Quit Your Waning (Over the Moon #3)

JIHAE

If I thought I was falling for Sizzle before, riding his shoulders every morning to decorate the trees made my lady bits so squirmy they were nearly unbearable. The two days after our visit to the clinic, I’d climbed him like a flagpole, and each night, I’d fallen asleep in a mewling haze. I was wetter than normal, and the embarrassment I might have felt at masturbating even in my own apartment back in Seoul had been demolished by desperation. As soon as his howls rose over the colony at night, I threw my legs open over the towel I’d started draping over my sheets to keep them clean.

I’d even printed a toy. My first ever. And though I lived alone, I still hid it in the back corner of my wardrobe beneath a pile of tank tops because it was not the kind of toy I could have found in Korea. It was weighty like a hammer, dyed purple and red with two thick veins and a tapered head. There was a bulge halfway down the shaft that made my mouth water when I saw it on the holomarket, but…

It still wasn’t enough to relieve the ache.

After a climax or two, I’d just roll over with a whimper and blubber until I slipped into a feverish sleep. And in the morning? The world was birdsong and sunshine again. I felt fine, if a little tired from staying up late. My hands weren’t shaking either, thanks to my new beta blockers from Dr Zarabi. I’d be humming and in a breathless rush to leave.

Anyone who saw me like that would have thought I was possessed.

Thank goodness Soyeon was living with Siobhan and Ciara now.

Maybe I was ovulating. Maybe the medicine and vitamins from the clinic had done something. Exacerbated my libido or… something. That had to be it, right? It was the only thing that had changed, other than my building obsession.

“Need a break?” Sizzle asked, turning his head sideways so he could look up at me where I was straddling his thick neck. I’d frozen in thought for a suspicious length of time with a cobweb draped in my hands. We were supposed to be putting the finishing touches on the campsite where the teachers were going to tell ghost stories and camp with the kids to kick off the Halloween festivities. I wanted it to be perfect from every angle around the campfire.

“Oh, uh, I’m okay,” I managed, shifting my hips. My core pulsed as my clit pressed against his spine. “Just thinking about ghost stories for the kids.” I slipped my fingers into his fur for the dozenth time that day, combing the soft strands compulsively. He’d taken a bath and I couldn’t keep my hands off him.

I did need to throw my pants in the cleanser every night now that he’d shed his undercoat though. The oils in his pelt never failed to stain the insides of my thighs. The fur just behind his ears looked slick all the time because of it, something I hadn’t noticed when he was so thick with the need to shed.

Sizzle slipped one end of the cobweb from my fingers and pulled it taut across the branch. He hummed skeptically, curling a claw around one of my calves pressed into his chest, like he was thinking deeply about what he would say next.

“How are you sleeping?” he finally asked. It was a simple question, but hit me like a battering ram. I bit my cheek, forcing air through my lungs.

“How’s hunting?”

“Don’t change the subject, morsel.”

Sizzle’s tone was strict, and my obsessive thoughts tumbled out of my mouth before I could stop them. “Am I really changing the subject though?”

Sizzle paused, both ears turned back towards me in surprise. His lungs pumped like bellows and steam rose from his throat, slipping through his silky clean fur and playing with my fingers, leaving them curiously chilly.

“No, I guess you aren’t.” He said it with a touch of amusement, like he was a cat and I was the mouse that decided to stalk him for a change. “Hunting,” he emphasized, “has been productive but maddening.”

I nodded, licking my lip. My throat suddenly felt dry as he handed me another cobweb and took several steps down the trail towards another empty branch, waiting for me to talk. His shoulders brushed spiders and skeletons, their limbs clacking together like wooden windchimes.

“Sleep is… It’s difficult to fall asleep.” I sighed, letting my arms hang, fingertips tickling the tufts at his jaw.

“Am I keeping you awake at night?”

I blushed. He didn’t mean it like that. Or did he? Neither of us was trying to hang cobwebs anymore. Sizzle was just weaving through the high branches like we were on a peaceful walk through the tombstones and bloody, mossy vines.

“I like your howling,” I confessed in a low, hoarse murmur, holding onto his scruff as he walked in that specifically Sizzle-like gait. “It’s… comforting.”

He turned his head sideways to get a good look at me, and I held my breath.

“Comforting,” he deadpanned. “Not frightening or repulsive. You like it.”

“Yes.”

“It makes you feel good.”

We were definitely not talking about the sound of his howl anymore, not by the mischievous purr in his chest or the way his throat teeth clicked. I swallowed hard, wondering if I was brave enough to tell him how it really made me feel. Desperate, insatiable, empty, hungry…

“W-why don’t you ever walk on two legs around other people?” I bumbled, trying to cut the tension.

Instead of forcing me to confirm how I felt about his howl, Sizzle lowered me to the ground. I slid off the top of his head and his ears popped upright, zinging against my thighs. Then he brushed his black draconic nose against the back of my neck with a hum of sinful satisfaction. Knees quaking, I pressed my lips between my teeth to hold back a whimper of anticipation.

“I’m more beast than man, Jihae,” he rumbled against the scar on my collarbone as he stalked to my front. “That’s why I don’t walk on two legs. I don’t want to fool anyone into a false sense of security. But you…”

I squeezed my legs together, the sudden urge to pee tingling in my groin. Sizzle slid his claw to my hip and held me in place as he pressed the flat bridge of his skull against my sternum. He huffed, hackles rising as he panted. I held onto his shoulders as he dragged me closer, afraid I might fall if he let me go.

