Jess yawned as she snuggled deeper into the bed she was laying in. The soft pillows were telling her that she should stay there all day and possibly another night but she knew better than to listen to its sweet candied words. Especially since she had someone special now waiting for her.

A happy squeal of excitement was screamed into the pillow as she kept herself from having a happy spaz attack. She couldn't believe it. Yesterday she had met her soulmate! Albeit he did look a bit rough around the edges and was a major flirt she was sure that things would work out. Surely she wouldn't have to many problems with him.

Jess brought her right hand to her chest as she remembered the way Red looked at her last night. Like she was special. Like she was something precious. It made a small dusting of pink come across her cheeks that was quickly covered by the thick blanket the hotel provided. This time she could not stop the happy wiggles she did from how joyful she was becoming. This was like a dream. A rough started one but at least it was moving on to something nice.

The sound of her phone ringing made her shoot up from her bed. The idea that it could be Red made her fumble around in the blankets looking for it. She had given him her number so that he could call her or she to him when she was ready to head over. However, when she finally found it and looked at who was actually calling she noticed it wasn't him. It was her stupid fucking dad.

A sound of disgust came out of her as she hung the phone up before putting it on the nightstand. Flopping back down onto the pillows she thought of what she was going to do now with her father. He was not the type to leave well enough alone and after the outburst she made yesterday she was sure he was wound tighter than a spring. But what did he actually expect when he did that shit yesterday? Did he honestly think it was alright? Surely her father did not have that small of a brain. Then again he did propose to another woman after his wife just died. And it was clear to her that the bitch was only after her father's money. Which was laughable because the house and all the money actually belonged to Jess. Her mother was so smart to do that before she passed. No need to put it in a will when she had secretly done it without her father knowing. That was probably why Jess's dad was calling. Probably just found out and wanted her to come home and force her to turn it over to him.

The thought of her angry dad trying to pull some abusive shit made her think back to what Red had told her. She really did not want to use violence but if push came to shove maybe she could have Red scare him a bit. Rough him up a bit but not actually beat the shit out of him. That would actually help her out a lot since he was a fucking pussy cat when it came to a confrontation with someone bigger than him. Though it would probably take a while for him to get the full memo.

She huffed as she was already knowing that he was going to pester her by calling all day and probably all week but at least he did not know where she was. Well maybe the hotel since her bank statement was supposed to arrive in the mail next week but by then she would be moved in and all that with Red. Her smile returned when she thought of her new found soulmate. Actually now that she thought about it was he even awake? She glanced over at the clock. It was almost nine in the morning. Not the usual time she woke up but she was still on her "work time" after all. Thankfully she had been working a long while with the company she worked at so she had saved enough vacation days to be off for a full month. She only had about a week and a half of time off left and she would rather sleep in as much as she could. Unfortunately check out time was at ten so she would have to get her butt moving soon.

As if on queue her phone began to buzz again. She almost did not even bother to look at it until she saw the name on the caller ID. Quickly she scrambled over to answer it.

"H-Hello?"

"sup kitten, ya sleep well?" Red's voice sounded tired. Maybe he wasn't an early bird either? She hoped so. The thought of the two of them laying in the same bed until all hours of the day made a smile appear on her face.

'I-I did. B-But it sounds like y-you could use a few more hours." She giggled.

"heh, yeah but then i couldn't take ya out for breakfast."

Jess heard him moving some stuff around on his side of the line. She thought he was probably dragging himself out of bed as well which is what she should be doing since she basically heard him ask to meet up for breakfast. "Did y-you have a-a place in mind?"

"so long as ya don't mind heading back to Grillby's then yeah."

"Grillby's i-is still open?" Kicking the sheets off she took the phone with her as she went over to her suitcase for something to wear.

"yeah. grilb's kid manages the place in the morn'en."

"Oh." Pulling out a nice shirt she tossed it onto the bed before going back in to look for some shorts. "W-Well then if you c-could give me a few minutes I can be r-ready and over there before ten."

"sure thing, gives me plenty of time to wake my own ass up."

"Ok, I-I'll see you in a bit."

Hanging up the phone Jess stood there for a moment as her mind processed what was going to happen. Did Red just ask her on a breakfast date? Wait... Were they dating? A dark blush spread across her face as she thought about it. Yeah they were soulmates but one does not really just jump into something so quickly just because they were. She still knew so little about Red. Like who was he as a real person and what was he really like behind closed doors?

Jess was not truly ignorant when it came down to relationships. She had her fair share of them because honestly finding one's soulmate was always a hit or miss. Sometimes it took tens of years before one even found their soulmate so a bit of practice didn't hurt in between. Like for sure with how heavy Red was putting on the flirting with her last night she was sure that he had his fair share of fun as well. Yet in her case the ones that she was with only wanted one of two things which was either her body or her money. Not that she thought that Red was really after those things completely. Red had said that he wasn't really strapped on cash since when the barrier broke they traded their gold for cash hence why he had bought the property they were going to later. Then even though he laid down a lot of flirting on her to make her a flustered rambling mess he not once tried to take advantage of her that night. Honestly he acted like quite the gentleman for someone with his kind of scary appearance.

