I held the bell in my hand, admiring the way the rose gold metal shined in the light.

The goal was one hundred clicks, and the slave was getting dangerously close to her quota, but she was also getting dangerously close to the deadline. Tonight was the deadline.

One hundred clicks, or you don’t get this bell.

I sighed, wrapping both of my hands around it and holding it to my chest.

You can do this Chloe, I know you can do this.

Chloe didn’t know it, but the reason the deadline was tonight, was because tomorrow is her birthday. Of course, she didn’t know what exactly was on the line if she couldn’t manage to meet her quota, and there was a lot more on the line than just a silly bell, or even the entire birthday celebration. There were a lot more fundamental things riding on Chloe’s performance, of course she was eventually going to meet her quota, but she couldn’t move onto the next step until she had. Her master could give her an extension, but she wasn’t going to get an extension. Chloe needed to know that when her master set a deadline, she expected Chloe to meet that deadline. But also, it may be less fundamental, but it was just as important, Chloe wasn’t going to get an extension because Chloe was going to meet her deadline, she had to… because if she didn’t, there wasn’t going to be a birthday celebration for her in the first place.

Tomorrow was supposed to be a special day for her, and Chloe needs that, we both need that. But the bell, that was for me, a tangible representation of what was at stake, not just for her… but for me.

I wanted to see that little bell dangling from her cute little neck more than anything else, not just because it was cute, but because I wanted to have a visible reminder to myself that my slave had made me proud. I needed to be able to see that our relationship was working, I needed to know that she wasn’t going to be taken away from me. But I couldn’t just hand it to her, I need to be fair.

If she can’t earn this bell, she can’t have this bell. Because if she can’t earn this bell, I can’t keep fooling myself into believing that this was working. I had to be prepared for the worst. If she can’t earn this bell, I have to be ready to let go of her. If she can’t earn her place by my side, I have to be ready to lose her, just like I’d lost my mother.

One hundred clicks, or I don’t get to see you wear this bell.

One hundred clicks, or I can’t give you this bell.

One hundred clicks, or I can’t keep you.

One hundred clicks, or I can’t marry you.

The deadline, tonight before bed, and only I knew how many clicks she was already at. 91.

She needed nine clicks, it was still feasible, but it was more than she had ever accomplished in a single day. Chloe had a few rough days sprinkled in there, she usually averaged somewhere around six clicks per day, seven clicks on a good day. But she had never exceeded eight clicks in a single day.

She needs nine clicks.

“You just need nine clicks… You can do it…”

I mumbled to myself, slipping the bell into the pocket of my beautiful blue romper. I knew that blue was supposed to be a boy color, but it was still my favorite color regardless. It was enough to bother me, but I wasn’t about to just give it up, it had always been my favorite color, and I wasn’t going to just uproot my opinions of the color wheel just because of a single arbitrary moment of self discovery. Besides, it looked gorgeous on me, and I was a stunningly beautiful lesbian queen, even if the public didn’t know my sexuality, it was kind of my job to go against the norm. I just had to pinch my thighs together, keep my head up and try not to look down, then slip the garment on.

You raised a beautiful woman, mom. Insecurities. Everyone has them, even the starlet Candace St. Clair. She has a lot more dirty little secrets than the average person does.

“Speaking of dirty little secrets… I should go get her, huh?” She looked so cute when she was sleeping, but she couldn’t earn my hand by sleeping in. I was going to give her the edge and wake her up early, even if she didn’t know it.

Unlocking the door to the closet, I stepped inside. Shortly after starting her training, I had stopped restraining her before opening the cell door. When she had first gotten here, I put in the extra effort to make sure that I was completely safe and secure when letting her out of her cell, but I didn’t need that anymore. I did however, need to put on my dominant face. “Good morning, slave.”

“Good morning, Master.” It was so cute how she yawned, but what was even cuter was that she had a tendency to use ‘Master’ as her preferred manner of addressing me. It might have bothered me knowing that it was predominantly used as a male title, but I didn’t actually mind, I rocked it. “May I begin, Master?”

“Yes, you may~” I watched her kneel, looking up at me with that usual nervous look on her face. Since beginning her training, we began every day by having her recite the many tenets of her existence, and we ended our nights with them as well.

