What Was Broken -

Chapter 14

Thankfully her team was as good as she figured and she was able to wrap up her paperwork by six. That, or they wanted their weekend as badly as she did, either way it was the same result. She took the elevator to the ground floor lobby and made her way through the outbound crowd to the security desk.

"Hey, Earl." She smiled as she reached the desk. The older security agent had been working the front desk as long as she had been working there and was pretty much a fixture.

"Hey there, Miss McLellan." He smiled warmly at her after taking a visitors' badge from another man. "What can I do you for?"

"I was told that a ride would be outside. Has anyone come in asking after me?"

"No, ma'am." Earl shook his head and reached toward the front of the desk below the countertop. "But a nice dressed fellow dropped these off." He slipped a key fob across the desk, sans any sort of key. The attached hand-written tag had her name on it. "About twenty minutes ago."

Picking up the key fob she looked at it curiously, noting the logo. "Uhm, okay. Where is it?"

Earl nodded his head toward the front glass of the building's lowest floor facing the street. "Out there on the circle drive, I'd guess, since the guy came and left through the front door."

Peering at the key fob again Taws shrugged and made her way toward the door. The weather outside was cooling as summer gave up its last few gasps but the balmy comfort of autumn was still keeping its distance. Looking at the circular court drive in front of the building, where people were being picked up, she looked for a car that might match the fob. She spied a deep blue-colored saloon car parked not far away and walked toward it, holding out the key fob and pressing the unlock button. The car chirped and its lights flashed.

Well, Taws thought, it wasn't a black cab but it would do. It was probably a loaner from the shop where Sean had taken his to be serviced. She found the driver's seat already configured for her tail and slipped into it, buckling her seatbelt as she looked for some way to start it. That proved to be a button conveniently labeled 'start' on the console to one side of the steering wheel. The fancy loaner purred to life eagerly and, while Taws navigated out of the front drive of the Firm's building, the large in-dash screen flashed through its startup sequence and figured itself out. It defaulted to navigation and Taws saw that the route home had already been programmed in.

The drive home was a chore, as it always was on Fridays, taking her a good half hour longer than it would normally have. Full dark had fallen by the time she made it back to Sean's house - her home, though she still owned the condo downtown. She parked the car in the driveway and entered the house only to find it empty and dark but for the valence lighting in the kitchen. The redolent aromas of roast chicken flooded her nostrils. "Sean?" She called out as she set down her valise and purse on the counter. There was no answer. A look into the garage revealed Sean's car, but a quick circuit of the house revealed no Sean.

It did reveal a single votive candle burning on the kitchen table near which that day's mail had been laid. Whomever came home first would put the mail there for the other to examine before filing or disposing. Taws paid it little mind other than to glance at it, noting an envelope from the insurance company, which was out of place because Sean had paid his yearly insurance not two months previous, and an owner's manual for a car he did not own though she had parked the same model in the driveway.

Disregarding the mail and magazines she turned her attention to a small envelope with her name on it propped against the pepper grinder on the center of the table. Flipping it open she drew out the ornate invitation in the letterhead of Piedmont Park. She'd seen them before as litter left behind after parties and other formal gatherings. Flipping it open she drew out the small, ornate invitation. "I'm at the Gazebo. Dinner is waiting, dear." Taws scowled with a twitch of her whiskers. She did not want to go hunting for her man, she wanted him here, and now, and most certainly not for his cooking. Tossing the invitation onto the table she picked up the flashlight from its holder on the wall beside the back door and went outside. The night air was still warm, but much cooler than it had been during the day. The grass felt wonderful against the pads of her paws as she strode across the back lawn and through the gate into the park.

The park proper was closed after dark, but that never kept those who lived on its borders out if they wanted to go for a late night stroll. Following the narrow track paved with flat river stones every foot or so she made her way to the jogging path that passed Sean's property. The gazebo he mentioned in the invitation was not too far away and was one of the more popular hangouts during operating hours because of its spectacular view of the lake and unsullied forests beyond. Aside from a couple of other similar constructions around the huge lake there were no structures, or city lights, visible beyond the trees of the park even in leafless winter.