Still though, she was pretty excited to be meeting him for breakfast.

Red check his phone for what would be the thousandth time in the past five minutes. He was getting antsy because although she had told him that she would be there before ten it was already getting close to actually being ten. Not that he was thinking of her ditching him or anything. He had already done his fair share of snooping last night after he had fixed the mess he had made.

Apparently everything she had told him last night was true. Not that he doubted her since he could practically see on her face if she was lying but she did leave some things out. Certain things that could be easily taken care of later on but he guessed he could understand why she would leave them out. It would be fun on his part to take care of them though if he did before they actually talked about it then that might just very well drive her away and he would really fucking hate it if that happened.

Red checked his phone again.

9:52.

Red growled quietly as he closed the screen before running a hand through his hair. This was really getting out of hand. Not even a whole day and he was already starting to get frustrated because of something like this. She wasn't even late! If anything he was the one who had arrived to early. Then the fact that the hotel she was at was a good twenty minute drive over to Grillby's should have been enough to tell him that she could be late by a bit anyways. And just thinking on that reminded him that she still had a job. If he was like this from not seeing her after a couple of hours then he could already imagine the chaos that might go down when she would leave for it.

"should see a doctor if your dick's burning that bad."

Oh for fuck's sake. Red thought as he dropped his hand to glare over at the lanky monster now sitting across from him using the whole bench of the booth. He held a smug grin on his face that made Red knew the ass hat was only here to cause him more trouble.

"fuck off ya shit stick." Red growled.

"in a bit. got some time to kill." Lighting a cigarette Mutt took a long drag of it before breathing the smoke out of his nose.

Red's brow twitched. Why did this bastard have to come when she was supposed to be here in a little bit? Unless he had followed him yesterday? But she shouldn't have anything to do with him. There would be no actual excuse for him to be here unless he is just here to tease and pester Red. Then again Mutt had said he was also here to meet with someone. It couldn't be with her. There was no way.

Mutt was never one to make friends. Make enemies a plenty sure, but never would he get close to someone to actually be friendly with them unless he had an ulterior motive. That's why he always hung out with Red when they were going out to look for a good fuck. Red would loosen them up since the other couldn't talk for shit and whichever Red didn't want Mutt would take. Other than that and deciding to annoy the shit out of Red every now and again Mutt would disappear completely until his brother called for him.

Red glanced at the hand that held Mutt's Soul Mark. The ding dong had started to wear fingerless gloves ever since his brother made a remark or two about how a lowlife like himself would never have a real soulmate. Red had been there at the house when the two had that little spat. Now he knew Edge and he had his little fights but never would he tell his own brother that, no matter how much of a brat he was. But the business between he and the FellSwaps had nothing to do with him. He was not going to interject himself when he had his own issues to deal with.

Like where his little angel was.

As if on queue the gentle air that Red had come to know that was around Jess caressed over Red's own agitated one telling him that She was already here. Picking up his head he looked over to the entrance of Grillby's and saw her walking towards him. Literally, he shit you not, his jaw nearly dropped clear through the floor when he got a glance at how she looked. The outfit she wore showed off her pretty little legs and curves. The likes of which would have made Red disappointed because he couldn't see more skin but at the same time was thankful she wasn't. Was bad enough she was already turning heads from the other customers. Then the fact that she had done her hair and make up for him as well made him feel lighter. The fact that she got herself done up and pretty just for him made the soul in his chest thump heavily against his ribcage.

"Sorry I-I'm a bit late, Red. There w-was a-an accident on t-the way over so I had to take the l-long way here." She said nervously once she came up to the table, her eyes cast down to the floor while her hand that didn't have her clutch purse began tugging at the sleeve of the other arm.

"nah don't worry bout it. just got 'ere myself." Red said getting up from his side of the booth.

Jess picked her head up when she saw Red move and saw that he was waiting for her to get in. Scurrying over she easily slid herself into the booth but found herself in the same predicament as last night when Red practically cornered her into the booth. Though this time she wasn't as nervous as she had been before.

Placing her purse on the side she glanced up when she noticed the other person there. He was dressed in an oversized puffy jacket with a black fur trim on the hood. He did not seem bothered by the fact that it was already staring to get hot enough that wearing that kind of jacket would kill someone from heatstroke. Then again she guessed from the purple smoke coming from his cigarette and his honey amber eyes that his magic was the cause of him still standing at this point. His ebony black hair was cut somewhat like a bob but it was to messy at the moment to look nice or decent. He looked bored but she could tell just by how the corners of his lips had been drawn into a tiny smile that he wasn't upset about it.

