31. Piper
31
PIPER
I head into the crowd to make the rounds and say hi to my friends and colleagues. The party is wild, full of strangers and large bodies bumping into each other. Bigfoots play drums and sing in loud guttural voices to a tune that changes and flows, but never really seems to end.
There’s something really special about getting lost in a large crowd. The way no one pays attention to you in the press of bodies especially, with pounding music that is so loud you can feel it in every bone.
A hand lands on my shoulder.
“Oh my god! You look amazing!” Bailey throws her arms around me. She’s clearly had a few glasses of champagne.
“Me?” I ask with a laugh. “Girl, you look amazing!”
Her dress is layers and layers of cream and white tulle, with tiny flowers and leaves sewn all over it. She looks like a freaking fairy princess. Exactly the type of person who could marry a Bigfoot.
“Can you believe all of this?” she gestures to the wild, intense group of Bigfoots around us. “This is all my family now.” She laughs, hugs me again, and kisses me on the cheek. “I’m so glad you are in my life, Piper, and now we are going to be like sisters!”
“Sisters?” I ask.
“Sacha, Ness, and Pontius are basically brothers! And when you two get married, it’ll be like we are sisters.” She’s grinning wild.
“Married? Me?” I ask, not even sure that she can hear me over the music.
“Oh, please tell me you are gonna marry him! Or don’t marry him. It doesn’t matter! You are here with him! You guys are together now, and it’s so great, isn’t it? I bet it’s great, and I’m sure that sex with a Mothman is nothing like sex with a Bigfoot, but I bet it’s still the best you’ve ever had, isn’t it? You know what? Don’t answer that. I really don’t need any details. Pontius is basically my brother now. I do not need to hear details.” She nods emphatically.
“You are drunk,” I say with a laugh.
“What?” she yells over the music.
“YOU’RE DRUNK!” I yell much louder.
“YOU HAVE TO COME WITH ME! I NEED YOUR HELP!” She grabs my hands and pulls me after her.
“My help?”
“brIDE PRIVILEGE! I AM THE brIDE! YOU HAVE TO COME WITH ME!” She is still yelling even though the music is getting quieter as we leave the bonfire and drum circle behind.
She leads me down a short forest trail to a little tent decorated with chairs, rugs, pillows, and fairy lights. It’s an adorable makeshift bridal suite. There are six other women there. I’m introduced to them all in quick succession and immediately forget everyone’s names.
“Drink this.” Bailey hands me a glass of champagne.
“And wear this.” A woman, Margot, I think, hands me a long white robe.
“What is this?” I ask with a nervous laugh, taking both items. The champagne flute is easy enough to understand, but the robe confuses me. It’s silky, edged with lace, but otherwise looks like a bathrobe you could find in any random store.
“Running of the bride,” Margot announces. “Love your dress, by the way.”
“It’s Bigfoot tradition,” Bailey adds.
The other women laugh. They all seem to be familiar with each other.
“What does that mean?” I set the glass of champagne to the side, alcohol doesn’t seem like a great idea right now.
“Don’t worry, it’s totally safe.” Bailey giggles in a way that isn’t very reassuring. “We’re going to have so much fun!”
“That doesn’t really clarify anything.” I laugh.
“You’re a decoy,” says a woman lounging in an Adirondack chair.
“I still don’t understand.”
“Put on the robe. When we tell you to run, you run. We’re just here to distract Sacha. He has to prove he’s worthy of Bailey by chasing and catching his new wife.”
“Come here!” A skinny Black woman holds out a flower crown for me. It’s not nearly as elaborate as Bailey’s. Her’s has crystals, large blooms, and bright colors, the one I am handed is made of simple fake daisies.
“I don’t think anyone is going to mistake us for each other.” I laugh, slipping the white robe over my dress, like the other women are wearing theirs, and placing the crown on my head. I don’t compare to Bailey’s gorgeous dress or her bright pink hair shining under her fancy flower crown.
“It’s just for fun! You all look perfect! Thank you for being here for me!” Bailey tosses back her own glass of champagne and slips her feet into a pair of running shoes. “Come on! Come on! Let’s get back to the party!”
She exits the tent, headed back toward the bonfire. The other women follow, so I bring up the rear. The music is still raging, when the other women start dancing I’m happy to join in. ? ? 1 Somewhere in the distance, someone blows a loud horn. The drums quiet. My ears are left ringing in the near silence.
