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How Not To Become Lunch: 57 - Don’t Argue With A Werewolf
The walk had been mostly long, awkward silence.
Jack hadn’t really had much time to feel awkward, though. In the long gaps between sparse words, his mind had been racing, emotions churning and battling beneath the quiet exterior.
He wanted to talk about Ruby- or at times to scream about her- but he didn’t even mention her. Because the fact was, if he brought up the name, Fiona wouldn’t know who he was talking about. It would be Zach all over again, and they’d both walk away furious, and he didn’t want to be furious. He wanted to give this a chance.
Between those fits of suppressed anger, in the moments when he was a bit more levelheaded, he could almost feel what under normal circumstances would have been a hint of happiness. Despite everything, it was… good, to just see her again, just walking with him.
“…You look nice,” he said, in one of the few bits of awkward conversation that popped up along the way.
“Oh, thanks.”
He could hear the hint of nervousness in her voice, and it made him feel… well, many things. On an empathic level it made him a bit sad seeing her like this, and even sadder still to consider that they’d reached the point where simply talking to each other was uncomfortable. On another level, it made him righteously satisfied, knowing she felt some guilt over what she’d put him through. And on yet another level, he felt maybe a touch of hope, knowing that if she did feel bad, it meant she cared.
Fiona, on the other hand, had a whole different slew of thoughts and feelings swirling in her head.
Part of her wanted to apologize and explain herself; for eating Jack’s friend, for scaring him yesterday, for mentioning the meeting to the pack in the first place, for not being around to protect him at school as much as she had been before. But she held herself back.
She was worried that if she tried to say anything about what had happened, he’d just start yelling at her again. Sure, she’d made some mistakes, but every time she’d tried explaining herself so far, all he’d done was completely condemn her- her and her new friends- and she just couldn’t stand listening to him talk like that, like all predators only cared about stuffing their bellies like greedy monsters, and because her pack was good at hunting and could catch a few more humans than the rest they were somehow bad for doing so. He’d just been so infuriating lately. She wanted to give him a chance to relax and cool off.
“…It should be this one here,” she said meekly, gesturing to one of the houses up ahead.
Jack nodded, and together in silence they proceeded, right up to the door where Fiona raised a furred fist and knocked. A few moments passed, and Jack braced himself as best he could. And then the door opened, and behind it stood a familiar, maybe all-too-familiar, werewolf.
“Fiona,” Arthur greeted, his keen eyes widening just a bit as they quickly scanned up and down. “You look breathtaking.”
“Thanks,” she replied, her demeanor instantly shifting, her tail springing to life with an excited wag. It was a detail Jack couldn’t help but notice, and he forced himself to suppress a scowl. “And this is Jack,” she added, head still in the clouds where Arthur had just sent it. “You’ve met him before, right?”
“Yes. Come on in,” the werewolf replied with a gentlemanly wave.
Fiona dipped her smiling muzzle in a nod and stepped through the door. Jack followed close behind, and as he passed through the threshold he felt a light jolt, but he kept steady as he defied his instincts and let Arthur pass out of sight. As they ventured into the wolf’s den, they began to hear the voices of those already inside.
“Come on, Chelsie, you got this,” came Udon’s voice.
“No way,” came a voice accented with strained grunts, a voice both could recognize as Pyre’s.
The new arrivals made their way through the hall and rounded a corner just as the dragon boy spoke again.
“Whoa, do you smell that- ugh!”
*thud*
As they came into view, so did the sight of Chelsie and Pyre, sitting across from each other with their elbows on a table and the neko’s hand pinning the dragon’s to the wood.
“Pyre! Come on!” Mort booed disappointingly, before he noticed where everyone else was already looking. Then he too set eyes on Fiona and Jack.
If walking through the door had given Jack a jolt, this felt almost like being held over a fire. Each face held a slightly different expression, but all of them shared an air of disapproval- some of which weren’t even directed at him, but at Fiona, as if they were unhappy that she’d decided to ‘bring her human along’. That they would look down on her for having a human friend was yet another reason for Jack to resent them.
“Hey, everyone,” Fiona greeted. She didn’t sound nearly as relaxed as a moment ago with Arthur; she must have picked up on the static too.
“Hi, Fiona,” replied the naga first, her voice sounded mildly sympathetic, almost pitying.
“Hey, Fiona,” came the toad next, somewhat bluntly, as if he were inwardly rolling his eyes.
No one else spoke up, so after a moment Fiona took the opportunity.
“This is my friend Jack,” she introduced. “Jack, that’s Udon; Mortimer, we just call him Mort; Pyre-” the dragon boy grunted quietly and stood up “-and Chelsie.”
There was a moment of silence in which no one replied, after which eyes were drawn to Pyre and the slight sound he made picking up what seemed to be a bowl of chips. The dragon walked toward them with it, and as he did Jack noticed Mort trying to conceal a chuckle.
