I dreamt of Hannah, standing on the bank of a flowing river, just like the one we’d been visiting back on the day that she died. She turned back toward me—looking as beautiful as ever-–and smiled. It had been so long since I saw that smile. Nothing had been the same since. It was just as beautiful as I remembered.
My heart stopped.
Her smile morphed into a frown. Her eyes widened and she started running towards me, trying to wave me away, like she was trying to get me to leave.
But I didn't want to leave. I wanted to stay with her, by this river, forever.
Hannah rushed to me and slapped me as hard as she could across the face.
That’s fair, I thought to myself, I did kiss another woman after all.
She started speaking to me, her words garbled and indistinct at first. But the longer I listened the more clear her voice became. As soon as I understood her words though, I kind of wished that I could go back to when she was just standing there by the river being all beautiful and shit.
“Ryan, listen to me. You're in grave danger! The Keepers are not to be trusted!”
Whatever she tried to say next was cut off as my vision suddenly swam. Pain, unbearable pain, began shooting up my arm and the next thing I knew I was laying flat on my back. When I looked up I saw two out-of-focus figures hovering over me. One was Hannah, on my left, and the other was Tabitha, on my right.
Both were calling my name.
I have to stop this. This has to end.
I reached up to Hannah with my left hand, which was completely intact somehow, and brushed her cheek. All at once she came into sharper focus, and it was as if the right half of my vision was suddenly obscured even further; removing me from Tabitha entirely.
“Hannah? I thought I’d lost you.”
Hannah blinked at me in shock. “Ryan…you did lose me. I died.” She gripped my hand—my left hand—and kissed it. “A part of you died too, remember? I know it’s hard, and I know you want to stay with me…I want that too. But you can’t stay here. You’re needed back home. The mortal world needs a champion, and I chose you.”
I shook my head, breaking away from her touch. “What? What are you saying?”
Hannah took a deep breath. “In life I was a mere mortal. In death, I have become more. We don’t have time for me to explain it all right now but I inherited a power on my first day in the underworld that, amongst other things, allows me to select a champion from the mortal world. I chose you. You were always so ready to be my hero and to protect me, and I know what you’re capable of. You can do this, Ryan. I believe in you.”
“I don’t understand Hannah. This is a really fucking weird dream. I liked it better when we would just walk by the riverbank. Can we go back to those dreams, please?”
Hannah smiled. “Those were fun. But they weren’t dreams. I was visiting you from beyond the veil. It’s already pretty thin in Eastport but while you sleep, your consciousness is easier to reach. The only bad part is you don’t seem to remember that it’s real when you wake up, no matter how many times I told you. But it’s all been real, Ryan.”
I paused as this new information washed over me. “Wait, all of it?”
“Oh yes.”
“So you’re telling me that when I dreamed of fucking you right over on that rock, that was real? We really did all that stuff?”
“Yep.”
“I…I thought you were saving yourself for marriage,” I protested.
Hannah’s laughter echoed up through the trees, kickstarting my heart and seemingly making the entire riverbank start to fade a little. I focused on her words and forced myself to remain where I was.
“Oh Ryan, don’t be silly. I died a virgin and still wound up in the underworld. I’m not saying heaven isn’t real, but I am saying that if it is I didn’t make the cut. Do you have any idea how much sex you and I would’ve been having if I’d known that ahead of time?”
My eyes narrowed. “How much?”
“Dude, so much. You’re hung as a horse and always treated me right. Honestly I don’t blame Tabitha for wanting you. The Furies know I’d be all over you if I still had a body.”
“Tabitha? Hannah, how many times have I told you? I’m a one-woman kind of guy.”
Hannah shook her head. “Not anymore you’re not. Just ’cause I can’t do it myself doesn’t mean I don’t want to see you get your dick sucked, Ryan. That girl wants to ride your dick like she stole and frankly? I want you to let her, and I want to watch.”
First of all, score. Second of all, “What? I-I mean thanks but, why? Aren’t you supposed to be super jealous? This is a new woman in my life we’re talking about. There’s no way I’d be cool with you going off with some new guy if I had been the one who died.”
Hannah shrugged and hid a chuckle behind her hand. “Ryan, I’m not that same shy schoolgirl you were dating a year ago. I may have been jealous back when I had my own body to feel insecure about, and to compare against other girls but now? I don’t know. Dying puts a lot of things into perspective. If you can find comfort with another living girl, I really don’t care what size tits she has or how tight her pussy is. Honestly I used to think it’d be hot to see you fucking another girl back when I was alive. Now? Fucking go for it. Fuck as many girls as you like and please make sure they’re sexy as hell. I need some entertainment down here. Even phantom girls have needs, after all.” She gave me a very sultry wink, which was entirely at odds with how I remembered her, but the sexiness factor sort of faded when we both cracked up laughing.
