Face Off - Trade Off
#78 of The Moonrise Chronicles
The last story of 2014.
The
werewolf stood his ground, keeping his eyes solidly locked on the other two.
The voices in the background were growing louder and more desperate. Maggie
could make out the fact that everyone from the house was in the group. However,
there was nothing in their chorus of voices that sounded anything like her
great uncle, even though she wasn't attuned to his now richer, deeper voice. Edward
stood motionless. He was going over this new development in his head. He had
known that Alexei would eventually go through the changes, but he had failed to
see when it would happen. There wasn't much of a limit to his foresight, but he
had to be looking to see anything. It just wasn't something he had been worried
about, not with everything else going on. Now it
appeared that his lack of interest on that subject might have been a mistake.
Alexei had gone completely off his rocker with this most recent change,
something Edward knew about all too well. He looked for a way to avoid any
trouble, for even though they would both survive thanks to the metal they both
had protecting them, if Alexei were to run off, the consequences could be
severe. Edward's plan called for this spot to be unnoticed and hidden away.
Unneeded public exposure would not be good. He
suddenly smiled. Maggie was quick to notice. "What the hell 's up?" "Nothing
you need to worry about. I think I have it figured out." And yet
he did nothing. The other werewolf was getting impatient and ready to attack.
Edward countered his movements, but never did anything more than keep him at
bay. That's when Verona burst onto the scene, dressed in nothing more than her
werewolf body. "Edward
don't!" He
changed to his human form. "Don't what?" "Don't
hurt him. It's Alexei! He had a growth spurt that shifted to a transformation.
He's completely out of his head!" "I
figured that out, thank you very much. Actually, it was Maggie who spotted the
ring. I told you pushing the process might have side effects." "So you
were right and I was wrong. Are you happy?" "Yes, I
suppose I am. You should listen more often." "My
ears are just fine!" He dropped
his voice to almost a whisper. "I was referring to your heart." She
stopped whatever her next words were going to be. "What the hell does that
mean?" "It
means that life has hard choices, and sometimes they are tougher to deal with
because they are right in front of us and we can't see them for the barriers we
put up to save us from making them." "You're
not making any sense." "No, I
suppose I'm not. I like you an awful lot Verona, but there are times when I
feel that I need to do things to make other things happen. I hope you'll
forgive me." "For
what?" Even in her were-form she looked confused. He
balled up his fist and hit her hard. It wasn't enough to do any damage, but it
was enough to sting her skin and to make her eyes water. She was so surprised
by his attack that she started crying. Even
Maggie was offended. "Why the hell did you do that?" But the
other werewolf took immediate exception to it. He roared and pounced on Edward
and began to worry him like a dog with a rabbit. Before she could intervene, he
hollered out to everyone within hearing range; "Let it go!" She
couldn't imagine why he would let Alexei do this to him. Even if the man were
out of his head, and Edward able to ultimately recover from his wounds, what
good could come out of this? Maggie held back, but was ready to pounce on a
moments' notice if the need arose. Verona
screamed for Alexei to stop, but nothing was getting through to him. She watched
in horror as blood sprayed from the wounds he was delivering to Edward's body.
She knew the fool was pretty much unable to die at the moment, but she failed
to appreciate his choice of methods for dealing with this situation. It was
more like he had a death wish. At least
in his werewolf body he would have had a better chance of playing with more equivalent
odds. The
werewolf flung his victim in an arc through the air, watching the torn body hit
the ground some twenty feet away. Maggie ran to Edward's side, but he pushed
her away. "Go to Alexei!" "What?
Are you fucking crazy?" "Shut
up Mags," he wheezed. "You and Verona go to him now!" She ran
and grabbed the woman's furry paw and dragged her over to the other were. He
stood snorting, his blood drenched lips stuck in a vicious grin. He turned his
attention to the females. Verona was suddenly aware that there was a certain
amount of danger being in his presence. For one, she didn't have a ring.