The well groomed pea gravel of the track crunched softly as she followed its winding course toward the lake, the flash light beam a blinding spear of white that illuminated her course. Despite the moon being almost full under the trees the darkness at night was almost absolute even for her keen night vision.

Twenty minutes later she emerged from the forest onto a meadow - more like a huge, well-tended lawn - that rose up a gentle slope to a massive shoulder of rock that jutted from its crest. Upon that rock the park had erected a large octagonal building with a conical peaked roof that was offered to rent for gatherings or freely available to park attendees when not reserved. The lights were not on and there was no source of illumination behind the moon and her flashlight. Visible beyond the hill to either side the calm waters of the lake glimmered in the moonlight. Switching off the flashlight to let her eyes adjust to the dark Taws strode up the gentle slope at an eager pace.

She wanted her man, and she wanted him now! Her heart desired him but her body, her biology, demanded him and he had made her wait too long already.

By the time she crossed the hundred yards from forest edge to the steps leading up to the gazebo her eyes had adjusted to the moonlight. She could see the profile of a person standing in the gazebo's open arch and, as she mounted the deep wooden risers climbing the shoulder of age smoothed granite, the person's arms opened. "Welcome, dearest." Sean's voice called out happily from that humanoid shape, the moonlight defining his face in a pale glow as she approached. Mounting the last few steps with a couple of bounding steps Taws swept into his arms, her own closing about him, with such velocity that he staggered back with a surprised grunt. "Oh! Hello, love. I'm glad to see you, too." He laughed warmly as he tipped his head to meet her muzzle with a warm kiss.

Taws loved the feel of his gentle strength embracing her and the warmth of his lips against her own. Her tongue tasted his furless skin as it brushed across his lips, silencing him with a soft, high pitched growl as she bore him back a couple of more paces. Her body was afire with its demands and, now that the appeasement of those urges was close at hand, they were almost overwhelming. "I told you I needed you, hon." She whispered with a low growl as her hands slid down his back, feeling the soft warmth of cotton sweats. She had not bothered to change her clothes before leaving the house, still wearing the long dress that she had worn to work. Slipping her fingers under the waistband of his sweatpants she splayed her fingers across the smooth curves of his ass, grasping each muscular cheek and pulling him close to feel his crotch grinding against the subtle contours of her groin. Sean's hands dug into the fur of her lower back as his mouth opened to let the supple length of her tongue delve past his lips and teeth to caress his shorter, thicker human tongue. He let out a breathy, chuckling grunt and she felt the muscles of his ass flex under her fingers.

Taws drew her head back from the tongue deep kiss and grinned wolfishly, her tongue lolling and teeth gleaming as she gazed hungrily into the moonlight paled depths of his eyes. The feel of his fingers against her back brushing across the thin material of her blouse struck her as somehow even more erotic than she would have expected; his touch so close but just not close enough sent a thrill racing up her spine and down into her loins with a lance of liquid fire. Dipping her muzzle she nuzzled under his chin, pushing his head up and back as she cocked her head to one side and opened her muzzle. Blunt canine teeth grazed across his throat as she bit him; slowly and with gentle pressure, drawing back to drag her fangs across his naked flesh. He growled quietly, a soft vibration against the tip of her tongue and lips as her bite drew back and then returned with a light, nipping nibble down one side of his neck to the hollow of his clavicle.

Freshly bathed his scent was subtle, but still somehow masculine and uniquely Sean. It tantalized her nose as she nuzzled into the hollow of his throat to the collar of his sweatshirt, catching more of his scent as it escaped from beneath the soft cotton. Drawing her hands upward from his ass she brought them around his hips, following the curve of his pelvis and abdominal contours before sliding upward beneath his shirt. The feel of naked flesh was unlike fur, as exotic to her as her own fur was to his own tactile explorations. The muscles of his abs had become more defined in the course of their relationship since taking up self-defense and regular exercise and her fingers delicately traced over the subtle ripples as his stomach tensed under her delicate, exploratory caress. Her hands continued upward, rucking his shirt up on her wrists and forearms as she found his nipples which she had long ago discovered were about as erogenous as those of a statue. She brushed the pads of her thumbs across them briefly before continuing upward to his shoulders, the nibbling bites upon his throat lifting away as he raised his arms and she drew his shirt off.

