After five long days as Sean’s “dog”, Kelsey was fairly confidant rescue wasn’t coming. She lay patiently at the bottom of her cage, watching the light creep along the far wall, waiting to be let out for her morning walk while eyeing the camera in the ceiling out of the corner of her eye.

It was one of the obvious ones, the ones placed because Sean wanted them to know he was watching. The prisoner also knew they were there to lure them into a false sense of security. The big, black lens staring down at them from the corners of most of the rooms of the house had made it much harder to notice the many, many, more innocuous, hidden cameras positioned about their captor’s home that much harder to find. The suspicious glint in a wall outlet, the obvious nanny cam in the nursery, the picture frame facing away from the others that seemed out of place until you realized it was covering a blind spot. Kelsey doubted there actually were any blind spots in the house, but she was determined to find them if there were.

“Good morning, pup.” It wasn’t always a perfect system, but when he called her first thing in the morning was usually a good indicator of her captor’s mood. Today she was “pup,” and that was a lot better than “bitch.”

Kelsey stiffly got to her hands and knees and greeted him with a garbled bark around her ballgag. She was still getting accustomed to the awful squeaking noise her new PVC suit made whenever she moved, but she hid her instinct to cringe at the sound.

“Do you wanna go outside?” he asked, setting his coffee down on the top of her cage while he unlocked the door for her.

Kelsey nodded, hating the way her new, floppy ears flapped against her face. “Waauhhff.”

“Good girl.” He reached inside and petted her head, scratching the back of her neck. Kelsey forced herself to lean in to his loathsome touch. Sean stood up and out of her way, sipping his coffee while he watched her crawl out of her cage. It was the third day in a row he hadn’t leashed her; he was confident that she would come when he called now.

The one good thing about her new suit was the padding on her knees, and Kelsey hated that she was grateful to him for such a small blessing. It made walking across the hardwood and cold tile flooring across the kitchen, where Brook already had Sara in her high chair, to the back door that much easier. She assumed her position by the door, nose on the floor, ass in the air, waiting for him to pull the infernal tail plug out of her and open the door so she could go outside. Kelsey was keenly aware of the view she was giving her friends, but they’d all seen far more of each other recently than any of them cared for, and she was well passed being ashamed of it. She closed her eyes as she felt the plug shift within her, as Sean twisted and pulled on her tail, pulling the plug out of her ass. It landed in the bucket by the door, and Brook would have it cleaned and lubed up again for her when she was came back inside after finishing her business.

Kelsey scampered outside when he opened the door for her, feeling the crisp morning air on her bare tits and bits, the parts of her not kept constantly covered by the skintight suit she was trapped in. She chose to focus on the knee pads, that made bounding off the porch and into the backyard tolerable, putting distance between her and Sean as he sat down on a wooden rocking chair to sip his morning coffee and watch his pet.

He could watch her all he wanted. Kelsey trotted to the tree line, affording herself the closest thing she could get to privacy as she squatted and did her business. There was no warning beep, no little flags to mark the edge of the invisible fence, just the memory of many, many shocks to remind her that crossing behind the trees would deliver a painful zap from her hateful collar. Still, she turned to face him, making unbroken eye contact as she voided her bladder and bowels at the foot of the tree, reminding him that she knew the edge of her leash, that she was playing within the bounds of his sick game, that she was a good dog. He casually sipped from his mug, staring back at her.

Finished her morning routine, Kelsey trotted along the length of the yard. She knew through painful trial and error precisely the entire length of the underground fence. She’d walked the perimeter repeatedly, testing the invisible barrier every few feet, just in case there was a weak spot. So far, she’d found none, and despite her efforts, an untold number of shocks from her collar did not seem to bestow her any sort of tolerance or resilience to the pain. Each fresh zap hurt as much as the first, but the pain wasn’t enough to keep her from trying. It wasn’t getting worse, and that was something.

She followed the perimeter of her prison, a rough rhombus surrounding his house in the middle of the woods, out of Sean’s sight, but she knew she was still on camera, even if she wasn’t one hundred percent certain where they all were outside yet. They had to be there; Sean wouldn’t let her wander freely if he didn’t have a backup plan to the invisible fence. No, he was much too devious a captor to allow that. She suspected the birdhouse that seemed out of place held one camera, and there were probably more along the outside of the house. She had time to find them, time to let her captor grow complacent.

A sharp whistle came from the back of the house. He was finished his coffee, and ready to go inside. Kelsey wasn’t ready to test yet if he’d trust her to be outside by herself, so she turned around and began to run back around the house. She’d gotten very comfortable on all fours, and while part of her hated how quickly he’d been able to transform her into an animal, she knew being comfortable in her impaired state could only benefit her, so she relished the chance to run, to bound on all fours like an actual dog. She was still nowhere near as fast as she was on two legs, but she knew if she needed to, she could summon a burst of speed she wasn’t about to reveal to her captor that she was capable of.

