Leaving the three tiger guards with their chests heaving and minds thoroughly poisoned, Maddie stepped away from the rusted iron fence. A cold, calculating thrill thrummed through her veins. She smoothed down the front of her tunic, adjusting her posture to ensure she looked every bit the precious, vulnerable female this broken world demanded she be.
She wasn’t going home. Not yet. The seeds of dissent needed water, and Bowral was overflowing with dry, desperate soil.
She picked her way across the uneven cobblestones, navigating the beautiful, ruined streets of the town. Towering eucalyptus trees burst through the foundations of old boutique shops, their leaves rustling in the dry morning air, while thick green vines wrapped like natural rope around ornate Victorian balconies. To her left, the remains of an old brick clock tower lay scattered across a small plaza, a permanent scar from the earthquake nearly a year ago.
As she crossed the plaza, a flash of dull copper and white fabric caught her eye near a salvaged fruit stall. Maddie slowed her pace, her lips curling into a look of absolute disdain.
It was Alice. The new rag doll beast-woman who had recently settled into the house by the river.
Alice was leaning against a wooden crate, doll-like ears twitching lazily as she watched the bustling trade around her. Unlike Maddie, who constantly demanded attention, Alice just existed, her large, glassy button-eyes carrying an innocent look.
As Maddie walked past, Alice tilted her head, slowly raising a single eyebrow in a gesture of pure, unadulterated judgment. It was clear she had seen Maddie lurking around the guard posts.
Maddie rolled her eyes heavily, tossing her hair over her shoulder and picking up her pace. A useless, freak, Maddie thought bitterly. Alice didn’t understand the stakes. She didn’t understand that a fertile woman had to fight to keep her crown.
Maddie hurried toward the eastern barricades, where the second guard post sat nestled between two leaning Victorian townhouses. Here, five more unmated tiger guards were stationed, looking utterly bored as they stared at the overgrown dirt tracks leading out of the settlement.
Maddie didn’t hesitate. She softened her eyes, forced a slight tremble into her lower lip, and walked right into their direct line of sight.
"Oh... thank goodness," Maddie breathed, pausing a few feet away and pressing a delicate hand to her chest. "I didn’t know if anyone was stationed out here today."
Instantly, all five tiger beast-men snapped to attention. Their striped ears swiveled forward, and the sheer, suffocating desperation of unbonded males rolled off them in waves, a female initiating contact was like dropping a match into a powder keg.
"Maddie? What’s wrong?" one of the younger guards asked, stepping forward so fast he nearly tripped over his own boots. "Are you hurt? Did something happen near the marketplace?"
"Not the marketplace," Maddie said, her voice dropping to a breathless, fragile whisper that forced the guards to crowd closer to hear her. She leaned into their circle, letting her scent laced with the sharp tang of her manufactured fear, provoke their dormant alpha instincts. "It’s the manor. I... I tried to walk past the gate to gather some wild herbs, and those men... the ones the blonde fox strings along... they threatened me."
A collective, low growl rumbled through the chests of the five guards. Their tails lashed, the heavy fur along their spines bristling.
"They threatened a female of the base?" the guard snarled, his claws clicking against the shaft of his pike. "The General said they were off-limits, but if they are harassing our women..."
"The General doesn’t know the half of it," Maddie interrupted softly, her eyes wide and swimming with false tears. She looked directly into the eyes of the lead guard, reaching out to let her fingertips brush against his leather forearm. The man practically stopped breathing at the touch. "They aren’t just protecting her. They are hoarding her. You’ve all heard the rumors from the neighboring town, haven’t you? She’s beautiful, kind... and she’s carrying four cubs. Two boys, two girls."
The guards looked at each other, their jaws tightening with a dangerous, toxic envy.
"Four cubs..." the young guard muttered, a look of starved longing crossing his face. "A female that fertile... and she’s locked away by outside mercenaries?"
"Exactly," Maddie whispered, her voice a seductive, venomous purr. She leaned in closer still, her lips inches from the captain’s ear. "It isn’t fair to the settlement. It isn’t fair to you. Desperate, loyal men like you should be the ones guarding a treasure like that. If she were brought into the town’s central holding cells... if we isolated her from those brutal husbands of hers... she wouldn’t have a choice but to look at the men of Bowral."
She paused, letting the implication hang in the dry air before delivering the ultimate, shameless lie.
"A fox like her? Once she gives birth to those cubs, she will need a real, localized pack to keep her safe. She will need local alphas. Who knows..." Maddie trailed her fingers down the guard’s arm, her voice a sickeningly sweet promise. "...her next heat could be yours. If your men are brave enough to help me take her, to bring her under the settlement’s law... she could be yours to share. All of you could have a turn to claim a piece of that future."
The guards’ eyes went completely bloodshot. The concept of a top-tier, hyper-fertile female’s next heat being promised to them bypassed all logic, all loyalty to the Tiger General. Their beast-men brains completely short-circuited under the influence of her words.
"We’ll do it," the guard ground out, his breathing heavy, his chest expanding as he visualized the blonde fox locked in the settlement cells, stripped of her outside protectors. "We just need the right moment. When she steps into the open, we take her."
"Good," Maddie smiled, a thrill of dark triumph making her heart race. "Watch the roads. Don’t let her husbands see you plotting. I will let you know when she moves."