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VI.

Had Another Chance Tonight

And all the damn while – all the goddam while – Bligh was worrying if Drew was right.

In the middle of fucking Drew's boyfriend, in the middle of feeling the boy's ass convulse on his length and say nasty things about so big and harder – he was still worrying that Drew might have been right, that there was nothing about his homeland worth defending.

Bligh had been born on the Twentieth of June – West Virginia Day. The daddy of his granddaddy's-granddaddy's-granddaddy came over from Ireland to settle by the Greenbrier River because of the Famine, and his son, another of Bligh's granddaddies, he went on up to Wheeling to sign the papers to break off from Richmond…Hell his family had helped found West Virginia.

So he couldn't, wouldn't, hear anything bad about his home state.

Mountaineers are always free, motherfucker.

But it wounded him in the middle of his triumph, what he couldn't express in his sexual supremacy, thrusting, spraying pre as he grunted and growled, into this kid – Cody, of course Bligh knew his name, but he had spent the last however long it had been just stupidly jealous of him he barely thought he deserved a name at all, just a kid, just a boy, younger than him, impaled and squirming on his dick.

He'd spent his whole life with his grandfather who made him proud of who he was, and Bligh's pride could only be wounded by Lightfoots, like Stevie or Drew, the two brothers, little devils from the big devil himself Archie, who went a little nuts after Bligh's daddy died because everyone, even Archie's wife, hated Archie for being Archie – everyone except Bligh's daddy, his only friend, dead almost twenty years.

Bligh's daddy had a son that was always proud.

Hell, he was proud right now of the sounds Cody made, the pleasure he could give him, the effortless way he had taken him…he was proud of what he couldn't understand that curdled in his blood and made him the way he was – the tail, the paws, the fur, probably, maybe, he couldn't think about that now, he just wanted Drew to see, to really understand, but how could he, how could he if he really hated where they both came from, how could this work, how could this ever fucking work…?

He grit his teeth, he let Cody see his fangs, but he had to get ahold of himself if he wanted to cum…did he even want to? Now? Or did he want to wait—?

He decided to relent, the back and the forth of his hips getting slower, slower, until they stopped altogether.

And Cody – legs spread, nearly getting concussed because he kept hitting the wall that the bed, his bed, his and Drew's bed was set up against – opened his eyes. They were liquid and absent from whatever reality this was, and when he opened them he rolled them back to the ceiling.

Bligh watched him, watched his tan, smooth chest rise and hesitate before falling and then rising again…he let himself slip out, a wet slurp they both heard, and Cody cried a sorry noise of disappointment, like he was no longer complete.

Cody's eyes closed one more time, he reached down to massage his open, abused hole – his anus was still gaping from the damage wrought by Bligh's genitals. He hissed, he shuddered, he cringed, all at once, he threw his hand back to the pillow.

And as he lay there, his breaths heavy and choked and dry, Bligh sat over top of him, his knees into the mattress, so that when Cody stopped quaking and trembling from his uncontrolled arousal, the first thing he saw, the first name he spoke was:

"Bligh…"

They had such few words before now: there were barely any in the parking lot, and even less in the bedroom – but they were magnetically, savagely attracted to each other. Bligh could sense it, what little sexual experience he had he knew what he was doing to Cody, he knew what effect he was having on him.

He put his hand on Cody's chest, a hand rough from hard work, an outdoorsman's hand, tought enough it could tear the perfect, tight, Floridian flesh – against the skin, hammering, was Cody's heart.

"Oh—" Cody said, a weak smile melting to confusion. "That – that was – so f-fucking good…"

Now, by lamplight, in the ebbing afterglow, Cody's bewilderment caught up to him: his hazel eyes ran in nystagmic patterns, trying to come to a sense that eluded him.

Bligh, creature, naked abomination of nature, an uneven hybrid – Cody could not fathom him.

"But – what – what are you—?"

Bligh leaned back, just a little, enough to have Cody be able to look at him, study him, what not a soul had seen before.

On his taut, firm body – thin, but hard with sinew and muscle – were four additional nipples, diminishing in size down the milkline, where they joined the familiar two on the breasts, in the midst of a silky forest of sable body hair from his neck to his navel, covering an ironclad set of six-pack abs.

His legs were furred the same supple sable of the hair on his head, and terminated in pawed feet with claw-like toenails…from behind him, as Cody had seen, was a long, plumed, midnight-black tail.

And then – the masterpiece – his penis, a wet, glistening, iridescent spear, the color of pigeon's blood, at its base, bulging, a rounded knot, jutting out over a pair of hen's egg-sized testicles completely coated in the same night-black fur…taken together, it should have belonged to a great hound, a fanciful canine beast.

They – Florida youth, Appalachian haint – watched each other, the latter letting the former take it all in before he answered…Cody finally caught his breath as Bligh swished his tail back and forth.

"Ain't what I am, Pup – s'what I became."

"Pup…" Cody whispered, his face slowly lightening up before collapsing back into perplexity: "So then, what, you're – saying – I guess – you're really not – human…"

"Fuckin right. I'm better." Bligh's lips remained parted, and Cody stared at his elongated eyeteeth – fangs. "This is who I really am. This is how I changed…"

"So—" Cody was struggling to put the pieces together. "You – you used to be—"

"Yep."

Bligh finally removed the Baltimore Ravens cap he had been wearing since his arrival, to reveal pointed, wolf-like ears, black and furry and lustrous.

They moved, swiveled, folded, sprang straight again – Bligh was moving them, the nerves twitching the cartilage to show them to Cody, to let him see without speaking.

Cody's eyes grew still wider, the sheen in them from the ecstasy and agony of sex catching the light in the room – he jerked forward, his arm outstretched, and Bligh lowered his head, a tame beast, to let him touch.

Bligh's cock, which was starting to move back into his canid sheath, reemerged as Cody massaged his ears, soft and satiny – Bligh loved having his ears played with, even when he did it himself, he had wanted to play with them in the truck with Drew, but…

…he forgot what he was thinking. A vibration, a pleasurable tremolo, built and grew in Bligh's chest, and his cock grew back to full size.

But Cody choked on a breath and jerked his hand away, it was obvious, without saying anything, that he was the victim of his own feelings, in pain from being too taken by this canine nightmare, to be party to the cuckolding of someone he loved more than mere words – to feel these things at all.

Bligh and Cody possessed the instant closeness, without past or future, of new lovers – they weren't sure about each other, pulled apart but then brought together again by their physical attractions.

And Bligh knew there were so many questions he wanted to ask, so many things he needed to know – but the look on Cody's face, all he could think about, all he could utter was:

"This is bad," he said. "Oh – fuck – this is bad—"

"Pup," Bligh whispered, taking his chin in his hand. "Why?"

A pained look came to him: "I don't wanna – feel this way about someone other—" He froze, before his face collapsed in despair. "Other than Andy—" His head went to Andrew, crumpled but slumbering, by the bedroom door. "And I'm worried about him…he's over there, he still hasn't moved and—"

"He fine, Pup. He only sleepin."

"But he hasn't woken up," Cody protested.

"He ain't gonna for a little bit."

Cody squinted at Bligh in something like irritation. "Well how – how long is a little bit?"

"I'd never hurt em, Pup."

"How – long," Cody repeated.

Bligh frowned. "Not too terr'bly long—"

"Will he be okay?"

"I used some herbs from the mountain – boiled em down, and dipped em on my knife. Pappy – my grand – daddy – he used t'use it when he slaughtered hogs back in the day. He'll be out fer the duration – but he ain't hurt or nuthin."

Cody seemed to recover himself, and he came forward to insist: "Are you sure? Are you sure he's okay?"

Bligh straightened himself over Cody, locking eyes with him, asserting what he knew was a natural dominance.

"Fer the last time – I'm sure."

At this, Cody yielded, and he grew slack amongst the pillows, his eyes trailing away, a little sigh coming out his nose – after a short length he flicked his eyes, narrowing, back to Bligh's.

"Well – why? Why did you do this?"

"Why I made em sleep?"

"I done it cuz – he ain't ready, Pup. He—" Bligh found himself gripped by a sudden surge of emotion, and he gritted his teeth, fangs bared, to suppressed it. "It all went – bout as well I thought it would – n'he – n'he ain't ready ta – ta see me like this."

"So – you changed and you – you made him sleep – outta fear?" Cody still seemed undeterred. "If you were best friends like you said you were—" He paused. "Like he said you were—"

"He said that?"

"All the time."

Bligh felt a small, warm feeling flow from his chest that he willed away to stop.

"If the two of you really – really were, then—" Cody shook his head. "It wouldn't matter what you—"

Bligh silenced him with a kiss to the forehead, coming down to brush against Cody's quivering lips.

"Nuthin I can do bout it now, Pup."

Cody kissed Bligh on the cheek, then on his beard.

Now Bligh's hand ran through Cody's hair, gently ruffling it, settling on the back of his head, which he gingerly cupped in his palm.

"Y'okay there?" he said, the same murmur. He smirked, just a small movement of his mouth. "Uh – ya hit that wall pretty hard, now—"

"I guess," Cody half-laughed, as though embarrassed, before his face turned sad again. "It was really great, but—"

"Ya wanted it, right?"

Cody did not hesitate – he nodded. "Yeah, definitely. Like in the parking lot—"

Bligh kissed him. "Ya felt sumthin when we met, didn't ya?"

Cody blushed hard. "Yeah, yeah I did. You were the hottest guy I ever saw. I mean – Andy's hot but—"

Bligh smirked. "I know. Animal attraction s'what they call it—"

"I've heard of it."

Now he grinned, knowing. "Wanted me the first time ya saw me…"

Cody sighed, nodding, as though thankful Bligh had said it and not him. "I hadn't – been with anyone but Andy in forever and I – you just looked so good—"

Putting his face to Cody's, Bligh looked into the boy's eyes, as Drew had in the parking lot, for affirmation:

"So it weren't nuthin – happens all the time. I wanted ye, ya wanted me—"

"I know, I know…" Cody shook his head, humiliated, but looking like he was trying to keep control. "You're right. Since – since I – saw you, like you said…"

Bligh smirked, fresh arousal building at knowing how Cody really felt. "Zat right, now?"

"But I didn't really know what to do, or what—" Cody shrugged, but his face burned with sexual agitation. "I just thought – I – mean – Andy kept saying you were straight—"

Bligh's eyebrows met over his nose. "He what?"

"He – h-he—" Cody was stammering. "Y-yeah. He did. He kept saying that."

Bligh's expression became blank with confusion, his penis once again retreating backward. "Why?"

Cody shook his head. "I dunno – I dunno?"

He wanted to press this, he wanted to ask Cody more, because Cody must have heard it from Drew directly – Stevie had said the same thing about Drew and it still puzzled Bligh deeply, what about him people would assume was straight when his passion, his devotion, all this time, all these years was…

… but Bligh just shrugged it off, for now, only for now, his tail sweeping back and forth across the bedsheets.

"That dun make no sense, man," he muttered, frowning. "Reckon he'd remember, girls ain't liked me much."

"No way," Cody scoffed. "What?"

"I ain't – uh—" He smirked sheepishly. "I ain't the cleanest guy…"

Cody chuckled softly. "Well – you do kinda smell—"

Bligh smirked. "Thanks…"

"But I dunno—" Cody sat up some, glancing away as though to think. "I dunno why he said that, but yeah he – he did."

"Dang," was all Bligh could manage.

"So – wait – girls never liked you even though you were really hot—?"

Bligh's tail gave a happy wag, and he couldn't help but laugh – cackle, Drew and Stevie called it, but he only knew it as a laugh. "There ya go again, sayin I'm hot."

Cody kept his eyes on the nightstand, before shutting them, nodding, a smile appearing and dying in an instant, a faint shudder going through him.

"Maybe – yeah…"

Bligh leaned down to nudge Cody's face with his nose – Cody's eyes shot to Bligh's, locked together in one exquisite, thrilling moment.

They kissed, lightly, Cody backing away to blurt out what he was thinking:

"But – hey, maybe he – maybe he just told himself that – the straight thing – Bligh."

He tugged at the covers underneath him, shifting where he lay on the bed – there was no residue, no slimy santorum like when he and Andy made love because Bligh's canid genitals needed no lube, his thighs weren't clammy and moist like they usually were, he could move his legs freely and not feel gross.

And with the last word – Bligh's name – Cody moved his neck to one side, cocking his head, a movement that Bligh read as trying to reassert himself, to keep his identity, to not be consumed.

The statement was brief and it was profound and it came out of nowhere, ten minutes ago they had been fucking, and now, now Bligh felt his throat tighten with emotion, now Bligh was back to doubting himself, now Bligh's pride had reopened its wound.

"That…huh," he said. "Never – never really…"

He sighed, he sat back on his footpaws, his tail stopped its pleasant metronomic sway and limpened to a stillness…his ears flattened themselves without him telling them to.

