I Was The Only Omega In The Beast World-Chapter 88: CP: Suggestion For Another Mate

Mira chose this moment to clear her throat with professional delicacy.

"If the immediate emotional reckoning is complete," she said, not unkindly, "I do still need to finish explaining the medical situation."

Naga straightened—his posture shifting back toward controlled composure, though his hand remained over Alex’s.

"Continue," he said.

Mira nodded. "As I was explaining—six cubs requires significant energy support. More than two mates can provide during the final stage, especially when one of those mates is still three days away."

She looked at Naga directly. "Which means for the next several days, you cannot be the only source of support. Your energy alone, even through a five-star bond, will deplete faster than you can restore it."

Naga’s expression was complicated—the rational part of him clearly understanding, the instinctual part clearly hating every word.

"What are you suggesting?" he asked carefully.

" I suggest you let your mate have another mate by his side. Not a temporary one. But Permanent. "

" What? " Naga hissed. Louder and angrier this time.

" Listen to me before you start wheezing on me."

Mira held up one silver-scaled hand, her expression uncompromising.

"I said permanent because that is what the biology demands," she said. "Not what social convention prefers. Not what your instincts want. What your mate’s body—and the six lives growing inside him—actually requires."

"Absolutely not," Naga said flatly.

"Then let me explain what ’absolutely not’ looks like in practice," Mira replied, her voice taking on the particular patience of someone who has delivered unwelcome medical news many times before.

"In the final week before delivery, a bearer carrying six cubs will draw on every available energy source. The mate bond provides the most efficient transfer, yes. But the body doesn’t stop drawing when the mates are depleted. It draws anyway."

She paused to let that settle.

"From itself," she continued. "When external sources run dry, the body begins consuming its own reserves. Muscle. Fat. Eventually organ tissue. We have lost bearers this way. Not from violence. Not from illness. From simple arithmetic—more lives than one body could sustain."

The chamber went very quiet.

Alex’s hands pressed harder against his belly.

[HOST,]

System said, completely serious for once.

[She’s not exaggerating. I’ve been running calculations since this morning. The energy deficit is real. It’s going to get worse as delivery approaches.]

"How bad?" Alex asked quietly.

[Currently? Manageable with Naga present. But in five days, when active labor begins? You’ll be drawing more than both he and Leo can provide simultaneously. Even through five-star bonds.]

[I’ve been supplementing where I can. That’s part of why I’ve been spending SP so freely—some of those purchases were energy stabilization protocols I didn’t tell you about because I didn’t want to frighten you.]

Alex stared at the floating interface.

"You’ve been quietly keeping me alive," he said.

[Trying to. I’m your system and your wellbeing is also one of my responsibility. But I have limits too, Host. I’m not infinite.]

Naga had gone very still—the kind of stillness that meant he was working through something enormous in the space behind his eyes.

"What would another mate actually provide?" he asked Mira. His voice was controlled. Careful. The voice of someone setting aside instinct through sheer will. "Biologically. Explain it to me."

Mira’s expression softened slightly at the effort that question clearly cost him.

"Mate bonds create a direct channel," she said.

"Energy flows through it constantly—not just when you consciously push strength toward Alex, but passively, like breathing. A third bond means a third channel. Three sources drawing from three separate reserves instead of two. The arithmetic becomes survivable."

"And it has to be permanent?" Naga pressed. "It can’t be temporary? Something that dissolves after delivery?"

"Mate bonds don’t work that way, the bearer is extremely fertile and he might get pregnant more in the time ahead. Maybe more than just six cubs in the future. "

" And can you say two mates will be enough to provide for him, protect him. What if he gets in a dangerous situation and you couldn’t reach him in time? "

" Isn’t him falling off a cliff and ending up in here already a good example?" Mira’s voice sharpen.

" No. It wasn’t his— "

" I do not care who’s fault it is. If a bearer is in danger and their mates are unable to do anything. Especially if they are pregnant with cubs, " Mira interrupted Alex and looked directly towards Naga.

" Then such mates are useless. "

The words landed like a physical blow.

Naga’s entire body went rigid—scales rippling with suppressed rage, pupils contracting to pinpoints, the air around him practically shimmering with barely-contained violence.

"Careful, healer," he said, and his voice was pure venom. "You’re dangerously close to insulting me in a way that demands response."

"Then respond by proving me wrong," Mira shot back, completely unfazed by the threat display.

"Show me I’m mistaken. Show me your mate won’t suffer because your pride matters more than his survival."

[OH SHIT OH SHIT—Host, she just challenged a five-star bonded serpent king’s competence as a mate. That’s basically a death sentence in most circumstances!]

But Mira wasn’t backing down.

She held Naga’s deadly gaze with the calm of someone who had delivered worse news to more dangerous beings and survived.

"I have been a healer for two hundred years," she said. "I have attended forty-three multiple births including mine. Nineteen of those bearers died. Not from complications during delivery. Not from infection or hemorrhage. From depletion because their mates’ didn’t wanted their mate to have another mate. "

Her silver eyes were hard now.

"So forgive me if I’m not impressed by your territorial display. I’ve seen too many widowed mates standing over cooling bodies, wondering why the strength of their love wasn’t enough to keep their partner breathing."

"Mate’s bond is not agreements. They’re biological connections. Once formed, they’re permanent unless broken by death or deliberate dissolution—which itself causes significant trauma to both parties."

Naga took a big breath and exhaled through his mouth.

Then looked at Alex.

Alex looked back.

Neither of them spoke for a long moment.

[I want to be clear,]

System said quietly, addressing both of them through Alex’s interface.

[This isn’t about romance. It’s not about replacing what you have or diminishing it. It’s about six cubs who are currently running a deficit that’s going to become critical. That’s the only thing on the table right now.]

"I know," Alex said aloud, answering the system but looking at Naga. "I know what it’s not about."

"Do you want this?" Naga asked directly. No performance, no posturing. Just the raw question.

"I want our cubs to survive," Alex said. "I want to survive. I want the family we’ve been building to actually exist on the other side of this delivery." He paused. "That’s what I want."

"That’s not an answer."

"It’s the only answer I have right now," Alex said honestly. "Because I don’t know this person yet. I don’t know what a bond with them would feel like. I don’t know if it would be right or wrong or somewhere in between. The only thing I know for certain is that Mira is telling me six cubs need more than I currently have."

He looked down at his belly.

"And I’m not willing to gamble their lives on my discomfort."

Naga closed his eyes.

Stayed like that for several seconds.

Then opened them again, and whatever battle he’d been fighting behind them had apparently reached some kind of resolution—not comfortable, not happy, but resolved.

"Who?" he asked Mira. "You said permanent. That means someone. Specifically. Who are you talking about?"