The Beast of Bodmin Moor

 

 

 

 

PJ

 

 

 

Jack’s heart pounded, strong and true; trembling through PJ’s tongue as he chased the silvery trails strewn across his honeyed tum. Glistening in the moonlight, like spider silk decorated with dew. Its beat did resonating as somehow more than a thundering in PJ’s ears, he could do feeling its vibrations, as a…bone deep sense of awareness. So deep, its echo made the very ground do thrumming beneath his paws. Strange…but possibly not as spooky as the thought that flitted through his head. Jimjams suspected he might be able to use it as a…compass, to do finding Jack.

“Jack…?” he wuffled.  Lazy lids lifted to bedazzle PJ with blue. Still shimmery, but calmer now, like Caribbean seas at sunset. “Can you...feel me?”

“Feel you? D’you mean…can Jake?” he asked, tufty brows furrowing a tad.

“Huh?” Jimjams twerked his top lip in a wtf fashion that was a mite multilingual. Had doing mating addled Jack’s faculties? He had endured a very long wait to do the deedy, after all. “Jake? I’d have to be squiffy to do asking something so daft. I meant, can you do…sensing me, inside yourself?”

“Sorry…you’re right. It would have been a batshit question.” Jack paused and did cocking his head. Phin could have sworn he heard a snort of disgust, although Jack didn’t do one. Not out loud, at least. “Can I sense you? Yes, but I think I may have been able to before you shifted. I assumed I’d just followed your scent, which could be true, except it seems…more than that, in retrospect.”

“D’you think you could do…following it, to find me?” Phin wondered, buoyed by the fact Jack hadn’t done letting rip with one of those snorty noises Jake was so fond of.

“Now that you’ve asked…” Jack wriggled into a Sphinxy position and raised his head to do skygazing. It looked so low, up on the moors, like a vast swathe of sequinned velvet stretching as far as the eye could see. The stars made his nose do twinkling. “That seems…feasible,” he decided, before adding:  “Don’t ask. I do not intend on letting you out of scent range ’til I’m sure you’ll be safe…” 

“Dammit, if someone else did declaring that, I’d be so miffy I might do a runner…p’raps for the hell of it…to prove I could. Humph.” Bummer, he didn’t seem to be very proficient at truth twiddling on four legs, so it was a bloomin’ good job they were longer than Jack’s. Jimjams had a sneaky suspicion he might need to shift himself sharpish when his dear sire did sniffing out a faradiddle or two. Much.

“Then I’m glad you’re not miffed as I very much doubt I could stop myself from proving you couldn’t.” Jack sighed. His scent did souring to…something that reminded Phin of pumpkin slop. It wasn’t like ‘sour lemons’—that would be a crisp, cutting sort of smell—this was earthy; so fusty it was tricky to do focusing on the meaning of Jack’s words. When the penny did plink into place, it made the musty whiff seem a mite more fathomable. If nonetheless daft.

Jackal journal: Self-disgust was not a suits-you-sir scent. 

Status: Endangered. Extinct, asap.

“Why did you sigh if you want me to do staying? That doesn’t even make Jimjams sense.”

“Jimjams?” Jack’s tongue did lolling in a laugh.

“You started it! You called me PJ. That’s short for jim-jams, so stop prevaricating and do telling me why the whiffy sigh?” he huffed. It smelled and sounded so far from the way Jimjams felt, it made him do hunkering to the ground and resting his chin on his front paws. The very solidity of the soil felt…reassuring with too-much-stuff running amok.

“What was ‘whiffy’ about it? I doubt that was a dog-breath slur.” 

“Your niff went…sort of strange…” Jimjams did wrinkling his nose, rather than cosh Jack with a reeking word. “When you said ‘I doubt I could stop myself proving you couldn’t.’ It sounded as if you’d have to do telling me to stay…but smelled as if you wouldn’t want me to. Yet, you told me jackals do ‘mating for life’…so that’s screwy. I’ve just done thinking another thought that’s loopy now. Odd that.” PJ noted. 

It was something Phin had wondered about from the moment Jake did sharing his story. But he hadn’t understood just how impossible it would seem to Jimjams: How the bejeezus could the girl at Glastonbury do bearing to leave her mate? 

“You’re right, it doesn’t make sense…but I sighed when Jake flinched from the fact he’d want to command you to stay. That wouldn’t be noble, apparently.”

“He’s a daftie. I might wish he would, despite myself, if I had a strop and did stomping off in a miff. I might even hope he did so as ignobly as pos—oops, I shouldn’t have done admitting that.” Pj’s scent spiked so sharply, it’s consequences made Jack look as if a hairdryer had been blasted up his snoot.

“PJ…” The blue ignited like a lightsaber bursting to life. A sudden waft of woodsmoke, mulled wine and roasting chestnuts made Jamjams do springing up. About a big sloppy licky kiss before swivelling around to present Jack with his fluffy butt.

Jackal journal: Turning foxy sure as shameless strumpets hadn’t enhanced Phin’s subtlety skills much.

Status: A bit of a moot point while sporting a fancy free cock.

Phin had oft been informed that pottering about in the altogether was not-the-done-thing at all, no matter how comfy it was. Jim-jammy devil…where there’s a will, there’s a way. Ho hum. 

All that flashed through PJ’s head in the flicker of an eyelash, instantly obliterated by the brain-blitzing swipe that sluiced his person. Stone the crows ‘n’ crikey…’scuse me while I kiss the sky… Jimi-jams Hendrix just about did too, such was the sublime shock to his system. A fur frizzling Fender Stratocaster Experience PJ wouldn’t have done missing for the world…

*

A wee while later, Jack did butting a blissed-out Jimjams with his nose. “C’mon…it’s time for your tour of the moors…or it’ll be daybreak and we’d better get you home.” Home. How wonderful that sounded, even though it wasn’t PJ’s. He did, however, have a campervan perfect for parking on Jake’s driveway. That could be a plan, then his dear sire would know Jimjams was safe without being driven doolally. Quite so soon. PJ wouldn’t let himself do counting chickens, it made Phin scratchy. He would look flea-bitten t’boot.

“Where we off to…?”  PJ did shoving all such thoughts aside and scrambled onto all paws.

“Anywhere you wish…” Jack grinned and did swiping him a lick before scarpering in a spray of gritty bits. ‘Twas with a joyful wuff that Jimjams set off in hot pursuit…of his very own happy ever after. 

They ran…ran with the fur rifling wind whispering secrets, thrilling to the sighs of the night. Fast, so fast, they would be but blurs to less discerning eyes, but PJ could do seeing every blade of scrubby grass they sped across beneath their canopy of stars. By the time they did pulling up, panting with exhilaration, he could feel the dawn creeping ever closer. Hear its scents stirring. Sense the subtle shift in the air. 

“PJ…it’s time we headed back…”

“But—”

“But nothing.” 

“Pfft. That gong-bonging is going to get old, y’know…” PJ huffed.

“Fibber.”

“Humph.”

“Poor Jimjams…” Jack snickered. “Stop chuntering…and think sausages. We can come back tonight and every night thereafter if you wish…”

“Okay…” Phin fuffed a sigh. “Cramming myself back into my body isn’t going to be very fun, is it?”

“No…which is why I’d rather we got it over with. I need to know…you’ll be okay.”

“Are you worried that I’ll be missing a leg, or, I dunno…my head? I might be better off without that.” PJ noted.

“Just…humour me, okay? For my peace of mind, if nothing else.” 

“Oh alright then, Mr Fussypot-a-lot. Will I get a doggy-choc for being a good boy?” Jimjams did pinning on the best puppy dog eyes Phin had ever pulled off. Ha, lightweight.

