Page 38 of Stags

“Fuck,” he grunted. He yanked his cock out of her.

The sudden movement made her feel shocked and then empty and then cold. She shivered. Despite whatever the fuck he’d said, she yanked up her pants and started hurriedly buttoning herself away. “You didn’t have to be an asshole,” she said.

He was backing away, zipped up, his wolf ears alert and pointed straight up. “This isn’t like me,” he said again, and it was a plea. He lifted his shoulders, a helpless gesture, then lowered them, and then turned his back on her and slunk off into the woods, his tail down and curling around one of his legs.

She shivered again.

She watched him disappear into the darkness.

Then she made her way back towards the Center.

As she went back through the woods, she saw that some of the breeding lairs were occupied, and she saw deerkin—bucks and does—streaking through the woods, laughing as they ran.

She kept her head down, her hands jammed into her pockets, though.

She went all the way back to her room and then she took a very hot shower, trying to wash the wolf entirely away.

Lying in bed, she looked up at the ceiling and considered that it was maybe time to get on some meds or something. Maybe this impulsive part of her was getting out of control.

CHAPTER NINE

TAWNY WOKE UPearly and sent a group text to Eiren and Rora, asking if they wanted to meet up for breakfast. There was a buffet set up in the courtyard, included in the price of admission to the weekend. Breakfast was provided each day, but lunch and dinner were not.

She wasn’t sure if either of them would respond. They’d both probably been up late at the midnight run, so she thought she might be on her own, but she thought that it would be worth it to get some idea from the two of them of how it had worked.

But Rora responded immediately, and Eiren only five minutes afterward.

Within half an hour, they were seated inside the Center’s dining room, near one of the large windows that overlooked the courtyard and the field where the run had taken place the night before.

“It’s like summer camp,” said Rora cheerfully. “Only instead of crafts, we have sex.”

Everyone laughed.

“It’s like college,” said Eiren, stretching. She rubbed her neck, then recoiled as if she had hurt herself. She took a drink of coffee out of her mug. “I miss that, actually, that sense of community, everyone showing up in the dining hall together in the mornings to share what crazy shenanigans they got into the night before. It’s funny, because you spend all of your youth rushing to get to adulthood, and then it’s a big yawn. All the good stuff is over.”

“I’m still in college,” said Rora. “But I don’t live on campus.”

“Right, that’s a whole different experience,” said Eiren.

“I didn’t go last night,” said Tawny, like she was confessing her sins to the two of them. “I chickened out. I went to bed instead. What was it like? I think I should have forced myself. It feels twice as hard to psyche myself up for the mid-morning thing.”

“I didn’t either,” said Rora. “Um, actually, I have to… I wonder if I could just go back to his room. Or maybe I could call the phone in his room or—”

“Wait, spill,” said Eiren. “What happened?”

Rora ducked down her head, grinning widely. “Well, um, I found the stag. Or he found me. Or… anyway, it happened.”

Tawny and Eiren exchanged a look, both grinning.

“Tell us everything,” said Tawny.

Rora gazed off into the distance, lost in a reverie. “You were both right, you know. There was never anything wrong with me. I think it was about confidence, maybe? I think, maybe one person needs to be sure of themselves or something, and the problem with being young is that everyone’s insecure. And men my age, I keep waiting for them to take charge or something, but they never do, and then I don’t, and then…”

“I don’t know, that confidence stuff sounds like those awful dating coaches on social media, with the negging and everything,” said Eiren, wrinkling up her nose.

Rora considered. “I’m thinking I’m going to go home early.”

“Really?” said Tawny.

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