β Chapter 72:
"Absolutely no way in hell."
Opal wiggled her hips, still hopelessly stuck on him. "You don't have much of a choice wolfy. You gonna let Lyra be executed? You promised to protect her, remember?"
Rain growled causing Opal to let out a squeak.
"H-hey vibrations! I'm s-sensitive after all that!"
Rain settled himself, it wasn't easy due to how awkward their position was, Rain was on his side atop the collapsed sofa, Opal facing him, her arms embracing his chest, her head tilted back looking up at him with one eyebrow raised.
"Lyra was with us when I fell asleep, how did this happen..."
"Like I earlier said she went by herself."
"How can I possibly go into town to save her like- like this!"
"Monsters feel no shame?"
"Monsters absolutely feel shame, walking around in public right in the open with you, with me inside-" Rain sighed and put his paw over his eyes. What even was this situation? He hadn't even considered that this could be an issue, apparently he hadn't quite adjusted to everything that his monster body entailed. He was coming to regret letting Opal have her way with the tea.
"Aww is wolfy scared of a few perverts looking at us?"
"Red peeking at us is one thing, walking through town with hundreds of people looking at us like this entirely another. I'm not interested in being an- an
exhibitionist
even if you are."
Opal pouted in an annoyingly cute way. "Top Gobbos fuck in public sometimes, to show their dominance, nobody cares."
"It's different okay, I- It just is!"
"But you're a monster now, you walk around naked most of the time!" She ran her hands over his chest and gripped a handful of his fur in her fists. "Lyra has seen you more naked than she has seen you clothed."
"Fur. Fur is like clothes."
"Mmmm is it though? You still aren't actually wearing anything."
"I-"
Rain was interrupted from their argument by the return of the voices.
"Monster, if you do not come out immediately we will take that as a refusal of our demands. We're not waiting around!"
"C'mon, screw this, let's go back, my girls will have finished packing by now."
Now Rain was listening more carefully he was able to locate the direction the sound was coming from. A small statue of what appeared to be the original Ranker of Lynthia was set atop a side cupboard. Rain recognised the figure from a number of similar ones in town, including one he had destroyed in the process of hunting- fighting Adlen.
He raised his voice to be heard. "I will come with you."
"It said it's coming right?"
"Shit. Alright, fine."
Came the reply from the statue.
Rain glanced back down at Opal who was happily rubbing her face into his chest and scowled. He couldn't let Lyra be killed, he had made a promise, so he needed to think of something to avoid being stared at, walking through town with a half-naked Goblin on his- well it didn't bear thinking about. He might be a monster now but that was going too far for his Human side.
His gaze slid from Opal's black hair to the coat he was still wearing. Maybe...