'Maybe the poor leopard hit his head while hunting that boar.'
Neve sat stiffly on Cael's lap and stared at the trees in front of him while two large hands adjusted his waist like he was a pillow being repositioned.
'Because there is absolutely no other explanation for why he wants me sitting here.'
He shifted uncomfortably. Cael's grip tightened slightly. Like Neve moving was a problem he had already solved.
Neve looked at the trees and thought about his life choices.
"Would you like some boar?" Cael asked from behind him with a completely normal voice. "I caught it for the villagers. But if you want it, I'll give it to you."
Neve shook his head and turned sideways so Cael couldn't see his face.
'System,' he thought immediately. 'What is happening right now?'
{A beastman from the leopard tribe has placed you on his lap without your prior consen—}
"Oh be quiet," Neve muttered under his breath. "Tell me what is actually going on."
{Due to the maxed-out stat on your appearance, every beastman will fall in love with Host without fail.}
Neve stared at nothing for a moment.
"Can you unmax it? Turn it down. Reduce it. Delete it. I don't want—"
{This stat was prepared for the initial soul. I'm afraid I cannot tamper with it, Host.}
Neve covered his face with both hands.
He was going to cry. He could feel it. Not because he was sad, but frustrated.
'Why,' he thought miserably. 'Why do I have to be this beautiful? What did I do to deserve this? I saved someone's life. I saved Rena's life and this is my reward. I am sitting on a leopard's lap in the forest because my face is too good and the universe refuses to compensate me in any normal way—'
"Darling, are you alright?"
Neve's head snapped up.
'Darling.'
He pushed Cael's hand off, hopped off his lap and stood up. Turned around. "I'm fine. And I would appreciate it if you didn't touch me."
Cael looked at him. "But how are we going to mate if I don't touch you?"
"We are NOT mating."
"We are," Cael said simply. Like Neve had said something mildly incorrect and he was gently fixing it.
Neve pointed at himself. Then at Cael. "I am a man. You are a man. Men don't... we can't... that's not how—" He stopped, trying to reorganise his words. "We cannot mate. It doesn't work like that."
"It works," Cael said, standing up. "I'm not expecting cubs from you since you're a man. I'm not becoming village head anyway." He took one step forward. "So there's no problem."
Neve took one step back. "There is a problem. The problem is that I said no."
Another step forward.
Another step back.
Neve's back hit a tree.
He looked at the tree, looked at Cael and raised both hands to push him away.
Cael took both of Neve's hands, pressed forward and Neve felt something against his leg that made his brain go completely offline for three full seconds.
'Is that—'
'That is not mine.'
'Why is he—'
'He's a monster down there too?'
"Come with me," Cael said, very calmly, looking directly at Neve's face. "I'll take you to the village head. We'll be married immediately."
"I don't want to get married!"
Neve turned his face away.
Cael's fingers pressed into his cheek and turned it back.
And then he kissed him.
Neve's eyes went wide.
He should have been disgusted. He knew he should have been disgusted. He had a list of reasons why he should have been disgusted... he was a man, Cael was a man, they had met approximately forty minutes ago or maybe yesterday evening.
His eyes closed.
Cael's hand was warm at his waist. The kiss was slow and thorough and Neve's entire body did something complicated that it had no business doing and he stood there with his hands pressed flat against Cael's chest telling himself firmly to push and not pushing.
'This is my first kiss,' he thought. 'In both lives. My first kiss is with a leopard beastman in a forest and I am fucking reacting to it.'
{System notification: Host's first kiss in the beast world!}
{Reward: Loading...}
Neve cracked one eye open and looked at the system screen glowing cheerfully in the corner of his vision.
'A reward,' he thought. 'It's rewarding me for being kissed against a tree. Fantastic. What is wrong with this world?'
Before the loading bar finished, Cael pulled back, reached up and lifted Neve clean off the ground and placed him on his shoulder.
Neve screeched. Both hands grabbed Cael's head immediately for balance. "PUT ME DOWN—"
"You won't fall," Cael said.
"THAT IS NOT THE POINT—"
Cael was already walking.
Neve looked back at the boar sitting on the ground where Cael had dropped it. Alone. Abandoned. The villagers it was supposed to feed were apparently less important than whatever Cael had decided was happening right now.
