THE GENTLEMEN'S CLUB Connor Written by Lady Poetess egiggles at moose-mail.com /~bbp Please do not reproduce on any website without permission. This story has no resemblance to anyone dead or alive. ONE His father wasn't just the lowest bastard he'd ever known, he was also utterly insane. Dr Connor Richard Parker Axelrod stared at the papers and journals scattered on the table beside him and contemplated the mess he was now facing. He hadn't even attended his father's funeral three months ago, preferring to work like a horse at his latest dig site, as he wasn't hypocritical enough to mourn for a father who aroused nothing but loathing from him. Maximiliam Axelrod had spent the last few years of his life investing nearly a billion dollars into some bizarre scientific research that the man believed would somehow result in a method to make Maximiliam young again. Connor would assume that his father was a victim of a systematic con if he wasn't sitting right here on the evidence of his father's madness. He hadn't believed it until he stepped foot on this island, an unnamed and unchartered island which Connor called, without irony, the Island of Dr Moreau. He was greeted by the rather too-eager-to- please Michael Bergin, who claimed to be the man in charge of the running of the house which Connor is now staying, and Val Kilmer, the "operations manager" whose arrogant smirk made Connor uneasy. Michael and Val were hiding something from him. Max's journals contained mostly rambling entries about how he was close to making progress, that Dr Michael Bergin was somehow always at the brink of manipulating some oncogene in the human genome so that the cells in one's body would remain immortal. Jesus, Max believed that he would live forever, Connor thought in disgust. He didn't know what Michael, Val, and their staff were up to, but they were researching something in the labs they had given Connor a tour of earlier. Max's huge fortune was used to set up a lab that would put many science-fiction movies to shame. But all Connor could deduce was that the research was genetic in nature. Beyond that, no one ventured any actual information. No doubt Val and Michael would do all they could to cover up whatever shady activities they were indulging in before they would tell Connor anything. Connor intended to shut down this plant and offer the island up to the highest bidder. He had already made plans to sell off his father's various holdings all over the world, having no interest in touching anything that belonged to his father, even if he now inherited everything. He could tell from the subtle widening of Michael's eyes when he told the man of his plans that Michael didn't like the idea. Whatever the man was doing here, he wanted to continue doing it. Well, tough. He would have to do it elsewhere. A knock on the door interrupted Connor's reverie. He shut the journals and pushed them and the papers into a drawer and locked it before answering the door. He wasn't too surprised to find Michael standing at the doorway. He was actually expecting the man to come to his door. Michael was a very good-looking man with a lean, muscular physique that was rare in a man of his vocation. Connor noticed the man's unearthly good looks the moment they met and he discovered just how sexy the man's body was when Connor had Michael bent over on the stairs and fucked the brains out of that scientist with his swollen cock. Michael was a fuckable piece of tight ass and Connor hadn't a decent fuck since he left his dig site at Bolivia a week ago. He had no doubt that Michael found him attractive. With his six feet four height and a powerfully-muscled physique that was the fruit of years of hard labor, he attracted lovers like honey attracted the bees. He was also a handsome man - handsome, not pretty - and the impression of potent virility was enhanced by his neatly-groomed beard and moustache. A real man, more than one breathless lover had called him as they begged him not to stop pounding his unusually large and thick cock between their legs, and they all couldn't get enough of him. They always wanted him to master them, make them his, and pumped his hot male seed into them. And he'd given them what they wanted since he turned fourteen and learned how to fuck. Fat people, skinny people, ugly or beautiful, he never denied them his stud service as long as he found them even a little likeable. Sex was his sweetest escape if history was his first love. Michael walked into the room, without a word, and his back turned to Connor, unclasped the belt around his dressing gown to let it fall. His nude, beautiful body seemed to gleam in the light from the small lamp on Connor's table. Connor paused only to unzip his jeans and as his erect cock jutted free to seek the warmth between Michael's legs, Connor pushed Michael roughly to bend over the table even as he bruisingly plunged his penis deep, the force of the penetration forcing Michael to arch his back in pain-pleasure against Connor's muscular front. Connor knew he could get Michael addicted to his cock if he wanted