New Moon - Reverse Bang 2011
Title: New Moon
Author: gedry
Artist: heardtheowl
Beta: heardtheowl
Pairing(s): Jared/Jensen/Misha
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: 4.564
Warnings: Threesome, anthropomorphism meaning they are cat like and therefore have rough tongues, tails, fur, claws, and cat like penises. Double penetration.
Summary: In the future on Thundera, Jared is next in line for leadership. A competition is occurring for the right to claim him as a mate. Jared cares little about the outcome, the only two he truly wants he can't have. Unbeknownst to him, an old friend has returned from exile to fight for his honor. Jared finds the future he thought lost to him back within his grasp. But will he make the sacrifices required for him to keep this new found happiness.
Link to Art: HERE
Author’s Notes: I don’t have the words for how much fun this was. heardtheowl has got to be the sweetest, most awesome artist I could have been blessed with during this process. We really worked as a team to get this story to life and I couldn’t have done it without her. She pushed me to my comfort limits and backed off when I needed her to and I appreciate her so much for that. I really hope this story is a blending of what we both wanted as well as being a nod to a show I totally loved as a kid. Thanks to bewaretheides15 and morganoconner for being there for me and cheering me on to go that one weird step farther when I was scared. I’ve been surrounded by love this whole process and I can’t tell you how much I needed that right now. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
New Moon
He stretches as the sun peaks over the horizon. His short fur is rumpled up all over his body and Jared knows his mane must be out of control this morning.
Sleep, he wants more of it. Being one of the up-and-coming leaders of his people has its perks, but rest isn’t often one of them.
The doors to his quarters slam open and soft paws pad their way to his room. His sword brother, not even waiting to ask for permission to enter, bursts his way inside.
“Up, oh Lord of the Lion-o Clan! Today is a busy day for you.”
“Shut up, Jensen,” Jared groans, burying his head back into his bed linens and hoping against hope that his sword brother will just go away. If he’s honest, today isn’t a day Jared has been looking forward to facing.
“No time for informalities,” Jensen teases, reaching his tail around to poke Jared in the back and rub his fur the wrong way. “Today is the day you choose your consorts. Today you have to be Lion-O and I get to play my part representing my Clan as Tygra, your faithful adviser.”
He doesn’t answer. Waking up on his last morning without his bonded, he should be excited. Jared should be ecstatic. This is the day he gets to form his own familial bonds, to choose the clans that will strengthen and combine with his own for a better future for his people.
Sadly, the two cats at the top of his list are off the market.
“Jensen,” he whispers sadly.
“Please,” his friend pleads. “Not today. You shouldn’t even know that name. I can’t hear it from you right now. This hurts enough as it is.”
Jared winces in regret. Their people do not share their given names with anyone outside of family and mates. Jensen should be ‘Advisor Tygra’ to him based on his position and his clan name or ‘sword brother’, if they are close. They should not know this most private thing about each other. But they do, an unexpected gift from unimaginably horrible circumstances, and Jared doesn’t want to let it go.
“Then stand with me,” Jared begs as he curls his tail around Jensen’s thigh and tugs, hoping to pull him into the warm bed. “Let me claim you as my consort. Then we can seek Misha out, make this right for the three of us.”
Jensen’s tail slides up to brush along his cheek gently, almost regretfully. “He’s gone, Jared. And nothing can make this right for us. That night...it’s going to be all we’re ever allowed to have.”
Jared’s eyes close, tears welling up inside his brownish-golden slitted eyes as Jensen turns and flees.
Jared prepares himself for the day ahead as he remembers.
Bitter cold in the cell of Mumm-Ra’s fortress, he and Jensen had curled tightly together, awaiting their fate. Mumm-Ra’s forces had risen up again and again over the centuries since the first Lion-O faced him down with their people and won. Always defeated, but never destroyed.
They had been involved in a battle to protect a small outlying village of mostly woman and their kittens when they had been overwhelmed by Mumm-Ra’s mutated forces and imprisoned in that place for what felt like months. Jared had given up all hope of escape, clinging to Jensen as his last life line. It was why, on that last night, he had given Jensen his name.
“Jared,” he’d whispered low into the pointed, speckled ear of his partner.
Jensen had jerked, green eyes wide and full of regret before he closed them and murmured “Jensen,” in return.
Jared had buried his face in the striped and speckled coat, reflective of Jensen’s Tygra and Cheetarian heritage, and had reveled in a small moment of victory that although they would not survive this place, he had shared his most guarded secret with someone. Their tails had tangled together, hands clasped close between their chests. Jared had inhaled the scent of his closest friend and now soul’s partner and hoped it was the last thing he remembered before he was sent beyond.
Then Mumm-Ra, the mummified horror that had once been man, had opened their cell and forced them into his throne room. A place equal to its owner in its horror, Mumm-Ra fortress was made up from the bone and flesh of the dead, rotting like it’s owner and held together with the blackest magic. They shivered under the onslaught of his magic as it coated their bodies.
Jared had thought they might have a chance of overpowering Mumm-Ra if he was on his own, but he wasn’t. Jared and Jensen’s childhood friend, one who had gone missing so many years before, had been standing at the side of the horror who stalked their people.
“Wily!” Jared had hissed, all of his fur standing up in fear.
He had felt Jensen tense behind him when eyes so broken, and still so unholy in their crystal blue clarity, lifted to blankly regard them.
“He’s missed you,” Mumm-Ra had chuckled. “But he’s mine now. This is the last step of his freedom, you see.” He had turned then, bandages catching and dragging on his throne as he dismissed them as though they were beneath his care. Though his attention appeared to be elsewhere, the onslaught of his psychic power against their forms remained. “Kill them, boy.”
Jared had fought with all the power left in his abused body, Wily slashing violently at him with a blade as Jared attempted to gain some kind of upper hand. He was only dimly aware of Jensen struggling to free himself from Mumm-Ra’s psychic grasp as Jared and Wily rolled and growled along the inner walls of the throne room. He had not wanted to die, and this other cat, though possessed by Mumm-Ra’s influence, had once been a dear friend.
