Ash Ch. 06

Linda felt itchy. It was not a parasite or pest problem it was the filling of the moon. Every night the moon grew wider and brighter, every day she could feel the wolf within her drawing nearer the surface. It was as though the fur of her beast tickled her skin from beneath as it paced, waiting.

She couldn't remember being this aware of it before. It could have been the forest surrounding them, the scents and flavours of the wilderness. It could have been the fact that she and Ash were holed up in the cabin together away from everyday life, without the distraction of her regular routine she was alert to every heartbeat, every pulse, every time the breeze lifted her hair.

It had a lot to do with Ash. The time they spent together was finite; it had an expiry date, like for every moment that they drew out it grew tauter and tauter and could only, inevitably, snap. She caught herself watching him when he was unaware of her. Though much of their time was taken up exploring and then re-exploring each other's bodies there were still mundane chores to do. They may not have had to balance chequebooks, earn money and collect dry cleaning but there were still dishes to be scrubbed and the few clothes that they did wear did still require washing.

Ash was up to his elbows in soapy water; Linda had earned the reclining position on the sofa observing him by putting the breakfast onto the plates he now washed. The breakfast bar obscured her view of his long lean body; the cabinets above it blocked the view from above too. This left his bare torso, hips to shoulders, for her inspection. Not a lot to go on really; his shoulders no longer habitually held knotted ropes of tension, but then they had spent the majority of their time indulging their mutual sexual curiosity for each other. Who could be tense with that much sheer outright satisfaction on hand?

Guilt ticked like a countdown within her. It twisted her stomach into knots as she listened to Ash's tone-deaf whistle over the slosh of warm water. When he found out that she had lied to him all his previous suppositions about women and wolves would be proven right. She wanted to prove him wrong. To prove that women weren't selfish creatures interested in their own comforts and pleasures at the cost of a man. That they didn't all run screaming from the room when a man wanted more than conventional sex. That being a wolf didn't have to make you any less human.

But Linda had lied to gain this time and in doing so she could only prove him right in all those bitter accusations. She could tell herself that an omission wasn't a lie as often as she wished but she couldn't make herself believe it. She could swear on all the gods in the history of the world that she would explain what the wolf pack would expect from Ash when the time was right. But at every right time she chose, instead, to seal her lips from the truth and to leave her lover in the dark. Proving him right in a thousand different ways every day they stole together.

"The moon is full in a few days." Linda said casually.

When they had met Ash had been in the grip of a moon change. All the stronger for the fact that he had fought the shift of skin he should have made at the full moon. Instead he had pushed his body to its limits to delay the inevitable.

Ash gave a non-committal grunt, neither positive nor negative, merely an acknowledgement that she had spoken.

"Will you run with me?"

The muscles in his freshly tanned back locked into place. He did not turn to look at her but she knew she had both surprised and concerned him. In the city the pack met in the largest of the parks in the centre of town. It was supposed to be closed to the public after dark but still they met, climbing over the gates or the walls to gather on the fullest night of the moon. Together they would run. Thirty strong, they ran through the twelve acres of parkland. It was an incredible feeling. Linda was aware that she wasn't a member of the pack but on the full moon they didn't chase her away as they might have done at any other time. There was safety in numbers and to let her run in their midst meant that she was not clipping along the streets of the city posing a danger to the human population. By letting run in their group they were saving their number from growing unnecessarily. The full moon was an amnesty from the membership.

Thinking of the pack only served to remind her of her cheated position here. Linda bit her lip and wished she had said nothing.

"I don't run on the full moon." When Linda didn't respond to Ash he looked over his shoulder at her. "I hate that it feels like I have to."

Linda nodded although she didn't understand his statement. "So you put it off until you really have to?"

"I put it off till it's convenient." His words were tinged with the rough growl of his temper.

"Uh-huh, so the night we met was convenient to you."

He said nothing and she didn't push the subject. She would have liked to run with him, to have another body to bump against as she poured through the woods, but she wouldn't risk their tentative truce on it. Linda resigned herself to a solitary run.

