Chapter 26: Ian’s

On the trip home, we had an interesting discussion.

I wanted to go to Weston. Goran had fired up my interest. Sable was adamant that he would be coming too. Harry said if Sable went then he went. Rose said where I went she went. Rose amused me because she seemed to relish the idea of going to visit Silver’s City, so she didn’t even attempt to talk me out of the trip.

I also suspected she had a thing for Silver. They had become best buddies when they met in Horn City. I did occasionally wonder what happened with the androids after Rose’s sisters upgraded the androids from the ship with the new power supplies.

Rose’s portable recharge unit had hardly been used on this trip. She said she could go for two weeks without needing it if she got a bit of sunlight each day. She had only been using it on an odd night to stay topped up, if mains power wasn’t available.

The next issue was which spouse was coming with me. We expected the trip would be close to four months at least. If I took one of them, then their calves would need to come too. Sable was one thing but crawling, and walking toddlers on a ship was another? I’d have to put shields on the rails to make sure they stayed safe.

We decided that I’d just have to ask the spouses. Oddly, the thought they might object to me going never entered my head. We got home to find everything running smoothly. We happily told our tales of our trip and found that they were all packing to go to Ian’s homestead. I’d forgotten about the festival.

When I mentioned the trip to Weston, I got stony silence. Oops! Greta sighed and looked at the others. They all got up and went into another room for about half an hour. Sable, Rose and Harry looked at me with worry. I knew they wanted to go as much as I did.

I didn’t like the idea of having to put my foot down, but I felt I needed to go. If the girls didn’t want to come, then I’d just have to live with it. It would cramp my sex life, but I’d gone without before. The charged crystals I carried around seemed to help reduce my sexual needs if they girls weren’t with me.

The girls came back and sat back down. Greta said, “We aren’t going.” I was disappointed, but I’d live with it. She then shocked me by saying, “However, we have no objections to a new spouse. We won’t even bother trying to talk you out of the trip. We are more than happy to stay here and keep things running. We guess these three will be going too.”

She tipped her head at Rose, Sable and Harry. I think Sable’s grin said it all. I looked back at my spouses, “Hang on! What was the bit about a new spouse? I wish to set up a new trade. I’m not going spouse hunting.”

The girls just chuckled and changed the discussion to who was going to Ian’s with us.

We stopped in Horn City on the way to Ian’s for two days.

My friend Hali had agreed to send me whatever spare feed she could produce to a warehouse in Horn. I sent her over the excess whey we had and some of the grains we still had in storage. I had still had a healthy stockpile, so I was more than happy to send some of it to her. It would be a month before my machine was ready.

I ran around and organised some other things for the trip. Rose had somehow gotten in contact with Silver, and they had just left Ochre City, so I had two weeks to get organised. This suited me just fine.

I got to catch up with Vaughn and the councillors. They didn’t seem to have any problems that needed my input. I talked to Vaughn once a week on my organiser anyway. The visit was as much courtesy, as anything else. I did get to see a lot of changes and couldn’t be upset with any of them.

The visit to Ian’s was great. I got to hold Gini, Dale’s newest calf. Gary was a doting dad and Oliva was just as bad. Ian had delivered a week before we turned up and Iona was dutifully admired as well.

Ricky and Cavil also proudly showed off their latest progenies. Tana and Cerys were both healthy and vibrant babies. I knew these calves would be as special to the Bulls who had them as Sable was to me.

Bull’s didn’t tend to come into season as often due to being in male form for a lot of their waking time. They also were less inclined to get pregnant. Dale being an exception since Gini was his third birth.

I believed that after Dale had weaned Gini, he planned to get both of his spouses pregnant. I also suspected Oliva and Gary were looking forward to this event. Gary joked he loved it when Dale went male on him. He had even been spending more time in female form.

Gary had hinted several times that Dale was a delightful lover in male form and I suspected Oliva was in for a treat when Dale could change for them again. Dale also hinted he was looking forward to his spouses’ introduction to his male side. He seemed a lot surer of whom he was. With Sony’s influence gone, his inner Bull was ready to come out.

