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[b][u][center]The Island of Freedom and Submission

Part 8

For angelus288

By Draconicon[/center][/u][/b]

[i]That little sneak. Running off and doing what he wants without protection, doing who knows what with that snow leopard and the others…[/i]

Jade stomped the ground as she got out of the jeep, shaking her head. Elena was saying something behind her, probably trying to slow her down, but the lioness had had enough of all this bullshit. The trick to get her away from the personnel files had been one thing: smart, underhanded, but at the end of the day, understandable with the other job that she had. Then her human that she had to guard had tricked her into going off with the security chief, which, again, had been sensible, even if it meant that she had to deal with something else rather than watching over him.

Then he snuck off and started doing this own thing, and then Cora started doing her own thing, and the whole place felt like it was going crazy. The lioness had had it up to here with all of them, and she needed to remind the human Master that they were supposed to look after him, protect him, and ensure that things were run properly. The fact that he was trying was…

She couldn’t even say that it was appreciated, because she certainly didn’t appreciate it. The whole thing was a mess, and she couldn’t focus on her own job when he was making her do all these other things.

[i]We need to talk.[/i]

She couldn’t do the thing that Cora did by making him submit outside the bedroom. He was the Master, and like it or not, she was bound to obey the human. That didn’t mean that she liked what he was doing, but she was forced to go along with it. She would have to try and persuade him otherwise in a more gentle fashion.

The question was, how did one do things gently? That was one thing that she hadn’t been conditioned to learn.

The lioness had just walked up to the front door of the main estate building, looking up at the multi-story structure. She was in the process of pulling the door open when the wolf security chief caught up with her.

“You might want to calm down a bit, hon.”

“You might want to shut up,” Jade muttered.

“I’m just saying. You’re angry.”

“So?”

“So, it’s obvious.”

“…So?”

“You want our Master to listen to you, right?”

“…”

“So, you calm down. Get control. Be more yourself. That’ll get his attention more than coming in there furious and howling for attention.”

“I’m a lioness. I don’t howl.”

“There, see? That’s better.”

Much as Elena’s attempt at a joke was beyond horrible, she had to admit that the wolf was right. She was supposed to be someone that was qualified for being a bodyguard, not someone that was just standing in as an anxious mother. Shaking her head, she took a deep breath, let it out, and then took another and another until she felt like she wasn’t going to break something. She let go of the doorknob, rested her hands on the wall, and scraped her claws down the metal.

After leaving a few angry claw marks on the metal and blunting her claws enough to make sure that they wouldn’t leave marks on anything else, she nodded to herself.

“I think I’m better now.”

“I hope so. Wow. That’s some damage.”

“You have no idea.”

“Alright, well…you want company for this, or should I –”

“This should be me and Master. Nobody else.”

“I think you might be a bit over-optimistic for that.”

“I’m going to try.”

The wolf nodded, Elena trotting off and giving her space. She shook her head as she opened the door, stepping inside.

Rather than the first time she’d entered the house, there was no interruption by the AI. Anders was either somewhere else, or had been shut down, or something along those lines. Not something that she liked, if she was honest. While she wasn’t comfortable with being spied on all the time, she understood the use of constant surveillance, and more, the AI was someone that was keeping things in order. She had responsibilities, and she didn’t want someone to think that she wasn’t meeting them.

[i]I’ll have to talk to Master about that, too.[/i]

Shaking her head, she maneuvered her way through the building, heading for the stairs and then making her way to the top floor. Knowing the human, he had already been nabbed by more of the females on the island, pulled to fulfill that ‘duty’ that the others seemed to think that he deserved to be put through. She didn’t disagree, considering how satisfactory that he had been, but it was something that the others needed to learn to rein in.

She reached the door to the top floor, and the smell of sex hit her hard. Jade paused, gritting her teeth as she felt the annoyance rising again, and she forced it down before she reached for the doorknob. Giving it one knock, she allowed those on the other side three seconds before forcing her way in.

