Chapter 8 The Escape

Disclaimer: I don't own Yugioh

Yami laid awake for over an hour after the pack had bedded down for the night, contemplating the best way to be able to make her move. One major problem she was having is that Atem had decided sleeping with his head draped across the back of her neck, not unlike how he had lounged earlier in the day, was his new preferred sleeping position. This positioning was certainly making slipping out of the clearing to head for home a lot more challenging that she had hoped for.

After another hour of waiting Yami just decided she was going to have to go for it. Atem was clearly not going to move and she was not going to just continue to stay here with Atem. She was going home and that was final.

And with that decision in mind Yami carefully rose to her feet, dislodging Atem's head from her body, which of course woke him up.

"What's wrong?" Atem asked with a yawn as he stretched slightly.

"Nothing. Go back to sleep." Yami grunted.

Her gruff response it appeared had the opposite effect, and instead seemed to wake Atem up even more instead of convince him to go back to sleep. He rose to his feet stretching once more before he bumped his head against her side. "What's wrong? You should be sleeping." Atem said.

Yami sighed as she wracked her brain trying to come up with a sufficient lie before an obvious one occurred to her. "I need to go to the bathroom. Don't worry, I'll be back shortly." Yami said.

"I can come with you." Atem immediately replied.

Yami internally groaned. Atem was certainly not making running away very easy. "I'd prefer you not. I know I've already been stripped of any sense of privacy since arriving but please. At least let me go to the bathroom in peace." Yami said gruffly. She didn't have to fake the anger in her tone when she addressed Atem.

Atem sighed before his tongue flicked out, licking the side of her cheek. "Fine. You can go in peace. Try to stay close to the clearing and if you aren't back in ten minutes I will come looking for you. I don't like the idea of you wandering around alone." Atem said.

Yami snorted, "I'm not wandering around alone. I'm going to the bathroom. There's a difference." Yami replied before she trotted out of the clearing. As soon as Yami had cleared the treeline she broke out in a dead run. She knew that she needed to focus on transforming back into her human form but Yami figured she would be better off doing that once she had gotten to the edge of the woods by her grandfather's house instead of transforming now to then make her way through the woods as a human. Not only was her night vision not as good as a human, she was a lot less coordinated when moving through the woods. Plus, she moved slower and if she was only going to have a ten minute head start then she really needed to make the most of it before Atem started to follow her.

Yami ran until she reached the steep hill that she remembered Kaiba and Akefia carrying her up when they'd brought her to the pack. This meant she was at least heading in approximately the right direction. It was sad how difficult it was to keep from barking in delight upon the realization before she began to bound down the hill. The hill was still very steep but as a wolf she was able to move down the hill at a relatively fast pace without losing her footing.

Once she had reached the bottom of the hill Yami was able to clearly hear the sound of the river up ahead. Another good sign that she was going in the right direction. She had no hesitation jumping into the river and swimming, albeit somewhat awkwardly, to the other side. And with any luck my little swim will throw off Atem tracking me. Yami thought to herself before she continued to run through the woods.

It still took Yami a considerable amount of time before she was able to exit the tree line and come to a stop in her grandfather's back yard. I did it. I'm home. Yami thought to herself before she walked right up to the side of the side of her house. Yami let out a small snort when she realized she had come to a complete stop at the exact spot this entire nightmare had begun. At the spot where Duke had attacked her.

Yami forced herself to push that though from her mind as she sat down. She needed to concentrate. Now, Mana had said she needed to picture her human self and her wolf self, with her wolf self in the front. In order to initiate the shift she would have to mentally push the wolf out of the way and the human form to the forefront. I can do this. Yami thought to herself as she closed her eyes and concentrated.

She was able to easily picture her human form and she did imagine shoving the wolf out of the way. Then she felt the pull that she had come to associate with a shift. Problem is this time she did not have Atem there to help her. And without the distraction she was only able to focus on the shift itself. Perhaps she wasn't fully relaxed? Perhaps the wolf was fighting getting pushed to the side. Perhaps she was trying to rush through this since she knew that Atem was no doubt hunting for her at this very moment and it was only going to be a matter of time before he found her.

No matter the reason, one fact remained. Shifting Hurt. She tried to force herself to think about something else, anything else but now that she had realized she was in pain that was literally all she could think about. Every part of her body ached and her bones throbbed as her body reconfigured itself in a matter of minutes. It almost felt like some of her bones were breaking as they rearranged themselves once more and she could not help but let out a small pained whimper.

