Page 35 of Glow

In his fantasy, he started by kissing Dan as they lay naked in bed together. Their kisses grew more passionate, deeper, involving tongue. Then Quinn began to lick his way down Dan’s body, memorizing everything, taking his time. He paused over the brown nubs of Dan’s nipples and worked them with his tongue and lips until Dan moaned and shivered.

With a naughty chuckle, Quinn continued his sexy plunder, down Dan’s sparse treasure trail to circle his navel. His hands stroked Dan’s thighs and then moved inward, teasing at his balls while Quinn licked and sucked Dan’s cock.

Fantasy Dan trembled and moaned, urging him on. “Fuck me, Quinn, make me come. I want you to take it all. Fill me up. Please Quinn, please⁠—”

Hearing Dan beg, even if it was his own imagination, pushed Quinn over the edge, and he spilled over his hand while he gasped out Dan’s name.

“Now that’s not a bad wake-up call,” he muttered, using a paper towel to wipe himself off and make sure he hadn’t left a mess. Quinn returned to the bedroom, tossed his sleep pants into the laundry, and took a shower, letting the water banish the last dregs of sleep.

He dressed in jeans and his ranger shirt, plus thick socks to go with his hiking boots. Making the rounds of his territory often took him off trail, and boots with good traction and support could make a life-or-death difference. Still feeling the endorphin high from jacking off, Quinn texted Dan while he cooked eggs and bacon.

Quinn: Good morning. I dreamed about you. Be glad to demonstrate when we get together tonight—it was hot. Hope you have a good day. He typed and hoped after he pressed send that he wasn’t rushing things.

He smacked himself in the head as he realized how early it was and hoped he hadn’t woken him.

Dan texted back a few minutes later.

Dan: I’ll take you up on that. See you tonight.

Quinn: Sorry for texting so early…I forgot the time.

Dan: Not a problem. I always want to hear from you, no matter what time it is.

Quinn grinned to himself while he rinsed his breakfast dishes and put them in the dishwasher. Maybe I’m not rushing him after all, he thought. He filled a large thermos with coffee and grabbed the lunch he had packed the previous night from the fridge and headed for the station.

Sometimes he found a camper or tourist already waiting in the parking lot for the ranger station to open. Quinn felt grateful that wasn’t the case today. He had a lot on his mind, even aside from his budding relationship with Dan.

What’s going on with the missing hikers? If they just got lost or injured, the search dogs would have found them. Did they get carried off by a bear or a wolf? Why haven’t we picked up on their cell phones or found their clothing? Could it be the wurm Dan saw? If it’s roaming and attacking people, we’ve got a big problem.

He listened to the station’s voicemail while he powered up his computer and checked email, going through the routine messages quickly. Quinn added meeting invitations to his calendar, ordered routine supplies, and worked his way through customer service questions. Most of those could have been answered by consulting the FAQ, but Quinn tried to provide a human touch whenever he could.

Another cup of coffee helped him shake off morning brain fog. Quinn logged into the private chat for park rangers, a vital way to stay connected in a job that could easily become isolating.

Most of the posts were fairly standard. Rangers gossiped about ill-mannered campers or demanding hikers, shared notes about wild animal sightings, and alerted the others to forecasts of bad weather. He breathed a sigh of relief when no one had spotted poachers or bounty hunters, or even any visitors displaying suspicious behavior.

He frowned when he saw a new thread, “Strange New Animal Sighting,” and clicked through, scanning the messages from several rangers in his general area of the forest.

…like a giant lizard with the head of a big cat…

…kept calling it a dragon…

…farmer says it ate the hog he had hung up to drain…

…doesn’t match anything on record for this area…

Perplexed messages went back and forth among the rangers, and Quinn shared their concern. If the wurm was a magical creation, then few if any of the usual protections against dangerous animals were likely to work against it. That posed a safety hazard for visitors and park staff alike.

“The last thing we need is having the media get wind of this and start traipsing around the woods with their cameras,” Quinn muttered. That not only endangered the reporters, but also ruined the experience for campers and potentially placed area shifters at risk for accidental exposure.

On the positive side, he didn’t see anything in the posts to suggest that the cryptid bounty hunter from the Dover podcast had been sniffing around. Of course, the hunter might just have evaded official notice by not contacting rangers and talking to locals, but since no one even mentioned a nosy stranger, Quinn hoped they had a grace period, however short, before dealing with that problem.

Quinn figured things wouldn’t stay quiet for long, so he took advantage of the break to get the most essential tasks out of the way. That meant driving the main roads to look for disabled cars or roadkill and alerting the proper helpers to deal with those situations.

Once he finished, a few hours had passed. Quinn ate lunch and took a bathroom break, then headed out for his afternoon walking circuit. He took in the beauty of the forest, the smell of the trees, and the sound of the birds. At the same time, he kept an eye out for any signs of wildfire, gathered stray bits of trash, and watched for any vandalism or broken safety rules.

Quinn knew that some people might consider his daily routine to be lonely, but he felt energized in the forest and enjoyed his role as a guardian. That just made the infringement of the bounty hunter, poachers, and wurm more vexing because he took the trespassing personally. And that was before factoring in his protectiveness of Dan and the residents of Fox Hollow.

Will he want to stay in Fox Hollow once the danger passes? And if so, how can I help make it a safe place for him to let his daemon loose in the park without causing too much of a fuss? If he wants to go somewhere else, I’ll go with him. He’s my mate and being with him is what’s most important.