Rise Of The Beast Queen: Elizabeth

Ch 18 Who to Blame

When Hank finally returned to the tribe, he noticed the lack of males in the area but didn't think much about it until he got to his healer hut and instantly knew something was off, someone had been inside rifling threw his things. Unfortunately being an ape beastman Hank didn't have an overly sharp sense of smell, but he was highly intelligent and knew that no male would be dumb enough to steal from the tribe healer. It didn't take him long to discover the single males causing a commotion around a certain white tigers territory.

As he approached he was shocked to hear their concerns, about the little female running through the tribe alone and smelling of blood and the fact that she refused all help.

Thankfully healers are one of the exceptions to the rule of male entering territories, so he quickly made his way through the crowd.

Hank arrived to see the cute couple cuddled together under a shade tree, he inspected Liz's wounds, retreating a few.

"I'm sorry for taking your medicine without asking." Liz apologized and Hank stared at her in astonishment.

"No no, young Liz. Uhh..." He hesitated and scratched the back of his head with a sigh. "Don't take things from others territories, but you're welcome to use the medicine in my healer hut... If you tell me how you treated Jin's wounds."

"Ok sure." She said then carefully explained the stitches and bandages.

"What happened here?" Hank asked pointing to the bruises on her biceps.

"Did those males..."Jin growled but was cut off by Liz.

"No. They... Uhh... This wasn't... Umm... Sigh... Don't look at me like that, Jin. I told you I'm fine. It doesn't even hurt... Hsss."

"Thought you said it didn't hurt?" Hank asked innocently after purposefully squeezing her bruise roughly.

"Well of course it'll hurt if you grab me that hard." Liz scolded and bat his hand away.

"Liz." Jin growled lowly and she whimpered while she leaned further into his side. "Won't you tell me what happened? Do you not trust my strength any more?" He asked, his ears laid flat on his head giving him a pitiful look that wrenched her heart.

"No, I trust you Jin... It's just... Sigh... Those males didn't hurt me, exactly, but uhh... Well, they scared me... Especially that one..." Liz hesitated, but Jin gently squeezed her waist, prompting her to continue. "Umm... The male from the platform the other day... The one who grabbed me before I fell. He... Uhh... I... Umm..."

"What did he do, Liz." Jin growled lowly making Liz gulp and shiver with fear.

"I woke up and he was ummm... In our nest hugging me and... And when I tried to push him away he held me down and put his hand on my mouth so I couldn't scream."

Jin growled ferociously and would have immediately jumped up to kill the offending male but Liz shuddering in fear because of his growl drew his attention, making him rethink what's most important which is hands down Liz, so he pulled her into his lap, buried his face in her neck and breathed deeply to help him calm down.

Hank watched the scene in amazement that Jin was able to control his beasts aggressive nature for the little female. Being an ape beastman he was naturally curious and wanted to see how far he could push the male. Hank really didn't care if Tabby's sons got themselves killed especially that cocky overconfident Zephyr, in his opinion they could all be taken down a peg since they weren't exactly nice to his precious Serena.

"He did that when he held you down?" Hank questioned again pointing at the bruises on her arms.

"Uhh... N... No... Umm... I don't think so." She replied vaguely, but Hank wasn't about to let it go.

"What do you mean? He either hurt your arm or he didn't."

"Well... Uhh. I mean he didn't really grab my arm. He umm... Laid on top of me." She answered in a small voice, unfortunately both beastmen heard her clear as day. Hank stared in shocked disbelief and Jin again roared aggressively.

"Then what happened to your arm?" Hank asked after Jin calmed down again.

"It's not important. I'm fine."

"Your not fine." Jin chited between clenched teeth.

"Compared to you I am." Liz bit back with a not so intimidating scowl.

"I'm male, your female. This is nothing to me." Jin boasted.

"Oh really?" Liz questioned with a raised eyebrow. "I'm pretty sure I saw your bones exposed before I stitched you back up." Liz scolded.

"Are you protecting the male who hurt you?" Hank questioned.

"What? No! Why would I?"

"Then why won't you say?" Hank pushed

"Because it's not important, like I said... He thought I was a thief and I was stealing from your hut so he wasn't wrong." She explained more than she meant too. Her words caught Hank off guard, making him wonder what male in the tribe would be foolish enough to lable a female a thief?

Shortly after Hank left Jin's territory and arrived back at his healer hut he found Beau waiting for him. As soon as he saw the ornery fox beastman he began to put the pieces together.

Hank made a green stinky herb paste, while he dramatically told Beau how some unknown male bruised the arms of the sweet little innocent female who's new to their tribe and was sheltered so she doesn't know hardly anything about the world. He didn't miss the remorseful look in the eyes of the seemingly sly beastman, then Hank dramatically acted as if his mate were calling for him and asked Beau to deliver the medicine to the injured female. Beau tried to refuse, but Hank suckered him in with the healers code to take care of all females regardless of personal feelings. The fact that Beau lacked any real sort of argument practically confirmed Hanks suspicions.