CHAPTER TWO

The Wolf's Den

Wolf woke early in the morning, his footsteps silent as he dressed in a pair of black cargo pants and black shirt that he tucked into his pants. Casting a look at the sleeping body of his new companion he wondered but kept moving; it would do him no good to confront Jay just yet. Besides, he didn't know if he was right and he wasn't willing to be wrong. Being wrong had cost him a lot in the past and he didn't want to risk losing everything all over again.

He walked into a small room, flipping on the lights to look at a small black suit of armor. Pain wracked his mind as he thought about Snake, the smile that would play on her lips as she hit her target over two miles away. He missed her; he missed them all and would never forget them. It was his fault that they died that night, if he had gotten there sooner they would have gotten out. He slammed his fist into the wall repeatedly, trying to get the emotions to leave him. Emotions caused mistakes, made him weak. Wolf stared at the dent in the wall then down at his slightly swelled knuckles; at least the pain was real.

Growling he turned to face the door way, his eyes locked onto Jay causing her to freeze mid-step.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" he growled as he stalked towards her, Jay took an involuntary step backwards. Wolf stopped, his hands clenched into fists at his side, "You are afraid. Good. You are only to leave your bunk to eat and piss."

A small smirk flashed onto his face as he watched Jay rush back to her bunk. Satisfied he looked over his shoulder at the suit of armor, "The ships not empty anymore."

Wolf walked out of the room, pulling the door closed behind him. Making his way to the front of the ship, he thought about the man sitting in the bunk room. Something didn't sit quite right with him; the man seemed to be meek, almost fragile. Those two things could be explained by the lifestyle forced upon him, slavery would make even the strongest of men into weak ones. Gazing out the front panel of the ship, he lost himself in thought.

Hours passed quickly before he heard noise in the bowels of the ship, rising from his seat he walked quietly through the ship. Wolf stuck the shadows in the hall watching as Jay moved about the small kitchen.

Clearing his throat he stepped into the room, Jay spun around to face him.

"I'm getting…I…" Jay stammered her voice faltering as Wolf raised a hand to silence her.

"Punishing a man for taking care of himself is ignorant," Wolf stated as he walked into the room fully, leaning against the table, he watched Jay. Swallowing hard, Jay turned her back to Wolf and continued getting a drink, her hands shaking slightly.

"Would you get one for me?" he asked as he sat down at the table, his eyes never leaving her thin form. She nodded quickly, wasting little time as she prepared another drink; she hadn't expected him to ask her, more like command. Nervously she set the cups down, one before her master the other in her hands as she eased into the chair opposite from him.

They drank in silence.

Wolf rose to his feet; there was something that he wanted to check…dizziness swept over him, his knees going lax as he fell to the floor, an inhuman scream piercing the air. Fear and panic rushed through Jay's veins as she fought her instincts. Rushing to his side, she tried to calm him down, confused and scared, her hands gripping his shoulders. She didn't know how long he remained locked in his scream, going silent once he lost all the air in his lungs.

In the next moment she found herself pressed into the floor; Wolf's angry snarl echoing in her ears as her head rang from impact.

"Don't EVER touch me!"

There were no words in her mind as she stared frozen into his…bright yellow eyes?

"Did you hear me?" he demanded, shaking her hard enough to rock her head against the floor once more.

"Y…Yes," she stammered, her body tense under his hard muscled form. A small portion of her mind, and body, enjoyed the warmth and strength of his body; craved to be loved but knowing that it was impossible. Slaves didn't get to feel love, compassion or a gentle touch. The roughness of his hands on her was more than enough proof of that.

Wolf kept her pinned under his body for a long period of time, his mind racing as he began to notice some very strange things about the mechanic he bought. The softness of his chest, the fact that something wasn't pressing against his thighs as he straddled the man made him think. Impossible, there was simply no way it could be possible for this man to be woman…unless of course the man wasn't a man and was in fact a woman pretending to be a man.

But why?

Wolf got to his feet, staring down at his companion who eased onto his…her…elbows, slowly, clearly afraid of being at the blunt end of his anger again.

"Take off your shirt." He stated, arms crossing over his chest, he wanted answers from this human and he wanted them now. Once resolving one issue, he would tackle the other matter; why was he…she touching him?

"No."

"Why not?" a small smirk flashed across Wolf's face as he judged Jay's reaction.

Jay paused; she didn't know how to answer the question without blowing her cover, "I don't want to."

