TW: This chapter contains violence, physical assault, dark sexual themes, crime, and unconventional behaviors. I am in no way condoning or promoting these actions. This is just a warning for those sensitive to those subjects. Please be responsible and enjoy the read!
Unrestrained, genuine terror.
It was spelled all over the poor bunny's face, it made the hyena almost pity her. Almost.
Fang was more entertained than sorry for the small rabbit that witnessed the usual havoc that ensued at his parties. But he was also more annoyed than entertained that she, the tiny long-eared nuisance that spoke back to him at The Jungle's backyard, had the nerve to show up at his spot uninvited.
Teetering back and forth on his feet, he scrutinized her from head to toe before waving her towards him, his brown and black-tipped tail swaying erratically behind him. "C'mere rabbit! Let's talk."
Judy stood paralyzed as she watched him confidently walk into the crowd of moshers, fully expecting the smaller-than-average predator to get rammed down and trampled by the larger preds rough-housing each other for sport. But she was mistaken— Fang harshly pushed some of the jumpers aside with a grunt to allow her in, knocking some of the dancers into one another and creating a temporary open space for her to tread further into the house. He stood in the open space and looked back at her expectantly. "You comin' or what?"
She hesitated before deciding to follow him, her eyes darting left and right at as she gauged the safety of the scene. Not like she could escape the place with his white-furred partners still guarding the exit, an observation she made by looking behind her bare shoulder and seeing the larger polar bear standing at his post in front of the broken door. So with grey ears low and feet quick, she tried to advance cautiously, slowing when the room went pitch black and speeding up when the strobe light pulsed in her favor.
There was a flash of yellow that lasted for two seconds, then darkness for three. So she counted the seconds, exhaling nervously as she stepped further into the crowd. Orange for two, go. Dark for three, slow down. I got this. Repeat.
It was a miracle that she managed to travel through the quickly closing open space uninjured, although she dodged and flinched at the sound of nearby movement. During a flash of red light the belligerent hyena visibly led Judy near a flight of stairs and raised his arm, a paw hovering over the bright strobe light sitting on a high staircase step to cast a shadow over the walls and ultimately catch the partiers' attentions.
"Shots! Get me shots!" He roared, and only mere seconds after did two skimpily dressed tigresses approach with trays holding small malleable cups and red contents— cups of jell-o, the rabbit judged from the smell. But that originally nostalgic smell of sweet gelatin was tainted with a strong scent of vodka, and loads of it, lightly burning her nostrils from where she stood.
"Whaddaya think yer doin' here tonight, eh? Wannabe cop-bunny?" He took a jell-o shot into a paw as he regarded the bunny in a rasped voice, dark eyes glowing between pulses of light as they met Judy's gaze. The short predator looped his arm around one of the tigresses' hips, pulling her fast against his side as she giggled. "Did'ya think I wouldn't catch your ass crashing my party? If so, you thought dead wrong." He narrowed his sights down at his supposed intruder.
"I…" She hesitated under his glare before she found some resolve and stood tall, defying his expression with a nonchalant mask of her own despite his taunting mention of her dream job. "Actually, I was invited." The brave bunny spoke clear, her tail twitching behind her in hidden unease. The second tigress lowered herself to bring the tray of shots within reach of the rabbit, and she willingly accepted two small cups in each paw, keeping eye contact with the peeved head Alpha.
"Lemme guess." The hyena began before he downed the shot in his paw eagerly, licking the gooey remnants from his teeth while the tigress in his arm bent down and licked the jelly from the edge of his maw. "You hustled that sonuvabitch Wilde… again?"
Judy couldn't take her eyes away from the disturbing exchange between the predators, and once she did, she managed to recall the shots in her possession. "Basically, yes, he invited me as part of a deal. So I have a right to be here." The rabbit sniffed the shots curiously before slurping one, the red gelatinous mixture of potent alcohol and sugar filling her mouth. Sooo sweet. It made her ears spring up in delight, its taste betraying the potent scent of vodka it gave off.
