VULPINE: Her Second Chance

The Beautiful Beast

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The Beautiful Beast

Now, she planned to eat it until she was sick of it.

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The restaurant continued the slightly tacky decor on the inside, to no one's surprise. The ceiling of the place was lined sporadically with high-hung mosaic-shaded lamps that had fat-bladed fans that spun lazily, cooling the room. The dining room was perfectly lit, not too bright or dim, but the blue hued walls were covered in posters and photos wherever there weren't windows or exposed cooking elements.

The dark wood tables had metal rims around their square edges, with blue plaid tablecloths set diagonally to expose triangles of the edges. Half the seating was plain - reinforced wooden frames with blue cushions - and the other half was retro - booths along the walls, and spinning stools attached at the stems along the kitchen counter. The kitchen itself was half open, with a large, omelette bar-like area behind the counter, and extended back into the diner for quite a few metres.

Thalia and Helena would've loved to sit and watch the chefs cook omelettes, having not been in a retro diner before, but the majority of their party favoured safety over fun. Pouting internally, they followed the security detail to a round booth in the back corner of the room, from which they would be able to see all comings and goings.

The king sat in the almost centre, with Thalia to his right and his beta to his left. It was large, but would only fit eight, with for in the actual booth and four available chairs. Thus, Beau sat a table away with the young ones, while the rest of their people sat on their respective sides in order of rank, which left Claire opposite Thaddeus and Helena opposite Mirella. Sasha-Belle immediately popped her head over the back of both booths to chat with her aunts, but was too sleepy for any of her more mischievous antics.

The waiter was quick to pounce on their table, and while everyone else ordered a gastronomically astronomical amount of food, Thalia kept it simple and ordered a shifter-sized portion of crab and grits with seasonal fruit as a side. She knew well, despite her earlier vow, that it wouldn't do her any good to suddenly stuff herself after so many years of forced abstinence.

At the other table members looks, she felt the need to explain why she was eating as little as the witch, but instead merely said that it had been a while since she'd been able to indulge in crab, and wanted to savour it. Another half truth.

When their food arrived, Thalia noticed two portions of the crab grits, one of which was covered in spicy chilli oil. This one was set in front of her, but the king rather quickly swapped it for the one set in front of Thaddeus. Neither shifter tucked into their bowl, immediately, however. Thad started in on an eggy burger, while the new queen began to methodically pick and eat the fruit.

There were always apples in these fruit bowls, and while she didn't hate them, Thalia would rather conserve stomach space for her favourite thing. She firmly believed in saving the best for last, and minimising food waste, so she ate all the fruit she could before turning to her prize.

She didn't notice the anticipatory stares from the king's people, but she'd definitely noticed when the king had swapped his leather gloves for plastic and forked out the crab meat for her. He was quick and efficient, and so she let him do so without complaint or fanfare, practically ignoring the actions as she ate her fruit. If he wanted to help her out with her food, she wouldn't say anything unless he demanded a bite as payment. She loved food to the point of possessiveness, so she wouldn't say no, but she wouldn't let him help again, either, if he did.

He didn't, and in fact left every bit of crab to one side of the bowl, not knowing whether she wanted it mixed in, before turning to his own food. Thalia liked that very much, and took a few small bites of the buttery grits before spearing one of the smallest bits of crab meat onto her fork. Still unbeknownst to her, now even the king was watching and waiting for her response, his steak-laden fork paused on its journey to his mouth.

She ate the bit of flesh and felt her eyes blink slowly. Externally, that was the only response, but internally she was melting at the mouth. She had never eaten anything as delicious, which was insane because she'd lived on the Western coast for her entire life. To most coastal shifters, a move inland meant a notable drop in freshness and quality. A brush at her mind interrupted her reverie.

