The Werebears of Adengaan - Chapter Eight

The Werebears of Adengaan - Chapter Eight

by

MC 

The scream came from a house just on the other side of the road from the carriage house. Brunaulf knew this house and was striding toward the gate of the front yard like a man on a mission. He stopped in front of the gate where a crude "Ascot Orphanage" sign was hanging on the fence to his right. The big werebear's face was seething with anger when his two companions caught up to him, his gaze completely focused on the front door that lay down the short path from the gate. The sound of a strap making contact with something and another boy's scream permeated the walls of the house.

Brunaulf started growling. It was a low, gutteral growl that startled Gaden with its ferocity as the beast grabbed the gate with both hands. Uttering only the word "Bastard!" he ripped the gate clean off the fencepost and threw it across the road landing in some bushes on the other side. The werebear resumed his purposeful strides toward the house.

Gaden watched what was going on with a mixture of confusion and fear. He had no idea what was going on or why his love was so enraged. He had never seen this side of Brunaulf before and it shocked and frightened him. On instinct to try and help or comfort his lover, he took a step toward the newly made hole in the fence. Karn quickly stepped around and blocked the path shaking his head.

"This is his fight and these are his demons. Remember your word."

Gaden looked at the house then at the hulking man in front of him. He saw muscles all over Brunaulf flex to their limit, and then relax, and then flex again as if they were getting bigger with each flex as he stormed to the house.

"I don't understand."

"I know," Karn said in a quieter tone, "but it's his story to tell, not mine. We stay here." Karn pulled Gaden to him in a side embrace, putting a comforting arm around his front.

Gaden stood there silently, trying to piece together what he could from what had just unfolded before him.

Brunaulf made it to the door as another crack of leather and a scream emanated from the house. A big booted foot kicked the door in leaving it hanging by only one hinge as the enraged brute made his way in the house. It was as if he had never left. Several small cot-like beds in the main room sparsely furnished. One single table where 5 kids looked up at the giant, paralyzed with fear. Another child maybe eleven years old had his hands against what was known as "the punishment wall", his back bleeding slightly from welts. The Brunaulf’s eyes locked on Fullas, strap in hand, staring at the man who barged into his house with a surprised look. The bear clenched and unclenched his fists several times as the red in his face almost turned purple from the rage he was attempting to contain.

"Children," Brunaulf said through a clenched jaw, "go outside for a few minutes."

No one moved.

"It's okay, kids," Brunaulf said, his gaze never leaving Fullas, "Fullas and I have some… business. Go outside."

Fear and confusion gripped the children and seemed uncertain what to do. Fullas regained some of his composure.

"I don't know what the hells you're doing in MY house, but you better..."

Brunaulf didn't even give him a chance to finish the sentence. With amazing speed for such a lumbering wall of muscle he closed the gap and backfisted Fullas across the face with such force he staggered four steps backward screaming in pain. The powerful bear grabbed the drunkard by the arm and pulled him close before marching him over to the table where the children were sitting and pinned his chest down against the table. The children scrambled out of the way but continued to watch.

"CHILDREN!" Brunaulf commanded, "OUTSIDE! NOW!"

Snapped out of their amazement they all bolted for the door. Looking around and satisfied no one was left in the house, Brunaulf turned his attention back to the man struggling under him. The years hadn't been kind. Brunaulf remembered him as a large, sturdy man with brown hair, but the man he had pinned didn't match his memory. This was a man whose hair was more grey than brown and whose clothes seemed to be made for someone about thirty pounds heavier. He bent down behind him using his considerable size advantage to pin him to the table as he put his head next to his ear.

"Hello Fullas… Remember me?" He growled. Fullas said nothing, but a few curses as he continued to struggle under the big man.

"That's okay, you may not remember me, but I remember you," Brunaulf continued in a low even tone, "I remember every lash you gave me," The older man struggled, but he was far from a match for the strength of a werebear. Brunaulf pressed his forearm into the back of the struggling man's neck to keep him still, pushing his face into the table painfully "I remember every meal you kept from me, but most of all, I remember the night you were going to rape me." To emphasize the last point, he let his groin press firmly against the smaller man's ass.

