Beauties and Beasts

Chapter 48: brought to you by Cat Fights!

Sorry for the late update. I was lazy. I have to hunt down a mouse in order to do so while dodging a determined toddler, so sometimes...I'm lame. But anyways, next time on "I'm sorry, He Was Too Nummy": Friends fight friendly fights. Fight. Singular. Because they're both too, you know, friendly.

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"Neara?" She hunted out her friend and grabbed her hand. "We need to talk."

"I said I was sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you..."

"This isn't about that." She dragged her to the second bedroom and released her arm, giving her a level look. "I know you lied."

"About Harvey?"

"No, about where we came from. Come on, Neara, why couldn't you tell the truth? You don't trust them not to rat you out?"

She looked at the ground and bit her cheek. "I didn't think they could handle it..."

"Neara, you know how I feel about lying." Her attempts to soften her voice fell flat. She tried to temper the anger and disappointment she felt. Truth, above all else, was most important for Shay. You told the truth no matter what, no lying, no white lies, no deceiving, no lies of omission, nothing.

"And what if it gets out where we're from? What we are? You don't think the Ape King will try using it to his advantage? Locking us in a dungeon and raping us forever?" She yanked on her hair. "Look, the only reason females have power in this world is because they only reproduce once a year. Winston explained it to me; if the females have the power, it prevents war because they have multiple partners from multiple Clans and the Clans can't fight without endangering the females. If they find out we could give birth 12 times a year..."

"But we can't! The closest we can come is having snake eggs, and there's only 1 snake IN the City of Beasts. They're not going to try making more snakes." Her voice snapped like a thick branch.

"Fine, then, multiple times a year. Look, I'm sorry I teased you about Harvey but... it's not as easy as you make it look."

"This isn't about Harvey... ugh, he's not even in the picture right now. This is about you lying and saying we were from the mer tribe!"

"I never said we were, I just never said we weren't. They assumed; I didn't correct their assumptions."

"That's the same as lying!"

"Maybe to you!" Tears spilled from around her tightly closed eyes. Her breaths came fast through barely parted lips. "I live every day terrified about what's going to happen to us. We're the aliens here, the monsters, the outsiders, and nobody likes outsiders. You have 2 tetra-mark mates who, luckily for you, didn't think they'd ever find someone to make them happy. I don't... I don't want to marry people just for protection and I really don't want to lead them on and have them blame me down the road..."

"Neara..." Shay felt the situation click into place. She'd been too focused on keeping her two husbands happy, and apart, that she hadn't considered... "is this because of Justin and Calvin?"

She fell into a squatting position and hugged herself tightly, curly hair poofed around her head in a cotton ball. "Shay, I'm so scared. All the time." she explained through her sobs. "If we belonged to a Clan, they couldn't attack us without pissing off that Clan and making war. You have two ferals, so you're easy game, but they know I'm your friend, so I thought..."

"And Winston got cast out of Tiger Clan, so they wouldn't protect you, and Orson is Sheep Clan, so they could... Neara, I'm sorry for getting mad. I know you had your reasons... I just wish you hadn't lied." She sunk to her knees and patted her friend's back.