<~> Chapter 333The sun was already down by the time my friends and I finally got out of that long meeting. Even though Cecilia didn't live with us, all of us lived in the same direction. Since we had been spending a lot of time with Tenna and her family right before system's end, we ended up buying a couple of properties nearby with the money we had been saving once it was clear that we probably wouldn't leave town anytime soon. It wasn't the best part of the city, but that actually made things easier for Eira when they started working on opening up a brothel. Cecilia had enough money of her own to buy a cheap property, and it wasn't long after that Fellia and Maddy started staying with her. All of us settled in the city pretty quickly, all things considered.

  "So, how are you going to tell Bel about her mother?" Morrigan asked.

  I sighed. "Does it have to be me who tells her? You were there too, you know."

  Morrigan snickered and linked arms with me. "Of course you are going to tell her. You always did the talking when it came to her mother. And the two of you were together first. It would feel weird if I'm the one who tells her."

  Torien patted me on the back. "Don't try to argue this one, you're not gonna win."

  "It sounds like you two are ganging up on me." I dramatically crossed my arms and huffed to everyone's amusement. I gnced at Mimi, who smiled back, and then I suddenly remembered the project she completed for me. "Oh! Hey, check out the pocket watch Mimi made for me! She finally finished it up!"

  I slipped the pocket watch out and flicked its front pte open. Morrigan leaned in and took a look at it. "It looks well-made. These numbers around the outside are the ones from your home?"

  "Yep! And look, these numbers here are the bells," I said, pointing out the little ticks by the matching hours. The days are slightly longer than in my original world, but each bell was roughly an hour, so I had the pocket watch divided up into twelve units like I was used to, but each second was a bit longer than it had been in my old world. It worked out well, even if the seconds dragged on longer than I was used to, but it would be easier to pn things out with a more reliable measurement of time.

  "Can I see it?" Torien asked.

  I nodded and handed the pocket watch over. She pyed with the hinge a few times before examining the dial. "Twelve bells, huh? I never considered that there would be twelve bells throughout the day if you rang them through the night. This pocket watch seems useful. Maybe the scouts would appreciate something like this. It would make it easier to coordinate."

  Mimi bounced up to Torien. "Now that I've finished Lilith's, I could make more! I don't know how much I should charge any scouts, but I'd be happy to make all of you one!" She gnced around at all of my friends. "Provided you at least paid for materials. I am supposed to be running the shop as my job."

  Torien smiled and handed the pocket watch back to me before pulling Mimi into a side hug. "I'd like one for sure, then."

  Morrigan bumped her hip against mine. "Don't think you distracted me from my question. What are you going to say to Bel?"

  I sighed and scratched the base of my horn. "What's there to really say? I'll just tell her what happened. After the meeting we had, Corrine will be in the city soon."

  "Telling a former priest of the Tamin church about the succubi will be an interesting conversation, to say the least," Lori said, jumping into the conversation.

  "You should tell Corrine about the succubi before you let Bel talk with her," Morrigan added.

  I pulled her closer and kissed the top of her head. "That's the pn. Bel can't transform back, so Corrine needs to know about it before she sees her."

  "Lilith!"

  I turned my head to see an energetic cheetah girl running over. Luckily, she didn't crash into me with a tackle hug like she had earlier today. Oh shit, I forgot to go get her. I smiled awkwardly. "Sorry I didn't pick you up. A lot happened today, and the meeting ran long."

  Eira tilted her head. "You've been in the same meeting since this afternoon all day?"

  I ughed. "No, the second meeting was an emergency one that came up. I'll tell you about it... but not here. Come along with us, we're all headed home now."

  Eira licked her lips as she looked over at Cecilia, Kal'daeryn, and Nelly. "Are these three joining us tonight too?"

  Cecilia ughed. "Not tonight, you horny girl. I'm more than ready to get back to Fellia tonight. She and Maddy must have already eaten by now, so I don't want to be out too much longer."

