Raising Beast Cubs to Find a Husband-Chapter 122: Spicy Soup & Secrets

They didn’t reach the door. They didn’t have to.

Just as Caspian, Primrose, and Freya rounded the corner to the stairs leading down to the Root Cellar, the world exploded.

CRASH.

The heavy, iron-reinforced oak door at the bottom of the stairs didn’t just open. It shattered. Splinters of ancient wood flew outward like shrapnel, embedding themselves in the stone walls.

From the cloud of dust and darkness emerged a small, furious shape.

Vali was carrying Orion on his back. But this wasn’t the playful puppy who had thrown snowballs earlier.

Vali’s silver hair was bristling like a mane. His lips were pulled back in a snarl that exposed fangs far too sharp for a five-year-old. But it was his eyes that stopped everyone in their tracks.

They weren’t pink anymore. They were glowing, blood-red crimson.

Lady Astrid stood at the top of the stairs, her mouth falling open. "Vali? How did you—"

Vali didn’t answer. He dropped Orion gently onto a pile of sacks, then launched himself up the stairs.

He moved faster than a blink. He was a blur of grey and white fury. He tackled Astrid, pinning her to the stone floor with a force that cracked the flagstone beneath them.

"YOU!" Vali roared, his voice layered with a guttural, beastly growl. "YOU HURT THE PACK!"

He raised a clawed hand, ready to strike.

"VALI! NO!" Primrose screamed.

Duchess Freya moved. But she didn’t draw her sword. She stared at Vali’s glowing red eyes with a look of pure, terrified recognition.

"The Crimson Gaze..." Freya gasped. "The mark of the First Wolf?"

She hesitated for a split second, stunned by the legendary trait manifesting in a child.

That second was all Caspian needed.

The King didn’t run. He simply materialized. One moment he was beside Primrose, the next he was kneeling by the sacks at the bottom of the stairs.

"Orion," Caspian whispered, his voice trembling.

The Merman Prince was blue. His skin was frosted with ice crystals. His eyes were rolled back, showing only the whites.

"Dad..." Orion mumbled, his teeth chattering so hard it sounded like bones breaking. "I... I can’t feel my hands... Dad, it hurts..."

The air in the hallway instantly became heavy. The pressure dropped. The stone walls began to crack under an invisible weight.

Caspian stood up, holding his frozen son against his chest. He looked up at the stairs where Vali was snarling at Astrid.

"ENOUGH."

It wasn’t a shout. It was a Command. A burst of King’s Haki—pure, oceanic dominance—slammed into the hallway.

Vali froze mid-growl. The red faded from his eyes, replaced by confusion. He blinked, looking down at his trembling cousin beneath him.

"Vali," Primrose said, her voice shaking but firm. "Come here. Now."

Vali scrambled off Astrid and ran to Primrose, burying his face in her skirt. He was shaking, the adrenaline crash hitting him hard.

Freya rushed to Astrid. She didn’t hug her. She grabbed her daughter by the shoulders and hauled her up, forcing her to look at the freezing boy in Caspian’s arms.

"Look," Freya ordered, her voice cold as ice. "Look at what you did."

Astrid looked. She saw Orion’s blue lips. She saw the frost on his eyelashes.

"I..." Astrid’s arrogant mask crumbled. Her lip trembled. "I thought... it was just a timeout. I didn’t know... he would break."

"He is not a toy, Astrid!" Freya shouted, her voice echoing off the walls. "He is a child! A guest! And you nearly killed him!"

Astrid flinched as if she’d been slapped. Tears welled up in her yellow eyes. She looked terrified—not of punishment, but of the reality of her actions.

Twenty minutes later, the crisis had moved to the warmth of the kitchens.

Caspian sat by the massive hearth, holding Orion. He was pouring raw mana into the boy, his hands glowing with a soft, teal light. Color was slowly returning to Orion’s cheeks, though he was still wrapped in four blankets.

Vali sat on a stool nearby, glaring at the door as if daring Astrid to come back in.

Primrose was not sitting. She was rage-cooking.

"This kitchen," Primrose muttered, slamming a pot onto the stove, "is a disgrace. Dried meat? Hardtack? No wonder everyone here is angry! You’re all hangry!"

She raided the pantry. She found preserved cabbage, radishes, garlic, and a stash of spicy peppers that the Wolves apparently used for medicinal purposes.

"I need heat," Primrose declared. "I need soul-warming, sinus-clearing heat."

She began to chop. Thwack-thwack-thwack. The rhythm calmed her down.

She threw pork belly into the pot, letting the fat render until it sizzled. She tossed in the spicy peppers, garlic, and onions. Then came the aged kimchi (or the closest fantasy equivalent she could find). She poured in the broth and let it boil.

The smell wafted through the drafty hall. It was pungent, spicy, and deeply savory. It smelled like life returning to a frozen world.

She ladled the bright red, bubbling stew into bowls.

"Eat," Primrose ordered, sliding a bowl to Vali. "It will calm the beast blood."

She took a bowl to Caspian. She spooned a little of the broth, blew on it, and held it to Orion’s lips.

"Drink, baby," she whispered. "It’s spicy. It’ll wake you up."