The margin for error today wouldn’t have been so tight had she managed to remember them sooner, but she struggled with them. Chloe hadn’t yet successfully managed to recite them all perfectly. Not even once.

“Thank you, Master.” She always tried her best, but her best hadn’t quite been enough just yet.

“One. Know my place. I have a role to play. I have a purpose. As a slave, my purpose is whatever my master says it is. I am below my master, and I will remember my place and purpose.”

“Two. Know my master. I have a master, and I know who my master is. I belong to her, and that puts her above all others. She is the center of my world, and I will learn what she needs, learn what she wants, and learn how to serve her.”

“Three. Show respect. I am a slave, not a person. All others are above me and they deserve to be respected. I will put myself below all others, but I will respect my master first and foremost. As a slave, my master is above all others, and I am below all others.”

“Four. Do as I’m told. I will obey my master at all times. When my master tells me to do something, I am to do it. No matter what I’m told, I will always follow my master’s directions.”

“Five. Do not fight back. My master deserves my full respect and cooperation. I will not disobey orders. I will not talk back. I will not disagree with her. My master is the only thing that matters, and I am not to fight back.”

“Six. Act out of love, not out of fear. My master has the right to do whatever she wants to me. I will act out of love for my master, and not out of fear of what she will do to me. I will show her that I love her, and that her happiness is my priority.”

“Seven. Identify with my master. As a slave, I am not an individual, I am a possession. I will identify as my master’s slave, and not as my own person. I will let myself be viewed as my master’s slave, and nothing more. I will be an extension of her. I will let her make my decisions, I will let her fulfill my needs, and I will let her do my thinking for me.”

“Eight. Be vulnerable. I will make my master’s life as pleasant as possible. I will open myself up to her, and I will trust her. I will show my master that I am vulnerable to her. I will show her that I am powerless. I will let her touch me, I will let her hurt me, and I will let her humiliate me.”

“Nine. Be adaptable. I will learn from my mistakes. I will show my master that I will bend to her will. I will be open to anything and everything my master says, even if it goes against what I want. My master’s desires will change, and I must change to suit her needs.”

“Ten. Strive for perfection. I won’t just do as I’m told, I will make my master proud. I will do everything in my power to be more than what my master expects and demands me to be, even if she doesn’t notice. The little things will mean a lot to her, and I will strive to be the best slave my master could ever wish for.”

Perfect. Absolutely perfect. For the first time ever, Chloe had gotten every single word correct, from beginning to end, and she said them like she meant them. What followed was stunned silence, as she looked up at me nervously, praying to her goddess that she had finally gotten it right… and she had.

Click!!

One down, eight to go. Don’t let me down. I couldn’t have been happier, and from the expression on her face hearing the clicker go off and feeling her collar buzz against her skin, Chloe couldn’t have been happier either. There were happy tears in her eyes, and she looked like she was just about to cry. I could almost cry as well, my thumb still on the button. I wanted to give her more for her performance, but unfortunately it was still only worth one click. But it was a relief to know that if she managed to be at her best today, she just might make it. “Very good, Sophia~”

Wait, no. That’s not right, now I’m just deadnaming you.

The name still stuck around in my head, sometimes it just kind of slipped out. Sophia Cavalier was a very cute name, but it wasn’t her name. Her name was Chloe.

She obviously was still very distraught hearing her old name being spoken, being reminded of her past life still hurt her immensely.

Great. There she goes, overcomplicating things in her own head again. No , this is not a test Chloe, I’m just a moron.

“Chloe. Good job, Chloe… I’m very proud of you.”

You can’t do this to her Candace, that’s just going to make everything worse for the poor girl.

Chloe was terrible at letting her master think for her, it’s part of what made her a world champion Stolen Cosmos player, she was always thinking everything through as far as she could think. But a Stolen Cosmos champion wasn’t what I wanted from her, I want a slave. “Eyes on me slave, you’re overthinking it.”

“Yes, Master!” She quickly snapped to attention, looking up at me before quickly adjusting her gaze to look downward. “Sorry, Master.”

“Not everything is a test, doll… Sometimes it really is just an accident.” I almost wanted to relent and click the button again just to make it up for that, but that quick moment of glancing up at me wasn’t something I could just ignore. She can’t do that, she made a mistake, and she knows that. That’s why she corrected herself. Patience Candace, she’ll get there… Don’t get trigger happy…

“My apologies, Master.” Chloe was getting better at acting without being told exactly what to do, and she knew enough to know that bowing to show forgiveness was an appropriate thing for her to do.

