Mommy Wolf: Raise A Cub, Claimed By His Beast Daddy-Chapter 51: Awkwardness

However, Sisi understood Jojo’s feelings completely.

In his young mind, his father was a faultless being. A figure who shielded him from harm, fed him with good food, and loved him unconditionally. Sisi would be furious too if someone called the Matriarch of her orphanage an "evil, wretched bastard."

After all, in Sisi’s heart, the Matriarch had become the mother she never had. Even after meeting Mrs. Piker, the genuine love she received from the Matriarch was irreplaceable, even if it had to be shared with dozens of other children. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Meanwhile, Marik...

Sisi sighed.

At least with Jojo, she knew what to expect. He was just a child, and his emotions were written plainly across his face. When Jojo tried to lie, he would dodge her eyes, his ears twitching as his excuses became more and more ridiculous the longer she questioned him.

But Marik was an adult, and talking to him now felt like playing a guessing game with a mute.

The tiger beastman kept his thoughts carefully hidden, refusing to utter a single word whenever Sisi asked whether he knew anything about Jojo’s father. Yet through his silence, Sisi was certain of one thing—Marik did know Jojo’s father’s true identity. He simply refused to talk about it.

But hiding the truth wouldn’t solve anything.

Sisi had grown tired of watching her small family slowly fracture under the weight of this awkward silence.

"I really should talk about it," she muttered as she watched Marik and Jojo successfully bring down a yearling—larger than a fawn, but still small enough for Jojo to pounce on in his beastman form. "There’s no point in hiding everything. It would only hurt Jojo more."

This was Jojo’s second successful hunt. The first had taken place a week earlier, when Jojo had been determined to catch a deer so Sisi could use its pelt to make something special, something she could show off once they reunited with Jojo’s father.

A fawn’s hide wasn’t as tough as that of a full-grown deer, so there wasn’t much she could make from it. Still, thanks to her advanced knitting skills, honed during her years at the orphanage, Sisi managed to fashion a pair of gloves from the hide.

She hadn’t brought any knitting tools when she fled the farm. At the time, her only thoughts had been escape and survival. To make up for the lack of tools, instead, she used her power to find plants with sticky leaf fibers and twisted them into makeshift thread and made a knitting needle using sharpened wood.

The resulting gloves were surprisingly durable, more so than the ones she used to make at the orphanage, and even better than store-bought ones. The natural spotted pattern of the hide gave them a unique appearance, and Sisi wore them regularly to avoid frostbite during winter.

She wasn’t sure whether she should feel guilty about the fawn, but it was part of the cycle of life. Even if she didn’t enjoy eating meat every day, Jojo was a natural carnivore and needed meat at every meal to grow properly.

Thus, using the hide felt far better than letting it go to waste.

"Sisi! Sisi! Look what I got you!" Jojo shouted as he dragged the yearling toward her, the joy on his face so infectious that Sisi couldn’t help but smile.

She patted his head gently. "Thank you for lunch, Jojo. This will be our lunch and dinner. Why don’t you go clean it with Uncle Marik?"

Jojo’s bright smile stiffened the moment she mentioned Uncle Marik. He turned around and saw the tiger beastman standing with his arms crossed, deliberately avoiding eye contact.

"C-can I clean it with you, Sisi?" Jojo asked quietly. "Uncle isn’t happy with me..."

"Nonsense," Sisi replied softly. "He is happy with you. He’s just... confused about what to say."

After observing them for some time, Sisi was certain Marik didn’t hate Jojo at all. In fact, it was clear he cared deeply for the boy. He guarded Jojo every night, made sure he stayed warm during snowstorms, and his gaze always softened whenever he looked at the boy sleeping at night—before he quickly looked away when she noticed it.

Sisi was determined to fix the awkwardness between them.

She suspected Marik carried a heavy secret about Jojo’s father—one he couldn’t reveal in front of the boy.

Jojo hesitated, then reluctantly nodded. Dragging the yearling, he walked over to Marik. "Uncle... Sisi said we need to clean it."

"Hm. Let’s go to the river," Marik said. "The water has started to thaw. It shouldn’t be too cold."

*

Jojo and Marik sat side by side at the riverbank, carefully cleaning their hunt to ensure Sisi would get the best cuts of meat. Uncle Marik said that humans didn’t have the same resilience as beastmen, so they had to be careful on what to feed her.

Yet an awkward silence hung between them.

Lost in thought, Jojo kept replaying his uncle’s cold behavior in his mind. He felt wronged. He hadn’t done anything bad, so why was Uncle Marik angry with him?

As his thoughts spiraled, Jojo unconsciously edged closer to the river and slipped.

"Ah!"

"Watch out!" Marik reacted instantly, grabbing the boy’s arm and pulling him back.

Jojo shivered as the icy water brushed his toes. Without thinking, he clung to his uncle’s arm. Only after a moment did he realize what he was doing and hurriedly let go.

"T-thank you, Uncle!"

"Pay attention near the river," Marik scolded gently. "You could slip again. There are predators here—crocodiles and others. I’ve told you this many times."

Jojo pouted. "I was listening! But Uncle doesn’t talk to me anymore, so I forgot!"

...

Marik let out a long sigh. "I’m sorry for yelling at you before, Jojo."

Jojo’s eyes widened in shock. "T-then... do you hate me, Uncle?"

"If I hated you, I wouldn’t hunt with you every day," Marik replied.

Jojo hesitated, then asked quietly, "Then... do you hate my Daddy, Uncle?"