Under The Collar Ch. 01 (Patreon)

Part 1 of 3 of  a gift story!

What would you think if I bought a collar?  Lili texted to her girlfriend.

The young girl stood before a display, surrounded by various types of leather gear that grew more intricate and explicit the further you ventured into the store.

For what? Kim replied.

Me.  My neck.  Fashion accessory, Lili wrote.

"Aaaahhhh noooo," Lili groaned when her phone lit up with a call from her girlfriend.  She accepted the call and placed the phone against her ear.  "You're not supposed to call when I'm texting.  You know I don't-"

"A collar?" Kim asked.  "I snuck away from my desk.  What're we talking about here, Lilith?"

"And you're using my serious name!" Lili moaned.

"I'm in my serious outfit.  At work.  I'm a serious money person.  At work.  The collar?" she reminded her girlfriend.  "Is this your way of hinting that you've gone to the humane society to get a dog?"

"No, no, no, I know we can't get a dog," Lili told her.  "It's for-"

Lili glanced around the mostly empty store before hunching in on herself and holding the phone closer.  "It's for me."

"Go on..." Kim told her.

"I don't know," Lili said. "I was just walking past the store and I saw it on display all by itself.  It's a red leather collar with a soft, furry lining.  I thought maybe I could wear it sometimes when I'm out.  I don't have to get it if you don't want-"

"Lili, you don't need my permission, remember?" Kim said carefully.  "I just wanted to make sure you weren't impulsively buying a dog.  If you think the collar looks good and you can afford it, buy it."

"You don't think I'd look stupid?" Lili asked.

"I just can't can't visualize it, babe," Kim said.  "But, seriously, you're beautiful and you really have a good sense of fashion even if you don't think so sometimes.  If you think it would look good on you, get it and show me at home.  I'm sure I'll love it."

"O- Okay," Lili said with a slight, happy smile.  "I'll see you tonight.  I gotta buy it and run back to work."

"Love you," Kim told her.

"Love you more," Lili replied.

With the phone put away, Lili took the collar from the peg on the display.  There was no price tag and, unlike the others which were black with either silver or gold studs, this had no plastic hook attached, either.

She wrapped her finger around the strap, caressing the black fur before pulling it from the peg.  Lili side-stepped to the mirror on a nearby column while placing the collar against her neck to get an idea of what it might look like.  Happy with what she saw, she clutched it close against her body and went to the register.

A portly older man with round glasses and a goatee greeted her after hanging up on a phone call.

"Did you find everything you wanted?" he asked and his eyes tracked the collar when Lili carefully placed it on the counter.  "Huh.  We don't buy things from people here, I'm afraid."

"Buy-?  No, I got it from the display over there," Lili told him while pointing at the other collars.  "I want to buy it."

"That's not one of ours," the man said as he picked up the collar to inspect it.  "Somebody might have left it here accidentally.  I can't sell it to you."

"Oh, really?" Lili said with a frown.

The cashier looked up at her to see the disappointment and longing in her eyes.  He sighed and rolled his shoulders.  "Um.  But, hey, if nobody comes and claims it at the end of the day, it's yours.  If you want it.  Free.  It's definitely not one of ours.  Nice quality, though.  Real nice.  Hard to believe someone would forget something like this."

"I can really have it if nobody shows up for it?" Lili asked hopefully.

"Yeah," the cashier said.  He took a slender box from beneath the counter to place the collar into it.  "Promise.  If I'm not here, just ask for Jeff.  I might be in the back.  All yours if nobody takes it, ma'am."

"Oh," Lili said, glancing down while blushing fiercely.  She pulled a few strands of hair up and over her hair, only for them to slowly slide back out.  "Th- th- thanks."

"Sure thing.  We close at 8, but if nobody's here by 5, you can have it," he told her. "If someone shows up afterwards, I'll take the heat.  All yours by then."

"Okay," Lili said, finally looking up. She placed her phone in her purse before pressing the bag against her side.  "I really appreciate it.  I think it's beautiful."

"It's higher quality than what we sell here, that's for sure," the man told her. "It'll fit you well, I think.  I'll see you at 5 or after, alright?  And, remember, Jeff."

"Jeff," Lili echoed.  "Got it.  Thanks again!"

---

Lili held the box clutched tightly in her hand where it lay against her lap.  The collar was inside - free, just as the man had promised and he'd even boxed it and wrapped it.

