Chapter 138

I took a steadying breath as I stepped down into the lobby. I quickly caught the attention of Bella when our bond brushed against each other. I was feeling more relaxed now, calm... and happy. She had been anxious but was quickly warming up when she noticed I was being open with my feelings again.

Bella excused herself from a conversation she was having with one of the other girls and calmly walked over to me. "Hey Lilith, are you feeling better?"

I nodded. "Yeah, sorry for worrying you."

"It's okay, I'm just glad you're alright." She turned and smiled at Raya. "Thanks for talking with her, I owe you one."

Raya stepped next to her and pulled her into a side hug. "Are you kidding? It's the least I could do for the two of you. It's gonna take more than that for me to pay you back for saving my life, sis. We're family after all."

The sentiment made me smile. I was glad she was taking my comments about family so seriously. She was the one who gave me the idea to look at things in that way and I can't be happier she's taking to it so thoroughly.

I turned to Bella. "Where are the twins?"

She pointed to a door on the far wall. "Morrigan, Torien, and Silva are telling some of the girls and customers some stories and Theo uh... already went to his room with a few of the girls. He said that he doesn't expect to come back down tonight. Oh, but he wanted me to remind you that he still needs to talk to you tomorrow."

"Right. I did promise him."

"So..." Raya leaned up against me. "I know you've had a long day but are you still willing to uh, work on the thing with Madame Oceane tonight?"

I nodded. "I'm feeling better now, I think I can handle that."

"Great! I'll go talk to her. How about you two go get some dinner and I'll come find you after. Did Sibyl show you where the kitchen is Bella?"

"Yeah, I can take her there. Thanks Raya," Bella said with a smile.

Bella took my hand and quietly led me through the room the rest of our party was in. Torien and Morrigan noticed me right away so I gave them a wave and caught a very relieved expression from Torien. It struck me as funny to see that kind of look on her face but my amusement subsided when I realized that was probably in response to the very real fear of displeasing her master. Silva grabbed her by the shoulder and continued telling the story to the people around them, refocusing her attention back on the crowd. This time the story was about our mission earlier today, namely the fight with the shadow behemoth.

We left through a door I hadn't seen before into a fairly large kitchen with multiple wood-burning stoves. The room was a little toasty but the ventilation was good so it would have felt comfortable even if I didn't have heat resistance. A tall and lanky wolf woman with with sharp features, bright golden eyes, and dark bags under them, looked up at us as we entered. Her coat was a speckled brown color with greying ends, she was older than most of the other women here but still looked quite attractive despite her age. The only woman I've seen here that was probably older than her was Oceane but it was hard to judge by how much because of how unfamiliar I was with actual snakes.

"Ah, you must be Lilith. I've heard a lot about you from a few people. How are you doing tonight?"

I nodded. "I'm doing alright, how are you?" I held out my hand for her to shake.

She smirked and shook my hand with a surprising amount of strength that I didn't expect from her build. "Hmm, seems like you're not as weak as you look. Perhaps there's some truth in the boasting your... friends are doing in the other room," she said with a wave in their direction. "I'm Sibyl, it's nice to meet you Lilith. I'm usually in charge of handling the food around here. Part cook, part quartermaster, part bouncer, part... lady of the night."

Her eyes trailed up and down my body before continuing. "You're more easy on the eyes than I was expecting when I'd heard a sheep-kin adventurer had brought us some food. Those handsome horns on your head give you a bit of an exotic look for a woman." She released my hand and took a step away.

Next she turned to look Bella up and down. "It's nice to see you're feeling better, you looked quite down earlier. Did the two of you need something to eat? There's still some stew left, everyone else has already had their share for the day."

Bella nodded. "Yes. Thank you, Miss Sibyl."

The wolf-kin ladled out two more bowls of stew before placing them on the counter next to us. "Are the two of you involved with the thing Oceane has been talking about? Some sort of transformation? I would have thought it was all a tall tale if Raya and Nadia hadn't shown me their changes personally."

I furrowed my brows. "How much do you know about it?" I started eating the stew while we talked.

She shrugged. "Not much, Oceane said she would probably call me and a few of the girls tonight or tomorrow and she would give us more of the details then. The Madame isn't a sucker so whatever all of this is about, it's gotta be real and you two are probably involved. The timing lines up too perfectly."

"Auntie Sibyl!"

The three of us turned to see Raya standing at the door with her large paws on her hips. "Don't badger them, even if they did explain everything to you, you would just have to listen to it all over again when they explain it again later."

She grumbled for a moment before leaning on the counter. "So? I was right? These two are involved in whatever's going to happen tonight? This seems like some kind of demon shit or something, the timing freaks me out way too much. Everything the four of you have told me sounds too good to be true, there's got to be a price."

I nodded. "There is a price to it but one that I think most of the people we're going to make the offer to, will be willing to pay."

Her lips curled in anger. "This sounds dangerous, how can I trust—"

"Sibyl relax!" Raya pulled the wolf-kin into a hug. "Don't worry, it's not what you're thinking. Trust me, I'm a great judge of character!"

