Chapter Text
God, if I didn’t get the hell away from Parker, now, I was going to lose my shit. The leopard beast man was incessant in trying to press his supposed claim on me. Wasn’t he supposed to be all over Bai QingQing? He’d saved us both from wolves, sure, but that didn’t entitle him to my person.
I scowled as I stomped out of the village, heading towards the stream. I’d come to this world alongside the teenage heroine and had somehow caught Parker’s eye. He was so loud about me being his future mate I was surprised he hadn’t just pissed on me in front of the whole damn village.
And I was stuck staying with him and relying on him and – ugh! I didn’t want to owe anyone jack shit. But I didn’t know how to survive in this world, I couldn’t hunt and I didn’t have any currency or goods to trade with. Just my body, which apparently was all any male around was interested in.
At least QingQing was also staying with us. I couldn’t have borne living with Parker by myself. The idiot had already suggested I try to cover my ‘natural scent’ with grass so that I would be less appealing to other males. QingQing had watched with an expression that said ‘better you than me’ and had generally tried to stay out of his way.
I lasted two days eating meat from his kills seasoned with herbs QingQing and I had been given by the local healer, Harvey, begrudging Parker’s attitude more and more with each passing minute. I had been reeling from the truth of my transmigration for the first day, but the cut on my ankle I’d received while running through the woods had knocked any ideas that I might be dreaming from my brain. The pain was real, so this world was real.
And I would have to find my place in it.
“Fuck!” I swore as I nearly tripped on a tree root that had wandered farther out from its trunk and the cut at my ankle flared with pain.
The stream babbled cheerfully next to me in contrast to my frustration, free of trash and pollution like one would see in my home world.
I spent the second day of my transmigration trying to figure out what to do next. The first day was the shock response, the second had to be planning. I had to face the truth: I would not survive this world or even this coming winter without taking a mate. Without taking more than one, probably. I remember it being mentioned in some beast world comic or other that a female needed a minimum of three mates to survive. Not only that, but the strong survive in this world and the weak die. Taking mates with no stripes wouldn’t be good for me in the long run. Not if I wanted to thrive here.
And that was a daunting thought – thriving. Could I really survive in this world? I was no blushing virgin – well, sort of. I had never had sex with a man, I was no stranger to big toys and pleasure. but my only relationship – my first kiss and first everything – had been with my girlfriend, who…
Who I would never see again.
Tears stung at my eyes but I wiped them away. Not the time to think of that. Whether I would ever find a way home, I couldn’t tell. It seemed like none of these heroines ever did, and I was now one of them. First, I needed to assure my survival.
And that meant taking a mate. A strong one.
I’d thought about it a lot for the past day, what I would do in this world. I couldn’t sleep with a stranger. I certainly wasn’t going to sleep with Parker. The idea of basically getting married made me want to vomit but I would do what it took to survive. And that had been the basis of my plan.
I wouldn’t mate with a stranger. What if I essentially married someone who would be cruel to me or to my prospective children? Could I count on anyone to step in and protect me? I was helpless. And… if I chose a character – person – that I had read about, that I knew and could reasonably trust… wasn’t that for the best?
QingQing wasn’t a good partner to all of her mates, and they were all strangers to her anyway. She didn’t know Parker, after all. Why would she know any of the others?
Curtis was strong. He was good. He was jealous, but that made sense given that he was a feral male and that was essentially his culture. Honestly, Parker’s ridiculous jealousy and complete lack of respect for me was weird, given that he was from a culture that was based on and actively encouraged polyandry and the essential worship of females. I could handle Curtis’ jealousy, I was fairly sure. And there was some time to figure out what to do about his hibernation – winter was coming, but it wasn’t right around the corner.
He would never grab my arms as tightly as Parker had when I had said I wanted to stay elsewhere. I had been scared. I knew Parker turned out to be better throughout the comic, but rehabilitating him wasn’t my responsibility, no matter that his attentions had fallen on me for whatever reason.
