With a sigh, I return my focus to the unpleasant task ahead of me.

There are the expected female Goblins, bunny girls, Dire Wolf bitches, and Orcesses, all gravid with eggs. I see Gretta, the matronly human ‘town-bicycle’ who’s been laying eggs on the mountain for the past thirty years, among them. There’re a quarter as many male monsters, including mouse boys, who serve as living dildoes for the Harpies already pregnant with Chicklins. No Orcs or male Dire Wolves, though. I’m guessing the Harpy girls are too intimidated by them.

I’m relieved to see female mice from the larder in the mix. (They’re too small to bring a Chicklin egg to full term, so they’re only considered food.) Unfortunately, I don’t find any monsters I’m unfamiliar with here. I secretly hoped the Harpies would keep a few monsters from other regions after hunting far afield, but I guess they mostly patrol nearby.

Wait… is that?

“Bonny?”

The bigear mouse girl blinks in surprise before perking up. “Alex? I didn’t recognize you!”

Dozens of predator gazes follow her as she runs toward me and leaps into my arms with full trust as if escaping from a burning building. We don’t know each other all that well, but she did sit on my face and let me stick it up her butt a few days ago. It’s hard to call two people ‘strangers’ after that.

I’d probably trust me to save my life were I in her place. Better the monster you know than the predators who put you in the kitchen pantry.

“It’s the fangs, isn’t it?” I can’t otherwise explain why people are having such trouble with my face. Unless the scales really throw them off that badly…

“What? No, they look fine. Why are the Harpies listening to you?” she asks as she sits in the crook of my arm and leans as far away from Robin and Monal as possible. I don’t blame her for refusing to stand alone when there’re this many hungry eyes on her ass, and not in a sexy way.

“I… sort of conquered them? They call me, ‘Mistress’ and everything. I didn’t say stop,” I tell my new attendants, who paused in their attentions when Bonny broke out of line.

““Yes, Mistress,”” Robin and Warbler say. Rosie and Monal have their mouths full.

“Have you seen Megan?” Bonny asks. “I got caught yesterday and haven’t seen her since she went missing. I hate to think you were a day late to save her…”

“You know my wife???” Gale exclaims as she pops up, cunnilingus forgotten and too excited to stay seated when her lover’s name is mentioned.

*Gulp* “I, umm, we, umm, uh, wife?” Bonny stutters while staring at Gale’s sharp teeth suddenly way too close to her face. It’s easy to forget other monsters see my innocent birdbrain as a predator too. “Megan and I grew up together. We’re not best friends or anything, but you could say we’re related.”

You could say everyone in the Warren is related since Peter put himself in charge.

“That’s amazing!” Gale shouts. “Megan will be so happy with me when I bring you home. I’m gonna get so many wife-kisses!”

The bigear mouse girl is more than a bit intimidated by the exuberant Harpy looming over her. “G-g-great! Um, so, Alex, what are you doing here?”

“Just making sure the Harpies don’t eat anyone from now on.”

“What?” Red says.

Aello face-wings.

I raise an eyebrow. “You didn’t tell them?”

“It’s a lot easier to explain things to them one absent meal at a time rather than doing the big reveal upfront.”

Oh, I guess she has a point.

Suddenly, the Harpies are all whispering to each other. I may have fucked up on this one.

“Mistress, what will we eat from now on if not the mouse…?” Monal says, pointing at Bonny with her chin. The bigear mouse girl flinches at being singled out.

I sigh, bemoaning my hubris, and hand Bonny to Gale. She frantically clutches at me until Gale hugs the bigear mouse girl tight against her modest bosom. Gale’s protective wings calm Bonny slightly.

Then I grab Rosie and Monal by the hair and pull them to my breasts. They put a lot of oral effort into ensuring Gale and I were satisfied. “You two can fill your bellies for a job well done.” I address the crowd while nursing, “Harpies of the mountain, calm your tits.” The chickadee avians act like I just used a slur. “Yes, you’re not allowed to eat anything that can talk now, but you won’t go hungry! Come to the Hut on Fuzzy Field at sundown. I’ll have food for you then.”

I fucking better, or else I’ll be up all night nursing Harpies and screwing bird butts to impart my nutritious semen.

With that drama settled, I return to the main reason I came.

“Prisoners of Harpy Mountain, I’m Alex Vermillion, the new boss. So, good news and bad news. Good news: the males among you are all free to go.” A small cheer goes up. They’re not sure what happened or why, but they get to go home. I’ve thought about it and, even if they end up on the opposite side of the battlefield from me in two days, this is the right thing to do.

“The bad news, and I know this is a raw deal because I have a uterus too, is that the females have to stay. Just for a few more weeks.” No matter how I consider things, I can’t let the pregnant women free yet. I won’t be able to sleep at night knowing they unalived their unborn Chicklins or cooked their eggs after laying them because I allowed them freedom. “Once you have your moon blood, you’re free to go. Once you lay an egg, you’re free to go. The Harpies will continue to feed you until then. Report any Harpy that touches you without consent from today onward and I’ll cut off their wings. You have my word.”

There’s much grumbling on both sides. Nobody is particularly happy with me.

“And if a Harpy reports one of you smashed an egg or purposefully tries to induce a miscarriage, I’ll chop off an arm.” Fear quiets the grumbling. Taking a life for a life doesn’t sit well with me, so disincentivizing violence (sexual or otherwise) is my compromise.

