A/N

Hello everyone. This is proving to be quite popular, much to my pleasure as the author. I love hearing how much y'all enjoy this dalliance of my muse.

Of course, I do not own Zootopia, and can therefore make no claims to Zootopia or its characters. I only make claim to my own OC's included herein as needed. Though I think I could do more with it than Disney is at the moment. So many awesome ideas that they could use, and they're sitting on their asses.

I blame Bear678 for this.

Anyway, on with the show.

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Wilde Cardz - Savage Territory - Chapter 12

2 years earlier.

Nick was nervous. He was more nervous than when he stood outside Judy's apartment after her brother got him kicked out of his place. More nervous than his first day at the academy, or standing outside his mothers door in uniform waiting for her to answer. He was more nervous than any other point in his entire life, bar none.

After that initial kiss he shared with Judy that had promised so much, they had managed to take their time. They talked through their different, and sometimes oddly similar, cultural differences, what they wanted from the relationship, and just talked. Truly getting to know each other, their histories, experiences. They laughed, and cried with each other, and went on many dates during that time. Even if that was sometimes just pizza, beer, and a bad movie after work that ended up watching them.

Though they slept in the same bed, and had showered and fooled around a little. Judy greatly enjoyed waking him up by caressing his morning wood, a truly exquisite torture with her sinfully soft paws. Her gentle touch was one of those things that surprised him, considering she had the punching strength of the largest wolves at the precinct, but then so did he. It actually took them six months of dating before their relationship moved past teasing touches and appreciative looks, and became truly physical.

That change in their relationship happened in the winter. It was Nick's season, and he was on suppressors. Very strong suppressors. Any stronger, and he would need to get a prescription. He had never needed them before, but he had never had a girlfriend that he wanted to knot and claim even when it wasn't winter. They had discussed his desires and struggles openly one night when he was struggling the most. Just her scent in the apartment was affecting him, after a day in the cruiser, and their office. Nick could barely stand himself and Judy could tell he was struggling.

Judy for her part was more than open to it, and they had discussed it many times. Gone over the physical differences and what that meant, including what knotting was to him. They also came to the agreement that they needed to cement the rest of their relationship before they married from a fox stand point, and would still need to have a wedding to satisfy her family.

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Judy turned off the TV and faced Nick, shaking her head as he seemed down right twitchy and had avoided her for days. She knew it was his season, so figured he was hurting, especially after the exceedingly long day in the cruiser. "Nick. Is it really that bad? You've been jumpy and avoided my touch for two days. You even slept out here last night. Talk to me, Nick."

With a sorrowful sigh, Nick turned to Judy. "I'm sorry Fluff… It's my season, and I am taking suppressors, but being cooped up in the cruiser, with you in heat… Yes, I know. I'm attuned to it, and... I can barely stand myself with the thoughts, the wild fantasies that seem to overtake me."

Judy giggled. " Oh, so I'm not the only one, eh? Did you have the one where you bent me over the desk at work while I was doing our reports?"

Nick swallowed thickly and nodded, avoiding her gaze. He knew the look in his eyes, he could feel it. "Yeah. Then there was me taking you in the cruiser, or down in records because you can lock the door from the inside. Or just now, ravishing you here on the couch. I'm sorry… I am just not used to this. Then again, I've never had a girlfriend I wanted to actually do things with. I'll call the doc in the morning and get a higher dose."

Judy gave him a sultry grin that made him sweat. "Well… Nick… There is another way to control our urges."

Judy crawled over the cushions towards him as Nick backed up until he couldn't anymore. His tail poofing and his ears folding back at the look she was giving him. His voice shaky. "Carrots?"

"We could give in to our needs. It isn't as if we haven't already seen each other... showered together... felt each other." Judy was right up on him, leaning up so they were nose to nose. Her paws on either side of his head. "I am also on suppressors, and that's the only reason I didn't take you in the file room this morning, or our office, or the cruiser on that stake out two days ago. I want you, Nick. I need you, and you need me."

With his ears folded back till they seemed to meld with his head. It wasn't that he didn't want what she was suggesting. Oh, he wanted it so badly it physically hurt. Yet he was also absolutely terrified. Terrified that he would knot her, because that would be it, but that he might end up hurting her too. "But if I knot you… I could hurt you, and knotting..."

