Trophy Cub - 4. The Woods are Lovely, Dark and Deep

Kane surprised Mike by staying true to his word. A few days after the night of the Estrus Moon, a lycan came to Mike’s room shortly after breakfast holding the black hood.

“I’m here to take you outside for the day,” the lycan stated in a bored tone of voice, as if this wasn’t the most exciting thing to happen to Mike in the last year of captivity.

Mike allowed himself to be hooded and guided through the maze of hallways and up two stairwells until passing through a doorway and feeling bright sun against his skin.

The lycan removed the hood and Mike quickly shielded his eyes against the bright sunlight. After a minute his eyes adjusted, and he was able to take a look at his surroundings. He stood at the edge of a large grass field, dotted here and there with benches, picnic tables and gazebos.

Behind him stood the pack house. It was Mike’s first time seeing the exterior of his prison. It was a massive structure four stories tall, with several wings and additions that appeared to have been added over time to create a sprawling complex capable of comfortably housing over one hundred adult lycans. The members of the pack were not confined to small windowless rooms like Mike; they were provided with apartments within the house that provided ample space and comfort based upon the individual’s status within the pack. Somewhere in the massive structure was a dining hall capable of serving meals to a hundred ravenous wolves three times a day, exercise facilities, entertainment options, and an indoor pool, sauna, and hot tub.

It would be an idyllic self-contained community if it wasn’t inhabited by a pack of cold and heartless sexually frustrated wolves.

“The Alpha says that you may wander anywhere you wish among the grass fields surrounding the pack house today,” the lycan told Mike, “but do not enter the woods. There will be eyes on you the entire day, and if you cross into the woods surrounding the compound, you will be hunted down and punished. Is that clear?”

“Clear,” Mike replied, and bared his neck to the lycan in submission.

The wolf gave a scornful sniff at Mike’s submissive posture, and then waved his arm towards the field before walking back and leaning against the wall of the pack house next to the doors.

Mike set off at a jog toward the middle of the grassy field. When he guessed that he was about halfway between the house and the edge of the woods, he pitched forward into a somersault and rolled to a stop on his back, luxuriating in the feel of the cool grass against his naked body. He did nothing at all for the next hour except occasionally roll over this way and that, trying to expose as much of his body to the sunlight as possible.

After an hour of lounging in the sun, Mike began to worry about burning, especially after so long without any sun exposure at all, so he wandered over to a lone oak tree standing in the field and laid back down in the shade of its wide spreading branches. The gentle breeze and the twitter of the birds roosting in the tree above him soon lulled Mike into a pleasant sleep.

He woke some time later to the sound of an impatient voice, and a steel-toe boot kicking him in the ribs.

“Hey. Hey, human. Just because you’re outside now doesn’t mean your cocksucking mouth is off the clock. Get on your knees and take care of this.”

Mike opened his eyes to see a tall and broad sandy-haired lycan standing over him wearing a pair of work coveralls unzipped to below his waist and a hard cock sticking straight out. This was the same one who had lost in the first fight of the tournament a few days earlier.

Mike took ahold of the man’s pant legs to pull himself to a kneeling position.

“Not right here! Everyone can see us!” the lycan exclaimed, pulling Mike by the shoulder several feet over so that they were positioned with the wide trunk of the tree blocking any view from the pack house. Mike didn’t know what the difference was between now and the night of the tournament when he’d had Mike in the clearing right out in the open; maybe it was because today it was in broad daylight.

Once he was satisfied that he was at least partially hidden from view, the lycan grabbed Mike by the back of his head and guided him to his straining cock, already dripping with pre-cum. Mike opened his mouth, and it was immediately invaded by the musky and sweaty rod. The man moved his hands to hold Mike’s ears and began fucking his face with an energetic pace. Mike had probably blown this lycan two hundred times over the course of his captivity and knew that if he reached inside the coveralls to gently stroke the man’s balls, he would get this over with much more quickly.

The lycan roared at Mike’s touch and twisted his ears painfully as he jammed his spurting cock as far into Mike’s throat as possible. Mike swallowed all that he was given, and then sat back onto his heels with his head down waiting for the lycan to straighten up his clothing and leave.

“Oh right,” the wolf said, reaching around the side of the tree trunk and grabbing a brown paper sack, “Here’s your lunch, human, if you have any room left in your belly, that is.” He smirked at his own little joke and dropped the sack in front of Mike before turning to walk back to the pack house.

