Interactive: Climbing the Ladder, ch. 13 (Patreon)

“Hey...is that AJ over there?”  

Shawn slowed his trot even further at Eric’s gasping question, barely outpacing a fast walk as the slower duo came to a stop behind him.  He’d already been holding back from his usual loping gait so that his shorter and heavier friends weren’t left behind, finally coming to a stop himself when they froze in their tracks.  

“Where?” he asked, adjusting his tight shorts that weren’t much larger than a pair of briefs, the only thing he wore.  With no underwear underneath and his prominent bulge clearly outlined, briefs would have been less revealing.  

“There,” the bulky redhead said, pointing to the dark, squat building at the edge of the trees.  Instead of jogging through the woods they’d decided to go around them, cutting through a field instead of following the trail.  And sure enough, Shawn turned just in time to see a person who looked like their handsome, micro-dicked friend slip inside.  

“What’s he doing in there,” Cayden asked, straining his eyes in the dim moonlight.  “That doesn’t look official.”  

“None of our business,” Shawn said, shrugging.  “Come on.”  

“No way...I wanna see what he’s up to,” Eric insisted.  Without fully understanding why he lumbered towards the building, leaving Cayden and Shawn with no choice but to follow.  

“I just want to go on record as saying this is a bad idea,” Shawn whispered when they arrived at the building to find the door propped open.  His bare skin broke out in goosebumps at the waves of heat radiating off the brick facade that had baked in the sun all day and he shivered as he looked at his two friends.  “So now what? You want to go in and bust him or something?”  

Eric shook his head, his eyes narrowing.  “No...I’m just curious,” he said, the words he wanted to finish the sentence with remaining firmly unspoken.  Something about the scenario sparked a fleeting sensation in his head that he was missing something obvious, and important, but he couldn’t figure out what.  

“Curious gets people fired,” Cayden warned.  

“You can wait out here if you want, but I’m going in,” Eric said, slipping into the dark hallway as quietly as his bulky frame would let him.  

“Wait...we’re coming too,” the shorter man hissed, grabbing Shawn by the hand and pulling him inside.  

As soon as they’d crossed the threshold, Shawn was hit with a wave of vertigo as the corridor seemed to stretch infinitely before them.  He’d felt a similar sensation before on his first walk to Benton’s office, only not nearly as intense.  Now he could hardly tell which way was up as gravity tugged at him from a different direction with each step, threatening to send him tumbling off into space.  Turning his head was a perilous endeavor for his tenuous balance, but a quick glance told him Cayden and Eric were fighting the same battle.  He had no idea how long or far they’d been walking when a surprised voice caught them off guard.  

“What are you guys doing in here?”  Though they’d felt far apart, the three dizzy men collided when reality abruptly snapped back into place as AJ rounded the corner and they found themselves practically on top of each other.  

“Jesus!” Shawn yelped, startled at the handsome man’s unexpected return.  “Fuck, AJ, you scared the shit out of us.”  

The tall man’s expression was grim as he quickly looked around the dark hallway.  “We need to go.  Now,” he said, his eyes widening to emphasize his last word.  

“What are you even doing in here, man?” Cayden asked from the back of the pile, looking around his taller friends.  

“How did you even…” AJ trailed off and sighed as he stepped forward and started ushering everyone back towards the door.  “Look, I’ll explain everything once we’re outside, but we really, really need to be leaving.”  

The trio looked at each other and shrugged.  They didn’t know what they’d just stumbled into, but seeing the normally calm AJ with a look of genuine fear in his eyes was enough to convince them that they should do what he said.  They fell silent at his signal and hurried down the now-normal hall back towards the side door.  There was a tense pause as AJ carefully peeked outside to make sure the coast was clear before all four bolted for the tree line.  Trying to avoid the woods was what got them tangled up in the evening’s events in the first place, but they all had the feeling that getting caught coming out of the building would be far worse than whatever may or may not lurk amongst the moon-dappled forest.  

