Clan Fang and Claw escorted them deeper into the Talahurah highlands. Members rode on tamed dire wolves, pulling canoe-shaped wagons that contained their weapons, large hunted game, and their cubs playing on the carcass. The hunting parties totaled around 40, not counting the young. Kanae and Sheeba sat within the carriage, watching from the windows the whole way there just in case. Hopefully, Arenade had a better welcoming party.
The lioness, although fully healed thanks to Nectar of the Grove, continued to lick her wounds. Rough barbs on the back of her tongue had licked her arm raw. Sheeba was probably still lamenting over her loss to Yordo. Pride like that wasn't a readily repairable thing.
Night had fallen over Talahurah when a knock came to the side of the wagon. Yordo, looking like he was suffering from the biggest migraine of his life, dipped his head into view.
"We're nearing Osawa, home of Fang and Claw. The Pack Leader will want to see you, so we'll be taking you there," Yordo explained.
"Tell me about this Pack Leader of yours. Is he bigger and hunkier than you?" Kanae licked the air in front of him.
"H-He's stronger than me for certain. Only the strongest of us leads the clan," the large beastman said before riding ahead on his dire wolf.
Kanae retreated back inside, where Sheeba was now licking her other arm. The other had been scratched enough that it bled a little.
"Hey, stop that." Kanae grabbed her arm and casted Flash Heal. "You're hurting yourself."
"Sorry! It just happens when I fall into thought. I can't stop thinking about losing to Yordo. Am I… weak?" Sheeba stared into her hands.
"Unless you can read palms, you won't find the answer in your hands. Listen, maybe you're weaker than Yordo, but that doesn't make you weak."
"Huh?" She cocked her head.
"Er… That sounded better in my mind. I'm saying, you and Yordo are strong in different ways. Do you think he or Fang and Claw's pack leader can lead Talahurah after losing its great tree? No. You did. You pulled everyone together at their lowest point, and now it's prospering more than ever."
"And if someone like Avaline von Cleisseldor comes to destroy the Kh'shanti again? Without the strength to back it up, I won't be able to protect anything…"
Kanae frowned. It wasn't as if Sheeba was wrong. She just took defeat much harder than it needed to be. The carriage eventually rolled onto harder ground. They peered out to find a massive village, and the eyes of countless wolf beastmen staring back at them. Homes were earthen burrows in the hellside, hammocks suspended between trees, and pavilions covered in multiple pelts stitched together.
The hunting party's return with unfamiliar carriages drew a lot of attention. Beastmen emerged from their dwellings to watch or follow. It became a fairly large procession by the time they rolled to a stop. Yordo pounded on the door for them to come out.
Kanae and Sheeba jumped down from the carriage. The other ambassadors shuffled out nervously. A nearby beastman snarled at them, causing one to fall onto his ass amidst laughter. Everyone faced a makeshift throne, which sat atop the skull of a dragon. The frame was made from big animal bones. The seat and cushion were laden with animal leathers. Two roaring braziers to either side of the seat lifted cinders into the night.
All at once, clan members fell to their knees. A lone wolf beastman climbed onto the throne, lounging sideways as if he couldn't be bothered. He boasted a large old scar, absent of fur, that stretched diagonally from his right shoulder blade down to the left side of his waist. Silver eyes stared down at Kanae, and then… avoided her gaze.
"Yordo, I was hoping to enjoy the rest of the night with my lovers, whom I've not made love to in a week. The fact that outsiders are in Osawa means you failed to repel them. This better be good. Who have you brought to me?" the seated wolfman growled.
"Forgive me, Pack Leader Thames. The succubus, she… soundly defeated me—"
"She fucked him unconscious!" someone behind them yelled.
"Who said that?!" Yordo spun around on the masses, only for everyone to keep their heads down.
"I can speak for myself," Kanae said, coming right up to the nose of the dragon skull. "I am Kanae Toyomi, Empress of the Commonwealth. This is Sheeba, Chieftain of Talahurah. We've come with ambassadors to discuss terms of an alliance. We sent emissaries to you ahead of time. You should have received them long before we arrived."
Thames beckoned to someone from beyond the crowd. They parted to give way to another canoe-cart enclosed by a dire beast's ribcage. The primitive cage contained two feline beastmen, who were beyond relieved to see them.
