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 Chapter 1
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       John was lost, that much he knew.  He couldn't figure out how he had gotten lost though.  He had been hiking through the woods and the next thing he knew it seemed like the layout of the forest had changed.  His phone had no signal, which being this rural wasn't out of the ordinary, but his phone also wasn't picking up the GPS satellites anymore either.
 
 	He decided that his best course of action would be to head to higher ground in hopes of getting a signal, or at least being able to spot something he could head towards.  As he was nearing the top of a nearby hill he checked his watch; it's 3 PM.  It's almost dusk, which shouldn't be near for another 3 hours.  “I don't think we're in Tennessee anymore Toto,” he muttered to himself.
 
 	Focusing on the objective he'd set for himself he hurried up to the top of the hill.  The phone still had neither cell nor GPS signal.  He had a pretty clear view of the sky so his phone should have no problem with the GPS.  Looking around he didn't see anything near, but a fair amount of evergreens were limiting his view.  Off in the distance he was able to make out what appeared to be a large power pylon, but it looked to be roughly 10 miles away, and with how late it was, in addition to the temperature seeming to drop rapidly, he cleared a spot and set up his one man tent.  At least he had planned on hiking for days, so wasn't unprepared for spending the night.
 
 	He laid awake in his tent for how long he wasn't sure.  He had so many questions about what had happened to him.  Was he dead?  If he was then why did he still have all the stuff he had been carrying while hiking.  Maybe the Egyptians were right and you got to take it with you.  He was damn sure that was a power pylon off in the distance though, and he could follow those lines to civilization.  He settled for getting answers later and eventually fell into a fitful sleep.
 
 	He dreamt of Afghanistan; it was one he hadn't had in a long time.  On patrol, his squad had come under fire with one wounded.  He was able to neutralize one threat, a boy no older than 14, and as a combat lifesaver had started providing medical aid to the wounded man after his squad-mates were able to get him to cover.  In the distance he heard a woman scream, which he didn't pay any mind to as he was focused on the wounded soldier.  Then the soldier grabbed his arm, looked him in the eye and with a gravely voice seemed to yell, “Don't bother running, you can't get away.”  He froze and stared at the man, then he heard the woman scream again, louder, waking him up, but he still heard her.
 
 	Hopped up on adrenaline from the nightmare and realizing someone was in trouble, he ripped himself out of his sleeping bag, grabbed his S&W Model 500 and flashlight and booked it out of the tent.  Shining his light around he caught a glimpse of what looked like someone in plaid, and moving his light back he was shocked to see a man with a wolf's head, holding a knife and charging right at him.  “STOP!” he yelled as he thumbed back the hammer on his revolver and raised it up.  He didn't give the creature a chance to stop though; werewolves were real and damned if he was gonna' go down without a fight.
 
 	A large flash came out of the sides of the cylinder and the front of the gun as the 50 caliber slug was sent careening toward its target.  To John's surprise it went down almost immediately; the bullet had found its mark and shattered the spinal cord.  It looked up at him and tried to reach out at him, even though he wasn't nearly close enough.  “Fuck...,” it uttered in that gravely voice he'd heard in his dream before collapsing, dead.
 
 	John just stood there, breathing heavily.  His ears were still ringing, and he was starting to feel the cold from not being properly dressed.  At least the werewolf was dead, and he didn't even need a silver bullet.  After a few seconds he snapped back to his senses, that thing had been chasing someone.  He shined his light around some more, and once the ringing began to subside he quickly located her, huddled next to a tree, crying.  Her arms were bound and she screamed when the light moved over her, covering her face the best she could.  Her clothes looked too light for this weather, but at least she had some fur gloves on.  “Please, don't hurt me, let me go, please,” she sobbed while still covering her face.
 
 	“It's dead; I shot it,” John replied.  She didn't say anything in response, just continued to cower.
 
 	“I'll cut that rope to free your hands, okay?” he asked while doing his best to put on a friendly tone of voice.
 
 	That managed to elicit a response.  “O-o-okay,” she was able to say.
 
 	He walked over to her, took out his pocket knife and the rope.  As soon as he finished he barely had time to fold it back up before she wrapped her arms around him.
 
 	“Oh God I was so scared.  He came out of nowhere and forced me into the trunk of my car then drove I don't know how far to here.  As he was forcing me out I was able to get free of him and I just ran and ran.  If you hadn't been out here I don't want to imagine what would have happened.”
 
 	John was now even more confused.  The werewolf sounded more like some kind of serial killer than a mythological monster.  The fur on her face was also rubbing up against him.  Why the hell did she have fur on her face?  He put one of his arms around her.  Oh God she has a tail, a big bushy tail.  He freaked out a little but was able to keep his composure.  Whatever she was she was scared, had gone through a traumatic experience and needed help.
 
 	“You're safe with me now,” he reassured her, “I'm...I'm gonna' need you to let me go so we can get out of here.”
 
 	They walked back over to his campsite, her keeping a grip on his hand.  He had the liners for his gloves on but even through them he could feel that what he'd thought was her wearing gloves was actually the fur on her hands.  When they got to the campsite he gave her the flashlight and dug out the headlamp he had as well.
 
 	“Let me give you my sleeping bag, you must be pretty cold,” he turned around holding the sleeping bag only for her to scream again.
 
 	John put his hand on his revolver, looking around thinking someone else was out here and she'd just seen them.  “You're...you're a human, a talking human,” now she seemed to be confused.  At least they had that in common now.
 
 	“Oh my fuckin' God,” John exasperated.  He turned on the headlamp and saw that she was a raccoon.  A walking, talking, human-sized raccoon, cute and just a little chubby but still.  “And you're a talking trash panda.  I have no idea where I am, I've been lost for like the past 12 hours and just killed a wolf man.  I'm trying to keep cool, so please don't act like me talking is any weirder than you doin' the same thing.”
 
