Warning: Actual kidnapping and bondage below.
The following morning, Adrian was pleased to see that his favorite fox was sprawled on top of him naked and in his regular form once again. He gently raked his hand through sandy locks, pondering which gentle way to wake him.
Unfortunately, Evangeline's high pitched shriek startled them both fully awake in a jarring manner. "Just gone!"
Caspin was the first to scamper to his feet. He pulled one of Adrian's shirts over his body and tugged on some boxers for underneath as he rushed out into the hall, his boyfriend not far behind him. "Mom, what's wrong!"
The woman lifted a trembling arm to point into the guest room that Etsu had been in. "He's gone, Etsu's gone! Someone's taken him!" She whimpered.
Adrian and Caspin shared a confused glance.
"What led you to believe someone outright took him?" Adrian asked out loud.
At that moment, Verlan emerged from Etsu’s room with a frown on his face as he read a letter in his hands. "This note...it's both disturbing and odd."
Caspin held out a hand as his father passed him the note. He, too, began to frown as he read it out loud. "I thank you heartily for allowing this impertinent pup hospice in his budding adult years...But, I will take the upmost pleasure in taking over from now on and in teaching him many other aspects and thrills of adulthood. Enthusiastically, Etsu's Eager Everything." The green-eyed fox lifted his head as he gazed from his parents to Adrian. "Adulthood? Etsu's Eager Everything?"
"I'm calling the police." Verlan said, heading to the vid screen in the living room.
Caspin clutched the note in his hand, bursting into Etsu's room, hoping it was a mistake and the pretty fox would be there laughing at him for falling for his joke. The room was empty though, and his heart sank. Adrian rushed in after him, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. He gazed around to see if there were any signs of struggle, and there were. Half the contents of the dresser were tipped over and there seemed to be some spilled substances on the ground.
"What is that?" Adrian asked as he pointed it out to Cas.
Caspin leaned over and sniffed. “It’s the lotion he likes the best.”
"If he were to have left willingly, I doubt that he would have wanted to spill his favorite lotion everywhere." Adrian mused aloud.
"Stars, no." Cas responded. "That stuff is expensive." He raised his nose to the air. "There's more, over there, on the window." He rushed over to the open window and peeked outside. "There's more on the grass."
Verlan poked his head in, startling Cas enough that he jumped and cracked his head on the sill.
"The police will be here in a few moments." Caspin's father explained. "Come out of there. We don't want to disturb the scene."
Adrian took hold of the fox's hand and led him out of the room as the family gathered near the entrance to wait for the authorities. In spite of all the things that had recently happened to him back to back, he was still quite in shock over Etsu's sudden disappearance.
The knock on the door made Caspin jump in his seat, though Adrian's touch calmed him. Verlan was quick to let the men in. One was clearly a fox, the other was taller and didn’t look the same as the Vulpans Adrian had seen. He wasn't as tall as the human, though he was clearly taller than any of the foxes, especially Cas. He also had different ears and tail. They seemed more dog-like to Adrian. He wondered if this was what they were referring to when they spoke of Kaynens.
The pair looked everything over carefully before speaking to Caspin and the others. If Adrian hadn't been there to soothe him, Cas was sure he'd have vibrated out of his skin. Everyone looked hopefully at the policemen when they sat down across from them.
The Kaynen officer's face was stern, but his gaze held sympathy. "I’m Officer Nailor and this is officer Henkins." He introduced briefly. "As much as we'd like to tell you otherwise, there’s no hard evidence that your nephew has been taken against his will. The letter points to an elopement, instead."
Caspin's eyes widened. "Wh-what?"
Henkins sighed. "We've seen this kind of thing before. It appears as if your cousin eloped, possibly with a Kaynen." He shook his head. "He probably was afraid of the family's disapproval."
Cas was shaking his head before the officer finished. "Etsu wouldn't have done that! He wouldn't have just left. We had plans for today."
Evangeline agreed. "My nephew would have let us know if he was seeing anyone or had plans to meet with anyone else, regardless of the species."
"Be that as it may, there’s little that can be done. If your nephew doesn’t show up within the next twenty-four hours, then you'll have to file a missing person report." The Kaynen insisted.
"That is unacceptable." Verlan said with a frown. "My nephew was under my roof, he's my responsibility. He's been taken and needs help. I know you don't know Etsu, but we do. Please."