“Ooh…something like that.” Jack winked, turning tail to do fleeing as if the hounds of hell were hot on his heels. Rather than his very own. Homeward bound before dawn stole the darklight away…

 

 

*** 2 ***

 

 

 

PJ did leaping over the garden gate and skittered to a stop (which wasn’t quite quick ’nuff) behind Jack. Oops. A snootbutt up the bum was a much better way to do braking than nutting a wall, it must be noted. Phin’s jackal journal would soon be jim-jam-packed with fascinating facts. Splendid. P’raps he could do turning it into a novel? That was Phin’s life long dream; to have a book published. So, why not indeedy?

No one thought The Vampire Diaries were a factual document, did they? The Jackal Journals would have a hero every bit as luscious as Phin’s former very favourite fella. With even more bedazzling blues than Mr Somerhalder. Tadah...a claim so outlandish that no one would believe a word he wrote, freeing his fictional self to waffle on as he wished. Sorted. Hiding in plain sight.

The Jackal Journals: by Phineas Finlay.

Status: research and role play…in progress.

That last part sounded as much fun as his new stopping technique. 

* 

Behopes Jake wouldn’t put the kibosh on said plans. Making both sires miffy would be a very bad thing. It was an itty bit ironic that Phin’s dad would like him lots more with four legs. First and foremost on the preferable front; PJ wouldn’t do too much embarrassing the Major in public. Unless he did cocking his leg up a Colonel. Jimjams could also do fetching his paper…curl up on his feet and keep them warm in winter while he did his crossword and watched telly. That would be cosy. Man’s best friend…rather an affront to his siring sensibilities.

What if Jake soon feels likewise? Being an eternal source of regret to both sires would be unbearable.

“PJ…what is it?” Jack’s tone suggested that he’d done woofing PJ’s name more than once. 

“What’s what?” Jimjams wondered. He hadn’t uttered anything amiss, had he done something untoward? Um, since the parking up the bum incident.

“Your scent is so infused with sorrow, I can taste it. You reek like the dregs of last week’s milk. Sort of sour, but worse, wrong…off. I’d ask if you were worried—or miffed—about changing back except, you don’t smell like fresh distress…more as if it’s lingered so long, it’s turned rancid.”

“Oh…it’s not important.”

“PJ…”  His name was a low rumbly growl of warning. A not-to-be-trifled-with tone Phin did recognising all too well. On that note…

“I was just thinking ’bout my dad, that’s all,” Jimjams huffled.

 “Is he sick?” Jack’s tufty brows knitted with concern.

“Sick of me? Yes.” PJ did a soft snuff, like a rueful smile on two feet.

“I doubt that’s true…even if it feels that way. I was such a disappointment, mine buggered off. But. What I’m about to say has been hard fought for, okay? I’m not mouthing platitudes, I promise. We can only ever be who we are. If that’s not good enough, it’s not your fault. You haven’t failed by failing to fulfil his expectations. Being you is more than enough…if he can’t see that, then he’s failed you.” If scent could do aching, Jack’s did. His sorrow was as raw as salt rubbed into scorched flesh.

“Do you ever see your dad?” PJ did wondering.

“No…not for a few years. He used to turn up a couple of times a year—to persuade himself he was doing his duty—I guess. He wasn’t much of a loss…selfish bastard. My mum got married again and had a couple more kids, she’s happy and I’m happy for her. We get on great, there’s no big drama. I’m closer to Jessie though, I think you’d like her…”

“Your sister?” PJ’s question was met with a nod, so he asked another…prompted by the mellowing of Jack’s scent when he’d mentioned Jessie. Phin suspected he knew the answer, but PJ was a curious sort of jackal and had a journal to write, so it wouldn’t do to get it wrong. “Is she more like Jack or Jake…?” 

“Not Jake…that’s for sure. She’s not a fuckwit, which helps,”  Ja/ke snorted. As if he’d never met a juxtaposition that couldn’t be dismissed with a expulsion of air through his snoot.

He’d told Jimjams more in the last two minutes than Phin had learned since they met. Did Jake’s foxy self free him up to do telling truths he shied from without his furry suit of armour? It was a good job Phin was wired all wrong, or he might do believing that Jack was Jake’s true self, shrouded in—safeguarded by—fur. Fortunately for that scoundrel’s comfort, making sense was not Phin’s forte, so Jimjams thought it best to let sleeping dogs lie. 

“Jack, how do I…what must I do?” he asked, instead. 

“Okay…” Jack backed up a bit, until they were face to face, blue to brown. “Focus… inside. Find a…tendril of self to tug on, a Phin thing…”

 Well, that made less sense than Phin did. Only his body bits were all that different, so he’d need to locate those. Where did Jimjams do stashing them when he wasn’t wearing them? That was bonkers. He sure as shovels hadn’t done buying his bones in the garden. 

A Phin thing that’s not also a PJ thing? Okay…Jimjams did closing his eyes…and saw the answer. In his head…which was, o’course, where Phin spent most of his time. Jake’s face shimmered into focus; hair a hundred shades of honey, umber, bronze. Golden skin agleam with—Skin. Phin longed to do trailing his fingers down Jake’s sinewy chest, down, down, to the tempting trickle of hair leading to…hmm...

“Phin…”

Uh-oh. PJ lifted a lid for a peep. Blue blazed back. He slammed it shut again…before his eyeball started singeing.  It was not-a-jot fair to trot out that particular tone. Varmint. 

“I am focusing!”

“You smell like sex…it’s driving me demented,” Jack growled.

“I only did focusing on you—your other you—who is a Phin thing! Jimjams can’t do sitting on Jake’s—”

“Oh fuck…”

“Exactly. Now shurrup, I was just getting to the best bit. Bossy boots. Hmm…now there’s a thought…”  Phin did popping back to his stash of treasures and lo, there Jake was. Naked, ’cept for a pair of black bovver boots…and all Phin’s.

Mine. 

 

***

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Beast of Bodmin Moor

 

 

 

PJ

 

Jimjams padded across the scrubby grass of his happy place and raised his head to do gazing at the stars sprinkled across the sky. He might have done wagging his tail a tad too—with joy—not to waft any whiffs Jack’s way. That would have been most unseemly. 

The saturation of husky musk infiltrating PJ’s nostrils did intensifying, alongside the wave of warmth emanating from Jack. Neither of which did doodly squat to prepare Jimjams for the lavish lick that sluiced his fluffy butt with a blast of hot breath. A tongue attack of too-much-moist-ness that made Jimjams damn near do jackalknifing in shock.

“Jack! I almost did biting my tongue off!” PJ yipped when the scoundrel did snickering in satisfaction.  

Utterly unrepentant, the rogue just pointed out that it would have done growing back. How rude. Jimjams’ best attempt to muster up a mad-dog glower was met by the most impertinent snicker of: ‘Is that a promise or a threat?’ 

Phin would have to start making notes of all such new stuff: Jackal power progressions and slights to his person. For future reference.

Jackal Journal: work on mad-dog glower. 

Current status: pants.

It was a good job Phin did learning fast. PJ had a helluva distance to do catching up with Jack…and forever in which to do it. Crikey, he was talking to himself in tandem now. That seemed a lot like sitting up front and behind at the same time. Dammit. How was his backseat self supposed to get away with forgetting to do pedalling?

A bit of bantering back ‘n’ forth left the air so soused in sex it made Jimjams feel a smidge squiffy. Can jackals get drunk? Jack had done choosing to lap some brandy in Phin’s campervan…a lifetime ago…so p’raps? So many questions…

Jackal Journal: Write thesis on said subjects. After starring in Cats 2.

