"I'm sorry, Arinya, but I don't think I can be your mate." The awkward, big-nosed, and uneven-eyed male said and then turned to leave.
He looked weak, but he was still a male.
Arinya could not even say anything to stop him.
That was the fifth rejection.
And yet another fifth rejection from 'another' ugly male.
When beastmen come of age, they have one thing that dominates their mind more than anything else. It's the act of getting a spouse or spouses.
Females could get more than one mate, since they were less populated compared to the males, and it was quite the norm, but not all were lucky enough to have several spouses.
To bag even one male as their mate would be the beast god's blessing.
And then for those who could not get a mate, they could just be considered unlucky.
But males weren't that picky. Even the unattractive females manage to get a mate or two. After all, just having a female who can mate with them and have cubs with them was enough.
It wasn't like the 21st century where looks were important.
Yes, that was it.
Females were scarce, so even having an ugly female as a mate was enough, as long as one could get a female.
Then why was it that Arinya, the first daughter of the tiger king, could not find a mate?
Though she was ugly, with freckles covering up under her eyes like mud had been sprinkled on her face, she wasn't that bad to look at.
It was her 'unruly' personality that chased the men away, her brothers would say.
She did everything the tribe considered, unfeminine: The way she acted like the males, hunted like them, stubbornly climbed trees, even argued like a male, and all the rough edges around her that stood out too much.
Her rough palm, scratched belly and loud self chased the men away.
Her father, Rakan the tiger chief, never refrained from reminding her about these facts as he scolded her.
"Stop climbing trees and leave the hunting for your brothers! At this rate, you won't find a mate because you keep acting like a male."
Females are meant to be docile and stay at home while waiting for their mates.
Females aren't meant to do anything besides welcome their mate home after he comes back from hunting, and then they both eat. And then after that, they get into bed and then rut like rabbits.
Talk about breeding machines.
Arinya knows of this fact too well. She knows that the only way to get a mate is to act more feminine, but she just couldn't contain the wild spirit running through her blood.
She took more after her father than her mother, who was the gentlest female.
That gentleness was passed down to her younger sister, Veyra.
Veyra was not only gentle, and feminine, she was also very beautiful. Adored Veyra.
She was a few months younger than Arinya and yet she already had taney mates lined up to court her.
She was yet another reason why no male wanted to stick with Arinya.
And not only that.
Veyra was a cunning little beast.
She loved the attention so much and loved how isolated Arinya was.
So, each time a male wanted to approach Arinya, she would show little interest in them, and that would ruin their plans of approaching Arinya.
Talk about a whore.
She was vile and was happy to see her sister lonely.
She even framed Arinya a few times for trying to ruin her face with poison. It was so chaotic that Arinya was suspended from doing anything and locked in her cave for a week with no food.
Arinya grew depressed. But she still tried to cheer herself up by hunting.
And then one day, she told herself,
"I will go to another tribe and maybe there, I will find a mate."
But going to another tribe was not as easy as it sounded.
She'd have to cross the lake, and she had no idea how to swim.
And then even after that, she'd have to prove that she wasn't a spy sent from the Stormhole tribe, as her tribe was called.
If that happened, she wouldn't be able to prove herself and she might even get sent back. Her tribe would hate her even more and accuse her of trying to create strife with the other tribes.
She felt suffocated.
Arinya couldn't stay in the tribe during the day because everywhere she went, she would see females and their mates fawning over each other.
And no one cared about her either.
So, she stayed on the yellow flower field at the far end of the tribe, where no one went, and lay there till the sun would set.
If she wasn't hunting her meals, that was what she was doing.
Until she quietly passed away while viewing the blue sky, and a tear dripped down from her eyes.
And that was when I woke up.
Before I knew it, I was already in tears just recalling the memories of Arinya.
She led such a pitiful life. But not every part was grim.
At least she found happiness hunting and doing the things she loved.
Only, she wasn't allowed to even enjoy them all the time because of her sister's scheme.
Her father and brothers paid attention to Veyra more than her because she was beautiful, and she was gentle.
Then what about Arinya?
I wiped my tears with the back of my palm.
Arinya was emotionally scarred before she even knew it and died of a broken heart.
"I need to get this out of my system," I said to myself, breathing in and out to get that heaviness out of my heart.
I wasn't Arinya, but because I had possessed her body, her emotions suddenly became my emotions.
But still, I didn't want to feel such emotions even in this world.
My name is Stephanie. Such a side character type of name right? I know. I get that side character energy a lot.
I was always in the background while the main characters shone brightly.
I wrote a book once, starting from my third year in high school.
It was such a depraved novel that was mostly filled with beastmen mating and going on adventures together.
It was fun while I was writing it, and I made my protagonist so beautiful that a single wink would get the males swooning over her feet.
And I think... I fell into that very novel.
But it's not my novel at all.
At first, I thought it was, hearing the names in Arinya's memory, but everything was different.
My protagonist didn't have a sister. She was the only female among her numerous brothers who worshiped her.
And I didn't make a villain either, because it felt like too much of a chore.
So, why was everything so mixed up?
It was as if I had fallen into another beast world entirely, with the names of the characters still intact.
Only, there was no one named Arinya.
I got up from the geass field and gazed at the setting sun.
Was this really not a dream?
No, the pain I felt in my heart and the ache in my head when recalling those memories was nothing like a dream.
I... I was a beastman in the world of beastmen.
I looked proudly and excited but then the reality of my situation hit me like a rock.
Why did I have to be an ugly duckling? Welp.
And worst, I'm an outcast.
If fate was going to send me into a beastworld anyway, couldn't it at least put me in the right script?