Chapter 8 Kiera
KIERA
Kiera worked on the wolf until the sun started going down. His fur was so dense it was hard to get all of the slimy algae out of it. By the time she was finished, both of them were absolutely soaked to the bone and shivering because nights on Plo’nix got cold.
“C—c’mon, b—boy,” she said, her teeth chattering as she shut off the spray and recoiled the hose. “Let’s get inside before we f—f—freeze!”
She took him out of the washing shed–which she often used on the larger animals if they got dirty or needed flea or tick treatments–and brought him around to the side of her house–her “home-dome” as she called it.
Her home-dome was a large, rounded, half—spherical structure that reminded her a little bit of an igloo–if an igloo was big enough to stand in and sectioned into several rooms inside.
It had a sliding door that was activated by her handprint alone–no one else could come in or out, which was why she felt safe at night, even as a woman alone on a strange planet.
Kiera pressed her hand to the door and watched as her palm and fingers were outlined in green light. A soft, sexless voice murmured,
“Entry granted. Welcome home, Kiera.”
And then the silver panel of the door whooshed open, allowing them inside.
Kiera stepped in quickly and the wolf was right on her heels. The minute she got past the narrow entryway and into the main living area, she said,
“Firewall high!”
At once, the crystalline wall opposite the large, overstuffed couch flared to life, and blue, gold, green, and purple flames began dancing. The wolf, standing beside her gave a startled, “Whuff!” and jumped back.
“It’s all right, boy,” Kiera told him quickly, putting a hand on his still—wet head. “This is just to warm us up a little bit. It gets really cold here at night and the flames are behind the wall. See? They can’t hurt you.”
She waved her hand in front of the flame wall, showing that she wasn’t getting burned or injured.
The wolf cocked his head to one side, studying her actions intensely. He looked like someone trying to grasp an important concept, Kiera thought. He also looked bedraggled and completely adorable.
“Come with me,” she said to him. “We can look at the fire later. Right now, I want a more thorough bath–let’s get into the bathing pool.”
The Monstrum, like their more humanoid Kindred brethren, believed in having huge soaking tubs in all their domiciles.
Accordingly, when they had built Kiera’s home-dome, they had added a huge, luxurious bathing suite that included a bathing pool big enough to swim in.
The water was continuously cycled so Kiera wasn’t worried about having fur floating in her bathwater–it should be safe to take her new pet in with her as long as he wanted to go.
“Come on,” she said to him again. “Do you like to swim? I mean in clean water–not that slimy algae stuff,” she added.
She didn’t know why she was talking to him like he was a person.
Usually she baby—talked all her animals, including her ancient, elderly cat, Rufus, who was probably hiding right now because he smelled a new animal in the house.
But with the wolf, it just felt better to talk to him in a regular tone of voice.
And it seemed to work, since he appeared to understand what she was saying. He nodded his huge head and made a soft chuffing sound that sounded affirmative.
“Good, so you do like to swim. Well, let’s go swimming and get all cleaned up,” Kiera told him.
She led the way into the bathing suite–which had a fitted paving stone floor that was heated from underneath by the same hot water that flowed through the bathing pool.
It meant she never had cold feet in the morning, which was nice–especially since the temperature dipped so sharply during the nights here.
The bathing pool was inset into the floor and had a shimmering, nearly invisible cover over it so you couldn’t accidentally fall in. Kiera tapped it with her toes and the shining cover slid into the small crack in the floor where it was stored when she was bathing.
The water appeared to be deep purple, thanks to the smooth stones that lined the bottom, and the surface rippled gently with the motion of circulation and filtration.
All around the edge of the pool, vegetation was growing.
There were several trees with long, willowy branches covered in beautiful pink and purple flowers that trailed in the water as well as beautiful tall grasses that smelled like night—blooming jasmine.
There were even some very strange—looking flowers that Iyanna had put there just for her when she was helping to design this part of the home-dome. These plants or “pleasure blooms” as they were sometimes called, grew smooth, cylindrical flowers in varying sizes.
