Author's note: Happy New Year to everyone!

  ****

  Elzada caught herself thinking about how much she loved cubs. It hardly mattered if cubs beloo Normies or New Breeds; little ones were awesome by definitiardless of their in. But as she shook a tiny body off her paw, she wished these rascals would be a little calmer.

  In the rush to prepare for the massive retreat, the Ice Fangs had turhe lower decks of their mobile fortresses into a kindergarten of sorts. Soft and frail Normies, hardy and sturdy Orais, bde-armed or spiked Malformed, and even several chittering Iones—all children were herded here, safely protected by the near-impregnable hull. To avoid the iable disaster, the Ice Fangs had wisely assigned several sages tanize and coordihe voluo supervise, guide, and prevent their young charges from shiving or crushing each other. Nuns of six different faiths sang hymns, often teag willing cubs simpler prayers. Teachers, hawkishly and to the chagrin of the shamans, stopped any attempts at domination, or bullying as they called it, and staged games and lessons.

  As, Brood Lord’s cubs were slightly harder to manage. Skittering bad forth on four needle-thin legs, these restless critters had the appearance of a human torso mounted on an ioid chassis. Smaller than even a Normie infant, each cub in Elzada’s care was barely the length of her paw. But their appetites were already ravenous, and tiny mouths filled with razor-sharp teeth opened, hissing and shing out to taste everything.

  They had been clearly stressed and agitated by the unceremonious way their older brother had shoved them into the tainer, and the rough transport did little to keep their tempers in check. Dokholkhu had struggled to keep his twe cubs separate; their survival instincts had fired up in full, and the weakest risked being attacked and devoured. Uerred, Elzada had brought enough milk and bread and pced it before the ever-starving browhat possessed human pupils a cked humaience.

  But like most Malformed, these little ones craved meat and were willing to hunt to get it. Dokholkhu and Jaliqai had volunteered to watch over their younger brood, but after a bit of questioning, Elzada had realized that her of them had the fai idea how to handle such hunger or treat a little one for that matter. Still not fully trusting the Horde defectors, Elzada took on the role of a ‘mother’, both spying on the older siblings and trolling their younger kin.

  Much to her surprise, Ignacy soon knocked on the partment door and asked for permission to stay. Elzada had eagerly agreed to help him, f him to wear full body armor to cover the stench of blood emanating from his bandages. And because she wasn’t about to let ae her soulmate. That was her privilege.

  A faint st of the Twins permeated this pce, immediately assaulting the Wolfkins’ nostrils and awing them both. Where the Blessed Mother’s fragranspired daring and achieving worthy deeds and invigorated during exhaustion, the Order’s progenitors promised pead calmed down, reminding of a return to the tent and simply lying face doreciating that everything was okay in the world. The sage who led her into this partment had expihat it reviously used to store priceless historical reliearthed during the quest.

  Not that these little imps have any appreciation for its sanctity! The wolf hag jerked a finger away from a snap.

  “Holy, it’s a bit like dealing with our cubs,” Elzada ughed, nudging the biting cub to the bowl of milk.

  “Watch out!” Ignacy started, but she already heard the tapping above and leaned back, catg the adorable predator before she could hit her head on the Wolfkin’s p.

  “Only slightly more mobile! Nope!” Elzada clicked her tooo weak to hunt me! Eat food!”

  Elzada pced the “attacker” on the floor and licked her lovingly, shoving her closer to the milk. Cubs! Was there anythier in this world? The loud and hungry screeg of the little ones evoked the imagery of her dear son’s protests as she scrubbed him with a sponge and then forced him to eat vegetables. Sure, her parents never made Elzada eat such disgusting food, but unlike her, slot still had all his fangs at his age, so the Normies were on to something.

  Years ago, she and Anissa had found a ruined hut in the wilderness, a home belonging to a family of Wolfkin exiles who had left the Tribe iile hope of nursing their cubs back to health.

  Such things were extremely rare, but the Tribe always took care of its own, exiled or not. Often, the packs would drop off supplies to their banished kin and clear the area of hostiles to the best of their abilities. Shamans regurly visited such families, cheg if they weren’t mistaken in their judgments and helping the outcasts settle in.

  But this hut had been unique, even by the standards of the Exiles. A happy pack of Wolfkins had lived there, eight cubs and two parents. The seven little ones had no ailment b them, and they still stubbornly followed their parents into the wilderness, intending on g for their sick sister.

