Chapter 19
CHAPTER NINETEEN
RíO
I shot a gust of air through my nose and shook my shifted body. My eyes blinked quickly, adjusting to the blurry sight of the forest now that my contacts were gone. The forest was alive with scents and sounds of the animals that lived here. Rodents scurried between and beneath tree trunks. The predators that stalked them flew above. I could feel the batting of their wings against my skin.
But most of all, I stalked forward, I sensed her. Honey eyes.
She stayed where I’d put her and watched while I shifted. I took another draw of the air to taste and exhaled my purr. She didn’t stink of fear, anymore.
The closer I got, the easier it was to see her, staring with an arm out. My purr shook my chest as she pet between my ears. My tail swished on the ground, and I went further. I still couldn’t see her clearly, even this close, but I didn’t need my eyesight. The working of her hands through my fur was more than enough of a guide. Her cold grapefruit scent, I would never lose.
“Río.” Her whisper filled my ears and took over my mind. A little scratchy from her crying. I didn’t want her to cry.
I snuffled into her arm while she moved her hands down the back of my neck. The skin was bumpy but soft because it was her.
She was mine, sweet and sour, and my purr turned to a new sound. One I’d never made before that felt more than right. A raspy bark that wasn’t loud to call out. It was quiet, just for her. Even still, she jumped, and the signal I was giving her traded for a wheezy hiss.
“Are you… laughing at me?” The hiss got louder, and I bobbed my head like I would in human form.
My honey eyes liked to bite when I laughed at her like this, but tonight, she crouched and pressed her lips just above my nose. Even when I snuffled, she didn’t pull back, just kissed me again. “You’re magnificent, Río.”
I craned my face into hers, swished my tail along the forest floor. Compliments were nice, especially from her. My human and jaguar forms had received so much to the contrary.
“Do you want to go for a walk?” She whispered right in my ear, and a shiver traveled down my spine in pleasure. I liked having her close to me.
She stood but kept a hand against the back of my neck. Even though the wood was a dark blur, the symphony of scents and sounds made up for it. Honey eyes, my Ramona, and I walked quietly over the forest floor. Neither of us led, just let our bodies drift where they wanted. Together.
After a little while, she began to talk in hushed tones. A number, a list that she recited of random things. Coffee, nicknames. The last two, she mumbled as if she didn’t want me to hear. But I did.
“Number Eleven. Princess. Number Twelve. Jaguar.”
I chuffed, pleased that whatever the list was, those last two were about me. Showed that I mattered to her.
We continued on, walking a makeshift loop that followed no defined trail. We hopped over fallen trees, progressing in the heated night that delighted my animal half. To have my female with me, touching me.
And when we ended up back where we started, we both stopped without having to communicate it to each other.
Ramona bent before me, not quite fully crouching due to my height, but close. And I almost knocked her over with how hard I pressed into her. Like always, I licked up the side of her face, letting the barbs on my tongue taste her.
Desire curled in my belly, deepening my purr, and in complete accord, my human form pushed forth, taking some of the reins. Half-shifting from jaguar to human was weirder than the other way around. But it felt good in a different way to feel the air on my skin with no fur present. My claws still dug into the earth, but my long, human fingers replaced the stubbier, tougher paws.
My contacts were lying somewhere around here, so Ramona was still a blur of browns and black, but even then, I knew her smile.
“Your ears are so cute,” she barely held back her giggle, and I answered it with a teasing snarl that was still all animal.
Instead of scaring her though, it just made her gasp and clutch my shoulders, now smooth and broader than before. I knew the smell of lust, and hers was as clear as day, twining and merging with mine. I’d never before felt this high and peace with someone else.
“You get turned on watching me shift, Princess?” My voice was a harsh grumble, still adjusting to the change, and my dick was heavy between my legs and pointing towards her as if we were in full agreement on what we wanted.
I ran my tongue up her cheek again, loving the way she trembled and held back the moan that begged to slip out. She caressed my shoulders, down to my biceps where there were still patches of fur-covered skin. “I almost didn’t notice your spots before,” she whispered. Technically, they were called rosettes, but she was right. From a distance, my fur appeared a wash of black, but up close, the large spots were actually black while the rest of me was slightly lighter.
“That wasn’t the question I asked you.” I took her earlobe between my teeth, careful not to sink in too far. And my efforts paid off in the form of a full body shiver that skated down her body. She was mine. Mine, mine, mine.
I brought us both to our feet while keeping her close. “Yes.”
I slammed my mouth onto hers, felt her sigh on my face. She tangled her fingers in my wild hair, and I relished in scraping my claws down her bare back. Well—I sliced through the fabric of her bra—now it was bare. And she didn’t even bat an eye. Just shrugged out of the straps and returned her hands to me, where they fucking belonged.
