HAPTER FIVE
Kim sat at the kitchen table, looking at her bacon and eggs, her appetite vanished with Rusty’s pronouncement. She had to pick one of the men, Keith Mountainside or Tony Underhill, before the autumn equinox, three months away. It would be extremely difficult to pick one of them with Smiley Rockborne, her estranged ex, skulking about, wanting to kill her and all those she held dear.
She looked at all three men with tears in her eyes. “Please, leave my house. I need to be alone for a while.”
All three men nodded solemnly and shuffled out of the house. Rusty stopped for a second, his piercing black eyes examining Kim. “You know, you were destined to come here. All this bad, there will be good to come of it in the end. Just be patient, child. I hope to see you at work soon.” With that, Rusty left the house.
Kim walked to the living room and collapsed on the futon. She pushed a lock of her raven black hair behind her ear and started to tidy up the area. The duvet still smelled of Tony’s musky cologne. She shook her head and picked up the blanket and marched it to the washer -- the less stuff around to cloud her judgment, the better.
Her mind played over the events of the past couple of weeks. She moved to Predator Springs to escape her psychotic ex, Smiley. She was glad that the band had accepted her membership transfer. First Nations communities didn’t like doing that unless it was a real emergency, and escaping a crazed killer did count as such.
As Kim went through her house, tidying up, she noticed little reminders each man had left, the lone trowel that she had borrowed from Keith, one of Tony’s socks, and the most obvious sign, the garden mounds in the back yard, already beginning to sprout, which she and Keith put in the day after she had moved into the house.
She couldn’t wait for the results of her hard work. She might have to talk to Rusty’s wife, Betty, for tips and recipes on how to preserve the bounty throughout the year. Wait, she was acting as if she were staying, when in reality she should be trying to find another area to live before Smiley came back and killed Tony and Keith.
Her sky blue eyes stared dreamily out the back yard. She reminisced about that warm spring day she and Keith planted the garden; the stories they shared, the jokes they shared, and the smell of the earth as they carefully worked in the seeds. Kim remembered the way he held her while she broke down after she told him about Smiley. His smell, from the exertion, heightened his pheromone levels, and it erased all rational thought from Kim’s brain except for one thing.
Keith was a very sensitive lover. Her body started to tingle at the memory of their one time together. She longed for his strong, sensitive hands to touch her body again. Keith’s powerful body next to hers felt absolutely right, and his soft, earnest face compelled her to feel again after she locked away all her emotions. She shook her head. No. She shouldn’t think such things. She needed to get out of here. Luckily, a good deal of her things were still in boxes. All the recent drama had put unpacking on the back of her priority list. At least it saved her some work.
Then, there was Tony, cocky, strong, and relentless. His lean body felt like it was always coiled and ready to pounce and his sharp, handsome features gave his face a predatory cast. Once he found out that Smiley had been after her, he had stepped up his attention to the next level. He insisted on staying over, hoping to catch Smiley as he came for her.
They wound up fucking as well. It was the only way she could put it. Tony was an insatiable animal, now that’s a bit of choice phrasing right there, she thought to herself. She rubbed her shoulder where he bit her. She needed to put some more ointment on it to help heal it.
Rusty had told her that they were shifters, and the people in the band were isolated from the rest of the Cree community due to their ability to shift into animal form. The people at Predator Springs were able to change into mountain lions, also called cougars. Out of both men, Tony was the more cougarish type. Keith felt like a soft, cuddly housecat. She giggled to herself at the thought of having a giant feline lounging around the house, soaking up the heat from the wood stove. Seriously, though, she did feel quite safe knowing that the local people had that ability.
She hadn’t seen one yet, or had she? The night Smiley attempted to abduct her; there was a mountain lion that had chased him off. Could that have been, Keith? She shook her head. It couldn’t have been. But all this was so out of this world, that she would probably believe the Pope was a bear in the woods by now. She had little reason to not believe Rusty’s claims.
When her grandfather stayed here during that winter so long ago, he had witnessed the shifters hunting. He tried to help as much as he could, but the most he could do was dress the animals they had brought in, and distribute their meat to the rest of the village. He told her about the man-beasts of the isolated village, but she had just passed it off as some fantastical tale from an elder that had been spun to spark the imagination of a young child. As she got older, her belief in fairy tales and old legends waned. The more abuse she suffered, the less belief she had in either the foreign faith she had been force fed as a child, or the old legends of her people. Yet she found herself living in the middle of one.
