Chapter 80: Coping With Canines

Lucien steps out of his carriage pouting, arms crossed, and rounds on Val the moment his boots hit the dirt.

“That’s the second dramatic entrance you’ve made this week, and I’ve had none. None at all.” He points a finger squarely at him. “I call dibs on the next village. Non-negotiable.”

Val just chuckles, entirely unbothered by the demand.

Kamiko steps forward toward the assembled wolves, hands raised, tone gone smooth and diplomatic. “We haven’t come to bring trouble. Just to talk. I’d like a moment with your chief, if he’s willing.”

Draven barely registers a word of it. He’s already circled around behind Lucien and started sniffing at him with real intensity, nose practically pressed to his shoulder blade.

Lucien doesn’t flinch.

“I’m flattered,” he says, “but I’m strictly a ladies’ man.”

Draven balks, jumping back a full step.

“I’m a ladies’ man too. Very much! Mated just last week. Twice!”

“That’s cute.” Lucien chuckles.

“I wasn’t sniffing you for that.” Draven snarls, fangs bared. “You smell off. Something familiar, but I can’t put my paw on it.”

Lucien sniffs at his own shoulder and shrugs.

“Probably some lingering scent from the Beast Mother.” he says, casually, though obviously proud about it. “The two of us got rather physical.”

The gathered wolves gasp as one, a ripple of murmuring spreading fast through the pack.

“It’s true.” Kamiko announces it plainly, raising her voice to carry. “He’s received the Beast Mother’s blessing.”

The wolves surge toward Lucien at that, and he grins, bracing himself for the usual round of praise and compliments he’s grown thoroughly used to this past week. Only to find every single one of them immediately, enthusiastically challenging him to a fight instead, each one eager to measure themselves against a man blessed by their patron goddess.

“I’d love to, genuinely, but we’re actually here on business.” Lucien throws both hands up, overwhelmed. “I’m afraid I simply won’t have the time.”

“Leave my guest alone.” Kamiko scolds as she bats several of them back with a folding fan. They moan and whimper in protest, several still begging Lucien directly for a match.

“I’ll admit, I would like to see what this blessing actually does.” Val chuckles from behind them.

“Honestly, so would I,” Lucien says. “I haven’t had a proper chance to train with it yet.”

They pass through the gates into the wolf-kin village proper, and it’s an immediate, jarring contrast to everywhere they’ve visited so far. Nothing like the idle, easy farm rhythms of the bunny village, nothing like the frantic but orderly bustle of the fox-kin.

Everything here seems built around a single purpose.

Hunting.

Streets lined with butchers and blacksmiths standing shoulder to shoulder, hide-tanners working in open-air stalls, racks of drying meat hung along nearly every porch, the smell of old iron and blood hanging thick and permanent in the air, impossible to escape no matter which direction the wind shifts. Even the cobblestones seem stained a shade darker than they ought to be.

Children tear past between the buildings, dueling each other with femurs like practice swords, one small boy proudly wearing the skull of something considerably larger than himself strapped on like a battle helm, chasing two others half his size who are shrieking with delighted terror, bare paws slapping hard against the packed dirt.

Lucien flinches hard as older children sprint past, faces streaked with blood, squabbling loudly over a fresh, still-bleeding leg of boar.

“This isn’t quite what I expected,” Lucien mutters.

Serenith drifts closer, watching the scene unfold with quiet interest. “You still have much to learn about how different lives get lived out here.”

Wolves sniff the air as Lucien passes, squinting at him with open suspicion, a few offering nervous, uncertain waves, looking at him the way a predator might look at something that’s just wandered, confused, into the wrong part of the forest and said hello.

Lucien notices Brina walking close behind Kamiko, almost using her as a shield, ears pinned flat, tail wrapped tight around one leg, looking thoroughly on edge.

Kamiko gets pulled into a stall along the way, the owner calling out about a shipment he’s still waiting on, and more merchants spill out of their shops to crowd around her within moments.