Cody must have seen it, he must have seen all the actions of Bligh's body, all the automatic responses of the animal – but he, Cody, he bore no fur, no pelt, he was all flesh, the product of sly Seminoles and clear-eyed Picts who wore the animals they hunted because they lacked all the things animals had.

He sat all the way up.

"Look, I can't – I need to – what – what are you? What is – all this?"

One of Bligh's ears twitched as he smirked, self-aware, feeling Cody's eyes all over him. He wanted to reveal as little as he could, because he knew so little himself.

"Whattya reckon I am, Pup?"

For just an instant, Cody seemed far away, a distance opened up with his eyes that only he could see – somewhere past Bligh, somewhere away from them both.

"Honestly?"

"O'course."

His mouth opened slowly, and out came four words, a deliberate phrase, which lacked the nervous stutter and the hesitation of all this time between them:

"The Big Bad Wolf."

Bligh stared at him. "Wolf…"

He remembered, in the newly awkward silence that enveloped them as soon as Cody said it, the old dream, the thing from his childhood he had only given the smallest hints to Drew about, how he longed to be free – totally, completely free, and be a werewolf, on his mountain, because a mountain with a wolf on it, with him on it, stands a little taller. Now he'd gotten what he wanted only kind of, he was barely halfway there, right now he was stuck where he was.

Drew said he wanted to be a scientist, he said that all the time – and what had Bligh wanted to be?

What Cody said he was.

"Wolf," Cody repeated back. "Big Bad Wolf. That's exactly what I thought when I saw you—" He paused. "Really saw you – tonight." Before Bligh could answer him, Cody shut his eyes again, and in a calm, clear voice, he recited something from memory: "If you see a man naked amidst the pines, run child, run as though the—" His voice cracked, and his eyes came open with a fresh luster over the hazel. "As though the Devil were after you…"

Bligh's tail wagged slightly as he heard Cody say it, and he narrowed his eyes as he felt a familiar tug somewhere in his thoughts – something he recognized.

"That – s'from a movie, ain't it?"

"I—" Cody tried to answer, but shrugged instead. "Maybe. I know it was from a book my Mom read, and—"

"They made a movie outta – yeah." Bligh looked to the wall, nodding to himself as he put the spare pieces together. "Yeah, they did."

"Well that's cool, then…" Cody said with a small smile. "It's cool we both know that—" He stopped. "And – and I could have run. I could have, like – like the Devil was after me." He shook his head. "But I didn't. I wanted to stay…"

Bligh made his face turn serious, leaning in close so that their lips were spare breaths apart.

"I ain't no wolf, boy."

"You're not?"

"Nah."

"Then what are you?"

"I'm a dawg."

"A dog?"

Bligh smirked. "I ain't got bit by no big monster, ain't drank no water outta a pawprint – or nuthin…" The smirk grew. "Jest a dawg, Pup…jest a dawg."

At this, he took Cody's hand into his own, pressing their faces together, moving the other hand to Cody's chest to gently massage it.

"Hey – that feels nice…" Cody murmured, smiling. Bligh liked Cody, Bligh was attracted to Cody – but when Bligh saw that smile, Bligh loved Cody.

Somewhere inside him Bligh knew this was more than just trying to get Drew, this was more than desperation, if that could even be possible – this was something new altogether.

Bligh's people were strange folk in the hills that danced about bonfires come the chill of Autumn and the harvest, that whispered heathen things in the breathless language half-remembered taught by their elders across the great sea that had been miraculously preserved from being swallowed by the Great Hunger…no matter where he was born he was all Old World, if he was a dog, so he claimed, he would be the Hound of Culann.

But Cody…

As he brought his hand to Cody's face, as Cody leaned in, insistently, to kiss him – as their lips met – Bligh knew why Andrew had fallen in love with him, because he was entirely youth, renewal, a promise of something better against a hopeless world, the last rose of Summer, left blooming alone, like Pappy used to sing.

They kissed, deeply, passionately – Bligh wondered if Cody still struggled, if he finally relented, if this all had been worth it…he was too damn horny to think right, he was measuring how aggressive Cody was being, how second by second he was shedding his shame and giving in.

Nearby, the heir to the throne, the scion, Andrew – Drew, Andy – slept in anesthetized blackness. If Cody belonged to him then so did Bligh, he owned them both…but as Cody and Bligh kissed, the two of them were skidding into something new, something unformed and unexplored: belonging to each other.

Cody finally let go.

He reached down and grabbed the tapered tip of Bligh's penis, and the touch of his hand on the sensitive cockflesh made his whole body tense – Bligh's tail jerked up, his shaft swelled, a blast of pre erupted from the tip, spraying the pillow, narrowly missing Cody's face.

"F-fuck!" Bligh blurted – but he recovered, jerking his head up to smirk, now evilly, now knowingly, at his new lover. "Ha – gotcha, boy – ya like this dawg dick, dontcha?"

"D-don't—" Cody laughed, taking his hand back, as though he was totally self-aware. "Yeah, I – I did – I do—" He laughed again, harder this time. "I just do, okay?"

"Thought so," Bligh answered with a soft little laugh that Drew once called a titter. He reached to his penis, and he began to stroke it lovingly, rising some to let Cody get a better view. "Lemme tell ya – Pup – I fuckin love it…" The strokes increased in speed, his index finger gently swirling the surface of his knot. "…more than fuckin anythin…" His breathing intensified, cut short when an involuntary spurt of musky-smelling viscous liquid – precum – volleyed from the tapered tip, cutting a wet swathe across Cody's face.

Cody's countenance, with the pale wet streak tearing a divide across it, started out as shocked, but then grew into being amazed, as he beheld Bligh's manhood – doghood, there was absolutely nothing man-like about it. Bligh inched forward to ensure his penis would crowd Cody's entire vision.

Now taking the massive canid cock in his hand, Cody continued to stare at it with a sort of reverence – responding to the touch, Bligh made a noise halfway between a moan and a grunt as a third shot of precum splattered on Cody's face, one more time. Cody, in turn, seemed almost not to notice – he shut his eyes and smeared the inhuman organ on his cheeks, around his mouth, looking utterly entranced and enraptured by its superior size, its strange yet familiar shape. He was completely and fully under a spell of heightened sexual ecstasy, his bare boyish face dripping with the slick, greyish fluid.

"Yeah – yeah – want s'more – Pup?"

Cody's response was breathy and barely coherent: "Y-yes—"

"Damn right ya do…"

Bligh sat up, his knees digging into the sheets and the mattress, letting Cody come closer, still closer, to take his dick in both hands – he gave it a lick, tasting it, then another, and still another.

"So – big—"

"Better'n a fuckin human's – better'n anythin a human could ever fuckin be…"

"I know," Cody whispered. "Deep – down – I know…" He nodded, slowly, before he leaned up to position himself better, taking the tapered tip into his mouth to suck on it – Bligh teased himself around his knot to once again splurt directly into Cody's mouth, watching him obediently swallow it.

Cody was struggling with Bligh's size even if he had admitted he loved the shape, it was a challenge for him to fit these canid genitals into his mouth just right, but after only a few tries he got it – Bligh pressed his fangs into his lips as he moaned in pleasure as Cody's talented tongue set to work.

Gradually, building in speed, Cody's head bobbed back and forth, taking as much as he could with his suppressed gag reflex – Bligh gasped aloud, his knot swelling to its full size, overcome, balling his fists, pounding them into the mattress, breaths quick as he counterthrusted in time.

Even on his knees on a bed – with his fists clenched like this, with his tail joyously awag, with a beautiful boy beneath him, servicing his phallus – Bligh had assumed the stance of some impossible fertility deity, something he couldn't understand or recognize, brief as it was, ancient as it could be.

But it did not last.

With an exultant cackle, eyes still closed, feeling his testicles roil with power, Bligh released into Cody's mouth, bucking strong, his tail abruptly rigid and unmoving, grabbing handfuls of Cody's hair with both hands for balance.

Cody's motions, in turn, stopped at once as he struggled to swallow the incoming flood of semen that Bligh made.

After a few more thrusts, Bligh's victorious orgasm at last subsided.

Slowly, carefully, he withdrew his cock from Cody's mouth – he looked down to see that his new lover's maw was still full of the cloudy grey semen, and before he could say anything in concern he watched him choke back on the fluid until, little by little, like he was concentrating on the task, he swallowed it, all of it, every last drop.

"Dammit – ta – Hell that was good…" Bligh managed.

"T-thanks…" Cody mumbled.

Bligh leaned slightly to caress Cody's face – then, reaching behind himself, took his tail and brushed it against Cody's cheek…Cody, in turn, reached up to pet it with one hand, looking up at Bligh with what looked like wonder…

"Now ya know why I was wearin jeans in Florida…had ta hide the tail."

"Tail…" Cody repeated flatly.

Bligh looked down at Cody in concern, his cock still uncomfortably sensitive – he could feel, as he always could after he came, the blood coursing through it – but something in Cody's answer gave him pause.

"Pup? Uh – Cody? Y'aight there?"

Cody's own cock was painfully erect, but he had not came – Bligh watched him put a hand to his stomach, a slow, drugged smile creeping across his face.

"I feel so full – so filled – up—"

His words were low and almost slurred, so that Bligh's eyes started to widen in mounting worry.

"Hey – hey, talk ta me—"

"Tastes…weird – s'good, but s'weird…" Cody's speech had become a low mumble, the slur getting worse, like he was drunk – he fell forward into Bligh, who let him embrace his soft, fur-covered legs. "S'weird…" he repeated. "Real…weird…"

"Wait a sec – Pup, talk ta me—"

Cody shoved himself off of Bligh, tumbling back onto a heap amidst the pillows, shaking his head the whole while.

"I'm fine, I'm fine—"

As he slid off the bed, making a quick hacking noise like he was swallowing the last few droplets of cum still in his throat, a fear crept in Bligh's chest, and he straightened himself, following Cody close behind.

"Gimme a minute," Cody said.

"Where ya goin, Pup?"

"H-hold on – bathroom – just wanna—" As Cody came to the threshold, he jerked out his arm, gripping the molding. "Just – w-wanna—"

The dread Bligh had been feeling worsened as he watched. "Wait, Pup—"

"Stop – calling—"

Cody's back was to him, but Bligh saw his back muscles tense, a violent shift, his hand clutching the wood so hard his knuckles were turning white – he heard Cody snarl back a guttural answer, each word, and then each syllable, an angry dry heave:

"Name – not – Pup – name – my – name – Da – ko – ta—"

And then he wrenched his neck back and made a twisted, haunted noise that turned Bligh's blood to ice – a cry, a solitary call, that used all the air in his lungs, that rattled the walls and shook the rafters.

And it was something – something Bligh remembered hearing before.

He knew he remembered it – even when he had actually hadn't.

It was something that was called up from a dream, something that squirmed in his brain that he could not capture or touch…he had felt this feeling a few times before, this sensation of a vault thrown open inside his head he didn't even know exist, a paralyzing destiny he could not help or fight.

He wrenched Cody away from the bathroom threshold, and lowered him, gently, to the floor.

As if on cue, Cody whimpered, bringing his hands to his belly again as if in some sort of terrible internal agony. He wallowed blindly into a supine position, his hand reaching for his penis.

"So it's gonna happen like this…" Bligh murmured to himself, not knowing what the words even meant.

He took in a final breath, letting himself be consumed by the unfamiliar familiarities of instincts he barely understood, and he knelt down, to let himself be not a lover, but something paternal, something protective.

Cody had been masturbating for the past few seconds, but now his hand picked up speed, rubbing his foreskin in a quickening rhythm – as he tried to go faster and faster, Bligh cradled the boy's head, kissing his cheek.

"Gonna be alright…" He swallowed hard. "Gonna be alright – Cody."

Cody's moans became yet louder, until they seemed to be well outside of his control – as though those cracked cries were the only way to express all the foreign sensations invading his nervous system.

He continued to masturbate as hard as he seemed able, his mouth hanging open in protracted ecstasy…

…and as Bligh watched, a tightness filling his chest with uncountable, ineffable feelings – with each passing circulation of blood, Cody's canines began to sharpen, the enamel and the bone reshaping themselves.

Cody's eyeteeth grew into fangs.

And as his teeth at last reached their final shape, Cody's ears – again, with every heartbeat – grew and lengthened into points, soon covered in a light velvety fuzz the same color as his tawny hair. Bligh pressed his face against Cody's cheek, moving up to kiss those same ears, licking them, encouraging them to grow, following some blind command of biology he had never felt before.

Below the waist, Cody's penis begin to lengthen in tandem with his hand moving up and down on it – little by little, it morphed into something deformed and inhuman, so that the tip was no longer the familiar mushroom but instead a sharpened, streamlined end…like Bligh's, like a dog's.

