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Niklas gasped awake, shooting up into a sitting position. He blinked, shook his head, and blinked again as his initial panic rapidly transformed into a quite different kind of alarm as his surroundings resolved into a fairly tranquil looking forest instead of the road, an ambulance, or a hospital room, any of which would have made more sense. He reached out, feeling the ground, and it felt very…forest-y. Small sticks, fallen leaves, vaguely loamy dirt mixture - felt like a forest. He looked around, taking in the trees, the sunlight streaming through their canopy, the vaguely brushy ground - looked like a forest. The smell of wet dirt, sweet grass, and other green and growing things - smelled like a forest. As he sat there, the sounds that had quieted when he woke slowly returned, and he heard the various rustles of small creatures, assorted soft bird calls, and the rustle of leaves in the wind - sure sounded like a forest. He blinked again, then dropped his head into his hands and laughed only somewhat hysterically.
“For real? Is - is this - did I seriously have an encounter with Truck-kun? Is this actually happening right now? What the fuck…” his laughter gradually tapered off into disbelieving mutters, and he finally shook his head and pushed himself to his feet, swaying a little as the position change made him somewhat lightheaded. He leaned back against a nearby tree and stared off into the middle distance, entirely too overcome with the everything of it to do more than just feel the bark against his skin. After a few minutes, though, he shook his head again and pushed up, this time remaining steady.
Alright Nik, get it together - time to start walking, no reason to just sit in the forest waiting for something else to happen, he thought, and looked around. There wasn’t much differentiation in any direction as far as he could tell, so he shrugged and started walking in the direction of the sun, figuring that was a reasonable way to maintain a relatively straight direction of travel. He’d only taken a couple of steps, though, when he stopped, groaning - his packer was rubbing weirdly as he walked. He undid his belt and stuck his hand in his pants to adjust the pouch, then froze when his hand ran into something definitely fleshy and sensate instead of the expected squishy silicone. He stumbled backwards, leaning against the tree once again, and pulled his pants and boxers down, heart in his throat, sure he was mistaken - but no, his eyes agreed with his sense of touch, and, for the first time in his life, he laid eyes on a very tidy, neat little cock and balls between his legs. He managed to keep from collapsing bare assed into the dirt, but it was close with how his knees were suddenly weak with some mixture of shock and relief and joy bubbling through his veins. He felt himself up, the entire thing not entirely seeming real, but he finally accepted that he wasn’t dreaming. Curious, he slid his hand back, assuming he’d feel the smooth skin of a perineum, but to his shock he felt himself brushing a slit instead. He probed, curious, and it parted, his fingers brushing against flesh that certainly felt like a cunt, though with a much different labial and urethral layout than what he was quite used to - but dry fingers on a dry cunt isn’t a pleasant sensation, so he quickly pulled away, pulling up his pants and buttoning himself back hum.
Huh. Well. That’s…something. He took a breath, the mix of emotions in his chest threatening to choke him, and scrubbed his hands into his hair. It wasn’t like he was ignorant of tropes, after all, and he had a strong suspicion that his shiny new genitalia arrangement might not be the only biological change this encounter with Truck-kun had caused…but, well. It wasn’t like that was necessarily a bad thing. Probably. Depending on the society in this world. He grimaced, then shrugged himself up and started heading off into the woods - definitely no point in just hanging around now, not when he had answers to get.
The sun had visibly moved across the sky when he finally heard the sound of rushing water and he sighed in relief - the forest may not have been excessively thick, but the day was warm and he was overheated, thirsty, and getting tired from the exertion of making his way over uneven ground for hours. He angled himself towards the sound of the water and finally broke through the trees to find himself at the edge of a fast, wide river. The current was intense and he could see the water crashing and swirling through massive rapids, and he paused a moment, just taking everything in - the forest had been lovely but fairly generic, but this was magnificent. Smiling, he made his way down to the water - he knew drinking from a river might not be the best move, but he really didn’t want to deal with his thirst any longer and he so he crossed his fingers and hoped that it was safe. He dunked his head directly into the water, the coolness a welcome relief, and drank from his cupped hands until he felt like the impending dehydration headache had been pushed away for the moment. He ruffled his hair, sending water droplets everwhere, and looked around, trying to decide which direction to go now that he’d found something easy to follow. The other side of the river looked to be more trees, and upstream appeared to be the same, but as he peered downstream he thought he caught a glimpse of something a little more regularly shaped than generally occurred in the natural world. He wasn’t sure, but that seemed as good a reason to go that way as any.