"Hi." She said trying not to be rude when she noticed she had been staring. Lifting her hand for him to shake she tried to introduce herself. "M-My name is Jess. A-Are you friends with Red?"

Mutt looked at her outstretched hand and then at Red. The burly monster looked like he was doing everything he could to look calm but he could tell that Red was pissed off hotter than a angry hornets nest from having her attention not on him.

"don't bother with this one babe. he isn't much of a talker." Red said gently taking her hand. This gained her attention back to him which made Red feel a bit better. He pulled gently on her making her lean closer towards him. Which in itself was good on his part because it allowed him to have the perfect angle to kiss the top of her head while glaring hot daggers towards Mutt. A fair warning to not even try anything. "sides he was just bout to leave anyways."

"yup. i should get going soon." Mutt said flatly stuffing his phone that was on the table into his pocket. "names Rus by the way but everyone calls me Mutt."

" 's cus ya aint noth'en but a fuck'en horn dog. seriously babe don't mind him." Red growled.

"Red!" Jess gasped shocked that he would say such a thing.

"don't worry bout it sweetness. big red here gets territorial when he has someth'en he likes. but since i don't wana get dusted, i should go."

Red glowered as Mutt stood up and especially when the tall mongrel stretched his hand out towards her. He was reluctant to let her own go when she started to tug it out of his grasp. If only he could teleport themselves away without drawing to much attention from her. It would have been perfect if she was stupid so that he could do as he pleased but she wasn't and a part of him was kind of glad for that in some way. Still though, he reluctantly let her hand go. Yet when he did he knew from the smug look on his damn face that Mutt was going to do some stupid shit.

And he was right.

Jess gasped when she felt the world around her disappear and with the definite loss of gravity made her stomach practically rise up her esophagus. Thankfully she was born with a good sense of will power and did not blow what little her empty stomach had left in it as she landed on her back on something soft. It did take a moment for her to get her eyes to work but even then the darkness of the space she was in did not help much. Luckily there was a bit of light coming from what she believed to be a door from her right side.

Making a move to get up and out of this dark place she soon found out that her arms and legs had been trapped by the male monster that was lightly holding her down from above. It was then that she started to panic. Terrifying thoughts crossed her mind on what he was going to do to her as well as why he had done such a thing.

He knew that she was Red's right? He knew that Red was a monster as well to? But then again Red had known this person for a while. So Red had to have known that he would do something like this right?

Unless... unless Red allowed this?

No! She had seen how Red had reacted to him when she tried to shake his hand the first time. He definitely would not have allowed this to happen if he had known about it. So that then begged the question; would Red come save her?

She flinched when Mutt brought his face down to hers, his nose slightly touching the skin of her cheek when she had turned it away from him. She could hear him breath in, as if he was smelling her, before letting it go through his mouth. The heat of his breath and the smell of cigarette made her want to move away. Not that she had a problem with the smell of smoke since her mother did it but still she wouldn't want to associate the calming smell she remembers to this.

" 'm sorry mistress." He mumbled letting his nose delicately slide up across her face before he buried it in her hair. " just couldn't help myself anymore."

Mistress!? Just what the hell was this dude talking about!? She thought shutting her eyes.

" 're so soft." He nuzzled into her hair more but the rest of him was not idle. His hand slid up her arm sickeningly gently like her skin would rip away if he pressed his calloused fingers onto her skin.

Jess wanted to tell him to leave her alone. To tell him to get off and not touch her but she knew that her voice when she opened her mouth would utterly betray her. That's why she didn't like conflicts. She knew her damn stutter would take any bite in her tone away. And that frustrated her. It made her so damn angry. Unfortunately when she got angry she always cried.

The hand that was moving on her arm came up her exposed shoulder. She knew that he could feel her tremble under him but still he kept going sliding up her neck until his fingers wrapped around her chin forcing her to look back towards him. When he did this she tried to move her newly released arm to smack him with enough force to probably break her wrist. Yet things didn't go quite as planned. For some reason her arm wouldn't budge no matter how hard she tried to move it. Her eyes opened as she looked over and saw that there was really nothing there holding it down so the fact that she was unable to move for an unknown reason made fresh hot tears roll down her cheeks. Instantly fear and panic immediately crippled her rage making her literally try and move every part of her body. When her head moved to where he had wanted it she soon found that not even her own head would move like it had done before. It was like her body wasn't her's anymore

" 's alright mistress." Mutt cooed raising his other hand to wipe away her tears on that side of her face. "its just so i don't hurt you. m'ah Soul would shatter at seeing your body ruined unintentionally."

