They were in wolf form. The shifters. They paced back and forth as Merk walked down the driveway towards them. He was ready. He had dealt with Wolf Shifters before and knew how to handle them. It was always the same thing with them, the initial intimidation, even their pacing and prowling was a fear tactic. Panthers were different. The aggression was stronger, raw, and when confronted with potential danger or conflict, there was little to no meandering; it was fight not flight. Merk eyed them as he got closer, ready to shift if necessary. He reached the end of the driveway. The wolves stopped in front of him, side by side, trying to intimidate him with their glowing yellow eyes with the black pupils. Merk stepped forward.

“I’m assuming that we need to come to an understanding…” Merk started. “For one, I don’t appreciate you showing up at my house like this – feels kind of intrusive on a personal level.”

The wolves began to pace back and forth again.

“I let it go when you showed up at my practice, having already sunk your claws into my assistant coach…”

Merk watched their gait, waiting for the slightest change, an indicator that they were going to attack. Nothing. Not yet. Their lack of doing anything annoyed Merk. He didn’t like mincing words.

“So what is this? Is this Ratty? Is this his way of trying to tell me something? If so, I need you to speak up –”

And then it happened: one of the wolves lunged at him, its claws outstretched. Merk dove to the side but the claws still got him in the face, slightly. He felt the warmth of the blood trickle down his cheek as he rolled on the ground and then sprung back onto his feet. He half expected the other wolf to be on top of him by now for the secondary attack. But the other one hadn’t moved. The one wolf that had clawed him was on the balls of its paws, back hunched, canines showing, in attack mode.

Merk retracted. He felt the adrenaline swell up inside of him. He let loose: his skin tingled, the hairs stood on end, then smoothed down to his skin, a velvety feel, sweat running profusely, pouring out of his skin. The wolves saw what was happening and they didn’t wait for the shift to finish, the one wolf lunged forward again. Merk grabbed the wolf this time and slung him to the ground. Merck felt his back arch as his vertebrae bent and caved him to the ground on all fours. The second wolf jumped on him and tried to sink his teeth in. Merk shook hard and then rolled the second wolf off him. The wolf whimpered. Merk roared as his full panther body came forward, snapping and crackling bones as the human anatomy gave way to the panther’s.

The wolves froze.

Merk growled, making sure to show his teeth, sharp and ready to sink into either of the two wolves that challenged him first. His roar was a reverberation that pierced the night. Merk sprung forward, snapping at the wolf only a few feet away from him, just missing. The wolf clawed, but missed, and then Merk was on top of it, digging into the wolf’s underbelly, causing gashes from which, blood oozed freely.

Merk knew that two wolves were no match for him, he had handled more before. He was about to bite into the neck of the wolf he had pinned down when the other one rammed into him, knocking him off its partner. Merk quickly bounced back onto his paws and reared back in a defensive stance. The wolves were running off, down the street. The taste of blood swirled on Merk’s tongue, he lapped up the metallic modicum of blood, savoring its flavor, and then Merk took off after the wolves.

On all fours, Merk ran like the wind, his sense of smell picking up the wolves’ musky scent. He followed it blindly and with haste. The street was empty. The wolves streaked down the road unperturbed by any of the traffic. They veered off the road and leapt into the lawn of a neighbor. Merk followed, gaining, his bigger and stronger legs pushing him faster than the wolves. He was closing in. The wolves then dove into the forest behind one of the houses. They were trying to lose him, but Merk had decided that he was going to send a message to Ratty and his wolf pack. He too dove into the forest behind them.

Brushes and branches shot at him as he coursed through the nebula of the forest. The moon’s light seemed to have dimmed and the stars faded behind the canopy of trees. Merk was coming to a clearing and… He skidded to a stop, the dirt and dust kicking up onto his paws and legs. The wolves’ scent had gotten stronger and more robust. There were more of them. It was a trap. 

