Men are toys. No, maybe not all men, there are some out there strong enough to stand on even footing with parahuman, but I wasn’t one of them. I was the type that ended up in a forest at night with nothing but the light of a blood moon I could barely see through the trees to light my way. It was funny how weak I really was. I couldn’t even run. My lungs burned and my joints ached but I still found it in me to laugh.

 

     I shouldn’t have. Even as the echoes of my delirious laughter faded a branch cracked in the distance. Shit! I’d made a mistake, I’d slowed down, let myself think I was safe. I wasn’t safe, there wasn’t anywhere safe in these woods. C’mon, move! If I could just make it back to my car I’d have beaten her, I’d have won.

 

I wasn’t anywhere near my car.

 

    Screw it, I gave up. If I was going down I wasn’t going down tired. I found a nice round rock, sat down and waited. A cool breeze rustled the falling leaves, sending a chill down my spine.

“I know you’re there, come out.” I called into the darkness.

“Quit?” A voice answered from behind me.

Christ! I jumped a full foot off off the ground before landing hard on my ass and trying to fake composure. I slowly turned to see a pair of brilliant scarlet eyes leering at me from behind a tree. As I made eye contact a mantis wearing a leotard and a small pack stepped out from behind a tree twenty yards away and leapt forward. A set of wings in her abdomen popped out at the apex and slowed her descent, buzzing in the still air. She landed silently right in front of me after a single jump.

“You quit?” The mantis leaned in closer as she asked the question again. There was a more demanding tone in her voice, though it was scarcely more than a whisper.

“Yeah, I quit. I’m not playing a game I can’t win, just do it already.” I reached towards my collar to take off my shirt, but her hand lashed out and stretched my arm straight out from my body before I could undo a single button.

“Can I eat you?” Her face loomed eerily close.

“You don’t eat people.”

“Sure?” She asked with her head tilted to the side, “mating makes me hungry.” I gulped involuntarily.

“Cut the crap and get to it. It’s cold enough out here already.”

The scythe on her free hand snapped open and in a flash the blade was half an inch from my extended shoulder. Okay, that was definitely bad.

“Maybe a snack first?”

“Did I do something to make you mad?”

“You quit. Quitting is boring.”

“Yeah, but—”

I found myself struggling not to shit my pants as the look on her face went from disinterested to fucking furious and the blade above my shoulder angled toward my neck.

“You. Run. Now.”

 

    That look in her eyes told me there was no need for a “yes ma’am!” She wanted to see me act, and the bubbling fear in my gut was happy to oblige. My throat was raw and my legs were so tired they felt like jelly but I still pushed on, ducking under the blade at my neck and praying the darkness would provide more cover. How had I even gotten myself into this?!

 

    Many moons ago—11 to be exact—a few of them even bloody, I’d found myself hunkered down in my apartment. It’d become a monthly ritual to hide out on the night of a full moon ever since I’d moved to Monte Granito City. The door was locked, the windows were barred and I was safe. That night I’d even planned far enough ahead to have a good meal waiting for me; a chunky tomato soup, a few bottles of ale and a pint of ice cream were sitting in the fridge with my name on them. All I had to do was sit down and wait. Checking everything one last time though, I realized I was missing something: bread. Sure I had a loaf of the store bought stuff, but a nice crusty sourdough would’ve been perfect. Looking out the window I still had a bit of light left. Could I risk a run to the bakery? If I was going to I’d better make it fast.

 

    I made a snap decision and put on my kit. It was just a few things a man should have around here: a holstered taser, handcuff key, bear mace, map, small utility knife, pen light and my trusty rape whistle. On a night like this the whistle would probably do me more harm than good, but I kept it with me for good practice.

 

    The weather was cool, but not unpleasantly so. I did my best to make good time as I walked and tried to keep an eye on my surroundings without looking twitchy. I wasn’t sure how well I’d succeeded; several parahumans’ gazes seemed to linger on me, but then this late in the day a healthy looking man probably would probably do that anyway. By the time I actually made it to the bakery’s door I’d begun to question whether or not leaving the house was a good idea; the last rays of twilight reflected off the glass bearing the shops name as I pulled it open. Oh well, I was there now and the few minutes it took to get what I came for wouldn’t make much difference either way.

 

    A little bell jingled as I entered, prompting the mantis sanitizing her scythes to look up at me. She nodded as I approached and greeted me with a flat expression and a voice that would be little more than a loud whisper for most, but I knew to be her normal voice.

“Welcome.”

 

    A familiar voice from a familiar face.  Sherry and her family lived above the shop and I was only a few blocks away myself so we often ran into each other outside of the store. Usually that resulted in a quick chat—a loud one if her dad was around, I swear the guy was loud enough to make up for the taciturn nature of his wife and two daughters all by himself—and I’d picked up all of their names over the last few months. Sherry herself was so quiet I never really paid much attention to her, but when she did chime in it was hard not to notice that she was pretty cute. She had a slight chin, high cheeks that always seemed a bit flush and thick eyelashes framing big green eyes that seemed to draw you in if you looked at them. She’d probably look even better if she grew out her messy mop of black hair, but the bobcut she had going on worked too. She was on the shorter side with a slight figure that looked like it’d lend itself well to a fitted dress. Of course, that wasn’t the time to think about things like that. Was the full moon getting to me, too?

 

“Hey Sherry. Is your sister out?”

Nod.

