How Not To Graduate 7: Release

Content

Chapter 7: Release

Vicky yawned, slumped sleepily over the downstairs kitchen table. For once in her life, the vixen was actually showered and well-groomed by the time 7:00 AM rolled around… but she was still visibly pining for her cozy, comfortable, warm bed, and her cuddly human bedwarmer.

Still, a few things were worth getting up early for… even if it meant leaving her adorable, sweet Jamie in bed. Like, perhaps, an adorable, sweet, hot wolf-girl who liked to get up early as well?

(Down, girl! the vixen told her libido ruefully.)

Vicky’s drowsy ears perked up, like uncoordinated but enthusiastic radar dishes, and her tail began wagging: she’d finally caught the sound she’d been waiting for, the clack of claws on the stairs. She frantically tried to look well-groomed, nervously checking her hair in the hallway mirror -- an unusual and counterintuitive impulse for the generally more punk-leaning vixen -- before glancing over to greet her houseguest (and guest in her recent wet dreams).

…Goddess, she really did have it bad.

“Well, well. Good morning, Wolfy! Fancy seeing you here,” she teased, sleep still audible in her voice. Fiona seemed a bit agitated and in a hurry, but composed herself at the fox’s greeting. “If you’re up and awake this early, maybe I need to work on my belly-rubbing technique~”

Fiona blinked. “Oh! Morning, Vi…” the werewolf replied, rather shocked to see Vicky awake at such an uncharacteristically early hour. “Did you sleep alright?”

“Hard not to, with a full belly!” Vicky said with a laugh. “I slept like a kit. Oh, speaking of which -- how was your night with your Jack?”

“…My… Jack?” Fiona repeated slowly.

“Yeah. I mean, I fucked and ate mine, but I'm sure your night was nice too?” Vicky asked.

The werewolf cocked her head, a little lost. “...You... you're not talking about Jamie, right?” That was definitely her first assumption when it came to “Vicky’s Jack”, and the vixen did have a bit of a post-meal bulge in her belly (something she was familiar seeing in the mirror)…

But even with the odd ‘willingness’ of all the humans around here, Fiona had a hard time imagining her new foxy friend gurgling her other new friend so… casually. The fox and her human clearly had a bond, even if it was a strange sort of bond to Fiona’s eyes.

“Oh gosh, of course not! I would never eat Jamie-” (Fiona let out a little sigh of relief: had she misjudged Vicky? This was so sweet!) “-on a random weeknight binge! He deserves to be savored, for a special occasion! No, I was talking about my midnight snack Jack~”

There it is, Fiona thought, amused despite herself. After almost a week, she was starting to get a sense of this place, even if these Nomshire preds still confused her with everything they said. Vicky meant well, she just… had a very different set of assumptions, about her special human.

…Wait, then who was filling Vicky’s belly, if Jamie was still undigested and napping upstairs?

“Y’know, the shirt Jack gave me?” Vicky prompted, after a moment of confused silence -- it seemed she’d have to spell things out for her poor, innocent little housewolf guest.

“…I guess, yeah?” Fiona said hesitantly.

Honestly, most of the previous night was still a bit of a blur to her. An amazing, gurgly, blissful blur -- filled with amazing belly rubs, digesting human, and the wonderful touch of her boyfriend’s hands in her fur and scent in her nose. She’d felt warm all over, wherever Jack touched her, not to mention the warm, happy feeling in a few other places that he respectfully hadn’t touched ye-

B-but the shirt, that’s what they were talking about! Yeah, the shirt Vicky said she’d use for…

Fiona paused. Had she misremembered? “Um… What did you need Jack’s shirt for, again?”

“Well~” Vicky began, visibly more awake (and, Fiona realized with trepidation, more aroused). “Once I finished tucking you two lovebirds in for the night, I had to find a nice substitute Jack to tuck into my belly… since the real deal was busy cuddling with yours.”

(The werewolf blushed, nodding dreamily. That memory from last night was plenty vivid!)

“And let me tell you, it took quite a bit of searching! It wasn’t easy, finding another human who could convincingly pretend to be that cute and blushy and innocent and repressed.”

“Jack’s not repressed!” Fiona protested. “He’s just… a little shy, meeting new predators!”

“Oh of course, of course! Whatever you say, Wolfy…” Vicky condescendingly ‘agreed’. “So anyway, I dressed this other guy in your boyfriend’s clothes and fucked him ‘til his pelvis was sore, but I got peckish before he finished so I ate him. So now he’s making my pelvis sore as payback, which, like, fair! You know how it is, just normal first-date funtimes…”

“That’s normal here??” Fiona squeaked. She made a mental note to remind all the local preds that Jack was HER boyfriend, so he was off limits and not available for that kind of thing…

“But seriously Wolfy, if you insist on drooling over poor Jack without eating him, you totally gotta try this.” Vicky told her dreamily. “His clothes make for excellent seasoning!”

You know, that probably would taste pretty g- “No!” Fiona blurted out, but then quickly lowered her voice. “I-I mean, I-I wouldn’t want to ruin Jack’s clothes like that,” she retconned hastily.

“Well, suit yourself! But trust me, even the knockoff version of your boyfriend is delic-”

*sqlch*

Vicky’s ears twitched, catching the sound from Fiona’s mildly rounded midriff as she moved. The somewhat uncomfortable look the werewolf had been wearing when she’d first come downstairs returned to her face. Vicky raised an eyebrow: Fiona was visibly shifting slightly from paw to paw as she talked, keeping her tail pressed low and flat instead of reflecting her mood like normal.

