Faith in the Family, Draft 2, CH 31 (Patreon)

San Francisco Bay, CA, February 15th

Thomas looked at the phone Yating had gotten him the day before to make sure the app was active, then stepped into Body Healthy, the store attached to the warehouse that was their target. The phone was mainly so Yating and Gilbert could track his movements within the store, then the warehouse. And because there was a worry the lack of technology in the warehouse itself meant they had scramblers, the armadillo had written something with his cum on a strip of leather, then sprayed a sealant over that once it was dry.

Thomas had asked why sex wasn’t needed to activate it, and received a glare from Gilbert and a firm statement they didn’t have the time to go over how magic worked again. Then he’d grumbled about lost memories and chocking whoever was responsible.

Then he’d asked that if they ended up depending on the phrase. How was he going to let them know he’d Madoc in the warehouse if he couldn’t use the phone to message them?

That has resulted in an angry armadillo screaming insults at the air until he set to just tear it up. He’d feel the end of the magic and he’d know it was time for Yating to walk them into the warehouse.

The panda hadn’t looked eager, since making someone else intangible was uncomfortable, but he too had been practicing, and they were all going to do everything they could to rescue their frat brother.

Thomas looked at the products on the shelves as he walked to the back, tried to act interested in them to avoid drawing attention to himself. The double door leading to the store’s storage had windows. A glance to make sure no one was looking, then a look in to confirm there was no one there and he teleported.

Locating the door to the warehouse was simple, as it was the only other door there, between two stacks of boxes of protein powder. That one didn’t have a window, but it wasn’t locked. Cracking it open showed him the large space that was the empty warehouse. The only lights on the ceiling that were on created a path to the center, then left where it ended at a wall with doors in it. The rest of the space was dark enough he figured that so long as he was quiet and didn’t light up a flare, he’d be undetected.

At least the one part Gilbert had expected to be complicated, the locating of Madoc, was going to be simple. Of course, now that he’d thought that, Thomas couldn’t help also thinking that if this was a movie, he’d be anywhere but there.

He figured the guys seated at the edge of the light in an area set up as a lounge, with a coffee table, and cabinet with bottled water, were a good sign he was on the right path.

“You ever think you’d take it from anyone than him?” a civet with so many muscles on him he’d never need a gym again, asked the panther seated across from him. The panther had nearly as many muscles. 

He guffawed. “You kidding? I’m not gay. But having him fuck me got me into the circuit, and with this guy doing it, I’m going to win.”

“You?” a wolf said, standing, the town covering his groin slipping off in the process. “You’ll only win if you stay out of my way.” He posed, but Thomas wasn’t looking at his arms or the chest. That ass looked way too inviting.

He focused. The panther had motioned to the door when he’d said ‘this guy’, so Thomas had the right place. The only problem was that he couldn’t reach the door to tell what was on the other side. The plan had called for more precision than that, but Gilbert would have to make do.

He moved as close as he comfortable doing to the light circle, then took his phone and. Blocking its light with his jacket, wrote his message.

I’m as close as I can get. The door is guarded. It’s twenty feet ahead of me. I can’t tell you what’s behind or where Madoc will be there.

The men were now all posing, trying to outdo the others.

We’re going in. Came the response.

Thomas waited. Gilbert and Yating’s role as diversion had become more important since he needed to get inside to get to Madoc and teleport the two of them to the hotel. Yating would then phase him and Gilbert back outside and drive there. The red panda had looked as confident about managing it as Thomas had of teleporting to the hotel before the intense week of training, but he was here anyway.

A little over five minutes was how long it took until sounds of a commotion came from behind the wall. The posers stopped posing, looked at each other, confused, before the wolf took his towel off the floor and wrapped it around his waist before heading for the door.

As he reached for the handle, there was an explosion that had the wolf leap back and lose his towel, and Thomas stare as the door limply fell off its hinges.

