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Shadi's tail flowed behind her like a ribbon in the breeze, sweeping in long, graceful arcs that perfectly accompanied the motions of her curvaceous body as she followed along the railing of the top deck of High Fortune. Her bare feet made barely a whisper, and many of the normally beating propellers that extended out from the mighty mass conveyor stood idle.

In truth, all was largely silent upon the mass conveyor High Fortune that morning. The usual hum and commotion of the goings-on of a ship with hundreds of crew was almost silent by comparison. Isiat had given most of the crew the day off from their usual duties, save for an unlucky handful who had chosen poorly when it came to the skeleton crew drawing straws.

Maintenance still needed to happen, and the engines being shut down was an excellent opportunity for it.

A fortunate airstream had buoyed their travel, and even with most of the propellers shut down, they were still making excellent time towards the dragon clans. Without their constant background thump-thump-thump-thump to keep time for Shadi, though, she found her rhythm almost disrupted oddly.

Perhaps it was the strange headspace she'd found herself in.

Whatever count she kept never seemed consistent. The world was tilted on a strange axis, and she was having trouble finding her balance in the new reality she found herself in. Her weight felt all wrong, and her feet never quite seemed to fall where she needed them to, as if all of the surfaces were moss-slick stones in a river.

If she could just make it to the other side, Shadi knew she could find solid ground again. Yet, every time she had tried by herself in private to practice, to restore some semblance of routine to her day, that metaphorical river just seemed wider and wider.

Every step seemed to end with her slipping off time again, no matter what count she tried to keep. Even beats. Odd beats. Waltzes. Cha-chas. Ballroom. Jaunty tavern tunes. None of it worked.

Her changing body was making her feel a stranger in her own skin some days, and it lent her dancing no favours either.

One-two-three-four-pivot-six-twist-six-spin-seveneight- Shadi stumbled over herself and growled as she caught herself on the railing, sharp, meathook-like claws catching into the wooden bar and leaving deep gouges in the polished surface.

She blinked a few times and quickly recoiled, her stomach rolling violently as she realised where she was.

The railing seemed to taunt her, the sharp drop after its supposed safety making her step quickly away from the edge and right into Isiat's arms as he approached behind her. She hadn't even heard him approach, so lost in her own head.

“Woah there! Careful Shadi. Are you-" He looked at where she was backing away from and frowned softly as the vulpine pieced two and two together.

His paws found their way around her comfortingly, and Shadi took a moment to tuck her face in against the collar of his shirt. His paws slowly brushed their way down her back in a surprisingly tender touch while he tucked his muzzle down in between the little lioness's ears.

“Well… At least you aren't going to do that again, right?" He felt he had to ask. She shook her head quietly and held herself against the finely garbed vulpine until her breathing had once again calmed.

Worry had gnawed at him as well over the last few days, and he'd seldom been further than a few rooms away from Shadi at any given time. She'd agreed to stay in his quarters on the top deck of the mighty airship, and Scion had done his part in keeping an eye on her as well. The dragon had known he was taking on more than his share of the load of running and managing the affairs onboard the airship.

“I won't be… I don't even like being near the edges right now." Shadi huffed with a low, feline growl of displeasure. The end of her tail had fluffed itself out and lashed back and forth.

Isiat picked up on her nonverbal cues quickly, though, perhaps before she did, and led her gently back towards the midships.

"Mrhmm, well, we'll just have to keep you occupied elsewhere then, won't we? Your timing was all off. How are you feeling?" Isiat asked her as he led her by the arm to the open deck space beneath the main dirigible, his own tails ever keeping rhythm for him.

Shadi couldn't help but pick up on it and the way it seemed to change like the wind, but even Isiat, she knew, had his tells. He almost always worked on an off-tempo count or to a waltz sometimes.

His motions deliberately kept a beat that most would see simply as chaos, but when she watched his tails long enough, the patterns emerged and changed before her eyes with the flicking of the luxuriously groomed appendages.

One-Two-One-Two-Three-Four-Five, One Two-No, count change. One two three, One two three four, One two three, One two three-

She'd grown good at reading her Master. Perhaps it was why she hadn't been caught off guard at all by his admission to her before her jump. Maybe if she had been less good at reading him, the surprise of it might have been enough to snap her out of the chaotic downward spiral that the revelation of her pregnancy had thrown her into.

Perhaps then she wouldn't be stuck in such a mental-

“Shadi?" Isiat asked. He was looking at her, obviously waiting for a response to a question that had gone in one of her big, fennec-like ears and right out of the other! Her cheeks flushed as she stammered for a response.

'Sorry! I was-“

"A million miles away?" He suggested with a wry smile that was as understanding as it was endearing.

She pinked at her nose and nodded. “Sorry."

"It is okay, you know? You are allowed to not be at your best all of the time, but I do need you to be still able to perform. Right now, I think I've seen Larise's youngest hold a count easier than you." He laughed, not unkindly. He wasn't making fun of her, but he was making her problem obvious to her so that they could correct it.

She looked sheepish, almost embarrassed that he'd caught her seemingly so wrongfooted, but with all that was going on, how was she supposed to be anything else? She tensed a little as he wrapped his paws slowly around her and pulled the distracted feline tightly against himself.

“Dance with me?" He asked out of the blue, and Shadi giggled, shaking her head.

“I couldn't keep a beat right now. You said so yourself-"

“Then let me guide you back into it? Here. Just follow my lead-" He smiled, that same charming vulpine smile that he wore so confidently, that same smile that just fit the many-tailed fox so well.

His fingers curled around her own with a touch that was as soft and warm as the sunlight on her back, instantly taking away the cool chill of the wind at this altitude she hadn't even realised had begun to seep into her bones.

And then, lightly settling his free paw upon the curve of her waist, he began to dance. It was slow at first, a gentle waltz that he led the feline through the motions of the high, the dip, the low.

One two three, one two three.

And quickly, she began to recognise the motions as he walked her through them. She had danced this same dance with him before, what seemed almost a lifetime ago, soon after he had purchased her. The steps suddenly were laid out before her. Shadi couldn't help but smile a little as she more confidently began to dance with him properly, as opposed to simply going through the motions with him.