A friend now unreachable by reason or compassion.
He had finally collapsed onto the filthy floor under the pain of Wily’s attack, blood streaking across his chest where he had been cut during the battle. Jared closed his eyes, expecting his life to be taken.
Jared had been surprised when Wily’s paw had cupped his cheek gently instead of causing him further harm. The smaller Thundarian crouched over his exhausted body as though his old friend thought to protect him from harm instead of kill him.
He had raised his eyes to the other cat and had been shocked by the grief he had seen reflected back at him.
“Misha,” Wily whispered brokenly, pressing a hand to his own chest before turning and leaping at Mumm-Ra, slicing into his body with the knife meant for Jared and Jensen. There was a terrible explosion of energy from Mumm-Ra’s inhabited corpse of a body and they were suddenly released, panting on the ground.
Mumm-Ra’s empty husk slumped in his throne, their friend’s broken body sprawled on the ground at his feet.
He had barely been breathing.
Jared had never fought as hard as he did to escape that dark place. Jensen carried Misha’s limp body as Jared cleared a path through the confused and frightened followers of Mumm-Ra’s twisted vision. Mumm-Ra’s spells had broken with his death, his fortress had started to collapse and his followers had been freed from his mental hold.
It had been a long journey home full of hunger, pain, and fear, only to return to their people in Thundera and be forced to defend their friend against the council for his actions while under Mumm-Ra’s influence.
Misha escaped a death sentence only to be ordered to live in exile.
Their last night together, the only night of true peace they had ever shared, was spent experiencing pleasure in each other’s arms, affirming the blossoming bond between the three of them.
In the morning, Misha had disappeared.
*****
The contestants have been battling most of the morning; Jared’s long since become bored with watching.
One will win, he’ll have to choose that one for his consort, and then they will select another for them both.
Either way, the choosing is more of a metaphor than an actual choice on Jared’s part. He’s a bystander in his own future right now, and he’s less than thrilled about it.
In fact, it’s not until his ears perk at the dull thud of Jensen dropping his tablet behind where Jared is seated that his eyes flash back to the challengers on the field. The bout is over; only one contestant remains standing.
Jared’s mate, Jared’s future, pulls back his cloak and greets Jared’s disbelief with a grin.
His fur is matted with sweat and blood. A tooth is chipped that wasn’t before and the corner of one of his pointed ears is missing entirely. But his eyes, still so perfectly blue.
Misha.
Clarity bursts over Jared’s consciousness. Misha is exiled, but he has won the competition. It’s up to Jared now to accept or reject his proposition. There is usually a battle between the two proposed mates to prove their worth to each other, but Jared is well aware of Misha’s worth, having been saved by him and having lost him once before. There’s not time to do this properly. As soon as the guards recognize him, it will all be over…unless Jared gets to him first.
The thought has him leaping from his seat and over the balcony railing. He catches Jensen’s frantic whisper of “Go, Jared. Hurry!” He lands, racing across the outdoor training grounds to where Misha is standing, bloody and victorious.
Jared takes out his weapon and hurls himself at Misha’s feet, surrendering…and by doing so gaining back everything he had lost.
“Accept me,” Misha pleads.
“With all that I am,” Jared gives the formal answer. “Pick our other.”
“Tygra,” Misha calls out, pointing at Jensen with authority, and Jared holds his breath as Jensen races to his side, face wet, eyes smiling.
They’ve done it, Misha’s insanity and Jensen’s dedication combining in perfect counterpoints to Jared’s love.
Now, they’ll just have to give up everything else to keep each other. Jared knows there’s no other way for this to end. Misha has been exiled and he will never be allowed to return home.
“Traitor!” Jared’s father’s voice rings out above the crowd. Even as an adult, the severe tone makes all the fur on Jared’s back stand up. Jensen ducks his head lower but Misha looks less than concerned.
“I’ve come from the north,” Misha answers calmly. “My adopted clan’s crest was approved for this competition. I’m allowed to be here per the rules of event. It was open to all competitors from an approved clan. ”
“You were exiled,” the regent growls. “You have no place here and never will.”
“I’m aware of that,” Misha shrugs as though he’s completely unconcerned. “I’ve come to offer my mates a place amongst my clan. I may not be able to stay here, but they are welcome where I am welcomed.”
For the first time, Jared is certain that Misha’s ability to outsmart Mumm-Ra wasn’t a one time thing. His Wily is living up to his name. This plan has been delicately crafted, all the rough edges smoothed out. Misha had not come here to be claimed. He had come here to claim.
And Jared is more than willing.
“I will follow where my mate leads,” he says formally, staring back into the angry eyes of his father.
His mother gasps, tail curling up to her chest as she shakes her head. Jared winces internally; he doesn’t want to hurt her, but he can’t let this second chance for the love he’s been aching for to escape him. Not when he has the chance to have everything he thought he would never have again.
Jensen says nothing, but his tail wraps tightly around Jared’s, and that is more than answer enough.
It’s done; they will leave their life behind to make a new one with each other. Jared will miss his family, but his brother will make a capable leader and it’s not a role Jared had ever wished for anyway.
This is what he wished for.
*****
Misha watches as Jared goes to gather what little belongings his family will allow him to take.
“Don’t you need to get anything?” he asks, as Jensen remains by his side.
“I have everything I need,” Jensen rumbles, tail flipping back and forth for a moment as though he can’t decide what to do with it before it slips around Misha’s ankle like an anchor weighing him to the reality of the moment.
He won.
He fought his way back from nothing, and has gained back everything he once thought he had lost forever.
When he gets out of this place and has his mates tucked into his bed, he’ll finally be able to relax.
Until then, “I missed you, Jensen.”