Current status: Too busy. Jack must do making up for mating missed in last 2 years. Approx: >2(365 X 8)ish.

Behopes his dear sire couldn’t do ‘hearing’ all this inner wafflish. It seemed that PJ only had access to stuff Jack meant him to hear…so he’d just have to hope that eavesdropping wasn’t an acquired skill, or Jimjams was sausages. Strewth, he was starving. In every way…

“Is that nuff? I feel like a furry tripod.” PJ asked after widening his stance in an ‘assuming the position’ fashion when told to brace himself, lest he do falling off his legs. 

“It’s perfect, as are you. I…we love you.” Hmmm. Jack’s words did wafting through Jimjams’ head as the most mellifluous melody he’d ever heard. We. He needed to do concentrating on that. Later.

Jackal Journal: Do pondering significance of Ja/ke’s pronoun shenanigans.

Current status: Batpoop.

“I love you two…” His Jimjam heart was jackalhammering as hectically as hummingbird wings. He felt light-headed enough to fall off the floor, let alone his legs. It had been quite a week of firsts, though. On the whole. He’d done waiting forever to lose his virginity, now he was about to lose it for the second time in a week. PJ felt sure this would be deemed excessive by less enlightened folks, just before they did dispatching Phin to the funny farm with a flea in his ear. 

The waves of want and worry doing warring in Jack’s scent were making Jimjams dizzy. How he wished he could do reassuring Jack…but didn’t know diddly for sure. That didn’t do diminishing the fact that every fibre of his furry being believed Jack’s fears would prove foundless.

Jimjams wasn’t afraid, he was fit to bust with a fizzy anticipation so fierce his fur felt frizzled. When Jack did leaping up to hug PJ’s ribs with his front legs, his welcome weight seemed to be the only thing that could do tethering him to the earth. About a sharp intake of breath later, Jack’s cock did nestling where the need was so intense, Phin’s system might’ve done deeming it an overdose of too muchness. Lightweight.

“Okay…” There was a subtle shift in Jack’s husky scent, which seemed to smooth, in an adding Bailey’s to coffee sort of way. Lusciousness that was utterly eclipsed when Jack did thrusting inside PJ with one sublime snap of foxy hips. 

“Fuuuuck!” Jimjams may have unleashed some howling at the moon racket, but he was too busy being blitzed by a sizzling sensory overload to be sure. It felt a helluva lot as if the sky had done exploding in a cascade of fireworks. Up his bum. But more—even more bedazzling—was the fact that Jack had, finally done claiming Jimjams as his mate. Mine. As ‘PJ’ was his. Just as Phin had been from the first…but this? This was binding. Jackals mate for life. Blinding. White heat; like a scorch of sunlit sparks off snow. As intense as magnesium flame. That superlative spine, staggering in any form, sweeping with such sinuous intent, it could only belong to Jake.

Watching Jake walk had always been more mesmerising than watching anyone else do anything else…but this…? Phin knew that Jake had done holding back, but knowing was a world away from feeling the full force of his thrusts and the scintillating speed with which he did pounding into PJ’s body. All this was but half of it. Jimjams could feel its echo do thrumming through, from, Jack. A fury of ferocious bliss mirrored back. Twice. There was only Jack—no past, present or future—just here, now, them; the pounding of twin hearts and foxy hips. As if forever had done leading to this moment. Irrevocably bound; mind, body, soul. Mate. 

That was PJ’s last coherent thought…after that he was lost, lost to the kaleidoscope of colour unleashed on his senses by the antics of that stupendous spine. Jackal-hammering with fearsome finesse. Too much exquisite ecstasy to do holding out against. Too excessive even for Jimjams.

“Jack…I need..to do coming…” 

“Fuck…I’d feared—” 

Really? Was that why he’d been so worried? It must have been one of the reasons, if the candyfloss scent of relief spoke true. Daftie. Phin had done going off like a rocket beforeh—paws without being touched. So why the bejeezus Jack would fret about that, Jimjams knew not. The quicksilver cascade of sensations made it tricky to do concentrating. The rainbow riot of shattered white light made it impossible when the world did exploding and pulsing waves of sublime warmth did filling Jimjams up. 

 

***

 

Jack 

 

Jack huffed out a breath, blinking in an effort to refocus through shards of iridescent white, splintered into a spectrum of colour…and scent. It felt a helluva lot as if his senses had embarked on a free-for-all game of spin the bottle to select a specialist subject. 

Jake? Made no attempt to contradict him, or even offer up a snort of affront…it might even be mooted that he stayed uncharacteristically quiet on the subject.

Okay…I’ll bite. But how the hell would you feel if you found yourself human with no warning whatsoever, after believing they were…mythical beings, about as real as Batman? 

Much as you do, I expect. Odd that.

*

“Y’okay..?” Another superfluous query. The scent seeping from PJ’s pores was honey drizzling from a dipper. Lush with satisfaction. 

“Hmm…very. Jack…?” When PJ craned his head around the amber had dimmed to tranquil brown, shimmering in the darklight.

“It was worth waiting forever for. I’ve never been less disappointed…” Jack assured him, answering the unspoken question. “Neither of me,” he added, realising that he was unsure which self PJ was wondering…worrying about.

“You’re a daftie…” His tongue lolled out in a big grin. “How could you be disappointed and not a jot disappointed at the same time?”

“I’m pretty sure one of us could persuade himself it was possible.” Jack couldn’t help snorting.

When you’ve quite finished maligning me…

I seriously doubt you’ll ever be done. 

Insufferable mutt.

*

Jack didn’t deign to respond, just planted his paws on PJ’s rump and backed up a bit until he slipped free. PJ whipped around to face him and flicked his tongue across Jack’s nose before nuzzling his muzzle with a sigh as sublime as a silken caress.

“What would you like to do now…?” Jack wuffed.

“Show me the moors, Jack…Will you do sharing your favourite places with me?”

“O’course…always,” Jack promised. “PJ…please tell me the truth…I won’t be offended, how could I be? I’ve spent two years wishing I’d never gone to Glastonbury that weekend. So…if you could turn back time, would you bypass Bodmin moor, drive elsewhere…?”

“I didn’t do choosing to drive to Bodmin.” PJ’s answer was instant, without forethought. “I just did driving…and here I am. I couldn’t do changing a decision I didn’t make, could I?  You’re not fussed about routes though, I don’t think…” he added, then cocked his head, midnight eyes twinkling with mischief. Twinned with truth. “I would’ve done driving to the end of the earth if I’d known you would be there to meet me. So…if I could do turning back time? I would have turned up two years ago.” His gaze was tranquil, unclouded by lies, his scent unsullied, but human habits die hard and thus, Jack found himself asking:

“You would? Even knowing…?” 

“Especially knowing…” PJ dangled his tongue in a big daft grin as he rolled those star-strewn eyes. “Jake…?”

Jake?

I heard him the first time…and the distinction, thank you very much.

Answer him then…

You’re never going to let me live this down, are you?

Nope.

*

“If given a guarantee that I’d meet you, one day…then I would have gone to Glastonbury…” Jake acknowledged.

Ha.

Stop being so smug…the qualification was quite clear, was it not?

Finding him was a done deal though, so the fact remains. Unless I’ve quite forgotten the burning desire you’d always nurtured to dwell in Cornwall?

Fuckoff.

Ha.

*

“I think you did telling the truth. No matter, Jack will tell me.” PJ ensnared him with glossy obsidian too imploring to resist. 

“True, much as he’s loathe to admit it…to me, rather than you.” Jack replied.

