The alpha touch

by Caliburn

Young engineer Max has a good deed rewarded with a mysterious rune now tattooed to his wrist. Bestowed with the power to change the body of the men he touches, Max’s life and his friends’ change quite a bit.

The Alpha Touch, #1 15 parts 61k words (#49) Added Jan 2022 Updated 4 Nov 2023 91k views (#38) 4.9 stars (213 votes)

You may be looking for the following similarly named stories: The Alpha by Ziel; Alpha by CharitysSongbird.

Part 1 Young engineer Max has a good deed rewarded with a mysterious rune now tattooed to his wrist. Bestowed with the power to change the body of the men he touches, Max’s life and his friends’ change quite a bit. (added: 15 Jan 2022)
Part 2
Part 3 At the office, Max tries to figure out his new abilities, and soon finds an opportunity to test them rather aggressively. (added: 22 Jan 2022)
Part 4 Things at the office might have calmed down, but as Max’s trip gets closer, his grip on and understanding of the alpha touch gets better. Max’s innocent roommate Kai ends up being the perfect guinea pig to train with. (added: 29 Jan 2022)
Part 5
Part 6 Max inadvertently triggers a new ability of the alpha rune that brings him closer to the men he had touched so far, as well to some mysterious figures that seem to be related to the runes. As he explores the changes and augmentations he’d made to the guys, Max’s more primal urges start surfacing … along with a craving for more growth. (added: 5 Feb 2022)
Part 7 Max’s group head to the airport as the conference trip begins, but his head is filled with the need of using the alpha touch—of changing someone. Max tries to keep it together but as his male companions inadvertently trigger his thirst for growth he finally cracks, leading to some big changes for one of them. (added: 12 Feb 2022)
Part 8 Max starts bonding with Matthew over his recent changes but as their journey begins, his boss’s behavior becomes bolder and sexually charged. Once at the hotel, an unexpected turn of events creates the opportunity for Max and one of his friends to spend more time together … could this be an opportunity for some growing? (added: 19 Feb 2022)
Part 9 Max gets installed in Scott’s room and find himself enjoying his company more than he realized. The gang hits the pool to let off some steam, but a bold move from Matthew leads Max to use his powers on a seemingly innocent stranger, deciding for the first time not to hold back. What could go wrong? (added: 26 Feb 2022)
Part 10 Max recovers from his encounter with Riley thanks to the help of a friendly stranger who seems more than interested in getting closer to him. As the Alpha touch raises new questions and causes new surprises, Max learns that his actions have consequences, resulting on one of his friends being hurt. (added: 5 Mar 2022)
Part 11 The conference finally starts and Max has to deal with last night’s consequences, which seem to be deeper and more complicated than he initially thought. Trying to escape from the drama around him, Max ends up triggering a steamy encounter between a couple of friends. (added: 19 Mar 2022)
Intermission 1: Theta Trading It’s already been a year since Henry Hoover became a rune holder, but the memories of how he’d lost control and sent three guys to the hospital still haunt him by night. As he is trying to rewrite some wrongs, Henry learns he’s no longer the newest member in Lao’s cluster. (added: 31 Dec 2022)
Part 12 Max’s steamy encounter with Gabriel leads to the realization that the Alpha rune might have put a target on his back, putting him in danger. Omega stated his intentions clearly, but what about the British guy on the fountain? Is he a friend or a foe?  (added: 7 Oct 2023)
Part 13 Still haunted by the encounter with Omega, Max heads to dinner only to find himself once again in the middle of Nick’s and Lena’s cold war. As the group’s dynamics evolve in unexpected directions, Max share close moments with both Matthew and Scott, their relationships “growing” further.  (added: 21 Oct 2023)
Part 14 A discarded shirt laying lonely on the bed, a fluffy white towel, and the warm sparks of the alpha rune are all key elements on the wake of Max’s and Scott’s night. A bold proposition and a risky move from one of the guys might push things in the wrong direction... or maybe, the right direction?  (added: 4 Nov 2023)
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Part 1

My name is Maximus, but my friends call me Max. I guess you can call me Max too, cuz if you are going to hear my story, then I have the feeling we will get quite acquainted. You see, I always wanted to live an exciting life and boy did I get some …

Get comfortable, take a drink, as I’m about to tell you how I got the “alpha touch” and how it changed me. How it changed everything.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

The morning was particularly cold for a spring day, but I love the cool air when I go out for a jog. It must have been around 6 a.m. when I finally reached the beach boulevard, the final part of my usual route.

You could say I am an early bird; I have what my friends would consider a super ability: to get up before my alarm sounds. My energy peaks at mornings so I do not have much trouble getting up. With the years, I got used to spend all that extra energy by working out at sunrise. It helps level my head before starting my days, and it pays off.

I am no fitness influencer, but I am in good shape if I can say so myself. Like most guys, I struggle with that bit of belly fat who refuses to go away, but even though I do not own a full six-pack, I’m quite comfortable with my body, having what I’ve heard several times to be called a swimmer’s build. I had promised myself when I was younger that I would not let myself go whenever life started to settle down a bit. There I was, 28 years old and 15% of body fat to show for.

The first beams of sunlight where flashing by the mountain at the eastern border, letting me spot two lonely surfers by the water, some girls stretching out their yoga carpets on the sand and your occasional bystander taking pictures of the dawn. Usual day. But something caught my eye: a dog.

Sitting in the middle of the right lane of the avenue, there was a big, light-brown shar-pei dog. I have never seen this dog before at the beach and I have been running here for three years. Hell, I have only seen this kind of dog in movies. Was it lost? I slowed down my pace before stopping by the sidewalk, next to the ball of fur. I turned my head around, but I could not spot the owner. I was the only person there. I’m a dog lover, so I couldn’t resist leaving it alone.

“Hey boy,” I said, with that usual soft voice we tend to use when speaking to dogs and babies. “Come here boy! Come on, are you lost?”

The dog stared at me and let his tongue slip out, breathing calmly. It did not budge. The overall look of the animal did not strike me as aggressive, yet I approached it carefully, soothing it, as I turned my head around checking for any incoming cars. I reached the middle of the lane and petted the dog’s head. He welcomed it. But then again, he did not budge.

“You can’t stay here,” I said as I checked the tag on its vermillion collar. “Foo?”

“Woof!” barked the dog upon hearing its name. Well, that was a good sign.

The address at the backside of the tag was not far, but it was enough for me to wonder how it ended up alone at the beach. No phone number though. I checked my watch. I still had time to spare before work, so I decided I could bring it back to his owner before heading back home.

“Okay, Foo, we cannot stay here, let’s go.” I gently pulled his collar, yet he looked at me and stayed put. Okay, this was not working.

The headlights of a car driving down the avenue were beaming towards us. He honked once to warn us.

“Come on buddy!” I nudged the dog harder, yet he did not move. Was it enjoying this?

The car honked twice as it came closer. Not slowing down.

“Oh, screw it,” I said, as I slipped my arms under the dog and lifted him out the way. I rushed to the sidewalk with this 50-pound drooling plushie in my arms, just in time for the car to pass by. The driver lashing some insults I could not quite get.

“Are you crazy?! Do you have a death wish, dog?” I said, panting a bit as I put him down.

“Woof!” he barked again and licked me straight in the face.

“Great … just … great,” I said, wiping the drool off from my face. “Yeah, yeah, you’re welcome. Now let us take you home.”

I thought I’d struggle to make him move again, yet Foo decided he was done mocking me and walked by my side as took it home. It kind of recognized the way I’d say. I even wondered If it was leading me, when I had to check my phone at some crossroads and the dog firmly took the right turn.

We eventually arrived to a small store, no name visible. I could see through the display windows that the lights were on inside. What seemed to be old wooden and metal artifacts stood gracefully arranged. Some antique store I guessed.

“Hello?” I said as I opened the door leading to the central of three aisles which were divided by some shelves taller than me. Every ledge crowded with fancy objects. A bell chimed as the door went open. “Sorry to barge in, but I found your dog at the street … hello? Is anyone here?”

Foo blasted through the door, clearly familiar to the place and it went straight to the back of the store where a counter stood. Half of it masked to me by the shelves. I slowly followed him. The air was filled with a nice, sweet scent I could only describe as incense. The place had a comforting aura to it.

“Ah, I see you have made another friend, Foo,” said a soft, deep voice from behind the counter.

I turned the corner to see a bald old man, with snowy-white eyebrows and a short beard, dressed on what I could only describe as a blue male kimono. He was petting Foo, as it vividly waved his tail.

As he saw me, the man stood up from the small chair he was on. He seemed to be quite agile for a man his age. If I had to guess I’d say he had to be stepping onto his eighty-something.

“Thank you for bringing Foo home,” he said, folding his hand one over the other with a small bow. “My apologies for the inconveniences.”

“Oh, hello sir, I am sorry to … yeah.” I cleared my throat. “You’re welcome. It was no problem, I love dogs, and he rubs off on you easily. I found it by the beach.”

“He wanders off sometimes,” said the man softly. He had quite a compelling voice. “Yet, he manages to come back, always with the nicest companions. A smart dog that one.”

“Woof,” barked Foo from the back, as in response to the compliment just said.

I was a bit distracted by the maybe-too-perfect timing of that last interaction.

“What is your name young lad?”

“Maximus,” I said, looking down at the man’s eyes. He was short, and I guess the age only played a role in that. I am 6 feet tall myself and by comparison I’d say he was around 5’3.

“Pleased to meet you, Maximus, my name is Lao,” he said and slowly bowed once again. I found myself doing the same, hoping he would see it as a sign of respect for his culture, and not a mockery.

“I’m afraid,” continued the man, “I have no money to reward you … yet you can look around the store. If there’s anything you like, you can take it, as token of my appreciation.”

“Thanks Mr. Lao, really, but there’s no need. I was just leaving …” I started to say, yet he lifted a finger, indicating me to stop.

“I insist,” he said firmly. “You may find out there is something here, for everyone who enters.”

I knew better than to continue to argue with the man. So, I decided to take his offer. I would scan around the store and find something small and not so fancy looking that I could take without feeling overpaid.

“Feel free, take your time,” added Lao, as he turned around and went back to the counter.

I paced the first two aisles amazed by the state of many of the artifacts in there. China, wooden fans, and even old guns. All of it polished, waxed and perfectly cleaned. It was a beautiful display. Too bad it was not showing more by the main street. This place would be a hit for curious eyes.

I was at the third aisle when my eyes were caught by a tiny wooden box, containing 5 metal pieces inside. At first, I thought they were stamps. One of them resembled the Greek letter theta, yet a bit tweaked. There was also what seemed to be an omega. Two of them I was completely unfamiliar with, not recognizing their form. But I was instantly drawn by the fifth one, a matte black slim metal piece resembling the Greek letter alpha. I could swear I could see some gold sparks at the edges, like glitter, coming out of it. The light was playing some tricks on me.

“I see you found what called you here,” said Lao, who was suddenly standing next to me.

My heart skipped a beat. When did he got there? The floor tiles didn’t even creak when he moved.

“You startled me,” I gasped. “I did not see you there …”

“The alpha touch, eh?” Lao said, interrupting me and completely ignoring my reaction. “The strongest of the five runes. You must have a powerful imagination my boy, for I have not seen it awake in more than forty years.”

“The … what?” I swear I’m not usually this awkward when talking, yet Lao had an aura that compelled me to listen whenever he talked.

“You can see it glisten, don’t you?” he asked.

Indeed. The other four runes where pretty on their own yet the “alpha” one was … sparkling. Like champagne bubbles coming to the surface of the metal only to meet the air and crack the faintest light.

I nodded.

“It wants you to wield it, so now it is yours,” added Lao. “May I …?” Lao pointed at my left hand and waited patiently until I realized what he wanted. I gave him my hand, which he took swiftly, his own hands still covered by the kimono’s long sleeves. He turned it around, exposing the underside of my wrist.

“What are you …?” I started to say, but once again the old man interrupted my speech.

“You will see. I will just give you what is yours.”

Lao took the alpha rune from the back of the wooden box and placed it gently on my left wrist. I expected the metal to be cold at touch, but it was warm. Kind of ticklish. Lao used his hands, still hidden under the blue fabric, to completely cover the rune, pushing it firmly against my skin.

It felt … weird … but good. In the split of a second it was like I could hear nothing my own heartbeat, the rune warmer and warmer to the touch, sending electricity through my whole body. It was like waves of pleasure were rushing through me. Like an adrenaline rush mixed with the feeling you got when kissing your first crush, all of it, times ten. And as soon as it started, it stopped.

I was panting and beads of sweat were running through my forehead.

“What just happened?” I managed to say, short breathed. “How did you do that?”

Lao met my gaze with the sweetest smile and he slowly removed the rune from my wrist. The metal piece no longer shining but pitch black, leaving behind a duplicate. A perfect copy of the rune was now tattooed to my wrist, this one glistening at the borders with the same bubble-sparks effect I saw before, but now dazzling on my skin. It slowly fainted until it was just a plain black tattoo.

I grabbed my wrist and caressed the skin expecting it to burn or itch, but not at all. It felt as usual.

Panic ran through my face and I started to feel anxious. Enraged even. What did this man do to me?

“Calm down, Maximus,” commanded Lao, with a more serious tone than the one he had been using so far. “I would never harm you. And you know I have not. Odds are you have even enjoyed this.”

I could not say a word, I just stood there, rubbing my wrist as I watched the old man. We stared at each other for several minutes, as I paced my breath. He was right, I actually loved the high I just got when the rune touched my skin, and deep inside, I knew I wasn’t in danger. As the rush of the moment subsided, only curiosity stayed.

Silence was broken by my cellphone ringing. It was my alarm reminding me it was time to end my run and go back home or I will be late for work. Damn it. I considered ignoring it yet Lao spoke.

“Now now,” he said, clapping his hands twice in front of his face. “You need to manifest the rune by yourself. Even if I wanted, I could not guide you through it. For now, seize the day my boy. You will be back, and then we will talk.”

The old man turned around and headed to the counter where Foo was sitting, staring at me without blinking.

“Mr. Lao, wait!” I said. I had so many questions, but the dumbest one was the one that came out. “Is this … is this coming off, or what?”

What can I say? I was not a fan of tattoos. I’d never wanted one.

“Trust me lad, once you master its powers, you will realize how silly of a question that was.”

 

Part 2

My place was not exactly nearby but I jogged my way back and I was able to catch some time. I took a quick shower and tried with three different products to make the tattoo go away. No luck whatsoever. I ended up giving up, deciding to call my doctor during the day. I had no rash or any reaction in the affected skin area, nor I felt any different. Yet, I could not just let this unchecked.

I dressed up for work, grabbed my bag and darted through the door. On the way, I browsed the web through my phone looking for anything related to ancient runes or the “alpha touch” (at least that is what I thought I heard Lao say back at the store). Yet nothing matched the symbol now seared in my skin. I could not help but look at it from time to time. It was kind of sexy flashing through the sleeve of my shirt. Was I warming up to this thing?

I entered the coffee house and searched the place for Nick, yet I did not find him. Nick was one of my closest friends from work. He joined the division six months before I did, and so, he was tasked to chaperone the newcomers when Viktor, Lena and I arrived. Viktor, Lena and I go way back. We met several years before, at engineering school, and we became close friends.

We happened to apply and be accepted into the same company, so as you can imagine, we are tight. Nick quickly became fond of us and we made him part of the gang. My division was not particularly big, there were around 15 of us at the open space, yet I kept my inner circle clearly differentiated from those who just happened to be friendly colleagues.

Every morning Nick and I met at this coffee house to pick up some morning boosters and tackle our days. I figured he was running late.

“Hey, Max, the usual?” said Melissa, one of the baristas, as I approached the counter.

“Hey, Mel, yeah, make it double and put them to go, Nick’s running late, I guess,” I replied as I placed some cash in front of her.

“Noted. Pick a table, Derek will bring them up soon … And Max? You look good today.”

Melissa was such a charming girl. Brown wavy hair, green eyes. Just enough freckles and an easy-showing smile. We have been meeting every morning for the last two years, or maybe more, and I can still feel she is not over the crush she had on me.

No, I am not an arrogant jerk. She gave me her number like two weeks after I started coming to the coffee house. It broke my heart to turn her down. She instantly assumed I was taken, and excused herself as her face turned bright red. The truth is I was perfectly single at the time, I am still single for that matter, but I was not into girls. I am gay, and I have been since I can recall. I am not closeted or ashamed of it, my friends and family know about it, it is just not the kind of personal information that you blurt out to the next-door barista.

I have seen her brush off as many guys hitting on her, as coffees she served a day. Every morning at least one guy asked her out or casually left his card behind. And that is just what I have seen! I can only imagine the rest of her shift. I figured she would have already met someone she liked, and she’d be less forward to me. Yet there we were, trading smiles and meaningful silences. Romcom material.

Okay, I admit I have a really flirty side. But it is nothing she had ever met. I was just extra nice to the ladies in general and that can come off as flirty for some girls, as Lena explained to me back on our freshman year.

“Thanks, Mel,” I said, smiling at her. We held our gaze until the lady behind me cleared her throat to make us aware she was there. I grabbed the change and went straight to the table next to the window.

I checked my phone to find a text from Nick: “running late, I’ll be there in 10”.

I saw he changed his profile pic. I recognized the scene from his ski trip last year. He was looking at the horizon using the “I don’t know I’m being photographed” stance. I chuckled. Nick was a handsome guy. Short blond hair. Square jaw. He was not really into sports, but he was taller than me and he managed to stay slim, even though he ate for two persons. Add some sense of humor and a cocky attitude and you get yourself a Nick.

By this point in our relationship I know him enough to connect the dots. Nick was quite the ladies man and judging by the new picture and him running late, I would say a new girl met his apartment last night.

I put my phone away as I saw Derek, the second barista, approaching with both my coffees on a tray. You see, I referred to Mel as charming. And that is what she was for me. Cute. Like, I don’t know, a puppy or a baby. But for Derek, I’d use very different words. Derek was hot. Shy-boy hot.

Brown skin, nice tan. I have never seen him with more than a two-day stubble, covering his whole jaw and shading his face in the manliest way. He wore some wide square glasses which only added to the good-boy ensemble. Cherry on the top? He was buff. He was not that tall, yet he had broad shoulders and a bulky build that looked really nice on him. Under a thin layer of body fat, you could see he went to the gym. His white polo-shirt sleeves being filled perfectly by those arms of his. Not huge, not ripped, just fine.

Yup, I’m into buff guys. I guess you didn’t see that coming. Yeah, right …

I have never exchanged more than two or three phrases with Derek but by everyday meeting, we could say we were acquainted. I should have learned a lesson from Melissa and gave him my number months ago, yet I always had this looming fear that the guys I pick an interest on, were straight, and I’d just make a fool of myself by coming forth. I did not want to change my every-morning coffee house if the situation became awkward, so I never acted upon this small crush, Derek being reduced to just early morning eye-candy.

“There you go,” he said as he placed the first cup on the table and handed me the second one.. “I took them up a size. It’s on the house.”

“Thanks, buddy,” I said, flashing a smile as I went to pick the cup with my left hand. My fleeting horny thoughts inexistent to those outside my head. Yet still present. Very present.

Just as I grabbed the cup, my fingers brushed Derek’s. Nothing more than casual contact. But that is when I felt it …

Reality went bonkers. I felt the air in my lungs leave, yet I was still perfectly breathing. I was suddenly very aware of all my surroundings. Everything seemed to have moved to a fictional background. Every object or person became fuzzy, like a camera filter had been applied to them. Somber tones on everything. I recognized shapes and edges of the coffee house, but colors were opaque, sound was muffled. I blinked several times to no avail, yet every light present in my sight seemed to be focusing … On Derek.

Oblivious to my dizzy spell (and the fact I still held my hand and cup in the air like a moron), Derek had turned around and made his way back to the bar. A golden aura ever so softly engulfed him. Yet nor him nor everyone seemed to notice. Glittery tendrils surrounded him, coming in and out of his body. Derek was the only thing I could see clearly. That and the bubble-sparks then again present in the alpha rune on my wrist, dazzling on my skin.

The rune became warm and I gasped again as my mind filled with numbers. Facts I did not know a second ago yet now engraved in my head. It was like I could read a personal file on Derek.

Full name, age, height, weight, blood type … everything was there. Every measure, every detail. And I knew, I just knew this was real. They were all true.

What was happening? Was this the rune’s power?

Derek handed the next customer his coffee and casually adjusted his dick through his green apron.

Wait … that gave me an idea. Could I somehow know his cock’s size?

A warm pulsation came from my left wrist as the numbers flashed in my head. Grower, cut. 3.5 inches soft, 6.2 fully erect, with 4.1 inches around.

Derek, my boy, you were nicely hung. I felt my own dick chub up a little as I thought about seeing that dick. As the thought crossed my mind, Derek’s clothes became completely see-through, for me and just for me. Every piece of clothing was still there, yet I could only see the edges, having the boy’s body completely naked in full display.

Am I imagining this? No. It was too strong, too clear for me to take this for a fantasy or a daydream. This was happening. I could see Derek’s naked body. The 3.5 inches where there alright, perfectly tugged and held in place by his boxer briefs. Derek was not particularly hairy on his upper body, yet I saw he still manscaped. His pubes and treasure trail were perfectly trimmed down, and I saw no hair on his armpits. Watching him move around doing his job, yet naked, fully turned me on, my dick now hard in my pants.

Derek turned around and started sorting some little boxes on the shelves behind the bar as I fixed on his arms. Damn I loved his arms. His biceps peaking and relaxing as he flexed or stretched to reach the higher ledges. He’d look even better if they were bigger … And the rune seemed to have reacted to that thought.

A stronger, hotter pulsation came from my wrist, I could feel it burning but I wasn’t in pain. I saw the golden sparks finally stop moving and the whole tattoo, once black, became bright gold. I turned and saw Derek again, fixing my sight on his upper arms. Less than three seconds later, I saw it happening. They grew. Just a bit, like someone blew some air inside them both arms seemed to have inflated: his triceps more defined, his biceps becoming fuller. He seemed completely unaware.

Did I just make his muscles grow? Did that actually happen? I saw it myself, yet I didn’t believe it. I was awestruck … Yet I wanted it to happen again. “Bigger,” I thought, and Derek’s arms reacted, gaining mass again, enough for his sleeves to start riding up.

Derek took a hand to his right sleeve and tried to pull it down, not paying much attention but realizing for the first time how tight his uniform was feeling that day.

I could feel his reaction. For a fleeting second it was like I could feel the tightness myself.

Derek stretched his right arm to pick a spice from the shelf and he was looking so fucking sexy, my horniness to control, “Grow again. Longer this time,” I thought, his muscles reacting to my command.

They began inflating once again, a newly formed horseshoe shaped showing on his triceps, his bigger-than-baseball bicep noticeable even with his arm full stretched. But as the growth continued Derek took notice on how his arms looked bigger than when he dressed up that morning.

He pulled down his arm and he felt the tension of his polo-shirt sleeve fighting against his arm. He was curious, amazed, excited even; thinking on how he had missed these gains at the gym.

“Flex it,” I commanded in my mind, and so he did. Slowly, he started flexing his right arm, his bicep blooming to its full glory. His uniform fighting the expansion.

Harder!” I growled in my mind. Derek continued to press as the fabric fought. He grunted softly and the sleeve lost the battle. The fabric snapped and tore right through the upper side, letting the constrained muscle burst out, the skin reddened from the exertion.

Derek was ecstatic, and so was I, either from this new shared empathic connection I had formed, or from the pleasure I took from what just happened.

“I think is time you picked a bigger size, D,” I could hear Melissa say discretely, as if she was just next to me. Only she was not. She was all the way across the room, behind the counter.

Derek became fully conscious of the fact that he had just ripped his uniform’s sleeve by flexing his muscle, in front of the whole coffee house. It wasn’t crowded and some customers didn’t even realize, but those who did were giving out nice words of encouragement. I heard a whistle and one guy even clapped.

Derek blushed and quickly finished the coffee he was preparing, putting it on the bar and darting to the staff room in the back. I could still see him, every move he made, every wall he went by, I could still see him, but a hand on my shoulder puled me back to reality.

“Max … Max!!” said Nick with concern all over his tone as he shook me by the shoulder. “Are you okay, man?”

“Uh … what?” I said, blinking repeatedly.

Nick had somehow broken my trance; my vision becoming normal again. Light took its place and I could no longer see nor “feel” Derek. I took a hand to my forehead to find beads of sweat running down. My pulse accelerated and my breathing a bit short.

“Yes, it’s just …” I started. “I … I just had a dizzy spell. It’s okay.”

I cleaned my forehead and regained my posture on the chair, pretending nothing had happened. The truth is I wasn’t sure how to start processing it myself.

“Maybe you’re low on sugar. Or it’s just the nerves for the presentation. But you had me worried man, you lost all color in your face.”

“Sorry, sorry … I’m okay now. Really.”

“Right,” he muttered, dubiously. Yet he let it go. Nick knew whenever somebody wanted to change subjects and he respected boundaries enough to not be pushy about it. “Shall we then? We are late.”

“And whose fault is that?” I grumbled back pretending to be mad. He laughed at me and I shook my head.

“Here.” I handed him his cup. “You owe me.”

Nick’s eyes opened wide as something caught his attention. “Did you get a tattoo?? Let me see it!”

I quickly took my left hand away from him, afraid he might touch me and trigger the whole thing again. It was a bit of an overreaction I admit, yet I wasn’t sure how this whole thing worked so better to be cautious. He just stood there, with a very confused look on his face.

“Its … uh—” I cleared my throat. “Sorry, it is still sore, It hurts a bit. I’ll show it to you later. It’s not like it’s going away. Come on!” I hurried him to the door and picked the pace.

“You dawg! I didn’t know you had it in you to get tattooed … I guess you’re not as vanilla as I thought.”

“Vanilla?” I asked, a bit hurt. Did he really think that of me? “I’m not ‘vanilla,’ you prick. Like you’d know.”

“Sure, whatever you say,” he brushed off quickly, still chuckling.

We crossed the plaza, soon entering our building. “By the way,” he said. “Did you see Derek’s guns? The guy’s been seriously lifting.”

“Really?” I said nonchalantly. “I wasn’t paying attention.”

“I swear man. But I don’t blame you, I didn’t notice it either, until this morning. I wish I was that swole …”

“You could have been,” I said smirking away. “But you just called me vanilla.”

“What?”

“Nothing.” I innocently smiled at him as the elevator bell rang, the doors opening. “We’re here.”

And we both stepped into our office’s floor.

 

Part 3

Nick and I crossed the open space and went straight to our places at the other side of the room. We found Lena sitting at her desk, just behind ours, Viktor leaning over as they eyed some pictures on the screen. They looked excited.

Lena was 5’1 with white skin and a very voluminous mane of black hair, which she loved to comb differently every day. Her lips always wearing a bright red lipstick. Viktor on the other hand had dark skin, towering over her at 6’1, almost as tall as Nick. Vik had short dark hair and broad shoulders. He’s been practicing boxing since he was 12.

Both of them stared at us chuckling as we arrived.

“You’re late,” said Viktor, grabbing a stress ball from Lena’s desk. It wasn’t an accusation, just a statement.

“Yeah, sorry,” said Nick. “We …”

“You had a hook-up,” interrupted Viktor. Another statement. Not a hint of doubt on his tone.

I laughed. “How did you know?” asked Nick.

“I didn’t. Until now.” Viktor threw him the stress ball and came to his side. “Show her to me.”

I sat down in front of Lena as both guys went on stalking this girl, Nick cockily going on about the highlights of the night. Lena sighed.

“How come we never gossip about men?” she asked me.

“Because we’re decent people?” I replied. I was quite shy about my personal life. I let my friends know about the important details, like if I started dating someone, but I like to keep most of it to myself.

“Oh come on, Max. What’s the point of having a gay best friend if I don’t get to gossip with him?”

“Sorry to be a disappointment!”

“You know, the new HR guy is kinda cute,” she said, playing with the pen on her hands. “I could try and set you up if you …”

“Would you mind covering for me on today’s presentation? I’m not feeling up to it,” I interrupted her before we went down that path. The question was enough to distract her.

“Sure. But you’re not bailing on me for the conference, right? I need you for that.”

“Don’t worry, I wouldn’t miss it. I just need to sit this one out. I’m not feeling ‘normal’ this morning.”

My mind went back to the events at the coffee house and I felt a tingling on my left wrist, reminding me of Derek and the whole scene. I could still hear the ripping sound of his sleeve in my head.

“Pole dancing?” I heard Viktor say behind us, as he zoomed over a picture on Nick’s phone. Viktor wasn’t a man of many words, yet I could see through his half smile and his arched eyebrow that he was, as usual, impressed with Nick’s latest conquest.

“Oh yeah, I just had to show her my pole and dance she did,” said Nick, lifting his hand for a high five.

“Pig,” said Lena loudly as she rolled her eyes at him.

“Jealousy, Jealousy?” chanted Nick in her way.

“Right, I’m green. I might not even show to the conference just thinking about who’s going to be the next innocent prey that will fall for your … I was about to say personality, but I’ll go for ‘whatever drug you put on her drink’,” Lena shot back with her usual sarcasm.

Nick gave her the finger. She showed a huge smile. Nick wasn’t good at comebacks and Lena enjoyed making these exchanges whenever she got the chance.

“Speaking of the conference,” Viktor stepped in the conversation. “Have you two seen the venue? We were just checking it out.”

Starting tomorrow, six members of our team would fly off to attend the national conference on robotics. Our boss picked us four to present our latest prototypes and computing strategies. We worked our asses off for this the whole year. Ever since we started this job and Nick told us about the conference, we wanted to go, and this was it. This was our year.

Viktor turned the screen on Lena’s desk to show us some pictures of a five-star resort, with luxurious rooms and at least three pools.

Nick whistled. “All included?” I asked.

“All included,” Viktor and Lena replied at unison.

We scrolled the pictures and joked about the weekend to come, with the bar and the beach. Our little chat cut short by Scott who just approached our desks.

“Good morning guys,” he said, looking at Nick and me. Clearly, he had already greeted the others that morning.

Scott was the newest addition to our team. He’d joined us three months ago and was still learning the ropes, yet he was motivated and quite efficient. Youngest at the office, he had a nice personality and he constantly tried to please or make himself useful. A treat that Lena never refused to take advantage of.

I really liked Scott. He was quite the geek, and for the record, so was I, so we had spent some nice time talking about games and books we both liked. I was happy to hear the boss picked him to come to the conference and replace Vanessa when we learned she got sick and would be out for a couple of weeks. Happy and honestly a bit jealous of his luck, as I just told you, I had to wait years to be in the right position to attend to this event; yet there he was, 25, just arrived and straight to the big leagues.

“Hey Scotty,” said Lena with a nicer tone than the one she used to address us. Nick raised an eyebrow. “All set?” she asked.

“Yes ma’am,” he said, passing a hand through his short ginger hair.

Scott was 5’10 with a slim build. He was the only ginger at the office sporting some big, green eyes and a short bright beard that he seemed to groom a lot.

“The room’s ready for the presentation,” he added, still smiling.

“Thanks, Scott,” said Lena winking at him. “We better go then. Let’s get this party started.”

Lena stood up and picked her stuff before heading out, leading Scott to the room at the end of the hall.

“Is she ever going to fuck the guy or what?” Whispered Nick to Viktor. “It pains me to see him simp for her like that.”

“No, she just likes the attention. She loves to flirt on boys and then full blast friendzone them,” he replied. “Scott is just a new toy.”

I could feel the bitterness in that last sentence. After all, Viktor thought he had a chance with Lena when we were freshmen.

“And she calls me a pig,” Nick scoffed.

We joined Lena and Scott at the meeting room, a U-shaped table resting in the middle, opening to a big screen were the display was on. Lena stood by its side fixing her hair, muttering some words to herself. The boys and I sat down, waiting for Matthew, our boss, to join us as well. Scott gave me a curious look from the other side of the table, then he pointed at the front of the room. I waved my head indicating him I wasn’t going up today. He seemed to get it.

“Morning,” said Matthew as he entered the room. His deep voice was gentle yet quite authoritarian.

Being just 38 Matt was quite young for being head of division, yet he had the skills to occupy the post with no one under him complaining. He was a good boss to work to.

He was wearing a grey suit with a bright red tie over a white shirt. Brown hair styled to the side, honey colored eyes. A ring on his hand and the picture of a beautiful blond girl on his desk made me know he was married, yet I’ve never met his wife.

“Thanks for being here, we’ll go through the last presentation today just to ensure the latest corrections were made. Once again I’m proud with your work and implication so far. I have no doubt we’ll find nothing but success this weekend. So, gentlemen, is Lena leading today?”

