Little Red
Chapter 3
Red’s back was warm, as were his legs and the strip of his stomach
shielded by the arm draped around him, but the rest of his skin was
cool, just enough so as to be uncomfortable. His brain felt fuzzy and
he wondered if he was hung over. Had he been drinking? And who the hell
was lying behind him?
Peeling his eyes open, he became aware that it was daylight, just
about, weak grey light creeping in around the edges of the haphazardly
drawn curtains at the windows. Red’s eyes felt grainy. A blur a few
feet away from him gradually transformed into a fireplace, the remains
of the logs just barely smoking. He was on a rug, old and worn soft and
… and that was when it came back to him.
Skittering forward, the draped arm slid off his hip as he moved, the
form behind him mercifully staying put. Off the edge of the rug and he
felt the startling bite of cold against his feet as they slapped onto
the wooden floor. Crouching there, head down and panting for suddenly
absent breath, Red struggled to make sense of the whirl of images in
his head; the dark road, the frenzied run through the woods, viciously
crushed fear and screaming pleasure. That…thing had brought him here
and raped…had it?
He swallowed hard and thought carefully. Had it been…how could it have
been? What else could it be? Steeling himself, he straightened his back
and knelt up, then turned his head and looked at the creature on the
rug.
No creature.
A man. A complete damn stranger, but a man. A tall, broad man, with a
sturdy kind of musculature, like a rugby player or something. His skin
was pale and his hair was dark, nearly black, a thick spread of body
hair across his torso, threading down to his groin. He lay on his side,
his head pillowed of his forearm, legs drawn up a little and his other
arm stretched out across the rug, where Red had been lying. Red let
himself glance down and saw the man’s large, soft cock, slumped on his
drawn-up thigh.
It was a real surprise. How had this guy gotten here? And where was the
creature? And why, having come into the house and found Red lying naked
on the floor, did he strip off and lay down next to him for some
shuteye? Red took a better look at the man’s face; he was maybe in his
late thirties with a square jaw and a straight nose. Quite a good
looking kind of face and …wait, maybe he did know this guy…
Who was awake.
Who was staring at Red with his mouth and his grey eyes wide open, like he was about to go into shock, face completely white.
“Wha…how did you get here?”
“Uh-“
“Oh Jesus. Oh shit!” And the guy was on his feet, half crouched as if he was in pain, looking utterly fucking terrified!
“Oh God, I did it, didn’t I? Did I?”
“Uh-“
“Shit, did I hurt you?”
Red took stock. A few aches, twinges, but overall- “I’m okay. I think. What…the hell.”
The guy heaved in a strangled sounding breath and rose to his feet,
towering over Red in a disturbingly familiar way. He visibly struggled
to find something to say for a moment, then suddenly turned and stomped
over to one of the doors, a few feet from the fireplace. He opened it
and went through – from what he could see, Red thought it was the
kitchen – then there was a crash and a scraping noise somewhere inside
and he let out a stricken moan.
Gathering his nerve – which was surprisingly made easier by the other
guy’s panic attack – Red got to his feet and walked softly over to the
doorway. Peering around the doorframe he saw the guy standing with his
palms braced on the edge of the table, his shoulders slumped and his
head hung. His chest hitched every few seconds, and Red thought he
might be crying. The room was a wreck; an open doorway in a far corner
was framed by shards of smashed wood, the shape of the larger pieces
suggesting it had once been the door. Beyond that, he could see stairs
leading down, something metallic gleaming in the cellar beyond, and
what looked like a length of chain trailing up the stairs and onto the
kitchen floor. Was this how that thing had gotten into the house? It
must have been as strong as hell; the door was completely obliterated.
“Whoa,” Red breathed, and at the sound, the man’s head shot up and he looked Red square in the eye.
“I’m sorry,” He said hoarsely, and Red could feel a huge welling sorrow in the words.
“I’m so sorry.”
“For…for what? You didn’t…are you something to do with that…”
“For what?” The guy said, suddenly standing upright, moving slowly
towards Red, hands clutched in front of him like he was begging. “I…I
chased you and brought you here and…and probably damned near killed
you!”
“You? But it was that thing!”
“God knows what I would have done if I’d caught you the other night because-“
“The other night? That was that same weird thing! What the hell-“
“I could have really hurt you! I mean, are you really okay? I can’t fucking believe it! I can remember what I did to you-“
“- do you have to do with that thing? Are you like its keeper or something, ‘cause if you are you’re –“
“- and I wasn’t…Jesus, I didn’t even use…shit, you smell good.”