Isiat's muzzle lit up in a beaming smile as he began to increase the tempo of their dance energetically and enthusiastically. The second motion of the dance began in earnest, a tune shared between just the two of them as they danced the steps.

“There she is… See if you can keep up now, Shadi." Isiat grinned at her as he parted, challenging her to perform with him. He circled the feline with one paw raised against her own, stepping to the tempo in easy, fluid motions. At the same time, Shadi gently turned on the spot, her fingertips brushing against his own.

Step-step-twirl, step-step-clap!

Their dance slowly took on motion and a life of its own. The tune she knew it belonged to crept into Shadi's ears like a worm, able to imagine the fiddle as she moved to the lighthearted, jaunty melody that played through her mind.

Shadi danced with the wind and the sun, purring when her owner dipped her back, laying his slender, vulpine muzzle against her throat and fleeing at her fur around the golden band of her collar for just a moment before he lifted her back onto her feet.

She traced her fingers across the vulpine's chest as she took her turn to circle him slowly, watching how his tail flickered perfectly in time with the tempo, split into three distinct groups, each giving a twitch in their correct place to the rhythm of the waltz.

She knew these steps, and perhaps there was a familiar comfort in that. Isiat had known just how to part the feline from her thoughts long enough to distract her away from whatever metaphorical block she had reached in her mind and led her away from it by the paw as he spun her around himself.

One-two-three, one-two-lift!

Shadi even giggled as she was lifted from her feet, her tail curling in the air like a streamer caught in the wind while Isiat spun with her, laughing brightly.

When he set her back on her feet and twirled her away from him, she found her back against the railing of the airship and her Master hooking a single finger under the thick gold of her collar to tug her muzzle up in a kiss as he tilted downwards to meet her. A low, pleased rumble growled from his chest as their tongues vied for dominance for a moment before she relented. His tongue worked its way past her lips with a lazy and effortless grace, tasting her unhurriedly and finding her to his liking, exploring her maw and savouring the delightful treat he found.

“Now… Not going to go overboard again, are you, kitten?" His tone was light, playful even. Over such a serious thing, it almost sounded off in a way, and yet, he said it with an easy confidence that his surety, in turn, helped her believe it, too.

Shadi chuffed. Her cheeks felt warm after the kiss, and the way he eyed her down with those sharp, icy blue eyes of his like a hawk locking its sights on a field mouse far below. The way he stared at her so possessively, so forcefully sent a warm flush through her that crept down from her eartips and nose all the way down to her belly, where it tightened into a hot little tensing of undeniable lust.

For all of the confusing feelings that they shared, even Shadi could not deny that there was something electric between them that was as thrilling as it was devious.

“N-no… Sir." She almost whined the words as Isiat loomed large and over her, pushing her back slightly towards the railing. Her tail curled around the vertical bar of the polished wood and metal reflexively as he tipped her just enough back across it to make her feet barely leave the ground.

It was exhilarating, in its own perverse way, the manner in which he grasped her fear of falling and, through no more than his secure grip upon her shoulder and hips, turned it into something entirely different, something horrible, naughty and outright deviant. The vulpine twisted her fear like the dancer he was as well, wrapping it in need and coiling it around her core in a hot throb of lust.

This one was a different sort of dance, one that they both knew well.

"Hold on to me, Shadi, and don't let go." He ordered her with that cocky, almost arrogant smirk of his.

His paws were already twisting her around, pushing just below her breasts up against the top bar with the slight bump of her belly, now that she knew it was more than just her being fed well, resting against the protective railing around the upper deck.

They made short work of hiking the silken dress she'd worn up and around her waist as he maneuvered himself into position.

Then, with a growl, he was in her and thrusting. She was already wet and warm as well, needy and wanting, and Isiat was the male to provide. Together, they were the outlet for their passions.

Shadi squeaked a moan out before she remembered where she was and giggled, covering her muzzle like one of her sisters might have, trying to be subtle while also sleeping around with the visiting dignitaries' sons from the other feline tribes.

Isiat's paw gripped her wrist and pulled her paw away from her mouth.

"Let it out, sweet Shadi; let me hear you sing for me." He growled with a deep, passionate rumble in his voice. Shadi's cheeks burned.

"-don't want the whole crew watching. I'm a mess."

"And why not? You are the most beautiful thing as far as the eye can see. You are my dancing slave. And if I say moan-“

And Shadi moaned for him. He tucked four fingers through the back of her collar like he was gripping a riding steed's reins, fucking her roughly up against the edge of the ship's rails.

She gasped as she was made to lean over, her Master's hold on her collar the only thing stopping her from overbalancing and going right back over those railings for a second time. Panic and lust shot through her like a bolt of lightning in equal measure. The adrenaline heightened all of her senses. It made her body clench down around him like a wet, silken vice, squeezing and milking his cock as if she could cling to the male's knotted length like an anchor from the plummet.

He bent over her petite frame, his chest pressing into her back. His free paw grabbed at her tail and yanked it aside as the long appendage whipped about while her heart raced in a double step; the potent cocktail of lust and adrenaline from her panic response only heightened the sensations as her Master claimed her.

The ground was very far away, but even the act of being forced to stare several thousand feet down was terrifying to Shadi's still delicately reeling mind. Add to that the crisp and chill breeze and slightly thinner atmosphere this far up, and it all mixed into a potent cocktail of circumstances that Isiat had played the little dancing lioness right into like a cunning stroke of skill five moves ahead in a game of regicide.

Death and lust were two very potently connected feelings, after all. One was an ending, and the other was a beginning. Both had the power to dominate one's mind utterly, be it through fear or through desire, and Shadi squirmed upon her Master's length as he yanked on her collar and bit down on her shoulder. The sharp sting of his teeth through the fabric of her dress was in stark contrast to the wave of pleasure that was brought out of her simultaneously.

“Mmmfh! Sir- Isiat!" Shadi called to him right before her vision exploded into an orgasmic starbursting kaleidoscope, her tail lashing against the male as he pounded her from behind.

