Interstellar Beastworld: Raising A Cub With My Mummy System!-Chapter 40: PREPARE A FLEET FOR MY GRANDSON

Alistair sat alone for a long moment after his wife left, staring at the data tablet that held the thin file on Lin Yue. A woman with no past, no family, no history before she appeared in his son’s car eight days ago. The timeline bothered him more than he wanted to admit. She arrived, she was registered, she gave birth. All in the span of a week.

He picked up his pen and turned it over in his fingers, a habit from his youth when he had sat in this same room learning from his father. Uriel had been a difficult child, stubborn and proud, but he had never been a fool. If he had chosen this woman, there was a reason. The question was whether that reason was love or something else entirely.

He set the pen down and stood.

He found Lyanna in the corridor outside, speaking with an attendant about arranging transport. She looked up when he approached, one eyebrow raised.

"Wait," he said. "I am coming along."

Lyanna studied his face for a moment. "I thought you wanted to wait. Observe from a distance."

"I want to see my grandson." He moved past her toward the garage. "The child is two days old. I have not held him. I have not seen him. I will not let the council’s questions keep me from my own blood."

Lyanna caught up with him, matching his stride. "And the mother?"

Alistair was quiet for a moment. "I will meet her. Watch her. Then I’ll decide what I think of her after I have seen how she looks at our son and how she holds our grandson. The council can have their questions later."

They reached the garage, where a sleek black car waited. Lyanna stopped and turned to face him. "We should bring gifts. A proper arrival. It is not every day we meet our grandson for the first time."

Alistair considered this.

He had been so focused on the irregularities, on the missing pieces of Lin Yue’s past, that he had forgotten the simplest thing.

This was not an interrogation.

It was a visit to his son’s home to meet his son’s child.

"Prepare a fleet of them," he said. "Traditional gifts for the child. Things from the palace stores. Something for the mother as well. She is carrying our son’s name now, whether the council approves or not."

Lyanna nodded. "I will have the attendants gather everything. It will take an hour to prepare properly."

"We still have time." Alistair looked toward the car, then back at his wife. "I want to see the child. I want to know what kind of man my son has become in the days since he became a father."

Lyanna placed a hand on his arm. "He is the same man he has always been, Alistair. Stubborn. Loyal. Determined to do things his own way." She paused. "He has always been like you."

Alistair almost smiled. "Is that a compliment or a warning?"

"Both."

She walked ahead to direct the attendants, and Alistair stood alone in the garage, thinking about the grandson he had not yet met.

A child had been named Auriel, a name that echoed his father’s.

A name chosen by a woman who had appeared from nowhere and changed everything in eight days.

He did not know what he would find at the estate. He did not know if he would approve of the woman who had captured his son’s loyalty. But he knew one thing.

The child was his blood.

That was enough to begin with.

An hour later, the car pulled away from the palace with a convoy of vehicles behind it carrying gifts. Lyanna sat beside her husband, her hands folded in her lap, her expression unreadable. Alistair stared out the window as the city gave way to countryside, as the walls of the palace disappeared behind them.

"Are you nervous?" Lyanna asked.

"No." he said, then paused. "Yes. A little."

She reached over and took his hand. "So am I."

He looked at her, surprised.

"I have read everything there is to read about her," Lyanna continued. "I know her medical records, her psychological profile, her citizenship documents. But i know nothing about who she is, what she wants, or why she is here. That is unusual for me."

Alistair squeezed her hand. "Then we will learn together. It seems our son likes her enough to have a child with her and you know Uriel he’s never careless."

The car turned onto the long drive leading to Uriel’s estate.

The gates opened before them, guards snapping to attention as they passed.

Through the trees, the house came into view, warm stone and glass, smoke rising from the chimneys.

Alistair took a deep breath and prepared to meet the woman who had changed everything.

The news came first to Mira, who received the alert on her wrist-comm and immediately went to find Lin Yue.

She was in the nursery, Auriel asleep in her arms, her phone still displaying the staff records she had been studying.

"Madam," Mira said from the doorway, her voice carefully neutral. "The King and Queen have arrived. They are at the front gates. Their convoy will be here within minutes."

Lin Yue’s blood ran cold. She looked down at Auriel, so peaceful, so unaware. "The King and Queen? Here? Now?"

"Yes, Madam. Their visit was not announced in advance."

She nodded, her mind racing. She had known she would meet them eventually, but not like this.

Not today.

Not when she was still trying to figure out who was stealing from this house, not when she was still learning how to be a mother.

"Thank you, Mira. I will be there shortly."

Mira left. Lin Yue stood up, holding Auriel close, and made her way toward the study.

Uriel was at his desk when Mira appeared in his doorway. Her expression was the same careful neutrality she had worn for decades.

"Your Majesty, the King and Queen have arrived. They are at the gates."

Uriel set down his stylus. He had expected this, but not so soon. His father was not a patient man, and his mother was not a woman who waited for answers when she wanted them.

They were both equally impatient.

"Inform them I will receive them shortly."