Allie woke to a hand holding her tit.
This was disconcerting enough that she froze, and then when memory came sneaking back, the disconcerting stayed and grew. She was being cuddled by a sleeping criminal, and she’d somehow considered this a sensible move.
More of yesterday came back. Yes… on reflection, she could see why she’d turned to the guy. She really was in for it- there was no way she was going to be able to do what Jennis had done for the place.
Worse, she didn’t dare go back and refuse the job. She hadn’t told anybody, but when Elistary had ‘rescued’ her from her confinement in a perverted bondage-cell, in a compound off the notorious Tally Road, she’d seen through the Resten lady’s charade. For some reason, Elistary wished to employ terrifying, brutal people but pretend to rescue girls from them. While wearing spandex and a cape, yet.
Allie considered to what extent her employer was entirely crazy. Firing Jennis didn’t seem like a stable act- and the manner in which it was done was worse, it seemed quite petty. And then, promoting her, Allie, to a job she knew nothing about, seemed similarly unhinged…
Allie considered what prospects Elistary’d had with the other girls, and realized she had no reason to assume Elistary would have done better with anybody else. So many of them seemed twitchy from drugs, or were hollow-eyed, terrified wraiths with permanently tucked tails. If Elistary had been processing runaway girls through outside places that abused them and softened them up to be dominated, she was getting very much what she could expect from that- victims who could barely help themselves, much less her.
With a start, Allie realised she wasn’t counting herself in that, somehow, even though she had every reason to.
Behind her, Wern stirred, roused slightly by her movement. He yawned without waking, he wriggled slightly against her bottom, he drew her a bit closer, his fingers falling to either side of her nipple, and then he was still again, breathing evenly.
Allie took a moment to consider. Why was it that she felt different from those other girls? For she did, and this was probably why Elistary favored her. They acted beaten, she was going around with tail high and alert ears, effortlessly taking customers from them. She was- or had been- in the same situation, so what distinguished her? It wasn’t just that Jennis had befriended her. At least, Allie hoped not, because Jennis was gone now.
Was it her ability to think, and observe? That had often been a real burden. Allie suspected this ability of hers came as the bitter fruit of poisoned years. When things at home were seriously wrong, and nobody would admit it openly, you developed this terrible need to see beneath the surfaces of things. When your best days were spent rehearsing fake pleasure cries and your worst involved deciding if cries of rage, heard through a closed door, were meant for you or somebody else, you learned to sense the truth of matters.
Allie wondered at herself, that she was tolerating this Wern so well- that was putting things mildly for a wolf who had her half-erect nipple tucked between two furry fingers. She decided it was partly because he’d got her off so powerfully- that was rather hard to resist- and partly because he seemed obsessed with not dominating her in any way. He rather fawned over her. He was probably right, too- fawning over her was an improvement for him. One thing about it, she could be certain he didn’t wish her tits were bigger.
She blinked, realizing that some of what he’d described, an adolescence of despairing self-hate over his apparently scrawny appearance, was outside her experience. About the only thing she found fault with herself over, was that- cupcake breasts. She imagined Wern as a teenager, and apart from the expected skulking and tail-tucking, she couldn’t see how he’d be all that awful-looking, yet he described a desert of rejection. Why had she avoided the same problem?
It wasn’t ‘him’, the term she used even in her mind for her dark secret. Or, thought Allie dispassionately, it wasn’t just ‘him’. His obsession, his praises and erect penis, didn’t properly count- but somehow it did reinforce the opinion of others. Yes- it was Mrs. Menkte, from school, so long ago.
Allie relived that moment as she had so many times- that curious blend of terrible memory and accompanying meaning. Now that she thought of it- she could have been like Wern’s little girl, but for Mrs. Menkte, and Allie felt oddly grateful in retrospect.
‘He’ had just started, being intrusive with fingers, distressing her and drawing her attention to her private parts that obviously weren’t as private as she’d thought, and at school Allie was acting out. She had a new trick for expressing contempt for the other children when upset- rather than just cry, or hit them, she tried ‘hitting’ them with her feelings about what was happening to her, assuming it would give them the same feeling. In practice, this meant flashing them- pulling down her pants and mooning them. She reasoned that in cases of extreme displeasure she could also pee on them.
Mrs. Menkte spotted her doing this, and swept her off, not to the principal’s office, but to her own teacher’s office.
Allie had cried and felt guilty, and this alone would have rendered her afraid to try the trick again, but Mrs. Menkte had a great deal more to say, a great deal to explain in terrible dismay and earnestness. From the vantage point of an adult, Allie thought Mrs. Menkte must have been terribly prudish, but somehow making great efforts to not be simply repressive, for reasons she alone knew.
Mrs. Menkte explained that one must not show private parts, but went on to explain that they were very beautiful, in the proper way- and, growing more and more uncomfortable, explained that Allie had been born with a special, special thing, a kind of fur patterning that could make boys very excited, and that she must behave nicely from now on and some day she would be a grown-up and would be happy and able to make the boys crazy.
