I was still quite embarrassed, but everyone seemed aware I had been sad to the point of wishing to end my life. Privacy was a privilege I wished I could earn back. Nothing about me was a mystery on this.


    Taking a breath, I asked Tosu if my stomach was the right size. I admitted I feared my child was too small. Perhaps something was wrong and I should do something different.


    Tosu reassured me quickly.


    “Boys are smaller than girls,” she soothed. “Your little one is the right size. It will be an easier birth.”


    “Thank you, Mistress Tosu,” I sighed stroking my rounded belly. “I worry for him, for his future. I know I have no control…”


    “He will be born a ve,” she said very softly and I looked into her eyes, “but he will not stay that way.”


    I couldn’t keep the shock off my face, but it did not stop her.


    “I believe freedom is a right, Rachel, you will be free again. I promise you. This will end,” she said with whispered fierceness. “We are close, so very close.”


    It had been so long since anyone had called me Rachel. The strange men at the cabin had and she had in the past. I barely recognized it as my name. My mouth opened and shut, but nothing came out.


    “It is your free name,” Tosu saidying her hand on my arm. “I will not sully it while you are in bondage. Remember it, little human, you will answer to it again.”


    I sat shocked into silence by her statement. Tosu just smiled and wished me a good afternoon as she walked away.


    For a long time, I sat at the little table and stared after her. It was only when Rose approached me about doing our afternoon work that I finally roused myself. Slowly I moved to sit with her and Fuji.


    We were making stories for the young boys again. It was a chore that Rose loved, so she hated it when I interrupted her work.


    “What was your name before?” I asked Rose.


    She looked up and smiled. “I supposed they won’t care if I tell you now, will they?” she asked rhetorically. “It was Ruth, Ruth Ann Marshall. I’ve decided that my husband’s name was never really mine. That was my maiden name.”N?velDrama.Org holds this content.


    “Ruth,” I repeated, trying the name out. I’d have to remember it.


    “And you Fuji?” I asked watching her. “What name did you have before your Masters named you?”


    Fuji looked confused for a moment, like what I’d said made no sense.


    “I had no name,” she said simply. “The owner of a female names her on my. If the male wishes the female to have a name, he gives her one. I was granted my own name to use by Master Stayne and his Brothers. It is the only name I have ever had.”


    Rose and I both sat and stared at Fuji.


    “You never told me that,” Rose said, almost usingly.


    Fuji sat and thought for a moment before she shifted and spoke. “Master Stayne and his Brothers demand that I speak honestly with my friends, because I wish to. I have never been given this directive before.”


    Rose and I started to speak at once and had to take turns. What Fuji had said made almost no sense. Either you spoke freely or your said what your Master demanded. It took us a while to understand that Fuji didn’t feel she could talk, unless they gave her permission. Still it was impressive she wanted to talk to us.


    “You are changing Fuji,” Rose said with a smile. “The girl I have known all this time would not have asked her Masters for anything.”


    Fuji just grinned at us.


    Kennedy and Hannah visited several times during my pregnancy. We had to be careful, because we could not walk and talk. Nu-reeh demanded we stay in the space she had made for me.


    Since we couldn’t leave the ever present cameras the girls didn’t say much. We knew that the cameras didn’t transmit sound, but it was unnerving to be watched. Although Tosu had no issue speaking freely to me here, my daughters were wary. I appreciated their caution.


    I used the pad in secret every day. My family and I continued to learn about the world, so we would be knowledgeable when we left. All of us were bent on escape from very.


    At some point my stomach finally grew to what I considered eptable size. The little boy in my womb was active and yful. He liked to kick and stretch. My dder must have fascinated him, because he pummeled it all the time. I shuddered to think how active he would be when he came out.


    The contractions started one morning after breakfast as Rose, Fuji, and I sat talking. No one was in the rooms, besides us, so I didn’t give it much thought. The men would arrive for lunch and I would just tell them then. For now I just paced and breathed through the steadily increasing cramps.


    We didn’t panic until I sat on thecquered pot to pee and my water broke about mid morning.


    “This is your third,” Rose said worriedly. “It ising quickly.”


    The contractions started toe faster and more regr. Rose and Fuji finally decided someone had to get the men. I told them how to get to the sorting room and Fuji bolted out. Rose elected to stay with me, because she knew more about human child birthing.


    This was happening so quickly this time. I took off my dress and my boots in the birthing room and crawled up on the warm b. It had never urred to me Nu-reeh and her Sisters would watch the camera for that room. They arrived before the men did and shooed Rose out.


    My family barely made it to the birthing room before the birth. Kein crawled up behind me and supported me, so I could wrap my arms around my belly and grab my legs. It took only three pushes and my son slipped onto the b.


    Damien and his Brothers stood transfixed staring at our boy as Nu-reeh picked him up. I saw them try to grab the child, but Dinah pushed them back.


    “Stay,” Tosu demanded, “let us check him. We will not harm him.”


    Much like before the cord was cut and seared shut. Unlike any other time, Nu-reeh treated this infant like a precious gift. She held him gently as he started to cry and inspected him thoroughly as she dried him.


    I stared at the little boy in Nu-reeh’s hands. He had hair, that surprised me. Wet, blonde locks hung past his shoulders on all sides. When he was calm and still, my boy was pale, like me. As he started to be upset with the cold and the handling his skin took on the prominent stripes of a Paterian male. It relieved me to see the change, although I hated to hear his upset. Watching Nu-reeh it was obvious she was not trying to hurt him, though.


    The only thing Nu-reeh did that horrified my family was circumcise the child quickly with a talon. Damien and his Brothers yelled and tried to get past Dinah and Tosu, but the two women held them back. It was necessary for cleanliness, Tosu patiently told them.


    Seeing the mens’ distress, even I tried to tell Damien what she was doing, but he refused to listen and cursed Nu-reeh. She barely noted the inappropriatementary.


    “It will be healed by the next nightfall,” Nu-reeh said absently, while swaddling the little boy tightly. “Each of you had this done as did every other male. Do not upset yourselves.”


    My son was up to a full fledged wail by this point. He sounded like a small cat caught in the rain. When Nu-reeh finally handed him to me it was such a relief.


    The men huddled around as I brought his tiny mouth to a breast. Instinct took over the moment the firm tip of my nipple met his lips. He rooted around andtched on right away.


    “Like Hannah,” Damien said proudly.


    In that way, yes, he was like Hannah. Feeding seemed toe naturally to him. This little one wasn’t shy and took what he wanted. The hair was very different though, long and blonde.


    A momentter his eyes opened and I knew this was not Damien’s child.