Defending the Sasquatch

I rolled onto my right side and snuggled into Jasmine's back with a contented sigh, the first rays of morning sun not yet lighting the cabin's windows. Tucked far back into my sixty acres of woodland, early mornings were a dark and peaceful time. Breathing deeply, I inhaled her scent, enjoying the faint floral smell of some unnamable flower. Today was Saturday and I didn't have to get up. Except I was already up. I smiled with my private joke as I pressed my hard cock against Jasmine's shapely ass, a thrill of pleasure washing over me as I did.

The six years since Jasmine first fucked my brains out on the forest floor had been the happiest of my life. I no longer chased women, no longer prowled night clubs, and I no longer modeled or competed. I missed none of that. I was at peace and content in ways I'd never been before, and it was all because of her.

I'd allowed my hair to grow. The dark hair on my head was only slightly longer than I'd worn it before Jasmine, but it was the rest of my body that displayed the most change. When I modeled and competed as a natural body builder, I kept my body hairless to better show off the cut of my physique, but Jasmine seemed to prefer the hairier me, so I'd stopped the practice.

If I was truthful with myself, large part of the reason I kept myself in shape before was to pull chicks. Prior to Jasmine, I often modeled for romance novel covers. Depending on the state of undress for the shoot, and the women I modeled with, after the shoot was over we'd sometimes go somewhere private and act out what the covers only suggested. Looking good for the camera, judges, or other women was no longer a concern of mine. Now there was only one person whose approval I craved, and she liked me as I was, not as I had been.

I still worked out hard, needing to stay in shape to have any hope of satisfying her sexual needs when she was in heat, but over the last couple of years, since she'd moved in with me, I'd lost my hard edge. Jasmine had done the same. When we'd first met she was the iron maiden, but in the last couple of years she'd softened with the change in her in diet. She was still amazingly fit, more so than probably ninety-five percent of women in the world, of human women I amended to myself, but now with her thin layer of fat, she'd softened slightly, and was more beautiful than ever.

I inhaled deeply again, my eyes closed as sleep tried to tug me back into its darkened embrace. She was between her heats, and that allowed us to make slow, tender love. Not that I didn't enjoy our loud, almost violent, animalistic fucking when she was in heat, but I enjoyed our tender moments even more. I wanted for nothing from her sexually. Ten weeks of out twelve she was the soft, loving seductress, but every twelve weeks or so she came into heat, and then for two weeks she was the insatiable, hard-fucking bitch. No woman could compete with her, either side of her, and I loved her more than life itself.

My thumb slowly caressed the nipple of her left breast. If she woke before I fell back to sleep we could make love and then sleep again. If not, we had all day to enjoy each other. I was almost asleep, still slowly, gently, caressing her nipple as I cupped her breast, when she bolted upright, her sudden movement startling me.

"What?" I cried into the quiet of the room, my heart instantly pounding in my chest.

Jasmine had far better senses than I did, able to see, hear, and smell things I couldn't, and my first thought was an intruder had arrived at our small cabin.

Because of who she was, Jasmine had to remain hidden. I'd taken every precaution I could to keep her safe from humanity, afraid of what would happen to her, and the rest of her people, if she were discovered. The alarm across the drive hadn't signaled the passing of a vehicle, but I couldn't protect the entire property, and if someone were arriving on foot...

"What is it?" I asked as I pulled my pistol from the nightstand. I'd purchased the Glock 9mm when she moved into the cabin with me. If anyone saw her, and realized who she was, they were the walking dead.

"My clan here," she said.

Jasmine hadn't seen her clan since we bonded two years ago. "Here? How do you know?"

"I hear clan call," she said as she rolled out of bed.

There were a lot of things about Jasmine I didn't understand, and some of her abilities were, for all I could tell, magical. "You hear them? As in... hear?" I asked as I touched my ear.

She nodded. "Yes. They near."

She left the bedroom and moved through the kitchen to the rear door and stepped out. She never wore clothing and I'd have it no other way. I quickly jerked on pants, threw on a shirt, and stuffed my feet into shoes before I followed. I wasn't as equipped to deal with the wilderness without protection as she was.

