My Girlfriend, My Pet.

Chapter 21

Raiden drove as far as he could, destination unknown. It didn't matter, anyway. He just had to get away from that...thing. 

Iona. 

Exiting a narrow corner, he pinned the throttle of his Pagani Zonda and headed for the horizon. As soon as he was sure she was out cold after he had tossed her on her head, Raiden packed enough clothes for a night or two and picked out the fastest car in his garage. 

There was no way she could know where he was headed to. Raiden had made sure she was still lying on the floor of his suite when he left. After about two hours or so of driving, he pulled into the driveway of a hotel. 

Sure, he could have gone for a more secluded motel somewhere not on the map but he wasn't about to risk waking up to an empty parking lot the next morning. Checking in, Raiden went straight to his room, unpacked only what was necessary and flopped on the bed. Despite everything, he still could not clear his head of what he saw. 

How Iona had physically transformed herself into his pet dog. Into Sakura. That wasn't right, at all. People don't change shapes into animals. No one could. That kind of nonsense was only made for TV. 

Yet here he laid, on the bed. Thinking, trying to come to terms with seeing a woman he has (had?) feelings for, morph herself into an animal before his eyes. God, he was going to have nightmares for the next few years. 

Ordering himself a steak from the room service menu, Raiden sat and ate as he tried to dissect the entire thing - right from the very beginning. When could she have hinted that she wasn't entirely human? 

Their first date. She had said she was a vegetarian - well, not every vegetarian he met was a shapeshifter, but it made perfect sense. Raiden stared at the medium rare steak in front of him for a good minute before continuing. 

Why would someone who could...

He still wouldn't allow himself to face that fact. 

Why would someone who could...turn themselves...into an animal...eat meat? 

Raiden nearly choked when a wave of realisation suddenly smashed into the back of his skull. 

After their dinner, they went for a stroll together in the woods. There, Iona had disappeared for quite some time and in that moment when she was gone, a rabbit appeared out of nowhere and was immediately comfortable with him. 

Oh God. Oh. My. God. That was Iona. It had to be her. 

Raiden laughed out loud to himself - he was semi-convinced he was going mad. His date had shifted herself into a rabbit the first time they went out - plus, he recalled the weird noises emanating from the bushes just before Iona materialised with an excuse he never understood. 

The same noises were heard when she slipped into the form of Sakura. 

He had lost count how many times he could have actually met Iona in another shape. The first day when he came back, he drove out to the edge of the national park to relax - where a stray doe appeared. That was her. 

When he visited the shelter for the first few times, a female border collie would be seen wandering about, of which Maggie was always quick to point out that she wasn't up for adoption. That was her. 

Damn. Maggie knew. 

All of his encounters with 'wild' animals and the like were just Iona in a different form. All of that discounting the number of times he was with Sakura. 

Then another kick to the back of his head. 

Sakura was never truly a dog. The number of times she had seen him - all of him. What he did in private, in public. Everything. The scale of her betrayal began to seep into his core.