Free Web NovelChapter 22: Episode 022: Potential Mate
Rue woke up to the sound of her baby crying.
She jerked up from the bed. A massive spike of pain drove straight through her skull. Her vision swam, blurring the edges of the room into dark, muddy colours. The stone walls spun around her in a sickening circle.
She ignored the pain and pushed herself forward, her small hands scrambling over the thick, dark animal pelts until she found the wailing bundle.
She picked him up. Her hands shook violently, but she quickly adjusted the soft silk wrapping around her shoulders and let out her left breast. She guided the frantic little infant closer, and he latched on immediately.
Rue groaned in absolute relief. The sharp, demanding crying stopped, replaced instantly by soft, rhythmic swallowing.
Her vision slowly cleared. She looked down at her arms.
Her son was staring back at her. He had a fine, soft crown of silver-white hair, exactly like hers. But his eyes were wide, bright, piercing gold. They were the exact golden eyes of his father.
Rue’s heart throbbed. A heavy, suffocating warmth filled her chest, destroying her physical exhaustion. Hot tears gathered thick in her pink eyes. She traced the tiny, perfect curve of his cheek with one trembling finger. She was still in complete disbelief.
Did she really do this? Did she really give birth to this little one? This life?
As if her baby could read her racing thoughts, the corners of his milky lips twitched upward. He smiled. It felt exactly like a sharp arrow piercing straight into Rue’s heart.
Ugh...
Then, her brain caught up with her surroundings. The bed was carved from cold black stone, not wood. The air smelled like thick jungle vines and roasted meat.
I am not home
[Location: Nightwhisper Jungle. Panther’s Reach.]
Rue stared at the text. How far away is that?
[You might want to look around you, Host.]
Rue snapped her head up. She pulled her son closer to her chest. She was not alone in the room.
Two people stood around the bed she lay in.
One was a very hot, dark-skinned man. He had thick, messy black hair and sharp golden eyes that tracked her every movement. A jagged, silver slice mark cut directly through his left eyebrow, giving him a highly dangerous look. freёweɓnovel.com
He stood with his massive arms crossed tightly over his bare chest. He was looking at her with an incredibly cold, calculating expression, exactly as if he was trying to figure out what species she was.
She frowned.
A female stood right next to him. She had warm brown skin, slightly lighter than the man’s. She shared his thick black hair, but her eyes were hard, black beads. She looked very much like him.
"She finally looked at us!" the woman beamed. Her voice was surprisingly bright and relieved. "Are you feeling better? Our King must have frightened you. You have been asleep for ten days."
Rue panicked.
"Ten days?!!!" Rue shouted. Her voice cracked terribly.
The brown-skinned woman quickly shook her hands in the air to placate the terrified rabbit.
"Do not worry about your baby!" the woman insisted gently. "We sent fast runners to the outer market. We were able to get pure bunny milk for him while you rested. Your body must have been completely exhausted from the birth. It went into a deep slumber just to heal itself. We did everything we could to help you."
Rue let out a very long, shaky breath. She looked down at the healthy, perfectly clean, well-fed baby in her arms. She looked back at the woman. A wave of genuine thankfulness washed over her. They were predators, but they did not let her child starve.
Ten days.
A cold, heavy sadness dropped directly into her stomach. Ten entire days had passed. Caius never came. He never found her. He never even looked for her. She had been asleep for over a week, and her mate was nowhere to be seen.
He abandoned her.
She forcefully shoved the painful thought aside, and locked it in a mental box. She could not afford to cry right now. She had to deal with the immediate threat standing in the stone room.
She looked directly at the dark-skinned man. If her memory of the giant black cat in the lightning flash was correct, this man was the panther. He was the beast who dragged them away from her cabin.
"What do you want from both of us?" Rue demanded flatly.
The man did not blink. His golden eyes never left her face. He uncrossed his arms and let them hang heavily by his sides.
"I have no business with that thing," he responded coldly, gesturing his chin vaguely toward the feeding infant.
"You will not call him a thing!" Rue snapped at him, bearing her small teeth.
The man’s eyes widened in surprise. A dark, furious blush rushed rapidly across his high cheekbones. He looked completely caught off guard by the tiny rabbit yelling at him. He tore his gaze away from her face, staring intensely at the stone wall. He cleared his throat loudly.
He looked back at her. The blush was still visible.
"Whatever," the man grumbled, trying to recover his scary aura. "I only came into that cabin for you. Because you called for me."
Rue pointed a small finger right at her own chest. She was entirely confused.
What is this lunatic even talking about? she thought. I was giving birth, I definitely didn’t call for a giant cat.
The panther took a slow, deliberate step forward.
"Your smell was different from any other female I know," he stated bluntly. His voice dropped to a low, rough purr that vibrated against the stone floor. "You smelled like something I wanted to breed until my ball sacks were drained."
Rue choked on her own breath. Her pale face flushed a furious, boiling red.
The female standing next to him gasped in absolute horror.
"KNOX!!!" the woman shouted, swatting his thick arm with her hand.
Knox just tossed the female a dark glare. He didn’t look sorry at all.
Rue was left completely speechless. Her jaw hung open. How could this massive beast just say something so incredibly filthy right in front of a baby? She found her voice and shouted right back at him.
"I have a mate already! I can’t—"
The system screen flashed blindingly bright in her vision, completely cutting off her sentence.
[Potential Mate Acquired.]
Rue stared at the glowing blue letters. Her pink eyes narrowed weakly. She glared at the machine in her head. She was completely exhausted with this world’s rules.
Knox stepped closer to the edge of the stone bed. He loomed over her.
"So what if you have a mate?" Knox challenged. A slow, highly dangerous smirk spread across his scarred lips. "Who says I can’t have you all to myself?"
Rue was entirely tongue-tied.
The system clearly stated she had acquired him. That meant the universe, the system, and the weird beastworld fate had just assigned this unhinged panther as her next mate. She wanted to hit her head against the wall this time. She just gave birth!
But she didn’t like him. He called her baby a thing. He was insanely rude. There was absolutely nowhere in hell she was going to let him just speak to her like she was a piece of meat waiting to be claimed. freewebnoveℓ.com
"Well, I don’t—"
Before she could finish rejecting the King of the Nightwhisper Jungle, a loud ruckus erupted outside.
A guard rushed into the bedroom. He wore dark leather armour. His long black panther tail was tucked completely between his legs in absolute, shaking terror. He dropped to one knee, breathing heavily.
"Speak," Knox commanded, his smirk vanishing instantly into a deadly scowl.
The guard looked up, his eyes wide with fear.
"The Left General of the Swamps has breached our entrance."
