let me rewrite the story

035

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A few hours had pass and there was still no sign of the other males returning, which made most of the females scared.

"I hope they're doing okay" Bailey muttered from besides me as she hugged Gray tighter. "I'm sure they'll be fine, they're strong males" Gray tried to comfort his mate, and so did Bailey's other male.

They can feel his fear and discomfort through the mark which made them silently growl.

But not long after that, one of the females broke into a sob and most of us saw a mark from her shoulder fade away into nothing.

And soon after that, the same thing happened to a few females. Bailey who was besides me also gasped and I snapped my head towards her.

I saw a wolf mark from her left shoulder and a leopard mark on her stomach fade away. Her lips quivered as sobs began to escape her lips.

Gray and her other males panicked and tried to comfort her again. I looked away and stated at the marks on my body, fearing that maybe I'll end up losing one of my mates.

But thankfully after a few seconds had pass, nothing happened. But I wasn't really happy, seeing almost half of the females were either sobbing or crying from losing a few males.

Some also lost some of their mates but they didn't show any sign of crying or what so ever.

I turned my gaze away from the other female's and turned to my sleeping cubs. "I hope they'll be fine" I mumbled as I gently patted Uno on his head.

I continued to patted his little head and looked at the entrance of the cave, waiting for my mates and for the other males to arrive back.

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Another few hours had pass and finally, we heard some voices and footsteps coming towards us. Most of the males went on guard just in case.

But they soon lowered their guards as the males from our village and the males from the black wood kingdom slowly emerge.

Although, they went in great condition. Some were serverly injured and could barely walk, only being able to get here with the help of the other males.

I carefully scanned the males and let out a silent sigh of relief when I saw my males. Without thinking twice, I rushed to them and hugged them one by one. Not really caring if they had some blood on them.

"Your safe" I mumbled as I finally let go of Carlos and looked at them. "Yes, we returned to back to you, just what like we said earlier" Carlos said and I've notice that Archie hasn't really looked at me yet, and all he did was look down with his ears flat on head.

"Archie? What's wrong?" I asked as I took a step closer to him. "Did something happened to him?" I asked and turned to my other mates who were with him earlier but they all avoided eye contact.

"It's best if Archie is the one that told you" Kei said as I looked at the basket of sleeping cubs.

"Archis, what's wrong" I asked and put a hand on both sides of his cheeks and made him look at me.

My eye went wide of a bit as I saw a light scar trailing from his left head and ended near his left eye, and from the looks of it. It was still fresh.

"Will you hate me?" He asked in a sad tone making me shake my head quickly. "Why the heck would you think I would hate you? A little scar doesn't make you ugly or whatsoever" I said and placed a light peck on his lips.

"How did this happen anyway" I asked as I traced the light scar slowly. "A male hyaena almost pounced on me while I was busy fighting a tiger male.

Luckily, Archie saw it and leaped in and attacked the male. But he end up getting that scar" Kei said making me nod.

"Aw, don't worry okay? I still love you and I won't even think of cutting your mark just because you have a scar.

A scar doesn't define how you really look like. Plus it's what's in the inside that matters, not the outside. You got that scar because you saved Kei" I said and cupped his cheeks again.

I gave him another kiss and hugged before pulling away and doing the same to the others. "Now, go take a bath" I shooed them away and went over to Bailey.

"Bailey" I called out and she looked at me with slightly red and swollen eyes. "Sera" she sobbed and went over to hug me.

"You didn't lose any more mates right? Just those two?" I asked and she just nodded as she pulled away from the hug.

"But some of them are heavily injured and it might take weeks before they recover. But cold season is arriving in three days" She said and looked at her few wolf mates who were to tired and injured to even shift into their human form.

I eternally winced at them. 'No male or female wants any heavily injured males in the den because it will feel like just other useless mouth to feed' I thought and looked at the males sadly.

And from the looks of it, I think that they just accepted their fate. As if they already knew what will happen to them   in the upcoming cold season.

'Poor males. This why females should really love their males. They risk their lives for them, just to hunt and protect them' I thought as Gray went over and gently took Bailey.

He nodded at me and I nodded back at him before returning to my own males who by now were finished bathing.

"Let go back now?" Tora asked me and I nodded in response as I took the basket from Kei.

By now the cubs were awake and won't stop roaring at their father, probably begging him to tell them what had happened.

"Now now cubs, ask your father about that later. For now let's go back and let your father and other dads to have some rest" I said which made them quite down for a bit.

I gave a quite chuckle as I waited for them to finish instructing the other males and females before going out, with Carlos carrying me back to the den.

•••••

This was only a 1080 words chapter (not including this)

I know it's still not long, but it was still better than the last chapter ╥﹏╥

See you next Friday!! Hopefully that will be a 1500+  chapter.