“I don’t want to go.” The only act of defiance Madison could really muster in the passenger seat of her mistress’s truck were words. The stinkbadger had long since given up trying to thrash and complain, finding the physical differences between her and the bear too vast to be worthwhile. If anything, Ruth enjoyed it when she struggled. She enjoyed it when Madison mouthed off too, but the mustelid couldn’t just accept everything without complaint. “I don’t know her.”
“Then you’ll get to know her.” Ruth said, “Like you will the rest of your class.”
“Why would I want to know anyone that used my mouth like a urinal?” Madison spat.
Ruth laughed, “Oh like I haven’t? Didn’t this tiger girl, uh,” she snapped her fingers trying to remember the name, “Fuck, what did the card say?”
“Heidi.” 
“Heidi!” Ruth nodded, “Heidi, right, Heidi. Didn’t she not piss in your mouth when you were being punished?” 
“And that makes it better?” Madison crossed her arms and sulked into the leather seat. “She could have tried to get me out.”
“And then what? She get put in a stall next to you? You broke a rule, bitch, so you had to face the punishment.” 
“But you were proud of me!” The words escaped her mouth before Madison realized. She pulled back to look out the window, hiding the blush that grew without her consent. Ruth’s faded reflection smirked knowingly at her. “I mean, you weren’t angry that I got punished.”
“Yeah,” Ruth nodded, “because I don’t want anyone fucking with my bitch without my consent. Doesn’t mean you didn’t break a rule. But we’re getting way off-topic here. You don’t want to go to Heidi’s birthday party. You seem to have forgotten that your wants don’t matter in this relationship. If I want you to go to a party, you go to a party. If I want you to suck off ten guys, you ask for a bag of mints.”
Madison wasn’t sure if she’d even get a bag of mints. Not that it mattered, clients at the gas station didn’t stick their own tongue down her mouth. “What do you get out of this then?” She asked, making sure to use that privilege as much as possible before Ruth could take it away. “You get off on humiliating me?”
“Oh I do.” Ruth nodded wholeheartedly and leaned in to add, “Very much so. In fact I spend hours edging myself thinking about ways to torment you when you’re at school.” Madison couldn’t tell if the bear was being honest or playing up a factor to disgust her. Either way, it worked. “But that’s not what I get out of this encounter today, oh no.”
“So what then?” Madison asked. “What could you possibly get out of bringing me to some other girl’s birthday party?”
“The satisfaction in you making friends.” Ruth said as they approached an iron gate and a toll guard. “Just as any mother would.” 
Knowing there was no argument she could win, Madison turned her attention to the houses they drove past. At the sign of a gate and a security guard, she figured this had to be a rich neighborhood. The kind where some kids hoped they’d be adopted into for an easier life. From the two story houses and three car garages that dotted the streets Madison was correct. What she didn’t account for was the lion jogging down the sidewalk without any pants.
“The fuck?!” Madison balked, earning a flick from Ruth’s finger across the back of her head. “Ow! What the hell?”
“Stow that potty mouth of yours when you’re at the party.” Ruth wagged her finger as she chided her slave daughter. “I don’t want the other parents up my ass about how I’m raising you. These ritzy types can be insufferable.”
“Language?” Madison pointed out the window, “I just saw a lion jogging down the street without pants. His f…” she bit her lip as the bear leered at her, “his balls were swinging about back and forth.”
Ruth chuckled, “So that’s what you focus on with clients.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“I know, I know,” the bear nodded, “We’re just in the bottomless district.”
“The what?” Madison blinked.
“Bottomless district,” Ruth repeated, “Look, I don’t know how else to explain it. One of the more affluent districts in Highman Break has a no pants rule. Everyone’s pretty much naked from the waist down unless they got some special permission to wear something, so long as it’s revealing of their privates. And since I don’t want a fine, you’re gonna do the same.”
Naked? From the waist down?! Madison reflexively looked at her crotch, visualizing the piercings that sealed her cunt underneath her clothes. “No,” she argued, “I’m not doing it. Everyone’s going to see them.”
