The clothes felt weird on you, tight and loose and somehow a perfect fit. After over a month of wearing loose slacks and shirts that were a bit too large, wearing jeans and something that was closer to a dress shirt left you with a need to take a minute to readjust yourself and take the minute of consideration that this was the sort of thing you'd wear normally.

Before everything went out the window that is.

At least the reflection didn't look like someone who'd survived in the wilderness and was a day away from taking off their shirt and using it as an improvised rope to tie something up. Looking at your reflection in a light that wasn't that of the taming room made you realize how much you'd let yourself go without noticing.

Something about the dimness in the room's lights seemed to do their job at hiding blemishes and details, and even now it felt as if you were only half there as you'd opted to change into the new set before going outside.

How the hell had anyone not just up and ran for the hills as soon as they saw your dishevelled self?

"See? Much more handsome," the nurse preened as she caressed your chest, fingers drawing a lazy 'S' down to the edge of your pants.

Monica approached, leaning down and sniffing. "Bleh." She stuck her nose out, leaning down and rubbing her head against your shoulder the moment after.

"Someone's marking their favourite toy," Kiara chuckled from the corner, stretching, pressing her back upwards and making her spine pop. The way she moved her shoulders back, pushed her hips slightly forwards, wriggled her naked rump on the seat and then moved to stand... She was clearly doing exactly everything she could to draw your attention onto her body. It was a second too late that you noticed her smouldering eyes focusing on you as she cocked a hip to the side. "You could do better, but it's definitely an upgrade."

"Well, at least the Succubus agrees." Your alpha gripped your arm a little, glowing with pride as she glanced at the white-haired monstergirl standing several steps behind and kneeling next to the bags. "What about you Raven? Thoughts?"

"Hm?" Raven's eyes appeared to linger on Kiara before turning to glance your way; there was a quickness to how her eyes coursed up and down your body, succinct and cold, analytical. "Master Rick certainly looks better," she proclaimed, glancing back at the Succubus' form and appearing to be deep in thought.

"You thinking of making clothes for her?" You asked, trying to prevent the next long silence that might emerge.

Raven twitched, quickly nodding as she turned downwards in a hasty half bow. "It was a consideration," she muttered, working on folding and storing the silk cloths into the improvised silk sack she'd weaved.

"Aw, don't be that way, we know everyone just loves looking at me." Kiara floated closer to the Arachnae, draping an arm over the spider monstergirl's shoulder and causing her to become tense and force her focus onto the bag all the harder.

"Well, I think that after the whole incident back then, we can remove some of the restrictions as a definite reward," you said, focusing on the Succubus, scratching your chin. "Would you want to be able to decide what to wear?"

The infernal perked up, floating away from Raven, her naked body twisting to adjust to your gaze. There was something about the way she moved that made her naturally tease without showing, always a hand or a thigh or a hip in the way as she was clearly enjoying teasing those around her. "No more fucking ugly sack as punishment?" She smirked. "I mean, compared to flying..."

"I think everyone here agrees that freedom of flight is something you've yet to work your way to," you replied with some amusement.

"Bah, fine, clothes." An instant of hesitation as she frowned. "But my question stands, can you still punish me with the ugly shirt that reeks of cat?"

Hm... "I'm not sure why I should restrict my options just because I've expanded yours. Besides, a punishment is a punishment, it's not meant to be comfortable or enjoyable." A little smirk came to your lips as you watched her huff and roll her eyes. "Or would you rather see if I can find out something different?"

"I could certainly volunteer a thought or ten," Diane whispered with a tone that held a definite coldness to it.

"Bah." Grumbling at you, Kiara turned away, sauntering and swinging her hips from side to side as she came back to Raven. "Well, you heard the man, I can have clothes. I want rope."

"Wait what?"

"Rope, Rick, string? Tight in all the right places and only barely hiding the most naughty parts?" Her lips unfurled into a wide smile as you felt yourself growl inside. "I'd like that to be my clothes."

You could practically feel Diane bristling at the words, mostly due to the temperature of the air next to you. A quick glance revealed thin lips, tense shoulders, and narrowed eyes. If your imagination was any more active, you'd claim she was just about ready to burst into flames and say several somethings with words that summoned acid and poison in equal measure.

