Both of them were standing there looking at her with expressions she had never seen on either of them before.

Wang, who she had seen face down a phantom beast without blinking, looked genuinely stunned.

Qin Mo looked like someone had told him the sky was a different color than he had always believed it to be.

"Every month?" Wang said again.

"Every month," Lin Wan confirmed. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

They stared at her.

Lin Wan looked between them.

"Is there any problem ?" she asked slowly.

It was Qin Mo who answered, his voice careful as he explained.

"Most females," he said, "experience their heat once. Twice at most. Females who experience it more than that are considered rare. Sought after." He paused. "They are the only ones known to bear more than one set of cubs in a year."

Lin Wan stared at him.

Then she looked at Wang.

Wang was looking back at her with an expression that was equal parts wonder and something that looked very much like smug satisfaction.

Lin Wan pointed at him. "Don’t," she said.

Wang said nothing. But the expression didn’t go anywhere.

Lin Wan closed the door.

She went back to her bed, lay down, and pulled the covers over her head.

Through the thin wall she could hear, very faintly, the sound of Qin Mo saying something to Wang in a low voice.

And Wang’s response, quieter still, but unmistakably pleased.

Lin Wan pulled the covers further over her head.

’Weiwei,’ she thought.

[Yes, Host?]

’I want to go home.’

[...That is not currently an available option.]

Lin Wan closed her eyes.

"Lin Wan."

Wang’s voice came through the door,

Lin Wan lifted her head from the pillow.

"What?"

"Listen to me carefully." It was Qin Mo this time. "What you told us today, about your heat coming every month. No one outside this caldera can know about it."

Lin Wan blinked.

She opened her mouth to ask why, and then closed it again.

She already knew why.

The moment Qin Mo had explained what monthly heats meant in the beast world, rare, sought after, capable of bearing more than one set of cubs a year, the danger had written itself clearly across her mind. A female like that wouldn’t just attract attention. She would attract the wrong kind. The kind that didn’t ask first.

"I understand," she said.

"Good," Wang said.

"I won’t say anything." Lin Wan pressed her lips together. "I’m not stupid."

A short silence.

"We know," Qin Mo said.

Lin Wan nodded even though they couldn’t see her, then let her head drop back onto the pillow. The cramps had settled into a dull persistent ache that made everything feel heavier than it was. She pulled the blanket up, closed her eyes, and listened to the sound of both of them moving away from the door.

She was asleep before she heard where they went.

Wang pushed open the door to Qin Mo’s room and stepped inside. Qin Mo followed and closed it behind them.

Neither of them sat down.

"I remember what we talked about," Wang said. "When we went hunting. That time."

Qin Mo nodded once. "That she was different. That we needed to be more careful."

"I think we were still underestimating it." Wang crossed his arms. "Monthly heat. Knowledge that doesn’t belong to this world. The building method. The herbs she gave Keal and Da Jun." He paused. "Every time we think we’ve seen the full picture, there’s more underneath it."

Qin Mo was quiet for a moment. "The shaman said she would reshape the future of the beastmen." He looked at Wang. "I thought there was slight embellishment here and there ."

"It wasn’t."

They stood with that for a moment.

"You know our family of three," Wang said, "is the weakest unit in the beast world by every measure. No territory. No tribe. No formal allies. If word gets out about what Lin Wan is, we won’t be able to hold off what comes."

"I know."

"Then you also know what has to happen." Wang looked at him directly. "We need couple brothers. Powerful ones. Males who are worthy and who we can trust around her." He let that sit for a second. "And before any of that, we need to move to Beast city, before the year ends. Get the mark done. Select the brothers. Come back with something strong behind us."

Qin Mo didn’t answer immediately.

Wang watched him.

He had known Qin Mo for weeks now. Long enough to read the shape of his silences. This one wasn’t disagreement. It was something else entirely.

"Qin Mo," Wang said. "What is it."

It wasn’t a question.

Qin Mo exhaled slowly. He moved to the far side of the room and stood there looking at the wall for a moment before he spoke.

"I’m afraid she’ll reject me," he said. "When she finds out what I am."

Wang said nothing. Waiting.

"Females don’t want what I am," Qin Mo continued. "The ones who have approached me over the years, they wanted the title. The territory. The power behind the name. None of them wanted what actually comes with it." He paused. "Lin Wan is different. She’s a genuinely good female. She’s not calculating. She doesn’t want anything from me except what I can offer as a person." His jaw tightened slightly. "I don’t want to scare her away."

Wang was quiet for a long moment.

Then he said, "She’ll be scared."

Qin Mo looked at him.

"At first," Wang said. "She’ll probably make a face. Maybe several faces. You know how she is." The corner of his mouth moved. "But Lin Wan doesn’t run from things that don’t hurt her. And she already knows you won’t hurt her. She figured that out in the first two days." He met Qin Mo’s eyes. "Tell her. Let her have her reaction. Then watch what she does after."

Qin Mo looked at him for a long moment.

"I’ll think about it," he said.