Jensen’s fuzzy face spasms before lifting into a sad smile. “I missed you, too. It’s been hard without you.”
“I had to make sure I could win,” he tries to explain, floundering for a way to make his new mate understand the depth of his devotion, why he made the choices he made.
“You could have told us something,” Jensen admonishes softly. His whiskers twitch. “We would have waited.”
“I couldn’t have allowed you to stop living your lives while I tried to get mine together,” Misha whispers. “We had to meet here, in the middle, or not meet at all.”
Jensen nods as though he’s processing the sentiment before turning to fix Misha’s gaze with his beautiful jade eyes. “In the future, I trust you will remember we would have met you anywhere at any time.”
Misha wants to reply, but the commotion of Jared dashing toward them across the battle grounds is distracting. Jensen’s face lights up in a rarely seen grin of happiness and Misha’s chest tightens at having missed so much. They must have had so many shared, private moments he’s missed being separated from them.
He hopes Jensen will someday greet him with such enthusiasm.
In the end, Jared is allowed to take the Sword of Omens. Misha doesn’t understand how that occurs, but as they turn to leave through the gates of the great city, Jared looks back, sharing one final, lingering look with his brother. The brothers nod to each other before Jared turns back to them with some sadness in his eyes. Misha doesn’t ask - it’s not the time - but he’ll get the story later.
They travel as far as they are able before exhaustion takes them. Misha’s glad of the distance between his new pack members and their past. They settle into the barn of a friendly farmer whose land they were passing for the night. Their bed is little more than hay and blankets, but it’s dry and warm, safe with Jared’s sword close by and their own skills. They’ve all slept in significantly worse places.
He thinks about eating, should be starved after so much traveling and fighting, but Misha’s hunger is centered on other things at the moment, and when he sees the same need reflected in Jared’s eyes, he doesn’t waste time debating.
Jared tastes just like Misha remembers from their one night together. He melds his smaller frame to Jared’s larger one and mewls as Jared finds a way to compress and twist his larger body until every bit of him that Misha wants to access is right there for the taking. It’s like coming home.
He can feel his body quivering all over as Jared’s rough tongue maps out the chip missing from his tooth and his paws cup and stroke along his torn off ear. He winces as Jared scratches along the matted blood in his fur. This isn’t how he wanted this, had hoped to hold off long enough to be properly groomed, but the call of his lover is too much.
Until Jensen unceremoniously slaps him in the back of his furry head with a soaked cloth.
“You’re filthy and you stink.”
Jared laughs, so loudly it’s almost a roar inside the barn. Misha shakes drops of water out of his fur and glares at his consort.
“I’ve missed you,” Jensen grins. “I want to be with you. But, I’m sorry, you have to be clean first.”
Misha scowls. Unlike Jensen with his Cheetarian heritage and affinity for water, most of their kind prefers to avoid an outright bath.
But as he scratches at his coat, even Misha has to admit he’s too filthy for a simple grooming. Jared tugs him out of his clothing before removing his own. He’s surprised, when Jensen shoves him back into their nest for the night and tugs closer a bowl and a cloth, that his consort is also nude.
His green eyes gleam in the dim light as Jensen whispers, “this is going to be cold, but we’ll warm you back up.”
The next moments are a sweet kind of torture for Misha as he allows himself to be cared for and cleaned. “I’d forgotten how gentle you are.”
Jensen growls at him playfully, ruffling his fur with the rag. Misha shivers, not sure if it’s because of the cold water or just Jensen’s attention, but then Jared’s tongue starts to lap at the clean, damp fur left in Jensen’s wake and Misha’s all but done thinking for a while.
Jensen’s cool touch, scrubbing away the grime of his efforts, while Jared’s hot mouth follows along behind, smoothing down his fur, is enough to drive him crazy. He arches his hips wantonly as his erection begins to swell, the pink head of his dick beginning to slide free of his sheath. By the time Jensen deems him clean enough to touch, Misha is already squirming and mewling, fully extended and swollen from his sheath into the cool air of their makeshift den for the night. When Jensen slides up against his side and slips his tongue into Misha’s ear, dragging his claws lightly over his chest and curling his tail around Misha’s already leaking erection, it’s almost too much. He thrashes, keening between his lovers as Jensen’s tail tightens until he’s unable to come. Jared leans over him to hold him still before brushing his sharp teeth along Misha’s nipples. The fur from Jensen’s tail slipping and sliding along the tiny barbs lining Misha’s dick. The extra stimulation stroking along his barbs is sweet torture, along with the sharp canines Jensen decides to sink into the fur along his throat.
“Cheaters,” he pants accusingly.
They both rumble back something that sounds like amusement before efficiently tag-teaming him over the precipice of pleasure into his orgasm.
It’s long moments later before he groans without opening his eyes, “I got come all over your fur.”
“It’s fine,” Jensen comments in a way that should sound casual if not for the catch in his breathing. “Jared will lick it off.”
Misha forces his tired eyes back open far enough to watch as Jared leans across his limp form and proceeds to do just that. They’re hesitant with each other, as Misha reclines and watches them move closer and touch. Jared groans like a starving man as he licks Jensen’s tail clean before nipping the inside of Jensen’s thigh, snuffling at the place where his legs meet, where Jensen’s dick is peaking out his sheath, already leaking precome.
Jensen’s head tips back, hisses escaping intermittently through clenched teeth as Jared laps at his dick before sucking the peeking tip into his mouth. Their moves aren’t well practiced; Jared’s fumbling and Jensen clinging to him as though he’s not sure if he wants to tug him closer or push him away.
“Is it because I’m here?” Misha questions, even though just asking makes his heart stumble through beating.
“What?” Jensen gasps, shoving at Jared’s shoulders until the tawny cat leans away, regarding Misha with a confused look.
“You seem…nervous,” Misha offers with a shrug. “It feels like the other time we were together. I thought you two would have worked all the kinks out by now.”
