Felicity's Beas Chapter 68: Honey Pot

Chapter 68: Honey Pot

They did not walk toward the city like people seeking rcy.

They walked toward it like a controlled breach.

From the ridge, the settlent had looked wrong in a way Felicity couldn’t imdiately na. Not wrong as in monstrous, not wrong as in ruined. Wrong as in... too intact for the end of the world. Towers still stood in symtrical lines instead of collapsing into chaos. Smoke rose in asured columns, not random drift. Patrols moved with cadence. The outer barricades weren’t piles of scavenged tal, but layered defense lanes welded with intention.

Survival, yes.

But not the desperate kind.

This place had made the jump from surviving to structuring, and once a city structured itself, it grew teeth.

Teeth ant hierarchy, Hierarchy ant one throat you could squeeze.

That was the plan.

Felicity kept her expression mild as they approached, because the most dangerous part of acting wasn’t the performance, it was rembering not to look like you were acting. The mont soone sensed intention, you beca a problem. Problems got contained. Contained ant cut off from the information you needed.

She did not want containnt at the gate.

She wanted invitation.

Snow Team walked in full view at first, broad shoulders and calm strides, deliberately visible in the open street as if they had nothing to fear from a city that clearly wanted to be feared. Victor did not take the air yet. He stayed grounded on purpose. Voss walked at Felicity’s right like a moving wall. Damien at her left like a blade kept close to the body. Ivan slightly behind, mist thinned down until it read as nothing more than heat distortion.

Layered protection.

Felicity felt it as much as she saw it. The way they held formation. The way the n around her adjusted their angles without speaking. The way the air itself seed to listen when Victor’s attention narrowed.

She could have walked into the city with them like that.

Claid and protected, Impossible to ignore and it would have been the fastest way to get the gates slamd in their face.

Because organised n did not see a fertile unclaid female with a pack of territorial mates and think, ah yes, let’s offer hospitality.

They thought: contraband.

The thought: theft attempt.

They thought: war.

Felicity didn’t want war yet, She wanted access.

She wanted to know who ran this place, how they fed it, where they stored supplies, what they did with any won they still had, and what kind of policies a desperate hierarchy would enforce when presented with sothing rare enough to change their future.

She wanted to walk out with that information intact.

And if possible, she wanted to walk out with the city in a position where it couldn’t touch her again without begging.

That was the blunt truth.

The strategy had been decided the night before in the gray blue quiet of camp, while the others ate and checked weapons and argued about nothing to pretend they weren’t afraid of the next step.

Victor had been the one to say it plain.

"If they’re organized, they’ll have centralized command. If we enter as a bonded unit, we trigger defense instincts. They’ll contain you or contest you before we cross the outer line."

Sarge had grunted. "They’ll think you stole her from them even if you didn’t."

Damien’s hands had tightened so hard the concrete beneath his knuckles had flaked.

Voss had stared into the darkness like he wanted to tear it open.

Ivan had been quiet, watching Felicity instead of the city.

Felicity had listened, then said it with no drama.

"Then I don’t go in claid."

The silence after that had been the kind that made your ears ring.

Victor’s gaze had pinned her, sharp and disbelieving, like he couldn’t decide whether to respect her or lock her in his arms and refuse. "You’d have to look unbonded."

Felicity tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, her voice soft but steady. "I can make myself sll unbonded," she explained, watching their reactions carefully. "My buffs or spells, I’m not sure what to call them one of them strips away scent completely. Like I’m not even there." She spread her fingers in a small gesture, as though making sothing invisible.

That hadn’t helped.

She’d continued anyway, because the second you flinched from your own plan, it stopped being yours.

"If they haven’t seen a fertile woman in months, they will hoard . But they won’t hoard

at the gate if they think I’m their luck and not their threat. I go in soft. I go in useful. I go in unclaid. I let them choose to bring

to leadership."

"And you let leadership think it can own you," Victor had said, voice flat.

Felicity had t his eyes. "I let leadership think it can access ."

