Beast of Dreams

by Cynthia Williams

Amanda looked around and, spying the pool she’d just left, said, “I suppose you think to throw me into the pool. It won’t work. I’d love another chance to go swimming.”

  “Oh, nothing like that, sweetheart. This will be more fun,” he laughed.

  He reached up to cheerfully slap her on the bottom, before he crouched down to scoop her sleeping bag and a couple of towels out of the backpack. Standing up again, he carried her and the items into the tent, prepared to give his theory a very thorough test.

  Karrick threw the sleeping bag on the floor inside the darkened interior of the tent and kicked it around with his foot until it lay flat on the floor. He threw the towels on it next and spread them out as well. Amanda had quit struggling after he gave her bottom a few more slaps. She was trying to look around him from her awkward position to see what he was up to. Using his big toe, Karrick gingerly tapped the control button marked for inflation and took a quick step back.

  He watched unbelievably as the mattress layer of the bag very slowly inflated.

  His tone was disgusted. “This is pathetic. I suppose I should just be grateful the fucking thing doesn’t explode like the goddamn tent.”

  Amanda giggled; she couldn’t help herself.

  Karrick reached up and slapped her bottom again, adding a pinch for good measure.

  She retaliated, reaching down and giving the fur on his backside a good yank, hard enough to bring a sting to his eyes.

  “Good enough,” he said, suddenly swinging her off his shoulder and onto her back on the towels set on the inflated pallet. He grabbed her wrists in one hand and held them above her head while he settled his body on her so she couldn’t get away, despite her struggles.

  Though she put up a fight, Amanda drank in the sun-warmed animal smell of him, enjoying the feeling of her nipples buried in the thickness of his furry chest.

  He lifted his chest off of her and lightly ran the furred side of his knuckles over the tips of her hardened nipples, then up over her breasts to her neck and back again. The touch was so soft it almost wasn’t there, yet it was aggravatingly ticklish as it came in contact with the fine hairs of her skin and her sensitized nipples. He kept up the slight stroking, rapidly driving her into madness from the sensation.

  “Stop!” she squealed, finding the tingling sensation to be unbearable, and fighting the bond he held of her wrists. She struggled mightily as he kept up the erotic torture, and she tried to lift her legs to kick him off, but to no avail.

  Karrick continued the torture, this time blowing warm air softly onto her neck. This was even worse and she jerked in spasmodic movements below him, the continued tingling of her skin driving her crazy, so that it was almost painful. She bucked against him, trying to throw him off. Briefly, she wondered where his hand had gone, thinking he meant to tickle her armpits, and her question was soon answered as she felt his breechclout sliding away from between them.

  He released her wrists, only to capture them again as he held her arms splayed out, wrapping his hands securely around each wrist. She felt her breasts crushed under the heaviness of his chest. He lay on top of her, pressing the head of his penis against the warm wet crease of her mound, slowly penetrating past her slippery folds and sliding into the well-lubricated glove of her vagina.

  Staring down at her hungrily, he began to slowly pump his length back and forth, angling his cock so the stem slithered against her oiled nub with each full stroke. He pulled out far enough that she could feel the temporary coolness of the air touch her wet curls, before plundering her again with the heat of his shaft.

  Karrick looked down into the green pools of her eyes, watching them darken with passion. Her scent was still intoxicating to him despite her transition from estrus to pregnancy. Tonight he thought he would be able to ejaculate into her without the inconvenience of the massive knot between them.

  He had been told by several men who had fathered children that the massive knot generally only formed in response to pheromones present when the female was in estrus. On rare occasions, it might form when the male was in a state of unusually high excitement, such as when partners finally came into contact again after a long period of separation. For the most part, though, once a man’s partner was past that part of her woman’s cycle, or if she became pregnant, the normal-sized knot formed, which was only one and a half times the thickness of a wolfan male’s penis.

  Karrick thought of his child growing within his mate and tilted his head to pull her lips into a warm sensuous kiss. He devoured her, listening with masculine approval to the soft moans Amanda made as she returned his kisses with reckless abandon.

