Revealing Secrets

[pinkroses]

“There are people, me included, who have the ability to change their shape. Some people can change their appearance, some people can change species at will. And I can do that. I can shift into a black bear. It’s different to being a werewolf, I can do it at will, not just at the full moon. And I change into an actual bear, not a half transformation like a lycanthrope,” he explained.

“It’s quite tiring, so I won’t show you right now, I hope you don’t mind,” he added, giving her a small wink. He knew he was telling her a lot with no proof yet, and maybe he should show her, but wasn’t that long until the next full moon, she’d see a lot then, including him as a bear.

[Saccharin]

"Oh," she mouthed. Her lips remained pursed after silently forming the word. She wasn\'t sure what she had expected him to tell her, but it certainly wasn\'t that he was able to turn into a bear. Of all the stories she\'d heard, shifters had not been included. Not that her selection of reading material could be held as any sort authority of the supernatural.

"No, it\'s okay. I don\'t know if I could handle a bear in the room right now," she said, looking into his grey eyes.

Her mind slipped back to the moment she had caught the smell of wilderness and musk on him.  It had been faint, because her nose was no more powerful than it had been prior to becoming a werewolf, but it had been intoxicating.  Perhaps him being able to turn into a bear explained it.

"What\'s it like?" She asked as she scooted closer to him, her hand still gripping his.

[pinkroses]

Dominik stared at her as she moved closer, but this time he was the one to glance away, clearing his throat as he lifted his hands to gesture in another shrug.

“It’s all I’ve ever known. And I like it. Being able to change into an animal, it’s freeing. Knowing that when you’re out there no one can call you to account. But then being able to come back and have all this too. Best of both worlds,” he said, putting his hands flat down on his legs, stopping himself from reaching out to her. God, she was gorgeous, and she smelt fantastic, but he couldn’t do this with her. He was in a position of responsibility, he could so easily take her, have her, but then what? She would probably want more than he wanted to give.

Fortunately he was given an excuse to stop himself as there was a knock on the door.

“Come in,” Dominik said, loud enough for the demon on the other side of the door to hear and they came in, handing the tray with two plates and the door, with ease. “Just on the table, thanks,” the shifter said, standing up and gesturing to a table in the corner of the room. The demon was, thank God, in her human form, since she probably knew that he had company who might not know about all of this. She put down the tray and gave the Oligarch a small nod before leaving the two alone again.

“I don’t know about you but I’m starving. Breakfast seems like a long time ago,” he said, moving towards the table and pulling the lids off the food. He had been eating here more often recently, it was easier than cooking for himself and it meant he could work longer.

His own meal was salmon, no sauce, with chips and some salad. He picked up both plates and headed back towards Carrie, holding out her plate and cutlery.

[Saccharin]

Carrie was confused by all the man\'s mixed signals. She had been convinced at first that there was a spark of attraction between them (with all his intense, almost hungering stares and touching), but when she\'d moved closer to him he\'d looked like a cornered animal. He\'d even seemed happy for the interruption offered by their food arriving. Perhaps she had been so long without anyone her mind was confusing friendliness with something more.

Without meeting his eyes, she took the bowl containing her salad and balanced it on her knees before taking her fork and knife. At least she had picked up on his reluctance to be close to her before she\'d done something stupid like run her fingers over his square jaw, over his prickly stubble and then his incredibly soft looking lips.

She stabbed at the mixed greens and spinach and then busied herself eating before responding to Dominik.  "Yeah," she said, hand and fork poised over her bowl. "I didn\'t have breakfast, just some coffee and a... just coffee." She laughed softly.

A few more bites, more silence, then finally she spoke again. "What you are sounds wonderful. If this werewolf thing didn\'t include completely losing control of myself, it might be too, I think."

She let her fork rest on the pile of greens that remained and smiled at Dominik. "Thanks again for doing this. Lunch and all."

[pinkroses]

Dominik gave a small nod at her thanks. He knew he was making her nervous, Hell, she was making him nervous. God he wanted her so much and thought he was doing a fairly good job of controlling himself.

