Benjamin was getting sick of Samantha's surprises, and to say that he was surprised by a fully-grown bear beastman sitting in his kitchen was an understatement. The first thing he noticed were the three green stripes on the beastman's shoulders, two of which nearly covered an entry wound from some kind of round laceration. The scorpion could tell that it wouldn't be long until a fourth stripe evened out the pattern on his right side. It was obvious that this male wasn't the type to back down from a fight, no matter the odds – the entry wound on his back was probably earned protecting somebody rather than from running away. "Typical," he thought out loud, and was surprised when the two figures gathered around the fire heard him and turned around to face him. "What's typical?" Samantha asked, a challenge in her voice. Benjamin sighed, replying, "It's typical that you ignored my request and brought a stranger back into our home instead of staying put like I asked." He rolled his eyes at Samantha's indignant "Hey!" and rustled her hair with his clean hand instead. "Timothy isn't a stranger," the female continued to protest, "He's Bub's uncle and Jewel's brother-in-law. Timothy," she said, turning to the other male, "This is Benjamin, my guardian beast. I apologize for his rudeness," she paused to send a glare Benjamin's way, "but we've both had a pretty rough time lately and I hope you'll forgive him."

"No hard feelings," Timothy said, rising to greet Samantha's only current male. "Let me give you a hand with all that," he said, his green eyes making contact with Benjamin's black ones without a trace of fear in them. Benjamin had been gone for a while, but he came back with a bundle of small prey tied together with a vine. There was also an animal skin pouch attached to the bottom that had various fruits and a few vegetables that Benjamin hoped Samantha might like. "Oh, Benjamin, thank you so much!" Samantha cried, "You brought back so much food, even though there's just the two of us now. Did you eat anything while you were out?" His pitch-black hair moved as he shook his head; Benjamin was afraid that if he spoke, he wouldn't be able keep his feelings out of his voice and he didn't want Samantha to know her words had any effect on him. "You must be starving, then; let's hurry and cook!" she said as she got up and scanned the kitchen. There wasn't a single cooking utensil in sight, though they did have a small stove with a wok over it in addition to the fireplace they were already using. "Do you mind if Timothy stays for dinner?" Samantha asked Benjamin as she got ready to leave the room. "If it weren't for him, Jewel would have sent even more males over," she joked. "It's fine," Benjamin replied, his eyes narrowed into slits as he imagined just how many beastmen Jewel would have seen fit to send to their house.

"You do need more protection, you know," he said to Samantha's back as she went looking for her set of bone knives. "There's only so much I can do to keep you safe, especially since I can't transform in the city," he added mysteriously, not wanting to give Timothy too much information. "I know, I know," Samantha's voice echoed from another room. "I'm working on it, but I can't exactly get myself a hired guard. It's not like I was expecting Spencer to.. to..." her voice trailed off. Benjamin, having guessed what Samantha was looking for, fanned out the bone knives to show Timothy, and silently indicated that the bear beastman should go into the other room while he took care of dinner. He couldn't lie and say he missed that idiot fox, but he hated the consequences his disappearance had had for Samantha. Keeping her busy was the best thing he could do for her; dealing with emotions properly wasn't exactly in his skill set, but when Benjamin wasn't nearby, he could hear her crying quietly and harshly blaming herself as she relived the events of the day. He had left to use the sandpit all of one time and come back to find her curled up lifeless on the floor. If this bear could help with any of that, Benjamin wouldn't turn that down. He knew nobody could replace Spencer in Samantha's heart, but he also knew that the kind, loving female had more room in her heart than she knew; his face heated up as Benjamin admitted that she had even been able to make a space for him when nobody else in the world had ever done so.

The trio ate quickly after Benjamin had finished cooking, as it was truly late by that time. "Thank you, Benji, for the food," Samantha said warmly. "Did you get enough to eat?" she asked him, worried. "I don't need to eat often," he reminded her, "but as long as you want me to share your meals with you, I will." Samantha smiled at him and yawned, "You know I always will," she said, her voice distorted as she stretched. "What about you, Timothy?" she asked him, unaware that he still had most of a rabbit in his mouth. He tried to make a sound, but Samantha laughed, quickly reminding him not to choke. "Stay and eat your fill," she said, her eyes full of emotions. "Guarding me has been hard work, so eat up! Do you want to sleep here?" Samantha asked him. Timothy, trying desperately to swallow his food and respond, shook his head no. "It wouldn't be proper, he isn't your male," Benjamin cut in, and Timothy's face flooded with relief. "Oh," Samantha responded, trying to keep the disappointment from her voice. "Well, please feel free to stay here and finish eating, or you can take the rest of the food back to Jewel's house if you want to. I can't stay up any later," she explained, suppressing a yawn. She looked toward Benjamin shyly and asked him, "Can I stay in your room tonight? I'm just not ready to sleep in the main bedroom, by myself..." In lieu of a response, he picked her up and carried her toward the room he himself had barely slept in. "Good night, Timothy!" Samantha called. "Thank you for tonight, and I hope I'll see you soon!" Samantha couldn't hear his reply because he had filled his mouth with more food again, but Benjamin heard his "Mn" of agreement and hoped that somehow, this would all work out.