  Amanda wrapped her legs around him. With each thrust Karrick made, she used her leg muscles to drive him in deeper, taking over some of the control of his thrusts. Karrick responded by driving his cock in deeper and faster, building up his tempo until Amanda began trembling with a need to find sexual release.

  He let go of her wrists and reached underneath her to wrap his arms around her and grasp her shoulders from behind, allowing him to thrust his cock in even deeper. Amanda threw her arms around his neck and clutched his head to her as he bent his face into her neck and bit down. Amanda let out a long shuddering moan as her vaginal canal spasmed violently around Karrick’s deeply embedded cock, sending him into a sexual oblivion, as with his heart pounding, his cock spurted hot semen into the furthest reaches of her feminine core.

  * * * * *

  Karrick lapped at the tender bite wounds on Amanda’s neck as the two of them lay in each other’s arms, recovering in the aftermath of their lovemaking. Amanda snuggled against him, her arms around his waist, reveling in the power of her beast to make such fine love to her.

  “I could lie like this here, forever,” she sighed contentedly.

  “So could I. Now that I’ve found the way to make your bitching cease, I can dwell with you in peace and quiet.”

  She grabbed a handful of his mane. “I don’t tame that easily.”

  “True. It only works temporarily. That’s why I know I’ll have to give you regular daily infusions of my passion cream.”

  She laughed. “You’re disgusting.”

  “Disgustingly in love with you,” he said, rubbing his soft facial fur against her.

  “Oh, Karrick… I’ve loved you since the moment I saw you run into my camp,” she declared, her eyes sparkling with happiness.

  His eyes glowed back at her. “I wanted you, too, before I even met you. When I entered your dream that first time, I felt so alive. It was thrilling to feel your fear, and at the same time, once you saw me come into the cave, I knew on a sexual level you wanted to be overwhelmed by me.”

  Her smile froze and turned into a look of incredulity. “What? Wait a moment here. You think I ran into the cave because I wanted you to capture me?”

  “Sure. On a primitive level, you wanted me to dominate you.”

  “I suppose that’s why I tried to stick you with my hunting knife. It was because I was so thrilled that a huge predator was about to dominate me by eating me!”

  “You knew I was superior in strength and you didn’t stand a chance. Your strength is puny compared to mine. You were turned on by the idea of meeting me in combat and being bested.” Even in the dim interior of the tent he could see the red flush of anger rushing up her cheeks.

  “That’s complete bullshit.”

  “Oh, it’s true. Once I slammed you against the wall, I knew you were mine,” he said, raising an eyebrow at her.

  “Are you nuts? Do you really believe this shit?”

  “Yes,” Karrick said, and then he couldn’t hold it in anymore. He burst out with laughter, laughing so hard his sides hurt. With tears leaking out the corners of his eyes, he said, “God, Amanda… You’re so much fun to piss off.”

  * * * * *

  Shodan easily tracked Karrick and Amanda to their campsite. He scratched at the stardigger tree mucus that was beginning to dry on his arms and legs. The mucus had the delightful property of abs
orbing odors so well that it made it extremely difficult to detect the odor of anything it coated, though he’d prudently bathed in the river before putting it on, just in case.

  On a mental level, Shodan felt better now than he had in a long time, having given up chewing Janus leaves. He accepted the fact that he might be addicted to them, and in fact, spent a couple of bad days overcoming a need to chew them. His driving passion was to crush Karrick, and sloppiness was not to be tolerated, especially in himself.

  However, on a physical level, he still suffered from some of the injuries Amanda inflicted on him nearly a week ago. Were it not for the healing herbs he’d been taking this past week, his physical condition would have still been bad. With the herbs, he was feeling almost back to normal.