By the time I reached the door she was gone. I huffed out a sigh. Nothing unusual there. I could be walking beside her through the forest, and with a burst of speed, she could disappear in less than five seconds. It was one of her favorite games. She'd melt into the forest like a ghost, only to unexpectedly reappear later to scare the shit out of me. She would chuff out her laugh as I tried to restart my heart, then we would often wrestle, chase, and play. I had no hope of catching and subduing her until she allowed me too, but I was well rewarded for trying.

"Jasmine?" I called.

I received no answer. I shivered with the coolness of the morning as I tucked and fastened. I didn't consider searching for her. My sixty acres adjoined the four million acres of the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, and I had as much chance of finding her as I did of finding the lost city of El Dorado. I knew she'd return when she was ready.

I stepped back into the kitchen and closed the door. My cabin was small, only about twelve hundred square feet, but it was our home. Finished in honey colored wood, the large central room of the log cabin served as a living area and kitchen, with a single bedroom and bath to one side. I stood, staring at nothing as I tried to decide what to do, the clock on the microwave flicking to 4:37 as I watched.

I was munching on fresh blueberries and a granola bar for breakfast when Jasmine entered. Her face was troubled.

"What's wrong?"

"My... how do you say... my old-mother killing. She asking for me."

Jasmine's people didn't measure time in the same way humans did. They had no concept of weeks, months, or years. Everything was measured in days, and her people were either an infant, child, adult, or old.

"Your mother?"

She shook her head. "No. My mother mother."

"Grandmother," I suggested.

Jasmine nodded. "My grandmother. She killing."

Her ability to speak English was far better than my ability to speak her language. Though I could understand many of Jasmine's words, I could speak very few. I simply didn't have the vocal cords for it. Her language was simple compared English, and once she settled on a word, she either didn't understand the subtle differences in meaning, or didn't care. Kill was the word she used to refer to anything that lost its life. I'd long since adjusted to her way of speaking and could easily divine her meaning in most situations.

"I'm sorry. Are you going to go?"

"Yes."

I nodded slowly. "Are you sure it's safe?" I clearly saw her disapproval at the implication her people would harm her. "I had to ask," I continued. "Do you want me to come with you?"

There was a long moment before she answered. "Bonded makes her your old-mother too. It wrong for you not come, but..."

"But what?"

"But clan afraid of you. Of humans."

"Will they hurt me?"

Jasmine's people were hugely strong, much larger and stronger than I was, and there was no doubt they could easily kill me if they wanted to. Jasmine, who was considerably smaller than normal for her people, was only fractionally shorter than my six foot two, and yet she was easily fifty percent stronger. Jasmine's mother, who I had the misfortune of meeting once, was nearly a foot taller than I was, and had thrown me across my camp as easily as I would throw a doll. She'd have killed me had Jasmine not intervened on my behalf.

She continued to hold my gaze. "No," she finally said.

"Then I'll go... out of respect."

"Respect?" she asked, not understanding the new world.

I nodded. "Respect. It means to honor my old-mother."

She smiled. "Yes. Come. Old-mother ask for me, she ask for you too."

I bit my bottom lip. I had no clue where Jasmine's clan was located. Jasmine's people, Clan of the Waters, were world champion hide and seek players. "How do I...?"

She thought a moment. "Heath use car. Meet where we mated first time. I take you from there."

"How far? From where we first mated, I mean?"

She considered again. "Short-day for me. One day for you."

Short-day could mean anything from an hour or two, to half a day. Considering how fast she could move if I wasn't slowing her down, she probably meant a couple of hours on foot for her, but it would be a grueling hike for me.

"Will you ride in my..."

I was still speaking when she began shaking her head. She'd ridden in my Explorer only once, at night, when people couldn't see her clearly in the darkened car. I'd wanted to show her a bit of my world, but as soon as I turned off my long gravel drive and began to accelerate to highway speeds, she'd panicked from the speed. I'd immediately slowed, but nothing I said could reassure her, so we'd returned home, and she'd never set foot in the Ford again.

"No. Meet at mating place."

"When?"

"I go now."

I nodded. "Go. I'll meet you there."

"Jasmine loves Heath," she said, kissing me quickly before opening the door and stepping outside.

