5
Julie
He could crush my throat…but he hasn’t. Every time I swallow, I’m aware of the pressure and the possibility. I should struggle and fight, but the moment I do, I will begin to change like Gran. According to her research, I’ll become a monster like him.
I close my eyes. All I have to do is remember that he was human once.
“Look at me, Prey.” His voice rumbles through me. A rough growl that I don’t find as terrifying as I should. The way he grips me and speaks to me does something to me.
The dark desire spreads and I open my eyes, knowing exactly how to convince him to help me. While his face is close to mine, my gaze darts past his distorted features to the now straining fabric of his loincloth.
“I know about Under. I know you were once human, and I know that fighting and anger cause the changes.”
His nostrils flare. “If you do not fight, you will die.”
The pressure on my throat increases for a heartbeat as if he is planning on squeezing the life from me. I want to claw at his hand and kick at him. Instead, I force myself to hold his gaze even as my lungs burn. He was human. Maybe there remains a whisper of kindness and humanity in there.
He eases his hold so I can breathe and speak.
“That is my choice,” I say.
“That is a dumb choice.”
“Perhaps.” Is he right? He has lived and survived here, and I have still got wet panties from crawling out of the puddle. “But it’s mine.”
Every choice will be mine. I will not be pushed, and I will not be changed, and I will find a way out of Under even though my mother never found away. Gran, with all her research, had never mentioned a way out. Doubts creep in, what if there is no way out?
Would it be better to die now?
He tilts his head, like all the horns weigh too much, as he considers me. “Changed your mind, Prey?”
All I have to do is say yes and he will kill me, and I will never risk becoming like him. But that one word will cost me the chance of going home and I have to hold on to that hope.
“No…protect me and…and you can have me.” The words are a whisper. Am I more worried that he’ll accept, or that he’ll refuse and squeeze my throat until my face turns blue?
His icy gaze cuts into my soul and lays it bare for inspection. This time I’m barely breathing because I don’t know what he’ll say, or what will happen.
My fate is in his claws.
My life is his to do with whatever he pleases, and he must know that. Yet he doesn’t laugh at me or pull away. He seems to weigh every possibility, as though trying to decide which hunger he wants to feed.
“If I start to change, you can eat me then.” Because if I change, I will be lost. That much I have learned from Gran. Even though she has tried to keep the changes at bay, every slip costs her. What had been a few toes at first, became her foot, then her lower leg.
Here it will be that much harder to resist changing.
Without help I will not last a day. If days are even a thing beneath the bruise of a sky.
“I already have you.” He tightens his grip for a heartbeat to make his point. Then he squats in front of me, so we are eye to eye. His legs are spread, and the loincloth does nothing to hide the jut of his dick.
He is all raw power and strength. My savior or my killer. I lift my gaze to focus on his eyes, the only human part of him. But that’s not what is making me bold. A part of me wants him to accept and to claim me.
My heart skips a beat. From fear or excitement? Or both.
I don’t know where this longing comes from, only that it is twisting inside of me. I shouldn’t want him. He is a monster. He is what I should fear.
What if I’m not enough or he doesn’t want me?
No, he wants me. That much is obvious.