Chapter 74 - Seventy-Four: Harpy II

Chapter 74: Chapter Seventy-Four: Harpy II

Warmth pulled me from a deep, dark well of sleep. The familiar, wet, demanding suction. My dick was in a hot, welcoming mouth, and my hips were moving weakly, involuntarily, to a rhythm my body knew by heart.

Schlorp... slurp...

I cracked my eyes open. Kestra’s fierce, beautiful face was between my legs, her crimson eyes locked on mine as she bobbed her head, taking me deep into her throat. A soft moan escaped me. I was too exhausted to fight, too empty to think. My body just... gave in. The pleasure built, quick and sharp, and with a tired sigh, I came. Buckets of it. Or what felt like buckets, pumping thick and hot down her eager throat. She swallowed greedily, making a happy, choking sound.

She pulled off, licking her swollen lips, and crawled up my body to hug me, her wings wrapping around us. "Oh! Hubby woke up!" she crooned, nuzzling my neck. "Good morning! Ready for more?"

I tried to answer. All that came out was a dry croak.

"Oh wow."

A new voice. Sharp. Amused. Disdainful.

I managed to turn my head. Vesper stood just outside the cage door, arms crossed, her heterochromatic eyes sweeping over the scene. I was a mess... pale, covered in dried sweat and fluids, trembling. Kestra was a glorious, possessive wreck draped over me, cum-streaked and beaming.

Vesper’s gaze landed on me, and her eyebrow arched. "What the hell happened to you? You look like you got run over by a cart full of sex demons."

"..."

I opened my mouth. Nothing. My tongue felt like leather. I just stared at her, my eyes probably holding a plea for water, or mercy, or just a quick death.

Vesper’s eyes snapped to Rina, who was hovering nearby, wringing her hands with a distinctly not-sorry expression. "Rina," Vesper said, her voice dropping to a deadly calm. "How long. Exactly. Did you let him in here?"

Rina’s pink ears twitched. She put a finger to her chin, offering an innocent, thoughtful smile. "Oh... let’s see... I dropped him off... yesterday around noon, I think?"

The calm on Vesper’s face shattered. "YESTERDAY’S NOON!?" she shrieked, the sound echoing in the high-ceilinged warehouse. "THAT WAS OVER TWENTY HOURS AGO, YOU DUMB, COCK-BRAINED, FURRY LITTLE SLUT!"

She started pacing, unleashing a torrent of creative, furious profanity. "Were you trying to kill my investment, you fucking wool-brained incubator? I’ll turn you and your gaggle of nympho daughters into a fucking rabbit-meat pie! I’ll sell your pelts to a back-alley fetishist! I’ll have you stuffed and mounted in the foyer as a warning about overstepping!"

Rina just blushed, the pink darkening across her nose and cheeks. "It was just a little payback for what he did to me~" she murmured.

"JUST A LITTLE!?" Vesper roared, pointing a trembling finger at my near-corpse. "LOOK AT HIM! HE LOOKS LIKE A USED CONDOM LEFT OUT IN THE SUN! HE’S NOT A FUCKING DILDO, HE’S A PERSON! A TERRIBLE, PERVERTED PERSON, BUT A DEPRECIATING ASSET NONETHELESS!"

She took a deep, shuddering breath, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Whatever. Just... just get him out. Now. Before he dies of dehydration or his dick fucking falls off. Bring him to the infirmary. Gently."

Rina nodded, still smiling, and approached the cage door with the key.

The moment the lock clicked, Kestra’s affectionate coos vanished. Her head snapped up, her crimson eyes narrowing to slits. A low, dangerous hiss filled the air. "Get away," she growled, her wings flaring out protectively over me. "Get away from my Hubby. Touch him and I’ll pluck your eyes out and feed them to my chicks, you fluffy-tailed whore."

Rina didn’t even flinch. Her smile never wavered. With a movement almost too quick to see, her hand flicked out.

Swish!

A small puff of pale green powder erupted from between her fingers, hitting Kestra right in the face.

The harpy’s hissed threat cut off mid-syllable. Her eyes went wide, then unfocused. She swayed for a second, a confused, betrayed look on her fierce face. "Hu... bby...?" she slurred, then her eyes rolled back and she slumped forward, collapsing into a boneless heap of black feathers on top of me, out cold.

"No... wai..." I tried to protest, my voice a broken whisper. But I was too weak. Too dizzy. Rina and another, burly beastkin... a bunch of boar-women entered the cage. They carefully lifted Kestra’s unconscious form off me. As they pulled me to my feet, my legs buckling, I saw her lying on the straw, her hand outstretched towards me.

The last thing I heard before my own consciousness flickered was her faint, sleeping whimper. "Hubby..."

◇◇◇

The infirmary was a blur of cool sheets, foul-tasting potions, and blessed, uninterrupted sleep. When I next awoke, it was to the deep, gnawing ache of true, soul-consuming hunger. Not just for food, but for everything I’d burned through over the last twenty-something hours.

I was helped... carried, really... by a silent, gentle wolf-kin attendant to a small, private dining chamber. It was a far cry from the grand, ruined hall. This one was intimate, wood-paneled, with a single round table.

And on that table... a feast. Platters of roasted meats glistening with juices. Bowls of steaming vegetables and buttery potatoes. Fresh bread with a crust that crackled. Fruits I didn’t recognize, bursting with color. Pitchers of water, juice, and something that smelled faintly alcoholic.

I fell into the chair, my hands shaking, and just... started. I didn’t use utensils at first. I tore into a roast chicken leg with my teeth, the savory fat and salty skin an explosion on my tongue. I gulped water straight from a pitcher, not caring as it sloshed down my chin. I shoved handfuls of buttery mashed potatoes into my mouth. I ate like a starved animal, which, functionally, I was.

