The Prisoner's Release and Other Stories (42 page)

The note read: “I’ll pay for the room and buy you a nice dinner afterwards, cutie.” I almost laughed—did he not know I lived in the palace? I could get a better dinner than most people in the city just by sneaking down to the kitchens and rooting through the leavings. When I looked back up at him, he was smiling in what I suppose he thought was an alluring manner. I ignored him.

The squirrel returned with a pewter goblet full of wine. I handed him the note back and said, “Tell the rabbit I can find my own dinner.” Well, it wasn’t the cleverest thing, but it would do for the moment.

I sipped the wine and scanned the rest of the room. It certainly seemed like half the customers were looking at me, so I sat up a little straighter and let my tail swing back and forth behind the chair.

The squirrel was back five minutes later. “The weasel by the podium, sir. Should I bother bringing any more notes, or are you waiting for someone?”

The note read, “How about it?” I handed it back to him with a chuckle. “I’m waiting for one of your staff, but you can keep bringing the notes.”

He didn’t say anything, just walked away. Rather rude, but I was too keyed up to care. This must be how Kigi feels all the time, I thought, glancing around the room at the eyes on me.

Nobody else sent a note, sadly enough. Maybe they were intimidated by me now. In any case, when Tally came back to lead me to a room, I sprang out of my chair and nearly knocked it over.

“Careful, hon,” he said. “Don’t want to spend all your energy before you even get there.”

A few of the nearby patrons snickered. “Don’t worry about that,” I said, and their snickers changed tone slightly: with me now.

“Ah, to be young again,” one of them murmured as I passed. I held my tail a little higher and wagged it as I followed Tally into the back.

He led me through one of the back doors, down a corridor of rooms where the smell of sex grew much sharper and more immediate, making my tail twitch and my paws clench, and then to a door marked only with a number “3.”

“Enjoy yourself,” he said. “And if you want to leave any extra money for Richy afterwards, give it to me on your way out.”

“All right.” He padded away quietly and I stared at the number, sniffing the air as I did customarily to get a sense of what lay beyond. I smelled wolf, and again the thick scent of sex. I felt almost as though I’d drunk five or six glasses of wine; my head was spinning and the number seemed to blur the more I tried to focus on it. I closed my eyes and pressed the latch down.

“Hi.” His voice was smooth and sultry. My eyes fluttered open.

His pink silk robe hung open to show off a firmly defined chest, a fluffy white stomach, and a nice pair of legs with brownish-grey fur darkening from mid-thigh down to his dark brown feet. Of course, I saw most of this later, because the first thing I saw was his white sheath, the inch of pink protruding above it, and the soft white sac lying casually on one thigh.

“Going to come in?”

It took me a second to realize that I was standing in the open doorway with my muzzle partly open. I stepped in, closed the door, and looked into a pair of sparkling green eyes.

“Hi, cutie.” He patted the bed next to him. “Wanna come sit down?”

He had the most gorgeous muzzle, slender and white. Most of the rest of his face was grey, but as he flicked his ears, I saw their black tips. None of my family had black-tipped ears, and I thought they were the handsomest thing I’d seen. If he hadn’t had his sheath out, I could happily have stared at his muzzle for hours.

“Yeah.” I licked my lips and padded over to sit next to him. I thought my heart would jump out of its chest. He didn’t know I was a noble, didn’t even know my name, and he was about to reach over and…

His paw was warm on my shoulder. “What’s your name?”

“Cef.” I squeaked out my nickname, then cleared my throat. “Cefalo. But everyone calls me Cef.”

“Pleased to meet you, Cef. I’m Richy.” He smiled, not showing too many teeth, and oh, at that moment I’d have done anything he asked just to see that smile again.

“I…I know.”

“First time here?” The lie didn’t even enter my mind. I nodded. “Okay, do you have anything in mind or want me to give you some suggestions?”

I didn’t say anything, but my eyes flicked downward to his sheath. For Canis’s sake! I hadn’t felt this tongue-tied since I was eleven and my father took us to meet the king.

Richy smiled. “You can touch me if you want. Do you want to?” He drew his robe back a little more, showing off the clean white fur of his thighs and the grey outside on his hips. There was a little more pink now, and I couldn’t seem to look away from it.

