Chapter 12: The City of Forms Beauty

I opened my eyes to see the sun shining its golden rays under the door. My eyes burned when I rubbed the crusties from them. The dried tears on my cheeks flaked away with a soft swipe of my fingertips. I slid the warm black tail off of my body and slipped out of the bed to get ready for the day. I walked slowly and quietly over to the backpack with our clothes in to pick out the right outfit for today. As I opened the backpack, I noticed the two outfits Alfie put in there just before leaving. I had never seen them before, and they looked much fancier than any outfit he has made yet.

I pulled out the outfit made from leopard skin and noticed that it was two pieces. The first, smaller, piece was the top. It was a sexy halter top; the deep 'v' cut would have gone below my breasts. The top resembled more of a sports bra or bralette since it wasn't very long and wouldn't go below my ribs when worn. The gently set the top to the side to look at the bottom, larger, piece. The long skirt had a few layers in the back and a large opening in the front; it was like a high-low skirt from my world. the waistline looked like it would be more of a high waisted fit than a low rider fit like he normally makes my clothes. I had never seen this kind of clothes in this world before and wondered where he got the idea to make this type of an outfit for me. He has never wanted me to show off much of my body before since I have a few tattoos that are unheard of in this world.

In this world, tattoos don't exist. The only marks on somebodies' body is a mating mark of your partner. This mark goes on the body according to how much you love the person you mate with. For males, their marks are almost always on their chest, on or near their heart to show they love their female more than anything. The females have marks all across their bodies from each mate they have. Some could be on their feet, hands, or on their chest if it is a mate they truly love.

I looked back into the bag to see the other outfit. This outfit was much smaller, but also had two pieces. In the light I noticed it was made from snakeskin. The top was made just like the other one, a halter top with a deep 'v'. The bottoms were a short skirt that would reach only a few inches below my butt. The skirt was fairly tight looking but stretched a little when pulled. As I was looking at the outfits, Alfie comes behind me and whispers in my ear, "The snakeskin one is for today and the leopard skin one if for tomorrow. The rest of the days you can wear your regular clothes."

I turned around to face him and said, "I thought you said I didn't have to participate in the beauty competition today?"

"You don't, but you still need to look your best. We are looking for a girlfriend, remember."

By this time, I had completely forgotten about the conversation we had about finding a girlfriend at the gathering. "Oh, I nearly forgot about that. So how are we going to do that? Do I have to participate in the Strength Tournament to impress her?"

He laughed at my last question and kissed me lightly on the cheek, "No, if a female is interested in females, she should notice you and introduce herself to you. When a female is interested in merging her family with another, they normally act like friends at first, and the conversation gets brought up after a little bit of time getting to know each other and their mates. Females here don't normally get along with the other females unless they want something from them, so we are waiting until they come to you or you find one you want to go up to."

I slightly nod my head to show my understanding as I pulled out an outfit for Alfie and Royce to wear today. Once I had their outfits out for them, I stood up to try on the snakeskin outfit Alfie had made for me. The top was very easy to get on since the top tied around the back of my neck and the bottom tied in the back. The skirt looked like it would be a struggle to slide up my thick thighs, but surprisingly it slid up with ease and fit perfectly around my stomach and thighs. The high waisted fit went perfectly with the top and accentuated my figure. The thick thighs and large, round butt were perked up; they looked the best they ever had before. The hourglass shape of my waist was synched in just the slightest bit to look natural and sexy. The halter top was tied perfectly so that it perked my breasts up to where they were before I got pregnant with Royce.

I turned around to show Alfie my outfit and his jaw dropped, I thought it would hit the floor. His eyes sparkled like I had seen before and he wrapped his arms around my waist as he spun me around in circles. When he set me back on the ground, he planted a kiss on my lips just as Royce opened the door of his room. I lightly pushed Alfie off of me and walked over the Royce to hand him is outfit for the day. They both got dressed quickly and we rushed out of the house to make it to the greeting announcement.

