Chapter 7 - Little Box, Big Package

Thursday morning, I'm settling into my new routine nicely. I get up and do my living room calisthenics. This morning I made myself a bagged lunch. I'm already tired of that stale vending machine shit.

I step outside my apartment building to see a black limo out front with Bianca, my white-wolf handler from Mr. Big, standing in front of it.

This isn't particularly discrete, I approach the vehicle.

"So, is this relationship overt? Because unless you came here to give me a friendly drive to work, this certainly isn't a secretive relationship."

"Mr. Kyle Wulfric, you make it seem as if this relationship is in some way criminal, or inappropriate." She swirls a glass of wine, I didn't notice that when I first came out here. Where did it come from?

I clear my throat and focus on the task at hand "So, what can I do for you?"

"I have a package I'd like you to deliver."

"Why not call U.P.S.?"

"What is U.P.S.?"

"Mail delivery service."

"We'd like this to be personally delivered, and couriered, by you."

"I have to go to work, and I have plans Saturday. I could deliver it Sunday."

"12pm," she says frankly, while sipping her wine.

"12pm...today?!" I look at my phone. "That gives me 6 hours."

"Well, the place you are going to is 3 hours away, so you have an extra 3 hours. Should be cake, for someone with your abilities."

"Ok, give me the address."

"That's it? Don't want to know what it is? Or what's in it for you?"

"No, where is the package?"

"It will be in your locker at work"

"How did you get access to my locker?"

"Your pin code leaves much to be desired,"

Damn, I really have to change that pin code from 1112.

"I like to be predictable, it's that much more shocking when I'm not". That's a smooth cover for such a dumb code. She looks at me, I can feel those eyes analyzing me, looking for indicators she can use later to predict my behaviors.

"Would you like a glass of wine before you go?"

"No, thank you, I try not to drink at 6am." She grins at me and takes another sip.

"Suite yourself." She opens the door to her limo and says, "don't be late." Before ducking inside.

Expecting a ride, I step towards the limo. My paw is inches away from the door handle and the limo pulls away. I stand there for a moment and I begin the walk to the bus stop. I feel like she could have given me a ride to work, but it's probably for the best. I don't like how she stares at me.

I pickup a familiar scent on the bus, I sniff it out to a light Grey female standing towards the back of the bus. "Abigale?" She looks up at me, wiping her eyes, through sniffles she says, "Kyle, you look better, no fights to the death this morning?"

"I only do my hero thing Monday mornings... are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, it's not a problem you can punch"

"I might surprise you."

"Ok, I'm not one to pry, if you don't want to talk about it, I won't press. If it helps, I don't have any friends, so I don't have anyone to tell your secrets to."

She points at my wedding ring, "how about your wife?"

I wave my paw dismissively, "She doesn't listen to me anyway."

"I'm sure you exaggerate."

"Yes, I do, Kaia is very attentive."

She looks at my name tag, "Kaia Wulford, that name sounds so familiar, did she ever work at Adora Tech, maybe 2 years ago?"

"I'm not entirely sure. She's black, with lighter charcoal colored fur around her eyes, down her belly, paws and feet?"

She laughs "well, I never saw her belly but yes, that sounds like who I'm thinking of. How's she doing? Last I heard she got really sick after having her second cub."

"yea, she's ok."

"How are your pups, do they get along?"

"She was really sick and our cub wasn't healthy enough."

"Oh, I'm so sorry, I wouldn't have said anything if I had know."

"It's ok. These things happen I guess. Do you still work there?"

"Yes, I've been there for almost 4 years." She puts her paw on my forearm and says "There is nothing more upsetting then losing a child, my friend just lost a cub. That's why I am upset. She was so healthy, in the last stage of her pregnancy she started getting sick. She had two, one had passed, the other is very sick they are trying to save him, but it doesn't look good."

"I'm really sorry to hear that, we're you two friends for a long time?"

