No More Pretending

Story by AstroSecant on SoFurry

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Image isn't everything, and sometimes it's something that you shouldn't be trying to reach. Especially if it's just the wrong image for you. Mix that thought with the idea of lions and their manes, and that leads to this shortie.

OBLIGATORY CONTENT WARNING: This story contains sexual acts between two males, domination/submission, and total sass.


The locker room had been the most daunting area for him last year. This year, though, Race intended for that to be different. Enough being shoved around and taunted, made to feel like garbage and sent home humiliated...the bullies wouldn't have the lion as a target this year.

Not that he was getting revenge...he just wouldn't let them rule over him this time.

He listened to the chatter in the locker room before entering. There were a few loud voices in there, voices he recognized from all the crap he took the previous school year. And of course, they were as they typically had been.

"I'm up to 225, you guys can't hold a candle to me."

"Big deal, I'm squatting 440. Bet your softy legs wouldn't be able to handle that."

"I bought a whole new set of weights because what I had just wasn't heavy enough for me."

"What, where you still on baby's first lifting bench?"

"Oh, fuck you, you know I'd beat you in a straight up lifting contest."

The usual testosterone-filled bullshit. Race had heard it all before, all last year when he'd been trying to emulate them. But he was beyond done with that, and now all he wanted to do was get in, get dressed for gym, and get out. Of course, they wouldn't let him go that easy...

He walked in, striding purposefully towards his locker. Of course, it was right near the group of jocks, he couldn't really be lucky enough to avoid that. He didn't try to get their attention, just working his locker open, but it was inevitable that one of them would notice...

"Holy shit!" And there it was.

Race turned to face the group. Five anthros, each of them upwards of six and a half feet and built like gods, they were the cream of the crop of physical specimens in the school. And they'd also been the ones which had made his life a living hell the previous year.

At the beginning of the previous year, he'd been one of many to idolize them, wanting to be just like them, fawned over by all sorts of students, and he'd eagerly dived in. The group had been aloof to him, being fairly tight-knit, but he figured if he kept at it he'd earn their respect soon enough.

But then came the problem. Race was what even he would consider positively scrawny - only about five-and-a-half feet tall, quite thin, with a frame that some had rather meanly described as "girly." And as he struggled to get himself a workout, bulk himself up, gain the body he wanted and desired, he found himself unable to make any progress. He wasn't able to put on a pound, raise his strength even a bit despite months of effort. And when the group had caught on, the cold shoulder had turned to flat-out ridicule. He endured their insults day after day, directed at his feeble body and his inability to even start measuring up to them. It hurt...a lot.

It hadn't helped that his parents accused him of faking it, dashing off to do lord knows what instead of trying to work out like he said he was. They wanted to see him get bigger, too, Race was sure his runtiness bothered them. Of course, he'd spent the summer fuming over this, clashing with them, until he decided to do something rather drastic...something that had shocked them into silence, into leaving him alone.

Now he stood before his tormentors...physically, no different than he was before, short and scrawny, but with one noticeable difference: his mane had been totally shaved off. The short hair around his head gave him an even more feminine appearance, which no doubt was one of the reasons the five bullies were shocked.

The first to recover was Prentice, another lion like him but over a foot taller and with a lot better bodybuilding success, and he looked positively evil when he came to. "Well, shit...I know you looked like a girly-boy before, but damn, you might as well grow a pussy now."

"If you think that'll increase your odds, you'll be disappointed," Race shot back boldly. He could see Prentice's expression flicker at the retort, not used to Race being so combative.

"What the fuck do you expect?" Sawyer, a wolverine, was the shortest of the crew but could hold his own against any of them. "You de-maned yourself, you took away the most obvious sign of being a guy you have, it's like you were asking to be treated like a girl."

"Well, maybe if he wanted some from a girl, he'd learn to respect them. Until then, he can get lost."

"Someone got themselves a smart mouth over the summer." Harlem, a tiger with dyed blue stripes, snarled angrily at him. "Maybe we oughta put something in there to shut you up."

"Sorry, it's a smart mouth, it doesn't take dumb dicks." That only got Harlem growling louder. "Oh, piss off, you know you're not gonna do anything to me. Not when you're on permanent probation."

"And since when do you get to talk about that?!"

