Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 91636 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 458(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91636 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 458(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
I fall asleep under his brutal, dominant, but loving care.
CHAPTER 8
Conroy
She’s a perfect little creature. I know she has suffered, and I know I have contributed to that suffering, but sometimes pain is the only way to handle a situation like the one she chose to create. It was worth it, and I am glad she did it. I’ll take one snapping mark on my calf for the rest of my life if it means finally sensing the deep, trusting, happy submission she is showing me now as she curls up with me.
Tomorrow she’ll be her human self again. Probably trouble all over again. But tonight we are more bonded than we have ever been before. She finally understands what it feels like to be cared for by me, not just dominated roughly by me.
Sure enough, morning comes, and Kita is almost back to herself. I rouse myself in my human state, because that’s the form I need to be able to think and plan in. She has taken that form as well, out of sheer habit. I wonder if her animal submission will start to leak into her human self at some point.
“I don’t want to get up,” she complains as she feels me move.
“Then don’t. Stay where you are.”
She is curled up under the single blanket we managed to bring with us, looking remarkably cozy for someone who is asleep in the dirt, naked.
We used to have everything. We were lords of the port, rich beyond rich. The place has been routed and scavenged by now I am sure. Everything we gathered. Everything we worked for.
Tailor had talked about insurance. I assume he’s joking. There’s no insurance on illegal smuggler ports. We’re broke. We have the dirt, and we have the sun, and we have the air, and if we’re lucky, we will have some water. We’re back down to the absolute bare minimum.
There’s some freedom in it, not having any responsibility besides the one I have for the mate snuggling at my feet. I just need to feed her, shelter her, make sure she is happy and bred. We could find some caves and live out here.
Damon has the fire going and strips of meat roasting on skewers. He’s been up and hunting and providing, and he’s procured enough for all of us.
“Thank you,” I say. “And not just for the food, but for what you did for her. For us.”
He nods with a little smirk. I think he’s saving his words for Kita. Cute.
“Thanks for hunting,” Tailor says, coming up, dressed in the same clothes he escaped in and looking visibly annoyed by it. This is a man who had a laundry installed at the port to suit his own needs. He likes to bring an air of refinement everywhere he goes. He is being challenged by these conditions.
“We need to find a new home,” Tailor says. “We can’t live like animals forever. We need a proper place to live. Somewhere suitable to raise whelps. Somewhere in the countryside, perhaps.”
“We don’t have any money, Tailor,” I remind him.
“Of course we do. The insurance.”
“Who do you think insured the port? What company would take that kind of risk?”
Tailor cocks his head at me. “Do you think I’m stupid, Conroy?”
“No.”
“It didn’t occur to you to ask what I meant by that? You just thought I was delusional?”
“Honestly, I wasn’t really thinking about what you meant. I was distracted by your horrific country vision.”
“You’re horrified by the country?” He looks at me with surprise. “Trust me. We have insurance. I didn’t spend the entire time at the port drinking and commissioning clothes.”
“You didn’t?”
“No,” he laughs, cuffing me. “I did things too.”
While we discuss these matters, Kita has come up quietly and is sitting next to Damon, murmuring soft words to him. He is speaking back. Softly, under his breath. Cute.
“We’re going to need to double back,” he says. “For the insurance.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I took our excess profits, converted them to gold, and buried it. We have significant savings off-site, in addition to what should still be in the safe at the port, which was built in such a way that just being set on fire won’t affect it too badly.”
“Seriously?” I am shocked, but in a very positive way. It has felt as though we can do nothing but lose of late; to find out that we have unexpected reserves is a great relief.
“Yes. Of course. Easiest way to be sure that value would be held. Anyway, it’s out of the port.”
“I don’t want to take her anywhere near that place.”
“I don’t want her out of sight. And we need the money. Can’t do anything without money. Unless, of course, you want to live out here in the dirt.” Tailor says.
“I don’t know,” I say. “It’s not that bad out here.”