Anthony worked on his computer, quietly and deliberately pressing keys in sporadic bursts. Nearby, on a large dog bed, his pet cheetah, Teeka, napped in a sprawling pile. Her golden fur soaked in the sunlight. Anthony was an odd man. He'd been born an odd baby, raised as an odd child, and eventually released into the world to forge his own odd path. Now, after following that path for years, he lived in the middle of nowhere, deep in the woods and mountains of the rural northeast, with a small log cabin and an unconventional pet.

Largely, he felt that he hadn't really had much say in the matter.

Life is deterministic. You make a choice one day and the consequences of that choice may lock you onto a path that stretches farther than you expect. Maybe nothing really changes, or maybe you find yourself hurled unceremoniously forward on a set line for years to come. An omnipresent all-knowing creature might see the world not as a culmination of free will and choices, but an obvious outcome that is unerring in its inevitability. The only possible way the world can be is the way it is, in this way of thinking.

This is all a big, enigmatic way to say Anthony bought a cheetah cub, four or five years ago, and now he lives in the woods because of it.

The dark thin man's fingers tak takked away at the keyboard, coding a website for one company or another. Teeka stretched and yawned before rolling over and going back to sleep, opening her feline eyes only briefly to reassure herself of Anthony's continued presence.

The question here, of course, isn't why did this odd man choose to live in the woods, miles and miles from civilization, or make his living online. Those were unavoidable outcomes of an earlier decision. The question is why did he choose to buy a cheetah? Even accepting the fact that cheetahs make surprisingly good pets, compared to other large cats, and that he'd found a breeder who would sell him one for less than a literal fortune. Even with the benefit of the internet to teach him how to raise it and zoo suppliers who sold cheetah appropriate vitamins and medicine by mail to help him care for it. After all those things, why a big cat? Surely, there must have been some strong reason to pursuing this obviously volatile course of action with its myriad of obvious downsides.

The answer would cause Anthony's ears to steam with embarrassment if he ever gave it voice. He would never admit it to another living soul. Even thinking of it to himself would cause him to blush and feely deeply shamed. The answer, was The Lion King. 

Anthony unfolded himself from the keyboard and stretched his arms. He gathered up an old coffee cup from this morning, gulping down the remaining cold and bitter fluid with a grimace, and headed out of his office. His slippered feet padded across an ancient ugly carpet toward the living room. Teeka stirred from her slumber and waited until she was sure he wasn't coming back before following him. Anthony had his feet up in a recliner already when she caught up, and the cheetah jumped up onto the couch. 

Your standard house cat is truly no different from its larger, wilder, cousins. After adjusting for size, a cheetah had the same behaviors and desires of your average tom cat. Teeka had never been particularly friendly, physical contact between the two was rare and was mostly simply tolerated by Teeka, and yet she was spent nearly all day in the same room as Anthony. Her body language suggested this was just an accident, a strange coincidence, but that was just cats, small or large.

But why The Lion King? For some people, something like the Disney version of Hamlet was simply a fun experience. A competently plotted movie with well-done visuals and a handful of charming songs. Wholesome fun. For Anthony, it had been something more. Of course, he had enjoyed it as a child for all the same reasons the other children had, but he would later describe it with another, rather hefty, adjective. Formative. A formative part of his development into the man he was.

The innocent children's movie had left a lasting impression on Anthony, one that would someday lead to him purchasing his own big cat. An impression that would force him to live a solitary life with a, somewhat, dangerous animal companion. A companion who forced neighbors to shun him and who had scared off every girl he'd brought home. The impression, more of an admission, for Anthony was painfully simple. Anthony had a gigantic crush on Nala as a child. 

Nala, the lead actress lion of the film, with her wonderful curves and charming voice. Oh, how those curves had confused his eleven-year-old mind all that time ago. She slinked when she walked, she purred and nuzzled other characters suggestively. But the real kicker, and you can guess what it is can't you, were those eyes. Those wonderful fuck-me eyes. Could the animators ever have known the spark they would leave in the minds of countless impressionable young boys, and maybe a few girls? The childish crush had faded with time, but he still had his lingering dreams and an unshakeable sexual interest in big cats. 

Daytime TV was a vapid wasteland. Anthony had paid a hefty pile of money just to run cable internet/tv to his remote home, and was consistently let down when he took his lunch break. He'd made himself a sandwich and cut up some meats, mixed with vitamins, for Teeka. He scratched her shoulders as he set her bowl down for her, then fed her a few pieces by hand. It was an animal training trick, and helped cement the difference between tasty chicken and human fingers. Extended daily exposure, regular habits, and she had learned the difference. He let her eat and gave her a brief hug around the chest, which she endured without complaint.

Raising her had been such an arduous task, one that unfortunately he regretted quite often. All the time and effort to socialize her with him, provide her with the environment she needed. He really designed his whole life around her. He'd sacrificed much and in the end, she was a big cat, not even a particularly cuddly one. Like a big beautiful house cat with more work.

Fetish. That is the word some people would use to describe how Anthony felt, though he would never use that word himself. Fetish. Fetish. It felt dirty just to think it. What he wanted wasn't dirty, it was clean and wonderful. A beautiful feline girl who looked at him through half-lidded eyes, her care and love pouring out of those soul-gazing windows and into him, her mate. How could that be a fetish? Such a sweet thing like that described by such an ugly word. 