"Easy, Harlem," a huge stallion said, putting an arm out to keep Harlem back. Jackson was the tallest of the group and combined with the girth of his muscles it made him look like a near monster. "You know this wannabe is just trying to get you in trouble. Couldn't put an ounce onto his body so he put it all on his attitude. He'll learn soon enough that acting big is no substitute for being big."

"I don't need to be big," Race responded proudly. "In fact, I'm almost glad you guys laid so much shit on me before. It taught me that it doesn't matter how good I look if I act like an asshole to everyone." He slammed his locker shut, having finished changing, while four pairs of eyes glared at him. "I'm done trying to be like you, and I'm done letting you dicks push me around. I may never be able to beat you up, but I can make you feel like shit nonetheless."

He folded his arms and looked them down, an obvious challenge that he knew they wouldn't risk. The only one who hadn't spoken yet was Cross, a blue dragon that had been probably the biggest pain in his ass. He wasn't meaner than the others - he threw out his share of shade but was the quietest of the group - but the problem was that his parent's knew Cross's family, and they had often tried to hold him up to that level, telling him that was what he should be aspiring to. Cross had used that against him a few times, and now as Race stared them down, it was almost as if he was daring Cross to pull that out against him. The dragon didn't bite, though, and the bell rang soon after, forcing them all to get out to class.


By the end of the second week of class, a pattern had clearly emerged. One of the muscle jocks would give Race shit, and Race would give them shit right back. It was a far cry from last year, when he would be begging them to shut up, almost in tears at times, unable to put together a coherent response. He was almost disgusted with his past self, but the past was the past, what he could be thankful for now was his new outlook.

And inevitably, the musclemen were more bothered by his words than he was by theirs. Not that they didn't put forth their best effort, but inevitably, the insults they traded had more to do with image than anything else. And they were remarkably sensitive about their image, while Race had thrown that all away over the summer. A large part of the reason he had shaved in the first place was because of that - he was so tired of having to live up to an image that he couldn't achieve that he just turned it around and gave himself one that he had control over. No more pretending that he was a proud, strong lion in waiting, just embracing what he really was and not caring whether anyone else had a problem with it. It was quite liberating, actually; he at first didn't know if it'd be something he'd really be okay with, but by this point he was enjoying his new role.

It had even gotten him a few new friends. Quite a few students thought he was very strange, shaving off his mane, but there were a few that enjoyed his boldness, especially towards the muscle guys that had also given them flak. It was definitely making life in school easier, now that he felt like he didn't have to take it on alone. And it was also getting other students to be able to stand up to them as well, especially when the things they were really sensitive about got exposed.

That Friday found Race heading to the locker room late after school, when most everyone else was gone. He'd stayed after to help the gym coach do some repair work on the storage shed with a couple other students, but they were apparently long gone by the time he got inside. Shrugging, he pulled off his sweaty clothes, and made for the shower.

He'd thought it was empty, but as soon as he got to the tap and turned it to, he heard a snicker behind him. Turning rapidly, he saw it was Cross, the dragon leaning against the wall, arms folded and looking at him deviously. Not only that, but the dragon was completely nude, AND showing off more than just his muscles; his long, thick cock was standing at attention, and it really had Race's.

"Wanting a taste?"

Race wanted to say no, to give Cross a piece of his mind; the dragon had been enough of an asshole to him and a torment even when he wasn't there thanks to his parents' expectations. But he found that his mouth wasn't quite working properly, and the staring at the dragon's cock wasn't helping.

In just a few broad paces, Cross was in front of him, looking even bigger and more imposing than he ever had before. A broad hand on his shoulder and he was pushed down, his head coming into contact with that gigantic pole, the powerful male scent flooding his nose. "I can tell you do, so don't keep me waiting."

Again he should have said something, but the moment his mouth opened, he found himself more interested in running his tongue along the cock in his face. He licked at it, his head swimming as the powerful taste drove into his senses, putting any thought of getting away out of his mind for good. His rough tongue rasped along the thick ridges, getting a purr from the dragon above him; he was enjoying it as much or more than Cross was.