Ruth rolled her eyes, “Oh please. You wouldn’t believe how many people prefer going anal only.” She held her finger up before Madison could respond, “And if I hear any more lip out of you, I’ll be using you as a puppet later tonight.” She clenched her fist for emphasis. Given how thick the bear’s arm was, Madison stayed bitterly silent and tried to focus on other things.
Like why Heidi went to public school if her parents lived in the rich district. 
Parking at a two-story house with a crested driveway, Madison found her resolve returning upon seeing all the cars lined up against the street. “No. I won’t do it.” She crossed her arms while Ruth started stripping out of her pants and panties. “You can make me sing like Kermit, I won’t do it.”
Ruth, smiling despite having just about enough of her brat’s whining, grabbed Madison by her headfur and pulled her over her lap. With ease she pulled the stinkbadger’s pants and panties down, leaving her bare bum open. Madison thrashed but the bear held her down, one thick paw clamped over her snout. The other cracked across Madison’s firm ass. 
The sharp pain of her spanking ran up Madison’s spine. Each strike made her kick and scream into the bear’s paw, earning a harsher strike until she finally stopped trying to run from it. Ruth gave her five more, either to prove a point or because she enjoyed it. Probably both. “Are we done making a fuss about this?” Ruth asked. Madison nodded in the bear’s hold. “Are you going to strip naked below your waist and go to your friend’s birthday like a good girl?” she nodded.
Ruth let go. “Good.” Pressing a finger against the reddened cheeks, she smiled smugly as the mustelid recoiled in pain. “And to think if you just followed directions, only your piercings would get noticed. Everyone’s gonna see what a bad girl you are.”
The first few steps out the car were humiliating. The wind made her fur tingle as it brushed past her piercings. By the time she reached the door, Ruth handed her a small birthday bag. “Your gift to her.” Curious, Madison opened to see a small card shaped box. “It’s a gift card.”
“To where?” Madison asked, realizing she didn’t even know what Heidi liked. “Isn’t a gift card kind of lame though?”
“Allows her to buy what she wants at a later date.” Ruth explained, pressing the doorbell for a long but soft ring, “They’re invaluable like that.” 
Not two seconds after the doorbell did the door open to reveal a statuesque tigress in a flowing silk gown that stopped at her waist. “Miss Sully, I presume?” she asked, looking over the bear woman that mirrored her height. At Ruth’s nod, she noted Madison for a moment, eyes glancing from each of them as gears clicked. A silent ‘oh’ face came and went. Putting on a smile, she looked at Madison and said, “And you must be Madison. Heidi’s in the living room with everyone else. Miss Sully, would you like to join me in the kitchen?”
“So long as I can chaperone, sure.” Ruth patted Madison’s back, “Go in and mingle.”
Mingle? Madison shivered at the prospect of taking another step forward. Yet the bear’s paw pushed her forward into the house, giving her little option but to walk in and talk with other kids her age. Entering the living room, Madison found that every kid was naked from the waist down. She gulped, looking out to see if she knew anyone in the room.
That task fell by the wayside when she spotted two deer. One had a pretty pink shirt with princess written in cursive on it that covered her chest. In her hand she held a chained leash connected to a leather collar around the other deer’s neck. Madison could tell she was a deer by the pattern of her fur, brown with a lighter undercoat, and hooves. The young girl’s face, however, was covered in a leather hood with a panel clicked on by studs. Each limb had a leather cuff locked around it, with chains at her ankles to force her to walk at a hobbled pace. 
Madison felt her tongue stuck in her throat at not only the sight of the deer, but how everyone acted candidly around her. The deer in pink kept the hooded one close by a leash, casually talking to another kid as if she were holding a feral toy dog in some non-existent purse. No one but Madison had eyes on the deer, who stared off in the distance as if to wait for a command. 
