Savannah Law (first draft)
#1 of Savannah Stories
[This is the first draft of a fairly long piece, and I'm putting it up mainly
so I can get feedback on where I need to concentrate on tightening up
and editing it. So although the story is complete, be aware that there
are rough spots and some internal inconsistencies.
I will be grateful for any critique and editorial comments.]
Rabbits were evil. It was the only conclusion Lewis could draw. He
knew it was an over-generalization, he knew there had to be _some_]
good and nice rabbits out there, but that didn't help much when all
the rabbits he had come across had been conniving, sadistic
pranksters.
Maybe it was that they had transformed from a dimute prey species and
now that they were bipedal and had opposable thumbs and were of about
the same size as everybody else, they felt that could finally pay the
world back. That didn't explain why most of the mice Lewis knew were
nice, though; and while the one squirrel he knew well was an incurable
prankster, she didn't have the vicious, hateful nature that all the
rabbits Lewis met seemed to have.
Maybe it had something to do with him - none of his friends seemed to
think rabbits were particularly malicious. Maybe rabbits resented him
because he was a lion and an athlete at that. He couldn't see why that
should matter, but maybe it did.
His shoulders were aching and he wondered how long he'd been tied to
the tree. It was hard to say when he couldn't see anything. It felt
like several hours but it couldn't be that long. He could feel the
warmth of sunlight on his chest, so it was still day, and his eyes
still stung from the pepper-spray.
He should have know better than to offer to help a "wounded" doe, he
really should, but she had looked so forlorn and helpless, and she
really had looked like she had twisted her ankle and couldn't stand on
her foot. Besides, he couldn't have just left her out in the middle of
the forest either. So he'd tried to help, and got a face full of
pepper-spray for his trouble.
She must have used a tazer or something as well, he realized. In one
moment he'd been on his knees with his hands pressed over his eyes,
chocking painfully from the spray, and in the next he'd found himself
blindfolded and with his wrists tied to a branch above his head,
without any recollection of how he'd got from A to B.
Leaves rustled softly in front of him; down-wind. He pushed away
thoughts of untransformed wolves and bears. "Hello? Anyone there?"
The rustling stopped, but the silence that followed was pregnant with
presence. "Please?! Is someone there?"
Lewis was answered by a soft, leporid giggle, and his heart sunk
in his chest. She was back, so she wasn't done with her prank yet, and
things were going to get worse.
"You shouldn't say 'please', it's not very royal. You're supposed to be
a king." the doe's soft, mirthful voice said. "That's what the
ancients used to call lions. 'King of the animals.' I guess that makes
me a revolutionary peasant, trapping and capturing my king." The
rabbit giggled again, and Lewis heard her coming closer.
He knew it wouldn't do any good, but he couldn't help himself from
pleading. "Please let me go? My girlfriends are going to get worried,
and my shoulders are aching and nobody might find me for hours." At
least he managed to bite back on the sob.
He felt her shadow fall across him, taking away the slightly
unpleasant warmth of the sun. Soft hands stroked gently across his
chest, and the doe answered quietly. "Ssssh, pretty. I told you not to
say 'please.' It's undignified." She laughed, soft but mockingly.
"Just let me go." Lewis closed his eyes behind the blindfold, he knew
it was useless.
"Shut up." the doe said, a hard note in her voice now. Her hands
sought down and groped at the front of his running shorts. He squirmed
away from her touch as best he could, but she just took hold of the
top of his shorts and started to pull them down instead.
"Let go!" he screamed and kicked out blindly, bringing his right leg up
and then forward. His foot struck the rabbit solidly, and he kicked
her forcefully away, sending himself backwards. Pain flared up in his
shoulders as he was held in place by his tied-together wrists. He
could hear the rabbit land amidst a bush a little way in front of him.
Panic rose in his chest. Gods, he might have killed her. Had he
remembered to pull in his claws? He wasn't sure - he hadn't meant to
kick, it had just been a reaction.
"Are ... are you okay?"
More silence, then finally he heard her stir among the brambles. "Oh
you are going to regret you did that." he heard her say, her voice
flat with anger and pain. Relief flooded through him, but was cut off
when she spoke again. "We're not within earshot of any of the trails,
so if I leave you here nobody will find you. _Don't_ do that again."
An icy fear spread through Lewis' stomach. She couldn't really mean
that, could she? She had to be just messing with his mind - she
couldn't seriously consider to leave him here to die?!
There was a sharp thwack, and pain flared across the lion's
chest. Lewis cried out, as much in surprise as from the pain. The
rabbit struck the switch down once more, to which Lewis managed to
keep still.
"Are you going to kick again?" the doe asked, and struck the switch
down a third time.
"No!" Lewis cried hurriedly, "No, please stop. I won't kick. I
promise."
"What did I tell you about saying 'please'?" The mocking laughter was
back in the rabbit's voice, but it wasn't without anger.
Lewis whimpered and pulled back against the ropes, expecting another
blow but none came. Instead the hands returned to the top of his
shorts and started to pull them down again. Lewis tensed, but didn't
resist as the rabbit undressed him. He felt a sudden pang of
vulnerability and let out a short, shaking sob. It was silly, really -
he hadn't been any less vulnerable a moment ago, but being undressed
like that really drove the point home.
Slender fingers brushed softly along the length of Lewis' sheath. He
shuddered at the touch and mewled faintly in despair. "No, ple..." he
caught himself with a whimper. "Just don't. I've got girlfriends." he
pleaded, but the fingers only brushed more firmly.
"Well, they're not here to stop me, are they?" the rabbit asked with
scornful delight and brought her fingers further down to caress the
lion's hairless scrotum. Lewis squirmed at the touch and tried
uselessly to pull away. "Leave be! Don't touch me there!" he called
out with panic in his voice.
The rabbit laughed, a gleeful, amused giggle. She found his pouch
again and wrapped her fingers possessively about it, cupping it in her
soft palm. Lewis whimpered.