Officer Henkins's tall ears twitched. "I understand, sir, why you’d feel that way." He stood, nodding to his partner, who stood up as well. "Really, though…you're better off just waiting a few days, letting the young man sow his oats, and be ready to forgive him when he comes home." He handed Evangeline a card. "When he comes back, please give us a call to let us know if we can close the file." The fox walked to the door. "Nailor, you coming?"
"Our deepest apologies," Nailor added, bowing to the family once before following after his partner.
A tense silence hung in the air after the sound of the front door being closed.
"If they're not going to do anything about it, I'm going to go look for him myself!" Caspin decided.
"Absolutely not!" His mother admonished. "Not if there's the possibility of a Kaynen being involved!"
"I'm going!" Caspin insisted. "I'm going with your permission or without it."
"I'll help you," Adrian offered. He turned towards Caspin's parents. "I promise I won't let anything happen to him."
Verlan nodded. "You do have a knack for finding things, Cas." The older fox frowned. "Just...please, be careful."
Caspin hugged his father tight, rubbing their cheeks together.
"I'll find him." Cas vowed.
::
________________________________________
When orange-purple eyes flickered opened, the first thing that they saw were intricate designs on the top part of a wall. Oh? That didn't look like the familiar wall of his aunt's guest room!
With a start, the fox remembered what happened to him. He had been sleeping up until he was blindfolded and gagged, and then hefted over a shoulder. Since he wasn't able to see anything, he had reached out with his arms for anything of use on top of his dresser. All he was able to grab ahold of was his large lotion bottle. As his mind whirled, he thought to squeeze the lotion out after every several feet, hoping that someone would think to follow the trail.
When the empty bottle of lotion had been found in his hands, his kidnapper force-fed him some kind of drink that made him fall asleep.
Etsu looked around wildly. The room was extravagant and he was on a very luxurious bed. What drew his attention the most was the fact that he was tied at the wrists and ankles with some kind of silk rope. He tugged on the restraints, but they didn't budge. As he lifted his head, he saw that his socks were off, but his pajama pants were on. Worse yet, his pajama top was splayed open, unbuttoned.
"Just where the hell am I?" He grumbled around the tight knot in his throat, formed by the panic he desperately kept trying to shove down enough to think.
"Ah. Good, you're awake." A deep voice purred from the doorway.
Etsu's two-toned eyes found a looming figure filling the doorway. The voice was familiar, though, tickling the back of his mind. For some reason, it calmed him down a bit. When the brawny man stepped into the light, Etsu's eyes widened. It was a Kaynen. And he was not just any Kaynen, but the big boss at his previous job, his boss's, boss's boss.
President Orin.
"Welcome home, sweet Etsu." the doglike man stated affectionately.
For a good moment, the fox was too shocked to respond. Why had this corporate tycoon gone through so much trouble to tie him to a bed?
"Now wait just one damn minute...home?" That was the first thing his mind focused on. "Just what the hell is all this about, Orin?"
The burly Kaynen sauntered to the bed, sitting next to the handsome fox.
"I wanted to do this differently." The big man said, his dark brown ears drooping. "I was going to move you closer to me in the company." Orin shook his head. "And then you were just gone! I planned to bring you back with better pay and a better position, but then I found out you were planning to join another company entirely!" Orin growled, showing sharp teeth. "I couldn't allow it."
Etsu let out a derisive snort. "Yeah? Well, that tends to happen when your boss can't take a damn hint and keeps groping and smacking your ass around without giving you proper pay." He explained. "My uncle found out, and seeing as how he owns quite the company himself, he gave me a chance to work my way up as high as I wanted into the company. My cousin, his son, didn't want anything to do with the company. So, of course it was a much more appealing company to work for."
"Who touched you?" Orin snarled. "I'll have his hands by morning."
"Director Khan..." Etsu answered. "But, that doesn't even matter now. I like working for my uncle. He's great!"
Orin stomped from the room. Etsu heard angry shouts that sounded like Orin’s rumbling voice and someone’s sleepy pleading muffled slightly by the vid screen. After several minutes, the Kaynen returned, still seething.
"Khan has been dealt with." Orin proclaimed. "His hands will be broken within the hour. Say the word and he'll disappear entirely." The Kaynen's dark eyes bore into Etsu. "Now, you have no reason to leave my company."