  The cheetah-succubus blew a raspberry. "You're no fun. You should invite her too! I'm sure one of the girls at the brothel can look after little Maddy for the night!"

  "While I'm sure Fellia would love that," she said with a wink toward me, "I'm afraid that isn't something I should spring on them without warning. Maybe next time, Eira. I'll see you guys tomorrow morning." Cecilia turned at the next corner and headed toward her house alone.

  "Kal'daeryn and I have been pnning something tonight, so we'll have to join you another time as well. Sorry," Nelly said.

  Eira shrugged with a smile on her face. "More for me then!"

  "You invited Eira over tonight?" Morrigan asked.

  I nodded. "After our spar this morning, we talked about rexing together tonight. That was before all the business today, though. I'm a bit wiped out."

  "If you guys are too tired, I can come another time... I don't want to get in the way if all of you are too exhausted," Eira said with clear disappointment on her face.

  Torien snorted. "No way. The more tired we are, the more we're going to beg you to come over. Bel has been insatiable tely. It takes all of us to keep her satisfied now. It's only gotten worse since she got stuck in her succubus form."

  I cleared my throat. "I'm sure she'd be happy to see you... but if you come over tonight, you're going to have to sit through what might end up being a bit of a difficult conversation."

  Eira raised an eyebrow. "Whatever is happening involves Bel? I wouldn't have expected that."

  Morrigan sighed. "More than you know, unfortunately."

  "What are you going to do, Lori?" Torien asked.

  She shrugged. "I could join you all tonight. It feels a bit lonely by myself in my room while the rest of you have orgies all the time."

  Torien blushed and looked away. "It still feels weird when you join. I feel like a pervert anytime I see you naked."

  "I don't know how that sense of modesty survived your training," Lori said with a bittersweet chuckle. "How did you get over your hang-ups with your sister?"

  Torien's blush deepened, and she began staring at the ground. "I'm used to seeing her naked, and we never do stuff together ourselves. I just watch sometimes... It would be different with you..."

  "So your voyeuristic tendencies only extend to one of your sisters, not your other triplet?" Lori teased.

  "It's different!" Torien repeated.

  I sighed. "Lori, stop messing with her. She's still pretty awkward about the whole thing. It's taken a lot for her to warm up to even doing stuff in the same room."

  "I'd totally fuck my twin sister if I had one," Eira said without a hint of shame. "She'd be hot!"

  Torien put her head in her hands and just groaned.

  "Aww, let me have my fun. I almost never get to tease my 'sisters,' not much fazes Tori anymore," Lori replied.

  "Here we are," I said, interrupting.

  We had moved into a two-story house and had it increased to three stories ter. It was made of much of the same stone walls that most of the town was made from, but it had been painted a cheery light blue color at Bel's request. Shortly after Morrigan and I joined the council, Tornick insisted he come by to reinforce things, add a floor, raise all the ceilings for our true forms, and rearrange the walls for us. We ended up making the entire top floor into a rge bedroom that can accommodate all of my lovers at once, with room to spare for any additional people who want to join. The space that wasn't taken up by our huge bed was turned into closets for everyone to store their personal effects, but none of them had much stuff yet. The poor triplets didn't even have any spare clothes past what was stored in the small trunks Mimi had been carrying for them.

  The second floor had been turned into guest rooms and workspaces for everyone. Not all of the rooms on that floor were used, so it was a bit quiet. Lori was living with us even though she wasn't part of our retionship, but she didn't want to be far from her two nieces after finally reconnecting with them. Raya and Sibyl were staying with us too, but they often slept in our bed despite not strictly being a part of our retionship. Silva was staying with us until recently, but she left to meet up with Sophin and hasn't returned from that trip. It's been about a month now, but we weren't worried yet. By now, the two should have already met up with each other, but we haven't received any letters from her either. Things were still a bit awkward between her and Torien, but they seemed to at least be friends now. Silva hadn't officially gotten back together with Lori, but the two slept with each other decently often. It seemed to be more of a casual thing between the two of them rather than an actual retionship. I haven't really asked for details, and neither of them has chosen to volunteer anything to me either. It's probably better for me to stay out of it for now.

