Predator (Chapter 7)

Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6

“Please let me wear the other collar?” she asked with her gaze fixed on his eyes, both shocked and relieved at how… subservient her voice sounded. Still, even though her captor nodded, he did not seem entirely satisfied. Instead of reaching for the collar in response, he trailed his fingertips down her neck, the gentle sensation making it difficult to resist shivering.
“Do you want to wear it?” he asked, causing her expression to become puzzled. Of course she didn’t. All she wanted was to be able to escape him, to get as far away from the danger her posed as possible without ever looking back. Or, if that was not an option, to fight him for as long as she could instead of submitting to him even more than she already had.

His eyes darkened as if he had read her thoughts somehow – when she realised her frown and confused, outraged look she knew that, in a way, he had and that he wasn’t pleased. Her mind jumping to her memory of what it meant for her if she defied him – and probably also if she simply upset him – Victoria pushed her pride aside. There was no point in defying him while he clearly had the upper hand, escaping would prove to be difficult enough once he left her alone – if he ever did – but with him there, it was next to impossible. So, the young woman concluded, she would try to save herself some pain since, after all, in the end he would get her to do what he wanted anyway.
Had she known this was exactly what he wanted her to be thinking at that precise moment, she would have fought him if only to thwart his plans. But as it was, she made an effort to soften her expression, swallowed the remnants of her pride and took another deep breath.

“Yes… I want to wear it”, she said in response to his question, a little concerned by the spark in his eyes yet relieved the rising fury she had sensed seemed to be subsiding. Not wanting to repeat the process, she lowered her eyes for a moment before looking at him again. “Please?”
With an actual smile – a pleased one at that – Devane reached behind her to bury his hand in her hair with a surprisingly gentle grip, pulled her slightly towards him and carefully bit the spot where her shoulder and neck joined. Unlike his previous bites, which had forced her to react eventually by their forceful nature and the dark pleasure they elicited, this one almost had her purring without ever giving her any chance to suppress her reaction. Despite her continued fight against the low sounds which were threatening to spill from her mouth, Victoria found herself going limp within her captor’s hold, succumbing to his unexpected actions yet again

Finally, she felt more than saw him withdraw, his hand in her hair remaining until she had stopped swaying while there was a dark whisper at her ear.
“Well done, pet.”
Despite having hated the expression “pet” before, despite hating her entire situation, Victoria could not help but sigh at his words. At the same time, her reaction alarmed her. Was she really complying out of fear, because she had no other choice or had she already been under her captor’s influence long enough to develop psychological symptoms, a mental attachment perhaps? Deep down, the young woman knew neither assumption was true and that her captor was coaxing a hidden, dark part of her out in the open, yet she refused to hear the tiny voice telling her this.

Devane watched his captive attentively, pleased by her sigh and lack of resistance at that moment. His plan seemed to be working better than he had expected – he only hoped he would be able to not only control his actions completely enough to push her smoothly to where he wanted her to be, mentally, but also knew that if she even suspected the extent to which he was playing her, he would never succeed.
It was one thing for her to know he was forcing her to do what he wanted – it would be entirely different if she knew how much he had learned about her and how he wished to make her enjoy her captivity.
Smirking briefly, he decided to test if his assumption of being able to push her quite far without any serious fight due to his threats and her fear of them was true. Completely rising to his feet again, Devane took a few steps towards the bed before sitting down on its edge, watching her.

Victoria jumped internally once she felt the man in front of her rise to his feet. Almost expecting him to hurt her in some way, she was pleasantly surprised to only see him take a seat on the mattress. Her relief was short lived once her gaze moved to his face, however, his dark, close to sinister look reminding her of the constant danger he posed, even at a distance.
As if to confirm her assessment, her captor reached for the black leather collar still lying on the sheets a couple of inches behind him, removed the look, placing it beside him and put the opened collar in his lap before focusing entirely on her again.