“- doing a shitty job…what?”
The guy seemed to lose his energy for a moment, voice fading, spine
drooping, and to Red’s astonishment, he dropped to his knees on the
dusty floor and stayed there, head hanging again.
“What?” Red said.
The guy didn’t look at him.
“I…that thing.”
“Yes.” Red was suddenly aware that he was naked, and cold. He wrapped his arms around his stomach.
“It caught you at that lady’s house –“
“My Gramma,” Red said, then cringed, feeling dumb for interrupting.
“Your Grandma’s house,” the guy amended. “It caught you there because it had followed your scent. It liked the way you smelled.”
Red felt a chill run down his back. “Because I smelled like what? Food?”
The guy looked up at him, again. “Sexy. You smelled sexy to it.”
Yeah, that made more sense, given that, while his ass hurt, he didn’t actually have any flesh missing.
“Okay. Okay. And last night?”
“Same. Y-you smelled good, your scent was still lingering around and it tracked you. W-wanted you and took you.”
“How do you know this?” Red’s voice was barely there. He swallowed, hard, hearing the click of his throat.
The poor guy looked stricken, like he was going to be sick. Red
couldn’t make out his answer, which rushed out on a shuddering breath.
He started to move towards him, but the guy put one big hand out, as if
warding him off. He cringed, then gulped hard and kept his eyes on the
floor, as he said;
“It was me. I was the creature.”
“But-“
“I turn into it, at certain times. I get out of control, so I shut myself up in…” he gestured vaguely towards the cellar door.
“But… that can’t be. Look at you! You’re…” Hot? “You’re…oh God, you’re the guy from the diner!”
The guy just nodded, raised his hands and scrubbed them over his face.
“That...that…”
“That was where I caught your scent.”
“Oh, this…this is fucked up, man.”
A shockingly loud yelp of laughter burst out of the guy’s mouth. “You
think?” He turned his face up to look at Red again, and there were
tears shining on his cheeks, his lush mouth drawn into an attempt at a
grin. All this confusing shit going on and the thought persistently
running through Red’s mind was that the guy was hot.
“You’re really not hurt?”
“I don’t think so. Sore, couple ‘a bruises, but not, like, injured.”
“Good. Good.” He rubbed his hands over his face again, then got to his feet. “You wanna use the shower?”
And that was how Red ended up washing his hair in some complete
(possibly crazy) stranger’s bathroom, trying to clean up the mess from
last night and twist around enough to get all the cricks out of his
back and shoulder and, damn, his hips. The guy really had to be a
crazy, wherever that creature had come from he had to have known about
it and…what then? Where the hell had it gone? Could he actually mean it?
Okay; to-do list for the day included a) get the guy to make sense, b)
figure out if that thing was going to come after him again c) go home
and start figuring out how to get Gramma to move.
Also, at some point, he thought he ought to ask the guy’s name.
He rinsed off, stepped out of the shower and grabbed a towel off the
rail to dry off. He was just wandering if the guy would freak if he
went back out there naked, when there was a tap at the door and a
moment later he opened it a crack. The guy was kneeling on the floor in
front of the fireplace. He’d put on a bathrobe and a pair of sweatpants
and was vigorously jabbing at the logs in the fireplace with a poker.
Red looked down and saw his clothes, folded neatly, lying on the floor
at his feet. He stooped and picked them up, was about to close the door
when it occurred to him again;
“Hey, what’s your name?”
“Huh?” The guy looked up and turned his head, apparently astonished that Red was willing to talk to him. “Uh, Alex.”
“Red,” said Red. Alex stared blankly at him for a moment, and then Red
closed the door and put his clothes on. There were claw punctures in
the leg of his jeans, just above the right knee. He seemed to recall
his jacket tearing too, but that hadn’t been on the pile. Neither were
his shoes.
So. Alex. Alex the hot crazy. Red had a good look at himself in the
mirror and wasn’t remotely surprised that he looked like shit. But
apparently he smelled good. He pulled out the collar of his sweater and
t-shirt, stuck his nose in the gap and sniffed. He could smell soap and
the staleness of second day clothing, beyond that not a whole lot.
Steeling himself, he opened the door of the bathroom and went out. The
room was pleasantly warm, the fire crackling in the grate. Alex sat on
the sofa, staring at the flames. Red cleared his throat and Alex leapt
to his feet, stricken look still on his face.
“So, uh, I wanna ask some…stuff.”
“Stuff?”
“Yeah. None of this…stuff…is making sense to me. And I want it to. So I’d like you to answer some questions for me. That cool?”
