Over the last forty-eight hours, the primal rhythm of the tribe had reached a fever pitch.
With more females entering their cycles, the nightly air was thick with the raw, melodic calls of males finally being accepted by their chosen partners.
Wayne was no exception to this atmospheric tension.
His care for Euphoria had become even more meticulous, and the way he looked at her was burning with an increasingly fervent heat.
On the fourth day of Euphoria’s period, the relentless rain finally broke.
At twilight, the sun spilled over the western horizon, painting the retreating storm clouds in violent shades of crimson and gold.
Euphoria, who had spent most of the week indoors, joined Wayne to roast meat over the fire.
After eating, she lingered in the cooling air until the stars emerged before retreating into the stone house.
As the moon climbed, the tribal calls began anew—an audible haze of desire that made sleep impossible.
Euphoria lay perfectly still, listening.
Wayne was buzzing with an energy he couldn’t contain; in two more days, his wait would be over.
Overcome by the thought, he drifted closer to Euphoria and tentatively pulled her into his embrace.
She stiffened immediately.
Feeling the undeniable evidence of his excitement pressing against her, she mentally cursed the “lecherous lion.” With a dramatic, exaggerated roll, she flipped over to face him, creating a wide berth between them to signal her boundaries.
Startled, Wayne froze, holding his breath as he watched her.
When she didn’t wake, he let out a silent sigh and slowly moved back toward her, mesmerized by her sleeping face.
A tender smile touched his lips, and he couldn’t resist leaning in for a fleeting, soft kiss.
Euphoria’s eyes snapped open.
Wayne grinned sheepishly.
“You’re awake.”
She rolled her eyes but didn’t scold him.
“Did you hear that?”
Wayne sat up, tilting his head.
“Just the usual mating calls.”
Euphoria didn’t look convinced.
She knelt on the floor and pressed her ear to the packed earth.
After a moment, she looked up, her expression grim.
“Listen like this.”
Puzzled, Wayne mimicked her.
The second his ear touched the ground, his pupils blown wide.
He felt the rhythmic thrum of a massive stampede.
”A large force is coming,” Euphoria said, her voice a cool, military clip.
“Go.
Alert the Chief immediately.
We need a perimeter.”
Wayne nodded, shed his animal-skin skirt, and shifted into his lion form, bolting into the night.
Euphoria stepped outside.
The moon was bright, the air cool, but the soldier in her could feel the invisible weight of approaching danger.
Wayne returned quickly, having alerted Chief Hal.
The Chief’s roar soon echoed through the village, tearing the tribe away from their trysts and plunging them into a state of high alert.
Eagle scouts were dispatched, and the warriors mobilized.
”Stay inside,” Wayne commanded, his voice deep and solemn.
He hadn’t been gone long when he returned with a dire update.
“Ghost beasts at the gates.
And they aren’t alone—they’ve brought a horde of black bears.
It looks like they’re controlling them somehow.”
”Roar!”
A deafening chorus of howls erupted from the darkness.
Euphoria pulled out two bows and a handful of bamboo arrows, handing one set to Wayne.
“Arrows for distance.
Claws for when they breach.”
Wayne took the weapon, and they watched from the window.
Because Euphoria only had Wayne to protect her, he stood like a stone sentinel.
Soon, the silence of the night was shattered by the screams of beasts hitting the perimeter traps.
The metallic tang of blood began to drift on the breeze.
Then, the black bears appeared—massive, ferocious, and wild.
The tribal tigers met them head-on.
While the bears were strong, they lacked the martial intelligence of the beastmen, and the tribe’s warriors began to cut them down.
But the bears were just the distraction.
As the front lines tangled, the ghost beasts surged past the chaos, targeting the stone houses where the females were hidden.
Wayne began to shift, his ears tufting and fangs elongating as he let out a guttural snarl.
A ghost beast spotted their house and charged.
Wayne prepared to lunge out the window, but Euphoria’s hand on his shoulder stopped him.
”Let me,” she said.
She drew her bow, narrowed one eye, and released.
The bamboo arrow whistled through the air, burying itself in the ghost beast’s eye socket.
It dropped instantly.
”Not bad,” she whispered, a touch of the arrogant, confident soldier surfacing.
She stood tall—brave, decisive, and strikingly dangerous.
She was like a beautiful, thorn-covered flower.
While other females would be cowering in tears, she was a calm, lethal force.
His heart swelled with a feeling far deeper than attraction, mixed with a pang of guilt.
Other males protected their females; his female was so strong she didn’t seem to need him.
What had she endured to become this way?
Euphoria didn’t notice his internal crisis; she was already nocking her second arrow.
She saw Klen pinned by a massive wolf and fired.
The wolf collapsed.
Klen, realizing he’d been saved, looked toward the stone house.
He saw Euphoria fire a third arrow, then a fourth, each one finding a mark.
He let out a reinvigorated roar and dove back into the fray.
A massive wolf beast, the leader of the pack, noticed the source of the arrows.
It let out a piercing howl, signaling two subordinates to charge the stone house.
Wayne leaped from the window to meet them.
Euphoria’s arrow took down the first wolf mid-leap.
The second reached Wayne.
Seeing it was a standard beast and not a ghost, Euphoria left it to him.
While Wayne tore into the wolf, Euphoria picked off two more ghost beasts approaching the flank.
Suddenly, a high-pitched scream cut through the din.
“Help!
Someone help me!”
A ghost beast—a massive black serpent—had snatched a female.
It had its tail coiled around Ferna, the tribe’s female, and was flicking its tongue mockingly at the pursuing males.
It was fast and began spraying venom, forcing the lions to keep their distance to avoid hitting Ferna.
Euphoria realized the angle from the house was wrong.
She slung her quiver over her shoulder and stepped out.
”Wayne!
Carry me!” she called out.
Wayne shifted to human form, his face pale.
“Get back inside!
It’s too dangerous!”
”Wayne, listen to me,” she said, her voice hard and unyielding.
“Get on your back and follow my lead.
We’re saving her.”
Wayne started to protest, but the sheer authority in her gaze silenced him.
He didn’t understand her plan, but he couldn’t find it in himself to refuse her.