“Come here”, he stated in a voice which was both demanding and strangely enticing. To her own astonishment, his words left no question within her mind if she should obey – if she didn’t, he would most likely hurt her again, maybe even force the other device on her. She found she preferred the easy, pain-free way at that moment – and ignored the small shiver which passed through her at the thought of having a collar locked around her neck, subconsciously convincing herself she was his victim and he was, as he had said earlier, the big bad wolf planning to devour her – slowly, as it seemed.
Moving her legs slightly, Victoria attempted to rise to her feet only to be stopped by her captor’s low cough. Startled, her eyes flew to meet his, his expression stilling her movements for the moment, her gaze puzzled.

“I don’t believe I would like you to rise, pet – crawl, if you may”, Devane drawled, raising one eyebrow as he saw her glare. To his surprise, though, she didn’t hesitate for more than a couple of seconds before quickly crawling towards him, her expression the only thing betraying her compliance. Devane gave his captive an appraising look in light of her acting according to his demands yet, nonetheless, chose to address her state of mind as well. Eyeing her kneeling form, the fury sparkling in her eyes in drastic contrast to her outward obedience, he decided to taunt her a little.

“I think I will have to teach you the hard way how important it is to mean your actions opposed to simply… well, acting”, he stated, pleased by the apprehension in her eyes before continuing: “You might have to wait for that a while though – I really do think I am going to need some time to find something which will actually show results… For now I suggest you control your expressions on your own. You do not wish to anger me further now, do you?”
Victoria shook her head, her fury replaced by fear for the moment. His immediate, maybe even slightly impulsive reactions to her behaviour had been bad enough – if he was actually going to carefully weigh his options, she was certain the turnout would be too much for her to handle. Still, she tried her best to force herself to be calm, even though he didn’t mind her panic convinced that emotion would still hold disadvantages for her. To both her relief and dread, Devane seemed all too eager to continue for the moment and refrained from any further comments. Instead, he considered her a couple of seconds before leaning towards her a little.

“Hold your hair to the side so I can reach your neck”, he instructed, surprisingly gentle after having threatened her mere instants before. Victoria complied almost immediately, very much averse to the idea of incurring his wrath upon her again. With one hand intertwined in her hair she watched him secure the collar around her neck, scared by the things she saw in his eyes – and the emotions welling up inside which she was now barely keeping at bay.
Once she saw her captor pick up the tiny yet sturdy-looking lock lying next to him, she barely managed to keep herself from scrambling away in panic, her mind screaming a “no” she did not dare to utter out loud, knowing what his reaction to any kind of protest would be.

She only managed to finally push his threats to the back of her mind and act once the lock had already snapped shut. Robbed of the strong sense of self-preservation she had developed over the course of the past few hours, even if it was for just an instant, Victoria struck out at her captor. Completely astonished when she actually hit him – her fingernails digging into his cheek, four bloody scratches causing him to gasp in surprise and pain – she was unable to summon the presence of mind to get as far away as she could. Instead, before she had had a chance to process, Devane lunged upon her with a ferocious growl. He grabbed her before dragging her to the wall where the bag was lying and a ring was attached to the wall.

Victoria yelped as her knees scraped across the carpet, the pain clouding her mind long enough for him to attach her collar to the ring by means of a chain and a lock. Once she realised what he had done and tried to yank herself away, it was already too late.
Quickly realising her chances of escaping were next to non-existent, the young woman dared a brief look at Devane’s face, feeling a paralysing fear creep upon her at the sight of his seemingly blind fury. At that moment, she was convinced he was going to kill her right there – if not something worse.

Apparently having noticed her gaze focused on him, her captor snarled before shoving her roughly, causing her to fall face-down onto the carpet, then took a couple of steps back, his hands twitching as though he was forcing himself not to crush something.

“You should be very grateful that I know better than to act entirely on an angry impulse”, he growled, his expression betraying how much effort it required for him to leave her alone. “I suggest you think about what you have done… thoroughly.”
With those words – and a final, still sulphurous look back at her – Devane hurriedly left the room, slamming the door with another snarl. The distinct sound of a key turning in its lock was heard before the lights went out, leaving the young woman in the darkness, shivering with fear of what her captor might decide to do to her.