Wang nodded. That was enough for now.

The afternoon light had shifted by the time Lin Wan stirred.

She came awake slowly, the way she always did when her body had genuinely needed the sleep rather than just wanted it. For a moment she lay still, listening to the caldera settle around her.

Then she felt it.

She sat up fast.

She looked down.

She closed her eyes.

’Of course,’ she thought. ’Of course.’

She moved quickly, stripping the blanket off the bed and bundling it tightly, then handling herself and changing before anything else. She was just straightening up, blanket tucked firmly under her arm and her face approximately the temperature of the sun, when the door opened.

Qin Mo stepped in.

He looked at her. Then at the blanket she was clutching to her chest with both arms.

He said nothing.

He simply crossed the room, took the bundled blanket from her without any fuss, and walked back out with it.

Lin Wan stood there for a moment.

Then she sat down on the edge of the bare bed and pressed both hands over her face.

The door opened again. Wang came in, took one look at her sitting there with her hands over her face, and said nothing. He simply sat down behind her, wrapped both arms around her from behind, and laid back, pulling her with him until they were both horizontal, her back against his chest.

He tucked his face into her hair.

Lin Wan went completely rigid.

’I haven’t bathed,’ she thought immediately. ’I’ve been sweating and bleeding and sleeping for hours and he has his nose in my hair right now and I smell like—’

Wang laughed.

It was low and quiet, just a rumble in his chest against her back, but it was definitely a laugh.

"Stop," Lin Wan said.

"I didn’t say anything," Wang said. His voice had dropped into that particular register it went to sometimes, low and unhurried, that did something inconvenient to Lin Wan’s ability to think clearly.

"You are laughing at me."

"Mn."

"Why."

Wang lifted his head slightly. "You tensed up the moment I put my face in your hair." He settled back down. "You think you smell bad."

Lin Wan said nothing. Which was confirmation.

"Wan’er," Wang said. "You don’t know what your scent does to us."

Lin Wan blinked at the ceiling.

"Didn’t your people explain it to you?" Wang continued. There was something almost gentle in his tone now, underneath the amusement. "This is the natural time. Between a male and his female. Right now every instinct I have is telling me to pull you closer and not let go."

Lin Wan’s face was doing something she had no control over.

"Wang—"

"The fifth day," he said. "That’s when it’s right to mate properly. I know that. I’m waiting." A pause. "But knowing and not wanting are different things."

Lin Wan stared at the ceiling with the expression of a person whose brain had temporarily left their body.

"I also don’t know," Wang continued, with the conversational ease of someone discussing the weather, "how Qin Mo is out there washing that blanket right now."

Lin Wan turned her head slightly. "What."

"If it were me," Wang said, "I would have buried my face in it first."

Lin Wan made a sound.

Then she elbowed him.

Wang absorbed it the way a mountain absorbs a light breeze. He didn’t even shift. The laugh that came out of him was low and warm and deeply unbothered.

"You’re terrible," Lin Wan told him.

"Mn," Wang agreed pleasantly.

Lin Wan turned back to staring at the ceiling. Her face was still hot. Probably her ears too. She was not going to check.

Then Wang tilted his head down and kissed her.

It wasn’t tentative. It wasn’t a question. It was just Wang, kissing her like he had decided to and saw no reason to announce it first.

Lin Wan didn’t know what to do with her hands.

She forgot about her hands entirely after a moment.

When he finally pulled back, she stayed exactly where she was, eyes closed, brain somewhere three steps behind.

"Breathe, Wan’er," Wang said.

His voice was close. Amused. She could feel him looking at her face.

She breathed.

When she opened her eyes Wang was watching her with that expression he got sometimes that made her feel like the most interesting thing he had ever seen in his life. Then he leaned back down.

This time was slower.

Lin Wan stopped thinking about her hands. Stopped thinking about much of anything, actually. There was just the warmth of him and the weight of his arm across her waist and the way he seemed to have all the time in the world.

The door opened.

Wang lifted his head.

Qin Mo stood in the doorway with the washed and folded blanket in his arms. He looked at Wang. Then at Lin Wan.

Lin Wan looked back at him.

She was fairly certain she didn’t know her own name at this particular moment.

Qin Mo set the folded blanket on the table near the door with the careful precision of a male pretending he had walked in on nothing at all. He looked at the wall for a moment. Then at Wang.

Wang met his eyes with the expression of a male who was not even slightly apologetic.

Qin Mo turned and walked back out.

The door closed.

Lin Wan lay there for a moment.

"He washed it very fast," she said finally.

"He did," Wang agreed.

Another moment passed.

"Wang."

"Mn."

"You’re still terrible."

Wang pulled her closer and said nothing.

Outside, the caldera was quiet. The afternoon light was going gold at the edges. Somewhere near the river, Keal and Da Jun were talking in low voices, and the sound of it drifted through the walls.

Lin Wan closed her eyes.

The ache in her stomach had faded to almost nothing.

She fell asleep again before she noticed.