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Chapter Eight

"Caught In The Thickets"

By

Furry Sith Lord

While the adults are away we thought it might be a good time for the cubs to play! We caught a bus to the mall and decided to walk around and do what most teens normally do... when not saving the planet.

Ben, Lyon, Dash, and myself were walking around window shopping to see if anything interesting was going on. Dash and Lyon kept muttering to themselves and giggling at the girls while Ben and I held paws. We kissed briefly, for like a quick second, a couple of times mostly when we saw other couples doing the same.

Eventually we grabbed some food and ate as we walked around. Ben and I bought a couple of burgers and sodas. Lyon dropped $20 behind Dash then when we all had our backs towards Dash we called out so he turned and found the money.

"Good thing I got bunny feet because I must be the luckiest rabbit on the planet." Dash said as he ran to order a combo meal from a McAlphas in the food court. His family was not as wealthy as ours and he always refused if we offered to help him by buying him food or treats. Lyon didn't want him to go without because he remembered what it was like to be hungry when we were slaves.

Lyon would sneak some of his own money, in clever ways, for Dash to find. Dash was none the wiser and Ben and I kept Lyon's secret. We did not feel it was our place to tell and when, and if, Lyon was ready then he would tell Dash the truth.

"Don't you want anything to eat?" I asked Lyon after he ordered only a large pretzel. I ended up pulling him aside. "You got enough for yourself right? If not, I'll give you some." Lyon just shook his head.

"I got plenty but... I dunno I'm just not hungry today. It's hard to explain but I want something but I don't know what... plus I'm worried about Father and Dad, I hate when they go off in dangerous situations like this." Lyon confessed.

I nodded in agreement because I understood exactly what he was feeling. That last close call when we thought that Lou was killed had really scared us and made us realize we were not as invincible as we thought.

Not much action today," Ben remarked as he looked around. Dash suddenly stopped eating and looked at Ben with ketchup and mustard all over his mouth.

"Wdah yule tawkin aboot?" He said then swallowed the food in his mouth. "There are chicks all over the place." Dash said then he wiped his face with the back of his paw.

"Some of us want some ALONE time, got it?!" Benyamin said harshly as Ben leaned in close to Dash and loudly whispered to him. Dash looked as if he swallowed a rock then he giggled and gestured making a circle on one paw and used his other to stick his index finger through the center.

Ben rolled his eyes as he sighed at Dash's crashing but he said nothing and just let it go. He just wanted to change the subject and thought he could toss in that he was getting bored at the same time. Eventually we all agreed it was time to go.

As we left by the mall entrance we were stopped by someone shouting out towards us. There was a mangy looking adult male lion that was nearly only clad in his fur except for a few tattered scraps of clothing.

"Can you spare a few coins for a lion that is down on his luck?" He called out to them. Lyon froze suddenly and whimpered. The adult lion barely even looked at us but kept his gaze towards the ground. A hat was placed where species threw coins and money into it.

"Lyon? Are you OK?" I asked then I suddenly noticed a wet stain appear on the front of his jeans. I quickly stepped in front of him to hide that he had an accident and Dash and Ben joined in to help.

"It's him, it's him, it's him." Lyon kept whimpering as he stared wide eyed at the Homeless One.

"Who is that?" Dash asked softly as he took the remains of the soda he had been drinking and spilled it, purposely, on his own pants to show solidarity with his best friend.

"It's him!..... My father!" Lyon cried and we all turned to glare at the Homeless One. We now knew perfectly well who this monster is. He was Lyon's birth father, the one that had beaten him every chance he got. After all the abuse he went and sold Lyon as a slave just to get rid of him.

This was back when society hated rare white fur species because a mistranslated cub's book said that we are evil and will destroy the planet. My own adults sold me as a slave because of my white fur. That was how Lyon and I met and we became brothers. It wasn't until our masters Lou and Leggo freed us and adopted us as their own children that we became normal members of society.

It was toughest for Lyon because of the abuse he faced and he would freak out and become distraught because he wet the bed because of the nightmares he suffered from. Over time he got better but I'm surprised he remembers his father's face. I don't remember my birth parents at all or any of the litter mates I had.

The only family I can remember is the family I have now. Lou the deer, Leggo the wolf, Lyon the lion, and Dash and Ben because they are family even though Ben and I haven't had our paws tied yet. Dash may be Lyon's best friend but he is like another brother to us all and even my parents think of him as a son.

