BY HOPE OF WATCH TOWER J

Beta read by Syx Maxwell

Duo ran. The creature's breath at his neck. He had to get away. He couldn't

escape.

Duo jerked awake. He was in a soft bed, in a cozy bedroom. Quatre sat beside him.

"Welcome back!"

"What happened?"

"… I found you on the front step. You were covered in blood."

Duo closed his eyes. He remembered… being captured, Trowa, the guards… hurting him, escaping, and… the blood. He remembered the creature.

"I thought I was dead. Q-man, I got caught by OZ and Trowa was there and then this … THING killed all the base personal and it CHANGED and then… I don't remember."

"What happened to Trowa?"

"… I don't know."

At that time Rashid interred the room and announced the arrival of Trowa and Heero.

Quatre watched Duo intently as the American talked with the others. The doctors had found the hidden injuries, the tearing. He knew what had been done to his close friend.

He knew what those OZ bastards had done to the laughing, cheerful, jewel eyed pilot that meant so much to him.

And he grieved for him.

As the four boys sat and talked Duo couldn't help but feel that something was off with Heero and Trowa. As inconspicuously as possible, Duo stole glances at Trowa. What could it be?

Trowa heaved a mental sigh and thought in misery, Why did Duo have to see my 'other'? Why couldn't it be different? The gods must be laughing at me.

He reflected that it was just as well that one of the Wolves had found him. A Wolf that could be trusted to keep his secret.

Trowa lay awake that night and thought. The Wolf that had found him had been a surprise. He wondered how the Wolf's remaining family had taken the news. Or if the Wolf had done the same as so many others, hiding his true nature.

The Wolf had taken him to Heero after tending the minor injuries he had suffered in the base. All in all it was nothing shy of a miracle that everyone, Duo also apparently, believed that what the braided youth had see had been a hallucination.

He turned on his side and sighed. He would get no sleep tonight. After the change, his body was too out of whack. Testosterone and adrenaline levels to high to let him relax. Oh how he wished he could find the braided boy and have him all to himself. To pin him down. To slide in and out of his tight heat and savor his whimpers and moans of pleasure!

What the? Trowa wondered as he sat up and shook his head. Where had THAT come from?

Months passed and no further incidents occurred. Missions came and went. All was back to what passed for normal for the pilots. Then something unexpected happened. Trowa disappeared.

He had been returning from a mission. The all clear came, and he flew Heavyarms to the pre arranged landing zone. Then he just dropped off the scope. Quatre was frantic, and Duo was on the verge of a nervous breakdown!

Trowa came to and found himself restrained. He was strapped into some kind of a frame, bound with chains laced heavily with silver.

The uni-banged youth couldn't suppress the shudder. Who ever put him here knew! But how? He had been so careful!

"Ah, awake at last," came a gravelly voice. "We have been waiting for you to rouse before we could begin. After all, it just wouldn't do for you to miss the fun."

The way the unseen man said the word 'fun' made Trowa flinch ever so slightly. And there was something about that voice that was frighteningly familiar.

The man stepped into the light and it was all Trowa could do not to scream. Before him stood his savior and destroyer. The one who had saved his sanity after the change and then claimed his soul.

Drevan Harris. The leopard king.

The alpha Leopard walked up to him and smirked. "Did you think I would let you leave? Did you think yourself safe? Oh my dear foolish kitten. You are mine!"

As he spoke, the dark sadist walked around the bound pilot until he stood behind the emerald-eyed youth. As he finished speaking he brought a leather strap down on Trowa's unprotected back. Again and again the man lashed at the bound boy, until his back was a mass of bleeding welts, and only pain existed in the boy's world.

Finally, mercifully, Trowa's back went numb. And soon after that, the blows stopped, and the healing began.

The sound of a drawer opening was the only warning he received for what was to come next. Something hard, cold, and impossibly huge was violently shoved into his body. His vision whited out, and for a moment he thought he would pass out.

No such luck.

The pain continued. Tearing, searing pain ripped through his body. He couldn't breath through his sobs. He whimpered and begged for it to end, screamed until his voice failed. It did no good. And the worst part was he knew this was only the beginning. Every member of the Pard would use him. Again and again, until there was nothing left of his will to fight. Just like before.

The leopard King watched as his second shoved the painfully large strap on dildo in and out of the mongrel Cougar. How DARE the brat defy him! How DARE he leave! It was time for him to learn his place! The little kitten would suffer.

He would suffer greatly.

Trowa dimly registered the removal of that painfully large thing inside of him. Dimly felt the frame he was strapped in move. Next he felt hands on his barred body. Slowly pleasure started to wash through him. He began to feel the stirring of desire. He sighed, hoping and praying to all the gods he could think of that it was over, and knowing it wasn't even as the white hot branding iron was pressed into his chest.

And in the shadows, a wolf watched. She knew she could do nothing to help the cat. But by God, she knew someone who could! The Leopards had become too ambitious, and it was time for the Wolves to put them back in their places! And the Ulfric was JUST the wolf to do it!

The Wolf King looked as Ausa in shock. "The Leopards have him?!"

Ausa Kinkade nodded.

The look of rage on her Ulfric's face was unmistakable. He had given the Cougar the protection of the Lokie. Now, after hearing her report on what she had seen, he was beyond anger. The Leopards had blatantly opposed the Wolves. Now would come the price. But, he knew, they would HAVE to be careful. The Leopards had greater numbers than three years ago. How many more, he couldn't say.

"When I return, we will free the Cougar."

"But…"

"Ausa, I know there is a need for haste. But this must be done. We cannot free him with out aid. At least not if we don't want the world to find out the truth. That Were-creatures, vampires, witches, and necromancers are real. We don't need another Salem Witch Hunt."

With that, the tall Wolf King swept from the room. There was a certain pilot he needed to see.

END PT 2