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“Mel? It’s been hours. Won’t you just talk to me, please?”

We’d been together for a while, down here at the heart of a cold and dusty wine cellar. Selena got on her knees amidst the scattered old pages of a tattered journal, each filled with an unrecognisable scribble that did not belong to me. She had long since stopped trying to convince me that I’d been the one who penned them but she just wouldn’t leave me alone.

I flinched as her hands reached for my face but that did not stop her from craning my neck up so her eyes could meet my own. She carried this troubled look, her hair distressed while pupils grew so wide her eyes were swallowed by an empty void of black space. In them I could almost make out my own reflection, defeated and afraid.

“The silent treatment isn’t so cute anymore. Talk to me.”

The cuffs wrapped around my wrists were bound to a leather collar strapped to my neck by a rattling metal chain. They prevented me from shoving the smilodon back – whatever help that would do – and gave me very little room to breathe. It wasn’t like I could move away from her either. Selena restricted that with rope so tightly wound around my ankles that I could feel them cut into my skin.

“Mel, are you still mad at me?”

With a slow nod, a slight gesture with how tight her hold on my jaw was, I confirmed her suspicions. It took a hard bite on the inside of my lip to keep myself from saying anything.

“But you tried to run,” Selena exclaimed, as if that was enough to justify what she’d done to me. “You didn’t give me time to explain. How am I responsible for the consequences of your own actions?”

My own actions? She’s the one who was talking crazy. She’s the one who, “Attacked me…”

“You gave me no other choice,” Selena replied, steady and cold. Her fingers stretched wide across my jaw as claws dug into the tender flesh of my face. “You… you weren’t listening to me, Mel. You called me crazy when I’m not crazy. You weren’t listening.” She got a little closer to me – whatever spark of bravery I’d manage to muster up was stamped out when I felt the cold kiss of her teeth against my snout. “You’re not listening. It’s so frustrating. I gave you my body and you still didn’t remember me. I showed you proof and you tried to run. What else was I supposed to do?”

Despite the cold and professional tone of Selena’s voice she still smothered me with a kind of misplaced affection. The tip of her large nose rubbed against mine for a moment too long; her forehead gently pressed against my own and we sought to find answers within each other's souls.

I found nothing but the terrifying well of dangerous obsession.

“Let me go.” My voice broke as I said the words. She closed her eyes, breathed deep of my scent, then sighed low and slow.

“You know I can’t do that, Mel.”

“Please!”

“So you can run away?” She opened her eyes again – she looked to be on the verge of tears. “Never again.”

“You let me go,” I started slowly, a hard swallow of saliva and dust clearing my throat and affording me precious seconds to think, “and I promise I won’t tell anyone about this. I… I promise! Like this never happened.”

She ran her thumbs across my cheeks and flashed me an empty smile. “You’re cute when you beg.”

“Selena!”

“Hush now. You might not remember me at all, but I remember you.” She tried to kiss me, a little lick against my lips, and there was nothing I could do about it within the grasp of her hands. “Oh the look on your face when you first laid eyes on me! You kept muttering to yourself, ‘It’s her! It’s her!’ Downright adorable. You couldn’t believe your eyes!”

Her tongue slipped between my lips to scrape against my gums and massage the sharp ends of my teeth. With every lick I felt the will to fight her off drain away. Every shove of her tongue granted her further access, till at last my aching jaw relented to that forceful violation.

“Those days were a blur. Everything was perfect. And you know, the best part about it all was that you didn’t try to fight me. You didn’t try to run. You were a good, sweet boy. A little green around the edges, sure, and a little inexperienced, but I loved watching you grow. I loved you, and you loved me back. I still love you.”

Love. The word itself was barren and tasteless as Selena kissed me again. Contrary to the rough hold of her hands, her tongue explored the inside of my mouth with a sort of gentle adoration. She found my cowering tongue but didn’t try to wrestle it down and beat it to submission – it rubbed against my own with a tender care, back and forth across the surface in a breathless dance that, for a second, coaxed me to do the same.

I should have felt sick with myself, but the thought was buried by the earthy taste of her tongue and the moisture of her hot breath. I should have tried to fight her off, yet my own body betrayed these thoughts with its innate desire for her touch. I should have chewed her tongue off; instead I welcomed it whole and treated it with reverence and respect.

“I know,” Selena began as she clawed down my sides to hold me tight by the hips, “that deep down you do remember me.” The slight slip of her eyes down to the rest of my body made me painfully aware of how naked we were – the erection I’d been able to ignore was now at the forefront of my thoughts. “Relax, sweet boy. I’ll draw it out of you even if it takes us the rest of our lives.”

“Selena,” I began to complain, words briefly stammering in my throat when her fingers touched the tip of my length. “Y-You should stop.”

“Nonsense!” That determination… she’d made up her mind. “Now be sweet and lay back for me.”

“W-Wait! Please, my…” A complaint, any complaint. I didn’t want this. “My arms hurt! The cuffs. Please.”

Selena shook her head and flashed a hollow smile as the palm of her hand slid around my stomach and… pushed.

Gravity did the rest.

“¡A la mierda, Selena!” The words, reactionary and panicked, were met with a gasp and the softest of her giggles as the rushing impact of concrete against the back of my head was halted with the solid hold of a hand spread evenly across my lower back.

“Come now,” she teased in a way that caused my heart to skip a beat as her looming shadow fell over me. Selena enveloped my whole world now, sharp eyes and sharper teeth conflicting with the matronly touch of her soft breasts against my chest. She laid me back against the concrete floor at the same time as her lips met mine. “I would never allow you to hurt yourself.”

“Please, Selena.”

“They’re for your own good,” she continued, referring now to the chains that bound my hands and feet together. “Imagine the things I’d do to you if you tried to run from me again.”

Her fingers once again teased the very tip of my dick and there was nothing I could do to stop her. Closing my knees just built on the pressure at the base of my swollen knot, a trembling tension I could feel down to my balls. Little by little her fingers prodded, and brushed, and explored wherever they desired, all the while she marvelled and cooed at every twitch and throb.

“Just…” I swallowed hard. The back of my throat burned. “… stop this.”

“You keep saying that, but you’re so hard.” She allowed her finger to rest just below the tapered tip of my head. It massaged that sensitive spot back and forth till my hips hitched upward and a surge of precum spilled across the palm of her hand. “Such an eager boy. Why would you want me to stop, Mel?” Then she presented it to me, her hand shimmering slightly as a dribble of my pre rolled down to soak into the fur of her arm. “Answer me.”

“I-It hurts,” I stammered, my voice cracking beneath the overwhelming strain of emotion and exhaustion. I wanted to wake up in the comfort of my own bed, alone and far from this nightmare. “Everything hurts. I just want to go home.”

Selena made a show of lapping clean the palm of her hand, her excitement at the taste of my precum magnified by an aching mewl and thundering purr.

“I… I can fix you.” She raised her body a little, her pair of tits now hanging just above my head, rising and falling with every one of her hard breaths. “You’ll love me like I love you soon enough. You will.”

Even now my mouth watered at the thought of her nipples being cradled within my lips, to feel them grow thick and hard beneath the warm embrace of my tongue, and… God, it took everything in me to keep from falling for temptation, to fight an urge that should have made me sick to my stomach.

Should have, but didn’t. I no longer knew what was worse.