Kelsey skidded to a stop inside the door and resumed her position again, nose to the floor, ass in the air. She shuddered as she felt the cold wipe against her, making sure she was clean. It could be worse, she reminded herself as Brook cleaned her up and forced the tail plug back inside her. She could be in Sara’s shoes. Or booties, she supposed. She’d seen the inside of them, their soles lines with pointed metal spikes. Not that Kelsey could stand up either, but she knew full well that if she could straighten her knees she’d be trying to stand, spikes or no spikes on the bottoms of her feet. So Sara sat, in her playpen, having already been fed, her diaper swollen and yellow, watching Kelsey eat on the floor a few feet from her. Kelsey did her best not to make eye contact with her roommate as she lifted her head up, waiting for Brook to remove her gag.

“Here you go,” Brook said, giving her a conditioned pat on the head. Kelsey gave her an obligatory bark and trotted over to her dish. The food hadn’t improved in taste, but it was tolerable, and she plunged her face into the cold, congealed cylinder of dog food. It worried her that she hadn’t seen Sean or Brook put the food in her bowl today, but on cursory inspection it didn’t appear to be tampered with. It was ridiculous, worrying that her dog food she was forced to eat had been altered, but she suspected from Sara’s reactions to filling her diapers the other girl’s food was laced with diuretics and laxatives at the bare minimum. Sara seemed to have little to no control at this point, and if Sean was willing to drug Sara, then he was willing to drug all of them. Not that there was anything she could do if he was drugging her food, but Kelsey had no desire to be force-fed. So she ate, gobbling up her unpleasant but palatable meal with gusto, so she could be on with her day.

Her face cleaned and gagged once more, Kelsey made her way to the living room, lying down on the provided dog bed between the couch and playpen. She was the only one not provided entertainment while Sean “worked” in his locked office. Kelsey could watch the TV he put on for Sara, or she could even climb up onto the couch to try and read with Brook, but she had little interest in either the inane cartoons insulting Sara’s intelligence or the bodice ripper romance novels Brook was provided. She put her head on her paws and let her eyes wander. From her position on the ground, she knew the camera in the ceiling corner couldn’t see most of her, the couch blocking her from its line of sight. Out of the corner of her eye she measured up the outlet on the far wall. It was one of the newer ones, different from the style in most of the house, with the USB charging ports. If it also held a camera, and she was almost positive it did, it had good coverage of the room, but not all of it. There was a spot next to the couch neither camera could see. It wasn’t a lot of space, but it was something.

Kelsey rolled over, stretching towards the edge of the couch. Through lidded eyes she scanned the rest of the room. If there was a camera that could see this spot, she couldn’t see it. Adding it to her mental map of the house, Kelsey rolled back over to see Brook staring down at her from the couch, her paperback book with a busty damsel in the arms of a swoll Fabio-looking man held loosely at her side. Brook patted the couch cushion next to her. Of the three of them, Brook was the only one who wasn’t usually gagged, but seemingly out of solidarity she rarely spoke when in just their company. Or maybe she was just paying attention to just how closely they were being monitored as Kelsey was.

Kelsey climbed to her hands and knees and scrambled up onto the couch. When Sean came back in they would be chastised for letting the dog up onto the furniture, but it was a token punishment, meant more for the facade he was trying to uphold than an actual infraction that would incur his wrath, and if Brook was willing to risk a light spanking for inviting the dog up onto the couch, Kelsey was game for sitting on the furniture.

Brook pulled her hands back; she did far too much intimate touching of her friends, letting Kelsey find her place on the couch and get comfortable next to her. “Do you want to read with me?” Brook offered.

Kelsey really didn’t, but she nodded anyways. It was something to pass the time. She could feel Sara staring at them through the translucent mesh of her baby cage.

“I’m sorry, this book is too grown up for you. I’ll read you one of your stories later.” Brook looked down at Kelsey. “Dogs don’t understand books,” she said.

It was all performative, but it was hard not to internalize it, especially coming from Brook. She was sure it was even harder for Sara, who sulkily sucked on her pacifier knowing that she actually had nursery rhymes in store for her later. Kelsey laid her head on Brook’s thigh, absentmindedly scanning the pages as Brook slowly turned through them. She was scarcely paying attention until she noticed one of Brook’s long, painted fingernails purposefully scratching under a word. Kelsey looked up at her, but Brook kept her eyes on the page, slowly shifting left to right. Kelsey looked back at the page, where Brook was repeatedly underlining with her finger a single word.