"Oh, what's the matter, your majesty? Don't your girlfriends do this?
Lionesses are so prissy. I bet they don't do this either." The hand
moved back to his sheath but a moment later something warm, soft and
moist brushed against his pouch again - the rabbit's tongue. She
covered the Lewis' scrotum with quick, teasing licks, making the lion
squirm helplessly.
"Don't do that. Please, just stop." Lewis pleaded, barely able to keep
his tears back.
"Why should I? You like this." the rabbit replied and nuzzled her face
briefly against Lewis' sheath for a moment before starting to lick his
balls again.
"No, I don't!" Lewis objected and sobbed deeply, no longer able to
keep the tears back.
The rabbit tsked. "Your loss." she told him, and took one of his
testes carefully into her mouth and sucked gingerly on it.
The wet sounds of the rabbit's sucking and licking mixed with shallow
sobs from the lion as the ministrations slowly but surely had the
intended effect on Lewis, despite the fear and shame he felt. Inch by
inch his member crept out of the sheath, growing erect and hard.
"Looks like you like it after all." the rabbit commented with sadistic
scorn, wrapped her fuzzy hand around Lewis' naked cock and pumped it
slowly. Lewis could only shake his head and mewl a chocked "No."
which the rabbit laughingly ignored.
The rabbit let go of Lewis' privates. Shortly after there was the
sound of rustling cloth, and then something soft and fluffy rubbed
against his cock. It took Lewis a while to understand what it was -
the rabbit's tail, being wiggled back and forth across his loins.
"Can't you just stop and let me go?" the lion begged, his voice hoarse
from his sobbing. The doe laughed and pressed her rump firmly against
him, pushing his erection against his stomach. He could feel the
warmth of her sex against the base of his cock.
"Of course not, I'm having fun." she answered with a giggle and rubbed
her tush up and down along the length of his erection. "In fact, I bet
your girlfriends would be upset if they knew how much fun I'm having
with your cock."
Lewis didn't want her to talk about his girlfriends, it felt like the
rabbit was sullying them just by mentioning them. He knew he shouldn't
let on that it bothered him or she would pounce on it like wounded
prey, but he just couldn't stay quiet. "They'd tear you apart if they
knew!" Lewis blurted out among tears, shaking his head hard.
The rabbit clucked in delighted amusement and rubbed her rump slowly
and deliberately up and down along his cock. "Don't you think they'd
be too busy tearing _you_ apart?" she asked, "Not many lionesses will
respect a lion that lets himself be overpowered by a lone bunny. I
think they'd kick you out and find themselves a stronger lion to mate
with, if they saw what I'm doing with you."
Lewis only reply was a strangled mewl. The rabbit's words were too
close to what he secretly feared that he managed to put on a brave
face about it. When he didn't say anything, the rabbit laughed
mockingly and straightened up, relieving the fuzzy pressure on his
cock.
"Unlike your girlfriends, I'm enjoying playing with your cock too much
to let you go. Lionesses are such prissy bitches, I bet they just lie
still and think of New Swaziland when they have to fulfill their
mately duties." As she spoke, the rabbit moved behind the lion and
rubbed up against him, pressing her chest against his back and slowly
grinding her crotch against the base of his tail.
Lewis tried to squirm away, but with his arms tied as they were it was
easy for the rabbit to wrap her arms around him and cling on. She
grabbed his still erect cock with her left hand, letting her right
hand brush through the fur on his chest.
"Do your girlfriends get your cock this hard?" she asked mockingly,
and grazed her front teeth against Lewis' shoulders. "Or does that
take a bunny's touch? I bet you've got a little rabbit fetish,
secretly dreaming about having a cute little bunny rabbit doing all
the dirty things that your girlfriends won't. I bet whenever you drive
your cock into the lukewarm pussies of your girlfriends, you really
wish you could be fucking some tight, hot bunny cunt."
"Shut up. Shut up! It's not like that!" Lewis shook his head
desperately, his blindfold moist from tears. He and his girlfriends
hadn't even _had_ sex yet. They'd only been engaged for a little over
four months and moving to a new town, and all the exams and the
orienteering competitions hadn't left much time for taking their
relationships further.
"No?" she asked and tickled his ear with her whiskers. "Then why is
your cock all hard, hmmm?"
Lewis didn't have an answer to that, and could only sob and shake his
head as the rabbit slowly and deliberately stroked his cock.
< ------------------------------------------------------------------- >
Linda glanced at the clock, frowned and tried to go back to
studying. Lewis was more than two hours late now. That really wasn't
like him. On the sofa, Nora was fidgeting, watching some foreign movie
with the sound off. Judging from the choice of night-wear the older
lioness was wearing, a lime-green baby doll that was made to look a
number too small, Nora had intended to use the evening to finally get
Lewis to start visiting their bedrooms. Linda glanced once more at the
clock. Two hours and fifteen minutes now. She sighed, and started
again on the paragraph she'd been reading.
When Lewis finally got home another half hour later, Linda was still
struggling with the same paragraph, and Nora had switched to some
inane soap opera. At the sound of the kitchen door, both the lionesses
sprang to their feet; Linda with a relieved grin and Nora busy sliding
a strap off her shoulder.
When they saw his state, their greetings died on their lips. Lewis
looked ruffled and exhausted and his eyes were red and bleary. He
didn't smile to any of them, not even the shy half-smile he usually
gave them, but stared at the floor, not even looking them in the
eyes. "I'm taking a bath." he declared, and almost fled from the
kitchen.
"A bath?" Nora echoed with exasperation, looking at the Lewis' back as
he walked quickly up the stairs on his way to the bathroom. "Now? But
your mane will take all night to dry out!" Receiving no other reply
than the sound of the bathroom door closing, the frustrated lioness
sank back onto the sofa and grabbed a pillow.
