Chapter 29 – Deer in the Headlights
Damian POV
My chest heaved, lungs raw, legs like iron stakes driving me through the dirt. Sweat slicked my body, blood still caked on my hands. The night had been mine—flesh, death, and seed spilled across monsters who weren't worth remembering. But even I had limits. And the pack in front of me…
Four of them. Deerkin. Tall, lean, horns like polished ivory. Warriors, each one carved from instinct and discipline. Their eyes cut the dark like molten gold, and the way they moved—tight formation, no wasted steps—told me they'd spill my guts the second I slipped.
But it wasn't the bucks that caught me.
It was her.
Behind them. Pale fur catching moonlight like spun silver. Fragile. Radiant. Untouchable. My chest burned hotter than the dozen conquests I'd taken already. Every nerve screamed mine.
And her guard—the closest one, broad-shouldered, jaw locked, spear gripped like it had grown out of his arm—he saw it too. Saw the way my eyes found her. His stance sharpened, every muscle promising he'd die before letting me near her.
Good. He would.
Still… four of them? Even at my peak, it would've been close. But I wasn't stupid. I had Kai's scraps rattling around in my skull, memories like rusty blades. Useless most of the time—except when they weren't.
Deer in the headlights.
The phrase burned through me. I didn't know the headlights, but I knew the trick. Blind a deer, and it freezes. Can't run. Can't fight. Just stares until the car breaks its bones.
I grinned, bloodied teeth flashing in the dark. "Let's give it a shot."
Mana gathered in my palm, hot and sharp, humming like a hornet's nest. I snapped my hand forward—light burst out in a blinding flash.
The bucks reeled, antlers slashing air as they staggered back, hissing, shouting. Their eyes burned white. The girl cried out, covering her face, stumbling into confusion.
Perfect.
Except one.
The sturdy one. Her protector. He blinked through the pain, body trembling but holding. His gaze found me through the blaze, still half-blind, but still there.
"Persistent bastard," I spat, and moved.
My fist cracked against his skull with a sickening thud. Bone gave. His legs folded. He dropped like dead weight, spear clattering from his hand.
Her scream cut the night. She stumbled toward him, reaching out, vision nothing but smoke and spots. She couldn't see me. Couldn't stop me.
I scooped her up, her body thrashing against mine. Stronger than she looked, but not strong enough. My arms locked around her waist, and my legs ignited with mana.
The world blurred.
Trees snapped past in streaks of green and black. Roots tore under my feet. Wind clawed my ears. Every stride ate kilometers in seconds. Every heartbeat stretched the distance between me and the broken bucks left behind.
Her struggles grew weaker, her voice raw from screaming. My laughter drowned it out, sharp and cracked.
"Good luck tracking me, deer!" I howled to the night. "By the time you find me, she'll be mine in ways you can't imagine!"
I didn't stop until the world shifted around me.
The forest opened into something strange. Alien. A waterfall crashed in the distance, its roar filling the clearing. Flowers spread in a bed at its feet, blossoms glowing faint colors I didn't have names for. Blues that shimmered. Reds that pulsed. Golds that breathed.
It stole my breath. Not from awe—certainty.
This was it. The place.
I set her down, not gentle, her legs buckling in the flowers. Her golden eyes were wide, wet with terror, breaths sharp as knives. She blinked, still dazed from the flash, hands shaking against her chest.
My body answered in kind. Heat surged, blood thundering. My cock ached with pressure, not wasted like before. Not random. This one mattered.
I stepped closer, shadows of falling water dancing across my chest.
"This time," I whispered, voice breaking into a snarl, "it'll be different."
*******
Interlude – The Doe and the Blade
They thought she was a jewel to be guarded. Something to be locked behind her brother's antlers and the spears of their kin.
Fools.
Serenya had been born with fire in her veins, and it showed the moment she wrapped her hands around steel. While the other girls learned to weave, while mothers whispered of delicate charms and household duties, she was breaking wooden swords across sparring partners twice her size. By fifteen summers, no buck among their people could best her. Not even her own brother.
He swore his blade to her that day. Swore he would defend her with his life. It should have shamed him to be weaker. Instead it bound him tighter—knight to lady, brother to sister, destined mate to destined love.
Their people called it divine. Twins born once in a generation, bound in flesh and spirit to make the future strong. To produce a child born of destiny. She never doubted it. Why should she? He was hers, as much as she was his. She didn't need to cook. She didn't need to sew. She didn't need to flutter her lashes or master seductive games.
When the time came, she'd raise her hips and allow him to claim what was already his. Simple. Obvious. Natural.
So she trained instead. Dawn. Dusk. Sword, spear, bow—whatever she touched, she mastered. Warriors old enough to be her grandsires found themselves disarmed in minutes. Within three years, they named her the strongest of their kind.
Even then, her brother—her knight, her destined mate—remained steadfast at her side. Stronger in spirit if not in arm. His devotion deepened her love, and though she softened herself enough to think of being a woman for him, she never lost her edge.