  The ground floor was divided into a rge kitchen, a dining room with a rge round table, and a cozy living area with a few couches and coffee tables. Strictly speaking, none of us needed to eat, but we often did anyway. Food was a nice way to enjoy ourselves and spend time socializing, though it was a lot easier for us to skip meals if something came up. Without any of the modern luxuries I was used to, the living room was mainly for rexing with tea and entertaining guests. The dining area was mostly used for meetings, but we did eat there when we chose to have a 'family dinner'. Now that I know more about the food issues in town, I was a bit more reluctant to eat as much since we didn't really need to, but from the way it was expined to me, a lot of the food we had would go bad eventually. Only so much of it was preservable in the first pce.

  I felt a rush of excitement and quickly fading boredom from Bel as soon as the bond connected. For the st month or so, she stopped working at the nearby clinic as a healer since her pregnancy had progressed so much. Her growing belly made standing for too long and helping patients too much of a challenge, so she had finally given up and retreated to the house when she found out she couldn't shift back to her normal beastkin form anymore. She spent most of her free time studying anatomical texts and trying to improve her knowledge about healing or painting as a break from them. The texts weren't perfect, but they were helping improve her efficiency here and there. They were interesting to her, but you can only study dry healing texts for so long before you get tired of them.

  Bel opened the door and smiled down at us. Her true form was just a bit under eight feet tall, so for now she towered over us. Her long tail swung back and forth behind her, and her body was wrapped in a thin robe that didn't leave her curves to the imagination. Below her slightly swollen breasts was a giant baby bump that stuck out significantly from her torso. I was sure our kids were going to be huge, because it really didn't look like we would be giving birth to a normal-sized beastkin child. We didn't know what a baby succubus would be like, but from the look of it, we would be finding out pretty soon.

  A hint of lust spilled out through the bond when she locked eyes with Eira, and the shameless cheetah-succubus waggled her eyebrows at my sexy deer. Bel turned to me and showed me a toothy grin with her two rge fangs peeking out of her mouth. "You brought a guest tonight. I was wondering where all of you have been. It looks like work kept all of you much longer than usual."

  "Bel!" Mimi rushed over and melted into Bel's arms before turning to gently rub her belly. Mimi had been fascinated by all of Bel's changes and had become extra affectionate and loving since Bel had started showing. Mimics didn't reproduce like animals do, so she was far more interested in this than might be typical. We weren't sure whether Mimi could become pregnant or not, since she was a succubus now, but it was nice to see how caring and nurturing she could be. Maybe I would be persuaded to try in a few years, depending on how having children with Bel went. I was already a little frightened by the prospect of all the ones I had promised to have with Bel.

  All of us followed the giant deer girl inside and began stripping out of our clothes. Tori, Mori, and I all shifted into our true succubi forms and wrapped our arms around Bel and Mimi. The freedom to change into our true forms whenever we wanted to felt so liberating, and the twins were still getting used to them, so they tried to stay in these forms anytime we were home. Eira took the cue to shift into her rger true form as well, and once Nelly and Kal'daeryn had excused themselves, Lori was left being the only one joining us that was unable to shift yet. It was unclear why, but the twins had outpaced her somehow. Either way, the big group hug after such a long day felt nice, but I knew I couldn't push this off any longer. It was time to settle in the living room and tell Bel about her mother.

  "Bel... we need to talk about something important," I told her.

  Saine

  Hello! The family has settled down a touch. They finally put down some roots back where everything started for all of them. I hope you enjoyed the chapter, thanks for reading!

  Check out my other story here: Umbral Feast

  Here's a link to the community Discord: https://discord.gg/XsNwYuZp6s

  If you would like to support my writing on Patreon, you can read up to 10 chapters ahead there!

  Please leave a favorite so I can get my story in front of more eyeballs! I would greatly appreciate it!