The Villainess Winning Back Her Beast Husbands-Chapter 51: Your Cub’s Beast Husband Is Caden Albright
The seductive whisper coiling around his ear made Rhys Finch’s heart flutter, and he suddenly felt a sense of fulfillment.
His mind raced, and after what felt like an eternity, a single, breathy word escaped his throat: "Alright."
By dusk the next day, the two finally reached the Ape Clan’s abandoned cave.
You could tell the Ape Clan were the most human-like of the beastmen. Even their abandoned cave was in a scenic spot, surrounded by vibrant flowers. The crimson tumi flowers were in full bloom, their cloyingly sweet fragrance tangling in the wind.
A faint aroma of aged wine seeped out from the cave, mixed with a rare, clean scent of plants and trees.
"What is this flower?" Rhys Finch asked, standing amidst the sea of blossoms. He lowered his gaze to sniff one gently, a peculiar expression crossing his face.
"It’s a tumi flower. Its blossoms, leaves, and roots can all be used for medicine. Crimson ones like these are just rare."
Evangeline suddenly bent over, her fingers sweeping through the patch to pluck a tumi flower. In the next moment, she tucked it behind Rhys Finch’s ear. Against the cascade of his silver hair, the vibrant splash of color was a breathtaking, burning flame.
Rhys Finch frowned, raising a hand to remove it. "I’m not a female!"
"The tumi flower is also called the ’Flower of the Dead End,’" Evangeline said softly, her hand reaching out to stroke Rhys Finch’s smooth, silver hair. ’This flower is just like him,’ she thought. ’Both are cloaked in a dazzling exterior, but hollowed out on the inside.’
"’Flower of the Dead End?’" Rhys Finch’s hand froze. He took the tumi flower from behind his ear.
He stared down at it, then suddenly crushed it. Crimson juice stained his fingertips, trickling past his long, elegant fingers and into his palm. He didn’t pursue the topic, instead asking abruptly, "So it was this flower?"
Evangeline smiled. "I suppose so. Tumi flower seeds and wine."
With that, Evangeline led the way into the cave. The moment she stepped inside, the stench of wine grew overpowering.
Soon, she spotted a pool of murky, dark liquid. Clumps of half-rotten fruit pulp floated on the surface. It seemed the High Priest had regularly added fruit to it to keep this pool of wine going.
"The Divine Medicine... it was made like this?" Rhys Finch asked, staring at the pool in disgust.
He was a stickler for cleanliness. The thought that the potion he had once drunk came from something like this made him utterly sick to his stomach.
A sly smile touched the corners of Evangeline’s eyes as her fingertip traced his palm. "Don’t worry. I’ll brew you a much better wine. We just need to take some tumi flower seeds back with us."
"Wine?" Rhys Finch paused, looking at her strangely. "Are you really a Witch? How can you know how to do everything?"
"Is it that strange?" Evangeline blinked and walked deeper into the cave. From a corner hidden beneath a pile of earth, she dug out a large number of Beast Crystals. These were all things the High Priest had swindled and cheated people out of over the years.
But his talent was limited, and absorbing Beast Crystals was an extremely slow process for him. It all worked out in her favor.
Rhys Finch followed her and nodded. "Very. You’re not like an ordinary female."
Evangeline glanced back with a light laugh. "Perhaps I was sent by the Beast God to save you."
Rhys Finch’s Adam’s apple bobbed. His gaze fell to the heavy sack in Evangeline’s hands.
She dangled the sack in front of him. The crystals clinked together with a crisp sound, making her eyes sparkle. With her eyes curved into a smile, she said, "I’ll keep these for you. I’m saving them all for you!"
As she spoke, she reached up and touched the loathsome, black Star Pattern on his forehead. The faint scent of tumi flowers lingering in her hair brushed past his nose. "Tell me," she murmured, "do you think there’s a Star Pattern even higher than a nine-star pattern?"
"You’re the only one who would give Beast Crystals to me." Rhys Finch said, looking at Evangeline’s beaming expression. His chest felt tight. ’How could someone like this exist? Someone who would think of me so completely?’
