For three agonizingly long seconds, the System did not respond.
Then the glowing blue borders of the holographic screen began to glitch violently. The color warped, sickeningly shifting from a cold, calculated azure to a deep, blistering, utterly terrifying crimson.
The gamified statistics and the astronomical Life Points reward were instantly wiped away, replaced by a completely blank, blood-red canvas.
A single line of text began to print itself across the center of the crimson screen.
[Don’t be too impatient, we will soon et each other.]
A sudden, absolute zero chill swept through her veins. That was a direct, conscious, and highly personal response from the Architect.
She just knew it.
She was too frozen to do anything, to even reach out and demand for more explanatiom.
Just as she shouted, the crimson screen violently shattered. It didn’t fade away; it exploded into a thousand microscopic, red digital fragnts that instantly dissolved into the morning sunlight, leaving no trace that it had ever existed.
The master bedroom was plunged back into silence.
Behind her, Ren let out a long, gravelly groan. The mattress shifted heavily as he rolled over, he pushed himself up onto his elbows, his vibrant red hair an absolute, chaotic ss around his face. He let out a wide, jaw-cracking yawn, stretching his broad, muscular shoulders as he blinked his sleepy green eyes against the bright morning sun.
"Who were you talking to, baby?" Ren mumbled, his voice thick with sleep and completely devoid of his usual, sharp trickster edge.
Roxy violently snapped out of her terrified thoughts.
The existential, cosmic horror of the crimson ssage was instantly, forcefully shoved to the absolute back of her mind, completely eclipsed by the imdiate, overwhelming reality of the man sitting behind her. The System could wait. The future could wait. Right now, her body harbored a miracle that had defied all odds.
Roxy slowly turned around to face him. The lingering, ice-cold dread in her veins was rapidly replaced by a surging, undeniable wave of profound maternal warmth. She looked at his sleep-flushed face, her heart doing a frantic, joyful flutter against her ribs.
She reached up, her fingers trembling slightly as she tucked a stray, dark curl behind her ear. A soft, brilliant blush began to rapidly creep up her pale cheeks.
Ren rubbed his eyes, attempting to fully wake up. He leaned forward, intending to press a lazy morning kiss to her shoulder.
But as he closed the distance, the Fox King suddenly froze.
His nostrils flared. He took a slow, deep, shuddering breath of the air lingering just above her skin. It wasn’t just the scent of her lavender soap or the lingering musk of their intense intimacy. Beneath it all, faint but utterly, undeniably absolute, was a brand new scent.
It was the sweet, vibrant, and incredibly heavy scent of life. A new soul had successfully anchored itself within her.
Ren’s breath completely halted. The lingering sleepiness vanished from his brilliant green eyes in a microsecond, replaced by shock. He stared at her stomach, and then slowly raised his gaze to et her shining green eyes.
"Roxy..." Ren whispered, his gravelly voice trembling so violently he could barely form the syllables. His hands hovered uncertainly in the air between them. "You... you are pregnant?"
Roxy’s blush deepened, a beautiful, radiant smile breaking across her face. She nodded slowly, her eyes swimming with joy.
"Isn’t that obvious, baby?" Roxy murmured softly.
Ren didn’t say another word.
His large, powerful arms wrapped securely around her waist, and he pulled her flush against his broad chest in a desperate, crushing hug. He buried his face entirely in the crook of her neck, his fiery red hair tickling her jawline.
He didn’t cheer. He didn’t cast illusory fireworks across the ceiling, and he didn’t boast with his usual, cocky arrogance. He just hugged her, gripping her so tightly it felt as though he were trying to physically fuse their bodies together, desperately hiding his face from her view.
He hid his face so she wouldn’t see the chaotic, devastating storm of emotion violently warring in his vibrant green eyes.
But as he held the woman he loved more than the stars themselves, feeling the incredibly faint, newly ford pulse of his own child radiating from her womb, Ren realized sothing that completely terrified him.
He wasn’t sad.