“I couldn’t do wishing for more in all the world then…well, not for me.” PJ’s last words were weighted with sorrow, his gaze glittering far too brightly.

“He...We have everything we want…need.” Jack assured him, swiping a lick across PJ’s nose. “I promise.”

Talk about me as if I’m not here, why don’t you, don’t mind me. 

We ‘mind you’ very much—which is the entire point you seem to have missed—so stop cussing.

“Hmmm…” The spike of lust that speared Jack snatched his breath away. Rather than buckling beneath him, as seemed probable, his legs promptly launched him PJ’s way. Down they went, tumbling into the grass in a tangle of limbs and flurry of fur…and tongues that lavished everywhere they could reach. “So do I…” PJ promised, nipping playfully at Jack’s ear before springing up to nudge at his hind leg with his nose. Jack could no sooner have stopped it swinging wide, than donned a pair of Jake’s skinny jeans. His whimper of want was almost as wanton. 

Wanton? You watch way too many period dramas.

You’ve always wanted to wield that word, so ’fess up. You are weirdly prudish for someone who spends half his life with his cock swinging in the wind. Just sayin’.

Jake? Quite forgot to rustle up a snarky quip…oddly enough.

Ooh that tongue…Aside from feeling almost as long as The Legs, it flickered like a firefly over the head of Jack’s cock, rendering him so insensible he wasn’t sure Jake would ever recover his powers of speech. It was about all Jack could do to clench his jaw and cling on tight, in a fast fraying effort to rein himself in.

DIY couldn’t begin to compare to the sheer lavishing PJ subjected Jack to. It was as obscene as the slurps of sound wafting his way…and those crawling up his own throat. Jack had just about got a grip when PJ set about his balls with a flattened tongue so fervent, they rebounded after each swipe, ratcheting up the need another notch or ninety with every lurid schlllurrp. Oh help.

“Phiiiin!” Jack howled, throwing his head back when the ever building pressure burst its dam and erupted in a blizzard of bliss that thrilled through every fibre of their being. Furry or otherwise. 

“Hmmm….you taste even more luscious…with this tongue…” PJ purred while carrying out a far too thorough fur-coats-cleaned-while-you-wait valet service. Jack would soon require a reservicing if matters progressed apace.

It was with a sublime sigh that Jack rested his cheek on a springy tuft of cool moss and surrendered to the waves of warm pleasure lapping at his shores. Paradise…the moist, sultry smell of earth and the verdant tang of grass beneath him, the inky blanket of sky above. He lay, gazing up at stars that shone with the fierce brilliance of a stellar performance—in every sense—a first night show worthy of their special guest. For whom too much could never be enough. 

 

***

The Beast of Bodmin Moor

Chapter 45…in which we go all the way, so you might not wish to…

 

 

 

 

Jack

 

The smells saturating the night air had never seemed so heady, but all were eclipsed by the sylvan, cassia-steeped scent that had stolen Jack’s heart. How he’d longed for this moment…fearing it might never come. That he might never find Him, despite some inner certainty insisting that He was out there…somewhere…waiting for Jack to claim him as his own.

Even the breeze seemed to bow to the magnificence of the moment. Jack heard, felt, PJ’s whimper of want thrill through his veins as he turned…to face the destiny Jake had sworn they did not deserve. So, so, sure that fate itself would turn its back on him in disgust; a despair Jack had been drowning in for two years…but the purgatory of waiting was over.

PJ…beyond beautiful…and those eyes; breathtaking when worn by his human self. Now? They were hypnotic, as eternal as they were enchanting. A brown so deep it bled into black, even as it burned amber flame. Like tumbling into molten magma.

There was no trace of regret in PJ’s scent, only love…longing…lust. A happiness as pure, unsullied as his soul.  It didn’t matter which form Jake was wearing, just as Jack had known…but Jake was quite capable of miring even the most hopeful of hearts in misery. Particularly on those dark, dread, wallowing-in-whiskey days, when it was like trying to keep a flicker of hope aflame in a boggy marsh. It hadn’t taken Jack long to realise that the only way of dealing with Mr Mope in that sort of mood, was to snap him out of it. Literally. Jake had been surprised that Jack hadn’t done so earlier, but their form had never mattered as much as Jake was hell-bent on believing.

Nevertheless, if he’d convinced himself it mattered, then of course it did, by default. Even if it didn’t. So…letting him spend some time with ‘PJ’ before Jack claimed Phin as their own had felt important. Necessary. Good grief, he was hard work. The fact that Jack’s very own black dog stomped about on two legs had not escaped his notice…

…Nor had the realisation that PJ was still taller than him. What the—? Jack should, by rights, be taller, surely? He’d sired PJ. Someone, somewhere, had a very twisted sense of humour. Bestowing a black-dog human and a half-giraffe mate on Jack really was excessive.

And you wonder why I get so pissed off?

You might have a point.

Hallefuckinglujah.

Are they truly toomuch, or…

As hot as hell?

Oh yes. Shut up for a bit now, I’m busy.

I’d better be able to feel this, or I’m going to be very hacked off. Just sayin’.

If you shut your steak hole, you’ll soon find out.

Humans…who’d have em? Jack thought all of this in the blink of an eye it took to inhale a lungful of scintillating scent. 100% Proof Pure PJ. If Jack was a cartoon creature, then his eyes would have done swirling like whirlpools just before he swooned flat on his back on the grass. Splayed like a jackal-skin rug.

PJ did not flinch from Jack (as Jake still half-feared he might. The loon would be better served by concerning himself with his sanity) when he nudged their noses together. This was only polite after all; it would have been rather forward to just jump him. Most uncourtly behaviour, Jack deserved a rosette for gallantry at the very least. Particularly when the waves of want radiating from PJ—echoing through Jack—suggested he wouldn’t find this unseemly in the slightest. In fact, his pulse rate accelerated to such a pace it was a miracle PJ managed to hold still. Jack leaned in close to nuzzle a silken cheek; fur so soft, its scent as alluring as it was intoxicating. It also transferred itself to his own fur, so he would be able to wear it, carry it with him wherever he went. A thought not even Jake could be embarrassed about, because PJ had felt exactly the same when he’d snuffled their human self, and they knew it. A truth so affirming that Jack couldn’t resist swiping a rather luxuriant lick across PJ’s face with a wink before springing away and scampering off.

“C’mon!” he called over his shoulder and felt an answering rush of exhilaration thrill through PJ as he set off in hot pursuit. If only he’d stopped just as sharpish…which was Jack’s fault. He should have taken better care to warn PJ he was about to slam the brakes on, but really…since when had running head first into a gate been a fine way to come to a halt? Or bouncing off the wall at the bottom of the stairs, for that matter?

Jack was going to need eyes up his arse. A thought that wasn’t going to help him focus on safety matters, that much was certain.

“Oh hell…” he whined, sniffing at PJ’s head. Jack may have known he wasn’t bleeding, but the injury itself had intensified the need to be close, to comfort him, keep him safe. “You daft pillock,” he heard himself gruff. 

Jack suspected that he would prefer Jake before he realised that voicing his views was possible. Quite why that hadn’t been bloody obvious in the first place was unfathomable. PJ stared down at his (excessive) legs before turning those magnificent eyes on his own (perfectly proportional) limbs. His implication obvious, even before he huffed:

“You want to try fandangling these. There’s toomuch of them.” PJ’s expression was priceless, too adorable to resist…butting him and springing away. 

Flirting, ’fess up. 

That would be uncouth. Courting him.

Uncouth? Unlike say…the eyes up his arse focusing issue?