“Why would you think that?” Jared asks, as he turns his full attention to Misha.
“Because you’ve been together for so long,” Misha mumbles.
Jensen’s ears flatten. Jared actually hisses in frustration, one giant paw slapping the ground between their bodies before he curls back in on himself.
“There has only ever been that one night for us,” Jensen answers, as his tail curves around Jared’s, linking over one another again and again.
Misha feels guilty even as a deep, rumbling purr builds in his chest and pours out of him. “I imagined you were together without me. I expected you to have built a relationship with each other.”
“You weren’t here,” Jared breathes, before tangling their fingers together.
“We needed you,” Jensen smiles and the possessive look he and Jared share makes Misha’s blood heat up. His purr gets louder, amplified by Jared’s deeper tones and Jensen’s raspy trill as he scrambles up to get oil from his bag and shove Jared onto his back. Jensen helps to steady him as he scrambles onto Jared’s lap and pours the oil over Jared’s freed erection, slowing to playfully drag his claws against the flexible barbs and chuckling when Jared growls and jerks under his and Jensen’s weight.
Jensen’s tongue rasps over Misha’s opening, the sensation making Misha’s fur stand up as he shivers. Jared’s tail slips around to be slicked with oil and then starts to slide inside. Their claws are too sharp for such delicate things. Misha relaxes, leaning into Jensen as his other mate holds him steady against his body and learns all the places Misha likes to be touched with his softly padded hands, Jared growling softly underneath them as his tail works its way in and out of Misha. When the tightness eases, Jared’s soft tail withdraws making Misha gasp, and Jensen lowers him down onto Jared’s body, their pieces slotting together like a puzzle, while Jared’s hand slips around Misha’s back to stroke along the nub of a tail he has there.
Misha blushes as Jensen chuckles. “I always did like your tail.”
“Shut up,” Misha snorts before twisting his hips and making Jared growl. It feels good to be like this, be connected with his mates in a way that they only experienced once before. Misha’s tired, hips working slowly on Jared’s lap as Jared tugs him forward to rest against his chest. He can feel the rumbles coursing through his mate and is so focused on Jared that he almost misses when Jensen’s tail brushes over where they are joined.
Almost.
“Oh, please, yes,” he begs, as his consort’s tail, slick with oil, begins to slowly, teasingly shove its way in beside Jared’s girth. It’s so good to be so open, to be encircled by their warmth as Jensen slides close to his back and begins to purr louder. He remembers their other night, broken by pain and sorrow, and compares it to this, full of hope and promise. Misha doesn’t have words, even if he could form them.
But then Jensen’s tail is slipping away and he hears the Cheetarian’s deep chuckle at his high pitched cry of frustration before Jensen is pressing back in, pushing in deep, until he’s slotted inside Misha tightly along side Jared. Then Jensen bends, circling the back of Misha’s neck with his open mouth in and sinking his teeth in.
Misha knows he’s yowling, head thrown back onto Jensen’s shoulder as Jensen’s mouth bites down into the fur on one side of his neck and Jared into the other. He’s desperate, crying out his need to the world as he rocks back and forth on both his mates. His dick is aching, straining out of his sheath while Jared and Jensen’s clawed fingertips tease and dance around him. They know he won’t be able to come without them this time.
He can tell they’re close as Jared’s movements slow and Jensen’s purring changes to a growl. Their barbs brushing roughly against each other inside Misha’s sensitive passage, making all three pant and hiss. It’s like everything slots into place inside him. All the secret, hidden places in Misha’s body pressed into and snared by the barbs of his mates linking them together. A rich rush of pleasure at being filled, claimed, completed, has Misha jackknifing between them and yowling as he clamps down, so close to orgasm but unable to come.
Jensen grabs his hips then, holding him down and still while he thrashes. He’s distantly aware of Jared coming inside him, his larger mate’s face pressed against his shoulder worrying the flesh and fur there with pleased groans. Misha sobs out as Jensen comes as well, the weight of him against Misha’s back both pleasurable and frustrating. He’s so close, feels strung out and weak with need. Then Jensen’s leaning away from him, tugging him into a sitting position while Misha mewls piteously and clings to Jared. He doesn’t want to move, he wants to come. He feels their clawed hands link around his still rolling hips and before he’s able to understand what’s happening they lift him up suddenly, jerking him off of where their bodies are joined.
Misha yowls like he’s in heat as the barbs drag free, head thrown back and embarrassingly loud. He comes, so hard he swears he sees the sun implode inside his brain, before blackness claims him and he slumps unconscious from the force of the pleasure into his mate’s arms.
Much later, his body is a steady thrum of contentment as he sprawls partially across Jared’s larger body with Jensen curled up along their mate’s other side. Legs brushing, tails tangled. Jared rubbing all the fur on his back the wrong way. It’s perfection. It makes all those months alone and frightened in the dark, and all those nights planning and isolated in the cold, worth it.
His lovers had known just what he needed tonight. It’s more than Misha had hoped for. He had never thought much past ending the terrible loneliness that existed from being without them all this time. Misha doesn’t ever have to be alone again. The clarity of it makes him shiver and both his mates hold him that much tighter for it, as though they sense his sudden understanding of why these two cats were so necessary in his life.
“We’ll be home tomorrow,” Jared says softly into the night.
“Yes,” Misha answers, burrowing in tighter. “I hope you’ll like it. You’ve both given up so much for me.”
“No, we didn’t,” Jensen huffs, reaching over Jared’s broad chest to ruffle Misha’s mane. “We only left behind the things we didn’t want or need. We need you. We want you.”
“We love you,” Jared adds. Jensen’s nose turns just the tiniest bit pink and Misha grins at the tell tale blush across his usually so serious mate’s face.
Misha turns his head as the dim light glints off the blade of the Sword of Omens where it rests close by. He’s going to have fun learning all the wonderful ways Jensen will blush for him in the future.
