Awakening

As ever, I want to begin with my gratitude to Andrew "Aethan" French who has allowed me to spin my tale on the foundation he laid in his own story, "A Treasure Freely Given." My interpretation of his protagonist, Halliday Dasker, is my own, but he appears here by Aethan's kind permission. I began my sequel without a copy of his story at hand. My Captain, starcruiser, crusade and crew came out rather differently, but certain themes have carried over from the original, adapted here to the needs of my own fabrications.

This story contains elements of domination and submission, pheromones / musk, behavioral conditioning, subliminal conditioning, psionic influence and mind control, as well as such happy standbys as oral sex, anal sex, oral-anal sex, humiliation, gratuitous cum, knots and tying, and involves an adolescent male with multiple adolescent and adult male partners. Vargyr are wolves, the Doctor is a tiger. Hali's species is left unspecified, but is young, cute and dangerously sexy. Enjoy.

Awakening, Part 4

I am Halliday Dasker, crewman and Captain's Mate on the renegade Starcruiser Gvadakoungg. I had not left my homeworld of Halivarr with the intention of joining a crew of Vargyr pirateers, but once I had been kidnapped, bonded with my Captain in an incandescent night of mutual passion and found my long-dormant sexuality awakening in an overwhelming manner, I stopped worrying about what my plans had originally been.

Over the span of only a few short days aboard the Vargyr cruiser, I found I was acquiring a reputation as a good time to be had by all. I had also been scrutinized by an alarmingly large but undeniably arousing Rakashah doctor, manhandled into a highly enjoyable if poorly thought out encounter in a gunnery turret, been detained by ship security, faced a court-martial and learned that Vargyr justice includes penalties like one's crewmates being allowed to address me as "fuck-pup" and "cum-slut" and get away with it. I don't think that would have been allowed, really, if they didn't have a pretty good idea that being talked to like that gets me hot.

My Captain and bond-mate had some choice things to say about all of that, but was able to relieve my real fears that I had alienated his affections by doing the kinds of things with the crew that led to me being called a slut-pup in the first place. In fact, knowing the kinds of things I got up to and still came back to him for the same and more seemed to please him. Under the guise of further "punishments", he had begun to thoughtfully arrange matters to provide me full opportunity to try to live up to the status of crew cock-slut if that was what I really wanted to do.

I wasn't as sure for myself that was what I wanted, but the ship's medical officer, Doctor Courangara, assured me that I only needed time to adjust to the reality of my intense state of rut - a heightened degree of sexual need that had been awakened by my bonding with my Captain, and seemed to be spiralling out of control to entice the entire crew. I couldn't go anywhere now without feeling their eyes on me, caressing my provocative tail. Sometimes I felt a hand as well, slipping up to give me a surreptitious pat or stroke.

See, while I am Halivarri with all that implies for a healthy adolescent male, my crewmates were Vargyr, an unruly species of born competitors whose social structure was based upon a hierarchy of dominance. To complicate matters, we Halivarri had been engineered in ancient times not only to be naturally submissive to Vargyr assertiveness but also to be almost sexually irresistible to their wolfish appetites. Predictably, they were driven by my appearance, my scent and even by my unsuspected gift of telempathy to irrational arousal and attentions that I found it difficult to resist.

The doctor had worked patiently with me to devise a variety of therapies intended to allay the anxiety I still felt at such attention. But Doctor Courangara had reassured me that no harm would result from me indulging my urges fully. He had even hinted that he might like at some point to indulge in them with me. It was almost too much for me to take in - just seventeen years old and off-world for the first time. But as I would learn, the crew were not about to let me retreat back into my bashful shell.

Nothing much happened for a couple of days save that a few crewmen called me "pup" and seldom anything more, while physical advances were limited to seemingly accidental brushes against me and a few strokes along my tail and the inevitable pats to my bottom. I had a sense of being watched with intense interest, and the absence of more pressing attention was frustrating in a way it was embarrassing to admit even to myself.

I spent my duty watches on studying the technical aspects of comm channels and sensor arrays - essential material for the Scout Service and presumably useful as well on the renegade starcruiser. If my hours in front of the vidifax left me curiously tense and half-aroused, my gymn exercises and massage sessions alleviated the former while nights spent with my Captain took care of the other.

The Captain was gentle and affectionate in our time together, and I felt that with me he felt able to set aside for a time the pressures of command. Our lovemaking was slow and satisfying for both of us, the way his sex filled me felt still as though we were perfectly matched and something I found innately comforting. I don't plan to describe those times in any detail. The bond I share with my Captain is of the heart more than of the body, and deeply personal. But it needs to be mentioned that we continued to be close and if I had ever worried that I had alienated him with my behavior among the crew, his loving presence assured me otherwise.

Nonetheless, my Captain kept every one of his promises, so that now my uniform shirts gently stroked and hummed against my upper nipples treating them with a sensitizing emollient that kept them firmed into little pink nubs just from the motion of my breathing. Moreover, an area on C Deck opposite the canteen was being reconfigured into a small, open lounge furnished with built-in storage, a vidifax study carrel and a large, round, comform bed in a soft blue plush.

