The Hunter's Moon

[pinkroses]

Continued from First Moon

Caden parked his motorbike in the car park under the apartment building and lead the young shifter to the lift which would take them up to his flat. He’d taken the helmet back and it was now tucked under his arm, his bag slung over his shoulder again. His hair was now dry after his shower, now it looked decidedly windswept after his ride without a helmet.

It had been a fast ride through the streets of the city. Caden had a lot on his mind and riding helped clear his thoughts. Plus he found himself quite enjoying the way Nebi was clinging onto him so he may have taken a slightly longer route than he needed to. It was early enough that there wasn’t much traffic and they were able to make good time despite his detour.

Before long Caden was unlocking the door to his apartment and he dropped his keys in a small bowl near his front door, which had opened onto the living room, the back section of which was an open kitchen.

“So what did you think about last night?” Caden asked, placing his things on a chair and slipping off his leather jacket.

[Existentially Odd]

Nebi had found the motorbike ride thrilling though a little scary, so she'd clung very tightly to Caden and even buried her face against his jacket at the parts where she couldn't bear to watch what would happen.  Once they were in his apartment, it was an entirely different story.  The place smelled of him though she didn't find it unbearable.  She did prowl around the extremities of the room, though, sniffing at the air or picking up things that interested her and sniffing them before putting them down and pouncing onward to the next thing that caught her eye.

"Um... it was pretty scary," she decided as she went, considering the couch before she leapt onto it, her fingers kneading the cushion beneath her crouched form even though she currently didn't have claws.  She was just feelling what the material was like.  "Do you remember me looking at you?  I tried to stay and watch you but you threw yourself against the glass.  Twice.  I was afraid it was going to break or you'd get hurt trying to get at me like you were, so I went back outside and just waited instead."

She spared Caden a forlorn pout, eyeing him with interest now that she noticed he was taking clothes off (even if it was only a jacket so far).

[pinkroses]

Caden toed off his boots as well before he moved to the sofa, flopping down onto it beside Nebi, running a hand through his hair as his muscles relaxed now he was back in his own space. He was happy to let her explore as she wished, it was interesting to watch her acting so much like an animal whilst still looking like a human. He wondered what it must be like in her mind, to be able to think like a human whilst she was an animal.

“I remember you being there when I shifted, after that it’s all… flashes of stuff. I smashed the place up pretty bad. Maybe it was something to do with you being there. Or the place smelling of you. Or because it was a new place, I don’t know,” Caden said with a  sigh, rubbing his tired eyes. 

[Existentially Odd]

She regarded him with interest as he sat beside her and immediately fell out of her crouch, crossing her legs and sitting with her knees pressed up against his thigh, looking at him curiously.  "Yeah," she agreed, "I don't really remember what happens when I shift, either.  That's why I ended up trying to eat my sister," she shrugged.  "But you seemed really angry.  I won't come near your room tonight, so maybe you won't smash it up?" she suggested, her hands creeping out of her lap and onto his thigh.

[pinkroses]

“We all get angry, that’s… that’s a huge part of it,” Caden said with a shrug. He’d been angry before getting there though, he hated everything about it and having to be locked up just added insult to injury.

“I thought you would remember more. Dom seems alert when he changes. Maybe he just picks his moments,” Caden said, frowning as he thought about the bear shifter. His gaze dropped to watch Nebi’s hand as she placed it on his thigh, before he glance sideways to watch her face. She still looked young, but with another shift or two she would look his age. Then older. It was so weird. But that meant it wasn’t so odd that he was so attracted to her, right? Even when she did talk about eating her sister as though it was perfectly natural.

“I don’t know if that will help. I think it was the whole… new place and I’ve never liked going and getting caged up. It’s… Dom wants to drug me tonight,” Caden said with a scowl as he slipped his hand over hers on his thigh. Maybe he should just let Dom do it, but it felt like giving in, like admitting they had to go get locked up and watched over like mad dogs and there was no other way. Surely there had to be something.