“As usual,” she said graciously. “In any case, someone’s got to show Scott how it’s done. Better learn from the best.”

She winked again at him again, Scotty blushing slightly. Matthew laughed. “Well, you’ll hear no complaints from me. Please proceed.”

The boss circled the room and took the central place at the desk, just to my left, sorting some sheets in front of him.

Lena nodded and started the presentation. I’ve been through these slides with her for the last three weeks, so I had completely memorized the thing. Ten minutes in, and I wasn’t even paying attention. The truth is, I was bored.

“Would you lend me a pen, Max?” whispered Matthew, pointing at the one in front of me.

The situation presented myself a tempting opportunity. I hesitated for half a second. “Hell, this might not even work,” I said to myself. Yet I wanted to try.

I picked the pen with my left hand, anticipation growing on me. I passed it on to Matt and as I gave it to him, I made sure both our hands made contact. As expected, lightning stroke me.

I clenched my teeth not to gasp as I felt again the air leave my lungs. Lights dimmed all around me. I could no longer see Viktor, Nick or Scott, they were all fuzzy shapes in the background. The only perfectly defined thing in my field of vision was Matt.

“Thank you,” he muttered before picking some notes in the sheets in front of him. I heard it clearly even though Lena’s speech was reaching me as if she was talking through a pillow. The faint golden aura started emanating from Matthew’s body and I felt my tattoo warm up.

I put my hands under the table and turned my head, trying to act normal. I wasn’t even sure I was managing such an easy task. Matthew’s personal info started flooding my head.

5’11, 176 pounds, Shoe size 9.5 … All of it, not a secret to me anymore.

I was looking at the front of the room yet somehow, I could clearly see Matthew in my head, nodding at the facts he was hearing, scribbling some notes.

I thought for a minute that going further into this trance would only make myself cross a line I couldn’t come back from. Would I even be able to look my boss in the eyes again, knowing all I know from him right now?

I guess morality wasn’t at my strongest, because the thought of seeing Matthew’s body crossed my mind and there it was. Like with Derek’s, his clothes became completely see-through for me.

Matthew had a nice bod. Brown hairs spread through his legs and over his chest. Long enough to be manly but not wild. His body type made me think he used to play football when he was younger, yet he had let himself go a bit with the years.

Under the table, wrapped by some tighty-withies, there was my boss’ cock. Another grower, uncut. 3 inches soft but 7 inches fully erect. 3.5 around. Matthew wore it upwards, pointing to the right of his waist.

He was such a nice guy, and I thought he deserved some improvement. He was the big boss at the office, so let’s make him big alright.

I wanted to test my newfound powers, so I started with something soft. “Get hard,” I thought, and the similar warm and gentle pulsation erupted from my wrist and filled my body.

I could see Matt frown and change his posture as his cock started to grow to a full erection. A confused look went through his face, yet he acted normal. He spread his legs and adjusted his bulge under the table.

There it was, completely clear to me. 7 inches long and 3.5 around. It was not by any means a small dick. But he deserved better. Let’s start with an inch.

Matt curled his toes inside his shoes as he felt his underwear become tighter. I was amazed to see his already hard dick slowly growing longer sliding higher to his waistline. Matt didn’t realize his dick was bigger, he just felt harder that he’d ever been. He even started to wonder If it was Lena’s causing this. Somehow, I was aware of all these feelings and fleeting thoughts inside his head.

“Bigger” I thought. Warmer waves washed my body. I heard Matthew cough twice and move in his seat as his dick elongated once again, growing longer and longer until it reached the 9 inches mark. He stopped writing and watched down, realizing how big the outline of his cock looked through his grey pants.

But I wasn’t finished. Let’s make this puppy thicker. “4 … 4.5 … 5 inches around, yes that’s it,” I thought. There was this numbness spreading from my wrist that was reaching my shoulder by now; but I was enthralled by Matthew’s cock slowly inflating, getting fatter and fatter, its head blooming and becoming massive as precum started oozing from it. Growing was pleasurable for him, I could feel it.

Matthew couldn’t help but look at the bulge he was now sporting, He knew he was bigger, he felt bigger, his underwear getting super tight, but he didn’t realize how much bigger he was, I knew. By my design he was now sporting a 9-inch-long, 5-inches-around mighty cock. This was porn star material. I couldn’t stop thinking about his wife and what could go down tonight back at his place.

I thought about the perfect cherry on the top for my little spectacle. “Cream your pants, boss,” I thought, and the alpha tattoo flared up, the hottest wave so far reaching every corner of my body.

Matthew clenched his fists to the border of the table and repressed a moan as he felt a spontaneous orgasm, his fat cock throbbing and spitting volleys of cum inside his underwear. I could see drops of sweat on his neck and feel his heart racing.

I could cum myself any moment, but my trance was suddenly broken by the applauses coming from my teammates. Lena had finished. She vowed graciously.

I blinked several times, still not used to the feeling of having my high cut like that.

Matthew cleared his throat, realizing everyone stared at him, expectantly.

“Great,” he said nervously. “Perfect. I have no remarks. You’re ready. Now If you’ll excuse me …”

Matthew stood up, covering his groin with his papers but I caught a glimpse of a dark patch where I imagined a wet spot was forming, from the orgasm he just had. The boss darted out of the room leaving everyone but me really confused.

“Dude!” exclaimed Viktor to my right. “You’re bleeding!”

It took me a second to realize he was taking to me. He was right, my nose was bleeding like crazy. Several drops of it spilling over the desk in front of me. I was suddenly aware of the numbness in my arm and the headache I had. I covered my nose with both hands as a panicking Lena rushed to her purse looking for some tissues.

“It’s okay,” I said. “I’m okay … I’ll go to the bathroom and clean this mess.”

I left the others and head straight to the men’s room in the back, crossing a few colleagues in the way who expressed their concern when they saw the red stains on my hands.

I washed my face, but it took a few minutes before the blood stopped running. As I cleaned myself and scrubbed the blood from my fingers, I saw the alpha rune. I might have not fully understood this thing, but this much I knew.

I could control and change a person if I pictured it in my mind. It had only happened when I touched them with my left hand, this seemed to trigger the trance. Last but not least, this power has a toll on me, judging from both times I’ve used it so far.

I heard the stall behind me open and through the mirror I saw Matthew come out, a puzzled look on his face. Our eyes locked yet I was instantly drawn to the bulge on his pants. I figured his dick had gone soft by now yet it was still showing some volume through his pants. Damn that was hot.

Matthew noticed my distraction.

“Sorry,” I said, with a hand still on my nose. “But your fly is open.”

I saw my boss blush for the first time ever as he turned around and zipped his pants. He thanked me and approached the second sink.

“Everything all right?” he asked as he saw the water faintly colored in red in front of me.

“Yes, just a bit excited. This is such a big deal.” I chose my words carefully, every pun intended. Matthew didn’t register my intentions, yet I saw him change his weight on his feet.

“Yes, yes …” he said. “But don’t exert yourself too much. I need yourself in perfect condition for tomorrow. Wrap your day early and get some rest. I’ll tell the others.”

“Yes boss,” I replied, making a military gesture with my free hand.

He nodded and got out of the bathroom. Was he running?

I saw my wrist once again, as Lao’s words hit me. He was right. I didn’t want this thing to come off.

This weekend was about to get interesting.

 

Part 4

I splashed my face one last time and made sure there was no more blood on my frame. Luckily, my shirt got spared and no stains had been made. Some wet patches that would soon dry off were the only unusual details on my clothes. A stray droplet ran through my cheek and I wiped it with my left hand. I stood there watching myself in the bathroom mirror, hand to my face, when I realized … nothing had happened.

I touched my neck. My other hand. Damn, I even went through the buttons of my shirt and touched the skin underneath. No lightning, no trance, nada. I turned my wrist and examined the alpha tattoo.

“Come on! I don’t get to improve myself, really?” I thought. At first, I entertained the idea that maybe I overused the rune and it might need to recharge before I could change anyone else. But the truth is, I had most certainly touched myself ever since Lao imprinted the rune on my forearm. New addition to the things I knew about my new-found powers: I’m so far immune.

I got out of the bathroom with too many ideas crossing my mind. As exciting as it was to discover this new ability, I also found it very frustrating not knowing its limitations, uses or even how bad the kickback could become. As any kid, I always dreamt about having superpowers, yet I thought using them would feel natural, instinctive, like you’d know what to do as when you stop breathing once you go underwater.

Lost in thought as I was, I didn’t notice the full committee waiting for me back at my post: 4 pairs of eyes fixating on me as I approached. Viktor leaned to the wall in the back, still playing with a stress ball. Nick rested on a turned-around chair; his arms crossed. Scotty sat on Nick’s desk, at the left, playing with his thumbs; and Lena, the closest one to me, filled the air with the nervous clicking of her pen.

“What?” I said to no one in particular.

“We’re worried about you,” Lena said, slightly frowning. “Nick told us how he found you at the coffee house. You don’t step up for the last presentation saying you don’t feel normal and suddenly this …” She gestured my nose with her full hand. “Maybe you’re having a reaction to that tattoo. I’ve heard about ink poisoning if you don’t do it properly. This could be serious Max.”

“You told them about the tattoo?!” I drilled Nick with my eyes. That was fast, even for him.

“See? I told you he got tattooed,” Nick said to Viktor, as a child who just proved his point.

“Cool,” I heard Scott say to himself and start looking at my arm, probably searching for it. I reacted by putting my hand to my back.

“So, you really did?” said Lena with an offended tone. “Let me see that.” She crossed the distance between us with a swift step and started frisking me from the shoulder down.

“Lena, wait, please.” I resisted a bit, yet it was late, she was about to touch the skin showing at the end of my left sleeve. I clenched my fist and closed my eyes unable to avoid the incoming … nothing?

Lena’s hands were soft to the touch. She gently but firmly turned my hand around exposing the alpha rune for her to examine closely. I could feel her cold fingers on my skin, yet nothing else happened. Once again, no trigger, no trance. I opened one eye and found her staring firmly at me.

“It’s … still sore,” I said apologetically, excusing my reaction as I did with Nick moments before.

“Oh, be a man. You sure resisted the needle,” she scoffed, her eyes going back to the black pattern on my skin, tracing it with her index finger. “I must say, its beautifully done.” She sounded disarmed.

I realized the other three guys were suddenly surrounding me, looking at the alpha rune with eyes wide opened. Like moths drawn to a flame. Weird.

“Wow,” said Nick softly.

“Dope,” added Viktor.

“That’s hot,” said Scott, maybe louder than he meant.

I let go of Lena’s grip and covered my wrist with my sleeve. This act seemed to have cut the small trance the guys were in, as I saw them shake their heads a bit and realizing the comments they just let out. Lena who was still facing me, missed all this.

“Look guys, I appreciate your concern, seriously,” I said as I approached my chair and sited down “I’m fine. I’m just a bit stressed and also excited by the conference. We’ve wanted this for so long and we’ve worked so hard. Come on! I won’t die of a nosebleed”

Silence reigned.

“Can we please go back to work and wrap things up so we can GTFO and go packing our sun-blockers?” I said, looking directly at Nick and appealing to his more laidback side to help me break the tension in the room.

“Well,” he said after a minute or two “If you faint in front of everyone, I could play the card of the caring friend who’d take you on its arms out of there. Chicks dig that. You could even wingman me with the local nurse”

Lena rolled her eyes at him. “Any chance you’d be thinking with your upper head this weekend?” She said.

“Of course, chérie, the other one will be very busy acting and not thinking,” he said, winking at her and smiling deviously. Lena made a puking gesture and we all laughed.

“I’ll go pack the bots,” she announced “Scotty would you be a dear and help me out? I could use a strong guy to lift the cases.”

“Sure ma’am,” said Scott excited, completely ignoring the fact that Viktor and I were bigger and stronger than him, so better fitted for the task at hand.

They both left straight to the storage room, Scott opening doors for Lena as she passed.

“I swear if he was a dog one could see the guy’s tail waving,” Nick muttered. “I have the solemn duty to help Scott get laid this weekend”

“What’s in it for you?” questioned Vik, raising an eyebrow.

“Can you imagine Lena’s face as someone else plays with her toy? I love cheap thrills.” And with that, Nick headed out as well.

I turned to my computer finally able to get some work done. Viktor did the same. I loved Vik’s company. You never felt the need to fill the silences.

After a while running some simulations, I saw Matthew get out of his office, suitcase in hand, casually covering his groin. He asked Nicole, his secretary, to cancel some meetings. As much as he hid it, I knew what was behind the suitcase and under those pants. I closed my eyes and pictured again Matt’s dick slowly growing, getting larger. How it throbbed before cumming in his pants. I could jerk off to that scene right then and there.

I intertwined my fingers under my desk. So, I couldn’t trigger the rune’s power myself, and Lena didn’t either. Was I right before? Was it just dormant? Recharging? Maybe I just wouldn’t be able to do it again, the rune now just a plain old symbol on my wrist. I couldn’t shake these thoughts, worried I might have lost the best thing that had happened to me.

I turned around and saw Viktor writing an email, his fingers swiftly dancing on the keyboard. I strolled my chair closer and I impulsively touched the back of his neck with the tip of my left index.

Yes!” I said louder than I intended as I felt the rush of the trance start again, my body filled with and effervescent feeling, the room around me painted dark but Viktor glowing as the golden tendrils started surrounding the man in from of me, like ethereal smoke made of glitter.

Viktor turned around startled by my touch and sudden scream.

“Dude?” He said, expecting an explanation.

I tried to answer but Viktor’s stats started showing into my head. I unconsciously focused on new facts I hadn’t seen before, like eye color, body hair density, tongue length …

Ecstatic as I was due to the effects of the rune, and also discovering I still could trigger the touch; I still needed to regain control. I wanted to move, to talk, be a functional human being as my power were active, but as I tried forming words to get out of my mouth, I saw the colors around me blinking, the trance fading.

I ended up muttering senseless noises as I held Viktor’s sight.

“Be honest with me,” he said softly before whispering so only I could hear. “Are you on something right now?.”

I don’t think any drug felt as good as the high I went on whenever the alpha rune started doing its magic, but even if I wanted, I wouldn’t even know how to start explaining the rush to him. Instead, I concentrated on my left wrist, feeling the warm and tingling pulses of the alpha rune, sensing how it expected nothing but my command to start changing Vik.

I can’t say I didn’t also feel the urge to make Viktor burst out of his clothes as he became a manly barbarian, a hunkier version of himself, maybe endowed with a bigger dick than Matthew. I craved to test how far my powers could go … but not like this. Not to him. I feared changing him to a point of no return and also taxing my body more than it could handle. As my mind panicked, I firmly thought about severing the connection. As a bubble that makes pop, everything went back to normal.

“I did it,” I whispered, finally able to blink again adjusting my eyes to the regained light in the environment.

I might not had been able to achieve my first goal, but I was able to voluntarily end a trance, leaving Viktor unchanged. For now.

“You did what?” queried Vik.

“If I told you I was completely clean right now, you wouldn’t believe me, right?” I said, embracing the fact that I was acting quite weird from a third person’s point of view.

Viktor blinked twice and the laughed at my face, reaching with his arm to pat my shoulder twice.

“No, I wouldn’t. And I’d also be mad, because you didn’t let me tag along that trip.”

 

Part 5

The rest of the day went by pretty uneventful. I sheltered myself inside one of our electronics lab, running simulations for the algorithms to be presented at the conference. I tried to focus on my job and not think about the alpha touch for some hours. I needed to regain some sense of normality, and as I dove deeper into my codes and wires, I even inadvertently skipped lunch. By the time I went out, the other four were already gone. I had a text from Lena checking up on me, but I decided I’ll get back to her later.

As I rode the elevator down the building, I considered going back to Lao’s before heading home. I had so many questions. But the truth is I was tired AF, like I had spent hours and hours of the day exercising. I decided to just call it a day and head back to my place. I also needed time to finish packing before the flight tomorrow.

Half an hour later I was entering the apartment. I put my bag at the counter as I closed the door behind me. I could hear water running from the sink.

“You’re home early,” I heard Kai say from the kitchen. “Good thing I started cooking in advance.”

Kai was my roommate, and he’s been ever since college. We were paired to share a dorm room back in the day and we clicked straight away. After graduation we decided to share a flat, as we could save some money and afford a bigger place. The truth is we really enjoyed each other’s company.

“Yeah, we wrapped things up quickly today. To be honest, I kinda needed it,” I replied as I plummeted on the couch. Why was I feeling so beaten up?

The water stopped running and Kai stepped out of the kitchen, a pan on his hand and a cleaning cloth over his shoulder. His short blond hair and beard were shining under the kitchen light.

Kai was also 6 feet tall but unlike me he had a stocky build. He exercised quite a lot, yet he was already blessed with nice genetics. For me, some abdominal fat was a constant enemy yet on Kai’s frame it made him look even better, slightly covering his four pack.

My roommate comes from a German family composed of basically white, blond people. He was the only one of his siblings to have clear brown eyes, the others sporting deep blue ones. He loved this fact, saying it made him special.

“What time’s your flight tomorrow?” He asked caringly as he saw how worn out I was.

“6 am,” I said as I pressed both my palms over my eyelids.

“Well, you always wake up before sunrise anyways,” said Kai with a chuckle before turning around and paying attention once again to the oven. “Cheer up, dinner will be done soon, and you can go catch some Zs.” I realized it smelled pretty good and I was starving. I hadn’t eaten all day.

“So, what’s this non-sense I’ve been hearing about a tattoo?” he asked me, trying to sound breezy.

“I see Nick’s been having a blast running the news, jeez,” I scoffed. The situation didn’t surprise me at all, as we were a really tight group. It’s been a while though since I’ve been on the spotlight and I wasn’t enjoying it.

“It was actually Viktor who mentioned it. But don’t worry, I told him to stop making things up like that”

“What?” I asked. I wasn’t following.

“I told him that my Max, you know, my best friend for almost a decade now wouldn’t ever get a tattoo without telling me. So, I know its bull.” The irony on his phrase hit me like a truck. “Right?”

He was right. Normally I would have never done that. I tell Kai everything. But normally I wouldn’t have grown my boss’ cock until he unloaded in his pants or made the barista’s arms inflate till they burst his uniform. We can agree I could be spared out of “normal” today.

“Right?” repeated Kai, reacting to my silence, turning around and raising one of his blond bushy eyebrows.

“Well …” I said scratching the back of my head

“Not cool Max,” he snarled. “Not cool”

“I’m sorry man.” It’s all I could manage to say. I couldn’t tell him the truth and I also didn’t want to start waving a web of lies to cover this up. I figured the best thing to do was losing this war. “I’ll make it up to you!” I added. Already knowing how I could do it … I pressed my right thumb to mi left wrist.

Kai came from the kitchen with two abundant dishes on his hands. He placed them at the table in front of the couch and sat next to me.

“Can I at least see it?” he said as he got comfortable. I could see he was hurt yet he still wanted to be polite. One of Kai’s defining traits were his good manners and a calm demeanor. His girlfriend Caroline sure fell for those.

I pulled up my sleeve and showed him the alpha rune. Kai leaned closer to me, intrigued. I saw his eyes widen a bit and lose focus. He was enthralled. Kind of like the guys back at the office when Lena forced me to show the tattoo.

“Can I touch it?” he whispered, without taking his eyes from my wrist. He seemed a bit out of himself.

I hesitated.

I didn’t answer, but Kai raised his right hand and slowly approached my arm. I hadn’t fully made my mind about what was about to go down, but at the end I didn’t stop him. Kai’s thick index finger made contact with my exposed skin and, as he slowly ran it through the pitch-black trace, I felt the now usual warm pulsation erupt and fill my body.

Kai tilted his head a bit to the side as he continued to run his finger over my skin. He was completely lost on a trance. And I was about to peak on mine. Golden sparkling tendrils started surrounding my roommate like northern lights, and I profited his absent mind to go through his stats.

6 feet tall, 190 pounds. “He had been bulking up,” I thought. I looked down at Kai’s 11 sized feet, resting bare on the floor. Under his worn out “Carpe Diem” white shirt I saw his torso, completely hairless, except from a thin treasure trail starting at his navel. Between his legs, covered by some black sweat-pants he loved to wear indoors, I saw his dick. His soft dick was 5.1 inches long and 4 inches around when soft, going slightly bigger to 6.2 and 4.3 inches when fully hard. Even as he sat there, completely bland, it was a hefty and sexy dick, pointing upwards inside his boxer briefs.

I knew Kai was big. He’s been playing beach volley ever since high school and he was really good at it. I went to most of his matches the same way he cheered me up when I did marathons or triathlons. I was used to seeing him on small shorts or beach trunks which always cupped his bulge deliciously. I couldn’t help but wonder what he was hiding and now finally being able to see what was underneath was amazing.

Several minutes went by and none of us talked. I spent the time eyeing out his physique. Especially his lower body. Kai had broad shoulders a decent pecs, that’s for sure, but I believed his best asset were his legs. His perky butt opened the way to some bulky, almost hairless, muscular thighs. Going further down you could see his big round calves and his manly big feet.

The more time I spent in the trance, the better I felt. I was no longer disoriented as I was this morning, and even though all I could see clearly was Kai, and the world was muffled around me, I found I could move around my head, my hands, and I even felt like forming words.

“Kai?” I asked, surprised to find myself taking without my trance flickering. The blond man didn’t seem to register my call. “Kai !” I said harder this time, in part to push myself and in part to get his attention.

Kai blinked several times coming to himself and shook his head. He became aware that he was still touching my wrist and how close he was to me right now. He pulled back, faintly blushing.

“Sorry.” He cleared his throat. “It’s a really nice pattern. I like it. It’s like a leader thing, right?” He said, getting up and walking to the kitchen. I could feel how awkward he felt.

“A leader?” I asked. Getting more and more in control of my body, as I still had the touch active on him.

“Yeah. An Alpha right? Like, the leader of a pack. It’s a simple to get yet very deep message,” he added as he picked the cutlery from the table.

Kai had quickly landed on a conclusion I hadn’t made until now. Could that be the hidden meaning behind the rune? The alpha touch? Was I some kind of an alpha male right now? What did that mean?

A ticklish warm wave pulsed from the tattoo and distracted me, like it was trying to get my attention. I could feel it’s need to change Kai. And I couldn’t resist it.

In that moment, from the couch, I could see him scratch one of his but cheeks over his sweatpants. Thanks to the rune I could clearly see through the fabric, appreciating the round, hairless ass concealed behind. Kai had a decent butt. It wasn’t particularly big, but it was firm from all those years playing volley. My mind went directly to those swim trunks of his and how he’d look sexier if it were bigger. How that would mark even more his cock in the front.

I focused on both his cheeks and imagined them inflating. And so they did. Slowly, Kai’s ass became fuller, bigger, rounder. His boxer briefs rode up a bit with the change, yet Kai kept unaware.

I wanted his ass to became even bigger. Sexier. But I knew a dramatic change could be registered by him and hard to explain. I needed an alternative, my mind already devising a plan. I figured I needed to continue my act and kept practicing as my trance was active.

“Would you miss me this weekend?” I asked, not really knowing why. The phrase formed in my mind and I just blurted it out.

“Not at all,” he said, as he poured himself a glass of milk from the fridge. “I can’t wait till you’re gone so I can finally jerk off on your bed,” he added, laughing.

That gave me an idea, and as soon as I thought about it, the tattoo went from black to golden and the bubble sparks started crackling on my skin. “Every time you cum until I get back, your ass will get bigger,” I commanded, with a new-found confidence I wasn’t quite sure where was coming from.

The golden aura around Kai swirled around him, reacting to my thought. A slow wave of hot electricity filled my body indicating me my order was set, and Kai’s body would oblige.

I started getting hard on my pants from the feeling of power that grew inside of me. I imagined my roommate releasing a load as his ass ballooned. I was drunk with the image and the power I had to control his body. I was pushing the limits of my abilities and getting better at using them. If I could set conditions and triggers to the changes I wanted, that opened the window for so many possibilities.

Kai’s glass slipped from his hand and half of the milk he had poured on to him and spilled over his black sweat-pants.

“Damn it!” He said, as he caught the glass before it touched the ground. He turned around looking for some kitchen tissues to dry the huge “wet spot” running down his right leg.

I got another idea and the ticklish sensation on my wrist indicated me it was welcomed.

“From now on, you’ll cum three times the amount you used to,” I ordered in my mind.

The golden tendrils surrounding Kai circled him around his waist and started slithering down and covering his egg sized balls. They shined brighter and I could feel how Kai’s body was hit by a couple of goosebumps. He shook the off and continued wiping his leg and then the spilling on the floor.

A tear escaped my left eye and it was only then that I became aware of the strong headache I had, as well as a numb sensation on half my body. I quickly closed my left hand and thought about severing the connection. As soon as I did, the lights on the room went back to normal and the ambient sound filled my ears again.

I instinctively put a hand to my temple, trying to mitigate the pressing headache. I think I over-did it again with the touch.

Kai came back from the kitchen, still wiping his pants and cursing. He sat next to me once again and I could see in his face he felt different. He couldn’t pinpoint it, but his now bigger ass cushioned him different when sitting, placing him just a tiny bit higher. He brushed it off, picked the remote and turned on the tv.

“You should eat while it’s still hot,” he said, handling me a fork and pointing to the plates he had previously put in front of us.

He opened a streaming app and played the last episode of our ongoing TV series.

“Everything oaky?” I asked, one eyed closed and still holding a hand to my temple. I profited to analyze his body language. I wondered if I would have to do some damage control.

“Sure, why?” He replied, without even looking at me and picking a bite from his plate.

“Nothing, just checking,” I said.

“Such a caretaker you are,” he answered on a childish tone.

I took my plate and started watching the TV. Some minutes later, from the corner of my eye I could see Kai spread his legs wide open and unconsciously started cupping his balls over his pant with his right hand. I had never seen my roommate do that. He normally didn’t manspread and he even went to the bathroom if he wanted to adjust himself in public. Seeing him nonchalantly touch his crotch like that in front of me was a first.

Kai’s eyes were fixed on the events going on at the tv, but as he caressed his bulge I could swear I saw the outline of his thick dick getting hard and crawling to his navel.

I never even bothered to hide my smile, or my own hard-on.

 

Part 6

Dinner lasted less than usual that night. “Well, I’m off for tonight buddy,” said Kai as he got up from the couch. He raised his arms over his head and stretched his body, yawning loudly. As he did, his shirt rode up showing the lower part of his belly. My eyes went wide open as I saw, peaking from the top of his waistband, the tip of his cock, completely hard.

“Sleep well and have a nice trip tomorrow,” he said, as he approached me and came for a hug. This was not that uncommon. We tend to hug a lot. What we don’t tend, however, is to grind our hard dicks against each other. Shocked as I was, I welcomed him in my arms and patted his back, yet I could feel him consciously pressing his crotch against my upper thigh.

“I’ll let you take care of the dishes,” added Kai as he let me go.

“Sure,” I said, clearing my throat. “You go and take care of … other stuff” I added deviously. Kai laughed yet he didn’t seem to be fazed at all by my pun. He turned on his heels and went straight to his bedroom where I heard him pass the lock on his door.

I silently approached his door and put my ear to it. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting to hear or why was I even snooping on him like this. I closed my eyes thinking about Kai’s bulge on his sweatpants tonight, his bigger sexy butt or his cock’s fat head tasting the air as it crawled to the top of his waist. I clenched my left fist and regretted not making his dick bigger. I’ll have that fixed when I come back.

After some minutes of complete silence, I gave up and went back to the kitchen. I washed the dirty dishes and headed to my room, dropping on the bed. Just five minutes, I thought to myself, yet I knew that battle was lost. I was so tired, my body felt heavy and my mind a bit foggy. I couldn’t even undress or turn out the lights. Before I knew it, I dove into a deep slumber, and the craziest of dreams took over me.

I found myself floating on what I could only describe as the space. I slowly opened my eyes, blinking several times to adjust my sight to the flashing lights of thousands of faraway stars, some of them clouded by violet, deep blue and green nebulas. I turned myself around, coming to the realization that there seemed to be no up or down in this place.

A bright flash erupted just in front of me, like a sun that appeared out of nowhere. I was engulfed by its warmth and I recognized the feeling, from when the alpha touch was active. The sun morphed and took the silhouette of a giant, standing man. It was like looking at a brilliant golden shadow. A great distance separated us, but still he was so big I felt like a pebble in front of a mountain. He opened and waved one of his colossal arms, welcoming me.

By his side, I saw four smaller flames spark, each one forming in the empty space a symbol that felt quite familiar. The first two, the closest to the golden giant were completely unknown to me, yet the other two, completing the circle, were exactly like the theta and omega runes I saw at Lao’s. That was it! The four symbols now displayed around me were the four runes sharing the wooden box of my alpha rune back at the antique store.

Smaller, human sized silhouettes formed under each sign. They were blurry and I couldn’t make their faces nor their factions, but they seemed to be four men of different sizes. I tried to speak yet no sound came from my throat. As I reached for the closest silhouette, I found myself patting at the empty space, turning on my own axis.

One by one the shadows disappeared, leaving me alone once again with the shining giant. It encircled me with his burning hands and the whole scene changed. I felt myself falling from the first time since the dream started. I took more and more speed and as fear took the best of me, I closed my eyes expecting to brutally impact something, yet my feet softly touched some ground. I found myself perfectly standing on a room I didn’t recognize.

I looked around. The walls and objects across the room didn’t seem fully solid, like I was in the middle of a projection. What was happening? Was this some kind of lucid dream? Was this real?

I realized there was someone else in there with me. At the far corner of the room, Derek stood shirtless and looking himself on a full body mirror. I took a step towards him and I tried calling him, yet once again, I was unable to produce any sound. I approached the guy from behind and quickly noticed my reflection wasn’t showing in the mirror. Derek seemed completely unaware of my presence.

The guy took a measuring tape and put it around his right arm. After securing the tape, he flexed it and I saw once again his huge bicep bowl. Derek cupped it with his other hand, and I could feel his amazement and disbelief. He memorized the numbers of the tape and then looked at an opened notebook lying on a small desk, right next to the mirror.

I eavesdropped his notes, finding a record of his gym measures, the last one being taken 2 weeks ago. Derek took a hand to his head, thinking about the big difference in girth of his now hunkier arms, wondering how it was possible. He started laughing and feeling himself as he flexed. The image was super-hot.

I was startled when some gun-shot noises broke the silence to my right. I turned around and the whole scene changed again, Derek fading like sand in the wind. This time I recognized where I was. This was Viktor’s place. I scanned the room and found my friend playing his favorite online game, crying instructions to whoever was on the other end of his group call. Even though he was facing me, Viktor didn’t notice me either.

“Really?” I heard a woman’s voice say far behind me.

“I swear! I looked at him and asked, honey, what am I supposed to do with a hammer?” A second feminine voice answered, and three others laughed heavily. I walked in the direction of the mysterious voices, coming from outside Vik’s room, yet as soon as I step through the door, the scene behind me disappeared again like Derek’s did a minute ago.

I was standing on a beautiful dining room, brightly lighted. A table to my left was occupied by four persons. My boss Matthew, his wife and another couple sitting in front of them. The unknown woman continued her story, which included a horse and some farm tools, his companions listening carefully and laughing at every highlight of her tale. I stood right next to Matthew and waved my hand in front of him. No effect.

My boss’ wife casually put her hand of his husband’s lap, just over his right pocket. I could feel Matthew’s pulse start to raise. Normally a gesture like this from his wife would have passed under his radar, yet today he felt different. The whole day he felt like a horny teenager, fighting spontaneous erections, and now, his wife’s middle finger slowly caressing his thigh had awoken a beast.

I watched in awe as Matthew’s bulge started growing, the outline of his cock started showing as it slithered towards his wife’s hand. He closed his eyes as he stopped fighting it. His nine-incher finally reached the woman’s hand, who looked down curiously, only to delight herself with her husband’s dick engorging to its new girth. Matthew’s cock was unmistakably showing on his not-so-baggy pants.

The lady firmly pressed her hand around the dick she once knew, yet now failed to recognize; her finger now tracing the shaft through the man’s pants. Matthew reached for his glass of water and took a few sips, flakily laughing to the other woman’s story, yet his head was flooded with the hormones and all he thought about was getting home and pounding his wife with his new tool, let her marvel with his bigger size. I could feel his need to cum like it was my own.

I didn’t move a muscle, yet the whole scene dissolved in front of me, leaving me on a dark room with light violet walls that I knew maybe too well. I heard some short rapid breaths coming from behind me, a soft panting and the undeniable sound of a jerk off session. I hesitated, yet I finally turned around, my suspicions confirmed. I was in Kai’s room.

