Jack couldn’t sleep a wink.

Caitlin’s booze-fuelled coma probably meant she was damn-near unwakeable, but the fear of capture was such a terrifying prospect he daren’t drift off.

His eyes felt like bullet holes as he endlessly stared at the nape of the enormous girl’s neck through the chunky knit material as her breathing rose and faltered. It would perhaps be impolite to call it a full-blown snore, but her breathing was very heavy – she was the definition of a slumbering giant.

He had no idea what time it was but it felt like it had been at least 3 or 4 hours. He hadn’t felt like this since Christmas Eve when he was a kid – lying awake all night trying to drift off but too excited. One time he even held his eyes shut for so long he got crust in them without ever losing consciousness. This was not the giddy anticipation of a 7-year-old, however, this was fully-blown adult terror; waves of anxiety at the prospect of Caitlin waking up, discovering his hiding place and taking her anger and aggression out on him physically.

In this exact moment though, in the twilit calm before the storm, Jack was concentrating on staying focused and alert. If he kept quiet and awake, he knew he would be fine for as long as the Alpha stayed unconscious - he had to control all the variables. If he slept, he might snore, fart, cough, wake up screaming – any sort of lapse would derail everything he’d worked so hard to accomplish since first freeing himself from his bindings inside the wardrobe.

His mind was also busy digesting the various permutations of what would happen in the morning. There was no doubt in his mind that Caitlin would look for him anew, probably like an angry bear with a sore head, but with natural daylight and a far lower blood alcohol content counting in her favour. If he stayed silent, and had good fortune enough to avoid being stood on, sat on, or in any other way compromised, he could last a good long while – long enough, in fact, for Caitlin to reach the Occam’s razor conclusion that he had indeed escaped.

The giantess shifted in her sleep, squeezing the teddy bear closer to her with her immense arms, and then sliding it up against her hefty body. Jack could feel the top of the bear’s head deflect as she pushed her face against it sleepily, murmuring softly and then began to breathe deeply once more.

It was like being next to some huge and dangerous reactor or engine, the power and size of which was immeasurable and very daunting. All of the cute, girly qualities Jack envisaged a young woman possessing were very intimidating and literally overwhelming when scaled up to such an abundant size. Experienced from this proximity, every little move Caitlin made felt momentous and imposing, whether she squeezed her toy a little tighter, constricting him, or even the occasional sigh she made as she slept, which made his heart beat a little faster for just a moment. The smell of her hair, and the scent of her t-shirt, was omnipresent - not overpowering but a constant reminder of how close he was to her.

Gradually, he noticed the light levels increase as sunlight returned. His vantage point was still near the girl’s neck, unable to see much beyond. More light meant he could pick out the surface of her skin more clearly, able to observe the delicate hairs and freckles and faint lines in fine detail for what felt like hours.

Just as his mind truly began to feel like it was wandering in circles, an unrelenting daze of tiredness, frayed nerves and bubbling-just-under-the-surface panic, he noticed the first signs that Caitlin was beginning to awaken.

First, her breathing became a lot shallower, almost silent. He couldn’t see anything except her neck, so for all he knew, her eyes could be wide open, waiting for a noise – it was petrifying. This seemed to go on for maybe 20 minutes, and then the gargantuan Alpha went through a phase of readjusting her grip and pushing and pulling the teddy bear uncomfortably. It wasn’t that it was painful or anything, but the pressure of being a human ragdoll and adjusting to fit various positions without attracting attention was remarkably taxing.

Eventually, teddy was released and laid on his side by two long, powerful arms, and Jack was afforded his first view of Caitlin once more. The girl’s long red hair was fairly bedraggled, and her t-shirt had ridden up to show her tanned, taut stomach. Good god, he then noticed her boobs again, almost unfathomably big, shrink-wrapped into a t-shirt that was clearly too small. Whatever growth hormone she had taken, it had given her a lot more, proportionally, than was feasible, it didn’t look physically possible. These weren’t artificially round plastic tits either, they were simply really, really large breasts, utterly perfect.

The mountainous female hauled her torso upright and stifled a yawn, scratching her bare tummy absent-mindedly. Turning away from Jack and the teddy bear, she swung her long, shapely legs around to place her feet on the floor. The room was a complete mess, clothes had been thrown around and most, if not all of the doors and drawers were half-open with their contents spilling out.

“Fuck,” he heard Caitlin utter quietly, wiping her eyes and then putting her head in her hands.

Standing up sluggishly, the prodigious teen started systematically checking every nook, cranny and corner of the room. It appeared that she was being calm and calculated, but one glimpse of her face told a different story. The girl’s expression was pouty and sour, he couldn’t tell if she was upset, cross, or both simultaneously. After she had investigated just about everywhere she could think of, the Amazonian girl unexpectedly smashed her fist against the wardrobe with a loud crack and looked down at the floor. The sudden violence made Jack jump out of his skin.

