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[Dude, what happened to this guy?]

[This is soft shit, this isn’t what I follow you for.]

[Is Rip Rankin washed up?]

[Maybe the gun control nuts got to him.]

[Maybe the furry fuckers got to him.]

[When are you gonna do another REAL hunt?]

Rip’s brow furrowed as he read through the comments on his latest video. It wasn’t everyone making these, but more people than he was happy with. And he couldn’t really respond to them, because…how was he supposed to? He wasn’t entirely certain that he WAS who he used to be.

Because they had a point: he hadn’t done one of THOSE hunts in quite a while.

Rip Rankin had earned his reputation by pushing the limits of acceptability. He’d strained so many boundary lines that it was a wonder someone hadn’t come after him for it. Hunting prey that was out of bounds, illegal, or at the very least heavily controversial, had been one of the things that he’d used to garner so much attention and get so many eyes on him. His diverse meat offerings were also quite appealing, the carnivore in him loved the different tastes and he’d never shied away from broadening his horizons on that front.

But something had changed. It had started when his hunts had started to be disrupted by the animal people - the ones who called themselves Gaians, a term Rip hadn’t paid any attention to until after that life-changing adventure he’d had. There was no way he could have been prepared for him, the first one had shown up out of nowhere, a rhino that had disrupted a very well-publicized hunt and caused him to fail to bag his quarry, which also happened to be a rhino. Others had been appearing here and there as well, mostly not stopping him but giving him warnings, and through him warnings to others. Rip hadn’t been fond of them, hadn’t wanted them to get in the way of what he did, but there wasn’t much he could do about it.

And then had come the day…the day he’d gone out for gator meat, and gotten a very different kind.

It had been an experience that had opened his eyes and changed him considerably. Until then, Rip had never really been one for sex - it was something he found boring, failing to get much of a rise out of him, and he had scarcely indulged. But Reiff and Gareth, the two gator Gaians who had caught him and punished him, had given him a fucking that had awakened something in Rip, the fact that it wasn’t that sex was boring, but he’d been having boring sex. And what wasn’t boring sex? It was a raw, primal fucking that pushed his body to the very limit, that should probably have killed him but instead made him hot as fuck, had driven orgasms out of him that nothing ever had before. And after that experience, there was no way he could go back to just doing what he’d been doing before - he needed that thrill, that excitement, that pleasure, more than anything. And he’d gone out and gotten it. Reiff and Gareth were happy to give it to him, every time. Even if the hard feelings from his attempted murder had been smoothed over by now, they were as rough and ruthless as ever with him, because that was how Rip wanted it. Every excursion brought an overwhelming pleasure that had Rip seeing stars, and left his feeling satisfied for days afterwards.

He had said to himself that it wouldn’t impact his hunting. That he wouldn’t be targeting the Gaians anymore but he would still do what he was used to doing. But…that hadn’t been borne out. Rip had noticed it, he wasn’t doing what he was known for. Oh, he still hunted, that was certainly true, and he was still a carnivore with a diverse appetite, but…he wasn’t doing THOSE hunts. The ones that pushed the boundaries. The ones that bordered on, or crossed well over into, illegal or dubious. The ones that got those fans who wanted to see a hunter do those things with impunity and imagine it was them. His hunting videos were tamer, focused on more socially acceptable hunts, and that was getting on the nerves of some people who wanted something special, wanted that deviance that Rip had been giving them that no one else would.

Rip wasn’t entirely sure why…but he wasn’t entirely unsure, either. There was no question that talking with Reiff and Gareth had been illuminating - how they were pushback against the oversteps of humanity, fighting on multiple fronts to salve the wounds that had been created over the years. Rip didn’t really think that his little enterprise could have that much of an impact, but it wasn’t any secret to himself that he’d started being more attentive to hunting rules and limitations than he ever had been before…it was hard not to have that conscientiousness in mind these days, even if he’d never tried to have it before. But beyond that, Rip was starting to realize that those exotic hunts might not have been purely for the thrill of hunting after all, but rather, that the danger and risk and boundary pushing was what he had truly been after. And Reiff and Gareth had been sating that need without him having to do those hunts…true, maybe the only boundaries that were being pushed were the circumference of his mouth and asshole and the flexibility of his throat and innards, but those were more than enough for him, it seemed, and he just didn’t feel the NEED to have those kinds of hunts now, not when he was getting his thrills from other places that didn’t require so much production.

And, if he was being honest, the feeling of power he got from wielding a gun just wasn’t measuring up to the thrill of powerlessness when he was outclassed by a gator Gaian.

It had him wondering if he should hang up the hunting videos, but he wasn’t willing to commit to that. This had been his life for years, his primary source of income, and it wasn’t easy to just give that up…he still enjoyed hunting, even if it was just the more mundane sort, and there were still plenty of people who thought highly of him despite the fact that he wasn’t doing those special hunts anymore - in fact, some who found him more palatable without them than they had before even. Giving that up didn’t feel right to him…but how was he supposed to assuage the people who had come to him for those specific purposes and weren’t getting what they wanted out of him? That wasn’t something he had the answer to yet, and he wasn’t sure when he was going to get it.

He had just closed out of the video and was mulling over the question when he heard a sharp knock at the door. Curious, he stood up and headed towards his door, opening it up. Behind it was a man he’d never seen before, but who already gave Rip off-putting vibes - he was pale-skinned, with sharp green eyes, a rather wispy frame, and slicked black hair that was just a little on the longer side for a guy. He was wearing a nice, clean-cut suit and tie, looking for all the world like a business brat, like he was the top dog despite being a foot short of Rip and a fair bit skinnier. “Rip Rankin, I presume?”

“If you know it’s me, then you’ll know I’m not big on random strangers showing up unannounced, and I’m pretty heavily armed,” replied Rip shortly. “Name and business or scram.”

