Beastmen Love-Chapter 31: Cyprian

"He’s back." She says with a relieved smile.

"You.." He speaks weakly, but then he gets impressed when he smells her. "You.." He tries to speak, but his voice is scratchy and dry.

She walks away and takes her water bottle, then helps him drink it. Sensing her arm around his head, he falls asleep quickly.

"It looked like he knew Astri somehow.." Wayde speaks.

"Do you know him, Astri?" Lee asks her.

"No. I never saw a dragon in my life. I just felt like my body was telling me to save him." She explains.

"Could it be that you’re a kind of dragon then?" Wayde thinking out loud.

"Our marks show wings with feathers. It doesn’t look like dragon wings." Lee speaks.

"And she doesn’t smell like him at all." Zin says.

"I said a kind of dragon that is different from him." Wayde speaks.

They don’t know the answer.

Zin pulls the man to be closer to the fire, and they simply wait for the dragon to wake up while they keep making salt.

Trusting Astri’s judgment, her mates just wait, but they’re ready to attack all the time.

Astri puts a blanket on the dragon, mostly to cover his parts. He’s a huge man. He’s taller than Zin, who’s the tallest among her mates. He’s like two meters tall.

The night comes, and the dragon still hasn’t woken up, Astri sleeps in Zin’s tail, and he coiled it to look like a nest.

Zin, Wayde, and Lee didn’t sleep to watch the dragon and be prepared to protect Astri.

—-

Almost morning, the dragon wakes up and sits down slowly. He’s tired but feeling stronger than before.

He looks at the blanket on him, and then he smells the little female’s scent again. His head turns, and his eyes fall on Astri sleeping on Zin.

"It’s not possible.." He thinks out loud, looking at her, completely ignoring the other three males.

"What is not possible? You stay away and don’t make us regret saving you." Lee speaks. The dragon finally looked at Lee, Wayde, and Zin.

"Thank you for saving me.." The dragon says. freēwēbnovel.com

They calmed down a bit, the dragon doesn’t feel like a threat.

"You look like you know her." Wayde speaks.

"Not exactly. Don’t you know what she is?" The dragon says.

By their silence, the dragon knows they don’t.

"You’re her mates and she didn’t tell you?"

"She also doesn’t know." Lee answers, angry with his remark.

"I see..."

"Do you know what she is?" Wayde asks.

"Yes." The dragon’s answer impressed them. "At least I think I know what she is, even if I never saw one of her kind."

"And what is she?" Wayde asks.

The dragon looks at Astri again.

"I think it’s better for you to wait until she finds out." He answers.

"Why? Tell us already." Lee asks.

"It’s better that no one knows until she’s ready to discover herself. And if she discovers not being ready for that, she might have a hard time. What I can say is that if she really is what I think she is, she will be targeted by monsters and traveling with her is not safe. Even if they don’t know exactly who she is, her energy attracts them. The purest energies are the ones they like the most to corrupt."

They hear her waking up. She yawns and looks at the dragon.

"Oh you woke up!" She says. He smiles.

"Yes. Thank you for saving and helping me." He says to her.

"How did you know I helped?" She asks.

"None of them would have saved me if you didn’t ask them to do it." He speaks.

Her mates only confirm with their silence.

"You look like you haven’t eat for a long time.." She says.

"And I don’t. I’ve been flying the ocean for around 60 days. I stopped eating around 7 days ago."

"Why is that?"

"Indeed." Lee says, aware of the dragon.

"I was looking after something..." He answers.

They can feel he’s hiding something.

"He was trying to kill himself. Snakes are similar to dragons in endurance. We have to keep moving and don’t eat for a long time to die." Zin affirms.

The dragon smiles and doesn’t say anything.

Astri can see from his behavior that he was indeed trying to kill himself.

"That’s sad.. What is making your life miserable? Can we help?" She asks him.

"Don’t worry. I won’t be trying to kill myself again." He answers.

"Really?"

"Yes." He answers.

"Well, good to know! Eat something, we have extra smoked meat. My name is Astri. These are Wayde, Zin and Lee." She says.

"I’m Cyprian."

"Nice to meet you, Cyprian. Eat and get back your strength." She says pointing to the smoked meat.

"Thank you."

As he eats, she tries to not stare at him. She’s dying inside wanting to ask him one thousand questions.

"You can ask me anything." He says to her.

He noticed long ago she was doing everything she could to not talk.

"I’m just wondering about something." She says.

"He knows what kind of beast you are." Claud speaks in her mind.