That’s it? Gilbert carries a grenade in his pocket, basically sleeps with fireworks, and that’s the explosion he managed? Someone was going to have to stop boasting.

Thomas couldn’t see on the other side of the door from where he stood, so he teleported deeper into the warehouse, looked beyond the door, and was there, among the chaos of muscular men screaming as they tried and failed to grab hold of a red panda who, for all that he looked about to throw up, was still intangible. Gilbert was holding three walls of muscle at bay by bouncing his grenade in a hand, grinning like a maniac.

“Over there,” the red panda said on seeing him, and pointed to a line of three, again too muscular men, looking ready to take on anyone who got close to them.

Thomas appeared to the side of them, well out of reach of the one he surprised. Behind them, Madoc stared at Thomas in shock. Thomas was next to him, grabbed him and—

The other rat pulled out of his grip. “Don’t!” he backpedaled away.

“We’re here to rescue you!” He teleported out of the way of the man who tried to grab him and reached for Madoc again, only for the rat to dodge.

“Will everyone just stop!” Madoc yelled, stunning Thomas still, along with everyone else. “If you don’t put that thing away, Gil, I am going to shove it in so deep you’re going to think He’s got his balls in there.”

Thomas got over the surprise as Gilbert hurried to pocket his grenade. 

He appeared next to the rat, only for him to dodge again.

“If they scrambled your brains,” Thomas said, glaring at the rat, “I’m going to—”

“Stop,” Madoc ordered, “Don’t… don’t blink closer.”

“I’m trying to save you!” Thomas yelled.

“I don’t want to be saved!” Madoc replied, just as loudly.

“Are you fucking insane?” Thomas yelled even louder. “They kidnapped you!” maybe he could get the common sense to slam in with pure volume.

“Have you looked at them?” the rat gestured at the naked muscular men in the large room.

“How the fuck can I have not looked? Any bigger and we wouldn’t fit in here.”

“Exactly!” Madoc yelled, looking like a starving man being offered a buffet. “I’ve never had anyone I fuck get as big as these guys as fast. I can feel it happening as I fuck them. It’s fucking amazing.”

Thomas swallowed at the mania in Madoc’s eyes. He’d never seen him behave that way at the gym, and it was reminiscent of Gilbert when he got going on the benefits of explosives to society.

Was that a Society thing? Was Thomas going to discover some kink that drove him to mania, too? Well, many two among the dozen guys he knew didn’t qualify as ‘a thing’.

“Thomas,” Yating yelled. “Get him.”

Right. He appeared behind Madoc, but his armed closed around empty air. When had the rat gotten that fast?

Gilbert tried to intercept the running rat, only to be shouldered aside hard. Then Madoc was out of the room.

Thomas appeared at the door, and Madoc was heading for the one leading to the health store. Then his sight was blocked by a massive, gray furred chest as the flexing wolf from earlier grabbed him.

Thomas turned his head enough to see something, then he was out of the hold. He looked at Madoc’s goal as the civet jumped at him. Then he was there, turning around, crossing his arms over his chest as the other rat skidded to a stop. Thomas grinned as the other’s eyes grew wide.

Take that, Madoc, Thomas thought, please that he’d impressed the—

Someone behind Thomas cleared his throat.

Thomas looked over his shoulder, ready to tell them to come back later, when they weren’t busy, but the wall of muscle, covered in striped fur, smiled at him. Thomas quickly backed away. Surprise he wasn’t in the grotto at the danger he felt being smiled at like that.

The men who had been running after him had stopped, and the sound of protests from those behind ended the moment they looked around the blockage.

Yating ran through them, then skidded to a stop and ended up looking even more sick as he stared at the man looking them over.

The tiger shifted his gaze from Thomas, Madoc, Yating, and Gilbert, who swore under his breath and put a hand in the pocket holding his grenade, then slowed as he looked at the other men assembled.

Thomas was comforted by the knowledge that he wasn’t imagining the shitload of trouble they were in.

