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The cabin where Dr. Peter continues his research, located somewhere deep in the Appalachian Mountains, far from the fingers of society his home is completely cut off from most of the outside world. This place is near the site of his attack, a grim daily reminder to keep him going to find a cure..something to help fix his ailment, but things seem to be stirring more then usual in the forest, it appears he may have a new visitor to this gloomy place. Will he ever find a cure for what troubles him, or will he accept what he is, who knows...only time will tell...

When Layla was finished picking out her clothing, she alerted her Master, who came quickly to pay for the garments. She was a bit surprised at the total. She had been trying to keep it low, picking form sales and clearance racks. After all, if he was going to remove them from her, what would be the point in keeping expensive clothing? It was less than a few moments as cash traded hands and the transactions were completed, before her Master picked up her bags and they were going back to the car. She would have carried them, but she didn’t want to agitate him with the questioning. When they sat back in the car, the pink haired doctor slumped in his seat as though exhausted. She wondered how long he’d been awake. If he was a doctor, it would be doubtless that he would have plenty of long nights. When he rolled the window down, Layla relaxed a bit more. It was nice to have fresh air again. Something so nice, she just couldn’t help but feel grateful for it. She’d taken it for granted before, but she wouldn’t’ do it again. Not after all the places she’d been where the air was stale, or smelled like sweat and blood. Where darkness reigned and there was no light to be seen, or even to be imagined. For a moment, she found herself pulled back into that hell hole that she had been kept in. The dark was encompassing, her body strung through chains and held limp like a doll. There was shuffling in the background, feet moving. A tiny orange flare of light lit up the features of one of her kidnappers faces for mere moments before extinguishing into a smoldering orange circle that came for her skin. It was so close the cigarettes. She could smell the smoke, coming into her lungs, permeating the air with its scent.

But the scent was really there. She flashed form her memories to take in the fact that her Master had lit a cigarette. She started, eyes wide and troubled on the smoldering orange cylinder, the scent scorching her nostrils. He was keeping the cigarette out the open window, and blowing the smoke there as well, but the scent linger in the car. She gave a tiny shudder, hoping she hid it well enough. This man didn’t need some sniveling girl. He need a research assistant. She didn’t want to go back to the estate to be sold off again, or worse, to wait for eternity for another to come and take her to a new home. She watched carefully, as her Master pinched the bridge of his nose. What if he was already thinking of taking her back? That wouldn’t be good at all. She didn’t’ want to go back. She’d do whatever it took to keep form returning to the estate. She could be useful. She would prove it. She watched the land pass by outside the car and tried to map the route they were taking. She didn’t want to interrupt her Master’s thought, but the silence became pressing and heavy. Almost palpable. She wondered if he’d ever say anything, or if this lack of words went beyond his apparent exhaustion. If he was just quiet, Layla would definitely find herself making her own music somewhere far from him, as to not disturb the moment he needed quiet. She gently tapped at her knee, as if invisible piano keys lay under her fingertips. She wasn’t any good, but of course, she had tried to learn. She had perfect pitch, so tuning had been more the issue with playing the piano. Whenever one was flat, or sharp, she knew.

She was surprised when her Master spoke to her about her collar, saying she could simply take it off. He must not have known that it was magically enhanced so that she in fact could no remove it. It would take someone with magic of their own to do it. She was about to explain when her Master turned his head once more to the window. The thought died on her tongue. He probably would not want to hear her refusal. How stupid. She was acting like some scared little maiden. What did he have to take form her? She moved to respond once more, but instead, her Master turned and began speaking. The Doctor told her he was looking an assistant. That he had been through something. An accident. He’d been bitten. By a werewolf. And was now one himself. Her heart thudded in her chest. He’d been infected. He was trying to cure himself. There was a monster inside of him. The worlds swirled around her head as she felt herself pale, and become nauseous. Monster. Infected. Bullet in the head. Cage. Problems. Anything I need. They swam, as if in front of her vision dancing around her. She leaned back into the seat, kicking off her flats and curling her legs beneath her in an attempt to ground herself. Did he not read her file? Or was that why he had chosen her? Would he lock her in a cage, or use her as an experiment to suit his own needs? Her heart pick up speed and she found her mouth dry. She tried to stay calm, but it was just like the men closing in on her again. If she had the secret of her lineage, and it was found out, what would this man do to her? He spoke of such hatred. It wasn’t her fault. She hadn’t changed him, but it might not matter. He didn’t’ want a wolf inside of him, and he was quite determined to rid himself of the gift, which he called disease. He even revealed to her charts and diagrams, and pages and pages of notes to show the direction he’d been moving. She couldn’t even read them. Her eyes swirled with color, taking in the markings as if they were a foreign language.

