Gabrielle Demonico (35 page)

The dark-haired man behind her said, “Last door down the hall, on the right.”

“
Okay…” Anabelle said nervously.

The trio made their way down the hall until they reached the apartment door.

“Phone’s inside…” Said the dark-haired man.

Anabelle still couldn
’t shake the feeling that something was very wrong. Suddenly, everything inside of her just want to get out of there and she said, “You know… I… I think I’m going to be okay. I… I really appreciate you offering to help me, but I think I am just going to go. I’m sorry for the trouble.”

“
Oh, it’s no trouble because you aren’t going anywhere lady. Grab her!” yelled the dark-haired man. Anabelle started to scream but just as she opened her mouth, the fair-haired man covered it with his palm. It wreaked of dirt, nicotine and violence. She shouted into the flesh of his palm and kicked wildly as the dark-haired man opened the door to the apartment.

As the door slammed shut, she bit the fair-haired man
’s palm.

“
Owww! Fuck! You
bitch
!” he exclaimed. He then reached back and slapped her across the face, knocking her to the ground. “You are going to pay for that…” he hissed.

She tried to cry out but before she could hardly make a sound, he picked her up and covered her mouth once again. The dark-haired man had disappeare
d into another room in the apartment. Terror gripped Anabelle’s heart as the awareness of what was unfolding began to sink into her consciousness.

With his hand still covering her mouth, the man behind her said, “
You’ll keep quiet if you know what’s good for you.” Anabelle shook her head and tried to break free. Out of desperation she tried to stomp on his feet or get an arm free and take a swing at his testicles. She struggled and fought but he was far too powerful. Suddenly the dark-haired man reappeared with a variety of restraints and what looked to be a gag for her mouth.

“
Nnnnnn, nnnnn, nnnnnn!!!!” Anabelle shrieked into the man’s hand. Tears of panic began to fill her eyes.

“
Shut the hell up cunt!” The man said from behind.

Anabelle felt as if she wer
e losing her mind. With blinding speed, the men stripped away her clothing while simultaneously gagging her mouth. The dark-haired man pointed to the couch immediately to the right of the entrance to the apartment and said, “Put her there and we’ll tie her up.”

Anabelle was frantic. Her mind went completely blank. She was unable to come up with any sort of plan. It was the first real crisis of her life and she was hopeless, helpless and utterly alone. The horror of what lie ahead in the next few moments mad
e her feel as if she were going to be sick. With only her bra and underwear remaining on, the men forced her onto the couch.

Just as quickly as they had removed her clothing, the men restrained her and now it was only a matter of time before her most unima
ginable nightmare would occur. Weeping, Anabelle begged and pleaded with the men, but her cries were muted by the gag and certainly no deterrent to them anyway. Now fully restrained, nothing prevented them from the act of ultimate brutality, save for the thinnest layer of her underwear.

As Anabelle sobbed, the fair-haired man turned to the other one and said, “
Who is going first?”

“
Man, I don’t fucking care!” The dark haired man exclaimed.

In the very next second, both of them began to strip away their clot
hing. Anabelle’s eyes widened in utter disbelief as they both began to make their way towards her. She shook her head back and forth all the while crying and screaming and hoping against hope that they just wouldn’t…

She could feel their presence. It was r
epulsive, like that of some primordial beast who survived by stealing life from the living. Panic, terror and horror tore at her mind, her body and her soul as they drew ever closer.

What had she done?

What had she done?

What…
had… she… done???

The dark ha
ired man lurched towards her but just as he did, the front door to the apartment burst open. In spite of being triple chain locked, it literally flew off its hinges and collided full force with the fair-haired man, knocking him out instantly. Totally stunned, Anabelle turned her head quickly to see what could have possibly done anything with such violence and force.

Initially, everything was a blur as bits of wood and metal scattered across the floor of the apartment. Yet in the midst of all of it, Anabelle
saw a huge mass of orange and yellow. To her utter shock, Anabelle looked on as a massive beast burst into the room with a deafening roar. Anabelle shook her head and screamed into the gag. Nothing she had ever experienced in her life could have prepared her for something like this and out of pure instinct, she froze in disbelief at what she saw.

An enormous tiger that was so large, it nearly filled the room.

“Holy fuck!” Shouted the dark-haired man as the tiger encircled him. The man backed away from Anabelle towards a window on the other side of the apartment. As he moved, the tiger followed closely and growled as it moved. Without ever taking his eyes off of the beast, Anabelle’s would-be rapist fumbled with the latch on the window.

Seconds later, he ope
ned it, slipped out onto the fire escape and disappeared. The other man still lay unconscious, partially covered by the door.

The tiger then turned and began to walk in Anabelle
’s direction. Exhausted from fear, Anabelle cried softly into the gag, too weak to struggle against the restraints any longer. She knew that the end was near. But as the tiger drew closer, a stunning transformation began to take place before her eyes. She was certain that her mind had gone into some kind of bizarre survival mode. For as she watched, the mountain of fur and muscle shifted into the form of none other than
Armin Vossler
.

“
Aaarrrnniiinnn!!!” Anabelle screamed into the gag.

He rushed to her side, quickly removed the restraints and gag. “
Anabelle, sweetheart… Are you all right?”

With tears of relief streaming down her face, she threw her arms around him and cried, “
Yes! Jesus! I’m okay… Armin, what the hell just happened? How did you find me?”

