Baby System: I'm the Beast World's Only Hope!-Chapter 337: Episode 335: Tell me the Truth

The grand assembly, which had just hours ago been the most monumental, vibrant celebration in the history of the Beastworld continent, had finally ended.

Everyone had returned to their homes.

Inside the private family parlor on the second floor, the tension was thick enough to choke on.

Roxy paced.

She walked a frantic, relentless line back and forth across the woven rugs, her bare feet entirely numb to the cold floorboards. She had discarded the heavy, ruined layers of her magnificent white chiffon dress, changing into a simple, thick woolen nightgown, but she couldn’t stop shivering.

She constantly, neurotically rubbed her hands up and down her arms, desperately trying to chase away the lingering, ice-cold dread that had settled deep into her bones the moment Ren had shattered the bedroom window.

Something was definitely wrong, she knew for sure.

Sitting on the plush velvet sofas, watching their mother’s frantic pacing with wide, highly observant eyes, were the children. They could feel the state of her mind; there was not a single smile on her face, only lines.

Tanith, completely ignoring her pre-hibernation sluggishness, slid off the sofa cushions. The toddler snake-shifter waddled forward on her little legs, her bright green eyes swimming with innocent concern.

She reached out, her tiny hands grasping the fabric of Roxy’s nightgown, forcing the Matriarch to halt her frantic marching.

"Mama sad?" Tanith babbled softly, pressing her cheek against Roxy’s leg in a sweet, desperate attempt to offer comfort.

Before Roxy could even kneel to reassure the toddler, Onyx bounded forward. The wildly active wolf pup could not stand the heavy, depressing atmosphere in the room. He puffed out his chest, his bright blue eyes gleaming with a forced, enthusiastic distraction.

"Mama, please don’t be sad!" Onyx pleaded, pulling on her sleeve. "Look what I did today! I wanted to show you during the feast, but you were so busy with the other Matriarchs. I caught a massive deer all by myself in the lower woods! It had huge antlers! I tracked it perfectly, just like Papa taught me! Do you want to come out to the meat-cellars and see it?"

Roxy’s heart gave a painful, devastating twist. She looked down at the bright, hopeful face of her incredibly brave son and the sweet, clinging form of her daughter. They were trying so hard to fix a fracture they didn’t even understand.

She couldn’t let her panic completely terrify them.

Roxy forced herself to take a deep, shuddering breath. She knelt on the floorboards, wrapping her arms around both Tanith and Onyx, pulling them tightly against her chest. She pressed a long, lingering kiss to Tanith’s dark hair and then leaned back to press a firm, deeply affectionate kiss to Onyx’s forehead.

"You are such a brave, incredible hunter, Onyx," Roxy whispered, forcing a warm, albeit fragile, smile onto her lips. "I am so incredibly proud of you. But Mama is just very tired right now. I promise you, I will come down and see your magnificent deer first thing tomorrow morning. Okay?"

Onyx’s fluffy black ears drooped slightly in disappointment, but he offered a brave nod.

Roxy stood back up, her arms feeling incredibly empty. She walked over to the cushioned bassinet near the hearth. Tyara, completely oblivious to the emotional devastation rocking her family, let out a demanding, high-pitched squeak.

Roxy carefully lifted the tiny white tiger cub. She unbuttoned the top of her nightgown and settled into a heavy armchair, allowing the infant to latch on aggressively.

As Tyara fed, her striking blue eyes slowly fluttered shut, the heavy, feral metabolism quickly pulling her back into a deep, milk-drunk sleep.

Standing near the mantle of the stone fireplace, Kaelen watched his Queen with a profound, stoic calmness. The Wolf Alpha’s icy blue eyes were entirely steady, attempting to project a grounding, unshakable aura of stability into the room.

"You are overthinking, Roxann," Kaelen assured her softly, his deep voice a soothing, rhythmic rumble. "Zarek and Syris are the greatest trackers on this continent. The Fox cannot outrun the sky, nor can he hide from the earth. They will find him. You must not overthink this until we have the facts."

Directly across the room, Torian scoffed loudly. The massive White Tiger Alpha crossed his thick arms over his chest, his own blue eyes blazing with a highly territorial, deeply irritated fire.

"When they drag that arrogant trickster back through the front doors," Torian growled, his sharp fangs baring in a clear threat, "I am going to give him a thoroughly good beating. You do not abandon the Matriarch in the middle of a continental summit. His theatrics have crossed the line."

Roxy opened her mouth to defend Ren, to explain that he had looked entirely broken and terrified, not theatrical, but she was abruptly cut off.

The heavy oak doors of the private parlor violently swung open.

Torian instantly dropped his arms, his combat aura flaring, while Kaelen stepped forward. But it wasn’t a threat.

Zarek strode heavily into the room. His jaw clenched so tightly the muscles visibly ticked. Trailing smoothly right behind him was Syris, the Snake King’s green eyes narrowed into a mask of completely unreadable, cold calculation.

And walking between them, his head hung low in absolute, agonizing shame, was Ren.