Abruptly, he changed the subject. He would not be called Master, but rather Doctor, or Peter, based on formality. She couldn’t form that name. She couldn’t form words. She was still reeling from the onslaught of research against werewolves. He explained that she would be allowed to relax tonight, but research would begin soon and he would need her almost constantly. She nodded mutely, hoping it would suffice. Surely, eventually he would question why she acted so meekly, but he hoped that it would be held off at least until she knew how to protect herself. Then came questions about herself. Her name. Her age. Why she smelled of wolf. How she had ended up at the estate. So many questions. She took a deep breath, calming herself, trying to formulate the questions she wished to answer, and which she didn’t. ”My name is Layla. I’m twenty three. It was… a bad…arrangement…I was supposed to…ma..to marry someone and his family… they were cruel. And as they thought I was not good enough, they sold me away to men who…” She stopped. She had almost stuttered out that she was supposed to mate another wolf. And then, talking about the men who had taken her, thinking about what they did, she was sick again. Anger and rage quelled in her eyes and she looked out the window, away from the strange doctor. ’It’s… in the past. It doesn’t matter. The cruelty of men will always exist. I’m changed and I won’t go back. I can’t….I’ll serve whatever purpose you need, Doctor.” She meant that too. There was nothing he could do to her that would be worse than the men. Not at that moment. Of course, he could take her wolf and rob her of half of herself, but that was a story and thought meant for another time.

Layla kept her gaze out the dark window, noting the reflection of her face in the light from the car and the shadows beyond the glass. They stopped as they pulled up to a large structure. A cabin. It was no trouble at all to see it in the night with the eyesight Layla possessed. Soon they were getting out of the car and going inside. She barley had time to look at the spacious and lavish furnishings before her Master was showing her elsewhere. Up the stairs and down the hall, the Doctor deposited the bags of her clothing on the floor by the light he switched on. The room was quite lavish. Much too much for what she was used to, but she nodded her head kindly and offered her thanks. It was shocking that she was getting so much space, and so much freedom. She didn’t even think the door had a lock to keep her inside. Maybe now she could bypass the collar magic and go for a run? She’d have to sneak out of course, and not reveal her wolf form. She didn’t have to shift like werewolves. She chose when she wanted to become wolf, but the prospect of shifting because she could was something that gnawed at her. When she had been with her previous captors, they had known something to stave off her transitions. She suspected they consulted with a warlock. However, maybe she could find some of the herb and present it to this doctor to help him in his research. She wouldn’t be able to explain it, but helping would be a first start. When the doctor dismissed himself, she nodded and mumbled thanks again.

Once he was out of the room, she began calmly putting her new clothes in drawers and lining shoes into the closet. It was not long before she had organized her room into something neat and tidy. She opened the windows letting the fresh air billow in. She had to be far enough from any other wolves besides this man that they could not find her and bring word back to the pack that had destroyed her life. She would not let them do such things again. Flittering about the room a bit more, she eventually did everything imaginable and mad her way softly downstairs. Seeing the doctor in the living room, she paused, moving a short distance form the couch. ”Doctor? I’m sorry to bother you during your research. Is there anything I can get for you? Should I prepare a meal for you?” She wanted to prove she was not useless. And perhaps the more he saw her, the less he would stare her down as if she were some specimen. Maybe he wouldn’t lock her in a cage. She’d just have to protect her secret with her life.