A matter of agonizing minutes later and the shift was over, she was lying on the ground back in her human form once again. Sadly, she had not been filled with the sense of triumph that she had been hoping she would have. Instead she carefully rose to her feet before reaching for the door. Of course the door was locked so Yami crouched down and grabbed the spare key from the hiding spot under the door mat. Once she had the door unlocked she was able to slip inside, pushing the door closed behind her.

The house was eerily quiet. Yami frowned slightly as she slowly made her way into the living room. Her grandfather for the past several years had often slept in his recliner, since his back did not permit him to sleep in his bed anymore. There had been many nights that Yami had fallen asleep to the sounds of her grandfather's snores and the sound of the television which her grandfather left on as he fell asleep. Her frown deepened when she walked into the living room and her grandfather's chair was empty.

Where is he? Yami thought to herself as she slowly made her way up the stairs to her grandfather's bedroom. He may not have slept there in years but still, it was the next most logical place for her to check. She pushed open the door and just like with the living room, the room was empty. His bed was made and clearly had not been touched.

Yami felt like she could cry. She had managed to escape and now she was here but her grandfather was nowhere to be seen. He had promised that if she needed him that he would be here, but he wasn't. Yami forced herself to exit her grandfather's bedroom and returned to her own. Her own room looked exactly like she had left it, even her shopping bags from Vivian's were still sitting on the floor where she'd left them.

Yami slowly sat down on the foot of her bed as she finally allowed the tears that she had been holding back to fall. The sad thing is that she didn't even know why she was crying. She felt utterly and completely alone, trapped into essentially a marriage to a practical stranger and she wasn't even able to talk to her grandfather about what was happening.

Yami allowed herself to flop back onto her pillow as she forced herself to wipe her tears away. She was stronger than this. Her grandfather had raised her to be a strong woman. To be able to overcome and adapt to whatever life threw her way. Even this. She frowned slightly when she heard a slight crinkling sound as her head met the pillow. She turned her head to see that she had laid down on a piece of paper.

Yami carefully grabbed the piece of paper and flicked on the lamp beside her bed. It was a letter, from her grandfather.

My dearest Yami,

If you are reading this note then you came home when I was not here. For that I sincerely apologize. As I sit writing this my suitcase is packed and resting at the foot of the stairs. I will admit that losing you has been one of the hardest things I've ever been through. Ever since your grandmother died eight years ago it has been me and you against the world. But now, now you're gone and I'm sitting alone in this empty house, with only my thoughts for company. I haven't opened the shop since the day of your attack. I just, I just couldn't. Because I knew that you wouldn't be coming back through that door to tell me how your day was. You wouldn't laugh at the boys who whistled as you as you headed down to Mai's wearing those shorts of yours that I have always thought were a tad too short. I never said anything to you about it because I knew you liked the shorts and I got to play the part of your protector and warn the boys that if they messed with you they were in for it.

I'm so sorry that I was not able to protect you from this. I wish there was more than I could have done to support you. I feel like I've ultimately failed you and again, for that I am truly sorry. Arthur came by yesterday. Apparently Mai's mother called him because, 'I've been way too melancholy and I need to buck up'. So, Arthur, in his brilliant wisdom has decided that what I need is to get away for a little while. He's booked us a trip to Egypt and said it was time for a couple of old history buffs to finally go and see the real thing. We're going to be on a cruise down the Nile River and we'll get to tour a lot of the sites that I've only gotten to see on television before. And I do recognize this is a once in a lifetime opportunity for me. Sad thing is the only thing I can really think about right now is that you should have been coming with me on this trip. That and what if you came back while I was gone and I wasn't there for you. (Which clearly if you reading this letter is exactly what happened.)

Never forget how much I love you Yami.

-Grandpa

Yami once again was forced to wipe tears from her eyes before she set the letter aside. She would be forever grateful to Arthur for stepping in to make sure her grandfather took care of himself and didn't waste away while she was living with the pack.