As he spoke he was looking over her face before landing on her lips where his thumb had stopped to gently rub her trembling bottom one. If it wasn't for the fact that she couldn't move she would have bitten the shit out of his finger that way if he was going to end up killing her and he overpowered her anymore than she knew he possibly could then at least she did some sort of damage to him. Sadly though she wouldn't be able to and was stuck having to watch as he lowered his head down to hers as he kissed her.

Now at first she would have expected something disgusting and sloppy. Something a rapist or a murderer in any kind of situation like this would have done and yet... it wasn't. Surprisingly it was as gentle and soft, like a feather was caressing her lips.

Now that was definitely unexpected.

In that kiss alone she could feel, in some sort of weird way, how caring he was trying to be. Though then again that could have been how she felt she wanted him to feel. She didn't know why. She just felt like that was what he was trying to convey. Not that it helped her to calm down, well it did but not by much.

Mutt then left her lips to trail small pecks down her jaw until he stopped at the base where he pressed his cheek against her's. He then sighed like he had the weight of whatever was on his shoulders had been taken off slightly.

" 'm so happy i found you." He had said and she could have sworn she could have heard a purr in his voice.

That made her glance at him as he removed his hands from her face so that he could wrap them around her body trapping her arms with his own once again. Yet as he did he moved his lower half so that she was basically straddling him. Once she was practically fully trapped she felt her body go slack as if whatever was keeping her still was now gone. Though she really wanted to punch him and kick him off she knew better than to do that. She could very well end up back in that same situation again or worse and she wasn't going to take that chance with him. So she needed to play her cards right if she wanted to get away and if that meant playing soft and meek then she had no other choice.

"M-Mutt-"

"rus." He sternly corrected cutting her off. He sat up a bit so he could look down at her. His amber eyes warning her not to make that mistake again. "only call me rus."

"O-Ok Rus." She said trying to calm her voice down enough to sound coherent. When she said his name the hard look that he was giving her softened and a happy grin appeared on his face. "Red will b-be upset when he f-finds us. I-I don't w-want you to get hurt."

" 's ok. he can't hurt me even if he tried. he knows what would happen if he did."

If he did? The hell did that mean? She thought watching him cautiously. "Still, I k-know he w-will be upset when h-he gets here."

"if he gets here." Rus chuckled. That obviously set off some red flags that she definitely caught onto but so did he. He must have seen the look on her face and more than likely felt her heart trying to burst out of her chest as he started to shush her again like one would do for a toddler or a baby. "no, no, no, don't be scared. he'll come, just not anytime soon. probably thinks i took ya to mah home and went there first. he thinks i don't know bout this place but he's to dumb to hide his tracks right."

"A-And where exactly a-are w-we?" She asked moving her arm slightly and carefully so that she could place it on his chest as if that would try and keep him from getting any closer. She knows it wouldn't but still it made her feel somewhat at ease. Though again like everything else it did not stay there long as he grabbed it gently to bring it up to his mouth to leave small kisses over her knuckles. She did try to pull it away but he held her well enough that when she did it was practically nothing to him.

"beautiful." He mumbled adoringly ignoring her question while turning her hand so he could see her Soul Mark. " 's shining so bright for me."

And it was. The three main colors that swirled and intermingled forming different shades both bright and dark were ablaze on her finger. Jess's eyes went wide again at this. That couldn't be right though. Red was her soulmate. Her only soulmate. Right? Having more than one was unheard of here for humans.

She looked at Rus' face yet when she did what she saw absolutely sent her back to being terrified. He looked insane. Like literally clinically insane. Not that "im going to murder you" kind but more on to the obsessive stalker kind. The one where they give that enraptured creepy smile. One of those like they would get if they were told by their victim they could spend the night at their place or something like that.

Her blood froze making her body freeze as well at this. But just because he looked like this did not mean that he was one of her soulmates. It could mean that he was just loony. The only real way she could tell was if she saw his own finger. The thing with that though was that it was covered by that half glove thing he was wearing. She wouldn't be able to see it unless he took it off. If there was a way she could convince him to take it off then she would be able to deduce it quickly. Then again she really did not want to know if he was. If this was him apparently happy then she definitely did not want him around if he was angry. Hell she was pretty sure the same could be said for Red as well.

Wait a minute.

Something clicked in Jess's brain when she thought about Red. He was a Monster. An actual Monster with an actual soulmate.

Shit. She cursed in her mind. Monsters were extremely territorial when they first meet their soulmates. Some of the murder cases she had seen on the tv were because someone had been dumb enough to get between the two be it intentional or not. She had seen the destruction caused by them as she passed by on her way to work. It wasn't pretty and she sure as hell knew that the human that died was surely not in one piece. If Red was as strong as he looked then she sure as hell knew that if he came in guns fully loaded then she was sure that she wasn't going to be unharmed when he finally calmed down. Then if Mu-Rus was as strong as well, paired with the obvious crazy she saw, then that would mean double trouble.

She needed to get out of this somehow