Chapter 170: Wash The Damn Animals (bonus)
Everyone was surprised, but no one was more surprised than the older wolves themselves.
"Us?!"
"The elders?!"
"You want US to wash ANIMALS?!"
Greymaw looked like he had been slapped with a wet fish. "This is absurd! How dare you order us—"
"I am not ordering you," Tera said sweetly. "I am giving you the most important job."
The word ’important’ made a few of the elders pause, their indignation briefly interrupted by confusion.
Calis stepped forward, his brow creased. "Why the elders? The younger wolves are more than capable of this. They are stronger—"
"Because you," Tera said, turning to face him fully, "and the younger wolves are going to do the bulk of the work in rebuilding this pen."
And without thinking, she reached out and tapped his upper chest with her fingertips.
It was nothing. A casual, punctuating gesture. The kind of tap she would have given Xavi or Ermin or another beast a hundred times without either of them blinking.
Calis’ entire body went rigid.
His hand shot up and swatted hers away.
The movement was so fast and so sharp that both of them froze.
Calis stared at his own hand as if it had betrayed him. The fingers that had just smacked her wrist were still hovering in the air, and the look on his face was the stunned confusion of a male whose body had acted without consulting his brain.
Tera stared at him, her hand still suspended where he had knocked it.
Everyone stared.
’Did he just...?’
[(¬ᴗ ´¬ )]
[oooooh]
[This is exciting]
’What?!’
[Calis’ Favourability: 40% → 44%]
Tera blinked. She had barely seen any movement in this that she had forgotten Calis was a potential mate.
’WHAT?!’
[Calis’ heart rate has increased by 27% from a tippy tap to the chest]
[How cute]
[(¬‿¬)]
[The wolf leader appears to be... sensitive]
’HIS FAVOURABILITY WENT UP FROM HIM SMACKING MY HAND AWAY?!’
[(·•᷄ࡇ•᷅ )]
[How is that what comes to your head, Host?]
The wolves around them had gone still. Several of the younger ones were exchanging wide-eyed looks. Two females had their hands over their mouths.
No one had ever seen their alpha flinch from a touch. Calis, who had ripped out the throats of corrupted beasts, who had migrated his entire pack through hostile territory without breaking stride, had just startled like a cub because a shiftless female tapped his chest.
The elders, in their oblivious foolishness, couldn’t fully hide the flicker of satisfaction that crossed their faces. Their alpha had rejected the female’s touch. That was a good sign. How dare she just casually touch their leader like that?
All hope was not lost.
Greymaw’s eyes had narrowed into slits. He wasn’t sure he could trust what he was seeing.
Something did not feel right about this moment, and Calis smacking Tera’s hand away seemed like a mistake on his part rather than a conscious decision.
Greymaw did not want his suspicions to come to fruition. He had to have been seeing things earlier.
Calis cleared his throat, eager to shift the attention away from him.
"You... moved suddenly," he muttered, his voice dropping to a register that was clearly trying very hard to sound normal and failing. "Don’t touch me like that again."
"Oh!" Tera straightened, having not expected him to say that.
She suddenly felt uncomfortable and self-conscious. "Sorry, I didn’t mean to... I didn’t know you wouldn’t like that."
For some reason, she thought of Ermin and how the old Tera had trampled on his boundaries.
Tera smiled apologetically as she looked up at him. "I won’t touch you again, don’t worry."
[Calis’ Favourability: 44% → 47%]
Tera let out a dry laugh as she turned back to the elders while Calis’ heart sank.
The thought of her not touching him again, with the way she had said it, made him feel sad for some uncomfortable reason.
He wished he could take back what he said, but had to snap himself back to his senses.
What was he even thinking?
’Damn. He is that happy to not have me touch him?’
[༎ຶ‿༎ຶ]
[At times, this system questions Host’s intelligence]
[You are reading him all wrong]
[This system recommends Host not touch the wolf leader again unless she wants to see a fully grown alpha short-circuit in front of his pack]
Tera fought the urge to roll her eyes.
Minutes ago, she would have liked to keep teasing Calis and get through the front he was putting on, but since he didn’t want that, she would respect his wishes.
Calis’ jaw was rigid jaw, and the way he was aggressively composing himself back into his usual stoicism was still oddly adorable.
Well, watching him fight himself every second he was around her was...
’Interesting.’
[Very interesting]
[(◕‿◕✿)]
’I wasn’t talking to you.’
[This system was agreeing with Host]
[Free of charge]
’Urgh!’
Calis turned sharply to the elders, clearly eager to redirect every pair of eyes in the clearing away from what had just happened.
"Do as she says. Wash the animals."
Greymaw’s composure cracked. "Alpha, what she says?!"
A stormy look came over Calis’ face.
A few wolves slowly stepped back, and Tera immediately interrupted, not wanting things to escalate just because of some water.
"It is for your good, please. Your meat could get infected if things continue like this." She held out her hand toward the pen. "Animals living in these conditions, caked in waste, standing in filth, can make disease build over time. It means you can fall ill. You might not see it now, but one sick animal can spread to the rest, and then you lose your entire stock."
Greymaw snarled, "This is unnecessary! We have kept these animals for nearly a year, and the meat has been perfectly fine! Not a single wolf has fallen ill from eating—"
"We have been eating them for a year!" another elder sputtered. "No one has died!"
"Yet," Tera said.
Greymaw jerked his face towards Calis. "Alpha—"
Both Tera and the older wolf stiffened in place.
Because Calis, who had been right behind Tera a second ago, was suddenly between her and the old man, staring down at him.
"I said do what she says."