It wasn’t the sa thing, but it was close enough to make Damien’s chest heave, his pupils dilating until the gold nearly disappeared. His tongue flicked against his fangs as he fought the urge to coil around her to mark her with his scent, to shield her from every set of eyes that might look her way. The thought of her walking unprotected into that nest of predators made sothing primal crack inside him.

Ivan had been the one who cut through the possessive tension with a practical conclusion. "I go with her."

Victor’s eyes had gone feral white, his canines lengthening as a low, building growl vibrated the very air between them the kind of sound that preceded slaughter, not threats. The alpha’s claws had already unsheathed, curling and uncurling at his sides, his massive fra coiled with the barely restrained violence of a predator deciding not whether to kill, but how slowly.

Ivan didn’t blink. "I don’t scent mark. I don’t posture. I don’t challenge their alphas. I read as neutral. I’ll be a bodyguard, not a claim."

Voss’s ears had flicked, predatory. "And if they touch her."

Ivan’s mouth had twitched slightly. "Then you’ll know."

Victor’s jaw had tightened. "No interference unless she signals or she’s taken."

Felicity had nodded once, that was the agreent.

That was the line they were holding now as the city rose around them like a jaw.

Victor slowed as they hit the predetermined point two streets from the periter. His voice was quiet, but the whole team moved like a single organism.

"We split here."

No debate.

The husbands didn’t make it dramatic. They didn’t announce it. They simply peeled away as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

Voss turned down an alley without looking back.

Damien slipped into shadow and was gone between one heartbeat and the next.

Victor launched upward without a sound, vanished above roofline, and the pressure of his presence shifted from around her to above her like a ceiling.

They hadn’t left her unguarded, they had moved into overwatch.

High ground.

Shadow.

Periter.

Watching.

Ivan stayed at her shoulder, the only one who did.

Felicity exhaled, stepped into the hollow of a ruined doorway, and spoke low. "Five seconds."

Ivan turned his back to the street without comnt, stance loose but ready. Mist thinned around his boots like harmless air.

Felicity slipped into her space and pulled out the dress.

Not because she liked dresses, Because dresses made n stupid, Soft pale sumr fabric, flowing, modest in cut, with sleeves that covered her arms and a neckline that didn’t scream seduction. It was not revealing.

It was worse.

It suggested vulnerability.

It suggested soone who needed saving.

And n, especially desperate organized n, liked saving things they could also lock up.

Felicity smoothed her tail. Let her hair fall loose. Cleared the dust from her ankles. She made herself look like a person who had survived through luck and gentleness, not calculation and power.

Then she stepped back out.

Ivan’s eyes flicked to her once, then away.

"Heartbreaker," he muttered, like he couldn’t stop himself.

Felicity gave him a sweet smile that ant nothing and everything. "Clumsy healer," she corrected.

They walked toward the checkpoint.

The outer periter was engineered, not improvised. Concrete barriers had been welded into deliberate defensive lanes, forcing approach into controlled funnels. Elevated towers created overlapping fields of fire. Patrol rotations were precise, no blind spots, no wasted movent.

Eight guards stood at the gate in standardized armor with maintained weapons and disciplined posture.

No slouching.

No boredom.

No weakness.

One stepped forward, Scar across his jaw, officer insignia marking rank. His eyes passed over Ivan first, assessing threat.

Then they settled on Felicity.

The officer’s nostrils flared as he inhaled sharply, pupils constricting to pinpoints.

The reaction rippled through the ranks like an electric current. Heads snapped toward her with such synchronized precision it was as if invisible strings had been yanked. Spines went rigid, tendons visibly straining against skin. Eyes widened then narrowed, predatory focus locking onto her with such intensity the air between them seed to vibrate. Not a single soldier broke formation, but their collective stillness beca sothing feral, coiled a held breath before the strike.

"Female," the officer said.

Another guard drew in a slower breath. "Young."

The officer stepped closer carefully, not touching, not disrupting the line, like he knew a single wrong movent could set off violence.

He inhaled again.

His pupils narrowed.

"...Fertile." The word landed heavy.

Ivan did not move. His mist remained thin. He didn’t bristle. He didn’t glare. He didn’t claim.

