Chapter 40 - Not Like Other Females

Chapter 40: 40 - Not Like Other Females

Nugget stepped back when he realized that he had a slip of a tongue, "I... apologize. I didn’t mean to offend you. It’s just... I’ve seen the damage cold-blooded can cause. They don’t care about anyone but themselves."

He turned to Vick and Kurus, salvaging his position as best as he could. "You two are different, I know that. But others won’t see it that way. They will see you as a threat, and that’s why you need me..."

"...I can convince them to accept you. With my status, I can make them understand. Now, if you let me, I will go look for other food sources..."

I tackled him, sending us both to the ground, my body pinning him. I grabbed the scarf and used it to tie the hands behind the back, "Not so fast, Nugget. A cage is what you need, since you clearly can’t fly straight."

"Ugh!" He struggled under me, but I held him down, my knee pressing against his back. "!!!"

I made his face kiss the ground, as I kept the pressure on him, "What did you expect after becoming my mate? That I won’t try to force you to stay with me?"

"No... you are different as well," he grunted, his cheek scraping against the dirt, "I know you are not like other females...you are..."

"Worse. I am worse," I said, leaning closer to his ear, "The faster you learn that, the better."

Eagles had great connections, and the trust other beastmen had in them was unquestionable.

Cold blooded were prohibited from entering the Beast Kingdom, but if we had an eagle on our side, his status would act as a pass, like Nivi’s new mate. That’s if Nugget didn’t decide to ambush us once he was in a favorable position. A possibility that was more likely to happen than him actually learning how to cook.

I was second guessing Nugget’s courting attempts. Was he really just a desperate male, or was there something more sinister behind his actions?

Resentment worked in mysterious ways. You could love someone, and at the same time, wish them dead for the pain they caused you.

It was like a twisted love affair with your demons, where you hugged them tight, kissed their sharp edges, and let them bleed you dry. The more you fed them, the stronger they became, until they swallowed you whole.

Nugget was being swallowed, and I was the one pushing him down the throat of his own darkness.

He was silent for a moment, then spoke in a low voice, "I can feel it...You are kind, I saw it. You saved the villagers, and nobody knows about it... you don’t do it for fame or gratitude. You do it because... that’s who you are..." He exhaled, "...and you are the one I want as my mate."

I sat on his back, keeping him subdued. This was how assassins operated. They infiltrated their targets’ lives, acted all friendly, lured them into a false sense of security, then struck when they least expected it. All to reduce as many casualties as possible and achieve their goal in the most efficient way. Which might also be a reason why Nugget worked on his own.

"Mate," Noodle said, not understanding where this was going. "He will be even more useless to us if you break his wings. We need him to collect the thread."

He shook the spike in his hand as if reminding me of our ’needs’. For someone who rejected every candidate, he was strangely eager to keep Nugget.

"Bite him," I told Noodle. "Make sure he can’t fly."

Noodle frowned at the idea of taking care of an extra mouth that couldn’t bring food to the table. He would have to do all the hunting and gathering, while Nugget would sleep around, doing nothing but draining his resources.

"He tried to kill us, and you want to keep him alive?" I lifted the eagle’s head by his braid, making his neck arch uncomfortably, exposing his throat. "Worse, accept him as my mate?"

Noodle inched closer, and I pulled Nugget’s head further back, opening up more skin for Noodle to feast on.

"Did you forget about how you will kill all males who try to take me away from you?" I looked up at my supposed mate in disbelief. "Do you think he won’t try to take me away the first chance he gets?"

Noodle hissed at Nugget, who was looking at him with pleading eyes. "You told me not to kill him, mate. Villagers need him, you said. Killing the likes of me is his job... you said."

Dickhead covered his mouth with a hand, hiding his smile as he enjoyed the show of me getting busted by my own words, making me sound like a hypocrite.

This Noodle, really... he was making me look stupid in front of my enemy. And he was doing it so innocently, as if he had no idea he was throwing me in front of a train.

Was he aware that he was embarrassing me? Was he doing it on purpose? Or was he just that clueless? But he really seemed to want the thread, and I wanted to keep him occupied with something else than me.

"Fine," I said, releasing the eagle’s braid. "Go and be useful, you overgrown chick. If you pull another stunt like that, I’ll pluck your feathers one by one and use them to stuff my pillow."

Nugget scrambled to his feet as I untied his hands. "You won’t regret this."

"I already do." I dusted my hands and sat back down, closing my eyes, "Wait."

"Yes?"

"How have beastmen like deer and raccoons not gone extinct yet?"

"They agree to become baits in exchange for mating rights."

"Did you match him with one of the females you saved?" I asked about the deer beastman from earlier today.

"Yes," he nodded, "They are good at farming food for the females and the young. They are a great addition to the Beast Kingdom in times of famine as well."

Instead of raising usual livestock, they farmed beastmen for meat. Well, that explained why the deer beastman was so eager to sacrifice himself. It was normal, and when something was normal, the horror became tolerable. Acceptable, even.

"Hmm." I waved my hand at him, "You may go now."

After the eagle left, I turned to the remaining two, "You two take a rest, I’ll be right around the corner. Scream if anything happens."

"..." Noodle, who wanted to use the free time to practice his sewing with the sewing kit from my backpack, looked at me from below his lashes, "...where are you going, mate?"

"To hunt for some Night Beasts. I heard they appear when the blooming flowers’ glow is the lowest," I stood up and grabbed a big bone from the spikehog’s carcass, since my machetes were still inside Dickhead’s space.

"You don’t mean, those Night Beasts, do you?"