“You smell so good,” he growled through his throat like a subwoofer full of gravel. That nose pressed against my pelvic bone as he filled his lungs and shivered. He was scenting how wet I was between the legs. Heat blasted through my veins. Sizzle's grip tightened for a harrowing moment, then he dropped his claw. I stumbled back, eyes wide, panting for air, unable to speak. But he was calm as he brushed his claws down his throat teeth and ran his tongue across their surface to get a taste of my clothing.

“What are you doing?” I panted, my heart racing a mile a minute.

“We’ve been dancing around the subject, morsel, but you know exactly what I’m doing.” He stalked after me as I backed up through the soft mulchy earth. His huge yellow eyes cut the gloom like candle flames. “I’ll do anything you ask, play every trick in the book, roll over like a fucking pup…” He snarled, staring at my chest, running his thick tongue through his throat teeth as he spoke. “If only you’d let me peel away those useless clothes.”

“I didn’t shower this morning,” I blurted nonsensically, struggling to keep up, to breathe, to just stay vertical.

Sizzle grinned. “Guess I like you dirty.”

A fire burned hot between my legs, needy and throbbing. I rubbed my palm into my chest, pressing the heat of his forehead straight into my bones. Terrified, intrigued, on the precipice of—I was so sensitive I might have actually climaxed simply from the sound of his voice. The unapologetic, unyielding force of Sizzle’s hunger had a chokehold on me, like he was speaking straight into my vagina.

“I don’t like to mince words, morsel, so let me be clear. Your chemia calls to me. It’s all I think about, all I smell, all I taste… I want to feast on you. Not once. Not twice. Forever. Do you understand?”

I shook my head, shocked into silence.

“It means I’m yours for the taking, if you’re brave enough.”

“Mine?” I balked. “I-I don’t—”

“My biology doesn’t lie. And I bet my howls are telling you the same thing.” He shook out his coat, pink pollen spraying out into the weak beams of light streaming through the murky red canopy.

“What if I think they’re creepy and I’m just being polite?” Brow creased, fists clenched, I held my ground, tantalized, frightened, tempted. Huffs and moans filled my ears as if my dreams were ghosts lurking in the jungle and he could hear them. Every plea and sob and moan of frustration.

“Bilongs and advenans call courting the Hunt, morsel.” Sizzle licked his teeth, inches from the pulse thumping in my throat. “That howling you find so comforting is my lure. A mating call.”

The ground dropped out beneath my feet. When Sizzle got close enough for his fur to brush my chest, I fisted it in my clammy palms, in shock and ready to topple over. He pressed a claw to my back and tucked the underside of his muzzle against my shoulder.

“Can we even…?” I started but fumbled, unable to drag in a breath.

“Oh yes,” he simmered with a diabolical chuckle. “But it takes work, and I’m a possessive creature. Think about what I’m offering before you give in. I’ll stay out of your way while you do.”

“But the trail,” I complained weakly.

Sizzle cocked his head. “You think I’m like a man, now, is that it? Civilized because I can speak and have opposable thumbs?”

I licked my lips. “Aren’t you?”

Sizzle smirked, chuffing a short, bitter laugh. “I’ve shot up a ryhidon tranq every morning since the clinic to take the edge off, but having your hot pussy pressed against the back of my head is shredding my civility. So understand, morsel. I’m not in control, and I will rip your clothes off the moment my drug-induced patience fails.”

Sizzle leaned in and took a deep breath.

“Or is that what you want?” he asked pointedly as I squeezed my legs together and the drenched fabric of my panties dampened my thighs.

Oh god…

It was.

Sizzle grinned, all sharp teeth and triumph.

“This is the best I can do, Jihae. Telling you at all is against my nature. Bilongs are ravenous for absolute control and covet the taste of victory. A taste I’m sure is nestled between your thighs. So if it were up to my base instincts, you’d be sprawled beneath me before you could even consider rejection as a possibility.”

I couldn’t speak. What could I say to that? The only rational response I could think of was getting on my knees and begging for him to see if the answer to all our problems was in fact between my legs. A response that suggested I was not in my right mind at all.

Whether to my relief or my utter devastation, Sizzle backed away. My legs went weak, and I leaned against the tree behind me. My body couldn’t decide if it was too hot or too cold, and Sizzle’s scent devoured me. It was everywhere, like a thick fog of incense.

“It seems I’ve broken you,” he said with a malicious grin. “I won’t apologize for playing every card in my claws, morsel. I want you in my nest, and the more worked up you are, the more likely you’ll end up there. But I will stay away while you think. Give you time.”

At that, I found my voice again. “You’re leaving?”

“Leaving? Sweet little thing. I’ll never be far. It is the Hunt, and stalking is one of my favorite hobbies.”

I managed a rough squeak of acknowledgment, knees shaking.

The idea of Sizzle stalking me? It was invigorating, terrifying, comforting… A tornado of emotions whirled through me. Sweat trickled down my neck and between my breasts, and I was sure if I tried to stand on my own, I’d fall. My body felt like it was far away and that I was a single, raw nerve-ending. Like I might die if Sizzle didn’t devour me before my next frantic heart beat.

But I didn’t die. And Sizzle didn’t devour me. He didn’t even touch me, leaving me in a state of pleasure and agony. He winked at me knowingly, then turned…

And walked away.

His black, beastly silhouette faded into the fog, and I sat on my heels against the tree, quaking and fighting to breathe.