Full Moon Strays Ch. 01

Jane nodded, almost afraid to meet his gaze.

"It's okay to look up," he almost guffawed. "No one is going to hurt you."

Jane raised her head. Everyone was smiling, except the lady in red. She looked none too pleased. "Why am I here?" she asked. "I you don't mind me asking . . . sir," she added.

Laughter filled the room. "She said 'sir'!" the big man said. "Oh, that's precious! No one has called me 'sir' in . . . ever!" He wiped his eyes. "Young lady, we don't exactly stand on formality down here. Anyway, you are here because you apparently performed a great service to us, even if you didn't realize it at the time."

"What?" she asked.

"You helped rescue Robbie, one of our own. He had been assaulted by some . . . nemeses of ours, and you distracted them. It gave our rescue party time to get there."

"Assaulted? You mean that dog in the alley?"

A young man sitting at the table with his arm in a sling spit his beverage out his nose while everyone else began to chuckle again. "Dog?!?" he said at last.

"I'm sorry," Jane apologized. "Cat? Gorilla?" Her mouth was still moving but her brain was on a twenty-second delay.

The entire crowd lost all control and began to laugh uproariously. Everyone laughed except for the red-haired beauty, who was noticeably clenching her fists.

"QUIET!" the woman shouted, and the laughter stopped. She paused and glared at the man with the broken arm and then she glared at the large man standing next to her.

"Oh . . . kay," he grumbled. "Looks like Red is getting testy, so we'd better move along." He stared at Jane. "That wasn't a 'dog,' as you put it. Young lady . . . do you believe in magic?"

There had been a lot of questions that she had anticipated, but that wasn't one of them. "No sir."

"Please don't call me 'sir.' My name is Tarloh. And if you don't believe in magic, you will soon. Do you believe in a Supreme Being?" He watched as Jane nodded. "So you can accept that there are powers in the world that you do not understand, that you can't see but believe are still there?" Jane nodded again. "Good." He sighed. "Jane, for the time being, I need you to accept some things on faith. A lot of people believe there is life out there in the universe, but rather than thinking 'outwards,' I need you to think sideways. Have you ever heard of the idea of 'multiple dimensions?'" Another nod. "Excellent. Well, I need you to entertain the idea that these other dimensions are real. And just like the X-Files has told us, there are visitors from these other dimensions among us. This place," he said, waving his finger at the surrounding area, "was buried in an earthquake. An earthquake happens when the plates in the earth's surface shift. Well, the walls between dimensions are not completely solid, and sometimes the plates shift. This causes cracks to form, and things slip through, including life-forms and magical energy, and. . . . . and you don't believe a word of this, do you?"

Jane was just staring at the man, who she now realized was a crazy person. 'Magic? Alternate dimensions? I was born in the dark, but not last night,' she thought.

"We're wasting our time," the red-haired girl said. "She's clueless."

"Red, please keep your tongue in check. We've given her nothing but a hypothetical situation, and a fairly far-out one at that."

Red rolled her eyes.

"Maybe a demonstration might aid in your understanding," Tarloh said. Suddenly, Tarloh's already hairy body seemed to grow even more . . . fur. His brow became furrowed, his nose lengthened and his hand grew some fairly pointy claws. And then he roared. In that moment, he more closely resembled a bear than a man. Then, he changed back. "So, have your beliefs changed in the last few minutes?" he asked.

Jane sat there, her mouth agape. Somewhere in the background, a cricket chirped. Then it chirped again.

"There are a lot of things in this world that are hard to understand or believe in, but maybe . . . just maybe . . . some of the things that go bump in the night are real. Do you know what a lycanthrope is?"

Jane continued to stare, and crickets continued to chirp.

"Oh for the love of . . ." Red started. She glared at the newcomer. "You might use the word 'werewolf,' though that's a bit of a misnomer. Wrap your brain around that and try and keep up."

Tarloh shook his head, noticing that Jane blanched under the heat of Red's gaze. The girl was confused, terrified, and now she was being attacked. He knew what Red's problem was and that she wasn't actually mad at Jane, but Jane just made too convenient of a target. "Jane, over the history of the world, cracks between dimensions have come and gone. And it seems that there is a certain symmetry, as in there seems to be an alternate 'Earth' in every other dimension. One of those other worlds is called Terra, and it is the dimension that seems to be the closest to this one. A lot of your classic fairy-tale monsters seem to come from Terra. That includes vampires . . ."

