Surrender Complete Bundle

Chapter One: Caged

Chapter One: CagedThe bird in the cage fluffs it's feathers, preening at her in a way that makes her smile. It's a small little thing, the only thing she's seen so far in this massive home that's bigger than she is. It is perched on a metal swing, streaks of colors across it's belly and tail.

"You know why you're here?" a stern voice asks.

She turns away from the bird, feeling like a bird herself, caged and small. At least the bird had a metal cage to keep it safe, a Master to feed it when it goes hungry. Her tongue feels like it is glued to the roof of her mouth, too heavy for words.

"Um. I'm here for a job?" she says, feeling out of her depth already and she's only one question in. She's so hungry she can barely thinking. It's evening and she was kicked out in the morning with only ten dollars in her pocket. She used it to pay for a second hand pair of outfit that wasn't torn in several places so she can be somewhat presentable to her job interview.

Truthfully, she has no idea why she's here. The address was given to her right before she left and she was told firmly that she will need to be there for a job, if she wanted it.

She almost snorts at the memory. If she wanted it- as if she had a choice in the matter at all. It's either this, or homelessness and a weak little human like her won't do well out on the roads.

The werewolf's expression shifts into something unreadable before he schools his expression into something resembling neutral again and then he's nodding.

"You're eighteen?" he asks without really asking, not looking up or expecting an answer. His voice is male and deep, a low growl of a thing that makes her belly tighten in all the right ways. Or maybe it's all the wrong ways? She shouldn't be turned on by the man interviewing her, no matter how ridiculously hot he is. There's something not quite human about him, though.

She has always been able to tell such things with the Supernatural creatures among her. She thinks it's could be because she's a human and prey to so many of their kind. Her natural instinct is to run and hide and in order to do that, she needs to be able to recognize which of the people around her are threats to her. He's a werewolf, she tells herself quietly, seeing the way his hands shift to claws when he's not paying attention, the way the end of his words turn into growls.

"How old are you?" he asks, looking up and he's really asking now, peering at her with eyes that are too blue. It's frightening to be the sole attention of a predator as big and scary as he is.

She has to remind herself that she has rights and he's not an actual wolf and therefore won't eat her in order to calm her racing heart. "I'm eighteen," she manages to squeak out.

"Happy Birthday," he says, startling her because she doesn't remember putting her birthday on the resume.

Then again, she kind of wrote that in a hurry because everything she had learned in school told her that resumes are important and she shouldn't show up here without any sort of preparation... even if she still had no idea what she's getting herself into. She just knows that she really needs this job if she doesn't want to be homeless. "Thank you," she says after the silence drags on for a moment too long. Her hands tremble slightly and she folds them together over her lap to keep them from giving her away. She doesn't know if it does her any good. Her heart is pounding so loudly in her ears. Surely, he can hear that?

"So, tell me about yourself," he says and puts her at an immediate loss.

She licks her lips and asks, "Like, my previous job experiences?" she asks.

He looks a little amused and nods. "If you want," he says.

"I um- just, regular cleaning jobs? I guess? There's normally a lot of do at the orphanage and somethings I help out at the food bank and um... the local library? But like, they're not really allowed to hire me because I'm like, unregistered or something? And there's a lot of forms that needs to be filled up if they want to hire a human so they sort of just-" she bites her lower lip and stops talking because she's fairly sure she's not supposed to be telling him about how she was getting paid illegal for working there. It's not like she got to keep her money anyways. All that ends up going to the head of the orphanage because they're always short on cash and she needs to earn her keep. Or something. She doesn't really understand more of the things going on there. She thought the government gave the orphanage money.

"You've been on your own for so long," he says and there's something in his eyes that makes her want to hide away.

"I'm not alone," she finds herself saying. It's true. The Orphanage is full of people all the time. But she thinks she understand what he's saying. She's surrounded by people, but she's alone. Nobody truly knows her and it's hard for them to really know her. Most of the children in the orphanage are supernatural beings of some sort, mostly werewolves, and she's human. She's small and fragile and growing up, her peers are afraid of accidentally hurting her so they just left her alone.

It's a kind of cruel mercy, because it also means she's left alone a lot. As they grew older, the habit of staying away from the fragile, breakable human continued and they just kept to themselves while she drifted alone the sidelines, alone.

"It says here that you've just graduated?"

She nods.

"Do you have plans for after?" he asks.

Her mouth opens and closes a few times as she tries to think of the best way to say she won't be going to college because she doesn't have a penny to her name and she needs this job desperately, but she settles on a soft, "Not really."

