When I woke up, I felt like I had slept for days. My body felt heavy and weak, and my head was still unsteady. I opened my weary eyes; oh, it had gotten so late! I couldn't even see the sun anymore; it neared dusk already! Then Jim Dear and Darling crossed through my mind; how worried they must've been to see I'd disappeared for so long!

And yet, with all that pressing down on my heart, I felt happy. Happy, warm, and protected; the feeling of home ran through me yet I was far from home. I lifted my head and looked around me, then I smiled; next to me was Atlas, snoozing on my side, with two of his brothers behind me, keeping me snug and cozy between their soft coats. I felt so loved and so safe. And they were so darling, how soundly they slept.

I tucked my head into my warm paws and let out a sigh of joy as the memories of what we'd done together washed over me. And to discover that, even in my sleep, they cared for their foxy foxie - though at any point they could've left me there in the cold, for I was just another female passing through their nest to them - it truly touched my heart, so much so that I wanted to cry.

I didn't. My ear pricked and I cocked my head. I was hearing sounds and, suddenly, Anita crossed my mind; worry overcame me. Though, my alarm was quickly soothed when I spotted her just a few feet away lying on the grass, wide awake and unharmed, bathing in the hug of her two other boys as they licked and kissed and squeezed her between them. And somehow, it didn't surprise me that, after all that Atlas did to her, she was so quickly prepared for more loving.

Their sweet noises and Anita's quiet gasps allured me. What should have pushed me to go over there was the wish to go home, but it wasn't that, and I tried very hard to hide it. Slowly, I crawled out from under Atlas' sleeping body and, with the most quiet, catlike steps, I made my way over to Anita, careful not to wake anyone.

I remember that I caught Anita, perhaps, when their intercourse of lips of tongues was the most fervid, and I felt most abashed when I'd interrupted them. I did not dare to say a word, but my presence there in front of them was enough to pop their bubble.

"Lady!" Anita seemed startled.

"Foxie!" one of the boys smiled at me.

They all spoke in hushed tones.

"Are you all right, Anita?" I whispered.

"Well," she replied as the two of them began to make soft love with the fur and skin of her neck, "I suppose you could say I am. But, my love, what about you? You've been out of it for hours!" - then a racy giggle left her lips - "Was Lady's first time that sweet?"

It was. But of course I couldn't dare to answer. I left it to the timid look in my eyes to do it for me, and the sneaky winks Anita's boys sent me were proof that I'd been clear.

"Anita, we should go home," I said. "It's gotten late."

"Home? I suppose you're right. But, as you can see," Anita went on, her voice steadily getting more brittle as her gasps overcame her, "our services are still very much required, don't you think?" - until she couldn't hold herself anymore - "Boys," she whimpered "if you won't stop kissing me like that, I'm going to come in front of my best friend!"

It sounded like a wish to them, and her wish was their command. I know Anita wanted to do it; I know I wanted to see her do it as I looked at her and I didn't know why I wished for such a thing. But I did.

I looked as they squeezed her tight between them, their muscular forelegs covering her thin body, sucking the skin and nibbling at the fur of her neck with such hunger until her little spasms took her and I heard her vocal, long sigh of relief leave her parted lips. Her eyes twinkled with the tears of a quiet, cute-good-girl climax and her cookie glittered with the wet rapture that a part of me wished I would have licked. I tried not to stare while she rode her wave of satisfaction but I couldn't hide the thirsty slinking of my tongue.

"You rascals," said Anita between light pants, "you'll be the death of me someday."

"Oh, no way we'll let you go like that so easily." mumbled one of them, muffled by Anita's fur that he was nuzzling into.

"What about the foxy miss?" the other waved his tongue at me.

"Yeah, don't just stand there, silly," Anita held a playful smile, "Come here! There's plenty of room. Come over here and let's kiss."

Momentarily I froze.

"With you?" I stuttered, doubtful on my paws.

"No, not with me, Lady!" she laughed, "Well, unless you want to, of course."

"Oh, just like before! You and the foxie should absolutely be kissing!"

"Yeah! Oh, I wouldn't mind a bit of girl-on-girl action!"

The spark of enthusiasm in their eyes was so wild and animal that I almost felt pulled in by their request. Then I glanced at Anita and was met with her roguish look from when we first arrived. It left in me the lingering sensation that it all was part of her sly scheme that I just couldn't figure out the reason behind. Yet, I deliberately played into it.

"Girl-on-girl action, oh my!" Anita struggled to hold in her laughter. "You boys! Well, foxie, it seems that the public has decided. Shall we reward them for all the pleasure that they've given us today?"

"But we're both girls. I couldn't."

"What do you mean? Think nothing of it. It's just for fun, Lady."

"C'mon, foxie! Be the sweet girl that you are!"

"All right, all right," I conceded. "But just for a little bit."

