Alpha

by R Phoenix

  Caleb looked up, his face smeared with a mixture of gravy and cum, and he let out a soft bark. It felt like an invitation, but Liam only reached out to smooth his fingers over one of Caleb’s ass cheeks. “Finish,” he stated.

  His pup lowered his head again, this time nearly sticking his nose down into the bottom of the bowl as he started to clean it up. The only sound for a moment was that of his pet slurping up the last of it as eagerly as if it were cum until Caleb finally settled back.

  He looked completely and utterly messy, and there was something endearing about it. He’d submitted so easily, so thoroughly, and it sent something hot through him.

  “Not quite a dog, but not quite a human,” Liam mused. “Yes. He is… good tonight. Will that training hold?”

  Zain shook his head, as if Liam didn’t quite grasp the situation. “Training constantly needs to be reinforced with any dog, and I think in this case, we need to make sure the human side of him is… content enough that he doesn’t want to fight his pup side.”

  Liam frowned, not quite certain he was following. He didn’t want this to be temporary. He wanted an eager, wanton pet with an intelligent mind that had submitted utterly to him, not a risk factor in waiting. “How do you know these things?” he asked. Oh, certainly those of this era had grown up quickly, but the ‘wolf surprised him.

  Zain’s hands reached under Caleb’s body to rub roughly at his belly, and Liam watched as Caleb gave a low whine and wagged his tail even faster. “My family used to run a kennel.” He shrugged then dodged the subject. “His pup side wants to come out, but not when his human side is angry or disturbed by what’s going on. I think you’ll have a happier, more content pup if you change just a few things.”

  “And if I change these things, he will not try to be something more than what he is?” he asked.

  Caleb’s eyes were closed, but he arched into the touch, trembling a little.

  “Hush, Pup,” Liam chided. “This will be better for you. No?” He looked expectantly at Zain, and the idea of further dehumanizing Caleb, of sending him deeper and deeper until he was happy to submit, had him wishing he hadn’t already come.

  Zain nodded, letting his hand move closer to Caleb’s spent cock. “Yes, I think it’s what he wants, and I can help you give it to him. He’ll be a happy, horny pup who wants to please his master and his alpha. That’s what you want, isn’t it? Caleb to be the happy pup who chases the ball and wags his tail, and then whines and barks for his master to fuck him?”

  “Yes…” Liam said, the word coming out in a low hiss as he ran his hand down Caleb’s spine. “I do not want a… real dog, of course, but one in human form — part human form,” he amended, already having more than one idea now that he thought it would be possible to truly get what he wanted, “is appealing.” He smoothed his fingers through Caleb’s hair. “I want this head to think nothing of pleasing me, and himself…” He looked up, meeting Zain’s eyes with a quirk of a brow. “And perhaps you.”

  Zain nodded, seemingly grateful to be included in Liam’s list — and he should’ve been, since it was a remarkably generous concession. “And since that’s what he wants as well, even when doesn’t always want to admit it, I’ll help. He wants to be a happy puppy who’s looked after by his master and alpha… and I have the time and desire to devote to that.”

  Liam pursed his lips but nodded. Studying Zain, he couldn’t exactly say he minded looking at the man, and the idea of having a pet and a pup… He liked it too much to let it go easily.

  Gesturing to the kitchen and house, Zain waved a hand. “You can’t be here all the time, but he needs supervision and stimulation to stay the sweet, eager pup you want.” Zain’s hand finally reached Caleb’s still soft cock and he started caressing the still sensitive shaft. Caleb whined and couldn’t seem to decide if he wanted the touch or not, but finally he began humping against Zain’s hand to chase the painful pleasure. “That’s a good boy. I want that pretty cock nice and hard. You want to show me your hard dick when you run around, don’t you, boy?”

  Caleb barked, and the sound brought a smile to Liam’s lips.

  “What a good pup,” Liam praised, and he noticed Caleb’s tail was wagging more swiftly than he’d ever seen it move before. Obviously he liked the compliments. They were strange to give, but if it meant this? “Perhaps you should bathe him,” he said a bit dryly, gesturing. “He seems to be quite dirty, and I have not yet used the grooming tub.”

