Maya POV
"Her name is Sophie," I said, my arm around the trembling girl. "She's seventeen. From Seattle. And she's under my protection."
Brutus's warriors circled us like sharks smelling blood. The new girl—blonde, pretty, terrified—pressed against my side, tears streaming down her face.
"You can't protect both of you," Brutus said lazily. "So choose. Give us the fresh one, or lose everything."
My mind raced through options. Fight? We'd lose. Run? Nowhere to go. Negotiate? With what leverage?
Then I saw it. The way Brutus's warriors kept glancing at each other, tension crackling between them. They all wanted Sophie. Competition. Jealousy. Weakness.
"Actually," I said slowly, "I have a better offer. You want to know if I can really make food grow? Let me prove it. Right now."
Brutus laughed. "Plants don't grow in an hour, little healer."
"No. But I can show you I know what I'm doing." I met his dead eyes. "Give me today. Let me treat my people's wounds using plant medicine. You can watch every step. If I fail—if even one of them gets worse instead of better—you can take Sophie and me both. But if I succeed, you leave her alone. She's mine to protect."
"Healing isn't farming," one warrior growled.
"Healing proves I understand plants. Their properties, their uses, how to work with nature instead of against it." I pushed confidence into my voice. "You're betting I'll fail anyway, right? So what do you lose by watching?"
Brutus considered this, his swollen eyes calculating. "Fine. You have until sunset. But if any of your 'patients' die, the deal's off. Both females come with us immediately."
He was hoping someone would die. I could see it in his smile.
"Deal," I said, praying I hadn't just made a fatal mistake.
I settled Sophie in the safest corner with Soren guarding her, then got to work. Oryn helped me gather plants—yarrow for wounds, willow bark for pain, comfrey for broken bones. My hands remembered training from medical school: clean, assess, treat, monitor.
But beastman biology was different. Faster. Rafe's infected wound stopped oozing within an hour of applying crushed yarrow. Marcus's fever broke after willow bark tea. Finn's pneumonia eased with steam from boiled herbs.
"They heal three times faster than humans," I muttered, checking pulses. "Accelerated cell regeneration. Incredible."
Kael appeared at my elbow. "You're enjoying this."
"I'm a doctor. Healing is what I do." I smiled grimly. "Even when my patients can turn into giant predators."
"Speaking of which..." He nodded toward the cave's darkest corner. "Thorne still won't let anyone near him. Those broken ribs from yesterday need checking, but he growls at anyone who tries."
I looked at the tiger-shifter's glowing eyes in the shadows. He'd been there all morning, watching but not participating. Feral. Dangerous.
"He's afraid," I said.
"He's dangerous. Maya, he was raised by beasts. He barely speaks. He might hurt you without meaning to."
"Then I guess I'd better not give him a reason to." I grabbed my supplies and walked toward those golden eyes.
Thorne's growl started low in his chest—a warning that raised the hair on my arms. Every instinct said run. But I'd faced down drug addicts in the ER, violent patients in psychotic breaks, chaos that would break most people.
A scared, hurt man? I could handle that.
"Thorne," I said softly, stopping ten feet away. "I need to check your ribs. They could be bleeding inside. You could die."
The growling intensified. He bared his teeth.
"I'm not going to hurt you. I promise." I sat down cross-legged, making myself small and non-threatening. "I just want to help."
He shifted slightly—half-tiger, half-human, stuck between forms. It should have been terrifying. Instead, it was heartbreaking.
"Who hurt you?" I asked quietly. "Before you came here. Who made you afraid of kindness?"
His growl faltered. Those golden eyes watched me with animal wariness and human pain mixed together.
"My parents left me to die when I was small," I continued. "Different reasons than yours, but similar result. I grew up knowing I wasn't wanted. Had to fight for everything. Had to prove I deserved to exist." I met his eyes. "You understand that, don't you? Being thrown away?"
He shifted fully human. Naked, scarred, broken. His voice was barely a rasp. "Everyone... leaves. Everyone... hurts."
"I won't," I said. "I'm a doctor. I take an oath to heal, not harm. Let me help you, Thorne. Please."
He stared at me for an endless moment. Then, slowly, he moved forward. Crawled across the cave floor like a wild animal approaching something dangerous. Stopped just within reach.
