She frowns. "I'm- I'm happy," she says.
"You dropped everything and followed us out too quickly to be happy with your old life, princess," Ethan says and Master Darius lets out a deep, rumbling growl of displeasure so loud that the metal frames in the car vibrates. Ethan holds up both his hands, "Alright, alright. I'm shutting up."
"Did you pack members hurt you?" Master Darius questions.
She shakes her head.
"Why don't you have any of your own clothes? Don't you have more things than this?"
"I- I wear what Auntie Darla gives me. And um... everything belongs to pack. I don't- " have anything. "I shouldn't be greedy."
His fingers cradle the back of her head, firm and calming. "Tell me about how your day is like, what you usually do."
That one's easy. "I read," she says and when it's clear that he's waiting for more, she adds hesitantly. "Sometimes my cousins come to the basement and keep me company?"
"Do they pet you like this too?" he asks.
She shakes he
r head. "They like to pull my tail and chase me around the house in their full shift. It's fun." Until it's not. She doesn't like it when they have her pinned down. Auntie Darla makes sure she doesn't get hurt during their play fights though. Her scent sours when she remembers the last few times her older cousins had her pinned. They yanked her tail up and hiked her dress up to her waist. If Auntie Darla hadn't shown up when she did, she doesn't know what they would've done.
She wonders if Master Darius would touch her like they had. If he would force himself on her. She knows enough about the world to know that some people like to fuck shifters like her. She hopes he's different, though. He smells kind.
"It's alright, darling," Master Darius says, his touch soothing as he combs down her head with one hand and rubs soothing circles on her back with the other. "You're mine now. I take care of what's mine."
Chapter Three: Chains
He rushes towards the police station with his heart in his throat, his wolf so close to the surface on his skin that he almost pulls the door off it's hinges in his haste to get to his young half-cat charge.
None of the officers at the desk stop him. They know why he's here. Aria is hardly a secret. It had been all over the news when he took down the Lion Shifter pack, the last pack in town, and stole their youngest kit, their little half-shift whom they keep locked up in the basement. She had imprinted on him with remarkable speed, though the therapist insists this is normal for Shifters like her, and it's highly possible her previous environment had not been good for her and it only makes sense for her to want to please him as much as she can so she'll stay with him.
He thought she was happy with him. She hasn't done or said anything to prove otherwise.
He doesn't know where he went wrong with her. Apparently the security at their apartment had found her standing on a ledge and they had to call in firemen to get her down.
Alex, his third in command, right after his brother, is already there, his scent stormy and displeased. "Is that really necessary?" Darius hears him before entering the room. His little Aria smells like tears and anxiousness.
When he walks into the room, he sees her perched on the edge of a wooden chair, wiping away tears with the back of her hand. Alex is standing by her side and is trying to calm her down with his hand on the back of her neck, but she's still crying little hiccuping sobs. There's a man kneeling in front of her, attaching heavy metal cuffs to the ankles with a chain in between the cuffs, linking her ankles together.
"What is the meaning of this?" The only reason why he hasn't attacked the man is because he is aware that he's in a police station. There is a limit to how much he can get away with and murder in a police station is pushing it a little. The man backs off with remarkable speed, having done what he set out to do already and attached a pair of metal cuffs on her ankles.
Her eyes are wide when she sees him and there's a sudden scent of acrid fear in the air. "Master Darius!" she whimpers.
"They found her standing on a ledge," Alex says, the veins on his neck pronounced and angry.
"Were you going to jump, love?" he draws back and asks, his heart seizing at the mere thought of losing her.
Her expression shifts from panicked to guilty in an instant. "I- I wasn't!" she explains hastily. "I didn't mean to leave, Master Darius! Honest! I know- I know I'm not allowed out. I was just- there was a cat on the window and I thought it was in trouble so I tried to catch her but then she kept getting away and I- I- I got stuck," she says She dissolves into tears and the weight on his shoulders lift. He knows her well enough to know that she's not lying. She went after a cat on the window ledge. As ridiculous as that sounds, he believes her. He runs his hands over her face, wiping away her tears and then leans down to nuzzle against her neck, making low, worried noises in the back of his throat.
"Shh... You're alright, darling. I'm here now. I'm not upset with you." He's only lying a little when he says it too. It surprises him how much he's willing to let her get away with.
She tucks her face against his chest, shaking all over. "I'm sorry, Master Darius," she whimpers. She's so soft now. When he first got her, she was mostly skin and bones. Now, there's soft fat clinging to her bones, a little belly around her waist that only accentuates her round hips and soft thighs. She sniffles and rubs her ears under his chin. "I'm sorry," she slurs. She's still so tiny.
"Shh... It's fine," he says. Her going after a cat up on a ledge makes more sense than her trying to jump to her death. "There's nothing to be sorry about," he says.
Ethan clears his throat and they draw apart, wary of the audience around them. "You should've told us all that earlier, darling. Now, can you just take that off? It's barbaric," he waves at the chains on her ankles. It is barbaric but Darius can't help but feel a stir of arousal seeing them on her ankles. It would keep her from running or something something as silly as climb out the window after someone's stray cat. It'd keep her home. Safe.
"It's- it's required by law," the officer straightens up.