She almost choked on the shot, however, when a bear pushed past the crowd after a pick-pocketing puma, finally catching him by the shoulders and giving him a good shake. A series of stolen items began littering the floor including wallets, watches, even a necklace, causing the brown bear to drop the scoundrel and scoop up his belongings. The feline tried to stand again, clearly intoxicated as he struggled to cleanly make it onto his hind legs, only to be abruptly greeted by a brown fist across his muzzle which knocked him out cold.
The transient violence caused bystanders to snicker and cheer. Judy, on the other paw, firmly held her second shot in complete discomfort, not quite used to being surrounded by such brutal behavior.
Fang's amusement was cut short when he recalled his unwanted invitee. "I don't care what deal you struck with Wilde. This is my frat. So I say bunnies ain't allowed in here." He snapped, giving her an unsympathetic look once she returned her sights to him. "So scram. Or I'll kick you and that damn fox out. By force." The hyena chucked his empty cup at the thief sprawled on the floor before someone scooped the unconscious mammal up and escorted him out of the building.
Judy withheld a scowl, looking boldly up at the head Alpha and speaking without so much of a stutter. "Like I said, I have a right to be here. So I'm staying."
The stern tone in her voice made his eye twitch and his free paw clench. "What'd you just fuckin'—"
"Holy crap, wait a sec, isn't that the Hornstein rabbit? From that Furbook live video everyone's yappin' about? Haha, O-M-G, it is!" The tigress in his hold squealed drunkenly after her delayed realization. "Fang, babe, you can't kick her out! She's more badass than half the whole frat!"
He loosened his balled fist before forcing a smile upwards at the tall feline. "Oh c'mon. She's not gonna last in here, it's not like she can hang," he tried to reason. "She'll be dead weight."
"Neither can the new recruits," the tigress countered, giving the dark scruff on Fang's head a playful tussle. "I bet the gutsy bunny can hold her own. Plus she'll make things more… interesting around here." She gave Judy a wink before leaning forward to whisper into the aggravated hyena's ear. Whatever she whispered managed to make the hyena concede given by the expression on his face.
"Ugh… alright, alright. Fuck it, whatever. You can stay." At his words, Judy beamed victoriously while the hyena looked at her with gritted teeth. "But you'll end up like that dumbass-thieving-puma over there, for sure. Or worse." Fang laughed dryly before giving the bunny a patronizing pat on the head.
Judy grouched in offense to the condescending gesture but decided to ignore it as the hyena merged in with the crowd, tigress against him in tow and disappearing into the mass of dancing predators.
She couldn't ignore his last words, however, which lingered in her head and made her honestly doubt her ability to make it out of the Alpha house in one piece. Perhaps her insistence to stay was beyond reason. Maybe she was better off calling it a night and heading back to campus.
But her curiosity to experience the rebellious party and desire to tough it out had gotten the best of her.
It was almost nonsensical, willingly being the only prey mammal in such predator-rich territory. Naturally, the obvious dangers of the place would make any sane rabbit scurry off without looking back, but Judy Hopps wasn't a typical bunny in the slightest. Being the brave mammal that she was, to her danger wasn't an obstacle, it was a magnet. The daring girl that aspired to be in the ZPD thought she could handle whatever her time at Zootopia University could throw at her in an attempt to try everything she never had tried before; and now, that included the once-in-a-lifetime experience at the exclusive Alpha Preda frat party. This is what I bargained for. I made it this far, right? I can do this. I can't get cold feet now.
A small prideful smile graced her muzzle as her previously fearful perspective shifted into optimism.
Even the head Alpha couldn't kick me out. The only mammal that can stand in my way is me. Who says prey can't party like predators, anyway? After an encouraging mental pep talk, she downed the second shot in her paw faster than the first, shivering when it slid down her throat and warmed her chest.
Hm, this stuff's actually pretty good! Beats that green punch from the last party. Haha yeah, let's just keep looking on the bright side!
.o0o.