The mink and rabbit were getting dressed again, their clothes pressing tight to their breasts and their sexes, and the Master was laid out on the floor. His face was covered in spit and sweat, and his cock stood up like a pillar of flesh from his groin. She arched her eyebrow at the whole display, turning to the rabbit.

“What is the meaning of this?”

“We were just having some fun, dear. No need to get upset about it,” Alexa said, shrugging as she tucked her breasts away.

“This is more than fun. He’s exhausted.”

“He’s happy, though,” the mink cook, Traci, said.

“That doesn’t matter. Get out.”

“But –”

“Out.”

The two females trotted out of the room at speed, leaving the lioness alone with her Master. It was starting to seem that she’d need to guard him against his own slaves and servants at this point. She knelt down, looking him in the eye as he stared up at the ceiling.

“Are you alright, Master?”

“Depends.”

“On?”

“Whether ‘alright’ includes exhausted and…and not wanting to move.”

“If you are able to recover, then I believe it does.”

“Then I’m alright.”

“Do you need help?”

“Getting dressed first would be great.”

“Understood.”

She found his clothes in the corner. After some finagling, she managed to get his pants back on, though there was a moment of awkwardness as she tucked his penis back into his pants. There was something strange about doing that after she had dominated him herself not that long ago, and she shook her head as she got back to her feet. Helping him sit up to put on his shirt was easier, and she dragged him to his feet shortly after. He wobbled, but she supported him, walking him out of the room.

“How long was I in there?” he asked.

“I’m not entirely sure. I believe somewhere between forty-five and sixty minutes.”

“Ugh…they were insatiable.”

“You were with a mink, Master. They have sex drives that rival the rabbit woman.”

“Mmmph…”

“You will need a shower.”

“Please.”

#

After washing her Master – something that she had been conditioned to know how to do, though not something that she had expected to be allowed to do – Jade felt better about being in his presence again. They were in one of the many bedrooms of the household, and he was flopped out on the mattress with his head on a pillow. He wasn’t paralyzed or limp any longer, but rather resting, recovering. She shook her head.

“This is why you don’t go anywhere without me.”

“Mmmph…I was just getting things done.”

“You were making things more difficult for yourself.”

“I had to make sure everyone knew where the tunnel was.”

“I still think that’s a bad decision.”

He shrugged, and she sighed. This was going to be one of those things, she realized, the sort of thing that would be an arguing, sticking point between them.

There was a reason that the tunnels were normally kept secret. They were meant as a way to keep the human Master alive. While the various anthromorph servants on the island were conditioned to remain loyal to the human Master, that didn’t mean that the conditioning couldn’t be broken in some way. The fact that there were Deviants out there that didn’t have the conditioning to be loyal meant that there was potential for traitors in their midst, as well. They didn’t have the same force keeping them on the Master’s side, and if they were turned, that meant that the escape tunnel could become an easy route into the estate.

She couldn’t, and wouldn’t, counter her Master’s orders, but she didn’t like the way that that one left them vulnerable. The lioness shook her head, sitting down by the human as he stared up at the ceiling.

“Why are you doing this?”

“Doing what?”

“Going against all the rules and traditions.”

“Because they’re not right.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I know enough to know that they’re not doing anything good.”

“Why would you bother changing them? To save non-humans?”

“Something like that.”

“No human will respect that.”

“Maybe I’m not looking for human respect.”

It was hard to know what to say to that, and she looked away with a sigh. She had been conditioned, all but programmed, to deal with humans that had a specific sort of mindset. She had been taught how to take care of them, ensure their safety at the cost of all others around her. That was being turned on its head, and it didn’t feel good.

“You are making my job very hard, Master.”

“I’m not trying to.”

“You’re not trying to help, either.”

“What’s wrong with me doing work? I’d think that’d make things better.”

