Ash said nothing, watching as Netta got up from him. His gaze seemed to scorch her, to weigh her down as she began to take her clothes off.

It was only as she was pulling her shirt off that Ash spoke, his voice a husked, thick tone that was inhuman.

"You don't need to do that, I can help -"

Netta snapped at him as she reached down, got out of her snow boots, kicking them angrily.

"I want to." She wished that she could stop shaking in response to the cold - that it wouldn't make her look so vulnerable.

She wanted so very much to not look like prey any longer.

He said nothing, sitting up slightly.

When Netta paused, slipping her panties off, she looked over at him. She felt her heart threaten to beat out of her chest.

His mouth hung open, Ash's tongue almost seeming to possess a will of its own. It rolled, writhed, snake-like, dancing between the lines of his lips, thick, heavy.

Netta almost stopped there, no matter how her anger and fear mixed with the emotions that his pheromones had engendered in her.

After a pause, Netta reached behind her, un-did the clasp of her bra with practiced ease, in spite of the horrible shaking of her hands. And then she was moments from wearing nothing but socks that would be soaked in the snow.

In the cups of her bra, her nipples were rigid, hard from the cold. They were hard, also, from the desire that burned in her, blooming like the many buds of wood roses opening at the roots of an ancient tree.

As she dropped her bra, she saw him move.

He moved so quickly, crawling, that she scarcely saw the jerking, sudden movements of his limbs.

Ash reappeared with his face pressed between her thighs. He lifted one of her legs up, pressing her foot to curve against the flat plane of his back.

In a panic, until Netta attempted to struggle, only to find her waist held in place by a powerful arm.

Ash worked her thighs, then the lips there apart with forceful ease. That slavering, muscular tongue ran the opening seam of her inner lips a moment before he plunged in.

"Ash!" Netta jerked forward then back - realizing that he was set on fucking her with his tongue.

Netta's eyes flicked opened and closed, her mouth fallen open. then slamming shut to suppress groans, crying, her teeth clenching, squeezing painfully.

His tongue, with each thrust, seemed to grow, to expand. It burned her, then she felt it, pressing as far as it could go -

Her hands had become entangled in his hair at some point. She realized her hands were no longer clutching at hair - but horns.

She shuddered, daring to look down. There she saw great, horrible spiraling of horns that erupted from a bed of thick brown hair.

They were a shining, onyx black. Some of them, sharp as they were on their ends, pressed in their spiraling curves against her skin, causing indentations in her skin (so pale by contrast), and some punctured her skin.

She looked at the blood caused by the shallow wounds, not quite able to register them. It was as though they were some aspect of a dream she was having.

She could not feel the pain of them, her body feeling as though it were being enveloped in combustion, spreading up her body.

She should have been horrified by this. She should have been unable to enjoy any aspect of the writhing of the muscle lodged inside of her. She shouldn't take the kind of savage enjoyment from the feeling of the arm locked around her waist -

With a jerking cry, she felt, terrified, the bursting of an orgasm as it built.

She dared to look down and could see only the crown of horns, growing out of the dark hair.

Everything sped up around her as he mercilessly drove her onto his tongue, the vibration of his wild grunting spreading up, encasing her.

She fell into the orgasm, cumming around the heavy, thick tongue that pierced her.

She was shuddering, the sensation of being filled was infinitely more satiating that what she had been able to accomplish with thorough practice on her own.

She was too wrapped up in her orgasm to realize what was happening until she felt his tongue slipping out of her. With unnatural speed, she was pressed to Ash's sweating chest, his arm locked around her.

He was kissing her, full, with the tongue that had been embedded inside of her.

Netta sucked on it hungrily, shuddering.

He tasted of pungent earth and her body, the cloying aftertaste of his pheromones mixing with the burning heat of his tongue.

She was caught somewhere between the almost calming end of one orgasm, then felt another building.

Netta kept her eyes closed, experienced Ash through the hushed sound of his groans, the smell of his sweating skin - and his mouth - as well as the taste of his swirling, thrusting tongue that seemed set on using her mouth like he had used her pussy.

