Taming A Predator

Chapter 10

Doe's POV:

"Holy crap," I breathed, my brain tumbling over the story Khloe had just told.

It took us a good while to get through both of our respective backgrounds before the brothers became involved in our lives.

In that time and our aimless wandering, we stumbled upon the inside portion of the garden that looked to function like an obscenely large greenhouse.

And so, we settled down on the grass here, sitting across from each other.

It looks like she thought mine was equally as awful as I believed hers was.

She had a life. A childhood, a whole family, and then just had it all ripped away and burned into nothing before getting thrown into the world I grew up in.

Though with a pet master that treated her like shit.

Looking back on it, mine fed me some bullshit ideals, and conditioned me into exactly what she wanted but I truly think I'd rather take that then getting beaten, starved, or drugged at any minor inconvenience.

I learned that she's experienced a whip much more than I have.

On top of all that I couldn't begin to imagine how it felt to lose her family the way that she did.

I had nothing close to compare it to, so instead took what I saw between Xander and his parents and compare it that way.

Even then, it made my chest ache.

And certainly shed some light as to why she was so flighty that first day I saw her.

She reacted to the details of my upbringing very similarly to how Xander did.

"And to think that Nico left that day with the intention of getting another pet for Xander." I added.

She looked up at the now darkened shy through the glass keeping this room relatively warm.

She sat crisscrossed with her hands set behind her for support and to keep her back straight and comfortable through the bandages wrapped around her.

"Nico told me about that too, but said that he changed his mind last minute," She explained.

Nico went to what had to have been the shittiest shop in the city after being fed up with Xander's actions, just to end up taking her home for himself.

Her head lowered, brows furrowed in thought.

"What do you think would have happened if he didn't?" She asked, "If he had given me to Xander that day."

"I actually asked him that same question the morning that it happened. He said that he would have refused since he was busy keeping me alive as it was, and never got used to the idea of having a pet let alone two. You probably would have ended up with Nico either way." I replied.

Her eyes looked over the ground as she thought that through.

"I honestly have no idea how you didn't have a heart attack or something those first couple days with him. Nico's saved my ass on multiple occasions, but I swear, one stern look from him and I see my life flash in front of my eyes." I told, hearing my knees crack as I laid my legs flat against the grass, "He gets stuff done, but man is he terrifying."

A lot less so, lately, but the man has a gaze that could still send you running.

She managed to stifle the last half of her soft laugh.

"Y'know, Marcus said something similar to me once. And I'll admit, I had the same thought at first. Though at the time, I couldn't imagine how you lived with Xander."