Missing out.
“Alastair was the first viable subject of the Revival Project. The very first mutant to be named, but not the first to be born. We used the Kraken’s DNA to create mutated embryos, and a great number of them were abject failures. Most were terminated in the early stage of their development, when it was obvious they wouldn’t make it. Others turned out to be mistakes after birth, to our regret. Most were too monstrous to look at, much less to be raised. They were deformed. Creatures from nightmares with more scales than skin. With more teeth and claws and limbs than expected. We had to get rid of them, as humanely as possible. We all knew what we were doing was unethical—horrendous, really—but the Rise had just happened, and we were desperate. Human civilizations were crumbling at an alarming rate, and despair has a way of turning us into brutes. To create monsters, we turned into monsters ourselves. In retrospect, the Kraken’s DNA wasn’t the easiest starting pointfor the project. But Alastair turned out to be one of our most successful subjects. His healing abilities are unparalleled.”
Audio transcription of an interview with Dr. Nolan Max, a scientist who worked on the Revival Project, 2047.
ALASTAIR
Tonight, I don’t know if my enhanced hearing is a blessing or a curse. I sit by the fire to keep watch, but Stellan and Perri’s gasps and moans reach me easily through the quiet night. Their names, uttered feverishly, pull at the invisible strings of my body. I’m a puppet to their whims, even from the distance.
“Perri…” Stellan growls.
And I can’t help myself, I angle my head towards the truck. The door to the camper is wide open, and I can see the outline of two bodies on my bed. Stellan appears to be lying on his back, and Perri’s head is bobbing up and down, giving him an enthusiastic blowjob. I’m torn between wanting to be the one giving Stellan head, or to be at the receiving end of Perri’s devotion.
But I’m just me, alone by the fire. I grab a discarded bottle of wine and drink it to the dregs. A faint shimmer in the air is the only sign of theBeetlestanding farther away on the hill, at rest. Griffin and Helios are probably in there having fun, too.
“Come here…” Stellan says. “I’ve missed you so much.”
A shiver travels from between my shoulder blades to my groin. How I wish I was the one he was saying this to. They’re kissing now, wetly. This is torture.
I look for another bottle of wine when Perri says, “I need you to fuck me… Stellan… please…”
“We have no lube.”
“Spit will be fine…”
I close my eyes, defeated, just as I hear Stellan spit in his hand, followed by Perri’s moans.
I get to my feet and walk to the truck. The sight of them both in my bed—Perri on his back, his legs thrown over Stellan’s shoulders as the other man fingers him—will fuel my fantasies for the entire night. I climb in the camper. Stellan stops what he’s doing for a heartbeat, holding my gaze as if wondering what I’m about to do. Would he get mad if I asked to join?
Tonight, I won’t risk rejection.
I open one of my drawers to grab a bottle of oil and throw it on the bed by Perri’s thigh. “Use this for lube.”
Perri reaches for me and says, “Thank you.”
I let him pull me into a wet kiss. He tastes amazing, and I get hard thinking about where his lips were minutes ago, wrapped around Stellan’s cock. When I straighten up, Stellan is still watching me.
Invite me to join, I think.
We hold each other’s gaze for a moment, but he says nothing.
“Have fun,” I say before walking out, a fire burning under my skin.
“Stellan, we—” Perri starts, but Stellan must have interrupted him.
Sure enough, when I look over my shoulder, the bigger man has folded his large body in half to wrap his lips around Perri’s cock while still fingering him. Perri turns into a begging mess in seconds, and his moans go straight to my erection.
I sit by the campfire and look at the stars above, in turn cursing and blessing the day I met the two lovers.
Stellan fucked Perri maddeningly slow for a while, until he turned into a blathering mess. When both of them could not takeit any longer, he sped up and pounded into him mercilessly. The sounds of flesh hitting flesh was like music to my ears. Then they gasped and whisperedI loveyouas they both came.
I was left unmoored.
Now I stare at the flames devouring the logs in the campfire as I keep watch—Griffin cut down a dead tree during the evening to make sure we had enough wood for the night. He was tense at first, and almost unresponsive, but as the evening unfolded, we talked.
He asked me questions about my past. About the lab where I was born. To him, I told the truth unfiltered. Beet is right. If there’s someone who can understand me, it’s him, my ‘brother’. We lived similar lives, both cared for by a surrogate family—Griffin, the scientists who created him, and me, the Traveling Market’ founders. I had a rougher start of life, but purpose found me. Griffin was alone for a few years before meeting Helios. The way he looks at the young man reminds of the way Stellan cherishes Perri, and it sparked the same kind of envy.
The crescent moon has traveled halfway through the night sky when I hear soft steps behind me. Stellan walks into the halo of firelight, fully clothed and his blonde hair tousled.
