Over the next few hours, Clyde gave Eric’s new body the workout of a lifetime, barely giving him time to rest before they’d once again resumed rutting long into the night. Eric got his own chance to top his mate, feeling the mind-blowing rush of the rut as his body and instincts overrode his rational mind for a time. With the sheets drenched in sweat and seed and their fur nearly pasted to their bodies, Clyde had the bright idea to fill the bathtub and let them wash off a bit.
“The whole village will probably know what we’ve been doing all night by tomorrow, but I’d rather not smell like it,” Clyde muttered as he stripped the sheets off the bed while Eric handled the bathwater, and soon they were once again entwined together in the warm water.
“So does all that mean we’re hitched now?” Eric asked dreamily as he ran a hoofed finger across Clyde’s soaked fur. “It sure sounded like you were proposing…”
“I would if I could, love, but it’s not so easy. Weddings are small around here, but there are many traditions to take into account. Too many, perhaps, but it makes the vanhat happy. Our elders, I mean” Clyde sighed dramatically, nuzzling the sides of their faces together affectionately. “No, I still need to tell my parents, let them start putting together the wedding feast, send out invitations to the extended family in the farther-out villages… And you still need to do the same, don’t you söpö?”
“Don’t remind me… I stressed out for months before telling my folks I was gay, even though I knew it wouldn’t bother them,” Eric groaned. “This… they might care about this a little more.”
“We’ll ease them into it. Hell, it’ll probably he harder to get Bix to warm up to you than to convince your family to show up to the wedding, if that’s any consolation.”
“It is, I suppose,” Eric laughed, stretching out in the large soaking tub and letting the water wash away the aches of their night of passion. But, in the back of his head, there was still something bothering him. “…You didn’t hear Tom get back, did you? Think he went back to the resort?”
“The train isn’t running this late… Perhaps he is just giving us some privacy?” Clyde offered, though he too sounded a bit worried.
“Hmm… I hope so…”
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-A FEW HOURS EARLIER-
Only a few minutes after Lars and Tom had said goodnight to Rudy and Clara, Lars dragged Tom off to a quiet alley and began passionately kissing him, at least for a certain definition of ‘kiss’. Fox kisses generally involved a lot more tongue than the average human was used to, but Tom repaid the fox’s enthusiasm as best he could. And then, in a moment of clarity, Tom knew what he wanted.
“I’m staying, too.”
Lars pulled back from the kiss, his eyes wide. “Y-you mean it? This is no joke, right?” He glanced up and down Tom’s body, waiting for a dramatic glow to sweep over him like had happened to Eric at dinner.
…Nothing.
“You are not serious. You haven’t really made up your mind?” Lars sighed, his tail going slack and his ears flattening against his head.
“I-I thought I was being serious!” Tom stammered, completely honestly. “Damn it, I want to stay here with you and Eric and everyone else! I’ll marry you, help out at the resort, anything!”
Lars’ ears twitched up again at that. He could tell that Tom was serious, and that was what bothered him so much. All the research he’d done made things quite clear: Agree to join the tribe and the transformation would finish. Simple as can be, and they’d even sealed it with a kiss.
“Tommy… I believe you, I really do,” Lars started to say, his tail flicking nervously. “Hmm… I have an idea, but this might be hard. Just trust me, okay?”
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Tom did trust Lars, but he certainly had a few questions as they hauled out a snowmobile from a shed near the training yard, fueled it up, and started speeding off away from the reindeer homes and across the tundra together.
“Is this really necessary, Lars!?” Tom shouted over the roar of the snowmobile, clutching the little werefox tightly to keep himself from being knocked off. “I said I really want to stay! It’s not a joke!”
“If that is true, then why are you still like this, hmm?” Lars replied playfully, glancing back at Tom’s mostly human body. A few little whiskers had sprouted on Tom’s face over dinner and numerous streaks of white had grown into his hair, but it was far from a complete transformation. “Your brother, he agreed to stay and he gave us a real show at the dinner table, didn’t he? I wonder what is the difference between him and you.”
“The difference? I mean, if I had to guess-“
“It’s rhetorical, hun. I think I know. It’s traditions, ceremonies, that sort of thing,” Lars explained. “Eric, he joined the reindeer in training for Christmas Eve, he participated in the exchange of antlers. All you and I have done is make kissy-faces at each other and had a bit of sex.”
“I thought sex was a werefox tradition?” Tom asked, genuinely surprised. “And I wouldn’t call it a ‘bit’. We had a lot of sex today.”
