Chapter Thirty-Three
Atlas
Thankfully, my urge to rut all the time had subsided, but Kassie had been acting strange. I hadn’t realized how much humans liked to brush their teeth. It was far more than the standard twice a day I’d originally assumed in humans.
She’s begun to run out of her toothpaste.
We’d stayed in the cabin for three days. Even with mating four times a day, which I considered a significant decrease from a Mothman’s normal seed output… Kassie still seemed to think it was excessive.
After some research on the internet, using my phone, I found out that fully grown human males in their thirties can come then have a refractory period that can last anywhere between thirty minutes to hours.
The older these males get, the longer those refractory periods can become, sometimes lasting days.
That sounded fucking awful.
Meanwhile, I was ready to go right after I released the previous load.
I guess that is why Kassie was often sitting on a bag of ice. She wasn’t used to being completely wrecked all the time.
It wasn’t just me initiating, though. There were times when she climbed me like a tree, tickling my neck with her teeth in a way that drove me wild. Sometimes, I wished she would just bite me the way I had bitten her.
On the occasions when we didn't claw at each other like feral beasts, I made her rest, and pampered her the way a good moth should—bringing her steaming mugs of my hot chocolate that made her eyes flutter in pleasure.
Since I was the first Mothman to obtain a match, I felt I had to set the tone for my entire species.
I ordered plush blankets in deep, forest greens, purples and midnight blues, silky sheets with a thread count that made Kassie gasp when she ran her fingers across them and a mountain of pillows that smelled of lavender and cedar.
She already had belongings from her room with Harlow.
Her large collection of dog-eared paperbacks and stuffed plushy animals, some I’ve never even seen before.
What the hell is a capybara?
We were combining my things with hers and also buying new things together. It made me happy, it was so… what was the word?
Domesticated.
Things were delivered quickly because of the town app on phones specifically for monsters. It was a sleek interface with a dark green background and glowing yellow icons that resembled forest mushrooms.
The delivery service, "Falls Munchies," employed poltergeists who ventured deep into the shadowy woods, their electric bikes equipped with special headlamps that cast a non-threatening, blue glow. They'd leave packages of groceries at the designated homes of the monster who ordered them.
The service was for anyone, even the humans in town.
Obviously, the delivery workers had their disguises on.
I had used it often when I first came to be here, when I was less aware of my surroundings and more monstrous.
It was a time when I wasn’t yet comfortable mimicking human mannerisms in the crowded aisles of stores.
Gideon and the wolf shifters helped many of us adjust to the transition, teaching us how to use phones and electronics, and how our new human forms worked during the daytime. While we were learning all of that, the delivery service was invaluable.
Then, I was using it again because I wasn’t about to have my female be seen by that fox shifter.
It all felt normal, us putting together our new home, but I knew that Kassie was feeling very trapped. There was only so much you could do: decorate our home, eat, mate, watch a movie, have dessert, or have dessert on your female, then mate and do it all over again.
She needed “air.”
There was plenty of air in the cabin, but she needed the fresh stuff, but I wasn’t about to have the fox try to sneak in. He had been absent on his server. I made her check, and while I tried to act like everything was fine, Kassie knew that it was upsetting me.
I was not the most subtle person.
“Atlas, stop looking out the window.”
“Atlas, there is nothing up the chimney.”
“Atlas, if you keep staring at the door, he will not suddenly appear.”
I was bad at keeping secrets and the idea of danger away from her. I’d never protected anyone but me. I’d never had a female, that I knew of. None of them mattered compared to her.
Kassie was the only one who mattered. And I was her only male.
I puffed my chest up with pride at that one. I was the only male, real male appendage that is who has been inside her.
She had many toys, and she wanted to use one of those toys in the wrong hole. Correction, wrong hole on my body. Where the body gets rid of things. Never in my cryptid life had I ever thought of such a thing.
However… and do I mean however, there are some interesting videos that Kassie has shown me. They appeared to enjoy it. It was hard to see with all my hands covering my eyes. The way the males screamed that they liked it too was… interesting.
I am not that experienced in mating yet and do not think I will be that experienced for many, many years.
Her pussy is great. Amazing even. I will taste and mate it until the moon rises and sets for decades before anyone touches the other hole.
Kassie showed me how to play games with her, and it was fun. I still couldn’t quite figure out how to work the controllers, with four clawed fingers instead of the human five, but I thought that in time I would get the hang of it.
As we were on day three of being alone together, I could no longer keep her contained. The last text message I received from Lucien and the wolf shifters said that things were not looking good when it came to finding the fox shifter.
“What do they say now?” Kassie asked, her eyes lingering on my phone longer than casual curiosity should have allowed. I quickly shoved it back into my pocket.
I had tried to wear pants because she refused to walk around naked. It only felt fair. I shouldn’t be showing her the goods either.
I cleared my throat. “Everything is fine.” I tugged at the fur around my neck. “They’re this close.” I held out my claws to show just how close they were.
Kassie’s gaze flicked from my claws back to my face, her lips pressing together. She didn’t say anything, but I could tell she didn’t believe me.