I reached out for her and gave her a hug. Whether this was real no longer mattered to me. It felt good to hold her again.
After a few more seconds Hannah sighed and extracted herself. “Ryan, don’t get me wrong, I missed you too. But you can’t stay here. This is the underworld. Only the dead belong here. You need to stay alive, and you need to go be the hero I always saw you as. Do you think you can do that, for me?”
My vision wavered in and out of focus, and Hannah appeared nearly transparent as the riverbank started to fade. On the left half of my vision I saw Hannah and the river. On the right half I saw Tabitha and the ceiling of the modified ambulance.
For some reason I still can’t explain, I felt completely certain that it was up to me which of these visions could be my reality. All I had to do was choose. I could die and join Hannah in the underworld, or stay and fight with Tabitha in Eastport.
“This is so not fair,” I whispered to myself.
Hannah shook her head. “I know it’s not fair Ryan. But this is how our world is. We don’t have time to grieve right now. You have a choice to make, and I have something to show you that I hope will make that choice easier to make. Brace yourself.”
Without further warning, she placed two fingers on my forehead and my consciousness was whisked away to a familiar place with an unfamiliar view.
I stood upon the Hilltop, staring down at a version of Eastport. Only this was Eastport as I had never seen it before. Fires roared all across the forest. Landing craft were crashing into the ocean. Skyscrapers were toppled, and dust rose from their ruins like mushroom clouds. Monsters—Feral and ravenous––roamed the streets.
Tanks lined the freeway, their barrels rent and their hulls ripped to pieces. Anomalies, no less than a hundred, filled the sky; leading to all manner of alternate dimensions filled with horrors beyond counting. Through those portals I saw great eyes staring at me.
Winged shapes filled the skies, larger than any bird of prey Earth had ever produced to my knowledge. Giants stomped through the city swatting helicopters out of mid-air, and everywhere I looked there were fleeing civilians being mowed down by monsters.
No, no, this is impossible. How did this happen?
Hannah’s fingers withdrew from my forehead, and I found myself once more on the riverbank. She stared down into my very soul and said something I will never forget.
“You can stop this from happening Ryan. But it has to be you. You have to stay alive. You have to keep fighting and get stronger. Look after Tabitha. Go. Be the hero Eastport needs you to be. I chose you for a reason.”
My voice broke as I looked up at her. “What if I can’t? What if I’m not strong enough?”
She looked past me, her focus no longer on her chosen one as she stared off at something only visible to her. She gripped my hand a little tighter and sighed. “Well, then everybody dies.” Without another word she shoved me away from her and I found myself staring up at a plain gray ceiling, holding the stump of my left arm up like some handicapped Shakespearean actor frozen mid-soliloquy.
Suddenly a fist slammed into my chest, knocking the wind right out of me.
“Ryan? Ryan, come back to me! Don’t leave me alone, again, I can’t do this alone anymore!” Tabitha was pounding on my bare chest, a pair of defibrillator paddles lay discarded in the back end of the assault ambulance, and she was hunched over me, weeping and hitting my chest over and over again. “Stay,” she pleaded. “I need you.”
I had just been through a whirlwind of emotions, a near-death experience, and possibly witnessed a prophecy or some shit. The last thing I was prepared for was to be told that I was needed from both my long-dead-fiance and the most badass chick I knew on the same day, less than five minutes apart.
Hannah had charged me with looking after Tabitha, and the rest of the mortal world for that matter. Well, I couldn’t do much about the entire world right now. But I could help Tabby.
The next time her fist came down I caught it with my good hand.
Her eyes shot to mine and a smile broke through the mask of grief that she had been wearing a moment prior.
“Oh thank fuck! I thought you were dead!”
“I think, for a moment there, I was,” I admitted.
Tabitha leaned down and pressed her lips to mine fiercely. Her kiss felt like relief and defiance and mirth all at once, and it tasted of salt from the tears she had shed over me while she thought I was dying.
Far sooner than either of us wanted her to, she broke away, her bottom lip quivering.
The flat of her hand came around and slapped me hard across my cheek.
“Don’t ever scare me like that again!”
Taking the slap in stride, as at this point it seemed pretty par for the course and she had hit me way harder than that in the training grounds anyway, I rose into a sitting position in the back of the modified ambulance and pushed my hand up into her hair, cradling her head in my grasp. Perhaps rising so quickly was making my head spin, or maybe there was some magic involved that I didn’t really understand, but I was seeing both Hannah and Tabitha side by side once more.
