Neve walked back into the leopard village with red linen under one arm, a container of salt under the other and the mark of an unknown person sitting warm around his neck.
Everyone looked at him.
That part was now familiar to him. What he wasn’t expecting was how different the look felt this time. Not the suspicious sideways glances from before. Not the step-back-and-avoid energy of his first days here. These were curious looks. Interested ones. Eyes moving from his face to the linen to the mark on his neck and back again.
The women nearby stared openly. One of them nudged the other and whispered something in their ear. A young man carrying his cub slowed down so much that he nearly stopped.
Neve had spent his first days here looking at the ground.
He looked up now.
He smiled at a woman who was frowning at him from near the fire.
Her face went red immediately and she looked away.
’Oh,’ he thought. ’That’s useful.’
He tried it on the man who had been glaring since Neve came into view. Full eye contact, easy smile.
The man blinked and looked at his own feet.
Neve filed this information away carefully. His appearance stat was maxed. He had been treating that like a cosmetic thing, something the system had given him that was nice but not practical. He was wrong about that. In a world where first impressions were made with your eyes and your nose, looking like this was leverage.
He was going to use it.
He kept walking, chin up, and looked at everyone who looked at him. Some flushed. Some looked away first. Some smiled back nervously like they weren’t sure they were allowed to.
He spotted the two girls from yesterday near the edge of the path. The ones who had thrown water on him while he was sleeping. They saw him see them and both of them lifted their chins like they were preparing for a confrontation.
Neve looked away first.
Not because he was intimidated. Because those two were clearly Isabella loyalists and his maxed appearance wasn’t going to fix that.
Pick your battles.
They reached the cave and Cael shifted back, rolling his shoulders once, and looked at Neve.
"Are you tired? It’s almost evening."
He reached out and touched Neve’s face and Neve’s eyes dropped to his exposed dick without permission.
He looked back up immediately, grabbed the animal skin from the pile by the entrance and held it out. "Wear this."
Cael took it and wrapped it around himself and sat down across from Neve like this was just a normal evening, which it was, except for the part where Neve had to keep reminding himself to look at Cael’s face specifically.
"I’ll find fruit for tonight," Cael said. "Tomorrow I’ll hunt properly. We need to start storing for winter." He looked at Neve with the assessing eyes of someone calculating. "You need more meat. I couldn’t even feel your weight when you were on my back today."
Neve’s face went warm. "I eat plenty."
"You eat fruit."
"Fruit is food."
"Neve."
"I like fruit," Neve said. "But I’ll eat meat too. I just need to cook it first."
Cael’s expression shifted slightly at the word cook. "That fire thing again."
"Yes. The fire thing." Neve put the salt container down and straightened up. "I need bamboo. I can make fire with it myself. You don’t have to go near it."
"I’m not letting you do it alone and burn yourself."
"I won’t burn myself."
"You don’t know that."
"Cael," Neve said. "I know what I’m doing."
Cael looked at him. Then looked away. "Fine. But if anything happens to you I’m putting it out myself."
"Deal." Neve stood. "Do you know what bamboo looks like? Tall, hollow, green. Grows in clusters, makes a specific sound when the wind goes through it—"
"The loud grass," Cael said. "The kind that grows near the east stream?"
"Yes. Probably exactly that. Can you get me two pieces? Both dry if possible. One needs a split down the middle."
Cael was already standing. "Stay here, I’ll go fetch it immediately."
Neve nodded and sat back down.
The cave was quiet without Cael in it.
Neve turned the salt container over in his hands and thought about the fire. About what the meat would taste like properly cooked with salt. About whether there were any herbs in this forest that he could use for flavour. About how long it would take to convince the tribe that cooking was worth doing.
He was deep in the planning part of his brain when footsteps came from the entrance.
He looked up expecting Cael.
The chief walked in.
Neve stood immediately. He almost raised his hand in a wave out of pure habit then remembered that waving hello wasn’t a thing here and turned it into a straightening of his own posture.
"Welcome, chief."
The chief looked around the cave. "Where is Cael?"
"He’ll be back soon. He went to get something from the forest." Neve gestured at the mat. "Please sit. I’ll wait with you."
The chief sat. He looked at Neve with the steady eyes of someone who had come here with a specific purpose and was deciding how to approach it.
"You’ve been here a few days now," the chief said.
"Yes."
"You’re not what I expected."
Neve raised a brow. "What did you expect?"
"Something weaker," the chief said. Not unkindly. More like someone reporting a fact. "Something that would have left by now."
Neve said nothing.
"You’re building relationships with the village," the chief continued. "I’ve heard about the smiling." A pause. "I guess it’s working."
Neve kept his expression neutral. "I just want them to know I’m not a threat."
"Mm." The chief reached into the fold of his wrap and then stopped. His rod slipped from his hand and hit the floor.
Neve crouched and picked it up before it rolled. He straightened and held it out.
The chief wasn’t looking at the rod.
He was looking at Neve’s neck.
Neve watched his expression change. The chief’s eyes had gone very still in the way eyes went when something recognised was being processed.
"Chief?"
"That mark," the chief said slowly as he took the rod. "Around your neck."
"I woke up with it," Neve said. "I don’t know who—"
"You weren’t marked by Cael, were you?"
"No," Neve said. "Cael and I haven’t bonded yet."
The chief’s rod dropped again. He didn’t reach for it this time. He was still staring at Neve’s neck with an expression that Neve couldn’t read and didn’t like.
Then the chief did something Neve had not seen him do once in any interaction they had ever had.
He got off the straw mat and went to his knees. His head went all the way to the floor.
Neve stepped back. His shoulder hit the cave wall.
"What—"
Cael appeared at the entrance with bamboo under one arm and a dead rabbit in his other hand. He took one look at his father on the floor and dropped both immediately.
"Father." He crossed the space fast. "What happened? What’s wrong?"
The chief lifted his head slightly. His eyes were on Neve.
"That mark," he said. "You don’t recognise it, Cael, because you’re young." He straightened slowly, moving back to sitting like a man trying to recover his composure. "But I know that mark."
"What mark?" Cael looked at Neve’s neck. He had seen the mark all day. He had been looking at it all day with that specific expression. "Do you know whose it is?"
The chief was quiet for a moment.
"The king of beasts," he said.
Neve opened his mouth and closed it.
’King of beasts,’ his brain repeated. ’King. Of. Beasts.’
"They can smell their mates from a distance," the chief said. "And mark them before the mate even knows they’re there."
"So the king of beasts," Neve said carefully. "Was in that trade city last night."
"Apparently."
"And marked me."
"Yes."
"Without introducing himself."
"They don’t always," the chief said. "Unless it’s time to mate with his bond."
Neve touched the mark on his neck. It was warm again. It was always warm.
"Who is the king of beasts?" Neve asked.
The chief straightened fully and looked at Neve with the weight of someone delivering information they knew was going to land hard.
"The former king lived for around a thousand years before he passed. His son took the throne." He paused. "His name is Vaelthorn. The dragon lord."
Neve stood in the cave with bamboo on the floor and a dead rabbit by the entrance and the warm circle of a bond mark on his neck and stared at the chief.
’A dragon,’ he thought. ’A dragon marked me during my heat?’
’Vaelthorn.’
The name sat in his head like it was a curse already.
’The king of beasts,’ he thought. ’Is one of my ten mates.’