"Not too long, we met at Adora Tech when they hired her 6-7 months ago." She takes a deep breath and says "it's really scary. I want to have a cub, but it's hard to find the right male. And now even if I find the right male, I could get sick and lose my cub, maybe even lose my life."

"I'm sure you'll find someone and have a huge happy family. And I'm sorry for you friend," I smile at her with a closed mouth.

"Thanks, don't miss your stop," she gives me a toothy smile.

"Oh, thanks, you have a good memory."

"You work for Apex, only one way to get there from here. Have a good day at work."

The bus comes to a stop, I pat her on the shoulder and turn to leave. I feel bad for her. I wonder if I have any siblings or pack mates I can set her up with. I text Kaia, 'do you remember Abigale from Adora Tech?'

She doesn't text back, maybe she's busy with Gavin or just having a lazy day.

I get to the Apex Rail Car station, I get a text from Kaia, 'I remember her, she's a little strange.'

I see my brother-in-law sitting in a control booth, checking employee IDs. He spots me waiting in line and waves me over, "want to try some more products?" He winks at me. My mouth starts to water just thinking about it.

"I really, really do, but I've got somethings I need to take care of this morning."

"C'mon, you'll Love it"

I look at my phone, "fine, I'll need you to do whatever it is you do so I don't get in trouble for being late."

"It'll be fine 25-30 minutes tops."

"No, I'm going to need to basically be gone all day. Can you cover for me?"

"Sure, what are you doing?"

"Personal stuff, can I trust you to keep this secret for me?"

"This have anything to do with my sister?"

"No, it's just a favor I need to do someone."

"Ok, I'll do this for you. But you'll owe me a favor now." He grins at me.

"I don't know if I like how you are grinning at me." He grins even wider.

"Let's go test some more delicious meat products," I say excitedly, rubbing my paws together.

"Follow me."

I follow him back to that same elevator, this time he presses S5 instead of S6.

"So what product are we testing today?" I ask

"It's a surprise. You'll love it, I promise"

We get off the elevator and this floor is a little different from the last.

The elevator opens into a wide hallway, directly across from the elevator is an intersecting hallway leading to another elevator. Out the elevator to the left is a double wide set of doors, to the right is a single door. Behind that door there is a reception area, with a male jackal in a lab coat, 6 chairs in a small otherwise empty waiting area. And then behind the reception desk are 4 doors.

The jackal asks, "what can I do for you Levi?"

Levi says "This is my brother-in-law Kyle, he's going to volunteer to test 206 and 522."

The jackal turns to me, "pleasure to meet you Kyle. Please sign these waivers, and fill out your medical history"

I flip through this fairly thick stack, I'm

starting to feel nervous. "Lot of liability waivers."

"It's just a legal formality, you're enjoying things that aren't released to market."

"Alright, fine." I pull out my pen and Blindly sign a bunch of documents.

The jackal says "Thank you sir, take room 2." The jackal points to room 2.

Room 2 is about the size of a doctors's office, medical bed across the back wall.

"I'll be right back Kyle," he leaves me alone in the room. I sit up on the medical bed. I look at my phone, no service. This guy better not make me late for my package drop off.

After a few minutes later Levi comes in with the jackal. The jackal is holding a small box. Levi has what looks like a fast food burger box.

"Tell me what you think of this?" Levi opens the box and places it in front of me. It doesn't smell as appetizing as I was expecting, it looks like a burrito. "What is this a burrito?" I pick it up out of the box, I cautiously take a bite, it reminds me of a soft Chinese eggroll, with shredded cabbage, chopped pork, and something crunchy, maybe shredded carrot?

"It's pretty good, nothing to write home about. I'd probably have another one if it was on a menu someplace. Definitely wouldn't take this over the steak from the other day"

The jackal steps forward and pulls a big cylinder out of the box. Its a little thicker than a soda can, and about 3 cans long. He hands me the tube,

"So what is this? Like a drink?"