[Existentially Odd]

"I think all shifters are different, because my other brother and sister know exactly what goes on while they're snakes, so does my mother," she shrugged, attuned to the fact that he watched her hand on his leg and liked it.  She was tired after her night of waiting at the warehouse (and she was aware of the fact that she just about smelled worse than he did) but she was interested in what other games she could play with him.

Her eyes widened when he mentioned getting drugged and she certainly understood how horrible that option was.  "I guess... you wouldn't feel so destroyed tomorrow if he did that?  You wouldn't get so angry and wreck everything, or hurt yourself against the glass?" she queried, wondering if that was the reasoning behind it.  Her other hand moved onto his thigh to pat as her first hand turned over in an effort to play with his, their fingers rubbing sensuously against one another.

[pinkroses]

“I don’t know,” Caden said with a small shrug, “It might help, or the werewolf side of me might fight it more and do more damage, I don’t know. I would have thought my mum would have tried it when I was a kid, so if it worked why wouldn’t she have carried on?” Caden said, speaking outloud more to go through the different scenarios than really expecting the young shifter to be able to give him an answer. He couldn’t help but give a small smile at her actions with her hands, as she seemed to be trying to be comforting and sexy at the same time. And it was working.

“You’ve not got some guy who can turn into a lion or some shit like that who’s going to be pissed you’re here with me, right?” Caden asked with a grin. He would have bet he could win in a fight of werewolf against a lion, but it would be better not to have to.

[Existentially Odd]

Nebi grinned up at him, her golden eyes twinkling at the thought that she had a shifter guy who'd be upset she was spending time with a werewolf.  That really only described her father and Arik, though she wasn't going to mention them right now.  "No, if I knew a lion shifter I'd have mated with him already," she answered honestly, because two cat shifters would be perfect together.

Not that she was interested in having a litter yet, that drive wasn't in her; her human hormones were prevalent, though, and she was very keen to mate with someone.  Incessantly.

"You were a werewolf as a kid?" she asked curiously, glancing at his lap and considering crawling into it.  She would, if she wasn't so smelly.  "Ask your mother if she drugged you!" she encouraged him, thinking he'd be able to contact his parent and simply ask about what had happened when he was a cub.

[pinkroses]

Caden couldn’t help but smile as she used the word mate. It sounded so animalistic and raw, like her in general and he wouldn’t have minded in the slightest if she’d gone with her instincts and crawled into his lap – smelly or not. But there was something about the way she said it which made him think about it a little more. He had her questions to answer first of all before thinking on that further.

“Oh, yeah, I was bitten when I was five. I’ve been changing since then,” he said, before shaking his head slightly, “My mum died a couple of years ago. It was pretty hard on her having me like this. But I guess I’ll never know if she tried it,” he explained, giving a small shrug and lifting his hand to run through his hair before dropping it to curl around hers again, weaving their fingers together.

“So you’ve not… mated with anyone? You don’t mate for life or anything like that do you?” Caden asked somewhat cautiously. She was so sexy and flirty it was hard to believe she hadn’t been with anyone. But he didn’t want to get more involved if she was going to need more afterwards. A bit of fun was one thing, but he had no intention of getting into a long term relationship with anyone. He didn’t want to hurt or insult her though.

[Existentially Odd]

"Wow, five," she blinked, knowing she was unable to process the true horror of what that would have been like since his lifespan didn't really compare to hers.  'Cub' was two years ago for her and it had been a time of hectic learning, hurting her head as she had human education pushed onto her while she fought down her cougar instincts to run and roll and bite and pounce.  Her childhood had been hideously painful in those respects; restrained and regimented and she could imagine he'd had a hard time doing all those horrible things (learning) while changing into an angry little wolf every month or so.  She had sympathy but no real understanding so that was as far as her comments went.