Yami heard a firm knock on the front door. A glance at the clock revealed that it was already after midnight. No one would just randomly be knocking on the door at this time of night, especially not with her grandfather out of town which means that Atem had managed to find her. Well, that's just tough. I'm not ready for him to drag me back to the clearing. Yami thought to herself before she rose to her feet. It had been a full week since she'd last been able to take a shower or even change her clothes. She was going to take advantage of the opportunity. But first, there was one other person she could reach out to. Mai had been her best friend since they had met in Elementary School. If she couldn't talk to her grandfather about this whole mess, she could certainly talk to her best friend.

Yami picked up her cellphone which was still sitting on her desk. It looked like in the last week Mai had texted her over 90 times before she had clearly just given up. She also had about twenty missed calls. Yami picked up her cellphone and dialed Mai's number, she knew it was late but Mai would answer her phone. She always did. As she waiting for Mai to answer Yami stripped off her shorts, underwear and tank top. She felt absolutely disgusting wearing the same clothes for a whole week, not to mention she had been out running through the woods.

And sure enough, Mai picked up on the third ring. "Hello?" Mai said slowly.

"Mai, it's me." Yami said.

"Well, of course it's you, hun. Who else would be calling me on your phone? But seriously Yami what the hell? You just up and disappeared without so much as a word. I've tried calling you, I've tried texting. Nothing. And your grandfather had practically locked himself away. He was almost acting like you'd died Yami. So, what the hell happened? All he said when I came by was that you weren't home and he didn't know when you'd be back." Mai snapped.

Yami sighed, "Mai, a lot has happened since I saw you last. It's too much to be able to explain over the phone. Could you please come over and we can talk face to face." Yami asked.

Mai sighed, "Fine. But this had better be a pretty damn good explanation. I'll be over in about half an hour." Mai replied.

Yami nodded, "Okay. Sounds good Mai. See you then." Yami replied before she disconnected the call. Half an hour should give her plenty of time to shower and figure out how to explain what was going on to her friend.

"You do know that speaking to your friend is a terrible idea. Just as you should know that coming here without my permission is against pack laws."

Yami jumped, whipping around to see that Atem had apparently scaled the tree on the side of her grandfather's house and was now coming in through her bedroom window. Yamiwas at first at a loss for words for what to say, and her hesitation allowed Atem to finish making his way through the window and into Yami's room. A window she had forgotten she'd opened more than a week ago to let in some cool air during the night. It was only then did Yami realize she was standing in the middle of her room completely naked. In front of Atem. Shit. Yami thought to herself.

Yami immediately turned and ran for the bathroom. Atem however, blocked her path and firmly grasped a hold of her arm, "You are not running away from me." Atem growled.

"Well, in case you haven't noticed Atem I am standing in the middle of my bedroom naked! I was going to hide in the bathroom and at least take a shower before my friend comes over. No matter what you think I am going to talk to her. I need to talk to someone who will at least listen to me and understand my perspective on things. Something you downright refuse to do." Yami growled.

"The last time I allowed you to go the bathroom unsupervised you violated my trust and took off. Do you think I'm stupid enough to make that same decision a second time?" Atem growled.

Yami winced as the grip Atem had on her arm tightened painfully. "Atem, you're hurting me."

Atem took another menacing step closer to Yami, he was now standing close enough that his chest was actually touching her bare body and Yami could feel his breath ghosting over her face. "Get dressed. We're leaving." Atem growled.

"No! I'm not. I refuse to leave without having the opportunity to talk to my friend. You can hide in the closet and listen to our conversation if you won't let me out of your sight. But I WILL be taking a shower and I WILL talk to Mai. And I don't care if you are the pack Alpha you will NOT stop me." Yami growled right back.

For a moment Atem was silent while Yami continued to glare at him defiantly. She would not let Atem order her around. She was a person with her own free will and becoming a werewolf did not strip her of that free will. "Fine. I will give you two choices Yami. You can get dressed right now and I will hide in the closet, as you have requested and you can speak to your friend. Or if you are still insistent on taking a shower then I will be joining you for that shower. The choice is yours, but as you have recognized I am not letting you out of my line of sight." Atem growled.

For a moment Yami was silent, neither option Atem had presented her with sounded appealing. She was disgusting and putting on clean clothes would completely defeat the purpose. But…showering with Atem? That, that was almost as bad as not taking a shower at all. "Fine. You can shower with me. There, happy." Yami snapped.