“Parents too?”

She shook her head. “Full moon. Don’t want to think about it.” Who could blame her? We were lucky their foreplay wasn’t audible. Though, if I listened hard there might’ve been a rhythmic thumping from above. Wait…

“Do you hear that?”

“No.”

“I could swear there’s this—”

“No.”

“Right. Well uh, can I have a loaf of sourdough then?”

The mantis wordlessly pulled out a mound and tested its weight before speaking.

“Thick or thin?”

 

    This bakery made great pastries and absolutely amazing bread, but their real claim to fame wasn’t their product, it was the show they put on. If you ordered pretty much anything but a cake—and sometimes even then—they could cut it up for you in mid air with their scythes or a freakishly sharp knife in pops’ case. They’d give you any shape and any size you wanted, all in the blink of an eye. Or at least Sherry’s dad, mom and sister could, she herself always seemed to screw up; I’d pretty consistently gotten my order chopped into chunks. Then again, no one else I talked to ever mentioned that happening.

 

“Thick. Actually, just let me cut it.” Sherry drew the loaf in closer to her chest. Her face didn’t budge, but I could swear she was pouting.

“Matter of pride.”

“A matter of—fine, just be careful.” I really should’ve insisted, but I was wasting time and it was always hard to say no to a cute girl.

“This time for sure,” Sherry whispered in a voice even quieter than usual before stepping back and flicking the bread into the air.

 

    Blades flashed almost faster than I could see tracing parallel lines of phenomenally symmetrical width down the length of a loaf. Running on pure muscle memory Sherry snatched a paper bag from a stack, flicked it open and made a scooping motion as if ready to collect the falling pieces.

 

Only there was nothing there to catch.

 

    As one we looked down, then up to see the bread caught between the blades of the ceiling fan lazily spinning above us. That wasn’t coming down anytime soon. Tilting my head down to the horizon I found the mantis in the middle of an intense study of her toes. Now she was really blushing, though her face failed to show any embarrassment at all. She didn’t even look at me when she spoke.

“Sorry.”

“It’s okay. Can I have another?”

“Last one.” Last… one? I’d come out at dusk on the night of a full moon in MGC for a loaf of bread just to have the last one thrown onto a ceiling fan? “Don’t cry.”

“Yeah…”

 

    I settled for a thankfully unsliced loaf of pugliese free of charge and headed out with Sherry following in my wake to flip the store’s “open” sign. It was dark in earnest now with the street lights flickering on and the full moon ominously large on the horizon. I’d really stayed too long, hadn’t I?

 

    The night was alive, but in secret. There was no one on the street, but there was noise from everywhere in the distance. Thumps, squeaks and moans in the night. Nothing unusual really, but more than normal. More disturbing were those other noises, the closer ones that were probably nothing but put me on edge anyway. A skitter across concrete here, rustling paper there, all perfectly mundane on any other night. But still.

 

    I turned upon noticing the light behind me moving. A street lamp swayed as if in the wind, only the air was still as if god himself held his breath. That was more than enough to make me pick up my pace. My determined stride broke into a quick run as I noticed that I hadn’t actually come across any parahumans yet. It was almost like something had the area staked out as its own territory. A thought that put my head on a swivel, wildly turning towards any noise real or imagined.

 

     I must’ve looked crazy, but that motion saved my ass. I caught something moving out of the corner of my eye, and even I reached for my taser I dropped to the ground. I hit the concrete hard as I drew the gun and whipped it around just in time to see a gigantic stinger three inches from my face.

 

     Shit! I jerked the trigger and the gun jumped in my hand. The barbs flew wide because I wasn’t aiming at all, and a burst of confetti settled onto my stomach as if I’d just been awarded the Worst Shot of the Year Award. I gawked at the hulk of chitin towering over me. A leering girtablilu. This really wasn’t my day, was it?

 

     Numbly I watched as that stinger pulled back for a second; I was on my ass with no help around. There was nothing I could do to stop it. It descended and my eyes squeezed shut, but the paralyzing prick never came. Instead there was a dull WHUMP and suddenly I wasn’t alone anymore.

 

     A figure with its arms spread wide and abdomen wings extended stood between me and imminent rape. Gleaming green scales surrounding pale skin were the mark of my savior. Wait, didn’t I recognize that silhouette?

“Sherry?!” She’d changed into a mantis’ traditional hunting garb which was basically just a black leotard worn under her scales, but that was definitely still Sherry.

“Run.” I’d never heard her yell before. Her voice was really—

“Back off, skank! I saw him first!”

Sherry didn’t spare the woman a word, but collapsed her gossamer wings and dropped her stance.

 

     The girtablilu made another series of jabs, this time at the mantis, and Sherry had to use both scythes to block. Oh hell, she’d just saved me, but I couldn’t leave her here with that! With one hand to lever myself up with I managed to scramble to my feet and pull out my bear mace with the other.

“What’re you doing here?!” I demanded of her back as I took aim.

“Just g—ah!”

 

     The scorpion’s stinger dug into Sherry’s arm just before I depressed the trigger on my mace and raked the spray across the girtablilu’s face. I caught the stumbling mantis and pulled her back from the girtablilu as it screamed and blindly stabbed at the air. Sherry’s weight began to sag against me and I eased her to the ground without taking my eyes from the monster clawing at her own face. I could make a run for it now, but I wasn’t confident I wouldn’t have an angry scorpion hot on my heels soon if I did.

