Sabretooth and Birdy belong to Marvel, all others are of my own creation.

Reviews and constructive criticism welcome.

"Where is she?"

"Where's who, boss?" Birdy mumbled absently as she bent over the computer screen, sifting through business opportunities.

"My wife! Where the hell is Emma?" Creed shouted angrily, startling his assistant. This was the third time in a row where he had returned home to find her missing. It was an unspoken rule that she be available to him once he got home from business to field his whims and needs for the past decade at least. While it irritated him that she wasn't home to greet him, it infuriated him that he hadn't been able to get any answers from her when she did show up.

"I-I don't know." Birdy looked at him helplessly.

Creed approached her menacingly and bent down to hover less than an inch from her face, fury sparking from his green eyes. "I will be in the tub downstairs. The second she waltzes in, send her to me." He enunciate slowly and punctuated with a growl. Birdy gulped to confirm his orders before he stalked off. "And take care o' my suitcase!"

ooooo

Emma pulled through the front gates and slowed as she saw Birdy standing on the porch by the door. Parking the car in the garage, she emerged to meet the blond waiting in the chilly spring air.

"He wants to see you downstairs in the tub room. He's really scary pissed." Birdy shivered, either from the cold or fear. "Do you want me to come down with you?"

Emma felt the lump in her stomach tighten but she shook her head and tried to give a reassuring smile. "No, it's fine. I'll be fine." Her friend nodded unconvinced and they walked in together. Birdy took her coat and purse while Emma gave a wave and made her way to the basement steps that were lined with wall mounted body parts and deadly weapons, down to the elaborate tub room and sauna. She could hear her own heart flapping like a bird caught in a small cage and her husband's tapping claws on tile.

He sat in the water, a cigarette lit and dangling between the fingers of his right hand. His eyes were sharp and watched her as she touched down on the last step. They were silent. He didn't need to say anything. The quiet was the calm before the storm. Emma closed the door to keep the heat in and flashed him a guilty smile while undressing. She tucked her clothes in a neat pile on top of a chair that sat in the corner of the room. She could feel his eyes boring into her back, angrily. As her toe dipped into the water in the opposite corner of the in-set tub he broke the silence with a bark.

"Don't you dare. Get yer ass over here, immediately."

Emma froze, her arms covering her breasts, her legs glued together. It took her only a second to force her body to move again and she walked around the tub and knelt beside him on the tiles, they were cold against her bare skin.

Creed stubbed the butt of his cigarette out in the ashtray then grabbed her right forearm, pulling her to him, holding her over the water as she couldn't support herself in such a position. His teeth were centimetres from her throat but it was his nose that was engaged. He sniffed her neck, her face, her hair. He lingered there for a second, breathing deeply, making sure not to miss a smell. Finally he pushed her back and she landed in a sprawl. He was bent over her, still up to his thighs in water. He continued his assault by catching the scent around her breasts, over her stomach, then he forced her legs apart and the sudden contact of his nose on her in such a delicate area made her jump about a foot. He held her down and did a double sniff again as he had her hair. Creed glared at her while he smelled her. It another situation, with other feelings involved, it would have been arousing, but no matter what the truth, if he had any suspicions, she wouldn't be able to talk him out of them.

"Where were you?" Victor didn't break eye contact, but he did release her and sat back down in the tub among the fading bubbles. She had passed his test.

Emma took a deep breath of relief, slipping into the water and moving to kneel in front of him. She didn't want to be in the bath but it wasn't her choice anymore. "I was out shopping."

"You used that excuse last time, and the time before that. You didn't buy anything then, you didn't buy anything now." It must have been a bad job in Miami, he wanted to flex his brain and show her that he wasn't some dumb animal. "You didn't go out to lunch, you didn't have a doctor's appointment, or a dentist's appointment. You didn't see a movie, you didn't go to the park." All of these things he could tell by her smell. She didn't have the scent of food or latex or popcorn or crowds. She smelled like she had been in the company of a man, though not in an intimate way. He was jealous all the same.

"I was at the university, talking with an advisor. I was thinking of going back to school." The slap was resounding and his claws dragged across her cheek, filling the trenches with blood instantly.

"Don't fuckin' lie ta me, frail!" It was like it had never happened, the water was calm, the air was charged. Blood was dripping down Emma's cheek and staining the bubble bath pink.

"I'm not lying." Emma breathed, holding her cheek. "I was at the university."

Creed reached out again, quicker than a man should be able to, and grabbed her around the throat, squeezing and feeling her vocal chords squirm under his grip. "You stink of another man!" His roar echoed over the tiled room, up the stairs, and into Birdy's ears and mind, making her shiver.

Emma couldn't respond, she could only thrash in the water, trying to breath in air through her strangled throat. She didn't want to, as it would incur repercussion, but she needed to breathe. Emma connected her foot squarely into Victor's crotch with as much force as she could focus. The water washed over her and rushed into her lungs as she was dropped into the tub at the same time as she gasped for oxygen. She came up sputtering and coughing, reaching out to get as far away as possible from him before he recovered and found her body with his claws and teeth. She didn't get far and he grabbed a fistful of her hair, ripping her back into his grasp, pressed against his chest while his hands found her throat again.

But she still couldn't breathe, there was too much water still stuck in her lungs and she choked violently in his arms. Creed released his grip on her throat but continued to hold her briefly while she struggled. Finally he pushed her away and lifted his heavy frame out of the water while Emma found purchase on the other side of the tub, beaching herself on the tile while her eyes watered and she continued to cough out the water.

He was gone, leaving wet footprints on the stairs and a trail of droplets as he walked through the house back to the bedroom. Birdy replaced his presence and helped pick up her friend from the floor, wrapping a fluffy yellow towel around her and softly patting her back to get the water out. They sat on the floor in a puddle of quickly cooling water for a while after the coughing subsided, Birdy holding her and gently stroking her hair.

"He wants you upstairs." She whispered. Emma nodded and rose to her feet with help. The towel hung loosely around her body and she made her way up the stairs slowly, not trusting her legs so soon after nearly being left unconscious. Birdy did not follow her up to the second floor, but instead returned to the sauna to clean up the mess and avoid hearing the noises that would come from the bedroom.

Creed was pulling on his pyjama bottoms with his back to her when she entered. Emma fished out a t-shirt he had discarded from the dirty laundry hamper to wear to bed, in hopes that smell of himself around her would prevent any further attack.

He snapped his fingers once and clearly, meant as an order for her to come to him immediately. Emma complied, the path of least resistance would get her through this nightmare much quicker.

"You clearly don't remember who ya belong to so yer sleepin' on the floor t'night." Creed didn't even bother looking at her, instead he was lacing the draw strings on his cotton pants. He finally gave her a challenging glare before moving the covers aside and crawling into the warm bed himself. Emma stood awkwardly at his bedside. Snapping his fingers a second time, he pointed to the spot on the floor beside the bed.

"I'm not a dog." Emma held the collar of her makeshift nightgown up and bunched at her reddened throat. Creed began to get up from the bed, but Emma fell down to her knees quietly and tried to find a comfortable space on her side. She remembered the first and last time she had tried to stand up for herself in face of this non-painful but highly humiliating punishment, Victor has chased her down with his belt, gave her a great crack across her backside then tackled her and tied her up with it before literally dragging her to the spot she now lay in.

The lights went out and there was silence.