Atem nodded before he finally released his grip on Yami's arm allowing her to turn and push open the bathroom door. Atem pulled the door closed behind them before he stripped off his pants leaving himself nude. Yami forced herself to look away, busying herself with adjusting the water temperature. Anything to allow her to ignore the fact that she was alone with a naked man. The fact that she had apparently already had sex with that man was irrelevant.

Once Yami was satisfied that the water was at the correct temperature she stepped into the tub, again doing her best to ignore that Atem had stepped in with her. Never before in her entire life had Yami realized how small her shower was. Atem yanked the shower curtain closed as Yami flicked on the shower itself before she straightened up. She felt Atem's hands settle on her hips. A part of Yami wanted to turn around and begin wet her hair however at the same time she did not want to be standing front to front with Atem. Because of the small shower he was already close enough that Yami could still feel the heat from his body against her own.

Maybe she should have just gotten dressed after all. For a moment the two just stood there as the shower rained down on them before Atem shoved Yami forward slightly, allowing the water to cascade down her body. It felt so good, however it also felt good when Atem turned her around and pulled her body flush against his own as they both stood under the spray.

Atem grabbed the bar of soap from the soap tray and lathered it up on his hands before he began to roughly run his hands along Yami's body. Along her back, her chest, touching her breasts before he moved onto her thighs. The entire time Atem was washing her she was completely frozen, just allowing him to complete his task. He was so business like, yet the whole thing was still almost intimate in a way that Yami could not really explain. Once Atem had finished scrubbing her body he shoved her back under the shower spray, his hands running along her body to help rinse the soap off. Again, Yami seemed to be almost frozen allowing him to work.

Once Atem was satisfied that her body was clean he again turned her around so her back was to Atem once more. She her the pop of a lid followed by a squirting sound as Atem squeezed shampoo into his palm. Yami could not help but groan at the unexpectedly pleasurable feeling of Atem's hands massaging her scalp, and Yami could not help but lean almost bonlessly back against him as he continued to wash her hair. She could feel his penis pressing against her thigh as he worked but in this one moment that did not bother her. Where the hell did a beast like Atem learn how to do this? God this feels amazing. Yami mentally groaned.

Again, Atem made relatively quick work of scrubbing Yami's scalp before he turned her around once more shoving her under the showers spray, his hands running through her hair to aide in rinsing out the soap.

Once Atem was satisfied that Yami was clean his hands once again rested on Yami's hips, the two separated by only a matter of inches. Atem leaned forward so that his forehead was resting against Yami's own. "You should count yourself lucky that your mate has such excellent self-control my dear. Otherwise you would have found yourself pinned against the wall while I mated you once again. I may not be as familiar with our weaker form's mechanics but I'm quite confident I could figure it out." Atem practically purred in her ear.

Yami gulped as Atem spoke, his words sending a thrill through her that she could not even begin to explain. No matter how confused she was about everything one thing was beyond clear. Atem had an effect on her that no one else ever had.

"Y-you don't mean that." Yami stuttered as she continued to stare into Atem's blood red eyes.

Atem smirked. "Unless you would like to test that theory I would suggest you turn off the water and get dressed my mate, before my control slips. You have no idea what a tempting sight you are right now." Atem replied.

Yami gulped once more before she reached behind her, awkwardly fumbling to switch off the shower. Once the water had been switched off Atem once again tugged Yami's body flush against his own. He tilted Yami's chin up before he leaned down and roughly pressed his lips against Yami's. Yami groaned at the unexpected kiss before she felt Atem press her body firmly against the wet tiled wall. The unexpected kiss was quick but deep as Atem dominated the kiss, his tongue sweeping through Yami's mouth as if it belonged to him. No doubt Atem thinks it does.

Yami whimpered slightly at the loss as Atem finally pulled away and stepped out of the shower. "Get dressed. Your friend should be here momentarily. Then you and I are returning to the clearing." Atem gruffly ordered.

Yami slowly exited the shower just in time to see Atem tugging his pants back on, acting as if nothing had even happened. It was strange, but then again, it was Atem. What wasn't strange about this whole thing? Yami quickly toweled off before she headed out into her bedroom and got dressed, this time in a pair of comfortable jean shorts and a t-shirt. Before Atem dragged her back to the clearing though, she was going to pack herself a bag. She was not going to be wearing the same set of clothes for weeks at a time.