She came hard around the vulpine, crying out to the empty sky in release until Isiat's muzzle found her own and shoved his lips against her own. His knot battered against her sex messily, shunting the feline forwards until it felt to her like he was pushing his tongue as far down her throat as his cock was in her stretched slit!

At last, he forced himself into her with a messy pop, tied and stretching her out more with each passing second as his knot inflated fully, and became trapped behind her tight sexlips. His fuzzy sheath came flush against her tautly stretched sex while he finished himself inside of the tight little dancing cat, leaning heavily over her frame with a huff of pleasure.

One of Shadi's paws dropped to her belly, keenly feeling every twitch and throb of her Master deep inside as he marked her with a fresh coat of cub batter. It made her very core flutter in a strange way she hadn't noticed before, a pleasurable tingle running along her nerves as it danced its way from her mound up to her muzzle and escaped as a breathy little moan.

Isiat gently pulled her back over the railing, safely wrapping his arms around her waist to tuck the smaller female against his chest.

“Good girl. There'll be no more dancing on the edges for you, but I have new dances for you to learn before we reach the dragon clans. It will be important that you learn them as well, Shadi. Culturally important and all that…" He added with a playful grin, still stuck fast inside the feline.

He shifted and adjusted himself, getting comfortable against the rail with Shadi. He tried to make the most of their position so that they would be comfortable.

A booming voice interrupted.

“Alright, the show's over now. Back to work, deckhands. McKinley, I see you on the rigging there. Look lively, or it's coming out of your pay this period!" Scion's voice called, projected with a certain authority that only a dragon could muster.

A few shadows around the edges of the deck's various structures made themselves scarce as the ruddy maroon dragon approached, a deep chuckle rumbling in his broad chest as he approached the Master of the ship and his favourite pet.

“And I see you won't be getting much work done today either… At least not for another fifteen minutes. It is cold up here, Isiat. We're not in the desert any more. Had you considered perhaps carrying your pretty dancing slave back to your quarters? We can go over the summary of acquisitions while she waits for you to shrink enough for you not to be entirely useless." Scion said and snorted, grinning at the pair.

Shadi felt her ears pinken as she realised just how many people had seen her. It still felt different here compared to the castle. Perhaps it was that Isiat made her feel like she wasn't just a slave, but something more. Something valued and cared for, rather than mere property.

Maybe it was because there were some people here whom she actually cared about. Maybe he was finally starting to break her from the slave's mindset that the Canines' had shackled her thoughts in for so many years after her capture…

Shadi squeaked and bit her tongue so as not to moan while Isiat gracefully lifted one of her legs and spun her like a dancing move, holding onto her thighs as he hoisted the petite feline in her gold collar and green silks up against his chest. Her thighs wrapped over the flowing mass of her Master's tails as he hauled her back to his quarters, with Scion following along and giving the little lioness a cheeky look all the while.

---

“So…" Scion started, breaking the quiet between himself and Isiat as they poured over the accounts for what must have been the third time since leaving the trader's conference. Scion wasn't even looking at the papers laid out before Isiat. He trusted the numbers. He'd done them himself. The "so" had nothing to do with the accounts.

“Everything is in the green. We'll be at the Clanhome of your kin in good time. What is the so for?"

“For you and your pretty little chief's daughter's investment. So." The dragon teased with a roll of his golden eyes, huffing once through his nostrils in a puff of air that lingered with the scent of rich and piquant pipe smoke and ash.

“So what?" Isiat asked, looking up from the ledgers.

“So, you are my friend, and I am merely concerned for your well-being as well as the well-being of our gold-collar slave."

“My gold collar slave, you mean?" Isiat quipped right back with a grin. Scion's share in the Amasii's ownership was much less than five percent now.

“By majority share only. I'm not selling you the last of my stake in Shadi until her debt is settled, and at the rate she has been earning that, it will be sooner rather than later. Tallying her performance bonuses above the expected margins, even at a slave's rate, was your first mistake; spoiling her as you have was your second. Loving her like she were not a slave is your third." Scion muttered as he listed Isiat's many infractions over a normal slave's expected treatment.

None of how the vulpine ran anything aboard the ship was in line with normal practices, but that was a perk of having the High Fortune. Isiat did not have to fool himself by pretending he was the same as other traders.

“And yet, she is okay. We are okay. She will not do it again, Scion." He said his placations and reassurances as if he'd rehearsed them a hundred times in his mind. It was truthfully far more than that.

Scion gave a low and thoughtful rumble, running a claw along his chin. The dragon spent a long moment in thought before he met the Vulpine's look with one of his own, irked and blunt.

“You are infatuated." He finally huffed, frowning at his employer with a gaze down his elegant muzzle.

“And I stand by what I said in the hallway. You need to be careful that you are not making all of this harder for both of you by letting yourself get involved with her. She still plans on going back to her father and the plains tribes when her debt is paid, and you still plan on returning her… right?"

The length of that pause said more than any words Isiat might have been able to use to try and excuse himself. Scion rubbed along the bridge of his scaled muzzle, sighing. Truthfully, he'd known before he asked.

“You know, since I first met you in that tavern trying to hide from your old master's guards, you have been nothing but a world of trouble." The dragon pointed out with all the elegance of a club wielded by a brute.

It was all Isiat could do to not crack a sheepish grin.

“Yes, but, I said I would pay you double what your old captain did if you helped me, and you make tenfold that now. Is the trouble worth it?" Isiat said with a quiet snicker in his tone, grinning ear to ear.

Scion merely snorted, shaking his head.

“I am still trying to decide. Ask me later. For now, do yourself and me a favour and try to avoid doing anything stupid that will make this much more difficult for both of us in the long run. Shadi's father is just as likely to thank you for keeping her safe as he is to skin you for a fox pelt for keeping her as your personal dancing slave."

Isiat groaned, rubbing the length of his muzzle and whiskers with his paws. A fresh wave of distraught anxiety caught up with him. He willed reality to back away a while longer as he sighed.

“Don't remind me. I don't even want to have that conversation, especially after reviewing those accounts."

