A Good Catch

The night was warm and damp, and the moon was full. A beautiful night, but, but not a night where any civilized man would wish to be caught in the jungle. Jekk was not a civilized man. Tonight he stood at the appointed spot, a verdant clearing at the foot of the elder kapok tree, eyes scanning up and down through the black thicket. Raxa was late, and every second lost was time for something else to find him.

It would be worth the wait. One hand braced on his spear, Jekk gingerly opened a pouch and removed his prize with the other. Even in the faint moonlight flitting through the leaves it was bewitching: a necklace made from the iridescent scales of a great thunrax, tied with its sinew and decorated with its teeth and feathers. It had taken months of gathering gear, preparing traps, and stalking the beast to slay one, a hunt befitting a great predator of the jungle.

“So you weren’t all talk,” a voice purred from above. On instinct Jekk leapt to the side, barely avoiding the black-and-orange ball of fur and claws that crashed down where he stood. He tossed the necklace towards it as he rolled, and a pawed hand shot out to grab it.

“Raxa.”

“Jekk.”

“Still want to do things the hard way, huh?”

“I wouldn’t want to let you go soft.”

The tiger woman stood to her full height, an impressive two and a half meters. Jekk was by no means a small man, but he sure felt like it. Raxa held the necklace up to the sky, admiring its detail, and Jekk took the respite to admire her for a moment. Sharp and powerful, she was the spitting image of a hunter. Her limbs and tail came straight from a tiger, but her body and head were that of a tawny-haired human woman. The two blended in her hands, clawed but capable of fine manipulation, and in the diamond eyes and cat ears that marked her face not-quite-human. She wore only a bandolier and a warrior’s binding over her large breasts, and Jekk had often tried to imagine away the latter. After tonight, hopefully he wouldn’t have to.

Raxa lowered the necklace and nodded, satisfied. “A good catch. I’ll ask you once: are you certain?” Her voice was even, but her eyes shined with hope, silver discs that seemed to reflect his own desire.

“Yes,” Jekk said without hesitation, “I’ve hunted alone for too many years. I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it formally now: I, Jekk Marad, off the honor of the great kill to you. Raxa Fal, will you take me as your mate?”

The tiger woman licked her lips hungrily and took a step closer. “And you’re willing to prove it?” she asked.

Jekk hesitated. “Isn’t this proof enough? I killed a thunrax for you? But yes, I’ll hunt a hundred beasts if that’s what it takes,” he said, overcoming his doubts. Even if he’d messed up the ritual, his love was stronger than some ancient custom.

Raxa flashed her teeth in a feral smile. “No need for that, lover; no need to hunt at all. This time it’s my hunt, and you’re the prey.”

“What? No one said anything about—”

“Of course, we don’t tell anyone unless they’re serious. Think about it. The ritual of the beast weeds out the weak, but that doesn’t make a good match. Any asshole with titan strength and a tiger fetish can kill a rax or a verrider. This? This is personal. You sink or swim by how well you know me, know my territory, and know how I hunt.” She ambushed Jekk with a kiss, a long, passionate kiss with that wonderful rasping tongue. He could feel the heat coursing through her body, feel his own lust rising up against his reason. She pulled away just as suddenly, leaving his body crying for more. “And just between you and me,” she whispered conspiratorially, “it make me sooo hot.” A quick leap took her back to the base of the tree. Eying the human with unbridled lust, Raxa gave one final order: “Go. I’ll give you until midnight; make it good.”

*	*	*	*	*

Jekk waited, listening to the reeds blowing in the wind. Wiping the sweat from his brow, he strained his mind for anything he’d missed. The traps were set, the distractions prepared. He’d chosen the bank of the river intentionally – here, he didn’t have to worry about attacks from above, and if things went south the water would hide his scent as he fled. He checked the dummy he’d set for a third time, a crude bunch of sticks filling out his leather armor and spear, hunched beside an old brush-covered pit trap he’d herded bloodboars into. He’d surprised Raxa with that catch, seasoned with a pinch of habanero. She’d bit in before he could warn her, and Jekk had practically died laughing when she ran off to the river and came back with head drenched and tears in the corner of her eyes. She’d tried to chew him out for a good half a minute before breaking down laughing herself.

