Beauties and Beasts Pt 2

Chapter 156

Orson's true feelings about the reunion come to light and Ryan comforts Shay, still recovering from realizing her best friend is alive. Benedict is an idiot, Winston's the only one talking sense, and Neara worries about what will happen when Leopold finds out there are two.

Orson waited until they were out of sight to facepalm. "Literally, what would it take for you to say no to her?"

"I don't... she needed to feed her babies, Orson, I can't stop her from doing that."

"Oh right, I forgot she's a mateless mother with absolutely no help whatsoever."

"Feels like this is more about Curtis than Shay. You didn't have a problem with her in the City of Beasts."

"I didn't know you as well back then; it's different watching her prioritize everyone and everything above you. She doesn't even think about you, just her own family. Muir has wings but does she ask him to fetch her and the girls something? Parker is another guardian, much weaker than her mates, but does she send him? Harvey is a doctor, for gods' sakes, but does she ask him to forage? Ryan's stripes mean he could be at the camp and back within minutes, but does she ask him? And forget Curtis... he won't let her go long enough to..."

"She's my friend! I know you maybe don't like her, but this is just how we get along. And family is more important than friends, especially family that needs her so much..."

"But she..."

"I'm still talking." She watched Orson shut his mouth with a small smile on his face. "Anyway, maybe she didn't feel comfortable asking her guardians to do stuff for her if she's not going to mate them. She's different than me, she's more committed to one kind of guy and her guardians aren't that to her."

"Fine, Shay's off-limits, but Curtis..."

Neara started taking down the shade to try and distract him into helping. It didn't work and he just watched her pull down the leaves with a raised eyebrow.

"I don't think Curtis thinks of Shay as a beastman. Fema...woman. It's like she's a favorite stick or pet he doesn't want to share. He doesn't seem to care what she thinks or even if she thinks."

"Why do you care?" She finished wrapping the string around the slender bamboo rods and collapsed them into a smaller bundle. She'd remembered camping poles that were hollow with string run through the inside to keep them together and, thankfully, it'd worked for other things.

"Becau..."

"No, seriously, why do you care? He's obviously obsessed with her so you don't have to worry about him pulling that kind of stuff with me eventually, and people can love who they want to love, why does it bother you so much?"

Orson just groaned in response while she shrugged it on like a backpack.

"That's it? Just a groan?"

"I don't want you to get any ideas that that's how we're supposed to act. Shay has attracted dangerous males into her family, as is her right, but now that we're close, I don't want you to feel guilty for having more than one mate the way she seems to think it should be done." He reached across and laid his thumb across her ribs, right on her scar. "This is just something you did, not something you are. I saw you agonize for months over Winston, and I'll be damned if it all comes back again because of her. I don't give a shit if you mate that watery bastard or not, so long as you don't spend months hemming and hawing because you're trying to apply your stupid morals to our... what are you looking at?"

Neara placed her hand on top of his, locked eyes, brown on green, and tried to look as serious as possible although the close proximity almost made her giggle. "I have my mates that I love and if something else happens in the future, I know you're open to it. I'm trying to be as well. But it's not Shay, it's..."