by Sophia Wilde
She just sat there, barely breathing, while he was dressing the wound on her shoulder. What was she gonna do? A werewolf? For real? He must have been pulling her leg. Please, let him tell her he was just joking. She kept waiting for those words, but they never came. He was dead serious.
No. She wasn't giving up just yet. She was going to look straight into that full moon and let it know that it had no power over her. Just you wait and see.
Robert kept telling her that everything will be okay as long as she didn't leave the mansion. Once they were turned, they wouldn't be able to get out. Their paws were too big to unlock the heavy metal bars. This time, he made sure of that. So he showed her to her room, closed her in, and left.
After a while, she could see the night creeping over the outside world through the bars that separated her from it. Werewolves didn't exist, and she was gonna prove it! Where is the damn key to the door to the balcony? Finally, she found it in a drawer. She got out and waited.
Next thing she knew, she was running over the fields. Great, another dream. The full moon was following her. The beast's breathing louder than ever. But she would keep running. Through the fields, into the town, through the screams of terrified people. The police station, she had to get there. Wait, what are they doing with their guns pointed at her? No, she tried to scream, but all that came out were indistinct growls. She felt a sharp pain, and then her body hit the ground. Damn werewolves.
The next day's newspaper had her picture on the front page. Along with a story about a werewolf who had done a lot of harm to a small town far, far away. Luckily, the police officers were ready for it. The beast would never bother them again. Robert Gray sighed as he threw the newspaper down on the table in front of him.
"I really am sorry, you know." – he said, to nobody in particular.
He knew that things were about to change, in a very big way...
Volume Two – Taming the Beast
"I said I'm sorry, and I know this is a lot to process, but enough is enough, young lady!" – the voice of Robert Gray was piercing its way through a catatonic state Cindy appeared to have fallen into – "Come on, get up, your coffee is getting cold."
Cindy looked up at him from the leather sofa in the Gray mansion's library. She was still sitting there, naked, under a warm blanket someone else must have wrapped her into, because she had no memory of doing it herself. She must have sat here, in this exact position, all night long. It sure felt like it, she thought as she was trying to move her legs. Looking around, she slowly started remembering everything. Well, most of everything. She remembered following Gray around and getting nowhere. She remembered being invited to join him for a lemonade by his posh butler. She remembered having sex with him in the same library she had been sitting, and then something about him being a werewolf.
He was a werewolf. A real live werewolf. And she had sex with him last night. She let this information sink in for a while. Then she jumped up, looking over her skin in panic for any wounds on her body, deliriously repeating to herself:
"He bit me. He bit me. He bit me." – she sounded like a maniac.
This is when young Robert approached her, grabbed her by the shoulders and asked gently, "What the hell is wrong with you?" – he was almost laughing.
"You bit me, you son of a bitch, and now I'm a monster too!" – Cindy screamed at him, tears rushing down her face.
"No. I didn't." – he said in a voice one might use to calm a child or a small animal.
It didn't help. She kept checking her skin for any marks. A naked lunatic, chasing her own tail in the middle of his library. Robert must have been glad he had invited her in. Only when she didn't find anything did she stop freaking out.
"Calm down, Cindy. You've had a bad dream. That's all." – Gray took another shot at it.
So she started thinking back. It was all a dream? All of it? It didn't feel like one. These damn nightmares kept getting more and more realistic each time she had them. Maybe she should seriously consider seeking professional help. This damn assignment was getting to her. And now she, a person who had always managed to find a very logical and down-to-earth explanation for everything, was sitting there, with someone she believed to be a fucking werewolf just a few feet away from her. How could this be? Werewolves don't fucking exist, everybody fucking knows that! She started panicking again, so she decided that she must have dreamed that too.
Now she could breathe more freely. It was all just one of her freakish dreams, that's all. One of her regular nightmares. Bobby Gray was probably as much a werewolf as she was. All was right with the world. Still, she had to ask him. There was something about that dream she just couldn't let go. So she told him all about it, and watched his face sink as he was listening to her.
"I didn't bite you, so you don't have to worry about that. As you can see, you are alive, so no, the police didn't shoot you. But, as far as werewolves go... yes, I am afraid that part was not a dream."
Cindy's mouth fell open, and she felt as if she was going to fall into another one of her comatose dreams. This time, though, she got a grip on herself before that could happen. He must have been joking. Come on, man, please, tell me you're joking! She was screaming on the inside while trying so hard to remain calm.
"And what about the story? The one about the soldier and the Gypsy? Was that true as well?" – she stuttered out.
"Yes. All of it." – the flatness of his voice was pretty scary, but the journalist in Cindy saw a great headline in this, so she kept digging:
"So you've been a werewolf all your life?" – she might have been completely naked, but her inner journalist was all dressed up, with a tape recorder, a pad and a pen, working full speed, and the article was going to be done in no time.
"Can this wait? Please?" – the werewolf asked, looking at her with his puppy eyes, and Cindy backed off. It was clear that he didn't want to talk about it right now, and the tone of his voice made her feel ashamed of herself. In this business it was sometimes difficult to remember that the people being interviewed have feelings too, and that sometimes, if getting a story meant hurting someone, maybe it just wasn't worth it.
