I focused on changing my scent about half-way through the drive and the smell of a werewolf that didn't actually exist set me and Derik both on edge.
Overly aware of how small and weak I was compared to how I usually am a nervous slope set into my shoulders.
When we got to the Regional's house my eyes teared up involuntarily and I wished I could look at everything without being threatened. Derik rolled his obviously tense shoulders and set a cocky grin on his face.
He got out of his seat on lazily strolled over to my side of the car before picking up my leash. With my ears flat against my head I glanced at the white patio and walked up the familiar stairs with Derik.
I stared nervously at my paws.
A maid greeted us and led us to the formal dining room and I had to resist treating the place like my old home. However, once we got to the room filled with loud and possibly angry vampires my confidence took a swan dive.
Under normal circumstances I would have been fine but being at risk of being ganged up on and possibly discovered I wasn't assuming things would go my way.
If anything I should probably get a pardon from being a pet if they knew my father, but ruining his reputation was worse than slavery to me.
Chatter died down and everyone turned to look at who had entered. The whole room smelled like blood and fancy food.
"Everyone's here, welcome to the party!" Some cocky red head at the head of the table said. Resisting the urge to growl I discreetly accessed him, from what I'd seen I seriously hope he isn't the one that replaced my father.
"Regional," Derik said with a slight nod. My heart sank that they thought that quack was qualified to be the Regional.
*How could he possibly be qualified to replace my father?*
Derik took a chair at a table and I sat next to him wrapping my tail around my midnight paws. Still less than comfortable I snuck glances at everyone. Then something caught my eye a familiar head of blond hair.
The kind man from the pet shop looked worse for wear. With how sympathetic he was a job anywhere near managing the world must be horrendous.
Imagine wanting the best for the world and seeing the worst every day.
"Alright, everyone knows how this works, if not you'll get it in a second. I'd like to confirm that there is nothing any of you need my help with or if there's something I should know." The red head, which I refuse to ever call Regional, said in a bored manor.
Thankfully unlike in my human form I could control my urge to growl.
Though some had troubled or angry looks on their face none spoke up. With the drawn-out silence I looked around and took in the appearance of some of the pets.
Some pets were seated next to their masters, some on the floor, and some uncomfortably on their masters' laps. Most were pale, malnourished, tired, and injured not to mention terrified.
Them all being perfectly preened seemed almost like a joke when I doubt half of them got to shower often not to mention wear nice clothes.
Small plates of untouched food and water sat in front of most of the pets while some had just water or even nothing.
Almost all the vampires had pets but a few were clearly in between pets. Only two or three pets looked like they were treated the way they deserved.
*I swear vampires know nothing about humans or werewolves. If for no other reason, if they fed their pets better they could drink from them more.*
*And why would you ever restrict water of all things? If you wanted to throw away hundreds of thousands in less than three days you could skip dehydrating a pet and just burn it.*
A few looked okay-ish but many more had fresh bite marks and bruises painting them like morbid artwork. A few were breathing heavily from either too tight collars or fear.
And not a single heart-rate was normal, mine was probably the slowest but that could be excused by most werewolves being more confident in wolf form.
Sympathetic I decided I'd make a distraction to give them a small break later tonight. If they were lucky they could sleep.
"Alright then!" The 'Regional' announced loudly and all eyes were instantly brought to him. "This meeting is traditionally two days and I don't want anyone to think I'm not doing my job so I kindly suggest you all stay here. Enjoy dinner and you can all retire to your rooms in, say, two-three hours."
*I hate this guy. If they don't bring up issues ot reports he should be asking questions, doesn't he even take his job seriously?*
Dinner continued with small mutterings between the vampires and the scrape of their dishware. Most pets didn't touch their food out of fear. Some were the meals.
While everyone ate I thought about foods that could be eaten without their masters noticing.
No one seemed to be overly surprised that I wasn't eating but the kind blond looked from girl to girl hiding sympathy.
At the very least I could encourage the girls who weren't brave enough or were locked up to drink some water in the bathroom. But that could be dangerous too...water did have a smell.
Figuring out a plan I locked up the muscles in my tail to keep it from twitching in thought and tried to look small and scared.
Which wasn't overly hard in such a stifling room.
Dragging dinner out two and a half hours was less than comfortable for everyone involved, it was like everyone was eating as slowly as possible, for a snail.
Some girls were clearly struggling to stay awake after being fed on even with all the fear in the air. All of the vampires comfortable cocky expressions had slipped a little and the kind blond had a somber look on his face.
"That should be long enough." The 'Regional' got up and vampires and pets trickled out. I was more than happy to get out of the room full of vampires.
A servant girl with blond hair led us up the stairs and to a small guest room. Looking around everything was either black or gray. The tension in Derik's shoulders released as soon as the door closed.
