The Hunters and the Hunted Ch. 03

"What about one of us being tied up?" Skye asked softly, actually looking down at the table. She could have sworn she felt the air thicken with interest and pheromones.

"Is that something you would like?" Trudy asked in an equally soft tone while Angelo stared at her.

"Wow," he muttered quietly. "You keep surprising me..."

"I don't know," Skye admitted. "I've never done it. Read about it, watched it in porn, talked about it with girlfriends... just, haven't done it myself. I mean, if no harm would come of it..." Her voice trailed off as she continued to look at the table, tracing a knot beneath the polished surface with her finger.

"Let us explore that later," Viktor suggested. "For now, I think you should let Eoghan drive you to pick up Angelo's car and take it home, then chauffer you around to get whatever things you'll need and bring you back here. Also, I will give you our cell numbers. There is one for me, one for Trudy and a common one we share where calls are forwarded to both of us. That last one is your best bet for reaching us."

In the end, Angelo and Skye agreed with Viktor and had the butler-type guy they'd met before, and now knew as Eoghan, take them into town to take care of business. Which left Viktor and Trudy with time to continue their discussion of how to handle their pets in the future.

"I know we're not being exactly honest with them about their status as pets," Viktor acknowledged, "but without the rest of the clan around, we can treat them as equals and pamper them as our guests. It won't become an issue until we part ways. Then, I'm not sure how we're going to handle wiping their memories. Last time, it was much easier when James and Susan just died."

"We could ask Vladimir to put them in an induced coma, with a post-hypnotic directive causing amnesia," Trudy suggested. "They'd be alive, but a chunk of their lives would be gone."

"I hate dealing with the bloodsuckers," Viktor complained. "They're always so holier-than-thou and really, when you get down to it, we're a lot more fun."

"Well, we've already planted the imperative not to talk about us to anyone not directly involved," Trudy pointed out. "Maybe, when they sleep again, we could expand it to include not talking about us after we've dissolved our ties? They'd have each other to reminisce with, but couldn't tell anyone else. That way, they don't have to die."

"Hmmm... maybe you're right," Victor agreed. "I've never done that kind of programmed imperative before, but I can read up on it. Or maybe find out where Luciana is staying and ask her."

"Sounds like a plan," Trudy smiled and raised her orange juice goblet in a mock toast.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Angelo and Skye got back in the late afternoon, each with a small roll-aboard with personal things. Trudy gave them the option of sharing the room they'd originally been in or having separate rooms. They chose to use the same room and were unpacked fairly quickly, only needing a little help from Coeruleus. They grabbed a quick shower before dinner, continuing the conversation they'd been having on and off all day.

"I really don't think I can live out here all week," Skye was iterating. "By my calculations, my commute to work just went from ten minutes to an hour-and-a-half. Maybe less, depending on traffic. I don't have the luxury of 'working from home' like you do. I have to be there five days a week."

"Well, I still think it's better we stick together," Angelo told her again. "If you can't stay out here, then I'll just have to stay in town and we come out on weekends. We can drive together. I know you never intended me as a boyfriend, let alone live-in, and I'm not trying to tie you down. I just think it's safer if we 'humans' stick together."

"Except 'we humans' are way outclassed," Skye pointed out, again. "We are their toys... their pets. We do what they want and we enjoy life and die happy. You know, I wasn't the only one with Viktor's cock up my ass. I'd think your worldview was changing rapidly, too."

"No shit..." Angelo muttered, shutting up. She'd effectively reminded him how his previously homophobic tendencies had gone by the wayside.

They finished showering and dressing for dinner – casual – then headed down the spiral staircase. The portraits reminded Angelo there was something he wanted to ask Viktor and Trudy, whom they found in the "Paneled Room," as the owners called it. Viktor poured wine and they sat and chatted until dinner was served.

"So I meant to ask you," Angelo told Viktor as they waited, "upstairs there's a gallery and a lot of the paintings are portraits. And there's a couple of portraits that are obviously you two, one with Viktor and something more and one with Gertrude and something different. And another portrait of someone named Stefan that looks enough like you, Viktor, to be your father or grandfather. So what I wanted to know was, what does it say under your portraits and who's the other guy?"

