Chapter 13

A tingle of fear raced along her spine. “Han…” Maka retreated away from his stern face. “I don’t understand…”
His posture immediately relaxed, and a long sigh left his parted jaws. “Of course. Why would you have the mental capacity to obey without asking something completely stupid? This is a game. I’ve brought you here to hunt you, and the only thing you need to do is play the role of that stupid stag you kept mumbling about.”
He finished that with a lick of his chops. 
“Outrun me, and you are free to spend the day however you wish, but if I catch you…well…” Han flashed his fangs. “Let’s just say what happened last night is just the appetizer.”
Hot pain flared within her pussy at the dreadful implications of his words. Maka looked at her forepaws to see the speckles of dried blood that still covered the cuts. The injuries that still gave her the slight limp she had been fighting against throughout the whole forest walk. Her eyes trailed over to Han, and when she met his eyes, Maka froze. All of last night’s events rushed through her mind like a surge, filling her with the same desperate urge to save herself she felt when her panic attack struck.
He's going to kill you. The dreadful fear filled her with power. Run. Run now. Run for your life. 
Maka ran. She ran harder than she had ever done in her life. And behind, Han followed. Slowly but surely, he was gaining ground on her. Maka unsheathed her claws for a bit of speed boost, charging through the trees more terrified than any deer had probably been. She leaped over the larger rocks and swerved around clusters of trees to slow her pursuer down.
But Han knew these tricks well. He hunted hundreds of deer. Knew his way around his own territory far better than a poor huntress like Maka, a cougar that always relied on the male to fill her stomach. The female’s heart shrunk when a peek over her shoulder revealed the sinister smile of her mate.
“Run. Yes, run! It makes the blood flow faster!”
Maka tore the ground in her wake, using the last reserves of her depleting powers to aim for the river. Zuzeca was not far. If she could reach the southern arm of the river, she could maybe lose Han in the rapids. The male often expressed his distaste for swimming, and sure enough, his finesse would be rendered useless once his feet left solid ground.      
Faster. He’s almost upon you. Crystalline tears flew from her scared, azure eyes to disperse into the wind. The things he’d done to her, the horrors she endured…it was going to happen all over again if she failed to outrun this menace.
Maka felt her doom grow ever closer. Turn left.
Her feet skidded along the ground. She slunk between two trees into a thicket of bushes that stung her from every side. Maka closed her eyes and pushed herself blindly through the spines that attacked her from every direction. She emerged into a dimly lit grove with sinister plants she never saw before. Her mind would have analyzed the environment better, but with a hunter on her tail, Maka bolted ahead without noticing the snakes that crept from the slouching trees. One of them caught onto her hind paw, and the female fell chest first into the ground, skidding into the thick bark of a tree. 
“Mraaawwrrhhh!” Maka shook the dizziness off. The vine pulled her towards the bushes. She sliced at it with her unsheathed claws, but the sharp tips glanced off as if the vine was made of steel. 
A rustle made her look behind. From the tree sprouted several more emerald snakes that rushed to embrace her. 
Desperate to get away from her captors, the female crawled towards the bush where the first vine originated from, but these things were fast. She managed about half the distance before the tree’s limbs caught her, and, pinned between two sides, Maka’s mrowls and cries of helplessness attracted only one other cougar. 
“Oh, Maka. It is almost disappointing to see how utterly predictable you are.” Han approached her with a satisfied smile on his face. “I’ve led you here into this thicket, and now here you are. A frail little doe caught in the jaws of a beast she was barely aware of.” 
Maka snarled at him. “You are insane. What are these things?”
“Insanely calculated.” Han chuckled. “I have felt something similar to the panic attack you had back at the cave a long time ago. Your heart threatens to burst out of your chest, the blood chills into ice, your mind wonders what’s real and what’s not…in that confused state, it was easy to guide you out of our territory.”
“Out?” Maka looked around for clues, only to find out that even the shape of the trees seemed different than what she’d been used to. “What do you mean? We only walked for-“
“Four hours, give or take. I know, it hardly feels like a single hour has passed, yet here we are. Don’t be surprised.”  Han raked his claws along one of the vines. “My friends will take good care of you. You like my little pets, don’t you Maka? I call them grass snakes. Like those distasteful reptiles, they seek warmth, and your body is providing so much more than the sun can ever manage in such a damp, dark place.”
Now that her body was rendered completely immobile by the vines, Maka had ample time to check her surroundings. The canopy of the trees was an amalgamation of old vines that allowed only the faintest specks of light to pass through, and the trees themselves seemed ill. The vines infested them to the core, feeding on their bark and innards like a parasite. 
Something slithered under her paws. Since she couldn’t pull her feet back, Maka could only look as the ground itself seemed to be shifting as if it was alive. Hundreds, if not thousands of little vines made up the living carpet she was standing on, and to her sensitive pads, it felt like she was standing on top of cold, creeping worms. Maka felt her blood grow colder. She was beginning to reach a horrible realization: that Han led her into what might very well be her demise. 
“Han, free me.” She shot him a desperate look. “If I was of any worth to you, help me break out of these forsaken bonds.”
The male stared at her without a single word. His fur seemed darker, and only now Maka realized why the air smelled of wet fur. 
“There it is. That creeping look I have been waiting for all along.” The male settled onto his haunches, running his pads along the living ground. “My body temperature is slightly below what the vines are used to. To them, I am invisible. But you…” Han smiled. “After that mad chase I’ve put you through, you are like a feast of warmth to them. A juicy little fawn ready to be devoured.”
“You…you monster,” Maka blurted out. “What are you going to do to me?”
He stared up, then shook his head, disappointment present on his face. “I was hoping for a longer chase given how perfect this day is, but I suppose females are not much of a challenge, especially the one I call mate.”
“What do you want from me?!” Maka growled, pouring her helplessness into the only way she could retaliate. “Straighten your filthy tongue and put an end to whatever nightmare you’ve led me into!” Maka pulled and jerked her limbs, struggling helplessly against the encroaching serpents that only tightened further around her captive body. 
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Han pointed to a vine that wrapped itself further along her left hind leg. “They sense your desperation. The more you struggle, the tighter they’ll squeeze, so I advise restraint if you want to come out of this trap alive.”
Maka froze with terror. “They’re going to kill me…and you’re just going to watch…”
“Watch?” Han chuckled. “No, no, no. I’m going to do far more than that. Back home I have no means to restrain your freedom. Your maw keeps babbling on and on and on…but not anymore.” He licked his maw, flashing that evil smile she hated. “Today marks a much needed change in our relationship. Today, you are going to remember this lesson for the rest of your life.”
Her nose twisted when she inhaled the poisonous smell of his arousal. As he walked around, brandishing his wet tail through the air, Maka was horrified to see just how much Han enjoyed seeing her suffer. Blood-red and dripping with precum, his unsheathed member flexed its minuscule barbs with each pounding throb that coursed through its lubricated frame. 
“Like what you see?” Han pushed his wet spheres inches away from her nose, looking over his shoulder with the same cold and confident stare. “That is what you are going to take inside you, but before I do the honors, I would very much like to take a peek under your own tail. Get a quick glimpse at what I’m going to have to work with after last night’s pounding.”
“No. No. Stop!”
He advanced upon her, his teeth flashing mockingly until he disappeared from her line of sight. 