"No... please..." The smaller man started to plead.

"Mercy? You beg me… for mercy?" The big man asked incredulously, "Where was your mercy when you beat me because I asked for more than a bowl of thin soup? Where was your mercy when my back was raw and bleeding, but you continued with the lashes anyway? Where was your mercy when your wife begged you not to beat us so you beat her instead and then beat us anyway?"

Brunaulf continued to hold the man down, pressing his face into the wood of the table harder as he continued.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to rape you. You don't deserve that in ways you'll never understand, but when I'm done, you'll wish I had."

He got up off of the smaller man, picked him up, and threw him against a wall about ten feet away as if he were a small sack of flour. The smaller man had the wind knocked out of him slumping to the ground as Brunaulf stood over him like a mountain of wrath. He knotted the front of the drunkard's shirt up in his left fist and picked him up one-handed into the air and slammed him against the wall before throwing him back at the table. The old man groaned as he laid slumped over face down. Brunaulf ripped the old man's shirt off his back and grabbed the strap from the table, wrapping the handlestrap tightly in his right hand, he stood over Fullas.

The first crack was so loud it sounded like a firecracker. Fullas roared in pain and tried to get up, but Brunaulf gave him a hard left punch to the side of the face knocking him down on the table.

"STAY DOWN!" The big man thundered. Then he repeated what he was told many times when he stayed in the orphanage.

"WHAT I SAY, YOU OBEY!"

A strong hand came down as he delivered the second lash. The werebear didn't hold back and put every ounce of strength into each lash. He figured his enhanced strength would feel to this man what a man's whipping would feel like to an underfed boy. Screams of agony echoed through the house as Brunaulf delivered stroke after stroke. Small streaks of blood began to appear on the man's back after the fourth stroke, but that didn't stop the raging beast. Fullas tried to get up once, but a left to the gut and a right to his head knocked him back down on the table. It was the last time the old man would try to get up. The former orphan methodically counted out twenty strokes on the old man. Breathing heavy, he threw the lash on the table before picking the screaming, sobbing man up by the arm off the table and dragging him over to the "punishment wall." Brunaulf grabbed fullas by each arm, picked him up and slammed him against the wall, letting his bloody back press against the cold wall. Fullas yelped in pain on contact with the wall before he resumed sobbing. Brunaulf got into the man's bruised, bloody face and began speaking in a low, growling, snarling tone.

"Now, the next time you think about taking a drop of drink, the next time you think about abusing a boy or your wife, the next time you think about starving a boy, you think deeply, and long about this day. Remember how this feels, etch it into your memory. Remember this pain, but… most of all… remember that I went easy on you compared to what you deserve. Think of me as an 'orphan's guardian spirit'. And since you have orphans, I'll always be watching you from now on."

The werebear slowly, carefully, changed the features of his face, neck and shoulders into a half form allowing the transmutation to burn into the terrified man's brain as he continued speaking in an marbelly voice.

"And if I ever see you touch another drop of drink, if I ever see you mistreat your wife or another orphan again," he brought his muzzled, fanged, face next to the frightened man's ear, "I will EAT you... ALIVE!"

Brunaulf threw the man back on the table before turning his attention to the kitchen cabinets. Transforming his hands into paws, he ripped every locked cabinet door apart in a frenzied fury. Satisfied he made his point, he transformed his body back to a fully human form, stepping over the carnage on the floor and exiting the home.

He surveyed the front yard with a grim expression until his eyes landed on a woman he knew, albiet aged, holding groceries from the shop. Six children surrounded her. Brunaulf’s eyes immediately softened as he walked toward the woman who was standing near his companions and without saying a word embraced her in a hug with his eyes closed. Breaking the embrace he put a hand on each side of the confused woman's head and kissed her on the forehead.

"Thank you," Brunaulf said. "thank you for at least trying to protect us."

The big man walked back through the hole in the fence and down the street not looking back. Karn and Gaden followed suit after a few moments leaving a confused Elitha staring back and forth between the men walking away and a broken front door.