Linda remained standing, looking up the stairs with confused worry. "I
wonder what's wrong." she said quietly.
"He probably saw a rabbit." the other lioness answered sourly, hugging
the pillow in front of her. Linda glared at her. Lewis' nervousness
around rabbits was perhaps a little silly, but Linda thought it was
cute, and Nora certainly didn't have any right to rib him about it,
what with her own stupid fear of spiders.
Seeing Linda's expression, Nora relented. "I'm sorry. That wasn't a
nice thing to say." she sighed deeply and curled up more around the
pillow. "I just wish he wasn't so damned timid all the time."
"I thought you liked that Lewis' is a nice guy." Linda said, a little
hesitantly. She didn't really know Nora all that well. Nora was a
classmate of Linda's sister Tonje, and it was Tonje who had suggested
they ask Nora to be the third lioness they needed for an official
engagement.
"I _do_ like him." Nora said and sighed. "I just wish he'd be
interested in fucking us."
Linda's tail twitched in discomfort. She wasn't used to that plain
speaking. "He _is_. He's just ... he's just Lewis. We just need to
give him a little time."
"That's easy for you to say. You've never experienced what we're
missing." Nora pointed out, but took the sting out of the words with a
friendly yawn.
Linda lowered her ears in embarrassment. She knew it was unusual, even
somewhat counter-revolutionary, to still be a virgin at twenty-one. "I
just want Lewis to be my first." she admitted sheepishly.
Nora smiled back at her younger pride member with a hint of friendly
envy. "You know, I can understand that. But if he doesn't start coming
to our bedrooms soon, I'm going to demand that he does me right here
in the living room!"
Linda made a shocked giggle. "You wouldn't!"
"Is that a dare?" Nora lifted her whiskers in challenge.
Linda laughed and shook her head. "Can you imagine the look on his
face?"
"Hey. You're the one who always mention how cute he is when he's
flustered." Nora retorted.
"Well, he _is_. If you weren't so busy looking at his butt you'd notice
too." Linda flattened her ears in mock disgust.
"Hah! As if I'm the only one. I've seen how you stare at his ass when
he walks up the stairs."
"Well, it's a cute ass." Linda defended herself, and was struck full
on by a well thrown pillow.
< ------------------------------------------------------------------- >
In the bathroom Lewis slowly let himself sink into the warm water,
flinching and biting back a cry of pain. The rabbit had used the
switch industriously before she finally let Lewis go, and the warmth
made the gnawing ache from the back of his thighs and rump flare up to
a bonfire. The lion bit his lip and stubbornly held still until the
pain died down to a manageable background ache.
He let out a shaky, quiet moan and carefully leaned his head back to
rest against the edge of the tub. Back home in safety, in the privacy
of the bathroom, the tears came again. His eyes filled and large,
silent tears soaked into his cheek fur.
He didn't want to think about the rabbit, so he grabbed the shampoo
and started to mechanically rub it into his fur. The memories refused
to let go and kept playing over and over again in his mind. The meek
plea for help when she first played wounded, the mocking tone in her
laughter, the feel of her vagina pushing down around his cock, the
utter shame and helplessness when he suddenly came inside her.
Lewis stopped trying to wash himself and just lay still, sobbing
quietly, the worst part of the encounter rolling in his head; her
fingers stroking his jaw before tugging the blindfold up; him blinking
against the harsh daylight. Her skirt and blouse discarded on the
ground.
The small, black video recorder propped against the trunk of a tree,
the little red light that indicated it was recording. Then the threat:
"See that? Now if you're very, very good to me maybe I won't be
tempted to show your girlfriends how much fun we've had. What do you
say, your Majesty? Are you going to be very, very good to me?"
After he had sobbed out a yes and promised to be good, the rabbit had
lowered the rope that his hands were tied with. She had made him
kneel, and then she had moved to stand in front of him, and she had
spread her legs apart.
Lewis could still taste her cunny on his tongue. He wanted to get up
from the bath, go to the cabinet and find the mouth wash and gargle
for hours. It just hurt too much to move, and so he remained in the
bath, sobbing quietly.
The final humiliation had been when she had an orgasm; her hands
suddenly gripping his mane and pulling her sex tight against his
muzzle. She had made small, barking little moans; her whole body
shivering as she came. To Lewis that seemed like his ultimate betrayal
of his girlfriends - that the rabbit had managed to use him to get an
orgasm. Had made him give her one.
Lewis slid down under the water, letting his mane and facial fur soak
through; only coming back up when his lungs burnt painfully from
holding his breath. How could he face his girlfriends after what had
happened today?
Part of him almost wished that the rabbit would make good on her
threat to send the tape to his girlfriends. It would destroy
everything, but it would all be out in the open and he wouldn't have
to lie or deceive them, and it would all be over. As long as the
rabbit had that tape to hold over his head, Lewis knew she would use
the threat to its fullest. After all, she was a rabbit, and rabbits
were evil.
< ------------------------------------------------------------------- >
Lewis ran back home with light, fluid grace. She hadn't been there
today! For the first run for five weeks, the rabbit had foregone one of
their meetings. Maybe she'd fallen ill, or moved away, or maybe she
was finally starting to get bored of the game. Lewis didn't care about
the reason - all that mattered was that she hadn't been there.
He sprinted down the last hundred meters to the gate, laughed as he
passed through it and bled the speed off on the last few steps to the
kitchen door. For the first time in over a month he did his stretching
exercises throughly, letting his breath and heart-rate slow before
bouncing into the kitchen to get himself a Gatorade from the
fridge. He turned to go into the living-room and froze with the bottle
almost to his lips, only then noticing his girlfriends gathered around
the kitchen table and their expressions. His heart fell.