“Stop, you crazed bastard. Stop…I said mrraaaaaaaaawwrrrr!” Maka’s eyes rolled into the back of her head. Her body shuddered hard, senses going aflame under the intense throbs that rushed through her pussy. Her desperate screams descended sharply into a moan as his moist, barbless tip kissed her on the most sensitive part of her body. Han licked her furless pussy only three times, and the comforting feel of his warm, familiar tongue that brought her so much pleasure in the past, paired with the soft squelches of her kneading lips, felt like an erotic eternity to Maka’s dazed senses.
“Mraaahhh…mrrrrrooorrraaaaaahhh! Why…what are you doooooiiiinngggg?" She tilted her head to see the tip of the monster's ears flat against his head. The rest was obvious. She didn’t need her eyes to figure out what happened under her bristling tail. The pressure exerted by his muzzle kept her tense and ready for the assaults of his moist, insistent tongue. Han didn’t just lick her. He fed on her warmth, her helplessness, twisting his muzzle around to stimulate her narrow passage in all the right ways. 
Maka gritted her jaws and forced her mind to wander back to the painful nightmare she endured in the gloomy cave. The sting of Han’s claws. The ravaging kiss of his fangs. His barbed, bloated cock plowing her like a whore. She wanted to feel the seething pain, the bristling anger, the helplessness…
But nothing worked. Whatever scenarios she built up in her mind flickered like wisps of smoke before the pressing needs of her aroused body. Han was the worst enemy she could possibly make, for he felt his way around her body many times in the past. He satisfied her cravings. Knew each one of her intimate weaknesses.
And right now, he abused that knowledge by tilting his head horizontally to lick over her pussy with a slower, deeper caress that caused his tip to sink slightly into the narrow tunnel formed by her lips. Maka tensed with every stroke. She knew what was coming. Prepared for it in the limited ways she could by fortifying her mind.
Han’s smooth tip traveled over her pussy one last time, then returned to scrap her sensitive flesh with an army of barbs that had Maka shudder from every inch of her body.
“Ssssssstop aaaawwwrrrrr!” her hoarse cry felt as jarred as the swinging jerks of her tail. There was no way to stop him. No way to protect her trembling entrance against the onslaught of his tongue. Her folds parted faster than her eyes could blink to offer fleeting glimpses of her pink depths, soaked with unwanted arousal. Han however was not interested in seeing what she had there. Not when he could outright claim what he wanted. After that lick that felt like a drop of eternity to her desperate senses, he pushed his head back to swipe the fluids off his lips with a satisfied lick.
“Roar all you want, female. It’s your body that tells me the truth.”
Maka closed her eyes. Her tongue lolled from her mouth, trickling drops of hot saliva onto the cold vines below her feet. She felt exhausted and hot, too close to the one thing she could not control. “What truth?” She pushed her neck against the vines so she could see the face of the monster. 
He was still smiling. “You still want me. Accept that your body knows far more than your mind. Admit your weakness, and I might be more reasonable with you this time around.” 
Submit to this beast? Accept becoming the target of his perverted wrath? Even trapped and wounded, she had not been broken enough to become the slave of her own mate. 
“I…I refuse to submit.” Maka growled. “Even now, as I lay helpless before the onslaught of your sick, insatiable tongue, I will respect the vows I made when I decided to share my life with you.”
“Our mateship? Is this what your pathetic resilience is about?” Han shook his head and resumed his pacing. “It baffles me how slow your mind truly is. It is I that has been living a lie, my mate. Always forced to accept the two faced fiends you kept bringing to our home. I warned you about their intentions, yet instead you chose to believe their honey coated lies, and left your own mate, me, to suffer!”
“Suffer?” Maka’s eyes widened with surprise, and also with anger. “Is that truly how you felt when Sunka invited us into his home? He showed us his cubs, Han! His two weeks old, fragile cubs that stumbled blindly around their mother’s legs! What is this, if not the highest form of trust?”
“Sunka?” Han spat his name between his barred teeth. “I severely overestimated your capabilities if you bring Sunka forth as an example. That wretch has been strolling through my territory every day, pissing and defecating onto my land! That’s the sum of the respect he had for me.”
“Han, you can’t possibly…he was merely seeking shelter from the wolves that moved through his territory!”
“Was he a cripple? A frail thing beset by age?” Han tilted his head as he approached with bared fangs and menacing eyes. “Because last time I checked, he had the power to conquer his own territory just a year before he spat his vile seed into the sweet belly of his mate!”
“Yes, Han, but the wolves…even a male in his prime like Sunka was in no position to defend himself or his pregnant mate against an entire pack of wolves.”
He cocked his head at her argument. “Really? Two months is an awfully long time for a wolf migration. Oh wait, it’s deer who migrate, not wolves.” He scoffed. “Are you honestly so dense to believe all the pretty lies Sunka fed you? That…that always smiling, perfect life, good-for-nothing thief? Nobody can be that happy. Not a white wolf born alone into a mega pack, not an eagle that can brave the skies, no one!”
“You are jealous of him…” Maka realized out loud. “Those times when you offered to teach his mate how to hunt, the looks you sneaked in her direction when they visited…you…you wanted her.”
“Yes! I wanted her,” Han snarled fiercely now that his intentions had finally been unveiled. “But not in the way your simple mind might expect.” The male licked the drool from his fangs and sheared through the verdant ground with his sharp claws. “For months I sought the perfect opportunity to stain their pretty perfect life and expose the thief for what he really is, but I couldn’t find it. Not with you around. It had to be clean. Calculated. Perfect.” Han’s eyes gazed into hers. “Who knew that my mate, the mate I had been trying to protect all along, would be the downfall of my plan?”
“I…” Maka gasped. “But I haven’t done anything. I knew nothing of what you wanted. What you planned to do.”
“That’s right. You haven’t done anything. Merely wanted to see their crawling, furless little rats!” Han growled. “All those months I spent teaching Sunka’s mate how to hunt had been a way for me to gain her trust! The lie I had planted blossomed beautifully inside her simple mind, and when the day came to reap the fruits of my labor I made sure you would be too tired for a half a day journey…but you came anyway.” A long sigh escaped his throat. “You came, because you wanted to take a glimpse into the future. You needed to believe we can lead the same fake, happy life they had, while I wanted to see those smiles turn to ashes…”
“Han…don’t tell me…their cubs? You…you planned to…” Maka’s vision flickered from the heavy knot that twisted her stomach apart. Bowing her head, she rasped and coughed, trying to expel the heaviness that clawed through her body like an enraged beast. Comfort returned after a minute of agony. When the stars vanished from her eyes, Maka looked up at Han, who waited for her to recover as patiently as ever.
“Better?”
She gave a few jerks of her head. The vines wrapped around her neck allowed for little mobility. All she could do was snarl, growl, and spit her disapproval at the fake calmness draped over his face. 
“Cub killer.” She spat at him.
The male let out a long sigh, his eyes slowly dropping to the ground.
“Insults again. How childish.” The male licked the drops of saliva that landed on his muzzle before he took a few steps back, far enough to avoid another unpleasant incident. “I have not killed any cub, nor is it my desire to do so many years after that incident. I merely wanted to threaten their mother by leading her to believe her cubs were in danger. That was a good way to get the two bastards and their whelps away from our home. A sure way. Harming the cubs was never my intention. I am not the monster you think I am. I wasn’t. Not back then.”
Maka let out a short breath of relief. She still felt sick, but the discomfort was starting to clear somewhat. “Be that as it may, you kept lying to me all this time.”
“To protect you and our future offspring from a danger you refused to see when it stood right in front of you!” Han leaped through the air, landing a few paws away from her. “I will lie again and again and again if that’s what it takes to protect my family from those who would see all our efforts undone.”