 

***

 

The first wolf’s teeth sunk into the side of Merk’s panther body. It was deep and painful. He knew that something major had been hit, an organ or some of his rib cage. He wasn’t sure, but the pain was excruciating. Merk continued on though, parrying the other wolf advances and attacks – clawing, biting, and lunging. There seemed to be no end for it. He tried to muscle through it, using brute force and the strength of his panther body to eliminate as many of them as possible, but there were too many of them and in closed quarters.

The way that they had boxed him in in the clearing gave them the advantage speed wise. Still, he gnashed at them, nicking a few, clawing and barely scraping any. Each time he went for one, another would lunge at him from a different angle. They ripped into his hind leg, then another was on his back, a vicious and sound bite into the back of his neck.

Merk went to the ground hard and tried to roll the wolf off before it tore into his vertebrae. This went on for what seemed like an eternity until finally a wolf with an orange-like hue to it, bigger than all the rest, clobbered him with an open paw, tearing the flesh off of his face, coming close to piercing his eye. Merk’s head spun and his body fell. All the wolves leapt on him and pounced. All he could do was cower and wait for it all to be over, whimpering and whinnying as they tore into him and pounded him into the ground.

 

***

 

Merk woke up to darkness. His head was swimming, muddy, it felt heavy and disconnected from him. It took him a few minutes to gather himself, to reboot and regain the memory of what had happened. It was a strange sensation: to be in a body, alive, and not connect to any identity for a few moments – in that brief lull, there’s a sensation of being nothing and in the weirdest way, strangely foreign and alien to what it means to be alive and earthbound, there’s a feeling of indescribable freedom.

Merk felt it. Liked it. Yet there was an incessant pulling in him that moved him forward, pervading his inner self, until he came back to his identity – his memories, the good, the bad, the ugly, and everything that was in between that made up his life. Once that returned, he immediately wanted it gone. But that wasn’t living, not in this world, and so he accepted his return and the subsequent pain that came along with it.

They had left him alive. Damn wolves. Always the warning first, marking their fucking territory. This had been a warning for Merk, he knew it, he’d dealt with packs like them before but none had gotten the better of him like these. At some point, Merk had shifted back into his human form. His memories were back but they were fuzzy, a cloud surrounded a lot of it, undoubtedly from the trauma that he had experienced. He knew that from past run-ins and injuries. The panther body didn’t heal very well, so once under duress and allowed a moment’s cessation, the shift back to human form took place so that healing abilities could begin. Merk was thankful for those abilities, especially after the ordeal and beating that he had been through. Trying to stand up on two legs, he saw how mangled his body was. It was ripped and torn; gashes and deep punctures were all over his body.

Merk touched his face and the gooey thickness of blood pulled back with his fingers and hand, the flesh on his face was basically hanging off. Wolves, he thought. Savages. Wasn’t the first time he had dealt with them. But this was everything that he had wanted to escape from when he came to this small Floridian town and took the job of coaching at this high school. But fate or whatever the hell it was, had something else in mind. Once again, he was face to face with a bunch of shifters, another pack that was determined and bent on being bullies. It seemed to never end.

 

***

 

Merk staggered out of the forest and brush. It was dark. The sky was nebulas. No clouds. No stars. Just pitch black sky. Kind of ominous. It made the walk home long and menacing as he fought against the night’s enveloping shroud. He was on his street. He could see Kara’s car parked on the side of the road. Lights from houses gave off a miniscule luminescence to the night and the road he was trying to drag his body down.

His breathing was laborious, hard, and he wanted to just collapse onto the cold pavement of the road. He imagined that it would be soothing and refreshing. He longed for it, the rest. But he kept going. His body wasn’t healing fast enough – the injuries were too severe. Merk wondered how close he had been to dying. This beating felt worse than any he had ever had.

“Merk – answer the fuckin’ phone! I’ve been calling –”

Merk heard Kara’s voice in the distance. It was panicked. Hard. Cracking. She was upset and she had the right to be even though she didn’t know it. He didn’t want her to see him this way but it was unavoidable. He needed to get home, to rest and to heal. He wouldn’t heal without rest. Merk could only imagine the questions she was going to have when she saw him: he was completely naked, his body broken and scared, bloody, bruised, and beaten.