With a slow crawl Selena moved down my body, stopping first at my neck to leave streaks of saliva on a tense jugular, then dropping down to my chest so she could flick each one of my nipples with the tip of her tongue. The words she spoke while leaving behind a trail of sloppy licks and messy slobber fell on deaf ears as I tried and failed to disassociate from the here and now. Too sensitive; too aware. I closed my eyes tight and whimpered loudly into the void as her fingers clamped around my hips and a hot breath teased the needy, aching, surging length of my dick.

“I’ll do it like we used to,” she said while unceremoniously allowing a drip of saliva to slip from between her lips, angled perfectly so it spilled across my aching shaft. “You lay there. Enjoy it.”

I couldn’t even form the words that would’ve begged for her to stop, not when I felt the warm embrace of her lips wrap around my head. Pursed tight the way they were, Selena formed a near-perfect seal that prevented any of my excitement from leaking anywhere beside—

Oh god, her tongue.

Rough, hot, strong. The bottom of it smoothly glided against my head with a torturous lethargy to its advance, curling over every ridge and contour with graceful efficiency. Every drop downward earned her a little shiver that she no doubt delighted in feeling, while a surge upward rewarded Selena with more of my pre for her to spread across her palate and swallow whole. She slowly suckled on the tip in a surprising show of self-control while her fingers kneaded the soft flesh of my hips.

What few seconds Selena spent apart from my dick were used to shower me with undue praise, words which should have felt to me like empty lies but instead struck with pangs of anxious excitement and blushing glee.

“What a good boy you are.”

“You’re so handsome. You’re so beautiful.”

She set the full length of her tongue to lay flat against my shaft and forced a moan out of me when I felt the rough texture of it massage, and scrape, and tease me raw.

“You’re the perfect size, exactly how I love it.”

“Don’t stop twitching for me.”

“I’ll never get tired of you.”

One hand began tickling circles across my stomach while the other grasped for my balls, cradling them in the cup of her palm just so she could give them the smallest tug and the lightest squeeze. Something to get a gasp out of me, a little yip of surprise, and another squirming affirmation of her advances that I otherwise refused to voice.

She loudly moaned against my member and easily swallowed me down to the knot, her lips puckered in a way that it felt like she gave me a purposeful kiss. And there she held me, the dangerous nick of her teeth not enough to keep me from straining my erection within her maw whenever her tongue chose to slip between a narrow gap to caress my bulb with genuine adoration.

With an audibly wet suckle she’d leave me naked to a cold and predatory air before once more taking me down to the knot, her tongue reflexively lapping at my tender skin. The combination of it alongside her lips repeatedly bumping into my swollen flesh coaxed the ever-present trickle of pre to continue feeding her insatiable desires.

“Selena, por favor.” Words were raspy within my own throat, weak and tired to my ears. She ignored them – of course she would ignore them – and gave my shaft one long, slow, and meticulous lick which begged for a simple command:

Shut up.

I swallowed hard, my words and pride, while my body rejoiced at her newfound ministrations. My hips began to meet her halfway to ram myself deep within her snout with enough force that my knot and balls ached with tension and desire. When I opened my eyes I became transfixed by the sight before me, a mess of slobber and cum connecting me to her face with an ever-thickening volume.

Selena’s eyes flicked up, the half-smile on her lips devious… terrifying. Those ocean blue eyes held my gaze so that I could watch as she steadied herself perfectly still.

She had me.

Watch as I did all the work for her, continuing my thrusts into her throat with a renewed sense of pleasure and desperation, seeking whatever small sensation I could from a listless tongue and tight, soft lips.

Watch as I moaned and tugged on the collar around my neck when I instinctively reached for the back of her head, looking for nothing more than to hold her down against me and feel the ravenous kiss of her uneven breaths tickle its spit-shined surface.

Watch as she allowed herself to be used for my own pleasures because… she loved me?

Selena slipped her hold from around my cock, one painful lick and a parting kiss on the tip of my head, then grasped me with a warm hand to stroke steady and strong just so she could say, “I do love you,” as if she’d read the pained expression on my face. “You really wanted to beat that knot into my mouth, hm?”

“Mhmm!” The sound I made barely resembled affirmation as I flooded myself with thoughts of just that, of sealing her mouth with a swelling knot and breeding her throat with enough cum to make her gag.

“I wanted it as well!” Selena continued a little too loudly, too proudly, while her hand continued to stroke me with a slight twirl of her wrist. All that slobber and precum didn’t keep the friction of her fingers from burning lust straight to my core. “But I have other plans for you, sweet boy. We both know where that knot really belongs.” Her fingers slipped down and around it, teasing the angry veins of my swelling bulb before holding the ball tight in her grasp, just like she’d done hours ago. The world melted around me — a sudden rush of adrenaline nearly made me scream. “Tell me where it belongs.”

“Inside you!” I begged as the tip of a claw pinched my knot while tugging on it with an endless stroke of her wrist, each pull building on that pressure that’d started deep in my loins.

“Where, exactly?”

“Y-Your pussy!” I replied, those chains that bound me now rattling loudly against my ears as the intensifying grasp around my knot was joined by a second hand thumping against it in loud strokes. Her hands held on to every inch of me, no nerve left unstimulated. “Selena — feels so good. I… going to cum. Please!”

“Cum for me, sweet boy.” Her voice, so easy and cool, barely contained her own excited huffs as she felt me twitch hard within her grasp with every beat of my heart. “That’s it, Mel. Swell for me. Cum for me.” She gave my knot a final pull, the tying grasp it’d been aching for, and the burning lust she’d stoked in me finally exploded in long arching streaks that painted her fur white.

She angled me down, the next surge of cum spilling across her tits, while the force of my orgasm nearly made me see stars. This climax of lust, fear, and excitement only grew with the unsteady beat of her hand masturbating me for every drop I had, like our very lives depended on it. The long minute that it took for the feral desire in me to finally subside was only met with a dissatisfied huff before she stoked my still-twitching length with the tip of her tongue.

“Selena, s-stop!” I begged as she licked at my urethra to sample a weak surge of thick cum. “Too much! Too much!” It was pain, a sharp stab in my gut and an awful ache to my balls that could no longer sate her desires. “Please! Hah… please…”

She didn’t stop, her single minded determination to eek out one last stream of my lust enough for her to swallow me down to the knot once again and slurp at every inch of me she could get her mouth on. I thrashed against her, painful burning tears welling up in my eyes, as that overstimulation between my legs melded into some twisted form of painful pleasure.

I couldn’t keep my hips from smacking against her chin. I couldn’t stop myself from humping her face and ramming my knot against her teeth. I couldn’t prevent my thoughts from revolving around that awful tongue and terrifying set of fangs.

I just needed to fuck her.

I needed to breed her mouth.

I longed for the tight embrace of her cunt swallowing my length whole.

She hummed and purred into my cock as my balls tensed tight beneath her chin, her eyes burning in wanton desire, then satisfaction, when a second orgasm was ripped out of me with a brutal and practised efficiency. I could feel her cheeks tighten whenever she swallowed, her curling tongue slathered beneath my tapered head to draw out more, more, more.

A breathless scream was all I could offer in the end, one pained and broken as this moment in time stretched on into the infinite horizon. The tears burned hot across my cheeks, staining the fur of my face and slipping salty between my lips. I couldn’t… I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe.

“Shh… it’s okay.”

The world closed around me. An encroaching darkness threatened to swallow me. My lungs refused to respond. They burned with an angry ferocity. All I could do was whimper hard.

