"Within that absolutely enormous holding area, I was certain we were all going to die. More and more people were taken out and not returning. I had found some solace in another werecat's existence, although she was from a jaguar shadow, which is equal to a lion's pride. From what I could see, as many nonhumans were taken out, just as many were replaced. It was a consistent stream of activity. I was always left wondering when I would be next. Perhaps I was someone's desperate choice for a cougar-type and I wasn't wanted at first."

From Azazel's negative but silent response, I was able to tell Kyler that wasn't the actual case. He frowned and minutely shook his head as if to clear his mind for the continuation of his past. My question was answered a moment later.

"I don't know how long I was sitting in that cell. Once in awhile, we were rinsed with buckets of cold to warmish water and then thrown rags to dry ourselves with, but it was never enough. Infections from bodily waste had myself—and many others like me—very sick and weak. Even if we wanted to fight back, it would have been impossible."

I felt sick to my stomach. It was worse than I thought—Kyler's past, I mean. And to think I was in partial support of my creator, although not in the things he had done but simply in believing why he had done so much harm to others.

Kyler slowly breathed out as my uncomfortableness and anxiety came over me like it had after Daddy pleaded that Kyler would be the last lover. My face flushed, my heart pounded like crazy, and my skin felt so hot and prickly. A headache crept up on me and my stomach roiled with unease.

"Wyll?"

I looked up to see Ian's concerned expression. "What's wrong, Ee?"

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah," I replied, but the answer had gotten kind of stuck to the roof of my mouth and it left a bitter taste. It was a lie. I lied to one of my beloveds. I'm scum.

Kyler suddenly gripped the back of my neck and I shuddered, my body going slack. I whimpered and stared up at his scowling face.

"Ky..."

"Stop it."

"B-but Ky—!"

"If you start that thought process again, I will spank you."

Waltz oohed, but I wasn't in the mood. Matteo's and Gavin's heads turned to look up at me. I felt like crying again. What's wrong with me? Maybe I do have Stockholm Syndrome. I'm such a horrible person. How could I feel anything towards Kyler's and tens of thousands of people's sole tormentor—the latter's murderer? Maybe I should just...

In an instant, I felt myself being lifted. Matteo and Gavin moved back, then I was laid over Kyler's lap.

"N-no, I'll stop, Ky. I'll tell everyone what I'm thinking from now on. I won't keep it hidden anymore. I don't want to hurt you all any further."

Kyler knew I could get out of this if I wanted that, but I felt like I deserved it for being such a bad lover to them. He spanked me ten times until I was sobbing, then he pulled up my pajama pants and set my aching rear end in his lap again. He held my head to his chest and kissed my forehead, cradling my physically tired, mentally worn out, and emotionally-drained body in his embrace.

"How did you know?" asked Russet, then Kyler glanced at him. I was safe and secure in Kyler's arms, making me feel ten times better.

"I could see it in his eyes, Russet. I was like him for a long time after I escaped. I kept beating myself up and loathing the decision I made to only save myself, not fully knowing if I could have helped the others. While the situations are different, Anwyll is not in a good mental place right now, just as I wasn't thirty years ago."

Dian quietly spoke up, "I guess, just as we were selflessly helped by Annie, we now have to help him—show him how much he means to us and that we could never let him go."

My eyes filled with tears, this time for a different reason. Dian moved towards me, leaving a watery-eyed Waltz and Ian a few feet behind. Kyler passed me over, then Dian held my form tightly.

"You're so thin, Annie." he whispered, kissing my head as I cried into his shoulder. "Briar and Gavin need to work together to get you fattened up again in no time."

I couldn't help my bark of laughter, but tears were still slipping down my cheeks. Dian kissed my right temple, then he passed my form to Damon and Blaine, who were both cuddly and kissy with me until my crying had eased a little bit.

I was passed around, getting kisses and hugs from my beloveds. Russet's tail was wiggling while he and Angel hugged my form tightly. Zaire even licked my skin with his shifted snake tongue, tasting my salty tears. Waltz cuddled my whole body and kissed my ears with Ian. Uncle Andros and Daddy peppered my face and arms with little kisses. I was quietly sniffling after Ambrose and Daviel cuddled with me for a few seconds. Gavin and Matteo looked at each other, then they curled down on their hands and knees. They kissed my hands, knees, and the tops of my feet. I couldn't help my giggles from the ticklish touches.

Gavin gave me a kiss to my left cheek with Matteo on the right, then Briar took my small, thin, and puffy-eyed self into his arms. His tail tip flicked and he rubbed his head against mine, then he gave my sleepy form to Kyler.

