"Third mate." Qianhuang repeated. It had taken all of five minutes for him to notice the presence of Bai Di in their home. Chiaki once again told him the events that had happened while he was away. The winged white lion male sighed. That he'd forgotten such important information annoyed him.

Curtis watched with a smirk as the lion went through a range of emotions as the news sank in. Still, Chiaki now had three mates. With Qianhuang and Bai Di both here, neither would get her full attention during the cold season while he hibernated. That meant he wouldn't loose as much ground to one or the other. That she had agreed to at least two other males courting her was not as nice of a thought though. Sure two other mates kept any of them from becoming the favourite easily, but four other mates gave him less overall attention.

He could also smell the lion all over her. Her nude form covered in a layer a sweat, dirt, and the lion's seed. It angered him. Perhaps- "I'm sure you would like to get a bath while the lion and tiger figure out where they stand with each other." Curtis said smoothly as he took Chiaki's hand gently and lead her away from Qianhuang.

"Hm? Oh, yes... geeze, I've got mud down my back." Chiaki said.

The house didn't have a built in bathing area, but a large wooden basin had been set up in the empty room next to the one they had given Kimba. The water was room temperature. Curtis lifted Chiaki up over the edge of the makeshift tub and lowered her into the waiting water. She sighed as the mud dissolved off of her and sank deeper into the water.

Curtis took a jar of the hair cleaning item Chiaki had, he thought she called it 'sham-pu'. He worked it gently into her long thick brown hair. She sighed and leaned back towards his edge of the bath. After a time she submerged under the water and shook out the cleaner. She surfaced facing him. His mate was beautiful. Her breasts partly covered by the water, her shoulders shining with droplets.

He wanted her.

Curtis leaned forward, capturing his mates lips with his own. The scent of the lion was gone. This had been his plan. Leave the lion and tiger to fight it out on who was second place mate and who was third place, because HE was first. His hands cupped her face. "Let me." He mumbled against her lips.

Chiaki found herself lifted out of the water and wrapped in Curtis' coils. "Kurt?" Was he really?! He knocked a few soft hides to the floor with his tail and lowered them down together on top of them. Yes, he really did want to have sex right now.

The end of his snake tail slid around them, giving her a place to rest her head. "Aren't you going to transform fully?"

He nipped at her neck. "We've never done it like this, I think you'll enjoy it. They each work independently."

"Inde- oh!" She gasped as she realized, a snake had two penis' so they could mate a second time without needing to wait.

"Then let's mate." He said huskily.

"But I just did it with Key!" She squeaked.

Curtis frowned, was the lion beginning to become the favourite mate? "But I want to mate with you."

Chiaki closed her eyes. "I'm going to be so sore after this." She grumbled, then pulled Curtis back into a kiss.

o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o

Don't limp. Don't wince. Don't limp. Chiaki repeated this to herself as she left the bathing room. She'd had to wash her body a second time because of Curtis. She was right, she was sore. The ache between her thighs was enough that she just wanted to go lay down upstairs in the furs and sleep until it ebbed away. But she was hungry too. She'd used a whole lot of energy keeping up with her mates. No one was in the main room. She carefully checked the kitchen. No one there either.

"They probably went hunting." Curtis said. He did not add out-loud that the lion and tiger had probably heard and smelled them mating.

"I'm hungry."

"I'll fix you everything you want." Curtis said with a warm smile.

"Anything, I'm starved."

Curtis' eyes widened in shock. His mate was starving?! How could he have not noticed?! He rushed over and scooped her up. "You should rest while I cook." He did not realize her words had not been meant seriously.

"I- alright." Chiaki said, somewhat confused.

So quickly it seemed that several dishes of food appeared in front of her. Simple dishes because it was Curtis who was doing the cooking. Six hard boiled eggs, stone baked grain cakes, and a thick stew from re-hydrated meat, grains and berries. Chiaki realized she really was hungry and began to eat it all with fervour.

Curtis watched in satisfaction as his mate ate the food he'd made for her. At the rate she was eating, he was sure now that she indeed had not been eating enough food. He would have to make sure she ate more at each meal, he had been slacking in his job as her mate. She was too thin and the cold season was only a single season away. She needed to gain weight so if the food supply dropped too low they wouldn't loose her. Perhaps it was best she wouldn't go through this cold season pregnant.

He frowned. Could he really go through with allowing his offspring to stay with them until adulthood? That could take several hands worth of years. Chiaki was sure that the length of time would allow them to teach his sons differently to their memories.

He thought back to his own youth. He and his brothers had been left to hatch without ever seeing their mother or father. He'd hatched first and had instinctively began to devour the other hatching eggs one after the other and if one hatched while he wasn't looking he had overpowered each of his brothers and eaten them too. He had a hazy recollection of his father, an image of the male reflected in a pool of water. They looked much the same, red hair and scales. The memory of the female who had been his mother was clearer. She was the driving force in the first few years of his life, striving to find the female who he remembered so vividly. Wishing to reclaim the warmth and joy that was not quite his own, but so very-very close.

With a start Curtis realized that it had been a long time sense he'd thought of that female. After years of searching he'd come to realized that the memories had lead him nowhere. They had been the reason he had striven to stay alive when young, but as he neared adulthood... They had faded so much. The female in his memories wasn't in a place he could find her, there was no older male to fight and win her from. They had died, probably before he'd hatched.

"Kurt?" Chiaki's voice broke through his thoughts. "Are you alright? You look pale."

He grabbed her, pulling her to him. "Yes." He forced the words out. "I'll be fine." He let out a shuddering breath. Once he'd realized that, he'd changed his mindset. He'd started looking for a female of his own, a mate of his own. Not one tied to his memories. He'd transformed then, his first time standing on two legs. He'd looked at himself in the river, much the same as his father before him. He was younger than the male in his memories, his hair so short it only curled around his ears. No fight scars, no cold eyes.

He didn't move from that spot for over a week.

It had been a shock. To realize that the memories were not his own, that he had not somehow been transfigured back into a weakened version of his former self. That his life had been a lie.

"I love you so much." He breathed in Chiaki's scent. "Have I said that?"

Chiaki hugged him back, unsure of what was causing her normally stoic husband to seem so fragile. "Not in as many words," She mumbled. "But I know you do."

"Yes, yes, I do." He said. "And I want to thank you... for giving me a family."