"Hey Rick, want to eat with us?"

The question startled you a bit; you'd been immersed in reading. You had to take a second to look around before realizing it was Kat who was asking the question. The young woman stood with an air of uncertainty. Her baggy jacket and messy blond hair made her look smaller and thinner than she actually was, and the way her hair was pulled back in a half-decent ponytail also made it almost look as if she'd just been woken up only a handful of hours ago.

Another second passed before your brain caught up to the question. "Sure."

Kat relaxed her shoulders, nodding with a little queasy grin. "Great, just one little humans-only dinner."

Raising a brow, you pocketed the dex and followed her- Tomas and Mr. Gabriel weren't too far away, seated around a small fire cooking something in a pot. You could smell the beans and tomato, and a quick look around confirmed their monstergirls were either not present in the area or were, more likely, balled up. Your eyes glanced at Tomas in particular as the young man appeared to be intentionally avoiding your gaze.

"We kinda wanted to invite you sooner, but it felt like you were too occupied with your own thing" Kat spoke as she moved to sit next to Tomas, nudging him with her shoulder.

"Yeah." A light nod.

Focus turning to Mr. Gabriel, the old man shrugged in return. "The boy felt like shit that you nearly died."

"Pops." Kat frowned at him.

"We're all adults here." You raised your hands. "Look, I know things have been rocky since the Kiara thing." You gestured with your head in the direction of the aforementioned Succubus begrudgingly seated in front of Raven as she appeared to be helping the Arachnae to weave. "What happened the other day has little to do about it."

"I'm mostly curious as to how you got her to save your life" Kat piped up, earning a flat look from Tomas. She shrugged her shoulders and snorted loudly. "Don't look at me as if you're not curious too, we thought she'd throw Rick in a ditch the first chance she had."

"I am mostly unsure how things have moved to the point they're currently at. My best bet is to claim she thinks it's in her own self-interest to keep me alive." You made sure to speak the words in a monotone droll. "Any other questions?"

Kat growled at you before crossing her arms. "Fine, keep your secrets."

"I will do that." You reached into your small backpack and pulled out your meal. And stopped as soon as you saw everyone else scowl. "Yes, it's chow, it's tasteless, and most importantly, it's the cheapest option around."

"How long have you been eating that crap? We switched to better food weeks ago."

Grumbling, you glared at your meal and then at Kat, then followed it with a deep sigh. "Well, when things are tight, I can't really afford luxuries."

"If you die tomorrow, I'm pretty sure the thing you'll regret the most is dying with a belly full of that crap," Mr. Gabriel pointed out, earning shocked looks from the other two but ignoring it. "You're still full on survivor mode. We're no longer in the woods, Rick."

The first instinct towards that proclamation was to refute it, to point out that you'd just about gone back towards the woods and were back at square one, counting meals, days, and how long things would last before you had to look for food. But you stopped yourself, lifting your gaze to look around.

You were in a small "rest stop"- empty, sure, but you could see people walking down the road not more than a hundred meters away. You could hear voices, conversations, you could see the signs of civilization, and you knew you were no more than a day and a half away from reaching a small village to resupply at. You knew the map pointed towards there being nothing of considerable threat within walking distance of your location, and you knew that if worse came to worst, there was help right there just a hundred yards away.

And yet.

And yet at the same time, you could feel it gnawing at the back of your head. You had been reading up on ferals, how they encroached into human's living space and had to be constantly fought back. You had heard of the reports of how stronger ferals pushed into the less travelled roads from time to time, and how the whole tamer circuit was meant to promote people to travel and constantly catch ferals.

Ferals that could and would be stronger and more numerous than what you'd encountered at the gym.

A sigh left you, hands tightening around the meal.

"You're right," you acknowledged with a nod. "But we're still far from safe."

Mr. Gabriel looked at you for a very long quiet second. "You've never been on active combat before, have you?" The question startled you, causing a quietness to fall as he kept a steady gaze on you. "It's good to be motivated and have a goal, but pushing yourself to tunnel into it will get you killed just as bad as ignoring the threat."

You were about to ask how he came to this conclusion, but there was something in his eyes that told you not to- a cold distance within them, of old pain in the distant past. You remembered Kat had mentioned Mr. Gabriel had been in the military at some point or another, maybe during class? You couldn't really recall the details.

"Total change of subject to something a bit less sombre?" The young woman piped up, squirming a little on her seat. "With Joane's help, I've managed to teach Coco and Liz how to use the capture balls!"

"Congrats," you said with an absent nod, chewing on the remainder of your meal.

