Page 88 of Stags

“No, not me,” said Eiren.

“Did you guys do the mid-morning one?” said Rora. “Am I the only person to get laid this weekend?”

“No, I did it,” said Eiren with a shrug.

“Tawny?” said Rora.

“I got some, um, donor sperm,” said Tawny, with a little tilt of her head.

All of them laughed appreciatively.

Tawny got that sense from Eiren again, that the other woman didn’t want anyone to pry, and she pushed at it this time. “What happened, Eiren?”

Eiren drew in a breath and let it out. “I got myself caught up in a thing. A stupid thing. Story of my life, really.”

“What do you mean?” said Rora.

Tawny just waited.

Eiren ran her finger around the lip of her glass, smiling wistfully. “It was a wolf.”

“A wolf?” said Tawny, sitting forward.

“He has a house on the other side of the woods,” said Eiren. “I don’t know why I went that far, but he, um, I think the scent of all of this, it made him sort of excitable. It was good sex, like really good sex, but…” She groaned, leaning back in her chair. “But he was really, really adamant about how he never wanted to see me again or anything, and I think I might have stupidly caught feelings, and I’m an idiot.”

“A wolf,” repeated Tawny, shaking her head. “Excited by the smell, like in a… predator way.”

Eiren nodded.

Tawny let out a giggle.

A smile cracked Eiren’s features.

“You lucky little bitch,” said Tawny, still giggling.

Eiren giggled too. “Did you just call me a bitch?”

“Oh, whatever, you called me a ‘taker.’ We are even. Bitch. And I say it out of love and respect and, you know, jealousy.”

Eiren collapsed into giggles, her shoulders shaking.

Rora looked back and forth between them, bemused. “Did he try to bite you?”

Eiren raised her eyebrows, sat up straight, and then turned around, moving her hair away from the back of her neck, where she was bruised.

“Ouch,” said Rora, horrified.

“It was a good ouch?” said Eiren with a helpless shrug.

Tawny let out a guffaw. “I hate you. Really, I hate you right now.”

“Do you?” said Eiren. “You wouldn’t have done that. You’re here for donor sperm and wolves are no good for that.”

“True,” said Tawny, sighing. “But there’s a younger self in me that would have ridden wolf cock all night. Damn it.”

LYALL WALKED OUTof the Center in a bad mood. There were deerkin everywhere, their little white tails bouncing around all over the place, and every single one made him feel some strange painful feeling that felt like there was a hole in his chest cavity somewhere.

He fought his way through the field and the woods and over the fence, back to his house.

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