She tossed it aside unceremoniously and dipped her muzzle once more to brush his dampened throat with her tongue and then slid the cold pad of her nose down the center of his chest, eliciting a shivering gasp as her hands gripped his shoulders. Unable to pass up tantalizing those nakedly exposed nipples she gave each a long, languid lick as he hissed through his teeth and tensed. She refrained from giving them a playful nibble with her short, sharp incisors. Dropping her hands from shoulders she let them slide down his upper arms over biceps that had become thicker and more defined, much like his abs, to his elbows as her nose continued that tantalizingly chill downward stroke to his navel. Dropping her hands from his arms to his hips she let her fingers slide inward along the curves of his hips, following the downward V of his abs until her fingers found the waistband of his sweatpants.

She hauled them downward and dipped her muzzle, her brow resting against his stomach as she gazed down at the prize that action revealed. His rampant pride dropped outward when she freed it from the confines of his loose clothing and her breath whuffed from her breast at the tantalizingly alien sight. His naked, pale masculinity was of a uniform thickness from its root to its blunt tip from which glistened a dollop of expectant pre. "Mmmhh, love, you know what I want so well." She growled as she let her tongue depend from her muzzle and caress his tip, causing his cock to jump upward as the sweet muskiness of his arousal flashed through her senses and made her shudder in expectant delight.

Her body fairly ached to know that powerful human pride that she could awaken so handsomely and she shuddered just as he did when his aroused male scent walloped her nose with its unique musk; subtly sweet, subtly spicy, and wonderfully heavy in her nose. It lingered as her breath exploded from her muzzle with a throaty growl and she dropped her head to slide her nose into the hollow to one side of his balls and thigh to take in another long, deep snuffle, basking in the heady, rich musk of his arousal.

Her loins tightened in expectation and the fire in her belly shifted downward precipitously while her tail snapped eagerly from side to side. Sean let out a surprised huff of breath against her lips as his fingers fisted into the thick fur of her ruff. He did not try to draw away from that hot nasal exploration as he muttered raggedly and smiled. "I know, I - sorry." He laughed as her fingers cupped beneath his cleanly shaven balls and her thumb pressed his twitching tumescence upward to brush along its underside. "I had this planned and... I didn't realize that -"

"That my short cycle is now?" She laughed brightly as she tilted her head to look up at him, his cock lying against one side of her muzzle and flattening her whiskers. She dipped her muzzle to look down, drawing back slightly to gaze upon the flesh glowing pale in the moonlight; broad and blunt and smooth. "Now, Sean..." She breathed, quickly dipping her muzzle into the hollow between his balls and thigh to draw a slow, hot lick upward around the shaven, smooth flesh of his root. His scent was intoxicating as it filled her sensitive canine nose; smooth and full and mingled with masculine spice. The power of it caused her nose to drip as she snuffled loudly against his balls and a matching salivation filled her muzzle. Hungry to taste that which her nose luxuriated in she opened her long, shapely tapered muzzle and drew a lick upward along the underside of his solid non-canine prick. His taste was far different than the dogs she had known in the past; deeper, mellow, without the subtly bitter, nutty taste of sheath slickness. The warm musky spiciness of it washed across her tongue in a rush of mingled flavors and scent that left her head swimming and her loins clenching tight with demanding heat.