“Uh, yeah, yeah, just…Jesus, I never talked about this before, you know?”
“What, never?”
Alex shook his head and dropped back onto the sofa with a thump. Red
considered sitting next to him for a moment, then decided he wanted to
look the guy in the face and chose the creaky armchair on the other
side of the sofa. Alex obligingly turned towards him, a mingled
expression of worry and curiosity on his face.
“So…” shit, where to begin? “So, what the hell happened?” That’d do it.
“Uh, you mean like, last night? Or in general?”
“Maybe start from the beginning? I guess?” Red felt seriously dumb, but
then again there really was no social precedent for this.
“Okay. Uh, I guess it started when I got attacked by, I dunno what it
was, something pretty much like what I turn into. Big… dog thing. I’d
gone camping in the national park and this thing got into my tent and
damn near took my leg off. It was a full moon, and every full moon
since, and the day to either side of it, soon as it gets dark I…yeah.”
“That…”
“Yeah, I know, it makes no sense. But that’s what happened. I don’t know how else to tell it to you.”
“But, hang on, wait. You said it bit your leg. I didn’t see any scar or
anything.” Alex looked glum, and Red got the feeling he was afraid he
wouldn’t believe him. Which, yeah, he didn’t, but still.
“It healed. I heal up real quick, always have done, but even faster since…it.”
“So this other thing. You think it, what, thought you smelled…”
“I guess I’ll never know. I shot it. Didn’t kill it but it disappeared.
Shame too, I would’ve liked to give whoever it was a piece a’ my mind.”
This, delivered with a pissy countenance and pursed lips, made Red want
to go and pet him.
“So, okay, that’s how you ended up with…the dog thing. So what happened
then? I mean, did you just come home and fortify your basement, go to
work as normal?”
“No! Ach, no, God, it took ages before I even figured out what was
going on. I lived in the city back then, so I moved out here and
started working by mail and stuff. I…some nights,” Alex rubbed at his
face again and sighed. “Some nights I’m more normal than others. I have
more control. So I could go out in the woods and roam around, you know?
It made it easier on the other nights, when I had to lock myself in.
Plus, fewer people around, less likely that anyone says, ‘hey,
something weird about that guy,’ you know?”
“Yeah,” Red agreed.
“So, yeah, last couple of nights, uh…first night, when I saw you
outside the diner? I’d gone to pick up something to eat when I turned,
in case I had to lock in. I can usually tell the day before how it’s
gonna go, but I wasn’t sure…then I saw you and you… smelled good. Well,
I got home and I…I guess I didn’t realise how much I was thinking about
you. I was feeling pretty mellow, so I decided I’d let myself out,
y’know? But…soon as I was outside and changed, I just lost it. I ran
back to where I’d last seen you and got there just in time to see you
getting into your car, I followed you and you were going in and out of
that house, so I snuck in while you were getting stuff out of your car.
I don’t know…I can’t really remember making any decisions. I dunno how
to explain it. It was like…instinctual reaction. I just wanted to have
you.”
“So,” why didn’t you? “What happened? You went for me, then stopped. Did the crush wear off?”
Alex smiled at that, but it was forced and sour looking. “No. No, your
scent changed.” He lowered his head and scrubbed his hands through his
hair, letting out a long, sighing breath. “I suddenly realised that you
smelled scared. Not just like, freaked out, but…Okay, sometimes when
I’m having a good night and I go out in the woods, I hunt. Not people,”
he added hastily at Red’s badly concealed shock, “Just rabbits, birds,
sometimes a deer or something. I get hungry. When…Jesus shit, this is
hard.”
“S’okay,” Red said, as encouragingly as he could, even though he felt like his voice ought to be hurting. “Go ahead.”
Alex sighed again, then seemed to gather himself and looked Red
straight in the eye. “When I hunt animals, when they know I’m hunting
them, and I’m going to kill them and eat them, they get scared. I can
smell it, strongly, like it’s leaking out of their skin. That was what
you smelled like.”
Red gulped. That sounded pretty accurate.
“It hit me like a-a blow to the head. I couldn’t make you feel like that, I’m not a goddamned monster! So…I ran for it.”
Red nodded. Not a monster. Got it. “And last night?” he asked, half dreading the answer.
“Last night…I had less control. I locked myself up, but I busted out.
That never happened before, I swear, I thought it’d make you safe,
but…when I came after you, this time, I guess you didn’t get as scared
or something…see, this is the thing I don’t get, why weren’t you
completely fucking terrified?”