I nodded again, croaked out a “yes,” and reached a paw towards him. He slid his arm around my waist and smiled at me as my fingers touched the soft fur on his sac, then his sheath. I hesitated, and then brushed my pads across his pink skin.

It was amazing. It was strange. I’d seen my brothers naked, but never erect, and I’d only ever touched myself. It was like touching myself, but all the sensation was coming through my fingers. I loved it.

I explored him, tried some of the strokes I liked and found that positioning my paw was a little trickier from this angle. I glanced at him for approval and got that warm smile back, and after a couple times, I stopped glancing.

His breath tickled my ear. “You want me to touch you too, Cef?”

“Yes…” I was so hard it was painful. His fingers figured out my trousers without difficulty and freed me from their prison. And then it was a strange duality: I was stroking with one paw and feeling strokes between my legs, but the sensations were separate. I closed my eyes as his paw traced my knot, already full and swollen. Then he gripped me, I squeezed him back, and I felt a surge inside and I couldn’t hold back a small yelp.

“Oh.” I looked down at myself, at his paw covered in my come, and my ears folded down.

Richy tightened the arm around my waist. “Nothing to worry about, Cef.” He held my member up, examined it from each side, and then brought his paw to my muzzle. “Want to clean me off?”

I lapped at his paw, but after a few licks I said, “I…like it better fresh.”

“All right.” He gave me another smile and his eyes danced, and he reached behind him for a towel. “I just want to make sure you get your money’s worth.”

“Can I…” I swallowed. “Taste you?” I didn’t know how to say it. I was beyond worrying about him seeing me as a kid now; after spurting all over his paw, there wasn’t anything I could do to appear mature.

He cocked his ears, and then leaned forward to kiss my nose. “Of course, Cef. Just mind the teeth.”

“Uh.” Now he'd said that, I was nervous. I imagined my clumsy muzzle gouging him with my teeth, even though I'd never even gotten close to hurting myself. Maybe I'd just start with licking.

I lowered my head along his chest and stomach, getting just a hint of his musk. “Tell me if I hurt you?”

He stroked me between the ears. “Just don’t bite down.” His tail wagged, and seeing him want my touch gave me back my confidence. I leaned over again, and he swung his legs up so he was lying on the bed. I hardly noticed.

I loved his musk, and the feel of him in my muzzle. Once I felt my teeth graze him, and stopped, but he didn’t say anything, so I kept going, just more carefully. For a while, he made happy moans and yelps, but when my jaw started to hurt and he still wasn’t any closer to coming, I let him slip out.

“Getting tired?”

I nodded. “Does it usually…take this long?”

He rubbed my ears again, and tried to lift them up. “It depends,” he said.

“I’ll keep going, as long as it takes…” I bent back down, but his paw stopped me, holding me under the chin, drawing my eyes up to meet his.

For several heartbeats, he didn’t say anything. Then he leaned forward and took my paw, and wrapped it around his length. “Slide up and down while you’re sucking,” he said, and laid back.

That worked a lot better. I felt him respond after only a couple minutes, his knot swelling and body tensing, and after a few more strokes, he shuddered and arched his back, and I got a muzzle full.

I kept licking as he moaned, and forgot about my teeth for a second, but I don’t think I hurt him. I tried to swallow, gagged, tried again and succeeded, but in the process I’d let a good bit dribble back onto his fur.

“Oh, I’m…” I reached for the towel and wiped off what I could.

He laughed, sat up, and hugged me. “That was just fine, Cef. You must’ve been practicing on yourself.”

“Kind of. Doesn’t everyone? I can’t get myself that far in, though.” I could still taste him in my muzzle. I licked my lips, getting more of the taste.

His tail thumped the bed. “Well, you did a nice job. You have a little more time…are you ready to go again?”

I was. “I don’t have to…I mean, you don’t have to…”

He put a finger to my muzzle. “It’s my job.” He winked. “And my pleasure.”

Oh, Canis. He took me into his muzzle and I don’t know how I didn’t come again right there. I could tell right away that I hadn’t been half this good, because he hadn’t been thrashing around on the bed like he had whitemouth. I’d never felt anything like it, even when I had myself in my muzzle. I think I kicked him once, and I know I was making all kinds of incoherent squeaky noises, until finally I thrust up against him as hard as I could and came for the second time in an hour.

“Oh.” I panted over and over again, lying back. “I definitely need to practice.”

