Human? That had not been the first time that the people here had referred to him in that way. Tobias didn’t understand it. It was almost like they were suggesting…he shook his head and placed his palms against the cool wood. He was already too full of fantastic ideas to let more in, too consumed by curiosity about this place. It would do him no good at all to allow that curiosity to grow.
Because you’re leaving.
He dropped his hands, the bargain with the Beast suddenly uppermost in his mind. Perhaps the ‘complication’ as they referred to it was why the Beast had been so willing to bargain with him.
Sex for your freedom.
Tobias shivered, because it did not feel like that anymore.
“Take care of it, brother,” he heard Gregovitch say. “For our sake as much as yours.”
“I will,” the Beast said. “I will.”
Chapter Twelve
A half hour later Tobias sat opposite the Beast in one of the rooms next to the bedroom. This room was part sitting room, part dining room, and Tobias had looked around it with wide-eyes. The more he saw of this underground world, the more he began to realize just how homely it was. This was no awful place below the ground where the people were hidden away in tunnels, lacking the basics that made life comfortable. This was a real place. It had everything that those above ground had, including electricity and plumbing…and food.
The moment he saw it all, laid out on a large table, waiting for him, Tobias couldn’t help but take a seat and fill his plate. The Beast watched him with hooded eyes, a sort of approving look there.
Tobias ate quickly, his appetite coming out of nowhere. And it was odd because physically, he was a weird combination of satisfaction and nervousness, but the physical was one thing, the emotional something else entirely. Tobias had no idea what he was feeling. As he ate what the Beast had provided for him he couldn’t even begin to work through his emotions. Everything had happened so quickly, it almost seemed to him like many days had passed rather than the small amount of time he’d actually experienced. Tobias didn’t know how long he’d actually been below ground, but he didn’t think it could have been more than twenty-four hours. And yet…
He looked across the table, locked eyes with the Beast, and swallowed.
“Is everything okay?” the Beast asked. “I wasn’t sure what you would like.”
“It’s all fine,” Tobias said. “Though I have no idea where you got it all from. I mean, you can hardly raise chickens down here.”
The Beast smiled slightly. “You’d be surprised.”
Silence settled between them for a moment. Tobias forked the food around on his plate. As he did so he couldn’t help thinking again about this strange society and what it all meant. How was it no one knew about them? How was it that they could stay so hidden? He wanted to ask but part of him wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to know the answers.
“How are you feeling, Tobias?” the Beast eventually asked.
Tobias had no idea what to say to that question, and again there was that nagging thought that the Beast knew what he was thinking. There was also a feeling that there was more to the Beast’s question than a simple query about his emotional state.
“I’m fine,” Tobias said.
“You’re not fine,” the Beast said. “Much has happened in these past hours, and none of it expected.”
“No,” Tobias agreed. “It wasn’t.”
The Beast nodded slowly. Tobias watched him, thinking, this man has been inside me. It was the oddest thought, and not one he’d ever had to experience in this way before, and it made him feel things he hadn’t experienced before either. The Beast was so attractive—his hair, his body, those eyes. Tobias was ridiculously attracted to him, and in the context of their relationship he knew that made no sense. Once again, he found himself wondering if there was something here, in this place, that was making him act in a way that he never would have had he been above ground. And yet, even as he did, he knew that he was probably lying to himself. He had reacted to the Beast simply because the Beast was the most attractive male Tobias had ever met. The connection between them had been instant.
Desire.
There was no denying it. Not now.
“I feel a little…odd,” Tobias admitted.
“I understand,” the Beast said. “What happened between us…” He paused. “It was intense.”
“Yes.”
“In truth, even I did not expect it to be that intense.”
Tobias frowned at that statement, and at the look now in the Beast’s eyes. He thought it was surprise, maybe even a little bit of worry, and had no idea what to make of that. The fragments of conversation between the Beast and his brother flittered through Tobias’ mind. He wished he knew what they were talking about. He wished he knew what to make of it all. Only, he didn’t. And like with the stained glass window in his building he hated not knowing. Curiosity was his worst enemy right now, and Tobias knew he had to subdue it.
“I don’t know what to say,” Tobias whispered after a moment.
“You do not need to say anything,” the Beast said. “It may even be better if you don’t. Perhaps we both need time to think about what has happened between us.”
“Time?” Tobias asked.
The Beast nodded. “And I will keep my promise.”
Promise? Tobias swallowed the sudden lump in his throat.
“If you wish to leave,” the Beast added, and his voice was soft now, “you may.”
“You’re letting me go?” Tobias asked.
The Beast tilted his head, as if gauging the effect of his words. “I promised, did I not?”
“You said you would consider it,” Tobias said, and then cursed himself inwardly, because why was he trying to argue against the very thing he wanted? Only, that was last night, and today he was so fucking confused. He didn’t even know what he wanted now. He imagined his cliff-top apartment. Imagined how it would feel to be back there. To pretend this had never happened…
“If you pleased me,” the Beast added, interrupting Tobias’ frantic thoughts. “And you did. Far more than I expected.”