Little Allie had listened to this explanation more or less incomprehendingly, for she had no frame of reference to explain what ‘excited’ meant, or why boys and not girls- but the gist seemed to be that she was born pretty, more than anybody.
She filed this away in her little head- and the next time ‘he’ did things Allie didn’t understand or like, Allie considered that it must be about ‘him’ going crazy because she was too pretty. And the next time, and the next…
Adult Allie considered how this experience had colored her life. She hadn’t tried to date, because life had become far too complicated, and because she didn’t feel she had anything to prove- Mrs. Menkte had explained she was pretty, and life had gone on to suggest that the boys would indeed go crazy over her, and she wanted the crazy to stop first and foremost.
And when she’d run away, when she confronted the reality that this sex stuff wasn’t just a chore but a powerful, even overwhelming thing and refused to carry on any longer with ‘him’, she’d set out for Verss, blithely assuming she’d probably make some guys crazy in those familar ways and survive by that. She’d imagined walking streets at night, perhaps flashing some two-tone wolf tail for appreciative, slavering males brandishing fistfuls of money…
Ye gods, she was damned lucky to still be alive, even! Allie considered it in the light of things Jennis had told her. Yes- she wouldn’t have lasted thirty minutes with that attitude.
Wern yawned again, grasping idly at her cupcake breast, probably close to waking up. Allie wondered whether he was going to be like lovemaking, confident Wern, or hunched, self-hating Wern, or something else entirely. It seemed like revealing his own dark secrets had caused him to become completely spineless, easily crushed by disapproval from her.
Allie thought that was odd, since he seemed to brazen it out with everybody else. Perhaps it was up to her how he’d be- she more than suspected that if she took to flashing wolf tail at him, he’d brighten up a lot.
All she had to do was figure out if she even wanted him to…
As if alerted by that thought, Wern stirred- and then kept breathing evenly, as if still asleep, but Allie soon realized what was different. Not just different, but immensely touching, and typically weird to boot.
Wern wasn’t hung like a monster, but he was a big, strong guy, and his arm even in repose was quite heavy. While he slept, the weight of his arm squished her cozily against the bed, which hadn’t displeased her at all.
Now that he was apparently awake, his arm was mysteriously lighter. He hadn’t let go of her tit- perhaps he was cherishing every second of holding it- but he couldn’t help himself, he was lifting his arm a bit to spare her the weight.
Allie couldn’t imagine why anyone would think this necessary after she’d snuggled under that arm all night with no ill effects, but she understood instantly what it meant, and it melted her.
Her response was to place her hand over his, where it cupped her breast, and squeeze lovingly- that being the only thing she could think of which was as sweet and as foolish as his arm-hovering. He didn’t respond right away, and then his fingers squeezed as well, and it was then that Allie saw the clock.
It was after eight, and Jennis frequented that cafe earlier in the morning. It might already be too late.
“Oh, no…” breathed Allie.
“Uh, what? I’ll stop, I’ll stop!”
“Don’t be silly!” said Allie. “I wanted you to touch me! But don’t you see what time it is?”
Wern shifted, raised himself on his elbow, peered over her at the clock. Allie was startled, again, at the bulk of him. “You say you were half as big when you were nineteen?”
“Pretty… nyuuhh… pretty close, yeah…”
“What happened?”
“Liftin.. weights… hyummnnh.. f’r lotta years…”
Allie wriggled around to look at him. He would’ve been handsomer if he’d gone to bed nude. He’d gone to bed in his clothes, and was now the most rumpled wolf in Verss.
“You don’t wake up real good, do you?”
“Hrmm… too early. Get some more rest, I’ll wakeup good forya… ‘s a guy thing…”
“Huh?” said Allie.
Wern sat up and rubbed his eyes, muscles shifting and bulging as he did. Allie was impressed. It was rather like he’d tried to fight his self-loathing by turning himself into a cartoon sexywolf- apart from the cozily mid-sized dick, Wern was like a parody of the ideal masculine Runge. There must have been an awful lot of time to kill in jail.
“You… not live with, wake up with… guys before?” yawned Wern.
“Actually, no, I never have.” said Allie. “I had my room, and that was private. There were no guys.”
“Wow… can’t believe I was your first… wake up good later… ‘sjust mornin’ wood, too early for it, try me in an hour or two…” said Wern, and his ears were quirked to the side, and he swayed gently, eyes not focussed.
It had never occurred to Allie that her early rising was unusual. She’d always woken up to appreciate the morning hours before anyone else stirred. Sometimes that was very important. Now, confronted by her opposite, the young wolf lady cocked her head to the side, ears perked, considering the lovely dozing mountain before her, and gave him a kiss on the nose and coaxed him to slowly topple over, which he did with a bed-shaking thump.
Allie rose, and started digging suitable clothing out of the dresser- at least, the most suitable stuff she could find. She hadn’t been able to get any clothes yet, so it was all fetishy stuff that came with the place. Possibly today she could do better, for she’d earned quite a bit yesterday.