(It was my scent, he said - I was beautiful in this world where I had merely been pretty in mine, with clear skin and wide eyes and healthy curves. It could have been Bai QingQing as easily as it was me, but there was something about my scent that was like catnip to the whole ass leopard village and Parker was just the first one to smell me.)
I personally thought Bai QingQing was prettier than me, but as I trudged along, hoping to fall into Curtis’ trap, I hoped that whatever it was about my scent would make up for the fact that she was supermodel thin and I, well, wasn’t. If Curtis met me first, I hoped, and actually listened when I talked to him, maybe he would pick me.
The thought of mating with him terrified me and it felt wrong, like cheating, but I knew my girlfriend wouldn’t begrudge me doing what it takes to survive. God, how many times had we laughed and joked about what if we got isekai’d. How much had we laughed when I’d cracked jokes about building my dream beast man harem, with her egging me on.
If I ever made it home, I would tell her all about it. I would kiss her as soon as I saw her despite the inevitable tears streaming down my face and I would tell her all about Parker being a shithead and how I looked for Curtis and how I survived to get back to her somehow.
It was thoughts of the importance of surviving that distracted me from watching where I stepped, and it was just my luck that it was then that my foot went right through some kind of false flooring and sent me tumbling into darkness.
I was lucky not to break anything, I realized when I could breathe again, though there was immediate pain from my landing. I was… in a cave. The cave.
I wanted to laugh hysterically. I was planning on talking to Curtis not getting myself stuck in his cave, what the hell? Who knew how long it would take for him to come back?
“Hello?” I called out tentatively, and then, deciding to live balls to the wall ventured further in and tried a slightly softer, more tentative, “Curtis?”
I got no answer. I didn’t like the dark bit of the cave I was standing in though, so I walked towards the light where…
A sharp intake of breath broke the silence. Mine, of course, but it nearly startled me all the same. There, illuminated by sunlight, sitting innocently on a rock, was what looked like a folded bolt of red cloth.
There was no denying it. This was Curtis’ cave. How many red snakes could there possibly be hiding their shed skin in caves around the leopard village, after all?
I was tempted to touch it. It looked beautiful. It looked – soft. Magnificent. Like-
I didn’t realize what I was doing until my fingers brushed over it and I realized it was every bit as smooth and silky and delicate as it looked, and somehow strong besides.
I had touched it, I realized with panic, drawing my hand back and glancing around as though there could have been a witness. I was being silly. And anyway, now that I had actually touched it, it was too late. He’d find me. If he liked my scent, I supposed.
I… hoped he did. I hadn’t stopped to consider what would happen if I’d come to speak to him and he didn’t. Now that I was in his cave… would he kill me if I wasn’t to his tastes? I couldn’t even make my way back to the village for him to follow my scent. No one knew where I’d gone. I was essentially at his mercy.
But no – Curtis was good. He was just so lonely and had been taught that kidnapping females was the only way. He wouldn’t hurt me. I wasn’t sure if I believed it or was trying to convince myself now that I was here, but the realization that I’d acted recklessly made me fill stupid. In for a penny, in for a pound, though. I thought about it for a minute and then decided to make the best of things.
I tentatively picked up the skin and sat down where it had been set, gently laying it in my lap. I would wait right there until he came back, so that he would see that I was willing, that I had waited for him on purpose, that I knew what his skin meant and would accept him.
Determined, I waited.
And waited.
My eyes grew heavy. I resisted sleep. The skin was so soft and welcoming under my fingers.
I fell asleep.
When I woke up, it was to glimmering scarlet eyes watching me.
“Holy shit-“ I blurted out, scrambling back. Or rather, trying to, because no sooner had I flung myself backwards that something smooth and huge and exceptionally long wrapped around my body, holding me in place.
I didn’t dare glance down, not as he stepped into view, all long scarlet hair and ruby eyes, but I knew instinctively it must be his tail.
“You seem to like my skin, female,” he observed in lieu of a greeting, slithering forward.
Don’t panic, I thought. Just breathe, and – fuck.
“I do,” I admitted, heart wildly racing. “I was looking for you when I fell into your cave and found it on the rock.”