Nick was relaxing in the alcove, the very last room of the first floor where the other more chill and less outwardly violent predators gathered to sit, smoke, and make out to their heart's content on a king-sized impenetrable water bed.
The latter would have very well been Nick's activity of choice if it weren't for swearing off romance in general. But there was definitely some temptation to break his motive since a few girls tried to sweet talk their way into his arms or onto his lap, attempts that made the fox awkwardly decline each time. One of the drink-serving tigresses even swished her long tail suggestively across the back of his neck which elicited a transient shiver from him, but the server walked around teasing all the guys similarly until she eventually got swept up by Delgato himself.
"Here," Finnick who sat beside him spoke to get his attention, his voice an octave lower than usual as smoke drifted from his mouth.
Nick turned to him and accepted his flat mate's offer: a coral blue glass pipe, its bowl half-charred and containing an ember.
Swiftly he took a few puffs of it and held it in, passing the pipe on to the cougar beside him. "Why don't we split and order a pizza?" he asked amusingly, also an octave lower until he blew the smoke upwards.
"Oh yeah great idea wise guy, let's just split." Fin murmured in that sarcastic tone that made the red fox smirk from ear to ear. "Wait a sec, no we can't. Because this party is mandatory for the Alphas, ya dipshit," Fin replied curtly with a rumbling chuckle.
Nick chuckled as well, ultimately agreeing with the fennec fox since it was more of a joke than a serious suggestion. He was well aware of the condition that all the Alphas had to abide by, but this time around his heart just wasn't in it. He usually looked forward to the bi-annual shindig, this one in particular, because he was under the assumption that he'd possess his very own key to the house by now. Although getting that key wasn't exactly on his bucket list anymore, being at the party tonight was a disconcerting reminder of the house he once desired to live in.
His chuckle would have persisted for several more seconds if it were not for the painfully familiar scent that graced his nose—a scent that made him realize just who had entered the party, someone he wanted to avoid.
Nick shot up to his feet.
"Hey, you goin' somewhere man?" Fin asked in his baritone voice, now laying back against the waterbed that wiggled and waved beneath him. The motions suddenly became rapid, almost sending the small fox off the edge due to a suddenly heated exchange between the previous tigress and lion frat member now straddled and making out hungrily.
The red fox fidgeted with his jacket collar, making it stand on end around his neck. "Yeah, just gonna grab a drink. Uh, you want anything?" Nick weakly assured his friend, who shook his head in response to his offer, before he made a speedy exit from the dimly lit alcove. Nick parted the beaded curtain that hid the alcove from the rest of the house and ducked through it, now entering the kitchen. His eyes widened at the size of the crowd there—the party had substantially grown since he last left the alcove for a drink.
Where was that scent coming from? Which room?
The air was too muggy and musk-dense for the fox to tell.
Until he didn't need to rely on his nose anymore. His ears would do the job just fine.
"How's that nonexistent penis holding up?" Came the voice he absolutely dreaded hearing, but he didn't flinch when he turned to meet Mav's glazed eyes.
The lynx was dressed in an impossibly tight purple dress, a dress he recognized from a long-ago flattery dinner he set up for her months ago. Around her waist was the arm of another predator, a smirking skunk from the football team to be precise.
It took him several seconds, being as crossfaded as he was, to acknowledge her with his own forced smirk. "Wouldn't you like to know?"
Mav's obnoxious smile dropped before she grunted and, after a few seconds of seething, tried to chuck her unopened can of beer at him. The can partially knocked the wind out of his lungs as it collided into his chest. The debacle was sure to attract some on-lookers, many in which were still laughing amongst themselves from Mav's loud wisecrack.
Before the can could fall to the floor, the fox caught it and snapped it open, allowing the drink to fizz over his paw.
"Oh, you're too kind. Don't mind if I do." He took a swig of it much to the lynx's displeasure, and watched as the couple left the room in a huff. The smaller black and white predator made sure to flip Nick the finger as they went.
The sight made Nick roll his eyes. Real classy buddy.
.o0o.
Alright. Two drinks so far, so don't lose count.