Maka scoffed. His determination, the fiery glint in his eyes…in the past, she would have believed him, but not today. Not after he revealed his true colors. “Even if I find it in me to forgive you, I can never forget what you have said and done to me. You speak those words like you believe them. I see that now. There is no truth, no sense in anything you do. Moments before this conversation you were tongue deep in me against my warnings, against my desires.” Her voice lowered to a dim whisper. “You… you were raping me, Han.”
The male chuckled. “Is that how you see it?” he turned around, swishing his tail out of the way to fully expose his wet orbs. “From my angle, it looked like your body wanted me to keep going.” The male slowly slithered out of Maka’s line of sight. “You want me inside you, Maka, because for all your hateful insults and righteous words, I am still your mate.”
“Mate…” that word rolled so heavily upon her tongue. It felt like a lifetime since she said it in a fleeting memory, just like the cougar it used to represent. “My mate is gone. What remains is a pale imitation of the cougar I loved.”
“Is that so?” Han’s warm breath fell upon the base of her tail, washing over her slender flanks, touching her tailhole, kissing her upon her glistening pussy. “If you doubt me so much, perhaps it is time to remind you of who I am.” He approached to unleash a sharper, warmer, moister gust of wind that made her folds contract with anticipation. “Let us flare out the fire that burns within you and banish the shadows that blind your misguided eyes to the truth.” 
Maka expected her muscles to tense up, but instead, only a slight flutter swam through her mating hole. Han employed the same tactics he used before, moistening her pussy with several licks, then turning his head sideways to catch onto her sensitive mounds. After half a minute of minimal reactions from Maka, he started to use his entire muzzle to stimulate her mating area, rubbing with his nose, grazing with his teeth, even penetrating her with his whiskers in a desperate attempt to get her to feel something. 
“You’re holding back…”
A meek smile crept along Maka’s face. Oh, if only she could turn around to see his face plummeting into the ground. Even before the intruder, before the madness, Han had been prideful, and to not be able to pleasure a female -even one that he considered beneath him- felt like a stag’s kick between his legs.
“This resilience is pointless. I will not have your confused mind get in the way of what you really want!”
He planted his face back under her tail and licked at her stubborn pussy until his tongue ached with effort and froth gathered at his mouth. Maka remained the same. A stern rock that would not budge before the mightiest of waves. She enjoyed watching him walk around and simmer inside his fur with a diminished erection.
“It’s amusing to you, is it not?” He snarled when he caught a glimpse of her defiant smile. “Would you have the same pleased expression on your face when I rake my way into your womb? Because I doubt it will be anything less than painful to feel my sharp barbs crawl through the dry walls of your parched cunt.”
“Why bother with further lies? Get on with it,” Maka growled at him. “That’s all you care about, isn’t it? To have a warm sheath for that horrendous club you call cock.”
“The same club that had you moisten like a river just two nights ago!” Han licked her across the cheek. “See that you moisten for me if you don’t want to wobble for the next few days, my mate.”
Maka curled her lips against the accursed touch of his tongue. “Mrrraaaahhh try your best, Han. My body might be trapped, but my mind soars free!”
“Still trying to resist me? What a shame. I was hoping to get you soaked again, but in the absence of desire, I suppose my tongue will have to remind you of what all females crave for.”
“You failed.” Maka reminded him with a defiant hiss. “Your tongue tried, and flattened, just like your flabby little cock.”
She immediately regretted those words when Han turned around and shoved his balls into her nose. They felt squishy, still humid from the water he soaked himself with to avoid the entangling vines. As much as she tried to resist, Maka could not hold her breath indefinitely, and he was making that task extra difficult by rubbing his warm, plump, moist package against her muzzle. She felt the warm, furless opening of his sheath more than one time, the fresh tastes of arousal begging her to take a whiff of his scent.
Maka held on until her chest hurt from all that suppression. Then she opened her eyes. A long, trembling breath filled her lungs, carrying the sweetest of scents deep into her nostrils.
“Mrraaaaaa….mraaawwrrhhhhhh…” she closed her eyes in bliss as the fertile, strong smell of her virile mate tickled her sweetest of spots. Acting on its own, her tongue snuck out of her mouth to dab at the wetness that impregnated the short fur of his groin, collecting the silky precum back into her mouth, his masculine musk making her heart flutter with the sweetest brand of sexual excitement.
“Yes…take it in. Take all of it,” Han licked his lips happily as his member pulsated out of his sheath. Maka lapped at its barbed head as if it was a precious treasure, each stroke pushing the growing member closer towards her jaws. She opened her mouth just enough to soak the cock inside the velvet comfort of her lips, then suckled and purred and moaned like a female lost in the throes of her heat.
“Yessssss.” Han’s claws raked into the ground. Sweet strands of precum squirted into Maka’s mouth to feed the female’s throbbing arousal. “That’s who you are at your core.” Strands of saliva trickled down her chin when Han pulled himself out with a snarling growl. “A female … willing to serve her provider.”
Maka heard nothing of what he spoke. To her lust-addled mind, his words were an annoying buzz, insignificant, not worth paying any attention to. As she felt him rub along her body, Maka started to tremble with excitement, her pussy more than ready to welcome that big, virile cock into its depths.
“Mrrrrr, wet…” Han’s sigh of satisfaction made her heart leap with pride. “Such beauty deserves something special.”
As soon as she felt his breath upon her folds, Maka lifted her tail as high as she could to expose her puffy, trembling pussy to the touch of his drooling tongue. Han took another deep whiff of her excited scent, then fell onto her pussy with utmost wilderness, lapping the wetness out of her with the ferociousness of a starved beast, so quick and hard that Maka’s eyes teared up from how intense it felt. Within seconds her instincts took control of her weakened mind, barraging her with flashes of the most beautiful moments of her life. Their first mating, strange, yet exhilarating. Their anniversary, a day where Han satisfied her every desire and made love to her twelve different times. 
The night they shared two nights ago, when she felt his love slither back inside her arid body after months, if not years of muffled conflicts. His member never fit so perfectly within her walls or stimulated her in such raw, wonderful ways as it did back then. Along her nape she felt his loving tongue caress her with the long, flowing strokes that she loved. It took him seconds to reach his peak, and when he unleashed his yowl, Maka too cried with him, welcoming the spurts of hot semen that cemented the love between them.
The memory of their twined bodies was what pushed her over the edge now. Maka didn’t even try to resist the crashing orgasm. She gave herself body and soul to the rippling snake of delight that coursed through her bristling fur. Shooting her tail up, Maka shivered harder and harder until the heat became far too intense to contain.
She was going to cum.
With a sharp, spasming burst, she unleashed her boiling heat, splattering her essence upon her mate’s tongue. Han suckled the first two throbs into the depths of his maw before allowing the rest of the fertile squirts to spray carelessly onto his face. 
“Mrrrawwww, see?” After the squirts died down, Han took a few steps back to admire his work. His bared fangs glistened even in the lack of sunlight thanks to the translucent snakes dripping from them, and his tongue flicked lazily at the air, loaded with Maka’s orgasm, still aroused from the sheer potency of the female’s sexual juices. “Females are conditioned to obey even when choice is stripped from them. Will you obey me, Maka? Or do I have to keep teaching you the basics of our relationship?”
Maka exhaled a long, spent breath filled with frustration. Indeed, she was weak. Her legs trembled back when Han unleashed his tongue upon her pussy. Now, they shook like crumbling pillars ready to give in, with nothing to support them other than her will. Her body was weak, but her mind…her mind had to be stronger than that of a monster and the lusts he inflicted upon her.