“No need to be like that, I assure you I’m here in a professional capacity. Ethan Caslan, you may have heard of me.” Rip had, and suddenly the ‘business brat’ appearance made perfect sense - because that was what Ethan Caslan was. He was a bigwig for some tech business than Rip wasn’t familiar with, but he didn’t really need to know those details - what mattered was that Ethan was rich, lived a rich lifestyle, and used his wealth to get what he wanted. And if he was here, he expected to get something out of Rip, and Rip had his doubts that it was going to be easy to get him to leave without it.

So, he went along with it - he didn’t need more stress at the moment. Soon they were sitting at Rip’s dining room table, Ethan glancing around at the decor - trophies, pelts, fur rugs and such, Rip’s domain looked like one would expect for a heavily experienced hunter. And yet Rip was picking up on disdain from Ethan - not over the hunting, he was pretty sure, but the lack of ‘high-classness’. Of course he would probably think his fancy, clean manor was superior in every way…but Rip held his tongue. He didn’t want to make an enemy out of Ethan, not until he had a good reason to, and subtle slights like this weren’t at that level.

“Seems you’re every bit the hunter that everyone says,” remarked Ethan casually as he leaned back a little in the chair. “And yet, I’ve heard that you’re in a bit of a slump.”

“I wouldn’t call it that,” replied Rip with a forced evenness. “Just haven’t done what some people want me to do, and it’s not like it’s just as simple as walking up and doing it.”

“Indeed, I’m sure it’s not. And apparently for more than the usual reasons. I’ve heard tell through the grapevine that you’ve stopped because those animals got to you.”

“…You mean the Gaians?”

“Oh, is that what they call themselves? Cute, I suppose.” Ethan said it in a way that made it sound like he was well aware of the name…Rip wasn’t liking the coy attitude. “Well, these ‘Gaians’ have certainly been making trouble for you, judging by how often they showed up in those videos, and they seem to only have backed off because you’re doing the ‘safe’ videos now. You could hardly blame one for making that connection.”

“I haven’t really paid attention.” They were certainly less frequent appearances than they used to be, but if they were there to combat what they saw as excesses or oversteps, that would make sense. “But is there somewhere you’re going with this? I wouldn’t have taken you for a hunter, if you’ll excuse the observation.”

“I wouldn’t have given it, to be honest. But there’s an appeal in it under the right circumstances…and I think I know the ones that I want.” Ethan folded his hands and leaned forward, a tiny smirk on his face. “I’m interested in a hunt. And it’s got a very particular goal: Rambi.”

Rambi. Rip know that name well…that was the name that had been given to the rhino that he’d been hunting when the rhino Gaian had thrown everything out of whack. Apparently from some video game about monkeys or something, Rip had no interest in that nonsense. He didn’t know why people had decided to ascribe a name to the rhino in the first place, but at this point he would have been perfectly happy to put it in the rearview mirror and not think about it again…clearly, that wasn’t going to be happening today. “You want to hunt that rhino?”

“Hunt, shoot, and claim as a trophy. His head mounted somewhere in my manor, I haven’t decided yet. And I intend to have the meat cooked and served in a banquet celebrating my triumph. I’m sure it sounds grandiose to you, but you aren’t familiar with the scale I am…I want to make a nice, big statement, so it needs to be big.”

“And it needs to be Rambi in particular?”

“It does. Because it needs to send a message. Particularly to those animal assholes who think they have any right to tell us what to do. I want Rambi in particular because they stopped you before…to prove to them that they won’t stop ME. That they have no power, that they have no authority, and that they have no right to tell the TRUE apex species of this world what to do. And once you’ve helped me redeem you from that first failure, you’ll be thanking me for showing you that you’re the one who has the power here…I’m sure that’ll get you out of your slump nice and quick.”

Rip wasn’t so sure that was the case - at this point, none of this was filling him with any thrill. “That rhino’s under a lot more protection now. They’ve been doing a lot more to guard them, I was lucky to get a shady official to give me permission the first time, and now they see Rambi as almost a divine figure. They won’t let him be hunted.”

“Ah, mister Rankin, you underestimate the power of large sums of money. Someone WILL give me access to that rhino, I guarantee it…and I would strongly recommend that you be there so that you can show me the proper way to shoot a rhino to kill. I imagine it’s not an easy thing to do, reading about it can only do so much…you wouldn’t want your position at the top to be…called into question, I’m sure.”

What is your angle? Rip wasn’t understanding what was going on, Ethan was playing at something that was clearly not what he was saying. It sure sounded like he didn’t need Rip along at all, and he knew better than to think it was a gesture of goodwill to bring him. But for all he distrusted what was being said, he didn’t know what it was that wasn’t. And he had a nasty feeling that, if he didn’t play along, something unfortunate was liable to happen to him. Reiff and Gareth are probably gonna be pretty pissed to hear about this…but surely they can understand a life-or-death situation. “Fine…I’ll do it. I’m guessing you’re intending to do most of the set-up yourself, you just want me as a consulting expert, right?”

“But of course. You need not worry, mister Rankin, I’ll take care of everything important. You just make sure I get that rhino.”

The two shook on it, but Rip didn’t feel good about it. It was an odd feeling being happy that someone else would be actually pulling the trigger. Even that wasn’t alleviating that nagging feeling that something else was going on here…

———

The bad feelings never left Rip’s mind, and it only got worse once they got out there.

It wasn’t long before they were out there - Ethan didn’t waste time making things happen, apparently. Their target location: a preserve in Namibia which Rip had gone to a few times before, before his failure in the hunt for Rambi had made the location undesirable. Rip couldn’t say he felt happy to be back there, but he was trying not to show it, for a multitude of reasons.