Unfortunately, reality was cruel. Nala wasn't real, of course, but worse there were no 'Nala's anywhere, large cats with animal features and human hearts didn't exist. If that's what you dreamed of, yearned for, it was unobtainable. To Anthony that was a painful truth. How unfair of the world to have put this desire in him, deep in his personal self where it could never be excised. To give him these unsatisfiable wants and make him live with them. That was why he had bought a cheetah. That is why he had, in a way, given his life to an animal. A desperate hope to satisfy the insatiable and unending hunger in him for something a cartoon lion had shown him when he was eleven. Laughable. He hoped for something special but, unsurprisingly, had only gotten a big cat.

Now he cared for her needs and loved her, as a pet. Not the deep love of romance and fools, the simply pure familial love. She loved him back, in her own way, for what it was worth. Cats of all sizes are finicky and don't often display their affection in obvious ways. A slow blink means they're comfortable around you, a raised tail means hello. Baring their tummy means both 'I trust you' and 'Touch it and die', in equal measure usually. 

Teeka loved him, but she didn't have the right eyes. She was a cheetah and Anthony constantly fought within himself to accept that as good enough. He sat in his chair and watched Price is Right. Teeka cleaned her face on the floor in front of the TV, licking her heavy-set paws and rubbing them delicately across her cheeks. Prim and pristine.

If Anthony felt shame to admit his reasons for owning the big cat, you would have to invent an innovative word to describe how he felt about other ideas he had entertained. If he couldn't have a 'Nala', maybe he could sate himself in a comparable manner. Teeka didn't have the mind he wanted, that ability to connect, to receive and return emotion, but she did have the body. She still slinked and swayed, she still looked and smelled right. 

It wasn't a perfect fit, but it was something close. He had thought about it in detail all through the rearing of the young Teeka, and it was just over two years ago that he had seen her through her first heat cycle, when he had considered and ultimately thrown away the idea. Teeka had been willing, as much as a feral animal could be willing anyway, and Anthony figured it wouldn't have been that dangerous, though the obituary he'd leave behind would have been something had things turned poor, but in the end, it wasn't what he wanted. That would have been a fetish. Something kinky and dirty like that.

It wasn't what he wanted, her body alone.

Ultimately, it was the romantic and sensual love that Anthony really wanted. The body was simply the vessel that contained it. When the cheetah had presented herself to him, the nearest thing she had to a male to cool the fire within her, he'd masturbated furiously at the sight, but kept his hands to himself. It wasn't the first or last time he'd touched, or just exposed, himself with the feline present, as mentioned she spent most of her time in the same room as him. It was something of a regular occurrence, he would see something in the way she moved that stirred him up inside and he'd close his eyes and think of his child-hood crush. It was crude but effective.

Teeka had finished washing her face and had proceeded to wash the rest of herself, her paws and stomach, and further down, until she was sitting with one leg raised over her head licking readily at her feline genitals. In cat-language this was another sign of trust and comfort, exposing herself like this in a vulnerable position meant she considered Anthony to be a close-friend. In Anthony-language it meant he unzipped his pants again and fondled himself to climax. 

The closest he had ever come to crossing that line had been during another one of Teeka's cycles. Long after he had told himself that what he really wanted wasn't just a cheetah, but something more. She had been growling and presenting herself much of the day, she needed help but Anthony dare not give it to her in any form lest it turn into something untoward. Teeka had jumped up on the couch, next to where he was sitting, and shoved herself in his face.

She could be quite insistent in the height of her season, going so far as to stand over him while she growled out her feral lust. Anthony found himself scratching the base of her tail, an extreme erogenous zone in cats of all sizes. She responded immediately with needful yowls, raising her hind end into his hand and lifting her tail to heaven. She leaked from an overly-excited hole, directly in front of Anthony's eyes. He switched hands, scratching her with his left, to allow his right to slip south and wrap his hand around his rock-hard member. She was close enough to smell.

Somehow, he had ended up pantsless, and lying beneath the large feline. Close enough to feel the warmth coming of her animal need, his nose full of the heady aroma of her lust. He almost stood and took her, but still the idea of it was wrong. It was missing that key component. Instead, he stared into the object of his desire and groaned as he released into his hand. His cum spraying out in a powerful arc as his balls forcefully, painfully, squeezed. He'd spattered his seed all over her entrance. The wetness could not douse her fire, she needed it placed deeper. This had only teased the animal, but she did turn her head back and clean his leavings off her virgin hole. 

Late at night he still thought about it as he groped himself. Ashamed, aroused, unsure if he could resist forever. The sight haunted him, her tongue delicately reaching between her lips and gathering his sticky white fluid. Slurping it in big wet licks off her glistening entrance. A difficult thing to resist but still only a pale imitation of what he really wanted.

Today however the cat hardly took notice of the human who so skillfully handled his own needs. A male with a cock in his hand was of no interest this time of year. She didn't need anything similar for the time. She may be applying gentle caresses to herself, sliding her tongue across her folds, but she didn't even consider the sort of thing that Anthony was so busy picturing. She simply desired to be clean and hygienic, what care she for the nearby male and his passionate groans.

Anthony washed up in the bathroom sink, Teeka had followed him in. 

He needed some fresh air. 

"It's a beautiful day outside, how about a walk? Huh girl, wanna go for a walkies?" A thin sheen of sweat stood out on his forehead and he splashed his face with water.