We had met up with Ricky and his family in Midton. They were amazed at the changes. We then travelled to Central and then onto Ian’s. Central had also changed a lot since I was last there and seemed a much happier town these days.

It was a pleasant trip and surprisingly fast with the new roads and bridges across a lot of the rivers that had been problems in the past. We covered a lot more klicks in a day.

We weren’t pushing animals as I had brought my chiller wagons with us. The new wheels made the wagons easy to pull, and the lankys liked the flatter roads and not having to ford every little stream we came across.

I’d hoped to meet up with Honey when I went home, but she had stopped in Trail Town and fixed some of the local roads. She had a couple of bridge projects back towards Midton and decided to help them when the new machine and crew turned up.

She didn’t get back to the Horn Homestead until after we had left for Horn City. If I didn’t know better, I would think she was avoiding me. However, when I did get to talk to her on the organiser, she seemed happy to tell me about the fun she was having. The name of the engineer for the bridge crew’s come up often, and I guessed she was getting close to him. I could only be happy for her.

The Bull’s meetings were lively, and I loved seeing them so involved in their special projects. Cavil told me his cheese makers were delighted with the quality of the new milk. His family tended to specialise in the harder, more mature cheeses.

Mine, being closer to Horn City tended to go into butter, cream and the soft, quick maturing cheeses. Ricky, Bob and Phil were mostly breeding meat longhorns, but their families did grow grain and had other interests like logging and mining.

Dale and Mike’s family didn’t have huge herds, as the costs of getting them to Horn City were greater. They supplied a lot to the smaller towns. They also did a lot of mining and even had smelting and manufacturing interests in Southport. Dale also ran ships, and most of their product was bulk shipped to Horn City.

Ian and Robert also planned to use their new town as a port. They wanted to import iron and other building materials from Dale and export their coal to him. Shipping was a better way to get large quantities between Charcoal Bay and Southport. While the new roads would help, they all agreed that shipping was a better option.

They even suggested that Cavil set up a wharf for the same reasons. His homestead was only 10km from the sea. I pointed out that the beach I had swum to the day I came back from Federation, had deep water off the point, and Captain Hail had mentioned it would have been easier if he could have offloaded Cavil’s animals closer to his homestead.

I also pointed out if he wanted to sell his cheeses and cattle to Federation it would be cheaper if the captains could stop off at his wharf. The animals didn’t have to spend five days on the road. I made him chuckle when I mentioned I’d not eaten a decent cheese in Federation.

He did make exceptionally good cheeses.

We didn’t have any Bull challenges at this festival.

We did have some excellent Blooding competitions. Some were a bit more intense than I would have liked. I was glad I could heal fast. Somehow, I got roped into the competition. I know I gave as good as I got, if not better since I did win the competition. I many not have bled, but I received some monstrous bruises.

The challenger that almost got the better of me was Ala. Gary’s sister had a mean streak a klick wide. She presented as a softly spoken all most skittish woman. But jeez, when in bull form she was one serious competitor. I’m sure she cracked several of my ribs. If she had turned her head, just a little more, she would have won. As it was, she really hurt me and in more ways than one.

I’d beaten four other competitors before our fight and was wary of her by the time we got into the corral. Twenty of us were in the competition. We had to draw a number. One fought two; three fought four and so on. In the next round, the winner of the first fight fought the winner of the second and so on.

In the third round, it got more interesting. With five of us left, the person who dispatched their previous two competitors the fastest got to sit out. This was my full-sister Jose. The other four names got tossed in the hat, and they fought one of the others.

The slowest to win got to fight Jose and the winner of that fight fought the winner of the other pairing for the title, this being Ala. As you can guess I was wasn’t a fast fighter. Ala beat Ray faster than I beat Gary.

I then had to beat Jose who was as mean and as nasty as Ala. Also, being one of my favourite sisters, I didn’t to want to hurt her, and she knew it. You should have seen the bruise on my face after she head-butted me in the cheek.