“E-Easy, Mel.” Her hands slipped around my head but I found no comfort. I couldn’t even feel them. Something awful ached in my chest. I couldn’t get the words – I couldn’t catch a single breath.

“I got you. I got you.” She lifted me from the cold kiss of concrete and cradled me atop her lap. Her large nose nuzzled against the side of my neck, then she nipped softly and lovingly with her teeth. “Just breathe. Listen for the beat of my heart. Listen to my breaths. You’re okay now… You’re alright.”

Dark tendrils receded from my vision; the tunnel that’d swallowed my sight opened up into a sad and pathetic world. The gentle strokes of her fingers beneath my chin forced a gasp out of me, then a hard inhale for air I’d desperately needed and the soft exhale to try and calm my broken nerves.

“See? I told you I wouldn’t let you harm yourself. You’re okay. Just a little panic attack. Take a deep breath. Calm that sweet little heart.” Like a doting mother she held me within her arms and buried me against her chest. Her breasts swallowed my world; compared to the concrete this was heaven. “I know I got a little carried away, but you were incredible.”

My loins still ached. My cock burned, swollen in a state of mild arousal, shining in the dark with the copious amount of cum and saliva slathered across its surface. I could feel my knot throb with every brush of her fingers across my fur and the pain it shot into my stomach… like being constantly stabbed by cupid’s arrow.

“San Juan,” Selena whispered right into my ear as her tongue danced within it, making me squirm and complain within her tightening hold. “We laid out on the beach to watch a setting sunset. Or we tried to, at least. You couldn’t keep your eyes off me.”

My dry lips moved. I finally found the strength to speak, to ask, “What are you doing to me?”

“I think it was my swimsuit. You kept stealing glances as if I wouldn’t notice. It was cute. Your smile was infectious.”

I drew in a lungful of air and felt the last remnants of that striking panic finally leave my burning blood. Asking her again, “What are you doing?” just garnered a little nip on my ear that demanded my silence.

“There was this fine dusting of cinnamon sugar on the fur of your cheeks. Churros fresh off the fryer, still hot when you bit into one. You burned your mouth but you still kept chewing. Got all that sugar stuck to your face, like sand. Your… Your playfulness, it was attractive. So I got up, slipped beneath the umbrella you’d been laying under, and I asked you a simple question: ‘May I kiss you?’”

She sighed into my ear as the calming caress of her hands followed the curves and contours of my chest. Selena was being surprisingly gentle, careful to not trigger another sharp spike of pleasure yet never fully allowing me to come to a complete rest. I couldn’t help but moan her name within a breath as she licked the inside of my ear one more time.

“Just like that,” she continued with a hint of excitement. “That’s just how you moaned my name when I straddled your hips and ran my tongue across your face. You were always so sensitive to my touch. It makes me happy to know that your body, at least, hasn’t forgotten me. Then there was this look to your eyes, pure adoration, when I slid my tongue against yours. I bet you could taste that cinnamon on me, huh?”

Her hands stopped. She exhaled sharply. That pair of long fangs prodded my neck.

“Don’t you still taste it when you close your eyes?”

Cinnamon… basil and coriander. The taste of her scent, the same one I felt so attracted to a few nights ago at the bar. My weak answer must have been music to her ears: “Yes.”

“Don’t you remember me, Mel?”

I didn’t. Her words carried such heartfelt conviction I knew that she believed every memory, but San Juan was a time long gone to a past I couldn’t recall. Just hospital beds and that awful ache in my heart.

No courage willed me to answer.

Another sigh – it carried the weight of disappointment. It hurt my heart to hear it. A sick feeling made me want to comfort her. “You know they say that silence speaks volumes, right?”

“I’m sure it does.”

“Don’t be like that,” Selena snapped with a cold biting tone. “Hey, come on. Talk to me.”

“Like you even care.”

“Everything I’ve done is because I care.” She replied and followed with another long minute of her nuzzling, licking, and holding on to me.

“I’m just confused, señora.” The word so casually slipped from my mouth like what we were doing was normal. “I don’t know what you want from me.”

“For you to remember me. Isn’t that obvious?” She squeezed her arms together, sinking me further into her soft, warm fur.

“But I don’t remember you,” I said with a shivering certainty. “I don’t remember any of that. It… it’s not my choice. And even if it were all true-”

“It is true,” Selena hissed.

“Even if,” I continued, “why do you have to phrase it like that?”

“Like… how?”

A little lick between my ears and I hummed, temporarily quieted and somewhat content. I shouldn’t have to remind myself that Selena forced herself on me, and that I should be angry with her.

“That I ‘created’ you.” Foolish words even to my own lips. “If you wanted to make me believe that you and I had a past together then all you had to say was… exactly that. We had a past together, and you wanted to reconnect. I think I would have been fine with that.”

“But that wouldn’t have been the whole truth.” She seemed confused.

“So you spin these stories and come off crazy and obsessive and – carajo, I liked you!” I tried to turn within her grasp but she held me still beneath those trembling arms. “Why do you insist on fucking with me. It’s… it’s wrong.”

“I’m not fucking with you, Mel.” There was pain in her voice. I couldn’t tell how genuine it was.

“You have me tied up in chains.”

“Because I love you.”

Because she loved me. Because I ran away. Because she needed me to finally understand. Circles and circles over and over again.

“You forced yourself on me,” I finished as I tried to fight that telltale burn in my eyes. “I told you to stop…”

“You don’t know what you want,” Selena mused with a cold and distant voice. “Everything I’m doing, it’s because-”

“It hurts.” The words needed to be said. I swallowed, drew in a sharp breath, and failed to fight back the tears. “You’re hurting me.”

“No – No I’m not. I’m helping you. I’m fixing you.”

“Just take these off,” I whispered, gesturing to the rope around my ankles and the cuffs clasping my wrists together as she finally slipped her arms from around my chest. The comfort of her lap was traded with the cold embrace of that porous concrete floor that now burned against my bare rear. Selena stood tall, an indomitable force of nature. “I promise you that you’ll never hear from me again. Not a word of this will get back to you. We can call this all a silly little mistake! Doesn’t that sound good? Win-win for both of us.”

“No.”

“Señora, please… Don’t do this to me.”

“The last thing I’ll ever want is to never hear from you again, Mel. Get that through your stubborn little head and maybe we’ll see about loosening those chains, hm? Hey, hey! No more tears, okay? I’ll bring us a few blankets and some pillows. Keep you company for tonight. Doesn’t that sound wonderful?” She nodded to herself and audibly confirmed: “Yes, it does. Hah! You stay right there, your perfect pretty little self, and I’ll be right back.”

Dios, ayúdame.

***

Selena snored in her sleep, and in her dreams she’d mewl and sigh and smother herself against whatever she could lay her hands on. Myself, in this case.

She slept pretty soundly for someone so obsessed with the thought of my escape. It came easily for her, those soft eyes fluttering closed and breathing growing deep and distant in almost the snap of a finger. Barely a warning was uttered before she drifted away.

For the first time that night, ever since I first tried and failed to get away, it felt like Selena trusted me. If this continued on, and I got her to warm up just a little more…

… or maybe I was just looking into it far too much. After all, my hands were still tied to the collar around my neck and the rope around my ankles continued to scrape my skin raw. That was not trust, it was control. She was comfortable in the assumption that there was nothing I could do that would go against her wishes, and she was right.