The fox gaped at him as he let all of that sink in. "You shouldn't break someone's hands just for coping a feel! Grant you, he'd have deserved it, but still! It would have been better if you just fired him. Isn't sexual harassment against company policy?" He suggested. "And why do you insist on my coming back, anyway? You still haven't given me any kind of incentive to do so. In my uncle's company, I could literally work my way to the very top."
"You could work your way to the top at my company, as well." Orin's midnight eyes flashed. "Almost to the top. In the end, I would be the only one on top of you."
Etsu gulped in spite of himself. Something in Orin's eyes all of a sudden made him feel very uncomfortable. He had to force away stray thoughts that made him think about those very words in another connotation. "Why would I ever want to settle for that when I could literally inherit my uncle's company?"
"You don't belong at your uncle's company." Orin snapped. "You belong with me."
Etsu bit his lower lip as he took one long look at the Kaynen before answering. "I belong to no one.”
Orin's grin was smug. "No one but me."
The dark-haired fox gave the Kaynen an incredulous look. The tall tycoon had quite the guts to keep on insisting on such ludicrous things. "In your dreams, maybe." Or mine, he added mentally.
The grin dropped from Orin’s face with a growl. "Which is part of the problem, the dreams." He tugged a hand through his dark hair. "Ever since I first saw you, I've dreamt of you." Eyes like black pools gazed at the lovely fox. "I tried to deny it at first... but I had to accept it." His beefy chest rose and fell with a deep sigh. "We're soul mates. I have to have you."
Etsu's heart began to race in near panic at the words that spouted from the canine's mouth. Was he hallucinating all of this? "Soul mates?" He hissed as he tugged hard on the silk ropes that held him in place. "I'm getting quite tired of your...whatever the hell this is. Mind games? Trickery? Why did you even kidnap me in the first place?"
Orin had the audacity to look puzzled. "Are your people so removed from your roots that you don't know the signs of your own soul mate?" The man's doglike ears twitched as Orin shook his head. "We heard these stories at my grandmother's knee."
For a small moment, Etsu doubted himself and what he knew growing up. Not because of what Orin said, but because of what he had seen in Caspin and his human. "Wh-what are the signs, then?"
Orin's brows furrowed as he thought, at first, that the beautiful creature was teasing him. That was, until he saw the truth of the Vulpan’s bewilderment.
"You have an instant attraction when you first come across your soul mate, which can be overwhelming. It can make you want to run at first. There may be dreams of closeness and sex, you might see your soul mate there." Orin smiled. "I did enjoy those. Also, there may be a desire to be close to family. Some people nest, cleaning or buying things for their homes. If they stay away from their soul mate for too long, they can suffer from depression."
"Never had a place of my own with which to flutter about 'nesting'." Etsu mumbled out loud as he thought the information through. "I haven't been depressed in the slightest..." He added. However, he couldn't deny the damn dreams. And it was because of those dreams that he refused to even look Orin in the eye. “And my dreams are my own business.”
"You were spectacular in my dreams." Long fingers on Etsu's chin tugged his gaze back towards Orin. "The noises you made, the way you melted under me...I can't wait to hear them and to feel you in the real world."
Etsu gulped loudly, the very idea making his body tremble, even though his mind was thoroughly disappointed with its involuntary behavior. "Orin, listen...let's talk about this." Etsu began in a slightly quivering voice. The quivering wasn’t due to fear of the Kaynen, but fear of his being swept up in daydreams. "Just because you think that we're...that…it doesn't necessarily mean that we are, right?"
The dog climbed further onto the bed, looming over the smaller fox.
"You think I didn't try to deny it myself?" Orin snorted. "How could I have prey as a soul mate? Instead of wanting to eat you, I want to devour you."
Multi-hued eyes flickered from Orin's face to the side and back again. The man was far too close for comfort at that point, and it was affecting the Vulpan in ways that he couldn't even describe. "O-Orin," He squeaked before clearing his throat and trying to summon up a steadier voice. "How about you untie me and we have a little chat?"
Orin buried his nose into the side of Etsu's throat. "Mmm, how about I leave you tied up and we do something other than chatting?"
(a/n: It's only taken me some 7 years, but I finally drew and colored a decent Orin.)
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