Chapter 14

Maka walked her way out of the vine-infested thicket at a brisk pace uncharacteristic to her current condition. Her fingers still stung in the places where Han had pierced her with his claws. Her nape burned with a dull flame. Though she tried to keep the healing mixture where it belonged, bits of herbs started to dry off and fell forgotten onto the vines below. Maka kept a close look on them. If any of the larger pests approached her, she would either move away or, if she had to deal with a cluster of them, spray them with her urine. 
It was a journey without an end; a race for survival. As soon her pads found purchase on solid ground for the first time, the female forgot all about survival. She crashed down on her belly with an exhausted sigh. It felt good, not to have the earth slither beneath your feet. Not to feel the helplessness of captivity, or the pain of countless mistakes that led her into this precarious position. What would she be without a male to provide for her? Her hunting skills stopped at the few hares she caught for fun. Skanita was in a similar situation, but she had her brother, a male as apt at hunting as the father who kept his claws sheathed, perhaps out of fear that one day the apprentice might become the provider. Or perhaps it was sheer pride that kept Han dragging fresh prey back to the cave every morning. The head of the family made a habit to show off his abilities…while Maka dozed off with the sun cascading upon her belly. 
The female picked her head up. It was no use to beat herself up after what her own mate did to her. Her cerulean eyes, though tired, did not gaze back upon the nexus of her greatest agony. Instead, they looked ahead, towards the flickers of light that illuminated a setting she was familiar with. 
With a heavy groan, Maka picked herself up and forced her feet into a maladroit shuffle towards the familiar embrace of the pine forest. One slow, heavy step. You can do this. 
Another short, stumbling one had her dig her claws into the ground for stability. Your children need you. 
Maka gritted her teeth. 
I have to tell them the greatest lie of my life.
She paused. Was that really the right way? To deceive her children in the same way Han did to her? The clarity that came out of her when she agreed with the male that tortured her body, sacked her spirit, and convinced her to lie for him started to evaporate until all that remained was doubt. An endless mist of heavy, mental fatigue that kept her mind frozen and her body prone. 
Maka’s confused head found warm purchase upon her uninjured forepaw. What choice led to the utmost happiness of her children? She remembered the tickling embrace of grass around her ears, the murmur of the winds, and the pleasant coldness of the soil before the overwhelming tiredness wrapped over her like a heavy blanket. 
When she next opened her eyes, the amber light of the sunset had all but given way to the twinkling darkness of a clear night. Maka shot on her feet at the hoot of a nearby owl. Her cubs. She had to reach her cubs before Han returned from his hunt. 
The female instinctively put up a temporary burst of speed that took her towards the western branch of the moonlit river. From there, it was an easy climb along the slope marked with her mate’s familiar scent. Though the markings were a few days old, the sting of that bitter aroma still made her lips wrinkle in remembrance of that night when he-
“No,” Maka snapped the bitter thoughts out of her head. “Think of them. Only of them,” she gritted her teeth as the image of her children cuddled together against her belly acted as a shield against all the aching misery of her wounds.
After about half an hour of arduous trekking along the bank bordering the whispering waters, the sharp scent of fresh markings entered her nostrils. Unlike last time, Maka’s lips remained perfectly still. This wasn’t her mate’s scent. It had a weaker tint, and was accompanied by something far softer and sweeter. With her nose guiding her through the darkness of the night, Maka followed the trail up to a tight clearing where a mound of rustled leaves, twigs, and dirt was conspicuously piled upon a buried treasure. The female sniffed around the small mound. Her lips twitched with interest. Having liked what she found, Maka used her paw to pull off the mound bit by bit. The deeper she went, the sharper the scents became until her claws found nothing but soil underneath. Was the effort worth it? 
Maka pressed her nose hard against the slightly damp ground, took a few whiffs from the rich scents she caught onto before, then threw her head back up to display the most heartfelt Flehmen response she mustered in a while. The suave hiss escaping through her panting maw painted an obvious picture of what she found buried beneath the debris, yet her glistening eyes gave off a much better impression of her state of mine. For the first time since this accursed day started, her sapphire spheres were clear of any sort of harm, doubt, or unhappiness.