“It’s time! It’s time!” Bailey squeals, grabbing my hands.
“BAILEY!” Sacha’s voice comes from far away, near the edge of the forest. “WHERE IS SHE?”
Bailey squeals again and ducks down low in the crowd.
“Is… everything alright?” I ask her.
“Cover me!” she mouths.
She pushes her way through the crowd that parts easily for her. When we get to the edge of the dance party she grabs my hand again.
“Run!” she yells between her giggles and takes off toward the surrounding woods, dragging me behind her until I stumble in my shoes and slip out of her grasp.
I glance behind us. The other women are running too, but in all different directions. Their white robes stand out in the darkness, like fleeting ghosts of distraction.
“WIFE!” Sacha’s roar is audible, even from across the field. His gaze focuses on the direction Bailey ran—the path that leads directly past me and only me. He charges in my direction. I duck down the path in the woods that Bailey took. I can’t run in these shoes or in the near darkness. Somewhere in the distance, I hear Bailey laughing. She has the right footwear. She knows where she is going. She presumably does regular cardio. I’m a panting sweaty mess, and I’m barely inside the tree line, already feeling hopelessly lost.
A roar echoes through the forest.
I freeze in the middle of the path and turn to find a Bigfoot in a tuxedo charging toward me, his pupils blown wide. I’m pretty sure I scream. I don’t think Sacha would hurt me, but he’s still absolutely terrifying.
A shadow scoops one strong arm around my middle and pulls me sideways off the trail.
Sacha doesn’t even pause as he runs past us. Charging forward, very nearly on all fours, toward the white blur that is Bailey’s wedding dress in the woods.
My heart is pounding. I grip the arm around my middle and lean back against a familiar chest. I would know this vanilla scent anywhere. Ant presses his face into the top of my head.
I can still see the pale shadow of Bailey’s dress when Sacha catches up with her. She laughs as he scoops her up and throws her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. She doesn’t struggle, just kicks her feet in the air and squeals as he carries her into the darkness.
The arm around my middle tightens.
“Are you alright?” The husky voice in my ear heats my body, his chest warm against my back.
“Yeah. I’m great,” I mutter, adrenaline and arousal mixing in my stomach. I’m still breathing hard, but I’m not sure it’s from the running anymore. I choke out a nervous laugh. “I gotta start working out.”
“What are you wearing?” Ant chuckles. His hand strokes along the wispy white lace of the robe the women gave me.
“It was for the Running of the Brides.”
“What is that?”
“What just happened, I think.” I laugh.
“Does it—happen at all human weddings?”
I don’t have to see his face to know it’s an earnest question. “None I’ve been to before. Apparently it’s a Bigfoot tradition.”
His chest presses into my back as he releases a long sigh. “So, you won’t want me to chase you through the woods on our wedding day?”
My heart skips several beats. “Ant! You are not asking me to marry you right now!”
“Here in the woods? On a beautiful romantic evening?” His hands trace up and down my arms. “No. I would never.”
“Good.” I laugh. “When you do ask, I want to be embarrassed. Really put on the spot. In public! With a huge audience and a lot of societal pressure to say yes!”
He chuckles and presses a light kiss to my shoulder.
“Are you feeling better?” I ask, leaning back into him. “Getting away from the noise?”
“I am much better now.” His hands sneak under the robe to fan his fingers over my stomach. It makes my heart flutter in time with the music I can still faintly hear from the distant party. I can barely hear the drums, so I know it’s probably still loud for him.
He dips down to kiss my neck, making me giggle when the heat of his breath tickles my skin.
Goaded by the noise, he explores a little further, slipping his long narrow tongue down my neck and across my chest. His hands pull the shoulder of the robe down until we let the whole thing fall to the forest floor. My dress is lower cut than most things in my closet. It can make me feel exposed, but there are acres of bare skin for him to explore, and I let him.
One of his hands creeps a little lower, tugging at my dress until he finds the slit along the side of my leg. His hand sliding easily under the fabric to grab my bare thigh.
“I really like this dress,” he murmurs into my skin.
I chuckle.
“Will you do me a favor?”
“Depends on what you’re about to ask,” I tease.
“Will you dance with me?” It’s such a simple request. Like the night we met.
“Yeah, I like that idea.”