In front of me, laying completely naked on his bed, legs spread and dick on his hand, my roommate was rubbing one out as he watched some porn on his cellphone. Kai had his left hand at the back of his head and his toes curled on those big feet of him. Even though he was laying down, I could see his glutes lifting him up slightly. His forearm’s veins were showing, and his right pec was deliciously flexed as he furiously jerked off. He was close to the edge.

I couldn’t resist myself, Derek and Matthew’s scene had me completely turned on and I became prey of my more primal urges. I needed to feel my roommate’s dick. I came forward and put my hand around his shaft. As I did it, I felt and electric current driving through me, filling me with pleasure. It seemed to be shared, as Kai tensed his whole body and climaxed.

“Fuuuuuuck,” said the blond man, maybe higher than he intended, as his orgasm came more suddenly than he expected. His cock throbbed in his right hand as it started spitting volley through volley of creamy white cum. Kai’s eyes widened as his first shooting splashed him between his neck and his pecs, something that had never happened to him. He cupped his balls with his left hand as a second and third stream landed on his left nipple and all over his four pack.

Normally his orgasm should have subsided by this point yet this time it continued. Kai’s whole body trembled, and he couldn’t but watch as his dick continued spewing cum like it never did before. Both his hands were now covered in the pale liquid, his belly completely filled with droplets that ran through his treasure trail. Kai threw his head back as his orgasm peaked, his dick erupting with a final gush of his seed, that ran down his shaft and tickled his balls as it rolled down. He was too absorbed on his “three times harder than usual” climax, that he didn’t notice his ass growing … But I did.

With my hand still around Kai’s throbbing dick, and as I enjoyed each spasm of the blond hunk now laying in front of me, his torso completely covered in cum; I noticed his ass tingling ever so slightly. As I looked down, I saw both of his cheeks inflate a bit, becoming rounder and firmer as they did back in the kitchen earlier tonight. This lifted Kai even higher on his bed.

I couldn’t hold it anymore. I closed my eyes as my own orgasm struck me and I came without even touching myself.

The moment I came to my senses and opened my eyes, I was back again in my room, in the same position I fell asleep, with a big wet spot on my pants and my alpha tattoo glowing softly.

As the memories of the four men I had “touched” that day and visited in my dreams still lingered on my head, I became aware of a new need inside of me, as natural as hunger or thirst:

I needed to grow someone. Soon.

 

Part 7

The rest of the night went by in the blink of an eye. I managed to sleep a few more hours with no more funny visions or weird dreams popping in my head. As usual, even though it wasn’t even 3 a.m., I opened my eyes way before my alarm went on. Hey, even before the alpha touch I already had superpowers. This little thought made me smile. I’m still me, right?

I took a shower to fully wake myself up. As the water ran down my body I kept looking or touching my tattoo. I felt better about it. I couldn’t exactly tell why, but it was like my mind and body were starting to accept my new abilities. I soaped my hairless chest with both my hands and thought how frustrating it was to not be able to change myself. Maybe it was for the best, I mean, would I even know when to stop?

I flexed my arm and looked at it. I wasn’t so bad myself. I liked my body and the result of all my years of training, but ever since Kai had mentioned the “alpha male” idea yesterday, I couldn’t stop imagining me as a bigger hunkier man. I mean that’s what an alpha is right? The biggest of the pack. The strongest. The best.

I toweled, dressed as comfortable as I could for the long flight I was about to take and finished up packing. Time was ticking and my excitement for the conference started building up. As if it was responding to my own anticipation, the alpha rune sent a gentle warm pulsation from my wrist. We’re gonna have some fun, aren’t we? I thought, talking back to it.

I exited my room and found myself standing in front of Kai’s door. Fleeting flashbacks from last night crossed my mind. I pictured him, still butt naked, sleeping on his bed, his cum now completely dry on his torso. I knew the door was locked so I didn’t even try to open it, but I would have given anything to see him like that once again.

I closed my eyes and concentrated on him, expecting the rune’s power to show him to me or project me back to his side like it did last night. Nothing happened. I sighed.

I guess you don’t work like this, right? I thought, addressing the tattoo. I got nothing back. No response, tingling or pulsation. All this time, I considered the warmth emanating from the rune as its way of communicating with me. I wondered if it was all in my head; my powers being mine and only mine to control, instead of a sentient present now sharing my body.

I couldn’t believe I was thinking this, but I really hoped Kai jerked off a lot this weekend. I’d love to see his ass become massive. My feelings for Kai were never the sexual kind. We had a beautiful bromance and we respected each other a lot. However, there’s no denying he is hot, and now I could make him hotter. I’m only human, okay? Can you really judge me?

I took a cab to the airport. My driver, a sweet, curly haired, middle-aged woman who loved to drive while listening Beyonce, got me there in less than 20 minutes, taking advantage of the lack of jams this early in the morning. I was a bit disappointed she wasn’t a man. Can you even imagine how hot it’d be growing him as he drove? I lost myself in that daydream.

I was really craving for some growing today. Was this normal? I worried the rune might be clouding my judgement, but the truth is no harm had been done and from the look of last night’s dream, no one seemed to be complaining about the changes in their bodies. Why stop the fun then?

I texted the guys through the group asking if they’d arrived and headed to the departures wing.

“Always the first to show,” said Viktor as he approached me in the middle of the hall. He wore a black turtleneck sweater and some jeans. Viktor was already fit, but his boxer frame could really profit from some extra muscle. Why hadn’t I grown him yesterday?

“Guilty as charged,” I said as I hugged him, my left hand close to the back of his neck where our skins could perfectly make contact.

I hesitated. Calm down, Max.

“Are you with us today?” he asked me. “No funny business? Nothing I should worry about?”

“Oh, come on,” I said, smiling. “I’m fine. My head’s completely in the game.” Sure, the growing game, I added silently in the back of my mind.

“My boys! Ready to get this party started?” said Nick as he came between Vik and I, putting an arm on each of our backs.

Nick’s grip put us quite close to each other. With little effort my left hand could brush his arm and that’d be all I needed to start changing him, quenching this thirst. Nick had no problem picking the interest of a girl when he started flirting. He even had a reputation of being an awesome fuck. The truth is I was curious to know how big his dick was. What if I made it double in size …

Get a hold of yourself! I thought, blinking several times to wreck that train of thought.

“Sunglasses? … Really?” said Lena from afar as she walked towards us “Its fucking 4 in the morning Nick.”

“High heels? Really?” he snarled back. “You do realize the conference doesn’t start ‘til tomorrow?”

Nick was right and she might had over done it a bit, considering the situation. Nevertheless, Lena looked gorgeous. She wore a black dress with paired heels. A thin jacket covered her shoulders. I caught the glimpse of a golden earring on her right ear, the other one completely hidden by her wavy mane. Oh yeah, red bright lipstick, as always.

“There’s no second chance for a first impression,” she said casually as she hugged us. I even got a kiss on the cheek. Lena and I had a close relationship.

“You look amazing,” I whispered to her ear.

“Just like you,” she whispered back.

“Who do you want to impress?” said Nick raising an eyebrow.

“None,” answered Lena as she let me go and went to put her bag next to ours.

“None?” asked Nick.

“None of your business,” she said, drawing her most arrogant smile. I have to confess; I loved the banter between these two.

Nick made a mock face, but I could see him tensing up by the veins on his neck. Was he jealous? Was I missing something?

“Hey guys,” Scotty’s voice greeted us from behind. He came carrying a small plastic tray with 6 cups on it. He wore a maroon short sleeved shirt, which he wore with two opened buttons on the top. An elegantly slim golden chain highlighted through the shirt’s opening. He also wore a bright golden watch to match. He looked excited as a little kid. “I bought us coffee, I thought we could use a boost.”

“Dude,” said Viktor warmly, as he approached him and took a cup. Nick did the same.

I greeted Scott and he passed me a coffee. I noticed he saved the biggest one for Lena. She winked at him.

Just a touch is all I needed to make Scott start filling the sleeves of his shirt. Some big guns will surely impress Lena.

I gritted my teeth and sipped from my cup, finding the idea of Scott becoming a hunkier, manlier version of himself hard to get out of my mind. Going from the youngest and smallest of us to a burly otter, popping the remaining buttons of his shirt. I wondered if his body hair was as bright as his ginger beard.

I came back to earth thanks to Viktor, who elbowed me softly and pointed me in Nick’s direction. Under the sunglasses, I could see his eyes fixing on Lena as she complimented Scott’s look, holding his hand to closely appreciate the guy’s watch and laughing from a sassy comment he had made. Nick turned his head away.

OMG, he was jealous. I looked back at Vik and he chuckled. “Did you know?” I asked him low-key. He just shrugged. What did that mean?

“The boss is here,” called out Nick, relieved to break the scene.

Matthew crossed the hall and joined us. He wore some khaki cargo pants and a pale green T-shirt. I wondered if the baggy pants were on purpose, as last night’s tight pants did nothing to conceal Matthew’s rod as he went full mast under the table.

It was the first time I saw him without a button-up shirt and a tie though. A light shadow under his eyes let me know he hadn’t slept that much. I figured his wife didn’t either.

Oh my God. I was about to lose it.

“Gentlemen. Lena. Sorry I kept you waiting,” he said as he started shaking our hands. “I hope you’re all in good shape. I’ll repeat once again how much I appreciate your commitment, and I trust your good judgement. Even though there will be some distractions this weekend, I expect nothing but the best performance from all of you. Big things are coming.”

You are damn right boss. Big things were coming, specially your way.

I had my coffee on my right hand, so I offered my left fist to Matt when he approached me. He fell for it, friendly bumping it with his own. This was all I needed to trigger the touch on him once again.

I dove in the bliss of the trance fully realizing how much I was craving for it. It was like taking some fresh air after holding your breath for a while. The golden aura appeared around Matthew and my wrist started to heat up, pulsating pleasurably through my whole body.

Through the muffled ambient sound, I could vaguely understand Lena suggesting we made the line for the security check, as we were all together now. The group started moving and so did I, trying to raise no suspicions. I couldn’t take my eyes away from Matthew’s T-shirt. I really dug the way the green fabric hugged his body, just in the right places. Matt wasn’t particularly bulky. He had the physique of someone who used to work out yet had let himself go a bit. This was about to change.

As we walked, I concentrated on his back and commanded it to subtly grow. The alpha rune reacted and so did the man’s body. Slowly, Matthew’s lats started pushing to the sides, raising his arms on a slightly higher degree and giving him a wider look. He didn’t seem to notice. Good. I wanted to keep it that way.

Matt turned to his side and I saw the next focus of my attention. The one part of a guy that would instantly make him look manlier. His chest.

Matthew’s pecs were decent. Round, covered in a layer of fat that added some bulk along with a layer of sexy chest hair, primarily focused on the center and thinning through the sides. I wanted my boss to have a bigger, sexier chest, so I focused on both of his pecs and just as I did before, I ordered them to grow. Slow but steady. The bubble sparks on my wrist tickled me stronger than before.

Every breath the man took seemed to push his pecs a bit further away. They were becoming fuller, firmer, heavier. Matthew kept talking to Viktor about the last paper we were working on and some corrections that should be done when we came back. As he spoke, I could see the fabric of his T-shirt clinging tighter and tighter to his now bigger chest. The outline of his nipples becoming visible.

I checked Matthew’s weight in my mind. 182 pounds. I gasped. In the span of a few minutes my boss gained six pounds of pure muscle, only on his back and his pecs. I couldn’t hide the smile on my face. Fuck what the others might think.

I used the alpha touch to see through Matthew’s clothes. The layer of fat on Matthew’s torso only added to his new overall bulk. He was starting to look damn hot.

I saw him nonchalantly pull the bottom of his shirt down. I realized that, with his new bigger frame, the now one-size-too-small shirt didn’t fully reach his waistband, showing a bit of his white skin and a brown treasure trail that connected directly to his also brown pubes. I chose to watch through Matt’s clothes so I could better admire my work.

I decided Matthew would look even manlier if he became hairier, and so, by just imagining it, I made his chest hair start sprouting denser and coarser. With every second that passed I could see new hairs growing and the old ones intertwining; covering more and more of the skin underneath until his whole pecs where shadowed. It continued spreading to the sides, from his neck and under the shoulders, until the bright-brown rug was completely uniform, connected to his belly with a fine trail that traversed his navel. Some of his new, manlier hairs were starting to go up his collar, making him look a bit wild. The mat of hair was also adding to the volume of his pecs under his stretched T-shirt.

Matthew started placing the contents of his pockets on a tray when he noticed his clothes were feeling a bit snug around the collar the armpits. Thanks to the touch, I could faintly feel this slight pressure myself.

He proceeded to take his belt off and that’s when he noticed the exposed skin between his pants and the lower side of his T-shirt. “What the …” he muttered to himself. “Did my clothes shrink on the dryer again?”

Even though his mind opted to believe his clothes were smaller, instead of him being bigger, I could tell that he felt different. Looking down at himself he realized he felt pumped like if he had just done a long series of pushups. I saw him standing in front of his stuff with a confused look on his face. He was adorable, so I decided to throw him a bone.

With just a thought I made Matthew’s pecs bounce once. Matt involuntarily contracted and let go of his now meatier slabs of muscle, causing them the jiggle in his shirt. He was taken aback by the new weight of his chest and how big and heavy they felt when flexed. He took his right hand and started cupping his left pec, also noticing the added layer of hair.

He made them bounce again, this time on his own, realizing how with his new heft he was able to do it rhythmically. Left, right, Left, right again. He was flexing both his pecs in disbelief, enjoying how they bulged under the fabric. He couldn’t shake the feeling he was looking bigger. Hell, he was bigger. He took a hand and squeezed his dick over his pants, thinking about other things that seemed to be bigger lately.

“Sir!” called the security guard who had spent a couple of minutes waiting for my boss to move as he did his pec dance. Luckily everyone in the line was distracted so no one but the guard had spotted the big man feeling himself. “Through the detector, please,” continued the annoyed guard.

Matthew came back to his senses and passed through the grey metal frame, trying to act normal, yet now fully aware that something on him was different from when he left home a few hours ago, and he was loving the feeling. I could perfectly see him straighten his stance, puffing his chest and grinning.

I looked down, my eye caught by the fact that my boss was getting hard. He discretely adjusted himself as his dick came to life. Even though the cargo pants did a perfect job hiding his boner, it was perfectly visible to me thanks to my powers.

The 9-inch pole was once again fully erect, wrapped in a new pair of tighty-withies. Last time, I had focused on his dick, but if I were to make Matthew a real hunk, he was going to need the full package.

I focused on Matt’s balls now. Hanging not so low from his rod, I could see his pair of golf-ball-sized testicles. “Bigger,” I said with my inner voice and his sac reacted, not so discretely this time. It started tingling and just as if someone just blew some air on them, they grew in size until each one looked like a large egg, first the right one and then the left one, rapidly ballooning. They were pressing against the fabric of the underwear and adding to the whole volume of Matt’s bulge.

I became careless with the speed of that last growth spurt and my boss noticed it. Matt closed his eyes and I could hear a low grunt coming from him as he felt his pouch getting tighter and tighter. “Oh God … again? What’s happening to me? Why do I feel so tight? Why does this feels so … good?” His head flooded with questions and arousal. Thanks to our connection, I could feel how alarmed yet excited he became. Matt had arrived at the airport with some perfectly fitting clothes and he was now sporting a tight T-shirt and having his cock and balls cramped into some underwear that was clearly too small for him now.

He opened his eyes and for a split second our sights met. Even though I knew there was no way he knew I was causing this, I panicked a bit. I turned away and lost my concentration, completely cutting the trance. Damn it. I felt frustrated at first but I quickly realized it might have been for the best.

I was the last member of our little group to pass the check, so it gave me some time to pull myself together. I walked to where the others were without directly looking at my boss. From the side, I could see he was fidgeting, one hand pulling his shirt down to cover his waistline and the other on his pocket adjusting his package.

“If you’ll excuse me, I need to go to the men’s room,” said Matthew abruptly, turning on his heels and darting down the airport concourse.

“But sir, we’re about to board!” shouted Scotty a bit anxiously. Either Matthew didn’t hear him or he didn’t care to answer. He took a right turn and disappeared behind a corner.

“Is he okay?” asked Scott to no one in particular, his gaze following Matt’s path. “It’s the second time he’s bolted to the bathroom like that.”

“Give the man some room, gingerbread,” said Nick, messing a bit with Scott’s hair. “He’s in a lot of pressure. That ought to take a toll on you.”

“Wow,” said Lena, dramatically putting a hand to her chest. “Who knew you could have this level of empathy? That’s a nice change.”

Nick rolled his eyes and started walking away, but Lena took him by the arm.

“Nick, wait. Sorry, that didn’t come out as expected.” Lena sounded sincere. “I mean it,” she added on a softer voice. “It’s nice to see you care for others.”

Nick cleared his throat and broke eye contact with her. “Don’t get used to it. The boss is the boss. I admire the man. You don’t get to have that privilege.”

Lena giggled. “Of course not. You’d lose your charm.”

I saw Nick blush a little.

“Let’s head to our gate,” I said, breaking the moment and distracting Lena. “I don’t like to board last.” I put and arm over her shoulder and started walking in the opposite direction that Matt went.

“Thank you,” mouthed Nick looking at me, holding a hand to his temple. I winked him in response.

Nick’s gesture made me realize something I had completely skipped. I immediately took a hand to my nose, expecting to collect the price of the alpha touch, yet I was glad to find no running blood this time. It figured. Someone would have already made a fuzz of it.

I could feel a light tingling on the left side of my body and a small ringing on my ears but no headache. Was I becoming better at this, or was it just because I had already used the touch on Matthew before? Maybe I was getting stronger and could hold more of the touch’s power without hurting myself. Does this mean I could make him even bigger?

I had many questions in my head but they all led me to the same conclusion. There was only one way to find out. I had to keep testing. I had to keep growing others.

 

Part 8

We all boarded the plane and took our respective seats. Much to our dismay, even though the seats were distributed into two side-rows of three, we didn’t end up next to each other, but a bit scattered here and there. Lena and Viktor got into the front of the plane while Nick and Scotty ended up near the tail.

I found my seat several rows behind Lena and Vik’s. I got the window, so I was pleased enough. Watching the clouds soothed me whenever I had to fly. I found it quite relaxing.

Several minutes passed and it looked like most of the passengers already boarded when Matthew finally entered the plane. He seemed to have just given up trying to make his T-shirt cover the lower side of his belly. He looked flustered.

Just as I imagined, seeing as the others got separated in couples, Matthew got placed right next to me. He sat down in the middle seat, putting his backpack in the remaining one. He closed his eyes and let out a long sigh. I took a glance to the zipper of his bag which wasn’t fully closed, showing a piece of white clothing hastily folded and tucked inside. I recognized the greyish elastic band and the mark of Matthew’s underwear.

I figured Matthew couldn’t put up with the pressure of his meatier junk being cramped inside the pouch of his tighty-withies, so he must have decided to take them off. This meant he was going commando right next to me. I was in disbelief and quite frustrated I had missed his face when he saw his now bigger balls. Those were the balls of a real man. Surely, they could produce now double the amount of cum they did before. I guess the same went for the testosterone. Matthew had now a sac filled with two large-egg sized balls that would be soon filling his blood with more hormones than before. I wondered what that might bring.

“Everything okay, boss?” I asked, half worried about him, half amused. I wanted to see his reaction face to his latest changes.

“What? … Oh, yes, thank you Max. I’ve just been dealing with some personal issues,” he said as he moved around in his seat trying to get comfortable. We weren’t flying in priority class, so the regular plane seats were a bit on the smaller side compared to Matt’s new frame. During all this time I couldn’t take my eyes away from his round jutting pecs and the outline of his nipples, deliciously showing through the strained fabric. I decided to play it bolder.

“Have you been working out boss?” I told him with a hint of admiration on my tone. Matthew got tense.

“No, not really. I used to lift at home. It’s been a while.” He let his shoulders down and finally looked me straight in the eyes.

“Well, I think you’re looking quite good,” I said with a charming smile. I was just being honest. Matthew blushed ever so slightly.

“The truth is, I’ve been having some unexpected … gains,” he said, his eyes going down to watch his chest for a split second.

“Really?” I decided to play dumb. “Maybe you just hit a growth spurt.”

“I’m 38, Max, I’m way past having growth spurts. And even when I was a teenager, they never felt so … sudden. Somehow I find my body changing and I realize I’m bigger than I was the day before!” I could tell Matthew needed to let out his thoughts on this. The poor man must have had a twister on his mind.

“Well, maybe you’re just going through a second puberty,” I said casually, trying to brush off his concerns.

“A what?” I guessed he had never heard the term before, yet I had piqued his interest. Bingo.

“A second puberty,” I repeated. “I read that some men find themselves going through some changes even though they’re well into adulthood. Getting bigger or hairier … Even hornier.” I carefully chose my words, trying to give me a suitable alibi as well as a plausible explanation to calm Matt’s mind. This seemed to be working as he started relaxing.

“I see, I mean … maybe. I don’t know. I mean I’m not complaining, I feel awesome, but it was … unexpected.” I could feel him hesitating with his words.

“Don’t stress about it, you’re just lucky. Enjoy it. I mean, I’m sure we’re all happy to see you in your best form,” I said, patting him in the shoulder.

“Max,” he said, leaning closer to me until our faces were mere centimeters away. He started whispering. “Have you read anything about a man’s, you know … goods, getting … bigger?”

“What do you mean?” I asked as innocently as I could. Of course, I understood his question, but I found it fun to force my boss to tell me his cock and balls had exponentially gotten bigger and fatter in the last two days.

I could see him vacillating, even as he took a hand to his crotch and gently squeezed his whole bulge. He started blushing even more.

“You see, my—”

“Excuse me,” said a lady standing at the aisle. “I think this is my seat. Do you mind if I put your bag in the upper compartment?” she asked nicely.

Matthew broke the closeness between us and politely apologized to the lady. They both put Matt’s bag aside and took their seats. I waited for Matthew to come back to our conversation, but I quickly realized he didn’t intend to, just putting his headphones on and leaning back on his place.

Damn it. I was so close. I watched Matthew’s chest move as he breathed and repressed to urge of touching him again to make it even bigger, wider maybe even forcing them to rip through the already taut T-shirt. I decided not to if I wanted to keep up the second puberty act. I had already given him a lot today and I’d rather think in the long run.

I put on some music and just like the boss, I closed my eyes and tried to rest.

I must have been more sleep deprived than I realized as I slept the whole six hours, not even realizing we had landed. Matt’s gentle caress on my left shoulder woke me up.

“We’re here, champ,” he said as I blinked back into reality.

“Wow, thanks. I was completely knocked out,” I told him as I sat up in my seat. I noticed Matt didn’t move his hand from my shoulder, and he continued to caress it softly.

“I know. You were out during the whole thing. You are really handsome when you sleep,” said Matthew without hesitating nor pulling his hand away.

“What?” I said loudly, even though I didn’t mean to. Matthew was a nice and polite man, yet he had always respected boundaries during our time working together. Now, suddenly, he was not only feeling me but also straight up complimenting me.

He didn’t answer, but he stood up in order to look for his bag, casually standing on an angle where his crotch was centimeters away from my face. Damn, I started to get a chubby. Was he doing this on purpose? This reminded me of Kai’s behavior the night before, when he pressed his hard dick against me. This couldn’t be a coincidence.

We got off the plane and reunited with the others, Scott and Nick being the last ones to come out.

“This little man has some serious skills behind a virtual wheel,” said Nick. He was pointing at Scotty, who was tucking a game console inside his bag. “The guy’s a pro at race games. He is talented with his fingers.” Everyone but Scott himself got the second meaning of Nick’s comment.

“Well, you were really good at shooters. I always have trouble kiting yet you got the highest count of headshots,” answered Scotty nicely.

“What can I say, Copper-Top wherever I put my eye … I score.” Nick’s comment was addressed to Scott yet he locked into Lena’s eyes the whole time. Really subtle, Nick. Bravo.

Lena rolled her eyes. “Don’t feel bad Scott, Nick is quite the player,” she said maternally, even though Scott wasn’t affected at all. One could say he was amused even. A cocky smile started to draw into Nick’s face due to Lena’s comment. “I mean, he has a lot of experience from playing with innocent girl’s feelings,” she added sarcastically.

Nick’s lip went flat, realizing he had been played.

“Buuurn,” whispered Viktor, and we all laughed, even Matt.

Nick drilled Vik with a fiery look. “Not cool bro,” he said.

“What?” Said Vik shrugging. “She’s good. You better up your game”.

We formed two teams of three and ordered two cabs. I took the ride with Matt and Lena, meaning the other three got to go together. Lena sat in the front leaving us men in the back. Following an app’s indications, our driver stood away from the main roads to avoid some traffic jams. We were discussing some lobbying strategies for the days to come when I saw Matthew discretely stretch and arm through the top of the back seat, laying it on top of me, his forearm pressing to the back of my neck, his hand gently rubbing my right shoulder. I looked at him, yet he kept his eyes fixed at the opposite window. He kept taking to Lena, dishing out advice and instructions, yet he unashamedly took his other hand inside his pants and started touching his cock.

I was frozen in place. What was happening? This situation continued the whole ride. It took us half an hour to arrive to our destination and the whole time Matt kept playing with himself inside his pants. By the time we got to the conference venue, the Porto Bello resort, a wet spot had clearly formed on the boss’s pants. Without even looking at me, he took his hands away from his cock and away from my shoulder, and he got out of the car. Quite intrigued, so did I.

I loved the clear blue sky above us, yet the sun was heating up quickly outside the car. Lena put on a fancy large hat as we walked to the entrance, and I could see some sweat patches forming around the sleeves of Matt’s taut T-shirt and by the middle of his pecs, his hairier chest now clearly retaining more moisture than before. Damn, he looked so sexy.

The place was beautifully decorated. Marble tops and crystal ornaments gave the reception hall some natural illumination. Warm and cold colors were mixed to give that tropical vibe. I could smell sun blocker and chlorine in the air. I was surprised by how big the hotel was but also by the amount of people we found there. Several small groups kept traversing the hall in every direction. Other conference participants I guessed. From fancy suits to towels and flip flops, you name it. As expected from an engineering conference, most of the participants were men. Everywhere I looked, a handsome guy caught my eye. I started daydreaming about growing them all. A conference of hunky alpha males. The possibilities …

Kaya, an olive skin, young and charming lady greeted us at the reception counter and started managing our reservations. She gave Matthew his room’s keycard and a violet bracelet. She then proceeded to explain him the benefits that the violet color granted and the areas of the resort we were allowed into. Long story short, we had the whole deal.

“If you’ll excuse me, I’ll head to my room now. I’d like to take a shower and change into something more … loose,” said Matthew as Kaya treated Lena’s reservation. “We can meet by the main pool in half an hour. We can allow ourselves to enjoy a bit before tomorrow.”

“You won’t have to ask me twice,” said Lena, flashing a big smile.

“Sure. Sounds like a plan,” I said, relieved that he wasn’t going to summon another round of practicing or reviewing.

“I’ll text the others then,” Matthew turned around but hesitated for a moment, like he was finding it hard to say something “Oh and Max, maybe you can pass by my room later? I could show you what I was talking about at the plane.” And with that, he headed to the elevators at the other side of the room.

My jaw almost dropped. Show me? What did he meant by showing me? Did my boss just wanted me to meet him in his room, alone, to show me his junk? I couldn’t imagine a single scenario where Matthew would have even thought of that, much less proposing it out loud.

“What was that about?” asked Lena curious yet not suspiciously.

“I … I have no idea,” I said, being a 100% sincere. She didn’t think much of it.

“Well, you better go find out. You know the boss is not one to sit around if something’s troubling him. Maybe he found a crack in our codes.”

Good. She thought it was work related. Even though she missed the real context, Lena was right about Matthew. I was afraid he might not let this go and honestly, I started thinking if that’d be much of a bad thing … a part of me wanted to know how this could play out. I felt a tingling in my left wrist. Of course, the “alpha” part of me wanted to see this play out.

Lena extended her arm so Kaya could wrap her bracelet around her wrist. She took her room’s keycard, blew me a kiss goodbye and off she went, down the same path as Matthew did a moment before.

I waited for Kaya to finish processing me, but things were starting to take longer than I expected. I could see on her face she was confused and from the glances and the “It will just be a minute” smiles she was casting at me; I knew something was wrong. The lady excused herself and went to the back to speak to one of her colleagues, nervously looking at me from time to time. I couldn’t hear them through the diverse noise generated by the people in the hall.

“Oh hey Max. I thought I saw you. You took your time to get here. Where’s Lena? … or the boss?” Scotty appeared out of nowhere still wearing the same clothes from the airport. The violet bracelet on his arm made me realize he had already checked in. Scott never lost his usual boyish smile.

“Hey man. Yeah, the cab took a long route but don’t mind it. The others headed to their rooms already. I’m waiting for my keycard, but I don’t know what’s taking so long.” I pointed Scott in Kaya’s direction. He frowned, immediately showing concern.

“Well, here she comes,” he said crossing his arms over his chest. His opened top buttons showed a recently shaved torso filled with freckles.

“Excuse me sir, It is with deepest sorrow that I must inform you, we have run into a predicament while managing your reservation. It looks like your room won’t be available.” Kaya spoke in a voice that let me know she was expecting me to lose it in front of her. Don’t get me wrong, I kind of was, but shouting at her wouldn’t get me a room. I guess many other rich customers hadn’t thought the same in the past.

“But I’m attending the conference here for the next three days. My company booked for my whole team, and they just checked in, I can’t just … leave,” I explained to her calmly.

“We offer you our sincerest apologies. We could arrange a room in one of our partner hotels in the zone. The same privileges applying of course.”

“No way,” said Scott before I could even say anything. “You’re not going away, you’ve worked so hard for this, you have to stay with the team”

Of course I wanted to stick to the group, and I’d hate to go to another place after seeing where the others would be staying. Besides that’d mean waking up even earlier to get here in time, risking jams, missing the late night parties … It was definitely starting to rain on my parade.

“I’m sorry,” said Kaya, sounding genuine. “There are just no more rooms left. We are fully booked.”

“Then you’ll stay with me,” said Scott without thinking it twice.

“Scotty …” I started yet he interrupted me.

“Dude, my room’s big enough for four persons. The bed’s king size, we wouldn’t even touch each other and the carpet’s so soft I can even sleep on the floor if you think it’s awkward.”

I couldn’t believe it. I’ve only known Scott for a few months, yet I felt my appreciation for him just doubled. He was willing to sleep on the floor for me, how much of a good guy one could be?

“Are you sure about this?” I asked, even though I could see in his eyes he was clearly determined.

“Of course. I mean it’s the least I can do. Come on, Max.”

I looked at Kaya, who remained silent during our little trade off. “Is this possible?” I asked. She hesitated.

“Normally we can’t let more than one person stay on a room for a single person, it’s against prot…” she couldn’t finish her sentence as Scott started protesting.

“Normally, you wouldn’t have messed up a reservation for a client who had already pay in advance, besides, this man happens to be my boyfriend. What I’m hearing is you won’t let him stay in the same room that I am? Is this some kind of gay prejudice? Really, from the famous Porto Bello resort? I guess I should warn other customers about this on social media …”

For the second time in less than half an hour, my jaw almost dropped to the floor. Who would have thought boy-scout Scotty had this level of spine. Kaya started biting her lip. She knew how quickly something like that could scale on social media, and just before a big event … Too much of a risk.

“Seeing the circumstances, I think we can both help each other out,” continued Scott, leaning into the counter. “We both stay in one room and this whole situation stays buried here.”

Kaya hesitated but Scott kept staring directly at her. She started quickly tapping into her touchpad.

“I’ll give you another keycard, but I’ll need your room’s number please,” she said, giving in. He did it. Scott really did it. I smiled in amazement, but he kept his stance, dignified. “I’ll also need your arm sir,” she said, now looking at me.

“Thank you,” I told her as she put the bracelet around my left wrist, her touch, just as Lena’s, didn’t trigger my powers at all. She just nodded, wrapped the violet lace and handed me the key.

“Enjoy your stay,” she said, like nothing just happened. And with that, Scott grabbed my bags and nudged me in the elevator’s way.

“That was amazin, man. For a moment I thought I’d had to leave. I owe you big time,” I told him as we walked down the hall.

“Are you kidding? That was really fun, my heart was racing like crazy, I thought she’d see through my bluff,” answered Scott laughing as he called the elevator. “Besides, I just got myself a boyfriend, I’m also a winner here.”

I cracked for that sweet smile of his.

