It was a nice enough day, honestly. The sun was shining, there was a nice breeze, it wasn't too hot out-Victor couldn't complain. The Canadian spring was finally coming around after so many months of icy winter, and while he knew it wouldn't likely change much, the animal inside him was excited. Spring always meant something new, didn't it? Spring was time for growth, for life, and where there was life, there was the ability to destroy it. That's what he was always the happiest about.
He was starting the morning off with some hunting. The fridge was empty, and after all, he had some energy he needed to get rid of. He knew every inch of his property, his territory, and a few days prior he had spotted a few deer not too far from his cabin. So he set out after them today, creeping through the trees as quietly as possible, something he was surprisingly good at considering his size. He was massive by human standards, and still large even among ferals. It was something he prided himself on, all of that solid muscle, and luckily, it was pretty easy to maintain in his line of work. "Private contracting" had its perks.
Doing his best to stay downwind of his prey, he growled softly to himself when his nose picked up something other than the usual smells of the forest. Deer, soil, trees, that pesky bear that liked to poke around now and again...and something new. Something...sweet. As he opened his mouth slightly to draw in more of the scent, it flooded his senses, a fruity, almost cold smell that certainly wasn't something he had ever experienced before, much less here, in the middle of the wild. What the fuck was it?
The deer would have to wait.
He changed direction, heading towards whatever it was that he had noticed. Leaves leftover from the fall crunched quietly under his weight, a sound he wasn't too fond of. He wished he could be completely silent, and even though he almost always had the drop on his victims, it wasn't good enough if other ferals could hear him. Hell, even Jimmy could hear him, and if he couldn't even sneak up on the runt, that was saying something.
He reached the edge of a tiny clearing and stopped to sniff the air. The scent was strong, but there was no one for it to be coming from. Frustrated, Victor took a few steps around, making a small circle as he looked into the trees. This wasn't right. Calming himself, he sniffed again, inhaling deeply, filling his nose with the cool morning air. Soil, trees, that sweet fruit, and...yet another new smell, one that he wasn't too fond of. It was something he was trying to take a break from: the military.
"The hell are you doin' here?" he asked out loud as he clawed his way up into the low branches of a tree and made his way along to the next, and the next, until the scent grew stronger and he began picking up the sounds of a struggle.
Oh, it was about damn time.
He felt his claws lengthen slightly as he climbed, forced to stay low due to his weight. He was itching for a fight, and he didn't care who it was with. When he pushed his way through some branches and finally saw who he had been pursuing, though, he had to admit that he was surprised.
"Grab it!" a man in uniform yelled, reaching for his gun. He had three companions, all dressed in black fatigues, and they were all clustered around something that clearly didn't enjoy their company.
A low growl rose in Victor's throat, low enough that the men couldn't hear it, not that they seemed particularly observant. These were the kind of guys who worked in the labs, transporting things and catching them so that they could be locked up. And the thing that they were struggling to get under control, well...he guessed that it wasn't going willingly.
While the men had yet to notice Victor up there just meters above their heads, that thing in the middle of them did. It stopped flailing for a second and glanced up at the sound of the noise he had made, and that moment was all he needed to see that it was definitely a person, and definitely a mutant. Now that he saw what his nose had been leading him to this entire time, he could grab other details out of the scent, too; fruit, a crisp cold, exhaustion, fear...
Feral.
He was ashamed of the way he hesitated, but he couldn't stop staring as she snapped back and raked a clawed hand across a soldier's face. She was a swirl of white and gray, black spots dotting her skin as she lashed out at the men as they tried to subdue her. It wasn't until a shot rang out and she fell still that Victor managed to move again, and oh, did he move.
With a bellowing roar, he leapt from the tree, landing on one man and grabbing another, who received a blow to the head that left him lying in the dirt. A few bullets pierced his chest, but he didn't slow down as he moved towards the remaining two and snapped their necks one by one. It was boring and quick, but he had other things occupying his mind right now.
Red was seeping out of the feral, but she pushed herself up out of the dirt and rose onto shaky legs, stumbling a few feet away from Victor as she clutched her side. She was dressed in grimy rags, blood staining them in more than a few places. It seemed like they were barely clinging to her, and it was apparent that she had lost weight since they had first been placed on her. The sight of so many bones poking out made him snarl, and he didn't know why. Maybe it was just because she was clearly underfed by whoever was keeping her.
Her hair was a matted gray mess, filled with leaves and twigs that suggested she had been running from those men for quite some time without any chances to stop and clean herself up. She was shaking slightly as she bared her teeth at him, fangs longer than his own glistening. They were the only threatening thing about her as she stood there, wobbling on her unsteady feet, about to collapse at any moment. She dared to still challenge him, even when she was clearly only a few days from starvation? Frail had guts.