Outfit: Current Attire

She was surprised at first, to see the Doctor snap up so fast, but she hadn’t realized he had been asleep. Papers were strewn on the other side of him, along the coffee table, and they looked as if they portrayed something with wolves. She swallowed the lump in her throat as she felt her own snarl within her. She looked away, back towards the Doctor who seemed to be becoming more and more coherent. The haunted look in his eyes spoke as if he had ventured into a nightmare and was still shaking off the throes of it. She would not ask and invade his privacy just yet. They didn’t seem close enough or that yet. She wondered if they ever truly would be. She was just his assistant. Not really a companion. Just the person who did the tasks he didn’t want to do. When he dismissed her offer of food, and requested coffee instead, she nodded her head quickly, and watched as he dismissed himself. Once he was gone, she moved to the kitchen to do as she was told, grabbing the coffee form the freezer and beginning to prepare it, putting it in the coffee maker. She wondered if this was his only form of sustenance to get through the day. It would become her concern if the Doctor did not begin eating. She couldn’t very well let him die of. She would end up back where she began, if not somewhere worse for her incompetence to take care of her Master. That would put her back on the market. It would also put her out to be discoverable again. She had heard wolves were looking for her. She didn’t want to go back to that. Perhaps the pack she had been gifted to wanted her back, she would have made a fabulous omega is what the son had always said.

Instead, she venture back into the living room, looking at the array of papers on the coffee table. They were detailed accounts of shifts and forms. She tensed, looking at the commentary and the crude drawings. He was quite detailed in his accounts and it only served to further disturb the wolf demon. There was no known cure for lycanthropy. There were only ways to deal with it. Those, she could reveal to him, but not without giving herself away. Would he lock her up and drain her dry? Would he kill her? She had power over her own transformations, but by the looks of it, the doctor still had none over his own. There were already blood samples in his file, and she wondered whether they were his own, for if he had a werewolf locked up somewhere and was experimenting on them. She hoped it was the former, and not the latter. When she heard footsteps on the stairs, she jumped and made a quick dash for the kitchen, hoping to look nonchalant and not obtrusive into his research. It was quite rude for her to look without his permission, but she had been curious. She wanted to know if he had a specimine. She wanted to know if that would be her role. What if he attempted to take her blood to see how a human’s would compare to a werewolf’s? It wouldn’t take long to find the similarities between her own blood and his current blood. Her own would be different undoubtedly, but she was still a wolf, and still had wolf blood running through her veins. More than his, perhaps, considering she was a demon. There was no ounce of human in her. And if he believed himself a monster, what would she be?

When the Doctor returned to the kitchen, he removed two mugs and began preparing his own coffee. She watched where he fetched them from, making sure she would know where to return her own. Instead, once he began speaking, she let her own vacant mug sit on the counter. She didn’t care for coffee. He asked again if she would rather take the day off. She knew it would only make her more restless. She had waited and waited in that room and the estate, for someone to come and take her out and give her a purpose. Now, she was more than ready to begin. ”No, Doctor. I am quite fine. I’ve had a lot of time to wait and do nothing. I… I’m ready for whatever you’d have me do.” She truly did mean that. She wanted to help him with whatever he needed. He looked exhausted, but if dreams were what bothered him, maybe he needed sleep without them. ”Perhaps…you should rest, sir? You look quite exhausted. I could see about making tea… and perhaps I could clean, or organize while you rest?” It was a pointless argument. She felt that as soon as she had uttered the words. This man was hell bent on killing the so called “monster” inside of him. If she told him there was no way, would he stop trying to find an answer to the impossibility? She didn’t think so. It would be cruel to tell him that anyways. It was like telling a human they had cancer and there was no hope. Becoming a werewolf was much the same way. However, she couldn’t find the words to tell him. Not without giving herself away. Not without crushing his hope into nothing, although she pitied him more for holding onto a nonexistent hope.

