The air of New Seville was thick with the smell of freshwater river weed, algae and fish. The great ventral bulkheads were painted a brilliant blue. The light of the faux sun shone merrily across the surface of the long straight canals that etched the grid of the city.

  Contrary to the chaos of ramshackle buildings in Old Coslada, the buildings of New Seville were pristine and carefully laid out. Likewise the vibrant green of the manicured parks contrasted harshly with the struggling rural fields I remembered of Last Eden.

  And so many birds. Ducks serenely paddled the canals, finches darted along the trees and rooftops while crows and pigeons fought turf wars for control of the canal side.

  Jaguarine wandered from shop to shop, occasionally followed by a kobold serving as porter and pack animal.

  Sonia grabbed my hand and pointed to where what were clearly jaguarine children clustered around a stand selling baked fish on a stick. “We have to get some!”

  “Wow, this place is so… Expensive,” Beatriz followed nervously.

  “It is fancy, for sure,” I commented as Eva moved closer warily. Her tail twitching at the unfamiliar income bracket of the city.

  “You guys need to stop being so nervous. We’re all military. This is all normal for us now,” Sonia pulled me forward. “And we all get fish!”

  Moving through the line to get our snacks, I did feel the attention I was getting. But it didn’t feel as alarming as it had before. Maybe I was getting used to it?

  The fish proved to be fried in butter, salted and mounted onto a stick. I kept expecting to encounter a sweet sauce at some point. But since coming to the Dominion I hadn’t encountered any food that had a sweet flavor. Except for the odd can of Kobold Chow.

  Probably a cat thing.

  Sonia ate her fish casually with one hand while leaning over a chain overlooking the canal. Beatriz ate hers quickly while guarding it with her left hand. Eve ate slowly, firmly gripping the stick in both hands.

  They all preferred to crunch the little bones while I discarded a largely intact fish skeleton into the garbage.

  I glanced at the large crowds of jaguarine moving past the nearest park.

  There was a statue of a giant cat atop a pedestal in one of the center of the park. Shaped of brass. She was heavily pregnant and appeared at peace. It looked important.

  I spotted a shape, a pattern moving in the crowd. A ring. A circle of jaguarine. A ring of a half dozen giant cat women. In the center was a smaller figure, human height, in a brightly colored robe.

  I blinked. It was a man, looking timidly but curiously at the crowd.

  “That’s so good to see a family all together like that,” Beatriz squealed in delight at the sight.

  “Hey, are those uh… all that guy’s wives?”

  “Yeah, of course.”

  “Huh,” I replied. The tilt of the world shifting, starting to spin.

  Metaphorically of course. The hab of New Seville had been spinning normally all along. Probably.

  I looked towards them. The three that the world seemed to be pulling me towards.

  I… I was just helping Eva over her issues. It was just something she needed. Beatriz was just helping me out. Which was just something I needed. Sonia was just hanging out with all of us. It didn’t really mean much of anything.

  I smiled at them.

  “Hey, you guys want to go somewhere fun?” Sonia grinned.

  * * *

  “This isn’t the kind of place you should take a boy,” Beatriz reprimanded.

  Correctly, I was sure.

  Eva was focused on the stripper. A male jag twirling topless on a pole.

  His eyes were unfocused and numb. He looked tired. His frame was slightly withered with age. An older man. Reminded me of how Paul had looked after his wife had died.

  My stomach knotted in revulsion to look at him.

  “Come on, it’s fun,” Sonia lied.

  The dark club was mostly silent except for the sound of the music. The crowd shambled around slowly from table to table. The air was thick with the smell of burning mint but the accompanying familiar smell of jaguarine arousal was stale. The bright cocktails served at the bar seemed out of place.

  “You know, I think we should try a different bar,” I suggested.

  * * *

  It was a better bar. Poorly lit and laid back. There were pool tables and a small dance floor. Two girls were dancing together. The smell of burning mint was lighter.

  “Better?” asked Sonia.

  “Yes,” replied Eva.

  Drinks had been ordered and delivered when I saw it.

