Elias left the room to continue digging into their enemy. He crossed paths with Linera, delivering breakfast to the room. Her cheek was swollen and bright red. He was reminded of the slap she had received from her father, and the force that had been used. The old man had truly not held back.

Linera ignored the stare, rushing into the room as if the patient was starving. As soon as she delivered breakfast, Mrs. Miller took it from her. She sat as close to Sienna as she could get, spooning porridge into her daughter’s mouth as if she was a toddler again. She even blew on it, and said ’ah...’ encouraging Sienna to open her mouth.

Sienna. half amused and half embarrassed, let herself be fed, patting the sleeping cubs curled up beside her.

The fox guards stationed in the room stood with stiff backs and sharper eyes than usual, pretending not to notice the domestic scene, though one of them coughed suspiciously when Mrs. Miller scolded Sienna for chewing too fast.

"Mom..." She whispered, embarrassed even more.

Mrs. Miller just dabbed at Sienna’s mouth, "After eating, I will give you a sponge bath. Don’t worry, I will use warm water and the honey and milk goat soap that you love. I brought it along."

Sienna bit the spoon, dreading the moment. What grown woman her age needed her mother to give her a bath?

Grandma Byra smiled. At least her granddaughter was out of danger, and her daughter-in-law was not crying anymore. For a while there, they had all been expecting her to faint.

Outside the room, however, the atmosphere was anything but tender. Liman was addressing Elias, delivering the latest news on the assassination attempt.

She whispered the details to him because she didn’t want the king’s soldiers overhearing her. "It was a coordinated effort between a mouse beast man and a human. Do you remember that scandal when Lady Sienna called her ex friend a mouse beast bitch?"

Elias clenched his jaw. Of course he remembered. The scandal had spread faster than fire. To date, it was still whispered about with relish. The words ’mouse beast bitch’ were banned from BeastNet, but people still used it outside. Online, they just abbreviated it as MBB.

He had asked Timothy to keep an eye any developments that followed. The last update he had received about the mouse beast man involved was that he had been divorced by his wife because Sienna unintentionally revealed an extra marital affair. He had lost custody of his children and ownership of half of his garage business. Gary, the mouse beast man had become the sort of man who cursed a his own reflection in the mirror.

As for the human, Susie Wiener, she was a pariah. Her company had fired her, to avoid crossing the fox lord. Gossip followed her whenever she stepped out of her apartment. Her boyfriend had ended the relationship. She was living in the shadows of the scandal.

Two people with a feud against his family. They had probably seen the rising tensions with the eagles as an opportunity to strike.

Liman whispered, "The mouse beast man sent the money to the account of the human woman and she found the assassin guild. It has a branch in Lost-born city which operates as a laundry-mart. We are supposed to report this guild to the royal palace but I thought you should know first."

Elias’s tail slammed into the wall. His claws flexing against the air, leaving deep imaginary gouges. "A mouse beast man! A mouse beast man and a human! Some species seem to be overthinking their importance. Those cowards think they can touch my wife and children?"

His guards exchanged nervous glaces. Surely, their lord would not declare war against all humans and mouse beast men!

At the same time, Lenard ducked into another VIP ward on the same floor and made a call to the palace. No matter how soft Liman whispered, she couldn’t win against his superior hearing ability.

In the palace, the advisors scrambled.

"First eagles, now mice and humans. Has everyone lost their minds by provoking that lunatic? We must act before he declares war." A deer elder hissed.

A lion elder shook his mane. "He already promised not to declare war."

"On the eagles." Sting bellowed. "He promised not to go to war with the eagles. He did not say the same about humans or mouse beast men."

"The humans will claim we are savages if he attacks blindly. We promised them peace one hundred years ago. We cannot afford to break the peace."

Queen Serenya slapped her hand on the table. "Then what are you waiting for? There is nothing to argue about. Send our people to retrieve those two fools before Elias destroys cities to get his hands on them. I heard Sienna wants to boil them to death. You can trust Elias to make sure that she gets what she wants."

Another message came in from Lenard. Elias had given the order for a hunt to begin. Agents from the palace departed. It became a race between the fox lord’s men and the royals.

Meanwhile, Sienna was blissfully unaware of the hunt, or the murderous intentions of a friend she once shared everything with. Breakfast was finished, and she was waiting for the sponge bath, dreading it as much as she looked forward to it, because her body was sticky.

She tapped the ears of the cubs fondly, whispering, "Sleep, little foxes. Mama is okay. There is nothing to fear, except your grandma Miller and her sponge."

Her mother chuckled, "Funny enough, you hated taking baths as a child. Getting you into a tub was a battle which sometimes ended in bite marks on my arms." She put a small basin on an elevated table pulled from the side of the bed. "One time, when you were three years old, you ran out of the house in your underwear and made me chase you all around the neighborhood.

I think I have a picture of the moment when I caught you. I will see if I can find it when we return home. I hope you are not planning to pull that move right now. It was cute when you were toddler, but as an adult, it is just a scandal."

Sienna raised her head swiftly. "Mother!!" he hissed.

Three guards found themselves with itchy throats.

Elias entered the room, a grim look on his face. Sienna didn’t have to guess to know, she was sure he had news.