“You like the idea very much,” he jokes. “I can smell it on you.” His hand tightens around me before his arms leave me completely.
I spin around and find him removing his pants.
“Moving a little quick there, aren’t we, buster?” I cross my arms under my chest, but I do admire his long legs while he disrobes.
He shakes his head with a grin, dropping his pants, jacket, and shirt in a pile on the ground. His wings spread wide behind him, flapping freely and catching the moonlight in their spectrum.
“Do you feel safe with me?” he asks me seriously.
“With you? My stalker? The guy who crept into my bedroom window to fuck me last week?” I joke, putting my hands on his bare chest.
His hand catches under my chin, tilting my face up to look at him. The sincerity in his smile squeezes my heart. “I don’t want you to be scared.”
I shake my head. “I feel very safe right now.”
“We are going to dance, but I want to be sure you are secure.”
“Secure?” I ask.
He nods, wraps a hand around my waist, pulls me in close, then lifts me slightly from the ground, so we are face to face, and his claspers unfold to wrap around my hips, holding me firmly in place, flush against him.
I gasp at the feeling. It isn’t technically sexual, but the action sends a flush through my whole body. My feet dangle above the ground, and I can barely move.
“How do you feel now?” His voice is a little heated.
“Very secure.” I laugh and loop my arms around his neck.
The leaves on the ground move with a few powerful gusts of his wings before we lift off. We’re flying, again.
I laugh. He grins and lifts us a little higher, until we are lost in the limbs of the trees.
Like every other time he’s carried me, I know that, logically, there should be fear in my brain, but all wrapped up in him all I feel is safe. There’s no chance of being hurt or falling. I know I’ll be taken care of, I know he has me.
A gentle rumble echoes through his chest to the same beat as the faint music in the background.
“Now, would you like to dance?” he asks.
I glance up into his eyes, where he’s studying me, a contemplative tilt in his antennae.
“Up here?” I ask.
A smile breaks across his face. “Yes.”
He waits for me to nod.
My stomach drops as he lifts us even higher. He twists as he flies, swooping us through the air in time to the music, our bodies warm where they are pressed together. I sigh against his chest. The night air is just a little chilly. I almost regret leaving my bridal robe on the ground. Until Ant’s hand finds that slit in my dress again. His hand explores my backside this time, my body getting warmer the more he touches me.
Finally, something seems to occur to him. He leans in close to my ear. “You are not wearing any underwear.”
“In this dress? I get panty line.” I squeal when his hands move to squeeze my mostly naked ass. “Hey. You aren’t wearing anything at all!” I point out.
“I’m not.” He grins, perfect and strange, his antennae dipping to touch the top of my head.
I move my arms around his neck, tugging his face down to mine so I can press our mouths together.
His tongue dips down into me, building up the heat. I dig my fingers into his mane. There’s nothing under me but empty air. There’s nothing but him. His hot mouth, his hand on my breast, the purr in his chest, and his warm vanilla scent. I could spend forever in this moment.
He adjusts our position slightly. I realize he’s raised my skirt, and his aedeagus presses forward, just a little.
“Ant, someone could see us,” I murmur, not making any real move to stop him. We’re over the trees, not far enough from the wedding to truly be alone.
“And my little voyeur wouldn’t want anyone to see us, would she? You wouldn’t want anyone to hear you coming on my cock?” He laughs. “I’m going to fuck you up here, in the air. I’m going to make that pretty cunt cry for me.”
I giggle, slightly appalled at the way that being with him makes me want to drop every inhibition I have. I want to give him everything. I don’t give a crap who knows that we are fucking up here.
His aedeagus slips along my lips, but he doesn’t enter me yet. Instead, he teases the head of his cock against my clit.
I let out a little moan, which he captures with another kiss while his cock continues to play with me, circling my clit and teasing me until I am whimpering his name and squirming to be filled, to be satisfied, to get fucked.
“Ant, I need—” I whisper.
“What do you need, baby girl? You need my cock inside you?”
“Yes.” I gasp when he teases my opening, slipping in only partially before sliding back out.
“You need me to fill you up? To take you? Claim your tight little cunt here above the forest, where a whole group of people could hear the way I make you scream?”
“Yes. Yes,” I whisper. He dips into me with each agreement. Going a little deeper, a little further, every time until he is filling me completely and my body feels like it might shatter from the pressure.
