Ats Rescues

It didn't take long to untangle ourselves from each other and I was surprised to find the food still warm when we all sat down to eat a few short minutes later. Somehow it felt like hours since the delivery man had handed over our food. I realized once the tension dissipated that I was starving. I dished up huge helping of lo mein, fried rice, chicken egg foo young and pepper steak topped off with a vegetable spring-roll like the cherry on a very savory sundae. Everyone else was also dishing up like they'd been starved and I was thankful for Ash making me order this mountain of food.

"So you're not secretly into golden showers or scat play or hardcore BDSM are you?" I started choking on my food, "Oh god you're a furry. Well alright but I wanna be something cute and my favorite color's green," Soma said all this without ever stopping what appeared to be a continuous flow of sweet and sour shrimp into his mouth. Surya smacked him on the back of the head in a feat of perfect timing so as not to cause his twin to choke to death.

"Don't worry we all know the Heimlich if something gets stuck besides his foot," Surya assured me.

"Ummm ok, and no to all of that. I mean no judgment, but for those things you'll need to go elsewhere," it comes out before I think through what I just said. I stare down at my plate not wanting to look to closely at either their faces or my own feelings about them seeking other sexual partners. The silence and stillness of the others drew my eyes upward. Everyone was still eating but very carefully now as if no one wanted to bring any attention to themselves. They seemed to be falling back on org training that both angered and saddened me.

"So that's what you want us to do?" Nichelle asked tentatively. Even Ash was very obviously waiting for my answer. I realized that I needed to put on my big girl panties and actually have this conversation in its entirety. I really didn't just want to put it all out there but in this I had to be the one to lay down the rules. God, and I needed to be really honest because I had a feeling they couldn't lie to me even if they might feel inclined to.

"I don't actually want that. I feel attracted to all of you but I also don't want to feel like I bought mindless sex slaves. Or any kind of sex slaves at all actually," I took a calming breath and closed my eyes, "I don't want anything that you feel you have no choice but to do as my property. I want any relationship we have, be it friendship or more, to happen because there is both chemistry and an emotional connection not because you belong to me. I am sexually attracted to you all but I want it to be entirely mutual. I'm probably going to need anything physical to go slowly because of what happened to me.

"We need time to learn to trust each other. So if this arrangement doesn't appeal I'll understand. If any of you wanted to pursue relationships outside the home it's fine with me, I only ask that you not bring people back here for security reasons. Otherwise, if you would like to wait for me, given time I would like us all to have a closed polyamorous relationship with each other. But really, if you don't want that please be honest. I think my only actual rule as your...owner... is that you be honest with me even if you think I won't want to hear it," I felt lightheaded there was so much blood in my cheeks. No one said anything. I opened my eyes to see everyone staring at me with happiness shining on almost every face.

"So to clarify, you want a mutually agreed upon sexual relationship with each of us and you don't care if we sleep around if we keep it in the house as long as we stay monogamous within the group and are honest about our desires and feelings so everyones needs get met both sexual and emotional. But if we don't want that we're free to seek out sexual partners elsewhere as long as they stay elsewhere?" Asher asked with a serious tone and a glint in his eye I couldn't identify. I felt slightly sick that he was the one asking but I nodded my head. "And what if I fall in love with this someone and want to move out what then?" even the twins and Nichelle turned to him in shock at this idea.

"I'm not sure what the organizations stance is on you not living at least within my sphere but I don't want anyone here who doesn't want to be here," I said defiantly but he just stared me down, demanding total honesty. I didn't know what he wanted me to say. Didn't he want the freedom to choose? Didn't he want to have the chance to choose instead of being owned.

"Fine then I'll start playing the field tomorrow," he said with a casual tone and resumed eating. I flung my self back from the table. I'd secretly almost hopped that the twins or Nia might take me up on my offer allowing me to put my head in the sand about my desires. But not Ash.

"But you said..." I couldn't say it, not if he hadn't meant it. I felt betrayed, again.

"

What

did I say?" he sounded angry and hurt now too. His hurt deflated some of my anger.

"You said you belong to me," my voice came out small and plaintive, I couldn't hold his stare. I sounded dejected. I felt hollow, so many intense emotions crammed into so little time especially after being numb for so long.

"And do I?" his tone was steely and hard. My eyes shot to his.

"Do you what?" I asked desperately, he stood up from his seat and walked around to stand directly in front of me.

"Belong to you." the epiphany about why he was upset staggered me. I hadn't been nearly careful enough with my words.

"I didn't mean it," I grabbed his face with both my hands, "I wouldn't be fine if you decided you couldn't wait for me but I would deal with it because to have part of you that wants to be here is better than all of you that doesn't. I'd rather you choose to be my friend than feel forced to be my lover. I asked for honesty, but I lied. I'm covetous and lustful just like all the other clients you saw. I want each of you like I've never wanted anything and the fact that I can demand exclusivity is heady and tempting, so I can't let myself. I want to keep you all for myself but I also want you to be genuinely happy," he was smiling at me now his arms slowly snaking around my hips.

