Beauties and Beasts

Chapter 47: brought to you by PHAT

Previously on "Who's That Mary Sue?": Neara visits and is smacked with reality, although chooses to ignore it to the chagrin of her friend. Joseph shows up and says something funny.

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Shay wasn't as involved with teaching her mates how to write. She took a 'by need' stance with it rather than the organized little classes Neara had set up with. Basically, if they asked a question about it or wanted to know, she'd teach them.

Somehow, Curtis managed to zoom ahead to the point that he could read most simple words in the fairytale book. Parker and Ryan, ever competitive, rushed to keep up, but either found their concentration lacking or, well...Curtis was just damn clever.

"How do you do it?" she asked one evening while she kept the eggs warm and Curtis hung upside down as he digested. "I mean, they're out with me more often nowadays and have more time, but I leave you with the book and it's like...are you a genius?"

"Genius? I'm afraid I don't know that term," but he was smiling as though he did. "I simply have plans for what I can do with it. Trading information and learning would be...very wanted, especially if I could make any skill into a physical form that could be taken from one point to another and copied. Far easier to access and transport than an actual teacher."

Shay felt her mouth twitch. A CEO in the making. "And what about your sewing skills?"

"That is for my wife. I have no desire to work my hands for anyone else, let alone some spoiled, bratty female."

She had to chuckle at that.

"Very well. I shall remember that for future snake culture classes. It is important to snakes that they sew for no one else but their wives." She ducked her head beneath the blanket to nuzzle an egg. "Isn't that right?"

"Should be about one more month now," he said. "The cold season is drawing near. I will do my best to stay awake until they hatch, but it was difficult to hunt today."

"Will they have to hibernate too?"

"They won't have the stores," he frowned as he said this. "It would have been better to have eggs during the summer or spring. Winter is very difficult. But since females only go through heat once a year, we can't be picky."

"You could have just waited, you know, since I have mine every month."

At his horrified look at the word 'wait,' she laughed so hard the closed walls of the den made it deafening.

"I do not see what's so funny," he said, showing the closest thing he ever would to a pout, which was more or less just a softened scowl. "There is nothing more pleasurable or divine as mating with you. To have to wait to experience that..." Something flickered behind his gaze. "Have you had your estrous cycle yet?"

"No. Guess my womb's still recovering."

His tongue flickered in the air before he twisted about so his belly was level with the ground so he could slide in about her. The eggs separated them, but he still did his best to reach around them to her, nuzzling against her neck.

"I heard you and the panther last night," he whispered.

Heat flooded her face. She opened her mouth, but all that came out was a squawk.

"So I presumed you're recovered enough..."

She thought there wasn't room enough down there for the both of them and the eggs, but that had been in his snake form.

She came out sometime later, hungry, flushing, and even more embarrassed at seeing Ryan waiting in the bedroom doorway as a panther, flicking his black tail and goldeneyes on her. Just inside was a bowl of water, warm by the tendrils of steam in the air, and one of Ryan's now very used handkerchiefs.