Chapter 311: Let’s Talk Family
Ren woke up with her cheek pressed against the soft, damp, fragrant grass of the garden.
The silver moonlight was still filtering beautifully through the high, rocky archways above, casting long shadows across the glowing, bioluminescent flora.
Ren let out a long, pathetic groan, rolling onto her back and stretching her arms over her head. Every muscle in her thighs, lower back, and core ached, protesting the relentless marathon she had just endured on a pile of furs.
She looked down at herself. She was fully dressed once again in her magical, indestructible erald silk dress. The System, clearly feeling slightly guilty for intentionally locking her wardrobe to force her into a hypothermia-induced mating session, had automatically equipped it on her sleeping body while she was passed out.
Rubbing her bleary eyes, Ren slowly pushed herself up into a sitting position.
"Ah!" Ren shrieked, scrambling backward on her hands and heels in the grass.
Altair was standing right there.
The Golden Eagle Prince was standing less than five feet away from her, towering in the moonlight like a magnificent, unbothered god. And he was standing gloriously naked.
Her green eyes instinctively dropped straight down. They imdiately landed right on his resting anatomy, soft and relaxed against his muscular thighs.
Ren slapped both of her hands violently over her face, peeking through the gaps in her fingers as her cheeks erupted into a brilliant red flush.
All of the lingering exhaustion in her body vanished almost imdiately. Between the shock and the raw visual of her gorgeous, naked avian husband, she was strikingly awake.
"Altair!" Ren squeaked through her fingers, her heart hamring against her ribs. "Why in the world are you just standing there like that?!"
Altair’s piercing golden eyes stared down at her blushing form with his usual, perfectly blank expression. "I was waiting on you to wake up," he rumbled smoothly, completely unbothered by the chilly night air or his lack of clothes.
Ren peeked past him, looking around the glowing garden. She must have passed out in the cave. Vex must have carried her back and dumped her in the grass before Altair found her.
How long had she even been asleep for?
Suddenly, a horrifying realization struck her brain.
The fish!
Ren’s green eyes widened in panic. The three bass! She was supposed to use them to make a nutrient-dense, collagen-rich bone-broth soup for the starving, unconscious Vara! She had left them! Now the fishes were going to rot and go bad!
Ren wanted to ugly cry right there in the grass. She passionately hated to waste perfectly good ingredients, especially ingredients that she had literally risked her life to get!
Ding!
[System: Please calm your elevating blood pressure, Host. I took the liberty of depositing the three deceased bass into your inventory before the fox carried you away.]
[System: I usually do not store raw at, and will only temporarily suspend raw at for a maximum of twenty-four (24) hours before it spoils. You should take this massive favor as the promised ’gift’ following my highly unfortunate wardrobe glitch. You are welco.]
Ren let out a shuddering sigh of profound relief, dropping her hands from her flushed face. She looked back up at her towering, naked bird.
"Where have you been?" Ren asked gently. "Did you eat?"
"Yes," Altair responded.
That was it.
Ren let out another, heavier sigh, rubbing her temples. She genuinely wondered how in the world she was ever going to get this giant, stoic wall of a man to actually open up to her.
But as she looked up into his beautiful, guarded golden eyes, Ren couldn’t help but wonder why he was so hesitant. Why didn’t he trust her?
Then again... she couldn’t exactly bla him. She wouldn’t trust herself either, considering what she had just done. Ren wasn’t going to try and deny it to herself; she enthusiastically had an affair with the Fox Shaman.
’But I didn’t have a choice!’ Ren rationalized fiercely in her own head, desperately trying to ease her guilty conscience. ’It was either have sex with him, or freeze to death! And freezing to death just didn’t seem like a very fun way to go! It was basically a dical ergency!’
Ren gently grabbed Altair’s hand, her thumb softly tracing his knuckles as she firmly t his piercing golden gaze.
"Altair," Ren explained softly, her voice filled with genuine warmth. "We are together now. We are married."
Altair tilted his head slightly, his brows furrowing in confusion. "Married?"
The concept was entirely unfamiliar to him. In the Beast World, males simply mated with females and guarded them fiercely, establishing a mate bond. There was no formal contract of emotional partnership.
"Yes, married," Ren smiled, tugging him slightly closer. "It ans that we are a team. Married couples know everything about each other. They share their thoughts, their fears, and they definitely don’t secretly disappear for long amounts of ti without telling the other person where they are going."
Altair stared down at her, his golden eyes unreadable, but his thumb subconsciously brushed against the back of her hand.
Ren knew she couldn’t push too hard. She was not going to try to force him to drop his entire life story all at once. Even the smallest, most mundane thing about himself would’ve been perfectly fine.
However, Ren knew the best psychological trick to get soone to naturally open up and talk about themselves was to pri the conversation by sharing a piece of your own vulnerability first.
"I’ll go first," Ren offered. "I will tell you about my family in my world. It was really only my mother and
growing up. I had a father, but..." Ren let out a dry, bitter chuckle, "he actually ran off with a man to Las Vegas when I was a little child."
Altair blinked, completely lost on ’Las Vegas’, but he listened intently, sensing the slight edge of hurt in her voice.
"He didn’t check on
a single ti," Ren continued, shrugging her shoulders dismissively. "Not once. Not until I grew up and beca a famous, highly successful chef. When I got money and fa, suddenly he wanted to be a family again. So, I just chose to completely forget his existence."
Ren ended the trauma dump with a bright, easy smile, looking up at him.
"So, that’s ," Ren said softly. She squeezed his hand, her green eyes sparkling with encouraging warmth. "Your turn. Tell
about your family."
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