Her attention kept getting drawn towards the two garden mounds in her back yard. Maybe she shouldn’t leave. The community was wonderful. The people she met while working at the general store seemed genuinely warm and welcoming to her foreign presence. She might be Cree like them, well half, her father was white, but their village had been so isolated over the centuries that she might as well have been from another planet. The advent of the internet had propelled this remote band into the modern era. It was a nice escape from reality, even though now, the ever present threat of Smiley was hanging around.
The thing was, if she stayed, she had to pick either Tony or Keith to mate with, for life. Picking one meant both would be able to keep shifting into their human form. If she refused, both would be locked in their cougar form, forever.
This whole thing was confusing. She didn’t see the harm in getting to know either man, to be honest. She did promise to give them a chance, so she sat down and tried to come up with a proper dating schedule, to minimize conflict. Kim didn’t know what kind of dating life one could have in such a small town, but there had to be something. She grabbed her calendar and noticed there were three months until the autumn equinox. Barring work, and Smiley, she could feasibly fit in enough dates with each of them to pick one.
She filled in the calendar with a specific color for each man and then found a push pin and stuck the calendar to her wall. Voila, all ready to go. Now to finish cleaning up the house. Her first date with Keith would be tomorrow.
*
Keith was sitting on his couch playing Xbox when a polite knock at his door startled him out of his game. He set the controller down and rose from the couch. He wondered who would be coming to see him. Tony was working, and Kim didn’t want anything to do with him as far as he knew. He opened the door and, to his shock, a smiling Kim stood on the other side.
“Oh wow, hey,” he stammered. “Didn’t expect to see you. Umm, come in?”
“Thanks,” Kim replied, smiling shyly as she stepped in the door. “Umm, sorry about how I’ve been acting. I just had no idea how to deal with all of this.” Her eyes swam with tears as she blurted out the heartfelt apology. “Like...”
Keith put a finger to her lips. “Shh. It’s okay, I get it.” Her full lips felt like soft velvet under his finger, and he struggled to resist the temptation to take her right there in the entryway.
Kim felt a jolt as Keith touched her lips with his soft finger. She tried to push down the rising tide of desire that welled up within her. She coughed nervously as she gently removed his finger from her lips. “I mean it. I need to make things right between us, get to know you a bit better, and I’ll be honest, the same with Tony as well. I have to pick between you two, so I gotta get to know both of you,” she said, glumly.
Keith nodded his head sadly. He understood why she had to date both. She was exposed to both of their mating pheromones before she made a choice. It was unheard of that two males courted a female at the same time. “Usually the elder pairs a boy and a girl at a young age, and they get to know each other throughout their lives. Once puberty hits and the pheromones kick in, they choose each other due to the fact they’ve known each other for so long,” Keith explained. “The choice is already made by the time the mating ceremony takes place when the couple hits eighteen and that is that.”
Keith showed Kim to his couch. He brushed the Doritos crumbs off the cushions and moved the Xbox controller. They sat and Kim smiled at the game he was playing. “Dragon Age? I love that kind of game,” she said. “Anyway, you said that the kids are matched at an early age. What happened to your match?” She asked with genuine concern in her eyes.
Keith’s soft face became etched with hurt. “She died during her first shifting attempt,” he replied curtly. The pain was almost too much for him, even after twenty years. “Well, not exactly died. She got stuck, couldn’t shift back, and had to be run off into the woods.” He looked at his hands as he revealed one of the most painful moments of his life. “Don’t know what happened to her after that. Getting stuck happens more to females than males, that’s why we don’t have many women around.”
Kim’s eyes went wide. “Is it that dangerous?”
“Nah, not really. Well, the first time’s always the most dangerous. The ability to keep your mind differentiated from the mind of your animal self is a very tricky process. A youth’s first shift is always done in a drum ceremony to keep them focused. There’s a difference in the female brain that makes it difficult. That’s how Rusty explained it to me, anyway.”
