Chapter 198: Heavy Sleeper (bonus)

Tera stared at the cave ceiling, contemplating her life choices.

Her body felt wrung out, and the cool stone beneath her back had long since stopped feeling cold because her body had apparently decided to stop registering minor discomforts and focus on the major one.

Which was the wolf alpha currently using her breasts as a pillow.

Calis was fast asleep.

His face was buried between her breasts, his cheek pressed against the soft inner curve of one as his nose pushed against the other. His arms were locked around her torso, hugging her with the possessive grip of a male who had fallen asleep mid-claim and whose body had decided that letting go was not part of the arrangement.

He was still inside her.

His knot had swelled a third time, and it had been lodged inside her for what felt like an eternity. The thick, pulsing pressure at her entrance kept her pinned, and every time she shifted even slightly, the knot tugged against her inner walls in a way that sent lazy sparks of pleasure through her oversensitive body.

She was too tired for those sparks.

"Mmh..." A soft, involuntary moan slipped from her lips as his cock gave another slow throb inside her.

’Stop. I am finished. I am done. The kitchen is closed. There is nothing left to serve!’

Plus, she really, really needed to pee.

However, a more pressing concern crawled back to the surface.

’I sure as hell hope I am not pregnant?’

The system paused, and Tera could practically feel it savouring the moment.

’Answer me, damn you!’

[Let this system check!]

[Scanning...]

[...]

[...]

’WHY ARE YOU TAKING SO LONG?!’

[(˵ ¬ᴗ¬˵)]

[Host is NOT pregnant!]

Tera exhaled so hard her chest displaced Calis’ head slightly. He grunted in his sleep and pressed his face deeper into her breast, nuzzling against the soft skin before settling again.

’Oh, thank God!’

[Though, this system would like to note that if this encounter had occurred just a few days later, the odds would have been significantly more exciting!]

’Exciting for WHO?!’

[For everyone involved!]

’You absolute sadist! You want me to pop out babies like a vending machine?!’

[(ᵕ ó ᴗ ò)]

’Not like you’d even give me slack for having time to rest and take care of my cubs.’

’You are of no help in that regard.’

[(｡•́︿•̀｡)]

[But this system is not a breeding system]

Tera rolled her eyes. ’I have clearly witnessed you doing things outside my main objective.’

’You certainly do your very best to make my life inconvenient.’

’BASIC necessities should not be a compromise.’

[૮(◞ ‸ ◟ )ა]

[This system will run through its diagnostics and get back to Host]

[( •̯́ ^ •̯̀)]

Tera sighed and briefly closed her eyes.

She would rather bask in her relief than entertain this discussion with the system. The herbs she had been meaning to prepare for contraception had been sitting on her to-do list for months, and it was always getting pushed down by more urgent things.

She had told herself she didn’t need them. She wasn’t fertile like the other females, and the constant sex with Ermin and Xavi hadn’t gotten her pregnant either, so she had believed she was safe.

Now she was lying on a cave floor with a wolf’s knot lodged inside her and his seed pooled so deep she could feel the warmth of it in her belly, and the words "never zero" were tattooed across her brain.

’I am preparing those herbs the moment I get home. No more postponing.’

[This system supports Host’s decision!]

[Though, this system also notes that Host has said this exact thing four times before]

’Urghhh.’

Tera lowered her arm from her eyes and looked down at Calis.

His face was so relaxed.

She could feel his heartbeat against her ribs, and the warm puffs of his breathing against her breast were oddly soothing despite everything.

His hair was different from what she was used to. Not as soft as Xavi’s thick, dark locks, and not as silky as Ermin’s pink strands. It was slightly wild, with a texture that matched the untamed energy of the wolf it belonged to.

But it was still nice to touch.

Tera’s fingers drifted into his hair, and she scratched lightly behind his ear.

She smiled despite herself.

’Even his ears are nice.’

The pointed tips were slightly velvety, softer than the rest of him, and they twitched under her fingers in small, unconscious movements that made her chest ache with how adorable it was.

She pushed his hair back from his forehead, clearing the shaggy strands that usually fell across his face. Without them, his features were fully exposed. The straight line of his nose, the sharp cheekbones, the faint scars along his jaw from fights she didn’t know the stories behind.

He really was handsome.

Her thumb traced his cheekbone, and the skin there was warm beneath her touch.

She was puzzled by what had happened earlier. Not once did she think he would actually want her to get pregnant with his cub, considering his upbringing.

Would his pack even be fine with that?

Maybe, but the elders were something else.

She swept his bangs back one more time, her fingers trailing across his forehead with a tenderness she didn’t bother hiding.

Calis’ eyes slowly opened.

Crimson met brown.

His gaze was soft, unfocused, still caught between sleep and waking, but for one unguarded moment, the walls he had spent weeks building were gone entirely.

[Calis’ Favourability: 72% → 75%]

’Damn... That fast?!’

The haze of sleep started to clear from his eyes as Tera felt him harden again inside her.

- ※ - ※ - ※ -

Girruk had been running around for nearly an hour.

The forest was a blur around him, branches and roots and mud dissolving into a grey smear as his wolf form tore through the undergrowth. The rain had started without warning, the sky splitting open so fast that the first downpour had hit him mid-stride.

But it didn’t make him stop.

Running was the only thing that kept the fury from eating him alive. The anger at Calis, at the elders who were folding, at his father who kept telling him to wait, and at the shiftless female who had walked into his pack and turned everything upside down.

He sometimes felt grateful she had given him the opportunity to plan towards taking what was his, but he still resented her for it.

Girruk ran until his legs burned and his lungs ached, and even then, he pushed further.

When the rain became too heavy to see through, he veered toward the nearest shelter he knew, a cavern tunnel some wolves took shelter in at times while guarding the perimeter.

He could have run back to huddle with the pack, but he was not in the mood to mingle with the foolish wolves who had been so welcoming to the female and the other beast clan.

He would soon make things right.

He was drenched by the time he reached it. The entrance was just ahead, a dark mouth that promised dry ground and cover from the downpour.

Girruk stopped close to the entrance, rain hammering down on his soaked fur.

He had heard sounds.

And the more he focused, the more he noticed that they had truly been coming from the small cave tunnel.

His ears swivelled forward.

He could barely hear anything clearly, and the rain was too heavy to smell clearly. The water was washing scents away as fast as they formed. But Girruk lowered his wolf nose closer to the entrance, where the air was more sheltered, and caught fragments.

He caught Calis’ scent.

And something else.

There was a faint, absent whisper of warmth that didn’t carry a proper signature. It reminded him faintly of the scent of wolves mating...

Realisation dawned on Girruk as the sounds became slightly more distinct against the rain. Low, breathless noises and moans echoed faintly off the stone walls and drifted through the tunnel to where he stood.

There was no other scent, but it did not take a few seconds for Girruk to realise who Calis was with.

The shiftless female.

All the females were at the pack. Who else would he be with?

The sounds continued from deeper inside. The unmistakable wet rhythm, the growls, the moans, the sharp cry that had just bounced off the cave walls and reached his ears with perfect clarity.

Their alpha was mating with the shiftless female.

Not just a different beast type. A shiftless one.

An inexplicable rage surged through Girruk’s body so violently that his claws extended and scored the wet stone beneath his paws.

His lips curled back from his teeth, and the growl that built in his chest was so low it was almost inaudible over the rain.

He stood there, drenched, trembling, and listened to the sounds that made him sick to his stomach.

He wanted to rush in there and kill them both, but he knew how that would end.

Girruk gritted his teeth. This was no alpha of theirs!

He turned back and raced for the pack.