Master! Master! – Chapter 15.3

The patio doors opened and out stepped Neija, eyes scanning for a good spot. Many of the lawn chairs were taken, several hybrids simply lying on the grass, but she spotted an empty seat next to Elise. She strode over and stripped down, remaining the queen of not giving a fuck. She didn’t say a word to Elise, just took her place in the adjacent seat. A low purr began to sound in her throat, joy from the warmth of her bronze body being washed in sunlight.

“I was the reason,” Elise said after a few minutes of silence.

“Hmm?” Neija mumbled, not sure if Elise was talking to her.

“I was the reason he turned you.”

Neija growled in frustration. “I already know he did it to protect his pets. That doesn’t make it right. I’m not some tool for him to use.”

“And I’m not a pet.”

“Get over yourself, we’re still just animals to them. That’s all we’ll ever be.”

“No, because I was never an animal. I was originally a human.”

Neija stared at her in shock. “How is that possible?”

Around the patio, several hybrids raised their heads, equally shocked. Until now, they had just assumed that Elise was a serpent that had transformed, just like Levi. They had no idea it was possible for humans to undergo the change.

“No one has told you that I’m Lorraine’s older sister. Maybe this transformation was due to my own ability, but I think the two of them caused it. I used to be a farmer, I raised cows. I lost so much when I gained this tail; my freedom, my future, my independence, and my livelihood.”

“So you should hate him even more than I do. He ruined your life.”

“It was an accident. He didn’t mean to turn me into this, neither of them did. I guess you also don’t know that Momo, Sonja, and Chloe happened the same way, even Betty. He probably told you he went to that zoo to help keep them safe, but you just assumed that he created them by choice. It wasn’t until Leah that he could actually do it on command, and even then, we don’t know whether or not it will continue to happen on its own.

If you’re going to be mad at someone, be mad at me. He did all this to try and give me my life back.”

“I don’t have to listen to this,” Neija said as she got up to leave.

“Yes, you do.”

Fast as lightning, Elise’s tail wrapped around Neija, pulling her back. Neija snarled and hissed, trying to pull herself free. “Let me go!” she shrieked. She no longer had her lioness claws, so she tried biting into Elise’s tail instead, but the thick black scales withstood her teeth.

“You should also know that he wasn’t the one to come up with the idea of making all of you. Tobi, Lorraine’s fox, came up with the idea. He suggested that the two of them create countless hybrids in a public place so that the world would finally know what was happening and they could get help. Tobi, a hybrid, just like you, was the one to decide you should be created.”

CRASH! “Let go of my sister!”

One of the glass patio doors shattered as Fred burst outside. He grabbed the end of Elise’s tail and unwound it from around Neija. He then pulled her back out of Elise’s reach, but she pushed him away and turned to Elise with angry tears in her eyes.

“You really think this will make me forgive him? You think that this makes up for what he did to me? I don’t know what I am! You all keep saying that he loves me, like I should count myself lucky! I don’t owe him anything! I don’t need him! He used me! Why should I believe anything he says when he made me and left me behind?”

Elise’s expression was like stone. “Because he loved Penelope.” Neija looked at her in confusion, wondering if she was supposed to know that name. “That was the name of the first hybrid to die. She was a deer who transformed in the wild, miles from his home. She froze to death before the two of them could even meet. Momo, Sonja, and Chloe found her in the snow and he gave her a proper burial. He told me how much it hurt to realize he had caused her death, how he loved her even though she died before he knew of her. The grief nearly killed him.

He created you to take responsibility for what he did to me, now let him take responsibility for you. If you still want to hold your grudge, fine, you’re under no obligation to love him, but he does love you, and no amount of arguing will change that.”

“No!” Neija screamed.

Her face wet with bitter tears, she turned and ran away, off towards the woods behind the yard. Fred was going to go after her, but Elise stopped him. No one saw her for the rest of the afternoon.

Dinner was full of excitement, with everyone chatting about the imminent sleepover. As soon as we were done eating, all the girls would grab their mattresses and bring them to my room, and all the guys would bring their mattresses to Lorraine’s. We had stocked our room with games and other various means of entertainment to keep the hybrids from getting bored. I had all night to pleasure over fifty girls, so each one would have to do a lot of waiting. They might as well play Wii Sports until their turn to get boinked. We also had plenty of food so that no one got hungry and soda and energy drinks so that everyone stayed awake.