Two days later when the pull of the moon was a commanding presence on her body Linda stood in the woods alone. She hadn't raised the subject again; she didn't want to be responsible for ruining Ash's newfound happiness. For he truly seemed happy, even if it was based on the sins of her omissions.

The woodland was silver. The shadows sharpened when her change was complete. It was a hideous process to endure, bones breaking, reshaping, growing, shortening, to feel hair growing in places that should be smooth clean skin. It took between five and seven agonising minutes and if you were lucky you could run yourself ragged in wolf form and return to humanity in your sleep. Colour faded in this alternative form but images were sharper, clearer than any she could see with her human eyes.

The scent of the forest deepened, the rich green aromas from the vegetation could be peeled away to reveal a wider variety of life and death around her. The old fallen leaves of many years lay mouldering, rotting beneath the dust of the summer, amongst them grew the fungi that would burst to live with the first drop of rain to wash the dust from the canopy. Above that the scuttle a myriad of creatures. Beetles, grubs, mice, voles, upwards to the larger things that ate them; the foxes and badgers, bats above sucking up the flying things. It was the mammals between that caught her senses now, the deer and the rabbits, grass fed and wary but worthy of the chase.

Something else tripped across her senses. There were wolves about, that she knew, Linda curled her lipless mouth in wolfish reverie; she knew each of them intimately. Their scents were everywhere. Ash, Hunter and Sheila, the aroma of their sex and scent were all over these woods. At the edges of those fine memories lurked another scent. Another wolf was here. Without her sharpened senses Linda had not noticed it before.

She followed the smell, nose in the air, feet padding cautiously and near silent through the trees. Warily she was circling back to the cabin. Had she been in her own skin she would be prickling with nervous sweat, instead she stood shoulders bunched, ears pricked, alert to any movement. If the strange wolf strayed too far north he would end up being Hunter's problem, she had little doubt that he wouldn't wait for explanations before chasing off a stray.

The scent persisted. It trailed the circumference of the cabin. So much for Hunter diving in and solving the problem. Stealthily Linda crept from the shelter of the bracken and scented the steps, she needed to know whether this interloper had breeched the cabin or not.

The rough-hewn steps were clear of the trespassing scent but her exposed position was exactly what the new wolf had wanted. She spun around, ears back, lips curled in warning, every one of her sharp predatory teeth exposed. The wolf was as black as a living shadow. No wonder she hadn't spotted it before. It slunk forward timidly, head down, eyes averted, cringing towards her, its tongue lapping at its nose to show it wished to submit.

Linda didn't care for the display of friendship. She needed the wolf to get the hell out of the forest. She snarled. Low and constant, when it continued forward she punctuated her warning with two sharp snaps of her teeth. The wolf paused, sneezed and shook itself. It was genuinely confused by her reaction. Since it was human in origin it didn't stay confused for long. A true wolf would have backed off to return another day; only humans persist beyond reason.

The intruder took another step towards her. Linda leapt at him from the steps, she snapped and snarled as he darted out her path. She caught nothing more than few hairs from his haunches in her front teeth but she had him moving in the direction she wanted. Away from the cabin and away from Ash. Linda checked over her shoulder to ensure her lover hadn't appeared to check on the noise. Her heart was racing, not from fear of this city wolf but from dread that Ash would join her and want to question him. With her blood racing and her body in wolf form she was unable to think through the more detailed possibilities.

She didn't stop chasing the wolf back until they were a mile and a half from the cabin. They were in the thick of the woods here, equidistant between the cabin and Hunter's territory. What ever she did the black wolf merely stayed beyond her reach, it didn't run away or try to guide them back towards the cabin. He was determined to 'talk' to her as much as she was determined not to.

Frustrated by the stand off Linda snarled furiously. The black wolf merely paced out of her reach and made a chuffing sound, something between a snort and a cough. It sat down, nose in the air, drinking in the scents around it. With its tongue hanging limply from its lipless muzzle it watched her. It sniffed more determinedly and made a sound in its chest that was almost a purr. Linda focused on the air around them.