"Are you feeling better?"

"Yes, thank you, Ky." I looked at all of my beloveds and thanked them as well.

"There's no need to thank us, Anwyll." whispered Blaine, and Matteo nodded.

"B-but—!"

"Enough buts, Annie. You've got fifteen lovers who all agree. We're doing what we should have been all along." stated Waltz, having returned to his comfy position across our twin beloveds' laps.

"O-okay, Alt."

Waltz's wings shimmered into existence, making me smile. Briar gently but firmly rubbed my back, so I released the breath I had been holding. Gavin and Matteo returned to their spots at my side with their heads respectively on my thighs and lap. I started petting them again, then waited for Kyler to continue.

"Eventually, my day arrived. With shackles around my ankles and a collar around my neck, I was pushed forward with a sharp object behind me. It was a metal pitchfork, which I had seen one of the guards use to pin a harpy to the wall when she tried to escape. The guards did not hesitate to use force to make us submit. I know self-preservation was key in my mind, which is what made me feel so much guilt and regret after I had escaped. But before then, I had no idea that I'd be stuck in that lab for seventy years. Time was slow—almost nonexistent for me, but that was only after its markers had disappeared.

"At one point, all of my limbs had been removed and more than anything I wanted to die because my tormentor had continued to try fusing other nonhumans' body parts to mine. But they kept failing time and time again. Eventually my legs were returned, as disgusting as that is for me to say. Apparently they belonged to another experiment for awhile, but she died. Sometimes I was in my animal form for surgeries and others I was in this form."

I felt even more sick to my stomach. "W-were there painkillers?"

Kyler held me a bit tighter. "Sometimes, but not for every surgery. I guess there was the concern of addiction because in the earlier stages it was some kind of laudanum and then pure opiates later, if I remember correctly about what he was muttering to himself for dosages."

I just had horrible images of Azazel using a saw on Kyler when he didn't have painkillers and nearly threw up, even though it would only be bile. Ian looked just as pale and sickened, and he probably felt worse about heckling Kyler a bit earlier. I mean, I certainly would in Ian's place.

I pushed my fingers into Matteo's dark brown hair and gently rubbed his scalp for a moment before doing the same to Gavin's light brown hair. Gavin purred while Matteo huffed and snuggled closer. Briar's tail curled around mine as he kissed my cheek, calming my body within a minute. I took a few deep breaths and then relaxed again. Kyler purred and petted my head, keeping my body tucked against him.

"Although I often found myself either calm or angry and thrashing, I wasn't sad over the loss of my arms. They were useless to me anyway. Eventually, my tormentor found a pair of arms that actually worked for my body. Although my body wasn't necessarily rejecting this pair of arms, the 'doctor' had to stitch them onto my body with magic. He had to stitch tendons, muscles, nerves, and even the bones in order for the arms to stay on my body and function properly."

"I saw this for myself before I removed Azazel's magic and replaced it with my own. It was insane, and it took every ounce of concentration I had because of the fine details." I stated, barely turning my head to look at my other beloveds. Briar was resting against Kyler's right side and snuggling against my back, so I wiggled my tail a bit and Briar's tail curled more tightly around it.

Kyler inhaled deeply and let his breath out. "During the early testing stages of my new arms, I was horrified by their appearance in their shifted form. I was even more disgusted by my appearance in my mountain lion form because of these arms. I learned later that these belonged to a siren—the same one I had spoken briefly with in the Cell before he was taken away. And that same siren wasn't alive anymore at the point where I learned that information. I couldn't stop throwing up bile and dry-heaving while crying. I was hoping that these arms belonged to someone I had not exchanged words with, as brief as they were, because there would have been no mental and or emotional connection."

"I'm sorry, Ky." I whispered.

Kyler shook his head. "It doesn't matter now. Besides, he wasn't done yet."

Ambrose's facial expression formed a scowl as my right hand was placed over Kyler's heart. It was not out of jealousy or envy, but because of a deeper anger towards Azazel, the former Evil Spider. I sensed that Ambrose was about to bring his swords out, but nothing happened. So my vampire is very, very angry.

"Your heart?" asked Damon, solely for clarification.

Kyler nodded. "Yes, my current heart is not my original one. And that is the source of my fluctuating emotions between overly wild and cheerful versus dark and gloomy. I was never a particularly cheerful child, but I did meet one in the Cell. She was a little damaged like me in the sense that her body was not fully functional. The heart of a lame sea-lion became mine. Her heart grew in my chest, and her interests in fashion and making clothes became mine. I knew it was from her because she told me all about her dreams and the passion she had...before she was taken like the rest."

