Baby System: I'm the Beast World's Only Hope!-Chapter 336: Episode 334: Ren’s Secret is Out
Deep in the forest.
The nine-tailed red fox tore through the dense underbrush, his massive paws tearing up the damp, frozen earth. Ren wasn’t running toward a specific destination; he was simply running away. Away from the heavy, intoxicating scent of his own claiming, and away from the devastating, world-shattering realization of what he had just done.
Above him, the cold night wind violently fractured.
Zarek didn’t need to fully shift to utilize his draconic supremacy. He tracked the vibrant red blur through the dense trees with his piercing gold eyes. With a deafening roar, Zarek folded his massive, leathery wings and plummeted from the sky like a meteor.
He mid-shifted right before impact. Zarek hit the forest floor directly in Ren’s path, the sheer kinetic force of his heavy landing shattering the bedrock and sending a massive shockwave of dirt, frost, and splintered wood exploding into the air.
Ren skidded violently, his claws carving deep, frantic trenches into the soil. The Fox King let out a wild, feral snarl and immediately pivoted on his hind legs, desperate to face another way and launch himself back into the thickest, darkest part of the woods to escape.
He didn’t make it three feet.
From the dark shadows of the freezing undergrowth, Syris massive, scaled coils whipped out, wrapping tightly around the giant fox’s torso and hind legs, violently locking Ren into place.
Ren thrashed wildly, his nine heavy tails whipping frantically through the air, but Syris’s constricting grip was absolute, squeezing the desperate breath right from the Fox’s lungs.
"What the fuck are you doing?!" Zarek bellowed, his voice a concussive, draconic roar that silenced the nocturnal predators across the entire forest.
Ren’s massive fox form shimmered, the illusory magic violently rippling as he forcefully shifted back into his humanoid shape to try and slip the coils. He materialized covered in dirt, his emerald-green Tang top torn at the shoulder, and his vibrant red hair wild.
He didn’t surrender. Ren bared his fangs, his brilliant green eyes completely dilated with sheer panic, and actually swung a desperate fist directly at the Dragon King.
It was a futile effort. Ren was fast, and his magic was lethal, but Zarek was the king for a reason. He was raw, unparalleled, earth-shattering power.
Zarek effortlessly batted the strike aside. He lunged forward, his massive, heavily scarred hands grabbing Ren by the throat and the front of his tunic.
With a terrifying display of brute strength, Zarek lifted the Fox King clean off his feet and violently slammed him down into the forest floor, pinning him instantly beneath his massive weight.
Roxy never had the patience for Roxy’s other males. So he always uses it whenever he gets the chance.
"I said, what are you doing?!" Zarek demanded, his gold eyes blazing with furious, unforgiving hellfire as he knelt heavily over Ren’s chest. "You abandon your post? You jump out a window and leave our Queen weeping and terrified in her chambers during a party? Have you completely lost your mind?!"
Ren struggled furiously beneath the Dragon’s crushing weight, his chest heaving. But the fight drained out of him as quickly as it had ignited. The arrogant, untouchable trickster was entirely gone. His pale hands clawed weakly at Zarek’s thick wrists, his beautiful face twisting in absolute, soul-crushing agony.
"I’m scared!" Ren growled, his voice breaking into a ragged, pathetic whimper. Hot tears finally spilled over his thick lashes, tracking through the dirt on his pale cheeks. "I’m scared, Zarek... I don’t want to hurt her!"
Zarek froze, the lethal pressure of his grip halting just a fraction. He exchanged a sharp, entirely bewildered look with Syris.
The Snake King slithered closer, his human torso rising elegantly above his massive emerald coils, his own green eyes narrowing at Ren. "Hurt her? Ren, you are a master of illusions and aesthetic magic. You are physically incapable of harming her. What is this madness?"
Zarek furrowed his brow, leaning his heavy face closer to Ren’s. "Explain yourself, Fox. Now."
Ren closed his green eyes in defeat.
"If I give a child to Roxy," Ren confessed, his hoarse voice barely a whisper against the wind. "I will die."
The silence that fell over the forest was absolute. Not a single leaf rustled.
Syris’s vertical green pupils dilated in sheer, unadulterated shock. The Snake King’s coils loosened slightly around the surrounding tree trunks. "If that is the biological consequence of your bloodline... then Roxy needs to know. She is the Matriarch. She has the right to manage the risks of her mates."
"How do you know this?" Zarek demanded, his deep voice dropping into a dangerous, disbelieving octave. "You have never sired a cub. The ancient texts say Kitsune are immortal as long as their core magic holds. Why would siring an heir kill you?"
Ren opened his eyes, staring hollowly up at the dark, starlit canopy. "Because she has already healed me once by sharing a part of herself with me. To forge a soul strong enough to survive inside her womb, to create a Kitsune heir that won’t be instantly crushed by the residual auras of her other children... my body has to compensate."
Ren swallowed hard, his voice trembling with the weight of his doom. "My magic must forcibly extract my own life force to build the child’s core. The moment her body accepts my seed and a cub is formed, the spark of my immortality is transferred entirely to the infant. My magic will drain. My tails will wither. And within months, when that child takes its first breath... mine will permanently stop."
The gravity of the confession hit the two Alpha Kings like a blow.
This was very sad news.
Ren hadn’t run because he was a coward. He had run because he had just signed his own death warrant, and he couldn’t bear to look into Roxy’s beautiful green eyes, knowing he was going to abandon her to the grave.
Syris looked down at the dirt, his brilliant green eyes processing the reality. There was no potion, no enchanted root in his massive apothecary that could reverse an ancient bloodline sacrifice.
Zarek’s jaw clenched so tightly the muscles ticked.
Zarek’s hands tightened aggressively on Ren’s collar. He pulled the trickster roughly upward, ripping him halfway off the damp soil so they were mere inches apart.
"Then why did you mate with her?!" Zarek growled, his voice a devastating, concussive rumble of pure rage. "If you knew the cost was your life, if you knew it would leave her grieving and utterly broken, why the fuck did you strip your clothes, take her to our bed, and knot her?!"
Ren let out a broken, agonizing sound. He didn’t try to defend his Alpha pride. He simply let his head fall back, the devastating irony of the evening completely crushing his soul.
"Because she demanded it," Ren whispered, his voice cracking. "I tried to pull out. I tried to hold back the fever. But she tied my hands to the bed... and she ordered me to fuck her. How could I deny her, Zarek? When the woman I love more than my own existence commands me to give her exactly what she wants... how could I possibly say no?"
Everywhere went completely, utterly silent again.
The sheer, devastating tragedy of the situation settled heavily over the three warlords. Roxy had no idea. She had playfully asserted her dominance, completely unaware that her sexy, demanding command had forced the Fox King to trade his life for her pleasure.
When she found out she was the architect of his demise, it would absolutely, entirely destroy her.
The Dragon Alpha’s expression hardened into stone. He didn’t offer pity. He didn’t offer comforts. He operated on logic.
Zarek stood up, his massive hands wrapping around the front of Ren’s torn emerald Tang top. With a violent heave, he dragged the Fox King completely up off the forest floor, forcing Ren to stand on his own two trembling legs.
"We are not keeping this in the dark," Zarek declared, his voice echoing with absolute, terrifying authority.
Ren panicked, grabbing Zarek’s thick forearms. "No! Zarek, please, you can’t—if she knows of this, it will break her mind!"
"Then we will fix it together!" Zarek roared, his golden eyes flashing as he forcefully dragged Ren toward the direction of the Manor. "We will go and tell her now!"