The foreskin, intact to begin with, was rapidly thickening and growing, sprouting more of the same light tawny fuzz like that on his ears, which spread and soon completely covered his testicles as well – the foreskin finally shaped itself into a canine sheath attaching itself to the bottom of his abdomen.

Bligh, the words of his inner logic silenced, lowered his head to give Cody's newly streamlined glans an experimental lick – Cody responded with a loud moan. Bligh closed his eyes and engulfed Cody's metamorphosing penis into his mouth, bobbing his head in a passionate blowjob, so that Cody convulsed with pleasure, his eyes shut tight.

With Cody still virtually immobile, Bligh grasped the furry sheath, moving it up and down Cody's shaft – but instead of letting the boy finish, he abruptly stopped, causing Cody to let loose two firm squirts of precum that lashed Bligh's face in a ragged stream.

He took the transparent fluid that had stuck to his face with his finger – and slurped it.

"Ya taste—" His eyes widened in realization, scarcely hearing himself speak. "Ya taste like me."

Deaf and blind from pleasure, and now without Bligh's oral stimulation, Cody had taken to once again masturbating with both hands, unable to see, as Bligh could, the changes coming to his body.

Unlike Bligh's, which was a red the color of a ruby, Cody's penis was smaller, and hued a scarlet. At its base, a small bulge, completely encased in the fuzzy-velvet sheath, had begun to form – it was only slightly noticeable at first, but Bligh had seemed to be expecting it, in the spare, blank moments of his own new feelings, and he lowered his head to lick it.

As if in response, the bulge grew bigger, and then bigger again, widening more until the foreskin could no longer hold it, and it slipped out unguarded – a canid knot, smaller than the massive one Bligh sported, but totally robbing Cody's genitals of any last semblance of humanity.

Lust as Bligh had never felt, carnal and profane, flooded his whole being as he watched this transformation – with a single action of his mouth he massaged the new knot with his tongue, slobbering, upward, to suckle voraciously on the glans.

Unable to take any more stimulation, Cody let go, and climaxed, his semen unusually copious – Bligh swallowed it all, finishing with an audible gulp.

He withdrew as Cody sucked in desperate breaths, rolling over to get on all fours, his mouth wide and open for his fangs, letting out strange noises of afterglow, confusion, and pleasure. He was like this as he lowered his head to the ground – as a new extension of his own spine, sprouting from his coccyx, encased in fastly-growing flesh, emerged from just above his anus.

Still acting on some new, but deeply unconscious instinct, Bligh stroked this grotesque new addition as it grew, longer, ultimately extending to just right at Cody's shin. All at once, from base to tip, the entire measure of the new tail bloomed – as did his legs, from foot to waist – with feathery fur, the same color as Cody's hair, each follicle bursting forth with the new growth.

With one final groan, his tongue out between his new fangs, Cody cringed hard, as the bottoms of his feet keratinizing, hardening, and hardened into paw-pads, toenails lengthening and sharpening to resemble claws.

He fell to the floor, sprawled – his new ears, his new tail, his whole body, flat, exhausted…his eyes, filled with the tears of delirium, opened slowly, to a new world for him to exist in.

"Bligh…?" he breathed. "Bligh? I – I feel w-weird—"

Bligh pounced atop him, pulling him close – the wordless directions that had invaded his brain were gone, he was back, he could think again.

And all he could think about was Cody.

He cradled him, lovingly, stroking his hair as Cody positioned himself to put his face in Bligh's lap, looking up at him – he stayed this way, febrile, half-awake, for several seconds.

Worries, questions, bombarded Bligh's inner thoughts, but he ignored them, all he wanted was for Cody to be okay.

So he held Cody, just like this, for several seconds.

"Cody – hey – talk ta me – can ya—?"

"Bligh?" Cody said again. "I – something's—" He stopped, gritting his teeth, seemingly wracked with some new inner agony. "Oh – g-gosh—"

"Cody?" He shook him. "Cody!"

"S-some – thiiing—"

Tensing his body and struggling to sit up, Cody grabbed hold tight of Bligh as the penultimate stage of metamorphosis burst within him:

Pushing to the surface of Cody's smooth midsection were eight new nipples on either side of his torso, identical to the ones on his breast that he was born with as a human, but getting smaller as they went down his body – he gulped down a helpless breath like he was struggling for oxygen, and his hand smacked against his bare chest, where his heart was, his cardiac muscles hideously contracting and shifting underneath his fingers.

Bligh panicked, shoving his face to Cody's, breathing into his mouth – it was a stupid, useless thing to do, he knew it, but he did it anyway, so close to this boy so soon, the terror of losing him so new and so fresh.

But no sooner had he done it – when he felt Cody's tongue lick his own.

Then – they were kissing.

Cody was still gasping, he must have been trying to stabilize his breathing, to literally tell his heart to be still after it too mutated strangely – he was still gasping, but he was still close to Bligh, he was still intimate with him, he still trusted him.

Finally, Cody's respiratory convulsions subsided, and again he fell limp, his breathes becoming longer and less labored…Bligh cradled him, holding him closer.

Then – then Bligh felt an urge, as deep as knowing how to cry – he lifted his arm and took his finger, he placed it on Cody's forehead and he traced, he traced the symbol that he had seen carved into trees near his house when he was small, the half-circle, the three lines in the bend of the arc.

He took back his hand – looking at it, surprised at its own action which his brain should have controlled…why had he done it? What weird autopilot did he keep going on this whole evening?

Cody had not noticed, emerging slowly – worryingly – out of the last stage of sloughing off his humanity.

Tense, silent minutes passed, the silence of the bedroom broken only by Cody's deep breaths – Andrew's dreamless sleep – Bligh's watchful gaze.

At last, Cody stirred, rising slightly in Bligh's arms. He stopped, suddenly, to study himself – his new body – lifting his eyes to Bligh in wonderment:

"Bligh – Bligh I – I – I look – I look like you do." His mouth, with his new fangs, fell open in frank amazement. "I…I'm not human anymore…"

"'S'right," Bligh answered, his throat dry, trying to not be as astounded as Cody was. "Ye right, ye right…"

He pulled Cody to him, he pressed and squeezed the smaller body to his own, he grabbed Cody's new tail and stroked it, feeling the flittering ears in their confusion, the bubbly-soft fur against his rough hand, it seemed to soften it, but it felt so natural, to feel someone else's fur besides his own.

"But – how?" he heard Cody ask. "H-how? How did you—?"

Bligh did not answer him – he silenced him with a deep, passionate kiss.

He had spent his life, this West Virginia boy, in total control, following his heart and his feelings, the same way Drew controlled his life with his big ideas and his big smarts – it had not been long but it had felt like forever, literally forever, that he had been without Duke, and then without Pappy, kithless, alone, a whole town to die in but nobody to love.

And he didn't understand anything that had happened just now – he didn't know why Cody looked like he did, he didn't know either of them had acted like they had, what were all those weird thoughts he had where he just acted on autopilot, but it was Bligh's nature to just let go, to not ask questions and let what he felt decide everything, he was the opposite of Drew, who never did anything before overfuckingthinking it.

Bligh didn't think at all.

All he wanted to do was kiss Cody.

They remained like this for however long it took for Cody to be himself again – he was the one who broke the kiss.

His eyes grew distant as he began to explore his body.

Bligh watched him.

He watched him wag his tail, swishing and swaying it at different speeds – he watched him move and maneuver his ears in every direction they would go, up and down and bent and flat – he watched as he flexed his new footpaws, reaching down to thumb the claws that had replaced his toenails – he watched his tongue come to his new fangs and gently poke at the new enamel, with the wince, small, fleeting, of pain…the pain that Bligh already knew, that he had made himself get used to.

"Everything feels so—" He stopped. "It's – new – but it feels so familiar – like it's – natural…" His voice trailed off as he moved his tail, effortless nerve impulses to make it thump once, twice, against the floor. "It doesn't feel weird at all – I – I think it should? But it doesn't…?"

Bligh nodded, grinning. "Yeah – yeah, that's—" He nodded one more time. "S'how I felt."

Cody paused, glancing at him. "You – you did say – you said this happened to you…" His look was pensive. "So you'd know."

"Didn't reckon this'd happen, though," Bligh admitted sheepishly.

Cody pressed his face to Bligh's, nose to nose – his expression was serious, searching for some clue.

"Bligh…" he said, softly.

"What is it?"

"This happened – this happened because I cheated."

"I—"

"Didn't it?

Bligh had no answer for him.

Not really, he knew he'd gotten this way himself by – something similar, fuck, he'd have to tell him eventually – but he never knew this would happen, he never believed something like this was possible, and he knew it should bother him, or scare him, or something…but no, he was none of those things, he was riding high from the nameless, wordless feelings of recognition and understanding from before, he somehow understood, right then that he and Cody were not human, they were a different species and they would stay that way forever, but even then, even with those feelings that seemed like they were instinct, like they had been coded into him from birth…

…he still had no answer for him.

"It's because I – because I swallowed you—"

Cody's face was still serious, but neither sad nor ashamed, and he seemed to want to say more, but couldn't find the words.

"Maybe…" Bligh murmured, all the explanation he was willing to give, or believe himself – he lowered his head, smirking, following what he felt. "I dunno – I'm just happy, man – happy somebody looks like me, now." Now he grinned. "Yer beautiful, Cody – yer beautiful like this…"

He kissed him again, but Cody kissed back only briefly before he seemed to become wooden in Bligh's arms, and he pulled his head away, frowning, with a little wince as he felt his new fang hit his bare lip.

"Hey – y'aight?"

"I dunno – I really dunno."

"Why?"

Cody stared at him. "I'm just a little messed up—"

"Well, wait a sec—"

"I guess," Cody persisted, "I guess if I had sex with a monster – I shoulda known I'd be a monster, too…"

Bligh's heart sank, recoiling, feeling for the second time that night, after the fight on the beach with Drew, something like instant despair.

"M-Monster…?"

He saw Cody flare his nostrils, his face hardening – he still looked so young but so much more mature, like all fear had left him.

"Yeah. Monster. Big Bad Wolf."

He paused, as though letting Bligh be wounded enough to release him – which he did, his throat clenching, his embrace slipping away, allowing Cody the room to scoot back so that now they sat across from each other…his face did not change, the hazel eyes, and the boy they belonged to, remaining firm.

"Do you know – do you know what Andy likes to say?"

Bligh shook his head, a shot of dread coming with Cody's question. "Naw."

"Andy says—" He cleared his throat, deepening his voice to imitate his still-slumbering boyfriend: "Nothing is supernatural, it's either natural or fake." He paused again, his ears twitching like they wanted to flatten, but still up as though he had willed them to stay.

"Ya do a good Andy," Bligh said. "Imitatin em like ya do."

Cody shrugged. "He's easy to know."

"I always—" Bligh turned away, the sadness close to overtaking him. "I always thought I'd know em best…"

Cody frowned, keeping his eyes on Bligh. "I – I was just thinking about that, because he'd say that when I'd ask him about ghosts or weird stuff—" For a moment his stony face relented, and he looked sad. "When I asked if he believed in monsters, he – he said there's no such – thing – but if he did, he'd said it'd be something he could explain…"

"Uh…" Bligh's eyebrows came together, his hurt from Cody's remark forgotten. "Wazzat now? What're ye sayin?"

Now Cody sighed, still looking sad. He thumped his tail against the floor, ears unsteady, as he scooted over to the foot of the bed, crossing his legs, still directly across from Bligh – only five feet away Andy, Drew, slumbered in blackest torpor, totally unaware.

"I'm – I'm not being very clear, I guess," Cody began shaking his head. "So…okay, so you're here, I'm here, right now – the way we are." His head came up just enough to look Bligh in the eyes again. "We're not human – not animals – but we're not ghosts, we're real – and if we're real, we're natural, but because we're – what's the word – outside of what people like Andy would – would study, then we'd still be—"

"Monsters," Bligh finished, not liking wherever this was going.

"Exactly." He eased back. "When we were um…" He glanced to the bed. "You – and me—"

Bligh caught on to Cody's discomfort with finishing it: "Fuckin?"

"Yeah, that." He frowned, his ears hesitating, but still refusing to flatten. "I kept thinking – this has to have – consequences – us doing stuff—"

"Consequences?"

"Yeah."

"Like what?"

"Like this."

"How ya figure?"

"Werewolves make others like them, right? Bites – or—"

"Huh—" Bligh interjected, a half-word of embarrassment. "Uh – huh…"

He felt his face turn pink – it had occurred to him, it went on all the time in the stories he'd read and jacked it to on the Internet – but he figured, because all those stories were just, well, stories, that it wouldn't happen…

…but it had – to him.

Once more he lowered his head, looking away to the grey carpet, letting his ears flatten like they wanted to.

"Then lemme ask ya…" He sighed. "After sayin all that – I gotta tell ya, I—" He folded his arms across his chest, ears still resolutely flat, frowning. "Are y'upset? Mad? Do ya not – like bein like me – even if it were an accident?"

