Mira’s foot moved faster that she anticipated as her thoughts went on a rampage. Her heart thumped violently in her rib cage and all of a sudden, the ache she felt before was consumed with adrenaline and fear.

She instantly made her way to the nursery the first chance she got as she stepped into Jia Hao’s home. No one was inside but she headed to the babies’ cribs.

"One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six." She counted, panting, as her fingers pointed. Now she ran to each crib and looked inside. "One. Two. Three. Four. Five." She whispered as she saw each child.

Mira’s heart skipped a beat. Her world felt like it had crumbled. "One. Two. Three. Four. Five."

Where was baby six? Where was my sixth child?! She questioned in her mind, she had finally lost it. She did not want to yell and wake up her children, it would make the situation messier but cautioning her reaction was eating her slowly.

Mira did a recount. Then another. And another. With every dawned reality, she was close to running mental. Mira ran out of the nursery and straight to the hot spring.

"Ming Tao?!" She yelled. "Don’t joke with me, Ming Tao, where the hell are you?!!" Mira turned around. She looked everywhere but could not see him. If Hye Yang took her cub then she did that under Ming Tao’s influence and he was the only one who could get her baby back.

"WHERE ARE YOU??! Don’t do this to me, please!" Mira’s voice cracked.

"So you care about your babies but not others’, demon?" Echoed in the atmosphere. Mira looked up. That was Ming Tao’s voice. A baby’s yawn resounded in the spring.

Her breath hitched. He also was with her cub.

"Where are you? Please, stop playing such games."

"Games? You really think this is a game?" Ming Tao asked. His voice was calm in an eerie way.

Mira finally traced his voice to the top of the hot spring. One she had never seen anyone in before. How did he even get up there?

"Ming Tao please." Mira looked up. He had something wrapped in his hand. That must be her baby. Ming Tao held her baby out the end of the cliff and Mira screamed. That nearly gave her a heart attack.

"Make your way up here if you want to meet your child."

Mira teared up. This was so cruel. Her own husband treated her this way without an iota of sympathy in his eyes.

It was difficult to get up there but she did. Now she was standing on one of the interconnected hot springs at one of the highest points of this place. This Mira was scared of heights. The old owner of this body was also not a shifter but Ming Tao was. Every single time Mira stayed on this small, hot spring Mira felt like she was closer to death.

"I am here, Ming Tao, please give me my baby. Your issue is with me, he has nothing to do with it." Mira begged. Her eyes were on her cub wrapped comfortably in his hand. She did not know how her baby was even still asleep.

Ming Tao did not feed him anything. . . Right? Mira swallowed.

"Mira as a caring mother. That is so sweet to see. So you do worry and care about some things." Ming Tao swung her baby in his hand and Mira yelped.

She could not stop the tears from falling down her cheeks anymore. "Ming Tao please. You can come at me, I won’t fight you but leave the little one alone." She swallowed. Adults are not supposed to endanger the little ones, much less a true born heir and here Ming Tao was, torturing her with his actions. Actions that were so vile.

"But you did not just stop at me. You came after Wei Jie. Le Yang. Tian Yu. You came after the little ones and everyone in the forest. At every chance you got, you came after everybody simply because you knew of your advantage of being the first daughter of the foxes’ province and the true mate of the leading clans’ beast men. You knew you were invincible and you used up that power every single chance you got. So tell me, demon, why should I spare you the same torment you made me and everyone else go through?"

Mira gulped. Her baby was still in the hands of her husband so she could not run her mouth carelessly. She had nothing to say.

"You can’t speak, right? I guessed so." Ming Tao laughed. He walked further back till he stood at the brink of the spring. Mira shivered in her spot. Even if she wanted to, she could not take a step forward out of temporary paralysis. She was stricken with it. No one needed to be told twice before noticing that this small spring was only crafted for the aesthetic and not to hold the weight of one beast man, much less of two adults and a cub.

"Let us go back down, and. . . . And speak, Ming Tao. Here is too dangerous for a discussion." Mira panicked. Her eyes raked the beautiful trees and searched for durable vines close by. In case this thing collapsed, she needed a second guarantee.

"It would not be dangeous if we are one weight less." Ming Tao shook his hands above his head then stretched the cub to the side, way past the spring’s confinement.

If fear could not take her life before, that action was close to it.

Ming Tao laughed. Mira felt broken. She knew how terrible the old Mira was but watching her own husband do this to her was a different kind of pain. Nothing seemed funny nor comedic anymore. She was faced with the cruel reality of what the old Mira made them go through and she understood. Maybe that was what Ming Tao wanted to teach her. If so, she had learned.

"Please." She begged. "Please, he is barely past a newborn. His body is still frail. Don’t move him carelessly."

Something twitched in Ming Tao’s brain. He suddenly wanted to take this a notch further and kept swinging the baby between both his hands. When he held the child with both hands before, Mira almost lost it and now that he swapped the baby between each hand, she thought her heart was about to explode.

Mira heard a crack. Right where Ming Tao stood was breaking out of the spring. And it was either he knew and purposely ignored it or he was way too ignorant of his surroundings.

"Ming Tao, let us go down, this thing is about to collapse." Mira dreaded what could be as she said that, her quaking voice testified to her terror.

"I don’t want to." Ming Tao uttered.

Mira gasped. She was not just afraid for the life of her baby, but for the life of the dumb ass husband standing before her. The concrete spring tub he was standing was breaking out and there was no way he did not know.

"Ming Tao, you could die. Step forward and let us talk where we’re not all at risk."

"You can save just one of us. Choose who."

The fuck?! Was this man playing a gamble on HIS LIFE AND MY CHILD’S??! WAS HE INSANE?!

The hot spring was falling apart and Mira found it useless to talk anymore. Even though she was plagued with fear, she had to take matters in her own hands or she would hate both herself and Ming Tao forever. Her baby was innocent, he did not deserve to go through this.

The fracture of the concrete shook all of them. In a flash, Mira grabbed onto a vine and swung herself forward. The vine swung her past Ming Tao and she switched direction to head towards him then kicked him forward, away from the crack.

Immediately, the end of the hot spring severed and fell. And in one swift motion, just before she could land her feet back on the stable side of the hot spring, she heard a rip.

Skrrrt! 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

The vine snapped. Her body pushed downwards. The last thing Mira saw was the fast blur of her environment swooping past her from below.