Judy squeezed through to explore the frat house, a house that she noted was littered with cans and predators practically gone half-savage. While some pushed and shoved in the rave, some calmly sparked cigarettes and puffed them with their backs against the walls. Others chatted in obnoxiously loud cliques such as the sorority girls clad in impossibly short shorts and cropped tops, many in which revealed captivating striped thighs and prominent cleavages, flaunting their own respective sorority logos as well as their fine physiques.
Staring at them made the rabbit blush and look down at her own attire questionably. For just a moment, Judy became just a little insecure. Her chest was on the petite side of the spectrum, and although wide hips surely made up for it, she was without a doubt the smallest and most clothed girl at the party.
Naturally being an optimist, Judy never liked to compare herself to others but tonight she was exposed to more body fur than she ever had before.
It made the skin beneath her face fur heat up, watching one of the many sorority girls accept an offer to dance with an Alpha pred. The two wolves intertwined easily, the female pressing her impressive chest scruff against the male wearing the burgundy jacket, his paws taking grip of her rear end as they passionately oscillated.
"Buck Life?" A lioness offered, also dressed skimpily in a white bandeau and mini skirt, leaning down so that the tray of alcoholic goods was within Judy's reach. It also made her large breasts hang from their tiny fabric cage right over wide violet eyes.
The flushed bunny swiftly took a can of Buck Life beer and squeezed through the crowd. Evading the vicinity filled with provocative dancers and near-nudity, she found purchase against the far wall of the staircase beside a coughing group of smoking preds. Each were standing single file along the wall, wearing peculiar red bandanas around their necks.
Once the bunny cracked the can open, she brought it to her lips but didn't drink, beer foam catching on her lips as she watched her surroundings. Things look less hectic over here. I'll just stand back and take this drink slow.
A mole wearing one of the maroon bandanas around his neck looked down to the small rabbit beside him, admiring her silently before clearing his throat. "Hey, wait a sec. Aren't you prey?"
Judy peered over to him with a cocked ear, licking the cold foam clean from her lips. "Yep. You would be correct," she spoke somewhat dryly, sensing some unspoken hostility from him.
The hefty mole furrowed his brows. "I think yer at the wrong party, toots."
Judy was ready to harshly reply before she was interrupted by a series of loud hollers.
"Drink! Drink! Drink!" Came chants directly right of them, at the start of the single file line along the wall. The first predator on the line, a portly weasel wearing a bandana and a lit cigarette over one of his ears, stood underneath a familiar contraption—a drinking funnel. He held in his paw a long neon pink tube connected to the funnel, closing his eyes as he ferociously drank the substance being poured into it.
Once the pitcher ran dry, the surrounding audience cheered, and the suddenly tipsy weasel wobbled until he knocked into the honey badger beside him.
"Yo man! Watch it!"
Judy sipped her beer anxiously as she watched two sorority cheetahs dressed in tight outfits continue down the line of reclining mammals wearing bandanas. A lion, a bear, and then a raccoon. With every victim of the drinking funnel, one of the cheetahs dipped the emptied pitcher into a bowl filled it with an unknown concoction of unsightly booze. Each mammal completed the task after struggling to slurp the alcohol medley, resulting in an eruption of approving hollers from those watching.
"I'm a step closer to bein' an Alpha! Fuck yeah!"
"Ha! Only if you survive the night!"
Then the mole that had berated Judy was up next, the small predator trembling as he took up the funnel tubing and chugged on command. Within a few seconds of drinking, he stumbled onto the floor, the remaining contents in the funnel splashing down over the limp and overly intoxicated predator. The unfortunate result caused a riot of laughs; one of the cheetahs untied the deep red bandana from his neck with a mischievous smirk.
"There goes another recruit. Try again next year!" The cheetah with the pitcher in paw snickered.
"Next, the almighty Judy Hopps!" Cheered the cheetah holding the funnel, the pair of felines giggling as they moved to stand over her. The very call of her well-known title attracted several more previously uninvolved predators to watch the fiasco, much to the young bunny's dismay.