Mike sighed and carried the sack over to a nearby picnic table. Luckily, it was a couple of peanut butter sandwiches and a bottle of water today. The only thing the wolves enjoyed more than raw meat was their peanut butter.

The afternoon consisted of visits from two more lycans, one seeking a discreet blowjob behind the oak tree again, and another who brazenly bent Mike over the picnic table right out in the open and fucked his ass raw for all to see.

As the sun dipped toward the horizon, the wolf who had escorted him from his room that morning returned with the hood to take him back.

“I hope you enjoyed your day off, human,” the lycan said dryly. “Tomorrow your training begins for a new kind of entertainment for the pack.”

“What kind of entertainment do I need training for?” whined Mike as he was led through the halls of the house wearing the hood. “What fresh hell does the Alpha have in store for me this time?”

“I’m not going to spoil the surprise,” the lycan replied with a hint of amusement in his voice, “But this could possibly be fun for you too, little human. Time will tell.”

Arriving back at Mike’s room, the wolf pulled the hood off brusquely and pushed Mike through the doorway, locking it behind him.

****

Over the next couple of weeks, Mike was taken outdoors each morning and forced to run endless laps around the pack house complex. His trainers judged his performance each day on speed and endurance and were pleased when both began to slowly improve as Mike began the tedious process of getting back into shape.

Once they were satisfied that his progress had reached a plateau, they transformed a large area of the field into a military-style obstacle course, forcing Mike to jump, climb, swing and crawl around a variety of obstacles as he was again evaluated on his speed and endurance.

Late summer passed to early fall and Mike was thankfully given a pair of canvas sneakers and a few pairs of sweatpants and sweatshirts to wear outdoors as the air became chillier and he moved on to the final phase of his training.

In the final phase, Mike was shown a topographical map of a section of woods to the east of the pack house. Each day, the map would be marked with a pin, indicating the destination where a bell had been left in the woods that he was expected to find and ring. They would give him a minute to study the map and terrain, and then he would be told, “Run!” Once again, he was evaluated on the speed in which he could run through the underbrush, over and under fallen trees, leaping small streams until he reached the desired destination and rang the bell.

After a month of this final phase of his training, instead of the bell, Bart the Beta wolf was waiting for him at his destination in the woods to guide him back to the pack house.

“Congratulations, human. You have completed your training and are now ready for your new role in the entertainment of the pack.

“You should be proud of yourself. It has been over a hundred years since we’ve had a pet who has managed to not only survive their time as the pack’s cum dump, but also complete the training to become our official ‘Lure.’

“No longer will the males be able to barge into your room and demand sex from you as they have done in the past. From now on, if a male desires to use you in that manner, they must earn the privilege by hunting and chasing you down in the woods and capturing their prey like a real wolf.”

“What happens if I get to the bell and ring it before they catch me?” Mike asked anxiously, “Does that mean that mean that they don’t get to use me?”

Bart chuckled a bit, and replied, “No, little one. Starting tomorrow there will be no more bells. You should know the terrain of those woods well enough by now that the goal for you will simply be to run and make the chase last as long as possible. The game ends when the wolf catches you and claims their prize.

“Wolves have been adding their names to the sign-up sheet for the last couple of weeks. We’re planning to offer two games a day in the morning and afternoon, and at the current rate, we have about two months’ worth of games booked solid.”

****

After the first couple of miserable weeks following the start of the game, Mike finally felt that it really was an improvement in his overall existence. No longer did he have to lay in bed staring at the ceiling, waiting for ten or fifteen horny lycans a day to barge into his room and fuck him silly. Now at the very least, he was outdoors getting sun and exercise, and there were only two horny lycans chasing him down for the privilege of fucking him each day. Even though the outcome was always the same, Mike still felt a little bit of pride in himself when he was able to evade his pursuer for an especially long time before being captured.

Mike was able to learn some things as well; things that may become useful if he was ever able to work up the courage to attempt an escape. He learned the ways that the wolves used their different senses in tracking him, and how he could trick those senses. For example, if he crisscrossed his path over the same spot several times over the course of a couple days, that spot became a place where a wolf could get sidetracked trying to figure out which of the many scent trails was the freshest. He learned that running through a patch of skunk cabbage along the bank of a stream was enough deterrent to throw his pursuer off his scent trail for a while. He also learned which type of soil was soft enough to muffle his footfalls and which ground could be heard by sensitive wolf ears from a quarter mile away as he ran across it.

