by Tia Wylder
His phone vibrated on the countertop and he looked down at it. He turned to me and I saw the smile fade from his face.
“Listen, Dee, I’m sorry but I have to get going. I had an amazing night with you, though. We should go out again soon.”
He seemed completely out of sorts. “Is everything alright?”
“Yeah, everything’s going to be fine. I’ll call you soon.”
He walked over and gave me a soft and slow kiss.
“Tonight was perfect,” I whispered.
“It was, and it will be the first of many.”
Devin stood up and walked out of the bathroom to get his clothes. It was the last time I would see him for a very long time.
Chapter Four
I spent what seemed like forever thinking about him, wondering how it would be if we actually had the opportunity to be together. That one night, I had a taste of that life. The next day he was gone, and no one, not even his best friend Michael could tell me what happened to him. He simply disappeared off the face of the Earth.
I didn’t know whether to be worried or angry. I wanted to go to the police and file a missing person’s report, but Michael told me not to. He said that Devin was just this kind of person. He was the bad boy that was there one minute and gone the next. He told me I shouldn’t have gotten involved with him. I refused to admit he was right. I got the feeling Michael wasn’t telling me something, but my heart was too broken to care anymore.
For once in my life, I was happy. I wouldn’t have traded that night for the world, but my life was never the same after. The next month after Devin disappeared into thin air, I was late for my time of the month. I had never been late before, and it didn’t take very many online searches to figure out what the problem was.
A pregnancy test confirmed my worst fears. I even bought a few more, just to be safe. I was carrying Devin’s baby and I had no way of telling him. I was utterly terrified, but I refused to turn to my parents, let alone Michael. No, it was time I dealt with life on my terms. Over the next month I went to work applying for all kinds of jobs.
Most never answered because I didn’t have any real-world experience. Then one day I came across a job as a music tutor. Someone in the city was giving up their clients for an undisclosed reason and was looking for someone to replace them. After I applied, I got the call to interview within a few days.
One thing led to another and soon I was taking over as a music tutor in the city. I had to move out from my parent’s house and get an apartment so I could be close to the clients I would be working with. My dad seemed choked up that I was leaving, but my mother couldn’t care less. She always favored Michael anyway. Neither of them knew about the baby growing inside of me. Once I was away from them, I was going to start looking for Devin again. He couldn’t have gone far, and when I found him I would have my answers.
It was lonely in the city, which was ironic given how many people lived there. I didn’t know any of them. The first few visits I did for my tutoring job were fine, mostly kids with rich parents who wanted them to be “cultured” as they put it. After a week of living in the city, I came across a client I didn’t expect.
He was located in the penthouse suite of the city’s finest hotel. I didn’t have a name for him, only a location. When I got there I stood at the door with a crumpled piece of paper that had the address scrawled on it. The front desk called up to the suite to make sure I wasn’t intruding. It was all very hush-hush.
The door swung open and a towering Russian man stood over me. I couldn’t believe it, but it was Dmitri Mikhailov, my father’s friend and an acquaintance of mine. He seemed just as shocked as I was to see him.
“Mr. Mikhailov?”
He laughed. “So it is you then? You are the new music tutor? Fate does indeed have a sense of humor.”
“I didn’t know you played,” I said.
He nodded. “Many do not. I have been trying to learn the piano for years now. These Russian fingers lack a certain finesse that I am trying to teach myself.”
I found it remarkable how he could be simultaneously intimidating and inviting. I never knew what he was really thinking.
“Come in, Deandra I pay you by the hour, do I not?” he asked.
I stepped inside and saw two large men standing on either side of the door. They were dressed in suits and ties. Dmitri waved at them.
“Leave us,” he said.
The two men immediately departed, leaving Mr. Mikhailov and myself alone in the spacious penthouse.
“Are they your bodyguards?” I asked.
“Yes. When you’re a billionaire in my line of work, competition is, shall we say, ruthless.”
“Oh, I had no idea. So, you’ll have to refresh me, the previous tutor didn’t have much information on your current grasp of piano. If you don’t mind, I’d like to see you play for a while today so I can get a grasp of where you stand, Mr. Mikhailov.”
He smiled and placed his massive hand on my shoulder.
“Please, call me Dmitri.”
I turned away from his cold steel eyes as I felt myself blushing. I couldn’t lie to myself, I liked the way he looked at me. He led me through the luscious penthouse suite and over to an absolutely stunning grand piano. He sat down on the bench and gingerly placed his hands onto the shining ivory keys.
“Any requests?” he asked.
“Anything you feel comfortable playing,” I said.
He immediately moved into an exquisite rendition of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata. His fingers, though large and muscular, moved with a finesse and grace I had hardly expected. I walked around behind him as the somber notes filled the massive living room. His posture was great, his form was correct, and his tempo fit the mood of the piece perfectly.
Several minutes into the first movement, I began to seriously wonder why he needed a tutor at all.
“Okay, let’s try something with a little more tempo,” I said.