The stinkbadger jumped as a hand clasped her shoulder. “You made it!” A tiger her age smiled behind her, her black hair tied into pigtails accentuated by the cardboard party hat strapped between them. Like everyone else, she lacked any pants underneath her cotton pink shirt with some kind of cute mascot on it. Madison squinted, drawing blanks at what mascot an octopus was for. “I was worried you wouldn’t show up.”
Madison nodded slowly. “Y-yeah. Heidi, right?” she asked, holding out her hand. 
Heidi embraced it, “Yup! Though I guess this is our first time really introducing each other. I was too nervous when you were in the bathroom.”
Blushing, Madison sank her neck into her chest at the memory, “Can we not mention that? It was bad enough as is.”
“Ok, but it’s not like you’re the only one here who’s been punished, nor is it even the worst,” she pointed a claw at a chipmunk boy currently playing videogames with a wolf. “Randal streaked in the halls because he forgot his shirt and they made him act as a mop for a week.” 
As confused as she was at that, Madison pointed to the hooded deer girl, “What about her? What’d she do?”
“Who, Cunt?” Heidi asked. Madison nodded, already not liking what Heidi was saying. “No, she’s not being punished. Well, maybe she is, with Brandy it’s hard to tell.”
“What do you mean? What’s her name?”
“Cunt.”
Madison stared at Heidi, then at Cunt before asking again. “No, it’s Cunt,” Heidi said, “Their parents are friend’s of mine so I have to invite them despite the age difference. Brandy wanted a slave on her ninth birthday so her parents let her enslave her twin. Can’t remember what her name was before the change, but I know she looked exactly like Brandy. Probably why she keeps her hooded all the time.”
“Her parents did that?” Madison wondered if this fucked up town had any limits. 
“Well, Brandy did it. Her parents just let her. I doubt they couldn’t if they wanted to, they’re kind of pushovers for some people.” Heidi clasped the mustiled’s hand, “But enough about Brandy, let me introduce you to everyone. Don’t worry if there’s people you don’t recognize, my parents invited kids from different schools that I know. I think she’s trying to convince me to go to the bottomless district private school. Too bad I like wearing undies.”
Whatever resistance Madison had buckled under the tiger’s enthusiasm. Heidi pulled her to every guest their age and under in the party, letting her mingle with a few choice words before going to the next. Some kids didn’t seem interested, others mimicked a clicking sound behind the stinkbadger’s back, but some were friendly. Brandy offered to let Madison use Cunt for anything she wanted, be it someone to spank for stress relief, or to eat out her asshole. She politely declined, fearful any show of revulsion would lead to Brandy hooding her.
Whenever Heidi tried to introduce Madison to a guy, Ruth would call for her. Sometimes it was to check if she was having fun, which the stinkbadger found uncharacteristically concerning of the bear. Other times it was to show off her piercings, which felt normal. “Yeah, Gnoll-Ink is fantastic,” the bear said, patting Madison’s back as the girl spread her legs before a tiger woman in a flowery tanktop. “The healing time was a bitch, but we had ways to occupy that. Right, sport?” 
Face red underneath her black facial fur, Madison looked away and clenched her fists. The tigress chuckled. “She doesn’t seem very obedient for a daughter.”
“Yeah, she’s a bit of a brat,” Ruth ruffled her slave-daughter’s headfur, “But I like her that way. Deep down she loves it.”
“I do not,” Madison’s voice cracked at her denial. She hated being the burly bear’s bitch, no matter how hot every experience made her. Every encounter was made worse knowing a familiar rottweiler named Spike was on her tail. She’d see the boy out from the corner of her eye, always out of reach until Ruth called for her. 
Once the tigress left the two alone, Madison built her resolve and asked Ruth, “Why do you keep calling me over here? I thought you wanted me to socialize?”
“I do,” Ruth nodded, “With girls.”
“What?” Madison blinked, “What do you mean with girls?”