“No…” Maka glanced over her shoulder. As distasteful as the male’s soaked muzzle was, she preferred to see the face of the enemy instead of cowering away from him. “We have a family, Han. That is all I have to understand. We loved each other before our cubs came into the world. We watched them take their first steps. We protected them, fed them, nurtured them at the cost of our bond. I see now how I failed to do my duties as a female. I should have sucked the frustration out of you before it had the chance to build up. Allow you to mount me more often.”
Maka sighed. “But it is too late for apologies now, is it, Han?” she flicked the tip of her tail. It was the only part she could still move now that the vines wrapped her body almost completely in a cold, verdant armor. 
“Are you trying to make me feel regret for my actions? To make me…apologize?” Han spat that word out as if it was wolf piss. “All I’ve ever done was for the betterment of my family. For all of us!”
Maka hung her head. She expected him to return to the same failed ideology based on nothing but vengeance. “You need to stop, Han. You need to stop this madness before you take us down even further…”
“Still stubborn, are we?” The cougar walked around her trapped form. “Look at you. Bound up to your bare cunt and still find the willpower to bare your teeth at me. Do I have to remind you of how the same mouth that blabbers on now sniffed the scent from my balls? How this prattling tongue begged for the taste of my seed? You wanted me deep inside you, just like I was when I first claimed you as mine.” He came face to face with her. “You are mine, Maka. Not the other way around.”
He inched closer and closer, as if to kiss her. Maka closed her eyes and twisted her muzzle in revulsion as their muzzles made contact. Hers, warm and dry. His, wet and slimy from all the juices soaked into his spiky fur. Maka whined in revulsion when Han pushed hard into a kiss, her lips twisting as she felt her own slime catch onto her fur. Han rubbed himself around her head a dozen times to make sure the climax she just ejaculated found a new home onto her whiskers, then backed off, far enough to allow Maka to see him swipe his own muzzle clean of her climax. He liked to brag, the bastard. Wanted her to see that he could have every part of her that he wanted, even the juices of her womb.
“Have me. That’s what you want, isn’t it? Spill all that festering spite inside me if that makes you feel any better.”
Han hissed, more upset than happy. “You can’t understand. Why won’t you understand? This isn’t about me. It’s about you!” he resumed his pacing. “I can have you in the morning, I can have you at night, in the depths of our cave, I can have you even when you sleep if I so desire! Would you like that, my mate?” he lunged at her, his moist breath falling upon her frozen face. “How would you feel to wake up with a cunt full of seed belonging to a mate you no longer love?”
Maka gave him no answer. 
“I might have your body, but that rebellious mind of yours keeps soaring far beyond my reach. I have to bring you down. For the future of our family, I have to make you understand that there can be no equality between doe and stag, wolf and cougar, provider and female.” 
“Han.”
He silenced her with a sharp slap to the muzzle.
“What I want, what I need from you is absolute obedience!” Han hissed in her face. “This is the only way to ensure that our family remains functional.” 
He leaped away to pace around his frustrations. “Mrrawwwhhh I can’t believe I didn’t see it before. I was too weak, too stupid to allow you the freedom to question me at every turn.”
His crimson eyes moved back to her even as he continued to walk around in a circle, from one tree to the other. “Can’t you see? This is how it needs to be. I provided you with land, I gave you a family, and what have I ever gotten from you? Questions upon questions with no loyalty whatsoever!”
Maka gritted her jaws further. She was not going to fall into his trap again. She was not going to play this wretched game of senseless chasing. Like the sturdy walls of her den, she was going to stand her ground against anything Han would throw at her.
“Help me understand,” he resumed his monologue. “You say you love me, then call me mad because you are too blind to see the threat that can destroy our family. You promise to stand by my side forever and ever, then waste the entire day around the cave doing what? Going where? How is this not love, when all of the responsibilities fall on my shoulders so that my beloved mate can lounge in the sun all day? Wretched. Wretched and lazy!”
Right after he mumbled those words, Han ran back to her, his crimson eyes dripping with fury.
“I know. Oh, I know what has eluded me for so long. Why, the answer stands right in front of me! You never supported me, female!” he lashed out with his forepaw to deliver another slap to her face.
Maka endured the blow with dignity. Eyes closed, jaws sealed, she uttered nothing. Not even a whimper.
“What’s the matter?” He tilted his head. “Why are you looking at me like that? Do you have no mouth to speak? Are you not guilty of being a burden? Speak!” Han placed his forepaws on top of her, just like last night. “Even if you drag me down like a burden, at least have the decency to address your provider when he speaks to you!”
His roar ruffled the fur along her body. With her ears perked, Maka stifled the shudders to look into her mate’s eyes. “What?” Her gentle voice came, soft as a summer breeze. “What is there to say that has not already been spoken?”
Her lips twisted as sharp, searing pain dug into her trembling fingers. 
“You can start by apologizing for your uselessness.”
“M-me?” Maka tried to keep her composure against the waves of agony that rolled through her. “I should apologize?” she slid along her mate’s muzzle to whisper into his ear. “You raped me, Han. You forgot your vows, forgot me, and soon, you are going to forget yourself.”
Han drew back as if struck, blinking wide eyes filled with disbelief. Maka could see it clear as day. His weakness, his obsession, his anger, all laid bare for a fickle moment before the rage of the monster washed everything away. 
“I have had enough of your words!” 
Maka found her head slapped into a cluster of vines that rapidly coiled around her muzzle. “You need to be filled.” Han swiped the ground from under her legs in order to mount her from behind. “To be taught.” He thrust his balls against her pussy, making Maka’s tail instinctively shoot up to reveal the bare, sloppy entrance to her womb.
“To learn the severest lesson in who towers above you.”
No! Maka screamed in the back of her mind. No, no no please don’t do this. Han, please! If you do this, you will forever lose yourself! 
His barbed tongue fell upon her shuddering nape, turning her fur slick for the savage bite that would undoubtedly hold her in the same immobilizing agony she felt last night in her own home. 
“My mate, my love, my darling, my Han…” He whispered above her submissive ears. “Those are just words of comfort, absent intent, absent meaning.” He took one of her ears in his mouth and nibbled on it until it turned slick with saliva. “You haven’t believed in me when I was all those meaningless things. A change is needed, as vast as the cleansing of our territory. If being a monster is what it takes for you to obey, then I will be the creature from your nightmares. I will become the monster you paint me out to be so that I can continue to keep my family, our family, protected from the threats you are so oblivious against.”
And with that, he sunk his barbed menace into the soft, wet, much too sensitive insides of her pussy. Maka’s breath exploded out of her nostrils together with a whimper of agony. In her ravaged emotional state, every scrap of those barbs felt like unsheathed claws dragging along her flesh, and not even when he was fully inside has the pain become any more manageable 
His balls slapped hard against her pussy, sealing her entrance with a gate of coarse, arid, trembling fur. 
“Feel that?” Han mockingly whispered in her ear. “My balls are clenching with the eagerness to fill your soft insides to the brim. I am going to mark you with everything I hold inside them, so that you never forget who owns you.”
Right after he said those words, the monster’s merciless jaws clamped down on her neck. Maka didn’t even have the opportunity to scream. Her entire body tensed up, then went completely numb, as if lightning sheared its way through her body, paralyzing everything in its wake. 
“Mrrrhhhhaarrrrr,” Han’s ominous growl spoke what his mouth could not. He was going to take her in the same, ruthless way, and he was going to enjoy every thrust, every throb, every moment spent inside the confines of her obedient body.
