Beastmen Love

In the middle of the night, the cubs and Yuki wake up, and the boys wait patiently for their turn in their fathers’ hands.

Astri’s spouses always wake up with her and help with coaxing the cubs and Yuki to sleep so Astri can sleep more because they know breastfeeding is tiring and takes a lot from her body.

Since the cubs were born, Astri lost a lot of weight and her body already looks like she didn’t go through pregnancy.

She eats well to always have milk, but she’s not getting fatter. On the contrary, she’s thinner than before.

The next morning, Claud hears movements in the hall and his excitement comes up because he will see Astri for real again.

He washes his face to cool down, feeling like a teenager, but he’s welcoming these feelings.

He goes outside and walks to the main hall, he sees Lee and Cyprian playing with the tiger cubs and Zin playing with Yuki.

Astri was making breakfast with Wayde. She notices him walking quietly to the kitchen.

"Good morning, sunshine! Did you sleep well?" She asks.

"Very well. The bed is amazing. Thank you." Claud answers with a smile.

"Do you have any preference?" She asks.

"No. Can I help? I want to learn."

Who would say? The Higher Priest cooking.

Galion comes inside and gets impressed when he sees Claud helping in the kitchen. Claud’s smile to Astri already made the whole trip worth it.

"Galion! Want to join us?" Cyprian asks.

"Sure. If you don’t mind." Galion answers.

Being both dragons, Galion and Cyprian naturally are friends. They already knew each other from when Claud met Cyprian a long time ago.

Claud wanted to invite Cyprian to be his guard, but Cyprian didn’t accept it. So they just stayed as friends.

Wayde, Claud, and Astri prepared a lot of food. Eggs, pancakes, bacon, juice, Astri made a fruit salad, and a kind of pizza.

She knows her males, they can eat a lot, so all of that food is not too much.

Claud never had that kind of food, so he’s enjoying it a lot.

He’s in love with the pancakes and fruit salad, but he feels he could eat the bacon all the time too even if a unicorn prefers fruits and vegetables.

"Look at them." Astri tells everyone to look at the cubs in the living room on the sofa.

Yuki is laid on the round bed and her brothers are going to her, finding the best spot to lay down comfortably and they fall asleep together.

All of them smile at that scene.

"The boys make things way easier to raise Yuki. If she’s with them she falls asleep easily." Lee speaks.

"They’re learning now that they will protect their sister." Wayde says, smiling lovingly to his cubs.

"It was the best idea to always keep them together. They’re learning fast." Zin speaks.

Astri was imagining what it would be like raising the cubs.

She thought it would be hard because she imagined triplets and that they would need a lot of attention. But they’re good cubs, all of them only cry to eat.

After breakfast, Cyrpian stays to help with the cubs and the others leave for work and training.

Astri brings Claud to her plantation to show the herbs and flowers she has. Also the vegetables and fruits.

"It’s a big plantation. I’ve brought some herb seeds that we can plant together." Claud says.

"Nice! Let’s prepare a place to plant them."

Claud is loving to try everything, holding a shovel and actually working. Feel his body working.

"How are you feeling after leaving the temple?" She asks him.

"I’m happy. Like you said, it was a toxic place. I’m enjoying trying normal things again."

"I was worried you would feel out of place, but I’m happy you feel fine."

"No. I feel that there’s no better place for me to stay now." He answers, smiling at her.

"Great! I’m happy for you."

They finish making the area for the new herbs.

"Now let it rest and tomorrow we will plant the seeds." She says.

They wash their hands and drink some water. Astri to goes bathe Yuki, Claud watches how Astri takes care of the cubs. When Yuki is dry and dressed, Astri gives her to Claud.

He watches the little baby looking at him and then opening a big smile. Astri and Cyprian giggles.

"She likes you." Cyprian tells Claud.

"You’re the cutest baby I ever saw. Do you know that? And I’m old, so believe me when I say you’re the cutest." Claud tells Yuki.

She makes sounds smiling at him, like she wanted to talk back.

Claud feels the other cubs climbing on his lap. Yuki, Elias and Kai fall asleep around Claud.

"Claud has a natural calming energy. The cubs love him." Astri says.

Claud is happy to know that Astri’s cubs like him.

Claud didn’t get close to children for more than 200 years. He feels a bit clumsy, but he’s enjoying their smell and how soft they are.

Astri sits on his side and then shows him how to lay Yuki on his chest. When he did, Yuki soon after got cozy and fell asleep too.

"Look at this little meatball." Cyprian speaks, passing his hand lightly on Yuki’s back.

"What a precious thing." Astri softly says.

After several minutes Astri takes the cubs’ bed and puts it on the large sofa. ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom

She shows Claud how to lay down Yuki, then shows how to take the cubs without waking them up by carrying Elias first and putting him next to Yuki, who relaxed after sensing her brother. Claud did the same with Kai and put him on Yuki’s other side.

Astri covers them with a thin blanket.

"Did you know you’re so good with kids?" Astri asks Claud. He chuckles.