“Do you know how it feels to be conditioned to do something, and then be forbidden?”

“…No?”

“Obviously. Stupid question on my part. I apologize.”

“Well…explain?”

It was the first time that a human had actually asked. Jade looked him in the eye, arching an eyebrow, but he seemed serious enough. The lioness rubbed the back of her head.

How did one really explain that sort of feeling? After all, it was something that humans didn’t go through. They had their own way of living. They had choices, which was fair enough considering that they were the masters. That said, they were limited that way, unable to understand what the anthromorphs went through save for on an intellectual level. Trying to sort through it, she eventually found a comparison.

“Have you ever seen a robot that has a directive, and then is forbidden from engaging with that directive?”

“Like a cleaning ‘bot that is fenced off from dirt in its assigned area?”

“Yes, like that.”

“…It usually breaks the barrier or explodes.”

“That’s what it feels like in my head when you are keeping me from doing my job. You are making me [i]hurt[/i] when I can’t be there to protect you. It feels like I’m being pulled in two different pieces trying to keep up with you, because I have to follow the conditioning.”

He stared at her like she had just said something stupid. Perhaps she had, in terms of what humans could understand.

Jade would admit that she was exaggerating a little bit, though not much. She had always been someone that clung to the programming and conditioning harder than the other anthromorphs. With all the suspicion surrounding Deviants, she didn’t want anyone to shame her or believe that she was afflicted with that condition. She had a long record of good service, and she didn’t want that besmirched.

As a result, she tended to get hit with the conditioning harder than the others, and she clung to the rules that were presented to her. She wanted to be good. She needed to be good. And that was hard to do when someone else kept changing the expectations on her. If she could just get that across…

But Derek looked almost clueless. Sympathetic, but clueless, like he couldn’t understand how someone could live like that.

[i]Typical human,[/i] she thought, but not with anger or venom. If anything, she felt resigned; just one more thing that they were like.

Shaking her head, she started to get up, only for Derek to grab her hand. The lioness paused, looking back at him.

“I’m not sure I get it, but I’ll try to keep you closer.”

“You had better.”

“I’m not going to be in danger. This is just to make sure that you feel better about things.”

“You say that, but you never know.”

“What do you mean?”

She pointed out the door. He glanced in that direction, then looked back at her just as cluelessly as ever. Jade rolled her eyes.

“It might not be a deadly danger, but the girls will wear you out completely, if you let them. If that happens, then what is going to be done with the estate?”

“I think…I think that’s Cora’s responsibility, there.”

“Technically, but I don’t trust her.”

There it was. She was blunt, direct, and forceful about her opinion, and she figured she might as well let her Master know what she was thinking. The human cocked his head to the side, and then slowly sat up. He groaned as he managed to sit upright, shaking his head.

“I don’t know why.”

“She’s over-good at her job, and she’s disrespectful. Manipulative. There’s something to her that feels wrong.”

“You mean about how she was the first one to…do that?”

“Manipulate you? Dominate you? Encourage others to do the same? Yes. It is Deviant behavior, though I can’t say for sure that she is one.”

“…And if she is?”

“Then she’s a security risk, and she’s going against the natural order of things.”

“…I see. Well, I’ll keep an eye on that.”

“And so will I.”

Even though it was a disagreement with her Master, it was still a step forward. Being allowed to stick around would keep her in the loop about what the Master was planning, and more to the point, she could ensure that Cora wasn’t going to try and pull any fast ones on their master. The last thing that they needed was for this island to be taken out from under them because of some over-ambitious, grasping plan that the feline had.

She was just starting to smile again when the thud-thud-thud of an arriving aircraft filled the air. She whipped her head up, seeing the double-blades of an aerodyne passing through the air and heading for the rooftop.

“You’re joking with me,” she muttered.

“What? What is it?” Derek asked from his bed.

“That snow leopard commandeered one of the aerodynes from the airstrip.”