Maka closed her eyes. When the first thrust came, she felt the same searing brand of pain course through her clenching folds. The second journey felt just as painful. Then a third came, a fourth, a fifth…each slam of his hips against her prone body pushing her closer to the foreign sensation of complete detachment. It was strange, how her body found a way to cope even in this dire set of circumstances. Bound from every part of her body and trapped under a monster who frothed at the jaws with the primal pleasure of rutting her, Maka’s mind started to crawl out of her abused body. His bite slowly became a strange cold pressure on her nape. His growls, the murmur of the peaceful Zuzeca river. She barely even felt his cock as her lips had been so drenched in his precum that his barbs didn’t even catch on her walls anymore. 
Everything was peaceful...until a spike of infernal pressure made every fur on her body straighten up. Maka’s eyes burst open with a fresh wave of hot, crystalline tears. The numbness was completely gone. Shattered by the steely kiss of sharp fangs. Maka’s cover was completely obliterated, exposing all of her instincts to the sheer agony of being devoured alive. Han’s fangs not only pierced this time, but chewed on the flesh of her nape to draw forth massive amounts of blood with every bite. Maka thrashed, clawed, and jerked against the vines, desperately trying to save herself from the grip of death. 
“Did you think I’ll let you run away again?” Han’s voice came from above, his jaw slick with fresh blood. The brunt of the pain stopped, replaced by the sharp sting of his tongue. “I know all about your little hiding place, and you are not going to visit it. Not until you feel what I feel.” He licked over the bleeding punctures repeatedly, as if his tongue could fill up the crimson holes left by his fangs. Slick with red blood, they looked strange and uneven, marring the beauty of a once perfect cougar. “Oh, don’t worry about the wounds, dear. I doubt my little love bite will even leave a scar…my intention here is not to mutilate you. Merely, to give you a glimpse of the pain I’ve went through all these years.”
Han opened his mouth again. His hot breath fell upon the bleeding nape of his mate, making her tense up with fright. 
“You feel this?” he tapped the tips between two of her vertebrae. “That place is packed with nerves. Pinch it right, and your body flares up like a bonfire. It leaves no scars. No traces it ever existed. But the mind refuses to believe a lie. It becomes obsessed, searching for a truth that is not there, trying to find an explanation for how such intense pain can come out of nowhere. Same as I did all those years back when I pretended to go along with a lie I should have exposed before it turned into this.”
Maka dug her claws deep into the ground. Her heart raced a million beats in her chest, a chest that felt so tight she could barely breathe. After her heart skipped over a pounding beat, her vision blurred with a myriad of stars. Was this how it felt to die? No…it couldn’t be. Last time Maka felt peaceful. She resigned with her fate. This time, it was different. Like every cell in her body urged her to flee from the terror that found perch atop her body. The protector of her family. The male she chose. 
Her mate.
“I too found myself trapped in the vines weaved by our friends. Do you remember what you did when I sought your support? You licked me on the cheek, like this.” Han brought his head to her level. 
Maka closed her eyes. Though her eyelids trembled terribly, she forced them to remain shut, least increase the panic that rampaged through her mind. She even barely registered the familiar sloppiness of his tongue, or the barbs combing through her fur, for she felt like prey, her mind focused solely on the prospect of death.
“Why tremble such?” Han licked her again, his voice softening to the calm tone of a long lost phantasm. Her old mate. “Everything is going to be fine, Maka. Remember this line? How you licked me so sweetly right before you told me to put my concerns at rest? Everything is fine. We are happily mated in a broad territory that can support five, if not ten different families.”
His voice paused for a moment. “We are happy…”
His sigh combined with her shuddering breath for one peaceful moment before a crackling blow of his hips sent his barbed spire back inside her. Maka’s pussy shuddered like jelly around the rock-hard protrusion that filled her, her weakened body unable to protect her sacred life-giving passage from the onslaught of a rapist.  
“Do you know how many times I wanted to tell you how wrong you are?” Han growled in her ears, his pace getting faster, the pain, burning hotter. “Can you imagine how it felt for me to pretend that I’m happy amongst those two-faced jackals?”
His tawny balls bobbed back and forth like a furred pendulum as the angry male plowed his way in and out of his prisoner. He didn’t even need a neck bite to force Maka into submission. Her head was already on the ground, crying tears of pain while on the other end, her pussy wept in similar fashion thanks to the ever-growing amount of fluids dripping down her cherry colored lips. 
“Every night I returned to our cave to be mounted by your so-called happiness, the fangs of the overprotectiveness you had for those liars cracking my neck and turning my hide to shreds!”
Han took a short break to clean the blood that started to pool around his fangs. “Can you imagine how that feels, my mate, as you lay here trembling and bleeding, waiting for the sweet relief of my seed? Do you know how much I ached knowing that, every time I went to patrol our territory, there was every chance I would find you with another male upon your back? You had so many male friends, after all, and you always took extra care to maintain close relations.”
Han thrust his way twelve more times in and out of her sore, dripping pussy, licking her nape every few seconds to wash off the constant pool of crimson fluid that turned her brown fur a few shades darker.
“Can you feel what I felt back when your filthy, no-good words turned me into a female unable to even defend myself? And now…when this wretch crawls in, lured by the fertile scent of my daughter’s first heat, you do nothing but scold me. Call me mad for wanting to protect my family! Do you know how that feels? Do you?!”  
Maka blinked down a tide of fresh, warm tears from her terrified eyes. “I don’t know! I never did, Han!” her voice shuddered as she tested the strength of the vines once again. “How was I to know about your fears? For years you’ve kept these thoughts inside you, and now accuse me of being unsupportive? Unfaithful? Why?” Maka’s voice slowly died down. “Why did you choose those suspicions over me, Han? I could have helped you!”
The male scoffed in her face. “Help me with what? Words? Every day you had something to say. A new friend to invite over in our home. You spoke so much your mouth went dry. So focused on your friends you were, that you completely missed the signs of my unhappiness.”
Maka paused for a moment to gather her thoughts. How could she put this in a way that would not spite him further? From her point of view, living amongst supportive friends was more than perfect. She felt safe, cared for, knowing that other cougars had her back. There was no way of telling how wrong things could go; how much damage a seed of doubt could produce. 
“What signs, Han?” she started to sob, shivering from every part of her body. “What signs are you talking about? Please tell me. I want to understand how you felt.”
“Oppressed. Is that good enough for you?” the male snarled. “I felt caged in my own home, always putting on a face to keep you happy, worrying that if I let a single word slip I might doom myself. I got tired of it, Maka. Do you want to know the truth? There came a day when I was too exhausted to smile, to nod my head, to provide for a female that could never understand me.”
“So you chose to ignore me…without even trying.”
“A decision I stand by even to this day.”
Maka closed her eyes. “Then I suppose I lost my mate far earlier than I believed.”
“No,” Han said. “No, no no. This is who I am, Maka. This is who I’ve always been before I lowered myself to your level just to prolong your fake, so called happiness. If you want to understand me, if you want to truly see how I see, then ask, and I’m going to show you exactly what I went through.”
Maka didn’t care. She no longer had the patience nor the strength to understand the roots of this evil. She chose to remain silent, but for a monster who delighted in seeing others suffer, silence was not good enough.
His fangs sunk into her neck, right between the two vertebrae Han spoke of earlier. The flashes of colors came first, zapping her vision with millions of jagged lines that made no sense.
Then came the boom. A thin, shrilling noise that made her ears explode with the sharpest sound a cougar could perceive, making her head feel like it was squeezed between four different boulders.
