I Abandoned My Beast Cubs for the Protagonist... Oops?-Chapter 20: The Uninvited Guest

Cāng Jì stood in the center of the hut, his golden eyes scanning the empty gourd and the dead beetle on the floor with an expression of horror.

"Where is it?" he asked, his voice dropping into a deep vibrato that made the dried herbs hanging from the ceiling rattle.

"It was here! I promise!" Bai Yue scrambled on her knees, desperately patting down the furs and checking every nook and cranny. "I hid it right here after I......well, after I acquired it!"

"You mean after you stole it," Cāng Jì corrected, crossing his arms and huffing a puff of blue smoke from his nostrils. "This is unacceptable. This hut is small, it smells of panther musk, and now you have lost my pulse-stabilizer. Do you have any idea what the vibrations of this primitive village are doing to my nerves? My scales are going to lose their luster!"

"Look, I’m sorry about your luster, okay?" Bai Yue snapped, standing up and wiping dust from her knees. "But it’s gone. Someone must have taken it while I was in the woods!"

Cāng Jì let out a long, dramatic sigh that sounded like a gale of wind. "Incompetent. Truly incompetent. I suppose this means I shall have to extend my stay in this......mud-pit until my property is recovered."

He turned his haughty gaze toward Zhāo Yàn, who was currently leaning against the doorframe looking like he wanted to punch a hole in the sun. "You. Fox. Get me a bath. Hot, infused with mineral salts, and served in a tub that hasn’t been used to wash kittens."

Zhāo Yàn’s fox ears flattened against his head. A low growl started in his chest. "Excuse me? Did you just order a Lord of the Red Fox Tribe to fetch you water?"

Cāng Jì leaned in, speaking slowly as if he were talking to someone who didn’t understand basic language. "Don’t....you... understand... me? I am a Prince of the First Generation. I do not bathe in river-water like a common predator. Chop-chop, little fox."

Zhāo Yàn’s hand twitched toward his dagger. The air in the hut was getting hot enough to start a fire.

"Enough!" Mo Xiao stepped into the doorway, ever the diplomat. He looked exhausted, but his amber eyes remained calm. "I will show our... guest... to the other hot springs at the edge of the village. It is mineral-rich and private." He looked at Bai Yue, his expression turning serious. "You will explain yourself to me when I return."

He looked down at his three cubs. "Miao Miao, Xiao Hei, A-Li. Come along. Let’s give Bai Yue some space."

"Bye-bye!" the triplets chirped, tripping over each other as they followed their father out.

Yòu Lín, however, was still stuck with his parents. He had found a string of colorful wooden beads on a side table and had clumsily wrapped them around his head like a lopsided crown.

"Mama! Mama, look!" He tugged on Bai Yue’s skirt, his fox tail wagging hard. "Do I look good? Am I a prince too? Like the lizard-man?"

Even though Bai Yue felt overwhelmed by the missing stone, she couldn’t help but smile as she looked down at Yòu Lín’s sparkling eyes. She knelt down and straightened his bead-crown. "You look much better than the lizard-man, Yòu Lín. You’re the handsomest prince in the whole forest."

He giggled, and threw his tiny arms around her neck, clinging to her leg with a strength that surprised her. "I love you, Mama! Don’t go away again!"

Bai Yue hugged him back, her heart aching. I’m not going anywhere, little kit.

Zhāo Yàn watched them from the shadows of the corner. He saw the way she held his son, the way her eyes softened, and the way she didn’t flinch when the boy got sticky fruit-juice on her wrap. The cold, cynical wall in his chest felt another brick crumble away.

"Sigh," Bai Yue leaned her head against the wall after Yòu Lín finally went to play with some carved wooden blocks. "Where could that stone have gone? Zhāo Yàn, I swear I put it there."

"Maybe you dropped it during one of your tantrums last week?" Zhāo Yàn suggested, though his voice lacked its usual bite.

"No. I checked it every night. It was my......my ’retirement fund,’" she muttered, using a word he didn’t know. "Someone stole it."

Zhāo Yàn looked at her suspiciously, his red eyes narrowed. "And who in this tribe would be brave enough to steal from you, Bai Yue? Everyone was terrified of you."

"Exactly," she sighed. "Which means whoever took it is either very brave......or very desperate."

"I’m exhausted," Zhāo Yàn admitted, rubbing his temples. The stress of the day was finally catching up to him. He watched Bai Yue start a small game of ’peek-a-boo’ with Yòu Lín, the cub’s high-pitched laughter filling the hut. The sight was so domestic, so normal, that Zhāo Yàn felt a strange warmth spread through his limbs. He didn’t say anything, but he didn’t leave either.

Meanwhile, on the colder, wind-swept side of the village, Han Shān reached his secluded stone hut. He dropped Ruì Xuě onto a pile of soft white furs.

"I want to go back," Ruì Xuě muttered, his bottom lip trembling. "I want to go back to her."

Han Shān stiffened. He shifted into his human form, quickly wrapping a pelt around his waist. He poured a wooden cup of water and drank it in one go, his mind racing. "Ruì Xuě, we have talked about this. The Cursed Female is.....she is not your mother."

"But.....she took care of me!" Ruì Xuě shouted, standing up on the furs. "She fed me berries! She hit the bad vultures with a tree! And she didn’t yell at me once! Not even when I was slow!"

Han Shān walked over, his large, calloused hand reaching out to touch his son’s forehead. He checked for a fever, his purple eyes scanning the boy’s skin for bruises or marks.

Nothing. The boy was healthy. In fact, he looked better than he had in months.

"She played with you?" Han Shān asked, his voice filled with skepticism.

"Yes! She told us a story about a girl with a glass shoe!" Ruì Xuě insisted.

Han Shān sat back on his heels, sighing. He was a man of logic and strength. He had been prepared to come home and tear Bai Yue apart for touching his cub. But Zhāo Yàn, the most logical and ruthless of the Alphas, had protected her. If Zhāo Yàn was standing by her side, it meant something had fundamentally shifted.

"No," Han Shān shook his head, his white hair falling over his face. "She is still the Cursed Female. People do not change overnight."

"I wonder what dinner will be like," Han Shān whispered to the empty room. He looked at his son, who was already curling up into a ball, clutching a small piece of dried vine Bai Yue had woven into a ring for him earlier.

The Snow Leopard Alpha felt a twinge of something he hadn’t felt in years.

Curiosity.