After dinner and a good bath, Astri is reading on the bed with the help of the moonlight. Wayde comes inside after taking his bath, he got used to bathing to not dirt the bed like Astri asked. Tigers don't have problems with water. Now for Dieg, it is a harder task to keep clean.
He lays down on her side and looks at the book, trying to understand the letters.
"I can teach you to read and write if you want." She says, after noticing his curious eyes.
Reading is a rare knowledge and that wouldn't be passed by easily too. So when she offered to teach him, shocked him.
"Would you do that?"
"Why not?"
"Knowledge is power, Astri. If you show you have power, people will follow you."
"Really? Well, you said you don't want to leave my side. I don't see a reason to not teach you." She answers.
He loses his voice for a moment.
"I won't. What I worry about the most is being capable of protecting the power you have." He says.
She closes the book and puts it aside, then looks at him again.
"I will be teaching you, not strangers. How can I not trust who I should trust the most? Or you don't want to be my mate anymore?"
"It's what I want the most." He says holding her face.
"I believe in you, Wayde."
Completely lost in his passion for her, he kisses her lips trying to hold himself to not jump on her and mate with her. However, she kissed him deeper and her sweet tongue made him tremble.
He pulls her by the waist and she feels his bare chest on her hands, and his hard thing on her leg. Roaming his hand around her waist, feeling her smooth skin is taking away all his self-control.
"Astri… Please.. Be mine."
"I am.."
Taking that as approval, he rolls to her kissing her more passionately. Their breathing became faster and hotter. Wayde licks and kisses her body while removing her clothes. Her body is so fair and beautiful, getting red with his hot kisses. He could hold her like this forever.
And he could live inside of her.
It's not something both had experience doing, but Wayde tried his best to be gentle and give her the same pleasure he was feeling. Astri already had boyfriends but never had sex with any of them. The farthest she went was pleasuring them with her hands, and she knew that Wayde's length was bigger than she had ever seen.
Even being big and muscular, Wayde is gentle and raises her to climax many times.
—
Next morning, Wayde wakes up feeling a happiness he never felt. And the reason for his happiness is laid on his chest, sleeping soundly. He didn't imagine that mating with her would be so magical, she's finally his forever.
Wayde looks at the tiger mark on his arm, he can see the shape of wings around the tiger. It's the element that represents her beast form and their pact as mates.
She must indeed be some kind of bird. He smiles kindly to his mark. The wings look like a warm shield around the tiger and it's very much like her personality.
"Astri~~~ Good morning!~~" Dieg's voice ended Wayde's happy moment. "I brought you.." Dieg says, opening the door. That sound scared her and she sat with a jump. Her breasts were exposed and Dieg's heart jumped, making him drool and gulp. "You mated?!"
That was when she noticed she was still naked. She pulls up quickly the sheet to hide her breasts.
"Yes! That means I'll be next soon!" Dieg says happily. "I'll make breakfast!" He goes outside again.
Astri sighs, relieved. She thought there would be a fight. Dieg and Wayde are always throwing growls at each other when she's around, but Dieg apparently knew from the beginning Wayde would be the first and he would be the second.
Wayde sits down and pulls Astri to his arms again, kissing her head.
"Are you all right? Did I hurt you too much?" He asks her.
"I'm fine. Dieg just scared me with the noise."
He spots something on her right shoulder, then moves her hair away to see a mark of a tiger. Its color is almost the same as her skin, but it's an almost glistening white which he can see only in some positions.
He touches her mark and it becomes red, like magic, taking him by surprise.
"What is it?" She asks.
He moves all her hair from her back and tries to see any other mark, but there's nothing more than his mark.
"Your spousal mark is... It has a soft color, almost like your own skin, but when I touched it became red. I never saw anything like that." He keeps moving his head to try to see her own mark, but he can't see anything. "A spousal mark always stays near our own beast mark, but I can't see yours. I never saw your beast mark, actually. I think it's because you never shifted. A beast mark only appears after your first shift."
She tries to see his mark, he touches his mark on her and it becomes red making her impressed. She will have to ask Claud about that.
"Well, we can't focus on what we don't have clues. Maybe it will appear when I shift indeed." She says.
"Have you ever tried?"
She denies it with her head. Claud told her to not show her beast form to anyone, even if she doesn't know how to shift either way.
"Don't worry. It's something natural and you will shift once you understand that in your body." Wayde says after kissing her head.
She smiles and nods. He got even more gentle with her after they became mates, she feels lucky to have him.