Sibyl snorted. "Hardly, you're way too trusting. That bleeding heart of yours is going to get you hurt someday. ...maybe whatever she did to you already has."

Her eyes turned to me and narrowed. It would have been a bit more intimidating but the juxtaposition of her making that angry face at me while Raya affectionally hugged her made me laugh. Raya wasn't exactly a short woman but Sibyl was so tall that Raya was able to nuzzle her head into the wolf-kin's breasts and tickle her chin with her ears.

"Auntie calm down, you'll understand more about it soon." Raya released Sibyl from the hug before turning to me. "The Madame said she's ready to go as soon as you'd like. She made sure everyone she wanted to invite first would be free tonight."

"How many people are we talking about?" I asked.

"She wants to try a dozen. I know you haven't done this many before but if nothing else it would be good to see if you have any limits on it."

"Alright," I said with a nod.

Sibyl sighed. "Fine. Let me put out the fire and I'll head up to your office as soon as I'm done. Are you going to collect the others, Raya?"

"Yup! I got most of the girls on the list! The only one I'm not sure about is Jade, have you seen her?"

Bella giggled so I turned to see what she was laughing about. When she noticed my look she smiled. "The two of them are really funny together, Miss Sibyl is so serious and Raya is so energetic."

"Right! Okay, Lilith, you go to Oceane's office and I'll meet you up there in a bit!" Before I could respond Raya excitedly rushed through the door.

Sibyl nodded towards the door. "You head on off, I have to finish putting out the fire." She reached over and took our empty bowls to the sink.

The two of us headed out to find that Silva and the twins had finished their story and were waiting for us. I walked over and patted Torien on the shoulder and pulled Morrigan into a side hug. Mimi came behind me and wrapped around me from behind. She didn't say anything but I could tell she was glad I wasn't angry anymore, it had been a short time but through our bond, I could tell she had missed me. The emotions I was feeling from her made me worry she was developing separation anxiety.

Morrigan squeezed me back and laid her head on my shoulder. "I'm glad you're feeling better now. I don't often see you that angry."

Torien stepped forward and put her hand on my arm. "Lilith, I'm sorry. I didn't realize how thoughtless I was when I brought that stuff up... I should have considered your feelings better, I apologize."

I smiled. "It's okay Torien. I... have a lot of complicated emotions surrounding that night. ...I might talk more about it with all of you when I feel more comfortable but that might be a while. I feel better now though, ...talking through it with someone helped a lot."

Torien patted my arm again before awkwardly stepping away. "I'm glad." She stood next to Silva who shifted awkwardly, I wasn't sure how much they've told her about what happened but she didn't seem keen on stepping into the situation.

I cleared my throat hoping to dispel the awkward air between all of us. "Right, so Oceane wants all of us to go up in her office. Let's head on over."

The six of us stepped into Oceane's office where there was now a bed in the middle of the room with many confused women sitting on the couches facing it. I actually recognized a few of the faces, mostly from the women we healed. It seems Oceane chose most of the people we've had direct contact with since coming here. I suppose it made sense that the people we've directly healed may be the least wary of what we were going to do. Notably, I didn't see Grace among the people here this time but Oceane was already here speaking with some of the women.

"Lilith!"

I turned to see Eira, the cheetah girl from earlier sitting on the couch.

"Hey! Do you know why all of us are here? We're uh, not in trouble or something are we?"

I smiled. "No, of course not. I'll explain what's happening soon but no one's in trouble, don't worry."

She let out a breath. "Oh good. I noticed a lot of the girls here were the ones that were injured recently so I was afraid we might be on the hook for payment or something..."

Bella jumped in, "Oh no! Nothing like that. Like I said before all of the healing was free, I feel like letting us stay here has been more than enough to make up for it!"

Eira chuckled at that. "Don't sell yourself short, you're an amazing healer to have been able to take care of so many of us here. I'm glad you're not charging us but borrowing a room for a few nights isn't even close to what your healing is worth."

The door behind us opened and Raya, Sibyl, and Jade, the snow-leopard demi-beastfolk woman we met on the first day all filed in behind us. Jade noticed Tisha, the bobcat girl that had been in serious condition was here too, so she quickly bounded over to sit next to her and ask her some confused questions.

Once Oceane noticed we were all here, she clapped her hands to gather everyone's attention. "Good evening everyone. Lilith, do you mind using your silence spell on the room please?"

I nodded and quickly cast [Zone of Silence] sealing the room from outside prying ears.

She nodded and continued, "Lilith here has an offer for each of you that could lead to serious changes in your lives if you accept. Grace and I have personally chosen all of you first because we trust what she will offer you will remain in confidence. Please remember that this offer is a choice. You do not need to accept and you will not lose your job or suffer any consequences for turning it down. I would like to warn you that you could be putting others in danger if you reveal this offer to others outside of the Ruby Vixen and I wouldn't take kindly to that. If there is someone you think would benefit from this offer you can come and talk to me about it and we'll see what we can do." She nodded over to me. "Lilith, would you please explain further?"

I stepped forward and smiled as all eyes were focused on me. "I am building a family, and I would like all of you to be a part of it."