“Want some snacks?” he offered innocently to both of them, holding up the bowl, though there was a clear hint of something in his voice.
“Sure,” Fiona accepted, reaching in a set of claws.
Pyre held the bowl up a bit higher. That’s when Jack finally noticed; his eyes bulged and his fists clenched and he struggled for a moment to contain himself.
“This is… kinda a weird bowl,” Fiona commented as she drew out a chip. The container was fairly shallow and seemed an odd shape; and who made bowls out of metal this thick?
Mort chuckled a bit louder. Pyre smirked as Fiona crunched the chip between her teeth.
“Well, it’s not really a bowl. It’s the chestplate from that human I ate yesterday.”
If Fiona hadn’t just swallowed, she might have spat her snack onto the floor.
“I tried to tell them that’s gross,” Udon said apologetically, “but they wouldn’t listen.”
“What? I washed it,” Pyre insisted. “I wanted to give it a use it could actually handle, since it’s pretty much useless at protecting humans.”
“You mean you wanted to show off your trophy,” Mort countered teasingly.
“Oh, you’re gonna regret that one by the end of the night, buddy,” Pyre replied, in a mildly angrier but still humorous tone.
Jack’s fists clenched harder.
“Well, now that everyone’s here, let’s get things started, huh?” Arthur said, stepping into the room.
“You have a game in mind?” Pyre asked.
“Oh yeah, a classic,” he replied, walking over to his two-seat couch and resting his tail. “Fi, why don’t you sit here with me?”
“Okay, Arthur,” she said with a renewed smile and another little flutter of her tail.
She walked over with Jack following close behind and happily took the comfy spot next to the other werewolf, then noticed her human friend standing next to her a moment later.
“What about Jack?” she asked after finally recognizing the problem; she definitely shouldn’t be leaving him to sit without her.
“Udon, could you grab those chairs?” Arthur asked.
The large naga picked up a few chairs from where Pyre and Chelsie had been arm-wrestling and brought them over, placing the first one down next to the couch adjacent to Fiona.
“There we go,” Arthur remarked.
Jack took his seat with a deep, quivering breath. He couldn’t help but notice it didn’t seem nearly as comfortable as the cushy sofa, and he couldn’t help but feel that was intentional.
Udon herself coiled up a short distance away after placing the rest, and Pyre started making his way toward an armchair across from the couch, but a certain neko slipped into it just before he could reach it.
“Hey!” the dragon complained.
“Winner’s seat,” Chelsie responded.
So Pyre took the only other available chair, next to Mort on Arthur’s side of the couch.
“Alright,” the wolf boy said, scanning the faces in the room as they looked to him. His eyes settled on the cat girl across from him. “Chelsie, truth or dare?”
She hardly reacted beyond a casual blink, her expression unchanged. After a very short moment of consideration, she responded, and the game began.
“Truth.”
Arthur seemed to pause for second to think.
“How many marked prey have you eaten?” he asked.
Jack’s foot twitched. Fiona glanced in his direction.
“I count three now, after yesterday. All escaped meals from other hunters, of course. My own prey don’t tend to get away.”
“Naturally,” he acknowledged, and then, “Fi, you’re up next,” he said, gesturing circularly around the room.
“Alright,” she replied, caught slightly off guard. She took a second to think. She’d hoped this party would be an opportunity for Jack to bond with everyone, right? Maybe she should try to use this game to help with that? She looked to the red dragon. “Pyre, truth or dare?”
“Dare,” he replied with a daring smirk.
“I dare you to… find a nice thing to say about Jack,” she said, with an innocent, maybe even hopeful little smile.
“What?!” he replied with indignant anger.
“Well, she did dare you,” Mort chuckled.
The dragon growled quietly, flashing a hint of teeth. He thought for a moment, and then showed much more of his teeth as his lips crept up into an evil smile. He looked Jack dead on.
“You smell delicious,” he said with all the overtly-fake politeness he could muster.
Fiona’s ears drooped. That had not gone according to plan.
“I guess that counts,” Arthur accepted.
“Jack, you’re next,” Fiona told him in a timidly apologetic tone.
“Alright,” Jack said, stifling his anger just enough to speak. “Pyre, truth or dare?” Both their eyes narrowed as they glared at each other.
“Dare,” the dragon boy rumbled, as if he were daring Jack to just try and do his worst.
“I dare you to walk over to the chips, and say ‘I’m sorry, Lance.’”
“What? That’s it?” Pyre replied. He snorted scoffingly and stood up, walking over to where he’d put the snacks down earlier. “Who even is ‘Lance’ anyway?” he mocked.
“He’s the kid you ate yesterday,” Jack informed in frozen fury. “You’re using his family’s chestplate as a bowl.”