Large hands were grasping the back of her head as he savaged her mouth, sharp teeth, writhing tongue scathing, rupturing, beating her into a rough, inhuman frenzy.

On her body, she felt hands - many of them, all grasping, touching, squeezing, manipulating. It was only then that she realized that Ash was nude, she was pressing to hot flesh that scalded, rubbing against chest and pubic hair that scratched.

She moaned, pulling her mouth away from his, hearing him cry out in response.

Her mouth felt burned, from his tongue, lips, facial hair, and her mind felt melted, burning.

How could she control this?

No sooner than she wondered than she felt her legs being thrust apart, felt something that burned, flesh that felt different from the hands. It pressed, bobbed away as Ash breathed his locomotive breath all over her, grunting mindlessly.

Netta opened her eyes then, looked down between her and the man. She watched as he began to run the heavy girth of his penis along the slick, wet flesh between Netta's thighs.

Then there came the feeling of an index and middle finger, reaching down roughly part her.

When she felt the bludgeoning end of his penis thrusting against her, Netta cried out and tried to pull loose of Ash's grasp.

After a rough moan, Ash pulled her away from him, stared down at Netta with naked, rough fire in his eyes.

He seemed to struggle, at first, to speak, and when he managed to, he rasped out, "I thought you said you wanted me to fuck you-"

Netta interrupted him, taking hold of the ending heft of his penis in a light grasp. The light embrace of her hand around him caused Ash to throw his head back and moan. He thrust his hips, sending her unprepared hand sliding down the first of the uncircumcised, burning-hot length of his penis.

A hand reached around her, and Ash was growling into her ear, his hot, scalding breath against her face.

"I am not a toy, and you will not play with me, when you asked to be fuck-"

Netta acted quickly, tearing loose of him. She walked quickly, glad for the surprise that likely gave her a moment to move, resting her hands on the bark of a tree and, with a hesitant - needing - shiver, she thrust her ass out.

There was a pause, and Netta leaned forward, rested her forehead against the bark, feeling its cold.

Netta pushed away the horror of what had made her demand this kind of rough trade from him.

It was as she felt hot arms - many of them, wrapping around her, eliciting a gasp from Netta - that she realized.

Too late she understood that she had wanted him to have sex with her, without her having to acknowledge, for once, that the nature of the man melded with her was not a Monster.

Hands grasped her jutting, hanging breasts, more at her hips, and a massive pair seemed to gently wrap around either side of her neck, thumbs pressed to either sides of her nape.

She gasped, her eyes opening to find that two more hands were pressed on either side of her on the tree, large, powerful arms grazing either side of her face.

As she felt a large hand take a handful of the fat of her ass in a bruising grasp, she cried out in surprise, arching her back.

She heard him grunt, then felt as something hot, hot was pressed against the swollen flesh of her pussy. He grazed, bumped against her in an animalistic, blind manner, the curving of his cock pressing him fully within the inner seam when he jutted his hips forward.

As she felt the burning length over her inner lips, her swollen, tortured clitoris, Netta slumped forward, moaning against the gentle encircling of his hands on her throat.

She closed her eyes, wanted what was to come next, needed her emotions burnt out of her.

Netta felt almost hypnotized byhim thrusting against her, a vulgar play on penetration. As Ash moved, he found a tense, slow rhythym.

Netta closed her eyes and thought of Ash, in spite of everything to the contrary, as a human lover.

It was as she felt him rearing back, his cock sliding before it became positioned, moments from penetrating, that she felt the presence shove itself roughly into her mind.

Netta cried out, hands grabbing the bark on the tree. She said, "Ash, no, no -"

She felt and heard him grunt, his aching desire perceptible, from the strained quality of his every muscle, to the shaking of the hands all over her body, to the presence she felt shuddering in her mind.

She felt facial haire against the side of her face, heat and rough hair burning, scratching. He panted, his breath hot, the pheromones in it smelling sickly sweet, making her body jut in response.

"I am going to fill all of you. I am no man - I want all of you, and you'll give it to me, because it's what you wish, too." In a quick movement that left Netta unable to speak, he raked the exaggeratedly long length of his tongue against her face.