There was no door or even so much as a screen between this and the passage, although there were two holo-projectors flanking the entrance and three more at the edges of the room itself. So far, they only showed innocent images of falling water and flowering vines - stock promotional images of Halivarr. Later, that would change. This was to be my own quarters on the Gvadakoungg, and I had been told by my Captain that eventually I myself would be the subject of the holoprints on display, and somehow I doubted that they would be innocent.

This lull in the crew's attentions was, I gathered, in part due to gossip about my court martial and sentencing. Until the transcript was released, conflicting stories prevailed and no one, it seemed, wish to risk the Captain's ire by making advances on me that were inappropriate. Even when the data were released, it seemed that the Vargyr were taking their time to read and discuss it. I received many appraising looks but no more, until once again I found myself ordered to report to Medical. It was with a strange mix of anticipation and apprehension that I went to see the doctor.

"Dasker, I am afraid there have been some concerns raised among the crew since the record of your disciplinary hearing was made available. Partly my own fault, and I apologize."

"What do you mean?" I asked. I couldn't fathom what Doctor Courangara was apologizing for.

"Well, since my deposition explained the full range and effect of your pheromonal output, it seems that many of the Vargyr feel this puts them at something of a disadvantage." The Rakashah doctor gestured to a comform saddle-seat and I sat rather gingerly - the shape of the seat tended to exert pressure on the lubricators along my rear seam if I wasn't careful to grasp the sides with my thighs instead. As I settled, the doctor continued.

"So I am going to prescribe a subdermal implant - don't worry, you won't notice it at all - which will have the effect of making you more susceptible to Vargyr pheromones as well. As you know, a lot of subverbal communication is scent-based among Vargyr, and it is not necessary nor desirable that you should be subjected to all of that. Instead, this treatment is highly selective, and you will be more deeply attuned only to those scents that signify Vargyr arousal and assertion of sexual dominance."

I was trying hard not to squirm my bottom on the comform seat by the time Doctor Courangara finished explaining what he proposed to do. "But, wouldn't that mean... I mean won't I..." I was not finding words to express my misgivings and in any case was interrupted when my wrist unit responded to my agitation by chirping at me, and I lifted it to my lips to catch the soother tablets on my tongue. Only a few, this time. The flavor was hardly noticeable.

"That's a good boy, Dasker," said the doctor fondly, seeing that my response to the wrist unit's chime had become reflexive. "But I think it is wrong of you to worry about such things." His voice lost some of its clinical brusqueness as a note of personal sympathy edged in. I looked up at him then and his deep amber eyes caught mine. As intimidating as he could be by size alone, his eyes always seemed gentle and trustworthy. "Just relax, Dasker, and hear me out. You know that I will not initiate any new treatment without your informed consent."

And I did relax, with a soft but deep exhalation. As the soothers smoothed the edges off of my anxiety, my thighs loosened their intent grip on the sides of the saddle-seat I straddled and I sank onto the comform pad, squirming a bit to settle myself as the lubricators buzzed awake, thrumming and caressing down my cleft to circle and tease at my ring. I couldn't think why I had avoided sitting in a way that would activate them when I had come in. The sensation was pleasurable, and the doctor couldn't be offended by my resulting arousal.

"That's better, isn't it, pup?" I nodded as my thighs parted further to allow the seat ridge to press more firmly along the cleft of my bottom. "As I said from the start with your medication, it does you no good to resist your adjustment therapies. Every aspect of your treatment is designed to harmonize with all the rest, and elevating your responsiveness to Vargyr scent signals for arousal and sexual dominance is just another aspect of the overall program."

"Now, I know that when we have introduced new elements in your adjustment therapy, you have expressed concerns that this would make you behave more provocatively or less in control of your urges. So let me reassure you again that all we are really doing is helping you to be more fully aware of your own perfectly healthy and natural instincts." He patted my thigh reassuringly with one heavy, gentle hand and smiled as my hips arched my arousal toward it.

"See? Your instincts know what you want, Dasker." He demonstrated by trailing up my shivering thigh with the pad of one finger-tip, traced the visible outline of my arousal slowly and watched me squirm to slide my bottom against the comform seat beneath me. "And I think if you are honest with yourself, you know what you really want, too. Is that not so, pup?"

I blushed, thinking of the rougher words that the Vargyr crew had used, and how oddly exciting I had found them. Was that really what I wanted? In the heat of moment, I could offer no objection. But once I was alone with myself again, where was I really? Well, when left to myself in the brig, yes, I had sought relief for my urges from a massage-bot, not for the first time, and slept peacefully after.

"So, there really is no reason to worry that you'll be more aware of how the crewmen feel about you, is there?" His tone was soft and confidential, soothing, persuasive. I would have to remember to come to Doctor Courangara when I did feel doubtful. He was always able to help me understand things better, just as he was now. "After all, if you are causing them to become aroused, then it is only fair that you share that response fully with all of them."

"I suppose that makes sense," I admitted. "I guess, if it really is all my own fault in the first place..." I trailed off with the glance to the doctor who nodded slowly in firm agreement. I shifted uncertainly, bit my lip and rocked my bottom against the caressing comform saddle-seat beneath me, slowly pressing the thrumming lubricators along my cleft and down to my ring where they hummed all around it with the large one aquiver snug against my sensitive bud. "I mean, even if it's not on purpose, it's still my responsibility, isn't it?"

