Chapter 190: A Ragdoll
"Here you go, Richard, Dawn," she chirped, handing out the wraps she’d prepared in her space. "And Tommy, don’t think I forgot you."
Tommy, the white rhino and a fully grown powerhouse, accepted his strawberry juice box with a bashful duck of his head. He was a mountain of a man, but under Felicity’s gaze, he resembled the "big cub" she saw in him.
Halfway through the meal, the air shifted. It wasn’t the ragged, rancid energy of a zombie or the clinical chill of a City of Light scout. It was something... gentler.
From behind a cluster of rusted, overturned cars about fifty meters down the road, a small group emerged. They moved slowly, hands raised in a universal sign of peace. At the lead was a young woman with a shock of white and grey hair, and the distinct, soft ears of a Ragdoll cat twitching atop her head.
Behind her were three beastmen, an otter, a black-footed cat, and a sturdy koala. They were dressed in rags, looking like they had been dragged through the thorns of the outback for months.
"Please," the woman called out, her voice trembling. "We saw the light. We smelled... real food."
In an instant, the warehouse-like silence of the road was replaced by the low, guttural vibration of twenty-odd predators. Every beast husband was on their feet. Voss had a shimmering black blade halfway manifested in his grip, and Damien’s eyes had turned into slits of onyx.
"Stay back," Sarge roared, blue sparks dancing across his rhino-thick skin. "One more meter and I’ll cook the lot of you."
"Wait!" Felicity shouted, stepping out from behind Victor’s protective bulk. Her blue eyes weren’t filled with fear, but with a sudden, sharp recognition. "Victor, stop! Look at her. She’s a cat! A Ragdoll!"
"Felicity, get back," Victor commanded, his voice a low, terrifying rumble. "You don’t know them."
"I know they’re starving, Victor! Look at their ribs!" Felicity turned toward the strangers. "I’m Felicity. Are you hungry? We have plenty left!"
The Ragdoll woman, Alice, froze. She stared at the blonde girl in the fluffy white bunny dress, then at the six god-like beast husbands looming behind her like a wall of divine wrath. Her gaze slid over the husbands—men so massive and lethal they could level a city—and she looked indifferent. In fact, she seemed slightly repulsed.
Alice’s eyes eventually landed on the smaller, cuter members of the group—the fox cubs and the more slender scouts. She had a very specific type: small, cute, beastmen. The massive Alphas surrounding Felicity were, to her, simply terrifying obstacles.
"You’re the one," Alice whispered, her cat ears flattening against her head. "The Golden Female. The stories say you have a heart that can feed a thousand."
Felicity started to walk toward them, holding a tray of wraps, but before she could get far, Damien reached out and placed a heavy hand on her shoulder, stopping her progress.
"No," he said, his voice a silken thread of absolute authority. "You do not approach them."
"Damien, she’s just a girl!"
"The last ’just a girl’ tried to sell you to a scavenger camp, Felicity," Voss reminded her, his amber eyes glowing with a dark, unhinged memory. Snow Team shifted uncomfortably; they remembered the betrayal vividly. Leaf Team, who hadn’t been there for that particular trauma, looked confused but took their cues from the beast husbands.
"I’m not going to let them starve because of something that happened months ago," Felicity said, her kindness clashing with her newfound wit. "If you won’t let me go, then someone else has to. Ivan? Please?"
Ivan, the lion beast husband who had stayed out of the space to guard the perimeter, stepped forward. He looked at Felicity, then at the bedraggled group. He was the only one calm enough to balance her kindness with their safety.
"I’ll do it," Ivan rumbled. He took the tray from Felicity’s hands, his large fingers brushing hers for a second. "But they stay fifty meters away. They eat on the outskirts of the camp. No closer."
Felicity pouted, her lower lip jutting out, but nodded her acceptance. She pointed at the supplies. "Fine. But give them the juice too. The orange one, not Tommy’s strawberry milk!"
Ivan walked across the dead ground with the grace of a king. The three beastmen behind Alice bristled, their instincts screaming at them to run from the Level 85 lion approaching them, but they stayed for the sake of their mate. Ivan set the tray down on the ground and backed away, his eyes never leaving the koala-beastman’s throat.