“Are you sure you don’t want to join in?” I asked Elise, who was sitting next to me.

“I’m not part of your mega harem, I want nothing to do with it. You have fun, I’m going to enjoy having the rest of the house to myself.”

“Come on, you got to admit you’re curious.”

“Look, I’ll check in before I go to bed to make sure you’re still alive, but I don’t want to get roped into this.”

“Can I see you two for a minute?”

I turned around, finding Dr. Lawrence. With how loud it was in here, he could have worn tap-dancing shoes and still snuck up on us.

“What’s up?” I asked.

“I need to talk to the both of you.” He was looking at me and Elise, not glancing at Lorraine even once.

“Sure,” said Elise.

We got up and followed him through the mansion, heading towards the dormitories of the doctors surveilling us. Only when we were far from the dining room did he start talking.

“Neija is missing.”

“Wait, WHAT?” I asked.

“Well, not technically missing. She’s absent but we know where she is. She probably doesn’t know that.”

“She and I got into an argument about you and she ran off into the woods. I didn’t think she’d still be out there,” said Elise.

“Yes, I heard about that. Anyway, we have the woods filled with cameras so that we can track everyone’s movements. The two of you should probably get Fred and pick her up.”

“No, I’ll get her myself. I’ve done this before.”

Dr. Lawrence led us into a room behind the mansion’s clinic, with the walls lined with computer monitors. Every room of the house was put up on these screens, as well as several camera shots from outside the mansion.

“Ugh, it stinks in here,” Elise said.

“That’s the smell of dedication.”

“It’s the smell of people not bathing enough.”

Dr. Lawrence sat in a chair before the largest monitor and brought up an outdoor view. It was from a camera deep in the woods, showing a large boulder with Neija sitting on top of it, her knees hugged to her chest.

“I know that spot, I’ll go find her.”

The sun had yet to fully set, but the light would surely abandon me by the time I reached her, so I brought a flashlight along. I marched across the open pastures surrounding the mansion and entered the forest, grimacing from the ravenous mosquitoes. I had spent more than a month living in the mansion and had memorized the forest after plenty of walks with the girls. I knew exactly where I needed to go. My guess had been right, as the moment I reached the boulder, the sun fully sank below the horizon, leaving only the faint light of dusk.

Neija heard me coming, she had to, but she didn’t react to me climbing up and sitting down behind her, back to back.

“You cats are all exactly the same. Momo did the same thing a while ago, running away when she saw me and Sonja playing together. She did it because she thought Sonja had replaced her, that I loved Sonja more than her. I’m guessing it’s something similar with you.” Neija didn’t respond. “If I told you I loved you, would you believe me?”

“Would it matter?”

“Of course.”

“But it wouldn’t matter to me. I’m just one of an army you created. I do believe you love me, but don’t lie to me and say you love us all equally. Could you ever feel the same way about me that you do about Momo? All of us from the zoo, we’re expendable, you can just make more whenever you want. What are we to you? Tools to protect the ones you really care about? Slaves to obey your every will? Objects to use for pleasure?”

“None of them. You are all whatever you choose to be. If any of you girls from the zoo want to stay with me forever, then I’ll do whatever I can to make it happen, but if you have other dreams or ambitions, then I’ll help you every step of the way. Momo, Sonja, Chloe, I took care of them because they were my responsibility, same for Betty, Leah, Jenny, and all of you. I kept them hidden so that they would stay safe in a world that wouldn’t understand them.

But the world is changing. Neija, the world knows about you, knows about your kind. Go out and explore it if you want to. You’ve spent your life in a pen at the zoo, well now you can do whatever you want. You can now walk farther on two feet than you ever could on four. I got you mixed up in my mess, and I’m sorry, I’m sorry from the bottom of my heart, but you no longer have to spend your life in a cage.

If you want to, you don’t even have to come back to the mansion. Just walk away, disappear into those woods, I won’t try and stop you. Go forge your own path. Or you can come back to the mansion, maybe join all of us in my room to have some fun, and then tomorrow, I’ll help you figure out how you want to spend the rest of your life, whether it’s with me or without me. I’ll help you find a home, even if it’s on the other side of the world. I loved you, Neija, from the moment I saw you, from the moment I made you, and I’ll love you no matter what you do.”

We would silent for several moments, watching the light vanish from the woods.

“You should know, I’ve mated before, back at the zoo. If you really do want to mate with me, know what it won’t be my first time.”