by Simon Archer
Built to Serve
Build-A-Catgirl Book 3
Simon Archer
Contents
1. Leah
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
11. Rosie
12. Reina
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
15. Kennedi
16. Floyd
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
About the Author
This book is dedicated to my fans and readers. I write these for you guys and gals!
Let me especially shout out to J.J. Macdonald, Mike Callesen, Shane Funkhouser, Brian Frazier, Matthew James, Larry Clements, Daniel Drooger, Helga Sito, Sean Brislen, Joseph White, Greg Heckman, Robert Leyendecker, Roy Benavides, and Robert Layer!
1
Leah
The squeal outside was so loud that I could hear it from the reception desk. Then, SLAM! The ruckus ended with the revving of an engine and the screeching of tires. I tensed up and closed my eyes, waiting to hear the crash that I was sure would come next, but the sound never happened. After a few seconds, I opened one eye, then waited a moment longer before opening the next one, still wondering if a second car was going to be involved in the accident that I was sure just occurred. The door to the offices behind the reception area swung open.
“Leah! What happened?” Macy burst out. Through my urge to find the answer to her question, I felt grateful for her. Macy was such a caring, loyal, and compassionate cat girl, and one of my very best friends.
“I’m not sure,” I told her as we both headed across the seating area in front of reception toward the front door of the suite. Just as Macy was reaching for the knob, the door flew open. Macy stepped back, and the two of us stared. A rather tall man had his arm around a slumped-over figure and was struggling to pull her alongside him through the entryway. Macy and I took another step back to make room for them to pass. The man made it to the first chair he saw and deposited the figure he’d been holding up. He straightened up and turned to Macy and me.
“You help cat girls here, right? I saw your sign outside,” he said, eyes darting between Macy and me.
“Yes!” I quickly walked to where he was standing. He was directly in front of the chair, and I couldn’t see who he’d brought in.
He moved aside as I approached to reveal a cat girl cowering in the chair. She had a mess of white hair and was dressed in a maid’s uniform. Her clothes were dirty, and she sat with her arms wrapped around herself as though she was trying to make herself as small as possible. Her eyes were riveted on the ground. I glanced up at the man, who had turned to look at her as well.
“What’s going on here?” I demanded of him.
“I was walking just down the block when a car pulled up and pushed her out. She landed so hard I don’t know how she’s not completely broken. Then the car took off like it was being chased,” he recounted.
“That must’ve been what we heard,” I replied. “We were just headed outside to check it out. Did you see who was driving the car?” The man looked over at Macy and back to me.
“I didn’t,” he said, looking at the ground. “I ran to get to her, and the car left so quickly I didn’t even get a license plate number.” I could tell he felt bad for not having any information about the perpetrator.
“That doesn’t matter right now,” I started. I waved Macy over as I knelt down in front of the tattered cat girl. I tilted my head to try to see her face. “My name is Leah. I’d like to help you. Can you tell me your name?” The CG’s eyelids moved, and I could tell she was trying to see me without looking up. Macy came to kneel beside me. She brought her long, black tail around in front of her so the CG would know she wasn’t only amongst humans. The CG’s face lifted a little when she saw Macy’s tail. Finally, she looked up at Macy, then glanced quickly over at me. Macy slowly reached her hand out and placed it on the CG’s knee.
“My name is Macy,” she started. “I used to be scared too before Leah helped me. What is your name?”
A tiny whisper came out of the dirt-covered face. “It’s Reina. My name is Reina.” Macy and I looked at each other. Progress was going to be slow with this CG. I smiled at Reina.
“It’s nice to meet you, Reina,” I whispered back. “Macy can take you to get cleaned up. Would you like that?”
She took one more glance between Macy and me, then nodded her head. Macy and I stood up, and Macy held out her hand. Reina slowly reached up to take it, then stood. She was taller than me by a couple of inches, and through the dirt and torn outfit, I could tell she had a strong, athletic build. She brought her tail forward and wrapped it around herself. It was a beautiful mix of navy blue and black fur with a white tip. Macy led her away, and they disappeared through the door behind the reception area. I turned to the stranger standing nearby as I smoothed my skirt.
“I’m Leah,” I introduced myself as I held out my hand. “It was very kind of you to help her like that.” I reached out my hand and gave him the once-over. He had shoulder-length, light brown hair that was slightly disheveled from carrying Reina in. He had jet-black eyelashes that framed dark brown eyes, making them shine. His olive skin glowed with a light tan that made me think that perhaps he wasn’t from our current location in Elko, Nevada.
“It’s nice to meet you, Leah. I’m Clint Selanic.” He shook my hand and then ran both his hands through his hair to smooth it out. “I have a tendency to want to help cat girls whenever I can. I travel a lot, so I don’t often get the opportunity. I’ve heard of your foundation, but I’m not sure what it is that you do here exactly?”