Jane gasped.

" . . . trolls . . . "

Jane gasped again.

" . . . and lycanthropes. Over the years, creatures from both worlds have slipped through the cracks, and those cracks closed behind them. Sometimes multiple cracks converge, and the converging point doesn't heal. That point becomes a source of magic in this world. Some people from this world can learn to manipulate this magic. Other people . . . well, exposure to convergence points helps expose certain innate abilities. These abilities can be very powerful and are highly specialized. We call them Talents. Well, when Arthur was using his healing magic on you, he discovered within you the potential for a Talent to manifest itself. So while we had initially been planning on just making you better and getting you back on your feet, we found that you might, if you choose, be a possible ally for us."

"Ally? I can't do anything!" Jane said.

"That I believe," Red muttered.

"Red, can it!" the big man said irritably. In response, Red stood up and stormed off, with the one known as Robbie in hot pursuit. Tarloh put his head in hand and paused. "I'm sorry. She's . . . stressed. Listen Jane, I know this is a lot to handle, and you probably still don't believe it all yet. It will probably still take you several days to heal, even with Arthur's help. If you have any questions, just ask."

As the meeting broke up, Jane was left in Talia's care. Talia was more than a bit concerned that her young charge wouldn't speak for quite a while. Talia wheeled Jane over to an area where she could see the entire goings on.

Finally, a thin whisper drifted up from the wheelchair. "Are you all monsters?"

Talia leaned forward, trying to catch Jane's eye, but Jane just stared forward. "That would depend on how you defined monster. But no, not everyone is a lycanthrope. About ten of us are."

"You come from another dimension?"

"No. I'm second generation. First generation lycanthropes . . . the ones from Terra . . . they morph into something which is kind of wolf-like but not really. You may have heard that vampires and werewolves create more of their kind by biting them. That isn't true for vampires, but it can be true for werewolves, though the sire has to will the transformation as well as bite the victim. Lycanthropes created in this world tend to take on alternate forms of native species. That 'dog' you helped rescue . . . Robbie . . . well, that was a werewolf. Tarloh is a werebear. Michael, Mindy and Matthew are all actually Terran. They were out hunting one night and fell through a dimensional portal about twenty years ago. They age more slowly than humans, which is the reason they still look young. All lycanthropes get that bonus. Hell, I'm actually thirty-two," Talia said with a laugh, but her merriment wasn't returned. "Red is werecat of the puma variety. How she and Robbie got bit by the same sire but wound up so different is kind of a mystery. But Red is actually thirty-five, and she looks like a twenty-year-old." Talia placed a hand on Jane's knee, but the girl almost jumped out of her chair, shivering all the while. So Talia pulled her hand away. She knew something else was going on with the girl. "Red and Robbie are ACTUAL siblings by the way. I know she seemed mean, but she cares deeply about the pack and everyone in it."

"The pack?"

"Yeah, the pack. We actually call ourselves the Strays. Lycanthropes are pack creatures, and continued to keep that trait even as they evolved. Even the ones that wind up in this world tend to seek out social groups to belong to. It was actually lycanthropes that formed THIS little commune. They brought in others to help out. Like Arthur . . . who happens to be a skilled practitioner of healing magic. He used to be a doctor who succumbed to his own painkillers. We have some hedge-wizards, druids, and a bunch of people with Talents. We've got one guy . . . Patrick . . . who can fly, whereas Anya can turn invisible."

"And . . . Arthur . . . thinks I have a Talent? I can't . . ." Jane stopped. She had planned on saying how she couldn't do anything again, but her mind shot back to Red's response from earlier.

"Arthur is rarely wrong. And you generally can't manifest your talent until you've been exposed to a powerful magic source. But no one is going to force you to do that. It will be your decision."

"Talia," Jane started after a pause, "why does Red hate me?"

Talia sighed. "She doesn't hate you. She . . . she's had a lot on her mind. She was up in Los Angeles trying to get information on a tribe of hellspawn that have been causing us some problems as of late . . . those are the things you saw in the alley . . . when Robbie decided to go find them on his own. She feels very responsible for him, and he tends to do things that are rather rash. And she's also mostly responsible for making sure that everyone is clothed, fed and relatively happy, and she wasn't expecting to have another mouth to feed."

