by Marilynn Fae
"Hello there, pet," he says, interrupting her steps.
She stops moving. She tilts her head and peers at him with her brows furrowed. He's never called her that before. Her nostrils flare as she tries to scent the air discreetly and see if anything's different with Master Darius. He smells a little bit like cooking alcohol. He doesn't look too different than usual, though he's not wearing one of his many fancy suits for once. Maybe he had gone to the gym after work and changed into something else? He has on a white, long-sleeved shirt that stretches across his chest in a way that she is determined not to notice and a pair of black leather pants that cling to his skin obscenely, leaving little the imagination. She looks away before her gaze can go anywhere inappropriate, keeping her eyes firmly on her feet.
He feels as intimidating as ever, even without looking at him. She doesn't know if it's just something Alphas are capable of naturally, or if he's just used to looking scary all the time. It'll take a little bit of time before he winds down and starts relaxing, so she's not too worried about how tense he's carrying himself right now.
"I didn't think you' would still be here," he says, which doesn't make any sense at all to her. "Happy birthday, darling," he says with a sharp grin of excitement. It's not an expression she's used to seeing him wear very often. There's something odd about him, something she can't put her finger to. "Did you have a nice day, pet?" he asks.
"It's my birthday?" she squeaks. She doesn't keep track of the days here very much but it feels like they've only just celebrated her seventeenth birthday.
"Of course it is, pet," he says, ignoring her grimace when she hears the word again. The way the word rolls off his tongue makes her feels prickly. "Happy birthday to you," he says, walking up to her with the grace and strength rolling off him like a beacon, like he's trying to intimidate her into submitting.
She doesn't understand why. Startled, she takes a step back, and then another and another as he keeps moving with her until her back his the kitchen counter, the hard line of the counter digging into her lower back and pinning her tail with it. She gasps when his arms brace on either side of her, fingers curled over the edge, trapping her in an immovable cage that is his body.
Her heart pounds erratically in her chest at the knowledge that she's trapped with nowhere to run, but she knows her Master Darius would never hurt her. He's close enough that she doesn't need her special senses to smell the alcohol in his breath.
"You're very lovely, pet," he says, leaning even closer.
She has nowhere else to run. "Master?" she squeaks, her voice several pitches higher than normal.
His pupils dilate upon hearing the title from her lip.s His exhales fill her lungs as she inhales and her cat ears swivel back anxiously, tail curled around her waist.
He looks strange, predatory almost, his eyes dark and filled with something that makes her heart beat even harder in her chest. He looks like a wolf who's just about to pounce and she's the rabbit stupid enough to be cornered. She grasps the front of his shirt without thinking, hoping that her arms in front of her will provide some sort of shield.
"Master?" she tries again and sees the way his eyes zone in on her lips, pupils blown so wide his entire eyes have gone fully dark. "What's wron-"
He kisses her, mouth hot and insistent, tongue pressing at her lips. She doesn't remember to breathe, not even when his hand curls around the back of her neck and pulls her closer, his other arm winding around her waist to press them flush together, pinning her arms between them.
She makes a noise at the back of her throat the is out of her control and he smiles into their kiss. Even with her limited experience in anything regarding kissing, she knows enough to open her mouth so she does. Oh. He tastes like mint and something burning, sweet and consuming. He licks into her mouth, aggressive and demanding, hands clenching tight on her body to keep her from moving, fingers rubbing her ear and clutching her ass. She feels like her body is on fire, heat coiling in her core, awakening every nerve ending in her body.
She doesn't understand what's going on, why he's doing this. He's never showed interested in her before, never touched her beyond the casual brush of her ears and friendly arm around her shoulders. She doesn't know what's brought about this sudden change and she doesn't have time to think about it, not with him lifting her and pushing her up onto the counter, breaking their kiss to drag his mouth wetly down her neck and nestle his nose in the dip of her collarbone. His breath is warm against her skin and makes her shudder.
