5 Chapter 4

For a week, it was as if Xavier were a Lycan.

He slept with Axl wrapped around him, showered with him, ate with him, and spent the day being hunted by the Lycan through the forest, in a game of chasey which inevitably would end with Axl catching and f-king him stupid in the undergrowth.

On the seventh day, as the Lycans returned for the evening meal, Commander White stood waiting beside the stairs into the mess.

Xavier looked at Axl.

"Go," the Lycan told him. "We will wait for you."

Xavier stepped over to the Commander with a salute that felt out of place seeing as Axl had shredded his t-shirt getting it from him, and he was covered in sweat, dirt, smears of green, and Axl s come. "Commander."

"Captain Williams, join me?" Commander White gestured with his head away from the barracks. Xavier fell into step with him. "Your methods are unique... But you are to be congratulated on your achievements," Commander White commented. "You have been accepted by 12412 s pack, which is an important first step. Vivienne Thornton is very impressed, as am I."

"Thank you, sir," Xavier said, and thank you James, he added mentally because he did not doubt the morning guard had been gossiping about his methods. "The methods weren t planned. I just went with the flow when 12412… made clear his intentions."

"Well, however it happened, the Lycans are speaking with you which is more than they do with us. But, as you know, connecting with them is just the beginning of the work that we need to do here. The board in charge of managing the finances for this project, and for overseeing our activities, want to see some results, and soon.

"We are planning on beginning a series of training seminars for the Lycans. We need you to convince them to attend and not just disappear into the forest." Commander White stopped and looked at Xavier.

"Yes, sir," Xavier sucked on his teeth whilst he considered how best to convince the intractable alpha Lycan male to do something he did not wish to do. The Lycans could not understand why they would be freed from one set of guards orders but expected to obey another. "What are the seminars on?"

"We thought we d start with the basics. Cooking lessons."

"If I may suggest, sir," Xavier said. "Bring some cubs."

"Bring some cubs?"

"Some of the young Lycans," Xavier nodded in the direction of the enclosure. "They remember being cubs, and they are fascinated by the young ones. If they are told that there will be cubs at the lessons, they will come, if for no other reason than to see them close up."

Commander White s eyebrows raised. "Will they be aggressive towards them?"

"There has been no sign of aggression when they speak of them. Oh, and bring the soldier called James," Xavier added. "They don t speak to him, but they do listen to him. His suggestion that they take names, for example, most have adopted. 12412 calls himself Axl."

"Is that so?" Commander White murmured. "James, hmm?"

"Yes, sir."

Xavier returned to the mess tent. A tray waited for him at Axl s side, and the alpha had not begun eating, waiting for Xavier as he had said he would, which meant that every other male also waited. Xavier hurried to his seat and Axl began to eat.

"What did the bald man want?" Axl asked between mouthfuls.

"Me to convince you to attend training sessions."

"Hmm. They told us we are free," Axl replied as he always did. "And yet, still want us to obey? That is not freedom."

"They want to teach you to live like us," Xavier responded as he always did. "Teach you to be independent and free. Make your own food, wash your own clothing, manage your own money. Perhaps, one day, you will wish to live amongst humans in a city, and you will need to know how to do these things."

"I was sent on many missions," Axl replied, something which Xavier knew by the Lycan male s many scars. "In the out-world. I have seen how you live, and I do not wish to live like it."

"War zones are very different to how most people live," Xavier explained. "But, okay, let s say you want to stay here, on this island, for the rest of your life. The military and the scientists, and the support staff aren t going to stay here forever. They have homes and families. Plus paying all these people has to be eating into the funds allocated for you guys. You need to be able to look after yourselves, without humans."

"Hmm," Axl said in that way of his which could equally mean that he was considering the suggestion or dismissing it.

"The first training session will be tomorrow," Xavier knew that Commander White was under pressure to show results because the board was under pressure to demonstrate that they were managing the situation well.

Thanks to Vivienne Thornton s efforts, the Lycans had been declared altered-humans, with human rights, and a substantial amount of money allocated to the Lycan Project from both the countries that benefited from the super-soldier s efforts, but also from Thornton Experimental, the company which had created them.

Where-ever there was big money, there was scope for embezzlement, and the board was, as a result, under close scrutiny both from Vivienne Thornton s legal team, and from the various governments of the planet, which, in turn, resulted in pressure to deliver.

Men under pressure did desperate things, and Xavier did not want the freedom that the Lycans now enjoyed encroached upon. The Lycans would not understand, he thought, that politics could take as quickly what they gave.

"They will be teaching food preparation and cooking. You get to eat what you make. Because it is a fun activity and children enjoy such things, a small number of cubs will be joining the lesson," Xavier saw that he had the Lycans attention along the table.

"The humans will be relying on you to ensure that the cubs do not injure themselves on the sharp items, or the fire used to cook," he added.

"Hmm," the tone had changed in Axl s hmm. "If the cubs need protecting," he said eventually. "We will come."

"There is more," Xavier said as they showered after the evening workout. The evening shower had become foreplay for sex, and he stroked the soap over Axl's skin, tracing his fingers along the ridges and valleys of his muscles, and over the paler scars that told the story of Axl's time as a soldier.

"Yes, Xavier?" Axl was indulgent in the lead up to sex.

"I know you understand more than you let on," Xavier told him. "And that you understand money, to some extent, and greed. When Vivienne Thornton proved that Lycans existed, the company that made you was seized by the planetary government, and their funds reallocated to your care. There is over a billion dollars, which is an absolute shit-tonne of money, Axl, allocated to Lycans.

"But if you don t take control of it yourselves, greedy politicians will fritter it away on you, paying themselves exorbitant amounts for being on the board of directors in charge of deciding where the money goes. If you truly want to be free, if you want to stay on this island, you need to get the skills required to prove to them that you don t need a board of directors looking after your money. And they re not going to let go of it easily, because whilst they re in charge of it, they can keep paying themselves, but once you are in charge, that stops.

"And, if the money runs out, Axl," Xavier continued. "That s when shit hits the fan for you guys, the Lycans. The board of directors won t care, because they ll be sun-baking by their swimming pools in the gardens of the big mansions that your funds paid for. This island will be gone, I can tell you that much. It is f-king expensive to keep. You need to stop that from happening."

"Hmm," Axl replied, but he was listening, Xavier knew.

The Lycan shut off the water and passed Xavier his towel. Axl watched Xavier through eyes that reflected back the light as he dried his hair, and then eased him onto the bunk so that he could lick the last drops of water from Xavier's skin.

"F-k," Xavier arched under the big Lycan's caresses.

He had never had a lover like the Lycan, he thought. Axl pursued pleasure with an absolute focus that ignored inhibitions or courtesy and seemed to stimulate every nerve in Xavier's body so that when he came, his entire being was behind the orgasm, muscles clenching and toes curling, lungs emptying and heart racing.

With the same single-mindedness, Axl would tell Xavier what he wanted and how, and use Xavier's body as he wished in order to obtain his own release.

The first time Axl had taken him on the bunks in view of the Lycan's around him, Xavier had been self-conscious and tense, but now he ground himself back against the Lycan male shamelessly, arching into Axl's strokes, and doing everything he could to make the other male roar out his pleasure.

As they sank onto the bunks, replete, Axl still buried in him, the Lycan sighed.

"Very well, Xavier," he said. "We will learn to be humans."