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Chapter 11

Next morning was colder than she expected. Maka looked around for the mate that should have been cuddled next to her. Instead, Han was gone. Maka easily traced his scent back to the entrance of the cave, where Han was overlooking the forest from the same position she found him last night.

"On a scale from cubs to treacherous thieves, how good is this morning?" Maka asked as she slinked along her mate's side.

"Don't."

She should have gotten his hint then, was it not for last night's activities, but love made Maka weak. Blind to the truth she had been forced to live with since she moved inside the cave she called home.

"Are you sure you don't need a bit of warmth? The air is a bit chilly."

Han didn't even look at her. "I am going to leave right now if you keep acting like a mindless kitten."

She shrugged that off as bad disposition.

"Alright then," she settled on her haunches a small distance away from him. "What do you plan to do about this invader? Clearly he is more important than your mate. Remember? The same mate you promised to-"

"I don't have time for nonsense," Han got up on his fours. "You promised to help me long before I stuck my cock inside your pleading little cunt, so help me. You've been with our children longer than me these past few days. Tell me everything about their habits, and most important, the locations they favor. I need to know where this bastard strikes next."

A sudden lump formed in Maka's throat. Her body flooded with apprehension, even more so when Han turned those piercing red eyes on her.

"You do know where our children are now, right? Because that look you have on your face leads me to think otherwise."

Maka stepped back from the encroaching male. "I...I'm...I-"

"I, I, I. Your head's filled with pebbles, but I didn't expect your tongue to harden the same way. Do I need to ask you that simple question again?"

"No," Maka spat out the simplest answer her frozen mind could conjure. "They are...they headed to this..."

This what? What could she say without leading Han straight to her children?

"Well?"

"Skan said something about wolves. Yes. The wolves of the east. The Shardclaws."

Han pondered the answer, shifting his tail from one side to the other before he turned his back on Maka. "So my son finally gathered the courage to slay his first wolf. Good. The pitiful pack of those thieves should have broken apart when their alpha died last winter. Stay in the vicinity and come east should the intruder venture here. You can hardly catch your own rabbits, and I will not have my mate bloodied or worse, marked by that pitiful excuse of a cougar. You are mine, understand?"

The pathetic dip of her head seemed to please him for now, and only after Han became a blur among the trees Maka could finally relax. She padded back to her sleeping place, sniffing the stone where her mate rested for the better part of the night.

"Maybe I really am stupid," she lingered for a bit, then walked back to the entrance where the trail came to an abrupt end. Han slept outside, after all. "But he is all I have. I love you, Han. Please, come back to me soon."

With that said Maka ran north to meet with her children. She found them playing a game of tackling, so engrossed in besting each other that they were completely oblivious of her presence. It didn't take long for them to trade that juvenile game in favor of solving more pressing matters. Clambering on top of his sister's back, Skan growled with lust as he grazed upon the female's thick nape, his member jabbing quickly for the sweet entrance of her pussy.

Maka stared blankly at the blissful cougars. Her son found his mark, he yowled, and came, and delighted in the sudden expulsion of his semen, but...that was it. There was no forbidden thrill that gripped her muscles this time, no slithering warmth that made her feel alive. The cold ground was all she felt; a void of emotionlessness that left her mind as barren as her pussy. When her offspring started to get affectionate with each other, Maka left. She felt unwelcome in their presence when her guilt froze her heart in a tomb of jagged ice. After all, how could she keep their secret and be loyal to her mate at the same time? On her way back home -that long road of misery that still made her paws ache less than her heart- Maka pondered whether it was better to just be honest with Han. Let it all out and hope the better, caring part of him prevailed over the darker half.

That night, Han returned tired and frustrated from his patrol. It was well into the night when the male cougar crawled his way home reeking of unfamiliar scents.

"Han!" Maka's heart jolted upon seeing the worn, defeated look of her mate. Her mind immediately led her to assume the worst: that Han finally found his quarry, got into a conflict with him, and lost. "Han, are you hurt? What happened?!"

"Don't," the male gave her a hissing warning.

"Don't? Don't what?" Maka blurted out against her better judgment. "I waited hours for you, Han. Look at the sky. It's almost midnight and this scent you wear upon your fur..."

"Wear?" his crimson eyes fixed her with piercing anger. "Wear? Is that what you said? You think I what? Ran into the nearest wolf pack and rolled myself around in their scat? Is that what you think of the male who provided for you all these years?"

Maka gave no reply, her mouth half-open, too stunned to utter any words.

