The Prisoner's Release and Other Stories (45 page)

I laughed and moved my paws inside his robe, feeling the curve of his side where it angled slightly outward into his hips. “Probably not.”

We kissed again. He nuzzled me when we finally pulled apart, and breathed softly, “I’ve missed you.”

I held him tighter. “Oh, I’ve missed you too.”

“Mm.” I couldn’t get enough of my paws in his fur, or his paws in mine. He pressed right above the base of my tail, making it arch, and kissed my cheek ruff. “You want your first time tonight?”

“You think I’m ready?” The thought scared me. I’d tried pushing a finger up under my tail, knowing that eventually I wanted to do this with Richy. It felt nice, but I didn’t think I could fit much more than that. When I was inside him, though, he seemed to enjoy me so much. I wanted to feel that too, and I wanted to feel it with him.

He pulled back and touched his nose to mine. “I don’t think you’ll ever get more ready.” His paw brushed my ears. “It will probably hurt, but I’ll be gentle and we won’t tie tonight.”

“You’re the expert.” I couldn’t keep a quaver out of my voice.

He held me. “If it hurts too much, we’ll stop.”

“I know.” I was cross with myself for being afraid, and for making him worry by showing it. “I’ll tell you.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

He had me lie on my back at the edge of the bed, and worked his fingers into me first. It wasn’t as bad as I’d thought it would be, just uncomfortable. It helped that he was stroking me out of my sheath the whole time, too. “Try to relax,” he urged, and I wasn’t quite sure how, but I tried my best.

Then the fingers slipped out (relief!) and he put one paw on my hip. “I’m ready,” I said with more bravery than I felt.

He kept his eyes on mine and nodded. “All right. Remember, tell me if it hurts.”

I nodded and watched his hips move forward. I felt the pressure first, and then…whoa.

“Are you okay?”

I gulped and nodded. He pushed a little more. “Wait!”

He stopped instantly. “Hurts?”

“Yes. No. Could you…”

He slipped out of me, and the relief went flooding through me. I lay my head back, disappointed. After all that, I was too tight, too virgin to enjoy him that way, inside me. As I lamented my inconvenient anatomy, the soreness started to fade, almost as though my body were listening to me. Strangely enough, my body missed him. I wanted him back in.

“It’s okay.” He was starting to move away, but I gestured him back.

“Try again. I want…” He looked at me, and I smiled. “Just try again. I’ll tell you if it hurts.”

“All right.” He put some more oil on his cock, and I felt that pressure again. This time, though, when he moved into me, it wasn’t as uncomfortable, and as he stretched a certain part in time with a paw on my shaft, I felt a thrill.

“Oh. Wow. That’s…”

“Okay?” He smiled down at me and I got lost in those eyes.

“Yeah.”

“Uncomfortable?”

I nodded. Like I said…hard to lie when you’re making love. “But there’s good feelings too…” Canis help me, I was babbling.

He kissed my nose. “Good. The discomfort goes away with practice.”

“Oh.” I panted as he slid further in. “I want…a lot of practice.”

He just smiled and started moving back and forth. And with his paw moving and his cock moving, I was squirming and yelping and moaning and spurting before I knew it. Oh, Canis, it was great. Until I started to come down off the climax. Then the big hard thing stuffed up my rear was much less comfortable.

Richy seemed to know it, though; he slid out as soon as he saw me relaxing, and that little thrill of relief gave me another spurt. I just lay there, panting, staring up at him and past him and making little moaning noises as I came down.

He lay next to me and rubbed his paw through my chest fur while I recovered. “You’ve still got forty-five minutes,” he said when I turned to look him in the eye again.

I smiled. “And you’ve still got a date with my muzzle.”

And after that was concluded to our mutual satisfaction, we lay on the bed and held each other and talked about our days. He never said much about his work, just that he’d gone out shopping with some friends and gotten a new shirt, or that he’d taken a walk down to the park, or that he’d had a really good stew at the pub for lunch. I told him about the palace, about Dasha (he didn’t seem upset that we’d made love), and about seeing my brother outside. If we wanted to be quiet, we would just brush each other’s fur, but we never ran out of things to say.