to. A plan formed in his head even as he began balling the man into a frenzy; he'd stay here and pretend to agree with everything Michael and Val said. But when Michael weakened in his lust for Connor, the man would reveal every secret he has to Connor. They always did when Connor worked his magic on them. Just ask his old assistant who blabbed his plans to sell Connor out to a rival archeologist, the fucker at the university board that was plotting to cut off Connor's fundings, or any of the many people who tried to cross him until he concentrated the full extent of his virility on them. Some of them might hated him, but they were all helpless against him when he used their vulnerabilities to him against them. Michael, unaware of the true nature of the beast that was fucking him, climaxed violently. He screamed in pleasure as tears escaped his tightly-shut eyes, missing the cold, satisfied gleam in Connor's eyes as he ruthlessly used the man to get his rocks off. Ion Davidov couldn't remember ever being a child. He remembered being twelve and asking his 'father' Max why he was different from everyone on this island. He didn't dare reveal to Max that he had sneaked into Max's room when Max was away at the mainland to watch what the world outside this island was like, but he knew that he was very different even at that age. He assumed that people kept their tails in their pants just like he tried to, but he knew now that human beings didn't have tails. Max explained then that Ion was different because Ion was special. Ion knew now that he was "special" because he wasn't born, he was created. He wasn't even entirely human. He was mostly human, but he had eyes, teeth, and a tail that could never be mistaken for human. He didn't know for certain, but he also guessed that his body worked in ways that would be different from a normal human. After all, he was part human, part feline, part amphibian, and part who-knows-what-else. He was also finding it increasingly hard to rein in his mating instincts. Thanks to Val, he knew what the acting of mating consisted of. His instincts scared him, therefore, because it hurt when Val forced his cock into Ion's unprepared anus and Ion never knew what he was supposed to get from the act. Val seemed to enjoy it, but apart from receiving Val's semen, Ion had nothing but agony and a puzzling feeling of shame. But Val wouldn't hurt him now, Ion reassured himself. They wouldn't find him. The island was wide and there was thousands of places where Ion could hide and never be found. They had been hunting for him, their prized possession, for months now, but Val would never find Ion as long as Ion was still breathing. He was careful to move with the stealth his feline grace allowed him, having raided enough food supply and electronic device from the house to last him for the next few months, and he was smiling at the thought of Val's furious expression when he heard a groan from a window and paused. Was someone hurt? He wouldn't even spit on anyone in that house even if they were on fire, but another groan gave Ion pause. The men inside were hurting, perhaps, but they also seemed to be in... ecstasy. A low, masculine moan, similar to Val's sounds when he was fucking Ion, only more musical to the ears, could be heard. Ion had to look into the window. He gasped silently. He had never seen such a powerful specimen of masculinity before. The man pinning Dr Bergin on the bed reminded Ion of a scuplture of the Greek hero Hercules once. This man's physique was near perfection, his thick and powerful muscles rippling under his tawny skin that glistened with a sheen of sweat as the man lifted his rounded and taut buttocks, exposing the stunning girth of that dark, slippery cock a few inches before he thrust back down, embedding that cock deep into Dr Begin until Dr Bergin cried out loud and begged the man for more. Dr Bergin was tall, but he was dwarfed on the bed, a picture of submission, as he shuddered under the man's powerful coupling. Their harsh moans of pleasure made an obscene, arousing song of decadent sin, the wet slapping sound of their mating flesh making the song only sweeter. The stranger's expression was feral, terrifying, and sinfully handsome even in his most savage and bestial. Dr Bergin was definitely in pain, but he was also certainly in ecstasy. Ion never expected to realize that one could enjoy the mating act this much, or that the act itself could bring such sweetest pain and pleasure to a person. Or maybe it wasn't the act as much as the person who was involved in the act, Ion thought, thinking of Val's violent and degrading fucking. Dr Bergin's lover was far from gentle, but he was not violent either. He was magnificent. Ion's sharp nails cut into his palm as he watched Dr Bergin's lover gave one last thrust. The man was giving Dr Bergin his seed, Ion knew from the way the man's buttocks clenched and the way the man shuddered and cried out in low male triumph. Ion couldn't watch any more. His own body was screaming to mate, and not just with any man, but with this particular