I take the tube and turn it over in my hands. The walls are hard plastic, except for one end which feels soft. I turn it over and look square at the soft end. I start to feel warm, "what am I testing here exactly?"

The jackal says "you didn't know?"

"I had no idea until you handed me this vagina tube" I say ,becoming irritated.

"We here at Apex Industries specialize in quality of life improvements. This is a new line of male stimulators and that burrito was a new line of male enhancer."

"Is that why I feel hot?"

"Yes. I've been coming in here every morning for the past 7 days, and my wife has noticed a big difference. Kaia is going to thank you, she will probably thank me too for introducing you to this."

The jackal speaks up, "ok, I'm going to leave, the power button is the red switch on the side"

"Power button?!"

Levi claps me on the shoulder, "have fun brother." He smiles at me as he walks out.

"Don't smile at me, when I'm about to do what I'm about to do!"

The door closes behind him and I turn my attention to this jerk-o-matic. I flick the on switch and I can feel the whole thing pulsing in my paws. Well, curiosity killed the cat. Let's see what it does to this dog.

I lost track of time, I give myself an extra 5 minutes to calm my panting. Finally, I come out and Levi is sitting in the waiting room talking to the jackal.

"What did you think?" Levi asks.

"Honestly?"

The jackal grabs his clipboard

"You should name it, 'who needs a woman, that was some next level shit right there'"

The jackal looks astonished, "you ejaculated so hard you defecated?"

I laugh, "almost, but not quite. I love Kaia but that could replace a living sexual partner."

"Do you really think so?" Levi asks.

"You tried it, don't you think so?"

"I lied. I was afraid. But you have no fear." He nods approvingly. I sigh, I'm going to kill this guy.

Apparently noticing my rage Levi volunteers, "I'll tell ya what, you've been asking me to take you to the range for months. I'll take you now."

"Well, I've got things to do, how about I shoot you tomorrow?"

He laughs, "tomorrow then."

"How do I get out of this jack-off laboratory?"

The jackal holds up his paw, "wait I just need you to answer a bunch of questions first, then you can go."

I take a long, disgruntled sigh.

The questionnaire wasn't that bad, maybe 5 minutes of scale from 1-5 questions and we where out and on our way.

Once back in the elevator, Levi asks "so what did it feel like?"

"You want to know, go in there and strap it on, you won't regret it."

"It had straps?" He asks.

"No, not really, figure of speech. What were you afraid of? If you thought that thing could hurt me, why would you volunteer me?"

"I wasn't afraid of it hurting me. That is modeled after a sheep reproductive organ, was it weird?"

"I didn't notice much of a difference really, pussy is pussy."

"Gross, don't say that." His face contorts in disgust.

I laugh changing the subject "This company really diversifies, what else does it produce?"

"Apex has its claws in everything, from food to diapers."

"Does it only make products for predators? Feels like we are only 10% of the market."

"No, it makes products for everyone. That item you tested is actually geared towards prey species."

"Why? I think predators would love it too."

"Well, that's suppose to pair with a very popular app a subsidiary produced. It's called Mygirl."

"Oh man, I feel like I don't want to know."

"I won't tell you something you don't want to know. Ignorance is bliss." He says crossing his arms.

"No, I do want to know, but I feel like I know where this is going"

"Yeah, Mygirl is a prey exclusive app. My security clearance gets me behind some pretty thick doors. So this is not something you should tell everyone. They say 15% of prey animals between the ages of 20-35 have downloaded the app, many older mammals too that are too busy to find a companion. A good percent spend a lot of money on in-app purchases. Many delay finding partners as a result of the app. If the experience was more complete they feel that most may not even look outside the app for a relationship."

"So your saying Apex has their customers by the ol' twig and berries?"

He looks at me for a moment before he seems to catch on to my euphemism. "Yes, more importantly, they will not breed, could help even the numbers."

"So, you are telling me this is a conspiracy to jerk prey mammals off so good they literally don't need a woman?"

