Horsefeathers Read online

  The officer laughed and Justin let himself inside the pen.

  *~*~*

  Brother Mustang lifted his head at the sight of the unfamiliar human and Nohatu decided to pay attention as well. In nearly a week of being in the pens, he'd met every uniformed human in the place. He'd even begun to grasp a bit of what this facility was. Though why the humans wanted to round up the mustangs was beyond him. Brother Mustang restlessly tossed his head, fighting Nohatu for control. Though he'd become weaker during their time in captivity— especially after the cold metal had been pressed against his neck, making lines in his fur—he was still stubborn as ever.

  Brother Mustang's nostrils flared as the human stepped closer. Nohatu felt his muscles tense up and his shoulders ripple in anticipation. Brother wanted to flee, and since that wasn't an option, charging would have to do. Believing he was the rational one, Nohatu worked to try to calm Brother's mind, though his soothing thoughts were hardly helpful when Nohatu was just as unsure about the human as he was.

  Though, to his credit, the human didn't approach him like the others. There were no loud noises, no yelling or running. He was as quiet as the antelope in the grass. Nohatu used that image to ease Brother's mind. The mustang didn't think in words, not like the man did. He was visual and Nohatu used pictures to bring him some peace. Brother Mustang lowered his head and pricked his ears forward. He'd run, Nohatu had no doubt about that, but the human wouldn't be intentionally hurt in the process. Still, Nohatu knew of Brother Mustang's size and was well aware of what that kind of force would do the human if he moved the wrong way at the last minute. But it was comforting to know that Brother Mustang didn't want to hurt him intentionally anymore.

  Nohatu wasn't protecting the human, though. If he moved aggressively toward them, he'd release his hold on Brother's mind and let him use his sharp hooves and dull teeth to attack. He'd left one uniformed human broken and bleeding already and had no problems doing it again. But Nohatu had heard what the men had said after that incident. He'd seen the revenge waiting in their eyes and knew another outburst from Brother Mustang would end badly for him. They might have been big and powerful, but Brother was still just an animal to them and Nohatu couldn't save him from the weapons of man.

  Like a fox in the sun, the man crouched down, appearing much smaller than he was. Brother Mustang eyed him suspiciously, tossed his head, and snorted. Nohatu eased him, asking him to wait. That was the message at least. Brother might not have understood or, more likely, chose to ignore him altogether. He usually wasn't very good at listening to reason.

  He stepped forward, his large hooves sinking into the soft dirt. Nohatu looked through his eyes, unsure of what the human was doing as he silently watched them. The uniformed man stood behind him, watching them as well. But his attention was different. Nohatu could feel that man's boredom, whereas the one in the hat appeared interested.

  Brother Mustang tossed his head and snorted impatiently. He did not like the fox-man that did not attack or run. No creature in nature should be that still. He trotted forward, his legs lifting high off the ground as he kicked up dust. Though still too far for the human to touch them, Brother turned away, not wanting to get too close. Nohatu could feel his confusion but offered no help; he was just as bewildered by the human's actions. So often humans were loud, running quickly between the pens. None had ever stopped to watch him as this one did.

  His frustration growing, Brother Mustang half-reared, showing a bit of force behind his threat. Still the man refused to move. He only knelt there, staying low to the ground as the wind picked up around them, bringing the calls of birds and the smell of earth in its wake.

  "What do you think of him?" the man against the metal called.

  "I think he's wild," the crouched man replied, not taking his eyes off Brother Mustang.

  The men shared a laugh, and Nohatu, deep inside Brother Mustang's mind, frowned at their amusement.

  "I'll take him," the crouched man said, rising to his feet. He brushed off his pants, straightened his hat, and turned back to the gate.

  The gate squeaked on rusty hinges and Brother Mustang put his ears back at the sound. Nohatu, however, had listened to the man's words. He didn't want to be taken, not by this man or any other. He couldn't risk leaving his home. He was already many miles from it. He lowered his head and closed his eyes. Brother Mustang had been right not to trust the humans. Nohatu should have listened, should have understood what he was trying to say back then. In his own way, he was warning Nohatu against them, and Nohatu had been foolish and arrogant to believe otherwise. Humans came with pain, Nohatu had learned, along with noises nothing in nature could have made. They were disruptive and Nohatu wanted no part of them, or wherever this one thought he would be taking them.

