Raising Beast Cubs to Find a Husband novel Chapter 35

Chapter 35: The Vanishing Act

The sky above the capital exploded.

It was the Grand Finale. A relentless, thundering barrage of gold, violet, and crimson sparks that turned the night into a blinding, deafening kaleidoscope.

The noise was physical. It vibrated in my chest. The cheers of the crowd in the square reached a fever pitch. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

Lord Rurik Jaeger winced, his sensitive wolf ears flattening against the roar. The smoke from the black powder filled the air, acrid and thick, masking everything else. General Rajah Khanda was laughing, pointing at a starburst shaped like a dragon. Archduke Cassian Argentis was shielding his eyes from the glare. Duke Lucien Crepusci had retreated slightly into the darker shadow of the roof overhang to avoid the blinding light.

They were all looking up.

I was standing just behind them, leaning against the doorframe of my shop, smiling at their backs.

I should get the warm cider, I thought. It’s getting chilly.

I took one step back into the shadows of my shop.

That was the mistake.

The moment I crossed the threshold, the air changed. It didn’t smell like cinnamon or flour anymore.

It smelled like stagnant water. Like a swamp in mid-summer.

A wet, heavy sound—slap—hit the floor behind me.

I opened my mouth to ask, "Who’s there?"

BOOM.

A massive firework detonated directly overhead. The light was blinding. The sound was deafening.

And in that split second of sensory overload, a hand—large, damp, and covered in thick, sticky mucus—clamped over my mouth.

It wasn’t a human hand. It was webbed.

I tried to scream. The sound died in my throat, muffled by the slime. I tried to kick, but a second pair of wet arms wrapped around my waist, lifting me off the ground with terrifying strength.

My Top Chef instincts screamed: Grab a knife! My hand flailed, knocking a metal mixing bowl off the counter.

CLANG.

But the firework finale was thundering. Boom-boom-boom.

No one heard the bowl hit the floor.

"Quiet, little fox," a gurgling voice whispered in my ear. It wasn’t the Marquis himself, but one of his henchmen. A Toad-kin. "The Marquis is waiting."

They didn’t drag me out the front door. They didn’t go into the street where the Dads were.

They dragged me down.

A section of my floorboards—boards I had walked over a thousand times—had been pried loose. Below, the dark, damp opening of the city sewers waited.

The sewers. Clover had mentioned them. But I never thought...

I struggled. I kicked the Toad-kin in the shin. He grunted, but his grip was like a vice. The slime on his skin was paralyzing, seeping into my clothes, making my limbs feel heavy and numb.

As they shoved me into the hole, I caught one last glimpse of the porch.

I saw Rurik’s back. He was turning his head. He was starting to look for me.

Rurik! I screamed in my mind. Rajah! Cassian! Lucien!

But the darkness swallowed me. The floorboards were slid back into place with a soft click.

The fireworks ended. The cheers faded.

And I was gone.

The final spark faded from the sky. The smoke began to drift.

Rurik turned around, a satisfied smirk on his face. "Well. That was adequate. Primrose, did you see the blue—"

He stopped.

The doorway was empty.

"Primrose?" Rurik called out.

"She probably went inside to check the oven," Rajah said, stretching his arms. "Or to hide from the noise. She is delicate."

Lucien frowned. He stepped out of the shadows. "She is not in the kitchen."

Cassian turned, his golden eyes narrowing. "What do you mean?"

"I can sense shadows," Lucien said, his voice dropping an octave. "The shop... is empty."

Rurik’s nose twitched. He inhaled deeply.

He smelled the gunpowder. He smelled the roasted nuts from the festival. He smelled the lingering scent of Primrose’s shampoo.

And then... under it all... he smelled it.

Swamp water.

Rurik’s pupils dilated. His lips pulled back, revealing gleaming white fangs.

"Mud," Rurik snarled.

He didn’t walk; he lunged. He tore the front door off its hinges and stormed into the shop.

It was empty.

But on the floor, near the counter, was a silver metal mixing bowl, spinning slowly on its rim.

And next to it, stamped onto the pristine floor in wet, green mud, was a single, webbed footprint.

Rajah crowded into the room. "Where is she? Is she hiding?"

Cassian walked in, saw the mud, and went deathly pale. "That residue... that is Toad-kin secretion. Paralytic mucus."

The little bunny dropped her safety rock. It hit the cobblestones with a dull clack.

"She promised," Clover whispered, tears welling up in her olive eyes. "She promised she’d be right back."

Then, she started to wail.

It wasn’t a cute cry. It was a heartbroken, terrified sound that cut through the silence of the square.

Hearing the prey-child cry broke something in Vali. He threw his head back and howled—a long, mournful sound of loss.

Rurik winced. He knelt down and grabbed Vali by the shoulders.

"Stop," Rurik ordered, though his voice was rough. "We will find her. I am the Hunter. No one escapes me."

But they did escape.

For the next three days, the capital was turned upside down.

Rurik tracked the scent to the sewer grate in the shop. But the sewers were a maze of running water and waste. Water washes away scent. The Toad-kin knew this. They had traveled through the muck where a Wolf Lord would never think to look until it was too late.

Lucien scoured the city. He checked every shadow, every alley, every rooftop. But Marquis Grieve hadn’t taken her to a house in the city. He had taken her deep underground, or perhaps to a shielded estate in the swamp-lands outside the walls. His Shadow-Vault magic couldn’t penetrate the heavy, ancient water-wards of the Toad clan.

Cassian froze every account associated with the name "Grieve." He bribed every informant, every guard, every beggar. But Grieve had prepared. He had gone off-grid. He wasn’t using banks; he was using hoarded gold and favors. The paper trail ended at the shop door.

Rajah’s Crimson Fang Legion locked down the city gates. Every carriage was searched. Every crate was opened. But Primrose wasn’t in a carriage. She was gone before the order was even given.

Three Days Later

The Four B.A.D.s met in the empty, cold kitchen of the Little Whiskers Daycare.

It was dusty. The Sun-Root Buns on the counter had gone stale. The flowers Lucien had brought were wilting.

"Nothing," Rurik snarled, slamming his fist into the wall. "Not a trace. It’s like the earth swallowed her."

"The water swallowed her," Cassian corrected, looking tired. His perfect hair was messy. "Grieve is a Toad. He went to the waterways. We were looking up; he went down."

"My patrols found nothing," Rajah said, sitting heavily on a tiny children’s chair that creaked under his weight. He looked defeated. "If he took her to the Great Swamp... it’s a labyrinth. We could search for years and never find his hole."

"He hid well," Lucien whispered from the corner. "He knew who he was stealing from. He prepared."

They sat in silence. The Little Whiskers Daycare felt dead without her.

They were the most powerful men in the empire. They commanded armies, economies, and magic. But they had been outsmarted by a slimy, greedy Marquis who knew exactly how to hide in the mud.

"What do we tell the boys?" Rajah asked quietly. "Arjun asked me if he needs to do more pushups to bring her back."

Rurik closed his eyes. "Vali... Vali is eating raw meat again. He won’t touch the cooked food if she didn’t make it."

"Jasper has rebuilt his fortress," Cassian sighed. "He refuses to come out."

"Silas," Lucien said simply, "has returned to the dark."

They had lost their Chef. And in doing so, they had lost their children all over again.