I hated leaving, but I had to. I told him I’d be back as soon as I could, and we kissed and held each other before I walked out.

This time I lingered long enough to drink two cups of wine. Rashi was nowhere in the main room, and I was sure he’d be over at the Cup and Crown by now. Besides, my butt was kind of sore, and I was hoping it would go away if I sat long enough.

It didn’t. Finally I had to start heading back to the palace. I walked out the door and had barely gone three steps when I heard a familiar voice.

“Well, well.”

I turned to see Dereath behind me. Hadn’t even seen him when I left. He was looking very pleased with himself, with a thick oiled coat wrapped around his thin frame. “Uh…listen, I just went in to look…”

“For an hour and a half?” He sounded amused as he sauntered closer.

“The wine’s pretty good.”

“Better than the free wine and the serving bitch over there?” I couldn’t think of a reply, and he laughed. “Don’t worry, cub. I won’t tell your father. I heartily approve of your new hobby.”

His paw appeared from a pocket, flipped something towards me, and disappeared into the same pocket. I caught the flying object reflexively and looked at it in the fading light. Another gold Royal.

He strolled past me. “See you back at the palace.”

I watched him go, holding the coin in the rain. I’d been planning to stop by the Cup and Crown, but I found I no longer really wanted to.

My father was just about to turn in when I got back to the rooms. I was going to go right on to bed too, in case there were some scents still on me, but something occurred to me. “Dad? What happened with Dereath?”

I could tell he hadn’t expected that. “What do you mean, Cef?”

I studied the grey of his muzzle. Despite that sign of age, his brown eyes were bright and his ears were perked up. He was as stocky as Kigi, if no longer as muscular, but I was sure he could still hold his own. “I remember you said something about him screwing up a few months ago. What happened?”

Now he smiled, just a little, like he always did when we asked him about work. “If I wouldn’t tell you then, why do you think I’ll tell you now?”

I shrugged. “I thought maybe it wasn’t as secret any more.”

“You haven’t been talking to him, have you?”

I avoided his gaze. “No. Not much.”

“It’d be better for you to stay clear of him.”

I nodded. “Okay, Dad.” But my paw closed around the gold Royal in my pocket.

Over the next month or so, I did try to steer clear of Dereath, but he always managed to track me down, and every time he saw me, he tossed me another gold Royal. “Spend it well,” he said, and by the time the summer was rolling around and the rains coming more frequently, I started to seek him out. Every gold Royal meant two more visits to Richy, and those were worth more to me than anything.

I started to fidget early in the afternoon of days I could visit him. Sometimes I drifted off in a lesson and found my sheath full and straining at my pants as I blinked away thoughts of him and tried to get back to the lesson. Dinner always seemed to take forever, especially if there were some noble family and their of-age bitch for me to be polite to. And then I was off, free of the palace and free to see him.

There I got all the practice and instruction I could ask for. He was right; I took him inside me several more times, and each time it was more comfortable and more pleasurable. One night, near the end of the month, he pushed his knot all the way in and came inside me, and we lay there locked together. It felt beautiful. I couldn’t stop touching him, that gorgeous wolf, part of me.

“Is that okay?” he said, and I kissed him to stop him asking silly questions.

I told him about the other noble bitches my parents had lined up for me—two since Jelila, who’d been back with her family for another look. It felt good to list their shortcomings, because nobody else would listen to me, not even Kira. Richy not only listened, he laughed, but his ears weren’t quite as perky as usual. I asked him why.

He traced a finger down my chest. “I’m just sad. I know one day you’ll stop being able to afford me, and you’ll marry one of those lucky nobles.”

“If I can’t afford to see you, I’ll sneak in the back.”

“You’d get in trouble.”

“Don’t care.” I kissed him again and pressed myself to him. “As long as I get this.”

He held me, and didn’t say a word.

I was especially dreamy that evening as I drank a cup of wine at the Cup and Crown. Dasha was keeping me company, Rashi's strategy having fallen flat. At least, it had with Dasha; I’d heard him bragging to Kigi that girls were finally getting interested in him, but I didn't know which unlucky bitch he’d fooled. Kigi had finished with Alisha, so he only came to the Cup and Crown on nights when she wasn’t working. With both my brothers away, I felt more comfortable talking to Dasha in the common room.