"Get dressed. I'll be in the garden. Breakfast is waiting." – he said and walked out of the library, leaving her all alone. She was trying to sort so many things out in that mess of her head. Here he was, a wild animal that had brutally murdered some of the local people just a few weeks ago, and she was worried about hurting HIS feelings? It was insane! Anyway, if he didn't really want to talk about it, he wouldn't have said anything in the first place. But he did, didn't he? He told his secret to someone he had only just met. Surely, he wasn't expecting to leave it at that. Boom! I'm a werewolf! No more questions, please? No way. Feeling that she had to get to the bottom of this, Cindy got dressed and went out into the garden, where breakfast was waiting for her, while Robert Gray was sitting there, calmly reading the newspaper.
Deja vu, she thought, as she peeked under his hands to see the headline. Phew, nothing about a werewoman being shot. Dream and reality were still fighting somewhere deep inside of her, and she felt that she had to question everything. She would keep it all to herself until she was sure of her sanity.
They sat there in silence, until she had finished her coffee. That is when Robert started talking. He knew that she expected an explanation. He never expected for her to accept what he had already told her as fact without asking any additional questions. It was, after all, a lot to swallow. Not wanting to speak to the auto-piloted reporter, he wanted to wait until she was completely awake. Now she was to follow him back into the library, where she would sit and listen until he had finished his story. Just listen, without trying to make a story out of it. Later, if she still wanted to expose him, he promised not to do absolutely anything to stop her.
Yeah, right. A man of such stature would let himself be exposed for a homicidal animal without putting up a fight? She would have been fired before the ink dried. Fired, at best. Yet, for some reason she
wasn't afraid of him at all. She had seen pictures of what he had done, but looking into this man's eyes, she saw nothing at all terrifying. She caught herself wanting his to have a damn good explanation for everything. Fine. Okay, pal, let's hear it.
Cindy put down her cup and followed Gray back into the library. When she got there, he was standing in the section of the room dedicated to books on werewolves. He walked over to her and offered her a seat.
For a while, they sat there in silence. Not an uncomfortable one. The silence felt natural. Even necessary. They both knew the subject at hand was a complicated one, and it took time to put all the pieces together. So she decided to give him all the time he needed. Obviously, he had never shared this with anyone else. Looking at his pale face, she felt a deep sadness. It must be very hard for him. Leading a double life. Living in fear of his own self. Good and evil, wrapped up in such a handsome package. He was right, for this kind of thing she would have to leave the journalist part of her person at the door. She was going to give him exactly what he asked for.
Cindy was sitting in front of a monster. Her heart filled with a strange sense of compassion. Her mind wide open. Ready for anything he was about to lay on her. And right at that moment, her cell phone started ringing.
It was Helen. Damn. Cindy didn't call her in a while, and she was probably wondering what was taking so long. Taking a deep breath, Cindy excused herself to Gray and allowed herself to roam among the shelves of the library so that she could speak to her boss without looking at Robert's smug eyes as she was telling her that nothing at all interesting had happened yet. As she was listening to herself blatantly lie to Helen, she honestly couldn't think of a reason for why the hell was she doing this. Was she really willing to risk her job and entire carrier just to protect a man she has had sex with once? Was it really that good? She smiled to herself. Apparently so.
So she explained to Helen that she had nothing to go on just yet. As a good and thorough reporter that she was, she would stay in the little hick town until she was completely sure that there was nothing to report about. What a load of bull. But Helen seemed to buy it.
When she got back to Robert, there was a shadow of a smile on his face. He must have heard what she said. It didn't matter if she did this out of fear. For whatever reason, she didn't give him up when she had the chance, so at least for now, he was safe. He was going to get his chance to prove his case after all.
Sitting quietly in front of his desk once again, Cindy waited patiently for him to start speaking. She caught herself carefully observing every single one of his movements. The blinking of his eyes. The gentle nervous tapping of his fingers on the smooth surface of his desk. And now, something was changing. He took a deep breath and she could tell that he was about to break the silence. Finally.
She was right. The high and mighty master Robert Gray was about to bare his soul in front of her. Suck it, barbie doll princesses he used to date, a commoner got through! She could hardly manage to hold back her excitement. The story of an era, and the fact that she could never ever repeat it to anyone didn't bother her at all.
As she already knew, his entire family was cursed by an old Gypsy woman. For hundreds of years they have been paying for mistakes of a hot-headed young soldier who couldn't keep his dick in his pants. In every generation, there was only one male descendant, and he would carry on the curse. Transferring it to his son, who would then transfer it to his son, and so on. The curse wouldn't kick in right away. It would wait for the little boy to grow into a man. It would wait for him to start lusting for something he could never have. At that moment, the age of childhood would be over and the wolf would take over. For three nights every month. For as long as there is a full moon to howl at. For as long as there is a Gray with a single drop of the unfortunate soldier's blood in his veins on this planet.
