Chapter 71: Nothing Like the First Time

The road wound through the hills under a clear fall sky. Leaves in red and gold drifted across the asphalt and piled in the ditches. Roan kept both paws on the wheel, windows cracked so the cool air moved through the cab of the Mazda SUV. Cass sat beside him with one foot up on the dash. In the back, Kiran had his knees drawn up and Lir sat with his arms loose across his chest, watching the trees go by.

They talked about small things for a while. Kiran brought up the time Zariel had tried to show him a proper shoulder throw on the training circle and ended up flat on his back because Kiran had stepped on a pinecone at the wrong moment. Roan laughed and said the white wolf still claimed the pinecone had been planted. Cass remembered the night they had all piled onto the couch to watch a movie and Kiran had fallen asleep with his muzzle in the popcorn bowl. The fox denied it until Lir, who had only heard the story secondhand, said he had seen the crumbs in the fur the next morning.

Kiran turned the conversation dirtier without much effort. He asked Cass if he still thought about the first time Roan had knotted him in the apartment, back when Cass was still human and trying not to make noise. Cass’ ears tipped and he admitted he thought about it more than he should. Roan glanced over, one corner of his mouth lifting, and said he thought about it too. The memory sat warm between them for a minute before Kiran asked Lir if he had ever walked in on anything interesting during his early resistance days. Lir shook his head and said he mostly stayed outside and watched exits.

The road straightened for a stretch. Roan’s voice stayed easy but the tone shifted.

“I need to ask you something as Alpha,” he said. “Your innate ability. You don’t have to tell me the void one yet. But I need to know what the Temple gave you so I can plan around it.”

Lir was quiet for a few seconds. His ears stayed forward. “I hate it,” he said. “It’s embarrassing. Morally bankrupt. I don’t know why I got it. It doesn’t help me shoot anything.”

“Fair,” Roan said. “There’s one more thing while we’re on it. When you’re ready, I want you to take Cass’s gift. The link. You’re the sniper. Being able to talk to the rest of us while you’re posted up would matter. It would be a huge advantage.”

Lir nodded once, small. He leaned forward between the seats. “My tongue is the innate power. When I lick someone I can force their body to do something involuntary. That’s the part I don’t like. I can also enhance regenerative powers slightly, by ya know, licking a wound, if I had to ... as long as it’s an anthro that has regen.”

Kiran’s ears shot up. “Involuntary how?”

Lir looked at Cass. “Coughing is what I’m thinking of right now.” He leaned the rest of the way and licked across Cass’s shoulder through the shirt. Cass jerked, then started coughing hard. The fit lasted nearly a minute. He bent forward, eyes watering, one paw braced on the dash until it eased. If his cheeks weren’t fur they’d be bright red.

Kiran stared. “Was that real? You’re not just trolling, pup?”

Cass wiped his mouth and nodded, still catching his breath. “Real.”

Lir sat back. “I can make people vomit. Sneeze. Sleep. Get dizzy. Pee or shit themselves if I want.”

Kiran’s eyes went wider. “Can you make someone cum? That’s a bodily function.”

Lir laughed once, short. “Yes.”

“No way.”

Lir reached over and licked Kiran’s shoulder through the fabric. The fox’s whole body locked. His cock jumped in his pants, not fully hard, but thick enough that the head pushed against the denim. He came with a sharp, helpless sound, spurting into his boxers. The wet spot spread across the front of his pants while his cock kept twitching and trying to catch the last of it. He sat there panting, legs together.