How Did I Go To the Beast World in My Pajamas?

Chapter 31: Kisses and Promises

When Bub woke up the next morning and saw the miniature bear in his arms, he was so excited that he couldn't leave Samantha alone until she woke up, too. It was soft against his nose and although it smelled of rabbits and several other creatures, the scent of the three adults who had saved him had been woven into it as they'd assembled it. "Guys, I think he likes it," Samantha said as she woke the others. Bub pushed the stuffed bear around in the grass to watch its legs move and get stuck in impossible positions. He hummed cheerfully as he played, looking up every so often at the adults who were watching him with affection in their eyes. The males sprang to work passing out breakfast and packing up their campsite, frequently sparing glances for Bub and Samantha, who played with the toy bear together. "Now you're not the only bear here anymore, Bub," Samantha joked with him, "So just hold onto him as a promise that we'll find more bears to be with you; the bears that are your family," she finished wistfully. Today might be the last day they would spend together as a cobbled-together family, since they would reach the city, by Spencer's estimate, around midday. If they were able to find Bub's parents quickly, that would be wonderful news for the cub, but Samantha wasn't ready to think about how much she would miss him after reuniting him with his real family.

Spencer, in his beast form, gave a small bark to snap Samantha out of her thoughts and let her know they were packed up and ready to go. "I'll hold onto this for you while you go run with Benji," Samantha said, taking the stuffed animal and patting Bub to move him toward his exercise buddy. "Be careful," she told him while also eyeing the tall, dark, and handsome scorpion, "and be good. We're almost there, let's get to the city safely!" Samantha tried to sound enthusiastic despite the worry that was growing exponentially within her. The two males, one bear and one beastman, took off toward the outline of the city, while Samantha climbed onto the back of the fox who had been waiting for her. "What if I don't like the city, Spencer?" she whispered to him, tears coming to her eyes. He let out a soft, sympathetic whine in response, hoping that it would comfort her. "Please, just don't leave me; I feel so guilty for feeling anxious now that we're almost there, I just hadn't thought of the ways it might change our lives that maybe I'm not ready for. I can't do this without you, Spencer," she begged, her tears dripping onto his fur. He shook his back gently, indicating that she should get down. As soon as she did so, she wrapped her arms around his neck before the fox had had a chance to shift into his beastman form. With her still holding onto him, he transformed into the handsome, kind-eyed male she had also acknowledged as someone safe.

"Samantha," he said, his voice serious, "I will never leave you. I love you, and if we ever parted, the only thing on my mind from that moment forward would be how I could make my way back to you. I'm not sure how you missed this in the weeks that we've known each other, but my heart is yours. Completely. I love you. I adore you. I will never, never leave you; I want to spend the rest of my life side by side with you and you alone." His long, slender arms embraced the female as she cried against his neck and chest, holding her until she was ready to speak. "I don't deserve you, Spencer. I love you too, but I don't deserve you, and I don't want to trap you with me for the rest of your life. I wish that I could be a good mate to you, but I still know so little about this world and I'm so afraid of messing something up just... irreparably. There's nobody I'd rather mate with than you, but I don't know how I could compare to a female who was born and raised here, who understands your customs and traditions and desires-" Samantha was cut off from her frenzied rambling by a deep, solid kiss from Spencer. Every thought disappeared from her head, and suddenly, all that was left was a soft, warm pair of lips moving against her own. Spencer wound one of his sinewy hands through her hair lest she panic again and move away from him out of fear. He parted her lips with his tongue, which he used to slowly stroke her own, trying to calm her in any way that he could. Ages seemed to pass as their tongues wound around one another, for once being used to communicate nonverbally. When Samantha's breathing had slowed down, Spencer gently pulled his face away from the adorable, flushed, and soft face that he already longed to kiss again.

"We need to catch up with the others for a change," Spencer joked with Samantha, whose face turned a deeper red than it already had been. "Just remember that I love you no matter what, and wherever we go, we go together," he promised. "If for whatever reason we are separated, know in here," he paused and tapped the area over her heart, "that I won't rest for even one moment until we're together again." Samantha sniffed to try and clear her nose and seemed embarrassed by the noise, but she used one hand to wipe away her tears, the other being held out to Spencer with a pinky extended. He mimicked her action slowly, extending the corresponding pinky despite being unsure what he was to do with it. "This is a pinky promise," Samantha explained, her voice still warped from crying, "and it's a very serious promise where I come from. We wrap pinkies and, for extra emphasis, we kiss them, and that means it's a promise you can never, ever break." Spencer's face lit up; he was obviously eager to prove his intentions. He wound his pinky around Samantha's, and she asked him, "Do you promise that everything you said to me just now is true?" He looked into her eyes again, brown eyes lost in brown eyes, and responded gravely, "I promise. Do you promise that you love me, and you want to be my mate, like you said before?" Samantha, though surprised that Spencer desired her to promise him these things, agreed. "I promise," she said, bringing her lips and their pinkies together, kissing them solemnly, after which Spencer did the same.

"Do you feel better now?" he asked, still concerned about the change in mood that had overcome her earlier. "I feel much better," Samantha said bashfully, "thank you." Moving away to shift back into a fox, Spencer stopped to ask, "Are you ready to go?" Samantha beamed at him while picking Bub's stuffed bear up off the ground and exclaimed, "Yes! Let's catch up to the others and move into Ten Thousand Beast City!" She climbed back up to her usual position on the fox's back and hugged him tightly. "I'm ready when you are," she whispered, and he dashed away in the direction the other two had started to run in earlier. As they neared the edge of the forest, the city became clearer and clearer. Part of it was surrounded by a thick stone wall that only a few buildings were tall enough to peek over. Samantha couldn't see any gates, but she trusted that Spencer and Benjamin knew the way in. As she watched the landscape blur past while Spencer ran, she looked ahead and saw a plant she had desired highly since she woke up in the woods that day. "Stop for just a second! I want to see this," Samantha requested, and Spencer stopped in his tracks to let her down. She approached the plant and gasped with delight. She had found some cotton at long last! She plucked as many bolls as she was able, sticking the thorny puffs in her personal bag while Spencer watched her in bemused confusion. "We can plant these when we find a home, and just wait and see what I'll make for you then!" she exclaimed. Her excitement was contagious, and Spencer ran at top speed toward the city until he passed the surprising amount of distance that Bub and Benjamin covered together.

"What happened to you two?" St. Benjamin asked suspiciously once the two had separated and Spencer was able to talk again. Samantha looked at them both and blushed while Spencer did his best to keep his mouth shut and refrain from gloating in front of the undeniably sensitive scorpion. "I got anxious at the last second," Samantha confessed, "and Spencer helped me keep going so we could catch up with you both." There wasn't much distance left until they reached the city, so Samantha gave Bub his bear to hold as she bundled the embarrassingly large bear cub to her torso, intending to walk the rest of the way while carrying him on her front. Benjamin looked at her expressionlessly as she turned around, taking two long-legged steps to close the distance between them. He picked the pair up as he had done many times before, carrying Samantha in both arms with Bub resting heavily on top of her. Samantha didn't dare complain about the weight on her stomach and chest; Benji was already carrying that and more, and she had felt her muscles straining from just picking up the cub in his carrier. Spencer, not wanting to be the odd one out, remained in his beastman form as the mismatched group walked to the outskirts of the city, completing their meandering journey in a shamefully long amount of time.