"T- Taws!" Sean gasped in a ragged hiss as he grabbed the column supporting the gazebo's archway and swayed toward that teasing hot stroke of her tongue. The musky sweetness of his pre blasted through her senses as her tongue drew across his blunt and ever-so-sensitive tip. She let out a shuddering whuff and took him, fully and abruptly, with a gaping snap of her dangerous canine maw. She smiled as she felt her man tense with a jerk, the muscles of his hips under her fingers twitching as his cock jumped against her tongue offering up another tasty trickle of pre. Pushing upward with the rear of her tongue she shifted it forward along the underside of his cock, folding it up along either side and sending a muscular ripple downward as it drew backward slightly, rasping just below the underside of his glans where she knew he loved to be touched.

True to her needy expectations Sean groaned, his head rocking forward to watch her tapered canine muzzle press into his groin and his fingers grasping desperately at the fur of her neck. "Damn, Taws, you know just how to make a guy feel wanted." He hissed with a hint of humor as she angled her head to look up, then grinned around the thick length buried fully within her muzzle. Cocking her head to one side she lifted her lips in a very deadly looking snarl, offering him a view of his length cradled upon the undulating rolls of her tongue through the ivory gaps of her prisoning teeth. Watching Sean bite his lower lip and his eyes widen only made her smile all the more animalistically and slowly ripple her tongue where he could see, and feel, its motions along the underside of his cock.

Slowly she drew her head back, her tongue bumping and sliding along Sean's length as she swallowed the swift infusion of pre as the rippling pressure of her suckling drew it from the base upward to enjoy the eager warmth of it spilling upon her tongue. Drawing her muzzle up, letting her tongue slip out to let his tip drag downward across the subtly coarse surface, she cocked her head back and grasped his hips. "You just don't know how much you're wanted." She growled, pushing him back and pulling downward against his hips. Her fingers tightened to dimple his warm flesh with the blunt tips of her claws and he quickly dropped to his knees, the waist of his sweats hanging down to his mid thighs. "And how badly I want you _right damn now _." She lifted up on her knees and raised a hand to shove against his chest, leaning in and tilting her head to catch his throat in a gentle but commanding embrace of teeth.

Sean let out a short little yelp of surprised laughter and raised his hands up in surrender, leaning back as she pushed against him and shuffled forward on her knees. Leaning back he caught himself with both hands and awkwardly unbent his lower legs while the predatory form of his girlfriend rose up over him, her tail curled into the air above the dark fabric cladding her rump. Pinning him to the blanket spread out on the gazebo floor by muzzle and hand she shifted up a bit onto her rear paws to reach back and yank her skirt out from under her knees as she shuffled forward until she was straddling his hips. Her teeth dragged slowly upward, raking against his flesh before releasing with a parting lick. Her hips settle down over him, her skirt spilling across his stomach and knees, as she raised her head to look down at him. "My fires burn, love." She growled throatily as she felt the hard rigidity of Sean's girth press against her very damp canine folds. Slowly she rocked her hips to slide the hot flesh of her aching sex against him, lightly at first but with steadily increasing pressure, her nether lips coating his flesh with her ready slickness to mingle it with his own. "God, the need is a furnace." Settling herself forward upon his cock she could feel his blunt tip deforming the labial diamond of her canine sex. When her lips finally parted and she felt his throbbing hardness slip into the shallow defile of her labia Taws' eyes fluttered and her ears pinned back into the fur of her head. "Stoke the flames, my love." She slid forward slightly, loving the feel of that blunt girth gliding against the wet smoothness of her inner folds, then back until the point of her sex slid downward along the underside of his shaft. "I want to feel you claim my heat, and quench it."

As she growled in needful eagerness she rolled her hips forward again, guiding herself only by that contact rendered invisible under the rumpled hem of her skirt, her tongue lolling with deep, swift pants. Sean caught her upper arms with his hands and hissed in turn, his jaw muscles twitching and clenching as his assertive furry paramour exerted herself to get what she desired, and he was all too willing to surrender to her. Bowing her body forward and rolling her hips back she pressed herself back slightly, her labial folds catching at his blunt tip only to have it slip free to slap flat against his groin under the hot, soft weight of her sex. With a short whine she shifted forward again, the weight of hips pressing down heavily against the hard, thick ridge grinding her labia flat and parting it to let her exposed clit slide against its slick smoothness. One more she shifted forward and carefully, with desperate, needy little twitches of her hips and labial muscles, drew his tip upward. The second time she was rewarded as it sank into the slick wet hollow of her wet vestibular depths. "God, Taws, you are hot." Sean grunted as her arousal loosened muscles accepted his human thickness.

