Roxanna was flabbergasted when Luan returned to the cave carrying a large pile of fruit. He had wiped them clean with a dry piece of cloth—or more accurately, he had ripped Cyrus's clothes—before stacking the fruits into a small mountain in front of her.
"Eat," he said, pushing the huge pile toward her like an offering.
"Fruit alone won't make her full!" Calen proudly carried a dead boar in one hand. He looked extremely proud because he managed to catch it in less than ten minutes. "You need to eat meat!"
What? What in the world was happening right now?!
Weren't these men supposed to hate her? In Roxanna's memories, all of her beast husbands always stared at her with pure disgust. They even acted like they were cursed by the gods whenever they were forced to sleep with her.
Wait… so the evil Roxanna had been forcing herself on them all this time?! If she wanted to, she could do the same too when her timer almost hit zero. But—no! Absolutely not!
She would never force herself on someone! That was exactly what her ex-husband did to her, and she refused to become a monster like him.
If she had to die, then she'd die with dignity!
But putting the mating quest aside for a second, she still wondered why they were treating her so kindly?!
"I caught the fattest boar in the whole herd, so I'm sure you'll be full for a day!" Calen said proudly before dropping the boar right at her feet. "Go on, eat!"
Roxanna stared at the boar in silence. He told her to eat, but it was still covered in fur and not even cut open.
[How am I supposed to eat it? It's not like I can just sink my teeth into it!]
Right after she thought that, Calen immediately dragged the boar to a corner of the cave and chopped it into pieces with an axe.
"Here, I've cut it, so it will be easier for you to eat the meat!" he said like he had just done something amazing.
[Well… it's better… but I still can't eat raw meat.] she groaned in her mind. [And honestly, the fruit looks way more tempting.]
In the apocalypse, she used to freeze a lot of meat in her shelter. And even though her ex-husband was a complete psychopath, at least he made sure she didn't starve, just so her body wouldn't be too skinny for him to grab.
That was why the fruits looked so tempting now because she could never grow tropical fruit inside her shelter.
"I'll eat the fruits first," she said with a smile, turning to Calen. "But thank you for the meat."
Calen looked at her as if she had just committed a crime. "But it's meat! How can you refuse meat?! You're a carnivore beast!"
He yelled so loudly that Roxanna had to scoot away to protect her ears.
On the other side, Luan groaned and rolled his eyes. "Can you stop screaming? And what's wrong if she likes my offering better? Maybe your boar looks ugly. You should have caught a rabbit instead!"
Both of them then jumped into a heated argument, but Roxanna didn't care at all because she had already started digging into the fruit pile. The first thing she grabbed was a mango.
She didn't even peel it, and she just bit into it like a hungry squirrel.
"Mmm!" Roxanna swayed happily while chewing. The skin was bitter, but the sweet flesh inside made her eyes sparkle. "This mango is amazing!"
Then she tried a banana, an apple, an orange, and even asked Calen to crack open a coconut.
She couldn't believe it. The forest might be dangerous… but it was also a paradise!
[All I had back then were canned peaches, and those can't even compare to real fruit!] Roxanna smiled so bright that her cheeks hurt as her stomach finally filled up. [I want to live here forever!]
ROARR!
Just as she thought about that, a deafening roar shook the entire forest. It sounded like a demon crawling up from the deepest pit of hell just to scream at her.
Azul rushed back into the cave after scraping off all the mud from his body. "Hurry up, close the entrance! That's probably the sound of the rhino demon beast!"
Roxanna froze in place while the others stacked logs at the entrance, leaving only a tiny gap so they could breathe.
Since when did rhinos roar like that?!
The universe was seriously messing with her.
"Good thing the rain is heavy tonight. It will hide our scent," Azul said while casually stripping all his clothes off, revealing every inch of his naked body.
Roxanna's jaw dropped. The coconut slipped right out of her hands. She slammed both palms to her face, ears burning so hot she might start steaming.
[Now that he's not covered in mud… he's actually super handsome?!] she panicked in her mind. [And what is THAT between his legs?! Why is it so big?!]
The other beast husbands instantly looked at Azul, then silently thought the same thing, 'Hah! Mine is bigger.'
Azul noticed their judging stares and quickly threw pebbles at them one by one to make them stop staring at his "prideful pillar."
[But they're all so good-looking…] Roxanna peeked through her fingers. [Their bodies are like actual magazine models!]
"Why are you covering your face?" Azul asked, stepping closer. He really didn't get why she suddenly refused to look at them.
If they were that handsome, shouldn't she be staring instead?
"T-That's because you suddenly took off your clothes!" Roxanna replied shyly. "You should've warned me first so I could look away!"
Azul raised a brow and tossed his wet clothes near the fire. "It's not a big deal."
Back in the Mushy Lake, when he was desperately flapping his fins to escape the giant crocodiles, he had cursed Roxanna nonstop in his heart and had lost every bit of compassion for her.
He even considered dragging Roxanna into Mushy Lake so they could die together rather than keep living with that evil woman.
However, the moment he got out of that hellish lake, he was confronted with a completely different Roxanna.
She still had the face of the woman who made him suffer, but her soft behavior somehow extinguished all the rage burning inside his heart.
"How can you say it's not a big deal?!" Roxanna shouted, still keeping her eyes shut tight. "You're a man and I'm a woman! You shouldn't stand naked in front of me like that!"