Although he hadn't shared the details of his realization with anyone, Freddie felt sure he had ferreted out the mechanisms of the ring's curse. By mid-afternoon, he began to worry that remaining a bipedal 17-year-old boy might be a more difficult challenge than he had envisioned. After breakfast with his parents, and more uncomfortable questions to which he gave increasingly sullen answers, he excused himself to his room.
He shut the door, kept the lights low, and slipped back into bed with his phone for some diverting surfing. He checked some of his favorite entertainment sites, clicked some links to new videos, then noticed one of those annoying pop-ups. He started to dismiss it when the thumbnail image caught his eye of the cute face and the fact the boy was shirtless in the image. Out of habit, he clicked the link and opened a bigger image of the cute shirtless guy with dark hair and sexy tanned skin.
Only when he felt a twitch in his pants did he gasp, tossed the phone onto the bedcovers, and realized his risk. He rushed to his bathroom, turned on the water, and splashed his face with copious amounts of cold water while trying to think of un-sexy thoughts. He took a deep breath and didn't feel any more twinges. He took a deep breath and walked back into his room, only to get startled by his father, who had opened the door and stood in the doorway.
When he saw that he had been noticed, he smiled. "Your mother and I are leaving for a few hours," he said. "She wants to go to the farmer's market."
Still on edge, which wasn't helped at all by his father's habit of not knocking (his father felt that he didn't have to knock on doors in his own house, even if one of the doors led to his son's room) before entering, Freddie gave a slight nod and said, "OK."
His father stayed in the doorway. "She wanted me to convince you to come with us," he said.
Even though he often went with Michael to the farmer's market, he didn't much feel like accompanying his parents, especially since his mother likely only wanted to keep tabs and make sure he didn't woof out again.
"I may go see Michael," Freddie said, although he still hadn't made up his mind of the wisdom in that.
"All right," his father said. "Call us if you need us."
When his father left, Freddie shut the door, and just to check, unzipped and pulled down his pants and shorts. He saw his soft dick looking entirely human. Relieved, he restored his clothes and took a seat at his desk. He had some homework that, he hoped, might keep his mind from wandering into dangerous territory.
That took less than half an hour. He turned and gazed out the window at a gorgeous October afternoon unfolding outside and decided to go into the backyard and enjoy some sunshine. He settled himself into a lounge by the side of their pool. The water was too cold for swimming, but his father hadn't yet covered the pool for the winter. In no time, Freddie felt relaxed and tried to let go of his anxiety. He closed his eyes and would have simply basked in the sunshine if he hadn't been interrupted by a familiar tongue licking the side of his face.
"Ellie!" he exclaimed with a mixture of surprise, distress, and plain awkwardness. The female Australian shepherd sat next to his lounge and looked at him with dark eyes that seemed to penetrate right through his human guise at the dog she knew lurked beneath the surface.
When she tried to lick more of his face, he stood from the chair and reached down to grab her collar. "You're going to have to stop slipping into the yard," Freddie said aloud and started to lead her back to her owners' gate. He stopped suddenly when he saw an owner, one of Ellie's owners, standing on the other side of the gate.
"Did she get loose again?" The big bare-chested man shouted across the fence. "I'm sorry about that, Billy."
Momentum and Ellie's tugging drove Freddie toward the gate. "It's Freddie," he reminded. He didn't often encounter his family's neighbor, who seemed to keep to themselves.
The man smiled and apologized. "Ahh, I remember that now," he said. "Sorry about that, Freddie."
The man swung open the gate and stepped into the yard. He wore a pair of shorts, which showed off toned, muscular legs, but Freddie's eyes remained fixated on the man's powerful chest and a nice coating of dark hair across his firm pecs. "It's not a big deal," Freddie said.
"You've grown some," the man remarked.
Freddie laughed as he imagined running his hands across the man's chest. "Maybe." He felt hot and hoped he wasn't blushing.
"She's in heat," the man said, distracting Freddie.
"What?" He tore his eyes from the man's torso.
"Ellie, the little bitch," he said. "She's gone into heat, so she's trying every way to get outside the fence."
Freddie nodded. "Mark and I have discussed letting her have a litter of puppies."
Freddie dimly remembered that the other man who lived next door was Mark and that the man in front of him...
"I'm Bill," the man said and extended his hand. "In case you've forgotten. I know that we tend to stay to ourselves."
Freddie took the man's hand, which crushed his in a firm handshake. He smelled the whisper of cologne on the breeze.
"Does your family have a new dog, Freddie?" Bill smiled and released his hand.
"Dog?" Freddie parroted. "No, we don't..."
"Mark said he saw Ellie getting nasty with a German shepherd yesterday in your backyard," Bill said and laughed hard. "I told you that she's the little vixen."
At that moment, Ellie chose to sniff around Freddie's crotch. He felt his face flame from shame. "He did what?" Freddie croaked.
"He got a phone call before he saw whether true love bloomed," Bill informed Freddie, who felt his heart pounding.
Ellie kept poking her nose around Freddie's crotch until Bill stopped her with a tug on her collar. "See what I mean?" He laughed again. "I better get her back into our yard. Sorry if she bothered you."
Freddie felt twitches in his cock. "She's no bother," he lied and felt his eyes sweep over Bill's bare chest again.
"Maybe her boyfriend will pay her another visit," Bill said.
"Her boyfriend?" Freddie felt trapped. No matter how many unsexy thoughts he tried to think, shirtless Bill kept obliterating them.
Bill chuckled heartily. "The German shepherd I mentioned."
Freddie felt his dick springing to life. He had to do something...