Beastmen Love-Chapter 126: Under Pressure

"Is this..?"

"Yes. You have found your powers, Zin. I can feel Nature and earth energy going through you." She happily says.

He smiles relieved and then hugs her tightly, making her giggle.

"Is this my connection to you?" Zin asks, looking at the flowers that bloomed around them.

"Yes, my love. Earth is a strong and also softer element. You only have to let your mind and imagination guide you." She answers.

Experimenting further, Zin extended his influence, causing the ground to shift, creating small ripples in the soil. Excitement and wonder danced in his eyes as he began to understand the extent of his abilities.

With a newfound sense of purpose, Zin kisses Astri deeply.

"I’ll train to be more capable of protecting you and our family. Thank you." He says.

"Why are you thanking me?" She giggles.

"For making me strong."

"This is not something I chose to give you, love."

"But if it wasn’t you I wouldn’t have this."

She calls everyone to come outside and soon they come. Everyone is amazed by Zin’s powers.

"Congratulations, Zin. You have a powerful element in your control now. I can control the earth a little, but not to the extent of creating, shaping or modeling it. It’s amazing." Claud smiles, really happy for Zin.

"Thank you."

"I wonder what my powers will be.. What did you feel before it appeared?" Cyprian asks.

Zin tells them what he told Astri. They’re still not sure how it works, yet.

"Don’t think about how. Just feel it, my loves. Welcome it. Imagine it, but think about how. Imagine it, feel it, and welcome it." Astri tells them, so they don’t feel pressured to find their powers like a race.

However, after seeing Zin finding his powers made all of the other spouses anxious to find their own powers. Astri said it is not a race, but they feel pressured after Salaz’s invasion.

During the whole day, Zin is testing his powers, learning what he can do and how to control it. Middle of the afternoon he had to stop because he was getting too tired, and now he understands why Astri would often get tired when she trained her powers.

While they are having dinner, Astri, and Claud tell Zin some ideas of what he can do with his powers.

"If you can control the earth, that’s amazing. You and Astri could work on building an underground hide or escape route outside the castle." Claud says.

"That’s a good idea." Astri says, already thinking of ways to do that.

The other spouses are quiet and a bit gloomy. After Astri went to bed, all of them decided to intensify their training so all of them find their powers as soon as possible.

——

Astri watches her spouses sparring with each other, they’re taking things too seriously and getting hurt. They’re forcing their bodies to bring up their powers.

She decides to ignore them and hope for the best.

She goes to check the rebuilding process with the workers, then she sees two bears taking rocks while a man with short honey hair, and a tanned strong body is putting the cement on the wall of the bedroom. She goes to the kitchen and makes some snacks and juice. Then puts all that on a trail and brings it to the workers with the help of Yuki, who brings the sauce pots.

"I was looking for you. I brought Atlas to the potty and you weren’t at the backyard anymore. Don’t do that." Claud says.

She looks at him and smiles.

"Don’t worry, love. What happened won’t happen again that easily." She answers.

"I know, but if it happens I don’t want to risk you being taken. Where are the others?"

"Training like maniacs. I won’t be treating them."

"It is how they think they will find their powers.. They’re just a little pressured after what happened."

She keeps walking and then gets inside the bedroom. She excuses herself and the workers stop working to look at her.

"Thank you for helping with rebuilding our castle. This is in case you get hungry." She says and hands the male the trail.

They blush but are unable to answer anything besides thank her since they’re feeling Claud’s energy on them. She shows them the sauces and how to use them. They’re amazed by that and they get even more infatuated by Astri because the food is delicious and it was made by her.

She leaves with Yuki. They will meet with Kai and Elias for a reading class. Claud goes to the backyard to tell the other spouses that Astri is getting mad at them, but then he sees another huge trail with more snacks, juice, and water on the outside table. She’s not mad, she’s just worried. If she was mad she wouldn’t make them snacks.

While Astri was teaching the letters to her children, Kangki appeared and sat nearby to watch. He ends up learning with the children. He noticed that as long as he didn’t touch Astri, her spouses wouldn’t feel threatened through their spousal marks and he now only touched her if he was ready to be around her males. If he’s not up to look at them, he doesn’t touch her.