Hearing her expression of love never failed to make me smile. "Heath loves Jasmine," I said as the door closed behind her.

She could a travel a direct path overland, but I had to go around. It was almost a ninety-minute drive for me to return to the campsite where I first met Jasmine because I had to backtrack nearly to Seattle. Still, I was in a car and she was on foot, so I had some time.

I quickly showered. I didn't know if it would improve my appearance to Jasmine's clan, but it couldn't hurt. Next, I called my office and left a message with my supervisor, one of the partners, that my grandmother had suddenly taken ill, she wasn't expected to last long, and the family was gathering. Nobody knew about Jasmine, but the message I left was vague enough to not raise questions. Since meeting Jasmine I'd risen from a lead auditor, heading a small team that traveled to businesses to audit their financials, to a senior auditor, supervising five auditing teams. I rarely traveled now, so taking a week or so off wouldn't be an issue.

As I prepared to leave, I decided there was one more thing I wanted to do. Digging in a closet, I found my old backpack. I transferred berries and other fruit, along with Jasmine's stash of boiled eggs, to airtight plastic bags, and filled the pack to near overflowing. I then stuffed granola bars in every available crevasse until the pack would barely zip closed. I couldn't tolerate the diet Jasmine could survive on, and this would provide additional sustenance for me should I need it. Finally, I stuck six bottles of water into the external pockets so I'd have clean water to drink. I'd learned the hard way I couldn't always drink the same water Jasmine could, at least not without paying for it later. I also considered packing the pistol, for my protection, in case Jasmine was wrong about her people, but I decided to trust her and left the Glock in the nightstand.

Tossing the pack onto the passenger seat, I threw myself under the wheel of my SUV and backed out of the garage. As I drove, the jitters began. Jasmine was a sasquatch. I'd only met two sasquatches, Jasmine and her mother, and one of the two had tried to kill me. Jasmine had repeatedly assured me her people weren't violent, at least when a mother doesn't walk in on a human fucking her daughter, but I was still anxious. I shoved my concern down. I was doing this for Jasmine, and for her I'd face Lucifer himself... though he may be less dangerous than Jasmine's mother if I pissed her off again.

I wondered how her clan would react to me being brought into their midst. Jasmine, and her people, were rightfully wary of humans and our violent ways, but it was their own fault that Jasmine had chosen me over one of their own. They had driven her out of their clan through benign neglect.

It was an assumption on my part, but I suspected she had a genetic disorder that caused her to be smaller, paler, and nearly hairless. Having easily visible dark hair only on her head, as humans did, allowed her to pass for human at a distance, but up close she was clearly not what most would consider 'human.'

I didn't care. She was intelligent, beautiful, and loving. After meeting her, I'd read everything I could find about apes and prehistory peoples. My best guess was her people took a different evolutionary path sometime in the far distant past. They were much closer in appearance to modern humans than apes were, but there were still noticeable, if subtle, differences between her people and mine. The most obvious difference was that her oversized eyes made her resemble a doll. She was also much taller and far more muscular than most women. Compared to her mother, her body was hairless, but looking closely revealed she had an almost imperceptible covering of fine hair. Beyond that, the differences in her features were easy to see but difficult to explain. It was almost like and artist had sculpted a beautiful woman, but had gotten her proportions slightly off. She was incredibly beautiful, but also slightly alien.

We hadn't had any kids, and probably never would. I knew that disappointed her, but there was little we could do. It wasn't like we could go to a fertility clinic for help. It probably had something to do with her body temperature. Jasmine's normal body temperature was around 105°, but when she was in heat and fertile, it was up near 107°. With my normal body temperature of around 99°, I suspected my seed couldn't survive long enough to impregnate her, or if they did, just like apes and humans couldn't produce offspring, Jasmine and I couldn't. Or hadn't yet. We were still trying, and I'd be thrilled to father a child, but all I could do was keep trying while silently urging all my little guys to man up and do their job.

Despite our differences, we loved each other. I'd accepted her as she was, and she'd accepted that I wasn't as big, strong, and didn't possess the forest skills of her people.