"Master?" she tries again, except the word leaves her lips in a sort of shivering moan that only makes him suck her neck harder, drawing blood to the surface and leaving a bruise the size of his mouth on her skin.
"You don't know how long I've been wanting to do that," he growls and she cries his name again, confused. "You've grown so prettily, pet," he says. "Perfect little kitten," he growls.
His pet names for her gives her pause but she is quickly distracted by the way his tongue licks over her skin. It's not like she's never thought of kissing him before. Master Darius is an incredibly attractive werewolf. She sees his faces on magazines and newspapers, sees him listed as one of the most eligible bachelors. When she was younger, she thought the infatuation would fade. She had a crush on her French tutor a few years ago and that faded too. Pierre had an accent that would make her toes curl and greets her with a kiss on the back of her hand when he comes in the evening. Master Darius had sent him away without an explanation one day and at first she was upset, but after a while, she no longer missed him.
She wonders if that would happen to her feelings towards Master Darius too, if she would lose interest in her Master when he leaves her. The mere thought of him leaving her feels like a stab through her heart and she's brought back to the present by a particular hard nip of his teeth against her skin.
"What- what're you doing, Master?" she asks, afraid and excited all at once because she has never even kissed a man before now and the way he's undoing the buttons on her blouse warns her that he is looking to do so much more than press their lips together. "Master?" her voice is shrill and she's shivering a little.
"You're shirt has too many buttons, pet," he says and his claws come out, slashing neatly down the threads holding the buttons to her shirt and they fall into her lap and onto the floor.
She gets to her senses when he begins yanking her blouse off, popping the last two buttons free and tearing the blouse at the seams in his haste. "Wait- wait, Master," she cries out. She's not wearing anything underneath her blouse.
"I don't want to wait," he growls, tugging her skirt off, ripping it at the seams when it doesn't come off straight away. His gaze pauses at the chains locking her feet together. He grins with a predator-like ferocity that makes the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. "Look at these," she rumbles, clenching the middle chain in his grip and tugging a little, like he's trying to test how strong the metal links are.
She's too busy wrapping her arms around her naked breasts and clenching the little torn pieces of clothing to her skin to do anything except watch as he closes their distance again.
"You're lovely, aren't you? Lovely and sweet and all mine," he hums against her neck, expert, insistent hands rubbing up and down her naked back.
His normally crisp scent of pine is heady now, making her head spin a little. She had always assumed that he would find a wife eventually and she would have to move out or be surrendered into a facility for shifters like her, that he would tire of taking care of her. Never in her wildest dreams has she ever dared to imagine he would want her like this, be so desperately to mark her up that he is kissing and sucking bruises around her neck.
"Sweet little thing," he rumbles, planting a kiss on her soft breast and trailing the kisses lower and lower.
"Master Darius," she whimpers. "What're you doing?" her breath hitches when she feels his hands ghosting over her thighs, lifting her hips and pushing her firmly deeper onto the counter. She moans a little as he shift
s and she can actually scent his arousal, heady and musky.
"I'm kissing you, pet," he says, pulling her arms away from where she is covering her breasts and curling them around his neck, guiding her to hold onto him. "I'm going to kiss every inch of you and once you're nice and wet, I'm going to make love to you."
"You are?" she squeaks, cheeks burning.
He nods, standing tall between her parted legs in front of her, so tall and handsome that she can hardly stand to look at him without feeling like she's staring at the sun. She looks down and covers herself between her legs, blushing brightly.
"Don't be shy, pet," he says, pinching her chin between his forefinger and thumb to pull her attention back to him. "You're the loveliest thing I've ever seen, kitten."
"I am?" she whispers, feeling breathless. That can't possible be true. She sees him on the TV walking around with beautiful women all the time. His words feel entirely sincere and she can't help but want to believe. It feels too surreal. Maybe this is just a really nice dream and she'll wake up any time now. Her hands are holding onto the back of his shirt so tightly that she hears the material stretching. His palms are warm on the small of her back, bare skin touching her own and her back arches, pressing her breasts up until her nipples are brushing against her own fingers. "Oh," she whimpers, clutching desperately at his shoulders.
