(1513 words, old west, ghosts, sex on horseback)

Lucy knew not to go down to the lake alone.

It had snowed heavy the night before, blanketing the prairie in a boundless layer of pristine white, shimmering under the light of the full moon. She’d spent the day playing with the children, ice skating on the lake’s frozen surface for hours before heading back into town for an evening of feasting and caroling.

No one came down to the lake alone, not after dark, and Lucy knew better.

She lifted her fingers to the hollow of her throat where her cross should have been resting against her skin. The only thing she could think of was that it must have fallen off while she’d been skating, because she’d retraced her steps meticulously in and out of town with no luck in finding the lost trinket.

It had to be at the lake. It had to be.

The night was calm and quiet as Lucy stepped out onto the ice, and she could hear the vibrating echo of her footsteps as clear as day as she tiptoed slowly across the surface of the lake, searching desperately for the familiar glint of gold somewhere.

After nearly twenty minutes of fruitless searching, Lucy was shivering violently and about to give up. And then—there. No more than ten yards ahead was a glimmering golden chain lying nearly in the center of the lake.

Lucy sprinted over to it reflexively and bent down to scoop up the treasure. That’s when she heard a blood-chilling crack. She turned just in time to watch as the ice started to split, a fissure forming along the surface originating from where she’d just come.

Lucy took a tentative step backwards, then another, too afraid to make any sudden movements that might exacerbate her situation, though every cell in her body was screaming at her, telling her to run.

Another crack formed in the ice, splintering off from the first before spreading rapidly, a branching series of breaks that would certainly spell Lucy’s doom if she didn’t make it back to shore before they reached her.

Lucy glanced behind herself to check her progress. It was still too far to make a break for it. She had no choice but to continue at a slow, careful pace, trying all the while to outrun nature itself.

An earth-shattering boom pulled Lucy’s attention back to the fissure in the ice. But the fissure was gone, replaced by a massive hole leading down into churning black water, and under that water, Lucy could see something ascending, two burning red eyes like flaming coals moving steadily toward the surface.

Before Lucy could scream, she found herself being launched into the air. She landed with a grunt in the seat of a saddle, facing a man dressed all in black with a bandana shrouding the entirety of his face and a wide-brimmed cowboy hat that cast any glimpse Lucy might of gotten of his eyes into shadow.

Lucy gaped at the man as they galloped away from the lake, and then peered over his shoulder just in time to catch a glimpse of a massive dark shape hauling itself out onto the ice.

“What was that?” Lucy asked in a whisper.

The masked man didn’t answer.

Lucy started to worry that maybe her savior didn’t have the heroic intentions his actions would seem to imply once she realized they were riding west, away from the town and the rest of civilization, and then finally, the man’s horse began to slow before coming to a stop in the middle of a wide open plain.

Lucy considered the possibility of jumping off the horse and making a run for it, but in knee-deep snow, she wasn’t going to make it very far, and she couldn’t escape a pursuer on horseback anyway. She closed her eyes instead and leaned forward into the man’s coat, trying to retain what little warmth she had left, and hoping that this man would eventually see fit to take her home.

Lucy breathed in deeply. In and out. And then she paused. Lucy recognized the scent clinging to the man’s coat. Juniper and pine. She’d smelled it before.

“Ransom?” she said as she pulled away to look up at the man’s shrouded visage, her terrified countenance turning questioning in the face of the familiar.

The masked man gave a small nod in answer, and Lucy breathed out a sigh of relief.

“You saved me,” Lucy breathed into his chest, clutching at his fur coat desperately. “You saved me.”

The night was cold, but Lucy’s face was warm as she reached up to take Ransom’s face in her hands. He stopped her, pushing her hands away without a word, but Lucy was not to be deterred. She grabbed Ransom’s wrists with both hands, bringing them down to her chest, waiting until his hands settled against the swell of her breasts before making her next move.

Lucy let go of Ransom’s wrists and instead reached down between them for his belt buckle. She glanced up at his mask as though expecting to find an answer there, or a protest, but Ransom’s only reaction was to tense his fingers as she finished unbuckling his belt, making her gasp quietly.

“If you don’t want this…” Lucy said as she moved on to the button on Ransom’s trousers.

“I want it,” Ransom said quietly.

That was all the permission Lucy needed.

It was impossible to remove her undergarments without climbing out of the saddle, and Lucy wasn’t about to jump into the snow just to divest herself of any much-needed articles of clothing, so she made do once she had Ransom’s pants undone. She shifted forward slowly, lifting her skirts to encircle them both before reaching underneath with one hand to move her bloomers to the side, using the other to guide Ransom’s cock into herself while he steadied her with both hands on her hips.

