The Ultimate Litter: A Beast World System Tale novel Chapter 186

Chapter 186 The Bait Holds

Claire ignored the urmurs rippling through the crowd and lifted her arm, pointing straight at the platform where the altar stood.

“Finlay, are you going to hide inside your shell forever? What’s the matter, afraid to show your face?

She had seen it clearly. That single shot hadn’t finished him.

Beastfolk bodies were built to endure, and Finlay was among the toughest of them. A bullet through shoulder wouldn’t lay him low for long.

The moment her words landed, Claire felt several hostile stares prick against her skin, heavy with grievance.

She turned to find a handful of turtle beastfolk glaring at her in their animal forms, dark lines practic etched above their heads.

“Oh. Right. Sorry, my bad. I didn’t realize there were turtle beastfolk here.” She raised both hands in surrender. “For the record, I wasn’t talking about you. I meant him.

What she really needed was every eye in the square focused on her. The more attention she drew, the better chance Rufus had to make his move.

She risked a glance toward the rooftops. Hidden among the shadows, Rufus remained perfectly still. A knot tightened in Claire’s stomach.

Finlay was proving every bit as crafty as she’d feared.

She’d insulted him every way she could think of, yet he still refused to take the bait.

Up on the platform, Finlay hesitated. He heard every word that came out of Claire’s mouth, but the wou he had taken without warning had turned him skittish. He could not shake the suspicion that she was setting some kind of trap.

Why else would she have come back here?

He breathed in ragged gasps, his left hand pressed against his bleeding right shoulder

His gaze drifted to Marcus, still lying in a pool of his own blood. Fine. Ilwait. Once that blind man chopped breathing, there would be nothing left for her to save.

“Still hiding? Pussy!”

Claire frowned. No choice, then. Time to bring out the heavy artillery

What followed was a stream of profanity so inventive, so relentless, and so thoroughly devaid unt redeeming qualities that the surrounding beastfolk first exchanged looks of dishclict, then beg th their cars.

The language was simply too filthy to endure.

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Chapter 186 The Bait Holds

Claire’s verbal assault circled Finlay’s family tree from every conceivable angle, scorched the roots, chopped down the trunk, and salted the earth afterward.

Even the roughest warriors in the crowd started wincing

Yet the platform above remained silent. As they endured the barrage, many found themselves secret impressed. The city lord’s self-control was truly extraordinary.

What a paragon of patience.

A model for them all.

What they did not know was that Finlay was already rolling on the floor in sheer fury.

Every word, every phrase Claire hurled at him, even the ones whose meaning he could not quite pars carried an unmistakable stench of insult.

Not a single repetition either. Where did she learn to curse like this?

Claire dredged up every colorful phrase she could remember and kept going until her throat was near dry. Finally, movement. A figure emerged at the edge of the platform. Finlay leaned over the stone rail

His face had turned a spectacular shade of crimson, swollen with rage until he looked almost twice his usual size.

“You venomous little viper! I spared your life and let you leave, and this is how you repay me? Tell me t truth. Was it one of your accomplices who wounded me?”

He pointed to his wound, still seeping blood that had soaked half his body red.

The beastfolk in the crowd saw for the first time that their lord was injured. And apparently this female standing before them was responsible.

“It’s her! I knew it! The female who killed Jeffrey Stone!”

The crowd recoiled instinctively. Several beastfolk took hurried steps backward, staring at Claire as thou she might explode.

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Claire remained perfectly calm. The instant she saw Finlay standing at the platform’s edge. looking directly down at her, relief loosened the tension in her chest. He’d fallen for it.

She pointed straight at him and addressed the crowd.

“Do you want to know what your kind and gracious city lord has been doing behind closed doon The kind of crimes he thought no one would ever uncover?

The beastfolk exchanged uncertain glances. Curiosity flickered across their faces, but their extinstyrel them not to trust anything this female said.

Claire did not wait for permission. She told them about Maxia, sent by Finlay to attack her in She told them about Bertie kidnapped and tortured in secret

Many in the crowd knew Bertie. The man kept to himself, yes, but he had come to the viny

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Chapter 186 The Bait Holds

that they had grown familiar with his silent presence.

They remembered when he disappeared. They had helped Marcus search for him.

As Claire spoke, doubt began to creep into their expressions.

Finlay forced down his anger and shouted, “Lies! Every word of it! Continue slandering me, and I’ll hav you dragged up here in chains. Since we’re already holding the Sky Rites today, we can offer you as the blood sacrifice and let your death pay for that reckless tongue of yours!”

Claire met his gaze steadily, doing everything possible to hold his attention. Finlay glared at her with su naked hatred that it seemed he might leap down and tear her apart himself.

Then the gyrfalcon rose from the corner of the roof in absolute silence. He moved faster than the eye could track, a blur of wings and talons streaking toward the platform.

By the time Finlay registered the motion, the great bird’s claws had already closed around the wooden post binding Marcus.

“Shit!”

Finlay spun around, lunging to snatch Marcus back, to rip him from the gyrfalcon’s grip before it was to late. But the bird gave one powerful beat of its wings and lifted into the air, and within the space of a sing breath, it had vanished into the clouds.

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The Ultimate Litter A Beast World System Tale