“…Sofia getting impatient in there?” Vicky guessed, raising an eyebrow knowingly. An instant later, a crass pfffffft of gas burst out from under the fox’s own fluffy tail. “Heh. Seems like my one-night stand is ready to sneak out the back door too~” She smirked. “Well hello to you too, ‘Jack’! I hope you enjoyed last night half as much as I’m gonna enjoy this morning~”

“Yeah, ‘Sofia’. Um, she’s…” Fiona didn’t have much practice recalling the names of her meals after they were gone, or even knowing them to begin with. “I’m, you know, done with her. But I can’t use the bathroom here, in case your mom hears… Any idea where else I can go?”

“Well, I know you’re not comfortable with public displays of disposal… yet~” Vicky teased, tapping her chin thoughtfully. Fiona internally whimpered at that last word: surely Vicky couldn’t mean that doing her business publicly was normal. “Unlike my mom, I’m worldly enough to know that you and Jack are all weirdly shy about totally normal biological functions…”

“Shy?” Fiona protested. “You call… not wanting to… you know!… just being shy??”

Vicky wasn’t listening, though. “That’s so sweet, Wolfy, but no need to thank me!” she said, cheerfully misinterpreting her friend’s expression. “I’m just naturally insightful and wise like that, it’s so polite of you to notice. I was thinking maybe I could give you a personal tour of the most luxurious campus bathrooms, whataya say? Sophia deserves a special exit… and this way, my mum will be none the wiser~” The vixen stood up and stretched, provoking a wet slorsh from her own belly, then smirked. “Plus, I’ve got my own ‘Jack’ to drop off too!”

“Um, I guess that would be nice? Thanks…” Fiona replied a little hesitantly. “I’m not sure I know the way by myself yet,” she admitted. Usually the werewolf had her own lingering scent as a helpful guide, but there were just… so many new (and delicious) aromas in this place, her nose got a bit overwhelmed sometimes. How were predators here supposed to hunt, anyway??

“Sure thing, Wolfy…” Vicky replied with a wink. “You’re not the first friend I’ve escorted to the bathroom, trust me! Though I’ll admit, I usually help humans tour the premises~”

As long as I get some privacy, I suppose ANY bathroom would do…? the werewolf thought.

It didn’t take much longer for the pair of predators to get going -- the look of growing urgency on Fiona’s face nudged Vicky past the last of her sleepy lethargy, until they were finally out of the Rava household and on their way. As they walked, they were treated to the sounds of Nomshire in the morning: the birds singing, cheerful morning greetings, happy gulping noises as predators casually grabbed breakfast. It reminded Fiona of home, albeit with fewer panicked protests.

“So, Wolfy, I’ve been meaning to ask~” Vicky asked leadingly, a moment later. “How did Sofia taste? I had my eyes on her for years, but you can’t nom them all…”

“I mean, I don’t want to brag,” the werewolf hesitantly replied, “but Sofia was good. Like, really good.” Fiona happily licked her lips at the memory, then added under her breath, “I mean, there’s a reason I still remember her name. Most of my meals just blur together…”

Fiona didn’t like talking about humans like that, it made her relationship with Jack feel weird, but… the truth was the truth. Most went in (and out) without a second thought or a first name.

“Ugh, tell me about it!” the fox complained. “Humans keep coming up to me all shy going ‘oh, miss sexy hungry vixen, will you promise to remember me?’~” Vicky made air quotes, putting on her best ‘eager human’ voice. “And meanwhile I’m just all ‘ugh, I barely remember who I ate yesterday, you’d better taste pretty damn good to earn a permanent space in my head’…” She rolled her eyes. “But you can’t say that, because it’s just rude, so instead you go ‘uh huh, of course!’ but then it’s all awkward ‘cuz they know, then they look sad…”

“Huh…” Fiona considered, morbidly curious. “That is… not a problem I have.”

She chuckled a little at the strange quandary, and the energetic vixen who presented it. Did humans here really hope to be remembered by their predators? Was that a thing? Back home, most humans didn’t want any part of themselves to wind up inside a predator, physical or mental. ‘Being on a predator’s mind’ usually preceded ‘being on a predator’s waistline’… but seeing as she’d already claimed this girl’s body for herself… Well, what harm could it do?

Sofia, she repeated in her head, holding the name in her mind just as tightly as her belly had held its owner. Sofia. Maybe… maybe she could remember this human, at least for a little while. Now that she thought about it, the only humans Fiona really remembered after they’d left her body were the ones with an aftertaste of regret. Though, that honestly made sense. Beyond her mistakes, and the ensuing gut-clenching remorse, what really made a human meal memorable? Even if she wanted to, she didn’t really know How Not To Forget Lunch.

Even though every human was their own person, with their own unique life, their own hopes and dreams and fears and loves… once they took the trip into her belly, they all digested much the same. And after she churned and crushed and gurgled them away, they weren’t very unique or memorable at all. Especially not once they were packed tight and collecting impatiently in her-

“Hey, Wolfy, you still with me?”

Fiona returned from her predatory reverie with a bashful blush. “O-oh! Yeah, just… just thinking about Sofia.” The werewolf paused, then added a little shyly, “…um, speaking of which, could we maybe, you know… walk a little faster?”

“Oh, is your happy meal getting all eager to leave?” Vicky grinned at Fiona’s bashful nod. “I hate when humans decide to switch from ‘fine dining’ to ‘fast food’ halfway through your large intestine. Honestly, Wolfy, I’m impressed you managed to hold her in this long~”

Vicky was facing the same issue. Her morning coffee -- the only reason she was functional at all, at this early and goddess-forsaken hour -- had accelerated her midnight snack’s journey through her digestive system, judging by how insistently ‘Jack’ was knocking at her own back door now.