Soon he was doing more than licking. His mouth opened and engulfed the tip of the dragon's cock, and he bogan bobbing up and down the first few inches, working his tongue along the tiny hole at the tip and making Cross's legs shake. He wasn't experienced, but he could tell he was doing well enough, as the dragon's grip on his head spurred him on. Race couldn't do much more than he was now, Cross was too big for him to deep-throat, but he didn't let up on what pleasure he could give him, the warmth of his mouth and the texture of his tongue driving the dragon wild.

Before things could get much more heated, Cross pulled Race off of his cock and lifted him bodily. The lion was pressed against the wall, kept off the ground by the dragon's powerful arms, as that large cock pressed up against his rear. Once more he realized he should talk, should try to take the dragon down for using him like this, but he could feel his own cock pressed against the tile of the shower wall, much smaller than Cross's, small even for a lion, yet hard and throbbing at the treatment he'd been getting, and all objections died rapidly away.

Cross pressed into him, slowly spreading his hole with his enormous tool. Race growled as he felt himself open up, the slickness of his oral treatment and the dragon's natural fluids easing the way. Each thick ridge stretched him wider as they pushed in, and he could feel the pressure touch his prostate and give him a good deal of pleasure to distract from the discomfort of being distended like this for the first time. As Cross's hips met his, his legs tried to find purchase, swinging around as the ground continued to elude them.

Then the dragon pulled out part way, and pushed back in more vigorously. He was pressed against the wall, his cock rubbing against the tile, and the feelings in his rear became more pronounced. A moan escaped him as Cross began truly working him, his slow pace becoming gradually faster. He could feel the hot breath on the back of his neck as Cross began licking him, making him shudder as the sensation ran along his spine, complimenting the pressure in his ass beautifully.

Race was pushing back now, meeting the thrusts with his own, even though they overpowered him and kept shoving him into the wall. Soft cries mixed with the moans as the dragoncock pummeled his prostate and edged him ever closer to his climax, Cross's grip getting tighter as he sped up more, now delivering a beastly ravaging to the undersized lion. Heat flooded his face as he realized that the dragon was making him his bitch, and he'd not said a word to stop him...but the pleasure was so real, so powerful, that even this couldn't overcome.

And then Cross pressed him even harder to the wall and slammed in hard, and Race cried out as he came, his seed painting the wall and his own fur as Cross relentlessly thrust into him, heedless of his tensing and tightening. He brought his jaw down on Race's shoulder to muffle his roar as he too hit his climax, pumping a strong, thick load of dragoncum into the lion's rear. It was a huge flood from the scaly stud, and Race couldn't get enough of it as he felt it fill in him, adding to the already large amount of dragon inside him. His fingers clawed at the tile as they rode out their peaks, letting the rush flow through them until it finally died away, leaving them both panting and unsteady.

As Cross pulled out, Race felt a fair bit of his load come with, his ass leaking the musky white substance profusely. Even a shower wasn't going to rid him of that scent, though he didn't have much choice. As the tingles of the pleasure faded and he was set down, Cross still holding him, he leaned against the wall, frustration creeping in. He'd been trying to get the bullies off his ass since school started, and until today he'd been beating them...but now Cross had beaten him, he'd gotten to him in a way he wasn't prepared for. He tried to look back at the dragon, but it wasn't really working the way they were positioned. "So...what...you gonna try to tell everyone what a bitch I am?"

"Of course not," the dragon hummed into his ear, as he felt the grip shift, and the dragon's hands start rubbing against him. "You stopped being a bitch when you stopped trying to pretend you were something you weren't."

"Huh?"

"All that time wasted last year, trying to act like you were gonna be the next big thing, and then getting all upset when you got teased about it...that's what a bitch is like. They're pretenders that can't handle it when they get called out. But this Race...this is the real deal. Doesn't take shit, doesn't pretend...just being himself and taking pride in being himself. That's what attracted me to you..."

"A...attracted?"

"Mm, yes, very much so. It takes a guy with fire in him to get my fire going, and I don't want to wake up and find out it was all an act. I want your fire, Race. And if you want mine, then I think we'll all be happy."

It didn't take a lot of thought for him to agree. "Yeah...I want yours, too, Cross." What he had feared hadn't come to pass...it wasn't defeat, it was just another victory for being himself. And the fact that it netted him a hot dragon stud to boot...well, he wouldn't be letting his mane grow back any time soon.