Beauties and Beasts

Chapter 24: brought to you by dirty laundry

A new chapter early since I was a day late updating the last two because I forgot. I have no excueses. Apologies. But now life's good in the hood, homeskillets. Fo shizzle! So, your program will continue after this message...

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After inserting yet a new cave-man style pad into her underwear, she lifted the scale necklace off her head, Curtis's thick strand of hair hefty as fishing wire against her fingers, and put its edge to her ankle. She had little time to brace herself for the cut, as no sooner had she even begun to press down than her flesh split, the pain so needle-thin it itched more than hurt.

A minute passed. Nothing happened, and Shay let out the breath she had been holding.

In a way, Shay was relieved when the detailed red snake on her ankle remained, a shade brighter than the blood trickling around the bump of her ankle.

Neara stared at the snake tattoo and could have sworn she saw the eye gleam when the scale touched it.

"Well," said Shay. "That didn't work."

The leopard queen, however, seemed to echo Shay's relief rather than Neara's fear.

"I knew you were a good female," she said with a gentle smile. "My son wouldn't have loved one who wasn't."

"But why is it still there?" asked Neara.

"If there is any love left for the male, it will remain."

Shay flinched. "Excuse me?"

Neara, eyes still riveted on her friend's ankle, said, "So... does that mean she loves him or something?"

"But I don't 'love' him. I mean, I don't hate the guy, but that doesn't mean I want to be married to him..." but she paused, thinking hard. Didn't someone say that to get a beast mark you had to have sex with them? But I didn't, he just bit me.

If marks can be given by biting and they don't know...probably shouldn't mention it now. Biting is a lot easier than...yeah, and we have enough problems as it is.

The leopard queen just continued to smile and gently patted Shay's head. "Everything will work out. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have tried to terminate your pregnancy." She then reached for a rag in the bowl of water, wrung it out, and went to dab off the blood from Shay's ankle.

Just then, a leopard burst in, mouth full of a dinner plate-sized chunk of dripping honeycomb. The leopard leaned back and shifted into Parker, who then took the honeycomb from his grinning mouth.

Inwardly Shay winced. Eww, leopard saliva...but he's covered in stings, so I can't really scold him for that.

"Shay! I got your honey!" His eyes zipped to her ankle, where his mother tended the small wound. His expression lit up. "Did you cancel your spousal relationship with the snake?"

Neara averted her eyes and took the comb from him. She remembered Calvin's rage at the suggestion of cheating and while Parker was different... maybe he wasn't different enough.

Shay, however, had no concerns. "Won't come off. Guess I have to want to kill him or something."

"It doesn't have to be that extreme," said the leopard queen, somehow amused, handing Neara a stone plate and a flat, wooden knife. "Don't worry too much about the leopard spittle," she whispered.

Parker, however, froze. Everything in him seemed to droop. He looked down, his teeth once more clenched.

He's going to ruin his teeth like that, thought Shay. "Hey, Parker, why don't you put some of this honey on your welts? It will help fight off infec--"