"Something like that. And that burrito you ate is aimed towards predators, they are also working on something to help females conceive outside normal breeding cycles."

"Why don't they invest a little more energy in repealing or at least reducing these ridiculous breeding taxes?"

"We are trying."

"Well, hopefully they make some headway before January. That would make a lot of wolves happy, me included."

"We need to get a predator into the Mayor's office. Get some real power in the paws of predators. Make some sweeping reforms and changes. We need to hurry too, you know that collar that hurt Gavin? There has been a bill on the table for years to make all predator citizens over the age of 6 wear one. If that gets passed, we are 2 maybe 3 generations away from extinction."

"Don't be melodramatic, they would never be able to pass such an unfair law and if they did, I would just blowup the facility that manufactures them and where ever they are stored. So don't worry, I will protect your civil liberties". I say, jokingly.

"Could you do that? Could you kill someone for Gavin's future?"

"Absolutely,". I look him in the eye and unflinchingly say, "I would kill YOU for Gavin's future."

"I believe you". He scratches his neck and opens his mouth as if to speak but closes it remaining silent.

"But if I killed you, Kaia would be sad, so I guess you get to live." I say jokingly, with a big toothy grin.

"Lucky me. Here is your stop. I need to talk to my Team leader. I'll c'ya tomorrow."

I waive him off and jog to the rail train. I literally jerked off for too long, I'll need to makeup lost time somehow. I order a Zoober taxi from my phone while I jog to the locker room.

At the bottom of my locker is a package maybe twice the size of a loaf of bread, but much heavier, roughly 25lbs. Wrapped in brown wax paper, the kind you would expect a butcher to wrap a fish or big rack of ribs in.

I tuck the package under my arm and head back up to the parking lot.

On the rail car ride, I use my smartphone to find a transport to take me to Neu Mune City. I'll take this taxi to the train station, a path train leaves for New Mune City every 15 minutes. I'll take it to the 3rd stop which puts me a quick 15 minute walk from my destination, the office for Whitetail Recycling.

When I step off the rail car, I see a solitary small wolf sized car parked in the pickup area.

I sit in the backseat behind the driver, setting my package on the seat next to me. The interior is grey and reeks of aerosol air freshener.

"I'm in a bit of a hurry, please be expeditious."

"I know no other way," I shift around in my seat so I can see the driver. A little male white rabbit wearing a black leather jacket and jeans sits on the drivers seat. I can't see how he reaches the pedals from here. But he seems to have no trouble reaching the steering wheel and radio.

"Don't see many rabbits around here." He looks at me in the rear view mirror and taps a sign on his dash that says, 'I don't talk to predators'

Alright, never mind then, I look at my iPhone and read a ZNN news article. A family of wallabies was murdered very close to where I live. From the picture looks like wallabies are small kangaroos, two adults, and 3 children. Police have no current suspects, but believe the perpetrator to be a medium sized predator. "Did you hear about this murder in Happytown?" I ask my rabbit driver. He just taps on his sign.

A few minutes later my reading is interrupted by my driver announcing, "we're here."

I look up and see the train station, this place is huge, I'm not even inside yet and it looks to be several times the size of NYC penn station.

"Thanks for the ride," I say as I get out, making sure my package is secure under my arm.

The area is clean, the sidewalk is pearly white concrete. With banks of neatly manicured grass and trees. As I enter the train station I can see the architect must have loved open concept designs, this whole place is as open as it could be.

The top half and ceiling is glass with white walls of stone. The station stretches out farther than it is wide, with a monorail track on each side of an escalator that disappears below. Each of the walls has a staircase that ascends to a second level of shops. With walking vendors spread out across this main floor. The ceiling is easily 100 ft above the second floor and arcs in a huge glass dome. I wonder why they don't have more floors to take advantage of all the space in here.

I approach a bank of terminals centrally places near the escalator, where you can buy your tickets and next to it is a big map of the station. Looks like the path train I'm looking for is below ground where it's a labyrinth of subway trains that go all over Zootopia.