Ruth rolled her eyes, “Seems pretty obvious, doesn’t it?” Madison shook her head, leading the bear to scratch her scalp in confusion. “Huh, shit I thought you were smart enough to pick up on this. Guess I’ll be blunt; The only dick I want you to get is from clients in the gas station.”
Madison tried to consider what that had to do with anything. Then it hit her. The bear didn’t want her making any male friends because she didn’t want the stinkbadger to have a boyfriend. The chocolate bunny from the gym came to mind, his smile shattering like glass. “So I can’t have friends that are guys? Only girls?” Considering how girls at her school treated her thanks to Kiki, she didn’t expect to get many friends at all. 
“And girlfriends,” Ruth added, “In fact, I encourage you getting girlfriends.”
“But I’m not gay,” Madison argued.
Ruth laughed, “You eat carpet like you are.”
Fuming, Madison clenched her fists. “You make me…”
“Yeah, because I own your ass,” Ruth’s clawed fingers pinched at her living property’s chin, “Any rights you have are because I give it. If you wanna date, it’s on my terms. If you want to fuck, it’s on my terms. If I want people to fuck you, well, you get the idea,” she accentuated her point with three light pats across her cheek, “Now go have fun. Meet some young dykes who’d like a reluctant carpet muncher. Or don’t. More for me.”
Disgust and despair hugged her heart. Madison walked back to the living room, head down to the floor as she realized her fate. Did Heidi invite her to ask out? No, she invited half the class so that couldn’t be it. But the tiger girl did avoid using her on the toilet. Result of a crush or some inner guilt? She thought about asking, but the question vanished when the pig-tailed tiger grabbed her hand.
“Come on,” Heidi said, pulling her along, “I want to show you something upstairs.”
Madison felt a golf ball sized lump get stuck in her throat as the young tiger brought her upstairs. Every person she’d met in Highman had some sick agenda that ended with her being humiliated, fucked, or both. So what was her host’s plot? What did the tigress want with her? Did she have some twisted crush? If so, being alone in her bedroom would be the place to propose at her party.
The walls of Heidi’s bedroom were adorned with posters of boy bands and cartoons. Her bed had pink sheets and a purple blanket, with heart stitched white throw pillows and a unicorn plushie. Madison finally found a way to gulp at the sight of a thin metal feral dog cage, its black bars and bare floor standing out over a white carpeted floor. Ruth had one like it back home. Madison spent her nights in it if she didn’t earn sharing a bed with the bear. Neither were pleasant. 
She hugged herself as Heidi went into her closet. What was coming? Some collar and leash the tiger would strap around her neck so she could parade the mustelid downstairs? There was already one submissive freak at the party, so two didn’t seem out of place. She grit her teeth, silently cursing the blush across her face at the thought. A normal person would hate that. Part of her did hate it. Not enough of her.
“So, um, what do you have to show me?” Madison asked, figuring it better to rip the bandage off now. 
“Well I have this really cute shirt I want you to see,” Heidi stepped out in a new top. Tight, black, with the words Girl and Boss combined into one phrase in pink. She pushed her chest out, hands on her hips like some superhero, “What do you think?”
Blinking before squinting to see sparkles of glitter across the cursive lettering, Madison didn’t know what to say. “It looks…nice?” she answered, “Why are you showing me this?”
Heidi frowned, “Just nice?” Her shoulders slumped. Whatever enthusiasm and confidence in her tone vanished as she twiddled her fingers, “I was hoping it’d make me look cool at school.”
“What?” Madison asked, following up with, “Why? Specifically, why ask me?” She’d only just arrived and didn’t have a wardrobe that spoke cool. Just tops and skirts that she felt didn’t let her hide anything and the rare pants or shorts the bear let her wear on occasion. 
Heidi raised her brow, “Because you’re cool? Duh.”
“What makes you think I’m cool?” 
“Because you stood up to Kiki,” Heidi said, “Like, she’s queen bee for a reason. No one tells her no, not even her parents. But you not only went up to her, you freaking punched her. That was awesome. I-If I had half the courage you did, I’d be…well, I’d probably be happier at school.”
