The Beauty's Hidden Beast

88 - New Beginning (2,7k words)

Yaya's POV

Mitchell's unspoken worries soon came true.

"Morning," Muir said, fully awake. The first thing our morning birdie did was to separate Mitchell from me. "You hate her, don't you? Go find something useful to do and stop bothering her," he said and threw Mitchell out, shutting the doors behind him.

Mitchell tried to fight, but he couldn't do much against a penta and performed a dramatically strategic retreat.

Muir knelt beside the bathtub and kissed my cheek, "You didn't sleep last night, did you?"

I shook my head, "I have too much energy to even sit still, let alone fall asleep."

He helped me wash my hair and body, his movements gentle but thorough. "Do you want to take in Zeus?" he asked, "He seems to know his place, so we don't mind accepting him if you want."

"I don't, not for me at least," I said, "I would rather have him imprint Bart instead of me. If there is someone, who can help Bart get rid of his rootless side, it's Romeo's spousal imprint."

Bart wasn't a fresh rootless. He would die if I put him through what Skaris had to go through.

Muir paused and his hands froze on my head, then smiled softly, "A spousal imprint is a sacred vow to cherish and protect the person we mark. I could never put it on anyone else other than the one I love, but for you, I would."

"Who said anything about putting a mark on someone they don't love?" I reached my hands back, cupping his face, and guided him down to press my lips to his. I could feel his smile under the kiss. The happiness emanating from him made me feel a little better, as well.

I didn't doubt his words. He wanted to sacrifice himself for Vick and was ready to offer his body as a vessel, knowing how much that stupid Kraken meant to me.

· · ─────── · ⊱❈⊰· ─────── · ·

The bathroom door opened and closed again.

A half-naked Gold appeared with a cup of steaming hot coffee in his hand, his under-eye bags prominent and dark. He stood by the door, watching Muir finish cleaning me up and dry my hair in silence. It looked like he got lost while looking for me and stumbled upon the living room first.

Not having the benefits of a spousal imprint on me was beginning to affect his mind. It was obvious when he tried to bite and scratch me after emptying his load inside of me, and now the look in his eyes was getting darker by the minute.

Gold approached hesitantly, standing stiffly in front of me. "What if I will never be able to imprint you?"

I lifted my legs for Muir to put on my underwear and pants, "Then you won't. It's no big deal."

"It is." Gold clenched his teeth, his expression pained as he placed his coffee on the shelf and helped me put on my bra and tank top, "I want to tie your life with mine. I want to ensure you will always be a part of me and not an illusion I can't grasp."

Muir hugged me from behind, stopping Gold from looking at me as if he wanted to eat me alive, "I condensed my beast's essence in the tip of my feather and then released it inside her through her wound. You don't have a full beast form, so maybe that's why it didn't work."

I nodded, "Gold can gain stripes like all beastmen, which makes him a beastman... possibly an undeveloped one."

Gold could only change his legs into a long and beautiful fishtail and make fins and scales appear on his body, but his core wasn't strong enough to take the form of a sea creature.