B+Bs: To Stand In A Beast's World

9. Plans

If silence could kill, I'd be choking on it.

Shuu's mouth was on the floor, and Muir's pupils dilated like they were stuck in a spasm. Winston froze with his tail stopping mid-swish. Maybe I should've led with the king part?

Winston digested that and recovered the quickest. He'd been to the City of Flame and he'd seen Mitchell from a distance. The king did have four stripes, but Winston had assumed he was rootless. But the proof that he wasn't was on Grace's right hand. And it explained how she was brought to the city safely. The scorpions and rootless beasts wouldn't stop their king.

Shuu felt light-headed, but his sense came back to him. "We should warn the kings!" If someone that strong came for Grace, things would get dangerous.

I understood where Shuu was coming from, but I hadn't wanted to draw that much attention to me. Before, I didn't want the ape king to have a reason to hesitate introducing me to Winston in case he still had his power play issues despite being given an emerald. If he knew I had a tetra marked mate already, he may not have given me his blessing to take another.

"No, Shuu. Not yet. I'll talk to the ape king." I will tell him that Mitchell might come back, but I might leave out his strength when I bring it up. I have to think about this more.

Shuu settled down. "But he brought you here?" He had never once heard of a scorpion actually caring about their mates.

"He did."

Muir remained quiet. Four-striped males would not be easy to kill. He hoped the scorpion would not come around looking for trouble.

Winston was the next to pose a question. "Will you really cook a meal for him?"

Both Muir and Shuu snapped back to attention.

I was only saying that to deal with Rosa. "That would depend on his intentions. I don't want trouble with him, but I don't want to be taken away. If he is polite, I will be too." I couldn't see it happening. Neither Mitchell coming around or him being courteous.

Winston nodded as he prepared his mind. As a tetra-striped himself, it will fall on him to take on this threat if it came to that. He would respect Grace's wishes, but he will not hesitate to protect her from her mate if he is no good to her.

Muir was of a similar mind to Winston. He prepared countermeasures in his head that he hoped would work on the scorpion male.

Shuu fretted. He believed in Winston's strength, but he wanted the city to be aware of the danger. If they knew, the scorpion would never reach Grace. But he wouldn't go around his mate's decision. He had no reason to believe she lied to him, so he will wait for her to tell the kings.

There was too much of a power gap between the scorpion and him and that made him feel down. If only he had a third mark, he might be able to do something at least. Once that thought presented itself, Shuu couldn't get it out of his head. But he couldn't just run off to increase his strength, he needed to take care of Grace... Was leaving it to Winston all he could do?

With that difficult conversation out of the way, I started cooking with Winston. I could still feel the tension from the conversation lingering and hoped that carrying on with normal tasks would help relax it.

While the meat and vegetables were roasting, Winston got the water basin heating so Grace could have a proper bath after.

During dinner, Muir broke his silence. "That molt is your mate's?"

I saw his gaze on my headband. It was black and shiny, reflecting the firelight. "Yes." I had been scared that the other beasts from the City of Flame might try something and wanted to remind them of who had my back. It might not have been necessary, but it had an impact. And I honestly liked it for its convenience.