"Father?" Lyon said weakly as he stepped closer to look at him. It took a moment then the eyes of the Homeless One looked at him and not a flicker of recognition showed. There was also no love or warmth or even hatred. Just a blank stare.

"White Disaster? Is that you?" He replied softly, still not any emotion showing.

"He's Lyon and together we are White..." Dash shouted but Ben quickly grabbed him and gagged him with his hand. We knew Dash was trying to defend Lyon but it was not appropriate at this time.

"I see you're still a little cry baby who pisses his pants." The lion smirked and chuckled as Lyon blushed and covered the front of his jeans to hide the accident he had.

"Come on Lyon, you are better than this bully." Dash replied as he shoved Ben's paw away from his mouth. Ben reluctantly released Dash but I was more focussed on my brother. I could tell by his face that he was working up the courage to say something.

I raised my paw to the others to silence them so they would not interfere. I, more than anyone, knew he needed this and he was trying to force out the hurt he had been suffering with since he was born. As a little cub it was easy for an adult to bully someone that was so much smaller than they are. Now that he was older he was ready to start fighting back!

"...I may be a baby but I will always be twice the lion than you are. I never did or said anything bad but still you beat me no matter what I did. I drew you a picture for your birthday with the crayons I was given by Alex.

I never received any gifts except those crayons and the bits of paper I fished out of the trash bins. I asked Alex to get me a neat and clean piece of paper so I could make you a gift. I was hoping you would stop hating me if you did.

I saw a commercial on television and a cub drew a picture for his father's birthday and the father loved it. I wanted the same thing for us!" Lyon said as he forced himself to talk as he cried. He had to make himself stop whimpering between sobs. His adult just seemed to ignore him and began looking back on the ground hoping to get more money tossed at him.

"I...I gave it to you... and you backhanded me across the face. Said I stole the paper from your printer and you sent me to my room. You later returned with a belt and beat me until I bled sooo much that for days my underpants would soak up blood from my wounds.

I'm still scared of wearing white because I'm afraid I'll find more blood from wounds that I thought were closed but aren't. My skin is all scarred up and I'm grateful for my fur so it can hide the marks on my skin.

You tossed me away as soon as you learned you had a new cub coming. I can only hope they weren't born with rare white fur like I was. I know full well what you would do with them if they did.

I don't know or care what happened to them. The best day in my life was when you sold me! I met my brother Tyger, my real brother, then my father and dad adopted us and set us free. They are my real family now and you will always be nothing to me!

Here," Lyon began to shout and his adult looked around nervously as he was afraid to draw unwanted attention. Lyon reached into his jeans and took out a large wad of cash. He angrily tossed it into the hat and I had to do a double take at the amount he tossed.

Lyon seemed to save up as much money as he could and it made sense that he would hoard it because he had gone without for so long he must be afraid of not having any if he needed it.

"You are nothing to me and never will be," Lyon sniveled. "Thank you for curing me with my ridiculous obsession of wanting your love." Lyon shouted even louder then he turned to hug me and he cried deeply into my shirt as I grabbed him and held him tight. I saw Dash wanting to hug Lyon but he held himself back.

I still held Lyon as he clung to me and I moved us away. I felt Ben put his paw on my shoulder as we left but I noticed Dash was not with us. I paused briefly to hear him mock Lyon's adult.

"He'll always be twice the lion you are and from what I see his dick is twice as big too. No wonder no one wants a shriveled up nothing of a nub you have, Tiny." Dash said. He wasn't very loud about it but my feline ears could hear him clearly. He turned and wiped his feet so that dirt was thrown at Lyon's Adult. He then skipped ov er to join us as we left.

Ben later told me that as we were leaving Lyon's parent was busy greedily trying to count and collect all the cash Lyon threw at him. Deep down I was hoping for some sort of reaction that would make him seem better than a heartless old bastard. I was wrong.

We caught a bus back to the mansion and Lyon and I sat away from the others. He was too busy whimpering into my shirt then I noticed that Lyon had fallen asleep. Dash and Ben were a little bit aways from us but they were busy in conversation.

Later that night when we were alone I learned that Dash had confided to Ben that he knew Lyon was giving him the money but he was afraid if he did not play along he would hurt Lyon's feelings. He also had a notebook under his bed where he recorded all the money Lyon gave him so he could one day pay him back.