"What about the boar?!" Neve said.
Cael didn't answer.
Neve sat on his shoulder and accepted that he had no control over this situation.
.
.
People appeared between the trees before the village did.
Neve noticed the difference immediately. Yesterday he had walked through here as a small red panda and gotten looks ranging from confused to afraid. Today, sitting on Cael's shoulder looking like whatever he currently looked like, the reaction was completely different.
Staring. Blushing. People stopping mid conversation to turn and look.
Neve looked straight ahead and tried to be invisible which was not working.
'He doesn't know,' Neve realised, looking down at the top of Cael's head. 'He has no idea that the red panda and the person currently on his shoulder are the same.'
He almost said something.
Then decided not to. Cael stopped at the entrance of a large cave near the centre of the village. A man outside straightened immediately.
"Is the chief inside?" Cael asked.
"Yes, but little chief, there are guests from the tiger trib—"
Cael walked in.
The man looked at Neve helplessly as they passed. Neve gave him a small apologetic look. It was the best he could do.
.
.
The cave was larger inside than it looked. Animal skins on the walls, bones and carved wood arranged along a central shelf, a fire burning low in the centre.
The chief sat across from another man with white hair, thick gold earrings, heavy necklace sitting against his chest.
A representative from the tiger tribe, clearly.
"Father," Cael said. "I need to speak with you."
The chief turned. His eyes went to the leopard and then immediately up to Neve on his shoulder and he stopped mid-breath.
'Maybe I should start calling him Cael properly,' Neve thought. 'Since apparently we're doing all of this.'
The chief opened his mouth and closed it. His nose moved slightly.
"Is that a female? No, wait. Is that—"
"Who is he?"
The tiger tribe man had stood up. His eyes had locked onto Neve with an interest that Neve did not invite and did not appreciate. He crossed the space fast.
"Uh," Neve said, looking at Cael. "Can you put me down?"
Cael lifted him off his shoulder and set him on the ground beside him. Then immediately put his hand on Neve's face, rubbing his cheek once, and turned to look at the white-haired man with eyes that had gone flat and cold.
"Ryker," he said. "It's been a while. You've become the tribe head now, I see."
Ryker smiled and touched his necklace. "It's a good thing." His eyes slid back to Neve. "But I asked a question." He moved and was suddenly standing directly in front of Neve, close enough that Neve leaned back slightly. He took Neve's hand without asking. "Who is this. He smells—" He leaned in slightly. "Sweet. I want to gobble him up."
Cael's hand came around Neve's waist and the chief cleared his throat.
Everyone paused.
The chief was looking at Neve with narrowed eyes and a slow recognition moving across his face. He wiggled his nose once.
"I believe," he said carefully, "that the gentleman with the female scent standing there is the red fruit from yesterday."
Cael looked at Neve.
Neve looked at a spot on the cave wall.
"What? He looks different," Cael said slowly. "But that doesn't matter." He turned back to his father. "I need your blessing. I'm taking him to my cave to mate."
"NO—" Neve started.
"I'll accept every condition from the leopard tribe's terms," Ryker said, turning smoothly to the chief, "if you hand the red fruit over to me."
Neve's mouth closed as he looked at Ryker and looked back at Cael.
He looked at the chief who was sitting between two men currently negotiating over him like he was a market item.
'System,' he thought, very urgently. 'How many mates do I actually need to produce two hundred litters?'
{HOST'S MATES: 0/10}
'WHAT?!'
{Reward loading complete: Favourability Meter — Unlocked!}
Numbers appeared above their heads.
Neve blinked and looked around. Nothing above the chief. Nothing above the man who had been standing outside. But above Cael and above Ryker, clear as anything...
{Cael — 46%}
{Ryker — 38%}
Neve stared at the numbers.
'That's it?' he thought. 'Forty six percent? I just got kissed against a tree and it's only forty-six?'
He looked at Ryker's thirty-eight.
'And he's already at thirty-eight just from standing here?'
Neve pressed two fingers to the bridge of his nose and breathed very slowly.
Ten mates. Two hundred litters. A favourability system. Two beastmen are currently arguing over ownership of him in front of his face.
'I should have let Rena fall,' he thought.
He immediately felt guilty. Then immediately thought it again anyway.
'She really should have fallen,'