They were all watching him with grim faces. Linda looked angry,
sitting on the far side of the table with her arms crossed, her claws
dug into her fur. Tonje was sitting on the table-top, her fur ruffled
and raised and a look of deep seriousness in her eyes. Nora was
standing besides them, her hands behind her back and her shoulders
leaning lightly against the door to the basement. She looked like she
couldn't decide between hissing in anger and turning away in disgust.
Tonje indicated the kitchen chair next to her and said with a low, but
firm tone of voice "Come here, Lewis. We have something we need to
talk with you about."
"You do?." His tongue was suddenly dry as parchment and by reflex he
took a quick sip of gatorade before he slowly went over to the chair
and set down. The video-tape. It had to be the video-tape. That's why
the rabbit hadn't been there today - she'd finally tired of playing
with him and sent them the video-tape. He couldn't make himself look
any of them in the eyes, but stared at the table-top, feeling
everything toppling and about to collapse around him.
Tonje put a hand on his shoulder, a firm weight and a light pricking
of claws telling him to sit still. She had used to do that when they
were kids and Lewis had gone with her family to church. "Lewis - look
at me." she said with an undercurrent of anger to her voice and she
dug her nails just a little harder against his shoulder when he didn't
comply at once.
Heavy with guilt, Lewis slowly raised his head and looked up at
Tonje. She looked back down at him, the bands of pale fur below her
eyes wide with a dismay she carefully kept out of her voice. "We know
about the rabbit and what she's done to you." she said.
For a moment the world froze around Lewis and everything narrowed down
to his heart beating in his chest and the feeling that some internal
demon was trying to wrench his heart down into his stomach. Then the
world came crashing back in over him, the lionesses' stares were like
physical blows to his gut. "O-oh." was all he managed to say, his head
turning back to the look at the table-top again, seeking an escape
from the angry looks.
Tonje reached down and took hold of his cheek-fur, pulling his face
back up until he couldn't help but meet her gaze. "Why didn't you
_tell_ us, Lewis?"
His sight blurred as tears welled up into his eyes, not from the pain
of having his cheek-fur tugged. "I didn't want you to know. I didn't
want you to be ashamed." he blurts out, having nowhere to hide from
the three pairs of accusing eyes that were looking at him.
Tonje's upper lip pulled back in annoyance, "That, Lewis, is..."
Whatever she had been about to say was sharply cut off by Linda
slamming her palms down hard against the table. Linda stood up, leant
angrily over the table towards Lewis and roared his skin full.
"You self-centered _prick_! You little scavenging _coward_! How do you
think _we_ feel? Ashamed? _Ashamed_? We've been worried out of our
minds for you, you stupid, grass-eating moron! Do you have any
gods-tainted _idea_ how we felt when we found out? How helpless we
felt? DAMN you Lewis!" She slammed her fists into the table again and
stormed out of the kitchen, her cheek fur wet and heavy with tears.
Lewis flinched back from Linda's anger, turning his head down and
closing his eyes tight. He knew he deserved all the vitriol she'd had
for him, and now expected Tonje and Nora to fling their own anger and
disgust at him.
Tonje stood looking at the door Linda had stormed through with
surprise; she had never seen her sister explode like that. She caught
Nora's eyes, gave a small nod down at Lewis. Nora dipped her right ear
in understanding, and Tonje gave Lewis' shoulder a hard squeeze, still
with her claws extended, and went to find her sister.
Nora stepped over behind Lewis when Tonje left and wrapped her arms
gently about his shoulders. "We'll sort this out." she promised him,
and the softness in her voice wrenched something free in his gut. With
a deep and guttural sob, Lewis started weeping. Nora didn't say
anything more, just stood there and held him gently.
< ------------------------------------------------------------------- >
Tonje found Linda in the upstairs lounge, pretending to watch the
television, but with her ears laid flat and her claws dug into the
pillows on the couch. Tonje interposed herself between the TV set and
her sister, but Linda only glanced briefly up at her with a glum and
angry expression then bent her head to look past her.
Tonje put her hands on her hips and stared at her sister for a while,
but when Linda kept ignoring her Tonje eventually lowered her own
ears. She brought her left hand up to the right side of her chest,
palm inward, and pulled it sharply in a horizontal line to the left:
{Attention}
Linda responded with a short growl and shifted around to try and look
at the TV past the other side of Tonje. "You know I hate the stalking
language." she said flatly, ears hardly stirring.
Tonje uttered a short, sharp hiss and brought her left hand up in a
fist in front of her mouth and moved it carefully down about an inch:
{Silence}
Linda growled again and looked up at her sister with a defiant and
angry glare, but Tonje met her glare with one of her own, steel-hard
and demanding, her lips pulled back slightly to reveal just the tips
of her teeth. When Tonje made the sign for silence once more, Linda's
growl died in her throat as the old, hated discipline from the hunting
lessons manifested itself again.
Once Tonje saw that she had her sister's full attention, she snapped
off several stalking signs in quick succession: {Important.}
{Track/Follow} {Hunting group/Us} {Seeking} {Protect/Keep Guard}
{Lion} {Male.}
Linda gave Tonje an angry glare and made the sign for {No/Stop}; a
flick of her left ear while at the same time pointing two fingers on
her left hand at the ground.
Unperturbed, Tonje placed her left hand against her right shoulder and
clenched it into a fist: {Now/at once.} She relented a little and
raised her ears, giving her sister a less stern look. {Lion} {Male}
{Injured} {Require/Necessary} {Protect/Keep Guard} {Hunting
group/Us.}
Linda pushed herself up to a sitting position and signed angrily:
{Question} {Lion} {Male} {Injured} {Strength/Exclamation.} She bared
her teeth in a silent hiss, and added {Question} {Me/here} {No/Stop}
{Injured.}
Tonje gave her sister a slow, serious nod. {Yes} {You/There} {And}
{Me/Here} {Injured.} {Hunting Group/Us} {Strong/Healthy.} {Lion}
{Male} {One/Alone} {Weak/Sick.}
Linda glowered. {Lion} {Male} {Poor/Unskilled} {Hunter.}
Tonje nodded again. {Lion} {Male} {Poor/Unskilled} {Hunter.} {Lion}
{Male} {Good/skilled} {Lion} {Male.}
Linda slashed her hand into the couch in frustration, tearing one of
the pillows. "I know." she said and blinked away new tears from her
eyes, "But it's not fair."