 

     Luckily I wasn’t entirely out of options. After hitting my attacker with another blast of mace I dropped the cartridge in my taser and stepped in low from the side. As it so happened, even a spent taser was still usable as a conventional stun gun; a five second jolt was enough to take even the giant bug to the ground. A solid crack to the back of her head with the grip of the gun made sure she wouldn’t move for a while.

 

     Turning back to Sherry I found her on the ground trembling, straining to push herself up with her weakening right arm; the left hung limp at her side. I ran over and pulled her up by her free hand.

“C’mon, we gotta go!” Wrapping her arm around my shoulder in an attempt to help her walk was a no go; I ended up pulling her entire body weight with her feet trailing behind me. No more than a few uncomfortable steps from the—already—groaning girtablilu I had to set Sherry down and pick her up again fireman style. Luckily she was light and we were only two blocks from my apartment.

 

    That entire two block walk was spent with me in constant fear that some other mamono in heat would see me with my hands full and pick me out as an easy target. Luckily no such thing happened so I shut the door to my humble abode and threw the deadbolt with a sigh of relief. Home free, only not really. Sherry’s arm was still bleeding, her entire body was burning up on my shoulders and there was a damp spot there that didn’t feel like sweat. I laid her out on the couch, then ran for my first aid kit and an old sheet.

 

    The sheet to absorb her sweat and the copious fluids leaking from her womanhood went on without much fuss, then I set to work on her wound. The girtablilu had gotten her square in the middle of the bicep but even though she’d been striking in anger the control of the blow had been such that it wasn’t that deep. There was still a bit of blood dribbling out from the puncture, but it was nothing serious so I just cleaned and wrapped it.

 

    Though the sting itself wasn’t that big of a deal the effects of the venom were going to be a way bigger problem. Her body was soaked in sweat, her breath came in ragged gasps and paralysis or no her knees still rubbed helplessly together. If that last bit was any indication the arousing effects of girtie venom must work just as well on women. Combine that with an already full moon and… she must really be suffering. I could take her to the emergency room for anti-venom, but on a night like this not only would I have to risk going outside again, even when we made it to the hospital a case with a priority like hers would probably get bumped back until the venom wore off naturally anyway. I’d be better off dealing with things myself, so I did.

 

    I went to the bathroom to check out my medicine cabinet. I liked to keep it well stocked, but I really didn’t have much to help in this situation. I came out with aspirin for her fever and an OTC sedative. Hopefully she could just sleep through this if I made her comfortable.

 

    Emerald eyes followed me as I approached Sherry. There was a fan sitting in a corner and I set that up to blow across her before kneeling at her head.

“Hey. How do you feel?” All she managed was a groan in response. “Yeah, I bet. Well, I got some things to make you feel better.”

 

     I smiled as I lifted her head and gave her a sip of water. To my satisfaction she downed it easily so I set to giving her more and giving her the pills one at a time. Hopefully she’d go to sleep soon enough, but in the mean time I grabbed a towel to wipe her down. Her slender arms were easy enough, but I paused when I reached her torso.

 

     The leotard she was wearing was basically skin tight to begin with, and clung to her body due to sweat on top of that. Another fact I hadn’t known made itself apparent as well: it wasn’t full coverage; quite a bit of her chest was exposed. Normally mantii had scales on their chests that acted like natural bras, both lending support to their feminine goods and covering the most immodest bits. Due to the paralytic, her lust or both those scales had folded into their mating position at her sides. Had she been naked this would’ve left her perky handfuls exposed to the world, but her leotard didn’t do much more, only covering a central strip that barely extended past her nipples; there was a lot of sideboob going on. I cursed at myself mentally and settled for giving her stomach a quick pat down before skipping down to her legs, just above the chitin on her calves. She moaned. Come on!

“Sor...ry,” she croaked. So she could still talk?

“You can’t help it, right? Besides, I owe you after earlier anyway, this is nothing.”

“...ead.”

“Who cares about the bread? Look, I don’t know why you were following me, but thanks. You saved my bacon back there.”

 

     She managed to stifle most of her groans while I finished wiping off her sweat, and I settled in next to her while I waited for the pills to kick in. Her temperature didn’t go down much, but gradually her breathing slowed and some of the tension seemed to leave her. To help her along to sleep I murmured soothing praise and slid my hand between her large auxiliary eyes with my fingers spread around her antennae. I messed up her hair, but she didn’t seem to mind; her feelers even jerkily groped forward until every movement sent them brushing across my forearm.

 

     Eventually her eyes fluttered then slid closed when the heavy dose of sleep-aid kicked in in force and she drifted off. Doing my best not to wake her, I removed my hand and padded off to kill the lights. As I passed her waist fingers brushed past my hand.

“...Tay. Please.” I turned back to the couch to find Sherry staring at me through one slitted eye. Was it some kind of magic that made her so hard to resist? I sighed.

“Fine.” In any other situation with any other girl falling asleep right next to her might’ve been cause for worry, but this was Sherry and she’d just saved me, right? I flicked off the lights, then settled in on the floor next to the couch. Somehow she managed to get her hand moving and it dropped next to me. Oh, fine. I knitted my fingers in between the mantis’ and she weakly reciprocated until the drugs in her system overcame the venom at long last and she drifted off to sleep. As for me, her breathing was like a lullaby and I soon followed.