The fact that his mother was dead was somewhat mournful for him, she supposed, and a spike of regret passed through her own heart as she thought of her own mother and father being gone, but that was as much emotion as she could conjure in his presence.  They were talking of mating and even if he wasn't aware of it, their pheremones were releasing and melding in the air, stimulated by his thinking about her in such a fashion, responding to the attraction hormones she'd already been throwing his way.  Death was a natural consequence of life and life was all about cramming in every possible experience you wanted to have before you went, as far as she could tell.  She felt like she'd wasted too much of her life as it was.

"For life?" she giggled, throwing him admonishing looks.  "Why would I be with one person for ten years?  That's ridiculous!  And no, I haven't mated with anyone.  Came close a couple of times recently," with my brother, "but it got stopped.  It won't now though, right?" she asked him eagerly, giving into her instincts and crawling over onto him, straddling his lap.

She pressed close to him, her braless breasts squashed against his chest as she rubbed her face alongside his and then down along his neck, closing her eyes and scenting him as she'd been wanting to do for the past however-many hours.  Part of her was aware she was being rude, writhing atop him as she was, grinding against him and rubbing her head and throat from one side of his to the other, but it was too good to stop.  A shower would've been a far more polite choice but he'd seemed so much more open to her that she couldn't resist the urge to bathe him in her scent instead.

He'd probably stop her before she got too far, she considered (for she'd always been stopped before anything really good had happened so far), so she moved quickly, letting instinct guide her as her hands worked their way up inside his shirt at the small of his back and she stopped twisting her head against his throat long enough to nip gently at his skin instead.  A rumble of encouragement was turning over inside her chest every now and then, too - not quite a purr, but working its way toward one.

[pinkroses]

Caden gave a chuckle at Nebi’s reaction to the idea of mating for life. It was just her turn of phrase which made him think she might have thought that but he was relieved that wasn’t the case.

“Ten years?” he managed to get out with a hint of surprise before Nebi was suddenly crawling into his lap. He knew shifters grew at the rate of their animals (seeing Dom age in the years he’d known him had to be more than just the stressful job) but having someone say it like that was stunning.

He was quickly distracted by her bodypressing against his thoughand he didn’t bother hiding his admiring gaze as he shook his head slightly.

“No, I won’t be stopping you,” Caden Said, tilting his head as she rubbed her face against his and down his throat. He hadn’t shaved since the morning before so he knew it would be rough, but she didn’t seem to mind. And peculiar as her actions were Caden didn’t find it too strange – from what he’d seen of her so far it was in character and an exciting change to the norm.

As her hands slid over his back Caden lifted his hips to grind upwards against her and giving her hand greater access. His hand settled on her ass, squeezing firmly and his other lifted between them to cup one of her breasts through her t-shirt, massaging firmly. Rude was definitely not a word to describe what Nebi was doing and her body writhing in his lap was stirring him to react as well.

After a few moments Caden pushed her back a little, sliding both of his hands up her body to push her shirt up.

“Arms up,” he instructed, probably needlessly, before he helped pulled it off and discarded it on the sofa beside them. Before she could return to nuzzling him Caden cupped her jaw and guided her mouth to his, kissing her deeply as his hand returned to attending to her breast enthusiastically, running a thumb over her nipple.

[Existentially Odd]

Kissing was new to Nebi and although she'd seen people on the street doing it, she'd never understood why - nor had that visual prepared her for the strangeness of having a tongue thrust inside her mouth.  It seemed so peculiar that she flinched and pulled back abruptly, staring at him with wide eyes.  Her own tongue snuck out to test the taste of him, running along her lips and flexing inside her mouth, frowning curiously at the fact that he'd done that.  Nothing else he was doing was met with any resistance, she was eager to get her clothes off and have him press inside her with his penis, in fact, but she wasn't too sure about their mouths mixing.

