Fur

I ended up having to tell eleven God damned people about Drea cheating on me and explain to them why I couldn't get back with her. Most of my male friends were sure that I was losing a good thing. Some of them even suggested that I just keep her around to have sex with and just never marry her.

On the other hand, the women were all split between two camps. The nice ones all thought that Drea really loved me and that I should look at this as a mistake and give her another chance. The REALLY nice women all told me that Drea was a whore and I was doing the right thing.

All I knew was that in two days I'd be walking into a lawyer's office and walking out a lot richer. I shopped and put my new apartment together. I met a few of my neighbors and maintained my low profile. The only time I ever left the building other than shopping was to go eat at the restaurant. I guess I knew that going there was risky, but I needed to be around people occasionally.

There was also the fact that Nadja was growing on me. When I sat down and thought about it, I realized that there was a big difference between her and Drea. Drea had a knack for letting me know that I could fuck her anytime I wanted, any way I wanted. But Nadja simply lit up when she saw me. Drea's reaction also apparently extended to other guys. They could also fuck her whenever they wanted, however they wanted. I got the feeling that Nadja would be the kind of woman that was all mine and would expect me to be all hers.

Over the time that I'd been going to the restaurant, things had progressed really slowly between us, but also very steadily. It had gotten to the point where if I walked in, the waitresses would all see me and some would nod politely, but none of them would approach my table. Even if Nadja was taking a big order from another table full of people, they would let me sit there.

I asked Flo about it once and she told me from across a table. "Remember three days ago when Sandy asked you if you wanted to order and you told her what you wanted?" she asked. I nodded. It had been a mistake. Sandy had just let me order whatever I asked for and it turned out not to be very good. I ended up ordering something else and Nadja had a fit.

She'd taken my plate away from me before I even had a second bite to figure out what was wrong with it. She'd made me order something else.

"Well, Nadja slammed Sandy into the wall so hard she cracked the drywall and is still having back pain," said Flo. "So nobody here is going to come near you. But if you want to hook something up, she leaves at six and I work until nine."

I noticed that Flo was whispering and even then she didn't slow down to talk to me. Nadja soon came out of the kitchen and flashed her smile at me. She pointed one finger skyward and I knew that meant that she'd be with me in one minute.

As she came over to my table, she ran her hands along my arms and over my shoulders. It was a gesture of familiarity. Most men would have thought it was nice. Most women would have recognized that it spoke of her claiming me.

Nadja had on tights tonight under her uniform. I didn't think anything of it. She smiled when she saw me looking at her legs. "Do you like this color?" she asked.

"Nope," I said. Her face fell. I'd noticed that any time I didn't like something about her it was as if I'd punched her.

"It's not that I don't like the color of your tights, Nadja," I said. She smiled again when I said her name. I'd also noticed that she loved it when I said her name.

"I just love looking at your bare legs better. I just love your legs. They're so..."

"You want to mate with me don't you?" she smiled. The smile she gave me had to have been brighter than normal by several megawatts.

I'd never heard anyone phrase it like that. I'd had women ask if I wanted to be with them. I'd had women ask if I wanted to make love with them or to them. Some of the skankier women asked if a guy wanted to have sex with them and the flat out whores asked guys if they wanted to fuck. But I had never heard the question phrased exactly like that.

"You do, don't you?" she asked.

"Nadja, do you think that maybe we could go out on a date or something first?" I asked.

"Why?" she asked. Her smile told me that the question was genuine. She wasn't being coy or playing any kind of game.

"Well, I really like you," I said. "So I'd like to get to know more about you. I don't want us to rush into something and mess up a chance for us to be together for a long time."

"Jack, we're not going to be together for a long time," she said. This time it was me who was disappointed.

"We're going to be together forever," she continued. "Or at least until we die. But you already know that," she smiled.

"So, we REALLY need to go out on a date," I said. She laughed.

