Exiled Villainess: They Threw Me Out, Now Every Beastman Wants Me novel Chapter 93

Chapter 93: Ten New Cubs

Tera drifted in and out of consciousness for the first three days.

Her body burned with fever, and the wound across her back had swollen and reddened despite Xavi’s constant applications of herbal paste.

He had ground the herbs himself, mixing combinations he had learned recently from watching Tera.

The sight of the massive bear carefully preparing medicine quietly stunned Ermin, but he had also done what he could to make Tera comfortable and feed her while also learning how to use the herbs that would soothe Tera’s pain and heal her injury.

They worked in shifts without discussing it. One was always beside her while the other rested or fetched supplies.

Neither left her shelter for longer than necessary.

Puff Dumpling hadn’t moved either. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

The small creature had waddled into the shelter on the first day and settled near Tera’s head. He didn’t chirp or snuffle or do any of the ridiculous things that usually made Tera laugh.

He just lay there with his round body pressed against the edge of her bedding, his moustache puffs drooping, and his dark eyes fixed on her face.

He looked sad in a way that animals weren’t supposed to look sad, and it made the males uncomfortable in a way they couldn’t explain.

Every time someone entered or left the shelter, Puff Dumpling would lift his head, watch, and then lower it again when it wasn’t Tera getting up.

Tera was aware of her surroundings only in fragments.

Warm hands on her forehead, cool cloth on her back, the low rumble of Xavi’s voice telling her to drink something, and the lighter brush of Ermin’s fingers checking her pulse.

She had tried to speak several times, but the words came out muddled, and the effort of forming them pulled her back under.

The wound was not the only concern.

The sharp pain in her stomach had returned twice more during the first week, each time sending both males into barely contained panic when they saw Tera clutching her stomach while whining in pain.

There were frequent rains oddly during this period. They were light and never grew heavy no matter how long they lasted. The sound of the rain became a backdrop against everything else that happened.

The truth about Kiri had spread through the settlement, and every member who had defended the fox and believed her tears over Tera’s accusations now had to sit with the knowledge that they had been fooled.

The female who had comforted Kiri during her crying performance could not stop thinking about how she had pulled the fox close and stroked her hair while the woman she was consoling had been plotting to murder the female who built their homes.

Feron was the most complicated case.

He had been Kiri’s tool, and now that she was gone, the full picture of how he had been used was becoming clearer. He carried guilt, and even though none of that was connected to the corrupted beast, the proximity of it all made him feel contaminated.

But weeks of hard labour, genuine remorse, and consistent effort had slowly changed how the clan saw him.

He had done everything Tera’s punishment demanded, and more. He worked the hardest, complained the least, and quietly assisted anyone who needed help without being asked.

The two cubs who had been with Tera during the attack were not the same.

They cried in their sleep every night without fail. The bear cub would wake screaming, his small body thrashing against the blankets as if the monster’s claws were still reaching for him. The cat cub did not scream. He only trembled, silent and wide-eyed, clinging to whoever was nearest until dawn broke.

The clan tried everything to ease their fears, but the night terrors continued for nearly a week, and the sound of a cub screaming in the dark was something no one could fix with herbs or food or shelter.

In the midst of this, they were also doing their best to assist Xavi and Ermin and take care of Tera.

Everyone was worried as the fever did not seem to go away. It kept rising and falling.

And then, as if the world had decided the clan hadn’t had enough, the births began.

The first female went into labour, then another the next morning, then two more within the same afternoon.

The settlement, which had been wrapped in tense, anxious silence, was suddenly flooded with the high, thin wails of newborn cubs.

It should have been joyful, and it was, in its own complicated way.

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