The future….they have that now. All the time in the world.
Author: gedry
Artist: heardtheowl
Beta: heardtheowl
Pairing(s): Jared/Jensen/Misha
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: 4.564
Warnings: Threesome, anthropomorphism meaning they are cat like and therefore have rough tongues, tails, fur, claws, and cat like penises. Double penetration.
Summary: In the future on Thundera, Jared is next in line for leadership. A competition is occurring for the right to claim him as a mate. Jared cares little about the outcome, the only two he truly wants he can't have. Unbeknownst to him, an old friend has returned from exile to fight for his honor. Jared finds the future he thought lost to him back within his grasp. But will he make the sacrifices required for him to keep this new found happiness.
Link to Art: HERE
Author’s Notes: I don’t have the words for how much fun this was. heardtheowl has got to be the sweetest, most awesome artist I could have been blessed with during this process. We really worked as a team to get this story to life and I couldn’t have done it without her. She pushed me to my comfort limits and backed off when I needed her to and I appreciate her so much for that. I really hope this story is a blending of what we both wanted as well as being a nod to a show I totally loved as a kid. Thanks to bewaretheides15 and morganoconner for being there for me and cheering me on to go that one weird step farther when I was scared. I’ve been surrounded by love this whole process and I can’t tell you how much I needed that right now. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
New Moon
He stretches as the sun peaks over the horizon. His short fur is rumpled up all over his body and Jared knows his mane must be out of control this morning.
Sleep, he wants more of it. Being one of the up-and-coming leaders of his people has its perks, but rest isn’t often one of them.
The doors to his quarters slam open and soft paws pad their way to his room. His sword brother, not even waiting to ask for permission to enter, bursts his way inside.
“Up, oh Lord of the Lion-o Clan! Today is a busy day for you.”
“Shut up, Jensen,” Jared groans, burying his head back into his bed linens and hoping against hope that his sword brother will just go away. If he’s honest, today isn’t a day Jared has been looking forward to facing.
“No time for informalities,” Jensen teases, reaching his tail around to poke Jared in the back and rub his fur the wrong way. “Today is the day you choose your consorts. Today you have to be Lion-O and I get to play my part representing my Clan as Tygra, your faithful adviser.”
He doesn’t answer. Waking up on his last morning without his bonded, he should be excited. Jared should be ecstatic. This is the day he gets to form his own familial bonds, to choose the clans that will strengthen and combine with his own for a better future for his people.
Sadly, the two cats at the top of his list are off the market.
“Jensen,” he whispers sadly.
“Please,” his friend pleads. “Not today. You shouldn’t even know that name. I can’t hear it from you right now. This hurts enough as it is.”
Jared winces in regret. Their people do not share their given names with anyone outside of family and mates. Jensen should be ‘Advisor Tygra’ to him based on his position and his clan name or ‘sword brother’, if they are close. They should not know this most private thing about each other. But they do, an unexpected gift from unimaginably horrible circumstances, and Jared doesn’t want to let it go.
“Then stand with me,” Jared begs as he curls his tail around Jensen’s thigh and tugs, hoping to pull him into the warm bed. “Let me claim you as my consort. Then we can seek Misha out, make this right for the three of us.”
Jensen’s tail slides up to brush along his cheek gently, almost regretfully. “He’s gone, Jared. And nothing can make this right for us. That night...it’s going to be all we’re ever allowed to have.”
Jared’s eyes close, tears welling up inside his brownish-golden slitted eyes as Jensen turns and flees.
Jared prepares himself for the day ahead as he remembers.
Bitter cold in the cell of Mumm-Ra’s fortress, he and Jensen had curled tightly together, awaiting their fate. Mumm-Ra’s forces had risen up again and again over the centuries since the first Lion-O faced him down with their people and won. Always defeated, but never destroyed.
They had been involved in a battle to protect a small outlying village of mostly woman and their kittens when they had been overwhelmed by Mumm-Ra’s mutated forces and imprisoned in that place for what felt like months. Jared had given up all hope of escape, clinging to Jensen as his last life line. It was why, on that last night, he had given Jensen his name.
“Jared,” he’d whispered low into the pointed, speckled ear of his partner.
Jensen had jerked, green eyes wide and full of regret before he closed them and murmured “Jensen,” in return.
Jared had buried his face in the striped and speckled coat, reflective of Jensen’s Tygra and Cheetarian heritage, and had reveled in a small moment of victory that although they would not survive this place, he had shared his most guarded secret with someone. Their tails had tangled together, hands clasped close between their chests. Jared had inhaled the scent of his closest friend and now soul’s partner and hoped it was the last thing he remembered before he was sent beyond.
Then Mumm-Ra, the mummified horror that had once been man, had opened their cell and forced them into his throne room. A place equal to its owner in its horror, Mumm-Ra fortress was made up from the bone and flesh of the dead, rotting like it’s owner and held together with the blackest magic. They shivered under the onslaught of his magic as it coated their bodies.
Jared had thought they might have a chance of overpowering Mumm-Ra if he was on his own, but he wasn’t. Jared and Jensen’s childhood friend, one who had gone missing so many years before, had been standing at the side of the horror who stalked their people.
“Wily!” Jared had hissed, all of his fur standing up in fear.
He had felt Jensen tense behind him when eyes so broken, and still so unholy in their crystal blue clarity, lifted to blankly regard them.
“He’s missed you,” Mumm-Ra had chuckled. “But he’s mine now. This is the last step of his freedom, you see.” He had turned then, bandages catching and dragging on his throne as he dismissed them as though they were beneath his care. Though his attention appeared to be elsewhere, the onslaught of his psychic power against their forms remained. “Kill them, boy.”
Jared had fought with all the power left in his abused body, Wily slashing violently at him with a blade as Jared attempted to gain some kind of upper hand. He was only dimly aware of Jensen struggling to free himself from Mumm-Ra’s psychic grasp as Jared and Wily rolled and growled along the inner walls of the throne room. He had not wanted to die, and this other cat, though possessed by Mumm-Ra’s influence, had once been a dear friend.