 

    Dawn washed the land in the light of reason. It was a light I didn’t want to see for a few more hours, but the weight settling on top of me wasn’t going to let me sleep any more. I cracked my eyes open to see Sherry staring down at me from a foot away with her arms on either side of my head.

“Christ!” I jumped, but there was nowhere to go and I wasn’t actually in any danger so I settled back down. “So, uh, you’re feeling better.”

“Kinda. Still weak.”

“You don’t have to be anywhere, right?” Everywhere seemed to open late after a full moon in this city. “Just go back to bed.”

She shook her head, a blush stealing across her cheeks in the orange morning light. “Good chance.”

“For what?”

“Reward me.”

“Uh, okay.” I reached up to stroke her head just like I’d done before. Her eyes narrowed to slits and she leaned into me, but before long she straightened.

“Not what I meant.”

“Then what? You want me to buy you breakfast?”

Shake.

 

     She took the hand patting her head in hers and pulled it down. Her movements weren’t smooth; she still didn’t have full control of herself. Half asleep and curious though, I still didn’t offer an resistance as she moved my hand down and under the spandex of her leotard. Both of us froze completely at the contact, save Sherry’s heart which felt like it was beating a mile a minute under the softness of her breast.

“Reward,” she finally managed to groan.

“The venom—”

“Not the venom.”

“You can’t be sure—”

“I am. Hold me. Please.”  

 

    ‘Hold me.’ Not a request for semen or relief from the poison still in her body, but a request for love. It was really hard to tell with her, but had Sherry been interested in me before this, too? As for me it wasn’t like I didn’t enjoy being around her or anything, but… but what? I was in Monte Granito City, this kind of thing was probably common, more than likely I was reading too much into what she said.  Besides, she was cute, I’d have to be crazy to pass up a chance like this. I sighed in mock resignation.

“I guess I can reward you a little.”

 

    Those big verdant eyes widened in surprise, then squeezed shut as I explored her chest with the hand she’d placed there. It seemed she really liked having her head touched, so with the other I reached up and took her chin in my palm. The mantis swaying above me let out a moan as my attentions brought her nipples to hardness.

 

     I was contemplating going lower when the arms holding her collapsed. The drop wasn’t a long one, but our faces met in a way that sent us both rolling in different directions holding our noses.

“Are you okay?” I asked after checking to make sure I wasn’t bleeding.

“Sorry.”

“You’ve been apologizing a lot recently.”

“Sorr—mmm.”

 

     Sherry moved to mount me again. I let her get halfway through the motion, then wrapped my arms around her and flipped over. She resisted, but I managed to sweep her outstretched limbs into her body and take the top anyway. The fact that I could spoke volumes about the state she was in. Of course the mantis didn’t stop struggling once I’d secured my position, but a quick peck on her forehead stunned her long enough for me to get in a few words while she stared at me wide-eyed.

“Hey, this is your reward, right? You don’t have to work for it.”

“I wanted top.”

“You can barely move, just let me take care of it.” sherry relented and stopped pushing but seemed unsatisfied.

“Then, request.”

“Hmm?”

“Kiss me?”

 

    She seemed so vulnerable on her back looking up at me with pleading eyes. Something in the back of my mind said that this would take things past a casual lay, but I wasn’t going to refuse her, not today.

 

    I managed to close half the distance between us before Sherry jumped the gap and latched onto my face. After her behavior earlier I’d been expecting a timid kiss, but the mantis locked lips with me and immediately plunged her tongue into my mouth. It was a fervor I could match, and soon our fencing tongues left us both panting for breath, only reluctantly separating to take a breath before diving into each other’s mouths again. We pulled apart just once long enough for her to shrug out of her leotard and me to pull off my shirt. After that I left her to tug at my belt buckle while I groped the palm-size mounds on her chest and the silky expanse of her thigh.

 

     God, every part of her was a delight to touch. Her chest, just large enough to overflow a bit in my hands had a cloud-like softness, and her legs managed to strike a perfect balance between lean sexy muscle and supple skin. Her fingers too as she shed my pants and found my cock were exquisite. After exploring my throbbing length Sherry finally pulled away.

“Hard.”

The only response I managed was a dumb “yeah.”

“I’m ready. You can stop teasing.”

Of course she was ready; she probably had been before the kiss. I could smell it. I had no intention to stop now though, I was going to carve every bit of her body into my mind while I had the chance. Instead of responding to her thinly-veiled plea I slid down her body and caught her nape in my teeth. Sherry let out a strained breath, tilted her head inviting me for more and stroked at my penis with more vigor.

 

    Come to think, I still hadn’t really heard her moan and I wanted to. The leg I was massaging lifted invitingly as I trailed down it to grip Sherry’s unsurprisingly tight ass. I reluctantly slid my other hand from her breast in a trail down her belly, just past her clit in a teasing manner, and onto her secondary abdomen pushed down between her legs. The glossy chitinous scales were surprisingly pleasant to touch and I found myself rubbing them before tracing another path to my real prize.

 

    Sherry’s pussy overflowed with her juices and squeezed even the one finger I slipped inside of her. Inserting a second was even tighter, but she slowly relaxed as I wiggled them inside of her. I bade my time toying with her insides until she was loose enough for me to pump freely, then inserted my digits to the knuckle and rested my palm against her clit. My fingers went to town but I left it to Sherry herself to rub into my hand. Even with the venom still making it hard for her to move she managed a small circle of pleasure. Her breathing grew faster as I toyed with her more, but each gasp was unvoiced.

