Beauties and Beasts

Chapter 83: brought to you by #disclaimer

Because talking to someone in passing while you're being taken to your kidnappy hole is enough basis to make babies with them! Hurray romance?  And what's with this cyst on my neck? NECK CANCER!!!

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A foot nudged Neara in the morning. Her eyes felt scratchy and raw, and opening them felt like peeling scales from Saul's eyes. "Huh?"

"Wake up; I'm back."

"Shay?" Neara sat up and tried to squint through the dryness. It didn't work and she just settled for listening over the roar in her ears from sitting up too fast.

"Yeah, it's me. Dude, were you on the floor all night?"

"Yeah, I was waiting for you to come back."

"I thought you'd be in bed wrapped around your little friend out there." Something jingled and Neara massaged her eyes carefully, pulling out the sleep.

"No, we fought again..."

"Again? Geez, I leave you alone for five minutes... I thought for sure I'd come back to bunny snuggles. Crap," Neara heard the sound of Shay slapping something with skin, probably her forehead. "I forgot to get clean bandages for your ribs! Hang on, I can boil the one you have on. Where'd that pot go?" The sounds of her rummaging through the small cupboard echoed around the Hole and clanged in Neara's ears. She winced against the sudden barrage.

"So where'd you stay if you thought we were going to... do stuff?" Her eyes blearily opened and focused on Shay, squatting over the fireplace.

"With Vincent."

"Vincent? Right, well, I guess if any rabbit wasn't going to touch you, it'd be him."

"That's what I wanted to tell you. Vincent..."

The door knocked noisily and Shay looked at Neara pleadingly. Nodding with a heavy head, Neara stood and answered the door. "Hello?"

Captain stood outside, his moustache rigidly combed and pressed into place. It gave off the scent of honey, easily discernible from his position right in front of her, and she guessed beeswax was his product of choice. "I need to speak with you and Shay..."

Shay stood when he walked in and his mouth opened slightly. A dark bunny, fully formed and as large as her hand, raced up Shay's thigh, the fur indicated with elegant swirls and the ears delicately outlined in a thin black swoop.

Neara's mouth stiffened and she felt the blood slowly drain from her face.

"I see you've... right." Captain coughed awkwardly into his hand. "So what are your terms for consenting to the mating?"

Shay held up her fingers and she spoke, "1, I want full protection for me and my children while we're in the valley, plus protection for my mates when and if they show up. You can defend yourselves, but if another one of my kids..." she squeaked a little and bit her lip. "Anyway, no hurting anyone. 2, I don't... exactly need crystals anymore, so I want the recipes for your knockout slimes and powders and stuff. Whatever you carry in those clay balls, give me the recipes. 3, you have to promise to take my secret to the grave, for you and all your children and members of the Clan. Nobody can know I give birth to transforming females in the same litter, and that protection extends to Neara too, since we're from the same wo-Clan, and I don't want anyone knowing about it."

Captain nodded after every item was named. "We can certainly try. As I said, your mates would be hard-pressed to reach here given the altitude and cold, and I wouldn't recommend them trying unless they have a death wish. Nonetheless, if they do appear, we have a contingency plan in place. Namely, hiding in our bunker, which we know to be impenetrable, until they leave."