Ashton went over a few specifics of what I needed to know when he took me to The Towers. I was so frightened by the whole ordeal, I could barely concentrate on what he was telling me. By the time we’d gotten to his bike and rode over there, I realized I’d forgotten just about everything he had told me. He must have picked up on my anxiety as he parked the bike and helped me off.

“Now remember, don’t antagonize anyone here, and keep your mouth shut” he said, “Stay to my right and two steps behind me.”

“Yes master,” I mumbled under my breath as we were walking, but he must have heard me.

He stopped and turned around to face me. Gripping my shoulders in his hands, he jerked me back a little, “This is both of our lives on the line here! I can only skirt the rules so much before I’m held accountable, and after all of the shit I went through today, we have to make this work. We have to make this look good. So pay attention and follow my cues.”

“Okay,” I conceded. I needed to take this seriously. It’s more than obvious that he was. As comfortable as I felt with him around, the fact that he was uneasy made me focus a little bit harder.

He took a deep breath and began again, “Stand to my right and two steps behind me. There’s a woman standing just inside the gate. She’s vicious, but in a deceitful sort of way. Don’t listen to her or anything she tells you to do. She’ll get you killed and laugh every step of the way. Once we make it past her, I’ll remind you what to do next.”

“Okay.”

The Towers weren’t equal in height, and they weren’t as close together as I thought they were. A few blocks were actually between them. My focus on the scenery only served as a means of distraction. I didn’t feel good about this. I should have listened to Jasper. I should have never taken his bike. I never would have been in this position to begin with.

“Pay attention,” he told me, abruptly breaking into my thoughts.

I looked around and began to see the faces of people and Scalers looking at us … looking at me. Swallowing hard, we walked by a group of them. There was a woman standing next to one in the same position as me, to the right and a few steps behind. She didn't dare make eye contact with me or with anyone else. There was a collar around her neck that held two chains which bound her by each wrist. There was an even thicker chain that dropped from the center of her neck down to the waist of the zippered garment she wore like a bikini where the crotch opened up.

“They all don’t look like that,” he told me. He must have felt my mind changing with every step we took closer to the building. “That’s just Herk’s way of keeping his pet. I think she’s the one who picked it out. Last week her thing was a muzzle.”

“It changes?” I asked trying not to ogle and glare at them in any particular way. I wanted to follow the rules. I didn’t want to antagonize anyone here. So I kept my eyes on Ashton’s back and followed close behind.

Blue flames burned alongside a pathway like a landing strip leading the way into the first Tower building. It reminded me of The Gears station making me wonder if Jasper was okay and if he’d gone out to look for me. There were no walls, only doorways and the steel frames of the building stood intact on the ground floor. Flames circled the perimeter of these panel-less walls. As we entered, people began to whisper and point. Some even laughed. I wondered what the hell was so funny?!

Then, just as he said, she appeared out of the darkness. Her eyes were emerald green that appeared to glow. Her long black hair reminded me of oil spilling into the water. She wore a black bustier that cut off just above her belly button. Her leather pants were skin tight, but she smelled of vanilla. Her smile was contagious as she approached.

“My, oh my, what do we have here, Ash?” she gleamed with salacious joy.

“Something everyone’s been waiting to see. I’ve finally decided to bring her home,” he said confidently. The pause in his tone made me wonder if he thought I was going to rebut his statement. Under any other circumstance I would, but I needed to be on my best behavior, especially if I wanted to make it out of here alive.

The woman circled around me, licking her lips. She rubbed herself with her hands before moving toward me. She only got a finger under a few of my strands before Ashton yanked me closer to him.

“No one touches her!” he snarled, “Is that understood?”

“I’ll respect it, Ash. You know I will honey, but the others? That’s a lot of people you’re threatening over a piece of flesh that ain’t been branded yet.”

“What’s with you guys and the branding anyway?” I mumbled under my breath. He squeezed my wrist gently, undoubtedly as a warning to keep my mouth shut. That’s okay. I could take a hint.

“She will be,” he told her, “Don’t you worry about it. And stay away from her and out of my chambers Miranda!”

“You didn’t always use to be that way,” she giggled running her long-nailed finger through his hair, around his ear, and down to his neck stopping just beneath his chin. She pulled it down, so he could look her in the eyes. Before Ashton could say anything else, she had her tongue in his mouth. He backed away almost instantly with a crazed look in his eyes.

“Are you insane?! Don’t do that again!” he warned her.

“Aww but I want the real Ash to come out and play. It’s been such a long time,” she prodded.

“You’re crazy,” he said shaking his head, “Piss off! I mean it!”

“Fine, fine, fine,” she sighed, “I guess I’ll just go finger myself and fuck with someone else’s pet tonight. You should bring her to Preston first. I’m sure he’s going to want to take a good look at her. The cause of all your problems, and grief.”

She finally left us, and Ashton led me over to one of the elevators. While there wasn’t an abundance of lights on the ground level, the elevator seemed to work just fine. It didn’t even stop on the first ten floors. The buttons only showed the top four floors to be exact.

“How does everyone get to the other floors?” my curiosity had gotten the better of me.

Ashton smirked motioning over his wriggling shoulder to his back, “We’ve got it covered.”

“What floor do you live on?”

“Second to the top,” he said. “Only the leaders of the Sapphires stay on the top level.”

“Does your place look like, um, well is it like the…” my voice trailed off so he could finish my thought.

He did just that, “My place looks like a home, feels like a home, and it also has walls and doors unlike the bottom floors of this building. There are too many windows, but I appreciate my privacy. Just wait, you’ll see.”

That’s exactly what I did as we stepped off of the elevator together. It opened up into a community space. There were a few people standing around, but not many. It wasn’t too large of an area, but it was big enough for a crowd to be waiting for us. Ashton’s stature got noticeably harder. He flexed his muscles as he walked, wrapping his fingers tightly around my hand leading me through the space and towards a discreet corner of the floor. There was a long hallway that made me feel like we were walking on a tightrope without any windows to stop me from falling out, but Ashton kept me to the inside against a wall. I was beginning to have a new-found appreciation for walls.

The hallway stopped at a door to which he simply just turned the knob, swung the door open and we walked inside. The black marble floors were a beautiful sight. I’d only seen them in old magazines Charlotte kept around. Everything around Black Harbor was always so grey, brown, and dirty. The most colorful aspects of the city were the winged beasts that forced us to hide in the shadows. He didn’t have windows inside the apartment, but I appreciated the walls that separated his space from the common one that everyone else shared.

There was a small kitchen area but still beautifully designed. Lights were on, just for the sake of being on. I wondered how long he got to leave them on. Jasper insisted that my L.E.D lanterns be used three hours a day at the most.

Ashton didn’t say anything as he walked into the kitchen. He poured me something to drink and handed me the cup. Looking inside of it, I was skeptical.

“It’s water. You need some,” he told me, “Drink it and get some rest. When my father comes down, I’ll try my best to get him out of here, but he’s going to want you marked as soon as possible. No Anthros are allowed in this building if they aren’t.”

“I understand,”I told him. For the time being, I’d go for whatever he said. I didn’t want to die, and I didn’t want to be hunted down either. Until I figured my way out of this, I was going to have to do what I despised the most … I had to prepare myself to be his pet.