The bus rattled over a pothole, causing Lili to yelp and grab onto the handle of the seat in front of her.  A few snowflakes fell outside as the sun set against the backdrop of the slate colored sky.

She leaned against the cold window, staring at the sidewalk and houses as they passed while her breath fogged the window.  The day had worn her down.  Endless reports to create for various departments, pulling from their databases to combine everything until the vice president shoved her queue aside for a sudden request before their sales meeting next week.  He'd stopped by her desk several times, increasingly impatient as she tried to go through his poorly formatted spreadsheets to combine his data with the reports she created.  She'd almost cried by the end of it and her head still throbbed from the headache it caused.

Most of her other coworkers were understanding when she'd explained that their reports would have to wait until tomorrow. Most, but not all of them.

Her stop approached but her eyes were focused inward until someone else pushed the button.  Lili blinked and stood, banging her head on the metal rack overhead

"Ahhh, dangit," Lili hissed while rubbing her head.  She scuttled away from her seat and into the aisle, avoiding everyone that looked her way as she rushed towards the exit while placing the box with the collar in her purse.

Lights showed through the curtains at the house she shared with her girlfriend.  Lili smiled at the windows before giving her head one last gentle rub.  Snow touched the sparse grass and littered the sidewalk and the few concrete steps leading up to her front door.  She unlocked the door with her keys and stepped inside, eager to be in the safety of her own home.

"Welcome back!" Kim said.  She peeked around the corner from the kitchen as food sizzled on the stove.  Her expression softened when she saw Lili's face as the other woman stepped out of her shoes.  "Aww, bug.  Rough day?"

Kim came around the corner to wrap the taller woman in a gentle hug with her chin resting on Lili's shoulder.  Her curly red hair tangled with Lili's black hair as Lili returned the hug.

"Yeah, as usual," Lili told her. "The VP again.  Mostly just him."

"Well," Kim said as they continued to  hug.  "I'm making rice and fajitas and can pour a glass of wine with it, too."

"You're the best," Lili sighed.  "No wine, though, please."

"Okay.  Do you need anything else?  Maybe some extra space tonight?" Kim asked.

"M- maybe? I'll go change and relax on the couch for a while if that's okay?" Lili asked.  "I'll wash our dishes tonight, though.  And, um, maybe we could just read in bed? I think I need to unwind a bit. I don't think I'll be in the, uh, mood.  For.  Things.  Sorry."

Kim stood back.  She brought her hand up to rub Lili's cheek briefly.  "Remember, you don't have to apologize.  I get it."

"How about you?  How's the money at your work?"  Lili asked while following Kim back to the kitchen.

"Mostly all in the same place," Kim told her.  "The important thing is that it all balances out.  I still haven't tried to write myself a giant check so we can skip the country and live in luxury somewhere where we can't be extradited."

"That's good," Lili said with a fond smile as Kim pushed around meat and vegetables in a pan.

"You go off, recharge a little.  I've got it all handled here," Kim said.

Lili touched Kim's shoulder before kissing the back of her head.  She walked to the living room in order to hang her coat by the door and then she knelt to make sure their shoes were all evenly arranged against the wall.  After putting her purse away, she took her phone and the box and retreated to their bedroom, closing the door behind her.

After placing the boxed collar and phone on the bed, she shed her clothes one layer at a time, returning them to their hangars until she stood in her underwear - panties but no bra.  Lili stared down at her small breasts with a sigh.  She rubbed them gently before trailing her fingernails down to the little line of excess hair below them.

A small bulge pushed against her panties.  She slipped her hand into her underwear and over the smooth skin until she touched her shrunken penis.  Her nails dug into the flesh as she tucked it and stared at herself in the mirror.

Unkind words filled her mind, but she closed her eyes and pushed them away, remembering everything Kim had told her over the years.  Kim and the others in her online, and offline, groups.  The advice they shared and the love they gave.  A lingering doubt remained, as it almost always did even though it was far smaller than it used to be.  She ignored it as best as she could as she dressed herself in her favorite pajamas.

The smell of food made her stomach rumble when she walked back to the living room.  Lili quietly stared at her girlfriend as the other woman moved about the kitchen.  After a couple minutes, she continued to the couch where she set the box down on an end table.  Her long nails, painted red, clacked against her phone's screen as she began to catch up on conversations, memes, news, and cute animal pictures she'd missed throughout the day.