"I think that is a fair-minded way to look at it, Dasker," the doctor said. "But I don't think you need to see it as a burden or an obligation. You are still young. My advice would be to simply enjoy the attention." He gave me a kindly smile, his amber eyes warm and reassuring as he regarded me over the lenses of his glasses. "Let yourself have a little fun with it. I assure you, nothing would make the Captain and crew happier. And you do like the attention, don't you?"

I blushed, but I nodded. After all, I really couldn't deny that I found the Vargyr arousing. Also, I wanted to try to live up to their expectations and earn their approval. "Yes... I guess that is true."

"I am sure that it is, Dasker, if you just let yourself admit it. So, I am going to insert the subdermal implant - you should only feel a slight pressure and once it is in place, you won't notice it at all." He put some sort of highly engineered piece of medical equipment against the base my skull where it met my neck, and I felt the increasing pressure but just before this could actually become uncomfortable, it stopped.

"But what you will notice now," Doctor Courangara continued, "are those particular scents that indicate when male Vargyr are excited by you. Scents which, being Halivarri, your own instincts will respond to." He smiled again, his warm eyes reassuring. "And, if I am not mistaken, you'll actually be able to smell their need consciously - and I can assure you that you will find the aroma a compelling one."

"Now," he said before I could think very much about this, "We are all done here, and you are expected at your quarters. I believe you have agreed to model for our avid holographer, Warrris? Your orders are to see him in your quarters for your first session" I bit my lip. Yes, I'd been told, but I had forgotten all about it. "Then if you'll accept my advice, think of it as a chance to show the real Halliday Dasker - you as you really wish to be." Deep amber eyes held mine, wise and compelling. "The more you let your real self show, pup, the better your crewmates will like you, I'm sure. And that is what matters most, isn't it?"

He saw me out of his office with a slow caress along my backside ending with a single, heavy, gentle pat.

"Look back at me, good. Lower your chin... a bit more. That's it. Now, open your mouth a little... yes - that's good with a bit of tongue. Just like that. Hike your tail just a bit, I want a nice shot of your ass. Very good. Hold it now, and there!"

I blinked to try to clear my eyes from the dazzle of the holographic imager and took the opportunity to stretch. Records Officer Warrris was making the most of my Captain's suggestion that I model for him. I had been posing on and around the bed in my new quarters for the better part of two duty watches, and while I enjoyed attention it was becoming difficult to bring the desired intensity to the poses. I was used to having more direct provocation from the Vargyr crew.

Warrris seemed to reach the same conclusion, because he paused, eyed me appraisingly, then turned to scan the small crowd of off-duty crew who had gathered in front of the canteen to watch. "You, there," he called out brusquely. "Srringarr, isn't it?" The Vargyr he addressed, largest in the crowd, nodded and stepped forward. One paw rested low, thumb hooked in the front panel of his shipman's trousers, fingers curled around the plain outline of his evident arousal.

"Aye, sir." Srringarr was tall and broad-shouldered, an imposing figure with iron-grey fur. His maleness where it showed in his snug shipman's pants was as large as or larger than any I had yet encountered. I think I gave a small moan just looking at him and some instinct made me part my legs. He grinned.

"Do you mind posing with our little Halivarri friend?" Warrris asked, waving him over.

"Oh, not at all." The larger Vargyr eyed me up and down as he stepped around the holography equipment carefully and approached my bed. Even still in my uniform, I felt naked under that gaze. "I have been eager to make his acquaintance."

"Um, hi," I said somewhat uncertainly. "I'm Halliday, or Hali." He was more than close enough now for me to catch his scent - aroused interest, yes, but also a desire to assert himself, to prove he was in charge here even if it was Warrris who had invited his participation.

"Hello, there," he replied with his lazy grin. "I've heard so much about you, Hali. Including that you don't always go by your name, isn't that so?"

I was drawn in by his scent, perched on the edge of the bed as he stepped closer. "Some Vargyr like to call me by other names," I replied. My tail tossed, then curled around his leg as he stepped nearer.

"I bet they do, pup." Srrinngar trailed a finger along the fur of my tail, his eyes bright with amusement. "Maybe I will, too."

Before my own impulses could get the better of me, Warrris butted in to position us for the next holograph. "Put your foot up here," he directed Srrinngar, indicating the edge of the bed. "You, kneel down here." He motioned me to a position in front of the larger Vargyr, my head just level with the prominent maleness in his pants.

"You there, lean in. Closer... closer. Good. Open your mouth just a little, good! Give him some affection there. Yes! Just like that, looking up at him. Perfect. Srrinngar, play with his ears or something... no - other hand. That's better. Now, just like that."

So that one would be a holoprint of a Vargyr torso, hand on my ear, cock unsheathed nearly to the knot and my face pressed up against it, nuzzling as I peered up with wide, eager eyes. I had a good idea what it would be, anyway, and I am looking at the holoprint itself just now as I write it. How tame it seems now, after what came after! But I mustn't get ahead of my story.

There were other poses, most of which in all truth I don't remember. What I do recall is the dark, deep scent of Srrinngar as I nuzzled and arched against him, pressing into his caressing hands as he spoke sly, encouraging words to me throughout the shoot.