This knowledge had the immediate benefit of making the games much more exciting for the pack, but the long-term effect was that it made Mike much more stealthy and cunning when it could lead to the potentially life-and-death struggle for escape and freedom.

By the peak of the fall colors, Mike had played the game with each of the males in the pack at least once, except for Pip, Nick and the Alpha. Pip, Mike could understand, as he didn’t have an exceedingly high drive to chase down prey, but he would have expected Nick and the Alpha to be the first ones to sign up for the new entertainment.

Much to Mike’s surprise, when he arrived at the staging area next to the woods one day for the afternoon game, he found Nick on the platform waiting for him. Nick had already removed his clothing and he flexed his muscles aggressively as he glared at Mike who took his usual place in the starting position.

“Enforcer, since this is your first chase,” the referee said to Nick, “I’ll remind you of the rules. The Lure gets a ten-minute head start. At the end of that ten minutes you may shift to your wolf and begin tracking him. When you catch the Lure, you must pin him to the ground until he verbally says, ‘I surrender,’ after which you may remove his clothing and use him sexually as you wish to claim your prize.

“No biting, no injury to the Lure, and no blood. Is that understood?”

Nick nodded his agreement never letting his eyes drop from the glare at Mike.

“Also, please refrain from tearing off his sweatpants before fucking him if possible. Our Omega grows weary of making long trips to Wal-Mart to buy replacements every week.”

Nick glanced over at the referee with a look that indicated that he would make no such promise.

“Fuck Pip, and fuck you,” Nick replied before returning his glare back to Mike.

“Alrighty then,” the referee stammered before regaining his composure, “Lure ready…Run!”

Mike leaped from the platform into the woods and started down a well-worn path that he’d used many times before that he knew was heavy with his scent. About a quarter mile from the starting point and out of view and earshot from Nick, who was still in his human form on the platform, the path veered to the right and followed along the bank of a stream. This time instead of following the path at this point, Mike gave a mighty jump and leaped over the stream in one bound, landing on the opposite bank and then continued his run to the left, in the opposite direction from the path already bearing his scent. With any luck, Nick will continue following the old scent trail on the other side of the creek and will keep going in the wrong direction, buying him some additional time.

Mike continued running in the new direction as fast as he could manage, leaping rocks and roots and dodging low-hanging branches, making sure not to touch or brush against anything that could catch and hold his scent. His ten-minute head start was over, and Nick would have shifted to his wolf and started hunting him by now. He knew that he was nearing the boundary of the territory that he had memorized from the map. All his training and his previous games had taken place in the wooded acres to the east of where he now ran, so he had a decision to make; turn and stay within the territory that he knew well or continue on his current course into unknown territory and hope to throw Nick even further off of his trail.

“Fuck it,” Mike mumbled to himself. “Unknown territory it is.”

After running for another half-mile, Mike suddenly found himself stumbling down a bank of skunk cabbage, ending up knee-deep in a creek. The creek was wider than any of the streams that he had encountered in the woods before and seemed to have a bit of a current flowing in the middle. Mike waded out until he was up to his neck, and then allowed the current to sweep him off his feet. He paddled with his hands just enough to keep his face above water and welcomed the low profile that would render him nearly invisible to all but the sharpest set of wolf eyes. After drifting with the current for another half-mile Mike was pleased with himself that this was the farthest he had ever gotten away from the pack house in any of his previous attempts. He was definitely getting better at the game.

The creek flowed around a sharp bend and Mike laid eyes on his salvation. Just ahead, the creek ran underneath a road bridge. The road would lead him to humans, civilization, and rescue! After so many months of misery and torture, the end was finally in sight. Mike paddled over to the side of the creek and began to climb up the steep bank to the roadway. Just as he neared the top, he heard the roar from the surrounding trees a mere second before the enormous wolf leaped from the shadows and grabbed him with sharp claws, pushing him back down the hill and knocking the wind out of his lungs as he hit the hard-packed dirt at the bottom of the bank.

The wolf glared at him for a few seconds from the top of the hill near the road and then began to shift from wolf to human as he stalked down the hill to his dazed prey. When he reached the bottom, he grabbed Mike by a fistful of wet sweatshirt and lifted his upper body off the ground.