  Shodan took pride in being observant of the details in his plans. He was meticulous; after all, it had taken careful planning to set up the scene for his fake demise. However, it wasn’t too difficult since the wolfan Karrick had sent after him were Murin and Mordock. Smarter wolfan would have wondered why his leather pouch and contents were scattered so conveniently near the quicksand pit, where he’d left marks in the dirt as if he’d tried pulling himself out of the pit, only to be pulled under the surface by his own weight. You’d think that something would have clicked in their minds, he thought; something that would have said, this is just too obvious. Regardless, he hoped the pack accepted their conclusions without trying too hard to verify them.

  He watched Karrick and the female enter the tent. A handful of minutes later, he was not surprised to hear Karrick’s growls and the woman’s moans, knowing that Karrick loved to fuck her whenever he got the chance. A mild stir of jealousy went through him, but he dismissed it. In just a short while, he mused, Karrick would be dead and the woman, his.

  Shodan opened the box of bottles he’d rescued from his hiding place near the compound. The bottles contained various potions and herbs he had compiled during his years of studying Eridani’s plant life. Shodan had spent years testing the drugs on himself and a few unsuspecting others, and he knew all their effects.

  One bottle contained a clear liquid that was odorless and tasteless, and if added to drink or food, made the victim unable to move and unable to remember what happened to him. It was one of his favorites. He had tried it once on Danni, the young tigran woman. If her friends had not come by and taken her from him, assuming the young woman had drunk too much Kujah wine and needed to go home, he would have had fun with her. Oh, yes, I would have, and just maybe, I might have kept her away somewhere just for my private enjoyment, if only the fools had arrived a few minutes later.

  He stealthily moved toward the tent and paused every so often, just to make sure that Karrick was still busy mounting the woman and unlikely to come running out of the tent. Finding their canteens, he added several drops of the clear liquid to each, then snuck away. He quietly sauntered several hundred meters back into the woods and found a good tree to climb. Soon he was up high enough that he could easily see their camp.

  After a while, Karrick scrambled out of the tent, apparently running away from the woman who was now trying to catch him by his thick coat. Maybe she wasn’t so interested in being Karrick’s mate as Karrick thought, Shodan reasoned. Good, maybe she’d find him more appealing than Karrick.

  * * * * *

  Karrick stood laughing on top of a large boulder as he watched Amanda gasping for air. “See, you’re too puny to catch me.”

  “No…I’m…not. You…give…up…” she said, trying to catch her breath.

  Karrick waited patiently while Amanda’s breath came back to normal.

  She held her arms out in supplication. “All right. I can’t beat you. You’re right. You’re a wolfan and wolfan are genetically engineered so that you have more physical stamina and strength. I give up.”

  Karrick climbed down, watching her warily. He knew her too well. She may not have his strength or stamina, but what she didn’t have, she made up for in deviousness. She was also smart enough to find ways to overcome strength and stamina, like when she used Aikido, which allowed her to take advantage of motion and balance to defend herself from attack.

  She took a quick step toward him and laughed when she saw him launch himself back on the boulder. “Okay, now I really give up. Come on down. I’m hungry and I want you to make supper for me.”

  “Now that I believe,” he said, knowing that Amanda was a practical woman. “Why don’t I get the barnips and bacon heating on the fire and we can go for a swim while it cooks?”

  “Spoken like the man who’s won my heart.”

  * * * * *

  Later, Amanda wondered if the food had somehow gone bad, since the both of them were feeling ill shortly after they had their dinner. Karrick suggested they lie down in the tent and take Amanda’s collapsible bucket in with them in case one or both became ill. Amanda agreed that might be a good idea and helped him find the bucket before they both shuffled into the tent.

  Karrick made it to the sleeping pallet before he collapsed and Amanda fell somewhere onto the floor just inside the tent. Though at first she felt some fear of what might be happening, a sense of disorientation distracted her from completing her train of thought. She heard a sound behind her and realized dimly that someone was entering the tent.

