Reborn as a Side Character in the Beastworld

Chapter Eighty-seven

*Art courtesy of a fan. https://www.wattpad.com/user/PurpleDepp

Mitchell walked into his mother's residence and found Bailey in the corner furthest from the blue bead. She was bleeding, her skin mottled black and blue, and she was sitting curled over her knees barely conscious.

Mitchell's heart dropped. Another new emotion, despair filled him.

"Bailey!" He rushed to her side and picked her up in his arms, cradling her against his chest. He brushed her cheek with his hand trying to warm the ice-cold cheeks and refocus the slowly closing eyes. "Bailey! Wake up. You can't sleep here!" He rubbed her arms and her legs, trying his best to warm her.

Mitchell cursed his father for neglecting his female to this extent. He cursed himself for being too cold blooded to warm her body. He cursed the fox in the stone on his neck for showing him how to love this female in the first place. If he had never desired her, she would never have been placed in this tomb.

Without thought, he took her out of the room the way he had come only to be greeted with the sight of his father's stinger blocking the way. But something was odd. He allowed his eyes to take in the scene and his brain to comprehend it. The still bleeding stinger was not attached. In the center of the room, a large snake had coiled around the now tailless scorpion and was slowly crushing him. Carapace creaked and cracked against the pressure, blue blood poured from the three missing legs, and the scorpion screamed in pain.

Mitchell couldn't believe what he was seeing. In the few moments he had been gone, his father, the strongest beast on the continent, had been bested. It wasn't supposed to be possible. It wasn't logical. How old would that snake have to be to be this powerful?

Then the god-like beast turned his green eyes on him and Mitchell's blood turned as icy as his mother's.

Lance released Zachary's crushed form when he saw Bailey come out in the arms of the Scorpion King. He shifted into his half form and reached for her. He pried her from the scorpion's loose grasp and coiled himself tightly around her like a mother hen covers her chicks.

Bailey's barely open eyes looked at his worried face. "Lance? What took you so long?" She asked with a small smile.

A tear fell from the feral's green eyes and he kissed her forehead. "Brave Bailey, next time don't be so damn fearless." Then he turned his eyes on the room, looking for someone a little more warm blooded. Mitchell was still frozen where he stood and Zachary had shifted into his beastman form, crawling his way with his arms to the icy room where his mate waited.

Winston had also seen Bailey come out and rushed to her, so when Lance finally saw more than her frail figure, he was right there to take Bailey from his arms. He held her close just like the others had but his body temperature was far higher and Bailey snuggled into his chest seeking the warmth.

"Bailey. You're safe now."  
***

Winston's familiar bass voice and warm skin brought me just a little bit more to consciousness. My mates had come. Was it already over?

I looked around the room to see walls with great holes in them, venom melting its way through the floor at various places, and blue blood trailing its way to an open door behind a simple, stone throne. I also saw Mitchell standing nearby, uncertainty plain in his posture and shifting eyes. He looked at me with worry. An expression I never expected to see and I briefly wondered if it was Ryan looking at me through his eyes at that moment.

But there was something else I wanted to do before I was carted away from this deep, desolate place.

"Zachary?" I asked, Looking between Lance and Winston.

"Over there." Lance pointed to the blood trail and the cold room.

"Take me. Just for a moment." I added as they looked like they wanted to refuse.

They looked at each other with frowns but agreed. Winston kept me encircled in his arms as he walked me to just the entrance but no further.

Inside, Zachary, his whole lower half a blue bloody mess, was leaning on the bed, stroking Chris's face. Blue tears dripped from his cheeks onto hers as he whispered in her ear. "It's alright. Everything is alright. I'm here. Just wait for me. Don't go anywhere else. I'm coming."

I bit my lip at the scene. This was the epitome of the single-mindedness of a male's desire. Once one fell in love, there was no end to it even if poor decisions led to tragedy.

"Zachary." I said quietly.

His amethyst eyes looked at me briefly before returning to Chris's ageless face.

"Zachary. There is one gift I wish to give you. This is not the end for you or her. Our souls do not stay as stones within the earth. There are other worlds out there, different than this one. Worlds where there is one female to every male." I couldn't stop the tears that came with the words, "When you meet the gods, ask them to send you there with her so you can start over. So you can rectify all the mistakes you made to her. So you can love her in a way that wont destroy her. If you are sincere enough, they may grant you your wish, just as they granted mine." I whispered the last but he had heard it.

He looked at me with an expression of wonder and then back to Chris. "Did you hear that... my love? ...We... can start...over..." And then his amethyst eyes lost their light and his body slumped, his head falling next to hers.  We left the room before his body shifted to his beast form and his heart beat its last. They would be together again in death.