The reaction amused the Succubus all the more; that much was clear as she presented a little pout to hide the smirk.

"Is there a problem? I don't remember there being a distinction between normal clothes and sexy ones, of course I would default to something more appealing for everyone involved if given a chance." Batting her eyelashes, she flicked a long lock of dark deep blue hair over her shoulder, grinning at you with perfect pearly teeth. "Isn't that right, Rick? Or are you going to make up a new rule about this? Maybe we should reconsider things?"

You felt like you ought to start looking into courses in lawyering- there ought to be a few available somewhere, right?

"We can play this through technicalities or we can play this by intent." Hands moving to your hips, you looked at Kiara with the flatness of the look of an unamused teacher. "If you want to be dressed with rope, I've no problem, but I'd expect you to be part of the luggage if you plan to travel like that. I'm sure Monica will have fun carrying you."

"Carry?" Monica glanced at you, pausing her rubbing of her head against your shoulder.

"Luggage certainly doesn't speak, and a gag would be so nice along with the rope..." Diane commented with a cold smirk.

The Succubus narrowed her eyes, snorting loudly as she crossed her arms under her cleavage, pushing it slightly upwards. She wasn't really disappointed, seemed more like she'd expected it. "Fine, then give me a minute to pick a shirt and pants from the backpack."

"Be warned that if you pick any of Rick's shirts, I will personally make sure they get washed by Monica while you're wearing them," the Alpha spoke with a coldness that made you flinch. There was deadly ice there, was she really that protective about it?

"Tch."

Seeing the disappointment with which Kiara reacted, you could guess that indeed there was something about the shirt business you'd not been told about.

The Succubus dug into the provided brown backpack, pulling out a plain white shirt and black pants. You noticed neither were her size, which was a bit odd since you were sure Diane had gotten everyone's sizes correctly. Looking more closely, they looked like Monica sized. The spares?

Kiara put them on with little fanfare, the seduction of her movements gone as she kept herself to the point. She proceeded to pull the shirt's floppy underside and turned it into a knot, transforming the shirt into something closer to a crop-top. A very tight crop-top. The Succubus appeared to be expertly certain of what she was doing because she kept tightening it just about it seemed like the shirt was ready to explode. Or at least suffocate her. Either way, it didn't seem as if she was becoming more uncomfortable even with how the shirt practically looked painted upon her body.

"Wait, one sec." She reached for her breasts, rubbing at the front with her fingers until her nipples popped through the cloth. Pausing a second, she looked around, meeting the eyes of every person in the room before smirking. "Perfect." A dark little chuckle followed, she moved towards the pants. "Now..."

Grabbing the black lower garment, she proceeded to NOT put them on but rather take the legs and wrap them around her hips, leaving the flat side covering her butt but pulled down enough for her tail to peek over as if the backside of a primitive loincloth. The front had merely the excess pant-leg to cover her modesty if you could call it that. There was something about how both front and back swayed that almost looked alive, only ever teasing what hid behind but never revealing it. It snatched your eyes with a magnetic pull of curiosity.

"There we go." You blinked at her as the infernal turned to you, cocking her hip to the side, widening her stance, thrusting her chest out and caressing her silky smooth naked stomach. A smirk spread across her face, and your eyes followed her fingers as they danced up and down that expanse, almost reaching her shirt and almost reaching for the knot in her pants. "I see Rick approves." She carefully looked around the room, her grin spreading further. "Oh good, seems I can keep snacking a bit with this. I think I'll stay with this for now. Shall we go?"

It was rather easy to hear Diane's grinding molars as she glared at the Succubus leading the way out of the room.

"There there." You patted her shoulder, making her flinch and shrink into your touch, leaning against your body as she sported an almost Monica-esque pout.

"Can I dress like that, Master?"

An arched eyebrow. "Do you want to?"

A sigh followed. "Not always, but if you like it..."

"I'm sure I'll get used to her choice of clothing soon enough."

"Woops, I dropped my modesty." Kiara stopped right in front of you, bending by the waist, raising her hips and cocking them, her ass peeking from beneath the poorly worn pants. A smirk followed as she looked at you over her shoulder, wings flapping as her tail rose high like a flag.