“I’ve never dated a ginger before,” I told him getting into the elevator. “Aren’t you supposed to bring me luck or something now that we’re together?”

“We’ll see about that. I warn you though, no sex before marriage, so if you want a piece of this you better hurry and put a ring on it, bro,” said Scott waving his hand from his head to his toes. Maybe it was the ambiance or the nerves going down but I couldn’t stop laughing at Scotty’s comeback. He kept smiling as well.

“Now seriously,” he added. “Don’t look now but ever since I joined you at the counter, the guy in the blue suit by the entrance hasn’t taken his eyes away from you.”

Scott gestured me in the right direction with a flick of his chin. Before the doors of the velvety elevator closed, I caught a glimpse of a raven haired, white skin man wearing a five-o clock shadow and a navy-blue blazer. He was in a group of five to seven people, yet he was clearly not paying attention to them.

Our eyes crossed and he smiled to me. I instinctively smiled back at him, but the metal doors closed between us, leaving me quite curious.

Scott raised an eyebrow. “Good thing I’m not the jealous type,” he said. I elbowed him amiably. He jumped away, clearly tickled.

“Don’t get too far, Scotty, I guess you are indeed bringing me luck.” He blushed, unable to hide it on his white cheekbones.

The elevator finally opened its doors and we both stepped into our floor.

“Welcome,” said Scott, flashing his keycard into the pad and opening the door for me into his … well, now our, room.

 

Part 9

Scott wasn’t exaggerating when he said four people could perfectly fit in that room. It was huge. The door lead directly into a round space with two symmetrically-placed glass tables, and two circular couches, one black and one white. It took me a minute to realize the four pieces of furniture represented a yin-yang. The furthest wall contained an enormous window through which I could see the branches of some palm threes gracefully waving with the wind. Hidden to mi sight by a corner, the room continued to the left.

There where natural flower arrangements carefully placed here and there, and only two meters away from the entrance a thick white rug started covering the floor. I took my shoes off and marveled at the softness when both my feet were sucked into the plushy fabric. The amount of natural light getting into the room and the color distribution of the walls only seemed to make it look bigger than it was.

“No way …” I gasped in disbelief. I knew from some colleagues that the conference always took place in luxury venues, yet I never imagined we got to be spoiled like this.

“I know, right?” said Scott, sharing my excitement. Even though he had already entered the room, I could see his hype hadn’t gone down. “Come and take a look at this.” Scott led me to the back, taking a turn to the left into the zone I haven’t yet seen. I passed through the circular space and marveled at the king sized bed, elegantly decorated with a blue duvet and 6 pillows varying in shades of grey.

“Is everyone’s room like this?” I asked to no one in particular, not actually expecting an answer.

“Well, Nick’s is, so I guess the others might have gotten the same” said Scott.

“Wait, you’ve been to Nick’s room?” I asked, honestly curious about how that ended up happening—at least, so fast.

“Sure,” said Scott, like it was obvious. He didn’t seem to register it actually wasn’t and I had many follow-up questions. He didn’t give me chance to make them as he immediately added, “Now, just as I promised …”

Scott ran and jumped into the bed from one side, laying face to the ceiling and completely stretching his arms and legs. Even though he made an effort to reach as far as he could, his fingers failed to grasp the opposite edge.

“See? I told you,” he said turning around and facing me. “You won’t even notice I’m there.”

“Stop it,” I said, approaching the edge of the bed and feeling the duvet with my fingers. My sheets back home could easily be sand paper compared to it. “I’m not worried about you bothering me,” I added. “It’s the other way around. I’m sharing your room, after all.”

“Don’t mind it,” he said now sitting up. “I’ve shared a room with my brother my entire life. I like the company. I was afraid to feel a bit lonely.”

I didn’t know Scott had a brother, and I was tempted to ask further about his family but I noticed how he lowered his shoulders with the last part of his sentence.

“Lonely? Buddy, even if we didn’t share a room, the six of us would be together the whole event,” I said, trying to comfort him.

“You can be lonely even though you’re not alone,” he said, looking straight into my eyes. I was discovering many layers of Scott today that I simply couldn’t in spite of all our shared conversations in the past.

I raised an eyebrow.

“Nick, Lena, Viktor and you … you all have history,” said Scott, not letting go of our eye contact. “You’re a tight group. Even though you’re nice to me, I’m still the new guy, an outsider. So I was afraid you would all start having a blast and I would have just felt left out.” I understood where he was coming from. “Now that I get a chance to get closer to you maybe I can get closer to the others as well.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Come on, Max, you’re the center of it all. I see how everyone socially gravitates around you.”

I started nervously laughing. Scott remained serious. “I mean it,” he said.

“Look,” I told him, sitting next to him. “I won’t lie, I’m flattered. But I don’t think about that and the truth is neither should you. Everyone likes you and we enjoy having you around. Just give it time.”

He smiled but didn’t say a word. I wasn’t sure how much of my message actually got through to him.

“Besides, you already went to Nick’s room, I mean, how closer do you want to get?” I added deviously, elbowing him again knowing it would tickle. As expected, Scott jumped on his seat, breaking the tension of the moment. He grabbed a grey pillow and hit me with it. We both laughed until a beeping sound coming from the table distracted us. It was Scott’s cellphone. He got up to check it out.

I took the time to explore the last part of the room I hadn’t been to. To the right of the bed, a door-less opening in the wall led to a small wooden dressing room and a big bathroom, separated by a full body mirror. I noticed Scott had already arranged some of his clothes into the wooden drawers. His luggage neatly placed to the side. I was pleased by how organized he was. We had that in common. I placed my bags next to his and wandered into the bathroom. Inside, an Italian shower filled almost the whole space, separated from the sink and the toilet only by a glass wall.

I turned around, confirming there was not a door separating the bedroom from the bathroom and even with a lot of steam, the glass wall would do little to hide someone who’s taking a shower. This might be inconvenient.

“It was the boss; he wants us to meet by the pool. He’s cutting us some slack today,” I heard Scott voice’s from behind, coming into the dressing room.

“Oh, yeah, he told Lena and me back at the counter. With all that happened I just forgot,” I said apologetically.

“No harm done. We should get ready though, I’m dying to dive into the pool,” said Scott, turning around and picking some swimming trunks from a ledge. He immediately unbuttoned his shirt and took it off, putting it aside before swiftly pulling down his pants, leaving him standing in front of me with nothing but his black boxer briefs on. I was a bit surprised by how comfortable he was with this, like he hadn’t thought it twice.

Scott was in better shape than his usually loose wardrobe showed. Even though he was not a big man, he had a wiry built showing some serious definition. Unlike Nick, who shared a similarly skinny frame, Scott’s body couldn’t have been achieved without constant physical training.

As he put up his swimming trunks I detailed how the muscles of his hamstrings shaped the skin tight black fabric of his boxer. He had a tiny yet muscular butt yet I couldn’t get a glimpse of his pouch before he turned aside. Scott’s shoulders and upper back were dusted with a myriad of light brown freckles which I found myself admiring more than I should have. Scott’s small pecs were recently shaven, yet the bright orangey shadow let me know his chest hair could naturally grow as dense as Matthew’s if left unattended. Oh my God, he even had a six-pack. A skinny-boy six-pack, yet it was by no means less impressive.

Kai and Viktor were more on the bulky side and Nick just never gave a damn about going to the gym, so I was the member of the squad with the most defined mid-section, a tittle that me and my runner’s four-pack wore with a lot of pride. I wasn’t expecting to find me beaten by Scott. Never judge a book by its one-size-too-big clothes.

I realized I had been staring longer than I should have, so I finally moved and picked some swimming trunks of mine. I didn’t want to seem like too much of a prude so I did as Scott and stripped to my undies right then and there. I didn’t have that much of a choice, as the damn bathroom didn’t offer a better cover so what the hell. I kept looking down trying not to make much of it. By the time I finished changing I looked myself in the full body mirror only to find Scott checking out my reflection from the bedside.

“I wish I could be as built as you are,” he said with a mixed tone of admiration and sadness.

“What are you talking about dude? You look like you just jumped out of an Abercrombie add,” I said, rolling my eyes yet trying not to blush to his comment.

“Who cares about having abs if I’m still a small guy,” he said. He had a point, I wasn’t any mister Olympia myself but watching both our reflections in the mirror, In comparison to Scott, my taller body and bigger arms were indeed accentuated. “I’ve been hitting the gym ever since I started college yet I struggle to put on some mass. You don’t lift and still you have nice body to show.”

“If you think I’m built, wait until you see Viktor,” I said sarcastically, knowing for a fact that Viktor’s biceps were inches bigger than mine.

“Don’t even get me started,” he scoffed.

“I didn’t know you were into lifting though. That’s cool.”

“Yeah, my Dad’s a big guy you know? So ever since I was a kid I wanted to become like my old man. I’m still chasing that dream though. Ever since last month I’m taking some new supplements and I’ve seen some results, yet nothing to write home about.”

A bursting tingling sensation came from my left wrist, just as if the Alpha rune reacted to Scott’s wish to be big. Of course it did. I clenched my fisted and hid it behind my back, ignoring the antsy feeling spreading now through my forearm. He noticed my distraction.

“You okay?” he asked, sounding concerned.

“Yeah, fine. I slept over my arm the whole flight and it’s still a bit cramped,” I answered quickly. “Some swimming might fix it up so, are we going or what? You wouldn’t want to miss Lena’s sunscreen routine,” I added with a wink.

His face lit up with the cutest smile and even though his short copper beard covered most of his face, there’s nothing he could do to hide his blushing cheeks. I wanted him to know I knew and I could see he decided to stop pretending. I was digging this newfound complicity between us.

And with that, we both left the room teasing each other in a brotherly banter.

The main pool was shaped after a sailboat, the hull forming a huge space for swimming. The bigger sail was shallower, intended for the kids. The smaller sail however was filled with water jets, its bubbles breaking the already troubled surface. This seemed to be the most popular section, being more crowded than the rest.

We found the rest of the team already waiting us by the southern side of the pool. Nick sat on the edge drinking a yellow-colored cocktail from a very tall glass. He was talking to Vik who was standing neck-deep in the pool, holding a plastic ball with both arms. Lena on the other hand was laying on a sun-lounger with an expression of pure bliss on her face. Both Matthew and she had approached their chairs to the pool in order to participate in the guy’s conversation.

The boss wore some white trunks showing his hairy legs and a light-blue t-shirt which hung less tight on his torso than the one he sported at the plane. The V-neck collar, however, accentuated his now deeper cleavage, also showing a coarse patch of brown hairs clearly shorter than I remembered from this morning. Trust me, I had memorized the look of Matthew’s manly torso. He had most probably trimmed down his denser rug before coming to the pool. I cursed to myself, frustrated to have missed the moment he saw for the first time his denser coat of hair. It must have shocked him enough for him to think it needed to be mowed down. Our eyes crossed and he smiled. I did the same.

It took us a while to tell everyone about my room’s inconvenient and how I ended up with Scott. It took me even longer to calm down Lena and convince her not to go burn down the administration.

“Fine, but I still think it’s outrageous,” she said finally sitting down once again.

“Yo, Weasley, you better be a nice host to my man here, we clear?” said Nick to Scott, faking an accent. I couldn’t help but laugh. I caught a glimpse of Lena covering her face to let out a giggle. This simple act was enough to get her on a better mood.

“Seriously, Scott, you’re an angel,” said Lena on a sweet tone holding his forearm. Nick got up from the border of the pool and put a hand over Scott’s shoulder, messing with his hair and casually putting him away from Lena.

“Wanna join us, Scotty? Viktor was getting tired of me winning all the time,” asked Nick with a foxy smile.

I looked at Viktor intrigued yet he just raised an eyebrow and shook his head. I’m pretty sure he caught up more than he let show but I also knew Vik was the kind of guy that preferred to stay on the sidelines and just watch the world burn.

“Sure! I’m in,” answered Scott eagerly. I understood he saw this as an opportunity to continue mingling with the guys. He took his shirt off and dove into the pool, following Nick. The three of them started passing around the plastic ball Viktor was carrying before, if you let it touch the water, you lost. Simple as that.

I couldn’t say for sure it was intentional, but Nick positioned himself in such way that Scott ended up in the deepest part of the pool. That and his shorter frame made him harder to keep up with the guys, yet I could see he was putting on an effort. I spent several minutes watching them. I must admit the image of the three of them shirtless, waving her wet arms and thrashing around to catch the ball was quite alluring.

“Oh my God, they are so childish. What are we going to do with them?” joked an amused Lena.

“We? What are you gonna do with this?” I answered back, closing the distance between us.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“Oh cut it, I know you love the attention.”

I was about to start laughing but I could see in her face she wasn’t following. Could she really be that clueless? No … I’m sure she was playing me … right?

“Say, Max, would you like to test the jets on the other side?” Matthew spoke for the first time since Scott and I arrived, cutting into our conversation. He seemed agog.

“You just read my mind, boss,” said Lena before I could even answer. “I could really use some of that now, my back is no fan of long flights.” She stood up and walked to Matt’s side. I could see he was completely disappointed, his intentions being clearly meant for us to go alone. He hadn’t thought this through.

“You know what? Go ahead. I’ll catch a drink at the bar first,” I said nervously, still not having figured out what to do with Matthew’s constant attention.

Matthew hesitated. “Right,” he finally said as he too stood up and joined Lena. “See you in a while then.” With that, Matthew grabbed his collar with both his hands and pulled up his shirt, showing his naked torso publicly for the first time. Thanks to the alpha touch, I had already marveled at Matt’s augmented body, yet seeing it like this was such a turn on for me. I was getting a chubby.

He looked at me once again expectantly, like he knew I might have changed my mind after watching him shirtless. I tried my best to keep it cool. I found this ‘hard to get’ routine quite amusing. A minute passed and he realized my resolution wasn’t quelling so he turned around and headed away with Lena by his side, telling him about the water’s temperature or something. I sighed, relieved that the tension was finally off … or so I thought.

Matthew kept walking to the other side of the pool where the showers were carefully placed between some stone pillars. He turned around, locking his eyes on me and he pressed the button to let the water flow. The stream ran down Matthew’s body, his chest hair becoming darker as it got wet. I could see some droplets collecting around his hard nipples only to fall down when they became big enough. Matthew’s white trunks became immediately see-through, sticking to his wet legs and showing the shading of his underwear. A nice big bulge could now be seen on the front.

During the whole time my boss didn’t even blink, our eyes still locked on each other. He was teasing me and I couldn’t help but to take it all in, my dick fully springing to life inside my own trousers. With his right hand Matthew started massaging his left pec, softly at first but then thrusting it like it was made of dough. I saw the hairy globe contracting and relaxing on his hand. When the water stopped, he wrapped it all up by bouncing his pecs twice and smiling cockily at me.

I got up, turned around and headed to the pool bar. I needed to get out of there before I did something stupid. A guy could only take so much. I needed all my willpower not to run to him and touch him, unleashing my powers and making him bigger. I couldn’t shake the scene out of my head. His package standing out from the white fabric. His jutting pecs bouncing. His guilty smile. I took notice of my pulse suddenly accelerating. I felt short breathed and I didn’t even see where I was headed. In the middle of my distraction, lightning struck.

Without noticing, I bumped into a guy walking in the opposite direction, my whole body tackling him. Even though he wasn’t even shirtless, my left hand must have touched his bare skin because without even realizing it, the alpha touch became active and my trance began, the world focusing on this innocent stranger. Luckily he was a big guy so he didn’t even budge, instead, he held me by a shoulder helping me regain my balance.

“I’m so sorry,” he said hastily, taking the blame when I knew it was most probably mine. He had a deep voice. “You okay there, man?”

I had to blink as my head started flooding with information faster than I could process it. His name was Riley, he was 32, and to say he was big might have been a bit of an understatement. He rose higher than me, being 6’3 and weighing 203 pounds, a big part of it clearly being muscle, something his black polo shirt showed. I didn’t need the rune to see his dark blond short hair nor his brown eyes.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I had my head in the clouds, didn’t see you there,” I said.

“I’m really sorry; I didn’t see where I was heading. Good thing you didn’t fall.” I could feel he meant it in a good way, yet the tone he used told me was a cocky guy. Thanks to the rune I could share the excitement he felt standing by someone smaller than him, getting off on being a big guy.

“I better go. Have a nice day,” Riley said, going around me and heading for the tables at the back of the place.

I tried to put myself together but being sure to keep my connection with Riley open. Through the fuzzy background I managed to find my way to the bar, leaning against it. Even though he wasn’t in my field of vision, I could still completely picture Riley, jogging his way through the crowd, some golden glittery tendrils exuding from his body and circling him.

Riley joined three other guys on a table: a small white guy with long wavy black hair, a more rounded and soft-toned guy with a bald faded haircut and a shirtless tanned guy with a big nose and bushy eyebrows. Four beers where waiting at the table, droplets of water already forming around the cold bottles.

“Finally! I swear, 30 seconds later and I would have gulped down both your beer and mine,” said the black haired guy who, somehow, I suddenly knew was named Gary.

“I’m here, I’m here,” said Riley taking a seat and picking up his beer. The others did the same and the four loudly tapped their bottles at the center of the table before chugging down at least half the content, each.

“I really needed that. Thanks for the invitation, Gar,” said the darker skin guy. ‘Marco’, I heard Riley think. I guess I was kind of accessing his brain somehow. The rune sent the first warm wave through my wrist since the touch was activated.

“It’s chill,” said Gary back. “My old man owns a lot of this place. There’s this event or something so we had to pull up some strings … but we got in.”

So these guys weren’t here for the conference but just some rich kids enjoying a stay. I had no proof of it, but the way Gary said that last phrase made me think he might have something to do about my room not being available.

“It’s been a while since we got together,” said the last guy, the chubbier one. I concentrated on Riley’s thought once again, not receiving anything for a while but eventually a word formed in his mind ‘Bastien’.

“Not as long as you’ve been without hitting the gym,” said Gary back before sipping his beer. I found that comment rude. Bastien was by no means in bad shape, he wasn’t just as lean as the other three. I could see Riley laugh but he felt bad inside. I guess Gary was the leader of this pack and being a part of it meant putting up with his shit.

I listened to them interacting for a while and quickly realized these were pure-blood frat boys. Clearly older, but the mindset was still there. By the time they ordered a second beer a more intense hot wave erupted from the tattoo. It became impatient. So far I had only grown people who were close to me but the power I felt from being able to change a complete stranger became intoxicating. I didn’t have to care about dealing with questions or consequences, I could let go. Besides, Riley was already built and enjoyed it, making him bigger seemed like a wild dream about to come true.

The guys started playing a card game as they caught up to each other’s life. Their eyes going from the cards to their beers. The moment was perfect.

I concentrated on Riley and the heat coming from my hand escalated. ‘Let’s see how’d you look with 40 pounds more of lean muscle … Slowly, I want to enjoy this,’ I thought, and like lighting up a match or feeling a particularly strong heartbeat, the sparks in my arm flared up and I felt Riley’s body responding.

I first noticed the changes on his shoulders. Under the black fabric, I saw them becoming rounder. It was slight at first, but as the time passed I could clearly see the difference. They were bowling up deliciously. His delts too, as a matter of fact. I watch them inflate little by little, pushing his collar aside and giving Riley’s neck a wider look.

Next it was his back. His delts flared up, amplifying his already V-shaped body. As he played cards Riley could feel his arms hanging a bit further from his body than usual. He was picking up on the changes.

Riley’s arms started to catch up. I checked the numbers and he was already 17.5 inches around, but I could see that number being replaced in my mind, as both his arms slowly inflated. As they grew to 18 inches, the sleeves of his shirt were starting to ride up. The man was starting to feel constrained in his shirt. ‘It’s really hot in here,’ he thought, pausing the game for a moment to take off his polo shirt. He struggled a bit, finding it weird and frustrating that his shirt just wouldn’t come off.

By the moment he succeeded his face was flushed in a slight red color and he sighed in relief. I saw his pecs bulge out, jutting out an inch further than they used to before bumping into me, resting on top of his still well defined abs.

Gary took notice of his friend’s bare chest. “Yo, Riles, you’re seriously lifting aren’t you?” he said, half impressed, half jealous. I could hear it in his tone. Awesome. How’s that, Gary? You might think you’re the alpha of this little pack, but I’ll show you what an alpha looks like.

“Yeah, I still train every night before heading home.” Riley took notice of his body, feeling quite pumped. He flexed his right arm in front of his friends and his now 19 inches arm erupted, showing a delicious round bicep, a big vein sprouting through the middle, snaking down and splitting through his forearm. Marco whistled and Riley himself was taken aback by how massive he looked. He flexed even harder, loving the feeling of his fist being unable to come any closer to his shoulder.

“You’re on another level bro,” said Bastien as he lifted a hand to feel Riley’s flexed bicep. He was incapable of closing it around the man’s arm. Riley started laughing when he felt Bastien applying pressure yet his boulder didn’t budge. The feeling was amazing and I was drenched on it thanks to our connection.

“I haven’t been tracking my gains but I think the results are finally showing” said Riley proudly. He was flooding with endorphins and excitement. He felt awesome. He finally relaxed his arms and put a card on the table yet his arms continued to grow past the 19 inches mark.

Even though I wasn’t paying much attention, Riley’s lower body was also developing. His calves weren’t ripped but instead they became beefy and swollen. His legs started gaining girth, packing their own share of muscle, now completely filling his red shorts. Riley had his 9.5 size feet resting on top of some worn out flip flops, but I guessed if he was getting big, he should be big all over. With just a thought, Riley’s feet grew up to size eleven, stretching and widening in proportion. He felt the tip of his toes touching the hot floor.

Riley’s pecs grew again, pushing a bit further out. They were huge, bigger than Matthew’s. His chest was about 50 inches now. He started fidgeting in his chair as he felt constrained in his shorts. He tried to spread his legs but he found his thighs were already hitting the arm holders of the chair. He nervously looked down realizing something was off.

When I said I wanted him to be big all over, I meant it, and there was one department I haven’t touched yet. Hidden in his now skin-tight trunks, Riley’s soft 3 inches cock rested, waiting. ‘Get hard’, I commanded, and so it did. Riley nervously chugged down a big part of his second beer as his dick took his true form at 6.3 inches long and 3.8 around. Not bad, I’ll admit. But he needed more … I wanted more.

‘Grow until you have the longest dick among your friends here,’ I commanded. I was not even sure if the order might work, not having a clear measure in mind. I felt Riley’s heart starting to beat faster. He look flustered. Thanks to the alpha touch I saw through his pants how his dick started elongating. 7 inches, Riley leaned against the table, putting both his elbows on it, his massive arms looking even bigger flexed like this. 8 inches now, Riley gritted his teeth trying to fight what he thought was a raging hard on. Someone around the table was already pretty hung as Riley’s dick didn’t stop growing until it became 8.5 inches long. I was ecstatic.

Nobody was paying attention to the hulking Riley, whose 40 pounds growth had finally subsided. Gary was teasing Bastien about God knows what, when I heard a subtle popping sound. I knew it didn’t come from me but instead it was Riley who heard it. He looked down only to find some seams from his shorts starting to give away. He quickly stood up, hitting the table as he was not used to his new size. The beer bottles rattled slightly but nothing fell down. Marco widened his eyes as he saw Riley’s bulge through his pants.

“I … I gotta … damn it,” Riley was trying to put on his flip flops but he found them too small. He persisted though. “I gotta take a leak,” he grunted in frustration before fleeing to the bathroom in the back of the bar. Every step he made, his shorts started riding up on his bigger legs, new seams menacing to burst.

Riley hit the bathroom door harder than he intended yet he was glad to find it empty. The man froze when he realized that the wannabe bodybuilder looking at him from the mirror was … well, him. He took both his hands to his face and marveled at the size of his biceps, and how his pecs looked flexed like that. He gazed at the front of his shorts and squeezed his bulge with one hand only to finally register how bigger his erect cock was. He hurried and unbuttoned his shorts in disbelief, the zipper going down on its own given the volume of package it was containing.

‘Jerk off,’ I growled in my mind, completely lost into this transformation, lust pumping through my body as well as the rune’s pulsations. I started feeling cramps around my body.

“Aaaahh!” Riley let out a deep moan before taking out his cock and start beating one out then and there. He didn’t know why but he felt so horny all of a sudden, he couldn’t stop. He saw himself at the mirror and became even more aroused as he checked every new muscle on his thighs, his wider neck …

Riley heard some steps from out of the bathroom door and he had to consume all of his willpower to stop jerking off just for the few seconds required to get into one of the only two stalls in the room. He leaned to the wall and continued his jerking session, if anything more furiously than before. The scene was absurdly hot from my point of view.

Sounds were coming from the stall next door and I couldn’t stop changing Riley. I wished his balls doubled in sized and so they did. Riley looked down as he felt a weird pressure start building on his ball sac. He took it with his left hand and gasped as it suddenly inflated until it seemed to be containing two lemons.

“Uggghh … ooohh,” moaned Riley uncontrollably, his knees feeling weak, and so did mine.

“Riles?” said a familiar voice from the other stall. “Is that you? Everything okay?” I recognized it to be Bastien’s.

“Yeeeeess,” huffed Riley, tilting his head back. I wasn’t sure he was actually talking back to Bastien or just lost in his own pleasure. I could feel he was coming closer to climax but I order him not to cum until I told him to.

“So you too needed to take five huh? I get it. Gary can be such a sore loser…” Bastien kept talking from next door but Riley wasn’t paying attention, he was suffering my latest transformation.

Riley’s eyes went wide open as he felt his dick pushing against his right hand’s grip, bigger and bigger. Following my commands his cock started getting fatter, wider, until it was 6 inches around.

“… I mean I missed him and all but sometimes he can be such a dick,” Bastien continued his rant as he finished his business next door and flushed.

“Oh yeah … such a big dick,” repeated Riley, referring to his own tool. He felt his orgasm peak but he wasn’t releasing, he craved for it. He started beating ever more furiously.

“Yeah you get me,” said Bastien, his voice now coming from outside Riley’s stall. “Are you done, bud?”

“Ugggh … aahhh,” Riley kept moaning in a deep primal way as his whole body was frozen on a seemingly constant orgasm.

“Everything okay in there?” asked Bastien with an increasingly worried tone.

“Oooh, ugh …. aaahgh” Riley grunted even louder, not caring his friend heard him.

“Riles! I’m coming in.” Bastien slowly pushed the unlocked door, as Riley didn’t even thought of closing it when he entered, his mind only focusing on his throbbing dick.

“Gonna cuuuummm,” roared Riley and that gave me my cue. ‘Now!’ I ordered.

Bastien opened the door only to find his behemoth of a friend, sweating, his body tensed and veins marked all over. His left hand was cupping his lemon sized balls and his right hand was holding the biggest and fattest dick Bastien had ever seen, pointing directly at him.

Fuuuuck yeah!” screamed Riley as his Ddick erupted with a huge cumshot that landed directly on Bastien’s chest, splattering his torso with the warm creamy liquid.

Riley kept pumping and a second and third volley of cum were ejected from his cock, landing on Bastien’s leg and on the floor. After being held back on climax for more than two minutes straight, Riley stumbled down to his knees, completely exhausted.

I came in my own pants after watching that scene play in my head, Riley’s powerful orgasm being transformed into my own, like it had happened with Kai the night before. I forgot where I was or who I was, the link being cut by my lack of concentration. The sound flooded my ears once again and I had to close my eyes when the sunlight regained its brightness. I was panting.

I could feel a familiar sensation on my nose, as the warm liquid start running down. I was bleeding once again. I took my hands to my face in order to cover it but while doing so, I lost my grip on the bar, my legs failing me, unable to carry my weight. Surprised, I was headed directly to the floor, unable to move as random burst of pain hit my ribs, my back and my head.

I suddenly felt an arm go around me and held me in place.

“Hey, are you okay? Look at me. Hey!” I turned my face and recognized the guy holding me as the same guy Scott pointed me out back in the lobby. His five-o’clock-shadowed chin was close to my right ear.

I tried to say something but I found my voice muted and just like a TV that has been unplugged, the edges of my sight started fading … until I plunged into darkness.

 

Part 10

Growing up, I was never a sickly kid. I clearly remember though a particular time when I caught a tropical virus that made my whole body burn for a day and a half. My mom had spent the whole night by my side, putting cold wet clothes on my forehead, wrists and ankles, trying to fight the fever. She used to say that passed a certain point, I trembled so hard that even the bed started moving. I have no memories of that, but instead a whole night of feverish dreams where I would wake rattled, anxious or craving for air, just to find myself on another dream, inside a loop that wouldn’t end. The dissociative feeling of reality I was experiencing right now hit a little too close to home, triggering those distant memories.

I wasn’t falling, not really, but my idle body was moving, drifting into nothingness. Countless faraway stars blinked and danced on every direction, as far as I could see. I must have spent hours like this. Slowly, I became aware of my own limbs, my fingertips sensing streams of coldness passing underneath me.

Ticklish crackles started coming from my wrist. Ephemeral golden sparks started showing on my skin and just like bubbles finally merging with the atmosphere by breaking free of their glossy liquid prison; those sparks grew until they broke an invisible surface that covered my whole body. In the empty space around me, the sparks started forming glittery golden tendrils I recognized from the Alpha touch.

I was dazzled with the beauty of the abstract forms they created, like sentient fumes igniting with lights, intertwining to protect their core: me. I only realized the heavy silence surrounding me when it was broken by what I could only describe as the crackling sound of flames. One after the other, four quivering auras erupted around me and started circling me on a rhythmical motion.

The first one that erupted was made from a silvery white glow I’ve only seen in the higher clouds of the sky. The next one had emerald and sapphire glints, mixing and waving like koi fishes on a pond. The violet one was steadier, calmer; the rings it formed seemed almost solid as they aligned inside the aura. The last one, a deep dark whirlpool that lost its color on its nucleus hurt my eyes when I looked at it for more than a couple of seconds.

The four auras gained speed by circling me, fusing with my golden smoky tendrils until they became just a fuzzy streak of color unable to follow with my bare eyes. I felt a tingling on my left shoulder when the first vision appeared. I was no longer on space but standing in front of a beautiful round marble fountain. A pressure on both my temples brought me back into the starry emptiness, my ears filling with the sound of electronic music that seemed to come out of nowhere. As quickly as the beat came, it disappeared. The right side of my neck went cold giving me the chills, just before my hands felt the furry touch of a beast that just wasn’t there. The last thing I can remember was just pain. Searing pain spreading through my back with no accompanying vision, no sound, no feeling, just lightning bolts that spread through my column, from the center and to the sides. Unable to scream, I closed my eyes and kept the tears from falling.

“Hey, are you okay?” I heard someone say at the distance. Wait, I’ve heard that before.

“Look at me. Hey!” urged the same voice, sounding not so distant now. I reopened my eyes only to find myself back into reality, apparently at the same moment I’d passed out. I felt so much time had gone by in my dream but apparently not.

A pair of foreign arms held me, keeping me from plummeting to the floor as my legs simply gave up trying to hold my own weight. Both my hands were covering my nose and my mouth. The dark red liquid escaping through my fingers reminded me why.

I rediscovered my knees and put enough strength on them allowing me to stand up once again.

“Easy … are you with me pal?” insisted my savior, holding me up until I regained my balance. Sort of.

“I just … I just need to lay down,” I managed to say with a groggy voice.

“Hold on,” said the guy as he swiftly pulled one of the bar’s chairs with his leg and helped me lean on it. “Damn, you’re hot.”

“Straightforward much?” I boasted instinctively. As flattering as it was, I found his comment out of place.

“What?” The white skinned guy froze in place for a second before bursting in laughter. “I meant you’re burning up. Your body temperature is off the roof.”

“Oh …” was all I managed to say as I sunk in my own shame. Turns out I’m a cocky asshole. This is exactly how you should act when someone helps you out. Follow me for more great advice.

“What happened?” queried the young man finally getting his arms off my sides, yet still leaning over so we stayed on eye level next to each other.

Well, let’s see, I was turned on by my hunky boss so I drained it off by using my mystical powers on a guy I bumped, turning him into a muscle beast and forcing him to furiously shoot a load into his friend’s chest; until my body couldn’t handle the recoil of my lust-filled gift. That’s what happened.

“I believe it’s a heatstroke. It’s not the first time this happens,” I avowed, finding relief in the fact that both statements were a lie but were also true in some sense.

“Got it,” announced the guy, showing me a smile, his pearly teeth highlighted on his stubble-shadowed face. “Well ,I might know how to fix you up.”

He turned to the bar and looked around not seeing anyone behind. Graciously, he pushed himself with both his arms, jumping over the ledge like he weighted nothing. He went through the bottles of the shelf behind it, stopping to read some bottle labels before picking them up, others he just completely ignored.