Maybe that’s the real reason why I couldn’t bring myself to sleep. The hours ticked by so painfully slowl and I struggled to find a comfortable position within her arms. An overwhelming urge to shout swelled in my chest halfway through the perceived night but I swallowed it down like I did everything else because that wouldn’t help me.

Nothing would help besides a miracle – when the hell did a miracle ever save anyone?

Nothing would help but try to play her game, earn her trust, and take things slow.

Selena was, admittedly, stunning for a psycho. That striking siren’s call of beauty she empowered herself with while awake receded into a gentle and kind lullaby in her sleep, tugging at an aching heart that demanded I coddle and protect her. The last two things Selena would ever need from me, of course, but still… I couldn’t deny the thought of what things might have been like if she hadn’t gone crazy on me.

If only.

With my nose buried into her collarbone I could do little but breathe. Her sacred and terrible air swathed over every pore and flooded my sinuses with wave after wave of a tantalising scent. The hours that I spent basking within the hot traps of her arms and the sweaty humidity of her atmosphere convinced me of the fact that no amount of washing and scrubbing would ever remove the imprint she’d left stained to my fur.

“Señora Selena…” Her name still tasted like berries on the tip of my tongue. If only I could’ve forgotten about how enamoured I was over her.

At least here, in the safety of her sleep, I could do what I needed to comfort the burning hole in my chest. I was already buried up to my neck in her body so… why not? It was only a kiss after all, the lightest touch of my lips through the fur of her chest so they could graze her skin. Not even a lick or a slight nip of the teeth, and I held contact on her for less than half of a second. It didn’t mean anything.

It didn’t mean anything.

A few hours later I felt her stir, and the peace I’d made with myself slowly began to dissolve. Panic threatened to flood my sense, an unquenchable inferno stemming from the pit of my stomach. I closed my eyes, practised my breathing, and reminded myself that Selena was not going to hurt me so long as I did as she asked.

Her leg slipped between both my own to lock our bodies together in a one-sided embrace and I shivered in expectation when the round of her knee settled snug against the inside of my thighs. An arm unclasped from around my torso and stretched high in the air, followed closely with the softest grown and a little sigh of relief as her nose twitched, sniffed, and immediately caught an abundant lungful of my own scent.

In a show of what she must have believed to be love, Selena held me closer yet against herself and snuggled her head down atop my own. Her claws raked across my back as she stretched each finger out to its farthest point. A little mewl sputtered from her lips and… and I felt her blush. My face was stuffed against her chest after all, and it flushed with a burning heat unmatched by her body’s natural spark.

“And here I thought,” Selena spoke in between a smack of her lips and a lick of her chops, “that it was all just a dream.” Her tongue rested flat between my ears to lap away in the same way a mother cat would her kittens. “Good morning, handsome.”

Bear with it. Play her game.

“Morning.”

“Aw, what’s with the grumpy scoff? You didn’t sleep well last night?” The pair of long fangs scratched at the back of my head in a small back and forth motion while she rubbed against me. “I know it wasn’t very comfortable, but-”

“Actually,” I said, stopping her mid-sentence and earning a little scratch on my lower back of approval for answering her so quickly, “I… uhm, I slept alright, actually. It’s just these.” My hands were pinned between our stomachs but I made it clear that I was referring to the cuffs.

She became still. When I looked up at her I saw her eyes carefully studying the expression on my face. “This again, Mel?”

“You could have taken them off,” I continued, careful to make sure my words came off as a suggestion rather than an accusation. “You were here all night. Where would I have gone?”

“I… I don’t know. You could have snuck off while I slept.”

“Or I could have stayed right here.” Her gaze darted back and forth. “In your arms.” A slip of her tongue caught itself midway between her teeth. “Safe.” She swallowed and breathed hard, deep, before dragging my head into her neck and humming in satisfaction.

“Do you really mean all that?”

Hardly. “Every word.”

“I want to trust you, Mel. I really do. You know how these things go, though. Trust needs to be earned. I can’t just let you waltz around unsupervised.”

“Well…” I tried to distract her thoughts by doing the only thing I could, a kiss on the side of her neck. For a moment I wondered if she’d felt it but then; “nobody said I had to be unsupervised.”

“Hmm… yeah.” Then she turned her head a little, both giving me a little more room to breathe while simultaneously setting a hand on the back of my head to tug me down against her neck. “Do that again, sweet boy.”

Deep breaths. I could do this.

“How do you want it, mi reina?”

“Soft,” she whispered against my ear with the lightest huff of warm air as traced my tongue up and down her neck. “B-Be sweet to me, Mel. Just like that.”

With a lick, nibble, and slight chuff of air to tickle and caress. I could taste myself on her, bitter and unwashed. I’d imprinted on her as much as she had me. It made for a strange combination of flavours — not as repulsive as I wanted it to be. In any other lifetime it would have been enough to get me addicted..

At least she was enjoying herself. Selena murmured sweet nothings as I kissed my way up to the ridge of her jaw, little words here and there meant to encourage and reward. Praise that I tried to ignore and hate, yes, but something about the force of reverence behind each spoken ‘Handsome boy’ and ‘My perfect Mel’ set me on the backfoot of my own plan, a yearning for more of her approval slightly overpowering whatever desire for freedom I’d catered.

“What… what’s gotten into you this morning?” Her question lingered for a long time as I occupied my lips with her neck once again. “You hardly even wanted to look at me last night.”

“I had time to think,” I told her between bites. I now followed the contours of her throat, careful with my teeth while swimming in a sea of her red fur.

“A-And you think that makes up for the pain? I – oh…” The bite in her voice was thankfully quenched by that little moan. So that was another one of her spots then, a little divot on the throat just above her collarbone. “Those sweet little whimpers. The tears on your face. You made me feel like a… aahhh… Bite me there.”

Bite her. I swallowed hard and stared at her throat for seconds too long, feeling a surge of blood and trembling anticipation rattle my teeth while I savoured the moment. Her drowsy, lovestruck, vulnerable self so willing for me to just… just…

She was touching herself now, fingers sliding into her wet sex to draw out the moment for as long as possible. The sound of sodden friction, the agitated curl of fingers digging deep within her the hole I’d filled, stretched, and made entirely my own had me swallowing to myself.

This small moment of hesitation, of drowning in the wafting odour of her uninhibited lust, was enough to garner the prick of fingers against the back of my head and a frustrated snarl. Her hand gripped tight to my fur and shoved me down against her neck with an angry, sultry declaration: “Bite me!”

Teeth connected cleanly with her skin, the ache in my jaw finally relieved as I clenched and felt a warm metallic trickle coat the back of my tongue. There she moaned, that throaty sound winding up and faltering over and over as I drew my tongue across open wounds and listened for the sound of fingers curling within her drooling canal for any semblance of the pleasure I could give her.

“N-Not enough,” she growled nearly at the same time as I thought that she’d soon want more. A warm tongue and soft fingers would only get her so far. She needed me. She needed me. I tensed, twitched hard against her leg, and slowly began rocking my hips to the slow slow massage of her hand. “Oh god, my sweet Mel. Look at what you’ve done to me.”

Wet digits bloomed before my eyes, the cold trickle of her nectar enough to willingly draw me in for a careful lick.

You’re slipping, spoke a nervous voice deep in my heart. Falling for temptation all over again, forgetting the transgressions of the night before. No, I couldn’t forget. I couldn’t forgive her.