I held onto Hannah with my severed left hand, its ghostly afterimage perfectly matching the transparent hue of Hannah’s image. I gripped Tabitha with my real flesh-and-blood right hand, and looked at them both.
“I’m not going anywhere. My place is here, with you. I love you.”
Hannah smiled, and as her ghostly image started to vanish she whispered a soft, “Thank you,” before dispersing into the wind; taking my ghostly hand with her.
Tabitha on the other hand, still looked on the verge of tears.
“You have the worst timing! Why couldn’t you have said that before we saw Boris rip that little girl to shreds? Do you think I’m in any mood to declare my love for you right now, Ryan? Boris would not hesitate to do the exact same thing to me if I lost control for even a second and if it weren’t for you I would’ve wolfed out up there twice! My heart is hammering out of my fucking chest! And until a second ago I thought you were dead and I was alone all over again! What the fuck do you mean you ‘love me’? We met less than a month ago!”
Those were all very good points. I took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. You’re right. But I’m here now, and I’m never going to let Boris touch you. Or anyone else for that matter. I promise. You’re safe with me. Just give me a second to explain.”
So it was right there in the back of the ambulance that I told her everything. I told her about my last day with Hannah and how much she had meant to me. Then I told her about the near-death experience hallucination I had just gone through and the weird prophetic vision given to me by my dead fiance, all of it. I also expressed just how horrified I was after what we had witnessed upstairs with Boris executing Claire and having his weird skull-dogs feast on her like that. Then I started telling Tabitha how I felt about her, how I could barely keep my eyes off her whenever we trained together, and how protective I was toward her.
I confessed how badly it bothered me seeing the way not only Boris but even Derek and Bianca spoke about monsters and made plans to kill them so mercilessly when, in my experience, monsters were basically just regular people with a few extra quirks. Claire was just a scared, abused young girl…with a tail. That dino-guy was a little out there, and was definitely a mama’s boy, but honestly so are a lot of humans. And Tabitha…Tabitha was wonderful.
“Stop it,” Tabby said. “Just stop. You like me, I get that. But you don’t get to throw around the word ‘love’ unless you really mean it, Ryan.”
“Who says I don’t really mean it?”
“I do! Because frankly I fucking like you back. You’re…you’re like a damn prince charming out of a fairy tale come to life.” She blushed bright red as if she couldn't believe she had just said that out loud. “Damn you, Ryan. Do you remember when Aleksei called me a ‘lone wolf?’”
I nodded. That was one day I was never likely to forget.
“Well he was right. Before you, I tried partnering with a bunch of different agents these past couple years. Even tried joining a few groups. Nothing ever worked. I always just felt more alone with them than I ever did when I was actually on my own. Like I was the only one watching my back, and the others were just looking after themselves or one another. Like nobody else really cared if I lived or died. Not you though. You look after me. You help me stay in control even when I’m ready to wolf out. You anchor me and keep me steady when I feel lost in my own head. Like a partner ought to.”
“Oh Tabby, I didn’t know-”
“Hush. Let me say this stuff, okay? Emotions, I’m no good at them. Just let me get this out this one time and I’ll go back to being the badass bitch you like seeing dress up in tight clothes, okay?” She waited until I made it clear that I was not going to interrupt her again before she continued. “I was uh, I was sort of planning on jumping your bones once we were done with this stupid mission. Assuming the mood’s not killed after all this Boris and Bianca and ghost fiance shit, I still might just do it anyway. And that’s not something I’ve ever done before. Not with a fellow agent, not with anyone. But I want it with you. You make me feel safe, and excited, and when we’re fighting together I feel unstoppable. I want to feel more of that. I want to feel closer to you…I-I want you inside me.”
Her hand fell to my crotch, and I’m not going to lie after the whole apartment battle and the near-death thing, I was feeling a little worn out so it hardly made the same impressive figure that it had earlier in the day, but she didn't seem to mind in the slightest.
I pulled her close and kissed her softly, but she resisted. She still had more to say.
“Ryan I-I don’t want to be just some girl to you. I know I’ll never be what Hannah was…but I want to believe you the next time you tell me you love me. And I don’t want this to be something we rush into and it falls apart. I…I want this to last.”
A smile crossed my face. “Agent Tabitha, I’ll make you a deal. This thing we’re building between us can last as long as you want it to. We don’t need to rush a damn thing. Let’s just take it one day at a time, and see where it goes, okay?”
She nodded, her breath coming a little hotter and a little heavier than before.