"Most of the portraits are the lineage of the Chieftains of the Clan, also called Lairds," Viktor told him. "I'm not Chieftain, yet, but I am next in line. Trudy is the ranking female behind our eldest aunt. The Gaelic text beneath mine says 'Viktor, Clan Wolf-blood, Two Hundred Twenty-first Laird' and the text beneath Trudy's says 'Gertrude, Clan Wolf-blood, Stefan's Daughter.' The text below Stefan's portrait says 'Stefan, Clan Wolf-blood, Two Hundred Twentieth Laird' – he is our father and current Laird of the Clan."

"I won't take over as Laird until my father dies or is incapacitated. Our mothers were human and are long since dead."

"Mothers?" Skye asked.

"Yes. My mother, Alice, was a bonnie Highland lass from the area of Caithness, captured by a Viking named Hrolf and sold to my father, Stefan. She gave birth to me, but it took a heavy toll on her and she only lasted another dozen years before disease took her. She bore no other children. It took another 460 years or so before my father was interested in siring another child. In the meantime, I had grown to adulthood and taken my place in the Clan."

"When my father finally did decide that fighting the Brits, the Scots, the Irish, the Welsh and their ignorant allies was becoming tedious, and given the Great Frost and the Irish Famine of 1740, he moved the seat of the Clan to North America. Nova Scotia, originally, then to Quebec."

"Trudy was born when father was... what? Seduced? Won over? Fascinated? By an Irish immigrant to Canada named Kathleen who was all spitfire and hellspawn. But she wanted him and made him want her, and she bore him four children. Trudy was the oldest, and we have two brothers, Wilhelm and Charles, and a sister, Kathleen. Her mother made it clear that even though she was human, she wanted her name to live on in Were-lore."

"When the Canadian Rebellions of 1837 happened, my father basically said, 'Fuck it' and moved to New England. This manor was built to house the Laird of the Clan and his family. Since then, most of the Clan scattered throughout North America, and some even went abroad. Stefan, for example, is currently living out west, on Shoshone reservation land, where they revere the wolves. We only see him if he orders a Gathering of the Clan or gets a wild hair to come visit. Not very often, I assure you."

"But that's why 'mothers', plural. It does seem a little odd that we have to mate with human females to breed more Weres. But that's the way it is."

"You're not thinking of getting me pregnant, are you?" Skye gulped, the import of his words sinking in.

"Oh, I don't know..." Viktor smiled. "It could be fun..."

"VIKTOR!" Trudy was incensed. "Don't tease like that! It isn't nice to fuck with our pe... um, guest's head. So stop it." Then she turned to Skye. "No, dear, we aren't going to try to breed you. Your contraceptives will work fine and we won't try to get around them."

"Thank God..." Skye breathed. "You know I'm in way over my head here, and I know it, too. Like I told Angelo, we're basically your toys. Pets, I think you were going to say. I'm just hoping you meant what you said and this won't be a bad thing. And along those lines, Angelo has a lot more freedom with work than I do. I have a Monday through Friday 9-to-5 that I have to be at, so I'll be choosing to stay in town. Your offer of a vehicle with a GPS to get back here sounds really good, though."

"And my overdeveloped sense of self-preservation says I ought to ride with her," Angelo added. "So I'll probably only be out here on weekends, too."

"As you wish," Trudy smiled.

"Although..." Viktor put in with a thoughtful look, "you could quit your jobs. We are more than sufficiently funded to pay you a retainer and provide room, board, benefits and so forth."

The shocked look on the humans' faces told him he'd made his point. Now it was time to let it sink in.

"Would you like to pick out a set of 'wheels' after dinner?" he asked. "Before we retire to the parlor for some more entertainment. Or the dungeon."

"The dungeon?" Angelo asked, taking a rough guess.

"Of course," Trudy told him. "This is a fortified manor home, complete from turret to dungeon. You've been in one of the two turrets, though not to the garret room at the top. Why would you be surprised at a dungeon? Besides, where else do you think we'd keep all our BDSM equipment?"

"Although we don't have a moat, dear," Viktor pointed out.

"Except during the Spring floods," she answered back. "Try and get up the driveway in a deluge!"

"Um, BDSM?" Skye asked, back to being nervous.

