Surviving Zombies Was Easier Than Raising Beast Cubs

Chapter 23: Chapter 23: The Snake Wanted Her 3

”Let him go,” Swanly said, and this time her voice was lower. Shaking, yes, but angry too. ”Please. He is not infected. None of us are infected. We only came here because the forest is full of those dead things.”

Soren watched her beg.

He did not soften.

That made him worse.

Kael heard her voice and hated himself.

He hated that she had to beg for him.

He hated that he had brought his family here thinking walls meant safety.

He hated that his cubs were crying because he could not move.

He hated that Swanly, who had only just started looking at him without disgust, now had to watch him fail in front of another male.

His claws dug into Soren’s scales until blood appeared beneath them.

Still, he could not break free.

He had failed them.

The thought cut deeper than the tail.

He should have stayed in the forest.

He should have found another cave.

He should have carried them farther, even if he starved.

Anything would have been better than bringing Swanly and the cubs here, to the feet of a snake who wanted her.

Soren did not care about Kael’s shame.

He cared about Swanly.

More precisely, he cared about what she was thinking.

Her eyes were wet now. Her face was pale. Her ears were flat. Her tail had puffed out behind her like a frightened cloud.

But under all that fear, her mind was moving.

Fast.

Too fast for a normal female who had just watched her mate get crushed.

Soren touched her thoughts.

Only the surface.

Swanly’s mind snapped open just enough for one wild thought to flash through.

If I pull out the gun, can I kill all of them before they reach the cubs?

Soren went still.

Gun.

He did not know the word.

But the thought came with feeling.

Weapon.

Death.

Fast.

Pow pow.

His silver eyes shifted to the cubs.

The cubs had not been lying.

They had not understood what they were saying, but they had not lied.

Mama magic.

Mama pow pow.

Bad males gone.

Soren looked back at Swanly.

Now the interest inside him became something darker.

This female was not just useful because her scent called to his broken core.

She was dangerous.

Soren needed dangerous things.

He had built Riverbone with them.

His tail loosened suddenly and he flung Kael to the side without looking.

Kael hit the ground hard.

The sound made Swanly’s body jerk.

”Kael!”

Kael coughed, then spat blood into the mud.

The cubs cried louder.

Swanly tried to run toward him, but white scales moved around her waist before she could take two steps.

Soren’s tail wrapped around her.

Swanly gasped as she was pulled backward.

The tail was cold and strong. Too strong. It coiled around her middle and dragged her toward Soren like she weighed nothing.

Her feet slipped in the mud.

Her hands grabbed at the scales, useless.

The cubs lost their minds.

The eldest rushed forward and bit the tail.

His little teeth sank against white scales and did absolutely nothing.

The second cried and bit too, because if his brother was doing it, then he had to help.

The smallest was sobbing so hard he could barely see, but he still waddled forward and clamped his tiny mouth around Soren’s tail with all the bravery in his tiny body.

Swanly wanted to laugh and scream at the same time.

Because what were they doing?

What were these tiny black cotton balls doing?

They were biting the most terrifying male in Riverbone.

For her.

”Stop! Stop biting him!” Swanly cried, panicking even more. ”He is going to kill all of us!”

The smallest refused to let go.

His little eyes were full of tears.

”Mama!”

Soren looked down at the cubs attached to his tail.

For one second, he looked almost bored again.

Then he lifted the tail slightly and shook them off with no effort.

Kael snarled from the mud and tried to rise.

Two huge beastmen stepped out from behind the guards at once. One had heavy bear shoulders. The other had thick crocodile scales running up his arms and neck.

The crocodile beastman was Raku.

Swanly did not know his name yet, but she knew danger when she saw it.

Raku’s jaw was wide. His eyes were cold. His body looked like it had been made by a river that hated people. He carried a thick bone club in one hand, and when Kael tried to get up, Raku stepped toward him without fear.

Kael’s eyes burned.

He still tried to rise.

Swanly twisted in Soren’s tail. ”Don’t touch him!”

Soren ignored her voice.

He looked into her eyes.

Then he went deeper.

Swanly felt it like fingers pushing into her skull.

Her whole body stiffened.

”What are you doing?” she whispered.

Soren’s face was close now.

Too close.

His silver eyes held hers, and there was no kindness in them. No pity. No apology.

He wanted answers.

So he took them.

Pain stabbed through Swanly’s head.

She cried out.

Kael heard it and went wild.

”Swanly!”

Raku moved before Kael could reach them.

The crocodile beastman struck the ground in front of Kael with his club, not hitting him yet, but making the warning clear.

Kael looked like he wanted to tear through him anyway.

Soren entered Swanly’s mind.

At first, he expected fear.

A few lies.

Some broken memory from poison fruit.

Maybe proof that the cubs were simply exaggerating.

He found none of that.

He found a dead city.

Soren froze.

Tall stone things rose into a gray sky, taller than any tree he had ever seen. Black roads stretched between them. Strange bright lights flashed red and blue. Metal beasts sat broken and burning. The air smelled like smoke, rot, and blood.

Then he saw dead people running.

No.

Not people.

Things that used to be people.

Their jaws hung open. Their eyes were wrong. Their skin was torn. They ran after the living with mindless hunger.

Soren’s breath changed.

He saw Swanly running through that world with blood on her face and a strange black weapon in her hands.

Crack.

The weapon spat thunder.

An infected head burst open.

Soren’s pupils thinned.

He saw her loading bullets with shaking fingers.

He saw her dragging a wounded child behind a broken wall.

He saw her laughing once, not because anything was funny, but because the world had become so terrible that laughing was the only thing left before screaming.

He saw a glowing screen.

He saw words he could not understand.

He saw a tiny glowing fairy sitting inside a strange storage space, eating something white from a bag and looking offended.

He saw another world.

A world after death.

A world Swanly had survived until she did not.

Soren was shocked.

Not surprised.

Shocked.

The kind of shock that went past his face and struck the cracked part inside his beast core.

This was not memory loss.

This was not poison.

This female was not from here.