Jane blushed and felt herself on the verge of tears again. "I'll get out of here as soon as I can," she said. "I don't want to be a burden. I won't tell anyone . . ."

"No one would believe you anyway," Talia interrupted. "And don't go planning on leaving just yet. Give Red a chance to cool down. She's my best friend, and she isn't normally like that." Talia scooted around until Jane had no choice but to look at her. "Listen. We are a strange group. We steal most of what we need to survive, but we also roam the streets and try to keep them safe. There are some genuinely evil beings out there, and we fight them to the best of our ability. We don't have much, but we tend to have what we need, and you'll never find a tighter group. And you are a young woman who risked her own life to help what she thought was a dog. That means something down here. It means you have a lot of compassion and a lot of courage."

Jane's eyes became very clear. "Or maybe there's nothing in my life that needs to be saved," she muttered bitterly. "I'm sorry, but I'm tired."

Talia stared at her for a moment. "Did you want someone to sleep with tonight? It's pretty common to find a bedmate just to keep warm and . . ." Talia stopped. Jane had gone deathly pale and began trembling when Talia had mentioned sleeping with someone. "Or maybe it's a bit too soon to think about that. We'll get you a bunk in the old lost and found office . . . no one else sleeps in there usually. It'll give you some time alone to think, and it's near the first-aid area and Arthur." Talia wheeled Jane into a small, private room with a cot set up, then brought her plenty of blankets before helping her out of the wheelchair. Jane didn't say a word the entire time.

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A little while later . . .

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"How is she?" Tarloh asked as Talia clambered into his bed aboard one of the abandoned rail-cars in the tunnel. The two were good friends and often lovers, and Tarloh had sent word that he would like her company that night. When the alpha-male called, it was hard to resist.

"She's terrified," Talia said, peeling off her clothes before huddling against his massive frame. "I don't know how much she's been able to accept. And there's more," Talia added. "I think she's been abused, and pretty badly. She's scared of human contact, and the idea of finding a bunkmate almost sent her into a coma. I used to see cases like hers all the time."

Tarloh took the black beauty's word on that. Talia had been a crisis counselor at a women's center, once upon a time. The center had closed, but Talia had been unwilling to leave the area. That is what had attracted the Strays to her . . . and it was why Tarloh himself had sired her.

Talia grimaced. "I'll talk to Red tomorrow to see if she'll cut Jane a break. With Red's state of mind and Jane's sensitivity, there could be some pretty unpleasant consequences."

"I'll talk to her too," Tarloh said. "We had a rough time in L.A., but she shouldn't take it out on an innocent."

"Speaking of innocent," she said softly, nipping on his ear, "I've missed you."

Tarloh slid a massive hand down the woman's lean body, grabbing her ass and pulling her on top of him. Talia felt his massive rod slowly stiffening and pressing against her belly. "I missed you too," Tarloh said. While strict monogamy was rare amongst the Strays, it wasn't unusual for people to have favorites, and Talia was generally Tarloh's first choice.

Talia locked her lips onto the big man's and shifted her weight to the side so she could wrap one hand around that mammoth shaft. Tarloh was the alpha-male for a number of reasons, and sexual capacity was one of them. She stroked his cock to its full eleven inches, feeling it stretch and expand in her hand until her thumb and index-finger could no longer touch. The veins of that mighty tool pressed against her palm, and its heat began to affect Talia's entire body.

"You really DID miss me, didn't you?" she whispered raggedly. "I guess that means you've got a present for me?" she added, briefly fondling his hairy, heavy balls. She knew that going on a mission with Red meant that he hadn't gotten any play, so he probably had a lot of pressure built up in those babies.

"Keep that up and you'll be getting your present a little early," he groaned. 'How a warrior's hands can be that soft I'll never know,' he thought as her tender grip made him rock-hard.

"We can't have that," she said, letting go of his dick. She grabbed his hand and put it between her own thighs, letting those strong fingers explore her moistening sex. Then she pressed her thighs against his hand, pinning it to his leg. "I can give presents all night long."

"I'm very aware of that," the big man grumbled. "I'll bet YOU didn't wait until I got back," he said with a grin. Talia was a very sexual being, and there were no delusions that she was one hundred percent faithful to him. "How many of the other boys did you fuck?" he added, stretching her cunt and rubbing his palm against her clit. "Tell me!"