  But then Brother Mustang spoke up, easing his troubles. He saw something in the man, though he had no words to describe it and Nohatu had no way to understand him. But the mustang's message was clear: he had a plan. Nohatu would simply have to trust him. Nodding, he easily accepted Brother's words and settled into the beast's mind, wondering what he had in store for them this time.

  *~*~*

  The sun had nearly set behind the purple mountains to the west when Justin turned the truck down the ranch's dirt driveway. Like the song said, the mountains really were purple at times. He'd been glad to know that wasn't just a bit of artistic expression once he'd moved to Colorado from his small hometown in Arkansas.

  He turned off the truck and sighed as he leaned against the torn seat. His back ached from driving for so long, but at least he was home now. Justin stumbled out of the cab, shut the door behind himself, and circled around to the back of the trailer. The stallion hadn't traveled well, though he'd never expected him to. Being on the road was hard for most horses, but especially the wild ones. He pulled one of the steel panels out from the nearby pen and dragged it over to the side of the trailer, effectively blocking the stallion's escape route once he opened the door. The pen was a temporary place to train him, little more than a shed, food, and water. The bare necessities. But it made getting the mustangs trained easier. He opened the trailer door and waited for the outbursts that he was usually met with.

  When they never came, he peered inside, surprised to see the mustang standing in the trailer, his head drooping down to very nearly touch the floor.

  "Hey, all right, then," Justin said, coming up to the horse's side. "Good boy." He untied the halter and led him out, the mustang coming along much more quietly than Justin had ever thought he would. He undid the halter and turned him loose to settle in for the night. His hard work would start tomorrow and he'd need his rest tonight.

  Justin closed the panels and secured them again before spending a few minutes simply watching the stallion explore his pen. Then he did the strangest thing. He lifted his head and looked directly at Justin—and for a moment, Justin couldn't breathe.

  *~*~*

  Nohatu waited for the man to leave his sight as a westerly wind moved through his mane, carrying the scent of pine trees and a lone fox. After another few minutes of quietly staring at him, the blond man moved away, giving Nohatu the peace he so desperately craved. He trembled, his shoulders moving under the thick, dappled skin of his brother horse. The beast was frightened and rightly so. Though Nohatu tried to soothe him, his efforts did little good when he was just as confused. Though he'd heard of the roundups and long known that they were a possibility to be avoided at all costs, he'd never thought that they'd find him on the rocky outcroppings of the plains that stretched into the mountains.

  He lifted his snout, sniffing the unfamiliar air. And now here he was, so very far from home. Too many new smells floated toward him on the breeze and he snorted, shaking his head to get them out. The beast wanted to run, to flee this confined space. Nohatu did as well. But fleeing meant changing his shape and embracing the other inside of him.

  He took a breath, his large lungs filling up with warm evening air before dust swirled around his
dappled legs. Though the change hurt as Brother Mustang melted away, slipping back into the Mother and joining her in the dirt, Nohatu refused to cry out. Fur fell away from muscle and bones broke as some moved into the new position and others dropped to the dirt, forgotten entirely.

  He gasped and fell to his knees as blood coated his tongue and his gaze spun. Brother Mustang nuzzled him, the mist of his spirit staying long after his physical body returned to the Mother. Nohatu forced his legs to move and nearly stumbled on the unfamiliar limbs. It had been far too many years since he'd last been on feet with toes. Since he'd last had hands. There was no way to judge time so far away from the humans. He'd simply existed, giving into the mustang and letting him lead for once.

  But he'd been dragged back to the human world and taken away from everything that he'd known and loved in years past.

  "Hey! You! What are you doing?"

  Nohatu's gaze lifted, though he didn't rise from his crouched position against the cold gate. The man, the one that had taken him away from the place with the pens, ran toward him, waving his arms.

  "You can't be in here," he said, coming close. "Look, I don't know who you are or what you want—" His mouth fell open. "Where the hell is that mustang? Did you steal him?"