virile man. He needed the man's touch even as his body cried out for the man's seed. At that moment, he hated Dr Bergin so much that he could rip the man to pieces if the man was standing before him. Oh, to be the man receiving the stranger's hard cock! Something was changing inside his body. Ion didn't know what it was, but he could feel an alien ripening of... something, a need, a violent urge inside his body. He blindly scrambled forth, letting his predator instincts led him home, only to carelessly toss his booty onto the floor of his home before he rushed out again into the wilds where he was an integral part of. He ripped at his T-shirt as he ran, tore at his jeans, and naked, ran and climbed until he was at the top of the tallest tree in the jungle. He looked at the mansion, visible at the rocky outcrop like the mad scientist haunt that it was, and howled. He was in need, in pain, burning with desire. He was also realizing for the first time just how inhuman he was. For he knew, should he ever meet Dr Bergin's lover, the man would recoil in terror at what Ion was. Wiping fiercely at the tears he never wanted to feel, Ion threw his head back and howled one more time. A thunderstorm was brewing. Connor let the rain wash over his naked body as he leaned against the railing on the balcony. The rain was still light enough for him to dimly make out the jungle vista under him. Somewhere, a wolf was howling. Connor's ears pricked at the sound. For a moment, he had a wistful fancy that he could detect a keen sense of loneliness and pain in that long howl. Without giving much thought to what he was doing, he threw his head back and howled back. TWO Ion sensed him before he actually saw the man. A week had passed since he saw the magnificent mate of Dr Bergin, but his body was so attuned to the keen lust that bloomed whenever Ion thought of the man (which was often, usually at night, when Ion writhed in lust and need in his bed) that he was aware that the man was near even before he saw him. Shock seized him for a brief second when he saw the man. The man was badly injured, a wound on his head bleeding profusely, and he was lying on the ground, unconscious. Six men surrounded him. Val had a smug smile on his face as he prepared his rifle for one final shot that would destroy the beautiful man completely. Ion didn't know what the man had done to anger Dr Bergin and Val, but anyone who was these men's enemy was Ion's to save, especially this man. Ion growled, his fangs bared as he got ready for the kill. And then he pounced. He didn't manage to kill Val, more the pity. But there was a satisfaction in watching the six men fleeing in terror, with Val screaming as he gripped his cheek where Ion had mauled right through the skin. They would be back. Val would never let Ion get away with this insult. Ion swallowed his fear and concentrated on checking the man he had saved. The man lived. Ion could feel a pulse. Hoping he wouldn't damage the man more than those men already had, Ion lifted the man as gently as he could over his shoulders and melted into the shadows of the jungles before Val returned with a larger force for vengeance. Oh shit. Connor groaned as he opened his eyes. His head hurt, but he had experienced worse. He would live, and that was enough. He looked around him. The last thing he remembered was discovering the missing pages of his father's journal in his father's secret safe and confronting Michael about this "genetic experiment". Then there was darkness, pain... Connor jolted into full awareness. Val must have ambushed Connor, caught him off-guard. Connor realized, as he began to be aware more fully of his environment, that he had a thick bandage on his head (he touched it, it hurt a little) and there were wounds on his chest that were already healed. "You were unconscious for nearly two weeks," came a gentle, delicate male voice. "I was so worried that you will never be awake, even if your strong body resists death. I am not a doctor, although I've read many medical texts, and I was close to despair that I can't do enough to save you." "Who are you?" Connor asked. He was in a cave. A well-furnished cave, he realized with a surprise. He was on a makeshift bed - a rock upon which a mattress was placed - in a cave where someone had turned into a home as much as he could. Books lined the rocky niches on the wall, there was a kettle hanging from a wooden stand over the fire in the fireplace (more like a hollow in the cave wall) from which a pleasant smell of tea made Connor realize how thirsty he was. And the man living here was standing over him, swathed in dark robes so that Connor could barely make out the man's face. "My name is Ion." Connor didn't have to think too hard to deduce that this must be the poor man that Michael experimented on. The man must have taken all his courage to escape the bastard. Connor looked at the man's hidden face and felt something in his heart give. "You are the one they are looking for, right?" asked Connor. "No, don't be afraid. I won't let them have you. You saved my life, Ion. I'm