For that lone, single moment, she was sent back to happier moments, when she idled next to her mate talking of their future cubs. Fate blessed her with two healthy twins; offspring that left their mark upon the ground mere hours ago. Maka was thoroughly thrilled to have stumbled upon the very place where her matured offspring mated a couple of hours ago. They did well, to hide their deed under a pile of urine and dirt. Han would not think twice about avoiding the distasteful pile of excrements, as he preferred to keep his paws clean of anything lower than the blood of his prey.
After her excitement diminished to a more manageable level, Maka put the pile back together and sprinkled it with her own bitter scent, the tips of her fangs showing as she hissed in pain. The acidic urine washed off part of the healing concoction that lined the walls of her abused pussy, yet even now Maka put the safety of her offspring far above her own menial needs. She pressed on quicker through the darkened forest, keeping a brisk pace until she caught another trail of fresh scents that led her around the den, into an outcrop of boulders kissed by the moon’s serene light. The rocks held no meaning to her. It was the two cougars that huddled in their shade that stole her attention. Skan had his head placed on top of his sister’s, whispering sweet words into an ear that kept battling his breath with annoyed flicks. Skanita was not mad at him though. That was only an instinctual reaction to tickling. With her eyes closed and her toes flexing every so often, she purred and rubbed her tail along her brother’s haunch in a failed attempt to tickle his sensitive underbelly. 
Maka’s heart soared to see them so enamored with each other. Both of them were so focused on each other that none of them caught the scent of the cougar watching from the shadows. Maka could have revealed herself at any moment. Demand aid for the wounds that, even when standing completely still, bit into her flesh like the sharp beak of an owl. Like her two blissful children, she had her own thoughts to wrestle with.
Thoughts of a much darker nature. It was under the same night sky when the monster first revealed himself to her. He ruthlessly claimed her inside her very home, stripping her defenses apart layer by layer until he exposed the very core of her fragile soul. The pain of his claws falling upon her fingers was nothing compared to the besieging agony she endured once his barbed cock passed through the gates of her moist, defenseless pussy. Lured by her warmth and hungry for blood, the monster fed on her suffering, and only when she lay broken and unresponsive, her folds dripping with his foul, sticky seed, did he finally step off her. 
Maka covered her head under her paws. Weakness washed through her body, followed by the cold despair of a future stolen from her. Why? Why could she not be in her daughter’s place, treasured by her mate? Why did she have to be the miserable whore that found herself trapped under that…creature? 
“Skan…”
Skanita’s suave voice seemed to have disturbed her brother’s tranquility. “What?” the male picked his head up with a sigh. “Aren’t you comfortable?” He nuzzled his way around her head, then his tongue found one of her ears, leaving it moist after three quick laps.
“I thought I heard something. I’m not the picky wolf you paint me out to be,” Skanita slapped his haunch with her tail. 
“Who said anything about wolves? I always used foxes as a fair comparison.”
“Thieves. They’re small, sneaky thieves that-“
“Are also exquisitely beautiful,” Skan dashed a lick over her mouth to turn her words into a purring slur. 
“What did you hear, my beloved? Is it worth thinking about some stupid owl when your brother can take care of every…one…of your needs?” 
She refused to get up from her comfortable position even when Skan pressed his warm paw against her moist pussy, preferring to delegate this task to her beloved brother. “Can you shift that big bum of yours for a few moments? It might be nothing, but…”
“Nita…is this an excuse to get rid of my ticklish breath? Or is it the other end that bothers you? Because I am perfectly fine to put something else inside your velvet, magnificent, adorable pussy.” 
Skanita snarled when her brother puffed a gust of moist air into her ear. “Stop being silly and go check it out.”
