"Here," Monica proclaimed as she pointed at the cluster of trees slightly ahead, far enough you could barely see it from where you currently stood. "Food."

You nodded, glancing at the monstergirls at either side of you. "How should we go about this?"

The first one to speak up was Diane. "We don't know what kind of feral it might be, Monica doesn't exactly narrow down the categorization."

"Food." Monica pointed at the bush again, pouting as she pointed at you. "Not food, sex good, pets." At Kiara. "Sex good." At Raven. "Sex." And at Diane. "Sex food." Then her hand pointed back towards the bush. "Food food no hurt."

The nurse pulled back a little, blinking quickly. "What?"

"Glad to know where we stand on the cat's ranking," Kiara chuckled.

"Moving on." You rubbed at the bridge of your nose. "We don't want another lust-dust incident."

"Lust-dust incident?"

"It's how I ended up hospitalized and got to meet Diane." You rolled your eyes, trying to hold back the sigh. "Think we have Monica scare the feral out and Kiara and Raven jump her once it's certain she's manageable?"

"And who sticks around you?" Kiara spoke up fast. "Pinkie can't protect you."

You looked at the infernal as she huffed, crossing her arms and looking at you with a scowl. For a moment you weren't all too sure how to react. Where was this coming from? Frowning slightly, you glanced at Diane, catching her open mouth before she snapped it shut.

The nurse quickly spoke up. "I can buy time in the worst-case scenario." Hesitatingly, she looked at you, waiting for a heartbeat, and then back at the infernal. "But you could stay between Master and the feral while Raven and Monica handle it."

Kiara nodded, yawning as she spread her wings. "Let's get to it, I want a good fuck tonight."

Moving away from the spot Monica had pointed out along with Diane, you watched as Raven talked with Kiara and Monica. There were shared nods as the spider monstergirl approached a nearby tree and began to climb up with a surprising amount of ease, especially considering she'd not taken her tauric form. The sight of it made you shudder, thinking how easy it must be for monstergirls like her to ambush prey from above in any circumstance involving verticality. Monica for her part took to heading towards the left and vanishing through the shrubbery. Kiara just shot a look your way, spread her wings, and rose into the air.

You kept moving back through where you came until you could no longer see the area where the feral was supposed to be; you felt a slight tug of your sleeve that made you turn towards a worried-looking Diane.

"Master, did something... happen? With Kiara?"

"Happen?" Your question was asked as your eyes remained on where the feral was, followed by checking around, and above, to make sure nothing weird was potentially trying to sneak up on you.

"Between you and Kiara," Diane muttered. She was looking at you intently, frowning with concern. "Maybe during the last taming?"

"We had sex, Monica jumped in, I lost a lot of sleep," you muttered dismissively, trying to focus.

A quietness followed. As much as you'd love to be front and centre to watch the action unfold, you also knew that it was a one-way ticket to potentially becoming feral food. You did not want to risk that. The thought made you sigh a bit- why would the government send the humans into the wilds? If humans were precious, they'd just send monstergirl groups into the wilds to hunt. Less risk and no need to worry over a squishy target.

But that would mean monstergirls could run away. Not that a human could stop them. How could bad tamers avoid getting shanked in the wilds and their girls making a run for it? Maybe that was it, maybe it happened more often than what they wanted people to realize. Maybe that-

"Nothing strange?" Diane's words interrupted your thoughts. "Did she hurt you? Maybe you told her something strange?"

A scoff left your lips. "She teased me, as usual; tried to see if she could find out more about me, as usual." Rolling your eyes a little, you frowned as you heard some ruffling sounds at a distance. "After that, it was hard to talk since I was using my mouth for other things."

You narrowed your eyes as you heard the roar echoing off through the forest. It was... what, several hundred meters away? Monica could run incredibly fast. And no sooner had you heard the sound, the ruffling noises became louder, they were getting closer. That must be the feral. You dared not peek and potentially get spotted. The last thing you needed was to find out the feral could shoot stuff at a distance.

"Doing what things?"

"I don't know, Diane, kissing, lick breasts, eat her out," you growled. "We have a-"

"YOU DID WHAT!?"

The shrill scream almost made you jump. Your eyes immediately darted towards where the feral might be coming from. You moved towards the nurse, covering her mouth with your hand. Diane tensed but didn't fight against your hand, your eyes remaining firmly pointed away from her and where the danger might show up from.

"She's running!" You heard Kiara speak up from above.