I turned off the highway and began making my way down ever worse roads to the campsite where she'd first presented herself to me as I was whacking off to relieve my horniness and boredom. I gritted my teeth as my Explorer heaved, plunged, and slid its way down the dirt track. My SUV was far better suited to prowling through a parking lot than fighting its way down a muddy, slippery, road.

After traveling what felt like hundreds of miles down rough, muddy goat paths, I slowed to a stop, staring through the windshield as the wipers occasionally swept away the misting rain. At the edge of my headlights I could just make out a blue Toyota FJ sitting at an unofficial campsite. It was the same kind and color of truck that Michaela Pell owned, and the last thing I wanted was entanglements from an old girlfriend. She and I had only been fuckbuddies, but seeing her would likely lead to questions I didn't want to answer.

The rising sun was still heavily dappled by the trees, but it provided just enough illumination for me to see as I slowly backed away, hoping the headlamps of my Ford hadn't woken the darkened camp and caused me to be seen. Looking over my shoulder, I slowly backed for several long moments before finding a slightly wider place in the road to turn around. I had a moment of panic when I thought the Explorer was going to get stuck, but engine racing and wheels spinning, the vehicle finally clawed its way back onto the track.

I drove back the way I came until I found another road that angled off in more or less the direction I thought I wanted to go. I turned onto the new road, such as it was, and followed it deeper into the forest as the tall grass whispered underneath while tree branches and bushes dragged along the sides of my Ford. The farther I drove the fainter the track became until it eventually disappeared entirely. There was no camp site here, official or otherwise, and a large evergreen was squatting where the road would be. With no way around the tree, this was the end of the line. I was at least several miles from where I was supposed to be. Not knowing what else to do, I stepped out of the Ford, placed my hands against my lips like a megaphone, and yelled as loudly as I could.

"Jasmine!" I turned in the opposite direction and called again.

I waited, but I heard no return call over the soft patter of the rain. With no reason to stand in the rain, I returned to the dry comfort of the Ford. After ten minutes I again stepped into the rain.

"Jasmine!" I yelled, but as before, there was no answering call.

My face contorting in thought, I returned to the Ford. I knew Jasmine was fast, damned fast, but I didn't have a good idea of how long it would take her to cover the distance from our house to my location. I wasn't where she expected me, and I hoped she could find me. According to the navigation screen in the Ford, she only had to travel about one-third the distance I had, but she was on foot and traveling over rough terrain.

I waited twenty minutes more before I tried again. "Jasmine!" She stepped from behind a tree to my right, her sudden appearance startling me. I hadn't seen her approach even though the tree she was hiding behind was directly in front of the Explorer. "Shit!" I barked before I realize it was her. "You startled me!"

"I here," she panted.

I'd never seen her panting before, at least not unless we were fucking, but she was panting now, and I wondered how long she'd waited behind the tree to verify it was me. I checked my watch. She'd covered the distance in just over two and half hours. Being an old hand at crunching numbers, I did the math in my head. Jasmine had traveled the thirty-some miles from our home to here at an average speed of around twelve miles per hour. She was nearly as fast in a marathon over broken terrain as the fastest humans were on a track in a sprint. I realized then that it was a good thing Jasmine, and her people, weren't aggressive. Faster, stronger, and better able to survive off the land, if they'd wanted to be, they could be a serious threat to humanity.

"Do you need to rest?" I asked.

She shook her head. "We go."

I opened the passenger door, retrieved my pack, and locked the Explorer, leaving my cell inside. I wouldn't need it where we were going, and I had no service anyway. She took the pack from me and I handed it over without protest. I was going to slow her down enough already and I saw no reason to make it worse because of pride.

The next twelve hours were the worst of my life. I trotted when I could, trying to make time, but I had nowhere near the stamina she did, and worse, she was little affected by the terrain, while I had to slow down when the going got tough. To her credit she didn't complain, or act like I was a bother, and I did my best to keep my pace up as much as possible.

It was late afternoon, and I was almost ready to drop, when she finally stopped. She wasn't even breathing hard, but was I bent with my hands on my knees as I gasped for breath. I was totally out of gas, even though we'd walked far more than we'd run, if you could call my slow trot a run.