My name is Josh."
Josh's howl of satisfaction would have echoed through the Cascades had there not been such a heavy cloud cover and so much rain. The torrent sheet bent saplings and moved large rocks. His violent constrictions, his body, thighs, arms, lips that blanketed Ken so completely, rigidly beat out-thrust his tremendous orgasm into Ken, echoed in Ken's ears, even after Josh relaxed, slowed, smoothly moved, and licked at the back of Ken's neck.
Carefully withdrawing, softer than the rain and lighter than the dark clouds outside, Josh licked away any pain Ken may have endured because of him.
Excited, prone against the nylon of his sleeping bag, sheltered in his rain-beat one-man tent, with Josh on top of him, Ken didn't know what would happen next. He didn't think he would be hurt. But he didn't think the old man, Josh, was the type to sexually sate Ken-a mere kid of thirty compared to Josh's, what, sixty, seventy years?
When Josh rolled Ken onto his back and straddled him, Ken was startled. His orgasm came with Josh's third drop towards him. Ken felt foolish. Good. And shuddered.
Josh remained with Ken inside, and smiled into the younger man's face. "Thank you for offering me the shelter of your tent."
Ken felt vague. Very concretely, he knew that a strong man-a man who reminded him of a Swiss grandfather that climbed the Alps before breakfast, chased goats along the rocks before noon, ate lunch and then cross-country skied twenty miles for groceries before dining with his grandchildren, kissing them a lot, and blessing them with kind words before they slept-had just pulled from him an extraordinary orgasm.
He vaguely remembered pitching his tent on the rise of the meadow, where he would wait out the storm under cover. He certainly remembered the wolves romp across the vernal green sponge of the meadow, playing, not paying much attention to Ken. When he saw the man, Josh, at the far side of the wild field, Ken was afraid he was breached from his grandfamily, by about ten steep miles up; a tough climb for Ken. The wolves played across the meadow again, jumping over and nipping one another. Ken waved the man to him, offering his tent as shelter against the rain.
Once inside the small tent, Josh pulled off Ken's clothes and entered him without pretense. It wasn't rape, Ken knew before and while it was happening, but he didn't know what it was.
There was something about the old man, more than age and more than his pleasure-giving, that made Ken say Sir, a word he despised. "Uh, thank you, Sir."
Josh winked a dark amber-flecked eye and laughed. "My name is Josh."
The rain beat the tent so low that it clung to Josh's broad, thick back. "If we lie side by side, Josh, we can both fit in here, and you won't get wet."
Josh accepted the suggestion and moved, hugging the length of Kent body into his length, covering their nakedness with the dry flannel liner of Ken'ts sleeping bag. He kissed Ken as though Ken were a child and Josh an infatuated lover.
Used to his own company when he hiked, Ken didn't mind when a timber wolf howled across the meadow. He nearly shrieked when another howled just outside the tent.
"Pets. Well, friends," Josh assured, kissing Ken softly on his biceps.
Another howl, this one from outside the entrance.
"I don't like this."
Ken pulled as far away as one man can from another in a one-man tent. Josh looked angry. Ken was afraid. The storm wasn't passing, if anything, worsening. Ken felt like the lost kids he searched for-alone and frightened.
Another wolf, wolves, howled from the foot of the tent. Sides. Entrance. Across the meadow.
Josh laughed.
The wind was a howl. The rain beat the tent.
Josh's laughter wasn't one of a crazed lunatic howling at the moon. Odd, but lovely. Surprising Ken with calm.
"I've seen you work," Josh said. "More than a few times. You're very good." He moved, filling the void Ken had made between their bodies. "Don't be frightened."
"Me?" Ken stupidly said, as though he were frightened. "Do you live up here?"
"Yes. But I'd rather you keep that to yourself. Mine is a..." Josh looked sad? Careful. "natural life. Do you remember the night, almost as stormy as this, that you stayed when the rest of the team returned to camp; crawled down the rocks that you shouldn't have alone, and cuddled that lost eight-year-old, Sarah, for a day-and-a-half?"