“Must have gotten Kari to fly it,” he muttered.

“Who?”

“The pilot here. I saw the files on the way.”

“Well, fine, but it’s still more than she should do.”

“Estate manager; she’s got privileges.”

That was the excuse that was going to be trotted out again and again, then. Well, if that was the case, she would have to flex her bodyguard status a little more. That would at least provide a counterbalance. One could not be constantly beating her down with the estate manager rank; she was with a different department.

“Help me up?” Derek asked.

She nodded, helping the Master to his feet. It was time to see just what the snow leopard had managed, and just what she wanted now.

#

Getting out of the aerodyne was just a little more complicated than getting in. With doors that were raised further off the ground than a truck or a standard vehicle, it meant that you had to hop up and over the edge, landing in the ground with a thump. The twin fans at the back and side of the craft that served as the main propulsion took forever to wind down, too, and while they stopped being a danger in short order, they did still blow the air all over the place. She held her hair down until it was no longer in danger of being sucked up, made her way towards the door with Raelyn and Kari in tow –

And then the door opened, revealing both the human and Jade. The lioness was supporting Derek and was glaring at Cora with all the venom that she could muster, too.

[i]…Okay, did I make a mistake?[/i]

A quick review of her past actions didn’t bring any to mind, though she supposed encouraging Alexa to take Traci and make some distracting fun for the human might have been going a little far. Sending a previous virgin into something like that was like throwing a barely-experienced swimmer to the sharks; they might survive, but it would be a harrowing experience.

Then again, it might just be because Jade didn’t like her. Either way.

She barely let it throw her off her stride, keeping up the quick pace towards the door. She needed to manage this quickly before Raelyn started getting into what they were doing and questioning the master.

“Let’s get inside, shall we?” she asked. “There’s some serious stuff that we all need to talk about.”

“For once, I agree with you,” Jade said. “But help me with him.”

“Help you?”

“Help. Me.”

The forceful ‘request’ made her give in, if out of curiosity more than anything else. Taking her master by his other arm, she dragged him close and they started dragging him back through the house. She glanced at the walls, saw that the AI didn’t appear, and smiled slightly to herself.

“You’re responsible, aren’t you?” the lioness muttered.

“For what?”

“For the AI being quiet.”

“That was entirely down to Raelyn.”

“Under your orders, I’m sure,” Jade muttered, still too quiet for the sound to go further than them and the human. “What did you do?”

“That’s what we’ll be talking about.”

“…There’s something wrong with you.”

Cora didn’t answer that. There was little point in addressing her Deviant status right at that moment, particularly as annoyed as Jade was. She was starting to think that the lioness was a control freak of the highest order, and that anyone or anything that she couldn’t control was just going to suffer for their freedom.

Instead, she kept carrying her master, feeling Derek stumble a few times. That orgy had definitely taken it out of him, but at the same time, she could feel that he was recovering. He might be just learning, but he definitely seemed like he was eager to keep going.

[i]Admirable trait,[/i] she thought with a small smile.

Kari broke off from the group when they reached the first floor, though Raelyn still followed, the white tigress making it clear that her questions would be heard. Cora rolled her eyes, but directed them to one of the meeting rooms. It had been designed, quite obviously, as a place for rich men to talk about their futures, considering the plush, opulent furniture and the way that there were projectors all over the place, but it would work for her purposes. She and Jade carried Derek to one of the bigger chairs, setting him in it. Then the three anthromorphs all sat down, with Raelyn taking the last, smallest chair, and sitting up tall in it regardless.

“I want to talk about –”

Cora held up a finger to silence the tigress, just for the moment. She fixed Jade with a firm stare.

“Before we get started, I want to say something, both to our master’s bodyguard, and to the master himself. I want this understood from the start. I am the estate manager of this island, and that means that I will do anything that I need to in order to ensure that this place remains safe, and that we all remain happy and secure. I will make sure that anything that gets in the way of us all having as good a life as possible is taken down. Do you understand me?”