“Why me?” the male whined with a shake of his head. “You’re perfectly able to defend yourself against falling leaves and trembling bushes. I am sitting comfortable on top of you, so moving means that I will leave you open to the wind’s cold embrace. Leaving my sister trembling in the night is just something I refuse to do when I can provide her with much more than she would ever expect…”
His subtle thrusts against the base of her tail failed to prove his point. “Fine. Stay here then.” Skanita said dryly, preparing to get up. “I hope your cock enjoys the rough embrace of a dry paw, because that’s all you’re going to get for being such a lazy bastard.”
“Alright. I heard about enough of this grumpiness,” Skan picked himself up on four lazy paws. “Where is this something that worked my calm, lazy sister into such frenzy?”
“There,” the young female pointed a paw towards a small outcrop of boulders. “It’s just behind the…”
The wind shifted. Maka felt her nether lips tighten painfully under the cold breeze from the south and curled her tail around her form in a failed attempt to warm her chilled flesh, for the pain of her flesh was little compared to the anguish that returned into the dark realms of her mind.
He is going to come back. You are not safe from his touch…and neither is your family.
Maka squeezed her eyes shut. “Stop,” she whispered in the confines of her mind. “You’re lying. Trying to make me lose my mind just like HE wants to.”
A whiff was enough to make both cougars perk their ears in surprise. 
“Mother!” They said at the same time. Skan leaped through the air to crash down right in front of the female that barely moved at his arrival, while his sister came from the side to have the same insignificant impact.
“This is an interesting deviation from the norm. You’re not one to.”
“Skan.”
The male’s happy expression was replaced with a stern look. “Hold on. Is that-“
“Blood,” Skanita answered hurriedly after she dabbed at the spikes that ran along the back of Maka’s wounded neck. Her nose wrinkled in revulsion at the clumped mess of fur, herbs, and dried blood that was her mother’s ravaged nape. “Check for bite marks around her throat. I’ll take the rear. And if the blood is hard, don’t be stupid enough to lick it. We don’t need these wounds to open up without knowing what caused them.” She spoke, quickly moving along the prone cougar’s body, first around the haunches, then closer around the base of her tail. Maka lifted it instinctively, the warm puffs of moist air so deeply embedded into her mind she hardly had to think. Rather, she reacted to a beloved memory that traveled through her mind like a falling star upon a bleak, darkened landscape. 
He comes…he comes… the same sinister voice from before whispered into her ears. Your womb will bleed with the growing legacy of his pain.
Maka froze. She had to remain still. The monster would not harm her that bad if she obeyed him. Her lips curled slightly when his warm tongue probed at her entrance. He liked to taste her fertility before a breeding; made him all the more eager to ravage her with his lusts. 
“There’s blood, some kind of chewed herb, and…” Skanita flicked her tongue out in disgust. “Seed. It’s…it’s seed.”
“No way.” A different sort of breath fell upon her head. “Mother…mother is that true?” The young male that her mind refused to acknowledge as her son nudged her a few times, then pried away the paws that covered his mother’s eyes. 
“Mother?” He waited for an answer.
None came. Eyes closed, tail lifted, paws against the ground…this was how the monster liked her to be right before he claimed her.
Something moist and warm fell over her muzzle. A tongue. He was trying to deceive her. Maka kept her eyes firmly shut. She was not going to fall into his trap again. 
“Skanita, I think she must be asleep or something.”
“You’d be in shock too if you had your ass torn asunder by a pack of mangy wolves, you dense lump of fur,” Skanita snarled from behind. “Check for wounds. Do as I told you.”
Up ahead, the other tongue returned on her silent muzzle for a few quick laps around her perfectly still lips. “Mother…it’s me. It’s Skan. We’re both here, and we’re both very worried about you. ” His voice broke when his emerald eyes noticed the wounds that marred the back of her neck. “Oh, dear mother…what in the flame’s name happened to you?”  
“Skan, allow her peace. If she wants a few moments to still her mind…let her have it.”
