It has been five months since the birth of Hugrey and Chloe’s son, whose exact name is Caiden Ulpaz, but who is more often called by the nickname Kai. The weather had become quite warm, so Chloe and Hugrey had taken Kai out for their first picnic in Fonten Forest.

Lord Joyce was pacing around the three people lying on the picnic mat with a displeased look on his face.

Even though it was summer and there was no risk of Kai catching a cold, and his condition was good so there was no problem, Lord Joyce remained anxious throughout.

He said insects might bite, even if they laid on a mat, the cold from the ground could rise up and harm the baby if he fell asleep in the grass. He also mentioned that since it was a forest, bird droppings might fall on the baby, and bird droppings contain harmful substances that could be dangerous. And what else? Did he say that the cries of animals could disturb Kai’s nap?

He was so worried the entire way that even Chloe, who knew Lord Joyce’s extreme affection for Kai, found it annoying. Then he laid out five layers of mats under the parasol and stood there, insisting on just watching over the sleeping Kai.

Sometimes, Chloe couldn’t understand why Lord Joyce, who loved children so much, was still unmarried. Well, it could be that he liked not just any child, but Hugrey’s child.

“Joyce, I told you to go. Come back in two hours.”

“No, I’ll just stand quietly over there……”

“Joyce.”

Hugrey’s voice sharpened.

“Yes, then I’ll return in two hours.”

Lord Joyce, his face darkened, bowed his head dejectedly and walked away from the grass.

“Lord Joyce is just worried about Kai, why did you speak to him so harshly?”

Chloe chided Hugrey.

“I don’t want to be with him.”

Tsk tsk, he’s always like this.

Chloe clicked her tongue inwardly. Hugrey extremely disliked having anyone else around when he was with her. Not just Lord Joyce, but sometimes it seemed he didn’t even want Kai to be with them.

“Lord Joyce doesn’t want to be with you either. He wants to be with Kai.”

“I don’t like it. Any guy who…… Hmm.”

Hugrey was speaking but when his eyes met hers as she frowned, he turned his gaze to the sleeping Kai.

“Any guy who what? You don’t like them looking at me? Please say something that makes sense. Lord Joyce just sees me as the woman who bore his lord’s son.”

“Kai, sleep well.”

Hugrey ignored Chloe’s words and changed the subject. Kai, who had already fallen asleep in the carriage, continued sleeping without waking.

“He’ll probably sleep for another hour.”

While most babies wake up frequently even while sleeping, Kai rarely woke up before completing two hours once he fell asleep. Even when he woke up, he didn’t cry but would suck on something or play by himself.

“No matter how I look at it, he takes after you as a tiger shapeshifter. Sleeping well and not waking up easily once asleep.”

Is this praise or criticism?

“Look at Kai’s eye color. He takes after you. He’s definitely a wolf shapeshifter.”

The debate that had started from the day Kai was born ignited again.

Baby shapeshifters usually first transformed around their first birthday. Until then, many didn’t even know if the baby was a shapeshifter or not. Their development was generally a bit faster than normal humans, but there were individual differences.

So while they guessed Kai was a shapeshifter because his growth and development were better than average babies, they couldn’t tell which type he was.

His blonde hair resembled Chloe, and his green eyes resembled Hugrey. Other features seemed to be a mix of both, making it even more ambiguous to determine which species he was. As a result, Hugrey and Chloe frequently argued over whether Kai was a tiger or a wolf. Because they both wanted Kai to resemble the other, they tended to see what they believed rather than believe what they saw.

“Blonde hair is rare among wolves.”

“But it’s not nonexistent.”

“Hmm, Chloe, what will you do if Kai turns out to be a tiger shapeshifter?”

“What do you mean what will I do? We’ll have to have another one. I want to have a child that resembles you.”

Hugrey suddenly turned his gaze to the dense forest of Fonten. During Chloe’s pregnancy, Hugrey had suffered from such severe morning sickness that he lost 5 kilograms. Every time saying pitifully, ‘I’m really glad I’m going through this.’

“Let’s just… say Kai is a wolf shapeshifter.”

Finally, Hugrey spoke after a long while, as if he had made a big decision. It’s not like it’s up to him to decide which type of shapeshifter Kai is.

