41
The next time my door opened, Pala filled it. I glanced at her, then flicked my hand in an invitation. She stepped in and slid the door closed behind her, eyes never leaving me. I noticed her nostrils twitch, and she said, "I see you've finally begun to understand the utility of my lessons."
Now, I'd taken a rather thorough shower after my encounter with Chosen so I was a bit annoyed at having been so easily discovered, but annoyance is not surprise. I said, "A little, maybe."
"The succubi love games, Taz. They live for sex, but precisely because that's so they find it routine. Games are what they love. Games of power, games of pleasure, games to excite and inspire. Livestock who master these games can go far in this world."
A question had been brewing in the back of my mind, and when she said that something clicked and I asked, "Is that why my ... why Miriam Lorentz didn't win?"
She nodded gravely and said, "Romantic love is an abstract notion not many succubi truly grasp, and what understanding they have of it they mostly get from livestock species. Feeling downtrodden and suddenly liberated, on the other hand, that's inspiring for everyone. All of the succubi you've met are in positions of some power on this world, but the vast majority are not. Many of them are in far worse circumstances than your own."
"I find that hard to believe."
"That's because you only see the value of freedom and nothing else."
We stared at each other for a long moment, then I said, "Everything worth having is based in freedom, Pala."
"You're an idiot, Taz. You're tossing away a pearl because at its heart is a grain of sand."
"And I suppose you'd stay with someone even if you knew he had a heart of stone?"
"I'm here, aren't I?"
Blinking, I said, "Bad analogy."
"I think it's perfect. It just proved my point, not yours. Emotional intelligence is — in your case — a practical contradiction in terms. Being stunted doesn't mean you're useless, or that I can't care for you and improve your life."
"You're in this because-"
"I'm in this for my daughter's sake. Does that make it the only goal I can pursue? Are you so narrow-minded?" she asked, interrupting me as she came to sit on the bed just beyond my feet. I marveled at how well the bed held up under her weight. Even sitting, Palashai towered over me. She could reach out from where she was and touch my nose with the barest lean, and I was stretched out. She was wearing the jumpsuit thing, but it wasn't done all the way up. In fact, it was open from just past the point where I'd run a measuring tape if I wanted her numbers, and the valley was impressive. Granted, she wasn't Phoebe. Everything about Pala was impressive, and there's something to be said for proper proportion. That she had no hair and a Doberman's coloration gave her a severe look that took very little away from her allure. Her ears were pointed my way, and she was gazing intently at me with golden eyes.
I got so distracted drinking her in that I didn't answer, and it wasn't until she set a hand on the headboard next to my head that I snapped out of it ... which was far too late. She kissed me, and unless I wanted to bite her my only option was kissing back, which I did to the best of my limited ability. She had a lot of tongue and filled my mouth with it as her other hand came to rest on my shoulder.
When the kiss broke, I looked into those golden eyes and said, "There's nothing to me, Pala. You're wasting your time."
"I disagree, and since your opinions on emotional matters are inconsequential to me we'll leave it at that. You're mine, and I take care of what's mine whether he likes it or not."
I was completely stuck for words, and she seemed to sense it because she shifted her arm, curling it under my head to draw it up as she settled, her breasts spreading as they covered my chest. Her weight pinned me all the way down, and she looked steadily at me as though patiently waiting for the words I didn't have. That she knew I didn't have.
After a long silence, she said, "You'll get there eventually. I'll see to it ... it is my job, after all."
"You have a funny way of doing your job," I said, and her lips peeled back to show her teeth in a feral grin.
She said, "Given I can feel you prodding my stomach, 'sexy' might be a better word. Do you want me?"
"Yes."
"I doubt you'd have admitted that a month ago."
"You weren't laying on top of me a month ago," I said, deadpan.
Pala blinked, then dropped her head and started laughing on my shoulder. I waited until she calmed, then said, "That dominant 'I take what I want' mask slips when you laugh in the middle of the act. Just figured I'd point that out."
"I can afford slips because unlike my daughter, I'm not acting," she said as she lifted her head to resume eye contact, her smile faintly mocking.
"I meant to ask: how were you allowed to have a daughter at all? Yours is the only family bond I'm aware of in this fucked-up world," I said.
"Sometimes livestock is bred to preserve certain abilities. Sometimes a child is allowed as a reward. In my case, it was a bit of both," she said.
"But you didn't get to choose the sire?" I asked, not having the word for father, and she shook her head.