It took him a little while to make his way downstream, as he’d had to detour a few times when the rocks along the river got too rough for him to feel safe scrambling through them, but perhaps an hour later he came around another pile of haphazardly thrown boulders and he was rewarded with the sight of a dock sticking out into the now much more placid river. He steeled himself - he wasn’t exactly shy, but this was entirely uncharted territory - and headed down to the dock, eyes peeled for any sign of life.
He made it almost to the building set at the beginning of the dock when the door opened and a pair of men in hooded jerkins, each with belts covered in braided charms, tools, and pouches hanging off them. They’d been talking to each other when the door opened, but it only took a moment for their voices to cut off and their eyes to snap forwards, fixing on Niklas. He froze, pinned under their gaze, and gave them an awkward, closed-lip smile - they were very tall, very muscular, and very, very attractive.
“Ah, hi?” Niklas asked, after seconds passed where no one moved, and his voice seemed to break the spell that had held them all in place. The two men shot glances at each other, then one stepped forward, pausing just out of grabbing distance as Niklas eyed him cautiously.
“What are you doing out here, little one? Where did you come from?” The man asked, his voice a deep, soothing rumble, and Niklas shifted, a blush coming to his face for, as far as he could tell, no good reason. He shrugged and pointed back the way he came, his awkward smile still in place.
“I woke up in the woods, uh, several hours ago? And I just picked a direction and started walking, and when I reached the river I headed downstream, and now I’m here - which is where, by the way? Sorry, I’m obviously super lost right now.” He tried to make his smile somewhat less awkward, but he wasn’t sure he succeeded.
The second man spoke up, his voice just as deep as the first man’s, “You must be thirsty, if you’ve walked all this way - would you like something to drink?”
Niklas nodded. “I took a drink from the river when I first reached it, but I’d very much appreciate more water, if you’re offering.”
The second man disappeared back into the building, and the first waved Niklas over to a bench set alongside the building.
“Please, sit - your timing is very good, too much later and you’d have found us gone, and the boat as well.” Niklas slumped onto the bench gratefully - he seemed to be in much better shape than he’d been before (thanks, Truck-kun!) but several hours of walking over uneven ground will still take a lot out of a person, and he was definitely feeling it. The second man returned with a water skin, and Niklas took it carefully, unsure exactly how flexible the leather was. He took a cautious sip, then a longer drink when the liquid didn’t taste like anything other than water, and leaned back against the building.
“I’m Niklas, by the way -“ he said, and then he realized his eyes were dragging closed and his muscles seemed to be suffused with an unexpected lassitude. He scowled, glaring at the man who’d brought him the water - he’d known the water being drugged was a possibility, of course, but he’d hoped he would be proven justified in his decision to throw himself at whatever came with optimism instead of suspicion, but it looked like the paranoia was proving to be more accurate. With great effort, he carefully screwed the top back onto the water skin, barely getting it back on before it grew too heavy in his hands and he slumped sideways onto the bench, his eyes rolling up and the world going dark even before he stopped falling.
Niklas woke up slowly, in that sticky, overheated, groggy way you wake up when you accidentally fall asleep in the sun and take too long of a nap. As he dragged himself out of sleep, he thought, at first, that he was somehow in his own bed, that he’d had a particularly vivid dream, but when he scrubbed the sleep from his eyes he was met with stone walls, not drywall, and it hit him that it had definitely not been a dream. He groaned, turning over onto his stomach and dropping his head back into the pillow just as he heard the door open behind him.
“Oh good, you’re awake. Sorry about all this - are you hungry?” The speaker’s voice was significantly lighter than either of the previous men’s had been, and when Niklas lifted himself up onto his elbows and looked over, he saw another man, this one shorter and more lithe than the first two had been, with longer hair braided in a crown around the top of his head and gathered in a tail of many braids behind his back, with what looked like pointy, furred ears peeking out between the braids - but he also had regular ears, so Niklas wasn’t entirely sure if they were really a secondary set of ears or if they were just some sort of decoration. He had a tray with a covered plate, a pitcher, and a cup, and Niklas squinted.
“Is it drugged again?” He was, in fact, hungry, but he also felt like seeing if his question made the man feel guilty or not.
To his relief, the man looked mildly embarrassed as he answered, “No, again, sorry about that - Devin and Tal just weren’t sure you were what you appeared to be, and there wasn’t really enough time to figure that out in a better way before they needed to leave, so knocking you out and bringing you along was the best solution they could come up with on short notice.”
Niklas nodded thoughtfully and turned over, sitting up. “So no more non-consensual drugging then?”
