Chapter 208: Greymaw’s Worst Week

The next offering was a dead beetle, placed with obvious reverence on Greymaw’s sleeping spot. It was positioned on its back with its legs pointing upward, and Greymaw had the distinct and deeply unsettling feeling that the arrangement was intentional.

He threw the beetle away.

The following afternoon, there were two dead beetles.

When Greymaw went to kick them away, the badger cub was watching from behind a tree.

Greymaw locked eyes with the small creature.

The cub did not blink.

"Stop this," Greymaw growled.

The cub placed another berry on the ground, patted it, and disappeared.

The Dow clan females made it worse.

"The cubs are so fond of you," one said, beaming at Greymaw as he passed. "They keep bringing you gifts!"

"They are NOT gifts—"

"You should spend more time with them. It is good for the soul."

Greymaw did not want his soul to be good. He wanted to be left alone with his dignity intact and his sleeping spot free of dead insects.

And yet, they kept coming.

Berries, beetles, pebbles, leaves, and on one memorable occasion, a worm that was still alive and very confused about its new living situation on an elderly wolf’s lap.

Greymaw’s patience, which had already been stretched to breaking, finally snapped on the fourth day.

He had found yet another squashed berry on his sleeping spot, and in a moment of pure frustration, he picked it up and crushed it in his fist, squeezing the juice between his fingers and letting it drip onto the ground.

He had not noticed the audience.

The badger cub stood three paces away. Behind him were two more Dow clan cubs and three wolf cubs, all watching with wide, horrified eyes.

The badger cub’s lower lip trembled.

Then his face crumpled.

"HE SQUISHED IT!"

The wail that erupted from the small creature was so loud and so piercing that every head in the settlement whipped around.

"HE SQUISHED THE BERRY! THE GOOD BERRY! I PICKED IT SPECIAL!"

Before Greymaw could even process what was happening, the cubs charged.

Six tiny bodies hit him at once.

Small fists pounded against his legs. Tiny claws swiped at his arms. One cub grabbed his tail and yanked it so hard Greymaw’s knees buckled. Another had climbed his back and was pulling fistfuls of his fur with the furious determination of a creature avenging a fallen comrade.

"WHY DID YOU SQUISH IT?!"

"THAT WAS HIS BEST BERRY!"

"BAD WOLF! BAD BAD BAD!"

"Give it BACK!"

Greymaw was delirious by the assault. He did not even understand what was happening. "WHAT IS THIS?!"

Even the wolf cubs had joined in, their small paws battering at Greymaw’s shins in excitement. One of them was howling, though it wasn’t clear if this was from rage or because the howling seemed like the right thing to do in a mob situation.

"WHY DIDN’T YOU JUST EAT IT?!" a wolf cub shrieked, his tiny voice cracking with betrayal. "WE HELPED PICK THEM!"

Greymaw staggered sideways, trying to shake them off without hurting any of them, because even he knew that striking a cub in the middle of another clan’s settlement would be the end of him.

"GET OFF ME! ALL OF YOU!"

The adults were stunned by the sight.

The Dow clan females had their hands over their mouths. Several of the males were leaning against shelters, shoulders shaking with barely contained laughter. Even two of the wolf elders were watching with expressions that wavered between sympathy and fear.

No one wanted to interfere before the cubs turned on them too.

Bessier appeared at the edge of the clearing, took one look at the scene, and turned to the nearest wolf.

"The cubs really love that one," he said fondly.

"They are ATTACKING me!" Greymaw bellowed, a cub now dangling from his arm.

"That is how they show affection! It means they accept you!"

"I DO NOT WANT TO BE ACCEPTED—AH, MY EYE! DO YOU WANT ME TO DIE?!"

It took four adults to peel the cubs off the elder, and even then, the badger cub had to be physically carried away, still sniffling and pointing an accusing finger at Greymaw.

At the end of it all, Greymaw remained on the ground, shaken.

His fur had been pulled in twelve different directions, his dignity scattered across the ground alongside squashed berry remains, and the distinct feeling that he had just lost a war he hadn’t known he was fighting.

Elsewhere in the settlement, the integration continued without Greymaw’s permission or approval.

One wolf cub had been adopted by a group of Dow clan cubs who had decided he was their new brother. The wolf cub seemed bewildered but not unhappy about this development. He followed them everywhere, his small tail wagging uncertainly.

"His name is Moss now," a bear cub informed the wolf cub’s mother when she came looking for him.

"His name is Tak."

"Moss."

The mother looked at her son, who was covered in mud and wearing a crown of leaves that the Dow clan cubs had fashioned for him.

She was surprised as she had never seen her son smile that wide before.

Even the wolf elders who had come along were quietly crumbling under the pressure of being surrounded by cubs who did not understand the concept of species boundaries and frankly did not care.

One elder had been handed a sleeping cub of indeterminate species by a Dow clan female who needed both hands free to patch a roof near him.

"Just hold him for a moment," the female said, already climbing.

The elder stood frozen, holding the cub at arm’s length like it was an explosive device.

"It is just a cub," a Dow clan male passing by said with a chuckle. "It will not eat you."

"I... know that..." the elder whispered, but his arms did not move.

Calis, on the other hand, had tried busying himself with tending to his sister and the other females. They were coming along soon, and the Dow clan females had been very helpful, even teaching Calis a few new details about birthing that he hadn’t known before.

But at times, when he wasn’t tending to his sister and the other females, he was constantly thinking about Tera.

He would do anything to have her again against him, but her mates were constantly taking her time, and it did not make him happy.

He wanted to hold her again, especially with how he had hardly been seeing her recently for some reason.

Calis walked out of the communal shelter, intent on searching for Tera this time and having a conversation with her.

He stopped short.

Ermin and Xavi were waiting for him outside.