Cody stared at him for several seconds before he answered, slowly, as though trying to make sure there was no doubt what he was saying:

"I'm not human anymore – I mean I said that, but – that's right, right?"

"Uh—"

Bligh had to consider it himself, how he kept calling himself something other than human, something better than human – it was what he took on faith, it was what he kept believing…but now that, finally, someone else was asking, was it true?

"Yeah," he heard himself say. "S'right – like ya say, yeah, y'ain't. No way we gonna look like we do n'still be – yanno – like everybody else."

"And am I always gonna be this way?"

Bligh nodded, suddenly self-assured. "Yup."

"I'm not gonna turn into a full…dog."

"Nope. Speakin from experience."

Cody smiled – a strange, delirious smile, but he said nothing, waving his ears back and forth, thumping his tail on the carpet, shutting his eyes. "Then – then that means—" The smile grew, and his eyes started to sparkle with fresh tears. "I can start over…" His eyes flew open, his ears flat to match Bligh's, the tears welling. "Ha – ha – ha—" he intoned, a mirthless laugh.

Bligh fidgeted where he sat, his tail still, feeling like Cody had just told him something he was never supposed to know – earlier he had intuitively gotten stuff he didn't know before, and now…

"I don't – I don't hafta be who I was – b-back then – I can be—"

He seemed to struggle with the last word, but the sight of him, tight-shut eyes unable to hold back the forming tears, the coughing in his throat like he was holding it all back but couldn't – Bligh lurched forward and pulled him close, an instinct that he could at least now understand because it made sense…they were so new to each other, but already Bligh couldn't stand to see him suffer.

He felt Cody's tears, hot, wet drops against his bare arm, then he heard Cody's muffled voice, in between deep breaths of quiet sobs:

"It's like – it's like they never touched me – it's like I never had – h-had to do all th-those things—" He leaned back, wiping away the gathering snot, the marks of tears marring his precious face – but through it all, a triumphant smile. "It's like – they – never touched me—"

Bligh's face drew up in a worried frown. "Who – who? Who ain't ever touched ye?"

Cody caught his breath and swallowed hard – he snorted back a load of runny nose, using the back of his arm to wipe away the rest.

"Uh – uh—" He sighed. "I – you – d-did Andy ever tell you about me – um – me, before him and me, like, met?"

"He said ya had nowhere ta go."

Cody's face fell into a half-grimace, in a river of bad memories. "I did…I just didn't wanna go back there."

Bligh considered what Cody had said – the scene on the beach returned to him, the way that Drew shut him down so completely…the wound in his pride reopened, the scenes of driving through the ramshackle mess of McDowell County playing behind his eyes with an uncomfortable, a needling vividness.

"I – I reckon I understand – maybe…"

Bligh sighed, ears swiveling, glancing to the wall listlessly – as he came back to Cody he saw he was being watched, intent, and forced a little smirk in the corner of his mouth.

But Cody did not smile back. "What do you mean?"

"I – I ain't really sure m'self…" He shook his head. "Whole dang reason this – all this happened—"

"All what happened?"

"Us."

"Oh—"

"S'a—" Bligh frowned, then murmured: "S'a long-ass story."

"We got all night." Cody said it like he was a little joke, but his voice trailed off like he was resigning himself to something, like he couldn't get out of this easily.

Bligh's left ear raised itself before falling, reflecting his mixed emotions.

"S'cuz me n'Drew—" He stopped, shaking his head. "Why, uh – why ain't ya tell me bout yers, first I – I'm sorry I interrupted ye there."

Cody shook his head. "You didn't, I just – didn't feel like talking about it more."

"Oh," Bligh said, trying not to cringe.

Again Cody shook his head, faster this time. "N-no, no – it – it's fine, I should – I should."

"Y'ain't hafta—"

"I said it's fine." Cody's ears stood up, and his face hardened, the same expression, so mature for one so young. "The thing is…" He paused. "Listen." He paused again, but then he seemed to power through some final hesitation: "I used to have sex with men for money." His ears started to come down. "A lot. A lot, a lot. And – sometimes it was – okay—" Now his face brightened an uncomfortable shade of red. "Most – times – it wasn't. It was – it was bad—" He sighed, short and harsh. "But I had to do it, I had to – I had to eat, I had to get money for food – because I lived in this – nasty place, um, out on Nebraska Avenue – you haven't heard of it, but trust me you don't wanna – and – Andy—"

He stopped, and he looked to the recumbent body, drooling in his slumber, slumped up against the wall – the still-in-shape football player's body, the blonde hair, the heavy rising and falling of his chest where Cody had fallen asleep so many nights…but for only, only a year…

"Andy – took – me from all that—"

Bligh saw Cody's eyes grow wet once more – the memories were too much, and Cody was overcome.

"Now, though – if I'm – different – if – if I'm not human like – you – I can s-start over – and – it's like they never touched me—"

Wordlessly, not knowing at all what to say, but moved, profoundly moved to seeing this boy, this child, this man, go through so much, so soon, yet still be pure, yet still be able to smile – Bligh pulled him close again, feeling the hot, wet tears on his skin again, feeling a closeness, a warmth, a pull to shelter him, to take him back even further than Drew had done from the awful places of his past…

Cody did not cry long – some pent up emotions that needed to be released and he was done, he withdrew – Bligh had barely enough time to process it all, so soon thrust into Cody's private world.

"Uh – uh – huh—" Cody forced a smile, backed by something like relief. "S-sorry—" His ears fluttered some. "Geez, that – uh – that was a lot, huh?"

Bligh smirked. "S'okay, there – Pup – I ain't mind…"

The word Pup escaped him almost by accident, he had forgotten the reaction Cody had to it before he – before he changed – and Bligh failed to suppress a cringe as it left him.

He was always so sure of himself, he always commanded the situation he was in, no matter what and no matter where, but just being around Cody made him question everything he did, everything he said, and it was a new, humbling feeling that kept tripping him up in weird ways…like now, like this.

Cody ran a hand through his hair, blushing. "Pup—" he repeated, coughing out the last little bit of sadness. "You – do you like calling me that?"

"Depends on yer own self, man." Bligh frowned. "I heard ya say ya liked it, but then ya didn't—"

Cody's hand stopped in his hair, surprised. "Wait, what?"

Bligh nodded. "Right afore ye changed—"

"I—" Cody cocked his head, puzzled, his hand coming to his lap, his ears newly aflutter. "I did?"

"Yeah."

"Are you sure?"

It was Bligh's turn to be puzzled. "Ya mean ya dun remember?"

Cody shook his head slowly, eyes slowly widening. "Not at all." He paused, thinking a minute, his ears returning upright. "There was a little bit where – stuff got hazy—"

"Right afore ye changed, ya mean?"

"Yeah."

Bligh fidgeted where he sat. "Ya said – not ta call ye Pup, ya said yer name was Dakota, so—"

He stopped as he saw Cody's face change to frank shock.

"I said that?"

Bligh nodded again, slowly. "Yessir. Ya did."

Cody turned his head away, his ears wilting. "I – was gonna tell you that in the parking lot…" His voice went low. "That – I never tell anyone that. But – you – it was awkward between us and – Andy kept talking about you all the time so I—" His head came back up. "I thought you could know and be okay with it."

"Wha – wha – really?"

"Yeah."

A small part of him was grateful even for this small gesture, but Cody's remark intrigued him, and he pressed:

"Why ain't ya go by Dakota? That's a cool name, man." He smirked. "I like it."

"Well that's the thing – my dad chose it." Cody – Dakota – had a look of sudden annoyance overtake him. "My – mom – her name was Lisa, and she was from, um, South Carolina, but her mom's mom's mom was…" For a second he hesitated, like he was searching for the right word. "She was Sioux. She fell in love with a – a soldier out West who was from Charleston—"

"South Carolina?"

"Where else would it be—?"

Bligh smirked again. "There's a Charleston where we from—"

Cody smiled, the annoyance melting away. "Yeah I know, Andy talked about it a lot, um, he'd compare Tampa to it sometimes, and Pittsburgh and New York and the other places he'd been, since they're all big cities—"

"Huh," Bligh huffed. "Ain't no comparison—"

"Anyway – yeah – because I had a Sioux ancestor my dad wanted me to be named after that, and I always thought that was stupid." He rolled his eyes. "Like, what, if I had a little brother, were they gonna name him Seminole?"

Bligh tittered at Cody's little joke. "Oh, sorry—"

"No, it's okay, it was meant to be funny." Cody's smile faded. "But – my Mom – she'd called me Dakotee, and then Kotee, and then that – um, that turned into—"

"Cody," Bligh finished for him.

And Cody shut his eyes, smiling only briefly, before swallowing hard, like he felt all the attention on him pinching his nerves.

"That's me."

He paused as he watched Bligh moved about to sit next to him, putting his arm around his shoulder pulling him close…he nuzzled into a close hug, and he finished, softly, with a wistful gaze at nothing.

"I think – I just wasn't ready to have another nickname yet," Cody said. "Because – my Mom named me Cody, and that's something I can—" He paused. "Remember – her – with…"

Bligh nodded, slowly, respectfully.

"I'm – Cody." He sighed, looking up into Bligh's eyes, smiling, and Bligh smirked back. "And ever since then I liked to – give people nicknames, too." He shifted his head to look at Drew, sleeping yet, some feet away. "Like Andrew – is – Andy. It seemed better for him, something to – take himself less seriously…like he does."

Now Bligh's smirk grew so that his fang peeked out over his lip. "Zat so, now?"

"Mmmhmm."

Now Cody's own smile became lazy, not quite content, but just comfortable enough that the sweaty, sticky, canine strangeness he had been plunged into was not overwhelming him.

"S'what's my nickname?"

"I can't think of one, honestly." Cody shrugged. "You're you. You're really you."

Bligh's eyebrows knitted together. "Whattya mean?"

Cody seemed to have to think about it. "You're so sure of yourself. The way you – walk and talk and act, I – I could already tell you were, like—" He seemed to struggle with the concept. "A complete…person. Bligh—" he took a finger to point. "Bligh is the only – name that really fits…" His ear did a little flutter of what may have been embarrassment.

Bligh's eyebrows pressed themselves together even tighter, his ears coming up, alert and thinking, his tail beginning a slow, tick-tock movement to do the same.

"Some folk called me Wolfman—" He managed a smirk. "Course that was afore I—" He thumped his tail hard on the floor. "Afore this."

"But you said you weren't a wolf…"

"I ain't – s'jest cuz I's hairy, see—"

"Aww, well – I think it's sexy."

Cody giggled, his hands went up into Bligh's chest-hair and Bligh, tittering, found himself getting easily aroused at his touch – they came together for a kiss which Bligh lingered in, whispering on Cody's lips:

"I'm-a still nickname Cody—" He licked Cody's whole mouth, feeling his penis stiffen and begin to emerge. "Pup."

Cody nodded, gulping back a sudden jolt of arousal himself. "Th-thank – thank you…" he murmured.

They shared a long, significant gaze – Bligh kept hesitating in his mind, something he was wholly unused to doing, what action he should take next, staring into Cody's gemlike hazel eyes.

"It—" Cody finally broke the awkward silence. "I – do – like it – it, um – it just makes me feel really funny, that's all."

"Good funny?"

Cody shook his head. "I – I dunno. It – feels—" He stopped, pressing his forehead to Bligh's. "It feels – bad – to feel this way about – about someone other than Andy…"

Bligh withdrew back a few inches to let their heads slide apart. "Sorry…" he muttered.

"Don't," Cody said. "Don't. I don't want you to be sorry." His eyes grew distant, as though there were things in front of them only he could see. "But – you – should know—"

"Ye told me, Pup—"

"But I still think about what – what could've happened if I hadn't met – him – that day…"

He grew quiet again. Bligh allowed the silence to lapse, not quite feeling guilty, not quite feeling awkward – there were feelings, new feelings, the self-doubt from earlier afresh and painful.

"You – know—" Cody began out of nowhere. "When I met Andy, he was fixing his car—"

Bligh stopped him: "Car?"

"Y-yeah—"

"Jeep?"

"Uh—" Cody seemed jarred, his ears flitting up and straight. "Yeah? How'd you know?"

"Cuz I fixed it for em afore he left Tempest." Bligh frowned. "Ain't nuthin shoulda happened t'it."

"Well—"

"What the Hell he do t'it? Damn – he needed ta stop n'fix it? I told em it coulda had a tranny leak if'n he weren't careful but he probably weren't listenin – dang thing's got the 4.0 engine, shudn't be havin no prob—"

"Bligh," Cody said with an amused grin. "Bligh, what are you doing?"

"Uh—"

Cody chuckled. "Wow, Andy was right, you do like cars."