“Okay...we should be good here,” AJ said as he ceased his sprinting and bent to catch his breath.  

What...the fuck...dude…” Eric panted, his furry bulk covered in a layer of sweat that glistened in the dim blue light.  

“Yeah...Is this some corporate espionage shit,” Cayden wheezed, almost as winded as the lumbering redhead.  “Why did we just sneak out of a building?”  

AJ crossed his arms over his chest and eyed the motley group.  “Why did you come in after me in the first place?” 

“I don’t know,” Eric said, motioning to the other two.  “We were trying to avoid running through these creepy ass woods and saw you clearly sneaking into a building.”  

“But why did you follow?” AJ asked again, more insistent.  “Why not just report me or ask me later?  Or ignore it?  What made you come in?”  

“Because there’s something really, really weird going on around here,” Shawn answered, his voice shaking as a growing pit of dread gnawed at his stomach.  He felt like something important was on the tip of his tongue, but he couldn’t find the words.  Instead, all he could do was stand and feel a slight return of the embarrassment that had been so conspicuously absent as his cock throbbed and tented his pointless little shorts while he stared at the gorgeous AJ.  

“Exactly,” the chiseled brunette said, his expression finally softening.  “You’ve felt it.  You all have.  I’ve been watching the three of you try and fight it.”  

“Whoa, whoa, whoa...what are we even talking about?” Cayden squeaked, looking up at his three friends.  “What exactly are we fighting?”  

AJ reached down and tousled Cayden’s hair, smiling sympathetically at the short little stud.  “It would be worse if you actually knew.  Trust me.  I’ve been in your shoes...a part of me wishes I still was,” he said, his eyes dropping to the front of his pants.    

Eric grumbled and put his hands on his wide hips, his broad frame looking imposing as he eyed the secretive pretty boy.  “That’s all nice and incredibly vague, but it doesn’t answer anyone’s questions, does it?”   

“What did you mean that day in the shower,” Shawn asked, his eyes locked on the ground as he fought to hold onto the hazy memory.  “You told me…” he looked at Cayden’s confused face and stopped himself before bringing up the mysterious hunk’s statement about his roommate getting shorter.  He had a sinking feeling that opening that door wouldn’t go well for anyone at the moment.  “...I shouldn’t be letting you jerk me off the showers, but you knew I wouldn’t stop you.  You knew I’d let anyone,” Shawn said, a faraway look in his eyes.  “Fuck...I’d let anyone, wouldn’t I?  Anyone who wants to, I’d...”  

AJ put a hand on Shawn’s shoulder and locked eyes.  “All I can ask you to do is trust me for the moment.  It really is better that you not know all the specifics.  Yet,” he said, cutting the three off before they could object.  “I need to talk to some...people...before I bring anyone else in.  For now, all you need to know is that I’m not the bad guy here.”  

“What the hell did we just get ourselves into,” Eric sighed, running his hands over his ginger scalp.  “We were just supposed to be going out for a run.”

“If anyone asks, that’s exactly what you three did.  This part here never happened.  I cannot stress enough how quiet you need to keep this.  Anyone who knows has a target painted on their back, got it?”  AJ fixed each of them with a long stare that made the trio nervous.  His eyes were hard and cold, and the three were acutely aware of just how powerfully built the brunette adonis actually was.  Whatever options he was weighing, AJ seemed to come to a favorable conclusion as he added a final word of warning.  “Things might get weird around here again...just do your best to roll with it.  And don’t talk about any of this, and I mean ANY of it, in the Tower.  We clear?  Good.”  With that, AJ turned and bolted towards the trail, leaving the three stunned young men to stare at each other in silence.  

“Well that was...interesting,” Cayden finally laughed.  

Eric shrugged and shook his head.  “What do you think he meant by ‘things might weird’?  How would we even tell around here?”    