“You don’t have to try so hard to hold it in, you know. I think your moans would be cute.”

“Not… holding it in.” Yeah right.

At any rate I continued until the mantis was practically quivering under my touch, then removed my hands. Sherry’s eyes regained their focus and found me with a pleading look before she noticed me grasping my member to line it up with her entrance. Then she spread her legs.

 

    Truth be told, by that point I’d had enough teasing too; Sherry’s hands had been working incessantly on my cock and balls right up until she was close to losing it herself. Her love canal was well lubed, so she accepted me in one smooth thrust. As my fingers found out earlier, this mantis was tight. Both of us were too worked up to wait for ourselves to adjust so I moved slowly until she relaxed enough for me to take a faster pace. Sherry wrapped one leg around my hips to squeeze me in deeper at the same time both arms found their way around my neck. Just like that we found our groove; a needy, wanton tangle of limbs.

 

    Clearly my foreplay had been effective; after what seemed only a minute the mantis was arching her back and I got to hear the first of her moans. They were breathy little things, cute, but filled with enough lust to make me want to hump her harder and harder. I indulged myself, moving faster, tasting her body until she went rigid and the hands behind my head gripped like claws. Then, with one long “ah” and a shudder it was over. Sherry’s orgasm was really understated, but the blissful smile that snuck past her usual guard made up for it.

 

     I stroked through her afterglow, drawing out the aftermath of her pleasure before picking up speed again to build up my own. Our breathing increased as I hammered into Sherry’s drooling snatch, now even wetter than before. She squeezed around me as if her body was begging for my cum. I was more than willing to provide, and when my load came it came in torrents. My world shrank to nothing more than the warmth and softness of the woman clinging to me as I sent shot after shot of my seed sloshing into Sherry’s carnal depths. Pumping my baby batter into her seemed to push the mantis over the edge as well and be both growled our appreciation.

“Holy shit,” I panted on my knees after pulling out.

“Good.” Sherry rose to match my position with her hands on my chest. Ah, she was moving a lot better now. Amazing what a bit of adrenaline and vitamin S could do. “Again?”

“What, already?”

“Is that a ‘no?’”

“I’m not saying no, I’m just saying—look, I’m not even hard, we can’t go again this soon.”

“Understood.”

 

    Without a single word more she kicked her legs out to the side and dropped to the ground on one elbow. This was a perfect opportunity to stupidly ask what she was doing, but her movements were so efficient her lips were wrapped around my cock before I had a chance to finish drawing a breath. God, she was enthusiastic! The air I was going to speak with left my lips in a long hiss as the mantis worked her magic on my flagging member, eagerly licking, sucking and cleaning me. Without knowing what to do I simply found a handful of her hair to hold onto as she bobbed up and down and relaxed under her affections. Disappointingly enough, it seemed Sherry had no intention of making cum that way; she drew away with a pop as soon as I was at full mast then gathered her knees beneath her and looked up at me.

“You’re hard. Again?”

“Again. Wait, don’t get up, I have an idea. Turn around.”

 

    She looked at me puzzlingly, then seemed to decide to go along with whatever it was I wanted and spun without coming off her hands and knees. The position left her cute little butt pointed right at me. In a stunning display of naivety Sherry didn’t seem to catch my intent until I wrapped an arm around her abdomen and pinned it to my chest.

“Wait.”

“For what?” I asked as I lined myself up with her glistening slit.

“It’s embarrassing.”

“Then we’ll have to go until it’s not.”

 

    Despite her protests the mantis rocked her hips back into me as I slid into the entrance of her pussy. She’d absorbed most of my semen for the spirit energy, so there wasn’t much of my earlier cumshot left inside of her but there was just enough to make my entry frictionless. From the way she was sucking me in it seemed Sherry was more than ready for a second load, but this time I’d decided things should go slower.

 

    I was in the perfect position to control the pace. Me bear hugging her abdomen combined with the position she was in meant Sherry couldn’t move much on her own, allowing me all the time I wanted to knead the flesh of her butt, feeling the tense need for my seed making her muscles clench. Her carapace too was a thing of beauty I was increasingly learning to appreciate. The warm smoothness of her scales was somehow entrancing; even as I fucked her sopping hole I found my attention wandering to the plate under my fingers.

 

    Coincidentally, dragging out the session the way I was rewarded me with more of Sherry’s sweet moans as well. She’d managed to hold back until she came before, but now my every thrust pumped something out of her. As if that wasn’t enough I sometimes shifted my grip so I could play with her clit and send her howling. After the third such bout the mantis let her chest drop to the floor and looked back at me.

“You should cum.”

“You want me to cum inside you?” I grunted. Truth be told I was having trouble holding back anyway.

“Mmm.”

“Make it happen.” With that, I let go.

 

    Sherry froze for a moment, seemingly unsure of what to do until the feeling of me inside of her and nature reminded her. She was free to do as she pleased now, and she made full use of that. As if to make up for being restrained earlier her hips slammed into mine and her abdomen smacked my body. It took actual effort not to be pushed back as the mantis impaled herself on my spear. At the start I playfully swatted her ass every few strokes, but as that inexorable force behind my balls built I found myself holding on for dear life.