"You are an eager little thing, aren't you?" My body's responsiveness to the slightest provocation made his eyes glint with amusement. "And here I thought all those naughty things they are saying about you was just gossip, but they're true, aren't they Hali? Yeah - get a good feel of that, that's right, stroke my cock." His breath was hot against my ear, his words making me blush, but my hand explored the size of him slowly as his stroked down my back, teased at the base of my tail.

My hips bucked against his thigh as his fingers slipped lower, down the rear seam of my uniform pants. "Oh, I see. You really do like it here, don't you, pup?" His teasing hand and my arching body thrusting along his leg captured in another dazzling flash of Warrris' holo-imager. "I may just have to see what I can do about that."

Time and again, however, before things could become too heated or go to far, Warrris would reposition us, talk us into just the pose he was after, wait until it all lined up right and snap another holograph. By the time he felt like he had taken as many as he cared to, I was achingly aroused and my modelling partner was slyly keeping me on edge. At the end, though, he relented and let me catch my breath.

Warrris was packing up his equipment and mentioning that he'd have to see which images the Captain selected before he sent them to Medical for subliminal enhancement, but I wasn't really paying attention. The passage was emptying as the entertainment seemed to be finished and a new duty watch was about to begin. I was biting my lip, unable to take my eyes or for that matter my hands off of Srringar, reluctant to see him leave.

He drew me up to kiss me softly on my forehead. "You're sweet, Hali. And cute. I'll look for you some time." He leaned away with that lazy grin. "Maybe you can meet my mates." He grinned more broadly at my expression when he said this, patted my bottom gently, and left with a wink.

There were a lot of things about life of the Gvadakoungg which I thought I'd figure out on my own in time but which persisted in perplexing me. I could sense some but not all of the motivations of the Vargyr around me, and was half-aware of an elaborate and complicated dance of dominance and privilege amongst my crewmates, social undercurrents that affected their interactions with me in ways I couldn't make out on my own. I needed information, not from the doctor, but from a Vargyr, and not my Captain. With him, all other concerns swiftly faded from my mind.

It was only when I ran into him by chance (sort of - he had been hoping to run into me) that I realized Yrrvng was the ideal choice for someone to talk to. Not that I didn't find him arousing, because I did and still do, but because I don't get the sense of being pushed into anything with him. After getting him alone and talking for a bit - and thanks to the subdermal that Doctor Courangara had administered - I realized at least in part why this is so.

Partly, I am sure, it is simply a matter of personality. Yrrvng is sweet and kind and not at all sly. I like him. Or maybe what I noticed then is just another manifestation of this. While I certainly could notice the scent of Yrrvng's arousal, he had almost no hint of the dominance-drive scent typical of more assertive Vargyr. We could talk - and fool around if we felt like it - without my falling under his influence, as it were.

Also, of course, I simply liked him and enjoyed his company. So, at the time, that was my rationale so far as I had one for deciding it was Yrrvng I wanted to talk to. We met near the Canteen - he'd been loitering around my quarters - so I steered him in there, my treat. The place was nearly empty at that hour, so we were able to get one of the quiet booths, lit only by the iridescent aurora of jumpspace through a long port beside us. We sat, and instinctively sat close. I slipped an arm around him and he nuzzled my neck.

His muzzle trailed up to my ear, his soft tongue shyly playful, and spoke in a low, shy voice when my arm around his waist gave him a squeeze. "I was hoping you'd take me into your quarters, Hali." Yes there was a hint of eagerness in his scent, but calming as we sat there together. I was comfortable with Yrrvng and his scent was calming me as well. I gave him another squeeze, pressed my cheek against his muzzle.

"Well, I would like that, Yrrvng," I said, "but right now what I need more is a friend. A vargyr friend I can talk with, you know?" That got me another little lick under my ear. Yrrvng has a loose tongue.

"Oh, I'd love to be your friend, Hali, but, well... you know." I couldn't see a blush under his soft, reddish fur but I could feel it.

I replied almost as shyly, though it is hard to be shy with Yrrvng. "I know. I want to be with you, too. A lot. We can go there after here, alright?" His hand slid up my thigh, and I pressed closer against him, parting my legs and sliding down on my seat a bit so that his hand came to rest on my plump, half-hard cock, and I felt him smile, stroking me softly.

"I really would like that." He tilted his head back to look me in the eyes. His, I saw, were a soft greenish color - very pretty with his ruddy pelt. Considering him, just on his own, he was a fine-looking Vargyr, small and trim but fit and male-shaped. Best of all, we were nearly the same size. I think we were also just about the same age.

"Can we talk while we eat?" I asked. "There are things about the ship, and about Vargyr, that I don't understand. I could ask the Captain, but whenever I am with him, well... we talk about other things." It was my turn to blush.

"Sure we can, Hali. I'd like that, too." His smile was simple and sincere, and while he did sit back a bit to flip through the menu on the table's vidifax, he kept his hand on my cock. I liked it there.

So I took my time to look the menu over as well. "Do you think they have anything Halivarri"? I asked.

"They may," Yrrvng replied. "Remember, that starliner we kidnapped you from had just come from Halivarr after all, and they would have taken on a lot of fresh food there. Which I am sure we stole as much of as we could!" He laughed. It was a nice laugh. "Let's look."