Dmitri stopped for only a moment before his fingers returned to the keys. He immediately fell into a gorgeous rendition of Frederic Chopin’s Etude Opus 25. The rapid notes flew by under his fingers. He was masterful, I ventured to think that perhaps he would best me in a competition of sheer speed and accuracy.
“Very good, that’s enough for now,” I said.
Dmitri stopped and turned to face me on the piano bench with a look of satisfaction on his face.
“Well, what did you think?” he asked.
“I think there’s nothing I could teach you that you don’t already know. You’re clearly a very talented player.”
Dmitri smiled and stood to his feet. He walked over to me with a confidence in his step that had my heart racing. I didn’t know what he would do next. One of his hands reached down and took mine and he looked deep into my eyes with his cold yet fiery gaze.
“I have seen you mature into a beautiful woman, Deandra, and I know of your musical talents. It is no accident that you came here today. I do not leave my life in the hands of fate. I have brought you here to ask a question of you.”
I could barely form words. “What is it?”
“I want to you to teach me your music. Not the music of long deceased prodigies, but the one standing before me. I have heard you play and it is the only music that truly speaks to my soul and makes me feel human. Please Deandra, I will do anything to know your melodies.”
I was flattered to say the least. Although I had never written down anything I created, all it took was a memory and an emotion to bring them back.
“Well, I wasn’t expecting this, Dmitri. I’ve never written down my music before, but I remember all of it. I suppose I can teach you some of my songs, if that’s what you would like. I’ve never shown anyone how to play them before, so you’ll have to forgive me if I come across as rusty.”
Dmitri stoic face exploded with happiness. This was a side of him I had never seen before. As we sat beside each other on the piano bench, I felt like I was his equal for the first time si
nce I had met him. It didn’t matter that he was an older man, we had common ground to stand on and a shared passion for music.
Chapter Five
Devin
Life for me has always had a tendency to give me something I’ve always wanted, and then take it away. I wanted a normal life and a normal family. I had one for a time, but then I was taken from them. I was also a star football player, but even that was taken from me. I had one perfect night with a woman I’ve loved almost all my life, and life took her as well.
Dmitri Mikhailov, Russian mafia boss and billionaire businessman, he was at the root of everything. That night that I left Dee lying in the bathtub, I had received a text from Michael. Dmitri’s goons were back for blood. I couldn’t tell Dee what was happening, so I left.
I arrived at the place Michael specified in his text. It was the parking lot of an abandoned warehouse building. My suspicion was piqued the moment I arrived at the address. I locked the car doors and tried to call him. As the line was ringing, I saw Dmitri’s men emerged from the shadows on all sides. They opened fire almost immediately. I ducked as glass soared through the air and bullets pierced the thin metal of my car.
I unlocked the door and fell out as my body began to shift. I was convinced I would never find out where this power came from, but it had come in handy more than a few times in my life. The shift happened fast, fueled by pure adrenaline as I hit the asphalt. In my gorilla form, their words sounded distant and garbled. I charged toward one of them and felt something hit me in my side.
It wasn’t a bullet, more like a dart. My vision started swimming almost immediately after it hit. The gunfire stopped and my legs fell out from under me. The men started approaching from all sides. I swung out with my fists and knocked a few off their feet. The other retaliated by hitting me with another dart. My vision was fading and there was nothing I could do to stop it. All I could think about was what Dee would think if I disappeared on her.
When I woke up, I was in a cage. Somehow I had remained in my gorilla form. I charged toward the rusted bars and hit them with full force. The sound echoed through the darkness surrounding me. I heard a door slam from my right. The darkness was illuminated by fluorescent lights that temporarily blinded me.
I fell back into the cage as I took in the scene around me. There were other cages lined up around me, going in either direction. All of them were filled with gorillas like myself. They thrashed and roared as the light woke them from their slumbers. A scrawny man dressed in a lab coat strolled down the path between the cages. He didn’t even flinch as they lashed out at him and roared through the bars.
He stopped at my cage and adjusted the thin rimmed glasses on his face.
“How long has it been, Devin? Twenty years? You probably don’t remember me, but I made you. You managed to get away once, but it won’t happened again.”
I turned around as the wall behind my cage slid open, revealing a vent large enough for me to climb through.
“Go on, we have a lot of work to do,” the scientist said.
I had no choice but to listen to him. I tried to shift back into my human form, but I couldn’t. It was as if I had been somehow altered to stay in this form. My human mind was panicking, but my gorilla mind was working on pure instinct. I emerged from the vent into a large enclosure that looked like an indoor zoo exhibit. It had a large tree in the center and several tires tied to ropes that swung from the branches.
An intercom above me crackled to life.
“Today’s round of testing is about to begin. You’ve been in your human form for far too long, so I’ve given you a dose of the shifter serum so you will stay in your animal form. You may not know this, but the longer you stay in your animal form, the more of your humanity you lose. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure you shift back before that happens. Now, start by climbing to the top of the tree.”
I turned and looked at the tree in the center of the room. The gorilla in me wanted to obey, if only to avoid pain, but I wasn’t about to become this madman’s puppet.
