The Lupine Girl
It was overwhelming and overpowering every contradicting
thought in my brain that screamed at me to turn away, to take another fuckin’
course. My mind yelled told me that this
was a path of stupidity, trouble, a complication. I didn’t like complications. I didn’t stop of course; my beast practically
demanded, roared that I keep moving. And I am a fuckin’ beast. I don’t deny my instincts and my instincts
were telling me to push harder, to run faster so that I might reach this
alluring scent that much faster.
This was supposed to be a simple job; play nice with Ol’
Bucket-head’s group of whining pups as they located a mutant he wanted to
recruit. I couldn’t give a shit either
way, just as long as I got paid. But as
soon as that scent blasted me when I took my first steps off that helicopter I
knew that this wasn’t a fucking simple job anymore.
It was unexpected, the way it hit me like a Mack Truck when
I first stepped of the helipad. The
scent wasn’t fresh, in fact it was days – possibly weeks - old, but it was as clean
as freshly fallen snow of winter. It was
ripe Alberta Jack-pines, black spruce and the feminine scent of sweet
clover. In other words: it smelled like the
best smellin’ woman I’ve ever come across.
It smelled like home. For a minute I could almost imagine the
roaring campfires and hard timber of the Alberta wilderness.
Even in my single minded ferocity to seek this scent out I
could hear the firebug behind me, he was yelling like the pussy he is for me to
hurry up; to take cover in the warehouse that we were supposed to staking out.
“Fucking X-Geeks!” he cursed, like I didn’t already hear that
damn jet in the distance even as we touched down. I knew they were comin’ and I’d bet my next
payday that Mag’s knew it too. It was
probably why he was in such’a big damn hurry to fuckin’ get here.
Nothing would stop me, though. I wouldn’t be denied what belonged to me, and
whoever that scent belonged to, she…
belonged to me.
~
It was as random as a warehouse could get in the Docking
district of Tampa, Fla. It held
everything a normal warehouse should; miscellaneous packing crates, dingy
lighting, and enough dust to fill the fuckin’ Empire State Building. But this seemingly innocent building of brick
and steel had a darker purpose and I could smell it the fuckin’ second I walked
through the front door.
Her scent nearly buckled my knees when it first smacked me
in the face. It was laden with pain,
anger and finally, resignation. It made
her taste bitter on my tongue, almost enough to gag me if I was a piss-ant like
the Runt. Either way, I didn’t like it. There were other scents too, male scents. Desire,
being the strongest, laced with the harsh tang of rejection and disgust as I
pieced together what I already knew was taking place.
Pissed off, was the only words I could use to describe
myself in that moment. Really, really,
pissed off. Erik had lied to me,
he had betrayed me. The fact that this mutant he wanted to recruit was a female
feral should have been the first thing he told me before we ventured out, and
he sure as shit should have told me a lot sooner than this. He shouldn’t have let this happen to
her.
The only two guards present were bulky lookin’ skin heads;
lookin’ to the entire world like something that just stepped out of a white
supremacist rally. They were both
adorned in supply store camouflage and cheap combat boots. They were big guys, but artificially enhanced
and easily taken care off. Hell, I
relished in sending them to meet their fuckin’ maker screamin’ like a pussy
frail and pissin’ their pants. After
all, they had degraded one of ours and that shit was just unacceptable. The Runt would probably have something poetic
or profound to say about the scum I just dispatched without care, but I wasn’t Jimmy and these bastards got off
easy.
It did make me a little wary that there was only two sniveling
dickheads present. It was entirely too
easy. The Friends of Humanity were a
stupid bunch of mutant hating fuckers, but this was fuckin’ ridiculous and I
didn’t buy for one second that they would leave their prized female behind
without more bodies somewhere close.
Fuck if I cared though.
It would make our exit that much sweeter.
John was unusually quiet as we cut a path through the rows
of crates rotting from the salty sea air and rusting metal cargo containers,
which was a fuckin’ relief because the kid was always bitchin’ ‘bout something. Mutant rights this… Mutant rights that… blah,
blah, fuckin’ blah. The kid was starting
to sound more like Bucket-Brain by the minute.
So why the fuck was he so quiet now?
Could it be that he was really freaked out by all this? Probably.
For all his big talk about doing what was right for mutant kind, I’d bet
my left nut the kid ain’t never seen the inside of a lab, and most certainly
never seen a body at the end of a good torture.
He was in for a rude awakening tonight.
