The Pet-Chapter 4
Beta felt himself floating through dark memories. He let out a soft whimper and clenched his paws as fear started to build up in the back of his throat as a defensive growl. He felt the hackles on the back of his neck raise, right as the muzzle poked through from the dark-
"Ah!" Beta barked, waking up, covered in a cold sweat. He was lying next to Mistress, his paws tied behind his back from them having played last night. His claws though, were dug into his palms, and he was pretty sure he could feel a trickle of blood. A whine escaped his muzzle as he realized he'd had yet another night terror, from, then. It was silent for a little bit before he heard Mistress speak.
"Another night terror Beta?" she asked, rolling over to face him, a paw wrapping behind his head to pet him. Her other paw reached behind him, pulling on a loose rope, and undoing his binds.
"Yes Mistress," he said, his face burning beneath his fur with embarrassment. He felt he needed to be strong for his Mistress, to show her that he was as a big wolf. Yes, he had very puppy-like tendencies, but it was hard for him to get fully into that submissive mindset that he needs to 'rely' on his owner. She sat up, pulling him up after her.
"March to the bathroom," she said, pulling on his collar to bring him with her. They got up in the bare bedroom, heading toward the small hallway. They passed their small side room before entering the bathroom, where Mistress turned on the bright unprotected bulb.
She held his paws out, examining them. "Beta, you got to stop doing this. At this rate, your paws are going to be horribly torn up," she said as she observed the old and new cuts. She quickly wiped some antibacterial ointment on his new cuts, and kissed his forehead. "You're going to be fine," and she pet his head some more.
"I know Mistress, it just, it won't leave me." He said, rubbing his wrists a little, which often ached. It was more of a memory than an actual pain. She grabbed his paw which was rubbing the other wrist, a frown on her face. He could tell that she was concerned about him.
"How about we try to go back to sleep? We could possibly even play a little? Maybe give you some more positive reinforcement?" She asked, holding him closer to her.
"Sure Mistress, maybe some positive reinforcement would help," he whined, licking her paw some.
"I think positive reinforcement helps always," she said, hooking a finger in one of the D-rings on his new collar. She gave him a smile, but he could see a little bit of sadness behind it, and he found his ears going back and his slight smile fading. "You okay?"
"I'm not sure to be truthful," he said, pulling away from her and sitting on the toilet, his tail off to the side so that he could hold it.
"W-why not?" she asked while she leaned against the wall, her arms crossed.
"Because I know you like doing stuff with me, but I can tell this time it's just to try and help. And, I don't think much else could help. What happened was such a huge break in my trust. I love you, but, trusting anyone is probably going to take a while," he said, putting his head in his paws. Mistress padded over and ran her paw between his ears, which twitched away at her touch.
The female wolf let out a long sigh, "I wish, I could fix what happened. You know I would do anything for you hun . . ." The word seemed to hang in the air for a while between them, where nether one of them moved. She eventually withdrew her paw, letting it hang beside her, while her other paw hung onto the towel bar as if holding onto it for support. The light flickered for a second, threatening to go out on them both.
"I know you would, and I would do anything for you. I would protect you even if it meant my own life."
"And that's why I feel so bad," she said, finally crossing her arms. "When I learned what'd happened to you. I just, I couldn't stand it. I cried, I hit, but no matter what I did, I couldn't do anything to help you. And I'm sorry sweety. I rea-"
"It's not your fault," Beta cut in. "I know it's not your fault, so please, quit apologizing." His hackles were raised, and his eyes had glassed over. Now this is how he would get when he was mentally somewhere else, and Mistress could see him flinch as some sort of dark memory. She reached out to him, and he growled softly.
This made her let out a soft whimper, and she found herself leaving the room, heading toward the kitchen. She opened a drawer and brought out a short knife, tears streaming down her face as she looked upon the blade. The next thing she knew, Beta had grabbed her from behind. His tail was obviously between his legs because she felt it.
"P-please don't cut yourself Mistress," he begged, "Not because of me. I promised myself I'd never be the cause of your cutting. Please do-"
"It's not because of you," she cooed sadly, setting the knife back down on the counter. "It's because of what HE did. It had nothing to do with your and your actions, because you hardly had any choice in what happened."
"I-I know," Beta whimpered, suddenly bursting into tears, holding onto her as hard as he could. Sobs racked his chest, and all Mistress could do was pet his head and coo softly to him, trying to get the sobs to end.
The chair was comfortable, almost too comfortable though. The room smelled nice though, almost like lavender. The woman sat across from him. He knew she was generally nice but he found himself sometimes wondering if she was just nice because she was paid to be nice. He was pretty sure that was the case. Mistress paid for it, so he gave it a shot though. This was only their second meeting though, and so far it wasn't going well.
"So, do you remember anything from what happened?" the lemur asked, her clipboard sitting on the desk between them. Her name 'tag' sitting on the desk read "Kathy Pike".
"Not, exactly," Beta said carefully, hugging his tail to his thigh a little. "I mean, I'll remember things in flashes really. Like last night, I had a dream, and woke up screaming."
"So, you're having night terrors of what happened?"
"Yes, and they are really distorted all the time. Like shadows are almost backwards sometimes even."
"Hm," she rubbed her pencil against the underside of her short muzzle. Beta found himself watching the clock for a moment, the second hand moving agonizingly slow.
"So um, does this mean anything?" Beta asked, his attention coming back to Kathy. Kathy Pike, lemur, therapist to the abused, especially submissives.
