Baby System: I'm the Beast World's Only Hope!-Chapter 51: Episode : Going into Labor

She knew something.

Mara looked at the forest wall, her expression distant.

"I was lost," Mara admitted, her voice rough. "Three winters ago. I chased a deer too far past the border. I fell into a ravine. When I woke up, I was in a bamboo cage."

The other women gasped. Getting captured by another species usually meant death, or worse.

"The Tiger territory was not like here. It smelled of flowers that made you dizzy, the air was wet, and they lived in the open, no wall, just a transparent cloth..." She shuddered.

"Sounds breezy," Roxy muttered.

"It is a trap," Mara corrected sharply. "They do not hunt for survival, Moon Mother. They hunt for sport. They catch things just to look at them. To play with them."

She turned to Roxy, her eyes intense.

"They brought me to their King. Not the White One... his father. The Old King. He sat on a pile of cushions, drinking red water that smelled of rot and sugar."

"Wine," Roxy supplied.

"He looked at me," Mara continued, touching her own face self-consciously. "He had me washed. He had me scented. And then... he laughed."

Mara’s hands clenched into fists.

"He said I was ’too sharp’. That I had ’no grace’. That a wolf is nothing but bones and hunger." She looked down at her feet. "He let me go. Not because he was kind. But because I was boring to look at. He threw me back into the snow like a fish too small to keep." 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Roxy felt a chill run down her spine.

Wolves killed for survival. Dragons hoarded for power. But Tigers? Tigers collected for aesthetics.

"He let you go because you weren’t a shiny toy," Roxy whispered.

"Yes," Mara nodded. She looked at Roxy, at her smooth skin, her soft hair, her round, fertile belly that defied the laws of their dying world.

"But you..." Mara stepped closer, her voice trembling with a warning. "You are not boring, Moon Mother. You are a miracle. You build houses. You make food from dust. You carry three heirs."

Why is she making it like it was some kind of big deal?

[Because it was.]

And who caused that?

[...]

Mara grabbed Roxy’s hands. Her grip was tight, desperate.

"To the Dragon, you are a Mate. To the Wolf, you are our savior. But to the Tiger? You are the ultimate trophy. He will not put you in a wooden box. He will put you in a gilded cage, and he will never let you leave."

[System Insight: She’s not wrong. Torian has already ordered a good room to be prepared for you.]

Roxy swallowed hard. The barbed tongue surfaced in her mind, and she immediately shook her head.

I will not be a trophy for someone; instead, I will make him my trophy.

"We will fight," Sera vowed, picking up her knitting needle like a dagger. "The Pack is strong now. We will not let him take you."

"The Tigers are fast," Mara warned. "And there are many. But they are lazy. They do not like pain. If we make the price of taking her too high... they might leave."

"Let’s hope," Roxy said, rubbing her temple. "Because I really don’t have the energy to start a war right now."

Though a war would never start in the beginning.

I just had to leave.

But Roxy didn’t know that the same method she used before would never be effective.

****

The sewing circle broke up as the sun began to dip. The females went back to their cabins to start dinner, their movements urgent. Mara’s story had spooked them.

Roxy walked back toward the King’s Cabin. She needed Kaelen. She needed to tell him about the Tiger tribe, even if it meant stressing him out even more.

The settlement was quiet. Too quiet.

Usually, at this hour, there was a lot of action going down. The males would have been cheering among themselves, Kaelen chopping wood in an attempt to make things for the pups.

But today... silence. Roxy stopped in the middle of the courtyard.

"Kaelen?" she called out.

No answer.

It was a heavy, unnatural silence. The kind that happens right before a thunderclap.

Roxy’s heart began to hammer against her ribs. The triplets kicked hard, reacting to her spike in cortisol. She moaned from the pain but still held her ground.

"Vorn!" she shouted. "Rax!"

Nothing. Maybe they were with their mates.

She spun around, scanning the perimeter fence. The guards were there, but they were frozen. They were staring at the forest gate.

Roxy followed their gaze.

The massive Iron-Wood gate, reinforced with the industrial nails she had bought, was closed. But she could feel the danger getting close.

[System Warning: Dragon King Proximity - 0 Meters.]

Why didn’t you warn me earlier?!

[We were too busy talking about the Tiger King.]

Fucking hell, you can be so useless sometimes!

[...]

Roxy was panicking as she took a step back, her hand flying to her mouth, a wave of contraction hitting her to the point of doubling over.

He’s here.

But the only thing she could focus on was her racing heart.

"Kaelen!" she screamed, panic finally breaking her voice.

The door to the main cabin burst open. Kaelen sprinted out, his axe in hand, his chest heaving. He looked wild. He had sensed it seconds before she did.

"Roxy!" He was at her side in an instant, pushing her behind him. "Get back! Get to the cellar!"

"He’s here, isn’t he?" Roxy whispered, clutching the back of his leather vest, which she had made for him.

"He is at the gate," Kaelen growled. His hackles were raised, a low, continuous snarl vibrating in his chest.

The wolves of the pack poured out of their cabins, weapons drawn. Vorn took his place beside Kaelen, his face pale but determined. Mara stood at the door of her cabin, clutching a knife, ready to defend her unborn pup.

They formed a wall of flesh and iron between Roxy and the gate.

BOOM.

The heavy Iron-Wood gate shuddered. Something massive had slammed into it from the other side.

BOOM.

The wood groaned. The industrial nails shrieked.

"It will hold!" Vorn shouted, trying to convince himself. "It is Iron-Wood! It resists fire!"

Roxy swallowed. Of course, it can resist fire, but it can’t resist Z.

She kept on wondering how she was going to calm the big lizard once he knocked down the gates and faced a pregnant Roxy.

CRACK.

A massive fist punched through the center of the gate. Roxy’s heart leaped.

The hand grabbed the splintered wood and ripped.

With a sound like a gunshot, the massive gate was torn off its hinges. It crashed into the mud, sending a cloud of dust and smoke into the air.

And there he stood.

Zarek.

He was in human form. His hair was wild, and his chest heaved with ragged breaths. He was wearing the black robe that Roxy made for him, making him look regal.

But his eyes...

His eyes were pools of molten gold, burning with a madness that made everyone’s hair stand on end; even Roxy felt fear.

He stepped into the courtyard. He looked straight at Roxy. His gaze dropped to her stomach. To the undeniable, swollen curve that housed three wolf pups.

The silence that followed was heavy enough to crush bones. Zarek took a breath. He was in disbelief as he stared at his mate, who was taken by the wolves.

She looked back at him with fear, and it rattled his whole being.

"You..." he rasped, his voice sounding like plates grinding together.

He pointed a shaking finger at Kaelen. "YOU TOUCHED HER!"

The roar that followed was loud and filled with fear as if he was ready to shift and destroy everything in his sight, except his mate. But then all of a sudden...

Roxy felt a sharp, tearing pain in her abdomen. Water gushed down her legs, soaking her heated slippers.

"Oh, fuck, fuck!" Roxy wheezed, grabbing Kaelen’s arm as her knees buckled. "The Pups are coming, Kae...."

[System Alert: Labor Initiated.]

[The Triplets are coming.]