Shawn looked away from where AJ had disappeared, his growing dread reduced to a dull simmer now that the other man was gone.  “I don’t know...but there’s something about that guy…” 

“We can tell,” Cayden said, reaching over to give Shawn’s bulge a squeeze.  He slipped a few stubby fingers into the tented gap and tickled his friend’s balls, causing an immediate damp spot to begin forming.  

“No, I mean he’s…” Shawn trailed off, the words fading before he could get them out.  He sighed and looked over at Eric while Cayden’s fingers in his shorts turned into a whole, tiny hand, wondering why he expected to feel anything other than turned on as the brawny man watched him get fondled.  “Dude...I said we’d do this when we got back,” he laughed as Cayden pulled his hand free and tugged his shorts down.  

Cayden just grinned and wrapped a small, rough hand around Shawn’s thick cock.  “Why wait?  Come on...no one can see us out here.  And it’s not like you’d even care if they did,” he laughed.

Shawn couldn’t argue.  The sensation of the warm evening air on his bare skin and the knowledge that someone could come along at any moment and see him in his hard, naked glory was just as much of a turn on as Cayden’s tongue gliding along his shaft.  “What about you...big guy...” he groaned, a hand drifting up to stroke through the sparse, wiry hair on his pecs while Eric watched.  

The bulky hulk had his shorts down and his arms wrapped around Shawn from behind in a surprisingly quick burst of speed given his size.  “Fuck it...it’s already been a strange night...might as well make it stranger,” he said, working his hard cock between Shawn’s firm, perky cheeks.  The dark-haired man squirmed excitedly, loving whenever he had the opportunity to be on the receiving end of things.  Between Cayden and Duncan, he spent most of his time buried inside someone else, not the other way around.  

“Hey...no fair if I can’t reach,” Cayden pouted, turning around and wagging his plump little globes that were far closer to the ground.  Without a word, Shawn and Eric fell forward onto their knees, with Shawn biting his lip to keep from howling when the beefy redhead shoved his fat cock inside.  Instead he grabbed Cayden and practically impaled him, clamping a hand over the stocky little stud’s mouth as he let loose his own high pitched squeak of ecstasy.  

Shawn drifted off on a sea of bliss.  With Eric’s thick frame pressed against his back sending wave after wave of pleasure through him, and the furry little power bottom bucking and writhing against his own lap, there was no room for any thoughts of dread or worry.  In that moment everything, and everyone, was exactly as it, and they, should have been.  Rutting on the forest floor like a trio of horny wolves, the only thing that could have made the night better was if it never had to end.  If Shawn had his way this is how he’d spend all his time, not sitting at a desk in his constricting office clothes staring at a computer all day.  But he’d worry about that later.  At the moment he had more pressing concerns, like holding back the spine-rattling scream he felt building as Eric rocked in and out of him.  

**********

“No...no!  How is this happening?!”  Benton slammed a fist on his desk, his brain slow in recovering from his night spent as a giddy idiot.  He’d stumbled sore and spent from the filthy club directly into his office, more focused on the overwhelming shame and humiliation he felt with the return of his faculties than the impressive warping of space and time that brought him from one point to the other.  He’d been aware of his actions the entire time but he hadn’t been able to process their full weight, and thinking back on the hours spent dancing on stage and bouncing on strange cock after strange cock made his stomach turn.  

He’d flushed a shade of furious red at the sensation of the copious dried cum trailing down the insides of his muscled thighs and was on his way to take a shower when he saw the numbers.  They were off again, meaning their resident saboteur had been active in his absence.  Worse still, whoever they were dealing with had gotten better at covering their tracks, leaving Benton with absolutely no idea where the disruption was coming from.  With time being a prominent factor, he’d have to send a security sweep through the forbidden bowels of each building.  This also meant he’d then have to deal with each of the security teams since only a select few were supposed to even know about the sub-basements in the first place.  In a perfect world he’d send Duncan to check out each building, but there just wasn’t time.  

He grabbed his phone, snarling into the receiver.  “Taylor, get me Jeffries in Security.  We have a situation.”