The first time his aedeagus pulses I break into a thousand pieces, so grateful that he is there to hold me, to literally keep me afloat. Fireworks flash behind my eyes, and I have to throw my face into his collar.
He purrs for me, just for me.
“Fuck yes, good girl,” he mutters in my ear, but I can hear the strain in his voice.
“Just do it, Ant. Just use me. Come for me, daddy.”
He releases a noise unlike anything I’ve heard him make before. A screech that no human could ever create. His fingers bury deep into my hair, pulling it tight enough that light pain lances through my scalp. It’s like something inside him snaps. His mandibles wrap around my neck, holding me still while his tongue invades my mouth.
His aedeagus slips out of me, leaving a cool void in its absence. I whimper just before it slams back into me, fast and hard. He does this again and again. Fucking me almost like he’s lost his humanity.
With our chests pressed tight together and his legs tangled with mine, he feels wholly inhuman and powerful. It feels like every part of him is vibrating, coursing through me, holding me captive. Pinned to him, with my arms trapped at my side, and exposing my body. I’m completely at his mercy. I couldn’t move even if I wanted to. Totally vulnerable while he slams his dick in and out of my body.
I’m probably already crying when I come the second time, his grunting body locked to mine when he finally buries himself deep, and with a final terrifying push that makes me jerk my head back from him.
“Mine,” he hisses, shuddering as he comes. I feel it filling me, hot splashing against my walls. “Mine,” he repeats, shuddering as aftershock roll through him several times before he slowly pulls out of me. The cool breeze highlights where his cum is dripping down the inside of my leg, marking me.
I’m panting, and when I finally start to come back to earth I realize we are very high above the earth. Probably a hundred feet above the treetops, judging by the tiny people below us. The view is beautiful, but looking down pitches my stomach.
“Ant. We are too high.” I grab a handful of his fur and press my face into his chest.
“What?” He sounds unaware of his surroundings. “Oh, shit. I am sorry, my flame. Do not worry. I have you.”
His arms circle me, tender and sweet. My stomach leaps again, the way it moves when an elevator descends. He is whispering comforting compliments the entire trip, not stoping his sweet ministrations until his feet touch the ground.
His claspers release my hips, but he doesn’t set me down.
“Ant?” I murmur tentatively as he rearranges me in his arms. I honestly don’t know if I could walk right now.
“You are coming home with me, back to my nest,” he whispers into my ear. He holds me with one hand while the other collects the items we left on the forest floor.
I don’t protest. He flies me to his house. I haven’t been inside it since the first time we met, but everything feels the same. There’s a pile of children’s toys in the corner of his living room, and hanging by the front door is a familiar painting. It’s beautiful—a woman surrounded by flames. I know it wasn’t there before because it’s Kelly’s painting. One from her show.
“You bought this?” I ask.
“Of course,” he calls from across the apartment as he throws his armful of clothing into his hamper.
“Why?”
“Besides the obvious, I wanted to support your friend.”
“What’s the obvious part?” I ask.
He looks at me strangely. “Because it’s a painting of you.”
“No,” I protest. The painting is of a force of nature. That’s not me in my knock off Chuck Taylors and the hair that was only half dry when I left the house.
His hand scoops up my chin. He is suddenly very close. “Yes, my flame.”
I catch his bright red gaze and feel my cheeks heat.
“You are a force to be reckoned with. Passionate, intelligent, driven, beautiful. I love you, Piper.” He smiles when he says it. Like it’s the easiest four words in the world.
I laugh awkwardly. Really awkwardly. Right in his face. He doesn’t even flinch. If anything, his smile gets a little wider. Stupid. He is so stupid, and patient, and nice.
“Yes. Well…” I say, my face so very hot now. “You are pretty cool too. And I—love you too.”
“Do you mean it?” He moves just a little closer. “You don’t need to say it if you don’t mean it.”
“Yes. Yes. Of course I mean it. You are great! Sexy! Smart! Good dick! Nice to kids! Nice to me! You are the complete package! The perfect mate! I love you!” I declare, throwing my hands into the air with a laugh. “Are you happy?”
“Very happy, my flame.” He dips in to kiss me, and soon, we are spread across his bed again. We bang two and a half times, before we finally succumb to sleep, curled together in a nest of blankets. I don’t remember ever feeling this satisfied or this safe.
1 ? I’m always ready to make a bit of a fool of myself in the name of good fun.