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I looked to Patience. “I assume he got mouthy with you?”
“Moira dropped by, and he interrupted us while we were deep in conversation. She used a stainless-steel knife, so it’ll grow back.” She glanced at him and then met my gaze. “I gave him a time limit to finish a task, and told him he’d have to eat his own tongue if he didn’t finish.”
I looked to my eagle. “I suggest you get back to work, rather than lounging about on your knees.”
How much longer does he have to finish? I asked Patience, but I sent the telepath to both her and Venom.
Twenty minutes. He’ll probably cut it close, but he should finish in time. She switched to speaking out loud. “Anything I need to know about your time with the shifters and Kelsey?”
“I sent a report to Marco before the dawn took me each day, which I know you’ve seen. I probably learned more about them than they learned about me, and they’re restricted by the NDA. Should we ever find ourselves outsourcing security, we should make sure we get those three.”
“I have a video meeting in a few minutes. I’ll send your eagle down to you when he finishes his task. I’ve been writing daily reports about what he can and can’t handle. I’ll polish it and send it when this meeting is over. In short, he’s learning to pay attention to detail, but you’re going to want to doublecheck his work for a while.”
“Thank you so much for the time you’ve spent yanking him into shape. I trust his performance in other areas was better?”
“Yes. He has a skilled tongue and the kind of dick you expect from a bird. You haven’t had long to train him as a sex slave, but I had zero issues. Well done.”
I smiled, bowed, and left so she could prepare for her meeting.
“Want to let me in on how you turned him into a sex slave capable of getting glowing reviews from Patience so quickly?” Venom asked. “She’s known for being demanding and hard to please.”
“Positive and negative reinforcement, both given consistently, along with lots of communication about my expectations.” I sighed. “You have to know my gift goes a long way towards the negative-reinforcement end of that. Terror is a powerful motivator. Also, knowing his favorite foods and the ones he can barely stomach acts as a huge cheat sheet for most shifters.”
“Andreas will be returning to New York a few days after Christmas. Nathan made him an offer, and he accepted. Andreas was going for a job as a research scientist, his undergrad degree in medical technology. It won’t take much to change that to a degree in Forensic Sciences — one extra semester and he’ll have both degrees, and Drake Security offered him a contract: they’ll pay the rest of his tuition and boarding fees with the caveat he comes to work for Drake Security for a minimum of five years. Bonus, Nathan will install him in his personal pride as an Omega male when he returns to Chattanooga, and Andreas will have the opportunity to move back in with me, should he desire to do so.”
I gave him a lopsided grin. “This Amakhosi excels at finding political solutions. Unusual, for a cat.”
“I’m told he’s changed since he met the woman who is now The Harlequin. He’s both harsher and softer, depending on the situation, but she apparently taught him to think outside of what one would normally consider a possibility.”
“Will you want your lion back in a few years?”
“I suppose we’ll see what happens between now and then.”
I walked to the playroom on the underground level, and Venom asked, “Did you reserve it?”
“I did. My time begins in about fifteen minutes, but it appears unoccupied at the moment, so I assume we can go ahead and get set up.”
When Patience sent my eagle to me twenty minutes later, he arrived carrying his tongue in his hands as if it were an offering. He went to his knees before me, both hands lifted as if they were a tray, the tongue centered on it. I felt the polite request for him to telepath, and I responded, Yes?
Mistress Patience ordered me to bring you the tongue, in case you have use of it, Master Etta.
I lifted the tongue, turned it so I could see it from every angle, and noted Moira had cut it off at the root, far back in his mouth. It’s an art form, cutting a tongue this cleanly and so far back. I was impressed.
Did you ever get to tell Patience and Moira what had been so important you needed to interrupt them?
I did, Master Etta.
Did they adequately explain to you how you should’ve gone about informing them of this information?
Yes, Master Etta. I won’t make the same mistake again, and I apologize to you, for putting myself into a situation where others had to discipline me.
I’d been debating about whether to punish him again, and he saved himself with that statement. “Once you’re fully trained, if someone else has to discipline you then you will absolutely be punished by me a second time upon your return. I will assume you’ve learned this particular lesson, but if anyone else ever complains about you interrupting them, I’ll punish a helluva lot more than your tongue for it.”
I tossed the tongue so it landed in a large sink ten feet away, since I didn’t see a better receptacle for it, and turned back to him. “I assume you can still scream?”
He nodded, and I smiled. “Venom is going to drink from you once I finish with you. I understand you’ve yet to experience his bite?”
Terror poured off the eagle shifter, and I drank it in while tweaking his physiological response to make him even more afraid.