Tonje shook her head in mute agreement.
Linda rubbed her eyes with her right hand, signalling with her
left. {Question} {Me/Here} {Order/Movement.}
Tonje smiled slightly and signalled back. {Order/Movement}
{Track/Follow} {Hunting Group/Us} {Chase} {Lion} {Male} {Toward}
{Hunting Group/Us.}
Linda shook her head in confusion. {Question.}
Her sister hesitated a little. {No/Stop} {Answer} {Now.} {Now}
{Track/Follow.}
Linda shook her head again to show she didn't understand, but signaled
that she would do as she was told anyway: {Yes.} {I/Here}
{Track/Follow} {You/There.}
< ------------------------------------------------------------------- >
Lewis' tears had stopped by the time Tonje and Linda came back into
the kitchen. Nora stood behind his chair, gently cradling his head
against her stomach and running her fingers soothingly through his
mane. She looked questioningly to Tonje, and Tonje nodded back, as if
giving the go-ahead to some action they had discussed earlier.
Nora breathed deeply and moved her hands from Lewis' mane down to his
shoulder.
"Lewis," she said, speaking so softly that Linda who stood just a few
meter away had to strain to hear her.
"We need you to understand that what happened, that what she did to
you; it doesn't corrupt you, it doesn't make you dirty or spoiled, and
it doesn't corrupt what you have with us."
"But she... she... I had..." Lewis started, but Nora stopped him by
reaching up and taking hold of the fur on his cheeks, pulling his head
back so he was looking up at her.
"No. Just listen, Lewis." she told him, and when she saw he was
listening she smiled gently and let go of his fur, caressing his
cheeks softly.
"She made you do a lot of shameful things, Lewis. We know. But all
that shame came from her; not you. She is depraved and dirty, but
you're not. And what you have with _us_ isn't depraved or shameful
either."
Nora wrapped her arms gently around Lewis' neck, cradling his head
softly. She paused for a moment and glanced back at Linda and Tonje,
looking for support. Linda gave her a puzzled look back, not sure what
she was up to, but Tonje nodded ears raised.
"You understand that, we know," Nora continued to Lewis. "But you
don't believe it. What happened is still too raw, and you're still
feeling guilty about it. It isn't enough to just know that you
shouldn't feel guilty after something like that, Lewis. People who go
through things like what you have gone through almost always feel
guilty afterwards, even though everybody knows it wasn't their fault."
Nora bent down and carefully brushed her whiskers against Lewis' forehead.
"So we are not going to tell you that despite this everything is going
to be good between you and us. We're going to show you."
Nora straightened up again and looked deeply into Lewis' amber
eyes. She bit her lip nervously and drew a deep breath before going
on.
"Lewis. Just trust us and love us and I swear everything will work
out. Will you?"
Lewis, his head held gently in place between Nora's arms, and his gaze
looked to hers, nodded silently; seeking the deliverance and
forgiveness Nora's eyes promised.
Nora's tail twitched nervously, but she smiled reassuringly at Lewis
and unwound her arms from about his neck and went to stand against the
corner of the kitchen table. She glanced to Tonje and Linda who were
still standing just inside the door to the living room, then she closed
her eyes for a moment before she smiled nervously and pulled her shirt
up over her head, dropping it on the table behind her.
Surprised by her unexpected undressing and suddenly intensely aware of
his two other girl-friends standing behind him, Lewis turned his head
about to look at them; confused and unnerved he had to know what
their reaction to this sudden turn was.
Tonje gave him a flick of her ears and a small, approving
smile. Linda, who had not been made aware of what the two older
lionesses had been planning, couldn't help but look back at Lewis with
a shock and confusion that mirrored his own. Knowing that Lewis needed
a sign of support form her, she blurted out the first thing she could
think of.
"I love you, Lewis. So does she. We all do."
"Lewis, look at me." Nora spoke softly, and Lewis found his head
turning towards her as if drawn to some magnetic pole. She had
divested herself of her knee-length shorts while he'd had his head
turned and was now standing there fully naked, with her rump resting
lightly against the edge of the table and her arms stretched out
behind her, arching slightly backwards.
"Do you think I'm beautiful?" Nora asked and brushed her finger-pads
coquettishly through the pale fur on her stomach.
"Yes." Lewis whispered and licked his lips, barely able to find his
voice.
Nora smiled and pushed herself from the table, straddled Lewis' lap and
slowly slid down to sit in it.
"I want you to find me beautiful. I want you to find all of us
beautiful." she told him and placed an arm gently around his
neck. Without even being aware of the fact that he did it, Lewis put
his arms around her waist in return, holding her tenderly as the most
precious crystal.
"I don't think you've ever realized just how damned handsome you are,"
Nora told him with a small laugh.
"I've wanted you ever since I saw you running in your first University
race, and Linda and Tonje have wanted you for as long as they can
remember," she said and licked lightly at the fur on the small ridge
above his left eye.
Tonje smiled and walked up behind Lewis' chair and hunched down so her
head was level with his. "That's true," she murmured and bit lightly
at the edge of his ear. "Linda knew what she wanted before I did, but
we both wanted the same thing." She let up of his ear and buried her
face into the thick of his mane and breathed in deeply.
Linda stood shocked and lost over by the door, still not fully
believing what her sister and Nora was doing. It was like a scene from
some cheap pornographic movie. She almost expected the doorbell to
announce the arrival of a pizza delivery guy; probably a zebra or
wildebeest, something to appeal to the cross-species fetishists.
