Collapse and the Beast's Mark
After swallowing the grotesque liquid meal that Taeo had chewed and passed to her, Eunha barely survived the crisis of her high fever thanks to the drug-like healing power of his saliva. Her body was slowly but surely regaining its vitality. However, once the fever broke and food entered her stomach, kickstarting her metabolism, the bone-chilling cold inside the frozen mart now sliced sharply into her naked skin, threatening her with hypothermia.
No matter how much Taeo radiated heat like a living furnace with his massive body, her thin human skin could not fully block the icy chill rising from the frigid tile floor.
"Ugh… I'm cold… Taeo, I need… I need clothes…."
Eunha trembled violently as she burrowed deeper into the thick fur around Taeo's neck.
"C-cold…"
Taeo, who had been licking her cheek as if tending to a pup, suddenly perked his ears upright. Though he could not perfectly combine human words, his sharp beastly mind accurately caught the nuance of her shivering, her dropping body temperature, and the word "clothes."
-Swish. Thud.
Taeo rose from the nest, gave her nose a light reassuring lick, then shot out of the break room like a bolt. Heavy footsteps faded into the darkness, only to return moments later. Something thick and soft dropped onto Eunha's lap with a dull thump.
-Rustle. Plop.
With trembling hands, Eunha felt the object. It was a heavy fabric with a thick brushed lining. It was an extra-large black hoodie that Taeo had snatched from the casual clothing section on the mart's second floor and carried back in his mouth.
Eunha hurriedly pulled the hoodie over her head. The moment it enveloped her, a strange sense of relief washed over her as it mixed with Taeo's thick, lingering scent that still clung to her very bones. The size was so enormous that on her slender frame it draped down to mid-thigh like a huge blanket. She fumbled for the front and zipped it all the way up. Finally, a human-like warmth began to return to her frozen upper body.
"Haa… I feel like I might live. Thank you, Taeo…."
Eunha clutched the ends of the hoodie's sleeves and let out a breath of relief.
But when she wrapped her arms around her torso and reached down to feel the floor, Eunha realized something was wrong.
"Huh…? Pants? Taeo, didn't you bring any pants or underwear?"
In response to her bewildered question, Taeo wagged his tail and approached instead of answering. He pressed his hot, rough snout firmly between her exposed bare bottom and slender thighs, rubbing against her.
-Grrruuuh. Sniff.
The beast's steaming hot breath blatantly licked across her most secret crevice.
"Hik…! Ah, ah…."
Eunha tried to squeeze her legs shut in shame, but Taeo's heavy snout had already pushed between her thighs. He inhaled her rich scent of ownership and let out a satisfied vibrating growl.
It was no simple mistake. A mutated being with high intelligence who could read letters and distinguish medicine would never have forgotten lower garments out of ignorance. To the wild predator and male that was Taeo, pants or underwear to cover a female's genitals were nothing but the most cumbersome and unnecessary obstacles to breeding, mating, and his instinct to check her condition at any time.
It was the male's vicious and coercive preference, a form of control: keep her upper body warm enough not to freeze to death, but leave her most important and secret lower half completely open at all times so he could lick, sniff, and penetrate her whenever he wished.
"T-Taeo… like this… I'm not wearing anything down there… It makes me look like a pervert… Huh? Just bring me one pair of pants… Please…."
Eunha begged with a flushed face, but Taeo pretended not to understand her words—or completely ignored them—and dragged his tongue up the inside of her wet thigh.
-Slurp. Riiip.
"Aah! Hnnngh……."
The sandpaper-like papillae on his tongue scraped across her raw flesh, pouring saliva along with a tingling friction. That blatant licking was a silent warning not to resist any further, a perfect wedge of ownership declaring that her lower body would be handled solely at his whim.
Eunha shed tears of shame, yet she was addicted to the bizarre pleasure that made her wounds throb and heal each time his tongue touched her. She clutched the beast's fur and trembled, her waist quivering.
Her upper body was wrapped in the thick black hoodie, but her lower half remained completely naked, glistening with the beast's saliva and semen, without even a scrap of underwear. That perverse, deviant attire was the only clothing the monstrous wolf permitted his female.
After a bout of forced grooming, Taeo left the nest again with heavy footsteps and returned. This time, what he carried in his mouth was a thick winter microfiber blanket.
-Thud. Rustle.
The blanket fell onto Eunha's lap. She felt its texture with her hands and tilted her head.
