Raising Beast Cubs to Find a Husband novel Chapter 9

Chapter 9: The General and the Hurricane

My daycare had settled into a fragile ecosystem. It was like balancing a house of cards in a wind tunnel.

Jasper built fortresses out of blocks and judged everyone silently. Vali tried to smash said fortresses. Clover hid behind my legs and offered Vali carrots as tribute to not be eaten.

It was chaotic. It was loud. But it was manageable.

Until the door didn’t just open or bang... it vibrated.

"LEFT! RIGHT! LEFT! RIGHT! HUT! TWO! THREE! FOUR!"

A small blur of gold and black shot into the shop. It didn’t walk. It didn’t run. It did a parkour roll over a chair, vaulted off my counter, and landed in a superhero pose in the center of the rug.

"PERIMETER SECURED!" the blur shouted.

It was a boy, about seven years old—older than the others. He had messy, vibrant gold hair with distinct black streaks running through it, looking like tiger stripes. His eyes were a piercing, energetic jungle green. And he was vibrating with so much energy I felt tired just looking at him.

This was Arjun Khanda. The Hyperactive Cub.

Following him was a man who looked like he hadn’t slept since the previous war.

General Rajah Khanda.

If Cassian was cold beauty and Rurik was rugged intensity, Rajah was just hot. He was a wall of muscle, towering and broad-shouldered in the same dark-blue uniform as Rurik, but with the heavy gold epaulets of a General. He had the same golden hair and green eyes as his son, but his face was etched with the deep, weary lines of a single dad who was actively losing the battle against his son’s stamina.

He looked at me, then at the shop.

"Lord Jaeger said you were a miracle worker," he said, his voice deep and rough. "Please tell me he wasn’t lying. I haven’t sat down in four years."

"REPORTING FOR DUTY!" Arjun yelled, running laps around his father’s legs. "Dad! Dad! Is this the mess hall? Is it? The Wolf-Lord said there were cookies! I don’t see cookies! I see a snake! And a wolf! And a snack—I mean, a bunny! Can I do pushups now?"

He dropped to the floor and started doing pushups at mach speed. "ONE! TWO! THREE!"

Jasper stared at him from his block fortress with a look of pure, reptilian horror. "Why is he so... much?"

"He’s a Tiger," Vali said, watching the pushups with interest. "They don’t have off buttons."

I looked at the General. "Does he... ever stop?"

"Only when he passes out," Rajah sighed, rubbing his face. "He burns energy faster than I can feed him. He eats, gets a burst of chaos, crashes, gets cranky, eats again... it’s a cycle of destruction."

My brain clicked. Hyper-metabolism.

He wasn’t just hyperactive; he was hangry on a cellular level. His body was a furnace. He was burning through simple sugars too fast, causing energy spikes and crashes. He didn’t need a meal; he needed dense, slow-release fuel.

"General," I said, "take a seat. Seriously. You look like you’re about to keel over."

I walked over to Arjun, who was now on pushup number forty-two.

"Soldier!" I barked, using my best head-chef voice.

Arjun leaped to his feet, saluting so hard he almost hit himself in the face. "MA’AM YES MA’AM!"

"Mission briefing," I said, holding out a tray.

On it were small, dense, round balls coated in oats and nuts. High-Protein Energy Spheres. Packed with nut butters, Sun-Root powder (complex carbs), and dried meats. It was basically a gourmet, fantasy-world military ration designed to keep a soldier full for hours.

"Consume rations," I ordered.

Arjun didn’t argue. He grabbed two and popped them into his mouth. He chewed. He swallowed.

He opened his mouth to yell... and paused.

The frantic vibration in his limbs slowed down. His eyes, which had been darting around the room like trapped birds, focused. The dense protein hit his stomach, anchoring him.

"Whoa," he whispered. "I feel... full? But... strong?"

"It’s slow-burn fuel, Arjun," I explained. "It stops the jitters."

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