Baby System: I'm the Beast World's Only Hope!-Chapter 340: Episode 338: Then Let’s have a Child.
Roxy snapped her jaw shut.
She forced her racing heart to steady. She looked directly into his hyper-focused green eyes, her expression smoothing out into a mask of absolute, impenetrable stone.
"Nothing," Roxy stated, her voice entirely flat.
Ren’s dark brow furrowed deeply. The muscles in his jaw ticked as his grip on her wrists tightened just a fraction. He was the master of illusions; he knew a lie the second it left someone’s lips.
"Do not lie to me, Roxy," Ren demanded, his voice dropping into a low, dangerous rumble that echoed off the emerald tiles of the bathing chamber. "You do not say something like ’we don’t have time’ and then brush it off. You are terrified of something. Tell me what it is."
Roxy didn’t flinch. She yanked her wrists, testing his grip, but when he didn’t immediately let go, she simply leaned forward.
The water rippled heavily around her waist as she closed the distance between them, her own brilliant green eyes narrowing into a fierce, challenging glare that completely matched his.
He wanted the truth? Fine. But he was going to have to bleed for it.
"A secret for a secret, Ren," Roxy whispered, her voice a deadly, uncompromising wager.
Ren completely stiffened. The air in the humid bathing chamber instantly became suffocatingly thick.
"You tell me the real reason you bolted into the freezing woods tonight," Roxy continued, her gaze dropping to his lips before flicking back up to pierce his soul. "You tell me the actual truth about why the thought of giving me a child makes you reject me... and I will tell you exactly what is keeping me awake at night. Deal?"
A flash of genuine anger sparked in Ren’s eyes.
The Fox King was absolutely pissed. He had cornered her, utilizing his Alpha authority to protect his pack, only to find himself instantly trapped flawlessly.
He opened his mouth, a feral, frustrated snarl building in the back of his throat. He wanted to demand her obedience. He wanted to use his magic, his charm, his sheer physical dominance to force the truth from her lips so he could properly protect her from whatever phantom was haunting her mind.
But as he looked into her unwavering green eyes, the devastating reality of his own predicament violently crashed down on him.
If he demanded her secret, she would demand his. And if he told her that siring a Kitsune heir would permanently drain his life force and kill him, it would absolutely, entirely destroy her.
Ren’s jaw clenched so tightly it looked as though his teeth might shatter.
He couldn’t do it.
With a dark, incredibly frustrated exhale, Ren swallowed his anger. He swallowed his desperate need to know her fears, choosing to bear the agonizing weight of his own silence to spare her the grief of his.
He slowly, reluctantly released his iron grip on her wrists, letting his large hands drop heavily beneath the surface of the scalding water.
Roxy watched the fight completely drain out of him. A hollow, bitter victory settled in her chest. She had won the standoff, but the emotional chasm between them had never felt wider.
Without another word, Roxy turned away from him.
The quiet intimacy of the bath was entirely dead. They finished washing in absolute, suffocating silence. The only sounds in the massive chamber were the soft splashing of the emerald water and the heavy, rhythmic dripping of condensation falling from the ceiling tiles. Ren didn’t try to pull her back against his chest, and Roxy didn’t reach out to touch him.
When she was clean, Roxy stood up from the pond-like tub. She didn’t wait for him to assist her. She wrapped a thick, heated towel tightly around her shivering body and stepped out onto the cold stone floor, completely leaving the Fox King alone in the water to brood in his own dark, agonizing thoughts.
She walked into the main bedroom, drying off and slipping into one of Ren’s oversized, incredibly soft silk sleeping robes.
She climbed into the massive, fur-covered bed, pulling the heavy pelts up to her chin. She lay entirely still on her side of the mattress, her green eyes wide open, staring blankly at the dark canopy above her.
Time bled sluggishly by. The chaotic sounds of the Manor had long since faded, leaving the Iron-Wood entirely entombed in the quiet, freezing grip of the night.