I think she did it to get me mad. We had spent a bit of time dancing around each other. I even considered letting her win just so I didn’t hurt her and I think she guessed this, so she head-butted me. It got fast and furious after that.

I had to stop myself going for the kill. She had some whopping bruises by the time it was over. She did get in a few good licks of her own. We churned up that corral chasing each other and clashing full tilt into each other on several occasions.

I did paddle her arse with my horns several times before I rammed into her and knocked her over. I stood over her while she tried to get to her hooves and gently wiped the tip of my horn against her flank to draw blood.

I had to pick her up and healed her once we changed back to human. I hugged her and said I sorry several times. She chuckled and said I never had to worry about her challenging me for real. She then groaned, and I took her to get dressed.

I told Ray he was going to have to give her a couple of massages and he wanted to know who was massaging his ribs and his arse. It was still hurting from the smacking I’d given him. I had to chuckle as I had to admit I did play with him a bit and had fun getting him riled up.

At least I did get a day to rest before I fought Ala. Again, I had the problem that I didn’t wish to hurt her. I was bigger as a bull to start with. She, however, didn’t have the same issues as I did. Shit! The first time she lined me up she went straight for the throat.

It was only the fact I was quicker that she didn’t score a blood hit on her first run but she did slam into my shoulder. She got me riled enough I knew I had to take this fight seriously. Her next charge she tried side-stepping into me as she went to go past.

This time she whacked into my ribs and winded me. I had moved just enough to miss the tips of her horns when she twisted her head. She even managed a kick and collected my back leg as I moved away from her. A little higher and more central and she would have dropped me to my knees.

I spun and chased. I don’t think Ala was expecting me to chase. She had trotted past me and turned to face me and found me ramming into her flank. I over ran her as she went down. I spun back to face her and waited as she pulled herself to her feet.

I was snorting in anger and pain. I paced trying to calm down a bit. Once she was on her feet, I charged towards her side. Ala didn’t have a hope. I skidded to a halt just as I reached her. She’d spun to face me, and I reared and dropped my hoofs on her shoulders and drove her down.

My hoof drew blood, and I forced myself to back up and not ram my horn into her exposed throat. This time I backed off and turned away to the fence to collect my clothes. I changed and dropped to my knees. I was breathing shallow and had to heal myself enough to ease my breathing. Once I was dressed, I grabbed my satchel and went to Ala.

Others had gotten into the corral to help her. She was curled into a small ball sobbing. I’d busted her shoulder when I dropped my full weight on her. My hoof had also left a decent gash. I wrapped her in a blanket and sat on the ground with her curled in my lap. It took me some time to heal her. I cried softly as I did.

Greta, Bea and Cora came and wrapped their arms around us both, and I drew on their love and magic. After a little while, I nodded to them that I was now fine and they released me. I stood with Ala in my arms. I took her to her lodgings and put her into bed still wrapped in the blanket.

I sat beside her as she looked at me quietly. I asked her, “So why are you angry with me, Ala?”

“Why didn’t you pick me?” she asked me quietly.

I looked at her in shock and skimmed her surface thoughts. I groaned. “I’m sorry, sweetie. I don’t love you like that. It seems unless I feel a special attraction to someone, I don’t respond to their overtures. Greta says that without that special spark, I remain oblivious.”

“It has nothing to do with the fact that I like you and I even enjoy your company, but if I don’t fell ‘IT’, whatever ‘it’ is. I can’t think of you as anything other than a friend. I had the same problem with another shifter. I knew she had feelings for me, but I thought it was just an infatuation because I didn’t feel the same. Things didn’t end so pleasant with her, either,” I sighed.

To my surprise, she chuckled. “You really are oblivious to how many of us feel about you aren’t you?”

“Many of you?” I said worriedly.

She chuckled again and then it turned into a full belly laugh. “Oh Bron, you are priceless. You’re a walking heartthrob and have no idea how you affect those around you. You have no notion of how many of us envy your spouses and would exchange places with them in a heartbeat just to receive one of your loving smiles.”

