FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Chapter 4: Let Us Love You

Loryn was not surprised that morning when he entered Kel's hut to find it empty. Because it was the winter season, Aliona would be down at the village stables, mucking out the stalls and feeding her sheep from the winter storage. This work was something males usually helped their wives with when they could spare the time, but Loryn knew that Kel was sick.

Loryn paused in the front room beside the fire, listening intently, his ears pricked forward. He was a handsome wolf, very tall and muscular for a wolf of the summer tribe. He was gray and striped black from his ears to the tip of his tail. He was wearing the feathered talisman of a warrior on his bulging upper arm, and his spear he had leaned near the curtain in the doorway. In his paw was a wooden cup with a lid, and it was warm with a broth Loryn's wife Kira had mixed for Kel. Loryn's ears went back flat on his head to hear Kel coughing and he moved up the shadowy hall with a sad expression, but when he parted the curtain of Kel's bedroom, he made sure he was smiling.

Kel was sitting up on his pillows, staring out the window. He looked around and his ears pricked forward when he saw Loryn towering in the doorway with yet another wooden cup of broth from Kira.

"Now drink this down like a good boy," teased Loryn, coming to kneel at Kel's side. He took a washcloth from the low bedside table and tied it around Kel's neck like a bib. Kel laughed and batted at it weakly but couldn't hold back a smile at Loryn's teasing.

"I'll kill you for this," Kel moaned, closing his eyes. "Take this off me --"

"Now, now! Open up!" Loryn said, and Kel felt the cup of broth tilted gently against his lips. He opened his mouth and took it in the first mouthful. It was delicious and so creamy and warm in his throat. He closed his eyes and smiled and told Loryn to thank Kira for him.

"Of course," Loryn said, dabbing at Kel's mouth with the bib. With Kel's eyes closed, he let his concern show: Kel was shedding and there were bags under his eyes. Oh, god. Loryn thought miserably to himself that maybe it was a good thing Kilyan had disappeared. Kilyan hadn't shown up for home patrol duty that morning and neither had Keeno. Loryn had guessed why, and Aliona and Kira told him he should go after them. Though Loryn's first reaction had been to do just that, he had realized that Kilyan and Keeno were adults now: their parents didn't have the right anymore to run around after them with swaddling cloths and switches. And besides, Kel -- as always, thought Loryn, rolling his eyes -- needed Zaldon. Zaldon could heal Kel, whether he was willing to admit it or not.

"So how ya been, sexy beast?" Loryn asked with a half smile, and he caressed Kel's cheek with the back of his paw. "I would've brought you flowers but, you know: winter season." He shrugged and Kel laughed weakly.

"I'll be out of this bed soon enough," Kel said. "Just make sure you leave some lone wolf ass for me to k-kick --" Kel broke down in a bout of coughs, and Loryn's ears went back flat on his head.

"Oh, god, Kel," Loryn whispered, shaking his head. He crawled under the sheets with Kel and held him as he coughed. When Kel fell still, he realized that he was in Loryn's arms for the first time in years. He breathed in Loryn's musk and felt himself relax, his head on Loryn's shoulder.

"The truth is," said Loryn in a low voice, "you're ill, Kel. Really fucking ill. When are you going to admit that --?"

"Loryn!" Kel warned through his teeth.

Loryn sighed, and Kel knew he was shaking his head. "Same old Kel. Still in denial of something -- always in denial of something --"

"Loryn, if you go on with this I swear to god --"

"It's the truth, Kel," Loryn said, holding Kel fast when he tried to squirm away. "And you never could handle the truth either, could you? But you're sick, Kel. Just let us take care of you, stop pretending you're not."

"I'm not sick! I'm going back on patrol tomorrow and I don't want to hear another word --"

"You're going back on patrol over my dead body," said Loryn with a snort. "What use are you on patrol, Kel? You'll be too busy coughing to protect the goddamned village! And Kilyan was right. That medicine isn't doing anything --"

"You've been talking to Kilyan about me!" snarled Kel, going tense.

"-- and you need something better! You need healing magic --"

"Enough!" Kel struggled up out of Loryn's arms, but as soon as he was sitting up, he broke down coughing, and Loryn suddenly wished that he'd kept his big mouth shut. He sat back on the pillows, watching miserably as Kel hunched over and coughed, and then Kel grabbed his arm with menacing green eyes and whispered, "Where is my son!"

Loryn only blinked at Kel sadly.

"Tell me where he is! Has he gone to see Zaldon? Has he disobeyed me!"

Kel's eyes were practically popping in his anger and fear, and Loryn wasn't surprised: everyone knew that Kel was terrified of Kilyan ever leaving the village again. After Kilyan went to claim Ohana, Kel had been frantic to make sure his son stayed at home in the summer village, even suggesting that Kilyan should work on home patrol rather than patrol in the northern forest.

"Kel," said Loryn quietly, "I'll tell you whatever you want to know if you lie back down and stop acting like a fool."

Kel's ears went flat on his head and he gave a low warning growl, but Loryn only yawned as if he wasn't impressed. He held his arms open with a smile, and Kel, slumping in defeat, let himself be wrapped in them. Loryn's arms had always been so strong and bulging, even next to Kel's, and Kel had missed the way they closed around him. He closed his eyes and couldn't help but relax again when Loryn's fingers started massaging his ears.

"I haven't been speaking to Kilyan," said Loryn quietly after a while. "I've been speaking to Aliona. I helped her for a while in your place up at the village stables with the sheep. She insisted on doing most of the work, though."

Kel closed his eyes and couldn't help but smile. His typical Aliona.

