She was shaking. Actually shaking, her whole body vibrating with a rage so pure it tasted like copper in her mouth. Her claws had torn through the velvet of the chaise without her noticing.

The dog beast man was pressed against the doorframe now, trying to make himself smaller. "I—I’m sorry, Maddie, I just thought you’d want to-"

"Who are they?" she snapped. "Names. Levels, I need everything."

"I don’t-I don’t have names yet, I just heard from the scouts that they came in with the convoy from the north, and the General himself met them at the gate, and he had pretended to be a guard in the background."

"Find out." She was in front of him now, close enough that he could feel her breath. Close enough that the scent of her fury was choking. "You find out everything about this fox and her husbands, and you come back to me by sundown, and kidnap one of her followers, they’ll like me more anyway." Her hand shot out, gripped his jaw, not gently. Her claws dimpled his skin. "Or I will personally make sure you never sleep inside any building again. Understood?"

He nodded frantically, eyes wide and wet.

She released him. Watched him scramble backward, trip on the top step, and disappear down the stairs with the sound of desperate retreat.

The silence he left behind was thick enough to cut.

Gregor was the first to speak. "Maddie." His voice was careful. The voice of a man who’d learned exactly how to approach a lit fuse. "She’s nobody. Just another female passing through. The General probably put her there because she was exhausted from the road and..."

"She’s pregnant, Gregor." Maddie turned to face the room. Her top ten husbands, sixty levels of combined power, the most feared males in Bowral, were all watching her with varying degrees of wariness. "Pregnant females don’t pass through. They stay. And if she’s blonde, and a fox, and already carrying, and the General gave her the manor!"

She didn’t finish the sentence. She didn’t need to.

Marcus set his rifle down. The click of it against the windowsill was very loud. "What do you want us to do?"

Maddie’s smile was slow. Cold. The kind of smile that made even Marcus’s bear instincts go quiet.

"I want to meet her, but let’s see what happens after I take what is hers."

— back at the manor —

Felicity stood by the window, her fingers still tracing her lips where Dimitri’s words had left them tingling. The blush wouldn’t seem to fade from her cheeks, and she pressed her cool palms against them, willing the heat away. She hadn’t considered him as a potential husband, had always assumed his attention was purely protective, a mission rather than desire. But the way he’d looked at her, and what he had said, the intensity in those dark eyes...

A flash of movement caught her attention. Voss was sprinting through the gardens, his silver hair streaming behind him, his lean form cutting through the overgrown pathways with desperate speed. Something was wrong.

She waddled down the stairs, one hand on her swollen belly, the other gripping the banister. Lucan materialised beside her, his panther-like presence solid and reassuring as his gentle eyes tracked her every movement.

"Easy," he murmured, one massive hand hovering near her elbow. "Take your time."

But Felicity couldn’t slow down, not with the urgency she’d seen in Voss’s pace. She pushed through the front door just as he reached the porch, his chest heaving with exertion, face flushed from his run.

"Fel," he gasped, pulling her into his arms and planting a kiss on her lips that was half desperate, half grateful.

"Wow, you ran so fast for me," she said, breathless from both the kiss and her own exertion. "Where are the berries and chillies?"

Voss reached into his pack, pulling out a small cloth bundle. "Got them," he said, still panting. "But Fel, we need to call everyone back. Something happened and... you’re not going to like it."

Lucan took the bundle from him, his expression darkening. "I’ll clean these," he said, his voice gruff.

Felicity watched him go with a small sigh of disappointment. She’d been craving those berries since morning, imagining their tart sweetness on her tongue.

"What is it?" she asked, turning back to Voss.

He ran a hand through his dishevelled hair. "Tommy, I think, accidentally told the whole market that you’re here and pregnant."

Silence fell like a physical weight. Even Thane, who had been scouting from the roof, glided down to join them, his face twisting with concern. Lucan froze in the doorway, the berries forgotten in his massive hand, his expression murderous.

Felicity’s heart stuttered. "Ah, well. Goodness, that’s going to be a problem," she said, trying to keep her voice light despite the fear coiling in her stomach. "Uhh, what can we do? Are they coming here? Now? and who’s coming?" she asked, looking between their grim faces.

Voss sighed, his gaze drifting toward the gate at the front of the manor’s driveway before returning to her.

"I’ll organise the teams to go on full protection. I’ll keep Dimitri, Lucan, and Ivan with you. Victor, me, and Damien will go handle whatever happens at the gate, I guess." He paused, rubbing his temple. "I’ll send Exile to go spy, then."

"Exile?" Felicity frowned. "He might kill them..."

Before Voss could answer, Ivan appeared from around the side of the house, looking pissed. "We have company," he said simply. "A group at the gate, not large, but..." He glanced at Felicity. "They’re asking to see the pregnant female, and I’m wondering if I can kill them."

Lucan growled, the sound rumbling from deep in his chest. "Over my dead body."

"Let me talk to them," Felicity said, straightening her shoulders despite the flutter of fear in her chest. "Maybe if they see I’m just a regular person?"

"No." Victor’s voice cut through the air as he strode around the corner, Damien a silent shadow at his side. "Absolutely not. You stay inside where it’s safe."