"Figures," Han continued his maladroit shuffle towards the mouth of his cave. "For all the good you intend, you never had the wits to discern when to approach and when to stay away. Perhaps that's why your cunt overflowed with lust the day before, when you came begging to be mounted like a randy little whore."

Maka's ears flattened. That word -that single horrible insult- felt like a million claws suddenly sunk into her hide. "Why?" she muttered weakly under her breath. "What have I done to you to deserve such ire?"

Han continued walking.

"Han. Han, please," she followed after him. "We promised to help each other. To share everything. A defeat is not the end of-"

"Defeat?!" the male whirled around, his unsheathed claws sliding through the air. Only by the virtue of her sharp instincts Maka managed to leap back, away from the piercing claws that sunk into the soil. "I am not defeated, female, even if part of you would like me to be put in that position." Han snarled, his voice dripping venom. "I saw it in your eyes from the moment I shared this knowledge with you against my better judgment. I intended well. Believed that my family should be aware of the only thing that can crumble our unity into dust. And what have you done for me? How did you uphold your vow to help me so far? I run through my territory aimlessly with no idea where my own children are, while my mate -my beloved half- judges me with her silent stare. You think me weak, unable to keep my own territory safe from the filth that has been eluding me!"

"No. I'd never-"

"Mad then?" Han crept closer to her. "Every time I speak about this threat you deflect the topic back to our love. Weaken my resolve with your pitiful licks." Han shook his head. A growl of disbelief left his seething throat, his two red eyes widening as if he just found a way to remove the thorn that had been stuck in his pads for the past days. "No...You try...you're trying to make me as complacent as the roaches I banished. Those things you once called friends!"

Maka gulped in terror as her mate prowled around her with every intention to attack her. "What are they to you, mrrrrhhh?" Particles of warm saliva latched onto her ears, his deadly fangs inches away from her neck, his warm breath falling upon her ear like those calm, venomous words. "Have you been hiding one from me? Is this intruder who torments me someone you know? A fragment of the past you kept in contact with?"

"No, Han, no. I swear upon our bond that I have remained loyal."

"Loyal. You remained loyal to me."

Maka dipped her head.

"Then why did you crawl into my embrace begging for cock days after this pest came out of hiding?!"

The might of his voice sent Maka stumbling back. She tripped on her paws, meeting the ground with a pained wince, a position which Han took full advantage of.

"You want him, mate? Have you gotten bored of me, is it? Is the thought of a foreign cock what got you so wet last night?"

He clambered on top of her from behind like he did last night, his breath rolling upon her shuddering nape. "Your silence screams of infidelity in my ears. After all, how come that my loyal, supportive mate had been perfectly happy to keep her distance from me for the past years? Years, Maka. We slept apart for years, ever since those two lumps of meat squirted out of your belly; a belly I fattened and cared for and protected with everything that I had! HOW COULD YOU BETRAY ME LIKE THIS?!"

"Han..." Maka sobbed, slowly turning her head around, fully aware that this could very well be the last time she could look upon her mate. She cut the stream of tears with a quick blink, but kept her eyes open even if the monster that now stood on top of her turned her stomach. "What...what if this intruder is only a manifestation of your suppressed anger?"

He drew back as if struck. "Suppressed? Anger? What are you talking about, female? Straighten your tongue and speak plain words."

"This intruder you are chasing..." Maka continued, still sobbing between every few words. "I never caught a whiff of his scent, and when... when I asked you about the signs... you came up blank. Han...what if... what if this is all in your head?"

"In my- you think me mad?"

"No. Not mad. Unwell." Maka explained as calmly as she could, now that sheer shock washed away part of his anger. "After you banished all of the other cougars, you retreated into yourself and thought and pondered. You need to believe there is still someone out there... because that is the only way to avoid the truth."

"Maka...you are not making sense." The monster's fierceness started to dull. Han stepped back to pace around, lost in his own confused thoughts. "What I did...everything I've done to protect you, and now you say I made it all up? That my mind is ill?"

"We had friends, Han. Cougars who never unsheathed claws against you. Friends who wanted to help you provide for your new family. Even the wolves were-"

"Stop it." The male buried his head under his paws. "I cannot take any more of this nonsense. Just...just stop it."

"We had a good life before this seed of doubt infected your mind...it dug its roots so deep that you keep seeing enemies where there are none."

"ENOUGH!" Han roared. "You are my mate and you will stand by me no matter how much you disapprove of my actions."

"I want to help you." Maka pleaded. "I still love you, Han. Think of your family...choose us over the obsession that's eating you from the inside."

"Have you heard nothing of what I said?" He picked himself off the forest floor. "How can you speak of support, when you do nothing but judge?"

