Beastmen Love-Chapter 157: Brothers’ Protection

Before Astri explains anything and starts to plan their trip, a priest guard comes inside with a faint annoyed, yet worried look.

"Excuse me, my lords and Lady. I’m sorry for interrupting. There’s a line of beastmen forming outside." He says.

"A line of beastmen?" Lee asks, confused.

"Yes. They’re waiting to talk to Master Galion."

"To me?" Galion asks, also confused.

"Yes. All of them appear to be waiting to get a chance to ask you to train them to be Lady Astri’s guards."

Everyone is impressed with what they have heard.

"Tell them to leave." Galion says.

"I did. However, they say they will wait until you leave so they can have a chance to talk to you."

"How many are there?"

"Last time I counted.. 37."

Galion sighs and looks at Astri, wanting to blame her, but he knows it wasn’t her intention. Being a dragon with 15 marks, most beastmen are scared of him, and she knows that if people go after him, it’s because they’re at least brave enough to take a chance.

"Do you want help? I didn’t know so many would come after you for real." Astri asks him, with a guilty smile, sensing his internal distress.

"I know. I have to think or plan what to do with all of them. To be your guard it’s not only a matter of being brave or strong. We must trust them with the most special lives. They are too many to guess who is the best."

"We can’t get rid of them all because people will say we want power and opportunities only for us." Lee sighs.

Astri smiles, seeing that not only Lee but all her husbands learned to think beyond.

All of them think silently, trying to find a solution.

"Why don’t you run a tournament?" Astri asks.

Everyone looked at her as if she was talking about a word of a different language.

"A tournament?" Wayde asks.

"Yes. You don’t have these around here?"

"Never heard of it."

She saw that others were also lost.

"A tournament is like a game, but we play dueling in fights which follow certain rules. Every duel has a winner. The winners face each other in the next round until there’s only one. That would be the champion of the tournament. A champion is the best of all."

"Hum.. That’s interesting. I like that." Tyr softly says, smiling.

"The tournament might have several champions depending on the variety of participants, males that will participate. It’s not fair a duel between a 2 marked male against a 20 marked. So the participants are divided into categories so the fight is fair. The objective is no training, it’s winning. It can be divided between 1 to 3 marks, then 3 to 6, 6 to 9, and so on." She explains.

"Only by marks? What about kinds? Some kinds have more advantages than others." Galion asks.

"Only by marks. That’s the beauty of the tournament. They will have to be smart to win the challenges. The duels need to be held on a higher and bigger square platform. Around two steps higher from the ground. The main rules are: once the duel starts the participant who steps or falls out of the platform loses. You can win if the other falls unconscious or gives up. It’s forbidden weapons, venom, or killing. Going against these rules means losing. Simple."

All of them are very interested in this tournament. It sounded fun.

"I want to participate. It will be fun." Dieg says excitedly.

"People might think it’s unfair since you have powers." Claud mentions.

"It’s true... Then how about a tournament between us? The winner will be the leader spouse." Dieg says with a challenging smile.

All of his fellow spouses got interested in that idea.

"What will I get when I become the leader? More time with Astri?" Kangki smirks.

"You can’t use powers to hold us or to read our minds. You too, Claud. It would be too unfair." Wayde chuckles.

Astri chuckles shaking her head when she sees her spouses planning their own tournament.

"What size of the platform would be good?" Galion moves and sits closer to Astri, and they ignore her spouses.

"50 feet to 50 feet, I believe. Taking into consideration beast forms." Astri answers.

"Right. I’ll announce to them that’s how it’s going to happen. But it will happen only when we come back. It will be time enough to build this platform." Galion says.

"Build seats around for people to watch. A little far so they don’t get too close and disturb the competition."

Galion nods and excuses himself to leave and prepare for this project.

Astri starts to list everything for the trip and then Zin silently goes behind her, wrapping his arms around her and watching what she’s doing, letting the others discuss their tournament.

It’s not that he doesn’t want to participate, he wants to show his spouse he’s strong, and independent of what they’re discussing he will participate either way. That’s why his mind went elsewhere and he took the opportunity to be with her.

Kangki got tired of that discussion too and that’s when he saw Zin with her, making him walk to her and at least sit on her side.

He learned a little to read as he watched her before becoming a beastman again, so he tries to read what she’s writing on his own.

From nowhere Yuki comes inside running and crying making everyone’s senses go high alert and Wayde is the first one to get to her.

"What is it, Yuki?" Wayde asks, worried.

"A boy tried to kiss me." Yuki cries.

"WHAT?"

The room even shook with so many growls and the energy getting tenser.