“Who would have a key?” she muttered to herself angrily, “Who knew he was here?”

She continued to pace around, picking up all the items she had discarded, putting them back more-or-less where they belonged. Jack saw that the wood where she had hit the wardrobe had splintered badly, she had used some force…

After the room had been cleared, she stood defiantly in the middle of the room and ran her fingers through her messy hair, sweeping it back behind her ears.

“If you ARE in here, better start praying,” she said.

“And when I find you, and believe me I will, I’m gonna break your little legs so you can’t run away…”

Cold sweat began to form on his skin as he watched on, helplessly, as she scanned the room for any sign of movement, any clue as to his whereabouts. Nothing. The girl gritted her teeth in frustration and stomped towards the door, grabbing her key from the bedside drawer, unlocked it, and closed it behind her. He couldn’t hear her footsteps pounding into the distance, only silence, which was weird. She hadn’t even locked the door behind her.

With a great whoosh the door flung itself open wide; she had tried a simple ruse, to no avail. The annoyance was palpable, writ large on her face as she scowled back into the room – he could even see that her muscles were clenched, coiled like a spring, she was ready to explode at any moment.

Slamming the door huffily behind her, he heard her lock it and test the handle several times to ensure it was secure, and then those heavy footsteps marched off. He figured he had a few minutes while she searched the rest of the house - it would probably be his only chance to check the tablet. It was right there, staring him in the face.

“Fuckkk…….” he exhaled.

This was risky…

Twisting around, he frantically cleared away some of the compacted stuffing that had settled around him overnight and dragged the zip down far enough to squeeze out. The teddy rocked slightly as he dragged himself free, clambered down to the tablet and unlocked it with trembling hands. He logged in as quickly as he could, listening intently over his shoulder for even the slightest noise that could signal Caitlin’s return. The time in the top corner was 11.21 AM.

There were two notifications, he tapped the icon, one message from Delon, tap, he read through it as fast as his eyes would allow.

Saturday 10.32 AM

Fucking hell dude, this better not be a sick joke.

I sent you a couple of texts last night, thought you were just in a bad place about stuff and wanted to be alone. Didn’t think to check my messages till now.

If what you say is true, you gotta get out of there. I’ve heard a few things about Caitlin; a guy I knew had to move away from town after claiming he was repeatedly bullied by her - there were some pretty bad rumours going round about what she did to him. He was pretty much our age now and she was maybe 14 then. His folks got the police involved and in the end they were prosecuted themselves and forced to move - her dad is seriously well-connected. They’ll just see it as an attempt to blackmail the Reids out of some money again, mate, I’m really sorry, I’m not ruling it out but we need to be smart about this.

I’ll talk to a few Alphas I trust and see what they say – for now I’m gonna tell your folks you’re staying at mine this weekend so they don’t worry.

Hang in there man, if she finds you try not to make her mad, she’s got a hell of a temper, I hope you’ll be able to get back to me though.

Delon.

Tears began to form in his eyes as he read the message. He knew that the police were probably not an option but Delon’s words confirmed it; he was on his own.

Wiping the wet, salty drips onto his sleeve he turned his attention to the other notification.

Message from Penelope Lévesque.

His heart skipped a beat.

Tap.

Friday 7:14 PM

Hi Jack,

I’m sorry about the other night, I got very upset and I shouldn’t have reacted the way I did, I really hope you’re feeling better now.

I didn’t come in on Friday morning as I was unwell but Shen told me in the afternoon that you had tried to find me. You seemed to have gone home by then so I thought I’d send you this message. I don’t have a phone or a computer so I’m at the city library as dance rehearsals went on for ages, I don’t use my account much so I’m not really sure how this works.

Anyway, I’m really sorry if I’ve upset you, this is all really new to me as I don’t have many friends here, I hope you’ll get back to me soon and that you’re ok.

Penny x

His hands were really shaking now. He didn’t have time to think about this, Caitlin could be back any moment. He swiftly re-opened Delon’s message thread and typed two words into the reply box.

Tell Penny.

Tap. Sent. Log out. Swipe the app away. Switch the screen off. Put the tablet back as it was found. Dry tears from eyes.

This was all a blur, he wished he could re-read what Penny had put to check that he wasn’t just hallucinating from sleep deprivation, but his survival instincts screamed loudest. Clambering back up towards the oversized teddy bear, his ears picked up the sound of a fridge opening and being shut from the kitchen – Caitlin was close.

