Raising Beast Cubs to Find a Husband-Chapter 24: Courted by Catastrophe II

I slumped against the tree, fanning myself. The Snake is cool, the Tiger is hot, and I am emotionally exhausted.

I looked across the clearing. Two B.A.D.s down. Two to go.

Lord Rurik Jaeger didn’t do romantic gestures. He did provider gestures.

While the others were setting up plates, Rurik vanished into the woods. He returned ten minutes later, dragging a massive, freshly caught Wild-Boar.

He dropped the carcass right in front of my blanket. THUD.

"Fresh," Rurik grunted, wiping a speck of blood from his cheek. He looked like a barbaric god of the hunt—wild, dangerous, and oddly proud. "For you."

I stared at the dead boar.

My prey instincts screamed: Run! Dead thing! Danger! But my Top Chef instincts screamed louder: Oh my god. Look at the marbling.

This wasn’t just a pig. This was a Dusk-Tusk Boar. In my old world, wild boar of this quality would cost a fortune. The fat cap was pristine white. The muscle was a deep, rich ruby red. It was magnificent.

"It’s..." I leaned closer, forgetting the blood for a second. "...remarkably well-fed. Look at that muscle density in the shoulder."

Rurik blinked, surprised I wasn’t screaming. "It was slow. Fat."

"It’s perfect," I murmured.

Then, Rurik pulled out his combat dagger and stabbed it into the flank to start field-dressing it.

My soul left my body.

"STOP!" I yelped, slapping his hand away.

Rurik froze, looking at me like I’d lost my mind. "What? I am dressing it."

"You are butchering it!" I hissed, grabbing his wrist. "You’re cutting against the grain! And you’re using a serrated combat knife on a prime loin?! You’ll bruise the meat! Do you have any respect for the product?!"

I realized what I was doing—scolding a murderous Wolf Marquis while holding his knife-hand—but I couldn’t help it. He was ruining a perfectly good roast.

"Watch the fascia," I commanded, guiding his hand. "Slide under the membrane. Don’t hack. Glide."

Rurik stared at me. His icy-blue eyes weren’t cold anymore. They were wide, dilated, and burning with a sudden, intense heat. I was bossing him around, covered in flour, teaching him how to skin a kill.

Apparently, that was his love language.

"Dad!" Vali yelled, running over. "Can I have an ear?"

"Get in line," Rurik growled, his voice rougher than usual. He nudged his son away with his boot, never breaking eye contact with me.

He sliced off a perfect medallion of the heart—the most prized cut—and held it out to me on the tip of his knife. It was raw. It was dripping.

"I provide for my pack," Rurik murmured, the sound vibrating in his chest. "And you... are Pack."

He pushed the knife closer. "Eat."

It was terrifying. It was primal. It was the most aggressive "proposal" I’d ever seen.

I looked at the raw heart.

A normal girl would have fainted. A fox-kin would have run.

I was a Chef. I took the meat from the blade with my bare fingers. I inspected the texture. Firm. Fresh. Zero oxidation.

"The quality is impeccable, Lord Jaeger," I said, my voice steady, though my heart was hammering. "But if you think I’m eating this without a pan-sear, a shallot reduction, and a sprinkle of sea salt, you are out of your mind."

I dropped the meat onto a plate.

"Start a fire," I ordered him. "I’ll get the rosemary. We’re doing this right."

Rurik watched me walk away. He didn’t look offended. He looked like he wanted to howl at the moon.

"Yes, Chef," he whispered.

I escaped the butchery to find some quiet. I wandered toward the edge of the clearing, where the ancient trees grew thick.

Suddenly, the sunlight vanished.

I wasn’t under a cloud. I was under a cloak.

Duke Lucien Crepusci had draped his heavy, black velvet cloak over my shoulders. He was standing right behind me, a silent, comforting wall of darkness.

"The sun is... aggressive," Lucien whispered, his voice like velvet. "You prefer the shade."

He wasn’t asking. He knew.

He guided me to a secluded alcove of trees where he had already set up a single, black cushion. On it sat a small, crystal vial.

"Night-Nectar," Lucien murmured. "It restores mana. And patience."

I looked at him. He wasn’t trying to impress me with strength or wealth. He was just... paying attention.

"How did you know I had a headache?" I asked softly.

Lucien’s violet eyes glowed in the gloom. He reached out, his gloved thumb brushing my temple. "I see everything that hurts you."

Okay. That is the creepiest, most romantic thing I have ever heard.

"Thank you, Duke," I whispered.

He didn’t smile. He just stood guard, blocking the noisy world out so I could breathe.

Back at the main blanket, the Romantic Atmosphere was disintegrating into a culinary roast.

The Dads had decided to help with the cooking. It was a disaster.

Rajah had burned the skewers to charcoal. ("I applied maximum heat for efficiency!")

Cassian had tried to use magic to slice fruit and had exploded a melon. ("The structural integrity was flawed.")

Rurik was serving raw liver. ("It puts hair on your chest!")

Lucien had just vanished the dirty dishes into a shadow dimension. ("Cleaning is tedious.")

The cubs sat in a circle, watching their fathers fail.

"My dad," Vali sighed, chewing on a bone, "thinks ’medium-rare’ means ’still pulsing’."

"My dad," Arjun groaned, poking a blackened skewer, "thinks fire is a spice."

"My brother," Jasper sniffed, holding up a piece of exploded melon, "believes money can replace knife skills."

Silas just shook his head silently. He held up a drawing of a kitchen on fire.

"They are useless," Vali concluded.

"Hopeless," Arjun agreed.

"Without Primrose," Jasper stated, "we would all die of scurvy or food poisoning within a week."

Clover sat with Luna, munching on a perfectly made sandwich Primrose had packed earlier.

"My sister says men are like dough," Clover said sagely, quoting Luna. "You have to knead them until they’re useful."

Luna choked on her tea. "Clover! I said that in private!"

"Prim is good at kneading," Vali nodded. "She should knead my dad. He’s too tough."

The cubs looked at the chaos. Primrose was currently running between the grill (saving the meat), the table (cleaning the melon), and the cooler (hiding the liver).

"She is doing everything," Jasper noted. "This is inefficient."

"She needs backup!" Arjun declared.

Suddenly, the ground trembled.