Villainess is being pampered by her beast husbands

Chapter 482 --482

Kaya had spent the day being the perfect captive.She smiled at the servants who brought her meals. She ate without complaint. She took the bath they’d prepared in the small adjoining room, washing away days of grime and blood. She changed into the clean clothes they’d provided—soft pants and a tunic that actually fit reasonably well.

She was polite. Docile. Cooperative.

And she watched.

Through the small window in her luxurious prison, she observed the preparations happening outside. A wedding ceremony, from what she could gather from the snippets of conversation that drifted up. The eagle clan was celebrating something, decorating the courtyard with ribbons and flowers, preparing food, setting up what looked like an altar.

Perfect. A distraction.

The sun set. The celebration began in earnest. Music drifted up from below—drums and some kind of stringed instrument, creating rhythms that echoed off the stone walls.

Kaya sat on the edge of the bed, legs dangling, appearing to do nothing.

But her mind was working. Calculating. Planning.

The door opened without knocking.

The eagle lord—Kael, she remembered—stepped inside. He was tall, powerfully built, with those sharp amber eyes and dark hair pulled back from his face. Handsome, objectively, in that severe way that seemed common among predator beastmen.

He was slightly swaying. Not drunk, exactly, but definitely affected by whatever alcohol they’d been serving at the celebration.

Perfect.

Kaya remained sitting, perfectly still, her expression neutral.

Kael closed the door behind him and studied her with an expression that made her skin crawl. Not quite leering, but possessive. Like she was a prize he’d won.

"I don’t understand," he said, his words slightly slurred. "You’re not that beautiful. I talked to my advisors, looked at the reports. So why is that vulture so interested in you? Hmm?"

He stepped closer, raising one hand and beckoning her with a finger in a gesture that was clearly meant to be commanding.

Kaya smiled. Sweet. Innocent. Harmless.

"Come here," she said, her voice soft, "and I’ll tell you."

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## The Reckoning

Kael looked confused for a moment. Then he laughed—a short, arrogant sound—and approached.

Kaya remained sitting, perfectly still, as he came closer. As he leaned down toward her, clearly expecting submission, clearly expecting her to cower or flatter or whatever other response these people were used to from captive women.

Her other hand was behind her back, hidden.

When he was close enough, Kaya smiled wider.

"You want to know?" Her voice was still too sweet, too innocent.

"Yes," Kael said, still leaning down. "Tell me."

Kaya’s hand whipped out from behind her back.

One punch. Straight to his throat.

Not hard enough to crush his windpipe—she needed him alive for now—but hard enough to send him stumbling backward, gasping, his hands flying to his neck.

Before he could recover, Kaya was off the bed, moving with the precision of someone who’d spent years training in hand-to-hand combat.

She swept his legs out from under him. He went down hard, his head cracking against the stone floor.

"Damn it," Kaya said, her voice now cold, all pretense of docility gone. "Everyone seems to think I’m some pitiful, helpless female."

She looked down at him with pure disgust.

Then she started attacking in earnest.

Bam. Punch to the solar plexus, driving the air from his lungs.

Kick to the ribs, feeling something crack under her boot.

Strike to the kidney. To the floating ribs. To every vulnerable point she’d been trained to exploit.

Kael tried to defend himself, tried to transform, but he was drunk and disoriented and Kaya was ’fast’. Each time he moved to counter, she was already hitting another target, keeping him off-balance, keeping him in pain.

She’d learned something useful from her earlier conversations: eagle beastmen and other bird-type beastmen had notoriously bad hearing when in human form. Something about their physiology. Which meant his shouts and grunts of pain wouldn’t carry far, not over the music and celebration happening outside.

Perfect.

Within thirty seconds, Kael was on his back, barely conscious, blood streaming from his nose.

Kaya stood over him, breathing hard, her knuckles bruised.

"Huh," she said, looking at him like he was something stuck to her boot. "Just this, and you call yourself a clan lord? Pathetic."

She raised her hand one more time and struck him precisely on the neck—a blow designed to cause temporary unconsciousness without permanent damage.

Kael’s eyes rolled back. His body went limp.

Kaya didn’t stop. She hit him two more times, just to be sure, making absolutely certain he’d stay down for a while.

Then she stepped back, surveying her work.

The eagle lord lay crumpled on the floor, unconscious, bleeding, thoroughly beaten by a single unarmed human female.

"Goddamn muscle-headed idiot," Kaya muttered.

She moved quickly now. Time was limited.

First, she checked the door. Still locked from the outside, but that didn’t matter anymore. She had other plans.

She looked around the room more carefully now, really examining it rather than just observing passively.

It was full of things. Modern things, or at least this world’s version of modern. Fine fabrics. Jewelry boxes. Decorative weapons that were more art than function. Everything carefully arranged to look luxurious.

But nothing immediately useful for escape.

Except...

Her eyes landed on Kael’s clothes.

The eagle lord wore a long coat-style garment, dark gray with silver fastenings. Heavy. Well-made. And most importantly, dark colored.

Kaya didn’t hesitate. She stripped the coat off his unconscious body and put it on over her own clothes. It was too large, made for someone taller and broader, but that actually helped. It covered her completely, hiding her lighter-colored tunic and pants underneath.

In the dark, from a distance, she might pass for one of them.

Maybe.

She moved to the window and looked out.

The celebration was in full swing below. The courtyard was filled with eagle beastmen, most of them drinking, dancing, celebrating. The music was loud, the atmosphere festive.

No one was looking up at this window.

Kaya studied the stone wall below. It was smooth but not perfectly so. There were handholds—small ones, but enough. She’d climbed worse.

The drop was maybe thirty feet to the courtyard. Manageable if she was careful.

She took one last look at Kael’s unconscious form.

Part of her wanted to do more. To make him pay for the kidnapping, for the presumption, for the way he’d looked at her like property.

But that would take time she didn’t have.

And honestly? Leaving him beaten and humiliated was probably worse than killing him would have been. He’d wake up knowing a single human woman had destroyed him in his own stronghold.

That would sting worse than any wound.

"Have fun explaining this to your clan," Kaya said to his unconscious form. Then she turned to the window.

She climbed out onto the ledge, her heart pounding, and began her descent.

The stone was cold under her fingers. Kaya moved slowly, carefully, testing each handhold before committing her weight.

The music below helped. It covered any small sounds she made, the scrape of her boots against stone, her controlled breathing.

Fifteen feet down. Twenty. Twenty-five.

Almost there.

Her foot slipped.

For one heart-stopping moment, she was falling—