He was thick, that's one of the countless things Taws loved about him. Thick and blunt like no dog was, and when the wide flare of his glans pressed into her she felt a brief twinge of sharp heat of flesh being stretched. It was brief, however, and not even remotely uncomfortable. Not like the first few times she had taken him. Because he was thick, thicker than her previous canine lover and those before him, those first sessions of lovemaking had started out almost blindingly painful. Sure, the pain disappeared after a minute to be replaced by pleasures she had not known before, even with a knot seated solid and pulsing within her body, but it had still hurt. She had never let him know that, however, because she had known even then that his concern for her comfort would have curtailed the passion she had wanted to share with him.

Wanted, sought, found, and now enjoyed with the brief and swift fading discomfort of her entry being stretched around the rolled steel solidity of his thick blunt tip. Her wetness had lubricated him better than any bottle of Slick and she let his glans slide smoothly into her until it pressed against the tighter resistance of her inner vaginal sphincter. It was tighter, the muscles far stronger, designed to take a knot and then seize it so powerfully that there was no pulling it out until the poor male could no longer sustain his erection. It was Sean who expressed some small discomfort at that resistance, the corners of his eyes crinkling in that darling way of his as Taws lifted a little with a roll of her hips to adjust his angle slightly. She eased down slowly, despite the roaring demand of her body to take him, wholly and immediately, as she had with her muzzle. Carefully she forced the muscles of her vestibular ring to relax, tightening her stomach, her tail curling up behind her and reflexively flicking off to one side. Slowly his malleable human glans pressed its way past that tightness and he let out a gasp when it grasped down behind his glans and she stopped moving to let that resistance adjust to the thickness of the invading human cock.

From their first project, their first day sitting side by side in a conference room going over the client's material, when he looked up, met her eyes, and talked to her like he would talk to any of the humans in the room, Taws had wanted him. But he had been with the woman, Ashley, at the time and Taws had enough respect for him not to try insinuating herself between them just to know if his regard for non-humans extended beyond he office. But she waited, and she watched, and she continued her own relationship with Bruce. When he up and walked out for some other conquest Taws had just... drifted, directionless. And then she looked up one day and saw Sean fall apart in front of her eyes from across the office pool. When she found out why, her heart both leaped and plunged.

She would have her chance to know if the human man she had unexpectedly felt herself drawn to was all she thought he might be. She ached to see his pain, of course, but she felt a secret thrill that he was available, exposed, and vulnerable.

She had swept in like a falcon after a mouse.

In the end, she had been rewarded beyond her wildest dreams; the erotic kind that had been curious about him, and the purely banal mundane kind engendered by his bald faced regard for her as an equal past the fur and teeth. He was her prince; her knight in shining armor.

The thick, throbbing erection stretching her all over again in the ways that only he could, and she loved him dearly for that and so much more. She wanted him, fully, wholly. And she wanted to be his; heart and soul. But the laws still lumped her kind, along with all other non-humans, as 'livestock' no different than a cow on a farm and barred them from marrying across any species lines. So, she would have to satisfy herself with him outside of marriage, she didn't mind terribly much, because he was such a wonderful lover. He was gentle when she wanted gentle, submissive when she desired to please, and dominant when she wished to be pleased.

When her short cycle was upon her she wanted that pleasure, and she wanted it with an immediacy that left him spent for days, but he never complained. When her long cycle, the one time a year she was actually fertile with her own species, it was all that she was now and more so. The first time they had been together during her long cycle, at the end of February, she had fucked him so often and so hungrily that he had actually been sore and raw for almost a week afterward. And still he gave what he could; an embrace, a kiss, a delicate touch in just the right places no male had ever found before, or a more carnal kiss the likes a canine tongue never had.

