Baby System: My Mates Can Read my Mind?

Chapter 86: Episode 086: Do you want to speak to him?

Rue wraps herself in a thick fur cloak and walks beside Axel through the beautiful, quiet snow gardens.

The white fur keeps the freezing mountain wind off her delicate skin, enveloping her in a bubble of soft warmth. The garden is entirely different from the wild, dark forest outside the palace gates.

Everything here is perfectly quiet and incredibly peaceful. Huge ice statues of howling wolves sit between carefully pruned, frozen rose bushes.

The snow sparkles brightly under the moonlight, looking exactly like a thick blanket of crushed diamonds spread across the earth. It is absolutely breathtaking.

She walks slowly, her boots crunching softly in the fresh powder. Axel walks right beside her. He is tall and terrifyingly strong, but his steps make absolutely no sound in the snow.

He moves with the effortless grace of a true predator, completely at home in the freezing cold.

"Did you have snow where you grew up?" Axel asks quietly, looking down at her silver hair blowing in the wind.

Rue shakes her head, pulling the heavy cloak a little tighter around her shoulders. "No. I spent most of my time inside. I was always very sick. The weather never really mattered much to me back then because I couldn’t go out to play in it anyway. I just watched the seasons change through a thick glass window."

She expects him to push for more details. She expects him to ask exactly what was wrong with her, like everyone else always does when they hear she was sick. But he doesn’t pry. He just nods, completely respecting her short, honest answer.

And most of all she liked that he would never know that she was talking about her life on earth and not as a rabbit.

"That is a real shame," Axel says gently, his breath forming a small white cloud in the freezing air. "You look completely natural out here. You look like you belong in the snow."

He gives her a look that makes her stomach flutter wildly. It is a very subtle, sharp kind of flirting. Rue feels the sudden shift in his energy. It feels heavy, warm, and highly intense. She blushes deeply, burying her chin in the soft fur of her cloak to hide her bright red cheeks.

She feels flustered by his calm confidence, it was like the calm opposite of Knox. She remembers the system popping up earlier, offering her a sunny, peaceful vacation if she just plays along with him and raises his affection.

But honestly, she can’t even think about a vacation right now. Her heart is too soft, and it is entirely full of worry for Iris.

She needs to change the subject before she gets entirely overwhelmed by his cool, magnetic charm.

Rue stops walking near a giant frozen fountain. The water stopped in time, frozen into beautiful, clear spikes of solid ice. She turns and looks up at Axel’s beautiful, two-toned hair.

"I want to ask you about Iris," Rue says softly, steering the conversation exactly where she needs it to go. "And about Skoll."

Axel pauses.

"She told you," Axel guesses quietly.

Rue nods her head. "What do you think actually happened out there in the woods? Do you really think her blood ended his life?"

Axel sighs heavily. He crosses his thick arms over his chest, looking out at the dark pine trees standing tall beyond the high garden walls.

"Iris has always had a very big heart," Axel explains calmly. "She acts without thinking because she cares entirely too much. I know she tried to heal him with her own blood. I also know our sister’s blood is very special. But she didn’t kill him, Rue."

Axel states firmly. "We all grew up together in these halls, and I know exactly who he is. Skoll is a survivor. He is quiet, but he is incredibly tough. He ran away to protect her from seeing his pain. That is exactly what a strong wolf does when he is hurting. He isolates himself. He would never let a wound take him down so easily."

Axel looks back down at Rue. He tells her almost the exact same thing she said to Iris earlier in the room.

"Her heart was in the right place," Axel says gently, his voice full of quiet understanding. "She just made a panicked mistake in the middle of a brutal war. But definitely, Skoll was not dead when he ran into those trees. I am the Alpha of this pack. I am connected to all of my wolves. I can still feel a very faint pull in the pack bond. It’s incredibly weak, almost like a whisper, but it’s still there. He’s just hiding out there in the wild. And my sister is punishing herself for a mistake that didn’t even end his life."

Rue listens to him carefully and she suddenly gasps out loud in the quiet garden.

If Skoll is still alive, and he is just hiding somewhere in the wild forest, then this tragedy isn’t over yet. Iris doesn’t just need a friend to hold her hand and tell her it will be okay. Comfort isn’t going to fix this.

Iris needs actual closure. She needs to face the boy she thinks she destroyed. She needs to see with her own two eyes that he survived her terrible mistake.

Rue doesn’t even say goodbye to Axel. She completely forgets her manners. She forgets the system quest entirely.

Rue cuts the walk short. She turns around and starts running.

She rushes back toward the massive palace doors, her heavy boots slipping and sliding in the deep snow. She runs as fast as her weak, tired legs can carry her. The cold wind bites harshly at her face, stinging her cheeks, but she doesn’t care. She completely ignores Axel calling her name in surprise from the frozen fountain. She just needs to get back to that room right this second.

She bursts through the heavy iron doors, leaving a trailing mess of white snow on the clean stones. She runs down the cold hallway, her heart pounding frantically against her ribs. She doesn’t stop to catch her breath until she reaches Iris’s heavy wooden door.

Rue pushes the door open without even knocking.

Iris is sitting right where Rue left her. The Wolf Princess is resting on the edge of the large mattress now, clutching the thick gray blanket tightly in her trembling hands. Her blue eyes are completely red and heavily swollen from crying. She looks up, startled by the sudden, loud noise of the door hitting the stone wall.

Rue walks right up to the edge of the bed. She is breathing heavily from the run, her chest heaving up and down. She doesn’t hesitate. She sits down right next to the broken princess.

Rue reaches out and grabs both of Iris’s cold hands, holding them fiercely. She looks the Wolf Princess right in the eye, offering no pity, just hope.

"If he is still alive..." Rue asks, her voice trembling with pure emotion, "do you want to speak to him?"