by Dawn Steele
“You were so peaceful that I didn’t have the heart to wake you,” Jericho said to her.
He drove her home. Kyle knew the rote. Jericho would invite her to ‘a party’ this weekend. A very exciting party at his house with his relatives. And because she had already been to his house and met his sons, there would be a certain level of trust built in. She would say ‘yes’, and think nothing of it. She would even plan excitedly for it and mull over what to wear to impress him further.
If she went missing, the police would do nothing more than to conduct the most cursory of investigations and close it as a missing person’s case. Jericho’s pockets were very deep.
The Enclave was bedecked with lanterns for the Gathering. The Gathering of werebears only happened once a year for the Atreides clan and their kin came from far and wide. The members were scattered across the world, coming in from as far as Australia for this occasion, which rivaled Christmas.
The walls were swathed with silk and damask. A champagne fountain was placed in the center of the hall, and guests could fill their glasses directly from it. Close-faced waiters walked around with trays of canapés and hor douvres. Unlike a Mayday Gathering, this one was dedicated to the Monhain, or appeasing the Beast.
The Atreides clan were the keepers of the age-old Balance. It was a very important task, one that cannot be underscored. Legend has it that if a virgin was not fed to the Beast once a year on the Monhain, the very foundations of the Earth itself would be splintered apart.
Kyle wasn’t sure if he could believe that, or that it was a metaphor for something else. After all, as far as he was concerned, the world was already tearing itself apart. The population was on the increase, crowding out diminishing resources and burning up precious fuel. Mother Nature was on her path of wrath. Species were becoming extinct by the second. The Earth was on ferocious burnout, and there was nothing anyone could do about it.
Still, understandably, the Elders were determined not to risk the Beast’s wrath. The Elders had kept the Beast under wraps with the Monhain for centuries. Who was Kyle to argue with the knowledge and tradition of centuries?
And why wake a hibernating Beast if you didn’t have to, even if you didn’t truly believe it existed?
*
Alison arrived in a very pretty yellow dress. She was all decked up with artificial fairy wings for the masquerade themed party, and her cheeks were flushed with a billionaire’s attention. Perhaps she truly believed that she had caught a handsome billionaire’s fancy and was on her way to being Mrs. Jericho Number Two.
Kyle knew that his father had already composed and printed out the computer-typed letter. It had been tacked onto Alison’s monitor on her desk for anyone, especially Alison’s roommate, to read.
‘Something major happened. Something big. Don’t know when I’ll be coming back. Don’t miss me. Bye.
Alison.’
It was even signed with her signature, which Jericho had procured earlier.
“Hello, Alison,” Kyle said affably.
Alison sized him up. He could tell that she found him very attractive.
“Hello, Kyle. Big party tonight?” she said eagerly.
“Yes.”
“Do you have big parties like these often?”
“Sometimes. Would you like some wine?”
A waiter passed by on cue and Kyle stopped him. He appropriated a seemingly random wine glass from the tray and gave it to Alison. But the glass was anything but random. It was the one perched on the left edge of the tray.
“Thank you.” Alison took it from him and sipped from it. “Who are all these people?”
The Atreides kin were in full deck tonight. They streamed in, dressed in all their finery, men and women alike. This was a fancy dress ball and so they came in their Halloween gear, donning anything from Catwoman outfits to Thor headgear. But they all had one theme in common – the costumes were all sexy. Cleavages were exposed. Buttocks were revealed in naughty ways. Bodies were displayed in the most salacious of ways possible.
Alison’s eyes popped out of her head.
“Mostly relatives and friends of relatives,” Kyle said affably. He watched her out of the corner of his eye. She was glazing over. The drugs were strong. But unlike what she had been given earlier, this one was not designed to knock her out entirely.
As the evening wore on, Alison got higher and higher. She laughed loudly. She made crass jokes. She danced and spun on her heels. Everyone knew she was the designated sacrifice, of course, and everyone indulged her. Kyle was feeling extremely high himself, having drunk the champagne which was spiked with Ecstasy.
