The Ugly Duckling Of The Tiger Tribe

Chapter 365: Damar’s finally home

The construction workers were already busy around me, the rhythmic clink-clink of hammers providing a soundtrack to my anxiety.

Gosh, it was one I didn’t exactly appreciate, but I couldn’t tell them to stop either.

Talia and the other mothers had passed by earlier, offering me supportive nods. They knew.

Every beast in this valley knew how much I had looked forward to this day. How much I looked forward to my husband’s return.

Then, I saw it.

A flash of movement near the treeline. My breath hitched. It wasn’t the heavy, predatory gait of a wolf or a tiger. It was something faster, smaller—frantic yet soft steps.

Rabbit beastmen. They were half the size of a normal beastman, but they still looked cute.

One, then five, then twenty. A sea of long ears and cute faces burst out of the brush, looking exhausted and mud-streaked.

In front was Dani helping his old father, Gram. Ah, it’s been a while.

I looked over the rabbits. There was even that familiar female I had taught a lesson before, huhu.

My eyes were just scanning, and scanning, but... where was Damar? He was taking a while to show up.

I saw the wolves coming through as well, and I grew even more impatient.

I spotted Noah and Fenric appear, flanking the group, their faces split with grins that could have powered the whole valley. But still no Damar.

My heart nearly stopped at that moment. What if something had happened to him?

No, they wouldn’t be grinning so sheepishly if something had happened.

"Arinya!" Noah’s voice boomed across the clearing. "Look what the cat—well, the serpent—dragged in!"

And then, finally, moving with that effortless, undulating grace that I would know anywhere, was a flash of silver.

My knees felt weak. "Damar," I breathed, my voice barely a whisper.

He looked different. Leaner, perhaps, his silver scales dusty from the road, his emerald eyes scanning the new walls with a look of absolute bewilderment.

He was at the extreme end of the trail as if to make up for their lacking defense, his tail low and ready.

I didn’t wait. I didn’t care about looking like a dignified Queen or a calm Architect. I bolted. I ran down the slope, my boots kicking up dust, my heart finally finding its rhythm again.

Damar stopped. He was as tall as I remembered in his half-beast form, his silver hair messy, his chest heaving from the long journey.

He looked at me as I ran towards me—really looked at me—and for a second, the rest of the world just stopped for him, and the breeze blew, carrying his silver hair.

"Ari," he said, his voice raspy and deep, sounding like he hadn’t used it in weeks.

I didn’t say a word, and even before I got to where he was, I threw myself at him, and he caught me, even though I took him by surprise.

I wrapped my arms and legs around his cool body, burying my face into his neck.

"Damar," I called, my voice muffled on his skin and my eyes tearing up.

He smelled like rain, pine needles, and home. Ah, home.

"You’re late," I sobbed, squeezing him as if I could fuse our bodies together. "You’re so late, you idiot."

His arms tightened around me, and he buried his face in my hair, letting out a long, shaky exhale.

"I am home," he whispered. "Ari,"

My heart wouldn’t calm down. It just wouldn’t...

I raised my head, looking at him with my teary, blurred vision, and brushed his cheek.

It had been so long. Even if it was just two months... it felt like I was waiting, and waiting.

Even if I was busy, taking up my mind with all the hardest and stressful tasks, I couldn’t not miss him. I couldn’t not feel his absence.

"Damar," I called softly, and pressed my thumb on his lips, making sure this wasn’t a nice dream. And that he was really home.

Then, before I could even do anything else to confirm this reality, Noah pushed our heads together.

"Now, kiss," he said, and I blinked.

This pervert... But I didn’t fight it.

I kissed Damar, and he kissed me back, making sure to drown in the sweetness he had missed for so many weeks.

"Welcome home," I rasped, and his emerald eyes beheld me and me only.

"Ah, I did not expect to see such a scene as soon as I got here," that voice... I lifted my head and looked back, my hands resting on Damar’s shoulders, and Damar turned his head, his soft expression suddenly falling into an annoyed one.

"What’s up, pretty sister-in-law?" A black-haired wolf female walked out of the treeline, and I blinked.

"T-talia?!" I exclaimed, shocked, and she snickered.

"I’m so glad you remember me, sister-in-law," she winked. She was Noah’s cousin, the one who tried to make a move on me while we stayed in her hut at the border.

I looked back at Damar, who shrugged.

"This... Can you tell me what’s going on?"

"She wanted to come." He said. "She said she was tired of the border and now that things were ’changing’ she could live here in peace. And if I don’t take her with us, she’ll hold you up in the favor you owe her."

"Ah," I definitely did not see this. "Does that mean I don’t have to pay her back for her hospitality?"

"You got that right," Talia said and came closer, her nose sniffing the area around me, and that glint of mischief flared in her eyes. "You smell even better than the last time we met,"

"Ah, nice to meet you again, Talia," I greeted and laughed almost awkwardly.

She still had that sense of humor and specific interest, I see.

"Can I come out now?" Another voice rang out from behind the treeline, and my ears perked.

My gaze immediately traveled to Fenric, who shrugged with a weary sigh.

"This... is it who I think it is?" I asked, and then emerging from the treeline was a female who was a sharp contrast to Talia’s dark features and snarky personality.

She had Fenric’s hair, a beautiful face that I’d fall for if she were in a girl band in the 21st century, and a solemn expression on her face, as if the world bored her.

"Solin?!"