He brushed a paw along my stomach. “I hope this was a night to remember.”

“I’ll never forget it,” I panted. “I wish I didn’t have to go so soon.”

Richy slid up beside me and kept the paw on my stomach. I wanted him to keep it there forever. “Why’s that? You think you could do three times?”

“No. I just like…I like being here with you.”

“Oh.” He paused, so that I turned to look at his eyes. They brightened when he saw me look, and he kissed my nose. “You can stay a bit longer if you want. We’ve only been about forty minutes, and you paid for an hour.”

My tail wagged against the bed. “Could you…this might sound weird.”

He laughed. “I’ve heard weirder things than you can imagine, Cef dear. Go ahead.”

“Could you just…hold me for a bit?”

By way of answer, his arm slid around me. I hugged back and edged my body towards his, and rested my head against his chest. He stroked me down the ears and neck, and flipped his tail over my hip, and I was in heaven.

“What nights do you work?” I murmured.

“I’m here every night but Gaiaday night.”

“Can I come back and see you?”

“Of course you can, Cef.”

I rubbed my muzzle against his shoulder, drinking in the texture and scent of his fur. The underlying sexual attraction never really went away, but it was faded now, and I could focus on his scent, his muscles, the way he held me, the rumble of his voice in his throat when he talked, and it was all wonderful.

“How long have you been here?” I wanted to hear his voice more than I wanted to know the answer.

His claws dragged through my fur. “A couple hours. My shift starts at sundown.”

“No, I mean…how long have you been working here.”

“Mm.” He was quiet for a moment. “A long time.”

“It’s my birthday,” I said. “I’m fifteen.”

“O ho,” he said, and kissed my ear. “Your friends take you here?”

“Brothers,” I mumbled.

“Nice family.”

“Sometimes.”

“Where do you live?”

“Palace.” I tried to muffle the response in his fur, but he heard anyway and exhaled.

“Oh. So I really might see you again.”

I lifted my head to look into those warm green eyes. “You will.”

Out in the main room, my head had cleared and I paused for another cup of wine before meeting my brothers outside. Let them wait longer, if they were still waiting. I wanted to relax and savor the moment, and mask the scents on my muzzle with the deep richness of wine.

Technically, I suppose, I hadn’t been a cub since a couple months ago, when one of Kigi’s former conquests took me out into the gardens and showed me where everything went. That had been enjoyable enough, and had given me plenty of material to talk to my brothers about, but it had been nothing like tonight. Tonight I felt like a grown-up wolf for the first time.

And I couldn’t stop thinking about Richy. I could smell him, hear him, feel him, taste him. Even though I’d just about exhausted myself and had only one silver left, I had to fight the urge to run back in there.

“Hi, Cef. Had fun?” Tally pulled up a chair and sat at the table with me. “Mm, I can see you did.”

I blinked at him, and only realized as I spoke that my muzzle was relaxing out of a huge grin. “He’s great. I’ll definitely come back.”

“That’s what I like to hear.”

I remembered why he was there, finally, reached into my purse, and slid my last silver across the table. “I’ll have more next time.”

He pocketed it smoothly and flashed me a smile. “Stay as long as you want. There’s another singer coming on in ten minutes or so.”

“Can I reserve Richy?” The words just seemed to burst out.

“Of course, dear. Tomorrow night?”

“Yes!”

He smiled. “Same time?”

“Sure.” All my newfound maturity had vanished. My tail was wagging and I believe I might even have been drooling. Just a bit.

“Consider him yours. See you then.” He patted me on the shoulder and walked off to another table.

It took a few minutes for what I’d just said to sink in. I was going to come back tomorrow, which meant I needed to get another five silvers. More if I wanted to leave a tip. My allowance was only one a week, and the six I’d brought tonight were a quarter of my savings. Really, though, the only reason I didn’t have more money was that I’d never needed it. I drank the rest of my wine and walked out, already looking forward to the rest of the week.

2: The Silver

I gave a raccoon couple a cheerful wave as I passed them, feeling well-disposed to everyone at the moment. The sun was just setting, the warmth of the day was still in the air, and the thieves and scoundrels were still lurking in their dens waiting for true darkness. I thought the street had never looked so beautiful. I wondered if Richy worked evenings, if he ever got to see a sunset.