Take A Walk In My Skin

Chapter 19

Emma's POV

My so-called leader was absolutely cruel for doing what he just did, exposing me in such a way it was like having my innocence stolen. My virtue taken. All so he could see the breed of dog I was.

As if he couldn't just ask me about it...

While I was forced to show him who I was, I was also forced to relinquish my identity to him. Render my body and my freedom to him.

If my so-called leader was involved, nothing I did could slither past him.

I never had anything disrespectful to say about the gay community. In fact, I attended multiple pride festivals a few years back, and I loved everything about it. Love is love. The free-spirited connection. The joyous vibrations. The special celebration.

As soon as I turned twenty-one, I was quick to move out and experience things more openly. Sheila and Frank couldn't stop me from getting a small apartment and a job to pay my bills. I worked really hard to get where I was until I could finally go to college, working even harder just to get there.

Being twenty-five now, we all knew how that eventually turned out...

At first, when the two of them heard the news I was even considering leaving, they thought I was conspiring against them. When they turned savage, they quite literally chewed me up and spit me out. They locked me down in the cellar for a week–or what felt like a week, feeding me nothing but scraps to get by until they trusted me enough to let me go.

The day came when, finally, Sheila and Frank grew tired of coming across me. Looking at me in passing. Taking care of me. It came down to a boiling point where they let me go willingly just to get rid of me.

After their cruelty and everything they did to deserve my fixed hatred, my anger never puffed up around them the way it did around someone else. More specifically, Raphael.

His name ground in my teeth, grazing every nerve ending until they were set on fire. My anger for him greatly increased during every visit, unsure if there was a way to make it through the hardship of being constantly belittled by someone.

And how did I know he was into men? My gaydar detector immediately sensed his feelings slipping for the elephant in the room. Just the way he looked at Phase entering compared to my nude display set off major impressions.

I was practically giving him a show, yet my breasts had little to no effect on him. Just like the last time the three of us were together, Raphael had a hard time keeping it together where Phase was concerned.

I was lost in thought, the grass delicate underneath my feet as I paved my way to an exit. As soon as I reached the outside of the warehouse, breathing in the dark, desert air, a haze of black and white shifted my attention towards a clearing.

Stepping out from behind a scrawny, isolated tree, a Dalmatian bounded towards me. With a fitful, friendly bark, the dog came to a standstill inches away, wagging its tail fearlessly.

I let my fascination get the best of me, kneeling down instinctively to brush my fingers against its slick coat. In a matter of seconds, a glimmer of light enshrouded the dog, and as the transformation took shape, a woman stood exactly where the dog once was.

Her eyes, which were a glassy ice blue, hunted around intensely for anyone watching or listening in. I stared fixedly at her inky curls that were double braided, cascading down her back, and I was mostly surprised by her shifting skills. For someone with such flawless skin, her transition was painless. She was able to shift without hurting herself and I was always taught differently. A pang of jealousy tugged at my chest fleetingly until she whispered in a sunken voice, "By chance, are you Emma?"