“Resistance isn’t advised,” the intercom said.
The metal floor beneath my feet surged with electricity. It shot through me like molten lava in my veins. The gorilla mind took over and I scaled the tree with ease.
“There we are, now was that so hard? It looks like your physical dexterity hasn’t suffered too much. That’s good. Now, let’s see how you deal with your fellow shifters.”
All around me I saw vents open on the ground. Other gorillas poured out onto the ground below. They were thumping their chests and roaring up at me in the tree.
“They don’t seem to like you. Normally I would advise communicating, but that’s going to be hard to do when you’re not a gorilla like they are.”
I heard the soft blast of a silenced rifle and saw a dart hit my arm. I suddenly lost control of my form and started shifting back. I fell down through the tree mid-transformation and hit the ground hard as the gorillas gathered around me.
I couldn’t speak as the wind was knocked out of me. The gorillas eyed me with an intense curiosity. I couldn’t tell if they wanted to help me or hurt me.
“You’ll find that these other shifters are incredibly good at listening to orders. For example: kill him!”
The gorillas leapt forward and I climbed to my feet. I was thrashed about by massive bodies and black fur. I furiously tried to push my way through, but I felt their hands wrapping around me. Before they could deal with the finishing blow, a loud piercing siren cut through the noise. They instantly dropped me and retreated back into the vents they had come out of.
I heard the scientist laughing on the intercom.
“Ah yes, that was fun!” Now, back to your cage!” he shouted.
The days went by like this until they turned into months. I didn’t know how long I had been there. One day, after an eternity of torture that they called “tests,” I finally saw someone besides the scientist who had been the bane of my existence. He told me I was coming with him to see the boss.
They blindfolded me and drove to some fancy penthouse suite before they took the blindfold off. When they led me into the room, the lights were off. They came on almost unceremoniously and my jaw dropped.
Sitting in the center of the room, dressed in black lingerie, was Dee. Standing beside her, dressed in nothing but a velvet robe, was the Russian mob boss Dmitri Mikhailov.
“Devin,” he said, “You’re right on time.
Chapter Six
Deandra
After I had the baby, Dmitri was always there for me. I could tell he was falling for me, and despite the age difference, I was falling for him a well. I knew what it looked like, but I wasn’t just falling for him because he was a billionaire. It went beyond an older man, young woman romance. He had a soft side to him that I liked. Truth be told, without his help I wouldn’t have been able to afford the hospital bills, let alone the other costs of a baby.
One night he sent me a package while I was at work and when I opened it, I found a note:
This is just a preview. I have a surprise for you tonight.
Inside the box was lingerie with black lace. It was certainly sexy, but I didn’t know what he meant by a surprise. That night, when he sat me down in a chair facing the front door, I didn’t expect Devin to walk through that door.
I didn’t know what to say, and clearly he didn’t either.
“I realize this is a bit of a shock for both of you, so allow me to explain,” Dmitri said.
Dmitri waved to the bodyguards at the front door and they left.
“Come on in, Devin,” I’m sure you're anxious to see Deandra.”
“Dmitri, what’s going on here?” I asked.
Dmitri rolled his head back and forth as if creating an explanation in his mind.
“A long time ago, your father borrowed a lot of money from me. He wanted to send your brother, Michael, to college. Unfortunately, he has become late in making his payments.”
My heart
was racing. “Are you serious? What kind of businessman are you?”
Dmitri smiled. “The illegitimate kind. I report directly to the highest levels of the Russian mafia. I suppose you could say I am their ambassador here in the United States.”
“I can’t believe this! I’m leaving,” I said.
I tried to stand up but Dmitri pushed me back into the chair.
“Before you leave, Deandra I believe you should hear my proposition. You see, I have been unable to get you out of my mind for many years now. I have this fantasy, where I ravage you, but I alone am not enough to fully satisfy your needs. A woman of your exquisite form cannot be satisfied by any single man. So, I have brought Devin, your first love, to join us in these revels. If you agree to help fulfill this fantasy of a menage romance, and do as I say, I will let you and Devin leave here alive.”
“And if I refuse?” I asked.
“Well, you’ll never see Devin again, that much I can promise you. Come now, Deandra, it’s one glorious night of primal lust, and then you can be together.”
I looked over to Devin who was still in shock.
“He never left me then?” I asked.
Dimitri shook his head. “No, he was otherwise indisposed until tonight's events.”
I looked back to him. I was furious and I felt betrayed, but there was something deep inside me that wanted this, if only just to satisfy my carnal urges. Besides, if it meant a way out and a way to be with Devin, I had to take it.
“Alright, I’ll do it,” I said.
Dmitri clapped his hands together and looked over to Devin.
“I assume you’re in as well?”
Devin nodded slowly, but I saw rage in his eyes.
“Excellent, let us begin!”
Dmitri took my hand and pulled me to my feet. He spun me in a slow circle and looked at me from head-to-toe. He led me over to the bed and laid me across the silk sheets. His leaned forward and dragged his tongue across my thigh and traced a path to the crotchless panties I was wearing.