“I could twenty-three of them,” someone said, and Thomas looked at the baboon standing next to the giant of a tiger, holding an extended phone and going over it with a stylus. There was a sense of an administrative assistant to the man, if those came in three hundred pounds of muscle format. “That leaves eight of them unaccounted for.”

Thomas’s fleeting thought of how a movie would go came back to him and he decided this was a bad movie to be in. He caught Madoc’s erection out of the corner of his eye. A bad porno movie at that.

“You’re Dietrich Orr,” Madoc said in awe.

What were the odds this was some other tiger with the last name of Orr, instead of the super dangerous ones they weren’t going to be tangling with?

“You aren’t one of mind.” The tiger said, his deep voice nearly making Thomas’s bone vibrate. “What is your part in this?”

“You were Mister Universe in twenty-three, four and five,” Madoc said, instead of answering the question, the awe still heavy. “Before that, your won the San Francisco Bay Master Muscle four years in a row. You were the youngest to ever win.”

The tiger straightened under the rat’s praise.

Thomas shook the surprise away. They didn’t have the time for this. They needed to get out of here and—

“Young man,” the baboon said, just as Thomas was about to reach for Madoc. “I strongly recommend you stay where you are. You are in enough trouble as it is. You don’t wan to anger Mister Orr.”

Thomas froze. How? The guy hadn’t even looked up from his phone. Magic again?

The admonishment caused the tiger to look away from Madoc and back to the muscular men, well, more muscular than Thomas and his friends. It wasn’t often Thomas was left feeling puny since Madoc had started training him.

“I’m going to ask this once. If I don’t get an answer, you’re all kicked out. You’ll lose all the benefits you got from being part of my gym. All of them,” he emphasized. “Am I clear?”

Thomas didn’t look at the men behind him, or hear anything from them, but the tiger nodded in satisfaction.

“Who is responsible for the muscle mass you’ve gained.” The anger in the voice made Thomas step back.

“I did it,” Madoc answered with pride.

The tiger narrowed his eyes on him. “You expect me to believe a kid came up with a steroid no test can detect and that creates the kind of results anyone can see in days?”

“Not steroids,” Madoc said, insulted. “It’s my power. When I fuck a guy, I can give them the equivalent of three of four intense training sessions.”

“That would explain why the drug tests have all come back negative,” the baboon pointed out.

The tiger nodded. “Don’t think that means you’re off the hook,” he told the men. “You went behind my back.” When he looked at Madoc again, his gaze wasn’t as severe. “Which family are you from?”

“Yours,” the rat replied.

The baboon snickered.

Thomas glared at Madoc. What was he playing at?

The tiger canted an ear. “I mean the Society. That is who the four of you are with, right? So, which of those families are you from?”

“They don’t matter,” Madoc said breathlessly. “Make me yours.”

“What the fuck?” Thomas exclaimed and pulled at the rat so he would face him. “How can you tell him your family doesn’t matter?”

“Fuck off,” Madoc snapped. Pulling his arm out of the hold. “You don’t get to talk about our family after the betrayal you pulled on Raphael.”

“I don’t even know who that is! Shut up!” he yelled before the rat opened his mouth. “I don’t fucking care who is he. What I want to know is how the fuck you can tell that guy that your son doesn’t matter.”

Madoc stared at Thomas, the anger slowly shifting to confusion. “What son?”

* * * * *

Minneapolis, November 27th

“Pryce,” the rat in the doorway said to the child in his arms, “I want you to meet your frat uncle, Thomas.” Madoc beamed. “Thomas, this is my son, Pryce Lewiston.”

Thomas stared at the small rat in his frat brother’s arms and tried to get his brain to engage. It had been enough of a surprise for his aunt Corina to show up with a fiancée, but for Madoc to be here too and relate the fiancée was nearly too much, and learning he was a father?

His brain could be excused for going strike at the sheer number of surprises.