"Y-Your Majesty, we're terribly sorry! A hunting party captured us, and they wouldn't even hear us out. We've been stuck here for over a day!" one of them cried.
"Okay, let's not be so dramatic." Thames waved dismissively. "I've kept you fed, haven't I? Put you next to a fire to stay warm, too."
"I suppose he did…" the other said.
Sheeba leaned in and whispered, "The Pack Leader isn't what I expected him to look or act. Is it just me?"
"You've never met him?" Kanae asked.
"No. This is also my first time in Osawa," she explained.
"Hey, what are you two whispering about down there? Stop that!" The Pack Leader rose and puffed out his chest.
Strange. Kanae didn't feel an ounce of menace in Thames. The beastmen around him, however, did. So much in fact that even Yordo cowered on his knees for displeasing him.
"Pack Leader, I'll be straight with you. I want to bring Fang and Claw into the Commonwealth. Refuse, and I challenge your rule over Fang and Claw," Kanae said.
Flabbergasted, Thames' jaw dropped. Clan members muttered amongst themselves in surprise, with Yordo and other Hunter Chiefs erupting into laughter.
"You want to challenge Dragonslayer Thames? Good luck, succubus!" Yordo guffawed.
"You've killed a dragon, huh?" Kanae asked in disbelief. "I've beaten a few myself. I even had sex with them."
The laughing stopped.
"Have your people form a ring and square up. The clan values strength above all else, right? Let's have a fight and get it over with!" Kanae shouted.
"Now, now. W-Why would I waste my precious strength pummeling someone weaker than me? I will grant you an audience first. In my home. Away from prying eyes. Yes. Yordo, free our captives," Thames demanded.
"Uh, at once, Pack Leader!" Yordo barked at those closest to the cage to open it.
With no battle to witness, the onlookers began to disperse and return to their homes. Thames descended from the dragon skull drenched in sweat. The braziers' flames had been licking at him the entire time up on his seat. He rolled his shoulders, then beckoned them to follow.
Sheeba motioned for the ambassadors to check on their captive fellows before catching up to Kanae. Together, they followed Thames and a squad of beastmen warriors to a large pavilion. Unlike the others around it, this was the only one covered in a tough scaly gray hide. The skull and hide might have been from the same dragon.
Thames pulled the opening to let them enter, and Kanae walked in on five naked wolf women. Two were lying in bed together, and the other three lounged about, feasting on meat and drinking from cups made from hollowed out horns. All were pregnant.
"Thames, my alpha~ Where have you been?" a woman with a dark brown coat of fur cooed.
"Who'd you bring now? The five of us aren't enough to sate you?" Another, this one a deeper maroon, sat up in bed and frowned.
"No— I mean, yes, you are enough for me! These are my guests. Very important… dangerous guests. It might get bloody in here, so you may all want to step outside while I have a word with them. I'll have the guards take you to the maternity dens," Thames insisted.
The five wolf women bared their fangs at Kanae and Sheeba, who tensed up in return.
"No, no, no, no, no! Think of the babies!" he pleaded.
They relented and helped each other get dressed to leave, but not before taking mocking bites in Kanae's direction. She watched the last of them exit, then turned her attention back to Thames to see that he was groveling on the ground.
"What the?" Kanae took a step back.
"Pleeeease, forgive my insolence!" Thames cried.
"I had a feeling you weren't some big bad wolf!" she groaned.
"I didn't expect the empress of all people to come to Osawa! I mean you no harm. Please, don't hurt me!" he sniveled from the floor.
"Hold on, you were a wimp this entire time? How have you been able to instill fear and awe into your clan?" Sheeba picked him up by the scruff of his neck and growled.
"It's… It's a long story…"
"Then keep it short." The lioness threw him across the room and into the bed.
Kanae and Sheeba made themselves comfortable in Thames' spacious and cozy home. Wooden panels furnished the floor with animal pelts laid on top. Lanterns hung from the pavilion rafters. A firepit in one corner heated up the entire place, insulated by the dragon's hide. Skull trophies of numerous dire beasts were affixed to the walls, with the biggest being a mammoth-like beast whose tusks were used to hang clothes on.
"I came into power near the end of Talon's reign in Talahurah. Around then, a dragon had taken residence in the highlands. I joined the then Pack Leader Rauma with a large hunting party to slay it, but… that proved disastrous. Everyone got roasted alive, man! So I hid! What in three hells was I going to do alone with a single javelin?"
