The Wizard’s Gray Bear - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The man’s name was Ruben. He had repeated his own name several times like a child, so Cedric came to know it naturally. Ruben persistently called Cedric “Brother.” Whether he truly believed it or simply insisted despite knowing otherwise, Cedric could not tell. Still, seeing that he addressed him as “Brother” while doggedly aroused, Cedric could only think that Ruben must indeed be out of his mind.

“Brother. Did you call me?”
“How long have you lived here alone?”

Having lain down for so long, Cedric felt his body stiff and sore. As he shifted position to ease it, the quilt slid off his shoulder. Sunlight poured in through the wide–open window, casting full light upon his naked body, yet Cedric did not bother to cover himself. Showing his bare body before the man did not feel particularly shameful.

“Uh…”

Ruben scratched at his shaggy hair and rolled his eyes. Counting on his fingers, he strained to answer Cedric’s question, his beard twitching at the corner of his mouth. By now Cedric knew that this was Ruben’s sheepish smile.

“Eleven? Twelve?”
“You’ve lived here for over ten years?”
“Ten… eleven years old. I came to the forest then.”

Perhaps he had dredged up an unpleasant memory. Ruben glanced around nervously, then approached and crouched by Cedric’s bed.

“Brother, back then… you were very sick.”
“Hm.”
“You… you said I had to stay far away until you were well again. Ruben listened to Brother’s words.”
“I see.”

Cautiously, Ruben rested his head upon Cedric’s thigh. His coarse, gray hair, dusty–looking and rough, felt instead like stroking the fur of a large dog when touched. Half listening to Ruben’s murmurs, Cedric slowly caressed his hair.

“And what was it that made Brother so ill?”

Though Cedric humored Ruben’s act, he had no intention of impersonating someone whose face he did not even know. Even when Ruben distinguished between Cedric and this “Brother” in speech, he showed no sign of suspicion. Perhaps, deep down, he fully recognized that Cedric and Brother were different people.

Ruben darted a glance at Cedric, then slid his hand between Cedric’s thighs. His rough, darkened fingers hesitated as they moved over pale, soft flesh.

“He said he was always in heat, that every night hurt.”
“Brother said this?”
“The Elder… said so.”

His speech was halting, as if reciting remembered lines rather than forming his own words. Ruben sometimes spoke with such cadence, the tone and choice of words suggesting he had once learned in a noble household.

Was Ruben a servant of such a house? Or did he bear the secret of an ignoble birth? Whatever the truth, it was not worth pondering in a remote forest hut far removed from society.

“Let’s eat.”

Seeing the swelling between Ruben’s legs, Cedric withdrew his hand from that coarse head. If they clung together again now, they would not be finished until the moon was high.

Even if he had given up on thinking about it, dying of exhaustion or starvation was unacceptable. Rubbing his flat stomach, Cedric signaled Ruben with his eyes.

The violent, lust–driven man who had confined him to the hut also had a compliant side, for he rose, pressing down lightly upon his bulge with one palm.

“I caught a rabbit. Something Brother likes.”

Cedric did not like rabbit meat, but nodded silently. Lately, everything Ruben had cooked with his rough hands had been delicious, so Cedric thought he might look forward to this as well.

“Or is it that food tastes better after sweating?”

At his small murmur, Ruben stared blankly at him, then twitched the beard at his lip.

That damned beard. Cedric quietly resolved to pull out every hair of it after their meal.

Cedric’s determination to strip Ruben’s cursed beard never came easily to fruition.

“Haa… ah…!”
“Brother. Here, you like it.”
“Stop that…! Ugh, don’t rub so… haah!”

Each time Ruben bit and sucked at tender flesh, aching moans escaped Cedric’s lips. While rough lips grazed his skin, a damp, pliant tongue soothed and teased, the beard tickling him all the while.

When simply looking at it, Cedric found the beard vexing enough to want to tear it out, yet once they were joined, he hardly minded. In fact, he felt he might even miss it if absent.

It had been over a fortnight since Cedric set foot in the hut. Was the heat cycle always this wretchedly long? Whenever his mind cleared, he would roughly tally the days, puzzled. But there was no way to know about others.

Omegas were rare creatures, and most who existed ended up in brothels or confined as noble lovers early on, so Cedric had had no dealings with them.

If one went into heat this frequently, one’s body would chafe or one’s vitality dry up to death.

Cedric thought so as he watched Ruben settle himself between his legs. Yet, despite his outward composure, warmth was already flowing down between his thighs. The entrance, now accustomed to the man’s member, pulsed in anticipation.

“Ahh…”

As if to mock Cedric’s presumption born of a mere fortnight’s experience, Ruben’s manhood spread him and entered, blanking his mind in an instant.

Since they coupled whenever their eyes met, Cedric’s entrance had swollen yet softened enough to readily accept the thick shaft at any time. Though no preparation was needed for penetration, that initial, overwhelming feeling of being breached had only grown sharper.

The snug pressure, the tightness as he was spread open, and the slow filling of his hollow depths made his breath tremble.

“Haa… mmm… nn…”

It was languid yet intoxicating. Cedric was biting lazily at the joints of his bent fingers when Ruben caught his wrist. As he drove deep, Ruben put the reddened, teeth–marked fingers into his mouth.

When Cedric wiggled them in the hot, wet space, Ruben’s soft tongue curled lasciviously around them. Inside, Ruben’s thick length stirred and glided, now and then striking deep into the inner wall.

“Ahh! Haa… mmm… nn…!”

The ferocity of early heat had passed; now everything was mellow and sweet, like overripe fruit yielding easily. One bite would send warm juice trickling, sticking to every inch—so was sex with Ruben. Cedric thought he was the ripe fruit, eaten by Ruben.

Was it possible to feel such a homely pleasure with a stranger whose name alone he knew? Cedric embraced Ruben’s back, moaning, and let the errant thought slip away. Gazing through half–closed eyes at the hut’s ceiling, he shed all shame and cried out.

In those moments of naked surrender to languor, he felt looser than ever. With each climax, it was as if he shed a tight shell and was born anew.

“Brother… huhh… Brother…”

The growl in Ruben’s voice, like an animal’s throat, sent a tremor through Cedric’s belly—or was it his chest? Unable to define the sensation, he dismissed it as an unusual form of pleasure, biting into the man’s broad shoulder. The unrefined scent of his body filled Cedric’s senses. His teeth pressed lightly into resilient muscle, then slipped away, leaving only a faint red mark.

“Haa…! Good… there… a little more…!”

Moisture overflowed, making their union slick. Lewd, wet sounds filled the narrow hut, enough to echo outside. Forest beasts and insects held their breath, spying upon the shameless noises. Cedric thought of his moans spreading through the quiet woods, tightened around Ruben, and twisted in response to his rough thrusts.

“Ah, haa! Ugh… nn… mm…!”

White flashed before his eyes. He felt he could become a foolish beast and spend a lifetime mating. Tangled with Ruben, panting for breath, all else seemed meaningless. Everything he had strived for outside felt as insubstantial as sandcastles, crumbling beneath the waves.