A dog would have wagged its tail, some might even bark or jump up and down. A rare few seemed to smile. Dogs would show you how much they loved that idea. Teeka blinked slowly at him. Sure, for a cat it was basically the same thing, but it just didn't have the same pizzazz. 

I could have a girlfriend if it weren't for this cat, he mused, I could live in a real town, with real people. They wouldn't have any reason to run from me, or look at me like I'm some insane person for owning a wild animal. I wouldn't have to spend 15 minutes explaining to every person who visits how 'no really she's perfectly docile'. He sighed and walked to the front door where Teeka's harness and leash were. His internal demons raged.

She stepped into the black cloth contraption when he held it out for her. A loop around each fore leg, latches and buckles at the back, straps over her shoulders. She was used to it, the result of more training, more time, more care, from Anthony, and she seemed to enjoy her walks and excursions. He couldn't take her for a run, what was he going to do, strap the leash to the bumper of his car, but he had a large fenced in yard and they walked up and down the empty road most days. He clipped the matching black cloth leash to the eye hook right behind her neck. Today though, maybe not the road.

There was a big field behind his house, a large portion of it fenced in by an appropriately tall chain-link fence, and it butted up against thick and wild forest. The land nearby was all mountains and hills, and deep woods, Anthony could walk Teeka for hours without coming upon another soul. Hell, it was possible they could see things that nobody else had seen for a century or more, this far north and this deep in the woods. 

"Come on then, speedy. It'll be an adventure. I want to walk until I'm tired enough to forget for a little while." She blinked at him slowly, again, and they stepped through the door.

Anthony had been brought to this life in the woods by a choice he made five years ago. He had made it while hoping for something different, while hoping to achieve something that, deep down, he knew was unachievable. That choice had led him hear in a series of necessary decisions that had, in the cold finality of it all, left him as a man with regrets. Regrets for things he had done, as well as things he hadn't. Regrets for things he had only thought of doing. Regrets of a choice he had made. 

Inside a bubbling cauldron of interconnected thoughts percolated through Anthony's mind, outside the sun shone brightly on a gorgeous late spring day. Teeka was happy to be outside and her head turned left and right as she focused on the sounds of the living woods around her. Should she decide to go chasing after any one of the small forest creatures, she would tear the leash from Anthony's hands easily, and he would quite possibly never see her again. This was something she would not do, she loved him, and he had spent many hours training her well. But she did like to listen.

Anthony reflected on life and its meaning, or lack thereof. He kept returning to his regret over a singular decision, and his guilt at feeling that regret. He couldn't harbor any animosity toward Teeka, she was only doing what she was born to do. She may not have been what he wanted, or even the best possible version of what he might have gotten, but she was good to him. She let him scratch her underneath the chin, even though she rarely came to him asking for the pleasure. Sometimes she'd even groom him back, and give him gentle nips known affectionately as 'love bites', that cats gave their owners and each other. Even if they were something a bit more intimidating when given by a cheetah, but he could feel the tenderness, the gentleness in them all the same.

The pair walked for miles, past all the things they had seen on their previous hikes. They crossed the pace wide stream that had marked the furthest out they had ever been about half an hour before now. Teeka was beginning to complain, dragging behind Anthony, no longer keeping a brisk even pace. Her feet were bothering her, and while she kept up with him, she was no longer glancing about quite as energetically as she had when they started.

Anthony grimaced. "Yeah you're right. There's no answers for me out here anyway. Let's just get to the top of this hill and we'll have a rest, then we'll go home." It was only a little hill and somehow stopping at a landmark, a hill or a stream like before, felt more real. Some imaginary accomplishment. He could see a nice patch of sun at the top.

Yet, at the top of the hill Anthony didn't stop. He felt the sultry lure of curiosity, rising in a great wave from the sight before him. It was just a valley, a simple little valley, nestled at the base of two mountains and the crook of the little hill he stood on. Yet his skin prickled with condensation, and a thick mist hung over the area. A cold gray soup, that hid the little vale from above. Logic said the hot afternoon sun should have burned all this mist away, but weather rarely thought logically. A hidden misty vale lay below.

Anthony felt drawn in, just a few more steps would be all. Just enough to see what's down there. It could be anything after all. Such a human condition, drawn to peak over the next rise, under the nearest rock, through the thick gray fog. Teeka felt no such desire, but she was unable to voice complaint, and tamely followed the leash of her master and owner. This seemed a good enough spot to rest to her, but so it goes.

The air grew humid as the pair passed through the low-lying fog. It sat like a fat white blanket, maybe 20 or 30 feet above the floor the little valley, and hidden beneath it was a quiet hidden pond. Thin rivulets of water condensed off the nearby mountains, and flowed into the lush area. 

"Guess that's all it is then? Just too much moisture in the air for the sun to burn off. Still, it's pretty don't you think?" The pond couldn't have been more than a hundred feet across, but the fog was thick enough to obscure the far bank. As Anthony, now practically dragging Teeka along, circled the area, he spotted something that he hadn't noticed at first.

A small, unassuming structure, human and familiar if in a very odd place. A small, stone, well. It was picturesque, like the well you might see drawn into a children's book. It had a cheery wooden roof and a perfectly circular base of stonework. The only oddity about it was how pristine it was, seemingly untouched by the innate dampness of its environment. No moss grew on the rocks, no sign of rot in the wooden beams of the roof, despite its position in the middle of the pond.

