That arrogant, demanding tone… wasn’t this
the very female who had led them to their
deaths?
“Stay away from Elara,” Kael growled, his gaze
chilling.
“You’re Elara’s males?” Kiera’s eyes lit up with
a feverish heat as she looked at them.
Kael was every bit as handsome as her own
white tiger, if not more so.
She bit her lip, her eyes flashing with a vicious
light as she looked at me. Why? Why did Elara
get such devoted males, even when she was
trapped in that hideous beast form?
She had just seen Kael and the others carefully
peeling grapes and cutting meat into small
bites for her.
A seductive smile spread across Kiera’s face as
she swayed her hips.
“Have you ever considered… trading for a new
female?”
But before she could even get close, Kael and
the others shifted into their beast forms, letting
out a roar that sent her stumbling back.
They were much larger and more powerful than
they had been in their past life.
I watched them with a sense of pride.
I remembered how Kiera, just to spite me, had
my college major changed to Animal
Husbandry.
く
“I’m doing this for you, sister,” she had said,
her face a mask of false concern. “If Mom and
Dad ever kick you out, you can go back to the
mountains. This major will be a perfect fit, don’t
you think?”
Her cruelty was bottomless. She wanted to
grind me into the dirt.
I, feeling guilty, had let her get away with
everything.
But my tolerance only made her crueler, and in
the end, it cost me my life.
Now, I owed her nothing.
And as it turned out, every beast in my tribe
was strong and well–cared–for.
By a strange twist of fate, my major was indeed
a perfect fit.
<
Kiera’s Wildplains Tribe, however, was not
doing so well.
The cubs born in recent days were either stillborn or deformed.
A smirk crossed my face. Of course they were.
No cub could be born healthy after consuming so much toxic salt.
And after living in “civilization” for so long, relying on tools, the white tiger, black lion, and golden eagle were now so weak that any one of my mates could defeat all three of them at
once.
Let alone defeat me, with the power of a primal
god flowing through my veins.
Kiera looked at me with a sneer.
“They’re only with you for now, sister. Once one
ALL –
<
of them becomes the Alpha King, they’ll
abandon you.”
“The Alpha King of this forest has the right to
choose any female he wants.”
“And when that happens, a pathetic creature
like you will be nothing but a discarded toy.”
I walked past her to the shaman’s registration
table. With a smirk, I lifted my paw and pressed
my print onto the wooden slab.
“Who told you they were the ones from the
Clearwater Tribe competing for the crown?”
I looked at Kiera’s stunned face, my eyes filled
with thick, undisguised mockery.
She stared at me, her expression turning to
pure hatred.
But then her own mates arrived, and her
<
But then her own mates arrived, and her
arrogance returned in a flash.
“Elara, our Wildplains Tribe is at the peak of its
power. We are ascending to the highest form of human civilization.”
“Just you wait until spring comes. You’ll regret this!”
I watched her hurry away, a scornful smile on my lips.
Kiera? Build a civilization? What a joke.
After two lifetimes, did she still not understand
the rules of this place?
Civilization means nothing here. Only the
strongest fist matters.
Not long after I returned to my tribe, the harsh
winter began.
<
winter beyan.
During the spring and autumn, I had led the
wolves to gather more than enough food.
We dug a root cellar in the late fall.
Food that wouldn’t keep was cured into salted
meats and pickled vegetables.
The salt we used was properly distilled from
seawater.
The ocean was only a day’s journey from our
continent.
In my last life, as a weak Sacred Maiden, I
could never have traveled that far.
But now, with the power of a She–Shifter, I
could run for a thousand miles in a single day.
We had also bred a number of livestock,
enough to feed the entire tribe through the
enough to feed the entire tribe through the winter.
And winter was the absolute domain of the
white wolves.
90
We could blend perfectly into the snow, making
us invisible to our enemies.
Thinking of Kiera and her precious tools, I
couldn’t help but smile.
If they wanted to build a civilization, then I would grant their wish.
I would show them what true civilization on this
continent looked like.
Before the snows melted, I led the Clearwater
Tribe to conquer and absorb several of the smaller surrounding tribes.
No one expected a tribe to start a war during
<
the winter, when resources were scarcest.
But the Clearwater Tribe’s supplies seemed
endless.
By the time spring arrived, our tribe controlled
half of the shifter continent.
And I, naturally, became its Chieftain.
The next time I saw Kiera was on the battlefield
for the title of Alpha King.
The moment she saw me, her eyes blazed with
a murderous hatred.
“Elara, you were reborn too, weren’t you!”
“You knew what those three were like! You
knew they were monsters in men’s skin!”
“I was good to you! Why did you push me into this hell?”
L
I glanced at her belly. It was flat now, covered
in sickening, loose folds of skin.
Her skin was no longer smooth and white, but weathered and coarse.
It seemed that even with the Primal God’s blessing, her body couldn’t withstand the abuse she put it through.
With all the toxic salt her tribe had consumed, it was a miracle any pregnancies even took. Only Kiera, with her divine gift, could manage to carry a cub to term.
But now, her Wildplains Tribe was full of the
weak, the sick, and the crippled.
And it was all thanks to her.
During the winter, their food supply had run
dangerously low.
