Lady Rayne was already halfway through her own breakfast by the time her youngest brother walked through the doors and into the room.

“Good morning, my dear sister!” Kaden practically yelled to Rayne as he approached the table to take his seat next to her at the head of the table. He wore a massive smile that he aimed at his sister even as the footmen brought his food over.

As much as Rayne loved her brothers, Kaden could be a little too much at times. This was especially true when they were at social events where he appeared to know every other man around his age on a personal level and had memorized the names of every eligible woman in attendance. Regardless of how her brother could annoy her at times, she greeted him with a smile. “Good morning, Kaden. I trust you slept well?”

“Oh, I slept wonderfully,” he said cheerfully, picking up his fork. The smile never left his face.

Rayne raised an eyebrow at her brother. Though he was typically cheery most of the time, being cheery to this extent was a little over the top. He had done similar things before and that usually meant he wanted something from his ‘dear sister’. Rayne did her best not to sigh. “What is it, Kaden? You only smile like this when you want something.” His eighteenth was in a month so what could he possibly want right now that he couldn’t wait for?

“I don’t want anything,” He said, starting to eat his breakfast even though it must not have been the warmest by now. “I just appreciate my sister and all she does for me.”

“And what is that supposed to mean?” Besides taking care of him, giving him an allowance, getting him gifts for his birthday, and getting celebration plans in order, she hadn’t done much for him recently.

“You know what I mean.” Even while eating he kept smiling.

“I’m afraid I do not.” The lady continued to eat her own meal, still having no clue what he was talking about.

“Come now. Did you really think you could keep it a secret?”

“Keep what a secret?” she asked directly, thankful to the Goddess that she was a master of hiding her true emotions. Knowing her brother if he knew her secret the whole damn capital would know within a day. Rayne had never honestly thought she would have to use Eda’s emergency plan, but she might have to now.

“Rayne, the entire staff can’t keep their mouths shut about it. It was the very first thing Richard said to me when he woke me this morning.”

Fuck, this was very bad. Rayne did her best not to glance at the staff in the room. She was going to have to leave and she was going to take Hannah and Eda with her. She started working out how long it would take her to get everything ready.

“Did you really think you could hide her from me?”

“What?” Rayne was now genuinely confused. Hide who from him? That aside, the sudden relief she felt was astounding. She was safe.

“The fox you bought for me.” Rayne paused mid bite of the last piece of her delicious omelet, before slowly turning her gaze to her brother. Her face was already full of anger, but Kaden was too focused on eating his food to see. “You have no idea how excited I am Rayne, to finally have my own beast. And from what I’ve been told she’s rather cute.”

“What?” It was more than just anger now, it was full on rage burning inside her. Did he really think Hannah was for him?

“Sister, it's so obvious you bought her for me. It’s all but tradition in the Empire to gift an attractive female slave to a young man coming of age. To think all it took was my eighteenth year for our family to finally see the use in beast slaves.”

Though rage fueled her there was a decent amount of shock filling Rayne. He honestly thought she bought Hannah for him. For his own pleasure… Now disgust added to the fire inside her. Did he not see the cruelty of slavery? How horrid it was to take another living, breathing person as property? The bang of the lady’s cutlery clad hands slamming down on the table finally made the young foolish man look up at her. He was instantly confused at the look of pure anger on her face.

“The Hayward family has never believed in the act of slavery, nor will it ever moving forward.” Rayne put as much power and anger into her voice as she could without outright screaming at him. Mr. Williams and two footmen in the room all took a step back knowing well how powerful the lady could be when angered. “Hannah is not yours. I did not buy her for you. I am sickened that you would both believe I would buy her for you and be excited by that prospect.”

Kaden stared back at his sister with a scared and pale face. Rayne was not a woman to ever be trifled with and many had lost everything because of underestimating her. The boy swallowed as her eyes continued to bore into him. 

“Then why did you buy her?” The question came as a shock to Rayne, not having expected him to talk back to her. Defiance grew in his eyes as he thought more about what she said. He saw her expression falter for just a second and it was enough for the proud boy to take his shot. “If our family is so opposed to slavery of those animals, why did you buy her? Doesn’t that go against everything you said?”

Kaden appeared rather pleased with himself to Rayne, and she wanted to destroy that. She had thought her family's beliefs on slavery were set in all three of the Hayward children, but apparently not. Maybe Kaden had spent too much time around schoolmates who say beastkin as nothing but animals for their own amusement. Still, his question stood. Rayne had broken a long-held belief by buying Hannah. Though there was the actual answer of Rayne saving her because she was deliriously attracted to her vixen, she couldn’t admit that.

“A charity case,” Rayne said quickly and proudly. Her brother looked confused at her being able to answer so quickly, which was to be expected. “I bought her as a charity case. While Eda and I were out in the market yesterday, we were set upon by a thief who did succeed in stealing something very important from me. Hannah was there and saw this unfold and then went out of her way to stop and retrieve the item. Doing so out of her own free will was to the detriment of the task her previous owner had given her. Said detriment meant that her owner was going to punish her by having her raped, even though she did this to help me. I couldn’t have another woman raped for the crime of helping me so I bought her. I have given her a better life than she could have ever had as the property of those horrid people because she chose freely to help me and was going to suffer for it.