Much later, the heavy wooden door to the bathing chamber finally clicked open.
Roxy didn’t turn her head, but she felt the mattress dip significantly as Ren climbed into the bed. He slipped beneath the furs, settling on the far side of the massive mattress. The physical distance between them was vast, mirroring the impenetrable, invisible wall they had successfully erected during their standoff.
Neither of them could sleep.
The heavy, rhythmic sound of Ren’s breathing filled the dark room, but his heartbeat was too fast, his energy too restless. Roxy lay perfectly still, her mind churning in endless, exhausting circles.
The silence of the System. The terror of the unknown. The devastating, undeniable look of grief that had crossed Ren’s face when she had challenged him to give her a child.
The tension was unbearable. It felt as though the very air in the bedroom was actively vibrating with unspoken words and devastating secrets.
For nearly an hour, they lay there, separated by a sea of thick furs and stubborn pride.
But Ren was a Fox. He was a creature of intense, consuming passion, and his love for Roxy completely eclipsed his own ego. He could endure the physical agony of a heat cycle, and he could face the absolute certainty of his own impending death, but the one thing the trickster could not survive was the cold, agonizing distance of his Queen.
Ren was the one who finally, completely melted.
A soft rustle of silk and fur echoed in the dark. The mattress shifted heavily.
Before Roxy could even turn to look, Ren closed the vast distance between them. He slid across the sheets, slipping his large, incredibly warm arms directly around her waist from behind. He pulled her flush against his solid chest, burying his face into the messy, dark curls at the nape of her neck.
He didn’t speak immediately. He just held her, his grip desperate and entirely incredibly secure. One of his magnificent, bushy red tails slipped out from beneath the furs, wrapping warmly around her calf, anchoring her to him in the quiet dark.
Roxy’s breath hitched. The rigid, defensive tension in her spine instantly collapsed. She melted back into his embrace, her small hands coming up to grasp the thick forearms currently locked around her waist.
"Why can’t you sleep, baby?" Ren finally whispered, his gravelly voice incredibly soft, vibrating against her skin. It carried no trace of the anger from the bath, only exhaustion.
Roxy closed her green eyes. She didn’t want to fight with him. She didn’t want to play a game of secrets and shadows while something might be actively happening.
If the System was going to tear her away from this world, or if the fragile peace of the Beastworld was destined to shatter, she wanted to leave a legacy behind. She wanted to cement her love for the Fox King in the only way that truly mattered in the Iron-Wood.
Roxy took a slow, deep breath, her fingers tightening around his wrists.
"I want to have a child with you."
Everywhere went completely, utterly silent.
The soft, rhythmic sound of Ren’s breathing instantly ceased. The warm, comforting embrace of his arms suddenly felt incredibly rigid, as if he had been struck by lightning.
Roxy’s heart gave a painful, devastating twist in her chest. The silence stretched for an agonizing, suspended eternity. A suffocating wave of rejection began to rise in her throat.
She thought he was going to ignore her. She thought he was going to bring up another excuse about her health, or simply pretend the exhaustion of the night had claimed his consciousness.
But then, Ren slowly withdrew his arms from her waist. He didn’t turn away. Instead, he rose up in the darkness.
Roxy felt the heavy shift of his weight as he moved to hover directly above her. The dim, silvery moonlight filtering through the shattered window caught the vibrant, glowing green of his eyes. He looked down at her, his expression entirely hidden in the shadows, but the sheer, overwhelming intensity radiating from his aura was breathtaking.
The trickster had made his choice. He had weighed the absolute certainty of his own biological demise against the quiet, desperate plea of the woman he loved more than the stars themselves. And for the Fox King, the math was devastatingly simple. His life was a small, entirely acceptable price to pay for her happiness.
Ren slowly leaned down, his face mere inches from hers. His breath, warm and slightly trembling, washed over her parted lips.
"Then let’s have a child."
