Raising Beast Cubs to Find a Husband-Chapter 155: The Family Defense

The vine tightened.

Primrose gritted her teeth, digging her heels into the polished floorboards of the pavilion. Her new Green Tail was vibrating with effort, channeling every ounce of nature magic she had into the thick vine wrapped around the Boss’s wrist.

"Get down here!" Primrose yelled, yanking with her entire body weight.

The Boss stumbled. For a man who controlled gravity, he clearly wasn’t expecting to be lassoed like a stray cow.

"Annoying weed," the Boss hissed.

He raised his free hand, black Void sparks dancing at his fingertips to burn the vine.

But he was too slow.

Leonora was already in the air.

The Lioness had kicked off the Head Table, launching herself like a missile. Her wedding dress was ruined, ripped at the knees to reveal her leather combat trousers, and she looked absolutely terrified—not for herself, but for Arjun.

That terror made her fast.

"GET AWAY FROM HIM!" Leonora roared.

She didn’t have a sword. She had a silver cake knife. But in the hands of a Warlord, a butter knife is a deadly weapon.

SLASH.

She aimed for his eyes. The Boss jerked his head back, and the silver blade cut a thin red line across his cheek.

"Insolent cat!" The Boss snarled, abandoning the spell to grab Leonora’s wrist.

He caught her. The Void magic flared, ready to freeze her arm.

ROAR.

The sound wasn’t human. It was pure, primal fury.

Rajah had returned.

The Tiger General had recovered from the teleportation spell. He didn’t run; he exploded across the dance floor, leaving scorched footprints in the wood. His skin was glowing with bright orange stripes, radiating heat so intense the tablecloths nearby caught fire.

"LEONORA! DUCK!" Rajah bellowed.

Leonora didn’t question it. She dropped to her knees.

Rajah unleashed a Fire Breath attack right over her head. A torrent of orange flame engulfed the Boss.

The Boss screamed—not in pain, but in frustration. He threw up a Void Shield, but the combined force of Primrose’s vine pulling him left, Leonora sweeping his legs, and Rajah blasting him with fire was too much.

The mastermind of the Void was knocked off his feet. He crashed into the wedding cake, sending five tiers of lemon sponge and frosting exploding everywhere.

While the parents fought the Boss, a smaller war was happening under the guest tables.

"Hold the line!" Jasper whispered urgently.

He was crouched beneath a long banquet table covered in white linen. Next to him were Vali, Clover, and Pickles, the baby snake.

Outside the tablecloth, they could see the smoky, legless forms of the Void Ushers floating around, hunting for them.

"They are looking for heat signatures," Jasper analyzed, his golden eyes darting around. "We need a distraction."

Vali, who was clutching the ring bearer pillow like a shield, looked ready to bite something.

"I can bark!"

"No barking," Jasper ordered. "Siege tactics."

He pointed to the heavy silver platter of roast chicken in the center of the table above them.

"Vali. Use your head. Literally."

Vali grinned, showing his sharp puppy teeth. He stood up and headbutted the underside of the table with all his wolf strength.

WHAM.

The table jumped. The silver platter of chicken slid off the edge and crashed onto the floor with a loud clang.

Two Void Ushers immediately turned toward the noise, hissing.

"Now!" Jasper commanded.

Clover kicked a bucket of ice—meant for the champagne—out from under the tablecloth. The ice cubes spilled across the floor right in the Ushers’ path.

The Ushers floated, but they still needed friction to turn. The ice disrupted their shadow forms. One Usher slipped, flailing.

"Attack the structural weakness!" Jasper yelled.

Vali burst out from under the table. He didn’t go for the shadowy torso. He went for the only solid part of the Usher—the leather shoes.

CHOMP.

Vali bit down on the Usher’s ankle.

The monster screeched—a sound like grinding metal.

"Nice bite, Vali!" Cassian’s voice rang out. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

The Snake Lord slid across the floor on his knees, firing two crossbow bolts coated in green acid. The bolts hit the distracted Usher in the chest, dissolving the smoke instantly.

Cassian grabbed Jasper and Vali by the scruffs of their necks and shoved them back under the table.

"Stay down!" Cassian ordered, looking terrified. "And Jasper—keep the snake hidden! He’s the target!"

Jasper looked down at Pickles. The baby Imugi was glowing bright green. The gem on its forehead was pulsing, acting like a beacon against the Void magic.

"He is not scared, Brother," Jasper whispered, petting the snake. "He is angry."

Back at the High Table, the Boss pulled himself out of the ruined cake.

He looked ridiculous. His tuxedo was stained with curry, soot, and frosting. His cheek was bleeding.

He looked around.

Rurik was smashing an Usher into the floorboards with a table leg.

Lucien had decapitated another Usher with a shadow-scythe.

Caspian was creating a wall of water to shield the frozen guests from the crossfire.

Rajah and Leonora were standing shoulder-to-shoulder, wreathed in fire and battle aura, ready to kill him.

And Primrose was charging up another fireball.

The Boss wiped frosting from his eye. His expression shifted from arrogance to cold calculation.

"You brutes," he spat. "No appreciation for the narrative."