A bat swooped low overhead and gulped down one of the mosquitoes buzzing around Jekk’s head, and he looked up briefly to watch it flit back into the canopy. In the sky the moon arced high overhead; it was time.

Tense minutes passed by, every rustle and snap of the forest suspect. The sway of a heavier branch alerted Jekk to another presence, and from his cover he could make out the swish of Raxa’s tail carefully stalking around the dummy. That she didn’t pounce proved she wasn’t buying it, but also that she hadn’t seen him yet. Jekk acted first, cutting a vine that released and arachne web he’d set above. Before the tigress could react she was pulled in a tangled pile down into the pit. The hunter sprung into action before she’d even landed, shutting the wood grating on top of the trap and grabbing his spear. Then he ran.

Through the reeds and into the river, he swam as a frustrated roar echoed behind him. When he heard the crack of wood shortly thereafter he dove beneath the surface, letting the current carry him downriver while he focused on crossing to the far shore. Once there he retreated to his second stop. On the surface it seemed like a simple bare patch of forest floor, but on close inspection the water ran far deeper than the usual layer of mud. Jekk knew it intimately. He’d met Raxa for the first time here, him still an inexperienced hunter who’d gotten stuck in the quicksand, her a tiger-girl who’d laughed at his naivete but helped him all the same. It had had the virtue of shifting over time; he’d scouted the spot earlier and tested the boundaries of the quicksand, but Raxa wouldn’t know that coming in. He did his best to take cover in one of the few dry patches, but it wasn’t long before he saw the telltale glint of catlike eyes.

“Found you.” The tigress leapt from a low branch, clearing the entire pool in one bound. Surprised, on instinct Jekk ducked, bracing his spear and kicking to flip his assailant over him. He felt himself lift into the air, belatedly reacting to Raxa’s hold on his spear and releasing it. The two tumbled into the quicksand, and the hunter considered it a small mercy that his pursuer was stuck out of arm’s reach. She growled in a mix of frustration and exhilaration, wriggling to escape the downward pull of the sand just ahead of Jekk. He had less quicksand to wriggle through, though, only up to his knees, and though the tigress struggled, he got out just ahead of her claws. Before leaving, he cracked, “Funny, I seem to remember this went the opposite way last time. I’d offer a hand, but I’d hate to spoil your fun.”

Jekk ran, dashing through the brush to his last respite, a gnarled, half-fallen trunk suspended on one side by a thicket of vines. If he could get up into the canopy before Raxa caught up to him there’d be no scent trail to follow. His bad luck with the last trap meant he didn’t have time to climb first, so he grunted and started hacking through the vines. They fell one by one, willing himself to continue past the burning ache in his arm. He’d almost finished when his efforts were rendered vain. Raxa crashed through the thicket, bounding up the tree with a look of wild hunger that chilled Jekk’s blood. Facing the tiger, he steeled himself and cut the last vine, dodging her lunge and grabbing the loose end of the vine as the trunk collapsed. The vine snaked upwards as the falling tree pulled the other end down, and Jekk shot up shot up into the canopy.

He needed both hands just to hold on as the vine lashed through the branches, cursing as his blade fell into the darkness below. It was all he could do to scramble onto the mahogany branch the vines had curved around before the tremendous pull of the old trunk dragged them into the depths. Knowing his escape ploy had taken too long, the hunter looked for any avenue of escape. Moss and small flowers grew from the trees branches, making it hard to keep solid footing, and the next closest tree was on the far side of the trunk. Jekk shimmied round the trunk and began inching towards his goal: a low, sturdy limb only a few meters down the vines from his own branch.

Before he could even make it halfway the scrape of talons on bark announced Raxa’s arrival. The tigress leapt onto his branch and stalked towards him, grinning wickedly with her sharp teeth. “Looks like the little monkey’s stuck out on a limb,” she quipped, licking her lips. “Finally out of tricks?”

“I dunno, was this a good enough hunt for you?” Jekk asked, taking a step back and searching for an escape route.

“For a normal mortal,” she said, eyes shimmering in the moonlight. “For you, though, I’m disappointed. This was no rax hunt.” She frowned, and Jekk knew immediately that he’d failed.

