Baby System: I'm the Beast World's Only Hope!-Chapter 74: Episode : When you have to handle Three Beasts!
Roxy was dreaming of floating on a cloud. It was warm and soft. Kaelen was a big, heavy spoon behind her, his breathing rhythmic and soothing.
But then, the dream changed.
She felt something cool, like the other side of the pillow. And smooth.
It was pressed against her chest, her stomach, her legs. It felt nice against the heat of the bed. She shifted, snuggling closer to the coolness, throwing her leg over the object to pull it closer.
Wait.
Objects didn’t breathe. Roxy’s eyes fluttered open in the pitch blackness.
She felt the hairy, muscular arm of Kaelen draped over her waist from behind. That was normal. But there was another arm.
A pale, smooth, hairless arm wrapped around her from the front, clutching her nightgown. And there was a face buried in her neck. Roxy froze.
This slimy snake was going to be the death of me!
She slowly moved her hand down, clearly terrified. She felt Kaelen’s leg behind her. A long, thick tail was woven between her legs, curling possessively around her ankle.
Syris was in bed. He was the little spoon. And he was fast asleep, purring, breathing against her chest.
I actually miss the time I had no man or beast to worry about.
Only my cat.
Roxy lay there in the dark, sandwiched between a Wolf, a Dragon (somewhere to her left), and now a Serpent.
If I scream, she thought hysterically, everyone dies.
Syris shifted in his sleep, nuzzling closer to her breasts, murmuring something that sounded suspiciously like, "Warm."
[Quest Update: The Serpent is... cozy. Affection: 20%+]
So fast?! So he sees me as a mate worthy now, rather than food, right?
[Correct.]
Yess! The snake wasn’t as hard as I thought.
She lay there, frozen, her eyes darting around the room, looking for an escape route, but there wasn’t one.
Until she heard the little feet hitting the floorboards, Roxy’s eyes glanced over, and her eyes widened in fear.
Oh no! It was Drax!
The toddler dragon had climbed out of his cot. He waddled over to the side of the bed, dragging his favorite stuffed wolf. He gripped the edge of the mattress and pulled himself up, peering over the mountain of furs.
His golden eyes went wide. He saw his dad, his Wolf-Dad, his Mom. And he saw the Snake Man.
Drax grinned. He loved the Snake Man. The Snake Man had given him a shiny rock.
"Snake!" Drax shouted joyfully, pointing a chubby finger. "Sleep!"
It was like a bomb that exploded everywhere. Kaelen’s eyes snapped open.
He didn’t wake up slowly. He snapped up, confirming the scent of the reptile on the bed.
"WHAT?!" Kaelen roared.
At the same time, Zarek woke up and lunged at Syris almost immediately, trying to incinerate the snake.
"HOW DARE YOU?!" Zarek bellowed.
Kaelen grabbed Roxy by the shoulders and yanked her backward, shielding her with his body. Zarek lunged across the bed, his hand wreathed in fire, aiming for the pale figure still entangled in the sheets.
"Die, worm!" Zarek screamed.
Syris, to his credit, was fast. Even half-asleep and cold, his survival instincts were sharper than a razor.
He hissed, slithering backward off the bed in a fluid motion, narrowly missing Zarek’s fire-fist, which instead incinerated a pillow. Feathers exploded everywhere.
Syris landed in a crouch at the foot of the bed, his tail lashing behind him, his upper lip curled back to reveal his fangs.
Syris hissed, holding up his hands. "I sought heat!"
"You sought death!" Kaelen snarled, leaping off the bed. He shifted partially, his claws extending, his silver fur bristling. "You touched her! You slept in the Alpha’s bed!"
"GET OUT!" Zarek roared, standing on the mattress like a vengeful god, smoke pouring from his nostrils.
Two apex predators were cornering a third, and the testosterone levels were high enough to choke a horse.
"STOP!" Roxy screamed.
She scrambled to her knees on the bed, feathers raining down around her. She threw her arms out, placing herself physically between Zarek and the calm Syris, who was actually scared.
"Nobody kills anybody!" Roxy yelled. "Zarek, put out the fire! You’re burning the duvet! Kaelen, retract the claws! You’re scratching the floor!"
"He was in the bed, Roxy!" Kaelen shouted, pointing an accusatory claw at Syris. "He was spooning you!"
"I was freezing!" Syris snapped back, his voice losing its hiss and sounding genuinely indignant. "The fire died! My blood slowed! If I stayed on the rug, I would have entered torpor!"