"Uh—" Bligh found himself smiling, his tail awag, bashful. "Ain't – ain't no thang—"

"It's okay," Cody said with a smile, his tail wagging as well, and Bligh's heart was deeply warmed at the sight of this beautiful boy once again. The smile did not last – Cody's head moved slowly downward to look at the carpet, his face sliding into a faraway sadness. "But – anyway – yeah, he – you gotta know, he – he saved my life."

Bligh tried not to show how moved he was, willing his ears and his tail to be still. "Sounds like it," he said, and then, in a low voice: "He – was my life…"

Cody was literally taken aback – he recoiled, eyes wide, ears up.

"Really?!" he exclaimed. "I thought – I thought you two were just best friends—"

"More'n – friends – but he thought I's straight…" Bligh was suddenly forlorn. "Guess that's why…"

He sighed out his nose, bringing Cody's head to rest on his shoulder.

"Why what?"

"Remember I wanted em n'me ta chill right? Like I said?"

Cody rolled his eyes, his tail thumping on the carpet. "Right." Another thump. "What was that about anyway?"

"Well – s'cuz—"

He was surprised how suddenly, how abruptly, the emotions hit him: the despair, the grief, all the things that he had tried to wrestle with and master that he couldn't hide, not like this, so vulnerable and naked already – he shuddered, his eyes grew wet, his a lump swelled his throat.

"S'cuz – I had ta tell em – Pappy – the—" He shut his eyes, he felt tears burst out of them to stream into his beard. "He raised us both – me – Drew – li'l bit o'Drew's b-brother Stevie—" Now he shook his head, once, twice, trying to say what needed, at last, to be said: "He – h-he – passed on, he – h-he died—"

"Holy—"

Cody almost grabbed him into a tight hug, which Bligh could only feel, his eyes shut tight, trying to will away the fresh pain.

"Bligh – holy – I can't – I'm so sorry, I'm so, so sorry – Andy told me – he told me he wasn't well, but—"

"Man, fuck what he said," Bligh blurted. "Talkin – talkin all this shit bout how much he hated West Virginia and how Pappy's probably racist cuz he lived there—"

Cody recoiled somewhat. "I'm sure he didn't – mean it—"

"Yeah, man, yeah, he did." Even with Cody around him, Bligh was stiff, gruff, unyielding in his defiance even hours after it happened, even minutes after he had conquered. "He meant – every fuckin word—"

He slanted his eyes at Cody, who was still holding him tightly, the big hazel gemstones boring into him, worried – devoted, Bligh wanted to believe, or maybe just naturally sympathetic, he didn't have time to think, he didn't want to be so vulnerable and that was all this boy was making him.

"We all say things we don't mean…" Cody offered, sounding like he only half-meant it. "And you just told him someone that was – yanno, really important to him died. Think about it."

"Dun matter if he meant it or not," Bligh answered him with a long shake of his head. "He said it." He sighed again, hard, out of his nose. "Been botherin me – shit s'been botherin me – ever since…"

Cody let a respectful little silence pass, withdrawing so that they sat together once more, before he spoke again: "Okay, but – why?"

"S'like he was – s'like he's attackin me." Drew's words returned to him, diluted with the hours but still strong enough to make him angry. "He started talkin bout how he was glad ta leave where we's from—"

"Tempest?"

"Mmm…West Virginia. The whole damn thing."

Cody frowned. "He – he has said that before."

"Ta ye?"

"I don't wanna upset you—" His ear twitched.

"Jest tell me."

His frown grew deeper, shaking his head. "The thing is – honestly? I always thought – he was trying to convince himself – not just – not just tell me about it."

Bligh grimaced, the same way he would grimace when he and Drew would argue and he knew that there was no way for him to win.

"S'what if he did? That jest makes it worse—"

"How?"

"Cuz—" Bligh's ears wilted apart in obvious despair. "He weren't only my best friend, man, he – he was everythin ta me—" He jerked his head to Cody. "Y'understand me?"

Cody nodded quickly. "Y-yeah, you – you made it seem like—"

"Fuck, man," Bligh cut him off. "I jest – I really thought me n'em was gonna be forever, some – somehow—" He felt the grimace come back, he felt his eyes moisten. "Dammit," he hissed. "But – huh – he never came back, Pup, he – he never came back – even – even when our best bud, Dan…"

His voice trailed off, unable to finish – he felt Cody squeeze his leg encouragingly.

"He killed himself, right?" Cody offered softly.

"R-right—"

"Andy told me about that."

"S'after Drew – n'Dan – my dawg, Duke – then Pappy – ya gotta know, I really had nobody, man. Ya gotta understand that…" He had to stop, his grimace dissolving into actual sorrow.

"I do," said Cody, squeezing Bligh's leg again, letting his fingers stroke through the fur. "I – I do."

Bligh's eyes slid to look at Cody, wistfully, trying to look less depressed than he had now become.

"But do he understand that? After everythin he said, everything he done…"

Cody shrugged. "Maybe not – but – he lives down here, not up there."

"Whole fuckin point o'this were fer me ta visit down here so I could tell him what was goin on up there…"

"So – I guess you figured – if he couldn't understand that, then he couldn't understand…"

He reached up to stroke behind Bligh's ears, the crease in the cartilage where it met his skull, the sweet point, what all dogs, small or big, seem to love – Bligh shut his eyes, letting out a pleasurable groan inside his throat.

"…this," Cody finished, his hand going back to rub Bligh's thigh, almost taking care not to disturb his newly stirring sheath.

Bligh's release of endorphins was abruptly interrupted as Cody's words reached him, as he knew the truth behind them, what he had known all this time but had never put into language.

"I…I can't help bein like this," he murmured, to Cody, to himself. "I love – I wanna – stay this way, man – I reckon, n'I ain't know how I reckon but – me bein from West Virginia n'all, the tales they used ta tell bout weird stuff, granny-magic n'all that – it hasta have sumthin ta do with it…"

His mind went to the unguarded places of the mysteries that had been set before him as a child, and then again as an adult – the old legends he heard his grandfather make small, cryptic mention of, the strange things he was sure he'd seen himself but that seemed like something out of a dream.

He reached down to the corner of his groin, richly musky, the supple fur in his hand – he commanded his tail to thwack the carpet – all to remind himself for the thousandth, the millionth time that this was real, that he was real, that he was a peculiar creature because of where he'd been born.

Cody brought him back:

"But – then—" He stopped. "Why did you have that knife?"

"In case shit went South – n'fuck did it ever—"

Cody hesitated – his ears went up, then down, his mouth moved around the starting syllables for a question he couldn't seem to ask. He began, again, slowly:

"What – what did you do?"

Bligh did not look at him, instead letting his fangs peek out over his lip to answer quietly, deliberately:

"Knocked em out – let em sleep – goin back ta y'all's place n'tryin t'explain it ta ya the same way—"

"Me?"

"Yeah."

"Why?" His whole face turned incredulous. "And explain what?"

"What I jest told ya, Pup – like I say, I ain't have nobody, nobody t'all – so – I reckoned—" His plot at last revealed, his great secret now unveiled, Bligh realized how stupid, just how completely, embarrassingly nuts it sounded when he said it outloud: "I reckoned if Drew still felt some kinda way bout me like I always thought he did – shit, like his girlfriend always thought he did – we – ye n'him n'me, we – could all be together…"

A strange look came over Cody's face, and his tail retreated, curling beside his knee – a new instinct, Bligh recognized.

"That's a little—"

"Desperate?" Bligh offered, hoping he'd agree.

"It's cute, in a sick kinda way, but—" Cody seemed to want to cringe. "Not really the word I'd use?"

"So – crazy."

"Yeah." But then, backtracking: "Uh, n-no offense—"

"Nah – nah, nah, s'good. I know when shit's outta hand…" He fought back a rising nic-fit that matched his increasing discomfort, the embarrassment he let himself feel at having so badly botched this whole evening. "Right now – it's really outta hand—"

"Sooo—" Cody cut in. "I mean you – you were gonna just barge right in and try to do a – three-way with us?"

Bligh nodded, the best he could do.

"You haven't even met me," Cody said, failing to hide his doubt. "I mean—"

"I know," Bligh murmured, feeling his ears flatten yet again as, worse, his face grew hot. "I know, man, I—"

They looked at each other – strangers, lovers, animals, whatever they were, whatever they had been and whatever they would become – and Bligh could say no more.

All the time when he was younger Bligh had strange things happen to him, stuff that left him wondering who he was, if all you saw was all you got…but because the two most important people in his life were so different, he never knew who to talk to, or even who to believe: Drew had no faith at all, Pappy had so much faith. And because he couldn't find himself in either place, Bligh always had to figure things out on his own.

In that moment, he and Cody's eyes locked like this, he felt something big, something profound, and even though he couldn't be sure what it was, he seized on it, he made it his own.

"I gotta know—" He swallowed, hard, his throat suddenly dry. "Whattya gonna say, now? Now that ya know, n'now that we—"

"Yes," Cody answered, with his eyes brightening just for a flash as though surprised how little hesitation there was. "I say yes – if – if Andy says yes – then, yes."

"Would ya – would y'ever said no?" Bligh almost whispered. "Even if we ain't – dun what we dun?"

Cody gave a quick shake of his head. "No, I – I'd always say yes."

A familiar warmth spread through Bligh's chest, and though he tried to will it not to, his tail wagged as well. "Really?"

And now a quick nod, Cody's tail wagging as well: "If Andy's happy then I'm happy, and—" A shy smile curled his lips. "I told you, you're – really hot…" But before Bligh could react, the same smile vanished, his face at once serious. "This – this whole thing is really – I – I wish I had words for it, I mean I woke up today as a – human—" He shook his head, then nodded, as though deciding to himself how to proceed: "Just really crazy, yeah, but—" Now he paused, like he wanted to make sure Bligh was really listening. "I knew you were a good guy." His voice dipped some, his eyes trailing away to somewhere distant, one of his eyes fluttering as he spoke. "I knew, I knew because I – I've met so many jerks, and people – people that would just do awful, awful things to you, and—" He shook his head slowly. "You – I knew you wouldn't hurt me—"

"How?"

Cody swung his head to Bligh, the serious expression remaining. "I just did. I just – did."

"Even – now?"

"Especially now," Cody said, again with the same lack of hesitation. "But – why did you—?" He corrected himself. "I really need to ask, having – um, said all that – how did you – knock him out, like you said?"

"I…" Bligh sighed, trying to process everything that Cody had told him without taking too long with his answer. "I, uh, I told ya bout the herbs."

"Right."

"I used em – uh, I – cut his arm with the knife they was rubbed on."

"And that—" Cody seemed to try and put it together himself. "It entered his – blood?"

"Yeah, that's how Pappy told me it'd work—" He felt his ears flick. "Remember – when I said if shit went South? Well – stuff weren't – goin too good, him n'me – guess that was my fault—"

"Well I dunno, kinda sounded like it was his fault too—"

Bligh waved his hand, in the action dismissing what Cody was trying to say. "Stop."

"But you said—"

"S'my fault," Bligh insisted. "I pushed em too hard."

"What did you even tell him? Other than – your grandpa—"

Bligh shook his head. "Tryin – ta tell em—" He shook his head harder. "Bout – where we come from—"

"Yeah, that—" Cody thumped his tail for lack of anything better to say. "That's a sensitive subject. If he wants to talk about it, I let him, but he – usually – doesn't…"

Bligh let out a mirthless sniff. "No goddam wonder. Ta hear em – ta hear Drew say all that shit bout where we's from, I – I jest knew he wudn't gonna like seein how I really was, n'I – I jest lost it, man." He looked to Andrew's sleeping body. "I ain't – want ta do that t'em," he apologized, to Cody, to Andrew, though deep in his introspection like this he was only semi-aware of the former and not really cogent of the latter. "But – he ain't – like me n'more, Pup." His head came back to Cody, who was watching him with a sad, sympathetic frown. "He – I wanted ta – jest lay it all on the table that I loved em and we could be together – but he – but he made it real fuckin clear he love Florida more n'he even like West Virginia – more n'he love me…" He shut his eyes, near to a lifetime of memories passing into an agitated sigh from his nose. "Dammit all ta Hell…"

Cody's face assumed the same stoic confidence as before. "Maybe he does love Florida more than West Virginia. But you – he really likes you. He always has."

Bligh shrugged. "Maybe a li'l—"

"He always said good things about you. Every time you came up. Didn't you know that?" It seemed like Cody wanted to scoff, it was so obvious to him. "Every single time he'd call you he'd get sad because he missed you! He really wanted us to meet because he likes you that much – and – maybe he does hate where he came from, but that – hey, that never meant he hated you!"

Bligh stared at him. "Are – are ya serious?"

"Yes!" said Cody, putting a smile with it. "Yes – yes, totally!"

