Archive of Our Own

Work Text

Special Agent John Barksley of the Species Authority stabbed his third cigarette of the hour out onto the surface of the metal table and dropped it into his finished can of soda. The sizzle it made when the dregs of liquid quenched it out was about the only sound in the room. He and his partner, a snow leopard from somewhere I’d probably never heard of named Ravnica, stared at us from across a familiar table in an all too familiar room. It seemed like only a few days ago that the two of them had been questioning us about the Unbridled killings but it had been the better part of two years.

“No offense…” he said, fishing another cigarette out of a nearly empty pack. “But I kinda hoped we would never see each other again after that last shit show. But here we are. Like one big happy family. Do you two need anything? Coffee maybe?”

“Could always use coffee,” I said, glancing over and down at my partner. Judy and I had been married for about a year now, give or take but despite that, Bogo had kept us on as partners. Oddly, no one else wanted to work with us after everything that went down in the city a while ago. Not because we weren’t good at what we do - everyone knew better than that. But because we were starting to get a reputation for attracting bad luck.

“I’ll get it…I remember how they take it,” Ravnica said, scooting her chair back and making for the door. As soon as it closed, Barksley lit that fourth cigarette, puffing out enough smoke to fill the entire room with that acrid smell. I was going to have to take two showers to wash the smell from my fur.

“So,” he said, leaning forward a little. “Tell me about Bramble Jack.”
“I hate that name,” Judy hissed. “He’s not some local cryptid, he’s a serial killer.” Barksley shrugged. “No one ever accused the Sheriff of Bunnyburrow of being especially creative. I’m sure he thought he was being clever. Now tell me.”
“

Bramble Jack,”

Judy said, sounding out each and every syllable in the name, “Is still at large and that’s pretty much all you need to know about him. Everything else is in the files Nick and I meticulously prepared for you.”

“Oh come on, fluff…you know he’s gonna want more than that.”

Barksley pointed his newly lit cigarette at me, “He’s right. I read the files. Twice even. But that doesn’t tell me what I want to know. The last time we were staring at each other across this table, you spent most of an entire day telling us about the Unbridled. Now I want to know about your serial killer friend. Everything you can give me.”

Judy let out a long sigh. “I really hate you, Barksley.”

“I know, Detective Hopps, I really do. And I know the last thing you want to do is recount everything that’s happened over the last few months but doing so, I’m sure you realize, could lead to Jack’s arrest and if that happens, no more killings. No more murderer and you two brilliant detectives have the chance to see yet another heinous criminal rot behind bars. So please…humor me.”

“We actually heard about Jack for the first time while we were at our own wedding,” I said, glancing again at Judy. “Someone mentioned something about Bramble Jack but at the time, it didn’t ring a bell. I just figured it was a name they had for a bunny who had gotten too drunk and ended up collapsing in a thicket or something. But then later…well, you know what happened.”

“What happened,” Judy said, picking up the narrative. “Is that someone was murdered in my hometown and suddenly, everyone’s ready to blame the local cryptid. Bramble Jack is something we invented a long, long time ago to get little bunny bucks and does to behave themselves. There’s no such thing as Jackalopes and no such thing as Bramble Jack.”

“Maybe,” Barksley said. “But the murders are real enough.

Someone

is out there killing mammals.”

“Or

Some-

Thing,”

I chimed in, unable to help myself. Judy shot me a dirty look.

Ravnica came back in, pushing open the door and backing in. She had that enormous, fluffy tail of hers tucked up and out of the way, holding it in her mouth as she handed two steaming cups of coffee to Judy and me. Judy sit hers aside to let it cool. Me, I downed it and let it burn as it slithered down my throat.

“Well,” Barksley said, giving a shrug and leaning back in his chair. “Let’s start at the root of things. Officer Hopps, why don’t you tell us about the legend of Bramble Jack.”

Judy closed her eyes, shaking her head ruefully. “Fine but like I said…this is just a myth, despite what it looks like. Bramble Jack - that is the legend of Bramble Jack - is about as old as the Burrows themselves. He was supposed to be a hybrid between a rabbit and a red deer. But obviously, since our DNA can’t mix that way, there’s no such thing. He was essentially a bunny with a pair of antlers and - for whatever reason - fangs like you’d find on a tiger or lion. He was a predator in the guise of prey. A sort of wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

“Sounds like my ex mate,” Barksley said, with a lopsided grin. “Keep going. What else?”

“He would lure little bunnies somewhere secluded and ‘eat ‘em all up.’ It was a story leftover from when we should have been afraid of predators. An old legend…nothing else.”

I heard the uncertainty in Judy’s voice. I don’t think anyone else at the table noticed it and if not for knowing her like I did, I doubt I would have heard it either. But that slight tremble; the fleeting glimpse of fear rolling off her tongue. She was afraid. And for all the jokes I was making, so was I.

It had been two years since the Unbridled Murders and for all that time, we couldn’t imagine running approaching that level of gore and blood, let alone something worse. But that night, when we drove nearly three hours through the night to get to Bunnyburrow; we were proven wrong.
  
The headlights of our black sedan cut through the darkness of a narrow country road as Judy drove just a little above the speed limit. I watched the darkened silhouettes of the forest fly by as we made our way out to the scene of the crime. There weren’t any sirens; no flashing lights. Just the two of us sitting in nervous silence for most of the trip. Something was wrong and we both knew it.

When the call came and we found out it was Bunnyburrow, we had been about ready to leave the office for the night. Needless to say, we immediately snatched up the case with Bogo’s blessing and headed out immediately. Now, near midnight, we were coming up on the road where the murder had taken place.

“Okay,” I said, my eyes going forward now to look out the windshield. “What do we know?

“Bogo didn’t have much,” Judy said, shaking her head so that her ears skirted around her shoulders. “Four hours ago, at approximately eight in the evening, a jogger going down the road leading from Bunnyburrow to Painter’s Burrow noticed a trail of blood leading from the road. They followed it a short distance off of the road and when they found the body, they called the emergency line. Bunnyburrow’s Sheriff’s Office is already on the scene. They’re in over their heads, though, or they wouldn’t have called us.”

Judy had already called her relatives who, while safe, didn’t know anything about the murder other than about a dozen police cars had been seen zooming through town with their sirens and lights on.

“I’ll be shocked if the crime scene is the way it was when they found it,” I said, biting my lip with the idea of trying to sort out what was what in the midst of a bloody mess and bumbling rural cops.

“They’re doing their best, Nick.”

I shot a sidelong glance at my mate and sighed. “Yeah, I know carrots. Sorry…I’m hungry and you know I get cranky when I’m hungry.”

Holding the wheel steady, she leaned over with a long stretch and popped open the glove compartment where we kept our stash of snacks. Getting the hint, I chose a chocolate muffin, unwrapped it and took a bite. Through a mouthful of chocolatey perfection, I said, “Anything else?”

“Nope,” Judy said, nervously watching my eat out of the corner of her eye - even being together for years didn’t make her any less able to notice my teeth - “Just that Bogo said the Sheriff sounded like he had ‘seen a ghost.’ Whatever that means.”

Seeing lights up ahead, I said, “Looks like we’re here. Pull over on the other side of the road. I don’t want to scare the locals.”

We pulled in behind the police cruisers who still had their lights rolling. Thankfully, someone had thought to silence the sirens. Judy and I checked our weapons beneath our jackets and got out of the car. It was the dead of winter and needless to say, it was cold enough out that it made me wish we were back in the city where the weather control system would have kept it more temperate.

As our breath turned to mist all around us, we stepped across the road and ducked under a length of police tape which had been strung between the trunks of two trees, each of us flashing our badges as we did. The squirrel in uniform had been about to stop us but a look of relief swept over her features when she saw the credentials.

“Oh…Officers Hopps and Wilde, I presume? I’m Sergeant Marceline. I’ll show you to the Sheriff. Right this way.”

She led us over to where a stout-looking, somewhat overweight rabbit with dark brown fur and a creamy patch of fluff along the neck and one side of his face. He was sipping what I assumed to be coffee from a styrofoam cup. Seeing us, he hopped off of the hood of his car and shook both of our paws.

“Judy…” He said, giving my partner a look that I didn’t quite appreciate. “You must be Officer Wilde? It's good to finally meet you. I’m Sheriff Mack Goodberry.”

Looking from bunny to bunny, I reached up to adjust my tie as I said, “Good to meet you, Sheriff. Do you two know each other?”

“Mack is an old classmate of mine. I didn’t know you'd been made Sheriff, though?”

“Sykes retired,” Mack said, giving a shrug. “So I took over. Judy, I gotta warn you. I know you two have seen some shit; with the Unbridled Murders and all. But this is…well I don’t mind admitting I lost my lunch over this one. It’s really bloody down that path,” I said, pointing down a narrow pathway into the woods that even with my ability to see in the dark, I wouldn’t have noticed unless someone pointed it out to me.

“We left the crime scene as we found it but you’ll find tracks, both ours and the witnesses, leading into the woods but then, that sort of thing can’t really be avoided. We’re holding off the CSI team until you can take a look.”

I took out a notebook and made ready to jot down notes. “Who is the witness?”

Mack reached back to scratch at the back of his neck. “His name is Jimmy Lop, resident of Bunnyburrow. He likes to jog, apparently, although why he’s doing it at night I dunno. The kid’s scared shitless…”

“I would be too,” Judy said. “He probably thinks we think he did it.”

“Well you have the run of the place, Judy. You need anything and my people will be here to provide it. Just let me know what you find, yeah? This one has me a little…I dunno, a little weirded out, I guess. We haven’t had a murder in the burrows in years and now this…”

He walked away, shaking his head and sipping his coffee. Judy and I exchanged glances and it took us all over a few seconds to come to a silent agreement. We should check out the scene of the crime before talking to any witnesses. Besides, the techs were waiting on us so that they could get to work.

Judy clicked on a flashlight while I relied on what little light that shined on the situation to navigate, my eyes no doubt shining in the dark. As we walked through the stretch of forest between the road and the murder, I started to smell it. A moment later, so did Judy. I could tell by her body language, remembering that time in the holding cells beneath the station back in the city. She had been nearly catatonic from the fear. Now…it hardly affected us. I didn’t know if that was a good sign or bad.

A small clearing had been transformed into a killing ground. Bits and pieces of viscera and flesh, with tiny tufts of fur still clinging to them, littered the ground while blood was everywhere; on the ground, bathing the stones and splashed on the trunks of nearby trees. Whoever our victim had been, they had been torn to literal shreds.

“Holy shit…” I breathed, my breath coming out as a steaming gust.

“Okay…” Judy said, shining the light around the scene. She kneeled down and after slipping on a pair of rubber gloves, started moving the bits and pieces around, an expression of revulsion on her muzzle. “This is rabbit fur,” she said surely, prodding one of the bloody gobbets with a gloved finger.

“Paw prints here too,” I said, kneeling down to look more closely. “Two sets but one definitely isn’t a rabbit. Looks like hooves. A stag or something, maybe?”

“We’re not gonna see much of anything in this dark. We should make arrangements for the techs to ship the remains back to the city and let Doctor Woodard sort it out. He’ll be able to tell us how this mammal was killed. I really hope they were dead

before

they were torn apart like this.”

“Something big did this, carrots. It takes strength to pull someone apart like this.”

“Yeah,” Judy said, knowing what we both knew from our previous cases. “That or the kind of rage you need a lifetime of therapy for.”

“Or they could have been on Nighthowler.”

“I don’t think so,” Judy said, standing back up and shining the light at the trees. “That sort of thing isn’t as readily available out here as it is in the city. Most people around here use it for insect repellant, not as a drug. Uh Nick? Look at this.

