Chapter 401: Oryn is going to have to build a lot of things

"I think... I’m pregnant,"

The silence that followed my announcement was so heavy you could have carved it with a knife.

For a few long seconds, none of them moved. Noah’s tail, which had been wagging in a steady rhythm, went dead still.

​"Pregnant?" Fenric repeated, his voice dropping into a low, rumbling vibration.

He looked at my hand, still pressed against the slight, firm swell of my belly, then up at my face. The shock in his red eyes quickly gave way to a fierce, protective heat.

​"But the timing," Damar muttered, his emerald eyes narrowing as he did the math in his head. He looked over at Thalor, his expression a mix of jealousy and disbelief. "Six days with the fish during your heat... and then the second marking with Noah immediately after."

Yeah, they would start wondering which of them had impregnated me after my heat.

While Thalor had spent the time with me, I still did it with Fenric afterwards, and then Noah.

So, just like that time when I needed three different genes to stabilize the heat that formed the three cubs, we have now, I also craved other males like I was in heat even when the heat was over.

I don’t know if you understand that, but if you do, then you must be a genius.

So, while I have the idea that it’s Thalor’s child, I don’t know if it’s triplets like the last time.

​While all this speculation was simmering in our brains, Thalor, however, looked like he had been struck by a bolt of lightning.

His violet eyes were shimmering, and for the first time, the cool, composed Sea Prince looked completely undone. He stepped forward, his hand trembling slightly as he reached out, silently asking for permission to touch.

​I nodded, and his cool fingers brushed against the skin of my abdomen. The moment he made contact, the violet mark on my ankle glowed. Ah, that’s new.

Was that a sign just now?

​"It’s... It’s like a tide," Thalor whispered, a breathless smile breaking across his face. "I can feel the resonance. It is a sea-child, Arinya. My blood, rooted in your land."

​"Hey!" Noah barked, finally snapping out of his trance. He walked over, looking a bit miffed despite the situation. "I was in there for three days, too! Wolves are fast, you know? And I didn’t have any water magic to slow me down. Don’t go claiming the whole jackpot just yet, fish-man."

Hey, I’m the only one allowed to call my babies jackpots.

​"The cravings don’t lie, Noah," I said, finally letting out a long, shaky breath. "I wanted to eat raw and grilled fish and sea-berries. I didn’t even know those berries even existed. And I don’t think I’ve ever wanted to hunt a forest deer more than I wanted to jump into the lake just now."

Yeah, the zeal to actually submerge myself in water was there. As if the things in my belly wanted the water more than the air I was breathing in.

Babies of mixed ecosystems. Gosh, I didn’t think I’d see the day.

​I leaned back into the pillows, my head spinning. I had triplets already—three little powerhouses who were currently learning how to ’stalk’, ’terrorize’, and ’command’ the nursery.

And now, I was already carrying the next generation. My body was apparently not interested in taking breaks.

​"A week," Damar sighed, rubbing his temples, though he couldn’t hide the small, proud smirk tugging at his lips.

Even if the chances are that the pregnancy had nothing to do with him, the fact that I’m going to be a mother again just keeps his blood boiling.

It means he’s happy for me.

"We’ve been in the palace for less than a month, and the Queen is already expanding the royal line."

Yeah, tell me about it.

Then, Fenric said, "Oryn is going to have to build a bigger nursery palace at this rate."

​"Oryn is going to have to build a lot of things," I muttered, the ’Architect’ part of my brain suddenly waking up. "Cribs that won’t float away... maybe some kind of indoor tide-pool for the nursery? Oh god, I’m going to have a baby that can swim before it can walk, aren’t I?"

Since my current triplets are land-based, I didn’t have to worry about any of this, but what if I give birth to babies that are more sea beastmen than land beastmen? Then I have a lot on my plate.

​Fenric stepped closer, his large hand covering mine on my stomach, his warmth seeping through my skin.

"It does not matter if they swim, crawl, or fly. They will be strong. And they will be ours."

Yeah, that’s right, whether the child belonged to one mate or all of them, it was still ours.

​The gravity of it finally settled over us.

The ’War of Nerves’ from the previous week seemed to evaporate, replaced by a shared, heavy sense of responsibility. We weren’t just a task force building a fortress anymore. We were a dynasty. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

​"Alright," I said, taking another bite of the fish because, honestly, the hunger wasn’t going anywhere. "New plan. We finish the marketplace, we start the forge, and we get the laws written down fast. Because if I’m going to be chasing a half-mer, half-tiger toddler around this palace, I need this kingdom to be running itself by the time I’m two months along."

Since I gave birth to the triplets at 94 days, this one shouldn’t be any different, right?

"Actually," Thalor interrupted, and that made my spine crawl.

We all looked at him.

"Mer folks are developed in only 50 days, Arinya," he said, his voice coming out small and I blinked, nearly out of breath.

I counted with my fingers.

It had been two weeks since my heat, and two weeks since I did it with him, then, didn’t that mean I had like... one, two, three, seventeen... thirty-three days left until I gave birth?!

Ah, it was no wonder my lower abdomen was already so swollen when it hadn’t been a month yet.

"I’m gonna faint now, so someone catch me,"