When dinner was called, Lili jumped up to help set their small table.  They ate quietly, sharing their day with each other as well as talking over recent events and conversations from their online groups.  After they finished, Lili tried to shoo Kim away from the kitchen in order to wash the dishes but Kim insisted on helping and they continued their talk while working together..

It was a simple, uncomplicated evening and just what Lili needed to help her decompress.

"All good, Lili," Kim said as she finished rinsing and drying the last plate.  "So.  The important question.  Did you buy the collar?"

"Oh!  I forgot to tell you!  I got it free," Lili said.  She grabbed her girlfriend's hand to pull her towards the living room.  "Someone supposedly just left it there so they gave it to me when nobody claimed it.  Some of those collars were expensive and the cashier said this was even better than those.  I seriously lucked out!"

"Free?  Like, used, though?" Kim asked cautiously.  "It's not - it wasn't from a sex store, was it?"

"Oh," Lili said as she grabbed the box from the small table.  "I- I guess?  But, it's not for sex.  It's just something you wear.  An accessory like I was saying.  It didn't smell like anything but leather and fur and it was clean, too.  Completely clean.  Here, sit, sit.  I'll show you."

As Kim sat on the couch, Lili knelt before her with the box in hand.

"Looook," Lili cooed as she opened the box in front of Kim.

"Oh, that is nice," Kim said.  She sat up and leaned forward while Lili took the collar out of its box.  "Thin enough to almost be a choker but that leather looks high quality.  Do you think it's real?"

"The leather?  It feels like it.  I don't know, though," Lili admitted.  "Will you put it on for me? I want to wear it for a while to try it out.  And I wanted you to do the honors."

"I'm.  Uh.  Honored," Kim told her with a wry smile. She took the collar and examined it briefly, turning it over in her hands while rubbing it with her thumb.  "Even the buckle feels solid. You got this for a steal, Lili."

"I know!" Lili exclaimed happily.

As Kim unbuckled the collar, Lili turned and sat back while leaning her head forward and sweeping her hair away from the back of her neck.  Feathery black vellus hairs covered her nape in a wispy swath.  The collar hung loosely by one end in Kim's hand as it was brought around to the front of Lili's neck and then back until the fur touched skin.

"Tickles a little," Lili said while squirming in place.  "Feels really nice, though."

Kim wrapped it around Lili's neck before slipping the end into the buckle and the prong into the third punch hole.  When she was finished, she laid it gently against Lili's shoulders where it drooped slightly towards the woman's chest.

"It could be a little tighter," Kim told her with an appraising eye.  "But, I kind of like it loose like that.  Gives it a certain relaxed look.  You could change it up, though."

Lili touched the front of the collar.  The fur surrounding the inside of it felt warm against her.  Without a word, she pushed herself up to walk to the bathroom to stand in front of the mirror.

In a way, she was disappointed.  The design of the collar had stopped her in the street.  It was alluring with a sexy shade of red along with the beautiful contrast of the black fur.  In her imagination, she saw it as a perfect accessory - similar to a choker as Kim had pointed out but also very clearly still a collar.  She'd recently bought several mesh shirts and she could see herself putting together a punk outfit with the collar and mesh tops and some carefully ripped jeans.  And boots.  Big old stomping boots.  Or using it to channel her inner Pris from Blade Runner.

Instead, it was just a collar.  The quality was obviously high but it did nothing for her look.  She sighed and spun it slowly against her neck until the buckle was showing and then back around.

Lili shivered and gripped the edge of the sink with her free hand. Her nipples twisted, gathering skin as they pushed out to grow erect while a pang of pleasure strobed around them, mirrored in her gums with an intense itching sensation.

"Well," Lili whispered.  She brought her finger up to toy with the fur on the inside of the collar.  "Well, that feels nice at least."

A sense of calm filled her, settling over her shoulders like a transparent shroud as it enveloped her body.  Lili's eyelids fluttered and she sighed and leaned against the sink.  She swore she could feel her brain prickling in a wave just beneath her scalp, from just above her eyes and up.

The room spun around her, causing her to sway until her fingers tightened on the sink once more, hard enough that her knuckles grew pale.

A small whine issued from between her lips.

"What do you think?" Kim asked from the living room.

