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Chapter 3

My name is Duke Gray. I've been cursed.

After waking up in the middle of Washington State, I made the acquaintance of Scott Woolsey whom I quickly got really close with. Sexually, I mean. My interactions with him got him cursed as well. We ended up being two, huge furry beasts with an insatiable appetite for one another's hunky, masculine bodies... even if I turned back into a human and he didn't.

That's when Bartholomew Price came in. Scott's therapist.

We got off on the wrong foot. Almost immediately. Barry thought I was a parasite. Taking advantage of Scott's vulnerability and spreading my curse. Can't deny that he was sort of right. Barry and Scott had an argument over it.

Funnily enough, that was when the curse started to act up again and I turned back into my bestial form. The curse being the jerk that it was didn't give me the pleasure of feeling my body shift and transform. I just blacked out.

Barry seemed to come to an epiphany while I was out. Though when I woke up, I made him realize something he wanted. He wanted Scott. And yes, this played into my cuckolding fantasy but I ended up turning him as well and regaining my human shape.

I think I'm getting the hang of this.

But I still need to get back to my friends.

I still need to figure out a way to break this curse.

?

I stepped into the cabin of Doctor Bartholomew Price's big, black pickup truck and gripped the steering wheel tightly. This was it. I was finally going to leave. After four days since Barry arrived, I was finally going to leave this comfortable, safe, isolated clearing where I could play the meat of the bara sandwich for the rest of our lives.

The past few days had been fun but far from ideal. Sex was a given. If it wasn't with Scott, then it was Barry or both. Scott was still having fun finding every excuse to release his pent-up sexual repression and Barry was exploring his own homosexual tendencies. He was probably bisexual but definitely in love with Scott. Behind the only human between two huge, meaty hunks of fur, however... well... that was a little different.

Barry was a dedicated top and Scott was a power bottom. Sessions with Barry alone was usually spent finding which parts of his body was stimulating before we ended up in a mutually masturbating. Got to say, his big, furry hands around my dick was amazing. Much softer than Scott's. For Scott... well... his ass was hungry.

But more and more, as the days went by, I came to realize that I really was the third wheel here. The two were head over heels for one another. The time we spent together felt more out of pity or thanks for bringing them together than actual desire or lust. Plus, they had to treat me with kiddy-gloves given I was much smaller and more... breakable than either of them were.

A heavy sigh escaped my lips. My knuckles went white as I held onto the steering wheel tightly. Despite the clear awkwardness that came from catalyzing their relationship but ultimately overstaying my welcome, there was still this part of me that didn't want to leave. Separation anxiety? Metathesiophobia? I don't know what it's called. I had it hard.

I_knew_ I had to move on. I had to find the answers to all my questions.

The truck suddenly balked to the left. Barry leaned against the open window, giving me that little smirk of his that told me that he was in therapist mode. Unlike Scott who liked to go around with a flannel vest, Barry was completely naked save for a little, red bowtie that he made himself. It honestly made him look like a Chippendale dancer. Not going to lie, when I first mentioned it to him, he treated me to a lap dance. It was awkward. Then it was sexy. Then it was really sexy.

"Want to know what I tell my clients that have to confront their fear of change?" he rumbled.

"Nope," I replied. My go-to-response to any time he ever tried to psychoanalyze me brought a light chuckle from both of us. Nothing would stop him, of course. Like I was sure that if I ever came back here in my bestial form, nothing would ever stop him from fucking my ass raw.

Barry reached over, his huge, meaty arm sliding past my chest, sliding under the steering wheel where he gripped the keys in the ignition. With a simple twist, he started the truck.

"That first step is the hardest to take. After that, just take it one step at a time. One mile at a time."

"Easy for you to say. You_'re_mentally mature and stable."

Barry laughed softly and turned his gaze to the cabin. Steam was rising from the back of the house indicating that Scott was currently showering. "There would've been a time where I would disagree with you and say that I have my own baggage to deal with. But it wasn't until you opened my eyes that I actually realized just how bad my own psyche was."

"So we're fucked then," I concluded.

"Of course we are," he laughed. "We're gay men. One of these days, I might just switch positions with Scott but for now, I'm going to ease myself into it. When you want something, you've got to fight for it." He lifted his eyebrows at me, knowing full well that his statement had more meaning that what was first on the surface. "Right?"

I rolled my eyes at him, unable to keep the smile from crawling onto my face. "Goddamnit, Barry. Fine. Yes." I slapped the steering wheel with my hands. "I don't think I'll be able to live in a world where everyone else gets to experience the joys of having their nipples turn into dicks and being milked or merging with another guy to become the best of both personalities. I need to fight for my right to experience euphoric bodily transformation."

He punched my shoulder lightly. "There you go." Then his features turned a little more serious. "You've got everything? You're all packed?"

Between the sessions of dicks and cum, I had been packing to prepare for this trip. I'll be the first to admit that I probably spent a lot of time coming up with imaginary worries and scenarios that were unlikely to happen which delayed my departure all the more. One of my most popular excuses was that I had no form of identification, no money and no idea where I was geographically.

Thankfully Barry carried some cash with him. Scott didn't as, in his doomsday prepper phase, he had firmly believed that all forms of currency would be worthless in the post-apocalyptic world. He made up for it, however, by giving me a full tank of gas as well as some extra tanks, supplies to make camp and enough preserved food to last me a week. In theory, I could drive all the way to Alaska if I wanted...

... but that would still leave the border as a problem.

My best bet was, much to my chagrin, California.

"I've got a plan," I responded. "I've got a general idea of where to go. I know my cousin's address and I can look for help when I get to San Fransisco. It'll take about a day to drive there non-stop and I can camp out on the side of the road with the supplies that Scott gave me. I'll avoid motels and other people if I can so I don't accidentally trigger the curse. If I have to, I've got the money you gave me."

I gave him my most confident smile even though, deep inside, I was shaking like a leaf in a hurricane. Sometimes I hate how much of a pussy I am when I'm human. "I think I'm all good, Barry. Thanks so much for all your help."

He reached over and gripped my shoulder tightly. "You can do this," Barry insisted. "Find a way to deal with your curse. Learn the fate of your friends and what happened in those missing two weeks. Then come back and be my best mad at my wedding."

My eyebrows shot up. "What? Really?"

Barry glanced over his shoulder just to make sure that Scott was still showering. Confirming that the badger was indeed still using up the stored water, he gave a sheepish grin to me. "Might be a little early and I might've used that as a sort of supplementary motivation but yeah, I can't think of anyone better." He pulled me in and gave my cheek a light kiss, his whiskers tickling my cheeks. "Just stay safe out there, okay?"

I turned to him and kissed the tip of his nose very lightly, just a little peck because I knew that if I did more than that, we'd have sex and I'd never leave. "I promise. I'll let you know as soon as I can if and when I learn something new."

The former therapist straightened and snapped his fingers. "That reminds me. You're going to pass the small town of Grimmwood, right?"

I nodded and recited the path that I was to take. Scott's cabin was out in the middle of nowhere and was partially enclosed by a national park; the Grimmwood Memorial Park, in fact. The path that Barry usually took from his home and office in Grimmwood was through a large section of the park which was not cordoned off. One of the reasons that Scott picked this place was because the proximity to the park meant hardly anyone would venture past the park's limits. Once I passed through the park, continuing east _should_lead me to a road that, if I follow southeast will bring me to the town of Grimmwood. There, I could get my bearings, rest and resupply before going to the interstate that will lead me down south to San Fransisco where my cousins were staying.

"Get yourself a disposable phone," insisted Barry. "I know you probably don't recall anyone's phone numbers because everyone these days just uses their contacts list but you have my number and the radio frequency that Scott uses. If you need to contact us for any reason, just use it."

"Yes, dad," I sighed, rolling my eyes again. "And I promise I'll stop by your office and tell your assistant Ethan that you're fine." I reached into the glove compartment and took out the folded letter that Barry had penned for his assistant. The only other person in the world that knew where the therapist had gone was Ethan Wagner. Barry had already been gone for four days so any longer and Ethan was likely to start a search party. That was the _last_thing any of them wanted.

"Thanks, Duke," sighed Barry. "I'm going to miss you."

"You're going to miss the beast me," I said regretfully. "Human me, not so much."

His eyebrows rose and Mr. Therapist was back. "It sounds like you've got your own identity struggles between your human-self and beast-self. Having two bodies might just be causing a schism to appear in your own mental state. Much like how people separate their 'work selves' with their 'personal selves', this could cause undue strain to the psyche."

I held up my hand and shook it at him. "Come on. I'm just about to leave. You're not going to get me to stay for an extra hour for your psychologist bullshit. I've got to go."

He laughed softly and gave me a charming little smile. "All I'm saying is that there is no difference between the bestial you and the human you. They're both you. It just so happens that one of them plays out the fantasies you always crave while the other has more control of his own body. They are two sides of the same coin. Don't separate them."

The large lion reached over to the little armrest between the driver and passenger seat. He pulled it up to reveal a small coin case with some currency scattered about. Good to know that he had some shrapnel there in case I needed it. He plucked out a dime and held it out. "If it at all helps, whenever you're struggling between the two..." Barry flipped the coin over. "... just imagine the coin flipping. Then have the power to keep flipping it over and over again."

He handed me the coin just as I saw the big black and white form of Scott bounding over to us, still dripping wet slightly.

"Oh good, you haven't left!" exclaimed the beefy badger.

"I stalled him as best I could," laughed Barry.

Scott wrapped an arm around the lion's waist and kissed his cheek affectionately. "Thanks, babe." He then turned towards me with a dazzling smile. "Didn't think you'd escape without at least saying goodbye, did you?"

"We said 'goodbye' multiple times last night," I quipped. "Besides, it's your fault for taking a shower just as I was getting ready to leave."

"I have my rituals," the big badger responded with a shrug.

"That I'm trying to break him out of," said Barry, nudging the badger with an elbow.

Turning to me, Scott leaned forward and gave my neck a nuzzle. "Take care of yourself, alright? You've got the radio frequency I use for my broadcasts. It's a two-way radio so you'll just need to find a way to get back to us and we'll be able to stay in contact."

"Of all the places for Verizon not to have coverage," I snickered. "I've got everything I need, Scott. You've given me a week_'s_worth of supplies for a trip that'll take twenty-hours at least of non-stop driving. I even have a hunting knife if I need to defend myself and those archery lessons you gave me. I'll be fine."

Who was I trying to convince? Them or me?

A look of concern crossed Scott's features. "Wish I could go with you but... eight-foot-tall badger and all."

"Mostly my fault, I guess," I chuckled. "Did you need me to tell your parents anything in Grimmwood while I'm passing through?"

A devilish grin crossed his features. "If you could torch the Church of the Apocalyptic Road's offices there I'd be appreciative."

"I'm trying to keep a low profile. Acts of terrorism against an established religion isn't exactly a good way to do that." I set my gaze forward, at the rough dirt road that led out of the clearing and into the dense forest beyond. Goddamn it looked so ominous. "Just keep an ear open on the radio. If you hear a new 'Blue Big Foot' rampaging through Alaska, you'll know I'm in trouble."

"Will do," Scott chuckled. He leaned forward, wrapped his huge, hairy arms around me and pulled me in close for a hug. "Thanks for everything. I mean it."

"Any time, man. I'm lucky to have met you and not some psycho that would've dissected me for parts."

With those words and one last hug between the three of us, I adjusted the mirrors one last time, shifted the truck out of park and drove off into the forest. Every second that went by, the little cabin in the clearing grew smaller and smaller. The trees closed in around the pristine slice of heaven, barring it from view. Within just a minute, it was completely gone and I was left alone to the gentle rattling of the suspension as it rolled down the uneven ground.

A heavy rock sat at the bottom of my gut and there were a few instances when the temptation to stop, get out of the car and run back to the cabin grew excruciatingly painful. I fought through it and kept my eyes focused forward and on the road ahead. Which was extremely difficult because the 'road' itself was more like a rough path that had been created over several years of Barry making his way to Scott's cabin. Given how Barry only made the trip every few weeks, the road wasn't very clear so I had to keep my eyes ahead of me and clearly focused on the path or I risked getting lost.

Or ramming into a tree.

Seriously. Barry had to take the most convoluted route around trees, small hills and bushes to get to Scott's place. Maybe it was in an effort to keep Scott's location secret but the road was so overgrown and underused that I had to slow down just to make sure I was going the right way. It didn't help that the sun was in my eyes, occasionally poking out from between the thick canopy to jab at my eyes with a solar spear.

Either stay behind the trees or burn my retinas, you gaseous life-giving fuck!

It was with some relief that an hour or so later, the sun didn't blare into my eyes as much and I was able to see my way through a little clearer.

"Hey Anodyne," I began, still keeping a slow pace. "Talk to me, buddy. It's rather lonely up here."

"Of course. If it will help you retain your humanity. What would you like to talk about?"

Not sure what I expected to get out of the sentient tattoo that was basically acting as my warden and personal confidant. Still, it was nice to have company. I don't think I would've gotten out of this sane if I was traveling all alone.

"I don't think we've ever really established exactly what you are," I began. "I've just been thinking of you as a sentient tattoo. Is that what you are?"

"I suppose we were rushed into this quite quickly, weren't we?" The tattoo slithered up my arm, wrapping around my wrist so he was completely visible to me. "I cannot tell you where I came from or who created me. I honestly do not know. All I know is that I am an artificial construct born from when a ritual such as the Ritual of the Bestial Desire fails."

"How does that work exactly?"

"When a ritual is performed, any ritual, in fact, there is a lot of energy that is generated and manifested. Ideally, that energy should be used to fulfill the purpose of the ritual. However, when a ritual fails, that energy has to go somewhere."

"Didn't it all go into me to basically rewrite reality so that I'm all fucked up?"

Anodyne chuckled softly. "It did but the cosmic energies required to condemn you in such a manner are minuscule compared to what would have been required to actually fulfill your greatest desires. That left over energy is used to create new life in the form of constructs like myself. At the same time, if the energy summoned to grant a wish was more than enough to fulfill that wish, anything left over is used to create more constructs such as myself."

I may have never been that good at science - despite my dad and older brothers' expectations - but I still had a decent grasp of the First Law of Thermodynamics. Energy can neither be destroyed or created. So if constructs like Anodyne were created when a ritual failed or the cost of a successful ritual wasn't as much as the energy put into the ritual, where did all of that energy come from in the first place? And where was all the energy that was compelling me to enact out my fantasies and transform innocent men into my ideal guy?

