Raising Beast Cubs to Find a Husband-Chapter 36: A Place of Nightmares

The first thing I registered was the smell.

It wasn’t the clean, yeasty scent of rising dough, or the sharp, metallic tang of Rurik’s sword, or even the expensive cologne of Cassian.

It smelled like rotten eggs, stagnant water, and ancient, unwashed stone.

Health code violation, my brain supplied unhelpfully. Immediate shut down.

I gagged, coughing as I was dragged roughly across wet, slimy stone. My vision swam. The last thing I remembered was the fireworks, the flash of light, and the floor dropping out from under me.

"Quiet," a wet, gurgling voice hissed.

I looked up. I was being hauled by two massive Toad-kin. Their skin was mottled grey-green, slick with mucus that was currently soaking into my dress. They had bulging, yellow eyes that blinked sideways.

"Where..." I rasped, my throat burning. "Where am I?"

"Under," the Toad on my left grunted.

We weren’t in a building. We were in a tunnel. The walls were slick with moss and dripping water. Rusty iron pipes ran along the ceiling like exposed veins.

The Old Aqueducts. I remembered the lore from the "Thieves Guild" side-quest I’d watched a streamer play once. These tunnels were ancient. The stone was laced with Iron Ore, which scrambled magical signals.

That’s why Cassian couldn’t sense me. That’s why Lucien didn’t shadow-jump to save me. I’m in a Dead Zone.

And the smell... the overpowering stench of sulfur and ammonia...

Rurik. A wolf’s nose would be useless down here. It would be like trying to smell a rose in a burning landfill.

"Smart," I whispered, a chill that had nothing to do with the damp settling in my bones. "He neutralized the Wolf, the Mage, and the Shadow."

"The Marquis pays for smart," the Toad grunted.

We turned a corner into a large, circular cistern. It looked like a hollowed-out underground cathedral, but instead of pews, there were crates of smuggled goods. And in the center, sitting on a plush velvet chair that looked comically out of place in the muck, was Marquis Grieve.

The Toad-kin noble looked even slimier in the damp light of the moss-lanterns. He was peeling a hard-boiled egg with long, wet fingers.

"Ah," Grieve croaked, his throat sac puffing out. "The bride arrives."

The henchmen threw me forward. I stumbled, catching myself on my hands and knees in the mud.

"You kidnapped me," I said, looking up at him. "From my own shop. In front of the four most powerful men in the empire."

"And yet," Grieve smiled, revealing rows of small, needle-teeth, "here you are. And there they are... running around upstairs, chasing their tails."

He stood up and waddled toward me. "Did you think you were safe? Did you think because you fed their brats, you were untouchable?"

He leaned down, grabbing my chin with a cold, damp hand.

"You are a Fox without a tail, Primrose," he hissed. "You have no magic. No power. You are just a pretty little thing that learned a few kitchen tricks. And now... you belong to me."

"I am not property," I snapped, jerking my face away. "And my ’kitchen tricks’ include knowing how to debone a carcass twice your size."

Grieve laughed. It sounded like water draining from a sink.

"Feisty. I like that. It will make breaking you more... flavorful."

He gestured to the far side of the cistern.

There, rising out of the murky water, was a cage.

It wasn’t a dungeon cell. It was a literal birdcage, enlarged to human size. It was made of gilded iron—beautiful, intricate, and absolutely inescapable.

"My collection requires proper storage," Grieve said. "Put her in."

The henchmen grabbed me. I didn’t scream. I didn’t fight. I knew the odds. Two massive guards vs. one unarmed chef in a magic-dead zone. Fighting now would just get me hurt.

I let them shove me into the cage. The door clanged shut. The lock clicked.

I gripped the cold iron bars.

"You won’t get away with this," I said, my voice steady despite my trembling hands. "They will find me."

"Let them look," Grieve sneered, turning back to his chair. "The water hides the scent. The iron hides the magic. By the time they figure out where you are... we will be married. And a husband has rights."

He waved a hand at his guards. "Watch her. Feed her if you must, but nothing spicy. I don’t want to spoil her palate before the wedding feast."

He waddled off into the shadows of the tunnels, humming a wet, croaking tune.

I sank onto the floor of the cage. It was lined with damp straw.

I was cold. I was dirty. I was trapped in a sewer with a toad who wanted to marry me.

I pulled my knees to my chest.

Think, Primrose. Think.

I checked my pockets. My dagger was gone (Rajah would be disappointed). My money was gone.

But...

I felt something hard in the hidden pocket of my apron.

I pulled it out.