“What in the world are those?” Kiera had demanded, when she first saw the waxy cylinders. “Dildo plants?”
Because that was what they looked like, honestly–long, waxy dildos in different sizes.
Iyanna had burst out laughing.
“Basically, yes,” she’d said. She went on to explain that the Monstrum used these plants for “self—pleasure.” There were also broad red blooms that sucked as well as the dildo blooms which were good at thrusting.
Most of the Monstrum warriors used the sucking blooms, because there were almost no Monstrum females, except for a few elderly priestesses who lived in their Sacred Grove aboard the Monstrum Mother Ship.
“Don’t be afraid to use them,” she’d told Kiera, when she expressed skepticism at the idea of allowing a plant to “fuck” her.
“They’re nicer than a vibrator in a lot of ways–some of the little sucking ones will go for your nipples and…
other areas, if you let them. You’re really going to love it–thank me later. ”
Kiera hadn’t been sure at first, but she’d always been a curious person who was willing to try anything once. And after a few weeks in the home-dome, she was using them almost every night.
She found that Iyanna was right–the pleasure blooms were much better than a vibrator. And just because she had a new pet was no reason not to use them tonight–she really needed to blow off some steam after the long day she’d had.
But first she had to coax the wolf into the pool.
“Okay, boy–we’re going to get in now,” she told him as she began shedding her clothes.
The wolf, who had been studying the surface of the water with what appeared to be concern–now turned his full attention to her. His golden eyes went wide, and he looked her up and down–almost like a human man would.
“Hey, what are you staring at, huh?” Kiera asked playfully. “Don’t make me feel self—conscious now.”
But she was only joking. She had a big behind and big boobs and big everything else too–she was a curvy girl and had decided long ago to make peace with that fact.
In her twenties she’d starved herself and tried to get the “perfect shape”, but she was way past that now.
Her body was healthy, and she was happy and if some man didn’t like her generous curves well, that was just too damn bad for him.
The wolf looked away at her words, almost like he understood, and Kiera laughed again.
“Oh, such a gentleman!” she exclaimed. “Well come on–let’s get in the bathing pool.”
She grabbed the handrail at the far end of the pool and stepped slowly down into the warm water with a happy sigh. She’d been chilled to the bone after all that washing and spraying outside and the steamy pool felt wonderful on her cold skin.
“Well, what are you waiting for?” she said, motioning to the wolf. “Come on in. The water’s wonderful.”
The wolf put his head to one side again, as if considering her offer.
He still looked bedraggled and wet, and she knew he probably needed to get warmed up too.
She was just beginning to think she would have to get out of the bathing pool–which she did not want to do–and coax him in when, with a loud “Whuff!” he finally jumped into the water.
“Hey–there you go!” Kiera laughed as he dog—paddled over to her. “Here, come with me.” She gestured for him to follow her and swam over to the deep end.
There was a broad seating area under one of the weeping—willow—type trees that was big enough for two–even if one of them was a very large wolf.
The water came up to her waist here and the slender, flowering branches trailing in the water made a kind of natural cave where she could relax against the side of the pool and just take it easy.
Kiera loved this spot and kept all her haircare and bodywash products near the roots of the tree. As soon as she got seated with the wolf beside her, she got a healthy amount of shampoo and began working on his dense fur.
“Just to make sure you’re all nice and clean before we go to bed tonight,” she said to him, as she scrubbed.
She had to lean over him to get to his other side and his coarse fur rubbed against her nipples, making them hard.
However, Kiera barely noticed–she was too busy making sure the last of the silvery—purple algae was gone.
The wolf allowed her to wash him without making any fuss–he really was the best behaved pet she’d ever seen, Kiera thought. Whoever had taken him in that spaceship and then abandoned him must have spent hours and hours training him first.
As she washed him she talked, keeping up a steady stream of conversation, even though she knew he probably only understood one word in twenty–if that.