Said snark paled into insignificance when those stargazy eyes lit up like sparklers and PJ leapt at Jack with a joyful woof. He dodged to take PJ out from the flank, leaving impossible legs skittering frantically in an effort to stay on all paws, but it was bambi-on-ice time again as down PJ went, swiping Jack’s legs from beneath him on the way. Jack scrambled straight back up and threw himself forwards to roll them over in the grass, tussling in an ecstatic tumble of touch, tongues, teeth and furry friction. Two words hammering out a heartbeat in his head; mine-mate…mimate …mimate.

“PJ…” he panted. “Moors…” 

The anticipation that blazed through PJ’s being when he scrambled to his paws was as breath snatching as their scuffle had been. Jack launched himself at the gate, arching through the air to land lightly on the scrubby path before shooting off into the trees. He knew PJ was following, he could hear, smell, feel his presence fast catching up, there was no need to check.

The dash to the moors was effervescence itself. It was bliss to indulge the simple joy of finally being free to run with the fur ruffling wind, to revel in the exhilarating pulse of power through his body and feel the earth beneath his paws. Best of all, to be running with PJ at his side…to share this night with his mate…at last. To feel the rapturous rush that wasn’t his own—incalculably intense all the same—staggering, even as an echo thrilling through Jack. Toomuch for one person to endure alone.

No longer. Every fibre of Jack’s being exalted in the physical exertion, free at last, liberated from the fathomless agony of human love…confounding creatures. Complicating everything. It was as pure and simple as spring water. Jack was PJ’s. PJ was his. It was binding, absolute; as inescapable as it was irrevocable…and as eternal as those enchanting eyes.

Every beat of Jack’s heart was pounding with raw, primal need. A lust too feral for the veneer of civility Jake clung to. Stripped back to the bone deep desire to claim PJ as his own…to imprint himself indelibly; heart, mind, body, soul. Mate… Mine.

 

***

 

PJ 

 

Running…running with the fur-ruffling wind, paws pounding a heartbeat tattoo. Jack…glorious in full-flow; his glossy coat rippling over lean muscle and sinewy strength, starlite eyes luminous in the darklight.

It only took a few minutes to do scampering up to the moors. His legs might have been a bit lollopy but they sure did speeding along with nary a care for the uphill incline. Jimjams felt sure he could do skittering up the side of a mountain without getting puffed out, unless he p’raps had a mishap and did falling off a ledge on the way to the summit.

“Y’okay?” Jack wuffed, tongue lolling in a big grin as they did bounding over some standing stones marking the edge of the moor.

“Yeah…” Their gazes locked; twinned in topaz—amber and blue—twinkling with anticipation. Jack radiated exhilaration after their run, exuding scents so luscious, Jimjams longed to do lapping them. His whole self was so full of fizzy static, he could scarce do waiting…a thought swiftly usurped by a flash of fear that made PJ’s heart do stuttering with a surge of panic.

“What’s wrong…?” The tinny tang of concern tainted Jack’s niff when he skidded to a halt.

“I’m just…worried you’ll be disappointed, after waiting so long.” PJ panted, stones skittering hither ‘n’ thither when he did jamming the brakes on. 

“PJ…” Jack did nudging Jimjams’ face with his nose. “That’s impossible. You know I’ve never done this, so I can’t say for sure but, you’re…mine. How could it not be right?”

“Jack…please do making me yours…properly.” PJ made his gaze as imploring as possible, hoping it might do expressing what was too much for words, but Jack knew how he felt. Speech sounds were superfluous.

“Grrrr…” Jack’s low rumble of thunder noise made Jimjams feel a smidge squiffy when his temperature did spiking as if it was shrieking scarlet. Jack’s scent intensified; growing richer, stronger, so laden with musk that the squiffiness soared to punch drunk. 

“Jack…”

“Mine…” he growled when he started to do slinking along the length of PJ’s body in a scintillating slither of fur on fur. Once he’d done prowling that side, Jack did a hairpin bend around his Jimjam bum to brush along his left flank. When Jack drew level, he did ghosting his nose across PJ’s ear. “I love you,” he breathed. The joy that did coursing through PJ’s body was so staggering it might have been too much for his human self to do containing.

Phin had believed he’d done hallucinating Jake’s words in his hazy half-rememberings before finally surrendering to the shift. So sure they’d been far too impossible to be true. A lingering conviction that made Jimjams do telling Jack; “You must be very bonkers but I still love you too.”

“Then lie down…” Jack bade him, bedazzling blues agleam with mischief in mind.

Blimey. Jimjams’ eyeballs all but did falling out of his head. The flash of lust that flared through his system sent all four legs so wibbly they almost followed orders before PJ could do folding them up to lower himself to the scrubby grass.

This had never even done crossing Phin’s mind; so jam-packed with pervy possibilities it was staggering that Jack had pulled off such a feat. Jimjams might be new to all this but try as he might, he could only rustle up one reason for Jack telling him to do lying down. 

Once PJ had done just that and rolled onto his side, Jack bent to nudge his left hind leg—resting atop his right—aside with his nose. That didn’t seem sufficient, so Jimjams shifted it a mite more, swinging it butterfly wings wide; which p’raps looked a smidge flagrant, it must be admitted. Ah well, having inhibitions had never been his very best thing and turning furry certainly hadn’t bestowed any on him. A bit of a no brainer when he was now scampering about, letting it all hang out with a fancy-free cock.

Streewth…When Jack dipped his head to do snuffling, it sent huffles of breath wafting across the shiny pink lollipop impression he was sporting. It was looking doubtful whether it would ever do fitting back inside his furry foreskin again. Jack didn’t seem to mind either way, as he promptly swiped it with a lick so luxuriant, Jimjams did jolting about three foot off the ground. It sure felt that way, even though he hadn’t done measuring.

It was a sluice of moist heat so brain-blitzing, his brain seemed torn between blowing up and doing melting out of his ears. Lap-lap-lappity-lap. Zonk. He wasn’t going to last five seconds, unless he did bursting into flames before those had elapsed. Jimjams’ whimpery noises sounded as if someone had done treading on his tail…but even those were drowned out by the slurpfest lavished on his not-so-private parts.

“Jack…stop…” PJ gasped, when he couldn’t do holding on any longer.

“Noooo…” he slurred, somehow.

Jimjams was past caring about anything, let alone shapeshifter speechifying. Jack was slurping his cock. He was going to do combusting. All too soon. Now, in fact.

“Ahwwooo!” Jimjams p’raps let rip with that racket when the heavens did exploding in a starburst cascade of white-light-heat and a blitz of bliss barnstormed his body.

Ooohhh…When PJ did prising his lids apart, he had to blink the hazy daze away before he could do focusing. On Jack. Just inches away; the blue ablaze with such staggering want, it could prob’ly do willing the world to stop turning. He also looked an itty bit…spattered, as if he’d been decorated with silvery trails of tinsel strands. Oops. 

“Y’okay?” Okay…? Other than feeling a very lot like his own charred corpse, Jimjams had never felt so fiiine. Although he wasn’t sure whether his legs would ever do working again.

“Hmmm…” PJ sighed, letting his tongue do lolling out and his eyes roll back in his head.

“You sure you’re not disappointed?” The topaz twinkled knowingly as Jack wuffed a chuckle.

“I just…Was worried I might do letting you down.”

“Impossible…” When Jack did nudging their noses together he whiffed so strongly of Phin’s foxy self that a wave of warm wonderment shimmered through his afterglow. 

“Jack, can I do sl—?”

“Later…” Jake interrupted, his gaze agleam with dark promise when he added “Now...I intend to make you mine.”