"Han, I-"

His form turned into a blur. A second ago he was there, but now, he stood on top of her, a monster with red eyes and dripping fangs. "I will not have an inferior female question the ability of her provider!"

Maka closed her eyes when she felt the kiss of his fangs lock around the back of her neck. She had been in this position last night with the same fluttering heart beat hard in her chest. The same boiling heat rushing through her veins.

Only now, there was no pleasure to be felt. Only fear. The grip he applied on her nape held nothing of the gentleness Maka knew, testing the resilience of her skin further and further. She growled in pain, scratching the soil with her claws. "Stop! Please, stop. I'm begging you, Han. I'm begging you to stop!"

His menacing fangs retreated. Maka let out a gasp of relief, then a groan of pain when a force sent her muzzle into the dirt.

"See? The cub finally remembers her place, beneath the paws of her benefactor." Han slinked along her nape. His nose kissed her ear, every breath oozing out of him making her shudder. "Would you be so fat without the fawns I drag back to the cave each morning, mmrrrhhh? Would you walk through the bosom of my territory without looking over your shoulder if I didn't remove any threat at your address? Your mind would be the ill one if you had to do what I did. Remember that next time you question my methods, my mate."

Han rolled his barbed tongue along the injuries not to comfort, but to stir up the pain that made Maka's fur bristle. "Sleep in the dirt tonight to further cement this newfound insight, my mate, and do not dare to lay a single step into the cave, or you will find my lack of patience even less amiable than my fangs."

Maka shivered after he finally dismounted. Even after his steps had been fully replaced by the song of the crickets, Maka still trembled, for her Han, her mate, had never gone as far as to inflict such intense physical pain upon her, on the back of her neck even, where no matter how much she squirmed, there was nothing she could do to soothe the sting of his fangs.

A few minutes later, after the trembles subdued enough to allow her to stand on her feet, Maka crept away from the cave she called home. Han was right. The longer she lingered around him, the more she tested his patience, and Maka hardly wanted to be around when his battered mind would finally snap.

"Nita..." she muttered under her breath. "Skan..."

Her paws slowly took her into the forest's dark embrace.

"I have to find them. Have to save them..."

Then what? What place could she choose where Han would not find her? Maka's courage faltered further at the thought of being hunted by an even angrier version of Han, for he would have the perfect excuse to enact his vengeance upon her.

Maka slowed down, then looked behind to a faint speck of the cave she rested in for the better part of her life. A cave that used to fill her with comfort at the end of a long day. The place where she used to cuddle with her mate and exchange stories about the past or take glimpses into the future. Han never expressed his desire to have more children, but Maka said something after her cubs came into the world. She promised to Han that their firstborn wouldn't be the only cubs to come into the world.

Maka collapsed on the ground. Tears fell down her cheeks from her wounded azure eyes. How could she fulfill that promise when her mate threatened her to stay away? He even accused her of infidelity. The bastard! As if she was the cause of all this grief.

Sobbing quietly to herself, Maka slowly came to realize that the only way to mend her wounds was not forward, but back home.

Back to her Han, not the obsessed, jealous cougar he had become.

"I have to try," her weary paws once again found purchase upon the cold, humid ground. "Even if he hates me, even if he punishes me...I need to bring my mate back."

Speaking those words out loud gave strength to her depleted body. She was not weak. Not in the ways Han mentioned. She might not have been able to catch large prey or defend her borders against intruders, but she had something that her mate sorely needed. The ability to provide emotional nourishment to his parched, desperate soul.

Her heart quickened when the cold stone replaced the debris of the forest's floor. Strange scenarios ignited her instincts in ways she never expected in the bosom of her home. She felt under threat, ready to run at any moment's notice.

But instead of heeding the call of her misguided instincts, Maka bravely pierced the darkness of the caves, the spicy smell of her mate growing more and more potent. She found Han in her children's old chamber, curled around himself in the absence of the heat of another cougar.

Maka took a deep breath to still her racing heart. "Han," his name rolled softly along her shivering breath. She thought it best to make him aware of his presence.

No reply came, save for his steady breathing.

Maka crouched lower to the ground and slowly approached her mate from behind. It was almost too hard to believe it was him that harmed her a few moments ago. Right now, it was easy for Maka to picture a stranger standing on top of her, saying all those dreadful things. Her Han was sleeping so peacefully...

Maka approached her muzzle to his flank. She hesitated briefly, caught her courage with another breath, then touched his warm fur with her cold, oozing nose.