“They usually stick around a little bit longer before… leaving.” Fiona admitted. She wasn’t exactly sure why she was sharing this rather… intimate detail of her biology with a vixen she’d only met earlier that week, and yet she did. And somewhat happily at that. “I don’t know what’s different this time, maybe that whole massage last night really… moved things along…”

“Hah! Another satisfied customer of the patented Rava belly-rub!” the fox crowed smugly. “Probably two satisfied customers, but I don’t think Sofia is doing much talking. Yet.”

As luck would have it, Fiona’s bowels chose that moment to let out a crass squelch.

“Huh,” Vicky said. “I stand corrected.”

“Yeah, yeah, very funny,” the wolf joked along amiably. “If Sofia’s feeling so satisfied in there, maybe she can stand to wait until I get to a toilet.”

“Personally, I’m flattered when a meal is impatient from start to finish! Eager to go down, eager to come out~” Vicky countered with a grin. “And the very best meals leave you with something to remember them by, too!” she said appreciatively, eyes flicking to Fiona’s chest.

The werewolf blushed, a little flattered by the attention, and her tail shyly wagged once -- even pinned low as it was. “O-oh…~!” Fiona glanced away awkwardly, trying not to smile. “Is it that visible? They definitely seemed a little… heavier this morning, when I woke up…” There was a longer shy pause, before she tentatively asked, “Do you think… Jack might notice?”

“How could he not? It’s just more of you to love~” the vixen shot back, grinning.

“You really think he’ll like it?” Fiona asked. Her tail wagged hopefully at the thought.

“I certainly do~” Vicky replied dreamily.

While she might have been put off by the vixen’s visible lust a few days ago, this morning she somehow found herself smiling rather warmly at the compliment. “Thanks.” Her tail wagged. “You know, it’s kinda nice, to finally talk about this sort of stuff with another pred…”

“Oh! Yeah, um, of course -- happy to help!” Vicky replied, blushing a little herself. “You’ve really never gotten to talk about this sort of pred stuff with your friends back home?”

Fiona shook her head. “No, hunting is less… public, back home. I mean, we show off our bellies, but… we just don’t talk like this!” she said, earning a sympathetic look from Vicky.

The freshly budding friendship filled her with a pleasant, comforting feeling as the two continued to chat… which luckily helped distract the werewolf from the distinctly uncomfortable feeling caused by her now-thoroughly-digested ex-Sofia meal stretching her bowels. Luckily, they’d arrived on campus at this point, so relief should be right around the corner… right?

“So, how much further to this bathroom?” Fiona asked plaintively, after the fifth time they passed a building that definitely should’ve had somewhere for predators to do their business.

“Oh, well, that depends,” Vicky said cheerfully. “For a normal everyday meal, any old toilet would suffice… but a special girl like Sofia? She deserves the absolute best! You can’t spoil a delightful meal with a disappointing exit, everyone knows that…”

“I, um, can’t?” Fiona replied, wondering if this was some kind of weird local law. If there were willing meals walking around, anything was possible. “So, uh, what’s wrong with those ones over there?” She pointed to a nearby sign she rather wished they would turn toward.

“No way -- those ones are right next to the cafeteria, so they always have a long line.”

“Oh, good call.” The last thing Fiona wanted was to have to stand around in a line right now. The two predators kept walking, past two or three more potential options, and finally the building pressure prompted her to ask again (more insistently), “That bathroom should work, right?”

“That one doesn’t even have heated seats…” Vicky said disdainfully. “Please, as if.”

“Okay, but…” Fiona protested, but she’d already been tugged past the door as her vixen guide enthusiastically pulled her forward. “That one?” the werewolf asked, a little desperately now.

“Hard pass. It doesn't have fancy air fresheners, and there’s no built-in tail-warmers…”

Fiona pushed down her frustration and her tail, trying to keep her feelings and her last meal bottled up tight inside her. “Vicky, I need a bathroom, NOW!” the werewolf growled.

“Okay, okay, fine.” Vicky sulked. Her fluffy fox tail drooped. “I just wanted to impress you…”

Impress me? Fiona thought to herself incredulously. It’s just a bathroom! I don’t need to be impressed, I don’t need a tour, I just really, REALLY need to take a-

*PFFFRRRTTTT!*

Fiona, previously rushing, suddenly stopped in her tracks. Instinctively, she crossed her legs and wrapped her tail tight around her waist, biting her lip while simultaneously hiding her muzzle in embarrassment. But just above her blush, her eyes started glaring daggers at her vixen guide.

Vicky, sensing she wasn’t making a good impression, finally relented. “Fine, fine, this one, I guess!” She grabbed Fiona’s desperate paw and led the wolf to her much-needed destination. “Even though it only has 4.7 stars on Flush…” she huffed. “But needs must, I suppose…”

With porcelain relief in sight, Fiona quickly pulled ahead of Vicky, sprinting for the door with all the speed and stamina of a huntress on the chase: except instead of a marked human waiting at the end of her pounce, it was something even better: a door marked “Women’s Restroom”.

Vicky, who knew better than to stand between a werewolf and her target, elected to hang back and approach the bathroom at a more leisurely, lazy pace. By the time she did step inside, she’d honestly expected to find her companion already mounted and in position, so she was more than a little shocked to find Fiona just standing right past the doorway, gawking in horror.

