Mommy Wolf: Raise A Cub, Claimed By His Beast Daddy-Chapter 30: Search Party (I)

Kael stood in the middle of a meadow, so vast that it was impossible to see where it ended.

It was a beautiful sight, especially under the full moon, with hundreds of fireflies drifting around him.

However, his focus was on the woman who stood before him.

She was quite short in stature, but it didn’t matter, because she had a pair of butterfly wings like a faerie, allowing her to hover slightly above him.

She still wore the same radiant smile that once melted the ice in Kael’s heart, and her face... she was gorgeous.

So gorgeous that Kael, a man who had never been moved by any woman in his life, felt so captivated that he couldn’t help but step forward, wanting to reach her, wanting to hold her tightly so she would never leave him again.

But when Kael tried to touch her, the woman flew back to avoid him. Her radiant smile twisted, as though she were mocking him.

She looked down on him with her violet eyes.

"What do you want to do, Kael?"

"I—" Kael paused, staring at the faerie. Doubt flickered in his heart, but in the end, he followed his desire and said,

"I want to claim you. You are... the one fated to me by the Moon Goddess, right?"

The woman nodded. "I am the one fated by the Goddess to be yours. But not anymore."

"Why?" Kael asked. "I’ve always been alone in my life before Jojo. Now that Jojo is gone, will you leave me too?"

"I cannot be by your side, because you traded our fate..." the woman replied. "You traded me for power. You said it yourself, you didn’t mind being lonely for the rest of your life, drowning in despair, and wailing in anguish as you died."

Kael opened his mouth to argue. In his mind, he did it to save both his and Jojo’s lives.

Yet no sound came out. He could only watch as hundreds of fireflies gathered around his mate. When they dispersed, she vanished with them.

All that remained was the vast meadow, the gloomy full moon, and a man standing alone in a sea of darkness.

His heart throbbed with sharp sorrow. He didn’t cry, but the pain was so intense that he wished he could tear his heart out just to stop the ache.

In the end, he muttered his mate’s real name before staring at the moon one last time.

Then Kael woke up.

The newly crowned Beast King scowled. He had been forced to dream the same thing every night since accepting his fate as the Dusk Star.

He could remember every detail of the dream—no, the nightmare—with perfect precision. He could even recite the nonsense he spouted in it.

Yet, whenever he woke and tried to recall his mate’s gorgeous face, he couldn’t. She was vivid in the dream, but blurred the moment he returned to reality. He couldn’t recall her voice, nor her name, even though he repeated it countless times in the dream.

Was it punishment for trading his mate for enormous power?

But back then, he truly had no choice. If he hadn’t done it, both he and Jojo would have died.

Kael grew irritated.

He even began to resent his fated mate for being so unreasonable. They had never met before, so why did she appear in his dreams every night just to torment him?

He wondered if she was dreaming the same thing too. Maybe she was also irritated that their fate had been severed.

"Argh, this is getting ridiculous," Kael muttered frustratedly as he got up from bed. He rubbed his eyes. He had only slept three hours every night, due to the constant nightmare.

He stepped out of the cave and stared at the first snowfall of the year.

Two months had passed since he killed the previous Alpha of the Silvertooth Pack and crowned himself the new King of the Beasts.

He had expanded his territory swiftly, defeating many powerful enemies around Rantel Hill. The great power he obtained as the Dusk Star made him unbeatable, even with numerous assassination attempts.

He ruled his new Beast Kingdom with an iron hand. He forced the beastmen to live under his banner, or be executed.

Thus, wolf, gorilla, snake, and even badger beastmen no longer dared to attack one another, fearing extermination by the Beast King.

Yet even as a king, Kael preferred solitude.

He was a lone wolf by nature, so lived alone in a cave at the top of Rantel Hill, descending only once a day to handle kingdom matters unenthusiastically. He created this kingdom for the sake of searching for his son and protecting him, so nothing really excites him.

But today was different.

After successfully recruiting a group of flying squirrel and eagle beastmen, he ordered their leaders to gather their fastest and most durable members.

Kael leaped from his cave and landed before the assembled group of flying squirrel and eagle beastmen.

He looked majestic and powerful in his wolf form, but he kept to his beastman form when giving orders to non-wolf species, so they would feel less intimidated.

After all, beastmen in their more human forms looked somewhat similar; only minor differences like skin texture, ears, or tails distinguished them.

Kael looked down at the kneeling groups and addressed their leaders.

"You are Grishaw, the leader of the eagle beastmen near Rantel Hill, correct?"

"Yes, My King," confirmed a young man with feathered arms and bird-like legs.

"And you are Jeanne, the leader of the flying squirrel beastmen."

"Y-yes, My King," replied a young woman with parachute-like skin under her arms and a squirrel tail.

"Good," Kael said. "I summoned your groups because I have a special request. I want to form a search party consisting of those who can travel long distances and possess sharp eyes to find someone very important to me."

"A search party?" Grishaw the Eagle Beastman lifted his head. "My King, who is this important person you want us to find?"