He looked at Roxy, his neon eyes pleading.
"I needed a heat source. You are... the warmest."
Roxy looked at him. He wasn’t lying. Even now, shivering slightly in the morning air, his skin looked pale and grey. He was an ectotherm in a temperate climate.
"He’s right," Roxy said, turning to her husbands. She kept her voice firm, channeling her inner doctor. "He’s cold-blooded. If his body temperature drops too low, his organs shut down. It was a medical necessity."
"Medical necessity?" Zarek scoffed. "He could have asked for a blanket. Or built a fire. He did not need to wrap himself around my mate like a vine."
"I was asleep," Syris defended himself, crossing his arms. "Instinct took over."
"You are a parasite," Kaelen growled, though he stepped back slightly, seeing Roxy’s stern expression.
"Enough," Roxy commanded. She climbed off the bed, ignoring the fact that she was wearing a thin nightgown and her breasts were jiggling. Drax saw this and extended his arm for her.
"Ma... Up." He cooed, and Roxy complied, picking him up. The little one lay his head against her breast, and Roxy continued.
"Look at him," she gestured to Syris. "He’s shivering. He’s weak. If we kick him out, he dies. If we kill him, I die. Do you want me to die?"
That was the trump card. Even though they didn’t understand, they didn’t want Roxy to die.
Zarek and Kaelen froze.
"No," Zarek gritted out.
"Then he stays," Roxy said. "And he stays inside. Until he is strong enough to regulate his own heat or until the Quest is done."
She looked at Syris.
"And you. Next time, wake someone up. If you sneak into the bed again without permission, I will be the one to kick you out. Understood?"
Syris bowed his head, a small, triumphant smirk hiding in the corner of his mouth. "Understood... Mother."
"Don’t call me that," Roxy muttered. "Everyone, out. Breakfast. Now."
It was one thing to order them, it was another thing for them to follow through...
During breakfast, they sat at the wooden table. Roxy sat at the head. Zarek sat on her right. Kaelen sat on her left.
Syris sat at the far end, opposite Roxy.
The tension was so thick you could spread it on toast.
Kaelen ate his eggs aggressively, stabbing them with his fork while staring unblinkingly at Syris. Zarek drank his coffee, but every time Syris moved, Zarek’s hand would twitch, a small spark dancing between his fingers.
Syris, meanwhile, was enjoying the chaos. He sat wrapped in a thick wool blanket Roxy had given him, sipping tea. He looked smug. He knew he was the intruder, and they hated him. And he knew they couldn’t touch him because the Queen had spoken.
"Pass the salt," Syris asked politely.
Kaelen grabbed the salt shaker. He looked like he wanted to throw it at Syris’s head. Instead, he slid it across the table with enough force that it flew off the edge and landed in Syris’s lap.
"Oops," Kaelen said, his face deadpan.
"Clumsy dog," Syris murmured, picking it up.
"Watch your tongue, worm," Zarek rumbled, not looking up from his cup. "Or I will roast it."
Roxy sighed, massaging her temples. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎
This was sustainable for maybe an hour. A day, tops.
She looked at her family.
She saw Kaelen, hurt and territorial, feeling like his space was being invaded. She saw Zarek, arrogant and possessive, tolerating the snake only because he feared she would disappear. She saw Syris, lonely and manipulative, pushing boundaries just to feel included.
And she saw herself. The glue holding this disaster together.
I can’t keep doing this, Roxy realized as she watched Drax try to feed Syris a piece of bacon.
Will all of them keep trying to fight for my attention?
She felt the pull toward Syris. When she had woken up with him in the bed, her first instinct hadn’t been fear. It had been... comfort. Her body recognized him. The [Mother of Civilization] trait was rewiring her brain to accept the harem, to want the connection.
Even though on earth, she couldn’t handle one man.
If she kept pretending she hated him, she was lying to her husbands. And that was worse than the snake in the bed.
She looked at Zarek, then Kaelen.
I have to tell them, she thought, her stomach twisting. I have to tell them that it’s not just an obligation to live. I have to tell them that my heart is getting crowded.
She set her fork down. The clatter drew three pairs of eyes to her.
"We need to talk," Roxy said softly. "Tonight. After the kids are asleep."
Zarek narrowed his eyes. "Talk about what?"
"About us," Roxy said, looking at Syris for a brief second before meeting Zarek’s gaze. "About everything."
Because you braindead fools clearly don’t get it!
The table went silent.