"I see you have further questions," Anodyne observed. "From my experience, one of the more pressing questions mortals ask is where is all the 'thing' coming from. The thing being whatever it is the curse or successful ritual is generating. In this case, I assume you are wondering how your body can undergo such rapid transformations as well as metamorphosize others?"

He really is good at this. I wonder how many people he's actually helped. I wonder how many people he's helped successfully.

"That about sums it up."

"Your mortal concept of 'energy' is somewhat limited. You generate energy and matter in more ways than you think. For example, you commonly think that you mortals only exist and affect three dimensions. When in fact, your actions also impact the fourth dimension, time. Then there are the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth dimensions that you mortals directly interact with. The ninth and tenth only see occasional interactions from your kind and it is incredibly_rare for mortals to interact with anything beyond that but it is still possible. Suffice to say that all of these are taken into consideration when you do_ anything and are consumed when your curse activates. However, because you mortals are only able to perceive up to the fourth dimension at any one time, it almost appears magical to you. Like all these changes are coming from nothing."

There were more than four dimensions!? I attended a philosophy class or two but ten dimensions was encroaching upon the realm of theoretical physicists. That was far beyond me.

"So you're telling me that my curse twists all the dimensions that I exist in to make this shit happen?"

"Precisely. Magic changes reality itself. Your curse as rewritten the laws of the universe for you and to power that, parts of 'you' are consumed from all dimensions. Now don't worry about obliterating alternate versions of yourself or something like that. That's not how it works. Just as you change all the other dimensions, alterations in the other dimensions also change you. The curse merely and intelligently pinpoints what needs to change in each of the dimensions to fulfill its requirements in the here and now."

I groaned softly and cupped the side of my head with one hand. "My head is spinning."

"As it well should. It honestly surprises me sometimes how you mortals could simplify the complicated science that is magic into such tiny sound bites called..." He gave me a curious look. "What did you call it again?"

"Creepypastas."

"Right. Creepypastas. What is that, if you don't mind me asking?"

Oh boy. Where to start...? Explaining the origins of creepypastas was... difficult. I couldn't even really remember where it started but I knew what they were. Giving a few examples to Anodyne helped the construct understand what they were and how a lot of people could take them for stupid scary stories to be told around a campfire or Halloween. At least from that, I felt that he didn't judge me as harshly for having performed the ritual drunk.

Movement from the corner of my eye compelled me to slow the truck down a little. My heart immediately jumped to my throat and a loud 'awww' of awe escaped my lips. A small herd of deer moved slowly and across my vision. The stag stopped right in front of the truck and stared directly at me, its big, expressive eyes regarding me with both curiosity and caution while it chewed something in its cheeks.

I had never seen a stag with so many prongs up close before. Majestic, regal and breathtaking were just some of the words that got caught up in my throat, crashing into each other in a fiery heap and coming out in an unintelligible gurgle. In the back of my mind, I marveled at the on-going Harry Potter theme. Wasn't the protagonist's spectral guardian a stag? Considering how Anodyne was a snake as well, all I was missing was a raven and we'd complete the metaphor. Hell, wasn't I cursed and suddenly alone?

Tap-tap-tap

I jerked to he left, to the window and suddenly found myself staring at a flying saucer.

"What the flying fuck!?" I shouted and immediately scrambled back. The truck jerked forward and I instinctively set it on park before I ran over the majestic deer. I glanced over at the herd to make sure they were okay. They had already fled. Then my eyes went back to my window and the UFO hovering right there in front of me.

It wasn't aliens.

In fact, it was just those bright, broad-brimmed hats that park rangers wear. Beneath that hat was a tall, chocolate skinned man with high cheekbones, perfectly straight teeth and a concerned look shining through his nutty-brown eyes. A light olive uniform clung to his body rather loosely with that deep, forest green tie that was the same color as his hat wrapped around his neck. The name 'Barnes' was printed on his breast pocket.

"Sir?" said Ranger Barnes, knocking on the window again, his voice muffled by the glass. "Please roll down your window."

Taking a second to calm my racing heart, I pressed the button to retract the window and regarded the park ranger with a shaky smile. I must be in the middle of Grimmwood Memorial Park and this must be Barnes' patrol route. Rather, as a park ranger, he must have been keeping tabs of animal migrations and keeping an eye on the herd that had just vanished into the woods.

It_also_ meant I was royally fucked.

As soon as the window was fully down, I flashed back to all those cop videos where guys like me get pulled over by the police. The first thing out of my mouth was, "Is there a problem officer?"

Ranger Barnes gave me a charming little smile, leaning against the window and flicking his hat up so that it was away from his eyes. "Well, first of all, I'm not a police officer."

I wanted to die right there and then.

"Secondly, do you have a permit to be driving off road in the middle of a national park?"

Thank fucking Christ that Barry had prepared me for this exact eventuality. "I do offi..." I cut myself off before I could call him 'officer'. "I mean... Ranger Barnes." I reached into the glove compartment and took out the permits that Barry had prepared to ensure that if he was ever stopped, he wouldn't be fined.

Barnes held up a hand, stopping me from handing it over. "Easy there, kiddo. You're allowed to drive off-road here at Grimmwood. You're just on a seldom-used path that only a few people I know use." He patted the truck's side. "In fact, this looks like Doctor Price's truck." His eyes went over to the twisted metal sections of the truck's bed. "Though a little worse for wear."

As his eyes drifted back to me, I was _again_thankful that Barry had prepared me for this. We spent almost every night rehearsing my cover story though I didn't think I'd have to recite it until we reached Grimmwood.

"I'm Doctor Price's new assistant," I explained. "I came with him on this trip to visit his friend that has a cabin outside of the national park." Offering a cheesy grin, I continued with the story. "Unfortunately, we overloaded the truck a little and because of how bumpy this road it, it kind of twisted the metal a little. That's why I'm bringing the truck back. He wants me to get it fixed and make sure that it's all okay and fixed. I mean, you can see that where the metal is twisted is about the same on each side and the suspension is giving off this awful squeaking. All signs of us being a little overzealous with our packing. Need to get all these supplies up to his friend, after all. Winter is coming!"

Now what was the other thing that Barry told me _not_to do?

Ranger Barnes lifted one of his eyebrows at me.

"Duke...," sighed Anodyne, "...you just over-explained."

Barry's words immediately came rushing back to me. "If you're ever asked or pulled over, let them ask the questions and answer it without volunteering information. The surefire way to trigger someone's suspicion is to over-explain. It doesn't mean someone is lying but it instinctively triggers a reaction in people that they're over-sharing and so they must be hiding something."

Shit.

Barnes straightened, placing his hands on his hips. "Well that's certainly too bad. I was hoping to talk to the good doctor on his way back. Where are you heading anyway?"

"Back to Grimmwood," I responded, trying to be as selective with my information as possible. Hopefully, the juxtaposition between the verbal diarrhea that was my alibi versus my sudden short responses wouldn't arouse further suspicion. The small frown on Ranger Barnes' lips said otherwise.

"You realize you're going to wrong way, right?"

I gave him a puzzled look. "What?" I looked towards the road. "But I followed the path east..."

"Kid... East is where the sun is at this time of day. You're going north."

Fuck that smug piece of nuclear gas!

"Goddamnit!" I cursed loudly, slamming my fists into the horn and causing it to blare. "Where the hell am I?"

"About four hours from Grimmwood," laughed Barnes.

"Two hours!? I've only been driving for about an hour! An hour and a half tops!"

"Right but you can't just cut through the forest to get back on track." The park ranger pointed back the way I came. "You'll have to backtrack and then take the right route. And I'm sorry to say but we currently have a fallen tree on that part of the road. You'll have to wait until tomorrow until you're clear."

Tomorrow? I was already pushing the limits of my curse. The last time I had transformed into the beast was about two days after being human again. My human shape remained for the past four. This led both Anodyne and I to believe that the transformation was triggered not based on time but on the environment. He theorized it was when I met another man.

"There's no other way?" I asked.

Barnes rubbed his chin. "Sorry. Hardly anyone uses these paths. This park isn't that big or that popular. It's build more for conservation than something for people to visit, after all." He snapped his fingers as an idea came to him. "Tell you what? Why don't you come with me to my station? We can figure out an ETA from there. You can spend the night at our cabins. From there, you'll be the first to know when the roadblock is cleared and it'll just be a short three-hour drive to Grimmwood."

My danger senses were tingling. How did I know this was an actual park ranger and not someone that was just disguised as one and planning to kill me? Were there any serial killers loose in Washington State?

"That's okay," I laughed, sounding far more nervous than I intended. "I think I'll just go back to Doctor Price with the news. We can try again tomorrow. Maybe he can show me the actual route this time."

"No, I insist," Barnes said through a grin that was far more sinister than I would like. "Come on. I'll escort you. This'll mean you won't have to turn around either. Let me just jump into my ATV."

The park ranger moved towards the back of the truck. In the rear-view mirror, I watched him jump onto the aforementioned ATV. He waved at me, indicating that I should start driving. Genuine fear, the likes of which I had never felt before, pumped through my heart. Scenarios of being killed by a murderer disguised as a helpful park ranger who was picking off people foolish enough to wander these forests alone danced through my mind. Would he strip me of my clothes in the middle of the night and then let me loose with a five minute head start before he hunted me down like an animal? Would he drag me into his murder basements with sound-proof walls and hooks hanging from the ceiling? Would he drug me and then taxidermy me, setting up my corpse in his twisted gallery?

As I drove down the path, Barnes gave me directions and I was kicking myself for not seeing where the paths in the road clearly split. If I had paid more attention and wasn't such a pussy about having the light in my eyes, I could've seen the path. Rationalizing the scenario calmed my nerves a little. Barnes' uniform looked genuine and he had an actual ATV that look official. Surely he wasn't a serial killer...

... right?

"Damnit," I cursed. "I should've asked him for some ID."

"What's wrong?"_Anodyne asked. _"Nervous that Ranger Barnes will be your next victim in salacious transformation?"

I shot my tattoo a foul stare. "No. More worried that he might try to kill me."

"Kill you? Why?"

"Dude. He just so happens to appear behind me and insists I go to his place instead of doing the logical thing and turning back? There just happens to be a roadblock? Isn't that all too coincidental!?" I began to hyperventilate. "Oh god... I'm going to die."

"Well. At least you'll die human."

"Not helping!"

We drove for another half-hour with Barnes on my tail the entire way and showing me where to go. Imagine my surprise when we broke out into another clearing positioned on a rocky outcrop overlooking a vast vista of forests and mountains. There was a large collection of wooden buildings positioned there. Right next to the cliff edge with a balcony curling around the entire facility was what looked like a tourist stop with a map and souvenir shop present. To the right of that was a radio tower and at its base was a small hut that I assume was where the machinery for the tower was maintained. Then to the left were three smaller buildings that I assumed was the ranger housing.

Maybe I wasn't going to be murdered after all.

I parked Barry's truck in front of the main building and Barnes parked his ATV in front of the housing where there were five other ATVs. He jogged over just as I was getting out.

"Here we are," he announced proudly. "The Grimmwood Ranger Station. Best views in the park!"

I wandered over to the edge of the cliff - naturally fenced off - and gazed at the vast expanse in front of me. All breath was stolen from my lungs and that wasn't just because of the altitude. The distant mountains, the vast swathe of greenery and the absence of any sort of human impact was absolutely alien to a city boy like me.

Well... almost complete absence of human impact. There was a plume of black smoke somewhere down the side of the mountain.

"What's going on there?" I asked.

Barnes shrugged. "Some military helicopter crashed in the park about a week ago while the military was doing some sort of exercise. Fire broke out. They brought the blaze under control but there are smaller fires going on." He patted my back. "Come on, let me show you where you're staying."

It was a little past noon at that time so my stomach was growling at me. I ignored it for the moment as he led me to the ranger housing. When I asked him if there were any other rangers staying here, he responded in the negative. Grimmwood Memorial Park was not a very well-maintained or well-staffed park. There was only ever really a handful of rangers available at any one time. They couldn't cover the entire park in one day given the winding roads so most of the time, they all stayed out in the watchtowers or smaller camps around the park, one person manned the entrance to the park and the last person remained in the main facility to keep an eye out for tourists and the man the gift shop.

Barnes was the lucky individual to man the main facility.

"It means I get to sleep in a warm bed for the next week or so before I get swapped out," he said, pushing open the door into the cabin. Inside was a small, cozy single-bedroom. The bed dominated the room with a wardrobe, footlocker and a bathroom not too far away. Beyond that, it was fairly barren.

"Just keep the place clean," said the park ranger. "If you're hungry, we've got a cafeteria. I'll be in the office. Don't go anywhere. It's getting late and the woods get confusing especially if you have no idea where you're going."

"Don't I know it," I mumbled, regarding my surroundings forlornly. "Thanks for your help." I glanced over to him with a smile that was partially apologetic and partially thankful. "I never got your name."

He puffed out his chest so that his name tag shone a little. "Ranger Barnes."

Bravado always made me laugh. "Right. But what's your first name."

"Ranger."

My laughter died halfway through a 'ha'. It took me a whole second to process what he had just said and by his grin, I had fallen into his icebreaker. "So... you're actual first name is 'Ranger'. You are Park Ranger Ranger Barnes?"

"Absolutely," he said with a grin. "My parents were big fans of the Power Rangers and decided to name their one-and-only son after them. They wanted to go with 'Jason' or 'Kimberly' if I was a girl but they just couldn't choose which of the Power Rangers to honor because there have been so many so they just named me..."

"Ranger," I sighed softly. "Right."

"They made me swear that if I ever have any kids, I'd name them after the originals," Barnes said, shaking his head. "Too bad that's never going to happen."

"I'm guessing this job doesn't offer much chance for socialization?"

"Oh no. The rangers here get frisky all the time. It just so happens I'm gay so the chances of me giving them a grandchild is next to zero!"

He spun on his heel and waved over his shoulder. "Well, visit me in the office once you're all settled in. I've got some paperwork to do. See you later!"

Then he was off, marching happily towards the office whistling a nameless tune. My jaw was still on the floor by the time he had disappeared into the main building. It took me a whole minute to slowly shut the door and stare at the wooden frame, trying to use the grains in the wood to help me decipher what I had just experienced.

"Duke? Are you okay?"

"I'm not sure," I confessed. "I've got four thoughts going through my head at the moment. The first is relief that I'm not about to be murdered."