  It looked like a jag, but not. Its features made no sense. It was short and soft like a male. Its ears, clearly feline. The shapes under its clothes, decidedly feminine. What was on its head? A juvenile jag? Maybe one that was malformed?

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  Its strange eyes met mine. It stood up and came closer.

  “The hell? Come here!” it was addressing me. It’s tail thrashed side to side with fury.

  I blinked.

  The details coalesced. She, it was a she. She wasn’t a jag but she was a catgirl. A different kind of catgirl. She looked much more like what I was expecting a catgirl to look like. It was short, like a human girl. The eyes looked like a weird fusion of human and feline. She had a human style nose. She had dark brown hair, distinct from her fur that stripped from dark brown to grey.

  She was wearing a formal dress suit with a skirt. She looked more comfortable in the human style clothes than the jags ever had.

  “Fuck off, fel,” Sonia swore while Eva made a rude gesture towards the girl.

  “That’s Conglomerate property.”

  “He’s a Dominion recruit,” Sonia countered.

  “What’s the Conglomerate, again?” I asked, trying to catch up with the scenario.

  “Is… Is he wild? Where did you get him?” she asked the girls before, “You, where did you come from?” she asked me in turn.

  It occurred to me that I probably shouldn’t tell her.

  “We got him in the barracks as a morale booster. We’ve all been having turns,” Eva gripped my shoulder with her claws as she sneered at the smaller catgirl.

  Sonia laughed while Beatriz looked on in shock at the suggestion.

  “Jags are just animals. Barely uplifted animals. Felinelle are actually made for humans. Of human for humans. Biologically compatible. You belong with us.”

  “You’d rather be with us than those cheap toys, right?” Beatriz asked me with watery eyes.

  Oh… Everyone was looking at me. It was time for me to say something. Something.

  “Nice to meet you and everything, but these girls do take good care of me and it would be kind of weird if I just ran off on some strange woman’s say so. You know?” I explained.

  “Right!” exclaimed Sonia, while Eva just looked at me questioningly.

  “Right. Listen, when you’re ready to fuck a girl full of kittens, come to the Conglomerate,” furious the fel departed. Her ears pinned back.

  “Do you think they actually have humans in the Conglomerate?” Beatriz asked with wonder.

  “They have to, right? They can’t breed without humans,” Eva reasoned, her grip on my shoulder relaxing.

  “I thought they just had a sperm bank they were using until they ran out and went extinct, filthy parasites,” Sonia muttered in disgust.

  “We didn’t turn out much better,” Beatriz muttered.

  “I never did hear what happened. Between you guys and… You know… humanity,” I tried to delicately broach the topic.

  “You don’t need to know about that,” Sonia replied firmly.

  “Yeah, let’s just have fun tonight,” Beatriz nodded with a forced smile.

  There was a long silence.

  “We should dance,” I suggested.

  “I wanna dance with the boy,” Sonia volunteered.

  “I should dance with all of you,” I clarified.

  “Oh, so we all get to take our turns with you? You slut,” Sonia leered mockingly.

  “I’m going first,” Eva dragged me to the dance floor.

  The song was energetic and passionate, accompanied by vocals uttered in a feline scream. It took me a moment to find the strange beat. Eva danced, closely, jerkily, gracelessly. I tried dancing to the music for a time before giving up and just dancing with Eva. Where she moved I moved in response. She led the pace and I followed.

  “I want next!” Beatriz moved soon after, taking Eva’s place.

  The song was slower, nostalgic. The vocals softly murmured the sweet words. I danced with the music in time with a smiling Beatriz. She was graceful and careful with me. It felt like the music was leading the pace.

  “Best for last!” Sonia swapped in.

  The song was faster and more energetic and wordless. It suggested a dance at arms length which I started to follow. Sonia pulled me close, never meeting my eyes. Her attention focused on the male body before her. Paying little attention to the music she simply ground against me on the dance floor.

  I pried my underwear out of the crack of my ass as I made my way back to the table.

  Beatriz and Eva were already smoking when we got to the table. Eva handed me a cig. Sonia looked at me questioningly.