"Wait here for a second..." Anthony whispered, carelessly dropping the leash, while he started to remove his shoes and roll up his pant-legs. It was too wet here for Teeka, the grass still soaked with dew. She wasn't about to lay down in this damp, but she didn't seem to mind briefly sitting for a moment all the same. 

Oh, that sweet human condition. Was there ever a man who, upon finding a dark hole in the ground, did not feel the terrifyingly satisfying desire to gaze into it? The pond was shallow, Anthony waded into its center and barely got the cuffs of his trousers damp. The well looked much the same from up close as it did from afar. Pristine, perfect. Somebody must put a lot of work into keeping it like this, thought Anthony.

The only new things that could be seen from up close was the gaping dark abyss in the center of the well that continued down to infinity, and a worn silver coin that sat, unassumingly, on the ledge of that yawning hole. 

It is important to mention that Anthony is not a stupid man. Oh, he may be racked by regret over an illogical decision some years ago, but that does not a stupid man make. A place such as this? Hidden deep in the woods, ever persistent fog, a perfect little well sitting in the middle of a pseudo magical pond, all of this screams 'wishing-well' does it not? And truly to Anthony the very same idea had already been summarily dismissed. 

What foolishness, magic ponds and wishing wells. What supernatural tales for children and dullards. Anthony is not a stupid man! No! He knows the value of something like this when he sees it. Old coins are a collector's item, he thinks, maybe this is a hidden boon I have found. What a wise man, what keen observations. Alas, one need only glance at the face of this badly faded coin to know the truth. Youtube has the answers and Anthony has had ample free time to find them, the value of old coins like these is almost entirely in their condition. Unless this coin is from Rome itself, and a long way from home, it is far too degraded to be worth carrying home. 

He holds it betwixt his fingers. He gazes into the gaping mouth of the well, no sound echoes from it.

Oh, the human condition. Has there ever been a man that, when faced with a hole and a rock, has not thrown it in? Thy simple nature. He flicks his wrist and the coin flutters through the air, tumbling, glinting with the little sunlight that pierces the heavy mist until it disappears into the void. He stands and waits for the splash, for what other purpose could such an act serve. He stands and he waits and he thinks about his regrets with a subtle glance at Teeka. At the very edge of believability there is a tiny splash, as the coin finds the bottom. Satisfaction. The spell is broken. He turns his back.

"Well, let's get going. Nothing to see here after all." He splashes back toward his cheetah, who still sits at the edge of the pond. He puts his wet feet into his dry shoes and they squelch. "I know you're tired Teeka, I made this walk too long. I'm sorry. Let's get out of this damp and we can have a nice long rest in the sun."

The cat says nothing. She looks up at him keenly, her yellow slitted eyes studying this man as if she has never truly seen him before. He smiles. She doesn't make a move.

"Okay, I get it. Not another inch. Well I don't want to stand in the wet either, come on, up you go." He grabs the leash from the ground and tries to pick the cheetah up. He hasn't carried her in his arms since she was little and an eighty plus pound feline is hardly an easy load to bear, but he manages it, just. "There, now you can rest and I'll get us up the hill in a jiff." He grunts as she shifts her weight around, perching her front paws on his shoulders.

It really was only a small hill, and good thing too. His load was a heavy burden but somehow, he felt his heart growing lighter as he carried her. She trusted him, not struggling to escape his arms. Content to let him hold her to him. 

Sometimes, he admitted to himself, he thought about things the wrong way. Sure, he had tried to reach for something that no man could know, and in some ways, it had given him a great burden. Yet Teeka also brought him many good things as well. She came to him on her terms, but she still would lie in bed with him from time to time. When she was younger she loved to play fight and wrestle and Anthony still looked back fondly on that.

The pair broke through the mist feeling the sun on their faces again. The top of the hill was only a few steps beyond that wet barrier. 

Anthony decided to let go of his regrets. What could he gain by sulking as he did so often. Life wasn't perfect, but what was. He would cherish the company of his pet, there were probably those out there who would still love to have their own pet cheetah. They might have even bought her without the same corrupted motives he'd had, she deserved to be loved for who she was instead of secretly regretted for what she was not.

There was a large sunny patch of grass on the hill peak.  Anthony set Teeka down, took off his now wet shoes, and sat down in the long grass. He was arranging his shoes so they might dry when a furred weight pushed its way onto his lap. Teeka was still tired of course, and she draped her head and forepaws across Anthony and went to sleep. He smiled and stroked her head and neck.

She slept and he gazed down lovingly at his pet. It was a rare treat to have her be physical at all. He relished the moment and ran his fingers through her course yellow fur. He began to talk. 

He talked about what he had decided, and that led to him to talking about why he had felt otherwise before. He talked about what he wanted to do, about how he wanted to care for the big cat correctly, with love and friendship instead of his own foolishness. He talked about all the things she had done for him in the past, when she had comforted him when he felt down, or made him laugh with her cheerful playing. 

He even found himself talking about The Lion King and Nala. He blushed hotly when he did, even though he was only speaking to an animal. He talked about why he bought Teeka in the first place, and about the embarrassing things he had considered. He talked about why he hadn't done them, about what it was that he truly wanted. He cried as he talked about his loneliness. He talked for what felt like an hour, calmly stroking the large feline's fur the entire while. 

Teeka didn't talk about anything. She lay there resting, her eyes open, and she listened. 

The sun was starting to set by the time the pair stepped through the tall chain-link fence surrounding their home. They had been gone the entire afternoon, into the early evening. That meant it was dinner time and Anthony could feel his own stomach rumbling, and he was sure Teeka's was as well. 