Secondly, she could feel her maternal instincts building up. There was no way
she was going to let him hurt her baby. She liked this young (old?) man a lot
in the short while she had gotten to know him, but he was nothing when compared
to the child in her womb. Maggie
kept herself on guard, waiting for her uncle to lash out. But he didn't. His
breathing slowed as the feral rage left him. In a matter of minutes his form
had gone from mindless beast to an unconscious human. He was back to being
himself, such as it was. Maggie
ran back over to Edward. His wounds were healing, but the ground was covered in
blood. "You're a fucking asshole, do you know that? What are you, some kind of
masochist?" He
pushed himself up off the ground. "Do you think I liked that? I had to let him
beat me. He needed to satisfy the urge to win, to fulfill his needs as a male.
So I let him beat me." "Beat
you? He tore holes in you!" "Mags,
shut up. I'll live. He wasn't acting much different than I was back in Russia
not so long ago. Did I do anything less destructive?" She
hesitated. "I suppose not. But you had a little more brains than he did." "Brains?
Mine were scrambled eggs until they got sorted back out." Her
eyes narrowed. "You had to see something good coming out of this, or else you
wouldn't have bothered going through this much pain. What was it?" His
smile was a little lopsided from the tear in the side of his mouth. "I can't
say for sure, but I think that something wonderful has sprouted." He was
looking at Verona, who was cradling Alexei's head in her lap. The Russian's
face was that of a thirty year old, and his naked body fit and well muscled.
Maggie snorted. "Sure,
she stays to the one who isn't hurt..." She whipped around again to face Edward.
"You fucking genius." "Don't
give me a Nobel prize just yet. But I think it's moving in the right direction
now." He got
up with Maggie's help, looking like an extra from a zombie movie. Dirt and dead
leaves stuck fast to the sticky blood. It was difficult to tell if he was now
fully intact under all that mess. He limped over to Verona. "Let's
get him back to the house." She
looked up and screamed. "Oh My God! I didn't know you were hurt so badly!" "I'm
not. But I do need a shower. And I think he needs to be put back to bed." He
reached down and removed the ring from is finger. "From this point onward, I
declare him done with his aging. Anything more right now might do more harm
than good." With
that he leaned down and picked him up as if he were no more than a sack of
potatoes. Their march back up the road was in silence. He was comfortable with
that, if for no other reason than that it gave him time to think. His plans
were still open to random affects, and if anyone thought he could really see
the future clearly, they were deluded indeed. Upon
returning to the house, Alexei was laid to rest on the bed again while Edward
hit the shower. He was joined by Maggie, who gave him her don't tell me to leave look. He was more than thankful for her
company. The day had gotten rather out of hand all too quickly. "Stay.
I think I'll need a little help getting clean in some of the hard to reach
places." She
giggled. "I thought only I had hard to reach places." "Naw. You don't have any. I can reach every one of
them." She
stuck her tongue out at him and grabbed a sponge, rubbing an old-fashioned bar
of soap across it. She began to scrub his legs, working up until she was
between them. She rubbed right up to his crotch, gently cleaning the blood and
dirt as more cascaded down from his head, shoulders and chest. She continued to
work higher and higher until she had his skin clear right up to his neck. "Turn
around." He did,
sticking his head under the stream of water to rinse his hair. He felt kind and
gentle hands carefully working the sponge across his spine. When they stopped,
the sponge dropped to the floor and the fingers returned. He felt her massaging
his muscles, pressing her fingers in where she remembered him having slices
taken out of his flesh. "Father?" "Yes?" "You're
something else, you know that?" "That
goes without saying. Can you be more specific?" "You do
realize that if things go the way you hope, no one will know you had anything
to do with it?" "As it
should be. If they had any idea that what transpired was for a greater purpose,
it would undo everything I suffered through and leave it in scattered ruins." "Do you
think it worked?" "One
knows not if the seed is viable until the plant springs from the ground." "Oh
God! Are you going to start talking in riddles now?" "There is
no riddle. All I'm saying is that we'll know it when we see it." "You
mean when it grows up, you'll know if it's strong and viable?' He
grinned."That's one way of putting it." She ran
her hands to his cock. "Just like this?" Her mouth slipped over the head of it
and sucked it halfway in. He let
out a gasp. "Yeah, I suppose maybe just like that." "Oh.