in your debt. I'll take you with me back to America, if that's what you want." "America. Max came from there." Ion sounded wistful. Connor was beyond surprise at this point. His father recalled Ion fondly in those pages, saying that Ion was like the son he never had. Then, Connor had been seized by an irrational fury borned from envy - his father treated him like dirt but cared for some guinea pig, of all the fucking nerve. But now, Connor easily let go of his resentment. His father wasn't worth it. Connor let gratitude fill his heart, washing out his bitterness over his past. "Yeah. Max," he said. "Max's my father." "He's a great man. He always visited and treated me well. Things became worse when he stopped coming." Connor sighed. "Max died, Ion. He died when his plane crashed on his way here." Connor found himself saying, "He didn't hurt for long. It was a quick death." "Were you there?" Ion asked quietly. "Yes," lied Connor. "He was sorry he didn't get to see you." Ion screamed. Connor allowed the man to scream. Ion wept, punching at Connor in his disbelief that Max, the only man who cared for him, was never coming back, and he even embraced the man hard as Ion shed tears. At least someone cared that the old man was dead, Connor thought bitterly. He wouldn't cry for Max. He hadn't cried since the day he walked out on his father. But as he held the sobbing Ion, something in him softened. He didn't know it then, but Ion's tears had melted the ice in Connor's heart, slowly allowing Connor to eventually, perhaps one day, let go of and forgive the past. Ion's hood fell back and Connor gasped. As he gently placed his fingers under Ion's chin and lifted it so that Connor could wipe the young man's tears, he was poleaxed to realize how beautiful the visage he held before him was. Ion's face could easily be an angel's, so delicate and fine, and Connor couldn't remember seeing any man as beautiful as Ion. Ion's lips were plump and inviting, his eyes a startling shade of green and unfathomable, his nose aristocratic - everything about the face was balanced and imbued with pure, unadulterated beauty. Not one feature was out of place in Connor's eyes. He had found his ideal male beauty. His knees staggered as he was knocked breathless and weak by the sight before him. Holding Ion, Connor felt coarse and brutal. He was aware of how large he was compared to Ion's slim build. He felt like a hirsute monster who would corrupt this pure, angelic creature in his arms. He couldn't bear it even if he couldn't bear to let Ion go. His cock, already surging into its monstrous length, throbbed urgently as Connor forgot his pain. All he knew was Ion, all he could see and hear and feel and smell was Ion. So lost in his lust that he was barely aware of Ion's hand accidentally brushing his cock head and Ion gasping and jumping out of Connor's arms. Connor wanted to howl in frustration at the loss of Ion in his arms. It took all of his control to keep his face barely recognizable as human as he lifted a reassuring hand to the panicked young man. It wasn't easy. Ion was looking at his hand, barely a few inches away from Connor's blood-engorged cock. Ion touched a drop of semen at the tip of Connor's cock earlier and now there was a ropey strand of come glistening in the light, connecting Ion's fingertip to Connor's monster cock. "It's okay," Connor hastened to reassure Ion. "I'm sorry, Ion. It's just that you're so beautiful and I am a disgusting monster. I won't touch you, I swear, Ion, please, don't go." "It hurts. Mating hurts," Ion whispered. "Who has hurt you?" All lust was forgotten as outrage took control of Connor as he envisioned someone brutalizing this beautiful man. "That son of a bitch! I'll kill them!" "It hurts when Val mated with me. He hit me and said that he liked it when I cried." "No, mating should be good for the people involved," Connor reassured him even as he mentally made a note to kill Val. "Dr Bergin liked it when you mated with him, I guess," Ion said. "I saw you two." Connor nodded. "And you'll like it if I mate with you," he promised the man. "I won't touch you unless you ask me to, Ion. But when you want me, you tell me. I will show you that you can have pleasure from mating, I swear." Ion nodded. "I don't know your name," he said. "Connor. Connor Richard Parker Axelrod, that's my name, and I am in your debt, Ion." He studied Ion, desirous still. "I'm all yours, Ion, for anything you want to do with me." THREE Connor's words were still fresh in Ion's mind later that week as Ion watched the man catch some fish in the brook for their dinner. Ion pulled his robes closer around him. He would never mate with Connor, unfortunately. It was impossible. Ion looked at his hands, knowing that underneath the black sleeves, there were thick, fine golden furs on his arms that belied the feline nature of his being. His tail, which he kept carefully out of view, was another reason why he couldn't even be close to Connor. "Yeah!" Connor said in satisfaction as he placed three fish at Ion's feet like a proud hunter showing off