I felt that same icy grip tighten around my heart - the one that had haunted me all morning. I couldn’t understand why this woman stirred such a visceral, almost animalistic terror in me. My body ftly refused to resist her, and my eyes instinctively darted toward the floor, desperate to avoid the predatory gold of her gaze.

  Dammit... This isn't normal.

  This fear is completely irrational...

  But my thoughts quickly turned to something else when I remembered the baking. on my backside and heard the echo of Elene’s stern voice. She had made it very clear what happened to "naughty kittens" who didn't answer questions. I swallowed hard and choked out a response, trying to sound as submissive as possible.

  “N-No, Lady Lilith... Mistress Elene was very kind to me...” I rasped. Every word felt like it was being squeezed through a pinhole in my throat. I focused every ounce of my willpower on not forgetting that cursed title; I already knew that a ck of respect here was the fastest route to a world of pain.

  I tried to suppress the trembling of my body, but beneath the thin pink fabric of my dress, I must have looked like a leaf in a storm. Her presence was a physical weight pressing me into the mattress, and her terrifyingly beautiful eyes seemed to read every shameful thought crossing my mind.

  Lilith’s smile widened at my compliance. She glided a few steps closer to the bed, clearly intending to move on to more "personal" matters, when a thunderous, drawn-out growl erupted from my stomach, shattering the heavy silence.

  I wanted to teleport to another pnet. In a split second, my face turned such a deep shade of crimson that I probably glowed brighter than the magic crystals in the hallway.

  Lilith froze, staring at me with a slightly arched eyebrow. Finally, as if just realizing that her new "toy" didn't exist on the same pne of power as she did - and couldn’t simply sustain itself on ambient mana like a high-ranking demon - her expression shifted.

  She tapped her perfectly sculpted chin, analyzing me with the intensity of a mathematician solving a complex equation.

  Then, her face softened, taking on that same honeyed, dangerously maternal tone.

  “Oh, it seems my little sweetling is hungry~ Do you want something to eat, little kitten?” she asked.

  Despite the terror, I couldn't deny it.

  After a full day of bor, scrubbing rugs, and struggling in this tight outfit, there was a void in my gut so deep I would have eaten anything just to stop the gnawing ache.

  The stress and physical exhaustion hit me with double the force now that the adrenaline was fading. I gave a small, meek nod, staring down at my white-gloved hands, praying she wasn't the type to starve her property to death.

  Lilith watched me with that strange, insatiable glint in her eyes, like a merchant appraising the quality of goods she’d just unwrapped from pink cellophane. I felt her "concern" for my stomach had a second, much darker motive.

  Suddenly, her expression turned chillingly dangerous.

  The ring on her finger fred with a soft, pulsating light. Three objects materialized on the silk sheets right in front of my knees - things that had no business being next to each other.

  I stared, my brain short-circuiting at the sight. The first was a standard ceramic cat bowl, the kind you’d see in any pet store. The second was a realistically detailed, disturbingly rge dildo. The third was a baby bottle filled with a white liquid that I assumed was milk.

  I looked at the three incongruous items, then back at Lilith. I was overheating trying to figure out what this had to do with dinner - and why she was looking at me with such dark amusement.

  “Why the look, sweetling? I’ve only had you for a day, and I don't know your preferences yet. So, I thought I’d give you a free hand. You choose which of these items you’d like to use for your feeding,” Lilith said.

  A small, triumphant smirk pyed on her lips, telling me clearly that every single one of these options was designed to py with me.

  The blood drained from my face but she was dead serious.

  She actually expected me to choose the method of my own humiliation. My hunger, which had been my biggest problem seconds ago, paled in comparison to the prospect of licking food from a bowl or doing... whatever she intended with that rubber nightmare.

  In an act of desperation, I tried to back out.

  “P-Please, Mistress, I’m actually... I’m not as hungry as I thought. Really, I can wait until tomorrow,” I blurted out.

  Lilith only sighed, as if my resistance was merely tedious.

  Before I could move away, I felt her strong hands slide under my armpits.

  “Eee!” A squeak escaped my lips as she lifted me with the ease of a feather and sat me squarely on her p.

  She pulled my back against her chest, and I was immediately hit by the intense scent of her - a mix of luxury perfume and something primal that clouded my senses.

  I felt her hot breath on my neck. Her arms wrapped around me in a possessive embrace, pinning my petite, pink-cd frame against her. Her voice, now quiet and dangerously sweet, vibrated against my cat's ear.

  “I’m still waiting for your choice, my little kitten... unless you’d prefer your Mistress to decide for you. But believe me, my creativity might not be as ‘kind’ as these modest proposals on the bed,” she whispered.

  I knew then that I had no right to refuse. With a sinking heart and mounting shame, I looked at the bowl, the bottle, and that godawful dildo. Tears pricked at the corners of my eyes.

  My exhausted brain began to generate vivid images of what each choice would entail. I pictured the ceramic bowl - me, in this tiny pink maid outfit, tail swishing and bell jingling, sliding off her p onto the rug. I saw myself on all fours like a common stray, pping up food, staining my white gloves, and feeling my human dignity shatter into a million pieces with every lick.

  Then my gaze shifted to the realistic dildo. A wave of nausea hit my stomach and a lump formed in my throat. Even with my memories foggy, I instinctively knew that using such an object to "earn" food, or receiving it in some perverted way, was a line I could never uncross. If I did that, I’d become something that could never be fixed.

  Shit... is this really it? Do I really have to pick my own fvor of humiliation? I thought. Sweat rolled down my temple as Lilith held me in her possessive grip, waiting with amusement for my decision.

  Ultimately, my eyes settled on the baby bottle. The vision of a grown man trapped in a cat-girl’s body sucking on a nipple was sickeningly degrading. I wanted to pass out. But compared to the bowl on the floor or the rubber nightmare, it felt like the only option that would let me keep even a shadow of my selfhood.

  With trembling, white-gloved fingers, I slowly reached toward the bed. The bell on my tail gave a pathetic, hollow clink as I pointed to my choice.

  “T-This... the bottle, please, Mistress...” I rasped. I didn't have the courage to look her in the eye.

  I just prayed the meal would be over as fast as possible.