Lex's POV
Lex now had no choice but to bring his little female with him to go hunting. They traveled up the south side of the mountain hunting for some prey. Lex was also training his cubs to hunt and let them lead. Lex had to stay in his man form due to having to carry Lyria with him. He was confident in his children's ability to hunt so he wasn't completely aware that the beast they were tracking was a Feral Beast. A Feral Beast is a rogue who's lost his man form completely. Ferals are very dangerous because there smarter than a wild animal but crazy powerful since it's all Beast radiating with energy. When you kill a Feral can consume its hearts energy to prolong your life.
Suddenly, the family hears a ferocious roar, and out pops a lynx Feral. He charges at the small family and instantly grabs one of the cubs with its teeth around its neck and kills him. Lex takes off Lyria, ties her to the fastest of the cubs, and tells them to run home. The lynx runs past Lex and aims for another cub. Just as the lynx sticks his claws in the cub, he is ripped off but not before doing some serious damage to the cub's sides.
Lex grew anxious knowing if he didn't get the cub to the witch doctor soon, he would die. The lynx was pissed and acted out of control now wanting to kill Lex. The Lynx charged at Lex with its claws out and teeth bared. He pounced on Lex, digging its claws into his ribs and tearing out a chunk of flesh rendering Lex motionless for a moment, while the pain nearly consumed him, he kept standing. Before the lynx could do more damage, Lex threw off the Lynx with his foot and got back into attack mode. Since this Feral was enthralled with blood lust, it didn't take long for Lex to get the upper hand and strangle the lynx from behind.
Lex was wounded and weak now, but he still needed to get to his son that was also wounded and bleeding out. He mustered up the little bit of strength he had left, picked up his dead and wounded cub, and brought them back to the village.
Once he made it back to the village, he collapsed and fainted. The beastmen that were patrolling the perimeter saw him and brought them back to the witch doctor. While he lay there, he could feel the change happening within and knew he had powered up.
He awoke the next day still weak and sore from his battle with the Lynx Feral. When he sat up, he got a little dizzy from the sudden movement. He also smelled strong fragrances and knew he was in the witch doctor's hut.
In front of him lay two small wrapped deceased cubs awaiting their burial. Lex couldn't help but tear up at the sight of his dead cubs. He feebly crawled to his cubs, picked them both up, and held them close. Silently saying goodbye to his cubs. He put them down, got up and walked down to the burial grounds, and started digging a hole deep enough that no wild animal could find them. Since he was already weak it took longer than he would like to dig a small but deep hole. Once it was done, he went back to grab his cubs, as he walked out, he ran into his mate who looked at him disapprovingly and then looked at the cubs with disgust.
"If you had trained them better, they would still be alive now." She spat out venomously.
That was all she said as she turned around and walked away. He felt such disappointment with himself that on that day he swore he would devote his life to making sure his children grow up strong and capable. Even his little female would know how to protect herself. He went to go find his cubs and little female as soon as the burial was done. Thankfully they were all waiting for him to come back into his room. The fastest cub was left to take care of his little sister and did not fail to do so. "Thank you, Ryker, for looking after your little sister." Lex bent down and patted his son on the head." Did you have any problems with her?" Ryker replied honestly, "No. I've watched you take care of sister and already knew what to do and when you make each of us take turns to play with her, made her familiar with us, so she didn't act out either". Lex spent the rest of the day with his cubs and not once did he go see Sayla. Lex was already coming up with a plan to take better care of his family.