“So it’s as simple as that?”
The Beast nodded and then he stood up, pushing his chair back as he did so. “Yes, Tobias.”
Tobias should have stood too. He should have been thrilled that the Beast was keeping his promise. Hell, he should have been running from the room. Only something kept him in place. He reached up, almost absently, and rubbed the spot where the Beast had sunk his teeth in. It tingled oddly.
“I don’t understand any of this.”
“No,” the Beast said. “But you will. Give it a little time.”
Time. That word again. What did it mean, Tobias wondered? What did any of it mean? That this was just a quick fuck? A one-night stand? A brief encounter in his life? The Beast nothing more than a fleeting presence? Tobias hated that thought, because he was not the sort of man who had quick flings. Sure, he had in the past but they had never sat right with him, and he had always regretted them after the fact. He always wanted more than that. He wanted someone to come home to. Someone to watch his true crime shows with. Someone to jog alongside of him first thing in the morning.
In short, he wanted what he would never be able to have with this man.
“And you’re not worried that I’m going to tell anyone about this place?” he asked slowly.
Their eyes met, the Beast smiled, and Tobias melted a little inside. “We both know you aren’t going to speak to anyone,” he said. “You aren’t even sure what you would say.”
“Sometimes…”
“What?”
Tobias shook his head. “It’s like you’re reading my mind.”
“Not quite.”
Silence held between them for a moment. Their eyes stayed locked together, and it occurred to Tobias that the Beast’s eyes were something that were going to stay with him long after he left this place. He doubted he would ever see a pair that color again.
“Tobias,” the Beast sighed. “If you only knew how you have complicated things…” He shook his head. “It is time for you to leave.”
Tobias stood up. His legs felt almost leaden and his heart pounded. Once again that spot on his neck tingled. “I don’t even know the way out.”
“I will ask one of my men to accompany you.”
“So I’m okay to wander around now?” he asked.
The Beast sighed. “No one will hurt you. Not now.”
“You’re sure about that?”
“Positive.”
The door opened then, almost like there had been someone outside waiting for this moment. Almost like they knew it was going to happen right now. And of course, like everyone else, they were yellow-eyed and tawny haired.
“And so here we are,” the Beast said, and he walked around the table and stood directly in front of Tobias.
Tobias had absolutely no idea what to say. He had never been in a situation even close to this. He didn’t know what the right thing was, or how he was supposed to act. In the end, because he was such a riot of feelings, such a mess, he simply nodded at the Beast. “I guess so.” And then, because what else was he supposed to do? Tobias held out his hand. “Goodbye.”
The Beast sighed again. “It’s never goodbye, Tobias.”
Tobias paused, the weird leaden feeling melting slightly. “What does that mean?”
The Beast tilted his head, considering, and when he spoke Tobias’ heart skipped a beat. “It means that we will see each other again.”
“You’re planning to abduct me again? To drag me back down here?” Tobias asked, and the weird thing, the thing that made absolutely no sense, was that he almost wanted the Beast to say yes! What the hell was wrong with him?
“Absolutely not,” the Beast said and his next words had Tobias’ heart racing. “I won’t need to.”
“What are you talking about?”
The Beast hesitated for just a moment and then he pulled Tobias into his arms. Tobias felt his body melt towards his lover. He had no choice in that. It simply happened. “Before long, Tobias,” he said, and his voice held such promise. “You will come to me.”
“That won’t happen,” Tobias said, but if the Beast’s voice held conviction, his held none.
“It will,” he said, a pause and then, “And believe me, lover, it will be sooner than you think.”
Chapter Thirteen
Tobias didn’t need any alarms to wake him the following Saturday. Just as he had every morning since arriving back above ground, he awoke just before six, and unlike all the other mornings before his underground adventure, he woke up in an instant. There was no struggling to consciousness. No groaning and wishing for an extra half hour in bed. He was simply and instantly alert—ready to start his day.
That worried Tobias. It had all week, and he couldn’t help but look across at his row of alarm clocks on the bedside table. They were all silent, all standing sentinel, until a few moments later when they started to go off.
His wake-up call.
Only he hadn’t needed it.
And he had no idea why.
With a frown on his face, Tobias made his way out of bed, ran a hand through his hair, and pulled on a pair of sweats. They were slightly tighter than they had been a few weeks back and yet the scales continued to show his weight exactly where he wanted it to be. It was perplexing, maybe wouldn’t even have been something anyone else would notice. But so much of Tobias’ life over the last year had been centered around this sort of thing, that he did notice it, and was concerned. There shouldn’t be any reason his sweats were tight. And yet they were. His body was different somehow.
A shift.
A change.
It made no sense. But then, little had since him.
Since the Beast.
