Baby System: I'm the Beast World's Only Hope!-Chapter 87: Episode : So I had no choice?

The next morning, Roxy felt like dying and returning to her world.

The cabin was silent, but she clearly remembered what happened yesterday, and so he woke up today, deciding not to give a fuck anymore about this system.

The air was cool, though the lingering scent of the previous night still clung to the furs of the bed like a ghost, hunting Roxy.

Roxy sat up, her body aching in a way that was both pleasurable and terrifying. She touched her neck where Kaelen had marked her, then her lips where she had tasted the venom.

The memory of her own voice begging them, the sheer loss of control, made her shiver.

I am losing myself, she thought, panic tightening her chest.

She wasn’t just a woman anymore. And last night proved that her own biology was traitorous. If she stayed, she would be swallowed whole by this world, forgetting where she originally came from.

"We have to go," she whispered to the empty room.

She didn’t care if the system killed her anymore, she had to go before she looses her mind.

An hour later, Roxy sat in the rocking chair by the window, Iris cradled in her arms. The baby girl was feeding contentedly, her tiny hand gripping Roxy’s finger with surprising strength.

On the rug in front of the hearth, domestic chaos was unfolding in slow motion.

The twin boys, Axel and Onyx, were currently engaging in a low-speed pursuit of a wooden block. They were crawling now, a clumsy, adorable shuffle of limbs that usually ended with them toppling over like drunk beetles.

"No, Onyx! That’s a table leg, not food!" Roxy called out softly.

"I got him, Mama!" Drax yelled.

The Dragon scrambled across the floor on all fours, mimicking the wolves. He grabbed Jett by the back of his onesie and hauled him away from the furniture with surprising strength.

"Safe!" Drax announced, patting the confused wolf pup on the head. "Onyx is safe from the wood monster!"

Roxy smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. Her heart was beating a frantic, guilty rhythm against her ribs.

"Good job, Drax," she praised, her voice trembling slightly. "You’re such a good big brother."

She looked down at Iris. The baby pulled back, milk dripping from her rosebud mouth. She blinked up at Roxy with her violet eyes and let out a loud, wet burp that seemed entirely too big for her tiny body.

"Oh, excuse you, little flower," Roxy whispered, wiping the baby’s chin with a soft cloth.

She pulled Iris closer, burying her nose in the baby’s soft hair. It smelled of milk and innocence. It grounded her, but it also fueled her fear. What if they hurt them once I am gone? What if she couldn’t protect them here?

"We can’t stay here, Iris," Roxy whispered, her voice barely audible over the sound of Drax stacking blocks. "It’s getting too dangerous. Mommy is... Mommy is scared. If we stay, people die. If we stay, I don’t know who I’ll become."

She looked at the door. Kaelen had said they would be gone until midday, stocking the larder deep in the woods.

"We’re going to leave," Roxy murmured to the baby. "Tonight. When they’re asleep, we’ll take the wagon. We’ll go to the Neutral Zone. We’ll hide in the Burrows until everything is over."

Fuck the system.

It was a stupid plan. A human woman wandering the Beast World with four hybrid children was a death sentence. But the alternative, losing herself, felt worse. She was not trained to mate with multiple men.

Even if it made her feel very good, she was not of this world.

"Drax," Roxy said, her voice steadying as she stood up. "Watch your brothers. Mama needs to go see Auntie Mara for a minute. Can you be the big guard?"

Drax puffed out his chest. "I am the best guard! I will burn the bugs if they come!"

"No burning," Roxy corrected quickly, kissing his forehead. "Just guarding. Be right back."

***

The village square was bustling with activity, but the mood was different today. There was no laughter, no gossip. The females weren’t weaving flowers or playing with the older pups.

They were working, trying to fix up things that Roxy wondered if they were planning a party. Women were curing extra meat, reinforcing the thatched roofs, and sharpening skinning knives with grim expressions.

Roxy found Mara sitting on a heavy wooden bench near the drying racks. The she-wolf looked utterly exhausted.

Her belly was massive now, dropping low, signaling that labor was imminent. Her ankles were swollen, and sweat beaded on her forehead despite the cool breeze.

"Mara," Roxy called out, hurrying over.

Mara looked up. Her green eyes, usually sharp and witty, were dull with fatigue. "Roxy. You look... flushed. The venom settled well?"

Roxy froze, her hand going to her neck. "You know?"

"The whole pack can smell it," Mara grunted, shifting her weight uncomfortably. "You smell like a Serpent’s mate today. Sweet and metallic. Kaelen must be grinding his teeth to dust."

Roxy flushed deeper, guilt twisting in her gut. She sat down next to her friend. "It... it wasn’t exactly planned. Look, Mara, I need to ask you something. About... timing."

