Villainess is being pampered by her beast husbands-Chapter 384 --.

Kaya eased toward the cave mouth, boots feeling for every scrap of grip on the wet stone. Spray hit her face, cold and sharp, and the roar of the waterfall pressed against her eardrums until it felt like noise was a physical thing.

She made the mistake of looking down.

Water dropped in a white column into a black pool far below, mist turning silver in the thin light. Pretty, in a distant, painted way. Up close, all she saw were rocks—jagged ledges, hard angles. If she slipped here and her head met even one of those on the way down, that was it. If she was unlucky, she’d bounce a few times and count bones going.

She stopped dead.

"...Wait."

Kaya turned slowly, expression calm, eyes like ice on Veer. "You can fly," she said. No surprise. No warmth. Just a flat statement. "So why are we walking."

Veer stared back at her a second too long. Water dripped off his hair. His grip on Cutie shifted just a little.

"You forgot," Kaya said.

He swallowed, gaze sliding to the side. "No," he said, too fast to be anything but guilty. "How would I forget? I’m a vulture. Of course I remember."

Her eyebrows didn’t even twitch. She just looked at him until the silence got heavy.

"Right," she said. "You ’remember’."

A breath hissed out of him. He crouched, carefully set Cutie down against the cave wall, making sure his head rested on stone instead of hanging. Then Veer straightened and walked toward the edge like this had all been his clever plan and not her pointing out the obvious.

"Hah. Very funny," he muttered. "’How could I forget.’" The last words dropped softer, closer to the truth.

Then he let go.

Bones shifted under his skin; his back rolled and split into wings, feathers bursting out in a dark, fast bloom. His arms folded and thickened into broad pinions, legs shortening, spine stretching. In a single, practiced motion, the man folded away and a massive vulture stood where Veer had been—wide wings, heavy chest, hooked beak, feathers slicked by mist. Built to ride the air, not fight it, the kind of bird that could hang for hours on a good current with barely a flap.[1]

Kaya watched, jaw tight, eyes flat. This was exactly like walking three miles on torn feet and then remembering there was a perfectly fine car in the yard the whole time.

’Useless bird,’ she thought, then corrected herself: ’Useful. But still a bird.’

She went back to Cutie, slid an arm under his shoulders and lifted him with a slow, controlled pull. "We’re flying," she said, voice steady. "Don’t argue."

He didn’t. He just gave a tiny nod, trusting her the way he always did, and let her steer him.

Kaya swung a leg over first and settled low between the base of Veer’s wings, pressing her knees in against warm feather and bone. Then she hauled Cutie up behind her, biting down on a grunt as his full weight leaned into her back. He felt solid—too solid for someone with a face that soft.

"Fly safely," she told Veer, calm as ice. "If we fall, I’ll blame you even on the way down."

Cutie’s breath brushed her neck, warm in the cold air. For half a heartbeat, She blinked. Soft. Cute. Wa—

Did she just think cute?

Her head shook so fast she nearly dislodged herself. "I mean, he is cute and sweet, okay, but his weight is not a joke."

Out loud, she said, "You weigh more than you look. Don’t move unless I tell you."

Because here was the math she couldn’t ignore: if Veer kicked wrong and Cutie lurched, she had one arm to keep him from sliding and one to stop herself following. She couldn’t risk throwing him forward into Veer’s claws; those talons were meant to tear meat off bone, not catch an injured skull.

So she wrapped one arm firm around Cutie’s middle, dragging him flush against her, and with her other hand she grabbed a thick fistful of feathers at the back of Veer’s neck, right where the muscle bunched under the skin.

If she could have forced Cutie into his rabbit form—light, compact, easy to pin—she would have. But with his head the way it was, pushing his body through a shift was the fastest path to finishing him off. Not happening. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

"Go," she said.

Veer answered with a low, rough croak from his vulture throat, then pushed off the rock.

The ledge dropped away in a rush. Cold air punched up under them, catching his wings. Cutie’s weight slammed into her back like a thrown sack, buckling her spine. For one sharp, terrifying second, Kaya felt herself tipping backward into empty space.

Her fingers tightened around Veer’s feathers hard enough to hurt him. She dragged herself forward with everything she had. If she hadn’t, the rocks below would have taken her at the waist first and collected the rest of her in pieces.

Wind slapped against Kaya’s face as Veer climbed higher, the rush of air and distant thunder of the waterfall mixing into one long growl in her ears. Cutie’s weight pressed steady against her back, Veer’s feathers rough under her fingers. The sky was a dull, washed‑out grey above them, the land below a dark blur.

She let her eyes close for a second.

Not to sleep. She wouldn’t dare. Her grip on Veer and Cutie stayed iron‑tight. She just needed that blink, that pause, because her eyes burned like she’d rubbed sand into them.

When she opened them again, the world snapped into focus fast. Too fast.

Edges were ’sharp’. Every line of rock, every ripple in the land below, every tree shape, even in this low light—it all came into view clearer than she remembered things ever being. Her gaze slid across the dark and caught details that should’ve been lost: a thin path cutting through scrub, a broken stone on a hill, the way mist trailed off the waterfall in long, narrow fingers.