The commisarry had indeed appropriated a good deal of Halivarri provisions, which the galley was eager to serve up still fresh. Vargyr mostly eat meat but do like other foods as well, and I knew Halivarri produce was popular all across our end of the Antares Sector. I had been raised in farming country and very well knew that it was our major export.

"Oh! Let me choose? There are some things I think you'll really like," I said, then grinned. "Also some things I've never tried but want to. Ever hear of our scalliots?" He shook his head. "They are popular at the resorts. They, you know, set the mood." If you haven't heard of them either, Halivarri scalliots are savory and a little zesty, and have a reputation both for relaxing diners as well as being a subtle but sure aphrodisiac.

Yrrng simply said he'd like to try Halivarri food, and that he liked everything from Halivarr he'd tried so far, giving my cock a shy little squeeze. My thighs parted and my hips bucked once, slowly.

I reached down and pinched the base of his tail. "Behave yourself." But I smiled to show I wasn't really upset. "We'll play later. Just now, have this starfruit wine... And maybe you can explain some things."

Yrrvng's hand stayed on the swell of my cock - all Vargyr are at least somewhat territorial - but calmed down enough to try the wine. "I'll try, but you know, I'm not that old, or as educated as the doctor..."

"That's okay - it's mostly just things about how things are run, how Vargyr get along. I mean, you're youngest in your work crew, right? And that means you are the, um..." I searched for the right word.

"Bottom?" He grinned, and I let my own hand slide down to his. "Usually, mostly. I like it. See, it's like this," Yrrvng began. As I hoped, once he knew what I needed to know he was happy to tell it. "We have a pack hierarchy, see? You start at the bottom, and gain prestige by learning from your elders. They gain status for taking responsibility for mentoring you. And you - well, if you were Vargyr - you take in what they have to teach or explain."

"And part of our bonding - our way of establishing how we relate by status, includes sex. Until we have enough prestige, see, it's not appropriate for us to be with girls. Not Vargyr girls anyway. In port some of the guys visit a pink-sheet house for a change. But all of us are, well..." Now he paused to think after the right words, but just then our food arrived and I took the time to get the dishes arranged between us.

"We don't really, you know, do it all the time - though you have really made everyone, everyone at all, that much more ready to. But even when we aren't, uh, ready to mount or be mounted there is always that thought in the background - who would have the initiative. It's the reason for these." His fingers made a vee to stroke down the shameless panel at the front of my shipman's uniform pants.

"It's always there. We're always looking, always have a hint of each other's scent, even when it's just business as usual - tuning drive crystals or patch-welding bulkheads." He did pause then to sample his food. "This is really good."

And it was. The Mirasirka Queen had been very well supplied not just with produce but appropriate seasonings. If I described every dish it would be tedious because we were eating Halivarri style which meant small servings of a lot of different things. I'd gone heavy on the meat because Vargyr depend on it, but there wasn't too much of anything. And of course several of the dishes I had chosen were special favorites of my own.

So there was silence for a bit while we ate. I knew just what flavors to recommend to follow each of the meat dishes, and Yrrvng was happy to follow my advice. Starfruit wine is nice because it goes with just about everything, so I was glad we had a carafe to share. Once the edge was taken off of our hunger, though, and we were sitting back just nibbling on bits of what was left, Yrrvng came back to the subject.

"So, yes - in my work crew, I am junior. And that means I sub when we have sex. That's part of the deal, part of how I mature and gain status. See, when we are pups, we're nurtured by our mothers. They nurse us to help us grow and be healthy, right?" I nodded and sipped my wine, and munched on a few more scalliots.

"But once we're older, males I mean, we need to be nurtured by other males. To gain virtue - in it's old sense from 'vir' as in 'virile'." He smiled. Whatever shortcomings he felt he may have in his education, he was proud to know this, and indeed it was a connection I had never made, myself.

I thought I could see the logic in this. "So instead of being nursed at your mother's breast..." I began.

Yrrvng grinned wolfishly and nodded as he butted in to finish my sentence. "I'm being nursed by my packmates on cock. And not just nursed. Females can do that, but only another male can put it, you know... back there." He squirmed a bit where he sat and I took the opportunity to slip my hand further under his seat. "I don't remember being a little cub - but I do like this way of being a pup, now!"

"So when Vargyr call me 'pup', they're saying that they feel, that I'm..." I stumbled on the thought. Again, however, Yrrvng knew what I meant.

"That you need some nursing, too?" He stroked my cock and gave it a squeeze, and this time I didn't stop him. "You look young, Hali, like me. Yeah - they mean that they want to take care of you. But also they are letting you know they think they want to be in charge... and that they expect you to like that."

"Oh, I do!" I spoke impulsively, but stopped and hid my blush behind my wineglass. It was almost empty, so I poured again for both of us while I gathered myself and reined in my mouth. "I mean, I sensed some of that. But is isn't a put-down, is it?"

"No, no, Hali! Not at all." Yrrvng saw my confusion and was careful to dispel it. "What would be an insult or a put-down would be to call you "crewman" and just ignore you as if you were a sexless runt. Isn't that pretty much what Murrchar, the Duty Officer, does with you?"

It was true. The duty officer had made it plain that I was no one special, and aside from accusing me of waving my tail at the crew had never made any advances on me himself.