“Why so nervous, Wolfy? Do you need me to hold your hand?” Vicky teased… and then blushed a moment later, as her brain caught up to her mouth. The flustered vixen fumbled for words. “I mean, not that I’d… mind holding your h-hand! I-if you, um, wanted me to…?”

“There- there are no doors!” the werewolf frantically replied, not even listening to her vixen companion’s awkward, blatant, and poorly timed lesbian flirting. To Fiona’s utter bewilderment, rather than the usual array of private, walled-off stalls in which to do one’s business, there was just a short row of toilets sitting in the middle of the tile floor… Forget doors, there were hardly even walls -- just short, almost-transparent dividers, put in like afterthoughts!

“Doors?” Vicky looked just as confused as Fiona did. “Why would a bathroom need those?”

“B-but, anyone could see!” Fiona squeaked, adamant and indignant. “Y-you could see me!”

“…Yeah, so?” Vicky replied, cocking her head in confusion. “What’s the problem?”

“But… but the whole point of coming to campus was privacy!” Fiona protested weakly.

“Yeah, privacy from my mum! But she’s not here now, so mission accomplished~” Vicky paused, thinking. “Well, unless she comes to campus for an expulsion or early graduation, but she prefers the third-floor toilets for that. We're safe from her motherly tyranny here!”

Fiona’s eyes desperately darted back and forth between the seemingly oblivious vixen and the invitingly open toilet. In her growing distress, she asked herself: would it really be so bad to just run in and do her business in company? After all, Vicky was just a fellow huntress, right? And this was just a totally normal, biological reality of any predator’s life. It wouldn’t be unsurvivably embarrassing to do her business like this, just really, really, unpleasantly embarrassing… right?

But despite Fiona’s assumption, Vicky wasn’t quite as oblivious or airheaded as she looked. The vixen knew a girl who needed to go when she saw one, and it was pretty clear that, despite the werewolf’s visible desperation, she was still paralyzed at the bathroom door. Was this another of Fiona’s strange cultural hangups, Vicky wondered? In her humble opinion, the absolute best part of letting a human snack back out was doing it with friends! But it hurt, seeing her crush look that visibly, desperately uncomfortable… so what would a good friend do, to help a shy companion?

“Look, Wolfy, how about I just… stand guard out here, to keep an eye out for you?” Vicky hesitantly suggested. “Would that be better? Then you’d have all the privacy you need…”

“Would you!?” Fiona blurted out, more ‘enthusiastic’ than she’d intended. Not that she wasn’t very grateful, but the promise of imminent privacy and relief overpowered every other feeling.

“Yeah, of course!” Vicky quickly replied, relieved that she could finally make a good impression on her crush. “What are friends for? Now go on in there and give Sofia a proper send-off~”

Fiona offered a thankful (and tightly clenched) smile, as her fox companion almost reluctantly left the room. She watched the shrinking gap between the door and the frame as closely as any prey she’d ever measured for her stomach… right up until the moment it clicked shut.

Finally!

Fiona couldn’t hold back the overwhelming surge of relief, which emerged from her muzzle as a distressed whimper. She let her hands spring into action, frantically pawing at the button above her tail that held up her skirt, nearly tearing the fabric apart with her claws in her haste. At the same moment, she hurriedly hobbled over to the nearest porcelain seat, her split focus (and the insistent pressure under her tail) causing her to fumble as she moved. After what felt like an eternity, Fiona felt the sweet sensation of her waistband slipping down. As the pressure around her waist disappeared, and she settled into a comfortable pose, her bowels relaxed too.

*BLURB*

Her skirt’s fabric slipped quietly against her fur as it fell away, followed quickly by her underwear, finally leaving absolutely nothing between Sofia and her final destination other than a few inches of air and a last barrier, strained to bursting. The werewolf positioned her rump above the bowl, and finally (at long last) sank down and gladly rested her slightly-plumper rear on the cool seat.

*FWUMPH*

The wolf let out a large sigh. Her whole body relaxed, now safely positioned in the comfortable (and far more importantly, private) restroom. The solid weight in her abdomen migrated deeper, rushing through the last few twists and turns on its way to the exit. The last tense spot in Fiona’s body was now the exhausted ring of muscle (barely) holding Sofia’s remains inside. Sweet relief was just a brief moment away, and her body knew it. The soothing warmth of the combination seat and tail warmer felt heavenly -- her bowels shifted, her tail flexed, and a single stray thought passed through her mind, even as Sofia prepared to pass from her rear:

WOW, okay, Vicky was right about one thing. These seat warmers really ARE pretty relaxi-

*PFFFFFFRTTTT…~*

The werewolf’s ears folded back sheepishly. Fiona hadn’t intended for all her lower muscles to relax quite that much! All the more reason why it was a good thing she’d secured a nice, private spot to handle her business all alone. Well, not alone-alone: now, it was just her and Sof-

“Well~! Sounds like you two are having fun in there~!” came a sultry voice from outside.

A second or two later, a rather loud *SPLOOSH* was the only reply the vixen received. The lewd noise drifted through the closed door, but Vicky couldn’t hear any hint of Fiona’s voice.

“Speechless? I don’t blame ya, Wolfy~” the vixen said, undeterred by the lack of reply from within. “I knew Sofia was a catch, my belly was rumbling the whole time you were gulping her down… But tell me! I can keep a secret, just between us pred-girls -- be honest, does she feel as good on the way out, as she did slipping in? Or does she feel better?”

