The Primal's Kitten

Chapter Two

I woke up panting, tangled in the soft lavender pool of jersey sheets on my bed. “f**k, I need to stop reading before bed..” I muttered to myself as I rubbed my face and stretched. “Yeah you do, I could have sworn you went feral in the middle of the night. What were you dreaming about?” Asked Alicia, my best friend and roommate. We’d known each other since we were babies, and shared everything, but this seemed even too personal to share with her. “I don’t remember.” I lied, giving a shrug as if it was nothing, even though flashes of the dream were now playing over behind my eyes, making my cheeks flush with remembered heat. 

“It was too something, you slut, tell me!” Did I say Alicia has no tact, cause the woman has zero tact. “You would think I’m crazy if I told you.” I evaded again because I really didn’t want to share this with her. It wasn’t that it felt wrong, but how would I explain to my best friend that suddenly I had dreams of being hunted down by a man? That I wanted to feel the way a rabbit does when it’s chased down by a wolf. Ugh, why was I like this? “Aurora Marie Smith” She hissed at me.  “I don’t want to talk about it, ok?” I finally huffed when she crossed her arms over her chest to glare at me. She might be my best friend, but the woman could be intimidating. Alicia stood at 5’9 and still wore stilettos to the club, which only accented the gorgeous curves she wore on wide hips. I had always been jealous of her shape, the way her weight just settled in the best places. Ugh, pair all of that with green eyes, high cheekbones, and soft curls that fell just below her shoulder blades, recently dyed teal, and the woman looked like a damn Goddess. 

I, on the other hand, was just a little too close to being labelled overweight, just a little too soft, a little too jiggly. Boys in school had always made fun of my weight, how big my butt was, it made me self conscious all through middle and high school. Thankfully all of that was several years behind me now, and I had found a handful of men to date who found my hourglass figure something to be desired. None of them stayed for long, there was always something wrong with them, something I just couldn’t put my finger on, but it always ended the same way. So, I decided to take some time off from dating and really focus on the small business Alicia and I were trying to start. “Fine, but you better get your ass up, we have orders to fill.”

Alicia walked out then, down the hall toward the small extra bedroom we used as a workspace. “There’s coffee in the kitchen!” She called back to me, and that was the only thing that got me out of bed. I already knew she’d made it, I could smell it from down the hall, but it made me happy that she made me some, since sometimes she just, doesn’t. Rude. It was even the good stuff too. We kept a stash of Seattle’s Best for special occasions, like if one of our mothers came over for the day, or if we had guys over the night before. I quirked a brow as I looked between the coffee pot and the door that lead into the workspace, but eventually shrugged, got myself a cup with plenty of oat milk creamer, and went to join her to look over orders. “So, what do we have today?”I asked her, sipping at the coffee in my hand, god it was even still hot enough to burn my mouth. She was definitely up to something, even if she was acting otherwise normal, or normal for her anyway. 

“All of the lavender sold out, so we need to pour more of those to put in the shop. We sold six more of the gold leaf stakes, the keychain ones, and eight more of the ones wrapped with a leather handle. We should get a headstart on the leaves too, so we have a good amount stockpiled for fall.” Alicia ran down the list, checking the calendar, though it was only February, we had time. “Wow, well good, I’ll package the orders if you want to start mixing and pouring the resin?” I offered, knowing that she liked to do the pouring, and really hated packaging, while I liked it, always adding in business cards and stickers, and usually a sprig of lavender or whatever we had on hand that was dry and smelled good. “Sounds good, we can both work on hole punching the leaves and sanding down the stuff from the other day.”

I just nodded and went to work, I knew Alicia would talk to me when she was ready, whatever it was she was trying to sweeten me up over. It couldn’t be that bad right? I mean I knew she was seeing a new guy and it had gotten at least somewhat serious, Could she want to move out? I really hoped not, I couldn’t afford to keep the house up on my own, even if my Dad had paid it off before he died two years ago. Trying not to let my now anxious thoughts get the better of me, I turned to my work, getting the orders packaged up and the shipping labels printed so I could leave them in the basket on the porch to be picked up later. We worked in mostly comfortable silence for the better part of an hour before Alicia joined me with a pile of leaves and a hole punch in the shape of an oak leaf, getting to work on her part of the work, 

“There’s something I wanted to talk to you about.” Alicia’s voice never trailed off like that, oh hell, what was I about to walk into. “Ok, so talk, why are you being so weird about it?” I asked, nudging her slightly in an attempt to add a playful air to what was obviously going to be a serious conversation. “I want Gavin to move in.” She blurted and for a moment I wondered if I heard her right, because this was seriously not even a big deal. The house was huge even for two of us, and from what I had seen, I really liked this new boyfriend of hers, even if 3 months seemed a little early to be moving him in. “Okaaaay, so why is this such a big deal?” I was still a little on edge from thinking she wanted to move out, so this was a weird surprise, and I wasn’t sure I had gotten the whole story. 

“Well, Gavin and I don’t really have what you might think of as a regular relationship.” There she was trailing off again, what the actual f**k. “Care to explain? You’re sort of freaking me out here. What does he walk around his house in a maid outfit or something?” I was joking, trying again to lighten the mood, but the way Alicia’s face changed when I made the joke made my own features fall a little. “Wait..you mean..” I stumbled over words because I was more than a little taken aback. It wasn’t that I was judging, not after the dreams I had been having, but I didn’t know she was into this sort of thing, let alone that she might be a Domme. 

“Yes, sometimes he does. And don’t you get judgy with me, I’ve seen the things you read!” She snapped, and of course I felt even worse then. Reaching out, I laid my hand on her shoulder, “Hey, I’m sorry, honestly. It just took my by surprise, I thought you were going to say you wanted to move out.” I said softly, my cheeks hot with emotion. I felt awful that I had upset her, so much so that I didn’t even mention the shot she took at my reading habits. “I just didn’t realize you were into that sort of thing,” I added, like that would make it better. To my surprise, Alicia started to laugh, hard. I looked on with wide eyes for a good five minutes while she got it all out of her system, not about to interrupt what looked like my bestie coming entirely unhinged for no reason. “Uh, care to let me in on the joke there, pal?”

“Come on Rory, how many times growing up did I play the villain and tie up your brother and you so the neighbourhood kids could save you? How many times did it seem like I was ‘it’ a little too much on vacation, chasing everyone else around as if my life depended on it?” She asked and as I started to think back, there were too many times to count that stuck out. “Well s**t, I’m oblivious…” I muttered, shaking my head, which was the wrong move because my precariously piled curls decided that was their cue, and down they came from the knot on the top of my head, getting right in my face. At least it broke the tension because Alicia started to laugh again, which made me laugh too. I just couldn’t help it this time, I’m sure I looked ridiculous. 

We finished our work for the day as we chattered about what it would mean if Gavin moved in with us, the types of things I was comfortable with seeing and what I definitely wanted them to keep behind closed doors. I had known about all this stuff for years, far before I should have, but all it took was a book at 15 that I shouldn’t have been reading, and enough internet searches, and I got the gist of it. I hid this knowledge, of course, my mom was the type who would take away my computer if she knew half of the things I had wondered about and looked for, so I was careful to delete searches and kept all my information in folders named for other things. Once work was done, we made hot chocolate and settled on the porch to talk some more, how could I not tell her about my dream now, when I knew she was certainly the only one who would understand?