Sex. They were beside the hollow where the four of them had fucked, though it was nearly a week ago the earth still held the scent of their sex. The black wolf licked his lips and gave, what could only be described as, a grin. Taken aback Linda shuffled her feet wondering what to do next. Then she saw the wet pink tip of his cock breaking through its sheath. Damn it, she thought.

From behind her came a deep rumble of a growl, it seemed to go on forever, reverberating around the hollow. The black wolf backed up, his thoughts of sex forgotten with the onset of this new threat. Ash stepped up beside Linda, his sand coloured coat several shades lighter than her russet one. He set himself between the two of them, shielding Linda and snarling at the trespassing wolf. The black wolf looked from one to the other, dipping his shoulders in submission he took a timid step towards the larger male.

Ash lunged for him. His teeth snapped and the black wolf yipped in pain. Again he stepped forward, making a show of his submission. Ears down, or rather one down as the other seemed to be hanging beside his face, tail tucked between his legs, his tongue lapping at his front teeth. Ash lunged, this time grabbing a mouthful of fur. He bit down on the loosed folds around the other wolf's neck and began to shake him. Linda added her weight to the fight by snarling in the intruder's face, her teeth snapping at his muzzle, nipping at the edge of his good ear.

When Ash released his hold the black wolf ran. It rolled to its feet and charged away through the forest, they could hear the bushes and trees snapping for a long time to come as they stood side by side listening. Linda wanted to shift back from wolf form right there and then just to have arms to wrap around her lover, lips to kiss him with. Instead, once she was certain the pack wolf wouldn't be back soon, she nipped Ash playfully on his haunches and skittered off into the forest. So began a game of chase that was as exhilarating as it was childish, puppyish even.

Ash awoke to road drill hammer of birdsong. He fidgeted to relieve the nagging cramp in his leg, bumping up against warm soft flesh as he flexed his foot. That warm soft flesh moaned and shuffled back against him, firm rounded buttocks nestled around his morning hard on sending a jolt of happy sensations through his nerve endings.

He was curled around Linda, he might have called it 'spooning' if she hadn't been so short, and she was definitely a teaspoon to his tablespoon. She was curled into a ball and he had curled his body fully around hers, it left her bottom pressed delightfully to his crotch. His right arm was tucked under hers, his physical satnav having found her breast in his sleep and the wonderful cushion of it spilled over his fingers. He flexed his fingers, feeling the ripple of movement jiggle and roll in a way that nothing on his body could mimic. Linda's puckered nipple grazed his palm; one tight little bud amidst all that fluid softness caused his cock to jerk against her body.

Linda moaned and wriggled deeper into him, as though trying to burrow into him since they couldn't physically get any closer. Her sleepy enthusiasm, okay not enthusiasm but unconscious encouragement, made his cock ache with potential. Using his hips he pressed his cock to her body more insistently, punctuating the physical suggestion by rubbing her taut nipple the edge of his thumbnail. The sleeping she-wolf undulated against him making a soft sound in her throat though her deep breathing declared her to still be asleep.

Ash's balls tightened, drawing closer to his body, the subtle movements of Linda's sleepy snuggling allowed his cock to slide between her thighs. What had started as a sensuous stretch of waking limbs was growing into a more pressing need within his body. Gently he rocked against her, sliding his cock between that perfect gap between the top of fleshiest part of her thighs and her sex. He could feel his the head of his cock brushing over the entrance to her body, it fit snugly between her folds and with the slightest of efforts... Ash leaned back a little feeling the tip of his cock nudge at Linda's clit, still hidden within the secret layers of her sex. That mere bump of body parts stimulated a sensuous moan from the sleeping woman.

Could he actually slide his cock inside her without waking her he wondered. He hesitated considering the moral dilemma. In law sexual consent must be granted before proceeding otherwise the act was technically rape. Ash's sleep fogged brain stuttered over the concept, he should wake her; ensure she was fully aware of his intentions. The thought of her waking with his pulsing erection buried inside her body made his cock jump and twitch. Consent be damned, she was inciting a war between his brain and body with her sleepy moans and subtle whimpers. But what if she wasn't ready? His cock might have been seeping pre cum like an over-squeezed toothpaste tube but a few rubs of his cock and a squish of her tit could hardly be considered adequate foreplay.