"The dragon skull and this hide around us is from the same dragon?" Sheeba asked.
Thames nodded.
"Then how did you end up killing it?" Kanae folded her arms.
"I didn't. The damn thing choked trying to swallow down Rauma and the others. He was… kind of a big guy. Anyway, I stabbed the dead bastard through the eye, returned to Osawa, told everyone that I was the sole survivor of the dragon hunt. Got named Dragonslayer and was made Pack Leader for it. Life's been great since!" Thames grinned.
"You're a fraud!" Kanae and Sheeba exclaimed.
He lifted a finger to his lips. "Shhh! Shh! Hey, hey, hey. I may be a fraud, but when was the last time Fang and Claw had a bloody conflict with Talahurah? Things are tense but good! You want the clan to join? Done. But we need to make a spectacle of it. If I just go out and tell everyone, 'Hey, we're joining the succubus' empire!' They are going to turn on me in the snap of a finger. So, we'll have a duel. One on one. Let me beat the crap out of you, then I'll say some bullshit about joining to bring some strength into the Commonwealth. How about that? We all win!"
"Your Majesty…" The lioness' eyes twitched uncontrollably. "Let me face Thames in the bout to make mince meat out of him."
"Eeeek!" Terrified, he backed up to the farthest point on his bed and hid under the covers.
It would probably be what Thames deserved for lying to his clan for years, but that wasn't going to resolve anything. They needed Fang and Claw, and their race of warriors who were immune to the effects of succubus charm.
"I don't get it. Why not just tell them Fang and Claw will join the Commonwealth? They listen to you, don't they?" Kanae asked.
"Y-Yes, but we've been high on the slogan of independence for ages. Taking an about face on the matter is just going to look suspicious. I can't look weak! Yordo will fucking kill me. Have you seen the muscles on that guy? He'd jump at the chance to dethrone me at the first sign of weakness," Thames explained anxiously.
"What was that?"
The three of them spun around to the entrance. Yordo ducked coming in, lips peeled back to show his gnarly fangs. Thames sucked in such a deep breath, it sounded like a balloon sputtering its last.
"Did I hear that right, Pack Leader? Are you actually not what you say you are?" Yordo asked.
"Yordo! This is a private meeting. Leave before I make you!" Thames continued the farce and acted tough.
"Then… make me." He stood his ground.
Thames swapped his gaze between Kanae and Sheeba, both of whom stepped back to make some room for them.
"Haha! And dirty my home with your blood? I'll—"
Yordo picked Thames up and flung him out of the tent. He stormed out. Kanae followed suit with Sheeba close behind. The Pack Leader had landed across the street, squealing in pain.
"I can't believe I followed in your footsteps thinking you were made of tougher stuff than Rauma. I looked up to you, even though you were shorter and scrawnier than me. I thought maybe there was a hidden strength in you worthy of striving towards. How wrong was I. Hear me, clan members of Fang and Claw! I, Hunter Chief Yordo, challenge Pack Leader Thames to a duel in the morning! Winner becomes the new Pack Leader!" Yordo howled as loud as he could muster, inciting the same chest-thumping and grunting from their trial of combat.
"You're… going to regret this, Yordo…" Thames squeaked.
"Will I?" He leaned down and snarled. "Your status will be mine. Your throne will be mine. Your women will be mine and bear my children. Worry not. I'll let them birth your spawns first, so that mine will inevitably grow up strong to embarrass them. When I'm Pack Leader, I'll make you a Hunter Chief. You will be the first I always send to the most dangerous hunts. Good luck, Pack Leader."
Yordo snorted and spat on the ground next to Thames, then walked off bellowing with laughter.
"Aww, come on… Everything was great until you two had to come along!" Thames threw his head back and groaned.
"Oh, well… I guess you don't need our help. We'll just leave you to your duel. Have fun getting slaughtered. Let's go, Sheeba." Kanae beckoned.
"Gladly." Sheeba sneered.
"Wait, wait!" He crawled up to them, noticed some of the clan was watching, and jumped to his feet. "Will you… really help me? How? A duel is one versus one."
"We have our ways, as long as you're willing to join the Commonwealth." She smirked.