Orion took a sip. He coughed, his eyes watering.

"Wow..." Orion rasped, blinking rapidly. "That’s... really spicy, Prim. It feels like... like fire in my belly."

"Good," Caspian exhaled, resting his forehead against Orion’s hair. "Let it burn."

The door creaked open.

Duchess Freya walked in. She looked defeated. She wasn’t wearing her sword anymore. Behind her, a very small, very subdued Astrid trailed in.

Freya hesitated. "Is he..."

"He is awake," Caspian said without looking up. His voice was shards of ice. "No thanks to your heir."

Freya winced. She walked over to the table and sat down heavily. Astrid stood in the corner, staring at her boots, refusing to look at Vali.

Primrose wordlessly placed a steaming bowl of Kimchi Jjigae in front of Freya.

"Eat," Primrose said gently. "You look like you’re about to collapse."

Freya looked at the red soup. She took a spoonful. The heat hit her throat, the spice waking up her tired senses. She took another bite. Then another. Tears began to drip from her eyes into the broth.

"I failed," Freya whispered.

"You didn’t lock him in the cellar," Primrose said, sitting across from her.

"No," Freya shook her head. "I failed as a mother. And I failed as a Duchess."

She looked at Astrid in the corner.

"Astrid wasn’t always like this," Freya admitted, her voice trembling. "She used to play. She used to laugh. She had a best friend. The daughter of the Captain of the Guard. Little Vivi."

Astrid’s head snapped up at the name. Her hands clenched into fists at her sides.

"Vivi went missing two months ago," Freya revealed, looking down at her soup.

The room went silent. Even Vali stopped slurping his noodles.

"She was taken from the courtyard," Freya continued. "Right under our noses. No tracks. No scent. Just... gone."

Primrose covered her mouth. "Oh, goodness."

"Since then," Freya looked at her daughter with heartbreak in her eyes, "Astrid stopped playing. She decided that ’play’ makes you weak. That if she had been training instead of playing tag, maybe she would have seen the kidnapper. Maybe she could have saved Vivi."

Astrid sniffed loudly in the corner, wiping her nose on her sleeve. "I should have seen them," she whispered aggressively. "A soldier sees everything."

"You are eight!" Freya cried out. "You are not a soldier! You are a child!"

"I have to be strong!" Astrid yelled back, tears finally spilling over. "Father can’t find them! The guards can’t find them! If I’m not strong, who will bring Vivi back?"

She pointed a shaking finger at Vali and Orion.

"That’s why I locked them up!" Astrid sobbed. "To keep them safe! If they wander off, the Shadow Man takes them! I... I just wanted them to stay put!"

The anger in the room evaporated, replaced by a heavy, tragic sorrow.

Vali stared at his cousin. He slowly slid off his stool. He walked over to her.

He didn’t hug her. He punched her lightly on the arm.

"You’re stupid," Vali said bluntly.

Astrid blinked, tears streaming down her face. "What?"

"If you want to keep someone safe," Vali said, pointing to his chest, "you don’t put them in a box. You stand in front of them. And you bite the bad guy."

He grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the table.

"Eat the soup," Vali ordered. "It’s spicy. It makes you strong. Then we can go bite the Shadow Man together."

Astrid looked at Vali’s hand holding hers. She looked at the red soup. Slowly, she nodded.

Freya buried her face in her hands.

"I didn’t know how to tell you," Freya whispered to Primrose. "Konrad forbade me. He said admitting that children were being stolen from inside the Hold would cause a panic. He thinks he can solve it alone."

"He can’t," Primrose said firmly.

She reached across the table and took Freya’s hand. The Duchess’s hand was rough, calloused from sword work, but it was trembling.

"Freya," Primrose said softly. "You are carrying too much. You’re trying to be the Duchess, the General, and the Mother all at once. And you’re doing it in a house full of stubborn wolves."

"I don’t know what to do," Freya admitted, looking at Primrose with desperate eyes. "Every time I close my eyes, I see Vivi. And I see Astrid turning into... into Konrad. Cold. Hard. Stone."

"Then we stop it," Primrose said. "Right now."

She stood up. The "Head Nanny" was back.

"We have a King," she pointed to Caspian. "We have a Warlord," she pointed to the door where Rurik was likely pacing. "And you have me. I have fed five of the most difficult men in the Empire and tamed their children. I think I can handle one stubborn Marquis."

Caspian stood up, lifting a now-sleeping (and pink-cheeked) Orion into his arms.

"The soup was excellent, Primrose," Caspian said. "But now, I believe it is time for a family meeting."

He looked at Freya.

"Open the Shrine," Caspian said. "Konrad said no. But you are the Duchess. You command the internal guard. Let us in."

Freya looked at her husband’s empty chair. She looked at Astrid, who was blowing on a spoonful of soup while Vali watched.

She took a deep breath. Her white wolf ears perked up.

"The Shrine Key," Freya said, standing up. "Is around my neck."

She pulled a silver chain from under her dress. A key made of pure, unmelting ice hung there.

"Konrad will kill me," Freya said, a small, dangerous smile touching her lips. "But let him try."

Primrose grinned. "Now that is the spirit. Let’s go save some kids."