Transmigrated to Raise Panther Cubs novel Chapter 128

Transmigrated to Raise Panther Cubs

Chapter 128 Oyster Sauce

Zachary watched their backs as they walked away together, and something uncomfortable settled in his chest without any warning.

He couldn’t name it exactly. It just didn’t sit right.

He turned and asked one of the nearby merfolk about it.

“Oh, that’s Sable. He’s the child of our tribe’s shaman, extraordinarily gifted and beautiful, just as powerful as his parent. He’s going to be our next shaman.”

Zachary watched them disappear into the distance with a hollow, drifting feeling he couldn’t quite shake.

All the tangled thoughts from the night before seemed to fade automatically against this new, quieter

unease.

“Is this ready yet?”

Zachary pulled himself back. “Yes, scoop the meat out and keep simmering the liquid.”

A long while passed before Matthew came back, his hair damp at the ends.

He was carrying a cooked crab, a large one, clearly pulled from deep water.

Matthew cracked open one of the legs, extracted the firm white meat inside, and held it up to Zachary’s mouth just as he had before. “Eat something.”

“Did someone give that to you?” The words came out before Zachary had thought about saying them.

“Yes. They said this kind is hard to catch and tastes good.”

“Is that right?” Zachary turned his face to the side. “I’m not hungry.”

Matthew looked genuinely puzzled. Zachary had loved even the small ones yesterday. Why was he refusing

this?

“You…” Zachary started.

A voice came from nearby. “Is it reduced enough at this point?”

Zachary stood up. “Let me check.”

The oyster sauce still needed several more steps to finish, and that work carried him through the rest of the afternoon.

When Zachary finally had a free moment and turned around, Matthew had disappeared again.

The finished oyster sauce turned out beautifully, and the merfolk tribe’s approval was immediate and unanimous. To demonstrate it properly, Zachary stir–fried a dish of sliced potatoes and peppers in the

sauce.

The response was audible and emphatic.

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Chapter 128 Oyster Sauce

Finished

That evening for dinner, Zachary steamed abalone with minced garlic and oyster sauce, stir–fried razor clams, pan–seared several whole fish, and finished with a pot of clear–steamed mixed seafood.

Yael and the others ate with the quiet sorrow of people who knew they were leaving in the morning.

Food this extraordinary, and they had to say goodbye to it. It felt genuinely wrong.

Daniel held a crab leg in each hand. “Why doesn’t our territory have an ocean?”

“Seriously. We could just relocate here.” Ethan chewed thoughtfully. “The mountains nearby aren’t bad all.”

Yael said nothing and focused entirely on eating as much as possible.

Taylor and Jaden had taken to seafood with immediate and total devotion. From the moment they’d arrived, they’d been eating at an impressive pace throughout the day.

Their pale, pretty faces had made them popular, and the merfolk had been feeding them snacks voluntarily whenever they went out to play.

Their older merfolk companions had even pulled sweet–fleshed fish directly from the water for them to try raw, and Taylor in particular had spent both days with a perfectly round, food–filled belly.

Zachary had genuinely worried about him overindulging.

Midway through the meal, Yael suddenly seemed to remember something. He looked over at Zachary. “Matthew asked me to let you know he had something to take care of and would be back later.”

“Right,” Zachary said, and bit down hard on the fish in his hand. He thought to himself that last night, he absolutely should have turned around without warning and startled Matthew half to death.

That would have sorted out these wandering tendencies.

Something to take care of? Here, of all places? And not back for the whole evening?

Ethan, being the more considerate of the group, ventured, “Should we save Matthew some food?”

“Don’t bother,” Zachary said evenly. “Finish it.”

Kyle and Daniel immediately extended their hands, each claiming another pan–seared fish without hesitation, and bent their heads to eat.

Yael glanced at Zachary over the top of his food. Something was off.

But food was the priority. Matthew could miss one meal. It wouldn’t do any lasting damage.

“Hey, leave one for me.”

By the time Matthew came back, everyone had already settled in for the night. The outdoor cooking area by the entrance had been cleaned to a spotless finish.

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Chapter 128 Oyster Sauce

He came inside and looked at the figure in the room, a faint smile crossing his face.

Zachary was facing the wall, curled up inside the beast hide covering.

Finished

Matthew lifted the edge carefully and eased himself in. The moment he lay down, a kick of considerable force connected with him.

It had real conviction behind it.

He lifted his head in confusion. Zachary’s eyes were closed.

Perhaps he was dreaming.

Matthew moved Zachary’s leg back into a comfortable position, then turned on his side, pulled him close, and rubbed his chin affectionately against the curve of Zachary’s shoulder.

The room settled into quiet after a while.

Zachary lay there getting more wakeful the more he thought, and eventually he turned over, opened his eyes, and stared directly at Matthew’s face in the dark.

He wanted very badly to pry his eyelids open.

And demand, loudly, how he had the nerve to come back and hold him while sleeping.

Something in the air must have shifted, because Matthew’s eyes opened without warning, as though he’d sensed something.

He looked straight into Zachary’s deeply reproachful stare.

Matthew startled slightly. “W–Why aren’t you asleep?”

Zachary sat up in one sharp, decisive motion. “Where did you go tonight?”

“Something came up.”

Zachary pressed further. “And this afternoon?

“What were you doing with that merfolk named Sable?”

“I traded for a few things with him,” Matthew said.

“Where are they?”

““I didn’t bring them back.”

Zachary went quiet.

That was the most transparent deflection he’d ever heard.

Zachary swung himself up and sat directly on top of Matthew with the focused energy of someone conducting an interrogation. “Really?”

Matthew paused, then nodded. “I’ll show you tomorrow.”

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Chapter 128 Oyster Sauce

Finished

“I want to see now.”

“Now?”

“You’d rather not?” Zachary knew perfectly well he wasn’t sleeping until he had answers.

Matthew steadied Zachary at the waist and sat up. “Alright.”

Out on the moonlit sand, the black panther carried Zachary at a full sprint in the direction Matthew chose

They traveled for a while before he finally stopped.

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