-Use your words,- Daniel linked. -They're assuming you hate it.-

"I would fight a mermaid for this crab", she deadpanned. And that was saying something, because mermaids were f****d up. She was so focused on her food that she didn't hear the footsteps approaching before-

"Oh, really?" An unfamiliar voice came from Thalia's one-o'-clock, and she looked up to see a likewise unfamiliar male shifter standing at the free edge of their table, hands on the backs of both empty chairs. "I'd love to see that, Beautiful."

Thalia hated nothing more than facts about her appearance being used as a nickname for her, especially when the user assumed she'd be flattered in any way by it, but the spark of irritation that flared up inside of her was larger than any she'd ever felt from that in the past. That was the first indicator that something was wrong.

The second was Thaddeus' quick exit from the booth as the king's left fist clenched on the table. Thad went over to the table with Beau and sat beside the children, sandwiching them between the two adults. Thalia ignored them, however, and addressed the stranger in front of them, her rising anger heating her chest but her tone remaining icy.

"Why would that be anything you'd ever be allowed to see? I don't know who you are, and it's pretty clear by scent that we -" here, she gestured between herself and the king, "are mated. Who are you to address your new queen in such a way?" She knew that the male had to know that Daniel was his king, by his aura if not by his face. Unpreturbed, the shifter scoffed and spoke, his tone somewhat derisive.

"Sweetheart, I just came over to borrow these chairs, and discovered a treasure on the way. You may be our queen for now, but that might not last long. I could be your true mate, for all you know." His words slurred slightly as he continued, making it clear he had been day drinking excessively.

Her blood ran cold at the reminder that all of this could be temporary, but Thalia had no time to craft a pithy response before the king moved away from her and out of the booth. Distracted, she almost asked where the Hel he was going as he knelt immediately after he was clear of the seat, but it became clear what he was up to as he shifted into his Spirit.

Thalia had never seen so fluid a shift. Other shifters' Spirits almost exploded from within, but with the king, it was different. It was almost as though his wolf slid over him as he put a hand to the earth, consuming and engulfing him so quickly and thoroughly that by the time his second hand followed, it was a paw. The beast that took his place was laughably large, the size of a natural elephant, and closer to a werebear's size than any 'wolf she'd never seen. Its fur was a glacial white with a silvery gray undercoat peeking through. It looked very soft.

Thalia did not think this was simply a dire wolf, as she'd seen at least one before. This was something else.

The Something Else Beast turned violet eyes on the stranger, who seemed to sober up abruptly in the face of impending death. The king's Spirit took a slow, menacing step towards the male, who - to his credit - did not back away from whatever was coming to him. Instead, he fell to the ground in an approximation of a bow, kowtowing and apologising in a rush of words Thalia could barely understand.

"Ah, my king, I - this humble subject is sorry - this - I deserve - please don't - I didn't mean- I merely thought -"

Mirella, who hadn't moved since sitting at the table, was suddenly between the two males, her hand on the stranger's head. It would have seemed like a calming gesture, if not for her next words.

"I know what you thought. You should not have allowed those thoughts to become actions. Now that you've made a mess of things, you will suffer the consequences." Her voice changed, but not truly. It was almost as though a second voice began to speak with her. "Walk away. Don't stop until you can't help but to do so. Until your feet will take days to heal."

The male, who had ceased his pleading at Mirella's touch, gathered himself up woodenly and began to walk out without another sound. The witch then turned to the king, and knelt with fealty, holding out one hand as if in supplication.

"Your Majesty, we shouldn't start the day with the destruction of your queen's new favourite restaurant. Please return to your humanoid form."

To Thalia's surprise, the king laid a giant paw in the witch's hand, and when the layered voice came again, merely saying "Shift", the king did so. Though the beast had surfaced gracefully, it seemed a struggle to suppress it, even with whatever mind control the witch clearly put on him. The king snarled and, as though shrinking away, his Spirit writhed free from their joined hands and disappeared. He removed his hand from the witch's as soon as the last bit of fur was gone.

The entire incident, from the moment the stranger had spoken, took less than a minute.

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