Page 41 of The Buck Stops Hare

“You can’t even take my pain seriously!” Rayne snorted into the air, his breath a fine mist of droplets and fog.

“So dramatic.” I rolled my shoulder and in the blink of an eye, he charged me, front legs bared with clawed fingertips, head dipped to show me two smoothly curved horns fit to ram into my side. Without second thought, I stepped back, arms up defensively, but it wasn’t fast enough. The weight of him slammed into me, claws gripping tight.

In the same breath, my mind went blank, the sensation of dry, cracked earth buckled beneath my feet, and the power of stones rolling down mountainsides wrenched me apart. The hands that grappled back with Rayne were not my own golden-skinned flesh but a sinewy bronze, sprouting a fine sheen of gray-black fur, claws sprouting from my fingertips.

I had only a moment to recognize the change before Rayne dipped his head, catching me under my arms with his horns to sling me across the paddock.

The world spun around me, rain dotting my face as I hit damp earth with an impact so hard I saw stars and lost my breath. Choking, I clawed at the earth with my strange arms and found not just one set but another joining it, black claws clasping for purchase as the rest of my body stretched and raised, leaving the dirt beneath me farther below. As I righted to my feet and threw my head back, an unfamiliar weight adorned me, like a crown, anchored hard, and I opened eyes that saw nothing but thick new lashes and a wider field of vision.

After being thrown so hard, I couldn’t make my thoughts coherent. The world swayed unsteadily beneath me and when Rayne reared onto his back legs, ready to pounce me with his force, so too did I leap forward, my body agile, longer, legs beneath my torso supporting it, not maneuvering it. A pelvis that normally centered my weight only bore some, but it wasn’t unnatural.

I twisted my form and kicked back legs that barely caught the side of my vision, bucking at him with cloven hooves adorned with that same gray-black feathering. A wicked thud shot back as Rayne bleated in shock and went flying, earning my ire as I chased him, claws drawn.

We ran at one another, heads down, instinct pushing us as the clack of two very solid sets of horns smacked together, rattling our entire bodies before clattering together.

Rain fell harder, the clouds above silent, as if missing thunder, lightning swimming in their depths. The earth beneath us rumbled, rippling like a blanket over a waterbed almost as I braced myself and snarled. Clods of earth flew up around me, pelting us in an attempt to smash into an ever-dampening Rayne.

“You’re my fucking brother,” I shouted. I twisted my head to clack our horns together, snarling with my alien-shaped mouth. I had tusks of some sort, large fangs that made speaking difficultas my tongue navigated their points, but I knew how, by instinct. “You smell like him, look like him, and you have the same fucking heart, man. I know you.”

“But you don’t know! I bled out. I—River took my last blood. I felt myself slip away. I woke from the light. I—my body isn’t the same anymore.”

“But I don’t think my body is the same, either, asshole. Look what you’ve done to me. I’m as much a monster now as you!” I shook my head and snarled when my head caught in the crook of one of his horns. “And at least you’re with someone you were always attracted to! I wasn’t even…” I wanted to say I wasn’t gay, but I knew I was. I knew I always had been. “It changed me!”

“Your identity isn’t your sexuality! You can’t just take one dick and decide you’ve had some grand epiphany. You’re alive, always have been, and now you always will be. You won’t be like me. You’ll know you’re you!” Tears welled in his bright eyes, golden drops that sparked as they hit the ground between us, hands grasped in grapple as our heads twisted and turned to continue pushing back and forth between one another. The first buck and shudder of a sob came from his form.

“How do I know they didn’t hit my head too hard or overdose me when they kidnapped me, Rayne? I got caught up inyourproblems with the hogs. How do I know Grim didn’t figure out what I was until after he’d killed me? How do I know?” I shuddered at the thought and was glad that I had relative certainty I hadn’t.

“Because you weren’t drained and forced and—”

“I wasn’t! But you were, and that sucks, but the moment I felt you, I knew you were my Rayne but different. You were better. Happier. Death didn’t change you, life did. Vida and Storm, man. They’re the change.” My throat clenched as I pressed back, clenching my fingers until Rayne’s grip faltered, fingers releasing me in defeat. Our hands slid down our arms aswe collided into a shaking hug. “I’d know you, always. I see you in all the forms. There’s no human in all the forms Storm has. Have you ever seen a human in him other than the one he shows you?”

Rayne gave a noise of dissent as we clasped one another tighter.

I tried to move my head slightly and found our horns locked, keeping my neck bent at an unnatural angle.Fuck.

“No.”

I dropped my shouting as the rain came down in harsh sheets and the earth trembled, calming beneath me. “I’d know you, always. We may be distant. We may have grown apart, but I know my brother.”

He snorted, and I huffed, our breath fogging around us as we clutched tighter. Rayne adjusted his head, tugging at our locked horns. “And I know mine. Missed you.”

“Missed you, too.” Our embrace tightened as we had the same idea, fighting our locked horns for a few seconds with huffs of misplaced laughter until we were human once more, arms locked.

“Dickhead,” I said, shoving Rayne off of me as I buried away the sensation of my cheeks burning and hyper in a way I hadn’t been since I was an excited child, hopped up on sugar and or caffeine.

“Takes one to know one, fartsucker.” Rayne buried his face against my shoulder, hiding a shudder that I knew hid tears.

“You kiss your daughter with that mouth?” I shoved him back and mussed his hair, half amused when he looked up, clothes scuffed and face scratched. A swollen spot on his lip told me I’d got him once, at least. By the ache in my jaw, I’d say he’d gotten me, too.

My hens fight over me. It is okay. Come to me, hens, I will shake tail and preen each of you.

I glanced over and saw a very proudly puffed-up Pecker poised on a fencepost in front of Buck, Storm behind him with Vida whimpering in his arms. Playing it off, I wiped my mouth on my shirtsleeve and offered a halfhearted smile. Buck and Storm didn’t react, though, both their expressions stormy and tense.

“That little runt is a pervert, yeah?” I glanced over at Rayne. He shrugged and avoided looking in Storm and Buck’s direction. I couldn’t blame him. We’d been tossing about in the dirt like a few kids, scrapping over hurt feelings.

I hesitated approaching, watching Storm’s face harden when our eyes met. Stepping back, I faltered when Rayne rested a hand on my shoulder and shoved. “Come on. They get pissy when the godbeast gets let out. Makes everyone a little crazy. Eh, Buck?”

Buck nodded, fierce eyes tracking me as I approached. A slow breath trembled free of him as I jumped up and swung a leg over the fence. “Took to it much easier than Rayne did.”

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