Scion nodded slowly, stretching his wings and resisting the urge to beat the massive, leathery canvases. The piles of paperwork would thank him for not doing that if they could speak.

"She is making far better profits than either of us expected. If she keeps up her current performance, she'll have settled her debt before the next trader's conference. Sooner, even, perhaps, with the amount of accrued debt and interest she has already knocked down. Say what you will, but she has already proven her worth as an investment…' The dragon spoke in that oh-so-formal way dragons did when discussing gold.

To the clans, almost everything was measured in the amount of gold and how quickly it could be accrued. And even by modest standards in the clans, if Shadi had been working for herself, she'd be well on the way to having a neat little pile of gold to lounge on as Scion so often did.

"I am aware, Scion."

"Then you are aware that eventually, you will have to let her go…"

Isiat nodded quietly and did not speak.

Scion frowned at that, furrows creasing the delicate scales of his face. They glimmered like polished rubies in the afternoon light creeping in through the windows.

"If you are convinced she cares for you as much as you do her, giving her back her freedom would not be this much of an issue. This** , Isiat, is why Masters do not love slaves. Love is a mutual affection between equals. As long as she is your slave, you will never truly be equals."** Scion tutted, but already he could tell isiat was off with his thoughts, a defence mechanism against truths he didn't want to hear at that moment.

Scion took the opportunity to help himself to a glass of the dragon brandy from behind the vulpine's desk.

"Is it really so bad that I just want her to stay?" He asked quietly.

“Don't be a damned fool, Isiat. And don't you dare think of keeping her a draskar longer than her debt is owed. Once Shadi's debt is settled, then you two can have a conversation on her future plans." Scion warned with a low tone of caution, but then sighed softly. A wisp of smoke escaped the dragon's nostrils before he continued.

"The last time I spoke of it, she wished to return to her home and to her father. It may not be safe, but it will be her choice then. There is not too much we can do in either case. We have no cards in the game besides Shadi until this business with the Clans is settled. Focus on that for now."

“Settling my debts won't do much either way to help my problems, though, Scion. I worry for her. There is a lot of airspace to cover between here and the clans, and most all of it is canine territory. They have made plays for her even as far out as Orthani's. The moment she is free, she will be even more hunted once they learn." Isiat tossed his hands up in frustration.

So many emotions raced through his heart and his mind at once, it was like trying to catch a blade of grass in a tornado. If Shadi were free, he would lose her, and if he kept her, he was no better than the dogs in that castle he'd freed her from. He'd done his best with her so far, and yet even still, her moment of darkness had cut him far deeper than he was comfortable admitting. Mack could do much to treat the body, but there were no such specialists who could bind the demon of anxiety and banish it from his soul.

And Scion could tell he was struggling as well. Quietly, the dragon padded over and laid his free paw on Isiat's shoulder.

“If you want to truly help her, Isiat, do what you do best. Make smart deals. Those are why I have followed you all these years. Ones with your head, not your heart. We can trade anywhere on the continent faster and in larger quantities than even our biggest rivals. Perhaps, once your payments are settled, you should inquire as to what goods the factions of this war need… There are many cities behind the front whose supplies were requisitioned by armies on the march. Perhaps a stopover at one would do well to plan ahead for a return trip."

The dragon's advice was sound. People on both sides would need materials, and if nothing else, Isiat had always been good at seizing opportunity when it emerged. Shadi's freedom was evidence enough of his ability to plan several moves ahead. He nodded, his tails giving an errant, out-of-synch flick. He didn't like having these things pointed out to him. He should have already known all that, already thought of all of this!

"You're right-“

"Of course I am. You are focusing too much on the girl and not enough on what you need to focus on, which is your business. You are a trader, first and foremost, and a damn good one at that. Besides… Earning some goodwill with the felines might go a long way to earning her affection in the longer term if that is indeed your goal." The dragon helpfully pointed out.

“And if they find out I have her? What if they send someone looking for her, to track us down and discover that we've been keeping her as an entertainer aboard?" Never mind that she was pregnant with some canine bastard on top of everything else. From what he'd heard of Chief Stryker, the old Rex would still try to wear his guts for garters despite Isiat also keeping her safe all this time.

Clearly, the worry weighed less heavily on the dragon. Scion chuckled.

"Then I suggest, for now, you play the game smart and keep your cards close to your chest so that doesn't happen. Be unpredictable. Even the canines cannot keep up with High Fortune if we plot our course well, and I doubt they would try anything so brazen with two dragons aboard High Fortune now."

—————————

Shadi huffed as she popped herself up on the exam table the next day, her tail swishing over the edge of the bench while the one-eyed, dire-wolf doctor scrubbed his paws in the sink nearby.

"How've you been feeling Shadi?" He asked as he turned, fixing his eyepatch over the empty socket of his missing eye.

"I've been…" She paused, not wanting to lie to the doctor, but she was feeling better. She went for the simple approach.

"Good, I suppose. Isiat has been making sure I've been taken care of, and the nausea has mostly gone when I eat." She complained as he padded over. Up close, Mack towered over her, both in his sheer bulk and height. After her stay in the castle, she'd doubted for a long time she'd ever like any canines, and yet here, she found herself surrounded by them like a merry band of misfits.

Isiat, and his not quite kitsune linage. Larise and her coyote mongrel-ness.

And Matthew, the big, kind-hearted mountain of a wolf, who cared for her as if she were precious and delicate.

He always handled her like he was brushing the petals of a fresh-budded rose, using the absolute minimum amount of his no doubt tremendous strength to get her to shift and move as the old doctor needed when he did these exams.

And now that he knew for sure she was pregnant, it was as if he'd put mittens on as well, just for her. He looked at her with a sweet smile, and Shadi couldn't help but smile back. The old wolf's tail wagged at that, and she wasn't even sure he knew that the scruffy appendage had gone rogue.

"Mmm, good, good. That one is common, and it comes and goes, but usually, it is worse in the first trimester, at least if Larise is anything to go by. She had morning sickness a lot, and it always seemed worse whenever she was in my office…"

Shadi giggled as he nudged her with a single massive paw to lie her down on the exam bench.