Judy kissed Nick deeply, cutting his protest off. "I know you're scared, Nick. But you won't hurt me. We both know you can't. And if you knot me, well… Then we'll need to head to MR when we get back to work, tell Bogo, and start planning the official ceremonies. I will not be dissatisfied either way. Hell, we might just have to call in sick." Dragging her claws down his neck. Nick's tail somehow poofing even more as he groaned at the sensations her evil paws and claws were causing him. She got a suddenly intense look with desire white hot in her eyes. "Rut it! As the vixen in this relationship, be it known to you, my todd, my mate, that I want you, now. Not tomorrow, not in an hour, or later, now. I am… We both are ready, and have waited more than long enough. I want all of you, and demand that you take everything from me in return. All in, Nick. No regrets. No holding back."

Nick placed his paws on either side of her face as his heart swelled to bursting with love as he felt his very being ignite with desire. He felt as if his red fur was literally on fire, burning with his need for her. "Judy. My mate. I love you." Nick then kissed her with as much passion as that first kiss months prior.

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In the end, they did end up calling in sick for a few days. Neither of them were sorry about what happened, and thanks to their suppressors they were able to keep their heads and not just rut each other mindlessly. Not that they did not get a bit primal with their need for each other, but it was more than that. It was almost a competition of who could bring more pleasure to the other. It was four of the most glorious and fulfilling days of either of their lives.

That said, Nick had given up on trying to pretend he was just nervous. No, he was down right terrified. Yes, they were married as far as fox traditions were concerned. It was that very night after he knotted her the first time. They had exchanged vows and claiming bites, and neither of them were even remotely sorry. Heck, he had held back, and Judy was the one that completed the act and sealed their relationship with his knot. Judy took charge, as she so often did, and took what she wanted. Something he was happy to give it without reservation once she made it clear what she wanted, what she demanded.

Their names, the date he knotted and claimed her, and all the pertinent details were recorded in the Wilde Clan book. No, the thing that had him terrified now, was the look Stu was giving him from the end of the aisle as they waited for things to start.

Nick stood at the altar, surrounded by friends and family, both old and new. His friends from the ZPD, including Bogo himself, were packed into the largest barn on the Hopps properties. Though it often stored large tractors and other such equipment, the size and openness of it was actually deliberate and for the purpose it was being used for that day. Weddings… In this case, his wedding to Judy.

Nick was freaking out and couldn't hide it. There was no mask he had ever mastered that could contain the nerves that were currently chewing at his insides. His tail lashed behind him. Weren't they supposed to have started ten minutes prior? Nick's heart pounded in his chest and he tried to stay calm and keep the nerves and doubts at bay. Bonnie loved him. Stu did too. They had technically been married for six months, open about that fact with her parents for three of those months when they started planning for the bunny wedding.

Yes, it came as a shock to Stu, and while Bonnie had her misgivings at first, that was all cleared up after that first trip to the farm after the announcement. They sat down with some custom tea that Nick had brought with them. He loved his coffee, but for conversations like that, tea was the better option. They discussed the fact that they had been dating for many months, how they had discussed and held off on the physical while they made sure that they were completely on the same page. Nick then gave a breakdown of fox culture, the abridged version that he and Judy had worked out for her parents.

From that point, they left Bonnie and Stu to think over what had been discussed and the information they had been given about Nick, and foxes in general. When they found Nick and Judy again, Judy was leaning against a wall in one of the play rooms, while Nick could not initially be seen. His very theatrical, slow motion, roaring rise, from beneath the large pile of bunny kits was what did in Bonnie and Stu. The kits were all cackling and screaming in mock terror and pure joy as the abominable fox arose from his slumber to take revenge upon the imaginary town of bunnies that had wronged him. The kits defended their town and eventually overwhelmed Nick. The over the top theatrics and the pure joy on the kits faces would have made their decision for them, or changed their minds, if they were not already ready to welcome the fox into the family.

Bonnie had later told them that you can tell the difference between a kit that was just playing along, and one that was fully enjoying themselves. There is no way they could not accept him just with that, but they could tell how much he cared for Judy. Bonnie and Stu had told him a few days later that the love he and Judy shared was something they always prayed their kits would find, and something they had feared that Judy never would. Then again, Judy was special, and it was clear to them that Nick recognized that and cherished her for it in a way that no bunny would have. He may not have been the mammal they expected, though they should have, but he gave Judy something both Hopps had wanted for their daughter. He gave her unconditional love and support for her dreams. Something no bunny would, and as this was Judy, who were they to argue? She never was a typical bunny, so why should they have expected her mate to be one?