Last came the pain. The most wicked, twisting, acidic torment that a cougar could experience. Somewhere within her mind Maka knew it was only temporary. That the tips of his fangs sunk between those two vertebrae would apply searing pressure upon her bundled nerves only for a short time. 
But her thoughts fizzled, blown away like leaves ripped by the savage winds of a storm, leaving behind that feeling of having one’s flesh torn apart by millions of serrated needles. 
Her vision blackened. Her body froze. And then darkness overwhelmed her senses.
She didn’t know when she awoke, or how. The first obvious thing she noticed was the absence of pain. Maka blinked her eyes a few times to make sure she was not dreaming. That somehow, she was still alive. 
Hot, rancid breath poured from the mouth of the creature atop her. She could feel the wetness that enveloped her head, bits of drool and froth that matted her fur into a mess of browns and reds. Though she lay unmoving, her body slowly rocked back and forth with the momentum of the thrusts. He was still mating her. His labored huffs and trembling limbs suggested as much. 
But the clearest indication came not from outside. It came from the depths of her own body. 
His thrusts started to quicken. Maka barred her teeth. The hiss that escaped her jaws could not fully explain the sting that rushed through her every time the monster battered her defenseless gates. His barbs had traveled in and out of her for so long that they reshaped her pussy to fit their vile needs. Blood spurted from the scratches carved by the barbs, triggering an involuntary contraction that made the searing pain even worse.
“Mhhrrawwwrrrmmmm.” Maka squeezed her teary eyes in a futile attempt to ignore the inferno that started to well up within her. With every thrust, the monster’s heavy sack slammed against her lips to keep her muscles locked in that agonizing grip. Remain warm and tight for his member to vomit its vile seed. The monster cared only for his own needs. When Maka hurled her head back, his jaws locked onto her nape to apply another brand of pain that split her torment evenly across her broken body. 
Maka thought she was going to pass out again. She was hoping for the sweet relief of oblivion. 
But darkness refused to balm her senses, leaving her alone and exposed before the lashing blows of the monster's spiked rod, its thrusts too many, too quick to keep count. Though she would have never admitted this to anyone, Maka felt relieved when his broken cry rang in her ears. She knew what was going to happen as soon as his member bloated within the bleeding confines of her squelching, ravaged lips.
Spurt. Was that the greatest he could manage? A mere flicker of the raging sea Maka imagined? 
His trembling fangs struggled to keep hold of her neck as his balls jumped up to deliver another fresh load of cum into the relatively unscathed parts of her pussy. Maka closed her eyes and sighed. She could barely feel the sickly spurts of his semen. No matter how hard his cock throbbed, no matter how deep he worked himself inside her, even monsters had their limits.
Han picked himself up a few seconds later, allowing the cold breeze to sink into her fur. He dropped onto the ground a short distance away from her with froth around his mouth and drops of cloudy fluid still dripping from his unsheathed member. 
Maka turned her attention back on her own body. She felt strange. Different. She pushed the ground with her paws to rise up…
And to her surprise, no tug came. No force that rammed her back into the ground.
She was free. 
“Those legs won’t take you very far.”
Maka ignored his voice, her eyes searching for a way out. There were many paths she could take. With any luck, the vines could even trap Han. 
But those were only dreams spurred from the desperation of a deluded mind. There was no way out of this nightmare. Han would just catch her again and again.
Maka dropped back on the ground. The thought of being stuck with him felt heavier than her wounds. Heavier than even the sloppiness of her pussy. Liquid continued to trickle down on the ground, annoying Maka enough to force her to lift a leg, push her head close, and snarl at the bitter mixture of blood and cum that rushed into her nostrils.
“See?”
She shuddered at the sound of his voice. Han moved next to her, settling onto his haunches so that he could point at her pussy with one of his forepaws. “Can you finally gaze into my nightmare? See what I see?”
His gray pads dabbed at the thick mixture of the vastly different life-giving fluids gathered in a small puddle under her genital opening. Thin lines of blood twisted and coiled in a frantic dance around the snow-white formations that formed within the seminal fluid. On a normal day, after a normal mating, Maka’s heart would have soared at the sight, for she knew of the potential those little formations carried. It was the best part of a male’s semen. Pure seed that, if spilled in the right hole, could create life.
But that promise was now tainted by the monster’s touch; a touch that she still felt within the narrow passage of her aching pussy.
“This is what will become of our daughter if we allow this intruder to invade our territory.”
She tensed when his large, slick pads made contact with her bare pussy. One of his fingers sunk right between her tender folds. It hurt, but no more than his cock.
“He is going to find her. He is going to take her. He is going to spill his wretched seed not just once or twice or even ten times, because he knows…” Han paused to let his gaze sink into the ground. “He knows that the only way to win my territory is to render me incapable of fighting. After all, what is a scratch on the flesh compared to a laceration to the heart?”
The male let out a heavy breath as he collapsed on the ground. Head placed on his forepaws, he looked more docile than the tormentor who just inflicted himself upon her. More like her Han.
“He wants to tear my heart out, Maka. Our heart." He glanced at her with one crimson eye. “She is our daughter. Did you not vow to protect her with everything you have? At the cost of your body and soul, even against threats much greater than you? Are those not your words I remember?”
He was not completely wrong. Maka wanted to remember, yet…that seemed a different life lived in a different time with a different cougar. She opened her mouth to speak, then let it hang, the silence between them deafening until she turned her head upon her wounded backside. A tear rolled down her cheek, and with the same serene silence, Maka allowed her body to fall back on the ground. 
Pain shot across her nape. With a wounded growl, the female rolled onto her side to see Han staring back at her. Admiring his work. Delighting in her suffering no doubt.
“I…” that lone, heavy word rolled out of his mouth into the cold air. “I do not enjoy marring your body, Maka.”
How could he not?!
“You might be stubborn, stupid, and at times more than useless, but what I want you to learn, what I need you to acknowledge is that our daughter’s future is more important than a few scratches. Wounds like that heal.”
“Do they?” Maka asked weakly. “Feel what I feel…is not that what you just said to me? In all your years, have you even tasted a fragment of the pain you’ve inflicted upon me?”
“I had no need to, for my foresight protected me against costly mistakes.” Han said. “I have eliminated my competition before any of them had the chance to strike back, just as I am trying to get rid of this blight before he slithers inside our daughter. Would it not hurt more to see Skanita’s beauty defiled? Her eyes aflame with tears, her belly too large to sit upon…” Han clenched his jaws and flexed his claws. “I will do anything to prevent that, and I swear by everything I have, everything that I am…this creature’s seed will not find purchase in the womb of my daughter!”
Maka sighed. How was all this suffering going to prevent that atrocity? She had so many things to say, but instead, she kept her maw shut, afraid a misspoken word could increase her pain tenfold.
“It will get easier. After you learn this vital lesson…things will be better.”
Maka didn’t know if it was the care-free sound of his voice or his disposition that pressed her frayed nerves. With his belly facing the sky, Han was the perfect picture of relaxation, almost mocking her for her inability to do the same. Warm, seething anger filled her, and all of a sudden, she felt like a volcano on the verge of erupting. 
“You speak of the future with such certainty, when it is you that gives me nightmares. You changed, Han. Two days ago, I would have never believed my mate could put me through such a torturing trial.”
“Really now? Have you heard nothing of what I said?”