Mine trailed to her front, where my hard cock was already pressing against her and painting her skin with lines of precum. I helped it along with the tips of my claws, causing streaks of wet goosebumps as I made tiny thrusts with my hips.
And when she gasped at my pinching of her nipples, I had to hold myself back from digging the razor points of my claws into her flesh. Like hell would I add to her scars, physically or emotionally. I wanted to be the one to help her heal.
She arched her head back, letting her whimper out and into the perfect night. I wanted every living thing remotely near us to witness this, and she was so good to give me what I craved.
Her breasts were smaller and round, and I tore my lips away from hers to close them around the perfect little handful on the left. She keened, straining on her tiptoes and clamping the back of my head to keep me from escaping.
My sweet and sour princess who let me be the first one inside of her. “Am I the first one to suck on these, Princess?” I spoke before flickering my tongue over the hard nub like it was her clit. By the way her mewls and groans turned to screams and a string of yeses, it felt about the same. “Such a good little slut. You saved these for me, and you’re gonna keep it that way. Right?”
“ Río , yeah, ye— shit ,” Ramona’s words were lost again when I switched to the other nipple while pinching the slippery one. My hips were humping helplessly, trying to catch her thigh for any sort of friction while the scent of her arousal was close to driving me insane. Holy fuck, she was going to come like this. I could feel it in the hummingbird beating of her heart and the trembling of her frame.
I kept going, tasting her skin that was sweeter than any candy, and I had to pull on every ounce of strength to keep myself from busting when her release finally slammed into her and threatened to bowl me over, too. Her knees buckled at the same time her arms tightened around me, another flood of syrupy grapefruit washed over us.
But my princess wasn’t done. The opposite, actually, but that was just fine because I was so hard that it hurt.
I released her tit with a wet pop and looked up toward her. The hand I’d used to pluck and pinch snaked to her waist and undid her shorts before pushing them and her panties out of the way. I shoved a finger between her legs, immediately becoming drenched. I was careful with my claw but kept it out as I tapped softly against her clit, and I felt the pulses of the lingering orgasm. She tried to squirm, but I kept on, helping her through the overstimulation and right toward another one.
“Did you get the results I sent you this morning?” It was getting harder and harder to ignore the need to fuck her, but I also needed to hear from her that she was okay with it. I never fucked raw, but it wasn’t like there were any condoms out here for me to roll on.
And I wanted to sink into her without a barrier between us. Watch and feel my cum drip out of her and down her legs. Shit, I forced myself to exhale, even the thought of that almost made me come.
It took her a second to respond, but the desire never wavered, and her body was still helplessly clinging to mine. “Mhm.”
I’d played it safe with everyone else I’d been with, but I got tested anyway, knowing that I wouldn’t be able to resist asking how she felt about it. “You good with that? Me fucking and coming in you raw.”
My body and mind both froze in anticipation, waiting for the slightest tell that the idea made her uncomfortable, but Ramona surprised me by holding me even more tightly and undulating her hips more frantically over my finger. “Yeah, yeah, do it.”
God, I groaned, my relief was almost painful. “Get on my back,” I ordered while I was already ushering her behind me and grabbing at her thighs. She scrambled into position, and I tasted the air, sniffing and sensing the pulsing presence of the trees around us. The deep resonant groan of a sturdy, ancient maple tree guided me to the wide trunk.
“W-wait, Río what are you doing?” Ramona still sounded a little dazed, but there was a clear thread that held a bit of trepidation.
I grinned to myself since she couldn’t see my face from clinging to me like a backpack. “Been wanting to fuck you in a tree for a while. Hold on tight, spider monkey.”
This time she actually smacked my shoulder blade while tightening her legs around my waist. “This isn’t fucking Twi —” she gasped when I jumped and started up the maple. Careful to not scrape my hard cock too much on the rough bark, I used my claws and muscles to climb us steadily toward the branches above.
My attention was divided between our ascent and making sure Ramona was secure on me. I’d been climbing trees in human and jaguar form pretty much all my life, but by her half-excited and half-fearful panting, I could guess that she wasn’t as acquainted with tree climbs. I couldn’t say I’d ever done it for this purpose, even though I’d fantasized about it plenty.
I felt my way along the trunk and the first branches we encountered. I wanted to be high, to feel the breeze around us, but not so high as to fill her with so much fear to spoil the moment. I sniffed and caressed a particular branch that felt good. It was wide enough for us, and when I cleared it and felt for the nearest branch above, I was satisfied to find that there was enough room above it for me to stand.
While I was confident in my abilities and for my Jaguar to keep me steady, Ramona clearly wasn’t. When my feet settled on the selected branch, I shifted her around to my front, balancing on the tree with no hands.