He called out to her in a throaty spray of non-syllabic sounds; he put his fingers to his neck, finding deep gashes and puncture wounds that seeped coagulated blood. How was he even fuckin’ walking, less more breathing? He wasn’t that far from her.

“Okay, Merk –! I’m leaving –”

She saw him.

“Oh my God!” Kara bellowed.

Merk hadn’t realized how hard it was to see. It seemed like the more he pushed himself, the worse he became; his sight was fading and his heart had begun to pound, loud chest moving beats, as if his heart was close to exploding. Pain gripped him and he fell to his knees, clutching his chest.

“Merk! Merk!”

As Kara neared him, he could see his shredded clothes from his shift fall from her hands. She fell to the ground and wrapped herself around him, covering him as well as comforting him. Her touch was balm in itself, soothing the internal ache that he felt went beyond his physical injuries. The only thing left was the wounds and searing pain, emblazoned through his skin, flesh, organs, and bones. It was hell.

He collapsed into her arms and held her tightly. Merk was a manly man, there was some machismo about him for sure, but the wolves had hurt him badly. He felt it and knew it. A part of him was unsure of just how bad his injuries were and if they would heal even with his shifter abilities. All he wanted was Kara. If these were to be his last moments, then in her arms, her holding him was solace enough. And Kara clung to him.

“Wh – What happened, baby – ? Oh my God – you – you look…” her voice trailed off.

Merk felt himself drifting. A different kind of darkness was coming over him. He was losing consciousness. His eyelids were heavy, his mind foggy and a blot of darkness dared and threatened to take him under. But it was too much. Everything needed to just go away, if only for a little while. And then it all went black.

 

***

 

At some point during the night, Merk stirred. He awoke. Although, he wasn’t completely there, not fully present, there was something ethereal hovering above him, like a last remnant of his consciousness that still lingered. He could feel the force of Kara’s hands working hard on him. There were bandages and gauze – a lot of it – tweezers and antiseptics for his injuries. In the midst of the bandaging there were light pricks of a needle, incremental pain that amassed through the continuous tinge of pain from the constant sewing and stitching. The thin thread weaved in and out of his skin. Faintly, he could hear Kara talking to herself. It was through low and deep breaths:

“Fuck you, Ratty! I know this was you… God, Merk!  God – why? Why did you have to challenge him? No, I fucked up – I should have told you – said something to you – but I wanted that part of my life gone… They all are fuckin’ bullies. I hate them so much. If they take you away from me… I should have told you what they were but I didn’t know you were… [Sigh].”

Her voice was so far away:

“I wonder what kind you are… You’re not Wolf like them. I’m not mad that you didn’t tell me – I couldn’t be mad, I know what this life does to a person, I know… Fuck. We could have helped each other. If you make it through this we still can. There’s so much I have to tell you – Oh God! Merck…

And then her voice was gone.

 

***

 

Time didn’t exist. That’s what it felt like. All Merk knew was that he was alive. Or he thought he was. It felt like he had all his faculties. He could feel the cushion of his bed beneath him. Or it felt like his bed. The soft, smooth sheets felt familiar, cool and soothing. He stirred slightly anticipating some soreness. He remembered the attack. Had he survived it? The pack of wolves had really whipped his ass, beaten him, leaving gashes and lacerations. His flesh was torn off in so many places. But things were better. He felt a little better. And Merk didn’t like being beaten. Not like this especially.

“Hey…” a voice in the darkness whispered to him, raspy from sleep.

And then Kara’s hand fell on his chest. Again, he anticipated some pain, a modicum of it at least, but nothing. Merk accepted that he was healing, that he was getting well. It was one of the best things about being a Panther Shifter, exponential healing. Of course that didn’t mean that he could recover from anything, but the ability gave him a better chance of withstanding the worst.