A short series of plops and splashes answered Vicky’s query, along with a quiet, muffled sigh of pleasured relief from Fiona. Vicky grinned: finally, her houseguest was learning to enjoy herself!

“Hah! I knew it~!” the vixen crowed. “Hm, I wonder which part Sofia preferred: going in or coming out? I wish we could ask her, now that she’s experienced the full Wolfy special~”

*SPLOOSH… PLOP!* *…PFFFFFFFT~!*

“Ah, and I think we have our answer!~” Vicky said with a grin. As she spoke, a moment later the more solid sounds of Fiona’s body were gradually joined by the soft, unmistakable hiss of falling liquid, growing steadily louder as a different long-held-in pressure was finally released.

“I’d never want to hurt my food’s feelings… but let’s be honest, some humans are all dry and tasteless -- sorta like jerky. But it sounds like you’re not having that problem here~” she said leadingly, giving her crass commentary over the quiet liquid hiss from inside. “Hmm, it sounds like Sofia had a healthy hydration balance -- that must be one reason why she looked so plump and tasty and tender and perfect…~” The vixen was visibly drooling now. “Judging by the noise, you two are really enjoying each other’s company. En-ge-el, Wolfy, you’re making me wish I’d been the lucky pred to give Sofia her final special send-off…”

Meanwhile Fiona, red as a blushing rose, was studiously ignoring Vicky’s running commentary as best she could, instead focusing on her departing dinner. She’d never tried to push out an entire human in a single visit -- yet another new experience, thanks to last night’s belly rubs -- and it was taking a lot of concentration to guide such a large mass of ex-Sofia material to its final exit. It was leaving her sore down below: her poor back door had never tried to stretch like this!

Still, she couldn’t block out Vicky’s words completely, and given the undeniable biological reality of her current task, the crass comments couldn’t help but start Fiona thinking…

Before this last week, Fiona sincerely doubted that any human could ever possibly be thankful to become… well, thankful to be slipping out of a wolf’s lower cheeks. And yet the image of Sofia’s face flashed across her mind’s eye, and the werewolf couldn’t quite shake the idea. Surely, any human in a college-level Predatory Biology class knew exactly how the digestive process ended, and yet even with that knowledge, she had been quite eager to be lunch. Another few feet of what had once been a bright young woman departed the predator’s exit, sending more pleasant tingles up throughout Fiona’s body, as her belly slowly shrunk and her insides pleasantly shifted.

…how horribly insensitive would it be, to hope that ‘Sofia’ actually was enjoying this as much as Fiona herself was? Would Sofia -- if she were still around -- consider it a nice compliment?

The distinct creak of the bathroom door jarred the wolf from her thoughts. Her tail went straight up, her ears perked up in panic, and the clenching of her lower muscles provoked another lewd sound from below that she resolutely pretended not to hear. Fiona looked to the door in panic, hackles raised, and whimpered. Was Vicky coming in to interrupt her, to do her own business?

“This one is taken!” came the hasty voice of a friendly, lifesaving vixen. “Sorry, you and your pet will have to find another toilet?” Sure, Vicky hadn’t been watching closely enough to keep another pelli from padding all the way up to the door, but she had managed to act quick enough to keep the newcomer outside, and more importantly out of the line of sight. Fiona, breathing a small sigh of relief, heard a muffled reply as the other predator -- someone much quieter than Vicky, which honestly didn’t narrow down their identity much -- posed some kind of question.

“Yes, um, all the stalls! Yep, all of them. Whole pelli sports team came by suddenly…”

Fiona’s ears perked up. There’s a pred sports team here? she thought, intrigued. Like, NORMAL sports? Finally, something familiar! Maybe some of them would want to go hunting with me after-

“…and the human team begged to get eaten after practice, you know how it goes…”

…you know, I don’t even know what I expected… the wolf noted, with now-familiar amusement.

“So, uh, anyway, with that whole human team being dumped, they’ll probably be a bit. Might clog the entire plumbing system. No, sorry, you can’t go in and take a quick look yourself, because, uh…” Vicky’s nervous chatter stumbled. “It’s, like, private training…?”

A muffled, frustrated reply reached Fiona through the door: it seemed that some anonymous predator was feeling just as much urgency as she had been. Still tense, Fiona focused her ears to catch Vicky’s reply. “Here, lemme help find you an even better bathroom on Flush…!”

Fiona took another relieved breath. It seemed that Vicky had things in paw. Fiona relaxed, and let herself focus on her own important work: pushing out the final bits of Sofia, hoping Vicky’s continuing conversation would prevent either of the predators outside from overhearing her very private business. Despite her still-embarrassed blush, she mentally thanked the nosy vixen.

…Vicky was a very good friend to have, despite the often-mortifying crassness, Fiona decided.

Knowing the nice, nosy fox was well and truly distracted now, the vulnerable werewolf relaxed into her first proper moment of peace and privacy. The pressure in her guts had declined, now that most of her meal had left the premises: it felt a bit closer to what she was used to handling in her average post-hunting restroom visits. The awkward blush finally faded from Fiona’s face as she fully shifted her focus downward, escorting the last excess ex-human from her bowels.

Maybe she’d never paid proper attention to this part of hunting before… but the relaxation, the release, the little shiver up her spine as she finally let go of the pressure she'd been holding in for hours, since her delicious meal had first entered her body and begun melting down?

Wow, Fiona thought. I finally get why Vicky spends so much time talking about this…

A few blissfully quiet moments later, Fiona had finally achieved total relief. She took a moment to marvel at how these ‘pelli’ toilets could actually hold everything her belly could. It was probably a good thing that her digestive system naturally released things a bit more piecemeal, back home -- since most of her town’s plumbing had been built for human use, not to be used on humans.