"Then I am happiest with a lover who is honest with herself, and doesn't give away her happiness because she's insecure," he hugged me tight and I rested my head on his chest in relief, he was right it was insecurity talking. What if I wasn't enough? What if they didn't truly want me but only wanted to endear themselves to me to feel safe? Ashe tipped my chin up so he could look into my eyes, "And you are nothing like the others. They wanted to own without being owned, they wanted the power only in their hands and the love only from us never them. You can have anything you ask for. You just need to make sure you're actually asking for what you want and not what you think we want," he sits down and pulls me into his lap picking up my chopsticks and feeding me the rest of the food on my plate.

"I wasn't offended by the offer, though I won't take you up on it, I feel like the chance for something special with you is worth the wait," Nichelle said smiling quietly, taking a long draw of water to cover for the slight blush on her cheeks. The twins shared a long look as if they were conferring without words, they both nodded as if they had come to a decision.

"We agree, though we would like to be clear that we are waiting for a chance to be with you not everyone," "With few exceptions would prefer our sexual relationship to include only us three when it's our time with you," Surya and Soma stated somewhat nervously finishing each other sentences.

"No offense to either of you," Soma added almost apologetically. I started to respond but Ash cut me off.

"Look let's not hammer out logistics now, there's no reason to set details in stone now for later. If everyone's done eating do you feel up to giving us a tour. The twins can finish their bug hunt and we can all choose rooms and or work spaces." I raised my eyebrow at him he only looked innocently back. His quick change of subject fooled no body. I grabbed another spring roll then stood up off of his lap leading them out of the kitchen through a short but narrow hall and then into the entryway.

"That's the front door, to the right we have a tv room, a half bath and an office, to the left we have the stairs to the second level then the formal living and dining rooms," we walked up the short wide flight of stairs and turned to just look at the sprawling view of most of the second level. Two short staircases framed the entrance of the house and an antique chandelier dripping crystal that my mother said had been in her family for three generations. I continued the tour showing them the two large suites right at the top of the stairs each with a walk-in closet, bathroom, sitting area and separate office room. The open space between the rooms had small sitting areas set at intervals and a large credenza with my grandmothers china dishes and other family antiques.

One short step up took us to another semi formal living space complete with a wet bar, and delicate looking furniture spaced to allow both standing and sitting conversation.

"Down the hall way over there are two medium sized bedrooms with a bathroom between them jack-and-jill style," I pointed to an opening at the other end of the room in a mirrored position to the one we were standing in front of now. "There's another bathroom through that door," I pointed at the back wall as I started climbing the narrow staircase to the third floor. Up here was a large open space with bookshelves lining the walls and a bench seat under an oval shaped leaded glass window. There were two doors on each side of the room pretty equidistant from each other.

"This is the library, it's pretty eclectically stocked but it's alphabetical by author, then it's chronological. The doors each lead to a good sized bedroom with it's own bathroom though only the two closest to the stairs have tubs the other two only have showers. There's also a small deck off of the jack-and-jill, a solarium off of the formal living room, a finished basement with a game room and a movie room and behind the garage is a large outdoor kitchen and eating area," I felt somewhat awkward walking around this large staged house and showing it like I was doing and interview for better homes and gardens.

"Which room or suite is yours?" Ash asked giving nothing away if he thought it was strange that you couldn't tell the only occupied room from the rest of the house.

"The suite on the right if you're coming in the front door or the left if you're on the landing," I answered struggling to give them recognizable landmarks.

"Do you have any preference about which rooms we choose or are there rooms you'd prefer we avoid?" Nichelle asked this with an understanding tone.

"Actually no, choose whichever rooms strike your fancy. I had this whole house remodeled and redecorated after it was...just me. These aren't even the original room configurations," I had had to pay quite a pretty penny to accomplish that too as the house had been built in 1865 and there were lots of regulations restricting how extensive changes could be especially to the floor plan of a house with potential historic value. McKinley had gotten it through by showing how often there had already been changes to the home over the years.

"Great, then I'll take the suite across from yours if no one objects," Nichelle said pointedly not looking at Ash who was casually holding my hand.

"Fine with us" "we'd like the" "jack-and-jill" "with the deck," the twins had traded off finishing each other's sentences.

I turned to Ash wondering if he was upset to be the only person not on the same floor as everyone else when the intercom buzzed letting me know someone was at the end of the driveway. I went over to the intercom right at the top of the stairs and pressed the button to talk.

"Hello, Katya Vasilieva?" when I made noises in the affirmative he continued, "I'm here with your Whole Foods order," a cheerful masculine voice said.

"Thanks I'll open the gate just pull up to the front door, I'll meet you there," I respond quickly.

"Can do, will you need help getting all this to your kitchen it's quite a bit," he sounded genuine but it still sent shivers over my skin.

"Nope we'll be able to manage it," the twins were also both scowling, both following as a I walked down all the stairs to the front door. The delivery driver seemed just a bit too surprised at the sight of the twins and Ash who came out to grab all the heavy boxes and bags of groceries. Something about him made me uncomfortable, I was happy when he left and he barely got any tip, hopefully discouraged from returning. Then Ash masterfully managed us all into reorganizing the kitchen and the pantry and getting the food put away. It looked like nothing so much as the wizard making order from chaos in Fantasia.