Lucy settled down onto him with a sigh and moved her hands to his shoulders instead, using them as leverage to push herself up, almost all the way off of him before sinking back down again. She was glad she hadn’t waited around for Ransom to give her the time of day, that she’d gotten a few rolls in the hay before this so she could properly savor this moment without worrying about her own inexperience getting in the way.

Lucy could feel Ransom’s fingers tightening on her hips with each rise and fall, could tell from his ragged breathing that he was getting close.

And that’s when she saw it.

The same coal-red eyes that she’d first glimpsed within the depths of the lake, this time embedded in the body of a massive black bison hurtling toward them with frightening speed.

“It’s back,” Lucy hissed as she dropped back down onto Ransom’s lap, his cock almost painfully deep inside her once her thighs were pressed against his.

There wasn’t even enough time to adjust their positions as Ransom grabbed the reigns again and spurred the horse into action. Lucy clutched at his coat, holding on for dear life and gritting her teeth against the feeling of being fucked like this, Ransom’s cock slamming into her hard every time the horse’s hooves struck ground.

And she wasn’t sure if it was the adrenaline or the fact that she’d already been close to finishing, but she was right on the precipice now, about to come just as the demonic bellowing bison closed in on them.

Lucy watched with frantic, panting breaths as the bison galloped toward them, and then turned her head to look ahead just in time to realize that Ransom was riding straight toward a cliff.

“What are you doing?” Lucy cried out, the words coming out half-uttered, disjointed.

“Trust me,” was all Ransom said in response.

Then they were skidding through the snow, the horse cutting right without warning right at the cliff’s edge and sliding to a stop. Lucy watched through wide eyes as the bison (which she could see was more skeleton than flesh now) failed to follow them, its momentum propelling it forward—straight off the cliff.

Lucy buried her face in Ransom’s coat again and let out a shuddering sob.

“You’re safe now,” Ransom reassured her.

Lucy drew in a shaky breath as she leaned back, resting her head along the horse’s neck as she tugged Ransom down to meet her. The pointed end of his bandana tickled her throat as he fucked into her, both of them desperately trying to finish now that they’d taken care of their nightmarish interruption.

Lucy came with a desperate cry, her hands clawing upwards along Ransom’s chest to his shoulders, before abruptly lifting to grab the brim of his hat. She pulled, intending to toss it into the snow, to take Ransom’s face in her hands so she could kiss him, but when the hat and the mask were gone, there was nothing there for Lucy to kiss.

Because Ransom didn’t have a face. He didn’t even have a head.

(2102 words, hybrids, camgirl, size kink, knotting, squirting)

Zane watched Alex wander up the long driveway from the security cameras, pressing the button on the gate to let her into the courtyard, then the lock on the front door when she reached the steps. She had a starry-eyed wonder in her face, an enchantment borne from innocence. To her, everything in Zane’s life must have been a novelty. He almost felt guilty about inviting her here, now that he’d seen just what effect his lifestyle had on the poor girl.

Alex’s tail was twitching uncontrollably when Zane finally entered the foyer to meet her for the first time. Zane wondered to himself if she’d never learned to control her instincts the way his kind were trained to practically from birth, or whether she was just so overwhelmed that she wasn’t aware that her body was betraying her.

“Would you like a cup of tea, lemonade?” Zane asked with a friendly smile. “Water?”

“Water would be great, thanks,” Alex replied in a breathy voice. She followed him into the kitchen, her hands barely peeking out from under the sleeves of her sweater, making her look even smaller than she was. She waited for Zane to hand her the glass and then took a careful sip before opening her mouth to speak once more. “Look, I’m—I’m not really sure that I should be here,” she told him.

Zane raised an eyebrow and leaned back against the countertop. He crossed his arms over his chest, keenly conscious of the way Alex’s pupils dilated in response to the threat that her biology perceived him as. “You can always leave if you aren’t comfortable,” he replied. “I won’t be offended.”

Alex shook her head minutely. “It’s not you,” she said, her voice even quieter now. “It’s just…. Well, you should have seen the way people looked at me on the train.”

“Hat didn’t help?” Zane asked, nodding toward the knit beanie covering her ears.

“I picked it up before I took a cab up here,” Alex explained. Her flush deepened with every word. “I don’t know that it would’ve made much of a difference anyway, though. I mean, you can smell me, can’t you?”

Zane had been able to smell her the second that she’d set foot inside his home, but it felt rude to say as much, so he settled for a simple nod in agreement. “There’s not anything repulsive about it, contrary to the stereotypes,” he informed her. “It’s just different than what we’re used to.”