He started pouring several liquids on a metal mixing cup, adding chunks of ice, a white powder I forced myself to believe was sugar, two pieces of lime and three droplets of a tiny brown bottle he found on the lower side fridge. He frantically mixed the whole thing up before effortlessly jumping the bar once again, this time being more impressive than the first one as not a single drop got out of the cup.

Drawing the same smile he did before leaving, he offered me the cup. “Bottoms up,” he said winking.

I picked the cup with my left hand, my fingers tainted in red as the blood from my running nose was drying out due to the hot tropical weather. I raised an eyebrow when I saw the foamy pale green liquid inside the metal cup.

“I work in bio chem. I know what I’m doing,” he added when he saw my clear mistrust. “I’m Gabriel by the way.”

This was the first time I stopped to pay attention to him. Back at the lobby I remembered he was handsome, but up close he was even better looking. He must have been 5’7 and I marveled at his deep blue eyes. His raven hair was styled on a neat quiff haircut and his square jawline was accentuated by his five-o-clock shadow. He wore a blue bowling shirt in the best Charlie Harper fashion, the loose cut giving him a laid back appearance that, mixed with his calm and confident demeanor, was rather soothing. He wasn’t bulky but I noticed he had quite big forearms, slightly hairy, and covered in blue veins that showed through his skin. A square sportive watch hung loosely on his wrist.

“And I work in robotics yet I don’t think I’ll be fixing your Roomba any time soon,” I replied. Gabriel snickered, putting both his hands on his pockets.

“Cheers!” I finally said, raising my cup and thinking this couldn’t be worse than Vik’s awful mixes back at the U. I frowned at the unexpected acidity of the drink yet my sore throat welcomed the cold beverage. The taste wasn’t good, but the sweet hint at the end helped making it go down. I instantly started feeling better, my head becoming clearer as the fresh sensation spread through my body.

“I’m Max,” I said still going through the aftertaste of the drink and managing to repress a sudden burp. “Yeah, don’t patent this, I don’t think it will sell good.”

Gabriel snickered again, looking down to one side. “There goes my dream of being a showcase bartender.”

“Well, you’ve got the looks, you just need to learn how to make this taste as good as you look.”

“Straightforward much?” he repeated, mimicking my previous tone but not caring in the slightest about hiding his smile.

“Now we’re even,” I countered, owning my misperception as if it were his actual intention. I might have winked at him. Okay, I definitely winked at him.

Gabriel threw his head back laughing for the second time and I found this attractive on a sweet and genuine way.

“Here, let’s take care of this before someone thinks I broke your nose.” Gabriel produced a handkerchief from his pocket and gave it to me, gesturing my face. From the look of my fingers, I guessed my upper lip area wasn’t in any better shape. I took it and started wiping, using the mixing cup’s surface as a mirror.

“You’ve got a killer right hook I must say. I must have said something really bad,” I joked, my voice being distorted when my hands blocked my nostrils.

“Well, you do seem like a prick so maybe you deserved it. You handsome guys think you own the world,” batted Gabriel back.

Now it was my time to laugh. Our little banter went on for a couple of rounds more and I found Gabriel’s humor stimulating, getting my best sassy side to come out.

“Now seriously, thanks for earlier Gabriel,” I told him as he took the chair next to me.

“Call me Gabe.”

“Thanks Gabe. And that potion of yours, I think it actually worked.”

“Don’t mention it. I just happened to be on the right place, right time.”

“Happy coincidence.”

“Yeah it might have more to do with the fact that I was coming to talk to you anyway,” Gabriel let out the first hint of timidity since we started talking. Lovely.

“You were gonna talk to me? The so called prick?” I tattled.

“Yeah, well some guys make new friends at bars, I make bad decisions,” he said, faking a beat up look.

I chuckled. Our eyes met and we held each other’s gaze for a while. I hate to admit I was the first to break it up. My eyes going down on his vascular arms only to be surprised by the time shown on his watch. If it was right, I was gone for more than an hour. My little experience with Riley must have lasted way more than I realized and surely my flirting session with Gabe hadn’t been any shorter.

I got up, excusing myself. “I’m sorry, Gabriel …”

“Gabe,” he interrupted me with a calm expression, even when he could clearly see I was pretending to leave.

“I’m sorry, Gabe,” I emphasized his name this time. “But I’m with some friends of mine and I have to get back to them. Thanks again and, see you around.”

I started walking out and the disappointment on his face broke my heart. Why was I turning him down? Fucking moral code … Nick would have already ditched us if a girl this pretty had hit him up.

“I’ll be at the beach party tonight,” exclaimed Gabe nervously so I could hear over the distance. “In case you come.”

Interesting. I could work with this.

“Who knows?” I responded cockily. “Maybe I will be the one making bad decisions tonight.” I smiled at him, acting as flirty as I could, and relished at Gabe’s smile when my comment landed. With that I turned around and headed back to the main pool where I hoped I’d find the others.

I looked at the alpha rune, its black traces glistening through the sweat on my skin. I overdid it with Riley. This was by far the biggest transformation I’ve caused and the fall was too much for my body to handle. I felt a knot on my stomach as I thought about the possibilities of really hurting myself to the point of no return. I was scared, but I couldn’t deny that it had felt amazing. The power to control him, his lust, watching him grow like that; his face when he felt his dick push his fingers away as it became wide as a can. I started to ponder the possibility that the Alpha touch was becoming a drug for me, and the ride was like nothing I’ve felt before.

What was that dream though? I couldn’t remember all the details but the starry space, the four colored flames; I had seen those last night just before visiting the guys I had touched so far. This time I saw nobody but … the vision, the sounds … the pain … it all felt too real.

I got to our sun-loungers and looked around finding no one but Viktor, floating in the middle of the pool. He tilted his head indicating me to come so I took my shirt off and dove in his direction.

The touch of the water felt amazing on my skin. My body must have really been hot because, ironically, as soon as I dove into the water it felt like taking a gush of fresh air. Relief.

I surfaced right next to Viktor, who had his signature eyebrow-raised expression.

“I see no drink but I don’t think you came empty handed from the bar,” he said, teasing me.

I felt a pair of arms circling my neck and I recognize the slender figure to be Lena’s. Where’d she come from?

“I know that smile,” she said excited, getting closer to me until she pressed her boobs to my back. I instinctively put my arms around her legs and caught her on a piggy-back inside the water, knowing It would be safe to touch her with both my hands. I could feel her giggling to my ear.

“Get off my case,” I said laughing, letting them know their suspicions were true: I had found something of my interest.

“Man I put a lot of money on Nick’s being the first getting laid on this trip, don’t play against me like this,” complained Viktor faking a dreadful expression.

“You sure you still don’t want to gossip about men?” said Lena to my ear, the droplets falling from her face tickling my neck.

“I can easily see you turning that into a monologue,” I said and the three of us laughed. Lena pushed me down with all her weight and I went underwater, my thoughts drifting to Gabriel’s blue eyes. It has been a while since I flirted so direct and naturally with someone. I can assure you, the smile on my face didn’t disappear for quite a while.

We spent the rest of the day fooling around by the pool. It had been some time since Lena, Viktor and I had spent quality time together. Matthew eventually joined us, having finished his stay at the Jacuzzi side, and started reminiscing of his younger days. He commented on how we reminded him of his first tea, back when he joined the company more than a decade ago. He also thanked us warmly for keeping him young. Before my mischiefs with the Alpha touch began, I already appreciated Matthew as our boss, always so kindhearted and knowing how to motivate us, all of this while keeping a nice ambiance at the office. These little heart-to-hearts only reinforced my already high esteem of him.

By the time Nick and Scott joined us, Matthew had started telling stories about his first conferences, the big successes but also those were logistics were a nightmare. There had even been one when a mild magnitude earthquake had ended the conference just on its second day. We all heard his stories like kids around a bonfire. Hours went by and the sun started setting when Vik’s stomach growled viciously, reminding us we had completely skipped lunch.

We agreed to meet at the lobby in half an hour to grab a bite at the restaurant, and with that, everyone parted ways to their respective rooms.

“Can I shower first?” asked Scott as we entered the room, some droplets still hanging around both our hairs.

I thought the shower situation would end up being awkward so I had even considered proposing going for a walk as he showered, expecting him to took the hint and do the same when it was my time around. Instead, Scott’s attitude showed no problem with our current arrangement. Intrigued as I was on how this could play out, I forced myself to go with the flow even though I wasn’t completely comfortable with the situation.

“Be my guest,” I said to Scott, showing him the way with a dramatic wave of both my arms. He passed me by, softly punching me on the shoulder before taking some clothes from the dressing room.

Scotty started reproducing a playlist of soft ballads from his phone and just like before, he started stripping in the middle of the room. I looked away, concentrating on getting my clothes out of my bags and fixing them on the ledges that Scott hadn’t already used at the dressing room. It might had been on my head but I felt the room’s temperature get a little warmer as the steam clouds started pouring out of the door-less bathroom. Through the sound of the running water and the smell of fancy soap my minds started daydreaming about my younger roommate leathering and rinsing his body just a few steps away.

Either it was curiosity, lust or a mix of both, who won the battle in my mind but the thing is I ended up discretely turning around to take a peak. Through the foggy crystal I could see Scott’s toned back and his tight little butt. He washed his head while humming to the rhythm of the music and I found the scene oddly arousing. Honestly, I found almost everything oddly arousing these last couple of days.

Another daydream got loose, one where I stripped as well and joined him on the shower, my arms enveloping him from behind as he welcomed me. I’d softly kiss the freckles on his shoulders, making him moan. Maybe even activating my powers on him for a session of steamy growth …

I punched myself on the thigh to get me down to earth and out of the dressing room, hating me for disrespecting Scott’s privacy like that. I jumped into bed and hugged one of the huge grey pillows trying to keep myself together. I tried emptying my mind by looking at the waving palm trees through the window. As I listened to Scott’s romantic music, I ended up snoozing.

By the time he woke me up, he was fully dressed, wearing an oversized short sleeved violet shirt and some jeans. I checked the time and cursed realizing we had to go down in ten minutes. In spite of Scott’s efforts to reassure me, saying it was okay and we could be some minutes late, I darted to the bathroom and took a quick shower, always facing the wall and trying not to imagine my roommate following my prying behavior.

I put up my underwear and some pants in the bathroom before going out and I had nothing to fear, I couldn’t see Scott but I could hear him on the phone talking to what I assumed was his family, sitting at the yin-yang couch around the corner with simply no possibility of spying on me. I put up a navy shirt, rolled up my sleeves, fashioned my hair and wore some perfume … just in case.

I joined Scott at the room’s entrance just as he finished his call. He complimented my looks and I did the same to him, getting out of the room and hurrying him to do the same.

We were the last ones to get down yet no one seemed to care. Viktor and the boss were dressed as you could imagine for a chill dinner; Lena and Nick on the other hand were simply amazing, both giving each other hell about how they stood out too much.

“Stop yapping already, you’re both overdressed and you’re both expecting to be seen,” growled Viktor, annoyed. “Now, by who, is none of my business but can we please go before I start eating my own arm?”

Dinner was really good. We all ordered different dishes and ended up sharing or simply tasting from each other’s plate. The boss, who made sure ended up sitting to my side, ordered a bottle of red, to which he offered me the first cup; a gesture that Lena expected went to her. We soon ordered a second … and then a third one. When the last cup was served we were all mildly blushed and my abs hurt from all the laughing. It took us a while to realize a phone was ringing.

I was Matthew’s, the screen lighting up with the picture of his wife. “I better take this,” he said with a self-conscious tone, like someone who suddenly regrets something. “I’ll call it a night. You’re all adults and I’m counting on you to put up your best game tomorrow, especially you Viktor. You’re the first to go up.”

Vik simply nodded and even through the glow of non-sobriety, he looked so reliable. Matthew excused himself and got up, not before nervously addressing me. “I’m … I’m really sorry,” he said, his eyes going from his still ringing phone to my face. His own face showing a genuine worried expression, before simply walking away. What was he sorry about? Did he think I would take bad that he talked to his wife?

“So, should we also call it a night?” asked Scott, looking all around the table until his eyes met mine. Suddenly, everyone else did the same, silently expecting me to guide them through the night. Even though that would have been the most rational decision, I had my own agenda.

“We should check out the beach bar. I heard there’s a party tonight,” I said mischievously.

“You heard? From who?” exclaimed Vik, teasing me with the same tone he used back at the pool.

“Who cares?! I’m so up for a dance right now,” added Lena trying to draw the attention away from me. She winked at me and mouthed a discrete “love ya.”

“Let’s goooo!” crowed Nick tapping the sides of his chair completely forgetting we were on public. Either he was drunker than I imagined or he gave less fucks than I thought. In any case, his excitement quickly caught fire between the others and in no time we were heading to the resort’s beach.

The bar wasn’t hard to find. In the dark of the night you wouldn’t even be able to distinguish the sea, yet you could smell it and hear it. A huge cabana-like formation stood in the middle of the sand, several torched sticks decorating the surroundings. The music was loud enough for us to hear from the outside, the characteristic intelligible noise of people partying rose with every step we took.

“Hey Vik, this is Havok’s latest hit, right?” raved Scott as we entered the bar.

“Damn right it is. This is so my vibe man,” jested Viktor as he immediately started dancing to the rhythm of the catchy upbeat tune booming through the speakers.

“What’s Havok?” I asked, raising my voice so I could be heard.

“He’s this DJ that surfaced a couple years ago, He’s not half bad and Viktor here is his biggest fangirl” explained Nick while he also started dancing next to Vik, both of them goofing around and laughing at each other.

A bald server wearing a Hawaiian shirt with a highly pronounced V-neck found himself too close for Lena to resist.

“Get us a round of Tequila Sunrise please,” she said brushing his forearm and playing with her hair “And honey, if you get wild with the tequila I can get wild until sunrise.”

The server smiled cockily, clearly amused with Lena’s flirty proposition. Off he went to the center of the bar, coming back with a platter full of orange and red shots.

Lena kept ordering shots and we just let go as the music went louder, our bodies dancing next to each other, drenched into the vibe of the place. The breezy air of the night did little to dry the beads of sweat now running down our skin. Lena took a moment to unbutton our shirts, taking special attention on Nick’s and Scott’s. I marveled at the sight of Scott’s glistening abs, Viktor’s bulky shoulders and Nick’s Adonis belt leading down straight into his crotch.

I danced my ass of that night and only stood away when the alcohol made the world around me start toppling. I wasn’t wasted, but I was definitely more than tipsy. As my friends kept owning the floor, inviting more and more strangers to join their flow, I looked into the outer ring of the cabana, spotting a familiar figure staring into the stars through the open roof.

“Waiting for a shooting star?” I whispered in the sexiest tone I could produce leaning next to Gabriel.

“Indeed. But now that you’re here I no longer need a wish,” he disclosed, slowly drawing that smile of his, before looking down at my open shirt and my sweaty torso. Yeah, that might have been on purpose.

“Do you dance?” I asked leaning down to his ear so I didn’t have to shout, but also taking it as an excuse to close the distance between us.

“No,” he jabbered, still smiling. “but that never stopped me.”

He grabbed me by the collar and took me back into the floor where he started moving around, lacking any sense of rhythm, yet still clearly enjoying every second. I kept circling him making easy taunting steps, laughing at him goofing and thrashing around. The music changed into a slower reverb and I profited to turn him around and grab him by the waist, putting him closer to my own until I was grinding to his butt. He let out a small gasp as I passed my right leg between both of his, using it to guide him through this song. I was taller than him so my chin ended up just next to his neck where I could feel his pulse accelerating. I gently blew some air on his neck so he got the chills.

I led the dance for a couple minutes, getting bolder with my thrusts yet not letting them get obscene. I was skilled at dancing and I wanted him to know that. Gabe finally turned around and, looking me in the eyes, he whispered, “Would you like to go somewhere more private?”

A zapping sound filled my ears and I was no longer on the bar. Just like a TV that just changed channels, my surroundings changed in the blink of an eye. My feet were no longer on the sand but on some cold ceramic, the space reduced to a single room that I knew more than enough; the air no longer filled with the raving music of the bar but instead by the huffing and grunting of a blond bulky man, and the pleasure moans of the girl he was fucking. That was Caroline, and I was in Kai’s room.

Zap again and I’m back at the bar, Gabriel still locked to my eyes waiting for an answer. I was out of breath and he took it as a sign that his question caught me off guard.

“Just a walk down the beach maybe? We don’t want to get too crazy before the conference opening morning … although, we may already be screwed on that end.” Gabe closed the distance between us and placed a hand on my pec, dangerously close to my hardening nipple.

Zap. The pale purple walls of Kai’s room appeared again around me and I stood by the lower side of his bed, watching him from the back as he made love to his girlfriend.

My ears buzzed again and I realized I must have spent an awkward long time without talking back, as Gabe’s expression became confused.

“I … I need to go,” I said, letting him go and walking backwards, panic going through my face as I started dissociating reality once again, only this time I wasn’t asleep and my conscious self was pretty messed up by all the alcohol from the night.

“But … Max?” Gabe gave a step in my direction but I turned around and just ran away. I got out of the bar, passing the torches and headed into the dark, the world around me spinning. I must have bolted in the coastline’s direction as I quickly felt my legs splashing through the cold water.

I held my head with both my hands and noticed the alpha rune on my wrist wasn’t black but glowing golden.

Zap again and this time I’m standing again by Kai’s bedside, completely able to move. Caroline was lying down on the bed, legs wide opened and her head tilted back. Her left hand held firmly to a pillow as she moaned and encouraged Kai to go harder, even threatening him if he dared to stop. Not that he needed any instructions whatsoever. Kai grabbed her by the hips with such force that I saw red marks on the sides of her body. He was kneeling on the bed making love to her on missionary position, pounding her pussy with some savage motions I had only seen in hard porn. Kai’s back was streaming with sweat, that ultimately collected on top of his bulging ass, before his movements made it spill, both his muscular globes bouncing as he pounded his girl with no mercy.

I walked around the bed convinced that Caroline could not see me, however, when I stood in front of my friend’s field of vision, he opened his eyes and stared directly into mine. I took a step back thinking he could actually see me, but if he did, he wasn’t shocked or even bothered.

Kai intensified his thrusts, his balls slapping against the girl’s ass, creating that clapping sound we all know so well. Without ever blinking or taking his eyes away from me, Kai’s muscles contracted, his fingers digging even deeper on Caroline’s skin, and with a final primal roar, I felt him cumming. He threw his head back, and synched his hips to what I suspected was his dick spitting up volleys of his man seed.

Just like last time, Kai’s orgasm lasted longer than a regular male climax usually does. He kept moaning and started holding Caroline’s legs closer to him, as shivers ran down his spine. He had finally stopped moving but my attention was focused on his ass, which almost immediately started vibrating before bulging out, his cheeks becoming wider and rounder.

I felt a warm drippling sensation on the base of my cock and I quickly understood it wasn’t me but Kai who was actually feeling it.

He looked down and panicked as he saw his cum overflowing from his condom, gushing out through the opening at the base of his cock and quickly running down through his balls.

“Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit,” he said, quickly pulling away from his girlfriend, the girl still knocked away by her own orgasm, too distracted to realize what was happening. Kai’s condom was already tight around his thick dick and the volume of its load was too much to be contained. He tried carefully pulling it out but the creamy liquid spilled anyway on both his hands. I saw his confused look as he pondered the amount of cum he had produced, completely ignorant that, one, the fact that now he came like a horse was my fault; and two, it was hot as hell.

I heard the buzzing sound again and I found myself at the beach, the sound of the waves turned on again around me, the water feeling less cold to my familiarized feet. The rune on my wrist lost its color until it became plain black again. I had no idea why it had been turned on or how to control when my mind flies off. I had been extra careful not to touch anybody, fearing my body wasn’t yet recovered from Riley’s … I waited a couple of minutes before safely being able to say I wasn’t zapping away again.

Wind blew and the cold sensation in my crotch let me know I had cum in my pants once again, my orgasm most probably linked to Kai’s, as I had experienced in my last few dealings with the Alpha touch. I’d never thought I’d get off on Kai having sex but damn the guy was a machine. On the downfall, I had a nice thing going for me with Gabriel before my powers got in the way … Oh my God, Gabriel! He must think I’m such an asshole, bailing on him once again.

I kicked the water in mild frustration and decided to go back to the bar and make it up to him. He must have left though, as I saw no sign of him. I gave up and decided to look for my friends but only managed to spot Scott, gloomily alone on a table at the back. Several empty shots in front of him. Honestly, he didn’t look okay.

“Hey buddy, are you with me?” Scott didn’t look at me yet I saw both his eyes were red. Had he been crying?

“She—” he started saying softly yet a hiccup interrupted him. “She is never gonna look at me that way right?”

I followed Scott’s gaze to the other side of the bar where I saw Lena, lost in a conversation with … Oh no … with no other than Riley!

The guy towered over her and he looked amazing, muscles bulging all over his frame. He wore a military green T-shirt, whose sleeves had been clearly ripped away. I imagined they were too small for his now huge guns so he decided to take them apart. Riley was a sight to see and he seemed perfectly comfortable in his new body. Lena kept playing with her hair in that foxy manner I knew se well, her left hand casually placed over his forearm where her index finger drew small circles as Riley told her what seemed to be the funniest story ever, seeing how often she laughed.

“I mean look at that guy,” Scott continued mumbling, who tried to pick up another shooter yet ended up spilling it all over his shirt.

“Okay, buddy, come on, let’s get out of here.” I put one of Scott’s arms over my neck and held him up, taking advantage of his not so heavy body. I tried my best to make it seem the less embarrassing possible for him, as I led him back into the main building an up to our room. Luckily we didn’t run into many people, most of the guest were either partying at the beach or already asleep. I didn’t even care about Nick and Viktor’s whereabouts.

I put Scott to bed and with a bit of help from his almost unconscious body, I took off his wet shirt, reeking of alcohol. He laid there; face up, his shaven rusty-bright pecs going up and down as he breathed. I saw the first tear going down his face. He was trying hard to keep it together but I could see that past his drunk state, Scott was really appalled.

“With you, I can compete. I see the way she treats you. You are his favorite. With Nick I can compete as well, even though he’s a playboy …” mumbled Scott, his first phrase ever since we left the beach. So, either Scott had also realized Nick’s into Lena, or he suspects her being into him as well. What was this nonsense about competing against me though? Scott knew perfectly I was into guys.

“… but how am I supposed to compete with a guy like that? Did you see him Max? Next to him, I’m such a loser.” Scott’s voice broke at the end of that last sentence.

I couldn’t manage to say anything, not because I didn’t give enough credit to Scott’s feelings or I couldn’t sympathize with him … but because this was my fault. Of all people I had grown Riley that day, and of all people Lena decide to flirt with him, clearly targeting Scott’s insecurity about not being able to bulk up. After all he had done for me and how nice he was with me, I had screwed him over. Attacking not only his chances with the girl he fancied but also breaking his self-esteem. I felt like crap.

I felt a knot at my throat. I wanted to do something, I needed to do something … and I could.

Without thinking it twice I placed my left hand on his bare chest, feeling his warm skin and his pointy prickly hairs. My own skin came to life, crackling with energy as the

Alpha touch connected me to Scott.

“Think about your dream body, Scotty. Show me who you want to be,” I said, closing my eyes and concentrating on Scott’s thoughts like I had done earlier today.

I didn’t know if it was actually working or if I was imagining it up, but Riley’s memory kept appearing on my head. No, it was Scott’s head, I was sure of it. I felt his jealousy, his admiration. He projected his face on Riley’s body, wanting to be the one standing where he was, Lena caressing his own huge forearm. This is who Scott wanted to be, and I could help him.

“I want you to focus on this thought, focus on the image of the body you desire … and I want you to grow until you become it.”

As soon as I said those words I felt like a vacuum started pulling out all the energy from my body, concentrating it on my wrist. Scott gasped and puffed his chest as a warm bolt filled every nerve on his body. As hard as I tried, I couldn’t take away my hand from Scott’s pec, being attracted to it like a magnet. Scott started moaning and his body trembled, a hundred golden tendrils erupting from me and diving into him. He closed his eyes and I felt his body lose consciousness on the bed. I repressed a scream as a searing headache numbed my brain, a high pitch noise intensifying on my ears. I couldn’t take it anymore, this was it. This is when my body would cave to the toll of the Alpha touch.

“Give in,” I heard a ghostly whisper coming out of nowhere, but I didn’t even know if I was awake, dead or alive, I could only feel a dying heat pulsation from my wrist. Until I suddenly felt nothing. I was nothing. Nothing at all.

 

Part 11

Disoriented, I slowly opened my eyes. The first beams of light from the faraway sunrise came through the window, bathing our room with a faint yet soothing glow. The last couple of nights I hadn’t get much sleep and those few hours when I did manage to doze off, became restless adventures on my yet-to-be-deciphered dreams. Then and there however, I was truly comfortable.

Without daring to move, I became aware of each one of my limbs thanks to a warm presence by my side. Even though my legs were still dangling from one side of the huge bed, my upper body leaned over the fluffy pillows. I must have fallen asleep like this. My contorted position seemed to have not been any impediment for Scott, however, who had found his way into my arms and laid there, cuddling against my torso.

I spent a couple of minutes enjoying the moment. Scott’s hair still smelled like he just got out of the shower and hints of his perfume from last night still hung around his neck. Involuntarily I held him closer to me as I took deep breaths, his sweet yet manly aroma invading my nostrils. Caught in our semi-spooning position, I spent a few seconds just watching him breathe, his flat defined chest peacefully flowing up and down. There where his groomed torso hairs ended, his abs showed; subtle shadows casted between the valleys of his 6 pack. Though not as big as he’d like, Scott’s lean and wiry body was impressive.

I closed my eyes and tucked myself closer against him, those last thoughts still dancing around my head. “Lean and wiry” … “not as big as he’d like” … Oh my god! Exalted, I opened my eyes as last night’s memories flooded my head, not precisely in order; all of them fuzzed and affected by the unmistakably effects of alcohol. The nothingness, the feeling of my life being sucked away from me when I touched Scott’s pec, the image of a huge and burly Scotty talking to Lena on a memory where originally Riley used to stand.

I panicked and started looking inside my arms for the massive lumberjack Scott pictured in his mind, yet there he was, still 5’10, still ectomorph, still my Scott. I sighed in relief. The transformation must had been too much for my body to handle, at least my current state. Maybe I was just too drunk to pull it through. Maybe my command was too vague or simply Scott’s vision wasn’t resolute enough to materialize. For whatever reason, my sweet boyish friend was still here, looking so innocent and peaceful. Well, innocent except for the part where he sported in plain sight a full erection.

Somehow during the night, Scott’s pants had become undone, the front of his bright red boxers now showing. His dick was clearly awake and it pointed straight up, creating a comic bulge through the fabric. I thought about how it’d feel to grab that dick with my hand … hell, with my mouth …

Just as if it reacted to my dirty thoughts, I could have sworn I saw it shaking slightly before rising a bit further away from Scott’s crotch. As his package became fuller, the soft sound of his zipper pulling down a bit further got mixed in the air along with the boy’s breaths.

I blinked twice, my morning vision still being dazed. I tried to remember Scott’s dick size but the truth is I didn’t even recall knowing it in the first place. I was so focused on making him grow, of taking him away from his sadness, that I dismissed all of the information that the Alpha touch had given me on his body. Well, nothing that couldn’t be easily solved, right?

I gently moved my left arm under Scott’s back until my fingers were close enough to his left ribs. I approached them with the firm intention of landing a caress, yet the moment I touched his white soft skin, a strong static shock produced between us, sending a whiplash through my arm. I jumped from the shock and so did Scott, who must have also felt the bolt as he started looking around alarmed.

“Where … wha … huh?” mumbled Scott turning his head from side to side until his eyes met mine. I saw a panicking little boy.

“Hey, it’s okay, it’s okay. You’re fine. You just fell asleep buddy,” I said trying to calm him down, and it seemed to work until the guy realized how close we were and the way he was clinging to my arm. I saw Scotty’s eyes look down and his cheeks bursted with a pale red blush as he became aware of the boner he sported, perfectly on display for me.

Scott pulled away, putting a good distance between us and covering his hard-on with a pillow.

“Oh my God, Max, I’m so sorry man I … I …” I could see him bugging, trying to find the right words to say.

“Chill buddy. It’s morning, we’re guys. It happens. Nothing to be ashamed of” I told him with a casual smile.

He looked at me and nodded repeatedly, as if he was trying to convince himself that I was right. I mean, who hadn’t had morning wood while cuddling with your colleague right? Yeah, it was farfetched and Scott knew it. He looked at my crotch expecting to find me bulging as well, I guessed, yet my dick was perfectly dormant. I don’t know if this actually relieved him or not. He took a hand to his temple.

“My head is killing me. What happened last night?” he asked as he closed his eyes.

“You mean you don’t remember?” I was intrigued. I must admit I wasn’t sure how I was going to explain what he felt when I touched him last night or why did I even do it in the first place. I clenched my left fist wondering why it hadn’t worked this morning and also what was that spark that backfired at me.

“No,” he said as the color on his cheeks started to fade away. “I mean we were dancing and I remember the shots but It is a full blackout after that … did I passed out at the bar?”

I laughed.

“No, you held it like a champ,” I lied. I didn’t know how Scott behaved while I was dancing with Gabriel or while my mind zapped taking me next to Kai. Maybe he had put up a scene in the middle of the dance floor but I could live with this white lie. “I got you out of there before you did something we would have never let you forget. Your shirt didn’t get spared though, you threw a drink all over yourself” I told him, pointing at his shirt which laid next to the bed, hoping this was enough reason as to why he was half naked in bed with me.

“Did you take me all the way up here?”

“You did most of the work yourself. I just pointed you in the right direction”

“I see” He said, once again looking down at his naked torso and most probably thinking about what stood hidden under the pillow. “And did we … uhm ….”

“Fell asleep directly ? Of course. We were worn out,” I said, quickly understanding the concerns on his mind. This seemed to have worked as he finally smiled and started relaxing.

“You’re the best Max, for real. I owe you one”

I shrugged. Even though I was trying to portray innocence and make this situation the less awkward for Scotty, under the surface I was nothing but a troubled mind.

The fact that he didn’t remember the last events from last night was quite convenient I’ll admit, but it didn’t change that it had been me who had boosted Riley in the first place. I didn’t blame myself for Lena picking an interest on him though, the guy was good-looking from the very beginning after all; the sucker punch was the fact that because of me, Scott had his insecurities surfacing to the point of crying.

The fact that the Alpha touch had failed on him was also very convenient. However, I couldn’t help but feeling bad for not gifting him with anything whereas I made a complete stranger look like magazine material. The cherry on the top of this hurricane of feelings inside of me was the fact that I had not only enjoyed our cuddling session this morning but I also wanted it to continue … by this point I wasn’t even sure if I was as good-intended as I used to believe.

Scott finally stopped covering himself with the pillow, his erection having clearly subsided by now. I watched him slowly stand up and turn around before unexpectedly halting his movements, the muscles on his back becoming tense.

A faint flickering was born from my left wrist; the Alpha rune blinking twice in that so-proper golden light that apparently only I could see. My eyes went from my wrist to Scott when a visible shiver ran down his spine. As he rapidly trembled, in a blink-and-you-miss-it moment, I saw his torso shoot up an inch, his shoulders widening a tiny bit. My jaw risked from falling down just from seeing this.

Scott lost his balance so he widened his stance to prevent falling, his right hand shooting to meet his temple once again.

“Wow!” exclaimed Scott “Talk about dizzy spells.” His body relaxed and he regained a normal fluid posture.

“Y-you okay, bud?” I asked, slightly stuttering from the shock. I didn’t feel the Alpha touch activate. I wasn’t connected to Scott right now so what just happened? Was it glitching?

“Yeah … at least I think so,” he replied turning back to me once again. “I guess those drinks hit me harder than I expected. I felt like the room was moving around me … say, how are you so fresh yourself?”

“Well, I … I … I have actually no idea.” That was a good question. I definitely felt the kick of the drinks last night, the lightheadedness, the euphoria from dancing with the loud music, even when I started having the visions of Kai I felt my mind numbed by the alcohol. How comes I had no hangover whatsoever? “I guess I just danced it all away”

“Yeah, you had some killer moves, I mean you looked so hot while dancing …” Scott’s words hung in the air for a second before he opened his eyes realizing what he just said, apparently regretting it; his face showing confusion like he himself was surprised by the comment. Maybe he didn’t intend to say it out loud.

I couldn’t help but silently giggle, watching him bug like that. Joke aside, me too I was shocked by his compliment. I remember he had also said something of the sorts back at the office when he first saw my tattoo.