Wern dozed- or drifted in that direction. Allie thought a couple times she saw his eye cracked open furtively, and found this to be, like so much else about the guy, cute and weird. Technically, he was spending some vast sum to be screwing her all night, and yet there he was acting like peeking at her was somehow naughty, and he hadn’t touched her all night, apart from cuddling her tit. Allie was almost affronted, even though she appreciated it on a personal level- she was supposed to be irresistible, damn it!
Allie vowed to herself that she’d send him off with at least one more serious fucking for his pains. It was all very well his acting hangdog and guilty over his misdeeds of seventeen years ago, but she wasn’t about to get filed into a ‘forbidden fruit’ category. If nothing else, she needed to pay for some decent clothes. In the clear light of morning, the creepy molester looked an awful lot like a neurotic kid with unhealthy tastes who’d taken one step in a bad direction and found it was a step into quicksand. For fuck’s sake, ‘he’ out of her past had done things to her for years on end, with careful planning and the resources to support his habit, and had done his best to replace her very self with a moaning puppet for his pleasure, and he’d never angsted about it in the slightest.
This Wern character had acted on his sick fantasies just once, had fucked it all up, and appeared to be trying to transform himself into a superhero to make up for his crimes. Touching yet unmistakably pitiful at the same time…
Allie took pains to give the peeking Wern good angles while she dressed, which was tricky due to the limited space. At some points she damned near sat on his face, almost- squatting to step into cutoff jeans, and favoring him with close-up two-tone wolfy-butt and ladyparts. That would give him the hint not to leave- she’d return and see what ‘morning wood’ was like. It’d be a nice start to the day, a warm-up that wasn’t too uncomfortable.
When she glanced at him, he was already asleep, or pretending really hard. Allie shrugged to herself and headed out the door in haste- hoping to get to the cafe atop Verss before Jennis left.
When she approached the cafe, Allie began to worry. She’d never been here without Jennis, and she wasn’t sure if they’d let her in- but then a familiar voice called, “That’s the one!” and Allie practically ran in, so eager was she to see Jennis again.
Jennis was sitting at the same table they’d sat at before, but she’d apparently been sitting for some time- no less than four coffee cups littered the table, there were other Runge sitting at neighboring tables giving her funny looks, and Jennis looked haggard.
“They’re desperate to turn this table. Sit down. This place is probably cooked for me now, after this. What kept you?”
“I overslept.” said Allie.
“Nice. I didn’t sleep. Talked to a lot of people, though, and I think I have some leads. The thing is, the big longshot lead that I really want, I can’t take you with me…”
Allie blinked. “You were trying to take me out of that place?”
“You don’t belong there, honey. I just don’t know if I’ll be able to help.”
“Oh… um… some news there…”
Jennis beamed. “You quit? That’s awesome. I totally can give you reference, you’d be surprised how well that will work. I do have resources- union, remember? I’m not alone. Though the longshot prospect, that’s not a union shop. But then neither is,” and she spat the words, “Mistress Elistary.”
“Oh, good- I forgot about that. I’m glad you have a plan, but…”
“Oh yeah. In fact, I think I can put together a case against that little bitch and drain some of that money of hers. Maybe not win- if she’s really rich, that might be asking a lot- but I can drag her into court, and especially if she’s dumb enough to go for a non-union replacement I can wreak freakin’ havoc. I’m hoping she’s dumb enough to pull something like that- she might be rich, but she doesn’t know the ropes and I suspect she’s a real shitty client, even for an expensive lawyer.”
“Actually, I wanted to talk to you about the replacement thing…”
“Ya sound worried. Did she pick some total freak? Oooh, this is gonna be great,” gloated Jennis. “We’ll screw her to the wall, honey, don’t you worry. Do you know who she got? Do you remember the name, or has she not even got that far yet? I know her, she could have left it hanging.”
“Um- no, she was very quick about it.”
“Well, then? What bright spark, or lowlife scum, did she put in charge?” said Jennis, as she leaned forward eagerly.
Allie shrank back.
“Me…”
Jennis’s jaw dropped. She was silent for a moment, too astonished to speak. Then, her voice came back, full of awe.
“She is so fucked…”
“Hey!” protested Allie. “Compared to the other girls there, it’s not all that fucked! I just don’t know anything, that’s why I wanted to talk to you!”
“No, no, honey! That’s not what I meant!”
“Well then, what did you mean when you said it was fucked that she picked me?”
A patron at a neighboring table sniffed and moved herself, her coffee, her plate and her newspaper to another table farther away. Jennis noticed, and whispered, “Shouldn’a said that so loud. Careful.”
Allie nodded, and whispered urgently, “What’s so fucked?”
Jennis chuckled. “It sounds like she jumped you over the heads of several other people who would’ve killed to take my place and get double scale. Not only that… how much experience do you have, dear?”
Allie’s gaze dropped. “…one night…”
“See what I mean? I’m not saying you’re not smart. Maybe you’re expecting to pick my brain and get tips on how to run that place? What I’m saying is this- baby, that place is unrunnable.”