"Uh-huh," Trudy told her brightly. "You know... Bondage, Discipline, Sado-Masochism. Except Viktor and I enjoy the B&D part and not so much the S&M part. Although there are members of our Clan who need extreme stimulation in order to feel the release. We generally don't go to their parties."

"The Bondage and Discipline, on the other hand, fits our natures quite well," Viktor added. "Light bondage helps intensify our animal natures and allows us to experience pleasure to a much greater degree. The discipline aspect helps keep us focused."

"What exactly is 'light' bondage and discipline?" Skye asked, confused and curious.

"Well, let's say that I am in the Dominant role, the Dom – and you are in the Subservient role, the Sub. You would be expected to follow my instructions and to do so without hesitation, no matter what. I, as the Dom, am responsible for your health and welfare so I am also responsible for not instructing you to do something injurious to yourself. Or at least, no permanent damage."

"Imagine that I told you to stand and strip naked, right now. If you hesitated, regardless of whether from unwillingness or embarrassment or whatever, but actually did take your clothes off, that hesitation would warrant a light punishment, such as a moderate spanking, to remind you not to hesitate again. If you refused to comply, that would warrant a heavier punishment – perhaps being whipped and then sodomized. You would then be given the same instruction and expected to do it without hesitation."

"If you took your clothes off immediately, but did it shoddily or otherwise lackadaisically, you would not be disciplined – punished – but neither would you be rewarded. If you complied immediately in some manner that was pleasing to the Dom, 'exceeding expectations' if you will, then you might be rewarded with some special consideration important to you."

"Light restraints are designed to limit and secure, not to cause pain. Sometimes, as with nipple or labia clips, the light restraint can cause pleasure while the heavier version causes pain. Being taken to a massive orgasm might be seen as a reward while a forced orgasm might be a punishment."

"And all this is significantly different than Master/Slave, which is much more into the S&M side of things. One of the hardest things for a prospective Dom to learn is how to be a Sub. A Dom really needs to know what it feels like to turn the control of your entire existence over to another person. The trust alone is unfathomable."

"The behaviors that have to do with public humiliation or degradation, or simply inflicting pain for no other purpose than the Master enjoying it, such as having to hold in a ginger or pepper suppository while being whipped, and losing it adds to the count, are the kinds of things on the Sado-Masochism side and the kind of stuff Trudy and I don't do."

"We do have our twisted Clan members, just as there are twisted humans. Twisted from my point of view, anyway," Viktor went on. "For example, I know one Were who intentionally submits himself to sexual torture to prove he can take it... and gets off on it. Sometimes he'll make it a bet... if he makes it through without caving, he gets to do the same thing to his torturer. I've seen Weres stupid enough to take that bet. Those kinds of games are not something either of us are into."

"Well, I'm glad to hear that," Skye breathed a sigh of relief. "So does that mean if you get rowdy tonight and have to be restrained, that one of us is going to have to do it, too?"

"Not necessarily," Trudy spoke up. "It's whatever we four decide, together. You two are new to it, so it would probably be best to stay away from the tie-'em-up games."

"Then this is a good time to go back to my question at breakfast," Skye asked. "What if I wanted to try being tied up?"

"Where the hell has this side of you been?" Angelo muttered to her as she looked expectantly at Viktor.

"Then we would slowly and carefully walk you through it, including how to use a safe word and other details, and we would see what you liked," he answered.

"Then let's go down to your Dungeon and find out what I like," Skye told them.

The astonished silence that followed spoke volumes.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

"This will be a simple exercise," Viktor explained to Skye, "To begin, I am going to give you ten strokes with a leather paddle. Not enough to break your skin, or even severely bruise you, but hard enough that you will feel them. You will not be tied up, but will hold on to a support through your own willpower. From the moment I say we are starting, you will do everything I tell you to do, without hesitation. If you hesitate, I will add two to the count of strokes. If you refuse, I will secure you and either give you three strokes with a crop, or sodomize you, or both. You will then resume taking your strokes."

"So that is the challenge before you. Here is the out. If you decide this is more than you can handle, you will say 'Éirí as mé' and we will stop. Completely. The lesson, as it were, will be over."

"If you take the entire discipline without quitting, you may do the same discipline to me or..." Viktor looked over to Trudy to get her consent before adding, "or to Trudy. Now please repeat 'éirí as mé' three times so that I know you know it."

