The Villainess Winning Back Her Beast Husbands-Chapter 22: Flower Guardian

Evangeline mused to herself as she scooped up Thorne, effortlessly placing him in the bathing tub.

The warm, medicinal liquid washed over Thorne’s body, and even in his unconscious state, his brow twitched.

Evangeline placed a ward outside the cave, worried that members of the Grymdale Tribe would come looking for trouble.

She rolled up her sleeves, had him lean over the edge of the tub, and took out a pair of tweezers to begin meticulously cleaning his wounds. The writhing maggots, soaked in the medicinal water, floated to the surface. But all the necrotic flesh still needed to be cut away before she could apply the salve.

After the medicinal soak, Evangeline scrubbed Thorne’s filthy body clean.

’She was here on a mission, after all.’ While washing him, she even took a moment to check his... dimensions. ’Worthy of the male lead,’ she mused. ’His body might be skin and bones, but that thing is anything but small. And yup, there really are two of them.’

Evangeline stared for a moment, then stroked her chin. ’The Beastman Continent really is almost like a vacation,’ she thought.

After scrubbing Thorne clean, Evangeline lifted him out, took out her own bed, and laid him on the soft mattress. Only then did she begin the real work: applying anesthetic, cutting away the necrotic flesh, applying salve, and bandaging his wounds...

By the time she finished the entire process, dawn was already breaking.

Evangeline yawned and glanced at Thorne, who was wrapped up like a mummy. Even in sleep, his brow was tightly furrowed, his entire being radiating a hostile aura. His face, however, was still that of an absolute heartthrob.

Thorne’s complexion was very pale—a bloodless white.

His features were sharp and distinct, as if sculpted. Perhaps because he was so thin, the lines of his face were stark and severe. His eyelashes were long and curled above deep-set eyes, but a chilling, endless hostility emanated from his otherwise handsome face.

Evangeline watched him for a while before looking away. Leaning against the side of the bed, she fell asleep.

’Of course, she didn’t forget to place a ward around herself first. Right now, Thorne was a misanthropic snake who hated the world and wanted to drag everyone down with him. It paid to be vigilant when alone with him.’

’As for why she was sleeping right beside him? It was, of course, part of her strategy to win him over.’

’They say that when a woman chases a man, it’s an easy catch. The first step was to move him emotionally, lower his defenses, and make him open his heart to her. Once he was willing to let her get close, success wouldn’t be far behind.’

With this in mind, Evangeline slowly closed her eyes and drifted off to the sound of dripping water in the cave.

When Thorne regained consciousness, his eyes opened to the familiar rock cave, and his taut nerves relaxed slightly.

But in the next moment, the feeling of relief coursing through his body put him on high alert, and every muscle tensed.

He shot up from the bed like a coiled spring. Only then did he realize with a jolt that he was no longer on his cold, hard stone slab. In its place was a strange, soft bed made of some unknown material. He was also covered by a blanket made from some unidentifiable beast skin, its soft touch sending warmth seeping into his own skin.

In an instant, Thorne’s expression turned terrifyingly grim.

Like a frenzied Wild Beast, he leaped off the bed with a SWOOSH and retreated into a corner.

His expression was wary, his entire body emanating a defensive aura that pushed everyone away. Malice churned in his dark green eyes, as if he were looking for prey to devour, ready to launch a fatal attack at any second.

After a moment, the danger he had imagined did not arrive.

It was the same cave, yet different. It was clean.

Thorne stood frozen, his gaze falling to the bandages wrapped around his body. They restricted his movements, but he could smell medicine—a pleasant, indescribable scent that promised the continuation of life.

Beastmen had powerful regenerative abilities. He could feel it; after just one night, his once-fragile body had regained some of its strength. The wounds, once numb with pain, now itched faintly as they began to heal.

’Was it Beast-father? Or Elias Moretti? Did they plead with the Witch to save me?’

The thought was fleeting. Thorne’s brow furrowed as he silently rejected the possibility. ’But if not them, who else would be willing to save me? Who would waste precious medicine on me?’

Suddenly, fragmented memories flashed through Thorne’s mind frame by frame.

The totem sacrifice... on the altar... The female who had confronted the entire Grymdale Tribe for him, who had even fought the Witch. ’She was ugly,’ he recalled, ’but her eyes were incredibly bright. A female who could control the rain.’

Thorne frowned, the images in his mind tangling together like a messy knot, leaving him deeply unsettled.

Just then, a faint groan broke the silence, sounding abruptly in the cave.

The sound struck Thorne like a bolt of lightning.

His expression was suddenly covered in a layer of frost, utterly sinister.

Almost instantaneously, Thorne reacted without thinking, his hand deftly pulling a sharp bone knife from a crevice in the stone bed. In the dim light, the blade glinted with a cold, eerie glow.

Before meeting Evangeline, he could have easily handled any hardship or ferocious enemy.

But now, with his Star Pattern shattered, his former sharp edge was long gone.

Now, this bone knife, which he had sharpened day and night, was his only support in this cruel world—and his last hope as he waited for a chance at revenge.

Thorne gripped the bone knife tightly, veins bulging on the back of his hand. His dark green eyes were brimming with malice.

’One day, he would use this very bone knife to personally cut off Evangeline’s head!’

Just then, Evangeline peeked her head out from behind the bed like a nimble fawn. Her eyes immediately found Thorne, who was coiled tight, poised as if facing a mortal enemy.

A warm, natural smile graced her face, as if the tense, hostile atmosphere radiating from Thorne had nothing to do with her. "Good, you’re awake," she said. "Looks like your fever has broken."

With that, Evangeline rubbed her flat stomach and asked with a grin, "I’m hungry. How about you? I can go hunting and roast some meat for you."

As soon as the words left her mouth, she stood up, stretching her arms and gently twisting her waist to work out the kinks. A series of soft POPS echoed as she let out a sigh of relief.

Evangeline’s every move was casual and carefree, showing no concern for Thorne’s wary, defensive posture.

Thorne watched Evangeline, his thoughts on the changes his body had undergone overnight. "You saved me," he stated.

It wasn’t a question, but a cold, flat declaration.

"I saw you rush off last night and got worried, so I came to check on you. I didn’t expect you to have a fever. While I was treating you... I know I overstepped, but if your wounds hadn’t been treated, the consequences would have been dire."

Evangeline looked at Thorne with pity in her eyes, feigning the air of someone meeting him for the first time.

Thorne stared intently at Evangeline, not missing a single flicker of her expression.

After a long moment, he spoke, his voice hoarse. "You’re a Witch. Why would you bother with a Beastman abandoned by his tribe?"

Evangeline looked at Thorne. His face was deathly pale, and his eyes were so dark they seemed to hold the deepest shades of night, tinged with an undercurrent of dark green. His entire aura was cold.

She curved her lips, and her eyes seemed to shine, like a ray of spring sun piercing a dark, hazy corner.

"First, I’m just a wandering female. I don’t belong to any tribe."

"Second, a Witch is an emissary of the Beast God, sent to wander the Beastman Continent and protect all Beastmen. It doesn’t matter whether you’ve been abandoned or not. So long as you are a Beastman, I will not turn my back on you."

"And finally, my name is Flora. I’m the Flower Guardian sent by the Beast God to protect you."

"From now on, I’ve got your back."