“I stopped myself,” Red cried, his voice coming out more defensive than
he intended. “I decided not to be scared, and I wasn’t, and, and…”
“And I raped you.” Alex concluded quietly.
It felt like all the air had gone from the room at those words. Red
couldn’t tear his eyes away from Alex’s face, silently begging him to
take it back, but Alex stared blankly at the floor, leaning forwards,
elbows on his knees, his hands clenched together so tightly it looked
like he was hurting himself. Red felt desperate, desperate to say
something that would make it all better, but he couldn’t. The only
thing that came into his mind made it worse.
“I liked it.”
Alex’s head whipped up and he stared, wide eyed and disbelieving.
“I-I know it sounds unbelievable, but I don’t know if it really was,
you know, that. It doesn’t count, does it, ‘cause once you started
nothing in the world could have made me tell you to stop, even if I’d
thought you would…” He sounded like a kid, barely able to get the words
out, and Alex was staring at him now like he was crazy.
“I don’t get it, any of this,” he carried on, doggedly. “I don’t get
this stuff about the dog and what happened with you or…that was the
most frightening thing that ever happened to me, but, Jesus, if you
told me now that-“
“You don’t believe me?”
“What?”
Alex shifted in his seat. “Are you saying you don’t believe me?” He
looked incredulous, and even though he didn’t seem angry, it occurred
to Red that he probably ought to be wary.
“I…you have to admit, it’s really out there. I mean-“
“You… shit, I need you to believe me! Please…I never told anyone about this before, and I just…I gotta-“
Suddenly, Alex was out of his seat and across the floor, crouching in
front of Red, and Red jerked with shock as he realised he was trapped
there. But Alex seemed calm, almost resigned. One big hand on the arm
of the chair, inches from Red’s own hand, and the other held up in
front of his own face, Alex simply said “Look.”
Red looked at that held-up hand, the back of it turned towards him.
pale skin and a few wisps of dark hair around the wrist, square nails
that…that were becoming longer. The hand was growing broader, the
fingers shortening, hair thickening and spreading and there was no
better word to describe those nails now than claws.
Red tried to speak but the words wouldn’t come. The armchair creaked as
he tried to push himself further back into it. Alex turned his hand so
Red could see the palm, now bearing thick pads of greyish skin.
“Doesn’t have to be full moon,” Alex said quietly, his voice strained.
“Can be anytime, ‘s just harder when it’s not the full moon.”
Red nodded, still staring. He wanted to say something, but he didn’t
know what and he had a feeling that if he tried, the words wouldn’t
come. Alex grunted, as if he were in pain, and slowly, slowly, his hand
changed back to normal.
Red breathed again.
Alex looked into Red’s eyes, his own face sad and serious. “Now do you believe me?” he asked quietly. Red nodded. “Good.”
Red could feel his pulse pounding in his chest and sweat forming on his
brow. Alex’s grey eyes were staring directly into his own, worried but
calm, and Red could feel something there, strong but flickering, like
warmth, like a link, a bond…which was lost as Alex lifted his head
slightly and sniffed the air-
And then looked directly at Red’s groin.
“You’re…”
Hard.
“Yeah,” gasped Red weakly.
Alex’s big hand, the one he’d just watched transform into that horrible
claw, reached slowly for his midsection, Alex’s eyes checking his face,
thumb slipping under the edge of his sweater and t-shirt to push both
garments up, slowly, over his stomach. Alex’s eyes were wide, fixed now
on the small patch of bared skin, pressing his warm palm to it, almost
reverently. His eyes flicked upwards to meet Red’s, questioning…
“Y-yes! Do it.”
And Alex leaned forward, pressed his mouth damply to Red’s stomach, and kissed him there.
Slid his hand down to cup Red’s cock, and slid closer on his knees when
Red spread his legs. Red was straining for breath as Alex’s tongue slid
across his belly, just under his navel, and then both hands were on
him, unfastening his jeans, yanking them and his underwear down and
lifting him out. Hot, wet mouth sliding down, and off his belly,
sliding down to encompass his cock.
His hands were clenched tight on the arms of the chair, his thighs
squeezed tight around Alex’s broad chest. Sparks danced in front of his
eyes, he managed to steady his vision long enough to look at Alex’s
face, eyes closed, skin flushed, cheek distorted by the head of Red’s
cock pressing it out; he had to shut his eyes again else he would’ve
come.
“God! Ah!”
Alex grunted, let Red slide out of his mouth and ran the pointed tip of
his tongue around the ridge of his glans and into the slit…”Aargh!