"See? Don't assume the worst in people. What are the next three thoughts?"

"This place is gorgeous and I can't believe I was just going to drive past it. Did you see that view?"

"Yes. No matter which world I've been to, sights like this are always breathtaking. The third?"

"Am I the only one that thinks Ranger took up the profession of Park Ranger as some sort of cosmic joke at the universe? Seriously. If my name was 'Ranger', the last thing I'd want to be was something I was named after."

"You were named 'Duke' but I guess it's next to impossible for you to actually become a Duke so I'm not sure how to interpret your question. But what is your fourth and final thought?"

I gulped loudly.

"Oh no. He's gay."

?

Goddamnit to fuck and back!

Ranger Barnes the Park Ranger was gay. That meant that some porn scenario was all-but-guaranteed to play out as my many, _many_deprived fantasies fought to the surface to manifest in my bestial state like a horny battle royale covered in cum. The worst part was that Barnes was actually nice, charming guy. His chocolate skin was flawless, his straight teeth glistened and he had the nice lean build of a man who worked in nature. All delusions that I had of being murdered in this remote part of the world had vanished and now I was struck by absolute guilt over what would inevitably happen.

I paced back and forth, practically pulling at my hair as I considered all possible scenarios.

"You don't need to panic,"_warned Anodyne. _"You haven't reverted to your beast form yet. Your curse is likely not active yet."

"But it's only a matter of time," I whined, making my fiftieth lap around the small, cramped cabin. "I'm going to turn into a monster all over again and then we're going to hurl ourselves off that cliff and fuck in midair, orgasming before we hit the ground while he transforms into an extra-sexy beast and saves my life."

"Is that... is that really one of your fantasies?"

"I don't know!" I shouted, throwing my hands into the air. "I'm so kinky that I'm probably going to find some way to make anything about sex."

"I sense that there is an origin to this self-depreciation but I have neither the expertise in the subject nor the patience to deal with such matters," Anodyne said dryly. "Let us face facts, Duke. The only time any sort of fantasy has played out is when you were in your bestial form. You have only transformed once and that was when you were in close proximity to another human. So long as you remain away from Ranger Barnes, you should be safe."

He was right. Of course he was right. Though it had only happened once before, it was all we had to go on for now. Barnes likely had more things to do around the park than babysit me so I had no reason to engage him. Maybe I would even get lucky and he would drive off in his ATV and I can sneak away.

Though from what he said, the woods could get very dark and very confusing at night. Considering how poorly my last attempt to navigate Grimmwood Forest was, that would be a suicide attempt.

Alright. So we had a plan of attack.

I dragged myself over to the lone bed and collapsed into the sheets, face first into the pillow. "Not even one day away and already I'm at the risk of making another beast," I sighed forlornly. "Did everyone you ever guide go through life like this?"

Anodyne's story about that one lady who compelled every husband around her to become abusive and their wives to become murderous came back to mind. Certain sociopaths might be able to live in such a world and relish the chaos that they exuded but certainly not me. Thus far, I had been lucky. Barry and Scott found each other and were mature enough to make it through the world together. What if I stumbled into someone who would use their bestial powers for evil? Hell, what if I ended accidentally turning an entire town?

Was this journey actually a good idea?

"Everyone has their challenges," Anodyne responded. "The greatest weapon the curse has against you is how it dangles your greatest desires just out of arm's reach from you. So close and yet so far. You are forced to see that which you want in others knowing full well it is probably not what they wanted. I think that is what hurts the most."

He had my agreement on that. Watching Scott transform into that sexy as fuck hairy badger and then Barry become the beefy yet dignified lion while the two could finally express their affection for one another, to be their true selves... well... it hit close to home. What does it say about me that even though I go cruising every weekend and indulge in my fantasies I'm not out to any of my friends or my family? Especially not my family.

God, I have issues.

"You know,"_began the sentient tattoo. _"Some people might revel in the knowledge that they are giving closure and happiness to others. You may not benefit from their experiences but you certainly helped Scott and Barry. Is that not noble and satisfying?"

I rolled onto my back and let out a bitter laugh. "Maybe for pure-hearted heroes dressed in shining armor and wielded ridiculously large swords." I draped an arm over my eyes. "But me...? Fuck... I'm just a kid, Dyne. I'm not a hero that's going to go out of my way to save people. Hell, there's a big part of me that actually wants to turn Barnes just to see what kind of beast a guy named 'Ranger' will turn into and to see what kind of sexual positioned we can get into. There's a part of me that wants to turn back into that beast because I love being that big. I love_being strong for once and being _threatening. One of my biggest fantasies is to become overlord of this world and turn it into a fucking gay harem. I'm fighting every second not to just say 'fuck it, this is too hard' and just walk into the middle of town, see what'll transform me and make my own kingdom there and then."

"The fact that you are fighting -"

"No," I interrupted. "Don't pull that bullshit by saying that by fighting my very nature, I'm noble or some shit. That has nothing to do with it."

Anodyne was silent for a long moment. Maybe it was a little more than a moment because when I pulled my arm away, my stomach senses the movement in the rest of my body and reminded me that I hadn't eaten since breakfast and it was well past noon now.

_"Why do you fight then?"_asked the tattoo.

"There are things that take priority, I guess," I sighed. "I want to find out what happen to my friends. I need to get back to Atlantis. They matter more. Then there's the whole thing about missing two weeks of my life. For all I know, I was tagged by some mystical society and thrown out here as some sort of ticking time bomb or something." I sat up from the bed. "Even when I was young, it was ingrained into me _not_to make any jumps or choices until I was absolutely certain of the outcome. What's the point of creating a utopia of gay, bara men when it'll get nuked by the military anyway?"

"I see... So theoretically, if you were to take over the world and become its homosexual god of decadence and indulgence, how would you do it?"

I gave him a raised eyebrow, trying to figure out exactly what his angle was. Perhaps he was just trying to delve deeper into my deepest desires to find a way out of this curse. Being bound to a horny, angsty young adult like me probably wasn't the most fun anyone would ever have.

"Well, I guess the first thing I'd do is establish a base of operations," I responded. "I need manpower. Allies. If I didn't need to find my friends, I probably would've used Scott's radio to start broadcasting a message somewhere. Maybe take inspiration from him and convert the Church of the Apocalyptic Road by telling them that I was bringing the apocalypse. Call them over. Say that if they really want to reach the ultimate level of ascension, they had to give themselves to me entirely and that a bestial form would be the reward they deserved for following the tenets so well."

I cocked my head to the side as I pondered the scenario. "I guess we've never seen the effect on women. Don't even know if they'll turn into men around me or something. I guess we'd use what we had to build a commune or base around Scott's place. Invite more and more people in while using the 'lower levels' of the Church to maintain secrecy and appearances. I'd be like their monster pope or something.

"Eventually I'd push for the Church to be less... crazy and get someone to run for office. Influence a whole country and eventually a state. After that, get them or someone closely tied to us to run for president. Make the CAR more mainstream and then I'd make my appearance. Show the world who I am. What I can do. What I can do for them. Make the CAR the official religion of the United States. We'll have their weapons, their military and all their political influence. I'm sure people will be opposed to it but they can't really help it if they end up being forced to dance to my fantasies. Hell, they might end up fucking the moment they see me on TV or something."

I swung my legs over the edge of the bed and stood up. "I guess after that, we'll slowly spread to the rest of the world. Judging from what happened with Scott, my curse can be sort of... subtle. They remain human for a few sessions before eventually transforming. Other world leaders may not even know they're changing until it's too late and by that time, we'll have taken over. I'm sure there are some military jarheads that'd enjoy the idea of being eight-feet tall and built like a tank. Since it looks like I_'m_the only one that can change people too, I'll be the center of this religion. Would make me a target but I guess I'll have other people protecting me too. Not just loyalists but lovers too. They'd be emotionally tied to me and me to them. We'd rule the world together."

A soft sigh escaped my lips followed by the growl of my stomach. "Jeez... I'm hungry."

"Do you feel better though?"

I regarded my guardian construct. "Huh... I do. Was that your plan all along?"

He smiled at me. "I'm slowly coming to know you a little better each day, Duke. I think, at least for now, escaping into these fantasies helps ground you, strangely enough. So next time you feel the weight of this curse wearing down on you, escape to a fantasy for a moment... then return to reality."

There was some logic in that. Spending the majority of my life using my imagination to escape into fantasies had made me rather numb to the harsh contrast of having to return to reality. If I was thrown into a fantastical world that would need me to save it and then make the heart-wrenching decision to go back to my own world or cause the end of that_magical realm for my mere presence, I'd wave, say thanks for the memories and go back without shedding a tear. I'm _that jaded to that particular trope.

"Thanks, Dyne. I appreciate it."

"So long as you retain your humanity, that's all I care about. That's my priority."

I huffed softly and absently rubbed my nose to try and redistribute the burn of embarrassment that was scratching at my cheeks. Seriously. When did a sentient tattoo become my friend?

"Alright," I concluded. "I'm starved. Let's go get something to eat."

I stepped out of the cabin. The sun was just starting to duck behind the mountains casting a pleasant twilight around the site. The temperature was rapidly dropping and a chill ran up my spine. I wondered how Scott could walk around in little more than a tanktop and the thin flannel shirt when I remembered he probably had a hundred pounds of muscle on top of me and infinitely more body hair.

Stupid well-insulated sexy lumberjacks.

Upon reaching Barry's truck, I didn't get to do more than open the door when Ranger Barnes was poking his head out of the office.

"Hey man," he cried. "Everything okay?"

Was he watching me or something!?

"Just getting something to eat," I said, waving back and pulling out some of the dried meats that Scott had packed for me. "Did you want some?"

He beamed at me. "Sure! Better than the stuff that we get made here."

"Well Scott packed me with a lot of the stuff." I reached for the cooler that they had packed into the rear seats and pulled it out. "We can have a feast!"

"Need some help?"

There were seven such coolers that were stacked between the back seats of the four-seater truck and the truck's bed. "That'd be appreciated."

Ranger came jogging over and made a comment about just how much I had in the truck. He popped open one of the coolers and fished out some of the deer jerky that was stored inside. There were some packed and packaged meals as well included freeze-dried rice and vegetables all with Barry's handwriting denoting what they actually were. Barnes visibly relaxed when he saw them though I wasn't sure why. Maybe he was a fan of Barry's cooking as well because he took one of the slabs of jerky and began chewing on it.

"I love BBQ flavor," he commented as he took one of the coolers up to the main office.

I followed shortly behind.

The facility was built on two levels with the first level consisting of the 'museum' part including the gift shop. Large, glass doors dotted the floor on all sides of the square structure with all four walls being made of floor-to-ceiling glass windows giving an unobstructed 360-degree view of the surrounding area and the vast vista beyond the cliff. Some standard forest safety instructions dotted the floor like warnings around forest fires, not to eat wild mushrooms and how to identify poisonous plants or what to do when you get lost. There were some things specific to Grimmwood.

To our right, there was a door leading to the gift shop and the cafeteria. Barnes led me through the broad, open doors into the cafe where about ten tables seating four people were set up. The storefront for the food and the cashier for the gift shop were exactly the same thing. Pre-made sandwiches, packets of chips, bottled drinks and small packages of sweets were the only things on sale. All of them in biodegradable packaging. The kitchen was similarly small and compact. They only had a small four-burner stove top, a single over and a single microwave. Really, it was just a little more than a household kitchen.

They did have a full-sized walk-in freezer, though, and that was where we were headed. Part of me half-expecting for Barnes to open the door only to reveal the frozen corpses of his former victims hanging from meat hooks. Thankfully, there were just frozen vegetables, bread and cured meats in there. We set the coolers down, grabbed what we wanted and headed back out to the cafeteria.

"So are you the only one manning this whole place?" I asked as he brought us to a table close to the corner and near one of the windows.

"Yep," he answered. "Grimmwood isn't really that popular and it's more of conservatory than a tourist hot spot. We don't get a lot of money to pay rangers."

"Has this place ever been full?"

Ranger took off his had, shook his head and bit into some of the jerky. "Never. Maybe we'll get a party of twelve or something come in so they can go camping in the summer but that's not a sure thing. Most of the time, they just stop in this place for a map, the novelty of the view or just to let us know how long they'll be staying."

"Sounds lonely."

Maybe I can help it feel less lonely.

No. Bad Duke. Don't be just a horndog. We have to avoid human contact.

Speaking of which...

"I'll go finish this in my room and get out of your way," I said, rising to my feet. "I don't want to take up more of your time."

"Stay," Barnes said, waving me down. "I need to apologize anyway."

"Apologize?" I repeated, stopping in my tracks. "For what?"

"For suspecting you had murdered Doctor Price, stolen his car and had chopped up his body to put in your coolers for disposal."

I flinched at the admission and lifted a finger to protest, not sure if I should be insulted or to laugh. There had to be some irony in that I had taken Barnes as a serial killer himself. In hindsight, who could blame him for making such an assumption? I did roll up in Barry's truck that was visibly beaten up and was acting rather jumpy.

"Did I pass the test?" I asked.

"Kind of," he responded. "Unless I'm chewing on human meat right now, the only thing that'll really clear you from my books is if you told me your name."

There were a few seconds where I replayed our interaction thus far. When it hit me that I had never told him my name, I physically slapped my forehead.

"Goddamnit... I'm so sorry," I sighed. "My name is Duke Gray."

Barnes reached for his hip. The buzz of a radio emerged shortly. "Did you get that Foster?"

"Running a check on a 'Duke Gray'."

I frowned at him and it was only when he revealed the radio sitting on his hip did it dawn on me that he had been using this as a means to get my information. That was fair, I suppose. A stranger rolling up in a local psychologist's car without any identification was a huge cause for concern. Especially if that stranger didn't come into the park through the normal channels.

"No warrants or criminal records on a Duke Gray. Assuming this is 'Gray' with an 'a'?"

Barnes regarded me curiously and I nodded.

"I'm from Atlantis, Alaska, _"I confessed. "English Major at _Atlantis College."

"Okay. Describe him for me, Barnes."

The dark-skinned ranger picked up the radio and held it to his lips. "About 5'7''. Asian descent. Dark brown hair and brown eyes. Thin build. About 160 pounds. Three earrings on his right ear. One red, another green and the last is clear. Wears a leather wristband on his right wrist."

"Yup. Casual social media search found him. Good kid. Pretty vanilla. Nothing stands out as odd."