Mara waved a hand dismissively, wincing as her baby kicked her ribs. "Not now, Roxy. My head is splitting. I am just praying to the Moon that this pup comes out tonight."

"Why the rush?" Roxy asked, keeping her voice casual. "You still have a few days before your due date, don’t you? Why does everyone seem so panicked?"

"I cannot wait a few days," Mara said, her voice tight with anxiety. "I need to give birth to him before the season starts. If I am still heavy with child when the Red Moon rises... my mate... he will not be able to handle it."

Roxy tilted her head. "The season? You mean winter?"

Mara looked at her, blinking in confusion. Then she let out a dry, humorless laugh. She totally forgot that Roxy was not from here. She was of a different species.

"I forgot," Mara wheezed, rubbing her lower back. "You are ’human’. You do not know our cycles."

She turned to face Roxy, her expression grave.

"Not winter, Roxy. The Mating Season. The Great Rut."

Roxy swallowed nervously; she knew that. "I thought beasts mated whenever they wanted. Like... normal people."

"We do," Mara explained. "But once a year, when the Red Moon rises... We have no choice but to do it. It is the time of fertility. The pheromones in the air change. For the females, it is simply a time of heat. But for the males..."

Mara swallowed hard, her eyes darting toward the forest line where the hunters had gone.

"For the males, it is madness. Their instincts override their logic. Their testosterone spikes to lethal levels. They become possessive, aggressive, and insatiable. All they want to do is knot, claim, and breed."

"Insatiable?" Roxy whispered. "Like... they lose control?"

"If I give birth now," Mara whispered, "my scent will change. I will smell of milk and blood, not heat. My mate will be able to control himself around me. He will focus on the pup. But if I am still pregnant... and the Rut hits him... he might not recognize me. He might hurt me trying to force a mating that my body cannot take."

Roxy stared at her, horrified. "That’s... Mara, that sounds terrifying."

"It is our body," Mara corrected sadly. "They hate it as much as we fear it. They lock themselves away. They chain themselves to trees. They chew on bitter roots to dampen the fire. But it is painful for them."

Roxy looked down at her hands. This was the reason to leave. If the males were going to go crazy, she needed to be far away with the children.

"Mara," Roxy asked carefully, trying to sound like she was just curious about the lore. "Is it really that important? I mean... What happens if a male... skips it? Say, if his mate isn’t around? Or if he just resists?"

Mara looked at Roxy as if she had asked if it was okay to stop breathing.

"Skips it?" Mara repeated, a confused frown marring her brow. "Roxy, you cannot skip nature."

"But hypothetically," Roxy pressed, her heart pounding. "If a male is alone during the Red Moon. If he doesn’t mate. He’ll just be grumpy, right? Maybe a headache?"

Mara’s expression shifted from confusion to horror. She grabbed Roxy’s wrist, her grip surprisingly strong.

"Grumpy?" Mara hissed. "Roxy, listen to me. A common wolf might just get aggressive or sick if he misses the Rut. But an Alpha?"

Mara squeezed Roxy’s wrist, her eyes wide and serious.

"Their energy is too potent. If a King does not release his seed during the Red Moon... if he is denied his mate when the instinct takes over... the energy has nowhere to go. It boils his blood. It burns out his neural pathways."

Roxy felt the blood drain from her face. "Burns out?"

"He will go Feral," Mara whispered, "Permanently. He will lose his human consciousness. He will become a mindless monster that knows only violence. He will kill everything in his path, his friends, his pack, himself, until his heart explodes from the strain."

Roxy pulled her hand away, covering her mouth to hide her trembling lips. "They... they would die?"

"They would become Rogues first," Mara said grimly, unaware that she was destroying Roxy’s escape plan piece by piece. "Zarek would burn the forest down in his madness. Kaelen would slaughter the pack he built."

Mara sighed, leaning back against the wall and closing her eyes.

"That is why we stay," Mara murmured. "Without us, the males are just monsters waiting to happen. Thank the Moon you are here, Roxy. With three Kings... if you weren’t here to ground them during the Rut..."

She opened one eye and looked at Roxy with a tired smile.

"If you weren’t here, the Iron-Wood would be a graveyard by sunrise."

Roxy sat frozen on the bench. The sounds of the village faded away, and all she could hear was the pounding of her own heart.

Her escape plan had just been shattered.

"Oh god," Roxy whispered, her hand drifting to her belly, a wave of nausea rolling over her.

"You’d better start eating hearty stews, Mother," Mara warned softly, looking up at the sky where the pale moon was waiting to turn red. "Because when that moon rises in two days... you are the only thing standing between those three men and death."

So I had no choice?