He didn’t move, didn’t blink, gave me absolutely nothing.
“Looking for me?” He asked, and only then cocked his head to the side. His tongue flickered out of his mouth, tasting the air between us.
My heart was absolutely thundering against my chest.
“Yes.” I tried to breathe in and out, slowly. “I know you. I came to talk to you – and then I found your skin. It’s beautiful.”
As are you, I wanted to add, but that seemed inappropriate.
He drew closer still, until he was almost flush against me. Technically, I supposed, he was flush against me. His tail was, at any rate.
“Talk? To me?” He repeated, expression still blank but tone considering.
I nodded.
“I… I know who you are. Your name is Curtis and,” I steeled myself, “I came to court you.”
The silence that followed felt deafening to me. Just his eyes on mine, searching for any deception, for – I wasn’t sure what.
“How do you know my name, female?” He asked, tone more curious than anything.
I took that as a good sign. Hopefully.
“It’s a long story. One I won’t tell anyone that isn’t my mate. But I promise no one else knows about you, no one in the village. I came to look for you alone and I promise I won’t tell anyone you’re here. You’re safe. I mean, you have four stripes so you don’t need protection from me, but I’m promising it to you anyway. Just – think about it? I get that I might not be your ideal mate, but I hope that you find something about me appealing enough to consider me. If not, I will return your skin and we can go our separate ways.”
I was no Bai QingQing with her perfect figure but… I already loved Curtis as my favorite character and I was ashamed to say I was stupidly attracted to him. I knew I would treat him better than QingQing ever did.
I was startled out of my thoughts by Curtis’ hands coming up to touch my face and then he was so close, unbearably so, as his tail slipped a little tighter around me as though an extension of his will.
“You think I would let you go?” He asked slowly, some rich amusement in his voice at the thought. “You chose my skin, female. I am more interested in you than the return of my skin. You come here offering to court a feral and accept the gift I had not yet planned to give.”
“I’m sorry,” I squeaked, my cheeks flushing with heat. “I didn’t want to take any choice from you, I just couldn’t resist your skin, it looked so soft. It’s beautiful, like you.”
I wished the earth would swallow me up before I could get another word out of my mouth, but unfortunately, it didn’t.
“You think I’m beautiful?” His amusement was… something. His voice was dangerous, I thought distractedly, and then tried to focus.
“Not the point. I just thought – I’m alone in the world, and you’ve been alone your entire life. I thought that maybe we could understand each other a little bit and – you’re good. I know you are. I know that even if you don’t want me, you won’t hurt me. So that’s why I trust you.”
I was embarrassed, but I tried to be as direct as possible.
“If you accept me courting you, then I promise I’ll be the best partner I can be. I’ll do my best to pull my own weight and I’ll care for you and love you like you deserve, I just ask that you be understanding that I will need other mates as well.”
His tail squeezed to the point that it took my breath away a little bit.
“You are my female. You don’t need other mates, I will provide everything you need.”
The jealousy was biting and real as his tongue flickered out in agitation. More than I expected, even though I knew he was jealous by nature. I suppose I just didn’t think I compared to QingQing, but then, he hadn’t met her.
“You hibernate during the winter – cold season. I… I don’t know how to hunt and I’m not as strong as even a no stripe male so even if I did know I’d be in danger of wolves and stuff. If you’re my only mate, I’ll die without you while you sleep.”
He reared back as if struck. I pressed my advantage while I had it.
“I swear if you become my mate, I will never willingly leave you, and I will fight to get back to you if someone takes me. I will stay with you throughout your hibernation and I will be there when you wake every time. But you have to work with me.”
Curtis was in shock. This female made such oaths – knowing that he would sleep during the winter and wouldn’t be able to provide. Such devotion was unfounded. The other males of her village must court her desperately, and yet she still came to seek him out.
“Curtis?” I ventured, and wiggled a little bit in his tail’s grip so that he might see that he was constricting too much. “You’re squishing me.”
He let go abruptly, not so much as to drop me, but enough that I could free the arm not still cradling his skin. He was silent, though. Thinking.