He fixed both their dinners in short order, spaghetti for him, easy prep, and more chopped meats for Teeka. He put a bit extra in by way of apology, for the way he felt about her for the past couple years. It wasn't enough, but it would be a start. Teeka sat in the kitchen with him as he cooked, watching him coolly from an out of the way corner, waiting patiently for her meal. 

Anthony sat on the couch to eat and Teeka sat with him, after she cleaned herself of course. For a moment, he thought she was after his spaghetti, it wouldn't be the first time she tried to eat his food as well as hers, but she simply lay curled up beside him. Her back pressed tightly against his leg as a furry comforting presence. He was truly lucky to see this cuddlier side of her, if it was at all related to the exercise he'd have to make a point to take more walks. It was nice.

Evening TV was much more promising than the stuff that had been on earlier. The pair sat and watched it for a few hours. Another time Anthony might have decided instead to do some more work through the evening, given he had missed so much time earlier, but he didn't want to unseat the feline who lay asleep beside him. One night enjoying her presence when she was feeling particularly friendly wouldn't destroy any deadlines.

Eventually, inevitably, he had to get up and prepare for bed. His back ached with the exertion of the day and had stiffened with his long sit. He showered and brushed his teeth, Teeka followed him all the while. She sat outside the shower and waited for him, sitting or walking at his heel no matter where he went. He jumped into bed, naked as was the norm, and lay on his back. Teeka jumped up and lay down beside him, her furred face and whiskers tickling his nose as she sat as close as she could. 

Anthony laughed and rubbed her head as the big cat purred. "What has gotten into you, speedy? You can't get enough of me suddenly." Teeka licked at his mouth and cheeks, gently so as to not be too abrasive with her barbed tongue, and rubbed her cheeks on his. Lovingly showing her affection. She purred just like her smaller cousins, her lithe chest rumbling with the noise. 

"Not that I mind, I love this, but are you ever going to leave me alone again?" He asked rhetorically. Teeka looked at him and shook her head before resuming rubbing her cheeks on him once more.

Anthony chilled. A coincidence surely, but an eerie one. He laughed nervously. "That was weird, it looked like you just said no there." Teeka looked at him, and nodded. This time she did not return to her loving ministrations, she sat with her golden eyes gazing straight into Anthony's, twinkling merrily.

He jumped back, frightened. Her eyes visibly pouted as he pulled away from her, he grasped the covers and pulling them up to his chest for a ridiculously ineffectual level of protection. She had expected much the same reaction but she had hoped otherwise. She sat patiently, watching him. She waited for him to get it.

"Can you understand me? Is this really happening?" Nod. Nod.

"This started today? This afternoon?" Two nods in quick succession.

His mouth gaped, repeatedly forming half of a sentence before abandoning it and going slack. Realization hit him like a sledgehammer. It was Sherlock Holmes who once said that once all other probabilities were eliminated the remaining one, no matter how improbable, must be the truth. His eyes scrunched up in disbelief, "The well?"

Teeka looked at him, and shrugged. There was no other way to describe it, she hunched her shoulders, dipped her head slightly, and blinked a slow feline blink at him. A definitive shrug. 

"You're not sure either? Well it has to be right? What else is there..." 

Another shrug, a nod. What else was there? It didn't seem to matter to the cat either way, why question it.

Anothony shook his head, "This is weird." He mumbled to himself. How poetic that he should be unnerved by the thing he spent so long wishing for. But then how could he not be? The things he had done around her or mentioned to her thinking she couldn't understand. Even if he took it for granted that some miraculous magic had reached into her and given her the gift of human-level intellect, there was still the issue of her liking him. If this was his one chance in a lifetime to meet somebody like her, could they become what he wanted? Was it already too late? 

"You, uhh. I'm sorry if this is awkward but I really need to know. Do you remember everything that happened before? The, uh, those parts?" His cheeks blushed scarlet in the dim light of the bedroom. Teeka's golden eyes caught fragments of light and seemed to glow as they studied him. She gave a slow nod.

 Anthony crumbled, too late then. Who would be interested in somebody like him, somebody who had basically abused her. Yet she hadn't left yet. He thought, pensively, and cautiously asked "And you're still here? You didn't run away from me in the woods and you've spend all night being as close to me as you could."

A shrug. The cheetah was becoming a champion shrugger.

In truth, the moment she had been granted the clarity of thought she had considered leaving. No amount of animal training would keep her from simply walking away if she had decided that's what she wanted, yet Anthony had unknowingly done exactly the right thing. 

She had stood there, tired and confused by her new mind and he had carried of her. Burdened himself with her in a literal sense just to ease some small amount of her own discomfort. His eyes had gleamed with care and concern for her without realizing that he was being judged. She herself had been thinking of the things she had seen as recently as lunch, dirty lustful thoughts over her. They confused her, worried her.  

They were strangers in a way, and it had bothered her to think of him like that. His hungry eyes at they stared of her, she hadn't thought of him in that way even at the height of her heat. Total strangers. Of course, she remembered him being there for practically her whole life but it had been a different sort of relationship then. The new Teeka was a different cheetah than what had come before, and she didn't know what the new Teeka would make of things. Then he had started talking.

He didn't realize she was listening, but she was, and he explained everything. Right down to the reasons why he acted the way he did at his lowest, most animal, moments, and it brought everything into a new focus. It is an easy thing to condemn somebody for their actions, until you understand why they make them. So often understanding something, well and truly, makes it so much easier to accept. 