I turned to see what she had shined the flashlight on. A series of deep furrows had scarred the surface of one of the nearby trees, the bark stained with blood which, while drying, was still a little wet. The claws were massive and far enough apart that nothing I could readily think of should have been able to make them. I swept past Judy, leaning in to look closer.

“These are really deep…and too sharp to be claws.”

Judy blinked, looking up at me. “What? What do you mean?”

I spread my paw in front of her eyes and extended my claws as much as I could. Rather than flinch back at the sight of them like other bunnies might do, she looked up at me and smiled. She trusted me not to use them on her. Not unless she asked me.

“My claws are pretty sharp right?”

“Right,” She said, her smile transforming into a buck-toothed grin. “Now is not the time for flirting, Nick.”

“Funny…” I said flatly. “I mean they’re sharp but they aren’t as sharp as say, a knife blade. But these,” I said, turning around and gesturing to the tree. “They look like they were made with a knife. Except…except they’re clearly in the alignment you’d expect from claws.”

“So? It's something big, like we said.”

“No, carrots…this is

too

big. Nothing has claws this wide.”

Judy suddenly looked uncomfortable and glanced out into the darkness of the woods. “So what does that leave?”

“I…I don’t have a clue.”

There was a long moment of silence before I cleared my throat and said, “Let’s get back to the road and let the crime scene techs take over. Hopefully they find something forensic that can make this make sense. That and we have a witness to interview.”
  
Jimmy Lop was the kind of kid who you’d expect to have grown up in the Burrows. He was skinny, lop-eared and a creamy brown color all over except for his paws which were covered in gloves of white. And true to what Sheriff Coney had said, he was terrified. The police had covered him in a blanket and given him a cup of coffee but despite that, the kid looked cold and out of place sitting on the hood of a cop car.

“Judy? I thought you worked for the Zootopia police?”

I set Judy with a studied look. “Okay, do you know everyone in Bunnyburrow?”

“He’s my third cousin,” Judy said, giving me a smile. “How are you Jimmy?”

“Been better,” He answered, raising his cup in a shaking paw to take another sip. “I saw the blood and I figured hey, someone could need help, you know? They don’t think I did it, do they Judy? I can’t go to jail, I’m going to college next year!”

“Calm down, Jimmy,” Judy said, reaching down to put a paw on his. “Nobody thinks you did that; I doubt any bunny could. We just need you to tell us exactly what you saw and how it happened.”

Jimmy seemed to relax a little under the weight of his blanket. “Well, you know I like to run. I usually worked up a sweat doing it and I thought, it being as cold as it is, it would keep me cool, you know? I usually jog the first three miles toward Painter’s Burrow and then turn back again.”

I raised a brow. “Six miles? Not bad, kid.”

“Thanks…I got to the three mile mark and I’m about to turn back when I notice the blood. I think I smelled it before that but, I can’t be sure. I wasn’t really paying attention, you know? I thought somebody was hurt. Maybe they got hit by a car and thrown off the road. So I go down into the woods and follow the blood trail. I…they were just fucking torn apart. I mean who does that? Who

can

do that? Did…do you think they

ate

them? Like those Unbridled Murders you guys were working?”

“I doubt it,” Judy said but we both knew it might have been a lie. The fact is that there had been a lot of meat still left in that clearing but there was still not enough evidence to say that some of the body hadn’t been consumed. “But try not to think about that right now, okay? Did you see anybody else on the road? Any other joggers or cars?”

“N-no. I think I’m the only idiot enough to run in this cold, you know? But...in the clearing…I didn’t exactly see anyone. But I felt like I was being watched, you know? Could have just been scared out of my wits but it definitely felt like someone was watching me. And then I thought I heard this weird sound.”

I had my notebook out and scribbled. “What kind of sound?”

Jimmy took on a haunted look, looking past us to where the woods resided. “Like…laughing? What do you call it when someone is kinda laughing under their breath? Chortling? Like someone was chortling at me. Don’t laugh…but it kinda reminded me of those old stories. You know the ones about Bramble Jack.”

My ears perked up at that. “What in the fuck is a Bramble Jack?”

Judy winced, waving away my question. “A stupid superstition. A legend about a monster that used to take the form of a bunny but was really a predator that somehow looked like one. He, or

it,

used to lure little bunny bucks and does into danger and then eat them. It's a stupid story we made up to keep our kits from getting into too much trouble.”

My mind immediately flashed back to the claw marks in the tree. “Uh huh…charming little stories you guys have around here.”

Jimmy gave a weak little smile. “My friends and I used to take turns daring each other to go out into the woods and call his name three times; like that would summon him or something. But if Bramble Jack ever did exist…I know his laugh would sound exactly like that. Judy, can I go home now?”

“Yeah, Jimmy. I’ll get Sheriff Goodberry to give you a ride home. Just, maybe don’t go out running at night again for a while? There could be a murderer out there. We won’t know anything for sure for a few days now, but still.”

“Sure, yeah…thanks, Judy.”

As Jimmy hopped off of the hood of the car and made for the Sheriff, Judy looked up at me and sighed. “I know what you’re thinking and it is

not

Bramble Jack.”

“Of course not,” I said in agreement, bobbing my muzzle up and down. “But it could be someone pretending to be. Remember last year when we had those two killers who seemed to be the same mammal but one turned out to be copying the first one’s methods? So then why can’t someone pretend to be some boogeyman.”

Judy shrugged. “Sure, but why would you? I can understand being inspired to copy another murderer but who gets it in their head to pretend to be some kind of rural legend from the ancient past?”

“Someone who ain’t right aint he head, fluff, that’s for sure. Come on…it’s gonna be a long drive home and after that, in the morning, we’ve got to tell Bogo what we found and go visit Doctor Woodard at the morgue.”
  
Fueled on nothing but coffee and rugged determination, Nick and I went down to the coroner's office the first thing in the morning. We had gotten back to our apartment too late to think about and rather than catch an hour or two of sleep, we had decided to do something life-affirming and um well…you know.

So we were kinda bleary-eyed when we walked through the institutionally lit, overly sterile hallways of Doctor Woodard’s office at the City Center Morgue. As chief medical examiner, he was given all the high profile and difficult to solve cases. Cubs and kits, dismembered bodies and rape victims; he had seen it all. And despite that, he was still the same stoic beaver we had known from our time in uniform. I think maybe there’s something wrong with him, but Nick swears it’s just a brave face he puts on.

“Detectives…” Woodard drawled as we walked into the room where the autopsy had taken place. The bits and pieces of the bunny he had found the night before had been meticulously laid out so that they looked like awful little puzzle pieces; each one laid nearest the other body part it had come from or lacking that, where Woodard thought it came from.

“Heya Doc,” Nick said, knowing how much Doctor Woodard hated being called ‘Doc.’

“Detective Wilde,” The beaver said, reaching up to adjust his tie and looking down his nose at my mate. “And here I was thinking that I would finally go an entire month without seeing you in this office. Alas, it seems I cannot be so lucky. You two look like hell, did you know that?”

“We haven’t slept,” I admitted, sipping my cup of coffee.

“I gathered as much. Now would you like to know what I found regarding the body…or what remains of it.”

Both Nick and I nodded, unable to muster up the energy to speak any more than we already had. Doctor Woodard clicked on a light that was angled at the metal slab of a table upon which the remains were situated. The stark light of the fluorescent bulb threw everything on the table into high definition, banishing the shadows and making it all the more awful to look at. The smell of blood was still there too, although faint and now mingling with the acerbic scent of alcohol, formaldehyde and who knows what else. I glanced over to Nick who was putting his cup of coffee aside and getting ready to make notes.

“Detective Hopps was quite astute in assuming this was, at one point, a rabbit. A female dwarf rabbit to be exact which is certainly in keeping with the region in which the remains were found. Her age was approximately fifteen to eighteen years old. Exact cause of death is difficult to determine due to the rather extensive damage inflicted to the corpse although there is enough lividity in what remains to ascertain that the victim was alive for most of the dismemberment. Likely cause of death is blood loss from severe lacerations about the neck and chest. There weren’t enough of the sexual organs left to determine if she had been sexually assaulted or not.”

I shifted uncomfortably. No matter how many necropsies I've been through, they never get any easier. Especially when Doctor Woodard insisted on describing every single detail of what he found. But then I suppose, that was the kind of information we’d need to bring this girl’s killer to justice.

Nick said, “What about the claw wounds? What sort of animal do you think could do that?”

Raising a bushy brow, Doctor Woodard reached up and swept his glasses off of his muzzle, folding them neatly before tucking them into his lab coat’s front pocket. “Understand that what I am about to say are just the facts and that it is not my job to surmise or commit to supposition. That is the arena of you Detectives. I only provide what information I can. That said, I don’t believe these wounds are consistent with any claw wounds I have ever seen and with the Unbridled Murders behind us, I have quite a bit of expertise in that area. No, I am quite certain these wounds were made with knives.”

Nick and I exchanged glances. “Knives?”

“Knives,” Woodard repeated. “The strange thing is that the lacerations are almost uniformly distance apart with every stroke. So either the killer was taking their time in making these incisions - which seems unlikely considering the violence of the crime - or they were wearing some kind of…apparatus; perhaps a glove or something similar.”

Nick blinked. “Wait…are you saying they were wearing false claws made of knives?”

Doctor Wooded nodded, almost the motion was nearly imperceivable.

“You were right,” I said, smiling at Nick. “Nothing has claws that big.”

Nick smirked. “Yeah, I was right…but I kinda wish I wasn’t. We’re dealing with a lunatic here, fluff. Anyone who just up and decides, ‘hey, I want to kill somebody but these claws, well, they just aren’t gonna do the trick.’ So they strap a glove made of knives to their paw? I thought we’d seen the apex of crazy with the Unbridled.”

“There’s always a bigger fish,” I said, nudging him in the side with an elbow.

Doctor Woodard cleared his throat. “If the two of you are quite finished, I should begin cleaning up and making sure these remains get back to the Bunnyburrow coroner. We’ll find out who this doe was with the dental records and after that, I am quite certain that someone there will want to give her a proper burial.”

I winced. “Sorry, Doctor Woodard. Thank you! As usual, you’ve been a huge help.”

Pulling Nick out into the hallway, I let the door close behind us. “Well that’s that…”

Nick curled a brow at me, his tail skirting the floor behind him. “Uh huh. You honestly gonna try to convince me that you don’t want to go after this maniac? We can’t just pawn it over to some backwoods country cops.”

“We have to, Nick. We don’t have jurisdiction in Bunnyburrow.”

“Shit,” he breathed, leaning back against the wall and taking a long pull of his coffee before tossing the rest of it into a nearby trash can. “Yeah, that is kind of an obstacle isn’t it? Bogo wouldn’t go for that and you can bet Sheriff…what did you say his name was?”

“Mack? His last name is Goodberry.”

Nick laughed. “Is there

anyone

in Bunnyburrow who doesn’t have an adorable last name? Anyway, you can be sure he’d raise a stink about it. Rightfully so, I guess. We’d be stepping all over his paws.”

“Yup!” I said, beaming up at him. “Which means we hand off what we found, all the evidence we gathered and ship it off to Bunnyburrow. It’s their problem now. But if this guy shows up in town, you and I will nail him to the wall!”

“Why Detective Hopps, you know I like it when you talk dirty.”
  
Nick’s paw slid up along my side and curled around me, pulling me back into his warmth so that our fur mingled in just the right way. I closed my eyes as he leaned close and kissed my ears.