She said, "I also didn't bear her myself. My egg was extracted. She and I were both produced by Division Seven."
"Do you have any real children?" I asked.
Her brow furrowed as she said, "Yim is as real a child of mine as it is possible to have. I have never given birth, if that's what you're asking. Natural breeding is rare and frowned upon. Most owners don't allow it, and breeding males at all is unheard of. All the males you see are first-generation gene seeds."
"Why?" I asked.
"Successive generations have weaker essence," Pala said with an idle shrug. "With females it doesn't matter because we don't directly feed succubi."
"That makes sense," I said dryly, and her eyes narrowed as she looked keenly at me.
She said, "That wasn't sarcasm."
"Not a bit."
"You think you know the secret to the strength of essence?"
I nodded, then said, "Given how strong mine is and the hints that have been dropped to me over the course of things, yeah. Pretty sure I have it figured out."
When she gazed at me in obvious expectation, I gave her a quick negative double blink, then said, "If I told you, they'd probably kill you to keep the secret. As long as I never say, they'll just assume I'm lying."
"Why would you lie about something that important?" she asked.
"Anything important is worth lying about," I said. "Does essence get weaker the longer someone's been around?"
When she gave me the long affirmative blink, I shrugged and said, "Then yeah, I've got it."
"It isn't age, and it doesn't always happen," Pala said, but I worked a hand free and set it against her muzzle, silencing her.
"Stop trying to guess. I mean it. Let's get back to you, and why your clothes are still on if you came here to fuck."
"Sometimes fucking with clothes on is hot," she said mildly, and since I didn't disagree I just waited, tilting my head with the obvious question in my eyes.
"About your earlier encounter ... I know she'd never come out and ask. You had to intuit what she wanted," Pala said.
Since she seemed to be going out of her way to keep Chosen's name out of the conversation, I did likewise. I said, "It just occurred to me. Since I have nothing to lose, I acted on it."
She asked, "Did it turn you on?"
"I was turned on, but I can't say it was the scenario that did it," I said.
"How did it end?" she asked.
"We came to an agreement," I said.
Pala sat up and set her hands on my chest, which essentially covered it. Her thumbs crossed at my solar plexus and her other thumbs wrapped down my sides. It was an odd juxtaposition of images. On one hand, a huge woman was sitting on me with her tits ballooning between her arms. On the other, I was looking up into the golden eyes of an alien with more than a passing resemblance to a Doberman. A Doberman milf with a very hungry look in her eyes.
"I want to fuck you," she said, in a completely matter-of-fact tone.
"I have no intention of stopping you," I said, gazing up at her, a curious welter of conflicting feelings warring inside me. I didn't like the idea that this woman thought she could control me. A month ago I'd have blown her off, then — if necessary — thrown her off, if she pressed.
Now ... I was hard as a rock and fully intended to see where she wanted to take me. I still wasn't comfortable with the idea of playing a role for her, but within certain limits I was willing to let her have her way. It was certainly true that the lessons she'd been hammering into my head helped me secure a connection, however tenuous, with Chosen.
The more I'd read about these sexual games, the more I'd begun to understand that they might be — if carefully arranged — a somewhat reliable method of ensuring that agreements were adhered to. If Chosen betrayed me, she certainly wouldn't be getting any more of the encounters she seemed to like so much. Rather, she'd get one final encounter, and that'd be the end of it.
All this flashed through my mind as Pala examined me, nostrils flaring. She was being cautious. More than anything, that convinced me the power I was about to give her still belonged to me, and she knew it.
So I met her gaze and passively waited to see what she would do.
Eventually, whatever she saw there must have satisfied her, because she reached up and slipped a finger into her top, then opened it all the way. I couldn't help but smile when it literally sprang open as those heavy breasts of hers got free, and she shrugged her shoulders and tossed the garment negligently aside as she said, "I like to have my nipples bitten and sucked. It's safe."
That she had to say it raised a warning flag in the back of my mind, but when she leaned forward, setting hands to either side of my head, I wrapped an arm up under her shoulder to support myself as I caught a handful of flesh in the other. It flowed over my fingers with a pleasant, warm weight as I kissed the nipple proffered to me, then sealed my lips around it. I didn't bite right away, but rather explored the surface with my tongue and gradually increased the suction, eyes on her.
