The Wicked Female and Her Eight Beastmen Mates: Pregnant From Day One - Chapter 11:

  The Suspected Bai Yue

As Xue spoke, she followed Yani’s lead and knelt before Bai Yue.

Her rough animal-hide clothing barely covered her, and for a moment,

she looked less like a warrior and more like a wandering believer pleading for a god’s mercy.

Her eyes were soft as snow, yet within them lingered a sorrow that could never fade.

Bai Yue, she said quietly, if my words bring you any discomfort,

I will apologize. But please… help us.

Her voice trembled, her head lowered so deeply that her humility

became a silent confession of loyalty.

Bai Yue looked down at the two kneeling women.

Something unnameable stirred in her chest compassion, guilt, and

a faint ache she couldn’t quite explain.

Xue, you don’t have to do this.

Xue shook her head. No. I should have done this long ago.

She remembered the witch doctor’s command before he left

that Bai Yue was to be served and protected.

As the witch doctor’s chosen apprentice, Xue had always held herself above the others.

She had despised Bai Yue for her shamelessness, for her cruelty,

for tainting the honor of the females.

But everything she thought she knew crumbled the moment

she saw Bai Yue heal with her own eyes.

Yani’s voice joined in, thick with tears. And me too, Bai Yue.

I was wrong. I said terrible things about you before. Please, I beg you, help me…

Once, Yani had been the tribe’s beloved flower beautiful, outspoken, bold.

With a father and brother strong enough to shield her, she’d been untouchable.

Males lined up to chase her, far more than she could count.

She had accepted only two mates so far. One had gone hunting yesterday with the main party;

the other had stayed to protect her and was now lying pale and broken,

a deep gash slashed across his chest. His breathing was so faint it was barely there.

Her brother was worse. His right arm had been severed only a strip of

flesh still connected bone to body.

I can’t… reattach it, Bai Yue murmured after a glance. She wasn’t a surgeon.

Even with the system’s help, she couldn’t perform miracles.

Yani’s tears fell like rain. Still, she wiped them away, forcing herself to speak.

Just save his life. Please.

In the world of beastmen, losing a limb was no different from dying.

Without one arm, a beastman couldn’t fight, couldn’t hunt, couldn’t win another battle.

Yani’s heart shattered under the weight of regret but she couldn’t let him die.

Her sobs spread like wildfire. Soon, the cave filled with the broken cries

of females mourning their mates and brothers.

Bai Yue felt the sound clawing at her chest. It was too much.

She treated the last of the wounded as quickly as she could, then fled outside,

gulping in the cold morning air.

The breeze brushed against her face, clearing the fog in her mind.

Only then did she realize dawn had already broken.

She didn’t know that, far away on a high ridge, eyes were watching her.

The leader of the rogues stood still as stone, the wind carrying the scent of bl00d and loss.

The tribesmen are retreating, Chief. We should go, said one of his followers

his severed arm bound clumsily with vines. He scanned the forest for pursuers,

fear flickering in his gaze.

Their raid had failed miserably. They hadn’t captured a single female and

more than half of their brothers had died.

Fifty had come. Barely a dozen remained.

The rest had been torn apart by that black wolf or plucked from the

ground by that cursed eagle and dropped to their deaths.

Through the gaps in the leaves, the rogue leader Feng

caught sight of a female climbing the mountain trail.

Her steps were slow, her body weary, but she was alive.

The tall male walking beside her kept a protective hand close to her back.

Even from this distance, Feng swore he could smell her

the faint sweetness the wind carried from her skin.

Her hair shimmered as it danced with the light, and the sun painted her fragile figure in gold.

Feng lifted his hand. A tiny white butterfly began to form at his fingertips,

its wings fragile and translucent in the sun.

Go, he whispered, his voice low and dangerous. Bring her back to me.

The butterfly fluttered once… twice… and vanished into the wind.

Meanwhile, tension was brewing again between Bai Yue and Bafeng.

Did you leave the cave last night? he asked as he caught up with her.

She blinked, surprised he knew, but didn’t hide it. I did.

Did you meet… someone from another tribe?

He wanted to say rogue beastmen, but the words caught in his throat.

Even softened, the question carried a heavy accusation.

Bai Yue stopped walking. Her head lifted, eyes sharp with anger.

Are you saying I was with a rogue beastman?

Bafeng’s expression faltered. I didn’t mean it like that. I just

You did mean it like that.

Her voice was cold, each word edged like glass. You think I met them.

You think I conspired with them. That I warned them.

All because I’m a bad female, right?

Her fury came not just from his suspicion but from everything from the original

Bai Yue’s sins she was forced to carry, from the exhaustion of surviving in a world that wasn’t hers.

She knew how the story went. She knew what the tribe had once done to her kind of woman.

Would they burn her again, too?

Bafeng tried to speak, but she wouldn’t look at him anymore.

Her silence scared him more than her anger.

I didn’t mean that, he said again, but his words fell into

the quiet between them, unanswered.

That night, exhaustion claimed her the moment she returned to the cave.

She barely made it to her bedding before falling asleep.

Even when Yani brought her a massive cut of meat as thanks, Bai Yue didn’t stir.

By the next evening, she finally woke starving and groggy but alive.

Her stomach growled like a beast of its own.

She stepped outside, blinking against the sunset’s red light, and

spotted Xue walking toward her with a wooden bowl in her hands.

It was almost the same scene as the night before except this time, there was far more food.

Her eyes widened when she noticed the small pile of sweet fruits inside.

The same fruits once reserved for cubs the same ones the old Bai Yue used to steal from their hands.

Dinner’s ready, Bai Yue, Xue said softly, bowing her head in respect.

The difference from yesterday’s tone was staggering.

Leave it inside, Bai Yue said. Her voice was distant, her mood heavy.

Whatever sense of belonging she’d started to feel toward the tribe

had been crushed by Bafeng’s doubt that morning.

Xue nodded. Before leaving, she hesitated. Bai Yue, the tribe… they all want to see you.

Will you meet them tomorrow?

Me?

Yes. Because you saved them.

But that wasn’t the only reason.

They believed she had been touched blessed by the Beast God.