The Master of Me

Chapter 8

        Sterling for a fleeting moment, gaped in awe at the sight of the woman that now stood before him. She looked similar to the woman he had seen in his kitchen struggling to grab a piece of bacon three months before. Only now her hair was shiny and healthy looking, brown ears alert and upright from the top of her head, tail swishing back and forth gently behind her legs in all its bushy beautiful glory. Her facial features didn’t appear to be as definite as the first time he saw her. However it was her eyes that he noticed the most, those garnet colored eyes that he had slowly come to face time and time again over the past three months. They didn’t hold as much fear anymore, but rather a glimpse of hope.

                He shook his head slightly to recover his thoughts then smiled softly, “You’re welcome, Alue. It’s my pleasure to help you.” He replied sincerely, saying what came naturally to him when someone told him thanks. Little did he know that of all the things he could have said, ‘my pleasure’ was a phrase she was not fond of hearing. Alue visibly flinched, pushing down the urge to change back into a wolf and run back to the safety of her den that very moment.

“Don’t say that.” She snapped, almost releasing a growl with her words as she pulled herself form a distant memory. “I mean . . . you have my thanks and my name that is all. Good night.” She said, recovering enough to add an apologetic tone to her sentence before changing into a wolf and padding over to the open back door and began her trek back to her own den, forcing her steps to be slow and methodical instead of rushing and running like her memories wanted to drive her to do.

Sterling’s face went from a gentle smile to a confused and apologetic expression. “I’m sorry, Alue . . . good night.” He said as she changed and walked passed him to leave his home out the open back door. When she dropped over the edge of the property out of sight, he shut the back door and secured it, leaving only the doggie door open. Now that he had interacted with her in human form he felt bad for the glass bowl of water on the floor. ‘She’s a human and deserves respect and yet she’s a wolf too and doesn’t mind using things like the pet door entrance or the glass water bowl. Most of all, what did I say wrong? Was it the, you’re welcome, or was it my pleasure to help you? She’s so independent, maybe she just didn’t like me verbally reiterating that she actually needed me these pass couple of weeks to make sure her wound was healing fine. I’ll be more careful next time I guess.’ He thought to himself as he locked up the house for the night and headed off to bed.

That night Alue didn’t sleep as well as she had been as of late. Her haunted memories kept creeping into her subconscious. Tormenting her, even more so then usual. Echoes of her old master’s voice rang in her ears and caused her paws to twitch and sent her heart racing.

“I OWN you. You are MY property. You are here for MY pleasure, bitch….”

Alue jolted awake, shaking and growling with fur on end. She never got to see through the end of her dream memory sequences. She didn’t have to; she had already lived through them at least once if not multiple times. Hearing the blood pound in her ears she set out of her den and went for a run within the ravine, forcing her healed but still aching paw to function normally and allow the subtle ache to drive the pain of the memory away.

                By sunrise she had caught a rabbit to eat and instead of retreating back to her den, allowed herself to rest upon the porch swing that she basically deemed her own spot. Enough of her wolf fur covered the padded, long, cushion that it might as well be. Sterling being the early riser that he was anyway opened the bathroom window and stuck his head out, “Couldn’t sleep?” he inquired. Alue jumped up with a bit of a startle at his voice in an unknown location, making the swing rock violently for a moment and her muscles braced for fight or flight.