She was a little scared, but my princess was so good and didn’t squirm. She let me maneuver and position us until her bare back pressed against the safety the tree provided. Ramona relaxed a little at that, and I held her asscheeks and nibbled at her neck. “Look at that, Princess. Want me to fuck you so bad that you’re willing to do this for me.”
Her heart was still hammering against my chest, and I smirked into her throat, taking her flesh between my sharp teeth and leaving even more little bruises.
“Shut up. If you drop me, I’ll fucking kill you.” But the threat was a moan. She wiggled her hips a little until my dick nudged against the hot and slick haven that only she could provide.
“I won’t ever let you fall, baby. You still sure you want me bare?” My hips thrusted again, slipping against her skin, just outside of where I wanted to be more than life itself.
Ramona kissed my temple and scratched her nails against my scalp in a tender way that made me actually whimper. “Yeah, baby. Fuck me.”
If I weren’t so experienced with balancing in precarious situations, my legs might’ve actually given out at the pet name and the command. Or when I held her steady and sank home in one long, tight and wet plunge. I bottomed out, balls slapping softly against her ass, and I couldn’t keep my claws from digging into her skin. Or pulling back and slamming into her again. Harder than I ever had with her.
She clamped around me, in all ways, and a wild—feral—hunger took over. To take my mate and impale her on me while soaking up her trust and craving. I held her against the tree trunk and fucked hard and fast while she screamed. But those were for me, too, so I sealed my lips over hers in something way too harsh for a kiss. Our tongues and teeth tangled, and when she lapped at my fangs, I tried to let up so as to not hurt her. But she didn’t let me go, fucking my mouth even harder until the deep, delicious flavor of her blood flooded my tastebuds.
I drilled into her harder, swallowing all she was giving me and let her take from me too. I cut my own tongue on my teeth and let our flavors mix. Blood dripped from our joined mouths, and her juices overflowed between us.
It was coming, the burst of pleasure that I’d been seeking out since she pulled up to Tyler’s house hours ago. But something else too, some invisible string that’d gone taut in recognition since the second I sensed her that night at Vinny’s. The punishing rhythm of our fucking stuttered, grew, and our kiss just became a gasping, licking mess as we fought to breathe. My damaged vision was darkening around me, narrowing with my impending orgasm. “Come, baby. Need you to come before I do.”
Taking a cue from what I’d learned about my princess earlier, I transferred one of my hands from her ass to her right nipple between us and pinched while I fucked her so hard that I felt like I’d reach her heart.
Not five seconds later, she tightened around me and stopped breathing. I gave an approving growl at her screeching in pleasure as I gave just a few more unsteady thrusts into tight bliss. I bore our bodies into the trunk and my feet and claws into the branch, making sure I kept my promise while my mind scrambled. My cock shot out ropes and ropes of cum that filled her and rained down, dropping onto the wood beneath us.
We both groaned through it, the sweet, sweet mess that we made. “Shit.” I settled into her throat again, now that it was safe, and waited to get a handle on myself. Getting my dick wet in a tree had seemed like the perfect hint of danger and a way to satisfy both parts of me.
This was something fucking else, though. I’d half expected Ramona to refuse, but she’d truly been everything I could’ve asked for. Her showing me what it was that put that haunted note in her eyes and opening up past her anger was its own gift. And there was no giving it back. No, I showed her my Jaguar and took her into my safe place because she was never not going to be mine. Not after this.
“Question,” she sighed. “You can’t see shit right now, can you?”
She surprised a chuckle out of me, and I shifted my hips, more than happy to get acquainted with my new home inside of her. “Pretty much.”
Ramona sighed again and pet the back of my head, eliciting a rolling purr from me. “And I’m the idiot that let you fuck me forty feet in the air.”
“Cause you trust me. And like my dick.”
She hummed but didn’t deny it. “So, how are we getting back down? And back to Tyler’s without everyone noticing.”
My eyesight was truly shit, but my hearing was more than razor sharp. I paused for a second and caught the drunken laughter coming from the direction of Tyler’s pool area. Jess half-heartedly asked where we’d gone but got interrupted by Brody who called for another round of shots.
“We go back down the way we came. All you gotta do is keep holding tight. They’re all drinking by the pool, so we can sneak back into that room.”
She nodded, and I very reluctantly slid out of her. More of my cum fell onto the branch, by my feet, and I growled again in satisfaction. I held her against the tree while I turned and pressed my back to her front, making sure her legs stayed wrapped around me. I’d never had any sort of breeding kink, but there was something about coming in her that soothed the deepest parts of me. The only way I could claim her any further would be to give her a mating bite.
“Don’t get dizzy,” I warned before starting us on climbing back down, heads pointed toward the ground.