And then I felt her soft plush lips kissing the top of my bare foot.

Awww… someone’s becoming a bootlicker… I can’t just let that one go~

Click!!

Chloe smiled eagerly, almost immediately repeating the same mistake, and looking up at me to see my expression. I couldn’t let that go either, but the deed was already done, and she’d already received one of her coveted clicks. Now she just needed to receive a boot to the back of her head~

“Come on now, you have to get those little eyes of yours under control… Just focus on those feet you like to kiss so much~” I pressed my foot into the back of her head, shoving her forehead into the ground.

“I’m sorry, Miss.” She was relaxed under my foot, a marvellous improvement over the first time she had found herself beneath my boot. She was becoming more comfortable with being punished and humiliated. In fact, if I didn’t know better I would almost say that she was slowly starting to like it.

“Do you like being degraded, slave?” I’d seen her search history, I know what kind of kinks the girl had before she’d gotten here, and degradee was not a title I would have ascribed to her back then. But maybe that had changed?

“If it makes you happy, Ma’am… yes, I do.” Smart answer, correct answer, but I wanted an honest answer. There was no way that she was going to just answer with a ‘no’, and she was a fairly good liar.

As far as her playstyle went, she had a solid poker face. Sophia Cavalier has no tell. But she’s not Sophia Cavalier, why do I keep thinking of her like that? Why hasn’t that image of her in my head been replaced by the loyal and grovelling slave I now find beneath my foot. Was it really such an inseparable part of her? I had to know. “Go make me breakfast, Chloe, and no eating any of my food.”

As soon as my foot was back on the floor, the girl sprung into action, not needing to be told anything further. I, meanwhile, settled myself into the dining room table, not bothering to actually watch to make sure that she didn’t sneak some food into her mouth, she wasn’t wearing a muzzle after all.

Was this cheating? I had caught her sneaking some breakfast when she thought I wasn’t watching, and I had even given her a couple of clicks as a reward for the days where she kept her mouth away from food that wasn’t hers. But not misbehaving was no longer enough to be rewarded for, she needed to do well, and I couldn’t keep rewarding her for behavior she should be expected to perform regardless, not anymore. I needed to hold back, for my own sake as well as hers.

She said nothing, kept her gaze down, and even got onto her knees as she presented my breakfast to me. Is that enough? I kept finding myself constantly questioning what was enough to reward the girl for, and by the time I had actually accepted the platter from her, the moment for rewarding it had passed. “Permission to inquire, Master?”

She didn’t have permission to speak, but at least she was asking for permission to ask a question, rather than proceeding with the question itself. It wasn’t enough to reward, but it was at least enough not to punish her for. “Proceed.”

Settling into a kneeling position next to me, and finally looking up, knowing that it was appropriate to make eye contact when she was given permission to speak, she proceeded. “I know that I’m supposed to be continuing with my tasks, but I was hoping that maybe you would let me stay here with you for a little bit, may I have permission to wait on you for a little while longer?”

“Yes, you may.” I didn’t really have anything for her to do, but I appreciated having her next to me, and I was going to be watching her closely for the whole day anyways.

“Thank you, Master. I’ll do my best to keep quiet~” If she was acting out of fear, she wouldn’t have asked such a question in the first place, for fear of the repercussions. She knows her place, she knows her master, she’s being respectful, and most importantly she’s trying to make me happy. Nailed it.

Click!!

Chloe was visibly excited that she not only got to kneel beside her master, but she also was being rewarded for her performance. A few months ago she would have been growling at me, and the old punk rock misfit is still in there, but she’d come a long way. “Actually Chloe, go get your leash.” Even better, maybe I could reward her for putting on a bit of a show. “And make sure to crawl~”

It was the very same leash that she always wore, and even more adorably, when she came back with it, not only was she holding her master’s end of the leash in her mouth, but she also put in the extra effort of affixing the end to her own collar herself. I would have liked to clip the end to her collar myself however, so there was no reward for that. In fact, I might as well punish her for it. She had been doing well enough so far this morning that I could feel pretty safe in having a little bit of fun with her.