Her own eyes grew heavy-lidded as she gazed down on me, then shifted, leaning on one hand as she lowered the other out of sight. The sound of tearing cloth told me what she was doing, and a moment later she shifted up a bit, though she hunched over me to leave her breasts within reach. I felt heat press over the length of my cock, and she started to stroke me with the folds of her sex, eyes never leaving mine.
It felt good, as did the weight of her tits in my hand and on my face. I bit her nipple, tugged on it, and suckled hard. Her eyes closed briefly in the slow blink of acknowledgment as she shivered, and kept slowly stroking me downstairs as she said, "That's it. Good boy. I know you can hurt me if you want ... it pleases me that you don't. My life ... and more importantly, pleasure, are in your hands."
I knew she was talking shit now precisely because my mouth was full but credit where due: it was a good play. I wasn't about to let go of her tits to argue so I silently let her comment pass, switching from one pendant breast to the other as she continued to grind herself against me. It was an interesting mix of sensations. She seemed in no rush and I got a little lost in a world of tangible pleasures. Soft warmth and weight, slick heat and the subtle, wet sounds of a pussy grinding over my cock. The heavy smell of packwren heat tickled my nose. The sounds she made weren't verbal, but were sexy.
It was ... good. Then it got weird.
The door slid open. I couldn't see it, but I heard it, and a moment later Yim's voice as she pointedly asked, "Mother, really? You were supposed to bring him out to talk about the next event, not smother him in your scent."
Smother him in your scent.
The words shot through me and I could tell as her eyes met mine that Pala intended to do precisely that. She wanted to hide what I'd done with Chosen. That was why she was rubbing her pussy on me. I raised an eyebrow at her and she smiled a feral smile in return and said, "You'll have to get away from my tits if you want to lodge a complaint."
As soon as I leaned back to speak, she leaned forward and pinned me to the bed, burying me in breast flesh as she said, apparently to her daughter, "Go sit on that hand over there; I'm curious what he'll do."
It wasn't until she said it that I realized my arms were splayed and Pala had a hand on my elbows to keep them that way. A moment later, I felt the bed shift slightly and then a warm weight settled directly on the hand that had earlier held Chosen's tail. I could tell by the way it felt that her butt was toward me, which put her sex in easy reach of my fingers. The fact that she was still wearing pants didn't bother me at all. I curled my fingers up and began to explore, discovering immediately that she only had one layer on and it wasn't thick.
When my fingers made contact I felt Yim lean forward over my palm, rolling her hips a bit as she spread her thighs to drop herself more comfortably over my hand.
Pala's voice was somewhat muffled as it came to me through the soft weight of her tits, but was clear enough as she said, "See? He's learning."
"Any male would finger a female that did this," Yim said, somewhat breathlessly.
"Are you sure? Think back. Would he have done it the first time you and I were in his bedroom?"
The silence afterward stretched, and I rolled my eyes despite it being a valid point. Then again, it wasn't that I wouldn't have done for a girl back then, only that I didn't really have context, which was and remains important to me.
Light flooded around me as Pala leaned up, and my eyes met hers again as she looked down on me and said, "I want you to take care of us both."
She didn't phrase it as a question, but that was how I heard it. Movement caught my eye and I glanced not toward Yim — now grinding against my busy fingers — but toward the side of the bed where I saw Phoebe and Astra watching. Phoebe was standing behind Astra, her proportions curvy but not outrageous, and she was running her fingers just under and behind Astra's beak, which the bird girl seemed to really enjoy. She was leaning back against Phoebe, but though her eyes were heavy-lidded, they were on me.
It was the first time it had ever even occurred to me that Astra might have a sex drive. She was so completely off my radar that ... yeah.
Glancing back up at Pala, I found her smirking at me and said, "You're really enjoying how uncomfortable this is for me."
"Yes. Despite that discomfort, you are still very hard."
"The dick wants what it wants," I said wryly, and she chuckled and hunched over me, tits ballooning on my chest as she pressed her muzzle to my lips and filled my mouth with tongue.
Yim's single layer was now soaking wet, and the sounds coming from that hand were getting pretty lewd. Phoebe let Astra go, and the bird girl crawled up on the bed, crossed my legs, and disappeared in front of Yim.
I felt hands aside from mine over Yim's pussy and heard the ripping sound as she tore the cloth protecting her from my bare touch. Astra chirped and Yim gasped, then softly moaned as I pressed fingers into wet, slick heat.