 

    The world went white. With one final bounce Sherry nestled her hips against mine and my cock spasmed gush after steaming gush of baby batter into her womb. It was an intense, body shaking orgasm and Sherry seemed to revel in the effect she’d had on me. The mantis slowly pulled herself free of my wilting penis and we both spread out on the floor facing each other.

 

    I smiled, but her face stayed blank. Still, somehow I knew she was happy too. Two antennae tapped at my head while we stared at each other in quiet. Surprisingly, Sherry was the first to break the silence.

“Crazy night.”

“No kidding. First I ran into some crazy rapist, then I found a hero in an unexpected place, then I got to play hero, and then, then I got to spend some time with a cute girl.”

“Mmm.”

“C’mon, I pull out my cheesy date lines and that’s all I get?” If I’d been trying harder I would’ve been hurt.

“...Again?” Well, I wasn’t going to complain about that. In answer, I moved to take her in my arms again, but as soon as I touched her shoulder a growl so deep I could feel it issued from her belly.

“Maybe we should get breakfast first.”

She nodded. “Your treat?”

“Fiiiiiine.” Headpats, sex AND food? The girl sure knew how to milk her rewards. Still, it wasn’t like she hadn’t earned it.

 

    After we both showered I dug out a pair of my old shorts. Even with a belt they sat low on the mantis’ hips, but between those and her leotard on she was at least decent enough for us to head to a diner. The exceedingly tired looking human waitress trudged away and I stared in awe as Sherry dug into her food. She’d ordered one combo of of bacon, eggs, and pancakes, but she’d then continued to add two sides of bacon, two sides of sausage, more eggs, another short stack and enough milk to make a holstaurus cry. Due to her scythes hitting the booth’s back she had to hold her utensils backhand style, but she still tore through every bite without so much as a single clink. She seemed to notice me staring at her after a while and looked up.

“I don’t normally eat this much.”

“Then why…”

“Good mating works up an appetite.”

“Even though I gave you enough spirit energy for a few days without food?”

“Nutrients for baby.”

“Please don’t joke about that after the first time.”

“Sorry.”

 

     I sighed and took a bite of my french toast. It was good, but made me wonder what Sherry’s shop was going to do. I asked and the mantis shrugged.

“Mom and dad will open late. Sister might be home. Same as usual.”

“I guess that works, but it seems weird for a bakery of all things to open late.”

“Full moon, normal.” Sherry went back to chewing for a few bites before stopping again. “Are we dating?” I cocked my eyebrow and she continued. “Protection, mating, eating together. They’re all things lovers do.”

 

     That seemed like a pretty weak justification, but maybe it was enough. What I knew of Sherry I liked, and that seemed to be more and more by the minute, after all. Couldn’t hurt to try things out, I guess.

“So you want to date, then?” The mantis locked eyes with me, then slowly looked to the side as color flooded her cheeks. She nodded.

“I have for a while. I followed you home to make sure no one else tried first.”

“Oh?” I smirked, ‘If you wanted to walk me home you could’ve asked.”

“No fun. So?”

“Yeah, I’d be happy to go out with you.”

“Yay.” Sherry clapped once—the most quietly I’d ever heard—then set back into her food, antennae happily bobbing for the rest of the meal.

 

     And that was how I ended getting chased through the forest under the muddy red light of the moon—chasing a man down when the moon was full got my girlfriend wet like nothing else, it seemed. This had become a monthly ritual for us, sort of a planned date night. The loser acted as a servant to the winner for the entirety of the next coming weekend so both of us had a reason to play. For me that usually meant freshly baked cinnamon rolls when I woke up at the crack of noon and lots of sex in lingerie I couldn’t get Sherry to wear otherwise. I’d actually managed to win four out of the last eleven times, but that wasn’t happening this time; I was barely past the halfway mark and she was practically crawling all over me.

 

     My fear-inspired second wind died and my mad sprint slowed to a jog. For the sake of sport Sherry would’ve given me a head start before she took up the pursuit but if I kept crashing around like a gorilla she’d close the gap in no time. I switched to hopping from bare spot to bare spot and the noise I made travelling dropped to almost nothing.

 

     Somewhere in the distance there was giggling followed by a man’s scream. Sherry and I weren’t the only ones playing in this forest, huh? I willed my exhausted body forward in the hope that I could avoid the same fate and maybe get to see my mantis in a pair of pasties. Man, she hated it, but Sherry really did look good in pasties and a thong.

 

     Shaking branches far closer than I would’ve liked pulled me from my reverie and I set off along the path I’d scouted earlier in the month. The wind blew again, a welcoming breeze of some little relief to my burning skin. Only the leaves hadn’t moved this time. With a rising dread I rolled my shoulders; even sticky with sweat as my t-shirt was it slid free of my back to flap in front of me, supported only by my shoulders in the sleeves. Oh hell.

 

     I broke into a run trying to remember a map I’d drawn. How far out was I? Maybe a third of the way? Shit! I abandoned any notion of stealth and ran all out. Sherry did the same and suddenly the night was alive with crunching leaves and snapping branches.

 

     A green blur crossed my path, some thinner part lashing out to whip past my chest. Then it was gone and my shirt had a new slash across it from collar to bottom hem. I let the material slide off my arms without taking any effort to remove it and kept running. My pants were my last vestige of defense and, being the genius I was I clamped a hand over my crotch. Sherry dropped to the ground directly in front of me forcing me to skitter to a stop.