"He does?"

"Yes. He’s an old friend. He won’t tell you, because he’s almost as knowledgeable as me. He knows you need to be ready."

"Do you know what kind of beast I am?" She asks him.

"I do." Cyprian answers.

"Can you tell me?" She asks.

"I don’t think you’re ready to know. When you shift you will be ready." He answers.

She looks down and simply sighs. Claud at least warned her.

"I’m sorry." He says sadly.

"I was expecting you would say that. It doesn’t matter."

"What do you mean it doesn’t matter? You wanted to save him because you felt he could help you." Lee says to her.

"Do you want to force him to tell me?" Astri asks.

They know the dragon is dangerous even if he’s weaker now.

"I can’t force anyone. I just can live day by day hoping that what I am won’t make problems in the future."

"You won’t make problems. That I can tell you." Cyprian speaks.

"Thank you. I hope so."

She focuses herself on making more salt. Her mates stare angrily at the dragon because she’s now sad because of him.

He feels bad about it, but he believes it’s for the best.

"Do you want to talk?" Claud learned from her how to talk to someone when they’re mad, she did that for him many times.

"Not actually."

"All right.. Could you make salt?"

"Yes. We have an entire bucket already."

"Amazing. The mermen will be jealous."

"Yeah."

Claud is relieved she’s less tense, but he knows she’s far from what she normally is.

"You can leave then." Lee says to Cyprian, still mad.

Cyprian ignores Lee and stands up, then he walks to Astri. She gets startled when she sees he’s naked.

Wayde gets between Cyprian and Astri.

"Oh I’m sorry. It’s been so many years I haven’t worn any clothes." Cyprian says.

"Stay away and cover yourself." Wayde warns him.

Cyprian goes back and takes the blanket that was covering him, then ties it around his waist.

He tries to walk back to Astri, now not only Wayde, but Zin and Lee are also standing between the dragon and Astri.

"I told you to stay away." Wayde speaks.

"You should trust your mate’s judgment more. She’s not scared of me." Cyprian says.

"Astri doesn’t know beasts as we do." Lee speaks.

"She might not know, but she knows to fear."

"We saved you. Now leave." Zin speaks.

"Astri?" Cyprian calls her and she looks at him. "I might not think it’s the right time for you to know what beast you are, but that doesn’t mean I can’t help you." He says.

"How can you help me?" She asks.

"Why did you decide to help me?"

"Because I felt I had to. Something was telling me to help you." She answers.

"Do you believe your mates when they tell you I’m dangerous?" He asks.

"Being dangerous is different from being evil. You for sure are dangerous, but I don’t think you will harm us."

He smiles, happy with her answer.

"Your instincts are sharp and you’re smart too. Why do you think you felt this connection with me to help me? What do you think this call was?" He questions.

"I don’t know.."

"Do you think you are stupid enough for going against all your mates just because you’re good?"

"No. I never did something like that. So... You’re saying that it’s not only my instincts that made me help you. Something else really told me to help you." She speaks.

He nods in response.

"Was it you, Claud?" She asks in her mind.

"No." Claud answers.

"Never happened something you found.. Different or strange? Like you thought it was a great coincidence or like you were being watched without anyone around?" Cyprian speaks.

She keeps looking at him, having some memories.

When Dieg and her were attacked by monsters, they didn’t notice anyone around, but then a strong gust had hit on them and called their attention, and that made Dieg notice the monsters around them.

"What are you trying to tell her? What is this questioning?" Lee asks.

"He’s trying to make me find out the answer on my own because he won’t tell me." Astri answers.

"This is a waste of time! If you can’t give real information, then leave!" Lee says, angry and not liking to feel that Cyprian is acting all secretive with Astri.

"He is giving me. If any of you were in my place you might already have the answers. The problem is that I wasn’t raised as a beast. I don’t know what is common or not, what are the beliefs and culture, consequently I don’t know where to look. So he’s treating me like a child to try to make me see something that is obvious in his eyes." She speaks.

Her words were bold and took even the dragon by surprise.

"Where I come from, all this that you’re telling me is seen as a mental disease. In other words, I would be a crazy person. That was why I was always alone!" She says already tired of that game.

She throws the spoon, then walks away. Her mates try to follow her, but then they feel a pressure pushing them.

"LEAVE ME ALONE. EVERYONE!" She screams.

Claud understood that she asked for privacy, even from him. He hates that she’s feeling this way, but Cyprian had the courage to do what he had to do.