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Chapter One
Club Sensations, Seattle, WA…
Hunter
“It seems we have a full house tonight.” Hunter Sutton stood at the balustrade of the mezzanine level, which overlooked the revolving round platform, aka the pit. The stadium-like seats surrounding the area were packed with eager members awaiting the parade to begin.
“Yeah, as is usual on sub trainee selection nights. The Doms love fresh blood and seeing as it’s been longer than normal since we started a new term, they’re hungry.” Reece Jackson, aka Master Scrooge, the Training Master, leaned his elbows on the balustrade next to Hunter.
The atmosphere at Club Sensations was eclectic. This usually occurred when a new group of eager trainees applied as potential candidates for entry into the training academy.
“I’m looking forward to some interesting pairings tonight. We have a strange variety of applicants to select from.” Hunter sipped the smooth single malt whiskey he was nursing as he studied the potential trainees milling around on the platform in the pit. This was the pre-parade informal show-off of the trainees to the crowd. A tease… a little taste to warm up the bidding, which happened if there was more than one Dom interested in a sub. The proceeds of such informal bidding were added to the academy funds.
He wasn’t naive. The prospect of receiving the coveted sponsorship he offered for full submissive training at the recently opened Castle Sin was the actual enticement and why they received thousands of applications every year. Not that it bothered him. At least the Sensations Training Academy gained trainees who truly wished to learn the path to unlock their true submissive. That was the only reason he opened training academies across the States wherever there was a Club Sensations—to teach proper skills and skim those who were only after some excitement.
The training they offered varied from BDSM 101 to Advanced BDSM 102. For experienced subs who couldn’t afford Castle Sin’s admission fees but wished their boundaries to be pushed further to develop well-homed submissive skills, they had the opportunity to enroll in the BDSM Gold package.
Tonight, the applicants varied more than usual. Some were newbies to the lifestyle, others had limited knowledge, and the largest group was experienced but wanted to advance further. Those weren’t the trainees Hunter concentrated on. He preferred the ones who needed proper guidance and coaching to unleash their true desires, which most of them didn’t even know they had hidden deep inside them. Numerous applicants in the past could only describe their desire for training as a need to discover what was driving them to be different. There were those who believed it was a sin to crave sexual domination and didn’t understand the true concept of power exchange.
That was where his, aka Master Crow’s, strengths were. The Dom who tormented newbies into submission until the walls that had been keeping their true selves contained crumbled around them, allowing the natural sub to bloom and excel.
“I don’t recall an applicant with red hair.” Hunter’s sharp gaze homed in on the lithe shape of a woman below. “Who is that tall woman trolling on the same spot while attempting to look like she’s more confident than she is?” He had studied every applicant’s folder to the minutest detail. This woman wasn’t among the batch he had approved for tonight’s parade.
Reece checked the list on the tablet he always carried with him. Since he took the trainees’ well-being seriously, he needed to have all their statistics on hand, should anything untoward occur.
“Her name is Lillian Pringle. Her application was submitted late but was properly evaluated. All the background checks were done and verified.” Reece looked at Hunter. “If you didn’t approve her as a candidate for the parade, how the hell did she end up on my list?”
“How the hell, indeed.” Hunter handed his empty glass to a passing waiter. His gaze returned to the redhead. “Even if she changed her hair color, I would’ve recognized her face since she’s sinfully beautiful and sexy. Her name is different, not something you hear every day, so it would’ve stuck as well. Something shady is going on, Reece, and I want to know what. Prepare the trainees now. Get the show started. Don’t wait for me. I’m going to talk with Meredith.”
Meredith Right was their IT specialist, responsible for all background checks and keeping their members’ information safe and secure. Confidentiality in this business was key.
“Do you think we’ve been hacked?”
“I’ll be severely pissed if we were, especially since neither Meredith nor one of her team picked up on it.” Hunter nodded at Reece descending the stairs to the pit while he ascended to the top floor, where the offices were.
“Strange to see you here on parade night, Boss,” Meredith chirped as he walked into the buzzing operations room. It was the reporting center, where every nook and cranny of the club’s CCTV footage was filtered. Teams watched every scene to ensure no one defied the rules or protocols of the club. If the club safeword was used in any location during a scene, the technology was of such advanced nature, the club monitors were immediately alerted via a location alert sent to their iWatches.
“We might have a potential leak, Meredith.”
She immediately picked up on the seriousness of the matter.
“Fucking hell we do,” she muttered and stomped toward her office, where she immediately began running system checks. “We do security protocols three times a day, once before we open the doors of the club, once after we close, and I do one every morning when I scan the business network.”
“Run a deep sweep. Someone slipped in a trainee who I didn’t approve. I want to know how her name was added to the list without me seeing her application.”
“Name?”
“The name is irrelevant, Meredith. That’s what I want you to check. You have the original list of those I approved. Find the anomaly that doesn’t belong and who slipped her in. I want to know even the smallest details you find that stand out. Instinct tells me the name we have might be an alias.”
“Are you saying someone is attempting to sabotage your business by penetrating the club as a trainee? Corporate sabotage?”
“It’s one possibility. Find me when you have something.”
“If anyone as much as scratched at our back door, I’ll find the motherfucker.”
“Good. I’ll be in the pit.”
“You’ll be in the pit?” Meredith’s head snapped up so fast, a faint crack sounded through the room. “Since when do you enter the pit on parade nights? You usually monitor and evaluate from the balcony.”
