SEVEN
I take several deep breaths in as we look at each other.
“What do you mean?” he asks.
“Exactly what I said. You should be mean to me so I don’t get used to it.
I know what you are trying to do. Be nice to me until I drop my guard.
Then, when I am least expecting it, you are going to be rude to me.
Eventually, you are going to send me back to the space station or just kill me here,” I rapid-fire.
“I just want you to get it over with and let me die without too much pain, or send me back to the space station right now. I promise I won’t tell anyone about what you Venkorians are doing to us. You can get someone else then.”
Lie.
If he sent me back to the space station, the first thing I would do is tell Headmistress Helena, so she can inform the other girls. Then, they won’t get hurt. I can’t let this keep happening.
“Is that what you think?” he asks, and I nod. “Then why are you crying at every single thing?”
I shrug.
“I think you do know. I want you to tell me,” he states.
Well, I’ve already started, so I might as well just say everything I want to, so he can send me to the space station sooner. It will make everything so much easier.
“You didn’t feed me how you normally do last night,” I quietly say, not wanting to admit it all.
“It felt like you were pulling away from me. That is when I realized I needed to keep my distance from you. I decided to get you to be mean to me so I wouldn’t be so hurt when you sent me back to the space station.
But I didn’t realize that I would like it so much, and I just kept crying.
Every single thing you did reminded me that this is all going to end soon, and I wouldn’t have anything left when I got back to the space station.
It made me realize how much I had grown to love you doing every little thing for me, and that I didn’t want it to end.
I thought being on the space station was a good life; it was simple and easy.
But being here with you has made me realize that I was missing out on so much growing up on the space station.
I’ve never had someone do that for me, and I didn’t know how to react. ”
I take a deep breath and look into his eyes. He blinks at me, as if he knows I have more to say.
“We’re going to talk about what you had to do on the space station later. But I want to hear what else you have to say,” he says.
“And I want you to feed me how you did me before. It gave me butterflies in my stomach every single time, and I don’t want to give that up.
I want you to continue to care for me, but I don’t deserve it.
I don’t want to get used to it. I don’t want you to stop all of a sudden after you have done it for so long, and me be so heartbroken that I can’t function anymore,” I continue.
“I want you to be horrible to me now so I don’t have to suffer as much later.
I just need you to do that for me so that I can live peacefully on the space station.
or as peacefully as I can, knowing what I could have.
And the fact that the space station is failing and we’ll all eventually die on there. ”
“Why do you think you can’t have it anymore? That I don’t want to give it to you for the rest of our lives?” he asks.
I shake my head. “Because everything we know points to the Venkorians being mean and going to kill us. They hurt our friend when they were dragging her out of the cage they were keeping her in. They injected me to make me unconscious before I even got to the medical bay. They didn’t feed us much when we were in the kennels.
It all points to you not wanting us. To torturing us and either killing us or making us your slaves for the rest of our lives.
I don’t want that. Not after you have been kind to me and have made me think that you really want me. ”
How does he not understand what I am trying to tell him? It all makes sense and I have laid it out for him.
“I just need you to be mean to me so that my heart grows used to it before you send me back,” I whisper. “Can you do that for me? Please.”
I will resort to begging him if I need to. But what if it backfires and he ends up treating me even better to show me he can do whatever he wants?
Shit.
Maybe I should have thought this through better. But he just kept asking me and wanted to make sure I was okay. He pressured me into telling him, making me look into his eyes like he knew it would work.
“But I don’t want to make you a slave or mistreat you. That was never my intention,” he gently says. “I want to cherish you for the rest of our lives and take care of you. I want you to be mine. I want you to love me like I will love you.”
Tears pool in my eyes, and I shake my head, pulling my head out of his grip. No. I shouldn’t believe his words.
“You can trust me. I don’t want to harm you, and I never will. You are too precious to me,” he whispers. “I think of you as my world. You are my everything.”
“You don’t know me,” I mumble.
“I know enough about you to be sure. I’m excited to get to know you better.
I have been waiting to get you for so long, looking at your picture every single day and imagining what you are like.
I wish I had gotten to you sooner, so you didn’t have to witness what they did to your friend and them forgetting to feed you.
” He sighs. “I want you to know that they shouldn’t have hurt her.
They have already been punished and disciplined severely for doing that.
As for not feeding you, it should never have happened.
They have had several hours of training, one of which you were present for.