Fiona looked around and found some toilet paper. Oddly, it felt softer and more plush than what she was used to… not to mention how it was labeled “Nom U: Where Students Make A Splash”. Was that some strange sort of local tradition? She let habit take over as she cleaned herself up, then abandoned the soiled tissue on top of her other waste and reached up for the handle to flu-

The image of Sofia’s face flashed across her mind once more. Fiona paused for a moment, paw resting on the toilet lever. That girl had… willingly become what was now steaming below the wolf’s shadowed rear. She’d wanted to be remembered. Was… was Fiona supposed to, like, say some last eulogy? Was she supposed to look one final time, to give Sofia a final send-off, or-

Ew, no, the canine decided, a passing frown wrinkling her muzzle. But even without doing that, she did still take a moment to think: But thanks for… being a good lunch? Uh… bye, Sofia.

*flush*

Fiona breathed and stood up, feeling (literally and figuratively) a good fifty pounds lighter. She put her arms above her head and stretched a little, enjoying the sensation of her newly-relieved body, before pulling her underwear back up and rebuttoning her skirt. With her business done, she casually sauntered over to the sinks and started to wash her paws, leaving another human to disappear for good down the drains of Nomshire. It was nice, having a quiet moment to hers--

“Finally!~” Vicky called out as she barged into the room, summoned by the sound of running water. Poor Fiona was startled out of her reverie, fur fluffing up with surprise. “You took your time… but I'd never dare to rush such a special moment between a girl and her meal~”

Fiona looked over with a grateful and somewhat amused smile. “Thanks, I really appreciate the privac- Woah!” As the vixen eagerly scampered over to the toilet to dump her own dinner, she’d already unbuttoned her skirt, pulling it aside mid-stride as if it were some special skill she’d practiced a hundred times. On instinct, Fiona threw up a still-dripping paw to block her view, but not before her keen predatory eyes took in a very vivid flash of detail.

The image of cream-colored fur, adorning the curvy crest of feminine legs, burned awkwardly in her mind’s eye for a long moment… not to mention the flash of pink she’d seen nestled beneath. She wasn’t even wearing anything under there! Briefly stunned, Fiona grappled with the fact that she’d never really seen anything like that before, all out in the open, outside of her own mirror.

“Oh, don’t worry, Wolfy,” Vicky responded, rolling her eyes and negligently waving a paw. “Not everyone is as shy and sheltered as you! I don’t mind, you can look all you want…~” Her eyes widened. “Um, n-not that it’s a bad thing, that you’re all shy? I-it's super cute…”

Fiona spun around to face the sink as the naked vixen passed right behind her, so close that the wolf could feel her own tail trace against bare orange fox-fur… and blushed as she caught a very vivid view of the vixen’s plump orange-furred rear in the mirror as she stepped toward the toilet. The wolf blushed harder and finally gave up on sight altogether, keeping her eyes shut as she finished washing up… not that the image left her mind. She wasn’t sure she’d ever regretted her predatory level of perception, and Vicky definitely hadn’t looked bad! It was just-- The poor flustered werewolf whimpered quietly, trying to shake the train of thought. Not that Vicky heard anything, over the sound of fur meeting porcelain and her own relieved, distinctly horny sigh.

“Oooh!~ You left the seat pre-warmed for me!” the vixen reported happily, wiggling her rear on her comfy throne as she braced her bowels and then, with zero shame, let loose on the bowl.

Fiona could close her eyes, but she couldn’t close her ears… and they painted just as clear an image as anything she could have seen. Vicky moaned as the first few splashes hit the water below, the vixen’s bowels gurgling pleasantly at the released pressure. Even over the running sink, there was enough detail in the soundscape that Fiona’s mind couldn’t help but refocus on the image of those two plump, cream-colored cheeks. It was so easy to imagine the remains of whatever imitation-Jack the vixen had scarfed down late last night, finally slipping free from--

Nooope! Fiona thought. The blushing canine shook her muzzle as she hurriedly dried her hands.

“Oh Jack, you feel so good…~” Vicky panted, muzzle open and eyes half-lidded in bliss.

“I-I’m gonna wait outside!” the mortified werewolf called out, a little desperately. She opened her eyes just enough to seek out the door, but still managed to glimpse feminine orange-furred curves in the mirror as Vicky squeezed out another foot or two of ex-human. A blissful smile was painted across the vixen’s muzzle, shivers running down her spine in time with the splashes and hisses from the bowl beneath. Not to mention her wagging tail and wandering paws -- one paw braced beside her, the other slowly drifting down between her legs.

The fearless huntress fled the bathroom before she could see any more, blushing even redder than the fur she’d glimpsed. She took a few breaths of fresh, outside air. The morning view of the campus seemed so very normal compared to what she knew was going on just behind her.

Vicky… REALLY seems to like the… end of her meals… Did mine feel that good when-? I mean, it wasn’t bad but- I guess it was… ‘nicer’ than I remember back home.

She continued to struggle silently with that train of thought, wondering at these new aspects of her hunts she’d been noticing since her visit began. Could I ever… enjoy this, in the same way Vicky does? Fiona asked herself, even as horny fox noises continued to emerge from inside the bathroom -- noises that Fiona resolutely tried (and failed) not to think about. I mean, if the humans here are enjoying the whole process for SOME reason… why couldn’t I?