Tobias shuddered at that thought, because the Beast had been on his mind far too often over the past week. But then was that any wonder, Tobias thought almost angrily as he pulled on a tee-shirt. After everything that had happened, after everything he had experienced, of course he was going to be shook up. Of course he was going to replay everything over and over. Question was, how long until he stopped doing that? How long until he stopped remembering that night, until he stopped dreaming about it…
Tobias groaned as the memories started all over again. One after the other they raced through his mind, and for some reason they were the good memories, the time in bed together, the morning after, the way the Beast smiled at him. The bad memories were less intense, being half-terrified as he was shackled to the bed, anxious that he was about to become a horrifying crime statistic. Those memories were beginning to dim.
That too worried Tobias.
He was rose-tinting everything, and he watched enough true crime to know that was a bad sign. That perhaps he was beginning to sympathize with his abductors, to convince himself that what had happened to him was okay. And it wasn’t. He should never have ended up below ground…tempted into the clutches of the Beast…doing things he could never have imagined…
He shook his head, and, in an effort to get a-hold of himself, made his way into the kitchen. It had always been Tobias’ favorite room in the apartment, but today he barely noticed the bright appliances, or the comfy couch pushed up against the wall. He opened the fridge almost automatically and poured himself a glass of orange juice before taking a seat at the counter. The arched window which ran through the entire open plan living area gave him a glorious view of the bay below, and as he looked on it, Tobias tried to immerse himself in the view, to not let the Beast back into his thoughts.
It was a futile attempt.
If he closed his eyes he could see him, naked, muscled, his hands reaching out, a smile on his lips, desire darkening his eyes…
If he closed his eyes a bit tighter, Tobias could almost imagine what it had felt like to be touched by those hands. How he had shuddered as the Beast kneaded his flesh, stroked across his skin, licked along his cock…
Tobias did not close his eyes.
“You have to stop this,” he hissed. “It’s over.”
And he knew that, because one thing Tobias had done this week—apart from working out constantly to try to get rid of all the excess energy he seemed to have—was to replay every single moment of their time together. Many things about that time took on a new meaning now, and Tobias reached out to pick up the list that he had left on the counter. He had made it the first night he had returned to his apartment. That return had been weird, almost surreal, and the list had been his way of trying to work through the confusion that had filled him. Since then it had served another purpose.
To understand.
He read down the bulleted list now, picking off item after item, considering them and trying to piece together what it all meant, almost like a jigsaw puzzle that had no guiding picture…
You ended up underground because one of the females tried to escape.
You don’t know why.
Karl took you because he worried that you had seen something you shouldn’t…only you didn’t. You would have been oblivious to everything if you’d just been left where you were, knocked out on the red-carpeted floor.
The Beast rules below ground. That much is clear from the way the other males reacted to him.
But the community here, below you, is one of many. Does the Beast rule there too?
What is the community? Why is it hidden? Why does no one know about it? Why do they all have yellow eyes?
No one who enters the community ever leaves…except you. Why are you the exception? Because you pleasured the Beast?
Why did the Beast say you would return..?
Tobias frowned and dropped the list back on the counter, that last question nagging at him the same way it had all week. No matter how many times he read it, no matter how many times he tried to understand it, he couldn’t. And now, so many days later, the whole experience was taking on almost a dreamlike air. Almost as if it had never really happen
ed.
Except it did.
If he just closed his eyes…
He shot up, suddenly restless, his muscles twitching, his head spinning. The view of the bay beckoned him now, and Tobias knew that he needed to be out there, in the fresh air, trying to run off these feelings, trying to get back to himself. It was what he’d been doing all week after all. It was the only thing that helped.
He drank his orange juice in one quick gulp and jumped up. His sneakers were under the dining table so he bent down to retrieve them. What else did he need? His key. He grabbed that too, bent down to tie his shoelaces, looping the key around one as he did so.
A few moments later and he was running down the stairs, across the lobby, and outside of the door. The wind hit him the moment he stepped out, but it felt good. It was cold, harsh, the moisture in the air stinging ever so slightly.
He broke into a jog, and usually would have taken the route that led inland. It snaked along the hillside before meeting a trail that would lead down into the valley proper. But today Tobias didn’t want to do that. Instead he headed towards the water, and even from this distance he swore he could hear the sound of the beating waves.
Tobias ran fast, not even giving himself time to warm up. The Beast was in his thoughts with each step he took. Almost like he was running with him. His firm hands, his yellow eyes, his thick cock…
Tobias ran faster.
The Beast remained.
He pumped his arms, dug his feet into the ground, and before he knew it he was skidding to a halt next to the very edge of the cliff. But it wasn’t enough, and so Tobias took a sharp turn and followed the cliff-edge along. He had no idea how long he ran for, but it was many, many miles, and took many, many hours. He stopped only when he reached the other side of the valley, and the moment he did he realized what his body had been trying to tell him the entire week.
His heart was not beating any faster than when he had started out. His lungs weren’t aching at all. Not a single bead of sweat decorated his body. It was almost like he hadn’t run at all. It was almost like he was still sitting in his apartment, relaxed and calm. Like nothing had changed.
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