Tonje hunched down behind the chair and leaned forward on the left
side and nuzzled the coarse fur on Lewis' flank. A low, vibrant purr
started in her throat and she began to nip and kiss his side
lustily. She looped her arms around the back of the chair and about
Lewis' waist, hooking her claws carefully in under the waist-band of
his shorts.
Lewis seemed too shocked to speak, but when Nora lifted herself a
little out of his lap so that Tonje could start to push his running
shorts down, an involuntary frightened whimper left his lips.
"Ssshh." Nora soothed softly, gently nuzzling his face and licking at
his lips.
"This isn't her, this is us. This is home. This is right. We love you
and we need you and want you. Gods of the hunt how we want you." she
whispered to him in a hoarse, tight voice, in between soft licks and
nuzzles and small love-bites at his furred cheeks.
Lewis let out a gasp as Tonje moved her hands and brushed her
fingertips over his sheath, pricking the soft skin there every so
lightly with her claws.
"He wants us too." Tonje murmured, the words barely heard over her
steady purr. She traced the pads on her fingers softly along the
length of Lewis' erect cock, from the base of his sheath all the way
to the tip that was straining against the smooth cloth of his running
shorts.
Another small whimper escaped Lewis' lips then, but this was one of
need, not fear. Nora smiled with hungry satisfaction and brushed her
cheek against his, placing his mouth close to his ear.
"You can have us; we're yours. We've been yours since we first laid
eyes on you." she told him and added a short, possessive growl to let
him know that the reverse held true as well : he was theirs.
Entranced by the shameless visage, right here in their own kitchen,
Linda stood mute and shell-shocked by the door. Her heart was racing,
her eyes were locked to the sight of Nora and her sister seducing
Lewis, her nostrils were assaulted with the round, heady aroma of sex
and her ears twitched at every gasp and soft moan and mewl, some of
them coming from herself.
When Nora pressed her crotch firmly down against the bulge of Lewis'
erection and Tonje's fingers, eliciting a deep, shuddering groan from
Lewis and a sharp gasp of surprise from Tonje, Linda moved without any
conscious decision to Lewis' side for a better view. When she saw
Lewis' face, so beautiful and strong, his expression one of intense
lust and yet his gentleness shining through even that, a shaking,
uncertain purr started reflexively in Linda's throat.
"God of rain, you're beautiful, Lewis." she whispered through her
purring, but it was doubtful if he heard her over the sound of his own
heart and the sensations from the warmth from Nora's sex and the
tender stroking of Tonje's fingers.
Tonje, on the other hand, heard her sister's whisper and paused in her
nibbling and biting at Lewis' flank to look up at Linda with an
approving, loving smile. Then she winked and watched her sister's
expression as she slowly pushed Lewis' running shorts down to his
knees, hampered by Nora grinding her crotch against Lewis' erection.
Linda only caught a brief glance of Lewis' thick, deep red erection
before Nora, with a desperate gasp, reached down to grab it and guide
it inside herself. That brief glance was enough to make her utter an
involuntary snarl of frustration, like some hungry huntress that
watched the fowl she had been stalking suddenly take wing.
Her sister's reaction every thing she had hoped for, and more, Tonje
smilingly lowered her face to bite and nip at Lewis' side and stomach
again, caressing Lewis' and Nora's thighs with her hands.
Linda was surprised at how loud the frenetic love-making was. Not just
the quadrophony of steady purrs and Lewis' deep, growling moans or
Nora's shrill mewl every time she thrust herself back down onto Lewis'
erection, but also the wet, vulgar, physical sounds of the act. Then
Nora's mewls drew together in a continuous howl and a moment later
Lewis' was not just moaning, but roaring; his head thrown back in a
loud, primal, deafening roar that reverberated through Linda's stomach
and chest and sex, leaving her weak-kneed and gasping with desire and
love.
Then it was over. Nora collapsed like a limp rag-doll in Lewis' lap,
her arms about his neck, breathless and exhausted. Lewis himself sat
listless in the chair, his arms hanging heavy down along his sides, one
resting over Tonje's neck; too exhausted to even purr.
Only then did Linda realize that her left hand was resting gently on
Nora's shoulder. At the back of her mind some curious part of her
wondered when she had placed it there, but at the moment was concerned
with more pressing matters.
"I'm next." she stated firmly.
Tonje's ears dipped in annoyance for a moment, but then she laughed
and pulled her head out from under Lewis' arm.
"Only if we get to watch." she demanded with a teasing grin.
"Done." Linda replied, the word had left her mouth before she had even
thought it. For a moment the two sisters just looked at each other,
both surprised at Linda's answer. Then Linda shrugged; spoken was
spoken. Besides, to be honest with herself, she had to admit she
wanted to watch Tonje and Lewis fuck too.
< ------------------------------------------------------------------- >
Nora carefully lifted Lewis' left arm off herself and climbed silently
out of bed. Neither Lewis nor Linda stirred in their sleep. Nora
paused to watch the two sleepers for a moment. Linda lay snuggled up
against Lewis' right side with an arm under his neck and one leg
pulled up and draped over his muscular thighs, her tail hanging off
the edge of the bed, baring some of her dark brown labia to Nora's
soft glance.
Nora yawned quietly and stretched, rubbing the shoulder she'd been
lying on for the last hour. It had been a very long and very satisfying
night, but if they were going to do this again they had to get a
bigger bed first. Lewis only had a single bed, of course, and the
lionesses' double beds were all barely comfortable for two, awkward
for three and impossible for four, which was why Tonje had left to
sleep in her own room earlier.
Nora carefully closed the door to Linda's bedroom and padded down the
stairs to the kitchen. She found her clothes where she'd discarded them
and pulled them on. Then she regarded the door down to the basement
and sighed. They had gotten Lewis' back up on the horse, so to speak,
but there was one lose end remaining and not a trifling one either.