He chuckles and pulls her closer until their bodies are flushed against one another, so close that it is impossible to see where one ends and the other begins. She can feel his heart beating against her own, a steady thud-thud-thud that she finds completely unfair because her own heartbeat is erratic and too fast.
"Master Darius?" she whispers, voice trembling as she peers up at him through her lashes.
He kisses again, as if just the sound of her voice is enough to make him lose control or maybe he's just trying to silence her by licking into her mouth, tasting every inch of her as his hand moves around her back to grasp the base of her tail, tugging up the length of her tail until he is gripping the middle. It feels weird, like hearing a nail scratch a blackboard. She shivers from how odd it feels and whimpers.
"Master Darius, please- please don't pull my tail," she whimpers, her breath hissing out through clenched teeth as she pulls back abruptly, twisting to grip the base of her tail.
"Why not, hmm?" he teases, tugging it deliebrately.
She lets out a startled yelp as tears begin to burn her eyes, blurring her sight. He's behaving so oddly today. He's never pulled her tail. "Master- Master, please," she whimpers, twisting and struggling to tug her tail free.
He lets go and she breathes a sigh of relief that is short-lived as he pins her in place with an arm around her torso, trapping her hands to her sides and pushing her flush against his body. His free hand grabs her ass, pushing her up so that he's rubbing against his hips, an intimidating hardness pressing up between her legs through the leather pants he's wearing. "You like me, don't you, pet?" he asks.
She blushes, cheeks burning so hotly that she's a little worried she would catch on fire. She nods, a quick demure tip of her head that makes him chuckle.
"Innocent little kit, aren't you?" he teases. "Have you ever touched yourself before?" he asks and it's such a personal, intimate question that she can't help it when her face heated up even more. She shakes her head a little, a quick left and right before looking back down, feeling completely out of her depth already. Her hands are folded in front of her between her legs, trying to hide herself as much as possible even though she knows she's quickly losing the battle. It hardly seems fair that she's no longer wearing anything at all while he's still fully dressed.
Embarrassed, she closes her eyes and folds her ears back, curling her entire tail around her breasts to hide her perky nipples. He steps back, and looks at her as though seeing her for the first time, hungry eyes roaming up and down her body, memorizing every inch of naked skin that he can see. And then, he lifts both her legs up and she falls back onto her elbows from the sudden lack of balance.
Before she can ask what he's doing, he ducks between the chains on her ankles, trapping himself to him and vice versa. She can't just pull her legs back and close them together, not with his body in the way and the chains keeping her from freeing herself as she wished.
"Master?" she whispers, the blush on her cheeks moving down her chest at her state of vulnerability.
"Can you show me, pet?" he asks politely, looking between her legs so that there's no question what he's asking her to do.
She thinks of saying no but is afraid that the opportunity would never come by again. Maybe something's happened today to make him want her. She's not about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Tentatively, she lifts her hands away from where she's hiding her pussy, putting her hands on the counter top instead. Even with her eyes clenched shut, she can imagine what he's seeing. She's never shown anyone something so intimate before. Instead of hair between her legs, she's fully bare without a strand of hair to hide herself. She hears the sharp intake of breath from the Werewolf and her hands grasp the edge of the counter tightly. Does he think it's weird that she doesn't have hair there? Would he-
"Oh!" she gasps and her eyes shoot open upon feeling a slight wetness there. "Oh, Master- Master Darius," she moans, seeing his head between her legs, mouth closed over her pussy and licking her pussy lips.
"Don't call me that," he hums against her pussy, pulling back to look up at her through hooded eyes.
She doesn't hear him. It feels too much and too good all at once. She feels like she's about to faint because the world is too bright and everything feels too good. "Oh, oh, please," she whimpers, clutching desperately at his shoulder.
