felt dry and empty. Shane had never come so much. Had it only been a day? Two? He wouldn’t come again, not this quickly. But he desperately wanted the cock inside him spraying him full of the cat’s amazing scent, so wincing, he lifted his hips. The hard tube of flesh stretching his hole slipped from his ass until just the tip remained inside. Shane slammed down, whimpering as he impaled his overtaxed body. The cat purred, staring at him with hooded yellow eyes that urged him. Lore stretched beneath him, thrusting up, the fur of his groin brushing the scratches on Shane’s thighs.

Shane bobbed on the cat’s dick, using his upper body strength and the fulcrum of the vines to steady himself. His cock slapped wetly on his blood-smeared stomach as the muscles of his abdomen tightened and released. He milked Lore’s dick, loving the sounds the cat made while Shane struggled to please him. Sweat poured off Shane, mixing with blood and cum. Grunting, he took the cat deep, so deep, his heart skipping when a low rumble vibrated in Lore’s chest. “Just like that.”

Shane shivered. He worked the cat’s dick as good and as hard as he could, but blood loss sapped his strength. Shane knew Lore was close. The cat’s cock was hard as granite in his ass, and the oils Lore produced while he was in season slicked Shane’s crack. Shane panted as though he’d been fucking the cat forever instead of moments, and still, his body failed him. “Please,” he said, breathless, quaking. “Help me.”

Lore’s hands flew to Shane’s pumping ass. He took control of the thrusts, shoving Shane’s body down as his hips speared up. Shane yelled out his relief. Grinding pleasure married with the hurt of the quickening slap of their bodies. The instant his cat’s claws dug into his ass cheeks, Shane’s cock tingled. He couldn’t resist the feral pleasure. Didn’t want to. Shane pulled the vines overhead, keening like a wounded animal as the cat fucked him, and Shane’s dick grew harder, longer. Needier. His balls slammed again and again into the cat’s groin. There was no way Shane could produce more semen.

But he would come again anyway.

The cat would make him.

As Lore lurched up, Shane finally accepted he no longer had any say over his body. If the cat wanted him to come again, he would. “Give it to me, Precious. Come for me, and I’ll shoot you so full, you’ll never get me out.”

Shane arched his spine and surrendered. The orgasm streaking up his dick hurt as much as it pleasured him, but a thin, weak stream spit from the tip just the same. Shane gritted his teeth around the shout that wanted to tear from his throat. His arms tensed, biceps clenching, but then the cat finally growled. One last lunge into Shane’s ass, claws like fire in his ass cheeks, and Lore’s dick sprayed. Shane shuddered at the scalding heat. Lore’s grasp tightened, making Shane take every burst of semen splashing into his guts. It warmed him from the inside out. So deliciously.

Senses spinning out of control, Shane cried out as the vines that kept him upright snapped. Lore groaned, gathering Shane against his sweaty chest. His hips continued to rock, dick spurting into Shane. “Give me your mouth.”

Shane tipped his head blindly toward Lore’s. His lips parted while Lore still pumped into his wrecked, quivering body.

Their first true kiss was an intoxicating mix of fused lips, the carnal twine of tongues, and the maddening flavor of blood and semen.

How could Shane be Lore’s victor without ever before tasting him?

And now that he had, was there any denying what Shane was?

Reeling with equal measures arousal and confusion, Shane opened wider and invited Lore in. Lore licked into his mouth, the rough texture of his tongue tickling as he explored. Pleasure dazzled Shane as the cat’s tongue scraped his, and what was left of his mind splintered at the drip of the cat’s cum leaking from his ass.

Swamped by sensation, all traces of rational thought gone, Shane pressed close, fighting to accept more of the cat’s essence into his body, and sucked on Lore’s tongue. Breath? Who needed to breathe? No, what Shane really needed was—

The cat ripped one hand free of Shane’s ass cheek, claws retracting. While Shane writhed, Lore jabbed a finger into Shane’s crack. Shane screamed into Lore’s mouth at the hot, bright pain as that rude finger wedged into his hole alongside the cat’s softening dick. When the finger slid free, a sheen of sweat flushed Shane’s skin. Lore released his kiss and lifted his hand to Shane’s mouth. “Open.”

Oily semen glistened.

Too depleted to fight him, Shane parted his tingling lips. Lore shoved the finger in, and Shane jerked weakly at the assault of flavor. The bitter sour of the cat’s semen coated his tongue. “Suck,” Lore demanded. So that was exactly what Shane did. He sealed his lips around that finger, and groaning at the gamy taste, he licked. And licked. Gods, had he ever been so hungry? He sucked, chasing that finger with his tongue. When Lore removed it, Shane followed that finger with his mouth until the cat halted him with a fist clenched in his hair. Again the cat dipped into Shane’s ass. He scooped cum out and then fed it to Shane.

Tired, drunk on his cat’s taste, Shane sucked, taking what the cat offered him of their sex twice more before his lashes lowered. “Please,” he mumbled. “Need it.”

The cat’s chuckle vibrated Shane’s overburdened body. “All for you, Precious.” He pushed Shane down the contours of his body to his crotch. Dopey, Shane wrapped his mouth around the fat head of the cat’s fur-covered dick. Some part of Shane’s mind screamed at him to stop. That cock had been in his ass, for gods’ sakes, but Shane had never craved anything more. Starved, he swallowed the tip of Lore’s cock, lapping at the sticky semen that slicked the short fur.

“Not too deeply,” Lore said around ragged pants. “The spines will tear your sweet mouth.”

The cat secured his grasp in Shane’s hair before bucking his hips, forcing another thin burst of cum past Shane’s lips. He coughed. He choked. He sucked and swallowed. His numb fingers scrabbled at the cat’s hips, silently urging him to fuck his mouth too.

More.

Just a little more.

The cat chuffed and yanked Shane’s mouth free. He forced Shane’s head against his thigh and held Shane there when he tried to return to his prize. Eyes closing, Shane surrendered to the cat and to the demands of his sapped body.

“Rest, my love,” Lore said, stroking Shane’s hair. “Just rest.”