Chapter 316: Episode 314: Protecting What Belongs to Roxy

“Yes, I am Caspian from the Spires.”

Caspian stood tall by the stone fireplace, his chin lifted, making no apologies for the bloodline that flowed through his newly mortal veins.

For a long, suspended moment, the grand parlor was completely silent. The crackle of the hearth fire was the only sound daring to interrupt the profound shock gripping the visiting dignitaries.

Then, Lyra slowly sank back onto the plush velvet cushions of her chair. The fierce dragoness’s crimson-scaled brow smoothed out, and a slow, incredibly knowing half-smile curled her lips.

Beside her, Mara let out a low, breathy chuckle, exchanging a swift, highly communicative glance with Lyra. Even Regent Titus, despite his initial rigid shock, found the heavy, imposing set of his jaw relaxing into a faint, amused smirk.

Slowly, identically knowing half-smiles spread across the faces of the visiting guests. They turned their heads, looking directly at the radiantly beautiful, seemingly delicate Queen sitting on the sofa, and then shifted their gaze back to the battered, intensely imposing former King of the nightmares below.

They weren’t looking at Caspian with terror anymore. They were looking at Roxy with profound, absolute awe.

In the legends of the Beastworld, the Abyssal King was the ultimate, untamable monster. And yet, here he was, standing in a sunlit parlor, completely stripped of his ancient armor, looking at the Iron-Wood Matriarch as if she had personally hung the stars in his sky.

Roxy hadn’t just conquered the eastern plains, the dragon peaks, the snake dens, the wolf forests, and the fox tricksters. She had literally dragged the most dangerous apex predator out of the ocean floor and domesticated him.

Roxy’s brow furrowed deeply. She looked between Mara’s amused eyes and Lyra’s respectful smirk, completely lost.

“What?” Roxy demanded, a defensive flush creeping up her neck as she looked back and forth between her guests and her mates. “Why are you all looking at me like that? What is so funny?”

Before Lyra could explain the sheer, legendary hilarity of the Iron-Wood Queen’s terrifyingly lethal harem, the heavy parlor doors swung open.

Dena hurried into the room, wringing her hands anxiously. The young wolf-shifter kept her gaze respectfully lowered, fully aware she was interrupting a gathering of the continent’s most powerful rulers.

“Queen Roxy, I am so sorry to intrude,” Dena stammered, her wolf ears twitching nervously. “But Princess Tyara has woken up. I tried to soothe her, but she started crying again.”

Roxy let out a long, fond sigh, the political tension of the room instantly evaporating in the face of her maternal duties. “Of course she is. The little tigress has her father’s patience.”

Roxy stood up gracefully, smoothing the skirts of her emerald gown. She looked over at the Fox King, who was currently leaning against the wall with a relaxed, highly entertained posture.

“Ren, come with me,” Roxy instructed, reaching out to grab his sleeve and practically dragging the charming Fox toward the door. “I need your illusions to distract her with some glowing butterflies while I get situated.”

Ren offered a sweeping, dramatic bow. “At your absolute service, my Queen.”

Roxy tossed him a dirty look and grumbled, Woman pleaser!

Torian, completely unable to bear the thought of his newborn daughter crying and entirely unwilling to let his mate leave his sight, didn’t even wait for an invitation. The massive White Tiger Alpha immediately fell into step behind them, his dark eyes focused entirely on the stairs leading up to the nursery.

Roxy paused in the doorway, glancing back into the parlor. She locked her eyes onto the towering Dragon Alpha.

“Zarek,” Roxy called out, her tone laced with strict, matriarchal authority. “Stay here with our guests. Play nice.”

Zarek crossed his massive arms over his broad chest and let out a low, rumbling grunt of acknowledgment.

With that, the heavy parlor doors clicked shut behind Roxy, Ren, and Torian, leaving the room noticeably lacking in its usual warm aura.

Without the Queen’s calming presence, the atmosphere in the parlor immediately shifted. The primal, feral undercurrents of Beastworld politics seeped back into the air.