“I only did it in self-defense.” Spike did try to hold Madison down. “Not that I don’t think she deserved it. Is this why you didn’t…um…you know?”
Heidi’s facial fur brightened with her blush, “Oh, that,” forcing a laugh, she brushed her headfur reflexively and looked away, “Well, I just, um, wanted to talk to you but you were really preoccupied and I didn’t know your class.”
“Being made to be every girl’s urinal does tend to keep one busy.” Retching at the memory, Madison stuck her tongue out, “So is that why you invited me? To hang out?”
“Well, more than that I guess.”
Maybe it was Heidi’s lack of confidence but Madison found it easier to suppress her fear as she asked the next question, “Are you trying to make me your bitch or something? If so, I want to be honest because so far you’re one of the nicer people I’ve met in this town; I’m not gay.”
Heidi tilted her head and crossed her arms. “I’m not either.”
“Bi?” Madison asked. 
“Nope,” Heidi shook her head, “Straight.”
“So do you just want me to be your bottom bitch despite this or–”
“What? No!” Heidi held her hands up, “Madison, I don’t want to control you or anything. I want to be your friend.”
“Because I decked Kiki?”
“Because you had the courage to deck Kiki. I’d like some of that.”
Madison wouldn’t call it courage so much as not caring anymore, but Heidi’s confession lifted a weight from her shoulders. The tiger didn’t want to fuck her, humiliate her, or abuse her. She just wanted a friend. Madison could use a friend, someone to confide in with the insanity of the town. It helped that, barring walking around without pants like everyone else in the house, Heidi seemed normal. 
“Yeah, I’d like that,” Madison smiled genuinely, “It’d be nice to have a friend.”
The tiger’s face lit up with joy. She hugged Madison before the stinkbadger could react, and, for the first time, Madison didn’t feel the urge to push another person away. “That’s great!” She laughed. They both laughed leaving her bedroom. “Can you wait a minute? I gotta use the bathroom.”
Madison nodded, leaning against the wall opposing the bathroom door as the tiger vanished behind it. She could scarcely believe how good it felt to smile. It was different from how she felt with Terri yet similar. A warm and comforting feeling that, despite the horrors she’d face and the guilty pleasure derived from it, she had people to look forward to. Faces that could be picked out in a crowd in times of trouble.
“Hey,” a new but vaguely familiar voice spoke from the stairs. Madison turned to see a rottweiler wearing a black shirt with a mecha anime plastered over it. His eyes darted down, hands reaching for pockets that weren’t there while his sack hung between his legs, bobbing back and forth on his way up to the second floor. Madison glared and looked behind him, expecting a certain bitch red panda to be accompanying him.
“Kiki’s not with me,” Spike said. “She wouldn’t go to a party like this even if she was invited.”
“Ok,” Madison hugged herself, “So why were you? Aren’t you her boyfriend?”
He smiled weakly at that and shook his head. “Not really. She likes to say that. Technically I’m a boy and her friend, so she’s not exactly lying.”
“Neat,” Madison said with sarcasm, “Still doesn’t answer my first question.”
“My parents are friends with Heidi’s so we get invited to each other’s birthdays. But that’s not important,” again he tried to dig his hands into pockets not there. With a deep breath, Spike bowed his head, “I wanted to apologize for how I acted in school. It wasn’t personal, I just like to do things that make Kiki happy, especially since I can’t, well, satisfy her the way she wants.”
Madison raised her brow at that. “So do you expect me to accept your apology and have us be friends now?” As if this were some weekday cartoon.
“No,” Spike stood straight, chest out and arms behind his back. “No, I don’t expect us to get along. I just knew that if I didn’t apologize, it’d eat me up. Some guys would say you earned it for kicking my ass, but to be honest I never really understood that. I don’t like being violent.”
“But you do it anyway.”
“I like Kiki more than I hate violence,” Spike said. She found that pitiful in a way. He clearly knew Kiki didn’t see him as anything more than her attack dog, but the rottweiler still followed her.