“My name is Darcy,” I said in offering, giving him a little more to work with as he considered my words.
“Darcy,” he tested thoughtfully. The name, he thought suddenly, of his future mate. It sent a thrill through him. This female, strange though she was, coming to court him - though if she had heard of him perhaps she had come to seek him out because he had four stripes, a thought that deeply satisfied him – would be his female. His beautiful, delicious smelling, kind enough to accept a feral, female. His female, who he believed when she swore she would never abandon him…
I watched him curiously as he mulled over my name, wondering what he was thinking. And then I got my answer, I supposed.
“Mate with me.” It wasn’t a command, but it wasn’t a plea, either. No matter the sudden undercurrent of want that colored the words, something almost desperate, as though something he had wanted his whole life had been placed in front of him and all he needed was my agreement to have it.
Which, I supposed, wasn’t far off the mark.
“I – wait, I said I would court you,” I blurted as his face approached mine, his hair falling down in a curtain around us both as he got too, too close to me. “I’m not ready to mate with you yet and you don’t know me. What if I’m spoiled and selfish and don't care about your feelings and just am completely wrong for you?”
“You come here offering to court me. Offering. In that you have already given more thought to my thoughts and feelings than any other female might,” Curtis argued, determination written on his features. “I know more about you from this singular conversation than I would any other female had I decided it was time to steal one from the village. You have chosen me, and it is my right to choose you.”
My body reacted to this declaration despite myself, squirming in his hold.
“What if there is another female, a prettier one, a better one? What if you regret choosing me?”
I was sure I couldn’t bear it if I didn’t earn his respect, his interest, his love, and then he met Bai QingQing and regretted me. I couldn’t live with it if I tied myself to anyone in this world, canon character or not, and they regretted me because there was a prettier girl they could have had in my place.
It was one thing if we courted and it didn’t work out. But if we rushed into something and he decided that everything I am wasn’t enough, I would never recover.
“I will never regret choosing the female who sought me out.” The words were spoken with such cool authority that it made my spine straighten. “I will never look at another female, and even if I did, none of them could ever be as beautiful as you.”
I needed mates to survive. I needed at least three, preferably by winter, or ‘cold-season’ as they knew it here. And that didn’t count the number I might ultimately need to support the number of children I could have, given that I could get pregnant at essentially any time of year, thanks to human fertility.
I didn’t think of anything like that in this moment, though. I felt Curtis’ intent in his words and I thought, given what I knew about him as a character, that…
I could fall in love with this male.
He would take care of me, I knew, would spoil and indulge me as much as a male could in this world. Would protect me from any threat. But what stuck out to me in this moment was that I believed him. He would devote himself to me entirely because that’s the culture of this world, sure, but that devotion would never waver because he was choosing me back and he was decided. I would be it for him, forever. And he would never want another.
So when his mouth lowered to mine, testing, I let my lips part, welcomed him in.
It felt… surprisingly right. As though his mouth was meant to slant over mine, as though his lean, strong body was meant to be crushed against mine.
I kissed him back and managed not to think about my life back at home, managed to focus on the feeling of him against me, and when he went for the wrap Parker had supplied me with, clumsily sewn by him to make up for the fact that most of my clothes had been ruined in the transmigrating effort, I didn’t stop him.
At some point, he transformed from his half form to his full human form, and I felt two hard lengths against me.
“Gently. Please,” I gasped as he pulled the skirt up onto my waist. “I’ve never been with a male before – even less a snake feral. I don’t know what to expect.”
He paused as he kissed his way down my neck, his strong hands hauling me onto him so that my legs instinctively wrapped around his waist. He had two erections, something that had me nervous as fuck. Was he supposed to use both at a time?
“No,” he murmured in answer. I hadn’t even realized I’d said it aloud. “One after the other, to prolong the pleasure and increase the chances of children.”