"Maybe she just got nervous after having one of yours…" She teased him cheekily, and Mack at once held up a digit on his three-fingered paw.

“Ahh-ah, never proven! Don't you start with that, too! I like her cubs fine enough, but I promise, he wasn't mine. I happen to know she laid more than a few Direwolf dignitaries right before that because I had to provide her with lotion to help her body heal afterwards!" He tutted like a school teacher with an unruly student.

He plucked up his stethoscope and held it against the faint round of Shadi's belly, jabbing her with a fat finger to get her to stop giggling so he could listen. It didn't work until he squirmed a blunt claw between her ribs.

"Ah! Okay, okay, sure! Larise is convinced he's-“

"SHHHHHH. Hush! Not a word more out of you; I'm trying to work." He rumbled at her as he listened and, evidently satisfied, leaned down and laid his head on her exposed belly, one ear folded and resting flat on her stomach.

"You're purring, Shadi." The grey wolf commented with a short laugh of his own.

"S-sorry." She mumbled quietly and stopped, taking a deep breath as she leaned back, trying at least to bring herself in order so that the poor wolf could do what he needed. It worked. Sort of.

"Are you noticing any other changes?" He asked, his eyes looking up her chest to the clock mounted on the wall as he timed whatever he was listening for.

It was strange, Shadi felt, that she was so comfortable around the old dire wolf, especially considering it had been Oretz who had almost ended her before she ever had a chance at freedom. Dire wolves had always treated her like some pretty war prize to be fucked and shown off among the canine guards, and yet, Matthew was nothing at all like his more savage kin.

He had a kindness that was uncommon among any species, and it suited his role as a healer.

She knew she was perfectly safe with him. He wouldn't hurt her, and if for any reason he did, he would probably be devastated and spend a week trying to make up for it.

Perhaps that was why Isiat seemed to trust him as well with her so readily. He could tell the old Direwolf was nothing like his warmongering kindred, who were hellbent on exterminating her own kind.

Maybe there were others in the world who looked at the war between their species as he did, too. Shadi was sure there had to be as she watched Mack do as he did, and she shivered lightly as his three-fingered hand stroked across the soft round of her growing belly.

“Well, my nipples have gotten… Big." Shadi huffed quietly, her tail giving a flick.

“Mrhm, they have." The doctor commented with an acknowledging nod to her breasts and gave what passed as a playful chuckle and a toothy grin. She was a gold-collar, after all! Shadi knew she looked good and what her looks did to men. His paw was still petting her stomach as he sat himself down, scooting his stool towards the foot of the bed.

“They'll get bigger as well as your milk comes in. And more sensitive still, but, I mean, in your line of work, that might not be a bad thing." He mused with a soft rock of his head as if setting aside that thought.

Shadi lay herself back as he slid her legs apart, huffing with just a hint of pink to her nose and ears as the big wolf all but nosed his way between her thighs.

“I've always thought pregnant women looked best, you know? All glowing and luscious and soft…" He pushed as his fingers gently probed around her mound, making her huff quietly, fighting the urge to let her tail twitch as an unexpected jolt of pleasure shot up her spine while the doctor did his work.

“Mmmhmmm." Shadi nodded, biting her lip to keep herself from any further embarrassment. Mack was not a male she'd ever particularly seen that way, but clearly, the big wolf certainly knew his way around a woman! No wonder Larise had even shacked up with him.

It was made worse, though, for Shadi because she knew he wasn't trying to give her any sort of pleasure deliberately. He was just prattling on quietly while his fingers slid up and down her moist netherlips, gently stroking over her as he explained something about her body to her-

Her cheeks burned as she bit back a soft moan. Whatever heat-inducing drug the canines had tainted her body with, she felt that insidious warmth curling around her insides with a hot, involuntary clench. Even the smallest touches were enough to get her all fired up like a torch to oil.

She was everything slave masters wanted in a good pleasure servant. Soft, warm, like putty under the wolf's paws. She'd entirely lost track of what he was saying to her, only that his smile was still written on his face, and his fingers were more firmly probing her sex, his thumb making a faint brush over her clit that made her want to leap from the exam chair with a pleasured squeak.

She bit her tongue and nodded, managing to hide her moan behind an agreeable Mmmhmmm that lingered in the back of her throat as a steady purr. She had no idea what he had said. She'd long since stopped hearing his words as anything but background noise.

Mack prattled on as well, apparently not realising how his touches were affecting the lioness in the exam seat. She squirmed like a hooked fish against his fingers, and the Direwolf seemed entirely oblivious to her plight as she bit her tongue and did her best to stifle any sort of indication!

She knew he wanted to check her over thoroughly to make sure she and her pup were healthy, of course; He was a doctor, after all! But Shadi wasn't quite sure that this treatment was part of his exam. And yet, she kept still and kept her mouth shut, huffing quietly through her nostrils while pleasure coiled around her womb tightly, threatening to snap already!

"-and when she was swollen with my pups, she was the most beautiful wolfess I had ever set eyes upon, you know? It brings out a whole new side of a lady. I couldn't help but have my paws on her nearly all the time. Brings out a whole different side of me, I'll tell you…" The old wolf gave an approving rumble, almost cheeky in a way, his thick, coarse tail swishing back and forth as he shifted.

Shadi gave a soft gasp as he at last pulled his paw back from her and slumped back into the seat with a near-silent huff.

"Ahh, I can tell." Shadi tried to keep the soft whine out of her voice. Her cheeks were warm and pink, and Mack looked at her, frowning as if only just noticing.

"How are you feeling, Shadi? You looked flushed." He noted, leaning over. Shadi waved him back with a paw.

"Haaa-hot flash." She lied badly with a nod, trying to fan her face and resist the urge to fold her ears back in embarrassment. He had almost gotten her to pop right then and there just by touching her! The hormones in her body were playing hell with her pleasure receptors, and even those simple little touches felt intense!

"Ahhh, yeah, you'll get those as well." He nodded apologetically. He didn't even realise just how close she'd come to toppling right over that edge of pleasure, and truthfully, she wasn't sure she could have handled trying to explain that in front of him... But damn it all, she had been sooo close, and now that pleasure was just smouldering, a mere spark away from reigniting into an inferno.

