Raising Beast Cubs to Find a Husband-Chapter 80: The Monster Ball

The ride back to the daycare was suffocating.

Lady Ellia sat on the opposite bench, her arms crossed tight over her chest, the hood of her servant’s cloak pulled low. The shadows inside the carriage seemed to pool around her feet, swirling like oil in water.

She wasn’t looking at me. She was muttering.

He looked right at me, she whispered, her voice hitching. He didn’t care. He wants me gone. Just like you said.

"Ellia," I said softly, reaching out.

"Don’t touch me!" she snapped, shrinking back into the corner. Her eyes flashed that sickly violet color again. "You’re a liar too. Everyone lies."

I pulled my hand back. The air in the carriage was freezing, despite the midday sun outside. Mr. Whisper was working overtime, feeding on the rejection she had just felt from her father.

"We’re here," Jax called from the driver’s seat as the carriage jolted to a halt.

I opened the door. "Come on. Let’s get out of this box."

Ellia hesitated, then scrambled out, looking ready to run. She stared up at the sign: Little Whiskers Daycare. It was painted in bright, cheerful colors. There were flower boxes in the windows. It looked about as scary as a cupcake.

Ellia turned on me, her face twisting in betrayal.

"This is a baby house!" she shouted, stomping her foot. "You said there were monsters! You said there were Tigers and Wolves! You tricked me!"

The shadows around her flared up, lashing out like tendrils of smoke. The flowers in the window box instantly withered and turned grey.

"You think I’m stupid?" Ellia yelled, her voice distorting. "I’ll show you a monster!"

She raised her hand, gathering a ball of dark, crackling energy.

CREAK.

The front door of the daycare swung open.

---

"ATTACK!"

A blurred missile of orange and black fur launched itself from the doorway.

Arjun hit the ground in a roll, popped up, and roared. It wasn’t a scary roar; it was a high-pitched, enthusiastic RAAAWR!

"I am the Gatekeeper!" Arjun declared, striking a pose. "Password or tickles!"

Vali stepped out behind him, looking unimpressed. "Arjun, you’re scaring the client. Primrose said to be cool."

Orion waddled out next, holding a clipboard. "Greetings, surface dweller. Please state your mass and velocity for my calculations."

Clover peeked out from behind Vali’s leg, holding her Safety Rock. "Hi."

Ellia froze. The ball of dark energy in her hand fizzled out, replaced by sheer confusion.

"What..." Ellia lowered her hand. "What are these?"

"These," I said, stepping up behind her and putting a hand on her shoulder, "are the monsters."

Ellia stared at Arjun. "You’re... small."

"I am compact!" Arjun argued, puffing out his chest. "And I have stripes! See? Dangerous!"

He ran up to her and poked her arm. "Tag! You’re it!"

Ellia blinked. "It?"

"It!" Vali yelled, joining in. "Run! The Tiger is hungry!"

Before Ellia could process her anger, or listen to the voice in her head, she was engulfed.

The cubs didn’t treat her like a Princess. They didn’t treat her like a cursed child. They treated her like fresh meat for playtime.

Arjun grabbed her left hand. Vali grabbed her right.

"Come on!" Arjun yelled, dragging her inside. "We made a fort out of cushions! It’s awesome!"

"Wait! Unhand me!" Ellia protested, but she was already being pulled through the door. "I am Lady Ellia! I demand—oof!"

She tripped over the threshold and landed in a pile of pillows that Jasper had strategically placed.

"Welcome," Jasper said, adjusting his glasses. "Please remove your shoes. We just cleaned the floor."

The daycare was chaos. Luna was baking cinnamon rolls, filling the air with a scent that fought back the smell of ozone and rot clinging to Ellia. Jax and Finn were juggling apples in the corner while Silas tried to draw them.

Ellia sat in the pillow pile, looking stunned.

"They’re... loud," she whispered.

"They’re family," I said, walking over to the kitchen counter.

For a moment, the shadows around Ellia receded. It was hard to hear a whispering ghost when a Tiger cub was screaming about pillow forts and a Merman was trying to explain the aerodynamics of a thrown cushion.

Ellia looked around. She saw Clover offering her a cookie. She saw Vali wrestling with a chair.

A small, genuine smile tugged at the corner of her mouth.

"Monsters," she muttered. "Stupid, fluffy monsters."

---

While the chaos unfolded, King Caspian remained seated in the corner armchair. He hadn’t moved. He hadn’t spoken.

I walked over to him. "How is she doing? Can you sense anything?"

Caspian looked up. His face was pale, beads of sweat standing out on his forehead. His hand was clamped over his right shoulder, gripping it so hard his knuckles were white.

"Primrose," he gasped, his voice strained. "Get her away from me."

I froze. "What?"

"The resonance," Caspian hissed through gritted teeth. "It is... deafening."

He pulled his hand away slightly. Under the fabric of his shirt, I saw the corruption pulsing. It wasn’t just glowing; it was throbbing in time with something in the room.