“I’ll take a shower and start getting ready. We should be meeting the boss at the lobby in half an hour. Good thing you woke us up,” said Scott, raising his voice as he entered the bathroom. “What about the others? Were they okay last night?”

“I actually didn’t see them leave. I think I’ll go and check on them,” I said getting up and putting on my shoes. I casted a quick glance into the full body mirror to check If I was in a state in which I could face the outer world. I was alright. Incredibly, I had no bag under my eyes and my hair was particularly shiny this morning.

I started heading to the door when I felt again that tickling feeling on my wrist. This time the rune only flickered once. What the …

“Unnghh,” I heard Scott moan softly from inside the bathroom. I froze in place, waiting to hear again from him, yet twenty seconds passed and the only sound filling the room was the running water from the shower. Had he grown again? Was I doing this somehow? I swear my frustration with the Alpha rune only seemed to intensify. Every time I think I have the hang of it, something unexpected happens. A big part of my personality is that I hate not being in control.

I hesitated before going out. I didn’t know if it was the right call to just leave Scott like this but what was my other option? Go interrupt his shower, try touching him again so I could see what was happening? … I entertained that scene for a second and bolted through the door before the temptation to let that scenario play out became too strong to resist. Why the hell was I so horny all the time? I looked at my wrist.

“This is you, isn’t it?” I said with my inner voice, the comment directed to the rune. No pulsation came back whatsoever. Great.

I took the stairs to Viktor’s room trying to avoid as much people as possible. Mission accomplished, not a single soul crossed my path. I only needed to knock twice on Vik’s door when he opened it, already dressed on a white shirt and a navy blazer. He held a matching tie on his left hand. I saw him frown upon realizing it was me at the door.

“You also need to rant?” He sounded a bit irritated. I knew Vik wasn’t at all a morning person.

“What? No,” I said, caught unaware by his reaction.

Vik opened the door, letting me see inside of his room which seemed to be an exact replica of mine, yet mirrored, like most hotels do. Posed against one of the circular sofas, arms crossed, stood Nick, dressed on blue pants that matched a nice vest. Nick seemed to had brought his entire fancy wardrobe to this conference. He looked great, if it wasn’t for that serious expression on his face. Something was wrong.

“Come in,” said Vik walking through the small corridor of the room, getting back to fixing his tie.

“You okay?” I asked Nick from the door. Something told me I was unwelcome, as if I had just interrupted a serious discussion.

“Why aren’t you dressed?” he replied, completely avoiding my question.

“I wanted to check on you. I left the bar last night without even knowing how you were doing.”

Nick’s expression softened.

“It’s okay, man, I saw you carrying Scott out,” Vik said, fully unaware of the tension in the room. He only concentrated on fixing his tie. “We might have gone too hard on the little fella for a first night. Did he puke on you?”

“No, no. He’s fine. What about Lena? Have you heard from her?”

Nick’s eyes speared me once again, his jaw tensing up.

“She should be on her room,” answered the blond man, particularly stressing the word should. “Go and suit up, Max. I don’t want you to be late on the first day”

“Right … I’ll meet you guys downstairs then. You both look great, by the way.”

None of them answered but Vik flashed me a big smile, his white teeth highlighted against his dark skin. Nick actually puffed his chest, proud that someone remarked his looks. Yeah, he wasn’t getting that from Viktor, that’s for sure.

I darted down the hall and took the stairs again, hoping I had correctly memorized Lena’s room number.

She barely opened the door as she stepped out to receive me, fully dressed on some red pants and a black one-sleeved shirt. Several bracelets dangled on her uncovered arm. Her hair was tied on an elaborate bun lying on top of her head. She held a makeup palette on her hand which so far had only been applied to one of her eyes.

I whistled as I looked her from head to toes. She smiled.

“Stop it, my face is a mess. I’ll be done in time, I promise. Why aren’t you dressed though?”

“Scott’s using the shower so I wanted to check on you. Looks to me like you owe me a story from last night.” I winked at her mischievously.

Her smile went away. “Did he already tell you?!”

“Who? Riley?”

“No … Wait, do you know Riley?”

Crap. I had been sloppy. “Who are you talking about?” I insisted, closing the space between us. She looked at the roof.

“We’ll talk later, okay? I really need to finish this, the effect I’m looking for will take forever and I can’t get it wrong, we need to give a good first impression.”

Lena backed into her room, opening the door more than she intended. The internal distribution was completely different from mine, but instead of focusing on that, a brown leather piece of clothing neatly arranged on a chair caught my eye.

“Is that … Nick’s jacket?”

“Max…” Lena’s expression went from stressed to worried. “It’s not what it looks like.” And with that, she closed the door.

What the actual fuck? I’ve been up for less than thirty minutes and the world’s gone nuts. What was the deal between Nick and Lena? What happened last night?

I didn’t have much time to think about it as I felt another tickle on my wrist, like someone just brushed a feather against my skin. I wasn’t fast enough to see if the rune had glowed or not though. Oh my God … Scott!

I went up all three floors in less than a minute, jumping steps by two or three at a time. I flashed the keycard to our door and went to the end of the room only to find Scotty, also dressed, wearing black pants and a pale violet shirt. He stood next to the mirror looking at his arms. He seemed intrigued. Compared to his usual clothes, this shirt seemed to be just a bit tauter on him than the rest.

“So? Everyone’s okay?” he asked with that boyish expression he wore so well.

“I’m not sure,” I confessed with a confused look on my face. “But everyone seems to be ready, except me, so I’d better get on that.”

Scotty stepped out of the way so I could enter the bathroom yet as soon as I passed, he went back to checking himself on the mirror. As the mirror stood between the dressing room and the bathroom, I had to strip down with Scotty being no more than a few steps away. The guy didn’t register the fact that I’d appreciate a bit of privacy. The voice of my conscience echoed at the back of my head, “Weren’t you the one who tried to touch him this morning to see how big his dick was? Now you value privacy.”

No arguing against that.

Just like last night, I was ready in just ten minutes. I decided to ditch the tie and just go with a turquoise V-neck pull over and my reliable khaki pants. I felt inexplicably good looking that morning and I decided to exploit that by leaving my hair on a natural coiffed way and also losing an extra button from the top of my shirt.

I took a deep breath. This is it. The conference was about to start. I counted up to three on my head … 1 … 2 … 3 … Let’s do this.

Scott and I rode the elevator down and when its doors opened, it appeared like we had been teleported to a different place on earth. The hall was not only booming with suited people going up and about or simply chattering in smaller groups here and there; but also the decoration had completely shifted from the day before. There were screens everywhere indicating schedules and directions. Several staff members greeted the participants and guided them through the registration forms or simply handed out paper sheets with different information’s on it.

Vik waved us from a corner where he stood next to a tall table, containing a beautiful floral center piece. I wasn’t sure if it the smell coming from it was natural or man-made but it was really good. Nick and Lena were several feet behind him, muttering and whispering on what seemed to be a heated discussion. She put a hand on his elbow and he shook it off, eventually scoffing and returning back to Viktor, leaving the girl with more than a few words still hanging from her mouth. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and regained her poise before joining us as well. I was just as curious as I was worried about that little scene we just saw.

We greeted everyone and shared a few jokes about last night. Scott went next to Lena and tried to start a conversation, which he usually had no problem doing as Lena loved his attention. Today, however, she just nodded and answered shortly as her head was completely away, lost on her own thoughts. I saw her glancing several times at Nick who just kept ignoring her. Scott also picked up on this.

“Good morning everyone,” said Matthew as he joined our little group, coming directly to my side and holding me by the shoulders on half a hug. This was a first. The boss wore a satin grey suit that somehow exalted his figure. I found myself eyeing him out. “I see everyone’s up and running high on excitement.” We all smiled, there was no denying it. There was an overall feeling of energy and excitement on the hall which quickly caught fire between all the participants.

Matthew distributed us the material he received when he registered us, the usual stuff, going from pens to flash drives with the logo of the conference and the hosting partner. He gave us our planning and missions for the day.

Viktor was scheduled on hall C, for the slot of 10 am. Apart from his presentation and the opening ceremony which were both mandatory for the whole team, Matthew assigned to each one of us a different presentation we should assist to, as he deemed them interesting for our R&D or simply beneficial for our individual fields. He also left different blocks free so we could enter whatever hall we were interested into. He dedicated particular time and attention to Scott, explaining him many of the dynamics of lobbying in this world, as well as the interest of the company regarding the other participants.

For the opening ceremony we all sat in pre-assigned seats labeled with our names. I ended up sitting between Nick and Lena and though it was 30 degrees outside, winter was raging between these two. I tried to no avail to break the ice but in the end I felt like I was just talking to myself. Nick answered me in monosyllables but never looked me in the eyes. Lena on the other hand kept staring at me but not saying a thing. I was more than relieved when the chairman of the conference finished his speech and we all stood up and clapped. Get me out of here!

We headed to hall C and we all wished Vik good luck, as he got ready on the podium. We were all excited as more and more persons entered the room. The moment finally came and Viktor simply owned the floor. He and the boss had worked on this paper for months. Vik specialized on computer vision and his new algorithm for image processing on underwater vessels was simply amazing. Matthew was proud of the way Vik answered the questions at the end, even those that were clearly poisoned.

During the whole thing my wrist kept tickling and through my shirt I could see the faint glow of the Alpha rune lightning up from time to time. To my side, Scott continued scratching his chest over his shirt, discretely at first yet by the end he was handling it poorly.

“What’s up with you?” I whispered to him.

“I don’t know, man, my body is all itchy. Maybe is my shirt or I’m just having some sort of allergic reaction”.

I saw the poor guy fidgeting for a few minutes until it seemed to get better and finally stop. I kept worrying about what was happening to him so I tried to touch him once again, casually brushing his hand with mine, only to have that static electricity shock erupt for a second time when our skins met. We both jumped a bit and Lena scolded us with her eyes, so I gave up.

The whole room clapped Viktor when the questions round ended and we hurried to meet him, hugging him or patting his back. His face showed more than relief.

“Really Vik, there are no words. You set the bar quite high. Nick, tomorrow’s your day and I expect no less,” said the boss to a distraught Nick.

We parted ways and I followed Matthew’s plan for the rest of the day, actually enjoying the idea of diving into numbers and figures and getting my brain to rest from all the social drama that was going on as well as all of the Alpha touch related worries I had.

By 5 p.m. I was tired but in a more than satisfying way. We planned to have dinner together as a group but until then I had some time off, which I decided it was better spent on my own. I didn’t want to face Nick and Lena’s cold war nor did I want to get near Scott. Ever since we went our separate ways this morning, the rune hadn’t flickered or pulsated. Spending some time alone with Matt only risked bringing more of this unwanted special attention he was giving me lately, and as Vik wasn’t answering my texts, I decided just to go and liberate some stress. Let’s put this whole “all included” deal to a test.

I found the hotel’s spa and opted to go for a sauna session. A kind Asian lady guided me through a circular room leading to five doors. There were four sauna rooms and the locker room where I could find fresh towels (the mandatory dress code) and also take a shower at the end.

As I entered the locker rooms I heard the sound of some familiar voices inside. To my surprise, Gary, Riley and his two other friends were inside, getting ready to go into one of the steam rooms. I picked a locker next to an already opened one, down the aisle where the four guys stood. I started undressing and I took my time folding my clothes and getting them inside the locker. I didn’t mean to eavesdrop but the group of frat-men wasn’t discrete at all. They kept talking quite loudly about the bimbo Gary had apparently fucked last night. I wondered if they had even realized I’ve entered the room.

Gary had his lower body covered by the hotel’s fluffy towel, his white body seeming even paler in contrast. A couple of dog tags rested on the middle of his chest, on top of the small full of black hair he grew. Bastien, who also waited covered with a towel, was way hairier than Gary. A coat of brown hairs spread through his belly, chest and even on his shoulders. Bastien wasn’t by any means fat, but he was chubbier than his pals, giving him an air of a fit bear. A kind faced fit bear.

I saw an awkward interaction between Riley and Bastien when the former one took his shirt off. I wondered how they had overcome the whole “sorry I sprayed my cum all over you bro” situation. I chuckled just to imagine that scene play out.

“We’ll wait for you two princesses at the sauna room. Come on B, let’s bounce,” said Gary to his crew, opening the door so he and Bastien could head out.

“Gary is definitely a force of nature. The fucker doesn’t wait for anyone,” said the last guy, a tanned ripped man with a big nose and particularly bushy eyebrows. He seemed to be from Mediterranean origins. His name was Marco if I recalled correctly. Marco stood with nothing on but some black slips, his body on full display from everyone in the locker room to see. He was less hairy than Bastien but still had a dense coat of hair on his torso and legs. With his build, Marco was the definition of a wolf.

“Are you on a rush to keep hearing about his night with … what was she called again? Margo?” joked Riley as he pulled down his shorts. The man was going commando so, as he did, his soft dick slapped his muscular thighs. Riley’s soft dick used to be 3 inches long, but now it had to be around 5.5 and at least twice as large as it used to be. I remember his bull balls. I had loved making those grow.

“I’d actually prefer to know about you and the gal you scored last night.” Marco wrapped himself on a towel and took off his slips. To my surprise, he walked into my direction and put his underwear inside the open locker right next to mine. I hadn’t even realized there was already some stuff inside it. Without thinking it twice I made so that our hands touched when he closed his locker. He might have not noticed but the link was established. The lights of my world dimmed as Marco became the focus of my vision. A huge feeling of relief erupted inside of me when I realized I still had the touch, yet a flag rose in my head alerting me, why did I keep having problems with Scoot then?

“She actually took off with another dude. I think maybe her boyfriend. I don’t know. I gave her my number though” Riley kept standing in the middle of the room, completely naked, his huge pecs casting a shadow over his six-pack. He wasn’t at all hairy, except for his legs and a small bush of dark blond pubes.

As both men spoke I checked Marco’s stats. He was 6’1 and weighed 198 pounds. Less than Riley did before I touched him. They were definitely talking about Lena but was the “boyfriend” Nick? Did they take off together?

“Well, lucky girl, I’m afraid you would have broken her in half with that hammer of yours” said Marco, walking back again to Riley, both of them completely ignoring me.

Yesterday I had commanded Riley to have the biggest dick among his friends and thanks to the touch I knew now that Marco was the one who made Riley’s rod that big. Marco’s cut erect dick was 8.4 inches long yet only 4.4 inches around.

“Haha, yeah,” said Riley while cupping his cock and balls with his left hand. “I recently hit a growth spurt.”

Marco’s thoughts and feelings started pouring into me without even wishing for it. Even though he was playing it cool, the guy was jealous. He never cared about Riley being buffer than him because he was bigger where a man really needed to be. Marco was proud of his cock and he loved the fact that he usually was the biggest in any locker room. So now, seeing his friend after so many years and find out he’s suddenly hung like a horse had him pissed.

Marco couldn’t stop thinking about Riley’s dick and balls and comparing them in his mind to his own package. I decided to play with this rivalry, the Alpha rune starting to flare up as I formulated the words in my mind.

“Riley’s cum can make you grow, you know?” I said to Marco’s subconscious using our mental link. “You want your junk to be bigger than his? Swallow his cum.”

I saw Marco stop his way, his eyes losing focus for a second as my command downed on him.

Marco couldn’t stop looking at Riley’s dick. He did it before with envy but now he was doing it with lust. He didn’t understand where this was coming from, but he knew what he had to do. His body instinctively pulled him towards it. He would do anything to be the bigger man once again. He needed to be the biggest, he wanted his cock to be mighty and suddenly he knew Riley was the key for this. The guy’s throat felt dry and his pulsed started racing.

Marco approached Riley with a faster pace. The blond behemoth, innocent to his friend’s lustful motivations, finally grabbed a towel from a rack and turned around.

“You ready man? Let’s meet the oth—” Riley didn’t finish his phrase as Marco stood in front on him, suddenly grabbing his cock. With military resolution, Marco started stroking Riley’s meat.

“I need you to cum Riley. You gotta cum for me man” Said Marco with an almost primal desperation on his voice. Marco accelerated his strokes as Riley’s pole started inflating; reacting to the wolf’s touch as blood flooded into his schlong.

“M-Marco oooh, what are you … ? Oh yeah … But we’re not ga …” Riley couldn’t help but moan in pleasure as his Dick reached his peak form of 8’5 inches long and 6 around. Marco was intoxicated with the feeling of such a thick dick on his hand and he wanted his own to grow like that.

Shut up, Riles,” growled Marco with a more aggressive demeanor. He pushed Riley back into a wall and kept stroking his friend’s meat, giving him the hand job of his life. Riley gave in, now moaning even louder, his hips bucking as he fucked his friend’s hand. “We both know you’re not gonna stop me, so just give me what I want. Make me grow!”

Riley couldn’t understand his friend’s words but he didn’t make much of it. He was only focusing on how good this felt.

“Come on, I need your cum.” Marco leaned down without stopping his hand and dove his nose into Riley’s ball sack, inhaling deeply. “This is where you keep it? Come on fucker, cum for me.”

Marco started licking Riley’s balls, softly at first, tracing his tongue by the middle of the sack and the completely sucking them, playing with them inside his mouth, his hand never stopping to slide up and down his friend’s shaft.

Riley felt weak at the knees and he closed his legs until he trapped Marco’s head between his muscular thighs. He was close.

“I’m cumming … I’m cumming!” repeated Riley as he closed his eyes and felt the familiar pressure building inside of him.

Give it to me,” ordered Marco. Riley buckled his hips and with a final trust, his cock’s head started producing the creamy liquid. Driven by lust and need, Marco didn’t hesitate to wrap his lips around the fat mushroom head and licked every drop of Riley’s seed as it kept gushing out of his hose. For the first time on his life Marco was swallowing cum and he loved it, his heart pounding in anticipation before his so expected reward.

“Oh yeah, yeees, this feels amazing!” Marco pulled away from Riley’s dick once he had finally sucked him dry. The guy kneeled down and tilted his head back in pure ecstasy as his own 8.4 cock pointed straight to the roof. With every passing second, Marco felt like he was getting harder and harder. He was facing the biggest and longest erection he had ever had. The man’s cock started reeling out and inch further, reaching to 9.4, yet what made it look massive was its new girth. Marco’s dick engorged until it became even bigger than Riley’s rod, reaching to 6.2 inches in girth when fully erected.

Marco saw in disbelief as his wished came true and he wrapped both his hands around it, feeling his might, comparing it to his friend’s cock now softening in front of his face. Marco was once again the bigger man and just by the mere feeling of his growing girth pushing his hands aside, the man roared and also came, his spunk splattering the floor between Riley’s legs.

I didn’t need the alpha touch to see the whole event, everything happened just down the hall, yet my connection to Marco let me experience everything through him. His need, his dominance, Riley’s dick, the taste of his cum and his final climax.

I severed my connection with Marco expecting the buildup and racing pulse feeling went away. They didn’t however. My dick was hard as a rock and I discovered I had a problem: I was horny, I had been for too long now, and I needed relief. Soon.

The Alpha rune pulsed through my wrist and a hot wave containing pleasure rode through my body, from my arm up to the tip of my cock.

I correct: very soon.

I got out of the locker room and just entered the first room to my left, the temperature shift hitting me as my body reacted to the steamy environment of the sauna room.

A single man was sitting inside. A face I knew more than enough. That cocky smile only fueling more my already horny state.

“Max?” said Gabriel in disbelief. “What are you doing here?”

“You,” I answered in a dominant growl.

And without waiting for an answer or permission, I went in for a kiss.

 

Intermission 1: Theta Trading

Author’s Note: Hey everyone. So far we’ve been following Max’s adventure, and though he’s still our main narrator, there’s a lot to be discovered through Henry’s eyes. This chapter can be a slower burn than previous additions but I hope you enjoy it as much as I did while writing it.—Caliburn

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“Steady” was all I kept repeating myself, as I struggled to balance my body and regulate my breathing. Stray drops of sweat collected in my forehead and grew big enough to finally meet and slide down my nose, tickling my skin before they dove into the walnut parquet under me.

I could feel my forearms trembling as my whole weight rested on them. Engorged blue veins highlighted against my pale white skin served as a reminder of how far I could push my own limits. A reminder of how powerful I could be, but also of how easily I could plummet down … That’s how I’ve lived my life the past few months, threading that tightrope between being that nice person I desperately hoped I was; and that ticking bomb ready to hurt somebody again.

“Now we breathe in, as we slowly stretch our right leg back, tightening our core” Helen’s voice was calm and soothing, blending perfectly with the sea waves and the bird chirps sounds that played from the speakers in the four corners of the piece. I did as she said, and rose my toe with a movement as fluid as I could, despite the building pain on my abs.

“Then we hold it, feeling the stretch …” said Helen in that flat tone she used to guide us through the sessions. A silent snort escaped my throat as I closed my eyes, feeling each second get longer and longer. “And now we release, as we come back to our lance, and slowly regain our downward facing dog.”

The feeling of release when both my feet touched the ground could only be compared as a full body orgasm. I took my hips up and stretched my back, keeping my dignified pose, a surface of tranquility with depths of despise against my sister.

Every lady in the room started clapping when I ended displaying the figure and got back on my feet. They all had pulled closer, forming an arc to better admire my suffering. Feast of crows.

“Thank you, Henry, …” exclaimed Helen, nodding in my direction with a superiority smirk drawn in her face. I nodded back. ‘You owe me so bad’, I thought.

“… and thank you all ladies, this is all for today. We’ll meet again on Saturday, except maybe Fiona, your date’s arriving soon …” Helen kept approaching the attendants one by one as they picked up their belongings or headed to the exit of the room. Only one of them stayed back, approaching me as she softly caressed her round belly in caring circular motions.

“You know what I envy the most from you?” asked Hilda in a teasing tone.

“Not being pregnant?” I said back, smiling at her, and immediately joining her hands when she was close enough to touch.

“No. Your poker face. It always got you out of troubles with Mom, and God knows behind that calm façade you just put up there, you were cursing every name in this room.”

“Cursing is so not typical of Henry,” said Helen, joining us back, when there were only the three of us left. “It’s so below Mr. Perfectly Fine.”

“The flying pigeon, Helen? Seriously?” I growled at her. She laughed, putting the back of her hand against her mouth as she did ever since we were kids. “When is a pregnant woman ever trying the flying pigeon?”

“I really thought I could break you. I guess there’s always a next time.”

“Cheers, sis,” I said rolling my eyes.

“Henry, the only reason there’s a man in my pregnancy yoga class is because my students believe you’re my assistant. You have to live up to the expectative of holding that position.”

“Can’t you just admit you enjoy giving him hell?” asked Hilda, exaggerating a frown.

“Oh come on Hilda, Mom taught us better than that.”

“It comes with the name,” we all said in unison, mocking our mother’s accent, and laughing.

You wouldn’t be the first to have a hard time believing we were siblings. Helen was tall and slender, with a natural platinum blond hair whereas Hilda was more on the shorter side, with dimples in her round face and curly black hair that stood up over her coffee-roast skin. Though I shared Helen’s skin tone, my hair was pitch black as Hilda’s and my squared jaw and thick brows took me away from any facial feature in these two women.

Yet, we were all children of Halo Hoover, and though the same blood might not run through our veins, these were my sisters as long as I can remember.

“Did you all receive the invitations for the gender reveal?” asked Hilda.

“Yeah, Hannah mailed them last week. Stop stressing luv, you have the best organizer in the family” I said to reassure her, but I meant it. Hannah was borderline OCD when it came to planning an event. No wonder she was the closest one to Mom.

“What do you feel, Hil? Is the first member of the new generation going to be a prince or a princess?” enquired Helen as she leaned down, caressing Hilda’s tummy. She emphasized the last syllable of the word princess, letting us know where her hopes laid on.

“I thought it was going to be a girl … Hazel!” she explained, taking a pause as we walked to the exit. “But Henry assures it’s going to be a boy. So, I’m wrapping myself around the idea of having a son … I like the sound of Hughie though.”

“How are you so sure?” asked Helen, twitching her lips and slightly closing her eyes, as if she suspected me from something. “Have you talked to Hannah? No peeking at the envelope, I hope.”

“No,” I scoffed. “She’s barely ever at home. Let’s say I can just feel it,” I said, putting my shoulders up.

The truth was, I literally could feel the baby was a boy. The same way I could feel every man around me. I took my right hand to my left shoulder where my rune was, a beautifully styled oval with a smaller loop on top. I felt the cold crackling of its pulsations, as I usually did whenever I thought of it, manifesting its presence, reminding me it’s there.

My tank top didn’t cover the tattoo, so my sensitivity and range were amplified. I could feel my nephew through her mother’s skin. It started a few months ago. Whenever Hilda was around, close enough to enter my rune’s range, I started feeling this volatile train of emotions, changing and melding in so many ways. There was this strong fixation I felt whenever I heard her voice. It took me a while to realize my sister didn’t have a stalker, but these emotions were coming from inside of her. I had a nephew.

It was quite a shock discovering I could feel a baby on the womb. Even Lao was amused by this discovery when I told him about it, his words echoing in my head. “There’s so much about the runes we don’t know, Mister Hoover. They take a liking to their holders and they can manifest slight changes in their abilities depending on them. The previous holder of Theta never mentioned anything about babies.”

There were so many things I wanted to ask to the previous holder of Theta. Yet, if I had the rune now seared in my shoulder, it meant the guy was no longer among us.

“I’ll be seeing you both on Mom’s Gala this Sunday,” said Hilda, going on her toes to kiss us goodbye. “Don’t be late; she wants her ten children all together.”

“For a change,” I said mockingly. Helen rolled her eyes, but Hilda didn’t notice, as she hurried down the aisle and out into the street.

“I’ll be off too luv, gotta take care of a few things of my own” I said, putting on my hoodie again. Usually getting my shoulder covered muffled the cacophony of feelings picked up by my rune, but the point of these yoga classes was exactly that, being free of any man coming into my radar, even if it lasted only for an hour.

Everyone copes differently. This was my version of a detox.

“Today marks a year,” Helen’s voice was no longer monotonous, but a soft whisper loaded with worries. I pulled my head out of the hoodie to find her staring directly at me, her hand playing with a strand of her hair, as if she regretted what she just said.

I nodded.

“If you need to … you know, talk or anything ….”

“I’m okay, Hel … It’s all behind me,” I lied.

“Don’t do that,” she said hunching over. “Don’t put up this act, Hen. You’ve been through a lot.”

Helen was the eldest and she always felt like she had this responsibility to take care of us. I guess I felt it the most, as there were only the two of us for a while, before Hector and Hilda were adopted. Mom was a lovely woman but there’s a special type of support that a kid needs that can only come from their peers, and Helen knew that.

I knew my factions had tensed up. It always happened whenever anyone brought up the accident.

“Many people would have resorted to drugs or alcohol. You found your own way Henry. I won’t pretend to understand how certain things bring you peace, but I’ll take getting a tattoo, or mingling in pregnancy yoga over any darker alternative you could have chosen.”

I drew half a smile and got closer to hug her. I made it last, so she felt it as the natural conclusion to this discussion.

Poor Helen, she, as every single member of my family and the general public, had gotten the story all wrong. I didn’t get a tattoo after me and those boys ended up in the hospital. I had sent us directly to the hospital because I got that tattoo.

“Gotta bounce,” I said, pulling away, as the bell in the door chimed announcing the arrival of the next wave of Helen’s students.

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I sat in the bus, lost in thought as I watched through the window at the red light and the traffic jam. This city never slept.

Helen’s words were still in my head. I felt a cold spiraling tingling spread through my shoulder.

“Yes buddy, a whole year together,” I thought, talking to my rune. Whether it was a sentient thing or not still escaped me, but the way it ‘communicated’ seemed far from random.

Please don’t get me wrong, I didn’t blame the rune for what happened that night … as if you’d blame the knife when you cut yourself while chopping onions. The blame was my crown to wear.

I still woke up some nights from the nightmares. Fleeting memories working the graveyard shift to haunt me in my sleep. I could feel the booming of the music in the bar, the neon lights flashing as everyone danced their asses off. Either the alcohol, or my newfound powers had made me drunk, and on those nightmary nights I remembered all over again how I started losing the grip on myself.

Sometimes I recall the migraine, as I couldn’t block all the euphoria around me. Some others, I walk myself to the bathroom, stumbling and gasping for air, as the cold grip of the theta rune spread through my body. I’ve lost count of how many times I had relived the ecstatic feeling of letting go … Ill luck for those three random strangers that found themselves in the bathroom with me. Wrong place, wrong time.

The first time I felt the icy swirls of the rune become warm and soothing, was as I stripped those boys from everything they had. The feeling was intoxicating, orgasmic even. But there is just so much that my body could handle before collapsing.

That was the point where the dreams usually skipped to the pain of banging my head to the dirty ceramics on the floor. Three nearly emaciated bodies in front of me. Screams, of whoever found us later on, the sirens and the ambulance lights.

The police could never explain what happened in that bar that night, but they had four young men on a hospital ward, three of them several inches smaller than their medical records indicated and unrecognizably skinnier than any of their loved ones assured they were. Rumors spread about experimental drug dealing in the back of the gay bar, and others went through the biological weapon conspiracy.

My brother Hector is a doctor and against the wishes of the board, he took my case. Luckily for him, unlike those boys, I woke up the day after, completely unchanged. By the end of the week and to the delight of my family, I was dispatched. I kept coming to the hospital every day for the next two months, until each of the other three guys woke up. I didn’t even know their names, but I felt like shit.

“Survivor’s guilt,” said Hector, over and over, and so did the therapist they had appointed me to. But I was no survivor, I was a perpetrator.

I clenched my fists, frustrated once again with that feeling of impotence. I’m far from the man I was a year ago, and most of it is thanks to Lao’s training and guidance. But I shouldn’t have been so cocky.

I looked at the bracelet on my left wrist. The words ‘Be a scalpel, not a hammer’ were carved on a stylish handwriting, on the upper silvery face of the bracelet. My own mantra ever since.

My rune twitched again, expectantly, and I knew what it wanted. Maybe I wanted the same. To confirm that I was in control.

I slowly breathed out and pushed my range around me. A silvery white foggy line, only visible to me, expanded until it engulfed the whole bus. As the rune was hidden under my hoodie, I had to push harder to make the circle grow. This resistance helped me control how far I wanted it to reach.

I didn’t need to turn around or even take my sight away from the window to knew there were three other men in the bus with me. The driver in the front, a teenager doodling on a sketchpad near the door, and a middle-aged man right behind me. I could feel them in my range, and once in, there was nothing they could do to resist.

I could bathe in their emotions if I wished so. I could access information on their bodies that I doubted even themselves knew with such precision. I could take away what I wanted and juggle it around to anyone else in my range. If no one stroke me as worthy, I could always steal and add it to my stock …

It was my choice now; their bodies were merely goods that I got to trade. Every fiber of my body was alive, drenched in anticipation of that blissful feeling of control. I was a fucking hammer, and things were about to break …

No!” I said, gasping, the eerie line of my range instantly retreating into my body and canceling the sensorial cascade that was pouring on me. The word had come louder than I expected, making the guy behind me frown. I excused myself and tucked my body even closer to the window. I sighed.

After all my training, it was so easy to lose myself … that primal need that grew every time I used the theta rune refused to go away. It tapped into the darkest parts of my personality, making me someone I was not.

I focused. Once more. ‘Be a scalpel, not a hammer … be a scalpel, not a hammer’.

I fired my powers once again, slower this time. I let my circle grow at a steady pace, slowly encircling everyone at the bus. 1, 2 … and 3, yes there they were again. Let’s see.

The guy behind me was anxious, not about something at present, but about a meeting he was about to have. He was heading to a date with a beautiful brunette. Priceless. A bitter flavor tainted his flow of emotions, so I dove a little deeper. I knew those hints more than enough by now. Insecurity. Blurry images formed in my head. He was ashamed by the quickened thinning of his hair in the last years, his scalp visible from some angles. His hairline receding by the sides. I smiled. I can help you pal.

I checked the driver, and he was all right, for someone who’s about to reach his forties. He had a healthy short mane yet nothing to write home about if we compared it to the teenage artist on the other side of the bus, who tucked his wavy brown hair on a stylized ponytail. The Theta rune started swirling in my shoulder, the white energy twisting like a blizzard, covering me in that cold embrace I knew so well.

Unbeknownst to the guy behind me, his head started to slowly fill with new hairs that weren’t there a minute ago. The clear patches in the back were once again black and his forehead seemed smaller as his hairline recovered terrain. I gritted my teeth stopping myself before the changes were too evident. I looked back at the two providers. I managed to take the same amount all around, so nobody would know. I smiled, not so much for my good deed, but for my ability to stop at will. To each, their own battle, as they say.