A growl built in my chest, one that I couldn’t contain and
couldn’t help as the towering rows of junk finally parted into 24x24 foot space
and I saw the limp figure in the middle of the room, chained to the floor like
some kind of fuckin’ animal.
“Holy fuck!” The firebug gasped, his hand flying up to cover
his nose and mouth from the stink that could only come from someone who had
lived in their own filth for long period of time. The frail could have been here for weeks,
maybe months. It was too hard to tell
over the smell of shit, sweat, vomit and blood.
“Holy fuck!” He repeated, obviously in shock. Yeah, no shit, kid.
“Shut the fuck up,” I snarled, taking off my coat and
approaching carefully. There was no
telling how the frail would react to my presence and there was no way I was
gonna approach a feral female who had her back to me while she was scared
shitless. “Back up slowly and
leave.”
“But…” he protested, most likely gearing up for one of his
‘but Magneto said’ rants.
“I said leave!” My
voice was a little louder than I intended and it pissed me off further when the
frail jumped. “Leave and tell your
shit-for-brains boss that he and I are gonna have a lengthy discussion after
this. He fuckin’ lied to me and I don’t
appreciate it none.”
“He should have told
me,” I muttered to myself after the pyro-dick left. It was true, I have no doubt that Magnus knew
all along that these FOH son’s-of-bitches were holding a female feral this
whole time, and the bastard didn’t tell me!
She looked so fuckin’ helpless shackled to the floor, naked
and shivering with that fuckin’ dampener collar around her pale neck. I couldn’t see much of what she looked like
other than she was stick skinny and had multi-tone brown hair, but with the
dainty black talons that lined the nail beds of her hands and feet, I’d say
that it was most likely that her mutation was somewhere in the Canine
family. Anything else would be learned
once I rip that fuckin’ collar off her and she woke up.
Feeling a little more confident that she hadn’t growled at
me yet, I crouched low and took a few steps closer. She stiffened, drawing in a deep shuddering
breath and turned her head to look at me with downcast, shamed eyes.
We sat in complete silence for what seemed like forever with
her huddled against that steel floor beam and me crouched down next to
her. I knew that I didn’t have much time
left, the fuckin’ X-Geeks and my brother would be making an appearance soon and
then I’d probably never see her again.
“I ain’t gonna hurt you, frail.” I rumbled softly, or as softly as I was
capable. I was still pretty pissed off
and I had no doubts that she couldn’t sense it, even with that fucked up collar
on.
Taking my chances, I covered the last few feet between us
and covered her shivering, bruised body with my coat. It was the least I could do for one of our
kind. Human frails disgusted me. So did mutant frails. But this frail, she didn’t deserve any of
this.
Her back was ramrod straight as my coat draped across her
back and I watched curiously as she used one dainty clawed hand to pull it
closer, taking a deep pull of the air around her before her eyes angled up to
meet mine.
Damn.
Striking eyes rose up and met mine in a hard gaze, one eye
of golden chocolate, the other the palest sky blue.
I was at a loss. I
had no clue what to say to this shivering mass of skin and bones. What could I say to this beautiful frail with
haunting eyes of sky and chocolate?
Eyes of sky and chocolate?
Fuckin’ goin’ soft,
Creed.
“What’s your name, frail?”
The question slipped out before I could bite my tongue, the words
unbidden but I realized a moment later that it was exactly what I wanted to ask
her.
She parted her chapped lips; lips that I knew would be soft
and petal pink if treated with care, but she looked strained to answer. A pink tongue poked out in an attempted to
coat them with moisture and I fuckin’ kicked myself for the lack of having
anything for her to drink.
She scooted closer, a rumble starting from between her filth
covered breasts. She was purring. She was purring for me.
I didn’t matter in that moment that the X-Geeks were on
their way. It didn’t matter that I could
hear Jimmy howling his way through the warehouse. It didn’t matter that everyone here might
witness this weakness and call me a pussy.
I just didn’t care.
I pulled at the chains binding her to the floor, them giving
easily under the power of my strength before I pulled her as gently as I could
into my arm.
“Dakota.” She whispered, so softly that if not for my
advanced hearing, I doubt I would have fuckin’ heard her.
“What?”
“M-my name is Dakota.”
She murmured again before she finally passed out, snuggled deeply into
my chest.
I had never experienced trust like this before. Even when we were cubs, Jimmy was always wary
of me. My own brother was scared of the
animal that lurked within. But not this
frail, she trusted me to protect her for whatever reason. Call it an instinct, but I think she knew
already, what I was to her. And if she
trusted me to protect her, I damn sure would do it.
Dakota.