Nora opened the door and climbed down the stairs on silent paws. The
light was already on in the stairwell, so Nora wasn't surprised when
she found Tonje sitting on a sack of firewood, holding a half empty
bottle of beer.She glanced up when Nora entered the basement and
nodded in acknowledgment, pointed with her bottle at the gagged and
trussed up rabbit doe that lay on the floor in front of her, on top of
two old gillie suits that had been spread out on the concrete floor.
"Don't be fooled. She's awake." Tonje said when Nora walked over. At
that the rabbit opened her eyes and glared up at the two lionesses;
frightened and helpless but still defiant, even after having been
beaten up and then spent almost a day tied up in the basement. If she
hadn't heard Tonje and Linda's description of what the rabbit had done
to Lewis, Nora could almost have admired her.
Nora nodded, pulled another sack of firewood out from over by the wall
and sat down next to Tonje. For a while neither lioness spoke, but
just sat there watching the rabbit glaring back at them.
"So, what do we do about her?" Nora asked finally. Tonje merely shook
her head mutely, but a voice from the stairwell answered.
"I have a suggestion." Linda stood in the stair, still naked, but
looking glum and reluctant to explain her suggestion. Eventually she
did, and for a long moment Nora and Tonje sat there staring mutely
back at Linda, their whiskers drooped in dismay and their eyes wide in
surprise.
On the floor, the rabbit stared up at them in confused fear. Then
understanding passed over her features as she understood the intent
behind Linda's suggestion and she uttered a strangled, horrified cry
that was muffled by her gag, and thrashed against her bounds in panic.
Lewis sat in the couch, frozen in shock. He looked up at Linda,
flanked by Nora and Tonje, his eyes horrified and confused. "_Marry_
her?" he asked, incredulous.
"Us first." Linda stated evenly, reminding him of that part of the
suggestion.
"But _her_? Why?" It was a testament to Lewis' rattled wits that he
was even able to vocalize that question
"I told you: To bring her under dominion of Lion law." Linda explained
with the curt patience of someone who'd already spent a lot of time
explaining the same thing to other people.
"But..."
"Lewis, it's all very simple." Linda interrupted his question. "There
is no way we are going to accept that she has those video-tapes and
can watch them whenever she wants to. For one thing none of us are
going to allow her get away with any of what she did to you, and for
another we are not going to have you spend the rest of the life
worrying about a copy of the tapes suddenly arriving in our parents'
mailboxes."
"I don't see how marrying her is going to help!" Lewis practically
whined.
"Because she's going to be the fourth wife, and she's going to be
under the rule of Lion law. That means that _we_ three will have legal
authority over her -- we can control her money, we can control her
property, we can negate any legal contracts she tries to make and we
can force her to live in your house. We can make damned sure she'll
never get five minutes enjoyment from those tapes." Linda took a deep
breath and shook her head, she was tiered of arguing this case,
especially as she didn't really want the hated rabbit to live with
them either - but she couldn't see any real alternatives.
To Lewis credit he took a moment to try to think about what Linda was
saying before he hopefully asked "But what if she just says no? If you
threaten her, she can just demand sanctuary of the court when we get
to the court house."
Linda glanced quickly at the two other lionesses, and paused to
scratch her ear nervously. She was not fond of the answer she had to
give. Out of sight from Lewis, Tonje made the stalking sign for
{Track/Follow} and Nora gave Linda a small, serious-minded nod.
Linda drew a breath and said quickly "She doesn't have to agree to the
marriage. You will claim her by Right of Rape."
"What? But I didn't rape her!" Lewis objected in horror, and then
stumbled to silence, not managing to speak aloud the logical
conclusion that it had been she who raped him.
"Did you penetrate her?" Linda asked matter of factly, biting back on
a sudden spike of anger and jealousy.
"Yes, but she..."
Linda interrupted him, and with a wave of her hand made it clear she
wasn't interested in any elaboration. "_Did_ you penetrate, yes or
no?"
"Yes, but..." Lewis trailed off, confused and wounded. Linda _knew_ he
hadn't had a choice in the matter. Why did she have to ask like that?
"Then, by the letter of law, you can claim Right of Rape. The law
doesn't care who was willing or did what as long as the male
penetrated the female." Linda said, more calmly than she felt.
Lewis sat silent for a long moment, thoughts churning through his mind
as he tried to find a flaw in Linda's argument. Then a sudden
realization hit him, and he gave Linda a surprised and apprehensive
look. "Right of Rape... That's Savannah Law, isn't it?"
"Yes, it's Savannah Law." Linda replied angrily and thrust her chin
forward, her claws extending unconsciously. "It's the worst code of
law in existence. It's a horrid, twisted abomination of justice and I
hate it and just talking about it makes me feel dirty and ashamed I'm
a lion. We should have ripped it to pieces and forgotten about it long
before we joined the Empire, but we didn't and it's still there and
Gods be cursed but I am going to use it to get back at that whore who
hurt you!"
Lewis bit his lip and stared at the floor. None of them liked the old
Savannah Law, with it's brutal punishments and basis in the right of
might - it didn't belong in the same era as air condition and
telephones and multi-species sport events. Linda, however, loathed it
with passion. To her it wasn't just a shameful reminder of the
backwards, arch-conservative specieists among the lions that still
refused to accept that times had changed forever. Linda hated it, to
her the law was a personal affront, an insult to everything she
loved. Once, back when they were cubs, she'd told Lewis that she
wanted to become a lawyer, just so she could be working with law when
the Savannah law was finally abolished.
Lewis felt a whirlwind of conflicting emotions churning around in his
stomach. He was scared and disgusted at the prospect of marrying the
rabbit doe, but much more intensely he felt horror at the thought of
Linda using the Savannah Law, dirtying her claws with all that old
blood and unjust. At the same time there was a deep, warm feeling in
the thought that she was willing to do that for him. He closed his
eyes for a moment, forcing back tears that were suddenly threatening
to spill over.