Lili's ears twitched minutely and the sound of her girlfriend's voice echoed strangely before growing louder, accompanied by the thumps of Kim's nearly silent feet on the floor.  And the sudden shushing sound of cars driving through the snow outside of their house.  She glanced up with a quiet growl when the LED light above her buzzed with an intermittent whistling sound mixed in.

"I- I think-" Lili said while blinking.

The room moved slowly around her when she turned to face Kim's approach.  She felt almost drunk.  When the swaying motion passed, she was left with the earlier sense of calm and relaxation.  Beneath all of that was something else - a strange energy that began to coil its way through her body.  Despite tucking it away earlier, her penis stirred and slipped free.

"Uh.  I think it's.  Nice," Lili finished.  "I think I'll wear it for a while.  Just.  Um.  To get used to it."

Vellus hairs multiplied on the back of her neck beneath the collar before escaping to creep down to the curves of her shoulders and up towards her nape hairline.  Lili scratched at the hairs with a nearly silent whimper.

The young woman's thumb clicked and briefly refused to bend as the bones stiffened.

"Well, I think it looks good on you," Kim said from where she stood by the bathroom door.  "It's pretty fashionable."

"Yeah.  Yeah," Lili said more enthusiastically.  The energy filling her was splitting.  Enthusiasm joined her serenity.  The other aspect altered into a tingling warmth that receded slightly as her penis shifted again, shrunken but awake.  "It does look good.  And, um, also, I just feel good wearing it, you know?  Like.  Like.  Just nice.  It feels nice."

Trying to describe the vibe pulsing through her seemed impossible suddenly.  As if it were too complex to grasp and dissect.  Instead, Lili sniffed, drawing in Kim's scent - the smell of her girlfriend's sweat, their detergent, and the myriad chemical markers that were just her.

"Hey.  Do you wanna watch a movie?" Lili asked suddenly.

"I thought you were wiped out today," Kim said while raising a single eyebrow at her girlfriend.

"Well, yeah, but, like, what if we cuddled and watched a movie and then crashed?" Lili said quickly.  She stepped from one foot to the other.  Her nipples pressed against her pajama top, sharp points begging for attention.  Down below, she felt herself stir as the warmth wormed its way through the belly.

"That sounds good, sure," Kim answered.  "As long as I can pick.  You're still on a temporary ban from romcoms."

"Whatever you want," Lili agreed.  Her eyes sparkled.  She followed her girlfriend out of the bathroom, sniffing the entire way as various scents begged for her attention.

After Kim sat on 'her' side of the couch, Lili bent down, hands against the cushion and knee up on the edge.  She forced her face between Kim's arm and the side of her body before turning and shoving herself against her girlfriend, nuzzling hard into the other woman.

"Christ, are you going to crawl into my skin next?" Kim asked.  Despite her protestation, she wrapped her arm around Lili whose throat rumbled in appreciation.

"Is that an option?" Lili asked.

"It is not.  Please don't," Kim replied.  She grabbed the TV remote, turned on the TV and picked their most recent streaming app to dig through movies and shows.  "What happened with the VP guy today, anyway?"

"He..." Lili paused and frowned.

The man's name had escaped her.  She focused on his face in her mind and shuffled through conversations with him and about him but they were fuzzy and grayed out and his name wasn't present in any of them.  When she shifted to the coworker who sat next to her, an older woman with three children, she realized she couldn't remember her name, either.  The woman's face was fairly clear, as was the scent of her sour sweat and the perfume she wore to hide it, but her other details were gone.  Was it two children?  Panic rose within her before the tranquility smothered it.  Was it really a big deal not to remember their names?  There were more important things to focus on.  Like Kim.

"It- it doesn't matter," Lili told her.  "Did you find something?"

"Yeah, there's a new action show I wanted to watch that's supposed to be good," Kim said as she clicked on the first episode.

Lili nuzzled harder before gently taking Kim's hand to place it against her head and simulate stroking her hair.  Kim obliged, slowly running her fingernails over Lili's scalp and Lili groaned happily in return.

After barely five minutes, Lili's eyelids drooped.  She basked in the warmth radiating from her girlfriend and the steady beat of the woman's heart, surprisingly loud to her twitching ears.  All of this combined with the slow stroking of Kim's fingers to lull her to sleep.

Cartilage separated within her ears and more replaced it, causing the skin to stretch as the tips of her ears pushed outward beneath her hair.  Lili's lips flexed and pulled back before relaxing and then repeating the motions.  Her leg, bent beneath her and almost touching her small breasts, kicked.