“Guess we continue then,” he said, raising his hands in a fighting stance and trying to hide the desperation in his voice. He was sure this would’ve been enough, between the tricks and the nostalgia, and doubt gnawed at his insides. Maybe it hadn’t meant so much to Raxa, maybe to her it was all a game. Her smug grin certainly said as much.

“Playing hard to get?” the tigress asked, amused, “And with no weapons and no escape, just what are you going to do?”
She was right. Stuck up here, in her element, he had no way to win. But Jekk couldn’t give up, wouldn’t give up. The tigress before him was the only person he still cared about, and he’d be damned if he’d leave her disappointed. He thought of all the memories the two had shared, the thrills and laughter, the longing looks, all to let it end like this? But what could he do? He knew the thrill of the hunt, of using all your skills to win a gamble where your life was the wager. Right now he wasn’t a challenge or a threat, he was just prey.

“Cat got your tongue?” Raxa taunted, driving him to the end of the branch. Jekk felt backwards with one foot, trying to find purchase on the swaying bough and nearly losing his footing for his efforts. For a moment Raxa’s look of self-satisfied superiority wavered. Jekk felt all his doubts drain away in that instant, and he countered with a feral smile.

“No, just thinking. You know how a hunt is; you win some, you lose some. Well I was thinking.” He took a step deliberately back, and the branch groaned in protest.

“Jekk, no,” the tigress said, expression clouding with worry.

“A hunt needs a bit of danger to be exciting, don’t you think?” Step.

“Don’t,” she whispered, reaching out towards the hunter. Step.

“But even with danger, a hunt’s a waste if there’s no payoff. You know what you need?” Step.
She bit her lip and shook her head wordlessly.

“A good catch.”

With one more step Jekk was airborne, falling through the canopy foliage like an overripe cacao nut. Raxa screamed and dove after him. The tigress focused her eyes, reading the onrushing terrain like only a jungle native could do, dodging vines and pushing off branches in a desperate attempt to catch the tumbling form below her. When the human’s foot snagged on a vine she took her chance, hugging him between her arms and holding him tight to shield his body as she crashed off tree after tree like a living ragdoll. Finally she slammed into the damp soil with a sickening thud, sending her human ward rolling as she splayed out on the ground.

Shaking the stars from his head, Jekk lurched his way over to Raxa’s unmoving form. He felt a twinge of fear. “Raxa! Raxa, are you okay?” he shouted, shaking the tiger-woman gently. A pained groan greeted him, and he leaned closer checking for any signs of injury.

Suddenly a clawed hand slapped Jekk to the ground. The hunter rubbed his cheek gingerly as the tigress before him rose to her full height, fangs bared. “What the hell were you thinking!?” she growled. “You could’ve been killed!”
“Had to trust you,” Jekk said, allowing himself a slight smile, “if we can’t risk a life, how’d we know we could spend it together?”

“You damn fool!” she shouted, “That’s got to be the single stupidest, gutsiest, sexiest thing anyone’s ever pulled. And now you have the balls to say that with a straight face? I’m going to fuck your brains out.” She pounced on the well-muscled man, pinning his shoulders to the ground and kissing him.

Time seemed to stop as the two lovers indulged their passion, until finally Raxa pulled back, staring at Jekk with unbridled lust. “Just enjoy this,” she said. In a single motion she ripped the binding off her breasts, and the next instant she was straddling the man, rubbing her wet slit against the already-rising bulge in his pants. She twisted her body sensuously, licking his stubble-covered cheek, down his neck to his exposed collarbone, tasting the sweat and desire radiating off his body and driving herself to even greater heights of lust. When she got to his tunic she didn’t stop, instead biting through the fabric with her razor-sharp canines like the flesh of a beast, tearing it off strip by strip and then licking the flesh beneath with her wonderful, raspy tongue.

