Thanks so much for the honesty and I see exactly what you mean. Towards the end I tried my damnedest not to phone it in but I was also ready to buy done with this part of Riley's adventure.

The scene with Hamish being killed wasn't a random killing either. He asked for it. Mistress even hinted that she wanted to see him grow into a man.

But when Riley entered the scene, his final wish for a pretty girl to suck his cock on the rope could happen. Mistress loved him enough to grasp the moment.

And Riley's reaction to her reclassification was kinda right to me. She freaked out on day 1 and realised it wasn't going to help so years of conditioning took over. The point of the story is Riley's conversion. The slow transition from thinking like a Human, to fully seeing herself as an Animal.

She was at peace. She was ready to die. Then all that mental preparation was wasted. She had accepted the System as her killer, instead it had other uses for her.

And she still remembers Hamish. Knows that even a Companion Animal's life isn't assured. That'll be a driving force in book 2, how her reclassification forces get to shift her mindset from an Animal waiting to be slaughtered, to a Companion Animal who could die at any second. In the scenario, what does she hold onto?

What part of herself has to die to stay sane?