“General mission statement? We advocate for the fair and ethical treatment of cat girls.” I told him as we walked to the reception desk. “We help them with everything we can. Modification to absolve embedded data mining capabilities, physical wellbeing, job placement... you name it.” I took a seat behind the desk, and Clint sat in one of the chairs opposite me.
“Sounds like a busy task load,” he started. “Do you have any use for volunteers?” I was surprised at his question, being that he had just mentioned a busy travel schedule.
“We do indeed.” I looked at him for a long moment before continuing. I was in need of help with an upcoming event but always took some time to get to know my volunteers before letting them work around the cat girls in our care. I figured I’d feel him out to see if he’d be someone I could push through the qualification process. “In fact, we have an event right around the corner that we are working on staffing.”
Clint shifted forward in his chair, and his face took on an excited expression. “What is the event for?”
“We are launching a re-homing campaign. We want to place the cat girls that come to us in forever homes that will provide them with a safe environment that doesn’t treat them as discardable.” I watched for his reaction. His face lit up, and he smiled, obviously trying to disguise his rising level of excitement.
“It’s not common, but I’ll be here in Elko for a couple of months. Is there any chance you could use my help during that time? I imagine you have a volunteer screening process?” Clint waited for my answer on the edge of his seat. I was impressed that he predicted the screening. Most foundations took volunteers as they came.
“We do have a screening process, yes
.” I leaned forward and put my elbows on the desk in front of me. “And yes, we do have several things lined up that could benefit from extra help within the next couple months. The event I mentioned, of course, but we have community outreach programs as well.” The smaller community projects were harder to staff because they were considered boring by most.
“I’d be happy to do both,” Clint said quickly. “I own a local business and have a decent-sized network here in the area. I’d like to start on that screening process if you feel I’d be a good candidate.” He had sat back a bit in his chair and smiled. I liked his enthusiasm. I looked him over for a long moment. He had stopped to help Reina, and he did appear to be in line with the compassion my foundation was known for. I reached in my desk drawer, pulled out a registration sheet, and slid it across to him.
“I think there is a good possibility you’d be a great fit for UsForThem, Clint,” I started. “Fill this out. As long as everything checks out, we’ll schedule you for a group interview, and get you started.” He picked up the paper and started looking for a pen which I handed to him. I stood up and stepped out from behind my chair. “I’m going to go check on the progress Macy is having with Reina while you fill that out.”
“Okay, sounds good. It shouldn’t take me long,” he told me as he started to read over the questions on the page. He didn’t look up as I walked to the door behind me.
I glanced over as I opened the door and saw that he was already writing on the paper. So often, those who wanted to volunteer were looking to fulfill some requirement for school, court, or a job. This man genuinely seemed to be excited to help. I turned and walked through the door, letting it close behind me. I continued down a short hall and stopped when I reached the first door on the left. The door led into a video room. I’d learned that people often exhibit different characteristics when they don’t know they are being watched. There were security camera notices in the reception area, but it usually doesn’t register that whoever may be monitoring them could actually be paying closer attention.
I walked into the room and examined the screen projecting the image of the reception desk. Clint was alternating between reading and writing on the form I’d given him. He looked concentrated on his task, and there was very little pause between him reading the question and answering it. That was always a good sign as it indicated he was providing true responses instead of writing what he thought the foundation would like to hear in order to approve him. One of the questions made him smile, and I made a mental note to ask him which one.
After a few minutes observing him, watching for red flags and not seeing any, I headed out of the video room and back into the hallway. A few feet further down the hall, on the right side, was the room Macy would be in with Reina. I knocked softly and opened the door. The room had soft lighting, and the walls were painted a warm blue-beige. There was a medical table, three chairs, a counter, and a curtained shower in the corner. Macy and I had designed the intake rooms to be calming regardless of the medical nature of the setting. Macy had lit several candles and was sitting up to the counter. I heard the shower running, so I pointed at the curtain as she looked up when I walked in. She nodded to confirm that Reina was indeed in the shower.
“How is intake going?” I strolled over to her to take a quick look at the notes she’d made from her and Reina’s initial conversation.
“That poor girl has been through some things, that’s for sure,” Macy whispered. “She used to serve cocktails at the Platform matches.” My mind flashed back to the last Platform match I’d been at, the one that ended up closing the place down. The Platform was someone’s horrid idea of entertainment on which two competitors would fight each other with whips, amidst a host of external challenges, and the battle only ended when one of them fell into a pit full of needles below. The ‘someone’ who’d arranged the monstrous event just happened to be a company called Omnicorp. Several of the company’s executives ran gambling pools and illegally data-mined the financial information of the attendees who placed bets with them. They also made cat girls serve the crowd. The CGs were treated horribly by the patrons as well as the executives. In fact, Macy’s best CG friend, Krysta, had been rescued by one of my good friends, Clark, from that very event.