"Haa, that was stressful." He ran his fingers through his hair and I couldn't agree more. I gently head bumped him in an attempt to be comforting.
I wasn't completely sure when someone had taken Derik's bag from him but it was sitting at the foot of the bed. He took my collar off and I shook the fur around my neck out.
Chuckling a little he walked up to his bag and took a t-shirt out. He held it out behind him and I shifted taking it from his hand.
Werewolves were usually more comfortable in their wolf forms but being as how the small wolf wasn't actually me it was relieving to be myself again.
Dressed I sat on the bed in front of him. He sat on the bed next to me and wrapped his arm around me before laying us both down. Despite myself a small purr started in my chest and my face heated up.
I didn't have to see Derik's face to know a small smile would be on his face like he won something.
*I'm not a teddy bear.*
"You know, I've always wondered something," Derik started and adjusted so he felt more comfortable.
"Hmm," I hummed waiting for him to continue.
"How do werewolf shifts even work?" I chuckled a little at the randomness of his question.
"Well, it has to do with mass," I started slowly. "They can rearrange their mass in a certain way, it's always a little different because of weight loss or gain but you get the hang of it."
"So you're the same weight as that huge wolf right now?" He played with my hair a little.
"Yep, we don't think about it much it's just something that happens."
"Alright. One more question, you used to live here so you know where the kitchen is, right?" When I looked up at him a sheepish smile was on his lips and I smiled.
"What do you want?" A little mischievous smile worked it's way onto my face.
"You aren't leaving, it's too dangerous." He shook his head and pouted a little. A little confused I furrowed my eyebrows.
"What do you mean?"
"You could get hurt, or worse. Besides isn't this supposed to be low profile?"
I tilted his chin so he looked at me before I spoke. "I know what I'm doing. I'll be fine. No one will even see me."
"I know you can take care of yourself but there are a lot of vampires here and some of them would kill you just because they saw you and happened to feel like it." I played with his hair a little bit and made sure I looked as certain and confident as I was.
"I'm going to tell you a secret," I paused dramatically. "There are only three ways to permanently kill a hybrid and only a handful of people in the world know what they are."
"But..." He looked reluctant.
"I guarantee there is no way they could accidentally stumble upon a way to kill me."
"Haa, alright." I beamed a little and did something I really shouldn't have. I kissed him on the cheek and left.
Immediately after I closed the door I gave myself a mental lecture about not being so careless, *why did I even do that?* Quickly giving myself silky black hair and removing my scent I walked calmly down the hallway.
This was the biggest secret of the hybrid race, one known instinctually at birth. A hybrid could shapeshift and even control their scent making them close to untraceable.
When I got to the kitchen I quickly made some sugar water since the smell would be small enough for me to cover up. I stashed it away and quickly got to the outside of the perimeter.
Just outside of the land considered the Regional's I changed my scent so I smelled like a vampire.
Thanking how fast I was I made looping trails of my scent that would be all but impossible to track in less than thirty minutes. When I finished in about five minutes I let out the loudest most threatening hiss I could muster.
The reaction was immediate, guards left their posts, vampires came out of the mansion, and shouting orders started. *Perfect.*
Smirking I let the scent go and speed back to the kitchen. Working quickly I scented all the guest hallways with the distracting reek of garlic and gave as many girls as possible sugar water so they had a little bit of something to work off of.
Some refused, of course, out of fear of being discovered. After doing everything I could I made my way to the kitchen and made fried egg sandwiches.
With a plate in one hand and a glass of blood in the other I made my way back to Derik's guest room.
Pausing before I opened the door I gave myself my own looks and the werewolves scent again. I was almost sure I could trust Derik with what I could do but it was probably better that I didn't take the risk.
When I got into the room Derik glanced around nervously before almost tackling me in a hug.
"Do you have any idea how bad it scared me when someone hissed and you didn't come back? I thought you were in danger."
"Everything's fine." I did my best to hug him back with my hands full and attempted not to look startled. Getting suddenly touched without warning sets off a lot of automatic alarm bells after being a pet.
I rested my head on his shoulder listening to his racing heart slowly settle down. He eventually pulled back a little and led us both to the bed, I set the plate of food and the glass of blood on the nightstand.
He sat against the headboard and I leaned against his chest rubbing little circles on his shoulder. Laying my legs over his lap I picked up a sandwich from the plate and ate my now lukewarm food.
"You know when I asked for food I expected a box of crackers not a home cooked meal." He set the plate on my legs as he talked.
"Trust me when you try it you'll wish I got you a box of crackers," I joked. It wasn't actually that bad but I'd been a pet for a long time so all real food was amazing.
He actually purred lightly while he ate, which was the last thing I expected. I spent most of the meal just staring in shock.
"You kept looking at some blond, do you know him?" Derik set the plate down as he talked.