Despite the absolute certainty of his impending death, a profound, overwhelming, and utterly euphoric wave of joy completely flooded his chest. He was going to be a father. He had successfully given the Queen of the Iron-Wood a piece of his soul.
The sheer, unadulterated happiness of creating a family with her was so intensely beautiful, so monuntally fulfilling, that it completely eclipsed his survival instincts.
He was incredibly, fiercely happy, too happy, to the point of being utterly terrified by how willingly he was embracing his own end.
"Are you crying, Ren?" Roxy asked softly, her own voice thick with emotion as she felt a distinct, hot dampness press against her collarbone.
Ren took a shuddering breath, aggressively shaking his head against her neck.
"No," Ren lied, his voice muffled and cracking under the sheer weight of his terrifying joy. "I’m just... I’m just too excited, Roxy. I can’t believe it."
Roxy’s heart lted completely. She wrapped her arms around his broad shoulders, holding him just as tightly. She raised one hand, her fingers gently carding through his ssy, vibrant red hair.
She found the incredibly soft, sensitive spots just behind his fluffy fox ears and began to scratch gently, offering him a soothing, rhythmic comfort.
"You don’t have to be scared of it anymore," Roxy whispered affectionately, completely misinterpreting the source of his trembling. She kissed the side of his head. "You are going to make a really great father, Ren. I know you will."
Ren let out a broken, choked sound that he desperately tried to mask as a laugh, pulling her even tighter against his chest.
Before the heavy, profoundly emotional weight of the mont could fully settle into the stone walls of the bedroom, the door was pushed open.
Tanith walked triumphantly back into the master bedroom. In her tiny right hand, she was proudly gripping a massive, heavily roasted chicken leg, already happily munching on the seasoned at.
Directly behind her, carrying a heavily laden silver tray of steaming breakfast foods, strode Kaelen.
The Wolf Alpha’s posture was rigid, his icy blue eyes imdiately sweeping the room to assess the situation. He spotted the fiercely tight, desperate embrace happening in the center of the bed.
Kaelen let out a soft sigh. He walked toward the bedside table, setting the heavy silver tray down with a tallic clatter.
"Let her go, Fox," Kaelen commanded, his deep, rumbling voice a stark contrast to the heavy emotional atmosphere. "She is starving. She needs to eat to maintain her strength. Release her."
Roxy, realizing how incredibly parched her throat was, reached out from the circle of Ren’s arms. She grabbed a crystal goblet of ice-cold spring water from the tray and brought it to her lips, taking a long, desperate gulp.
Ren slowly lifted his head from Roxy’s shoulder.
The Fox King’s vibrant green eyes were rimd with red, shining with unshed tears and a manic, utterly unhinged, and terrifyingly profound joy. He looked past Roxy, locking his teary, brilliant green eyes directly onto the stoic Wolf Alpha.
"Kae kae!" Ren blurted out, his gravelly voice cracking with sheer, unfiltered emotion. "I am going to be a father!"
PFFFT!
Roxy violently choked. She spewed a massive mouthful of ice-cold spring water directly across the furs, dissolving into a fit of breathless, hacking coughs.
The master bedroom went completely, terrifyingly silent.
Tanith paused mid-bite of her chicken leg, her bright green eyes blinking curiously at the sudden stillness.
Standing beside the silver tray, Kaelen completely froze.
The stoic, uncompromising, and ferally proud King of the Northern Wolves turned his head with an agonizing, chanical slowness. His icy blue eyes narrowed into lethal, absolute-zero slits.
The muscle in his jaw ticked violently. And right in the center of his forehead, a distinct, prominent blue vein began to actively, furiously pulse with rage.
"What," Kaelen growled, his voice dropping into a dark, guttural, and deeply murderous octave. "Did. You. Just. Call ?"
Ren blinked his teary eyes innocently. The Fox King tilted his head, completely oblivious to the danger radiating from the wolf, and offered a helpless, entirely unapologetic shrug.
"Kae Kae?"
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