Strongest Mate

When Caspian and Ember returned to Basil's old home, it was to Iris sleeping peacefully in Basil's arms. Basil watched contentedly as Iris slept, with a relaxed smile on his face.

Ember seemed disgruntled to see Iris asleep. He had gone out of his way to catch an all too uncommon auroch (cow ancestor) and was eager to show off his prey. Many beastmen struggled to catch such a large and angry beast and could find themselves injured from their large horns on the aurochs' head. Of course, for Ember, catching any prey was an easy feat.

Caspian felt very put off by Ember's overly prideful and brutish behavior. Ember had been pissed as Hell when Caspian had tried to tell him they needed to go hunt this morning. It wasn't until Ember had beat Caspian black and blue that he had felt compliant enough to do so.

Ember was plenty happy to provide for his mate but he wouldn't put up with anyone even hinting at telling him what to do. Thus, after teaching Caspian a lesson he had told Caspian to "fuck off" while he went to catch Iris breakfast himself.

Caspian had decided that as long as Iris was provided for, it wasn't worth worrying about Ember's attitude. Then Caspian went to gather miner's lettuce and chickweeds so Iris could have plants with her meat. Caspian knew Iris would not be very happy if she was served only meat, even if she wouldn't actually admit to it.

Upon walking into the bedroom, Ember shoved Basil on the floor and then handed him the meat saying

"Prepare this for her. I'm going to go out, I'll be back later."

Basil wanted to argue with Ember, but after seeing the state Caspian was in, he didn't feel it was worth it. Thus, Basil got to work fetching water and starting a fire to cook the food.

Meanwhile, Caspian attended to Iris. Caspian washed her and then tucked the blankets around her to keep her warm. Later, when she was eating Caspian would comb Iris's hair so that she could be more comfortable.

After leaving the house, Ember headed to the combat arena. Having had very little other joys in life up until this point, Ember had often fought in the arena. It was a great way to make money, practice your combat skills, and gain experience towards leveling one's beast up.

In order to enter the arena, one had to pay an initial fee. From there, so long as you made it past the first round, you could earn payment. The better you did in the arena before having to tap out, the more money you could make. In a small beast city like this one, Ember would have very little trouble defeating anyone thrown his way.

The combat arena actually made a lot of money for the city as well. Audience members would also pay a fee to enter that was only slightly less than the participants' entry fee. From there, bers could be placed on how long you thought a competitor could last and who would win a given match. Much like other gambling establishments in the modern world, the house would always profit the most.

When Iris awoke, it was to the delicious smell of roasting meat. Iris had a gentle smile as she took in her mates' figures. They were all quite handsome with well defined muscles, but they were also unique in their own ways. Iris felt quite content as she quietly watched Basil cooking.

When Basil saw Iris was awake he pounced towards her with his eyes alight with mischief. Iris blushed as she was reminded of earlier that morning when she was intimate with Basil. Basil said nothing as he leaned in for a kiss.

"Your breakfast will be done soon. Ember caught some auroch before going out for the morning. After breakfast, we will need to pack everything up so we can head home before nightfall."

Caspian interrupted the two's intimacy with a pained voice. Iris looked over to Caspian with a concerned face. She was worried he was upset about her taking in other mates despite having assured her previously that everything would be fine.

Upon seeing Caspian's body covered in bruises and nasty looking gouges, Iris's heart ached. Only, her attention was pulled away as a system messaged popped up.

[System 316: Quest complete! Congratulations user, 10,000 shop points have been added to your account. You can use them in the system shop at your discretion.]

Iris smiled, happy to have successfully completed yet another quest. There had been so many suitors the previous day that even Iris had lost count. She had no way to know if her efforts would be enough until the system confirmed it.

When Basil returned to cooking and Caspian came over to Iris's side, Iris went to hug her handsome husband. She wanted to share the good news with him, but as she hugged him she heard him groan in pain. Iris pulled back with a face full of worry as she asked

"What happened to you?"

Caspian just smiled sadly as he shook his head. He kissed Iris's head as he went to sit behind her to comb her hair. Only, Iris was not willing to let the matter drop. Iris grabbed Caspian's hand as she turned to face him, looking pointedly at him as she waited for an answer.

"Don't worry so much about me, I'm okay."

Iris didn't like Caspian's lack of an actual answer but could only drop the matter. Only, Ember walked into the house and, having overheard what they were talking about, amusedly said

"He just doesn't want to admit he lost to me. If he doesn't want to get beat, he shouldn't have tried to boss me around."

Upon hearing this, Iris immediately got up and stomped over to Ember, angrily pointing her finger at him as she questioned

"And what the fuck gives you the right to treat him like that?"

Ember gave Iris an incredulous look. Normally females wouldn't care about disputes between their males so long as their needs were met. Ember snorted as he replied

"He can only blame himself if he gets injured. It's his fault for not being strong enough to protect himself."

This only pissed Iris off more. Iris kicked Ember and began to beat her fists against Ember's chest as she angrily told him off.

"You can't just beat other people in this family. I mean, how do you like it huh? Does it feel good to be hit and kicked, huh? It doesn't, does it?