“Just a minute,” she calls back to the others, already deep in negotiation.

Lucien feels something at his leg and looks down to find a small pup sniffing at his boots.

“Why do you smell so strange?” the pup asks.

“Probably the Beast Mother’s blessing,” Lucien explains.

“Seriously?” The pup’s eyes go wide. He looks Lucien up and down, unimpressed. “You look weak though.”

“Looks can be deceiving, you know.” Lucien pouts.

The pup tilts his head, clearly not following, and Lucien shoos him off gently. “You’re too young to understand.”

A whimper catches his attention a moment later, and he turns to find Brina cornered by a large wolf-kin man, looking distinctly uncomfortable, shoulders drawn in tight.

Lucien crosses over quickly.

“Everything alright here?” he asks.

“We’re fine. You can leave.” The wolf-man says, dismissing him with a wave of a paw.

Lucien cocks a brow.

The wolf turns back to Brina instead, thumping his own chest with obvious pride.

“You should be honored to mate with me.” He growls. “I’ve mated with six women just this past season.”

“I can’t.” Brina says quickly.

“Why not?”

She glances around, panicked, catches sight of Lucien, and blurts out, “Because he already claimed me.”

Lucien’s eyes go wide. And then he grins, straightening up, and struts over to loop an arm around her waist, pulling her firmly against his hip.

“That’s correct.” he grins. “She’s mine.”

She yelps at the contact, then, after a beat, reluctantly leans into him and wraps an arm around his waist in turn.

“Who are you, exactly?” The wolf’s ears flatten, a low growl building in his chest as he squares up to Lucien fully, chest puffing out to make the most of a considerable height advantage.

“Just a businessman,” Lucien says, easy, “passing through.”

“A wolf-kin like her needs a man who can make her howl properly.”

“I made two dozen beast-kin scream my name just last week,” Lucien says, entirely unbothered. “Including the Beast Mother herself.”

The wolf’s eyes go wide. He leans in, sniffing hard, then growls. “What are you?”

Val clears his throat pointedly from a few steps away, eyebrow raised, a silent, helpful warning to Lucien.

Lucien sighs.

“Just a simple businessman. Hoping to expand his territory, that’s all.”

The wolf looks him up and down, clearly winding up for a challenge, but Kamiko reappears at exactly the right moment, pulling both Lucien and Brina away with a bright, entirely too cheerful smile aimed at the wolf.

“So sorry,” she coos, “chief is waiting to see us. No time to chat.”

“I’ll see you later.” The wolf snarls after Lucien. Then, “Don’t worry. I’ll still help you find your howl soon enough.” He says to Brina.

Brina snaps her teeth at him sharply, and Lucien laughs.

“You look vicious when you’re angry,” he tells her, grinning. “Remind me never to get on your bad side.”

She chuckles despite herself. “Men just bring out the worst in me.”

“I hope I can break the pattern, then.”

She laughs softly, then seems to notice, all at once, that his hand is still firmly settled at her waist, and shoves him off in a hurry.

Lucien apologizes at once, “I didn’t mean anything by it! Honestly, although,” he can’t resist adding, “you are frighteningly soft for someone with such a temper.” and then, “What conditioner do you use?”

She laughs, properly. “I’ll tell you later,” she chuckles, breaking into a jog ahead of him.

Another wolf-man attempts to intercept her path a moment later, but she snaps at him too, sending him yipping backward before he manages a single word.

“I’d be happy to lend my presence,” Lucien offers, catching up, “purely to ward the rest of them off.”

She turns her nose up, considering, then relents.

“Fine.” She says flatly and settles in beside him before he tries, immediately, to slide his arm back around her waist.

She slaps it away without breaking stride.

Serenith watches the two of them walk off after Kamiko and Val, matching easy strides, Brina already laughing at something else he’s said, Lucien getting entirely too comfortable, too easily, in something that keeps insisting it’s purely platonic.

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