"Except for what the hell I'm doing in another state in the middle of a national park?" I supplied.

"That's your prerogative, kid," answered the ranger on the other side of the radio. "We're not the FBI or some sort of investigator."

"Foster is right," said Barnes, setting down the radio and shutting it off. "As long as you're not doing any poaching, setting fires or doing anything to harm the environment, I honestly don't care. We don't charge for you to get in here. I'm also painfully aware that there are other ways to get into the park."

He patted the table. "That said, come tomorrow, I'm going to escort you out of the park."

"Why not today?" I asked.

Barnes pointed out the window. The sun had dipped behind the mountains. The landscape had been cast in bluish, purple overtones.

"You're going to get lost out there. In an hour, it's going to get so damn dark that even the full moon tonight won't be able to light your way in the forest. If you're itching to get out of here, we can leave at dawn." He gave me a sharp look. "Unless there is a reason that we need to leave now?"

I let out a nervous laugh and raised my hand. "Nah. I'm just not getting paid to camp out at a National Park."

Barnes offered a sympathetic smile. "Maybe you should be a park ranger then."

I returned the smile and hiked a thump over my shoulder. "I'm good. I was just eager to get some food and then probably get some sleep."

The Park Ranger spread his arms almost welcoming. "Come on. I'm not that bad, am I? I mean, I lied to you twice but that was for my job. Sit down." He waved at the seat opposite to him. "I promise there are no more lies."

No more lies coming from you. The appeal of telling the Ranger everything considering how he currently had an active radio and had lied to me twice now was quickly fading. Still, I was under his mercy. I may not have been captured by a serial killer but I was certainly a hostage of sorts.

"Alright," I said, taking the seat. "So were you waiting in here, subtly waiting for me just in case I'd try to make a break for it?"

"I wasn't just doing that," he answered with a broad grin. "I was asking around town if they knew about you. There was mention of Doctor Price's assistant and he did leave Grimmwood to come through here recently but you are no Ethan."

Busted.

"I didn't kill, rob or do anything malicious to Barry," I said. "I was actually staying with Scott Woolsey for a bit and Barry told me to take his truck back home and tell Ethan he was okay. He was going to stay with Scott for a little longer. He really had a breakthrough."

"Really?" Ranger inclined his head to the side. "Scott Woolsey had a breakthrough?"

"You know Scott?"

"Only based on what Doctor Price told me. He makes this trip every few weeks and he goes outside of the park's limits so naturally we're curious. We're liable even if leaves the grounds, you know." Ranger rubbed his smooth chin. "He's been making that trip for almost six years. What changed?"

"Me," I responded with a shrug. "I guess you could say that Scott just really needed a change in his day-to-day life and that's where I came in. I... disrupted his life. He changed."

"That's pretty amazing," exclaimed the park ranger. "I'd always been worried about him. The guy was a loner and he was an avid hunter. In the back of my mind, I was afraid he'd accidentally kill one of our tagged animals then he'd be fined and things would spiral from there."

I lifted my eyebrows at him. "Were you more concerned about him or the animals?"

He kept that easy grin on his face. "Yes."

Rolling my eyes, I leaned back on my chair as I munched on one of the sandwiches that Barry had packed for me. It was with great relief that my hunger was being sated. There was also an absence of that crawling void that heralded my transformation. So whatever it was about Ranger, he wasn't trigger my curse.

"So I've told you a lot about me," I began. "Tell me about yourself."

"What's there to tell?" he responded with a shrug. "I'm Ranger Barnes the Park Ranger. Nothing much else. Honestly pretty boring considering I probably have one of the most boring jobs there is."

"Then why do it?"

His smile took a bit of a sad edge. "My ex."

I grinned broadly and leaned forward against the table. "Oh, this sounds juicy. Dish, queen."

It was his turn to roll his eyes. Ranger Barnes' story actually began further down the coast in California. Having grown up down there, he was exposed to gay culture and a more liberal agenda from an early age. Coming out was easy and his typical California Bitch Mom was absolutely ecstatic to have a gay son if only because she could thrown him a Coming Out Party and make it all about her. His dad was equally as supportive and told him that if anyone on the basketball team ever teased him for his homosexuality, he would get a beating from the 260 lbs former collegiate wrestler that was now running his own small gym.

I honestly wish I knew my family and even my friends would be as accepting. Warren would likely fawn over me and apologize for every homophobic slur he may have uttered or every time he may have me feel awkward for mentioning a girls bit tits. Hugh wouldn't care and Cave would probably just see if I'd like to go to a gay bar one day just to see what it's like. Joey might drift away. My older brothers would definitely react more negatively. Prince would complain that I wasn't really gay and was just trying to get attention. King would try to put a monetary value to it and warn me that being gay did not automatically give me disposable income.

Turning back to Barnes, he mentioned that he was gunning to be zoologist working at a zoo or something. He took all the requisite courses in college and had multiple flings with other guys. His boyfriend at the time was extremely supportive of him as well.

"Until the thing happened," Barnes said with a laugh.

"Did he cheat?" I probed.

"Nope."

"Did he steal from you?"

"God no."

I frowned. "Did he... die?" I asked in a whisper.

"No! No!" He laughed waving me down. "Nothing that bad. Well... I guess it depends on your perspective. He was really attached to his mother. Like... unnaturally so." Barnes stuck out his tongue and grimaced. "She was okay with us but she would invade every one of our dates. Like we'd go to a restaurant and then she'd 'accidentally' bump into us and say she was just there for takeout only to end up having the whole meal with us. We'd go to a concert and there she was trying to pretend she liked the music. We couldn't even go on runs together because she'd always tag along."

I felt myself physically cringing as the scenarios were described to me. "I... I don't know what to say..."

"Say that you find that creepy and it's not just me."

I nodded vigorously. "Oh hell yeah. That's fucking weird! I'd love to have my mom back but that level of attachment is leveling on the incestuous!"

"Right?" laughed Barnes, his eyes widening slightly. "God... I eventually had enough when he and I fucked this one time and the follow day, she was giving me pointers on how to pleasure her son! Like she knew!"

The look of horror on my face when from cringe to creepy to outright catastrophically appalled in a matter of minutes. I stared at him, my left eye twitching as my brain rebooted multiple times trying to process exactly the scenarios that Ranger had just described to me while simultaneously fighting my imagination from going wild.

"I... He didn't...?"

The Park Ranger waved a hand in my direction. "God no. Even he wasn't that deprived and neither was she. But here's the kicker..." He jabbed the table in front of him. "... she was staying at the same hotel we were staying at for our anniversary. She gave me the lecture at the breakfast buffet!"

"Jesus Christ and all his angels..." I cussed, smacking my forehead in disbelief. "She was practically stalking you!"

Ranger laughed softly and turned his gaze out the window. "After that, I gave him an ultimatum. Him or me."

I grimaced. "Ah man... I'm sorry..."

"Yeah well... I guess I should've seen it coming." He gave a dismissive shrug. "He said he couldn't cut her out of his life and I couldn't stand her constantly trying to insert herself into our private time. That was five years of my life that I'll never get back and, honestly, I just couldn't be in the same state as that bastard and his mother. So I moved out here."

I leaned forward, resting my elbow on the table and holding my chin in my palm. "Wow. That's fresh off a Reddit thread. I would've done exactly the same in your position."

Ranger shrugged again. "I'm just sad it took me so long to break it off. I mean, that's still five years of my life I'll never get back. Five years of constantly fighting for attention against his mother and trying to be better than her. It's hard to just turn away from something like that, you know? There's this little nagging voice in the back of your head telling you that you've already put all this effort into the relationship so don't throw it away. Starting over is too hard."

"That took a lot of strength to make that leap."

Honestly, I wish I had that kind of strength. To cut ties with the toxic people in my family. It's terrible but I recognize my dad and my brothers for the people that they were; narcissists who will look for any reason to denigrate me to make themselves feel better and seem better in comparison. But there's this rope that constantly pulls me back. Familial bonds. Nostalgia goggles for the far and few between good times. Financial support. Call it what you want. I don't have the strength Ranger has.

Instead, it just comes out in small - albeit entirely hedonistic and deprived bursts. Being a horny fuck, for instance.

"Sometimes I do wonder if I made the right choice," sighed Ranger, once again turning his gaze out the window. "But then I get a message from him saying that he wants to get back together and that his mother won't be in the picture anymore only to see that the two of them took at trip of Florida not even two months earlier and I thank God phone signals here are terrible."

I chuckled but that was quickly cut off as Ranger stood up.

"I take it you're a city boy, huh?" he asked.

"Guilty as charged."

Ranger smiled and grabbed my hand. "Come with me. You'll like this."

Protesting was not an option. Apart from probably having fifty pounds on me, Ranger had this easy-going sense of authority about him. He was the cop that came to schools and inspired grade schoolers to join the force. The kind of guy that would sit you down and give you a stern but understanding talking to when you did something wrong and then take you out to ice cream just to drive home the point. Easy to like and hard to say 'no' to.

He dragged me out of the main office just as the lights around the camp grounds sprang on. It had gotten dark extremely fast. The sky had already turned a dark shade of blue while a silvery moon popped up from between the trees. Gorgeous and full, against the foreground of the trees, it looked absolutely massive. Ranger took to the balcony section of the facility, the one overlooking the cliff and the vista it offered. He pointed up and told me to watch.

A few minutes passed and I was just about to ask exactly what I was looking for when it happened.

The stars came out.

"Holy shit..." I gasped.

Even against shining brilliance of the moon, the sea of stars was breathtaking. Even up north in Alaska, I was mostly cooped up in the cities so what few stars I could see were just the major ones. This... this was something else.

"I know right?" laughed Ranger. "No light pollution means you get to see everything. And check it out..." He pointed to one particular star as it glided across the sky slowly.

"Whoa! Shooting star?"

"Close," he chuckled. "Satellite. With our elevation and with how clear it is, you can actually see the satellites as they fly through their orbit."

"Wow..." I breathed, beaming brightly. "This is amazing."

"Pretty much what all the overnight campers say when they stay with us," laughed the Park Ranger.

If this were a porn scenario - which I'm grateful that it wasn't - our eyes would meet, we'd be drawn together and suddenly we'd kiss. It'd be awkward at first but then in the heat of our passion, we'll slump into the ground and start fucking; him getting the crushing loneliness of this job out of his system and me getting my daily dicking. Making love under the stars. Bucket list - check.

God I'm depraved.

He turned to look at me and his smile faded.

Oh boy, here it comes.

Ranger leaned forward and reached out to me, his large hand hovering over the side of my head. I could feel the heat from his palm radiating onto my skin, seeping into my brain and quietly whispering 'Fuck him, fuck him now' over and over again. I tried to meet his gaze... but his eyes were elsewhere... at my... temples...?

He pressed a finger against the side of my head and immediately retreated.

"Ouch! What the...?" he began. He flicked his finger. There was a tiny drop of blood oozing from the tip. "What's that on the side of your head?"

"Side of my...?" I reached up to where he was pointing and felt the sharp jab of something hard and pointy.

"Duke!" Anodyne exclaimed. "You're changing!"

"Oh shit..." I glanced away from Ranger and instinctively caught sight of the full moon again. "I..."

... blacked out.

?

Goddamn fucking blackout transformations.

Out of all the disappointing transformations to experience out there, blackouts places third right behind 'poofs' where there's just a magical burst that obscures the change and its instantaneous. Number one is off screen transformations. Like the ones where you just see their shadow or they are off screen for a second and suddenly 'boom', they're a monster. Seriously. That's just a gargantuan cock tease and whoever wrote or directed scenes like that deserves to be cursed with Forever Edging - always stuck just on the precipice of orgasm but never getting relief.

For the third time in my life, I suddenly woke up in the body that I was oddly more comfortable with but had no satisfying bridge into my current form. In my mind, it was the equivalent of jacking off to some hot, nasty man-on-man porn only for confetti to come bursting out of the tip of your dick instead of cum. There's a moment of shock which quickly transitions into 'what-the-fuck' territory followed by the inevitable question of 'what is wrong with me?'

I was once again staring up at the beautiful night sky over my head and judging by the absence of any trance of sunlight, it was well into the middle of the night. Light spilled in from the adjacent facility. Shadows moved across my vision and I tilted my head. Ranger was pacing back and forth in the cafeteria area while holding a large brick phone - the likes of which you'd see in old military movies - and looking incredibly conflicted about it.

"Are you awake?" Anodyne asked.

"Yeah," I mumbled, rubbing the back of my head. "What happened?"

"You changed. Which is odd. You were exposed to Ranger Barnes for far longer than Doctor Price. He was even more suspicious or judgmental than the psychologist which I could imagine kept his biases in check for a while he deconstructed you. Barnes was immediately suspicious."

Thus another wrench in the works. I had thought that the trigger for my transformation was exposure to people. When people started imposing their opinions on me, judging me and restricting my freedoms, I changed into the beast. But I was getting along with Ranger. Hell, he thought I was a murderer that had killed Barry. Why hadn't I changed then?

Why now?

"I'll deal with all that later," I rumbled, slowly getting to my digitigrade feet. "Right now, I need to talk to Ranger before he calls someone and exposes other people to my curse."

"Any idea what kind of fantasy is being played out here?"

The question made me stop just short of grabbing the glass sliding door and pushing it aside. Ranger had his back to me so he didn't notice that I was awake and had gotten up.

"Honestly... no," I whispered. "I don't have any specific fantasies about park rangers and honestly, Ranger is a little skinny for my tastes. I mean, he's got a nice lean build but I like my guys more like Scott or how Barry ended up."

"That makes this more dangerous. Be careful, Duke."

"Got it."

Taking a deep breath, I pulled the sliding door aside. Surprising that Ranger didn't have the foresight to lock the damn thing. Then again, it was one of those electronic sliding doors and it was made of glass. With my forty-inch biceps, these doors would never have stood a chance. Imagine his disbelief when he heard the door scraping across the ground and my eight-foot frame stepping in. I ducked under the door frame out of instinct even though it was high enough to let me through.

"Shit!" Ranger cussed, fumbling for his belt. I saw the yellow and black of a taser and immediately held up my hands.

"Hang on! Let me explain, Ranger!"

The park ranger immediately hesitated. "Whoa... you can... you can talk?"

Thank god walking talking furry people in reality is still considered an oddity enough that it can stun people long enough for explanations and expositions.

