Chapter 174: Nude Buddies in a Cave

Ren’s mouth salivated.

She stared at the steaming bark plate like it was the Holy Grail. The aroma of ginger, turmeric, and caramelized meat swirled around her, taunting her, seducing her. It had been so long since she had eaten a meal that wasn’t just a raw berry or a sad mushroom.

Her stomach let out a growl so loud it sounded like a small engine backfiring.

Ren looked up at the bird.

The Golden Eagle was staring at the steaming food on its bark plate with intensity, but it made no move to eat. It looked suspicious, or perhaps just confused.

“It’s okay,” Ren whispered, picking up her hand-whittled chopsticks. “I’ll go first.”

She clamped a piece of the tender, yellow-stained rabbit meat between the twigs and popped it into her mouth.

Explosion.

The flavor burst across her tongue like fireworks. The earthiness of the turmeric, the sharp kick of the ginger, the heat, and the richness of the rabbit meat… it was a symphony. The meat was so tender it practically dissolved.

“Mmmph,” Ren moaned, her eyes rolling back in pure ecstasy.

She chewed slowly, savoring every molecule of flavor. It was the best thing she had ever eaten. Or maybe she was just starving. Either way, it was a surreal experience.

She swallowed and opened her eyes. The eagle was staring at her, its head tilted, watching her reaction closely.

“It’s so good,” Ren told it breathlessly. “Like, Michelin-star good. Seriously.”

The bird didn’t move.

Ren sighed. She leaned over her own plate and reached out with her chopsticks, plucking a prime piece of meat from the eagle’s bark strip.

She smiled warmly, holding the morsel out.

“Try it,” she urged softly. “I promise, it’s really good. Pure flavor.”

She leaned closer, treating the apex predator like a toddler.

“Say ahhh.”

The bird looked at the meat hovering in front of its beak. Then it looked at Ren’s encouraging, smiling face.

Slowly, hesitantly, it leaned forward.

It opened its hooked beak just a smidge. Ren deftly placed the meat inside.

Ren withdrew her hand, grinning. “Tasty, right?”

She giggled and went back to her own plate, stuffing another piece of rabbit into her mouth. She was too busy chewing to notice that the bird’s pupils had dilated—swallowing the silver iris until its eyes were almost entirely black.

Then—

FLASH.

A blinding, golden light exploded inside the hollow.

“AH!”

Ren dropped her chopsticks. She threw her arm up to shield her eyes, squeezing them shut against the sudden supernova.

’This is it,’ Ren thought with a strange sense of peace. ’Heaven’s gates are opening. The curry was too good. I literally died of happiness. Take me, Lord. I regret nothing.’

She waited for the angels to sing. She waited for the elevator music.

But the light didn’t take her. Instead, it slowly subsided, fading from blinding white to a soft, shimmering gold.

Ren kept her head down, blinking rapidly to clear the bright white spots dancing in her vision.

Flutter.

Something soft and weightless landed on her bare thigh.

Ren looked down. It was a single, golden feather.

“What the hell was that?” Ren muttered, rubbing her eyes with her knuckles. “That almost took my retinas out.”

Then, a voice spoke.

It was smooth. It was deep. It was undeniably masculine and quiet.

“It’s tasty.”

Ren’s head shot up so fast she almost gave herself whiplash.

Her eyes widened as her blurred vision finally cleared.

The hollow was filled with golden feathers swirling gently in the air, settling like magical snow.

And where the eagle once sat… was a man.

A muscular, very naked man.

Time seemed to slow down. The rain outside seemed to mute itself.

Ren watched, paralyzed, as he reached out. He didn’t use his fingers. He grabbed one of the chopsticks she had dropped, holding it like a spear. With elegant precision, he pierced a piece of the tender rabbit meat on the bark plate.

He brought the meat to his mouth. His lips—perfectly shaped and flushed pink—parted. He took the bite, chewing slowly, his eyes closing for a moment as he savored the spice.

A faint hint of a blush dusted his high cheekbones.

Ren’s mouth hung open. She was staring. She couldn’t stop staring.

He had wavy, shoulder-length blonde hair that cascaded over his broad shoulders like liquid gold. His skin was tanned and flawless. His eyes, when they opened again, were that same piercing, intelligent silver—but now framed by thick, long lashes.

If Ren didn’t know better, she would have thought that the bright light really was Heaven’s gates opening, but instead of taking her, they had just dropped this handsome Adonis in front of her as a gift.

He looked absolutely unreal. Like a Greek God carved from marble and brought to life by a lonely sculptor.

’He is… absurdly handsome,’ Ren thought, her brain struggling to process the visual data. ’Like, exaggeratedly handsome male lead in romance novel handsome.’

They were real. They existed. None were in her world—where men usually looked like potatoes after age thirty—but here? In the Beast World?

Kael. Syris. And even Vex. They were all ridiculously sexy. And now this guy.

Ren’s eyes traveled down. She couldn’t help it. She was human.

She scanned his broad chest, his sculpted abs, the sharp V-line of his hips…

Her heart beat faster as her gaze approached the danger zone.

She only had the courage to catch a glimpse—just a quick peek at his… equipment—before her face caught fire and she snapped her eyes back to his face.

’Of course,’ Ren thought hysterically, her face burning red. ’Of course he is well-hung. Why would he not be? Is there a factory somewhere? Do they make them in a lab then send them my way?’

His attention was still entirely on the food. He hadn’t touched anything else on the plate—ignoring the rice and the kale—but the rabbit was almost gone. He was eating with a focused intensity that was both elegant and primal.

Ren wasn’t exactly surprised that the bird was a beastman. Deep down, she had her suspicions from the beginning. No regular bird, even in this strange world, would do the things he had done.

But knowing it and seeing this were two different things.

Ren sat there, clutching her knees, a blush consuming her entire body.

’Okay, Ren. Be cool,’ she told herself. ’Nothing has to change. The bird is an Adonis now, but he’s still your friend. He’s still the bird who saved your life, put you in his nest and brought you food.’

She swallowed hard.

’We are just two nude buddies in a cave. Just hanging out. Eating curry. Totally normal. Just… don’t look down…again.’

He finished the last piece of rabbit. He licked a drop of yellow sauce from his lip.

Then, he finally looked up.

His silver eyes locked onto hers. The intensity was the same as the bird’s, but with the added weight of consciousness behind it.

Ren’s heart skipped a beat.

’Oh no,’ she thought, frantically covering her red face with her hands. ’He’s so handsome. I am in so much trouble.’

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