Walking naked on all fours on the sidewalk, pulled on a leash by Phil, felt... oddly natural. In fact, Rex was enjoying it.
He liked the feel of the warm sun and the cool breeze on his bare skin. He liked the leasurely ease of his four-legged gait. He liked the looseness and comfort of his cock and balls swinging free unencumbered by clothing. Even the passersby who stopped to scratch his head or playfully swat his bottom, at first an annoyance, he came to look forward to.
He had been walking several blocks when it finally hit him.
He shouldn't be enjoying this. It shouldn't feel natural. Something was very wrong.
Oh, he had kind of expected to enjoy it, a little. When he'd protested to Phil that he liked wearing pants, what he really meant was that he liked the ability to wear pants, he liked the option of participating in society. He wasn't actually that crazy about actually wearing them. And there was maybe a part of him that was something of an exhibitionist, a part that, thanks to the nude laws, he couldn't ever really indulge. As much as he'd balked at the danger of Phil's plan, there was a part of it that was turned on by it. He'd actually looked forward to being out in public naked as a temporary pet, looked forward to people seeing him completely nude, even looked forward to feeling the adrenalized thrill of the risk of discovery.
But there was no thrill. There was no self-consciousness. He hadn't been worried about the danger. He hadn't felt exposed. He had just felt... right. And that was very wrong.
The pills. It was the damn pills. Yes, Phil had done his research; he knew what pills were needed to bring about the physical changes that were necessary to make Rex pass as a pet. But had he really done all his research? Did he know everything about those pills? Did the pills only have physical effects, or did they have psychological effects as well? It made sense. People didn't want their pets rebelling, or trying to fight their status. Of course if they could make their pets more docile and accepting of their fates, they would -- and they almost certainly could. The pills were molding him into a pet, not only in body, but in mind.
And that scared him. A daring exploit posing as a pet for one show was one thing, but Rex didn't want to be a pet for good. Or did he?
Wait—Alex. Not Rex. Alex. Dammit, he was even starting to think of himself by his name as a pet. He wasn't Rex. He was Alex. Well, he was Rex only for the show; he'd be Alex again afterward.
Now that he was actually thinking about the matter, now Rex was feeling the shame and self-consciousness he should have been feeling before, in spades. He felt abashed, embarrassed, mortified. And now he was feeling the danger. He was anxious, afraid, terrified. And yet there was still a part of him that was saying this was all natural, this was how it should be, this was what he was meant to be.
Dammit, he realized he even had an erection. Part of him was really enjoying this, even as another part of him was utterly humiliated and scared out of his mind.
Of course, there was still the possibility that this wasn't an effect of the pills at all. Maybe this was all him. Maybe, deep down, this was just the fulfillment of some secret fetishes he'd never admitted to himself. Maybe this was just who he was. But if so, that was even worse -- if that was true, it said something about him that he didn't think he liked.
Either way, Rex was increasingly sure this had been a huge mistake. During the initial argument with Phil, he hadn't really been that worried; for all his objections, he'd more or less trusted that Phil could pull this off. Now, though, he was seriously starting to worry that he'd be a pet forever, that his life as... what was his former name? That his life as a bipedal, clothed, part of society was over.
Alex. It was Alex. Dammit, if he was having trouble even remembering his former name—his real name—he really was in trouble.
Abruptly, Rex came out of his reverie. He'd been so focused on introspection that he hadn't really been paying attention to himself and his surroundings, and suddenly he realized that...