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The three of us were walking towards the city square where there was a raised stage and a large bare area with no buildings. As we made if to the middle of the crowd, we stopped. I made sure to keep Alfie and Royce close and held both of their hands, so we didn't get lost. Royce couldn't see over the crowd but didn't want to move any closer to the front since it was much more packed ahead of us. Everybody was murmuring to their families when a man cleared his throat to start talking on the stage. In an instant, everybody became silent and waited for the speech from the man. He was about the same size as Alfie, but his muscles were started to show age on them. His skin was starting to droop and wrinkle, and he had a few age spots forming sporadically.

"I want to welcome everybody to the gathering today. This is a great opportunity for males to find a mate, and villages to gain new people. Today we will start the beauty competition where every female is required to participate and attract new males to their hometowns. In a few minutes we will ask each female to come up to the stage and be shown off to each male in the crowd. When each female has been shown, the males will vote on the female with the most admirers and she will be crowned the City of Forms Beauty. Are you all ready?!" the entire crowd hooted and howled as they got ready for the females to come up. "Now, my mate would like to say a few words."

I looked over to Alfie with a scowl as his mother started to walk to the front of the stage to get ready to speak, 'I thought you said I didn't have to participate!' I thought as he raised his shoulders up.

'I honestly didn't think you did. He has never said that before.' He responded just as his mother started to talk.

"I just wanted to welcome everybody, especially three special guests that are here today." My stomach dropped to the floor and I had a feeling she was going to point us out in the crowd. "My son is here today with his mate and her son. Now, she and her son are very special because they are shifters, both of them." The crowd gasped in unison and looked around at each other to see if they could see who she was talking about. She looked right at us and said, "Please come up and show everybody who I am talking about! I'm sure they would love to meet the first shifters for the last five thousand years." She waved her hand to signal for us to come up to the stage and Alfie started to weed through the crowd to get to the stage steps. I didn't know what to think at this point, I was terrified and anxious. I didn't want the world to meet us like this.

We got to the stage and walked up the steps. But I felt like time had slowed as I looked out into the crowd. There were more people than I could see in my vision and they were all completely silent. My heart started to race, and my eyes started to glow. I squeezed Alfie's hand tighter and my claws started to grow. I couldn't contain my anxiety and I couldn't stop my heart from racing. I could feel my fangs start to poke my inner lips and I could taste the blood in my mouth. I looked down at Royce and he was completely calm, unfazed. I looked up at Alfie and he was sweating. I could hear his heartbeat racing, but his face looked completely calm as well. "There is no reason to be nervous, you are a shifter after all, you're bound to have many more appearances like this." I heard his mother whisper in my left ear.

I tried to hide my fear and retracted my fangs. "Hello everybody, my name is Alyssa, and this is Royce." I looked down at Royce as he looked up at me smiling. His smile made it much easier in front of the crowd, so I continued. "We are the shifters that were mentioned. I don't want you to treat us any differently than anybody else, we are just like all of you." Just then, a female caught my eye as she was lining up near the steps to start the beauty competition.

Her eyes were a beautiful light blue that popped with her long dark brown hair that fell to her lower back. Her hair fell beautifully and looked as if she had layers in it. Her lips were a perfect peach color that matched her cheeks. Her body was very similar to mine, and she stuck out from the line of women around her. She was stunning, even in my world she would have been. She was staring back at me with admiration in her eyes.

I snapped back to reality after what felt like minutes but was really a few seconds. "I will hand the floor back so we can get started with the beauty competition." I stuck my hand in the direction of Alfie's dad and backed up from the front of the stage.

"Thank you, Alyssa. I would like to welcome the rest of the females on the stage and we will start right away." The women all walked up to the stage and stood in a single file line on either side of me. I was bumped lightly by the female to my right and when I looked, I saw her. The stunning female was standing right next to me and smiled when our eyes met. I could feel butterflies in my stomach fluttering madly as I mustered up a smile back to her.

As we were standing next to each other and waiting for each female to step to the front and be shown off to the crowd of males, the stunning female kept tapping my hand by 'accident' and even grabbing my pinky with hers. My heart stopped with every touch and she would giggle each time I started to sweat with nervousness plastered on my face. Sadly, it was my turn to be shown so we had to let go of each other's hands. I walked to the front of the stage, said my name, and did a smile and a slow twirl like each female did for their turn and walked back to my spot next to her.