“Hopefully other nobles hearing this story about how a slave was going to be raped for helping a lady such as myself might turn their attentions to the atrocities that slavery brings upon innocent people. Like I said, I bought her because she helped me out of her own free will even though she was going to be punished for it. I did not buy her for you, so if you dare ever touch her I will put you out of this house with nothing but the clothes on your back.” The lady hid none of the venom in her threat. She wasn’t going to let anyone ever touch her vixen, especially someone Hannah would feel had power over her. Even if that person was Rayne’s own brother. No, especially her own brother considering his new found beliefs on slavery.

Out of the corner of her eye Rayne could see Mr. Williams and a footman share a look. What that meant she wasn’t entirely sure, but she hoped that it would help Hannah’s standing among the staff. That aside, the lady loved how she so easily wiped the smug confident look from her brother's face.

~~~

Hannah started pulling her clothes back on as the doctor packed up his small bag. Hannah had known her mistress was going to call for a doctor to look her over but it still shocked her a little that it actually happened. It was also a little embarrassing, mostly for having to admit what was the cause of the cuts on her thigh. He didn’t say anything about it after that point, but then again he probably would talk to Eda or Mistress.

Once he was finished packing he left the room even while Hannah was still in the process of getting dressed. From what Hannah could hear from inside of the room, which was a great deal with her ears, Eda had waited outside and now the two were talking about her health. Undernourished and a little bruised and battered were the main things of note. That and to keep her away from sharp objects…

The fox felt bad. They didn’t need to worry about her this much. She wasn’t worth all of it. She was just a slave. She wasn’t worthy of this concern they had for her. Looking down at her hand, she found her black claws. Even though all beastkin claws were retractable, slave kin had their claws forcefully trimmed back and Hannah had that done to her a great number of times when she was first taken after clawing out an eye or two. Recently though with the Strawfords lack of care for her they neglected to trim her claws. She hadn’t been brave enough to use them on anything but opening up groceries and her thigh.

She flexed her fingers in the right way and the sharp claws came out easily. There was that urge inside of her. The urge came with a voice telling her she wasn’t good enough. That all she deserved was pain. Before she could give up the fight with that voice Eda opened her door.

“Alright, Hannah, looks like you passed all the doctor’s tests which is good news. No need to worry about any illnesses spreading around the house.” Hannah nodded at Eda’s words, letting her claws retract. “Even so we need to hurry upstairs. The tailor arrived an entire hour earlier than expected and now she’s been waiting for the last fifteen minutes.”

Eda quickly guided them both through the servant halls and out into the family’s main sitting room. Hannah was surprised that this wasn’t going to be happening in her room like with the doctor but she wasn’t going to question it. It wasn’t her place to ever question anything.

Stepping into the room two things were extremely obvious. The first was that the space in the center of the room had been moved and cleared away for the very expensive looking tailor to set herself up. The second was that Rayne was sitting on one of the settees having her afternoon tea. The lady was casually chatting with the tailor about the kind of clothes she liked. Hannah had to wonder if by the expensive look and casual conversation between the two that it meant her mistress had gotten her own tailor for her.

“Ah,” Rayne said, turning to find that Eda and Hannah had just walked in the room. “Looks like you’re finally done with the physician?”

“Yes, my lady. Everything looks fine, just a little undernourished is all,” Eda said, gesturing for Hannah to walk deeper into the room.

“That was to be expected. Hopefully that will change in no time.” Though she had been talking to Eda, Rayne found it hard to take her eyes off of Hannah. She was just as beautiful as she had been last night, though her outfit obscured Hannah’s large fluffy tail Rayne had still yet to touch. 

“So, this is the fox,” the tailor said, giving Hannah a look over as she approached. The tailor was a short woman, even shorter than Hannah which was surprising. She also had piercing blue eyes that seemed to look right through Hannah’s uniform.

“Yes, this is Hannah,” Rayne couldn’t help but say with a large smile. “Hannah, this is Miss Lena.”

Hannah finished making her way over to the center of the room as Eda closed the door behind her, closing all four women in. It made the vixen a little nervous for some reason. “Hello, Miss Lena.”

Lena smiled. “Hello to you too. Alright, love, you’re going to need to take that off so I can get started. You can keep the small-clothes on though,” Lena said, taking the measuring tape off from around her neck. 

The fox nodded and obediently started to undress, though she couldn’t help but feel embarrassed. Of course as a slave she was no stranger to being naked in front of strangers and this would only be down to her small-clothes so it wasn’t nearly as bad. Still, her mistress was here and that made it feel different. She couldn’t work out whether she felt embarrassed because Rayne was about to see her almost naked or if it was because she would see the scars. There was a little solace in the fact that she was currently faced away from Mistress though.

