A Kitten's Tail Ch. 16

I could see the tears trickling from Sonia's eyes as she nodded and Marta scooted over to put her arms around her. "I have also contacted my lawyer, who is the executor for both of their wills. We will be meeting with him next week. You won't have to worry about anything other than mourning them my dear."

"On a slightly more positive note, I was able to get ahold of my insurance agent. He was able to pull the police reports when I was on the phone with him. The inspector is going out tomorrow to get an appraisal on the damages. From the look of the reports, the main house is a total loss, but the guest house only suffered light damage in comparison," I explained. "There were some sparks off the main house that caught the front of the guest house burning, but because it was started from the outside after the main house was burning, the fire department was able to keep it from spreading too far. It will still need some heavy work before we can move in, but it can probably be done in a couple weeks."

"The only good news is that my insurance policy is extensive enough that we will not have to worry about anything more than taking care of our family. It's a cold comfort, but I wanted to make sure that I would never had to worry about the loss of property if I had to deal with the loss of the people I loved."

"I know what you mean Master," Sonia said as she squeezed my hand. "I am having a hard enough time dealing with the fact that most of my family is gone. Knowing that I will not living on the street with nothing because you will take care of me is the only thing keeping me from curling up on the floor in tears."

"We certainly won't be on the street. I called the Grande Albergo delle Nazioni and booked the presidential suite for us," I told them. "They gave me a hard time about having five people in the suite until I got the manager on the phone and gave him my name. He had to call his boss and get it cleared but when I called back an hour later they had us booked for as long as I need it. They will have a limo waiting for us at the airport and it will be available for us until I can make other arrangements."

"Isn't that the hotel you swapped your entire line over to make their windows after the contractors low ball supplier sent them a bunch of defective ones," Sonia asked.

"I didn't realize anyone was actually listening to my ramblings about work, but yes, that was the one," I replied. "The manager remembered me because I was on site for every delivery to inspect the product. They ended up paying a bit more for the windows, but a lot less than it would have cost them to wait for another shipment. I was just glad we were ahead of our production schedule so we could do the job. We didn't make much profit off the deal but the goodwill advertising with the local chamber of commerce gave us a nice increase in business after."

"Sorry, a bit off subject there. The next few days are going to be very busy. When we land, we will be going straight to the hotel to check in, and then Sonia and I will be going to have the remains released to the funeral home. On Wednesday, we will take you shopping in the morning for the clothing you need, as well as something for the funeral on Friday," I told them. "Don't worry; I gave my lawyer a list of people to contact about the funeral, so everyone who wants to arrive will have the time to get there."

"After we finish shopping, I will contact my insurance agent and have him meet us out at the house. He will have the report back from his inspector by then and will be going over the settlement offer. If it's reasonable, I will have most of it put in an escrow account to pay out for the construction costs of building the new house. If not, I call my lawyer again and let him deal with them. With as much business as I have brought them over the last twenty years I don't think it will be a problem though."

"Thursday I will call a few contractors I know of and trust to find out if they are available to build a new house for us. One advantage of owning a building supply company, I know who does good work in the area. Friday will be the funeral and memorial services. I don't think we will be up for anything else on Friday, and we will take the rest of the weekend off to rest."

"Next week, we will meet with the lawyer to take care of the wills on Tuesday. Then on Wednesday, I will hopefully meet with the contractor to start on the new house design and see what needs to be done to get the guesthouse livable again. Ideally we will be able to move into the guest house a month from now and have the design for the main house done so they can start on the build."

"At that point, we will decide if we want to stay and supervise the start of the construction or take a couple months off and come back to the island as Julien offered," I explained. "Ideally I would like all of us to try to rest on the flight, as the eleven hour time difference is going to make the next few days even harder on us, but I know you may have questions or concerns and wanted to address those first."

"Master, I know you are worried about me being ready to go back to the island, and want to give me time to heal, but I think we should go back sooner," Sonia told me. "I saw this morning how much the pet's love me, and the amount of love I felt pouring out of them would help heal my heart far quicker than staying here where I would have to see things that remind me of my family. It will still be hard coming back, but the amount of time we spend away will help."

"I know we need to wait until after we have the design for the new house done, but I would like to go back as soon as possible after that. Felicia would like to be back by summer, but that would still give us plenty of time to get to know our new sisters. You and my new sisters are the family I have left."