He shook himself and stepped out of the way. “Come on in.” He had been about to close the door when Madoc had made his presence known. “What are you doing here?” He did his best not to sound accusatory as he closed the door. “You went home only a few days ago.”

“And I— no, Pryce, don’t do that,” Madoc said as his son reached for Thomas’s whiskers. He lowered his voice conspiratorially. “You want to aim a little lower, like that.” The rat reached for Thomas’s nipple.

“Madoc,” Thomas hissed, and the other rat chuckled. “Don’t you think he’s kind of young for that?”

Madoc rolled his eyes and whispered something in his son’s ear. He gave him a knowing nod before looking up at Thomas. “I ran into Ettore and Corina as I got home. There were there for the perfunctory greeting and so Ettore could introduce Corina to Raphael so he’d finally stop bothering him. She mentioned they were heading to Minneapolis to visit family during that time, and Raphael had to give her the third degree and make sure she was good enough.”

Thomas tilted an ear. That had to have gone over well with his aunt. He wondered if she’d been willing to tell that story with the same openness she talked about her sexual exploits.

“I’m guessing her family name came up, and you made the connection.”

“I did confirm with her before jumping to the conclusion you were related, but yeah. I figured there weren’t that many Hertz who were also hooded rats in the whole of the twin cities.”

“So you decided to ditch your family to meet mine?”

“The only reason I went home was to be with this guy. Since Ettore was coming here, I was able to convince Raphael it would be safe for me to take him, too. If I could convince him the frat was safe, I wouldn’t have a reason to ever go back there.”

“You should bring him. I’m sure the guys there would love to meet him.”

Madoc smiled. “Where do you think I’m going after the festivities here? Unless you were planning on offering for me to sleep with you.”

“No.” Thomas stated.

“Really? I’d think they already know what we’ve gotten up to.”

“And do you have any idea how hard it is to get them to stop asking for details? The walls in this house are paper thin and there are no locks on any doors. The instant we make a sound, Judith will be in there with her phone, recording it, and it’s going to be shown at every family dinner.”

“Really?”

“Yes,” Thomas said in exasperation. “Now you know why—”

“Would she send me a copy?”

Thomas stared. “Why am I even surprised?”

Madoc chuckled. “Trust me, we ask ourselves that question on a nearly daily basis.” His amusement faded. “I couldn’t keep Pryce with me at the frat. Raphael won’t let the kids off the estate unless they have proper protection.” He fussed Pryce’s short head fur with a finger. “But at least, he gets to find out how great the Hertz are.”

“They are rather amazing, aren’t they?” Orinda said, stopping by them, holding a boy in her arms [I need his name] “and who is this handsome boy?” she cooed at Pryce.

“Orinda, meet Pryce,” Thomas said. “Orinda is Victor’s wife, and that’s [name] one of their twins.”

“Do you think they can play together?” Orinda asked. [other twin’s name] is in the family room with his father. 

Madoc put Pryce down and took his jacket off. “You go make friends, Pryce. Daddy’s going to be right here with Thomas.”

Thomas watched Pryce waddle after Orinda, wondering if he should warn them of the danger of molestation? Pryce might be a child, but he was Madoc’s son and Thomas didn’t… He shook himself, he was just a child and that wasn’t going to happen.

“How about I take your jacket and we can—”

“A Lewiston?” Grandma Royer exclaimed.

* * * * *

San Francisco Bay, CA, February 15th

Thomas noticed the same confusion the way Yating and Gilbert looked at him. How could they too have forgotten Madoc had a son?

“Alright,” the tiger said, his tone turning severe again. “You’re all going to—”

Madoc looked away from Thomas, and he took the opportunity. He grabbed his arm and Madoc pulled, sending him off balance, but didn’t cause him to let go. space wrenched around them hard but instead of falling on the concrete floor, he and Madoc bounced off the bed to Limbani’s joyful glee.

“Don’t let him leave,” Thomas managed to say, then consciousness left him.