"Monica, no!"

The voice called out right before there was a shuffling sound. Your brow furrowed, trying to focus on the entry.

"Monica yes."

The response came from a certain feline.

The cry that followed made your head snap away from the dex as you broke attention away and towards the potential trouble. The scene before you caught you by surprise. Monica was pinning Kiara. The Succubus had her hands raised and was laying on the ground as the feline aggressively suckled at the infernal's breast, her claws clenching and squeezing. Kiara's legs straddled the feline as Monica humped the smaller plumper monstergirl.

There was a smug smirk on Kiara's lips as she did her level best to remain perfectly still, cooing as Monica sexually assaulted her eager form.

Next to them, Raven was in her tauric form, weaving her silk, completely disregarding the ongoing events.

Then there was Diane, flustered, blushing, and stomping her feet towards you. Her eyes flickered at your face; there was a hesitation in her next step as you quietly watched her. Reaching for the backpack, she paused for a heartbeat, enough to let you stop her if you wanted. In your silence, she leaned down and snatched a ball out of the belt. Whipping around and aiming the device, Monica was gone in a flash of red.

Not moving from your spot, you observed as the nurse proceeded to shoot a glare at Kiara as the infernal smiled widely, the nurse stomping her way back towards her. There were two or three words exchanged between the two before you heard the slap. Diane's backhand had knocked the infernal back to the ground. Kiara touched her cheek where she'd been struck. The look on her face was not of hurt or shock but anger- eyes narrowing, she focused on the nurse, pursing her lips.

You frowned. Were things going to escalate?

Both of them flinched the moment you leaned forwards to have closer access to the capture spheres. They shared glares while they both sent quick looks your way. Diane took a step back and Kiara just flopped to the ground. Had they both been keeping an eye on you? You frowned further. They'd reacted to your gesture even though neither had been clearly looking your way.

Carefully, you waited, glancing at the other humans. Tomas was using the tent tonight, and he'd been fast to go inside with his two monstergirls. Mr Gabriel was napping, with Tessa curled on his chest, one ear always rotating this way and that. Kat was off with her girls doing sentry duty. The road wasn't too far, only a stone's throw away, but you could hear loud people from time to time even though the treeline blocked them from sight.

The group was only a couple of days away from Violet City.

Slowly, you pretended to return to reading, keeping a sharp ear on your trio of girls and making sure they remained within your peripheral vision.

"I think we need to change this." Diane's voice drew you back towards the nurse.

But you carefully avoided looking their way, turning your face slightly further down towards the dex. The pink-haired woman was walking around the infernal that laid on the ground. Had the slap meant nothing? Kiara had her eyes closed and almost looked like she was sleeping. If she was still angry over it, she was clearly not showing it.

"Be my guest," Kiara shrugged, her tail whipping around. "Teaching a feral to read is a bore either way."

"What, and you..." Diane's words paused. Her head turned your way; after a moment of hesitation she lowered her voice and you had to strain your ear. "...you don't want your freedoms restored?"

"Not like it's your decision anyway."

"But if we teach Monica better..."

"Sure, teach a feralborn girl how to read," Kiara snorted loudly. "It's a waste of time without a psychic."

A little frown came to your face, you reminded yourself to scroll the text a bit for the sake of appearances. After a moment of pause, you pulled out your notebook, pretending you were taking notes about the text on the device. 'Psychic?' You put down. Did it mean they couldn't just extract information from someone's head but also dump things into it? Or was it that just reading thoughts let them better understand how to better teach? Idly you wondered how it might be to be a teacher with the ability to read minds...

Then you remembered you'd been a teacher for a classroom full of horny hormonal students, half of which definitely considered your class the next least interesting subject right after Maths. So you discarded the thought.

"We can at least show her the basics." With a deep sigh, Diane kept pacing.

It was around then that Kiara turned her head towards you, but you couldn't see her expression too well. "Rick's just dumping a senseless task on your lap." Her voice was low, barely audible. "Why would Rick want to teach reading to the cat? It's not going to do anyone any good."

'Reading useless?' The written down words felt like an accusation against your very sense of reasoning. Sure, Monica being able to read would not give her any immediate advantage when it came to fighting ferals, but what of texts? Information? Were there no texts that could help teach one to be more efficient? Just reading dex entries could help have a firmer grasp of what to expect out of a feral monstergirl.

You scratched the words away, the gesture abrupt enough both monstergirls paused their conversation for several long moments.

"Isn't he broke?" Kiara interrupted the silence. Her voice was soft enough that, had you not been paying attention, you would've completely not noticed them at all. A part of you told you this was likely customary between monstergirls. "When I checked the dex it showed he had little to nothing."

Wait, what? When had she checked? When you were asleep? But...