"Yes I can talk," I responded, pressing one of my paws against my chest. "And for what it's worth, I'm still Duke Gray. That's never changed. I'm not a monster. I'm not a demon. I'm not any of those. I'm just a kid that got drunk one night and performed a stupid ritual that ended getting me cursed."

"Cursed to change into a monster every full moon?"

I rolled my eyes, dropping my paws. "God, I wish. No. The transformations seem to be kind of... random. Last time I transformed, it was because Barry was calling me a corruptive influence on Scott's life that was taking advantage of his isolation to turn him into a gay man."

Ranger inclined his head. "Mr. Woolsey is gay?" He glanced off to the right. "I should go visit him..." With a shake of his head, he turned back to me. "So... you transform when people criticize you? Why do you even have a social media account?"

"That's not it," I hissed. "And for your information, I only use it to keep in contact with friends and family. That and my immediate family is always critical of me if I don't post at least once a week. They assume silence means failure." I grunted and ran my paws through my hair. "Anyway, I thought I only transformed when people were judgmental of me or saw me in a way that wasn't aligned with who I was."

"Really? That's where you went...?" mused Anodyne.

Ignoring my guardian, I gently gestured at Ranger. "What was your opinion of me just as I was changing?"

Ranger pursed his lips to the left side of his face. "Honestly? I thought you were just a kid that was lost. I honestly didn't have any opinion of you?"

"So... You weren_'t_going to lean in to kiss me...?" I asked hopefully.

"What?" he exclaimed, recoiling. "No. I saw there were these black things on your temples. I thought they were bugs or something so I went in to brush them off. I guess they were your horns." He frowned at me. "No offense. You are... I mean... you were cute but I had only met you a few hours before and for most of that, I thought you were a serial killer that had slaughtered Doctor Price and was trying to make a getaway in his car."

"There goes your theory of changing when someone's opinion of you restricts your freedoms,"_said my tattoo. _"All things considered, if that were true, you should have changed the moment he basically quarantined you in that cabin."

Damnit if he wasn't right. Wish I had seen it sooner so I hadn't built my defenses around the assumption that I wasn't going to change if I was honest with Ranger. So much for this entire journey being entirely about being true to yourself.

"I suppose that's fair," I rumbled. Embarrassment crawled onto my cheeks and suddenly, I had the overwhelming desire to do something with my fingers. They couldn't just be left hovering there in space. My right paw when to my exposed furry crotch, covering it to show some modicum of modesty while the other reached up to the back of my neck to scratch away the humiliation that was developing there as uncomfortable heat. "There goes my theory, I guess."

Explaining to Ranger Barnes how I came into this situation was quickly becoming second nature though I had to still consciously omit Anodyne's presence and contributions. He took a seat in one of the cafeteria chairs by the time I got to the part where I woke up in the woods and Scott found me. His interest piqued when I explained how Scott and I got busy with one another and that led to his eventual transformation into a beast. I asked him not to interrupt as I explained what happened with Barry afterwards.

"And that's when you met me," I concluded.

"So to summarize," Barnes said, "just being around you will lead to some sort of kinky fantasy of yours that will potentially lead me to transforming into a beast if I have sex with you...?"

"Seems like it," I responded with a shrug. I gave him a grimace. "I don't suppose you're feeling particularly... horny right now?"

"Absolutely not," he answered, holding up his hands. "I mean, I won't deny, you look great. I'm tempted to feel your abs and I'm genuinely curious how your blue fur contrasts with your hard muscles but right now, I'm concerned about how the hell I'm going to explain this to my colleagues."

Oh shit. He has colleagues.

I pressed my paws together pleadingly. "Please, please don't involve anyone else. I'm scared what'll happen if I get exposed to the world or anyone else. I could drag every guy around me into a goddamn orgy and if I get dragged out into the public, chicks might end up growing dicks and the entire human race might end up being doomed because everyone is a guy!"

Though I will admit that some of my more extreme fantasies was male impregnation and egg laying so maybe there was hope for a dystopian future where we're all only guys and fucking each other leads to the continuation of our race. The argument, however, was enough to stay Barnes' hand.

"By your own admission, though, you could be infectious," said the park ranger. "We need to quarantine you and find a way to reverse this whole thing."

"Great!" I exclaimed. "Then help me get back to Alaska and my friends. We can find a way to reverse it there and make sure my buddies are okay."

"We could do the same thing if we go to Grimmwood. You said you found the ritual online right? A creepypasta? We can probably look it up in town. They have better internet connections than here."

Goddamnit. Why does everyone but me have good ideas!? There was no denying that he was right. Maybe there was a reversal ritual and with all the people I've gathered so far, perhaps we would have enough people to perform it. Isolated in this seldom-visited park would also mean that I wouldn't have to worry about being exposed to others. The park rangers could take shifts watching me or something without ever interacting with me...

... unless we get into a jail porn scenario where the sexy guards decide to shower me with their 'hoses'...

Fuck me. My brain will just not stop. Though part of me doesn't want it to.

"Please," I pleaded, shaking my clasped paws at him. "I'm human under all this fur. I'm just a kid that did something really stupid and never wanted to be famous. Seriously. My dad wanted me to be the top surgeon in the country or something. Not out of familial pride or something but so that he can brag to everyone else. All these expectations to be famous and well-known drove me in the opposite direction. I'm happy to fade away into mediocrity. Please don't make me some sort of circus freak."

I eyed the big, block phone that Ranger was still gripping tightly.

The park ranger saw my gaze and let out a soft sigh. His fingers unwound from the device. "Don't worry about this thing. It's an old radio phone. Doctor Price told me that the patient he visits has a radio that'll pick up these transmissions and I thought I needed to contact him and make sure he's okay. I still might." He ran a hand down his face. "I haven't told any of the other rangers about you. You were only out for a few minutes."

Barnes slammed a fist into the table. "Goddamnit... I should call the authorities. Get the goddamn military here. Or a fucking priest." He took a deep breath, puffing out his chocolate cheeks and letting it out slowly. "But then that'd mean the entire world will be intruding into your own personal business."

"And... you don't want that for another person given how your boyfriends mother did the same to you?" I asked, offering a sheepish grin. The scathing look he gave me made me retreat. "Ex-boyfriend. Sorry."

Ranger sighed softly and got up from his chair. "Look, you're a good kid. It's late. I don't know if Doctor Price or Scott are awake..."

"Knowing them, they won't be. They're probably fucking loudly_and won't have the radio on." He gave me a sour look and I just returned a blank stare. "Dude, it's true. I don't know if my curse made them gay or just awakened things that were already in there but those two are in love. Scott is Barry's _Hufflepuff_and Barry is Scott's _Gryffindor." I stuck my tongue out to get the saccharine taste off my taste buds. "Anyway, you probably won't hear from them until tomorrow."

The park ranger narrowed his gaze at him. Then he reached for the radio on his hip, making me flinch. To my surprise, he completely unbuckled the unit from his belt and set it on the table.

"I'm going to make you a deal," he said. "You don't eat me in my sleep or run away and I'll help you reverse this curse. I won't call the other rangers and I won't expose your secret either. Deal?"

My heart breathed a sigh of relief, my brain collapsed in exhaustion as it let out all the stress it had been building and my muscles felt like they all deflated as all the tension left every sinew.

"Deal," I agreed, holding out my paw. Ranger regarded it curiously but ended up reaching for one of my fingers and giving it a firm shake. Curious to see how his hand could only consume two out of my five.

He released my fingers and turned. "Come on. I've had enough excitement for the night." He pointed at the radios on the table. "Take them if you want. As a sign of trust."

I made to reach for them when Anodyne immediately shouted at me.

"Don't do it! It's a test of trust!"

I hesitated.

"I trust you," I responded and headed towards the door. There was the faintest flicker of a smile from the corners of Ranger's lips. Whether or not that was a satisfied smile due to catching a monster in his trap or a heartfelt smile from seeing the human in me, only time would tell.

Thankfully the same sliding glass doors were implemented on the other side of the office letting me pass through without being forced to duck. I stepped out into the cool night, the fresh air and higher altitude tickling my nostrils and fur differently than the clearing where Scott's cabin was situated. Ranger was right behind him, keeping a respectable six feet between us. It was clear he was still very cautious around me. Not that I blame him.

What had me paranoid, however, was trying to figure out exactly what fantasy was being played out here. What kinks would a park ranger fulfill? Maybe fucking in the jungle like wild animals? No... this was more a forest than a jungle. I couldn't imagine us swinging from vines in loincloths. Maybe a simple hook up at a camp site? Even that seemed to vanilla for me.

What could it be?

The second pair of footprints abruptly stopped and I turned to face Ranger. The park ranger was standing in profile to me, looking up. I followed his gaze and noticed that his eyes were firmly fixed on the full moon.

Without warning, Ranger let out a scream and clutched his temples with both hands. Sweat glistened off his brow in the span of seconds, sweat dripping all over his body and soaking his olive-colored uniform.

"Holy fuck!" he cried. "I'm... I'm so hot!"

"Wait... what...?" I began.

Ranger grabbed his tie, tugging at it as he staggered away from me. Heavy panting left him as his whole body became drenched in his own sweat. Desperation crossed his features and he grabbed the collar of his uniform.

Rrrrrrip!

He tore it clean off his body, uniform and undershirt all at once, shucking the fabric and throwing it aside. There was a moment of respite as he ran his hand over his face, wiping the sweat from his eyes. In that moment, I got a glimpse of his lean, chiseled body as it was illuminated by the few lamps around the camp and the pale moonlight. Then his whole body seized up, every muscles tensing and pressing up against his skin. He staggered further away from me, his eyes questioning what was happening and searching my equally confused face for answers.

A loud, deep cracking noise emanated from his right hand. A sound like someone was grinding gravel deep inside a well or a dark tunnel. It echoed unnaturally in the night and only grew louder as he raised his right hand up to eye level. In that instant, I saw a little drop of blood at the tip of his finger. We both watched in total horror and fascination as his fingers stretched away from his palm. Each digit grew bigger, fatter and thicker. Tawny hairs sprang up from his skin. Each nail grew longer, turned black and obtained a sharper, almost hooked quality to them. His palms darkened, glistening in the dull light.

"Oh shit... shit!" he cursed. "What's happening to meeeeeeee!?"

His last syllable was elongated into a partial scream as he dropped to all fours. The muscles all over his back heaved and undulated; each one pulsating and seemingly trying to escape from his container of his chocolate brown skin. They broadened and swelled, adding more and more definition to an already lean form. His traps tripled in size as they swallowed his neck. Each vertebrae of his spine shot up, pushing against his skin and becoming visible against his sweaty flesh as they grew, extended and widened to fit the growing muscles around his frame. A very visible 'V-shaped' torso quickly formed, highlighted further by his ballooning deltoids that quickly fed more and more mass into his biceps and triceps.

Ranger rolled onto his back, holding both his hands out in front of him. He turned them over, watching as his huge fingers consumed his new claws and the sudden tension in his growing digits caused them to unsheath once more. He stared at his black-colored, leathery pans and the tawny fur all over the back of his hands. Another cry left his lips, this one much deeper and far more guttural, more primal. Both his arms surged away from his torso, additional length being added as his mass tripled in size.

That cry grew deeper in the midst of its expulsion from his throat. His chest thickened, faint pectorals exploding into two, twin mountains that were topped off by black discs that were his nipples. The fur on his hands quickly spread like a wildfire down his arms and consumed his entire torso though it turned a lighter shade as it spread over his belly. Each abdominal muscle sprang up like a rising platform one at a time. With each one, Ranger let out a yelp until all eight were firmly framed against the backdrop of his V-shaped torso.

His brown eyes grew desperate. As the fur began spreading up his head, crawling up his neck and starting to add a golden fuzz to his cheeks, he reached down to where the fur was rushing down his abdominals. He scratched at it with his claws, seemingly trying to stop it from creeping down his pants. There was no stopping to advance. One moment, it had disappeared below his belt and he stared at me, a dramatic last look.

"FUCK!" he cried and thrust his hips upwards

In my entire life, I had never seen a cock grow so fast and quickly. His dick _exploded_out of his pants; a pink, fleshy spire that sprang from a thick, curly bush of dark brown hair sitting atop to, huge, fuzzy orbs the size of melons. As amazing at it was, part of me actually grimaced a little. A hard dick exploding out of fabric must have been _kind of_painful.

The rest of his pants didn't far more better as thick, corded muscles ripped through them. His big hiking boots were split open by toes topped off with claws, twin grinning, hungry demons that opened their jaws further as his paws torn the garment of shreds.

Ranger grabbed his face with both his paws, his cries becoming increasingly bestial, his humanity fading. That same sound of cracking emanated from his face and his voice became distorted; a singer undergoing auto-tuning while they were still performing. He used one paw to grip the ground, his claws scraping across the gravel-covered floor. That arm was used to provide support as he slowly got to his feet, rising to his full eight-feet tall form. The other paw slowly migrated from his face...

... and he threw his head back, letting out a loud roar...

... the roar of a puma.

"Oh shit..." I breathed.

_"What caused him to change?"_Anodyne wondered.

"I wish I knew..."

I did wish that but at the same time, I was miserably distracted by Ranger's new form.

The newly formed beast was as tall as me; taller than any human and well beyond human evolution. Like me, he had digitigrade feet whereas both Scott and Barry had more plantigrade feet. I guess that would technically make us shorter if compared with our 'heels' on the ground. Ranger's body fat had to below 5% because there were thick networks of veins running up his arms, legs and and even a little into his enormous pectorals. Even his tawny fur couldn't hide those veins or the contours of his immense muscles. Melon-sized biceps fit were straddled by titanic triceps and supported by huge, ham-like forearms. Deltoids that could be used as bowling balls sat beside pectorals three times bigger than a human head with the divide between both sets of muscles defined by lines that could cut diamonds. A striking pillar of eight abdominal muscles clung to his heaving chest like body armor.

His feral, slitted eyes burned with a seething, ruby fire. The curly brown hair that had clung to his head as a human had receded behind two, circular ears that now sat like a Mohawk. Similarly dark, curly hairs dotted his chest, faint in the moonlight but certainly there and matching the thick bush where his immense, sixteen-inch feline cock sprang from.

I gulped upon seeing that member. The barbs jutting from the base of that member made it look almost like a medieval torture device. Yet there was a huge part of me that saw that dick and wondered how it would feel inside me. The only thing that kept me from swallowing that damn thing whole was that part of me that saw the first, shook its head and said, 'You thirsty bitch'.