I shook the image from my mind and sat down next to Macy. “What happened to her after the Platform shut down?” Macy looked at me and started shaking her head.
“It took a bit of prodding, but she told me that one of the higher-ups from Omnicorp took her home with him,” she started. “She said he wasn’t too horrible, just demanding. However, his wife hated the fact that he’d brought her to their home. She beat her daily, if not multiple times per day. From the way Reina tells it, the wife sounds like a jealous witch. Finally, the woman decided that she’d had enough of Reina being around, waited until her husband was out of town, and dumped her here.” Macy rolled her eyes with disgust at the inhumane actions of the cruel woman who’d abused Reina so badly.
“That poor girl,” I whispered back. “How is her demeanor?” I wanted to make sure that Reina didn’t respond to normal stimuli the same as dangerous situations.
“She is good,” Macy said. “Despite what she told me, she never actually said anything negative about her owners. She recounted facts, and that was it. Also, she’s not scared of me, which is a plus. I think she is just not accustomed to being offered any kindness at all and wasn’t initially sure what to think.”
“I’m glad she’s not scared of you. Hopefully, that means she will be up for giving us more details later,” I said as I stood up. “Keep me posted and finish getting her cleaned up. The gentleman who brought her in has offered to volunteer for the foundation, and he is filling out the paperwork right now. I have to get back to him.”
Macy raised an eyebrow and looked at me. She hadn’t expected the stranger that brought Reina in to stick around either. I shrugged my shoulders and smiled at her as I walked out of the room. A few moments later, I was walking back through to the door to the reception area. Clint looked up and smiled at me as I walked into the room.
“All done?” I asked, taking my seat behind the desk. Clint smiled and nodded as he slid the form I had given him back across the desk to me.
“Great. Give me just a second to look this over, and we'll move on to step two,” I told him. I started reading his paperwork. According to his paperwork, he was thirty-eight, from Delaware, and owned several biotechnology labs. His facilities were spread out over the United States. He owned several residences and had a long list of philanthropic endeavors. When I was done reading his paperwork, I looked up at him.
“This all looks good,” I told him. “We’ll have to run a background check, but I think we can go ahead and get you scheduled for the interview. It will be done by video conference so that you won’t have to come back in for it.”
An even wider smile brightened his face. “I’m extremely happy to hear that! When is the first available interview time?”
I had to grin at his eagerness to get started. The usual volunteer was between eighteen and twenty-five and looking to change the world all at once any way they could. Clint seemed so much more concentrated and determined than that. Perhaps it was his age that gave him a more focused demeanor. I pulled out my phone and checked my calendar. I only held one group interview per week if there was a need for it. My friend Clark had a special cat girl whose unique ability was to read human body language. Her name was Kennedi, and she was more than happy to do the interviews for me in order to ensure that anyone wanting to volunteer had honorable and genuine intent. There had been an instance in the past when a man who was trying to destroy UsForThem, as well as several other businesses I was aligned with, tried to pass himself off as a friend.
I wasn’t going to let that nonsense happen again.
“There is an opening day after tomorrow.” I looked up at Clint. “It’s at ten in the morning. Does that work for you?”
“Absolutely!” Clint slid his chai
r back and stood up. I followed suit. “I will let you get on with your day. I don’t know what is behind the door, but I bet it keeps you busy. Is there any information I need to take with me?” I looked behind me at the door and then back to Clint. I don’t know why, but I had the thought that my husband, Charlie, would like this man. Neither one of them liked to waste time.
“There is a generic pamphlet by the door,” I told him. I saw his brow rise slightly. “I know, I know… a little old school, but I feel there is just something special about having something to hold and read that makes a connection in service-related endeavors.” I smiled and shrugged my shoulders. I walked around the desk, and the two of us headed towards the front door. We stopped short so that Clint could pick up a pamphlet. He turned to me and reached his hand out.
“I had no idea when I woke up that I would be meeting you today, Leah.” Clint looked pleased but serious as we shook hands. “I’m happy I did, though. I’ve been keeping my eye open for the opportunity to help a cause I really believe in. Low and behold, today I wasn’t even looking, and it fell at my feet on the sidewalk.”
“I appreciate your interest in helping, Mr. Selanic,” I reached beside me and opened the door for him. “I’ll get your background check pushed through, and you’ll receive an email with the video interview instructions.” Clint put his hand on the door and started to step out, but then stopped.
“Do you take donations?” he asked as though the thought had just stunned him.
“Yes, we do,” I told him. Before I had a chance to say any more, he took a step back inside.