The older man chuckles and slides his tongue inside her, spearing between her pussy lips with his tongue and she just about faints from how intense the pleasure becomes. It feels weird and foreign to her, having his tongue inside of her, but it's weird in a good way. It's weird in an absolutely perfect way. The synapses in her brain are all firing at once, the pleasure so intense and potent that she feels as though everything is caving in until there is only the two of them.
She whimpers, fingers digging into his shoulders as he licks and sucks her clit, pulling back only to drag the flat of his tongue up her spread pussy lips and tease her opening again and again.
"Master- Master, please," she cries, bucking into his touch, eyes glazing over with last.
"Fuck, you taste good," he growls, his hands on her inner thighs squeezing. He licks up between her legs again and she is hardly able to stop her hips from jerking forward.
"Oh! Oh!" she gasps.
"I want to be inside you, pet," he says and she doesn't even care that he's calling her that now. Right this second, she's willing to be whatever he wants her to be as long as he doesn't stop. He licks all the way up her stomach and drags his tongue around her nipple between sucking one sensitive bud into his mouth.
"Oh, umm..." she gapes stupidly, ready to agree to anything when there's a tell-tale hum of the apartment door clicking open again and then Master Darius is standing at the entrance to the kitchen with what looks like a cake in one hand and a bouquet of flower in the other. He drops them both.
Her brain synapses misfire and she manages a confused, "Huh?"
Chapter Five: Imposter
Master Darius - the one between her legs - stands and turns around. For a few seconds, nobody does anything and they're just staring at each other.
"Master Darius?" she whispers, confused. The Master Darius at the entryway looks at them slowly. Most of her body is obscured by the werewolf in front of her but there is no hiding what they were doing with, not the scent of arousal so thick in the air and her state of nakedness. He pulls his upper lip back and bares his teeth in an enraged snarl.
A second later, the Master Darius in front of her is no longer there, having been thrown across the table and into the wall so hard that the walls shake and chunks of the wall breaks off, falling on top of him. "Stay down," he sna
rls, twisting around to look at her.
She tilts her head as her Master's expression shifts to one of intense worry.
"Did you hurt you, Aria?" Master Darius asks, taking off his suit jacket quickly and wrapping it around her shoulders. His finger are shaking. "Jesus," he sighs, touching the kiss marks around her shoulders, dark stains on her pale skin.
She shakes her head, not understanding what's happening at all. How can there be two Master Darius? But this one feels more like her Master Darius than the other man, who looks at her with eyes that are too sharp.
"Master Darius?" she asks, her voice shrill with confusion, blinking at him like there's something wrong with her eyes. "Am I dreaming, Master Darius?" she asks.
"No, no," he reassures her, fingers pinching her chin and tilting her head left and right, sharp gaze examining the bruises around her throat. She's cradling her tail in her lap, the soft fur fluffy enough to hide most of her naked hips and legs.
"I don't- I don't understand," she murmurs, glancing from one man to the other. Now that they are both in the same room together, she feels terrible for mistaking the intruder for her Master Darius. He's so much more handsome and he carries himself differently too. Master Darius is taller with a powerful aura that feels safe. He's still wearing his suits and he smells like the two of them together because he had nuzzled her in the morning before he left for work.
"That's Ethan," he says. "He stole the keys to my apartment and decided to pay you a visit."
"Oh," her mouths stays in the 'o' position as her brain struggles to understand the significance of what she had just been told. She'd just let an absolute stranger touch her because she thought he was her Master. She remembers being told about a twin before. She's even met him once! How could she have forgotten?
Her eyes burn and fill with tears as she realizes she's gotten it all wrong. Her Master doesn't want her like that, and Ethan probably just wants her the same reason why everyone does- for the novelty. Her heart feels too heavy all of a sudden and she lets out a soft hiccup that breaks the dam and then she's sobbing, feeling stupid for believing that her Master would want her and overwhelmed for allowing it in the first place. She wipes the tears with the back of her hands and new tears trickle down her face, wetting the buttons on the expensive suit he had wrapped around her shoulders.