"Hah, I can't, really," she breathed a shy laugh, lifting her can of beer as a testament to her decline.
"C'mon! We know you've got it in you!" One of them chirped, wagging the funnel's appendage over her muzzle a bit tauntingly. "Unless you're not all that almighty like you're cracked up to be…?"
The rabbit sighed in annoyance at the taunt.
"Drink! Drink! Drink!"
Judy Hopps was not one to bend to peer pressure. At the last second she decided she wanted to give it a try, to prove a point more to herself than to anyone else: that she could survive in this mad house.
Well it wouldn't hurt. I can do it.
Taking the flexible tubing, she brought the transparently fluorescent cylinder to her lips and shut her eyes. In a matter of seconds she was greeted by a sudden avalanche of burning fluids, a flood she combatted with an eager suction.
Voices rooted her on, making her pull through until she finished the large volume in a matter of seconds. It seemed her ability to drink and breathe made her the fastest out of the line of recruits to finish the practically poisonous infusion of alcohol. She beat the previous predators that faced the challenge, downing what she presumed was mostly beer laced with flavored rums.
As soon as the torrent of alcohol was over she slightly wheezed, exhaling a hoarse giggle. Someone gave her a good shake by the shoulders, another patting her back somewhat roughly in celebration. Judy opened her eyes with a dumb smile, stumbling slightly until she caught one of the staircase pickets to regain her balance.
"How… many shots was that?" She managed to ask before the funnel-toting cheetahs made off.
"Half a bottle, at least," one of them cracked a smirk before sauntering off, leaving the bunny wide-eyed.
Um.
Okay! No problem, I just gotta hydrate. And fast.
It was true that she was beyond her drinking limit for tonight. Anymore down the hatch and she was sure to meet the same fate like she had at The Jungle. She set the unfinished beer can down on a stair step and tried to search out another sorority girl passing out drinks for the possibility that they'd be serving water as well. Or at least know where to find it.
But she was interrupted in her hasty search by a red-bandana wearing predator, one that previously completed the funnel challenge with flying colors and watched her complete it as well.
"Hey, Hornstein bunny! Man, you kicked ass back there." The spotted leopard said warmly, beer can in one paw and a cigarette in the other as he greeted her with a charming pointy smile. The fact that mammals still recognized her made her flattered, his words distracting her from her mission for water.
"You could say that," she bashfully shrugged, her words beginning to muddle in that alarmingly familiar way.
"Yeah. You're really something. Y'know that?" The lanky feline murmured with a wave of his paws for emphasis, chuckling so hard he spilled some of his beer on himself without realizing. It made the lit cigarette in his other paw dampen and he swore, flicking it aside and digging into his pants pocket for a new one. "Really, I mean it. I bet ZU hasn't seen a freshman bunny like you in a while. Or ever." He quickly lit and took a deep drag of the cig. "Name's Tim, by the way. Imma freshman too. Tryin' out for the preds."
"Nice to meet ya, Tim. I know I go by 'the Hornstein bunny' on campus but the name's Judy. And thanks for the compliments, really, you're way too kind. By the way, I've got a little brother named Tim." Judy smiled politely in return. "By the way… I'm curious. What've you heard about me?"
He flicked the ash off of his cigarette and finished off his beer, crushing it with a paw. "Just that… you're some kinda force to be reckoned with. Brave, a real spit-fire, and even a hustler." The leopard's metallic eyes perused over her suddenly like she was a dinner steak, the sudden change from his friendly demeanor mostly going unnoticed by the bunny. "But I never heard 'bout how friggin' good you smell," he slurred the observation low, as if he was speaking to himself, and licked his lips. "So uh, you taken?"
The freshman rabbit blinked as his question caused the smoke in his breath to fan over her face. "Wow. They really say all that about me?" She made a geeky smile before acknowledging the rest of his odd compliment, his hungry look making her nervously laugh. "Ah, no…I'm… I'm single."