A friend now unreachable by reason or compassion.
He had finally collapsed onto the filthy floor under the pain of Wily’s attack, blood streaking across his chest where he had been cut during the battle. Jared closed his eyes, expecting his life to be taken.
Jared had been surprised when Wily’s paw had cupped his cheek gently instead of causing him further harm. The smaller Thundarian crouched over his exhausted body as though his old friend thought to protect him from harm instead of kill him.
He had raised his eyes to the other cat and had been shocked by the grief he had seen reflected back at him.
“Misha,” Wily whispered brokenly, pressing a hand to his own chest before turning and leaping at Mumm-Ra, slicing into his body with the knife meant for Jared and Jensen. There was a terrible explosion of energy from Mumm-Ra’s inhabited corpse of a body and they were suddenly released, panting on the ground.
Mumm-Ra’s empty husk slumped in his throne, their friend’s broken body sprawled on the ground at his feet.
He had barely been breathing.
Jared had never fought as hard as he did to escape that dark place. Jensen carried Misha’s limp body as Jared cleared a path through the confused and frightened followers of Mumm-Ra’s twisted vision. Mumm-Ra’s spells had broken with his death, his fortress had started to collapse and his followers had been freed from his mental hold.
It had been a long journey home full of hunger, pain, and fear, only to return to their people in Thundera and be forced to defend their friend against the council for his actions while under Mumm-Ra’s influence.
Misha escaped a death sentence only to be ordered to live in exile.
Their last night together, the only night of true peace they had ever shared, was spent experiencing pleasure in each other’s arms, affirming the blossoming bond between the three of them.
In the morning, Misha had disappeared.
*****
The contestants have been battling most of the morning; Jared’s long since become bored with watching.
One will win, he’ll have to choose that one for his consort, and then they will select another for them both.
Either way, the choosing is more of a metaphor than an actual choice on Jared’s part. He’s a bystander in his own future right now, and he’s less than thrilled about it.
In fact, it’s not until his ears perk at the dull thud of Jensen dropping his tablet behind where Jared is seated that his eyes flash back to the challengers on the field. The bout is over; only one contestant remains standing.
Jared’s mate, Jared’s future, pulls back his cloak and greets Jared’s disbelief with a grin.
His fur is matted with sweat and blood. A tooth is chipped that wasn’t before and the corner of one of his pointed ears is missing entirely. But his eyes, still so perfectly blue.
Misha.
Clarity bursts over Jared’s consciousness. Misha is exiled, but he has won the competition. It’s up to Jared now to accept or reject his proposition. There is usually a battle between the two proposed mates to prove their worth to each other, but Jared is well aware of Misha’s worth, having been saved by him and having lost him once before. There’s not time to do this properly. As soon as the guards recognize him, it will all be over…unless Jared gets to him first.
The thought has him leaping from his seat and over the balcony railing. He catches Jensen’s frantic whisper of “Go, Jared. Hurry!” He lands, racing across the outdoor training grounds to where Misha is standing, bloody and victorious.
Jared takes out his weapon and hurls himself at Misha’s feet, surrendering…and by doing so gaining back everything he had lost.
“Accept me,” Misha pleads.
“With all that I am,” Jared gives the formal answer. “Pick our other.”
“Tygra,” Misha calls out, pointing at Jensen with authority, and Jared holds his breath as Jensen races to his side, face wet, eyes smiling.
They’ve done it, Misha’s insanity and Jensen’s dedication combining in perfect counterpoints to Jared’s love.
Now, they’ll just have to give up everything else to keep each other. Jared knows there’s no other way for this to end. Misha has been exiled and he will never be allowed to return home.
“Traitor!” Jared’s father’s voice rings out above the crowd. Even as an adult, the severe tone makes all the fur on Jared’s back stand up. Jensen ducks his head lower but Misha looks less than concerned.
“I’ve come from the north,” Misha answers calmly. “My adopted clan’s crest was approved for this competition. I’m allowed to be here per the rules of event. It was open to all competitors from an approved clan. ”
“You were exiled,” the regent growls. “You have no place here and never will.”
“I’m aware of that,” Misha shrugs as though he’s completely unconcerned. “I’ve come to offer my mates a place amongst my clan. I may not be able to stay here, but they are welcome where I am welcomed.”
For the first time, Jared is certain that Misha’s ability to outsmart Mumm-Ra wasn’t a one time thing. His Wily is living up to his name. This plan has been delicately crafted, all the rough edges smoothed out. Misha had not come here to be claimed. He had come here to claim.
And Jared is more than willing.
“I will follow where my mate leads,” he says formally, staring back into the angry eyes of his father.
His mother gasps, tail curling up to her chest as she shakes her head. Jared winces internally; he doesn’t want to hurt her, but he can’t let this second chance for the love he’s been aching for to escape him. Not when he has the chance to have everything he thought he would never have again.
Jensen says nothing, but his tail wraps tightly around Jared’s, and that is more than answer enough.
It’s done; they will leave their life behind to make a new one with each other. Jared will miss his family, but his brother will make a capable leader and it’s not a role Jared had ever wished for anyway.
This is what he wished for.
*****
Misha watches as Jared goes to gather what little belongings his family will allow him to take.
“Don’t you need to get anything?” he asks, as Jensen remains by his side.
“I have everything I need,” Jensen rumbles, tail flipping back and forth for a moment as though he can’t decide what to do with it before it slips around Misha’s ankle like an anchor weighing him to the reality of the moment.
He won.
He fought his way back from nothing, and has gained back everything he once thought he had lost forever.
When he gets out of this place and has his mates tucked into his bed, he’ll finally be able to relax.
Until then, “I missed you, Jensen.”