You are all my mates and I don't want you all to treat each other like this. I don't care who is stronger, you shouldn't behave like that.

If I hear you are beating on anyone else when it is unwarranted, I won't let you off! I would sooner abandon you than put up with you mistreating the others!"

Ember was amused at first when Iris started to hit him. She couldn't hurt him even if she wanted to. She'd have far better luck asking him to hurt himself at her request. He'd do it too just as any male would happily do anything for their mates.

When Ember heard Iris say she would abandon him if he kept bullying the others, though, his amusement quickly turned to regret. Ember had spent much of his life alone after he matured. He had always been rather lonely as he traversed the beast continent.

Ember had very little attachment to any particular tribe. After all, there weren't many phoenix's in this world and none of the mixed tribes quite felt like home. Ember had considered trying to find a mate many times over the years, but he had always felt no one was good enough.

For a proud and powerful phoenix like Ember, only the best female would suffice. She would have to be as beautiful as he was and have a good temperament. Ember found that this was difficult to find, though.

Even the treasured tribe beauties and complete females appeared disgusting in his eyes. None of the females in this world took care of themselves like males did. All they did was eat, laze around, and breed. This resulted in fat, smelly, and unkept females that Ember could never choose to settle for.

That is, until Ember saw Iris. Iris was absolutely breathtaking with a curvy figure and was much smaller than other females. She had placed nearly last in the eating contest despite being an omnivore who would be easy to provide for.

When Ember went to greet Iris, he was surprised by how lovely she smelled and how well taken care of she was. Iris's hair was wavy and long, but not a rat's nest like most females and her skin wasn't oily. Ember was amazed by this female and had felt like he finally found his perfect match.

Now, Iris was standing here threatening to abandon him if he mistreated her males. Ember couldn't believe his ears, this female actually cared for ALL of her mates? She actually cared if they got hurt instead of feeling nothing but disdain for them? Ember felt like his entire world was shaken and he couldn't stand to part with such a perfect female.

"Alright, I get it. I won't beat your mates anymore, but I'm not taking orders from anyone but you."

With that, Ember walked away and went to sit in the corner. Iris decided to leave him be. She might not agree with how things worked in this world, but she had to pick her battles. Iris would not be able to fix Ember's attitude problem so she should be happy that he agreed to not mistreat Basil or Caspian anymore.

Basil had finally finished roasting the meat. Once Iris sat back on the bed, he brought a water resistant leaf with thinly sliced meat and the salad ingredients Caspian collected over to Iris. Basil sat on the floor and curled his tail up into her lap as he fed her.

Iris was too stressed from having confronted such a powerful beast and happily stroked Basil's tail. Iris decided not to fight it and allowed Basil and was just glad that instead of his usual teasing, he sat quietly with a doting look as he fed her.

Ember sulked as he sat alone in a corner watching Basil and Caspian attend to their mate. He was the strongest and yet it didn't matter at all to Iris. Ember knew that having a female that cared about all her mates was better in the long run, but he still felt bitter.

Once Iris ate her fill, the three males divided the meat equally and finished it off. Ember normally would have demanded the lion's share of the food as he had caught it and he felt he deserved more of Iris's affections. However, when Iris said they should split it equally, Ember didn't feel like pushing his luck.

After breakfast Iris followed Basil to the room he stored all of his herbs, containers, etc. She began to collect everything that would fit into her bag and put it away. Iris even unpacked items Basil was putting into an animal skin in order to put them in the bag.

Caspian watched amusedly as she did so but offered no help. He would have to eventually explain Iris's peculiarities, but he did not feel a beast city was the place to do so. There were many ears in the city always listening and many of them reported to the priests in the temple.

Basil quickly gave up on trying to pack his herbs as he curiously watched Iris. When he began to feel her bag should have run out of space yet she continued to fill it, he began to question it. However, witch doctors were intelligent and curious and Basil merely observed.

When Iris finished putting all the herbs away she turned to Basil. He pretended to not have noticed anything as he stacked some stone bowls. Many of the stone containers and bowls were too large to realistically put into her bag without raising suspicion, but Iris wondered if it was even necessary as she asked

"Do you have to transport all of those heavy things? We have stone to carve new ones at home and I'm not sure if you'd get much chance to make medicine anyhow. Our tribe has a witch doctor named Oliver who usually already handles most issues....."

Basil smiled at his mate playfully as he asked

"Are you telling me to leave my mate's health to others? Surely you don't despise me that much...."

Iris pursed her lips as she tried to determine if Basil was actually upset. As she saw him pouting and acting coquettishly while still somewhat playful, Iris decided to play it safe.

"Of course not! Why would I want someone else's help when I've got the best witch doctor around all to myself."

Iris's beaming smile and sweet words earned her a doting one from Basil. Sighing as he looked back at his tools, he decided they weren't necessary after all. Basil would just leave them for his replacement and carve new ones later.

"Alright, if you two are done packing up, we should head out. I don't want it to be too dark when we get back to the tribe."

Ember stood up to follow the rest out as they went to leave. He might not be able to earn Iris's affections like the others, but he could still keep her safe. This was the one thing Ember refused to compromise on, no matter what else he had to change to win his little female's heart.