Raising Beast Cubs to Find a Husband-Chapter 129: The Ultimate Snack

The roar that shook the Shrine wasn’t human. It was the sound of something ancient, wild, and incredibly angry breaking its leash.

Rurik didn’t just transform; he detonated. His human form twisted, bones cracking and reshaping in a terrifying display of biological magic. Fur the color of storm clouds burst from his skin. Within seconds, the Warlord was gone.

In his place stood a Dire Wolf the size of a carriage.

He wasn’t alone.

Marquis Konrad shifted into a massive, slate-grey beast, his scars still visible through the fur, moving with the heavy precision of a tank.

And Duchess Freya... she was breathtaking. Her wolf form was sleek, pure white, and faster than the eye could follow. She looked like a blizzard given claws.

"ROAAAAR!"

The three behemoths launched themselves at the ceiling.

The black ice spiders hissed, dropping from their threads to intercept. It was a massacre. Rurik caught a spider in his jaws, crushing its obsidian shell like a grape. Freya was a blur of motion, using the vertical walls as a running track to flank the enemies, snapping their legs with surgical bites. Konrad stood his ground, swiping with paws the size of shields, batting the monsters out of the air.

Below the chaos, Caspian moved.

He didn’t run. He glided, his feet barely touching the ground. He held Primrose close to his side, his hand raised.

"Hydro-Sanctum," Caspian commanded.

A swirling sphere of pressurized water surrounded them, spinning like a buzzsaw. Any spider that tried to get close was shredded instantly by the liquid blades.

"Keep your eyes on Vali!" Caspian shouted over the noise of crunching chitin. "Do not look at the monsters! Look at the goal!"

Primrose clutched her snack bag to her chest, her heart hammering against her ribs. She forced herself to focus on the center of the web.

Vali was convulsing. The purple light was so bright now it was blinding. He was screaming silently, his mouth open in a rictus of pain.

Hold on, baby, Primrose thought, gritting her teeth. Nanny is coming.

High above the carnage, two small faces peered through the broken grate.

"Okay," Astrid whispered, her voice shaking just a little. "That is... a lot of spiders."

"And very large wolves," Orion added, his eyes wide. "Your dad looks terrifying. My dad looks... wet."

"Focus!" Astrid hissed. She pointed down at the webs. "Look. The spiders are distracted by the adults. The webs near the kids are unguarded."

She looked at the distance. It was a thirty-foot drop to the nearest cluster of cocoons.

"We have to jump," Astrid decided.

"We will break our legs," Orion countered immediately. "And then the spiders will eat us. It’s a bad plan."

"We won’t hit the floor," Astrid said, pointing her sword. "We aim for the webs. They’re sticky, right? We’ll stick."

"That is also a bad plan!" Orion squeaked. "Then we’re stuck!"

"We cut ourselves free once we grab them!" Astrid grabbed Orion’s hand. "On three. One. Two—"

"I didn’t agree to—!"

"THREE!"

Astrid jumped, dragging the screaming Merman Prince with her.

They fell through the purple twilight. The wind rushed past their ears.

SPLAT.

They hit the thick, black strands of the web just above the cluster of trapped children.

"Oof!" Orion grunted as the sticky silk grabbed his clothes. He was dangling upside down by his ankle. "I hate this. I hate adventures. I want to go home and read a book."

Astrid landed better, catching the web with one hand and swinging her sword with the other.

SHING.

She sliced the webbing holding Vivi’s cocoon.

"Gotcha!" Astrid gasped, grabbing the unconscious girl’s arm before she could fall. She hauled Vivi onto a thicker strand of web.

Vivi was pale. Her red hair was matted. She didn’t move.

"Vivi?" Astrid slapped her friend’s cheek lightly. "Vivi! Wake up! It’s Astrid!"

Vivi didn’t stir. The purple energy was still leeching out of her, flowing toward the center of the room.

"She’s drained," Orion realized, swinging himself upright and cutting his ankle free. He looked around at the dozens of other sleeping kids. "The circuit is still open. Vali is sucking them dry. We can’t wake them up until we unplug him."

Astrid looked at the center of the room. At Vali.

"Then we have to help Primrose," Astrid said, gripping her sword. "We have to cut the main lines."

On the ground floor, the Wolf Trio had cleared a path of destruction. Spider limbs littered the floor like broken glass.

But the Boss wasn’t worried. He stood on his floating platform, watching Primrose and Caspian get closer to the center.

"Persistent," the Boss sighed. "But futile."

He pointed his cane at Caspian.

"Void Lance."

A spear of concentrated darkness shot from the tip of the cane. It moved faster than sound.

Caspian saw it. He knew his water shield wouldn’t hold.

He didn’t dodge. He stepped in front of Primrose.

CRACK.

The lance shattered the water shield and slammed into Caspian’s chest.

"Caspian!" Primrose screamed.

The King of the Seas was thrown backward, skidding across the black crystal floor. He hit a pillar and slumped, clutching his chest. Blood—dark and blue—seeped between his fingers.

"Go!" Caspian wheezed, his eyes locking with hers. "Don’t stop! Get to him!"

Primrose hesitated, her heart tearing in two. She wanted to run to Caspian. But she looked at Vali. The boy’s skin was cracking. He had seconds left.

Save the cub first, her instincts screamed.

She turned and ran.

She scrambled up the central mass of webbing. It burned her hands. The Void energy tried to grab her, to suck her dry, but she didn’t have magic to steal. She just had stubbornness.

She reached the center.

"Vali!" Primrose gasped, pulling herself up to the main cocoon.

It was hot. Radiating heat like an open oven. Vali was suspended in the middle, his eyes rolled back, his body rigid.

"Hungry..." Vali moaned. The voice wasn’t his. It was a chorus of a thousand starving ghosts. "HUNGRY."

"I know," Primrose soothed, her hands shaking as she opened her bag. "I know, baby. I’m here."

She pulled out the Honey-Glazed Spirit Cake.

It wasn’t just a cake. She had baked it the night before they left, using the high-grade mana flour from the Capital and infusing it with pure intentions. It smelled of vanilla, warmth, and home.

"Open up," Primrose ordered, trying to shove the cake into his mouth.

Vali’s jaw was locked shut. The Void energy was a physical barrier, rejecting anything that wasn’t corruption.