The moral dilemma was solved. While his mind had been busy working out twenty first century political correctness his body moved on instinct. Having found its groove he'd continued rocking along the length of her pussy, the insistent slide of his body against hers combined with the lubricant he was producing in copious quantities moistened the way as surely as if he had spent hours on mutual foreplay. The slight tilt of his hips caused his cock head to dip into her entrance and that was all the encouragement he needed to increase the pressure and ease aching cock inside her more fully.

He needn't have worried about the lack of foreplay. Her sex was warm and wet and welcoming, he held still just enjoying the thickening pulse of her body around his cock. His muscles screamed with the need to move, arms and legs tensing in preparation to ram his body into hers, he breathed through it, waiting out the urge, enjoying the wet embrace of her body around his.

Linda stirred. Incoherent murmurings preceded a languorous stretch that rubbed her body against his in a way that made his eyes cross with concentration. He felt the moment she woke. Her loose-limbed languor replaced by a sudden alertness, instantly replaced by sensual surprise.

"Good morning to you." She breathed.

Ash flicked her nipple with his thumb and jerked his hips, her resultant gasp fuelled him. She arched back against him, catlike and purring, it was all he needed to thrust deeply. To find her so willing and ready scattered his doubts and hardened his early morning arousal. Pulling her back against him and then rolling to his back, holding her tightly so that she lay sprawled across his body, exposed to his attentions. He ran his hands over her breasts, cupping, squeezing and pinching until she was breathless and drawn tight around him. Her inner walls clutching at him as the tension of oncoming orgasm contracted her body. Every gasp, every shudder stroked his cock as surely as if he had thrust himself mindlessly into rutting. Ash revelled in her body. It welcomed him, embraced him and inspired him on.

Try as he might Ash couldn't zone out. No amount of eight times table or listing of kings and queens in alphabetical order could distract his body from every nuance of Linda's arousal. It was like a vicious loop of need. He tugged and pinched at her nipples, knowing how that contracted her slick pussy walls, but those contractions stroked his cock until he thought it might explode. Sliding a hand down to her apex to finger her clit caused her to grind dizzyingly against him, making him cry out with the intensity of her grip on him. Damn it but if the woman didn't cum soon she would crush his cock like a vice. Then again. Ash returned both hands to her breasts. Attuned to her desire through the last week of endless experimentation Ash plucked at her nipples. Knowing how sensitive they were he began drawing out the moments before orgasm, not just his own but Linda's too. She mewed and whimpered with each pinch, each tug, each of those resulting in some inner tremor or tightening of her internal grip on his cock.

As wolves they had sought a hiding place amongst the fallen limbs of ancient trees but the humans they awoke as paid no heed to secrecy. He lay naked, covered only by the woman impaled on his cock that in turn writhed and arched above him, her entire body on display. It was that exhibitionist thought that ripped away his tenuous shred of control. His nails bit painfully into Linda's breasts, the shock of pain dissolving the last barrier to her orgasm. When she reared up, thrusting her breasts deeper into his palms, grinding her contracting cunt harder to his pelvis he thrust upwards into her. His cock throbbed, swelled, each pulse stroking his woman inside and causing her cry out with yet another wave of pleasure. Pride surged with pleasure, he poured molten cum into her convulsing body. Each spurt of hot cum triggering an erotic shudder from her that milked yet more cum from his pumping cock. It was an endless circle of pleasure that might actually kill them.

Ash gasped, his chest burned with the need for more air and try as he might he couldn't seem to draw in enough to ease it. He lay still, focused on the sheer in out of his lungs until the only weight on his chest was the limp, sated woman stretching up to pet him for a job well done.

"Oh wow, I really love..." What? Her body? Her desires? That she was a hot fuck? All of it was suddenly inadequate. "You." He finished breathless with his own surprise.

He was still assimilating the notion, the rightness of it, when she rolled from him. Pushing up to her feet, almost as an afterthought she bent down and pressed a fervent kiss to his lips before rushing off in the direction of the cabin, leaving Ash alone and confused.