I turn to head towards the escalators when I see Kaia, holding Gavin's paw and Lupine standing next to them. They don't see me yet, I debate trying to sneak around them. "Kyle!" Kaia waives excitedly. I jog over to hug her and pet Gavin who doesn't even lookup from his game system. "What are you guys doing here?" I ask. "Picking up Lupine's girlfriend, shouldn't you be at work?" I look at Lupine, but he's standing on his toes trying to find someone in the crowd. "I have to deliver a package, to Neu Mune City."

"The underground district?" She says

"Yeah, I guess, I just know the package goes to the office of Whitetail Recycling."

"There she is!" Lupine shouts excitedly. I look into the ocean of mammals walking through the station when Lupine runs out and one jumps into his arms. He stands there for a moment holding a young female ocelot over his head and then hugs her to his chest, her legs dangling over a foot off the ground. She kisses him and they hold the embrace for an awkward amount of time. I look at Kaia, she's looking at them slack jawed and then I notice a lot of other people are starting to stare too. Thank goodness Gavin is too fascinated with whatever game he is playing to notice the spectacle.

Lupine sets down his ocelot companion and leads her back to us by the paw. She's 2/3rd his height and 1/3rd his mass, and she looks awe-fully young. "How old is my brother?" I whisper to Kaia while my brother is hurrying towards us.

"He's your litter-mate, so 20."

The ocelot female looks too young, I'd say 15-16 maybe, the fur on top of her head is dyed pink, she has blue rings of dyed fur around her eyes, she's very skinny, even for a cat. She's wearing a black leather vest with silver studs lining the collar, the lapels are pink vinyl. Some black jean shorts barely cover her thighs with green fishnet stockings on her legs down to the middle of her calf. It looks like her only luggage is an olive green backpack with all sorts of patches sewn across its surface.

Lupine pulls her up to us and says excitedly "this is Alix, with an I, the love of my life. Alix, this is Kyle, my brother, his wife Kaia, and their son Gavin."

"Hi," I say in unison with Kaia, apparently she wasn't prepared for this either. Gavin looks up from his game and just stares at this bizarre female.

Alix says, "It's so good to meet you all in person," she pulls up Lupine's t-shirt and runs her paws up his stomach, "wow, nice abs, and your fur is softer than I imagined it being,". Wait what? I almost drop my package. Lupine giggles like a school girl and pulls his shirt back down "I'm ticklish," he says.

"Is this the first time you two are meeting?" I ask.

"Yeah," Alix says.

While Alix talks, Lupine hugs her from behind. "We met on Pred-Date Nation, a dating site, we just talked and video chatted and discovered we have so much in common."

Kaia says apprehensively, "it's so nice to meet you", Alix jumps out of Lupine's grip and hugs Kaia, startling her, before Kaia hugs back. Then Alix hugs me, "I can't wait to be a member of your pack, I'm going to be such a cool sister to you." I almost drop my package again..

I only manage to say, "Come again?"

Kaia interrupts, "let's talk someplace more private, are you hungry?"

Alix says, "if you don't mind, I'd like to go to Lupine's place first. I need to take a shower and I'd like to get a test drive of what I'm buying". She smirks at Lupine, who gulps and starts to blush.

I glance over her paws and see a thin gold band with a small diamond flanked by two smaller emeralds.

"I gotta go, nice to meet you Alix. I'll see you all later." I kiss Kaia and rub Gavin's head. As I walk away with my package I hear Gavin ask, "Who is this girl?"

I'll have to reserve judgement, I don't know if Lupine is an idiot, maybe this is all perfectly normal behavior.

I navigate the crowded labyrinth, and find my subway train. The departing train is empty except for a blind mole rat wearing a set of Vole headphones.

I can't hear what he's listening to, but I can hear the base. It's deep, every second or so I hear 3 little beats then 1 big thump, must be something good because he's rocking his head to it.