Even though right now it looked as though the curse, along with the line of the Grays was going to end with Robert. He had absolutely no interest in settling down and having children. Especially when he knew what kind of a life awaited them. He wasn't about to let himself be chained down to a little house with a white fence. Not when there is an entire world left to conquer out there. Not when the women in it kept getting easier and more beautiful by the hour. Cindy started rolling her eyes. Men.
Robert realized what kind of an image statements like this portrayed, so he stopped for a while to explain more carefully what he meant. He had to stop playing the big bad wolf. It was difficult, because the role fit him so perfectly. For some reason, he didn't want Cindy to think of him just as a playboy, when he, in fact, would gladly be much more than that. Except that making a commitment to a woman seemed to be the only thing in the whole wide world he could not afford to do.
To fall in love with a woman. To plan an entire life together. To have a child. A son. While knowing full well that one day, the child would grow up to be a monster just like him, and, if it were to have even a shred of conscience, hate itself for it, just like he does. That is why he only dated shallow women, pretty little shells of a human being, who had absolutely nothing in them that was worth holding on to. The only one he valued among them was the one sitting in front of him right now.
This left Cindy speechless. So he was a big softy deep down after all. She could feel the tears filling her eyes. None of this was his fault. And yet, he was spending his entire adult life paying for someone else's mistakes. That sucked big time. A warmness was spreading through her while she was listening to this poor man tell her his story. She felt a strong urge to hug him. To protect him. To hide him from the world. She was a big softy too.
She had to stop herself from interrupting him with her emotional outbursts. Shut up, woman. Pull yourself together and let him speak. So she focused really hard on his words, shutting out her feelings as best she could. He was still talking about the women he dated. His face was blank. It showed no emotions whatsoever. No remorse for using them, because he knew well that they were using him too. One date with him could make a girl famous. He wasn't breaking any hearts. They knew damn well what they were getting themselves into. An exchange of services. That's what it was.
It was not just that he enjoyed his promiscuity, it was that he needed it. It was somehow built into the nature of the beast. He couldn't really stop himself. That was another one of the reasons for why he could never settle down. Unlike his ancestors, he didn't want to betray someone he had vowed to be faithful to his entire life with countless mistresses. Which he would have had to do, sooner or later. He was sure of that.
Much like the rest of the hairy men on the planet, werewolves had an increased level of testosterone, which made their sex drive too high for any one woman to keep up with on her own. According to the previous night, Cindy was holding up pretty well, though. And he was very much interested in how long she would be able to keep it up. He was smiling now, while the eyes of a hungry wolf devoured her entire body from deep inside of him.
Cindy couldn't help but smile too, as a chill was spreading over her body. He was seducing her again, the smooth bastard. And it was working, of course. Well, if he ever needed some help with this particular problem, she would be more than happy to lend him a helping hand. Or whatever other body parts he had in mind. You slut, Cindy thought to herself, still smiling.
Looks like it was time for a break, because Robert stood up and slowly, quietly, walked around the desk to where Cindy was sitting. She was sitting straight, without looking back. Knowing that he was there, getting closer and closer by the instant was so exciting. The wait for the moment when his warm hands were going to touch her was almost making her body tremble.
And then it happened. His hands slowly lowered themselves on her naked shoulders, and kept moving. Down under her shirt, only to feel her hard nipples under his fingertips. Cindy still wouldn't turn around, and he was still standing behind her. This felt so good. His hands were everywhere. Squeezing her breasts, moving gently in circles around them. And then they started mo
ving up again. They started going through her hair. Until they grabbed her firmly and pulled her aside, so that he could kiss her.
This move made her moan. It felt good, being dominated by this man. Being wanted this much. Being taken like this. Even at this point, she could feel that her panties were soaking wet.
Before she even knew it, he was kneeling in front of her, taking her pants off as he was passionately kissing her. She was giving herself up to him all over again. Except, this time there was something different. Something deeper. This time, she had seen a glimpse of what was behind the animal. And it made her want him so much more.
She was completely naked now. Sitting on the chair in front of his desk, while he was kneeling in front of her. Kissing her neck. Gently sucking on her nipples. His gentle kisses going lower. Over her stomach. And lower. Spreading her legs, he pushed the chair back, so that it stood on the two back legs, while he was holding on to the front part. He kept kissing her skin. Going lower, until he reached her clitoris.
Touching it with his tongue. Licking it gently. Making Cindy's entire body buzz with excitement. She was breathing deeply now. Begging him to keep going with every breath. With every moan. She was losing herself. This felt so damn good. And she wanted, oh, so much more. This man appeared to know her body better than she did herself.
Next thing she knew, he was inside of her. He picked her up from the chair and threw her on the ground. The thick carpet was soft underneath them, even though she did feel it burn after a while as his movements became more violent.
Robert was throwing her around as if she were a doll. A toy he could play with however he wanted. In a way, that was how she felt too. And she was loving it. One minute, he was on top of her, and she was enjoying the manly smell of his skin as his weight gently pressed her against the ground. The next, she was on her hands and knees, while he was behind her. Entering her deeply, while her knees were bleeding all over the soft carpet. The pain somehow made it better. And she never wanted for it to stop.