And several of those reasons were the company Ethan kept. Apparently, Rip wasn’t the only one tasked with joining on this expedition, and it was quite quickly evident to him that he was the only one reluctant to do so. The others were larger men, people Rip might have referred to as goons if they weren’t within earshot; there were five of them, whom he knew only as Bryce, Perry, Gull, Lucius, and Scratch. Bryce was the largest and meanest-looking, a bald, muscular mountain of a man with a resting bitch face that you didn’t want directed at you; it was pretty clear everyone else answered to him. Perry had slicked black hair and a hook-like nose, and looked perpetually ready to whip out his pistol and shoot someone; Rip could tell he was Bryce’s toady, the guy who spoke for him when he didn’t feel like speaking for himself. Gull was almost as big as Bryce was, but a softer big, thicker in every sense of the word; his long brown hair might have made him look a bit effeminate, but Rip had the feeling saying that would end poorly. He was dumb as a fencepost and they all knew it, but he could take orders, and that was all they needed of him. Lucius was the smallest, wispy and wiry, with stark white hair that made him look on the older side even though he was probably the youngest of the group; he looked almost out of place among them, but Rip had seen that savage gleam in his eye once or twice when they’d talked, there was a malice in him that was terrifying. Scratch was a grizzled man with a scraggly beard and who picked his teeth with a knife, marked up with tattoos and scars that spoke of a life of nastiness which was probably at least partly his own making; Rip got the nasty impression that he could and would gut any of them at any point and think nothing of it. Rip had made the mistake, at the outset, of asking if he had a real name - if he did, he wasn’t saying, and he had definitely given Rip the stink-eye more than a few times.

It seemed very much unlike the kind of people a business magnate like Ethan would hang around with, and he didn’t get the impression that Ethan thought that much of them - though, Rip would have been surprised if Ethan thought much of anyone besides what use they could be to him. But it was definitely for business that he’d brought them on, and they were probably being paid rather well. Probably better than Rip was, and he was there for a reason.

Or so it was claimed…but he was thinking that perhaps that wasn’t the REAL reason he was there.

There were hints of it, here and there, but nothing he could put his finger on right away. It wasn’t until they were near the preserve that Rip started to get a feeling…it was when they approached a man who was apparently associated with the preserve, at least according to Ethan’s indications. The guard appeared to have an African native descent, and Rip could see the uncertainty in his face as he was approached…a bunch of armed foreign white men probably wasn’t a comfortable sight for him. It didn’t sit well with Rip, he’d been a lot more schmoozy when trying to get access before…but then again, that one had been a fan of his work, and Rip doubted he was still around - word was that he’d gotten in hot water after the failed hunt, but Rip hadn’t followed up beyond that.

Ethan was laying out his offer, and the contempt was practically oozing with every word - he clearly thought even less of the guard than any of the rest of them, for reasons that Rip could only guess at but which didn’t seem likely to be anything defensible. “You’ll let us through. You’ll take the money and look the other way. It’s a fortune, you can’t refuse.” Next to him, Lucius was translating to the guard, filtering out that contempt to make the offer sound almost benevolent…well, Rip assumed, the tone sounded like that but given the language barrier he didn’t know what might be conveyed that he wouldn’t be familiar with.

The guard was very hesitant in his response, clearly not feeling at ease with anything going on. Lucius provided the helpful translation. “He says that he can let us cross, but that we might not get what we’re after. Bokamoso is protecting the reserve.”

Bokamoso…it sounded familiar, which seemed very off to Rip, because he didn’t remember that much from his times back here except for the actual hunts. But then it came to him…the rhino Gaian. The one that had blocked him from taking down Rambi in the first place. He HAD said his name once, but Rip hadn’t really paid it any mind, on account of being wildly shocked at seeing something like him in the first place. Funny how some of those details seemed to have been preserved in his head even without his intent…

Ethan’s smile took him out of his thoughts; that was a look of eager malice that Rip really didn’t want to see again. “Perfect. Tell him we’ll deal with that, and give him the money.” Lucius had done so, and the guard had stepped aside, looking troubled the whole time. Rip couldn’t blame him, he was probably going to get in a lot of trouble for this, and clearly hadn’t been asking for it…but there were other things on his mind now. After what Bokamoso had done to his hunt, Rip had thought that Ethan would be going out of his way to try to avoid the rhino Gaian…being so eager at his suggested presence seemed to be insensible. The Gaians were good at what they did, surely Ethan didn’t think it would be that easy to get around Bokamoso…then again, Ethan thought a lot of himself, perhaps it shouldn’t have surprised him. Still, it didn’t feel quite right…

———

And that not-rightness only swelled. They made camp on the reserve, hiding away from anyone who might have been trying to stop them. Ethan had them scouting for Rambi, trying to find the rhino so that they could prepare for the main event. Rip figured that he was trying to keep a lower profile more to avoid Bokamoso than anyone else, wanting a quick and clean in and out so that no one could properly interfere…but the fact that they were sticking to a particular camp seemed antithetical to that, they should have been more mobile if they wanted stealth.

He brought this up, but Ethan dismissed it. And over the next two days, Rip got the feeling that Ethan wasn’t just intending to bypass Bokamoso…in fact, it sounded like he WANTED the Gaian to show up. And he seemed to want to project that same feeling onto Rip - it felt like almost any time there was a silence, he was chatting Rip up, in a voice that was louder than necessary, pushing the idea of a ‘rematch’ between him and Bokamoso, what he would do if the rhino Gaian showed up, what kinds of weapons he’d prefer to use, how much of a struggle it would be, a whole lot of filler that made Rip feel like the only reason he was out here was to goad Bokamoso into appearing. Which he wasn’t sure wasn’t the truth at this point…Ethan seemed to have little to no concern about his hunting expertise, that was for sure.

It started up again as he got back from a fruitless scoping out of the area, not that he had been expecting much or even really trying. This time it was even worse, as Ethan was clearly taking note of Rip’s lack of enthusiasm. “I would have thought you’d be more eager for a rematch, Rip.” He spoke tauntingly, trying to raise Rip’s hackles pretty deliberately. “After all, it was this Bokamoso who started all this trouble for you…you never even got a proper confrontation with him. Doesn’t your trigger finger just feel itchy thinking about confronting him?”

“…I tend to prefer it when I don’t have complications on hunts,” Rip replied as evenly as possible. “And I don’t obsess about revenge, that ain’t healthy.”

