BLOOD DREAM (Ongoing)

12.2: Boys Will Be Boys

The two boys sprawled out in the grass, in blankets of shed fur and pointy teeth, dashed with blood and sweat and mud. Tufts of black fur and downy grey undercoat fluttered away in the breeze, chilling Theron's bare skin after he rolled off of Liam and propped himself up on his elbows. His back rose and fell with hard breaths, the transformation arduous and hardly as easy as it had been escaping from the hunters. It took nearly ten minutes. It left him aching throughout, the wounds he gained from Liam reflected on his human anatomy: right arm wet with gore, left side of his face steeped in red from his shredded ear. Theron dragged his eyes toward Liam, the back of his neck and hair sticky with blood, chest buckling rapidly. Cuts crossed the bridge of his nose. Liam opened his eyes and looked at Theron, half-smiling.

It infuriated Theron. "Don't," he warned, crawling over to Liam to grab his jaw with dominating force.

Liam tensed, his smile lingering as Theron bore down. "You weren't having fun? I was."

"What are you trying to do?" Theron didn't have the patience for his games.

Gripping Theron's wrist, Liam laid flat on his back, knees bent up around Theron's waist. "I've been thinking about you," he struggled to say. It didn't sound as good coming from Liam this time. "I was worried being out here might dampen your spirit. Glad to see it hasn't."

"If you were worried about me, you shouldn't have sold me out to Nora."

Liam sneered. "I never said I was worried about you."

This directly opposed what Liam told him to lure him into their complicated relationship in the first place. Hearing that—hearing his lie, seeing him sneer—filled Theron with anger he couldn't control. He slammed his fist into Liam's cheek and swelled with satisfaction at Liam's shock, his face turned to the dirt. Liam stirred back to life, but before he could fight back Theron pinned his wrists to the ground. "You said you were on my side!" Theron growled.

"We all say things to get what we want," breathed Liam.

There was no doubt in Theron's mind that Liam was enjoying this. Even with the spot under his eye bruising, opposite the scar. "What exactly do you want?"

Liam peered up at him. His eyes were soft beneath his lashes. "You haven't figured it out yet?"

Theron went cold.

"I want you to hurt me. It turns me on," said Liam. At that moment, he pinched his knees around Theron and brought him closer. Naked from the transformation, he felt everything; Liam's flexing stomach, Liam's depraved erection.

Nausea burned through Theron. He threw himself off of Liam, backing away because if he didn't, he knew he would have given Liam exactly what he wanted. "I can't do that."

Liam sat up. "Why? It turns you on too."

"What makes you think hurting you turns me on?"

His friend tilted his head as a reminder of the bruise on his neck. "Come on, Terror. Everybody knows you're a little sadistic."

Maybe at one point, when his head was at its fattest. But he was trying to escape that. "I'm not."

"What did you do after Sadie and her friends killed Patrick? Did she reward you with a fuck?" pressed Liam.

Theron flashed his teeth, kneeling. "I wasn't involved in that."

"Uh huh. Is that what you told Kit?"

"I haven't seen her."

"Don't lie to me. I smelled you," said Liam, exposing exactly what Theron had feared happening when he went home. "Does it get you off to lie, too?"