Ordinarily, I’d let the women decide how to deal with their pregnancies after a rape, but this situation is too colored by tribal racism. I don’t doubt the majority of the women would want to kill as many of their enemies as possible given the opportunity, especially the most vulnerable (eggs and infants). At least I’m not asking them to raise the Chicklins.

“Also, any of you who want to stay are free to do so.”

That changes the tone.

“Milady, please do me the honor of escorting you back to the nest,” the parrot Harpy boy I previously dubbed Green says with a bow to a shocked Orcess.

“M’kay?”

A hawkish Harpy girl, powerfully built, head and shoulders taller than her peers, crouches down to meet a mouse boy eye to eye. “All the berries and nuts you can eat, sex whenever you want in any position, I’ll protect you from predators, and suck your dick on command… just please keep doing that tongue thing?”

He pretends to consider her offer for a moment before answering, “Deal.”

Damn, boy, what that tongue do?

“You’re not leaving us, are you?” Yellow asks Gretta with a trebling lip and his best baby bird eyes wet with unshed tears.

The clever MILF starts making excuses, “Well, I’m getting on in years and the old nest has seen better days. My back is sore every morning.”

“I’ll find you the softest grass,” the purple martin boy says, taking her arm-in-arm elbow to wing.

“I’ll rub your back,” the orange-feathered oriole boy says as he sidles in behind her.

“I’ll eat your pussy whenever you want,” the bluejay boy says as he takes her other arm.

You go, girl!

Like the ancient human philosopher said, ‘You don’t know what you have until it’s gone,” or leaving, in this case. Seems like threatening to take their toys away changed how the Harpies treat said toys. Will it be enough to change the pregnant women’s minds? I guess we’ll find out soon enough.

“That could’ve gone worse,” Aello says with relief. “As long as you come through on the food tonight.”

Yeah, I know.

Rosie and Monal both release my breasts with a heavy sigh and wipe away their milk mustaches with their wingtips.

Bonny watches things unfold around us with curiosity and a measure of confusion. Eventually, she turns to me and asks, “Where’d the human go?”

I slowly turn to the Harpy Matron, face a placid mask like still water with sharks beneath. “Yeah, Aello, where’d the human go?”

Before she can answer, Gale stiffens, then lifts her nose to sniff the air. “Yeah, I smell something good.”

Of course, the day I refund my Wolf Nose they try and slip something past me. Never fails.

“Alex, I can explain!”

“Over here…” Gale follows her nose with Bonny in her arms.

I summon a Fishman spear and tap my head with it. “Thought you could outsmart me? Distract me?”

“N-no, never!” Aello backs away a step.

“Smells like…” Gale rounds a boulder. “A man!”

“Aello, Aello, Aello, what am I going to do with a sneaky… slimy… scheming…”

“Please don’t hurt him!” Aello falls to her knees and begs.

“Eh?” I drop my spear. “Hurt him?”

The Harpy Matron swoons, covering her face with a wing, “If you must exact vengeance on anyone, let it be me, not this poor, innocent boy!”

“Um, actually, that was the plan.”

She pretends not to hear me. “After our evening of hot-blooded, passionate lovemaking and mother-daughter bonding, I retired for the night only to find my children had—purely out of kindly devotion for their mother—placed a human male in my nest. Naturally, no monster could resist his handsomeness, charm, and manly aroma. I am but a woman! Yes, Alex, I admit it, I cheated on you! I deserve all your condemnation, but please, spare him!”

This sly old bag. Trying to hide a human for her personal use and reframing it like this.

I open my mouth to retort, but Gale beats me to the punch.

“Yeah, Alex, don’t hurt him! He’s an innocent boy!” Gale pleads for the human man’s life that I never had any intention of threatening.

Clever bitch. Outmaneuvered by the vulture.

“No, Gale, sweety, I’m not…” I grit my teeth and turn to the Harpy Matron, eye twitching as she fans herself with a wing. “Aello, it might come as a surprise to you, but I’m not super into the whole ‘jealousy’ thing. It’d be quite hypocritical of me—what with the massive harem and all. I put a baby in you, so I’m not concerned about getting cucked right at the moment. I’m bi, so I’m fine with you having sex with another man as long as it’s in a threesome with me. Just don’t go behind my back in the future, alright? Relationships are all about…” *Sigh* “Trust and shit.”

Aello throws herself at my feet with crocodile tears streaming down her face. “Oh, thank you, thank you, oh merciful Alex! I promise you’ll be the first to know next time I’m tempted by the fruit of another!”

Gale hugs me tight, Bonny squished between us, real tears streaming down her face. “Yeah, Alex, thanks for having such a big heart! I never meant to cheat on you with Megan! I thought you were dead!”

I pat the pure-hearted Harpy girl’s hair and kiss her forehead. “I know, Gale, you never did anything wrong. You’re a good girl.”

“Really?” she asks, sniffling.

“Yes, really.” I wipe her runny nose on my shoulder. “You’re a very, very good girl.”

“Hurray!”

“Yes, hurray!” Aello says as she stands.

I meet the Matron’s eyes with a rigid fake smile. “I’m letting this one go but, if you ever lose track of the Kobold egg in your belly, then I’ll have to kill you. Otherwise, we’re good. Clear?”

“C-crystal!”

“That’s a relief,” says the young man Aello hid from me as he comes around the corner of a boulder. “I guess that means I can stop hiding now, Mistress… Alex?!?” I recognize him immediately.

It’s Jonathan Saffron.