I grabbed the leash from her mouth, watching the excited look in her eyes flashed with fear as I yanked her up onto her knees, threatening to strangle her, our eyes locked together. “Only I get to attach this leash to you, do you understand?”

“Y-yes Ma’am…” She nodded, whimpering under her breath as I released her, letting her collapse onto the floor and watching her as she once again bowed for forgiveness.

Now the fun part~

Chloe was also getting better at being electrocuted, and I again wasn’t sure if she was beginning to enjoy it, or if she was just getting better at putting up with it. But it was absolutely wonderful to watch her writhe in pain on the floor below, knowing exactly the kind of agony she was in. My slave deserved to be punished when she did something that I disapproved of, and I disapproved of this.

But still, she was adorable, and it only took hand feeding her a few pieces of my breakfast and forcing her to bark like a dog to get her mind back where it should be. Focused on making me happy. I might be a vehement hater of dogs, but my puppy was too cute to stay mad at.

Click!!

There was no arguing from the slave about being on the receiving end of some proper clicker training. “Who’s not a dog now?”

“Not me, Ma’am~” Chloe smiled eagerly, looking up at me with her usual puppy dog eyes.

I was almost tempted to give her another click just for those cute little hazel eyes of hers, and hell, she was my property, and I had already been allowing myself to give her a click a day just for being cute~

Click!!

Chloe was seemingly over the moon about being rewarded like this, and equally as disappointed as I detached the end of the leash from her collar, but she wasn’t going to argue with me, she knew better. “Now go and properly begin on your daily chores, I expect perfection, and I had better get perfection~”

She promptly gave me a curtsy before heading off and getting back to work. Being my handmaiden didn’t mean she would get to stop being my housemaid, that was going to be a part of her for the rest of her life, and hopefully she’s accepted that. It was a relief to see her doing so well today, she was already over halfway there, and she hadn’t even started with her job quite yet.

Chloe of course, didn’t actually know that tonight was the deadline. I had of course told her that the deadline was the first of September, but she had no way of knowing that that was today. If she knew that it was already the first of the month, she would be freaking out thinking that she’d already missed it. Of course the deadline wasn’t “The first of September” as in “By September”, the deadline was really “By your birthday, September 2nd.” I just really wanted to reward her on her birthday, but she had no idea that her birthday was tomorrow.

↞✶↠

The day proceeded as normal. She showered, I showered, I was sure to at least have covered up between my legs before I allowed her to see me. It was wonderful to know that she wouldn’t try to escape while I was in the shower, she had tried that once, it didn't make me very happy.

“I’ve started with laundry, Master.” She was bowing her head as she was supposed to, but she wasn’t saying everything that was on her mind.

“Speak slave, what’s the matter?” I watched her hold up a bundled up ball of clothes, clutched in her hand. Her clothes, the one’s she arrived in.

“These were… In the laundry room. They’ve been there for a while, I’ve actually had them hidden away, I wasn’t really sure what I was supposed to do with them.” She was nervous, finally making the decision to bring them to me and ask what was to be done with them. “I… I’ve been too nervous to tell you about them, but… I thought I would tell you now.”

“Well go on… let’s see them~” I smirked, astonished that she’d kept them hidden away from me in my own house for many months now.

“You want me to put them on, Ma’am?”

“I do, now get on with it.”

She didn’t argue, of course she didn’t argue, she was doing her best to display perfect obedience. Yet even so, she had spent the last couple of weeks entirely naked, and she did rather like those clothes of hers, they looked awful comfy, and she did begrudgingly look awfully cute in them. But even as she finished putting them on, there was still something wrong with the outfit. “Now now, that flannel goes around your waist. You know that~”

She smiled, taking the flannel off and tying it where it was supposed to go, where I wanted it. Flannel around her waist, rainbow trimmed high tops, ripped jean shorts, and a yellow crop top. She looked amazing, but I preferred her naked. “So you’ve had this hidden away from me from day one?”

“From day two, actually… it was just in the laundry room, and I didn’t really know what to do with it… I couldn’t keep it to myself, but I didn’t want you to get rid of it.” She paused, adjusting her gaze, which she suddenly realized was a lot higher than it was supposed to be. “I guess I just felt like they were mine, and that I should be able to do what I want with them… But I was wrong, and I know that now.” She swallowed nervously, bowing slightly. “I don’t own anything, Ma’am… I’m sorry.”

