TW: Allusion to sexual assault

Nathan and I decided to walk from Riven and Ren’s house to the trail on Saturday.  Apparently the trail was fairly close if you took sidewalks instead of roads, and Nathan actually sometimes left his car at their place anyway when he decided to go for a hike.  Ren made us some kind of sandwiches for lunch and told us to have fun while Riven, smiling brightly at us – not so secretly happy that Nathan and I were getting along – told us to stay safe.

It still took us a little while of walking to just get to the trailhead, which was rather out of the way and looked to have no one else on it, like Nathan had promised.  I was kind of excited about getting to run, and kind of curious about seeing Nathan’s shifted form while I was at it.

“All I’m saying,” Nathan argued as we turned off the sidewalk towards the trail, “is autumn colors are pretty here, too.  Sure, we don’t have the vibrant colors the mountains do, but we still have some foothills, and some trees throughout the city – some you won’t see in the mountains and are stunning to see their color change – plus if you ever have the opportunity to visit a garden maintained by fairies?  They do a lot with plants all year round.”

“I’m not disagreeing with you, you know?  I actually grew up in a city – I didn’t spend enough time in the mountain to see autumn colors.”

“Oh, right.”  Nathan looked faintly embarrassed.  “Well, you should still enjoy it once the colors start appearing.”

He said something else, but I didn’t hear it.

I didn’t hear it because I was frozen, trying to tell myself I didn’t smell what I smelled.

In human form, my senses were nowhere near as strong as in shifted form, but they were still stronger than a human’s and, since I was a predator-type shifter, I did still have an increased sense of smell.  And unfortunately the scent I had just picked up made me want to vomit and run.

“Well,” he said, stepping from behind the small shed at the beginning of the trail, “I thought something was off about you,” he looked at Nathan, then his eyes roamed back to me, “I should have realized you stole what was mine.”

I could feel his eyes burning me, sinking into every pore of my body.  I just wanted to run, but I was frozen in terror, unable to even move.

I hadn’t been back in his presence directly since I’d run from his house.  Not even at the police station had I seen him directly.  Under his gaze now I felt even smaller than I was, helpless, exposed, broken, trash.  He made me feel that way every time his eyes raked over me.

I swallowed, but before I could get a word out, Nathan took a step forward, positioning himself so that he was in slightly front of me.  “He’s not a thing,” he informed my ex, “and he’s not going back with you.”

He huffed a cynical laugh.  “You think you have a choice?”  He asked me.  “You belong to me.  You can’t hide from me.  I will find you no matter where you go.  Now make this easy for everyone and just cooperate.  Maybe I’ll even be nice if you come now.”

I flinched and wondered if I could shift and run up the trail.  No, no, that would be pointless.  He was a stag.  He could easily outpace me with his longer legs and then he’d just crush me under his hooves.  Running back into town seemed pointless, too – all he had to do was encounter anyone and say he was a police officer trying to arrest a dangerous fugitive, and they’d help him.  Nathan was the only one around here who’d believe me.

I never should have left the house.

“He’s not going with you,” Nathan repeated.  “Now I suggest you leave.”

“Me?”  He laughed.  “You’re the one sticking your nose in where it doesn’t belong.  Now kindly stay out of it if you don’t want to find yourself on the wrong end of the law.”

Nathan crossed his arms.  “You don’t have jurisdiction here – you have no power to take him with you.  If you try, it’s kidnapping, which puts you on the wrong side of the law.  So I’ll say again: leave.”

I wondered why he wasn’t scared of him.  Nathan was tall but nowhere near as buff as my ex, who looked like he could bench press – I don’t know, what’s a good amount for bodybuilders?  Whatever it was, the guy could snap a tree in half.  Or more likely, me.

He sneered at Nathan, turning his focus more fully on him.  “You’re really going to insist on being a problem here, rabbit?  Don’t you think you’re a little out of your league?  How about you run along before you get hurt?  I have some unfinished business with my pet there.”