“Hm, really? That’s rather droll. Revenge is one of life’s greatest pleasures…the opportunity to return any slight a hundredfold and really bury those who would dare wound you, there’s no glee like the glee of a satisfying vengeance. I’ve ruined my share of folks who did me wrong…failing to do so seems very weak-spirited to me.”

“Life’s too short to dwell on the buck that got away. There’re more bucks out there, more chances to get what I’m after.”

“One might think you almost respected that beast,” remarked Bryce, with a stiffness that made Rip want to shiver.

“You’re reading far too much into things. It’s not my fucking Moby Dick, that’s all. I thought you brought me out here to help you shoot Rambi.”

“Well, now, I certainly would like advice on how to properly shoot a rhino,” acknowledged Ethan, with that terrifying grin again. “But who says I need limit myself to the beasts who walk on four legs?”

Rip started. “You…want to shoot Bokamoso?”

“Of course! Why, don’t you?”

Rip almost said no without thinking about it, then bit back the word before it could get him targeted by everyone at the camp - and while it was just Ethan, Bryce, and Scratch at the moment, that was three too many weapons. “I thought you were out here to shoot Rambi. You didn’t say anything about that before…that’s a whole ‘nother buck we’re talking about.”

“Feh,” Scratch spat. “It wants to pretend to be a beast, it can’t be smart enough to be a person. Can’t be that much different.”

Rip could have told them about how much ingenuity Bokamoso had employed in ruining his previous hunt, but somehow he doubted that would be all that convincing to this crew. “Believe what you want, but I don’t underestimate my prey. And if you wanted to do something like that, you should’ve said something so I could have…prepared better. Reviewed what footage I had, scoped out openings or vulnerabilities…”

“Ah, mister Rankin…I suppose it’s to be expected that you don’t have what it takes to win in this world.” Rip did his best not to be too reactive to Ethan’s smug rebuttal, though it was pretty tough. “Your weakness was on full display when you were on that hunt before, and that animal showed up and you didn’t put a bullet between its eyes as your first instinct. A REAL hunter would have done just that…a human with pride in himself, who wouldn’t allow themselves to be subjugated by some nonsense about ‘nature fighting back’, would have done that. That’s why I’m the winner in this world - I won’t hesitate to pull the trigger when Bokamoso shows up to try to defend his precious rhino. And nature will learn the hard way that humans rule it and can do whatever the hell they want with it.” The business rat’s grin broadened even further. “I think the ultimate slap in their face would be to take both rhinos back and cook them both up. See if the meat from a beast wannabe can compare to the actual thing. I doubt it, but it would be quite the display, don’t you think?”

“Hah, I’ll bet both of them’d taste like victory,” cackled Scratch.

“Taste is only one part of it…the rarity of the bastard beast’s meat would make it a truly expensive delicacy,” Bryce chimed in with a smirk. “I’ll bet you’d have people lined up halfway across the city just to get a morsel of it.”

Rip stood up suddenly, sweating. “I’ll…have to wonder about that comparison for now. Excuse me, I need to, ah, clear my passages a bit…” He didn’t wait for any response or questioning from the trio, turning and stumbling off into the brush and trees, trying to get some distance to calm his racing heart. That had hit too close to home…it reminded him too much of how he’d thought when he’d leveled his gun at Reiff back then, thinking that he could taste test between the Gaian and a wild gator. Now the thought of it was making him violently ill...there was no denying it, he wasn’t the same person he had been back then, he couldn’t see the Gaians the way they did, as not-people…how twisted had he been before, to think the same way as these freaks? What had been wrong with HIM? Was it still there waiting to be reawakened?

I can’t…I can’t keep going with this. I need to get out of here. This isn’t worth any amount of money, sure as hell not the pittance I’m actually being paid. They only wanted me out here to goad Bokamoso into showing up so they could kill him…oh, fuck. I wasn’t here to be a consultant, I was here to be BAIT. They wanted Bokamoso to come after me thinking it was my idea…

It had been a long time since Rip had felt as flustered and anxious as this…even his encounter with the gator Gaians hadn’t been like this, he’d been more defiant than anything. But it was something else entirely to be used like this…there was something especially sleazy about this whole affair, they had misled him about their real intentions just to try to kill someone. And he knew that if he tried to get out of it by confronting them, he was unlikely to get out of this place alive…his only choice was to run, now, and not let them catch up to him. If he could…now he was wishing he’d taken the rifle they’d provided to him, he’d left it behind in his haste and he didn’t think he could safely go back to get it, they had to suspect he wasn’t invested now and Ethan wasn’t going to let anything get in his way. All he could do was start walking, and hope that he wasn’t being pursued…

Trudging through long grasses and trees wasn’t the easiest thing to do when one was properly prepared, and Rip was anything but at this point. All he could do was try his best, use whatever cover he could to keep them off of his trail…he wasn’t sure how long it was going to take to get out of there, it certainly wasn’t going to be an easy trek and he was in land that wasn’t exactly favorable to him. His hunts had never been like this, he always had things under control…the problem was, this wasn’t HIS hunt. And he was really realizing how much he didn’t like that. At least this wasn’t proving to be a thrill of any kind, there wasn’t any temptation to get involved in something else like this, on the contrary, he wanted to be as far as possible from it all…

One would have thought that he’d be more vigilant, considering how nervous he was about being tracked by Ethan or his goons. But perhaps the paranoia had actually clouded his senses, because he was utterly unprepared to be grabbed from behind and yanked into a broad body, held firmly by arms that felt like they could flatten a steel ingot. He struggled initially, but stopped when he heard a voice from behind and somewhat above him. “Well, well…I wasn’t expecting to see your face around here again, hunter.”

Rip didn’t need to think about what he was hearing - that deep, powerful voice, audibly accented in the flavor of the local populace, was one he knew all too well, even having heard it only a long time ago. Bokamoso.