“It seems to still be there…” said Allie.
“Hah!” said Jennis. “You heard me talking before about the shit I had to do just to keep things working. I probably shouldn’t have done that stuff, either, but I did. Darling Elistary apparently decided that stuff just magically happens, and now you’re her fairy godmother instead of me. And I KNOW you ain’t got the network I have.”
“Maybe you can introduce me?”
“Maybe you can get the hell out of there before the place implodes. I know for a fact there’s about five things ready to become major problems any day now, some of them building maintenance, some of them the books. I don’t know shit about books, but I’ve been keeping the accountant happy and he told me he’s about at the end of his rope- the money vanishes to something Elistary won’t talk about, and she expects him to cover the tracks.”
“Really?” said Allie.
“Damn straight. He’s about to quit on her. When he finds out I’m out, there’s gonna be a fox-shaped hole in the door, he won’t even open it first…”
“Elistary’s accountant is an Estrai?”
“He’s great, cleverest guy I ever met. That’s another thing, Elistary’s a bitch to him for no reason I can understand. What could she have against Estrai?” said Jennis.
“Maybe it’s that they defend the Tompar? In the Xarnax war? Everybody knows that.”
Jennis blinked. “You might have something there, honey. Yeah… that might be it. I’ll tell you, he doesn’t tolerate it gracefully. It’s been hell hanging on to him.”
“Maybe if I get to him, and he likes my fur pattern and all…”
“Why should you?” asked Jennis. “Get out of there. I’ll find you work.”
Allie sighed. “I don’t think you understand. I didn’t tell you where I came from.”
“Sure you did. Your story’s a little like mine. I understood completely.”
“No.” said Allie. “After that.”
“How do you mean?” said Jennis.
“Do you think I took a bus to Verss, or something? I didn’t have any money. I didn’t know anybody who could take me here. I tried to walk.”
“Damn. That’s one hell of a long walk around the mountains, even f… Oh, now, hold on. I think I get it. You’re kidding, you didn’t!”
“I did. I tried to go by Tally Road, on foot. I thought I’d cut through the mountains instead of go around them…”
“Oh, honey, that’s crazy! Thank goodness you’re alive! But what happened? Seems like you left out a lot of explaining…”
“Yeah,” said Allie, “on purpose. I didn’t feel safe saying it. I still don’t, but I’d better tell you what’s going on.”
“Shoot.”
“Well, first of all, I’m here in Verss.” said Allie. “You’d think I got through Tally Road, right?”
“Right.”
“Wrong. I never made it all the way through. I was sneaking around this rock, and suddenly there were lights everywhere, and I got caught.”
“By who?” said Jennis. “Apparently they let you go.”
“No- no, they didn’t.” said Allie simply. “They’ve still got me, and that’s why I think I have to do that job for Elistary.”
“Okay, that I don’t get. Who’s ‘they’ and how do they have you? What does this have to do with bitch-puppy?”
“Is that what you’re calling her now?”
“Always did, whenever I knew she couldn’t hear me. Maybe she heard better than I thought, she was pissed when she fired me! Don’t change the subject. What happened to you?”
“Somebody got a bag over my head, and I got dragged off. I struggled, but somebody kicked me in the face and I really didn’t feel safe struggling more after that… there were at least three guys. One sounded like an Estrai, maybe a little swishy even for an Estrai. One creeped me the hell out, you just got this panicky feeling- he sounded wrong, horrible. And then there was the big one, with this deep gravelly voice, and that’s the one who did everything…”
“Hang on. I had you working a full shift after you’d been kicked in the face? It doesn’t show, I’ll tell you that. Have you had a doctor look at that?”
Allie just looked at Jennis.
“You don’t understand. That was sometime last year…”
Jennis fell silent, as Allie continued to explain.
“I was locked up in this cell. The Estrai was always the one who fed me, dealt with the bowl they gave me to… you know, in. I’m sure that one was gay, he never tried to do anything to me. He had a gun. He did threaten that they’d give me my food in the same bowl if I tried anything…”
“Oh, honey…” said Jennis.
“The one that sounded really frightening in the sick wrong way, I got a look at him once. It was like they were trying to keep him away. The fox guy caught him in the doorway once, he’d pushed in with some excuse about having to talk to him- called him Paray?”
“Holy crap. That would be Perre. Estrai hijacker and bandit. That guy’s dangerous. He was running that place?”
“He had his gun in the face of the sick wrong guy. I’ll never forget it. It was a little white-furred Runge guy who was trying to get in, and every time I heard his voice I wanted to hide. He stared at me even with the gun pointed at him, and Paray just said ‘Back out, right now. You’re not touching one again.’ And he went…”
“They were trying to keep you untouched? Uh- virginal, or whatever?”
“I didn’t finish.” said Allie, her voice wavering.
“I’m sorry, go ahead.”
“Give me a minute.” said Allie, her voice breaking.
Jennis waited, and before long, Allie was able to speak.
