As expected

The meeting with Jane ended only half an hour before the team meeting was scheduled to start. Mainly because the excited puppygirl kept derailing the conversation towards Emi's relationship and the sort of stuff she got up to with Michael. Unlike Zoe, there was no concern of Michael forcing her into anything. For Jane, those sorts of concerns didn't seem to exist.

"Of course, I've heard about the horror stories!", the older woman huffed. "Those bastards deserve to rot under the prison. But that shit happens with normal couples as well. Monsters will take advantage no matter what, and people do tend to take a closer look with pets, so stuff gets reported faster."

It did leave Emi in a thoughtful state afterwards. Instead of finishing another email, she started looking up reports about registered pets. Five minutes before the final meeting started, she closed the tap a little calmer than before. The statistics looked quite good and the constant counseling and safeguards reduced documented cases of **** of registered pets even below that of the general public.

That didn't mean that she felt any hurry to take that step. Michael would need to agree as well, for that matter. The Master's in those relationships take on an incredible amount of responsibility and scrutiny and many refuse outright. For understandable reasons.

Still a little absentminded, Emi entered the meeting room again, only to be greeted by a chorus of aw and ohs. The whole team and a surprised and flustered Michael greeted her. Unlike her poor, flabbergasted Master, the other girls didn't seem so much to be surprised as teasing.

"Look there, a perverted catgirl has appeared!", Ikumi jeered with a harmless grin. A couple of others got their own digs in before Emi took control of the situation again.

"Silence, you litter of unruly kids!", she ordered while muting most of them with her administrative rights. "Zoe, you are taking the lead on the project. Start with the introduction."

While Zoe started talking, she used the chat function to text Michael. "Surprise, Master!~"

"Yeah, you could say so.", came the reply, and from the wry smile on his face, she could tell he was a little peeved about her springing it on him.

"Are you angry?", she asked to confirm.

"...", he took a moment to reply

"Not angry, but I wish you had warned me. This makes me seem a little...", it made him seem controlling. That was what he was saying. Emi bit her lip and shook her head.

"Don't worry. The girls all know whats going on and I explained it to Zoe and Jane. I'm pretty sure they 'informed' the rest."

She saw him sigh over the display before shrugging with a helpless grin.

"Alright then. Not gonna complain about my pet staying naked for me.", he wrote back. She didn't know why, but something about that ticked her off.

Sure, she was naked to test out whether or not it was a viable option for their relationship and yes, as his pet by definition everything she did as a pet was for him. But it also was for herself? She wanted to be a pet. She wanted to be naked and kneel at her owners feet and be pampered for being an obedient pet.

It was a strange feeling, reflexively defending her own autonomy in her mind after spending weeks breaking it down in Michael's eyes. She felt a little troubled by this unexpected idiosyncrasy of her mind.

In the end, the solution was fairly simple: She was staying naked for him. It was also something she wanted to do for herself, but those two facts did not exclude each other. Internalizing this, she quickly regained her bearings.

Zoe was finishing up her bit and Emi jumped in right after her, starting to organize the teams and splitting tasks. There was a lot of work to go around, but the team was well practiced in this sort of work, and there were no obvious problems for now. The rest of the meeting went over well, with minimal jokes about her state of undress. After it was over, she called Michael again to make sure everything was alright. Texting was good and fine, but hearing his voice was a far better way to make sure they were fine.

"What's up?", his cheerful voice came over the phone. No signs of him being upset by her surprising him with her new dress code.

"Hi, sorry for calling. I just wanted to make sure you weren't mad.", she quickly explained, feeling a little silly and self-conscious. A chuckle came from the other side.

"Don't worry. I was a bit peeved that I didn't get a warning, but I really don't mind that much. As long as the team doesn't think I'm forcing you into anything, it's all fine.", he replied.

"Not angry your silly pet made the decision herself?", she asked teasingly. Somehow, she could hear his grin through the line.

"Nah, my dear kitten has an impressive ability to always make the right choice. I'm always happy to see what new idea you come up with."

They chatted a few more minutes before Emi said goodbye and hung up. As much as she liked chatting with him, there was work to do, and talking over the phone undermined her 'detox' strategy.

She worked another hour before starting on her lunch. Afterwards, she only put in two more before calling it quits for the day. It was a strange feeling. For the first time in a while Emi didn't really know what to do with herself after work. The past two weeks had been a continuous adventure filled with anticipation and need.

Now, just finishing work and having free time felt sort of... dull.

She started scrolling down her social media feed for a while, catching up on all the drama she'd missed due to being busy with Michael. A famous pet celebrity had gotten married last week, and the pictures from the wedding blew up all over the feed. It did look beautiful. A traditional wedding all in white and gold in an ancient French chapel. The pictures showed the bride being led down the aisle by a white leash clipped to the white collar.

She wore a beautiful shroud and little else as she crawled towards her husband-to be with a great smile on her face. It looked beautiful.

For a moment, Emi imagined herself in her place, before dismissing the thought. She was getting ahead of herself again. The whole point of this was to take her thoughts off of Michael, not fantasize about marrying him.

She decisively toggled on the no-pet content toggle. Some people, especially women who didn't subscribe to the culture, disliked being confronted with pet culture all the time, so there were a lot of options to limit its visibility.

That's how she spent the rest of the evening. Naked, somewhat horny and frustrated, but more importantly, distracting herself from the pet lifestyle she was actively living.