Page 75 of Not Like The Other Girls

The humanoid mice avert their eyes, going nearly blind from just the sight. The actual mice squeak and run off back into the snowy field.

“Aren’t y’all freezing?” Lily asks them because she sure is, even with her hoodie on.

“For Every, our master gym bro, we would do anything.” They all answer her in unison.

Huh, well-trained pets, indeed.

All this time, Queeny and her nutcrackers are still busy fluttering around, growing their collection of mice. At least the useless nets are put to good use at last.

Lily smiles to herself. The battle is finally turning its tide again, with her side on high ground this time, no thanks to her. Because seriously, she had not contributed even a single flick of a finger to this. But she’s the delicate, dainty Lily-girl, who’s not like the other girls.

So no shit, she gets a pass.

She always sticks out like a sore thumb, anyway.

Or more like a sore middle finger, since that would fit the personality of Lily-girl better.

A punch from her man sends a stray mouse man in her way, nearly hitting her shoulder as he flies past and slams against the wall of a gingerbread townhouse. Now that sure gets Lily out of her daydreaming.

That, and the mouse king himself.

He strolls forth towards her as all the others are busy, and if she didn’t know his true status, she’d assume him to be a homeless guy coming up to her for tips, with that combination of ragged jeans and torn Henley of his. Not to mention the whole I-just-got-beat-up look going on.

But he’s richer than her whole ancestral tree’s wealth combined.

And meaner than them all.

He stops just right before her face. “Hello, Lily, I’d like to kidnap you.”

“Why so?” she asks nonchalantly.

“Because that’s just what villains do,” he singsongs in a cracked voice like that of a teenager.

“Well, luck’s on me, then, because my strong, protective billionaire boyfriend would never allow that. Right, Every?”

The man himself puts a stop to punching the intruders and turns toward them. “Lily’s, right. You’ve got no reason to kidnap her. She’ll just be a total nuisance to such a control freak like you, anyway.”

Lily, the heroine, shyly bites her plump lips. “See, he’s never gonna let you take me.”

The mouse king smiles his evil smile. “Then what if I tell you that in exchange for her, I’ll pack up all my mice and just leave Fairyland be. Maybe even sign a peace treaty and become civil with your people.”

Every brightens up at once, his eyes looking as if they are two beams of laser. “You’d do all that? For just Lily in exchange?”

“Yeah.”

Lily’s man walks up to her now. “Lily, you know you’re my soulmate, my forever girl, my twin flame, yeah? But when something has to go, it has to go. And same goes for you, sugartits. If you have to go, you have to go. I am a man of principle. I’d rather give him Glycogen or some random guy like that, but since Ferny asked for you, then it’s gotta be you, yeah? Bye.”

Huh, that went way too smoothly.

Eyes wider than saucers, Lily stares at him dumbfounded. “The fuck? You’re supposed to be the love interest CEO guy who protects me at all costs, man. You’re even supposed to go on a sacrificial journey to retrieve me if I actually get taken as a captive for real. Then, you’re supposed to bargain with the villain and trade your life to save mine when he makes you choose. You’re gonna get shot, but don’t worry, because some unexpected power would save you from the bullet.”

“But why’d I do that?’

“Because that’s your role.” Lily shrugs her delicate shoulders in a smart-ass way.

“Alright then, I guess.”

And just like that, Lily Lina Lilina is saved from being traded as the maiden sacrifice captive to the villain. All by her man’s protection of her, though with slightly extra steps this time.