  “Human, it doesn’t do much,” I explained as I sat down. Eva offered me a light and Sonia lit her own. The smell of freshly burnt mint and excited women filled my nose as I took the first puff.

  “So, what are you going to tell your little girlfriend about tonight?” Eva asked. The other two girls attention locked onto me.

  “You have a girlfriend?” Sonia asked.

  “Like a human girlfriend?” Beatriz sounded conflicted.

  “Yeah, like a human girlfriend. And no, I don’t know what to tell her. I never do. It would just worry her.”

  “It would be a lot to worry about,” Beatriz admitted, “But she’s a bad girlfriend if she just let you join the military. She should take better care of you.”

  “No, I needed to be a citizen. I need to buy an AI core. It’s important.”

  Eva took my hand and held it in the middle of the table. “I don’t think you should be dating Sarah.”

  Sonia was quick to add her hand. “I agree.”

  “No, you two, we can’t just-” Beatriz stumbled over an objection.

  “You don’t have a say in if I date Sarah or not, what the hell is the matter with you?”

  “We’re voting. Two against, one for, one pending. Beatriz, should Jack be dating Sarah?” Eva countered.

  Beatriz waffled and looked away. Her hand lifted.

  “No,” I pulled my hand back. I looked at the three of them. “I’ll talk to her, damn it.”

  * * *

  I finished relieving myself.

  The bar had a men’s washroom. It was small but pretty classy. It was colored in dark blues. It even had a little air recycler running. Very clean. It probably didn’t get a lot of use.

  I was just going to wash my hands when the door opened.

  Eva crushed me against her and kissed me. I felt the barbs of her tongue against the top of my mouth as she crushed my tongue down into submission.

  “I hate you,” she whispered breathlessly into my ear.

  She pushed me to my knees, unbuttoning her pants. My eye twitched and my body cringed in terror I couldn’t suppress.

  “Stop!” my arm braced against her hip.

  Her pants dropped down to the floor, one pawed foot stepped free and her hand gripped the back of my head.

  “Stop, please!” emotions skittered wildly as I struggled to bring them into reign, “I’ll do it, just let me do it!”

  She stopped for a moment, uncertain.

  I moved forward between her legs, pressing my mouth against her mound.

  My face flushed in shame for having lost control of my words. I had wanted to do this. Just you know… Later. After I finally talked to… I probably shouldn’t be thinking about that right now.

  The familiar taste of Eva, this time straight from the source. I sucked on her clitoris.

  Her hips bucked and my eye itched but I kept it under control.

  “Gently, gently. You got me. I’m not going anywhere. Alright?”

  “Alright,” she whispered back and relaxed, letting me focus on eating her out.

  I rubbed her furry thigh soothingly as I worked.

  “I need you… I hate that I need you…,” she whispered miserably.

  Compared to… Compared to a human woman it was really easy to get Eva going. She was gasping in orgasm, surprisingly fast.

  Like she was made that way.

  She stepped back and I took a second to catch my breath.

  I caught her and pulled her in for a quick kiss before she could get away.

  “I like you too, okay?” I insisted.

  Eva left and I washed up in the sink.

  “Hey Sarah. I got assaulted by a catgirl and now I am her boyfriend. I guess we should break up,” I told the mirror.

  “Hey Sarah. The jags are really messed up and they really need someone to help them out. I do think it would be a proper Christian thing to do to marry a bunch of them. You don’t mind sharing, do you?” the imaginary Sarah in the mirror did not look amused.

  “Hey Sarah. I met some girls, they really like me. You wanna meet them? They totally won’t strong arm you out of the relationship the second I turn my back,” the imaginary Sarah told me what she thought of that.

  “No, I didn’t think you did either.”

  It was probably going to take more than a little soap and water to get the smell of horny cat off of me.

  Still I did the best I could.

  Someone grabbed me as I stepped out of the bathroom.

  It was Beatriz. She looked serious.

  “Nice girls finish last, don’t they Jack?” she asked before kissing me. Aggressively. Spitefully.

  I suppose she didn’t expect me to answer that.