Kim nodded mutely, silently glad she didn’t have the ability to shift. She wondered if she were to have kids with either of them, if they would get the gene, or not. She didn’t even want to think that far ahead yet, she wanted to just take it one day at a time, get to know both men, and try to make a choice. Maybe not choosing them would be a boon? They could go out into the wilderness and find the girls they were promised to so long ago? Would those girls remember them? Would they be fully wild? So many questions ran through Kim’s head, questions she didn’t feel comfortable asking just yet.
“Anyway, as you can see, there’s really not much to do around here. I prefer sitting at home watching movies and playing video games, when I’m not out fixing other people’s tech snafus,” Keith said.
“Oh, you’re the resident tech support guy?” Kim giggled.
“Yep. I’m the one that they call to fix all their tech snags. After I graduated high school, I figured it was best that I went and did something with myself since...” he trailed off. “Anyway, yeah, I’m the one who fixes it. I fix hardware issues, software issues, you name it. I even have a little side business, freelancing as a network admin for a few businesses in Vancouver. I have a better satellite modem than the rest of the village, other than the cop station, so I can be reliable just in case something catastrophic happens.”
She made a mental note to see what had happened to Tony’s match, then quickly put it at the back of her mind. “So, um, what kind of movies do you have?” she asked, quickly changing the subject.
“Oh, I’ve got Netflix. Sometimes when the satellite goes wonky it takes a while to buffer, but I use that time to go get a sandwich or something.” He grinned at her. “Want to watch something? I’ve rigged it so we can get the American one. Canadian Netflix sucks for selection.”
Kim perked up, “Sure! Pick whatever. I’m not into chick flicks, if you’re wondering.”
“A girl after my own heart.” Keith was smiling from ear to ear as he picked up the Xbox controller and flicked the menu to Netflix. He picked an action movie from the new release menu and hit play. The movie rolled and he stretched his arms over the back of the couch.
Kim sat back feeling the warmth of Keith’s body next to hers. She lost focus of the movie early on as her mind drifted. She felt as if she were being drawn into a trance again, as she sat next to Keith on the faded green couch.
She felt his hand rest on her shoulder. She managed to fight into some form of lucidity as the sexual feelings woke inside. Why was she letting her good girl conditioning get in the way? She had to date both men, didn’t she? That included getting a feel for the sexual chemistry they had together, so why not? She leaned into his side, allowing his arm to caress her shoulder. She breathed his musky scent in deeply and placed a hand on Keith’s thigh.
He startled a little bit at the feeling of the intimate touch. Was she really wanting to? He decided to play it cool and let her take the lead. His heart beat hard in his chest as he felt her delicate hand rub the inside of his thigh and her head leaned against his broad shoulder.
Kim relaxed against Keith while gently touching him. She felt a warm glow begin between her thighs and spread up into her belly. She relished this feeling as she gingerly took control of the situation. Her hand started to move up the inside of Keith’s jeaned thighs and teasingly brushed his crotch as she moved it down again. She wanted to give him a good idea as to what she wanted, without seeming too forward.
Keith felt her hand gingerly brush his crotch and he almost fainted as the blood rushed to his manhood. He gritted his teeth to keep himself from grabbing her and taking her right there. He wanted to wait to see where she was going with this.
Kim kept gently stroking the inside of Keith’s thigh, inhaling his musk and reveling in its erotic scent. She didn’t care about being a good girl anymore. She tipped her head up and nuzzled Keith’s strong neck, nibbling and kissing it as her hand rubbed the firm mound in Keith’s jeans.
He let out a deep purr as she stroked him through his clothes. He couldn’t believe this was happening; her kisses and nips sent shocks through his body and caused his manhood to twitch in response. She moved her lips up towards his ear and gave it a bit of a nibble as she moved her hand up his body and under his t-shirt.
The feeling of her soft hands stroking his torso drove him insane. As her soft, hot lips moved across his jaw line he turned his head and caught her in a fierce kiss. His tongue probed her warm velvet lips, eagerly seeking entrance.
Kim opened her mouth to Keith’s rough tongue and returned his kiss in kind. Their tongues danced together as they embraced and his arms wrapped around her tightly. Her heart started pounding and rushes of desire coursed through her veins. She pressed her body closer by straddling his hips. He unbuttoned her shirt without breaking their passionate kiss. He reached for her bra and undid the clasp that was holding her perky B-cup breasts in place and freed the tender globes from their lacy confinement.
