Chapter Text
The sounds of howling and meowing forces Leone to open his tired violet yet golden eyes to open. He groans, lifting his head from the cold hard floor, sitting up slowly. He could hear his owner yelling down the hall , waking up the rest of the hybrids from their sleep. They were louder than usual and he knows why, today is the day where the hybrids are excited in hopes of getting adopted, countless times he's been adopted at least at least four different times.
Leone flinched from the sound of his cell being banged.
"Get up! Everyone is ready except you, you useless cat."
His voice was hoarse and deep, his owner was not a kind person, often times has sex with the female hybrids, mostly the cat and cow ones, sometimes he comes to tell Leone what a worthless cat ge is and how difficult it is to sell him.
Once he got up from the floor his owner pulls him by the chains, he jerks at the chained slightly from how uncomfortable they are when they dig into his wrists and ankles. Leone limps a bit as he follows his owner to room that had many other hybrids in cages, most of them were muzzled and had tight chains. He glanced at the other hybrids, some looked sad and other looked excited in hopes to get someone's attention to be adopted.
His owner pulls at Leone's chains again and yells at him to get in the cage, getting glances at the other hybrids. He winced and walks in as his owner tighten his chains enough for Leone to barely move and places a metal rod in his mouth so he can't attack his customers. He glares at his owner with anger and hatred. He whimpers as he felt the chains dig into his skin more than usual.
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As the day goes on, he's been watching the others getting adopted and picked while he's being ignored , he does get a fee glances from a few customers. A married couple walks up to his cage, they snicker a bit from how pathetic he looks.
"Dear, let's go see the other ones, I don't want this disgusting cat. I doubt he's gotten a single offer."
The owner scoffs as he watches the couple berate Leone, he watches the two leave and leans on Leone's cage.
"Tch..some loser will want you Leone. Just be patient."
Leone hangs his head low, his chains jingled a bit, he hated this, he hated this place, he wanted to leave so bad, he wanted to cry. He lifted his head slightly looking up at the ceiling, hoping and praying that someone would save him from this horrible place. Leone grunts a bit leaning on his cell feeling exhausted when falls asleep.
He wakes up again when he heard a young woman's voice. He raises his head looking for the source of who's voice it belongs to. His eyes widened slightly seeing a beautiful young woman, but looks away, surely she'll just ignore me he thought . His ears twitch a bit and sees her walk up to his cage staring at him with eyes full of concern from the state he's in. She could see how pale he was and the one of ears were broken or torn a bit.
Leone raises his guard as she walks closer to him. He barred his fangs, hissing at her, as he looked at her with rage and fear in his eyes.
"Careful miss, he's a feisty one." The owner warned.
Leone doesn't lash out when she comes closer, sky lifting her hand, his eyes widened and hisses loudly in hopes to scare her off. Her eyes softened a bit. It was a expression Leone has not seen before. He's scared, he pulls at his chains and huffs noisily. When he felt her soft small hand on his cheek, Leone flinches. He tight closed his eyes and shakes violently and his breathing becomes erratic. Her soft hands strokes his cheek, she doesn't grab at his face or ears or tail to inspect his features. He slowly opens his eyes and gazes at her nervously and lets out a slight whine. She moves her hand down to scratch under his chin and lets out a purr. She smiles fondly seeing his cheeks flushed.
She slowly drops her hand and looks at Leone's owner. Leone stopped his purring and looks at her. He wants to feel her soft hands again. He let's out a loud meow to get her attention. She looks back at Leone and places her hand on his cheek and quickly presses his face into her soft small hands and starts to purr again . She rubs his cheeks and looked back at the owner once more.
"I heard you been having a hard time selling him. I can give you five grand for him."
The owner grins and quickly gets the paper work filed out. Leone's cage was transported to the parking lot, it took 3 hours for the whole transfer and Leone sees the same girl again. She walks up to his cage and unlocks the gate. She frowns seeing how small his cage was compared to the one earlier. She walks up to him slowly and unlocked his chains and sees him shaking again. She wonder if it's from bring tied for so long if he was just really afraid.
"Let's get you out of the small cage. Can you get up?"
Leone rubs his wrists and slowly stands up, his legs shaking and moves further away from her, hugging himself. He was scared that earlier could be a act of kindness and that she could hurt him now.
"My name is Y/n. Can you come out? My van has a lot of space." She spoke softly and sees how hesitant he was. He bared his sharp teeth at her, being very cautious of her.
She frowns looking at him with eyes of concern. "Please. Come out. I promise I won't do anything." She slowly backed out of the cage and holds out her hand. "Let's go home."
Leone stays silent and watches get and thought to himself a little, thinking how kind and patient hehe was being. Leone slowly crawls out of the cage and pokes his head out of the cage. He looked up at her hand, he slowly touches her hand. She gently pulls him out of his cage and smiles softly at him. "That's better. I have plenty of room in the van."
Leone looks down at both of their hands. He felt so anxious and his heart was beating so fast, he watches her open the van and sees a blanket. He can't remember the last time he touched a blanket. It's been so long.
"The backseat has more room if you want to stay there. I have a blanket and water in there ."
Leone was hesitant but his exhaustion outweighs his cautiousness and climbs in the back and wraps the blanket around him. Y/n smiles fondly and watches him gulp the water, he spilled some on the seat from how shaky his hands were. She closes his door and opens the driver door and starts the van and sees how sleepy he was . "What's your name ?"
"...Leone." he spoke sleepily and pressed his face against the seat and falls asleep. Y/n smiles softly and starts driving.
"Let's go home Leone."