Click!!

It was good enough for me. Even I had to admit to myself that at this point I was looking for things to reward her for, desperately wanting her to succeed today. Sure, I was upset that she would keep this from me for so long, but she came clean about it anyways. Seeing her in that outfit brought me back to when we first met, it brought a little bit of Sophia Cavalier, and maybe a little bit of Sophia Cavalier was okay after all.

“How’s about this, Cavalier~” That time it was on purpose. “If you can beat me in a match of Stolen Cosmos… I might just let you keep them~”

She froze. If hearing her own name was enough to frazzle her, being challenged to a match of Stolen Cosmos must have been decimating for her. But I needed to test this out, I needed to test out her ability to stay obedient and loyal, even while being reminded of her past life. Plus, I really wanted a rematch. I really did want to beat her this time.

“A-after dinner you mean, Ma’am?” She quickly regained an almost adequate composure, but the pistons were still clearly firing in her brain, trying to figure out what exactly was going on. “I-I’ve already started cooking.”

“After dinner it is, slave.” I smiled, opening up my closet door to fetch myself some clothes, shooing the girl away to get back to work. “Don’t ruin my dinner tonight~”

“I won’t, Ma’am~!!!”

What the fuck am I doing?? This isn’t going to help her get to 100 clicks??

I froze. The closet door shut behind me, Chloe couldn’t tell because I remained calm and composed around her, but behind closed doors, I was a fucking wreck. I had no idea what I was doing, just jumping from whim to whim just to pass the time, occasionally stopping to watch my favorite possession do her job on my cameras between matches. Chloe was more figured out than I was.

I slid to the tile below, leaning against the door behind me as I fumbled for my phone, doing the one thing I always did when I was on the verge of a mental breakdown.

I called Aria.

↞✶↠

“Dinner is served, Master.”

There she is, using her favorite title for me. Chloe seemed to be doing a lot better, and after a quick call with my best friend, so was I.

I was closer with Aria Fairmont than I was with even Malcolm or Leah, but Chloe wouldn’t know that because Aria never came around the mansion anymore. It took me a while to figure out why, but eventually I realized that she felt the same way my father did about my new slave.

She hated Chloe. More accurately, Aria was sort of disgusted by the idea of keeping slaves, or perhaps she was actually more disgusted at the slaves themselves, knowing that she didn’t seem to be morally against me keeping a slave. She just seemed to prefer staying away from the girl. That much I didn’t really mind, Aria was a public figure much like Sophia and I, and we were known associates of each other, she was my best friend, and it didn’t much matter if she hated Chloe or not.

I loved Chloe, and Chloe loved me. At least I hoped Chloe loved me, it was after all difficult to tell when she was hiding something from me, her poker face was nearly unmatched among the profession. Deep down, there was still a lingering fear that she was playing the long con with me, plotting some sort of plan to go through with killing me and finally escaping from my grasp, and the thought of that made my heart ache. “You aren’t just trying to trick me so that you can make some grand escape, are you Chloe?”

Her eyes quickly darted up at me in surprise before quickly looking away. “No, Ma’am!! Why?!” Her breath quickened, her heart began to beat out of her chest, and I could almost hear the thoughts rattling around inside of her head. “Did I do something wrong?!”

“No, dearest…” I sighed, taking dinner from her hands, just that I could set it down and hold her hands instead. “Calm down… I’m just testing your loyalty…”

She squeezed my hands as hard as she could, dropping to her knees at my side and bowing her head. “I’m in this for you… I swear…”

I planted a kiss on the back of her hand and smiled, letting go of her hands and tilting her chin up to look at me. “I know you are~”

Click!!

That fixed it, I couldn’t help but to share in the happiness that I could see spreading into her glistening hazel eyes. My glistening hazel eyes. Those eyes belonged to me, and I wasn’t about to let them get away from me.

“Thank you, Master.” Chloe smiled, her cheeks turning pink. “Permission to sit in your lap?”

“Permission granted~”

We finished dinner together, before moving into the gaming room. Chloe was visibly nervous, unsure of whether or not she actually wanted to play with me. She was sure this was a test, and it was, but I did genuinely just want to play with her. I wanted to see how much of Sophia Cavalier was left in her, but I also just wanted to enjoy playing a match against my future bride. Chloe’s hands were trembling as she held the mouse, and I knew very well that her hands were usually quite steady.