Lou, Leggo, and Merrik waited for Layla to arrive. Lou was running out of patience as Merrik continued to annoy him.

"I swear by my own tail that if you say that one more time I'll personally break off one of my antlers and shove it up your ass." Lou said indignantly. Leggo burst into laughter and even Merrik smirked as he stood there thinking about how Lou would look with only one antler.

Lou blushed but he tried to play it off like he was not bothered by them. He raised an eyebrow as Leggo fell onto his back on the ground and he held himself laughing. Merrik leaned against a tree as he doubled over in laughter and the more they laughed the angrier Lou got.

"Stop acting like puppies!!!" Lou screamed at them and they paused for a moment then began all over again. Lou stomped his foot and he felt his tail raise as he stood ready to slap the wolves.

"Temper, temper," Layla said as he jumped when he saw her standing next to him. He stood there admiring her as he noticed the elegant suit she wore. A dark blue suit that had slacks instead of a dress. The front had 6 gold buttons on the breast of her coat.

"Like what you see?" She smirked as he suddenly realized she was staring.

"Very much so," Lou replied as he tried to not act like a young fawn. Leggo and Merrik stopped as they realized Layla had arrived and the both stood up and dusted themselves off. She eyed them with a quant look. Lou was busy trying to wrap his arm around hers to escort her away but she was more forceful in refusing.

"Perhaps we can go somewhere more private," Lou tried to encourage her but she glared at him skeptically.

"Considering I'm here for that one," She had no need to point towards Merrik. "Why don't we skip the flirting and the pleasantries."

"Hey if he wants to flirt with me then he has the right and doesn't need your permission." Leggo retorted. Layla winced a smile as she delicately walked over to Leggo and began to scratch his chin. He smiled at the scratches until she kneed him in the groin and he dropped to the ground howling.

Lou shoved her out of his way as he bend and chuddled his husband. He whispered softly and made shushing noises. Merrik turned his back towards them as if he had seen nothing.

"Are you both done?" She asked bitterly and Lou glared back at her.

"Congratulations. Any chance of getting me to cooperate peacefully has just passed." Lou said bitterly.

"No, don't think that because I am a female I am easy prey. I can cock lock you in my private parts and make you beg to be released. You may like boys but you've never had a girl like me." She said triumphantly.

"You've never had a wolf knot you," Lou said as he helped Leggo stand.

"Actually, I have and it was very unimpressive." She replied as she smirked at them. Lou turned to look at Merrik but he blushed and shook his head unconvincingly at Lou. Lou grunted then looked back at Layla. His tail was still standing straight up and it drooped slightly as Leggo began to play with it.

"Stop," Lou whispered as he slapped Leggo's paw.

"Are you... gentlemen done fooling around yet?" Layla asked. Lou motioned and Leggo and Merric returned to the Jeep and climbed inside.

"So what is it that C.I.Z.A. wants exactly?" Lou asked coldly.

"Right now that white wolf and his human cohorts have numerous species being held hostage. We know his weak point is a former agent named Bear. You are in control of him and we want you to give us Bear so we can liberate the hostages."

"Why would I do that?" Lou asked uninterested as he watched Merrik and Leggo fight over who got to sit in the front seat of the jeep.

"Because we/'re both fighting on the same side. Neither of us wants harm to come to the hostages or the humans. We both realize that they are just children playing a very dangerous game." Layla said.

"Agreed. If the military were to act then it would be a slaughter and not only humans but their 'pet' hostages could..." Lou said but he did not want to finish the statement because they both seemed to be on the same page.

"What we want is Bear, but just under control because he cannot be allowed to run around freely."

"I've thought of that but the question is what happens after we give him back his memories and keep him collared?" Lou asked. This was one of the reasons he hesitated releasing Bear because the question was how to best use him. BH would welcome him in with open paws but the collar could jeopardize the mission.

"We could hide the collar," Layla said and Lou again shook his head.

"I thought you were smarter than that. You do realize you ruined any hope of my help after you kicked my husband in his balls." Lou replied as he walked away. The meeting had not went as planned but as usual he would adapt and shift to Plan B.

I closed the door to Lyon's room as he slept soundly in his bed. In the hallway Ben was leaning against the wall as he waited. I jumped as I turned and saw him but he said nothing.

"He'll be fine," I said and Ben nodded at me. "A quick shower and new set of clothes and now we wait. Once he wakes up he'll be a happy boy again."