Felicity lowered her gaze and folded her hands neatly in front of her. Shoulders angled inward.

"I heal a little," she said gently. "Small things. Cuts and bruises. Fevers sotis. I have a tiny space too. It mostly holds dresses and snacks."

The guards stared as if she had stepped out of myth.

The officer’s decision was made before she finished speaking.

"Supre will see this," he said.

Not you.

This.

Exactly.

They escorted her inside.

Felicity’s face remained gentle as a prayer while her mind carved the truth into mory.

Lower district: gutted of rcy. Barracks scrubbed raw. Training yards pulsing with bodies striking, falling, rising again with blood in their mouths. Supply stacks categorized with military precision weapons first, dicine last. Not a single child’s voice pierced the air. No laughter existed here. No one rested.

Everything functioned like a well-oiled machine.

Upper district shifted in tone imdiately. Floors polished. Interiors heated. Lighting better. Privacy existed. The luxury wasn’t indulgent, but it was undeniable.

Leadership did not share conditions with the rest.

They were brought into a central command room.

He stood at the far end.

The Supre.

Tall and composed, posture shaped by military precision. His presence didn’t flare outward like brute dominance. It compressed inward, controlled and focused, like a blade sheathed tight.

His gaze moved over Felicity once.

Then again.

He inhaled, and restraint showed in the tightening of his jaw. "Leave us," he said calmly.

The generals hesitated only a fraction before obeying.

Ivan remained.

The Supre’s eyes shifted.

"And him."

Felicity’s fingers curled lightly around Ivan’s sleeve. "I get nervous if he isn’t near ," she said softly.

The Supre studied her. Then Ivan. Then her again, like he was testing for manipulation.

"He may remain."

Silence settled into the room. The Supre stepped closer, not invading her space but asuring it.

"You ca from outside," he said.

"Yes."

"You survived Byron’s blockade. flicker of fear crossed her face, subtle and believable. "I hid," she replied. "And healed when I could."

It was not a lie. It simply was not complete.

His nostrils flared again. He was scenting. There was no bonded imprint layered into her scent. No territorial markers. No dominant claim, Just her unclaid.

Fertile.

The air tightened.

"You understand," he said evenly, "that this city has not seen a woman like you in five months."

Her eyes widened slightly, soft and unguarded.

"Oh."

He watched every muscle in her expression for deception.

"There are no fertile females remaining within these walls," he continued. "Three elders remain. They are honored. They are not capable of bearing."

"That’s... sad," she said quietly.

He waited for the calculation. The opportunism. The fear, He got none on her face. Only gentle pity.

His expression didn’t change, but sothing in his posture adjusted. Interest, sharpened.

"You would be protected here," he said. "You would reside in the upper district. You would not work. You would not fight."

"I don’t fight," she answered quickly. "I’m not very brave." She offered a small, embarrassed smile. "I prefer dresses. And baking."

A cough at the doorway, soone failing to hide reaction.

The Supre did not smile, But the air shifted.

"You would be safe," he said again.

"And him?" she asked lightly, glancing toward Ivan.

The question altered the room. The Supre’s voice stayed calm, but the policy beneath it was blunt.

"He would be evaluated."

"If he is useful, he remains. If not, he does not."

Felicity’s fingers tightened around Ivan’s sleeve, The move was small. But it was deliberate.

"Evaluated how?" she asked.

The Supre’s eyes held hers. "By function."

Felicity lowered her head like she was ashad of caring too much. "I don’t like being alone," she murmured.

High-level beasts didn’t simply want fertility. They wanted ownership of it. They wanted stability, legacy, future, and they wanted it on their terms.

The Supre inhaled again, slower. Her scent pulled at sothing instinctual in him. Dense, vital, wrong in a way he couldn’t fully define. Not weakness, not submission, Sothing else.

"You would not be alone," he said at last. It was the first fracture in his control.

Felicity lifted her eyes, soft. "I’m not very strong," she said. "But I heal well. And I can keep things organized."

He took one more step, stopping close enough that his body heat changed the space around her, not touching, but claiming distance.

"You will stay in command housing tonight," Supre said.

"Near ."