Page 27 of Beastkin

I moved to the window, pushing it open to let the cool pre-dawn air wash over my overheated fur. The campus sprawled below, peaceful and quiet. Somewhere out there, Phoenix was sleeping. Or maybe he was awake too, just as confused as I was.

No, not confused. Phoenix had never seemed confused about who he was. Even as a kid, he’d been so sure of himself, so comfortable in his own skin. And the way he’d looked at me when his memories came flooding back...

My cock twitched again, and I slammed my fist against the window frame, causing a hairline crack to appear in the wood. Shit. How was I going to explain that to housing?

The truth was, I wasn’t just scared of what these feelings meant about my sexuality. I was terrified of what they meant for our friendship. Phoenix and I had just found each other again after all these years. What if I ruined it by wanting more? What if he was disgusted? What if he laughed?

But what if he felt the same way?

That thought sent a jolt of electricity through me that had nothing to do with fear and everything to do with hope. I remembered the way his fingers had lingered on my arm, how he’d leaned into my touch. The flush on his cheeks when our eyes met.

“Fuck,” I growled, pressing my forehead against the cool glass of the window.

I needed to talk to someone about this. Silver would listen without judgment, but the idea of admitting these feelings out loud made my stomach knot. Coach Flannery had been surprisinglyunderstanding when I’d approached him before, but this was different. This wasn’t about football or trauma or recovery.

This was about the fact that I couldn’t stop thinking about my childhood best friend’s lips, his hands, the way his lean body would feel pressed against mine.

I pushed away from the window and grabbed my class schedule from my desk. I had Elemental Theory with Professor Blackwood at eleven, after morning practice. Phoenix would be there. We’d have to face each other in the harsh light of day, with all these new memories and feelings between us.

The thought made my heart race all over again. I needed to get out, to run, to work off this restless energy before I exploded.

I pulled on a pair of shorts and a tank top, not bothering to try to hide my growing boner. Nobody would be out at this time of day, anyway. If I was lucky, the run would help it go away.

I grabbed my keys and slipped out of my dorm room, padding quietly down the hallway. The building was silent, most students still deep in dreams about magic or monsters or whatever the hell normal people dreamed about. Not their best friend’s lips. Not the way his eyes glowed like embers when he looked at you.

The cool night air hit me as I stepped outside, a welcome relief against my overheated fur. Campus was beautiful at this hour, all gothic spires and mist-shrouded walkways, the magic that permeated Widdershins almost visible in the pre-dawn light. I stretched my muscles, feeling the pleasant burn as my beast form adjusted, then set off at an easy lope toward the woods that bordered the eastern edge of campus and were still well within the wards.

Running had always cleared my head. Even before the attack, before therapy and recovery and all that shit, I’d found peace in the simple rhythm of my feet hitting the ground, my lungs expanding, my heart pumping. In beast form, that sensation was amplified, every sense heightened, and muscle more powerful. I could smell the damp earth, the pine needles, and the distant hint of rain just beyond the horizon.

What I couldn’t smell was a solution to my Phoenix problem.

I pushed harder, increasing my pace until I was sprinting between the trees, dodging branches and leaping over fallen logs. My cock bounced uncomfortably against my thigh, still half-hard despite my best efforts to think about anything else. Coach Flannery’s disappointed face. Dean Thornfield’s droning announcements. That time I’d walked in on Silver singing show tunes in the shower.

Nothing worked. My mind kept circling back to Phoenix like a compass finding north.

I remembered the way he’d looked at me in the library, confusion and recognition warring in those flame-colored eyes. The way his hands had trembled as he’d shown me the books on memory manipulation. The absolute trust he’d placed in me, a virtual stranger as far as he knew, to help him discover the truth.

My pace faltered as a new thought hit me. What if Phoenix only felt connected to me because I was a link to his past? What if all this intensity between us was just the echo of our childhood bond, magnified by the trauma of what his parents had done?

I slowed to a stop, bent over with my hands on my knees, panting hard. The sky was beginning to lighten, pink and gold streaking through the darkness. I’d run farther than I’d intended, ending up on some far side of campus with the wards only a few feet away.

It reminded me of the forest behind my family’s home in the Pacific Northwest, where Phoenix and I had spent those golden summers. I straightened up, looking around at the massive pines and oaks. This was the kind of place where a small human boy and a young Beastkin had once built forts and caught frogs and promised to be friends forever. But what about two grown men? What kind of mischief could they get into in the woods?

“Fuck,” I muttered, dropping down to sit on a fallen log. My cock was still half-hard and getting worse by the second.

My imagination was running wild, conjuring images of Phoenixpressed against one of these massive tree trunks, his cream-colored shirt half unbuttoned, those orange eyes dark with want. I could practically feel his hands running through my fur, hear the soft sounds he might make when I…

I groaned and buried my face in my hands. This was getting out of control. My cock was now fully hard, straining against my shorts, and every thought seemed to lead back to Phoenix in increasingly explicit positions.

The rational part of my brain knew I should head back to campus, take a cold shower, maybe hit the gym early to work off this sexual frustration. But my body had other ideas. The image of Phoenix on his knees in front of me, worshipping my cock burst into my mind. And that was it. I couldn’t resist any longer.

I glanced around the empty forest, confirming I was completely alone. The wards shimmered faintly in the distance, and dawn was still at least an hour away. Nobody would come out here this early.

My hand drifted down to my shorts almost without conscious thought, palming my aching cock through the thin fabric. I hissed at the contact, my hips jerking involuntarily. When was the last time I’d been this worked up? Even my hookups with girls had never left me this desperate, this consumed with need.

“Just get it out of your system,” I muttered to myself, sliding my hand beneath the waistband of my shorts.

The moment my fingers wrapped around my thick shaft, I knew there was no going back. I was too far gone, too desperate for relief. I freed my cock and balls from my shorts, the cool morning air making me shiver as I began to stroke myself slowly.