“That’s a good boy,” Selena praised as her long fingers smeared her own leaking lust beneath my nose so every breath of air came with a hint of her hormonal musk. “You always knew how to treat me like a queen.”

But I could be doing so much more. Meeting her praise with a lick of her fingers and a kiss on the palm of her hand no longer felt like enough. Obediently cleaning up the mess I caused, an explosion tangy and sweet, was simply the bare minimum. I knew that I could make her see stars again.

You’re slipping, Mel.

Selena pushed two fingers into my mouth, nearly down to the knuckle, and hummed excitedly as I sucked on each one with ardent adoration. They were still warm, having steamed within the depths of her clenching muff, the taste of her sex so jarringly focused that I could almost convince myself I was drinking from the source. If I closed my eyes and slipped my tongue between her fingers… it nearly felt like sliding through parting labia.

“Hah, but look at you! So excited and eager.” A free hand wrapped around the base of my shaft, her thumb’s claw teasing the tight embrace of my sheath as it struggled to retain the swelling mass of my knot. Oh… dios! She was pushing it inside, edging my sheath with a slight sideway stroke, shooting needles straight through to my spine and nearly forcing out a hard moan. “Why weren’t you so willing last night? Oh, it doesn’t matter. We’ll make up for lost time. Here. Now.”

I answered a muffled, “Yesh,” as she replaced a second finger with a third, then that third with a fourth. They parted my lips and rolled within my mouth, stretching the inside of my cheek and curling against my tongue while a trail of slobber trickled past my lips and soaked into my fur.

“Good answer. Goodness, what to do with your cute little mouth.” She pulled out her fingers, not without some unexpected effort from my tight lips, and pressed one against the tip of my nose with the smallest giggle. “I can’t just reward you, after all. You hurt my heart last night.” She twisted her thumb within my sheath, forcing it tight between that sensitive fold of furry skin and the aching throb of a hard knot. “Yes, I know just what to do with you. Make amends with your body, my sweet boy. Tell me that you want it.”

“I…” I’ve slipped. Hers was a dangerous game, and I her willing captive, all thought of getting away from her strong and heady embrace naught but a whisper in the wind.

Was it really all her, so keenly aware of all my deepest desires? Maybe, but I was also to blame, weak to her advances even if I knew this was wrong. I couldn’t say no to her. That sharp and lecherous glint through half-lidded eyes as she straddled and mounted me was all the answer I needed – I didn’t even try to fight back this time.

“Say it!” Selena spat, her voice so harsh I would have jumped out of my own skin had it not been for her body’s weight pinning me to the ground. Her sizable ass settled against my legs while the fat of her sex barely began to kiss the tip of my throbbing head, the smallest and briefest of touches enough to make me clench hard with a need to fill her insides. A thumb had yet to relent from torturing the depths of my sheath; she was not going to let me off easy this time.

I barely managed to stammer out my approval, “I want it!” in a half-begged demand before she lifted a tit up to my mouth and slipped her nipple between my lips. The welcome intruder hardened against my tongue and ached in the sweet relief of my warm breaths. Selena’s voice hitched, faltered, then disappeared entirely into a perfectly content sigh while hips rocked back and forth in slow, steady strokes.

It was oddly sweet – my imagination filling in the blanks, flooding neurons with bursts of mind-altering dopamine – and fit snug between my lips. The odd texture of her nipples, those little ridges and bumps of her areola alongside the slightly smooth surface of her bud, was a welcome distraction. I felt compelled to lick, suck, her body reacting with a mind of its own, her voice pitching high and low while urging me on with the wet kiss of her labia against the underside of my shaft.

“M-Maybe we should do this more often, hm?” Another lick of her cunt, steaming hot against every sensitive nerve of my flesh. “You’re always staring at them. It’s only right you get a taste. Just keep sucking; keep licking. H-Hah, use your teeth!”

I flicked her nipple hard with the tip of my tongue and pinched it between teeth at her command. Pleasure…pain. She trusted me with every inch of her own vulnerability. The thought of betraying that trust barely even registered as an option.

Why should I, when I was already wrapped up in heaven?

“I love you, Mel,” Selena whispered as her thumb popped free from my sheath to physically drag it down against my knot. My own hard whimper was muffled by the overabundance of breasts smothering my face as the knot finally emerged, wet and eager to fill her clenching depths. “Won’t you just love me back?”

I snagged a second to break free from her breast’s hold of my mouth, enough to catch my breath in ragged gasps while my hips eagerly rocked against hers. Already I could feel the welcome pressure of lust building tight in my loins, and the throbbing tension of my balls working to provide Selena with everything she could ever desire.

“Hands,” I whispered as her own two slowly slid upward along my stomach, doing what they loved to do and teasing the tender skin with the tips of her claws. “P-Please, Selena. I… I want to touch you.”

“You do?” Even sitting on me how she was, the woman still towered high above. The light in her eyes cracked for a moment as she blinked, and thought.

“More than I can put into words! Like… Like before, remember?”

“Oh, yes. I remember.” Words uttered with an icy touch. “Just before you tried to run away.”

“No, I-”

“Oh my sweet boy, I crave your touch. To feel your fingers run through my fur.” Both her hands now rested flat on my chest, rising and falling in an unsteady tempo. “Those little claws teasing my skin, pinching and scratching and prodding where they shouldn’t.” Now my collarbone – she was all smiles, rows of teeth and dripping slobber. Another wet kiss of her muff, this time lingering while every slow roll of her hips guided me between her labia’s soft embrace. “When we make love, it’s your touch that drives me over the edge again,” she slid up along my length, the weight of her body pinning it between my stomach and herself, “and again,” then slid down, barely exposing my aching tip to a cold air, smothered in a thick layer of her liquid lust, “and again.” Eight fingers wrapped around the back of my neck, both her thumbs pressing just below my adam’s apple in a tight and uncomfortable hold. “We are not making love, my sweet boy.”

“W-Wait, señora, wait!”

Her fingers squeezed, a slow and methodical pressure that threatened to burn the air from my lungs. Swallowing felt nigh impossible; a lungful of air came with needles and rocks through constricted airflow. There was nothing in her wide blue eyes.

“This is me taking what you tried to deny us.” Selena was trying to keep her voice steady and cool but I could hear the cracks of her own insanity screaming within. “This is what happens when you try to fight back.”

Her thumbs lifted off my throat as she raised herself on two unsteady feet and gazed down between our legs. She mouthed something to herself, a quivering string of praises and cold comforts, then met my eyes and dropped.

I speared her through to my aching knot, penetrating easily despite that pinprick tightness of her entrance. It only took a second for Selena to regain her composure, far longer for me to even realise what had happened before I could react to the strong massage of her clenching walls milking every inch of my cock with a renewed sense of urgency unmatched in its single-minded desire.

“My sweet, handsome boy.” She lifted off me again, trembling to the core and purring in delight when naught by my tip spread her lips and teased the sensitive nerves of her hole, then once more dropped weight in an unceremonious stroke signalled only by the stinging clap of her ass and the wet grip of her core. “Don’t you see now!? You don’t need hands for me to mount you! It’s perfect. It’s beautiful.”

Before I could say anything, a careful plea for her to slow down or the low moaning howl of pleasure, she set her thumbs right back against my trachea and pushed. What few gasps I voiced were those forced by the painful grip of her cunt stretching to hold my swollen member in place, as if the two of us weren’t already soaked in a puddle of her femcum.