When she went up next, she gently slid her hand across my ass, but she made it look like an accident. I thought 'Alfie, she's the one.' And I looked in his direction. He raised one side of his lips and slightly nodded his head.

When I looked back as he was walking back to me, I heard a female say, 'What's your name?' She didn't even move her mouth, but I knew it was her speaking. She looked directly into my eyes as if waiting for a response, but I didn't know what to do. I thought females only had one true mate. How could I hear her thoughts if I already have a true mate? I started to fiddle with my thumbs and started to get extremely nervous again when I heard her again, 'It is not known by many, but shifters have shown to have more than one true mate. I have never heard of it being two females before, but it's not impossible, I guess. So, when I heard your thoughts to your mate, I knew it. So, what's your name, true mate?'

'Alyssa, what's yours?' I thought. I looked over at Alfie and his brows and nose crunched up in confusion.

'Who are you talking to, Alyssa?' he asked, and I just looked at her as a silent response.

'Delilah.' She responded to me. The last of the females were being shown and I couldn't concentrate on anything happening around me. I was starting to feel dizzy and everything was starting to blur.

I was brought back to reality when Alfie's dad started talking again, "Now, we ask every unmated male to walk over to the talliers over there and say the name of the female you liked the most. They will then count up that votes for each female and announce the winner shortly. The females may join their mates until we get the results." We started walking down the stairs to get off of the stage when I met up with Alfie.

I whispered as quietly as I could in his ear, "We need to talk, now!" and grabbed his hand. I had already lost Delilah as she walked over to her mates. We walked to a spot far away from the crowd and I let go of Royce and Alfie's hands. I whispered again, "Have you ever heard of shifters having more than one true mate?"

"What!? NO! Having more than one true mate is impossible. Why are you asking me this?" he whispered back.

"She just heard my thoughts, and I heard hers. She said that it is not widely known, but shifters have more than one true mate. How is this possible?"

"Wait, is that who you were thinking to? I have never heard of that before, and another female as your other true mate? If you are sure that she heard your thoughts and you heard hers, then I can't deny it. She has to be your second true mate."

I was about to respond when a soft hand grabbed mine. I turned around to see a group of about twenty males being led by Delilah. "Hi Alyssa! I brought my mates over to meet you! I thought we could get to know each other and maybe discuss what we will do after the gathering. Where are your other mates?" she looked around on her tippy toes but didn't see anybody else around. I looked at Alfie and I could see his brows turn down in the middle. He looked pissed to be seeing her right now.

I squeezed his hand into mine again and he loosened his expression. "I only have one mate. This is Alfie, and this is my son, Royce." I gently pushed the back of his head as he walked in front of me. He looked up at me with confusion in his eyes. Just as I was about to speak again, Alfie's father started speaking again.

He heard his voice carry, "We now have the results of the beauty competition, if we could have everybody back to the stage area, we will announce them shortly."

I looked over at Delilah and said, "Well, I guess we will have to finish this discussion later. Let's go hear who the winner is!"

She looked at me up and down and bit her lip. "I'm sure we already know who the winner is, Alyssa. Let's stand next to each other in the crowd, ok?"

I nodded my head and grabbed both Alfie and Royce's hands once again to walk back into the crowd. A path was made for all of us near the front and we stood together with Delilah's mates surrounding us. Everybody muttered as the alpha walked onto the stage but fell silent when he stepped forward. "This female won by the biggest lead we have ever seen in the City of Forms, the winner is, Alyssa the shifter!" Everybody started hooting and howling once again as I walked up to the stage. I stood awkwardly without the protection of Alfie besides me. "Now, Alyssa, you will wear this crown for the remainder of the gathering." He showed me a beautiful crown made from wound thin branches and delicate light pink flowers. I lowered my head for it to be placed on my head. The alpha stepped to the side and presented me with his hands by his side as he said, "Your new City of Forms Beauty, Alyssa" I spread a fake smile across my face as I walked off the stage and back to Alfie. He grabbed my hand tightly in unison with Royce.