  He rose, testing his human legs and finding them shaky and lacking compared to Brother Mustang's. But he couldn't stay on the ground, looking up at the human all night. "Easy, human," Nohatu whispered hoarsely.

  "What the hell?" A new human joined them and Nohatu snorted at the acrid smoke following this one in a dark trail behind him. "What is this, Justin?" the old man demanded, sounding angry as he pushed the smaller man.

  Nohatu watched this and narrowed his gaze at the older man. Even Brother Mustang, a mere shadow behind him, was interested in the display as the man again showed aggression toward the younger one. Snorting, Nohatu shook his head and bared his teeth. His long, black hair fell in front of his face as he jumped the fence and put himself between the men.

  The older man's mouth fell open and he scrambled back. "What the fuck, Justin? Why is there a naked Indian on my ranch? You ain't one of them kinds, are you?"

  "No, sir, I don't know what's going on. I just came out here and he was here and the stallion was gone."

  "What stallion? I told you to get a mare. Don't you know anything? Can't you even get that much right?"

  He tried to move around Nohatu, but Nohatu didn't let him. In fact, he moved forward, pushing the angry man back. Nohatu kept stepping into his space, pushing him back until the older man fell backward, dirt and dust flying up around him as Nohatu loomed over him.

  "Uh..."

  Nohatu turned and his gaze narrowed on the blond man—Justin, he supposed the man's name was, judging by their earlier exchange. "I demand you return me to where you took me. Now."

  Justin's mouth fell open. "The holding pens? You want to go back there? And where is the mustang?"

  Nohatu shifted his weight, the balls of his feet sinking into the soft earth. "No. Not to the pens." He frowned, unsure of how to explain such things in the terms that a human would understand. "There's a mountain with sweet grasses at the base, and a wide, yellow cliff comes out from the rising sun." He raised his hands, trying to help express what he meant, but the men just continued to stare at him.

  "Justin, I don't know what he's talking about or really care. Just get him off my property. Take him to the truck stop down the way. But get him the hell off my land. Then come back and we can look for that damn horse you got." He shook his head. "Damn idiot. Bringing a stallion on my land? What the hell were you thinking?"

  *~*~*

  Confused, bewildered, and very sure he was about to lose his job, Justin acted quickly. He ran to the tack room and pulled down an old blanket. His movement startled the quarter horse stallion in his stall, causing him to snort loudly and strike at the dirt floor of the barn with his hooves. Justin ignored him, his mind on the mustang stallion. He needed to get rid of the naked man and get back to help look for the mustang before he got too far away. Mr. Faragher's ranch was vast at nearly three thousand acres. But it was all fenced, so although the mustang would have a lot of room to run, he wouldn't be able to get all that far.

  He returned and tossed the blanket to the naked man. He'd tried hard not to look, he really had, but sometimes trying so hard not to do something just made it all that more tempting to do it. In the end, he'd looked. Not as much as he would have liked, but well enough that he'd see the tiny scar just over the man's left hip. It was barely the width of Justin's thumb, but the moon had nearly shone off that patch of discolored skin. Justin licked his lips, his gaze straying to the man's hip again before the blanket came down around his waist.

  "Get him out of here," Mr. Faragher demanded again.

  "Yes, sir," Justin said, nodding quickly. The keys were still in his pocket and he straightened his hat over his forehead.

  "Now!" Faragher barked at him.

  Justin quickly herded the barely covered man into the passenger side of the old pickup truck, then got in beside him. It wasn't until they were on the road and heading toward the truck stop that they man spoke again.

  "You should not let that old man speak to you so. Yelling is hardly effective," he said softly.

  Justin glanced at him, but all he could see of the man was a broad, well-muscled back and a wave of shiny black hair as he turned to look out the window. "Yeah, well, he's my boss, so there's not a whole lot I can do about that. Now, how about some answers? Where did you come from? Why are you naked? Where's my horse?"

