Chapter 100: Sleep Is A Myth
’Oh!’
[Ermin has achieved: Absolute Devotion]
[There is not a single fraction of doubt, hesitation, or reservation remaining in this male]
[(ノ◕ヮ◕)ノ✧]
Tera felt very happy, but it suspiciously felt like the system was more excited about this.
[Title Unlocked: Panther’s Adored]
[Mate Bond Strengthened!]
[Stat Bonus: Agility +5 from Panther’s Adored Mate Bond]
[This system was beginning to wonder if the panther would ever stop being emotionally constipated]
Tera pressed her lips together, fighting a laugh so hard her face hurt.
But it still felt so lovely that the relationship had progressed from a negative point to 100%.
Tera let out a soft huff of laughter, but the sound faded quickly as the weight of the notification settled over her.
One hundred percent.
Something in her chest came loose, like thread being pulled from a knot she had been carrying so long she had forgotten it was there.
This was the same male who had once looked at her like she was a stain he couldn’t scrub off. The one who had flinched from her touch, who had wanted the bond severed, who had carried so much quiet resentment that it used to sit between them like a wall.
And now he was sitting beside her with their daughters in his arms, looking at her like she was something precious.
Something in her chest pulled tight.
’You really came all this way, huh...’
When she glanced up, he was already watching her. There was no hesitation left in his eyes. No wariness. Just warm, steady affection that made her throat feel a little too tight.
"What is it?" he asked, surprised by how she was staring at him.
It made his heart flutter, but he cleared his throat, steadying himself instead, unaware of his mate’s own thoughts.
Tera shook her head, a small smile tugging at her lips. "Nothing. I’m just... happy."
His expression softened even further.
"So am I."
It made her so happy to see him like this.
Ermin’s tail lifted and gently brushed the side of her face, then stroked through her hair in slow, soothing passes. The soft fur felt warm against her skin. Her heart throbbed, and she leaned into him, wishing to feel more of his skin as he held their daughters.
Ermin had sure come a long way from "don’t touch me" to kissing her cubs’ foreheads and watching her with adoration.
The sensation of his tail was so tender and soothing that Tera’s eyes fluttered closed, and Ermin slightly shifted his body to accommodate Tera.
The cubs slept peacefully against his chest. Puff Dumpling had waddled in at some point and was curled near her feet, snoring softly.
The shelter was quiet.
Tera rubbed her cheek slowly against Ermin’s arm, feeling the warmth of his skin and the faint vibration of a purr starting deep in his chest.
’This is nice,’ she thought, her exhaustion pulling her under again. ’This is really, really nice.’
One of the babies made a tiny sound in their sleep, and Ermin’s arms adjusted automatically to keep them secure.
Tera smiled and let herself rest.
For now, she had one month of peace, two beautiful daughters, two devoted mates, one sulking pet, and a system that was somehow both the bane of her existence and oddly helpful.
- ※ - ※ - ※ -
The first week of motherhood could be summarised in three words. Milk, screaming, and regret.
Not regret about the babies. Tera loved her daughters with a ferocity that frightened her. She would kill for them, die for them, and had, in fact, already fought a corrupted dinosaur while pregnant to protect cubs that weren’t even hers.
The regret was about sleep.
Sleep had become a myth. A distant memory from a golden age when Tera could close her eyes and keep them closed for more than forty-five minutes without a tiny, furious creature demanding to be fed.
Nadia, the bear cub, ate like she was storing reserves for a disaster that only she could foresee. Her tiny mouth would pucker and clamp onto Tera’s nipple with the jaw strength of a creature three times her size, and she would not release until her round belly was so full it looked like she had swallowed a small melon.
And then she would cry for more twenty minutes later.
Althea, the panther cub, was more strategic about her feeding. She drank in short, precise bursts, pulling away to observe her surroundings with those sharp eyes before latching back on as if she had simply been taking a break to assess the room.
She also had a habit of kneading Tera’s breast with her tiny claws while she fed, which was simultaneously adorable and absolutely fucking painful.
’System. Is it normal for a newborn to have claws this sharp?’
[Panther cubs are born with semi-retractable claws]
[They soften over time]
[(ᵕ—ᴗ—)]
’OVER TIME?! My boob is bleeding!’
Tera spent most of her recovery in the communal shelter, surrounded by the other new mothers.
It had become a warm, chaotic hub of mothers, cubs, milk, and the kind of exhausted camaraderie that only people who hadn’t slept in days could share. The females compared babies, swapped feeding tips, and complained about their mates with a candidness that Tera found funny.
The clan’s excitement over the twins had been overwhelming. Only one female had been born out of the ten newborn cubs, and Tera, who was shiftless, had not only given birth to more than one cub at once, but they were also both precious females.
More importantly, they were the daughters of the female who had built their entire settlement from nothing.
Many of the clan members invented excuses to peek at the twins. Tera didn’t understand why permission or excuses were needed when the females told her Xavi and Ermin had been adamant about the clan members not crowding their precious mate and newborns.
And during most nights, Xavi and Ermin slept in the same room with Tera, which made the sleepless moments less unbearable.
One particularly memorable night, both twins woke up screaming at the same time.
Both fathers lunged for their cubs, and Tera lay there, too exhausted to move, but already having slept for most of the day while Ermin had watched both twins earlier. It was still adorable watching her two powerful mates struggle to soothe two tiny, furious creatures who clearly wanted only one thing. Her.
"Give them to me."
"But you need rest—"
"I will be fine. Bring them."
They transferred the babies to her chest, and the screaming stopped instantly. Both twins snuggled against her, their tiny bodies warm and content, and fell back asleep within seconds.
[Host’s breasts have magical silencing powers]
[This system has noted this for future reference]
’I’m not even feeding them. Wtf??’
The four older cubs were the worst or the best... depending on the hour.
They treated the communal shelter like a zoo exhibit, pressing their faces against the entrance, staring at the newborns and conversing amongst themselves.
"Why are they so wrinkly?"
"That one looks angry."
"That one is always angry."
"Why does the pink one have claws already? The other babies don’t have claws."
"Because she is a panther. Panthers are born sharper."
"What does that even mean?"
"Can I poke it?"
"NO," said roughly six adults simultaneously.
However, the most unexpected member of the childcare team was Puff Dumpling.
As the days passed, the small, fat animal had apparently decided that both twins were his personal charges, and he took this responsibility more seriously than he took anything else in his ridiculous little life.
When both cubs cried, he would waddle over and press his round body against her side, his moustache puffs quivering. The vibration of his soft chirping would often calm them before Tera could intervene.
And it helped a lot.
The cubs had mostly stopped trying to eat Puff Dumpling, but they had replaced this ambition with an equally concerning one: teaching the twins to eat the pet instead.
"When they are bigger, we can show them how to catch it," the bear cub explained to a horrified Tera.
"Nobody is eating Puff Dumpling!"
And sooner than Tera would have liked, the month slowly came to an end.