Ever so slowly, inch by luxurious, body stretching inch, she eased herself down. She felt the solidity opening her vaginal depths as the warmth of his pre seeped even deeper into her. His pulse was a visceral thing, surging through the thick dorsal vein that was so adorable along the upper length of his cock. It vibrated with each racing beat of his heart, thrumming past her stretched entry and subvaginal ring with a subtle throb like a cell phone set on vibrate. Rocking her hips forward and then back with slow rolling motions she continued to ease herself down upon his throbbing erection until, finally, after several unspeakably wonderful minutes of slow descent she felt her taut stretched folds press down firmly against the base of his smoothly shaven cock.

"God, Sean, that feels so good." She groaned in a deep growl as her vaginal walls clenched and pushed against the anatomically alien presence deep within her body, her clit pushed outward by that stretching to brush against the firm flesh of his groin. "So, so fucking good, love." She panted above him, body stilled for several moments as she basked in the heat and hardness of his erection within her.

Sean stroked her forearms slowly as he rested there, not moving other than the subtle muscular shifting of his cock within the embrace of Taws' heat, "You ... feel wonderful!" He managed with a strained hiss as her muscles clamped and rippled powerfully along the fullness of his length, her vestibular muscles reflexively clamping down as if to grasp the knot he did not have and keep him tied. All that did was choke back the explosive climax his body yearned to experience and maintain his erection to prolong her delightful enjoyment of it. Each buzzing, subtle pulse of heat racing through his veins made her tingle deep inside, each thickening throb sending waves of pleasure burning through her stretched loins. Bowing her head she looked down, to see what he looked like buried fully within her in the moonlit dark, but all she could see was her expensive dress piled up on his stomach. Biting her lower lip she raised her gaze to his eyes and watched his face contort with bliss as she slowly lifted herself, rolling her hips slightly as she felt the smooth slide of his flesh against hers. She moaned and her eyelids fluttered and he groaned loudly in turn.

Rolling her hips and bowing her stomach toward him to push her shoulders back she slid downward upon him again, the sensation of being filled kindling the needy fires of her sex and sending sharp, tingling sensations of intense pleasure burning outward from her loins. "Sean," she whined as she settled heavily upon him and immediately drew up again, "Oh, Sean." She gasped and dropped downward with a roll of her hips. He grunted and dropped his hands to her thighs, grasping desperately at her dress and the fur and muscle beneath as she thumped heavily down upon him and swiftly back up. "God, Sean... oh, _oh god _." With increasing haste she rose, rolled her hips, and dropped downward with a whisper of wet flesh slipping against wet flesh and a quiet sound of her copious wetness being drawn in and then forced out by his filling girth. "I'm gonna... oh, gods, I'm gonna..." She could not even force the word out as she came, her head thrown back in a momentary gasp as she hauled up, then slammed back down upon him with such needy force that he groaned loudly. She felt her muscles clench tightly upon him, and then release with a rapid flurry of powerful contractions that exploded outward from the core of her body and sent a shrill, ululating howl from her throat.

The sound of her pleasure echoed back swiftly from the ridge of rocks just beyond the tree line behind them, and more distantly from the far side of the lake seconds later, but Taws was beyond hearing her own breathless howling, lost completely in the prolonged waves of tension and release as her climax built, peaked, faded, and cascaded through her all over again before the first had faded. A second howl split the silence of the lakeside as her body bowed upward and her hands grasped tightly at Sean's naked, unprotected shoulders. At the apex of her second release she felt his cock thicken within her, then give a powerful jerk even as she felt another swift rush surge upward from his root. His heat blossomed within the core of her loins and triggered a third, lesser climax that made her muscles flutter in chaotic abandon and stole her breath away before she could unleash another throaty cry of triumph and release. Sean grunted beneath her and his hips jerked up, arousal wetted flesh slapping against her stretched labial softness, with each powerful jerk deep within her. His heat rushed upward from his root and spilled into the depths of her sex. It had nowhere to go; he was too thick, stretching her flesh so greatly, that his hot seed could not escape past his cock.