I'd lie if I said I didn't like it. Even then, my smile, coy as it was, put into light my restrained eagerness. I snuggled into the tight, warm spot between Anita and the one for whom I was a foxie, letting myself be hugged from both sides, pressed and squeezed by an inescapable need for love. My wish to go home steadily diminished.

I and Anita both held each other tight. The boys were anxious to see us, to have us meet and satisfy their fantasy. They urged us closer with their gentle muzzles. Anita laughed, I smiled a little. Soon, our noses became one. It was all real again. Anita was real and true and shy and chaste. My heart again fluttered, again skipped a beat when I bathed my eyes in the beauty of her own. And I fell in love once more. Love lay around us like a fluffy blanket which I yearned to get lost in. Our sweethearts kept us warm with their rugged bodies from which any female heart would melt, brushing their soft snouts against our cheeks, nuzzling into the vulnerable, sweet spots on our necks. I felt excited, Anita was aroused. We fondled each other's bodies, letting our coats get tangled as we fell prey to the soft song of heartbeats. Soon, we fulfilled their wishes. But, really, it was ours that we fulfilled. I wanted Anita and she wanted me. When I closed my eyes, only she was in my mind.

First, it was a peck, as if we were scared to go further. For it all was true and still new to us. We both gasped, exchanged looks, then we tried again. There was no more fear, yet we began slow; slow but with passion like the muzzles on our necks. We tasted each other a little, then met our tongues. We played with each other's lips and fought in intensity. I tugged on her softly, she tried to eat me. We entwined our mouths, swallowing each other's whispers.

Fervour grew inside us. Our kisses full of it. Soon, we were completely bare of any restraint. We pressed into one another tight and hugged even tighter. Quiet moans and hushed whimpers roused as we kissed noses, lips, and tongues. It became so intense that it must have seemed like we were angry at each other. But I couldn't have loved her more.

I just couldn't understand how that came to happen. I wanted to go home, to my family, my warm nest - the next second, I was making love to Anita. It all was so wrong and so outrageous, yet those boys relished in the feminine affection that we held. They did not think it was wrong or outrageous. And when I rubbed myself against her, pleasuring my teats in the warm softness of her own, it really couldn't have seemed that I did, either. Then our whispers became words and I allowed myself to stop thinking.

We parted our lips and squeezed them back again. Between moisty noises and feeble moans, we let sneak in heartfelt declarations. The declarations of which were mine, of submission and surrender. I let myself be captured by Anita's love.

"Lady," she caressed my tongue, "I want you. I want you bad, Lady."

"I'm here," I breathed, pressing myself into her. "Take me."

Then we broke off, as though none of us could believe what we just said to each other. We shared a gaze, waiting for a sign. Each of us eager to keep going. I smiled, she giggled. For us, it was enough. When we lunged at each other again, oh, the fire within was even more fervent than before.

A quick nip of soft pursed lips is what inflamed us, followed immediately by a hungry open mouth that never stopped asking. Wet, and hot, and confident. No tongue, only lips trying to swallow lips. Then it was paws, traveling curves with intent, gripping lightly, but with force. Encouraging, kneading, pleading, controlling. Soft skin and warm fur, two bodies tentative, but with growing insistence. Caressing lightly at first but searching for ways to shape ourselves into each other, to inhabit, to indulge, to become.

The scent of passion filled the air, suffocating us.

Then a twitch, a quiver, a sharp gasp. In Anita and in me. Our moans and whines and whimpers; fragile as the finest snow. I was taken there. A girl was taking me there and I couldn't stop. But I didn't protest. I pushed into Anita. I pushed, I pressed, I fondled against her, fighting for the sweet love of her mouth, until the tremors took us.

"Lady," Anita whispered, on the brink of breaking out, "I'm coming, Lady! I'm going to come! Can you feel it?"

I could. I did. I felt her as if she was part of me; I sensed her shiver, running through her heart down to her shaking belly, for it ran inside me, too. We gasped and panted and breathed heavily, then we let ourselves go, to get lost in the embrace of the other, moaning long in brief convulsions of pleasure overload, glued to each other by the milk we've been giving out deep in our furs.

Then we heaved a final sigh, sedated; warm, wet tears of joy lingering on our cheeks as we lay damp in female essence. It was over. But breaking off was difficult. We let our tongues slide back, kissing a final moist goodbye, wistful, almost mournful. For who could know if they'll ever meet to kiss again?

"You ladies are such angels," said Anita's gallant, sneaking a kiss on her, "I've never known of a girl who comes and lactates just from kissing."

"And the foxie's so wet and ready," - as mine licked the milk off my fur - "oh, I wish the two of us would get down to it right about now. Fierce and quick how you like it, right foxie?"

"You two should stay the night. We wouldn't mind it at all."

