"Time to fess up, frail." Victor said, still sleepy. "Where're you from?"
Sunlight poured in through the windows, hitting Ria's face and forcing her to squeeze her already barely open eyes shut. "I'll tell you in...ten minutes…."
"You'll tell me now." he was getting irritated. "Look at me when I'm talking to you."
She rolled her eyes behind her eyelids and looked at him. "Happy?"
Yes. "Answer me."
She sighed and sat up slightly, hugging her knees to her chest. "I don't know how long I was there...years?" She thought for a moment. "Hard to tell when there's no sky."
"Were you in a lab?"
She nodded. "It was dark most of the time, except for the operating room. Those lights were bright."
Victor frowned. "What'd they do, frail?"
"I slept in a cage. At first it wasn't so bad, and I thought I had a chance at breaking out, because it didn't seem like they were going to do anything other than keep me there, but…" She paused to clear her throat. "They started slicing me up."
"Why?"
This part seemed harder for her. "First they just looked at me. I stayed awake for that one. I watched them cut me open. Right here." She put a hand on one of her scars. "They just poked around. Looked at my insides. Made a few notes and then put me away to heal." Back when she could heal. "But I guess...I guess there's not too many like me left, huh?"
He blinked. "Ferals?"
She nodded a couple times. "Females, though. They were excited when they saw my insides and they brought me back a second time. There were more people there, in different clothes than the white coats. They watched while they cut me open again, and I stayed awake for the second time, and I listened to what they wanted to do to me, and I tried to get away…" She shook her head. "I had to get away. It wasn't right. I didn't want it, I didn't want to be used like that, but I couldn't...I couldn't leave. They tried to put me under but it didn't work, and I just had to lay there, half asleep and half awake, watching while they put shit straight inside me and expected my body to just heal around it and accept it."
Victor furrowed his brow. "Shit?"
A tear rolled down her cheek and she hurried to wipe it away. "They tried to make me make babies for them."
A growl rose in Victor's chest and he began growing agitated. He had to protect his female now, knowing that they wanted her for that. Nobody but him was going to get to touch her anymore, especially not in ways that would make cubs.
"They died. My body said no, because it wasn't right. They weren't made with a mate, and I wasn't healthy anyway, wasn't in a place safe to have babies. So they tried again, and again, and every time the same thing happened...so they decided they had to try it the right way, and put me in a box to send to another place where they have a male."
A massive snarl ripped through Victor and Ria jumped slightly. His lips rose in a sneer, exposing his fangs as he leaned over her. He couldn't smell another male on her, which meant that it was either a long time ago or it hadn't happened. He was hoping for the second one.
"Th-that's where they were taking me before I got away a few days ago. I ran, and they followed, and now I'm here." She looked up and met his eyes. "I didn't realize I was in your territory."
His snarl had faded into a quiet growl, his agitation still present. "The only thing you did by trespassin' was make yourself mine."
She sighed for the second time so far that day. "I know."
He paused in surprise. She wasn't fighting it? He had expected some sort of resistance, but she was giving him nothing. "Good."
Sensing his confusion, she shrugged. "I've lived through worse than whatever you can throw at me. Whatever that male would have done would have been in a lab, or some gross cell, or a cage...at least with you there's a bed and real food." She chewed her lip. "At least you could protect them."
His eyes widened a fraction of an inch and his ego swelled. She was damn right he could. He was confused again, though; she didn't smell like her body was looking to have Cubs, and she definitely wasn't in heat. She was too weak for anything like that to kick in. Why was she thinking so much about breeding, then? Just because it had been forced on her…?
Victor's animalistic side wanted cubs, but that was just because that's what mates did. Not much could happen until her heat, though, so all he could do was think and hope for the moment. He was a male and she was a female, so it was going to happen sooner or later.
"All I ask is that you wait." She said quietly. "Until I'm healthy again."