  The man's deep chuckle loosened something inside Justin's chest and settled deep in his belly. "Your horse? Really?" He turned and Justin's gaze caught on the color of the man's eyes. They were green, a color he'd never seen on someone with his skin tone. But on this man, the color seemed to fit. Somehow. Justin forced himself to focus on the road before he ended up driving them right into a ditch. "Pull over here."

  Justin looked around but saw no house, vehicle, or anything else that would tell him why the man wanted to get out here. "Here?"

  "Yes." He nodded. "Right here."

  Shrugging, Justin did as he was asked. "You're still a good two miles from the truck stop," he said, pulling into the gravel at the side of the road. "I don't mind taking you that far."

  "Your name is Justin?" the man asked.

  "Uh... yeah," he replied, turning in his seat to look at him.

  "Nohatu." He touched his hand to his chest and smiled as he turned to face Justin as well. "Turn off the vehicle, Justin."

  Dumbly, he stared across at him. But his hand worked on its own to turn the key in the ignition, and soon they sat in silence, the darkness of the night closing in around them. Nohatu's hand lifted and Justin shrank back as it came toward him. Nohatu's mouth curled into a smile, and though he might have meant it to ease Justin's worry, it really didn't help.

  He turned, his hand still on keys to the truck. "I'm going to take you to the truck stop now."

  "No, you're not." Nohatu reached forward and plucked the keys from his hand.

  "What the—" Justin started, but Nohatu's mouth covering his own quickly silenced any words he might have used to protest his actions. His hands quickly went to the buttons of Justin's shirt, and when they weren't undone fast enough, his strong fingers forced his shirt open, leaving Justin's chest bare for Nohatu's hands to roam. "You like to look," Nohatu said, surprising him. "I like when you look. I would like to see you as well." There was little time for him to become embarrassed as Nohatu moved closer to him in the truck's narrow cab.

  Justin struggled under him, though his resistance was short lived as Nohatu moved on top of him, pinning Justin to the torn bench stretching across the cab. Too startled to move, he lay under Nohatu as his reservations slowly began to fall away. It wasn't the first time he'd considered having sex with a stranger, and Nohatu was already naked, but something still felt strange, almost wrong, and his own wanting wasn't enough to er
ase those thoughts from his mind, despite how much he wanted Nohatu in that moment.

  "Do you enjoy this?" Nohatu asked, lifting his head. Justin could feel his warm breath on his neck as he nodded. Nohatu's dark lips turned up into a smile, and he rubbed himself against Justin's hips, thrilling him with the hard length he felt pressing against him through his jeans.

  Justin brought his hands to Nohatu's shoulders and sunk his fingertips into his large muscles. "Tell me about the mustang," he panted, trying to think through the pleasure of having him pressed against his groin. "And where you came from."

  Nohatu's green eyes narrowed at him. He kissed him, his tongue darting between Justin's lips as his fingers found the button of his pants, and soon Justin was lost to the sensations of having Nohatu's body against his. His tan hand dipped into Justin's jeans and quickly found the hard length of his cock. Justin bucked against his hand, his fingers digging into Nohatu's shoulders as his lips parted on a moan.

  He gripped Justin's cock with smooth, firm motions, dragging his hand from the thick base up to Justin's swollen head repeatedly until Justin's head rolled to the side with a gasp. He trembled, his hands dropping from Nohatu's shoulders to grab at the thick fabric of the seat. Nohatu moved down his body, trailing his tongue over Justin's hard nipples and further down to lick at his navel before Justin felt the first warm puff of air against his swollen cock.

  Panting, he looked down his stomach at Nohatu and watched, his eyes going wide as Nohatu took Justin's length between his lips and gently sucked him in. He swirled his tongue along the tip and used his hands to cup Justin's balls, massaging them as his mouth pulled on Justin's cock.

  With a garbled cry, he released against Nohatu's warm tongue. He was still trying to catch his breath when Nohatu sat back on his knees and reached forward to grab onto Justin's hair. He went easily, resting on his belly as Nohatu leaned against the passenger door and thrust against his lips as Justin opened his mouth. He held still, letting Nohatu choose the pace as his long fingers tightened in Justin's hair and held his head steady. Nohatu's musky scent filled his nose as he pushed his cock deeply into Justin's mouth.