Alex glanced down at her feet, her fingers still picking at the sleeves of her sweater. “Some people don’t like different,” she pointed out.

“And some people do.” Zane pushed away from the countertop, taking a step toward Alex instead. She didn’t look outwardly alarmed by his closeness, but he could detect a shift in her pheromones indicating that on some level, at least, she was a little bit afraid of him. “That’s actually why I wanted to speak with you.”

Alex squinted up at him, her eyebrows drawing together in confusion. “What do you mean?” she asked. “I thought this was about a job.”

“It is,” Zane assured her. “And I do think your design work is quite good, but….”

“But?”

“I’m a producer,” Zane admitted. “I actually…I wasn’t entirely honest about the reason I wanted to bring you here.”

“What are you trying to say?” Alex demanded. Her pupils were blown out now, her long tawny tail bristling as it swished back and forth over her shoulders. Zane had the sense that she was just mere seconds from bolting straight out the front door if he didn’t give her an explanation that felt satisfactory.

“I’ve seen your videos,” Zane said.

Alex’s tail poofed out to twice its size as her expression went cold. “I’m leaving,” she said stiffly.

Zane had to grab her arm to keep her from going. “Wait,” he pleaded. “Just wait, okay? I didn’t want to be entirely honest with you at first because I thought you wouldn’t meet with me if I told you up front that I was subscribed to you.”

“Is that supposed to make me feel better about you lying to me?” Alex asked. She made an attempt to tug her arm away from Zane’s vise-like hold, but to no avail. “Seriously?”

“I did want to talk to you about a job,” Zane explained hastily. “It just isn’t the one I told you about in our emails.”

Alex suddenly stopped, turning her head to focus on Zane again with a newly curious expression. Curious like a cat, Zane thought to himself with a touch of humor.

“What job?” Alex asked in a slow voice.

Zane cautiously let go of her wrist and gestured to the open door to his study. “I’d be happy to explain the details,” he told her. “I’ll pay for your ride home either way.”

Alex waited another second, sucking in a deep breath and holding it for a moment before finally nodding and proceeding into Zane’s study. She seated herself in the armchair on the side of the desk facing the door, curling her legs up under herself and twisting into a position that would have been uncomfortable for anyone of a canine persuasion. She seemed more at ease now that she was seated than she had in Zane’s kitchen, however, and he took that as a positive sign as he sat himself down on the other side of the desk.

“Like I said before,” Zane began again, “I’m a producer.”

“Okay…” Alex replied uncertainly. She put a finger to her lips and began gnawing at one of her fingernails without any care for how it might look to Zane, who chose to ignore it as he continued.

“I make porn,” Zane said bluntly. He watched as Alex’s expression rapidly changed from confusion to shock. “Specifically, knotting porn. And I want to hire you for a new VOD series.”

Alex blinked a few times as she stared at Zane in disbelief. “But I’m…. Cross-species penetration is illegal in porn.”

“Not as of three weeks from now.” Zane had expected that Alex wouldn’t be the type to have her thumb on the pulse of legislative politics, so he’d pulled up the press release on his phone before she’d arrived. He passed it to her, watching as the light of realization dawned on her.

Fairly soon, people were going to start cashing in on videos of young feline women like Alex lifting their tails to take canine knots. Zane was planning on being the first out of the gate.

“Why me?” Alex said after she’d read her fill. She lifted her head, allowing her eyes to meet Zane’s once more.

“I was impressed with your solo work,” Zane told her. “And if you don’t mind my being a bit crass about it, you seemed a little more enthusiastic about the uh, size, of your toys than most of the other girls on KittyCams.”

Alex went beet red, perhaps remembering the way she’d forced a knotting dildo inside herself just last week—as close as anyone could get to the real thing before the new legislation went into effect. Zane had been impressed with her tenacity when he’d watched the video, even if the dildo had been a few shades smaller than what she could actually expect to encounter if she took Zane up on his job offer.

“I’m…flattered,” Alex managed. She’d somehow compacted herself even more in Zane’s armchair, making herself a fraction of her true size. “But I’ve never…I haven’t ever slept with a canid before.”

Zane’s eyes widened, his head cocking to the side as he processed her statement. That was a surprise to him; he’d assumed she was rather experienced judging from the amount of canid-on-felid roleplay that her customers seemed so partial to.

“Would you like to?” Zane asked, before he could think better of it.

Alex sat up slightly. “What?”

Zane braced his hands on the desk and leaned forward, toward Alex. “Would you like to?” he repeated, emphasizing every single word.

Alex’s quiet ‘yes’ didn’t come as such a surprise.