“It’s okay Chloe, just do your best~” My words seemed to help soothe Chloe. Her mentality really was changing, and she was beginning to need to rely on me for support, but that was alright. That’s what I wanted, that’s what was natural for a slave, to rely on their master for everything. To make their master happy in exchange for a place to exist, beneath them. Chloe belongs beneath me.

But there was one thing that had been bothering me all day, Sophia Cavalier. I had tried to bury my archrival for good, but sometimes she came bubbling back up to the surface, and I wanted a rematch. I wanted to defeat Sophia Cavalier, fair and square. No tricks or cheats this time, just a real proper rematch.

But Chloe threw the match.

I wanted to defeat Sophia Cavalier fair and square, but Chloe threw the match, and there was my problem.

I wasn’t playing against Sophia Cavalier, I was playing against Chloe.

This wasn’t a rematch between CSt.C vs. SoCavalier, because Chloe wasn’t signed in as SoCavalier, she was signed in as CSt.C(1), both physically and mentally. She wasn’t playing like Sophia would play, she was playing like Chloe would play.

Of course Chloe threw the match. She’s Chloe, she’s a slave, she’s only concerned about her making her master happy. If her master wanted to beat her in a game of Stolen Cosmos, she was going to let her master win in a game of Stolen Cosmos, even if it meant losing, especially if it meant losing. She wanted to show her master that she was beneath her. She wasn't my opponent. She was my slave.

She was doing everything right.

Click!!

I gave her a click for her efforts, but I still wasn’t happy, and she could tell.

“What’s wrong, Master?” She turned her seat around to face me. She sounded like Sophia, and in those clothes of hers she looked like Sophia, but she wasn’t Sophia.

“You threw the match.” Chloe was doing everything right. But she wasn’t Sophia Cavalier, and I wanted to play against Sophia Cavalier.

“I’m sorry.” Chloe really didn’t know what to say. She knew very well that she had thrown the match, it was bloody obvious. But she thought that was okay, what was she supposed to do? Win? Trying her best and losing would have been the ideal outcome, but she knew that if she tried her best there was also a very good chance of her winning the match, and she couldn’t win the match knowing how much I wanted to beat her. “I just really wanted you to win, Ma’am.”

“I just wanted to beat you in a fair match.” I didn’t know what to say either, she was doing her best, and that’s what counted. “I’m not upset Chloe, I’m just disappointed I suppose.”

“Are you going to punish me, Master?” What a wonderful girl, asking to be punished. I would give her another click for that too, but it would have made it worse for the girl, and it really wasn’t her place to tell me when to punish her.

“Dearest, are you telling me to punish you?”

“I think you should.”

“It’s not your place to decide when you should get punished, Chloe. Use your brain.”

“Am I supposed to use my brain, or am I supposed to use my heart, Ma’am, which is it?”

“They aren’t mutually exclusive.”

“Are they not? Because if not why are they saying two completely different things?”

“And what are they saying to you?”

“My heart says stay. But my brain says run...”

I gritted my teeth. She had been doing so well, but something had been rattled inside of her, and I wasn’t quite sure what had done it. Regardless of whether it had been the game or the disconnect between what she was receiving and perceiving was besides the point. Talking back like this was unacceptable, and she knew that. “Go finish your chores, and then get ready for bed.”

Chloe was a tough girl, she always had been. She didn’t cry, but she seemed to be just as disappointed in herself as I was. She immediately regretted letting those words come out of her mouth, and she couldn’t really recover from that. Chloe could take a backhand to the face just fine, but just seeing my disappointment in her stung deeper than a slap to the face could, and that was punishment enough. “I’m sorry, Master…”

She wasn’t to get a click for her behavior if she was going to be like that. But she was already at 99 clicks, and there was nothing she could do that would prevent her from earning that last click before the night was over.

Except fall apart, which she did.