I couldn't help the smile that formed on my face.
"Yes, I was in his shop once. It was so beautiful." I couldn't keep the admiration from my voice.
"How is a pet shop beautiful?" He looked at me with wide eyes.
"There were no cages, no whips, real food, showers, and clean clothes. It was something else for an abused pet." He gently rubbed little circles in my back.
"Do you want to talk to him?" The question was gentle and it only made me appreciate him more.
"I do, I want to thank him. He even tried to convince my first master not to buy me."
"I'll take you to him." He set me on the ground gently and stood facing the opposite way of me.
I took the shirt off and shifted into the smaller version of my wolf nudging him to tell him I was done. He picked my shirt, well his, off the ground and put my collar on.
He walked out of the room like he owned the place and it was harder for me to act scared like before away from any threatening vampires and excited to thank the shop vendor.
Just barely managing to keep my tail still, I padded down the hallway with him. *I wonder what he'll say to the vendor.* I didn't have long to think about that when Derik stopped in front of a door.
Him knocking on the door was the only thing I could seem to notice. *What if he doesn't want to talk to me?*
The shop owner peaked out the door cautiously.
"Hey, my pet said she used to be at your pet store and she wants to talk to you. Is that alright?" A fake easy grin rested on Derik's face.
"Yeah, sure." He looked a little confused but it was easy to see that time hadn't changed his kind attitude.
We walked into the room and Derik took my collar off holding the shirt out to me. Both vampires looked away but a girl sitting on the edge of his bed couldn't look away.
But well even if she swung that way it's a little different.
I changed back and took the shirt from Derik coughing to let them know they could look. With a small smile on my face I watched the blond's eyes light up. He smiled and walked towards me.
"You're still alive, I thought he killed you." He wrapped me up in a hug which I tentatively returned.
Loud growling made the blond quickly back up. He held his arms up in surrender. I walked over to Derik and placed my hand on his chest relaxing into his side as his growling quieted down.
I'm not really surprised, vampires are possessive creatures, even if we don't want to be. If a vampire ever said they don't mind sharing they lied. Vampires think what's theirs is theirs and only theirs.
A surprising amount of fights have broken out because of pets, your master might not care if you live or die but you're theirs and no one else can touch you.
"Wait, aren't you a..." I quickly cut the confused blond off.
"Yes, but it's better if the people here don't know." He nodded his understanding. "I just wanted to thank you for what you did for all of us girls. It must be hard for you being in a place where all you can usually see is the darkness in the world."
"It is a little hard to see the good in the world sometimes but I'm in a good place to change it." A faraway look was in his eyes for a second before he shook his head. "I'm Adam by the way."
He stuck his hand out to Derik and Derik reluctantly shook his hand.
"Derik," Derik's response was a bit rough and forced.
"You don't like me much." Adam walked away and sat on the bed next to his clearly healthy pet.
She had soft brown hair down to her waist and bright green eyes. She was more of the tall and slender type but she was still beautiful. She seemed comfortable around Adam so he's probably had her for a while.
"Your girl, there, she's got a lot more plans than you think." Adam continued talking and I'm not sure where he's going to next. "Wants to make the world a better place, and she'll fight tooth and claw to see it happen."
"Where are you going with this?" Derik's arm seemed a little tight around my waist as he talked.
"She'd make a lot more progress if you officially released her debt."
"I can do that?"
"Yep," he popped the p. "It's like how werewolves can't be pets unless they have debts. She'd be a free citizen if her debt was released." *If I'd known that I wouldn't have been a pet for the last three years. I thought the only way to be free would be to change my appearance using my power.*
A smile grew over Derik's face and I laughed a little at how happy he looked.
*I could be free, holy shit.*
"I want to rework the pet system, make sure pets stop dying for no reason. It'd be a hell of a lot easier with two powerful allies at my side, waddya say?" Adam had a smirk on his face that was contagious.
Derik had the same look on his face as me. I gave Adam a nod and he smiled widely.
"Perfect, I'll see you two after this meeting is over."
***
"You won't leave if I free you, will you?" We were laying in bed and Derik sounded surprisingly insecure.
"Wouldn't dream of it," I played with his hair a little as I talked.
"Good, I'll do it first thing when we get back." He snuggled into me a little and all I can do is smile.
I loved being around him, it's like having a happy little buzz. Everything's foggy and relaxed and there's nothing you can do but you don't want to do anything.
Where time is slow and fast and everything's a little confusing but it's a good confusing.
*God if someone heard me they might commit me. Or at least I read that they used to send the messed-up people somewhere to get help, these days they're everywhere and they do not want your help.*
My mind wandered for a little bit until a soft purr brought me back. He looked so happy and well that made me happy. *I sound like a bad romance novel, eww.*
I shut my eyes for a second enjoying the peace and darkness.