Caspian remained standing by the fireplace. He looked at the remaining guests, Lyra, Mara, and Titus, and then at Zarek, who was watching the room without a single care in the world. Caspian knew the history of his people. He knew exactly what the Surface dwellers thought of the Spires.

“I am aware of what my presence means,” Caspian began, his hoarse, mortal voice breaking the heavy silence. He stepped away from the mantle, offering a slow, incredibly formal bow of respect to the visiting females.

“I know that the Surface and the Spires are not on good terms,” Caspian continued, his silver-blue eyes reflecting a dark, ancient sorrow. “For centuries, my kind and yours hunted one another. Our leviathans dragged your winged beasts from the sky into the freezing depths, and your wolves and tigers slaughtered our scouts on the shorelines. We caused many wars in the past. We spilled an ocean of blood over territory and pride.”

He straightened his posture, his gaze steady and unapologetic, yet profoundly sincere. “I apologize for the tension my arrival brings to this sanctuary. But I assure you, my wars are over.”

Lyra of the Dragon Peaks waved a graceful, dismissive hand, her crimson scales catching the firelight.

“Those wars are in the past, King Caspian,” Lyra stated, her voice carrying the ancient wisdom of the mountains. “The Beastworld has bled enough. We have just survived a plague that nearly wiped us all from the map. Clinging to the grudges of our ancestors serves no one.”

Mara nodded in absolute agreement, her yes softening. “You sacrificed your entire kingdom to stand in the light. You have made the right choice by having Roxy as your mate. She is a good Queen, and she protects her own. If she has accepted you, then the pack accepts you.”

Lyra stood up, elegantly smoothing her silken skirts. “Indeed. Now, if you will excuse us, I believe we have a newborn royal cub to admire. It was an honor, Caspian.”

Mara followed suit, and the two females offered polite bows to Zarek and Caspian before exiting the parlor, eager to join Roxy in the nursery upstairs.

Compared to how they were when Roxy came here, they had noticeably changed.

The heavy oak doors clicked shut once more.

Only three men remained in the room.

The moment the females were gone, the diplomatic, polite facade completely vanished from Regent Titus’s face. The massive Tiger Beastman rose from his armchair. His shoulders bunched, his thick muscles tensing as a low, dangerous, incredibly feral growl began to vibrate deep within his massive chest.

Titus had respected the Queen’s presence and the females. But Titus was a warlord of the eastern plains. He was fiercely loyal to Torian, and he knew exactly the kind of agonizing, soul-crushing despair Torian had endured when Roxy had been violently snatched from the shores months ago.

Titus looked at the pale, mortal Merman standing by the fireplace, and all he saw was the monster who had stolen their Queen.

Titus felt like he had a lot more to say, and none of it was diplomatic.

His eyes narrowed into lethal, predatory slits. He took a heavy, deliberate step forward, approaching Caspian in a highly aggressive, physically threatening manner. The feral aura of the Tiger Regent flared, heavy and suffocating, intending to press the fragile, newly mortal King directly into the stone hearth.

Caspian didn’t flinch. He couldn’t access his abyssal magic, and his mortal bones were fragile, but his spine remained perfectly straight. He locked his silver-blue eyes onto the advancing Tiger, entirely prepared to take whatever brutal beating the Regent felt he owed him.

But before Titus could take a third step, a massive wall of dark muscle stepped between them.

Zarek stepped directly into Titus’s path, his broad chest completely eclipsing Caspian from the Tiger’s view.

Zarek didn’t just block Titus physically; he unleashed his own catastrophic, draconic Alpha Aura, slamming it into Titus’s feral pressure with the force of a volcanic eruption. The air in the parlor literally crackled with heat.

Titus froze, his eyes widening in shock as he looked up at the towering Dragon King.

Zarek’s crimson eyes were blazing like hot coals. He hadn’t forgiven Caspian for the past, but the Merman was Roxy’s mate. The Merman had bled to reach her. And in the Iron-Wood, Zarek protected what belonged to his Queen.

Zarek crossed his massive arms over his chest, his fangs bared in a terrifying, lethal sneer.

“You can say whatever you want to say,” Zarek rumbled, his voice a dark, concussive threat that echoed violently off the stone walls. “At this distance.”

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