“It was the big guy with the gravelly voice. I’m almost sure that wasn’t his real voice- he spoke to the fox once as he was leaving and he sounded different. He would always wear this metal mask, these metal gauntlets, all pointy and with edges. If he hit me with the gauntlets on it made a loud noise and, and, and I was scared it would cut me up…”
“Easy, honey. You’re safe.”
“Am I?”
“Um… keep talking. I think I’m starting to figure things out.”
“He r… raped me. Almost every day. It got really weird, the fox guy would truss me up on wires like a trapeze, or tie me to something, and then the mask guy would start. The fucking guy had the weirdest… did you ever have a guy who had a dick that it was like three knots in a row? Like, this middle lump that was bigger than his knot which was real small? Did you ever have that? Tell me!”
Jennis was taken aback. “I’m sorry, honey. No, that doesn’t ring any bells. I can see why you’d want to find who he was. The whole thing sounds horrible.”
“No, that’s not the horrible part.”
“Are you okay telling me this stuff?”
“I’ve got to. Now that I started… I’ve got to.”
“Go on.”
Allie gulped, and took a deep breath. “The horrible part… he was training me. Like HIM- like my dad. He scared me until I didn’t dare fight him, until there was no way I was going to try to resist, and then he’d start taking hours over it, and he’d be pulling out all the stops and doing everything he possibly could to make me come…”
“Oh, great.” said Jennis.
“And the thing was as long as I didn’t fight, I knew that while he was doing that he wasn’t going to hurt me, I was safe… and then it got to be, when I was relaxing and allowing it, I was safe, and he could totally tell if I was faking… and then it was, if my body was responding I was safe…”
“Oh, honey!”
“He won.” said Allie. “He always won, he had nothing but time. I always knew he was going to win. I think one time he must have worked on me for six hours straight- it seemed like six days. I lost track of everything. I barely knew who I was, in the end. He won. I came. That was all he wanted.”
Jennis winced. “Was he telling you to moan, make sex noises too? I’m so ashamed I tried to get you to…”
“It’s okay- I know you didn’t mean it that way. And I think I’d have liked it better if he had. No, he didn’t care. The only thing he cared about was first, dominating me until I was terrified of him, and then fucking me or doing whatever he had to do, to get me off. He’d be training me in how to get fucked, how to use my muscles and stuff…”
“Honey, you should be in a different line of work now that you’re free of that asshole.”
“Am I?” said Allie.
Jennis regarded her with narrowed eyes. “I hear what you’re implying. Keep talking.”
“One night, he made this deal with me. I was exhausted of it all, miserable, and I knew he was going to go on for hours and I desperately wanted it to end- and it’s like he sensed it. He said, give in to me completely. Surrender and let yourself go, and we can be done very quickly…”
“And…”
“He’d never outright lied to me. He hit me, he hurt me but he was careful never to say anything he didn’t back up. I knew he was telling the truth. …I said yes.”
“You know, there’s lots of men who go into Mistress Elistary and pay to go through just the same sort of thing. Did you know that?”
“Don’t care. I just know that he pulled out all the stops, and I damn well exploded for him. Silent? I sprained my throat yelping. And afterwards, I was dangling… this was one of the times he had me strung up like some fucking trapeze… and I was just limp, flooded with this warm feeling…”
“Your body doesn’t know right or wrong…”
“And he pulled out, and he took off the rubber, and he held it up and dropped it on the floor and walked out.” quavered Allie.
“Oh, honey…”
“No but listen!” pleaded Allie. “I have to keep telling! That same night, that same night, somebody came and opened the door of the cell. And she said, ‘They haven’t even cut you down! Here, let me. I’m here to rescue you.’ And it was Elistary.”
“What the fuck? Seems like they did nothing but cut you down…”
“No, remember, I was hanging from this thing. My legs were all cramped up, she was getting mad at me because I couldn’t walk right…”
“Elistary took you out of that place?”
“She was in this sort of spandex thing. She had a cape.”
“You’re shittin’ me.”
“She had a cape. I’m telling you.”
“She took you out of there?” said Jennis, in disbelief.
“I said, but how did you know the codes for the doors? Because she stopped, and punched out a code, and looked in this other door and closed it before I could see what was there.”
“Good question. What’d she say?”
Allie gulped. “She said, you will show respect or I shall PUT you back where you came from- GIRL.”
Jennis stared.
“That’s when I knew.” said Allie simply. “That was the word the guy always used on me. I had no name, I was ‘eight’ or ‘girl’. Elistary could have known how to work the locks- but she used that way to threaten me, and I knew, right then.”
Jennis could only stare, horrified.
“Don’t you tell me I’ve escaped anything.” said Allie.
“Right.” said Jennis. “You’re coming with me. We’re going to the police. You’ve got nothing back at Mistress Elistary to lose…”
“Um… no. First of all what if she can track me down? And second, the guy I spent the night with, what if they hurt him? He cuddled me all night, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to sleep.”
“Where’d you find a guy t… Oh, no. Oh, no no no…” said Jennis.