Alex!” He twisted, thrust his hips up, and Alex’s arm wrapped around
his hips, pulling him to the edge of the chair and sucking him in deep.
His deep breaths were chilling the trail of saliva on Red’s stomach and
he shivered, pushed deeper, and Alex didn’t hesitate, just took his
cock into his throat, just took Red’s death grip on his shoulders and
legs around his ribs, he just…took him.
Red loved it.
The grip Alex had on him limited his movement, so all he could do was
clench and shudder and feel, that perfect, slick pressure, cringingly
hard suction, his throat was raw from yelling…
“Oh God!”
Alex’s hands slid under his ass, pulled him in.
“Ah! Shit, Alex!”
Sudden quiet as he stopped yelling to drag in his breath, and then his
body shook as he came. The rushing of blood in his ears couldn’t block
out the guttural sound of Alex swallowing down his come and he flinched
again, twisted in Alex’s big arms, balls hurting, body sore.
Alex pulled his mouth away and sat up, smiling. “Jeez, you look like you had a stroke.”
“Uh.”
He could feel the chair sliding against his back and nearly panicked
for a moment, then realised that Alex was tugging his jeans off, then
pulling him, kneeling comfortably and arranging Red in his lap. Legs
draped around Alex’s waist, arms around his shoulders, forehead against
his collarbone, and he could feel Alex’s chuckle ruffle his hair.
“Tha’s a good way to finish a scary conversation,” he mumbled, and the
chuckle became a real, out-loud laugh. It sounded pretty good. He
turned his head and looked up at Alex’s flushed face. He was smiling,
his lips a little swollen, and it changed his whole face. He was
just…gorgeous.
Red pulled himself together, shifted on Alex’s sturdy thighs until he
could sit upright, and kissed him. Slipped his tongue into Alex’s mouth
and tasted the sharp flavour of his own come. Alex licked at the roof
of his mouth and squeezed him close, closer so that Red could feel how
hard he was through the layers of clothes. Without breaking the kiss,
Red grabbed the tie holding Alex’s bathrobe closed and yanked the knot
undone. It took a little shuffling and twisting from both of them, and
then Alex’s sweatpants were down far enough the Red could wrap his hand
around him, making Alex gasp into his mouth.
Alex’s cock was a big and as gorgeous as the rest of him, bulky and
sleek with a thick roll of foreskin gathered at the head. It even felt
good, sliding smoothly through Red’s grip, warm, silky fluid drooling
down the length of it. He rubbed his calloused thumb over the head and
Alex grimaced and hissed through his teeth. Red squeezed and stroked
harder and Alex gasped, raising his head to take deep, gusty breaths.
Red leaned back in his arms, so he could get both hands down between
them, pumping his cock and squeezing his balls and – holy crap, Alex
really liked that, judging by the pained groan that let out of his
throat, like something terrible escaping from a cage.
“Ah, no, no, you’re gonna make me come…” he said weakly.
“That’s the point, y’know? Sex an’ all that,” Red replied, grinning.
“Nnn-naagh! It…ugh…it’s gonna make me want you more. Already…ahuh...I want you too much!”
Sounded good. “Just come,” Red replied quietly, and as Alex struggled
to look at him, Red leaned forward and kissed him. Alex groaned again,
so harshly that Red felt the vibrations through his lips, felt the
strong fingers clutching at his back. Alex’s big cock throbbed and he
came, thick semen splashing onto Red’s stomach and hands and bare
thighs.
They sat like that for a few moments, wrapped closely together, bodies
calming and settling. Alex pressed his nose into Red’s thick hair and
took a deep sniff.
“God damn,” he stated calmly, then tipped Red onto his back on the rug.
‘Here we are again,’ Red thought for a moment, and grinned as Alex
carefully, almost reverently crawled over him, propping himself on his
elbows and dipping his head to kiss the splashes of white seed off
Red’s thighs. So sweet, that warm, wet mouth.
Like an electric shock, an image of that same mouth, growling at him
through a fearsome, jagged row of teeth flashed through his mind, and
his body twitched. His breathing halted for a sharp second, and then he
could feel himself heating up.
Alex sniffed him again and must have been able to tell. He let out a soft moan and pressed his forehead to Red’s sweaty belly.
“Come to my bed,” he murmured. “Please.”
There seemed to be a wealth of meaning in that request, and an age-old
scrap of nature documentary knowledge whispered something into his mind
about wolves and territory, but he wasn’t really listening.
"Yeah, let’s go to bed."
Chapter 2 ~~~~~~~~ Back to Red Riding Hood ~~~~~~~~ Chapter 4