Hello! I haven't written anything in almost 2.5 years. But this story is still one of my favorite and I will try to keep updating as time allows. Please enjoy!
As the sunlight peeking through the large pelts that covered the entrance, showing the passage of the day, Viktor continued to stare at the figure crouched across from him. Ice blue eyes stared back. They had been in this contest of wills for over half the morning as far as he could tell. Time matter little to the feral male. He had been alive for almost twice as long as the normal human from which his form was vaguely modelled after. In a matter of wills with his future mate, he would not back down.
As the wind beyond the mouth of the cave turned from chilly to frigid and the temperatures dropped to reflect a winter night in the mountains, Viktor couldn't help a small smirk from forming. As exhausted as he knew her body was, the feral leaning against the opposite wall hadn't given in to the urge to succumb to a healing sleep. He was mildly impressed with her stubbornness. He knew he was willing to spend as long as it took to make her understand her place. This was just the beginning of his game.
Finally breaking eye contact, he'd let her have this small victory, Viktor frowned. As emotionally thrilling as their mind game was to him, he knew as night fell he would need to venture from the cave for their next meal. She had eaten a large portion of the buck he had killed only a few days ago and while that annoyance caused him to growl lowly again, he couldn't begrudge her the action. He would have done the same in her place, following the instinctual needs of a feral body.
By nature, their metabolism ran much faster than the average healthy human male. The amount of food she needed to sustain herself, he estimated, would be close to a professional Olympian in the height of training season.
That had to be why she looked nothing more than bones through that dirty hospital gown she still wore. Viktor doubted she had been regularly fed the last place she had been kept. As he swept his eyes over her malnourished figure, he watched her begin to squirm. She was obviously used to being watched as the squirm was almost unnoticeable to anyone with less tuned eyes. But Viktor was a hunter and noticed every movement. He felt a thrill run through him. She was almost as good as he was at keeping still and waiting. As he slowly brought his stormy blue eyes back to her blood covered face, he grinned sharply. Then he stood.
Their staring contest had taken a lot more of her precious energy than she was willing to admit. She might be weak, for now, but years of torture had not broken her spirit and neither would this Neanderthal covered in the matted, smelly pelt of a bear. As she assessed her new captor for the hundredth time today, she noticed his turbulent eyes wandering over her form. His gaze, while not as cold as the men who had held her captive, was no less welcoming than it had been when he threw her into the stone wall earlier. She could almost see the wheels in his head turning. He was making decisions about her usefulness and as much as she loathed it, Marie knew she needed his help to survive. For now. Inwardly, Marie snarled. As soon as she was healthier, and figured out where this cave was in relation to civilization she would rid herself of his pungent, dangerous presence.
Marie noticed the second his gaze returned to her face. It felt like her skin was on fire. Thankfully, she had never been someone to blush and therefore gave nothing of her feelings away. Raising her eyes to once again meet his, her eye twitched in annoyance. He was throwing a wicked grin, too full of canines, her way. "What?" She hissed. Marie didn't know why this man, Viktor he had called himself, set her teeth on edge. She was inexperienced in interpreting signals her body sent her. But her instinct of this man was one of pain.
Raising his brow slightly, Viktor let the grin slide of his face. She was a prickly one he figured. "I am leaving to hunt," he said, "it won't take long." His bulk began to move to the entrance of the cave.
Nodding her head slightly, Marie levied herself off the stone floor using the wall as support. He approached the section of the wall that was actually a pelt covered portal to the outside. Her knees cracked loudly in protest as her body became fully erect and she winced before flicking her eyes up to meet his face. She had forgotten his immense size. With him sitting across the cave from her, she had pretended that she could take him in a fight. But standing within a few feet of him convinced her otherwise.
He stood at least a foot and a half taller than her. His shoulders were broad enough to almost touch the cave walls on either side of the entrance and with his head ducked to stop from scrapping the top of the cave she suddenly got the overwhelming sense of his power. Without thinking, Marie took a half step back. She had never seen a man of his stature but she had known men much bigger than her. None of them had been kind. Viktor growled lowly, as if he could read her mind.
"Keep the fire burning, and don't leave this place," Viktor's harsh voice cut through her dark thoughts. With a last glare, he spun out into the snow and disappeared quickly. A blast of cold wind blew back in her face and while it was momentarily a relief, a sharp contrast to the stifling heat of the cave, her body shuddered and Marie retreated farther into the cave. She cursed her body's weakness.
The winter had been her favorite season as a child. The staggeringly cold weathers of the Rockies had always brought her joy and been a wonderful playground when living with her parents in a beautiful log house west of Colorado Springs. She had been such a wild child it's a wonder her parents were shocked when her mutant genes first manifested.
Out in the pitch black night, the stars and bright moon reflecting shadows across the untouched snow, Viktor seethed.
That girl, his mind roared. What right did she have to be afraid of him?
He had saved her from freezing to an early grave not twenty four hours ago. And now she treated him like one who had hunted her.
Stupid female, he raged.
Viktor had seen the fear enter her eyes and her body react to his nearness with a quick step that took her petite form from his reach. He had watched as her pupils had shrunk to pinpricks and her nostrils had flared. Viktor was used to inflicting fear into those that crossed his path. He knew his size and the impression it gave. And he had never gotten angry at someone for being afraid of him. He had always relished in their terror, right before he killed them. So why did he care now? His mind wandered.
Suddenly Viktor jerked to a halt. While his mind had contemplated this feeling he couldn't give voice too, his feral instincts, honed by years of living off the land, had been actively searching for something to satisfy his hunger. And his anger. There was a heartbeat to his left that had caught his attention. Quiet now, and completely focused on the hunt, Viktor maneuvered his body slowly through the trees. He could smell the animal now. It was a lone elk. Separated from its herd either by accident or by its own fate, it was easy prey for the class of hunter Viktor belonged to. A blurred charge and an unseen slash left the elk's life force staining the fluffy coating of snow on the forest floor. Letting the buck's heart do most of the work, Viktor allowed the blood to mostly drain from the body before hauling it over his shoulder with easy strength and turning back towards the cave.
While it satisfied him to make death as painful as possible to beings he had no intention of eating, the animals he chose to hunt for food he found himself less inclined to give in to the urge to cause maim and torture. They were dying for his continued survival. He could at least give them the benefit of a quick death. That was the only form of mercy Viktor knew.
The kill had mitigated some of his anger at the woman who was even now waiting for him. But that feeling he could not name and the remaining anger made him antsy.
Viktor sighed, "stupid female," he repeated, without much heat.
The trek back to his warm cave gave Viktor time to think. He had never met a feral female, in his almost two hundred years. He had been completely sure they did not exist. Jimmy and him had had a running bet about it. Jimmy figured it there were feral males then feral females were biologically necessary, to complete the circle of life. Jimmy had always been smarter about subjects like that. Viktor didn't agree with him. But they had never been able to prove it either way. So to find one, and to have her land practically in his lap was a shock he was still getting over. He couldn't afford to mess this up.
As he pulled back the deer pelts he had hung as a makeshift door before the winter this year, Viktor vowed to let her have the bigger portion of the elk. He felt that was a nice enough apology.
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