The three men walked down the street toward the centre of the village without speaking. Gaden kept staring at the bear he loved, wondering what was going on that would cause such an outburst completely out of character from anything he knew of him.

“Not now, Gaden,” Brunaulf offered as if reading his thoughts, “I'll explain later when I'm calm, but know that I had my reasons. Thank you for keeping your word.” They walked in silence for another ten paces or so when Brunaulf spoke up again.

“We should get some supplies. I don't want to spend the night in town.”

Gaden used the opportunity to continue down the new subject.

“I agree. I was thinking if we can find a reasonably good looking horse and cart in this town, we can set up a decoy. Might be able to lure them out and get some answers.”

“Good idea,” Karn said in approval, “it doesn't hurt either that you probably have two of the best trackers within a hundred mile radius.”

Brunaulf smiled.

“Thanks for the compliment, but where's the other one?” He teased.

Karn laughed and Gaden smiled at the comment. The mood of the trio was shifting to something Gaden found more familiar, especially from his lover. It was only a few minutes to a general store for some simple supplies they wouldn't be able to forage in the forest and got a lead on a horse and wagon that might meet their needs. Some skillful negotiation from Karn got them a horse, wagon and some empty barrels at a great price. Gaden couldn't help but smile at the comical scene of a big, burly bearish man haggling like a fishwife. They loaded the scant supplies they needed to purchase into the wagon and set off down the road south toward Adengaan.

About thirty minutes out of town, Karn brought them to a halt.

“We're far enough out of Ascot now,” the older werebear said stripping off his clothes, “I think its time to do some scouting. Whaddaya think, son?”

Brunaulf smiled and dismounted, stripping his clothes off and putting them in the wagon for safe keeping. Slowly, he allowed his body to transform from human to a huge black bear. He cocked his head at his uncle as if to ask what he was waiting for.

“We're going to explore up ahead,” Karn explained, “we're going to make sure the coast is clear and there isn’t an ambush waiting for us. If everything is good, we'll set up camp about an hour or so down the road, and we'll begin the hunt for the raiders in earnest tomorrow.”

Gaden nodded in understanding of the plan and Karn began to morph into his bear form. The brawny black bear that was Karn took a moment to stretch as if he hadn't moved in this form in a while. Playfully giving Brunaulf a shoulder shove, the two started lumbering down the path before splitting up. One checked the left side of the path, the other checked right. Gaden got the horse moving again, the only sounds in the forest being the cloping of hooves and the creaking of the wagon as the trek began.

The hour went uneventfully and the two bears reunited with Gaden on the path. Brunaulf transformed into his half form so he could communicate with his lover and pass on information about camp.

“There's a brook to the right,” Brunaulf said in his marbelly voice, “not far off the path. The wagon can make it. We set up camp there.” Back into bear form, he started walking through a wide berth between some trees before turning back to see if Gaden was following. He worked the reins to get the horse to follow the bear and it was only about sixty feet to the spot Brunaulf described. Gaden got down from the cart and surveyed the area. Good tree cover and enough bush to hide a small fire from the road. It would work well. The werebears shifted back to human form and began setting up camp, and remained completely nude to Gaden’s delight. After about an hour the trio had finished clearing brush from the ground, making a small fire pit, gathering wood and doing some prep work for supper.

Brunaulf and Gaden were at the wagon, the werebear still naked, when they heard some cursing from the firepit. Karn was trying to get the fire started banging flint against steel furiously hoping a big enough spark would ignite some of the kindling. Gaden and Brunaulf smiled at each other before the mage wandered over to where the other naked bear was squatting. Gaden put a hand on Karn's shoulder and playfully pushed back on the naked man causing him to unceremoneously fall on his butt.

“I got this,” said Gaden, he turned and acted like he was going to sneeze on the fire.

“ahh... ahhh... AHHHh... CHOO!”

As if on cue, a strong fire erupted from the kinding.

“Ta-da!” Gaden bowed, smiling at Karn. “Usually I like to snap my fingers to add a little flourish, but I was feeling playful tonight. Jamder used to hate it when I added useless...”