Kassie frowned and crossed her arms. Her breasts rose with the motion, and instead of looking at the disappointed expression on her face, I stared at her bosom instead, because let’s face it, they were far nicer to look at.
“That’s it!” Kassie stood up from the couch we had been sitting on, after another round of the mysterious man dressed in red who screamed “weee” while driving around in a go-kart and wearing a suspicious mustache.
“I will not stay in this cabin anymore. I’m going to get cabin fever.
We can’t let TeaBag get away with this. Let’s get out there. I can be the bait and…”
I shot to my feet, my moth-squeal coming out more like an alarmed cry than a growl, and I covered her mouth. “You will say no such things,” I cried. “I will never put you in danger. Not with that sleazy fox out there. We don’t know what he’s capable of, and no one has heard from Gideon since.”
Kassie narrowed her eyes at me. Her green eyes popped against the fun purple eyeliner and false lashes she’d put on that day. They would have looked even prettier if she had her mouth around my—
Kassie growled and grabbed my wrist. “Don’t give me that look.
You can’t change my mind with sex, this time, pal.
Even if you do look extra sexy with your plaid shirt all unbuttoned like that.
” She looked me up and down, then shook her head.
“Anyway, we’re doing something. After we play another game. ”
I blinked several times. “Another game?”
“Yes.” Kassie nodded. “One we haven’t played before, and we don’t need any cards or controllers for it. It’s a simple kids’ game, but the winner gets a prize.” Kassie leaned forward. “A good prize.”
She leaned far enough forward that her breasts nearly spilled out of her tight tank top.
My match was… wow. She was hot. I was one lucky moth.
“Fine, you talked me into it. But I want to know the prize, first.” I crossed all four of my arms. She had great prizes. Most of them included someone naked.
Kassie leaned back against the counter. “It’s a kids’ game, but we’re doing it the adult way.
It’s called hide-and-seek. One person closes their eyes and counts.
The other person has to be very quiet and run off to hide somewhere.
Once the person counting reaches the agreed number, they have to come out and find the one who’s hiding. ”
I rubbed my chin. This was a game? Humans did this for fun?
As I thought about it, humans didn’t have a particularly strong sense of smell or much hunting ability. They had to be taught, so maybe this was how they learned. If Kassie hid, I could easily scent her out. I rubbed my antennae together.
“What did you say the prize was?” I asked, leaning forward.
Kassie tapped her cheek with her finger. “Did I not tell you?”
I stepped closer to her, my body pressed right up against hers. My finger trailed down her neck, across her shoulder, and along her arm. “You didn’t. What does the hunter get if they win?”
Kassie grinned. “Hunter, huh? Well, if the person counting finds the one hiding, then I guess…”—her hand slid between my legs until it found my slit—“whatever the hunter desires. And he can take his prize wherever he wants.”
I breathed heavily, her hair blowing away from her face.
“I think I like this game,” I told her.
Kassie licked her purple lips. “I thought you might. What do you want to be first? The—”
“I want to count!” I said excitedly. “I want to count!”
Kassie laughed and grabbed my hands. “All right, you can. Come over here.”
She led me into the kitchen and had me stand in the corner.
“No cheating. You count to a hundred, and no sniffing around until you’re done counting. That’s cheating.”
I groaned playfully. “That’s not fair,” I joked. “You’re making it so hard.”
Kassie snorted. “Of course. I don’t want to make it too easy on you. Start counting, and cover your ears so you can’t hear either. I don’t want you listening. Now go.”
I chuckled under my breath. Kassie thought she was so clever, but she was in for a surprise.
Once I found her, I'd hold her against me until she melted, until her body quivered with pleasure so intense she wouldn't have a single thought left about that troublesome fox.
Our little distraction ritual was becoming quite the pattern, and I wasn't complaining.
I counted aloud, my voice echoing against the kitchen tiles.
"Forty-seven... forty-eight... wait, was that forty-eight or forty-nine?
" My antennae twitched with anticipation.
Every encounter with Kassie had christened another corner of this cabin—the couch, the kitchen counter, against the bathroom door.
Once Lucien and the others finally caught that fox shifter, we'd have the entire forest as our playground.
"Fifty-something... oh hell, fifty-five. "
I could take her back to the falls, to the hidden caves filled with glowing rocks, to meadows bursting with wildflowers, and to all the other places the forest held. We could even mess around at Gideon’s house, especially my knowing how to make him fall to the ground like a damn idiot.
When I hit one hundred, I unfurled my antennae and inhaled deeply.
Something was off. The cabin's air carried a crispness that hadn't been there before—less saturated with our mingled scents.
I scanned the room. The living room looked untouched.
The couch still rumpled from our bodies, blankets in disarray…
Then my eyes caught the door. Something was wrong. The handle—usually lying flat like the hand of a clock pointing to three—angled downward toward five. I rushed over, my nostrils flaring. Kassie's scent hung thick in the air around it, concentrated and fresh.
She. Did. Not.
I yanked the door open and staggered back as the forest air rushed in. Her scent trail was faint—just a whisper… but a single silken thread of it clung to a tiny splinter jutting from the doorframe.
That clever, reckless female.