“How are you feeling?” she continued, her hand gently washing over him to check his wounds. “I was worried about you – didn’t know how you healed –”

She cut herself off. She knew. Merk didn’t know how he felt about that. He knew that he cared for her, was falling hard for her, but he wasn’t sure if he was ready to let her in that world with him, the Shifter World.

“You know…?” his voice was hard, felt like he was talking with nails in his throat.

But she didn’t answer. Not with words anyway. He felt her hand slide down his chest to his abdomen then below, reaching deep down into the linen shorts that she had found and put on him. She grabbed a hand full and then lifted her body from her place on the bed next to him to look at him. There was no light. But as she looked at him and he looked at her, their eyes adjusted to the dark and a faint outline of each other became more evident, then silhouetted impressions.

“Can I…? Does – Does it hurt anywhere or –? she started.

“No – No, I’m – I’m fine. I think the major stuff has healed… That feels good,” he responded, his voice dipping down as she pulled on him more, her hands forming a knot in his pants.

“Good.”

And then she vanished under the covers. Her mouth made moves he hadn’t felt in a long time. She was soothing and sweet, sexy and sultry in the way she freely pleasured him. He remembered how she had been there when he staggered out of the forest. She didn’t wilt, nor did she labor over what had happened. She took it all in her stride and she went with it, a willing participant who had been inducted involuntarily into something that had the potential to get dangerously worse.

That was obviously the kind of woman Kara was, and this made Merk love her even more. He had never had someone that he could share all of who he was with, mostly because of the dangers that came along with being a shifter, specifically a Panther Shifter. He always felt as if he had to hide that part of himself from the people that he was involved with, but he didn’t have to with Kara. She knew. She understood. And she embraced. Boy, did she embrace.

Merk couldn’t take it anymore. He felt himself getting too excited and he didn’t want to rush this moment with her. Everything about it was right. It was their first time together and everything that had happened from the late dinner that they were supposed to have, to the pack of wolves interrupting it, to him being attacked and almost killed, to coming out of the forest barely alive and naked and near dead, to his falling in her arms and somehow getting him into the house to take care of him, led to this moment.

Kara was still taking care of him, pleasing him orally. It was all so very intimate and one of those moments in a new relationship that was lasting, a permanent fixture in whatever it was that the two of them were going to become. And because of that, Merk wanted it to last longer, for her to feel like he felt, to feel taken care of – and so he stopped her, gently pulling her up to him from under the covers.

“What?” she said, her voice airy as she tried to catch her breath.

She was beautiful, even silhouetted. Merk ran his fingers through her hair. He hesitated a moment, anticipating some pain before he lifted up and leaned forward to kiss her. Their lips touched, sparks flew as their mouths opened and their tongues found each other. Merk felt a surge of energy rush through him, his feral nature rising. He put his hands on her waist and pulled her closer to him.

Her waistline was bare. As he eased his hands lower he felt her bare skin then a slither of something stringy that wrapped around her ass, G-Strings were always sexy. Merk slid those off and then sat her on top of him, careful to ease her down, guiding her so that she could feel every bit of the protrusion. Kara moaned immediately and their bodies found a rhythm and dance that was tribal and sensual.

She moaned. Merk pushed deeper inside her, his hand on her waist, then her ass, he slapped hard and he could feel the ripples of her cheeks against his thighs, her body shuddering each time. He watched her intensely, captivated by the way she moved on top of him. She seemed so controlled yet free. He didn’t understand how she could be both simultaneously. Kara leaned forward; her dark brown hair fell onto his chest, tickling him some. He could feel her body tightening, the strain was in the way she was now moving her body; her head was lowered as if something was being forced on her, but she liked it, the force, she called for it.

“Fuck. More. More,” she moaned to him.

Kara’s hands were flat on his chest as he rocked her back and forth on top of him with him deep inside of her and, feeling the depth. She was close.