"Oh, you cheeky mutt," Anita smirked, still a little dizzy. "I'm sure you wouldn't. Neither would I being loved under the beautiful night sky and the pale moon romantically like a hot-to-trot princess by her faithful servants, but we have homes and families, too, boys."

"Now you don't plan to leave for home this late, do you?" he hugged Anita tight and rubbed slowly against her face. "It's getting dark and who knows what bad human or mutt waits around the corner?"

"Well, lucky us we don't need to turn any corners. Just a long, straight road to home, sweet home," Anita smiled and crawled out from his embrace. "Come on, Lady. As much I hate to say it, we played enough for today."

I was thankful, yet a little sad too; and just when I was getting comfortable. I won't lie; another quick and fierce round with them wouldn't have displeased me at all. But she was right. I shouldn't have done any more of such things with Darling and Jim Dear at home worried sick about me.

When I got up from my lover's grasp, I did it rather sharply, though I let slip a warm sigh to perk his ears, telling him how much I yearned to stay.

"Will I see you again, foxie?" he asked and looked at me, hopeful in his eyes.

But I didn't answer. I stopped and turned around, yet the long kiss I'd given him when he rose on all fours was enough to show him how eager I was for our next visit. And who knows; maybe, next time, just the two of us alone.

"No, Lady, you can't take him home with you," Anita giggled her puckish giggle.

Then we exchanged one last pair of looks and wagged our tongues of goodbye, squeezing swiftly through the wrought-iron gate and fading like two sultry ghosts into the dark of dusk.

It was only me and Anita that evening when we'd left; no other dog or master out. We did not sprint, not even jog; we were both hungry and thirsty and tired, missing our dishes, our comfortable nests. We've been given so much love of the romantic, selfish kind that we didn't realize how much we were missing the love of our families. I was gone for not that many hours, yet I longed for a pat and a stroke on my ears so much that I thought - almost believed - that I'd been gone for weeks.

It was a slow walk home that we took. Neither of us seemed to have wanted to say a word. I don't know about Anita, but I had my reasons. It never stopped haunting me, not even after we'd left. I loved another girl. I kissed her. I made love to her until I melted in her hug, and she did all those things to me in return. I held feelings for Anita a part of me wished that I would have left there in that wonderful yard with those wonderful dogs. But another part of me embraced those feelings. Those utterly improper feelings which my instincts fought against.

Girls can't love girls like that, I said to myself. No; a female needs a male. I needed a male. It's because of males I followed Anita. When I thought of males, I thought of Atlas and his brothers. Especially of that comely one who called me foxie. I felt cared for in his presence, loved, special. Those were feelings that, at that time, something called a baby was stealing from me and it hadn't even arrived yet. But thinking about that dog and how he loved me made me think of Anita even more. Of how she did it. Of her pretty eyes, her alluring body, the hidden sincerity and truthfulness in her soul when we kissed. And I was falling for her again, with her image in my head. Because, when she made love to me then, I could see her whole, see into her, how she really felt and what she really yearned for. And she yearned the same kind of love that I did, that I lacked at home. When Anita would play-tease her boyfriends, she would be unpredictable. But something told me that wasn't what Anita truly was like.

I was beginning to understand how much more alike we were. The brief moments with Anita told me more than her words ever let on since the day I knew her. I would chase males and their love because, at home, I wouldn't get any. And that must have been why Anita chased love, too. Yet, Anita chased it with so much hungry determination that it made me wonder. Just how miserable was Anita's home becoming if not even the love of that many dogs could soothe her?

My heart suddenly grew heavy with pity and regret. In our shared hunt to cure our lovesick hearts we loved five gallants, yet settled for each other. She fell in love with me because only I could have understood her suffering. Not Atlas or the rest, not her thugs she fantasized about or my faithful wolfdogs; those were just a temporary remedy. Only I; I must have meant to Anita more than any male ever did. And I wished with all my aching heart to heal the pain surrounding hers.

And yet, we were still both girls! Oh, why did it have to be this way?

I needed to think.

"So?"

But of course the talkative and sociable Anita wouldn't let me think even ten steps of our walk.

"So?" I replied.

"So, did you have fun today?" Anita smiled.

And I smiled back but I couldn't be as forward and simply admit that I did. My eyes avoided her gaze.

"It's all right, you know? You don't have to tell me the obvious," she tittered. "I know that you did. And I know what you did to have fun."

Then I swerved my head rapidly. "What do you suppose I did?" I stammered.

"Well, I saw you doing plenty of things that raised my eyebrow. But you truly impressed me when I spotted you lying on top of one of them, taking him and his brothers all the way into your throat, with your lustful eyes and your tongue out, asking them in the most erotic way conceivable to 'feed you,'" Anita laughed and licked her muzzle. "What a foxie! Who would have guessed you had such sex appetite in that timid heart of yours?"