“Phew!” Vicky huffed, finally emerging from the bathroom disheveled, well-satisfied, and in a good mood -- looking as if she’d just walked out of a busy bedroom instead. “That fake Jack really made my tail tingle, and he gave my butt a fantastic morning workout… but let’s be honest, I bet that dumping the real deal would’ve felt even better~” Vicky offered her lupine companion a cheeky grin. “I can’t wait for you to tell me all about it, Wolfy, whenever you two lovebirds get over your silly little hangups and finally do the digestive deed…~”

“Not a chance,” Fiona shot back, earning a stuck-out tongue from Vicky. The two preds, lighter and more relaxed after flushing last night’s dinners, made their way out into the autumn air… and as they walked, Fiona took a moment to reflect on how fast things had changed in the last week. Back home, if her pack had joked about wanting to eat Jack, Fiona’s protective impulses would have triggered: to growl, to establish that Jack was her partner, not someone’s meal.

But hearing those jokes from Vicky? It just felt like playful teasing. Sure, the vixen talked a good game, and that drool didn’t lie… but after trusting Vicky to keep the windows open at night, after seeing Vicky rescue Jack from a hungry husky’s jaws, just the way Fiona would’ve in her place?

Vicky was on their side.

When she’d talked to them last night… somehow, Fiona knew that Vicky wouldn’t let Jack come to any harm. It was a strange feeling, to fully trust another predator with her boyfriend’s safety. Some of Fiona’s pack back home had tolerated Jack, bemused by her strange insistence on protecting a mere human… but none of them had ever understood, the way Vicky clearly did.

It felt… nice. To share a burden she hadn’t even realized she was carrying alone.

Fiona savored the sunshine and the touch of the morning breeze against the fur of her now-flat midriff, chattering with her vulpine companion all the way across campus. “Thanks, Vi,” Fiona finally said. “I’m, uh, really glad I got… my business out of the way before class.”

And thank you for having our backs… the werewolf left unsaid.

“Don’t mention it!” Vicky told her, with a laugh. The vixen paused. “But, like, especially don’t mention it in front of my mum.”

“Consider that little secret flushed away with Sofia…” Fiona assured her partner in digestive crime, which got the two predators grinning at each other again.

“Well, that’s the fun part of my morning over with,” Vicky finally sighed. “Guess we might as well head over to class. Maybe I’ll find someone begging to be breakfast on the way~”

“You can’t possibly be telling me you’re hungry again already?” Fiona asked, eyeing her.

“Hm… Guilty as charged, your Wolfiness. Humans go in one end and right out the other.”

“Oh trust me, I heard…” Fiona teased. “Your belly really is a bottomless pit, Vicky.”

“Any human considers themself lucky, to get the full Vicky Rava digestive treatment~!”

Fiona rolled her eyes as the vixen preened, but something about that phrase stuck in her mind.

“Lucky humans…” Fiona repeated thoughtfully. “It really is so different here, compared to back home. Sure, it’s less fun to hunt, but with all the humans here actually wanting to get eaten, I never have to worry about accidentally catching someone I shouldn’t have… It must be nice! You can enjoy all the humans you want and never have to regret a thing.”

Vicky winced, her steps stuttering to a halt. “No regrets? Goddess, I wish it were that easy.”

Fiona stopped as well. She frowned to match the fox. “I thought… since everyone who goes wants to go…” the werewolf said hesitantly, before trailing off. “Surely…”

“When someone’s gone, they always leave regrets behind. Even if you both want it, even if you do it knowingly and lovingly… sometimes that just makes it harder.” Vicky paused, choosing her words carefully. “I know that humans aren’t normally… willing where you’re from. I get the sense that, back home, your whole thing with Jack is… unusual?”

Fiona nodded. “I… We’ve never met anyone else who’s made something like this work.”

“It’s unusual here, too. Sure, we cherish humans as pets, but a relationship as equals? Being partners? That’s not really… a thing here either.”

Not so perfect a world after all, even if Jack isn’t being hunted all the time… Fiona thought to herself. Guess that was obvious from the way they greeted us, when we first got here…

“…I had someone like Jack, once.” Vicky blurted out, all of a sudden. “A human I, well… fell in love with. Really fell in love with. She was… May was amazing.”

Fiona felt her hackles rise at the sudden, aching longing suffusing the vixen’s normally-teasing tone. Vicky had tried and failed to remember last night’s meal: he’d been just another snack. But that name, May? Even hearing it said once, it was like it was burned into her.

“…but she was livestock. Prized, delicious, once-in-a-lifetime quality livestock, and she was going to get sold off. That’s what she was raised for, after all. Why bother treating her like a person, when the ranch could treat her like a prize to be bought and sold?”

The vixen’s tone dripped with disdain.

“…Didn’t… didn’t she want to get eaten, too?” Fiona asked, treading lightly on her fresh understanding, as she tried to be there for her new friend. She set aside the ‘livestock’ comment to think about later, she didn’t want to interrupt a clearly painful story.

Vicky smiled bitterly. “Of course. All she wanted was to make some lucky pelli as happy as she could. But we’d fallen in love, and so of course she wanted me to be that lucky pelli.”

“Oh…” Fiona said, very quietly.

Vicky chuckled in longing nostalgia. “That look on her face. I still remember it. She couldn’t bear the thought of giving herself to anyone else. She wanted it to be me so desperately. I was never very good at saying ‘no’ to her. And the thought of someone else getting her?”

Fiona saw a very rare expression flash across the vixen’s muzzle: absolute and utter rage.