 	She just stood in silence for a few seconds, “I'm not a panda.  I'm a raccoon.”
 
 	“I'm sorry, here's the sleeping bag.  Please wrap up, I'm gonna' try to find what way you came from, so we can get back to your car.”
 
 	“I...I think it was that way,” she swept the light in roughly a 60 degree cone.  That area included the direction he'd seen the wolf come charging at him so agreed that it would be a good place to search for a trail.  He got his things packed as quickly as he could, then walked over to where the dead wolf was, and saw an exit hole from the bullet through his plaid jacket.  He flipped the wolf over, and saw that a lot of blood had come out of the entrance wound.  The raccoon looked away from that site as he began to rifle through the wolf's pockets.
 
 	In one of the wolf's pants pockets he found a set of keys.  Pulling them out he turned to the raccoon, “these yours?”
 
 	“Yeah.”
 
 	“Good, saves us the trouble of having to hotwire your car,” he continued to search pockets, and found a wallet.  Snatching what cash was in it, he looked at the driver's license.  It was a Tennessee driver's license.  He folded it back up and stuffed it back in the pocket, stood up and started following the trail that had been left, not wanting to think about seeing that.
 
 	“My name is John, what's yours?”
 
 	“Megan.”
 
 	“I've always found that to be a pretty name,” he stopped at roughly a point where it seemed like the wolf had turned to chase him down.  He was able to pick back up the trail pretty quickly, “this way.”
 
 	She caught up to him and grabbed his hand again; feeling less weirded out that her savior was a talking human.  He knew what he was doing, had come up with a plan and was leading her out of this place.  What kind of human was he?  Why was he camping in the middle of a forest during the winter?
 
 	He followed the trail for about a half mile before she decided to ask her first question, “Have you ever had an owner?”
 
 	He stopped and looker at her, “What the hell kind of question is that?”
 
 	“It's...well...never mind,” she really didn't know what to make of this human.
 
 	That question had got him wondering why she'd ask something like that, but he was still focusing on getting back to her car and getting the fuck out of here.  After about another 10 minutes he saw what appeared to be a porch light in the distance.  He cut his headlamp off and had her cut the flashlight off in case there was someone there.
 
 	When they got near the light they saw that there was a house with an attached garage and a nearby barn.  The porch light was actually a light on the barn, and it barely illuminated a light green car.
 
 	“Praise the heavens, that's it, that's my car,” she smiled and pointed.
 
 	“Ok I'm gonna' throw my stuff in the trunk then I'll drive us out of here.”
 
 	“Are you crazy, you can't be seen driving.  I'll drive, just sit in the passenger seat and don't say anything to anyone.”
 
 	He decided not to question it, she sounded worried for him if he did drive.  She opened the trunk for him, he put his stuff in and they were off.
 
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 Chapter 2
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 She found her phone, which had been knocked under the driver’s seat, brought up the map application on it, put in an address and the phone began giving her directions.  John took out his phone and turned it on, trying to see if it was working now.  It still wasn't picking up anything.  He sighed, turned it back off and put it back in his pocket.
 
 “You trying to call your spaceship?” she asked him, kind of playfully.
 
 “Do you think I'm an alien?” he chuckled a bit.
 
 “I don't know what to think of you.  I've never even heard of a human like you.”
 
 “Like me?  How am I different?”
 
 “You're smart, WAY smarter than any normal human.  How can you not know this, how can it be you're not world famous?  There are philosophical debates on if humans have the capability to be sapient, and 10 seconds with you would destroy the ‘no’ argument.”
 
 “So you're saying humans are usually stupid?”
 
 “No, not stupid, just not on the same level as us.”
 
 “Us, you mean like…furries.”
 
 “Yeah.”
 
 He didn’t immediately respond, just stared out the car window for a few seconds, “So that's why you asked if I'd ever had an owner.  Humans are like what, pets here?”
 
 “Yeah.”
 
 They sat in silence for a few more minutes after that, until she eventually got to a two lane road whose name she recognized.  She didn’t want to ask him any more questions about being a human, but did have some others.
 
 “Why were you out in the middle of the forest at night?”
 
 “I was hiking, it’s something I like to do when I'm between contracts.  I'll hike through the forest, sometimes spend up to 5 days out, away from everything.”
 
 “Between contracts?  So you work?”
 
 “Software development.  I got a Bachelor’s degree, went to college on the GI bill after doing a couple tours in Afghanistan.”
 
 He’d brought up Afghanistan to see what her reaction would be.  If that license was any indication this was still Tennessee, just some weird, twisted version of it.  But what about other places, were their names the same.
 
 “So you were in the military,” she asked him.
 
 “Yeah,” he replied.  She didn’t ask about Afghanistan.  He was debating on pressing it when telltale blue lights began flashing behind them.
 
 “Oh shit,” she cursed, “remember, don’t say anything.”
 
 She pulled the car over and rolled down her window.  A grey fox in a Tennessee State Police uniform walked up to the window.
 
 “License and registration please,” he asked while pointing his flashlight at her.
 
 She got out her license and registration and gave it to him, “here you go.”
 
 He moved the flashlight off of her and onto John, who just smiled at the office, “and who’s this fella?”
 
 “That’s John, I took him with me to visit my parents.  He’s so well behaved and just loves car rides.”
 
 “Well hello John, glad to hear you're a good boy,” he looked back to her, “I pulled you over because you were weaving a bit, you rode onto the center line at least once.  Thought you might have been drinking, but I don’t smell anything.”
 
 “I left my parents later than I would have liked and am a bit tired.”
 
