Surviving Zombies Was Easier Than Raising Beast Cubs

Chapter 82: Chapter 82: If You Cannot Convince Them, We Stay

The system did not repeat tasks unless something had changed.

Something bad.

Swanly pushed herself upright and pulled her clothing back into place.

"We need to move."

Kael’s brows drew together.

"Move where?"

"I do not know yet."

His black ears turned forward.

"Then why are we moving?"

"Because Riverbone is not safe."

A quiet sound came from the entrance.

White scales slid over stone.

Soren entered the cave alone, his long tail curling behind him. He had clearly heard the last part with those irritating snake ears of his.

His silver eyes moved between Swanly and Kael.

"Why?"

Swanly pointed toward the ground.

"This place is too close to the Rot Nest spill paths. Infected have attacked your entrance again and again. Three hundred and fifty of them were waiting outside yesterday."

Soren’s expression did not change.

"They are dead."

"More will come."

"Then we kill them."

Swanly’s tail puffed.

"That is not a permanent plan."

"It has worked so far."

"No, it has not. Half your hunters are injured, your walls are damaged, your water becomes strange after rain, and you just accepted more than one hundred hungry people around your borders."

"Temporarily."

"They still drink. They still eat. They still need space."

Soren leaned against the stone wall as if she were discussing the weather.

"Riverbone is perfectly fine."

"You will not be fine for long."

Kael looked from one to the other.

"Swanly, did your magic tell you something?"

She glanced at him.

"Not exactly."

Soren’s eyes sharpened.

"What did it say?"

"That Riverbone still needs to migrate."

Silence settled.

Soren’s tail stopped moving.

Then he said, "No."

Swanly stared at him.

"No?"

"We do not have to leave."

"Yes, we do."

"We can remain here."

"Fine."

Her answer came so easily that both males looked at her.

Swanly folded her arms.

"If you do not want to move, I am taking my mate and my cubs at early dawn tomorrow, and I am leaving immediately."

Kael’s head snapped toward her.

Soren’s body went still.

A violent hiss escaped him.

"You will do no such thing."

"Yes, I will."

"You will not walk into an infected forest with three cubs and no destination."

"I survived a zombie world before meeting you. I will survive leaving your cave."

His silver eyes turned glacial.

"My scale is on your wrist."

"Perfect. Take it off."

"No."

"Take it off, Soren."

"Remove it yourself."

Swanly looked down at the pale scale embedded against her wrist.

Then she looked up.

"You know I cannot."

"Then it remains."

"Is that a threat?"

"It is a fact."

"You shameless snake."

"Reckless fox."

"Possessive parasite."

"Unreasonable female."

Kael’s face darkened with every word.

"Can both of you stop arguing?"

Neither looked at him.

Swanly jabbed one finger toward Soren’s chest.

"You cannot force me to stay."

Soren caught her finger before it touched him.

"You cannot force an entire tribe onto the road because your magic warned you without giving you proof."

"My magic has saved all of us repeatedly."

"I know."

Soren’s silver eyes stayed on her.

"But the tribe does not understand your magic. They cannot abandon their home simply because you tell them it warned you."

Inside Swanly’s mind, the system crossed its tiny arms.

{System’s warnings have an excellent survival record.}

Swanly ignored it and glared at Soren.

Kael stepped between them before Swanly could launch herself at the snake.

He looked directly at Soren.

"You either agree or you do not."

Soren’s gaze slid past him to Swanly.

Then, unexpectedly, he said, "Fine."

Swanly blinked.

"What?"

"Go tell them."

"Tell them what?"

"That Riverbone is migrating."

Her suspicion arrived immediately.

"You are their ruler. You tell them."

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because this is your idea."

Swanly’s ears flattened.

Soren continued calmly.

"If you convince them, we move."

"And if I cannot?"

"We remain here."

She stared at him.

He stared back.

Swanly’s hands slowly curled.

"I hate you so fucking much."

The corner of his mouth lifted.

"I know."

"You irritate every bone in my body."

"You have complained about that before."

"I hope your tail gets stuck between two rocks."

Soren’s faint smirk deepened.

Kael looked upward as though asking the ancestors why his female and the white snake could never speak normally.

Soren turned to leave.

"Gather them before sunset."

Swanly threw a fur at his back.

His tail caught it without looking.

That made her angrier.

After Soren left, Swanly paced around the cave until Miko attempted to follow her in circles and became dizzy.

He sat down hard.

"Mama moving cave?"

"Maybe."

Kairo and Nilo stood beside him.

The three newly named cubs looked much too small to understand migration, danger, or the fact that their mother wanted one private moment with their father without tiny faces appearing at the entrance.

Swanly glanced toward the rear of the family cave.

A thick curtain of hanging roots covered a narrow opening she had barely noticed before.

She pushed them aside.

Behind them was a shallow sleeping hollow.

It was not far away.

It was part of the same cave, separated by a short stone passage barely longer than Kael’s body. From Swanly’s sleeping place, she could hear anything inside it.

Dry ground.

No old bones.

Enough room for three tiny cubs and their furs.

Swanly’s eyes brightened.

"Babies."

All three looked up.

"You have your own sleeping cave now."

They stared at the hollow.

Then at her.

Kairo frowned first.

"Why?"

"Because you are big boys now."

Miko looked down at his tiny body.

"We are not boys."

Nilo nodded seriously.

"Still tiny."

Kairo held one hand above Miko’s head.

"Only two bites tall."

Swanly rubbed her forehead.

"I said three bites tall."

Miko gasped.

"You see, Mama? Still small."

"That is not how height works."

Nilo peered into the sleeping hollow.

"Can come to Mama?"

"Yes."

"Any time?"

"Yes."

"If bad dream?"

"You run straight to me."

"If hungry?" Miko asked.

"You wait until morning."

His ears fell.

Swanly sighed.

"Unless you are very hungry."

Miko smiled.

"Very hungry every night."

"No."

Kael crouched beside the opening and inspected the ground, roots and ceiling. He pressed his claws into the stone, checked for loose earth, then placed his scent near the entrance.

"It is safe."

The cubs rushed inside.

Kairo immediately claimed the spot nearest the entrance so he could guard his brothers.

Nilo chose the middle.

Miko rolled across all three sleeping furs and announced, "All Miko."

Kairo tackled him.

Within seconds, their new sleeping cave became a battlefield of tiny limbs, black tails and offended squeaks.

Swanly watched them.

"This may have been a mistake."

Kael slipped one arm around her waist.

"It is close enough."

She looked up at him.

"And maybe now nobody will shout that you are eating me."

His ears turned red.

"Swanly."

She smiled sweetly.

But then she sighed after remembering that she had to deal with the tribe. And something told her it won’t be so easy as she imagined.