"But her dreams and passions became your own, Ky. I know she's living vicariously through you and in your work, but you put in the effort and you have such talent with it all. You know that, right? That it's not just all her?"

"Of course I do, Anwyll. Briar helped me get to that point, though. I never would have gotten to live out her desires had he not offered me a job more than a few years ago." explained Kyler, then he chuckled and kissed my head. "Thank you, my cute pup."

I blushed and tried not to squirm. I do love it when he calls me "pup."

"So was this girl a seal or an actual sea lion? Kind of like a silkie?" asked Angel, and Kyler shook his head.

"I was quite proudly told that her werecat race was a legendary one because it was believed that Poseidon had created lions in the sea. She told me she had three forms—human, partial, and full. The partial form allowed her to shift into a lion with a fish tail, much like a mermaid and a siren, but their fur hues were mainly muted dark shades for the sake of camouflage. The full form was a pure lion form with the same colorations and kelp for manes and tails. I call her a sea-lion because she didn't tell me what her race was actually called."

Daddy hummed. "I know there are merlions, but this sounds like a different race entirely because merlions do not fully shift into a lion. They are mostly fish-shaped with the head of a lion."

Kyler nodded, but I was still hung up on the Poseidon part. "Wait, so does that mean Greek gods exist?"

Kyler shrugged. "I don't know. That's just what her race believes. I don't even know how she was captured because if she was lame, then it would be quite hard for her to get around in the sea as well as on land unless someone was keeping her at home and helping her. That's how I see it, anyway."

"So how did you escape?"

Kyler looked up at Damon and shook his head. "To be honest, that part is very fuzzy. The only thing I remember clearly is my hands and knees hitting soft grass, then pushing myself to run as far as I could with fear fueling my strides. Honestly, I have no idea how I was even capable of running for so long and so far without having exercised much—unless forced for physical trials."

I thought back to what Azazel said about memory manipulation. Maybe he did that to Kyler on purpose so that he couldn't ever remember where Azazel's laboratory was in order to save the others—that is, if he had enough strength and courage to face the monster that broke him down and stitched him back together. That theory makes a lot of sense to me.

The room was pretty quiet after that with people either thinking or snoozing like the two on my lap/thighs. I rubbed my cheek across Kyler's chest and kissed his cheek once he curled down, so he hugged me tightly and petted my head. Any uneasiness regarding what he might think about me completely melted away under his hands and lips. Kyler still loved me, despite what was going on inside my head and core where Azazel's soul resided with mine.

"Do you want to talk to him?" quietly asked Uncle Andros, referring to Azazel. "Our pup is somewhat possessed right now."

Azazel seemed very reluctant to emerge even if I had asked, so he was extremely relieved when Kyler shook his head.

"Not yet, but I think I will one day." stated Kyler, pushing his fingers deeper into my hair. "For now, though, I don't want him inside Anwyll."

Azazel appeared away from our group, which made everyone but me jump. "Anwyll can put my soul back into a body. This one would work fine." he explained quietly, sounding very regretful or guilty, I think.

Was he affected by my mindset/personality a little too much before he died or from being connected to my soul for the past month? Or maybe it was both because, in comparison to how I first met him, Azazel is so different that I can't even call them the same person, even though that is obviously the case.

I sighed aloud and rubbed my face. "I can do that, but is everyone okay with this decision? Maybe Papa needs to have a say in this, too."

Kyler tilted his head. "Papa?"

Within fifteen seconds, Papa appeared with a flourish with his black-hued magic swirling around him and all of my lovers shrank back. I imagined a barrier around him that would keep his magic and presence from leaking out temporarily, just as my dear papa lifted me into his arms. I hugged him tightly, tears pushing at my eyes. It had been a really long time since we had even just held hands. Papa could never stay here very long and be comfortable, and I had rejected his touch for the past month. It felt good to be held by my father.

"Papa, I'm so sorry." I whispered into his neck. "I-I really—!"

I was shushed by his hand cupping the back of my head and neck. His broad chest shuddered with a loud exhale, a slight growl in his throat as soon as he noticed Azazel.

"What is going on here, Alexandre?"

Daddy turned a bit more to sit in a comfortable position as he looked up at Papa with a frustrated expression. "Your creator needs a new body because his soul is with Anwyll's own, Erasmus."

"What?"

I sighed softly. Time for some more explaining.