Page 42 of His Pet

"I'm doing okay, mom, I promise," Bella said.

It had been two weeks since she and Alex had returned home to the Moon, their memories wiped. Two weeks of trying to get them back. Maybe they should just leave it alone, but they couldn’t seem to stop poking at them.

Especially because sometimes, something came through.

Bella had had a particularly bad spot on her second day home when her parents had wanted to take her to the doctor. She'd had a full-blown hysterical panic attack, that only calmed when Alex held her, reassuring her that she didn't have to go. Her parents, terrified of her response, had quickly agreed. That hadn't stopped the memories from cascading back. Not all of them, of that she was sure, but she remembered Doctor Margolis. Remembered his cruel smile, the electricity that he'd tortured her with...

When her parents had left, she'd told Alex about it. His resulting fury had made him remember a name—Nurse Roche. Although he couldn't remember why he knew that name. It just popped into his head.

Eventually they figured out that the more strongly they’d felt about something, the more likely it was they'd be able to remember it eventually. Sometimes it burst out, like an explosion in their minds, other times it came more gradually. Alex was constantly protective of Bella. The other day they'd been nearly caught out by media, who had realized their location when they'd gone to get groceries, and a young, blonde-haired woman had almost been injured when she'd been knocked over. Alex had gone practically ballistic, yelling at the media, protecting both Bella and the young woman with his body until security showed up.

When they got home, he told her about Trish. He remembered her more clearly than Bella did. They'd started trying to look up what might have happened to her, but there was no real news coverage of her kidnapping, nothing to indicate where she might be now. There was plenty about Bella and Alex though, including clips from Ken and Lisa begging for their return. It had sent Alex into another ranting rage that Bella had calmed by cuddling with him.

They hadn't had sex. Not yet. Alex was being a gentleman and Bella... well, Bella was getting impatient. She was living in his house, sleeping in his bed, in his arms, every night, and yet the few times she'd tried to initiate, he'd been too worried that they were reacting to things they couldn't remember. Too worried that she was emotionally vulnerable and that he would be taking advantage of her.

At this point, Bella was starting to think she was going to need to take advantage of him.

At the moment, she was alone. Alex had gone out to look for a job. The government was funding them right now, kind of a grant for the trauma they'd been through—even though they couldn't remember it—but Alex felt a pressing need to do something. Maybe something political, he'd said. Bella hadn't entirely understood, and she didn't like being separated from him during the day, but she was learning to deal. And it did give her more time to try and remember things.

They'd quickly learned that it was frowned upon though. They'd been in touch with a few of the Wolf's former victims, none of whom wanted to even try and remember what had happened to them. They'd looked askance when Alex and Bella had even hinted that some things were coming back to them. The next day, a doctor had dropped by, nearly sending Bella into another panic attack. She hadn't been at all like the doctors that had taken care of Bella and Alex when they'd first woken up. She'd been stern, uncompromising, and had told them that they could damage their own brains by trying to force memories to return. They needed to concentrate on reestablishing their lives, not on the past.

Of course that was kind of hard to do when so many things about her life made Bella unhappy. She couldn't stand to be around Ken's father, although his parents had both tried to reach out to her and Alex. Living at home wasn't an option; she had too many panic attacks at night when she wasn't with Alex. Her cheating boyfriend had disappeared, presumed a captive of the Wolf. Ken's parents were funding the search for him and his and Lisa's faces were on the media almost every day. Interest had soared, since they had already been known from Alex and Bella's ordeal.

"You aren't going to watch the broadcast, are you? I don't want you to be all alone when you see it. At least wait for Alex if you won't watch it with us," her mother pleaded through the line.

"Of course, mom, I'll wait for Alex," Bella said, lying through her teeth.

Today, for the first time ever, the Wolf was going to be broadcasting a message to the Earth's media. It was also going to be playing on the Moon. If Alex wasn't back in time, Bella would be watching it alone, because there was no way she could wait. She needed to see the man who had held her captive for months. To see if it would spark something—anything—in her memory. Sometimes it felt like her memories were right there, on the other side of a wall, pounding at it and trying to get through.

Finally she managed to convince her mother that she was just fine and get off of the phone with her. She knew her parents meant well, but sometimes they drove her up the wall. It was like they expected her to be broken, and that's how they treated her. But she wasn't. Even with the things she remembered, she didn't feel broken. Sometimes, even when she remembered something awful, like her time with Dr. Margolis, she felt stronger afterward. Because she'd come through it.

Half an hour later, after a lot of channel-flipping, the broadcast finally started. Alex still wasn't home. Curling up with a cushion between her thighs and her chest, Bella turned the channel to the news.

The first thing that struck her was the man himself. The media had tried for so long to get a good, clear picture of him and had never achieved it. But the moment she saw him, there on the screen, she felt something inside of her shift in confirmation.

Yes, that's what he looks like.

It was him. Not an actor or an impostor, like some of the reporters had theorized would show up. That was the man himself. Bright-green piercing eyes, a hard face, and dark- black hair that was silver around his temples.

One of the reporters said something mocking about that sign of age that had been allowed. Idiot. As if a bit of grey hair somehow made the Wolf less powerful. He had no need to cling to his youth to create an imposing presence, he was imposing all on his own.

The image began to zoom out and Bella tensed. Something inside of her recognized the location. A dais, with the Wolf in the center, seated in a chair that was almost a throne. On either side of him, kneeling and naked—although their genitals had been blurred out by the censors—were Lisa and Ken. Behind him hung two black-bordered banners with a sigil on them.

There was a roaring noise in her ears, drowning out whatever the reporters were saying as she stared at the sigil. It looked like an S with a horizontal bar through the top curve. Nothing that should have meant anything. Definitely nothing that should have sent a strong surge of emotion through her.

It was one of the few strong, positive emotional reactions that she'd had. The only one she'd had that didn't have to do with Alex. Bella licked her lips, trying to distance herself and study what she was feeling. Excitement. Joy. Hope. But why? Why would that sigil elicit those feelings?

The pressure seemed to be building in her head, and then all of a sudden the camera zoomed in on the Wolf again and Bella nearly cursed. Her focus was lost and the pounding receded. It wasn't the first time that had happened when she was trying to remember something and it wouldn't be the last. She made herself attend to what the Wolf was saying, hoping it would bring something back.

Nothing. He was addressing the people of Earth, declaring how important he was. Telling them that he had the son of a government official of the Moon at his beck and call. When prompted, Ken stood and spread his legs apart, bending forward. A woman came up, very pretty with red hair, and began to spank Ken with her hand as the Wolf continued to talk.

The cameraman was apparently too fascinated by what was happening to Ken to zoom back in on the Wolf, although he didn't zoom in in Ken either. Probably worried for his job if he did something so blatant. This was the first time the media was getting a look at the Wolf's sexual decadence.

Something about it all rang completely wrong to Bella. She noticed that the Wolf kept gesturing up to the sigil, which drew her eye again, as he began to talk about how all those loyal to him should wear it. Declare themselves for him. Because the Moon was using too many of the Earth's resources, stealing them from those who labored for them, and it was time to put an end to it. His words seemed to filter in and out of her ears, meaningless babble as she felt the hope and joy growing in her chest the longer she stared at that sigil.

Her hand reached out as if to touch it...

And she jerked back as the door opened.

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