Ken remembered. It wasn't fun.
"And the ten-year-old boy who scratched at your face for the two days you were confined in that snow shelter you made for him?"
Ken touched his cheeks, and the scars. Josh kissed them.
"What about the rapist who thought he should penetrate the earth with his illegal mine? Stuck, wiry and thinner than the others, you allowed your legs tied together, one of your worst fears, and descended head first down the narrow shaft, saving him."
"How?" Ken didn't like publicity, and the forestry department never released his name to the papers.
Another howl, but the bite, some of the fright was missing.
"Sweet, sweet, Ken. When you were afraid that timber wolf was going to eat you and little Sarah-rather than shoot her with that damn revolver you carry, you told the wolf to go get help: she did. She follows you. Indeed, she has a crush on you. After you sheltered that boy, you cooked dehydrated eggs for her."
"She didn't look well."
"She wasn't. Thank you for melting the snow so she could drink."
"I didn't know she was the same one."
"Shhh." Josh chuckled deeply, and whispered, "Don't tell her, she'll be crushed."
Which was better? The extraordinary orgasm, or the exhilarating sense of fright Josh pulled out. Ken had to go to the bathroom, but the wolves were howling at the dark gray dusk descending the mountains.
"I'm not that brave, Josh. Really.. Uh, I have to go, ummm, outside..."
Josh played his lips across Ken's chest as he laughed and licked a nipple to attention. "I will make love to you, and kiss you, comfort and watch out for you-but I will not hold your hand while you piss. Go on, they won't bother you."
Outside, Ken was bothered. He squatted near an Oregon grape just blooming yellow, when two wolves approached..
"Josh?"
One, a large male, mottled, having shed only parts of his winter coat, sniffed Ken's chest and snarled quietly in his face.
"Josh," Ken whispered. Panic, like an urge or hunger, crawled in the pit of his stomach.
"Just do your business," Josh said, sticking his head out the tent. "Damn, it's wet out here!" Back inside, he yelled, "They smell me on you."
Ken considered fainting. He leaned his back against the rough bark of a fir and tried to pull his eyes from the drooling mouth of the wolf. He almost reached out to pet the beast, but tremors of mythical fear shot a warning through his hand. Would he have been as frightened had he been clothed?
The cold, wet muzzle of the other brushed against his buttocks. Shards of fear pricked out of his skin and coursed down his spine, causing his backside to pimple like goose flesh. If he moved, they eat him.
Dusk would soon be murdered by full night. Under the tree, the rain couldn't pound him with its vehement force, but an annoying drip, drip, drip-drip, played his forehead in water torture fashion.
When the male sniffed at, and then licked Ken's genitals, he had had enough.
"Josh! Please!"
As though they sympathized with Ken's fear, the wolves submissively backed off and sat, like mere pit bulls when ordered by their master.
"Count yourself loved!" Josh yelled. Ken heard his deep chuckle pulled along on the wind as though the wind and rain couldn't dull the old man.
Awe pushed away Ken's fright. Wonder. "Uh, can I pet you? I mean, may I shake your hand?" he asked of the big male just two feet away. The wolf nuzzled into Ken's chest and licked. Two, three, five, more-a family of wolves jumped Ken and wrestled with him. He giggled, and wrestled.
"Ouch!" A pup bit his ear and a bitch growled. "Oh, it didn't hurt much," he assured her. He liked the tackle of warm, wet fur-he'd lecture them on hygiene later.
"Josh, come here!" Ken was cheering. "Look! I'm playing with timber wolves. A whole family!"
Josh poked out his head, not minding the rain, and matched Ken's childish giggles. He laughed hard when a pup humped at Ken's naked thigh and Ken said to Mom, laughing, "Please don't think I'm a bad influence."
Ken was nuzzled and licked, sometimes nipped, but playfully, humped and wrestled, and kissed by the family until he was so exhausted he just lay on his back in the soggy meadow, arms and legs spread, bathed by the rough tongues of the licking wolves. One of the pups folded into Ken's armpit and licked his cheek.