She had listened, understood, and decided. This man loved her and she would return that love. It felt like a decision made in haste, and yet it was years in the making. She had years of memories with him, and while she had seen him in darkness, she had seen him far more often in beautiful glittering light. That, combined with his words, had won her heart before he even realized what he'd won.

She shrugged, it was a great deal of emotion to convey in a simple drop of the shoulders, but it was close enough. 

Anthony smiled, though he still felt awkward. Where do you start with something like this? He would feel absurd if he just pretended everything was normal and accepted her attention as a given. Better to start at the beginning. "Well then, I think this is the part where I ask you out on a date?" He reached a hand out to the lovely feline and she pressed her head into his palm. He scratched behind her ears and she nodded.

It was a start.

***

Sleep wasn't really an option anymore. Anthony's heart was pounding away in his chest, and his brain was buzzing with errant thoughts that seemed to rebound off the inside of his skull. He'd gotten out of bed, now uncomfortably aware of his nakedness in front of the big cat. Funnily enough he was more concerned with being naked in front of her now, after she wanted to be with him, compared to when she was actively apathetic to him. 

He threw on some oversized flannel pants and a loose shirt, there was an old band's logo on the front that he hardly listened to anymore. He rarely utilized pajamas, this was a decent approximation. Then he followed Teeka back to the living room. She had stood by the door waiting, and admiring, as he dressed. She seemed to have something in mind for their first 'date' as she had run off shortly after he suggested the idea. 

She walked over to the cupboard underneath the tv where all the electronic clutter of daily life was stored. She searched for something particular, carefully nudging through the scattered piles of odds and ends until she found what she wanted. The only DVD Anthony owned. An old, well-worn copy of The Lion King. A movie night, a simple enough first date, all the better with a movie that held a bit of meaning for each of them. A prominent symbol of what ultimately drove them together.

Teeka handed him the case, holding it up to him until he took it from her mouth, and jumped dexterously onto the couch. Anthony turned it over in his hands, smiling, before loading it into the player and turning it on. The familiar title screen came up, the TV casting it's multihued light into the room, creating a dim space for just the two of them. He sat on the couch next to Teeka and pressed play. A classic scene began playing and Anthony gently reached over to put his arm around his cheetah. 

The movie played on, and Teeka watched with genuine interest. She had been in the room when it had played before, but watching and focusing on a movie was different now. Before it had just been noise, now it showed all these emotions and meanings. The space on the couch between the pair gradually closed, until Anthony was holding her close. She lay against his chest and watched a bunch of lions re-enact Hamlet. 

Anthony became nervous as the scene approached. The scene he had mentioned in detail when he talked through his problems on a sunny hill side earlier that day. The scene with Nala, her eyes, and a Phil Collins song. Would she see it the same way he did? Would it lead to a greater understanding as she saw it with her own eyes or would it turn her against him? It was impossible for him to guess. There were untold depths to her now, a real personality resided in her furred hide, but all he had were nods and shakes of her head, and the periodic shrug.

Teeka could feel his tension, his arm constricted around her more tightly and he kept unconsciously glancing at her rather than the movie. It was nothing for him to worry about.  He had already described the scene in detail and she saw much the same thing he did in it. It was a beautiful scene and she only felt a growing appreciation for everything Anthony had gone through. In all honesty, she had decided what she was going to do when this scene came on before Anthony had even put the movie in the player. 

She licked at his neck to soothe his nerves. He looked down at her and she met his eyes in a very specific way. Half-lidded, head turned downward, her mouth slightly smiling. It was a look dangerously loaded with intent. She gave him the bedroom eyes, the fuck-me eyes, and the implication was not lost on him at all. 

Anthony let the movie play on, though it became completely ignored. It meant nothing to him now. 

Anthony pushed forward first. He held the furry feline against his chest and leaned his head down to hers. He pressed in until there was barely the space of a heartbeat between them and he held there. He could feel the hot and heavy breath of the cheetah against his lips, her eyes were locked with his and the moment stretched on to eternity. Slowly, bit by imperceptible bit, she came to him. Her animal form and his human one joining at the mouth in a rapturous kiss.

He held her head in his hands and kissed her deeply, she kissed him back without reservation. His tongue sought to explore her mouth and she returned the favor. Each long and tender lover's kiss punctuated by tender moans and growls. It could have lasted a life time and Anthony would have died happy, but Teeka pulled away. Anthony held out his hands, asking her to come back but she gave him a sultry look and refused.

There was something Anthony needed to understand. While his refusal to give in to his dirty and unwanted desires had been admirable, having each and every heat go by without the sensation of a male had left Teeka very, very, hungry. He would give her that attention tonight, and he would not regret it.

As the room flashed in technicolor, lit by a TV playing a forgotten movie, the cheetah urgently forced her lover to strip. She made her desires known in base animalistic ways, pulling at his clothes with teeth and claw, until he stood before her as naked as she was. She drank him. The sights, the wonderful smells. Already he was beginning to show his interest, eager to claim her, and she admired him. He looked, delicious.

She could feel that she was already ready for him, her smell was rampant in the room to her own feline senses, but there was something she had been yearning to try since she first thought about it earlier that afternoon.