"Good. This brings me to another point we need to talk about." Ben replied softly.

"Oh?" I asked as I had a suspicion he wanted to discuss his family.

"My parents are asking to meet you. I've been stalling because you and... father, want tro plan something embarrassing but I think we need to put that off. After seei g Lyon and his..."

"Adult!" I shouted as I interrupted him. "He doesn't get the right to be called 'dad' or 'father' after everything he did to Lyon."

"True, very true. I can understand why you feel it's that way. Either way my family wants to meet you and I want them to meet the real you. Not the fake fursona you and father want to create. I also plan on disowning them and I'm almost an adult so I don't need their guardianship." Ben explained.

"You know you can never meet my real family. I don't even know who they are. Even if I did, I wouldn't want to reconcile after what they did to me. You still have your parents and they seem to love you."

"My experiences were what both you and Lyon faced. My sister was always trying to get me in trouble and my parents sided with her.... always." Ben replied.

"But is that reason to disown your parents? From what I remember of my... adults my litter mates and I were always getting into trouble. We had one that was always trying to show off."

"Yet you disowned them," Ben remarked.

"They sold me as a slave! That is not a simple case of sibling rivalry. Father has given me lots of spanks for being bad. Some I deserved and some I think I didn't. But I don't want to disown him over that. Honestly he treats you better than he treats me and I do get jealous over that." I tried to explain but Ben had a skeptical look on his face.

"Then you need to speak to father because he has his own plans in place. I have no idea how to explain all of this to him. It's not like he cam just simply adopt you! If he did then we could never get our paws tied because we'd be brothers. It would ruin the family name and business."

"I'm not asking for that. I just want to free myself from them and I was hoping I could live here. He said he's give me a job so I could add rent and stuff to what I owe him."

"Father will never make you pay for our rings. He'll do the same thing Lyon does with Dash. You'll just find the money in some clever way.

Don't get me wrong, my brother is smart but my father.... is 100 times better. Plus the moment you told him will have given him enough warning to plan things out." I said then we both turned as he heard the front door of the mansion open. We ran to greet our parents and see how the meeting went.

To our surprise we saw Merrik struggling to carry my dad inside while my father was giving him orders. Dad was busy softly howling that he was in pain. This made Ben and myself run to them to help and find out what happened.

"He's faking it." Merrik grumbled as he placed my dad on the sofa and Leggo continued to cry melodramatically.

"What happened?" I asked. Father shook his head then pulled Ben and myself aside.

"We met the contact and your dad was," he said then he turned to shout at Leggo. "Acting Like A Puppy!!!" Then he turned back to face us. "And our contact kneed him in the groin."

"OOOOOOOh," Ben remarked as he covered his own member instinctively.

"Let me guess," I started to say as I pieced the rest of the story together. Lou smiled at me and petted my head.

"Yup, he's overreacting as usual." Lou replied

"This throws our entire strategy out the window." I replied gloomy. I saw Lou eye me as he turned slightly but kept himself looking towards Leggo. Leggo continues to whine and Lou directed Merrik to put him in their bedroom.

"Lyon had a similar incident too." Ben remarked and Leggo became immediately silent. He jumped from Merrik's arms and grabbed Ben fiercely.

"What happened?!" Leggo shouted and Bden explained the story. A mixed look of compassion and rage crossed our dad's maw and he nearly threw Ben aside as he ran off towards Lyon's room. Ben was not able to finish the story before Leggo bolted. Lou rested a hoof on Ben's shoulder then encouraged him to continue.

"Please excuse Leggo, he's very close to our son. As you may know, Lyon had numerous accidents while he was with us when he first arrived. Lyon would have nightmares that we were going to sell him and he had come to love us because we treated him better than his entire family had ever.

The thought of losing us, even though we were his masters at the time, filled him with terror. It took us quite a while before we fully understood the depths of the abuse he faced. He even has scars from the beatings he took and luckily his fur covers them up." Lou explained.

"I would also like to speak to you in private, if I may." Ben asked and I quickly turned and went after my dad to check on him and my brother.

"Right, so I guess I'll stay here then? By myself. Not like I had other plans or anything." Merrik grumbled to himself. He knew no one was listening but it still made him feel better to say it. While he thought of something that could keep him entertained.

Eventually he made his way to the kitchen where the maid was waiting for either him or Leggo to show up so she could give them a tongue lashing about trying to eat before everyone else.

To Be Continued...