Chapter 5 #2
I am fleeing for my life; I am running from a wild animal.
My body is entirely activated by fear, my heart pounding, my breath coming in short pants.
I run full speed out of the building, not caring how strange I must look to the other workers on other floors and in the lobby, normal people wearing normal clothes, behaving normally.
They are all background setting to me now.
I feel as though they are part of a world I can no longer inhabit because I have seen something they could barely imagine seeing.
It… he… there was a beast. A truly terrifying creature that I am never going to be able to get out of my head.
I have tolerated far too much in this strange world.
I have let myself be led down a road that cannot possibly go anywhere good.
He’s an animal. He’s not entirely human.
The things he does to me, the sexual games and such, they’re not good or right either.
They’re intense because he wants to consume me and then fill me.
He wants to breed me. And then what? I’m going to have his animal baby?
I rush home to my apartment, throw a bunch of things into a bag, and I go to the train station, because I don’t like flying and buses are depressing. At the train station, I plan to buy a ticket for the furthest destination I can. I don’t even know where I’m going. I just need to get away.
* * *
Simon
Fuck.
I fucked that right up.
She just felt so good, and she was so submissive and so sweet, and the way it felt when I came inside her mouth, it was just so primal and satisfying that it must have triggered a partial shift.
As soon as I can get my head back to a human form, which takes some effort and more than a few reversal drops, I go after her.
I am cursing to myself the entire way, hoping that I can maintain my human form.
These experiments are getting wildly out of control.
I should slow down. I should be more reasonable.
I should probably stop taking fresh concoctions in the hope that I will have a breakthrough.
I really thought the experiment under the blood moon was a total success. I came into the lab thinking I’d cracked the code entirely, that I was completely the master of my domain, and of her.
Then I got horny and the whole fucking thing fell apart. The beast got too powerful to contain. It’s good she panicked and ran. If she’d kept going, the shift might have been total, and then we might have had another wolf-loose-in-the-lab situation. Veronica would not have been pleased.
I follow her to her apartment about fifteen minutes after she left the lab. She ran out fast, but she rides the bus, and I have enough of my animal senses and human intellect in place to know she’s probably going home. I already know where she lives, having ravaged her there before.
When I get there it looks like a small cyclone has hit it.
The room is thick with the smell of her and her fear. I can smell the path of her fear. I can picture the way she moved around the room, grabbing the things she needed.
My eyes follow the trajectory of her fear and end up landing on something pink, leather, and important.
She’s left her purse behind.
* * *
Lydia
I’ve left my purse behind.
I reach for it to pay for my ticket, and I find that it’s not there. I dig through my bag while the ticketing agent and the line behind me both wait impatiently.
“I’m sorry, just a moment,” I say. “I know I grabbed it.”
“Move to the side until you can find a payment method, ma’am,” he says.
“It’s in here somewhere, I’m sure,” I explain.
“I’m sorry. I packed quickly.” I reach into my bag and try to grab out the pink thing.
All I manage to do is triumphantly yank a bra out in front of everyone.
Pink, much like my purse, but not actually worth anything in terms of currency. Nobody is impressed.
“Move to the side,” he repeats. “Or I’m going to have to ask security to come move you.”
I get out of the way, scuttling for the entrance of the station. I know I have my money in my bag. I crouch down off to the side at the entrance and start rifling through desperately. It would have been the first thing I put in, I’m sure of it. I remember seeing it specifically in the corner of…
My purse slides under my nose, but it’s not because it came out of my bag. Instead, it is delivered in the large and actually quite darkly haired hand of none other than Simon Seek who, for now, has the face of a man.
“Are you looking for this?”
“Yes,” I say stiffly. “Thank you.”
“You’ll need it to flee the state,” he says.
“Yeah. I will.”
“Mind if I come with you?” He flashes a smile that verges on triumphant.
“I’d rather you didn’t. I’m not really interested in the kind of work you do, Dr. Seek.
I know it’s very fascinating, and important, and will no doubt change the entire world.
But I can’t… I can’t.” I think back to being on my knees, his cock in my mouth, the thick length of it throbbing over my tongue.
I am becoming aroused from the act of orally servicing him.