 “All right, drive safe.  Next time I'd suggest staying and sleeping and leaving when you're rested,” he looked back at John, “he’s just so cute, can I pet him before you go?”
 
 “He doesn't like strangers petting him, sorry.”
 
 “Well you take care ma’am,” and the officer went back to car and pulled out and off.
 
 After the officer was gone, John just stared at her, mouth slightly agape in a “what the fuck” expression.  After about 20 very long he decided to ask, “I noticed you didn’t tell him about what happened in the forest.”
 
 “I didn’t know what to tell him.  That a madman abducted me and a talking human saved me.  I just want to get home and forget all this.”
 
 That was a fair point.  It was only now he started to think about what he was gonna do.  Getting to civilization, rescuing the girl, the reality of him possibly not getting back home hadn't occurred to him.  What am I supposed to do once you get back home?” he asked her.
 
 “You can stay with me, it’s the least I can do for you.  I live by myself so you won't have to worry about being heard talking unless I have visitors.  I’ve never had a human before, so I don’t have any of usual amenities, but I guess you wouldn’t care for those anyway.  But anything you need I can get.”
 
 “Thanks, hopefully I'll be able to figure out how to get home eventually,” but he figured that was a longshot at best.  He had just been suddenly moved here, whatever here was, and aside from the same thing happening again he had no idea what he could do.
 
 The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful, it was still the middle of the night so no one was out, but he did think he saw a person go into some woods when the headlights hit them.  Eventually they arrived at a fairly plain looking white house, though a fairly nice size.  The neighborhood was somewhat sparse, with it looking like most of these houses having fair sized pieces of land.  He wondered how she could afford something this nice.  She did say she lived alone so that would let her have a pretty low cost of living.
 
 As they were pulling into the driveway the headlights lit up what looked like a homeless man in rags rooting through her trash can.  She threw the car in park, got out and began moving toward the man while yelling and waving her arms.  The man took off running and clamored over a fence.  She got back in the car, muttered “damn strays” and finished pulling in.
 
 John just sat in stunned silenced.  She just chased that man off like some mangy alley cat.  He got out of the car, walked over to the fence and peered over it while shining his flashlight, but the man was gone.
 
 “Seems to be really hard for you, seeing other humans like that.”
 
 “Like the whole world is topsy turvy.”
 
 “Come on, let's go in.  I'm exhausted.”
 
 “Yeah, sleep sounds good.”
 
 John got his stuff out of the trunk and went into the house with her.  They went in through the side door when connected to the kitchen, followed by a dining room then the living room.  The living room was fairly sparse, with a couch, TV, bookshelf and DVD shelf.  He set his stuff down in an empty corner.
 
 “I don’t have a guest bed so we’ll have to share; it’s big enough for both of us.”  Sleeping in an actual bed after being outside for a while was one of his favorite things.  You don’t truly appreciate a nice bed unless you’ve been without it.
 
 They went to her bedroom, she changed into some pajamas and he stripped down to his long johns.  “Thanks for offering the bed, I would have been okay with the couch too.”
 
 “I…don't want to be alone tonight,” she put her arms around him and kissed him.  Nothing too sensual, but definitely more than just a peck.  Her lips felt weird, not bad, but definitely different.  “Thank you again,” she hugged him one more time.
 
 He wasn't quite sure how to interpret the kiss, but it had been a long, weird day and they were both tired, so they just crawled into bed and snuggled up next to each other.  She wrapped her tail up and over his midsection, he put his arm over her waist and held her hand.  They both fell asleep with no idea what the future would bring, but taking solace in a peaceful moment.
 
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 Chapter 3
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 John was the first to wake up.  If he had found himself on the ground, half frozen with a severe head injury that wouldn't have surprised him.  He was right where he remembered falling asleep last night though, spooning with a chubby, fluffy raccoon.  He tried to get out of bed without waking her, but was unsuccessful.
 
 She stretched, rolled over and looked at him, “I see you're still here.”  She had brown eyes.  He wondered if those were considered fairly plain here like where he was from, but they did go well with her mask.
 
 “Don't really have anywhere to go.  Besides you said you didn’t want to be alone.”
 
 She smiled, “Thanks for staying either way.  How about I make us some breakfast, unless you’d like to cook.”
 
 “Maybe I could cook another time.  I don’t know what things you have in your kitchen.”
 
 “I’ll make some coffee too.  Does a human like you drink coffee?”
 
 “Yeah, we have coffee where I'm from.  Would be nice to have some.”
 
 They both got up and went to the kitchen.  Megan got out a percolator and set it up to brew some coffee.  Next she put some bread in the toaster and got out a few eggs.  She scrambled the eggs, got out two plates, put half on each plate with two slices of toast and served them.
 
 “What kind of eggs are these?” John asked her.
 
 “Chicken eggs.”
 
 “Chicken-chicken or chicken-person?”
 
 “There’s no such thing as chicken people.”
 
 That was enough assurance for him and he began eating.  The food was how he expected it to be, which was interesting.  So much of this world was the same.  This place was Earth, just not his Earth.
 
 After eating they sat around and talked for several hours, getting to know each other.  She was an accountant, and the house had actually belonged to her until they were killed in a car wreck when she was in high school.  She didn't have any close family and only a few friends.  They also traded information about where each of them was from.  There were only anthro mammals, no birds, fish, etc.  As a result most cultures didn’t eat mammalian animals.  He told her of his world, and how it was just humans and they were all like him.
 
 They talked hobbies, interests, and discovered they had a fair bit in common.  She took him to a study that she had a stereo system set up in and they listened to some of her music.  After a while he noticed that the system had a 3.5mm aux port on it.  She had a cable for it and he was able to play some of his music for her from his phone.  Before they knew it; it was lunchtime.
 