"Han," she spoke his name again, gentle and sweet like the silky journey she took through his fur. Step by step Maka moved her muzzle closer towards his head, coaxing no reaction from him, not even when she rested her chin upon the back of his head.

"I am sorry for my misbehavior. I know now how wrong it was of me to assume I know better than you."

A soft lie to lead into a sweeter truth.

"The stakes have never been higher now that our daughter, our little firstborn, is going through her first heat. It is a troubling period for her, more so for you. I am a female who can never stand her ground against another cougar, but I know what happens when a male senses the sweet smell of fertility. You want to protect our daughter against a menace that would befoul her body with no regard for her happiness. I understand that now."

She paused for a few moments to catch her breath before she continued. "I also know that you wish to protect Skan. He is young...too young for the dreadful injuries of territorial fights. There will come a time when he will be strong enough to claim a territory of his own, build his own family, protect his little ones just like you do now, for us. But that time is months away. Perhaps even years..."

A long sigh escaped her jaws. She didn't know whether to lick his muzzle or cuddle him, so she just remained there, resting her head upon his neck.

"Let me in, Han. Share your troubles with me instead of pushing me away. Allow me to support your weary body and lift your depleted spirits, because this is what mates do for each other. They share... they share everything."

Another bout of silence ensued, with only his breath caressing her racing mind. What could she do to make herself pleasing to him? What did Han need of her?

The answers came with the next breath she took. There was a pleasant odor in the air. His musk, seeping into her nostrils. Maka moved closer to the jewels that hid beneath his splayed tail. He had a beautiful pair of stones. Why, she felt herself growing moister just by staring at them and thinking of the wild throbs of her pussy when Han's hot seed washed inside her.

Maka prepared herself to treat the genitalia of her mate with a few licks to moisten her muzzle, then touched the small, furless home of his cock with the smooth tip of her tongue. The strong, familiar scents of his maleness wrinkled her lips in remembrance of last night and the many times they coupled together. Maka however wanted to stay calm for the matter at hand. In control of her rebellious instincts that were so easily led astray. She breathed through her mouth in order to keep the smell of her once-loved mate from caressing her instincts in ways which could lead to the clouding of her rational mind.

"I still want you, even if you no longer desire me," she whispered silently as she dabbed at his moist sheath with quick flicks of her tongue that slowly, gently pushed the malleable flesh back towards his balls. When she felt the sharp tip of his member greet her tongue, Maka's heart skipped a beat. She had to remain in control no matter what.

With a jerk of her head, she pushed her nose into his balls to take in a much needed breath from another type of musk-leaden air. The scents here were duller. Different from the scent that made her pussy shudder beneath her swishing tail.

"To stay apart from your scent is torture," Maka said, then slathered the furred orbs with a long stroke of her tongue. "To spend the nights sleeping on the cold ground of the forest, a nightmare." She caressed his jewels yet again, the silent purr in her throat increasing further with the stronger beats of her heart. "Please, allow me to stand by your side again. To feel the warmth of your seed trickle inside my body, to feel your sack jerk up and pump it deep, deep inside me."

Upon saying such arousing words, Maka all but surrendered herself to the shape and feel of his balls. She nosed the spheres from one side to the other, playing with them like a kitten. They felt so soft, so delightful, rolling like puffy dandelions along her muzzle. Though they had no scent of their own, Maka still felt the need to show her appreciation towards the bringers of life. She kissed Han's seed-making orbs gently as if they were a frail thing that could break, then slowly welcomed them into the drooling confines of her maw. Cupped between her jaws like a tender week-old cub, Maka closed her eyes and suckled onto the precious orbs with gentleness only a female who had been successfully impregnated could possess.

Her pleasant ministrations came to an end when a flick of Han's tail reminded her of her purpose. Releasing the seed-leaden apples from her mouth, Maka cleaned them with the barbed parts of her tongue. Her eyes fixed upon the brown pucker of her mate's tailhole, the only place she never sniffed, licked, or braved...up until now.

"I remember a tale you once told me, about a special place deep inside your own crevice," Maka spoke with the same sensual voice not just to calm Han down, but to also work up the courage to approach his pucker. The smells there were like the arctic climate of the northern peaks, savage and unforgiving to those who wandered unprepared.

"A place that offers great pleasure when stimulated in the right ways." She approached her nose close to the entrance, taking in a small whiff of the resident scents. "Would you like to feel that, mate of mine?" Maka closed her eyes, parted her jaws, and when no answer came, she touched his flesh with the barbless tip of her tongue.

