Surviving Zombies Was Easier Than Raising Beast Cubs

Chapter 25: Chapter 25: You are bleeding from your mouth. That is not fine. That is very much not fine.

Kael looked at her.

He was in pain. She could see it in the tightness of his jaw, the roughness of his breathing, and the blood on his mouth.

But his eyes softened for half a second because she had run to him.

She had chosen him before fear.

That small thing struck him harder than Soren’s tail.

"I am fine," he said.

Swanly wanted to slap him too.

"You are bleeding from your mouth. That is not fine. That is very much not fine."

The cubs rushed into them.

The eldest pressed against Kael’s leg, crying silently now because his tiny heart had used up all its shouting.

The second buried his face against Swanly’s thigh.

The smallest climbed into Swanly’s lap and immediately licked Kael’s bloody hand.

Swanly grabbed his face.

"No licking blood!"

The smallest sobbed. "Papa blood bad."

"Yes, Papa blood bad. That is why we do not taste it."

Even in the middle of terror, Kael’s eyes flickered with something soft.

His cubs were alive.

Swanly was holding them.

He had failed to stop Soren, and yet they were still clinging to him like he had not failed at all.

That hurt in a different way.

Soren watched them.

He did not like the way the panther male looked at her.

He liked even less that Swanly had run to him without thinking.

But now Soren knew exactly where to press.

The cubs.

The panther.

Fear.

Need.

He could use all of it.

Swanly looked up at him, still kneeling beside Kael.

"I am not going into an infection prison. I did not survive one apocalypse to sleep in a beast-world death hole."

Soren’s eyes sharpened slightly.

Apocalypse.

Another strange word.

He would take that from her later.

"There is another choice," he said. freёwebnovel.com

Kael’s claws dug into the mud.

"No."

Swanly looked between them. "I do not even know what he is going to say yet."

Kael’s face darkened. "No."

Soren smiled faintly.

"Rot Pit," he said, "or my protection claim."

The crowd stirred.

A few females gasped.

One old male muttered that a snake claim was no small thing.

Swanly’s head hurt too badly for this.

"What does that mean?"

Soren reached to the side of his own neck.

With one sharp pull, he tore free a small white scale.

Swanly flinched.

The scale gleamed in his fingers, pale and smooth, with a thin line of blood at its base.

"My scale tied to your wrist," he said. "My scent over yours. My law over your body while you remain in Riverbone. No guard touches you. No male drags you away. No elder throws you into the Rot Pit."

Kael’s growl rose.

Soren’s silver eyes did not leave Swanly.

"But everyone will know you are under me."

The words were quiet.

The insult was not.

Kael surged forward, but Raku stepped in front of him fully this time.

The crocodile beastman was huge. His bone club rested against his shoulder, and his scaled jaw tightened.

"Black panther," Raku said, voice deep and rough like stones in water. "Move again and I break what the White Snake left whole."

Swanly stood quickly and spread one arm in front of Kael, which was ridiculous because Kael was huge and she was not, but her body moved anyway.

"Back up, crocodile man."

Raku looked at her.

For a moment, he seemed honestly confused.

This female had just watched Soren bleed from his mind, watched her mate crushed, watched the whole gate turn against her, and she was still standing in front of the panther telling Raku to back up?

Raku did not respect her yet.

But he noticed.

Soren noticed too.

Kael noticed most of all.

His chest hurt worse.

Because Swanly was protecting him now.

His female, who once looked at him like he was dirt, was standing between him and a crocodile beastman with a bone club.

He did not know what to do with that feeling.

It made him want to pull her behind him.

It also made him want to bury his face against her neck and breathe until the pain stopped.

The cubs cried harder because they understood only one thing.

Snake male wanted Mama.

Papa was hurt.

Everyone was scary.

The smallest grabbed Swanly’s leg and wailed, "Snake male no take Mama!"

Swanly bent and picked him up immediately.

"Nobody is taking me," she said, even though her voice shook.

Soren heard the thought under it.

I hope.

His smile became colder. free𝑤ebnovel.com

Now he knew for certain.

She lied softly for cubs.

She would break herself before letting them panic.

Good.

That was useful.

He stepped closer with the bloody white scale in his hand.

Kael’s whole body shook with rage.

Swanly held the smallest tighter.

The eldest pressed against her foot, trying to growl through tears.

The second hid behind her tail and whispered, "Mama no pit."

Swanly looked at Kael.

Then at the cubs.

Then at Soren.

The Rot Pit meant being locked alone among suspicious infected people for three nights.

Soren’s claim meant wearing the mark of a cold snake male who had just crushed her mate and ripped open her mind.

Both choices were horrible.

Which, honestly, felt very on-brand for her life lately.

Soren held out the scale.

"Choose, little fox."

Swanly stared at him.

Her head still hurt.

Kael was bleeding.

The cubs were crying.

The crowd was waiting to see if she would become a prisoner or a claimed thing.

And somewhere inside her space, her tiny insane system had probably gone back to eating popcorn after biting the most dangerous male in Riverbone.

Swanly swallowed.

Then she lifted her chin and said, "If I take that scale, you let my mate and my cubs inside too."

Soren’s eyes narrowed.

Raku looked at him.

The whole gate waited.

Kael’s voice came from behind her, low and furious.

"Swanly, do not."

Swanly did not look back.

Because if she looked at him, she might cry.

And she was very tired of crying in front of terrifying men.

Soren’s lips curved.

"Done."

That answer came too fast.

Swanly’s stomach dropped.

Because that meant he had already expected her to bargain for them.

He had wanted her to.

He had wanted to prove, in front of everyone, that she would choose the claim if it protected her family.

Soren stepped closer.

The white scale gleamed in his hand.

Raku moved to his side like a wall of crocodile muscle.

And Kael, still bleeding, still furious, still unable to stop it, watched another male reach for his mate’s wrist.

Swanly held her breath.

The smallest cub whispered, broken and scared, "Mama no go."

Soren’s cold fingers closed around Swanly’s wrist.

And the moment his bloodied scale touched her skin, something under the river answered.

Then he looked at her with a cold smile ’You are mine now’