Mommy Wolf: Raise A Cub, Claimed By His Beast Daddy-Chapter 113: Bait (I)

Kael gritted his teeth. He truly disliked the idea of Sisi meeting Ruela.

Of course, he had never done anything with Ruela. She had merely been a temporary figurehead.

Still, the fact that Sisi knew he had once kept a concubine filled him with guilt.

He wanted to erase Ruela from his past entirely, to ensure that Sisi saw him as a man devoted solely to ruling the kingdom and raising his beloved son.

As for why he wanted Sisi to see him that way—

He wasn’t sure himself.

He only knew that Sisi’s opinion of him mattered more than he cared to admit.

"There’s no point in listening to a madwoman’s rambling," Kael said coldly, turning to Vestor. "Just throw her out of the palace and give her a sum of gold enough to build a house in the middle of the city. I don’t want to see her crying when I leave this courtyard."

"And that madwoman is the concubine you chose," Sisi sneered. "Does that mean you’re incompetent at picking your bedmates? I expect more from the Beast King."

She didn’t pause as she looked at Vestor with an authoritative gaze.

"Let her in. This is my order—this is my courtyard."

Vestor was dumbfounded.

The woman before him was daring to defy the Beast King directly and mocked him right to his face, like they were of the same position, like a queen talking to her husband.

Vestor gulped. He knew his king’s temper.

He braced himself, expecting thunderous rage from Kael.

But it never came.

Instead, Kael clenched his jaw, glared at the floor, and muttered, "...Let her in."

Vestor froze for a moment before hastily bowing. "Y-Yes, My King."

He immediately ordered the guards to allow Concubine Ruela into the Queen’s Courtyard.

As he did, Vestor couldn’t help reflecting on what he had just witnessed.

The chemistry between the Beast King and Mistress Sisi was unmistakable and made even clearer by Kael’s astonishing patience.

Anyone else would have died a hundred times over for such insolence.

And yet, Sisi didn’t even bother pretending to be polite around Kael.

She didn’t show the fake smile she had when facing Vestor.

Instead, she was aloof. Sharp. Sarcastic. Entirely herself when she talked to Kael.

’If I didn’t know the Beast King’s fated mate had long since died,’ Vestor thought, ’I would’ve sworn this woman was the one. Because his tolerance for her is absurd...’

Then another thought crept in.

’If she isn’t his fated mate... does he intend to make her a concubine? Or perhaps a queen, even if she is not his destined one?’

Vestor was still pondering this when Ruela strode toward the pavilion.

She looked terrible even from afar.

Her hair was more disheveled than before, her eyes swollen and red, tears streaming freely as she walked. Her usual servant girl followed behind her like a shadow, quiet, insignificant, almost decorative.

Right now, Ruela carried no dignity at all.

She looked less like a concubine and more like a woman of the night who had been wronged by a client.

Kael’s frown deepened at the sight.

He’d had no particular impression of Ruela when they first met. Still, he had been grateful to her for delivering the amethyst that reminded him of his fated mate’s eyes.

That was why he had chosen her as a concubine, nothing more than a reward for pleasing him once.

If she hadn’t tried to seduce him during Jojo’s banquet, he might have kept her as a temporary figurehead while he was away from the kingdom.

Ruela slumped the moment she entered the pavilion.

She lifted her head and saw Kael, then Sisi.

And the moment she saw Sisi seated beside the Beast King, dignified and composed, her anger nearly boiled over.

That ragged woman—that woman who ruined her life—was sitting in her place.

Sisi looked down at her with calm detachment, as though Ruela was a disgraced soul in need of help.

And though Ruela hated to admit it... she was desperate.

But she would never accept help from a cunning snake like Sisi!

Her mind flashed back to what Leah had said after Vestor delivered the verdict.

**

Ruela had been sitting on the floor, sobbing as though her life had ended.

"Miss, you shouldn’t cry so much," Leah said softly. "Crying won’t change anything, you need to do something else..."

"Then what am I supposed to do if I can’t even cry?!" Ruela screamed. "Do you know what will become of me now? I’ll be disgraced! I might as well kill myself!"

Leah’s heart skipped.

She couldn’t let Ruela kill herself.

If Ruela committed suicide to preserve her honor, Leah would be forced to follow her mistress in death—or worse, condemned to guard her grave for the rest of her life as a nun. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

That would end all of her ambitions in the palace.

It’d be far better if Ruela were executed by royal decree, then Leah could beg for mercy as a powerless servant who couldn’t control her mistress’ behavior.

So Leah offered her mistress a carefully crafted consolation and drive her to a conclusion.

"Miss, you were dismissed, but not because of your actions at the banquet. To be discarded like this is far too extreme," Leah said earnestly. "There must be someone who wants to see your downfall. Especially now that you held such influence in the court."

"Who?" Ruela demanded, lifting her head.

Leah didn’t answer, because she didn’t need to.

All she had to do was to put on the bait, and Ruela quickly caught it like a stupid fish in a dirty river.

Leah’s lips curved into a thin smile.

Ruela was foolish, but she was lucky enough to be born into a powerful noble family.

Leah, on the other hand, was the daughter of unnamed soldiers who had died in battle.

Life had never been fair to her. So she decided she would be unfair too.

She wanted more than servitude.

She wanted to become the wife of a powerful beastman, or maybe the wife of a general.

Or, if fate truly favored her—

The wife of the Beast King himself.