He arches a brow at her. "Smart thing like you?" He looks at her in disbelieve. "What a terrible waste that would be. You've done really well in all your classes," he says.

She preens despite herself. She worked hard for all her grades. It's hard to be as good as she is in the classes, especially since she can't attend all the after school sessions because she needs to help out at the orphanage. The Matron doesn't like it when they have to stay back after school. She's afraid of them misbehaving and getting in trouble.

"Perhaps we can enroll you in a few classes while you're here," he says and there's a sort of finality to his tone that makes her perk up immediately.

"You mean I'm hired?" she gasps, face lighting up, smiling so widely that she can feel the stretch of her grin all the way to her ears.

He licks his lips and ducks his face, hiding his expression from her. She lets go of a breath she doesn't realize she has been holding once he's no longer putting his full attention on her. He doesn't talk for a few minutes and doesn't even appear to be reading the papers in front of him.

As she fidgets uncomfortable on the seat, she notices the way he's pulling his upper lip back, breathing in slightly, scenting the air again. She hopes she smells nice enough to him. His grip on the paper tightens so much that the paper scrunches up where he's gripping it, tearing when his nails turn into claws and then back right before her eyes.

She presses herself into the couch, irrationally afraid even though he hasn't done anything at all. She wonders if she's failed the interview somehow. She hasn't really done anything to warrant a dismissal, though.

Maybe that's the problem?

She's never had a proper interview before. Maybe she ought to be doing something to proof her worth?

He rests his elbows on the table and leans in, breathing deeper. Scenting, her brain supplies readily. Some wolves do this to see if a human's scent is... acceptable. He had done it a few times since the interview started and she's rather hopeful that since he hasn't kicked her out after the first time, he had decided she smells alright. Or maybe that's just wistful thinking.

Before her brain can tell her what a horrible idea it is, her mouth opens and she asks, "Do I smell good?"

His eyes flash for a second and suddenly the table feels too small. She leans away from it a little bit even though he can't reach towards her even if he extends his arms out fully over the large table.

She wonders if that's the whole point of the table being there, to keep them apart.

He stands and renders that reasoning in her head completely moot when he moves to stand by her side, dragging the empty chair beside her until he's facing her.

She twists around in the chair awkwardly after attempting to do the same, only to find the chair too heavy for her to move.

The corner of his lips curl up in amusement and he stands, stepping around behind her to help her turn her chair to face him.

"I have a few more questions for you," he says and at her eager nod, he continues, "Do you have any close friends? People who would miss you from the orphanage?"

She frowns. Was he going to do something to her and making sure no one will come asking?

"I have more than one position open if you'd like some company," he offers magnanimously.

She feels blood rush to her cheek and shifts on the chair, feeling silly for thinking such terrible thoughts. "No," she says. "The others um- they leave me alone cause I'm human and they're afraid of hurting me."

He nods. "No one's tried to adopt you?" he asks.

She grimaces. He's hit a sore spot. "Humans are not very... desirable?" she ventures a guess. She doesn't actually know. There's only one human- her- at the orphanage and no one's asked for her before.

"Perhaps," he says, distracted. And then, apropos of nothing, he asks, "Do you mind if I scent you properly, pup?"

Blood rushes to her cheeks in a hurry. She's never had a pet name before and 'pup' sounds really sweet and friendly, like he knows her. She thinks of saying no. She's not used to close contact with, well, anybody, and he's leaning in so closely already, but she reminds herself that she really needs this job and nods instead. She's never been scented by a werewolf before.

She's seen the parents coming to adopt do that sometimes, though, lean in close to breath in the children's scent and try and find one that's most desirable.

"Good girl," he says and she shouldn't be so happy that a stranger is complimenting her, but she is. It fills her with a comforting warmth that spreads through her belly and makes her feel all nice and warm inside.

He tugs his seat even close to hers, and then loses his patience with trying to close their distance and grips her by her waist to pull her up and into his lap.

It all happens so quickly and suddenly that she doesn't have a chance to react at all, finding herself curled up in his lap like a giant soft toy that he's decided to purchase- or something.

She tries to stay still and not struggle in his grip, though. Maybe there's something wrong with his sense of smell and he has to do this in order to cent her properly. But then he yanks her in closer, pressing their bodies flush together until it's impossible to tell where she stops and he begins and he presses his nose up to her pulse, his warm exhale hot like burning on her skin as he breathes in deep and then exhales, repeating the inhales and exhales like she's hiding the air he needs to survive on her lungs.

In her cage, the bird flutters and she knows exactly how it feels.