 

***

 

Jack

 

Nothing Jake had experienced as a jackal made Jack expect mating to feel less sublime than human sex with Phin, when his senses had been enhanced in every way. Not least when Jack knew that the deed he’d done to PJ felt mind-blowing. Well, really, who could resist when gifted with a spine which made such ministrations possible? And no hands? Nor sex for that matter, in either form, for two whole years?

“Y’okay?” Jack asked when PJ’s eyelashes fluttered open, revealing adorably dazed eyes. Possibly the most superfluous question ever uttered.

Fishing.

Courteous.

“Hmmm…” PJ indulged in another roadkill impression, except this one looked rather more ‘jackal with the jammy dodger’.

“You sure you’re not disappointed?” he chuckled.

Definitely fishing.

Pointing out that he need not worry, whatsoever.

“Okay…” His bashful expression was the most beguiling of all. “I just…was worried I might do letting you down.”

“Impossible,” Jack assured him, nuzzling PJ’s nose…wishing he was equipped with a pair of lips like Jake’s when he found himself longing to kiss him. He’d never wished he could do something human before; Jake had been too hell bent on segregating ‘them’ as separate entities. Was Jake allowing the boundaries to blur, or was it happening despite himself? He was too wound up to even attempt untangling this latest batshit brain burp.

“Jack, can I do sl—?”

“Later…” Jack promised, far too fixated on mating matters to be sidetracked. “Now…I intend to make you mine.”

“Hmm..” A purr rumbled in PJ’s throat as those stargazy eyes flared flame, half a heartbeat before he sprang to all paws.

“C’mon…” Jack wuffed.

“Where—” PJ broke off when the amber smudged, softened, with understanding.

Jack just nodded and turned tail to shoot off across the moors, heading for the place so perfect—so utterly right—it needed no explanation. How long ago had he first allowed himself to approach PJ that night? A few days…a week, a lifetime ago…? A forever of waiting for him. Now, here they were; mere moments from the spot too sacred to be surpassed.

Jack slowed, savouring the moment, inhaling the crisp, clear air of the moor, still steeped in ancestry. About as untainted as it was possible to find for miles. As pure as it was perfect…PJ’s happy place. Theirs now.

“Thank you,” PJ nuzzled into Jack’s neck after slowing to a stop beside him. “It’s perfect.”

“Thank you…for you. PJ…I can’t promise it will b—”

“Jack, it already is, please…I need you to do filling me up.”

“Grrr…” A rich rumble sounded in his own throat when Jack pressed his face to PJ’s cheekbone, relishing the silken friction of fur. They were standing amidst tumbledown walls, on a patch of scrubby grass and springy moss; surrounded by ancient ruins. Beautiful beyond compare, as inimitable as… PJ padded a few paces forwards and stood, gazing up at the stars, drawing the night into his lungs, his tail lifted aloft, wafting with contentment. Almost knocking Jack out with a concentrated hit of scent.

Fuck…

My thoughts exactly.

His body was buzzing with so much suppressed energy, Jack was going to combust if he didn’t do as PJ had pleaded, sharpish. The feral intensity of the need was a force in itself; doubled, quadrupled, gaining momentum. Jack dipped his head to snuff the scent driving him half-demented with desire…when he flicked his tongue out, PJ shot about a foot in the air with a yip of surprise and a sharp gasp. His expression was so comical, Jack couldn’t stop a snicker escaping.

“Jack! I almost did biting my tongue off!”

“It would have grown back…” His own lolled in a laugh that made his eyes water. Oh gawd…

“You wait, Mister Lickalot…” PJ warned, a devilish glint ablaze in the molten gaze he skewered Jack with.

“Hmm…is that a promise or a threat?” 

“A promise,” PJ sniffed, nose in the air.

“I really hoped it was…” Jack’s tone deepened, darkening to a growl.

“Hmm…” PJ fluttered lustrous lashes, outright flirting now.

“You’re lethal. Nevertheless, you might want to brace yourself, or you’ll fall off your legs.”

“That’s one hell of a chat-up line,” PJ chuckled as he widened said limbs to steady himself. “Is that ’nuff? I feel like a furry tripod.”

Christ…I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. With frustration.

I couldn’t agree more. Odd that.

“It’s perfect, as are you. I…we love you.”

Thank you.

Y’welcome.

“I love you two…” A promise that made liquid fire thrill through Jack’s veins. There was nothing more to be said…and no words in the world for what followed.

His heart was pounding so hard it drowned out Jake’s fears—bliss in itself—freeing Jack to act on sheer instinct. When Jack leapt up to hug his forelegs to PJ’s flanks, the throaty purr that vibrated in PJ’s throat made every hair on Jack’s body quiver to attention. The relief was incalculable when the head of his cock was drawn inexorably to the intensity of heat at PJ’s core. Oh, how he’d feared his own fumbling ineptitude…failing him.

“Okay..” After dragging in a breath to steady himself, Jack thrust his hips forwards and buried himself home.

Fuck. The clutch of tight heat was so intense his human self could never have survived it intact. Fuelled still further by the bliss that blazed through PJ like wildfire and set Jack’s senses aflame. Time stood still, sped up, ceased to be. There was nothing, nothing but the scent of his mate, the sounds saturating the air and the intoxicating heat engulfing him. Mind-body-soul immersed in maddening bliss. Consumed by sensations Jack somehow felt as a spectrum of improbable colour…? He’d lost his marbles…which didn’t matter. Nothing did, except staking his claim on the most enchanting creature on Earth. Imprinting himself as indelibly on PJ’s heart as his body. Jack no longer knew where he stopped and PJ began, no notion of ever existing in any other form. There was only this—them—no pointless human complexity. Just one incandescent moment in time, when everything made absolute sense.

Jack flexed his hips, driving himself deep, ever deeper, into the mate he’d waited a lifetime for, feared he would never find. The utter perfection of pure, primal need stripped back to blood and bone and the pounding heartbeats of twin souls. As irrevocable as the jackal bond now binding them together…and the love that ensured neither would ache to break it. 

“Jack…I need..to do coming…”

Fuck…I’d feared—

So did I… 

The surge of relief that flooded his system was euphoric. Jack had feared it might be impossible, without a helping hand…which was, in part, why he’d felt compelled to ensure PJ wasn’t left wanting before they began. It was all he could do to pant ‘yess’ before a white-hot bolt of ecstasy blazed through Jack’s body in a rapturous rush. Too intense for human comprehension, too intoxicating to survive sane. PJ was absinthe to his senses. His own dance unto death with the green fairy…la fée verte of lore.

His Phin Jackal…too too much to be gifted with. Jack would never, ever have enough.

 

***

 

Hiya,  Part 2 follows straight on…

 

 

The Beast of Bodmin Moor

 

 

 

Jake

 

 

 

“Christ, if they were any longer I’d be able to ride you…” That, was the inanity unleashed by Jake’s lips while gaping at the most ludicrous set of legs he’d ever seen. Oh hell. Ride him?

Inane it might have been, but its impact on Phin-Jackal battered Jake with a bolt of hot want as liquid pools of darklight all-but swallowed him whole. Phin-Jackal? Idiot, he couldn’t utter that aloud, it was ridiculous. How else was Jake supposed to differentiate between forms until Phin named his jackal self? In the meantime, Phin-Jackal was too long winded and didn’t suit him in the slightest. It wasn’t cute enough, for starters. Perhaps…PJ?  That was better; affectionate without being too twee for words.

Cute? You’ve lost your marbles.

Well, he is…in a floppy-legged, stuffed toy sort of way.

I thought you’d blame the huge, imploring puppy dog eyes.

Not ‘cute’ at all, clearly.

Smart-arse.