It wasn't long before Ken's sex erectly stood, accepting the feral sensation of the pack's attention.
When he returned to the tent, reluctant to leave the wolves, but excited by Josh's call for him, the older man sniffed Ken and folded him into his dry arms. The scent of beast aroused Josh's aggression.
Pinned on his back, Ken was not frightened by the aggressive mouth, lips, and tongue of Josh's caresses.
His sounds were those of need and determination, not violence.
His mouth was gentle; Ken feared nothing when Josh filled his mouth with Ken's scrotum, then fingers, then nose, ears, erection-marking the younger man like territory.
Rolled onto his stomach, Ken winced briefly, but smiled at the whispers of praise Josh offered as he pressed himself into him. Words from a man-rapid, frightening thrusts, and deep, like an animal. Outside, the wolves howled a clarion praise for Ken. Inside, Josh's fingernails clawed into Ken's shoulders. Praise whispered. "Chosen like mates." Rapid. Faster. A low snarl. Faster. On his knees, Josh thrust hard, hard and fast. His knees squeezed Ken's legs tightly together.
"Josh you're..."
"Shhh."
Slowing, but pushing as deeply as he could into Ken, his feet searching for support, leverage, Josh shuddered. Quivered. And he was done.
They laughed and shared Ken's jerky, nuts , and dried fruit before they snuggled closely together in the sleeping bag, finding it difficult to keep their lips from one another's flesh.
There was an electric shock, mostly static, and then an immediate jangling, fierce pound of thunder-Ken had felt it that close before-and then the pup yelped, screamed outside the tent.
"Jesus!"
Josh pulled Ken back into the tent by an ankle. "It was easily a mile away. No one was hit, lovely Ken. And his Dad and Mom are with him."
Never afraid of Cascade storms, but worried for the pup, Ken fell into Josh's arms and the wrap of his embrace. "It's not much of a story Josh said, finally giving in to Ken's interrogation. "Oh certainly, I have many tales I can tell you, and would like to tell you in the future."
Ken smiled, pushed himself closer to Josh and bit at his chin. He savored the thought of the two together in one another's company. Josh's aggression held no malice, and Ken would gladly accept his way of making love.
"I was nineteen in the early thirties when I joined Roosevelt's Civilian Conservation Corps and escaped into the freedom of these mountains. One taste of wilderness, after just a week up here, and I knew I would never descend again.
"Yes, it was hard work. That first summer was unusually hot-in the 90's by sunup-sunstroke killed two men that first month. There was about fifty of us at the camp below. Well, you know the CCC barracks behind the ranger's station.
"I was a lead man, worked by myself, mostly because I wanted to. A lot like you, Ken. And I scouted for trails. Actually, I scouted for beauty that would mark a trail's end and give it purpose. Oh, those were the days-silly days of ignorance. You could climb, hike, through woods and forest, swim rivers and lakes, and know: KNOW you were the first man to step foot on that fresh piece of earth."
"It took me years to get used to a pack of wolves devouring a mule deer, squirrel, rabbit, old bear, lame elk."
"Oh."
"But it was the wolves you asked about. Dripping with sweat, I tore off my saturated clothes and was pulled into the lake. Diving in, I understood that I had no choice, I was compelled to bathe in tits beauty. I swam for hours, laughed and swam. Rocked and floated gently on my back staring at the stark blue sky framed with snow-capped mountains. Heaven would be a crass comparison.
"Prepared to make camp, the wolves were there when I returned to my clothes. They were larger then, much larger than these children outside." Josh tilted his head toward the family Ken had played with.
"They showed anger. Teeth, and anger with me for trespassing. I froze naturally, darting my eyes about for a route of escape. To my right was a jagged cliff, steep but not too steep for a man to climb to its ledge, about ten feet up.
"With the standoff complete, I ran when the two wolves charged. I fell, got up and ran for the cliff. With little effort, I was halfway up the rock wall before one of the pair lunged and snatched a mawful of my butt, dragging me to ground level feet first. Scraped the hell out of my cock.