She pressed her forehead against mine and just leaned into me.
“Fuck it. I want you, Ryan. I want to go back to HQ and shower off all this blood, then I want to fuck your brains out. Is that okay?”
I pulled back and kissed her forehead. “That is perfectly okay. C’mon, I want to put as much distance between us and these apartments as possible.” Together, we climbed into the driver’s and passenger’s seats and drove off back to HQ, both of us a little shell-shocked from the day we had just had but also eager to explore this new connection we shared.
I had a lot on my mind. Hannah’s prophecy. Boris’s brutality. Aleksei’s sketchiness. The Signal that was making monsters go Feral. It all felt connected, but I was missing pieces, and I was starting to feel a little crazy.
And then there was Tabitha sitting beside me, looking hot as fuck. Whatever mixed feelings I had had about having sex with her had vanished after my visit from Hannah. Hell, my ghost fiance even asked me to put on a show. I’d hate to disappoint her after that.
Besides, It would be nice to stop thinking for a little while.
Back in HQ we actually had to wait a couple hours to see one another again. Between debriefing and writing up reports on what happened, showering off the grime from the day and grabbing a bite to eat, it was late in the evening by the time I swung by her private quarters and knocked on the door.
It opened to reveal Tabitha wearing a baggy set of black pants and a too-tight crop-top that showed off her abs. She had added a choker around her throat with a little paw print in the center.
“Ryan,” she said, somehow making my name into an exclamation of relief.
“Hey. I was lured here under the pretense that a little she-wolf wanted to ‘jump my bones,’ if I recall correctly. Am I in the right place?”
Tabitha smiled, her eyes already trailing me up and down. “Well unless you have another werewolf chick around here who also wants to fuck your brains out, yes I’d say you’re in the right place.”
I frowned and glanced down the hall. “Hmm you know I think there was this thicc little redhead who might’ve been interested.”
Tabitha let out a slightly-too-wolfish growl and her eyes flashed just a hint of yellow as she pulled me inside her quarters. She sealed the door behind us and locked it. “I’ve seen the redhead you’re talking about. She’s hot as fuck. Feel free to invite her next time. But for right now I want you all to myself. Got it?”
Instead of answering verbally I just tilted her chin up and planted a soft kiss on her lips. She leaned in to my touch and was already undoing my belt when she suddenly paused.
“Did you get taller since this morning?”
I had. I was realizing in the showers that I was now towering over one of the guys who had been at about even height with me on my first day. I really didn’t want to slow down or stop what was happening long enough to really explore that, but I decided to show off a little.
“During the fight today some of Claire’s quills got lodged in my arm. That whole incident in the ambulance was me going through another transformation like what happened with the Primal who attacked Hilltop. Now I can do this.”
On command, I regrew my left arm into a new monstrous configuration. This time however it was not the dino-arm I had been rocking since day one. It was a manticore claw with one very sweet bonus feature. A built in spike launcher. I fired three quills into the far wall of Tabitha’s private room, hitting a dart board she had set up by her sink.
Tabitha traced the newly-grown appendage with her fingertips, a curious look in her eyes.
“Don’t get me wrong, this is fascinating and the first thing we are doing tomorrow is figuring out what the hell is going on with your weird mutant arm, but for now? Put away your new toy. I want your focus on me.”
To make her point, Tabby started kissing me harder and pulling me towards her bed.
All of our days spent fighting and wrestling had allowed me to get awfully familiar with her tight body. She was all muscle and scars for the most part except for her ass, which was thick as hell and filled my hand when I gripped it, and her tits, which were perky and supple and had my mouth watering.
Unthinkingly, I reached to grab her hip with my left hand and forgot that it was currently a razor-sharp claw.
Tabitha winced and we both glanced down to where I had nicked her.
“Oh shit, my bad. I’m so—”
Tabitha put one of her fingers to my lips to quiet me and made me watch as the wound sealed itself right up and quickly became bare pink skin again.
“I heal fast, remember?” she whispered, flaring her eyebrows suggestively.
For the first time since I met Tabby it was my turn to growl. “You better think of a safeword real quick, girl.”
She scrunched her face up like she was thinking about it and then smiled. “Pudding. But don’t worry Ryan. We’ll have plenty of time to figure out what works and what doesn’t, later. You spend all your time being calm and collected, I don’t want you to think about anything else other than fucking me right now. C’mon hotshot. Let the beast out. Show me what you got.”
“Bet.”
A swipe from my claw shredded her shirt, and I snaked my human hand past the tattered remains to grab a handful of her cleavage as I ripped her pants. The sound of tearing fabric and her widening eyes as the scratches I was leaving started to heal started a chain reaction that only had one acceptable result.