She was still in the denial stage, but after seeing how the other pets accepted her, I knew they would help her come to accept the loss. My biggest concern was protecting the life growing inside of her, and I knew severe depression could cause difficulties with her pregnancy. Being surrounded by people who loved her could help to keep her balanced as she worked toward acceptance.

I doubted the others would disagree, but I still wanted their opinions. "And how do they rest of you feel about returning to the island early?"

I was surprised to see Kiera and Marta look to Felicia, who nodded and put her teletype device on the table. "You are our Master, and our place is with you, wherever you decide to go. I would like to be back by June, because Jaden and Marian will be moving back to Bari then, but it's still your choice. Our home is wherever you are."

Her reply was no surprise, but Marta's agreement was a bit of a shock. I would have thought she wanted to see her family before we left. She noticed my expression and smiled. "I would like to call my parents and let them know I am all right, and that I will be living in Bari for school, but I don't need to see them right away. It will be easier on them if we wait, as it will give them more time to accept what I am. Like your kitten said, our place is with you."

"I do have an unrelated question Master," Kiera said. "I know it's probably not the best time, but it has been bugging me all day now. Were you planning to keep me now that no one is going to be breeding me?"

I could see the anger flash in Sonia's eyes as she turned to Kiera, but the sadness on Kiera's face stopped her. "Kiera, the other night we talked about bringing our concerns to each other. I know you did not want to bring it up because I just lost my family, but in the future, I want you to feel free to ask us anything, no matter the circumstances. We chose you because we wanted to make love to a beautiful redhead, not so we could breed you. Master has no intention of getting rid of you, although we may have another option to breed you."

I saw the look she was giving Felicia and we both realized whom she was talking about. "I don't intend to have the two of you having sex with random people just to get pregnant, but Jaden is family now. If him and Marian are willing to let him breed you I will allow it, but it will be their choice."

"If I may add something Master," Felicia typed out. "I know my son wanted to have more children, but there were complications during Marian's pregnancy that left her bedridden for most of the third trimester. They decided not to have more children because of the potential risks to her health, but they still wished they could have. I am sure they will agree to Jaden breeding her if you ask them, and I would love to have more grandchildren."

"We will discuss it when they move down, but I want to make sure Kiera's concerns are addressed," I said, turning to look at Kiera. "I intend to keep you whatever they decide. You were chosen to be a playmate for me and my kitten, being able to breed you was just a bonus. Now, if there are no other questions, I am going to go try to take a nap and I want the four of you to do the same."

When no one responded, I got up and went to use the bathroom. Coming back out I saw the girls were still at the table, so I stripped down and crawled into bed. I figured they would be back once they finished reassuring Kiera. Closing my eyes, I started thinking about design ideas for the new house.

As Sonia crawled into bed with me several minutes later, I asked her if they had everything figured out now. "Yes Master, I think we did. I was upset with Kiera for thinking we would throw her away like that. She is part of our family now, and we convinced her that will never change. I wanted to cuddle with her for our nap, but they all insisted I needed to be with you more. I guess they were right, but do you mind just holding me for a while?"

"What did you think they sent you to bed with me for sweetie? You need to feel loved and secure," I told her as she slipped into my arms. "Sex can wait until you feel ready for it again. I am more than capable of controlling myself."

"As long as that only applies to me," she murmured. "My sisters still have their needs, and they might be upset with me if you make them wait until I am ready for sex again."

-Felicia-

I glanced over to where Master and Sonia were sleeping. They had drifted off fairly quickly, but it had been a hard day for both of them and they needed the sleep. The next week was going to be rough, especially for her.

I knew Master would be all right. Men grieved differently than women did, and I could already see the signs in him. The way he quickly took control and started arranging everything or how he has set up the next week to keep himself busy is normal. Men pile up the work to keep from thinking about the loss. By the time he starts thinking about it, he will be past the worst of the grief.

The thought of losing my sister was what scared me. She was clearly in the denial phase and I was afraid of what might happen when she hits the anger or bargaining phases. Would she blame Master for the death of her husband? They had just moved into the main house, and he might have survived if they had stayed in the guesthouse. If I had not encouraged her to become Master's lover, he never would have asked them to move back in to the main house, would she blame me?

I don't know if Master was just not aware of the possibilities because he was grieving himself, or if he felt their bond was strong enough to pull through. He had known her all of her life, so maybe he felt he knew how she would react, but all I could do was pray.

Snuggling in closer to Kiera, I placed my hand on her stomach with Marta's. I knew I would not be alone, but I did not want to lose any of my new family.