We had come home early that evening, Chief Bogo insisting that we get some rest before we started working on our other open cases the next day. We had immediately stripped down to nothing but our fur and slipped into bed. Now, with his muzzle resting against the crook of my neck, I felt warm, safe and loved.

“Love you…” I said, yawning wide as I said it.

“Love you too, fluff. You smell so good,” he said, huffing me in like I was his own personal drug of choice. I squirmed beneath his touch, the heated breath from his now washing through my fur and making my tail twitch.

“That’s just the way I smell,” I said, reminding him for what must have been the thousandth time. “It’s just my fur and some soap.”

Rather than answer me, I felt his paw slide down over my still twitching tail and further down my bottom until he had slipped his paw between my thighs. I let my eyes flutter closed and spread my legs just a little as I felt his fingertips dance along the crease of my lips. As he toyed with me, I felt the warm rush of his tongue slipping again and again over my neck and cheek until I turned just enough so that our muzzles met in a soft, delicate kiss.

Some prey girls might have been afraid or at least a little nervous about letting a predator this close to her vulnerable parts but I had long since gotten past that. I trusted no one more than I trusted my Nick.

“Just wha…ah” he breath caught in my throat as he touched a particularly sensitive spot. “Just what are you trying to do, Mr Fox?”

He let a growl roll out from his chest and a thrill ran up and down my body. Suddenly, I was wet. Sopping wet and his fingers were inside me, painting that moisture all around my sex and making me ready for him. I could feel him hard against me now, his length nudging at my bottom and around the root of my tail.

I shifted my body just a little, my back arching so that I was at the right angle before I said, “Put it inside me.”

I felt his fingers leave me only to be replaced by that hard fox cock. He guided himself inside me and I felt him sink deep. My muzzle slipped open, a gasp of a breath escaping as I heard myself give something akin to a squeal and moan all in one. As gentle as he was, Nick was still a fox and I was still a bunny. He was big for me and each and every time, it took a second or two to get used to him.

But as he started to rock his hips against my bottom, drawing himself through my petals, though, it started to feel better. We were in that moment now when time didn’t matter anymore, that intimate place where the world bows to the love shared by two mammals and seemed to stop time itself.

I felt his arm slip down my middle, down past my belly button and down over my mound so that he could touch me in the most sensitive spots. I spread my legs wide, making the best use of my rabbit flexibility I could as I draped one leg over his and lay back against him. That muzzle was still rooting through the fur at my neck, breathing me in and making me feel the most deliciously soft and warm inside.

“Not gonna last long this time, bunny…”

“It’s okay. I just want to feel you finish in me.”

I smiled inwardly, knowing that would be sure to set him off toward the edge. I chewed on my bottom lip as he drove himself into me again and again, feeling my own inner muscles clench down on his fox cock again and again. My own climax came unexpectedly, hitting me hard and fast. The feeling started somewhere in my belly and expanded up and down my spine so that in the end, my legs were left shivering and quaking with the aftershocks of the feelings.

Nick joined me about half way through mine, his length pulsating deep inside. I felt him pumping his cum into me and reached down to put a paw over my belly, just above my clit and found his paw still lingering there. I interlaced my fingers with his as he turned to kiss each other again.

After we broke the kiss, neither of us moved for a while. I felt his knot growing inside me but I didn’t care. I was used to his girth now and it didn’t make me uncomfortable. Instead, it made me feel full and intimate with him in a way that only foxes usually experience. I sighed, smiling up at him as his paws freely roamed over my body.

We slept that night secure that everything was right in the world. Sure, we had seen horrors the previous night and that morning but like always, we would get through it. Were the two best detectives in Zootopia after all. Funny how things can seem so bright and cheery right before they go bad. The next couple of days would make me wish I had never heard of the legend of Bramble Jack.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

That next morning, Nick and I were called to Bogo’s office to go over the murder in Bunnyburrow and to finish out the end of it before we handed it off to the local cops. Bogo was getting old and by now, there were whispers that he might step down as chief of police for the City Center and retire. Although no one was going to suggest that within earshot of him. When we came into the office, he was wearing his pair of reading glasses and a scowl that by now, Nick and I recognized as his default expression.

“Detectives,” he grumbled, motioning to the two chairs in front of his desk. “Please, have a seat. I just wanted to go over what else the crime scene investigators found after you left the scene in Bunnyburrow.”

The chairs weren’t quite the size required for us - Nick and I were some of the smallest mammals on the force - so Nick and I both had to hop up into our seats and ended up balanced on the edge. Otherwise, we’d look a little unprofessional with our legs curled up around us. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Nick curl and tuck his tail out of the way. I couldn’t help but smile.

“Your reports mentioned someone called,” He glanced down at the paper and then back up to us. “Bramble Jack. Who exactly is that?”

Since I hadn’t mentioned that name anywhere on

my

report, I gave Nick an accusatory look, staring at him with a smirk on my face. Had Nick taken the tale of Bramble Jack so seriously as to put it in one of our reports?

There was a long pause as if Nick was waiting for me to tell the story. Finally, I gave in and said, “It’s nothing, sir. A local tall tale about a carnivorous bunny that lures people into the woods and eats them. It's a silly superstition and I’m surprised Detective Wilde actually included it in the report. It’s not important.”

“I’ll decide what’s important, Detective,” Bogo said, a slight grumble creeping into his basso voice. “

I felt my ears lay back as I said, “Yes sir.”

“The dental records were used to identify the victim. Her name was Jennifer Burrowbell, aged sixteen. She was being raised by her grandmother who has since taken possession of the remains which have been returned to Bunnyburrow. Anyone you know, Detective Hopps?”

“I don’t think so, chief.” I resisted the urge to remind him that I didn’t know

everyone

in my home town. “She’s too young to have gone to high school with me or anything.”

“I thought as much but it didn’t hurt to ask. Tell me more about this local legend.”

I sighed inwardly, resisting the urge to drive a hard elbow into Nick’s ribs. There would be time enough for that later. For now, I would just tell the chief a short version of the story. “There are a lot of legends about him, really. The oldest one I know of comes from way back before Bunnyburrow was anything more than a collection of warrens and patches of farmland. Bramble Jack was something that looked like a bunny but wasn’t. He’d hide in the brambles in the woods or by the roads and jump out and take little bucks and does and ‘eat ‘em all up.’ Other versions have him as some creepy mixture of a bunny and a deer. Had antlers and everything.”

Bogo raised a brow. Turning to Nick, he said, “What do you think of this, Wilde?”

Nick shifted in his seat and coughed, clearing his throat as he glanced in my direction. “Sir, I think there might be some merit to the story. Oh, don’t get me wrong. I don’t think Bramble Jack is real any more than Detective Hopps. But I think, especially after what Doctor Woodard told us, that it could be someone pretending to be Bramble Jack; someone using the story as a method for murder.”

Bogo nodded. “Which would mean we have a psychopath on our hands. I read the necropsy report and your supposition about the knife glove. Reminds me of some old 80’s slasher movie.”

“Freddy Cougar, sir,” Nick supplied.

Bogo bobbed his head up and down in a nod. “That’s the one. Either way, that’s

Bunnyburrow’s problem now.  We’ve given the local police a good start. How are your other cases going?”

Nick and I had nearly a half a dozen cases going right now, each one a violent crime ranging from the murder of a giraffe socialite to the rape and murder of a badger in Tundra Town. And of course, even nearly two years afterward, we were still cleaning up the odd Unbridled here and there. Despite their leader being dead, there were still some fanatics in the city's worst places.

“They’re all pretty much winding down,” I said, reaching into my pocket and pulling out my notebook. I flipped it open to the most recent pages and said, “The Reedy murder is pretty much solved; we’ll have the suspect in custody by tomorrow and we have enough evidence on him that even without a confession, we’re set to go to court. The…”

Bogo held up a beefy hand and said, “I’ll read it all in the after reports. I trust you two enough to do a crack job. As it happens, though, I’ve got nothing else for you for the time being. I think the city hasn’t been this peaceful since I became chief of police. That’s no small thanks to you two,” he said pointing at the both of us.

Beaming, I nudged Nick in the ribs.

“Yeah, we are pretty awesome, aren’t we chief?”

“Don’t test my patience, Wilde. Now get out of my office and go take a break or something. It’s almost lunch time. 
  
Buckstars wasn’t my favorite place to go for coffee in Zootopia, but there was one right across the street from the station and it was a good spot for Tabitha and I to talk during our breaks. Nick had stayed behind to work on our other cases, citing the fact that if he had any more coffee that morning, he might start vibrating out of his pelt. Tabitha was a white lop-eared bunny with a spot over her right eye and scattered about various parts of her arms and legs. She was wearing cute stylized earrings that looked like little carrots and a work blouse and skirt that went down to about her knees. Sipping on something chocolatey, she smiled at me, her cheeks puffing out a little as she sucked on her straw.

Looking at her over my own chai latte, I raised a brow. “What?”

Wide green eyes looked back at me as she said, “Huh?”

“You were staring at me, Tabby. What’s the matter with you, you’ve been completely quiet since we sat down. And don’t think I haven’t noticed how little you’ve been over to the apartment recently. Something’s wrong. You can tell me, Tabby; I promise I won’t be mad. Did…did you want to break up?

A few years ago, during the Unbridled Murders, Tabitha had become Nick and I’s girlfriend. She had helped Nick and I through some of the hardest months of our lives and both Nick and I loved her deeply. She also happened to be the best computer technician in the city and worked for the Zootopia Police as a civilian attache in the cyber crimes department. Despite not being an officer, she pretty much ran the IT department. The idea of losing her made my heart ache and the latte did not sit very well in my stomach.

“No! I mean…do you want that?”

“Okay…” I said, reaching across the table to grab her paw. “Why are you thinking we want to break up with you? I know I don’t want that and I’m pretty sure neither does Nick. He was asking just the other day why you don’t come over anymore.”

“Well to be honest,” She said, stopping to take another sip of her frappe, but in a way that made me think it was just to give her time to frame her words. “Ever since you got married, I’ve felt a little… I dunno? Just wanted to give you two, time alone at first…but then the idea of intruding into what you two have…I just didn’t want to be the third wheel, you know?”

I rolled my eyes but I couldn’t help but smile. Tabitha Patterfoot was simultaneously the most insecure and absolutely confident doe I have ever met. She’s always been socially awkward and nerdy but she knew her way around her chosen field like no one else. Sometimes, she just needed a little bit of reassurance. Don’t we all, from time to time?

“Tabby…I need you to listen to me,” I said, my other paw slipping across the table to take both of hers. As I spoke, I leaned in and brought each of her paws up to my muzzle and kissed them, holding eye contact with her. “I…love…you. We…both…love…you.”

“I know,” she said, her eyes shining a little as she chewed on her bottom lip. “I know that on an intellectual level, I do. But sometimes…I don’t know. I think sometimes you and Nick know how my brain works better than I do.”

I laughed. “Well not that you mention it, I think maybe we do. Hey, how about this…how about you come over tonight? We’ll cook something nice we can all enjoy and Nick and I will show you exactly how much we missed you. Sounds fun?”

The fun thing about Tabitha’s fur being white is that sometimes, if you catch her in just the right light, you can see the blush beneath her pelt. She blushed hard at the suggestion and nodded, her muzzle dipping back down to sip her chocolatey drink.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Nick come barreling through the door and go right up to the register. It wasn’t long before he was sliding into the booth next to me; a somewhat guilty look written over his muzzle.

“Yeah, I couldn’t help myself,” He said, taking a long pull off of what smelled like a mocha latte. “Heya, Tabby. Cute earrings.”