Vesper was sitting across from me, watching with an expression I’d never seen on her before: a slightly strained, apologetic smile. Her usual sneer was absent. Her mismatched eyes tracked my frantic eating with a mix of amusement and genuine concern.

And kneeling on the floor beside the table, facing me, was Rina. She was in a position of formal, profound apology... a dogeza. Her forehead was pressed to the polished floor, her arms extended forward, palms flat. And she was completely, utterly naked. Her massive breasts were pressed against the cool wood, her fluffy tail pointing straight up, her entire posture one of absolute submission.

"I am deeply, profoundly sorry for my reckless actions, Master Noel," Rina said, her voice muffled against the floor but clear. "I let my desire for a... spirited payback... cloud my judgment and endanger your health. I accept any punishment."

Vesper sighed, tearing her eyes from my savage eating to glare at the prostrate bunny. "You should be sorry, you insane, ovulation-crazed furry menace," she muttered, her tone venomous but lacking its usual fiery heat. She looked back at me, the apologetic smile returning. "I owe you an apology as well, Noel. I... underestimated the sheer, unadulterated stupidity of my staff." She shot another dagger-sharp look at Rina. "Leaving you locked in with a sexually-frustrated harpy for a full day... it was criminally negligent. I’ve docked her pay for the next month. And her daughters’ pay. And I’ve banned her from the kitchens for a week."

She watched me tear a loaf of bread apart with my hands. "The harpy, Kestra, is fine. A little... lovesick. Keeps asking for her ’Hubby.’ You made quite an impression." She shook her head. "I’m just... sorry. It was irresponsible. You’re a valuable asset, and I shouldn’t have let a rabbit’s petty revenge plot nearly turn you into a dried-out husk."

"..."

I paused, a piece of cheese halfway to my mouth. I looked from Vesper’s unusually contrite face to Rina’s naked, prostrate form.

The absurdity of it all... the days-long fucking marathon, the near-death experience, and now this formal apology with a naked bunny... finally hit me. A weak, hoarse chuckle escaped my parched throat.

It was the only sound I could manage. Then I went back to eating, the apology accepted in the only way I could offer: by not dying.

I kept eating. Gobbling down food with a franticness that bordered on self-harm. The roast beast, the piles of potatoes, the rivers of gravy... it all began to blur together, a desperate attempt to fill the vast, hollow space the harpy had scooped out of me. My body was screaming that food was the only way to stay alive.

Vesper’s strained, apologetic smile began to fray at the edges as she watched me devour an entire platter of honey-glazed ham in under a minute. The clatter of my utensils, the gross, wet chewing sounds, the sheer animal need on display seemed to grate on her already thin patience. The shockingly tame scolding she’d given Rina was apparently just the surface civility holding back a volcano of irritation.

Her heterochromatic eyes flicked from my messy face to Rina’s naked, prostrated form. The bunny matriarch hadn’t moved an inch, her forehead still pressed to the floor, her huge pale ass raised submissively in the air... a perfect, plump target.

Vesper’s last thread of noble decorum snapped.

"Look at him," she hissed, her voice low and venomous. "He’s inhaling food like a fucking garbage disposal because you tried to fuck him to death, you stupid, breed-crazed bitch."

She stalked over to the sideboard, snatched a whole, raw carrot from a vegetable display, and strode back to Rina. Without so much as a pause, she grabbed one of Rina’s massive, jiggling ass cheeks, pulled it aside, and shoved the blunt, thick end of the carrot straight into the bunny-woman’s unsuspecting asshole.

"GYAAH~!" Rina yelped, her entire body jolting, but she kept her forehead on the floor in the dogeza position. The carrot disappeared halfway inside her with a slick, wet sound.

"That’s for your ’spirited payback,’" Vesper snarled, wrenching the carrot out. Pop. It glistened wetly.

Then Vesper brought her open palm down on Rina’s exposed ass cheek with a sharp, loud CRACK!

"That’s for the fucking vet bills I’m going to have for my harpy’s emotional damage!" SMACK!

The other cheek. CRACK! "And that’s for every single one of my staff who had to hear her screeching for her ’Hubby’ all night!"

Each slap was vicious, the sound echoing in the small dining room, turning the pale skin a deep, angry rose. Rina yelped and flinched with each blow, but she didn’t try to escape. If anything, she arched her back further, pushing her punished ass out more, a moan caught in her throat. A few slaps in, a fresh trickle of her arousal slicked her inner thighs.

"You’re a fucking liability, Rina!" Vesper spat, pausing, her hand stinging. "A walking, talking, horny goddamn disaster! You think with your cunt and your ovaries, and my property pays the price! Keep this up, and I’ll have you spayed!"

"Yes, Mistress! I’m sorry, Mistress!" Rina gasped, her voice trembling.

Vesper straightened up, breathing heavily from the exertion. She looked from the sobbing, red-assed bunny to me. I’d stopped chewing, a chunk of bread forgotten in my hand, mesmerized by the unexpected corporal punishment session. Vesper’s eyes met mine, the fury in them slowly cooling into exasperated disgust.

"Enjoying the show, stud?" she asked sarcastically. "Don’t get any ideas. This is a disciplinary action for endangering my investments. Not for your fucking entertainment." She tossed the wet carrot onto the floor. "Finish your food. And you," she jabbed a finger at Rina, "stay there until I tell you to move. You can fucking think about what a reckless, stupid bitch you are."

She turned and stormed out of the room, leaving a charged silence filled with the smell of roasted meat, bunny arousal, and the low, soft sobs of an utterly humiliated... and undeniably turned-on matriarch. I looked at the half-eaten feast, then at Rina’s trembling, glowing red ass. My appetite felt somehow more complicated now. I slowly resumed eating, the slapping sounds still ringing in my ears.