Wanderlust Beastkin, Beauty and the Beastkin-Chapter 92: Confession

Kai’s Perspective

I ran as fast as I could following my fading mate mark. If it completely disappeared, there was no way of telling how long it would be before I found Perla again. We’d been apart for a longer time than we’d been together, but I missed her more than I could put into words.

All the time that I’d been captured, all I could think of was her, of her laughter, her cute little smirks, her affectionate personality, and her amazing kisses. I miss her, I need to be back with her, and I hope that finally I’ll be able to have her forever, mate marking on me. I want to be hers properly, and I need to apologize for going behind her back. I was being stupid, I was so stupid to cling to what was expected of me when what I should have been doing was making her happy. It might have caused some problems in the village, but we could have moved to a different village. Whatever she wants, just so long as she forgives me.

I stopped to rest only when necessary and stayed in my beast form the whole time to keep my speed up. At first, it felt great to get a good run in, but soon I realized that my body was completely exhausted when the fever that had been going through my body turned into an inferno. The numerous bites Lirit had placed all over me had become infected. There were periods of time that I became delusional, but at least the raging fever was starting to burn the drugs out of my system.

I was finally headed home, home being wherever she is.

Perla’s Perspective

Sam held me closely in his large, muscular arms as if I were something precious while running and I looked up at him, considering him again. I hadn’t wanted him at first, but although his personality seems to be that of a grump, now I suspect there’s much more to him.

"What’re you staring at?" Sam said in an annoyed tone.

"Just my devastatingly attractive and muscular mate. Pamela must have been blind," I said casually, conversationally.

His running faltered for a moment, and I watched as a surprisingly bright blush quickly covered his face and neck. He pinched his lips together.

"Humph! I’m just a sheep beastkin; no one except other kinds of herbivorous beastkin and small beastkin breeds," he said in a gruff tone that was meant to dismiss my compliment.

Cuuuute. "I know you’re a kind of sheep beastkin, your large ivory horns are impressive, I said while reaching up and running my hand over one of his large spiraled horns, "They’re beautiful." His face became even redder as he briefly glanced at me with his eyes that looked like melted gold.

He adjusted his hold on me to hold me more firmly and then sped up even more. His large muscular arms flexed and he carried me as though I weighed nothing. I released his horn and ran my fingers over his muscular arms. "Really, she was blind."

He cleared his throat.

"Have you ever made any clothing or furnishings from your wool before? I bet it would be amazing. You’re wool is so soft and a pretty pure white, It would be the best thing to make a fluffy blanket with or a coat. I’ve never seen such soft wool before I met you."

"I haven’t made any clothing for a female before from my wool; making clothing for a female outside of commerce is a sign of deep affection, and there weren’t any positive feelings between Pamela and me," he said quietly.

"Oh... It would also be great for insulation. You said that sheep beastkin sell it? I wonder if I could get enough of it to insulate a house?"

"What’s insulation?"

I spent the next couple of minutes explaining what insulation is and its benefits while he listened intently. After I was done explaining it, he informed me that his wool is extremely temperature-regulating and can purify air and infuse it with mana more than other wool because of its high mana content due to his strong aura. Other wool will work too, but not as well as a strong aura beastkin. When I asked him what it was, he looked around us and slowed down a fraction to allow the others to run slightly further ahead. Then he said in a voice that was almost indecipherable, "Royal blue."

I felt my eyes widen, and I accidentally dug my fingers into his arm. "Why are you keeping it secret?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "It’s less of a hassle if I do."

I raised an eyebrow at him while he sped up again. "You’re an interesting male."

He let out a deep rumbling chuckle that I wasn’t expecting and was surprisingly sexy. "Well, at least you don’t find me boring."

It was during one of our short breaks that Ira approached me, and we discussed shifting our direction further west.

We had to change direction while we were on our way to Duarte Village, since Ira could sense the direction change of Beck. Apparently, his species can sense the location of people that he’s related closely to, like his emotionally close brothers and other close beastkin, once he has them.

"They’ve left Duarte Village, and Beck is taking her to a village that we both know, Mistwood. They’re secluded and very friendly, plus they have an abundance of private bathing ponds; quite a few of them are saltwater. They don’t treat Legendary beastkin any differently from other beastkin because they have a lot of tourists, and they’re very discreet. They make their own saltwater ponds away from the ocean and offer spa services. You’ll love it," said Ira.

"You can tell Beck is taking Elara there?"

"Yes, by the direction he’s taking, I can tell because there really isn’t anything else in that direction, and he would want to take her somewhere where she can comfortably recover after such an upsetting ordeal. He would also know that I would be able to find him and take you there to meet them."

I let out a deep breath that I hadn’t realized I’d been holding, and a painful pinch that had been tightly wound between my shoulders started to release. Finally! Finally, things were looking up and I would soon have Elara back. We don’t have anywhere to live, but we’ll figure something out. Duarte Village can go kick rocks! I never want to see that place again after it took Elara away from me. We’ll find somewhere else to live after we enjoy a nice little vacation together.

"I can’t wait!" I told Ira and threw my arms around him and kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you so much for helping me out and sending your brother to save Elara for me. I never thanked you for saving me from that monster and helping me learn how to swim with my new tail. I’m sorry that I didn’t thank you earlier, but thank you. Truly, I couldn’t imagine you being gone, so I hope that you will remain with our group," I was nervous saying such things to Ira, since he was so obviously out of my league. There’s no way that if I were on Earth still that someone like him would pay attention to me. But he was still here, and he’d even gone out of his way by sending his brother to help me with my selfish wishes; perhaps I had a chance?

Ira’s eyes widened, and his face flushed beautifully. His pretty seafoam green eyes, framed by pink eyelashes, stared into my brown ones.

My brown eyes go with my brown hair. The only interesting thing about me now is that I can turn into a mermaid. However, he’s also a legendary beastkin type. What does being a mermaid get me? Restrictions on where I can swim and the fear of discovery. I wish I had been given something better than a canary for a flying beastkin. I’ve always wanted to fly, but there’s no way I’d choose to be a canary. Maybe I should have picked a tiger, being able to turn into a tiger would have been amazing, but then I would have suddenly aged to being in my sixties, and wouldn’t that have been awkward? How would I have been able to explain that? Also, if I’d been a tiger, I guess I would have never met Ira, and then I wouldn’t be having this conversation, and he wouldn’t have sent Beck to go save Elara. I guess if I think about it that way, I can’t complain about choosing to become a mermaid anymore.

He scooted slightly closer to me, pushing half of his hair behind his shoulder. It was bright pink and seafoam green, and it was slightly glowing and sparkly from a high amount of mana that was concentrated in it. I reached out and gently touched it.

"I’m not planning to go anywhere, as long as you’ll have me," he said in a quiet voice.

His face was flushed, and he fiddled with his long, beautiful hair, while his golden unicorn horn sparkled and faintly glowed. He was such a mild-mannered male, so soft spoken and beautiful. So sweet but so strong. I leaned forward to kiss his cheek, he turned his face at just that moment, and our lips met. I was so startled and embarrassed by suddenly kissing him that I was about to pull away, but then he let out the cutest little happy squeak and leaned into our kiss. I deepened the kiss and reached up to touch his hair that I’d been dying to run my fingers through, and it was pure magic, softer than silk, smooth, and he smelled and tasted like vanilla ice cream. His lips were soft and plush, and I felt myself melting into him.

I was disappearing into that kiss, our tongues dancing, his warm arms wrapping around my back while I played with his hair and my chest pressed up against his.

Coming Next Time: Mistwood and Ira