arms, shoulders, finding the tattoo of her name with the symbol below it on the back of her neck. He runs his hands down her back. His thumbs caress the edges of the tribal tattoo at the small of her back. It appears to be a roaring mouth, but what predator the roaring mouth is with its rudimentary eyes and ears, is unclear.

Richy positions himself with the head of his cock just pushing at Talia's vaginal opening. He reaches over Talia and grabs the edge of the table by her head. Then he drives himself home with one quick hard thrust.

Talia gasps and her eyes water from the sudden invasion.

Richy freezes and mouths, "Fuck," to himself. He's never taken anyone's virginity before, but he's sure of what he felt and heard. Talia's maidenhood made an audible pop when he pushed through it on top of he felt it rip as he pushed through it. Talia's confusing body language suddenly makes sense.

Richy leans back to have a look as he slides his cock part way out of Talia, not that he's exactly all in, and he sees streaks of blood along his shaft as trickles roll down the insides of Talia's thighs. He pushes back inside Talia slowly and takes his time working all of his cock inside her as she's arching back into him. He takes it slowly, rolling his hips forward. Talia continues to arch back into him and begins to purr.

Talia's purr triggers something deep within Richy. His slow rolling turns into fast, hard, thrust that cause Talia to moan and twitch beneath him. He closes his eyes and feels his eyes change. When he opens his eyes, he sees a man standing outside of the kitchen. The man's scent tells Richy it's Cougar and he's shocked as he stands there staring. But what Richy sees is the heat generated by Cougar's body.

Cougar is standing there staring like a deer caught in headlights. Richy's eyes have gone black and inhuman and so have Talia's. Talia's not a surprise. Cougar knew Talia possesses the gift like her older brother, Roar. So the claws extending from beneath Talia's fingernails don't surprise Cougar. He knows those are the same claws Talia just tried to rip Otter's face off with a short time ago. But Richy is only a quarter wild, and doesn't even possess the ability to become any type of animal. Granted, most wild folks can only do one or two wild animals, but Richy can't even do one animal.

Then claws extend from Richie's finger tips as he opens his mouth and sharp canines extend. But Richy doesn't slow his rhythm with Talia as he touches the new canines with his tongue. He smiles as he looks at Talia beneath him, little orgasms shudder her body as they build to a big orgasm. He puts his teeth to the back of Talia's neck. Talia freezes beneath him at the touch of his teeth. Her mouth opens to allow out the sounds his thrusts are forcing out. He applies just enough pressure with his teeth to break the skin and mark Talia as his mate, which is exactly what Talia was doing when she pulled her claws down his back, marking him as her mate.

Cougar can only stare in awe as he wonders why Richy never displayed any signs of the gift before. And Richy's reaction to the claws and teeth told Cougar this was all new for Richy. Cougar can only speculate that the gift lay dormant in Richy until something activated it and awoke it like a sleeping bear. And finding one's true-mate was definitely a life altering event, definitely enough to awaken such a gift if it lay dormant within oneself.

Cougar watches as Richy rolls Talia over onto her back and the claws and sharp teeth recede for both of them. Cougar remembers Roar experimenting with his developing gift in their early teens as he was learning to control his inner predator so it didn't slip out at inappropriate times. In full predator mode, Roar is an unstoppable stalking, hunting, killing machine that stands at least eight feet tall. Of course, Roar was already over seven feet tall.

The gift is one talent wild folks hide from tame folks. It didn't stop the rumors even though no male or female in their right mind would use their gift in the presence of a tame person. Having the gift is a serious responsibility. It makes one an instant protector of their tribe and possibly a protector of any other nearby tribes that weren't lucky enough to have someone with the gift in their tribe.

Having someone with the gift is what saved all the tribes in this mountainous region from being exterminated. Yet even with someone like Roar to protect them, tribes suffered heavy losses when soldiers were sent in with guns and grenades. There were only about a dozen tribe members left of Australia's Aboriginal Tribe when they were flown in. They became part of the Amazon Tribe that had been relocated from South America. The Amazons are a tall beautiful dark skinned people, and Roar's mother had come from the Amazon Tribe. It had always seemed funny to Cougar that Roar and Talia were brother and sister, Roar being the tallest and nearly the darkest member of their tribe with dreadlocks past his waist while Talia is the shortest member of their tribe with tawny tan colored skin and free flowing raven hair.

Cougar takes a longing look as Richy pulls the cropped tank top over Talia's head. Hers and Roar's tribe tattoos are different from everyone else's in the tribe, but not identical to each other either. Each of their tribe tattoos has unique features no one else's has. Cougar finally manages to pull himself away from the spot where he's been standing in shock for more than a few minutes to go to the bathroom like he came into the house for. Going to take a leak has never been so interesting before.

Hours later, everyone except Talia and Richy has eaten and is tired and going to bed. Seal and Otter take the children up to the room over the garage via the outside steps and door. Hours have passed since Cougar rejoined everyone else outside. Bass had played his harmonica as Seal played her flute while Otter sang an ancient love song with Cougar's accompaniment. Finally Otter had sung the children a couple of ancient lullabies and the children had talked of how much they adored Talia and of smelling a predator. But they couldn't identify what predator they had smelled, just not a mountain lion, wolf or bear. The scent had reminded them of Fjord when he's angry, which is quite often. Most recently Fjord has been pissed because he requested from Roar to give Talia to him as his mate. But Roar refused, telling Fjord the women of his tribe are free to choose their own mates. And Fjord's favorite family to torture when he's pissed is Richy's family quite simply because he hates Richy. So Richy's aunt, cousins and their children come to seek refuge within Richy's territory quite often as do other members of Richy's tribe.