"A-Are you all done?" Shadi asked, a flicker of nervousness and embarrassment in her tone.

She was fighting both a wickedly perverse hope and a dread, both, that the wolf wasn't.

“I'll be quick." Mack insisted and gently parted her thighs with his big, broad paws, shifting down onto his knees between her legs.

“Hard to tell with how… You smell- Rrrrhhm. Whatever they gave you made changes, and the effects are still there…" The wolf gave a soft rumble deep in his chest as his words trailed off, trusting his nose more than he did his single remaining eye.

The scent of her arousal and pregnancy was impossible to miss, and Mack leaned in, his steady and warm breathing tickling the very edges of Shadi's sensitive sexlips as his whiskers caressed along her inner thighs.

She bit back a giggle from the ticklish feeling and a moan from the pleasure.

Shadi tried her best not to squirm, sucking in a breath as his nose inched closer, scenting her out like a feral bloodhound on the trail. The hulking doctor's breath was hot against her nethers, and she had to bite her lip again as that coil of pleasure wrapped its way around her insides, making her toes curl, her fingers clenching tight against the bench and puncturing new holes in the leather with her meathook-like claws.

He gave a long inhale and exhale, scenting her trembling body, bare millimetres from her sensitive sexlips. Shadi's tail thwapped quickly against the edge of the exam seat.

Onetwothreefour- Don't cum, oh gods, don't cum- She huffed and bit down hard on her lip, counting frantically to try and distract herself.

Fivesixeightnineten-fuck fuck! He's-

Shadi's panicked voice pleaded in her head, but her traitorous body was having none of it, her cheeks burning as her ears finally folded flat against her head with a pitiful, pleasured whimper.

She could feel her pulse pounding in her ears, her eyes clenching shut as the wolf carried on, oblivious to her plight, his hot breaths causing that rapidly rising, insidious pleasure to build in her sex all over again.

And then Mack's nose nudged just a bit further forward as the old wolf huffed, and the cool, damp, leathery skin barely bumped up against her swollen and aroused clit.

Shadi felt herself shatter like a mirror in that instant, letting out the moan that had been building in the back of her throat as she shamefully lost herself on Mack's muzzle, her arousal coating the end of his nose with a hot, sticky mess, whining and groaning while her thighs reflexively clamped down on either side of the dire wolf's head.

The old wolf seemed startled at first, letting out a surprised, muffled bark, and opened his mouth to speak as Shadi's hips jerked, all but pushing her mound down onto his trapped muzzle.

Between the overwhelming scent of her arousal and the fact he had nowhere else to go, Mack did what came naturally and put his tongue to use, which only made Shadi grip him tighter, her paws going from clawing the exam bench to clawing his ears upon his head as she rode out the sudden, intense peak.

If she'd been in a clearer mind, Shadi might well have admitted that he was every part the male with needs that Larise made the old doctor out to be, but when his paws found her thighs and easily pinned her legs outwards, she all but squealed! He kneaded her chubby legs with his broad fingertips, growling his obvious enjoyment.

"M-Mack!" She squeaked out, embarrassed beyond anything she'd ever felt, but he seemed to take her climax and moaning of his name as an entirely different signal!

The old wolf rumbled into her sex, his tongue wriggling into her passage deep to sample the exotic feline dancer's taste right from her core, the broad, dexterous and powerful oral muscle lapping across her spasming insides. He ate her out ravenously, doing credit to his species' reputation as direct and forceful bed partners.

She didn't even have time to think before she came again, and hard at that, whining and mewling out in pleasure and absolute humiliation! She hadn't meant for it to happen! But whatever drug the canines gave her just kept her wet and ready almost constantly, and with the way the wolf had so skillfully touched her, she didn't even have a chance to warn him!

"Mack, Mmmmf! S-stop! Too much!" She whimpered, yanking at his ears as he pulled back from her body with a wet smack, giving her a brief glimpse of the canine's massive tongue as he licked his chops clean of her. And he'd had that whole thing curling inside of her! Her cheeks burned cherry red like iron from a forge!

"Oh, I uh… I-“ Mack's momentary look of smugness of a male who had pleased his female so well, vanished as he saw how absolutely flushed pink Shadi was, trembling both with the pleasure of her afterglow as the intensity of her climax passed and the burning embarrassment of just how and who had got her there came fully into focus.

"Oh, Shadi, I… I'm sorry, I didn't even- I didn't mean to.." He stammered and stood up quickly, fetching Shadi's clothes from the table nearby where she'd left them neatly folded.

“That was- I mean, I was unprofessional. I should have asked-“ He stammered, handing the bundle of fabric.

Shadi huffed as she pulled the green dress down over her head and body, watching as the visibly flustered wolf who'd just been slavering on her cunt like a piece of prime steak stammered and all but tripped over himself trying to make things less awkward.

It didn't work. Not at all.

Shadi let out a feline chuff, fanning herself for a moment before she stood up.

"I uh… I should be getting back to Isiat-“

"Yes! No! Uh, that is… Uhm! Maybe, Shadi, uh, doctor-patient confidentiality. I uh… Think the hormones just got the better of me and uh- I'm sorry for… that.“ He huffed, reaching up to adjust his eyepatch, the old wolf's ears pinned back like a scolded and sheepish pup. His tail had even curled down between his legs.

“It's fine, I just… Wasn't expecting that from you!"

"I'm sorry Shadi. I should have- Didn't know… Just in the moment, I thought you liked it and wanted-“

"Well, of course I liked it! I think that much is obvious! Just… Surprised me, is all." Shadi hugged her breasts against herself, half turning and pink-cheeked in embarrassment.

"Oh." Mack blinked his one good eye a moment, like her words had stumped him entirely, absolutely derailing the wolf's thoughts. His paw brushed along his muzzle, smoothing down his sodden snout's fur. He spoke up after another awkward moment of silence.

"Oh… Well… Uh- Did you want-“ He started before Shadi interrupted him again.

"That's not an invitation!" She huffed quickly!