"When he sent me to clean the E-deck aft relief station, then..." I was beginning to see how this worked, I thought.

Yrrvng nodded. "Right. That was a put-down. Like anyone could have you and even that might not be any kind of step up in prestige. Its standard hazing for a new hand," he explained, "but for the Captain's Mate, that was really not a way of saying anything nice."

"Okay," I said, "but at my court-martial, when that was made part of my sentence..." I blushed and squirmed a bit, but I also felt my half-hard cock get more so under Yrrvng's hand because I was kind of excited to go back.

"That's more like the ordinary hazing, but it's also a regular punishment duty. It says, 'you need to learn your lesson'. And I guess they felt that for crew discipline overall, you had to have some kind of punishment, see?"

I thought I did, and nodded slowly.

"That was the Captain's prestige on the line. The rules are his, and disobedience is disrespect, see? Even if it is you, Hali, once he lets rules be broken, it makes it harder for him to keep leadership. Then again, just having bonded you as his mate raises his prestige a great deal - and that raises all of ours because we serve under him."

I must have looked like I was thinking really hard to keep up. "It sounds complicated, but to us its very simple. That's part of why it's thought lucky to have a Halivarri on board. Not just because you're so sexy when you show off." He grinned.

My ears drooped a bit. "But I don't mean too..." I looked down.

Yrrvng patted me - on the thigh, not on my cock - and said, "Hey. Hey, now Hali..." until I looked up. "I believe you. But, well, you need to believe me. Even if you don't mean to, well, just your posture, your tail... To us, to Vargyr all of that comes across as you know, teasing, asking to be mated if a Vargyr thinks you'd have him." Again, I sensed he was blushing.

"I'm surprised I don't get bent over the closest piece of furniture whenever I walk down a passageway." I grinned a little, but it was still embarrassing. Partly because to me it practically felt like I had and because, partly, I wanted to be.

"Oh, no - that wouldn't happen. Not everyone on crew is with the Hand of the Maker, but enough of them are that no one's likely to make that kind of trouble or they'd face three, four big packs coming after them."

"Hand of the Maker? That's another thing I've heard mentioned but I can't make sense of it."

"Can we get some more of those onion-grass things?" Yrrvng interrupted to ask. I nodded and tapped in another order of scalliots. I wanted to keep him relaxed enough to talk but, well... okay, I also wanted him to want to do more than talk, sooner or later. "I'm not with them myself, but Arrvis in my work crew - do you know Arrvis? Oh! Of course you do!" He grinned. My encounter with Arrvis was common knowledge, having been broadcast over every viewscreen on board.

"Anyhow," he continued, "I know a bit about it. We're a "Made Race", you know, just like you and the Doctor are. But we feel especially well made." Yrrvng grinned and wagged his eyebrows. At some point, I noticed, my tail had snuck around in back to wrap around his. I didn't think I minded, but I blushed a bit thinking of the first time I'd twined tails with another boy, on Halivarr.

"And, see, some feel that we were made for a purpose, that it wasn't just the Ancients and their experiments but something - some intelligence or spirit - moving them, working through them. To make us, and, if you believe the legends, making you Halivarri to prove we were favored." He smiled and let himself scoot in closer again. "You are pretty well made yourself, you know."

This got murmurred into my ear and I squirmed on my seat, instinctively moving so his hand slid back up from my thigh to my cock. "I was really no one special at home..."

"Oh, but you're not there. You're here. And believe me, to us you're special. To me you are." Yrrvng almost looked away but not quite. Instead, he just leaned in closer to nuzzle after my scent, which made me consider his, and how we smelled together. Much more of this, I thought, and we'd be getting too busy to talk, but I let my hand rove the back seam of his trousers beneath his tail in reply.

"But you were saying about the Hand of the Maker...?" I leaned back a bit and moved the order of scalliots where he could reach them. He smiled and snapped up three.

"These are good. But yes," he explained. "To the Hand, you are like a cross between an angel and a five-course meal." He laughed. "Halivarri are, well... I guess you are seeing how we respond to you just being you, Hali. The Hand doesn't think that's an accident, but they also would not dream of hurting you or letting anyone else do so, either."

"So, even if the crew call me, you know..." I trailed off, hiding my uncertainty behind a shalliot as I munched thoughtfully.

"A cum-hungry little cock-slut?" Yrrvng suggested with a big grin. "Well, that's just teasing. Or hoping. Or praying!" He laughed again, but not as though I were the joke.

"Well, yeah, like that." I squirmed a bit, blushing. Yrrvng licked my ear, patted me on the bulge in my pants and fed me a shalliot.

"You're pretty when you blush, Hali." He grinned. "And, well... you do like it, don't you? Being with us, I mean?"

I nodded. "I do but reputation aside, I had never done anything much, before. You know, just a little exploring with other boys in Guides."

"But did you want to?" I became aware all over again of how my tail was twined around his behind us.

"Yes, I guess. I didn't think about it, much." I shifted on my seat, but mostly to get closer to him.

"But when you did think about it?" His grin was sly. "I know that when I thought about it, I was usually playing with myself." He nuzzled back down to the collar of my shirt.

"Yes... or sometimes, you know. Playing with someone else." I felt my sex throb under his hand.