Bligh swallowed hard, taken aback. "Fuck – man – oh fuck, I –I really, really fucked up—"

"What?! You didn't fuck up at all!" Cody cried, before correcting himself: "I mean – maybe we shouldn't – um, had – uh, sex so soon since that didn't sound like part of your – plan—"

"I ain't never had a Goddam plan," Bligh cut him off angrily. "Ain't – never – planned nuthin…"

Now a shudder threatened an imminent breakdown – Cody's hand emerged to stroke Bligh's tail from behind him, drifting upward to gently cascade his fingernails down Bligh's back.

Their eyes met once again – Bligh wondered if Cody had sensed the moment was profound, as he did – before Bligh had to turn away, ashamed.

"I hollered at em – more n'once – n'I punched em – kinda – kinda hard—"

"Did you hurt him?" Cody asked, suddenly serious.

This was a challenge, and Bligh did not – even from his new lover, even from someone who he was rapidly developing feelings for – ever take a challenge lightly.

"What if I did?"

"Did you hurt him?" Cody repeated.

Bligh gritted his teeth, letting his fangs show over his lip: "I – may – have—"

Cody's face lost all expression. "How."

"Pup, I—"

"Don't Pup me!" Cody exclaimed, like he was hurt, turning away, ears flattening, tail curling close defensively.

"Oh, jest cuz I lost my temper—"

"You hurt him, you put your hands on him and you were – violent – you want me to be okay with that?" Cody leered at him, unafraid, and Bligh could tell that it was from some hidden wellspring of courage, something that made him permanently allergic to bullshit. "That's – that's not okay, Bligh. I don't care what we – you are—"

"Dammit ta Hell…" Bligh drew in a deep breath before answering. "Boy ya gotta know how worked up I was—"

"That's no excuse!" Cody said, scooting some inches away. "You can't – I'm not gonna be near somebody that did that to—"

"I ain't mean—"

"And?" Cody shot back. "I don't care. Nobody hurts Andy – not you, not anybody."

"Zat right?" Bligh pressed.

"It is right. I've been wrong about people before – not – not usually, but it happens, I – I guess – and people that hurt the people I love—"

"Shut the Hell up, boy! Can't ya see it hurt me ta hurt him?!"

Cody's mouth fell open, his fangs visible.

It was the first time he had ever heard Bligh – so confident in what he seemed to be doing even when the past how-ever-many-hours it was had been an ever-expanding clusterfuck – lose his nerve, and raise his voice.

"It – hurt me – ta hurt him," he repeated.

Now he stood, jumping to his feet, letting his tail wag behind him as he walked, paced, slowly, to Drew's sleeping form – he stopped like he'd seen Pappy stop before gravestones, the reverent reading of something that cannot speak back.

He shot his gaze at Cody, who was watching him, ears up and alert – barely had their eyes met then Cody's ears wilted, his head lowered some, scolded.

"Ya said so yerself I ain't seem like no bad man – no raper, no abuser, no piece o'shit like all y'all seem ta be down here in Florida, well – well ya Goddam right I ain't, I ain't wanna hurt my best friend, boy, I ain't wanna punch the only man asides my Pappy I'd kill fer so hard he ate shit on the ground – y'act like yer the only one gotta piece o'em, the only one that matters—"

At this Cody straightened himself, perturbed. "Maybe not, but I definitely do matter."

"Ya matter ta him n'so ya matter ta me – Dakota."

Bligh put just enough venom on Cody's real name that he would not mistake it for something kind or sweet – he meant what he said, defensive of himself, but protective of Drew.

He swung his tail in a sweep as a gesture of authority.

"I'd never hurt em," he said, still defiant, though his ears could not help but droop. He glanced to the wall, remembering his rage on the beach less than hour before. "Not – not deliberately—"

He padded to Drew's crumpled, sleeping figure, which had gone crooked as he had slid with his body weight – he wondered how much longer the herbs would last, stroking his beard with narrowed eyes.

Now he bent forward, adjusting him, straightening him some, even so knowing that when he'd wake up that stiffneck would hurt like Hell.

He paused in his work when he heard Cody come up behind him, but then, satisfied that his best friend – his soulmate, the only thing he had cared about after Duke and Pappy for so long – would be comfortable for the time being, he knelt, and kissed him, gently, on the forehead.

It felt right and it felt good to do it, to taste the skin he had been forbidden all these years – he would do this again, but for now, he would let Drew sleep.

When he rose to meet Cody, standing behind him, he saw the boy's ears were flat and his eyes worried, but Bligh kissed him, in turn, quickly, on the mouth, motioning with his head to sit back down where they were by the bed – as he came, he swung his tail the opposite way to let him sit down.

"Is he okay?" Cody whispered, as though scared to wake him.

Bligh nodded. "Yeah man. Dun worry."

"Good," Cody said, his voice rising some. "Have you – have you hit him before?"

Bligh rolled his eyes. "Yeah," he managed. "Two – dudes growin up, man."

"If you fought all the time when you were little then – um, no offense, but – why – why's it matter so much now?"

"Because we—" Bligh sighed. "We ain't little n'more. Now – now it's a real thing, yanno?" He frowned.

"Huh," said Cody. "The only people that hit me—" He paused long enough for Bligh to look him over in concern. "They – weren't my friends…"

At this, he looked to Bligh, as though startled back into reality from somewhere else, who was still searching him, wondering how, if what he kept saying was true, how he had survived at all.

But then – he thought to himself – how had he? How had Drew? How had any of them lived long enough to meet together, right now…?

Once again, that big, that profound feeling reappeared, inside him, around him – and once again, without thinking, he acted on it:

"I'm yer friend," he said, wagging his tail, pulling Cody into a tight hug – he straightened him so that their eyes were locked, as they had been so many times that evening. "I'm – I'm sorry – Cody."

Cody smiled at him, with all the kindness and reassurance he could have mustered. "It's – it's okay, Bligh – and—" He nodded, to Bligh, and to himself. "I'm your friend too." But his smile turned serious – still warm, but with something else in it. "We're – we're friends because we're the same, don't ya think?"

"Whatcha mean?"

"We both love Andy – and – we both have—" He paused, as though he realized the weight behind what he was saying. "We both have nowhere else to go – just here, right now…"

He leaned in for a hug, and Bligh pulled him close.

At first Bligh wanted to ask him what he meant – it was sudden, and it was a little cryptic, especially for someone who, up to now, seemed to be so careful in making sure people understood him the way he wanted to be understood.

But then – it hit him.

Cody kept saying that if it weren't for Drew, he'd still be on the street, or wherever he was, selling his body for money – there was Bligh, right now, taking refuge from a place that had nothing for him anymore, everything he used to love disappeared, or dead.

And they were joined, somehow, by Andrew – Drew, Andy – or maybe it was that singular boy, man, that joined them, all three.

Suddenly – the idea of the three of them, together, wasn't as crazy or as desperate as it'd been when Bligh first got there.

A shuddering breath escaped him, and Cody closed his eyes to let out a deep, contented sigh, nuzzling the inside of Bligh's arm.

Perhaps a minute passed before Bligh broke the blissful silence, feeling the heat rise in his loins and in his body again, skin to skin, pelt to pelt, with Cody – they were magnetically attracted to each other and they both knew it, they were inhuman in their appearance and their desires.

Bligh started to kiss Cody but broke it off, something from an earlier curiosity returning to him: his lean, nimble fingers widened from his hand to trace down the milkline of his new lover, counting them, five on each side.

"Ya got more than me…" he said, seemingly to both Cody and to himself. "Wonder – wonder what makes ye different?"

A light came to Cody's eyes that Bligh saw flash briefly but then disappear, replaced with something coy, something excited:

"H-hey – I wanna know something."

"What?"

"Because I – the way I am now, can I…" His face flushed and he giggled, like he was embarrassed at himself.

Bligh tittered curiously back at him. "Can ya what?"

"Did it change my insides?"

Bligh cocked his head, unsure. "I dun—"

Cody coughed, laughing again in his state of nervousness. "Look – I have more—" He pointed at his nipples. "More of these than you do."

"Yeah, and?"

"What if that means I can – I can have puppies?"

Bligh's head tilted even more. "I ain't – I ain't sure bout that—"

Cody shook his head rapidly. "N-nevermind…"

Bligh withdrew just a little, trying to put together what Cody had meant, or if he was serious, or if he was just still worked up from the moment – a thought came to him, and he nudged Cody's head to look down…at his new penis.

"Ain't on the inside – look what ya can see on the outside…" he murmured.

Cody gasped, reaching down to cup the bulging knot, hissing in sudden sensation.

"Oh – oh that feels good…"

Cody, blushing, smiled bashfully, his new ears fluttering like the wings of a strange moth.

Bligh sidled next to him to put their cheeks together, but his gaze was firmly at Cody's crotch…he had never seen a – there was no other way to put it, a dog dick on someone human, human-like, other than himself, and it was filling him with a passion, burning and needy.

It made Cody, already cute, already hot, already having made Bligh lose control more than once, even hotter…everything about Cody was more attractive, everything about him was beyond perfect, the ears – the tail – the dick…

He wasn't proud to think this way, to be so blunt and so stupid and so sexual, but he was an animal, he had always been an animal, he knew what he needed and he took it – he lowered his head, he licked Cody's sheath, feeling it harden and stir and swell and plump up even as his tongue moved along the bristle of the supple fur against his tongue…he heard Cody shudder with full-body pleasure, and with a full, complete, single motion Bligh whipped around to press him down, gently, to the floor.

Atop him, like this, he grabbed Cody's cock with one hand, his own with the other – with an evil titter, he squeezed them together.

Cody gave a hot pant as his powerful spurt of precum erupted onto Bligh's face. Grinning, Bligh gingerly removed it with his fingers, putting the tips in Cody's mouth – he sucked it, eyes shutting to savor his own taste.

"I taste…different."

"Ya taste like me…"

"I – I do, you're – right…" Cody put a hand through Bligh's chest-hair, his tongue slicking across his lips.

They kissed, sweetly, meaningfully, but only at first, picking up in passion until their lips were slick with each other's saliva, over, over, their bodies taking time, one to another, to get slimy with eruptions of pre. It was like they could feel it coming on, a magical sexual telepathy, pulling apart so that the involuntary geyser was able to meet its mark, each other – a claiming, the strike of a flag on virgin soil – their tails wagging lazy with delight, their canid genitals wobbling unsteady and lurid in the incandescent light of the bedroom.

Once – twice – just to hear Cody cry out his name, Bligh would lean slightly to bite teasingly on one of Cody's new nipples. He was fascinated with these new mammary bumps, greater in number, nearly double, than his own, but hairless…so many things about Cody were unlike him, so many things were like a way to complete him, him and Drew, and his whole body was growing afire with the desire to make Cody his, a clay with which he could remold and reshape him into something as starkly bestial and hybrid as himself – another dog.

At last Cody stopped, trying to catch his breath – the two of them sat up together, face to face.

"Bligh…" he panted.

"Hey – hey, y'aight?"

Cody gestured with his head to Drew, still motionless against the wall.

"I – I dunno, I still feel bad. I'm like this – but, but – I – I mean I really do like it, but – we – I cheated—"

Bligh smirked, sly, sexual. "Ya can't help it, though, can ya Pup?"

"S-stop—"

Bligh snickered, undaunted – forever unchallenged, and not about to lose now. "I bet ya still can't help it…"

At this he took his hand to give Cody's head a subtle push, so that he was looking down at his own magnificent doghood, wet and virile. As before, as though he were under hypnosis, Cody bent forward, pushing Bligh subtly out of the way for a better angle, just to look at it, to behold it, to be in the presence – he licked the tip, and Bligh shuddered with pleasure.

But now Cody hesitated, still breathing heavily, before looking back up at Bligh with an expression of mixed worry and desire.

"Why – are – you d-doing this—?" He said the words with a self-aware smile, his ears alert, like he knew already, but just wanted Bligh to say it to him.

And say it, Bligh did: "Cuz ya want it," a soft command. "Now g'on."

Cody gazed back at Bligh's erect canid penis, still lurid and glistening, with wordless longing, almost drooling.

Bligh wondered, idly, even as he luxuriated in all the attention Cody was giving him – him, and his dick – if Drew had ever dared be as dominant, as assertive and controlling, as Bligh was right now. The thought made him smirk to himself again, a fang appearing from his lip, watching Cody struggle valiantly against what he was so now desperate to savor.

"It's – what's—" Cody's words, his breaths, were both uneven. "I – I'm feeling—"

"Hungry?" Bligh guessed, his smirk creeping back to caution. "Thought that was jest me—"

"That's – exactly – w-what it is," Cody whimpered softly. "I'm hungry – for it – like food…"

"I eat mine damn near all the time…" His breathing deepened. "When – I can—"

Cody's eyes went wide with something between revulsion and amazed admiration. "Wha…?"

Bligh stretched his lower body, luridly, seductively, so that it once again took up Cody's view: "Ya heard me."