“Well, I couldn’t bear it any more than she could, so… so we did the only thing we could do… We could have had a long… long time together… I bet we would have been happy. Picked the perfect moment to finally…” Vicky trailed off. “Well, it doesn’t matter. We didn’t have that time. She didn’t have that choice, she didn’t get the real choice she deserved. The only thing we could do was… make the most of that little time we did get.”

It was such a strange, alien story to Fiona… and yet somehow, she felt she understood, almost implicitly. It all felt achingly familiar: longing and sacrifice and star-crossed, cross-species love.

“So you ate her there… while you still could,” Fiona finished quietly.

“Yeah… It was what she wanted… She was the best meal I ever had, without a doubt…” Vicky smiled softly again, like she could still remember the flavor, but it only lasted a moment. “But once a person you love is gone, they’re gone. You can’t take that choice back. And even knowing they chose to get eaten… it doesn’t make it any easier, when you look over to share a joke with them, or when you reach out to pull them closer in the middle of the night, and they’re just… not there. And no matter how special that last night felt, even though you know you both did your best with the cards you were dealt, you know you’re the reason they’re not there.” She laid one paw against her belly unconsciously, and sighed.

Fiona stood there quietly for a long moment. She wasn’t sure what to say -- what she even could say. A story like that… Fiona and Jack’s story hadn’t ended like Vicky’s, so far, but…

“I… I did swallow Jack… once,” Fiona suddenly confessed, breaking the silence. She couldn’t even say why she’d blurted it out, but… she wanted Vicky to know she understood. The vixen’s uncharacteristically sullen face turned toward her with a look of surprise. “We were kids. I was stupid… angry…” Vicky’s proclamation of ‘the best meal she’d ever had’ rang true in Fiona’s head as well, though she couldn't say the words. “That moment when I realized… realized if I left him in there…” She put a hand to her own stomach, flat with the aftermath of a thousand intervening human meals. “…that he’d be gone. And I’d have to face the next day without him, and the next and the next, forever and ever-” She felt an all-to-familiar knot in her gut. “It didn’t matter how good he- his stupid mark tasted. I barfed right there in the street…”

Vicky let out a bitter, sad little laugh. “Who's the lucky one now? You still get to wake up next to him every day.”

Fiona nodded solemnly, but a smile peeked through her expression, a moment later. “It could easily have been the worst day of my life. If I hadn’t realized how much of an idiot I was, if I’d waited even a minute longer to let him back out, but instead it was the best… because that’s the day he told me he loved me.” She blushed. “Me… the luckiest wolf in the world.”

Despite herself, Vicky chuckled. “Smooth, Wolfy. You got to eat him and got a boyfriend in the bargain? Fiona Lupella, master of romance. Will you teach me your feminine wiles?~”

“Slow down, Vi, that’s still not the worst part…” she cautioned. “I wasn’t done telling my half of the story. You know that mark he has? The one that makes him taste so good? I’m the one that gave it to him…” The wolf winced. “He likes to say it was his own idea, but…”

“But you’re still the one who did it,” Vicky finished, understanding in turn. “Your own body.”

“He’s spent his whole life running from what my body did to him.” Fiona said quietly. She’d never quite admitted that thought out loud. “I… I blame myself. But somehow he doesn’t.”

“Sometimes I wish May and I could’ve spent our lives running together,” Vicky finally said. “But hey, he’s still with you, right?” Fiona nodded, still regretful. “You two still have each other. Your story hasn’t ended yet, you’ve still got the chance for a happy ending. Never forget how lucky that makes you.” Vicky smiled, leaning over to gently bump against Fiona’s shoulder. “I hope you get to share all the time you want. And I’ll do my part -- I’ll help make sure that Jack stays safe and sound here, so you two can have that time. I mean it.”

The wolf smiled over at her new friend, feeling the weight in those words as Vicky smiled back.

Huh. I guess we really are lucky, after all.

“…But for goddess’s sake, Wolfy… at least have a little fun with him if he’s not becoming lunch!” Fiona started to laugh despite herself, tension bleeding out of her shoulders and her wagging tail, and the grinning vixen kept on rolling. “I mean, c’mon, you’ve eaten him once already! Maybe Jack should eat you out this time, to balance the scales. Seems only fair.”

“Vicky!” Fiona squeaked. They’d arrived to class now, so people could hear them -- and Jack had said he’d be meeting her here. Had her boyfriend been listening? Not that she’d mind if he suggested that idea, but… ugh, she was going to turn Vicky into a fox-fur coat, mark her words!

But the vixen just chuckled. “I’m just saying. You two only get so much time together. Every moment you do get is a blessing. So you should make use of it, not hold yourself back…”

“If I wasn’t holding myself back, my time with Jack would have ended a long time ago,” Fiona countered. “But I do get your point, Vi. I want to cherish every single moment I share with him. I just want our relationship, our life together, to be about more than just… sex!”

“Please, I’m not that shallow. There’s so much more to a healthy relationship than sex.” Vicky tried to keep a straight face, but a cheeky grin shone through. “It’s merely the best part! I want to live my life to the fullest… and that also means fully enjoying my partners~”

Fiona rolled her eyes, but smiled. She’d learned before not to let her time with Jack go to waste, but… maybe her foxy friend did have a point, buried far under the horny-on-main innuendo?

Even a single week living in Nomshire had already opened Fiona’s eyes to so many new things she’d never considered before: eager prey, shared bathroom visits, mind-melting belly rubs…

In a new place like this, maybe it wasn’t a bad opportunity to try some new things with Jack, too.