Chapter 100: Go After What You Need
Selka took Kael up onto the smooth, high ledge of the den’s rock. They sat down together in the warm morning light, looking out over the clearing where the rest of the pack was already busy doing their daily errands.
"Tell me how to claim Nuan!?" Kael asked urgently, his golden eyes burning with desperate focus.
"Wait," Selka said calmly. She didn’t look at him. Instead, her eyes were locked below, watching Koda and the younger pups playing in the dirt, aggressively practicing their hunting skills.
Kael waited, his tail twitching impatiently as he followed her gaze. He watched Koda bounce around, trying to get the upper hand on the other kids. After a few agonizing moments of silence, he couldn’t take it anymore. "Tsk... Mother!!" Kael snapped. "Tell me how to win her heart!"
"Wait a bit, Kael," Selka repeated smoothly.
Down below, Koda was lunging at another pup, Kiro, trying to pin his neck in his jaws, but he kept slipping and failing miserably.
Selka cupped her hands around her mouth and called down to the clearing. "Koda! Attack with both paws on his face! Put your entire weight on him to make him fall on his back, then grab his neck mid-air while he is falling!"
Koda grinned fiercely in his human form, immediately executing the advice. He lunged, slapped his paws onto Kiro’s face, slammed his weight down, and successfully caught Kiro’s jaw in his teeth before releasing him with a laugh.
"Yeyy! I did it! Thank you, Mother!!!" Koda cheered, his tail wagging proudly.
"That’s not fair, Mother!" Kiro complained, shaking the dirt out of his hair.
Selka chuckled warmly as the pups immediately began to wrestle again.
Kael watched the display, his frustration reaching a boiling point. "Tell me, Mother, how can I win Nuan’s heart?"
"Patience," Selka said, finally tilting her head up toward the clear morning sky. The bright sunlight hit her face as she quietly watched the slow, floating clouds. "Patience, Kael... If you truly wish to win a woman’s heart, you need patience. Otherwise, if you just want to forcefully claim her as a mate, that is no big deal for an Alpha. How you phrase your intent changes its entire meaning."
Kael gulped hard. His mind flashed back to his argument with Nuan. She said the exact same thing... that patience is the key, and that word choice matters. But his dense brain still felt tangled. "Mother, tell me what you mean by that."
Selka simply smiled, stood up, and gracefully jumped down from the high den rock, completely ignoring his question as she started walking toward the playing pups.
"Mother, wait!!!" Kael yelled from the ledge, leaning over the edge as she walked away. "You can’t just leave! Tell me what you meant!!!"
Selka didn’t stop. She kept her slow, steady pace across the dirt.
"Mother!!" Kael growled, his golden eyes flashing. "Tell me!"
Selka finally paused and turned around, looking up at him on the high rock. "The third important thing, Kael: if you have a need, you come following it. Don’t sit back and expect it to come to you or stay with you."
Kael’s eyes flared with pure frustration. He looked down at his heavily bandaged, throbbing shoulder, knowing damn well he needed her physical support to safely climb down the steep rock.
"Mother!" he snapped, his jaw clenching.
"Fourth: calm down and stop trying to be dominant," Selka snapped back, her voice sharp and unyielding. "You might find it incredibly hard to follow behind the thing you need, but you have to do it anyway. Because you are the one who needs it. It is not the other way around, Kael."
The heavy words finally penetrated Kael’s thick skull. His dense brain finally connected the dots—she wasn’t just lecturing him about climbing down the rock; she was telling him exactly how to approach Nuan.
Careful not to stress his already injured shoulder, Kael took his time, painstakingly navigating the steep handholds until his feet finally hit the dirt. He strode quickly over to Selka, who had stopped just a few feet away from the wrestling pups.
"So? What did you learn?" Selka asked, her eyes still on the kids.
Kael looked at her side profile, his voice dropping into a quiet murmur. "Did you mean... I have to follow Nuan, instead of trying to keep her trapped here with the pack?"
Down in the dirt, Kiro suddenly used Selka’s exact same technique right back on Koda, successfully trapping Koda’s neck in his jaws.
"You got it," Selka said with a satisfied nod.
"But why can’t she just stay with our pack?!" Kael pressed, the thought of her leaving making his chest ache. "Everyone loves her here."
"Why can’t you leave the pack?" Selka countered, turning her head to raise a perfectly groomed eyebrow at him.
"What about them—" Kael gestured to the surrounding wolves.
"They will eventually go after their own mates and build their own packs. You will be left behind here all alone!" Selka said plainly. "You have had your good time leading here, Kael. It is time for you to go after what you actually need. Leave these kiddos to me."
She reached out and snatched Koda by the back of his neck just as he tried to aggressively grab Kiro back.
"Once these kids are fully ready to step out into the world alone, I am finally going to have my own peaceful days, exactly the way I want them," Selka grumbled with a smirk. "Instead of babysitting a bunch of growing idiots forever."
Selka let go of Koda’s neck. The pups immediately scrambled up, their tails wagging. "Let’s go hunt hares separately!" Koda chirped happily to the others.
Selka and Kael stood side-by-side, watching the small group of young wolves disappear into the dense bushes, scattering in different directions.
A heavy silence settled between them. "Then... can I leave now?" Kael whispered, his golden eyes locked on the forest path.
"Yes... go after your needs," Selka said softly, her tone turning deeply earnest.
"She might need you, or she might not. But I can clearly see just how much that girl has become a necessity for your survival. So follow her. Stay patient, do not be dominant, and choose your words very wisely, Kael. She is not some ordinary beastwoman who is dying to bear the pups of any random Alpha."
With that, Selka reached out and gave his uninjured shoulder one final, firm, encouraging pat, pushing him toward the river.