“I’m close,” she echoed his thoughts.

Merk smiled to himself and kept the same pace. Kara began to move faster.

“Yessss,” she hissed.

Her body moved feverishly until… And then with each thrust of his, Kara rode and bumped and dropped down hard on him until she came. Her climax sent her leaning backwards, her body bent fully, reared back. She whinnied and once the orgasm had finished, her eyes fell to Merk’s.

“Fuck…” she said breathlessly, looking at him.

But they weren’t finished. The panther in him wouldn’t allow that.

 

***

 

Sunlight filtered through the curtains. The light was faint, but it was enough to stir Kara. Merk watched her from the corner of his eye – he had been awake for a while just looking at her.  With no make-up, her hair all tossed and unkempt, tearstains still on her cheeks that he imagined were for him made her look magnificent. He tried to imagine what it would feel like if it had been him seeing her hurt as badly as he had been, near death and maybe thinking she was going to die. He shuddered at the prospect.

She was the most beautiful woman he had ever laid eyes on, not to mention to have slept with.  But it was about more than her looks – which were not glamorous at all but wholesome and full, a prettiness that one could easily call quiet. Yet her beauty was also so vibrant. Watching her stir and now opening her eyes to see him, he relived the night, her touch, how she felt to him, the places her mouth had been and where his was, and finally them making love. The raw passion. Pure. He loved every bit of it because he knew that he loved her. There was no more falling for her, he had already done that.

“What – What time is it?” she yawned. “Oh my God! School! We – We’re late!”

Merk smiled.

“I called in for us,” he answered simply, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her into him.

“Wait. You called in for us both? You know how that’s gonna look?” she queried, sitting up, freely letting her breasts and nakedness come into view.

“Well, I called in for you – I don’t have to be there as early. I coach,” he tried to reassure her.

And it worked some. She still tried to hold on to the concern but Merk quickly took hold of her and pulled her to him. He kissed her. She kissed him back.  But then she stopped.

“Wait,” she said. “We need to talk.”

Merk knew about what. He vaguely recalled hearing her last night talking to herself while she was bandaging him. He had believed that it was real but wasn’t all the way sure.

“What are you?”

It was surreal. To be asked such a question and knowing the answer to be supernatural or otherworldly. Merk hesitated. He had never had this conversation with anyone that wasn’t a shifter. Kara was just a human. In his past relationships, he had done everything and anything to hide what and who he was from the other person. He did this to the detriment of all of his relationships because there was always a void, an apparent disassociation between him and the other person because of the decision not to reveal all his identity; in many ways, it was like him not being true to himself.

He wondered had the wolf not happened whether he would have tried to continue keeping Kara in the dark? Would he have done that as he had done with countless other people? Whatever the answer, Merk was glad that Kara knew. He was even gladder that she seemed okay with it and could handle it. But then that led to his own questions about her and just how familiar was she with shifters.

“I’m a Panther Shifter.”

Kara exhaled.

“What?” Merk asked curiously.

“I just didn’t want you to be something really weird – panther is okay,” she answered plainly.

Merk didn’t want to laugh but the way she had answered – how she thought – nothing too weird? There was no one in the world like Kara and he was so grateful to have her in his life.

“Wait,” he stopped her as she was about to get of the bed. “I need to know something.”

He could see it in her eyes. It was the first time that he had noticed it, something behind those caring and thoughtful pearls, sometime layered and hidden, dark and foreboding. Kara knew more than she had let on. She knew about Ratty and his crew of Wolf Shifters, the question now was how much did she know and just how deep had she be in with them?

“Yes, I knew,” she answered before Merk could ask.

There were a few moments of silence as Merk let it wash over him.

“You knew? How -? How long have you known? Wh – What’s your connection with him?” Merk had a lot of questions, and he didn’t want to come off as too abrasive with Kara. They were just finding themselves in their relationship and despite a disastrous night had found a way to salvage it, making love for the first time.