"Shh, shhh, it's alright," Kim said quietly before bending to kiss the top of Lili's head.  "Work really killed you today, huh?"

Kim adjusted her hand to gently caress her girlfriend's hair once more and her palm brushed against the pointed tips of Lili's ears.  Fine black fur, mixed with a dark sandy coloring, sprouted over the backs of the woman's ears.

Lili whined, high pitched and breathy, and her body trembled before finally becoming still.  Kim hugged her tightly and continued petting her as the show played on.

---

"Hey, sleepy bug, time for bed," Kim whispered while shaking Lili carefully.  She stood by the couch in the semi-darkness of the living room with their bathroom providing faint light.

Lili growled but the sound was mixed with her slurred words.  "'Alrrrready?  'salready time?  Did I fall asleep?  I'm sorry."

Her gums ached and her tongue slipped past her lips to wet the tip of her nose as she turned and stretched.  Joints popped throughout her body.  Her thumbs refused to flex, moving only at the base where they were joined with her palm. Her nails were bent, slightly, folded vertically with cracked red nail polish on black and gray surface.

Lili slid to the floor to her hands and knees, bowing and then arching her back while sliding her hands out in front of herself.  She growled but the sound was muted and easily mistaken for a loud groaning as she continued her stretch.

"Did they keep you in a box all day?" Kim asked as she watched the spectacle happening in front of her.  For a moment, before Lili turned to stand, Kim swore there was a bump just above the waistband of Lili's pajamas.

Lili stood and bent her hands into awkward fists, opening and closing them repeatedly.  The joints felt stiff and she wondered, briefly, if she should start doing hand exercises at work.

"I already brushed my teeth so I'll wait for you in bed," Kim said.

"'Kay," Lili answered before yawning.  Her sharp ears bent to flex back against her head as she raised her hands to her eyes to rub them.  Before she pulled them away, her tongue licked against the faint outline of a paw print on her fingers and upper palm as well as the tiny, short hairs scattered around them.

A minute later, Lili growled at her toothbrush when she gripped it.  Her fingers resisted bending and a soreness spread through them when she forced it.  She closed her eyes as she brushed while her tongue kept getting in the way of the bristles.  Finally, she finished, put the toothbrush away and turned on the faucet.

The young woman leaned over and angled her head to lap at the water.  The tip of her tongue was thinner and it bent into a near bowl-like shape that splashed the flow back at her face, causing her to sputter and growl.

Standing back, Lili grabbed the nearby hand towel.  Her nails were longer and bulged over the tips of her fingers.  Barely any of the original nail polish was left on them and the claws tore little holes in the towel.  She wiped at her face, put the towel away and then licked her nose to wet it again.

Kim was asleep by the time Lili made her way to the bedroom.  She stopped to stare at her girlfriend for a while before going around to her side of the bed.  After crawling in, she slipped beneath her covers and then lay still for a few seconds before huffing and sliding to press her entire body against her sleeping girlfriend.

The stresses of the day continued to flow away from her, leaving her in the blissful, warm embrace of the energy slowly cycling throughout her body.  The tingling warmth, resting within since it first emerged in the bathroom, began to grow and Lili whined.  She could feel the flow of blood shifting as it diverted down.

After trying valiantly to ignore it, Lili rolled to her stomach. She bit lightly at the bed sheets while clawing holes into the fabric where her hands were splayed beside her pillow.  Bones shortened further in her thumbs and the skin tightened, causing them to shrink next to her fingers.

Drool filled her mouth as she began to hump the bed with slow, purposeful movements.  She pictured Kim behind her.  Closing her eyes, she imagined her girlfriend's body pressed against her with a cock shoving deep inside her pussy.  Lili growled and her eyelids squeezed tight while she shook her head lightly.  The image fluctuated and changed to Kim mounting Lili with Kim's arm around Lili to stroke her.

The image felt discordant and she growled at it.

"Lili?  Is that you?" Kim said beside her.

Lili froze.  Her eyes shot open and she whined with her furred ears folding back.  She was a bad girl.  She'd done something bad.  Her hips jerked, but she forced herself to stop. It was a bad thing to wake Kim.  Bad girl.

Kim rolled and opened sleepy eyes to stare at the back of Lili's trembling neck.