The Fox King looked terrible. His usually immaculate, vibrant red hair was matted with damp forest dirt and leaves. The beautiful, emerald-green Tang top Roxy had meticulously tailored for him was torn at the shoulder, stained with mud and the chaotic evidence of a violent scuffle in the underbrush.

Roxy didn’t even hesitate. She completely ignored Zarek and Syris. She carefully but swiftly handed the sleeping Tyara over to Kaelen and sprinted across the parlor.

"Ren!"

Roxy threw herself at him. She grabbed the torn lapels of his silk top, her hands frantically roaming over his broad chest, his shoulders, and his arms. Her brilliant green eyes were wide with sheer, unadulterated panic as she desperately checked every inch of his visible skin for lacerations, bite marks, or wounds.

"Are you hurt?" Roxy demanded, her voice cracking as she cupped his dirt-streaked face. "Baby, look at me. Did someone attack you? What happened?!"

She was incredibly relieved to find that beneath the dirt and torn fabric, his skin was unbroken. There were no injuries.

Ren did not pull away from her touch, but he didn’t lean into it either. He simply stood completely frozen. He slowly lifted his head, his vibrant green eyes meeting hers. He stayed entirely quiet. He didn’t offer a cocky smirk, and he didn’t offer an excuse. He just looked at her, his gaze overflowing with love that completely shattered Roxy’s heart.

What happened, Ren?

"Ren," Roxy asked softly, her thumbs gently brushing the dirt from his cheekbones, her voice dropping to a fragile whisper. "Why did you leave me like that?"

Ren swallowed hard, his throat bobbing, but he kept his lips firmly sealed. The crushing weight of his lethal secret was suffocating him, but he could not bring himself to destroy her world. Not tonight. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Roxy’s brow furrowed. The complete, unnatural silence from the usually hyper-verbal trickster set every single one of her alarm bells ringing. She dropped her hands from his face and slowly turned around.

She leveled a fierce, uncompromising glare at the two Alpha Kings standing behind him.

"Did you interrogate him?" Roxy demanded, her green eyes flashing as she looked between the Snake and the Dragon. "What happened in those woods?"

Behind Roxy’s back, Ren’s head snapped up. He shot Zarek a look of pure, unadulterated panic. The Fox King’s green eyes widened, silently, desperately pleading with the towering Dragon Alpha to keep his devastating, fatal biological secret in the dark.

Please. Don’t break her.

Zarek saw the look. The Dragon Alpha’s golden eyes narrowed into a terrifying, conflicted glare. Zarek despised lies. He was her first mate; he operated on absolute truth and brutal reality.

When they had marched back to the Manor, Zarek had fully intended to lay the catastrophic reality of Ren’s impending death squarely on the table so they could fight it together.

But looking at Roxy now, seeing her trembling, exhausted, and barely holding herself together after the sheer terror of the evening, Zarek’s iron resolve fractured.

"Well?!" Roxy shouted, her anger flaring violently as the silence stretched entirely too long. She planted her hands on her hips, looking directly at Zarek. "Are you guys hiding anything from me?!"

Zarek opened his mouth, the heavy truth sitting like a boulder on his tongue, but before the Dragon could ruin everything, a smooth, silken voice effortlessly cut through the tension.

"We are hiding nothing, my Queen," Syris intervened flawlessly.

The Snake King stepped forward, completely shielding Zarek’s hesitation. Syris folded his elegant, pale hands together, his green eyes perfectly calm, entirely devoid of the catastrophic panic that was currently eating Ren alive.

Roxy whipped her head toward the apothecary master. "Then why did he run?"

Syris let out a soft, elegant sigh, looking at Ren with a perfectly manufactured expression of mild, clinical exasperation.

"Ren ran out like that so he could contain his biological outburst," Syris explained smoothly, his tone shifting into the authoritative, unquestionable cadence of the continent’s greatest medical mind. "It is a rare, but documented phenomenon among the ancient Fox bloodlines. After they are entirely overcome by a severe heat fever, and after they are done knotting their mates for the first time in such a state... they experience a catastrophic surge of residual magic. They go into a highly volatile, completely feral, restless period. If he had remained in the bedroom, his magic would have violently lashed out and destroyed the entire wing. He fled to protect you."

The entire parlor went dead silent.

Roxy blinked, her green eyes widening as she slowly processed the incredibly specific, entirely biological explanation. It made perfect sense. It explained the fever, the desperate grinding, the sudden panic, and the feral leap out the window.

But behind Roxy, the absolute, unadulterated shock radiating from the rest of the pack was deafening.

Kaelen, holding the sleeping tiger cub, blinked his icy blue eyes. Torian’s jaw literally dropped open, the White Tiger staring at the Snake King as if Syris had just grown a second head. Even Zarek, the towering Dragon Alpha who had just been in the woods and heard the actual truth of Ren’s impending death, turned his head to stare at Syris in sheer, dumbfounded disbelief.

The look on every single one of the Alpha Kings’ faces was entirely identical: How in the name of the ancestors does that happen? What kind of bullshit is that?!

Syris felt the burning, incredulous stares of his fellow warlords boring directly into the side of his head.

He just shrugged.