Baby System: I'm the Beast World's Only Hope!-Chapter 120: Episode : Something is Wrong with Roxy

The Next Morning.

"Ow," Roxy muttered.

She shifted her leg. The high-quality bear fur beneath her, the one Kaelen had hunted specifically because it was the softest in the territory, felt like sandpaper rubbing against her skin.

She moved her arm. The silk sheet Torian had provided felt like thousands of ants were biting into her skin.

"Ow!" Roxy yelled, kicking the blankets off her.

The door to the bedroom flew open instantly.

Kaelen, Torian, and Syris rushed in, claws extended. They were expecting an assassin. A monster. A rogue dragon.

What they found was their mate, sitting in the middle of the bed, glaring at the bedding with a level of hatred usually reserved for mortal enemies.

"Roxy?" Kaelen lowered his claw, confused, scanning the corners of the room for a threat. "What is it? Did a spider bite you?"

"The bed," Roxy seethed. She picked up a handful of the fur and threw it on the floor. "It is so rough and irritating to my skin?!"

The three Kings exchanged bewildered looks.

"Rough?!" Torian stepped forward, looking offended. "That is Silver-Tip Bear fur. It is softer than a cloud. And the sheets are Grade-A Citadel Silk. I sleep on this! It costs more than a chest of gold!"

"Well, you have fur and thick skin!" Roxy snapped, tears of frustration pricking her eyes. "My skin is burning! It feels like I’m sleeping on a pile of pinecones! Get it off! Get it all off!"

No, no, Roxy, what are you doing? Why are you behaving like this?

Roxy internally screamed at herself for her behavior, but she didn’t stop as if she was possessed. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

She started frantically stripping the bed, tossing pillows and sheets everywhere. She looked frantic, her breathing shallow, her eyes wide with panic.

"Could this be the pregnancy?" Syris hissed softly, though he didn’t have an answer to that question himself.

"So she is not crazy?" Torian whispered.

"Only Roxy can tell us what she wants," Syris corrected. He raised his hands gently, palms open. "Roxy, stop. We will fix it."

"Fix it how?" Roxy wailed, holding her hands up so nothing touched her, looking like a cornered animal. "Everything hurts!"

Jesus Christ, I felt like opening a hole beneath my feet and jumping into it.

For the next twenty minutes, the Apex Predators of the Beast World turned the cabin upside down.

Torian sacrificed his wardrobe. He ripped apart his ceremonial robes, piling the inner linings, which were made of a gossamer cotton so fine it barely held shape, onto the mattress.

"More!" Roxy cried from the corner where she was standing, shivering.

What do you fucking mean by more?!

Roxy was screaming internally.

Kaelen raided the nursery. He came back with armfuls of the babies’ blankets—the ones made from spun wool and cotton, washed a hundred times until they were threadbare and velvety.

"Towels!" Zarek shouted from the bathroom. He ran in with a stack of fluffy cotton towels Roxy had bought from the System store weeks ago.

They built a nest. It was a mismatched, chaotic pile of towels, old baby blankets, and shredded royal robes.

"Try this," Syris urged gently, helping her lie down.

Roxy lowered herself gingerly onto the pile. She flinched, waiting for the scratch. But the old cotton was soft. The towels were fluffy.

She let out a long, shuddering breath. "Okay. This is... okay."

Roxy facepalmed internally at how ridiculous this looks. I promise I am not like that?!

Oh my god, I sound like a child.

The four men slumped against the walls, wiping sweat from their foreheads. They had fought wars that were less stressful than making that bed.

***

By midday, lunch was supposed to be simple. Zarek had made a mild stew, nothing spicy, nothing crunchy, just soft vegetables and broth to appease Roxy’s picky stomach.

The children were eating at the small table Kaelen had built for them.

Drax, who was happily dunking a piece of meat into his bowl, lost his grip. The meat fell to the floor. Drax froze. He stared at the meat as if it had been destroyed.

His lower lip wobbled. His dragon eyes filled with tears.

"My meat..." Drax whispered. Then, he let out a wail that shook the windows.

Usually, Roxy would handle this with a laugh. She would give him a new piece and tell him to be a brave dragon.

But today?

Roxy looked at Drax. She didn’t know why he was crying so hard for a piece of chicken when he could just ask one of his dads for one.

And she also didn’t know why tears prickled her own eyes, and why her heart was breaking.

"Drax don’t cry..." Roxy choked out, clutching her spoon. "Your Dada would get you a new one."

Kaelen looked up from his bowl. "Roxy? It’s just meat. I can get him more."