"Finger her. Make her cum I want to see!" Astra said in a breathless tone, despite the fact that I was already two knuckles deep doing just that. Pala broke her kiss and leaned away as Phoebe leaned in, eclipsing my view of Yim as she gave me that shark's smile.
"I'm getting fucking dogpiled," I said, just before Phoebe shut me up with her tongue.
It occurred to me to wonder if my ratings were going up or down right now, and whether this was something someone had requested.
Phoebe's kiss broke when Astra let out a strange sort of keen and begged, "Someone help me!"
Phoebe glanced over me at Astra, then whispered in my ear, "Her limbs make it impossible for her kind to masturbate, poor girl. If you'll excuse me ..."
Yim was covering my hand at her snatch with one of her own, pressing my fingers deeper in as she ground against my arm, moaning and paying absolutely no attention to the frantic little bird girl in front of her, staring at the show she was getting and obviously too worked up to bear it any longer.
Phoebe slid over on her belly and between Astra's awkwardly splayed thighs. Her tongue slipped in and Astra shuddered, red eyes rolling back, then closed as she began to hunch, babbling, "Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!"
A moment later she fell over and out of sight, leaving me with nothing to see that way but Phoebe's ... well, yeah. She spread her legs and must have known I was looking because a moment later her fingers appeared from beneath her as she began to work on herself.
"Eyes up, Taz."
I returned my attention to Pala and watched as she lifted me, then settled down. Her whole body shivered and her eyes lost focus as she eased forward on me, then settled back and began circling her hips as she breathlessly said, "Oh you do feel good."
"You doubted that?" I asked curiously, and watched her chest quiver with a quiet chuckle.
She said, "Not really, but it's been a while for me, and I've been waiting."
"For what?" I asked, curious.
"To reward you for something," she said without a trace of sarcasm. "You've been such a good boy recently."
I was just about to make a hotdog down a hallway joke when I felt her tighten along my entire length. It was as though there were a fist inside her, closing around my shaft with the gooey hot walls of her cunt in between. Her cream was gooey too, thicker than that of a human woman and clinging to me in a froth that was beginning to coat her mound and my inner thighs.
"Ffuck that feels good," I muttered, joke lost to the sensations going on inside her. I could see her taut belly flexing as she rolled her hips on me, and was only gradually aware that she was staring down at me with a very intent look.
I wanted to ask about that, but before I could Yim jerked my fingers out of her as she abruptly said, "Fuck it, I need more!"
Glancing over her way, I was just in time to see her spin on one knee to straddle my chest, cutting off my view of her mother as she looked desperately down at me, showing me her sopping cunt as she said, "Lick me? Please?"
"Ask your mother," I said with a wry grin. It was a mild tease, so I was astonished when Yim whipped her head around to stare desperately at Pala.
She begged, "Please? Please tell him to lick me! Please tell him to get me off! I need it! I've been good!"
"Taz?" Pala asked from somewhere up past the pair of black-and-tan boobs peeking out around both Yim's shoulders.
"I'm here," I said.
"Do you think Yim has been a good girl?"
"Mostly."
"Do you think she deserves an orgasm for her effort?"
I met Yim's desperate eyes as she turned them on me, then deliberately waited a few moments before giving her a long affirmative blink as I said, "Yes."
"Then by all means, give her one," her mother said as Yim yipped and slid forward, pressing her whole cunt against my face as she grabbed my hair and pulled me up, pinning me to her.
Getting my nose free enough to breathe put a strain on my neck but it buried my chin in her slit and gave me access to her clit, which I sucked past my teeth and captured, rolling my tongue around it hard. She wasn't being gentle with me, so there was no call to be gentle with her.
Apparently, she loved that, because she grunted deeply and hunched over me, curling around my head as though to protect it as she babbled, "Oh fuck fuck, Taz, make me cum, please? Please make me cum I've been such a good girl ..."
I wrapped an arm over her thigh to hold my place and kept at it, all the while trying to suppress my instinctive urge to mock her for what she'd just said. Context was everything, after all, and I had no cause to tear down people who had so little opportunity in the first place. None of them had ever tasted freedom save maybe Phoebe. They had no context for me, but I was beginning to understand that these pleasures might genuinely be the only such available to people who lived their entire lives as 'livestock.'
Besides, I liked them, despite myself. That they were over-sized aliens had lost its significance at some point. Pala and Yim had become important to me, I had every intention of protecting them, and didn't that extend to their emotional needs?