"She told me about how you were getting worse, and when I told her that Kilyan and Keeno hadn't shown up today, we realized what they'd done --"

"God, no! I have to go after him --"

Kel tried to get up again, but Loryn held him tight.

"If you try to leave this hut, I'll tie you up and have my way with you," Loryn teased, squeezing his arms so tightly around Kel that he relaxed, helpless against the stronger wolf.

"Damn you, Loryn --"

"Yes. Damn me for keeping you in bed, like I promised Aliona I would, so you don't go traipsing out into the snow like a fool and killing yourself. Damn me to hell."

"But if anything happens to Kilyan --"

"Kilyan can look after himself, Kel. You raised him that he's strong enough to do it. If I didn't think so, there's no way in hell he'd be with my Lea."

Kel would have protested, but he started to cough again, and Loryn stroked his mane back from his eyes, kissing him. Loryn was saddened to feel how weak Kel was slumping in his arms and a terrible thought hit him suddenly: what on earth would he do if Kel died? The thought terrified him, and he prayed Kilyan would return with Zaldon soon. It suddenly seemed as if Zaldon was Kel's only hope.

"Come now," Loryn whispered, lifting the broth from the bedside table. "Have some more of this. You don't cough half as much when you do. And I see a little strength return to those green eyes."

Kel allowed Loryn to tip the wooden cup against his lips and he drank gratefully, deeply, and felt some of his strength indeed returning. His paws stopped shaking and he relaxed in Loryn's tight arm.

"That's it," Loryn said, setting the cup aside again. "You know, you really should be ashamed of yourself: holding out this long, letting everyone think you only had a small cold! We would have sent someone for Zaldon a long time ago if --"

"Loryn, please," said Kel weakly. Loryn saw him squeeze his eyes shut, saw his mouth turn down miserably at the corners.

"Why are you so afraid of letting Zaldon come here?" Loryn demanded in a whisper. "This isn't just about Kilyan at all. This is about you not wanting to see Zaldon! You need Zaldon, Kel --"

"That's just it!" Kel snapped. "I need Zaldon, but Zaldon doesn't need me!"

"I've never heard anything so stupid in my life," Loryn scolded. "So what? You'll let yourself sit in bed and slowly die? I should kill you myself for this! And think what it would do to Zaldon if he came here one day to find the love of his life --"

Kel moaned angrily and covered his face.

"-- was dead, and he could have done something about it!" finished Loryn. Angry suddenly, Loryn snatched Kel's paw from his face and growled, "And I need you too, goddamn it! I love you! Don't you see that?"

Kel looked up into Loryn's black eyes and was stung by the fear, the wild desperation there.

"And what about Aliona?" Loryn went on, looking away. "Losing you, that would devastate her. She knows how ill you are, Kel. She's not a fool. All we have to do is look in on your coughing and shedding and shaking to see you're well beyond the common cold --"

"I just didn't want you to worry about me," Kel whispered at last. "I just didn't want . . ."

"What? For us to love you? To show that we care?" Loryn kissed Kel fiercely on the head. "Well, I don't care what you want. I'm watching over you until you get well, I'm going to help Aliona everyday, and Yzlo and I will look after the girls and the pups until Kilyan and Keeno return. Maybe we'll have Zalia move in with Lea and Ohana for a while."

"All of this," Kel whispered miserably, "just because I'm sick. You see? This is why I didn't want anyone to know!"

"Oh, come off it," said Loryn, rolling his eyes. "This is about you not wanting to face Zaldon, not wanting to let us just take care of you. Damn you and your pride, Kel."

Kel only glowered miserably at the sleeping furs pulled up over them. It was true: he was terrified of Zaldon coming here! Zaldon, who would be so happy in his life with Julyan -- Zaldon, who had probably forgotten Kel -- Zaldon, who probably didn't even want Kel anymore. And why should he want Kel when he had such a beautiful male as Julyan to hold him at night? And then Kilyan going to the sun village after he had told him not to! The thought of Kilyan out in the world alone, wandering through the wastelands to reach the sun village -- it terrified Kel.

"I think you should rest now," Loryn said quietly, "and one of us will wake you for lunch."

Kel saw a rise in the sheets as Loryn's paw traveled beneath them, and then his heart leapt when he felt Loryn's paw close on his cock. He groaned and knew there was no escaping: he was trapped in Loryn's other arm and it was tight around him.

"What are you doing!" Kel demanded, even as he was getting hard.

"Putting you to sleep," Loryn whispered in his ear.

Kel groaned again. He had forgotten how strong and firm and yet how gentle Loryn's caressing fingers could be. He felt Loryn massaging his cock slowly, deliberately, until he was sinking with groans against him. He hadn't been touched by Loryn like this in years and he felt his body responding at once to the old pleasure as Loryn kept up his gentle but determined caressing.

"I forgot how thick you get in my paw," Loryn said with a moan of longing, and Kel knew he was wishing he could fuck him.

"Loryn, don't --" Kel stifled a cry and bit his lip as Loryn gave his cock a caress that he knew Kel always found irresistible. He felt his cock throbbing hard now, pulsing with a hunger that was slowly draining all the energy from the rest of his sick body, and when this gentle massaging finally became too much to bear, Kel gave a whimpering cry and felt himself release in Loryn's paw. He slumped in the furs, his chest heaving from the strain of holding back, of stifling an orgasm that had happened no matter his groans for release, and he felt Loryn pull the sheets away, felt Loryn gently cleaning his cum from his thighs, from his soft cock with such loving little dabs of a washcloth that Kel, feeling suddenly very happy, sank in his pillows and fell asleep.