"Oh, you have the collar on," she said.  Her hands reached out to touch the buckle and she undid it to slide the fur over the hairs on Lili's neck.  "Here you go."

The sense of loss was immediate but the heat remained, along with the sense of calm.  Both were lessened and retreating and Lili sighed.

"Cuddle me?" Kim asked, turning once more.  Lili obliged, wriggling in bed to wrap her arms around her girlfriend's chest with her paw and claws lightly cupping the other woman's breast.

Sleep arrived before the stress of her workday fully returned.

---

The memories of the previous evening were strange for Lili.  She sat at her desk, staring at the same clause in her SQL statement without truly seeing it.

As soon as she'd put on the collar, she'd felt more at ease - that much she could remember.  It had perhaps been completely imagined but the end result was clear.  The idea of a single accessory causing that much of a change was ludicrous, but she also knew the positive effects of a weighted blanket and her favorite hoodie.  They were just things, but both of them made her feel better.  As did simply wearing affirming clothing.

So, why couldn't a collar have the same effect?  Perhaps the sensation of the fur on her skin - Lili shivered and twitched in her chair - or its presence around her neck was something her mind craved.

Her freshly painted nails touched her purse where it sat on her desk.  She pulled at it, bending it over until she could see where she'd placed the collar.

It would be against the dress code, of course.  However, it was a slow day and there was a good chance nobody would stop by her desk.

After spending a bit to consider it, she pulled the collar from her purse and wrapped it around her neck with the buckle facing outward. It took two tries to clasp it in place, more tightly than Kim had the night before but the effect was immediate.  And stronger than she remembered.

Her body melted in the chair and a wide smile brightened her face.

Hairs grew beneath the collar, focused around her nape as they thickened immediately to cover the back of her neck before creeping down further and over to her shoulders.

She reached to scratch at a slight cramp that sliced through her belly.  Her nails bent in half, bulging as they hardened and folded into short claws that pressed into the blouse she wore, and the skin beneath.  Joints popped in her fingers and her thumbs locked in place while nerves died beneath the skin.  The nails on her thumbs lengthened and curled slightly into the hint of a dew claw.

Lili growled and pressed her thighs together.  Her tongue slipped out, nearly touching her nose as fine black lines appeared around her nostrils and criss-crossed along her philtrum.  A bulge appeared at the front of her skirt and she could feel her panties straining.  Hairs emerged on the smooth, shaved skin around her crotch.

The erection shrank slightly but was no less hard and it ached.  Lili whined and pawed at it, pushing it around as it compressed once more.  And again, leaving it half as big as before and still bobbing slightly within the confines of her panties.

Voices floated to her ears as they began to lengthen, allowing her to pick up conversations from the offices around her.  The lines in her nose fractured and the skin swelled into tiny dark bumps.  Her tongue, rounded at the tip, bounced against her chin as she stared down at herself.

Another cramp rippled through her stomach.  Lili growled and rubbed the suddenly sensitive expanse of flesh.  The bulge at the front of her skirt vanished.  She frowned at it.  The arousal was still there, as was the ache.  But, when she pulled her skirt back in plain view of anyone that might walk by, she could barely see the head peeking past the wild curly fur covering her crotch.

Lili dropped her skirt when a third cramp, more powerful than the last two, caused her to gasp and clench her stomach, forcing her to bend forward.  There was a faint scent in the air suddenly.  Something slightly sweet.

"Miss Taylor," a firm voice said from the side of Lili's cubicle.  "That- that- thing you're wearing is wildly inappropriate."

Lili glanced up with a growl while her hand pressed against her stomach.  She recognized the woman's face, of course, but her name slipped from her, causing her to inhale sharply for her scent in hopes that it would help.

"Did you just gr-" the woman started to say indignantly before stopping herself.

Her name starts with an 'S', Lili thought to herself.  Or an 'A'.  She's the head of the HR department.  Was it Jessica?

"If you don't want to be written up, you'll remove that thing around your neck immediately," the woman said primly.  "And those- your gothic, Satanic nail polish is not appreciated here, either. I've changed my mind.  I'm sending you home for the day.  When you come back- hey!"

Lili stared at her hands, turning them over to see the sagging skin on her palm and fingers and the black hairs scattered between her fingers and over the back of her hands.  Her nails were wrong.  She tried to move her thumb up to touch her index finger but it hung useless and dead and small on the side of her hand.