I was a wreck behind closed doors, but Chloe couldn’t manage to pull herself back together, even in front of her master. She so desperately wanted to impress me, but after a show like that, it was going to take more than not exhibiting bad behavior to earn a reward from me. But whenever I came to observe her she recoiled, curling in on herself, retreating back into her shell. She had settled for trying not to upset me, rather than trying to impress me, and it worked, but I wanted to be impressed. There was nothing that Chloe did for the rest of the night to earn that one hundredth click, and I was running out of options. I wanted to go to bed.

Chloe needed to be brought back in line, and it clearly wasn’t happening tonight. She had failed me right at the end when I expected perfection. I deserved perfection. I deserved to be able to get what I wanted, and if she wasn’t able to give it to me, she didn’t deserve me.

“Come along, let’s get you to bed, you’re going to have a lot of work to do tomorrow.”

“Where am I sleeping tonight, Master?”

“In your cell, where you belong.”

“Yes, Master…”

She had no reason to be upset about not reaching her quota in time, she had no idea that tonight was the deadline, and she was more than used to being put away in her cell until further use.

“Would you like me to begin now, or wait until I’m in my cell?” Chloe eagerly followed me, her gaze pointed down at those feet that she so desperately liked to kiss.

“Begin what, slave?” I was tired, and I didn’t have much energy left to do anything more with her tonight, opening the doors to her cell was enough of a chore.

“My recitations, Master.” Chloe smiled, looking up at me for just a moment before adjusting her gaze back downwards. “I assume that just because I got them right this morning doesn’t mean that I’m done reciting them, right? I need to have them memorized as soon as I can. I want your father to be proud of you when he comes to visit.”

Her guidelines, right. She wants to recite them again. I was pleasantly surprised that even after the night ended like it did, Chloe was asking for permission to recite the tenets of her life as a slave back to me, just to help her memorize them. “And what were those guidelines, Chloe… recite them to me~”

I hung onto her every word, listening intently to the careful confidence in her voice as she once again repeated the guidelines back to me word for word, perfectly. But she was overthinking it again, like she always does. Sitting down and playing the game with her made me realize that Chloe was treating those guidelines like rules she needed to follow, as if they were something she needed to follow to the letter. But she wasn’t the only one doing something wrong, so was I. ‘...rules?’ Her constantly ticking mind needed some set of tangible rules to follow.

We were both too focused on the guidelines. I had been rewarding her for how well she followed those guidelines, and not based on whether she made me happy, and that wasn’t fair to her, because she almost always made me happy.

“Those guidelines really are just guidelines Chloe, they aren’t rules.”

“I know, Master. I just-”

“Remember the guidelines, but don’t get obsessed with them. Going against one of your tenets isn’t the same as breaking a rule.”

“But how will I know how to behave?”

“If your little gamer brain needs rules, then I’ll give you rules.” The door into Chloe’s cell was already wide open, I stepped in and took a seat on the stone bench built into the opposite wall, gesturing with one finger for her to follow me inside. “But I’m the only one allowed to punish you… so I would suggest that you stop punishing yourself for your own bad behavior.”

She stepped into the center of the small stone bunker, nervously looking over at me instead of glaring down at the ground. I did very much like seeing those beautiful eyes of hers, and right now I wanted to see them cry.

“A bet is a bet loser, no more playing dress up as a Stolen Cosmos champion. Strip.”

She frowned, a faint blush slowly burning its way into her cute little cheeks as she stripped herself bare before her master’s eyes. “Where do you want them, Ma’am?”

“I don’t care as long as they’re off of you.” I bit my tongue excitedly, patting my lap for her to come sit in it. “But I want you right here.”

I could hear the words in her head as she thought them. She’s going to spank me… But as expected, she graciously offered herself to me, gently bending herself over my knee to spare me the effort of having to make her. “Such a smart girl… hopefully this will teach you just how to use that stupid little brain of yours~”

“What exactly am I being punished for… Ma’am?” Chloe spat back at me before I could begin, almost ferociously. “I thought you weren’t going to punish me.”

“So you’ve saved all of your fighting spirit for this, have you?” Without warning, I brought my palm down on Chloe’s bare bottom, watching in delight as a stinging torrent of pain made its way through her. “I wasn’t going to punish you for throwing the match, but I am going to punish you for your insolence.”

She winced, biting her bottom lip. I could feel her body trembling in my lap as I ran my fingers across her skin. Her soft plush ass was like dough in my hands as I squeezed it, and I could see that she wanted to growl at me for it. “Head down my little bootlicker, keep your eyes on those toes that you love to suck.”