  The family had earned a fiation for advising and assisting travelers and sharing the test gossip with the scouts. But they had refused the shamans’ pleas to join a loormie settlement for safety’s sake, believing that when their daughter grew up, the Tribe would eagerly wele them back.

  Sadly, this was not to be. Life in the Wastes showed no mercy for the isoted. A group of Malformed had stumbled upon the exiles and had butchered aehe burning hut had greeted Anissa and Elzada upon their arrival, and the broken bones of their kin littered the jagged rocks. A single cub had survived, a very young male, hidden by his parents and preserved by nothihan a miracle. He had no memory of the attack; the shock of what had happened had damaged the boy’s memory.

  Rules and traditions demahat he be handed over to the shamans to be judged. But seeing his starved body, the ribs pressing against the skin, his lips chapped and dry from dehydration, and hearing him call her “Mama” had melted Elzada’s heart. What female would deny a cub in such a situation? She had begged Anissa, who was only a scout at the time, for help, and the two friends lied to the shamans about the cub’s ins, g that Elzada had given birth to him during a heat. The shaman in charge of their vilge preteo believe them and whipped Elzada to the bone for hiding and mistreating the cub. But he was allowed to stay. Her dearest boy and the joy of her life. Let the Spirits rage and curse for breaking the traditions; Elzada wasn’t willing to abandon him.

  As for the malformed who itted the crime… The Tribe never fot a grudge. Lacerated One had led the shamans on a holy punitive war, depoputing the nearby hills of the Malformed to put the wrht. Their screams had echoed through the night as the cws and fangs spoke, pleasing Elzada’s heart, and for three years, non-inbred freaks didn’t dare show themselves in this region of the Wastes.

  And so Elzada became a mother. With Anissa’s help, her precious slot had recovered nicely and was now braving the pits, enduring them like a true soldier. Her boy had proudly shown her four fresh scars he had earned from a girl, and told her a story of how he had dominated another boy during their long versation when she had called him from Houstad. Such calls were rare, sadly, as shamans escorted the little oo private camps that had a e to the , and most parents tried their best to be at the stations during these times.

  Elzada had shared the secret of her son’s in with Igna Houstad, expeg him to shun her like many other males for her fear of lifegiving. But the dearest Ignacy had simply shrugged and awkwardly drawn her closer as the two of them watched the starry sky. They had mated in the park, enjoying a violent surge of love that engulfed them, sharing st marks at the peak of pleasure. Later, the police briefly arrested them for the crime of ‘i exposure in a public space’—whatever that meant—and they sealed their union with a joint bite in the cell. A part of her soul went cold after he failed to return during the retreat.

  But the Spirits gave him back! Her Ignacy, her beloved, often fused doofus, survived!

  “They don’t uand, Elzada. Our kin gaiieer living for two hundred days…” Dokholkhu said wly as one of his sisters tried to jump and bite the wolf hag by the nose. Elzada ughed, dodged, and grabbed the little one by the neck, returnio the food.

  Jaliqai, meanwhile, spped another cub out of the air, resg Ignacy from being bitten. The hissing boy nded on his bad raised his front legs in anger, receiving a light kick from his big sister. The small fiend rolled on the floor and crashed into a slice of bread, sinking his teeth into it in frustration.

  Dokholkhu and Jaliqai, along with their reasonable brood-kin, argued vehemently against beio the rear. With their true age known, Warlord Martyshkina had decred them big cubs, leading to Jaliqai shouting for the right to wield ons to proted fight for her new . Martyshkina refused to budge on the issue.

  “Dude, trust me, I know, okay?” Elzada caught another Malformed. “The state has, like, hundreds of different New Breeds; you think we never dealt with rascals like these? Ha! You’ve got to treat them the way we treat our young. They, too, are animalistid instinctual, but not pletely stupid. They don’t uand words, but they uand d sequences. So we traio behave and stay safe.”

  Elzada dropped to all frimag from the pain in her damaged stomach, puffing her fur, aing out a low growl, retreating the happiness from her eyes and weling the bloodthirst. Her lips curled, exposing her fangs, and the cubs stopped their mischief, gng worriedly at the Wolfkin and trying to retreat. She gave them no quarter, howling in rage.

  But it was a trolled rage, ohat made the you of her own kind silent and obedient. She id down rules and boundaries, warhem of the retribution of her and if they didn’t obey, engaging in a primal versation with her wards. You will eat what yiven. The cubs uood that part immediately and rushed to the bowls, ically sinking their heads into the milk and taking apart the loaves of bread.

  “How do you know how to do it?” Ignacy asked, pg his head on his paw.