Slipping my other arm under Yim's thigh, I brought my hand up and pressed fingers into her as I continued to concentrate on her clit with my mouth. First two fingers, then three, and I was gratified to feel the shuddering pulse inside her as she began tightening on me, whining with desperation as she hunched over my head, gripping it with both hands now, eyes shut tight.
A piercing shriek came from my left and though I couldn't see it, I was pretty sure that was Phoebe finishing Astra off.
Beyond Yim, I could feel Pala still rolling her hips over mine. As I thought of her, I could hear her breathing, heavier than earlier, with a ragged edge that told me she was getting along just fine without my active help. That she was using my cock to do it seemed almost incidental.
I focused on Yim, and while I knew I wasn't exactly a pro at this sort of thing, Yim wasn't hard to please. Not when she wanted it so desperately in the first place. She tightened further around my invading fingers, then hunched all the way over, wrapping her arms around my head. Her tits muffled what little sound her thighs weren't cutting off as she let out a squeak that would have been cute if I could breathe. Since it was obvious she was having an incredible orgasm, I held my breath and waited it out, fingers trapped inside her as she squeezed hard all around me, incidentally making a gooey mess on my face.
When she finally shuddered and relaxed, I was slimed from the crown of my head down and it was ... well, kinda nasty. Yim's orgasm was nothing if not productive, and I wondered if every packwren female came that way. I suspected they did, and had a good guess why.
Testing the theory as I swiped some of her gooey emission from my nose and mouth, I dryly said, "Consider me marked."
Yim's eyes were heavy-lidded, but when she heard me they focused on my face, then opened wide. She yelped and leapt off not just me, but the bed entirely as she stammered, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I didn't ... mean ..."
I didn't smile as my eyes tracked her, then shifted to Pala, who'd gone very still atop me, both her hands wrapped around my sides. Our gazes locked, and I said, "I don't appreciate this."
"It wasn't entirely for your benefit," she said softly, still not moving. In fact, she was so still that I could clearly feel her pulse through the walls of her pussy, which was still clenched tight around my shaft. Her heart was hammering, but there was no evidence of that in her expression. She was either hornier than she looked, which didn't seem likely, or thought she was in danger. A month ago, she probably would have been.
"You knew this would happen and that I wouldn't like it," I said quietly.
"Sex is messy, Taz. You need to roll with it and not spoil the mood when something unexpected happens. Trust me when I say you'll be better off the more you keep your petty annoyance to yourself."
Her gaze never wavered as she spoke, and I considered her words a moment longer before I said, "I suppose you have a lot of practice there."
"More than most."
I glanced down to where we were still joined and asked, "You gonna finish that?"
She rolled her hips, muzzle lifting slightly as though to ponder my question before she bared her teeth at me in a feral grin. She said, "You're still hard. I may as well."
Nodding wryly, I said, "Carry on."
Her rolling hips did indeed carry on. I closed my eyes, reaching up to wipe more of Yim's pussy drool off, but when my hand was caught I opened them again.
Yim was leaning over me, looking into my eyes, and a moment after they met she very deliberately leaned in and licked my face. Since it was obviously an apology I closed my eyes again and let it happen. A moment later I felt her settle on the bed next to me.
As Pala lazily rode, her daughter very very thoroughly washed my face with her tongue, pausing periodically to thrust it past my lips in needy kisses I accepted and returned. I wasn't sure how much of it was her wanting kisses and how much was her wanting to coat my mouth with even more of her flavor, but she did both with rapt attention.
When I was apparently clean enough to satisfy her, she leaned in next to my ear and murmured, "Forgive me?"
I thought about that, then tilted my head toward her and gave her a long affirmative blink.
She showed her teeth in a momentary smile, then promptly laid her muzzle across my throat.
Making eye contact with Pala, I raised an eyebrow and got a long, slow blink from her as she said, "You recovered well. She's happy and satiated. Now it's your turn."
"Take your time," I said lazily, folding my hands behind my head. "I'm really enjoying this."
"That makes me ... so happy to hear ..." Yim murmured.
Pala sighed softly and said, "Truly. Progress has been made."
I considered that, wondering if it was a good or a bad thing. Pala rode me steadily for what seemed like a long time, routinely slowing down, tilting her hips, rolling them, bringing me to the very edge before leaning back, burying me deep, and holding still until my orgasm subsided. Thanks to my reading, I knew it was a technique called 'edging.'