You grumbled, looking away and ignoring the tightness in your pants. The Succubus had found a weakness you had not realized you had had. For all the sex, none of the other monstergirls had been actually pushing to tease and tempt you outside of when they were in very specific circumstances.

A part of you had to wonder how long Kiara had been aware of this and had been biding her time waiting for this opportunity now in her grasp.

The Succubus was clearly pleased with finding ways to distract your attention away from the... everything else and straight back to her curves, her plump figure, her generous breasts and firm pear-shaped rear, the way her coal-black candy-cane tail swayed and played with her 'half-skirt' so as to raise the edges of the cloth just enough to tempt with teasing hints that tickled at that primal inquisitiveness in the back of your mind. Having tasted what the infernal had to offer, you were sorely aware of exactly the kind of treasures those hints led to, and it was certainly doing a great job at reminding you exactly what Kiara's job description was.

A sex demon.

One who, apparently, was starting to take her job seriously, because you could tell even Diane was getting hot under her shirt. At first you suspected Kiara had been using her aura, but for the life of you, you couldn't sense anything, no weird heats or warmth or flashes of lust. Just the infernal seeming to be always standing right at the edge of your gaze and drawing your attention onto her every flaunted curve.

"Oh, we're here already, shame." A gaudy smirk followed Kiara as she turned to look your way once more, pausing before glancing at either side of you.

On your right, Diane appeared to have pushed herself into a state of zen, her expression completely blank and unmoving. One that was at least partially a lie- you could see the light flush, the way she licked her lips, and how her eyes would flicker towards you every so often. Slightly behind and to your left, you'd glanced at Raven, who sported a very similar expression to Diane's; albeit there was a deeper darker fog hiding whatever lay within her gaze. Like pools of water, her calm observant eyes broke away from Kiara's form as she noticed you looking at her. A slight bow of her head followed just as you shifted your focus ahead in a very tense, forced way.

The consideration of Kiara having a clear effect on the others felt strange; you had to wonder what would happen if she had the right to initiate again. You definitely bumped that near the top of privileges she would have to earn back, as you could easily see yourself... yourself and the rest of the girls, all trapped within the Succubus' temptation.

More and more you suspected the only thing keeping you from looking how Tomas had been was the rule against initiating.

Speaking of Tomas.

He was the first one of the group you saw as you were approaching the agreed-upon meeting point. His expression was frankly less angry than what you expected it to be as he looked at Kiara. The best course of action was probably going to be to recall everyone before anything more could be said or done, particularly by the infernal. "I'll pull you back out soon," you told the girls.

"Sure thing, Rick." Kiara turned to look at you, stepping straight into your space before you could reach out for her ball. The monstergirl leaned, pressing her chest against your own; her lips were hot and inches away from yours, golden eyes amused. A wink, she was gone, and you took a second to realize she'd recalled herself.

The next instant Diane was taking that spot, arms wrapping around your neck; she kissed you, tight, needy, as if trying to prove a point, vanishing right after.

"Kiss." It wasn't so much a question as a warning. Monica's tongue was hot and forceful upon your mouth before you could do much else than turn her way, and the feline's hands groped at your body and she looked just about ready to pin you to the ground.

Taking a moment to recover your breath as soon as she vanished, you turned towards Raven, and the Arachnae bowed, smiling lightly. "They seem happy," she mused- a little comment about your monstergirls?

You almost did a double-take as you saw her nod a little just before being recalled. Had she just spoken without being prompted? Had you done something different recently? You tried wracking your brain but couldn't find anything that caught your attention in particular. Maybe she was just warming up?

But she was right: the energy felt different, changed- had the incident caused something? Had your girls done something while you were out like a light over at the hospital?

"Hey."

Tomas' voice broke you off of the mental tangent you'd been running through. Focusing on him, he looked better than you remembered. The start of a tan was creeping into his complexion, clearly healthier, the partial hollowness and bags under his eyes were gone; whatever he was doing, it had done him good. Or maybe it was more correct to say what was no longer doing him bad?

"The others are not here yet?"

"Kat's ahead with Mr. Gabriel," he said. "She said they might as well have us catch up since Mr. Gabriel is so slow."

"She has a point." You shrugged a little, following Tomas and the signs that pointed towards the road that took towards Alazea and the small villages in between.