Completely naked and showing off every curve, every muscle, and every scar she had on her, Tabitha slowly backed onto the bed. Her perky tits were a little on the smaller side, but they would fit perfectly in my mouth. Her pink pussy was already glistening in anticipation of what I had in store for it, probably already wet from how long she had been looking forward to this.
I undid my pants even as I moved to the edge of her bed and let my hand explore her body. Her taut stomach quivered at my touch. Her thighs trembled. Her breasts felt so soft in my hand, and both of her nipples were standing on end, sharp enough to cut glass.
I caught one between my thumb and forefinger and pinched it ever so gently, rubbing it and enjoying the way her body arched in response.
In my humble opinion there was not a damn thing sexier than making a girl orgasm repeatedly just from my touch or the careful application of my lips and tongue.
For the next 20 or so minutes I just explored Tabitha’s body and familiarized myself with every bit of her. I was rewarded with watching her shake and moan and gasp her way through orgasm after orgasm. The entire time she kept reaching for my cock, begging me to slide it inside of her, and I found endless enjoyment in telling her no and making her wait.
Foreplay never got old to me, never, but my dick was starting to ache the more and more I watched her cum on my hand. And there was only so much of her literally begging me to fill her that I could take before giving in.
Without warning, I finally gave her what she had been begging for, flipping her onto her stomach and grabbing my shaft; guiding my head between her thighs until it felt wet. Her eyes went wide when she felt the sheer size of what I was teasing her lips with.
“U-uhm maybe we should revisit that safeword,” she whimpered.
“It’s okay, Tabby. I’ll go slow. You’re so fucking soaked now that it should fit, but we may have to work at it. Are you up for that?”
Tabitha tilted her head back to see me and she nodded, nothing but lust, trust, and a whole lot of pleasure on her face. “For you? I’m up for anything. Stick it in me, hotshot.”
Smiling to myself, I did as she asked; pressing the head of my cock between her lips and rolling my hips forward to slide myself inside her dripping wet pussy.
Holy fuck, this is tight.
Once I got started there was no way I was stopping. She gripped her bedsheets and muffled her screams with a pillow, and I gripped her gorgeous ass with both my human hand and my manticore claw as I filled her to the brim. Her back arched, lifting her ass closer to my base as she leaned back towards me and moaned in acceptance.
Nearly half of my shaft felt soaked when I encountered resistance. She gasped and grew very, very still for a prolonged second, her face a mask of pleasure and her pussy squeezing so tight it felt like it was holding my dick hostage.
All at once it was like all the tension in her body just evaporated.
I slid my dick out of her dripping pussy and set it on her ass cheek with a loud smack.
Where a second prior she had been frozen in back-arching ecstasy, she now collapsed into a heap and lifted her eyes up to see me.
“Don’t stop!” she protested. “Fuck me til you cum!”
Grinning, I traced my claws down her back, enjoying the deep thrumming groan that escaped her as I used my human hand to grip her tail and pull her ass into position.
Flexing my dick, I leveled it at her entrance and then yanked back on her tail.
With a yelp, she was jerked backwards and found me waiting right behind her pussy.
Under my breath I said, “Hope you’re enjoying the show, Hannah,” and started working Tabby up and down my shaft like a little fucktoy, using her tail as a leash and keeping her pinned in place with my clawed manticore-hand.
The noises she made…fuck.
I very quickly realized that I wasn't going to be able to enjoy this for quite so long as I had envisioned when we first started. A tactical error I would someday learn to remedy, but as this was our first time, there were some sticky lessons that needed to be learned.
We hit that point of no return much sooner than anticipated and I decided to double down and enjoy every nanosecond.
Letting go of her tail and gripping her hips instead, I started rolling my hips to meet hers much, much faster than before; forcing myself deeper and deeper each time. A symphony of sweet sounds escaped her mouth as she held onto my forearm for dear life and curled her legs.
“Don’t stop!” she cried, and that was basically game over.
Three, maybe four thrusts later and I had no choice but to pull out and erupt all over her back. I’ve never cum so hard or so much in my entire life, and her whole ass, most of her back, and even her hair was covered in no time.
Tabitha passed out with a massive grin on her face, her eyes crossed and her legs trembling as she mumbled incoherently about her, ‘big-dicked hero laying down the law.’
I cleaned her off while she was sleeping and then lay down to join her.
Later that night she woke me up to go again. And again. And again, closer to morning.
Each time ended the same way, with her passing out unable to continue. It was so fucking hot it made me want to keep going, but I refrained and waited for my next chance.