Beastmen Love-Chapter 23: Unfair Life

Two days later, the rain is still almost non-stop. Astri could go outside only a few times and she can’t go back home in this downpour.

Zin was happy that the rain is not stopping, she asked him to help her go back home, but he didn’t want to be separated from the little female. fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com

Zin is very quiet, but he answers anything she asks. When he finds out how much knowledge she has, he also understands why she might have been attacked. She’s not a common female.

Wayde finally arrived at Stone Moon Tribe, he threw the salt in front of Shung’s place.

Shung looks to Wayde’s arm and sees that Astri is still alive.

"Where’s Astri? My mark was burning for two days."

Shung sighs and explains what happened.

Wayde was sad for Dieg, he was annoying but he was a good male and if Astri accepted him it’s because she liked him. She must be so sad.

Then they hear wings flapping and Lee lands near them with three more beastmen.

"Still didn’t find Astri?" Lee asks Shung.

"No. With this rain she might be hiding so the hawk couldn’t find her yet and her scent was washed away." Shung answers.

Lee looks at Wayde, who also was looking at him.

"Wayde is her other mate. Wayde, this is Lee Braze. Leader of the Red Eagle Tribe. He will be moving his tribe near us and will be uniting forces with us. He’s.." Shung says.

"I’ll be her mate. You want it or not. If you don’t you can fight me after we find her, but it won’t be easy for you. You must have seven marks, but I have eight." Lee speaks. Wayde nods.

"I won’t fight you if she accepts you."

Wayde didn’t want to say out loud, but Lee is a strong male and Astri needs strong males protecting her.

He feels bad for Dieg, but he was weak to protect her and ended up dying and putting her in risk too.

Wayde shifts and follows his instinct of where his mark is telling him where Astri is. Lee and the other feather beastmen follow him from the sky.

—-

Astri is getting worried about her arm, it still hurts in waves like her body was telling her it can’t heal until something is done.

She asks Zin to find herbs Claud said would be good for that, when he comes back she calls Zin to sit near her.

"I need your help, Zin. I think the bone of my arm is out of place, that’s why it is still hurting so much. For the time it happened, it should have stopped hurting like this." She says.

"What do you want me to do?" He asks.

"I need you to pull my arm and try to put the bone back."

"No! I don’t want to hurt you." He says, shaking his head.

"You won’t be hurting me. You will be helping me."

"But it will hurt."

"Yes, but then it will get better. Now it’s hurting all the time and my arm might get worse if it keeps this way. If it gets worse my arm might never stop hurting or I can even lose my arm."

He sighs looking at her arm. Her body is too beautiful to lose an arm. And he doesn’t want her to feel pain all her life.

"Tell me what I need to do."

She shows him where he should hold and then pulls slowly. She bites her lips feeling a strong pain, but then she cries out loud when they hear a crack.

Zin let go of her arm in shock, then holds her apologizing and fearing he broke her arm more.

Claud was in pain just to imagine her pain that moment, he could just try to comfort her mind again.

"No... It’s all right.. I’m fine." She tries to calm him down so he doesn’t feel guilty, but her tears are killing his heart. "Take the herbs and crush them for me, please. Then spread on my arm." She tells him. He does what she asked him. "Now help me ripping this part of my clothes."

"Why?"

"To create a bandage."

"Rip my skin. Don’t ruin your clothes."

"Your skin is more important and more beautiful than my clothes. It keeps me warmer otherwise." She says.

His heart goes to his throat again hearing her talking good about his skin.

He rips the hem of her shirt, then helps her bandage her arm. She sighs trying to rest leaning on the cave’s wall.

"Why do you live alone, Zin?" She asks.

"I’m not welcome anywhere."

"Why not?"

"I’m a snake." He answers as it was the most obvious answer.

"And?" She asks.

He looks at her, wondering if she knows that snakes are seen as not good beastmen.

"People believe that snakes are not trustworthy. That since we’re poisonous, we will kill everyone. We only live with someone if a female accepts us, but normally we live far from our mates too." He explains.

"That’s horrible. And unfair. But people like to judge who is different and put away who they don’t see as normal." She softly says.

"Many snakes die soon because the female only accepts them to lay their eggs and after that they send the snake away. No male can live away from their mates for too long, so they die. Some snakes get so greedy that they keep their females locked somewhere, then when she dies sick they die together."

"Wow.. That’s horrible.. But I think I understand why."

"Really?"

"I’m not saying it’s a right thing to force someone, but when someone is raised without love, they tend to have thoughts that could be needy to the point of accept being hurt just to have the taste of something good or evil so they question the world why they’re not worthy of happiness. I was raised without parents to love me, the people who raised me thought I was too different and treated me badly. They forced me to clean where we lived, like a slave, but I’ve found love helping raise others like me. Other children that didn’t have a loving embrace of a mother." She tells.

"That’s why you don’t know about snakes? It’s common knowledge. Because you were raised secluded."

"Well, yes. But even if I knew I would sympathize with them, because I know the feeling."

"I understand... You’re a good female."

She chuckles.

"Or I’m just stupid. I’m learning just now about the world. I was living by myself like you until I found my tiger mate." She says.

"You might not know much about the world, but you’re still good."

"Well, thank you. You’re good too."

There goes his heart again. He would never find a female like her again, he doesn’t want to let her go.

He can’t deny that he thinks of locking her so he could have her only for himself, but he doesn’t want her to die either.

"Why don’t you have a beastmark?" He asks her something that was on his mind since he had to take her clothes off. He only saw a faint mark of a tiger.

She had to explain her situation. He is now sure that she’s not a common female at all, that she would be hunted not only for being a female, but for being special.

She didn’t lie to him, not even one time. She trusted him from the beginning. He’s happy to know she trusts him and treats him well.

He knows that even if she stays secluded, she won’t be completely safe only having him to protect her. And she won’t be safe having only the tiger either.

"Can you let me protect you? You don’t have to be my mate if you don’t want to. But I want to protect you." He asks her.

She looks at his eyes. After learning about the snakes’ reality, she feels that he doesn’t have a good self-esteem and that if it was another female there, she would take advantage of him.

But she can’t do that, she knows what is to be judged and not loved.

Normally a male would have asked her to become his mate, would beg to have a chance to court her.

He’s asking her just to protect her and have the chance to be around her. He just wants to feel happiness.

"I won’t stop you, Zin. I want you to be happy. And if protecting me will help you, I’m happy I can help you." She says.

She couldn’t not see his happy smile, it’s the first time she could see any emotion on his face. She smiles too and then looks at her arm.

"I think it worked. The pain is not coming in waves like before." She says more relieved.

That night he brought her a prey, but he had to learn how to make fire to roast it.

It was extra hard because the fire wood was wet and Astri had to tell him to scrap the wood to make it easier to put on fire.

They eat the prey together and she’s satisfied. Now the cave is warmer because of the fire and she slept way better too.