The pair woke up late the next morning to cheers coming from the street. "Oooohs" and "Aaaahs" filled the air until Samantha couldn't hold her curiosity in for one more second and ran to the nearest street-facing window. Although Benjamin also wanted to know what was going on, he failed to snatch Samantha who had apparently forgotten she was clad in her otherworldly pajamas and not her beast skin attire, which was admittedly beginning to show signs of wear. Samantha was standing on her tiptoes and leaning out the window, but suddenly pulled herself back in and held herself against the side of the wall. "It's King Scott!" she exclaimed in both relief and surprise, "and he's carrying Eira on one shoulder!" Benjamin snuck a peek out of the window, muttering, "Showoff," under his breath. Noticing the endless train of wolves laden with boxes who followed behind the couple, Benjamin mumbled quietly to Samantha, "I think they're coming here." Her face lit up, dark circles and all, as she quickly returned to the window. "Really?" she asked, admiring the grace with which the wolverine and pallas cat stopped every so often to open lids of huge, lacquered boxes carried by wolf beastmen and reached inside to give away steaming hot vegetable buns to everyone in the crowd that had gathered around them. "Ahh," Samantha sighed in admiration, "I wish I could be like them someday."

Benjamin pulled her back into the room and looked her in the eyes. "If that's what you want, may I suggest you start with getting dressed?" he asked her, his voice slick with sarcasm. "I need to take a bath first!" she exclaimed. "You have no time," he pointed out, fetching her cleaned outfit from one of the few clean surfaces in the house. "Did you wash these for me?" Samantha asked him, obviously touched by his actions. "Of course I did, I'm your guardian beast. Now let's get you ready, we don't even have anything to offer our guests and they're nearly on our doorstep," his voice filled with urgency and frustration, both gratified and frustrated that Samantha had not yet adjusted to the fact that it was his job to care for her in every aspect of her life. The two worked together in silence as Benjamin tied Samantha's clothes around her as she discarded the clothes she had slept in, and they finished up by tidying each other's hair and wiping their faces as best they could with small pieces of animal skin. They completed their preparations just in time; suddenly, a series of loud booms that could only be the knocking of King Scott was heard from the front door, which promptly slammed into the wall for a second time and shattered. "Oops," they heard a husky, royal voice say in embarrassment. "Scott!" Eira shrieked, "You can't just go around busting people's doors down, aren't you the one who's always lecturing me about manners?!"

Samantha and Benjamin rushed out of Benji's bedroom to greet the Wolf King and his partner. Samantha dipped a hurried curtsey and Benji bowed his head respectfully. "Please, don't worry about the door," Samantha entreated the couple; "Honestly, you aren't even the ones who broke it, we just- we haven't gotten around to fixing it yet," she finished, trying not to think about the circumstances under which the door was broken in. "Well, we should have been more gentle," Eira replied as Scott looked at his feet, unsure how best to console a female who didn't want to talk about her problems. "We apologize for coming to visit you so early, but we really have a lot to do," Eira continued. "You must be hungry, please help yourself to some steamed buns! They're our favorite, aren't they, my King?" she said flirtatiously to her wolverine beastman whose face now matched his maroon-colored hair. "If you're still hungry, you should have said so," he teased, picking up a fresh, white bun and shoving it in his beloved's mouth. "We brought you some belated welcoming gifts," Scott said, though not especially convincingly. Samantha recalled that he was probably equally worried about his friend as she was worried about her mate. "Thank you so much, Your Highness," Samantha said, her eyes filling with tears. "You have no idea how grateful we are." Samantha spared a quick thought for Spencer's treasures that she was sure were still hidden as well as they could be, and she continued, "Please, allow everybody in; Benjamin can bring us all some water after he's gotten some food in him, and I can talk to you and Eira in private about what happened to Spencer."