Her body was precious, yes. Her love was sacred, yes. But above all, she was a weapon.
And tonight, someone had dared to wound her knight.
Her tears burned as her vision cleared after the unnatural flash. She blinked against the night until her gaze sharpened on the figure in the distance—retreating with her in his arms, her brother broken in the dirt.
Her knuckles whitened around her blade.
He would regret that.
The so-called man had stolen her body from her brother's side. She would carve it back with her own hands.
******
POV Damian
Her fear bled away as her golden eyes cleared. What replaced it was worse—quiet fury, honed like the edge of a blade. Her stance widened, her hand brushing the hilt of her sword.
Terrifying. Beautiful.
I felt it in my gut—familiar. Too familiar. Like Nyla.
And that meant—
"Uh-oh," I chuckled under my breath, muscles tightening. "This one's for real."
This wouldn't be a simple claim-or-be-claimed battle. No, this was claim or die.
She lifted her chin, voice far too sweet for the venom dripping from it.
"Speak, creature. What's your aim?"
I grinned, glancing at the throb between my legs before meeting her eyes. "My aim? Simple. Making sure you get your… fill."
Her sigh came heavy, resigned.
"Another one of those then."
"Another?" My grin slipped.
"You're hardly the first beast to pull something like this. It never ends well." Her stance loosened, lazy, open.
Too open. I could strike, end this before it began. But something clawed at me—instinct whispering that if I lunged, she'd cut me in half before I reached her.
So I taunted instead.
"Tough talk. Your guard's napping in the dirt, and the rest are probably still pawing at their blinded eyes. Face the facts: you've got two choices, and both end the same. One—you assume the position and accept my seed like a good girl. Or two—you fight, lose, and then assume the position and accept my seed like a good girl. Choice is yours."
Her lips curved, almost pitying.
"Option three. I kill you and return to my brother. As always."
"Wait, wha—"
The world exploded sideways. Her foot slammed into my ribs, and I went flying. Air left my lungs in a violent curse as I bounced across water, slammed through rocks, and crashed into dirt.
Pain screamed white-hot—but I laughed.
I forced mana into my cells, flooding nerves, bending biology to my will. Endorphins dumped into my veins, dopamine surged, every scream of pain twisted into rapture. Flesh knitted as fast as it tore, wounds closing in bursts of unnatural steam.
I dragged myself upright, ribs still crackling under skin that healed faster than bone could catch up. And my cock—harder than ever, diamond sharp.
"Marvelous," I rasped, licking blood from my lips. "The dicking you're about to get… earth-shattering. Maybe pelvis-shattering."
Her aura thickened, pressing down like gravity. For the first time, she looked curious.
"Creature… what drives you? Why suffer through an unwinnable battle?"
I barked a laugh, staggering forward.
"Unwinnable? Hah! I want what I want, woman. And when the sun rises, it'll be you. When it hangs high in the sky, it'll be you again. When it sets, and we're both husks from the vigorous deed—it'll be you again, and again, and again."
She waved me off, almost bored. "Yes, yes. But why me?"
"Yes." The word left me instantly. No hesitation. No thought. Just truth.
She blinked. Tilted her head. A strange gleam entered her eyes.
"Curious," she murmured. Then, more sharply: "Very well. If you can show me your worth, you may have it."
"It?" I echoed, grinning.
"It," she affirmed.
"Oh, enough said. Prepare yourself. It's going to be a hard time for you. And I do mean hard."
Her aura surged, bloodlust suffocating, intoxicating.
I tapped my wrist. "Dame time."
Mana flared. The world slowed. Trees bent like molasses, her hair floated, the waterfall froze mid-crash.
My trump card. My ace. Just enough to close the distance and end this.
I lunged.
But her eyes tracked me—tracked me in slowed time. Horror jolted through me as her arm snapped up, faster than thought. Her palm crashed into my chest, full force.
My world shattered.
I was airborne, bones fracturing like kindling. My body hit rock, cratered earth, bounced like a ragdoll. Should've been fatal. Should've erased me.
But I got up. Stumbling, bleeding, body screaming. Laughing. Always laughing.
Because even as death chewed at me, my cock was diamond-hard, and my eyes burned with hunger.
Her lips quirked—the first smile she'd given me. She actually laughed.
"Worth," she said simply.
I blinked. "So… I can have it?"
"You may. But not as you think." She turned, gesturing past the falls.
Behind the sheet of water, I saw it—a dark archway carved into stone, runes pulsing with faint light. A yawning mouth into depths unknown.
"A trial," she said. "A dungeon. Sacred to my people. If you can survive to the twentieth floor, then you may claim it. Once. And only once."
Her smile widened, equal parts promise and cruelty.
"My people won't forgive me for this indulgence. But… as long as I bear my brother's child, they won't complain."
Her words hit me like a drug. A trial? A dungeon? A chance to carve my worth into the bones of this world?
I grinned, blood dripping down my chin.
"Oh… you're going to regret that, deer."
And with that, I stepped toward the roar of the falls. Toward the trial. Toward it.