The male did not immediately answer his sister, nudging at his mother’s head from different angles. “Mother, please talk. Did you get into a fight with a wolf? A cougar? Who hurt you? We must know who did this. Please talk. We’re here for you. Both of us.”
“Skan!” One quick slap over the head from his sister, and the young male went silent.
A wolf? A cougar? HE was neither of these things. No. The monster was born of smoke and darkness. His eyes burned red with anger when unjust questions flew his way. He did not like to be judged, and hated weakness with a flaming passion. Maka knew how far his temper reached. She carried his fiery brand even now on the ravaged nape of her neck, past the frail lips licked by that feeble tongue. The cuts of his barbs burned deep, far deeper than the tongue could touch.
“Why…I can feel her breath on my whiskers. Why isn’t she speaking?”
“Words alone will answer nothing. Come here if you are too dense to grasp my meaning.”
The heavy look in Skanita’s eyes forced no argument. Skan padded over to her, leaned his muzzle towards the wet patch left behind by her tongue, then jerked back as if bitten by a viper.
“No…No, who could…no!” The male growled and snapped at the air. “No, no! Our mother…this can’t happen to our own mother.”
“Control yourself!” Skanita hissed at him. “Do you think she needs this, after all she had to endure at the claws of that-“
“No!” Skan snapped again. “Don’t give me this crap again.” The male’s powerful roar erased any confidence from Skanita’s blank face. “She’s been abused. What mad animal would do something like this?” Skan licked his muzzle a few times, panting with furious anger. “Blazing infernos! I can’t even say that horrible word. How? I don’t understand…how far did she go? Is it the wolves? How could this happen to our mother?”
“I…don’t know.” Skanita bowed her head in defeat. “What I do know is that we need to focus our efforts on the present moment. Skan. Her injuries. We need to know if there are others beside…Skan!” she bumped into him to get his attention, as his eyes were too fixed on his mother to even care about anything else.
“She knows,” Skan tapped his paw against her side, his voice becoming warmer and softer. “Mother, please. Tell us who harmed you, and I swear by the lives of every creature in this forest that I will find the bastard that even dared to touch you.”
“Stop it. Just stop trying to get her to speak.” Skanita rammed her head into him to direct the male a few feet away from their prone mother. “Your threats do nothing but disturb her and annoy me. Do you want the whole forest to hear us? Hrrrrr? What if the bastard tracks down her scent here, to us?”
“If only we were so lucky,” Skan bared his fangs and raked lines into the grass with his claws. “Let that scrap of filth show himself. I’ll rip off his hide and adorn my den with his fur, wolf or whatever else he might be.”
“Don’t be stupid. If father can’t find him, how could you, in the middle of the night?”
“I’ll scour the entire forest if I have to! This bastard cannot find a place where my wrath will not find him.”
Skanita rolled her cerulean eyes at that. “Great. That has to be the most stellar plan of this evening. I’m sure your wrath will be very useful to mend our mother back to health. Do you have something helpful locked in that empty head of yours, or do you plan to threaten your imaginary opponent while I deal with her wounds?”
The male’s lips twitched briefly into a hateful snarl. However, he was quick to realize that his enemy was not currently here, and quickly dipped his head towards the smiling face of his smarter sister. 
“Help me push her over.” Skanita said. “We need to see if there are other wounds on her belly.”
Maka barely hissed when the ground switched places with the star-dotted sky. HE took her like this, her monster. Belly to belly. A position that allowed her to retaliate, yet instead of sinking her sharp claws through the thin layer of his brown fur, she stood idle. Crippled by pain, frozen by fear, she allowed him to claim her body in every way he wanted. Was his desire the same now? Maka could not smell his scent, yet she dared not open her eyes, as that could easily earn her a searing slash over the face. The two muzzles that poked at her paws, sniffed through her fur and whispered to each other seemed from another world. A dream where the monster could not touch her. 
“Lucky.” Skanita mumbled once they finished their first inspection pass.
“Lucky?” Skan bared his fangs at his sister, who settled on the ground with a tired sigh. “You call this lucky?”