He smirked. "Darlin', nothin's gonna work until you're in heat anyways."
She seemed surprised, like she hadn't even thought of that. "Right." She laughed nervously. "It's been so long since I had a real one…"
He barked a laugh. "That's 'cause I wasn't around."
Her face reddened as much as it could. "I should be running from you, you know."
"Like to see you try." He growled, leaning further over her with a giant hand on either side of her head.
She appeared calm, but he could hear her heart hammering away. That's right. He thought. You should be scared.
He had done awful things, horrible things, because of that animal inside him. It was never satisfied, especially when it came to women. He had never had a feral, though, and he had never had a mate. Jimmy had, lots of times, because he was good with women and good with love, but Victor...he had no idea how it was supposed to work. He had no idea how to be gentle, especially with something as tiny as Ria. As he loomed over her, pinning her body down with only a tiny amount of his weight for fear of breaking her, he realized how small she actually was. So weak. So easily snapped in half.
He noticed a small growl beneath him and saw her staring up at him, those long fangs bared. A challenge? She couldn't be serious. "Frail, don't even try."
She hissed weakly, refusing to back down. "Get off."
He pressed more weight against her. "I'm in charge here."
She didn't like that.
In a flash, and with every ounce of energy she had, she shot up and snapped at his face, intent on ripping that smug grin right off. He leaned back, but not before she had managed to graze the tip of his nose with one of those fangs.
Victor snarled in her face, grabbing both of her wrists and holding them down as it grew into a roar. That had just pissed him off.
She fell still, absolutely frozen as he showed her his fangs and dug his claws into her hands. At least she knew that she was faster than him now. His size made him slow and all of that muscle probably made him stiff, and if she was going to get any kind of leg up on him, it looked like it was going to be through speed and flexibility.
"Don't." He growled.
She hissed again, even quieter than before. He was glad to see that she was fiery, even if it was going to be annoying. It justified his displays of power, though, and he wanted to show her how strong he was. He liked showing off.
With a big sigh, Ria gave up, tension leaving her muscles as she averted her eyes to the side. Victor was pleased and let her wrists go, flopping down next to her again, his weight making the cot shudder.
"...you're going to break this."
He snorted. "Been sleepin' on it for years, frail. It's fine."
She looked at him pointedly, scooting a bit closer. "I'm not talking about sleeping."
His breath caught in his chest. Maybe she was right. "...we don't hafta use the bed."
She smiled slightly. "It's been a long time since I had any fun."
Victor perked up at that. She was so willing. He felt his body respond and he had to stop himself from pushing her down and fucking her right then and there. But no, he wanted to save it; she was his mate, and he didn't want to break her. He would wait until she had some meat back on her and he could actually enjoy it.
Ria closed her eyes and laid her head on his bare chest. "I used to have lots of fun."
She was out to kill him, he decided as his jeans tightened. "You're temptin' me, frail…"
Her smile widened. "I was a dancer during the Great War. Lots of soldiers came to the club."
"I was a soldier."
She laughed. It was a nice sound. "What are you now?"
"Whatever I wanna be. Hitman, I s'pose."
A small shiver ran through her. "Sounds dangerous."
He grinned. "It is."
"Do you ever get afraid?"
"Ain't afraid'a anything, darlin'. Fear ain't in my vocabulary."
"Really? Nothing at all?"
"Nope."
"Humph." She nestled against him. "Me neither."
He snorted. "Sure, frail."
She wrinkled her nose. "Why do you keep saying that?"
"What, do you have somethin' better?"
"Anything."
He thought for a second. "I'll work on it."
Rolling onto her back, she looked up at him. "Mind working on getting me some food in the meantime?"
He growled in annoyance. She sure was demanding. But she was his, and he liked to take care of his things. "Only if you keep talkin' while I work."
"About what?" She asked as he got up and walked to the kitchen.
"Anythin'. You."
"What about me?"
Everything. "What d'ya like?"
