Raising Beast Cubs to Find a Husband novel Chapter 123

Chapter 123: The Snow Fort

The crisis of the Root Cellar had passed, but the energy in Winter-Hold was still tight. The adults were locked away in strategy meetings, arguing over maps and old grudges.

Which left the children with exactly one directive: "Go play. Don’t freeze. Don’t break anything."

They took this order very seriously.

In the snow-covered training grounds, two mighty empires were rising.

On the left side stood Vali’s Kingdom of Chaos.

It wasn’t a fort. It was a pile. Vali had used his supernatural strength to roll massive, uneven boulders of snow into a lumpy mound. It had three tunnels (two of which had already caved in), a "Watchtower" that leaned dangerously to the left, and a flag made from one of Orion’s spare scarves tied to a stick.

"LOOK AT IT!" Vali yelled, standing on top of his wobbly creation. "IT’S HUGE! NOBODY CAN GET IN!"

On the right side stood Astrid’s Citadel.

It was annoying how perfect it was. Astrid had used a flat piece of wood to pack square bricks of snow into a neat, rectangular bunker. It had smooth walls. It had piles of ammo stacked in pyramids. It looked like she had read a manual on how to build it.

"That’s going to fall on your head," Astrid called out. She popped up from behind her wall, adjusting her helmet. "You didn’t pack the base down. It’s all wobbly."

"It’s not wobbly, it’s... tricky!" Vali shouted back. "It confuses the enemy! Orion! Ammo check!"

Inside the lumpy walls of Vali’s fort, Orion was sitting on a crate, looking miserable. He was dressed in so many layers he looked like a round blue marshmallow, and his breath puffed in the cold air.

"We have twelve," Orion said, poking a pile of loose snow. "But this snow is rubbish. It’s too powdery. It doesn’t stick together, it just explodes into dust."

"Just squash it harder!" Vali ordered, scooping up a handful. "ATTACK!"

The battle began.

It wasn’t a fair fight. Astrid fired with terrifying aim.

THWACK.

A hard-packed snowball hit Vali square in the chest, knocking him backward off his tower.

"I’m hit!" Vali yelled, laughing as he landed in a soft drift. "Man down! Orion, shoot her!"

Orion stood up. He held a snowball. He looked at the distance. He looked at his own skinny arms. He threw it.

It sailed in a weak arc... and landed with a soft plap three feet in front of Astrid’s wall.

"I hate this," Orion sighed, dropping his hands. "I need a catapult. My arms aren’t made for throwing things."

"Forget the catapult!" Vali scrambled up, his face covered in white powder. "We need to rush her! CHARGE!" 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

He ran across the open ground, dodging Astrid’s rapid-fire shots. He didn’t throw snowballs; he became the snowball. He lowered his shoulder and tackled the wall of her citadel, bringing a whole section of snow bricks crashing down on top of her.

"Hey!" Astrid shrieked, laughing despite herself as she shoved a handful of snow down the back of Vali’s collar. "That’s cheating! You can’t just smash the wall!"

"Cold! Cold!" Vali squealed, rolling away. "I’m a wolf! I smash things!"

Orion watched them from the safety of his bunker. For the first time since they arrived, Astrid didn’t look like a tiny soldier. Her cheeks were bright red, her serious yellow eyes were wide, and she wasn’t checking the corners for assassins. She was just... a kid.

---

While the snow flew outside, the air inside the Keep was thick enough to choke on.

Lord Rurik stood in front of his brother’s desk. The fireplace roared, but it did nothing to melt the ice between them.

Marquis Konrad was staring at a map of the North, refusing to look at Rurik. The silence had stretched for ten minutes.

"Why?" Rurik asked again. His voice wasn’t angry anymore. It was just tired.

Konrad didn’t answer.

"You sent me away," Rurik said, stepping closer. "Five years ago. You told me I was a disgrace. That I was too unruly, too soft. You practically threw me out the gates."

Rurik clenched his fists.

"I believed you," Rurik admitted. "For years, I thought I wasn’t good enough to be a Wolf. I went to the Capital, I became a Warlord, I served the Emperor... all to prove I wasn’t useless. And now I come back, and you treat me like a stranger. Why do you hate me, Konrad?"

Konrad finally looked up.

His face was ravaged by stress. The scar on his jaw looked deeper in the firelight. He looked older than his years.

"I never hated you," Konrad said. His voice was rough, like gravel grinding together.

"Then why?" Rurik demanded. "Why exile me? Why deny me the Shrine?"

Konrad sighed. He walked to the window and looked down at the courtyard. He watched Vali—a blur of grey and white energy—tackle Astrid into a snowbank.

"Because I was protecting you," Konrad whispered.

Rurik blinked. "Protecting me? From what? The cold? I’m a Wolf!"

"From the Shrine," Konrad turned back, his eyes haunted. "From the Prophecy."

Rurik froze. "What prophecy?"

Konrad walked back to his desk and unlocked a drawer. He pulled out an old, weathered scroll made of cured leather. He didn’t open it. He just held it tight.

"Ten years ago," Konrad said quietly, "the Shrine spoke. The Elders tried to hide it, but I heard. It wasn’t a blessing, Rurik. It was a warning."

He looked Rurik dead in the eye.

"The prophecy said that the blood of the Jaeger line would birth the Red Wolf," Konrad said. "The one who bears the Mark of the First. The one who will either save the North... or consume it in endless hunger."

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