Every time Ellia moved, Caspian flinched.

"It’s reacting to her," I realized. "Because she has the Void too."

"No," Caspian shook his head, his eyes locking onto the girl across the room. "Not in her. Not yet. It is... external."

He squinted, his teal eyes glowing with mana sight.

"The source," he whispered. "It is not her heart. It is her leg."

I turned to look at Ellia.

She was currently trying to push Arjun off the sofa. Her skirt had ridden up slightly as she kicked out.

There, around her left ankle, was a piece of jewelry.

It wasn’t gold like the rest of her accessories. It was a dull, tarnished silver chain with a single, black gemstone charm.

It looked innocent. It looked like cheap costume jewelry.

But as I watched, a tendril of shadow curled out of the black stone and wrapped around her calf like a leech.

"The anklet," I breathed.

"I missed it," I cursed myself. "I checked her room. I checked her food. I never checked her jewelry."

"It is a parasitic artifact," Caspian groaned, leaning back as a wave of pain hit him. "It is feeding the voice into her mind. As long as she wears it... she is a puppet."

"Then we take it off," I said, my voice hardening into steel.

---

I looked around the room. I couldn’t just ask her to take it off. If Mr. Whisper sensed a threat, he would make her fight. He would use her magic to hurt everyone.

I needed to be fast. I needed to be overwhelming.

I caught Arjun’s eye. I made a hand signal: Fist to Palm.

Arjun paused mid-jump. His ears perked up. He nudged Vali.

Protocol 4: The Dogpile.

I walked toward the center of the room.

"Okay, everyone!" I clapped my hands loudly. "Who wants to play ’Catch the Lion’?"

Ellia looked up, suspicious. "What is that?"

"It’s a game," I smiled, stepping closer. "Where the monsters catch the Princess."

"I am fast," Ellia scoffed, standing up. "You can’t catch—"

"NOW!" I shouted.

Arjun tackled her from the left.

Vali tackled her from the right.

"Hey!" Ellia shrieked as they hit her. "Get off! This isn’t fair!"

They brought her down to the rug—gently, but firmly. It looked like roughhousing, but it was a tactical pin. Arjun sat on her legs. Vali hugged her torso.

"Gotcha!" Arjun yelled.

"Let go!" Ellia screamed.

Suddenly, her voice changed. It dropped an octave. It became cold, hollow, and terrifying.

"UNHAND HER, MONGRELS."

The shadows in the room exploded. The lights flickered and died. A wave of freezing cold blasted outward from the girl, knocking a vase off the shelf.

Arjun yelped as the cold burned his fur, but he didn’t let go. "Primrose! She’s doing the scary magic!"

"Hold her!" I yelled, diving into the fray.

I grabbed Ellia’s left leg.

The anklet was pulsing violently now. The black stone seemed to be screaming. The shadows lashed at my hands, stinging like whips.

"You cannot have her!" the voice shrieked from Ellia’s mouth. Her eyes were rolled back, glowing pure violet. "She is MINE! Her grief is MINE!"

"She belongs to herself!" I gritted out, my fingers clawing at the clasp.

It was stuck. Fused shut by magic.

Ellia thrashed. She kicked Arjun in the chest. She summoned a blast of wind that threw Vali across the room.

"Vali!" I screamed.

Vali hit the wall but shook it off. "I’m okay! Get the thing off!"

I couldn’t undo the clasp. I needed to break it.

"Caspian!" I yelled. "Trident!"

From the armchair, Caspian summoned his weapon. He couldn’t throw it—he might hit the girl.

"Catch!" he roared, sliding it across the floor.

I grabbed the heavy, golden trident. I didn’t use the points. I used the blunt end of the shaft.

Ellia—or the thing controlling her—saw the weapon. She screamed, a sound that shattered the window glass.

"NO!"

I pinned her ankle to the rug with my knee.

"Sorry, kid," I whispered. "This is going to sting."

I raised the trident shaft.

I brought it down with all my strength, aiming directly for the black stone.

CRACK.

The sound was like a gunshot.

The black stone shattered into a thousand pieces.

A cloud of black smoke erupted from the anklet, forming a screaming skull face in the air for a split second before dissipating into nothingness.

The shadows vanished. The lights flickered back on.

The silence that followed was deafening.

Ellia lay on the rug, panting. Her eyes fluttered open. The violet was gone. They were just golden, terrified eyes of a child.

She looked at me. She looked at Arjun, who was rubbing his chest. She looked at the broken chain on the floor.

"Primrose?" she whispered, her voice tiny. "My leg hurts."

Then, her eyes rolled back, and she went limp.

"She fainted!" Arjun panicked, poking her cheek. "Did we break the Princess?"

I dropped the trident and checked her pulse. It was steady. Her skin was already warming up. The cold, dead aura was gone.

"No," I said, slumping back against the sofa, my heart pounding in my throat. "We didn’t break her, Arjun."

I picked up the fragments of the black stone. They were inert now, just broken glass.

"We just evicted her tenant."