Pyre’s stride hitched as he realized now what he was being asked to do. His teeth flashed again, but he didn’t make another sound. A dare was a dare. He walked over to the chips.
“I’m. Sorry. Lance.” he growled begrudgingly, and then added under his breath, “That my new bowl is shittier than you are.”
Fiona heard Jack take a sharp breath.
“There,” Pyre snapped. “You never said that was all I could say.” He walked back to his chair and dropped back into it rather noisily.
“Guess I’m next,” Udon said before a silence could take hold. She thought for a moment. “Um, Jack, truth or dare?”
Jack felt instinctively pinned for a moment under her eyes and the combined attention of the other preds. She didn’t sound venomous, in fact she sounded almost sympathetic, but he still didn’t trust her with a dare.
“Truth,” Jack chose.
“Were you close with any of the humans from our hunt yesterday?”
Jack felt his blood run cold. That was not a subject he wanted to talk about. Not now in front of Fiona, and even less in front of the rest of them. But he couldn’t avoid it now. And he would not lie about it, he would not taint her memory. He closed his eyes as he spoke.
“…The girl next to me… Ruby. We were going to go out on a date after the meeting,” he said quietly.
“The one in red?” came Arthur’s voice.
Jack raised his head, fury clear in his eyes, he looked straight past Fiona to Arthur, and spoke his reply calmly.
“Yes.”
He couldn’t help flashing his glare across Fiona’s face as he turned his eyes back to the floor.
Fiona felt a deep pit in her chest. A date!? He had a date!? With the girl I ate!? But before she could say anything, Chelsie took her turn.
“Fiona, truth or dare?” the neko asked.
“Wha- um- truth,” she fumbled, startled out of her thoughts.
“How many times have you wanted to eat Jack?”
Fiona’s eyes widened and her ears flicked to attention. Jack’s eyes flashed up to the neko, if only because he couldn’t bear to look at Fiona, but the cat girl’s expression was unreadable.
“What!?” Fiona replied, sounding not too dissimilar from Pyre a moment ago. “Never!”
“You’ve never once thought about eating him? Felt the urge?” Chelsie probed. Fiona’s eyes darted to Jack and back.
“‘The urge’?! I mean- that’s not the same thing as wanting to eat him!”
“Fair,” the relaxed neko replied, letting the subject drop. She gestured to Mort.
“Fiona, truth or dare?” the toad boy asked.
“Truth,” Fiona replied instantly, still a bit riled up. His question did not help.
“How close have you ever gotten to eating Jack?”
She glanced at Jack again, and now he was looking at her too, clearly angry and hurt. She considered lying for a moment or coming up with some excuse, but quickly decided that would only make things worse. What kind of message would that send to Jack if she tried to back out? That those moments had scared her? That she’d actually worried about being able to resist him? No, those moments were simple facts of history, just statements of truth. The best thing she could do was just give her answer and get it over with so they could change the subject.
“…I had his arm down my throat once,” she said, forcing a completely straight face, though she had to add, “But that wasn’t on purpose.”
“Really?” Mort responded with a bit of surprise, or perhaps it was incredulity? “Huh… Pyre, I guess you’re up.”
“Good. Fiona, truth or dare?” he asked, a fire still burning behind his eyes.
“Um, dare,” she replied. Truths had not been going well for her; she didn’t want to answer any more questions. She instantly regretted her choice.
“Lick Jack,” the dragon said spitefully.
“What!?” Fiona objected.
“I dare you to lick Jack,” he repeated in much the same tone.
“No!”
“Why? Think you’ll like the taste too much to resist?”
“No!!”
“Then prove it!”
“Fine!!” In a rush of rash action, she reached over and grabbed Jack’s hand resting next to her, pulled it up to her muzzle and smeared her soft tongue’s broad surface across his palm, before pushing it away like it had bitten her.
She squeezed her eyes shut tight as the barrage of flavor cascaded over her tastebuds, saliva instantly welling up between her jaws, clenching her insides as she felt her stomach shift excitedly, just stifling a gurgle.
There followed a moment of silence. And then Jack spoke up.
“Fiona, truth or dare?” he said, his voice quaking. It wasn’t his turn, but no one breathed a word of objection. Fiona looked up and met his eyes with deep anxiety.
“Truth,” she chose.
“What is WRONG with you!!?” he shouted, his question far more of an accusation.
She didn’t immediately answer; she didn’t know how, and she was still battling his taste rushing through her head; so he kept going.
“How can you just-” he stood up and kicked the chair away “-sit here like this. With them!?”
“Th- they’re just teasing you,” she replied. “It’s fine.” Her words seemed to be trying to defuse the situation, but she stood up as well to face him.