He realized he had miscalculated. He thought he could pick off the children while the adults were frozen. But he had underestimated the sheer, violent protectiveness of this family. Five Warlords and a Spirit Fox were too much for one sorcerer, even with Void magic.

"I cannot take the ingredients today," the Boss muttered to himself. "The risk variables are too high."

He raised his cane high in the air. The black crystal pulsed violently.

"If I can’t have the guests," the Boss announced, his voice booming over the chaos, "then I’ll just condemn the building."

"Stop him!" Orion shouted from where he was hiding behind Caspian. "He’s inverting the gravity field!"

"Everybody brace!" Caspian roared.

The Boss slammed the cane into the floor.

Void Art: Collapse.

CRACK.

The sound was deafening. The wooden pillars holding up the Grand Pavilion didn’t break—they imploded.

The gravity that had been pinning the guests down suddenly reversed. Everything—plates, glasses, tables, and people—shot upward toward the ceiling, then slammed back down with crushing force.

The roof began to cave in.

"A lovely wedding," the Boss sneered, stepping backward into a swirling black portal that opened behind him. "Let’s do it again sometime."

He vanished.

The massive oak beams of the roof snapped. Tons of wood, slate, and glass came crashing down toward the frozen guests and the children.

"CASPIAN!" Primrose screamed.

Caspian didn’t need to be told.

He threw his trident into the ground.

"Ocean’s Mercy: Dome of the Deep!"

The water from the fountains, the wine from the bottles, and the moisture in the air obeyed his command.

A massive, shimmering dome of hard water erupted over the center of the pavilion. It froze instantly into blue ice.

BOOM. CRASH. THUD.

The roof slammed into the ice dome. The ice cracked, spiderwebs spreading across the surface, but it held.

Dust and debris choked the air.

For a long minute, there was silence.

Then, a small cough.

"Is... is everyone dead?" Vali’s muffled voice came from under the table.

Primrose coughed, waving her tails to clear the dust. She was huddled on the floor, shielded by Caspian’s body.

"We’re alive," Primrose gasped. "Vali? Jasper?"

"Here," Cassian called out. He was crouched over the kids, his back covered in grey dust.

Primrose stood up on shaky legs.

The Grand Pavilion was destroyed. The roof was gone, revealing the twilight sky. The beautiful decorations were buried under rubble.

But the guests...

The gravity spell had broken when the Boss left. The nobles were groaning, climbing out from under broken chairs, covered in cake and dust, but they were alive.

Rajah was checking Leonora.

"You’re bleeding," Rajah said, touching a cut on her arm.

"It’s a scratch," Leonora dismissed him, frantically looking around. "Arjun? Where is Arjun?"

"I’m here, Mama Leo!"

Arjun crawled out from under the High Table. He was messy, his tiny uniform stained with curry, but he was grinning.

"Did you see?" Arjun asked breathlessly, pointing at the spot where the Boss had vanished. "I hit him! I got the sauce right in his eyes!"

Leonora let out a sob and scooped the boy up, crushing him in a hug.

"You foolish, brave little cub."

Real Jax and Luna emerged from the kitchen doorway. They were covered in flour, but unharmed.

"He’s gone," Jax reported, sheathing his steak knife. "But he’s not done."

Lucien walked out of the shadows. He picked up a piece of the black crystal from the Boss’s cane that had broken off.

"He called us ingredients," Lucien said, his voice cold enough to freeze the air again. "He wants the heirs. He wants the bloodlines."

Rurik kicked a piece of rubble.

"He ruined the wedding. He threatened my son. I will mount his head on a pike."

Primrose looked around at the wreckage of what was supposed to be the happiest day of their lives. She looked at the terrified guests, the ruined cake, and the children who were now targets in a war they didn’t understand.

She felt a hand on her shoulder.

Caspian.

"The ring," Caspian said softly.

Primrose looked at him.

"What?"

"I promised," Caspian said.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out the blue coral box. It was dusty.

"Caspian," Primrose whispered. "Look around. The building fell down. We are covered in soot. This isn’t the time."

"It is exactly the time," Caspian argued.

He got down on one knee in the middle of the wreckage.

"Primrose," he said, his voice steady and loud enough for the family to hear. "The world is not safe. It never will be. The Boss will come back. The war will continue."

He opened the box.

Inside was a ring made of Pearl and Sea-Glass, glowing with a faint, protective enchantment.

"But I do not want to fight it alone anymore," Caspian continued. "I want to fight it with you. I want you to be my Queen, my partner, and the only person allowed to tell me when I am being an idiot."

Primrose laughed. A tear cut through the dust on her cheek.

"You are being an idiot right now," she cried.

"Will you marry me?" Caspian asked.

Primrose looked at the kids peeking out from under the table. She looked at Rajah and Leonora holding each other. She looked at Lucien, who gave her a stiff, solemn nod of approval.

"Yes," Primrose sobbed. "Yes, you fishy fool."

Caspian slid the ring onto her finger. It fit perfectly.

He stood up and kissed her.

Around them, the weary Warlords except Lucien and the dusty guests began to clap. It wasn’t the wedding reception they planned. It was messy, dangerous, and ruined.

But they were alive. And they were a family.