That loud gulp was my undoing.

Ranger saw me and his lips peeled back rippling through his growl while his his sharp fangs flashed in the moonlight.

"Whoa, easy there," I said, holding up my paws. "I warned you this would happen, buddy. I can't control it. The only thing we can do now is work together to -"

"Duke! Look out!"

Without warning, Ranger dropped to all fours and lunged at me. Given that he was barely ten feet away from me there was no time or space to get my one-ton frame out of the way. The two of us collided and crashed to the ground. I'm sure out two bodies hitting the ground caused a mini-quake as I heard the trees rustle all the way at the end of the camp. Ranger snarled in my ear, his claws raking across my fur. I flinched at the sight of the those scythe-like talons scraped across my skin. Yet, despite how fresh and sharp they were, they didn't draw blood.

Weird.

"Ranger!" I snapped, reaching out and seizing his neck to keep those fangs away from me. "Get a hold of yourself!"

He scratched and scraped my arm and chest like a toddler desperately trying to get away from a parent holding them up while throwing a tantrum. He gnashed his fangs at me, slavering and wild. This wasn't the Ranger Barnes that I had come to know! This was a real monster!

Using all my strength, I lifted my knee against his stomach and then snapped my limb out, throwing him off me. Barnes - or whatever he had become - was flung back and crashed through the glass doors of the office. I grimaced. That was going to be very hard to explain. I scrambled to my feet and immediately bolted towards my cabin.

"Fuck! What the hell is wrong with him!? No one else had this reaction!"

"It must be a different scenario! Another fantasy of yours!"

"What kind of fantasy would see a docile park ranger turn into a puma in the middle of the..." My voice drifted off. I caught the reflection of the full moon off one of the cabin windows. "Oh shit..."

"What?"

"This is my werewolf fantasy."

"Elaborate."

I couldn't believe I was in that fantasy. It was both simultaneously arousing and, at the same time, terrifying.

"A fantasy where the docile, meek and otherwise unassuming protagonist - AKA me - encounters a monster in the middle of nowhere, gets bitten or something and transforms into a werewolf in the next full moon. Then me and the original werewolf fuck in the moonlight and become pack mates."

"That's your fantasy!? That's terrifying!"

"I know. But it's the thrill of the unknown, the change and maybe a thinly veiled allegory at my own coming-out that -"

WHAM!

First rule of dealing with horror situations: don't fucking stop in the middle of your escape to do something stupid like talk over the situation. Exposition gets people killed.

I bit the dirt as Ranger's heavy form slammed into my back. I think he was actually slightly lighter than me but the impact of a near-ton puma was still powerful. Stars flashed across my gaze and the pain of hitting the ground rocketed up my body. This was, however, nothing compared to the feeling of something hot, wet and stiff getting shoved violently into my ass.

I roared, arching my back and inadvertently allowing more of that barbed cock to slide into me. This entire time, my ass had been clenched with fear but now, it was being forced open by a cock that punished me for not opening up. Ranger's clawed fingers wrapped around my neck, gripping it tightly. His jaws clamped down on my shoulder. When he growled, I could feel it through my bones. I glanced to my right and stared directly into his eyes. Though he didn't say a word, his eyes said, 'I dare you try to escape before I cum'.

The submissive whimper that came out of my muzzle was absolutely instinctive.

He took that as all the permission he needed and began to roughly and quickly abuse my ass. Not that I didn't like it. Before I knew what was happening, my own cock was growing stiff. It was a little painful as his rough fucking was causing my scrotum and sheath to rub against the gravel and that subsequently caused my raw cock to similarly scrape against the tiny rocks but the pleasure far outweighed the pain.

Don't let anyone tell you otherwise kids! Fucking on the ground is goddamn painful!

Ranger was merciless. His balls were like wrecking balls. Every one of his thrusts caused those heavy testicles to slam against my ass as if someone was smacking it with an open palm. The strikes only added to my pleasure and I'll be ashamed to admit that the tight force of his grip on my neck, the light threatening pleasure of his fangs on my shoulders and this rough, hold-on-to-your-fucking-soul-fucking was really doing it for me.

There was no time to self-reflect on my own depravity. Ranger's fangs bit down on my shoulder, again not breaking the skin but giving me enough of a jolt of pleasure that I gasped. His hot seed jolted into my ass, a hot injection of creamy white feline juices that felt so good against the cold of the night. Even as he was orgasming, he didn't stop fucking. The result was his cum lubricating each thrust and causing some of his seed to spill onto the ground beneath us.

After his third shot into me, he growled and leg go of my neck. He pulled out completely, his fourth blast splattering my back and getting into my fur. Then he released my shoulder from his jaws and got up. I turned to see what was happening just in time to catch his fifth blast right into my face. A look of absolute pleasure was plastered on his face, his eyes squeezed shut and his tongue hanging out. The sixth and final shot wasn't as powerful as the last but had enough force that it coated my cock.

Panting, Ranger opened his crimson eyes which drifted slowly up to the full moon. A grin crossed his features and he threw his head back to let out the that puma roar of his - half-snarl and half-meow. He did this in the typical werewolf-howl pose; legs apart, head back, chest up and paws formed into claws by his sides.

Fuck me if that wasn't hot.

"Ranger...?" I ventured slowly.

He lowered his gaze at me... then huffed loudly. Without so much as a word, he sniffed the air then turned around and trotted back to the office. He got about halfway before he dropped on all fours and began stalking into the main building.

"That's not Ranger..."

"Or it's a part of him that he's suppressed," I sighed, slowly getting up. "In my fantasy, the protagonist eventually comes to terms with their werewolf form when he accepts the primal, bestial life and that all he's doing is releasing the beast that was kept up inside. That it's much better to live the simple life of fucking and hunting with his alpha."

"I don't suppose you're going to be his alpha now, are you?"

"He fucked me," I grimaced. "So this must be the_other_ variant of the fantasy where the wise alpha introduces him to the wisdom of the pack and teaches him how to come to terms with his beast..." I ran a paw down my muzzle. "Fuck... that makes it so much harder." I then angrily gestured at my crotch which still had my eighteen-inch member erect like a flagpole. "And this bastard isn't helping!"

Crashing and breaking glass could be heard in the building. I was pulled to it by the force of the curse, I guess, as the scenario played out. Most people would run in the opposite direction of the savage beast that fucked them even if they didn't find release of their own. But not met. Nope. My stupid ass went in the same direction as the sexy beast. In a normal scenario, that was a death sentence.

Thank god none of my fantasies ever ended in death.

I tiptoed as much as I could around the broken glass and moved to the cafeteria. There, Ranger had gotten into the supplies and was tearing into all the food in a savage and - let's face it - adorably hot manner. There was just something so... attractive to such a scene. It spoke to me on a primal level.

Letting the curse take over, I straightened and approached him, puffing out my chest.

"We're not done," I growled, gesturing at my dick.

Ranger eyed me as he loudly chewed on some chips, mouth open. Gross. He licked his muzzle and wiped it with the back of his paws.

"I imagine all that salty food has made you pretty thirsty," I continued. "I know a drink that'll give you lots of calories and there's plenty of it." For emphasis, I massaged my balls.

He took my meaning and stalked over, a low growl rolling out of his throat. Again, he was on all fours as he prowled over. The primal puma sniffed my balls, catching his own scent. His hot breath wafted up from the base of my cock, causing my knot to inflate. Inch by inch, he followed the shaft of my member up until the pointed tip.

Like a viper striking at its prey, he gobbled up my dick, grabbing it with both paws and savagely sucking and suckling with a force that could've sucked my balls out of their sac! I was brought to my knees but I still managed to assert some_dominance as I grabbed the back of his neck and forced him to bob up and down my cock to _my pace. Well... not really. I was at the mercy of the curse. By the throbbing heat of Ranger's own member, he was clearly enjoying this as well.

His long, rough tongue danced over my cock and as the minutes passed, he was slowly able to take more and more of my dick into his muzzle. Naturally he couldn't take everything but a good eight inches was in his throat before I felt the abrupt blast of pleasure come rushing up from my balls. I bit back a roar as my cum came spilling out of member in a far more steady stream than what would be natural. It was literately a faucet as Ranger drank straight from the tap and drained my dry.

Werewolf transformation. Check

Hot angry sex. Check.

Cum eating. Check.

Fuck that's a lot of kinks.

A wave of exhaustion hit me as Ranger drained me and I slumped to the ground, panting. The big puma stared at me, his red eyes smoldering and his pink cock still very much erect.

My heart plummeted.

As I recall... this particular fantasy ended with 'and they fucked all night'.

Groaning softly, I rolled onto my belly, lifting my ass into the air and curling my tail so it was out of the way.

"It's going to be a long..." I began and let out a yelp when Ranger's cock slid into my ass, his claws digging into my glutes.

"... A long night..." I sighed.

?

This has got to be a first in my storied career as a closeted gay man hiding his true identity from his friends and family while indulging as much as he could in sexual depravity to keep from exploding.

I groaned softly and rolled onto my back. Morning sunlight blazed in from the many windows of the cafeteria. My head throbbed and my ass was sore. I never knew how exhausting the 'they fucked all night' ending was until the following morning. I also never knew how much like a terrible hangover it really was. There was a dryness in my throat that could only have come from swallowing a sixteen inch over and over again multiple times in an hour.

Goddamn felines and their crazy libido.

I was completely covered in cum. My blue fur was matted in places where it had dried and there was a pool of the stuff around us. I swear, we had orgasmed three times our body weight. Judging from the smashed tables and chairs around us, we had done it everywhere.

The worst part was, I didn't remember any of it.

Like I said... this was a first.

"Ranger?" I cried out, my voice hoarse and gravelly. "You here, bud?"

No response. With a groan, I rose to me feet, nearly slipping on the seed that was around me. Cursing softly, I headed over to where the toilets were and proceeded to get myself as clean as I possible could. There had to be a shower in the cabins but for now, this would have to do. Once I was at least respectable, I headed back into the cafeteria.

"Ranger?" I called out again. "Ranger Barnes? Park Ranger Barnes?"

There was a loud slap and from behind the cashier, a lean, brown arm rose up and waved at me. Barnes got back up to his feet, wobbling slightly as he did so. In the morning light, his naked form looked pretty good. Part of the fantasy was that some of the 'werewolf' would bleed into human form. This really was the 'continuous story' variant instead of the one-off werewolf fucking I initially though. Barnes was a little taller, a little fuzzier and much bigger in terms of muscle. His pecks were clearly defined now and the faintest shadow of his abs was visible thanks to the lightning. A light brown fuzz clung to his cheeks and his arms were now decorated by a thick growth of body hair.

"I'm here..." he rasped. "Fuck me... Did... did that..." He slowly cast his gaze around the cafeteria. "... Did we really do... all this_?_"

"I guess you were aware during all that?"

Ranger clutched the side of his head and groaned. "Kind of...? It feels like... Like a _really_realistic dream." He coughed and reached for one of the water bottles currently kept in a smashed refrigeration sitting on its side. I held up my paw indicating I needed one too and he tossed me a bottle. The cool liquid felt good on my parched and dry throat.

"It was like... watching porn while someone else was jacking me off," described Ranger. "I had no control over my own body but for some reason, I was really into it."

This was the point where the intimate knowledge of my own fantasies could help with the current situation.

"That's because you were into it," I replied. "That beast was you, Ranger."

"The Puma?" he asked, having obviously given his bestial self a name. "No. No. That was not me. Not in my wildest dreams would I have forced myself onto you! I basically_raped_ you."

This was a line of thinking that I fell down as I grew up. The werewolf fantasy was actually one of my earlier fabrications. Probably around my teen years when my genitals were developing and puberty was hitting me hard. You know the science behind it. Kid's body is changing, they feel themselves transforming in a process they barely understand with older people around them telling them it was something everyone went through. Teen angst accompanied with the tough social constructs of middle school bears down on them and makes them feel like there's a monster they're barely able to keep in check and the only time they have any reprieve to let it out is at night where everyone is asleep and they can jerk one off.

Little wonder this fantasy was basically my own little escape at nights.

Of course, this particular scenario always ended in sex particularly with my crush at the time or even the 'alpha' that had initially turned me. As I grew up and my hormones stabilized a little, I began to wonder if those acts of sex would be rapacious in nature. So the fantasy evolved over time. The alpha was more sentient, understood what the recently transformed went through and even allowed themselves to be fucked to let out the frustrations of the young pup. There were even stories I concocted where role of the alpha was reversed and I subverted the usual trope by making the alpha be the cumbucket for the entire pack-slash-tribe. It was an alpha's duty to serve his pack or something like that. I took that literally.

"You can't rape the willing," I said with a shrug. "And trust me, I was willing. You make for one sexy kitty."

Ranger held up a hand and turned his head away. "Don't... just... Don't. What I did... What I became... That wasn't me. That was... that was a monster."

Yuuuup. Absolutely the same line of thinking I went through every time I came as a teenager. Temptation, pleasure, release and then shame. Coming from a family of overachievers, I guess it was always assumed that my dad or brothers never masturbated. Yeah, they taught each other how to jack it but that was more out of duty. I still remember how my older brother told me explicitly how distracting myself with my dick was a waste of time and energy. All he was doing was teaching me that it _was_possible and only to use the techniques when I was desperate so as not to go down the path of a serial rapist or something.

Bunch of hypocrites.

"No, that was all you," I accused. "You're angry. That was angry fucking."

He regarded me like I had just blasphemed against God on my way to Heaven and he was Saint Peter. "What? That's not true."

"Trust me, I know angry fucking," I said. "You're an experienced gay man. You know there are ten kinds of fucking. You fuck to love, fuck out of anger, fuck for the hell of getting off, fuck because you're breaking up, fuck as you're coming back together, fuck because you're drunk, fuck because you're friends, fuck out of pity, fuck because you're bored and fuck because because of expectations." I pointed at the destruction around us. "That was angry fucking."

His brow furrowed. Then his brown eyes lit up and he pointed at me accusingly. "Ah ha! What about _Neflix_and chill? What kind of fucking is that?"

"Depends on what you're watching and who with. If it's with your partner, might be love fucking or maybe bored fucking if its no good. Could be because you're friends or pity. Context is important."

"I am not angry!" snapped Ranger. For a brief moment, his eyes flashed red.

We're deep in the werewolf fantasy now.