“Lies spoken from the same maw that bit me? How can I trust you ever again?” Maka hissed, backing away from the monster. “The stranger is not the problem here. He never has been until you allowed your own fears to turn you into…into this creature. Look. Just look what you did to me,” Maka swiped her paw over the drops of blood and cum that impregnated the ground. “You are the terror, Han, and standing anywhere near you makes me fear for my life more than I ever did before!”
The male was stunned at what he just heard. Eyes wide, tail frozen, he stared at her with his big, crimson eyes until the anger she had come to know flared within his body. 
“Are you so thick to disobey me right now, when my seed still drips from your pussy?”
“I’d pee it all away if I could!” Maka snarled. 
Yet that was the wrong thing to say to a vengeful beast. Within a second Han was upon her. Maka rolled on the ground, striking back with her claws, but like before, he proved to be too fast, too powerful for her. A choked breath left her frightened maw as Han’s jaws clenched around her throat, his powerful limbs holding her down. Maka froze when she felt his weight press upon her. 
“I am starting to believe I am truly wasting my time on you, Maka. I try to make you strong…but your weakness constantly gets in my way, filling your head with dreams, preventing me from protecting my daughter!”
Maka squirmed and whimpered as a cold presence pressed upon her folds. It wasn’t his cock. She knew the shape of his cock by heart, and right now the monster was limp and soft. Too soft to wound her again. Too powerless to violate her body.
“You believe yourself better than me, yet it is you who never watches or cares about our children. Why let them wander alone? Is that it? You think they can fend for themselves? Or is it that your parched cunt thirsts for the seed of another?” 
Han doubled his efforts, his flaccid cock poking its head out of the sheath with every sloppy slam he unleashed upon Maka’s flooded pussy.
“Want to breed, mrrrrrh? To squirt your progeny into my territory, feed them milk from your fat, useless body? I’ll soil your cunt. If it’s cubs you want, I’ll fill your disloyal belly with hundreds of them!”
“What…” Maka croaked. “Would they think… of you…. if they saw this?”
Han froze. His grip pulled back, jaws too stunned to even form words.
“What would our cubs think of their father?” Maka pressed on.
“Enough! I will not hear another word from that disobedient mouth!”
He said that. Even doubled his efforts. But the result was just the same.
“You can’t,” Maka said, almost amused by the sudden shift in the situation. Han, the monster she learned to fear, was no more powerful than the nub of meat he poked her with. 
“What?” he growled. “Think you can defy me, female?”
“Fill me.” Maka dared him. “Go on, my provider. Pour your seed in me. Give me that heavy belly you threatened me with. Stand up to your words, just like your cock stands now.”
She expected his fangs to find her throat again, but even with her throat contorting for air under the pressure of his rage, Maka smiled and thrust against him to further mock his lack of erection. 
Han jumped off her, a look of disbelief replacing the anger in his eyes. He paced around, awestruck by the sudden turn of events. “You…you made me like this, female. Infected me with…with your weakness! YOU MADE ME LIKE THIS!”
His words went once again unanswered. From her side -the only way her injuries would not hurt- Maka watched the monster-turned-wretch pace around, conflicted, displaying signs of nervousness. Did he feel guilt, when he swished his tail around like that? Remorse for his actions? She couldn’t know for sure. Part of her did not even care, as the Han she knew was gone. What stood in front of her was a different cougar that only looked and smelled like her mate.
His smell…she could not rid herself of it easily, yet there was a way to remove part of his stain from her body. Maka moved her head under an upraised hind leg to reach towards her pussy…
“Wait.”
She paused. Why, she did not yet know.
“Let me,” Han padded over to her, easing her on her back, then spreading her legs apart to reveal the pinky mixture of cum and blood that his anger unleashed upon her. 
“Will you bite me?” Maka asked. His exposed fangs still made her shudder.
“No,” Han answer simply. “Not now. Not unless you give me a reason. Stand still, and keep your legs spread.”
Maka obeyed him, only because it seemed fit, ironic even for Han to eat his own, precious cum. When his tongue fell upon her battered gates, Maka tensed with apprehension, expecting the fiery sensation of barbs. What she received however was much smoother. Comforting. Strange. As if she lost herself in a better dream. The silky feel of the barb-less tip of his tongue felt like rejuvenating oil inside her pussy. Instinctively, she spread her legs apart, finding herself purring to the wet flicks of the male’s tongue. After he cleaned her entrance, Han pressed his fangs harder and harder against her backside not to hurt, but to squeeze his tongue deeper inside a place that thirsted for such a gentle touch.
“It’s done.”
Maka blinked her eyes, almost confused that her pleasant dream ended so abruptly. 
“Stay here, and if the vines approach, spray them with urine.”
Just like that, he was gone.
Maka sniffed through her wet fur. There was no trace of seed anywhere near her privates. Closing her eyes, she resumed licking, her purr flaring back within the depths of her throat. 
A soft thump made her ears flick. There was nobody else that could sneak up on her apart from the owner of the land. Jumping onto her legs, Maka turned to the stern face of the male carrying a large bundle of herbs in his mouth.
“Herbs, to help with the wounds,” Han explained as he settled down on the ground. He spread the bundle apart with his paws, sorting the herbs by type in smaller piles. 
“What’s this?” Maka approached him slowly. She knew the look and scent of healing herbs, but her mind refused to make the necessary connection. “Why?” she asked, bemused by the strange return of the male.
“Why what?” Han paused to look up at her. “I am still your provider, am I not? That’s what I’m doing. I provide.”
“I know, but…” Maka paused. How could she say this in a convincing way? Here it was. The opportunity to slink back to her home. Or maybe even escape Han’s grip altogether. Her thoughts jumped to her children, specifically to how they would fare after their mother was gone, but Han never showed any inclinations to harm them. Everything he did was for his family. Or so he said.
“I am just wondering if there not a better place for-“
“This grove is the safest place you can find. Hear anything?”
Maka perked her ears to hear…nothing. There were a few insects in the hollows of the vine-infested trees. Apart from that, there was no small life. Curious, how even the birds avoided nesting in the canopy of these trees.
“The vines. They’re afraid of them. Afraid to die.” Maka said.
“That is a possibility, yes, but I have not seen this outcome ever since I discovered this grove,” Han said. “The trees have not developed a taste of meat. The brambles are just a defense mechanism. Nothing else.” 
Right. As if those accursed snakes would have let go if he hadn’t sprayed his acidic urine on them. Maka made a mental note to remember that as she settled on the ground, still looking at Han apprehensively, as if he was planning something dark. He kept working though, giving little indication of his thoughts, and after he finished with the first step, the cougar started chewing his way from pile to pile, depositing the sludgy mess of broken stems, shattered leaves and drooping saliva in a pile of broad leaves. 
“Come to me.”
She stood up, slowly.
“Still weary of my intentions?”
“As any cougar must.” Maka said.
He sighed. “You know as well as I what this mixture does. Now come before I change my mind.”
Somehow, she worked up the courage to approach him, her eyes focused on the ground, away from his eyes, his feet, away from even his tail, least succumb to the panic that boiled within her belly. She sat down nervously, kneading the little vines while she waited for him to put his plan into action. 
“Mrrraaafff,” Maka tensed as his tongue fell upon her wounded nape. 
“Tell me if I’m going too fast or feel any discomfort.”
“Like you care.” Maka blurted out without thinking. She almost expected Han to strike back at her insolence.
But the cougar said nothing, allowing his tongue to wash over the hardened blood that gathered around the entrance of her wounds. What was once a familiar sensation drove whispers of fear under her fur, keeping her on the edge. Fortunately, nothing unexpected happened. After a dozen or so licks -enough to get the fur soaked- Han placed the mixture upon the back of her neck and spread it around with his paw. 