Bambi on ice had nothing on PJ. He leapt off the bed in a skitter of said limbs to land in a clatter of claws, then skidded over to the window to leap up and plant his front paws on the ledge. When he pressed his nose to the glass, Jake could feel PJ’s shiver of anticipation as surely as his own. Or Jack’s? He wasn’t sure, which was strange in itself, when the distinction had always felt so marked. On that note…it was nothing short of astonishing that Jake was still standing on his own two feet. He’d more than half-expected Jack to take matters into his own paws to…do meeting his mate. Why hadn’t he forced the change? He sure as hell hadn’t changed his mind.

Exactly.

What’s exactly about it?

That much was a dead cert.

What was? That you’d still feel the same, but I might be fuck-witted enough to turn from him? Is that what you’re implying?

Nope.

If you knew I wouldn’t, then what are you yapping on about?

Bonding.

Oh f’fucksakes…

Bonding. He was surrounded by lunatics, of that Jake was certain. He was far less sure how long Jack would—could—suffer his own heroics.

Now I know you’ve lost it. Compliments? Undeserved ones, at that…said ‘heroics’ are as selfish as fuck. For-ever-after goes up in flames if your crazy ass can’t abide PJ. 

And you call me out for self-flagellating?

I am honest. You, are an ass-hat.

What happened to ‘we’?

Exactly. Think that through and you’ll win the blindingly obvious award for penny dropping.

Intolerable, as ever. Doing waiting was undoubtedly driving Jack demented. 

Jake could shift here, in the cottage…but staring out into the night had made all their wishes as clear as a pane of glass. They wanted to go running with the wind…the moonlight seemed to beckon with the promise of a lover’s embrace. But…would PJ be safe out there?

What if he scarpered after catching sight, sound or scent, of something irresistible? He could stumble, fall, get lost, run over…or eaten by a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Oh why not? Jake might as well throw in the latter, if he was going to persist in being preposterous. It wasn’t as if they need worry about calling a vet if PJ had a…mishap. An oncoming truck could shatter his bones—briefly—and he wouldn’t wind up as roadkill. Jake just…couldn’t help it. The very thought of PJ, injured, made him feel violently sick. 

PJ turned his fluffy head to regard Jake with the stargazy eyes he’d fallen in love with; their bottomless depths ablaze with amber flame. He could hear the hectic skitter of PJ’s heart, sense the wild joy thrilling through his veins, scent his excitement…and yet, it was laced with worry too. Worry? It was too specific to mistake, even amidst a riot of smells.  PJ flicked his gaze from Jake’s shoulder to his face before hesitantly—as if he feared recoil—pressed his brow bone into the curve of Jake’s neck. His fur was a silken caress exuding cassia warmth…earthier now with nutmeg undertones.

The need to be near him, to hold him, was so intense Jake didn’t think once—let alone twice—about drawing PJ close, tucking his overgrown pup into an armpit. He wanted to wrap him in cotton wool and keep him safe forever. Phin had survived the shift…but could PJ survive himself? His own ‘excesses’…enhanced? A disconcerting thought, to say the least. F’chrissakes, Jake was clucking like a mother hen—rather than hungering to spit feathers after a satisfying snack—he really needed to get a grip.

You said it.

We.

I think I preferred you in denial.

Contrary mutt.

 Why change the habits of a lifetime…just sayin’.

Jake burrowed his fingers into the downy fur of PJ’s belly, eliciting a soft huff of sound, steeped in bone-deep pleasure. Even the air seemed to still, cocooning them in a silence as potent as the promise beckoning them into the night.

*

PJ stirred first, lifting his head to spear Jake with such liquid longing it was impossible to demur. “’Kay. Stay close though. Promise?”

That molten gaze stilled to solemnity, alongside a nod. About a surge of adrenaline before blazing with a joy so incandescent it snatched Jake’s breath away. Hot on the heels of an elation too intense for his human self to contain for much longer. 

PJ pushed his paws off the window sill and sort of…skittered around to lollop over to the door. Quite why he appeared to have about eight legs, Jake knew not, but the cottage was likely to collapse around their ears if PJ didn’t get the hang of them sharpish. A thought that made a (frankly batshit) grin flash across Jake’s face as he tugged the bedroom door open.

“Oh gawd…” he groaned. Behold, the staircase. “I’m going to stab myself if I don’t get a grip…I want to pick you up, so you don’t fall down the stairs.”

PJ all-but snickered, about a split second before shooting past Jake to launch himself at said deathtrap. His gangly form stretched in a gracious arc as he took a flying leap through the air. Jake flinched with pain when PJ crashed into the wall at the bottom with a yelp and crumpled to the floor in a pile of legs. Akin to the collapse of a furskin teepee.

“Fuck!” Jake cleared the staircase in a single bound to crouch beside him, heart hammering in horror. It damn near stopped dead when PJ remained utterly still. Jake broke out in a sheen of sweat, which possibly evaporated as steam when PJ’s head lolled back, tongue hanging out, legs akimbo, playing possum. “You…” he managed to splutter before PJ…sprang to life to slather Jake’s cheek with an excessive slurp of slobber. 

“Eurgh!” he protested, raising his arm to swipe it off…and realised, rather belatedly, that he was still starkers. “Crap, I’d intended to head out human for ‘man walking dog’ purposes, but it’s pointless getting dressed.”

Dropping to his haunches, Jake cupped PJ’s face. “Don’t ‘do forgetting’. Okay…? You promised.” His voice rang with a resonance Jake hadn’t intended, but instantly recognised. Midnight eyes warmed, gleaming amber flame, then PJ nudged Jake’s cheek with his muzzle before glancing down the hallway. “C’mon…let’s go,” Jake agreed, rising to his feet. After following him to the back door, PJ raised his glittering gaze to ensnare Jake’s. Then winked and very deliberately, lifted a paw to scratch at it. Like a dog bursting for a pee. Or walkies.

“Y’pillock…” Jake grinned, reaching out to ruffle his ears; chuckling to himself when eternal eyes started rolling back in his head. Thus, negating the need to dodge another lavish lick while letting them out.

The night air hit Jake with the all impact of a triple tequila slammer. Exhilaration flooded his veins as he watched PJ lift his face to snuffle at it, sooty lashes gliding shut to savour its scents for the first time. An expression so sublime, it was far too much for Jack to take without finally claiming his mate.

 

***

 

2. Phin 

 

The night air did hitting Phin like a hurricane of smells; too tempting to resist, too delectable to deny. Far too much to do absorbing all at once, let alone identify. A multitude of scent signatures, each hosting layer upon layer of notes within it, making even the most mundane seem exotic. As complex as fragrances created by a Master Perfumer, twenty times as intoxicating. An overwhelming onslaught of whiffs that made Phin feel too tipsy to do focusing on any one thing, when the world was awash with too much enticing. 

The balmy breeze was a silken caress, rifling his fur like feathery fingertips. He could do staring at the sky—twinking with a trillion stars—forever without getting fed up but then, he’d always felt that way when he found stuff fascinating. Too much had never seemed enough to Phin. All of which made wearing his jackal self seem too similar to be strange, too comfy to set off a fit of the scratchies. His brain could scarce do telling the bloomin’ difference in its locale; he’d always had a head like an overstuffed sausage.

Hmm…now there was a thought, Phin was starving hungry. For everything. ‘Eyes bigger than his belly’, as ever. Yet another turn of phrase, since no one had seen his stomach to do comparing, but that hadn’t stopped them from opining thus. Adding ‘button’ would have made sense, but turns of phrase did not. Fact. 