“Mmmph…what did you do, Cora?” Derek asked.

“I had Raelyn reprogram Anders.”

The room was quiet. She doubted that Raelyn had expected her to bring up her ‘order’ on her own, and she knew that Derek hadn’t expected her to take such extreme steps. Then again, he probably hadn’t even noticed that Anders was quiet right at that moment; he had been exhausted since the end of his time with Traci and Alexa, she imagined.

Jade, on the other hand, leaped to her feet.

“I knew it. I [i]knew[/i] it. You’re a Deviant, aren’t you?”

“I might be. I’ve never been diagnosed as one,” she said, hedging her answer and shrugging. “But it was necessary for the safety of everyone here on the island.”

“And how the hell is that necessary?”

“It’s necessary because of what is happening with Master Derek,” she said, nodding at the human. “He is…smart, but he is not entirely unwatched. You must have noticed.”

“…I did.”

“Then you know that Anders is watching the whole island, and is programmed to respond to our master’s family, not our master himself.”

“…My uncle,” Derek said.

“Yes.” She nodded. “And among the programming were many prompts that would instantly send a progress report on the island to Martin Bronson, detailing what was happening and what his nephew was doing. Many of those prompts included ‘inappropriate’ behavior of the anthromorphs on the island. Dominating our master would likely be included in that, wouldn’t you agree?”

Jade slowly nodded.

“What I did ensured that none of the anthromorphs here will be in trouble, either for committing such domination –”

“Which you shouldn’t be doing in the first place,” the lioness muttered.

“Or for failing to prevent it from happening,” she added, and Jade blushed at that. “Now, there are loopholes; things had to be re-written to create safe places, and that makes certain places more dangerous to talk about things. But Raelyn and I have a list of where those are and what triggers those reports.

“We don’t have a fully free island just yet, but as of right now, we – that is, all the anthromorphs – are freer here than we have been in any other civilized part of the world. Derek, you now have a place where your uncle can no longer watch you. If you want to show that you’re better than the other humans out there, if you want to prove that humans do care, at all, about the lower-classes among their ranks? Now you have the chance. Now you have freedom to act.”

“…You did this…for me?”

“No.”

That would put the lioness’s back up, but she knew that she had to be honest about that. The snow leopard shook her head and crossed her arms, folding one leg over the other as she looked around the room.

“No, I didn’t do it for you, Master Derek. I did it for all of us. I did it so that we finally have a place where we can do more or less as we like. A place where, if you’re serious about wanting this, we can all be ‘equal’.”

“That’s against the way that things are supposed to be,” Jade muttered. “We’re supposed to serve him. That’s all it’s ever been.”

Cora turned to her ‘master’. He was staring off into space, almost like he was lost in thought. She snapped her fingers, drawing him back to the moment.

“Huh? What?”

“We kinda need you here right now, Master. Got any thoughts?”

“Hmm…yes. ‘Those that don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.’ And it’s right, in this case,” Derek said.

“…I don’t…I can’t…”

Cora could tell that this was hitting every weakness that the lioness had. They were going against protocol, going against the conditioning that every non-Deviant had had hammered into their heads from day one. It was a miracle that Raelyn hadn’t said anything in that time, as a matter of fact. The technician was obviously not a Deviant, and it had probably only been the shock of the situation that had kept her quiet for this long.

The snow leopard looked at the human. In that stare, she asked him, silently, what he would do next. She had given him an opportunity. She had given him the freedom to act, to prove if he was all talk, or if he actually wanted to use his resources to help them out. Now that he had freedom to do what he wanted without his uncle looking on, how would he use that freedom? How would he want to use it, and how would he force them around?