Claud arrives and sits near the children, to let Atlas hear his mother even if he might not learn anything now. Claud notices that Kangki is actually paying attention and learning too, and he wonders about Kangki’s existence.

Kangki is evil, that is certain. He’s powerful, that is also certain. However, it looks like Kangki doesn’t care about his own nature. He goes after Astri, even if her energy can extinguish him.

And as time passes, Astri is learning more and more from Nature. Her energy is getting stronger and her skills are getting better, and enhanced. Not too long from now she will be capable of defeating Kangki easily.

But Kangki is not scared about when that day comes. Apparently, he enjoys being around her.

Astri ends the class after teaching some letters. Kai and Elias can concentrate longer, but Yuki does not. So Astri gives short classes and it’s working well this way.

Yuki walks by Kangki, who has his arms crossed, and they look at each other.

"Kank?" She asks.

"Yes?"

Astri and Claud watch them with curiosity.

"You sad?" Yuki asks.

"Sad?.. No. Why?"

"I not know.. You ook sad."

"I’m just serious. I’m not like the others."

"Want to be a new daddy?" That question took Kangki by surprise. "Potect mommy make you happy."

Yuki touched just the right point on him, and that impressed him.

"I’ll protect your mother. Even if I’m not her spouse. She has something that I need."

"Lowve?"

Kangki chuckles, amazed at how brave and sensitive that little tiger is.

"One day you will understand." Kangki answers.

"Pwotect me and my brothers too?"

"...Sure. I will."

"Then you are daddy Kanki?"

"No."

"Then what is it?"

Astri goes to Yuki and squats on her side, hugging her knees.

"Kangki is a guardian. He protects mommy, but he’s not daddy. Just like Galion, Saul, and the others." Astri answers.

"Ah.." She understands now. "Kanki scawy but I like him cause he potects."

Astri smiles and passes her hand on Yuki’s head.

"Me too, sweetie. Now go have some snacks."

Yuki nods and walks to the dining table with her brothers. Astri stands up and then goes to gather the materials she was using, being watched by Kangki.

Astri goes to her workshop and Kangki goes after her. She’s used to him watching her working on anything, so she doesn’t mind him anymore. She takes the project of the other castle and then she thinks about some improvements and enhancements to the project.

"What are you doing?" He asks.

"Projecting improvements for the castle. It was destroyed easily." She says.

"It would be better if you came to live with me."

"You know it’s not possible, dear."

He clicks his tongue crossing his arms.

"Then I’ll live here." He says, and she chuckles.

"As much as I know you’re curious about my life, one day you need to trust my spouses."

"I won’t ever. If it wasn’t you I would have killed them long ago. They’re useless."

"That’s not true. If you want to live here you will need to learn how to live with them. And watch that murderous look around the cubs." She says.

"Are you welcoming me here?" He asks.

She looks at him and then goes to stand in front of him.

"The only reason for me to not welcome you is if you kill anyone here. And not follow the rules to live here. However, you need to understand that you will change."

"Change?" He asks in confusion.

"I can’t stay where you live, not only because it’s dirty. Living where evil energies are will weaken me day by day. I need good energies to survive. If you live here, you will not die, but your energy will purify little by little until one day you won’t be a Monster anymore."

He knows she cannot lie, and what he just learned made him think deeply about this change.

"Before, even your presence near me was enough to make my spouses feel threatened. Now, it’s only when you touch me. Don’t you think that things are already changing?" She asks.

He keeps looking into her eyes.

"Why would you do that? Accept me here even knowing I killed your father trying to get his energy for me."

"You didn’t know the things I’m telling you now. You saw my father as an enemy and that’s why his energy got corrupted and he died. Are you planning to kill me?"

"No.. Depends. I’d rather you die than share your energy with another Monster."

She giggles and he’s impressed that she actually laughed at that.

"So you’re saying that we would die together."

That’s when he realizes that if he’s going to kill her because of another Monster, it will have one sole reason: He’s weaker than the other Monster and can’t protect her. Meaning, he would die afterward too because the other Monster would kill him.

"Yes. We would die together." He says.

"That’s actually romantic. You don’t have any idea of that, right?" She jokes and walks back to her table.

He ’humfs’ her and then fades away, however, what he learned from her made him think deeply about what he imagines for his future.