Zane had seen Alex naked more times than he could count in the last month, but it was different seeing her like this, having her here in front of him, painfully real and close enough to touch. She was rose-pink everywhere except her nipples, a dark brown, and Zane followed the milk lines down her torso with his tongue before ending up between her thighs.

She was already wet enough for his fingers, but Zane ate her out anyway, lapping over her clit and dipping his tongue inside her until she was shaking, mewling, and crying. She was tight when he finally pushed into her with his fingers, and for a moment, Zane was worried that she wouldn’t be able to take his cock, but then he recalled her videos, the way she’d split herself open on more than this with relative ease.

Still, he knew it wouldn’t be easy to knot her in the end. Slow and steady, he reminded himself.

One of the things Zane had liked most about Alex’s videos was her voice. The way she yowled and meowed from the back of her throat, raw and husky, every time he bottomed out inside her made every hair on the back of his neck stand up. He could feel himself getting rougher with every thrust, nearly sending her into the headboard every time he slammed into her.

“Can I come inside you?” Zane asked through harsh, panting breaths as he fucked her.

Alex nodded, her pupils slitted now, eyes heavy-lidded and sleepy.

“Can I knot you?” Zane asked again, unable to keep the desperation out of his voice.

Alex answered with a throaty mewl as she bucked up into him, her clawed fingernails digging into Zane’s lower back, pulling him into her like she needed him even deeper.

When Zane felt his knot starting to pull at the entrance to her pussy, he slowed down the pace of his thrusts, using Alex’s frantic gasping as a gauge for just how much she could take. He fucked her shallowly as the base of his cock swelled larger and larger. He was about halfway there when Alex’s eyes suddenly flew open, her tail flailing wildly underneath her.

“Take it out,” she begged. “It’s too big.”

“I can’t,” Zane said gently. “It’ll hurt you if I try. Just breathe, okay? You’re almost there.”

He pushed himself into her as deeply as he could, trying to relieve some of the pressure. He reached down between them with one hand and gently rubbed at her clit, trying to force her to relax just a little.

Alex’s pussy was almost painfully tight around his knot as it swelled even further, and he could tell she’d hit the breaking point when her fingers suddenly dug into his sides, drawing blood. Tit for tat, he supposed. She was justified in hurting him a little, too.

Zane laid on top of her and remained as still as possible as he flooded her with come, listening to the frantic beating of her heart as they both waited it out. He felt a bit dizzy afterwards, overcome with a torrent of endorphins, but Alex still hadn’t come once since he’d eaten her out, and Zane wanted to give her a treat before she had to go.

“Sore?” he asked after pulling out of her, leaving her pussy gaping open as soon as his knot was yanked free.

Alex nodded. “Just a little achy,” she informed him.

Zane carefully turned her over onto her stomach and then probed at her with his fingers before slipping them back inside. “This okay?” he asked.

Alex closed her eyes and nodded again, her cheek pressed against the pillows. “Mhmm.”

“Good.” Zane pressed hard against her G-spot, making her tail whip around wildly as she let out a loud yowl. “I know you can squirt like this,” Zane told her as he continued to massage the same spot with his fingers, moving them in a rhythmic motion he practically had memorized. “I’ve seen you do it.”

It was less than thirty seconds before Alex’s cunt tightened up around his fingers as she drenched Zane’s hand and his sheets. He pulled out of her with a satisfied smirk and helped Alex roll back over again.

“See you in three weeks?” he asked, wanting to confirm what he already knew.

Alex let out a loud, shuddering breath. “I think I need a bit more practice, actually,” she told him. “How about Tuesday?”

“Tuesday’s perfect.”

(1126 words, succubus, girl-next-door, infidelity, dubcon, car sex)

“Didn’t we just hire Sophie last week?” Nate wondered aloud. They were on the way home from Maya’s parents’ house, and after spending god knows how many months in quarantine, he could understand her desire for some grown-up time. No kids allowed. But Nate was starting to feel like the amount of paid babysitter hours they were racking up was becoming a tad excessive.

“She needs the money, apparently,” Maya replied easily. “She’s been sitting for Ron, Derek, and Carlos, too.”

“Aren’t Ron, Derek, and Carlos all sick with the flu or something?” Nate asked. He frowned, his eyebrows drawing together in worry.

“That’s what they were saying on Facebook. Speaking of which, I was thinking about hiring Sophie to come over while we’re working, as well. I’m not sure sending the kids to daycare is the smartest thing to do if there’s a bug going around.”

Neither of them commented on the fact that they’d only just recently gotten used to the idea that they were no longer in danger of catching a potentially deadly respiratory virus. The reminder that with normal life came things like flu season was still a little jarring.