“Don’t worry about it. All of this has it’s pros and cons,” Dominik said, “But then, doesn’t everything? But we make it so that the cons for you are as small as possible. Being a werewolf normally can be pretty stressful, but we sedate the beast inside you with food and there’s a comfy place for you to be yourself so…” he said, explaining more in an attempt to distract himself.

“But you’ve got your whole life to adjust to this and things will be fine. You’ll get used to it. How old are you?” he asked, looking up from his plate with a look of innocent curiosity. He managed to fit into human life pretty well, but there were still some bits of it he didn’t get. Like asking a woman her age. He got so confused with guessing people’s ages because the way his family aged, and all shifters, was so different.

[Saccharin]

She had continued eating as Dominik talked, occasionally nodding and smiling, but stopped when he abruptly asked her age. "I..." Her mouth closed, then opened again, but nothing came out. She tried again, this time with more success. "I\'m thirty... five." For the second time that day, she frowned at him.

"What about you?" It was only fair he answered her now, though she imagined he would have an easier time of it than she had.

[pinkroses]

“Huh,” Dominik said, his gaze drifting over her as she said her age. “You don’t look it, but I’m not very good at judging,” he added, spearing another piece of fish with his fork and glancing down at his plate to try to get a chip on the end of it as he answered.

“Eleven years… I was born in winter, so eleven and a half,” he said, wondering how she would take it. Medicines were good nowadays, but he’d be damn lucky if he made it to thirty five. He’d spent his whole life coming up with excuses as to why he aged so fast - the opposite to Dorian Grey. Still, that was a bonus to having very few friends.

[Saccharin]

She mumbled thanks when Dominik announced she didn\'t look nearly as old as she claimed she was. Naturally great skin combined with nightly moisturizing effectively shaved five to ten years off her appearance. If one looked close enough, they could see laugh lines around her eyes and mouth, but they were very faint.

"Eleven and a half?" Her eyebrows knitted.  "That\'s impossible. You have to be twenty at least." How could he be so young? Maybe he\'d been born on a leap year? She quickly did the math in her head. No, he would\'ve said he was seven if that had been the case. "You\'re not really eleven, are you?"

[pinkroses]

Dominik gave a small smile at her disbelief, which turned into a cheekier grin as she said he had to be at least twenty.

“One of the cons of being a shifter. My lifespan isn’t human. It’s the same as a bear, which is about thirty years. More if I look after myself, but then I’ll be old, and where’s the fun in that?” he asked, wrinkling up his nose slightly, but still smiling. It sucked, but he’d got used to the idea and it was just a part of him.

“At least I don’t turn into a dog, that would be even shorter,” he said, gesturing slightly with his fork.

[Saccharin]

She wasn\'t sure how to respond to Dominik. He seemed perfectly fine with the idea that he was unlikely to make it to thirty and all she wanted to do was apologize to him. The reaction didn\'t seem appropriate (it would be like apologizing to someone for having a terminal illness), so she tried to put a more positive spin on it in her head.

Knowing he had a shorter life than humans, didn\'t he have the opportunity to pack more worthwhile things into it?  At thirty-five, she hadn\'t accomplished all she wanted to yet, but there were still several more decades left to her. If she\'d known from the start she would only make it to the age she was now, she would have reprioritized her life entirely. She also would have worked on her tendency to procrastinate. There was a whole list of things she wanted to do before she got too feeble to do them and she always seemed to put them off for a later date, reasoning that there were more practical things she should be doing instead. Perhaps she could pick something from it and invite Dominik along.

She smiled a bit at the idea and took a shot at it. "We should climb a mountain after I get my arm back," she announced. "You know, before either of us get too old to do it."

[pinkroses]

Dominik raised an eyebrow at her suggestion, although he wasn’t quite sure what she meant by it. He’d climbed mountains before, he’d lived in the wilderness as a bear with his parents when he was young for months at a time. They’d wanted him to experience both worlds and had always loved exploring, going as far as he could before he had to return. And the idea of having a list of things to do before he died had never occurred to him. If he wanted to do something then he simply did it. Of course, he’d never had a job like this which took up so much of his time before, responsibility like this was new to him.

“Before we get too old? If you want to do it, why haven’t you already? Why do you have a time limit?” he asked, poking at his fish with his fork.

