ISLA POV
I woke up choking on darkness.
Black liquid filled my mouth—thick and wrong, tasting like rotten metal. I coughed and spat, and more came up. My lungs burned like I was drowning in poison.
"Hold her still!" Kael's voice, sharp with panic.
Strong hands gripped my shoulders. Someone else held my head. I thrashed, fighting, but the darkness kept coming up from inside me.
"The corruption is rejecting her human body," Draven's ancient voice rumbled. "She's too fragile. It'll kill her."
"Like hell it will." Kael's hand pressed against my chest, right over my heart. Heat flooded through me—his beast energy, wild and fierce. "Fight it, Isla. Your power is STRONGER than this curse."
But I didn't know HOW to fight. I was a scientist, not a—not a whatever I was supposed to be here.
More black blood came up. My vision went dark at the edges.
Then Theron's ice-cold hand touched my forehead. "Your mind is fighting your instincts. Stop THINKING and just FEEL."
Feel what? I was dying!
Except... wait.
Deep in my chest, underneath the corruption, something else pulsed. That same golden warmth I'd felt when I healed the feral wolf. It was still there. Waiting.
I stopped fighting the darkness and reached for the light instead.
The corruption screamed as pure energy exploded through my body. I felt it burn away like morning fog, felt my cells restructuring themselves, felt my human biology CHANGING to accommodate something new. Something impossible.
The black blood turned gold, then clear. I gasped in clean air.
When I opened my eyes, all four males were staring at me with expressions between awe and terror.
"What?" I croaked.
"Your eyes," Rhydian whispered. "They're glowing."
I touched my face. My fingers came away shimmering with golden light. "That's not normal, is it?"
"For a Heartweaver awakening her full power?" Draven's scarred face softened into something almost gentle. "It's exactly right. You just purified a killing curse designed by the strongest Shaman alive. Most would have died in seconds."
"I almost DID die." I sat up slowly, my whole body trembling. "What was that thing? That voice through the raven?"
"Morana Blackthorn." Kael's jaw tightened. "The last Heartweaver before you. She's been hiding for two hundred years, and now she's hunting you."
"Why? I haven't done anything to her!"
"You exist," Theron said quietly. "That's enough. Morana went mad with grief after her mates killed each other fighting over her. She blames the bonding system, the tribes, everything about the Beastworld. If another Heartweaver succeeds where she failed..."
"It proves she was the problem, not the world." I finished, my scientist brain clicking pieces together. "So she eliminates the competition before I can prove her wrong."
"Smart female," Kael murmured. His amber eyes held approval that made my stomach flutter weirdly.
Focus, Isla. Murderous evil Heartweaver first, attractive shapeshifter later.
"How do I stop her?" I asked.
"You can't," Draven said bluntly. "Not yet. Morana has two centuries of power and corruption mastery. You've been here one day. She'll kill you the moment she finds you."
"She already found me. She MARKED me."
"The mark works two ways," Theron explained, his silver eyes calculating. "She can track you, yes. But it also means she left a piece of her power inside you. If you learn to trace it backward..."
"I could find HER first." My heart raced. "And what? Fight her? I don't even know how my powers work!"
"Then we teach you." Kael stood, offering his hand. "My territory has ancient Heartweaver texts in the Shadow Temple. If anywhere has answers, it's there."
"My Sky Peaks library has medical knowledge about core physiology," Rhydian added, his competitive nature showing. "You said you were a... bio-something?"
"Biochemist."
"Whatever that means, it sounds useful. I have resources."
"The northern shamans preserved prophecy records," Theron said. "Including ones about you specifically. You need to know what's coming."
Draven was quiet for a long moment. Then: "My volcanic caves contain the oldest beast core samples in existence. Including samples from before the corruption began. If you want to understand what you're fighting, you need to see where it started."
They were all offering help. All trying to give me what I needed.
But underneath the generosity, I felt the possessive tension. The way they positioned themselves around me. The competitive edge to their voices.
They weren't just helping me survive. They were courting me.
"I'm not choosing anyone," I said firmly. "Not until I understand what's happening and who I am here. Maybe not ever. You all agreed to treat me like a person, remember?"
"We remember." Kael's voice was rough. "But that doesn't stop my beast from claiming you're MINE every time I look at you. I can control my actions, Isla. I can't control my instincts."
"None of us can," Rhydian admitted. "You smell like starlight and salvation. My eagle screams to steal you away to the highest peak where no one else can reach you."
"My wolf recognized your soul before you even woke up," Theron added softly. "I've been waiting for you for six months. Do you know how hard it is to stand here and NOT declare you as my mate?"
Draven said nothing, but his ancient eyes burned with intensity that made me shiver.
"I didn't ask for this," I whispered. "I didn't ask to be your salvation or your mate or your anything. I just wanted to not die in a lab fire."
"And we didn't ask to be cursed," Kael said gently. "But here we are. Making the best of impossible situations together."
He had a point.
"Fine. We go to your Shadow Temple first, since it's closest. But if ANY of you try to claim me without my permission—"
A roar shattered the night.
Not from Draven. From somewhere distant. Followed by another. And another. And war drums.
"No," Rhydian breathed, his face going pale. "That's the mating call. Someone's announcing a hunt."
"Hunt for what?" I asked, though I already knew.
"For you," Theron said grimly. "Every unmated male within a hundred miles just heard that a Heartweaver fell during the Celestial Alignment. They're coming."
The ground trembled with approaching footsteps. Dozens. Maybe hundreds.
"How many males did you say there were for every female?" I asked faintly.
"One hundred to one," Kael answered.
"And how many males live in these territories?"
"Thousands."
Oh god.
"We run," Draven decided. "Now. My caves are defensible and far enough that—"
"I can fly her to the Sky Peaks in an hour," Rhydian interrupted. "They can't follow if she's in the air."
"The Shadow Forest has hidden paths," Kael argued. "We disappear and they'll never find us."
"Or," a new voice called from the darkness, "you could let the best male win her fairly."
A massive bear-shifter stepped into the clearing. Then a tiger. A lion. A cobra that was WAY too big to be natural.
More and more males emerged from the forest, all of them staring at me with hungry, desperate eyes.
"Sacred female," the bear-shifter rumbled. "I am Tormund, Chief of the Mountain Tribes. I challenge these males for mating rights."
"As do I," the tiger growled.
"And I," the lion snarled.
One by one, dozens of voices joined in. "I challenge. I challenge. I CHALLENGE."
Kael, Rhydian, Theron, and Draven moved into a protective circle around me, their beast cores glowing with power.
"She chooses her own mates," Kael said dangerously. "No challenges. No fights."
"That's not our way," Tormund replied. "The strongest earn the females. That's how it's always been."
"She's not FROM here," Theron shot back. "Your rules don't apply."
"Then she has no protectors," the tiger said. His eyes gleamed. "No claimed female means free territory. Anyone can try to win her."
The males started advancing.
Kael's hand found mine. "When I say run, you RUN. Understand?"
But before I could answer, the ground split open.
Black corruption erupted like a geyser, spreading between us and the approaching males. Poisonous vines shot up, creating a barrier of rot and death.
And through the corruption walked a woman.
She looked fifty, maybe, with silver-streaked black hair and eyes that glowed the same wrong color as the corrupted beasts. Beautiful and terrible.
Morana Blackthorn.
"Gentlemen," she said, her voice carrying to every male present. "Let me save you all some time. The girl dies tonight."
She raised her hand.
And every corrupted plant turned toward ME.