I elbowed him in the ribs. “I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist joining us. You know it's okay to step away from work once in a while and take a breather. Otherwise, we’ll end up as stressed as we were during the Un…”

“Don’t even mention it, fluff,” he said, giving an exaggerated shiver. “I’d do anything to forget that year. I just want to sit here with my two favorite bunnies and enjoy a nice cup of coffee.”

Tabitha shot him an incredulous look. “You want to forget the year that literally made you famous throughout the entire city? You saved Zootopian society as we know it, you big dumb, adorable fox.”

“We were already famous before that, Tabs, remember?” He leaned back in the booth and stretched, his arms going above his head as he grinned. “The nighthowler case and putting that ‘look at me, I’m a harmless sheep’ behind bars. I mean, yeah, it was too bad what happened to her afterward but still.” He took a sip of his latte. “Still can’t believe I touched her wool.”

Tabitha leaned back in the booth. “You did

what?”

Nick cringed, “Okay yeah, that sounded pretty dirty. Once, when Judy and I were in Bellwether’s janitor’s closet she used as an office, looking over some traffic cam footage, I touched the wool - on top of her head mind you - while she was distracted. Sheep are always so nervous around me so…” he shrugged. “Never got the chance.”

I whispered in a conspiratorial tone, saying, “Nick is an equal opportunity pervert.”

“So I’ve noticed,” Tabitha said, giving him a  buck-toothed grin.

“I invited Tabitha over to dinner tonight,” I said, giving Nick a sweet smile.

Nick canted his head to the side, “Oh yeah? Well, I’ll have to cook up something special. Eggplant parmesan, maybe?”

“I’m gonna stop you right there, Detective Hopps,” Barkley said, mashing out his cigarette into an actual ash tray this time; one which Agent Ravnica had produced from somewhere else in the station. Although where she got it, I have no idea. Who smokes inside anymore? “What does all this have to do with Bramble Jack.”

I sank back into my chair, letting out a long sigh. I heard Nick shifting in the chair next to me. I think he knew what I was building up to, what I was trying to avoid. This had all been in the reports, of course. But Barksley was the kind of wolf who wanted the blow by blow of everything that happened. Things that didn’t make it into the reports.

“Look, do you want to know the whole story or not?!”

Barksley blinked, clearly not expecting me to shout at him. If I’m going to be honest, I hadn’t expected to either. The stress of reliving all of this was getting to me; that and trying not to choke on Barksley’s smoke.

“Last time, with the Unbridled murders, you wanted to know exactly what we were doing the whole time, right? You didn’t even let me gloss over the…naughty bits. So…I’m…I’m just getting to it, that's all.”

Agent Ravnica, who had been quiet up until then, flicked an ear as he leaned forward. “What has made you so agitated, Detective Hopps? Is there something you don’t want us to know? Some part of the story you’ve left out, perhaps?”

Nick shook his head. “Knock that off, Agent Spots or I’ll shove your tail back into your mouth so you can’t say such stupid shit.”

Suddenly the two of them were up and leaning over the table, a dueling set of growls issuing from open muzzles and flashing fangs like they were about to attack each other. I flinched, shrinking back at the sight of Ravnica’s fangs. I wasn’t scared exactly, just startled, but the effect was more or less the same.

Barksley balled his paw and slammed it hard against the metallic surface of the table, making all of us jump. “Ravnica… Detective Wilde. Let’s take it down a little, shall we? We know you aren’t liars and we damn well know you can handle yourselves but since the moment we got into this room, Detective Hopps has been acting…let’s say out of sorts.”

I had to hand it to them. The Species Authority agents had good instincts about the people they were dealing with. I took a deep breath as the last of Agent Ravnica’s growl simmered into something akin to a purr and said, “Nick and I have dealt with a lot of things over the years. Too many murders to count, rapists, cub traffickers and of course, the Unbridled and Nighthowler cases. Thing is…none of that ever hit close to home.”

Barksley’s eyes narrowed. “All of it took place in Zootopia…that’s your home, isn’t it?”

“That’s not what I mean. None of the crimes we had dealt with had been so…personal. Don’t get me wrong. Mammals have tried to kill us before. A lot, actually. But no one but this one maniac has come close to…” I stopped, unable to find the right words.

“She’s scared,” Nick said. “After what we saw in that alley…I was scared too.”

Ravnica shook her head, not quite understanding. “You’ve been scared before. It comes with the job, does it not?”

I looked up at her and then back down to the pitted surface of the table. “Not like this. This was different…too close to home.” 
  
Judy and I took the bus home as usual. Since my car was destroyed in an explosion sometime back - you remember the one - we had been taking public transportation which was fine by me. Getting around in the city is much easier by train or bus than trying to maneuver through the traffic. Plus why add to the city’s traffic problems? Anyway…I was standing in the middle aisle with my paw on one of those hanging handles and Judy was using my arm to hold on to. As usual, we got strange looks from just about everyone.

While inter-species couples weren’t

that

unusual anymore, the whole predator and prey thing still got people staring. We just pretended not to notice. By now, we were pretty much used to it.

Judy and I had changed into our civilian clothing. While we weren’t walking around in uniform anymore, we were still required to wear something that you’d see in a business setting. Now we were more casual, myself sporting a flannel shirt and a pair of jeans while Judy had on a light purple shirt and a patching ballcap and skinny jeans. The color coordination made her look, dare I say it? Kinda cute.

“What’cha thinking, fluff?”

She peered up at me, her ears drooping a little as glanced around the bus. “Hmm? Oh, nothing, really. Just…like a lot of mammals are staring at us, Nick. Like more than usual.”

“Don’t ever let them see they get to you, Judy.”

“I know,” She said, scooting closer to me. “It's probably just me being paranoid. I’ve just been thinking about the Bunnyburrow case. Did you know that before a couple of nights ago, there hadn’t been a murder in Bunnyburrow in twenty years?”

I raised a brow, looking down at. “Yeah? I’m surprised, with Bramble Jack running around.”

She stared up at me, our eyes never leaving each other even as the bus hit a particularly bad pothole and Judy came up off of the floor for a moment, her ears bouncing with the movement. “Why are you doing that?”

Confused, I shook my head. “Doing what, fluff?”

“Making fun of it…like it’s something funny.”

I glanced around the bus, wondering if now was the best time to talk about this kind of thing. Keeping my voice low, I tucked my head down so my muzzle was a few inches from one of her ears.

“Judy, you’re the one who's been saying this entire time that Bramble Jack is a myth. I thought you wouldn’t mind me poking fun at it. This…this is really bothering you, huh?”

She looked ready to wilt under my gaze and at that moment, I think I would have given anything to be able to wrap my arms around her and give her a hug. But someone on that bus, having a bias against predators, would no doubt do something ironic like call the police on me, saying that I was a ‘vicious predator’ trying to hurt an innocent bunny. Nevermind that Judy could kick me halfway across Zootopia if she got a good running start.

Instead I swept a paw down over her head and ears, smoothing the expanse of gray fur. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw another bunny tense at the movement and I immediately yanked my paw away.

“I know it shouldn’t,” she finally said, matching my soft tone. She had seen the other rabbit’s reaction too. “But yeah, it's really bothering me and you're making fun of it; it makes it worse. On one paw, I know Bramble Jack is a myth and that it's just some crazy mammal using that old legend as a mask. But on the other…every time I hear that name ‘Bramble Jack’ it sets off alarms in my mind.”

“Alarms? Like how?”

She looked up at me and I could see fear in those violet eyes. “The same kind of feeling I used to get before the Unbridled case. Do you remember the first time, at the beginning,  we came into that cell and saw that boar just…spread all over the floor and walls of that cell? That time I went kinda catatonic for a bit? It’s like that. It’s like I’m being chased by a predator that only I can see. Some part of me must think it's real; despite what the rest of me wants to believe.”

“Baby…” I said, crouching down a little so that I was at eye-level with her. “Bramble Jack might be real. Not in that boogie man sort of way but in a deranged killer kind of way. We gave the Bunnyburrow cops a good start on the case and despite what I sometimes say about them, I’m sure they’re up to the task. And even if this somehow becomes our problem, we’ll kick its tail just like we do everything else.”

She smiled weakly, giving a little nod as she said, “Yeah, you’re probably right. Like you said, though…it’s not our problem. Out of our jurisdiction. Out of sight and out of mind!”

“You got it, carrots.” I grinned, leaning close as I said, “Let’s just concentrate on all the bad things we’re going to do to Tabitha when she comes over tonight.”

That was the last of that conversation…at least until later. The rest of the bus ride went pretty uneventfully  and when we got home, we immediately set about making things comfortable for our guest. Tabitha was coming over and as Judy had promised, I needed to make my famous - or was that infamous? - eggplant parmesan.

Of the two of us, no matter what she tells you, I’m by far the better cook. My mom was the best cook in our neighborhood and I inherited her entire repertoire as a matter of course. That and unlike someone we know, I didn’t have to include carrots in every single thing I cooked. So I set about cooking while Judy set the stage. One of Tabby’s favorite movies, her favorite spot on our couch with cushions fluffed and ready and of course, a big soft blanket that we’d gotten from Judy’s mom a while ago. It was the ugliest thing since my skunk butt rug but it was warm and soft.

We spent the evening just being friends, watching the movie and griping over work-related issues and talking about Tabitha’s family in the city. It was during the second round of movie watching, with both bunny leaning against me from either side, that Judy and I shared the look. We were both ready to have fun.

I slipped out from between the two rabbits and stood. Tabitha hadn’t been ready for the sudden movement and toppled over so that her head landed directly in Judy’s lap. She started to scramble back up but Judy pressed her down again, a paw planted firmly on her chest. I smirked, reaching up to unbutton the first couple of buttons of my shirt as I said, “Better stay right where you are, Tabby. Judy and I have been planning this all day.”

Judy nodded, her paw sliding along the length of Tabitha’s ears as she said, “Tonight is gonna be all about you…we love you and I think it’s time we remind you of that. So…Nick is going to fuck you until you can’t stand up. And I’m gonna help!”

Judy so rarely swore that for a moment, it even took me off-guard. She must have been in a pretty playful mood. Tabitha looked up at us both, first toward Judy and then to me, those emerald-like eyes lingering on me as I started peeling off pieces of clothing. Tabitha shivered as Judy stroked her ears, my favorite bunny leaning down to give Tabitha a soft kiss.

In the short time that kiss transpired, I had gotten rid of the rest of my clothes. Both rabbits looked at me with a frank look of appreciation, one which by now I’d gotten used to but was still no less gratifying. I stood over Tabitha, hiking one of my legs so that my foot pressed into the couch not too far from Judy’s shoulder.

“Care to get us started, Carrots?”

Judy smiled up at me, her eyes lingering on mine as she leaned close and took my emerging cock into her warm, wet mouth. The feeling of her tongue lathering the underside of my girth was amazing and I felt my eyes start to flutter closed from the liquid heat of her muzzle.

Tabitha who was watching from below said, “Now

that

is a nice view, Mr. Fox…”

She was wearing jeans; having taken off her usual skirt, and her paws went to her waist, quickly unbuckling her belt and slipping a paw down between her thighs. Her eyes stared at Judy as she started to suck me off, her head bobbing back and forth as she gave pleasing little sounds. Tabitha’s paw started flexing beneath her jeans, a look of lustful need creeping into her eyes as she watched Judy make me hard.

Judy slipped my length out of her muzzle and took a gasping breath. “Somebody…needs to be naked…right now,” she said, grinning down at Tabitha.