“He’s not a pet.”  Nathan said each word very deliberately, with just a twinge of anger.  “And he doesn’t belong to you.”

He shrugged.  “Well,” his smile turned malicious, “if you insist on getting involved, then I have no choice.”  He shifted, shook his head with those massive antlers, and then lunged at us, antlers down, pointed straight at Nathan.

I let out a startled half scream just as Nathan shoved me, hard, so that I fell out of the way of his charge.

And then Nathan was hit.  He slid several feet, and I heard his groan as his antlers pulled out of his body, dripping with blood, and then Nathan fell to the ground.

“No!”  That finally got my words back.  “Leave him alone!”

No, no, no – Nathan couldn’t get hurt because of me!  No, please.  Please be okay.

He shifted back, kicked at Nathan’s foot where he lay on the ground, and then turned to give me a condescending smirk.  “He got what he deserved, getting in my way like that,” he told me.  “Now come along and stop making a fuss.”

He started towards me, but I took a step back, fear in my throat.  I – I couldn’t go back.  I just couldn’t.

“Miles,” Nathan’s eyes were fixed on me, urgency and pain written in them.  “Run.”

“If you do that,” he interrupted before I had a chance to respond, “I’ll kill your friend here.  In fact, I’ll make this simple – I’m going to do that unless you stop misbehaving and just come along quietly.”

Nathan’s eyes filled with alarm.  “No, Miles.”

“Yes, Miles,” he countered.  “Come or your friend here dies.  Enough of this nonsense – you know perfectly well you belong to me.  Unless you want to be responsible for someone’s death, you’ll stop pretending like it’s okay for you to leave me.”

I hesitated.

I didn’t want to go back, back into the hands of a man I knew would kill me someday if I went.  And until that day, he would make sure my life was crushed from me, every sense of self stripped from me until I was nothing more than the object he wanted me to be.

But…Nathan.  Nathan was kind and he’d believed in me.  He loved kids, he wanted a chance to be loved.  I couldn’t take that away from him just to be selfish and try to look after myself.  He was already hurt because of me, the only way to save him was to go with him and let Nathan get away safely.

I looked at Nathan as the tears started to fall.  “I’m sorry,” I whispered.

And I took one step towards him.

That was all he needed to know my answer, and he swiftly closed the distance, grabbing my wrist and forearm tightly in one of his large hands.  “Now let’s go home, boy, time for you to apologize for what you’ve done.”

“No, Miles!”  Nathan struggled to prop himself up on his elbows.  “Don’t go with him!”

“Give it up,” he said, twisting around to look at Nathan.  He deliberately twisted my arm as he did and I winced, feeling the bones stretch and crack.  “He’s made his choice.  Now if you don’t want to die, I suggest you lay there quietly until we’re gone.  You need to conserve your strength so you don’t bleed out, you know.”  His tone was jeering, cold.

I felt the tears on my face.  I was walking back into my nightmare, but this time I’d chosen to – well, I’d chosen to because I had no other choice.  And this time there would be no way out, I was sure of it.  He’d make sure I never had another opportunity to escape.

He turned again, squeezing my wrist and forearm even tighter as he yanked me along with him.  I gave Nathan one last terrified look, hoping he’d understand that I was trying to apologize for the pain he was in right now.  This was never his nightmare, he never should have been involved in it.

“Miles,” Nathan’s voice was urgent, riddled with panic, “don’t go with him!  Don’t let him take you!”

Then he stopped suddenly, turning to glare at Nathan.  “You’re being annoying.  I told you to be quiet, didn’t I?  My pet here knows his place and your involvement is unnecessary.”  He suddenly released my hand, reaching up to grab my hair instead.  He jerked it, hard, forcing my head back as I felt his grip threatening to tear my hair out by his roots as he placed his other hand against my exposed neck, showing how easy it would be to end my life with a touch of his fingers.  “Are you interested in my pet, or something?”