Yet, Kara wasn’t a fickle woman, she had resolve and strength about her, so much was obvious. Merk knew that about her, it was one of the many reasons why he was attracted to her; she didn’t mind toughness and from the time that he had known her, she always seemed ready. He had seen her in her classroom, the way she dealt with the high schoolers in her class and around the school. He had also seen it earlier that day when Ratty confronted her and tried to call her out in front of him and the principal. Kara stood firm, there was no backing down or slinking away for her, and she wasn’t running from Merk’s questioning either.

“I used to date him,” she answered, there was no shame in her voice. Merk was slightly bothered by this for he found Ratty a disgusting man in every way possible. He just couldn’t see his Kara with a man like Ratty.

“Is that what all of this was about earlier? In your classroom?” Merk asked.

She nodded.

“We broke up well over a year before you came to town. A clean break. I had had enough of him and his crew – I knew what they were about – I was done with that.”

Her words played around in his head. He tried to make sense of the woman in front of him. How she could ever have been with a guy like Ratty Fairweather? Merk had only met the man once in person and once as a wolf, but he knew from both those occasions that he was not good. He was an arrogant pith of a man, despicable, and he was ruthless as the wolf that he was. It wasn’t a surprise to him really, most shifters were like Ratty in some form or another. Being different, having that kind of power and uniqueness, abilities beyond that of the average human moved most to the brink of madness and insanity. That was why shifters fought each other so much.

There were always two kinds of schisms within shifters: Fighting among themselves for more power and control and then the battle to protect humanity and the code of what was good and bad, right and wrong. Most shifters were takers, purveyors of all things, and the world and the people and things in it were theirs for the pilfering. From the moment Merk had met Ratty and smelled wolf on him, he had known what kind of Shifter he was, a wolf and a narcissistic one.

“If I had known that you were a shifter, I would have told you, especially after today,” she added. “I’m sorry.”

Merk understood. Kara was one of those few humans that had been made privy to the other world that existed - the world of monsters and things that truly do go bump in the night. However, most humans were never free after knowing that the supernatural existed. It was even worse when they had been involved with one. The fact that Kara had been able to break from Ratty in the way that she had, and for her to freely walk around the same town, had to be a testament to who she was as a woman and a person.

Shifters were possessive, even more so after a human had been brought into the fold of knowing their secret. Merk wondered how she did it, if there had been a struggle of some kind, a fight, even a sacrifice. No one usually left unscathed.

Kara crawled across the bed to him. She reached for his tank, pulling on its ribbing, she pulled him closer to her. Kara brought his face to hers. She had a look on her. Her eyes met his and she stared into them, searching, seeking, it was like she was burrowing into his head, his mind. Merk felt odd, dizzy almost as he looked back at her, trying to hold her gaze.

She kissed him. Her lips were soft and moist, even more so than before. Her breath was hard and earthy, different from the night before. Kara kissed him fully – her lips seemed fuller and he felt as if he was being swallowed whole. Somewhere, he lost time. When the kiss ended, he felt refreshed, fulfilled, and energized, as if he had just had the best sleep of his life. Kara pulled back from him. She had never been sexier. Her hands were gripping on to his arms, tight, firm and unusually forceful.

“What -? What’s going on?” he asked, curious of the feeling he was experiencing. He was almost euphoric.

“Nothing,” Kara answered back. He could see the sex in her eyes, pulling him to her, compelling him towards her. “I just want you to know that I am with you – only you – and that we are now in this together. Okay?”

Merk understood what she was saying. This thing that was between him and Ratty wasn’t over. Ratty and his wolf pack had almost killed him. Even if Merk wanted to, there was no way to turn the other cheek or something like that. And now that he knew for certain that Kara and Ratty had been involved, he surmised that the old pack leader only had it out for him even more. Everything was about territory and even though somehow Kara had broken free from it and gotten out of the pack’s clutches, her absconding hadn’t reset what was primal and natural to the doggish troupe. Undoubtedly, Ratty still saw her as his and the pack would follow him.