"After I saw how Monica was being taught stuff, I thought it would be totally awesome to help my girls learn too. Also it's a bonding experience." Kat straightened her shoulders, chuckling. "How far is Monica by the way?"

"She learnt how to write her name recently." Pulling out the bottle of water to take a drink, you paused when you noticed the look Kat and Tomas were giving you. "What?" The silence felt like answer enough. You scowled. "What?"

"I mean, talk about going above and beyond." Tomas let out half a nervous chuckle. "Why though?"

"Why not?" You replied. "What could be possibly lost or risked from her learning how to read? If anything, it opens the doors to allow for a better understanding of things. Trying to communicate with her has been frustrating because either side keeps trying to explain complex ideas and her lack of knowledge in that end keeps putting hampers."

"But why writing?"

"And why not?" This time you stated the question a bit more fiercely, scowling deeply.

Kat raised her hands. "No need to be defensive about it, I just can't see what use it could have. It's not like she'd be going around needing to read reports, she's... well, Monica. She's the scratchy-scratchy fucky-fucky killy-killy girl of the group."

It was strange, feeling your hackles raise and your blood boil out of such a simple statement. At some level, you knew she didn't mean it as an insult, but your jaw tightened all the same. Why? You forced your expression to become neutral as you tried to chew through the emotion before it could rise any further. Why did the thought of Monica being only those things irk you so deeply? The first image that came to your mind was the pride on her face as she read your name out loud.

"She likes learning," you said after a second, mentally counting down to give your mind something to focus on. "That's a good enough reason."

"Yeah, that'll do it," Mr. Gabriel chuckled. "That's how you got the bitch to heel."

Glancing at the older man as he laughed louder, Mr. Gabriel did not explain his words any further. It certainly seemed to change the mood in the conversation, as Tomas' gaze became suddenly thoughtful while Kat appeared to grumble at herself. You drank up some more water and leaned back, trying to sift through the current situation, trying to consider whether this changed your plans.

Plans.

Ebony, the end of the road, and where your goals became dust in the wind.

"Could you help teach Liz and Coco?" The words snapped you back to reality, the nervous-looking Kat with a half shy smile as she moved a strand of blonde hair behind her ear. "I mean, while we travel together. I could certainly do with learning whatever magic you're using to make Monica enthused about it."

You shot her a look, and held back the sigh. "Sure. I just need to check over with the others to coordinate."

"Oh, if that's the case, could you help with Sara? She's feralborn, I hadn't thought of putting her through a level four since she was pretty obedient."

"...sure."

You could feel something dreadful and heavy tying itself around your gut.

"What do you need, Rick?" Kiara's words made you frown as she looked at you, then at Tomas, Kat, and Mr. Gabriel. The Succubus had her hands in her pockets, standing a step away from the rest, her gaze moving through the other humans before landing on yours.

"Just wanted you to help me."

A smirk followed. "If you want to double-team me with the boy..."

"Sit," you told her, now with a bit less patience. "I wanted to confirm about the elemental stone. By any chance would you know what it’s composition is?"

The Succubus smirked, moving in and claiming your lap. You didn't push her off, merely moving your hands a bit less close to her curves. Slowly she moved to lean into you, wrapping her arms around your neck and pressing her voluptuous chest against yours, her gaze turning away from the others. "We both know you called me here for something else... think you could give me a 'snack', Rick?"

"Stop trying to initiate," you said firmly, watching her exaggerate a pout and a coy smile. "I also called you over so you and Tomas could talk."

"The boy? The little cherry boy? That little-" Her words were cut off as you pressed your hand against her mouth, pushing her off of you.

The Succubus didn't resist, merely looking amused as she shot you a smouldering look and hopped off of your lap, wriggling her tail at you with a smirk before turning towards Tomas.

"Does that answer your question? He knows what I want. That's why he has me, and you don't. Do I really need to spell it out?"

"Kiara," you frowned.

"No," she said with a glare, turning towards you fully, and ignoring the glare from Kat and Tomas. "I can smell it. You called me here to try to make amends or whatever and he stinks of envy. So no, I'm getting this one out."

"Bitch," Kat glowered.

"And proud," the infernal retorted, straightening her shoulders. "It feels fucking fantastic to be able to stop pretending, to have a human who won't put me through another taming cycle just because my words hurt his feelings." She gestured at Tomas. "Boytoy over here got-"

"My name is Tomas," the young man spoke with a contained glower. "And you pretended to be someone you weren't to manipulate me."

"I don't care" Kiara laughed. "I gave you exactly what you wanted, boy. I gave you someone dumber and weaker than you, I stroked your ego and you sucked it up because you're exactly like everyone else, you can't stand not being on your own little podium."

"Kiara."