“Know something, fluff? I think you’re right.”

I knelt down on the couch and unbuttoned Tabitha’s jeans. With one swift tug, I had them off of her and sent them flying to the floor. Jostling a little from the movement, the bunny gave a playful shriek a little giggle; struggling to rid herself of the pink and blue ‘Hack the planet’ shift she was wearing. Her panties were skimpy, silky and showed off how the colors of her coat transitioned to the other in just the right ways and said something in that ones and zeros language that computers use. Curious as I was, I wasn’t about to ask her what it said. Sometimes, there are more important things to consider.

Judy helped her with the shirt and in no time at all the spotted bunny doe was left in nothing but her undies. With my mate still stroking the length of her ears, Tabitha shivered and made a show of crossing her arms in front of her chest. Cute, considering that bunnies didn’t have much in the chest department.

“Come here, Mr. Fox. It's cold in here and you look really warm.”

“Not yet…I have to have my fun too, you know.”

Curious, she canted her head to the side, momentarily peering up at Judy who smiled back at her in turn. She didn’t have long to wait to see what I meant, though, as I got to my knees by the couch and using her thighs as something to grab hold of, I tugged her closer to the edge of the cushion. I licked and lapped at her inner thighs and kissed each and every one of her spots as I made my way up her cream underside. My claws looped around the band of her panties and slowly pulled them down. She lifted her bottom obligingly and left her completely naked.

“Good girl,” I said, my breath washing through a slight dusting of fur that framed the pink of her pussy. I knew what kind of effect that would have on the kinky doe. I felt her body tense and a shiver run up and down her legs as she spread them as if offering herself to me.

My tongue careened along the lips of her sex, painting her already wet pussy with my own moisture as she made pleasing, soft little sounds of pleasure. Raking my teeth through her fur, I couldn’t help but do it for no other reason to remind her that she was with a predator. The girls knew I would never, ever hurt them. But…no one could really blame us for using the applied danger of a prey lady beneath the tender mercy of a predator, could they?

She writhed under my touch and let me tell you, there is nothing more satisfying to me than hearing one of my bunnies letting me know exactly how much they’re enjoying themselves at that moment. With each little moan she let out, each whimper of pleasure, I found myself getting almost painfully hard.

It didn’t take long at all for her to reach that first release and let me tell you, it was a big one. Her muzzle dropped open and her eyes closed for a moment, I thought she had somehow fallen asleep. But a moment later, her entire body started to shiver, a quivering movement that went from her chest all the way down to her toes and back up again.

“Fuck, Nicky…fuck…don’t…stop, stop! Too sensitive!”

I smiled, raising one brow as I peeked over her mound and up to see her panting, her flat chest rising and falling with the effort. Judy and I exchanged pleased looks as I planted one last lick on her mound, just above the pearl of her clit. The doe shivered from the feeling, her hips shifting sharply upward.

“You okay, Tabby? Need a sec?”

She opened her eyes and looked at me incredulously. “Shush you…and you don’t have to look that smug about it. Now come here,” she said, motioning me closer. “I want you inside me. If…if that’s okay with Judy?”

Judy just shook her head. “No…” she said, her voice sounding as dry as Sahara Square. “I draw the line at letting him lick your naughty bits.”

Tabitha blushed beneath her fur, sometimes it was light enough so you could see it when the light hit it just right. I loomed over her, nestling between her legs as I leaned over, catching a glimpse of Judy’s smile out of the corner of my eye, and dragged my tongue up along her chest and neck. My paws were all over her, fingers swimming through a plush white and spotted pelt as I explored her body. While not as athletic as Judy, Tabitha had curves in all the right places.

My muzzle met hers in a soft, tentative kiss as my paws roamed over her body. Tabitha hadn’t quite mastered the art of the interspecies kiss just yet and because of that, it was a little awkward. In the end, to the sound of her giggling, we abandoned the kiss in favor of nuzzling.

I felt Judy’s paw snake down between us and grasp me firm around my sheath, guiding me into Tabby’s silky sex. My ears pinned back in pleasure as I sank deep into her tight little pussy; felt it spreading around my girth and surrounding me as I went balls deep into the bunny. Tabitha winced a little, her body momentarily tensing at the size of me before she started to relax again.

“You are rock hard, Mr. Fox…miss me?”

“You know it, delicious little bunny. I could eat you all up.”

She grinned, reaching up for a second to adjust her glasses which for once, she hadn’t taken off before mating. “Oh no,” she said in a sing-song voice. “I’m trapped beneath a vicious predator. Whatever shall I do?”

My paw went to her neck and my fingers curled around her throat. For a moment, I saw genuine fear there before her eyes softened and her cheeks flushed. Both her paws went up to meet mine, settling there and squeezing my fingers as I plunged myself repeatedly into her hot silky center until my balls rested firm against the pucker of her tailhole.

She crooned, moaning lightly as her eyes fluttered closed. I dragged my rough tongue through her fur, matting the spot that ran up along her neck and kissing my way back around to her muzzle where, awkward or not, I was determined to kiss my bunny. I felt a thrill of excitement roll up my spine and for a moment, I felt like the luckiest fox in the world. I was married to the love of my life and here I was, fucking her best friend while she watched. The air was thick with the smell of them, the scent of a needy bunny.

I lost count of exactly how long we were at it. Tabitha had never been a difficult rabbit to please and while Judy looked on, she came two more times beneath me; each time giving a shrill squeak and gasp before her legs started shaking again. The only sound in the room was the sound of her moaning, the pleasing sounds Judy was making as she watched and the sound of our breathing.

“Nicky,” Tabitha breathed. “Will you put it in my bottom? And then take it out when you’re gonna finish? I want you to make a mess all over my fur. And then we all take a shower together?”

Judy grinned. “Oh this is gonna be fun to watch.”

As wet as I was likely to ever make her, I slipped myself out of her sex and repositioned myself, sinking down just a few inches onto my knees before I reached down to grab myself and guide myself back inside her. Slow and gentle, I pushed myself into her, the feeling of her tail fluttering against my sack nearly causing me to laugh. But her excitement was infectious and I found myself smiling down at her. The deeper I went into that tight little bunny butt of hers, the more and more wide her muzzle opened; green eyes widening as she bit down on her lower lip.

“Ooooh…just like that, Mr. Fox.”

Judy didn’t like me coming in through the back door. So when it happened, it was always with Tabitha and I hadn’t been with Tabitha in months. I’m sure you see what I’m getting at, right? I didn’t last long after I was in her ‘bottom’ as she had called it. I was able to squeeze maybe a minute or two out of the experience before I pulled out of her and spattered her fur with long, hot ropes of cum. One spurt even frosted the lenses of her glasses and spattered her cheek and up along her forehead.

She flinched a little before laughing aloud, plucking her glasses off and turning them around before realizing we didn’t have anything to clean them with. “Poor Nicky…you must have been pent up. You almost took my eye out.”

Judy was grinning. “Naw, I’ve been keeping him satisfied. He just missed you, Tabby.”

Tabitha folded her arms on her chest, her legs still spread around me and looking completely comfortable in nothing but her fur. Her spots marred with pearly white here and there, she still looked beautiful lying there. She carefully folded her glasses up and reached above her head where Judy took them and put them on the end table.

“Thanks for this, you guys,” She said at last.

Both Judy and I bent over to kiss her at more or less the same time and nearly bumped our heads together. I let Judy go first and followed up soon after. “Tabby, come on. We love you. Did you really think getting married was gonna change that?”

“You know how I am. I get insecure,” she said, giving a shrug. “Can we go take a shower now? I smell like a fox.”

I made a show of sniffing beneath my arms. “Hey come on, now…I don’t complain about the bunny smell. The opposite, actually. I love it.”

“That’s because

we

smell good,” Judy said, in a teasing tone.

“Uh huh…all right then, ladies. Let’s get under some warm water.”
  
The next night is when Judy and I got the call. No details were ever given over the radios other than the basic nature of the crime and how many of us were requested but we both heard the words unspoken from dispatch and the fact that we specifically had been requested on the scene meant it either had something to do with out ongoing cases - most of which were nearly solves - or something new had come up that drastically needed our attention.

We had taken a plain black sedan to the scene, an alleyway not too far from City Center and only a dozen or so blocks from our apartment. Headlights cut through the gloom of an alleyway which was, despite its proximity to the best part of town, strewn with trash and debris. The flashing lights of half a dozen different police cars sent the shadows of the alleyway on a mad, capering dance which always left me feeling disoriented and dizzy no how many times I’d seen it.

Clawhauster and Delgado, two uniformed cops that Judy and I had worked on a number of cases with, were standing at the mouth of the alley. Clawhauster was looking sick, bent over as if he’d just emptied his stomach all over the ground while Delgado seemed to be looking anywhere but down the alleyway.

Judy and I took one look at the two of them and knew whatever it was, it was bad.

“Okay…since you two look like hot trash, I’m gonna assume it’s pretty ugly down there?”

Delgado shook his head, grimacing as he glanced down the alleyway and then back down to us. He was a large lion with a dark mane, one each notched pretty badly from a bullet fired from an Unbridled suspect who had just barely missed creasing his skull.

“Let me put it this way. Hope you ain’t had dinner yet.”

“Thankfully no,” Judy said, producing a pair of latex gloves and nudging me into doing the same.

With a snap of the rubber, we were getting out our flashlights and my handy notebook. I remembered a time when Judy and I had first met when she had basically blackmailed me into working with her on that first case. She had used a notebook like a weapon and I never forgot it. Since getting out of the academy, I always carried one around with me. Just taking it out and asking questions made perps nervous.

The two of us had stayed late at the station while doing some after reports for a couple of our recent cases and it was a good thing too. It would have been so much worse if we had had to get up, get dressed and take a bus out here. Not to mention it would have looked damned unprofessional.

“All right,” I said, glancing down at Judy. “You ready?”

“Ready.”

The two of us turned and started walking down the alley. We got about half way down before I smelled it. Blood. Judy smelled it too, her ears coming up as if to be on guard for any kind of sound that made our way.

Clicking on our flashlights drove some of the gloom out of the alley but the kind of darkness you get from inside an alleyway in the most densely populated city on the planet doesn’t go quietly so despite the strong beams of our flashlights, there were plenty of shadows to go around.

“Yeesh,” I said, blowing hard out of my nose. “This is gonna be a bad one. The blood is pretty fresh too. Still has that copper smell to it.”

Judy sighed. “Sometimes, I’m just real glad I don’t have your sense of smell.”

We both stopped, our flashlights settling on what was at the end of the alley. For a moment, neither of us did anything but stare, our muzzles wide open. Then both of us went for our phones at once but Judy was the first one there, hitting the speed dial even as I just…stared at it. I leveled my flashlight at the mess and just looked, a sick feeling creeping into my stomach.

The bunny’s body hung limp from a set of what looked like iron hooks which had been driven into the brick wall of the alley. Stripped down to her pelt, there were long, hateful stripes up and down her body; all of which were done with a disturbingly familiar degree of precision. A pool of still drying blood had gathered below her.

Judy looked up at me and even through the dark, I could see tears gathering in her eyes. “It keeps ringing...” There was a tremble in her voice that I had to admit, I was close to feeling myself.

I forced myself to look at the body again. The fur pattern was right, even down to the spot over the eye and although I couldn’t see the eyes, I’d give my tail the eyes were green. I swallowed hard, hoping for everything good that it wasn’t her.

“Please, please, please answer the phone…answer the phone.”