Netta gave a lurch, the motion pressing the waiting bulb of his penis tip into her.

They both cried out, and she could feel the shocking pleasure that ripped through Ash at the sensation, as well as the burning frenzy that it engendered in him.

When he reared back, Netta felt herself arch back in ready, felt her mind embracing that alien presence.

The feral joy she felt in response from it seemed to dose her into a deeper sense of arousal that way beyond even what she had felt when he had stimulated her to orgasm.

Ash pushed, filling Netta with a bursting heat.

Her head lolled forward, and she moaned, feeling the pain of his filling her. Nowhere close to getting accustomed to him, Ash gave a second, rough thrust.

Her mind was swept over, enfolded in Ash's own, his will curving over hers.

No Monster, nor man, for that matter, burned and demanded in such a way, took with such little hesitation.

Netta rode, pushing back eagerly in a mad, slapping rhythym when he stopped moving.

She could feel his deep, insidious joy as she played to his will. Her body reacted, pumping, enfolding the length of his penis as he enfolded her with his many arms, his presence in her mind.

She moaned, and could feel the answering cry from Ash, aloud, then in her mind. For a brief moment, she was lost as he took over her mind, her body.

They were locked in this embrace for what felt like an eternity, falling, the fullness of Ash in her body, her mind, seeming like it would tear her at any moment -

The feeling of the orgasm - it wasn't the first that she had experienced, pinioned between the tree and the Monster behind her - but it was the first one that she felt with burning surprise. She realized that she had keyed into the emotions of Ash, he was experiencing his orgasm at the same time.

Se cried out, reaching down to take hold of one of the hands that gripped at her hips, her stomach.

She clutched the large fingers there, then fell forward, sobbing as she felt the blistering force of her orgasm - and his - tore out of her.

When she came to, she was being held up from behind by Ash, who clutched her to him, his breathing pushing her forward, then back against his heaving chest.

His breaths sent huffs of hot breath over her face, misting the air before her like steam.

Ash was still lodged inside of her, as firm and full of energy as ever.

They remained like that for a moment, with his mind still a heavy, wide shadow in her mind. The almost somber stillness was broken when Ash leaned in close, pressing one of his elbows to the tree, his large arm splayed out, pointing up the tree like a heavy arrow.

He took in a deep breath, then blew it out, passing by Netta's face and wafting, heavy with pheromones.

He spoke in a hush, his hands and wrapping arms everywhere on her body still, so many of them that she thought that they covered her.

"Can you let me - will you allow me to stay like this for a moment longer?"

He turned his mouth, ducking his head down so that his mouth was pressed to the line of Netta's jaw. He stayed there for a moment before, muffled as he spoke against her shivering flesh, he said, "I just want to be with you for a little bit more."

Even with his voice muffled, and the drugged haze of satisfaction that took over Netta, she thought that she could feel the aching sorrow there. The insatiable need that he had spoken of.

She closed her eyes. She felt her mind receding into the fullness of his presence.

Her body untensed, and for a moment, she breathed, feeling Ash in the most forbidden of embraces.

He filled her mind with him, a darkness so pure that it almost seemed sanctified.

He moved away from her, hesitating as he moved, his penis sliding free of her. All of the extra arms disappeared, until it was just two arms, embracing her in a light hold.

Ash sighed, for a moment knocking his head so that he was pressed to the back of her hair. Netta gave a start when she heard him take in a deep, heavy breath as he inhaled the smell of her hair. In a moment, she felt as Ash receded from her mind - not wholly gone, but a whisper so faint in her mind that she could have missed him, if she was was not aware of him being there.

She shuddered, then said, "You didn't leave me."

He took in a steep hush of breath, then said, "Don't ask me to." He stopped short of saying it aloud, but Netta could hear what he could not make himself say aloud - what he had never been able to say aloud to her, ever. Please.

Netta was quiet. Almost instinctively, she reached around.

Her hand grazed past the still thick flesh of Ash's erection, then she took her hand back with a shudder.

She said, "You're still..." She found that she couldn't finish that sentence, and it hung in the air like her hand did beind her.

