Free Owned And Owner by Anneke Jacob Page B

worried there would be protests from someone in the room. Sooner or later there would be someone to lecture him about women being, in fact, human, and therefore needing emancipation. But this group contained few people so progressive or off-world aware. The only women that ever came past the ports at Henth were exotic pets, and without giving it much thought, that was how these men saw them. Sex was something you did with men, whether you preferred just one partner or a cluster of three or more.
    So the woman was patted, her strange physiology exclaimed over. Her tiny size was in keeping with expectations; she was about average for certain popular dog breeds. Garid kept her close on the leash, sitting or lying at his feet the whole time.
    He went into the kitchen and took off the muzzle to let her slurp some water from a bowl. His friend Deymir came in behind him.
    ‘Hey, Garid, does she bite?’
    ‘Not so far, but if enough people pull her tail, who knows?’ said Garid.
    ‘I won’t pull your tail, you little cutie. What’s her name?’
    ‘I don’t use her Ranizen name; “ jeedy ” is good enough.’
    ‘Okay. Here, does she eat these? Here, jeedy .’ Deymir offered the woman an hors d’oeuvre. She looked up at her owner and he nodded, so she took the morsel in her mouth.
    ‘Oh, can I try?’ said the host. He gave her a choice bit of salik meat, which she obviously enjoyed, and then persuaded Garid to leave her muzzle off. The guests had a good time feeding her tidbits, and the evening was more of a success than it would have been otherwise.
    Sitting quietly in an alcove next to an open fire with an old friend, his pet at his feet, Garid listened to the questions he had been expecting all evening.
    ‘I know you, Garid. You’re a good man, a humane man. How can you derive pleasure from this – this degradation?’
    ‘As far as I can tell I was born this way. I can’t tell you which chromosome it’s on, but it’s there somewhere.’
    ‘But she is human, after all, she’s intelligent. She’s not really an animal.’
    ‘She’s made the way she is also. We’re both anomalies, but we match, you see. And she made a choice, back there on Raniz.’
    His friend looked baffled. ‘Well, all right, I know she chose this. Still, I don’t understand. Why aren’t you teaching her to speak?’
    ‘My choice. It intensifies her position.’
    ‘But how do you know if she’s all right? What if something is hurting too much, and she can’t tell you?’
    ‘I check her restraints very carefully. And she can convey a lot without words. In fact, she couldn’t be easier to read.’
    The man gave his last shot. ‘Garid, I hate to say this, but what if she’s unhappy? Would you keep her anyway? What if she changed her mind, and couldn’t speak and say so?’
    Garid grimaced and looked away. ‘You would ask the killer questions.’ He thought for a moment. ‘No, I wouldn’t keep her if I really thought she was unhappy; I’d take her off-planet and let her go. But she’s not unhappy, believe me.’
    ‘How do you know?’
    ‘It may be unappealing to you, but look at this.’ He lifted his pet’s tail, and ran gentle fingers down the inside of her thigh. They glistened with juices. Avir caught sight of the swollen vagina.
    ‘She’s in heat!’ he exclaimed.
    Garid laughed quietly. ‘She’s always in heat. Women don’t go in and out of season. This one is aroused all the time. The more I restrain and beat her, the more aroused she gets.’ She was clenching and wriggling in response to the light touch, raising her moist hind parts slightly toward her master. He put a restraining hand on her hip, squeezed, and growled, ‘Behave!’ She held herself still at once, only her breathing betraying her excitement. Her inner thighs glimmered in the firelight.
    Garid looked at his friend seriously. ‘She can’t help being what she is. And since this is what she is, she’s property…’ his hand tightened its grip,