I pull out my cell phone and do a search for interspecies relationships. All the results are about deviant sexual behavior. The two terms which keep coming up is predophile and preyophile. So if a prey and predator have a relationship that is considered deviant behavior. Nothing about two different species of the same group being romantically involved. This might be a question for Kate Winfall. That cheetah that tried to assault me on Monday.

My train comes to a stop, and I disembark, dozens of mammals start to push pass me into the train car, before I'm barely clear.

I look around and it's dim even for my eyes. The streets have lamps that barely glow, giving off just enough light to make seeing possible within 15 feet of the lamp. All the buildings Down here are made of thick light grey cement blocks. Most buildings don't have any windows, very few have one or two windows that are either tinted black or have a vinyl coating making them opaque. Every store has signage with chrome in-lays, which glimmers brightly down here in the darkness. The streets down here are empty except for a friendly looking raccoon. She waves at me from her seat on the stairs in front of her building. Her clothes are grey with white piping running around the collar and sleeves. I wave back as a car passes between us, it's head lights cast a very low glow barely brighter than the street lamps.

Maybe it gets busier later in the day.

That raccoon draws breath through a cigarette, the red glow producing more light than the street lamp.

Down the street I see the chrome sign of Whitetail Recycling. I check my phone and the glow is nearly blinding.

"Hey! Bright light!" Someone shouts at me from a balcony. I look up towards the sound of the yelling, but my eyes can't pierce the darkness.

"Sorry!" I shout back.

This place is starting to creep me out. I jog to the Whitetail front door. This door opens into a small vestibule. I let the front door close behind me before opening the inside door. "Hello?" This is a little office space, directly ahead are cubicles, to my right is a reception area with a little brown ground hog looking mammal. I approach and strain my limited knowledge of species imparted upon me by Gavin. It's a quokka, "hello handsome," she says from behind her desk. "What can I do for you?" She pulls out a green visor from a drawer and flips it on her head.

I approach her, she's wearing a black vest with a charcoal short-sleeved t-shirt.

"I have a package, I was told to bring it here, wasn't told who it was for." I place the package on the counter.

"I'll tell Mr. Chezy."

She presses a button on her desk,

"Just wait there please." She points to a solitary chair behind me. I sit and wait.

I cup my paws to shield the light of my phone and check the time 11:44, I still have 16 minutes. I hope they aren't going to make me sit and wait till 12pm.

"You can go now, Mr. Chezy will send his regards."

"Ok, what was your name ma'am?"

"Miss Quint."

"Thank you," I say.

I text Bianca 'package dropped off with Miss Quint'

She responds back 'good job, we will be in touch'

Took me almost 3 hours to get home from Neu Mune City.

I get home to, Gavin playing video games with Alix. Kaia and Lupine are sitting at the kitchen table. Now that I'm not in that train station smothered in scents. Alix has a peculiar rustic smell coming off her. Almost like fresh soil, mixed with salt and something else I can't really place. Something delicious is cooking in the oven, smells like lemon chicken, and seasoned rice.

I come and sit at the kitchen table with Kaia and Lupine. Alix and Gavin are busy playing Mammal Kombat.

"So...?" I ask

Kaia sips her tea while Lupine says, "I know what you are going to say Kyle."

I look over at Alix tickling Gavin, who's loving his new play mate.

"Gavin seems to love her."

"I didn't expect you to say that."

"Well, she's good with kids. Which makes sense since I think she is one."

"She's 18." He says defensively

I look at her again, shes chasing Gavin around the coffee table.

"If you say so."

Lupine crosses his arms defensively.

Kaia sets down her tea and says, "I'm supportive, I'm glad for you. But maybe things are going kinda quickly considering you just met today?"

"I love her, and I want to make her happy. If she thinks we are ready for this, then I'm ready too."

Kaia looks at me, I say, "what do you want me to say? He's a big boy, he can make his own choices. And live with the consequences." I call over to Alix,

"Alix, do you want a beer?"

She shouts from the couch, "no, do you have any pop?"

