Axel threw her to the ground, her rear blistered and red from several of the implements on the wall behind him. Sobs racked her body and cuffs on her hands prevented her from rubbing at it. The tail restraint ensured she remained exposed for the next stroke of a cane, much too big for even someone twice her age. The fact that it didn’t slam against her rear should have been a comfort but when she heard a splintering snap she screamed. A welt bubbling up on the center of her tender tail as the broken cane flew just into her view.
        “Stupid thing, oh well I’ll just have to move onto the metal one.” He said, turning about coldly to grab it and swung it with disregard for where it would land. It cracked against her tail and across her back. She could feel it split, coming open to the air and she screamed out in agony. “Oh shut it. I’m not even going full force.” Another snap rang out, her tail bending unnaturally as it broke against her spine. Red filled her vision and searing pain racked her body. For a moment her mouth opened silently then the loudest scream she could muster left her muzzle. She struggled against her bonds, trying so hard to reach for her damaged tail. 
        “Oh relax, they grow back you damn lizard.” He growled, quickly stroking along her shoulder blades with the cruel instrument, rending flesh again and again with each stroke. Her voice started to give out while she laid there, body trembling underneath the onslaught. The metal cane joined the other on the ground and she heard him humming at the wall, his back turned to her. What had she done to deserve this? Where was the one she’d grown to care about?
        As if hearing her thoughts he turned and kicked her in the jaw, eliciting a scream as her body twisted. His boot came back into vision with blood on it. “Oh well, those don’t grow back.” He said, pushing something white just into her line of sight.
	He slipped over to the desk that was now just within eyesight… the one with the model they’d made together on it. Her blood ran cold when he started to pick it up. No he wouldn’t, she’d worked so hard on it! He smiled and stepped over to the door of the small room, the hearth right next to it. “I suppose I can leave you here to reflect on your crimes. Failures like you don’t deserve things like this.” He said, tossing it inside the gate. He slammed the door to her room with one simple command. “Light.” The hearth sprang to life around the only thing she’d built here.










        “DADDY NO!” She screamed, jerking up. Familiar bars surrounded her and her eyes darted to her desk. There the model sat, still intact, not a burning mass of- She curled up and more tears joined the ones that already soaked her pillow. All of it just in time for that door to be slammed open, slitted pupils looking at her in a panic. Furred hands quickly lifted her from the crib, something they’d gotten after her first night. She struggled hard against them. “N-no more please! D-don’t burn it I’ll be good I promise!”  She cried out, squirming against his hands in an attempt to get away from someone so cruel.
        Instead of talking he only rocked her. She could hear and feel his stressful purring. Slowly her struggles slowed and she started to accept her fate. He was going to kill her. He was going to torture her to death after only being with them for a month. A burden to be thrown away like a rotten sack of trash.
        “B-burn it?” He asked, following her gaze to that model they’d so carefully brought up the stairs weeks ago. “O-oh god. Angel I would never…” He carried her towards the door and out into the soft light of the hallway, dimmed so it wasn't aggressive on the eyes. The door to their room was already opened and he closed it with a gentle foot. Mae sat frazzled on the bed. He slid onto it with Angel in his arms and set her gently between them. They both wrapped her up in a parental cocoon. They stroked her between the wings and along her tail… one that wasn’t kinked or broken. The only sting on her body was the one under her tail from a court mandated spanking before bed. It was nothing compared to the dread and despair in her heart.
        “Shh, it was only a nightmare.” Axel cooed, pulling Mae into them both so Angel was surrounded by warmth. A-a nightmare? She finally looked up at his face. Contorted not with rage but worry and regret? “I would NEVER do something like burning your model.” She could see something in his eyes. Not tears but a shimmering.
        “Now what happened that made you think that?” Mae asked, gently stroking her back and pulling her up under her chin. They were both so warm.
        “I-I did something and Axle came in with a rank five cane, a black juditial paddle, a tail restraint, wrist and ankle cuffs.” She started trembling and Axel pulled himself closer against her back, careful to avoid her wings. “H-he lashed me with the first for five minutes. Then he took the cane and broke it across my back. I-I hadn't had enough so he took the metal one and…” Her tail curbed up against her chest and she rubbed the very center of it. “M-my tail…” She whimpered and she was pulled over once again, this time to look into eyes that were no longer filled with unshed tears, but determination and a bit of anger. 