 He offered to cook for her this time, and after a survey of her kitchen, which was surprisingly well stocked, he decided on making green beans, scalloped potatoes and chicken.  He wasn’t sure how the scalloped potatoes would turn out.  She didn’t have dairy products but did have almond milk and margarine.  They tasted a bit off to him but otherwise fine, though she seemed enthralled by it.
 
 “This is delicious.  Where did you learn to cook?”
 
 “I've just picked it up over the years.  It started out as learning to prepare fish and game I'd caught, but I then started learning how to cook other things too.”
 
 “I think you should definitely be the cook here.  The thought of coming home from work to a nice, prepared supper, that'd just be fantastic,” she finished the food fairly quickly, got up and put her plate in the sink, “you said you like the outdoors, so tomorrow after I'm done working I'm gonna' stop by the store.  I'll get you a harness and leash, then we could go out to the park or a hiking trail.”
 
 The smile immediately faded from his face and he just looked down at the floor.  He'd managed to push that fact to the back of his mind, but it was a hard truth.  Outside this house he'd have to play the role of a pet.  It wasn't something he was sure he could do, “why can't I just be me out there?”
 
 “I don't know what would happen to you if you did.”
 
 She was right, who knows what would happen to him, “I'm gonna' go see what's on TV,” he then got up and walked off to the living room.  He found the remote and turned on the TV and began going through channels.  He found this place's version of Family Guy, but seeing it just managed to make him even sadder so he kept going through channels until finding a local news program.
 
 After a couple minutes she came into the living room, sat down next to him and showed him a bag, “do you know what this is?”  He saw the dried plant matter in the bag and that put a smile back on his face.
 
 Once sufficiently baked, they both sat and watched the news, giggling at inane things in the program.  Afterwards they channel surfed some more, eventually settling on a stoner movie, as it seemed appropriate.  After the movie she ordered them some takeout, as they had been riding the magic dragon for a while and had a serious case of the munchies.  When the order arrived John just hid instead of bothering to try to play a pet while stoned.
 
 They sat down at the dining room table and began to eat.  “Do you believe in God?” Megan asked.  John just kind of paused for a second, the question seeming to be coming from left field.
 
 “I don't know, I'd have to say no, I don't personally believe, but at the same time I wouldn't say 'there is no God'.  Why?”
 
 “You were in the right place at the right time to save me.  This world isn't even your world.  What are the odds it was all happenstance?”
 
 Maybe it was God that sent him here.  Who else could have that kind of power, to move someone between dimensions, then know what they'd do that would put them in the spot they need to be in when something like a woman being chased by some crazed hick with a knife comes along.  If that was the case why hadn't he then been sent back, his work done.  He'd gotten her back to her car, back home, yet he was still here.  Maybe he had more work to do, but what?
 
 “I don't know, but I am glad I was able to make a difference.”
 
 After eating they went back to the study, this time she showed him her computer so he could search the internet.  She also had a microUSB cord, which let him connect his phone to the computer.  It wasn't able to interface as the computer didn't recognize it, but at least seemed to be able to charge it.  He might be able to write a program that would let his phone interface, but decided not to.  He'd have to learn whatever languages they used here to develop, and even then it would probably take a lot of manhours to kludge together something.
 
 After a while of browsing the internet it became time for bed.  They each took a shower, though John did feel weird about using only shampoo and not soap, then retired to bed.
 
 The next was fairly uneventful, at least for John, as he was stuck in the house and spent the day searching the internet for various paranormal phenomena in the hopes of finding something.  Megan had to work, and had to deal with a nosy husky coworker whose nose cued her into the new addition in Megan's home.
 
 “Megan!  You got yourself a human over the weekend.”
 
 “Hey Jen, yeah I did.”
 
 “What made you decide to finally get one?”
 
 “The house just felt too big being in it by myself,” she gave the first reason that popped into her mind.
 
 “So it didn't have anything to do with the fact you haven't any luck with the fellas?  I can't even remember the last time you were on a date, and you smell like you've been awfully close to him a lot.”
 
 “I haven't done anything with him.  I'm not some weirdo who would take advantage of my pet.”
 
 “So it is a him eh?  Just know that they can trained to do all sorts of things, and are some nice, simple fun during a dry spell.”
 
 Megan rolled her eyes and walked off to her office.  She tried to get her work done but kept being distracted by thoughts of John.  He wasn't like a normal human.  He had saved her from being murdered or who knows what else, and she had really enjoyed spending time with him yesterday.  She didn't really even see him as just a human, he had certain spark in his eye .  Was she falling for him?  She did feel like it was more than just infatuation from him saving her.  She'd kissed him the other night, which was something she never thought she'd do to a human.  He hadn't really reacted back then, but things had just gotten done being crazy.  Before she knew it, it was quitting time.
 
 She left work and went to the store to pick up the leash and harness she had said she'd get.  She also picked up a few sets of clothes for him, not the simple single color stuff humans wear but actual furry clothes.  Hopefully he wouldn't be too upset with them.
 
 When she got home she was greeted to a dinner of spaghetti.  He thought of it to be a bit plain without beef, but otherwise fine.  He asked her about her day and how things went at work.  She asked him about his as well.  He hadn't been able to find anything that seemed relevant to what happened to him online, but a lot of the paranormal sites seemed to be maintained by rather unhinged people.  After dinner she showed him the harness, which he agreed to find a fit for it at least.  She helped him get it fitted because the straps were where he couldn't easily reach.
 
 “Gah, I hate this, but if lets me keep up appearances and avoid being abducted by the Men in Black I'll do it.”  He was sure to take it off, as he didn't want to wear it unless he had to.  Afterwards they watched some TV for a few hours before going to bed.
 
