Villainess is being pampered by her beast husbands

Chapter 478: Chapter-478

They extinguished the fire quickly, kicking dirt over the embers. Kaya grabbed the leftover fish and stuffed them into the cloth with the berries. Cutie scattered the evidence of their meal.

Within thirty seconds, their campsite looked undisturbed.

They retreated to the shelter under the fallen log, squeezing inside, watching the approach.

The footsteps grew louder. Closer.

Then a figure burst through the undergrowth and stopped at the edge of the creek, breathing hard.

A wolf beastman. Young, maybe twenty, with dark fur and amber eyes.

And he was injured, blood streaming from a gash across his ribs.

He looked around frantically, clearly searching for something—or someone.

Then his eyes landed on their shelter.

On them.

"Please," he gasped. "Please, you have to help me. They’re coming. They’re right behind me. They’ll kill us all."

Kaya’s hand tightened on her knife.

’Damn it.’

Of course it couldn’t be simple.

Of course there had to be another complication.

"Who’s coming?" she asked, her voice hard.

The wolf’s eyes were wild with fear and pain. "The Snake Lord’s hunters. They’ve found the trail. They know you’re here."

Kaya’s blood ran cold.

"How do you know about me?"

"Because," the wolf said, swaying on his feet, "I was sent to warn you. By someone who says they know what you are. And what’s coming for you."

Then he collapsed.

For a split second, nobody moved.

The wolf beastman lay crumpled at the creek’s edge, blood pooling beneath him, his chest rising and falling in shallow, rapid breaths.

Then Kaya’s training kicked in.

"Veer, watch the approach. If anyone’s following him, I need warning." She was already moving, crawling out of the shelter. "Cutie, boil water if you can restart that fire quietly. We need to clean that wound."

"Kaya, this could be a trap—" Veer started.

"I know. Watch the approach anyway."

She reached the wolf and dropped to her knees beside him, quickly assessing the damage. The gash across his ribs was deep, still bleeding freely. His skin was pale beneath the fur, his pulse rapid and thready when she checked his neck.

Shock. Blood loss. Maybe internal injuries.

"Hey," she said sharply, tapping his face. "Stay with me. What’s your name?"

The wolf’s eyes fluttered open. "Ryn," he managed. "My name is... Ryn."

"Okay, Ryn. I need you to stay conscious. Can you do that?"

"I’ll... try."

Kaya pressed her hand against the wound, applying pressure. The wolf hissed in pain but didn’t pull away.

"You said someone sent you to warn me. Who?"

"Can’t... can’t say. Not safe." His eyes were unfocused, wandering. "They said... said you’d be here. Near the western creek. Said you’d be with a vulture and a Rabbit."

Kaya’s jaw tightened. Someone knew exactly where they were. Knew their composition. Had sent this wolf directly to them.

"How did you get injured?"

"Snake hunters. Caught me on the way. Fought... fought them off but..." He coughed, and blood flecked his lips. "They’re close. Maybe... maybe an hour behind."

"An hour," Kaya repeated, looking up at Veer.

Veer was standing at the edge of the clearing, every muscle tense, scanning the forest. "If he’s telling the truth, we need to move. Now."

"He’s in no condition to move."

"Then we leave him."

Kaya looked down at Ryn, at his pale face, his labored breathing. Leaving him meant death—either from blood loss or from the hunters who would find him.

"No," she said.

"Kaya—"

"I said no." Her voice was hard, brooking no argument. "We’re not leaving him to die."

"Even if it gets us all killed?"

"Even then."

Veer stared at her for a long moment. Then he shook his head, something between frustration and admiration in his expression. "You’re going to be the death of all of us."

"Probably," Kaya agreed. She looked at Cutie, who had managed to coax the fire back to life and was heating water in a hollowed piece of bark. "How long until that water’s ready?"

"Two minutes, maybe three."

"We don’t have three minutes," Veer said. "We have maybe thirty if we’re lucky."

Kaya looked at the wound again, calculating. The bleeding needed to stop. The wound needed to be cleaned, at least minimally. They needed to move him, which meant stabilizing him enough that he wouldn’t bleed out during transport.

"Veer, can you carry him? With your shoulder?"

"Short distance, maybe. Not far."

"It doesn’t need to be far. Just away from here, to somewhere more defensible."

"Everything about this is a bad idea," Veer muttered, but he was already moving closer. "But fine. Where are we going?"

Kaya thought quickly, mentally mapping the terrain they’d seen yesterday. "Upstream. There was that rock formation, remember? The one with the overhang. Natural choke point, hard to approach from multiple angles."

"I remember. About ten minutes from here."

"Then that’s where we go."

---

Cutie brought the heated water, careful not to spill. Kaya used it to quickly clean the wound, washing away blood and debris. Ryn groaned but didn’t fight her.

The gash was deep but clean—a blade strike, not claws. That was something, at least. Less risk of infection.

"I need to close this," Kaya said, looking around for something, anything useful.

"Here." Cutie held out a handful of thin, fibrous vines. "These are strong. My tribe uses them for binding. They won’t break."

"Good enough."

Kaya had no needle, no proper medical supplies. What she had was a knife, some vine, and battlefield improvisation skills.

She heated the blade in the fire until it was hot enough to partially cauterize as she worked. Then, as quickly and efficiently as possible, she used the blade to pierce holes along either side of the wound and threaded the vine through, creating crude but functional stitches.

Ryn screamed once, then bit down on a piece of leather Veer had offered, his body going rigid with pain.

"Almost done," Kaya said, her hands steady despite the urgency. "Hold on."

Five stitches. Six. Seven. The wound was closed, the bleeding reduced to a manageable seepage.

Not pretty. Not ideal. But it would hold.

"Veer, now."

Veer didn’t hesitate. He scooped Ryn up in his arms, grunting slightly at the weight but managing. His injured shoulder protested—Kaya could see it in the tightness around his eyes—but he held steady.

"Cutie, grab everything. Food, supplies, anything useful."

Cutie was already moving, stuffing everything into the berry cloth, kicking dirt over the fire.

Kaya took one last look around their campsite—the shelter that had protected them, the creek that had fed them. Then she turned and followed Veer upstream, moving as quickly as silence allowed.

Behind them, the forest remained quiet.

But Kaya’s instincts were screaming.

The hunters were coming.

And they were running out of time.

---

The formation was exactly as Kaya remembered—a jutting outcrop of stone creating a natural overhang, with the creek running along one side and dense forest on the other. There was only one clear approach, a narrow gap between rocks that would force anyone attacking to come single-file.

"Here," she said. "This is defensible."

Veer carried Ryn under the overhang and laid him down carefully. The wolf was barely conscious, his skin clammy, his breathing shallow.