Send “Auction” for your muse buying mine as their slave
Derek snarled lowly but kept his head down as he was transferred to the person that bought him, seeing a small female form before him now.
This person’s eyes were as vividly green as the other three’s, but there was a wildness and a fierceness to her gaze that the others lacked. There were other folk on the estate — there had to be. Four women, however talented, could not care for such a place alone. But none of those folk were permitted to deal with new slaves.
She stayed in the doorway, holding his eyes across the room. In one hand was the folder Summer had tried to offer him. A flicker of change, there and gone in a blink, passed over her face. A flash of gold eyes, a glimpse of fangs between parted lips, a suggestion of striped fur — this woman was a shapeshifter too.
“This is why she asked you to stay. To learn how to be free again.” Carelessly, she tossed the folder on the bed, folding her arms. “Time to choose, Hale.”
Derek took in the look of the other and was somehow more relaxed than he’d been with the other more mild mannered of the ones that all seemed so similar but different as the seasons. He saw the hint of shift and his shoulders drooped, a half a scowl on his face.
“You all need to work on your approach,” he said almost plaintively if it wasn’t so grumpy. “I do want to learn how to be free again but it’s a process and a little patience would be nice in that process,” he said, glaring at the folder. He was not going to get the hang of it in a day, he could hardly believe people waited at the door to be let in. With the apparent exception of Summer who’d been there when he woke up. He would have preferred she waited too… Nothing had gone so well since.
“Most of us are desperate to be free. We seize it and run. Or beg.” She ran her fingers through her short hair.
“You’re passive.” It made it hard /not/ to treat him as a slave. Autumn figured he was testing them, waiting to see if they kept their word. Summer was afraid he was too broken to be saves. They had those sometimes.
It usually took Summer a week to recover from what she saw as failure.