Cody crawled toward it, drool driveling from his mouth. "Oh – God—"

With deep, ragged breaths Cody primed his tongue to lick it again, and out it came, before curling back like an affrighted snake.

He shut his mouth, looking as though he had just devoured something unbearably sour…he shook his head and, his ears going flat, rising to sit back in front of Bligh.

"No – no, no, I can't cheat on Andy…not anymore."

Bligh sighed, his penis beginning to shrink, slowly and by intervals, to begin the retreat back into its sheath. "Pup…"

"Wait," Cody said, his eyes afire, his voice flat and serious. "Wait."

"What if you did to – him – what you did to me?"

"What ye mean?"

Cody stared at him. "Whattya think I mean?"

Bligh answered him back, slowly, to make sure there was no other meaning: "Change em with cum – get it inside em and let em be like ye n'me…"

Now Cody nodded, his tail starting to wag. "I want him to be like us," he said. "I mean think about it, there'd be no way for us not to be together – if we're all the same – I already said yes and I – I like being like this…"

"Yer right," Bligh said. "Damn – yer right…" He paused. "But – Pup, I—" He felt his ears flatten with sudden uncertainty. "We gotta hold off, yanno. He gotta – he gotta say yes on his own."

"What do you mean?"

"He asleep."

"Yeah—?" Cody opened his mouth to continue, but stopped, as he seemed to realize what Bligh was getting at: his tail stood still, and he started to frown. "Oh…"

"Y'ain't gonna decide for em, Pup." Bligh's own tail swung out in an arc on the floor, a flourish to go with his words. "Neither one of us is gonna."

Cody's eyes slowly went downcast before he nodded, once more, in agreement – his ears fluttered, and he briefly closed his eyes, like he had to fully accept what Bligh had told him.

His eyes opened. "He'll say yes, won't he?"

The question caught Bligh right in the heart – but he shrugged, not letting Cody see how much it scared him to think he wouldn't say yes.

"Ain't – ain't see why not…" He smirked. "If ye n'me is, yanno…"

"I – I know it's so soon, but I – I don't even wanna think about what life was like not being a dog – with you and – and Andy, soon…"

Now the two met in still another close kiss – Cody seemed to be the one to break it off.

"Is this real?" he asked, his voice suddenly a tremble.

Bligh pulled him closer, licking the boy's lips with a titter. "Tis, boy…"

They kissed again, slower, longer, more carefully – as they grew apart, finally, a spark seemed to jolt through Cody's thoughts, and he caught his breath, excited:

"So – so wait. If you're a dog – if we're dogs – why didn't you – you – tie us?"

"Tie?" Bligh said back – but then: "Oh – oh Lord, Pup, I—"

"What?" Cody said, touching their foreheads together.

It was Bligh's turn to catch his own breath, an oozing sexual wickedness overtaking him: "I – reckoned ye cudn't handle it – ain't know ye were gonna be – like me…"

Cody cut Bligh off with a slight push, to look him dead in the eye. "I'm ready – I'm ready now."

Bligh swallowed hard as his penis, heretofore nearly entirely back in his sheath, stirred back to life. As though not trying to press his luck, he answered: "But ya said – y'ain't wanna cheat on em—"

"You're gonna make him like us, right?"

"Yeah – right soon, if I can help it – if he can help it – n'if he say yes—"

"Promise?"

Bligh snickered. "Yes, Pup, I promise."

Cody nodded. "Then we'll all be together. Then – it's not cheating – see?"

"I reckon so…" A smirk, knowing and lecherous, came to Bligh's face. "Ya sure ya can handle this?" He swirled his fingers over his knot. "Ain't ever been inside nobody…but then it ain't like a human's – might be too much for ya."

Cody's eyes had been locked on Bligh's large canid equipment, but they flicked to meet Bligh's sight – serious, even obsessed.

"I can handle it."

"Dang," Bligh snickered, reaching to scratch behind Cody's ear. "You sure do want this, don't ya Pup…"

With lethal seriousness, Cody took his hand to glide down Bligh's iron six-pack until he came to Bligh's much-larger cock – the latter grunted as Cody gripped, then squeezed it, a volley of precum shooting off as Cody leaned in:

"Tie me."

With a defiant smirk, Bligh huffed hard, snickering.

"Now why d'ye wanna do that, Pup…?"

"Because," Cody answered at once, releasing Bligh from the grip for his hand to drift and play idly with the older male's balls – his voice betrayed a growing impatience that bordered on being painful. "I want it, I really—"

"But why?" Bligh cut in, taunting.

Cody rolled his eyes before shutting them, taking a breath as the admission came: "It's…it's the sexiest thing I've ever seen." His eyes flew open, his tail thumped the floor. "I want it inside me, I—" Suddenly embarrassed, a hot flush came to his cheeks as his ear twitched, self-aware. "I want to be…"

Bligh stroked Cody's cheek. "Ta be whaaat?"

"I wanna be – a dog."

Bligh smirked toothily, seeming delighted with the new admission. "We already are dawgs, Pup."

"I wanna tie with you, though—" Cody huffed. "To be – to be so close like that—"

"C'mon Pup, I ain't never, though – I – I might hurt ya—"

Cody pressed his face against Bligh's defiantly. "Tie me." He bared his fangs for the first time. "I want. To be. A dog."

Bligh's face grew sly – the reserved confidence of the coalfield boy forced to prove his worth.

He knew his penis wasn't completely like a dog's, not on the inside: he had a bone in there like he should, but it was too small, it kept his cock rigid and upright while it lay in wait enrobed in his sheath, but maybe because he was only halfway there, from his human side, it would always be too fleshy, too dependent on blood flooding sponge-tissue…and he didn't know why, but somehow he knew, innately, instinctually, that in this way, in this hybrid way, he had been made to some blueprint, fitting perfectly an intelligent design from long, long ago…

But it looked like a hound's, it fucked like a hound's -- he needed to know if it knotted, if it tied, like a hound's.

And he put forth the invitation to Cody, the devilish lure to be exiled forever from the pleasures made for humans, to could wallow eternally in the fucking of beasts:

"Then I'll make ye a dawg yet, Pup."

He slid back to let Cody look down on his doghood in its full glory once more: it was changing color to fit his arousal, from precious nacrene-pink to iridescent ruby-red – crisscrossed with innumerable veins – wet and ready.

"C'mere…"

Cody moaned softly at his words, and fired off another volley of precum into Bligh's chest-hair, kneeling to crawl overtop him – they locked eyes and kissed, just for a moment, before Cody, parting lips to nuzzle Bligh's beard once more, gently pushed him up by the shoulder so that they were face to face, sitting on the floor together, to kiss.

Bligh watched Cody, his hands shaky with desire, the desperation to get Bligh inside him – but he seemed to know what to do, how to move around to accomplish this: he moved his new tail out of the way and opened his pucker some with his right hand, maneuvering awkwardly before trying to ride him – the first two tries were unsuccessful, and Bligh cringed as Cody's full weight nearly fell on his erect cock.

The third time, however, Cody's face erupted into a boutade of pleasure as Bligh's tip at last gained entrance into his anus – Bligh grunted at the sensation of Cody's innards enveloping slick on the sides of his glans, but he quickly recovered, and once again the sly smirk reappeared.

Down Cody went on Bligh's fat canid shaft – it was somewhat easier because his hole had only barely recovered from the barbaric pounding it had received earlier, like it was eager, ready to receive Bligh at full mast…he let out several moans, seeming like he was overcome with pleasure, freely spurting pre all over the carpet, all over Bligh's chest.

At last, Cody took nearly all of Bligh's cock – he sucked in hot breaths, like he felt so good yet so pained from being reopened by something so large…the only thing left was the knot, fat and swollen but not yet ready to lock him in.

But Bligh instinctually sensed that the time to tie him was now – he gave a cautious thrust, then another attempting to gain leeway into Cody's hole bit by bit.

Now Cody let out a shout with the fullest volley of precum yet – it sprayed into Bligh's beard, and he cackled, putting his full balancing weight on his left hand as he took his right to reach up and scoop out and eat up the delicious white liquid-gold.

"Almost there…" Bligh whispered.

Cody whimpered, nodding slightly in response. "I can – I can fe—" He soughed hard as he felt himself gradually giving way. "Feel – oh – fuck—"

Then – he made an animal scream of pleasure.

Bligh let forth a guttural growl, and with a final thrust he felt his knot at last penetrate and sink into Cody completely – within his hairy chest came a deep vibration of low ecstasy…

He felt his knot widening, swelling to its fullest extent, to lock them, he, and Cody, tied together.

Cody's eyes were shut tight as the clenching euphoria exploded in his nervous system – his new tail stood straight up on end, and he took one of his hands, which had wrapped around Bligh's shoulder, to feel down his abdomen, until he stopped, open-palmed, at his stomach, before another moan of transcendent sexual ecstasy emanated from him.

"F-fuck – Bligh – I'm – I'm a d-dog—"

"Ya like this, Pup?" Bligh panted unevenly, trying to keep his composure before the sensation of full penetration threatened to have him give in to the final climax of orgasm – he moved his hands from the floor to grasp Cody's sides, leaning in to press his face against the boy's. "Ya like bein a dawg?"

Tears puffed out from under Cody's eyelids, which trickled down his cheeks as the rapture of being knotted was reaching an impossible summit.

"I'm a dog – I'm a dog – I'm f-fucking – dog—"

"Say it, Pup. Say ya love the knot. Give up on human dick forever n'say ya love the fuckin knot." Bligh thrust again, closing his eyes in a split-second of being on the absolute precipice of orgasm. "Say – ya—"

Cody moaned again, still yet louder. "I love the – the – the knot – ah – ah! I hate human dick I just wanna have your big knot – be – tied – like this – be – be – be a d-dog I wanna be – be – oh – n-nooo!"

Cody took the free hand from his belly to embrace Bligh, helpless, needy – his velvet-tawny fur-covered testicles jerked upward, and with a yelping cry he unleashed an eruptive geyser of aromatically musky cum, now colored a more darkish grey…it poured from his tapered, red-scarlet canid penis, shooting upward, like a fountain that sprayed Bligh's chest and neck in rope after successive rope, joined by his helpless and immodest yell, a cry that spoke of absolute self-actualization, a new level of personal, sexual nirvana.

Bligh responded by losing control himself – with a series of final thrusts and ever louder grunts that escaped from gritted teeth, fangs bared, he shot his copious seed inside the boy, gripping Cody's sides hard as his long black hair fell forward, with his head, in orphic rapture.

As the two of them, Bligh and Cody, basked in their collective afterglow – Cody slumping forward for Bligh to catch him, sharing a breathless kiss as the last of Cody's euphoric tears slid off his smooth cheeks.

Bligh and Cody parted their kiss – Bligh beamed and cackled to himself, leaning back to lay fully on the floor, Cody still balanced on his lap.

A few more moments passed as Cody seemed to savor being so full of Bligh – of his penis, of his seed, of his desire – but at length a puzzled expression came to him, and he fidgeted where he sat.

"I can't—" He gave an experimental tug to get up from the position he was in. His penis was still out, scarlet, with a lurid sheen. "I can't – move. I'm stuck."

Bligh cackled again, this time louder. "Yer knotted, Pup. What'd y'expect?"

Cody let out a breathy moan. "Oh – gosh. I don't – I dunno I—" He gave another experimental wiggle – a small motion, trying to lift himself up off of Bligh – only to find, the shy, satisfied smile giving it away, that he could not. "I'm really…I'm really knotted."

"Yes sir," affirmed Bligh, pleased.

Cody's hands swam over Bligh's body as he smiled again, a fragile tranquility on his face. "I've never felt so – so full before…it kinda hurts."

Bligh leaned up a bit. "Are y'okay?"

Cody nodded. "Y-yeah, it's just – y-you're really big."

"I know – I know, Pup." He tittered. "Sorry bout that."

"N-no, no," Cody answered, giggling. "I like being this full – feeling like this…" He took a breath. "Gosh – if I couldn't have puppies before…"

Bligh grinned at him, letting him see his fangs.

He knew that it was like some great fire inside Cody had been fully and deliciously dowsed, his eyes dreamy and drugged, watching Bligh with a soft smile – and Bligh, rising somewhat to prop himself up by his forearms, met the boy's eyes once more, to watch that same smile fade, slowly, second by second, replaced with something new, something even deeper…perhaps it was, actually, love.

The two of them now shared a moment that did not permit time to pass. Earlier that evening they had been nothing – and now they were all things.

Cody's new tail swayed in a lazy brush, back and forth, above the carpet, as Bligh's own tail would occasionally thump from beneath him.

Even so soon after he came, Bligh still felt the hot surges inside his own head – the need to dominate, the need to assert and control even as Cody trusted him, and he trusted Cody…some dim, primal urge that burned, slow and smoldering, made him want to rise yet above that, to be something greater.