Skye did as directed and made sure she remembered it. "So what does that mean?" she asked when she thought she had it down pat.

"It simply means 'I quit' in the old language," he explained and Skye nodded.

"Okay, then," Viktor smiled, then dropped it to a very serious expression. "We start now. Strip naked."

"What?" Skye asked, not sure she heard him right, then suddenly realizing her inaction was going to cost her. She hurriedly kicked off her shoes and stripped off her dress. She wasn't wearing underwear.

Viktor didn't say anything about the hesitation, but Skye noted a somewhat smug look on his face as he told her, "Walk to this post, grab the iron ring with both hands, and hold on."

Skye started walking towards a thick wooden pillar near Viktor before she even began looking for the ring he was talking about. She saw it then, hanging from a chain, about 7' above the ground and about a foot in diameter. She walked up to the post and stretched up to grab the ring and hold on to it. Which left her chest and belly pressed up against the post.

Viktor walked up next to her and she saw that he held a large, flat, black leather paddle maybe 4 inches across.

"Do not let go of the ring," he told her. "And count each stroke after it falls, aloud." She nodded, but didn't say anything. Viktor adjusted the height of the ring so that she was almost on her tip-toes to keep hanging on before he took a position out of sight, behind her.

"OW!!" The report of leather slapping bare flesh cracked out into the room, followed by Skye's reaction. "My God, that stings!" she added, involuntarily clenching her butt muscles. "Jesus!..."

Many seconds passed before Viktor said, "This one time, I will count your failure to respond..."

He didn't get any farther before Skye interrupted him.

"One!" she cried out. "One, one, one!"

"As a hesitation, rather than a refusal," Viktor told her. "Your count is now fourteen."

"Four...?" Skye started to argue, then abruptly shut up. It occurred to her what arguing would mean.

Thwack! Skye stifled her cry as she forced herself to call out, "Two! Two..."

"You only need say the count once," Viktor told her, just before the next stroke fell.

Thwack! Skye stifled her cry again and moaned, "Three..." The sting was not going away this time. Her ass cheeks were beginning to feel like they were sunburned.

Thwack! "Four!..." And her sunburned backside was now really starting to hurt, and she realized she was clenching her muscles even more, anticipating the stroke. She didn't realize that it would only make the impact stronger.

Thwack! "Five..." Skye moaned, twisting a little on her feet, moving her butt from side to side, unable to avoid the burning sensation.

Thwack! "Six..." Skye moaned, then realized something very weird, very twisted to her mind, was happening. Her ass was on fire but she was getting excited. Sexually excited. The feeling of the burn had spread to her vulva and she was starting to swell up and get wet.

Thwack! "Seven..." She began wriggling her legs together, to appease the feeling growing between them and found that she was just making it worse... or better...

Thwack! "Eight..." she moaned, now starting to get lost in the sensation. She kept grinding her legs together, indirectly massaging her very swollen clit.

Thwack! "Nine..." She began to wonder how she could refuse... how she could bring on the heavier punishment. Part of her wanted it. Part of her thought she was crazy.

Thwack! "Ten..." She knew she had the penalty strokes coming. She waited restlessly, her essence beginning to leak onto her thighs.

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! The last four strokes fell rapidly and hard as Viktor decided to string them together.

Skye panicked at her failure to call them out... then smiled to herself. She wasn't going to count them out. She was going to refuse. Her ass was burning, her pussy was dripping and she wanted something more – she had no idea what, just something.

Viktor waited a good thirty seconds before walking around in front of her so he could look at her face. What he saw was a very conscious young woman with a determined look.

What she saw was a naked Viktor whose cock was half out of its sheath, holding the paddle. And she saw him step back to a nearby table, set the paddle down and pick something up. The something were tethers which he attached to her wrists, then pulled her off the ring and led her over to a waist-high bench where he pulled her over it, tying her hands on the far side, exposing her beautiful and now red cheeks.

Returning behind her, he forced her legs apart until her weight was on the table, then tied her legs to keep them apart. Skye was acutely aware that she was now very exposed and very vulnerable. Viktor walked back in front of her, this time holding a riding crop in his hands, showing it to her. He didn't say a word. Just waited until he knew she'd seen it and knew what it was. Then he went behind her again.