Anthony watched as her lithe form turned away from him, and walked delicately across the room. Her tail was held chaste and proper across her backside, though her recent actions, and those eyes, had left little subtlety about what she wanted. She settled into a lazy slouch on the opposite side of the room and began to wash her face. Her back to him, as if he weren't there, or was simply beneath her notice.

The human was confused by the sudden indifference. He watched as she carefully and intently cleaned each paw and ran them across her cheeks. She moved with grace, each motion deliberate. He stood there, dumb, until she caught his eye and motioned with one paw for him to sit down. Dropping the act momentarily to make a deliberate point with one paw and waved in a decidedly non-animal gesture. He was happy to oblige but still confused as to why he did so. 

Teeka continued to ignore him, focused instead on her mock display of cleaning herself. Her face finished, she started licking her shoulders, smoothing and cleaning the fur with her barbed tongue. Each stroke long and deliberate and utterly mysterious to Anthony. She moved down her body, cleaning the creamy white fur of her stomach, her legs splaying slightly apart, her back end pointed toward the man on the couch. As if by accident she sat there cleaning her stomach, splaying her leg suggestively though still primly hiding herself behind her tail.

Finally understanding started to seep in, this was what she had done earlier that day, after lunch, while she was still a simple animal. She had lay right there cleaning herself and Anthony had set over here and... he started to become very interested in what was happening next. 

Teeka lifted a long slender leg up over her head, her tail was curled across her coyly, its tip swishing back and forth playfully. She dropped her head behind her tail until it covered her mouth, but left her bright golden eyes free to stare at the human. She had casually gone from ignoring his presence to lustfully gazing at him, her eyes rarely blinking. Deep golden pools for him to fall into, utterly lost. Long licks accompanied by light wet slurps were hidden behind a bushy tail. A tastefully hidden display designed to get the reaction she wanted to watch.

He sat there frozen, amazed and enticed by the show he was being given. This was different from what he had seen earlier that day. This was intimate, intentional. This was a lover teasing and toying with her chosen beau. This was for him, and that made all the difference. His cock stood painfully erect, precum squeezing freely from the tip. Teeka's tail still hid her show, her eyes met his, dropped to his stiff manhood admiringly, and returned to him. He could see more, those eyes said, but he had to give her a show in return. He grasped himself and the tail fell. 

Anthony moaned involuntarily through clenched teeth as he first laid eyes on the cheetah's supple holes. He had seen them before, but this was an entirely different experienced. Now they yearned, now they squelched, and gaped, and pulsed, with a rhythm meant only for him. The feline's strong and flexible tongue explored her own aching pussy, a rich heady wetness seeping out, staining the fur around her entrance. Her feral mouth and cheeks were soaked with her arousal as she lapped at herself hungrily. Bright, intelligent eyes glimmered in the dim light, jumping back and forth from his face to his cock, delighting in seeing him as much as he delighted in seeing her.

For the first time in his life, it was right.

He rubbed himself furiously, his cock dripping with precum that leaked in a steady stream that gave slick lubrication for his hand. He moaned and squirmed for Teeka's benefit. He watched as her tongue gave liberal attention to both her sweet feline lips and puckered tailhole, leaving both wet and glistening and begging for attention. He kept himself wrapped in his hand, pumping up and down his length to the beautiful sights before him. Teeka watched lustfully, after a point she could no longer take her eyes off his hard cock. 

She stood and came over to him, ceasing her own show but demanding that he continue his. She growled lightly when he stopped, and stared cold predator eyes at him until he continued for her. She swayed her hips back and forth as she walked up to him, mesmerized by the motions of his hand. Closer and closer she walked, until she sat between his splayed legs, inches from a hand that masterfully pleasured her toy for her. She waited for her treat. Her eyes nearly crossed as she watched, her mouth dangling open, hot and heavy breaths panting.

In the end, she did not need to wait long. Those sultry eyes drove Anthony to his first climactic height in the lover's young romance. His breath quickened and his teeth clenched together as he neared the edge. Teeka knew the signs, she had seen the crude display before, though not in such magnificent fashion. When he hit the edge, when there was nowhere else to go, she made her move. She pushed forward. Greedily shoving his hand away and replacing it with her warm and waiting mouth. She purred in satisfaction as she felt the warm rod enter her mouth, it's warm and heavy flavor amplified by her predatory senses.

Anthony groaned as he felt his balls clench and the warm mouth closed entirely around him. He sat on the edge of a precipice and he felt her tongue on him as it tipped him over the edge. He pushed down on her head, urging himself further inside, as the first sticky spurts pumped through him. The salty savory flavor of him splashed on the back of Teeka's throat and she growled in thanks, lapping and sucking at him the best she could. He fed her all that he had and she greedily accepted it, her throat visibly squeezing as she swallowed his essence willingly. Anthony threw his head back in delight and let the cheetah suck the life from him. 

Seconds passed in bliss as the cheetah first learned how to pleasure her mate in this way. She relished it, the intimacy, the taste, the smell. She suckled on him, squeezing each and every drop into her waiting mouth. He arched his back as she continued, pushing pleasure to the point of near pain and she stopped.

He had no more to give, she jumped up on the couch beside him, and leaned her head into the nape of his neck, licking at the salty sweat there and tickling the tender skin. Anthony held her close and ran his hands hungrily along her back and flanks. He needed only a moment's respite, he could not feel satisfied until he knew her intimately, already he felt his need rising again. Like a teenager again, she brought out a hunger in him.