With every crash of our hips I could feel my knot batter against her entrance, every wet clap accentuated with the promise of a binding tie teased by the sloppy kiss of her cunt. The way she rocked herself against me… forceful and angry. Selena wanted to draw out pleasure almost as much as she wanted to make me hurt.

She was an expert, every move practised to perfection. I coughed into her hands as she purred and mewled and salivated over me, some blubbering requests for air met with an indignant sigh, as if they’d been unfounded and unnecessary. The brief relief of her thumbs from around my throat was offset by the strengthening of her sex smothering my cock, a series of purposeful contractions near enough to make me cum had she not felt me twitching deep inside her and… stopped.

“I-I love you!” I gasped through aching breaths just before she shut me up by choking the life out of me yet again. A response to her request – no, her demand – to profess my undying adoration for her. Only her. Always her.

“Say it again!” Selena screamed with a gnash of her teeth while nipples cut into my chest and saliva poured from between parted lips to soak between my eyes and soil my tear streaked cheeks. Those thumbs only squeezed harder still as my knot began to spread her painfully wide, itself swelling with explosive anticipation as a response. “Say it say it say it!”

“-l-love you-”

Was she satisfied? Was she pleased? Her body slammed into mine, my knot battering her hole though not quite tying itself in, and trembled hard as contractions doubled, tripled, swallowing my precum and eagerly tugging so my tip could kiss her womb like her body believed it was meant to. All ten fingers around my throat burned as her claws scratched and scratched till they broke the surface of my skin. I wanted to scream. I needed to breed her fucking cunt. Swell her stomach with my offspring. Fill her tits with milk. Make her mine. I needed to be hers.

God…

Slowly… slowly… her hands released their hold from around my throat. I could breathe though it was difficult, the act unkind to my own body as a phantom pressure lingered its crushing weight above my windpipe. I moaned as she began to lift from me, the scalding core of her pussy traded for a breath of unwanted open air, thick strands of her cum connecting both our bodies like a twisted work of art. Selena trembled from head to toe, and that dark and predatory glint in her eyes was once again replaced by the loving look a mother would have for her son.

“M-My sweet, handsome boy.” Selena slid upward and straddled my chest. “L-Look at what you did to me.” She yanked on my chain to force my head down and parted her labia with three fingers in a show off her abused entrance, gaped by the forceful penetration of my knot, a web of her nectar leaking hot as it desperately clenched for a shaft that wasn’t there. Her fat clit glinted, swollen and wet, throbbing eagerly in the aftermath of her orgasm.

I wanted to swallow her whole. I wanted to force my tongue into her depths and drink straight from her cunt. I wanted to see her sex overflowing with my cum. I wanted… I wanted…

“Shh… there now. I know you’re eager. I know you didn’t cum. I’m sorry, sweet Mel.” Her words felt genuine, the kindness in them almost making me forget about how strongly she’d choked the life out of my lungs or the tears she forced me to shed. “B-But I’ll need you to hold on just a little longer, okay? I want you to have a nice, thick load for me.”

“Selena,” I whispered, but my voice shattered beneath the pain. Her ears dropped, eyes widened in brief shock, a little gasp escaping as those large hands swaddled my jaw and caressed my tear-stained cheeks.

“I’m sorry. I got a little carried away. It’s just… I was so frustrated. I’m sorry.” Selena kissed me, a cold lick of her rough tongue against my lips. I barely had the energy or will to return her gesture. “Don’t be mad at me, please. I love you. I love you with all my heart. You’re my whole world, you know? I’ll always love you. I… I know! How about a shower? It’ll be refreshing – wake you up. Does that sound good?”

I nodded slightly. A shower would be divine, but… “My legs.”

“I’ll take care of that up there, in the bathroom. You just sit tight.”

Selena lifted herself off my body and knelt by my side. Strangely enough I missed the tremendous burn of her weight on me. My questionable desire to stay close to her was soon quenched by the slow curl of one arm below my knees and the other supporting my upper back.

“One… two… up you go!” She lifted, effortlessly clean, and held me to her chest like a bride in her groom’s arms. My hard blush, a quick flick of my eyes off to the side and the flat fall of my ears, did not go unnoticed. “Aw, is someone shy?”

“You didn’t have to carry me.”

“I know,” Selena admitted as she leaned down to press her large nose against mine. Her blue eyes shimmered – was she about to cry? “But isn’t this just wonderful?”

“Señora…” She’s lost her fucking mind.

“On our wedding night I’ll hold you like this in front of everyone and we’ll dance to the tune of a slow, beautiful song. We’ll wait till all eyes are on us, and then,” her lips met my own and I fell for her advances. Our tongues met halfway, slowly curling against one another in a rocking massage that now matched the gentle sway of my body within her arms. We kissed until our jaws ached, until we had to stop and catch our breaths; “I’ll kiss you just like that, our proclamation to the world that nothing and nobody will ever get between us.”

She sniffed, her tears openly streaming from wide eyes while she watched with undying patience, waiting and listening for some response. She really had lost her fucking mind but, then again…

I leaned up for as much as my chains allowed me and nuzzled into her cheek, earning a little giggle and sigh of relief when I licked one of her tears clean.

… so had I.

***

Selena’s home glowed beneath the light of a warm sun, giving the once oppressive and labyrinthian rooms a sense of peace and reason. The touch of warm light on my soft fur was a delicate comfort, though I still longed to feel a cool breeze and wet grass beneath my feet.

Now up on the second floor Selena carried me east, far past the stairs and through the open door of a bathroom. Cold white tiles burned the soles of my feet; the door slammed shut behind us and clicked with the grasp of a lock.

Simple, elegant, clean. A guest bathroom, I assumed, partly surprised that she hadn’t brought me to her own bedroom for this. The off-white colour of the tiled walls and floor felt somewhat clinical, while the space within remained cramped with Selena sharing what room there was with me. She was on her knees, humming to herself while hunting something down in the vanity beneath the sink. I couldn’t help but stare for a long while, averting my eyes only when she stood with an “Aha!” her fingers plucking the end of a razor’s blade.

She put a hand to my chest, commanded, “Stay,” and knelt before me, her mouth hovering for a moment right at my sheath before slinking down to my feet. The only other word she uttered as the sharp end of the blade sliced at the rope to reveal matted fur and burned skin was… “Sorry.”

But I could move again. The pain, uncomfortable as it was, felt worth the cost. “Señora Selena, thank you.”

“You’ve behaved,” she replied, setting the razor at the edge of the bathroom vanity and now holding my tied hands with hers, “and it won’t do for you to have these on. We’ll need your hands, hm?”

With the slip of a claw the chains rattled then loosened their hold around my neck. My wrists, so used to the binding pressure of the cuffs, burned in their newfound freedom. Every bone popped while I stretched my muscles and sighed.

“There now, isn’t that better?”

“Much better. There’s… there’s no need any more, right? For the chains.” I caught her blink and the flick of a tail as she slipped off the collar from around my neck as well. Finally free.

“Maybe…” Still undecided. Of course she had planned on tying me up after this. “I want to trust you, Mel.”

“You can trust me.” I tried not to smile too much, to come off as far too eager, as I slowly moved my hands to set them on her hips. My fingers threading through her fur and curling around her skin forced a visible shiver of excitement. “Didn’t you miss this?”

