When we got up we had to go to the dining room again everyone sat looking almost bored.
Usually it would be a very tense and rigorous meeting with all the things everyone had to say but apparently no one felt like sharing their experiences near the Regional.
*How suspicions would it be if the Regional died during the annual meeting? Obviously, he isn't very good at his job anyways. I guess that's too harsh, but he should be doing his damn job.*
There was a lot of sitting around waiting, some vampires played games on their phone or even fell asleep. Eventually the pets were less afraid and more bored, an impressive feat.
Some even got brave enough to talk to their masters, not loudly but that's still saying something.
I watched Derik mess around on his phone for a little bit but the view off the floor was pretty bad. Since it was nothing but boring sitting on the floor I laid down and waited.
I used to sit quietly for hours at a time in the pet shop but since I'd met Derik I forgot what watching basically nothing for hours was like. *Ugh, how much longer? Someone end me.*
"Ugh, this is boring. We should play a game or something, we have to be here for a while more anyways." I'd never imagined a Regional would whine but this one sure did.
We all stared at him for a bit while he seemed to think. He snapped and a grin came over his face like he had a good idea, which I highly doubt.
"I have an idea, and I'm the Regional so you have to play along. The pets should be able to do whatever they want for ten minutes, excluding violence, and we'll see what our pets are really like. And no punishing your pets when I'm not looking, I want to see what they're really like so they need to feel safe," he ordered. "I'll punish you if I find out you didn't listen."
Derik gave me a doubtful look that the Regional apparently caught.
"Just give her your shirt, she should play too." I gave him a slight nod to let him know I had a plan.
He reluctantly took his shirt off and I'm pretty sure at least half the pets and the few woman lords stared. I'm very lucky I don't uncontrollably growl while I'm a wolf or I would have scared those girls and a few boys half to death.
He slipped my front paws into the unbuttoned cuffs and some vampires looked away, some didn't until he started growling at them. It scared the pets half to death so they also quickly averted their eyes.
I still turned around facing the wall before I shifted.
I quickly gave myself wavy blond hair and bright green eyes. I also made myself less curvy so I attracted less attention, not that there was much to see in the first place. I buttoned the important parts of the shirt before I moved to stand besides Derik.
I laid my hand on his shoulder and he looked up at me showing clear confusion for a second before he smiled.
I was still more than distracted by him being shirtless but I just returned his smile.
I boldly sat on the table and waited while everyone got accustomed to how they thought I looked. Adam looked so confused I almost laughed.
"Let the games begin." *Wow really, this guy is so weird.*
Turns out most of the pets version of rebelling is just refusing to sit on their Master's lap. Two or three, the ones that were really brave, took sips from glasses vampires had that didn't contain blood.
They probably had good relationships with their masters.
Most got up and looked at the artwork on the walls and chattered amongst themselves. My version of rebelling since they needed to think I'm just a normal pet was to have a conversation with Derik and admire his abs while he protectively buttoned the shirt up to the neck and I tried not to laugh.
Adam's pet, that I still don't know the name of, talked a little but she just stayed on his lap. I stole one of Derik's hash browns when no one was looking and they were amazing and nostalgic.
"Alright, time's up." Everyone immediately scurried to their masters with their heads down and all talking in the room quieted immediately.
I got off the table since I didn't want to raise too many eyebrows and sat on Derik's lap.
Without saying anything I got comfortable and Derik rested on arm on my waist and his head on top of mine. Quickly changing my voice box so I couldn't purr I was thankful it wasn't out of the ordinary for masters to have relationships with their pets.
As long as there is no respect from the master to the pet inner relations were perfectly normal.
Afterall, we're owned, they can do whatever they want with us and forcing affections on us was usually considered fortunate since they were less likely to hurt you. No one would see Derik treating me the way he did that weird.
"So pets do have personalities," the Regional said out loud to himself.
I let out a loud exhale in a 'duh' manor and the Regional laughed hysterically.
"You've got a sarcastic one there huh Derik?" Someone commented. *They think that's sarcasm, I can show them sarcasm.*
Derik chuckled and fixed my now huge collar since it was meant for a dog. People rattled on about this or that while me and Derik just stared at each other. *God he's so hot.*
*I know he's a vampire but still abs like that shouldn't be possible with how much desk work he does.*
It was hard to keep the slight smile off my face and eventually I just gave up. It felt like we were the only people in the room, I'm not entirely sure why being around Derik makes me so happy but I don't want to let go of that feeling.
And he didn't seem to mind in the least that I was staring.
Sitting there was boring and I may or may not have fallen asleep a few times. *I really hope I don't snore or talk in my sleep, a room full of the most powerful people in the room and I could have been snoring and talking in my sleep.*
My parents would have been so disappointed that I fell asleep during the national Regional meeting but it wasn't like I'm actually part of it.
There isn't even any real discussion happening.
The last time I woke up I wasn't even in the dinning room anymore; we were standing in front of the entrance and Derik was carrying me. Adam and his pet were standing by us.
"Welcome back." Derik smiled at me and I just kinda blinked at him for a second.
"Sorry, I fell asleep." I rested my head on his shoulder.
Adam coughed loudly to get our attention. "I didn't know hybrids could do that."
"It's kind of an age-old tradition to not let anyone know much about us, I didn't even tell Derik because I wasn't sure I could trust him. It's like an emergency only thing, thankfully hybrids basically are born knowing what they can and can't do otherwise even I wouldn't know."
"I'll talk to you guys later." Adam waved and walked towards a red mustang with his pet trailing behind him. *Damn, I really need to learn to ask people for their names.*
"You really need to gain some weight." Derik's voice reminded me he was carrying me and disappointingly he had put on a shirt.
"I'll work on it, you can put me down. I'm probably heavy."
"One, you have ears you should start using them. Two, I'm a vampire, we're kinda known for super strength." I chuckled a little and changed my voice box back to normal.
"God, changing my voice is so uncomfortable," I rubbed my neck as I spoke.
"You changed your voice?" Derik started walking towards the car.
"Only a little so I couldn't purr or growl."
Derik set me down in my seat and walked over to his side. As soon as none of the other cars were in sight I let out a sigh of relief releasing the changes to my appearance and smell.
Derik took a deep breath through his nose and smiled, I tried really hard not to laugh I swear. He grumbled a little that I laughed but neither of us could stop smiling.
"I'm glad you're back." That was all Derik said for the rest of the drive but it was peaceful. I'd never been in a car that played music but just like before Derik turned on the car's mini radio.
I didn't have time to marvel at it before but now I was interested to see something I had never seen before.
As an illegitimate child I didn't go outside the castle much so despite my parents I've never been in cars until I left. If either of my old masters had mini radios in their car it wasn't playing and obviously the pet transport truck didn't have one.
Living with Derik I was already learning about all kinds of new things, *I hope things can keep going on like this.*