Chapter 119

After the leader fell, the remaining Stonehorn warriors refused to surrender, their pride too great. They continued attacking with desperate fury, so my mates killed those who kept fighting, swift and merciless, until the road was littered with gray bodies and the survivors fled into the mountains.

The real conflict began after the battle, when the adrenaline faded and the wounds demanded attention.

Veylan was bleeding badly when I reached him, his side a mess of torn flesh and broken bone, his breath coming in shallow gasps that scared me more than the blood. His brother crawled toward him, dragging his injured shoulder, leaving a trail of blood in the dirt that made my stomach turn.

I was trying to heal Veylan, my hands glowing with power, but he refused to look at his brother, his eyes fixed on the sky, his jaw clenched so tight I feared his teeth would crack.

"Look at me," I whispered, pressing my hand to his cheek, turning his face toward mine. "Do not shut down now. Stay with me."

His brother finally spoke, his voice barely audible, broken with pain and regret. "I should have stopped him."

Veylan went still beneath my hands, his chest freezing mid breath. "Stopped who?"

"My father."

I watched them, my healing forgotten, as the truth finally came, the confession that had waited years to be spoken.

"I knew," his brother whispered, tears tracking through the blood on his face. "I knew how badly he treated you. I saw the bruises. I heard you cry at night. I knew."

"And you did nothing, and my own father did nothing," Veylan said, flat and dead, his voice empty of everything.

"I was a child too," his brother pleaded. "I was afraid. My father drilled into me that he was mother’s favorite. Even if your father was the chief he was nothing in mother’s harem. Father wanted to crush your father by hurting you. I was just too little then to really do anything."

His brother looked at him, his eyes filled with the shame that consumed him.

I sat between them, my heart breaking for both, understanding that this wound would take years to heal, if it ever did. Veylan had saved his brother not because everything was forgiven, but because of who Veylan was.

I watched my hands work by firelight, needle and thread pulling torn flesh together as Veylan lay still beneath my touch. We were not alone, surrounded by the wolf survivors and my other mates tending their own wounds, so I could not use the gift that would have closed these injuries in moments. Traditional healing would have to suffice, the old way, the slow way.

Yet beneath the cover of darkness and the pretense of simple stitching, I let the barest thread of my power slip through my fingers, disguised as the pressure of my palm against his skin. Just enough to mend what truly threatened his life, a nicked artery here, a bleeding organ there, the wounds that would have killed him before morning. The surface damage I left for the needle, but the deep dangers, the silent killers, I took those for myself, hidden from watching eyes.

Later, as I finished stitching Veylan’s wounds under the stars, he spoke to me, his voice barely audible. "I spent years telling myself that if he ever suffered, I would leave him where he fell. I would watch and feel nothing."

I gently cleaned the blood from his face, my touch soft, my heart aching for him. "But you could not."

He looked toward where his brother slept, wrapped in bandages, guarded by Aureon and Leon. "No," he admitted, his jaw tight with conflict. "I could not."

"Do you regret helping him?"

His eyes closed, a tear escaping to track down his temple into his hair. "I regret that part of me still cares," he said, his voice breaking. "I regret that after everything, I still love him. I still want him to be better. I still hope."

I held his hand, pressing my forehead to his. "Caring about him does not mean you have to forgive him," I whispered. "It does not mean you have to let him back into your life. It just means you are good, Veylan. It means they could not break you completely."

He turned his head, burying his face in my neck, and wept for the child he had been, for the brother he had lost, for the family that had failed him. I held him through it, my own tears falling into his hair, knowing that this was only the beginning of a long healing.

When Veylan finally slept, I rose and went to his brother, kneeling beside him in the darkness. I placed my hand on his bandaged shoulder, pretending to check his wounds, and let a shred of power flow into him. Just enough to ensure the horn wound would not fester, that his blood would not poison him, that he would live to face tomorrow and whatever came after. Not enough to heal him completely, not enough to draw attention, just enough to keep him from dying. Because Veylan had chosen to save him, and that meant he was mine to protect too, at least for tonight.

Later, Aureon found something on the leader’s body that changed everything.

Aureon held up what he had found, his face pale in the firelight. A Tiger seal, a coded message, a payment token that should never have been outside Tiger territory.

Someone had paid the Stonehorn group to intercept the supplies.