The rhino Gaian snickered in that rumbling baritone. “And even if I had been, it wouldn’t have been unarmed, unprepared, dashing around like a panicked gazelle. Seems you’ve been caught out of your element, Rip…though, I’ve been told that that’s a place you seem to enjoy…” Rip started as he felt one of those arms move down on him, reaching for his groin and groping him roughly - making it impossible to hide the boner that had very suddenly developed once he’d been caught in Bokamoso’s grasp. “Heh, seems they were right…no need to be shocked, we Gaians are VERY much in contact with each other. We all know what you’ve been up to with those gators. Wouldn’t’ve pegged you for the type…but since you are, I can do a much more enjoyable type of pegging.”

This felt like not at all the time or situation for something like this, but Rip wasn’t getting any say in this matter, and as the hand moved from grabbing his dick to grabbing his pants and pulling them down, he knew exactly what was coming. And it was very long, and very thick, even more than Reiff and Gareth had packing, and they were huge in their own rights. He could feel that thick shaft rubbing against his back, smearing wetness onto his shirt, tainting it with rhino musk…he was going to be exposed one way or another, there was no way he wouldn’t run into someone out here, and he didn’t have any changes of clothes on him now, he couldn’t go back to camp for them…

A hand moved over his face, clamping onto his mouth, muffling him quite effectively. “Heh, much as I’d love to hear you mewl out in bliss as I ravage you, I’d rather not draw more attention than necessary…you never know who might be wandering around out here.” That thick cock slid back, and the blunt head pressed against his rear…Rip had only a moment to tense up before it barged into him, and the muffling got a VERY fierce test as he cried out into that hand, seeing stars as he was brutally forced open. For a moment his brain was tricked into thinking it was too much, he was surely damaged by it, before the click of that innate memory of the influence of the Gaians kicked back in - though, not all of him was convinced, as always seemed to be the case. No matter how many times he took one of those beasts, part of him always seemed to think it would surely be the end of him…which was part of the reason it turned him on so badly, so he wasn’t exactly hurrying to dismiss it. The danger here was amplified, though, with another factor in play that he wasn’t sure Bokamoso wasn’t aware of…

“Hfff, fuck, you ARE a tight-assed bitch, aren’t you?” rumbled Bokamoso as he drove in harder and deeper, skewering Rip with more and more inches of thick rhino meat, making Rip shudder as he felt himself getting packed and twisted inside. “And here I thought getting us on the regular might loosen you up…not that I’m complaining.” Another thrust, a pull back against Rip, and those hips met the human’s ass. Rip felt about as full up as he ever had, his head was spinning a little bit, and he was horny as fuck, leaking like a bitch from his own stiff boner. The fluid was dripping down onto his pants, bunched around his lower legs and ensuring he wouldn’t be going anywhere any time soon.

Soon, Bokamoso’s pre was also drooling down onto that fabric, as it squirted and slid around and inside his ass from the forceful rutting the rhino was giving him. That solid shaft was battering him inside, making Rip see stars as he shook in that tight grip. His heart was thudding hard in his chest, adrenaline coursing through him as he felt both panic and ecstasy from the ruthless fucking. He wasn’t trying to get away, though - no, he was squeezing down on that shaft, bucking back into Bokamoso as much as he could, writhing in those arms but not seeking escape, only extra intensity. His hands tried to cling to whatever spot the could on Bokamoso’s hide, giving the rhino extra purchase on him that he took full advantage of, given his own grip remained immobile. Rip would have been screaming into the wilderness if not for that muffling hand…never had he appreciated it this much, it rarely mattered when it was the gators, he was almost always plugged up from both ends when they took him, and there there wasn’t that much risk anyway.

“Damn, I see what they saw in you,” muttered Bokamoso as he hefted Rip just a little bit more and started pounding far harder, smacking into Rip’s rear loud enough to crack through the air. “You really are a slut for guys who should be too big to fit inside you. Bless Gaia for giving us the power to make it work…I can’t wait to see you swell with my load, it’s gonna be my favorite look for you yet.” The more he spoke, the more eager he seemed, moving faster and harder, pounding that fat staff deep into Rip, who could swear it had to be visibly protruding in his gut, it was so big there was no way it could possibly be hiding within him. And there he was, shivering, moaning, getting close to popping in a very different way. He could feel pendulous balls swinging up against his own sack forcefully, like they were trying to beat on his own and show them who was boss…his own would gladly have surrendered to those thick orbs, they knew their place.

It was all too much for Rip. The forceful pummeling, the absurd stretch, the rampant abuse of his prostate, the heady grunts right in his ear, the feel of slick sweat pouring down himself and the rhino, the musky scent in the air…all of it broke him down, made him delirious with pleasure and then stuck the dagger in him when he had no defense against it. His hips jerked, his body spasmed as he came, jetting fresh lines of seed onto the grass in front of him in a very overt display, a load as robust as any he’d ever let loose with the gators, highlighting just what this rhino Gaian was capable of bringing out in him. And the more he shot, the more he squeezed, clenching down on that bulky invader and giving it the snuggest sheath it could possibly hope for, daring it to let loose inside him and mark him as the bitch he was.

And Bokamoso took the bait, barely holding back his own bellow as he sledged in and stayed in, unloading a torrential rush of rhino cum deep into the human. Rip’s head spun as he felt each glut pour forth, gathering up inside him with little space to try to exit…it was like a hose had been turned on within him, and he was feeling it build in pressure within him, his body desperate to find some space to make within to accommodate this new intrusion, on orders from the power the Gaians claimed and against all known laws of reality. He couldn’t look down to tell if it was visible, but it sure FELT like he was being filled enough to swell out, his body packed so full of Bokamoso’s spunk that he might leak it for days…

The hand moved away, and Bokamoso held tight onto Rip, letting them recover as he continued to grind into the human. Both of them panting hard, chests heaving in and out, dripping with sweat in the humid air. Rip’s pants were a total mess, soaked with pre and seed, some leaking out of Rip despite that enormous plug in him, and despite his squeezing to try to keep it in. As always, an unparalleled thrill, fraught with all the impression of danger that he’d craved, and if there was one good thing to come out of this mess, it was that…

…And even that couldn’t last, as suddenly there was movement around them. Rip’s heart skipped a beat - he’d almost forgotten about them…and there was no doubt who it was, as that familiar oily voice spoke up. “Well, well, well…I couldn’t have expected better if I’d scripted it out.”

