Beauties and Beasts

Chapter 56: brought to you by cooties

Continuation of the Discussion. Long. Live. The. King. Also, a little payoff since my cowriter (Lowefantasy) was getting irritated by all the angst and lack of sexy times. Like, in-person irritated, not just story-wise.

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"I... don't know."

"What do you mean, you don't know?" Shay cocked her head. "It's a yes or no question. And anyway, I'd figure you'd want to get out of the City now that you're a political fugitive and all... or at least your bun is."

"No, I know why, it's just... ugh." Neara buried her head in her hands. "Look, we've never done anything like this before. Curtis isn't even awake yet. I don't know if Winston will follow me out or not, or if he'll have to stay behind and be the next Tiger King because he was the brother, there's just a lot... just a lot happening."

"No, I get that. I don't think that's how succession works though, because Parker told me he's not up for Leopard King unless he defeats his dad in combat. Which might happen because his dad is a tetra-mark and Parker's relatively young."

"And... you've been in the wild. I haven't. I'm not a traveler or anything. The idea of roaming around taking care of ferals who might try to kill my mates just to get at me..."

"But it doesn't have to be like that. There's no roaming around, we just find a base away from villages and let the ferals know where we are."

"I've heard Ryan talk about it though. He lost his mom taking care of ferals, and that's what you want to do too. I don't even know if Orson would survive out there. You have 2 feral predators and Orson... he's an herbivore. A no-mark herbivore. I can't expect your males to protect your family and mine at the same time."

"I... just assumed Winston would go with you."

Neara flushed. "I... don't think so."

"Why? What happened? Was that what you and Orson were fighting about?"

"Kind of. He said I shouldn't be nice to males, and I said I was nice to Winston and he didn't expect anything in return and ..."

"Was Winston right there when you said that?"

"Yeah, I asked him if he expected me to mate with him because I was nice to him and he said no."

"Dude... why would he say yes? If you're standing there telling him that you're nice to him without wanting to mate with him, why would he say he wanted to mate with you? Poor Winston."

Neara was confused into silence, her mouth open to reply. "I...."

"Stop pretending you don't have feelings for him. I know it kills you not to smush that sexy tiger bum." As if special spousal magic alerted her to the indignation of her mate, she called behind her shoulder, "Yours is better, Ryan, calm down. Not that I'm a butt person in the first place."

"What if I just like him because he's the first attractive guy that's been nice to me?"

"Neara..." Shay squatted next to her friend and looked her deeply in the eyes. "You have to stop comparing all the guys you meet to Justin. He was a bad guy who used and abused you. Winston, hell, most guys here aren't like that. Ryan and Curtis would never do anything like that to me, and they're sizzling beef cakes hotter than magazine models."

"But that's..."

"And Winston obviously loves you back, so why not take a chance and ask him to go with you? Have you even given him a chance, or did you just write him off because he's hot?"

"I..."

"And I'm going to let you poorly defend yourself after this last thought. Why exactly did you pick Orson if he's only mean to you? You jumped into bed with him quick enough, pardon my French, so why are you hanging back with Winston?"