Exiled Villainess: They Threw Me Out, Now Every Beastman Wants Me
Chapter 20: Thirty Soggy Liars

Chapter 20: Thirty Soggy Liars

Xavi’s decision to trust Tera had shocked everyone, including Tera herself. His beast-men had protested, their mouths flapping open and closed like fish who had just been told the ocean was now a desert, but Xavi had stood his ground.

Still, that didn’t mean Tera was being let off the hook.

Xavi intended to address the clan later to properly hear their side in front of her, and if she lied to him, she would lose his trust and be kept as a prisoner without any freedom.

Which made Tera wonder, yet again, why this man was so obsessed with making her his prisoner. Aside from it being such cheap talk for someone without a prison cell to trap her in the first place, was imprisonment just his love language?

The short walk back to where the rest of the clan was huddled had been uncomfortable, to say the least.

It was still morning, but the sky hadn’t gotten the memo. Grey clouds hung low and heavy like an unwashed blanket someone had flung over the world. The mud was determined to make Tera its personal enemy, sucking at her feet with every step and doing its best to yank her makeshift shoes clean off.

She stubbornly maintained her distance from the group, walking a few steps to the side, even though the cold was giving her lashings by a thousand strikes.

Even after spending more than a day in this wretched world, a small part of her hoped to wake up in a hospital bed with Doug’s stupid face hovering over her, apologizing for the slab incident.

But wishful thinking was going to get her nowhere.

She was about to walk into a camp full of people who had left her to drown and then lied about it. But the worst part was that she couldn’t even blame them.

What she had even done to Ermin had been terrible.

Even if it was unfair to her now, nobody else knew that someone else was in this body.

At the very least, she should be trying to make it up to Ermin instead of just ogling his tail and hoping for round three.

And she might have to prove herself to the clan members, too, even though it didn’t take away the sting that they had abandoned her.

Their minds should change at least when she actually helped them create a proper settlement. And if they weren’t grateful after that, then they were irredeemable ass hats of the highest order.

Tera quickly checked her stats for reassurance.

[Host Stats]

[Strength: 5/100]

[Charm: 5/100]

[Influence: -9/100]

[Construction: 1/100]

[Agility: 2/100]

[Mates: 1 (Unwilling)]

[Potential Mates: 1]

[Mate Stats]

[Registered Mate: Ermin]

[Favourability: -39/100%]

[Potential Mate: Xavi]

[Favourability: 25/100%]

[Currency: 15 nipples]

[Achievements: Death Defier]

[Active Task: Construct emergency flood defences before the second wave hits!]

[Rewards: Construction +5, Influence +10, Nipples +20, System shop unlock]

[Penalty: Host will be unable to experience orgasm for 30 days!]

Looking at the data still surprised Tera. There were some improvements in her overall stat, no matter how slight, but the favourability of these two men was something she was going to have to work on, especially if she wanted to get laid anytime soon, and she really needed it!

Tera was so deep in thought that she did not notice the two beast men staring deeply at her.

Ermin was angry.

Not because of the way her backside was swaying as she walked. Not because her hips had apparently decided to conduct a silent symphony with each step. And certainly not because he had noticed either of those things.

This was clearly some kind of mating walk. She was parading herself in front of Xavi, flaunting what little she had, and it was very deliberate.

Except he wasn’t sure if she had always walked like that.

Ermin tried to remember. In the Jackdaw tribe, he had avoided looking at her whenever possible. She had been a background nuisance, and he had never studied the way she moved.

’So why am I studying it now?’

His tail gave an irritated lash. He blamed the cave. The cave had ruined everything. Before the cave, she was just the shiftless female who had destroyed his life. After the cave, she was the shiftless female who had destroyed his life and also satisfied him quite thoroughly.

Ermin should have felt relieved. The shiftless female who had drugged him, stolen his future with Naiya, and dragged him into exile was now someone else’s problem. But the bear beast holding her to him like that had made Ermin uncomfortable.

And that discomfort had further made him angry.

He needed to get away from this terrible female as soon as possible before she further got under his skin due to that terrible imprint.

But had the clan really lied against her? He doubted it.

He refused to care about the female who had ruined his life.

Even though she had been sweet and supple, and had looked at him with such care in her eyes...

Ermin instantly deadened his trailing thoughts.

She was just playing a longer game.

It was the only explanation that made sense. And he would do well to remember it before he did something stupid like trusting her.

Xavi was also preoccupied, though his thoughts were less frantic.

The female was interesting.

She had been calm when the other beast men had thrown the accusation in her face. Her words, along with the look in her eyes, made him fairly want to trust her.

Even if she was not trustworthy, as the only female who had been able to survive his heat, she might be important in birthing his pups.

He had heard about her before. A clan he had crossed paths with weeks ago had mentioned an evil, shiftless female causing chaos in one of the distant tribes. They had described someone manipulative, selfish, and cruel. Someone who smiled while causing pain.

And when he had woken from his heat to find her near him, he had gotten more information from the panther.

But she did not seem like what had been described.

If this was an act, he wondered what the end goal was, but he wasn’t going to have her destroy the small clan he had managed to put together and cause division.

The fact that she was warm and soft and made strange sounds when she was annoyed was irrelevant.

Mostly.

They finally reached the others.

The clan members stood huddled together in a wide crack between a hill, wedged between two slabs of rock like a group of soggy mushrooms that had given up on life.

Some hastily stretched hides above offered minimal shelter from the drizzle.

Cubs were huddled together for warmth, and when they all laid eyes on Tera, their attentions suddenly shifted elsewhere. Some studied the muddy dirt ground with intense fascination, and others pretended to inspect their claws.

Not one of them could meet her eyes.

Interesting. Very interesting.

Xavi stepped forward, and the energy shifted instantly. Whatever nervous fidgeting the clan had been doing stopped.

"I want to know what happened during the storm," Xavi announced. "Again."

"Leader, as we told you, the shiftless one panicked when the storm hit. She ran off screaming before we could stop her. It was dangerous."

"Very dangerous." Someone nodded.

What sort of silly lie was this?

"I was standing in the open, warning all of you about the coming rain," Tera cut in, unable to stop herself. "And then—"

"You ran off. That is what happened."

"I reinforced the shack we all hid in, and you said that I should be left behind because I would slow you down!"

"She is twisting our words!" one of them spat. "Leader, she is doing exactly what this female is known for. Lying and manipulating—"

A cub tugged on his father’s fur and said loudly, in that way children do, "But Papa, you said the bald lady would slow us down, and the storm would get rid of her."