"I just wanted to finish my shift, eat some ramen and go to sleep. Was that too much to ask?!"

Neve had two goals in life: survive college and keep his part-time zoo job long enough to pay his tuition. Simple. 

But it was completely ruined when he saved his coworker from falling into the lion enclosure, fell in himself and died on a Thursday before he could eat his dinner.

The worst part?

It wasn't even supposed to be him.

His coworker Rena was the one meant to fall. The one meant to come to this world. The one meant to receive the mission, the body, the whole thing.

But Neve saved her.

So now it was his problem.

Waking up as a red panda in a beast world where nobody had ever seen a red panda before was not on his schedule. Neither was being mistaken for a female by an entire tribe including the chief. Neither was the system that showed up and handed him the most unhinged mission he had ever read in his life.

{Welcome Host! Your mission — build a tribe of two hundred!}

Neve grabbed a stick and started drawing recruitment plans in the dirt. Leadership structures. Resource management. He was actually proud of himself.

{Clarification — the two hundred refers to litters.}

The stick dropped.

"LITTERS?!"

{Do keep up, Host.}

And as if the system wasn't already his biggest enemy, he shifted. 

One moment, he's a small confused red panda with no plan. Next moment, he's standing in the beast world looking like THAT. Pale skin. Black hair with red at the tips. Golden eyes. Red ears that had absolutely no business being that attractive.

Suddenly every powerful, dangerous and completely unhinged beast man within breathing distance had very strong feelings about him.

Neve did not build a harem.

The harem built itself around him and refused to leave.
.
Three years later...

"The litters are out!" Roan announced, wiping what was definitely not a tear from his face. "Twelve. Healthy. Beautiful. I counted twice."

Aldric appeared in the doorway with a warm cloth. "How is he? Does he need anything? I made soup—"

"I also made soup," Kael said quietly from the corner where he had apparently been standing for an unknown amount of time.

"I made soup first," Aldric said.

The door burst open.

Ryken stood in the frame breathing hard as he had sprinted from the eastern border. His eyes went straight to Neve. "I came as fast as I could. Are you— is he— are they—"

"Everyone is fine," Cael said from beside Neve, not looking up.

Ryken sagged with relief. Then looked around at the room full of husbands competing to be the most useful and frowned. "Did I miss anything?"

Vaelthorn's ancient, unbothered face shifted into something that was almost a smile from his corner. "Only one question left." He looked around the room slowly. "Whose litter is Neve producing next?"

"MINE!" Every single one of them said at the same time.

Neve lay back, completely surrounded as he stared at the ceiling and thought about his old life. His old job. His old stinky enclosures.

     'I'd genuinely rather be back in that zoo right now.'
.
.
He was a zookeeper.

He just never expected to end up as the most protected, most fought over and most aggressively loved creature in the entire beast world.

   Nobody warned him that working with animals was a lifetime commitment.

Neve scratched the back of his head as he looked at the chief. He looked at the carpet and the new bedroom that now existed in a cave in a beast world full of things he had absolutely no natural explanation for.


He tried to make his eyes say 'please help me' without also saying 'I have no idea how to explain that everything in that room came from a magical inventory given to me by a system that appeared after I died, falling into a lion enclosure.'


Cael looked at him for exactly one second.


Then he stepped in front of his father.


"You can't ask that of Neve, father," he said in his flat and certain voice. "The red panda tribe kept these things secret for a reason. Don't you think?"


Then understanding slowly spread across his face. He nodded as he cleared his throat to adjust his facial expression. 


Chapter 34 - I Just Want To Sleep In My New Bed!