Baby System: I'm the Beast World's Only Hope!-Chapter 39: Episode : Fattening Up the Pack.

Roxy woke up the next morning with a low ache in her belly.

She shouldn’t have taken it all the way like that. They ended up doing it the whole night because Kaelen couldn’t calm down.

She immediately stepped out of the chambers.

The sun hadn’t even thought about rising over the fortress when a piercing, shrill sound shattered the silence.

Kaelen shot up in bed, claws extended, ready to rip the throat out of an intruder. He looked wildly around the warm cave, his chest heaving.

"Ambush?" he roared, his voice thick with sleep. "Dragons?"

"No," Roxy said, walking back into the cave in her robe, holding a shiny silver whistle she had just purchased for [50 LP]. "A war cry."

She blew the whistle again.

"Up and at ’em, Wolfy! We have a schedule to keep! I didn’t start this work so that you could sleep in until noon!"

Kaelen blinked, his icy blue eyes struggling to focus. "It is... still dark."

"It’s 5:00 AM," Roxy declared, marching over to the window and throwing the vines open. A blast of cold air hit the warm room. "We have to move now! Or you won’t get to sleep here tonight!!"

That did it for him. He immediately stood up.

She turned on her heel and marched out, leaving the King of the North staring at her back, wondering when exactly he had lost control of his own pack.

Roxy was feeling good; she felt like he had turned docile after last night.

Maybe I should keep spoiling him.

***

Ten minutes later, the Moon Pack stood in the clearing. They looked miserable. They were shivering, yawning, and scratching their fleas.

They didn’t know why they had to stand here so early in the morning.

Roxy stood on her favorite stump, hands on her hips. She looked at them with a critical eye.

System, scan the crowd.

[Analyzing Pack Status...]

[Average Body Fat: 3%]

[Muscle Mass: Critical Low]

[Vitamin Deficiency: Severe (Iron, B12, Calcium)]

[Verdict: Walking Skeletons.]

"Pathetic," Roxy announced, her voice echoing through the trees.

The wolves flinched. Vorn, the Beta, stepped forward, his lip curling. "We are weary, Luna. We built the house yesterday. We need rest."

"You need calories!" Roxy shouted back. "You think you’re tired because you worked hard? You’re tired because your bodies are eating themselves to keep your hearts beating! Look at you! If a strong wind blew, half of you would snap in half!"

She began to pace back and forth on the stump.

"Welcome to Operation Protein," Roxy declared. "For the next two weeks, you don’t think. You don’t argue. You just eat, lift, and sleep. I am turning this pack of starving chihuahuas into dire wolves. Am I clear?"

The pack stared at her blankly.

"AM I CLEAR?" Roxy bellowed, channeling every angry gym teacher she had ever had.

"Clear!" Kaelen barked from the front row. He was looking at her with that terrifyingly intense devotion again. If she told him to eat rocks, he probably would.

The pack was stupefied; they never saw their Alpha being so devoted to his mate before. The smart ones’ hearts also turned to that of devotion, and then fthe oolish ones looked at Roxy with defiance. Like Vorn.

But Roxy didn’t care. This was for their own good.

"Good," Roxy nodded. She opened her [System Inventory].

"First things first. Supplements."

She pulled out a massive tub of [Beast-Mass Gainer: Vanilla Flavor - 2,000 LP] and a crate of [Multi-Vitamin Chews - 500 LP]. She made a vow in her heart that she was going to gain all this money back.

"Line up!"

The wolves shuffled forward. Roxy scooped a ladle full of the thick, white powder into bowls of water, mixing it until it was a sludge, and handed out the chewable vitamins.

"Eat the orange square," Roxy instructed Rax, the Gamma. "It tastes like fake oranges and chalk. Swallow it."

Rax sniffed it suspiciously. "Is it... herbs?"

"It’s magic," Roxy lied. "It makes your fur shiny."

Rax ate it.

When it was Vorn’s turn, he looked at the white sludge in his bowl with utter contempt.

"What is this?" Vorn spat, pouring the expensive protein shake onto the frozen ground. "This is not food."

The clearing went silent.

Roxy’s eyes twitched. That was 50 LP worth of gains he just wasted.

Kaelen stepped forward, a low growl building in his throat. "Vorn. You disrespect the Queen’s gift."

"I disrespect weakness!" Vorn snarled, gesturing to the fortress. "We are building boxes! We eat dust! We are Wolves, Kaelen! We hunt! We bleed! We do not play house!"

He glared at Roxy. "She makes us soft."

Roxy held up a hand to stop Kaelen from ripping Vorn’s throat out. She hopped off the stump and walked up to the angry Beta.

She didn’t look angry. She looked... bored.

Why do I have to deal with people like Malcor every freaking time?

"You think malnutrition is masculine?" Roxy asked, raising an eyebrow. "You think having your ribs showing makes you tough?"

"Pain is strength," Vorn recited the old Wolf creed.

"Pain is pain, you idiot," Roxy corrected. "Strength is lifting a tree trunk without passing out. Strength is running for miles without coughing up blood. Strength is breeding."

She leaned in close. Vorn’s eyes twitched, his fist clenched. He had never felt so insulted in all his years of living.

"And right now, Vorn? You look like you couldn’t breed a hamster."

[TheSassyGoddess cackles. Emotional Damage: Critical Hit.]

Vorn bristled, his face turning red, but he couldn’t retort because she was right. He had no pups. No one did.

"You don’t want the shake?" Roxy asked sweetly. "Fine. More for Kaelen."

She turned back to the pack. "Alright, ladies and gents! The schedule is as follows: Morning is Construction. We need four more cabins by sunset. Afternoon is hunting. If you have legs, you run. Evening is Feasting. And I mean feasting. If you aren’t stuffed to the point of vomiting, you aren’t done eating."

The wolves cheered at the mention of feasting because last night for them was the best they had ever had.

She clapped her hands. "Move!"

The next few days were a blur of movement for the wolves.

Roxy ran them ragged. She introduced the concept of shifts. While one group sawed Iron-Wood, the other group hauled stone. When they were too exhausted to move, she shoved high-protein snacks into their mouths and told them to get back to work.

She used the System to buy [Creatine Monohydrate] and secretly spiked the water supply.

And it was working.

By the third day, the clearing was transformed. Twenty sturdy, fire-resistant cabins stood in a semi-circle. A central fire pit had been dug and lined with stone. A smokehouse was being built to cure the excess meat.

But the biggest change was in the wolves themselves.

Roxy sat on the porch of the King’s cabin, watching the afternoon hunting party return.

They weren’t dragging their feet anymore. Looking dead with life. Their heads were held high. The dull, matted grey fur was starting to gleam with a hint of silver.

And Kaelen...

[TheMotheroftheWorld fans herself.]