But nothing comes free in life, and by my own rules, I needed to charge for my services. I concentrated and took one tenth of an inch of the man’s dick. I felt the rune swirling in the opposite direction, this time warming up as I stashed my prize. I looked at my crotch thinking how cool it’d be if I could actually manifest what I had taken from others … but I guess I was immune to my own rune. So instead of sporting a 16-inch cock, my dick was untouched and the other 9 inches, which I had slowly accumulated from encounters with random strangers from whom I took mere fractions of an inch; were stocked inside that mysterious ‘locker’ as I called it, that seemed to live inside the Theta rune.

“Next stop: Rosario and fourth,” announced the screen of the bus. This was my stop. As I stepped down the bus I noticed the guy who was behind me and chuckled at how different he looked with his new hairstyle. Too bad I’d miss the moment he saw his own reflection. Good luck on that date, my man.

Another happy customer.

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“Now if you asked me, I wouldn’t take mahogany,” said Mason, crossing his arms in front of him, the muscles on his hairy forearms in perfect display as he had folded the sleeves of his pale orange uniform. “You see, many people get caught on these fancy ideas they see on Instagram, yet they forget the isle of a kitchen it’s a workplace. Go with oak, it’s cheaper, it’s sturdy, you’d be a happier man if you trust you can shag in your kitchen without fearing to break it, you know what I mean?.”

I laughed quite hard as Mason started thrusting his hips on the middle of the D.I.Y. store to emphasize his point. Luckily, we were alone.

“I wonder how they haven’t made you manager already,” I said, putting down the pieces of wood samples he was showing me. “With this kind of argument, you must be busting those sales.”

“I only give this kind of professional advice to a selected group of customers,” he said, raising both his auburn eyebrows. “I just happen to like you.”

If you looked up “joy” in the dictionary, you’d find the face of Mason Reid stamped right next to the definition. The guy was always smiling, teasing his colleagues, joking with customers, you name it. He had such a vibrant aura around him. I admired him. And I only did it the most because one year ago, he was only a shadow of who he is today, frail and pale in that hospital bed.

That’s right, Mason was one of the three unlucky guys who happened to be in the bathroom of that gay bar one year ago. I never got to meet my other two victims, as they got transferred to other medical facilities. Thanks to Hector though, I had accessed Mason’s information and we crossed at therapy.

The guy had gone through hell. He worked at a construction site on the north of the city, and he wasn’t out as a gay man. He was under scrutiny by his peers when they knew he had been found lying on the ground of a gay bar. On top of that, he woke up on that frail body, so alien to him, 7 inches shorter than he used to be, with arms like twigs and his ribs showing through his skin. His family assured he was being punished from above.

Yet here he was, standing in front of me with his shaggy auburn hair and his stubble shade, back to his 6 foot 4, with a hunkier body than the one constructed by all those years piling bricks under the sun. The doctors never understood how a full-grown man was growing in height once again as Mason was … but they never understood how he had shrunk in the first place.

Mason kept saying it was all about effort and keeping a positive attitude in life.

No offense to him, his willpower might have gotten him out of that bed, but his 18-inch arms and that juicy 9 incher in his pants were not a product of hard work … it was me.

When I had lost control that night, I ended up stashing every pound of muscle and inch that I took from those guys. It took a lot of training from Lao to teach me how to access it and give it back to Mason slowly enough for everyone to believe it was a natural recovery. A bit miraculous maybe, but nobody was complaining. With every visit to the D.I.Y store where he had found a job that helped him get back on his feet, I made sure to boost his body a bit. As I never got to see the other two guys, Mason ended up receiving more than he had in the beginning, and let me tell you, he was hot as fuck.

“Excuse me?” asked another customer, approaching us politely. “Where can I find the light bulbs?.”

Mason took his time to answer the lady’s question and even started adding his advice on what she should pick. She hesitated to keep asking about a subject that clearly passed over her comfort zone, but I waved at her letting her know I didn’t mind her interruption.

As Mason stood there in his khaki cargo shorts and hiker boots, I pretended to look busy checking up the racks around me. ‘Be a scalpel, not a hammer,’ I repeated myself in a loop, as I exhaled and let my circular aura grow until it covered mason and the lady, though of course, I could only feel him.

As usual, diving into Mason’s emotions was as good for my mental health, as the fact of helping him improve his body. All his positive vibes, his aspirations and motivations washed over me, making me contain some laughter. This guy was golden. I turned around just enough so he got in my peripheral vision. ‘You know the drill,’ I thought, addressing my rune, which reacted almost immediately by spreading that swirling cold numbness around my upper arm, and showing that snowy blizzard energy that only I could see.

I watched in awe and more than enough lust, as Mason’s lower body started inflating. I slowly took four pounds of muscle from my rune’s stack and sent them in Mason’s direction. His round beefy calves inflated to the sides with the newfound muscle, stretching the upper side of the man’s white socks.

As he kept talking, I made him and inch taller, his orange shirt riding up, yet not enough to show skin. I focused on Mason’s ass and sent two more pounds of muscle to each of his cheeks. The lady was so focused on the instructions she was receiving that she didn’t notice the hunk’s perky butt expanding under the khaki fabric of his pants. But I did, imagining how it’d felt to bite that beautiful ass.

I started fantasizing about eating him up until he screamed in pleasure with that low voice of his. How shivers would run down his spine if I slowly licked his ball sack. Balls big enough to fill my whole hand …

My mind drifted in my fantasies, making me sloppy. By having those thoughts while Mason was on range, I unwillingly accessed my stack and started growing the guy’s balls, which quickly started blowing and expanding against his sexy rugby player legs. I felt his surprise and discomfort as he couldn’t help but to adjust himself in front of the lady, his words suddenly lost in the middle of his phrase.

Shit.

I clenched my fists and stopped that willing effort I put whenever I wanted to reach further than a few centimeters with my range. The foggy line quickly came back to me and disappeared, fusing with my body.

I regained my pose and pretended to read the features of a handheld drill when Mason came back to my side, clearly bothered by something and walking with a wider stance that before. I discretely looked down and saw the new bulge in the man’s pants. I started getting hard myself.

Beautiful mistakes.

“You okay?” I said, teasing him. Mom always scolded me when I played with my food, but I loved faking innocence.

“Y-yeah, it just got a bit hot here all of a sudden. Phew,” Mason looked away and once again he couldn’t resist adjusting his now bigger package, who felt inexplicably constrained in his underwear. “You made up your mind?”

“Huh?” I said, confused.

“The wood. Would you go for the oak?” he said, following our previous discussion. I couldn’t care less about that. Mason had believed I was reworking my kitchen for a few months now, which was the perfect excuse to come to his workplace and buy some materials, even though it was on the other side of town. As if Halo Hoover would ever have anything but marble and glass on her kitchen.

“I’ll give it some more thought. Thanks mate. I’ll come back another day,” I said, turning around. My mission here was done.

“You know … if … if you need a hand to finish quicker, I could help you get the job done. I wouldn’t mind,” he said as I was leaving, slightly blushing.

“Thanks, but it’s the kind of project I need to finish on my own. You know, pride!”

“We could do something else! … like, if you ever want to … you know, meet, elsewhere … outside,” he stammered, clearly not knowing where to end his phrase.

Were my ears deceiving me, or Mason Reid was asking me out?

Quick as lightning, I pushed my aura around him to check my suspicion and I was hit by the cutest breeze of infatuation and nervousness, fanned by self-imposed courage and spiced with more than enough lust. Mason was actually checking me out.

He was getting hot about the way my collarbones and shoulders marked my shirt, and how my treasure trail had shown on my Adonis belt when I stretched earlier. He liked my veiny forearms, and he envied how I always found a nice comeback.

I couldn’t resist and opened my stash, gifting Mason with a full inch in girth on his cock, he opened his eyes wide as he felt the growth happen, the khaki fabric of his shorts stretching again on his crotch area. When he looked down, he gasped at the sight of his pecs growing and pushing out his shirt until the upper button became undone. I felt his horniness fighting his surprise and confusion.

During his inflation, I just smiled at him and marveled at his hairy chest as he processed the new changes in his body. I turned around and left, before I traded every inch of cock and pound of muscle from the men at the store directly to Mason, making him a hulking giant before I fucked him right then and there, for everyone to see.

So much for being a scalpel.

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My last visit to Mason had emptied my stores more than I expected. I still counted with a bit more than 7 inches of cock I could give away, but almost no pound of muscle or height. I’d have to restock.

This process was usually slow, as I tended to take small fractions of a guy’s attributes, if I ever crossed them on the streets, like a tenth of an inch, or a quarter of a pound. Small enough for them to notice. A trip to the supermarket or a ride on the metro could easily become a hunting session for me, yet sometimes a lucky stranger appeared and I ended up trading all my gains into him if I considered him worthy … or good looking enough. Sometimes my dick took the decisions all right. Judge me if you like.

Some other times, my feelings got the best of me, and that might bring consequences.

I once crossed a bachelor’s party at the bar and the groom’s feelings for his wife were so pure; he was so in love that he only thought of making her happy and all the life they would build together. I couldn’t resist the urge to change him. I didn’t have the same amount of control as of now, so each one of the guy’s friends lost half an inch of their dick that night and 5 percent of their body hair as I transferred all of it to the groom. I ended up switching some extra body traits as well.

The guy trembled as his body started itching, new hairs appearing on his chest, belly and legs. Under his white shirt, his pits rapidly grew into quite the manly bushes. He thought the alcohol was playing tricks on him when he felt his hands becoming bigger, his fingers getting wider and a small scar appeared on his left forearm, just as the one his childhood friend Paul used to have.

The best part to watch was when the growth of his cock kicked in. The guy started moaning as 4 whole inches where rapidly added to his shaft, expanding his bulge. The hormone rush was so big he ended up bursting his zipper and shoving his engorged dick on his best man’s face. For an allegedly straight guy, the best man sucked that dick like a pro.

I hope the groom still ended up getting married to his girl though.

Not all my moves were selfish. I also had stashed a few pimples, grey hairs or body fat from people who needed it, and eventually distributed in small quantities to random strangers I crossed.

I remember seeing this jerk on the street when I headed back from work at almost 3 am, he was harassing a girl who clearly wanted to be left alone. I made that bastard’s belly grow so big his pants’ button gave away, his firm pecs becoming saggy and soft with the new mass, resting on his new rounder gut. Thanks to my empathic link, I felt a few tears forming in the guy’s eyes as he watched in disbelief his added mass.

As I reminisced about my vigilante shit, I focused on the difference between the warm overwhelming feeling of absorbing somebody’s attributes, and the cold and void feeling of giving it away or simply trading it around.

The moon took its place on the sky, and I thanked God for having the day off today. Fridays were the worst nights at Olympus, but so they were for any starred restaurant downtown. For many people, work was a source of stress, but for me, being at the kitchen, juggling through orders, sauces, timers, and the piercing eyes of my boss Minerva, was as relaxing as Helen’s yoga classes … When no flying pigeons were involved. Being a chef was my calling.

I took a left at Canary Avenue expecting to find the underpass crowded as usual, yet to my delight, I found the place empty. Not a single soul, except for a big light brown shar pei dog with eyes too smart for an animal. It sat at the side of the road sniffing a flyer about an upcoming concert of Havok. The dog might have heard me turn the corner, as it stood up and came directly to me.

“Foo?” I asked, perplexed. No matter how many times I’ve been summoned to Lao’s, I’ll never stop wondering how he’d trained the dog to do his bidding this precisely, and how was it able to find me every single time.

“Woof,” it barked, coming closer and waving its tail expecting to be petted.

“Hey sport,” I said, doing its bidding and caressing its neck and ears. The furball just drooled and turned its head to ensure I reached everywhere. Oh, the simple pleasures of life.

“Let me guess, Lao needs to see me.”

“Woof.”

I sighed. Of course he did. I looked at the time and figured I could spare half an hour to my mentor. God knows he had spared me so much more.

“All right, chum, let’s not make the old man wait.”

“Woof!” replied Foo, getting up and leading the way as it usually did.

“Yeah, yeah … woof.”

The road to Lao’s took us about 20 minutes, a bit longer than expected. I noticed Foo was taking larger turns here and there, and he seemed to be avoiding a more direct route. We barely even crossed a soul. I wondered if the dog could be this smart. The theta rune sent a small chilling swirl through my arm in response to that thought. Yeah, a supernatural dog wouldn’t be the craziest thing in the scene.

I opened the front door expecting the bell to chime, but it didn’t. Looking up I noticed it had gotten stuck next to the frame, so I took a second to carefully set it free. Foo just passed me by and softly walked to the back of the room where the counter stood. I barely noticed the sound of its paws on the old parquet of the store.

“Mr. Lao?” I inquired in a soft voice as I ventured down the hall. Usually, he would have greeted me by now. I stopped when I heard voices. They seemed agitated. I slowed my pace but kept advancing until I could better hear what they were saying.

Behind the counter there was the door leading to the storage room, which I had visited in previous occasions. In there, Lao sat with his eyes closed, carefully listening to a tall man with dark skin and wide lips. He wore a blue and orange dress that hinted tribal origins. He spoke with a deep tone, threading through alarm and accusation.

“I’m telling you, Lao, this is Omega’s doing. This is high sacrilege. You can’t even start to fathom ….”

“Mwamba,” said the voice of the third figure, a lady the age of Lao, with dark ginger hair braided in golden laces. Her skin had a frail tone, as if she hadn’t been exposed to sunlight in a while. “Calm down, unless you plan to reveal proof behind your accusations.”

“Spare me of you higher plane, Yrsa, what if this was Iota whose flame got snuffed?” replied Mwamba, his lower lip slightly trembling. The man seemed at the brink of despair. “For years I protected my boys ….”

Yrsa didn’t answer, she kept glaring at Mwamba until a deep silence filled the room. It took a minute, but the man finally regain composure. I was impressed on how badass of a move that was from Yrsa’s part, even more if you take in consideration the height difference between both. Mwamba had to be near 7 feet tall whereas Yrsa was closer to Lao in height.

“I will take my time to mourn Phi,” he said in a much calmer voice … sad, even. “In the name of our long friendship, Lao, I really, really wish you get to Omega before I do.”

Mwamba took a step back until his back touched the nearest wall, and in the blink of an eye, he was gone. I blinked several times in disbelief looking for a sign of him, but it seemed like he had just fused with the shadows in the wall. I could feel my heart racing, a sense of danger creeping over my back.

“There is just so far as you can go to protect Omega, Lao,” said Yrsa, in a sweeter voice than before. “He’s no longer a kid, and you’ve done more than enough.”

“How does a holder take away its rune, Yrsa?” said Lao, finally opening his eyes since I entered the store. He didn’t look at Yrsa but kept staring at the void in front of him.

“They can’t. Only a guardian or death can sever that bond.”

“If, and only if, this was Omega’s doing, he can’t be working alone. And that is a bigger concern for the council.”

Yrsa analyzed this information for a few seconds and then nodded. She moved until she was out of my field of vision, but I could still hear her.

“Why now?” she asked.

“Alpha has chosen a new holder,” said Lao looking at his companion for the first time.

Silence.

“You must protect him,” she whispered.

“All of them,” he said back.

Lao looked again at the wall in front of him, not focusing on anything in particular. I heard a myriad of soft chimes jingle and I turned to the door, only to find it still shut. I was sure there wasn’t a second door at the back so where did the sound came from?

“Eavesdropping, Mr. Hoover?” said Lao, still looking at the wall, with half a smile on his face.

I froze. How long had he known?

With much confidence as I could gather in that split second, I took a step forward and crossed the door into the storage room.

“I believe I was summoned.”

Lao lost his cocky smirk, and turned around to face Foo, who obliviously goofed with a ball around the corner of the room.

“You … were?” he asked, caressing his white beard with a hand. “Indeed, you were. Interesting,” he muttered, mostly to himself.

“You lied to me,” I accused him, the words coming out before I had the time to think of the consequences. “You said there were only 5 runes!”

“I said, there were only 5 runes in your cluster,” he answered calmly.

I took a moment to remember those conversations we had last year where Lao introduced me to all this. The world cluster did ring a bell, though I never fully understood what he meant.

I still looked at him confused.

Lao sighed, as a man who admitted defeat.

He got up, and led me to the back of the room where a big old book laid open over his working desk. I couldn’t quite read what it said, but I recognized some drawings. Lao passed some pages until he found what he was looking for, a heavily scribbled page with five runes drawn in the middle, the same runes that were depicted in metal pieces inside a wooden box somewhere in that store.

“Theta, Alpha, Libra, Candor and Omega,” said Lao tracing his finger through each rune as he mentioned them. “They are all part of the same cluster, and I am its guardian.”

A warm feeling of excitement brewed inside me with the understanding that, if Alpha had chosen a new holder, there was a new guy needing to be guided through all of this, I could help him before he snapped, before he ended up … like me. I wasn’t alone anymore.

Lao turned the page. A pair of runes were shown in each side of the book.

“Iota and Veritas are Yrsa’s to guide,” continued Lao. “While Sigma and Phi used to be Mwamba’s.”

There was a slight slipping of his voice while he framed that last sentence.

“What happened to Phi?” I asked, feeling the room getting tense.

Lao closed his eyes and put both his hands inside the sleeves of his kimono as he usually did.

“He’s no longer with us,” Lao paused, and then added, “but the rune never returned to Mwamba. Death always returns the runes to us, so we can keep them during their slumber.”

This only raised more questions, but I felt like I was walking on eggshells. One wrong move and Lao would stop spilling the beans.

“Was it one of us? … Was it Omega?” I asked, remembering Mwamba’s accusations from earlier.

“It is not … off the table,” answered Lao after a moment of hesitation. I could feel he was struggling with how much information we wanted to let onto me.

“Lao … am I in danger?”

The rune in my arm kept sending breezy vibes through my shoulder and up my neck, clearly driven by my feelings of uneasiness.

“Mr. Hoover, it is my absolute responsibility to protect the members of your cluster. Trust me, boy, no threat looms near.”

“Lao, let’s gather the others! If I knew who they were, if we worked together maybe we could …”

“Phi knew the identity of Sigma,” said Lao calmly, yet raising his voice to stop me mid-sentence. “Mwamba trained them together. He chose that path. We can only assume though that whoever went for Phi, now holds Sigma’s identity as well.”

I struggled to swallow that train of thought.

“The less you know about your brothers, the safer you’ll be,” he said, emphasizing enough that this discussion was over.

I didn’t know what to say, I didn’t know what to do. I already knew that Omega, Libra, and Candor had holders, chosen years prior than me, but learning that there existed many others out there, that Alpha had awakened, and that we might be being hunted was a lot to take in. I could hear my heartbeat within my ears.

“Henry!” exclaimed Lao with a straight face, and the shock of hearing him address me by given name instead of his more polite ways was enough to get me back to earth.

“Do you trust me?” he asked, once again caressing his beard.

“Of course!” the answer was a natural response. Lao had gone lengths to help me control my rune and we had spent so much quality time together, I respected him as my mentor, and I deeply trusted him.

Lao seemed pleased.

“I will need to ask you for a service, though,” he said in a more carefree tone. He closed the book in front of him and handed it over to me. “Could you keep this for me for a while?”

“Sure but … why?” I took the book, and I was surprised on how light it was. The cover and size gave a very false impression.

“It’s late, Mr. Hoover, and it’s not polite to keep your mother waiting,” he said, smiling at me.

“What?”

In that moment, my cellphone rang. It was mom calling… because of course she was.

“We’ll continue this conversation next time,” said Lao smiling, as he hurried me down the hall and out of the store.

Before I knew it, I was back in the street, with a shut door in my face.

“Now that was … something,” I said to myself.

I didn’t have a moment with my thoughts before my ringtone snapped the silence in the street.

“Hey Mom!” I replied as I hurried down the street and back into my place’s direction. She was going to kill me. There were just a couple of forces of nature that were allowed to mess with Halo Hoover’s schedule. My secret escapades were definitely not one of them.

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On a regular day where I hadn’t been nuked with revelations, I might had walked down the main avenue with my powers on, feeling guys and picking tiny bits of their bodies here and there. If I had done it that night, instead of worrying about my mother’s reaction to my late appearance to dinner, I might had noticed that I could feel every single man on my way … every single one except that big guy with the baseball cap and the huge motorcycle that drove up the street.

A small inscription in the rearview mirrors of the motorcycle read: objects in  mirror are closer than they seem.

 

Part 12

My lips met Gabriel’s before he had the chance to answer or even move. I put my right hand between his cheek and the back of his head, not only guiding him to deepen our embrace but also locking him on place. I decisively closed the space between us, and I felt his warm skin pushing against my torso, the rapid movement causing sweat droplets to fall from my hair. If they landed on his skin, they seemed to have evaporated on spot. The white landscape of his back was untouched, uncharted territory for my hands to roam, or my lips to kiss.

I closed my eyes and playfully drove my tongue inside his mouth. I could feel his shock at the beginning of our encounter, but as I got lost in the kiss, so did he. I could feel him relaxing, not only accepting me but handing me more and more control over his tight little body. I was a passionate kisser but even for me, this was a first. I was fueled by a particular type of lust I don’t recall feeling before. More than an itch to scratch, Gabriel’s lips were satisfying a new awakened need on me, as basic as breathing, as primal as touching and as intense as my racing heartbeat.

Gabriel grew bolder and leaned against me, putting both his hands on my shoulders, breaking our kiss and letting out a mix between a powerful moan and a sigh. His knees buckled, causing him to lean against me even more, but I was strong enough to hold him. I could feel the muscles of my arms bulging slightly. I felt sexy, commanding ... in control. Goosebumps ran through both his body and mine as my tongue ran over the veins on his neck, before I dug my teeth there where his beard’s shadow started appearing.

With my left hand I grabbed Gabriel’s ass, with desire running through my own veins. My touch made him chuckle and triggered something on his hips, which began humping me rhythmically. We locked our tongues in a fiery kiss once again, the heat both quenching and deepening the thirst. My hand let go of hiss butt cheek and instinctively sled down, finding his rosy hole to probe. Gabriel started nibbling the lobe of my ear and his syncopated breathing encouraged me to thrust even deeper.

“Yes … You want to … You want to change me, don’t you?” Said Gabriel between moans as he pushed me harder against the nearest wall, swapping the control dynamics of our encounter. I was so enthralled that I didn’t pick it up on the fly. Maybe I was just missing this particular kink. I was wrong though. He meant exactly every word he said.

“Come on Alpha, make me yours,” he added, grabbing my chin and locking his eyes onto me. That’s when it hit me.

At first, I had kept my left arm folded at my back, trying not to touch him. Ever since I’d gotten the Alpha Touch I hadn’t been close to anyone or had any action of my own. It’s been fun to observe and test my powers from the sidelines but given that my brain was being piloted by libido at this point, I was afraid of the consequences that not being perfectly concentrated might have. Also, my link with Marco hadn’t shown any recoil so far but my stamina was surely impacted after that little stunt I just pulled. Was my nose about to bleed? Was I about to plummet down? Your guess is as good a mine.

However, even though my left hand probed Gabriel’s hole up to my middle finger’s knuckle, I never felt the lights dim around me or the crushing heat waves pulsing from my left wrist and expanding through my whole body. The link was never established.

I opened my eyes.

My puzzled mind was overthinking the situation, yet my body moved instinctively. I let go of Gabriel and pulled back, putting a couple of meters between us as I tried to catch my breath. Beads of sweat ran down my body, both from exertion and the sauna’s atmosphere. Gabriel’s skin however was free of any glistening liquid pearl. I realized his hair wasn’t even damp.

After my stunt, he just stood there, looking at me. Amused? Disappointed? It was hard to tell. He chuckled and half a smirk was drawn on his face.

“Am I that bad of a kisser?” He said tauntingly. He shook his head at his own attempt of irony. “Was it the Alpha word that gave me away? Obvious much? I thought you were into it.”

“Who … who are you?” I tried growling my words, faking defiance, but my panting gave away any shot at convincing.

Gabriel laughed loudly as his silhouette started fading, becoming fuzzy and wavy as a mirage. In the blink of an eye, he wasn’t there anymore, lost in the misty atmosphere.

“I’m your brethren,” whispered a cocky voice to my ear.

I turned around as fast as I could only to find the mirage was there, but it no longer looked like Gabriel. The figure had slowly morphed into the shape of a tall man with short blond hair covered by a baseball cap. He wore a white wifebeater and a black leather jacket. The outlines and contours of his body exuded waves of a faint red and dark energy that whirled and lingered around him. His face, however, was completely faded.

I watched as my interlocutor shifted from Gabriel to this new man that, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t recognize. I wrapped my left wrist with my right hand to hide or protect the Alpha rune. Its dormant state making me realize that Gabriel was never there. You can’t touch an illusion.

I kept focusing on the specter’s face but despite my efforts, the red aura never went away long enough for me to see who I was talking with.

“Isn’t it a shame? I can’t see who you are either. Lao is resourceful, I will give him that,” said the hazy figure.

“What do you want?” I scoffed, taking a step back. I examined my surroundings looking for a way out, but the only door was on the other side of the room. Trapped like a rat. Involuntarily, I started gritting my teeth.

The man hesitated and then he spoke in a calm, calculating voice. “I wish I could tell you we could be friends. Alpha and Omega. Wouldn’t that be nice?”

Omega? I remember the wooden box back at Lao’s store where five metal pieces slept together. The Alpha rune might have been the only one to shine goldenly for me, but I clearly remember seeing an Omega among the other opaque symbols.

“You … you have the Omega rune?” I was taken back. In retrospective, it was stupid of me to think that Alpha was the only magic rune, mostly when I had held the others in my own hands. Some of Lao’s words came back to me from our very first meeting.

The Alpha Touch eh? The strongest of the five runes, you must have a powerful imagination my boy, for I have not seen it awake in more than forty years.

The strongest of the five runes. Now I get it: at least one of the others was awake, and its owner stood in front of me.

“He can’t protect you forever. I’m gonna find you Alpha, and when I do …” The Hazy figure’s threat lingered in the corners of the sauna room, his phrase unfinished, as the red mist fully disappeared. I found myself holding my breath, expecting something else to happen. But nothing did. Almost two minutes passed before it was clear that I was all alone once again.

I could hear my heartbeat on my ears. I became aware of the force of my grip on my own wrist when my nails started digging a bit too much on my skin. I let go and took a deep breath, my lungs thanking the fresh flow of air.

That red aura. I remember it from somewhere else. I had seen it before. How it whirled and went from bright red to black, as if it became corrupted the further it went on.

It was too much to process. How did Omega do that? Was it the power of his rune? Was it something else? I just discover that at least another person in the world had powers like mine, but for some reason I was on his sight. Was he … was he, my enemy? Was I in danger? What about the other runes? … Lao. I needed to go back to Lao, to talk to him. I needed answers. But I couldn’t go back now. I still had three more days in the conference before going home.

“I can’t see who you are either,” he said. “He can’t protect you forever…” Both phrases danced in my mind, providing a fragile sense of security. I was safe, at least for now. He didn’t know who I was so he couldn’t find me. Why announcing himself like that then? Why giving me the heads up? It didn’t make any sense. Was he stupid or just far more cunning than I could fathom?

I left the sauna room and headed to the nearest sink, splashing water on my face to calm myself down. I gripped the sides of the sink holding on for dear life. What the fuck Omega?

I looked myself in the mirror to determine if I looked as shitty as I felt. I couldn’t though. I wasn’t out of wonderland yet.

“This … what is this …?”

The mirror didn’t show my reflection. Instead, it stood like a window on thin air showcasing a breathtaking garden, with a beautiful marble fountain. A sight I had definitely seen before. But where? when?

For the first time in a while, the Alpha rune pulsed with a gentle warming beam that echoed through my body. This was its doing. As I felt the golden glitter spark from my wrist, some silver clouds appeared around the borders of the window. Silver fog is not the signature of my rune. This was something else. Something new.

I felt a chilling swirl of cold erupt from my left shoulder, so I reached out with my right hand only to find nothing there. The swirl persisted, feeling like ice prickling under my skin. The Alpha rune pulsated again, and the warm waves bathed my shoulder, calming the frozen fury. The encounter of these two forces on my body filled me with joy, for a reason I couldn’t understand.

I heard some footsteps and looked through the window where a gallant man walked with both hands on the pockets of his three pieces suit. He had white skin and short dark hair that went along perfectly with his square jaw and thick brows. He was as handsome as he was elegant. He watched his feet as he traced the border of the fountain kicking the pebbles of the ground, eventually looking in my direction. Our eyes met and a silvery circle of fog surrounded him. Unlike Omega’s, I could perfectly detail this man’s face.

The cold sensation on my shoulder gave another swirl, but this time it wasn’t hurting, but rather refreshing and invigorating. The guy took his hand towards his left shoulder, as if he had felt the same. His eyes darted between his shoulder and me.

I was on a hotel bathroom, my torso bare, dripping with sweat with only a towel around my waist, looking through a mirror on a scene I wasn’t even certain was real. I could only imagine how this might look from the guy’s PoV. Was I a floating square on his garden? Did I look good at least? He sure did.

This was no illusion though. I knew it was real. The Alpha rune had only shown me real events before. Matt and Lila’s dinner, Derek’s room, Kai’s … releases. Everything was happening then and there, those were visions, clairvoyancy … not hallucinations. So, I figured this had to be real as well.

“Can you … can you hear me?” the comely man whispered in a deep British accent that took me by surprise.

I nodded. He was clearly as shocked as I was.

“Are you Libra? Or Candor maybe?”

What was he talking about?

“Henry? Son, is that you? Would you be a dear and help me out with …” I heard the voice of a lady coming from the far side of the garden.

A graceful, tall, and slender woman with sun kissed skin appeared on the side of the fountain, her navy-blue dress, astoundingly appealing, matched perfectly the color of the guy’s suit. He looked at her and then at me in horror. He mouthed a last sentence, but I couldn’t hear it, as in the blink of an eye, only my reflection stared back at me.

No more silvery clouds or golden sparks. No more warmth or cold. No more visions. Only me. My reflection, and the running water from the sink.

 

Part 13

Author’s Note:Hey everyone. You’d like to influence where the story is going? Leave me your opinion here. Your feedback is important and some of your ideas might en up in the chapters to come. Hope you enjoy the chapter. — Caliburn

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I arrived at the dining table in auto pilot. For the last hour or so, I had instructed my body to follow simple tasks to carry me through the night. Get to your room Max. Put up a nice shirt Max. Go to the restaurant and find the others Max. Stop spiraling and panicking about the threats made by some random intimidating mirage, Max. You know, your usual Friday night.

I opted for wearing long sleeves tonight. With the last couple of mystic events still too close for comfort, I decided it was for the best to hide as much as I could my Alpha rune. We were going to be wise. We were going to be discrete. Play that on repeat.

The hotel’s dining hall was huge and bursting with life. Tables were spread around the circular rooms, each adorned with small but gorgeous golden candelabra. Guests served themselves at the buffet and returned to their tables engaging in both friendly and professional conversation with their peers. Servers danced their way through the chaos, holding silver platters filled with cups of bubbles. I put my left hand in my pocket and joined the mayhem.

Viktor and Nick were already sitting. No conversation was engaged but I still felt a weird shift of the atmosphere as soon as I arrived. Nick’s eyes pierced through me like icy daggers. I rolled my eyes maybe not so discretely. Whatever was happening with him, I didn’t have time for it.

“Something’s on your mind. You’re troubled” said Viktor in a calm manner when I was close enough to hear. It wasn’t a question nor an accusation. He was just stating a fact.

“Hum? No, no, I mean … why do you think …?” I stammered. I was caught off guard. Dammit Vik.

“You don’t need to talk about it. You owe me nothing. Just respect me enough to not try to fool me or waste both our time denying it.”

At first encounter, Viktor’s straightforwardness gave room for many awkward moments if you weren’t ready for it, or quick enough on your toes to launch a comeback. Heck, it’s been years since we’re friends and I still have a hard time with it. Sooner than later, you understand that, though his choice of words might not get him an award anytime soon, his intentions were in the right place.

I smiled, defeated.

“Thanks,” I said.

He nodded, his face a lake of serenity. “Whatever you need,”

His phrase did seem weird at the time, but I didn’t look much into it. I still regret not using the opportunity to dive into Viktor’s mind when I had touched him a few days before. It’d be fascinating to see what hides behind his stoic demeanor. I could even find a way to thank him for his constant support through all these years. Bigger arms, broader shoulders. He’d be killing his boxing matches at the gym. His elastic shorts packing more than a punch after I’d finished with him …

I leaned forward, exploring the table, looking for an opening to slip my left hand towards him. Maybe if I … stop it! We were going to be wise and discrete!