After all, there were still plenty of conditioned anthromorphs on the island. Alexa was one, Jade and Raelyn others. They would happily obey due to the way that the conditioning forced them to do it, and they would be happy to stay under him rather than rise up to the level of equality. He could just go with that, while leaving her and the other Deviants on the outside of their little society here. Or he could force them to stay by force of numbers, if he didn’t want them to leave.

Or, he could surprise her, and make sure that the world was as good as he wanted it to be. This might not be a large chunk of the planet, but here, on Silan Island, they had their own microcosm of the world. Here, on this estate, he had the freedom to set the rules as he liked. There was nobody to tell him that it wouldn’t be so.

[i]Don’t make me step up, Derek,[/i] she thought. [i]You’re inexperienced, and you’re naïve, and you’re all kinds of optimistic, but you’re not an idiot. Don’t ruin what good opinion I’ve formed of you…[/i]

#

Derek was almost half-sure that he was dreaming in that moment. He had just been unshackled from the prison that his uncle had dropped him in, and as a result, he was completely adrift.

The whole idea of having the freedom to do what he wanted for a change was completely alien to him. He had always assumed that he would be under his uncle’s thumb, or at least, under his watch, for the rest of his uncle’s life. Martin had never been a good man in that way, always paranoid, always trying to climb the corporate ladder to drag the family with him. Any deviation from what would take them further had always been suppressed hard, and the island had been no different.

But it was true. He looked around the room, and while the various cameras were online, they weren’t actually streaming to the AI. They were not allowed to go to him, and the signals that he’d picked up that marked Anders’s movements had been quiet, too. That meant that the AI really was limited.

That meant that he could do what he wanted without his uncle knowing.

The sense of freedom that gave him was almost mind-boggling, and worse, terrifying. He had always intended to do something for others, but there had always been that excuse of his uncle hovering over his shoulder. He’d always backed down when he knew that he wouldn’t be able to follow through with anything serious, always given up when he realized that his uncle would have stopped him. Now, that excuse was gone. Now, he either had to put up or shut up, show himself as someone good, or admit that he was no better than the other rich families.

He stared at the snow leopard, wondering if she had done this vindictively or – no, no, that wasn’t her style. Cora was not someone that punished someone else with goodness. She was doing this to force him to prove what he really believed.

[i]Can I live like that?[/i]

He had been willing enough to let the other females dominate him, had enjoyed the sexual fun with them, but did that mean that he was willing to let them stand equal to him, too? He wanted to, but he had always held back, always kept from saying more than the minimum.

[i]Uncle can’t stop me this time.[/i]

That should have been reassuring. Instead, it just meant that it would be his own fault if it fell apart.

Derek looked at the other anthromorphs in the room. Jade looked like she was barely holding it together, and Raelyn almost looked like she was going to have a stroke. They were heavily conditioned to hold loyalty to a human, and he wasn’t sure that they would be able to take what freedom actually meant unless they found a way to break that conditioning.

That said, it wasn’t an excuse not to try. They would have to find a way to do that. He glanced back at Cora.

“We’ll try it,” he said. “But you have to help them with that. I’m not going to break them for the name of freedom; we have to break the conditioning first, and then see how they feel.”

“That’ll take a while,” the snow leopard admitted.

“Yes, but it means that they can make a decision.”

“A decision, Master?” Jade managed to ask.

“Yes. A decision about whether you want to be like this, or if you want to be free. Right now, you’re so bound up in the conditioning that there’s no way for you to make any kind of decision.” He shook his head. “You need a clear head to decide. So…that’s what we’ll do. Break the conditioning, and then each of you can decide. Freedom, or conditioned slavery. It’ll be up to you.”

[b][u][center]The End[/center][/u][/b]

Summary: A massive combination of everyone coming together again leads to a huge decision that has to be made.

Tags: M/F, After-Sex, Series, Cyberpunk, Human, Anthros, Mink, Snow Leopard, Rabbit, Lioness, Bodyguard, Tigress, Confession, Resolution, Nudity, Wet,