Surviving Zombies Was Easier Than Raising Beast Cubs

Chapter 47: Chapter 47: Hold him tighter

Soren’s tail snapped between them and struck the cub upward before the jaws closed.

The second cub flew from Swanly’s arm with a terrified cry.

The creature bit empty air.

Swanly screamed.

Not a clean scream.

Not a pretty one.

It tore out of her throat as her bowstring pulled back on its own and an arrow formed against her fingers.

She shot the creature in the head.

The arrow punched through.

The infected kept crawling.

Its arm clawed toward the place the cub had been.

Swanly’s fear turned into rage so sharp it steadied her hand.

”Die properly.”

She shot lower.

The second arrow sank into the black rot core beating under its throat.

The creature convulsed so hard the water around it turned gray.

Then it dropped back into the flood.

The second cub landed against Soren’s coil.

For one breath nobody moved.

The cub lay there, soaked and shaking, his tiny hands pressed to the smooth white scale beneath him. His eyes were huge, and his teeth clicked together so hard Swanly heard it.

Soren looked down at him.

The cub looked up.

The snake who had crushed his father had saved him.

The cub did not understand what to do with that.

Swanly did not either.

Soren’s tail lifted him.

Carefully.

Too carefully for a male who pretended not to care.

He set the cub back into Swanly’s arms.

Swanly caught him and crushed him to her chest so hard he squeaked.

Her hands shook against his back.

Her whole body was still trapped in the moment he had left her arms.

Kael stood frozen beside her.

His eyes were on Soren.

The snake had saved his cub.

Not because it moved them closer to the seed.

Not because it helped the path.

Because the cub had been about to die.

Kael hated owing him that.

Swanly hated seeing it.

Soren turned away first, as if the moment meant nothing.

”Hold him tighter.”

Swanly wanted to curse him.

She wanted to thank him.

She hated both choices, so she did neither.

Instead she held the cub tighter until his small fingers curled into her clothes.

The second cub whispered against her chest.

”Snake save cub.”

Swanly closed her eyes.

”Yes.”

His voice came smaller.

”Still bad?”

Swanly opened her eyes and looked at Soren’s back.

The rain had left his white hair damp against his shoulders. His tail moved through the black mud without hesitation, like this nightmare belonged to him and had been waiting for him to return.

”Yes.”

The cub thought about that with the seriousness of a tiny judge.

”Bad save.”

Swanly almost laughed.

It hurt too much to come out right.

”Yes, baby.”

Kael moved beside her.

His face had changed.

The guilt was still there, but now it had something darker wrapped around it. The kind of anger that came from being forced to owe a male he hated.

”You would sacrifice anyone for this seed.”

Soren did not look back.

Kael’s voice dropped into a snarl.

”You would sacrifice Swanly too.”

Soren stopped.

His head turned slowly.

The air between them tightened until even Raku shifted his grip on the weapon.

Soren’s eyes were cold.

”You would sacrifice Riverbone for your cubs.”

Kael’s eyes became pure gold.

”Yes.”

”Then do not pretend you are softer than me.”

Swanly looked between them.

Her chest felt heavy.

She wanted to reject Soren’s words.

She wanted to tell Kael he would never become like that.

But the second cub was shaking in her arms, and she knew with a sick kind of certainty that if saving him meant burning every tree in this rotten forest, she might light the fire herself.

That did not make Soren innocent.

It only made the horror harder to hate cleanly.

”I have one cub trying to die,” she said.

Both males looked at her.

”One snake trying to own me.”

Soren’s eyes narrowed.

”One panther trying to bleed out.”

Kael’s jaw tightened.

Swanly’s voice sharpened because if she did not sharpen it, it might break.

”Can we focus on not dying?”

The second cub nodded quickly against her chest.

”Not dying.”

Raku looked ahead.

”Then move.”

So they moved.

The water dropped after a while, but the relief lasted less than one breath.

Black mud waited underneath.

It sucked at their feet with every step. Bones hid inside it, some old enough to crack like dry roots, some too fresh and soft to make any sound. Swanly kept scanning the ground because the Rot Nest had already taught her that every quiet thing wanted to become teeth.

Then she saw something white near the roots of a dead tree.

At first she thought it was bone.

Then Soren stopped.

The whole forest seemed to stop with him.

Swanly stared harder.

White scales lay half buried in the mud.

Snake scales.

Smaller than Soren’s.

Still pale under the black rot.

Raku’s face changed.

Kael’s hand came to Swanly’s shoulder.

Swanly looked at Soren.

”Whose are they?”

Soren did not answer.

His face had emptied.

Not cold.

Empty.

The sight of those scales reached into him and dragged something up before he could bury it again.

Months ago, Veyr had laughed at danger because he was young and foolish and still believed his brother could tear the world apart before anything touched them.

Months ago, an infected beastman had broken through the river gate.

Months ago, Veyr had shoved Soren aside.

The bite had gone deep.

Too deep.

The elders had wanted him killed before sunset.

Soren had refused.

They called it weakness.

He called it blood.

He hid Veyr beneath Riverbone and fed him old fragments of Cleanbirth Seed to slow the rot. He overthrew the elders when they tried to drag his brother out. He became cruel because softness had not kept Veyr alive.

Now Veyr’s scales were in the Rot Nest mud.

Swanly did not know the memory.

She only saw Soren’s face.

For the first time since she met him, she saw something under the ice.

Desperation.

It was not gentle.

It was not good.

It made him more dangerous.

Kael saw it too.

His voice came out like a growl.

”This is about your blood.”

Soren looked at him.

”Yes.”

”You dragged Swanly here for your brother.”

”Yes.”

Swanly’s stomach tightened.

No excuse.

No shame.

Just truth.

Kael stepped forward.

”You would trade her life for his.”

Soren’s silver eyes lifted.

”If your cub was rotting, what would you trade?”

Kael’s teeth bared.

The second cub clutched Swanly harder.

Swanly felt sick.

Because she knew the answer before Kael spoke.

Kael would burn the world.

She might burn it with him.

A wet voice came from ahead.

”Brother.”

Soren’s whole body went still.

Raku’s weapon rose.

Kael moved Swanly behind him.

Swanly lifted the bow.

The mud in front of them rippled.

The roots parted slowly, as if something beneath them had woken and remembered it had hands.

A pale hand dragged itself from the black water.

Then a white-haired head lifted.

One silver eye looked at Soren.

The other was clouded with rot.

Veyr pulled his upper body onto the mud.

His lower half stayed hidden beneath the water, but something white and black twisted behind him in thick coils that no longer moved like a normal snake.

He was still beautiful in a ruined way.

That made it worse.

Black veins crawled under his pale skin. Rot pulsed beneath his white scales. His mouth opened, and blood mixed with black water spilled over his lips.

”Brother.”

Soren did not move.

For once, the White Snake looked less like a ruler and more like a male who had reached the end of the thing he had been running from.

Veyr smiled.

The smile broke halfway through.

”Kill me.”

Swanly’s grip tightened on the bow.

For one heartbeat, the Rot Nest was silent.

Then Veyr’s body jerked.

His clouded white eye turned toward Swanly.

Then toward the cub in her arms.

His mouth opened wider than it should.

”Life.”

The second cub whimpered.

Kael roared and shoved Swanly back.

Soren shot forward.

Behind them, the black water exploded upward.

The thing that had followed them finally rose.

(I finally ate!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)