CHAPTER 259: CHAPTER 259 - ...SHOULD FIT THE CRIMINAL

My fingers tapped over the phone screen as I considered the delicious possibilities of establishing a sort of debtor’s claim on Claire. Not actually stealing the woman away from working for Kyrie - that would be needlessly impractical.

However, figuring out what happens from the perspective of a ’pack member’ is important. Will they continue to see none of what I do, just as with the scan? Or will they get their own... subsystem.

Honestly, I think that is very unlikely, but I wouldn’t want to start spreading whatever entity’s ’magic’ this is to other people if it *can* happen. I think?

Hoarding it does sound awful. But no matter how helpful it is at times, looking at it as a ’virus’ is all I can do. It didn’t give me a choice to ’install’. And the ’pop-up’ when I entered the world wouldn’t go away until I clicked on it.

Even with as little as I know of computer tech, it sounds suspicious! But if anyone is going to be infected with this absolutely mental voyeur of an Apocalypse System... would not punishing a similar minded person with like-for-like be in order?

"That has a certain appeal."

I tapped to record a voice message, letting my tone carry all the regal command of the court I’d ever been trained to wield. The kind of voice that did not just expect immediate compliance without question. The kind that demanded it without saying so.

"Claire Thomsson. For your transgression against my privacy, I sentence you to what you may know as moonlighting. Consider yourself... on loan to serve me directly in your spare time. I’ll have some very specific contracts for you to agree to when next we meet."

I paused, giving time to let that sink in before continuing on - with just a sliver of warmth creeping back into my voice. It probably works better on the retainers that only know you for being cool voiced.

Not that I regret talking to her in openly friendly tones before now.

"Don’t worry, I’m not unreasonable. This arrangement should not interfere with your primary duties to Ms. Voss. In fact, I would prefer you honestly tell me when you think it will. We’ll discuss the details soon."

Ending the recording and sending it out, I felt the thrill of asserting control over a useful retainer. As well as of turning an awkward situation to my advantage. Both situations sent a satisfying rush of gratification through my system.

For about a dozen seconds, until her message returned.

BK: [Yeah, well, I don’t want to burst your bubble, but I have kind of already been told to be helping you secretly as much as I can. So I’m not really sure you are gaining anything.]

BK: [But the two of you really do kind of think alike. It’s cute.]

C: [You realize you are probably going to regret this, not knowing what sort of contracts I intend to force you to sign?]

BK: [As long as the people I care most about are happy and don’t loath my very existence for choices I make on whims, I’m pretty sure I’m good with anything. Bring it on.]

Well, that’s a little less satisfying in some ways. It feels like she is making amends rather than being punished.

It also feels like I’m the one in the wrong when she was the one who did something objectively awful. Damn, she’s good!

But I’m not just going to let her quick mind run me around. At the very least, I can leave her with some parting anxiety.

C: [Remember that I warned you. There are things worse than the anger of an Alpha.]

BK: [Yeah, maybe for you. I saw the security footage, you know. For Mystic Merch. It was like watching a lion tamer walk up and boop the upset and unleashed cat’s nose.]

BK: [I can do a lot of things, but I would die doing that. You have ovaries of steel.]

Squinting at the phrase, I just shake my head. Clearly not literal - and I can tell by context what she means.

BK: [Speaking of which - might want to address that other situation when she wakes up.]

C: [Address what situation?]

BK: [The fact that she confiscated the physical copies of your photo booth date from that Stonewater woman earlier. Seemed particularly bothered by the one with the heart pose for a bit.]

My eyes widened. She’d actually *taken* Ellie’s stickers? The jealousy must have been even worse than I’d realized. And yet now she is just sleeping so soundly.

I can’t tell if the woman is low maintenance or high maintenance...

BK: [Anyway, I should let you two get back to whatever you have going on. Just remember - if any of those nude photos ever need to disappear from the internet, I’m very good at making things like that vanish.]

BK: [Well, mostly. I admit I kept backups in case the client didn’t pay me or screwed me in some other way in the future.]

C: [...Is that a threat?]

BK: [Just blabbering. Besides, I’m like 1000% sure you would not give much of a damn even if you became the idol of all basement dwellers. And again, you’re not the one I’m sure would kill me.]

BK: [So basically I’d be screwing myself if I released them, ever. Regardless of what awful things you have planned for me to agree to.]

BK: [I kind of really like being threatened by you though. It’s like I honestly know you mean it, but also that I have a clear route of staying in a lane.]

How charming. As if I would believe that boundaries actually matter to her at this point. She really should be called BoundaryBreaker instead!

And it’s sort of amusing that she thinks I’ve really been threatening her. What happened at our first meeting aside, none of what I’ve said or done has been with any such raw motivation.

In the first place, I don’t threaten... I assure destruction. The last woman who thought they had me figured out as ’ultimately harmless’ learned differently. As far as I know.

One of the merchant’s daughters that decided to underestimate a Fox Princess’s patience with *her* games. Of threats to let others know what we had been up to in our trysts. Last I heard, she went missing...

A shame what happened to her family’s entire trade conglomerate just before then. Oh, don’t give me that whine. I didn’t lay a hand or order one laid upon her.

Though whatever her own family may have done with the information I gave them? That she sought to sow chaos in the kingdom. That I therefore traded favors to prevent her powerbase - her family - from achieving that goal...

Well, anything they did, whatever it was, was what *they* did. Not me.

C: [Have a good night, Claire.]