Then I think I understand," she said wryly as she pulled off long enough to
speak. "Give it a little incentive to grow, and wonderful things can happen!" He
braced himself against the sides of the stall. "Yeah, right. Whatever you say." She
returned to attending to his cock. She wasn't the only one with needs. He might
play at being the stoic hero, but he wasn't all that different from any other
man. Well, he was, but his body was still virile and imbued with all the
requirements such a body was prone to having. Besides, she could smell a bit of
his aroma despite the recent washing. She had a feeling it was going to be
rolling off of him for some time. It was making her hornier than
normal. She was
on her knees in front of him, her mouth busy returning the favor he had done
earlier, all the while her hands massaged his balls. It was taking all of her willpower
not to simply jump on him. She knew in her heart that she had to act more
mature if people were going to start treating her as more than a young girl.
Inside she felt grown up, even if her body wasn't willing to show it. She was
beginning to envy Alexei and his recent maturation. Edward
had only made a fuss for the first few weeks of their relationship. She could
hardly blame him. He was a simple man back then. She had been drawn to him by
the fact that he had seemingly been drawn to her. No one had paid much
attention to her back then. She was just another kid lost in the system. But
now, in part because of him, she was doing things that most people could only
dream of. Her life was a wonderland; and it wasn't too far from being like the
wonderland in a Lewis Carroll story. Weird, wild and wackey.Only her life had more sex. Alice
should have gotten laid a lot more often. Her loss.The shower was still running, sending
rivulets of water cascading down his body and over her face as she sucked contentedly
on his cock. His groans were music to her ears. He probably had no idea what she
would go to just to make him happy. Then again, he probably did. You don't go
out of your way to track down and see a person through their rough times
without understanding the amount of love powering that decision. He would have done the same for her. Hell! He
had been this whole time. Verona
may have the sexier body, but it was a good thing she had come to realize that
there was never going to be any love between them. It was too bad, for the
woman had been right in saying that a child needed a father; a family to raise
and support it. Life was tough sometimes, and she was going to have to make do. The thought
of this woman mating with Edward made her jealous. She might understand the
need for something without accepting the reality of it. One of these days she
was going to force her body into aging enough to become fertile. Some
day. She
relaxed, realizing that she had tensed up. It wasn't that she wasn't happy, it
just that she felt she could be happier. She smiled internally and put the
internal conflict to good use. She poured her attention to the cock in her
mouth. By the
time she felt him tighten up his ass cheeks she was ready to take his load. She
deep throated him, hanging onto to his buttocks as his body responded to her
prompting. While she would have gladly suffered through his outsized feral
cock, she was glad it was his natural one. Every once in a while a normal
one-on-one in their human forms was nice. His
hands grabbed her head as he exploded inside her. It wasn't the copious amounts
his other form could produce, but it was still hot as it shot down her throat
to her stomach. Even when he was done and his legs began to waver, she sucked
on it until he had to grab the sides of the stall again for support. She almost
wanted to eat him up, but the best she could do was to try to drain him of
everything she needed in her life. She had nearly lost him several times, and
that was painful to think about. "Mags!" She
pulled off. "What?" "Leave
some for the next time. Or haven't you noticed that the water is running cold?" She
shivered a little. "Sorry. I hadn't. I guess I was into what I was doing." He turned
off the valve. "So was I. I think maybe we'll need to get a hotel room somewhere
if we're ever going to get some peace and quiet." She
eyed his cock again. "I'm beginning to think that if we're going to do it, we're
just going to have to do it and everyone else can be damned if they disapprove." He put
his hands against her cheeks and pulled her face upwards. "I know. It sucks, doesn't
it?" "No, I
suck. This blows." They
both got a laugh out of that. Grabbing towels, they exited the bathroom wrapped
in them. Billy smiled. "You two take a long time." Maggie
gave him a fake snarl. "Father was a ruined mess. But see; he's all better now." He
nodded in her direction. "There is nothing a good woman can't do to improve a
man." She
stopped, a tear escaping the corner of her eye. "Thank you." Billy
was caught off guard. "Little lady, what did I say?" Edward
put a hand on her shoulder. "You called her a woman." A pair
of hairy eyebrows knit themselves as he thought that one out. "But she is a
woman, isn't she?" Edward's
smile was filled with emotion. "You had better believe it!"