“He’s”

It was dialogue, and Kelsey frantically tried to read the rest of the sentence, but Brook was already turning the page. She resisted the urge to try and reach up with her paw and try and get Brook to turn back. She waited, and sure enough, Brook’s finger found another word, subtly pointing it out.

“Watching”

This was not new information to Kelsey, but it didn’t matter. Brook was paying attention, and more importantly, she had found a way to communicate.

Kelsey subtly raised and lowered her paw up and down, hoping Brook knew sign language for yes. Brook reached out and petted her head. It was all the confirmation she needed, and for the first time Kelsey was grateful to be petted.

Brook kept reading, her finger occasionally finding buzzwords on the pages, while Kelsey wracked her brain for a way to communicate back. Gagged whenever she was not eating and with her hands perpetually encased in the PVC mittens, there wasn’t much she could do, at least not yet. But she could listen, and when the time came, she knew Brook could use the information she’d gathered.

Slowly, Brook revealed to her more clues one word at a time.

“He”

“Done”

“This”

And after many pages of Brook not finding on the page the word she was looking for, Sara’s crying finally interrupted them.

“Oh, I’m so sorry baby girl,” Brook said, slamming the book closed and getting up.

Her finger had looked like it was moving when they’d been interrupted. Rationally, she knew it wasn’t Sara’s fault, but she couldn’t help but feel furious. The other girl wasn’t used to sitting in messy diapers enough by now to just be patient a moment longer?

Kelsey glared daggers at the infantilized girl while Brook laid her down to change her diapers. For the last five days what overflowing rage she couldn’t direct at Sean had gone to Brook for getting them into this, but now that Brook seemed to be proving useful in trying to escape, that excess anger rerouted to Sara. If anything, Sara seemed to enjoy when Brook paid intimate attention to her. Kelsey had long suspected that their lesbian roommate had a bit of a crush on Brook, and the way she squirmed and blushed while Brook wiped her pussy was fucking shameful. It wasn’t until the ache in her jaw set in from clenching so hard on her ballgag that Kelsey even realized what she was doing, and she took a deep breath. It wasn’t Sara’s fault, and just because the girl was in even less of a position to try and help escape than the other two, it didn’t mean she didn’t want out of this hell just as much as Kelsey or Brook.

“Would you like to take the trash out with me?” Brook asked, standing up from a freshly diapered Sara.

“Auufff,” Kelsey garbled around her gag and jumped down from the couch.

Sara sat up and leaned against the mesh barrier of her playpen, watching longingly as her fellow captives were able to freely leave.

“We’ll be right back,” Brook told her, and lead the way for Kelsey. Brook stopped her at the door, grabbing her leash. Sean might be able to take her outside without her leash, but Brook seemingly wasn’t permitted to take her outside unsupervised yet. That, or Brook wanted the excuse to keep her close. Now Kelsey couldn’t be sure of her friend’s motives, but she willingly leaned her head back for Brook to clip her leash to her collar, and trotted close behind her mistress out to the trash bins behind the garage. “Do you need to go potty while we’re outside?” Brook asked, looking purposefully away from the camera mounted at the top of the garage.

Kelsey nodded. She didn’t need to immediately, but any excuse for them to walk away from the house was a good one.

Brook let Kelsey lead, walking behind her as Kelsey found her way to the perimeter of the fence.

“Your collar shocks you if you go too far, doesn’t it?” Brook asked quietly under her breath.

Kelsey nodded, bringing out one paw and drawing a line in the ground where her fence was.

“I’m sorry,” Brook whispered.

Kelsey shrugged her shoulders, staring off into the woods. Brook wasn’t wearing a collar. She could let go of Kelsey’s leash and take off running. Brook wasn’t a great runner, but she’d have enough of a head start before Sean could get outside and give chase.

But Brook wouldn’t leave them. That was her shock collar. She stayed for them. If their positions were switched, Kelsey wasn’t sure if she’d do the same.

“We’re gonna get through this,” Brook whispered.

“Going for a walk?”

They both jumped a little, startled to see Sean standing in the back door. He was holding Sara in his arms in front of him.

“Yes,” Brook called back quickly. “I just took out the trash and she needed to potty!” Brook tugged on Kelsey’s leash and started walking back.

“You’re fine!” he called back, bouncing Sara on his hip. “Don’t let me interrupt.”

Kelsey’s heart was racing, and she was sure Brook’s was too. As they were both all too aware, he was watching. He was always watching.

While he watched from the back door, Kelsey squatted by a tree and relieved herself, and Brook returned to her performative praising, telling her she was a good girl and petting her on the head before leading her back to the house. Under his watchful gaze, Kelsey resumed her new routine.