  Glancing up at Liam, Zain’s brows pulled together. “Where’s that?”

  “There is a bathroom off of the… kennel, I suppose the room is now,” Liam said, acknowledging for the first time that the entire room might serve instead of the small cage — though he still rather liked it, and he didn’t have any intention of never using it again. “I had a grooming tub specifically put in for my pet.”

  Caleb glanced up at him, eyes unreadable but blurred from arousal.

  “Everything you need should be there, and I would like to watch you bathe him. Perhaps you can tell me what other improvements can be made to his behavior to better suit both of us, mm?”

  “Of course, first of all,” Zain looked over to a furniture cushion that had been placed in the corner of the room. “If you want him to lay around and stay on all fours, then you need to make it more appealing for him, a dog bed in the rooms he’s more likely to spend time in and a kennel he can stretch out in. Not tall enough to stand; I understand you don’t want to encourage that, but wide enough he can get comfortable in… things like that would be a very good start.”

  Liam pursed his lips but nodded, following his gaze to the cushion. “You are going to turn him into a pampered, spoiled thing,” he grumbled, but he wasn’t entirely sure he hated the idea… as long as Caleb submitted.

  As long as he watched as every human trait disappeared from him, one by one, until he was nothing more than what Liam wanted him to be.

  He clucked his tongue, telling Caleb, “Come, Pup. It is time for you to allow your alpha to bathe you. You are filthy.”

  Liam ignored the knowing grin that spread across the ‘wolf’s face. Zain knew he’d won on that issue, but Liam wasn’t going to dignify that with a response.

  Zain nodded, getting his smirk under control. “You’re right, and he’s been out playing for a while, so he needs a good scrubbing. Come on, Pup. Let’s go get you clean.” His new pet stood, looking around the room. “Must have left the leash back at his kennel. Oh well. Come on, Pup. Bath time.” Leaning down to rest one hand on Caleb’s head, Zain started urging him in the direction of the bathroom. “You’re going to love getting scrubbed down, Pup.”

  “I don’t think he needs to be leashed, not right now,” Liam said, but this time there was no threat in his voice. There didn’t seem to need to be. It wasn’t so much that Caleb was cowed as much as he was yielding, and his cock had already gotten hard again. “Not when he knows he might get a reward for being a good boy in his bath.”

  Caleb’s cheeks tinged pink, but the pup only acknowledged the words with a bark. How long would it be until he responded that way because of the tone of voice rather than the words? Would it ever happen? He mulled over it, unable to decide if that was what he wanted for his pet or not.

  Zain shook his head but started to follow Liam. “It’s not always about need. When he’s content to be a pup, and when he doesn’t have that choke collar on, he seems to like the leash. Something about giving up control, probably… and I like the way he looks on it.” Zain grinned, seemingly somewhere between embarrassed and pleased.

  Liam led them into the kennel then to the bathroom, opening the door of the grooming tub. Caleb hesitated, sniffing at the side then poking his head inside to peer around. It was such a puppy-like motion that Zain was smiling, and Liam allowed faint approval to show on his expression.

  Liam watched as Caleb crawled into it, then nodded as he closed the door behind his pup. He gestured to Zain. “All yours,” he stated. This sort of thing
could easily be handled by the dog walker. After all, he was being paid to care for Caleb along with… this.

  And he would definitely be getting a raise.

  “This is a great set up.” Zain turned on the water with one hand while the other absently petted and soothed Caleb. When the water was heated to his satisfaction, he started spraying Caleb down with the hand nozzle. “So you were planning on getting a… pup for a while?”

  “No,” Liam said matter-of-factly. He leaned against the counter. “I was simply…” He shrugged. “Bored. He… interested me.” And his pup tried to use a flamethrower on a vampire, which was not a crime that could be easily forgiven. He didn’t feel bad for the creature. “We were living in a hotel, but that hardly works for a pet. He needed a house and a yard, and I had a few things… altered.”