“Just because you say he’s a wolf shapeshifter doesn’t make him one, but he probably is a wolf.”

Originally, the reason Chloe wanted to have a child was because she wanted one that resembled Hugrey.

“Yes, he’s a wolf shapeshifter.”

“Yawn… But I’m so sleepy. It’s all your fault. Yesterday I… you…”

Chloe couldn’t finish her sentence due to a bursting yawn and rubbed her eyes that were tearing up.

Last night was the first time they slept apart from Kai. They had been considering moving him to the nursery for a few days since Kai could now sleep for six hours straight, but yesterday Hugrey strongly persuaded her that they should let him sleep independently for the baby’s sake. He said it was a good opportunity to let him sleep alone in the nursery since Chloe shouldn’t be tired for today’s outing.

Chloe felt somewhat reassured by Hugrey’s words that the nurse would be with him in the nursery, so it wasn’t like he would be completely alone, and agreed to send the baby away.

But lo and behold. Hugrey kept her up all night in their bedroom, alone for the first time in months. Even an unbridled horse couldn’t have run as wild as last night’s wolf. The fact that she felt like she would pass out the moment her head touched something was the aftermath of last night. What nonsense about not being tired for the picnic. What a lying wolf.

She had been drowsy since the carriage ride, and seeing the sleeping Kai made her even sleepier.

“You should sleep too.”

Hugrey, who was lying on his side looking at Chloe with Kai between them, removed the arm he was resting his head on and used it to support Chloe’s head. Chloe let Hugrey do as he pleased. She didn’t even have the energy to keep her eyes open.

“I’m really sleepy. When Kai wakes up, I’ll wake up too……”

“Okay, sleep.”

Chloe drifted off to sleep hearing Hugrey’s response.

Chloe woke up with a start. How long had she slept? She saw Hugrey’s face, still offering his arm as a pillow.

‘He’s asleep.’

Hugrey’s long, even eyelashes covered his closed eyes. It seemed he had also fallen asleep, unable to move after giving her his arm as a pillow. Well, he wasn’t the only one who didn’t get much sleep last night. Chloe’s eyes, which had softened while looking at Hugrey, naturally drifted downward.

Sleeping between Hugrey and her……

“Kai!”

Kai was gone. Hugrey’s eyes flew open at her cry.

“Kai has disappeared!”

As Chloe sat up abruptly, Hugrey rose at the same time. Without needing to say anything, their eyes, which had been scanning the surroundings, were now fixed on the dense forest.

Beyond the grassy area at the forest’s edge where they had been lying, the real forest began. And in the forest, there would be all kinds of wild animals. Neither Hugrey nor Chloe had ever thought about the dangers of beasts or the forest. It was an instinctive unconsciousness they had as top predator shapeshifters.

But Kai wasn’t. Even for the highest predators, their young are weak beings and can be prey to lower predators. Moreover, Kai was now a human baby, weaker than any animal! How could they both have fallen asleep so defenselessly like this?

For the first time in their lives, they faced a fear they had never experienced before.

In fact, in this situation where the baby had disappeared, everything else was just an excuse, but they couldn’t understand how a baby who couldn’t even walk could vanish so completely from this wide grassy area.

The reason both Hugrey and Chloe had been able to fall asleep with the sleeping baby was because Kai couldn’t move far enough on his own to be out of their sight.

So for a baby who had just started crawling to disappear from this wide grassy field meant that someone must have taken him or something must have carried him off.

The moment that thought branch extended, Chloe, her whole body bristling, started running towards the forest, and soon transformed into a tiger. Hugrey, who had already transformed into a wolf, was running alongside her.

Even in the midst of heart-bursting fear, they awakened their sharp senses and followed Kai’s traces into the dense forest.

Grr-aah. A strange sound was heard. Hugrey and Chloe immediately responded to the sound like animals and ran towards it.

However, as they raced like the wind, ready to tear their enemy to shreds, they stopped in their tracks the next moment, as if caught in a trap, at the sight before their eyes.

A young wolf was glaring at several coyotes with a fierce aura. It was even making sharp and fierce threatening howls.

Chloe looked back and forth between the young wolf and the adult wolf beside her.

‘Kai…..’

For a brief moment, a satisfied smile appeared on Chloe’s face.