"You're talking to the expert of this fantasy, dude," I warned, folding my arms. "Remember, the curse reflects my deepest fantasies on others so that I don't get to experience them. Right now, you're going through my werewolf - or in this case, were_puma_ - fantasy." I rubbed the back of my neck as I glanced away. "Fuck... Makes me wish right now I was in your shoes."

"Why?" he growled. "So that you can experience what it feels like to be a real beast?"

"No." I shot him a piercing look. "Because this particular fantasy ends with you coming to terms with your baggage. You get the strength and courage to carry it. I still get to drag mine along." A heavy sigh escaped my lips. "Fuck me if being the mentor in this scenario sucks."

Ranger grasped the sides of his head, shut his eyes and forced himself to take a few breaths. "Okay... okay... Start from the start. What is this fantasy of yours?"

With more patience than I had ever shown in my whole life - again, I blame the curse - I explained to him my fantasy and its suspected origins. Repressed childhood aside, he actually seemed to understand and visibly relaxed as I explained how the werewolf transformation every night was clearly an allegory for me 'unleashing the beast' also known as masturbating where everyone else couldn't see. The presence of a mentor was naturally absent in my actual life and someone I dearly wished would actually help me through my puberty without being dismissive of what I was going through.

This curse - at least in this scenario - made me _really_insightful. Barry would be proud.

"So... You're meant to be that mentor to me," Ranger sighed. "Guide me through all this and help me..." He gulped loudly. "... help me with this whole thing?"

"I guess so."

"But how much of this curse do you actually know about? I mean, did Doctor Price and Mr. Woolsey keep shifting back and forth like this?"

That was a really good question. Barry and Scott were stuck as lion and badger respectively. Their scenario didn't call for constant transformation.

"No, they didn't," I responded, digging really deep into that 'mentor' role. "But the fantasy they played out was far more different. They were, in a way, trapped beasts themselves. Both were trapped by their pasts and former obligations. Once I broke them free of that, they were much happier."

"Even if they weren't human anymore."

I offered Ranger a sad smile. "Humanity is subjective. Who was more human? The brainwashed cult-loving parents of Scott who tormented their child and drove him to isolation or the hunky badger whose finally free to explore himself and his sexuality? The repressed therapist who would use any excuse to spend time with the one client that they really care about and is trapped by their guilt over a perceived failure or the sexy as fuck lion that is open about his affections and isn't afraid to be himself anymore?"

He gestured at him. "The park ranger that's running away from his problems, pretending everything is all okay or..."

"The raging animal that destroyed everything in this goddamn building and fucked an innocent stranger?" snapped Ranger. "Well... not completely innocent."

"I'm pretty sure I did my fair share of dicking last night," I said with a shrug and a smug smile. "But you get my meaning, right Ranger? This isn't a bad thing. This is a good outlet for you."

"I don't need an outlet." He made vertical slicing motions through the air. "What I need is a silver bullet because I am not living like this shit."

Wow. Anger to suicide in less than an hour. That's got to be a record.

"Pull it back," I warned. "The Puma is you. It's only doing what you secretly want to do."

"And you're telling me that I secretly want to fuck you and wreck up this place?" I cocked an eyebrow at him expectantly. It only took about five seconds before he relented, tearing his gaze from me and cursed. "Fuck me!"

"Lets get out of here," I said, gesturing at the doors. "The smell of cum is making me horny all over again. Some fresh air might help."

He agreed and we headed out of the ruined cafeteria to step out into the open air. We stopped briefly at his cabin so he could throw on some casual clothes before we headed out. It was already midmorning with noon rapidly approaching. We wandered out into the woods a short distance away, far from any prying eyes but with the campsite still within view. He leaned against one of the trees and looked miserably at his feet.

"I'm going to start putting words in your mouth," I said at length. "Stop me when I get something wrong."

His brief nod was the signal I needed to go ahead.

"Despite all you've said, it felt really fucking good to let go like that."

No interruptions.

"Hell, it felt fucking fantastic to finally fuck around with a sexy beast like me." I grinned at him and flexed an army. A light blush touched his cheeks. Though he looked about to protest, he shut his mouth and didn't actually say anything.

So far so good.

"But right now, you're hit with a shit ton of regret over the fact that you liked how it all felt. Guilt maybe. You know it's wrong but it felt so goddamn good."

"How could you possibly know that?"

"Am I wrong?" countered.

"No..."

"Then to answer your question, it's because every male teenager knows about it ever since they realized their dicks are for more than just pissing. The world treats masturbation like this unforgivable sin when it's as natural as going to sleep. Yeah, don't do it in public, but there's no shame in jacking it. You don't need to feel bad about it afterwards."

Ranger gave me a tired look. "I have three dildos, all of them XL in size, in my cabin. They each have names. The big black one is named Chester. The pink one that I've had since I was twenty-one is named Corey. The newest one that's ribbed all the way down and vibrates I call Chance. Yes, their names all start with 'C'. I barely have human interaction up here and sometimes, I fuck around with my coworkers but usually that's just a quick one hour hook up before we go off to our next assignments or go to town for our break. If you're suggesting I don't get enough sex, you are sorely mistaken sir."

Okay... so he's not angry that he doesn't get laid enough. He clearly gets off. So what else could it be? Why would his inner beast come out in such a sexily violent and voracious manner?

"Do you not like this job?" I ventured.

A long, heavy sigh left Ranger's lips. "I wanted to be a zoologist working with zoos or doing safaris studying animals all over the world. I didn't want to be seclude myself in this park where no one ever comes." A soft smile tugged at the corners of his lips. "But it's one of those things where you didn't expect yourself to like your job or even be good at it at first. Like you tell yourself it's just a stepping stone to your true dream. But then you spend a few months here. You like the environment, you like your colleagues... a lot and suddenly... eight years have passed and you can't imagine yourself being anywhere else."

A lesson to be handed to to everyone especially my age. Sometimes a job isn't as glamorous as you expect it to be at first but then it'll surprise you. It isn't a form of financial Stockholm Syndrome or anything. Ranger genuinely liked is job. Hell, his name was perfect for it.

So... if it isn't his sex life or his job... what was it? What spawned the Puma?

"Perhaps it's not to do with how often he _'s managed to have sex,"_ suggested Anodyne. "Perhaps it is with who_?_"

My eyes lit up and I leaned forward towards him. "Let's talk about your ex-boyfriend."

Ranger's face immediately fell and he straightened, holding up his hands and immediately shaking them. "Oh no. Hell no. We are _not_talking about Josh or his mother. No way."

"Ah-ha!" I exclaimed, pointing at him accusingly and almost childishly. "That's your issue! You still can't get over your ex!"

The park ranger's eyes flashed red once more and he snarled at me, his voice echoing with a the Puma's unearthly growl. "I am over him!" It took a second before he realized that he was baring his teeth at me before he retreated and turned back towards the camp. "Josh can go rot in hell with his mother for all I care. I bet they even have matching gravestones. Wouldn't surprise me if they actually intend to be buried in the same goddamn coffin."

There's the spite and hatred I felt in that last night's all-night session of angry sex.

I followed him back to camp. "Okay, maybe it's not Josh but you have got to admit it's not healthy to hold that kind of spite."

"I'm not spiteful," he spat back as we made our way back to the main office. He stopped momentarily at the sight of all the shattered glass. Running a hand down his face, he muttered something about having to charge this and explain it.

"You've got cameras on the property, right?" I asked.

He immediately went rigid and glanced towards the middle of the semi-circular camping grounds where he had changed. All the color blood rushed out of his cheeks. "Oh shit... I need to delete those tapes."

"It's not uploaded automatically to headquarters or something?"

Apparently it didn't. Given that radio reception and any form of communication was heavily limited in the park, there was no way to send live feeds back to any of the other rangers. As the main structure for the park, all the security feeds were brought back to the second floor of the office where it was subsequently reviewed if necessary.

I followed Ranger up to the second floor where the rangers did their work.

Apparently, we had both made our way up there at some point or another because the place was an absolute disaster. Ranger looked crestfallen. All the desks were upturned and some were even snapped in half. Papers were everywhere. Monitors and computers were smashed. None of the windows were destroyed but they _were_coated in cum. It was a surprise that a fire hadn't started though I guessed we might've doused any risk of that with the ocean we produced.

I rested a paw on Ranger's shoulder and squeezed it lightly. "The reason I asked about the security cameras was we could fake an animal attack."

He turned to me curiously. "Huh? How?"

I grinned at him. "Well... if you could learn to control the Puma, you could pretend to come charging in and wreck up the place. Catch it on video or something and when the next shift comes around, you just explain that this mountain lion came charging in and wrecking the place. You barely escaped with your life - explaining the torn clothes - and locked yourself in your cabin."

"And how do I explain not having any injuries?"

I stuck my tongue out at him, waggling my eyebrows at him. "That can be arranged. You were a little rough with me so I think I should return the favor."

He pushed me away by my muzzle though I did detect the light blush on his cheeks. "Okay. That's a good plan. Except maybe we might not be able to use me. We have to get this place cleaned up and I need to check the security feeds. Then maybe we can fake you rampaging around the place and attacking me. Sound good?"

I agreed to the plan though I insisted that we talk about his repressed rage to which he responded 'I have no repressed rage' while his eyes flashed red again. Thanks to my superior strength and build, getting all the heavy lifting out of the way was very simple. Honestly, it wasn't that difficult but these were broken pieces of furniture and tables that would normally take two grown men to carry around. I was reminded of the previous night when I had kicked off Ranger. That was cartoonish levels of strength.

It made me wonder if that was part of my curse or it just came with this body.

We hadn't destroyed all the desks and chairs thankfully so half of the job was just cleaning the cum off what wasn't messed up and putting it back in place. Ranger confirmed an hour in that the tapes had been destroyed. He recalled briefly going into the video surveillance room and smashing all the tapes methodically before coming back into the offices where he fucked me over the printer. I _do_vaguely recall being fucked over a screen that kept flashing 'out of cyan'.

It said a lot that the Puma had enough control not to destroy the monitors and cameras and I think that was the point where Ranger was starting to understand that the Puma was just a part of him that he refused to acknowledge. Cleaning up the second floor took the majority of the morning and it was past noon before we started heading down to the first.

That's when we started helping ourselves to some lunch. It was very easy to see and explain how a hungry puma could have destroyed the refrigerator and gone for the food.

"This is going to be hell on our finances," Ranger sighed as he sat on the floor of the cafeteria. "Also, do you remember fucking each other on Smokey the Bear_'s_back last night?"

I grimaced and looked out of the cafeteria into the reception area. Smokey was toppled over, face down with streak of cum on his back like someone had a bukkake party over the safety icon. I will admit I've had a few fantasies about mascots and bathing in their seed.

"Smokey looks good with a little bit of cream on him," I snickered. "That's the kind of bear that I'm into."

"I prefer the shredded bodybuilder," admitted Ranger. "Maybe that's just be compensating because Josh was a total twink." He immediately lifted a hand up to his lips with a short 'oop'.

"Ah! You mentioned your ex!" I exclaimed, pointing at him accusingly. "Now we have to talk about him."

"I did not agree to that rule!"

"Too bad. We're talking about him." I folded my paws on my crossed knees. "It hurts, doesn't it? He keeps texting you every month or so. Jabbing at you. Reminding you of those five years you lost."

Ranger let out a soft growl and his shoulders slumped. "Damnit... I see you're not going to let this go. Fine." He straightened and faced me directly. "Okay. Fine. I admit it. I dread when I get a text for him. I'm afraid of what he might say. Afraid that what he'll say will actually make me go back to him. I hate him for not having the strength to move on like I did and trying to drag me down to his level."

Having never had a boyfriend or a relationship last long enough to actually develop that level of connection, I don't think I could relate. Even the two 'girlfriends' I had back in high school had no emotional merit to them apart from the desperate fear of confirming myself as heterosexual to fit in with the normative lifestyles my family imposed upon me. Despite that, the 'me' that was given to the curse spoke with a sagely wisdom that was definitely not my own. Made me wonder exactly who the beast was here.

"What would you do if he ever did move on?" I asked.

Ranger let out a short laugh. "Celebrate? Shoot fireworks? Have a 'he finally gave up party'? I lost five years of my life in that relationship, Duke. Then I spent the past eight constantly being badgered by him. If he finally decides to look for love elsewhere, I'm be goddamn happy for him and will be his fucking best man."

So he lost a total of thirteen years to this guy.

"It sounds to me they've caught each other in a spiral," Anodyne advised. "They have each other on the hook. If I were a wagering construct, I would say this Josh has actually been seeking love elsewhere but every time one of those fails, he backslides to Ranger."

That was a brilliant deduction and one definitely worth exploring. This was why I couldn't imagine going through this trial without my tattoo.

"How often does he text?"

"Every few months or so. I told you that."

"But is it regular? Like it's always every three months? One month? What?"

Ranger bit into the sandwich he had been eating and looked in the direction of his cabin."It varies, I guess. Longest he's gone without texting me was maybe... five months ago?"

"And what do you tell him every time he texts?"

"That he needs to move on. That he needs to grow up. Our relationship ended eight years ago and it was because of his near-incestuous co-dependences with his mother. He pleads. I always say no. Then he ghosts me for months."

"Ghosts," I repeat. "But not block."

"What's the difference?" Anodyne asked.

"If he ghosts you, that means he just remains silent and neither of you talk to one another," I explained both to Anodyne and to get my point across to Ranger. "That suggests that you likely send a text or maybe a few expecting a reply but he never says anything in return. But if you block one another, your texts will never get through. Your lines of communication are cut." I pointed at him. "Why haven't you blocked him?"

Ranger squirmed.

Gotcha.

"Dude," I sighed, shaking my head at him. I'm pretty sure this was me speaking not curse-me. Even I could see this was toxic without the help of my curse. "You're just as co-dependent on him as he is on you."

"Didn't he mentions he actually checks his former partner's social media profile?"

That's right. It was an off-the-cuff comment but there was clearly something else to it. Ranger had admitted that when he gets those texts, he does some background checks and sees that Josh and his mother had been on vacations together or something along the same lines.

"You even double check on his profiles if he's still close to his mother," I continued. "You have no idea what he's been doing and you're focusing on the one thing."

"I am not!" he snapped, eyes now burning fully red.

"Let me finish," I said, holding up my paws. "You're just focusing on his mother. You're not seeing the whole picture. Have you checked if he's been with other guys?"

His eyes faded back to their natural brown. "What's that go to do with it?"