  A smug smirk curved onto his lips as Caleb let out a soft whine, but the pup didn’t cuss at him.

  Definite progress.

  Zain started rubbing soap down the pup’s body, using a mitt that was designed to massage and clean dogs. “The tail?” At Liam’s nod and after another low whine from Caleb, Zain continued, “I think it’s fabulous.” He reached down and started rubbing the soap through the pup’s furred tail. “He looks beautiful, and it wags when he’s happy or turned on. Oh yes, I like your tail, Pup.”

  Liam smiled, pleased by how often Zain showed or spoke of that sentiment. “Some seem disturbed by it,” he remarked, regarding Zain carefully to see just what he thought about that. “But you like it, hmm? I have thought about doing more, but he was still a bit too rebellious for that.”

  Caleb went still under the water, and it was clear he understood that perfectly. He started to shake his head, whimpering.

  Zain started making low, soothing noises and went back to scrubbing him. “I love it. Some people just don’t have enough imagination to see how beautiful it is.” One hand still seemed to be soothing the pup, but the other reached under between the pup’s hind legs and started focusing on cleaning his cock. “What kind of other things did you think about changing?”

  Liam couldn’t quite tell from his scent if the ‘wolf was aroused or something else entirely, but the way he was taking care of Caleb told him plenty. “There are so many possibilities,” he said, his sigh sounding contented regardless. “I think you might like fur to stroke along his back, no? You pet him often. Or would that be… too much for you?” he asked, the words a challenge as he continued to intently watch Zain.

  He would see just how interested Zain truly was in turning Caleb into a proper little pet.

  “Oh, wouldn’t you look pretty, Pup, with just a little bit of fur along your back…” Zain glanced over at Liam, nodding, before he went back to focusing on Caleb. “Just along his backbone, maybe? Not too much. I like the way he’s always naked now. If you gave him too much fur, he’d lose that exposed quality.” Zain moved the hand that had been rubbing long strokes over Caleb’s limbs up to trace down his spine.

  Caleb let out another soft sound, something between misery and arousal.

  Liam scoffed, but before he could say anything about it, Zain spoke up again. “That would be okay, wouldn’t it, Pup? Just a little bit for me to play with and pet. Not much at all. Just enough for me to caress as it leads down to your tail.”

  He felt an irrational surge of jealousy as Caleb relaxed, just a little, and he said sharply, “You may take off the mitts and clean his hands. Just make sure he does not touch himself.”

  Caleb barked, holding his hands out as his face lit up.

  Zain cooed to the pup as he pulled the mitts off of Caleb’s hands. “He doesn’t want to be able to touch himself. I think our pup likes humping on legs and trying to grind his cock to come.”

  Liam scowled. “Do not get used to it,” he warned Caleb. “As soon as your hands are dry, you will go back to the mitts. Puppies do not have hands, and you have no need for them. Bad enough that you keep trying to stand,” he said, irritated.

  Desideria could probably fix that along with the fur…

  “Must I fix those things permanently?” he demanded.

  Zain laughed. “He only does that to make you crazy. If you gave him some attention and kept him in the right headspace, I think that you’d see he doesn’t really want to stand up and talk as much as he tries to do with you. Just don’t make it so confrontational.”

  “I am not the one who makes it confrontational,” Liam said stiffly, but he felt… well, he felt vaguely like he was throwing a temper tantrum. Caleb kept flinching away from him but leaning into Zain, and that wasn’t what he wanted at all. “Remember whose pet you are,” he sharply told his pup.

  “He knows. You just keep trying to push him away.” Zain moved away from rubbing Caleb’s hands and went back to scrubbing the pup’s back. “He wants to enjoy being around you, but when he reaches this headspace and you start barking out scary or angry things, it either freaks him out or he gets just as pissed. Either way, that’s not the reaction you want.”

  Perhaps that was the issue. Zain was treating Caleb exactly the way he expected a real dog to act — the way, even, that Liam wanted him to act. But Caleb had always been so argumentative and rebellious that he hadn’t thought it would be effective to simply treat him like that and expect it to work.

  He made a soft, displeased sound, but didn’t argue.