Hearing her made me so hot in my cheeks and red-faced that I thought I would melt from embarrassment. She shouldn't have been able to see any of that, yet she did.

"But," I gawked, "but Atlas-! You were supposed to be asleep when I looked!"

But Anita merely laughed her tongue in and out. "Oh, Lady, you're so silly! You think Atlas is enough to wear me out? He's just a short-tempered puppy. Oh, he played right into my game."

"Your game?" I tilted my head.

"Sure! That final act? It was all my doing. You'd be surprised what a bit of teasing can make a male do."

Then I wrinkled my nose just like Atlas did to her earlier. "You mean to say all that charade was intended?" I began to frown. "But you told me earlier that they wouldn't be doing anything of that sort because they're snipped. You lied to me!"

"No, I didn't!" she tried to defend. "I said that they wouldn't knock you up. Which they didn't. You won't be dragging your heavy belly on the ground by the time spring ends."

"Anita, it hurt me!" I barked.

"It hurt me too if it makes you feel better," she said rather leisurely. "Oh, don't look at me like that. I gave you the better part of the deal. Four gentle mutts to play with you. I doubt you'd have liked to be handled rough by Atlas."

She was right.

"Besides, you're a little naive. Even more than usual. What did you expect to happen? You thought they'd let two cute virgin females, pure as the driven snow, get off that easily with just a few licks and kisses? Come on now. And, if I were to tell you the truth, you'd have gotten scared and wouldn't have come with me."

I stalled for a moment then I lowered my gaze. "I suppose you're not wrong."

"See?" she nudged into me. "In any case, I know you liked it lots."

I peeked up at her and almost let a giggle exit me. Of course I did.

"But I want to hear you say it," she nudged again.

"What?"

"Say that you liked it. Say it, Lady." she pressed.

"All right," I surrendered. "All right, I liked it."

"Lots?"

"Lots."

"There we go!" Anita brushed against me. "Time you've been more open about it. Especially with your best friend. Now tell me," - then she spoke in whispers - "what did you like the most?"

I was a little hesitant. "Can you tell me what's his name? Of the one who kept calling me- you know, that."

"That pup who calls you foxie?" she grinned. "He's the youngest of the five. They call him Thunderbolt, or Bolt for short. Can't get shorter than that. A little excessive, if you ask me, but I heard his human say he's the most spirited of the pack. I imagine you can confirm the rumors."

"Oh, Anita," I sighed, "he was so firm yet so gentle. And he could read me so easily; he knew exactly what I liked."

"Quick and fierce? Of course, for I know only the best, Lady," bragged Anita.

Then I leaned closer to her. "What about you? What did you like the most?"

"Oh, well, you see, I would say the rough, angry sex with Atlas if I want to be crude, or the things I did with his brothers after you went limp on the grass. But then I'd be a liar," she would explain.

"A liar?"

Then I noticed a hindrance in her wish to continue and was taken aback by her characteristic smug nature suddenly fading away. I saw it in her eyes. Anita was about to reveal herself to me.

"If you really must know," Anita went on, "I would say those, well, fleeting moments when I kissed you and you looked at me so surprised. And those when I convinced you to come make love to me between those boys. And then that beautiful moment when we both melted hearts in each other's warm embrace. Lady, I loved those moments the most. I'd lie if I said I didn't. Nothing more magical than that. And something's telling me that you, too, feel the same way."

Just like that, Anita was true again. She was herself. And she was right; I felt the same way. But how could I ever tell her that? It would have been wrong. I couldn't. Even if I could have, I wasn't allowed the chance, as, just a minute later, we arrived at my house. Darling and Honey both beside themselves with worry, waiting on the porch.

"Lady dear!"

"Anita, you should've known better than to run off like that! A little longer and I would have telephoned the pound for you!"

They were harsh but caring. We were both searched for bruises, then scolded, then patted lovingly. Honey hurried herself. Relieved that nothing happened to us, she fastened the leash on Anita and gave Darling her goodbyes. I could not even blink. Yet, my eyes were all on Anita and Anita's were on me.

It was such a strange evening. I left home for love, uncertain of my place in my household, and I returned with my coat full of love but even more uncertain. Anita rocked my world, but she was a girl. Still, I had to know, I had to hear it from her.

When I saw her and Honey leave our yard, I stuck my head through the iron bars of the fence and barked once.

"Anita, wait!"

Anita came to me. Honey began straining the leash.

"Anita, please tell me. I need to know. Do you love me? You love me, don't you?"

She didn't answer, only smiled. But she gave my lips such a profound kiss that she pushed me back through the fence.

"I'll let that be the answer you seek. Do what you will with it, keep it in your honest heart, but don't lose it. Okay, Lady?"

She left me dazed, disappearing into the distance.

And so, I was yet again alone.