Han's tail jerked at the contact. His flesh tightened, forming a coarse ring that prevented further penetration. Maka licked him again. Though the act did not bring her pleasure, she rolled her smooth tip around the sturdy muscles a few more times, and sure enough, the walls started to relax, inviting her deeper into their bosom.

Maka's muzzle wrinkled at the thought of what she was about to do, but like before, she had to remain strong. This was sacrifice. A sheer act of necessity that could bring the mate she loved out of the monster's sleeping cocoon.

"Relax. Forget everything about conflict. Give yourself to the warmth of my tongue, and together, we shall uncover pleasures you can only dream of..."

Maka took a deep breath, then willed herself into action. Her tongue tip slowly sunk into the muscled cave of his butt. It was warm, and dry, like a bigger, stranger sort of pussy that refused to stay still. Maka knew from her own hole how difficult it was to control herself once stimulated, but penetrating an ass with her flabby tongue was downright difficult. She dabbed her tip repeatedly inside her mouth to bring additional lubrication upon Han's rim, then licked over his muscles, twisting her muzzle around to find new angles of attack. After a couple of minutes of tongue-aching frustration, Maka pulled her head back and brushed her tongue upon her pads to cleanse away the strident taste that stuck upon her tongue. It was not easy, and part of her felt disappointed for trying.

Then her nostrils caught onto a much sweeter scent that sent her belly against the ground and her nose straight into the object of her desires. Fully out of its sheath, Han's moistened member throbbed and tensed under the prods of her nose. Maka inhaled the fertile musk like a female that remained stuck in her heat for days, her rapid, shuddering breath falling upon the cock like a hurricane.

He liked it. This was the sign she had been waiting for. It took Maka less than two heartbeats for her tongue to drape over that delicious rod. Maka rolled around the smooth base to scoop up the sweet, pleasant, natural lubrication, then followed up along the sensitive member. She felt the barbs flare hard at the touch, and she took her tongue back, using only the tip to dab at the little spines. Maka knew Han's cock by heart. She could tell how aroused he was by the pulsing rhythm that made his penis harden, and right now, judging by the hard throbs, her mate was getting close to his peak.

Maka moved her head on top of his crotch. She parted her jaws, ready to slather him within the heated comfort of her jaws, all too eager to feel the rapid squirts of his seed upon the roof of her mouth.

His moan put an end to that dream.

Maka rolled around, her heart skipping a beat when her mate's crimson eyes caught her right in the act.

"Stop."

"H-Han, I..." Maka stammered. "I thought you wanted this."

He got up. This couldn't be good. Not at all! Maka looked back. Stone all around. Trapped. No air.

The image of her mate became fuzzy under the curtain of stars that blackened her vision. Her heartbeat plummeted down to a flutter, and her stomach threatened to turn from nerves.

"Maka..." his silky voice rang in her ear as their noses almost touched. "You know what I think about relieving myself inside your mouth. It's demeaning for a male to waste his seed anywhere but in his mate's embrace. Lay down now. Let me reward you for your persistence."

Maka couldn't believe his words. Not before his warm tongue washed along her muzzle. Han followed along her neck, his warm caress relieving the tightness that kept the air trapped in her throat. If he licked, that meant he was not going to attack her.

Her plan worked.

A monstrous sigh escaped her jaws. She looked into her mate's eyes, two caring orbs that held no traces of anger, no enmity for her or anyone.

Han was back.

Overjoyed, Maka wrapped her paws around his neck to drag him down on the ground where she licked, nuzzled, and held onto her mate with everything she had.

"I love you. I love you so much..."

"That love is going to be very short if you keep rubbing against my...you know..."

"Oh I want it," Maka slathered his muzzle with broad licks while her pussy continued to search for his member. "Do it now. I want you, Han. Put it in me. I need you inside me more than ever."

"This is hardly the proper position." Han pushed himself away to get onto his fours. Drops of cloudy pre-seed trickled from his cock, filling the air with the smell of his virility. "Let me mount you. I last much longer if I take you from behind."

"Grrrrr, fine," Maka crawled over to lick the scant amounts of precum from the ground. The nectar made her lips squelch with desire, and Maka all but trembled when she felt her mate's tongue upon the back of her neck, licking at injuries she all but forgot about.

"How shall we do it?"

"Hard," Maka immediately said. "And keep going, even after you shoot."

"How strange. You never asked me that. Is it something you learned from our old friends?"

"No. Just something I dreamed of. Do it please. It will feel good for the both of us."

The male straddled her body. "Hard then? Are you sure about that?"

"As hard as a wolf in season with his balls on the verge of spilling."

"Alright," Han licked her head a few more times. "I will give you what you asked for, my mate."