  “Surprised you are no lohe know-it-all around here?” Elzada chuckled.

  “More in awe and eager to learn, my beautiful mistress of surprises,” Ignacy purred.

  “Aw. AW!” Elzada jerked her finger free from a tiny maw. As soon as her mood ged, the nasty assholes tried their luck again. “Bad boy! Here, milk! Not my flesh; ear bread!” She sighed, fag her soulmate. “We’ll have to ask the Ice Fangs for some ed meat. Or I’ll just hunt for some in the forest. As for your question, Anissa and I have been helping with lifegivings and keeping the cubs in che the Outer Lands.”

  Ignaodded, uanding right away, but Jaliqai frowned.

  “In check?” she asked, leaning closer on her chitinous legs.

  “Yep!” Elzada moved aside, smag baother cub. “Have ya paid attention to what I’ve been saying, girl? No biting! Anyway, tons of little ones ier Lands are born... Well...”

  “Born as murderous psychos, let’s be real,” Ignacy suggested.

  “I prefer the word special, but you have a point.” Elzada grinned after Ignacy sent her an air kiss. “Our CO…”

  “Who?” asked Dokholkhu.

  “The anding officer. Anyway, the Normies’ CO expi to us during a joint training. The Extin almost wiped out humanity, and so the New Breeds and mutants created by the Glow or the radiation have an unnaturally strong tendency to survive, often disregarding family ties.”

  “There is way more to it than that drunk was babbling about, but he was correct where it matters,” Ignacy added. “Evolution is a bitch. Just a fact we have to live with.”

  “Yeah. Eager to kill their parents on the spot, prepared to ibalize, you know, the regur Malformed and New Breed stuff. And Normies ’t ha…”

  “Why, are they scared?” Dokholkhu interrupted Elzada. “Our bondsme that zy.”

  “It’s not fear, it’s not ziness, it’s just reality!” Elzada argued. “To thrive, you gotta cooperate. Stists i, workers bor, builders erect houses, Wolfkins sughter…”

  “But we are capable of more,” Ignacy added.

  “Exactly! We multitask; we are not worse than Normies, we are their equals!” Elzada said fiercely, fused when no one disagreed. What came over me? She wondered and tinued. “Many new souls are capable of crumplial, and more lift a car right after slipping out of the womb! It doesn’t matter whether or not you are brave; there are certain limits allocated to you by nature, and it is wrong to rely on others to tackle a difficult prey… or task.”

  “Plus, even if they could trol their offspring, parents o sleep.” Ignaodded. “I read about an i in a neer. Apparently there is a family in Houstad, perfectly normal, but their son happeo be born a mutant. The gover put him in a special facility after the boy knocked down a wall iernity ward after his mother took a nap.”

  “Yeah, and that in Houstad, a beati of civilization. You saw how much worse it is everywhere else. So me, Ani, and quite a few others would often leave our vilge to help in raising… Son of a bitch!” She tore a cub off her leg, rubbing a minor bite mark. Razor-sharp teeth, indeed. “Anyway, Normies ask for help; we gdly oblige, helping to tain the cubs until they are old enough to uand that…” She roared the words into the tiny face, letting the emotions to deliver her message. “Chewing! Another! Person! Is! Wrong!”

  “Which is kind of riing from us.” Ignacy griiredly and then bared his fangs at a little orying to sneak up on him. The cub retreated immediately.

  “Do as I say, not as I do!” Elzada beamed and hugged her soulmate. He smiled! She was worried that he might’ve tried to follow Bogdan, but he smiled! There was life in him yet! And she’d do everything to turn the embers in him into a proper bonfire!

  “tain,” Jaliqai repeated the word, g her hands together. Her sister tried to leap at Elzada’s back, and the girl kicked her aside. “Back at home, Brood Lord simply trampled any of us who got in his way. And the sves tending to the young brood kin seldom sted long. I thought…”

  “That everyone was as horrible as the Horde?” Elzada bared her fangs, keeping the urge to snarl at bay. Jaliqai murdered is, stood by as her kin died, and helped foster svery and every ceivable viotion. Her father killed Bogdan, but at the end of the day, she was a young cub, deliberately raised to be a monster. It wasn’t Elzada’s pce to judge her, not after the girl had made the right choice when it ted. “Nah, get used to civilian life, bitch. You got a lot to atone for. Start by making sure these turn out better than you did, coward.”

  “Elzi. Enough,” Ignacy said, looking her in the eye, his tone no longer having a submissive intonation but an iron grip that belonged in their intimate moments. Something in her demahat she show the male his pce, but Elzada brushed it off.

