Chapter 249: The Team Behind the Chef

Ren marched back to the main clearing, feeling infinitely more human in her clean, brown deer-hide dress and smelling zesty and fresh from the citrus soap. The sun was fully up now, beating down on the scattered remnants of the White Tiger Clan and the huddled groups of rogue strays.

It was time to get to work.

“Alright, listen up, everyone!” Ren shouted, channeling her absolute best, terrifyingly authoritative Executive Chef voice. “Bring it in! Huddle up! Chop chop!”

The beastmen and females jumped, startled by the noise, but they quickly scrambled toward the center of the clearing, forming a wide, slightly intimidated circle around her.

Ren looked at the mismatched crowd. There were scrawny wolves, a badger, a few apes and the white tigers. It was a motley crew of traumatized misfits. But Ren was used to running a chaotic kitchen brigade. She knew exactly what it took to mold a team of dysfunctional line cooks into a well-oiled, Michelin-star machine.

“First of all,” Ren announced, pacing confidently in the center of the circle. “I am Ren. I am an Executive Chef, and apparently, your new village manager. Since this group is fairly small and we are going to be living and working together, we need to know who is who. We are going to do a quick round of ice-breakers.”

The beastmen exchanged profoundly confused glances. Ice breakers? Was she going to make them smash frozen water?

“Just introduce yourselves,” Ren clarified, rolling her eyes. “State your name and… I don’t know, one fun fact about yourself? Let’s start with you.” She pointed at the badger beastman.

The badger stood up a little straighter, nervously clearing his throat. “Uh, I am Barnaby. I am a badger beastman. And I… I really enjoy digging holes and not being eaten by shadow beasts.”

“Excellent, Barnaby. Setting the bar high,” Ren deadpanned. “Next!”

They went around the circle. It was an awkward display of prehistoric corporate team-building.

“I am Throk. I am a brown bear. That’s all.”

“I am Katleen. White tiger. I will bite anyone who touches my cub.”

“I am Yuriel. Wolf beastman. I am without a mate and highly motivated for the upcoming tournament.”

Ren aggressively ignored Yuriel’s wink and clapped her hands together to officially end the introductions.

“Great. We are officially acquainted. Now, Step One: Objectives,” Ren instructed, holding up her fingers to count them off. “We are losing daylight, and I am leaving for the swamp at dusk. By the time the sun sets, we need three things done. We need to start building huts. We need to hunt fresh meat for dinner. And we need to start digging a trench for the perimeter wall.”

The crowd murmured, nodding along.

“Now, regarding the huts,” Ren continued, pointing to a flat patch of land near the waterhole. “I do not have the time today to teach you all how to build proper, structurally sound wooden houses with plumbing and drywall. So, the primitive, mud-and-stick huts you are all used to will just have to do for now. Think of it as aggressive glamping. Also, the waterhole will be the exact center of our new village. Everything will be built outward from there.”

Ren pointed at the crowd again. “Step Two: Teams! I am dividing you up into four brigades. Team Wood Gathering, Team Meat Hunting, Team Hut Building, and Team Trench Digging.”

Ren swiftly moved through the crowd, pointing and sorting them with ruthless efficiency. She assigned Barnaby the badger to lead Team Trench, since digging was literally his fun fact. She assigned Throk the bear to lead Team Wood, Katleen to oversee Team Huts, and a lean, scarred tiger beastman to lead the Hunting brigade.

“Everyone knows their station!” Ren yelled, clapping her hands loudly. “I want to see hustle! Move, move, move!”

Motivated by the promise of full bellies and a safe home, the beastmen scattered like ants, diving into their assigned tasks with a frantic, eager energy.

Ren spent the next hour overseeing everything, walking around the perimeter like a project manager with an invisible clipboard. She corrected the placement of the huts, yelled at the wood gatherers to bring thicker logs, and generally kept the chaos organized.

As she was inspecting the perimeter line, Ren found Kael.

He was helping Team Trench. But “helping” was a massive understatement. While the other beastmen were using sharpened sticks and rocks to claw at the dirt, Kael was acting like a human backhoe. He was buried waist-deep in the earth, his massive, bronzed arms scooping out hundreds of pounds of dirt and violently chucking boulders fifty feet into the air like they were made of styrofoam.

“Kael!” Ren called out, waving her hands to dodge a flying clump of mud. “Take a five-minute break! I need to talk to you!”

Kael immediately stopped digging. He vaulted effortlessly out of the six-foot-deep trench, his chest heaving and his muscles slick with sweat. He dusted his hands off and jogged over to her, looking like a ridiculously handsome, dirty gladiator.

“What is it, my mate?” Kael asked, his golden eyes bright. “Do you need me to carry timber?”

“No, no,” Ren sighed, reaching out to wipe a smudge of dirt off his chiseled cheek. “I wanted to talk to you for a moment. About… the tournament.”

Kael’s posture instantly straightened.

“Kael, honey,” Ren tried to reason, using her softest, most placating voice. “You don’t have to do this. You don’t have to fight a dozen desperate strays. We can just… cancel it. I’ll just tell them I changed my mind!”

Kael frowned deeply, looking at her as if she had just suggested they eat rocks for dinner.

“Cancel it?” Kael repeated, shaking his head firmly. “I cannot cancel it, Ren. You have a divine mission!”

Ren winced internally. ’Damn my own brilliant lies.’

“The Moon Goddess herself tasked you with curing the Feral Madness,” Kael reminded her, his voice dropping into a tone of deep, reverent awe. He sounded exactly like a devoted, brainwashed acolyte reciting scripture. “You need the raw power of the strongest beastmen to fuel your magic! The Goddess demands a trial of blood and strength to weed out the weak seed! I am merely her humble servant, facilitating her divine will!”

Ren stared at him, her mouth slightly open. He was so deeply, genuinely invested in the fake religion she had panic-invented that it was actually a little terrifying.

“But Kael—”

“I will not let you down,” Kael interrupted, his golden eyes blazing with an intense, unyielding fire. He gently grabbed her shoulders. “I will handle the tournament.”

Ren sighed, realizing there was absolutely no talking him out of it while he was in this state of religious zealotry. She nodded slowly, forcing a supportive smile, entirely unaware of the true, heavy thoughts swirling inside her husband’s head.

As Kael looked down at his beautiful mate, his chest tightened. He spoke of the Moon Goddess, but in his own thoughts, the truth was far more selfish, and far more desperate.

’I am broken,’ Kael thought bitterly, the memory of his failed shifts mocking him. ’I cannot turn into a beast. I am no longer a King. I have nothing left to offer her but my two hands.’

This tournament wasn’t just about the Goddess’s mission. Kael needed this fight. He desperately needed to prove that even as a broken tiger, he was still the absolute strongest, deadliest predator in the entire forest.

He needed to prove, more to himself than to Ren, that he was still worthy of being her mate.

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