"Who are you?" she asked, her voice hoarse, like she hadn't had water in a few days. It was almost painful to hear.
Victor took a few steps toward her. A feral, a female feral. He could smell her fear. He knew how she was perceiving him, and it was just how he wanted-big, dominant alpha male. Healthy. Strong. Bloodthirsty. He flexed his hands, claws sliding out a bit more. The beast inside of him was desperate to make an impression on her, and it had to be a good one.
"Who're you, frail?" he asked, his voice a deep rumble.
She blinked as if she didn't know the answer. "I-I asked first."
He smirked to himself. Still trying to act tough? Cute. He'd give it to her this time. "Victor. Now tell me yours."
She was silent for a moment. Was she seriously trying to figure it out? "Ria." she said finally. "Ria."
Victor was pleased that he had managed to get it out of her. He was pleased that he was managing to do anything with her scent hanging in the air, honestly. "Well then, Ria, mind tellin' me if you've got anymore friends comin' after you? I'd like ta know who's knockin' at my door."
Whatever tiny amount of color that had been in her face drained as she realized that she was most definitely trespassing. "I don't think so. Not until they realize I was never delivered."
Victor frowned slightly. Oh, he definitely didn't like where this was going. "Let's get inside. You can tell me everythin' once you've got some food in you."
She was a bit shocked, to say the least, as he led her away from the bodies of what used to be her handlers. He only left her side once during the trip to his house, when he forced her to stay in an abandoned fox hole while he grabbed one of the deer he had meant to before she and her little party distracted him. It gave her a chance to think, but honestly, all the thinking in the world couldn't help her figure out what he wanted to do with her.
He had to have another motive. Male ferals didn't just help females. Okay, so she hadn't met very many, and she hadn't ever thought that she was going to meet more. She really didn't think she was going to be seeing the light of day again, though, so that in itself was a pleasant surprise. Despite not having met many, though, she did know a few things about male ferals, and a lot of them weren't very positive. They were relentless, and they always wanted to take what wasn't theirs. Always looking for mates, always starting fights...they were just generally hard to deal with, if her memory was serving her well.
She had never met one as giant as Victor, though.
And none of them had ever smelled as nice as he did.
She snarled at herself. This was stupid! She wanted to get out of there, to run into the trees and figure shit out for herself. She had to get away and be alone to lick her wounds, find out where she was, and get some food.
Well, Victor was getting the food for her, wasn't he? There wasn't any point in wasting energy. She didn't have much to spare. Hell, she could barely even walk straight, let alone run or climb or do literally anything else. She had to face it: she was useless, desperately in need of a bath and some sleep, and a little bit lonely.
"You can come out, darlin'." She heard Victor's slight drawl from outside and poked her head out. He was standing in front of the hollow with a large deer slung over his shoulder, the scent of food occupying most of the space around him.
Ria began salivating as she crept out of the hole, stumbling and stubbing her toes as she made her way over to him. Her inner beast had wanted to make some sort of impression too, but it was looking like it was a negative one now.
He must think I'm utterly fucking useless. She thought bitterly as they began walking.
Victor watched her from the corner of his eye. He was surprised that she had managed to stay upright this long. He was in the process of counting her ribs when she noticed him looking at her and her yellow eyes struck his, some sort of distant rage burning behind the broken surface. What the fuck had happened to her?
He dropped the deer down outside and wrenched the door open for Ria, grunting and nodding towards the wash basin before awkwardly stepping out again to string up and gut their dinner. He honestly didn't know what to do with this girl...he didn't feel the need to kill her or do anything even mildly unspeakable. Well, okay, maybe a little bit, but it would be so much more fun if she agreed.
But really, fucking wasn't at the front of his mind. Neither was violence, for once. The sabertooth inside of him was angry, like always, but not at this girl, and killing the soldiers had sedated it slightly for the time being, so it was focused on the task at hand...even though her scent was making it difficult.
He had never met a female of his kind, and it was making something bubble up inside of him. He kept glancing over his shoulder as if he could see through the walls and keep an eye on her, and the fact that he couldn't tell exactly what she was doing was agitating him. This frail was going to ruin him.
Ria managed to take a freezing bath while Victor was outside. She wanted to pretend that she thought the cold water was bracing or something, but honestly, it was because she didn't know that she could just heat it up on the stove and avoid shivering her tits off while she scrubbed at her skin until it was raw. She tore through her tangled hair, scrubbing at it, too, until the water she was sitting in was dark with dirt.