  Jaliqai nodded, dispassiorag her hissing siblings, and a shadow passed over her face. Elzada hazarded a guess at what kind of survival guilt was raging in that skull of hers, apanied by the pointless guilt about not making a run from their cruel parent snacy was right. Regrets had their pce, but letting them poison the fresh start for the Malformed was wrong.

  “Do not dwell on the mistakes of the past, for they are carved in stone,” Elzada said, letting go of Ignacy. “Learn from them instead. Use this experieo mold yourself into a better person…”

  “…And fe a path to a brighter morrow for those who ck both the opportunity and the strength to do it themselves,” Anissa fihe lesson the Spirit of Pride had left for the Tribe. The wolf hag stepped into the partment and closed the door. Her artificial eye shone like a newborn star. “At ease. Keep it up, and we’ll join the shamans together, Elzi.”

  “I don’t have a knack for it.” Elzada’s ears perked. She secretly perused the material given to Nissi. “Plus, you know. A lung and a leg. I doubt the shamans would approve.”

  “Sister. How was the battle?” Ignacy stood up.

  “We survived.” Anissa crossed the entire room, gracefully evading the lurking Malformed, and embraced her brother, pressing his head against her chest aing her muzzle on his shoulder, breathing heavily. Ignacy patted her on the back. The wolf hag didn’t punch him for familiarity. The two stood for a while, saying nothing, before Anissa let him go.

  “And Mother? How is she? The doctors refused to tell me anything.”

  “Rec,” Anissa answered. “Elzada. Ignacy. Off to rest. I am taking over the duty.”

  “My wounds have already…” Elzada stopped talking when Anissa’s ded up near her neck. Spirits, she has gotten even faster! “Yeah, adrenalialking, got it. o add a new scar; I’ve already lost too much ski’s go, Ignacy; I’ll give you a tour of the pce!”

  Anissa had always had the weird streaks of a character. Back when they were cubs, she had beaten Elzada’s baby fangs dowhroat during a game. The day, the girl reappeared, bringing clumsy excuses and inviting Elzada to do the same to her. Of course she agreed! This weird bonding made them friends. They huogether, shared secrets, passed pits together, and Nissi helped Elzada heal the broken legs after Wolf Hag Janine had visited the pits… It was time to catch up to her friend. The war brought ge, and her bones grew tougher, wounds closed faster, and her mind gained a newfound crity. She must reach her prime to be able to protect Ignad to stand equal to Anissa.

  That, and she didn’t want to look weak in front of Ignacy ever again.

  Elzada felt her friend’s heavy gaze following them and then broke into a mischievous grin as she heard curses. Maybe she should have warned Nissi what she was signing up for, but the sight of her standing, covered in the small Malformed who chewed at her armpits and ankles, was totally worth it. Anissa raised a paw, stopping Dokholkhu and Jaliqai from helping, and gathered a full chest with a single inhale, releasing it into a furious howl.

  The walls shook, and the st they saw before the door sealed the partmehe cubs prostrating themselves to the wolf hag. She has what it takes to bee a shaman. Elzada decided, gng at her owainted. No point w about what ’t be. This is one road on which I ’t follow her. No matter, I’ll find my own way.

  “How are you holding up?” Elzada asked.

  “Physically well. Otherwise,” Ignacy looked at the bend ahead. “I’m still expeg him to e out and tell me it rank. I... ’t make peace with him not being here. There is a void in my heart, as if a part of me is missing, o return.” He leaned against the wall and touched the stump of his arm. “Worse than that. This I fix, unlike what happened. So many familiar faces are gone already, and I ’t get over the fact that I’ll never see Bogdan, Melina, and the rest again. We are in the Core Lands, and even the warlords are not safe here. Even our kinship turned out to be false,” he whispered as an Ice Fang passed nearby. “I keep thinking who’ll be .”

  “It’s okay to cry, you know,” Elzada said softly, pg a paw on his shoulder. “It helps during grieving.”

  “And what, am I supposed to cry forever? Fuck that; Bogdan would have been the first to kick my ass if I’d sunk that low.” Ignacy smiled again, and they hugged. “Death tries to cim everything we love and poison us into misery. I’m done pying its game; we must live for those around us, to honor those we’ve lost, and for ourselves.”

  “That we’ll do,” Elzada promised sweetly. He didn’t even mind when she pulled him into her den rather than leading him to the engine room. Life was simply too short to waste.