Talia was grinding against his hand, working towards what she hoped was the first of many orgasms. "Three," she grunted, then added with a wicked smiled, "I mean, two one night and one the next. But they were just pups. I want the big dog now."

Tarloh smiled and kissed her. "The big bear, if you want to get technical." He knew Talia liked to make the younger and shyer boys feel more "at home." Usually such shyness didn't really last very long in the sexually promiscuous Strays. "I hope you didn't hurt them."

"I fucked 'em raw!" she said, her breath becoming more labored. She was humping her lover's hand madly. "They were whimpering for mercy while I rode them all . . . all night," she gasped as her pussy clenched his fingers and she came onto his hand. "But the three of them weren't half the man you are," she said lying directly on his broad chest.

"And don't you forget it," he growled. "Now . . ." He grabbed her head and pushed it down towards his crotch. He grinned slyly, arching a heavy brow towards his thick cock, telling her without words how much he wanted her talented mouth to please him.

She looked up at him through those beautiful amber eyes . . . eyes filled with sexual hunger. She kissed the large, mushroom-like head, stroking the shaft with one hand while cradling his balls with the other. She placed the flat of her tongue against the shaft at its base, then gave a long slow lick all the way up to its tip. She could feel every bump and vein, and he felt every little bit of texture of her tongue as it caressed the underside of his meat. Then she gave two more long licks before finally taking the bulbous head into her humid mouth. His cock bumped against her palate, making her growl with delight. She blew a puff of air down the shaft, then sucked as hard as she could on the tip. She could feel him throbbing with excitement and each pulsation made her pussy clench greedily.

For Tarloh, there were very few sites as enticing as Talia's supermodel ebony face attempting to devour his ivory staff. Her lips were stretched in an "O" shape around the area just below the head while she applied tremendously delicious suction. Then, she let another inch or two penetrate her mouth, engulfing his flesh in her warm gullet. She kept both hands on the shaft until her mouth had descended about six inches, when one hand returned to fondling his testicles.

She pulled off his staff for a moment, though she kept her hand moving rhythmically. Her eyes locked on his as she enjoyed every texture, every taste of Tarloh's gorgeous cock. Teasingly, she flicked her tongue over its tip, collecting his pre-cum before consuming him like no other could.

"Christmas is cumming early this year," he groaned, grabbing her head and holding it in place as he came into her throat. She choked on it for a moment, letting it spill out through her lips and drip onto her hand. She swallowed some, but more and more pumped through that shaft and filled her mouth to capacity. Some more leaked, but she got the majority of it down. "Keep it in your mouth," he groaned. It was less of an order and more of a request. No one ordered anyone to do anything they didn't want in the Strays. He just wanted to get hard again so he could satisfy this woman like she deserved.

Talia did let it loose long enough to lick his sticky stuff off her hand, smiling at him the whole time. His cock was beginning to soften though, and she just couldn't have that. She took that sensitive tool back between her lips and just held it there for a moment. Her sucking was more gentle and coaxing this time as she teased his thickness back to life.

"Fuck, no one can do it like you," the big man said, feeling the blood rushing back to his member and stopping its deflation in its tracks.

Talia loved the feeling of a cock growing in her mouth. It was different than taking one that was already hard. She felt like she was cultivating it, making it more hers . . . more special. "There," she said at last. "All better." She slid down on the bed next to him, lying on her stomach.

"On your knees," he told her, waiting for her to get up before positioning himself behind her. He pressed the head of his titanic rod against her vaginal opening, but then stopped. "Tell me what you want?" he asked teasingly.

There was actual panic in her voice when she responded. "Please fuck me!" she whimpered. "Stick it in me! Take me like you own me!"

Tarloh reached forward and grabbed her dark hair and, using it for leverage, slammed all eleven inches into her tight hole. He waited for her cunt to give its first full-force squeeze, marveling at her tightness.

"What are you waiting for? Fuck me!" Talia shouted. She didn't care if anyone heard.

With his hand still tangled in her hair, he started to pound away. He put his other hand on her tight black ass and squeezed as he rammed his cock into her time and time again. He was going to ride this woman until she howled. He balls were slapping up against her pussy, and a grunt of building excitement escaped her full lips every time he reached maximum penetration.