"Okay, if we have to," she sighed. "But it can't be tonight. We'd better wait thirty six hours. In fact, I have to go now. She looked around the room and made sure no one was watching us and then gave me a very quick kiss on the cheek. It had me wondering whether or not she was crazy. It was the kind of kiss a high school girl might give her boyfriend. It wasn't what I'd expected from someone who'd pretty much offered to get horizontal with me. As she held my hand before she left I noticed something about her that I'd never noticed before. Her slim arms were very hairy. I'd seen those same arms before and I guess that I'd just missed the hair. It was very thick it was almost like a light coating of fur.

She kissed me on the cheek again and I felt hair on her cheek too. It wasn't noticeable, but the thing that shocked me about it was the fact that I was sure that only moments ago when she'd kissed me the first time, that hair wasn't there. She let go of me reluctantly and started to walk away.

I was watching the sway of those slim hips walking away from me when I heard the voice.

"You gotta be fucking kidding me," he said roughly.

He turned the chair across from me around backwards and sat down in it. "Drea is crying her eyes out over you and you're off making puppy dog eyes at that. Her tits aren't that big and she doesn't have an ass. Drea makes her look like a boy. What's wrong with you?"

"There's nothing wrong with me," I said. "I just happen to prefer women that I don't have to share with a gang of other men. I also happen to prefer women who don't fuck their brothers."

"Well yeah, there's that," he laughed. "But you gotta understand. Gus and Drea had a tough time growing up. When they were younger a lot of the time all they had was each other. That's a tough bond to break. And you yourself know that Drea loves sex so..."

"So what does that have to do with me?" I asked.

"So Drea also loves you," he said, as if that explained everything.

"We already covered this," I said. "Drea and I are over. I don't want to have anything to do with a gang bang slut, much less be engaged to one. I paid my half of the rest of the lease. You guys can go over to the apartment and fuck Drea til the cows come home. I no longer care."

"That won't happen anymore," he said. "Drea had to pick between you and what she was doing. She picked you."

"But she did it too late," I said. "We're done."

"Then you need to come and tell her in person," he said. "Can you at least have that much courtesy?"

I pulled out my phone and dialed her number. She answered it on the first ring. I put the phone on speaker and let him hear her voice. "Drea, this is Jack," I said. "We had a good run but we are just too different. I don't want to marry you. When I caught you that night in our apartment it broke my heart. I'm still trying to get over you. Maybe someday in the future we can sit down and talk about it. Have a nice life. I really did love you, way more than you loved me."

"But Jack," she whined as I hung up the phone.

"How was that?" I asked.

"I can see you're going to be a hard ass about this," he said. He got up and left the restaurant the same way he came in. I figured that he knew that he alone wasn't enough to take me anywhere. I remembered the plan that Gus wanted to try from the conversation I'd overheard. I knew that Drea also knew that in only a couple of days I'd get my money. So I decided to get the fuck out of there before he came back with enough guys to try to drag me off somewhere.

I quickly dashed through the kitchen and went out the back exit. It was the same exit that Nadja had taken less than ten minutes previously.

I rushed out the back way and looked around in the alley behind the restaurant. It was dark but the moon was up and full. I knew of course that the full moon lasted only seconds so it wasn't actually full yet. The moon appeared to be full for a period of up to thirty six hours to the naked eye but again the moon was technically full for only a few seconds. Something about that make me think but I didn't put it together until later.

As I was contemplating the moon and wondering how to get to my truck without being seen, they stepped out of the shadows.

There were three of them.

"We figured you might try to sneak out the back way," said one of them. "But it wouldn't have mattered." He pulled out a phone and dialed a number. "He came this way," he said.

Even as he hung the phone up, he smiled at me. "We're all going to go visit friends," he smiled.

"We're all not doing shit," I said smiling too. "I'm not going anywhere with you. And we don't have any mutual friends."

"Aww, don't be like that," he said. "Your fiancé loves you. This is all a big misunderstanding."

When he said fiancé something happened. I swear I heard a growl from the trash cans behind the restaurant.

One of the three looked around. I think he heard it too. Three more guys came around the corner and the next thing I knew there were six bikers around me in a tight semi-circle. The door back inside the restaurant was closed and I had my back to the wall.

"Okay, this won't be the first time I got my ass kicked. And it probably won't be the last. I'm probably going to go down, but I'll go down swinging and at least one of you cowards is going down with me," I said.