"Why this? The hoodie is warm enough…."
Taeo approached and sat beside her, then slowly pushed his broad, thick chest and forelegs toward her. He alternated between nudging his own chest and the blanket in her hands with his nose.
"Ah……."
Eunha finally understood the beast's intention. It was the crude harness she had made by tying bandages and leather straps together when they escaped the hospital. It had been insufficient to absorb the impact when his ninety-kilogram body sprinted, and Taeo had clearly recognized that her fragile bare skin was being rubbed raw by his stiff outer fur.
So he had brought a thicker, softer material and was demanding that she create a new harness—one that could bind him and his female more safely and comfortably.
"Okay… I'll make it for you."
Using her extremely sensitive fingertips heightened by blindness, Eunha marked specific spots and asked Taeo to tear the thick blanket into long strips.
-Riiip. Tear.
She tore the strips Taeo had ripped into even widths into several strands, then braided and twisted them tightly into several rope-like cords. She felt along Taeo's massive chest, belly, and the spaces between his ribs, meticulously weaving the blanket cords together.
Taeo lowered his tail and pressed his enormous body flat against the floor, obediently adjusting to her touch so her work would not be disturbed. It was a posture of perfect submission and trust—the wild ruler completely surrendering his hide to the fingertips of a blind female.
Eunha's slender hands parted the stiff fur at his nape and crossed the straps. She tied them firmly between the ribs of his massive chest and secured the thick blanket saddle precisely in the center of his broad back.
Every time her fingers brushed his hot skin while tying the knots, a pleasant low vibration rumbled from deep within the beast's belly.
Finally, after over an hour of struggle, a crude but perfectly functional "harness" was fitted onto the beast's body.
"It's… it's done. Can I tie it on now?"
The structure crossed between his forelegs to support his chest and tied firm knots along his back. A splendid harness had been completed, with layers of soft microfiber blanket acting as cushioning instead of just the beast's fur.
"All done… It's sturdy."
Eunha pulled the knots tight and let out a sigh of relief. Taeo seemed pleased with the feel of the finished harness; he puffed out his chest muscles and exhaled a rough snort.
-Sliiide. Thud.
At her cautious question seeking permission, Taeo remained lying flat on the floor and twisted his body slightly to create an easier angle for her to mount. Once prepared, he pressed himself as low to the ground as his massive frame would allow.
It was the posture a real wolf or large dog would take to carry its owner or show perfect obedience. But Taeo's actions were not submission—they were the solid devotion of a male ensuring his fragile possession could settle safely without injury.
Eunha fumbled her way onto his back. She lifted the hem of the hoodie, spread her bare thighs, and slid onto the saddle.
"Aah… Hng…."
The torn wound in her spread pelvis screamed, but the thick blanket saddle absorbed the impact, allowing her to endure the pain.
Eunha gripped the thickest knot of the leather strap wrapped around Taeo's chest with both hands. Wearing the black hoodie pulled low, her completely bare lower half—naked from the waist down—settled onto the soft microfiber harness. She spread her legs to clamp around the beast's rib muscles and gripped the firm knots at his nape with both hands.
The moment the fifty-kilogram frail blind female settled perfectly and stably atop the ninety-kilogram overwhelming giant.
-Swish. Slap.
"Ah…!"
Before Taeo stood, his thick, long tail curled like a snake and wrapped firmly around her bare bottom and lower back. It was like a seatbelt—or a soft yet powerful restraint to keep the female from falling backward or escaping.
Eunha flinched at the bizarre friction of the fur-covered tail against her bare skin, but the overwhelming sense of security it provided soon made her body relax.
-Grrrrr.
Taeo let out a low growl and carefully rose on his four heavy legs.
-Thud. Thud.
Taeo took heavy steps. To keep the pelvis of the female clinging to his back from shaking, he moved with deliberate care. Instead of his usual ferocious sprint, he put strength into the pads of his paws and began gliding silently and smoothly across the mart's tile floor.
The vast corridors of the mart, plunged in pitch-black darkness.
-Tap. Tap.
A colossal black wolf, carrying a blind female on his back who wore nothing but a black hoodie with her lower half exposed, slowly advanced through the unknown space with an utterly bizarre gait. It was a perfect symbiosis for survival.
And beneath it all, the predator's blind possessiveness and the female's horrific corruption—entwined to the marrow of their bones—pressed heavily down on the air of the ruins.