“I… I did.” Her words were barely a whisper. The strong hands that’d once carried me, the same ones that had threatened to crush my throat, now curled around my wrists with the gentle touch one would save for the most fragile of flowers. “B-But you tried to run. You tried to leave me again. Was once not enough?”

I followed her body’s curves, then allowed Selena to do the rest. She knew where my hands were needed most, where my touch would best suit her desires. Around to her lower back then down below her tail, each palm sinking and fingers kneading into the plush fat of her rear.

“Once was enough,” I reassured, even without knowing of what she spoke. The fantasy of San Juan, of a life I still wasn’t sure was actually lived. “Never again. I’m right here, see? You found me.”

“I did.” Selena pressed against me. It felt like she wanted to coil her body around mine like an anaconda’s deadly embrace. “But I could have had you sooner. I found you so long ago, you know? I watched. I followed you.” She scratched my back and turned enough that a breast brushed against my lips. “I waited. Everything needed to be perfect. I had to make sure I could keep you safe.”

“That’s-” disturbing. Terrifying. The cold lick of sweat running down the back of my spine was all that kept my focus from cracking beneath the pressure. I teased her with a slight lick of her nipple, just enough to make her moan and melt into my arms. “That’s very kind of you, señora.”

“It was. I’m glad you’re finally seeing it, the fruits of my labour. It still hurts, you know? All the memories we built in San Juan just… gone. I thought if you saw me, touched me, loved me, then maybe you’d remember it all. It hurts that you don’t remember me but that – that’s okay. That’s so perfectly okay now that you’re finally mine again.”

She shoved me back before I could do more, say more, forcing the two us into the tight space of a dormant shower and pinning me back against the cold tiled wall.

“Oh, the things that I’m going to do to you on our wedding night…” Lost in her daydreams again, that look in her eyes distant, as if she were looking through me even as her arms pinned themselves to either side of my head and her gaze narrowed on my body. I simultaneously felt like the sole focus of her attention and the last thing she was even considering. “Selena Cuervos. It has a nice ring to it. Meant to be. That makes sense, right? You made me after all, crafted this body from those lonely thoughts and plucked me right out of a page. Don’t look at me like that. I don’t care if you don’t believe it because it’s true. It’s true!”

She leaned down and shoved her tongue between my teeth, drawing my breath away while we wrestled for control over one another. Selena was stronger, her determination refined to razor’s edge. I felt her purring steadily grow as the tip of her tongue flicked against the back of my throat, drawing away only when I gagged and whined in her body’s hot hold.

It was only when she’d drawn away from me and cleaned her drool from around the edges of my lips that I saw in her the predatory glare of a woman who would never be quite done with me. Obsession frothing at the mouth like a rabid dog. “One day you’ll remember me, and all those moments lost to time. Until then I’ll remember for us, every day, forever.”

A rush of cold water showered over us, surprisingly refreshing against the combined heat of our bodies. I allowed myself to hold her tight while swallowing down the fear and uncertainty.

She needs to trust me.

“Turn around,” I said with some command to my voice, something that she seemed to appreciate and savour as Selena pushed off the wall and arched her arms high overhead, her satisfied moan muffled by the crashing of water around us. “I’ll clean you first.”

“Such a gentleman.”

***

But it wasn’t enough.

A light touch of my fingers and the gentle scrub of my claws would have never been enough.

One small kiss on the centre of her back wasn’t enough.

The hold of my tongue over hers as I guided it along in short and needy strokes was not enough.

Every action demanded reaction. Any act done on her begged to be explored and amplified to its fullest extent. Why stop with a nip of her lips and a slow massage of her breasts when there could be so much more.

It was an odd feeling, being so in control of her yet knowing that she was the one actually hanging on to my reins. So tightly-wound. So hopelessly out of reach.

“Lick a little slower,” Selena asked of me as her fingers curled around one of my ears. There she scratched in adoration, feeling for a sensitive spot she’d found long ago and now teased again and again. “I’m so close now… Your lips were made for this, Mel.”

This – the unwavering worship of her wet cunt. I held her tight in my arms and dragged my tongue against her slit to taste damp fur and quivering sex while the familiar heat of her arousal quietly whispered sweet words to my lips.

She was a trigger pull away from another climax. It wouldn’t take much – I knew exactly how to finish her off. It was her clit, aching for attention but disappointingly ignored. Selena enticed me with kind words of praise and the promise of a mouthful of her cum but I ignored it all, my own desires included, and willed myself into further worshipping and torturing the woman who’d forced herself into my life.

“Please, Mel…” Words like honey to my ears. This euphoria of control, or the semblance of it, made all those past troubles feel like distant memories. “Just suck on it. Just a little. I need it.” I felt her thighs close around me and tremors wrack her spine. The little I did to give Selena what she desired, one small lick against the tip of her bud, was almost enough to make her scream. “More.”

The connecting strings of her desire marred the once-clean fur of my snout and slipped tight between my lips. I could taste her on my tongue, all that bitterness and peachy splendour. Enticing enough to dig once more for another helping, to slip between her lips and encroach on her winking hole till Selena became nothing but a twitching mess within my arms.

So out of breath. So in love with me. Selena announced her climax not with a roar but a kitten’s mewling whimper, something sweet and kind, so unlike her usual self. She bucked her hips against my mouth, using my snout for her own pleasure as my nose battered against her clit and my tongue squirmed inside her quivering depths. She fed me, and watched in awe as I lapped away the mess she’d made and swallowed it all like the sweet, obedient, loving man I was.

Because that’s what she needed to see. That’s what she needed to hear.

Words like, “I love you,” to carry a weight so profound she visibly swooned in response. Placate her desires, play the game. I already knew how easy it was to slip up; that wouldn’t happen again.

“Let’s get you in bed, mi reina.”

“I love it when you talk to me like that.”

That’s how I would keep the chains from my hands and legs. Sweet words, long orgasms, and the tender touch of a lover’s embrace. That’s how I would keep myself from sleeping in the wine cellar.

Trust, twisted and corrupted for a higher purpose.

I almost felt bad when I looked at her, so naked and willingly vulnerable in my presence.

Was she crazy? Yes. Did she deserve to have her heart twisted and toyed with? Maybe. Did I feel guilty about it all? On some level, absolutely.

“Hey, reina?” She mewled again, her face now snug against a pillow. Our fur was still damp from the shower before. Her toes continued to curl inward as she breathed away any vestiges of lingering pleasure. So content and safe… time to test my luck. “Is it okay if I go get a glass of water?”

“Mhmm…”

“Okay… Thank you. I’ll be back, I promise.”

Selena breathed deep. A hand reached for something as she closed her eyes, searching but failing to find me, then collapsed atop her leg. “You better.”

A small threat, but still a threat.

“Of course. You stay right here, okay?” I forced myself to kiss her cheek, brush some hair off her face, run my fingers through her fur. Reassurances, so she wouldn’t get up and jump to conclusions. Then, satisfied with my effort, I quietly exited the room.

The poor woman had lost her fucking mind. On some level we both had.

Maybe, maybe, I did know her in San Juan. I couldn’t deny the ache in my heart that at once burned and was relieved whenever I looked at her. So much of that had been lost to me after I woke up in that hospital, and nothing she did ever returned some stolen memory lost to the void. Maybe she was right about that.

But that was a lifetime ago.

