The Secret - Part 4

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#8 of Jane Doe and The Secret

This story takes place in an alternate timeline to the one in my Swiss Mix stories. In this series, Hans and his father Karl are both Americans, and live in a suburban community. This is from the same series as my story "A Sleepover with Jane".

Karl's father finds out the kids are mated and handfasted, meets Melanie's parents, and agrees to get handfasted to Melanie soon as well. Karl and Hans move into Melanie's duplex. The family is invited to a masked costume party for Halloween, but Karl is very surprised by his family's choices for costumes.


The Secret - part 4

By DoggyStyle57 - November 2012

Ten year old Ryan Kelley awakened when the sun came up. She had experienced the weirdest and most wonderful dream last night, and now she felt warm and happy. A little too warm, actually. Even though she had pushed her blankets off during the night, there was something very soft and warm pressed against her back, from her neck to her knees, and draped over her waist. She looked down, lifted her own white-furred arm, and saw an arm that didn't belong to her, curled possessively around her waist. It had white fur on the hand, rust brown on the forearm, and was black from there until it went out of sight behind Ryan's shoulder. The young tricolor collie girl smiled and sighed, as she realized that what she remembered from that wonderful dream last night hadn't been a dream at all.

The arm belonged to Hans Bernerholdt, an eight year old Bernese Mountain Dog boy who was the son of her mother's boyfriend, Karl. Ryan and Hans had just met for the first time last night. Her mother had mentioned Hans to Ryan several times over the last week, and had seemed quite impressed with what a nice boy he was. Ryan hadn't cared much one way or the other that her mom's boyfriend also had a kid. She was rather of a tomboy, and hadn't had any real interest in boys except as someone to play sports with and roughhouse with. But when she met Hans, they had hit it off amazingly well.

Hans was... unusual. He was quiet and rather submissive, and very polite and respectful. And she had accidentally found out that they had an unexpected thing in common. They both liked wearing the opposite gender's clothing! Ryan had dressed like a boy since she was five. Hans, it turned out, had just recently started wearing girl's underwear under his clothes, and had started trying to dress completely like a girl and going out in public. He was so cute and feminine looking that he could totally be mistaken for a girl, if he wore girl clothes and wore his hair like a girl. But he hadn't told his father yet that he liked girly clothes.

Hans was unusual in another way, too. Though he was only eight, he already had much more sexual experience than Ryan. He had already had sex with both boys and girls, in all sorts of ways, while Ryan had been a complete virgin, who hadn't even started masturbating yet. He told her about some of the sexy stuff he had done, and last night, he had shared some of that experience with Ryan. But then her mother caught them naked in Ryan's bed, with Hans licking Ryan to her first orgasms, and his cock wet with cum from Ryan just giving him her first ever blow job. Melanie also saw that Hans was wearing a bra and panties, and he had admitted to her that he liked cross-dressing.

But instead of getting angry, Melanie Kelley had questioned the children, and had decided to follow Pagan traditions and handfast them, and allow them to become mates. She even encouraged Hans to put on a condom and take Ryan's virginity! Now Hans was formally Ryan's boyfriend, and they were essentially 'going steady'. For the next year and a day, as far as Ryan's mom or her grandparents were concerned, Ryan and Hans were just short of being married to each other, and they could live together and have sex with each other as much as they wanted to. The only restrictions Melanie had put on them was that Hans was absolutely not to get Ryan pregnant, and they were only to have sex with each other, unless both Hans and Ryan agreed that they wanted, seriously, to include someone else in their sexual fun.

Ryan carefully turned around so she was face to face with Hans, and she kissed the boy on the nose. "Wake up, sleepy head!" she said softly.

"Wha? Who?" Hans mumbled. Then he realized he was very nearly naked and in bed with an equally unclad girl, and he blushed. "Oh! Er, good morning, Ryan. So... Last night really happened?"

"Umm hum," Ryan said. "We're officially mated. Or we will be once mom breaks the news to your dad. What do you think he'll say about that?"

"He'll probably be glad I finally proved that I like girls," Hans said. "He doesn't know about the girls I was with last weekend. But from the way he acted when he told me that my friend Tommy was never gonna see me again, I think he suspects Tommy had sex with me, and he didn't like that idea. I know my grandparents would have been furious if they knew about me and Tommy. My Grandma an' Grandpa Bernerholdt don't like gays and lesbians."

