My Beastly Fertility System Chapter 55: A Gift and A Secret

She watched the babies for a while, then walked into the next room.

Rufus sometimes slept there. The whole place still smelled like him, but now it was empty.

"Rufus? Zane? Where are you?"

Claire walked to the cave entrance and ran straight into Zane.

He reacted fast. He caught her and pulled her into his arms.

"It's snowing hard outside. Why did you get out of bed? Aren't you resting?"

Claire shook her head and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"I slept enough during the day. Oh, right—where's Rufus?"

"He went to check the storage cave. The storm is worse this winter. He's worried the entrance might get buried."

That made sense.

After bonding, Rufus had moved back into their cave, but he still checked that cave every day. With his scent left there, it could scare off wild animals.

After all, most of their food was stored there.

Claire suddenly had an idea. Maybe she could just move all the food into her storage space. That way, Rufus wouldn't have to keep going back and forth.

But she needed a reason.

Once she decided, she acted right away. She slipped one hand into her fur tunic. When she pulled it out, she was holding a small red plant.

"Claire, what is that?"

Zane could tell at a glance it wasn't ordinary. He looked at her with curiosity.

"Zane, do you trust me? This is called Level 2 Mossherb. I got it as a reward from the Beast God when I gave birth."

That was the best excuse she could come up with.

Please forgive me, Beast God. Let me borrow your name for this.

She couldn't tell him about the system.

Zane looked surprised.

"Level 2 Mossherb? I've only heard of it once. It really exists?"

"I'm not sure. But the Beast God said if you eat it, you can go from Level 1 to Level 2. Zane, you should take it."

Zane was already at the peak of Level 1, but Rufus still teased him sometimes.

She didn't need it anyway. If Zane got stronger, their chances of survival would go up.

But there was no greed in Zane's eyes—only concern.

Claire had carried the babies for a month and gone through so much to give birth safely. And she wanted to give the reward she got to him?

How could his heart not ache for her?

Claire saw his hesitation and said, "I can't use it anyway. You take it."

In this world, females were precious. One reason was that they had no beast mark. They started at Level 0 and needed protection from males.

Even with protection, their numbers didn't grow quickly.

This was because female babies were rare.

Claire had twelve babies this time, but only four were female. Just one-third.

Still, when compared to the other members of the clan, having four female babies was already amazing.

When Elodie found out the clan suddenly had four new female babies, she was overjoyed.

Then Claire remembered something. When she gave birth, the system had said that two of the female babies had levels.

Thinking of that, she stuffed the Mossherb into Zane's hand and hurried back to the stone bed.

"How am I supposed to tell them apart?"

She stared at the pile of tiny, squishy bodies, speechless.

They all looked the same. Only the big black one stood out. And the three-eyed white wolf was barely recognizable.

The rest? Just different colors. No way to tell who was who.

Zane walked over calmly and pointed. "This is the firstborn. That's the second. The third and fourth like to sleep together. That's the fifth. The sixth is the big black one..."

Zane pointed them out one by one. His face held a soft, helpless smile, full of affection.

Claire was stunned. She felt completely outdone.

What kind of mom am I?

Zane actually remembered the birth order of every single baby.

Claire almost wanted to put a little tag on each of them and label them 1, 2, 3, 4... but she quickly gave up on the idea.

These were her babies.

Not puppies.

Well, okay. The wolf and fox babies did look a bit like puppies.

"Zane, you're amazing!"

Claire praised him without holding back.

Fine. She would handle giving birth, and Zane could handle raising them. That seemed fair.

She noticed he was still holding the herb and urged, "Hurry and eat it! Don't let Rufus see, or he'll get jealous again!"

Right then, someone squeezed through the stone door.

Rufus shook the snow off his head and looked at them.

"Don't let me see what? Claire, you're not sneaking him something extra, are you?"

Claire shrank back.

Caught red-handed. So awkward.

She turned around with an embarrassed smile.

"No, it's just a small plant."

Rufus walked over and glanced at the faint red glow in Zane's hand. He let out a dismissive snort.

"I thought it was something special. It's just Level 2 Mossherb. I don't care about that."

He turned his head away after one look, clearly unimpressed.