“Better than the horribleness I had roaming inside my head. We should let her wounds mend on their own. In this current situation, there really is not much either of us can do to speed up her recovery.”
Skan was not fully ready to step aside. His muzzle slid down along his mother’s haunch. The concoction of scents that permeated around her tattered lips painted a savage snarl over his face. “Let’s get her home. We’ll wait for father to return, and when he comes, we’ll search for that intruder together.”
“Tomorrow.” Skanita said. “And maybe together. He might not be willing to let mother alone after this.”
The plan sounded good enough for Skan to nod his acknowledgement. Once again, Maka found herself rolled back onto her belly, her eyes still closed, her body, unmoving.
“Looks like somebody did take care of these wounds though…” he flicked his tongue at the spikes that rose from Maka’s nape. “Earlier today. No longer than a couple of hours I bet.”
“Only now you notice? Your head must be boiling from all that vengeance. Father’s scent is all over her.” Skanita’s cerulean eyes widened. “You don’t think he’s the one to…”
“Father?” Skan scoffed. “Who’s being ridiculous now? Those herbs must have been picked very wisely to meddle with your head like that. It’s definitely that limping, ill-bred son of a wolf that forced himself upon her. The bastard was too afraid to confront me, so he went after mother to…make her a target for his anger.”
Skanita tried to help her mother up but she quickly gave up once the prone cougar refused to twitch even a paw. “If that is the truth…why can’t I find this wolf’s scent? There’s only hers, and…”
“Father’s…” Skan joined her with his own concerned voice. “But…but why? Father never unsheathed a single claw against us, against her.”
“He was a monster...”
The sudden, raspy words that rolled out of their mother’s mouth made them both freeze as if they’ve seen a ghost.
“No.” Maka licked her muzzle with a long, tired swipe of her dry tongue. “Not your father. I’m speaking about the one that…well, you’ve already seen more than my words can paint right now.”
“Mother, don’t talk. You need to save your strength.” Skanita propped her head up with her own. “Come on. Get up. Let’s get you somewhere warm.”
“NO!” Maka’s fur bristled at the notion of returning to the same pit that belched out the monster that defiled her body, ruined her mind, and filled her with his foul seed. “No.” her voice then softened as she found her daughter’s concerned face. She was not him, and neither was Skan, in spite of the threats he made against the unknown perpetrator. 
“I cannot bear to walk more this night.” Maka chose her words carefully. “Need to rest. To regain my energy.” She settled back on the ground, tail coiled protectively around a haunch. “Han was the one that healed me. After the outsider left, it was my mate that found me. Broken. Bleeding. With the smell of another cougar impregnated upon my fur and his seed so deep inside me that no amount of licks could clean the foul sludge that polluted my womb.”
Skan tried to keep a straight face in the wake of such pain. “Mother, did father go after this intruder?”
Her son’s words made her heart flutter not with calmness, but with fear, for she saw the speckles of rage that burned within his eyes, the bitterness that latched onto his every word. He inherited his father’s fury, and that made Maka weary. If threats alone could kill, the monster would be writhing in agony right now. 
“No. He remained with me. Regret rooted him in place.” She spoke as calmly as she could in spite of the tempest that raged inside her mind. “I was the sole focus of his attention. After he bathed me, he saw my wounds tended with utmost care, and my spirit mended to the best of his ability. Only when my wounds calmed down to a mere sting did he finally dare to leave me unprotected. I guess his vengeance grew too hot to stay. He will find the outcast, Skan. Rest assured. The one who did this to me will get what he deserves.”
There was no more talk afterwards. Her two cubs fell on either of her sides. They surrounded her with their familiar warmth, attacked her with the moist affection of their licks, an affection she got so used to every night before sleep, every morning before the first meal. Those licks felt more than relieving. Each tug of the tiny barbs seemed to catch onto the darkness that inhabited her body, stripping it away bit by bit, one lick at a time. Within a few minutes, Maka closed her eyes again, and a long, exhausted sigh of relief left her maw before the heavy tiredness of the day finally caught up with her. 