"Oh. So that's why you're afraid to let him know you like wearing girls' clothes? He might think you're gay?" Ryan asked. "Does he feel the same way as your grandparents?"

"Well, that was what you assumed when you saw I had on girls' panties, wasn't it?" Hans said. "I'm not too sure how he feels about that. For sure he'd hate it if Grandma or Grandpa ever thought I was queer."

"You told me last night that you liked having sex not just with girls, but with boys, too. That boy was Tommy?" Ryan asked.

"Yeah. And later, with three guys in the park, who thought I was a girl. Though that was an accident. They thought they caught a girl using the boy's bathroom. They made me suck their cocks. I was scared at first that they would find out I was a boy and beat me up. But sucking them off was actually kinda fun," Hans admitted.

Ryan looked a little sad and worried as she asked, "Are you sorry you're gonna be stuck with just me for the next year? I mean, now that we're handfasted, mom won't let either of us date anyone else - boys or girls."

"Naw, I'm not sorry. We had a great time last night!" Hans replied, kissing her gently. "Though it sure felt weird doing it with you while your mom watched us and encouraged us! Weird, but kinda exciting, too, you know?"

"Yeah, well our family is pretty casual about sex and being naked. At the pagan camp-outs that we go to, it isn't unusual to see people walking around with no clothes on, or skinny dipping, or even couples naked on the grass, mating in front of anyone who happened to walk by. I never really watched up close when I saw naked people mating like that, but I've seen them from a distance." Ryan said. "If your dad's okay with it, Mom probably wouldn't care if you and I watched her mating with your dad, and wouldn't care if we mate in front of them both."

"Those camping trips sound kinda cool," Hans said. "But wouldn't the naked guys all have boners? I know I would, if I was walking around naked in front of other people."

"I guess when it happens all the time, you get used to it and it isn't that sexy anymore," Ryan said. Then she made a face and said, "Honestly, some of them make me wish they would put their clothes back on! Saggy tits and fat bellies aren't very sexy to me."

Their discussion was interrupted by a knock on the door, and Karl's voice saying, "Time to get up, kids. Melanie wants all of us together for breakfast."

"We'll be right there, dad! I need to wait for Ryan to get dressed, before I can get outa my sleeping bag and get my own clothes on," Hans said quickly. If his father opened the door, there was no way he could grab the blankets from the foot of the bed fast enough to cover the two of them, and hide the pink bra and panties that he had on!

"All right, but make it snappy," Karl said through the door. "She's making pancakes, and you don't want yours to be cold."

Hans and Ryan quickly got dressed. Hans didn't have much choice in his clothing, since he hadn't come here expecting to spend the night. He just pulled on his t-shirt and boys' underpants over his bra and panties, and put on his blue jeans, socks and sneakers. Ryan chose to wear a black t-shirt with a racing team logo, a matching ball cap with her pigtail braids hidden under it, and black jeans, socks and sneakers.

Ryan took Hans hand in hers and said, "Well, here we go! Time to tell your dad we're mated, I guess."

===

Melanie saw the kids walking into the kitchen holding hands, and she made a 'Shush!' motion with a finger in front of her muzzle before they kids had a chance to speak to Karl. Hans and Ryan dropped their hands, and tried to look like nothing unusual was going on.

"I called my parents this morning while you were in the shower, Karl," Melanie said. "They can't wait to meet you."

"Curious about 'the one that didn't get away', are they?" Karl said, as he dug into a thick stack of pancakes. "Well, I want to meet them, too. Is there anything I should know about them before we meet? You mentioned last night that they were Wiccan, right? I'm afraid I don't know much about that religion, other than that it's some sort of new-age, pagan thing. I think Angelo in our mail room may be Wiccan. He wears some sort of star in a circle on a chain around his neck, and I think he mentioned that it was some sort of Wiccan symbol. But I never talked to him about it beyond casual chit-chat."

"Well, you are the first guy that hasn't run off once he found out about my daughter," she replied, as she dished up pancakes for Ryan and Hans, and started another pan full for herself. "Eat up, kids," she said. "And pay attention, Hans. Your father has asked a good question, and you both should know the answers."

"Yes ma'am," Hans replied.