Someone inside the Tiger Tribe did not want the alliance to succeed. Cyrus was already dealt with, executed for his crimes against Aureon’s family. So who was this person? Who else harbored enough hatred to fund an attack on their own people?

I looked at Aureon, saw the fear he tried to hide behind his anger, and understood. The enemy we faced was not some distant threat. They were already inside the walls, already wearing friendly faces, already waiting for us to walk into their trap.

So what began as Veylan unexpectedly encountering his estranged brother became evidence that someone was already working against Aureon’s family before we even reached the Tiger Tribe. The betrayal ran deeper than we knew, and we were walking blind into the heart of it.

The journey had just become much more dangerous than any of us had imagined. And I feared that whatever waited for us in the Tiger Tribe would make this ambush look like a gentle welcome.

---

We continued the journey, however, this time with more beastmen than we had started. The wolf group survivors traveled with us now, their wagons repaired as best they could be, their supplies somewhat diminished but their lives intact. Among them walked Eryx, Veylan’s brother, whose name we had finally learned when one of the other wolves called out to him. He was still pretty injured, moving with a limp that favored his wounded shoulder, his face pale with the effort of each step. My healing had only done enough to close any major wounds, to stop the bleeding that would have killed him. Whatever else needed to heal would do so on its own, the slow way, the painful way.

We were all traveling together since theirs was the tiger tribe anyways, their destination the same as ours. The arrangement made sense, but the tension between the brothers made every mile feel longer. Eryx tried to talk to Veylan, reaching out to touch his arm, calling his name softly, but Veylan would ignore him completely, walking ahead or falling behind, his eyes fixed on the horizon as if his brother did not exist. I watched this dance of avoidance and longing, my heart aching for them both, but I did not intervene. This was Veylan’s wound to tend, his choice to make.

When we got to a lake on the third day, its waters clear and cool and inviting after days of dust and blood, we all tried to get clean. The older cubs splashed at the shore, shrieking with delight as they discovered the joy of water without mud. I had the three youngest cubs while my one month olds were taken care of by Leon and Ravin. I kept one eye on all of them and one eye on Veylan, who stood apart from the others near the tree line, his mind miles away in some dark place I could not reach. He stared at the water as if it held answers he desperately needed, his shoulders hunched with the weight of memories.

"Mommy! Jasper farted in the water!" Chase yelled, pointing an accusatory finger at his brother. "It bubbled!"

"I did not!" Jasper shouted back, but he was grinning mischievously. "That was Ryder!"

"Liar!" Ryder squeaked, trying to splash Jasper and missing entirely, drenching Caelion instead.

"My face is not a target," Caelion rumbled, water streaming from his blue hair, his scales shimmering iridescent where they caught the light along his arms and throat. He flicked his fingers and a small wave rose obediently, splashing Ryder right in the face. "Careful who you hitting, little one."

Niku went to his daddy Veylan, the small cub wobbling on unsteady legs across the rocky shore. He reached Veylan and nudged his leg, pushing his little head against Veylan’s knee, trying to get his attention with insistent mewing. I watched, tensed and ready to move Niku away if Veylan needed space.

But Veylan looked down, and something shifted in his face. The shadows retreated, just for a moment, and he smiled. It was a small thing, fragile and tentative, but real. He picked up our cub, lifting Niku into his arms with gentle hands. "You want to play with daddy?" he asked, his voice rough but soft.

Niku did not answer with words. He simply licked Veylan’s face, his tiny tongue leaving a wet trail across Veylan’s cheek, his tail wagging with pure joy at having his father’s attention.

Then the chaos truly began.

"Attack!" Jasper screamed, leading a charge of older cubs against Leon, who was peacefully trying to wash his hair. They hit him like a furry tidal wave, knocking him backward into the shallows with a tremendous splash.

"Betrayal!" Leon roared, coming up sputtering. "I fed you this morning!"

"That was breakfast," Atlas said reasonably, climbing on Leon’s shoulders. "This is war."

Veylan, my silver and brooding wolf, transformed into a child himself. He waded into the shallows with Niku clutched to his chest, then with a mischievous grin I had never seen before, he dipped the cub into the water and blew a stream of water from his mouth, creating a fountain that sprayed everywhere.

Niku squeaked excitedly, bouncing in his arms and licking Veylan’s chin with enthusiasm.