He looked up at Linda again, then to Tonje and Nora. "Is there nothing
else we can do?" he asked quietly and looked back to Linda in
concern. Gods, how beautiful they all were.
Linda tried to answer but something in Lewis' eyes had caught her
unaware and she lost her words. She could only shake her head
faintly. Nora spoke then, calmly and quietly. "Not unless you want us
to take her into the garden and rip her to pieces." She was quiet for
a moment, then added softly. "We will if you want us to, all of us."
For a second, Lewis truly considered what she said. He thought back on
the things the rabbit had done to him and he thought about the
bitterness in Linda's voice when she talked about the Savannah
Law. Then for an instant he pictured the three lionesses gathered
around the rabbit, tearing and slashing, claws and teeth shiny with
fresh blood. It wasn't them -- he could imagine other lionesses doing
it, but not these three. He shied away from the image, tried to
replace the lionesses with himself -- his hands around the rabbit's
neck, trying to make it quick and painless. No. He couldn't see
himself doing that, managing that. Not even to her.
Lewis drew shuddering breath and shook his head, almost wonderingly at
first, then firmly. "No." he said quietly, knowing that he couldn't
live with slaughter on his conscience, whether by his own hands or by
his girlfriends', and knowing that the lionesses couldn't love him
fully if he had been the kind of man who could live with it.
Nora gave him a soft smile and nodded faintly, understanding a little
of the expressions that had passed over Lewis' face. Besides her,
Tonje let out a relieved breath she had been holding back ever since
Nora's question. Linda leant back, her claws retracting and her
shoulders slumping. "So you'll do as we ask?" she asked him, her voice
faltering as her anger started fading.
Lewis closed his eyes, held his breath for a moment, then nodded
wordlessly.
Lewis ran along the forest path with long, mile-eating strides, nimbly
dodging branches and making powerful leaps over stones and
bare-trodden roots along the path. It was a great day for running, and
Lewis was luxuriating in the rapid beating of his heart, the deep
breaths and the tiredness in his thighs. His mane flowed behind him as
he ran, still streaked with henna from the marriage ceremony. He could
have tied it up to reduce the drag, but he wasn't racing the clock
today and he wanted to feel of wind in his fur.
To Lewis surprise he met Nora waiting for him along the path as he was
running back, about a mile away from their house. He stopped up
besides her, too winded to talk right away, so he just smiled at her
as he stood next to her, slightly leant over and panting. Nora smiled
back at him and reached out and brushed a finger-pad against the outer
edge of his left ear, touching the three silver studs that had been
placed there. She didn't touch the fourth stud, but then it had been
placed so far down it was barely visible amongst the hair of his
mane. For a while they just stood like that, smiling at each other.
"Walk you home?" she asked and took her hand away from his ear, then
unthinkingly reaching up to touch the single silver stud in her own
ear.
Lewis nodded and drew a few more deep breaths before finding his voice
again. "Sure." he said and straightened up, still panting somewhat but
not worse than he could carry on a conversation.
She sidled up against him and Lewis put his arm about her, resting his
hand on her hip. Nora smiled up at him as they headed home at slow
pace, then her face became serious. "I wanted to talk to you about
what she did to you."
Lewis' face turned serious too, but his hand stayed comfortably on
Nora's hip. "Oh. Okay." he said after a moment's hesitation. He didn't
like thinking about it, but he also knew he couldn't just pretend it
hadn't happened - especially not since the rabbit was now his wife, at
least by law, and was part of their household.
Nora went quiet, as if she was thinking about what to say and they
walked on in silence for a bit. "She did some horrible things to you."
she started, looking at the path in front of them rather than up at
Lewis. She hesitated again then glanced quickly up at him. "I know you
hated what she did to you, Lewis. But ... sometimes when a person goes
through something like what you went through, they ... don't always
manage to let go fully."
Lewis furrowed his brow and shook his head, trying to understand what
Nora was trying to tell him. He was uncomfortable because of the
subject, but didn't say anything and they walked along in silence
again for some steps, Nora looking at her feet.
"So, it might be that you..." Nora started and paused for a few
moments, reaching up to rake the hair on her head with her
claws. "That you'll someday feel a need to go through it again; what
she did to you."
Lewis stopped up and looked down at the lioness with the fur on his
forehead raised in confusion and dismay. Need to go through it again?
He already went through it each night when he closed his eyes and
waited to fall asleep. Did Nora really think he would ever need to
experience it for real again? ... Would he someday need that? Lewis
couldn't think of anything to say in response, so he just nodded
slowly to let her know he'd understood.
"I just wanted to tell you that ... if you ever feel a need to relive
it, you don't have to go to _her._ Okay?" Tonje looked briefly up into
his face and then slipped her arm about his waist, a gentle touch
against his fur. "You can come to me or Tonje and we'll ... we'll
_understand_ and we'll ..." She trailed off and bit her lip, then
forced herself to take a deep breath and finish her sentence. "We'll
do whatever you might need from us, okay?"
"Okay." Lewis said slowly and started walking again, thinking about
what Nora had said. He couldn't see himself wanting to have that done
to him again, ever, but he understood that Tonje was trying to make
sure that the rabbit had no hold at all over him. "If I ever feel like
that, I'll come to you." he promised.
Tonje smiled up at him and gave him a reassuring hug with her
arm. "Just remember that everyone loves you." she said.
Lewis lifted his right ear and said with an partially successful
ironic tone of voice: "Not _everyone_."
Tonje laughed softly, not over his rather lame attempt at a joke,
but because he had tried to make light of things. "No, I guess not
everyone." she admitted. When they came out of the forest and into
view of the house, a thought struck her and she turned her head to
give Lewis a strange, pondering look. Her whiskers flickered
uncertainly and her ears dipped a little. She shrugged a little and
spoke.
"Maybe she'll learn to."