"Well, Mom and dad will probably tell you more than you ever wanted to know about Wicca and pagan beliefs, and send you home with a stack of books and magazines to read on the topic," Melanie said. "We're used to people not knowing about our faith, and it's nice when a new friend comes to us with an open mind on the subject of religion."

"I'll give them that, certainly. I'm not a terribly religious person myself. I believe that there is a God, and Hans and I attend the same church my parents do. But I have friends who worship in other faiths, and I generally feel that if it works for them, and if they don't harm anyone, there's no harm in different ways to approach religion," Karl said. "Not saying I'll convert to your ways right off, but I certainly am unlikely to hold them against you. Even if we end up disagreeing on some points, I'd still grant you the right to believe in what feels right for you, as long as you grant me the same right."

"We couldn't ask for more from you, and certainly we won't disparage your right to your own beliefs," Melanie said. "Well, let's see... Wicca doesn't have big churches and huge congregations, like some religions. We tend to worship in small groups - sometimes as a family, and sometimes as a collection of friends. It's a more personal approach. My mom and dad are trained to be a Priestess and Priest in Wicca, and they trained me to be a Priestess, as well."

"So talking with them is sort of like talking to the pastor of a church?" Karl asked. "Heh! I never thought I'd end up dating a preacher's daughter."

"Sort of. In Wicca, anyone with the inclination to do so can learn to take a role in leading our religious activities. We often take turns, and take different roles in the ceremonies. Kids usually wait until they are teenagers before seeking to be accepted as young adults, and included in the adult roles," she said. "They can give you all the details later. I think the other important thing for you to know is that we have a ritual for couples that are going to 'go steady'. We call it handfasting, and in a way it's almost like a trial marriage. A handfasted couple is expected to live together, and even to have sex with each other, as if they were man and wife. It lasts for a year and a day, and at the end of that time, the couple decides if they truly want to marry, or if they want to part amicably. It's a 'no strings attached' proposition. If they give it a year and decide it just isn't working, they part as friends. If... you decide to live with me, either by moving in with us, or us moving in with you, my parents would expect us to go through the handfasting ceremony." She bit her knuckle again, and nervously waited to see how he would react to that.

Karl thought for a moment, and then said, "You know that sounds quite sensible. I would imagine that a lot of nasty divorces could be avoided if everyone did that. I'll bet my ex-wife would have decided to leave at the end of that first year, if she had an easy out. That would have saved me the grief of her cheating on me, and the cost of filing for divorce. But what if there are kids involved by then?"

"If it looks like things are going well, it's sort of expected that they may conceive a child while handfasted. Doing that sort of says you plan to go through with the marriage, though. I haven't seen any cases personally where a couple with a new baby chose to split, but I guess one would assume custody. Handfasting doesn't change civil laws on child custody and support, so if you and your ex had been handfasted instead of married, you probably still would have gone to court for custody of Hans, but not had to pay for the divorce." Melanie paused, and then she said, "There's... one other way a handfasting is sometimes used, though..."

"Oh? And what is that?" Karl asked.

"Well... It can also be used to legitimize a budding relationship between a couple who are too young to formally consider getting engaged. Sort of like a more polite version of the 'shotgun wedding', when a parent or guardian catches a child in their care engaging in sex," Melanie said. "It gives the kids a way to acceptably have their fun, and see if they are serious about one another, without forcing them to marry. They remain monogamous with each other, and the community keeps an eye on them, but it's considered an honorable state, and not a disgrace, like having sex out of wedlock is in some religions. A handfasting might even get done if the kids are too young to legally have sex, with the families keeping quiet about the kids' sex lives."

Karl looked at Hans and Ryan inquisitively, then back at Melanie. Then he sighed, and said, "Please tell me that my son hasn't hurt your daughter! But I have a sinking feeling that you didn't explain that version of handfasting to me without a reason."

"He hasn't hurt her, no. But he did take her virginity last night. I caught them in the act, when I got up to use the bathroom last night. Now, I'm not angry at either of them, Karl, nor am I mad at you. I'm quite satisfied that it was entirely consensual between them. But I did ask them to get handfasted last night, and they agreed to it voluntarily." Melanie said. "As a Priestess, I did an abbreviated ceremony for them last night."