"I wasn't asking if you wanted to, take it off. Unless of course you have a reason for hiding yourself," Wolf continued to look down at Jay, his eyes burning as they gradually changed back to crystal blue. "Do it, or I'll do it for you." He reached into his pocket, pulling out the remote for the collar around her neck.

"I won't," were the last words Jay managed to say before her back arched and sparks flew in front of her eyes. Her chest heaved as she struggled to get a breath, the collar sending fire racing through her spine and into every inch of her body. He kept his finger on the trigger longer than he had before, the seconds growing longer and longer until Jay's world went completely black, her body jolted before going limp.

Wolf shoved the remote back into his pocket before nudging Jay with the toe of his boot, no sparks hit the leather and when she didn't stir, he knelt down at her side. Remorse glinted in his eyes, but only for moment before gripping the hem of the shirt and ripping it up and off. Pain flared in his chest as he stared down at Jay, slight rises in flesh were hidden under a tight strip of cloth. Flipping open his knife, he slid the blade under and pulled sharply up, slicing clean through the fabric to reveal a set of breasts. The sight of her pale mounds excited him slightly, sending shock waves through his stomach and into an area of his anatomy that rarely got attention.

Growling low in his throat, he picked her up and carried to her bunk, carefully laying her down and covering her so she could recover. He should have known it should have been clear that she was a she; such a small male rarely existed in the universe now. Collapsing onto his bunk he stared into his hands, willing them to burst into flames, turn into dust, anything so long as it caused him pain. Minutes passed before he took the knife from his belt again, this time cutting into the flesh on his arm instead of the fabric covering up a woman's secret.

He was a monster, a beast that didn't deserve to live any longer; although something held him back every time his knife was ready to pierce through his heart. He couldn't do it, the memories of Snake and the others burned in his head, their voices urging him to keep going, that if he killed himself he would be taking the cowards way out.

Wolf was a soldier, a hybrid soldier, that no longer had any ties to the human race he was once part of. He swore an oath to uphold the Earth's rights and military power, it was a pity that he didn't realize what that meant. Thousands of young soldiers fresh from training, still wet behind the ears, were taken by the ship loads by a species of aliens he couldn't remember. They trained them more, honing their skills and bodies into perfect machines. What they couldn't do however, was make the mind stronger…at least not until they got the injections right. Then it was a matter of picking the right traits for the individual soldiers.

Out of the hundreds of recruits to survive the physical training only twenty survived the course of injections and of those twenty, fifteen were able to be used. Wolf was one of the lucky ones, his genetic material quickly adapted to the new virus; his body undergoing a change at the molecular level rather than a bodily one. Enhanced night vision, sense of smell, hearing, his instincts more animalistic, reasoning like a man and a wolf, more strength than seemingly possible; however they came with a price, anemia. His body absorbed iron much too quickly, he needed regular injections or pills. Although he found another way to get the iron he so desperately desired. Blood. The wolf pounding inside of him wanted, and needed, blood to survive.

Whimpering from Jay's bunk brought his attention back to the present, to the woman lying half naked across the room from him. Struggling with the urge to go to her side as he would have Snake's, he found himself staring into the floor. "I'm sorry."

His voice was so quiet Jay didn't fully believe that she heard him, turning her head she looked at him. "What did you say?"

"I'm sorry," he said again, louder so that his voice carried. The pain was clear in his voice, as it was in the way his shoulders hung limp, his chin tucked against his chest. Jay had only seen such a pose on a slave when they knew they were about to be beaten the only way to escape a harsh punishment was to be submissive. She knew this because she used it more than once when she couldn't escape.

"I hate you," were the only words she could bring herself to say to him, when he looked up at her she half expected him to spit or snarl.

"You have every right to hate me. I hate myself," he confessed, his fingers dug into his knees, blood dripping down his left arm and onto the floor. Jay watched the blood drip for a few seconds before pulling herself up and swinging her legs over to the floor. Her knees shook slightly as she found her balance, stumbling she walked into the bathroom and exited with a first aid kit tucked under her bare arm. Either she didn't care of didn't see the need to cover herself up as she knelt down in front of him. Pulling his arm out straight, she began to clean the wound.

Wolf was too shocked to pull away from her; here she was stating her hatred for him and then patching him up. This woman wasn't right, something was wrong with her but he didn't dare speak his thoughts aloud. After all, who was he to judge her? He was half man, half wolf and most days it felt like he was more animal than human. Once Jay rocked back from his arm he looked at the work she had done, the cut had been cleaned and patched together with butterfly bandages. He would have preferred her to use stitches to mend the wound he had inflicted.

"Why help me?" he asked.