Twenty minutes were counted out slowly in between breaths as I lingered by the foot of her bedroom. Twenty agonising minutes. I could hear her breathing deepen, small content sighs and quiet whispers curling through the air until, at least, a relative peace and quiet was broken by the sound of a low snore. I felt safe then to walk the halls of her home without Selena’s looming threat hounding me like a shadow.

Not that I had all the time in the world, but what better time to test the limits of my prison than now?

I went into the bathroom and wrapped a towel around my waist, then slowly began to retrace the steps Selena took to bring us up here. Past one hallway, then a right turn, down another, before coming to a set of stairs leading down to the foyer. There: the front door, grand in its magnificence, and my one boundary to freedom.

Every cold step lured me closer to its gilded trimmings and oakwood surface. My anxious little heart swelled within my chest, threatening to burst through with overjoyed excitement as I laid a hand on the doorknob. I glanced over my shoulder back up the stairs, twisted, and felt a cool rush of air surge in to caress my skin and tickle the sinuses.

The world carried on, clueless to my absence. It’d only been… a couple of days now? No reason for anyone to ask any questions, not yet. Rent was paid on time, the few friends I had were already used to my long bouts of non-responsiveness, and work – better not to dwell on work.

Rays of sunlight felt like a soothing salve against my tender wrists and rope-burned ankles. The warmth of the sun dried what little moisture my fur yet concealed and made me long for a long walk in light. I closed my eyes, raised my head, and breathed deep of that gentle air as I took a step outside and felt soft grass pinch between my toes and curl beneath my soles.

Funny how being held against your will made you rethink the things you’d taken for granted. I had been held against my will. This was a kidnapping. Hell, I had every excuse to cut and run, here and now. What’s stopping me?

What’s stopping me from just… leaving her behind? I could go to the police. I could call a friend. Shit, I could cut ties and just leave this place for good, find somewhere else to live. I’ve done it before, I could do it again. Selena would never find me – I’d seen her face, knew her scent, memorised that voice. I could be careful, and I could be free.

Am I slipping up again?

I took a step toward that boundless and infinite freedom, then followed with a second, and a third. My heart hammered harder, faster, deeper into my throat with an urge to burst for all of eternity. This could have been my one and only chance.

But I hesitated as I felt that sickening pull of the heart I always did whenever Selena uttered the words, ‘I love you.’ It was the same pull that helped me accept her advances and had me feel so comfortable and safe within the warm hold of her arms. That pull which, for a split second, had me believe every story she’d shared about us. A pull which, even now, had me looking into a not-so-distant future, where the talk of ‘marriage’ and ‘family’ was interspersed in between bouts of lovemaking and animal-like breeding.

It wasn’t love, not for me, and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to love her quite like I wanted to after what she did. My body still felt rotten to its core, and this decision did not help in mending what Selena had broken.

I should’ve ran, but instead I walked back into her home and quietly latched the door shut. Deep breaths… what’s done is done. I could endure.

There, at the top of the stairs… Selena’s shadow, her arms crossed tight as a disapproving glare turned into the warmest of smiles. Yet something lingered in her eyes, dangerous and unkind. She shook her head as I waved and disappeared.

Play her game, feed her desires, stoke her love. Earn her trust and one day she’d let her guard down. That’ll be my time.

I just had to be careful.

I could endure.

***

“I had a wonderful dream last night. It was us, together, down on that beach near San Juan. You were all smiles, that love in your eyes so heartfelt and genuine it almost felt real. The sun was setting over the ocean and the water was alive, her waves sparkling white and gold like… like… like one big disco ball. I know, I know, what a way with words, huh? You’ve always been better at these things.

“Anyway, the dream. It felt like we’d spent all day parading through town, taking in the sights and music and the wonderful smells. You took me through all the touristy spots and kept complaining about how, ‘It’s not the real San Juan,’ before getting really annoyed with me whenever I turned to you and said, ‘Looks real enough to me!’ It was cute – you were adorable.

“You pointed out to the sea and asked me if I ever wanted to go out there and explore. It took me a while to answer because, well, for all the time I’d spent staring out at that water, not once had I thought about leaving your side. That was unnatural and wrong. Something about it made my skin crawl. Instinct told me to shake my head and answer, ‘No,’ but I held my tongue and waited a moment to ask: ‘Will I be with you?’

“It didn’t even take you a second to answer. ‘Of course!’ Your little accent rearing its head, indignant at the prospect that I’d go off all by my lonesome. But then you asked me again if I ever wanted to go out there and see the world, something beyond our little sandy beach, the churrascos and tostones and those little grilled skewered meat things you love, and the music, and all of our life there in San Juan. Could I give that all up?

“With you? Of course. Always. You smiled there, and took my hand, and you promised me the world. It was cute, but so past your means. By no fault of your own, no, but the world just dealt you a sad hand. There was no way that we’d been able to leave San Juan, not in this life or the next. That was fine. They were just words, and it’s the thought behind them that mattered to me most. I just wanted to be by your side. And… that was the dream. More of a memory, I guess. Another one of those you probably don’t remember.”

He slept so peacefully, so quietly. I chose to believe he could hear my words, even if it wasn’t true.

“You know… it wasn’t long after when that day came. I’m glad you don’t remember it – the one thing I hope you never remember. My sweet boy. You didn’t deserve any of that. It was all just… just an awful accident. It couldn’t have happened to a kinder, gentler soul. It was… it was awful. It felt like someone had reached into my chest and ripped away my heart a swipe at a time, chunk after chunk shredded out of me and presented in all its awful gore. I lost some part of myself every time I looked at you, so calm and quiet and still on that dinky old hospital bed. The suffering you put me through.

“No – not you. It wasn’t your fault. Hey, don’t hate me for what I’m about to say, okay? But that accident ended up being our lucky break as well. It makes me retch thinking about it like that, but it’s the truth. If it hadn’t been for that, and the things I did afterward, we’d still be stuck there in old little San Juan. It’d be very easy for me to say that I’m not proud of the things I’ve done, but all of it was for your own good. I did what I had to so I could protect and care for you, even if I couldn’t be by your side. Left you enough money so you could start your new life once you were whole again.

“Waiting was the hard part. I thought… maybe he’ll remember me. Like in the movies, where someone sees something and it makes them recall their lost memories. Something like that. I thought that if I just gave you enough time you’d eventually come around to me. Of course that never happened, and as you can probably tell I got very tired of waiting.”

I couldn’t help my little laugh. Carefully, slowly, I dashed my fingers across the sandy fur of his cheek and watched him stir for a moment. He turned and, as if on instinct, nuzzled closer to my side.

“I know it’s a lot to take in. I know you probably hate me. You do hate me. For all your loving words and careful praise, all those moments when you touch me and kiss me and hold me tight, every waking breath you take around me… I know that you can barely stand me. Looking at me probably makes you want to puke. You feel violated, maybe even abused. You’re within your right. But I swear to you, you will never feel unloved. Even if it smothers you whole.

“I can fix you, my sweet boy. I can make you love me again. You’ll remember me, all of me, and it’ll finally be like it was in San Juan.”

He stirred in my arms and sighed, low, slow, and I couldn’t help the ache in my heart when he opened his brown eyes and stared up at mine. I could guess at all the awful thoughts he was thinking, every terrible thing he’d probably want to do to me, every hateful remark he might have wanted to say. But even then he trembled and sank into me as I brushed my fingers across his cheek and whispered sweetly, lovingly:

“Good morning, handsome.”