Once Yami was dressed Atem wrapped his arms around Yami's body once again pulling her against him. "Be quick with your friend, lest I end up deciding to pin you to your bed here instead of waiting until we are back in the clearing." Atem whispered.

Yami frowned, "You will not be pinning me anywhere. Neither here nor in the clearing. Now get in the closet. Mai should be here any second." Yami replied.

Atem once again tilted Yami's face up before he drew into another deep kiss, this one lasting longer than the first. Yami's hands unconsciously drifted up to wrap around Atem's bare shoulders as she pressed her lips, somewhat shyly, back against his own. In a daring move that surprised herself she lightly touched her tongue against Atem's own, eliciting almost a primal growl from deep within Atem's throat.

Atem's arms wrapped more firmly around the small of her back pulling her body even more firmly against his own body. Once again she was reminded of Atem's still existent problem from the shower earlier as she could feel his penis pressing against her body.

The kiss abruptly ended when the two heard the door downstairs close, signaling the arrival of Yami's friend. Atem backed away, his eyes darkened with lust as he stepped into the closet pulling the door closed as he did. "We will continue after your conversation my mate. That is a promise." Atem growled.

Yami gulped once more, her body heating with the promise from Atem, before she turned to her bedroom door just as Mai came up the stairs and into Yami's room. Yami immediately embraced her best friend. "Mai, it's so good to see you." Yami said as she hugged her friend tightly.

Mai's embrace was just as strong as Yami's own. "It's good to see you too hun. But seriously, I need some answers. Where did you disappear to without so much as a trace?" Mai asked once she had finally released Yami from her embrace.

Yami sighed, "Do you remember that creep from the food court?" Yami asked.

Mai nodded, frowning. "Yeah. I remember him. Has he given you anymore trouble?" Mai asked.

Yami sighed once more, "Mai, I think you should sit down for this." Yami said.

Mai crossed her arms over her chest, "No, I don't think I will. Tell me what's going on hun. Where did you disappear to?" Mai asked.

"That night you know I was helping my grandfather to clean up the shop. When I took the trash out I got attacked by a wolf. I got bit in the shoulder before I was able to get away. When my grandpa took me to the hospital I found out that the wolf that attacked me was the same creep that was harassing us at the mall. He was a werewolf and when he bit me, he turned me into a werewolf too." Yami said.

Mai frowned, "What the hell Yami?" Mai snapped.

"Huh?" Yami asked, frowning as well.

"I rushed over here at almost one in the morning to find out what had happened to you and you feed me to line of garbage. If you had no intention of telling me what had happened then you shouldn't have even bothered to call me." Mai yelled.

Yami felt something snap inside her as her temper flared, "How dare you Mai! I did tell you what happened to me. I was attacked by a fucking werewolf and forced to leave my family. MY home and to live with the pack in the fucking woods Mai. AND on top of all of that mess, I apparently ended up having sex with another wolf and therefore ended up married to him." Yami shouted.

Mai frowned for a moment before she strode forward. Yami held her ground before Mai drew her hand back and smacked Yami across the face. Yami's head snapped to the side. Yami's hands clenched tightly before she felt an overwhelming urge to just hurt Mai.

Yami lunged forward however Atem came sprinting out of the closet and grabbed a tight hold on Yami keeping her from attacking her friend.

"Go. Leave." Atem commanded as he restrained Yami who was still struggling against his grip to attack her friend. From this close he could clearly see the beginnings of tears gathered in his mate's eyes as she tried to lash out.

"Who the hell are you? And what the hell were you doing in Yami's closet?" Mai growled.

Atem snorted, "I happen to be Yami's mate. When she slipped off pack grounds to come back here I followed her. We made an agreement that she would be allowed to speak to you before I brought her back where she belongs." Atem replied.

Mai snorted before she turned on her heels heading to the door, "So, not enough that you turned into a monster. You're a slut on top of it. Way to go Yami." Mai shouted before she stormed out of Yami's room and down the stairs before she slammed the door shut behind her.

Once Mai was gone Yami's struggles finally ceased as she collapsed to her knees in Atem's arms, sobbing. She had been counting on having Mai's support to help her through this whole mess. The realization that she didn't was a deep blow.

"Shhh. You're alright. I've got you." Atem soothed, his hands lightly rubbing her back as her sobs slowly began to wind down. However, there was one thought that she could not seem to shake. What if Mai was right? Not only about her being a monster, but a slut as well?