"I might hate you but that doesn't mean I want you dead…" yet, she kept the final word to herself. The last wave of electricity he send through her body had fried her good, her head still buzzed and her hands shook as she folded them against her stomach, which was doing back flips.

Wolf moved faster than she could comprehend, his hands shooting under her arms and lifting her quickly onto his bunk. She felt his hot breath on her neck, his strong arms wrapped around her back holding her tight against his body.

"What are you doing?" she squeaked, her heart pounding hard against her ribs as it trying to break free.

"I need your warmth, Snake," his mind had gone back to a time when it was Snake patching up his wounds, offering him her shoulder when he needed it (for comfort or for blood, although he always fought her on it). He shook against her, his shoulders jerking as he held back sobs.

"My name is Jay," she tried to push him back but he held on even tighter. Slowly as if he couldn't remember what he was doing, he looked at her, then down at her pale, naked chest. His heart hammered in his chest and his cock hardened beneath his cargo pants; he was male after all and he hadn't seen, let alone, touched a woman in ten years. Why was the sight of her exciting him now? Her naked chest hadn't affected him this way, what was so different about now? He knew very well what was the difference, she had touched him willingly. True, it had been because he was hurt, but she could have done nothing; which was what he expected of her.

"Please let me go," she whispered, there was a hint of terror in her voice that he had never heard before, even when he forced her to eat. Her voice was raw, open, and weak. Turning his eyes back to hers, he saw that what he heard was right, she was terrified. Wolf's eyes darkened as he released his grip on her and leaned back, he wasn't surprised when she dove from the bed and clear across the room. What did surprise him was that she moved in the same way as Snake, graceful, smooth and controlled while her mind was running on over drive.

Standing up he didn't bother to hide the erection pressing against the crotch of his pants. He noted that Jay's gaze bounced between his face and his arousal; while it amused him, it also bothered him. What had happened to her to make her so weary around an aroused man? Did it have something to do with her hiding as a man? Locking eyes with his companion, he made the quick decision not to ask her about it.

They lived the next three weeks in relative peace, only speaking when it was necessary. On more than one occasion, Wolf found Jay up to her elbows in the engine room, or bent over the piping to get a part that needed her magic hands. Each time he felt his heart start pound and his head go light. At night, he would watch her for signs of nightmares before allowing his own mind to slip into REM sleep.

Finally, he was fed up with the silence and the way she glanced at him, "Jay!"

The woman in question came skidding into the room, her forehead streaked with grease and her hands clutched behind her back. "Yes, Wolf?"

"Cut the submissive shit."

"Okay, fine. What the hell is so fucking important?"

Wolf chuckled, that was the Jay he was looking for, "What is wrong with the engine?"

Jay blinked a few times, that wasn't the question she was expecting, "You need a new fuel tank, it's leaking."

"Is that so?"

"Yes, it is, when are we landing?"

"Why, you plan on running again?"

"No. Not like I would get far anyway," she gave the collar a sharp tug. Wolf gave a hearty laugh and crossed the room to stand directly in front of her. Jay started to take a step back when he grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her close against his chest, his head tucked against the crook of her neck and shoulder. He felt her tense in his arms, she smelled so sweet; like warm honey and nutmeg. He wanted her, wanted her flesh against his, her body moving against his.

Forcing himself back, he regained control of his emotions, his instincts that told him to take her by force if she wasn't willing. He wasn't like that; he knew that women needed care, a gentle touch. He couldn't give her those things and he knew that. He was unable to be gentle; he knew only violence and suffering. Although the more he thought the more he realized that since she had been onboard his ship he hadn't gotten truly angry. Was this woman capable of taming his animalistic side?

Had she already done so with her fiery temper and the way she offered him attitude when he got frustrated? His Jay was more like Snake than he originally thought, but it made him smile to think that he might have his friend back. No, he realized, Jay would never be Snake no matter how much they have in common.

"Wolf, are you okay?" there was genuine concern in her voice; she had seen this look before; before he fell screaming to the ground. She waited for him to reply, nervously shifting from foot to foot. Her heart hammered against her chest, she felt something strange when he tugged her close. Not once in her life had she desired to be with her master, to allow them to have her. She truly wanted to be his. Shaking her head of the silly desire, she focused her gaze back onto Wolf.

"Get back to work," he stated shortly, turning on his heel he walked back to the cockpit. Jay watched him go; he walked as if he was stalking something, always on the hunt. Always serious, never once did he jest with her, his eyes always so dark and menacing. She wondered what made him so dark, what made his heart as cold as space.