"What are you talking about Jack?" asked the guy who'd come into the restaurant. "We don't want to hurt you. We don't want to fight and we don't have to fight. We're just going to take you to see Drea. You two will stay together for a few days and when everything is fine, you guys can go ahead and get married."

I was sure I heard the growl again. Whatever it was, it wasn't a little lost dog.

"We were really hoping that you'd come with us voluntarily. But if we have to drag you back to Drea kicking and screaming, you're going," he said.

That was when all hell broke loose. I grabbed the lid off of one of the trash cans near me. Holding it by the edge I swung it with all of my might and it bounced off of the head of the guy nearest me. The impact was so hard the lid bent. And the guy went down. He wasn't out but he was dazed. I kicked the guy next to him in the nuts and he went down holding his crotch.

"I was hoping we wouldn't have to do this," said the first guy again. Two of them grabbed my arms while a third punched me in the face. I spat blood into the face of the guy who'd punched me.

"Fuck you," I sneered. "If I live through this, I'll make sure none of you guys do. As soon as I get my money, you're all dead. And if I don't live there's no money so Drea and Gus will kill you anyway."

The next thing I knew, I heard the growl again but it was angrier and far closer. As the men wrestled, trying to drag me out of the alley a big shadowy figure took one of them down. I briefly saw huge jaws clamp down on one of the mens' neck. He screamed and then whatever had done it was gone.

I heard another growl and saw a flash of a huge clawed paw rake across the face of another guy. The two men holding me were looking around them in terror. I picked that moment to attack again myself.

The two men holding my arms were more shocked than I was. I snatched my arm free and backhanded one across the bridge of his nose. He staggered back and saw a huge furry creature barrel into the man holding my other arm. "What the fuck is that?" he yelled. Then he took off running leaving his friends behind.

The thing that had attacked us had one man cowering in a corner. I turned to flee as well. The last man looked at me and said, "You ain't going nowhere buddy."

As soon as he said it, the creature abandoned the man it had trapped in the corner and turned on him. He tried to run, but it incapacitated him with one swipe. Its vicious claws rent the muscles in his back savagely and he went down and didn't move.

The creature turned to me. It was taller than me and more massive. It had huge teeth sticking out of its furry snout. I'd have thought it was a huge misshapen dog if it hadn't risen up onto two legs. I had no weapons and the only possible ally I had was the last remaining biker who was still huddled in the corner too afraid to move.

The creature sniffed the air and paused looking at me. I saw a shiver go through its entire body and then the massive head glared in my direction. The surprising thing about it was that its eyes were not what I was expecting. They weren't feral or animalistic at all. They were almost human. In fact I was sure I'd seen eyes like that somewhere before. In my shocked state though, I couldn't remember where.

The creature sniffed again and then took off into the darkness. For a long time I just stood there in shock. Then I turned and started to walk towards my truck.

"Hey, wait," said the guy in the corner. I turned to look at him.

"Aren't you going to do something?" he asked.

"Like what?" I asked.

"Like call 911 or check the bodies to see which ones are dead and which ones may need help?" he asked.

"Nope," I said. "I'm going home."

"But, you...you have to," he said.

"No I don't," I snapped. "You assholes were trying to kidnap me. When I decided that I wouldn't just go along with it, you started to attack me. Whatever happens to them happens. I don't care if they live or die."

"You don't understand," he said. "We don't have anything against you. We were just doing what Gus told us to do. This was all about trying to get you and Drea back together. Drea loves you dummy. We're the good guys."

"No," I said. "You're the dumb guys. Drea and Gus want me to marry Drea because I'm about to inherit a lot of money, tomorrow in fact. If I'm married to Drea or she has my child they figured that they'd be on easy street. Even if we got divorced, she'd end up with some money so she wouldn't have to get her lazy ass a job. Gus lined all of you guys up to do his dirty work and didn't give you all of the facts or even tell you about the money did he?"