his kill to his mate. "It's not as good as your efforts, but I'm getting there." That was because Ion could breathe underwater through his skin, thanks to his amphibian nature. He could catch fish very well, better than Connor imagined. "You're doing good," he told Connor with a smile. "How's your strength?" "Better," said Connor. "I'll get us both out of here," he told Ion solemnly. "You have my word on that, Ion. You can live with me." Ion trembled with keen desire. Connor was offering more than a room at his house. The man was open in his desire for Ion. Ion often pretended to sleep as he watched discreetly as Connor often played with his own cock, urgently rubbing it hard several times through the night, and spilling his seed while moaning out Ion's name. They were both going insane wanting each other while jerking off to ease the need when they thought the other person wasn't looking. Even now, Ion was intensely aware of Connor's wet muscular body or the way those soaked jeans clung low to Connor's hips, and he wanted so badly to spread his legs and beg Connor to take him. But he couldn't. Connor would be disgusted when he knew what Ion was. And Ion would lose Connor's comforting presence or the man's easy jokes that made Ion laugh. He would never see Connor's smile again. If he was to lose Connor, at least let Connor leave him with good memories just as he would always be the best memory in Ion's life. Not that Ion intended to live long. He had lived all this while believing that Max would come back and make things right again. Now Max was dead and Ion would soon lose Max's son. He saw no reason to live once even Connor was gone. "My sweet, shy Ion." Connor smiled and his large hand caressed Ion's cheek tenderly. "What do I have to do to break down your defenses, baby? Do I have to tell you that I'm falling in love with you? Because I am, Ion. I love you." "No, stop it!" Ion cried. He was overjoyed. He was horrified. "You cannot love me!" "Why not?" Connor asked in surprise. "You can't!" Ion just said. Without a word, he leapt to his feet and ran for his life from Connor. Ion was a fast runner, Connor mused, like a gazelle. Then he sighed. It was just his luck that he could have anybody he wanted but the only man he had ever fallen in love with thought he was a freak. Thanks to Val whom Connor would make sure die a slow and lingering death when he got his hands on that jerk. Which he intended to, soon. His strength was returning fast and the day of reckoning was near. But until then, Ion shouldn't run off alone like that. It wasn't safe. Connor knew that Ion could take care of himself, but damn it, he was in love and he had the right to be protective of his love even if this love of his wasn't returning his feelings. Yet, Connor corrected himself - yet. He would make Ion see that they belonged together. All he had to do was to get his throbbing cock into Ion's ass and then Ion would understand that Connor wasn't like Val. Connor could be stealthy too, thanks to years of dealing and living in disreputable areas in his career as an archeologist, and he found Ion easily. Ion wasn't aware of him yet. Perhaps he would be if he wasn't sobbing into his hands. Connor felt a pang of dismay. Was he that disgusting to Ion? It was sobering for a man used to being lusted after that Ion might find him repellant. He wanted to walk away and leave Ion alone, maybe to cry himself too because he had no idea what else to do to get Ion to want him. He was about to, when he saw a sight that had him rooted to the ground. What seemed like a cat's tail was swaying absently from under Ion's robe as Ion cried. As Connor watched in stunned surprise, Ion got on his feet and pulled off his robes. Connor saw that Ion indeed had a tail growing from the point where the cleft of his buttock ended towards his waist. Ion dived into the pond. Connor fell onto the ground and sat there on his rump, trying to fathom what he had just seen. Ion wasn't human. It was impossible. He had held the man, kissed the man even. And Ion wasn't human? How could Ion not be human? This is real life, not some science- fiction movie where aliens walked the earth. But... Ion had been underwater for nearly half an hour without resurfacing. Connor cursed and ran towards the pond. That man better not have drowned, he thought in rising panic, not when Connor wasn't done with him yet... "Ion!" he cried. Ion sensed rather than heard Connor. He was shocked to realize that the man was there, and then panicked when he realized that he couldn't show himself to Connor, not when he was naked and exposed to Connor's eyes. "I saw the tail, Ion. There's no need to hide anymore." This was it then, Ion thought with despair. He shouldn't swim up and face Connor. Maybe it was best to just close his eyes and die here. "Ion, please." Connor's yell, suffused with pleading desperation, penetrated Ion's despair. Let he be hurt, but he couldn't bear to let Connor remain in pain. Ion swallowed a sob rising in his throat and swam up to meet his fate. Connor didn't speak. He just studied Ion as he