Beauty and the Beasts

It hurt so bad! It hurt from head to toe! Her body felt heavy, as though it had sunk into a quagmire. She wasn’t even able to even lift a finger.

Bai Qingqing took a deep breath and struggled to curl up her bloodied and bruised body, her arms shielding before her chest.

She looked up and glanced at the white tiger briefly, before retracting her gaze in fright. She then looked towards her right arm.

Indeed, the tattoo of a tiger had appeared there.

Winston glanced at the tiger tattoo on Bai Qingqing’s arm, his expression even more horrified than Bai Qingqing’s, as though he was the one who was raped.

In his heart was a mixture of joy, horror, and despair.

Seeing that Bai Qingqing was staring at his spousal mark, Winston didn’t even dare to blink. The color of blood had drained from his face, and even his scar wore a tinge of paleness.

Bai Qingqing raised a quivering hand and gently touched the tiger tattoo.

Winston’s body trembled as well, as he squeezed out a nervous sound from his throat. “Ooh!”

“Are you alright now?” Bai Qingqing stared at him warily.

Winston transformed into a human, still looking horrified. Did all of that really happen?

Looking at the female wounded from head to toe, the emotions in Winston’s eyes turned into despair. Still, he refused to give up and asked, “Can you please not remove the spousal mark? I… I’ll never do this to you again. Just let me be your guardian like in the past.”

Bai Qingqing cast a glance at him and said nothing, merely hugging her body tightly.

After she calmed down, she actually felt relieved at the turn of events.

Having lived ambiguously with Winston for such a long time, and benefited from his care all this while, she had no idea how to end such an awkward relationship.

Now that the die was cast, the pressure she had been feeling actually dissipated.

She did feel fondness towards Winston and wasn’t averse to having sexual relations with him. She had sensed the abnormality in Winston’s body early on, and she believed that Winston didn’t do this on purpose.

However, how should she explain things to Curtis and Parker?

With a gloomy face, Bai Qingqing buried her head in her knees. She didn’t dare to go home.

Although Curtis had said that he could accept her having a tiger spouse, that was what he said back in the cold season. Now that the cold season had passed, would his words still count?

Even if they could accept Winston, Bai Qingqing felt too ashamed to face them.

Back then, she had said with conviction that she only wanted the two of them as her spouses.

Ah! She felt like running away from home!

Winston crawled to Bai Qingqing’s side and reached out a hand to touch his spousal mark. But before his hand made contact with her arm, he retracted his hand at the speed of lightning.

“I’ll bring you home.”

“I’m not going back,” Bai Qingqing said, sounding vexed.

The roars of the young cubs sounded from the grass.

The three leopard cubs ran over to surround their mother. Seeing that the tiger king wasn’t as scary as earlier, Molly also crawled over with trepidation, tear streaks evident on her face.

“Bai Qingqing.”

Bai Qingqing felt her brain short-circuit. Her head jerked up instantly.

Damn! Why were they all here? How was she to face anyone in the future?

Winston abruptly pulled her into his arms. He took in a deep breath and closed his eyes, yearning to shoulder all the pain by himself.

“It was my fault. I won’t blame you if you choose to remove my spousal mark,” Winston said with agony. Nonetheless, his gaze was filled with gentleness as he looked at her. “Let’s go back first. Your injuries are too serious.”

“Who said anything about removing the spousal mark?” said Bai Qingqing, turning her head away.

Winston froze abruptly. His heart skipped a beat, and his breathing halted as well.

Although Bai Qingqing had resigned to her fate, she didn’t look pleased. “You’re not to tell Curtis and Parker about how we mated. And you, Molly, don’t tell anyone too.”