"The pattern. He doesn't text you consistently. Its irregular. If I were to guess, it's because he's been dating. Then those relationships fall apart for exactly the same reason that yours broke apart. He spirals back to your breakup. The one that ended a five-year relationship. The longest he's ever had. Probably feels the same amount of regret that you do. Chances are, he's just as dependent on texting you just to tell him to grow up, end things with his mother to get back on that horse and date again. Whether you realize it or not. You're still in a relationship with Josh."

Again, his eyes flared red. "That's bullshit! I don't want anything to do with that motherfucking asshole!"

"Then prove it," I challenged. "Block him. Delete his number."

There, he faltered. I let him flounder for a second before going in for the killing strike.

"Want to know what I think?" I asked. "The Puma isn't just some repressed rage or some more primal version of you. It's the you that recognized just what a toxic person this you is and wants to be free. Free of those chains. Free of Josh. It's angry because you won't give yourself the closure you desperately want." I leaned forward, almost nose to nose with him with my eyes narrowed and gazing right into his red eyes. "The Puma fucks angry because it's angry at Josh for constantly reeling him. For never letting go. It's angry because you won't let go either. You're angry at yourself."

Ranger suddenly lurched downward, clutching his temples with sweat pouring out of his pores. "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! He's coming out! The Puma is coming out!" He snarled, gnashed his teeth and snapped left and right. His furious red eyes glared up at me from beneath his brow. "Is this what you wanted, you fucker? You want the Puma out!? You want me angry!?"

I stood up challengingly, beating my chest. "Come at me, bro! Hulk out at me! That's a fucking turn on!"

Again. Not the curse. That was all me.

100% true that watching the Bruce Banner turn into the Hulk gives me a raging boner that was like... well... Bruce Banner turning into the Hulk.

Ranger smashed both his fists into the floor. His fingers snapped out, nails extending into claws that scratched and grazed the tiled floor beneath them. "You smug, psychoanalyzing piece of shit... You think you know everything? You're just a kid! You don't have any idea what you're talking about!"

"Then enlighten me," I taunted, bowing mockingly towards me. "Why don't we do something a lot of therapists do, apparently. Let's roleplay."

"Duke..." warned Anodyne.

Ranger snarled and snapped in my direction. His back jumped upwards, his spine forming a peak that slowly began bubbling down to the rest of his muscles and forcing his frame to expand beneath his civilian clothes. I watched tawny fur slowly creeping out from his ears, pulling them higher and higher up his skull. The park ranger got on all fours, ready to pounce.

"You be you, Ranger Barnes the Park Ranger, the guy who ran away from his ex despite doing nothing wrong and decided to isolate himself in a National Park while giving up on his dreams of being a famous zoologist by settling with a park ranger job..."

"...This line of thought is really dangerous..."

Crouched on the balls of his feet, Ranger's sneakers strained under his growing mass. Compared to his uniformed boots, these Nikes stood no chance as big, black claws burst from the frame, splitting them open. His legs pulled away from him, his ballooning calves sliding out from underneath his cargo shorts as golden fur began creeping up from his ankles.

"... And I'll be twinky Josh, obsessed with his mother." I lifted my paw to my ears holding my thumb and pinky out to emulate a phone. I don't know what Josh sounded like but I imagined it was whiny and effeminate. "Ranger, babe," I said, using my 'Josh-voice'. "I'm so sorry. Can we get back together? I promise my mom won't get between us again. She's moved out. I swear. I've grown up, really. I don't need to drink my mom's milk every day anymore. She just made me promise that you'll read the book she handmade for you on the best ways to make me squeal in pleasure."

"You fucker!" roared Ranger, this time meeting my gaze. His face shot forward, the square muzzle of a puma emerging from his features. He was forced to shut his eyes as a heavy brow developed to fit the shape of his skull. Snapping and snarling, his teeth elongated into fangs as his nose flatted into a fat triangle at the tip of his muzzle. Golden fur started from the edges of his nose and started sweeping down his face, cascading down his corded neck to meet the swelling traps that burst through his clothes.

"Don't worry, honey," I whined. "It's the last time she'll ever interfere in our lives. I promise." A devilish grin crossed my muzzle. "Except maybe the wedding. She's all I've got of course so she has to give me away."

Strangely, Ranger's growling ceased for a moment and he was reduced to panting. The look on his features was a mix of confusion and wonderment. That was a long shot on my end and I swear_I wasn't channeling my curse at that time. It should've been an infuriating idea to picture Josh gliding down the isle to the _Wedding March while being accompanied by his mother.

Time to change tact.

"And the night of the wedding, of course," I teased. "She has to watch when you fuck me as my husband just to make sure things are going to be okay between us."

That rage re-entered Ranger's features and his lips peeled back in fury. "FUCK! YOU!"

He suddenly lunged at me. At this point, he wasn't fully transformed so when he hit my chest, I only staggered back a step before I held him tightly against my pecs. He scratched and slashed at me with his claws but again, none of it cut through my tough hide.

"You want a beast!" he roared. "Fine! You got the beast! You've unleashed the Puma!"

"And who is the Puma?" I asked tauntingly.

Again, there was that moment when the fury left his face and he stared at me in shock."I am..."

"I'm sorry, babe," I mocked, using Josh's voice again. "What was that? Louder so that mommy can hear. She's getting up there and her hearing isn't that good, you know."

He lunged at me, snapping at my muzzle with his jaws. I just barely avoided it. "I am!"

"You are the what?"

"I am the fucking Puma! You happy!?"

I released him and he staggered back, his body undulating as it continued to grow. His shirt ripped down the middle, revealing the chiseled abs beneath as they grew more and more defined.

"I am the Puma!" he repeated. "I've always been the Puma! I have to keep saccharine sweet because I've always been this" - He held his growing thumb and forefinger half an inch apart - "from going back to Josh and beating the shit out of him every time he texts me, begging me to get back together! I want to fuck him until every drop of blood in his body is replaced with my cum! I want to fuck his face so much he'll have to eat through a straw! I want to fuck out his brains so that the only thing he'll be worshiping is my goddamn dick instead of his mother!"

"And...?" I prompted.

He stared directly at me, his feline features cracking into a sarcastic smile. "And... it feels goddamn good_to finally get that off my chest. It feels good to be the Puma." He straightened, slapping his chest with both his paws. "And I'm not going back to keeping it all in. I'm an _angry motherfucker and the world is going to know about it! I'm a fucking beast!"

I grinned.

"That's all I wanted to hear. Anodyne."

The tattoo shone with light that danced through the entire color spectrum, a veritable Aurora Borealis coming right out of my right arm. The tattoo sprang from my flesh and fur, circling the two of us. Hurricane force winds lifted us off the ground while crimson lightning snapped between us. Ranger wasn't scared and just stared me dead in the eye, challenging me.

"Come here, fucker," he snarled at me. "You wanna play Josh? Let me treat you like Josh!"

Holy hell is that hot.

The winds of the sphere spun me around, letting me bend over and lift my tail so that he had an unobstructed view to my ass. He flew towards me, his molten crotch rubbing right into my crack. I could her him slavering and growling over my shoulder. His huge paws gripped my ass as he began mercilessly grinding his very erect cock into my ass even through the pants that he wore.

"You smug son-of-a-bitch," he snarled at me. "You come into my forest, lie to _my_face and then have the balls to curse _me!?_You're getting punished!"

"Oh fuck yeah," I moaned, unable to help myself. "Punish me hard."

His paws grabbed my man, pulling me up until I was upright. His lips hovered over my ears. At that point, he was still a foot shorter than me but as he spoke, his body grew. Every syllable he uttered added another inch to his frame and by the end of his sentence, his his muzzle was breathing right into my ear canal.

"I want you to beg for my mercy and cock," he growled. His tongue snaked out, running over my ear before his paw twisted my neck and forced my lips into his. Our tongues danced against one another but it was clear who the alpha was.

My cock was already rock hard at that point. Streams of my precum poured upwards into the air and into my fingers. There, they quickly formed into a large silver nipple right with the features of a snarling puma at the base. Almost like a door knocker with a puma motif. Ranger snatched it from my fingers. Watching from over my shoulder, I saw him wait until his expanding chest completely ripped out of clothes, letting the powerful winds sheer them off his muscled form before he snapped it into his left nipple.

"Fuuuuuuuuck," he moaned. He thrust his hips into me, his cock straining his pants audible even over the roar of the winds.

I couldn't help myself. I reached up, grabbed the paw that was holding the back of my head and pulled it towards my lips. I lovingly worshiped his digits, submissively lathering his claws with my saliva and giving him something to hold onto as he fucked me. His cock reacted as expected; with a burst of power and length that completely shredded the front of his pants.

"Stick it in me..." I moaned loudly, my voice slightly muffled by the fingers in my muzzle. "Give it to me. Please... I need it...!"

With his other paw, he secured his position and pushed the first inch of his still-human cock into my ass. I could _feel_it changing while within me. The mushroom-shaped head inched forward into a tapered point, penetrating me even further and sending bolts of magnificent bliss throughout my entire system. He tugged at my muzzle with each of his thrusts, forcing me to take more and more of him as he ravaged my ass.

Ranger wasn't just thrusting into me either. He was pulling out completely and then shoving his entire dick into me. He was ramming me. Every time he emerged, his increasingly thickening precum spilled from my ass and gathered around his paw which was currently partially buried in my muzzle. The curse had taken my senses from me so I was only partially aware of my own paws rubbing up and down his forearm, forging our combined juices into a thick, leather bracer made of black leather with the word 'Fury' emblazoned upon it.

His powerful jaws found my neck, fangs lightly digging into my fur and stimulating me further. Even given the savagery of his thrusts, his bite was not that hard. He was... conscious of the damage his fangs could do. This was the real Ranger Barnes. The man who was the best of both the park ranger and the puma.

"Harder," I begged. "Bite me harder, please."

He hesitated. "You sure," he murmured into my neck.

"I can take it. Give it to me."

God, he brings out the bottom in me.

"You asked for it."

He bit down, hard. Hard enough that my breathing was slightly restricted. That said, even with his sharp fangs, he didn't pierce my skin. I spared all of a second to marvel at just how durable my flesh was before I was distracted by his vicious fucking. He was actually lifting me further and further up into the air with each powerful thrust.

I had to curl my feet around his just to keep some semblance of traction and stability. As I did this, my precum and his traced down the lines of our rigid thighs. The rest of his pants were shredded away as his calves and quads burst free into his true shape. The droplets of precum, like raindrops following the cracks on a mountainside, flowed down to his right ankle where they solidified into a bead anklet. From my angle, it was impossible to tell what color or shape they took but I could feel them against my own flesh as he brutally fucked me.

He growled into my neck, thrashing his head lightly like I really was his prey. Fuck that was hot. Don't ask me why but goddamn I was fucking hard. The paw in my muzzle migrated away from my head and for a second, I was confused where it was going. Then, he found my own nipple ring and with one twist to the timing of his thrusts, he forced a scream out of me that far too girlishly than someone of my size, weight and thickness of neck should've been able to produce.

Thick ropes of precum burst from my cock and swirled around us in a dizzying orbit. I was momentarily brought back to that moment when I saw the night sky in all its beauty. Streams of milky stars swirling around us. My precum formed into three large stars that quickly attached themselves to Ranger's right ear. I saw them briefly. All three were silver puma-shaped studs. As each one attached themselves to Ranger's ears, the puma bit down on my neck a little more.

All of his dick was in me now and this time, I _felt_when the barbs of his cock slowly emerged from the base of his dick and rubbed into my ass. Apart from realizing I had been using the wrong kinds of dildos for most of my life, I also felt the incredible pressure of orgasm rising rapidly from my balls. The deep growl rising from his throat similarly signaled that he was getting really close.

There was just one more thing that needed to be added. I shut my eyes, telling myself not to cum quite yet even though my cock ached for release on my terms. Streams of my precum poured out of my dick like a faucet. I held out my paws in front of me, catching the juices as they quickly formed a thin, golden chain that rested on my palms. I held it out for a long moment. Then, as if reading my mind, Ranger released his death grip on my neck, momentarily stopping his thrusting to grab the chain and slip it around his neck.

I turned to him, my gaze meeting his. The necklace was perfect on him It was almost like a choker on his thick neck. Resting on his traps and not completely around his neck, it hovered away from his collarbone, a symbol that he was not beholden to anyone but himself and the rage that bubbled beneath was just one very thin chain from breaking free.

His big paw seized the back of my head and forced our faced together.

Moment of clarity and observation over.

Right back to fucking.

My dick picked right up from where it left off and I howled down his throat as my orgasm came rushing at me like a speeding eighteen wheeler. Cum exploded from the tip of my cock, streaming out in one gargantuan gush that swirled around us like a literal Milky Way. Anodyne visible swam through the cum, swirling around the stream as it magically navigated its way behind Ranger and splattered onto his back.

Ranger likewise let out his own roar, breaking our kiss. His cum exploded into me with such force that I was sent rocketing off his dick by a few inches. My own orgasm had its own side-effects, however, as that feeling of deflating quickly flooded me. Through the haze of sex, I realized that my human body would never be able to take Ranger's massive sixteen inches - at least not without months of training. Thankfully, as he came a second time, his grip around my body loosened and I was launched completely off his cock. His third shot splattered across my ass just as the fur there receded and my tail shrank back into my spine.

The orb of howling winds around us died, crackling lightning faded. Anodyne's shimmering form attached itself back to my arm as he slowly drifting back to the floor. My body shrank back into its human self, naked and without fur while Ranger's remained huge, hunk and now with a large, swirling tattoo shaped like a pair of wings drawn across his back. Ranger's arms wrapped around me and for a second, I was afraid he was try to impale me on his cock again but instead, he dragged me towards his chest, allowing me to settle between his pectorals while his enormous cock rested between my legs.

Just for good measure, he show one last load which splattered across my chest.

He sighed. I sighed.

Then he began purring.

I totally forgot that pumas can purr!

I reached up and scratched him beneath the chin and he began nuzzling me affectionately.

"Okay..." he rumbled softly. "Maybe I was a little angry..."

"You think?" I laughed softly, closing my eyes and settling into his embrace. "Going to delete his number now?"

"Block, delete and cut him free of my life. After this though." He hugged me a little tighter. "I'm comfortable right now."

"Yeah. I can tell." I closed my eyes and smiled to myself. "So... how about we next talk about how you haven't found anyone to date since Josh?"

The next sound he let out was a growl of warning not contentment.

"Don't push it, punk."