I look at Lupine and raise an eyebrow, his muzzle wrinkles up in anger at my accusations.

I get a bottle of pop from the fridge and sit on the couch between Alix and Gavin.

"Your pop," I hand her the bottle,

She takes it and winks at me "thanks for being so cool about this,"

"About what?"

"Ya know, the whole cross species thing. Your bro is really cool, and I think he's really sexy, for a wolf."

"For a wolf... Have you dated many wolves?"

"No, Lupine's my first."

"What was your last boyfriend?"

"She was an ocelot."

"Oh, and before her?"

"I dated a boy ocelot before her."

"Ever date any other species?"

"No, I've only ever dated 3 mammals... so 2 before your brother."

"You're really good with Gavin, have any younger brothers?"

"Yeah, 14,15, but they aren't as cool as Gavin."

"Do you want to have one of your own?"

"Maybe one day."

"Well..." I look at Lupine and back at her.

"Yeah, I get it. We could adopt, or I could get inseminated by an ocelot donor, eventually. I don't know, I'm young, I have time to decide."

"Yep, what kind of career do you have in mind?"

"Once I'm married I'll be a citizen and I can get a job working at the Cafe with Kaia, or something. I'll earn my keep, it'll be fun." Her phone beeps, muzzle time notification. "I gotta take this,"

"Alix! Is that him!?" She turns the camera towards me, I see a grey female bunny with amethyst eyes. I wave awkwardly, that rabbit looks 13-14.

"No, that's his brother, he's over there in the kitchen."

"He looks big,"

"Yeah, he's super buff and his fur is super soft."

"I'll have to get back to you, we are about to eat."

"Call me!"

She hangs up.

I ask "she seems nice, Classmate of yours?"

"No, just a friend,"

Kaia shouts, "Dinners ready"

We only have 4 chairs around our kitchen table, so Kaia, Lupine, and Alix sit at the kitchen table. I sit with Gavin on the couch, I didn't want to make him sit alone while we ate.

"She's nice," Gavin says

"Yeah, you like her?"

"Yeah, can she be my big sister?"

"I'm afraid it doesn't work like that, but she can be your friend,"

"Ok, when do I go back to school? I miss Ava."

"We're going to find you a new school, where you don't need to wear a collar."

"I don't mind the collar, I just miss my friends."

"Well this weekend we are going to hangout with your cousins and nieces, would you like that?"

"Yeah, can we color?"

"Sure, we can bring your books."

"No, I mean, you and me, now."

"Oh, ok. After you eat."

He eats his chicken, but doesn't touch the rice. He gets some coloring books and crayons from his bedroom. I eat his rice, Kaia gets mad if we waste food. Gavin gives me the coloring book full of trucks and he colors a prince and princess book. I look at his box of crayons, there are 127 color names but many of them look the same to me. I color a fire truck red and yellow, while Gavin is coloring a wolf prince in colors that reflect his fur colors.

Alix and Lupine leave after we finish dinner.

When I turn around after exchanging hugs and goodbyes, I see Gavin asleep, face down in his coloring book.

I put him in bed and join Kaia in our bedroom.

"What do you think of Alix?" Kaia asks

"I think Lupine's making a mistake, I think she is just with him to get citizenship."

"I don't think so, there are easier ways to become a citizen than to marry someone twice your size."

"How did we become citizens?"

"You went to school and became a certified service professional, and I'm your wife. Anyone with valuable job skills can be approved for citizenship, otherwise you need to buy citizenship."

"Does that mean if we broke up you would get deported?"

"No, but you would. They would definitely question your mental fitness if you let me go." She playfully bites the nape of my neck. I roll over and grab her paw pinning it to the bed, I growl into her ear, "I'll be gentle."

"Don't be too gentle". She growls. grabbing me with her free paw and rolls me onto my back. Damn I keep forgetting how much stronger than me she is.

I may have overstated the Apex industry jack-off machines ability to replace Kaia.