"MINE!" Monica's voice rang with an enthusiasm that made your skin crawl.

"Do not kill!" Raven followed in a loud declaration.

Following those words, there'd been a scream that was brought to an abrupt end.

"Don't kill her!" The infernal shouted.

A heartbeat of wait before you dared to peek. Monica was straddling a monstergirl of some sort. The angle was bad, but you could see the blood on Monica's claws as she huffed, looking down at her prey with a satisfied grin.

And you could practically feel the silence as a physical force against your chest.

Within moments, Kiara pierced through the treetops and landed. Her eyes glanced at Monica. "Fucking cat!" Approaching with quick stomps, she kicked the kneeling feline to the side. "Can't fucking trust to -ah!"

In a split-second decision, Monica had reached out for Kiara's kicking leg and spun on the ground following the motion of the kick. The infernal did an arch as she was slammed against the ground on the opposite side. But Monica did not stop, moving to stand without letting go of Kiara's leg. With a swing of Monica's arm, the Succubus shrieked as she was slammed against the tree. Monica proceeded to then pull the infernal over her head and slam her downwards against the ground before letting go.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

"Bad Kiara!" Monica snarled down at the infernal, huffing and stepping away.

Had it been a human, every bone on their body would've likely been snapped like a twig. You rushed towards the downed monstergirl, ready to recall her and hopping Monica hadn't just killed her. The concern was unwarranted however, you saw Kiara cough and roll, moving to stand up as she let out a low growl in annoyance.

"Fucking..." She closed her eyes, letting out another cough before she started to dust herself off. "The cat can't hold back." A scoff; she rolled her eyes as she turned towards you. "She killed the feral."

Your mind spun- had Monica held back? Would she have done the same thing had it not been the toughest member of the team? If she'd done that to Diane would that have crippled her? You pushed the thought away. "You attacked her." You frowned.

"She needs to learn," the infernal replied, popping her neck before checking herself over. A slight smirk followed. "A level 3 should do the trick."

"I'll be the one to decide if and when that's the case." Your words caused Kiara to blink and frown, remaining quiet and stepping back. You noted Diane as she shot the Succubus a seething hot glare but remained equally quiet.

Whatever this shit was, it could wait.

"Monica?" You turned towards the feline, stopping just shy of reaching her as your eyes caught sight of the feral in question.

Like all monstergirls, she was female, well proportioned, even though you could quickly tell there were some signs of hunger. Naked, her body was covered with a light grey and white fur that was marred with dust, dirt, and the occasional loose twig. The feral's face had enough of a lupine edge to it that her large floppy ears hinted at the exact breed. Bunnygirl, one of the most 'harmless' of monstergirls out there. Your attention was drawn to the splash of red that coated her slit throat. Accompanied by the odd angle of the neck, it seemed Monica had brought an instantaneous painless end to the feral.

And for a split second, you weren't looking at a human-animal hybrid and instead you were looking down at a teenage girl. She had blond hair and blue eyes. Her skin had a slight pinkness to it from the summer sun, and she loved asking questions about the periodic table. The young woman had horrible handwriting, but she always asked so many questions, you'd written notes down just to have them on hand when she came to class. What was her name again?

You blinked.

The young woman was laying on the ground, blood pooling around her golden hair, blank dead blue eyes staring into infinity, her face frozen into a permanent look of shock. There'd been a piece of metal lodged onto her throat.

Right.

Shannon.

She'd been amongst the corpses moved away from the bus. Monica had ripped her arm off, hadn't she?

"MASTER!"

Lips, hot and warm, a dash of sensation that made you blink again. The corpse was gone. Diane took up the totality of your vision; the nurse was rubbing her hands against your chest. Wide worried eyes as she moved one hand to your forehead, the other keeping it firmly above your heart. "Breathe," she said with a tremble in her voice.

"What is-?"

"Stay back," Diane snarled at whoever had spoken. Your head was spinning slightly, and the nurse looked into your eyes with those deep pools of violet that wavered close to magenta. "Breathe, slowly, calm your breathing or I will have to calm your heart myself."

Diane, nurse, monstergirl, powers. You sucked in air, nodding, forcing yourself to close your eyes, to push away the thoughts, all thoughts, everything.

"Focus on your breathing." Her voice washed over you. "You need to calm down. I want you to focus on how long it takes you to inhale. Count the seconds with me, ok? Just breathe. One... two... try to slow it down, exhale, count in your mind, slowly, one... two... three... there we go, there we go, just keep going."