To be – now that Bligh could find the word – leader – chief.

Those strange thoughts before, the ones where he just acted on instinct – was this the same thing? When Cody was becoming – like him?

Becoming – a dog?

He would make Drew a dog, soon, soon, he felt – and he would make Cody even more of a dog, now.

Wordlessly, he thrusted, using his whole hips – Cody yelped, clutching his lower stomach with both hands, an almost defensive gesture.

"Wha – h-hey—" Cody panted heavily, still nervous, a shaking rabbit in the jaws of a predator. "S-so – s-soon—"

"Reckon I can't go again?" Bligh breathed, the sinister, darkly sexual look returning to his face. "I'm a dawg, Pup – I can go – anytime…" He thrusted again, easier this time – Cody let out a soft moan, and a small spurt of precum in tandem. "Ye dawg too, now…"

"H-ha – I – I guess—" He swallowed, hard. "I'd just never met someone I was attracted to so – so – like I need it—"

Bligh tittered, low and evil. "Zat right now, Pup?"

"I—" Cody's face turned back to the same utter seriousness as before, losing all expression as it was drowned by desire: "I – I wanna know what – y-you – do you like what I – what I said? About – about puppies—?"

"If that's what gonna get me to cum in y'again—" Bligh said, a low voice, taken by passion. "We gonna keep doin it…"

Now he thrusted, hard, so that Cody shouted, spraying yet more pre, missing Bligh entirely and landing on the bed.

"Please – please do – do it—" Cody's ability to stay cogent was evaporating against the blinding embers of his own burgeoning desires. "I – n-need – more—"

Another brutal thrust, another broken cry – another torrent of pre.

"Need what Pup?" His face was devilish, he knew the answer but only needed to hear it.

"More – c-cum—" Cody gasped. "M-more – dog—"

Bligh leaned back once again, letting his pelvis undulate athletically, expertly, to let Cody keep riding his knot, to plunge the younger male down, down by design, into a deadly mixture of transcendent pleasure, pulsing agony – and addiction to them both.

He would, he decided, fill Cody more and more, bit by bit, coaxing out the hungry animal that was being born inside him – his hand, gripping Cody's shoulder, tightened against the bare flesh, as he let the frenzy take hold.

His movements quickened, his eyes stared down his new lover unblinkingly, a harsh guttural growl building in his throat…but with both hands moving down to Cody's sides, the growl built to a savage roar, as for the third time that evening he proved his virility.

The sounds Cody made, in turn, Bligh could not himself hear – but they were inhuman noises of plunging rapture, the lust and the needs of his body crashing with the pain and the overfullness.

He gripped his belly, choking out a long moan. "I'm – a – dog—" He panted, tears coming to his eyes.

"Hell yeah y'are, Pup," Bligh whispered, panting, grinning.

"And there's – so much – dog—" He gripped his belly, aching out a strangle groan from the most primal depths of his being. "In me – in – m-me—"

Without using his hands, the shaft of his cock swelled, his new knot bloated out, and at once Cody hurled back his head and cried aloud a long, single note of cosmic fulfillment, that came with a sustained torrent of musky cum that arced unto Bligh's hairy, heaving stomach.

Cody gulped for air – his eyes swam, rolling to the back of his head and then forwards to look for, find, fixate on Bligh, as though, like a star to navigate by, if he couldn't find him, he'd get lost.

"Thank – th-thank—"

"Yeah, Pup," Bligh breathed, forcing a smirk. "Yeah."

As they both came down from the afterglow, together, the endorphins and the ecstasy ebbing back, back into the oblivion they came from, Cody put his hand onto Bligh's chest, to feel the beating canine heart that pounded unwieldy for the primal, passionate, animal copulation they had shared.

Cody's face was serious and maybe, even, a little wounded, as though that innate vulnerability that he had let Bligh see was overwhelming him.

His ears folded back in submission, his hand gripping the soft, silky hairs of Bligh's chest-hair, Cody took several breaths, words that were forming and then disappearing as the misgivings he had saying them grew too much.

But then, finally, he managed to blurt: "Bligh – Bligh, I – I—"

Bligh knew what he was going to say, how he was going to finish that sentence – and stopped him.

"I know." He reached as best he could to rub Cody's ear. "I know, Pup."

He turned away, hating to be overwhelmed by the moment, hating to deny what Cody needed to say – what, maybe, fighting against it, too soon, he felt too.

"My back – kinda hurtin, Pup," he murmured. "Gonna need ye ta sit up."

"O-okay…" Cody once again tried to free himself, wiggling from side to side to see if Bligh's knot would give even an inch, but to no avail. "I – I don't think I can—"

A nervous laugh burst from him, and Bligh allowed himself a small titter back, suppressing a sudden resurgence of fire – and pride. He shook his head hard, his ears lowering in concentration.

"Try – try again man, we gotta get up."

"Okay."

Once more Cody attempted to wriggle upward from Bligh's tie – he struggled, and after several winces, finally worked himself free, the still-hard doghood slurping out of his anus with a wet pop…he stifled a moan in disappointment which was cut short by a look of alarm.

Dripping, out of him, landing onto Bligh's leg fur, was a steady torrent of the greyish, musky liquid – Bligh's cum. He moved his new tail out of the way, as though trying to keep it clean and dry from the strange substance.

Beneath him, Bligh's cock was still turgid, but wobbled in throes of going back down, slick with his own grey seed.

Their eyes met, a half-second of sexual shame – Bligh threw his head back, shutting his eyes, trying not to see his handiwork on the boy…lest his sexual appetite, so hard to control since he had attained this new form, reignite yet again, and start the process anew.

"Huh," he huffed. "Damn."

"I'm gonna—"

There was a profound hesitation, what sounded like a loss of coordination on his paws.

Bligh sensed something was newly amiss. "Go – get – um, go clean off with a towel, Pup."

"I – uh, yeah, I should—"

"Aight."

"Yeah."

Bligh waited until he heard the bathroom door open, the flick of the light and the sound of the fan, before he opened his eyes again.

He rose, penis returning to his sheath, pride restored, but with so little time to process anything.

When he was still in his truck, driving I-4 to I-275 to Tampa, that was – only a few hours ago. Never, the whole damn time, did he ever think something like Cody turning into what he was could ever happen – Cody even said he'd woken up that morning as a human, and now he wasn't. Bligh hadn't, couldn't, prepare himself for that, or the way that his instincts kept taking over that night…or how he and Drew fought, or…or…

…there was so much he needed to sort through, so much he needed to find out – but it was too late.

Bligh's pride may not have been wounded anymore, but now there was something else, something worse – things he didn't understand about the world and himself, big things and big questions he thought he could ignore all his life, but had found him, had become him.

Now he felt his tail sway just a little as he let himself come out of the unwelcome introspection. He turned, briefly seeing Cody watching him in the doorway of the bathroom, to Drew, still knocked out, his chest falling and rising, the most balanced and peaceful thing in this bedroom that had been so full of wild chaos.

"We oughta put em ta bed, Pup…" he murmured.

"You mean put him in the bed?"

"Yeah," Bligh said with a short nod.

"I think so too – he can't be comfortable like that."

Bligh gave another short nod, feeling his ears lower as he approached Drew with his footsteps – there was still that disbelief of being able to see, to touch him again after being away for so long, and even being near him filled him with a slow kind of excitement and relief.

He knelt to nuzzle Drew's cheek, kissing him on the lips.

"Everythin'll be okay, Drew…" he whispered, not even sure if he could be heard, but needing it, all the same, to be spoken into existence. "I love ya, Cody loves ya. We be okay, aight? I'll never let ye go."

"Aww…"

Bligh turned back to Cody, again watching him quietly, with a smirk. "S'true, ain't it?"

Cody answered with a profound nod.

And then, as he had done at the beach, Bligh lifted his best friend, slowly, carefully, then slid him over his shoulder – padding gingerly over to the bed, Cody watching them intently, Bligh laid Drew down, head on the pillow first, straightening him up as he went.

He backed away, Cody doing the same to give him some room, looking down at the man he had been chasing his whole life, not just the geographical distance of five states but a span of time that really, when he had to think about it, wasn't long at all, but may as well have been a hundred years.

Cody came up behind him to graze his hand, so that Bligh would wrap their fingers together – they stood like this, watching the person they both loved most in the world sleep off a witchy mountain drug-potion, for a solid minute.

"What – time is it, anyway?" Cody said at last, gently, to break the silence.

Bligh thought a moment, pressing a fang to his lip. "I – ain't rightly know, actually. Left m'phone in the truck." He motioned with his head to the window. "S'dark outside, though…"

"Mmm," Cody intoned, frowning. "Andy – he has his phone, right?"

"In the truck, too."

Cody nodded, taking his hand back from Bligh. "I bet it's late – we don't use a clock, we use, uh – his phone to tell time…"

Bligh sighed. "We oughta get ta bed, yanno." He grimaced, motioning with his head again, this time to Drew's slumbering form. "This one – he told me – ta find me a motel or sumthin—"

"Why did he say that?"

"Cuz me n'him were—"

"Oh—" Cody sighed, sitting down at the foot of the bed – his tail dug in between sheets and comforter and he wiggled it against the cotton, and he put a hand on Drew's leg, looking him over again. "Right, right, right." But then he shook his head, turning and smiling just enough for Bligh to see. "Well that's not happening." His tail wagged.

Bligh smirked at him. "Well I'd hope not."

"I – I wouldn't do that to you." His ears fluttered, bashful, quietly thrilled.

"I know ya wudn't, Pup."

The two of them had returned to being awkward, unsure around each other, as though making love had brought them together, suddenly, but then so suddenly too had drawn them apart – the late hour, the knowing that tomorrow they'd have everything to answer for, was a growing weight, at least for Bligh, and probably was for Cody as well.

"So where—" Cody looked down at Drew again. "Uh, hmm—"

"Where should we sleep?" Bligh guessed.

"Yeah."

Bligh nodded to the foot of the bed. "How, uh – how bout ya go there—" Now he nodded to the side of the bed. "I go here."

"And we give Andy the bed?"

"Yep."

Cody rose, nodding, everything about him seemingly more humble, more ready to please, than when Bligh had first seen him.

"Good – um, good idea."

They moved to take up their respective places – Drew, lying in state on the bed, and they sleeping at the foot and the side – but then, noticing each other, naked, dog, canid-human hybrid, they stopped.

A heavy air filled the room at once: Bligh gritted his teeth as he felt the barest stirrings in his sheath, the preparation to mate again, nudity against nudity, fur against fur, pelt and skin, an endless animal cycle of consensual, estral dominance which Cody had never experienced and Bligh could only vaguely envisage but which – he knew, with a sick feeling in the deepest pits of his stomach – that Cody would accept, he, Bligh, this scoundrel, this rogue, this Irish cur from up a West Virginia holler.

Cody – making that sick feeling Bligh had all the sicker – looked away, plopping down by the foot of the bed…Bligh, his eyes lingering, his penis unruly in his sheath but, thankfully, going back to where it belonged, sighed, hard, through his nose.

"Best we – uh, go ta sleep, man."

"I know, I know – I'm – kinda pretty tired." There was a small, fractional pause, before he added: "Bligh?"

"Yeah, Pup?"

"I'll see you tomorrow, right?"

"Yeah ya will."

"Promise?"

"I promise, Pup. Me, n'ye, n'Drew."

"Thank you." There was a stirring, as though he was trying to get comfortable enough to sleep. "For – everything."

And – once more – all Bligh could say back was: "I know."

He kept his eyes shut until he heard Cody's rhythmic inhales, exhales, faint against the air conditioning – he opened them, watching the room feebly lit by the outside lights of the parking lot…his eyes, blue eyes, blue like nobody else's, blue like the halo around the Moon, that some people swore glowed in the dark…

The Moon-Eyed People – those words he kept hearing as he remembered a summer night like this, ages ago, when the phrase came up, and Drew's dad had gotten up from the table like a cloud was over him…

…he wanted to ask Drew about this, he wanted to find answers, but they would need to elude him for now.

What had it meant to feel what he felt – to be like he was – to grow up where he grew up?

This whole thing had been about Drew, this whole thing had been about undoing the mistakes he'd never thought he could before, but now – Lord, now this was about who he really was, as a person, as a dog…this was about West Virginia, somehow, somehow it was about West Virginia and how not even Drew was allowed to insult it.

His plan, or lack of it, had succeeded, because Cody was on his side. But the space between tonight and tomorrow was so vast and so awful that it made Bligh do something he rarely did, and hated doing: fearing.

But – and just as before – there was no time to think about that now.

His eyes came back to being closed, slowly, so slowly, and somewhere in the soft places between being awake and being asleep, he thought he heard, from nowhere at all, his grandfather, humming one of the strange tunes that he said he'd heard from his own grandfather, down through the ages, coming to him in the first delicate touches of a dream.