Beauties and Beasts

Chapter 121: brought to you by an opportunistic cold

Brought to you by a very thick, loud sniff that may or may not be productive.

_________________________________________

Sometimes, after the girls, Asher, and the one or many brothers visiting went to bed, Shay would invite Parker and Miur in for round two of bedtime stories--the more adult stories.

Automatically that would make one wonder in either chagrin or horror that they were swapping pornographic stories, which they weren't. And even if they wanted to it wasn't like they had much to tell. Parker and Miur were woefully virgin and the other three, who were married to Shay, protected their experiences fiercely and barely even talked to each other about it. No one wanted their secrets to get out.

No, they were more like horror stories of strange diseases, extraordinary criminal happenings, humans turned monstrous, and, of course, dead people.

"Once one of my mother's mates, when his brothers tried to pursue my mother, tricked them into thinking she had accepted them so he could lure them into a trap at the bottom of a cliff," said Parker in a decent 'ghost story, ooooo' voice. "When he saw his dead brother's bodies, it scared him. He didn't know why. The next day, when he heard his mother howl, he felt scared again, but didn't know why. Then--"

"Let me guess," broke in Shay. "He woke up in the middle of the night with the ghosts of his brothers sitting on his chest, wiggling their arms at him and going 'woooo, you suck for killing us.'"

Parker pouted. "You're ruining my story."

"Your telling just wasn't that good," said Curtis.

"Like you could tell better."

"Oh, but I have. Or shall we revisit the time I met a member of the deep sea mer tribe?"

Everyone by Ryan stiffened.

"Nope." Shay said. "Nope no nope, please no."

"The leg bone of its young, with the female child's perfectly form foot--"

"I said no, damn it!" She threw whatever she had near her, which happened to be the leather rug she was trying to weave. It thwacked over his head, not all that effective, especially when he pulled it off and she couldn't tell if he was holding back a laugh or a grimace.

"Shall I tell you a more lovely story of my travels to make it up to you, my love?"

"You can make it up to me by never telling a dead baby story--or any baby getting hurt--again."

"You should have known better," said Harvey quietly. "Shay's mothering instincts are especially delicate."

Curtis spat a hiss at Harvey and coiled the end of his tail, but otherwise did nothing. Per usual, Harvey was right, but that didn't mean he had to like it, and Harvey was confident enough in his position and knowledge of Curtis to not even flinch.

"I have one," said Ryan, with the edge of a cat-like chirp. "Once, my father--"

"Is this another forest story?" asked Curtis wearily.

"Four marks, and you never thought of leaving?" added Harvey, part curious, part mocking. It was a sign of how settled he had become in the family that he could do so with Ryan and not feel retribution. Then again, Ryan and he had been more or less friends before Harvey had mated with Shay.

Ryan still shot him a scathing look. "The forest is as vast as the ocean. And I've been to the plains as well."

"Ooo, the plains. The great adventure of grass and more grass," said Parker.