“Did you come twice again?” she asked me with a grin.

I shook my head. “Just once, but he locked inside me.”

“Nice, isn’t it? Well, I’ve never done it from that end, but it’s nice from the front.”

I grinned. “It takes a little practice. But it’s nice, yeah.”

She took a drink and gave me a curious look. “You know, there's a wolf my brother knows who's gay. He's a couple years older than me, but I don't think he's seeing anyone. If you wanted...”

I shook my head. She sighed. “Why, Cef? You're a cute guy. You could get yourself a mate...”

“I don't want a mate.”

“I just hate to see you get all hung up on this prostitute. You think when you run out of money, he's going to give you freebies?”

“It doesn't matter. I'm going to be married off to some bitch before too long. Kigi's already engaged, did you hear?”

She shook her head.
“Noble?”

I snickered.
“No. She thought he was noble and had him over while she was in heat. He says he tried to resist.”

She laughed along with me. “So she's carrying now.”

I nodded. “Dad was angry, but not too angry. I think we all pretty much expected it to happen.”

She took another drink. “So does he feel the same about you?”

I knew she meant Richy again. “I think so. I mean, he acts all...” I trailed off, knowing what she would say next.

She said it, of course. “That's because you're paying him to. Have you ever seen him outside the house there?”

“No. But that doesn't matter. I know how he feels. You've never even met him.”

She bristled. “I don't have to. I hear stories from there. I know what whores do.”

I pushed my chair back abruptly. She leaned across the table and flicked her ears back. “I'm sorry, Cef. Listen, why don't we go upstairs...”

“Not tonight.” I stood up and dropped a couple coppers onto the table. “Maybe some other time.”

She didn't say anything as I walked out. I breathed in, letting the cool night air dispel the sour taste in my muzzle. What did it matter if Richy really felt for me the way I did for him? I was happy. Wasn't that all that mattered?

Except that I'd had the same thoughts and always quelled them. Whenever I thought of him with other clients, or ached to see him, or woke up from a dream thinking he was with me, I wanted to make him mine and mine alone. In more lucid moments. I realized how silly that was, but that didn't stop my heart from wanting.

I would ask him, I decided. I would stop him on the way home from work and just talk to him, just ask him if he really felt anything for me or if it was just an act. And then I would know. If he was acting, then so be it. If not...

I told myself that this was a stupid idea, one of the worst I'd ever had, but I was already crossing the street. Dasha had brought the uncertainty in me to the boiling point, and now I needed to know.

The Jackal's Staff was a huge building, much larger than I would have suspected. I finally found the alley that ran behind it and a door that I suspected to be the back exit. At least, it smelled of recent traffic, and I thought I could catch the faint smell of sex beyond it. I sat on a crate across the alley, back in a shadow, and waited.

While I sat there, getting colder, my mind ran through the choices. He didn't feel the same. He did. He didn't, but it didn't matter. He did, but it didn't matter. For each scenario, I constructed elaborate dramas and tearful partings, tearful commitments, or tearful confessions.

I heard the door open, but it was just a mouse leaving. He didn't see me. I drew my clothes closer around myself and waited, and at some point my imagination drifted into dreams.

The sky had just a tinge of light to it when a rough paw shook my shoulder. I blinked up into a black-masked muzzle.

“What in Gaia's name are you doing out here? Are you lost?”

I rubbed my eyes, wondering why this raccoon was in my room and why my room was so cold. It took me a minute to wake up. “Um. I need to see Richy.”

The raccoon's muzzle furrowed. “He's asleep. Didn't you just see him?”

I nodded. “I have to ask him something.”

“Well, come back again and ask him then.”

“I can't. I need to...I need to ask him when I'm not paying him.”

At that, he stepped back from me and folded his arms. “No. No meeting with clients outside work.”

“But...”

He shook his head. “No. Go home.”

My paws clenched into fists, but there was nothing I could do. I glared at him stubbornly and folded my own arms.

“Don't make me call the guard, cub.”

His black eyes glittered. I knew he would do it. And then Dad would know.

I got up, wincing at the stiffness in my leg and shaking it to bring it back to life. “Fine.”