"She also insisted we... talk," the young man declared nervously, looking the other way.

"About?"

"Rachel." A second of hesitation. "About Kiara."

Keeping quiet, you turned your attention away from him, towards the road, to the dirt as it crunched under your feet, and towards the warm sunlight streaming downwards. At this hour there were few people walking down the road; most everyone wore large backpacks or was accompanied by someone who did. For your part, you were glad Monica was the one carrying the bulk of the weight, as just recalling her made things convenient at least.

"I underestimated her," Tomas broke the silence, scratching the back of his head. "I don't..." A sigh. "I don't appreciate what you did, but I understand why you did it." There was a moment as he glanced at you. "I'd like to know something."

Hands behind your back, you kept the steady rhythm. "Shoot."

"Why slavery? Why not just... dump her on someone else and send her off?"

He knew how to hammer the questions in, huh. "Honest answer? I don't know."

Tomas did a double-take. "You don't know?"

"I explain how keeping her in the group was the strategically sound decision since she appeared less trying to intentionally sabotage things and more like just abusing everything that was given to her. Which would mean her addition to the team was a net positive." A slight sigh. "I could also throw in some reasoning or another over her potentially seeking revenge, hunt us down, making her a risk. But it's just... bullshit." Your eyes hardened. "I think I made the choice when she saved me from feral Raven."

"What was important about that?"

"She could've killed me, fucked me over, done any number of things, but she didn't," you replied. "It was a big stupid decision on my side, I willingly put myself in a situation where she had all the cards when I'd held the power to tell her to fuck off. I think she respected that."

"Respect, huh." Something about the word made Tomas frown and look away. "Do you think I'm respected by my girls?"

A half chuckle left you. "I'm not sure if you've noticed, I've got my hands full. This is the most we've talked during the past week."

"I guess you're right."

Silence returned, and you enjoyed it, even if you did have to glance at Tomas from time to time, noting the young man was clearly absorbed in some idea or another. Not that you were much different- it was too easy to become lost in trying to figure out the people around you. You didn't remember being like this; it was rare for you to pay this much attention to expressions and body language.

"There they are," you called out, pointing towards Kat and Mr. Gabriel; you could see their backs as they walked, slowly coming into view.

Absently nodding, Tomas walked along.

"I think that slavery is wrong," he broke the silence, drawing your attention. "It's... it goes against what I believe in. I know it exists, and I know I technically own Freya, Magdalene, and Sara, but I don't think I can bring myself to treat them like property, or like I have the right to do things like deciding their life for them." Every word brought about a resolution to his gaze, his shoulders squaring off and his brow furrowing, and he looked at you firmly. "What do you think?"

Your lips tightened.

"I think that they made their choice."

"What?"

"The monstergirls currently in your belt, they made a choice," you said. "They chose to trust you to take command."

"But I don't-"

"You could kill them, right now." You frowned. "You could walk straight back to the centre and put them through a level 5. You could sell them off to the nearest person with the push of a button, you could do many... many... terrible things to them. Right here, right now, they are absolutely helpless." Your words made the young man's eyes widen in horror. "Do you think they'd let you recall them if they didn't trust that you won't do any of those things?"

"I... guess you're right." Tomas nodded absently. "But that doesn't really counter my argument, slavery is still wrong."

"And what happens afterwards?"

Your question caused him to stumble. "What do you mean?"

"It's good to have ideals to push for, but let's be realistic, don't stop at the ribbon." The words came out a little harshly. "Let's say tomorrow slavery ends, all monstergirls are now free to do whatever, legally own things, decide who to be partnered with, all that. What happens?"

"I mean... I don't know. Why do you ask?"

"I don't know either," you replied, frowning as you walked. "But I think that, if you're going to push for something, being aware of the consequences would be important."

"Come on" Tomas snorted. "It would be the right thing to do."

"And what happens if doing the right thing leaves everyone vulnerable to getting overwhelmed by ferals?"

"You can't know that."

"You're right, I don't. But it is a valid question either way, and one that should be taken into consideration when reaching a solution," you replied. "What use is there to being good if everyone dies because of it?"

Tomas was about to say something but went quiet, eyes focusing on the road. It seemed you had given him plenty to chew through.

A part of you wondered what answer he would reach.