stood there with his hands clenched into fists by his sides. Ion closed his eyes, his tail twitching nervously, as he waited for Connor to tell him how disgusted the man was with him. But the words never came. Instead, Connor whispered harshly, "Look at me. Don't close your eyes at me." Ion opened his eyes and gasped. Connor had shed his clothes and he was as naked as Ion. The man's cock was a powerful column of virile strength, throbbing urgently against a tightly clenched washboard stomach as Connor showed no sign of wanting Ion any less while Connor reached out and touched Ion's stomach. "Such fine hairs on your body," Connor murmured, "almost invisible." His other hand touched Ion's tail with a firm grasp. Ion couldn't help but to purr. "A tail. Is there anything else I should know?" Connor asked as his cock rubbed urgently against Ion's stomach, leaving a slippery trail of fluid on Ion's abs. "I can breathe through my skin underwater. I can see at night," Ion told him. "I have claws." "Yes, such beautiful hands," Connor said, kissing those fingers in question. "And such beautiful eyes. I thought they looked like cat's eyes. Now I know they are just that." "You're not disgusted at me?" "Disgusted?" Connor looked surprised at that notion. "No," he assured Ion. "How can I be disgusted at you? I'm in love with you, Ion. With this - " he pressed his hand against Ion's chest - "the inside you." He eased one hairy and muscular leg between Ion's. As his cock head rubbed teasingly against the hairy slit hiding Ion's deepest secrets from him, he whispered, "I also happen to find this tailed, clawed, whatever you sexy as hell." Sobering a little, he studied Ion's face. "I love you," he said again, wanting Ion to believe him. Begging Ion to believe him. "Even if you have a pair of bat's wings, I will love you. Maybe this makes me crazy, but I do. This is how I feel. See?" He deliberately let his cock head penetrate shallowly through the tight ring of muscle surrounding Ion's ass. "I want you as much as before." Ion sobbed, unable to contain the relief and joy overspilling in his soul, as Connor gently lowered him on the grass. Connor moved his body over Ion's, carefully making sure that he didn't crush Ion under his weight as he covered the other man. "Ion, let me love you," he begged, thrusting the head of his cock urgently into Ion before withdrawing. "Please." "Yes," Ion cried. "Take me, Connor... please." Connor laughed. "At last," he teased briefly, only to close his eyes and moan when he slowly forged his cock deeper into Ion. Ion shuddered as the pain began to intensify, his claws drawing blood as they scratched gently along Connor's back. He felt the walls of his anus protest briefly and then his ass was opening wide, gripping every inch Connor was feeding into him as if he had been taking cocks of this size for years. He was stretched so tightly that he could feel every ridge and vein on that thick cock splitting him open, and there was a burning spurt of ecstasy that resulted when Connor thrust each time into his ass, as if that thickly ridged cock head was stimulating a part of him that he never knew existed, a part that gave him pleasure he never knew he could experience. Connor thrust once, twice, thrice, and then Ion experienced a powerful climax so intense that he thought he was dying. As Ion experienced his orgasm, Connor increased the depth and rate of his fuck-thrusts. Ion's mouth was wide-open in his climax and Connor bent down to give Ion's two cat-like fangs a slow, languid lick on each. Ion's ass was unlike any male ass Connor had ever gotten his cock into. This one was unusually tight but at the same time, more elastic, almost like a woman's cunt, Connor marveled. The ass opened easily to accommodate his monstrous dong but at the same time it was so tight inside that Connor almost came on the spot when his cock was fully embedded in that heavenly hole for the first time. And then he was fucking Ion, driving Ion into a long series of powerful, short orgasms, gritting his teeth for control until he felt his balls tightened. He felt the first powerful rush of orgasm burn through the tubes in his balls and rush towards the head of his cock. And then he was noisily, triumphantly, pumping his lush, fertile seed into Ion in his own ecstasy, his moans of pleasure joining Ion's, until he collapsed onto Ion, sweat-soaked, utterly sated, pleased beyond belief, and tenderly holding his lover. "See?" Connor whispered as they both lay there, feeling Connor lazily perform short thrusts and enjoying the feel of their sweat- slicked thighs rubbing against each other even as Connor's cock throbbed and ejaculated the last of its ejaculate. "We have created something magical, baby." FOUR Ion knew something was wrong. There was something strange going on in his body. He could sense it from the odd rumbling feeling he could sense sometimes coming from a spot between his navel and his cock. At the same time, his libido mounted into a fevered peak, causing him to keep taking advantage of Connor until Connor begged for mercy. It