Seven snow leopard beastmen emerged from the forest, each one as tall and powerful as Frost. They moved with predatory grace, their spotted white fur rippling over muscles built for killing. The largest one, easily seven feet tall with a scar bisecting his face, stepped forward.
"Frost." His voice was deep, authoritative and utterly cold. "You've caused enough problems. Time to come home and face your punishment."
"Not happening, Kael." Frost somehow managed to push himself up on one elbow, placing himself between me and The alpha. "I'm done with the tribe's way."
Kael's eyes, a cold blue unlike Frost's silver, slid to me. "Yet you've bonded with a human female. How convenient." He smiled, and it was terrifying. "You do realize she's wasted on you? A deserter, a weakling who can't even defend what's his?"
"She's not a possession."
"Everything in this world is a possession to those strong enough to take it." Kael took a step closer. "And you're not strong enough to stop me from taking her."
I felt Frost's rage through the bond, hot and bitter. Felt his fear too, not for himself, but for me. And underneath it all, resignation. He thought this was over. Thought we'd already lost.
Like hell.
"You want him?" I stood up, placing myself in front of Frost. My legs shook but held. "You'll have to go through me."
The hunting party laughed, like I'd told the funniest joke they'd ever heard.
Kael's smile widened. "Little. Human. Female. I could break you with one hand."
"Maybe." I met his eyes, refusing to look away even though every instinct screamed at me to submit, to run, to do anything except challenge an apex predator. "But I heal what you break. And I'll keep getting back up. Every. Single. Time."
The laughter died.
Kael studied me with a new interest, his head tilting. "Interesting. You've got fire in you. Wasted on a traitor, but..." He shrugged. "Once we kill Frost, you'll need a new mate. I'll allow you to choose from among my hunters. I might even take you myself, if you prove... entertaining."
White-hot fury blazed through me, mine or Frost's, I couldn't tell anymore. "I chose him. That's not changing."
"We'll see how you feel after watching him die."
Kael lunged.
Frost tried to intercept, but his wounded body couldn't move fast enough. I saw the alpha's claws extended, aimed straight for Frost's throat, saw the killing blow coming with perfect clarity...
And something inside me snapped.
The Healing Sense inverted. Instead of feeling where bodies needed to heal, I felt where they were vulnerable. Where tendons connected. Where blood vessels ran close to the surface. Where a precise strike would cause maximum damage with minimum effort.
My hand shot out and grabbed Kael's wrist mid-strike.
Everyone froze.
I shouldn't have been able to stop him. A human female against a seven-foot alpha beastman? Impossible. Except my fingers had found the exact pressure point where nerves clustered, and I pressed hard.
Kael roared and jerked back, his hand spasming.
"What—!?" He stared at his temporarily paralyzed hand, then at me. "What did you do?"
"Learned where it hurts." My voice didn't sound like my own. "Want to find out what else I can do?"
For three heartbeats, nobody moved.
Then Kael smiled. A real smile this time, full of teeth and danger and something that might have been respect.
"You just made this so much more interesting."
He attacked again, and this time all six hunters moved with him.
The golden interface blazed across my vision:
[CRITICAL DANGER]
[Multiple hostiles engaging]
[Current Status: Severely outmatched]
[Recommendation: EMERGENCY BOND REQUIRED]
[Searching for compatible candidates in range...]
[FOUND: 1 compatible candidate approaching at high speed]
[Distance: 200 meters and closing]
[WARNING: Candidate species – UNKNOWN CLASSIFICATION]
What the hell did "unknown classification" mean?
A sound split the air, not a roar, not a howl, but something between a battle cry and a laugh. High-pitched, wild, absolutely unhinged.
Something small and fast crashed through the canopy above us, showering leaves and broken branches. A figure dropped into the centre of the hunting party, landing in a crouch that somehow looked both graceful and manic.
He was smaller than the snow leopards, maybe five-ten, with a sleek, streamlined build covered in dark brown fur. An otter?. A river otter beastman, I realized, taking in the webbed fingers and the water-slick sheen of his pelt.
And he was grinning.
"Seven on two? That hardly seems fair!" His voice was light, playful, completely at odds with the situation. "Wait, sorry, seven on two-and-a-half, since the big guy's wounded. Still not fair, though. You should've brought more friends."
Kael snarled. "This doesn't concern you, River trash."
"'River trash.' Wow, so original." The otter beastman, River?, pulled something from his belt. A crude blade made from sharpened stone. "See, here's the thing. I was having a perfectly nice swim when I felt something weird. Like a... I dunno, a tug? A pull?" His eyes found mine, and they were startling, amber-gold and absolutely wild. "And it led me to you."
The interface pulsed:
[Second Bond Candidate Detected: River – Otter Tribe]
[Compatibility: 91%]
[WARNING: Candidate is known outcast/exile]
[Accept bond? Y/N]
"You've got to be kidding me," I whispered.
River's grin somehow widened. "So... Human female who can paralyze alphas with a touch. Want to survive the next thirty seconds? I'm fun at parties, great with water-based escapes, and I promise I'm at least forty percent less likely to murder you than these guys."
"That's not a ringing endorsement!"
"Best I can do on short notice!"
Kael's roar shook the trees. "KILL THEM ALL!"
The hunting party charged.
River's eyes met mine. "Bond now, questions later?"
Seven leopards. One wounded frost. One insane otter.
And me, a human who'd been in this nightmare world for less than an hour.
My finger hovered over the interface.
[Y/N]