“
I’ll explain everything. Right now, I just want to get you out of here.” He said.

Still shaken, Anabelle leaned against Armin as he helped her get her clothes back on. They worked quickly and within minutes, they were back outside the front of the building. As they headed back in the direction of the nightclub, Anabelle said, “
Armin… What happened back there…?”

Without breaking stride, he said, “
Anabelle, I had hoped this revelation about Tanner and me would happen differently than it has.”

Incredulous, she said, “
Wait… You mean Tanner does… whatever it was you did back there also?”

Loo
king straight ahead he replied, “Yes, Anabelle. Tanner as well. I have no way to say this to you other than just to tell you. Anabelle, we are shape shifters. Do you know what that means?”

“
Well… I’ve heard of them but only in movies or TV shows. But I always thought that it was just make believe.”

He stopped abruptly and turned to face her. “
Was that
make believe
Anabelle – what happened in that apartment?”

She shook her head and said, “
No.”

“
Anabelle, shifters are all around you and they can take any number of forms. Some are like us, tiger shifters. But, almost any other creature you can imagine has shifter counterpart.”

“
Wait, I don’t understand. So are you a human or a tiger?” she asked.

“
We are both but
neither
, the same but
different
. We are humans that have the spirit of the animal within us. Look, I know this is totally confusing – I get it. All that matters at the moment is that you are alright and that you trust me. Everything else will be clear to you soon.”

They rounded a corner where he stopped,
took his hands in hers and said, “You
do
trust me, don’t you Anabelle?”

Anabelle suddenly felt very calm, safe and protected. As horrible as the events of only a few minutes before had been, she knew that she had nothing to fear with Armin at her side.

She looked up at him. The answer came quickly and without ambiguity…

“
Yes.” She said softly. “Armin, I…”

“
Shhhh… No more talking, Anabelle. That’s all I needed to hear.” He said as he stepped in close to her.

***

She blinked softly as he neared. As he did, her mind flashed with surreal imagery of his tiger’s breathtaking power, speed and ferocity. His human form was no less alluring to her – strong, lean and utterly masculine. He was the essence of what it meant to be alive and if nothing else, the events of the evening had made her appreciate the frailty of life as never before.

He moved closer to her and as he did, her mind thought of Tanner and then of each of them individually and lastly, of both, together…

Armin descended upon her mouth and this time, there was no fear for Anabelle. Just as he had freed her from physical captivity minutes earlier, he now released her from the emotional captivity she’d enslaved herself to all these years. She had always been her sternest gatekeeper, the most sinister of dungeon masters – unrelenting and ever critical.

The exaltation of the moment was immeasurable for her and she moaned into his mouth out of sheer gratitude. His strong arms coiled around her torso like a wanton serpent, pulling her close and eliciting a whimp
er. His strength was startling to her. Never had a man been able to make her feel so light and free.

Within seconds, Armin pushed her hard against the brick exterior of an old building. He leaned into her and pressed the full weight of his thick core again
st her soft midsection. As the moments passed, Armin’s Tiger began to explore her curves more liberally.

He groped and pawed at her bountiful flesh as she dug hard into his muscled midsection. The embers between her thighs that still smoldered for Tanner n
ow roared to life under Armin’s relentless assault.

Willfully, she leaned into him as their heads moved back and forth in time with one another until they were nothing but a blur of lips and tongue and heat. Logically, Anabelle could not have imagined a mo
ment like this in light of the events which had occurred only minutes earlier.

But this was not a moment for logic or reason or any of the pesky thoughts about why something
‘shouldn’t be’. Thoughts like those would only cloud the purity of what they shared. Whatever was meant to be, would be, and no longer would her beliefs about what couldn’t happen for her interfere with that.

Anabelle was done,
fucking done
, with being her own worst enemy. Nothing was going to stand in her way any longer, especially her. She pressed her backside hard into the cool brick façade and threw her right leg up and around his ass. It felt as if it was carved from a quarry – molded from ancient stones hardened by the millennia and now put to service for her pleasure.

Anabelle
’s mind imagined both her thighs wrapped tightly around his ass as it drove inside of her like a primordial piston. With his waist thrust against hers, she could envision the depths to which he might descend. Nature was indeed kind to its wild things.

He would rock and roll her world. She would hold on and beg for more…
and more… and more. And there was not more time to waste. Life was fragile, a moment by moment gambit. She was done risking it and if he would have her in this second, she would let him, consequences be damned. Anabelle’s bravado was at its peak and she knew that the time to act was indeed upon her. Brazenly, she grabbed for his cock but just as she did, his cell phone began to vibrate in his jeans pocket.

He broke free from her. In a final show of defiance, she bit his lower lip and tugged at it as he attempted to grasp for it.

“Ouch!” he said with a smile. He looked down at the phone and said, “Tanner… He’s got the limo and he’s on the way.”

Anabelle sighed. As she did, she wondered what emotion was conveyed the loudest
– relief or frustration…

Minutes later, the limousine pulled up and as it did the passenger side door nearest to them flung open bef
ore the vehicle even came to a stop. Tanner emerged in a flash and ran up to them.

“
Jesus, Anabelle… Are you all right? What the hell were you thinking running off like that?”

“
You have
no idea
bro…” Armin interjected.

“
What are you talking about? What happened to her?” Tanner asked.

Anabelle hugged Tanner and said, “
It’s okay… I’m fine… thanks to Armin.”