"No. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen one." He answers.

"Well, living and learning."

"Claud will be responsible to coax them to sleep at night." Cyprian jokes, making Astri and Claud giggle." But they’re waking up less and less during the night, thankfully. Astri can sleep more now, in the beginning, they would cry to eat and Astri couldn’t sleep at all."

"I imagine. I’m glad things are getting easier." Claud says.

"I have a lot of support, so it’s not being hard at all." Astri speaks, and kisses Cyprian’s chin.

He smiles lovingly at her and kiss her forehead.

"Oh yes! Come, Claud. Let me show you the workshop." Astri says, then pulls Claud’s hand to follow her to her workshop.

He sees her painting tools, papers, pens and books. Also some other things she tries to do herself, like baskets.

"You can come and use anything here anytime." She tells him.

He looks at her drawings, happy to finally see them for real. He touches them to feel the texture of the paper and ink. She shows him a paper with drawings of many male faces.

"This was me trying to guess what you looked like." She says giggling.

"This angry male here? Very creative."

"You were serious in the beginning. See? Later I was imagining someone similar to what you actually look like." She points to the drawings.

"It’s true. I was serious, but mostly because I wasn’t used to talking like we talk now. I normally had to be serious."

"I understand. Your position there didn’t give you a chance to relax more."

"Yes.."

He takes a book from the other world to have a closer look than from her memories.

"Can I read them?" He asks.

"Sure! If you want to read this series, you need to start from this one here." She says taking a book and giving it to him.

"Thank you. Did you finish any book I’ve sent you?"

"These two here."

"What did you learn from them?"

They start talking about it and Astri explains that she could understand more the history of beastmen and their culture. He’s happy to know that.

"What did you think about the medicine manual? We can add more things there." She softly says.

"It’s amazing how you could gather everything you learned and write in an organized way. I would love your help to keep on with that book." He says, thinking if he should tell her he had read the letter.

"Great." She smiles.

She doesn’t want to make things awkward between them. They were always friendly and she wonders if things will become different once he reads the letter.

He noticed her sighing as she looked at the bookshelf. She was actually trying to always keep that out of her mind, scared he would see it.

"What are you thinking?" He asks her.

"What?" She asks, afraid he saw anything.

"I don’t enter anyone’s mind uninvited unless I suspect this person is a danger." He says.

"Oh, I know. I’m just used to you in my mind and it was actually more direct to let you know what I’m thinking about." She answered, but not actually saying that she wanted him to see her mind because she was actually trying to count sheep to stop thinking about her letter.

"Do you want me to look into your mind or you don’t want to talk about what you are thinking?" He asks, taking her by surprise.

That made him realize she was thinking about something.

"You don’t want me to know?" He asks, worried.

"It’s not that. I’m just a bit scared to let you know, actually.." She says, scratching her face.

"Scared?"

"Yes. Don’t worry. It’s nothing bad. It’s not a secret, but I’m not sure if I should tell you or not because I don’t know what your reaction will be. That’s all."

He wonders if she wants to ask him about the letter.

"I see.. I also have something to tell you, but I don’t know how to tell you." He softly says. She wonders if he had read the letter." Can I show you then?" He asks.

She looks at him confused, but she nods. He comes closer and tells her to close her eyes. She does what he says.

"This is something I can do only like this and not in a distance." He softly says.

He holds her face...

Astri’s mind goes blank, then she sees the many times she talked to him, then sees an empty temple and the feeling of solitude, and of missing the moments they were talking. She started to understand that it was his memories.

Many moments of the day he desiring to be with her, or at least hear her voice. During meetings, his mind was elsewhere.

The jealousy he felt of Lee, Wayde, Zin, and Cyprian for being capable of touching and being with her.

The panic he felt when he thought he lost her when she was attacked by monsters and he could only feel her spirit, but not her mind.

The panic he felt in the middle of a meeting with the Elders when he felt his heart being punched from nowhere and soon enough he knew she was in danger.

"Are you going to meet her?" She watches Galion talking to Claud.

"Yes."

"I can go take her. But don’t risk yourself going outside. The king and the council will suspect and will discover you left."

"When they do, I’ll be far. We won’t be leaving now. I don’t want to meet all the guards here, because it will bring questions to others, that’s why we will meet somewhere else. I’ll choose six guards to go meet her and they will gather more beastmen to build a new place that will be safe. I’ve decided to not bring her here and risk being discovered by them. And I can’t help her locking both of us here."

"I understand now, but if they find out where you are, they might take advantage and send an army."

"That’s why the other 6 guards will go after other tribes to become partners and unite in a new city. The city will be built thinking of its security from the beginning, I have someone good at that to project it with me. Bringing her here will make it harder to protect her from them, she will be always near their grasp and I don’t want that for her. I could live this way, but not her."

Galion nods silently and Claud sighs and looks to his bedroom.

"I’m in love with her, Galion.."

Galion wides his eyes in shock. Astri’s heart was already beating faster, but now her breath stopped for some seconds.