 The next evening after dinner they were watching the evening news when a feature came on regarding the murder of that wolf John had killed.  They had found him that morning about a mile from his house, and on his property they found a partially hidden cellar that appeared to be some sort of dungeon, and evidence that he had kept and murdered several people before.  The more the report went on, the more upset Megan got.  John turned off the TV since it felt like the report was going to go on indefinitely.
 
 “I know it's upsetting, but he can't hurt you or anyone else now.”
 
 “That whole ordeal was so horrible, I just wish I could forget it completely.”
 
 “Smoking some green helps me when I'm feeling stressed.  Why don't you go get some and we'll do that.”
 
 She agreed and went and got some.  After they were fairly high she snuggled up against him, feeling a fair bit calmer.  “I'm glad I met you, even after everything, I've had a lot of fun being around you.”
 
 “I'm glad I met you too.  Everything's felt crazy for me the last few days, but you've made me want to keep on going.”
 
 She moved her hand over to his and intertwined their fingers.  She leaned in to kiss him, and was pleasantly met with him reciprocating.  They kissed for what felt like a long time, enjoying every second. Once their lips broke from each others, she nuzzled up against him, “I really like you.”
 
 “I noticed.”
 
 She giggled a little at that, “And I noticed that you like me too.”
 
 He nuzzled her back, giving her ear a love nibble, “Now what would make you think that?”
 
 She gave a nibble back, “Because you do.”
 
 He grinned slightly, “Yeah, I do.  You know what we should do, we should dance together, I can't remember the last time I did that.”
 
 “That sounds absolutely lovely.”
 
 At that they went to the study.  He moved furniture to give them an area to dance while she found some appropriate music for slow dancing.  Neither of them was that good at it, being so out of practice, but still they kept at it and before they knew it they'd be dancing for over an hour.
 
 “I don't think my feet can make much more, maybe it's time we go somewhere else, like to the bedroom,” she suggested seductively.
 
 “I don't know, I like to properly wine and dine and lady before taking her to bed,” he said while giving her a peck on her solid black nose.
 
 “You've already done more than enough of that,” she lead him by the hand and hey both went to the bedroom.  They took each others clothes off, until they were only in their underwear, holding each other.  Her fur was mostly gray with some brownish areas.  She was curvy in the right places, and seeing her in her underwear let him notice just how big her breasts were, and even through her bra they felt nice and soft pressed up against him.  His body was like that of a runner's, not too muscular but definitely fit.  His arms and head were also darker than the rest of his body, a testament to his time outdoors.
 
 “I never imagined I'd be doing this with a human, but I never thought I'd meet one like you.”
 
 John smiled, “I can't say I imagined it either.  It all feels surreal.”
 
 “Yeah it does.”
 
 “Your fur is soft.”
 
 “So is your skin.”
 
 They leaned into each other and began to kiss.  Their tongues became entangled together, savoring the taste of each other.  Her tongue was thinner and more limber, his thicker and more powerful.  While their tongues invaded each others mouth, he took the opportunity to unhook her bra, pulling it off and letting it drop to the floor.
 
 “What do you think of them?” she asked him teasingly.
 
 They were indeed quite voluptuous, and except for the areola and nipple were also covered in gray fur.  Her nipples were a dark gray.  His response to her question was to start sucking, nibbling and licking the right one while using his hand to play with the left one.
 
 She let out a low moan, “I'm glad you like them.  Suck on them harder.”  He switched to sucking on her other nipple, obliging her request by sucking on them as hard as he could.  She let out another moan and reached down, beginning to play with his nipples with her fingers.  He loved how they felt, her fur giving them an exotic quality all their own.  He stopped sucking on them though, grabbed her and pulled her onto the bed on top of him, causing her to let out a surprised yelp.
 
 With her on top of him, he went for near her neck, giving some playful bites.  She tried to respond in kind, but bit down, hard, and her canines broke his skin and drew blood.  “Goddammit,” he winced at the sudden surge of pain.
 
 “Oh God I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to.  Let me go get some bandages,” she got off top of him and went to the bathroom.  She came back with some alcohol wipes and a liquid bandage spray.  She cleaned the bite for him and sprayed on the bandage, “Sorry I kind of killed the mood.”
 
 “It's fine, I was always told to wait until the third date anyways,” he chuckled.
 
 “That's something I'd like for us to do, go out on a date.  I just wonder how we could go about it.”
 
 “I'm sure we can think of something.”
 
 She got back on the bed, straddling him then laying down on top of him, giving his nose a lick, “We did have that idea of going out to a hiking trail.  I just hope you having to pretend to be my pet doesn't ruin our fun.  Having a secret human boyfriend is gonna' be such a challenge.”
 
 “Calling me your boyfriend already?” he gave her a playful grin.
 
 “Yeah, boyfriend,” she gave him a quick kiss, “my boyfriend that I've gotten to know how great of a person he is over these past few days.  That I care about because of who he is, not just that he saved me.”
 
 He smiled at that answer.  That thought had been on his mind since she'd made a move on him earlier today.  He'd grown very fond of her these past few days too.  He couldn't really remember the last time he had been in a serious relationship, he hadn't really tried pursuing one, always happy to be by himself.    He didn't believe his feelings for her were due to his current circumstances, but that thought did worry him.
 
 They both laid in bed for a quite a while, talking and kissing until they were both feeling sleep coming on.  When they got ready to go to sleep, she told him she wanted to try being the big spoon.  He was okay with it, though he missed both having his arm wrapped around her and her tail wrapped around him.  They both fell asleep, very happy with having found someone.
 