You, she almost said. "I dunno. This, I guess."
He glanced over at her as he grabbed a venison steak. "Yeah?"
"Yeah." She ran her fingers over the pelt. "I guess I got used to a cage."
Victor snarled at that and she jumped for the second time. "Ya ain't gonna be in a cage ever again."
She liked it when he got like this. "How do you know?"
"I ain't lettin' it happen." He decided gruffly.
He walked back over to her after rinsing the meat off and held it out to her. She snatched it from him, tearing into it as if he wasn't going to feed her ever again.
"Frail, you don't hafta eat so fast." He chuckled.
She looked up and growled at him, her dark eyes even blacker. His nostrils flared angrily. Trying to keep him away from her food, was she? It wasn't going to work. It didn't matter that he had given it to her. If he wanted to grab it back, then he sure as hell was going to.
When he snarled in response at her ungratefulness, she made one last little noise and sulked as she finished her meal. She was quiet for a long while after that, licking her lips and fingers and curling back up on the bed for a nap.
Victor sighed as he watched her and eventually got himself some food, always keeping her in the corner of his eye. Now that he knew the monsters that were probably following her, he was never going to let her out of his sight. Ever. She was too precious to him.
As he sat and thought after he ate, he tried to remember everything he knew about his own kind. He had heard once that everybody had a soulmate, but he hadn't really believed it until Ria showed up. She calmed him, something that nobody but the runt had ever managed to do. She was special, and the effect she had on him was so…strange. He almost felt intoxicated when he breathed in her scent, and it seemed like his attraction to her was growing with each passing moment.
It was because the animal in him was growing comfortable, and it knew that they were in a safe enough place to have a mate. All that beast had to do now was wait for her heat and it would do what it was biologically programmed to do-fuck her and then protect her while she carried his young, and then do it again and again. How long was it going to take before it started, though? Her body was going to wait until it was healthy enough, and that could be weeks. Months, even. Could he stand to wait that long?
He would have to control himself for her when it did eventually happen. She was so small, and he was so strong. He had broken human frails before, and he didn't want to break this feral. His feral.
His mate.
The thought excited him. He had a mate. He had something that couldn't refuse him. Glancing over at her naked, sleeping form, he frowned to himself. He had to mark her. The world needed to know that she belonged to Victor Creed. Where would he do it, though? It was hard to decide, with her looking so...well, frail. Maybe he would wait until she filled out more.
A low growl rumbled in his chest. If he ever found the lab coats that did this to her...well, he'd make sure they saw their own organs before they died. He'd tear them out and then bring their still beating hearts back to Ria as trophies to show her that she was safe with him, and how strong he was. Even though she was already so okay with being his mate, he couldn't overcome to urge to need to impress her, to prove himself.
He didn't want to leave her alone, but he needed to go move those bodies he had left the day before before anyone found them. So he slipped away, making sure to grab her a blanket before leaving with a shovel and heading into the trees as quickly as he could, running towards the scent of old blood until he found the source. A few scavengers had already found them, which was a good sign. They were all coming out now that spring was finally here, and for once, Victor was thankful for the pests.
Dismemberment seemed like the easiest way to speed up the decomposition process, and he really wasn't interested in eating them or dragging them back to the cabin, so he just…tore them apart. He sliced them to ribbons, letting the sabertooth bathe in their blood, before digging a few graves deep enough that bears wouldn't try to find them and then dumping the pieces underground.
When he was confident that there wasn't a trace left, he made his way back, paranoid that he was going to find Ria gone. When he threw the door open, though, the only thing that happened was her jumping up, startled by the sudden noise. When she saw that it was him, she simply rolled her eyes and laid back down, going to sleep again in seconds.
He snorted. It seemed like sleeping was her greatest skill.
Now that he was confident that she was safe, he turned and went outside again to do his usual work around the house and immediate area, determined to be productive despite the woman sleeping inside.