Jensen’s fuzzy face spasms before lifting into a sad smile. “I missed you, too. It’s been hard without you.”
“I had to make sure I could win,” he tries to explain, floundering for a way to make his new mate understand the depth of his devotion, why he made the choices he made.
“You could have told us something,” Jensen admonishes softly. His whiskers twitch. “We would have waited.”
“I couldn’t have allowed you to stop living your lives while I tried to get mine together,” Misha whispers. “We had to meet here, in the middle, or not meet at all.”
Jensen nods as though he’s processing the sentiment before turning to fix Misha’s gaze with his beautiful jade eyes. “In the future, I trust you will remember we would have met you anywhere at any time.”
Misha wants to reply, but the commotion of Jared dashing toward them across the battle grounds is distracting. Jensen’s face lights up in a rarely seen grin of happiness and Misha’s chest tightens at having missed so much. They must have had so many shared, private moments he’s missed being separated from them.
He hopes Jensen will someday greet him with such enthusiasm.
In the end, Jared is allowed to take the Sword of Omens. Misha doesn’t understand how that occurs, but as they turn to leave through the gates of the great city, Jared looks back, sharing one final, lingering look with his brother. The brothers nod to each other before Jared turns back to them with some sadness in his eyes. Misha doesn’t ask - it’s not the time - but he’ll get the story later.
They travel as far as they are able before exhaustion takes them. Misha’s glad of the distance between his new pack members and their past. They settle into the barn of a friendly farmer whose land they were passing for the night. Their bed is little more than hay and blankets, but it’s dry and warm, safe with Jared’s sword close by and their own skills. They’ve all slept in significantly worse places.
He thinks about eating, should be starved after so much traveling and fighting, but Misha’s hunger is centered on other things at the moment, and when he sees the same need reflected in Jared’s eyes, he doesn’t waste time debating.
Jared tastes just like Misha remembers from their one night together. He melds his smaller frame to Jared’s larger one and mewls as Jared finds a way to compress and twist his larger body until every bit of him that Misha wants to access is right there for the taking. It’s like coming home.
He can feel his body quivering all over as Jared’s rough tongue maps out the chip missing from his tooth and his paws cup and stroke along his torn off ear. He winces as Jared scratches along the matted blood in his fur. This isn’t how he wanted this, had hoped to hold off long enough to be properly groomed, but the call of his lover is too much.
Until Jensen unceremoniously slaps him in the back of his furry head with a soaked cloth.
“You’re filthy and you stink.”
Jared laughs, so loudly it’s almost a roar inside the barn. Misha shakes drops of water out of his fur and glares at his consort.
“I’ve missed you,” Jensen grins. “I want to be with you. But, I’m sorry, you have to be clean first.”
Misha scowls. Unlike Jensen with his Cheetarian heritage and affinity for water, most of their kind prefers to avoid an outright bath.
But as he scratches at his coat, even Misha has to admit he’s too filthy for a simple grooming. Jared tugs him out of his clothing before removing his own. He’s surprised, when Jensen shoves him back into their nest for the night and tugs closer a bowl and a cloth, that his consort is also nude.
His green eyes gleam in the dim light as Jensen whispers, “this is going to be cold, but we’ll warm you back up.”
The next moments are a sweet kind of torture for Misha as he allows himself to be cared for and cleaned. “I’d forgotten how gentle you are.”
Jensen growls at him playfully, ruffling his fur with the rag. Misha shivers, not sure if it’s because of the cold water or just Jensen’s attention, but then Jared’s tongue starts to lap at the clean, damp fur left in Jensen’s wake and Misha’s all but done thinking for a while.
Jensen’s cool touch, scrubbing away the grime of his efforts, while Jared’s hot mouth follows along behind, smoothing down his fur, is enough to drive him crazy. He arches his hips wantonly as his erection begins to swell, the pink head of his dick beginning to slide free of his sheath. By the time Jensen deems him clean enough to touch, Misha is already squirming and mewling, fully extended and swollen from his sheath into the cool air of their makeshift den for the night. When Jensen slides up against his side and slips his tongue into Misha’s ear, dragging his claws lightly over his chest and curling his tail around Misha’s already leaking erection, it’s almost too much. He thrashes, keening between his lovers as Jensen’s tail tightens until he’s unable to come. Jared leans over him to hold him still before brushing his sharp teeth along Misha’s nipples. The fur from Jensen’s tail slipping and sliding along the tiny barbs lining Misha’s dick. The extra stimulation stroking along his barbs is sweet torture, along with the sharp canines Jensen decides to sink into the fur along his throat.
“Cheaters,” he pants accusingly.
They both rumble back something that sounds like amusement before efficiently tag-teaming him over the precipice of pleasure into his orgasm.
It’s long moments later before he groans without opening his eyes, “I got come all over your fur.”
“It’s fine,” Jensen comments in a way that should sound casual if not for the catch in his breathing. “Jared will lick it off.”
Misha forces his tired eyes back open far enough to watch as Jared leans across his limp form and proceeds to do just that. They’re hesitant with each other, as Misha reclines and watches them move closer and touch. Jared groans like a starving man as he licks Jensen’s tail clean before nipping the inside of Jensen’s thigh, snuffling at the place where his legs meet, where Jensen’s dick is peaking out his sheath, already leaking precome.
Jensen’s head tips back, hisses escaping intermittently through clenched teeth as Jared laps at his dick before sucking the peeking tip into his mouth. Their moves aren’t well practiced; Jared’s fumbling and Jensen clinging to him as though he’s not sure if he wants to tug him closer or push him away.
“Is it because I’m here?” Misha questions, even though just asking makes his heart stumble through beating.
“What?” Jensen gasps, shoving at Jared’s shoulders until the tawny cat leans away, regarding Misha with a confused look.
“You seem…nervous,” Misha offers with a shrug. “It feels like the other time we were together. I thought you two would have worked all the kinks out by now.”