Mack looked away again, catching himself in his awkwardness.

"No! No, of course not, and I'd never presume to- Uh, you should uh… Yes. Isiat. Right. You should get back to him. I'll see you at your next appointment. Yes?"

"Next week." Shadi nodded.

"Right. Next week. Until then, uh… Here, I'll just-“ Mack stumbled over himself again as he opened the door for Shadi, waving the blushing feline out as she covered her face with one paw and all but zoomed out into the hallway, listening to Mack cursing behind her as he closed the door.

" Gah, Idiot wolf!" She heard his muffled voice berate himself as she scampered away down the halls at a brisk walk.

How the hell was she going to reconcile that encounter in her mind?

———————

Larise just giggled madly when Shadi told her. The coyote whore was no help at all. Shadi had been all in a huff when she'd come right in and flopped on Larise's sofa right away as she went over what had happened, her nose and ears still a vivid shade of rose.

Larise had seemed very amused by the confession of the cat.

"I told you he was a male! Those dogs get their sniffer into a bitch who smells as fine as you do, hoo! No wonder he couldn't resist trying a taste of the captain's prize dancer!" She had cackled as she lay on her couch, tail beating a mile a minute, as Shadi just groaned and tried to bury her face into the pillows further.

"How am I supposed to go back to him for an exam after that?! I about burned my cheeks! I was blushing so hard!"

"Well, he was being professional in a way. Our profession is sex, and he was treating you like a professional!" The coyote giggled. Shadi threw a pillow at her for good measure.

"It's not funny!" Shadi whined, trying to hide her face in the pillows even more.

"It's a little funny! You two need to get over it! He was just doing what he thought you wanted-“

"Well, I didn't expect it to hit me all at once like that!"

“And I bet he didn't know what else to do when you all but locked his head between your thighs either! What kind of signal is that if not -stay right where you are?-" Larise sat up from the chair opposite and padded over, stroking her paw down Shadi's pseudo-mane of fur along her back.

"Out of all of the men on High Fortune, he is the one I would trust to have your best interests at heart. Frankly_, he's probably only one of a few men who could even afford a roll with a gold collar! Especially you! He wouldn't have done it if he thought you wouldn't like it."_ She insisted with a little giggle again, sitting beside where Shadi had thrown herself the moment she walked inside her cabin.

"Besides, you liked it. Mack's got a huge damn tongue, and wait until you see his co-“ Shadi cut the grinning coyote's words short!

"Larise!" Shadi huffed and smothered the cackling coyote with one of the pillows while Larise batted her back with flailing hands.

“You're not helping! Oh gods above, what if he never speaks to me again?" Shadi said with an exasperated groan, shoving her head into her paws.

“Well, his apprentice is cute too, as well… Paulo, I think, was his name? Nice prick on that raccoon, and the things he can do with those fingers-" Larise unhelpfully contributed further to Shadi's dismay, making the little feline groan aloud.

“Is there anyone on this airship you haven't slept with, you harlot?" Shadi giggled as Larise playfully pushed the lioness down and kissed her on the lips with a cheeky smile.

"Hey, pot calling the kettle black! We are professional harlots, thank you! I know for a fact there is! It's a short list, but it's there! There's probably at least a few. Probably." The coyote giggled.

“And besides, you know Mack wasn't trying to be forward with it. He adores you. That dire wolf loves a pregnant lady like nothing else. He always had his paws on me far more than he needed to with my checkups. I didn't mind it. He was actually kind of flattering about it." Larise said with another giggle, shifting up beside Shadi to snuggle with the lioness.

There was a loud thump from the next room that made them both pause, eyes locked on the door as if awaiting some pained cry. A string of giggles echoed from the coyote's new living space, and the pups continued whatever play they had been doing a moment earlier.

Larise sighed gratefully.

“As I was saying, though, you should be nice to him about it. He probably feels awful that he didn't ask you before he did that, and if he was going on about his wife when she was pregnant…" Larise let her words trail off with a grin like a steed meandering from the path.

“Well, can't really blame him for getting a bit excited… Just don't be too harsh on him next time you see the old wolf. He's been through a lot. Do you want to help me with lunch for these kids? I'll even walk you back to Isiat's quarters after?" She offered, and Shadi nodded quietly, still all full of butterflies inside.

The people on this ship were going to be the death of her more surely than even the drop from the railing might have been!

———————

Scion exhaled loudly as he glanced up from the stack of documents he was meticulously recording into High Fortune's archives, signing off on each and dropping them into a slot in the desk in Isiat's quarters.

“You know, we would stand to make more if more of these skills were put to use on, say, customers rather than just making distractions for me while I'm tending to business." The ruby-scaled dragon commented dryly as he set the long, feathered quill back in its inkwell.

His unimpressed glance was directed at Isiat and Shadi, the pair of them across Isiat's quarters from him.

Isiat was lounging shirtless, his tails splayed out over the edge of the extravagant chaise, eating grapes from a bushel like an Emperor from one of those old fables.

Shadi, meanwhile, was partially inverted, her legs clinging tightly to the polished dancing pole in the centre of the room while she swayed and swung herself gracefully around it to the gentle background music coming from the player in the corner.

Her breasts were on full display, as was her neatly groomed sex between her chubby thighs, puffy lips just faintly visible as she spun. Her fur had slowly started to shift to a more chocolatey brown, but her pubic mound was still surrounded by a delicate little peach fuzz of lighter fur that led like a golden pathway of sandy-coloured fur to her sex.

“Well, as soon as you find me some, I'd be happy to!" The swinging feline teased him right back, arching so that the slight swell of her belly jutted forward just a bit, slung out almost as far as her already noticeably larger breasts.

Her nipples had enlarged too, turning a darker shade of pink beneath her fur, and despite her own reservations about the changes coming over her body, well…

She'd yet to find a male in the entirety of High Fortune who didn't seem to approve of them. Isiat was watching her hungrily while he snacked, no doubt waiting for his next chance to snack on her, and Scion was obviously having trouble keeping his eyes on the numbers on the paper before him if the bulge in his trousers when he stood up to adjust himself was anything to go by.