Kim shuddered with anticipation as she felt his warm soft hands envelop her perky tits. She moaned into his mouth as she felt him gently squeeze her dark, erect nipples between his thumbs and forefingers. She ground herself into Keith’s clothed crotch, causing him to break the kiss and growl into her ear as he nipped it. She felt his teeth graze her tender neck as he hungrily kissed and nipped at it while his right hand clutched at one of her breasts. His other hand supported her as she leaned back to give him access to her topless body.
Keith’s lips traveled down her throat to her dark breasts, causing sparks of pleasure to jolt her body. She cried out as his hot, wet mouth found one of her nipples and drew it in. His rough tongue played over the sensitive nub, and she ground into him with more insistence as her desire mounted.
With every motion of her hips, Kim brought Keith closer to blowing his load in his pants, which was definitely not where he wanted it to go. So, to her chagrin, he removed his mouth from her tit and whispered in her ear. “Lay down, I can’t stand this anymore, stop teasing me.”
Kim looked at him with a sly smirk on her face. “Aww, puddytat doesn’t like to play games?”
With a growl, Keith turned his body to the side and shoved Kim onto the couch. “Don’t...try to test me. I have self-control, but I don’t know how long it’ll last. You get to me.” he hissed in her ear. “Now let’s get the rest of these clothes off.”
Kim was both a little frightened, yet quite turned on by the sudden change in meek Keith. She felt her pants being tugged off as he dove in to nuzzle at her breasts some more. Her moans got louder as he pulled harder on her nipple.
He succeeded in pulling her tight jeans off her round hips and tossed them off to the side of the living room. He noticed she wasn’t wearing any panties, and smiled to himself.
Kim felt his soft, strong hand move from her breast and down her body towards her neatly groomed womanhood. He gently teased her by stroking the outer lips of her dewy flower. She spread her legs as much as she could on the narrow couch to give him more access to her sex. She was eager for his touch, she craved it. This time, she was going to enjoy the enchantment he seemed to have over her. The pheromones were thick in the air as Keith’s arousal grew increasingly difficult to control. Her mind was overcome with lust, but now, she didn’t care. Deep inside, she understood she needed to be exposed to them to make a choice, and it wasn’t exactly an unpleasant sensation.
His fingers gently spread the outer lips of her hot womanhood and gently stroked within. Kim cried out as he teasingly avoided her pleasure center while stroking her inner folds. His hungry mouth moved from her breast up to her neck and nuzzled some more as his fingers deftly stroked her. “Are you going to run again?” he whispered. “I don’t want you doing anything you’re gonna regret later.”
“I won’t run. I need this. I really need this,” she panted.
“Good,” Keith growled as his finger finally found purchase on the hood of her clit. He wiggled it around causing Kim to cry out in pleasure as an orgasm suddenly ripped through her. She wasn’t prepared for such an intense experience right off the bat.
Keith felt a gush of wetness in the palm of his hand as Kim howled her pleasure. She whimpered as he took his hand away from her sensitive mound. Her eyes were closed so she didn’t see him sniff her scent and lick her juices from his strong, sensitive palm.
Keith closed his eyes and fought to keep his human form as lust washed over him. He knew that if he transformed during sex it would definitely cause her to run. His teeth began to grow and he felt hair sprouting along his back as his feral nature began to take hold. He took several deep breaths to get himself together again. They weren’t helping much because the sweet, spicy scent of Kim’s heat was thick in the air.
He ripped off his shirt and jeans. Kim was panting and mewling on the sofa, hoping for more. He covered her body with his, and whispered in her ear again. “I need you so bad, Kim. You have no idea what you do to me. It’s so hard to keep control when you’re around.”
Kim wrapped her arms around him and wrapped her legs around his thick waist. “Then fuck me. We both need it,” she whispered, the need to be filled with Keith’s hard manhood was driving her insane.
“Not yet,” he cooed in her ear. His mouth started kissing and nipping as he moved his head down her tan body. She noticed his teeth felt sharper than last time, and his back felt almost fuzzy when she embraced him. He must be fighting hard to stay human, she thought to herself. The longer she teased him the more control over his feral self he seemed to lose.
She should have been horrified over the animalistic transformation Keith was struggling to control, but she knew deep down inside it still was him. She just didn’t want him full-on mountain lion. That would be a bit on the weird side, but all that was pushed aside as she felt his rough tongue invade her wet pussy.