“I know from a reliable source that Kiki likes to be on the bottom,” Madison loathed to give Ruth any credit but the bear did like to share, “There any reason you can’t just, I don’t know, put her there?”
“She likes to be on the bottom with girls. Guys aren’t really on her radar beyond keeping appearances. Plus, I don’t like to hurt people.”
“What if they told you too?” she asked.
Spike shrugged, “Maybe? I don’t know. Following orders is easy, but we’re getting off topic. Just try to avoid Kiki at school, and neither of us will have to get into a fight.”
“That’s a lot of responsibility on me since she’s going after me. Why should I try to avoid her?”
“I’ll try to rein her in also. I can’t promise I’ll be successful, but I can try.”
That wasn’t enough of an answer to satisfy her, but Madison didn’t press. Heidi returning from the bathroom prevented her and she didn’t want to continue the conversation. She didn’t want to have it in the first place. The only benefit of it was that she could talk with a guy without being locked in a bathroom stall or being interrupted by Ruth. 
Back downstairs, the bear intercepted her. “Where have you been?” she asked, her judgment carried a hint of concern. Madison found it odd considering their relationship. If the bear cared about her, it couldn’t be for anything good.
“Heidi wanted to show me her new top.” Madison said.
“Uh huh,” Ruth nodded slowly, her gaze shifting towards Spike. “It wasn’t to sneak off with a guy?”
“He snuck up on me,” Madison crossed her arms, “And he’s Kiki’s boyfriend. Or a friend of hers that’s a boy, whatever. You don’t need to worry about him or anything.”
“Right, right,” Ruth nodded, patting her adopted daughter’s back, “And Heidi?”
“What about…” the stinkbadger squinted before she finished, “She’s not gay if that’s what you’re asking.” 
“I’ve known plenty of gay or bi women who thought otherwise. Not to mention all the straight gals who don’t care who the tongue between their crotch belongs to.” 
Madison stuck her tongue out then immediately pulled it back when she considered the image that made. “Fuck you.” She growled.
“Fuck you, too,” Ruth said with a smile, playfully ruffling the girl’s headfur, “Now get to the kitchen. They’re cutting the cake.” Madison hadn’t had cake in years. The orphanage she stayed at didn’t provide anything more than a cupcake on birthdays. They were cheap and she could only have one as everyone in the orphanage was only allowed one, but Madison never cared because of how good they tasted. Her only complaint was that she never got more than just vanilla. 
Heidi’s cake was decked in pink frosting and had a professionally drawn white unicorn being ridden by a small tiger with the birthday girl’s pigtails. Thirteen spiral birthday candles burned at the edge while wax numbers marked as one and three stood in the middle. Heidi stood at the edge of her wooden table, ecstatic as her mother put the cake down. The tiger waved for Madison to come closer, which she did both because her friend asked and that she’d been standing next to Brandy who had Cunt kneeling at her feet. 
Someone mouthed a clanging noise on her way to the table. Madison kept her head down, gritting her teeth at the embarrassment. Heidi’s smile vanished the moment she joined her. In silence she peered around the room while Madison stood next to her. Not knowing what to do, the stinkbadger stood awkwardly next to the tiger. She never had someone else to look out for her.
Heidi’s mother broke the tension with a song. “We wish you a happy birthday,” She clapped her hands with each verse. Everyone followed along, though Madison mumbled the words and softly clapped. Her thoughts were preoccupied by who made the noise. It couldn’t have been Spike, why would he apologize and then antagonize her? She didn’t know any of the other kids well enough to parse between people that hated her or people who didn’t care for her. Could have been someone who didn’t know her at all. Her metal equipment did stand out compared to everyone else. Not even Cunt had anything between her legs, and that doe had a paneled hood!
A donkey smiled at the last line. Head held high, he shouted, “Clang, clang, clang,” right as Heidi blew the candles. Everyone turned to him, some with their brow raised, others giggling. Madison tried to leave, having enough of the bullshit. Heidi’s hand clasped hers tight.