The guests began to shed their clothes. The party took on the spirit of a rave. Brassieres were thrown onto floors, along with underwear. Boobs flashed everywhere, as did penises. The music was thudding a primal beat and something from Nine Inch Nails was on.
I want to fuck you like an animal, crooned Trent Reznor.
Kyle was desperately aroused. There was always something very sexual about the Gatherings, no matter what purpose they might be for. His cock was very hard in his tight leather pants and he had to cling to a pillar to steady himself.
The laughter rang shrilly. Men were fellated against walls. Breasts were fondled, tongues twisted against one another, girls were thrown onto tables and fucked. Moans and sighs of pleasure filled the air. Everyone here was related in some way or other. Second cousins of second cousins. They had no choice. The bear clans were small in comparison to the wolf clans, and breeding had to be kept pure for the shifter lines to continue.
Caleb himself was fucking a girl against the wall. The way he was grinding against her made Kyle’s balls contract. Caleb’s bare body was covered with sweat, and his pants were down to his ankles. His bare buttocks clenched and unclenched, the musculature on them a work of art.
Kyle’s cock was diamond hard. Now he really had to fuck someone or he would explode.
Fate rescued him in the arrival of his cousin, Greta. Or at least, he thought that she was one of his cousins, twice removed. Many times removed, hopefully. Some of his kin indulged in interbreeding, but Kyle didn’t believe in that, even in a close-knit community where the bloodlines had to be kept pure.
“Hi, cousin,” she purred. She was a sexy, slinky woman. Older than him. Very blonde and quite statuesque. She was also a little well-padded, the way he liked women. She wore a tight black latex outfit which made her resemble Vampirella.
She reached for his cock immediately. He didn’t recall ever having slept with her before, and he had been sexually active since his first Gathering when he was sixteen years old. His clan of werebears tended to be promiscuous during such occasions, even when they were mated. But once they were mated, they were mated for life, only allowing for mutually consented flings and mass orgies like these.
“Oooh, solid,” she said, “the way I like it. Let’s see how big it’s gotten.”
He gave a throaty laugh. “You’ve never seen it before, cousin.”
“Oh, but I have. I’ve watched its progress over the years since you were a wee babe.”
“I don’t think so.”
Greta always amused him. And now she was rubbing against his groin in a most suggestive way. She unzipped his pants. He wasn’t wearing anything underneath and his cock sprang out like a trapped bird which was finally free from its confines.
“Amazing,” Greta pronounced, smiling. “Let me have a taste of it.”
He leaned back against the wall as she knelt before him. She took his hard, throbbing piece of flesh into her rather wide mouth and sucked him.
“Ohhhhhh.” The gratification was instant and immense. He almost shot his load right there, but fought to control it.
“Mmmmm.” She was very good at this. Her tongue and lips were sublime, and she took his sensitive rod deep into her mouth, as deep as it could go in the back of her throat. Her tongue fluttered around his shaft, caressing it with butterfly licks.
He moaned and cupped
her head in his hands. She didn’t need his guidance. Although she had never had his cock in her mouth before, she knew exactly what he liked – where he liked it. Or maybe she just knew men. She knew when to take him whole and when to tease his head, especially in his slit where he was most sensitive.
Another girl sidled up to them. She was dark, short-haired, with small tits that were pushed up by a corseted brassiere. Her dark pubic thatch was revealed in the triangle between her legs, and her thighs were encased in stockings which were held up by sexy black garters. He never recalled seeing her before, but then he had a lot of kinsfolk. Maybe she was one of the Europeans.
“Kyle,” she cooed. Well, she obviously knew who he was.
She unbuttoned his black shirt and revealed his chest. His nipples were just as hard and she pinched them playfully.
“Fuck me,” she pleaded.
Greta took his wet cock out of her mouth to say, “Get in line.”
“He can fuck both of us,” the girl retorted defiantly.
Kyle said, “I’ll fuck both of you.”