Bass and Cougar sit out by the fire pit for a while after Seal and Otter have gone up with the children. Cougar tells Bass what he saw when he went in to relieve himself. Bass is at a loss because as far as he knows, the gift isn't an ability that runs in his family. Plus, people like Richy that are only a quarter wild or less never have any special abilities beyond better senses than tame folks.

Both, Bass and Cougar, enter the house through the sliding glass doors. Then together they upright the over turned dining table. They can clearly hear Richy and Talia still mating in the kitchen.

"Unbelievable," says Bass stepping so he can see into the kitchen. "They're still at it."

Cougar steps up next to Bass and has a look himself. Richy is now holding Talia up against a wall. Talia is twitching uncontrollably as Richy pounds into her.

Cougar tells Bass, "Well, that's not where they started. Of course, they were already at it when I came in to take a piss."

Richy's body spasms as his skin ripples like water when a stone's been dropped in. He slides down to the floor as Talia's head slumps onto his shoulder. She's exhausted.

Talia's voice is horse as she utters her first words in hours as her body continues to twitch while her skin ripples, "Richy.. I need.. a break.. please.." Then she passes out.

"Shit," says Richy softly as he starts to pat Talia's face. "A little help," he calls back to Cougar and Bass just outside the kitchen and they rush in to assist him.

"A glass of water," request Richy.

Cougar gets the glass of water as Bass starts picking up the stray clothes. And as he's picking up the clothing, Bass spots two small pools of blood on the floor with small toe prints in them. Talia's panties are blood stained. But the scents not right for menstrual blood.

"Mist," Bass questions, "this blood?"

"She was a virgin," answers Richy accepting the glass of water from Cougar. But he has to get her conscious enough to drink it.

Cougar stares at Talia. It just doesn't seem possible that a free woman, especially one as beautiful as Talia, could still be a virgin at her age.

"Cougar," Richy not understanding some things, "I came and still had a hard-on. I came again and again, I'm not sure how many times I came and I couldn't stop. And she took everything I gave her. She never said stop, and she never complained of pain."

"Richy," says Cougar clapping a hand on his shoulder, "You are an extremely well hung man. She's going to be sore tomorrow. I'll start a bath."

As Cougar trots out of the kitchen, Bass hands Richy a cool damp cloth. Then Bass takes the dirty clothes into the laundry room and comes back with a mop, a rag and spray cleaner. As he cleans the blood from the floor, he watches the tender attention Richy pays to Talia.

Richy wipes Talia's brow with the damp cloth. "Okay, Baby, wake up for me." He pats her cheeks again. "Come on, Talia, wake up."

Talia's eyes flutter open and she focuses on Richy's face. Richy smiles as he tells her, "I want you to drink some water for me, okay?"

Talia gives Richy a barely perceptible nod. Richy lifts the glass to Talia's lips and she chokes on the first sip. Richy sits her more upright and tries again. She doesn't choke this time and she drains the glass for Richy.

She looks at the empty glass and then tells Richy, "You now."

Richy nods his agreement. "Bass, refill this glass for me, please.. ..Thank you," and Richy drains the glass for Talia. She gives him a tired smile and he kisses her.

Cougar steps back into the kitchen having started a bath running in the master bathroom. He walks over to Richy and Talia and reaches for Talia as he tells Richy, "I'll give you a hand."

Richy crushes Talia against himself protectively as he nearly growls at Cougar, "She's mine. I've got her." His eyes go black as part of his warning to Cougar.

Cougar takes a giant step back away from Richy and Talia as he says, "Of Course." He looks at Bass who's wiping off the table. Bass simply shrugs.

Richy's legs are shaking as he gets to his feet with Talia in his arms. But once he's standing, he's fine. Cougar follows at a non-threating distance.

Richy finds a bubble bath waiting for him and Talia in his master bathroom. He stands Talia in the tub, but doesn't let her go because her legs are still too rubbery to let her stand on her own as he steps into the tub with her. Then he slowly lowers himself and Talia into the warm soothing water. Talia snuggles against Richy as he holds her close.

From the bathroom doorway, Cougar tells Richy, "Shout if you need anything," as Bass is setting a ewer of ice water and a glass on one of Richy's nightstands. Then Bass follows Cougar out of the master bedroom. Cougar walks across the hall to his temporary bedroom and motions Bass in, closing the door behind Bass.

Bass asks Cougar, "Isn't she in her mid-twenties at least?"

Cougar answers, "Early thirties actually."

Bass looks mystified as he says, "As beautiful as she is, it's hard to believe."

Cougar shrugs as mystified as Bass. He had known Talia has never been with any of the men in their tribe because her father, Chief Black Bear, had forbidden all the males from touching her. Then Cougar realizes that Talia had been saying no before her father angrily forbid all the males from touching her. He realizes she must have been saying no because she had already been told to say no. Cougar had known he'd gotten Talia into trouble that summer. After the incident where her father threw him in the river and yanked her up by her hair, she didn't step out of her family's tepee for days afterward. And when she did finally come out, she was a very different young girl than the one that had went in days before.