’He was a Fallen Beastman, destined to be an outcast on the Beastman Continent.’
’Once he left Thorncliff, he would have to leave her. He couldn’t let her become a target for the other Beastmen to attack.’
With that thought, Rhys Finch raised a hand and gently caressed her lips, his narrow eyes locking onto hers.
The next instant, his arm tightened abruptly, pulling her into his embrace by the waist. He lowered his head and bit down on her soft lips. The kiss, scented with tumi flowers, felt as if he were trying to brand his very being into her flesh and blood.
Evangeline was more than happy with Rhys Finch’s assertiveness.
She returned his rough, passionate kiss, and soon, the temperature in the cave began to rise. A sweet, musky scent mingled with the evaporating aroma of wine, steeping the entire cave in a drunken, amorous haze.
Shifting silhouettes danced upon the cave wall.
At one moment, it was the fluffy tip of a giant fox’s tail brushing against a stone ledge; the next, it was the taut line of a spine in human form.
Beast and human forms shifted uncontrollably in the heat of passion, their overlapping bodies weaving a fractured net of light and shadow.
「Five days later.」
They left the Ape Clan’s grotto before the morning mist had fully dissipated.
On the journey back, Evangeline continued to enjoy the treatment befitting a female.
She lay lazily in the giant fox’s fluffy fur, every strand of his coat suffused with the lingering scent of tumi flowers.
A Fallen Beastman this proud seemed like the type who would never let anyone ride him, yet now, with her on his back, his steps were exceptionally steady, as if terrified that the slightest jolt might cause her discomfort.
When the mountain wind picked up, he would even tilt his head slightly, using the tip of his ear to shield her from the buffeting currents. He was so careful, it was as if he weren’t carrying a female he’d only recently met, but fragile moonlight itself.
Evangeline looked down at Rhys Finch, then suddenly leaned forward and buried her face in his warm, snow-white fur.
’After all this time on the Beastman Continent, I’m finally experiencing what it feels like for a male to truly treasure a female.’
*
After returning to the tribe, Evangeline dried the tumi flowers and sowed their seeds in the sandy soil near the settlement.
She personally led the tribe’s disfigured Beastmen to pick, wash, and ferment fruit. They all knew this was the process of making the "Divine Medicine," and they watched her every move without blinking.
Thorncliff was surrounded by desert. With the dry climate and high temperatures, fermentation was quick.
A few days later, when the night wind carried the aroma of the first jar of new wine, torches flared to life throughout the entire tribe.
"Witch—Witch—"
The Beastmen’s voices rose in a halting chant, their rough hands tightly clasped as they began to perform a primitive, ancient dance around Evangeline.
Rhys Finch watched Evangeline standing in the center of the crowd, her smile as radiant as a flower, and the corners of his own lips curved upward. ’With her here,’ he thought, ’it seems even desolate Thorncliff has been touched with a bit of vibrant color.’
*
That night, two figures moved silently through the sleeping tribe.
Standing at the foot of Thorncliff, Rhys Finch looked up, his face etched with vigilance. Perhaps out of nervousness, the tip of his white fox tail swept silently across her wrist.
Evangeline wrapped her arms around his waist, pressing her palm against the tense line of his back.
She could feel the muscles beneath her palm trembling slightly. "Rhys Finch," she whispered, "don’t be afraid."
With a flip of her wrist, a dazzling golden scroll appeared in her hand.
It was a Teleportation Scroll, capable of taking a person to any homeland they thought of.
Evangeline applied pressure with her fingertips, and the scroll tore in two. In that instant, runes surged into the air and a brilliant golden light erupted.
Just as the swirling light was about to consume them, Rhys Finch suddenly tightened his embrace, his thin lips practically touching the tip of her ear. "The little maiden..."
His voice, low, hoarse, and achingly tender, was wrapped in a secret. "Remember this well... your cub’s Beast-father—" As the scroll erupted in a blinding light, his silver hair danced wildly, his bewitching face filled with reluctance. "—is Caden Albright."