Unable to contain his lust any longer, Jekk jerked his hips, vainly trying to free his manhood from its confines. That failing, he managed to reach his hands up enough to grab his lover’s breasts, reveling in their supple roundness and pinching at her jutting nipples. The tigress moaned with pleasure, quickening her pace and biting off strips of leather in the most suggestive way she could until she’d exposed Jekk’s rippling chest. With one more gasp she pushed away his arms, pinning him totally as she rubbed her body against his own. “Your mine now,” she breathed, “And I’m going to mark every inch of your body.”

She then began her own assault, licking and sucking at Jekk’s nipples while her glorious tits rolled over his taut stomach, sometimes dipping low enough to rub against his member. “Raxa, I’m going to—” The sensation was too much for the hunter, and he could feel his balls strain as he filled the inside of his pants with his spunk.

“Oh, you liked that,” the tigress chuckled, spinning in position. “Don’t worry, that’s just the beginning.” She lowered her sopping snatch on Jekk’s face and commanded, “Lick.” He didn’t need any encouragement. At first teasing lightly around her folds, he was forced to increase his pace when Raxa grunted in disapproval and pressed her hips down more forcefully, smearing her juices across his face. He lapped them up dutifully with his tongue, then sent his tongue deep inside her, probing until he found her weak spot. “Ah! Don’t…stop!” she moaned, bucking her hips. As the tiger-woman’s movements grew less controlled Jekk found it hard to get a breath between the licking and sucking, and when he did his consciousness filled with the scent of her female musk. All of it further inflamed the hunter’s passion, the desperation, his lover’s show of power, and that damn erotic scent! He was forced to sync with Reza’s movements, sensing her pleasure and feeding into it. He licked harder, sparing some attention for her needy clit, and was rewarded with a torrent of femcum as she threw her head back and came. By the time she was finished he was hard again.

Regaining her senses with a contented purr, Raxa turned to his own loins. With the same precision she used on his tunic the orange-furred woman bit through his trousers, ripping off great strips of cloth. The cold harness of her teeth sliding across his cock gave Jekk pause, but despite her wild motion she used the utmost care. By the time his member burst free the hint of danger was only making him harder. She paused for a moment and twisted just enough so that he could see her face as she dangled the rags above her, licking his semen off like grapes off the vine. Then with a wink she turned back again, and Jekk felt her doing the same to his dick. He could feel every motion as that glorious tongue rolled over his balls, up and down the shaft, and then finally around the glans in little circles, lapping up every last drop.

Raxa for her part was at her limit. If stripping her lover like a prized catch wasn’t enough, the powerful male scent assaulting her nostrils as she lowered her face to his crotch pushed her to the edge. The intoxicating smell of semen, sweat, and male desire was driving her wild, and when she added its taste she could no longer control herself. Savoring the last drop with a smack of her lips, she abandoned herself to her female instinct. With a growl she turned, lowering her nether lips onto her lover’s cock and slamming her hips down. “Yes! Fuck me! Mate with me! Paint my insides with your seed!” she cried, pumping up and down desperately, desire smoldering in her eyes.

Jekk met her lusty fury with all the strength he could muster, pistoning upward in time with her own strokes to heighten the pleasure and roughly groping her tits. Her insides felt incredible, like her folds were sucking at him, trying to milk his seed. She didn’t let up, pounding down on him time after time with such force that Jekk was sure he’d feel it tomorrow. He responded in kind, shouting his lover’s name in primal desire and rutting her like a beast. Finally Raxa’s cry pierced the night as she climaxed, eyes rolling back in pleasure as her insides squeezed in around him, sucking his cock up to the mouth of her womb. He could hardly resist the waves of pleasure washing over him, and when the tiger-woman wrapped her legs around his waist and trapped him, it was too much. His resistance crumbled like a dam bursting, and his vision went white as he poured shot after shot into his kitty-lover’s eager womb. He could feel Raxa come again and again, yowling like a cat in heat and digging her claws into his back; he thanked whatever gods may be that leather still covered there. Then finally he was spent, and the two collapsed into panting exhaustion in unison.

As Jekk caught his breath, Raxa lowered her head to his and nuzzled against him, so close he could see the blue in her eyes as she stared adoringly into his own brown orbs. Then she closed her eyes and whispered, “Mine,” holding him tight. He gave her a gentle kiss and wrapped an arm around her. “Always,” he answered, “and you are mine.”