  Shodan walked in, his fur damp from the bath he had just taken in the cool spring pool. A twisted smile of satisfaction marked his face as he saw both Karrick and Amanda lying prone on the floor. He stepped over to Karrick and swung his foot back to land a savage kick to Karrick’s balls. Karrick’s eyes opened briefly and a string of drool ran out of his mouth. Shodan leaned down and patted Karrick on the head. “That’s for the little present your mother gave me.”

  A slow, secret smile lit up his face as he turned to Amanda. She looked lovely lying on her back with her hair spread like a halo around her head. Her eyes were open and he could see that she was trying to focus on him. “Oh, how delicious. I’d love to play with you right now if I could, but I can’t trust how long Karrick might be under, or if someone else might show up. That bitch mother of Karrick’s got too good of an instinct when it comes to her sons.” Nonetheless, he took a brief moment to lift up the front of her top and expose her breasts to his hungry view. She was braless and the sight of her firm rounded breasts made his cock harden. He watched as the sudden exposure to cool air made her rosy nipples pucker. If Karrick had only been somewhat conscious, and if Shodan could have been sure that he had enough time, he would have loved to strip her naked in front of Karrick and rape her. He resisted the impulse to even feel her up one time, and pulled the shirt back down. Once he gave in to temptation, he didn’t want to stop—and this wasn’t the place he had in mind.

  “I’m sorry, but you’re just a little too awake and I need to make sure that you stay docile for a little while more,” Shodan cooed, as he tilted Amanda’s head and made her swallow more of the drugged canteen water. He watched as she slowly lost consciousness.

  Shodan reached into his pouch and pulled out a small container with dark brown paste in it. “I have a little treat for you, Karrick. I mashed some spider dart into a toxic paste for you.” He opened the container and spread the brown paste over Karrick’s lips and into his mouth. “I’d love to watch you die but I’m afraid it’s getting dark and I need to take off with your girlfriend… I mean…my girlfriend, now.” Shodan was anxious to begin this evening’s entertainments.

  Shodan was confident that Karrick would soon be dead. He had seen the effects enough times when Karrick had been accidentally exposed to spider dart. He smiled blandly as the slight swelling of Karrick’s lips told him that a full-blown reaction would soon follow. As a precaution, he pulled the vials of epinephrine out of the new pouch Karrick wore and crushed them beneath his heel.

  Shodan looked through the contents of the tent, and other than Amanda’s environmental suit, there was nothing worth taking. He lifted Amanda over his shoulder like a rag doll and with her suit in
his hand, stepped out of the tent. He set her down on the ground while he walked around looking for more treasures.

  He found her backpack and was happy to see that she had all kinds of technological devices. He was sure some would come in handy when he eventually took over the pack. He stuffed her suit inside the pack and added his container of bottled drugs and herbs. Lifting Amanda back over one shoulder and slinging the pack over the other, he took off toward his lair, intending to reach it before darkness.

  * * * * *

  Shodan was pleased that the sun was still up when he arrived at the shelter he had built, though it was starting to tint everything with a golden cast as it began to set.

  He gently set the backpack down and carried Amanda into the shelter, setting her on some roughly woven rugs that he had stolen long ago from the communal storage room. She was still completely out and he decided that he wanted to see her reactions to him when he took her for the first time. He walked over to the sack he’d stashed in the back of the shelter and pulled out some candles that he’d also stolen. There were some power cell lamps he could have taken from the communal storage room but he knew they’d be missed. He set the candles on a rickety table and carefully lit each one.

  Crouching down, he figured he may as well undress her. His hands trembled as he ran them up her legs to the shorts she wore. Her skin was soft, like warm silk. She had a clean womanly fragrance that appealed to him, though it was clear she was no longer in estrus. There was a faint under-odor that he could detect but he was not sure what it meant. Too bad she wasn’t still in estrus, he thought. He would have liked to have had the chance to feel the knot of his cock swell into massive size. Many of the wolfan men found special enjoyment mounting their women when they were fertile, not only because of the driving need to procreate at such a time, but for the rare chance to spill copious amounts of sperm into them.