Cover

Dedication

To my Patreon babes,

who joined me in this new adventure!

Content Information

This story was originally shared with chapter by chapter updates in rough draft form on my Patreon in starting in December of 2021.

Warnings and information include:

Dominant and submissive role-playing, sex-work, primal play etc. Overall a great deal of consensual kink and smut. Oodles of after care. Please check out my website kathrynmoon.com for a comprehensive list!

CHAPTER 1

Sunny

This wasn't how I wanted to do this, I thought, staring down into the upturned face of my boyfriend of three years. He knelt on the pretty tile of the upscale restaurant he'd chosen for our date night, the busy room's attention slowly drifting in our direction. I'd been surprised by Harry's suggestion for dinner out. In the three years of our relationship, Harry was rarely the one who wanted to try a new restaurant or activity in our casually arranged routine.

Now, it made sense.

Harry's breaths came quick and nervous, eyes filling up."Sonya, I know you said we should wait, but we're ready. You make me feel like the man I want to become."

That doesn't make any sense, a snarky little voice chimed in my head as my gaze flicked over Harry's head, skirting away from the stares of the diners on us.

Why did people always want to be loved for who they could be? Didn't it make more sense to be loved for who you already were? Was that just a juvenile fantasy I'd been clinging to? Harry loved me for who he thought I was, and while that woman wasn't a lie—productive, cheerful, mild, and agreeable—she wasn't the complete picture, either.

Shit. A bright and glittering tear rolled down from Harry's eye, and a young harpy one table over cooed in response, her feathers rustling.

"Marry me," Harry said, and I tried not to flinch. It sounded more like an order than a request, but maybe that was because it was the third time he'd repeated the phrase.

All around us, the restaurant held its breath, the moment seemingly suspended as Harry and the rest of the room waited for my answer. Except time hadn't stopped.

I had to speak.

It was on the tip of my tongue to just say yes. Everyone was staring. Harry was crying. Yes would be easier. Yes would be nice, cheerful, agreeable.

But yes would be months, years, a lifetime of routine, of continuing to hide the parts of myself that made Harry's eyebrows raise, of coasting on the little concessions he made. In Harry's book, "adventures" included driving somewhere without the GPS, trying a new spice profile on the chicken breast, and watching a television series without him reading comprehensive reviews aloud to me beforehand. Those were the things Harry found daring. Those would be the boundaries I would push gently against for the rest of my life if I said yes.