“I know what you think,” said Allie, “but he’s really not as bad as it seems…”
“Oh no.” said Jennis, getting up, backing away. “On top of everything else. Not THAT one…”
“But… Jennis, I needed somebody to be there!”
“Oh no.” snapped Jennis. “If you… if that’s all the sense you… God damn it. I’m done. I am so done right now…”
“But you haven’t told me anything about how to run that place!”
“Have a nice time. Your wonderful instinct for identifying good people should serve you well.”
“Jennis!” begged Allie. “Please!”
Jennis was walking off, but that stopped her.
“You’re something else, you know that?” she said. “You think you can get around me with sincerity. You’re tearing up and everything, and odds are you’re not even faking it. I bet your new boyfriend was real sincere when he explained it all to you…”
“Please, help me?”
“You get one last taste of reality, honey. Here it is: sincerity is not reality. Sincerity is not truth. You can be as nice as you like, but I’m still not taking you with me, because you fail the reality test. Some things you just can’t do.”
“But…” started Allie, and was cut off.
“Shut up. You’ll learn like I did. I’m not getting sucked into it. Do you realize I burned this place for you? I expected better of you. I thought it was well worth it to use up every bit of cred I had with this place in case you had the wits to meet me here. You were so late this place is dead to me now, they’ll never let me back, and then you turn out to be a fucking lightweight.”
“I’m seventeen!” pleaded Allie.
“Even you should know better than to take a child molester to bed!”
The argument was starting to seriously turn heads, and not only were there waiters converging on Jennis, but the manager was quickly overtaking them, looking both furious and dismayed. He was grabbing the waiters and telling them, “I’ll handle this!”
Jennis, noticing this, headed towards the entrance, calling, “Oh, yes, and since I’m not coming back, congratulations, nice people, I’m a fuckin’ whore! You’ve been having breakfast with a whore!”
The manager caught her arm, but she yanked it away with a “Don’t you fucking touch me!”
“Jennis,” he hissed, “this is intolerable. Behave!”
“This is burning bridges day. This is the first day of the rest of my life. Fuck you, and fuck your cafe!”
“Stop it! What’s setting you off? Cool your goddamned temper!”
“I’ll tell you!” barked Jennis. “The world, all right? The fucking world! Get your hand off me! I’m going! Fuck you, and her, and everybody!”
They passed through the entrance of the cafe almost at a run, the manager chasing after Jennis in desperation, and it was a good fifteen seconds before he came back- alone.
He padded inexorably over to where Allie still sat, trembling, at her table, and he spoke in a low and intense tone.
“Leave. Right now. Don’t speak, don’t look at anyone. Don’t return.”
Allie slunk out of the place, tail between her legs, not speaking and not looking at anyone.
Out in the street, there was no sign of Jennis. She was long gone. Somebody’d kicked over a trash barrel. Allie stood staring down the street, which was a central street and not a periphery street. Rather than go around the outside surface of the mountainous city, it was one of the streets that tunneled into the cityscape itself, and for a while Allie could not make herself go back into the heart of Verss alone, though she had to go hubward and down several levels to return to Mistress Elistary.
Then a hand touched her- a push and the words “Move it”- and suddenly she was fleeing directly into the chaotic maze, running desperately to get back to her room, the only safe place she had left.
When she got back, Wern was still asleep.
Allie stared at him for a bit, trying to imagine the truth of him. She tried to picture the hulking, impressive wolf as a teenage stick-figure boy, cowering from everybody. She tried to imagine his desperation, his despair of ever becoming a man.
She found she was imagining the little girl lowering herself onto him with inappropriate remarks, remarks that showed she had no connection with what was happening. Or… had he attacked her? Was it all a bunch of self-serving crap? She had only his word on that. He’d been pretty convincing.
Somebody had told her once that when a person lies and is challenged in the lie, they attack your perception- they challenge back, question the grounds on which you have an opinion. They say, who told you that? They say, what proof do you have?
Wern hadn’t done any of that. He’d been submissive in the manner of someone for whom life had always been a little too much to cope with. In spite of his rugged physique, he still seemed defeated. In sleep, he looked woebegone.
Allie realized that when she pictured him with the little girl, he looked terrified. It rang true, somehow. He didn’t have the guts to stand up to a child- particularly when it spoke to his secret fantasies. To hear him tell it, even that had gone terribly wrong.
That was the one thing she could really relate to, especially this morning.
Allie considered her options. She could flee- but she seriously worried to what extent Elistary’s grasp reached. Could she trust the police with what she knew? It seemed doubtful. She’d trusted Jennis, and that had been a bad move. If she wasn’t going to flee, she would have to keep working at Mistress Elistary. She didn’t know what she had to do, but the enforcers probably knew most things. And… Jennis had known what she was doing, but she was fired. Perhaps it was the right thing, right now, to not know what you were doing.
Wern stirred, but didn’t wake.