"I told him to stop. I didn’t want it! Now Elias, Kai and Hopin are.. *hick* fighting the boy and his brothers.." Yuki tries to explain as she cries.

"That’s my boys." Wayde proudly says.

They go outside and watch the boys fighting wolf cubs. Astri’s instincts are to protect her cubs, but she can sense it’s something important for them to go through. Elias, Kai, and Hopin are fighting fiercely to defend their sister. Hopin is fighting in his human form and he’s fast and kicks his opponent with his strong legs. Kai and Elias might be younger than the wolf boys, but they’re strong and fast, scratching and biting.

Their fathers are cheering and reassuring them.

"Move your feet, boys! You can do it!" Astri says loudly.

Hearing their mother cheering for them made them raise a strong resolution inside of them. Elias kicks the wolf away from him and then jumps on his back biting his neck. Kai punches the face of his opponent and jumps forward biting the boy’s shoulder.

"YEAAH!!" They hear their parents cheering.

Hopin waits for his opportunity to attack, and when the boy against him attacks he dodges quickly and kicks right on his throat making the boy cough. Then Hopin kicks his stomach taking the boy’s air away.

"YEAAAAH!!" More cheering comes.

The wolf boys give up by shifting back and admiring their defeat.

"Never again come back here. And never again get near our sister." Hopin tells the boys.

The boys nod in defeat, but before leaving, Astri stops them.

"Dress." Astri says, closing Yuki’s eyes.

They dress and look down at their feet, afraid of Astri. Now it’s common knowledge that Astri is the most powerful of the tribes.

"What were you thinking?" Astri asks them, in a serious tone.

"I... I thought that I could promise myself to her. I wanted to make her like me so when she becomes of age we could be mates." One of the boys answers, looking down.

"She’s a cub. You’re a cub. That is not something for you to think about now. That was very disrespectful."

"We could cut your mouth off for trying to kiss her!" Wayde growls.

"I’m sorry. I won’t get near her again." The boy cries.

"It’s not only her. No other female cub. Be a cub! Get strong. Learn how to hunt, how to sew, to farm! Go play! Stop trying to be adults!" Astri says.

"I’m sorry.."

"It’s not to me you need to apologize."

The boys look at Yuki.

"I’m sorry, Yuki.. I didn’t want to hurt you or scare you.."

Yuki walks to him and, to everyone’s surprise, she gives him a strong punch on the stomach making him fall down on his knees. She kicks his face and screams:

"I told you I didn’t want!!"

Her parents, brothers, and guards were very proud of her.

"That’s my girl." Astri kneels and kisses Yuki’s cheek. "Want to tell them something else?"

"I know he’s not bad. But I didn’t like what he did." Yuki answers.

"I know, sweetie. It’s all right. He learned his lesson." Astri says, passing her hand on Yuki’s arm. Then she calls her boys and hugs them. "I’m very proud of you."

Yuki hugs them too and they’re beaming happy to know their mother and parents are proud of them, and their sister is safe.

By Astri’s request, the wolf boys are treated by Claud before they leave. Claud wanted to inflict more pain for trying to get near his little girl, but he knew the boys were only repeating what they learned somewhere else.

Astri treats her boys feeling proud and also sad that her children got hurt. Wayde and the other spouses go spoil Yuki a little because they never saw her crying besides for falling and scrapping her knees or something.

Zin helps Astri take care of the boys.

"You were awesome, Hop! We could barely see you!" Elias happily says.

"It’s true. Hopin was awesome. He’s learning to use his strength. All of you were incredible Elias knew the exact time to dodge and counterattack. Kai used the other’s agility against him. You protected your sister. We’re all very proud of you." Astri proudly says.

"You will get your first marks very soon. You’re becoming very strong brothers." Zin smiles.

The boys are beaming knowing they did good and, especially, their mother was proud of them.

"Next time something like this happens, we hope it never does, but we live in a world where not all males control their desires, protect your sister but let her protect herself too. The way I let her speak her mind and beat him. All of you need to learn how to protect yourselves from people only interested in your status. There will be females wanting to become their spouses only to have power over others. And there will be males wanting the same from Yuki." Astri explains to them.

They nod, understanding what she means. And they promise themselves to never become males needy of a female and that they will choose their partners wisely in the future. Thankfully, Astri is raising them as children and understanding their growth. She tells her spouses and guards to treat cubs as cubs and treat them more maturely only when they start to show they’re maturing.

When children are taught about things they’re not mature enough to understand, everything they will think about in the future is what they learned and that’s why there are so many males who only think about getting a female.