"You can play with me whenever you like, Hali... if you'll let me play with you." His voice was teasing, but shy and hopeful too. His hand curled around my cock to stroke slowly and my hips arched, bucking into his touch.

"Of course," I answered. Just then, I wasn't likely to want to say anything else. "Of course you can, Yrrvng. Whenever you like."

"Now?" He looked up at me hopefully, then looked to the door that led to the C Deck passage and my quarters just across.

I nodded. "Whenever means whenever." I grinned a little shyly, but pleased by the look that came over Yrrvng as that offer sank in. "Let's go."

We left the canteen to some small stir of interest and a few sly remarks, but the passageway outside was deserted at this hour. Yrrvng's scent was more noticeable in the cooler air of the passage, sharpening with the urgency of his desire as I led him across to my quarters, turning to face him with a small, shy smile and a welcoming gesture as we entered.

Yrrvng pushed me back to sprawl on my bed, then gazed up from between my legs as he nuzzled at the blatant outline of my hard cock before unfastening the sticky, straining panel of my pants one bronzium button at a time. Just seeing him down there looking up at me, drinking my scent, was making me even more aroused.

"Come on over here so I can take yours off, too," I urged. Yrrvng cast a sidelong glance at the passageway and maybe blushed under his fur (which is thick as well as reddish, so it is hard to tell), but complied, lying down beside me so that his head was close to my thick, seeping sex and mine was resting close to his, sleek and proud and well out of its sheath.

I shifted closer and nuzzled him in return, making him gasp and press the nearly sheer fabric covering his arousal against my cheek and lips. I licked along it before slipping my fingers under the panel to pop the buttons free one by one.

"You smell so good, Hali..." Yrrvng's breath stirred the thatch at the root of my cock as he spoke, then lapped at my length shamelessly to gather the seeping stream of precum with his tongue, as soft as warm, wet velvet. I didn't reply - not in words, anyway. But when I had freed him from the confinement of his pants, I let him feel my breath around the root of his sex and then nuzzled there, rubbing his scent onto my chin and cheek. Yrrvng's aroused scent was almost sweet compared to the heavier aromas I associated with the older Vargyr I'd encountered.

Only after a good deal of mutual teasing and nuzzling did we each finally take the other's cock in our mouths, suckling slowly, savoring. I raked my fingers up through the fur of his thigh and he spread his legs for me. I stroked higher, cupped a round cheek in my spread hand, trailed a finger down his cleft and slowly stroked around his bud. Once he got past a certain shyness, his hand found mine as well.

We lay like that, mouth to groin, lips and tongues playing slowly over hot male flesh, fingers teasing and stroking slick, quivering rings, our scents mingling into a raw, ruttish musk. There was no hurry, no urgency to rush to release. Instead, we both seemed content to experience the other's arousal in a soft, warm glow of mutual pleasure. I don't think either of us was aware anymore that we were in plain view from the passage until company arrived.

I heard the footsteps in spite of the soft soles of shipmen's impervic boots before I heard familiar voices. A start of surprise from Yrrvng told me he recognized them, too, but neither of us looked up or even paused in what we were doing.

"Well, well... it seems our cum-hungry little slut-pup isn't lonesome tonight after all." The voice was low, rough, drawling with amusement.

"And with our littlest mate, too," said the other in affable tones. "Do you think they'd mind if we joined them?"

"They do look like they could use some help," allowed the first. "Both with a mouthful of cock and no one to fuck them."

"Well," said the second as if considering, "it wouldn't be friendly to come by and not help out..."

I felt the comform plush shift under the weight of one of them slipping up onto the bed behind me. It was Arrvis and Orngg, most likely just come from the canteen. From the gentle touch stroking up my back and the scent that came to me as he nuzzled my neck I knew it was Orngg beside me. And from the way that Yrrvng's mouth panted and gasped around my cock, I inferred that Arrvis was making his interest plain as well.

I started to draw my head back to speak, but Orngg's firm hand held me in place. "No, no, pup. You stay right there and keep your face right down there on Yrrvng's cock where you belong," he said with his voice low in my ear and I felt his lanky form stretch out against me. He shifted, pressed close, and I felt the warm thickness of his sex nestling along the vale of my bottom. I squirmed back and he rocked forward to let me feel the fullness of arousal "...I want you to be filled with the scent and taste of hard Vargyr cock while I take care of you, pup, just how your like it... but only as well as you take care of him" .

I gasped, murmured against the soft, damp fur at the root of Yrrvng's sex where his knot was just swelling from his sheath. "Hm? What do you mean?"

"Well, the more you can make him cum, the longer I am going to fuck you, pup. But I want to really see you like it - in your mouth, in your fur, on your pretty little face..." I made a little involuntary sound between a whimper and a moan. Yrrvng's cock throbbed in my mouth. I suckled at him slowly, drew back to glaze my lips with his seeping sap and rub him against my cheek as I nuzzled down tease his sheath down over his swelling knot with my lips.

Orngg's hand slid up my thigh, met Yrrvng's there to slip a finger between his and into my hole. I whimpered and my ass lifted and squirmed as my cock throbbed and pulsed, pouring a fountain of my cum down Yrrvng's throat until he pulled back to let it spray and streak his face and chest. Orngg laughed and curled his finger around to stroke that inner spot that he knew could prolong my release. I squirmed my tight clutching hole back to meet it as I soaked Yrrvng's fur with jet after jet of my seed.