The mage stopped himself seeing the change of expression from Karn.

“I'm sorry, Karn.” Gaden said simply.

“Don't be,” Karn's smile returned, “he could be a pompous ass at times. I understand.”

Gaden smiled in relief as he helped Karn up.

The late afternoon meal of stewed meat, root vegetables, and bread Karn prepared was quite tasty. It was no wonder Brunaulf learned how to be such a good cook. After the meal the still naked Brunaulf got up from the fire to head for the wagon.

“Time for dessert” The big man said, returning with a bottle of mead.

“Where... when... did you get that?” Gaden asked.

Nodding at the fire Brunaulf smiled and said, “You aren’t the only one with fringe benefits,” Brunaulf winked, “I can sniff out mead from ten miles away.” He popped the cork and the three sat next to each other by the fire, one werebear on each side of Gaden as the bottle went back and forth. The sun was low on the horizon by the time the bottle was halfway finished, each staring silently in the fire simply content to be in each other's company. Gaden's thoughts returned to what happened earlier that day, and with a light buzz from the mead felt the courage discuss it.

“So Brunaulf,” Gaden started awkwardly, searching for the right way to delicately broach the subject, “I don't mean to pry, and if you don't want to talk about it I understand, but back there... in the town... what... why...”

His burly love said nothing for a moment in the uncomfortable silence.

“Look at my back, Gaden.”

The mage leaned back to look as Brunaulf turned slightly. It was the same, handsome, hairy broad back that he'd seen dozens of times before.

“What am I looking for?”

“Look carefully. What do you see?”

For the first time, Gaden noticed something underneath the hair on his back. They were very faint, but there were distinct reddish lines in different places. Faint lines where hair did not grow. The surrounding hair hid them well, but there were so many across his back.

“I was an orphan in Ascot. In that house.” the he said, turning his back again so he could face the fire, his eyes never moving from the dancing flames, “My parents died when I was ten. My blood family didn't want me. They moved and left me in Ascot. I lived in that orphanage, that hell, for two years. Those faint red lines on my back are what's left of the lashings I took from the bastard who ran the place. He would beat me bloody, and scarcely before the wounds could begin to heal, he would beat me bloody again. His name is Fullas”.

A cloud of anger briefly moved over Brunaulf’s features at the mention of the name, and then it was gone, and he was back to his stoic soldier’s expression.

“The change to werebear healed them nicely, the scars faded almost completely, but there had been too much damage for too long to completely erase them.” He paused for a moment, seeming to relive some of that part of his life in his mind before continuing.

“Those two years were the worst of my life. I asked the Gods repeatedly what I had done to deserve that fate, how I had sinned so much to be so punished. There was never enough to eat, especially for the boys on the edge of puberty, every one of us were just bags of skin and bone. Oh, but that drunken bastard always had drink and his belly was never slack. The beatings were often and there didn’t need to be a reason. He did it, because he felt like it, and he could. The drunkard would even beat his wife when he didn't get his way. One night, just after I turned twelve, Fullas got into a fight with his wife. She wouldn't sleep with him, so he beat her and knocked her unconscious and, not having a lively enough hole to plow, he decided he was going to rape me to satisfy his lust.”

The big man paused again, another cloud passed over him, but he regained his composure and continued.

“Thankfully, he passed out on top of me before he could violate me. I decided at that point it was better to starve to death in the woods than stay another moment. I packed what I could and set off on the road for Adengaan. I would have starved to death had I not run into some... luck... " He raised the bottle to the forest.

"...Cheers to you, Garret..." The werebear took a healthy swig and passed it to Gaden.

"...but I was determined to make it to Adengaan and start a new life.”

Brunaulf broke his gaze with the fire and looked past Gaden next to him to lock eyes with Karn and smiled.

“When I got to Adengaan, I met a man who took me in, who saved my life.”

Karn beamed and wiped a tear from the corner of his eye.

“It was my pleasure, son” he said softly.

Gaden looked back and forth from Karn to Brunaulf putting the pieces together.

