Chapter 270: That Tastes Terrible

Some of the groups were not granola.

Scattered among the granola bars were a few groups of plain chocolate bars. Just chocolate. No nuts or anything else.

Tera was stunned that the sponsor had given her both kinds, though the granola she had requested was more in number.

Still, she was grateful for this.

And it was also a little concerning, but still smart how PervyGoddess had nearly thought of everything. Tera couldn’t entirely feed her cubs the granola bars yet. They weren’t yet two years old. And while their teeth had only freshly finished developing, the granola bars, especially because of the nuts, would be a choking hazard for the little ones.

Tera lifted out one group of the plain chocolate bars and held them against her chest.

Then she put the rest of it away.

The crate vanished out of the middle of her shelter floor between one blink and the next.

Both cubs flinched so hard they nearly went over backwards.

Tera’s head snapped around.

They were staring at the spot where the crate had been with their ears flat against their skulls, and Nadia’s little face was already crumpling, and that was when Tera realised that her cubs had never actually watched her use the system.

Especially not up close or something that large.

"Oh—no, no, no—"

Tera dropped the pack and went down onto her knees in front of her babies who were about to cry.

Calis moved and grabbed Nadia, wanting to help. When he cradled the cub against his chest, she buried her face there and sniffed.

Tera directed an appreciative smile at Calis and held Althea to her.

Xavi and Ermin had wanted to stretch their legs and go hunting for a while with a few members of the clan, so they weren’t back yet.

"Shhh. It’s okay. I’m sorry," she cooed at Althea. "Shhh. It’s gone, it’s just put away, it’s not gone-gone—"

Althea was shaking against her collarbone and making the small wet noise that came right before actual crying.

Tera rubbed her back and crossed to Calis, to pat Nadia’s head too, stroking her hair back while she talked to both of them.

Calis’s chest fluttered at the gentle way she was easing her cubs.

Tera kissed Nadia’s head before kissing Althea’s, and he nearly pouted, wanting to tell Tera not to forget him, but clearly, the cubs needed the attention first.

Nadia lifted her head from Calis’s chest just enough to look at the empty floor with deep suspicion.

"I’m sorry I startled you."

Nadia rubbed her nose.

Tera crouched, still holding Althea on one arm, and picked one of the dropped chocolate bars from the pack.

She tore the wrapper open with her teeth because she had one hand.

Then, she bit out a small piece, intending to feed that to Althea when she froze.

The chocolate was incredibly rich, richer than any chocolate she had actually eaten. It was not too sugary, but it had such a lovely taste.

Tera stood there in her own shelter, holding her cub with her eyes wide open and chocolate going soft on her tongue.

It was so delicious.

Calis leaned in slightly, a worried frown on his face as he took in Tera’s reaction before sniffing at the chocolate bar in her hand.

"That smells strange—"

Tera smiled at him and pushed it towards him.

"You have to taste it!"

Calis looked at the piece. Then he looked at her. Then, because she had asked him to, he took a bite out of the chocolate bar.

His face changed instantly.

Tera watched the tall wolf leader go from mildly curious to absolute revulsion in less than a second. His whole expression folded in on itself. His ears flattened against his skull, his lip pulled back off his teeth, and then he turned and bolted.

He went out of that shelter at a speed she had previously only seen him use on prey.

She heard him spit. Then spit again. Then a third time, further away, with real feeling behind it.

He came back a moment later, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, and the look on his face was so apologetic that it would have been funny if Tera’s stomach had not been busy dropping through the floor.

"I am sorry," Calis said. "That tastes terrible."

{PervyGoddess gasps}

{PervyGoddess snaps that Tera’s mate lacks taste!}

Tera stood there with Althea on her arm and could not produce a single word.

[(? •? ?•? )]

[Was Host attempting to POISON him?!]

’What—’

[Chocolate is toxic to a great number of creatures in Host’s world!]

[Host KNOWS this! Host is from there!]

[What exactly made Host think it was acceptable to hand it to a WOLF BEAST?!]

Tera’s blood went cold.

"Calis—"

She shoved the bar into Althea’s hands, grabbed Calis by the jaw and hauled his mouth open, tilting his head toward the doorway so the light fell into it. She pulled his lip back. She checked his tongue, his gums, the back of his throat, the colour of everything.

"Are you fine? Tell me if you feel strange. Is anything burning? Is your throat burning? Does your chest hurt?"

Calis made a muffled noise.

He was extremely startled. He had come back in expecting to be told he was being rude about a gift, and instead his mate had seized his face and begun inspecting the inside of his mouth like he was a cub who had eaten something off the ground.

He had no idea what was happening.

What he did know was that the second he said something was wrong, she had dropped everything to pay attention to him.

Not once did it occur to Calis to wonder whether he had actually eaten something dangerous.

He simply stood there, going warm and fuzzy from his ears all the way to his feet as Tera fussed all over him.

[Hehe]

[Oh. Hehehe]

[(???)]

[Host. It is not toxic to them]

Tera went still.

’...What.’

[It is not toxic to them at all]

[Their bodies are nothing like the creatures of Host’s world]

[Rather than it being toxic for their bodies, they simply find it bitter]

[(????)?]

[Some of them, anyway]

Tera let go of Calis’s face very slowly.

She stood up straight. Her shoulders went rigid and stayed there, her irritation rising. She then looked down, alarmed as she had handed her cub something that could have potentially been toxic for them.

But that damn system!

’You...’

[Yes, Host?]

’One day I am going to find a way to do this. I don’t know how yet, but I will work it out.’

[( ? -?)?]

’And when I do, I am going to shove so much chocolate down your throat that you will be vomiting it for days. Days, system. Plural days.’

[...]

[(;°Д°)]

[SCARY!]

[This system was just trying to joke with Host]

’Your jokes have shitty timing!’

[?????]

The window vanished out of her vision so fast it left an afterimage.

Tera shook her head.

Althea had gone very quiet in her arms. She was holding the chocolate bar in both small hands where Tera had shoved it, and she had stopped crying entirely because her nose was now working overtime sniffing the strange object.

Beside her, Nadia had squirmed around in Calis’s hold to get a better angle at it, and she was sniffing too. Both of them had their noses pointed at the same thing with the exact same expression of deep suspicion.

Althea leaned forward and licked it.