Nathan was almost pleading with me now.  “Fight him, Miles, don’t just let him take you!”

He laughed.  “Don’t be ridiculous, he’s not capable of standing up for himself, never has been.  Hit him, crush him, abuse him, humiliate him, break his bones, lock him up for years – he doesn’t fight back.  Never has, never will.  That’s the nice thing about a properly disciplined pet.  But since you’re so interested in my pet, maybe you’d like to see him apologize to me?  Maybe that’ll convince you that this is none of your business.”

No.  Not that.  Not here, not in front of Nathan.  Please.

I felt the tears on my face but didn’t dare make a sound – he never allowed that – as I felt him reach for my belt.

Just as I closed my eyes, realization dawned on Nathan’s face.

“Take your hands off him!”  He almost growled.  “Miles!”  His voice was panicked.

I sobbed silently, waiting for the inevitable, but…it didn’t come.

Instead I felt his hand close on my arm again and he yanked me backwards, nearly making me lose my balance as he dragged me a few steps further away from Nathan.

I opened my eyes, startled, to find Riven standing by Nathan, glaring at him.

Oh no, not Riven.  No, please, not him, too.  He was so sweet and nice to me and he’d already been through enough pain.  He didn’t need to get caught in this, too.  He didn’t need more pain because of me.

“I’m going to give you one opportunity,” Riven was looking at him, his tone even, but I could see a flutter of steely anger in his eyes, “to let Miles go and just walk away.  You can go home, back to your life, but you never bother Miles again.  If you refuse, this will end poorly for you.”

He stared at Riven, then burst out laughing.  “Keep out of this, human,” he twisted my arm again, the bones cracking even more as he used his sleeve to wipe the tears out of his eyes.  “You’re way out of your depth here.”

He didn’t know Riven wasn’t human, but he would have realized Riven knew about the supernatural world based on the protection mark on his forehead.  But Riven had said he had no magical abilities, which meant he couldn’t exactly deal with him, so essentially he was a bit like a human.

Riven just crossed his arms.  “Like I said, one chance.  You’re turning it down?”

His amusement seemed to fade a little and he gave Riven an icy, condescending stare.  “He is mine, he belongs to me.  I’ve already won, and you can’t stop me.  So yeah, I think I’m going to have to decline.  So unfortunate.”

I noticed something then, something that struck me as odd.  Nathan looked relieved.  He wasn’t stressed out anymore, didn’t seem that worried.  He was still somewhat tense, watching where he had his hand on me, but almost in a way that seemed like he was waiting for something to happen.

“Well then,” Riven shrugged, “we’ll just have to go with option B, which I’m afraid doesn’t end as well for you.”

“You think you can stop me?”  He pointed at Riven.  “You?  I could squash you like a bug.”

Then a voice hissed just behind us.  “I’d kill you before you laid a finger on him.”

Something hit his arm above where he was holding me and he yelped, immediately releasing my wrist as he turned, fury in his eyes, to look at this new attacker.  He attempted to punch her but she dodged easily and a second later had her hands on his neck and he was struggling, gasping for breath.

She was tiny, shorter than me, blond, and…well she wasn’t human, that was for sure.  Not if she was just standing there completely unaffected by his size and strength.

I suddenly remembered Riven saying that Beatrice was short – Beatrice, his best friend who was also a freaking naga.

“Let me go, you bitch,” he snapped.  “This is none of your business!  You’re interfering in police matters!”

Beatrice snorted.  “Yeah, right, sure, police business that involves threatening people and trying to kill them.  Sounds really legit.”  She looked over at Riven with a bored expression.  “Can I break a few of his bones, just a few, pretty please?”

Riven rolled his eyes then looked at me.  “Miles, come here.”

I wavered on my feet, not sure what was going on anymore.  Was…was I actually not going to have to go back with him?  Had we been rescued?