Keeping his eye line on his brother’s humping white buttocks across the room, he helped Greta up. Then he pressed her against the wall.
“Spread your legs,” he said.
“Gladly,” she replied.
He inserted his bursting cock into her pussy with ease. The werebears usually fucked raw. Her pussy was hot and tight and her tunnel held his cock in a firm, loving grip.
“Ooooh.” Her pupils were very dark as she looked up at him.
He began his rhythm – a strong, pulsing motion which mirrored his brother’s. He couldn’t help synchronizing his pumping to his brother’s, which was in turn synchronized to the thumping drumbeat of the music. Greta’s sweet pussy held his cock in a vise grip, nursing it, nurturing it. He could feel the heat emanating from her wet walls. Gawd, she was so wet! She was a lovely, warm cocoon of female flesh, and he was its blessed recipient.
He leaned over to kiss the other girl, who was tweaking Greta’s very huge nipples. It was all very erotic, and smolderingly wet. The kiss was long, sweet – all tongues probing inner cheeks and molars. A kiss that was the promise of wetter tunnels to encircle his thrusting cock and hot juices to run down his balls.
“Ohhhhh!” Greta shrieked as she climaxed. Her huge breasts heaved and she threw her head back against the wall. The framed picture beside her – a hunting scene involving bears attacking a human hunter – shook.
Then the clock struck twelve.
The gong went CLAAANG throughout the house. The walls shuddered. Kyle knew what it signified. As did everyone else. They went into a hush of anticipation. Orgasms were quickly realized. Gasps filled the air.
“The Elders are coming,” went the whispers.
Fuck! What a time to be caught with your pants down.
Kyle quickly thrust and grinded his way to a swift orgasm. His semen jettisoned into Greta’s pussy, and he pulled out quickly.
“Later,” he promised the other girl, whose name he had yet to find out.
The gong resounded again. The CLAAANG went right through his brain and juddered his brain cells into buzzing atoms. His cock was still emptying its sperm onto the marble floor. He quickly tucked it into his pants. Its hardness had not fully abated yet. Greta tucked in her breasts, as did the other girl.
Heads were turned everywhere. Kyle held his breath. The Elders were so rarely seen that they were a spectacle unto themselves.
The Elders strode through the double doors of the hall like mystical shamans. There were three of them – two men and one woman. They wore pelts sewn from the fur of many different types of animals – wolf, coyote, panther, lion. Their faces were masked, once again with the faces of different animals. Kyle knew that these were the furs and heads of the enemies they had slain.
No one bowed. Their clan was not the servile sort. All the werebears stood proud and tall as the Elders glided through the hall. They stopped in front of Jericho, the Alpha, who had a half-naked Alison in his arms. Her fairy wings had fallen off and both her large breasts were enticingly exposed. She was flushed from the alcohol and the drugs, and her head lolled backwards in stupor.
Jericho acknowledged the Elders by nodding.
“Bring the girl,” said one of the Elders, who wore the head of a bull.
Alison collapsed in Jericho’s arms as he hefted her body in his strong arms. Kyle and Caleb quickly arranged their clothing and trooped behind their father. Damn, Kyle thought, but his cock was still hard. It filled the crotch of his trousers admirably.
“Still filled with sap, brother?” Caleb remarked with a grin.
“Sssssh.” Kyle was always wary of the Elders.
The Elders proceeded to exit the hall and into a corridor. Jericho followed them with the now extremely drowsy Alison in his arms.
“Where are we going, lover?” she crooned sleepily.
“Somewhere, sweet, where you can sleep.”
“Don’t take too long. I can barely keep my eyes open.”
Kyle felt sorry for her. But no! He wasn’t supposed to. She was human. He should not feel sorry for humans, who were the old enemy. If given a chance, Jericho always said, they would hunt werebears down for sport or experiment. Which made it imperative for their existence to remain secret.