You complied, carefully forcing yourself to suck in air and letting it out at a pace that wouldn't match your racing heart. It took four minutes to fully calm down, to get your breathing in check, and for Diane to decide she could stop narrating a countdown for you to focus on. Leaning against the tree, you dried the tears that stung your cheeks. Finally free of having to focus on keeping your heart from drumming its way out of your chest, you allowed your mind to check over what had just happened.

"That was a panic attack," the nurse spoke, helping you to stand.

You noted she was pushing you slightly to the side so you wouldn't have a chance to look at the dead feral.

"Kiara, Raven, clean Monica up, no blood," she declared at the others. Her voice was firm and hard, practically a growl.

Letting yourself be led away from the place, you took the chance to organize your thoughts. "That sucked." You felt drained, tired, frayed, and just like that, you were short of breath and your whole body ached.

"Master." Diane stopped you, her hands pressing against your chest. "Have you had night terrors recently?"

The simple direct lie was a 'no'. You could deny it... You shook your head. "Once. The night all of you were balled."

Her hand squeezed yours. "If it happens again, please tell us."

She wanted you to trust her. You frowned slightly. "I wouldn't have a choice, either way, I don't see myself sleeping alone again anytime soon." A deep groan left you; you reached up to rub at the bridge of your nose and grimaced. "We can't waste the feral's corpse, Monica needs food and we're tight on money. It would be one less meal to worry about."

"Master, I worry it might cause another panic attack."

You snapped. "I spent a whole fucking week in the wilds with Monica following me while she ate bodyparts of my fucking students!" Your voice rang loudly. "I can survive some random dead feral. This was a fluke."

And if it wasn't, you'd find some psychic to read your mind and tell you just how fucked up you were and what other fun memories your mind was trying to avoid bringing up.

Shannon.

Fuck.

"I just..." You glanced at Diane as she looked at you with that pity.

Pity. Your mind bounced to Diane's earlier words- if you hadn't calmed down she'd have used her powers to force you to.

You hadn't been in control.

You weren't in control right now either.

What were Diane's buttons? How could you move from empty words towards actions that would end her doubt?

You pulled her into your arms, and you pressed your lips against hers, groping her openly. There was a moment of hesitation before she began to return it; she hugged you gently, her fingers touching your hair and neck. It felt nice, but you weren't focused on that- your hand squeezed at the Rapha's body firmly until she'd begun to melt into you.

"What must a monstergirl do to get in on some of that action?"

You ignored the words, keeping your hands slowly groping that of the woman between your arms until she moaned.

It was only then that you let go, looking at her flustered face and wide eyes. "There, better?" You asked at her, watching her hesitate before she nodded.

Hearing the infernal chuckle, you just rolled your eyes and glanced her way.

"And what was it with you and being all concerned over me?" You said with a scoff. "Did you get bashed in the head or something? Should Diane give you a checkup?"

"What?" Kiara flinched, off-balance at your jab.

"Monica?" You called out, switching targets and leaving the Succubus to doubt. You watched the feline approaching while carrying something that was bundled in silk. You made an effort not to think of what within the bundle.

"Rick?"

"Monica bad," you stated. "No order to kill and Monica kill, bad."

Instantly her ears drooped, a pout on her face as she hugged the bundle close to her chest.

She didn't answer, however, so there was that at least. A deep sigh, your eyes turned towards the last one, she'd been walking behind everyone else, keeping her hands demurely in front of herself. "And... Raven, thanks, for the bundle."

"It's the least I could do to help, Master." She bowed slightly at your words.

You paused for a second, looking at her. "Have you had to do this before?"

"Humans are fragile." Another slight bow of her head. "It is a monstergirl's work to protect their owner."

Did... she meant fragile psychologically? Were monstergirls just less able to be traumatized? It... monstergirls were engineered super-powered soldiers meant to fight for a madman three centuries dead. A grimace crossed your face as you pushed the thought away; you needed to clear your head and centre yourself.

Turning to lead back towards the road, you quickly made a mental checkup; you should be reaching Violet at around the same time everyone else would. Following Mr. Gabriel's pace had been grating on your nerves for the past handful of days. Taking a break and an excuse to step away from the group had been, in theory, a refreshing idea.

Now you were feeling like you were coming back with more troubles than you'd left with.

Your girls trailed behind in silence.