"And what do you two have to say about this?" Karl asked, looking at the kids.

Hans looked his father in the eyes, and said, "Sir, I did take her virginity last night. I am willing to take responsibility for what I did. Miss Melanie caught us fair and square. And heck, I could do a lot worse, couldn't I? Miss Ryan here is as good a catch for me as Miss Melanie is for you. They didn't force me, either. I coulda just said no, and she just wouldn't have let Ryan have any more sex with me. And I woulda had to admit to you what I did with Ryan, and accept whatever punishment you felt fair for that. Ryan?"

"I asked your son to do what he did, sir, but I didn't expect mom to catch us, and I really didn't mean to trap him or anything. And I'm very happy with being handfasted to him, Mister Bernerholdt," Ryan said. "I hope you'll accept our ways in this. If... if you won't, I guess I'll understand. But if you say Hans can't be my handfasted mate, then I'll let him go, but I still wouldn't date anyone else for a year and a day. I'll try to be a good girlfriend for him, sir. I won't lie and say I love him already. But I think we stand a good chance of being in love before the year is out. Give us that chance, please, sir?"

"Well, what's done is done, I guess. Did you use birth control, son? Or is there a chance the child is pregnant, too?" Karl asked.

"I used a condom, sir. Errr, Miss Melanie had some in her bathroom, and Ryan knew where they were," Hans replied, telling a bit of a white lie to not say that Melanie had told them to go all the way, and provided the condom after the handfasting.

"Your parents won't be upset about this, Melanie? For God's sake, she's only ten!" Karl said, looking at Melanie again.

"And I was only eleven when she was conceived," she replied. "As long as they are handfasted, my parents and our Wiccan and pagan friends will accept their status as mates. Your son's actions haven't harmed your ability to have a relationship with me, or to get their approval. Actually, it makes it more likely that they will want you and I to move in with each other at once and get handfasted too, so the kids can live together."

"Well, I guess a year is a fair trial period," Karl said. "All right, the kids are a handfasted couple, and I guess we will be too. Assuming your parents agree, do you want to move in with us, or have us move in here?"

Melanie grinned, and said, "Move in with us. Most of your stuff is still packed, isn't it? We have enough room here, if we make a loft-type bunk bed for the kids. And if we're here, we get free day care and babysitting from my parents, right next door."

"All right. We're still in the grace period on the purchase of our house. Haven't even been there two full weeks yet. I can still back out of the deal and get most of my money back. I could probably even take over the mortgage on this duplex, and pay a lot of it off," Karl said. "And if I can't get out of that house purchase, I can always rent the place out as an investment property. It wasn't the best choice of house for us anyway. It was just what I could get in this town on short notice. I'm sure that by the time we need a third bedroom, we can find a better house. So, let's finish breakfast and meet the rest of the family."

===

Andrew and Colleen Kelley were as laid back and casual about the whole situation as Melanie had predicted. They admitted that she had told them about the kids' handfasting when she called them that morning. And they were overjoyed when Karl agreed to get handfasted to Melanie as well.

"Well, obviously with the house loan to consider, it makes sense for you two to move in with Melanie and Ryan as soon as you can. We have no problems with that at all," Andrew said. "And I'm happy as can be that you're willing to get handfasted to our daughter! But since all this Wiccan tradition stuff is new to you and Hans, I'm going to suggest you wait until Yule for your formal handfasting. That's the weekend before Christmas, by your calendar. That will give you a few months to learn our ways and get comfortable with what we do and believe. And with the kids already handfasted, I doubt you'd run off on her now."

"It's a lot to get used to, yes," Karl said. "But we'll give it a go. As I told Melanie, I won't promise yet that I'll convert to your faith, but I'll respect your ways, hear what you say with an open mind, and if it feels right, then maybe I will. I'm not that heavily tied to my parent's church affiliations."

===

Karl and Hans moved immediately, and by the first weekend in October they were quite comfortably settled in Melanie's duplex.

Andrew Kelley turned out to be quite the handyman, and while Karl and Hans were still packing their stuff back up, he built the loft bed for the kids. "Now, just between us, we all know they aren't going to use that top bunk for anything but storage, or a place for guests to sleep over. But this way, if anyone who doesn't know they sleep together looks in their room, it's clear that they have separate beds."

