Chapter 164: Grateful Females (bonus)

The wolf females were surprisingly gentle.

Tera hadn’t expected that. Faelynn was one thing, but she hadn’t expected the other three females to also be welcoming. They had not properly been able to thank Tera for the water before her mates had swiftly come to take her away.

Apparently, they were far more grateful than the males for the flowing stream, and the smoked meat Fealynn had further shared with them and the cubs had swayed them completely to her side.

The moment they had finished giving their thanks, the females closed ranks around Tera with the quiet efficiency of creatures who had been waiting for permission to be curious.

"Why is your skin like that?" one of them asked, already reaching out and running a finger down Tera’s forearm before she could react. She was young, maybe a few years older than Faelynn, with a pale streak through her dark hair and absolutely no concept of personal space.

Tera blinked. "Like what?"

"Smooth. Like a cub’s belly."

"I—thank you?"

Like a cub’s belly?

The female didn’t seem to register that as a response. She had already grabbed Tera’s hand and flipped it over, pressing her thumb into the centre of the palm.

"Very soft!" she announced to the group, as if reporting a medical emergency.

"No claws either," the silver-haired elder added, leaning in to inspect Tera’s fingertips with the concerned frown of a healer examining a deformity. "How do you dig?"

’Eh? What is happening?’

"I have tools for that."

"Tools?" One slightly frowned and inspected Tera’s hand again. "I see no tools. How do you climb?"

Tera chuckled. "I don’t."

’Come to think of it, they were not there when the males were digging.’

"Oh, my," Faelynn whispered in shock, and Tera realised she hadn’t had much time either to talk with Faelynn while in the Dow clan.

But this was nice?

"Then how do you fight?" Faelynn pressed, looking genuinely concerned.

Tera smiled. "I scream and hope for the best."

Tera had meant that as a joke, but every female in the circle was now looking at her with such genuine, horrified pity that she felt like she had just announced a terminal illness.

"It is fine! I have survived this long!"

They did not look reassured.

Faelynn leaned against the thick tree they were stationed at, one hand rubbing her belly while the other hand clutched a strip of smoked meat she was eating.

Luth, who had been nestled in Tera’s lap since Faelynn had handed her over, suddenly squirmed upright and pressed both tiny paws against Tera’s cheeks.

The cub stared at Tera’s face with the intense concentration of a very small creature conducting very important research.

Then she leaned up and licked Tera’s nose.

"Oh—OH!" Tera sputtered, her head jerking back while the females erupted into laughter so loud that several wolves on the other side of the clearing turned their heads.

Luth looked immensely pleased with herself and settled back into Tera’s lap with the self-satisfied air of a cub who had accomplished something historic.

[(꒪ᗜ꒪;)]

"She does that when she likes someone," Faelynn offered, not even trying to hide her smirk.

Tera’s eyes were wide. "She licks their noses?!"

Another female nodded with a joking smile. "Be grateful. She bit Girruk last week."

Tera looked down at Luth, who blinked up at her with round, innocent eyes. Then she smiled and buried her face in Tera’s stomach as though she was very shy because of what she had just done.

The shock from the lick subsided, and Tera smiled faintly. It oddly reminded her of her cubs and when they had licked her a few times, but it was mostly in her sleep.

Come to think of it, they usually transformed into their beast form once they were one year old.

Tera didn’t want to miss that milestone.

"You are so cute." Tera patted Luth’s head, and the little cub nuzzled closer against Tera’s stomach.

A shadow fell across the group, and Tera looked up to find a large male wolf standing right beside them, and there were a few males behind, peeking from behind a tree.

"Leader Tera," he started off with a whisper. "I wanted to give my thanks for giving us water."

Before she could respond, another wolf appeared behind him, and then a third, all hovering with that awkward energy of beasts who had something to say but weren’t sure how long they were allowed to stand there saying it.

"The stream has not stopped flowing since you helped," the second one added quietly. "My cubs drank freely this morning. We did not have to ration."

"My mate was able to wash properly for the first time in—"

"Me too! Thank you very much!"

Tera’s chest warmed, but the growing line of grateful wolves was already turning into a full queue, and when the ones who had given their thanks were still not leaving, Faelynn’s voice cracked through the air.

"That is ENOUGH. She just arrived. Let her breathe. You are smothering her."

"Yes, yes." Another female, Aia, nodded furiously. "You may give your thanks and go. Do you want to smother us?"

Another waved the males off with a shooing motion that carried the authority of someone who had raised multiple litters and would not be argued with. "Go on. Shoo!"

Acting like docile but happy little cubs, the males fled off. One younger wolf lingered a beat too long, his mouth opening to squeeze in one more word of gratitude, and two of the females fixed him with sharp looks that sent him jogging away.

"You didn’t have to chase them off like that," Tera laughed.

"If we didn’t, they would circle you all night like you were prey." Faelynn shook her head. "These males do not know when to stop hovering."

Lola, the silver-haired female, nodded. "Like flies on meat."

Tera snorted so hard she startled Luth.

The other wolf cubs had been lurking at the edges of the group this entire time, their bodies practically vibrating with the effort of staying put. They kept inching closer in tiny, almost imperceptible shuffles, freezing whenever an adult glanced their way, then inching forward again the moment the attention shifted.

One brave cub, a small grey-furred boy with ears far too big for his head, finally broke from the group and toddled toward Tera on unsteady legs.

He stopped just short of her knee and stared up with enormous amber eyes.

"Are you the one who made the water come back?" he asked in a tiny, devastatingly serious voice.