Page 9 of His Pet

"I hope it was something that hurt him… hurtthemsomehow," she said bitterly.

Alex didn't tell her that he didn't think so. He worried that it was something he had done, until Bella reminded him that if she'd been punished for his actions, the Wolf would have made sure to say so. And torment him with that knowledge. Which was a good point and a relief to Alex. He was also relieved that Bella was obviously thinking, battered but unbroken by Dr. Margolis' cruel treatment.

"Do you think you found a way out?" Alex asked, shifting to pull her a little bit more on top of him so that he could roll slightly onto his back and relieve some of the pressure on his shoulder. Bella rolled with him, one leg over his, her head nestled into the crook of his arm.

"I... I don't know." She frowned. "Dammit... I hate this. I hate having this huge, blank hole in my memory. Do you think this is what he does?" Her voice trembled a bit. "Do you think that when we're released, we'll get a shot, and we'll wake up on the Moon and not remember any of this?"

It made sense. It made so much sense. Such a move would make it impossible for the Wolf's victims to provide any information once they were returned to the Moon.

"But why hasn't anyone come up with an antidote?" he wondered, only realizing that he'd spoken out loud when Bella went completely still against him.

"Do you think..."

She didn't finish her sentence, but they both knew that she was thinking about the document that she'd seen on the Wolf's desk and, combined with this new development, what it might mean.

4

They were left alone for the entire evening, and the next morning Alex woke up to find Bella still wrapped around him. He wasn't surprised. The few times during the night that they'd rolled away from each other, he'd woken up to her whimpering and thrashing at the nightmares she was having. As long as she was next to him, touching him, that seemed to keep the bad dreams at bay. And he definitely didn't mind having her pressed up against him, although his cock was aching by the time he woke up.

The normal morning routine seemed to help center her too, although he made sure to stick close by her side. Fury and aggression was roiling inside of him, but he was becoming used to covering up those emotions in order to give Bella the gentleness and affection she needed. Especially today.

Jordan didn't let Trish anywhere near them during their exercise, which made Alex wonder if she knew anything about yesterday, since normally Jordan was more lax about letting Trish wander away from him while they were outside. Or maybe it was just because Alex was sticking so closely to Bella, since Jordan did tend to keep his eye on Trish more whenever any male was around and usually it was Bella who talked to Trish while Alex exercised. Today, he'd stopped when Bella had so that they could stay together.

There was something much more vulnerable about Bella right now, as if she was brittle rather than her normal, more flexible self. He hadn't even realized exactly how strong and held together she'd been until now, when she seemed like she might be ready to fall apart at the slightest provocation. If he'd thought he'd felt protective of her before, that wasn't anything compared to how he felt now.

Even the soldiers seemed to sense something different. That or maybe they were just involved in something else, but either way, nobody hassled them as they sat underneath one of the many trees, Bella cradled on Alex’s side, under his arm.

It felt nice to snuggle her. Good. Although he had to work to keep his thoughts from turning amorous and keep his cock under control. The damned ring made any swelling turn into something more and he didn't want her to feel threatened by him.

There was something different though... almost as if there should be something more between them. Like something was missing. He wasn't sure where that certainty was coming from, but he wondered if it had something to do with the blank space in their memories.

They didn't talk about that though. They talked about the Moon and their memories of growing up. He told her about the time he'd crawled into the ducts of the Moon’s base and gotten lost. It was soothing to talk about the past, to forget for a little bit. Especially since everyone was leaving them alone for once.

While Alex still had the urge to work out his frustrations in the pool, he knew being there for Bella to cling to was more important right now. Because if she gave up completely, he didn't know what he would do. Even if his inherent protectiveness over her didn't exist, they leaned on each other to get through each day.

* * *

Every little movement out of the corner of her eye was still making her jumpy.

Surprisingly, she didn't hurt so much as she ached. A lingering soreness that had kept her from being able to keep up with Alex even the little bit that she normally did while in the pool. The ache skittered across her skin and felt like it had sunk deep down into her bones. And with it came a jumpiness, an automatic reaction to draw back or run and hide.

The only time she could relax was when Alex was wrapped up around her, because she could sense his vigilance and feel the tension in his body. And she trusted him to watch over her. If nothing else, she would know when something was coming.

She tried to concentrate on the blank space in her mind, still wanting to remember the hours that she was missing, but she struggled to focus on anything other than her fear and her memories of the painful zapping electricity that had run through her body. Pain and pleasure… all wrapped up in a sadistic package that had been seemingly designed to cause her body the most conflicting kind of damage.

Other thoughts came with that.

Wondering if the Wolf would have given her over to Dr. Margolis if she hadn't done something to deserve punishment. Wondering what she had done that would deserve that kind of treatment.

A strange kind of relief and gratitude toward the Wolf that he hadn't given her to the Doctor before... It put the Wolf's handling of her and Alex in a completely new light. One where, in some ways, he almost seemed kind.

Or maybe he just wasn't interested in the same things as Dr. Margolis. Because he seemed to like fucking with their heads more than anything. Otherwise, why would she have been given the drug to take away several hours of her life from her memorybeforeshe was given over to the doctor? Talk about a mindfuck. She didn't even know what she'd been punished for. If she'd been punished and then given the drug, she wouldn't have even remembered it.

Then again, that would have been pretty frightening. To have her body feel like this and not know why or what had been done to it.

So what was the Wolf? Compassionate or cruel? Although those didn't even seem like the right words. Were there words to describe his twisted brand of mind games, implications of concern and moments of brutality?

Curled up next to Alex underneath the tree, she was able to forget about it all for a little bit while they talked. She was able to think about her old life, which seemed so very far away, and get to know Alex a little better. They'd talked before, of course, but never really like this. Never the way a couple might as they got to know each other. The fact that he could make her giggle, in a situation like this, seemed even more significant than the way he made her feel safe.

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