Chapter 192: She’s burning because of the cubs

The silence following Noah’s ’one big happy family’ comment was thick and heavy.

It sounded like he had said those words in good faith but the hostility was too rough for them to take it, nor when he had not responded appropriately to Damar’s words.

He stood there, waiting for them to move aside now that he had said his name, so he could get to me, but Damar didn’t budge. He and Fenric just stared at him, assessing him like a threat that hadn’t been neutralized yet, and probably how they were going to handle him once he got out of line.

Noah waited for a bit, but then, as he saw nothing was changing, his playful expression vanished. His eyes grew dark, the pupils blown wide as the rut started to eat away at his self-control. He wasn’t playing nice anymore.

He was vibrating with the need to move, to relieve himself, his muscles and dick twitching, but Damar remained a solid wall in front of him.

“Move, snake,” he demanded with a cold voice but Damar did not flinch.

He responded with his own interest first.

“The promise,” Damar said, his voice cold and flat. “Swear it, or you don’t take another step.”

Noah’s jaw clenched so hard I thought his fang might snap. “I’m trying to stay sane here,” he rasped, his voice dropping into a dangerous, animalistic growl. “Every second you waste, I’m losing the ability to be gentle. So move.”

“Not until you swear,” Damar insisted.

It was a mess, but I didn’t interrupt. This was an important process, after all. If he cannot bring himself to make these promises, putting me first above all, and take my side no matter what then I will agree that I made a mistake in accepting him as my mate.

But he’s not dismissing the words contained in the promise either, so I wonder what’s making him reluctant.

“The position I’m in doesn’t let me make promises carelessly.” He said, and this caused Damar to clench his fists.

“But it allows you to mark a female carelessly, it seems.” His sarcasm was laced with venom as he narrowed his eyes. “After all, what do you see Ari as?”

Noah did not answer and instead looked past him at me, his eyes burning into me.

Just then, as if his gaze had been a trigger, the heat in my blood surged again. It felt like a physical wave of fire crashing over me. I gasped, clenching Fenric hard. This time, I could feel something on my belly so I clutched my stomach, my skin turning a deep, feverish red.

“Arinya,” Fenric called, his voice alarming.

Noah made a move to lung forward, his instincts screaming to reach his mate, but Damar’s hand went to his throat, stopping him dead.

“Swear it!” Damar hissed, his composure completely lost as he, too, was impatient, wanting to help me as much as he could.

Noah looked like he was about to strike Damar, his face contorting with the effort to hold back his violence. He looked at me—shivering and burning in Fenric’s arms—and finally broke.

“I swear!” Noah barked, the words sounding like they were torn out of him. “I will not hurt her. I will put her safety first, and no matter what she does, I will take her side.” Then, through his struggle, his lips tilted up in a grin, his eyes holding a dangerous glint. “If she takes the life of someone important, I will help her bury the body. So, just let me get to her before I lose my head!”

The promise was rough and forced, but it was enough. Damar let go, his eyes leaving Noah as he turned to hurry to my side.

Noah did not wait to feel the skin around his neck before coming to my side as well.

He looked at my feverish red skin and how I was clutching my belly.

“She’s burning because of the cubs,” Noah muttered, his hands shaking as he touched my shoulders. “The forming Cubs are trying to gather genes to form, so they’re demanding so much, despite how much they already have. What a greedy little thing.”

I looked at him, my vision barely stable. He was speaking like he knew exactly what was going on with me. These were no longer guesses.

Was he a doctor? A healer?

“How… how do you know this?”

Noah didn’t even look up from me as he took a closer look at my hand, but his eyes swam over my body unintentionally, his breathing was coming in short, jagged bursts.

“Don’t you even know something so simple?” he muttered, his voice thick with the rut and he closed his eyes to keep sane for longer. The more he stared at my body, the more lust devoured his sanity.

“It’s no wonder the heat caught you so off guard, and you let your mates wander around. It’s basic knowledge to have your mates close to you during the early stages of your conception. If not, you just might lose the cub before it’s fully formed.”

The thought of it made my body tremble.

Though I never had a particular attachment to an offspring, it might’ve been because I didn’t have one, but now that I do, the very thought of losing it made me tremble in fear.

“N-no,” I muttered.

I couldn’t even process the words he said clearly afterwards and instead worried for the child in my belly.

My head was fuzzy, and my throat felt like it was coated in sand, yet the thought of water didn’t appeal to me. I leaned toward Noah, my body acting on its own. What I wanted right now wasn’t water to cool me down but the coolness that I was feeling coming from this beastman.

It was so enticing and my eyes fixed on his lips, as if they were the only thing that could stop the fire.

I was reaching for him when Fenric’s voice cut through the haze, sharp and filled with a new kind of hurt.

“If the cub needs genes to form,” Fenric said, gripping me closer, as if trying to keep me from reaching Noah. “…then doesn’t it mean that I’m the best fit for it?”

Noah let out a frustrated sound, his grip on the soil tightening.

“It’s not about who’s ’best,’ Tiger. You and the snake are both strong as it is. And it’s thanks to that that Arinya’s heat is stronger than the average. Your two genes are fighting for dominance inside her—they’re both equally powerful, and it’s tearing her apart because they won’t balance out.”

He looked down at me, his eyes dark and urgent. “The forming cub needs a third gene to act as a bridge, one as powerful as the other two, to settle the war so it can be born safely. And because I marked her right when the struggle was peaking, my genes are now in high demand. I’m practically the weight that balances the scale.” His eyes met mine. “It’s probably why she’s feeling an attraction to me right now to calm her fire. I’m the one she needs.”

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