“I surrender,” croaked Mike trying to catch his breath.

Mike prepared to be stripped of his clothes and raped again, but instead Nick hauled his other hand back in a fist and punched Mike directly in the nose.

Mike screamed as blood immediately spurted from his nose and ran down his chin.

“Stop, Nick! You can’t…”

“The fuck I can’t,” Nick replied as he punched Mike in the face two more times. “You think you can lead me on a fucking merry chase cross country and steal my Alpha from me and get away with it? Fuck you, bitch. I’m going to end it once and for all right now.”

Nick threw Mike back onto the hard-packed creek bed and punched him in the face with both fists another half dozen times.

“What are you talking about?” Mike sputtered, coughing up blood that continued to flow from his nose and into his throat. “I didn’t steal your Alpha!”

“Of course you did.” Nick growled, leaning forward within inches of Mike’s bleeding face so that he could whisper directly into the injured human’s ear. “Before you came along, the Alpha loved me. It was me that he came to at night when he was horny and frustrated. He fucked me to show me how much he loved me because I was his favorite out of the whole pack.

“But since he’s had your lily-white human ass and mouth, he hasn’t given me so much as a sideways glance. You are all he talks about now and it makes me want to puke! The Alpha could have made sure that Bart and I each fought other wolves in the second round of the tournament so that we both got a chance to breed, but instead he pitted us against each other and allowed me to be humiliated.

“All because of you.

“So, little human,” Nick said, standing up and returning to his normal booming voice, "I think you’ve caused enough trouble for this pack that it would be better off without you.”

He raised his right hand one more time but this time his fingers had shifted into claws that were prepared to remove Mike’s head from his body.

As Mike flinched and waited for the blow, they both heard a loud, commanding voice calling down from the roadway.

“Nick! What the hell do you think you’re doing with our Lure? You know you were told the rules: no injuries and no blood!”

Kane was standing next to a black SUV parked beside the bridge. Mike hadn’t heard the car pull up as Nick whispered his accusations, but he wondered how much of Nick’s diatribe Kane had heard.

Nick dropped his clawed hand to his side and looked up at his Alpha.

“Forgive me, Alpha. The Lure broke the rules and wandered outside of the permitted territory. He obviously wasn’t trained properly enough to stay within assigned boundaries. It would be best for the pack if we just put him down now before he puts our community in any danger.”

“Best for the pack?” Kane asked in a mocking tone, “Or do you mean best for you, Enforcer? Regardless, I’ll be the one who decides what is best for the pack, and I’ve decided that we aren’t done having fun with this one just yet. It amuses me how such a small, weak thing managed to get the better of the Enforcer of the mightiest pack in the land and lead him on a chase miles away from the hunting ground.”

“Yes, Alpha. I’m sorry, Alpha.”

“We’ll discuss how sorry you are later. Pick up the Lure and put him in the back of the SUV. We’ll drive him back to the pack house. You’ve forfeited your right to any sexy-time with him for today when you bloodied his nose and blackened both of his eyes.”

“Yes, Alpha.”

Nick grabbed Mike by the arm and threw him over his shoulder into a fireman’s carry and trudged back up the embankment to the SUV. After dumping Mike unceremoniously in the back, he seated himself in the front passenger seat for the drive back home.

After several minutes of silent driving, Kane finally sighed and said, “You may be right about the chase boundaries, Nick. Now that he knows how to get beyond the territory of the compound and to a public road, we’ll need to suspend any further games until we can determine a way to restrict his movements a bit.”

“So, what do you want to do with him now,” Nick asked, “Is he going back to giving blowjobs in his room in the sub-basement again?”

“No…” Kane began, “I have other things in mind for him next.” An ominous grin slowly spread across his face. “When was the last time you and I visited the Silver Bullet?”

Nick mirrored Kane’s grin and shook his head, “It’s been so long that I can’t even remember. I think the Silver Bullet would be the perfect playground for your little pet to learn some boundaries. You always know best, Alpha.”

In the back of the SUV, Mike heard none of the discussion of his fate. Exhaustion and pain had finally won for the day, and he had passed out before the vehicle even left the bridge. Nick glanced back at him to make sure that he was still out cold and grinned even wider at the thought of the fresh horrors he could help inflict on the pathetic human next once they got him out of the house and into the Silver Bullet.

Yes, Nick thought, this might just work out after all.