Beauties and Beasts Pt 2

Chapter 169

TW: blood mentioned

Y'all, I got a new niece/nephew, I've put like 6k miles on my car, it's just been insane. So, here is a chapter in the midst of work/baby care wherein Curtis tells a story, Orson is UBER sassy, and Tony doesn't get hit on the head, and we love that for him.

Curtis frowned and hiked himself taller, his shadow covering Blue Pool literally and figuratively. "Shay wished to find out what the fighting was about."

She nodded, then tapped on her mate's shoulder. Hesitating until she squirmed in his arms, he lowered her carefully to the ground. She looked left and right before cocking her head at Neara. "Isn't Winston normally here?"

"He's off fighting lion-boy," Orson's resigned sigh came from the deepest, most exhausted parts of his soul. "and will probably kill him."

"We need him..."

"Lamb, I said probably." He stood and shook out his shoulders, one hand twitching towards his horns.

"Qin, who is..."

Curtis's eyes narrowed and his face darkened in disgust. "Qin? You think one of these females is Qin? Even the other one is more comely than your pathetic queen."

"Wait, you knew his queen? Curtis, this is perfect! I mean, if you could tell him the last place you saw her, maybe he'd stop trying to kidnap me." Neara knew this was a vain attempt at making him care, but maybe if Shay got stressed out enough by it, he'd help.

His tail wrapped itself around Shay's legs. "They're taking females now?" He growled at Blue Pool, who glared right back, baring small teeth shaped like fangs.

Blue Pool arched a perfectly shaped and powder-blue eyebrow. "What? I only desire my Queen." After the slightest pause, he pointed to Neara. "Her. She is my Queen."

Shay moved slightly behind Curtis at the outburst, though Blue Pool remained on the sand.

"That is not your Queen." The contempt in his voice would've ripped a hole through any fandom and made grown women hastily compiling thirst edits until 4 in the morning.

The Merman matched it by pointing his chin down, closing his eyes in a sneer. "I doubt a land beast like you could've found where we hid her, let alone gotten a glimpse. You would've had to get through thousands of Mermen, each layer tougher and more capable than the next."

Curtis seemingly abandoned his pride and looked confused, shoulders slumping and his head angled slightly to the side. "She was supposed to be well-guarded?" Shay edging more behind him seemed to reawaken his fire and he hissed again, tongue flicking in and out of his mouth like a scarlet whip. "You underestimate my abilities."

"Then tell me." Blue Pool's voice, airy with derision, gained weight with each word as he opened his eyes, blue and cold not wholly unlike frozen steel. "Tell me how you got to her."

"Before I met Shay, I heard about the Mermen Clan. I decided to go and see for myself. I passed through coral reefs, searching for their base. Diving deep beneath the waves, I felt heat. I followed the source to an underwater cave. I saw a female covered in a bubble. She seemed happy to see me. I easily popped the bubble and took her to the surface. She complained a lot, then tried to kill me." He shrugged, his tongue forking through his lips as he spoke. "I left her there without another thought." The mischief in his eyes sparkled as he observed the merman's rage out of his periphery.

"You abandoned Neara?" Tony's outrage was palpable, his fists rising in a challenge, as if he could change the past with a fight.

Now it was Curtis's turn to raise an eyebrow, although the rest of his stony face barely moved an inch. "It wasn't Neara. This female had long purple hair and blue eyes. Her figure was thinner as well. She was dressed in a shimmering fabric, possibly woven from pearl fish fibers." He looked down at Shay, a slight smile in the corners of his mouth. "Would you like me to create such a garment for you?"