“So if you’re going to stay with me–and you are–I need to think of a name for you,” she told him. “I can’t just keep calling you ‘boy.’ So let me think–what should I call you?”
She pondered as she scrubbed his ruff and his tall, pointed ears.
The wolf closed his eyes blissfully as she worked on him.
He seemed to love to be touched, which was nice.
Some animals were touch—shy, especially if they’d had bad owners in the past. Kiera was glad to see her new pet didn’t have that problem.
“Hmm…let’s see,” she murmured. “Wolf names…dog names…how about Max?”
The wolf opened his eyes and made a soft growling sound. It wasn’t threatening at all, but it was pretty clearly negative.
“Okay, not Max then. What about Chopper?” Kiera asked.
Another negative growl.
“All right, not Chopper either. What about Charlie? Buddy? Rocky? Bear?”
The wolf didn’t seem to like any of those names.
“Well, who knew you’d be so picky?” Kiera sighed. “All right, let’s get literary–what about White Fang–he’s the wolf—dog in this really famous novel back on Earth. You even kind of look like him.”
But the wolf growled again.
“Well what about Buck?” Kiera asked, beginning to feel exasperated. “He’s in another novel by the same guy–The Call of the Wild. He–”
But she was interrupted by a volley of short, excited barks. The wolf nodded his head up and down so enthusiastically that soapy foam flew from his ears.
“Oh my goodness! Okay, then!” Kiera laughed.
“Buck it is from now on. Just don’t go feral on me and run off, like the dog in the book,” she added and turned her attention to rinsing him clean.
“All right, that takes care of the top half of you–now let’s deal with your belly,” she added. “Can you stand up for me?”
As she spoke, she put a hand under his belly to show him what she meant.
The wolf–no, Buck–he’s Buck now, she reminded herself–finally stood on the ledge beside her.
“Good boy!” Kiera praised him. “What a good boy you…”
But the words died on her lips as she saw the furry pouch between his legs.
“Wait…is that normal?” she muttered, looking closer.
Of course, all wolves kept their equipment in a penile sheath—dogs did too. But Kiera had never seen one so large before. She couldn’t see Buck’s actual shaft because it wasn’t out at the moment, but judging from the size of his sheath, he must be hung like a horse!
He also had a very impressive set of testicles hanging between his hind legs as well.
None of this area was dirty or had any algae–it must have come off when she was spraying him earlier–so Kiera didn’t mess with it.
But she had to wonder if having such large equipment was normal for his kind of wolf.
“But are you really a wolf?” she said, half speaking to Buck and half to herself as she scrubbed his belly.
“I mean, you look like a wolf–except for your size, of course–but you were found on a spaceship. So who knows? Okay–I’m done scrubbing.
You can jump in and rinse off,” she added, nodding at the water.
The wolf looked at her in confusion for a moment, then made his low chuffing sound and jumped from the ledge into the water, making a huge splash that drenched her all over again.
“Hey!” Kiera gasped, laughing. “Well, I need to wash my hair anyway.”
She reached between the roots of the overhanging tree and grabbed a bottle of shampoo that Iyanna had given to her. It was a Monstrum product that just happened to be perfect for cleaning her long box braids.
She poured a generous amount of gooey green liquid into her hand, releasing the scent of fresh lemons and vanilla bean and some alien scent she couldn’t quite name that tied them both together.
Taking her time, she massaged it into her scalp and then carefully smoothed it down her long braids, being careful not to get them tangled.
The alien shampoo cleaned the algae from her braids without damaging them and even left a moisturizing layer behind once it was rinsed off, which she did by swimming over to the mini waterfall which was located on the other end of the pool.
All this time, Buck was still paddling around happily, exploring the bathing pool and sniffing all the various plants. He seemed quite content, so Kiera decided it was time for a little “self—care.”
Swimming back to the other side, she settled herself on the ledge again. Then she leaned back against the side of the pool and spread her legs, waiting for the pleasure she knew was coming.