"Why do people kiss?" she asked bluntly, her expression genuinely curious.  Her hands were on his shoulders now, bracing her away from him, but they were moving restlessly, stroking at the firmness of his body beneath his shirt, wishing it was gone.  She would do that when she'd resolved this kissing thing, though.  If he gave her a good enough reason for doing it, or insisted he liked it enough, she'd try it again but she was hesitant.  Her mother had kissed her before, she was fairly certain, but not often and not on the lips and never with her tongue out.  The whole process struck the young cougar as bizarre.

[pinkroses]

Caden was startled by her pulling away so abruptly and he dropped his hands to rest on her thighs, wondering what he’d done wrong as she looked at him like a scared rabbit.

“Why? Uh… because it feels good,” Caden said, frowning slightly. She’d never been kissed? Really? How on earth had she managed that with the way she was so… open and eager. He’d never really thought about why people kissed, it just seemed natural when you wanted to be close to someone.

“I guess it’s… intimate. Like your nuzzling, but more equal.” He wanted her, so much, he’d just rushed in but she was new to all of this, although she didn’t act like it. He had to try to slow things down, a little at least.

“And people can do some pretty amazing stuff with their mouths,” he added with a cheeky grin, leaning forward to kiss her more tenderly if she didn’t pull back, this time not rushing it with his tongue like before. He wouldn't push it if she really wasn't keen though.

[Existentially Odd]

She watched his face get closer again, her expression wary, and she kept watching as he kissed her some more, cross-eyed and tentative.  It seemed a very odd practice, as far as she was concerned, because the point of nuzzling was exchanging scent and antagonising pheremones.  Kissing just seemed to be about swapping spit and getting wet; she was reminded eerily of the times her father insisted on cleaning her with his tongue and pushed that image from her mind, knowing it wasn't what Caden meant.

The whole time she was thinking these thoughts, she was kissing him back, pooching her lips in an effort to mirror his actions, tentatively attempting to get her tongue involved.  It felt awkward and she had no doubt she was just dribbling on him, rather than actually kissing him but she got used to the feeling of his lips rubbing against hers and soon enough his tongue was back in her mouth.  She liked that bit, because licking his tongue with her rougher one felt good in a dominant kind of way.  The fact that he was kneading her bare breasts and sending shivers of electricity through her every time he brushed her nipples didn't hurt, either.

"Okay, so we did the kissing," she announced impatiently, pulling back from his face even though she still had a good grip on him, given that her arms were wrapped around his shoulders and her fingers were scrabbling at his shirt.  He would see that her pupils were greatly dilated.  "Do you need me to shower?  Because if you can handle my scent I'd really like to not have any clothes between us now," she told him, lust making her usual frankness more into a blunt club as she ground desirously on his lap.  She had a burning cavity she wanted him to fill and playing around with kissing was just nonsense compared to that, she felt.

[pinkroses]

 Caden gave a laugh, letting his head drop back against the back of the sofa as she clawed at him. So she wasn’t a kisser, she hadn’t seemed to be too enthusiastic about it, but he could take it or leave it so there was no point pushing it further now she’d tried it and obviously didn’t like it too much.

“No, we can shower later, you don’t smell that bad,” he said with a teasing grin. He hadn’t really paid that much attention to her scent since he had to focus on it. He guessed she would have no issue in mentioning if she wasn’t keen on his smell though.

Her grinding was amazing and, like Nebi, Caden was wishing they didn’t have the clothes between them keeping their bodies apart. He wrapped his arms around her back and unceremoniously pulled her to one side, to lay her back along the sofa and dropping her from a little higher than he meant to as he was keen to tug off his own shirt and get those hands of hers touching him properly. If she got a look at his back she would see a black tattoo on his shoulder of a wolf in a tribal design, but there weren’t that many other marks on his body.

“Shall we go to the bedroom?” he asked, leaning over her and resisting the urge to kiss her but nuzzling against her throat and pressing kissing and licking at her throat as his hand trailed down her stomach to find the clasp of her jeans. It would be more comfortable in bed but right now that bedroom seemed like a long way away (despite only being a few metres off).