So it had only one place to go; rushing swift and thick and hot directly into her womb.

His climax, swift and strong as it was, peaked and faded long before the chaotic fusillade of her own climaxes, one stumbling swift upon the one before, finally tapered away. She bowed, gasping, her body still grasping his unflagging erection with rapid tight clenches of her muscles, and slowly lowered herself forward onto him. "Damn... just... wow, damn." She folded her arms to either side of his shoulders and nuzzled his throat as she slowly drifted down from the euphoric highs of her climax. Sean just muttered softly and stroked the back of her blouse with his fingers, panting heavily though it was she who had exerted herself.

"Uhm, yeah." He mumbled after a minute or two, "Give me a bit to gather my wits... I think they just went out through my balls."

They lay there in pleasant silence for a long time, staring up at the stars past the edge of the gazebo's conical roof, her muzzle tucked comfortably under his chin. He had not fully softened within her, and she knew from their past that if she was careful she could work him to full hardness again in a little while without having to touch him otherwise. If she was careful, she could leave them joined in passionate entanglement for almost as long as she may have lingered in a tie with a male dog of uncommon stamina.

"I think we forgot about dinner." She commented softly, her body feeling a marvelous lassitude that left her limbs quivering and her insides churning with warmth. She felt him moving under her, and within her, as he carefully sat up, one hand dropping down to grasp her rump, his thumb brushing against the back of her dress just beneath her tail. He squirmed around on the blanket, eventually managing to lean back against the gazebo bench. From the shadows of the gazebo railing he drew forth a large cooler.

"No, it's right there." He observed as he held her close upon his lap, his still erect but far less firm length shifting about within her with each motion. Her own muscles clenched and grasped at it as she turned slightly to help him drag the cooler closer. "I suspect you're wondering why I asked you out here to enjoy the last waxing moon before autumn's chill drives us from this private nighttime retreat."

Taws chuckled, very curious about that very thing. She had as much told him at work that she was going to screw his brains out when she got home, only to find him not there ready to wait upon her every pleasure. "I was, beyond being rather displeased you didn't meet me at the door ready to quench your burning bitch." She chuckled and gave a purposeful clench that made him hiss in surprise.

"Ahh, yes, yes dear... I should always remember to satiate my bitch when she's on fire like this." He kissed her nose and popped the top of the cooler. Taws' sensitive nose picked up the aromas of fruit, salty, cured meats and the chicken that she had smelled in the kitchen, all mingled together and enough to make her mouth water. Sean fished about and drew out a small morsel and offered it; a simple slice of baguette topped pear and brie for her to sample. Its flavor was rich and made her mouth water, eager for more.

"Mmhh! That's tasty!" She looked toward the cooler and licked her whiskers.

"But, the reason I brought you out here... was the meadow; wide and open like my heart for you." He offered with a smile, digging out a piece of salami and putting it between his lips. She nibbled it delicately from his mouth as they shared a kiss and the flavor of the small, savory treat. "And the lake, as vast and deep as the love I feel for you."

Taws giggled softly as his practiced speech mumbled against her lips and teasing tongue, his body twitching with small muscular ripples each time her wet canine heat clenched and rippled against his half-erect firmness deep within her. That, in itself, was pure bliss for the hungry, needy collie. Just knowing that she could arouse him, and take his desire, and keep that desire awakened even after it had been satisfied. She would feel his heat pouring into her again before the moon had made it very far across the heavens, she knew. "Poetic, love, as always. And the stars like gossamer, the moon above, and the beauty of the whole of the night sky as it looks down from above us." She joked softly as she gave a slow shift of her hips, rising a few inches and wiggling slightly as he eased back down. To her delight Sean gasped and stuttered as he reached into the cooler again.

"Beautiful things, the stars and the moon." His hand came away from the cooler but did not bring another morsel up to her lips. "Yet their radiance pales in comparison to the beauty I have right here, at hand."