Having mates meant having children I reminded myself as I shifted nervously, clinging to him despite that being the opposite of what the sudden jolt of nerves probably merited. But I couldn’t do anything about that. I needed a mate. I needed several mates. I tried to think of when my last period was through the haze of want…
It finished less than a week ago, I thought. Just before I’d come to this world. I knew fertility awareness was not the most effective way of preventing pregnancy but I was reasonably sure that I wouldn’t get pregnant before ovulating. And I would have to get pregnant eventually, that was the cost of having mates to provide for you in this world.
“Okay,” I said aloud, this time on purpose. I was affirming my determination, and in the same word letting Curtis know I was good to proceed.
I most likely wouldn’t get pregnant yet. And I would have Curtis, strong, devoted Curtis, as my mate. To protect, to provide. To love.
I reached up and pulled Curtis’ face back to mine.
DING! CONFIRMING GUEST: LIN HUANHUAN JACKSON, DARCY. UPLOADING INFORMATION.
I pulled away for just a second, bewildered.
“D-“
‘Did you hear that’ went unasked because he was kissing me, was worshipping me with gentle, firm hands with obvious respect to what I’d said.
And I lost myself to the moment, the strange ‘ding!’ forgotten as his hands reached a place no man had ever touched and he worked me up until I was panting and full of want.
“Curtis – please,” I begged, needing more friction, needing more than the caress of his fingers through the slickness between my thighs, more than one, than two, slipping into me with embarrassing ease and fingering me until I needed more, needed his cock, either one, just-
I regretted my pleading request when his fingers (so, so close, I’d just needed more-) withdrew and he brought them up to his mouth to let his tongue flicker out to taste them. And that, that brought a keening moan from me as his eyes slid shut with a low groan that went straight to my core.
I ground against him, my wetness slipping over his top erection with wanton abandon, and then his hand was there, lining him up with my entrance so that he could finally, finally fill me the way I desperately needed.
And then he was inside me, fully sheathed. It hurt a little, despite how worked up I was, but it was a passing twinge rather than any real pain. I would teach him, I thought deliriously as he began to pump in and out of me, hips barely restrained from the force of his want solely by my request that he be gentle. I would teach him foreplay, would teach him to make sure I was ready for his stupidly big cock like I would be ready before taking a toy of comparable size.
I would teach him because this man – this male – was now essentially my husband, and I would be a fair and just wife to him because I had initiated this, I had proposed to him and I had ultimately been the one to accept him.
“Curtis,” I moaned, writhing against him as my train of thought was fucked out of me by his increasingly desperate pace. “More. More, please, more more more-“
He obliged. For one wild moment, all there was in the world was his hips slamming against mine, his cock pumping in and out of me, the feeling of his second erection, ready to go, brushing against my sensitive parts with each movement – and then I was falling over the edge, spasming tightly around him as I cried out.
“Oh, fuck,” I managed through the haze as I felt my muscles contract around him, felt him twitch inside me and then lose control entirely under the sensation of my orgasm.
We came one after the other, him triggered by me, and I let out a broken moan that I didn’t fully understand the origins of as I felt him spurt within me.
My head, I realized blearily after a moment, had lolled back at some point since I came so hard I saw white. It took real effort to pick it up, to force my jelly-like body to obey.
Curtis was staring at a spot on my ribs with a look of sheer awe.
“My female,” he breathed in wonder, in praise. “My female. Mine.”
I glanced down and saw a red snake primed to strike on my ribs, beneath my breast. Beneath my heart.
INFORMATION UPLOAD COMPLETE. SYSTEM INITIALIZED.
I blinked, my head snapping up to look somewhere behind Curtis where a blue glow was visible. Floating words started making sense and then promptly disappeared, replaced by new ones.
GREETINGS, DEAR GUEST. WELCOME TO SYSTEM #438.
A system? I couldn’t remember if that was present in Bai QingQing’s story. Certainly not in the beginning.
SUCCESSFULLY ACQUIRED 1 MATE. NEW PLAYER MISSION TRIGGERED. NEW PLAYER MISSION COMPLETED: ACQUIRE 1 MATE. SENDING NEW PLAYER GIFT PACK.
NEW PLAYER MISSION TRIGGERED. PLEASE ACQUIRE (3) MATES. PART OF QUEST ‘SURVIVE YOUR FIRST WINTER.’ (1/3) MATES ACQUIRED. REWARD UPON COMPLETION.