“Okay,” Merk answered.

But he didn’t believe she knew the trouble that was coming their way just because he was a shifter, a Panther Shifter at that. Also that she happened to be the ex of the leader of the local wolf pack. Merk wondered if he could protect her. She was strong and brave, but he had seen shifters like Ratty before, and they were vicious and they would stop at nothing to bring down any and everyone that they believed threatened their authority and possibly stood in the way of a goal or something they wanted. Merk saw that easily: Ratty’s paw prints were all over the football team and then Kara.

Kara climbed out of the bed. She was naked. Damn, she had a nice body. Her ass was full and her hips curvy. He could feel himself getting hard. She looked over her shoulder as she moved towards the doorway nearest her. She stopped just before stepping out.

“Shower?”

That wasn’t even a question. Kara smiled slyly and disappeared through the doorway, leaving the residue of seduction in her wake. It was a strange sensation. Merk could feel it, the seduction, it was literally palpable, like a misty and light spray that hovered and blanketed the room. He knew that he should be concerned about Ratty and his wolf brothers, but for some reason, he couldn’t focus. All he could think about was Kara at the moment, and rightfully so, she had just walked into his bathroom completely naked, expecting him to follow.

Merk gave up on trying to form any other thought but of his and Kara’s bodies grinding against one another’s’ in the shower. He could feel it, taste it, it was such a weird sensation that literally kept coming over him with each thought of Kara. He surrendered. He took off his tank top as he moved in the direction of the bathroom. By the time he reached the door, he was completely naked and he could hear the water running through the door. He entered.

 

***

 

Merk sat at the kitchen table eating breakfast, a bowl of cereal, grains, and a banana. He felt unusually and exceptionally drained since getting out of the shower with Kara. The sex had been amazing. Better than the first time, and that was good in its own right. This time had been different though. Merk felt completely in tune with Kara’s body, as if he was not only inside of her but as if he was her. It was a crazy feeling, surreal, he had never experienced anything like that before. It was a total displacement of himself. It was like he was in two places at once and none of it made sense; it only felt fuckin’ amazing! But right afterword, he felt exhausted and the worse of it had come a few minutes after she left out the door to go into work, she had to at least do the half of day that he had called in for her.  So Merk fixed a small breakfast, hoping to get some much needed energy.

As he sat there and ate, some strength began to come back to him; he could feel his energy levels returning to normal and with it clarity of mind. Merk hadn’t noticed but he had been in a kind of a daze, more like a fog, but he couldn’t remember when he had started feeling that way. He just remembered kissing Kara and then…

Kara.

Flashes of her naked body shot through his head. Suddenly, he could smell her and taste her. He all of sudden wanted her, insanely. He could feel his penis growing with every breath and each shooting memory of her in the shower. The sex had been good. She was an incredible lover. He could feel her. She wasn’t there but he could still feel her. Merk couldn’t control himself. He reached into his pants. He grabbed himself. He leaned back. Closed his eyes. Kara. He didn’t know what had come over him but it was an insatiable rush and as he jerked and moved all he could think about was Kara. Merk followed the rhythm and the sound of his voice calling her name as visions of her naked body in the shower danced and moved, gyrated and grinded in his mind. Merk could feel himself getting close to the release that he so desperately needed…

 

***

 

Merk woke up with his head down on the table staring at his unfinished bowl of cereal. He had fallen asleep – at the table? Eating breakfast? Merk didn’t know what to make of it, of any of the strange things that had been happening to him since… Maybe he had a concussion. But that didn’t explain the surges of energy that he’d been experiencing and the sudden tiredness and draining of energy that was occurring, and then the insatiable lust for Kara that even for him had surpassed his own sex drive.

No. Something else was happening and Merk didn’t know what. But at the moment he felt normal. Himself. His mind was clear and his body felt completely healed from the previous night’s injuries. He looked at his watch. It was almost noon. He had to get to school, there were things that he had to take care of at practice.