 ----------------------------------
 Chapter 4
 ----------------------------------
 
 It was the next day, and at the coroner's office where the body of the wolf was being kept while an investigation was actively being worked on, a black car pulled into a parking spot near the entrance.  Inside the car sat two red foxes in black suits with ties.
 
 “This is where they brought him, and he was killed only several miles from the rift.  You got your badge?” the driver asked his passenger.
 
 “Yeah, Agent Smith, FBI,” he pulled his badge to look it over, “You're going by Mitchell right?”
 
 “Affirmative, according to the report he was killed by a single gunshot to the chest, so we need that bullet.  Hopefully they have it here as well.”
 
 “When we find it, how do we get them to let us take it?”
 
 “Tell them we need to take it to our facilities to run more tests on it, which technically is the truth.”
 
 “And if they don't let us?”
 
 “The shock pistols should put anyone we need to down long enough for us to take it and get back to extraction.  Just remember that's Plan B.”
 
 At that they got out of the car, straightened their suits and gloves, and walked on in.  In the lobby of the building they walked up to the secretary, a young weasel woman.  “Hello, I'm Agent Mitchell and this is Agent Smith, FBI.  We're here to investigate the homicide of Michael Quincy.”
 
 “Oh, I wasn't notified that the FBI would be coming.  Let me contact the coroner, tell him you're here,” she picked up the phone on her desk, “Yes, Mr. Hargrave, two men from the FBI are here, they're investigating the Quincy case.  No I don't know who called them in.  Okay I'll let them know,” she hung up the phone, “He said to come on back, but he didn't sound too happy.  Go down that hall, turn left and his office will be the third door on the right.”
 
 They went down to the hall and arrived at Mr. Hargrave's office.  Inside sat an old, rather gruff looking cat.  “Welcome, what can I do for you?  I wasn't told that the feds had been called in.”
 
 “With the odd circumstances surrounding Mr. Quincy's death, in addition to the evidence he had committed serial murders, naturally the town's police would contact us for our expertise in this matter.  In regards to what you can do for us, we'd first like to look over the body of Mr. Quincy.”
 
 “All right, follow me,” Hargrave got up and lead the two men down to the morgue.  Upon arriving they were greeted by the assistant, who while also a cat appeared to be some sort of lynx.  They walked over to the shelf that was housing the wolf and pulled him out.  He was naked, with a noticeable entrance wound around the middle of his torso.
 
 “As you can see the subject died from this single gunshot wound here.  The bullet punctured his liver and aorta, and deflected off his spinal column, shattered the vertebrae that it hit, damaging the spinal cord and causing paralysis before exiting out the back.  Death would have been pretty quick due to rapid blood loss from the severed aorta.  It appears when he was shot he fell forwards, trying to catch himself with his arms, if you'll notice these marks here.  When he was found some of his pockets were turned inside out as if they'd be searched, but we're not sure what was taken aside from possibly any cash he had in his wallet.  Due to the weather whoever searched his pockets was most likely wearing gloves, and we didn't find any fingerprints on his wallet aside from his own.”
 
 Damn, so the bullet had gone all the way through, “What about the bullet, was it able to be recovered?” Agent Smith asked.
 
 “Yes, actually.  The police swept the area with a metal detector and found it, no shell casing though.  Bullet's pretty big, seems to be 50 cal, quite possibly a magnum revolver since no casing was found, they have it down in forensics right now,” the coroner let out a sigh, “this is a damn mystery.  We found evidence of someone's campsite near his body, and there was a knife near him.  Whoever it was picked up their campsite before leaving.”
 
 “What about the evidence that points to serial murder, is that also in forensics?” Mitchell asked.
 
 “Yeah, some skulls were found set up on this...altar,” mentioning that caused the coroner to make a sound of disgust, “He had them in this underground dungeon setup.”
 
 Mitchell whispered to Smith, “I'm gonna' go retrieve the bullet, stay here and keep them occupied,” he then turned to the coroner and his assistant, “I'm going to go look over the evidence in forensics as well, Agent Smith needs to go over some more information with you,” and with that he left, following the signs to forensics.
 
 Smith hated being put on the spot like that, hopefully he wouldn't need to occupy them for long before Mitchell got the bullet and they could head out, “I take it no bodies were found, only those skulls?”
 
 “Correct, we're still searching the area though.  Even if he did bury them somewhere, that area is rather rural and the forest is covered in dead leaves that can hide disturbed earth.  We've got some of our finest officers sniffing through the forest for clues though.”
 
 “Have you made any identification of the victims yet?”
 
 “Negative, we're trying to match with dental records right now but so far no positives from the computer.  We also plan on extracting DNA from the teeth and hope to get a match that way as well.  That'll be harder though as we'll need relatives of missing people to submit their DNA for comparison.”
 
 Smith went back over to the wolf on the slab, looking him over some more.  He made it look like he was thoroughly looking over the corpse but was just really stalling for time to think of more questions to ask, “Do you have any photos of the exit wound?”
 
 “Yeah we do, let me get them pulled up on the computer,” the assistant offered.  All three of them walked over to the computer where the assistant opened up a folder that had a list of case files in it.  He opened the wolf's file and brought up some pictures of the exit wound.  The wound was quite large, as to be expected from a large, powerful bullet.  Smith then started to hear a hum in his right ear.
 
 “What's that noise?” he asked.
 
 “What noise?” neither the coroner nor his assistant heard anything.
 
 “It's like a hum, I think it's getting louder.”
 
 Both of them sat in silence, trying to listen for the sound Smith was claiming to hear.  After a few seconds the assistant spoke up, “yeah, I think I hear it too now, just barely.”
 
 “How can you only barely here it?”
 
 “I think, I think it's coming from you.”
 