If she was going to keep working at Mistress Elistary, regardless of whether she knew how to run a house of ill repute, she’d be taking guys to bed for money. That was probably still going to work. In fact, she was still doing it- this one, Wern, was paying for the night and morning with her, though she’d promised to help him out. Paying herself. Perhaps that meant she was fucking herself? Well, that wasn’t unusual. Allie considered that she had this in common with Wern as well.
Slowly, Allie stripped off her top, waggled her torso a bit as if shaking her tits out after their confinement, slipped out of her pants- and she stood, looking down at her sleeping client and the one person she still trusted.
No, perhaps that wasn’t the right word. She didn’t exactly trust him- she barely knew him- rather, he was the one person from whom she felt she knew what to expect. She believed in his neurotic hang-ups, in his self-loathing, in his desire to re-make himself in the image of what he could never be. His desire to please, to make up for his unforgivable transgression, to teach himself other pleasures that would never be first nature to him…
And what was first nature to her, for that matter, apart from the ever-present urge to flee?
And how useful was that going to be, when she kept going from trap to trap, from betrayal to betrayal?
Allie stared at the sleeping wolf- the guy who’d paid for her time and her pussy and had cuddled her all night without seeking an encore- and one hand crept up to fondle and tickle her left nipple, and the other hand slipped down. Her languid finger caressed the perimeter of her wolfish vulva, not dashing to pinkness in the manner of male fantasies. The male was sleeping, and she could suit herself.
Allie fondled her own flesh with dreamy slowness, remembering Wern, before she knew about him- just the previous night, when he’d felt free to play upon her libido the best he knew how. That controlled, yet powerful body, the eerie silence as he listened for her faintest, repressed sounds… the gentle wet noises of her lupine vagina as he worked diligently in her, never betraying that he had any expectation, yet hungry for the signs of her utter release and satiation…
A faint wet sound startled her, and then she realized she’d grown so aroused her nipples ached and her pussy’d parted, with a delicate little noise like a breathless, flushed kiss. She hadn’t even touched anything pink besides her nipple. It was all that thinking about his desire to please, rather than be pleased. Allie also noted that part of it was the friendly solidness of his mid-sized cock- nothing dangerous or stressful about it, but still. You could get off with a properly wielded finger and enthusiasm. Well- that made for one hell of a big finger.
Allie’s eyes widened as she saw steady developments beneath the sheets. Wern smelled her, in his sleep. She wondered just what was in his mind- and then found out, as he stirred and mumbled, “…llie…” without waking.
Very quietly and gently, Allie lifted the sheet, a shudder of anticipation running through her like a splash of water against a parched houseplant.
This, at least, would work.
Allie thought for sure she’d wake up Wern, despite her best efforts, but he seemed a heavy sleeper. She wriggled into bed, even tucked herself under his arm, but he remained unrousable- Allie figured she could tell by the weight of his arm. He wasn’t sparing her any of its weight, which probably meant he was still dozing.
As she decided this, Wern stretched and pulled her against him with a yawn. Startled, Allie said, “Uh- morning?” but there was no response. His arm was still heavy, his breathing steady- he was asleep.
However, he’d managed to push his cock between her legs.
Allie trembled a bit in reaction- she’d crept into bed with him because she meant to reward him with sex, she’d got herself aroused, and when he grabbed her, she’d thought for certain that it was about to happen that instant. And then, poke- Wern’s cock was sticking out from between her legs, and he seemed quite content enjoying the pressure of her furry thighs.
It was certainly cozy. Allie couldn’t fault it for that, but she’d had other plans, which might wait a bit but not too long. She reached carefully between her legs, and began petting her pussy again, stroking the fur of her mons and tickling the arch of her vulva as it began to jut out in earnest. It was as if it was made for this position- perhaps it was. Allie imagined prehistoric fucking, dim bestial Runge humping, and pictured her vulva like a sort of target, swelling in the way it did, both as a visual signal and a sort of target to catch foolish, poorly aimed thrusts of cave-wolf cock.
Ye gods, thought Allie, if Wern knew I was thinking these things, he’d be horrified. He’s not exactly open to raw animalistic humping, he’s far too self-conscious.
No, wait- that’s only true of his conscious self. What if his dreams are less restrained?
Allie reached down a bit farther, even more cautiously, and brushed the tip of Wern’s cock with the fur on the back of her hand.
She didn’t get a reaction right away, though she had no way of knowing what was in his dreams. Emboldened by Wern’s lack of reaction, Allie touched the wolf-cock protruding between her legs. It seemed like she ought to be able to coax it into position- aimed higher, nestled against her jutting lupine vagina- a little shifting around, letting her legs part slightly and then enclose Wern’s wolfhood again.
This time, he was lined up, and ready for Allie’s little experiment. She had a theory that the combination of sleep and scent might bring out new behaviors in the hulking, neurotic wolf- and possibly if it worked, he’d get over himself and go back to the earlier behavior she’d liked.
Allie’s hand slipped down again, and a finger on her other hand snuck over to her breast, the one that Wern cupped in his sleep- there was just room to determinedly tickle her nipple without disturbing him, and Allie didn’t hesitate to do so. The two-toned wolf girl proceeded to masturbate as hard as she could without moving any part of herself that Wern held or touched.