  “You like his tail,” Liam remarked, “and you like the idea of the fur. What else would you like to see?”

  Caleb’s head came up sharply, and his pup stared at him.

  Zain made a low hum, like he was actually considering the question seriously as he started to rinse Caleb off. Caleb turned his head to look at Zain, surprise and something like curiosity on his face instead of the betrayal Liam had expected to see.

  Finally, Zain answered as he started stroking Caleb’s hair, rinsing the soap from his head. “How about his ears? I think it would go well with the tail.”

  Liam canted his head, considering. “A light sprinkling of fur along his spine, a few alterations to the ears…” He trailed off, and just to see if Caleb was as much in this headspace as Zain claimed, he purred, “what would you like us to do with your ears, Pup? Don’t be shy.”

  He expected Caleb to whine and complain, to snap that he didn’t want any sort of changes done to his ears, but his pet only leaned back a little so Zain could rinse out his hair.

  “You decided on the tail,” Caleb said, his voice rough, half-there and half in some other space Liam couldn’t follow. “And the fur, you decided on together.” A shudder ran through him, and his eyes drifted half-closed. “I want Alpha to decide on my ears, Master,” he whispered, trembling.

  Well.

  Wasn’t that interesting?

  Zain reacted like a teenager getting a declaration of love — puppy love of some sort. Cooing to Caleb, Zain cupped his face and started running his hands over the pup. “You’re going to be such a pretty pup for me, aren’t you? Pretty little ears that wiggle and twitch. Yes, that would be perfect, Pup.”

  Caleb’s drawn-in breath was shaky, and Liam saw it when the fight in him was utterly extinguished. He went to his pup then, leaning down and pressing in close to him — and to Zain.

  “Little and… cute?” Liam asked, his lips close to Zain’s throat. He pressed the ghost of a kiss against his skin. “Or large and floppy? Somewhere in between?”

  Zain considered the question, looking at Caleb and analyzing the pup as he reached for a towel sitting on a low shelf. “Not too big, I don’t want them to get too floppy… Maybe something like a German Shepherd, but scaled to his head of course… I want him to look beautiful and not out of proportion.” Tracing the fingers of one hand along Caleb’s ears as he started drying the pup’s head with the other, Zain nodded. “Yes, I think that would be perfect. Pup, what do you think?”

  Liam’s hand trailed down Zain’s back, but he stopped outright as Caleb… shook himself. Like a dog. He didn’t respond to the words, simply acting l
ike he was trying to get the water off of him.

  There was a hint of mischief in those eyes, something very human but playful — something intriguing, and only that kept him from doing more than stepping back. “Caleb! Bad dog!” Liam scolded, but there wasn’t any venom in his voice.

  This was, after all, what he had wanted.

  Chapter Ten:

  Zain

  It was like some kind of fucked-up witch’s house, like the one who tried to eat those kids from the story Hansel and Gretel… but instead of a house made out of candy and things designed to draw people in, it just seemed to be made of people.

  “You know some really fucked-up people, Liam. I swear, if you get me eaten or something, you don’t know what I’m going to do. Caleb peeing on your shoes will seem like a funny gag.”

  He stood at the bottom of the three steps leading up to the quaint little house — the quaint little house that had pebbles made of bone and curtains made of cured human flesh. He could smell decay even through the door.

  Caleb was trembling in his grip, pressing close to him and burying his face against his chest. The soft whimpers of what could be nothing but terror had Zain wanting to turn around and go back to the car. The only reason he didn’t was because the pup wasn’t squirming or trying to break free.

  Liam’s gaze found Zain’s own. “That is assuming you would survive the experience to be able to retaliate,” he said sharply. “Do not call Lady Desideria a… fucked-up person if you would like to see the dawn, Zain.”

  There was something heavy, reverent even, about that tone that made him hesitate. He wanted to give a smartass remark, but Liam’s gaze was too serious.

  “Lady Desideria,” Liam emphasized. “I will freely admit that I could not protect you from her if I tried.”

  “You say the sweetest things,” a sweet, girlish voice said.