I hauled myself back into my chair, arms folded and frowning, discussing against my inner self. I was so distraught I only noticed a second too late when a pair of little white hands slid through my shoulders down my open collar and over my chest, playfully grabbing it.

“Why …” said Lena, taking a pause to finish whatever was on her mouth. “Aren’t you enjoying the tapas?? The shrimps are to die for!” Lena’s smile could be seen from the other side of the room. Her black mane fell graciously over her left shoulder, arranged with golden bangles. She made sure to stamp me her red lipstick on the neck before sitting down. “Handsome as you are, your tenue is not complete without your lucky charm,” she said, dramatically blowing a kiss in my direction to emphasize the bloody crime she committed at my neckline.

“Name one, just one time that this charm brought me any action?” I said, chuckling. The urge of wiping the mark away had disappeared with the years. Scott couldn’t be more wrong. I was not at all the center of this group. As far as I was concerned, Lena was. I mean, how could I be, when she played me as she pleased.

“Elena Pillsbury from the chem fac,” said Viktor across the table. He was smirking, clearly enjoying the opening in the discussion.

“What? Elena doesn’t count, she kissed me!”

“Daniel Wright on last year’s Christmas party,” he continued with no time to draw his breath. His gun was evidently loaded with many more names. Maybe this wasn’t a good idea after all.

“It was a rhetorical question,” I said, to more than deaf ears.

“Oooh, I remember Daniel!” said Lena taking a sip from her champagne cup and completely shunting my intervention. “The boy was the definition of golden retriever energy. Why didn’t you guys go further?”

No time to answer though.

“The brother,” added Viktor, taking a champagne cup from a passing waiter’s tray, and joining Lena.

The brother …” Lena laid special emphasis in the first syllable. “And what was the name of the cop? The guy that pulled us over when we left Vanessa’s place last March?”

“Slower than Runner …” Viktor laid the ground so he and Lena could say in unison “Officer Walker” and then burst laughing.

“I feel like a sitting duck here,” I said, feeling some heat in my cheeks as I slightly blushed. Turns out having the names of my previous hookups spilled liked that over dinner could actually trigger my shy side.

“Apply cold water to the burned area,” said Lena, graciously slipping another glass from the nearest waiter and passing it to me. “Or even better, some of this.”

“Have you ever applied alcohol to a burning wound? No wonder you didn’t get into med school,” I said, showing a wide smile and reaching for the glass just before she could use it as a weapon against me.

“Low blow!!” was the only thing she said as she slapped my thigh. Turns out we all have a past to run from.

“Can you pass me a drink Lena, please?” Nick’s voice cut through the air and chills ran down my spine. For a moment, I had completely forgotten he was there. Lena pretended not to notice and kept toying with her hair, looking at me and clearly giving her coldest shoulder to Nick. He frowned, visibly uncomfortable.

My eyes darted to Viktor searching for help in this ocean of awkwardness, only to find him smiling and gulping down his drink. He was clearly enjoying whatever this was. I remember Nick’s visit to Viktor’s room and realized I was missing too much information.

Nick sighed and was about to repeat his phrase when an arm handed him a drink. Scott had appeared out of nowhere, sporting and orange shirt that I swear was the same color of his ginger beard.

“Here, I brought seconds,” he said, smiling at Nick. Fuck Daniel Wright, you see Scotty right here, that is golden retriever energy.

It took a second for Nick to react and reach for the cup, as Scott seated down next to him. It took him even longer to come up with a hall-hearted pun to keep his constant teasing of Scott and his cool guy bravado.

“Thanks,” he said. “What are you supposed to be tonight? A citrus punch? This is not how you’ll get the ladies, dude!”

Lena snorted, louder than intended. She didn’t dare to look at Nick though. He frowned again.

“Eyes on me red, and hand me your glass, would you? take one down for the cause. You’ll see.” Nick swiftly stood up and arranged his collar. He yanked Victor’s coat from his chair and fold it over his arm. With his drink on one hand and Scotty’s on the other, he walked to the bar and engaged in a conversation with a group of girls who were joking loudly as they downed round after round of vodka shots. We were too far to hear what they were saying, but it took only a couple of minutes since Nick’s arrival for the girls to burst in giggles.

“For the love of … how does he do that?” said Viktor, clearly amazed. Leave it to Nick to make Viktor break character.

“I don’t know, but I doubt it can be taught,” said Scotty, his eyes fixed on Nick.

“Oh, please,” exhaled Lena, frowning towards both guys. “Seriously?”

“Seriously what?” answered Vik, clearly lost on Lena’s rage. He looked at me at as a desperate plead to barge in, but it was my turn to smile and sip my drink.

“I’d rather live another day,” I mouthed.

Nick came back to the table clearly pleased with himself. “Boys, we are politely invited to a soirée at room 283.” He wasn’t talking to anyone, but he had his eyes on Lena, who, of course, was still pretending that he wasn’t more than an empty seat. He slipped a piece of white paper to Scott, who opened it and showed us the phone numbers written on it.

Whatever reaction Nick wanted to enact on Lena, he wouldn’t get it. He wouldn’t break her on the outside. I knew. But on the inside … even I was clueless about what type of storm might be brewing. Clueless was the perfect word to describe my standing between these two.

“Gentlemen. Milady.” Matthew arrived just in the right time to break whatever scene was about to play. He looked like he was fresh out of the shower, sporting a military green T-shirt that hugged him in all the right places. His round pecs pushed the fabric outwards and deliciously jiggled as he moved. My sight followed Matt as he took a seat to the other side of Lena and placed his phone on the table.

“I just received a call from my wife. She’s a journalist, as some of you might now,” I remembered Lila’s face from her picture on Matt’s desk. “Apparently one of her colleagues caught the flu or something, so she got to cover Halo Hoover’s gala tonight.”

Lena’s eyes went wide, and she almost spilled her drink. “Wait, like, the Halo Hoover?” she hissed.

“That’s right,” said Matt, clearly proud of his wife’s opportunity. I was having a hard time focusing on his face, as I kept staring to his collar where some hairs showed and crept up his thick neck, giving him a rugged appearance. Oh, what laid underneath …

“Who?” asked Nick, voicing out what all of us didn’t dare.

“Mrs. Hoover is like the most famous woman on England’s contemporary history! Second only to the late queen and that is a big maybe, if I may say so myself.” It was the first time on the evening that Lena addressed Nick. His ignorance on the subject clearly needed to be solved and she wasn’t about to let the ice wall she had spent the whole night putting up, to stop her from filling him into the matter. “She is an actress, writer, philanthropist, and UN’s ambassador fighting for children’s rights. She is like the epitome of woman empowerment. Embodiment of elegance. I drink for her tonight.”

Lena’s admiration was palpable. Matthew looked amused but in a respectful way.

“Damn, girl,” teased Viktor. “Look at you, being a stan.”

“It’s called a Role Model hon, and you should try having one outside those old posters on your walls,” she said, faking an air of superiority. “One day I’m going to be like Mrs. Hoover and you’ll be all my bitches.”

Viktor looked at me and whispered the words, “Or worse, expelled,” mimicking Lena’s facial expression. I snorted and started coughing my champagne at the inner joke. Lena missed it, but Matthew handed me over the napkin in front of him.

“Thanks,” I said almost mechanically.

“Whatever you need,” he answered, smiling at me. I stopped for a second analyzing his choice of words. Victor said the same a few minutes ago. I was about to ask him about it, but the boss had clearly moved on from the moment and he was politely answering Lena’s questions about his wife’s work.

The rest of the dinner went by smoothly. Whatever animosity that brewed before Matt’s arrival was quickly replaced by Lena’s exposition of Halo’s feats and Matthew’s directions for the following day. My friends did an excellent job at distracting me from any rune related drama that might have shadowed my thoughts earlier that night. But nothing lasts forever.

My left wrist tickled with some warm pulsations, and I tried dismissing it, but I just couldn’t. It wasn’t the usual wavy feeling but something more erratic. I overheard a muffled grunt in front of me and saw Scott clenching his fists and closing his eyes. The alpha rune intensified it’s weird crackling and I saw Scott shoot up an inch in his seat. He opened his eyes and panted a bit. He looked flustered.

I looked around but none of the others seemed to notice. Did I imagine it? I’m sure I hadn’t touch Scott. The link wasn’t formed.

I spent the following half an hour keeping an eye on Scott, in case something else happened, but aside from his arms showing more through the bright orange sleeves of his shirt, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Maybe it had nothing to do with me and those new supplements he was taking started paying off. Good for him, right? … right?

I started relaxing and properly enjoying my meal when the music changed in the room. A deep house mix bathed the dining hall and blended perfectly with the current mood. I started rocking my head to the beat when I felt my pulse racing for no particular reason. For a split second, the music intensified, drumming in my ears as if I were next to the speakers. I was seemingly the only one phased by the sudden burst of volume. A stinging pressure concentrated in my face, not far from my eye and I quickly put my hand up to my right cheekbone where the feeling was born.

I caught a glimpse of myself in the reflection of my cup and found my eyes were beaming bright in different colors. My right eye was covered in circular waves of an emerald tint, while my left one showed the same pattern but in a bright sapphire tone. I turned around and grabbed Lena’s arm in a tight gripped.

“Hey, hey easy there, you know how easily I bruise,” she said squirming but not running from my touch.

My eyes!” I screamed at her, trying to make my voice go over the music, which I soon realized was no longer booming in my ears, but once again subtly sounding in the background. Lena was taken back and looked concerned. I cleared my throat fully ashamed and lowered my voice. “My eyes … Is there something off with them?”

Her face grew more concerned, and she grabbed my face with both hands looking straight into me.

“Oh yeah … They definitely are … You are …” her voice trailed off, but she didn’t blink, still locking into me.

“What? What is it?”

“They’re gorgeous. Just like you,” she said playfully, winking at me and softly slapping my cheek twice before turning around towards Matt once again.

I grabbed a spoon and looked at me again, but no green or blue glinted from me. I wasn’t going to survive this. I was losing it.

“Hey Vik,” I whispered at him, trying not to be heard by the others. He raised an eyebrow but didn’t look away from the steak he was cutting. “What is this song?”

“It’s Havok’s latest single. The same from last night at the beach, remember?”

I did remember. But the déjà vu feeling that came with the music and those colors went further back than last night.

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Once we had all finished our plates and the boss had instructed us with our tasks for the morning, we headed to the elevator’s hall. Matt said he was heading to bed, but we were free to enjoy the night’s activities, as long as we were in one piece the next day. Viktor bid us farewell and went for a stroll on the beach saying he needed to walk out that feast. He left the five of us waiting for the next ride going up.

“Were you always this tall, Scott?” I heard Nick ask with a surprised voice, as he realized he was almost at eye level with the guy. They were both standing behind me so I couldn’t see Scott’s reaction. “It must be the shoes. Keep ‘em,” added Nick, but something on his voice didn’t strike me as convinced.

Finally, the doors opened and the long, yet narrow elevator blinded us with its golden walls and its Swarovski lamps. We were about to leave when a hotel employee hurriedly came in, bringing with him a cart of platters towering higher than any of us.

The young lad rushed into the elevator before the doors closed and even though he excused himself, his clumsy management of the cart squirmed us all in every direction. Scott found himself trapped in the back between the mirror and the wall. To the left Lena had lost her stance and fallen against Nick, who rushed to held her. Her face went red in the blink of an eye, clearly upset by the situation, but I could only see glimpses of her struggle through the openings between the platters.

Me, I was in a very different scenario of my own. The boss and I ended up on the right side of the elevator. Matt had moved almost involuntarily and placed himself in front of me to shield me from the cart. He seemed puzzled as of why he had done that, and to be honest, so was I. He quickly came to regret it when we ended trapped against the wall, his body pressing against mine and not much room to move.

My right hand found itself at the level of his crotch where my palm was firmly facing his package. He stumbled forward, pressing his juicy pecs against my face. Surprised, I tried putting some distance between us, so I grabbed him with my free hand by the arm trying to pull myself up. My fingers clutched to his skin when the Alpha rune activated and every sound in the elevator got muffled.

As the lights dimmed, there was only us. A myriad of golden strands surrounded Matthew once again. I could feel his pulse racing, his awkwardness with the situation, his puzzling mind running in circles wondering why he was drawn by and enjoying this closeness between us. I smelled good, and I knew it cuz Matt was thinking it. I felt how he inhaled deeper to breathe in my perfume.

The mental link that had formed between us made me the do the same. I took a deep breath feeling Matthew’s powerful scent: a mix of wooden cologne and manly musk. The numbers on the elevator flashed as we went up, and Matthew fidgeted, trying to accommodate us into a less intimate position. His movement however, only made his bulge brush against my open hand repeatedly, which was enough to trigger some swelling in the lower departments.

Matthew closed his eyes trying to control his body, but the damage was done. He was already sporting a chubby, his dick reaching what used to be his former length when hard. He didn’t even dare to look me in the eyes. I felt his body warmth radiating against me. With my head leveled against his chest I could see the points on his T-shirt where his hard nipples made a mark. My mouth watered and I couldn’t resist it.

A pulsing sparkling wave erupted from my wrist and Matt suppressed a moan when his pecs ballooned a bit further, becoming wider and rounder, adding to his already imposing frame. His shoulders rounded up and broadened as his upper chest puffed, bringing my cheek even closer to that meaty pillow. Gone was the man who I used to call my boss; nobody would believe this hunk never set a foot in the gym. I cursed to myself. So much for being wise and discrete.

The elevator came to a stop and the hotel employee pulled out, completely unaware of the twisting mess he had made within our little group. Matt and Lena both stepped out of the elevator muttering each a rushed goodbye and storming in different directions. That wasn’t even their floor.

The commotion severed my link with Matthew, and I was grateful for it, as I didn’t trust myself enough to prevent me from changing him further. Nick, Scott, and I regained our place in the metallic cage, once it became less crowded. I feared a new cold war would ensue with Nick, but I didn’t have time to worry about that, since, from all people, none other than Gabriel waited in front of the now opened doors and stepped into the elevator.

“Oh, come on, give me a break,” I growled to my insides.

He didn’t react more to my presence as I did to his. Scott waved his brows at me and nudged me with his elbow as a little kid would do. I raised my hand to greet Gabriel, unsure of what to say, but the guy only turned around and kept staring at the doors as they closed. We rode up two floors more until the doors finally opened again and Gabriel stepped out and disappeared down the hall.

Only when the elevator closed again, I realized I was holding my breath, so I let go of the air and relaxed my posture putting a hand against my temple. What a nightmare.

“Well, that was awkward,” said Scott. “What happened? Why didn’t you say something?”

“You know that guy?” asked Nick, completely lost in the situation.

“Sure, he has been hitting on Max ever since we arrived at the hotel. They spent last night dancing together,” explained Scott. Sharing his half of the truth. Scott was happily unaware of my Alpha rune glitching and how I had to runaway facing visions of my roommate cumming like a horse as he thought about me.

“Wait … so, you didn’t spend the night with Lena?” asked Nick, turning to face me.

“What? you spent the night with Lena?” Repeated Scott, his head tilted back with shock.

“Of course not,” I said addressing both. “I took Scott to our room to prevent him from getting even more wasted, remember?”

“Oh yeah,” admitted Scott, caressing his shoulder as shame crossed his face. I noticed Scott’s triceps pushed visibly against the fabric of his shirt. Nick’s face seemed less convinced by my answer.

“You were the one who left the party with Lena and spent the night with her,” I blurted, growing tired of his attitude and his weird accusations.

He went pale.

“So, you spent the night with Lena??” asked Scott, looking at Nick and lowering his shoulders in full disappointment.

“Of course not!” Nick defended himself with Scott before turning against me once again “Did she tell you that?”

Fuck, I had screwed up. I only knew that Nick and Lena left the beach bar together because Riley and Marco had talked about it in the locker room. I had to get out of that one.

“I saw your jacket on her room this morning.”

“That is … I didn’t sleep there!” We both started raising our voices as the discussion got heated.

“Who spent the night with Lena then?” asked Scott openly, trying to keep up with our exchanges.

“No one spent the night with Lena!!” Nick and I both growled in unison, making Scott take a step back. The doors of the elevator opened in our last stop and both Nick and I left the confined space and walked away in opposite directions, in a similar way as Matt and Lena had done a few floors down.

Why were we fighting about this? It made no sense. Cancel this night. Cancel everything about it. Go back to the last checkpoint and let me try again. I needed a break.

Scott followed me into our room like a puppy hurrying to catch up with his owner. He caught the door before I slammed it shut and watched me dive into our bed after taking my shoes off. I let the mountain of pillows suck me into the darkness.

“Are you okay?” I heard Scott ask but I didn’t have the energy to answer. I shook my head, and maybe my whole body from side to side. I was not.

It took a minute of full silence before I heard a few steps on the velvety floor and felt Scott climbing onto the bed. To my surprise he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me closer to him, spooning me and caressing my body in a soothing way. Our feet tangled in a more than natural embrace, which took me by surprise, as Scott was supposed to be shorter than me, but our bodies were perfectly aligned. This was new, but it felt good. I thought about reacting or asking why, but I didn’t want to risk making him regret the moment or shy away. Scott wasn’t particularly fond of physical touch, so this was astounding.

He pulled me closer, and I let myself feel the comfort in his hug, his wiry arms and muscular lumps pressing me against his washboard abs. Scott jumped over the line of personal space of any straight man when he pressed his bulging hard crotch against my butt, coming closer to my ear whispering, “Whatever you need.”

In that bracing position, soothingly rocking back and forth I fell into a deep slumber. For the first time in a few nights, no dreams, no visions, no sparkling lights. Just Scott’s touch and a smile on my face.

 

Part 14

Morning came uninvited. The few beams of light that crossed the crystal window slowly bathed my face. Minutes lasted no longer than a few breaths and sighs until the brightness was too harsh to be ignored. I slowly opened my eyes and became aware of my body and surroundings. I haven’t slept that good in a long while. I smiled feeling the warmth in my face. I’m usually an early bird, but I guess the last few days had taken a toll on me.

Yawning and still with fuzzy eyes I allowed my arm to explore the space besides me. Reaching into the vastness of the bed for a touch that never came. My thirsty fingers tapped into a different type of fabric, unfamiliar and different from the satin sheets and the plushy covers. I quickly recognized the bright orange color of Scott’s shirt. I smiled thinking about the way he wore it last night and how well it suited him inside the elevator. I pulled it closer and feeling protected with the covers, I indulged myself into a deep breath. Scott’s perfume still lingered on it.

Memories of last night rushed through my head and they drew a smile on my face. Smell is a powerful trigger for the mind.

I searched a bit more before realizing I was alone in the ocean of pillows. Still holding Scott’s shirt on my right hand, I incorporated myself, leaning against the bedpost. Did Scott remove his shirt during the night? Did I, do it? I was still fully dressed though. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t complaining … but a guy can get curious. I closed my eyes and focused on those last minutes of consciousness from last night. Scott’s arms around me, holding me under my shoulders. My ear against his beating heart. My back against his hard torso and my butt against his harder crotch. I definitely didn’t imagine his arousal.

The alpha rune tickled my wrist with several short-lived pulsations. I looked at it and saw the faintest glow of gold on its edges. Last time it did that, Scott had shoot up an inch on the dining table last night. Nothing about the alpha touch could be considered normal, however, even for its standards, it acted particularly strange when it came to Scott. Ever since I touched him after the beach party and tried to imprint on him some drunk fantasy. There was still so much I didn’t understand.

I didn’t realize the tap was running until the sound of flowing water stopped. A few seconds passed and Scott appeared through the opening on the wall leading to the dressing room and the bathroom, wearing nothing but a white fluffy towel draped around his waist. I pinched my thigh to ensure myself I wasn’t still dreaming.

Luckily, I wasn’t.

Scott seemed to be even more built than he was just two days ago when we arrived at the hotel. His body was somewhat fuller … bigger. His mostly baggy clothes could hide it, but there, bare chest in plain sight, I could see the small shadow his pecs casted on his six pack, which were now accentuated with a shy Adonis belt. His neck, slightly wider gave opening to rounder and more defined shoulders. A single vein crossed his left shoulder and like a river, it cascaded down his modest bicep, until it joined its sisters on Scott’s wiry forearm. His delts glistened due to stray water droplets that danced around the minefield of freckles that I knew only kept expanding down his back.

What shocked me the most was how hairy he was today. I’m not talking about bear-like fur, but a couple of days ago I would’ve described Scott’s torso as only dusted with ginger hair, that he had carefully trimmed down, giving him even a smoother look. Today, he was coated with a thin layer of bright hairs that not only reached further in every direction, but also gathered between his abs and sled through his navel in a more than gorgeous treasure trail that rode down into his towel. It was impossible for a normal guy to grow hair so quickly in just two days. He looked rougher. Overall manlier. His stance was wider, his face a tad sharper … but his gentle demeanor was still there.

Scott seemed oblivious to the changes on his body though. He stared at me as soon as he entered the room and smiled, as he brushed his teeth. My gaze didn’t miss the bouncing of his bicep as his hand guided the brush in every direction inside his mouth.

“Good morning!” he said with an eager tone, his eyebrows rising with that childish charm so classic of him.

“Good indeed,” I said in a groggy voice, stretching my arms and cracking my neck. Scott missed my sass.

“I didn’t mean to wake you up,” he apologized, scratching the back of his head and accidentally showing off his lat and his now hairier pit. His words came out blurred and mixed with one another as he kept brushing his teeth. “But even if I wanted to, I didn’t know if I could have! You sleep like a rock.”

I chuckled. Yeah, I’ve been told that before.

“Next time, try with a kiss,” I said, raising an eyebrow. This time, Scott caught my tone and inuendo, and he froze like a deer on headlights. I paused for a second and savored his innocence. “Works on fairy tales,” I added confidently, brushing aside the tension clearly building on his face.

I threw him his shirt kind of expecting it would hit him on the face, but he caught it at the last second with his free hand. The guy had reflexes; I’ll give him that. The sudden movement brought him back to earth and out of whatever labyrinth he was crossing inside his mind.

“Isn’t it supposed to be the true love’s kiss?” he asked, maybe going too deep into my comment. He frowned, like someone who tries to remember something from long ago.

“Who knows? Might as well try,” I added, not looking at him directly, keeping control of the situation and cutting him some slack. I looked at the time and shuddered. “Fuck, we’re gonna be late.” Matthew had been more than clear about us showing up in time. Another weird burst erupted in my left wrist, the alpha rune coming to life for a split second. What now?

“The shower’s big enough for two,” said Scott, and now it was my turn to froze in place. I wasn’t expecting that. My my, the puppy showed some teeth. I turned around half amused half intrigued only to find Scott’s face blushing at lightspeed. Did the rune do that? Or was it really Scott behind the wheel?

“I’m kidding! I’m kidding. Don’t … like … I didn’t mean … you know … I, already, yeah wet …”

Scott kept spewing words and waving his hands as if he tried to contain a dam on a paper cup. He finally stopped, exhaled deeply, and added in a calmer voice: “I already showered. You can go.” Whereas it had been his intention to say that or not, his behavior indicated he regretted the words the moment they parted from his lips. Was I an asshole to be amused, seeing him struggle like this?

With all his blabbering, some toothpaste foam spilled out of his mouth and landed just below his belly button, covering his treasure trail like and early season snow. His face went even redder if that was possible. Using his index and middle finger he carefully gathered the creamy liquid and brought it up his torso, his abs contracted as he tried to wipe himself clean. I don’t think the little fucker realized how hot that was. Blood started pumping in my system and there was less room available inside my underwear.

He turned around and disappeared inside the bathroom where I heard the tap running once again. I snickered and pondered my options for a second. So, whenever he let himself loose, Scotty was either a tease, or genuinely wishing for my company. Poor Scotty. He just bit more than he could chew. And it wasn’t his fault. I was just a damn good player.

It took me only two seconds to discard my shirt and throw both my pants and underwear to the floor. I’ve always felt comfortable in my own skin, so it wasn’t much problem for me to simply strut inside the bathroom in my birthday suit, and head straight to the shower. Walk like you’re the king, or like you don’t care who the hell is the king.

I ran the hot water and let myself be sprayed by the potent streams of the shower. Scott was clearly startled when he heard the water flowing, but he went to another level when he realized the only thing separating him from my naked body was the clear paroi and the whirls of steam that started rising and whirling in the bathroom.

He’s the one who said I could go. And this was practical. We were honestly running late. Two birds, one stone.

Not a single word came out of Scott. I turned around and leathered myself fast enough for it to feel convincing, but slow enough for it to be enticing. I was just taking my shower, minding my business. If he liked it, it wasn’t my fault. Truth be told, it was a bold move from me to bend the bar this much between us. But I could always play the “we’re dudes” card and fake innocence.

The whole time I didn’t take my eyes out of Scott, who clearly bugged and didn’t even dare to move. Heck, his brain might as well had been rebooting at that point. I turned around when cleaning mi lower parts, not wanting to fondle my chubby in front of him but still making sure to showcase my runner’s butt in his direction. I braced myself and pressed my soaped ass against the glass wall in the most casual way I could fake, even though I knew the surface would be icy cold. The shiver that ran up my spine only made me feel even sexier. All right so maybe Viktor and Lena were right. I could be a slut if I put myself into it.

I closed the water and still hidden behind a wall of confidence I stepped out of the shower and stood in front of Scott, extending a hand in his direction.

“I’m wet,” I said, fully aware of my choice of words. He blinked twice and looked at my empty hand still baffled.

“A towel … please?” With my extended hand I pointed at the fluffy rolls that casually rested behind him. A cocky smile found place in my face and refused to go away.

“Oh … right !! Yeah, sure,” he said, hurrying to turn around and pass me one.

I decided to show him some mercy and directly covered myself with it. I had fun. But enough was enough.

A few seconds later I heard Scott start breathing again. All this time? Wow. I was flattered.

“I … I really wish I could look as good as you,” he said, finally breaking the silence as I wiped myself dry, looking me up and down. His eyes didn’t show lust, but instead an honest dash of admiration, which was opaqued by the tad of resignation in his voice.

“Have you seen yourself in the mirror, buddy?” I said laughing and punching him friendly on his left pec. The bouncy surface confirmed me it was definitely meatier.

He punched me back and I answered by trying to tweak one of his nipples. In a matter of seconds, we were struggling like little kids trying to tickle each other, our arms tangling as we wrestled and our damp skins brushing against each other. We finally stopped, looking at each other straight in the eye and setting an unspoken tie. We were both panting at this point. I smiled as I recovered my breath, and that’s when Scott frowned, his face going from amused to worried, to panic.

“Wait, this isn’t right,” he said, desperately looking at the floor, at my feet and then back into my eyes. “You’re taller than me. How are we facing eye to eye”?

Oh no.

Scott turned around and looked at our reflection in the mirror, taking a step back as he confirmed his suspicions. Yesterday I was definitely eclipsing Scotty, but today a case could be made about him being almost as muscular as I was.

“What’s happening?” Scott looked me in the eye again, his pitch going higher as his mind started derailing. “How is this possible?”

I didn’t know how to get out of this one, and there was no easy way to explain it, so I just let my mind follow my instincts and said the most honest thing I could in that very moment.

“I really like it,” I confessed in a calm voice that somehow seemed to reverberate in the bathroom walls. The alpha rune was burning hot by this point, quickly filling me with its familiar waves.

Scott stopped tossing his head around and looked at me once again, his panic receding.

“You … do?” he whispered. My left wrist cracked with the alpha rune’s bubbly sparks, and I saw Scott’s pupils dilate and his expression softening. “You do,” he repeated confidently.

“You have the most stunning eyes, you know?” I whispered back, mirroring his tone. Whatever box of honesty that unlocked inside of me was fuller than I realized, so I just let myself be open and vulnerable, and let the scene play out.

I always thought Scott’s eyes were amazing. The bright green color gleamed in perfect harmony with his white skin and copper brows. However, this close, I was bathing in a depth I had never experienced before inside his sight. He was candid, and warm. My golden retriever boy.

Scotty blushed, but this time in a more subtle and cuter way. He wasn’t ashamed, just surprised.

“Well, you … you have …” Scott was clearly out of his comfort zone, and yet something was pushing him to move and answer me, even when many guys would have just pulled back by now. His fingers reached my skin, and I did nothing to stop him. I wanted him to touch me.

“You have these,” he said tracing my upper arms with his fingers, his voice lost in an even softer whisper, worshiping my contours, but clearly talking to himself more than talking to me. “And these …” His middle finger glided along my collarbone and doubted for a second before slowly creeping up the side of my neck and discovering the stubble on my cheek. “And … these,” he finally whispered as the tip of his index stopped right next to my lips.

My pulse was racing by this moment and our eyes crossed again. The alpha rune kept pulsing in small erratic eruptions. I was sure I hadn’t formed a link with Scott, I had been very careful not to touch him with my left hand; yet my powers seemed to keep malfunctioning around him.

Usually, I could feel what the guys were feeling when the rune was awaken, but this time I was having a hard time understanding which feeling where mine and which where his. Where did my intrigue ended, and his excitement started? Whose anticipation was dominating over whose fear ?. I tried focusing a bit harder, navigating the haze in my mind only to find several thoughts that only revolved around a single idea … a kiss.

Scott was thinking about my previous joke on the wake-up kiss. His eyes flew between my lips and my eyes, and he felt his throat dry. I started to become frustrated as I couldn’t decipher Scott’s thoughts as easily as I did with other guys. Seeing as we weren’t actually linked today, whatever was going on, had to be residuals from our first connection.

A new fleeting thought crossed my mind.

“Scott, have you ever been kissed before?” I asked, in the sweetest way I could, fearing it might come out as patronizing.

His face pulled back a few centimeters and he looked down, not focusing on anything. He frowned slightly and started answering like a fish splashing in shallow waters.

“Of course! I mean, of course I have. I have kissed tons of girls before, sure. I mean … right.” He laughed nervously and gave a small step back, but for me it felt like he multiplied the distance between us tenfold.

“I see,” I said, only half convinced. I waited a couple of seconds before realizing the moment was gone. The shooting star had entered the atmosphere and burned itself into cosmic dust. I focused too much on the flames and forgot to make a wish.

For the first time I looked down and started pulling away, about to turn myself around and go get dressed when he said in the faintest voice, as if an imaginary crowd was behind us and he feared being heard.

“Never by a guy though.”

Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, my shooting star came back to life and our fleeting moment of bonding reignited.

I took a step forward until our noses were practically touching. Fearing another spark or glitchy behavior, I took my left arm behind me, but grabbed Scott’s forearm with my right hand in a firm but gentle way. I rubbed his hairy skin to soothe him. I didn’t need a mental link to feel his nervousness or how short breathed he was. I could lead this dance.

He slowly closed his eyes, and I found my cue to lean in.

A drop falling down the fogged-up crystal.

A muffled sigh, drowned in our throats.

A heartbeat that lasted for minutes.

And our lips met, welcoming each other like old friends. Like pieces that belong together.

It was a soft peck, but I savored the moment for as long as it lasted. I felt him shudder and relax. I didn’t intend to push him further than that. So, I was surprised when I felt his lips opening and his tongue looking for my mouth. I shifted gears, not the one to refuse such an invitation.

Before I could do anything though, a loud ringing melody came from behind us, startling Scott, who opened his eyes and pulled back, his face going from that cute blush to full tomato-red once again. I didn’t know who dared to call in that precise moment, but I swore I would accept nothing less than a bomb alert to justify breaking our first kiss.

“I should take that,” said Scott slipping from my grasp and passing by me out of the bathroom. I clenched my fists and exhaled closing my eyes.

I heard Scott excuse himself twice and reassuring whoever was on the other side of the phone. Thirty seconds later he came back.

“It was Nick, there’s an emergency and he needs everyone at the hall. He can’t find the boss.”

I turned around to face Scott and nodded. I didn’t know what else to say. Scott’s eyes glided down my torso and focused on my crotch for a second, before he turned around and started picking some clothes from the dressing room. I looked down and saw a throbbing tent on my towel, caused by my proud dick that kept demanding for attention after that kiss. I suppressed a growl in my throat.

I turned around as well and proceeded to brush my teeth and discharge my fury. Through the corner of my eyes though, I could see Scott’s reflection in the mirror as he pulled his boxers up and covered that perky butt of his. A puzzled look reigned on his face as he grabbed his dick, clearly hard.

I heard him curse, probably against that erection that refused to subside.

Great ... just great.

The Alpha Touch, #1 15 parts 61k words (#49) Added Jan 2022 Updated 4 Nov 2023 91k views (#38) 4.9 stars (213 votes)

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