It was clear that Scott and Eira were unimpressed with the current state of Samantha's house even if they were too polite to say anything or even give any obvious indicators. If Samantha hadn't been so used to constant criticism in her old life, she wouldn't have even noticed their eyes darting from empty floor to empty wall and then back again. "Roger, would you please organize a few wolves to clean and furnish the kitchen?" Eira called. Samantha was about to protest, but now it was Eira's turn to shove food into people's open mouths. "I hope you like the food we brought over; we don't have these steamed buns in the Heavenly Realm, but I think they're divine!" she laughed. "Err, that was a joke," she told Samantha, whose mouth was too full for her to respond in any way. "Anyway, we're all vegetarians over there, it helps us cultivate more quickly, so I was really excited to find some recipes here that don't contain meat. I may be a pallas cat, but I actually got pretty far along in my cultivation before I," she stopped here to clear her throat pointedly, looking around at the team of wolves who were enthusiastically dusting with their tails, "Ahem, before I came here to visit King Scott. I was even gifted an artifact from my master, would you like to see it?" Samantha heard Scott give a low chuckle from behind Eira, and she realized the female was both stalling for time and trying to keep Samantha's mind off Spencer for now.

Samantha opened her mouth to thank her friend, but she found that another steamed veggie bun had already filled the space where words were supposed to come out. "I'm so glad you like these snacks too!" Eira said cheerfully. "Anyway, it's a pair of wings! So not only am I able to talk and shift into a human form, but I can fly, too!" She waved the shimmering gold wand that she carried with her and a pair of golden wings materialized, and then she did a quick lap around the kitchen in midair. She seamlessly intercepted the water that Benjamin had just brought through the back door and drank her portion, dropping Samantha's off where she stood. "What do you think?" Eira asked Samantha, who had just finished her water. "Oh, you're looking terribly pale, how rude of me; have another steamed bun!" Eira exclaimed, feeding Samantha once again as the wolves brought in stone pots, pans, and other cooking utensils to place by the now-clean stoves, and beautiful carved-wood counters and cupboards followed shortly after. Samantha was so grateful and awestruck that she nearly choked on her third vegetable bun. Perfectly-fitted shutters were affixed to the windows, and thick fur curtains were draped over them. "This should keep you warmer during the cold season," Scott explained. "This is gonna be both Eira's and your first time experiencing the cold season here, and while it isn't as dangerous as it used to be hundreds of years ago, you both still need to take it seriously," he finished gravely. "I'll be able to take care of Eira in the castle, and most of the wolf tribe will probably join us there, but it'll be too far for us to visit you even though we both live in the city," he continued, and Samantha was relatively certain he had more to say even though he looked reluctant to do so.

"I'd be honored if you would visit our Wolf Castle often," he paused here to gulp nervously, "and I understand that you just lost Spencer, but you're gonna need more help around here. It'd be best if you chose one of the members of my wolf guard just to stay with you even as a beast pet or guardian beast, or I can pick someone for ya, please don't take it the wrong way... Spencer told me it takes you a long time to build a relationship with someone and to trust them and, well, it's still barely the light rainy season, but the cold season might get here and I don't want it to catch you unprepared," he said, looking nervously at Samantha for the first time since she'd met him. "I appreciate your concern," she said, holding back tears again, "and I'll do my best to follow your advice, but what if he comes back before then? Isn't there a chance I won't need anyone else to protect me? He was just taken away yesterday, he could come back just as quickly..." Scott glanced around the kitchen, which now held only the four of them, and sniffed around the doors to the kitchen just in case. "Samantha, I'm not sure what he told ya the other day, and honestly, half the time I don't know what's going on in his head, myself, but... if Spencer was too out of it to stay with you, or even to tell you what was happening, well, I think it'd be best if you didn't get yer hopes up. Be prepared, and don't ever catch yerself alone. Eira and I are here to help any way we can, too, but if you wanna see that fox again, the one you need to look to for help the most is yourself," he said seriously, his voice full of compassion.

Tears were pouring down Samantha's face by the time Scott had finished speaking, and Eira was sitting next to her with both arms around the human female's doughy waist. Benjamin was doing his best to wipe Samantha's tears with a soft piece of animal skin, but he wasn't able to keep up. She sniffed and lowered the left side of her top, sadly caressing her spousal mark with a wet finger. "Why did this happen?" she lamented yet again. "Is that Spencer's mark?" Scott interrupted. Samantha nodded sadly, accidentally continuing to cover it in tears. "Well, fuck," he cursed, nearly punching a wall before Eira intercepted his arm firmly with her staff.

Author's Note: Thank you all for sticking with me through 40 chapters so far! My girls will be publishing a new chapter for their own story momentarily, so we'd all like to take yet another chance to thank you for your support! Every vote you give our stories motivates us, whether they're on new chapters or old, and all your comments touch our hearts and bring us so much happiness! Thank you again for giving me a chance to share my story with all of you! Until next time~!

Edit: 7 June 2021 - Edited for clarity (Timothy's scar was from a laceration, not from a scar; furniture clarified to be counters and cupboards)