[Saccharin]

"I can\'t just turn into a bear whenever I want and have no one to call me to account," she said, quoting him from earlier. "I\'ve built a life that requires me to work almost constantly. It\'s rare I have a spare moment to myself."

Carrie stood and made her way to the tray their lunch had been delivered on and returned her empty bowl to it. She then went to the couch, but didn\'t sit back down. "I would absolutely love to take off and do all the hundreds of things I want to do before I become arthritis-ridden and feeble, but I always have something else to do, so I put it off." She laughed, because it sounded like a pathetic excuse even to her ears. "I should really just take your cue and do what I want, when I want, but it\'s difficult for me, it really is."

It was going to become even more difficult for her when she had to put her life on hold for a few nights every month so she could turn into a werewolf in a contained area. She sighed.

[pinkroses]

Dominik gave a thoughtful sound as he popped the last few bits of food into his mouth and replaced hi own plate, before turning back to face Carrie, watching her with interest.

“I thought that’s why humans had weekends. To do what they wanted,” Dominik said, then he glanced down, wrinkling up his nose slightly. “I guess I can’t any more now I’ve got… this,” he said, gesturing around the large office, before he glanced up at her with a grin again. “But then again I haven’t really wanted to. I like it here. I like helping people who need it.” And Lycanthropes needed it - without a strong Oligarch to speak for them they would be wiped out. Carrie would have been hauled here to probably either be told to leave as quickly as she had arrived or to be put down rather than being given the chance to carry on her life as normal.

“At least you’ve got more time than me, I’m sure you’ll get all that stuff done eventually,” he said, glancing over his shoulder at the clock on the wall. They hadn’t been here all that long, and he didn’t really have anything else to do. Tonight he didn’t have to be in (although he didn’t usually have much else to do at night so he spent most evenings here getting some extra overtime), so he could spend some more time with her. He shouldn’t, but he could. After all, the Luminary had his fledglings, and when he’d been Oligarchy he’d had them and it hadn’t effected anything (although Dominik didn’t know about everything that had been related to that).

And it didn’t have to get awkward, and if it did… well, there were other people she could go to.

“I don’t think we should wait until your arm is better. Let’s go do something now. My car’s downstairs, where would you want to go if you could go anywhere?” he asked, turning his grey eyes back to hers.

[Saccharin]

"That\'s what humans working for other humans have weekends for," she said, face splitting into a grin. "Me, on the other hand, I work through them. It\'s ridiculous, now that I think about it."

Though she may not have realized it about herself, working allowed her to keep her mind off anything that might make her unhappy. She would never notice anything lacking in her life when all she did was work, eat and occasionally sleep. When she did take off for any amount of time, she made sure to surround herself with others so she could fend off any bit of loneliness that might sneak up on her otherwise.

She stared at him, disbelieving, when he suggested they take off - and anywhere she wanted to go. "Uh," she uttered eloquently, then closed her eyes, trying to picture the one place she\'d rather be at that moment. An image of the sea lapping at the coastline was the first thing that entered her mind and she felt a calmness sweep over her. "I\'d go to the beach," she said quickly, somewhat concerned that if she wasn\'t prompt with her answer he\'d change his mind.

[pinkroses]

Dominik watched her with a calm expression as she mulled over where she wanted to go, then as soon as she came to a decision his face broke into a grin. That was an easy option, but a good one.

“To the beach then,” he said, bouncing off the desk to stand upright when he had been leaning against the desk. He moved towards her and held out a hand to help Carrie to her feet. The idea of asking her whether she needed anything to go, like a towel, a change of clothes, a bathing suit. Nope, she’d picked the beach and he was going now, nothing was going to stop him.

“Come along now, and remember, any questions that pop into your mind, feel free to ask,” he added as he guided her towards the door, turning to glance around his office before he shut the door and with a nod at his assistant, he led Carrie to the lift and down into the basement carpark.

His car wasn’t an amazing one, when he’d got the Oligarchy job he hadn’t bothered to improve his car with the pay rise, it barely seemed worth it when he didn’t drive all that much. But it was definitely comfortable, clean and did the job of getting him from A to B.

(To the beach)