Page 21 of Bear’s House

They laughed.

"Gustav told me," Elizabeth continued. "The club is looking for new members, since some—" She paused for a fraction of a second. "—ended up leaving. So they're doing an open house."

Dominic's expression didn't change.

"Really?" I said, my eyebrows pulling together as my heart sped up slightly. "I didn't know that."

The idea made me uneasy. The Hearth worked precisely because we were very careful about who was allowed in. Opening the doors like that, without the filter of a personal invitation, was a risk.

"They even announced it on FetLife," Elizabeth added.

"How do you all feel about it?" I asked.

Jeffrey shrugged. "I think some new faces could be good. Maybe I'd finally meet someone compatible. It's true we haven't had a new member in almost two months."

"I'm not sure," Elizabeth said, looking as uneasy as I felt. "Every club I've been to that did this ended up with people who didn't respect the community."

"Don't worry," Jeffrey said, pointing to himself with both thumbs. "I'll be here and I'll keep an eye on things."

"When is it?" I asked.

"Next Saturday. Gustav asked us all to come — otherwise he'll be alone, with none of his friends around, having to manage everything himself if anything goes wrong. And he's just a little boy too, at the end of the day."

I nodded, even though I wasn't entirely comfortable with the idea of bringing my boys to an event like that. But we were a community, and we supported each other. And I wanted to make sure that anyone who decided to stay was the right kind of person — responsible Dominants who knew their limits, who did scenes with care and respect. Submissives who were thoughtful and safe.

"I'll be here," I said.

"Count me in," Jeffrey said with a smile.

Elizabeth, Jeffrey, and I all looked at Dominic. He'd been quiet until then.

"I can come too," Dominic said.

There was something in the way he said it, with none of the heaviness he'd carried for the past several months. I glanced at him. He was watching the room, his expression unreadable in the way that was just Dominic, always had been — that stillness that people who didn't know him well mistook for coldness, and people who did know him understood was simply the way he moved through the world. But there was something else underneath it that day. Something that had been absent for a long time.

He was paying attention. He watched the littles on the mat with the attention that I knew, in him, meant something. He watched Mikey hand out the plastic cake slices with an expression that was not quite a smile but was the thing that happened on Dominic's face where another person might have smiled.

I didn't say anything. Then Jeffrey, Elizabeth, and I exchanged a glance over the rims of our glasses, brief enough that Dominic wouldn't catch it. Elizabeth gave the smallest nod.

Good, it said. He's coming back.

Despite his almost angelic appearance, Dominic was genuinely feared among the littles in our community. They said it was because he was very strict and very serious about discipline. I found it funny how much they feared him — including JJ, who was afraid of almost no one. Once, JJ and Sara had been getting into trouble together, and I'd let Dominic discipline JJ as well. He put them over his knee one after the other and was so thorough about it that JJ had trouble sitting properly for three days. I was never going to forget the look on his face.

"We're glad you're coming back," Elizabeth said carefully.

She herself had lost a sub she'd been very close to and had needed to step away from the community for a while — almost a full year. She understood better than anyone what Dominic had been going through. The level of trust that a dynamic required was so much greater than in an ordinary relationship. Those boys and girls trusted us with their physical and emotional well-being — sometimes they gave us complete control over their lives. Rules for everything, all the time. My boys were like that. The four of us were in a total power exchange, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. When a dynamic like that ended, it was psychologically devastating for everyone involved.

"I'm glad to be here," Dominic said.

I knew he was never sarcastic, never said things he didn't mean. But if someone didn't know him well, they might not be sure — because when he said he was glad, his expression stayed exactly the same, closed and still, no smile. I let out a quiet laugh at his particular way of being.

Just then Lucy came running from across the room to where her Mommy was sitting. She was a tall girl, five-nine, but in a short purple dress with a bow in her long dark hair. She threw her arms around Elizabeth's neck and settled into her lap, and Elizabeth opened her arms to receive her and kissed her cheek.

"What is it, my love?"

"JJ was mean to me, Uncle," she said, looking at me.

I always found it funny that she called me Uncle. Lucy was a little baby — I couldn't really argue with her about it. And I had a soft spot for little ones like her and Mikey.