“No it’s NOT!! They’re treating me like I’m just walking food! And you’re treating me like I’m just walking food that no one’s allowed to eat!”
“How can you say that!?” Fiona asked loudly, shocked and hurt.
“How could you leave me for dead all week!? For them!?”
“What was I supposed to do!? Bring you over to sit with preds during lunchtime!? Bring you into pred class with me!?”
“You were supposed to be my friend! Like you promised when we were little! That we’d stay friends even when we grew up! Remember!? But I finally come back and you disappear like you don’t even care!”
“I have other friends!!” Fiona shouted back. “You think I don’t care just because I hang out with someone other than you!?”
“I think you don’t care when I’m being eaten alive in the hallway while you’re talking about the next kid you can digest!!”
“That’s not fair! You can’t blame me every time another predator tries to eat you! Why didn’t you just walk with other humans for a while!”
“I tried!! None of them will let me because I’m marked!! Or don’t you remember doing that to me!!?” He stomped closer to her, shoving his face at hers.
“Jack!!” she cried out in offence.
“You have other friends!!? Well I don’t!! Not anymore!! You ATE my other friends just to show off to yours!! Killed! Digested! For a bit of food and some Arthur Points!!”
“Stop it, Jack!! I told you I didn’t know about Zach!!”
“You didn’t know about Ruby, either!! But you didn’t ask either, did you!!? Because for these guys it’s ‘eat first and ask questions never’! They don’t care who they eat because every human is just a walking snack! No other worth! Not even worth an apology!” He threw an accusatory hand toward Pyre. “And when I told you about Ruby just now?! Nothing!! Not even an ‘I’m sorry, Jack’!! Not a word!! Because you’re becoming just like them, Fiona!! Just like them!!”
“NO!!” she screamed in his face, eyes watering with anger and pain. Her jaws flung open wide with the cry, blasting Jack with sound and hot, rushing air.
And then those jaws came down on top of him.
Jack’s world froze for a moment, just as it went black. He went utterly stiff, frozen in shock, a thousand-million thoughts and feelings rushing through him at once. He nearly couldn’t believe what was happening, much less that it had been intentional.
And then Fiona swallowed.
*GULP*
Jack felt himself packed suddenly into the tightness of her throat; hot, wet flesh stretching around his head and shoulders. Stark, confounding disbelief overwhelmed him, leaving him completely dumbfounded.
*GULP*
A flurry of furry digits grabbed his arms in a well-practiced motion, pushing him up into the werewolf’s gaping muzzle as her throat pulsed again, dragging him down- with such eager force that he could feel the fierce craving of her body. The pressure of her hungry gullet enveloped his chest, walls of flexible muscle pressing in from every side.
It finally struck him that he should be struggling. Instincts were surging within him! He was being eaten! He had to fight back! He had to escape!
…But he didn’t move. He didn’t even twitch.
*GULP*
Jack lurched down her throat, with all the force and hunger of a meal claimed by an eager predator. The world tipped around him, his feet rising off the floor, her teeth pressing against him as her jaws lifted him. Fiona’s jaws; Fiona’s throat. He… he couldn’t believe it! Fiona was eating him!! It was such an unthinkable concept that it hadn’t even hit home until now, when he was halfway down her gullet. But… but she wouldn’t! Fiona!? She would never-
*GULP*
Jack felt his head press through into a chamber; acrid and steaming, utterly dark, looser folds wiping hot slime across his face. He’d felt places like this before, inside the depths of a hyena girl, twice within the extra-cramped confines of a wolf pup; his hand had even slipped into this very spot once before. It was the same place Ruby had been just yesterday, and Zach two days before that; the very location where they’d kicked and screamed and melted alive into nutritious slop.
It was Fiona’s stomach. And it welcomed him just the same with a noisy, voracious rumble.
*GULP*
His face was forced up against the slick wall, pushed forward by the muscle of her throat and the weight of his own body as she tipped his legs upwards and his knees brushed the tip of her tongue. And the wall gave way, pressing outwards, stretching to accommodate him, growing taught around his features, squelching and crackling in his ears.
*GULP*
His knees slipped into her throat, her hot breath washing away the last of the relatively cool outside air. He was buried down deeper and deeper with no signs of slowing down, only excited jerks and eager squeezes from her innards as the werewolf’s body screamed in celebration at his arrival.
*GULP*
His ankles squished against the back of her maw. The last bit of him. The last taste still left on Fiona’s tongue. The last visible difference between Jack the person and Jack the wolf food. And just as quickly as the concept came to mind, it was put to rest with a final, emphatic-
*GULP*!
Jack felt the last of himself slip over the back of Fiona’s tongue, packed into her throat, and then down her neck, pressed along by powerful, greedy muscles, until with a final squelch, the passage above him sealed tight, and it was over.
Fiona had eaten Jack.