It was a Scholar’s Cookie. The one infused with ’Focus-Fennel’ that I hadn’t given to Arjun.

It was crushed. It was dusty. But it was food.

I took a tiny bite. The sharp taste of fennel cleared the fog of panic in my brain.

Okay. I’m in a cage. I’m in a Dead Zone.

But I’m alive.

I looked at the Toad guard standing near the cage. He was eating a dried fly from a bag, looking bored.

Hunger, I thought, watching him chew. Everyone gets hungry.

I wasn’t a damsel in distress. I was the Head Chef of the Little Whiskers Daycare. I had tamed a Demon Cub, a Hyperactive Tiger, and a Chimera.

I looked at the guard.

"Hey," I whispered.

The guard looked at me.

"That dried fly," I said softly. "It looks... tough. Bet it sticks in your teeth."

The guard blinked. "Yeah?"

"If you had a fire," I said, "and a little bit of honey... I could show you how to glaze it. Makes it crunchier."

The guard’s eyes narrowed. But he didn’t look away.

I smiled in the dark.

Phase One: Survival.

Phase Two: Wait for the Cavalry.

Because I knew my boys. I knew the Dads. And I knew one thing for certain:

They were going to burn this sewer to the ground to get me back.

At the the Cubs’ Hideout (The Gazebo)

The rain drummed against the roof of the gazebo. The "Junior Search Party" was wet, miserable, and currently leaderless.

"They failed," Jasper stated, staring at his rain boots. "The Wolf, the Tiger, the Snake, the Panther. All their resources, and the asset remains missing. It is... statistically embarrassing."

"My dad yelled at a wall," Vali grumbled, kicking a puddle. "He said the scent just... stops. Like she vanished into water."

"My dad searched every carriage," Arjun sighed, sitting with his chin in his hands. "But he didn’t find anything."

Tap. Tap. Tap. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

The sound was sharp and rhythmic.

Everyone looked up.

Silas was tapping his charcoal stick against his slate. He was staring at them with intense violet eyes.

He held up the slate.

On it, he had drawn a crude but clear picture.

On one side, a stick figure with a sword (Rajah) was looking at a gate.

On the other side, a stick figure with a Toad head was crawling into a hole in the floor.

Silas pointed to the hole. Then he pointed down.

"The floor..." Jasper muttered, adjusting his glasses as he studied the drawing. "The Toad went... beneath?"

Silas nodded vigorously. He flipped the slate and drew another picture: A series of tunnels under the houses. He drew "stink lines" coming off the tunnels.

Clover gasped, clutching her safety rock. "The sewers! Primrose was dragged down! I told you, my dad has maps of the delivery tunnels!"

"My brother checked the sewers," Jasper countered. "His mages scanned it. They found nothing."

Silas shook his head. He drew a big ’X’ over a stick figure holding a wand. Then he drew a rock. He tapped the rock.

"He means the magic didn’t work," Arjun guessed. "Why?"

"Mages look for magic," a soft voice interrupted them.

It was Luna. She had found them huddled in the gazebo. Her eyes were red from crying, her lilac bunny ears drooping. But she wasn’t alone.

Standing behind her, leaning against a pillar and twirling a dagger, was Jax.

The Fox-kin thief looked bored, but his ears were swiveled toward the conversation.

"Your dads are too shiny," Jax drawled, stepping into the light. "They’re looking for magical signatures and noble crests. Grieve is a smuggler. He uses the ’Dead Zones.’"

Vali growled low in his throat. "A Street Fox."

"A specialist," Jax corrected with a grin. He looked at the slate in Silas’s hands. "The quiet kid gets it. Your dads are trying to kick down the front door, but Grieve went out the back... through the sludge."

Arjun jumped up. "You know where she is?"

"I know where I would hide a stolen bride if I was a slimy toad with too much debt," Jax shrugged. "The Old Aqueducts. Magic doesn’t work down there. Too much iron ore in the stones. And it smells so bad a Wolf would burn his nose off trying to track anything."

The cubs looked at each other.

"The Dads don’t know about the Dead Zones," Jasper realized. "They are too... aristocratic."

"Then we have to tell them," Clover said firmly.

"They won’t listen to a thief," Jax said, inspecting his fingernails. "Especially not a Fox thief. The Wolf Lord wants to skin me on sight."

"They will listen to us," Arjun declared, puffing out his chest. "We are the Heirs! Squad! We have a new mission!"

"What is it?" Vali asked, ready to bite something.

"Operation: Chain of Command!" Arjun yelled. "We are dragging the Specialist to the Generals!"