"No," said the guy. "He just said that there'd been a misunderstanding between you and his sister. He showed us a bunch of pictures of the two of you together and Drea sat there crying about how special you always made her feel. She told us she loved you and she'd never be the same without you. Gus told us that you saw him kiss her and didn't realize that it was just a brotherly kiss congratulating her for being engaged to you. He figured we could bring you in and explain the situation to you and everything would work out. In the end, he figured you'd thank us for saving your relationship."

"So all of you weren't there when I caught her then," I laughed.

"When you caught her?" he asked.

"I caught Drea fucking her own brother and probably a bunch of other guys who were waiting their turn," I said. "I'm not marrying any woman who needs to fuck anyone except me."

"I don't blame you," he said. "If my old lady did that, I wouldn't have run out on her. I'd have beaten the shit out of her and whoever she was with."

"I guess I loved Drea too much for that," I said. "Plus I'm just not the kind of man who could ever hit a woman."

"So why didn't you just tell us this from the beginning?" he asked.

"I tried to," I said. "I kept telling that guy that I had nothing to say to Drea. I told him that everything between us was over and done with. He wouldn't listen."

"Well you probably still shouldn't have set that dog on us. That was the biggest, scariest fucking dog I've ever seen. How do you train something like that?" he asked.

"What?" I asked. "I've never seen that thing before. And I don't think it was a dog."

"What do you mean?" he asked. "That thing showed up when we started trying to convince you to come with us. It bit or hurt everyone it saw until you stood in front of it. I thought you were dead, but it just took one look at you and then it quieted down and it left. What was it if it wasn't a dog?"

"How many dogs have you ever seen that walk on two legs?" I asked.

"Well the ones in the circus do it all the time," he said.

"Oh yeah," I said. "This is the circus. Since you think I know that thing, I'm the ringmaster and you and your friends are the clowns. I'm outta here."

I walked back to my truck. I kept looking over my shoulder because I was sure that someone was watching me. I turned in every directions several times but saw no one. I opened the truck and started the motor. Just as I was about to put the truck into gear, a tapping on my window scared the shit out of me.

I turned and saw the biker I'd just spoken to. I rolled down the window and looked at him.

"I don't have a way home," he said. "I want to get out of here as soon as possible, can you uhm..."

"Get in the back," I said. "I'll drop you off at Drea's. You can call for a ride from there." He climbed in the back of the truck and held on. I drove back to the apartment I'd shared with Drea. When I was a few blocks away I asked him for his phone. I used his phone to call Drea because I didn't want her to have my new number.

As soon as she said hello, I just started talking. "I'm dropping one of your turds in front of the toilet you turned our home into," I said sarcastically. "You and Gus had better start taking better care of your toys. At this rate you're going to run out of them soon."

"Jack, fuck him," she said. "Fuck all of them. Fuck Gus too. None of them matter all I want is you."

"Drea, haven't you already done that?" I asked.

"Done what, Honey?" she asked sweetly.

"Fucked him, fucked Gus, fucked all of them," I said. "You were fucking me too, but that's done with."

"Jack, you know that I'm kind of messed up in the head. I just thought it was all in fun. You were the only thing that mattered. The rest of them were just...Look I've been doing it since before I ever met you. You knew when we first got together that I wasn't an angel. But you treated me like one anyway Jack. I guess I thought that if you didn't know about it, no one would be hurt. I grew up knowing that nobody gave a fuck about me. I had to scramble to get everything and I always had to have something on the side just in case. It's just survival, honey."

"When I met you, it didn't matter whether it was for one of my brother's schemes or not...Okay, maybe at first that was what it was, but shit Jack, I fell for you. After a while I just loved you so much that none of it mattered anymore. When you drop whoever you're with off, you can just pick me up. You and I will go away together. We'll go somewhere that no one knows us and we'll start all over again. I'll sign a paper that says that if we ever divorce or break up that I'm not entitled to a cent of your money and any kids we have will stay with you. I promise that I'll never let another man touch me for the rest of my life."

I have to admit it was a tempting offer especially since I really had loved her. But I just didn't trust her anymore. I didn't trust her as far as I could throw her. So I just stopped the truck outside of her building long enough for the guy in the back to get out and drove home.