He wanted to taste her. He wanted to explore her body, but the cheetah was impatient. She spied his flaccid member as it first began to reharden, and she returned to her old tricks. She gave him the same show she had given earlier, now exciting him back to readiness but also preparing herself for him. Lubricating, stretching, exciting her nethers. Her tongue delved deeply and hungrily into both of her tight holes, she was for him to use as he needed in whatever way he chose, and she made that painfully clear. 

When Anthony once again stood at rock hard attention she got on all fours and crouched low to the ground, lifting her hind legs high and tilting them upwards. She was ready to be entered. 

He knelt behind her, and pressed his hips to hers. He could neither deny her desires or his own. His member pressed between her furred rear and his stomach. It was the only time he had ever actually touched her here, having never quite brought himself to do it before today, and it felt better than he had dreamed. Her hole was slick with her arousal and saliva both, and he pressed the underside of his cock to it, grinding into her suggestively. She growled underneath him, enjoying the attention but desiring more from him than just touches and teases. She tilted herself up as far as she could, displaying proudly. 

Anthony used his hand to steady himself, his tip kissing her feline lips, pushing lightly against her warm body. He watched her spread for him. She growled and braced herself against the floor as he slowly pushed into her smaller form, his size, larger than your average male cheetah by far, pushing her to her utmost limit. Causing her a slight pain that she soon overcame and leaving her feeling exquisitely full. He ground himself in her to the hilt, until his balls pressed against her furry backside and he could give her no more. 

He stayed there, hands hugging her hips, clasping her tightly to him for a blissful moment as they both adjusted to each other. She was so wet, he could feel her slick juices squeezing out of her, wetting his balls, where they lay pressed against her. She growled and looked back over her shoulder, looking into the eyes of her lover as he penetrated her, and nodded, ready.

Slowly, he slid himself back, feeling her hot walls squeezing him and begging him to stay buried inside. The cheetah growled deep in her throat and quivered at the sensation. With just his head left between her moist lips he thrust himself forward again in long slow strokes. Teeka purred and squirmed underneath him as he leaned over her back. He thrust himself mostly downwards into the big cat, who squatted beneath him, resting his weight on her powerful hips, making her feel his dominating presence above her. A hungry, needful male using the smaller wet female.

Anthony kept his slow pace for a long time, he wanted to badly to ram himself into her, to use and abuse her roughly until he blew his load deep inside, but he could feel her tightness, her slight discomfort. She needed him to be gentle, to care for her needs until she could handle what he wanted. He was a caring lover, he fed her what she could handle while both their bodies cried for more. 

It was never his style to whisper pillow talk into his lover's ear but Anthony found himself doing just that. Describing how good she felt around him and how badly he wanted her as he waited for her to relax. His words brought looks of thanks and lust from her. Each thrust was coming easier, gentle wet noises started to fill the room as Anthony picked up his pace. He grabbed her fur in big handfuls, roughly pulling at her, driving her wild, particularly as he pulled at the fur on her neck like a rather rough male would.

He loved the way it felt thrusting down into her. It was so primal and satisfying to feel a willing mate pinned beneath you, and the feline's exaggerated position allowed it with ease. He looked down and watched the slick dark skin of her entrance stretch around him with each stroke. The sight sent chills down his back and caused his balls to tighten in pleasure. 

"I'm going to cum so hard." He told her, warning, preparing, and she let out a breathy roar. He could feel himself building as he pumped himself ever harder into her. Her claws were digging into the carpet now, to brace against his powerful thrusts. The cheetah's tail was twitching wildly as her own orgasmic forces built a head of steam and threatened to overtake her. Periodically he felt her powerfully squeeze around him as another small wave shook her body with pleasure. 

The feeling started in his toes and crept up his legs until a tingling sensation and a tightness of his balls told him it was time. He pressed himself forward into her, ever harder, no longer holding himself back. Teeka roared, a vicious primal thing, and snarled with her lips pulling back to reveal a mouth of small sharp teeth. She clamped down on him, her walls pulsing with a strong height of passion, and he pushed through. 

He could feel her strength beneath him, holding him, fighting him, milking him, desperate hunger, desperate need. One thrust, two. Pushing deep into her until he could take not a moment longer. He pressed himself into her fully, leaning over her, one arm on the ground to brace himself, his hips pushed flush against hers. His mate snarled and hissed underneath him as orgasmic bliss took her and the warm heat of his seed effused through her body. He flowed into her freely, each clench in his balls sending another viscous squirt pouring deep into his feline.

Squeeze after needful squeeze she held him and he emptied himself. She felt so warm, so full of that sticky seed, and she purred in the sheer contentment of it. When he was at last fully spent inside her, he leaned back and slid from her with a final wet sucking sound. A single trail of thick white fluid oozed out from the cheetah's folds, the only remaining sign of their first union. 

Though tired and spent Anthony still yearned for more. The big cat lay on her side, squirming and rolling on her back as the last vestiges of pleasure took her. Her mate lay down beside her, staring at her entrance and his leavings there. He still longed for a taste, to fondle and explore her folds more deeply. To spend himself in her time and again, in either of those wonderful glistening holes. 

But that was what made this wonderful. That was the same thing that she wanted. They could spend time together, share experiences, come to a more meaningful, deeper understand each other. He could even learn the best ways to use his tongue on her and they would both delight in the exploration. That was the entire point. They had each other and they had plenty of time. 

Anthony leaned over the cat and cleaned her with his tongue like a caring male might, then carried her into the bedroom. She purred in his arms.