The young woman jolted and then snarled when a sharp pain radiated low in her back, spreading out from the bulge of the two segments of her tailbone.  She forced herself up and ran to the bathroom, ignoring the older woman after interrupting her speech.

There was no lock on the bathroom door as it was made for multiple people to use at once.  Lili prayed that nobody would enter as she turned to stare at herself in the mirror.

Her fingers reached up to touch her pebbled, black nose at the tip of her wider bridge.  Four black hairs grew from her left cheek, six from the right and a few more on either side of her jaw.  Her pointed ears wiggled past her hair, drawing her attention and causing her to pull the strands back.  She gasped at the sight of her long, pointed ears and the black and tan fur covering them.

When she looked back at herself in the mirror, she watched, in fascinated horror, as her canine teeth slowly lengthened.  More movement caused her to look down to see hairs growing past the collar, up and down her throat.

The collar.

"The collar!" she gasped, grabbing it and turning it until the buckle was forward.

Pain brought her down to her knees.  Something was cutting into her stomach, forcing her open. She growled and snarled and whimpered while lowering herself to her hands with her eyes squeezed shut.  The tip of her tail, hidden beneath her skirt and barely bigger than the first joint of her pinky finger, lowered itself.

Nausea flooded her as chemicals shifted throughout her body.  There was intense, localized pressure with the pain and a sensation of something spreading inside of her.  She opened her eyes to stare at the cool white tile floor and her hands beneath her.

They moved, stretching as the palm lengthened slightly.  Muscles and tendons strained while her fingers began to shorten.  She could already see the flattened bulge of the gray padding flaring from the side of her palm.

Her coworkers talked outside the bathroom.  She licked her lips and drool flicked from the tip of her tongue.  Any of the women could walk inside, showing her on the floor.

Lili forced herself back to kneel.  She whined and grabbed for the buckle at the front of the collar.  It slipped from her hands when her thumbs refused to work and she whined louder while the tip of her short tail burrowed between her ass cheeks as it tried to curl between her legs to echo her rising anxiety.

"Miss Taylor," the old woman said from outside the door. Lili threw herself at it, forcing it closed when it began to open.

"W- Wait!" Lili growled.  "I've.  Um.  Had an accident."

With her heart racing, she pressed herself into the door.  As carefully as she could with a mind slowly filling with soft, comfortable cotton balls, she used both hands to pull the prong free and slip the collar from her neck.  It dropped to the floor and she stared at it.

An uncomfortable tightness surrounded her body suddenly.  The pain in her guts faded slowly and she felt the tingling of nerves waking once more in her thumbs.

"Heather," Lili said quietly when she suddenly remembered the HR manager's name.

The tiny bumps deflated on her nostrils and tears welled in her eyes as the cartilage and bones shifted in the bridge of her nose.

Lili scooped up the collar and retreated to a stall.  She sat on the toilet seat with her hands in her lap, staring at the red leather strip.

The weight of the world returned slowly, burning the cotton in her mind until she was forced to face the reality of her situation.  She avoided it as much as she could by focusing on the reverting changes, primarily her thumbs as they popped and lengthened. Her fingernails flattened themselves and flakes of keratin littered her hands and skirt when the black material became brittle enough to fall apart.

After an unknown amount of time that could only be partially tracked by her legs beginning to fall asleep, Lili realized everything was back to normal except for a strange, indescribable sensation in her hips.  It wasn't quite pressure but close to it.  Not exactly an emptiness, either, but similar.  She waited for it to fade as she touched her lower back to feel smooth skin and no tail and then up to her ears to find the round, rolled edges back in place.

The feeling in her lower stomach lessened but didn't completely fade.

With a slow, shaky breath, she stood and winced as her numb legs began to return to life.  She stared down at them and then sighed when she spied holes in the front of her shoes.  Claw-sized holes.

It was silent beyond the bathroom and only the smell of chemicals touched her nose.  She hid the collar in her hand and left the bathroom to find Heather waiting outside.

"I've already clocked you out," the woman said harshly.  "I see you've removed that hideous black nail polish and- and- thing around your neck, but you're done today and you should expect a disciplinary note on your file."

Lili realized she already missed the general sense of happiness and wellbeing granted by the collar as she gathered her purse under the not-so-subtle gaze of her coworkers.

The early bus ride back to the house she shared with her girlfriend was contemplative and quiet.