 

     She stared at me, her scythes extending and retracting anxiously. She took a step forward and I moved at a diagonal keeping our distance and starting to circle around her. We continued this pattern until I was a quarter turn from where I started. There was no way she didn’t realize what I was doing, the mantis was letting me circle around her. For fun. One more push like the last one would get me to the finish line, so I wasn’t going to sit down and quit again if she gave me a shot.

 

     Seeming to see the determination in my eyes, Sherry bent her knees and opened the sections of shell covering her wings. Great, now she was being kind enough to telegraph her jump. I spun and ducked, letting Sherry sail over me—another handicap, as she could’ve landed mid jump—then kicked up a whirlwind of shed foliage as I sprinted to my destination.

 

     I could do it! I could make it! It’d be close but if I ran hard just maybe… No, forget that! One step at a time! The world shrank to a simple rhythm of footfalls. Of course, focusing on one thing didn’t make everything else out there disappear.

 

     I blinked and Sherry was in front of me. I was still holding onto my crotch for dear life but the mantis cut around them effortlessly. The back of her blades bumped into my arms but even though I was moving she didn’t knick me even once. One slit from waistband to ankle on each leg completed her flurry of slashes and Sherry disappeared into the treetops once more.

 

     I was really glad those weren’t a pair of my good pants. I ran forward without sparing another thought to the clothing on the ground behind me. I was naked, but so close—scratch that. I was ALMOST naked. Sherry’d cut a little denim heart out around my hands. That cheeky little...

   

    Wait, I could see the parking lot! Just barely through the trees, but I was there! It was a thing of beauty. I could practically smell the cinnamon rolls! Just little more and—something fluttered from the sky and landed on my head. A sheet? Fumbling with the material only got me more entangled. My foot hit a root and I went down in a heap.

“Ow…”

 

     Small hands jerked the fabric away, pulling and tugging until I was naked beneath the stars. As soon as I tried to sit up Sherry straddled my waist and forced my shoulders back to the blanket.

“Whoa,” I protested, “ease up a lit—” Sherry latched onto my lips before I could finish. The tongue that probed my mouth was burning hot. It felt so good, and it only felt better as her dark energy trickled into me. The coolness of the night faded away as my body heated to match the inferno inside of the mantis.

 

    The struggle I put up as Sherry grappled my hands above my head was a mere token; she seemed to get off on it and I didn’t really mind. The mantis crossed my wrists and held them down with one hand, but even though she had a strength that belied her size she still couldn’t effectively hold both of my arms down with her one. Her grip was too small to control both, so I  let her hold me, allowing the sheer will behind her lust to pin me where I was. Her free hand blazed a trail down to her crotch. There was no need for her to play with herself as she was already wet; the mantis simply moved the thin fabric covering her dripping honeypot, aligned herself with my waiting spear and impaled herself.

 

    Normally there would be a moment to breathe, an instant of stillness before our lovemaking began. There was no such thing here; as soon as Sherry took in my full length she was on her way back up again. After only a few strokes her breath came in ragged gasps

 

    Heat that could light the forest aflame engulfed me through a grip that counter-intuitively seemed ready to push me out. The sensation trying to wring the cum out of me was intense, but after I’d flipped all of her switches on a blood moon Sherry was on a hair trigger. She convulsed, then somehow clamped down on me even tighter and sent a river of her fluids dripping down my leg, howling at the moon the entire time.

 

    Again there wasn’t a single still moment. Pleasure seemed to roll off of her in waves, but even as her eyes rolled back and her back arched she just kept going. The mantis pumped me straight through her own peak, past the usual post-orgasmic hypersensitivity and long past the limits of rationality. Had she actually been raping me it would’ve been easy to knock her off and make a run for it, but she wasn’t and there was no way I was going to run from her when she was this intent on making me cum inside of her.

 

    Having her ride me was like being fucked by a vacuum hose on the tip of a jackhammer. She may have been pumping me so hard she’d blanked out her own mind in pleasure, but if it was semen she wanted she was doing an amazing job of making me give it. Hot flesh and erotic panting filled me with need, the need to spew my manjuice inside of her thirsting womb. God, so close! I wrenched a hand free and drunkenly pulled the fabric covering her tits aside to palm a piece of the white flesh. Sherry sat up, shifting even more weight onto her pounding hips and pulled my groping hand harder into her breast. She let out an even deeper moan before one final drop left me balls deep in her cunt and I willfully coated her insides with my cum.

 

    Finally she stopped, no motion between us save the rapid rising and falling of our chests; even the walls of her vagina were still though they continued to hold tight around me. Our eyes found each other—I could make out more of the familiar green behind the red now—and a ghost of a smile flickered across her face. She finally released my other hand and I pulled her lips to mine. The lust I’d felt from her kiss earlier was still there, but a hint of our usual slow, romantic lip-locking was there too.

 

    Without pulling out we fell into a rhythm again. With one load inside of her Sherry was returning to herself and her movements became slower, more sensual, though still a bit rough. I liked it, and if her moans were any indication, so did she.

 

     My hands were free to explore her body and I took full advantage of the fact. That little bit of spandex covering her was still on and I doubted I’d be able to get the mantis off of my dick long enough to remove it, so I settled for squeezing the fabric between her breasts, exposing those bouncy nuggets to my view.

 

     I took pleasure in Sherry’s pleasure as she worked herself to another high atop me. The way her hips moved was hypnotic, even if she wasn’t trying to pump me dry I could watch them for hours. Making love like that was almost relaxing.