She cried out as his tongue lapped up her wetness, and teased her erect clit. She felt the tide of another orgasm rising deep within her as his tongue massaged her folds. Her hands grabbed at Keith’s shaggy black hair as he ministered to her sopping womanhood. Her mewls and cries of passion drowned out the movie that was playing on the television. Keith’s tongue found the little pearl of pleasure that was peeking out from beneath Kim’s folds and started licking it with the very tip of his tongue, causing Kim to buck her hips up in response to the intense pleasure she was receiving. Her body language encouraged him to keep doing what he was doing, and in no time, a howl of ecstasy rose from deep within Kim’s chest and escaped from her open mouth as a second powerful orgasm washed over her.
Keith opened his mouth and caught the second gush of sweet nectar from Kim’s flower. He lapped it up like a kitten at a saucer of milk. He purred happily as Kim moved her super sensitive womanhood away from his rough tongue. “Stop,” she panted. “It’s...give me a minute, I can’t...Nnnngggggg!!!!” as a third orgasm in as many minutes rocked her.
“Now I’m ready,” he whispered in her ear as he covered her limp form. She wrapped her legs around his thick waist as he pushed his rigid member deep into her well. She cried out as he filled her completely and began to move.
Kim rocked her hips in rhythm with Keith. They moved as one as they made love on the couch. She reached up and caressed his soft face and looked into his eyes. Instead of the usual black, they were golden, like a mountain lion. Her eyes widened and he quickly closed his eyes but it was too late. She saw.
Kim clutched at him, trying to reassure him through her body language that she didn’t mind. He bent down while thrusting deep inside her. “Fuck me...” she whispered. “Fuck me hard...I need it...please.”
With those words, Keith let out a feral growl and began to buck his hips wildly. Kim matched him thrust for thrust as her fourth and final orgasm built up inside her.
Keith felt the tension in his balls beginning to build as he pounded wildly deep inside Kim. She saw his eyes, she saw his tentative control, and from the looks of things she didn’t mind at all. Encouraged by her body language, Keith gave over a bit more control to his feral nature as he rode her.
She felt Keith’s body get a bit hairier, and his breath on her neck became hotter. Guttural growls came from his throat as he fucked her deeply. The wild nature of the shifter brought out a new level of arousal in her. She clawed at his furry back as her next orgasm ripped through her. She yelled out as the intensity tore through her.
That is what did it for Keith. He thrust one final time, deep inside Kim as he emptied himself within her hot, inviting depths. Waves of intense pleasure washed over him as he poured his seed inside her.
She felt that odd pressure inside her again as Keith half grunted, half growled in his release. It wasn’t unpleasant, but she did have to wonder what it was. Plenty of time to ask in a while, she thought to herself.
He pulled himself out of her and reached for a cloth to wipe himself off with. She limply lay on the couch, completely satiated from their encounter. The final credits of the movie they had playing on the TV were rolling by. Kim managed to pull herself up from her prone position and she reached for the glass of water that was sitting on the nearby coffee table. “You don’t mind, do you?”
“Nah,” Keith panted. “I think we’re good for sharing water,” he said with a grin, considering they shared considerably more than a few sips of water just now.
“You have a point,” she said, taking a drink. “Did you have to toss my clothes so far?”
Keith chuckled as he got up to get them for her. “Sorry, got a little carried away,” he said sheepishly.
“Eh, it’s okay,” Kim reassured him. “I figure there isn’t much to do in the way of dating in this town, so the only way I can really get to know you guys is to come on over, or invite you over, or whatever.”
“So, you aren’t gonna regret this tomorrow?”
“You know, with all this bullshit with Smiley, I’ve come to realize, life is too short for regrets. Living for the now is pretty much all we’ve got right now. Why not enjoy it?” she said with a smile.
Keith’s earnest, soft face lit up with the biggest smile he could muster. He hoped deep within his soul of souls she would pick him, but, he thought glumly, she needs to give Tony a chance, too. Thing is, the fact that she came to him first boded well for her future choice. The more she’s exposed to him, over Tony, the more the pheromones will influence her choice. Keith tried to form a plan in his mind to be around her as much as he could, without seeming like a creeper.