“But regarding Ascot,” Brunaulf continued as he faced the fire once again, “I knew I was going to see him again when I came here with you. I was hoping he had changed, that time had softened his heart. When I heard that boy scream, I decided it had to stop, I didn’t know how, but it had to. Believe me, when I saw that boy in there, hands against the wall as mine had been, being whipped I wanted to kill him. I could have snapped his neck like a twig or I could have twisted his head right off” the big man paused again for a moment.

“But even an evil bastard like him deserves one chance at redemption. So instead, I chose to put the fear of the Gods into him. If I succeeded, then not only would I have spared his life, but I'd have spared other children the torture I lived through. Tempering my anger to avoid taking a life will have been worth it.”

With that, the werebear stared into the fire in silence. Gaden took in everything he was told while he stared at his love. Brunaulf was right, he could have killed the man easily and with what he went through he would have been justified, but he chose not to. The mage was in absolute awe of the man he fell in love with. Such a brute physically and yet such an immense capacity to forgive, to find a way to stop suffering. In that moment, Brunaulf seemed powerfully, intoxicatingly masculine. Without saying a word, Gaden turned toward his lover and gave him a warm embrace. He started kissing him on his forehead, his neck, and went for his lips. Brunaulf turned his head to receive the kiss, and gently wrapped his arms around the man he loved. Gaden turned and sat on Brunaulf's lap facing him. Brunaulf inhaled his scent deeply, letting the aroma wash over him like a comfortable blanket. The werebear's cock began to stir as the two lovers explored each other's mouths.

“Ahem,” Karn spoke up, “room for one more?”

Brunaulf broke the kiss and looked into Gaden’s eyes, questioning. The smaller man smiled and nodded slightly raising his arms over his head.

“Can you help me with my shirt, Uncle Karn?” Gaden asked, trying on the familial term of “Uncle” on for size.

Karn smiled and got up to move behind the mage, gently pulling the shirt up off of his torso exposing the man's hairy back and chest. He reached around under each arm to start playing with Gaden's nipples and nibbling on the nape of his neck. Gaden felt his own cock become painfully hard and leaking as the thought of not one but two werebears entertained his thoughts. Carefully the pair half carried, half guided Gaden onto a bedroll near the fire face up. Brunaulf dragged his cock across Gaden's hole to slick it with precum while Karn was kissing him gently and playing with one of his nipples. The mage moaned softly while being kissed as he felt one of Brunaulf's fingers begin to massage his prostate. Soon one finger became two as Gaden moaned and writhed gently enjoying the pleasure. Karn broke the kiss to look at his son, smiling, and put a hand roughly behind Brunaulf's head as he kissed him hard, his tongue probing and enjoying his smells and taste. Growling lustfully, he released his cub from the kiss, he looked at Gaden's hole and nodded as he moved to reposition himself over Gaden's face.

The younger bear hoisted Gaden's ass in the air so that his knees were on his shoulders and positioned his cockhead so it was just touching the young man's hole. Karn moved his cock in front of Gaden's mouth inviting him to suckle which the young man did with gusto. It was as if Karn's growl was a cue to the other werebear as his cockhead began to penetrate the mage. A muffled groan escaped Gaden's lips as Brunaulf began his steady, even strokes. He couldn't use his full werebear strength, not yet, but he hoped to someday.

The young mage was in absolute ecstasy. A burly bear inside of him, a big, attractive, musky bear's cock in his mouth. He knew the man inside him was special and with what he shared about his life earlier made him even more attractive to Gaden. He thought more and more about the life he could have with this family. Gaden didn't know if he could ever feel something so strong, so powerful, with anyone else. To be able to hold, to caress, to love this big brute of a man for centuries continued to make his cock throb and leak. If he lost his magic abilities it would be a price worth paying to be with this man. He wouldn't say anything now - they had a mission to complete that would require all of his faculties - but when they returned to Adengaan he would tell him: he would make the choice and live his life with this new family as a werebear.

The fire crackled and popped as the evening wore on, throwing shadows of what seemed to be men and bears exploring each other amid the night sounds of the forest.