Outfit: Current Attire

It didn’t seem to matter what she was doing, the doctor didn’t want her down in his cellar. That was both something of a relief, as well as a turn off. Not the kind that resulted from physical attraction, but from attitude. The cellar must have been the Doctor’s den, without him even realizing it. Perhaps he was much more of a wolf than he wanted to admit. She watched him carefully, even as he seemed to stare unabashedly back at her. His gaze was not scrutinizing enough to make her cave in on herself. Not after so many men had passed hands and gazes over her body in more offensive ways then he was currently doing. Besides, he was not looking at her as a mate. He was looking at her as an assistant. She was ruined anyways. She had no prospects and she knew. What did throw her off however, was when he spoke to her, telling her that she would have a task before going to the cellar. He trailed off, and before she could ask what the task would be, he raised his hand and walked off toward the bulk of the house. She was left, mouth slightly ajar. She was honestly surprised that he had been so short, walking off before finishing, but his mannerisms pointed more and more to the wolf that was within him. She would never make a comment about it, but it was becoming more and more obvious to her. She waited until the Doctor came back, and remained quiet as he handed her money. It was an almost ridiculous amount. He instructed her to go to a grocery store, and buy groceries for them, and to arrange a delivery. He also wanted wolf’s bane from the forest. She looked at him hopelessly, taking the paper and the money and tucking them into her outfit.

It wasn’t his fault. He simply couldn’t have known that she had never been under free to roam. That she had never been to a human store without another to guide her around. She had never handled money. She hoped she didn’t screw it all up. It would be new for her, but she was determined to do just as the Doctor had asked. She nodded carefully, listening to his instructions as he explained that she could. She watched for another few moments before heading for the door. She slipped her feet into a pair of flats and opened the door, stepping out and waiting a moment before shutting it behind her. She could run. She could leave the house and never look back and try to be a free woman, but she sensed that the Doctor would need her more to stay than to leave. She would need protection from roaming men, and if any of the pack’s wolves were sent out after her, to recover what their leader had thrown away, she would need a safe haven. No, she couldn’t leave. She needed to stay. She inhaled the scent of fresh, untouched earth blowing into her face and began to take the path through the forest. She would need gloves, so if she bought them at the store, she would be able to gather what her master wanted on the way home. She nodded her head and took off down the path, leading away from the house.

It was about an hours walk, but it had felt nice to stretch her legs. The displeasing thing about reaching the market was that her heels had been chafed raw by the new shoes and blisters had worn their way onto her heels. The keepers of the market wouldn’t let her in without her shoes. She grimaced but slipped them back on, wincing with each step. Strangely, looking around, she grabbed a shopping cart and began tossing things into it. An abundance of meats were put into the cart, without much thought to what was in the basket, and what they would make. She picked out some vegetable that she thought looked good, and frowned, not really knowing what else to get. The doctor had asked for coffee, but she didn’t really know where to get that or what it looked like. Instead, she began looking after an older woman who was pushing her cart around like a pro, throwing this and that into it. Layla began to mimic her movements, and the older woman took notice. When she questioned Layla, the wolf demon gently explain that she had never really done the shopping. She didn’t explain much more than that, but the older woman was happy to help, as well as a few shopping clerks once they understood she needed if the Doctorgrocery deliveries on a weekly basis. They also pointed her in the direction of gauze for her heels so that the walk home would not be so terrible. She smiled, paying the clerks for her large grocery tab, and purchased a pair of gloves before leaving the store. Once she was returning home, she began to look more and more carefully for the wolf’s bane the doctor had asked for. She slipped on her gloves once she had found it and began to gently pull the blooms from the stem. She wasn’t sure if the stem was necessary, but she pulled some of the as well, sticking it into a bag she had pilfered from the grocery store check out lanes with a smile.

Another hour and she was home. She kicked her flats off just inside the door and sagged against the door as it closed behind her. The groceries were supposed to be delivered at six. It was only five thirty now, so she had half an hour. She smiled gently, taking her gloves off and tossing them in the bag. She moved to the cellar, knocking gently upon the door before entering just a few steps into the cellar. ”Doctor? I have your wolf’s bane. And your change. The groceries will be here soon. Is there something I can do for you in the meantime?” The smell in the cellar was dank and musty. She frowned, smelling wolf down in the whole as well. This was his den, and she was entering without permission. Would she be punished for it? She wasn’t sure, but she didn’t want to anger him. Eventually, his wolf would need to come out. If he stopped fighting it, it would become easier for him, but she couldn’t explain that to him. He might kill himself with the wolf’s bane before she had the chance. She sighed softly, looking down into the dimly lit space, waiting for some kind of response.

Outfit: Current Attire