        “I don’t need to understand why your mind would conjure such a torture but I would never, NEVER, do something like that.” He looked hurt in a way she wouldn’t have been able to see without years of examining others.  Tender touches from both of her parents were helping the fear and adrenaline to leave her. “I love you Angel, my little princess.” He cooed.
        Why did he? She wasn’t worth love. Everyone she cared about just slipped into the shadows. The only one who had ever come back was gone. Her bones dust or ash in the ground by this point.After her sentence what then? He’d discard her like everyone else had, using her only for what she could give him and nothing more. Air blown into her nose brought her sneezing back to reality. 
        “I see those gears turning in your head. Talk to me.” He said firmly. It might have been her sleep-idled mind, it might have been the nightmare, it might even have just been childish recklessness but the dam broke.
        “I’m not worth it!” She screamed right in his face, punishment be damned. It would give her something to cry about.
        “Is that what you think?” Where was the anger?! She looked into his eyes and found it but it was overshadowed by a look of sorrow. There it was too, the ugly emotion of pity. 
        “Oh don’t give me that stupid look. I’m a useless little thing who only ever gets in the way. I’m only good for what I can be used to gain. A fucking dispenser for others to trample on and throw away afterwards.”  That did it, the rage took front and center in his eyes, blazing and unkindled. Instead of what she expected he took a deep breath.
        “You are in no way shape or form useless and that is something I never want to hear you say again. When I punish you it’s because it’s my job not because I like it. When I sit in the library with you, talk to you about starships or play chess with you it’s because I love you.” His voice didn’t even have an edge to it and he stroked her cheek. “To me you are more valuable than all of the credits in the systems. More than this home, more than my job. You are someone I love. The reason why my heart is still beating within its cage of ribs. Things are replaceable, you are not.” He said, pulling her into his arms again.
        “I hate to be the one to break up such a touching scene but…” There it was, she let her mouth override her ass again. Let her pride get in the way. A hand met her shoulder and she looked up at her mother with a blue bottle and a cloth in her other hand.
        “I-I know.” She said, letting herself be pulled from Axel’s arms. She was carried to the sink and set down. A bit of that liquid was poured shimmering on the cloth.
        “Open your mouth and we can make this quick.” She cooed and Angel did as she was told. That cloth went in with a careful finger and she cringed at the taste. Suds started on her tongue first, rubbed into a deep lather then along her gums and teeth. It made her face screw up in disgust and her eyes started to water but she endured it. For some reason no resentment came with this one. Something that she would have found odd if she wasn’t so tired. The digit worked just enough into the back of her mouth to get the soap everywhere but not far enough to choke her.
        Finally it withdrew and she went to spit on instinct, only to have Mae clamp her muzzle shut. “Hold it Angel, you have to wait.” She struggled, the taste was making her feel like bile was rising in her throat but just before it became intolerable she let go and she spat violently. 
        “Bleck! What is that stuff?” She growled, it lingered on her tongue, coating every taste bud in a bitter spine tingling disgust.
        “Soap.” Came Axel’s curt replay, stepping up to the sink next to his wife. “I think you’ve given me something to think on. You’re sleeping with us tonight.” He Poured her a cup of water and she was quick to swish and spit it. The taste was still there but considerably dulled. 
        “And let it be a lesson, come to us with what scares you. If it’s left to fester then nightmares crop up.” Mae explained, trashing the cloth and picking Angel up. It was normally Axel that handled her. She was carried tenderly back to the bed and tucked in. Both of them crawling in on either side of her.
        “I-I’ll try.” She had to, it was becoming a burden on them.
        “That’s all we ask, goodnight princess.” Axel cooed. He brought up her pacifier and kissed her on the forehead.
        “Good night little treasure.” Mae’s kiss joined his own.
        “Night, thank you. Momma, papa.” She mumbled around her pacifier; just barely audible. The two snuggled on either side of her and her dreams from then on out were silent.