She wrinkled her nose at it and decided that it was probably healthier to get out and began searching for something to wrap up in. Finding a towel, she huddled up in it, drying off as quickly as she could. As she did so, the mirror on the wall caught her attention, and for the first time in what was probably years, she got to see her own reflection, and it took her a while to remember who she was looking at. Was that really her? She was so...sickly. So fragile. Her face was sunken and her head seemed entirely too big for the rest of her, what with there being absolutely no meat on her bones.
There's no way he'll want you now.
She frowned at herself. That was...a really stupid thought to have. What did she care if he liked her or not? Sure, he was the first mutant she'd seen in forever, and he was big and strong, and definitely probably pretty good looking, and was feeding her and keeping her safe for now, but that didn't mean anything. Her body was just reacting to the fact that there was another feral around, and she didn't appreciate it very much.
Besides, he was dangerous. He could kill her so easily, even when she was healthy. Maybe he was planning on it. Maybe this was her last meal. If that was the case, then she should enjoy it, right?
She heard the door open and froze. She had nothing to wear, and she didn't want him to see her like this, so weak and fragile, bones sticking out everywhere. Her skin was clean, at least.
Victor stomped in, carrying meat from the deer and putting it in the fridge before turning to look for Ria. He spotted her swimming in a towel and would have worn a smug grin if she didn't look so hopeless. It was painful, seeing a fellow feral like this. Especially a female. Especially...his female?
She was in his territory. She was his. He began smiling to himself as realization swept over him and the animal figured out that if he wanted, he could have her whenever the mood grabbed him. After all, nobody was going to dare challenge him for her. They would be pretty fucking stupid if they tried. He wanted her to be accepting, though, which meant winning her over. He needed her to like him.
All ulterior motives aside, though, he was seriously not liking how malnourished she was.
"Uh...come on. Get in here." he motioned for her to come to the tiny kitchen and started by grabbing her a cup of water. She took it and drank greedily, handing it back to him expectantly. He got her more and she did the same thing.
"O-kay, don't wanna get water gut." he warned as she gulped it down again.
She swallowed. "Sorry."
He smirked. Yes, apologize. He was the alpha here.
Her submission didn't last long, though. "Food. Now."
Victor growled in irritation. "You'll eat when I decide."
Ria raised an eyebrow. "Or I could just reach in and grab some for myself."
His growl raised in warning. "Don't test me, frail."
But that's exactly what she wanted to do. "So get me some fucking food, Victor."
Shit, he liked hearing her say his name. He leaned toward her as he reached for the fridge. "Say my name again."
Ria looked up at him with those big amber eyes. "Victor...please."
Her voice was as sweet as her scent was. "That's better."
When she was stronger, she would challenge him more. None of this backing down. As she took a slab of meat from him and sank her fangs into it, she noticed that she was lacking in the fear department. Maybe she just had bigger things to worry about. After all, if he was feeding her and keeping her warm, she could be his mate. No problem. It was little in return for never going back to that place.
Besides, he was...attractive.
"I'm tired." she announced when she finished. Victor realized he had been watching her eat the entire time and shook himself lightly.
"Fine. Bed's over there." he nodded toward the fur-covered cot and watched as she tested it and let her towel slip away, her naked form stretching out on the skins as if she had never felt anything so soft. He heard her purr quietly and his breath hitched. He really should find her a shirt or something, to at least keep her warm...but she didn't seem too concerned about it. Her breathing evened out within minutes, and before he knew what he was doing, Victor joined her.
He pulled her close to his chest and began checking her over as she slept. He ran his claws over her skin, searching for scars, bruises, anything to tell him where she had come from. Her healing factor must have been slow, because a chunk of skin was still missing from their little exchange with the soldiers earlier, but hopefully it would pick up when she finally began eating real food and getting real sleep. She was pale, her front an even light color, but across her back and up her neck were tattoos, a spotty leopard print spreading over her.
He chuckled to himself. A leopard, huh? She should be fun, then. Oh, the things he would make her do...as his fingers traveled further down, he frowned. The skin on her belly wasn't as smooth as the rest, and he felt ugly bumps criss crossing over it. Big brutish scars stretched across her lower stomach, definitely made by blades. He snarled, louder than he had meant to, at the thought of those white coats slicing her open. What the fuck had they done to her?
Victor was fuming. How dare they touch her? She was his. Nobody was allowed to touch her but him.
His snarl woke her for a moment, but after an initial jerk and a fluttering of eyelids, she fell back asleep, snuggling up against him with a sigh. Unsure of what to do, he lowered his head down next to hers, pressing his face into her hair and surrounding himself with her beautiful scent. The fear from before was gone, leaving only contentment.
She seemed happy, and that made him happy.