"Yeah, bottoms up, Hali... let me see where you want it. Who's my slutty little fuck-pet?" Orngg growled in my ear, goading me on. My release finally diminished and I slumped forward to suckle slowly at Yrrvng's hard cock as he stroked mine all over his muzzle to rub my cum into his fur. I felt Orngg slide his long, thick maleness along my sensitized, lubricated cleft, letting me feel the fullness of his arousal, my tail curling into a tight loop for him to thrust into as he arched forward. "Oh, you do want this, don't you, Hali? Right up your sweet, cock-hungry little ass."

He slid back to find my quivering bud and thrust in, aiming for my prostate, gently ramming it, grinding along it as he teased his knot at my stretch-sensitive ring to make me grind back in turn. From the way Yrrvng's body was pressed forward against me, and from the urgent, wordless sounds he made, I knew that Yrrvng was being filled as well. Arrvis' scent reached me, sharp with arousal heightened by my unconscious psionic goading.

In the tangle of bodies and tangle of mingled scents, I almost lost track of where my body ended and theirs began. Of who was behind me, thrusting, sliding back to make me squirm to be filled again. Whose sex was wet against my lips and cheek, throbbing, jetting a fountain of cum into my mouth, onto my fur, my hair. Who was behind him, with short, hard thrusts prolonging his release.

As Orngg teased at my stretch-sore bud with his knot, I felt Yrrvng press his muzzle past my sex, then his soft, eager tongue begin to lap at my ring where Orngg filled me. Orngg felt it, too. "Oh, good boy," he said, throbbing palpably from Yrrvng's tongue warm and wet at the root of his cock where he ground it against me. Then Yrrvng was coming again and so was I, our bodies arching, pressing together with each rough thrust from Arrvis and Orngg behind us, leaning over our shoulders to lick the seed from our cheeks and necks and wherever they could reach.

Orngg toyed with my ring, grinding with his knot but drawing back when I pressed to meet it, urgent to feel it lock inside me. I felt his chuckle as much as I heard it. "No, I don't think so, Hali," he half-growled at my ear. "I'm gonna come on you, not in you - all over your pretty little ass." I may have whimpered, but Orngg just chuckled again, then his breath caught and he let his cock slide from me completely as I felt his entire body tense against me.

Orngg's hand gripped my hip, the other moving down my back to grip my tail, drawing it aside. Yrrvng's tongue plied at my entrance, soft and warm as I felt Orngg arch back for a moment that felt impossibly prolonged before he gave a short, sharp cry and I felt a thick rope of cum fall across my cleft, and another jetting against the base of my tail. The scent of his seed mingled with those already thick in the air around us as I tensed to feel his next burst, my own cries muffled as I strove to swallow as much of Yrrvng's cock as I could fit past my lips.

Distantly, I could hear the baritone purr of Arrvis whispering I knew not what into Yrrvng's ear as his thrusting hips drove the red-furred Vargyr's sex deeper into my throat where I felt it throb and ominously pulse. I caught only the first volley before Arrvis drew him back by his hips so that he escaped my mouth, still shooting. I heard Arrvis clearly, now. "That's right, Yrrv. Hose the cum-puppy down." Yrrvng's voice was a ragged, panting whine as he streaked my face and hair with his release.

"Good boy!" barked Arrvis hoarsely. I knew by his tone that his own release was flooding into Yrrvng's ass. The tip of the young Vargyr's tongue brushed my ring softly as we all slumped together, sticky and dazed in the afterglow. It was a timeless moment as we rested, our breath gradually slowing. Orngg wrapped his long arms around me and have me a warm hug, kissing my ear. I felt the comform mattress stir as Arrvis reluctantly withdrew from Yrrvng to the other's soft complaint.

Orngg rolled away, gave me a pat on my bottom. "You do look pretty like that, Hali. And we'd love to stay, but..." He trailed a padded fingertip through a streak of Yrrvng's cum on my cheek, smiled, drew his finger down to graze my lips and feel the tip of my tongue dart out in a shy, furtive lick. "We need to get Yrrvng back. One-Eye will be wanting him." He grinned, moved away and helped Yrrvng sit up as Arrvis knelt down where Yrrvng's hips had lain.

Arrvis' scent still carried a heavy note of dominance as he leaned over me. "I'm sorry I didn't get a turn back there tonight, pup," he said as he eyed me with sly humor. "Maybe next time, I'll just push on in there right along with Orngg." He grinned as my eyes went wide at that, his hand at the root of his seed-slick, half-hard cock. "But just to make sure you remember the offer," he drawled then, before I realized quite what he intended, Arrvis wiped his heavy cock over my cheek then turned my head and wiped it again down the other side.

I blushed, looked over to see Orngg watching with amused interest and Yrrvng wide-eyed, biting his lip. Arrvis was rising, grinning wolfishly as he fastened the panel of his uniform trousers back into place. He motioned for Yrrvng and Orngg to precede him into the passage, then cast a parting glance around my sparely furnished quarters. "No fresher in here?" One eyebrow arched. "Well, don't worry. You're on E Deck tomorrow. They'll like that."