You thought back to Diane- she too had taken your dex without permission. Hm... 'Dex lock?' You could've sworn dexes had a feature to prevent anyone other than the tamer to open them. Was there something you weren't seeing here? Or had she just looked at the balance over your shoulder at some point? Probably the latter. You'd check the dex's safety settings again tonight.

"We have enough for food," the nurse spoke with a huff, crossing her arms and looking away.

"Then where the fuck are we headed to?" An angry quiet hiss.

Whatever Diane answered, it was a lower whisper.

Still, the question brought a sigh out of you. A good 'fucking' question. You closed the dex as you placed the notepad against your knee. 'Objective?' The scribbled word taunted you. Your fingers drew a V shape. Violet city was on one end, Alazea in the centre, and Ebony on the other end. It should roughly take you... what, four more days to get to Violet? From there to Alazea the trip would be at least ten days with Mr. Gabriel. Then... to reach Ebony it'd take you no less than two full weeks.

Considering a couple of days spent in each city, that gave you the objective: one full month of walking and moving around before you'd drop Mr. Gabriel off at Ebony.

What then?

The pen drew a circle around Ebony. What would happen at Ebony after Mr Gabriel left? You figured he'd take his proportional chunk of the funds. After that... Tomas would leave. Very unlikely he wouldn't, he had his own goals, and after the last interaction... You did a mental check. What were Kat’s objectives? Last you heard, she and Tomas had different objectives. Tomas wanted to seek a way back. Kat didn't. Were those goals unchanged?

Going back... you shoved the idea away. Trying to organize your head, your pencil marked down a little circle with triangles for ears. Three strokes at either side added whiskers. A deep sigh escaped you. You really hoped someone had taken care of...

"Monica is alright, Master, she's just in her ball until she cools down."

Jumping a little, you looked over your shoulder. Diane was leaning down and looking at the scribbles you'd been jotting down. Following her eyes, you looked down at the drawing of the simplified feline's face. "Ah." A little chuckle left you. "No, I was just thinking of Natasha." The words made Diane tilt her head slightly. "My cat."

"Master had a cat?"

"Yeah." You scratched your head a little. "Fluffy little thing, probably ran off when I didn't come back to feed her."

"You had a pet Catgirl, Rick? I didn't take you to be the type." Kiara glanced at you from where she lay, having turned enough to face you before standing up and lazily approaching.

"Cat, just cat. Yay big." You held your hands at shoulder width. "Orange fur and loved to claw at my ankles if I ever went around the house without socks."

That made the infernal's brows knit together, and she looked at you with a narrowed gaze. "Where did you live?" The question was measured, her attention carefully watching your reaction.

You shrugged. "Somewhere else," you replied. "Not that I think I'll go back." More like you didn't know if it was even possible. "So little sense in talking about it."

Kiara's eyes remained focused on you before she snorted, crossing her arms. "You must've been filthy rich."

"By some standards, I was very fortunate, yes," came the intentionally vague answer, tilting your head with a little sense of amusement at the frustration on the infernal's face.

"So you lost it all?" Kiara's lips relaxed as she leaned down, bending at the hips, one hand touching your knee softly, her eyes attentive.

"Yes, that means I'm homeless."

"Tch." She pursed her lips, scoffing before she let out an annoyed grunt. "So what? Dear Rick had a sweet life and... what happened? Papa Ricky cut the tap when his son dearest said he liked slave pussy more than the pureblood broad tossed his way?"

Looking at Kiara, you blinked. "What?"

"Don't play stupid." She rolled her eyes. "An actual animal cat? No sense of money? Educated enough you were a teacher? You're one of those silver-spoon-fed purebloods over at Drandara, or Metropolis." Her head turned towards the others, making an upwards motion with her head. "Maybe you all got thrown into the gutter because someone's test came back with monstergirl in the family tree."

A little shrug of your shoulders, followed by a yawn as you closed the notebook. "I mean, if thinking that that is my past gives you peace of mind, feel free to carry on."

The Succubus growled. "You're too amused, fuck, but..." Her attention turned to Diane. "She's nervous. So I'm not as far off as you want me to think."

Your gaze glanced at the nurse for a long moment, seeing her tight lips and as she tried to avoid your gaze. "She doesn't really know more than a single broad stroke or two." The words made you blink a little, turning your gaze up at the darkening sky in slight consideration. "Thinking about it, no one here really knows much of my past at all, huh."

"You're not exactly the kind of guy that goes around talking about your life, it's frustrating," Kiara commented, her finger poking at your knee. "Why not tell us? It's not like we're going anywhere." A purr, softness, the Succubus' body leaning to press against your own, her breasts pillowy warm delights. "Wouldn't you like to tell your good little sex slave a thing or two? Hm?"

"No initiating, Kiara," you warned, closing your eyes and hearing her huff as she leaned away. "But if you want to know something, I might as well confirm that Diane was the first tamed monstergirl I ever fucked."

"What?"