“You know…this could have gone much better, but we both have to admit pain is the greatest teacher. The lessons it imparts…they stay with you forever. I remember the-“
“Stop.” Maka’s voice shook. “Do what you must, but do not try to justify cruelness. What you did to me-“
“Was wrong,” Han said.
Maka almost swallowed her tongue. Did she hear that right? Was it not just a figment of her imagination? 
“I wanted to impart knowledge, yet instead, all that stuck was unnecessary pain, for which I am sorry. I am proud. You knew this ever since you took me, but I am telling this to you right now, or at least, trying to. I almost…” he shook his head. “My cautiousness, my fear, my anger, it turned me into something I’m not, and…I lost myself. I am sorry for what I’ve done, and while I cannot take back the wounds I inflicted, let me at least heal them.”
So he was sorry, after all. Looking down, focusing on her kneading, Maka whispered to him. “A few herbs will not win my heart back, nor will they wash away the memories that will haunt my nights.”
“I know that, but I hope this can be a start to make things right again.”
Maka gave him only a nod of her head as she relaxed the best she could under the ministrations of his paws. Han spread the paste over her fur, then started to knead, pushing the mixture harder and harder into her wounds. He warned her about the pain, but Maka gave no sign she even heard the advice, her stern jaws not letting out as much as a wisp of weakness. 
“Done,” Han placed his paw back on the ground. “Avoid deep water for the following days, and sleep on your belly.”
“No need to play the role of a mother with me. Are we done?”
“Almost,” Han waved his paw around. 
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“That means we are not finished yet. I am going to be gentle. There is nothing to fear from now on.”
Though a sliver of fear crept up her spine, Maka dropped on her side and pushed her tail far back to allow him full access to her aching pussy. “No claws, no tongue. Only pads. And be quick about it.”
The male gave a nod, settled on his haunches, and began tonguing his paw. He did it slow, allowing only the tip of his tongue to roll over the pads. This way plenty of saliva built up before each stroke, turning his grey pads darker. With that done, he flexed his fingers and licked between them enough times to soak the small strands of fur. 
Maka thought he was done. Hind leg lifted, she expected his touch upon her folds, but instead of that Han pushed his paw inside his maw to suckle on it for a long annoying minute. 
“I think you missed a spot.”
Her dry remark stirred no reaction from the cougar. Focused as ever, Han hovered his paw over to her genital opening. He paused.
Maka gave him a nod, then gasped lightly when his warm, silky pads connected with the wounded surface of her lips. He held his paw there for a few seconds, then started moving it around slowly to get her accustomed to the feel of his pads. “If you are in pain, tell me, and I’ll stop.”
With another dip of her head, Maka settled comfortably on her side and waited for Han to finish his massage. His slick pads slid softly across the surface of her lips, comforting her with every stroke. After two minutes of rubbing, Han took his paw back in order to place the mixture of herbs upon her pussy. Maka gasped, making the male freeze in the process.
“Did I-“
“Cold. The mixture, it’s colder than your paw.”
He seemed relieved to hear that. Han moistened the mixture with a few more drops of saliva, using his tongue to spread it evenly over her opening before his paw replaced it. 
“Try to relax now. Find something that brings you peace. Think of better times.”
Maka closed her eyes, picturing the days after their first mating as he began rubbing her vulva with one of his pads. It felt warm and soft, like the kisses he used to give her after his seed found purchase within her belly. The promise of becoming a father brought the best qualities out of the cougar. That Han had forsaken his patrol duty to spend his entire time with her. Maka remembered those cold days of winter so fondly. How she went looking for small animals in the puffy snow, the cold rays of the winter sun cascading down through the snow-leaden branches of the evergreen fir trees. She had no care in the world. No worries apart from the tiny life growing inside her belly. Late at night when the forest became encased in ice, in the warm embrace of her mate, she listened to Han’s tales of bravery; stories he would pass down upon his own children when they grew old enough to listen. 
Warmth flickered within her belly, and, lost in her memories, Maka allowed it to grow just like her belly did two years back. The weather turned warmer. Life replaced frost, and at the end of the summer she gave birth to her two little treasures. A male her mate named Skan, and his twin sister Skanita. From that moment on, her entire universe seemed to revolve around those two. That was another moment when Han went out of his way to make her happy. She gorged on the sweetest of fawns all day, and when night came Han crawled behind her body, giving his offspring a fond lick before flicking the same loving tongue over her pussy. He kissed her, again and again, murmuring his love for her, showering her body with a small token of his appreciation. 
Part of that heat bled into the present when an enticingly soft finger pushed its way deeper into the velvet confines of her moistening pussy. Maka’s breath shuddered. Her claws flexed through the air, curling to grab at the phantasms of her excited mind. Han’s kisses turned into something warmer and wetter, his sloppy licks resounding through the cave. For female that abstained from any sexual intercourse for month, to be eaten out in such a ferocious way was just too much, so, with a broken, almost pathetic growl, she poured all her love into a burst that splattered upon the needy tongue of her loving mate.
That memory was so intense that even her wounded folds forgot all about pain, grasping and squelching with thick, needy noises around the dripping pad that played the role of a smoother, better cock. A long, purring moan left Maka’s throat. Eyes squeezed with pleasure, she thrust into the blissful paw. The thrill felt so good it consumed her, transposing her back to a time when her mate still loved her, and Han quickened his pace, mating her entrance with that sole finger while the rest of his foot kneaded, pressed, and rounded her folds to fan the flames of her passion.
Maka felt like she lost control of her body as she rammed herself into the only good feeling she felt for the past two, miserable days. Her mind thirsted for warmth. Her pussy needed something soft after all that abuse, and her tired mind did nothing to stop the flames from ascending into an all-consuming blaze.
It was only when her muscles tensed and her breath caught into her throat that Maka realized she was about to climax. With a sharp kick, she thrust herself away from the precipice of release.
“That’s enough.” Maka buried her head in her paws, blinking hard to clear her head from the dizziness that almost caused her to lose control of her senses. “I can finish the rest myself.”
“As you wish.” 
She was relieved to see him move far enough away to give her time and space for herself. The tangy smell of her mistake permeated the air around her, a weakness that could have very well led to more suffering. Maka silently cursed herself for exposing herself such. What if her scent stirred his need? She distanced herself from such thoughts by focusing on continuing what Han started, massaging her vulva with her colder pads to muffle the tingling warmth that still burned within the depths of her flushed pussy. 
Once her arousal died down, Han requested her permission to approach. Maka looked at her folds again, making sure no drops of fluid were present before giving him a quick nod. The male sat down beside her. He looked at the trees, and by the sound of his silence, he needed time to put his thoughts into words.
“You need to return home,” he said with a cool voice. “Find our children. Tell them that you ventured too far west and that the intruder forced himself upon you.”
He tilted his head so that one of his crimson eyes stared at her. “Those herbs will not mask the scent of blood nor render your wounds invisible to the naked eye. Our children might have their heads filled with small and insignificant things, but they are not stupid.”
“I agree.”
Han seemed surprised. 
“It is the most believable way to cover the painful truth. They can never know what happened between us.”
“I am…surprised to hear that. If I am honest with myself, I expected more resistance coming from you. It’s settled then,” Han got onto his fours. “Warn our children to never stray from home. Make sure Skanita understands what can befall her if she ventures too far. I cannot bear the thought of seeing her harmed.”
“You won’t have to.” 
They kept eye contact for a few more seconds before Han ran into the depths of the forest.