"Nia why don't you get settled in your room while the twins discuss security with Katya," I startled realizing this was the first time any of them had said my name. He said it like he was swirling the taste of it around his mouth, it made a small blush rise to my cheeks.

"Katya after you talk with the twins why don't you rest while they get settled in their rooms, I'll come get you before dinner," he smiled at me and I smiled back nodding. It really had been a trying day and some time to decompress would be welcome. I almost missed the annoyed looks that the others passed to Ash and his smirk in response but otherwise everyone just fell in with his manipulations. I turned to the twins who waited expectantly.

"Why don't we go the office on this floor to talk?" Surya just held his hand out indicating that he would follow me. I led the way into the dim room. Some of the light from the windows was muted by virtue of facing the covered porch and not just open sky. I turned on a few of the stained glass lamps placed strategically throughout the room and led us to two loveseats positioned facing each other with a table between them at the other end of the room from the mahogany desk that dominated the space. Surya sat down across from me but Soma sat right next to me, draping himself over the back of the couch. I could feel the heat of his arm across my back and I checked my collar and cuffs to make sure nothing was showing.

"First lets talk about what security you already have in place and then what concerns you have that might require additional security infrastructure," Surya said with a softer tone than I'd heard him use so far. Part of me didn't want to tell them all of the security measures I had in place. What if I couldn't truly trust them? I shook my head. I couldn't keep going back and forth. Either they were everything they said they were or they weren't and at this point I didn't have any other alternatives.

"Ummm ok, well we have a ten foot fence around the sides and back of the house along with the coded driveway gate. There's a security system in the house that has motion detection and the windows and doors are wired. There are panic buttons in every room that connect to a security company and alert the police directly as well as a panic room in the basement. Each bedroom has a coded keypad to reach their own entrance to hidden passages in the walls that go to both the panic room and the garage," to me it felt both like overkill and not enough.

"Ok, can you tell us what the concerns are so we can make sure that the security measures are adequate," Soma said this also in a subdued tone. It felt like they were tip toeing around something but I wasn't sure what.

"Well I was alone in the house so I was worried that someone might break in to steal and that they might attack me. Part of the layout reconfigurations were to hide the safe room and passageways," I think I was starting to get what they didn't want to say. Soma leaned towards me and very slowly took my hands in his, looking deep into my eyes.

"We aren't any less yours than Ash or Nichelle, you can be totally open and honest with us. I also want you to know that we were made aware of everything the organization had in their file of you," I dropped his gaze and looked at our joined hands. "Can you tell us how we got here to this point, in your own words, so that we can decide how to best protect you going forward? We need the whole picture from your perspective," he spoke softly rubbing my knuckles with his thumb. I didn't want to do this, I didn't want to think about my family, either the perfect one that was gone or the nightmare that was left. But they were right, I didn't know what was in the org files so I couldn't know that they had a comprehensive idea about what we're facing. I closed my eyes took a deep breath and started talking.

"I guess I should start at the very beginning. My great grandfather started a vodka company back in Russia that was very successful. However my grandfather didn't want to be in the booze business, or in Russia for that matter, so he split his percentage of the company evenly, sold them to his brothers, and brought his wife and young son to America. He was an amazing trader and he made a fortune into the kind of money you can't spend in a lifetime. My father was also talented with investments and when he married my mother, a woman from old American money he only increased our personal fortune.

"Still we were a close family unlike many others of our economic advantage. My parents wanted lots of kids but they had five miscarriages between my brother Nikolai and I so when I was born early but healthy they stopped trying for more of their own. When my grandfather died his family came from Russia for the funeral, both his older and younger brothers. His older brother, my Uncle Misha didn't have any other family and he was devastated by my grandfathers death but excited to meet us, he and I became very close.

"My Uncle Konstantin in contrast had a huge family, three sons, twin daughters and five grandchildren with a sixth on the way. I think seeing Konstantin's big family with more than twenty years between the oldest and the youngest renewed my parents' urge to enlarge our family.

"They tried adopting a baby from Russia and got some pushback from the government, something about rich Americans ruining Russias next generation. This was after finishing the arduous screening process of the adoption agency. So my father called his uncle and cousin to help him. My parents both went to Russia trying to sort out the adoption with my families connections and his money and my Uncle Konstantin proposed a business opportunity to my father trying to entice him to reinvest in the family business.

"My father almost agreed, hoping that a closer connection to Russia might make the governing agency they look more kindly on their application. The person he was working with at the adoption agency confessed to him that my Uncle Konstantins connection to the mob was the reason they couldn't adopt in Russia. The infant they'd fallen in love with and visited for years was a toddler now and it broke my mother's heart to leave her there. My father stopped all business dealings and tried to distance himself from that part of the family, furious that there was nothing he could do to bring home his daughter. That's how he felt about it. The whole thing spoiled them on the process of adoption.

"I know my uncle was furious right back with my father and began to make threats which my father responded to by attacking them financially, starting the process of a hostile take over of the company. It was working too, but about a year and a half after my parents first went to Russia, while going out for his twenty-first birthday my brother was severely assaulted," Surya interrupted me.