“Sex is often a hobby, sometimes a tradition, and very rarely a ceremony, but not all three at the same time,” Lars said, as if that made any sense at all to Tom. “What we need to seal things between you and the werefox tribe is a ceremony, and a ceremony requires the proper place, the proper actions, and the proper attitude. There. That is where we are going.”
He pointed ahead, to a path on the tundra that lead toward the nearby mountains. As the ground grew steeper and rougher, they had to abandon leave the snowmobile and trudge through the snow on foot, and Tom was quite glad for the layer of short fur that had begun to grow on his legs and arms.
“Lars, I’m really not sure this is necessary!” Tom protested, wondering what had gotten into the little fox. He remembered Dave telling him that werefoxes were eccentric and stubborn, but it seemed downright dangerous to drive off into the mountains in the middle of the night.
“Just because I run a resort for tourists doesn’t mean I’m not in touch with my people’s history. This is my tribe’s ancestral land,” Lars said, waving a paw around at the stony cliffs and sheer rock walls around them. “That cave, that is where my mother gave birth to me and my litter mates. And a bit higher up, there’s an altar where we make offerings in the midsummer. We might live elsewhere in modern times, but we return here for the most important of events in our lives. That is why we’re here. You understand?”
Tom had never seen Lars so serious before, and he had a feeling that the quirky werefox had been looking forward to this moment for years. He knew in his heart that he wanted to stay here, so he’d do whatever ceremony was needed to prove that.
“I understand, Lars. Let’s do this.”
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After his big, important speech about history and tradition, Lars had led Tom into a small cave off the beaten path. Once inside, Tom was surprised at how warm and comfortable it was, which Lars explained was from a thermal hot spring in the cave. Once they got deeper into the cavern, they came upon an open chamber, and at the very center was a simple mattress piled high with blankets and pillows. Lars padded over to the mattress and reached under a pillow, withdrawing a bottle of clear liquid.
“Aha, it is still here! Loistava!” Lars exclaimed, popping the top and taking a sip. “Still good, too! Yes, this is going to be just fine…”
“Lars…” Tom said slowly. “…This is just your secret love-nest, isn’t it? After all that important talk about ceremony, are we really just out here to fuck some more?"
“No, love, we are going to perform a ceremony! I told you, werefox ceremonies rarely involve sex. Lucky for you, this is one of those rare situations where is does!” Lars said cheerfully, holding the bottle out for Tom. “Now, drink! It’s the best akvavit money can buy, aged for seven long years.”
Tom rolled his eyes at his boyfriend’s sense of the dramatic and took a big swig of the bottle, nearly choking on the overpowering taste of distilled alcohol and herbs. At this point, he had no clue whether Lars was serious about this ‘ceremony’ or if he was just having a bit of fun at Tom’s expense, but Tom didn’t even care. Whatever Lars wanted, he wanted too, and if that meant getting wasted and screwing in the middle of nowhere, so be it.
“Okay, let’s do-“
No sooner than the words had left Tom’s lips, Lars had pounced on him and knocked him back onto the surprisingly soft mattress, locking his lips against Tom’s and slipping his tongue inside and swirling it around. Lars slowly began to strip away the layers of Tom’s winter clothes, unbuttoning his shirt and tugging his pants down, all the while grinding his rock-hard, pointed cock against Tom’s body.
“I told you. This is a ceremony, and you must have the proper attitude for it,” Lars moaned, pressing his cold nose into the side of Tom’s neck and lapping at his skin sensually. “This ceremony will change you, if you let it. It’s all just a matter of mindset, lover. Do you want it to work?”
“I do, god yes I do,” Tom growled, an almost animalistic growl that rumbled up from deep in his throat. He held on tight to Lars and flipped the little fox over onto his back, and they both purred in arousal as they watched a heavy, white-furred sheath slip up around Tom’s cock, which began to grow thicker, redder, and more pointed as it drooled precum onto Lars’ fur.
“Good, it’s working…” Lars panted, then he lifted his rear end up and pushed his thick tail to the side to show off his inviting tailhole. “But, you’re not done yet. Not by a long shot. Think you can keep this ceremony going until morning?”
Tom bit his lip and slowly nodded. Even if he wasn’t tipsy and horny, he’d already gone this far and was going to see it through to the end. By morning, one way or another, he’d prove to Lars that he belonged with the werefox tribe here at the North Pole.
“You’d better believe it, fuzzball. I’ve been waiting seven years for this, so another couple hours will be nothing.”