I looked to where Judy was pleading into the wan light of her phone as I fervently hoped that the bunny’s corpse, despite what it looked like, was not in fact Tabitha Patterfoot.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

I forced myself to calm down, let my body relax and let my training reassert itself. Judy was nearly frantic as the glow of her phone highlighted her face in the near pitch black of the alleyway. So was I, if we’re being honest. I forced myself to take in more of our surroundings, my flashlight coming back up as the beam slid up and down the walls of the alley.

“Keep trying her…” I said, walking a short distance away and looking at the body hanging from the wall.

My paws were shaking as I reached up to peel back the lid of one of her eyes and I almost started crying when I saw they were green. Everything about her was the same, right down to the pattern of her spots, the hips, the slightly chubby face. I half expected to look down somewhere and see a broken pair of glasses. I leaned forward and inhaled deeply, closing my eyes as I tried to find Tabitha’s scent somewhere on the body. But I couldn’t smell anything other than blood.

“Her eyes…eyes are green…” I said, my voice catching in my throat.

Judy was crying, streams of tears pouring down her cheeks as she tried Tabitha’s phone again and again. Where her clothes had gone, I couldn’t even guess but it was likely the same place her phone would be. That is, if this was really Tabitha. I couldn’t bring myself to accept that idea. Not yet.

Instead, I ignored the filthy floor of the alleyway and knelt down to gather my mate into a deep, warm hug. Feeling her shaking in my arms was enough to drive me into tears too. I rarely cried. My time working as a con man and all of the crap I had to go through in my childhood had kinda made it so I didn’t feel those kinds of emotions as strongly as Judy did. I had once made fun of her for being so emotional and memories of us standing in the shadow of a bridge while I played a recording of her calling herself a dumb bunny played out in my mind’s eye.

We cried together and we cried hard. It was the kind of crying where you find it hard to catch your breath, an overwhelming wave of emotions that crashes over you and pins you to the bottom of the sea floor; threatens to drown you before you can come back up for air. After who knows how long, I held her out at arms length and cleared my throat, my fur below my eyes matted down and wet.

“Okay…we’ve got a job to do. If this really is her, we need to focus on bringing this asshole down. We can grieve later. Right?”

Judy looked up to me, violet eyes reflecting the kind of pain I had sworn on more than one occasion to keep her from ever feeling again. In a lot of ways, she loved Tabitha even more than I did. She was the only female Judy had ever been with; ever wanted to be with. The idea of finding her like this…well, it was unbelievable. Unthinkable even.”

Sniffing, Judy nodded, “Yup…we have to work the scene. Let’s do it.”

Bracing ourselves, we started to investigate the crime scene. Both of us were still shaken up but despite that, we started scouring every single inch of that place from top to bottom. This close to the City Center, the alley was entirely free of anything like graffiti. That’s why it was pretty easy to see the letters someone had literally painted in blood to the wall beside the body.

The words “See you soon Judy” were written on the wall in the kind of writing I could only call the ‘Serial Killer Slant.’ Below it, it had been signed with the name Jack. The message was pretty clear. Bramble Jack was in the city and was showing us just what he could do if he had wanted to. He was warning us that he could take - or maybe had taken away - the things we loved and cherished…or in this case, the mammals we loved and cherished. Both Judy and I stared at the writing for a long time as if hoping there was something written between the lines that might make itself known if only we looked hard enough.

Questions raced through my head, not the least of which was how did he know us? How did he know Tabitha and why had he singled us out? Had the murder in Bunnyburrow been meant to draw us into this somehow?

Suddenly, Judy’s phone rang and both of us nearly leapt out of our fur from the sudden sound. Slamming her finger down on the answer button, Judy put it up to her ear and said, “Tabby…you okay? Where are you?”

A sleepy-sounding voice came from the speaker on the phone, saying “Judy? I was letting my phone charge in the other room. I happened to get up to pee and saw you called. Is everything okay?”

Judy visibly relaxed, her ears drooping a little as she sighed. “Yeah…everything is fine, sweetie. I’ll explain everything later, okay? Go back to sleep.”

“Okay,” Tabitha said, letting out a huge yawn. “Love you.”

“It’s not her…” Judy said, looking back at the body. She said it as if she was still trying to convince herself that it was true.

The call cut off and Judy and I exchanged a smile. Knowing for sure that Tabitha was safe and sound in her apartment made us both feel better and made us better able to focus on what was right in front of us. Bramble Jack - or the crazy fucker pretending to be him - was sending us a message. It might have been a warning, but I doubted it. The first murder had taken place in Bunnyburrow so we wouldn’t even be the ones investigating. But this murder,

this message

would almost certainly guarantee we did. This wasn’t a warning…it was a challenge. He was saying ‘Catch me if you can.’

And the worst part? It looked like he knew us. Or at least knew Judy.

Judy stared up at the message scrawled on the wall and chewed on her bottom lip. Her thoughts mirrored mine as she said. “He’s daring us to come after him. And apparently he knows me well enough to call me by name. But then lots of people do…”

Being the two most famous detectives in the city had its ups and downs but mostly downs when it came to our line of work. We couldn’t go out in public sometimes without someone noticing us. It had gotten less and less likely every year since the nighthowler case but it still happened from time to time. That left only seven or eight million suspects since that was more or less the population of Zootopia.

We started working the scene, going over every foot of that alleyway until we were convinced there was nothing else to find. For as bloody and messy as his victim had been left, Jack had apparently worked pretty hard to make certain that no murder weapon, no trace of fur or dander or anything that could lead us back to him would be left behind. Still, we could still hold out hope that the crime scene techs might uncover something on the microscopic level.

As we swept the alley, Judy said, “It goes without saying that we’re having her come and stay with us for a while, right?”

“You better believe it, carrots. I don’t know who this poor girl is on the wall but he picked her for a reason. He’s trying to goad us into going after him and trying to give us a little scare at the same time. What he’s really done is just pissed me off.”

“Me too,” Judy said, although it sounded somehow a little cute coming from her. “I won’t be able to sleep at night without knowing she’s safe. I…I love her so much that…when I thought we’d lost her…”

“I know, baby…I know,” I said, wanting nothing more than to cross the short distance between us and gather her up into another hug. “The best thing we can do for her now, aside from locking her in our apartment for a couple of weeks, is find something to give us a lead.”

We didn’t find any clues at the scene of the crime. That came the day after in Doctor Woodard’s necropsy.

“I hope you can appreciate how early I was up and doing this particular necropsy, Detectives. Any other Medical Examiner may have let it wait until a more reasonable hour.”

Nick rolled his eyes as he watched Doctor Woodard pace about the room, washing his paws and slapping on a pair of latex gloves that went all the way up to his elbows. He next donned his facial shield and surgical mask. When he was finished, he looked like some deranged germaphobe, his eyes shining through the lenses of his especially thick glasses.

Clearly, since he wanted us to say something back, I said, “Thank you so much, Doctor Woodard and thank you for making time for us.”

Nick leaned in and muttered, “Laying it on a little thick there, carrots.”

“Shush, Nick. This is important.”

Normally, Nick and I weren’t there for the actual necropsy, only for after when Doctor Woodard would explain what it was he had found. This time, however, Nick and I had made it early. Truth be told, we hadn’t slept. We had debated for hours exactly what to tell Tabitha but in the end, we decided to tell her everything that night. That morning, all we had told her was that she should pack some things and come stay with us for a while. She must have heard the tone in my voice and thankfully, didn’t ask why.

Both Nick and I were well into our second cup of coffee when Woodard leaned forward and swept the covering off of the body. I forced myself to look. This doe had died because she looked a lot like Tabitha. I wanted…I

needed

to know why. I couldn’t accept that this was just ‘Bramble Jack’ killing some random girl. There was no way this was some kind of twisted coincidence.

The body looked different than it had in the alleyway. It was dark then. Now, under the harsh fluorescent lights of the examination room, she was thrown into stark visibility. Her fur had been cleaned and without the blood masking the true savagery of the wounds, they yawned wide and looked nearly obscene for the lack of gore. What we hadn’t seen before was the thin wound across her neck, no doubt the cut that killed her. Her eyes were closed now and if not for the awful state of her remains, she might have looked like she was simply sleeping.

“Jane Doe…” Doctor Woodard said for the benefit of his recording. “Looks to be approximately twenty-five to thirty years old. Typical lapine build but a little overweight. Subspecies, Holland Lop. Fur is white with an array of gray spots. Eyes are green…”

Woodard continued to list off the dead doe’s facts in that dreadful monotone voice of his as Nick and I sipped our coffee. We knew this was the good part, the part that came before all the cutting and the dissection. We steeled ourselves for what was to come as we tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to block out Woodard’s voice as it echoed through the room.

“The subject has been dead approximately twenty-four hours, although lividity suggests that most of the wounds caused on the chest and stomach area were inflicted pre-mortem.” He suddenly looked up at us and, raising a brow, asked “Are you paying attention, Detectives?”

I don’t know about Nick, but it felt like everytime he caught our attention, it felt like being back in high school and being caught slacking off by a teacher. Here I was, a grown doe and a detective who had seen blood, gore and gunshots and somehow, Woodard made me feel…childish?”

“We’re paying attention,” Nick said, saving me from embarrassment. “Please continue.”

Woodard kept his gaze on us for a lingering moment before he returned his attention to the body. He finished recounting the Jane Doe’s specifications before he drew a small rolling stand with an impressive array of tools on it closer to the examination table. And then, he started cutting.

I said before that I’ve often thought there was something wrong with Doctor Woodard. Now I know that not every single Medical Examiner can be like this…at least I hope not. But anyone who could cut into a corpse with such cold detachment must have something a little twisted in the head, right?

Nick and I watched, wincing from time to time, as Woodard carved into the body, peeling back layers of flesh and fur to get at the gooey parts beneath. Even I could spot the damage her ribs and organs had taken from the cuts and lacerations that had striped her upper body.

“Whoever did this was quite the psychopath, I would wager,” Woodard said, in a spectacular display of irony. “These cuts are made with near surgical precision and in the same manner as the murder in Bunnyburrow. They are consistent with the same…let us call it an ‘implement’, that the killer used before. He was able to inflict these wounds in a way that would damage the inner tissue without rupturing the vital organs. This girl must have died in an extraordinary amount of pain.”

Woodard didn’t seem alarmed by that fact at all. In fact, he almost seemed impressed. “These wounds, although painful, would likely not have killed her if not for the blood loss which, at the very least, would have rendered her unconscious. Yes…I believe she was unconscious when her throat was cut,” he said with a nod of finality.

“Small mercies…” Nick said, shaking his head.

“Indeed, Detective Wilde. Small mercies indeed. Now, let us check to see if she was sexually assaulted.”

I couldn’t watch this part. The doe looked so much like Tabitha that the thought of Woodard touching her in

that way

made me nearly sick to my stomach. Suddenly my coffee tasted sour and the salad I’d had for breakfast wanted to come back up to say hello.

He shined a light around her private parts as he prodded with a set of some kind of tools which glinted in the light. Putting them aside, he said, “No bruising or abrasions. Nothing to indicate sexual assault. It seems, at least, that your killer has some limits he isn’t willing to cross.”

He momentarily hopped off of his stool and rolled it closer to the doe’s head before hopping back on. Her ears had been laid out along her shoulders and framed her face in the exact same way Tabitha’s did most of the time. I felt sick and for the first time in years, I felt like turning around and just leaving the room. Nick could fill me in on the rest of what was found, right? I didn’t need to be here…right? But I swallowed hard and kept watching; reminding myself that whoever this doe was, she needed me. She needed me to find this ‘Bramble Jack’ and throw him so far under the prison that he would never see the light of day.