The leopard grinned, stuffing his half-smoked cigarette into the crushed can before tossing it on the floor somewhere. "Peeerfect," he purred the word. "I'm single, you're single. So you wanna dance?"
"Oh, I don't dance," Judy almost laughed at the idea. She was considerably smaller than him, the tips of her ears reaching half his height when standing tall. If they danced, it would be more awkward than she can bear, not to mention what 'dancing' at these parties suggestively entailed.
The leopard offered a paw, bending his knees slightly. "Aw. C'mon. It'd be… an honor, almighty Hornstein bunny."
She stared at his paw with consideration, biting the inside of her cheek.
A dance wouldn't hurt, right? So the tipsy bunny stepped towards the spotted feline, who hastily took that motion as a definite 'yes' and grabbed her against him almost ravenously.
She slightly regretted her action then, trying to pull back from the purring leopard, but he already began his ministrations, hunched over to nip along her bare shoulder. That funnel mixture inside her stomach was already beginning to take its toll, making the room swirl in a haze of musk and sweat just as intoxicating as the alcohol she downed. Sharp teeth grazed her neck, too painful as they went, making her wince.
He seemed nice so—maybe a little convincing would get me out of this?
That, or self-defense if necessary.
"I'm a terrible dancer, r-really…" She managed to mumble against the side of his head as it explored the junction between her chin and collarbone. "T-Tim? Tim." But he continued, purposefully ignoring her. Just my luck, she thought to herself exasperatedly. Self-defense it is.
He sharply inhaled her fur again and again, taking in her scent like it was some kind of prized aroma. Not groping her, not grinding against her. Just sniffing and aggressively minding her neck, keeping her still.
Then Judy realized that he wasn't acting out of typical perversion.
He was acting like she was something beyond just a sexual conquest— he was acting like she was a snack. Her scent as a rabbit alone was a primal flag of tabooed delicacy to the inebriated predators all around her, and it seemed to begin attract its first disturbingly interested party.
Tim licked the site his teeth grazed and moaned pleasantly.
"Ch-cheese and cra-ah-ckers…what're you…?"
Drunkenly she tried to push Tim's shoulders to squirm away, but he held the back of her head and waist with firm paws, like a snake restraining its prey, resisting any of her attempts to slither free.
Before he could continue his bizarre assailment, he suddenly stumbled back, much to the tipsy rabbit's relief once she broke free. Holy shit, what even was that?
In front of her stood the leopard hunched over with his hackles raised, growling at what she assumed was another predator trying to fight over the bunny. Just who had threatened the leopard for his delicious catch, she couldn't exactly see. She tried to watch them through the darkness, tripping nervously backwards as the two predators circled one another in a hazy blur.
She spotted a glimpse of maroon under the pulse of the strobe light, along with the sounds of snapping teeth and low pitched yips.
Tim was facing off with an Alpha predator.
The beat of the electronic music quickened in tempo, almost matching the racing heart in the bunny's heaving chest.
Growling permeated the air as the tense circling continued, the strobe light contradicting the fast tempo of music as it slowed in its blinking, making the face-off much harder for the rabbit to witness.
Within the next two flickers of light, the freshman leopard pounced on his opponent with claws bared. There was a struggle. Grunts turned to snarls, teeth clicked and the sound of tearing fabric was heard by the bunny back against the wall. Another flicker of colorful light later, the leopard was knocked onto the floor. On all fours Tim backed away with a whimper and submissively scampered off into the crowd to evade his competitor.
Then as the music crawled to a crescendo, the beat finally dropped, causing the house to tremble with jumping partiers.
Judy swallowed anxiously as the unseen victor turned to face her after the light disappeared again, narrowed eyes glowing white towards her in the sudden darkness.
That's it.
Judy swallowed thickly.
This is how I go. I'm going to be eaten alive at a college frat party.
When the light returned, her heart skipped at the sight of vicious emerald eyes greeting her.
"Carrots."
A/N:
Oh damn, here we go. But is she in the clear?
Thanks for the positive support, reviews, and comments. They are honestly what keep me invested in posting! :D