 “What the hell would be...oh shit, you're gonna' wanna' cover your eyes,” Smith seemed to reach into the side of his face, and pulled out a small, box-shaped object.  He threw it into the corner, where it made a noticeable pop and a bright flash.
 
 “What in the-,” the assistant was interrupted as a blast of blue energy hit him in the side of the head and he collapsed, unconscious.  The coroner turned toward Agent Smith, catching a glimpse of him, and that he now looked like a human, and not a fox, before another shot from Smith's shock pistol hit him in the chest and knocked him out too.
 
 Smith quickly contacted Mitchell using his earpiece, “Do you have it?”
 
 “Not quite, I'm talking to the forensic scientist about taking it with us but he's apprehensive.”
 
 “We need to get going now, the power pack for my mask overloaded.”
 
 “You've got a spare right?”
 
 “Yeah, but I had to neutralize the coroner and his assistant because of it.  I think the coroner may have gotten a look at me.”
 
 “Understood, I'll meet you at the car, ETA 2 minutes.”
 
 “What were you talkin' to your partner abo-,” the forensic scientist, a Labrador, was unceremoniously knocked out by a shot from Mitchell's shock pistol.  Fortunately it was just the two of them in forensics, so he grabbed the container with the bullet and left.  They both ran into each other near the lobby and proceeded to the exit together.
 
 “You boys going already?” the secretary inquired with them.
 
 “Yeah, something came up,” Mitchell responded, not changing his pace.  They both quickly got out to the car, hopped in and started driving off.
 
 “Fuckin' hell, I thought engineering fixed that,” Smith was livid.  Things could have gone more sideways than they did because of that defective battery.
 
 “They did, maybe an old power pack somehow got missed.  We got the bullet, and we should be at extraction in about 8 minutes, which will be before they regain consciousness.”
 
 “This wouldn't have happened if they'd sent two anthros to this dimension for the assignment instead of us.  This bullet better not be a red herring.”
 
 “It's the closest thing we have to a clue that'll lead us to the source dimension of that rift.”
 
 “I don't get it, seems pretty small-time to dimension hop just to off one serial killer.”
 
 “Let the higher ups worry about determining motive, let's just get back.”
 
 They made it to the extraction point without any problems, which was a small one-car garage.  They pulled in, closed the garage door and in a flash both them and the car disappeared.
 
 ---------------------
 Chapter 5
 ---------------------
 
 Megan got home from work, and John hadn't made any dinner.  There also wasn't any sign of him when she first walked in.  “John,” she called out.
 
 “Yeah,” he answered her from the study.  She walked to the study and he was sitting at the computer, seemingly half lost in something.  She went up behind him, wrapped her arms around him and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
 
 “Whatcha doin?”
 
 “ Research, there was an incident at the local coroner’s today.  Two foxes posing as FBI went in asking about that wolf.  They incapacitated the coroner, his assistant and a forensic scientist and made off with the bullet that I shot him with.  Now according to the coroner, he claims that one of the men was actually a human, or at least looked like one right before knocking him out.  They're not taking that seriously, but I did some looking and found conspiracy theories related to the Men In Black.  Now where I come from the Men In Black supposedly cover up extraterrestrial events.  Here though they seem more involved, covering up other strange happenings as well, and they supposedly employ ‘hyper-intelligent humans.’  I can't seem to find anything more though, so much of it falls into paranoid ramblings, and have no idea why they'd take that bullet if it was them.”
 
 “Sorry that didn’t lead anywhere.”
 
 “I thought I’d found a lead to help me get home, but part of me is glad I didn't.  I feel so conflicted, I want to get back home, but I don't want to leave you.”
 
 “Maybe I could go with you.”
 
 “And just give up your job, your home, everyone you know?  In my world there's nothing, no one like you.  Here you have humans, they may not be able to talk but you have them.  We don't have anthro-anything in my world.  You said you don’t know what would happen to me if people knew I could talk here.  Well I don’t know what would happen to you if people even knew you exist,” he sighed, “I need to get out of this house.”
 
 “It's about an hour until dark, wanna go for a walk around the neighborhood?”
 
 “Yeah, that'd be nice, even if I have to wear the stupid harness.”
 
 They put on some jackets, he put on the harness, she latched it on and connected a leash.  She just had the leashed on her wrist, and they held hands as they headed down her driveway and began walking around the neighborhood.  They walked down the road a bit, and as they walked around a bend they met a lemur walking his human, a blonde hair blue eyed female.  Upon seeing John, the human tried to run up to him, but kept choking herself on her collar.
 
 “Haley, HALEY, DOWN, STAY,” the lemur was trying to keep control of her, but she was slowly dragging him toward Megan and John.  When she got close to John she began to sniff him all over.  John just stood upright and froze, trying to keep calm, “I'm sorry she just gets so excited whenever she sees another human.”
 
 “Oh it’s all right, she’s awfully cute, what race is she?”
 
 “Scandinavian, what about yours.”
 
 John had short brown hair and brown eyes.  “Aside from Caucasian I’m not sure what he is exactly,” she answered.
 
 “Well he is certainly well behaved.  If I led Haley around by the hand she’d probably pull my arm right out of its socket.  Come on Haley,” he pulled on her leash, and after a few seconds she gave up on sniffing John and went back to walking about in front of her owner.
 
 “I think she liked you,” Megan giggled.
 
 John didn't say anything, as he wasn't sure how good that lemur’s hearing was, he just shot her a look and they continued walking.  The rest of their walk was pretty uneventful, aside from the occasional human that was in a fenced yard outside and would come up to look at them.  John paid them no mind, preceding to ignore them.  Around dusk they made it back to her house.  Megan got John out of the harness and hung it up.
 