She knew not of how much time had passed. Only that, when she was roused from her slumber by one of her children, a third cougar stood next to her, carrying a small animal between his jaws. 
“For you,” the slightly larger male placed the fawn on the ground after he and the confused female shared a brief look.
Han looked healthy. His eyes were a bit wet, as if he’s been crying for a while, though Maka could not tell that for certain given her still drowsy state. As she looked over his body, Maka noticed no obvious wounds save for a couple of scratches. The fawn must have tried to hide into a thorn bush, a maneuver that could save it from a less determined predator, but not from Han. It was not necessary to end the life of such a frail animal. Maka would have told him that, if her children were gone. 
“My gratitude,” she muttered to her provider instead. Compliance. A powerful tool for the likes of him. “Any luck with the intruder?”
Han circled her with a careful gaze before he settled on his haunches. “He’s been avoiding me like a discredited alpha, taking me far south before I lost his scent. I am certain of his motives though. He’s headed into wolf territory, driven by fear.”
The same kind of fear instilled by the very cougar who spoke the very words? Maka wondered on that for a moment, before her mate’s muzzle leaned closer. Han approached further and further. Maka even stopped breathing from how focused she became. 
The cougar’s cold nose briefly touched hers before the male slid upwards to rest his chin on the top of her head. A long sigh left his jaws. Maka’s ears flattened under the shudders of his breath. She tensed every muscle in her body to prevent her damaged instincts from rebelling out of control.
“I might be speaking mistakenly…but I, for one, think we’ve seen the last of that wretched creature.”
The intruder, or the monster? 
“The fawn…” Maka pointed her muzzle at the spotted deer that lay dead on the ground. “I’m hungry. Would you please…”
“Sure,” Han sunk his claws into the carcass and dragged it between her forepaws. “Eat. Regain your strength. I will confer with my children just a few steps away.”
It brought Maka no joy to tear into the belly of something so soft, yet eat she had, if only to focus her mind on something more immediate than the primal fear that rampaged through her head. Her rational side knew better than to give in to panic. She made a deal with Han, and even he would not dare to harm her while her children were around. Still, part of the monster’s darkness lingered in her mind, alerting her of the inevitable. He unleashed his claws on her before, after all. Who was to say he would not lure her into a false sense of security, only to force himself upon her all over again? 
Han returned right after she discarded the deer’s remains after what appeared to be a very short feeding frenzy. Crystalline tears fell down his muzzle, with more brewing inside his regretful vermilion eyes. 
“There’s no need for that,” Maka’s first instinct was to recoil from his touch as he began to clean the blood from her muzzle.
“Please. I will not touch you unless you ask me to. I just...I have been thinking how to say this for hours.” the cougar settled on his belly, right in front of her. “May I speak please?”
A nod from her head made him take a deep breath in preparation. “You are kinder than I deserve. There are so many things to say. I could not…fully express what I feel when our children were present, but I want you to know that-“
Fear surged through Maka’s bristling fur. She barely realized how alone she was until Han pointed it out. “Where are they?” she looked from one tree to the other like a starving owl desperate for a sign of life to latch onto. The bastard. He sent them away so he could-
A warm tongue enveloped her muzzle. Maka drew in a sharp, shuddering breath. Instincts raged within her, warning of danger, while memories rose against that darkness like a tide to fill her with the pleasures of days past. Days where his scent was all she wanted, his touch, all that she craved for. 
“Sorry,” Han jerked his head back. “I should not have done that. Recovery will take time, but I could not stop myself from telling you how sorry I am for everything that I’ve done. I have so many words to speak that my head feels heavy and my tongue tangles in the attempt.”
Maka focused to remain impassive in spite of the shudders that raced across her body. She had seen such crocodile tears before. They welled in the same warm eyes she trusted for so many years. Slid down the sides of the muzzle that licked the blood of the prey it provided. The muzzle that comforted her with words and touch alike when the days became too heavy. The muzzle that licked her every day, every night, no matter how many arguments kept them apart.  