Shit. It was as bad as it could have been. Ethan Caslan and his entire goon squad, appearing out of the brush with weapons drawn and pointed at Rip and Bokamoso. There certainly wasn’t going to be any pretending they didn’t know what was happening, not with the rhino Gaian still balls-deep in Rip and his own cock clearly still dripping. Yet, embarrassment was taking a back seat to fear here - he could survive Bokamoso’s dicking, but a bullet was a lot less forgiving.

“I had a feeling all we needed was the right bait. And what do you know, it was as right as I thought it was.” Ethan leered smugly towards Rip, making him clench his jaw and try to pull back into that broad rhino body. “You know, I had heard a little something through the grapevine…that these beasts had made you their bitch, and not just figuratively speaking. Who would have thought, Rip Rankin, the famously sex-averse hunter, was really just a slut for animals trying to play at being people?” He chuckled, motioning towards Scratch, who was clearly recording with a phone. “Well, now everyone’s going to know. Once this hits the airwaves, you’ll be ruined for all time, those last shreds of respect you had torn down and stomped on. You’ll have nothing left, just like you deserve for debasing yourself to these things.”

“Hngh…you’re a savage,” grunted Rip; it wasn’t like things could really get worse than they were now. Ethan was probably right about his being ruined by that, but if he didn’t survive to see that, then it hardly mattered. “What was this all about? Why’s ruining me such a big deal to you? I didn’t even know your name until you approached me…”

“Tsk, I suppose someone as basic as you wouldn’t understand. It’s just like I told you…it’s about making a statement. About human superiority…and MY superiority. Showing how much better I am than the famous hunter, how I could stand tall where he failed, proving my acumen in yet another realm…I want that hero-worship people have for you, and I deserve it more because I SHOULD be worshiped. A nothing peon like you who lucked into something that scored you adulation shouldn’t be. With this, I can set things right.”

“You think you should be worshiped?” came Bokamoso’s rumble from behind Rip, and though the voice was even, the human could feel the contempt in it, eliciting a shudder from him. “The surest sign of a being unworthy of worship is one convinced of its own greatness. You are a dangerous plague of a human, one whose devotion to excess and ruin should have cast you out of society long ago.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t take moral judgments from animals. You’re even less than the nothing you enjoyed sticking your dick into. And the rest of your little freak cult will see that, too.” Ethan’s eyes glittered with viciousness, even though that creepy smile never wavered. “Your ‘Gaia’ is OUR bitch, and always will be. This is OUR world, and you have no right to try to tell us what we can and can’t do. And when I rule over things, I’ll make a point of rounding you all up and putting you down like the diseased creatures you are. But lucky you, you won’t be around for that, since you’ll be the first to fall.”

“Your arrogance will be your downfall, human,” countered Bokamoso warningly.

“The only ones falling here are you and the ruined hunter.” Ethan raised his weapon, pointing it at Rip’s chest; the others focused more on Bokamoso, but the most powerful weapon had Rip in its crosshairs. “I’ll do you a favor as well, mister Rankin, and make sure you don’t have to watch your life degrade into the nothing it was meant to be. You don’t really deserve it, but it would be a waste to just use one of these sensational rounds on just ONE creature. They’re much more valuable than that.”

“Go to hell.” It was a feeble riposte, but there wasn’t much point in putting more into it - that gun was designed for much bigger and tougher game than humans, the odds of him surviving a direct hit were about as dim as Gull was. But he wasn’t going to beg for mercy now - even if he did, Ethan would have none, he would just try to use him and hold this over his head, and he’d rather go down with Bokamoso than give Ethan any of that satisfaction. It was a shame this last bit of defiance probably wouldn’t be seen by anyone other than Ethan’s intended audience, but that was out of his hands. All he could do was try to keep a brave face as Ethan pulled the trigger.

The sound of the gun was a loud roar, almost deafening, and accompanied by several others from other directions, aimed towards the rhino Gaian’s head and back. The heavy bullet launched out, its arm straight and true. Rip tensed, waiting for the end in the brief moment before it came…

Except, it didn’t come.

It wasn’t some miraculous miss - no, Rip felt the bullet make contact with him. But the spot it struck remained unpierced and intact, not even registering any pain, just the lingering ghost of pressure from where it hit. Dumbfounded, he looked down at the deformed round laying on the ground, then back up to Ethan, who for the first time seemed like he wasn’t entirely in control of things, his eyes wide as the weapon dropped down. “What…what the hell?! That’s not possible!”

“Heh…” Rip started a bit as he heard the laugh from Bokamoso behind him, making his body quiver; around his feet were more obliterated bullets, the remains of what had been fired at him by the equally-astonished goons. “I tried to warn you, human…did you really think Gaia wouldn’t provide us protection against your most insidious weapons? You thought you had the upper hand…you didn’t question why I showed no fear of you?”

“No…no! Fuck your Gaia, I won’t lose to you!” Ethan hefted his weapon again, this time aiming at Rip’s head. But no shot was coming off this time, as suddenly chaos erupted around them, Rip gasping as a lion Gaian roared and pounced on Ethan, knocking him quickly to the ground. The goons were beset upon by another crowd - more lions, muscular zebras, bulky antelopes he recognized as bongos, and even bigger hippos, the large and broad creatures using their weight and numbers to their advantage to subdue even the larger humans. There had to be close to a dozen and a half of the Gaians all told, easily overwhelming the half-dozen hostile humans and putting them on the ground, some of them writhing and struggling harder than others. It was incredible how rapidly everything had turned around, from what seemed like certain death to miraculous salvation...Rip wasn’t entirely sure if he wasn’t dreaming it all in the last seconds before he bled out, it seemed far too impossible to be real.

But if it wasn’t, it was doing a good job of fooling him. The lion on Ethan hefted him up, and a hippo took over restraining the screeching human, muffling him with a huge hand. “Thank you…damn, some of them are such whiny bitches,” growled the lion, before looking over at Rip and Bokamoso. “You okay, Bokamoso? Nothing got through?”