“Why would you think that?” Jared asks, as he turns his full attention to Misha.
“Because you’ve been together for so long,” Misha mumbles.
Jensen’s ears flatten. Jared actually hisses in frustration, one giant paw slapping the ground between their bodies before he curls back in on himself.
“There has only ever been that one night for us,” Jensen answers, as his tail curves around Jared’s, linking over one another again and again.
Misha feels guilty even as a deep, rumbling purr builds in his chest and pours out of him. “I imagined you were together without me. I expected you to have built a relationship with each other.”
“You weren’t here,” Jared breathes, before tangling their fingers together.
“We needed you,” Jensen smiles and the possessive look he and Jared share makes Misha’s blood heat up. His purr gets louder, amplified by Jared’s deeper tones and Jensen’s raspy trill as he scrambles up to get oil from his bag and shove Jared onto his back. Jensen helps to steady him as he scrambles onto Jared’s lap and pours the oil over Jared’s freed erection, slowing to playfully drag his claws against the flexible barbs and chuckling when Jared growls and jerks under his and Jensen’s weight.
Jensen’s tongue rasps over Misha’s opening, the sensation making Misha’s fur stand up as he shivers. Jared’s tail slips around to be slicked with oil and then starts to slide inside. Their claws are too sharp for such delicate things. Misha relaxes, leaning into Jensen as his other mate holds him steady against his body and learns all the places Misha likes to be touched with his softly padded hands, Jared growling softly underneath them as his tail works its way in and out of Misha. When the tightness eases, Jared’s soft tail withdraws making Misha gasp, and Jensen lowers him down onto Jared’s body, their pieces slotting together like a puzzle, while Jared’s hand slips around Misha’s back to stroke along the nub of a tail he has there.
Misha blushes as Jensen chuckles. “I always did like your tail.”
“Shut up,” Misha snorts before twisting his hips and making Jared growl. It feels good to be like this, be connected with his mates in a way that they only experienced once before. Misha’s tired, hips working slowly on Jared’s lap as Jared tugs him forward to rest against his chest. He can feel the rumbles coursing through his mate and is so focused on Jared that he almost misses when Jensen’s tail brushes over where they are joined.
Almost.
“Oh, please, yes,” he begs, as his consort’s tail, slick with oil, begins to slowly, teasingly shove its way in beside Jared’s girth. It’s so good to be so open, to be encircled by their warmth as Jensen slides close to his back and begins to purr louder. He remembers their other night, broken by pain and sorrow, and compares it to this, full of hope and promise. Misha doesn’t have words, even if he could form them.
But then Jensen’s tail is slipping away and he hears the Cheetarian’s deep chuckle at his high pitched cry of frustration before Jensen is pressing back in, pushing in deep, until he’s slotted inside Misha tightly along side Jared. Then Jensen bends, circling the back of Misha’s neck with his open mouth in and sinking his teeth in.
Misha knows he’s yowling, head thrown back onto Jensen’s shoulder as Jensen’s mouth bites down into the fur on one side of his neck and Jared into the other. He’s desperate, crying out his need to the world as he rocks back and forth on both his mates. His dick is aching, straining out of his sheath while Jared and Jensen’s clawed fingertips tease and dance around him. They know he won’t be able to come without them this time.
He can tell they’re close as Jared’s movements slow and Jensen’s purring changes to a growl. Their barbs brushing roughly against each other inside Misha’s sensitive passage, making all three pant and hiss. It’s like everything slots into place inside him. All the secret, hidden places in Misha’s body pressed into and snared by the barbs of his mates linking them together. A rich rush of pleasure at being filled, claimed, completed, has Misha jackknifing between them and yowling as he clamps down, so close to orgasm but unable to come.
Jensen grabs his hips then, holding him down and still while he thrashes. He’s distantly aware of Jared coming inside him, his larger mate’s face pressed against his shoulder worrying the flesh and fur there with pleased groans. Misha sobs out as Jensen comes as well, the weight of him against Misha’s back both pleasurable and frustrating. He’s so close, feels strung out and weak with need. Then Jensen’s leaning away from him, tugging him into a sitting position while Misha mewls piteously and clings to Jared. He doesn’t want to move, he wants to come. He feels their clawed hands link around his still rolling hips and before he’s able to understand what’s happening they lift him up suddenly, jerking him off of where their bodies are joined.
Misha yowls like he’s in heat as the barbs drag free, head thrown back and embarrassingly loud. He comes, so hard he swears he sees the sun implode inside his brain, before blackness claims him and he slumps unconscious from the force of the pleasure into his mate’s arms.
Much later, his body is a steady thrum of contentment as he sprawls partially across Jared’s larger body with Jensen curled up along their mate’s other side. Legs brushing, tails tangled. Jared rubbing all the fur on his back the wrong way. It’s perfection. It makes all those months alone and frightened in the dark, and all those nights planning and isolated in the cold, worth it.
His lovers had known just what he needed tonight. It’s more than Misha had hoped for. He had never thought much past ending the terrible loneliness that existed from being without them all this time. Misha doesn’t ever have to be alone again. The clarity of it makes him shiver and both his mates hold him that much tighter for it, as though they sense his sudden understanding of why these two cats were so necessary in his life.
“We’ll be home tomorrow,” Jared says softly into the night.
“Yes,” Misha answers, burrowing in tighter. “I hope you’ll like it. You’ve both given up so much for me.”
“No, we didn’t,” Jensen huffs, reaching over Jared’s broad chest to ruffle Misha’s mane. “We only left behind the things we didn’t want or need. We need you. We want you.”
“We love you,” Jared adds. Jensen’s nose turns just the tiniest bit pink and Misha grins at the tell tale blush across his usually so serious mate’s face.
Misha turns his head as the dim light glints off the blade of the Sword of Omens where it rests close by. He’s going to have fun learning all the wonderful ways Jensen will blush for him in the future.
The future….they have that now. All the time in the world.