I frowned, “You’re not serious, are you? I’m not special. Well, maybe a little but then you’ve never lived with me. I can be a real pain in the arse, just ask my spouses. I’m as bull-headed as my title implies.”

She giggled, “But that is part of your charm, Bron. You have to remember that many of us have been conditioned since birth and it is embedded deep in our genes to be picked by a strong bull. You display everything we are told to look for and more. You take charge of every situation but still treat people as if their opinion and more importantly that they are important to you.”

She sat up, so she was supported by her the elbow under her. I had to divert my eyes back to her face after her movement. I may not feel that spark for her, but the male in me could appreciate the very nice udder that was peeking out of the blanket at me. She was a very pretty shifter.

It almost made we wish I could react as she would have liked if only to show my appreciation as any male would have. I wasn’t sure if I was glad or sad by my lack of physical reaction to her even if mentally I could enjoy her charms. I must have a wire loose in my brain, I concluded.

Ala distracted where my impure thoughts were going by saying, “By the goddesses, just look at the other Bulls. They are all older than you are. Yet each and every one of them seeks out your opinion and takes it as a fact that if you say they can do it, then they believe they can. You do it to everyone you come into contact with.”

I sighed and looked at her. Unfortunately, I couldn’t refute her words. Then I grinned, and she frowned at me, “What?” she asked.

“I think you should go to Wanda’s new school,” I said.

“Why?” she asked me suspiciously and moved again.

I got to appreciate that mental image again as she flashed me. Maybe it was a good thing that I didn’t react physically, or she would be in real trouble about now. I grinned broadly and then I chuckled, “I just think it would a nice place for you to broaden your prospects.”

She laughed softly, “Anyone, in particular, I should seek guidance from?”

“Hum, I think you’ll have more fun finding out for yourself,” I replied smugly.

“Bron!” she said in exasperation.

I chuckled a bit more, “Let’s just say, Ricky is sending some of his brood there for the summer lessons. And no, they aren’t here at the festival.”

She growled at me in frustration. I leant forward a kissed her on the forehead. I did reign in the temptation to brush my hand across that pretty udder that was still peeking at me. “Have fun, Ala. And remind me never to get in a corral with you, ever again. You are nasty when you’re cranky.”

She chuckled and tossed her pillow at me as I left.

I re-joined the party.

At first, some of the looks I got had me a little confused until Greta latched onto me. “So was she good?” Greta asked flicking her eyebrows at me suggestively.

“Yeah, she is all good now. The silly shifter had a crush on me. Hopeful I’ve diverted it,” I replied happily and hugged Greta. Damn, now my cock was working. I happily rubbed it against my spouse. I also copped a feel of her lovely udder as I kissed her amorously.

She pulled back from me and started giggling. “Oh, my poor little bull, it must drive you nuts at times,” she cackled.

I looked at her bemused. She rubbed her hand down my now eager cock, and I sighed in the enjoyment of her touch. “So how many women have you fucked, in your mind?” she asked.

I blinked at her in surprise. She cackled again, “You may not react physically to them, but we reap the benefits.”

I pulled her to me and kissed her thoroughly. When I let her up for air, I growled, “I only think of the love in my arms when I fuck them, my love. No one else, you know that.”

She gave me her most loving look, which didn’t encourage my cock to go down. She rubbed her hips against me and said, “Yes we know that too. You are very different Bron. It’s why we love you so much and trust you. Come on, you can celebrate your victory with the others later.”

Greta then proceeded to drag me to our room. She didn’t have to drag me kicking and screaming to get me to follow. I’m not sure who stripped the fastest, but I do know I had her under me with few preliminaries and was soon working my engorged cock into her.

She got it hard and fast for her troubles as well. As soon as she started making her little mooing sounds to tell me she was coming, I happily pumped my seed into her. I was as randy as a bull in a paddock full of heifers in heat. It was just as well she wasn’t in season because she got a hell of a load.