"Well, it seems that you've got some folding, or boxing going on inside your head."
"I would hope so, seeing as the condition they apparently found me in."
"You don't even remember them finding you?" She asked, leaning forward.
"No, the first thing I remember after being struck with the first swipe of a whip painfully, was waking up in a hospital bed with bandages all over my body and about five different things flowing into my blood!" Beta barked, making his skin shiver. Kathy wrote something down on her clipboard after a few moments.
"Needles bother you don't they?"
"What? I mean, yeah, they do. Why?"
"Just, you seemed to not have really liked the fact that you had IV's keeping you alive, considering that you'd been hospitalized for almost two weeks because they had to put you into a medical coma." Beta bit his lip as this information was passed over to him. He hadn't known how long he'd been in the hospital. No one had told him before.
"I see," is all he said.
"So, you want to tell me more about these 'missing' chunks of time."
"Not really," Beta said.
"Well, it could be a number of things. For all we know, you could have brain damage," Kathy said, making Beta's ears flicker at the last two words to leave her mouth.
"So, what do you suggest Mrs. Pike?" he asked, his temper starting to get the better of him.
"I think that you should maybe go to the hospital and have an MRI done on your head."
Beta let out a sigh, a headache forming behind his eyes. "Alright, I'll go."
"Thank you," Kathy said before peering up at the clock. "Well, I think we should end this session, and I'll see you in a week?"
"Sure," Beta said, taking the card from her that she slide across the table. It had his appointment date and time on it. He let out a sigh and stood up. Without a word, he left and soon found himself in the lobby. Mistress was waiting for him, 'reading' a magazine to pass the time.
"So how'd it go?" she asked, setting the magazine down greatfully.
"About how it went the last week."
"That bad huh? Do we need to get you a different therapist maybe?"
"No."
"Oh, well is there any other way I can help?" she frowned. Beta could tell she didn't like him being short with her but, headaches always seemed to make his temper flair.
"If anything it's my fault," he admitted, sitting down next to her, "I'm just, having a hard time opening up to her I guess."
She brought a paw up to his head and pet him. "It's okay sweety, it'll just take some time. Say, do you want to get some coffee?"
"Yeah, I'd like that. But maybe in a little bit?" he asked, laying his head down on her lap to try and get a little comfortable. She continued to pet his head, letting him lay there. He let out a soft yawn.
"That's exactly why I suggested the coffee, plus it always seems to raise your mood" she chuckled, lifting his chin up to see her before kissing his nose. His tail thumped the bench a little bit, making her give him a genuine smile. After sitting there for a little while, they actually got up and headed out of the office.
Instead of grabbing the HHR, the two of them walked down the street a ways, to a small coffee shop called "The Crooked Tree". It was a small new coffee shop that actually had a loft in the top half of it. Beta was led up to the counter by Mistress, and he found himself having a hard time deciding what to have.
After some consideration, Beta ordered a medium cappuccino with lots of whip cream and caramel drizzle on top. They stood there a moment waiting for it, and Beta began to nuzzle Mistress, trying to find the comfort that he once had what seemed like a long time ago. After he received his coffee though, they sat down at one of the tables while he sipped away. They were quiet for a moment, while the furs outside went along with their normal, everyday business.
"So, did you two talk about anything? You know, new?" she asked.
"Not really, besides how I basically can't remember anything from the time I was taken two months ago to when they found me a month ago. As much as I may want to remember though, I kind of don't at the same time. There's gotta be a reason why I don't remember, and I know that when I do, I probably won't like it," Beta replied before pulling a long sip from his drink.
"Well, when you do remember something," she reached her hand across the table, "you'll tell me right?"
"Of course Mistress, I would tell you when I remember," he found himself whine at the same time though, before another yawn rocked his chest. "Do you think that maybe we could go home and I could try to sleep again?"
"Well, I guess we could-"
Beta felt himself pulling out of a foggy abyss, but his chest was heaving like crazy. He was in their bed, and he found Mistress holding onto him. Her arms wrapped around him, letting out soft pleasant growls. He looked down himself and found that they were tied together, which means that they were just having sex. He didn't remember having sex though-
"Oh Thowan," she growled, nuzzling his chin. "You are so good to me. What did I do to deserve someone as great as you to be with me?"
"W-who's Thowan?" Beta asked, his voice hesitant, and he suddenly felt hurt that maybe Mistress was seeing someone else to and he didn't know.
"You are silly, don't be so modest." Mistress said, gently nipping his chin. "I mean, it's not like I show much of my submissive side to anyone really. I especially don't submit to someone who belongs to me." She grabbed his collar in that moment, pulling him closer to bite his ear. "Well, not normally anyway."
Confusion and a hint of panic crossed Beta's mind. "What do you mean? I've always been submissive to you Mistress."
"Except tonight of course, and I can't tell you how fun that was. You holding me down and biting my shoulder as you played with me. Oh! And then when you rolled me over and did me from behind..." she let out a dreamy sigh. "Sooo, amazing," she snuggled into him again before gently pulling away, pulling on his knot and caused a moan to come out of him. She giggled and laid herself against him, her tail playing with his. "I think it's time for some sleep, for the both of us, considering you were saying you wanted to sleep earlier."
"Yeah, I suppose," Beta chuckled nervously. They layed there for a while before he finally said something. "There's only one thing I can truly tell you I remember." He felt her ears perk. "He was part of what happened. I mean, he was there, doing it with them."