was nearly too easy to forget where they are and live in their own world, laughing and making love in their cave until late morning, where they would eat breakfast before making love again under a waterfall. He was insatiable. It was a good thing that Connor was a superb lover with stamina to keep up. Perhaps Connor would one day wake up and come to his senses, but it seemed more likely day by day that he actually enjoyed being with and loving Ion the way Ion was. Ion never knew what he did to be this fortunate, but he was, for the first time in his life, in bliss. He had a man who cared for him the way he was, warts and all, and this man filled up all the voids in his life. For the first time in his life, he felt alive. But he was also feeling uneasy when the feeling that his body was changing inside intensified. He didn't know what was happening and it scared the hell out of him. But it came to him clearly what was going on that morning when he watched his reflection in the water. "I am having your child," he told Connor who was bathing near him. Connor slipped and fell clumsily into the water. "Or maybe children," Ion told Connor later that night. Connor touched Ion just under the navel. "I don't believe this." "I don't either. But bloody fucking hell, this is cool. I bet this kid is made the first time we fucked." Connor smiled. "I'm going to be a father, Ion. This is amazing!" He sobered. "This also means that we have to get out of this place. I want my kid to be raised safely." "I know that look. You have a plan," Ion commented. "You damn right I have." Connor said with a cocky grin. "I always have a plan." Connor frowned when Val made a move towards Ion. "Be careful. He's having my kid. We don't want to miss out on a chance of a lifetime." Michael Bergin licked his lips. "Get away, Val. You can have him once we're done with him." He had never imagined that this would happen, his greatest creation pregnant! It was Ion's amphibian DNA that caused this. Michael didn't know this would happen when he used DNA from a particular species of frog where the males could reproduce, but now, he was ecstatic. How appropriate that Connor would succeed in performing this impossible conception when Val couldn't despite having sexually abused Ion for years. But Connor, Michael thought with a shiver of desire, was wholely and spectacularly a man. It made sense that his sperm was powerful enough to trigger a miracle. "Yeah? Should I trust you?" Val sneered as he marched up to Connor. "You expect me to believe that you fuck this freak, knock him up, and then you bring him back to us because you now support our research?" "Shut up, Val," Michael snapped. The seeds Connor had sowed was germinating in Michael's heart even if the man didn't realize it. Michael looked at Connor and as he tried to keep his desire under control, he found himself wondering why he kept Val around when Connor was here. Val was a useful brute, but where he was strong and ruthless, Connor was ten times more that. Connor would be a superb lover and partner in Michael's research. The sweet vision of the future made Michael tremble with anticipation. Which was why, on Connor's whispered suggestion, Michael met Val in the study and put a bullet between the man's eye. As Michael got on his knees before Connor that night, Connor unzipped his jeans. As Michael eagerly opened his mouth to take in that throbbing cock, Connor twisted the man's neck. "I told you I have a plan," Connor told Ion as they watched the mansion burn from a distant. "And the men who hurt you have paid for their sins." Ion rested his head on Connor's shoulder. "I love you, Ion. I will kill for you if it comes to that. I will do anything to make sure that you and our children will grow up in a safe place." Connor smiled at Ion tenderly. "Now do you believe me?" FIVE As the Axelrod private helicopter departed, Ronald Axelrod gave his father a wide grin. "Hey, Dad, glad you can make it!" he said as he walked up and hugged his father. "Well, anything for my great archeologist son," Connor said with a grin that mirrored Ronald's. "I'm just surprised that you still need me to advise you." Ronald chuckled at his father's teasing. It was true that Ronald Axelrod was shaping up to be a more renowed archeologist than his father was, a fact which pleased the proud father in question to no end. "Come on, Dad, I have the advantage," he said modestly, referring to his sensitive eyesight that could rival an eagle's. "Come, see what my men find and tell me what you think." Connor was still an intimidating man. At fifty-nine, he still had the energy and drive of a man thirty years his junior. He had retired from archeology ten years ago, but being a man of action, his constant physical labor at his private island kept his body in a condition that would make twenty-year olds weep in envy. Age and responsibility had mellowed Connor, and this maturity and fierce determination to protect his loved ones only enhanced his rugged looks that had people of all ages falling for him. Ronald, his kid, was taking after him