Alice and her husband scrambled for the food, eating with a desperation that made Felicity’s heart ache.
Exile, standing behind Felicity, was having a mental breakdown of a different sort. He wasn’t looking at the strangers. He was looking at the back of Felicity’s head, at the way her bunny ears flopped as she watched the newcomers.
She is so perfect, Exile’s mind hissed, a frantic, obsessed loop. Look at her... giving food to the weak. So naive. So pure. I want to build a wall of bone around her so she never has to see a stranger again. I want to be the only thing she ever looks at. She offered them her own food... my goddess. I will kill that cat-woman the moment she makes Felicity cry. I will wrap my coils around this entire valley just to keep her breath mine.
"They can stay for breakfast," Victor decided, his voice cutting through Exile’s internal monologue. "But once we move, they stay behind. We are going to Bowral"
"Actually," Alice said, wiping her mouth as she looked up, her cat ears twitching. "We’re going to Bowral too. There’s a rumour of a sanctuary. A place where women aren’t... traded."
Felicity’s face lit up. "We’re going there! You can come with us! Well, near us!"
"Felicity..." Victor began.
"She has her own beast husbands, Victor! They aren’t going to steal me," she teased, though her eyes held a serious flicker. "And look at her. She’s a Ragdoll. She probably just wants a nap and some sun. Please? If they stay on the outskirts, they can be our scouts or something."
Dimitri, the Leaf Team leader, watched the exchange with his arms crossed. He didn’t care about the strangers, but he cared about Felicity’s mood. If she was happy, the "bloom" in the air was manageable. If she was upset, well, that was something else.
"Let them follow," Dimitri said, his voice a cool, clinical chime. Snow Team can monitor them. If they step out of line, Lucan can end them before they blink."
Lucan, currently in his human form and leaning against a cart, flashed a sharp, toothy grin. "With pleasure."
The decision was made. The caravan prepared to move out again, the morning sun finally burning off the frost of the night.
Felicity stood by Lucan’s side as he shifted back into his massive black panther form. She climbed onto his back, the bunny ears of her dress dancing in the breeze. She looked back at Alice, who was being helped to her feet by her otter-beast husband.
"See you at the next stop, Alice!" Felicity called out, waving a small, energetic hand.
Alice waved back, looking at the army of elite predators surrounding the blonde girl. She leaned into her otter-husband. "She’s protected," she whispered. "But she smells like home."
As the pack began to move, the sound of paws and heavy carts filled the valley once more. Victor walked at the front, his mind already drifting to the next five kilometres. He felt the energy of Selective Annihilation humming in his marrow, a dark, nuclear pulse that was the only thing keeping the wasteland at bay.
Beside him, Felicity was talking to the cubs, her laughter echoing off the canyon walls. She didn’t notice the way the men of Snow Team and Leaf Team were watching her, their hearts melting even as their hands stayed on their weapons.
"Alright, boys!" Felicity’s voice carried over the sound of the march. "Bowral is only a few weeks away! Let’s try not to kill everything on the way there, okay? I’d like to see at least one tree that isn’t on fire!"
Marx laughed from the back of the line. "No promises, Felicity! But for you, we’ll try to keep the explosions to a minimum."
Alice’s gaze drifted over the sheer wall of muscle that was Snow Team and Leaf Team. She looked at Dimitri’s icy, lethal frame and Sarge’s massive, scarred shoulders, and her nose wrinkled in a visible display of distaste.
"They’re so aggressive," Alice muttered, moving closer to her otter, black-footed cat, and koala beast husbands. "Not a single cute one. How does she stand being surrounded by so much... intensity?" Her husbands nodded in soft agreement, keeping their distance from the apex predators.
The road stretched out, but the air suddenly shifted. Victor stopped mid-stride, his head snapping toward a dense thicket of blackened gum trees. A group of shadows emerged from the scrub—not the hardened soldiers of the City of Light, but a ragged band of teenagers. They couldn’t have been older than seventeen, their faces smudged with dirt, holding rusted pipes and makeshift slingshots.