NEW STORY MISSION TRIGGERED. MAKE YOUR WAY TO ROCK MOUNTAIN.
“What?”
I think that was what came out, anyway. I was vaguely aware that there was some kind of bag on my lap as Curtis set me down that hadn’t been there before – the ‘new player starter pack,’ perhaps? And then that was all I knew.
‘Rock Mountain’ echoed in my mind as I lost consciousness.
“Female,” someone’s voice called, low and urgent. “Darcy. Darcy, wake up.”
I was sprawled, naked, on Curtis’ lap, his tail wrapped around us both. The weight of it was oddly comforting and I was grateful for the insulation it provided, though I knew Curtis himself didn’t really generate heat like a different type of beast man might.
“Curtis?” I ventured, opening my eyes to look into his scarlet ones, his red, red hair falling around us both. “I – what happened?”
He studied me for a moment, his grip tightening in a way that I recognized as being born out of a misunderstanding.
“I remember mating,” I assured him hurriedly, “I just – I fainted? I don’t-“
The end of his tail smoothed down my hair in a gesture clearly meant to comfort me as much as it was obviously for his own comfort.
“You were looking at something,” Curtis said slowly, eyes searching mine, “and then this bag appeared. Then, you fainted.”
It must have looked very strange to him, I realized.
My hand came up not quite despite myself to caress his cheek.
“I’m sorry for scaring you, Curtis.” I soothed, noting how he leaned into my hand but kept his eyes on me. “I – do you know where Rock Mountain is?”
It was at the forefront of my mind. I had to get there, but what if-
“Yes. Do you wish to travel there?” He asked, distaste evident in his tone. “You aren’t well. You need to eat, rest, and recover.”
I hesitated.
“I do. Want to travel there.” I considered his other words. “I… could eat something. I’m pretty hungry. And after that, I could definitely use a nap. But it’s important we get there as quickly as possible. I don’t want to go back to the leopard village if I don’t have to.”
Parker would follow me – us. I knew he would. I felt kind of bad for leaving QingQing alone, but she insisted on lying to everyone and not even trying to assimilate and she did very little but complain. If I could get to Rock Mountain, maybe I could help HuanHuan if she was there.
I wasn’t sure how two different beast worlds with two different strength and biological law features would work, but I would see how things worked out. If both worlds were colliding, I definitely didn’t want to stay with QingQing and be in the same Beast City as her when everything went to shit and the volcano exploded.
Fuck that, I thought with determination. Shit would go down at Rock Mountain, but that was more manageable in comparison to volcanoes and scorpion kings and shit, so I’d much rather go there. And ideally QingQing wouldn’t get herself into nearly as much trouble without Curtis and his four stripes around to enable her.
“I’ll bring you something fresh,” Curtis decided, looking me up and down. “Then you can rest while I mend your clothes. I will make you better ones out of my skin while we’re travelling.”
It was a solid plan, I supposed, but what got me was that he was basically going to do all of the work while I… consumed resources and rested instead of helping. It was a bit shameful, how little use I was here. I could sew by hand but not well enough to make clothing by any means. Just enough to mend little rips and such.
I was overwhelmed with gratitude.
I knew it might not be the healthiest thing for me in the long run, but relief flooded me as I realized I could depend on Curtis. That I would depend on him in the future. That he was my first and thus always would be the most central of my mates, my first protector, my first provider, no matter that I was determined to treat all of my future mates fairly and with equal love.
I kissed him.
“Thank you,” I breathed, because he was doing all of the planning for my seemingly arbitrary want. He would indulge me even to the point of taking me to a foreign place that he didn’t know anything about and could possibly be at risk in.
He studied me for a moment, taking in every feature of my face. I was self-conscious. Did I have wrinkles I wasn’t aware of? Grey hairs? I was only twenty five…
“You’re beautiful,” he said quietly. “My mate.”
A pause. And then-
“It was you that brought us together. You don’t have to thank me for anything.”
Then he was gone.