Midnight Series (camren version)

Chapter 6

Mike

I'd been expecting her call, yet hearing the word 'Master' seemed odd. I saw Lauren often, but when we got together, it was as equals. I hadn't been her Master in over one hundred years.

Lauren was my biological daughter. My wife, Clara, gave birth to her in June 1814. It is fairly uncommon for a Nermac to have offspring because of our extremely long life span. Even if we had a child once every century, we would have well over a dozen offspring in our lifetime. The main reason that Nermac didn't reproduce was the fact that during gestation, females needed twice as much food and ten times as much sun just to ensure a successful pregnancy. It was not uncommon for fetuses to die long before their birth.

Clara and I didn't care about that. I would bring her food and protect her while she lay in the sun to ensure her good health and that of our unborn child. We even went to the Elders and got their blessing, our species trying to avoid the overpopulation that had occurred on Rezinomrah millennia ago.

I would have gone through the process over and over again to make my mate happy, but Lauren was our last child. She was born just seventy-three years after her sister, Taylor, making them very close in age for our kind.

Lauren was happy as a youngling—laughing and playing—but as she grew up, she became more and more independent, preferring to spend time in solitude, as she didn't have a mate.

Eventually, after finding BDSM myself, I trained Lauren to be a Dom. Although the feeling of dominating someone is nothing like that of being mated, it did seem to give Lauren a purpose and at least some temporary happiness.

Part of Lauren's training had been to experience scenes as a submissive, which is when she began calling me 'Master' rather than 'Father.' When her training was complete, it seemed more natural for her to call me 'Mike' instead. She was fully developed by that time, and it would raise too many red flags for her to call me 'Father' because we looked the same age.

It wasn't uncommon for Dominants to go to other Dominants for advice about their submissives. Lauren rarely had a question, but I knew this submissive was different. Over the past few centuries, I'd been training my mind in the art of prophecy, and had seen this woman coming into Lauren's life and making a lasting change. I believed that she had finally found her mate.

Nermac mated for life. The draw between two true mates was strong, often overpowering all of the other senses. The feeling—similar to two animals in heat, though much more intense—compelled the mated pair to give in to their animalistic nature. I believed that when Lauren first saw her mate, she would feel an immediate pull toward her, though I wasn't sure if it would be as strong for her because she wasn't Nermac. I even questioned if she would feel it at all until tonight when she called me.

The tricky thing with Lauren, though, was that if I came out and told her, she would not believe me and would likely run. She would have to discover her relationship with her on her own.

The woman that knelt before me now was conflicted, as was I. As her former Master, I should have been there to offer her advice on her submissive, but as I looked at her, I was reminded that she was more than a fellow Dom. With my dark hair and strong chin combined with her mother's emerald green eyes and full lips, there was no denying she was my daughter. As any father would feel, I ached for her turmoil and wanted nothing more than to solve her problems for her. But this I couldn't do. I couldn't make these decisions for her.

Tonight, I would answer only the questions she asked. I'd offer nothing more.