My Beastly Fertility System Chapter 67: Winter Stories and a Secret Message

"Blame your pups. They were howling their heads off, and we were running around like idiots."

Zane wrapped his arms around Claire and murmured in her ear.

"Ignore him. I just didn't want to interrupt your entertainment. As long as you enjoyed yourself, that's what matters."

"Ugh! You smooth-talking mutt!"

Rufus lobbed Zane Eleven at them—but kept a careful hold on Lily in his other hand.

Zane caught Zane Eleven cleanly.

The pup was thrilled, yipping with glee and clearly hoping for another round.

Claire took the pup from Zane, tapped its tiny nose, and carried it to the stone bed.

"You fearless little troublemaker! Dinner time!"

She pulled formula from her storage space and mixed it.

With her second pregnancy, her milk had thinned even further—she'd stopped nursing entirely and switched to full formula. Thankfully, the pups could eat minced meat now.

Ten cans of formula. Barely enough to last until weaning.

These babies were getting fatter by the day.

Claire was ten days into her second pregnancy.

This time, she had zero morning sickness—still eating well, sleeping deeply, full of energy.

Outside the cave, the blizzard howled. Step out for even a minute, and the cold would set your teeth chattering.

Claire was curled up on the stone bed, twelve little furballs in a neat row before her, listening raptly as their mother told a story.

"Once upon a time, there was a monkey—a very, very powerful monkey! He didn't have a mommy or daddy. He was born from a rock..."

Whenever she had nothing else to do, Claire told the pups stories from her previous life.

They only half understood, but that didn't stop them from snuggling as close to her as possible.

Rufus came in from the stone door.

"There's a female beastfolk named Tyne outside. Want me to let her in?"

"Tyne!"

Claire nodded eagerly. She'd barely seen another soul since winter set in. She was going stir-crazy.

Tyne arrived in her first mate's arms.

A small fox leaped down from the towering gorilla and shifted into Tyne's human form before she even hit the ground.

"Wait outside. I'll only be a couple of minutes!"

She shooed her mate away.

Then, she hurried over to Claire.

The moment she spotted the pile of adorable pups, her eyes went wide with longing.

"Claire! Your babies are so cute! When will I get to have a litter? I can't wait!"

Claire looked at her with an amused smile.

"You're only 14. You just came of age. No rush to have babies. Unless your two mates are the ones pushing?"

At the mention of her mates, Tyne turned pink.

"They're not pushing at all! They said everything's up to me."

Her voice trailed off to a murmur.

She'd chosen both mates right when she came of age. The three of them got along well.

Claire had heard as much.

Tyne was the closest thing she had to a real friend in this clan. From the very first day, when Tyne had shared food with her under the Sourfruit Tree, Claire had known that this was a genuinely kind soul.

She was fourteen years old. In the modern world, she'd still be tucked under her parents' wings. Here in Beast World, she had her own cave and two mates.

The two chatted and laughed.

Tyne noticed the pups' unusual features but was smart enough not to ask.

As she was leaving, she leaned in conspiratorially and told Claire that Fiona had dissolved all six of her bonding relationships. The former mates, their strength already plummeting, were in real danger.

"Hazel tried to talk her out of it, but Fiona was dead set. She said she only wanted Jeffrey as her sole mate, so she cut every bond. Elena even stormed over to Hazel's cave and raised absolute hell over Gavin."

Not that it changed anything. In the end, Elena could only go home and nurse Gavin back to health.

Fiona's injuries weren't serious, but she'd still bullied Elodie into handing over a mountain of rare medicinal herbs.

Since then, neither Hazel nor Fiona had shown their faces.

Jeffrey, on the other hand, was spotted wandering the settlement regularly.

Beastfolk peeked at him from their caves—half in awe of a Level 3 who didn't seem to feel the cold, half whispering about the Fiona-Jeffrey saga.

Nobody knew exactly how they'd met.

Jeffrey always wore that same pleasant smile, but something about it made people's skin crawl.

After Tyne left, Claire kept a watchful eye on the area beyond her cave.

Perhaps because her cave sat at the settlement's outermost edge, far from Fiona's, Claire hadn't seen Jeffrey again since that first encounter.

"That pretty-faced creep—I could tell he was bad news the second I saw him! He won't even show his beast form. He's definitely hiding something. Claire, don't worry. If he comes anywhere near you, I'll gouge his eyes out!"

Rufus cracked his knuckles, the sound echoing off the cave walls.

That day, he'd only caught a brief glimpse of Jeffrey, and it had been enough. The way the man looked at Claire—raw, naked, possessive—made Rufus's blood boil.

Zane's gaze was equally dark.

"I've never heard of any large clans nearby, and certainly no Level 3 beastfolk. The name Jeffrey means nothing. Someone that powerful should be famous."

If he were truly Level 3, his reputation should precede him.