 “I'm starving,” she proclaimed.
 
 “We should have some leftovers in the frisge.”
 
 “I suppose that works, since someone forgot to cook dinner,” she playfully scolded him.
 
 “I know, I'm horrible.”
 
 “The important thing is that you know,” she pulled the container of leftover spaghetti, “lucky for you spaghetti is good even as leftovers.”
 
 After they ate leftovers for dinner, they went to the living room to relax and watch TV.  “You made a good pet, so calm and behaved,” she teased.
 
 “Well trained, house broken and eager to please,” at that he push her over onto the couch and got on top of her, “and I wouldn’t be a good pet if I didn’t do everything to please my owner.”
 
 “And what happened to waiting until the third date?”
 
 “Third date is all the way,” he rubbed her pussy slightly over her clothes, eliciting a joyful sigh from her, “and there’s so much we can do along the way.”
 
 “Mmm is that right, show me how good you are at pleasing your master then.”
 
 They traded a French kiss and he nibbled on her ear, “Master should order her pet to do what she wants.”
 
 She thought for a second, “You were all over my tits last night, play with them some more.”
 
 He began to massage her breasts through her clothes.  That wasn't quite what she’d had in mind though, “Suck them, bite them.” He pulled off her shirt, exposing her bare breasts to him, which he happily began to suckle on.
 
 “Good boy, you make my tits feel so good,” she reached down and undid her pants, working them off with her legs.  John reached down to play with her pussy, but she stopped, “now did Master say you could touch her down there?”
 
 “You’re such a tease.”
 
 She took his hand and put it on top of her panties, and he could feel how hot and wet she was through them, “like this, rub me here.” He began to rub along her slit through her panties, and she began to moan.  She let him play to his heart's content for a few minutes, then made him stop, “now Master wants you to use that skilled tongue of yours to eat her pussy and make her come.”
 
 He took his mouth off her breasts and moved down to her crotch, pulling off her panties.  Even down there she was covered in fur, but spreading her lips revealed the glistening pink treasure within.  He dug in, savoring the exotic flavor, which was quite unlike any other woman he’d been with.  She squealed in delight and wrapped her legs around him.  He let his tongue dance around, probing every spot of her nether regions, working up to her clit and giving it a light suckle.  He also began to play and probe at her entrance with a couple fingers.  “Did Master say, mmm, that you could use your fingers too?”
 
 “Want me to stop?”
 
 She let out a gasp before giving her answer, “no, don't stop, Master’s almost there.”
 
 After about another 30 seconds her moaning got even louder.  She pushed his head into her pussy as her whole body shook.  Once her orgasm subsided, she let go of his head.  “Told you I was eager to please,” he said bragging.
 
 “Oh yeah, and you we're such a good boy that you didn’t even ask me to play with you.  I think that deserves a reward, get on your back,” he got on his back on the couch, and she unzipped jeans and pulled out his turgid cock, “You we're hiding this big boy from me this whole time?  You must be really pent up.” She pulled back his foreskin and licked about the head, tasting the pre-cum that had been leaking out.  She ran her tongue up the entire length and started gently stroking him.  She then took his whole cock into her mouth, the shape of her mouth helping accommodate him.  Her tongue began twisting around his shaft.
 
 “I'm not gonna last much longer if you keep that up,” he groaned.
 
 She took her mouth off him and went back to just gently stroking, “Too much of a good thing?”
 
 “It doesn't have to be race.”
 
 “You forget, you're my pet, and if I want a race, I'll have a race,” she put him back into her mouth and began working her tongue magic again.  He was able to last another minute, which surprised him, before he erupted into her mouth.  She quickly lapped it all up, “Now Master says we should share each others flavor.”
 
 “Wait wha-,” she shoved her tongue into his mouth, swapping various fluids with each other.  Eventually she broke away from him, “That was fun.”
 
 “Yeah, you really got into being my master.”
 
 “I may have gotten a bit carried away, but you were so good at pleasing me, I can't remember the last time I came like that.”
 
 “And I've never felt anyone use their tongue like that before.”
 
 She put her shirt and underwear back on, he tucked himself back in, and they spent the rest of the evening snuggling together, watching TV and trying to decide what they might be able to do as a proper date.  Eventually they showered together and retired to bed.
 
 John found himself dreaming of sitting in a bar, watching comedian Tim Wilson.  Looking around he noticed he was the only one in the audience.  Tim took to the mic and addressed him directly, “I see you and that cute little raccoon have really hit it off.”
 
 “Yeah she’s pretty great.”
 
 “You know when I brought you here, I knew that you two would, and I'm rarely wrong on these things.”
 
 “When you WHAT!?” John was dumbstruck.  Did Tim Wilson really just say he was the reason he was stuck in this dimension, and that it was because he was playing cupid?
 
 “You were both going through life alone, stuck in your own ruts.  You’d go off into the woods at any opportunity if it meant avoiding people, and she had the same weekly routine, which might I add was about to come to a horrible end.  I saw this, called an audible, played the odds, and watched as everything fell into place.”
 
 “Called an audible?  You did…I don’t know what you did.”
 
 “Transdimensional relocation.  It’s a simple procedure, well simple for me.  Your kind it takes a team of scientists and a bank of supercomputers to pull it off.”
 
 “So what are you then?”
 
 “Don't worry about that.”
 
 “But why would you do something like play matchmaker for two people across worlds.”
 
 “My good deed for the day.”
 
 “Your good deed?  Whatever, why should I believe any of this?”
 
 “That's your prerogative,” he checked his watched, “Oh, one more thing.  Don't trust anyone in a black suit.”
 
 “Why not?”
 
 “Time's up.”
 
 With that Megan's alarm went off, waking him up.