7. Ekpen's Plans

It had been a week since Bree had been sold to Ekpen Village. She had started to fall into a routine and that, to her, had felt like the most dangerous thing. After her first day when the other kids came to harass her, a couple of the elders of the village came to talk with her, to tell her about her current situation, and to inform her about their plans for her. It was as she feared, they had bought Bree to raise her to be a future communal breeder. Because she was a bunny shifter, she was deemed extremely valuable since she could get pregnant at almost any time. Female bunnies were very rare and so they were rarely sold. It just happened that her mom was crazy af. Her mom's narcissistic tendencies were off the charts and she couldn't handle anything that she felt would take even a little bit of attention off of herself.

The town elders had decided to pool their money when they heard that Bree would be for sale. The opportunity to have a bunny shifter that was young enough to manipulate into being obedient was too grand to pass up. Once she went through her final shift, members of the community would be able to hire her through the town council to give birth to eggs for them. She would be like a prostitute who didn't receive any money and instead, her pimp took all of her money. She also wouldn't have any say in who slept with her whatsoever. If they beat her or abused her in any way, they would just have to pay the council an additional damage fee. With all of these unfortunate circumstances, it wasn't unheard of for community breeders to die from consecutive pregnancies or simply end their suffering by their own hands. The early mortality rate of communal breeders was quite high and somewhat expected. Although, as time went by, they were often guarded when they would normally be alone.

The town elders didn't tell her all of this in that exact wording but said enough so that she could fill in the gaps. After all, they assumed that she was a dumb little girl who was just old enough to experience her first shift. How would she know what they were talking about?

The reason why she was being targeted and hated by the other females was because their moms were angered about Bree being purchased and they listened to their mom's poisonous tongues. Bree's existence created another option for males who didn't want to be saddled with a spoiled and entitled female simply because they wanted to have eggs. There was also no guarantee that mates of theirs, whom they never chose to breed with, wouldn't go to the communal breeder out of desperation to have eggs. The town council didn't want to anger the current females that they had, but numbers were only dwindling to an alarming degree. They felt like they were running out of options.

Bree didn't care about any of their unfortunate circumstances or that they appeared to be apologizing to her in a roundabout way. None of their excuses mattered to her in the least. After all, why should she feel bad for, and feel compassion towards, people who used excuses to enslave someone else? When it came down to it, they cared about their selfish desires more than any moral concerns. Shouldn't she repay them in kind?

Out of apology to the females of their village, the town council made Bree do chores for them until Bree was old enough to breed. As if the small number of females in the village didn't have enough people catering to their every desire, due to their numerous mates, they added Bree as additional 'help'. This was just an opportunity for the females to take out their aggression and jealousy, due to possible future entanglements, out on Bree. The council thought that if the females had an opportunity to express their aggression, things would settle down in the village faster, and the females would be pleased once again. Yet again, she was used as a scapegoat for the town council, who didn't want to face their problems and instead pushed their guilt onto Bree. Someone needed to be seen as the villain and they nominated her, even though she was more a victim than any of the rest of them. She had done nothing other than simply exist, which was also not her doing.

Fortunately for Bree, or unfortunately, depending on how you looked at it, she was previously a modern girl who remembered her past life. She wasn't some wide-eyed, trusting new bunny shifter who would be easy to mold into whatever they chose. It was quite true that if you exposed someone to the same treatment for years, to the point that they didn't know of any other way to live, their circumstances would likely become the new normal. No matter how twisted their life was. They wouldn't fully wake up from their nightmare until after they were away from what they thought was normal.

Bree was still in the process of realizing that her past life was incredibly messed up, while she tried to fight her new feelings of complacency. She knew what they were planning on turning her into, but that seemed so far into the future, that her mind was trying to tell her that that was for future Bree to worry about. Her mind was emotionally exhausted and wanted to go numb and that was the most dangerous state of mind for her to slip into. Those feelings of numbness and depression brought on a sense of fear. Fear that she would let herself down, fear that she would give up, and fear that she would live another tortuous life without love or connection, before dying early once again.

The only way to protect herself in this life would be to get so powerful that no one could oppose her. Then perhaps, she could have the life that she wanted, by digging her way up from the bottom, with bleeding nails, and frozen tears; if necessary.