The man laughed and nodded. “Definitely not - it already wasn’t the best first impression, but I hope you’ll give us the opportunity to change that.” He uncovered the plate, revealing a pretty tasty looking sandwich, and pushed the tray a little closer to Niklas, who shrugged and threw his legs over the side of the bed, leaned over the tray, and took a bite. He wasn’t sure if it was just that he was incredibly hungry or if the sandwich was actually just that good, but either way, it was possibly the best sandwich he’d ever eaten and it disappeared possibly too fast to be polite. He blushed again at the other man’s indulgent smile and wiped his mouth, sitting back up and trying to look composed.
“So, uh, where am I? And who are you?” He asked.
“Oh! I’m Bliss! And obviously the two you met earlier are Devin and Tal. There’re a few more of us around, but I’ll wait until you meet them since nobody should be expected to remember a bunch of names without faces to put them to. And you’re currently at our den - we have a fairly nice setup, last stop heading upstream, right after the falls.” He looked like that explained everything and Niklas made a face.
“Cool, nice to meet you, Bliss. I’m just going to put it out there, since I already told Devin and Tal - I woke up in the forest like half a day before meeting them, and I was definitely not anywhere near here before that, so yeah, that description didn’t help a whole lot, considering.” He shrugged and reached for the water glass, still feeling overheated even though the grogginess had fled.
Bliss made an ‘oh!’ of understanding, looking somewhat surprised. “They didn’t mention that part - but that makes a lot of sense, actually. Ok, well, a little while later, when you’re feeling up to it, Grey would be thrilled to show you maps and talk to you about all that. How are you feeling right now? And, my apologies, would you care to share your name?”
Niklas laughed, setting the now empty water glass down. “Oh, I’m Niklas - call me Nik if you’d like. So, what happens now?” He wiped his brow, then frowned as he realized he was sweating.
“Well, we were hoping you’d stay with us - you don’t have to, of course, but, well…if you appeared in the forest, it’s likely you’re a long way from home, and it wouldn’t be safe for you to wander off now anyway.”
Niklas fanned his face, trying to parse Bliss’s statement, and then an alarming realization hit him. “By wouldn’t be safe, what exactly do you mean?”
“Well, you’re clearly going into heat, and I’m not sure how it is where you’re from but it’s really not safe to wander around like that here, unfortunately.” Bliss said, tone somewhat apologetic.
“Fuck.” Niklas flopped backwards onto the bed, then sat up again when his back immediately began to get too hot. “Yeah, so. Where I’m from heats and all that aren’t really a thing, they’re just an erotic novel trope, and everybody writes them differently anyway. Fuck.”
Bliss looked alarmed. “You mean this is your presentation heat?”
Niklas shrugged. “Yeah, I guess…fuck. Ok. Well. What am I expecting, here?”
Bliss frowned. “This is…not ideal. You’re going to need some kind of penetration eventually, to break the heat, but being intimate for the first time with someone you don’t know usually doesn’t go well…”
He trailed off, looking concerned, and Niklas shook his head, pulling his shirt away from his torso and fanning it. “I mean, if it helps, it’s not like I haven’t had sex before - I’m pretty well past puberty how it works where I’m from, if that was your concern?”
“Oh! Well. I guess... Ok, well. Basically, here’s what’s going on for you right now, biologically…”
Bliss explained, and Niklas did his best to pay attention, but now that he knew what was going on he could feel the heat rising, and finally, when Bliss seemed to be done, he took a deep breath.
“Ok, so. My options are take care of myself with a dildo, or someone help me. And letting someone help me through heat isn’t going to cause any long term consequences, right? No permanent mating bonds, no guarantee of pregnancy, nothing like that?”
Bliss shook his head. “No, we can provide a contraceptive tea that will keep you from getting pregnant - it’s not wise to get pregnant on a presentation heat, too hard on the body - and you have to put a lot more work in than just sharing a heat in order to build a mating bond. Honestly, it’s up to you - it’ll be more physically comfortable, and safer, if you let us take care of you, but if you don’t want help you won’t die if we leave you alone with a knotting dildo and supplies.”
Niklas shook his head. “No, I’m really not interested in riding this out by myself, it sounds miserable. If someone is available to help I’d be most appreciative.”
Bliss smiled and stood, reaching a hand out to help Niklas up. “Come on then - let me introduce you to the rest of the pack. I’ll warn you now - we don’t have a pack omega, since omegas who are interested in a pack situation are rare enough as is, much less one as nontraditional as we are, so the fact that you didn’t run screaming when you saw Devin and Tal or smelled scared of me at any point definitely has us hoping that you’ll stick around, let us form an actual pack -“ he cut off, swallowing the rest of his words as he pulled Niklas up off the bed.
Niklas nodded, his mind whirring. Well. It seemed like it was that kind of story he’d isekai’d into. He grinned and followed Bliss out of the room - he definitely wasn’t opposed to being the central omega in a harem novel, not one bit.