and was fast becoming a heartbreaker. "How's Ion?" Ronald asked. Like the rest of the Axelrods, he had a tight concept of family and he missed every day when he was away from his family. Connor's face took on the joyous glow whenever he talked about his love. "He's good and nagging me about spoiling you kids. Said you should be old enough to think for yourself." He laughed as he remembered Ion's parting words. "You're coming back for Christmas, right?" "Sooner. I'll bringing Clarise to meet you and Ion." Connor beamed. "You're serious about this?" "She knows about me, Dad, everything," Ronald said. "And she still loves me." "It won't be easy, raising your own X-men kids," Connor warned him. Unlike Ion, however, the children of Connor and Ion were born with normal human characteristics. Ion and Frank, their loyal family doctor, suspected that it was due to Connor's human genes. Connor didn't really understand their complicated theories and he didn't really care because he'd still love those kids if they were born with cloven hoofs. They were the result of his love for Ion, as he told Ion, so how could he not love them? "You should've thought of that before you got Ion knocked up - again," Ronald reminded him. Connor laughed out loud this time. He had finished expanding the incubators in their home in anticipation of the next hatching. Yeah, in a way he was quite proud of himself that he still had it in him. He had seriously told Ion that he would get his tubes done if Ion wanted to stop, but Ion told him not to be silly. Carrying a brood of egg was actually no hassle on his part. Watching Ion now at the late stage of his pregnancy, one wouldn't even suspect that he was with child. Hell, this morning, Ion wanted it so bad that their goodbye-for-now fuck rated as one of the best fucks in Connor's life. "Will you be back for the hatching?" Connor asked. "Frank predicts that it will be at the end of the month and he's never wrong." "I'll be there. So will Teresa," Ronald said, referring to his sister. "She'll be emailing you, no doubt, to remind you to build some spare bedrooms because she refuses to endure another repeat of last year when we have to share a bedroom with eight of our dear brothers and sisters." "One of these days you kids will overrun the island," Connor said in mock despair. "I'll have to buy a bigger island." "Well, buy Alaska. Peter is getting fed-up with the authorities hindering his attempts to save the moose there." Connor laughed again. "I love you kids, you know that?" he said, placing his arm around his son. "I guess that's what you keep having so many that you can barely keep count of our names," Ronald teased. "It's the empty nest syndrome. Every year when you kids grow up and go to school, Ion and I need to do something with our free time." Connor and Ion not just started a family on the island, they created an iron-clad set of rules for their children. Even if they could easily pass themselves off as normal human beings, they could only join the outside world once they reached their twelfth year and their growth rate stabilized (Donald was eighteen when he graduated from college as a "twenty-five year old"). they would never reveal their true nature unless it was to their loved ones who they were certain would keep the secret. Family was important, and the Hatching - the day when Ion walked into the delivery room with only Connor and Frank by his side to lay another generation of Axelrods - was more important to the Axelrods than Christmas. After the Hatching, Connor and his team of loyal researchers would work around the clock for the next few weeks to ensure that as many eggs would hatch into healthy Axelrods as possible. Usually they might lose up to two eggs, but the successfully hatched babies would lessen the heartbreak they experience. With their island sanctuary now equipped with sophisticated equipment, they lost fewer children now than in the earlier years, when an entire brood of eggs could never hatch at all. A group of specially trained teachers and handlers would help Ion and Connor raise the children, with the loving parents always trying to make sure that every child receive their equal attention. Connor couldn't wait to return to Ion and their crazy home that was always filled with laughter of mischievous children. Thirty- three years, two hundred generations of Axelrods, and five thousand, seven hundred and two uniquely talented children later, he couldn't get enough of Ion's smile, presence, temperamant, and body. In fact, his heart was already singing in anticipation of seeing his love again tomorrow, just as his balls were churning impatiently with still potent seed in readiness for Ion's welcome- back greeting for him. He had no doubt that the next generation of their dynasty would be conceived in love on the very night after Ion delivered the latest crop of Axelrods, just as every generation had always been conceived since Connor's cock found its home for the first time in Ion's loving sheath, just as future generations would be, in a verdant cycle of neverending love.