Ash gave a slow, sad chuckle. "I can never be sated - only have the edge taken off my desire."

Netta wriggled slightly in his loose grip, rested her arm against the tree's bark, sighing as she closed her eyes for a moment.

Finally, she said,"All of those times that you said that you wanted me." She licked her bruised, tenderized lips. "You weren't lying to me, were you?"

Ash said nothing, slowly disengaging his arms from around her. Netta moved slowly, turning around to face the naked Monster that she had had sex with.

She took in the sight of a glazed-eyed Ash, complete with a twisted, twining mass of black horns atop his head.

He managed a weak, shrp-toothed smile at her. And, Goddess help Netta, but Monster or no, she fet her heart leap in her chest.

She knew, then, that Ash sensed the shudder that went through her at the sight of him when she saw the smile fade from his lips as a dazed, confused expression lit the fire in his eyes.

Netta, feeling a horrible blush, decided that she felt all too naked and exposed. She walked away, realizing only when she began to walk through what should have been snow, that there was no more on the ground around the radius of the tree where they had fucked.

As she walked, she felt steady trickle of liquid between her legs. Dazed, Netta glanced down and watched as a soft trickle of seminal fluid as it rolled down her bruised thigh.

She looked up, seeing, as far as she could look, where the deep snow seemed to have been blasted away by some unbelievable source of heat.

Slowly, Netta took her socks off - wet from the earlier snow melt - and touched her foot onto the newly uncovered grass.

She felt it between her toes, softly ground it on her heel - realizing that far from looking as though it was dying from the chill and weight of the snow atop it, it looked fresh and green, as though in reaction to a spring rain.

She wondered at the soft springiness of the grass, then looked up to Ash.

She felt surprised to see the unexpected look of vulnerable - sadness? - in his face.

She shook her head, trying to push some emotion from off of her like it was a terrible affliction. Turning around, she found her clothes where she had scattered them on the ground, pulled them from the soft covering of the grass.

She shivered, in a hurry to pull her clothes on. The sound of Ash's voice, ringing out from behind her, made Netta jump, hearing how close he had come near her - only a few feet away.

"I can make it so that you never have to be cold again."

Netta was about to remark that she didn't need him holding her when she felt a flushing warmth run through her blood.

She gasped, turning around to look at Ash, in the middle of affixing her bra back on her body.

"What are you doing to me?" She whispered, fearful of just how he was able to manipulate her.

Ash's gaze fell from where he was staring into her eyes.

Netta felt the unnatural heat leave her body. She was cold once more, and she felt its leaving with a pinch of sadness that she wished she could ignore.

He rose his hand, his eyes moving down her body, making Netta feel uncomfortable with the weight of his sweeping gaze.

She didn't know what to think he would do, but what he said was one of the last things she expected.

"You're wounded..." He spoke in a whisper.

Ash's finger tips twitched, and Netta felt the spreading warmth along her chest, her stomach.

She looked down, just in time to see the scratches and gouges on her chest sealing with new flesh. A moment later, it was as though she had never been hurt at all.

She looked, surprised, up at Ash's face, only to find the same, somehow quietly sad expression on his face.

Netta turned around and continued to pull her clothing on, starting to feel the return of the cold as though it were biting into her bruised, aching flesh.

As she was working her pants back on, she looked over to the fallen tree. She recalled that she had brought it crashing down.

She walked to it as though in a trance and laid her hand down on it. She hesitated, then dipped into the magic - the power that she borrowed, hesitantly, from the store that she had gained from the act of sexual intercourse with Ash - and reached into the tree to find its life force.

She drew her hand away as she realized that it had been a young, strong thing before she had struck it three times, unknowingly, with her magic.

She had stripped it, in a blast of - black flame? where had she seen that before? - of its life force, devouring it.

The realization had her staggering backward.

She brought a hand up to her face, unaware for a moment of anything in the physical world.

When she came to, it was to the feeling of Ash probing in her mind - the hot touch of the skin on his hand as he touched her nude shoulder.

When she blinked up at Ash, she realized then that she had dropped to her knees in front of the fallen, dead tree.