I also knew what was expected of me, and though I tried to hold out I eventually had to look Pala in the eye and say, "Please."
Her ears flicked toward me and she leaned over me, setting her hands to either side of my head as she stared into my eyes and asked, "Please what?"
It was hard. Every masculine instinct in my soul screamed at me not to say it. It felt like if I gave her what she wanted I'd be handing in my man card for good. Yet, there was also now a foundation of knowledge in me, knowledge hard won, that told me I was playing a role for the benefit of someone I cared about.
"Please ... let me cum. Only you can give me what I need."
Pala shifted forward a bit more, tilting her hips until she was squeezing and teasing the head of my shaft just inside her entrance. The muscle there was strong and by now I was so swollen and sensitive that she didn't have to do much.
She drank my gaze in and cupped both sides of my head, breath hot on my face as she expertly rolled her hips. I rode the peak for what felt like an agonizing eternity, then tumbled off the edge as she softly said, "Good boy ..."
I'm not sure if it was the fact she got me to the edge so many times, or made me wait so long, or what, but the orgasm was the best I ever remember having. It just seemed to go on, and after my initial spurt she leaned back, settling herself all the way down on me as she squeezed the length of my cock, hips rolling as she stared down at me with the smuggest expression I think I've ever seen on anyone, human or otherwise, ever.
By the time the pleasure started to roll away, I was too wrung out to call her on it.
Yim still had her muzzle resting on my throat, and I wasn't sure what to think about that. I reached up and tapped her lightly as I asked, "You doze off or what?"
"Mm-mm. Just basking," she murmured. "Moments like this, when you aren't screwing up or scaring anyone, are rare enough to savor."
I clicked my tongue in annoyance, but before I could lean up and get her off me her mother flopped down, head coming to rest on the back of her daughter's shoulder as she lay atop me in a heap.
"Did you even finish?" I asked, doing my best to hide my annoyance.
"Me finishing wasn't the point, but that you asked means you know it's important, which makes me happy," she said without moving. "I'm proud of you, Taz. It takes a lot of courage to bury your pride, but you finally managed to do it today."
"I left a marker. I'll dig it back up later," I grumbled.
Both packwren chuckled at that, but neither seemed inclined to get off me and I glanced over to see Astra laying on her back, tail feathers, legs, and wings splayed, her rather thick, blunt tongue hanging half out of her slack beak. Her eyes were closed and she seemed completely passed out.
With her fingers laced together on the bird girl's belly and her chin propped atop them, Phoebe was giving me a sharkish grin.
"Don't you say it," I said.
"Say what?"
"I don't know, but whatever has you grinning like that you keep it to yourself."
The silence stretched, but Phoebe never stopped staring at me and she never lost that stupid, slightly predatory grin. Eventually, I gave up and looked her in her very big blue eyes as I said, "Okay, I give up. What?"
"I'm just happy you finally managed to sub, even if it was only a little bit and obviously an act. Miriam Lorentz is a top. Satisfying her desires will be a lot harder than satisfying Palashai. With her, you'll have to look like you really enjoy it."
I sucked in a deep breath, then let it out in a long sigh as I said, "Couldn't let me have the moment, could you."
"I did. It's past, now we focus on the next moment," Phoebe said. "She's not a vacay either. She's got real talent, so you can't just rely on whoever has her now to trade her free and clear. She did come in second overall in the music competition, and while she might not be good for future events I can promise whoever has her is earning audience score letting her top him. If that male is a genuine bottom, he might not give her up at any price."
"Fine. I'll just find, corner, and kill him later," I said, covering my eyes with a forearm. "I don't want to think about this right now."
"Killing a contestant doesn't win you his allies. If it did you'd be swimming in pussy by now," Phoebe said, voice dry.
"I know that. But if I kill him she goes back to the general pool. If she doesn't pull out entirely, she winds up available for pickup here on campus, right?"
Pala shifted, but didn't get up, and I couldn't see her face as she said, "That's true, but you haven't got any idea what those pickup games are like. You've been ignoring them ever since the game started."
"What are they like then?" I asked.
"Phoebe, this is your fault," Pala said wearily as she pressed herself up and twisted to look over at the still grinning doll. "And one of those very rare occasions where I'm forced to agree with Taz. Let it rest. We'll figure out how to secure Miriam later."
"My trainer has spoken!" I hastily declared, one arm pointing at the ceiling before I dropped it to thump on the bed and closed my eyes.
"For now, let me rest."