He checked to make sure none of the fluff had escaped from the back of the bear and none of it had, so he slid back inside as quickly as he could and zipped it back up. Reaching behind himself he adjusted the stuffing, and not a moment too soon as loud footfalls thumped up to the bedroom door, and a key was inserted in the lock. The door opened to reveal Caitlin holding a tall glass of orange juice and a breakfast bar in her right hand, whilst pinning a smartphone to her shoulder with her cheek and opening the door with the other hand.

“Yeah, she got so wasted, I know right?” she continued, closing the door behind her and keeping one well-built leg held against it as she reached to put her glass and snack down on the bedside table.

She locked the door, checking it once again, and kept saying “Mmmhmm” in agreement to whoever was on the phone.

“Well, you’re still coming over, right?” she asked abruptly.

There was silence as she listened intently to the reply, the voice on the other end was definitely female.

“Aw thanks babe, I knew you’d help me look for it,” she went on. “I’ll see you in a bit, ciao!”

A big chill went right down Jack’s spine.

Caitlin sat down on the bed with her back to him, consumed her breakfast bar hurriedly and washed it down with OJ. She spent the whole time tapping away on her phone, scrolling through her social media and messaging people with surprising dexterity and speed for someone so large.

Standing upright, the lofty teen then paced over to her exercise equipment, put down the empty glass, wrapper and phone and proceeded to stretch and unfurl her long arms and legs in what looked like some kind of warm-up routine. Jack watched in silent awe as she picked up one of the lurid pink weights he hadn’t been able to budge as if she were plucking a penny from the floor, and effortlessly starting doing arm curls with it. Caitlin’s bicep repeatedly grew into a substantial ball of muscle with each rep of her mighty arm - after a dozen or so she swapped arms and continued to admire herself from the other side.

The power in her arms was immense, she wasn’t even breaking sweat as she lifted the dumbbell over and over again like a metronome. She then picked up the other weight in her first hand and did reps with both arms. It wasn’t like it was erotic or sexy in any particular way, but it was hypnotic to watch and he again felt that peculiar feeling in the pit of his stomach. This girl was dangerous, but fucking hell was she hot. Her strength, the way she looked, her confidence… stop it, he told himself, control yourself, keep focused. Don’t let her get to you…

After maybe 20 minutes of working out, he heard a car pull up to the front of the house. Whoever Caitlin had been speaking to, she was here. Odds were that it would be either Alex or Hannah, their loyalty to the richest, most popular girl in school was unwavering, and their indifference to his wellbeing had been confirmed rather unpleasantly by their complicity with what happened to him on Thursday afternoon.

The doorbell rang out loudly, so Caitlin dumped her weights on the floor, unlocked the door, checked the room for movement then closed and locked it behind her. Jack heard the big girl jog over to the front door and excitedly greet her visitor. He couldn’t make out specific words, but this mystery girl had a much higher voice than Caitlin’s booming one. The voices got louder as the girls approached, then the key was turned in the lock and the door swung open.

“So what have you lost, again?” the girl asked loudly.

The voice definitely didn’t belong to either Hannah or Alex. Jack watched as a very tanned Alpha girl with shoulder-length, highlighted hair strode imperiously through the doorway with a small carry bag, her eyes flitting around the room. He recognised her immediately as the girl from the photo on Caitlin’s tablet.

She was wearing a bikini top that left little to the imagination and a pair of daisy duke shorts, the girl was in great shape, not amazonian and muscular like Caitlin or Alex and not as curvy or petite as Hannah, but slender with a trim waist and probably below average-sized breasts for an Alpha – though not small by any means. Her face was attractive but quite stern, with small, pointy features and a tight-lipped smile, she was very clearly one of the popular kids but Jack was certain he had never seen her before.

Caitlin closed and locked the door behind her.

“Ok, so here’s the thing, I kidnapped this manlet…” she said.

“CAIT! Oh my god, you didn’t!!” shrieked the girl wickedly.

“Yeah, I did, only he’s escaped, but I don’t think he’s got far,” the redhead continued. “I locked him in this room and there’s no way out, I bet he’s still hiding in here.”

The girl’s eyes lit up instantly, “No way!” she exclaimed, “Who is he?”

“Some little squirt called Jack, he’s like the weediest kid in school,” Caitlin said, “But Amber, remember, he’s mine, ok…”

He hadn’t heard that name before, he had no idea who this Alpha girl was. He was also curious as to why Caitlin would warn her, what the hell was SHE like?

“Yeah yeah, I get it, duh,” Amber replied, rolling her eyes and dropping her bag to the floor carelessly.

“Come out come out wherever you are!” the new girl called out excitedly, dropping to all fours and prowling around like a giant cat.

Jack bit his lip and stayed perfectly still, he felt the first pang that would need to go to the toilet before too long and there was no way that would be a possibility. Now he had to avoid two pairs of eyes and ears…