Kyle and Caleb, as Jericho’s sons, formed the tail of the procession. No one followed them, as was the custom. The corridor ended at an iron door – one which no one was allowed to enter bar ceremonies, not even the owners of this house itself. One of the Elders held the key and he inserted this into the lock.
Kyle was well aware of what was behind this door . . . and what lurked within the bowels of the earth beneath this house. He did not possess the second sight, but if he had, he reckoned he would see ley lines and the like crisscrossing the epicenter of this house. For this house was built on hallowed land, which was the only way to contain a terrible ancient entity.
Whom no one had ever seen.
Did it still exist? Kyle wondered. What if it had died, and they were still performing this terrible ceremony to appease what had been dead for dozens of years?
The door opened noiselessly, revealing a stairway. Naked electric light bulbs lit the way down. The Elders entered the doorway and descended. The Atreides trio followed behind.
“I smell sulphur,” Alison remarked. Her eyeballs were glazed as she looked at Jericho.
Kyle didn’t smell anything, but her statement bothered him.
As they descended, he could hear water dripping behind the walls. There as an underground stream somewhere. The bulbs flickered. They were powered from the house electrical grid, a modern concession for an ancient crypt.
Kyle supposed that if he were human, he would be feeling out of his depth. But his werebear hormones gave him and the others a falsely invincible notion. Down, down and down they went, until the stone walls were moss-covered and trickling with water. Here, the light bulbs had started faltering.
“Jericho,” Alison whimpered. “I’m scared.”
She was clinging to him as if her very life depended on him. And maybe it did.
Finally, they reached the bottom of the stairwell. Here, a large crack in the Earth signified the abyss. The pit was pitch black and Kyle had never ventured to look into it. He was afraid of what he might see, or that a gust of ill-fated wind would catch hold of him and pull him downwards.
He strained his ears as well, but there were no sounds issuing from the abyss. No eerie howling of the wind. No bubbling magma. No keens of tortured souls spiraling from the depths of hell.
Caleb had no such qualms. He stood right at the edge and peered down.
“Caleb,” Kyle said uncomfortably. “Come away.”
Caleb backed off. He usually had a wisecrack for everything, but the atmosphere here was enough to unnerve anyone.
“It is time,” the Elder with the mask of a hawk said.
The three of them joined hands and began the incantation. Kyl
e and Caleb stood back and watched their father bring the sacrifice to the edge. Alison was very incoherent by now. Although there was no sound other than the low voices of the Elders, Kyle could feel his hackles rising.
Then Jericho let Alison go.
Kyle’s heart stopped, as it always did at this ghastly moment.
At the last moment, Alison recovered and screamed. But her scream was lost in her plunge into the abyss. The Elders did not stop their chanting. Kyle stared and stared into the blackness of the void. Each time he did, he expected to hear something, see something – an eruption maybe, an acknowledgement of a sacrifice received – but as always, there was nothing.
Suffice to say, Alison was never coming back.
The Elders finished their prayers or whatever it was they were doing to appease the Beast, if indeed it was down there. Then they turned from the abyss.
“Let’s go,” Jericho said to his sons.
Caleb was unusually subdued as well.
“You OK?” Kyle said in a low voice.
“Sure. Why wouldn’t I be OK? Are you OK?” Caleb snarked.
“Forget I ask.”
They returned the way they came from. But Kyle would never forget the ceremony of the sacrifice. Each year he returned to the pit as an observer, knowing that one day he would be the one to throw the live sacrifice into the abyss.
It was a terrible, terrible feeling.
*
And now, Kyle knew that he had to get out of his north tower cell at all costs because the same fate that had befallen Alison Korin and all the other virgins would befall Jessica.
He would throw himself into the abyss before he would let that happen.
THE CELL
Claude Atreides was pissed off.
The Gathering was tonight and he wanted sex. Plenty of sex. There was a particularly luscious female werebear who had caught his eye in the last Mayday Gathering, and she had lasciviously suggested that they should fuck the next time they met. She was from New Orleans and she had a very delicious Cajun accent.