"And with Ryan acting so much like a boy, most people won't think twice that it's a boy and a girl sharing a bedroom," Karl said. "Makes sense to me. Thank you, Andrew."

===

As they cleared the table after dinner one night, Hans raised a question. "Father? Ryan and I are wondering about something."

"What is it, son?" Karl asked.

"Well... We were wondering if it's all right for both of us to call you and Miss Melanie 'mom' and 'dad'." Hans said.

Karl smiled, and said, "I'd feel pretty silly if you both called me 'mom', and called Melanie 'dad', but I understand what you mean. I suppose it's all right, even though we haven't done the handfasting yet."

Ryan squealed happily, ran over and gave Karl a big hug, and said "YAY! Thank you, daddy!"

As the kids carried the dishes to the kitchen, Melanie took Karl's hand in hers, and said, "You have no idea how happy you just made her. For her whole life, she's never had a daddy."

"Yeah, I know," Karl said. "That's the main reason I said yes. I suppose I should worry about what might happen a year from now, if it doesn't work out but they're used to considering us mom and dad. But I'd rather look to the positive side and hope that by the time this is over, the kids will have a reason to keep calling us that."

"I hope so too, sweetheart," Melanie said, giving him a kiss. "By the way, the Druid Grove that my friend Mossflower is in has invited us to join them for a Samhain masked costume party, on the Sunday before Halloween. Everyone will be in costume, and in the evening there will be a small, rather generic Samhain ritual, for those who want to participate. Sometimes we attend their Druid rituals, and sometimes they attend our Wiccan ones. The two pagan faiths are similar enough to be comfortable, and it helps foster a sense of larger community. Can we go?"

"She's the Saluki with the fire red hair, right?" Karl asked. He had only met Mossflower once, when she and a dozen other pagans showed up to help them move. She had showed up wearing a micro bikini top and miniskirt, and had been a blatant flirt with every male there, and half the females as well. "I guess we could. Is there any particular theme for the costumes?"

"The theme is 'Anything but what you are'," Melanie replied. "It's a great excuse to do something outrageously wacky. The more different than what you look like day to day, the better. I think Mossflower said she was going to go as a Catholic Nun."

"That would certainly be opposite to how I think of her. Any ideas for us?" Karl asked.

Melanie snickered, and said, "Well, you're usually so business-like and proper, with your suit and tie every day, and I tend to be so laid back, and usually rather submissive to what you want to do... How about you going as my collared and submissive, nearly naked love slave, and me going as a strict, leather-wearing dominatrix? I'll make it worth your while in the bedroom, while we work out the costume details..."

"That's... pretty kinky. Will other people be in such sexually suggestive costumes?" Karl asked.

"Some will," Melanie insisted. "And honestly, some will only be revealing the sort of stuff they only wear in the bedroom, for their intimate friends. I'll bet Krista shows up as a love slave too. I know she gets really submissive for her husband. But she's a straight-laced lawyer by day. A lot of people will just do silly things though, like going as a pro football player for somebody that never plays sports."

"Sounds like it might not be that good a party to take the kids to," Karl mused.

"Oh, it's all right, daddy!" Ryan said, as she came back into the room from the kitchen for the last of the dirty dishes. "I went last year, and the costumes might get sexy sometimes, but it isn't an orgy or anything. And I know just what I want to do for Hans' costume and mine!"

"What's that?" Karl asked.

"Prince Charming and his beautiful Princess!" Ryan said enthusiastically. "It's perfect! I mean, I slouch around in jeans and T-shirts all the time, and never wear formal clothes, and so does Hans. Can we, please?"

"Well, I guess that would be all right," Karl said.

"Yay!" Ryan said, as she ran into the kitchen to tell Hans the news. "Hey Hans! Daddy says you can dress up as a Princess for Halloween! And I'll be your Prince Charming!"

Karl opened his mouth to object, and Melanie placed a hand on his arm, and said, "Oh, let them do it! It's certainly opposite to the way Hans lives here, mating with Ryan every day, like a prize breeding stud. And you couldn't get her into a dress for that, but she would wear 'Handsome Prince' costume. Come on, dear, loosen up! Just think of the fun we can have, playing with our kinky costumes, hummm?"

Karl was at a complete loss for words... But he didn't forbid it.