With one exception… Allie’d tucked the tip of Wern’s cock between her labia, and though her caresses did not extend directly to his dick, she took quivering delight in fondling the end of his cock with her wolfpussy- nuzzling against it with vulva, petting it with labia, tantalizing it more and more as she grew moist and slick against him.
It seemed like it was taking a terribly long time, and Allie felt like she was floating, or balancing atop a high flagpole, reeling in the warmth and gentle frenzy of her fierce masturbation. She heard herself keening faintly, felt the urge to writhe and howl.
When Wern grunted and doubled up against her, thrusting his cock fully into her in a single motion still without apparently waking, Allie had just exhaled deeply and had no breath to yelp with- something for which, as the fireworks went off in her mind, she was grateful.
His arm stayed wrapped around her, his legs curled up into a hunched, coiled position shoving her legs up with them, and Allie shook and saw white flashes, sticking her wolf butt against him with the small of her back bent sharply, just to shove him deeper. Allie felt little exploratory motions, pushes and wriggles he couldn’t resist, thanks to the sudden change of feeling around him. What had been fur and thigh was now quivering lupine cunt embracing him to the hilt.
Allie couldn’t help it- as Wern began to swell and knot her, she cried out in shuddering gasps, almost yelps of ecstacy, and it was to this that the hapless male wolf woke. He blinked, instinctively drew Allie to him, noticed she was feverishly hot and shaking and cramming her bottom against his crotch while presenting like a Nerre, and only then worked out that he was buried to the hilt in her, already tied, and beginning to orgasm himself.
After he’d unloaded groggily into Allie’s pussy for a while, Wern greeted the morning with a big yawn, and greeted Allie with powerful stroking beginning just under her breasts, running down her belly and onto her legs. Her belly was tense as her body shook in silent, unrelenting orgasm. Wern noticed with interest that his stroking was furthering it- at one point, even forcing a quavering yelp out of her.
Gradually, both the muscular guy and the two-tone-furred girl subsided into a prolonged tie that made Wern grin from the intensity of its grip. Allie’d forgotten to pay any attention to releasing, and her body cramped down onto Wern shamelessly, trembling all over with reaction.
Wern held her, and didn’t count the minutes. Not that it was his job to… but it just seemed that, for some reason, Allie had needed this. He hoped he’d sufficed.
Allie gradually settled down. It took quite a while. Wern remembered eventually that she had to work, and that he was taking up her time- though in fairness, he was paying for it. At least, that was the arrangement.
Allie stirred, and muttered something.
“What was that?”
“Said, I’ll keep you. Can’t blame me for that.” said Allie. “You’re all I’ve got left.”
Wern blinked. “How’s that again?”
“I saw Jennis, this morning. She got mad, and left.”
“She was here? I’m lucky she didn’t attack me…”
“No, no!” said Allie. “I left. I went to this cafe… but I was late, and it really didn’t go well.” She sounded very forlorn, and Wern hugged her in hopes of cheering her.
“Did she give you any tips on how to run this place?” he asked.
“I’m not sure it matters. Jennis was really good, and look what happened to her… I think maybe the ordinary rules don’t apply here.”
Wern considered this, and drew Allie a little tighter against him. “Do you think they apply well enough that you’ll be, you know, safe?”
Allie laughed, a bitter humorless laugh that Wern didn’t like at all.
“If you’re going to be on my side, I think I’d better fill you in on some things…”
As she explained, Wern held her tighter and tighter, as if she was going to be literally dragged away by the ominous forces she described.
Only a few levels away, a lupine paw knocked on a clean, well-kept door.
Before long, it opened, and a chubby, extremely fluffy white Nerre lady peered out. “Bear with us, dear- nobody’s booked for the morn… hang on, you’re not a guy. Can we help you?”
“Hope to hell you can.”
“Well then- what can we do for you?” said Demarle.
“The word on the street is, you’ve lost your enforcer. You know, like a bar has a bouncer?”
“What’s it to you? If this is a shakedown, honey, first I’ll kick your ass, then Faisand’s new boyfriend’ll kick your ass, then we’ll have this visiting kitty mince what’s left into really small pieces…”
“No no! I want to apply for the position.”
“Really? What are your qualifications?” said Demarle.
“Twenty years ass-kicking and brothel management all in Verss, mostly in union shops.”
“We’re not members, dear.”
“Neither was the last place I worked. I only mention it to show I can document everything I say.”
“You do seem very well informed.” said Demarle. “You’re right- we do need some support in that area. Especially since Faisand thinks we’re getting persecuted by Mistress Elistary- you heard of her?”
“That’s news to me, but I wouldn’t put it past her- the stuff I’ve heard- let’s just say it would be in character.”
“Come in, dear. Just a minute… you’re talking confidently enough, but your eyes… have you been crying, dear?”
“No, absolutely not.” lied Jennis.