“Interesting…” Woodard said, eyes narrowing as he peered down into the girl’s open muzzle. He took a pair of tweezers and fished something out of her throat. A small metal rod which looked no longer than two inches. “What have we here?”

He blinked as he pulled the rod open. It turned out to be some kind of capsule and inside it was a tiny roll of paper. Pulling it out, he unfurled it and placed it under a magnifying glass not too far from the examination table. Nick and I were already moving toward the table when Woodard said, “Detectives…you’ll want to take a look at this.”

Written on the paper was a jagged script that looked like a kit did it, all angular lines and slashing imperfection. It said, “Do you like what I did, Judy? How does it make you feel? Come to the Heart’s Desire or the Red Market and maybe you can tell me in person.” It was signed by Bramble Jack.

The Heart’s Desire we both knew. It was a predator’s only night club in the Rainforest District where the pred’s could get rowdy and a little wild without worry about hurting any of us of the prey persuasion. We’d often suspected the club of being host to illegal activity of one kind or another but could never get anything to stick.

As for the Red Market, Nick and I shared the same thought but it was Nick that eventually said it. “What the fuck is the Red Market?”
  
“It’s a myth,” Barksley pointed out, stabbing out his latest cigarette. “The Species Authority does not recognize the existence of any ‘Red Market’ or anything like it. That’s why we had that part of your report redacted from the record.”

Nick leaned back in his chair which creaked a little in response. “Yeah, that sounds about right. I wouldn’t want that kind of thing getting out either. Zootopia’s population is ninety percent prey. Can you imagine what they would all do if they found out a place like that existed? There would be riots.”

“Which is precisely why we had you sign the non disclosure agreements, Wilde.”

Nick held his paws up as if warding off attack. “They won’t hear it from me, Agent Barksley. But they

will

hear about it eventually. Before that happens, your people better get their tails in gear and shut that place down.”

“Easier said than done, Detective,” Agent Ravnica purred. “You know better than most how that place operates now. They never stay in one place more than a single night and at any given time, there are thousands of mammals there. Arresting them all would be…well, impossible. And finding out exactly who runs the place is just as difficult.”

“We know,” I said, glancing over to Nick. “We actually found it on our own, remember?”

“Well not exactly on your own,” Barksley said, lighting up another cigarette. “You had help, didn’t you? Criminal informants, shady dealers, your girlfriend’s cybersecurity expertise and of course, two Species Authority agents…warms my heart to see the ZPD and the Species Authority getting along like that.” He blew smoke into my face.

Waving it away, I said, “I really don’t like you, Barksley.”

He smirked. “I know, Detective Hopps. I know.”
  
After having recovered from what we saw at Doctor Woodard’s horror show, Nick and I went up to Chief Bogo’s office to fill him in on the progress we’d made so far. Knocking on his office door, it wasn’t long before we heard his basso voice telling us to enter. When we did, we found that the chief wasn’t alone.

Sitting in the chairs Nick and I were about to sit in was a white-furred vixen and a gray-furred rabbit with an odd pattern of stripes along his cheeks and the tips of his ears. It took me a moment to realize who the vixen was. When I did, I felt my ears perk up and a smile spread over my muzzle.

“Skye!”

The arctic fox swept out of her chair and gave Nick and I a big hug, bending nearly in half so she could get down to my level. Skye Winters had left the ZPD nearly a year ago now, going back to work at her original job with the Species Authority. With the events of the Unbridled Murders and Theo Pride’s betrayal, she had taken it all especially hard. I couldn’t be certain, but I always suspected there was something between those two.

“Hey Judy…Nick. I heard you guys are married now?”

“Nearly two years now,” Nick said, giving her a smile. “How are things with the Authority?”

A meaningful clearing of the throat made us all look in Bogo’s direction. “Detectives…there will be plenty of time for hugs and catching up later, don’t you think? Agent Winters and her partner are here on official business.”

Skye nodded, smoothing out her suit before she said, “Yes, sorry…let me introduce my partner. This is Agent Jack Savage.”

The rabbit hopped out of the chair and came to hold out his paw in greeting. “Hello there…good to meet the two most famous detectives in all of Zootopia. Your reputation precedes you.”

Jack was a hare more than a rabbit and easily the tallest rabbit I’d ever seen. He wore a handsome smirk and a black business suite with a white undershirt. Beneath, I could see just the hint of his shoulder-rigged holster. I’m not going to lie. It had been a long, long time since I had been with a bunny buck and he made my heart flutter with that urbane accent of his.

“Now that we’re all met and acquainted,” Bogo said, motioning for us to sit down where two more chairs than usual awaited. “Agents Savage and Winters are here on behalf of the Species Authority. They caught wind of your reports and believe that this ‘Bramble Jack’ fellow may very well be a serial killer they’ve been tracking for a while now.”

Skye swept her tail up and out of the way, letting it rest in her lap as she said, “For the better part of a decade now, the Authority has been tracking a murderer who has been involved in some seriously heinous killings. If we have his pattern right, he’s responsible for at least twenty-two murders ranging throughout the countryside surrounding Zootopia. He first hit our radar again when we happened upon a copy of the report from the recent murder in Bunnyburrow.”

“We didn’t have a name for him until recently, and I have to say I take it personally that he’s besmirching my good name, but Bramble Jack seems as good a name as any. Agent Winters and I are here to help you in whatever way we can. We recognize that as this is Zootopia, you have jurisdiction and command of the investigation and will leave the final decisions on just how to go about things to you two. Will you have us?”

Nick and I exchanged glances. The last time we had worked with other detectives, it had been during the Unbridled Murders and we had gotten used to working with each other and only with each other for years. Still…there was something to be said about having extra paws and eyes.

“What do you think, carrots? Should we take ‘em with us?”

Jack looked incredulous. “Carrots? Please tell me you don’t think that’s funny…”

Nick took on a panicked look as he realized what he’d said in front of another bunny. As I usually do, I saved him from his own mouth by saying. “It’s a nickname. I know it can sound offensive but believe me, Agent Savage, it’s all in fun. It…kinda came about around the time Nick and I first met. We’d love to have the two of you with us, though.”

Jack nodded, although didn’t seem entirely convinced. “Very well. Do you have any leads?”

“We do now,” Nick said. “We just came from Doctor Woodard. Jack - no offense Jack - is toying with us. He killed his most recent victim as a method of delivering a message. He told us to come find him and mentioned two places. Heart’s Desire, which is a predator only nightclub in the Rainforest District and the ‘Red Market’ whatever that is.”

Skye and Jack looked startled. Sky said, “The Red Market? He really said that?”

“Yeah,” Nick said, looking down at me. Both of us had seen their reactions. “Why? What does that mean to you?”

“That’s a subject for later, I’m afraid. For now, may I suggest we investigate this nightclub, tonight? We can all ride in my car. You two can go back home and get some sleep and we’ll head out in the evening. I’m fully aware you’ve been up for entirely too long.”

Sleep sounded good to me and I still needed to make sure Tabitha was at the apartment and settling into our guest room. We made the plan to visit the club after dark and for now, Nick and I would head home. Skye and Jack would meet us outside our apartment complex at nine in the evening. Then we’d start hunting ‘Bramble Jack.’ Still, both Nick and I were left wondering one thing above all else…what was the Red Market?
  
“So…last night, when you called me.”

“We thought you were dead,” I said, glancing at Judy who was looking at Tabitha as if she were the most valuable thing in the world. For a moment, I thought she would start crying again. Emotional bunnies.

“Oh wow…” Tabitha said, quickly sitting down on our couch. “I can see why you called me so many times. Your poor things!”

“We’re just glad you’re okay,” Judy said, leaning over to give Tabitha a little kiss on the muzzle, one which the other doe gave right back. “For a moment there, I thought I’d never see you again and well…that…that can’t happen, okay Tabby?”

“I’m not going anywhere, Judy. I promise. Now if you guys don’t get out of here, you’re gonna make me cry. I have a Zoo meeting with my crew in a half hour and you’re gonna make my fur all matted. When I’m done with that, I’ll see what I can dig up about this Red Market place. The name doesn’t give me good feelings, though.”

We each gave her one last kiss and hug before we headed out the door, down the hall and down the stairs that empties out into our apartment complex's courtyard. Turning into our parking lot, we looked like we were out for a night on the town. It wouldn’t do to be recognized by just anyone so Judy and I had pulled out all the stops. I wore a short-sleeved black shirt and a pair of leather pants that were tight enough so that I was sure if you looked hard enough, you could see my sheath. I was even wearing these arm, sleeve-like things that made it look like you had dyed patterns in your fur. Top that off with a pair of sunglasses at night and I looked like ‘one of those guys.’

As for Judy, she looked just as ‘streeted out’ as I did. She was wearing short shorts; the kind where if a female bent over too far, you would see everything she had to offer. That and a slick leather bodice that was made for rabbits, she looked like the stunner she was. Privately, I wondered what kind of panties she was wearing under those shorts…if any.

Jack Savage’s car looked like something out of a spy thriller. Sleek, black and sporty, the thing looked like it was more at home turning curves on a dime and sprouting machine guns or something rather than cruising the streets of the city. I thought I’d have to take out a mortgage just to look at it.

The rabbit himself wore a plain white T-shirt over which he wore a black leather jacket. It didn’t look so much like a disguise on him. I suspected that’s what he normally wore when not being an agent of the Authority.

Skye…well, I have to admit that she looked amazing. She was wearing a thin, skimpy black dress and a black collar with little silver studs on it. On her wrists, she was wearing cuffs of the same color and hardware. She had brushed out her tail with some kind of dye which made it frosty blue at the tip and done the same to the tips of her ears.

“Hot damn, We look sexy…” I said as Judy and I slipped into the back seat of Jack’s car.

I saw Jack smirk in the rear view as he put the car into gear and pulled off of the lot. “Indeed we do, my friend. No detectives or agents here, no sir. Just two predators out for a night on the town with their two prey playthings.”

Judy reached over to hold my paw. “Hear that? I’m your plaything.”

Glancing back at us, Skye said, “So what sort of place is this? What should we expect?”

I squeezed Judy’s paw as I said, “A predator’s only nightclub. You need a ‘sponsor’ to get in if you’re prey. Other than that, it's the usual sort of place. Heavy music, lots of light, sounds and alcohol. Oh and drugs…lots of drugs.”

Jack raised a brow. “Drugs? Like a nighthowler kind of drug?”

“Nah, no way. Otherwise we would have put the place out of business by now. Probably something more subtle and a lot less dangerous. Either way, I don’t think we’ll have to worry about it.”

“So Skye,” Judy said. “How have you been since…well, you know.”

There was a small pause before Skye said, “Not too bad. I started working with Jack about, what? A year and a half ago? Since then we’ve found we’re a pretty good team. We’ve been all over the world since then, tracking down criminals and taking ‘em down.”

“I have to ask,” I said. “Isn’t Savage a strange sort of name for a rabbit?”

Jack, still smirking, looked at me through the rear view and for a second, I thought I saw a look of approval, like I had passed some kind of test I didn’t even know I was taking. “I was quite literally raised by wolves, my vulpine friend. “I’m a rare example of a prey child being adopted by predators. My parents were both gray wolves. It was their name first. I just inherited it.”

We drove up to Heart’s Desire around nine thirty at night. There was a long line of mammals, almost all predators, waiting to get in outside. Two large bears stood outside to either side of the doors; bouncers by the look of them. We parked in the nearby lot and as we neared the door, I could make out two large signs to the right of the door where the line wouldn’t hide them from view. One said ‘No weapons on the premises’ and the other said ‘Caution: drugs used in club.’ That last one struck me as a little odd. I’d never seen a sign both advertising and cautioning patrons that drugs were actively being used somewhere.