I like that he is making me submissive, giving me a gift of not having to make decisions.
And then I look up, and something so fierce and animal and hungry is looking down at me…
“I didn’t mean to scare you. I’m sorry that it scared you, but I can assure you that you’re safe with me.” He crouches down in front of me. “I like you far too much to ever put you in danger.”
“I don’t think you understand danger,” I say. “You think that testing on yourself makes sense, and that means you aren’t careful. If you can’t be careful with you, you’re not going to be careful with me, are you?”
He reaches out and cups my chin. “I will always be careful with you. Now, come with me. I want to fuck you.”
I cannot believe I am letting him take me by the hand and lead me away from the train station.
My panic has cost me my escape, and now that I am back under his sway I know that I will not be able to leave.
Simon is the sort of obsessive man who does not let anything go.
That’s why he’s taking these risks with his research, and it’s why he came and found me at the station.
He leads me to a nice car, because of course he has a nice car. It’s an SUV of some description, with racks all over it. It’s the sort of vehicle people who like to go hiking own. There’s mud on the mudguards too, like it’s been out recently.
I make a quick note of the license plate, and text it to my close friend. I’m not sure why. I just figure it might be nice if someone knows who has me when I inevitably disappear and get eaten.
Simon opens the passenger side door for me and helps me in, because the vehicle is elevated a bit. He shuts the door and walks around, getting in on his side.
“I’m glad I managed to catch you before you hitched a ride in a cargo container and started a new life riding the rails,” he says, smirking at me enough to let me know he thinks he is being funny.
I look out the window as he drives me away.
“Where are we going?”
“It’s 11 a.m.,” he says. “I’m taking you back to work.”
“Oh. Work.”
“Yes,” he says. “It’s not actually allowed to run away middle of the workday.”
“It’s not illegal,” I say pertly.
“Not illegal, but naughty,” he says, reaching over and squeezing my thigh. I look down at his hand, not entirely sure what to do with it, or about it.
“I’m sorry I frightened you.” His tone softens as he apologizes. “I know that must have been very scary, and I’m aware that losing control that way is unacceptable. It won’t happen again.”
“How can you promise that?”
“I…” He pauses, his eyes on the road. “I can try.”
* * *
Simon
I can’t tell her without a shadow of a doubt that I won’t shift mid-sex again. I didn’t feel that I was entirely in control. I didn’t even really know it was happening until she looked up at me and shrieked.
Science is unpredictable at the best of times, and a clinical trial of one is useless in terms of literature, but very interesting if you happen to be the one being experimented on.
“I’ll take the reversal serum around you,” I promise her. “I’ll take enough that there’s no way any part of the beast will come through.”
“You should stop taking your own weird drugs entirely,” she replies. “It’s reckless.”
Being lectured by her is like being told off by an adorable cartoon character. She looks so very serious, but she really doesn’t understand how important this is, or how far I have come. Far too far to stop now.
“And you should stop trying to run away,” I tell her. “It’s not that simple for you anymore. You’re mine now.”
“And what’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means that you belong to me.”
“Right. Like a salad you bought at the deli? I belong to you?”
“Not the simile I would have chosen, but more or less,” I laugh. “You’re mine, sweetheart. And no matter where you go, I will find you.”
She gives me a sidelong glance.
“You know you sound like a psycho, right?” she says. “Like full blown, it-puts-the-lotion-on-its-skin, look-how-tasteful-my-business-card-is, don’t-get-in-the-shower psycho.”
She’s made me laugh again, which is very much undercutting what I had hoped would be a sexy and somber declaration.
“It might be psycho, but it doesn’t make it less true. You’re mine. We’ve shared intimacy, and I’ve become very attached to, even bonded with you. I don’t want to lose you. Ever.”
“We haven’t even been on a date,” she points out, now thoroughly disgruntled.
“Then we will rectify that,” I say. “Tonight. Wear a dress. I will pick you up at 7:00 p.m.”
She bristles at being told what to do, but I think she very much wants to be taken out for dinner. A little romance and normalcy will not go astray now.
* * *
Lydia
I was supposed to run away and escape. Instead, I go back to work, and after work I go back to the same apartment I fled earlier to get dressed for our date.