Reborn as a Side Character in the Beastworld

Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-one

Alva and Qin had been waiting inside the courthouse and came out at the noise. I left the clinic steps to meet the merfemale who had saved my Kit. I even reached out a hand to hold hers as we watched the bodies pile up. She did not shy away from me as I had expected and instead squeezed my hand strongly.

"Is this all of them?" I asked no one in particular.

Tristan had come out of the clinic as well and answered. "These are all the corpses we could find. I believe Lance had taken care of most of them before we even had a chance to assist. But these beasts aren't all the rootless." Just as he said this, another small group of males arrived surrounding three unfamiliar males who looked extremely nervous and scared. None of them had any visible marks. "There they are." Tristan continued. "These three were found in a cave with four captured females. The mer king and some others are bringing the females down at a gentler pace. They're not in good shape."

"Please spare us!" One of the captured males, a sheep beast with a missing eye, pleaded the moment Tristan had finished speaking. "We didn't want to do it! We were just trying to stay alive!"

My mind imagined only disgusting scenarios. "Do what, exactly?" I asked coldly. I knew what rootless did to make females in bad shape. I had no mercy in my heart for such evil.

"The others were too powerful. You see that? Four of them had three marks! We had no choice!" Said a panicked horse beast with a scar across his nose.

"What. Did. You. do?" I asked again in a hiss.

All three stripeless males flinched away. "We didn't touch them! I swear! We were made to carry them and feed them. We had to do the work they didn't want to do. There were more of us too, at first, but they ate some of us when they didn't feel like hunting." The horse answered with a pained expression.

"And where exactly did they get the females from?" I asked, wondering if these females were victims of the fall of the City of Beasts or if some other village was struggling to the point they couldn't protect their females from kidnappers.

The only calm male in the group, a deer beast with huge antlers and a cleft palate answered, "They took them from Flame City when they fled. Those males," he pointed his chin at the pile of corpses, "were angry that the Scorpion King wasn't letting anyone touch the females anymore. So, after starting a riot, they kidnapped them during the chaos and forced us to go with."

It was news that proved Ryan and Mitchell were following through with their promise. I hadn't expected that. I did think they might try for a short while and then give up. I didn't think they were enforcing the new rules to the point of an uprising. Mitchell could control the scorpions as a tetra-marked beast but he would have to use brute force to keep the others in control. If he didn't have enough scorpions or if there were just too many other rootless, he could very well lose the city.

I looked down at Mitchell's mark on my hand. An eerie feeling made my heart skip as I remembered the morning I'd woken to a numbingly cold sensation in my hand. Had something happened? Like Curtis in the fire, had Mitchel been frozen? He wasn't dead. His mark was still clear, but the questions bubbled up in my mind.

While I was pondering the possibilities, another small group of males arrived, led by the golden mer king and an eye-catching blue mer. In their midst were four women, and Tristan hadn't been exaggerating when he'd said they weren't in good shape. Two of the four women were unconscious with bruises covering their bodies and slung across the backs of a fox and a tawny wolf. One emaciated woman was carried by the blue mer. She was hiding her face in his shoulder and trembling slightly. The last woman was walking on her own, glaring and hissing at anyone who came near her. Her face looking far more ferocious than it would have without the two black eyes.

Concern over their wellbeing had me releasing my hold on Qin and hurrying down the steps of the courthouse. I approached the mer king first. "Thank you for helping us. The females need to be seen by the healer. This way." I said, turning and leading the way to Harvey without checking to see if they followed. It was the feisty female that followed me first, pushing her way past the others. She didn't reach to touch me but she huddled in my shadow as we walked to the clinic. The fox and wolf followed next with the blue mer trailing behind.

I still had many questions for the herbivore beasts, and many things to discuss with the mers, but the females' treatment took priority. So, I left it to my mates to handle what I could not as I supervised the care of the females who had been through hell and back. Unfortunately, the one female still standing refused to go through the clinic's front door when she saw the males inside. She started backing away, like she was getting ready to bolt.

"It's ok. If you don't want to be around males, we can go somewhere else." I said hastily.

My words seemed to have worked as she let go of some of the tension in her posture. I took a minute to think of the best place to shelter them while still being close to a healer.

"Let's go to the second floor of the courthouse. We will make the entire floor off-limits to males until the females feel safe." Unfortunately, that meant going right back the way we'd come but when the blond female following me moved back into my shadow, I knew I'd made the right choice. These females needed time away from any beast with the tools used to harm them. I could take care of nursing their injuries and the other females in the village could help me look after them, making sure they got cleaned, fed and clothed. And it was close enough I could have Harvey provide medicine at a moment's notice. Their psychological wounds would take much longer to heal than the physical ones and a good stock of calming herbs would come in handy.

The mer, fox and wolf followed without complaint as we turned around and headed inside the stone building to the second floor. Qin looked like she wanted to follow but the mer king wasn't letting go of her wrist and Alva was glaring daggers at the gold fish. Yes. There was still much to do and discuss. But first, I needed to tuck these females into some warm furs and spoon them some hearty stew while I slathered their bruises with ointment.

And then later tonight, when the females are asleep, we will hold a funeral and grieve.