The caldera settled into night slowly.

The fire had burned down to embers by the time the bowls were cleared, and Qin Mo had shown them without ceremony to the rooms branching off the main corridor of the wooden house. It wasn’t a small space.

The caldera had clearly been home to more than one person at some point in its history, or Qin Mo had simply built for a future he hadn’t explained yet.

Lin Wan didn’t ask.

She was too busy watching Wang from across the low wooden table they had all gathered around, waiting for him to tell her what she wanted to know.

Keal and Da Jun had been given a room to share. The moment the corridor swallowed them both, Lin Wan turned to Wang.

"Why is Keal here?," she said simply.

Wang looked at her for a moment. Then he started talking.

He kept it straightforward, no extra words, just the facts laid out in the order they had happened. Why Keal turned his back. The female who had come to him after Wang left. The terms she had attached to it. The dissolved bond and what it meant for both males.

Lin Wan listened without interrupting.

When he finished, she was quiet for a moment, her fingers tracing a slow circle on the surface of the table.

"So she trapped him," Lin Wan said. "Used the promise of cubs to keep him in place."

"Yes."

"And when he tried to leave, she dissolved the mark to punish him."

"Yes."

Lin Wan exhaled through her nose. "That’s cruel."

Wang nodded once. "It is not uncommon for some females to do that."

Lin Wan looked up at him. "It should be."

Wang held her gaze. Seeing her determined expression, Wang thought himself lucky for meeting a female like Lin Wan. "Yes," he said. "It should be."

Qin Mo, who had been sitting to the side of the table saying nothing, turned his clay cup slowly between his palms. He didn’t offer an opinion. But he was listening.

Lin Wan could tell when Qin Mo was paying attention or thinking, because he became very still, eye focused at one place, and if he had something in his hands he would subconsciously move it from one palm to the other.

Lin Wan drummed her fingers once on the table. "What about Liya and Susu? Are they alright?"

Wang glanced toward the corridor where Keal had disappeared. "Keal told me before we came inside. Liya found a merchant male passing through. He took her with him."

Lin Wan straightened slightly. "Took her?"

"She went willingly," Wang said, something almost gentle entering his tone at her worried expression. "Liya made her choice, Wan’er. The merchant was strong and stable, and let’s say she was ready to go."

Lin Wan settled back. "Okay." A beat later. "And Susu?"

"Fine. Susu is fine." Wang’s mouth curved very slightly. "Mei Xiu and the tribal elders are currently too occupied trying to explain my absence to think about much else."

Lin Wan blinked. "What do you mean?"

"The mid-year hunting season," Wang said. "The males who went out for the hunt haven’t returned yet. When they do and find that I’m gone, the elders will have to answer for it. Those males were loyal to me. Most of them will not be pleased."

Lin Wan stared at him. "So Mei Xiu is currently sitting in the middle of a problem she created for herself."

"Yes."

A slow smile spread across Lin Wan’s face. She didn’t say anything. She didn’t need to.

At the side of the table, a soft smile tugged at Qin Mo’s lips.

Lin Wan stood up and stretched her arms above her head. "I’ll be back," she suddenly said.

Wang and Qin Mo watched her go without questioning her.

Lin Wan walked down the corridor, her mind already turning.

’Weiwei,’ she thought. ’The dissolved mark. What does it actually do to their bodies physically?’

[The dissolution of a mate bond triggers an acute deficiency in beast essence. The male’s beast core, which stabilizes between bonded pairs, becomes destabilized without the counterbalancing presence of the female’s mark acceptance. Prolonged destabilization leads to feral onset. Early stages present as physical weakness, disrupted sleep, lowered temperature regulation and deteriorating mental clarity.]

Lin Wan’s frown deepened as she walked.

’So they’re basically going through withdrawal.’

[An adequate comparison, yes.]

’Is there something I can give them? Something that will help stabilize them until they’re strong again?’

[System can provide a compound of stabilizing herbs. Bitter root, ironleaf, and condensed beast essence extract. Taken as a warm infusion it will not replace a bond, but it will slow the deterioration and allow the body to begin recovering its own equilibrium. Effects will be visible after one full sleep cycle.]

’Can I have it?’

[Compensation dispensed.]

A small cloth bundle appeared in Lin Wan’s hand, tightly wrapped, smelling faintly of earth and something sharp and green beneath it.

She walked to the end of the corridor where Keal and Da Jun’s room was and raised her hand to knock.

Before her knuckles could touch the wood, the door swung open.

Keal stood in the frame, and Da Jun was just behind him, both of them looking like they had heard her footsteps coming and decided to be upright before she arrived. The effort it had cost them was visible in the slight tension around Keal’s jaw and the way Da Jun was bracing one hand quietly against the wall beside him.

"Female Lin," Keal said. His voice was rougher than it had been at the table but steady. "Do you need anything?"

Lin Wan blinked. She had been about to ask them that exact question.

"Actually, yes," she said. "Can I come inside for a moment?"

"Of course," Keal said immediately, already stepping back to make room.

"Yes," Da Jun said at the same time, also stepping back.

Then both of them looked past her.

Lin Wan didn’t need to turn around to know what or who they had seen. She could tell from the way Keal’s eyes shifted and Da Jun straightened despite himself, the particular alertness of two males who had just received a threatening glare from two powerful predators.

Without a word, Keal reached down and picked up a flat stone from just inside the doorway, and wedged it firmly under the door.

The door stayed wide open.

Da Jun moved to sit on the far edge of his pallet with the posture of a male making it very clear that he was sitting far away and minding his own business entirely.

Lin Wan pressed her lips together very firmly and stepped inside.

’Wang. . . It’s probably Qin Mo,’ she thought, keeping her expression composed. ’You’re terrifying people.’