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

125. Spared

I stayed up all day and night and through the next day, but nothing changed for me. While it was hard to breathe a sigh of relief now, I was glad my initial thoughts were proving correct. I came before Qingqing and now I've outlasted her.

This may be a stretch, but I thought that maybe Qingqing could've been brought here to strengthen the gene pool of this world. And once she met whatever quota of kids she was supposed to have, she'd go back. It was one hypothesis, but there was no evidence to support it.

That was doubly proven untrue as the Qingqing that I know didn't have nearly as many kids as she had in the book. I've also had more than her and here I am. I'd like to think this adds grounds to the idea that I'm not tied to the novel in the same way. I might not go back ever.

That brings up the question again of how and why I was brought here, but the lack of answer remains the same.

I dedicated the next few days to my kids, only stepping away to assist with Bei'he and talk with Nora who came to see me. The baby was thankfully fully weaned off milk and on soft foods making her care much easier.

As for Nora, once her initial shock wore off, she was practically chomping at the bit to shift again. Her little secret was already not one considering she now sported ears and a tail much like the males. Since she paraded around the village like that...yeah. Bye bye, secret.

I had Mitchell and Arthur talk to (read: bully) the villagers into understanding that this would not leave the village and that all the village rules would be upheld the same. It helped that Arthur publicly displayed interest in Nora. The ones who dared to act up or treat Nora like a circus act were put in their places.

As per our plan, Gordon and Song focused on caring for Bei'he, bringing her to me whenever they needed help or had questions. Shane threw himself into training like a mad dog and gained his third stripe soon after.

No one relaxed, in or out of my family. I was always in one of my mate's arms at any given time it felt like. It was my new normal. I didn't demand my personal space. I couldn't. Not when Curtis tumbled like he did or when Mitchell's voice broke every time we talked.

And to be fair, their fear scared me. Their reactions made me feel like I could actually disappear and that really shook me. It didn't matter that they could probably follow me (as far as they believed), it was still too much to think we'd be literal worlds apart.

I found myself gripping them tightly when they reached for me. We all sought physical reassurances, including me.

A week later~

"Grace..." Harvey said carefully.

I put down the paintbrush that me and the girls were using to make the dresser 'prettier' and turned to Harvey. My stomach dropped at his concerned expression.

Harvey just said it. "You're pregnant."

"Da—," The girls looked at me and I changed what I was going to say quickly. "Dad. Who is?" I coughed and patted myself on the back for that transition.

Harvey expected a more volatile reaction considering how careful Grace had been not to get pregnant. They all kind of threw caution to the wind in that regard after Qingqing disappeared. "Um..." he could guess, but he wouldn't know for sure.

I knew why Harvey was worried. It was for me. Because I didn't want to have more babies that I was going to be forced to leave behind.

"Curtis." Call and he shall come. He was there in an instant.

Curtis tasted the air around Grace as he scooped her up. The girls jumped onto his coils, but he did not shake them off. "Mine," he spoke confidently.