As if reading my mind, Skye said, “That’s a strange sign…”

“Very strange,” Judy said, looking dubious as we made our way toward the entrance.

The bouncer was a massive polar bear, easily as large as Mr. Big’s goons and clad in a thick leather jacket and a ripped pair of jeans. He wore a pair of sunglasses - way more expensive than the ones I was wearing - and looked down on the four of us like we were something he’d just as soon as scrape off the bottom of his shoe. That was until Skye and Jack flashed their badges.

His eyes went wide, I could see it even behind the glasses, as he said, “Uh…yeah, sure, go right in. The boss’ name is Angeline. She’s the only skunk in the place tonight, you can’t miss her.”

The inside of Heart’s Desire was like one of those dystopian movies where it's the end of the world and everyone is partying in the midst of some neon-fueled, half-naked nightmare rave where the music consists of giant drums and haunting guitar riffs. The music thrummed like a heartbeat and I found myself wondering exactly how we hadn’t heard it out on the street.

The crowd consisted of predators - and a few prey - of all kinds of species ranging from tiny bats and sand cats to bears and lions. They all surged together in an undulating movement in rhythm with the music. Surprisingly, the music was live; the result of a small band of performers who had been set up on an octagonal stage in the middle of the room. Along one wall, numerous sexy predator girls served drinks behind a full length bar.

Feeling the beat in my chest, I looked down to Judy and saw her smiling, nodding her head to the music as we made our way deeper into the floor. It wasn’t long before we were confronted by another one of the bounders - this one a black bear. Shouting above the sound of the music, he said, “Hey foxes. Keep your bunny pals close, all right? Things can get kinda rough here and we don’t want anyone to get hurt.”

“You got it!” I shouted back. “We’ll take care of ‘em!”

Jack shouted, “You two go to speak to this Angeline and ask her about our friend Jack. Skye and I will make the rounds and see if we can see anything unusual. Well…” he corrected himself. “Unusual for this place anyway. We’ll meet back at the bar afterward. Good luck!”

Angeline was perched on the edge of one of the stools at the bar, her legs crossed and her long, luxurious tail arching back behind her. She was wearing a dress similar to Skye’s but this one had sleeves and came down to connect to two silver rings on each of her middle fingers. She was nursing some glass of amber-colored liquid - whiskey I assumed - as we approached. Eyeing us up and down, I saw the exact moment when she recognized us for who we really were. The disguise, it seemed, wasn’t that good at all. Or maybe the skunk was a little more observant than most.

“Aren’t you two…”

“Yes,” I said, glancing from side to side. “And we’d like to keep who we are a general secret for now. We’re here on official business and we don’t need the entire room to know it. You’re Angeline, right? The polar bear at the door said we should speak to you.”

“Of course he did,” Angeline said, swallowing what was left of her drink, one of her ears twitching. “Thaddeus thinks whatever he can’t solve should go to me. For such a big mammal, he is remarkably afraid of anything he can’t solve through brute strength. Still, a dumb bouncer is still a bouncer. What can I help you with?”

“We’re looking for someone,” Judy said, looking up at the sexy skunk. “They are a person of interest in an open investigation and he is supposed to meet us here sometime tonight. Have you seen anything unusual tonight?”

Angeline looked me up and down and smiled. “Aside from your ridiculously attractive mate? No, I can't say that I have Miss Hopps. Although, I could be persuaded to more actively remember things if I could take Nicholas here into one of the private rooms upstairs. Only for a little while,” She said, her voice dripping with honey. “What do you say, Detective Wilde? Want me to lift my tail for you?”

I raised a brow, my ears pinning back as I said, “Coming from a skunk, I’m not sure if that's an invitation or a threat. Either way, not real interested right now. Besides, you’re laying it on a little thick. It's almost like you’re trying to distract me. Got something to hide, Miss Angeline?”

She put on a pouting, disappointed look that was just about as convincing as that perfume she was wearing to cover up her scent. She shrugged and said, “How very bland the two of you are. I thought for a moment you might live up to all the hype surrounding you. Oh well, never meet your heroes and all that. No…I haven’t seen anything unusual.”

It was a barbed statement, considering all of the unusual things happening all around us. Half-naked mammals all dancing to the same primal beat while prey - who are willingly doing all they could to appear submissive and meek to the predators - it wasn’t exactly something you saw every day.

“You’re going to want to refrain from hitting on my partner from now on,” Judy said. “You clearly aren’t his type anyway.”

“Clearly,” Angeline said, looking past us and into the crowd. “Do you like what you see, Detectives? Predators holding leashes attached to their prey lovers? You should enjoy it…all of it was possible partially because of you.”

Judy blinked. “How’s that exactly?”

“Because you and Nicholas here slammed open the door for those of us who had always been hiding our true feelings away. You two showed that, if you could love each other, both as different species and as predator and prey. Now places like mine are becoming more and more popular each night. There is love in the air, Detectives. So much love.”

I took a moment to sweep my gaze through the room, taking in all of the scantily clad bodies, all the dancing mammals who, if not for the context that they were dancing, might have looked ready to mate. The room was full of musk and needy scents which nearlyneatly made my head spin.

“Lady, I don’t see much love here. Sex, sure…but love?”

Angeline looked at me as if I was the stupidest mammal she’d ever seen. “My dear Nicholas, sex and love are not mutually exclusive. Some of these mammals will go into my private rooms tonight and have some of the dirtiest, kinkiest sex you could ever imagine. Then they’ll go home, nuzzle and cuddle each other to sleep before telling each other how much they love the other.”

Judy and I looked at each other. I had to admit that in the past, during our decidedly adult playtime, that I had done some things to her that might be considered kinky. Pulling ears, putting her up against the wall or fucking her so hard that the next day, she was a little wobbly. And after all that, there was always love. Sweet, perfect love.

“She’s gotta point, Nick,” Judy said, smiling up at me.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right, fluff. Still….back to the case.”

Angeline nodded, a knowing smile set on her muzzle that I couldn’t decide was satisfied or smug. Maybe both. “Nothing unusual. Besides what it might look like, there is little illegal going on here, Detectives.”

“What about the sign out front? The one about drugs?”

She laughed, a sound like wind chimes in a breeze. “Oh that. Nothing dangerous, I assure you. Only a little bit of…a euphoric aphrodisiac to get the blood pumping. It's common knowledge we use it here. You must have scared my door bears pretty badly if they didn’t explain it to you before you came in.”

“I think Jack’s given us a false lead, fluff.”

Judy sighed, giving a little nod. “Maybe…or maybe there’s something else here he wanted us to see. Angeline. Would it be okay if we looked at one of these private rooms of yours? I doubt it’ll give us any insight but you never know.”

Angeline shrugged, pointing through the crowd and off to a set of stairs leading up to a balcony that stood above the dance floor. “They’re up there. A green light above the curtain means that it's not occupied. Red means it's being used.”
  
The private rooms didn’t have a door so much as they had a flimsy-looking curtain that looked like it could be blown aside by a stiff breeze. Inside, there was a round plush leather couch in the shape of a C which surrounded a leather platform from which sprouted a polished metal pole which went all the way up to the ceiling. The music was muted in here, less pervasive and thrumming.

“I’m not sure what you think we would find here, carrots.”

“Yeah, about that,” She said, turning to me. I jumped a little as she ran her paw up the front of those leather pants I was wearing. “I’m gonna need you to fuck me, slick. Like right now.”

I raised a brow, glancing toward the curtain. “Not that I don’t love that idea to pieces, Judy but…we’re on duty, remember?”

“Nick, I’m a bunny. It doesn’t take much for me to start to want it and we’ve been breathing in those pheromones since we got in here. I’m wet and I want you inside me right now. Get those pants off!”

What can I say? The bunny wants what she wants. I started unbuttoning my pants even as I watched her unbutton the front of her own shorts and start tugging them down. As she stepped out of them, she bent forward, her adorable little ass on full display. She was wearing a black thong which contrasts nicely with the color of her fur and showed off where the cream part of her coat mingled with the gray.

I peeled them down, careful not to snag her tail with the little strip of elastic that held her tail between one part of the thong and the other and tugged down down to her lower thighs. I took a moment to admire her, the way the subtle hint of pink nestled between those lithe thighs glistened when the light hit it the right way.

By the time I had myself out, I was already hard and ready. I let my paw drift down between her thighs and felt her shiver beneath my touch as my fingers sought out her soft, silky center and slipped inside her. As I stirred her honey around in its pot, I leaned over her, my cock nudging insistently at the root of her tail, lapping and licking at her shoulders and the back of her neck. The leather corset or bodice or whatever it was called made it easy to reach those parts I would normally have to strip her bare to get to.

“Niiiick…” she whined. “Stop playing with me and mate me!”

“Good things come to those who wait, carrots.”

I breathed in her scent, needing as much of her in my lungs as I could get and although I didn’t think of that at the time, taking in a deep breath of the pheromones drifting through the air inside the club. She turned her head sharply toward me and for a long moment, we shared in the sort of kiss that romance novels talk about, deep and sensual and where you share each other’s air.

I ended the kiss, gathering both of her ears into one of my paws and pulling her head sharply back for another kiss; this one much more fleeting in length. As I kissed my way down the length of one of her ears, I whispered, “You ready for this, you little knot-socket?”

What can I say? The pheromones wafting through the club were starting to get to me too.

I thought I might have gone too far but instead of telling me off, I felt her push back against me, pressing her rump against my hardness as if trying to work it inside her. I couldn’t tease her anymore. With my free paw, I reached down and guided myself inside her. In one reckless thrust, I was deep, deep in my favorite bunny.

She let out a low, drawn out moan as I started to rut her from behind. One paw kept hold of her ears while the other clasped onto her hip, letting my claws dig into her skin just a little. Something in me welled up and started howling, a creature somewhere buried in my heart and mind that started thrashing at the inside of my skull and suddenly, before I really knew it, I was driving myself into her again and again; pounding my little bunny hard from behind until she was giving whimpers and tiny sounds of which I couldn’t tell was pleasure or pain…maybe both.

But she didn’t ask me to stop. If anything I could feel her get wetter as I plowed through her most sensitive regions. She braced herself against the leather seat she was kneeling on, both paws planted firm against creaking leather. I spanked her…actually spanked her and she let out a playful shriek and a laugh which made the creature in my heart feel just as pleased as it possibly could.

She must have sensed I was close because she said, “Do…don’t finish in me. We can’t make a mess right now!”

“Then get on your knees,” I said, my voice sounding much more raspy than it should.

She seemed to understand what I wanted and when I pulled out, she wheeled about, almost getting tangled in her own undies, as she fell to her knees and tipped her head back, muzzle wide open and ready.

I put the tip of my cock to her lips as skillful little paws stroked up and down my length, urging me toward my release. I exploded into her muzzle, gushing waves of cum flowing over her tongue and painting the inside of her cheeks. It was all I could do to keep standing, my knees having gone weak with the feeling. Even as the last few waves of my orgasm trickled onto her tongue, violet eyes stared up at me in a heated, intimate locking of gazes.

When I was finished, she smiled up at me, swallowing hard as she let herself fall back against the seat, her chest rising and falling beneath the weight of that skimpy leather thing she was wearing.

“Now it's my turn,” she said, scrambling up onto the seat and slowly spreading her legs, offering herself up to me like some kind of delicious dessert.

I was about to make my bunny squirm…but that was when he heard the gunshots and the screaming.