"No, Rick, you called me to this little trap, I'm saying my piece." Whipping her head back to Tomas, she narrowed her eyes. "You knew I was toying with you. That's what's sickening, you said I lied and pretended to be someone who I wasn't? You knew it. And you didn't have the balls to confront that, because deep down you liked it, and you wanted to tell yourself it was real." Her voice lowered to a hiss. "You wanted me to be a happy little eager ditz for you, I could feel how much you wished it to be real." A snarl. "Do you want to know why I was going to ruin you? That's why. Because people like you make me want to vomit just about as much as pinkie and her romance does."

Kat shot to her feet, her face twisted into a scowl, but not moving.

"Are you done?" You spoke calmly.

"One sec." She turned to Kat. "And you..."

"Don't."

The word made the infernal pause, frown, turning towards you. "What?"

"I said don't," you replied. "I called you over to address the issue with Tomas, I don't need you to start another one with Kat. So don't."

You met her gaze- the infernal returned the sternness, then huffed, rolling her eyes. "Fine, whatever, can I go now or can we have another go?" A smirk followed as she stretched her arms, bouncing on the balls of her feet. "I really enjoy this whole honesty thing, refreshing, we should do it more often."

"You're not afraid I'll punish you for what you said?"

"You're not angry," she pointed out as a matter of fact. "And the little girl is barely a little irked, hasn't even slapped me. You warned them I'd do this?" A smile spread across her lips.

"Sit." You ignored her order, gesturing at the space next to you.

Rolling her eyes, Kiara moved to oblige, amused every step of the way, her tail caressing your shoulder as she took position on the ground next to you. The Succubus toyed with her dark blue hair, her tail languidly drawing lines across her thigh in what was clearly an attempt to draw attention onto her figure.

Ignoring it, you turned to the others. Tomas had a frown, dark brown eyes looking through his glasses in concentration, fists closed, but he wasn't showing as much of a reaction as you thought he would. Kat however looked just about two steps away from opting to ignore your previous warnings and test out whether she could actually harm the Succubus with her bare hands. Mr. Gabriel appeared bored more than anything.

"Tomas? Do you have anything to say?"

Your question made Kat twitch, shifting her attention away from Kiara and to Tomas, reaching out to sit next to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. The gesture made the young muscular man tense, and he sighed, nodded, and relaxed. His gaze lingered on the Succubus, clearly forcing himself to look into her eyes.

"You're right, I did know, and I wished it was a lie," he grit his teeth as he said this, jaw tensing before he had to take another breath to calm down, his fists still closed tightly. "It was a mistake for me to have taken you in, you are not a good person."

Kiara's tail twitched, barely a moment, barely a fraction of a second. Her eyes had hardened, turned dark and menacing, her lips a twitch away from a snarl. But the expression was gone so fast you'd barely noticed it, in its place a bored expression and a shrug. "Takes one to know one."

Tomas' hackles rose, jaw clenching shut and shoulders tightening up as every inch of his body tensed like a spring, as if he was just about ready to leap out of his seat. "I... am glad you're not in my harem anymore," he said, his neck tense and his brows low. "I hope you find your own happiness."

"And that you get a better personality along the way."

Snorting, Kiara moved to stand, but you stopped her, a hand on her thigh that made her scowl. "You better make this worth my time."

"I'll let you take the rest of the day off and fly, I need you to stay for now though, I called you over for one more thing."

"You mean besides the obvious ambush?" Snorting, her tail slapped your hand off of her thigh. "I'll ask one more thing, one hour, anything goes."

"Fine." You nodded with a sigh. "Anyway, it's about the guy who punched my lights out. Out of everyone here you seem the most knowledgeable about it."

The infernal frowned. "Just because I'm infernal?"

"No, because you knew where to get fragments of elemental stones," you replied before she could add anything else. "If you don't want to talk about that detail, feel free to keep it. I just want to know whether I should be worried over meeting that guy again." You held the rock up. "I have his stone after all."

The infernal frowned, crossing her arms. "It's not... impossible." Her words were measured. "He was probably using the thing to get the two girls to fight over it. Heck of a better life if you're a stronger breed for girls like them."

"But do you think-"

"I think that if I had my stones squeezed and my rock taken, I'd probably look for a way to get my pound of flesh," she replied. "But who cares? The human was a nobody, you don't see those with actual power or influence showing up to toy with some thirsty monstergirls, they can buy their own and have them fight all they want."

"We'll keep an eye out, then." You nodded. "I'll make sure to keep you or Monica or Raven out at all times."

"Pfff." Kiara rolled her eyes. "I mean, sure, whatever keeps you alive. Are we done? I have an hour of your time I want to spend."