“Gaia’s protection remains as true as ever,” replied the rhino. “You did fantastically, they were so fixated on us two that they never suspected a thing. Now we make sure they pay the consequences for their actions.”

“Indeed…” The lion gave his own disconcerting smile, though his was more because of the many sharp fangs it bared. “They will know the power of Gaia for sure. By the time we’re done with them, they might even welcome answering to their own authorities. What about THE hunter?”

“He’ll stay with me. I’m sure he won’t need that kind of treatment…though I daresay he’ll be open to others.” Rip felt his face redden at the unspoken but unsubtle hint - and the smirks of several of the Gaians around him, clearly picking up on that. It seemed he would be escaping a grisly fate from a giant bullet, but his ass was destined to face plenty of large penetrations in its own right before he was out of here…at least that wasn’t nearly as dire a fate.

———

Evening fell on the nature preserve, where nature had been more or less entirely preserved that day. Ethan Caslan and the goon squad were now a bad memory for Rip, no longer his problem to worry about - the group of Gaians was seeing to the beginning of their punishment. What punishment that was was not clearly specified, but from the hints Rip had gotten, they were going to be severe indeed - and not just physical, either. The notion that Ethan Caslan might be ruined in every way beyond all remedy wasn’t out of the picture - something that would for certain leave Rip with no illusions about the power the Gaians had at their backs. As if his current survival wasn’t indicative enough of that…

At first glance, it certainly didn’t look like he was in any better of a situation - on his knees, totally naked, getting his throat stretched out by Bokamoso’s cock. His ‘punishment’ for his part in this was two weeks at the mercy of Bokamoso and the other Gaians who’d helped rescue him - though, really, it was merely a thin excuse to make sure they got plenty of time to plow him. For his part, he was hardly objecting - he’d give all of them all the attention he could as thanks for getting him out of that mess.

“Haah, you’re remarkably good at this…” moaned out Bokamoso over him as Rip worked him over, bucking into the human on occasion and making Rip feel the strength of those muscular legs. It looked far too obscene to fit inside, but Rip somehow persevered, the same way he did with the gators, and with no less excitement and threat factor at something clearly not meant to be capable of breaching him. “Usually takes much bigger mouths to handle something like what I’m packing…clearly the gators got you pretty broken in.”

Nothing but a hum of affirmation from Rip, he was a bit too occupied to actually speak up. He could tell Bokamoso was getting close, the rhino’s staff was throbbing over and over and precum was pouring down his throat, with Rip only occasionally able to get a splash of the salty and heady fluid on his tongue. Rip himself was hard as a rock between the legs as well, but ignoring it completely - not allowed to touch it himself for the entire two-week span, or as they put it, ‘no shooting any of his guns’ - only the Gaians could pull the trigger. Another punishment that really wasn’t, since they all were good at pulling that trigger.

Soon the rhino was going at him much more fervently, Rip no longer really bobbing as Bokamoso had a hold of him and was driving his fat cock into the human’s throat like it was a cheap toy. Except no toy was as lively and active as Rip, swallowing and slurping around him as much as he could, trying to push him over that edge…and he was rewarded with a bellowing cry and a potent surge of jizz directly down his throat, pumping in nice and hard, Rip able to feel every pulse down his taut throat as the cock thickened noticeably to carry it onward. He couldn’t even breathe around it, his head feeling a bit dizzy from it, but just like all the other times the Gaians had done this with him, it never progressed beyond that raw sense of threat to actually threatening him…the only drawback was that he wasn’t getting much of a taste of that spunk, just the raw flavor of rhino meat rubbing up against his tongue.

Bokamoso solved that problem as he pulled back before he finished shooting off completely, leaving the head of his cock in to unleash the last few spurts of thick, salty rhino cum into Rip’s mouth, forcing the human to try to swallow the last of his load. Rip was only partially successful as some leaked out the sides of his mouth, but most of it went down to join the generous amount already pooled in his gut. “Oof…you Gaians…I don’t know where you store all that stuff.”

“Gaia provides a fair bounty to us, and we try to use it well,” replied Bokamoso with a grin. “I’m impressive you handled that that well. You’re rather fearless when not being at the wrong end of a gun.”

“I’m not used to being prey…I suppose I have a better appreciation of it now.” Rip took a deep breath, trying to settle himself after that wild throatfucking. “Perhaps not as much as you…you didn’t even flinch.”

“Hmhm, that’s the strength of my trust in Gaia. I know she has my back, just as I do all I can to have hers. We who bear the power of nature are well aware that there are powers out there meant to give humans advantages…our foremost protection is against them, and so long as our commitment is solid, she will ensure they can do us no harm. Not that we don’t still punish them for trying, of course…the intent is as important as the act.”

“I don’t doubt it. I…how did you know it would…extend to me?”

Bokamoso smirked. “I didn’t.”

“You…what?”

“I didn’t realize he was going to fire at you…I thought he was bluffing, trying to get me to act foolishly. I feared in that brief moment that I had made quite a grievous mistake…it seems even I can get caught off-guard, sometimes, by the depths of human depravity.”

Rip could hardly believe that. If Bokamoso hadn’t expected him to be safe… “Why…would I…”

“I can only guess…that Gaia sees something in you. I wouldn’t have expected that, given our first encounter…but, you are decidedly different from the way you had been back then. Perhaps that protection was a reward for treading towards a better path…and should you continue that, you may find the rewards easier to come by.”

Rip wasn’t sure what to make of that…he wasn’t a Gaian, he didn’t think he COULD reap any such rewards. But his being alive was proof of something, and he couldn’t believe that Bokamoso would be trying to pull a fast one on him…maybe he had things to think about. Maybe he had things to learn about. And he was going to be spending a couple weeks with someone who would probably have answers…actually, quite a few someones who would probably have answers. Perhaps it was time to make an effort to really understand the Gaians, to get a real idea of what they were, what was behind him, and how he could be on the right side of them…and how he could convey that to his fans. To keep them from running afoul of them in worse ways, to keep them from becoming people like Ethan Caslan. Give them an idea how they could take pride in hunting honorably, rather than seeking trophies of cruelty - something he had definitely lost his taste for, beyond question. Not all of them would be receptive, but maybe it was a good idea to weed those ones out of his following anyway.