"Who is the fiercest sea monster?" Veylan growled, pretending to be a creature from the deep, his hands making claws as he tickled Niku’s belly.

Niku squealed, kicking his legs so hard he almost launched himself out of Veylan’s grip, his tail wagging furiously.

"Catch me if you can!" Veylan laughed, actually laughed, the sound rich and startling. He began splashing water at Niku, who tried to dodge and ended up tumbling face first into a shallow puddle, coming up sputtering and indignant with water dripping from his ears. He shook his entire body like a wet leaf and chirped at Veylan in what sounded like an accusation.

"Size matters not, young warrior," Veylan said solemnly, then ruined it by snorting with laughter. "You are simply too slow!"

Niku responded by splashing water directly in Veylan’s face, his little paws creating surprisingly large waves for such a small creature.

The mock battle devolved into a splash fight that soaked them both thoroughly. Veylan scooped Niku up, lifting him high above his head, spinning in a circle while Niku spread his little legs like he was flying, his golden fur plastered to his body making him look like a drowned rat with delusions of grandeur.

"Who is the fiercest wolf in all the land?" Veylan roared, nuzzling his nose against Niku’s belly.

Niku mew proudly, though it came out more like a squeak, and nipped at Veylan’s nose playfully.

"You are a fierce little warrior," Veylan agreed, setting him down in the water and then pretending to be a monster, growling and snapping his teeth playfully while Niku splashed him mercilessly.

Meanwhile, Soryn had discovered that cheetah cubs did not like water just as much as the lion cubs didn’t. He took the task of washing our three youngest cubs, letting me wash my little princess Levy while he held Tavren, Zarek, and Kaizen in his coils, trying to wash them; they squirmed and protested with high pitched wails and dramatic thrashing.

Zarek let out a particularly mournful cry, flopping his head back like a dying fish, his limbs going limp in exaggerated defeat even as he tried to climb Soryn’s face to escape.

"You are a drama cub," Soryn corrected, gently peeling the struggling cub off his nose and scrubbing behind his ears despite the performance. "Hold still."

Zarek responded by releasing an impressive amount of water from his mouth directly onto Soryn’s chest, his tiny body shaking with what looked suspiciously like laughter.

Tavren and Kaizen took this as their cue to escape, attempting to wriggle free from Soryn’s coils and make a break for the shore with desperate determination, their little paws scrambling against Soryn’s scales for purchase.

"Oh no you do not," Soryn rumbled, tightening his grip just enough to keep them secure without hurting them. "You will be clean if it takes all afternoon."

Kaizen responded by going completely limp, playing dead in the hopes of being released, while Tavren tried the opposite tactic, becoming completely rigid like a board.

"You are not a stick," Soryn informed him, trying to bend the cub enough to reach his back. "And you are definitely not dead," he added to Kaizen, tickling his belly until the cub’s eyes popped open in indignant surprise.

I watched from where I sat with Levy, who was paddling contentedly in the shallows beside me, and smiled at Soryn’s predicament. Three tiny cheetahs had managed to overwhelm a grown serpent, and the sight was both exhausting and adorable.

The older cubs noticed Veylan’s fun and swarmed toward their father, with Chase shouting, "Attack the wolf!" as they jumped on his back, climbing his shoulders, using him as a living jungle gym while he laughed and pretended to be overwhelmed.

"Too many cubs! I am being defeated!" he cried out dramatically, falling backward into the shallows with a tremendous splash that sent water flying everywhere.

"Victory!" Jasper shrieked, pouncing on Veylan’s chest. "We have conquered the beast!"

"Mercy! Mercy!" Veylan begged, though he was grinning so wide I thought his face might split.

"Show no mercy!" Chase shouted, tickling Veylan’s ribs. "He is the enemy!"

"I am your father!" Veylan protested.

"Same thing!" Atlas laughed, joining the pile.

Veylan let them conquer him, his laughter ringing out across the lake, bright and free and nothing like the broken man who had wept in my arms the night before. He grabbed Niku and tossed him gently into the air, catching him as he came down, both of them dissolving into fits of giggles that sounded like music.

I sat on the shore with Levy in my lap, watching my fierce warrior mate playing like a child, covered in water and grass and cub footprints, and felt my heart swell with love, I thought I saw Eryx watching too, a small smile on his face, perhaps seeing the brother he had lost in the man who could still laugh like that.