"You heard me." You opened your eyes again, looking at the infernal's widened eyes and at Diane's reddened cheeks. "If that tidbit interested you, I might tell you about something else if you get Monica to write down her own name properly." You looked at Diane as you said this, and the nurse nodded slowly.

Kiara growled, but stood up... and turned to follow the nurse as Diane walked back towards where they'd been teaching Monica.

You placed your hand against your chest, feeling your heart beating quickly and forcing it to calm down. Inside your mind, you reminded yourself of the classroom and the students. You needed to keep things under control.

Carefully, you flicked the dex open just as you heard Diane starting to mutter at Monica about the letter "I". Your focus became hazy as the hours began to tick by. Your eyelids felt heavy, but you were sure you could at least handle going through another two entries.

The hours felt like they just melted.

And with a blink, everything was darker all around you.

You heard the light sound of snoring from across the small clearing. You shook your head, realizing you'd fallen asleep against the tree trunk. Your neck hurt a little; the darkness was enough for you to have a hard time looking around, but not enough to prevent you from seeing the two women that lay right in front of you.

Kiara was on her back, arms bound in silk over her head, her large breasts lay on display as her eyes remained closed. Atop her was Diane, just as naked, one leg straddling the infernal's stomach and the other underneath her. The nurse was slowly grinding her sex against the Succubus', letting out slow measured gasps.

"He's awake," Kiara spoke, not opening her eyes, letting out a slow groan.

"Sorry for waking you up, Master," Diane whispered. One hand cupped and squeezed her breast, the other reaching down between her thighs and rubbing herself.

"What... everything ok?" You tried to piece together what was going on.

Why were they fucking?

"Yes, Master," the nurse replied, biting her lip as she shuddered. A deep gasp, her head hung back, her shoulders shook as she panted. "Ah... just taming Kiara."

Taming. The word bounced in your head. Taming, something monstergirls needed to avoid going feral. Taming.

Sex. The use sex to promote strength in relationships, if the feelings dwindle the bond breaks, then they go feral. Monstergirl on monstergirl was meant to have a backup just in case.

A sharp intake of breath, eyes widening, your mind shot through the lingering fog, you almost stumbled forward, how could you be so stupid?

"Mas-"

Her word was stopped by your kiss, your hands moving her to lean against the cloth, and Kiara cried in complaint. Your hands grasped at Diane's breast as her arms wrapped around your neck. She returned the kiss, eager, and you pinned her to the cloth, your hands moving to remove your shirt.

It wasn't until you heard the nurse's giggling that you stopped, opening your eyes again and looking at her, pulling away enough to note the catty grin she was sporting.

"Master, you're still half asleep, monstergirls can help tame monstergirls."

"But..." You hesitated, frowning, trying to push the cobwebs away. "When was the last time we...?"

That knocked the smile out of her, she looked away. "...seven days."

Fuck, Rapha, your mind supplied the details. An onset rate with a loss of connection, breaking the bond, emotions determined the strength of the bond. Fuck. You had been putting emotional distance, enough she could've begun feeling she needed a backup.

A growl of annoyance left you. "Diane, I told you to warn me."

"Master clearly wasn't... in the mood," she answered, her hands moved from your neck to caress your shoulders. Her eyes shone violet. "I didn't wish to add to Master's plate, I can take care of myself." A moment, she closed her eyes. "Your heart is beating really hard, Master."

"It's..."

Kiara growled from the spot next to you, her arms bound above her head as she rolled her eyes. "Here I thought neglect play was his thing."

"I'm not..." A sigh escaped you, leaning back, giving Diane some room. Several deep breaths to calm down. "I'm not used to having monstergirls."

"Clearly." The Succubus wiggled, letting out a chuckle and ignoring Diane's glare.

"It's normal to not be in the mood for it all the time, Master, it's not your fault." Her hands caressed your hips, the only part of you within her reach.

You'd said that, even without the romance, you'd be her Master. Fuck.

Just as you'd been about to open your mouth to apologise, you caught Kiara's golden shimmering eyes as she looked at you. Right, how would a Master be expected to behave? What would a Master do? How would he take control?

You glanced at Diane as she lay, naked, her body reflected the moonlight, a touch of perspiration. Fuck it.

"It is my fault." You clenched your jaw. "Look, both of you can ask for a favour or something, I'm not letting you go like this again."

Slowly, you removed your shirt and unbuckled your pants. Diane's smile widened as you leaned down to kiss her again. There was an eagerness to her touch, a desperate thirst that made her hands tremble. She was hot, tight, and responded to every caress with shuddering delight.

"A favour?" Kiara's voice spoke softly, purring in delight. "If not getting fucked gets me that, sign me up."

"Not now, Kiara," you said, turning towards the nurse and kissing her.

And a part of you sank, the realization of Diane's words hitting you like a hammer.

You couldn't afford to keep neglecting them out of your own discomfort.