Rayne could see Eda give her a look out of the corner of her eye. She wasn’t fully sure what that look was meant to say but she guessed it was to do with keeping calm during this. Luckily Rayne was a master of keeping calm, or at least outwardly. Not that there wasn’t much to not be calm about. She had seen some of her friends in undergarments before and they her. Well, only in her brassier, nothing lower than that. So this shouldn’t be any different with Hannah, but if she was being honest with herself this was already so different. Rayne could already feel her heart starting to beat harder. There was some part of her that also registered she would be seeing Hannah’s scars first hand.

As Hannah finally pulled off her clothes her scars and shame were on display for her new owner. She dared not peek a glance at how her mistress was reacting to them.  Hannah tried to act like nothing was wrong, but her ears couldn’t help but fold back nervously. 

The lady’s eyes wandered over her vixen’s back. Hannah’s upper garments covered most of the meaner looking scars, but many still peaked out from under it. Rayne felt pain rush through her at the sight. Hannah had lived a hard life and Rayne wanted to do anything she could to make it better. Her mind did eventually move on from the scars to the other thing she hadn’t expected. From the base of her tail a triangle of fur ran up her back and ended somewhere between her obscured shoulder-blades. The triangle was thin, only spanning an inch or two either side of the base of her tail. Much like the tail the fur looked so incredibly soft. Rayne quickly found herself reaching forward to run her fingers through the soft fur, but a timely cough from her ever vigilant lady’s maid made Rayne pull back. Thankfully neither Hannah or Lena noticed.

“Quite skinny aren’t you?” the tailor jested, with no malicious intent and clearly not seeing the connection between what Eda had just said about Hannah and Hannah being skinny. “Though I’ve heard foxes tend to be rather slim.” Hannah gave the woman a slight nod as her arm was pulled up and measured. “I bet it’ll be nice to have some proper fitting clothes for a change.”

“Yes, Miss.” Hannah’s voice was quiet.

Lena chuckled. “This will be quite fun for me,” she stated to the room. “I don’t get to work on beastkin clothing very often. Tails are always fun to work around.”

“Is it really that different?” Rayne asked her usual tailor. She could tell Eda was still rolling her eyes at her ever since she asked Eda to call upon Lena for Hannah.

“It depends on the outfit. Dresses are always a little finicky. Don’t want the opening in the make making the dress hug their rear too tight. Well, some men want that,” Lena said with a cheeky chuckle. “Also making an opening that doesn’t stand out horribly in a dress can be a nightmare. Though we aren’t making Hannah any ball gowns, so that won’t be too much of an issue.”

Rayne now internally lamented the fact that she wasn’t going to see her vixen in a ball gown. She would get over it though. Maybe one day though…

Eda breathed a sigh of relief, not having known what Rayne planned for Hannah by getting her own tailor. At least she wasn’t going above and beyond with her vixen just yet.

“But I’m sure with the six outfits you’ve asked for I can still make something cute and pretty,” the tailor said as if it was nothing. No doubt she had made outfits of all kinds for beastkin upon request before, even if it wasn’t common.

The fox and the lady’s maid shared a look of shock at how casually Lena mentioned Hannah would be getting six outfits. Hannah had only expected two, maybe three uniforms so that she would always have a clean one on hand. Could she really be making six uniforms? But uniforms weren’t cute and Lena said she would make something cute. Was Hannah getting actual clothes?

Rayne fought off a blush at the look the head housekeeper sent her way, obviously unhappy with how she was spoiling Hannah.

“Six outfits? As in actual clothes?” Hannah asked, having convinced herself that she must have misheard Lena. She also took a quick glance behind her at her mistress, but quickly looked away after meeting Rayne’s gray eyes.

“Yep. Will be a lot of fun for me,” Lena said, clearly quite happy about it.

“But… I don’t need clothes…”

“For your previous owner, you might not have needed anything but a flimsy piece of sack they called a dress,” Rayne said, standing herself up from the settee and making her way over to Hannah. Her hand gently lifted Hannah’s chin up so that their eyes met. She couldn’t help but stare into those beautiful yellow eyes as they looked back at her. “But since you’re mine, Hannah, you are going to have actual clothing. I do not expect you to wear your uniform at all times, for there will be times in which that is not appropriate. Thus you will need actual clothes and outfits.”

Hannah stared back into her mistress’s eyes. They were such a bright and intense gray that they just drew her in. Without even realizing it the vixen’s cheeks started to turn red under Rayne’s gaze. Not only that, but her arms unconsciously went to cover her bust even though it was still covered by her brassier. The tailor gently grabbed her wrists and pulled them away so she could keep measuring, which caused the fox to jump slightly not having expected to be touched.

Seeing her vixen jump broke the spell Hannah’s eyes had over her, and she quickly pulled away from touching Hannah. Rayne could easily get so lost in looking at Hannah and gently touching her soft face didn’t help at all. She took a step back and continued to watch Lena go about her work.

“Alright, little fox, time to take this off so I can get the measurement,” Lena said, tapping the collar around Hannah’s neck.

With Lena making no move to do it herself, Hannah reached back nervously and started to take off her own collar. It was a little difficult since she had never done it herself before, but she got it eventually. It was a very strange feeling having it off, even if it was off for a short time last night. The vixen had gotten so used to it over the years. Even so, taking it off was a relief and doing it herself felt ridiculously good. For the first time in a very long time it felt like Hannah could breathe freely.