But then again, it wasn’t flu season yet, was it?

“They’re all sure it’s the flu?” Nate asked, glancing over to find his wife typing intently on her phone. “Maya?”

“Hmm?” She looked up, and once she caught a glimpse of Nate’s worried expression, her tone shifted. “It’s nothing serious,” she reassured him. “They all said they were out of commission for a day or two. I just don’t want to deal with sick kids.”

“Yeah.”

Sophie was a charming young lady who lived in their neighborhood who was perhaps just a bit too helpful at times. She seemed to be everywhere Nate went—the grocery store, the elementary school bake sale, even synagogue from time to time, even though Nate was pretty sure she wasn’t actually Jewish. Nate didn’t think of himself as the type to be unfaithful, but he’d felt compelled to admit to Maya on more than one occasion that he found the thought…tempting, to say the least. She’d laughed it off, of course, and it evidently hadn’t impacted Maya’s decision to hire Sophie at every opportunity to babysit their two kids.

Nate mostly tried to ignore Sophie when she was around, but sometimes that was easier said than done.

“Hey, Mr. Lewin,” Sophie said as Nate walked through the front door after his and Maya’s dinner date that night. She was lounging on their sectional, her feet propped up on the armrest and crossed at the ankle. She was wearing very short shorts, and Nate forced himself to look away quickly. “Mrs. Lewin.”

“You can call us by our first names, Sophie,” Maya chided as she followed Nate inside. She grabbed his hand as the door swung shut behind her, and when Nate turned around, he found himself face to face with a pleading expression he knew he wouldn’t be able to say no to. “I’m exhausted, hon, do you mind taking Sophie back home?”

Nate’s mouth went dry. It was an unspoken agreement that Maya be the one to drive Sophie home. Nate didn’t think he could handle being in close quarters with the girl for that long.

But despite all that, he found himself nodding without a word of protest. “Sure,” he told Maya. “You ready to go?” he asked Sophie.

“Yep!” Sophie leapt to her feet in an instant and grabbed her bag from the coffee table. She gladly accepted the wad of bills that Maya offered her on her way out the door. “Thanks,” she said sweetly. “Let me know if you need any more help with the girls.”

Nate didn’t wait to hear his wife’s response. He headed straight for the car and climbed back into the driver’s seat, carefully resting his head against the steering wheel as he waited for Sophie to join him.

The drive across town was painfully silent, with only the soft hum of the radio acting as a mediator for the tension between the two of them. When Sophie finally spoke up, the sound of her voice was almost enough to knock the wind out of Nate.

“Can we pull over up here?” Sophie asked in a gentle tone.

Nate looked over at her in surprise. “Are you okay?” he asked, even as he was already moving to the gravel on the side of the road. He put on the parking brake and his hazards as he waited for a response.

He didn’t get one. Before Nate knew what was happening, Sophie was in his lap, all five feet and three inches of her squirming on top of him as she tried to pin his hands to his sides.

“What are you doing?” Nate demanded.

Sophie stared down at him with heavy-lidded eyes. “Relax,” she whispered, the scent of her breath sweet and a little heady.

Nate suddenly felt as though his body wasn’t his own. He watched from behind his eyes as Sophie carefully unbuttoned his jeans, pulling his cock out and getting him hard with barely any effort at all.

“You know,” Sophie told him as she slowly worked his cock over with one hand. “I usually make the others forget. And I never let them touch me. But I like you.” With her other hand, she undid the button on her shorts before grabbing one of Nate’s hands, sliding it down past the waistband of her panties until he couldn’t feel anything but the searing heat of her pussy.

Nate’s fingers curled into her of their own accord; Sophie let out a loud moan that pierced through the haze of Nate’s lethargy, startling him back into his own body again.

“What did you do to me?” he demanded even as he continued to plunge his fingers into her again and again in tandem with the motion of her hand around his cock.

“Nothing you didn’t want,” Sophie said easily. “Are you about to come?”

Nate didn’t get a chance to answer before Sophie was practically folding herself in half to get her mouth around the head of his cock as he ejaculated with a shout. She swallowed all of it, looking like the cat who ate the canary when she straightened back up again.

“Thanks for dinner,” she said cryptically as she climbed back into her seat. “A greasy breakfast should help you bounce back. It’s just like a hangover really. I don’t know why the others complained so much.”

Nate blinked a few times, staring blankly out into the darkness as Sophie tucked him back into his jeans. “What do I tell Maya?” he wondered.

Sophie chuckled. “Whatever you think she’ll believe, I guess.”