Exactly, why were you about to join your child in crying?

"But not that meat!" Roxy sobbed.

Oh my god, I am dying of cringe.

Tears spilled down her cheeks. Huge, wet tears dripped into her clothes.

I am not the owner of this body any longer. Any action you see after this, it’s not me, it’s another fucked up spirit.

Roxy wished she could claw out of all this and shout at her mate to slap her so she could wake up.

"He loved that piece!" Roxy wailed, dropping her spoon with a clatter. "And now it’s gone forever!"

Holy smoly! Girl, it’s just meat.

[You realize that is you, right?]

...

I rebuke that accusation.

[TheMotheroftheWorld laughs and asks, Didn’t you go through this while you were pregnant on earth?]

I was fucking civilized about it, not behaving like the main character of that stupid book that brought me here.

Seeing their mother cry terrified the triplets.

Iris looked at Roxy. Her face crumbled. "Mama cry?"

No, Mama is not crying. Holy shit... here we go.

"Waaaaah!" Iris started screaming.

Axel and Onyx, realizing that the pack was in distress, immediately joined in. They threw their heads back and wailed.

The kitchen descended into madness. Drax was crying. The triplets were crying because Roxy was crying. And Roxy was crying because Drax was crying.

Torian, who had just walked into the kitchen, went into panic thinking Roxy had hurt herself, but the whole family was crying.

"What happened?!" Torian yelled over the noise, his fur standing on end. "Why is everyone wailing?"

"The meat!" Roxy sobbed, pointing at the floor. "It’s so sad!"

"The... meat?" Torian looked at the floor. Then, at Kaelen, who was frantically trying to juggle three crying toddlers. He looked at Syris, who was staring at Roxy, his head tilted in fascination.

"Is she dying?" Torian hissed at the Basilisk. "Is it a curse?"

"I do not know," Syris muttered, watching her closely.

"You do not know?!" Torian shouted, throwing his hands up.

"It’s a tragedy!" Roxy screamed at him, her face red and blotchy. "Don’t you have a heart?!"

She buried her face in her hands, sobbing uncontrollably.

I can’t watch this anymore.

[I repeat it’s you.]

Oh, shut the fuck up. While I was pregnant for Zarek and Kaelen, I was never like this.

[Maybe the basilisk pregnancy woke up your human side more.]

Torian stared at her, then slowly backed out of the kitchen. He couldn’t handle this.

****

By evening, the cabin was quiet again, and the children were asleep, exhausted from their crying marathon. The husbands were huddled in the living room, speaking in hushed whispers like survivors of a natural disaster.

Roxy was in the bedroom, sitting on her nest of towels. She felt disgusting. She had been sweating all day. Her face was sticky from tears. Her hair felt matted against her neck.

She wanted to be clean. But the thought of moving, of walking to the bathroom, of undressing, of the water hitting her sensitive skin, felt like climbing a mountain.

The door creaked open.

Zarek stepped in.

The Dragon King looked tired. He had spent the afternoon cleaning up the lunch disaster and keeping the fire at the exact temperature Syris had mandated.

He saw Roxy sitting there, looking miserable, disheveled, and hugging her knees.

His protective instincts flared. He hated seeing her like this. He wanted to fix it. He wanted to scrub the day away and make her feel human again.

"Roxy," Zarek said softly, walking over to the bed. "The water is ready. It is not too hot. I checked it myself. It will soothe your skin."

Roxy didn’t look up. She just stared at her knees. "I don’t want to move."

"You need to," Zarek said firmly but gently. "You have been crying. You are sweaty. You will feel better if you wash."

He reached out.

In his mind, he was being a dutiful mate. He was going to help her stand, carry her to the tub, and wash her back like he had done a hundred times before. He wanted to comfort her.

But to Roxy?

Roxy had been touched all day.

Every nerve ending was screaming BACK OFF. She felt suffocated. She felt like a piece of public property that everyone kept poking and prodding to see if it would break.

Zarek’s large, hot hand closed around her upper arm.

The heat of his skin, combined with the pressure of his grip, sent a jolt of sensory overload straight to her brain.

She swung her arm up, her hand connecting with Zarek’s wrist in a sharp, stinging slap. It wasn’t enough to hurt a Dragon physically, but the sound was loud in the quiet room.

Zarek froze. He let go of her arm instantly, pulling his hand back as if he had been burned. His golden eyes widened in shock.

What brought about the sudden reaction?

Why was she being violent with him?

"Roxy?" Zarek whispered, hurt flashing across his face.

"Can’t you keep your hands off me for one day?!"