Reborn As A Beast Queen with Too Many Husbands to Pet novel Chapter 28

Chapter 28 Snowball’s Shadow

“Oh…”

The moment Annelise’s dog was mentioned, her face fell.

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That only made her two mates even more suspicious. Was Snowball the one she had truly loved?

Annelise let out a long breath and pressed a hand to her forehead.

Just hearing the name Snowball brought nothing but grief.

Snowball had been her Samoyed, a stray she’d taken in during college.

A wonderfully obedient dog, always wagging his tail at her.

It was as if he understood everything-ask for a shake and he’d lift his paw, tell him to wait and he’d sit patiently.

He’d been the perfect roommate, never once tearing up her tiny rental.

Every day after class, she’d open the door and see Snowball sitting there, tail swishing, giving her that classic Samoyed smile.

But one afternoon, he passed away in his sleep.

Large dogs often had heart issues, and Snowball had been born with a genetic condition- likely the reason his original owner abandoned him.

Through five years of medical school and into graduate studies, she and Snowball had been together more than seven years. It wasn’t the kind of bond anyone cut loose easily.

That old saying was true. After he left, everything reminded her of him.

Thinking of that, Annelise shook her head. Hudson and Adrian were watching her with worried expressions.

She quickly said, “It’s nothing. Just a dream. We’ve got a lot to do today. You two and Rokky are mainly fixing the house. We have all the materials-don’t save anything. Use whatever you need. If we run out, we’ll get more from the forest. And I’m treating Evan’s leg today.”

She walked out to get breakfast.

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Chapter 28 Snowball’s Shadow

Adrian hurried after her. “Hey, bad… Ugh, Ms. Crawford, wait for me!”

Hudson, meanwhile, felt more and more like a substitute.

White fur, big fluffy tail, cute ears, long coat… wasn’t that exactly like a white fox?

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He even wondered whether the matriarch refused to mate with him-or with any other shifter –because she still carried feelings for a certain shifter in her heart. Maybe all shifters around her were just shadows of that one.

But he forced those thoughts down and stepped outside, pretending nothing bothered him, continuing to act like her little fox.

By noon, the sound of chopping wood and hauling materials came from outside.

Inside the house, Annelise examined Evan’s leg.

Evan sat stiff and silent, one pant leg rolled up to reveal the injury around his knee.

Seeing how tense he was, Annelise said, “It’s going to hurt, no doubt about that. I’ll be as fast as I can. If it gets too painful, bite a pillow. Just don’t bite your tongue.”

Evan’s gaze stayed fixed on her profile.

He stared so intently that Annelise began to feel self-conscious. “Is there something on my face?”

“Huh? What? N-No. I wasn’t looking at your face.”

“How could you not? My whole face feels like it’s burning.”

He jerked his head away, refusing to look at her.

“Evan,” she asked, “did you hear what I said?”

“Y-Yeah… I heard you.” He hesitated, then added, “I wanted to ask… You went against the chief in front of everyone. Won’t she make things hard for you?”

“Yes,” Annelise said without hesitation.

Evan grabbed her hand in alarm. “That’s not good. You won’t be able to stay in this tribe! You should bring her chickens or ducks and apologize. For what you did for me.”

Annelise leaned closer. Evan automatically flinched back.

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Chapter 28 Snowball’s Shadow

“W-What are you doing?”

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“I’m thinking,” she said, studying him, “you’re pretty mature. You know how to make amends. More mature than most of them. But you’re only a year older than Hudson, and just a few months older than Adrian.”

“That’s because my dad and mom sometimes took my younger siblings around to apologize to others. They’d say peacocks weren’t very useful in this tribe, so we often needed other families’ protection. They’d bring baskets of wild greens along.”

So Evan had received at least a little more education than most shifters.

No wonder the original host had liked him.

Annelise said, “No need. The chief was in the wrong. She can’t solve her own problems, drags the whole tribe into it, enjoys a privileged life, and expects me to offer gifts? No. If she wants to play dirty, let her. I can handle it. I know this-if you let someone bully you once, they’ll keep doing it over and over.”

She had two mates, and the chief still tried to make her sacrifice one. If that wasn’t bullying,

what was?

“Uh…”

“Enough. I’m putting in the needles. Bite something.”

Without waiting, Annelise drove two needles straight into the tendons behind his knee. The sharp, bone-deep pain hit immediately. Evan clamped down on his lower lip.

A muffled groan escaped him.

Annelise rotated the needles inside the joint. This was the worst part, but she had to reconnect the severed, deadened tendons to restore blood flow.

Blood nourished bone. Without circulation, there was no healing.

She finally located a still-living tendon. When she turned back, she saw Evan drenched in sweat, his lips stained with blood.

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