Yet comfort could not dispel the darkest shadows Han cast when his fangs pierced her neck. After all, how could he be sorry after he willingly shattered her trust into a million pieces? Maka wanted to snarl at him. To push him far enough away to avoid looking upon his deceitful face.
“Skan. Nita.” Her voice wavered as she spoke two of the names she loved most in this world. “You’ve sent them to sleep?”
“Went back to our den out of their own accord. We’ll join them shortly, right after I get the chance to…express what I currently feel.”
Maka looked at the ground beneath her feet. Only a few specks of blood remained to attest of the fawn’s presence. Tomorrow they’d dry out, and in a few days merge with the ground, if the rain would not wash everything away first, just like the monster did with her previous, better life.
He tried hard to make himself appear more like his old self, watching her silently while his tongue licked the tears that latched onto her whiskers. He tried hard. Maka had to give him at least that. 
“You should start then,” she wiped the liquid with the back of a forepaw. “Your eyes will flood the earth if we keep staring at each other.”
He chuckled at that. “Sting a bit too, but my regret is only a sliver compared to…to what I’ve...done to you. This…this whole thing with the…what I’ve…” No matter how his muzzle contorted, that one word refused to come out. “I have been led astray, Maka. Betrayed by my own hubris, and I’ve harmed you so….so much…”
“Your tongue tangles.” Maka observed. “Perhaps it is best to put this behind us.” She needed time to think, preferably away from Han.
“No!” The outburst made her cock her head in fear. “No,” Han repeated, this time on a much softer voice. He was desperate…but in a different way than the monster she feared. 
Could it be that her mate was still buried beneath the stone skin of the creature built from his rage, doubts, and fears? Trying to break out from the suffering he mortared with his own choices? Struggling to tell her something important? A flicker of trust urged her to him, her paw moving along one of his own, slowly climbing around his head to find his scruff warm and dusty. “If it hurts you to talk…” her hot pads brushed through his fur to pull his head closer. “Maybe you could try to…show me instead.”
Han dropped at her feet with the whimper of a wounded wolf. She was not prepared for what followed. Like a strike of light from a storming sky, his tongue rushed out of his maw to lick over the other forepaw, the one that kissed the cold soil. Maka lifted the paw off the ground, her jaws too tight with surprise to utter any word. She meant to push him away, but as soon as the male’s warm tongue found her pads, her fingers spread and curled over to expose the sharp tips of her claws. 
Han was ravenous. The tongue that a few moments ago tangled like a confused snake in his mouth now rushed between her fingers with such eagerness. It licked, slurped, then took the whole paw between his gentle jaws where the same teeth that ended the life of the young fawn -the same steel trap that held her nape captive- now grazed at her pads with the gentleness of a mother ferrying her cubs from one den to another. His devotion quickly overwhelmed her, and Maka found her purrs ascend into a long, melodious growl.
“Mrrrrr….mraawwwrrrr.” She collapsed on her side, pawing at the male helplessly with her other feet. Soon, each of her feet became the target of his unrelenting assault.
“Too much. Too much…” she whimpered when he sought to bathe one of her hind paws.
His eyes met hers for a fickle moment. That short peek into his widened coal slits barely allowed her to read his emotions before his muzzle crashed against hers, his colder, wetter nose a minor inconvenience compared to the heat of the slavering tongue that penetrated her stupefied jaws. Han kissed her with a fierceness he rarely exhibited before, twisting his eager tongue around her unresponsive one, barbs clasping and rubbing together. 
“H-Han…you shouldn’t… this isn’t proper after…” Maka stuttered after their barbed, slobbering tongues parted from each other. 
“I know. I just…I wanted you to know that I still…care for you.” 
Han then sobbed his way through an unintelligible apology that ended with a second, fiercer kiss. She was more focused on the salty taste of his tears than his words, and on the blazing warmth that made her heart flutter erratically inside her chest.
“Come back with me.”