If Ren could rate being carried by a naked man through a thick prehistoric jungle, she'd give it zero stars on Yelp.
"Can you slow down?" Ren gasped, bouncing against Kael's rock-hard chest. "I'm getting motion sickness!"
Kael didn't slow down. He actually moved faster, weaving through the thick undergrowth with surprising ease. He leaped over fallen logs and ducked under vines without missing a step. Ren's weight barely seemed to register for him, as if he was just carrying a bag of leaves.
"We are almost there," Kael grunted, vaulting over a ten-foot stream. "Stop wiggling. You smell delicious. It is distracting."
"That's the bacon grease on my shirt!"
"No," Kael said, glancing down at her with those intense, golden eyes. "It is you. You smell like... soft things."
He shifted his hold, spreading his large hand across her lower back. Ren stiffened as he squeezed her butt cheek.
"Hey! Hands above the equator, buddy!" Ren smacked his shoulder.
"Equator?" Kael frowned, confused, but didn't move his hand. "You have much padding here. Good for sitting. Good for breeding."
Ren choked on her own spit. "I am not for breeding! I am for cooking!"
"We will see," Kael smirked, jumping off a small cliff and landing effortlessly in a crouch.
Ahead of them, the jungle canopy broke open.
Ren looked up and gasped. They had arrived.
The White Tiger Tribe wasn't a village; it was a fortress of nature. A massive, crescent-shaped cliff face towered over a clearing, riddled with dozens of cave entrances at varying heights. Giant vines hung down like ladders.
But the smell hit her first.
It wasn't the smell of woodsmoke or dinner. It smelled like a butcher shop that had lost power three days ago. Rotting meat, old blood, and wet fur.
Ren gagged, pressing her nose into Kael's shoulder.
"Home," Kael announced.
As they stepped into the clearing, the activity stopped.
Dozens of beastmen...some in human form wearing ragged animal skins, some in half-shifted forms with tails and ears—froze.
"The Alpha!"
"He's back!"
"Wait... his eyes! They aren't red!"
A crowd began to gather. These men were all huge, muscular, and scarred. They looked rough, wild, and incredibly dangerous. And they were all staring at two things:
One, their Alpha, who had supposedly gone Feral and run off to die, was back and looking healthy.
And, he was holding a strange, small, hairless creature in his arms.
A tall man with a scar running through his eyebrow stepped forward. He wore a bear-skin skirt that hung low on his hips.
"Kael?" the man asked, sniffing the air. "You... you survived the Curse?"
"I did," Kael rumbled, his voice projecting authority that made the other tigers lower their heads instinctively. "The madness is gone. My mind is clear."
Murmurs of shock rippled through the crowd.
"How?" another beastman asked. "No one survives Stage 3!"
Kael looked down at Ren. A slow, possessive smirk curled his lips.
"She cured me."
Every head snapped toward Ren.
Ren gave a small, awkward wave. "Hi. I have a frying pan."
"A female?" The scarred man squinted at her. "She is... so small. And bald."
"I am not bald!" Ren snapped, offended. "I have hair on my head! Just not... everywhere else like you furballs!"
"She is weak," another male sniffed, looking disappointed. "Look at her arms. They are like twigs. She will break during mating."
"She is ugly," a female voice cut through the crowd.
Ren glanced over and saw a woman standing near a cave entrance. She was a beast woman: tall, Amazonian, with wild blonde hair and a deer-skin bikini that left little to the imagination. She was strikingly beautiful, but in a fierce, intimidating way.
"She has no fur," the woman sneered, crossing her arms. "Her skin is pale like a maggot. Kael, why did you bring this thing back? Is it emergency rations?"
Ren's eyebrow twitched. 'Maggot? Oh, it is on.'
Kael's chest rumbled with a low growl. The sound was so deep it vibrated through Ren's bones. The crowd flinched. The Amazonian woman took a step back, fear flashing in her eyes.
"She is not rations," Kael stated, his voice ice-cold. "She is mine. Anyone who touches her loses a hand. Anyone who insults her loses a tongue."
He swept his gaze over the tribe. "Am I clear?"
"Yes, Alpha!" the crowd chanted in unison, lowering their heads in submission.
Kael grunted, satisfied. He turned and walked toward the largest cave entrance at the base of the cliff.
"Wait!" Ren whispered urgently as they entered the shadows of the cave. "Kael! The clothes! Put something on! You're traumatizing me!"
Kael chuckled. He walked over to a pile of furs in the corner of the dim cave and grabbed a piece of soft, cured leather. He wrapped it around his waist, tying it carelessly with a leather thong.
It was a loincloth. A very short, very primitive loincloth with a slit up the side for his thigh.
"Better?" he asked, turning around.
Ren stared. The leather hung low on his hips, emphasizing the V-lines of his abs. If anything, the scrap of fabric made him look more erotic than full nudity. It left just enough to the imagination to be dangerous.
"Marginally," Ren squeaked, averting her eyes.
She glanced around the cave. It was grim.
There was a pile of dry grass for a bed. A few gnawed bones in the corner. No furniture. No fire pit. No table. Just cold rock and damp air.
"This is where you live?" Ren asked, her voice echoing.
"It is the Alpha Cave," Kael said proudly. "The biggest and driest."
"It's a dungeon," Ren corrected. She walked over to the 'bed' and poked it. A beetle scuttled out. "Absolutely not. I am not sleeping on bug-infested hay."
Kael watched her, amused. He walked over, his tail swishing behind him, and sat on the edge of the grass pile. He patted the spot next to him.
"You will sleep here," he said. "With me. My body heat will keep you warm."
"I have a thermal sleeping bag in my backpack," Ren countered.
"No," Kael narrowed his eyes. "You are my pet. My provider. You sleep where I sleep."
He reached out, grabbed her wrist, and yanked.
Ren yelped as she stumbled forward, falling right between his spread legs. He caught her by the waist, pulling her flush against his chest.
"Besides," Kael whispered, his nose brushing her ear, sending shivers down her spine. "I am hungry again."
Ren froze. "Hungry for food... right?"
Kael leaned back, looking at her lips, then at her eyes. His pupil slits dilated.
"For now," he rumbled. "Make me more of that... 'bacon'. Then we will discuss how you will pay rent for living in my cave."
[System Notification: New Quest – 'Housewarming'.][Task: The Alpha is hungry, but you are out of bacon. Cook a meal using local ingredients found in the cave.][Reward: 1x Starter Spice Kit (Salt, Pepper, Cumin).]
Ren looked around the barren cave. "Ingredients? What ingredients? There's nothing here but dust and..."
She spotted it. In the corner, near the entrance, was a pile of strange, purple tubers that looked like knobby potatoes.
"What are those?" Ren asked, pointing.
Kael glanced over. "Earth-eggs. We don't eat them. They taste like dirt. We use them to throw at enemies."
Ren's eyes lit up. 'Potatoes!'
"Throw them?" Ren scoffed, pulling away from his grip to inspect the tubers. "You barbarians. You've been throwing away carbohydrates?"
She pulled out her knife. "Kael, get me firewood. Tonight, we're having fries."