Chapter 134: Crying Over Meat

Several males had gone rigid, their ears swivelling and their eyes scanning the treeline as if Faelynn’s tears could only mean an imminent attack. One wolf actually shifted into his beast form and crouched low, nose to the ground, searching for whatever had made the most fearsome female in the pack break down.

Because Faelynn did not cry.

Faelynn had not cried when they were chased across three territories by a corrupted beast. She had not cried when her favourite mate had died. She had delivered her first cub in silence and had bitten through a strip of hide to keep from screaming.

And now she was weeping because she couldn’t go on a trip.

"Is she hurt?!"

"Check the cub! Is the cub coming?!"

"Should we fight something?!"

"Fight WHAT?!"

"I don’t know! Something made her cry! Find it!"

[Such a dramatic emotional shift in the wolf female!]

[(⊙_⊙)]

Xavi, Ermin, and the others from the Dow clan were just as baffled, but Tera faintly understood Faelynn’s distress, even though she had also been taken aback by it.

The females surrounded Calis’ sister, rubbing her back, stroking her hair, and murmuring soothing words with the practised tenderness of mothers who had comforted countless crying cubs.

It only made everything worse.

Faelynn’s sobs grew louder, and the gentle touches and soft voices that were meant to calm her had taken the opposite effect.

"Fae—Faelynn—"

She cried harder.

"You do not need to go. You can rest here with us—"

Even harder.

"Faelynn, please, the cub—"

"I am so TIRED!" Faelynn burst out between sobs, and the raw, cracking honesty of it silenced every voice in the clearing.

Her hands were shaking against her swollen belly, and she tried to wipe her tears, embarrassed.

Tears streamed down her face in messy trails, and her composure, the iron wall she had maintained for months and years, crumbled in front of the entire pack.

"I am tired, and I am always hungry," she choked out. "My body aches, and I never sleep properly, and the cubs never stop needing things, and I haven’t eaten anything that tasted GOOD since before the Collapse until last night—"

Her voice broke.

"That meat was the best thing I have ever eaten, and I just wanted to have more of it, and now I am CRYING about MEAT, and I do not even understand why—"

She pressed both hands over her face, mortified by her own words, but the tears kept coming anyway.

The clearing was deathly silent.

[...]

[(ᵕŏᴗŏ)]

[Just because of that?]

’Shut up, you heartless thing!’

[(º∆º)]

[This system isn’t heartless!]

Tera turned her attention to what was happening in front of her. Her chest ached, and she wasn’t looking at Faelynn anymore, but at her brother.

The alpha’s stubbornness was fracturing, and it nearly crumbled.

He hadn’t known about this, and he was still struggling to grasp how she was crying because of that meat.

"Perhaps just this once?" Tera said softly. "She can come alone, and I will personally make sure she is comfortable and taken care of."

Tera shot a sharp look at Xavi and Ermin, who straightened and nodded eagerly.

Tera turned back to the wolves, and to everyone’s surprise, Faelynn’s tears had reduced at her words.

’Damn. So, I was right...’

Calis looked at Tera. Then at his sister. Then back at Tera.

He looked very confused and uncertain at that moment. Then his jaw clenched so tightly that Tera could literally see the muscles in his face jump.

He then sighed.

"This one time," he said slowly.

Faelynn’s smile went so wide it nearly consumed her whole face, but Calis was quick and heavy with his conditions.

"Only this once. And if you tire or even slow down at any point, we stop. And if you feel any pain, anything at all, we turn back! I do not care if we are ten steps away from here. And I will carry you back here myself if your legs give out."

Faelynn eagerly nodded while Tera just stared in wonder.

Her first time experiencing some drama that didn’t involve her.

- ※ - ※ - ※ -

When Calis was done with the arrangements, they had left the pack, with Tera on Ermin’s back.

Faelynn had just shifted into her wolf form when Tera leaned over and whispered to the female.

"When we get to my clan, you can eat as much roasted meat as you want."

Faelynn stiffened, and her eyes widened with an excited glow. Tera smiled.

[Faelynn’s opinion of Host has significantly improved!]

[(◕‿◕✿)]

[Nothing bonds females faster than shared food trauma and pregnancy hormones]

’OMG!’

Along the way, Tera had spent a lot of time scanning for corrupted beasts.

As for Faelynn, the female’s pregnancy was less obvious in her wolf form, and despite her heavy belly, Calis’ sister still moved with a speed that genuinely surprised Tera.

They would occasionally slow their stride to match hers, but for a female who was carrying an entire cub inside her, she covered ground with a relentless, loping gait.

Luth had apparently also come for the ride, and she hung over her uncle’s back as they swept through the woods.

However, aside from scanning for threats and Faelynn’s impressive speed, Tera was, for the first time, realising just how fast the beasts were in their beast form. She had first gotten a glimpse of it from Kiri fleeing from that dinosaur, but this was the second time.

The wind whipped at Tera’s face as Ermin moved silently through the trees, and strangely, Ermin appeared to be faster than the rest of them. She also didn’t feel uncomfortable being on his back, though she had to hold on for her dear life so she wouldn’t fall off either.

They seemed to on for what felt like forever, and Tera also discovered just how distant the wolf pack was from the Dow clan. Despite not being among the runners, Tera could also feel the fatigue creeping up on her, but her excitement at finally returning to the clan kept her awake.

She wanted to see and hold her cubs first. It would be far better to sleep with them in her arms even if they had gotten bigger.

The dense, damp forests of the wolves’ territory gave way to drier, richer ground.

The wolves’ pace slowed as they caught the first scent of fresh water. When the lake came into view, several of them faltered mid-stride, staring at the abundant water.

This clan had this much water flowing freely while they had been rationing sips from water skins. But it was the stone-lined channels carrying water directly into the settlement that silenced them completely, because channels meant someone had built this, and every wolf knew exactly who.

It did not look like any normal stream.

As they all reached their destination, the wolves stopped completely.

They took in the strange, beautiful shelters that beasts were leaving and entering, the lively cubs out in the open, and the smoky smell of meat that had a very different scent from the one Tera had made for them back in Calis’ pack.

This odd place was everything Tera had described, and the wolves had not believed a word of it.

Now they were looking at it.