After breakfast Claud talks to Aika in her mind, then Astri pulls her notebook and starts drawing. Dieg and Wayde understand that when she's doing that it's when she is lost in her little world and they don't disturb her. She uses that as an excuse to talk to Claud.
"Claud. The Higher Priest all mighty~" She sings. He gets shocked.
"What?"
"What?~"
Claud knows she's smart and it's making him admit things she already knows.
"How did you discover it?" He asks.
"Yesterday, Wayde told me about the most powerful beastmen. Then he told me that the Higher Priest is known to have powers and is more respected than the king. I already assumed it was you, because you're powerful."
"I see. Always smart."
"Don't worry. I won't tell anyone."
"Thank you. Would be safer for you that no one knows yet that we're related somehow."
"Yeah. And for you too. I don't want to make things hard for you."
"You already make things hard with your smart brain." She tries to not laugh out loud.
"And you make things hard for people not to think I'm crazy." She laughs in her mind and he chuckles too.
She takes a deep breath to try composing herself.
"I have something to tell you, but I don't know how." She says, feeling embarrassed.
He sees in her mind that she mated with Wayde.
"You mated with Wayde. Congratulations. I'm glad you officially have a partner to protect you." He says this to make her feel even more embarrassed.
"It's not fair! I want to read your dirty thoughts too."
"Someday I might teach you. Who knows?"
"Well, Wayde said he never saw a spousal mark like mine. It has almost the same color as my skin and when he touches it becomes red. It's on my shoulder." She says.
"Hum.." He thinks deeply. "Did your beast mark appear?"
"No. He said that spousal marks stay near our beast marks, but the beast marks after the first shift."
"That's correct." He affirms.
"Why is his spousal mark reacting like this?" She asks.
"It stays concealed because your beast mark is concealed. Probably it's because of that. But the reason it reacts to him might be because mates share energies and when he touches it connects with his energy. I'm not sure if that's the reason because I also never saw something like that. I can only imagine that's the reason. You're the only one I know that didn't shift and has the age of mating, so we can only imagine the reason." He explains.
"I see. Isn't this something I need to be careful of? People might notice that. It's on my back, even if my hair hides it a little, someday someone might notice. Even more risky if Wayde touches it by chance."
"It's true... Use your snowing season clothes for now. It's already approaching, so it won't be strange. In the hot season, it would be good to have silk clothes, but only richer tribes or beastmen have it."
"I'll see what I can do. I can try sewing my own clothes too." She says.
He thinks that she deserves to wear the finest clothes in the Beast World, but he can't tell her that because she can't afford anything now, and her mate too.
"Another thing. I know how to make salt."
"You do? That's a great way to have money, but it will attract the attention of dangerous beastmen."
"Yeah. I know, but Wayde believes it's a way to have people to protect me. He said that having more people to protect me with him is better than only him when people notice that I'm different."
"It's true. Since you will be building this from nothing, you should go slow." He says.
"Sure. I'll try only when Wayde is back from his trip. And I'll start with a bucket or two to make sure it's clean salt. But it's a quite simple process, even if it takes a lot of work."
"How is it?"
She explains that there are two ways of making salt, but one she will try during the hot season because the salt will dry faster. The other one is basically boiling the sea water until there's only salt.
"Interesting. I wish I could try doing that.." He speaks.
"Isn't there sea near your place?"
"It's a bit far. And I can only leave here hidden."
"I see. You're an important person, you would be hunted. And how would you come and get me?"
"I would send my most trusted guard. But now that you have Wayde, you can come with him."
"When should I go?" She asks.
"Don't think about that now. The trip to come here will be dangerous and will require a lot of preparation."
"OK. I imagine what you look like. Being this powerful you must be older than me, but your voice is not from an old man."
He chuckles.
"I am an old man."
"White hair and beard. Holding onto a staff to walk?"
"I'm old, but I don't look old."
"How old are you? 40?"
"I'm not sure. More than 200."
She almost broke her pencil.
"200?!?! How is that possible?"
"There are some beasts that can live longer. Like dragons, mermaids."
"And what is your beast form?" She asks, curious.
"Only my guard knows my beast form. No one else knows."
"Oh. Then it's a powerful beast. It must be kept as a secret."
"Like yours."
"Do I have powers like you?" She asks, shocked.
"As I know, the power of investigating everything." He plays. She rolls her eyes.
"Are we the same kind of beast?"
"No. We're not. See? You will keep me asking things until you find a hole and make me say the answer you're looking for. That's a power few have."
"Idiot. Lucky you for being my best friend in this world. Actually, lucky me." She says, giggling.
His heart warmed hearing her call him "best friend". He hopes she feels that way forever.