And in the back of his head…Rip could have sworn he felt something. It was gone almost as quickly as it came by, but he was left with an odd feeling that felt like someone had had their eyes on him that he couldn’t see. He didn’t know what it was, why it happened, but there was an odd sense of him feeling a little more…secure in his thoughts and possible plans. Like they felt just a little more right…

“A-hrm, if you want to stare off into space, that’s fine, but why don’t you do it while I get to have some fun?” Rip snapped out of it at Bokamoso’s remark, looking back up at the rhino, who was leaning down towards him. “Last time we didn’t get to enjoy ourselves to the fullest…I want to make you feel what a REAL rhino ride is like, before the rest get to have so much of your attention.”

Rip put the thoughts out of his head - he’d have time to think about that later. He dutifully turned himself over and around, spreading his legs and lowering himself onto his arms and knees. “If you’re going to promise that, you’d better deliver.”

“Oh, I ALWAYS deliver on that promise,” snickered Bokamoso as he fell forward over Rip, gripping the human nice and tight under him with one arm while the other braced itself against the ground. The thick head of his cock pressed against Rip’s asshole, so well-used yet still so tight, eager to be destroyed once again, or at least to pretend to be…Rip took a deep breath, that feeling of arousal and excitement building in him once again, completely helpless to the rhino and wanting nothing less than that. And there was no motion to block his mouth this time, he could cry out as freely as he wanted to - no one around was going to question what it was, and the only ones who cared would be happy to hear it.

But Rip still wasn’t ready for what Bokamoso actually did - a sudden, absurdly powerful shove drove his cock in to the hilt in one swift thrust, driving the breath from Rip in a powerful cry as he was wrecked. Once again that panic response hit, and it hit HARD, sending his lust sky-high - and he had virtually no time to check himself, as Bokamoso didn’t just leave it at that one thrust - with little more than a brief hitch, he started yanking out and slamming inside, working nearly the full length of his cock in and out on each motion. That powerful musculature was absolutely getting put to full use, and Rip was rapidly overwhelmed to a degree that even the double-teaming of Reiff and Gareth hadn’t yet achieved - and somehow he had a feeling the gators would try to reclaim the top spot once they heard about this.

But that was a thing to think about later - at the moment, he was caught up in the rampage of Bokamoso, the rhino grunting and snorting over him, too locked into his assault to deliver the teases and taunts he had before. But that cock was saying all that needed to be said, gushing into him, making his ass sloppy and yet in short order, beating Rip’s prostate in an all-out pummeling that made the human’s body scream with pleasure. That was most of the screaming being done, as the punishing pounding had pretty much drained all the air from Rip’s lungs, and thin quavering cries were all that he could manage. He seized and squirmed a bit under Bokamoso’s grip, his ability to move limited and mostly reflexive, brain misfiring a bit as it tried to process anything other than the intensity and the conflict between pleasure and fear.

There was no questioning it - this was FAR fiercer than the first time. Bokamoso holding him and ramming up with restraint simply didn’t hold a candle to being able to put all his weight and leg power into driving into Rip with the earth as his bracing. It felt like he should have been crushed from the sheer power and the weight, but his body bore through it, not without protest but he didn’t have any problem with that. It was as wild and dangerous as anything, and he loved every second of it - if this was part of the ‘reward’ for changing his course, it was absolutely an encouragement to do so. And he was reacting more than appropriately, squeezing down on that violent intruder while his own cock swayed harshly below him with every impact, splattering precum everywhere. His nuts were being pummeled by Bokamoso’s swinging sack as well, each slam feeling like a slight kick to that sensitive part of him, and even THAT felt good - just the slightest bit of ache, which made them tingle tantalizingly…that was new to him, Reiff and Gareth didn’t have such ostentatious testes, and while they manhandled him they generally didn’t focus in like this…and he had a feeling he was going to ask them to.

It wasn’t destined to be a long session, not with Bokamoso going full-bore like this. He managed to hold out just long enough to wrest a climax out of Rip, the human’s cries renewing a bit as he jerked beneath the rhino, gushing his load into the grass below him, a vibrant climax that had him shooting every drop he could possibly produce from his deliciously-abused balls. And then a louder bellow above him, making Rip’s ears ring as Bokamoso finished himself off, hilting one final time and unloading his massive load deep inside Rip’s body, making the human moan and squirm as he was flooded, stretched, bloated…such a heavy load gushing out from Bokamoso, he was somewhat ready for it from the first time and his body quickly surrendered, letting that stretch go as far as it needed to to accommodate all that fluid. It was good preparation anyway, those other Gaians would likely be shooting off quite a lot in their own right and he had many more of them to handle…by the time they were done with him, he might actually look like he was gestating a watermelon, and the thought of that made him shiver a little bit, and not unpleasantly.

Above Rip, Bokamoso was heaving hard, he could feel that muscular chest pressing down on his back and pushing him lower each time. “Heh…just try to tell me that wasn’t the roughest ride you’ve ridden.”

“Ah…b-by far…”

“Good…I love when I can leave an impression. Especially when you’re going to be rut into exhaustion by my fellows before long…want to make sure I’m the one that sticks out the most when you’re done with your ‘service.’ I might just have to arrange to get more cracks at you…see if I can’t join in with your gator buddies one of these days, wonder how you’d handle a three-way.” Bokamoso let out a little snorting laugh. “Well, you might get the chance to find out before you go.”

That wouldn’t have surprised Rip, there were quite a few takers and they were probably eager enough not to just take turns with him. And he wouldn’t ask them to…Gaia would figure out a way for him, he had a feeling. But he also had a feeling that if Bokamoso came by wanting to feed him another slab of rhino meat, that would be the treat he’d most be looking forward to.