"The moment my feet hit the ground I sprang back up, clawing for a handhold. But the rock slipped away.
"I was trapped, stuck. My knees and feet hurt, but my hands searched for a higher rock. My body was sprawled over a lower boulder-one more boulder up and they couldn't get me.
"But if I were still. Still. Maybe they wouldn't think of me as prey.
"Oh but they could smell me. I sweat and my ankle bled from the fall when I first ran. Oddly, the flesh of my buttocks hadn't torn-it hadn't sunk its teeth into me. My nose was in my armpit and I knew I smelled of fear.
"The rock and precarious position, my right knee lifted and pressed against a slight outcropping, exposed not just my butt, but my scrotum and cock to the pair. Immobile, scared, I knew being mauled was going to hurt terribly: I envisioned my balls snatched away in one bite. I prayed they would pull me down by my bleeding ankle-then I could roll into a ball before they killed me.
"I closed my eyes to their snarling. Their scent was as discouraging as their sound. Then one screamed like a baby and sounded like death. The other ran for the cover of the brush.
"Safe. I thought I was safe. I didn't know what scared them away, but I was thankful. Until I heard a deeper growling snarl.
"A third one, larger, approached me. I thought about moving. One fingernail in the rock above, and I was sure I could lift myself to safety. There was a whimper and I thought it was me, but I was too frightened to make any sound.
"Just as I was putting power into my finger, the one I hoped to be my savior, the lead wolf, the one that chased the others away, lunged.
Its fetid, blood-wet muzzle cradled between my left cheek and shoulder. But it wasn't snapping.
I couldn't move. Sharp claws gripped my shoulders and slashed my skin. Its wet and warm body covered my back and it howled. It humped at me. Hit my lower back, a thigh, each of my buttocks and with its wet organ. It slid the length of my butt, up to my lower back a couple of times.
"I trembled. It licked the back of my neck, I smelled blood left on my skin, but it wasn't killing me. One of its humps found its need. Once in, it was like a machine, humping rapidly, slipping out occasionally but repenetrating with its next thrust.
"Still terrified, I felt- I don't know, I never will. Not love, but a melding of sorts. Except for its claws in my flesh, I was in little pain. Its part inside me didn't hurt much, but it whined each time its furry balls hit the boulder between my legs. It snarled ownership.
"Damn, would it kill me if I moved? I tempted the beast and pushed my hand between me and the rock, between my legs, so its testicles hit my hand rather than batter painfully against the rocks.
"It was no less aggressive, but maybe it would spare my life when it finished with me.
"When it was done, and left what it wanted to leave inside of me, it remained, pinning me to the rock. I had never had a man, haven't until you, Ken, and was surprised to feel the warmth it left inside.
"Its heart beat rapidly into my back. My frightened pulse matched the pulse of its satisfaction. Its dank coat made me smell, the smell made me want to vomit. When it dismounted me, it licked my back, my legs, my butt. Its tongue was rough, cleansing. When I tried to move, it snarled like the powerful and deadly animal it was, and I froze again. It made another sound-a gentler sound. The sound of communion with me and the lupine seed it left within me.
"The other two wolves returned, apparently permitted by their lead to mount me. One of them smelled me first, smelling the first, and mounted, having no trouble with its aim. He dug more deeply into my shoulders, pushed more deeply into me. He ways quickly finished and I was quickly remounted by the third.
"When I awoke, I was on my back at the foot of the rock wall staring up at the black sky filled with stars and a perfectly round full moon, framed with mountains. The three were curled around me, warming my naked body against the cool night.
"I never returned to the CCC camp, and have lived with my family ever since."
Josh had tears in his eyes. Ken didn't know why he had been chosen, but he was thankful. He kissed softly at the ancient scars on Josh's shoulders, and the two men slept-warmed by their naked bodies against the storm outside.
Dave Swartout is currently dabbling in environmental erotica-in literary form.
For more stories by Dave Swartout, click here.
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