Taws smiled and looked down, curious that no mouthwatering morsel was forthcoming. "Always the advertiser, always the man of words--" She stopped, going stone still when she saw what he was offering.

A pair of rings rested in his open palm, one far larger than the other which rested inside of it; twin bands of pure, polished black tungsten. Under the moonlight they appeared to be almost pitch black voids where they rested on Sean's outstretched palm. Only their polished edges threw any glimmers back.

"Is... is that..." she whispered. "Are... are they... ?"

"They are," he replied softly, watching her eyes widen as she gazed down at his palm and the rings that rested upon it in dawning stupefaction.

"Are you... ?"

"I am."

"We... we can't..." Taws rasped, her ears set back in panic as her gaze darted between her man and the rings. "Not legally."

"Not yet. But some day. And on that day, I want you there, at my side. Which is where I want you every day until that one, and every day after. For the whole of our lives." He brought up a hand under hers and lifted it up, holding the smaller of the two rings before her finger with his other hand. "Taws McLellan, will you marry me?"

Taws shivered in his lap, her body clamping down upon him like a too small ring of its own. She could feel herself tearing up. "Yes... yes, love. Yes," she finally squeaked out, nodding jerkily.

He slid it carefully onto her finger, gentle as he worked it against the grain of her fur. She brought it nearer once it was on, her fingers gently clasped in Sean's hand. Upon closer inspection she could see that the inner part of the ring's band, between the two highly polished edges, was an interwoven Celtic dragon. It didn't have much shine under the moonlight but she could still pick out the intricate patterns of them against the unpolished black. The memory of where she first saw the ring was slow in coming but eventually arrived. She whuffed as she recalled the cold afternoon all those months ago. "I remember..."

"I've been wanting to do this for so long, Taws," Sean confided as he stroked the white fur along the back of her hand and wrist. "You remember our last night in Vegas, out in the desert? Under the stars?"

"I do," she said, nodding, her attention still fixed upon the ring. "So this is what you were trying to do..."

Sean smiled softly as he looked at their entwined hands. He traced one finger along her knuckles and the back of her palm. "It was supposed to be my grand gesture; my old life with Ashley was over and my life with you was to begin." He snorted a quick, disdainful laugh. "You saw what happened there.

"I was going to try again after I got back this time, after I knew I had fixed things and we could be together like before. I was going to do it that weekend." He wrapped his free hand around both of theirs and pulled Taws closer, looking deep into those golden eyes. "Then you started talking about your project and I saw what it meant to you. I saw how passionate you were becoming, I read the statements and interviews you had from people who have been working towards it for years. And I think I began to understand what this really meant, for the first time. So I decided to wait, just a little longer."

His arms slipped around her and hugged her tightly as he smiled into her watering eyes. She felt the cool, solid touch of tungsten loop over the root of her tail and close about it snugly with a muted click. The moonlight caught in the tears in the collie's eyes and where they had already run down her cheeks. "You were right, Taws," He continued, his own voice husky with barely restrained emotion as he locked the clasp of the tail ring. "When you said we couldn't get married. Not now. When I asked you to marry me, I wanted to look into your eyes and know that when you said yes, it wouldn't just be something between us, that there would be meaning beyond us. We can't get married now. But that will change. You're part of that. Soon we can show the world just what we mean to each other. Until then it's just a gesture, a promise I hope will come true. But it has all the love in my heart behind it."

"The tail ring is a non-human custom. How did you know?"

"I asked Oda, he recommended it."

"God bless that lusty wolf!" Taws practically shoved him down onto the blanket again at that point, lavishing wet collie kisses all over his face as her tail flagged wildly above her. Sean could just laugh and hug her close, relishing her warmth, her closeness, and her enthusiasm.

"That's my beautiful bitch."

"Always your bitch. You're my man and I'm your bitch, and no... silly laws can ever change that."

Sean reached up to stroke her cheek. "Always," he echoed, and pulled her down into a deep, passionate kiss.

What Was Broken -

And undone,

Shall be whole,

The two made One.

_ - The Dark Crystal_