Another fact; Phin’s foibles had done surviving his dad. Then foxed all attempts to fix his wiring, so it wasn’t surprising that turning foxy hadn’t effected such a feat either. His synapses (or something such) were firing stuff off in a scattergun fashion, even more so than usual, so it might prove a tad tricky to do remembering about consequences. Phin couldn’t do mentioning this to Jake o’course, which was p’raps for the best. All things considered. At once. This was the biggest difference, his instincts had always fixated on one thing to the exclusion of all else, but now they seemed to be able to do zoning individually on all that was interesting, all at the same time.

“I’m too naked to hang about and Jack can scarce wait another second, so…” Jake told him, after dropping to his haunches beside Phin. “I’d better change while I still have a choice, but…PJ?” 

PJ? Phin did lolling his tongue out. Was that the foxy name Jake had bestowed on him? Blimey…it was possibly safe to say that Phin was the only jackal in the whole-wide-world ever to be named after a pair of jim-jams. Jim-jam Jackal. P’raps he could write a sequel to Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats; all about a dastardly cove come to catnap Rum-Tum Tugger. That would be splendid…as long as they didn’t make it into a movie. 

Oops...his head had done wafting off again; while pondering his starring role on the West End stage in Cats 2, it was also relishing the sensation of the fur-fluffling breeze and admiring the silvery kiss of moonlight shimmering off honeyed skin. He was also thinking very frisky thoughts about Jake’s distinct lack of jim-jams and doing lots of longing for Jack to come out and play. He’d also done keeping half an ear on the scurry of night creatures, in case he caught a whiff of something irresistible.

The latter must be an instinctive thing, as it wasn’t very likely that any niff on Earth could do competing with—or distracting him from—Jake…Jack, whose scent was growing stronger by the second. Suffusing Jake’s with a rich musk so luscious it made Phin Jimjams feel more than a mite squiffy.

Anyhoo…Jake had been about to say something—about half an hour ago—so Jimjams did focusing and cocked his head in an enquiring sort o’way. 

“Don’t. Do. Forgetting…okay?”

Phin—dang, he couldn’t even do remembering his right name now—Jimjams did rolling his eyes and rustled up a top-notch nodding dog impression, even if he said so himself. Then swiped Jake a slurpy lick (his last chance to do so for a bit) as a see-you-later kiss. If p’raps an excessively sloppy one. Jake chuckled and reached out to do ruffling Jimjams’ ears…oooh…then unfolded himself to do rising to his feet. There he stood; burnished bronze and delectable in the dusky light of dark. Magnificent.

“Fuck. I…there really aren’t words…” Jake did raking a distracted hand through his hair, before bending to cup Jimjams’ face and do pressing a kiss to the top of his head: “I love you…both of you.”

Phin’s heart almost did bursting from his chest. He felt his eyes flare amber flame as a wave of warmth rippled through his body. Words too wonderful to have done imagining, because Phin wasn’t that daft. Oh, and Jimjams could smell…nary a trace of the wrong sort of spice Jake had labelled a fib. No…taint to do detecting. Just true blues ablaze with topaz intensity. Iridescence itself.

How Jimjams wished he could do saying it back, but he couldn’t, so he did a little whine, instead. Perhaps his eyes were luminous enough for Jake to do hearing, because his lips curved in a smile so sweet Phin longed to do lapping it. Not a good plan; Jack’s scent was driving him too doolally to risk leaping up. Toomuch potential for mishaps.

When the air started to do shivering around Jake in silvery waves, Jimjams stared, transfixed. He could do feeling it… The magic, radiating from Jake’s body in a pulse of power so primal it did tugging deep, deep at the core of all Phin was. The heady thrum thrilling through his veins felt as if he’d done grasping a live wire. He couldn’t smell singeing, but it sure made his fur feel fizzly.

Jimjams’ eyes could do tracking the change better than Phin’s had been able to. He now seemed to be watching in HD slow-motion. With excessively-enhanced smellovision, complete with digitally remastered surround-sound. A spine-tingling, breath-snatching torrent of sensory titillation. Jack…My Jack…coming to claim him. If Jimjams didn’t do going off like a firecracker first.

Jake did. Phin’s eyes widened with wonder, entranced, when Jake did exploding in a starburst cascade of white-heat. It was p’raps akin to watching the workings of an orgasm, if such a thing were possible. It might well be…as Phin seemed to be doing just that. A very squelchy one too, in a gristly, bone-grinding, tendon-twanging sort o’way. When Jack’s fur did flowing in a glorious swathe of stone-amber-grey, flecked with white, Phin could see the quiver of every tiny hair. Some toppermost tips were kissed black, to match the splendid sweep of ebony running along Jack’s back and superb tail. 

Jack. He stood, majestic in the moonlight, muzzle raised skywards to do drinking the night into his lungs. A whimper of want did sounding in Jimjams’ throat as he watched, mesmerised. Mine.

“Mine…” The word did whispering through Jimjams’ head when Jack slowly—for all the world as if he were savouring the moment—turned to face Phin’s foxy self. Jack’s gaze was so potent, it did bathing Jim-jams’ body in bliss. Standing as naked as the day he was born before a pinewood fire—ablaze with blue flame on a frosty night—couldn’t begin to compare, but it came closest.

Jack’s walk was a symphony of movement; a glide of muscle over bone so potent it did thrumming through every fibre of Jimjams’ being. The heat humming through his body was a force in itself; fuelling the need, honing its appetite. A hunger as heady as Jack’s scent, as necessary as his next breath.

When Jack stilled before Jimjams, his lashes did fluttering shut when he inhaled, breathing in his…mate. After sniffing his fill, he did flicking his eyelids open and leaned close to do nudging their noses together. It’s moist warmth felt like a kiss and made Jimjams’ heart do pounding so hard it seemed intent on punching its way out to get at Jack. That furry flirt, hell-bent on driving him demented, was now sliding his muzzle along the length of Jimjams’, nuzzling him with a snuffly sigh. A too much engulfment as fathomless as if was flammable. There was only Jack. Sire. Soul. Mate. Mine. And Jimjams was his.

After a last little butt, Jack pulled back and did a wink before swiping a big slurpy lick across Jimjams’ nose. Then the scoundrel turned tail and did scarpering with a wuff. “C’mon!” in any language.

Jimjams’ tongue did lolling in a laugh as he set off after Jack. Scampering with four legs  was such a head rush that his foxy self forgot to do concentrating…and may not have noticed that Jack had done stopping. At the garden gate, which caused a sort of crashing into it. A tad.

“Oh fuck…” Jack gruffed. It was most oddsome; Jimjams could not only understand Jack’s sounds, he could…do hearing feelings too. At the same time. It wasn’t like talking human, it was…a language of emotion. Far more fascinating than word-wafflish. Infinitely more intimate.

Jack whimpered when he did snuffling the top of Jimjams’ head. Once he seemed satisfied that nothing was amiss, Jack nudged him again with a huff that declared; “You daft pillock”.

Phin very deliberately glanced down at his own legs, then did regarding Jack’s shorter ones before lifting his tufty brows with a wuffle. “You want to try fandangling these, there’s toomuch of them”.

Jack snorted a chuckle as he did butting Jimjams again, before springing away sharpish. Oooh... Jimjams threw his weight forwards, a wee bit wibbly, but Jack dodged and did whipping around to come at Jimjams from the side, knocking him off his feet. Down he went; legs akimbo, taking Jack with him in a tangle of limbs. Jack had no sooner shot straight back up than done pouncing atop Jimjams for a scramble about in the grass. An exhilarating rough ‘n’ tumble scuffle of snuffs ‘n’ huffs, nipping teeth and flying fur. Intoxicating.

But best…most magical of all?  It felt a very lot like four-play to Phin.

 

 

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