I carelessly curled my fingers in her fluffy orange hair, forcing her head downward and holding it there so that she couldn’t move it even if she tried. She jerked as she was swatted, her cute little butt quickly turning peach as it was spanked. Peach looked good in her hair, but it looked even better on her ass. Oh Chloe~

I would have been lying if I said that I didn’t want her to fight back just a little bit, it made it even more fun to put her back in line. She struggled against me as I continued to spank her, pushing back against my hands, cursing under her breath. “Fuck…”

I quickly cut her off with another slap to her ass, turning her expletives into a high pitched yelp. After a few good minutes of going at her as hard as I could, I clutched onto her hair and violently tilted her head back to look at me, admiring the tears in the corners of her eyes, her face now bright red. “What do you have to say for yourself?”

“I’m sorry… Master…” She choked on her own sobs, desperately trying not to burst into tears. “I’m not going to run, I promise…”

“You should know by now that the edge of tears is not where I want you~” I curled my hand around her cute pink little cunt, pressing my fingers into her slit, feeling the excitement growing between my legs as well as hers, as she slowly began to drip into the palm of my hand.

“Mmmph…” She moaned through her lips, arching her back slightly, trying to ever so slightly pull herself off of my fingers.

I caught her by the back of her scalp and shook my head, pushing her back down. My two fingers pressed further into her cute little slit, sliding in all the way to my knuckles. “Cry.”

I could see how hard she was trying not to, but it only took a few moments of gently pumping my fingers in and out of her to bring her to tears.

She whined loudly. There was the feisty girl that I knew and loved. I only needed my fingers to bring her to orgasm, but she wasn’t getting an orgasm. I wasn’t giving one to her, I was punishing her. I was only doing this to make her cry. “Louder.”

This wasn’t to torment her, that was never the point. The point was to whittle her down slowly, to chip away at that rebellious streak she has hidden in her. This had all started out as punishment for the world championship, but it had evolved into so much more. This was about me asserting my dominance over her, showing her who’s in charge, teaching her to lean on me, her master.

She had changed, and so had I. I no longer wanted to punish her for what she did to me, I had forgiven her. I didn’t want to torture her anymore, I just wanted to train her, to subjugate her. This wasn’t about revenge anymore, this was about love. I loved her, and I couldn’t let go of her.

I squeezed her one last time, pushing her over the edge before slipping my fingers back out. She didn’t orgasm, but she cried, and she cried loudly.

It was cathartic for me to see her like this, and I’m sure it was equally cathartic for her. She needed a release, not a sexual one, but an emotional one. She had been shouldering the burden of a lot of stress and expectations and she deserved to be relieved. She deserved to be rewarded.

I lifted her from my lap, sitting her up and allowing her to lean into me, burying her sobbing head into my chest as I gently ran my fingers through her hair, rubbing the back of her worried little head gently. “It’s okay doll, keep going~”

Yes, it had been a punishment, but she deserved to be rewarded. I pulled the clicker from my pocket and held it behind her so that she couldn’t see it.

This isn’t a game, Candace. This is her life.

I sighed. Chloe wasn’t getting a one hundredth click. She didn’t need one, and I didn’t need to give her one.

She was getting a birthday celebration, not because she got the clicker to go off 100 times…. But because I wanted to give her one, and that was all the reason I needed.

She continued to cry. A few months ago I would have sat here and mocked her, watching her curl up into the corner and sob.

But I was gonna ride this out with her. I was going to sit here and hold her, letting her cry for as long as she needed, and then make sure she was safe and sound.

Aww hell, I should have gotten her a little dog bed for in here, that would be so cute~

It took a while, but eventually she calmed down, gently nestling into me as we sat there. “Hey, Chloe?”
“Mm.” Chloe’s only response was a little bit of motion and a small mumble to let me know that she was listening.

“You’ve gotta sleep in here tonight, okay? We have a big day tomorrow.”

She nodded, and that was enough to signal for me that it was okay to set her down, locking her away in her cell for the night, and gently turning the lights in there off for her. “You’re going to make a great addition to this family~”

I settled into my bed, the small gold bell in hand. She was going to get this bell, because the only thing that mattered was whether or not she made me happy.

And she always made me happy~