Hesitating, you glanced at Tomas and Kat, who looked at each other, and you nodded slowly. "Sure."

"Awesome." Without missing a beat, the infernal hooked her fingers on the waistband of her pants, removing them in a single fluid move and spreading her thighs wide. "Let's put that mouth to good use."

Blanching, you felt the colour rise to your cheeks.

"Straight to the point, huh." Mr. Gabriel moved to stand up without missing a beat. "Have fun."

"Oh, I will." Kiara’s gaze followed the old man as he moved for only a moment. Her eyes moved to Tomas and Kat, her fingers moving between her thighs and opening herself further as she leaned back, taking a more comfortable position. The smugness was spreading across her features as you shifted. Sandy yellow eyes turned to you entirely, her cheeks becoming rosy. "Or are you going to turn me down and break your promise, Rick?"

"You..." A sigh, leaning your head back and groaning inwardly. "I should've known better." Levelling your gaze with her own, you placed a hand on her knee, watching her shudder. "Fine."

"What?" Kat asked behind you.

Ignoring her, you glanced at the infernal, unamused. "You know the rules, restraints."

"Fuck," she growled. "Fine, one moment." With a flap of her wings, she turned to rush towards your backpacks.

"You can't be serious," Tomas muttered as you grumbled.

"If you think I actually control her, you'd be very very wrong," you commented, moving to stand. "It's a give and take."

"She asked for this to demean you," Kat growled. "She's treating you like some sort of sex object."

Glancing at the young woman as she flipped her blond hair back in annoyance, you returned the frown. "I've been thinking about that, actually. I found a rather weird question came up." You rubbed the bridge of your nose as you could see the infernal already coming back; she was holding a metallic tube about a meter long and with slots to lock someone's legs into. Your voice lowered to a whisper. "If monstergirls were free, and the relationship were made into an exchange... monstergirls would obviously bring their powers to the table. So what would humans provide? What is it that we have that makes us desirable partners?"

"Oh~ Rick..." The infernal's smouldering look made you feel like a slab of meat watching a hungry wolf as it stalked closer and closer.

"I... we... um..." Tomas hesitated. "We'll be seeing you."

"Don't leave, I wanted you to watch!" Kiara called out, her words causing Kat to snatch Tomas' arm and pull him away. Your unamused gaze on her made her smirk all the wider. "I'm serious, I'd love to have you eating me out in front of others, especially if they're human." Stepping closer, her hand trailed down your chest. "When it's me on top, you should expect me to do that from time to time."

"You're a long way from even having a shot at it." You began walking towards the others.

"Wait, what are you doing?"

"I said I'd do it, so let's go." You pointed with your thumb over your shoulder towards the tent. "We both know that if you try to push me to do it publicly I'll just pretend I'm trying rather than do anything. I can do better when I'm more comfortable."

Kiara's cheeks lit up, the infernal fast to push herself closer to you, growling with a wide smirk and a glowing smile. Her hand grasped yours and pulled towards the tent. You glanced towards the rest of the harem, noting Diane's eyes on you and a deep scowl. You shot her a shrug that did not seem to help much with her mood.

No sooner had you stepped into the dark brown tent, the Succubus removed her shirt, letting her generous breasts hang freely as she practically rolled onto the floor, laying on her back and opening herself up once more. With a smoky grin upon her lips, she moved the metal bar onto her knees as she strapped them into place, the restraint forcefully keeping her legs wide open.

"There we go."

Like a hungry wolf, she looked up at you and crooked her finger in a slow come-hither, her other hand moving down to move across her curves, teasing your gaze and drawing your attention upon her every feature. You had to stop yourself for a moment to take her in, slowly removing your shirt as you went through the motions of checking your thoughts one by one and focusing them on the infernal.

Slowly you looked upon her once more, taking the gentle curve of her ankle and tracing your way up her toned calves, tracing a line up her soft thighs, pausing upon the pink folds of her juicy sex and trailing further up, the cute crevice of her bellybutton, followed by the taut belly and the canyon between her pillowy breasts, each capped by a gloriously erect nipple. Tracing further up, you noted her clavicles, narrow and smooth, then the curve of her neck, the practically chiselled smoothness of her cheeks and heart-shaped face, the apple red of her lips, and the gold in her eyes.

Kiara shuddered, leaning back. "Fuck Rick, that's good." A moan escaped her as you felt yourself hesitating a second. "Don't stop now, I can feel your attention and it's delicious," she commanded, drawing you closer, raising her legs, inviting you in. "Give me more."

And as the wolf demanded its meal, you made sure to make it as tasty as you could.