I just want you to know that they shouldn’t have done any of those things and should have treated you guys kindly. ”
“Why the cages?” I ask.
“Because we thought you guys were unintelligent, so we got those made. Just like how you stay in the kennel when you are sleeping. This is the same thing. It is a place to put you until we can get to you, so you don’t hurt yourself,” he explains.
“I also quite like the idea of you being in the cage and relying on me for every little thing. I like knowing you’re in the cage where I put you, that you are safe. ”
“Do you think of us as pets?” I question. “You call me Little Pet all the time.”
“You are a pet, in a way. I paid for you, and I will be teaching you some tricks. You will obey my commands, and I am your master. Though you will call me Daddy and nothing else.” He smiles.
I snort. There is no way I am going to actually call him Daddy out loud.
“But I can be patient with that. I heard you females have a hard time accepting the fact that you will call us Daddy. But it’s okay.
I can wait for you to get comfortable with it.
” He runs his hands through my hair. “I’m just happy that you are here with me now and that we can spend the rest of our lives together. ”
“I’m not a pet,” I say, choosing to pay attention to that rather than everything else he said.
For all I know, he could be all word and no action, and I’m not ready to blindly trust him… no matter how much I want to.
Daddy chuckles and shakes his head. “Sooner or later, you will call me Daddy. I’ll patiently wait for that day, don’t worry. You must address me as Sir or Daddy but never by my name. But as for you not being a pet, I do know that, and it is just a nickname.”
“But you said I would be learning some commands and tricks,” I point out.
“And you will be, but that is the only thing. Unless you want to eat from a bowl like a pet would.” He raises an eyebrow.
“I sleep in a kennel,” I point at it. “You are treating me like a pet.”
“We can change the kennel so it looks more like a crib if you want. I am up for doing that, but regardless of what it looks like, you will be sleeping there. It has bars around it so you won’t be able to climb out and hurt yourself,” he explains.
“If you want to put some stuff on the bars to make it look less like a kennel, we can.”
I take a deep breath and slowly let it out. He isn’t understanding what I am trying to tell him. How does he not understand this?
“We can put some more blankets in there and make it even softer than what you have already,” he offers. “And we can put some beautiful padding down, so you are more comfortable.”
I close my eyes and sit there for a couple of seconds. He is serious about all of this.
“Sir,” I quietly say. “I don’t want to sleep in there or stay in there whenever you have to go do something. It is exactly like treating me like a dog, and I don’t like it. I am a human being!”
“You are a female, but you are also mine. I am going to do this, and that’s the end of it,” he informs me.
“What happened to talking about things and listening to me?” I mumble and look away from him.
“I will listen to you, and we can talk about things, but I have the final say in this relationship. I never want you to feel like you can’t talk freely about things or won’t be heard because you will, but not every decision you make will be okay.
It could harm your health, and we don’t play with health-related things.
So I have the final say in everything, but rest assured, I will listen to your side.
You never know if you might change my mind,” he explains.
Daddy cups my face and moves my head so I’m looking at him.
“I know it doesn’t seem fair, but it’s all going to be okay. You’ll get used to me making the decisions and having the final say. You might even crave it more and more.” He smiles.
“I highly doubt that,” I softly reply. “We were never allowed to do that on the space station.”
“What was it like on the space station?” Daddy asks.
“Nothing like this,” I mumble.
“Tell me about it. I want to know and learn about what you lived like before,” he insists.
Sighing, I look over at him, and he places a hand on my stomach, settling me.
“They had us do chores every day. Some people had more chores than others. It was all based on how wealthy our parents were before we got placed on the space station. I was one of the unlucky ones who had to do a lot of chores. Cleaning the bathrooms, cleaning rooms, making sure dishes were done, or gathering laundry from other girls,” I explain.
“Every day, I was so exhausted that I passed out in my bed. Sometimes, I wouldn’t eat because of how tired I was.
I knew I should get up, but I never had the strength to do it. ”
The look of horror on Daddy’s face as I explain what I went through.
He kisses my lips before pulling away, his hand still on my stomach. “You never have to work another day in your life. You can just rely on me and I’ll do everything for you.”
“I don’t know,” I whisper. “I don’t know if I can get used to that. Daddy rubs his thumbs across my cheeks. “You might surprise yourself. Never say never. Now, let’s get you into bed. We have a lot to do tomorrow.”