“Excuse me,” the little tigress said, hand on her hip while she stood straight. “What do you think you’re doing, Jeremy?”
Jeremy, the donkey, flattened his ears and hunched over. “Just making a little joke, Heidi. It’s no big deal.” 
Surprisingly strong, Heidi pulled Madison with her to face the taller boy. He wore a Cleveland Browns mascot shirt over his skinny chest, and like everyone else, he was naked from the waist down. The stinkbadger found her eyes wandering down to the hefty balls and sheath the boy packed. She knew equines were big, but knowing he had to be as big as some adults made her shiver. Not with dread, as much as she wished for it. 
“A little joke? Against my best friend?” Heidi glared at the taller boy, “What’s so funny about her piercings? I think they look lovely.” 
Jeremy blinked, “I mean, they just seem like a lot and–”
“And who said you get to decide that?” Heidi held out her hand. Her mother passed her a slice of cake on a paper plate. It was vanilla. Madison couldn’t hope for chocolate considering there were dogs at the party. “This is my party, and I want all my guests to feel appreciated. If you want someone to pick on, ask Brandy if you can bully Cunt.”
“He can’t. She’s mine to bully,” Brandy said in the outcrowd. Considering how everyone treated Cunt earlier, Madison figured she’d need to ask Brandy what her definition of bullying was.
“Look, Heidi I didn’t mean–”
“If you didn’t mean then you wouldn’t have started it,” Heidi tipped the plate over, folding it with one hand as the cake splattered on the floor. “Clean this up.”
“With like, a napkin or something?” Jeremy asked, his face growing pinker by the second.
“No,” Heidi used her folded plate as a pointer, “With your mouth. If you’re going to waste words on being rude, you might as well make that hole useful.” 
Silence permeated the room. Jeremy gulped, face red and cock slowly seeping from his sheath. Madison’s neck felt tight, as though wearing a collar that had been yanked. Her legs wobbled, body telling her to kneel despite her will pushing otherwise. The donkey’s legs did the same and his will proved weaker. He kneeled down and bent over, carefully licking his tongue across the strawberry frosted dessert ruining the tiled floor. Heidi pressed his face down with her foot, “You look much better like this, Jeremy. Don’t think this is enough to fix what you ruined.” She bent over and whispered something out of Madison’s earshot. Then, smiling, she pulled Madison back to the table and got another slice, as if nothing happened. 
The rest of the party continued on as normal. Madison saw Jeremy vanish upstairs but didn’t press either him or Heidi. She had trouble processing that the awkward tiger girl who wouldn’t piss in the stinkbadger’s mouth just made a boy twice her size eat cake off the floor. Ruth later whistled at the young tiger when she intercepted Madison on her way to the bathroom. “She’s got some potential, that one. You sure she doesn’t have interest in you?”
“Positive,” Madison hugged herself, “And what do you mean by potential?” 
Ruth’s smile wore thin on the stinkbadger’s patience, “Well, this town has a way of putting people in their most comfortable place. Some are followers, some are leaders, and some really take the cake on either side.”
She didn’t ask for more, not that Ruth would be clear with her. Madison just tried to enjoy the rest of the party. For the last few hours she felt normal. She wasn’t some slave to a butch woman who whored her out in the gas station on weekends while pretending to be a doting mother. She was just a regular girl with a friend who wanted her to be there. 
“So, have fun?” Ruth asked as they left the house. Madison nodded, finding herself too happy to care that she smiled in the bear’s presence. “Good. Knew you would. Hey, ain’t that the kid that made fun of you?” Looking to where the bear pointed she found Jeremy standing at the door as his mother talked with Heidi’s. Something metal had been latched between his legs, with a thick ring that slipped behind his balls and a flat top over his sheath. A bell hung where a lock should have been, jingling with every movement he made. 
Ruth grinned. “Yeah, she’s got potential.”