 

Or at least it was until Sherry sunk her scythes into the ground on either side of my head.

 

    Worst of all, she didn’t even seem to realize she’d done it; her head was bent back like she was looking at the sky if she could see anything at all and she responded to me yelling her name like I was only sharing in her rapture. And they were slipping towards my shoulders with each shake of her hips. Those razor sharp flesh flayers were cutting through the ground towards my fucking shoulders! I gripped the forearms attached to those blades like my life depended on it—and maybe it did—but that only seemed to make them edge through the dirt faster.

 

     Yet, despite the death creeping towards my torso, I found my balls tightening. Like a roller coaster, sky diving or that feeling when you almost trip and break your neck, it was thrilling.

“Sherry?! Lovebug?! Hey!”

Even as I called out to her the world began fading to nothing. With my own death inches away I spewed new life to cover Sherry’s insides. Mine was an explosive, hip quivering orgasm. Rather than Sherry hilting herself on me, this time I found myself thrusting my hips into the air so she couldn’t help but take me into her depths.

 

    After another load of my energy had been pumped into her both my mantis and I sank to the ground. Finally realizing that she’d dug her scythes to within a hair’s breadth of biting into my flesh the mantis gingerly pried them from the earth and shook off the dirt.

“Okay?” She asked.

“Fine, but that was frickin’ terrifying.”

“Seemed like you liked it.”

“I did not!” Sherry cocked her head like she didn’t believe me, then straightened.

“Again?”

“Yeah, yeah, again.”

 

    And so we continued, loving one another until the dawn. After ensuring that I’d spent the last of my energy the mantis finally separated from me and pulled a free edge of the blanket to cover us. For a few minutes we laid there panting and soaking in the afterglow, staring into each others eyes. To my comfort I found hers were green again after her body had been bathed in my spirit energy and she’d had a chance to vent her lust. Without looking away Sherry groped behind me and brought her hand back holding the pack she’d been wearing earlier. As she rifled through it I scooted closer, but couldn’t get comfortable.

 

    There was something under my leg. It felt like a leaf, but too thick and kinda scratchy. I jerked it loose and discovered the shape my mantis cut out of my pants a few hours earlier. Oh, that might be useful… Sherry was still digging through the pack, but froze when I presented the gift to her.

“Would you like to have my heart?”

Sherry’s eyes widened before she snatched the fabric from my hands and smashed it against her chest. You could always tell when Sherry was really happy; even if her face didn’t show anything her antennae went into overdrive, and they were flitting around almost as fast as I’d ever seen them. Every twitch seemed to be directed toward my face; it was almost like being showered in little kisses.

“Hey, that tickles,” I whined, struggling to suppress a giggle.

“Cheesy, but cute. Thanks.” I merely smiled in response.

 

    Still holding my present to her chest, the mantis reached back into the bag and pulled out a sheet of jerky. She happily nibbled on it while her antennae continued to caress my head. Man, that sounded really good.

“Want some?”

“Sure, I’m starved.”

 

    Sherry struggled to rip off a decent-sized piece of meat with one hand. She pulled, separated the main slab and a length just larger than her mouth then sucked the smaller portion between and her lips and tried again. The results were no different; this continued until the remainder wasn’t worth offering and she popped it into her mouth along with all the other jerky she hadn’t had time to chew.

“Ish gaw,” she informed me with bulging cheeks.

I sighed and worked at pulling a piece of my own out. “You know you’ve got two hands, right?”

“Mmm.”

“But you weren’t going to let go of my ‘heart’ no matter what, huh?”

“Mmm mm.”

“You’re too cute. Pretty sure one of those scythes still could’ve done the job though.”

Sherry’s eyes wandered down to the blades tucked in close to her arms, then back up to me. She blushed.

 

Really?

 

     A short while later I’d retrieved a spare set of clothes from Sherry’s pack and was finishing the process of dressing myself while the mantis looked on. She seemed disinterested, but I saw where her eyes wandered. This part of the game, even more than the ‘rape’ when I lost always smacked of defeat. I fastened my last piece of clothing and turned to Sherry with a sigh.

“Alright, what am I going to do this time?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing?” The mantis always had a plan in advance for my weekend penalty games, she had to have something in mind.

“Nothing,” Sherry nodded. “Forced playing, taunting, scythes. I was mean last night, no servants this time. Sorry.” Geeze, she looked like a beaten puppy and I hadn’t even said anything.

“C’mere,” I grunted, tossing an arm around her shoulder. “I can’t say I liked all of that, but I didn’t really hate it. Besides, it was a blood moon, you probably couldn’t help it.”

“Still.”

“Well if you’re going to be stubborn about it, I forgive you.” I took a moment to stretch my back and scratch out a clear spot in the detritus at my feet. “Race you to the car?”

Sherry dropped into her ready stance, knees bent and carapace open. “Loser makes breakfast.”

I had no hope of suppressing my grin so I didn’t bother. “You're on.”

 

This time I’d been a little unfair too; my ride was hidden under some brush NEXT to the parking lot to give me a few unexpected seconds of an edge. Our rules set touching the finish marker as the goal so in all likelihood she’d shoot right past it to wander the parking lot leaving me to trot up behind her and snatch the prize. I’d be getting those cinnamon rolls after all.

 

END

 

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