So Nick stood there, heart pounding in his chest as he waited, nearly having a heart attack when the music started. Fin was first, as Nick's best mammal with Judy's litter-mate and mammal of honor. Nick would have laughed, if he wasn't so terrified. Fin and Jill were getting along famously. A bit too good, in his opinion, for something to not be starting between them. Then came the rest of the mammals. One of Nick's cousins and another of Judy's sisters. Then pulling up the rear, Lizz Fangmeyer and Mike Wolford.

Watching them all, Nick wondered if there was something between Lizz and Mike, but he never smelled anything but musk mask on either of them. It was suspicious, but he didn't care either way. He was married to a bunny as far as foxes were concerned, and was about to be the same as far as rabbits were concerned.

When the music shifted, all eyes switched to the open doors of the barn. Stu appeared with Judy, which surprised Nick. He hadn't seen Stu move. But he only noted that before his thoughts froze in his head, as did his heart in his chest, when his eyes beheld Judy. Watching the video later, a gasp came from most of the mammals in attendance. Nick himself heard none of it as he was transfixed by a vision that literally took his breath away. He could see nothing but her in the pearl white, shimmering dress that stopped at her ankles. It might seem a simple thing, with only a hint of lace on the short sleeves, hem, and around the bodice, which dipped a lot deeper and showed more fur than Nick had expected. Fru Fru out did herself. It was a literal one of a kind, for a one of a kind mammal.

They say you're not supposed to see the bride on the wedding day until she's walking down the aisle, because it is bad luck. As Nick's senses came back to him as Judy slowly approached down the aisle, Nick understood why mammals believed that. If he had seen her in that dress before that moment, he would not have been able to contain himself.

Standing before him, Judy looked up at him from behind a sheer veil. "Hey Nick, you ready?"

Nick blinked as a truly blissful smile came over him. "To marry the most beautiful vision of loveliness in all of existence? Yes. Yes, I am."

A blush flared in her erect ears as Judy grinned and they turned to the altar to face the officiant, a red deer that Nick knew. They couldn't use the family preacher, or rather he refused to marry, in his words, a pelt to a rabbit. He was no longer the family preacher, and with the Hopps ending their attendance, the church's attendance had quickly dwindled to only a few hard core specist families in town.

After the ceremony, Nick could do nothing to wipe the grin off his face. They were married in the eyes of foxes, rabbits, and the law. Much to the consternation of the specist recorder at the county courthouse, there was in fact no law that prevented a pred-prey marriage. Turns out, when they removed the prohibition against same sex marriages, they also removed the inter-species prohibitions. A little something the lawmaker that created the proposal for the same-sex prohibition removal slipped in that few noticed.

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Nick's dreams shifted to various scenarios of what he was going to find when he got to the message Judy had left for him. What was her message to him? What surprised Nick the most when he woke up, remembering the content if not the details of his dreams, was that none of them were worst case scenarios. Nothing about her not wanting to see him, or suicide notes, or anything like that. In fact, he was convinced that it would tell him where she went.

Shaking his head as he showered, Nick already knew, deep in his heart where she headed, now that he knew she was alive. It really was the only thing that made sense. He had been married to her long enough. He had even considered following that instinct to where she might have gone, but had delayed it. He was doing the work she would want him to, that she would be proud of him for. In the end, that was more important to him. If she was alive or not, savage or not, he could not let himself give in, or just suffer through and look the other way.

He had spent too much of his life doing that, and then she happened to him. His life after Judy was filled with hard work and the rewards from that work. He had friends, respect, and had made a real difference, all with her by his side. He knew he couldn't face her if he had turned away from mammals in need of help he could provide.

Knowing where she had gone, and the confirmation of that he expected to get from her message. He also knew that he had a long trip ahead of himself. Chuckling as he dried off, Nick wondered how well Bunnyburrow and her family had fared. After the current mission, heading to Bunnyburrow was his next, personal, mission.

He needed to check in on the family, and maybe find his bunny while he was at it. Living up to what he knew she would have demanded of him if she had been with him, he had put it off while helping build up the settlement, but they did not need him at this point. Lizz and Mike, or even his second in command, Jake Clawhauser, one of Ben's cousins, would do a perfectly fine job. As would Delgato if the two settlements merged.

Getting dressed, Nick came to a decision. If it was the message he expected, and it pointed him to Bunnyburrow, he would leave the rest to Lizz and Mike, and would set off after his bunny. As he stepped out of the apartment at the same time as Lizz and Mike, he was already tendering his resignation message to the Haymarket and Vole council in his head.

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