His hand shot out, grabbed my wrist—testing. His grip could snap my bones.
I didn't pull away. "I'm not afraid of you."
Something cracked in his expression. He released me and touched his own ribs, wincing.
"Hurts," he admitted.
"I know. Let me see."
He let me examine him. His breathing was shallow, ribs definitely cracked, but no internal bleeding I could detect. I wrapped them carefully with strips of cloth, moving slowly, explaining each step.
"You're safe now," I murmured. "I've got you."
When I finished, he didn't move away. Just sat there, staring at me like I'd performed a miracle.
"Thank you," he whispered. First clear words I'd heard from him.
"You're welcome." I smiled. "Now rest. Those ribs need time to heal."
Behind me, I heard Brutus's slow clap. "Very touching. The beast whisperer and her collection of broken toys. But sunset's coming, healer. Let's see if they all survive the night."
I checked every patient again as the twin suns set. Everyone was stable. Better, actually. Against all odds, I'd kept my promise.
Brutus's face was thunder. "Fine. The blonde stays with you. For now."
His warriors grumbled but backed off. Sophie sobbed with relief.
"Thank you," she gasped. "Thank you so much. I thought they were going to—"
"I know." I hugged her briefly. "You're safe. We protect each other here."
Kael pulled me aside as the others settled for sleep. "That was risky. What if someone had died?"
"They didn't."
"But they could have. Maya, you can't keep making these impossible bets—"
A scream cut him off. High, agonized, coming from outside the cave.
We rushed out to find one of Brutus's warriors convulsing on the ground, foam at his mouth, skin turning gray.
"POISON!" another warrior shouted. "Someone poisoned him!"
All eyes turned to me.
Brutus grabbed my throat, lifting me off the ground. "You did this. You poisoned my warrior."
"I didn't!" I choked. "I've been in the cave all evening—"
"She's been with us the whole time," Kael snarled. "Let her go!"
"Then one of you did it," Brutus said coldly. "Doesn't matter. A warrior is dying. The deal is broken." He threw me toward his men. "Take both females. We're leaving."
"NO!" Sophie screamed.
The cave erupted in chaos. My males fought Brutus's warriors, but they were outnumbered, outmatched. I watched in horror as Kael went down, blood streaming from his head. Thorne fought three warriors at once, roaring with primal rage.
Then Oryn's voice cut through the violence: "WAIT! I know what poisoned him!"
Everyone froze.
Oryn knelt by the dying warrior, his blind eyes unseeing but his hands sure as he touched the man's lips, smelled his breath.
"Deathcap mushrooms," Oryn said quietly. "He ate them recently. Within the last hour."
"How do you know?" Brutus demanded.
"Because I'm a healer. And because I can smell them on his breath." Oryn turned his jade eyes toward Brutus. "Your warrior poisoned himself. Probably found the mushrooms by the stream, thought they were safe. This isn't anyone's fault but his own ignorance."
The warrior's convulsions were slowing. Stopping. His chest went still.
Dead.
Brutus stared at the body, then at me, then at his remaining warriors. "You," he said, pointing at the dead male. "You swore you could forage safely."
"I thought they were—" the dying male had whispered before his last breath.
Slowly, terribly, Brutus smiled. "Well then. No broken deal. No poison plot. Just stupidity." He looked at me. "You live another day, healer. But my warrior died because this place is deadly. How many more will die before you admit you can't win?"
He dragged his dead warrior's body away, his remaining men following.
In the sudden silence, Sophie grabbed my arm. "Maya," she whispered. "There's something I need to tell you. About why I'm here. About what's coming."
"What do you mean?"
Her eyes were huge with terror. "I'm not the last. There are more coming. Girls from my world, dropping into this one. And I heard something before I fell through—a voice said the Beastlands are dying. That the Earth Mother is bringing females here to save it or watch it end."
My blood ran cold. "How many more?"
"I don't know. But Maya—" Her voice broke. "What if they don't all land somewhere safe? What if they land in territories with males who won't protect them?"
I looked at my fifteen broken males, at Brutus's retreating form, at the endless wasteland stretching beyond our canyon.
How many girls were falling into this nightmare world right now?
And how many of them wouldn't survive the night?