She gripped the pole and let her tail curl around it as she slid her legs from the metal and neatly flipped to catch herself in a graceful twirl. Or, it would have been if she hadn't overestimated and instead ended up slipping just a little further down than she intended, throwing a paw out to catch herself on the floor at the last moment.

"Shadi? Are you alright?" Isiat asked, sitting up in a hurry. She waved him away and got back to her feet, her tail flickering in annoyance.

"I am fine. I just have to get used to all of…" She gestured to herself and her visibly pregnant figure, even if she wasn't too far along in her pregnancy yet. The more time that went on, the more inescapable it felt.

And it was only going to get more outwardly obvious the longer the little bastard in her belly grew… She huffed quietly and leaned on the dancing pole.

“All of this… I am fine. I can do it. Just let me practice. It's not going away. I have to get used to the... changes." She insisted, standing herself back upright. She ran her paws along her sides as if to brush off the disruption in her routine.

Slowly, she curled her tail around the dancing pole once more, waiting for a moment in the rhythm's tempo to start her motions again, swaying smoothly and gently to the strings as they played from the recorded orchestra.

She quickly fell into the flow of the beat, sashaying her hips in a quick one-two! The momentum quickly turned into an elegant twirl around the polished pole, pressing the metal between her breasts and against the slightly protruding swell of her belly, but barely a whisper was heard as her body lifted and arched.

She kicked off the ground and moved like her sisters had taught her in her youth, bending like the stalks of grass in the savanna and with the ease of the eastern winds in the early springtime.

She remembered the way the cheetahs of the other tribes visiting her father had danced around their spear shafts, planted firmly in the ground, and the exotic thrill such a display had sent through her young, hormone-addled mind.

Now, her slightly more mature but no less hormone-addled mind turned those lessons against her owners as they watched, teasing them like a morsel of meat dangled before a tiger. She spared them only the briefest flashes of her body, teasing and tempting them with a raised tail above the soft, plump roundness of her rear.

She let the gold of her collar rasp along the metal of the pole in her next spin, one paw held under her breasts to lift them and put herself on display. She raised one leg up to her shoulder and spread her body with a pair of fingers between her thighs, barely even hearing the music as it began to rise like the warmth within her. The gold-collared cat's digits rubbed over the already stiff nub of her clit, and drew a perfectly timed moan from her lips like she was accompanying a live performance.

The moves in those books that Isiat had assigned her for practice flashed through her mind, erotic images on the pages that she made into a spectacle with her body, turning her plump and curvaceous figure into a living work of art. The tune continued unabated, as did the naked feline's motions as she ran her paws over her sumptuous body as much as she did the dancing pole.

Scion's quiet puffing as he breathed was audible even over the music to Shadi's ears, as was her Master's own rumbly breathing, like he was trying to imitate a feline chuff and a purr every time her body turned his way and afforded the vulpine an unobscured view of her nakedness.

Isiat spoke first, his tails pattering softly against the chaise as he devoted almost his entire focus to the succulent feline treat before them.

"Remind me to have Scion teach you some more of the dragon dances before we arrive. The clientele in the clans might well expect that you know a few of their more popular… routines."

Scion nodded his agreement, but the dragon's golden eyes were entirely upon Shadi as well.

"Yes… Particularly the duet ones… Many of the clan traders are superstitious sorts. They will see a successful performance together from one of their slaves, and you as a sign of sure success in a business venture. For a few of the more eccentric sorts, they might ask for a performance privately as well. I will teach you the words to say and the movements to perform." He nodded, rising from his seat.

The dragon's obvious arousal was barely concealed by the thin fabric of his trousers that left nothing to the imagination, with the twin bulges of his shafts so damn noticeable. Isiat was in no less an exposed state, his own trousers sporting an impressive tent that he made no efforts to hide.

"Much will be asked of you, Shadi. Understand, my kind are ancient and advanced as well, but we jealously hoard pretty things. More than one will make an offer on you as well. It is to be expected." Scion warned her, the talons that tipped his draconic feet clicking against the floor as he stepped across, shamelessly reaching out to run his fingers across her breasts as she swung herself around the pole.

She skidded to a stop by tightening her legs' grip on the pole.

"Wait, you mean an offer to sleep with me, or-“ She asked, a note of fright creeping its way into her voice.

"To buy you." Isiat clarified her fears with his words, and almost protectively, she curled her tail around herself, lowering her feet back to the floor.

"I don't want to dance for those ones-“ She argued. “You said you wouldn't make me." She said insistently and directly, giving Isiat a look that told him she would not let him get away with anything less than his word as he had given it.

"No, I will not. Many will just want an afternoon with you privately. But some will try to tempt you with offers of fortunes you will never see. Others might make you offers so outrageous they seem ridiculous, but their sole reason is to flaunt their wealth. I will entertain none of them." The vulpine reaffirmed with a certainty to his tone that reassured her he'd not so much as give them a second thought.

His icy eyes locked upon her with a possessiveness that sent a little jolt of excitement right to her nethers. That look was like the vulpine was staking his claim on her all over again as surely and obviously as his mark on the golden collar around her throat.

"Your place is here, with me, at least until you have paid off your debt. After that, your fate will be in your hands; stay or go, be that before or after the cub..." He said with a dip of his slender, vulpine muzzle, brushing a single paw along the bridge of his nose and across his whiskers.

“But… if you wanted to stay after that, of course, I mean…" He chuckled sheepishly, smiling at the feline.

She blushed a little as the fox rose, his tails pattering behind him as he took his place beside her, glancing at Scion a moment before he leaned in and kissed Shadi sweetly on the cheek.

"Well, I would like that. Very much. Even if it is just until we next travel to the feline pridelands. I think we can accommodate her, right, Scion?" He chuckled in a manner that made it clear it was less a question and more a You'll make this happen, right?

Scion rolled his eyes playfully as the pair of males let their paws roam across her naked figure, caressing her curvaceous figure and making her shiver slightly at their touch across her bare fur.

"We fit Larise and all of her entire hoard. I'm sure we can find space for one cat and a cub."