Maya's POV
Pain woke me.
My head throbbed like someone had hit it with a hammer. My whole body ached. I tried to move and realized I was lying on something soft—furs, maybe?—instead of the hard ground.
My eyes snapped open.
A ceiling made of woven branches hung above me. Firelight danced across rough wooden walls. This was shelter. An actual building, even if it looked like something from the Stone Age.
I sat up too fast. The world spun.
"Easy." A deep voice rumbled from the shadows. "You hit your head when you fainted."
I jerked toward the sound. The wolf creature sat near the entrance, watching me with those unsettling yellow eyes. In the firelight, I could see him better. His face was more human than I'd thought—strong jaw, sharp cheekbones—but wrong in subtle ways. His ears were pointed and furry. Fangs peeked from his lips. His body was muscular and covered in silver fur from the waist down, like someone had mixed a man with a wolf and created something impossible.
"Stay away from me," I said, my voice shaking. I looked around desperately for a weapon. Anything.
"I'm not going to hurt you." He didn't move, but his eyes tracked my every motion like I was prey. "If I wanted to harm you, you'd already be dead."
That was not comforting.
"Where am I?" I demanded, trying to sound braver than I felt. "What did you do to me?"
"I brought you to my den. You collapsed." He tilted his head, studying me like I was some kind of puzzle. "You really don't know where you are, do you?"
"I was in a laboratory fire. I died. Then I woke up here, wherever here is." My voice cracked. "None of this makes sense. You don't make sense. You're not—you can't be real."
"I'm very real, little female." Something flickered in his expression. Pity? "You're in the Beastworld. And from your confusion, I'm guessing you're not from any tribe I know."
"Beastworld?" I laughed, but it sounded hysterical even to me. "That's not a real place. This is a dream. A nightmare. I'm in a coma in some hospital—"
"This isn't a dream." His voice was gentle but firm. "I don't know how you got here or why you appeared in the middle of nowhere, but you're real. I'm real. And out there—" he gestured to the door "—is a wilderness that will kill you in a hundred different ways if you don't learn fast."
My chest tightened. I wanted to argue, to insist this was impossible. But the pain felt real. The fear felt real. And deep down, some part of me knew he was telling the truth.
I'd died in that fire. Somehow, impossibly, I'd woken up in another world.
"My name is Kael," he said quietly, like he was trying to calm a spooked animal. "What's yours?"
I shouldn't tell him. Shouldn't trust him. But what choice did I have? "Maya."
"Maya." He tested the name, his accent making it sound strange. "That's different. Pretty."
Before I could respond, voices exploded outside. Angry voices.
Kael's head snapped toward the door. He swore—at least, I think he swore in whatever language he'd switched to. "Stay here. Don't come out no matter what you hear."
"What's happening?"
"The others found us." He stood, moving toward the entrance. "They want you."
Terror shot through me. "The other creatures from the forest?"
"They're not creatures. They're beastmen, like me. And yes." His jaw clenched. "A female appearing from nowhere is... unprecedented. Valuable beyond measure. They'll want to claim you."
"Claim me?" My voice rose. "Like property?"
"Like a mate." He glanced back at me, something dark in his eyes. "Females are rare here, Maya. Extremely rare. Most males live their entire lives never meeting one. And you—unclaimed, unmarked, with no tribe to protect you—you're like finding a diamond in a pile of rocks."
The door burst open.
Three figures crowded into the small space—the scaled one, the feathered one, and the massive bear creature from before. They all stared at me with hungry, desperate eyes that made my skin crawl.
"She's awake," the scaled one hissed, his tongue flickering between his lips like a snake's. "Perfect. We need to discuss terms, Kael. You can't keep her all to yourself."
"I found her," Kael growled, positioning himself between them and me. "She's under my protection."
"Protection?" The feathered man laughed bitterly. His golden eyes were almost beautiful, but there was pain behind them. "You mean possession. Don't pretend you're being noble."
"I mean protection," Kael snapped. "Look at her. She's terrified, injured, and has no idea how to survive here. What do you think will happen if we fight over her like animals? She'll run, and the wilderness will kill her in hours."
The bear creature spoke for the first time, his voice surprisingly soft for something so huge. "Then what do you suggest? We all just... walk away? Pretend we didn't find the first female any of us have seen in years?"
"I suggest," a new voice said from the doorway, smooth and dangerous, "that you all step back before I make you."
A fourth figure entered—one I hadn't seen before. Smaller than the others but somehow more threatening. His skin had a faint scale pattern, green and black. His eyes were hypnotic, swirling colors that made me dizzy to look at.
Snake, my brain supplied. He's part snake.
"Shen," Kael said warily. "This isn't your business."
"A female in our territory? That's everyone's business." Shen's eyes locked onto me, and I felt pinned like a butterfly in a collection. "Especially when she smells... wrong."
"Wrong?" I found my voice, anger cutting through fear. "I smell wrong? You're half-reptile and I'm the weird one?"
Shen's lips curved into something that might have been a smile. "She has spirit. I like that."
"Nobody cares what you like," the feathered one—Riven, I remembered—snapped. "We need to decide what happens now. We can't all claim her."
"Why not?" The bear creature's question made everyone freeze.
"What?" Kael turned to stare at him.
"I'm serious, Torrin," Kael started.
"No, think about it." Torrin's eyes were sad but determined. "We're all outcasts. We all live in this forsaken valley because we have nowhere else to go. We're all alone." He looked at me, and something in his expression made my heart ache. "What if... what if we shared? Worked together?"
"That's not how it works—" Riven began.
"Then maybe it should be," I interrupted. Everyone stared at me. My heart was pounding, but I kept talking. "I don't understand your world. I don't understand any of this. But I know I can't survive alone, and I'm not going to be 'claimed' like a prize."
I stood up, legs shaking but voice steady. "So here's what's going to happen. You want me to stay? Fine. But I'm not anyone's property. I'm not a possession. I'm a person."
Shen laughed—actually laughed. "I really do like her."
"This is insane," Riven muttered.
"Maybe," Kael said slowly, his eyes never leaving mine. "Or maybe it's the only thing that makes sense."
Before anyone could respond, a howl split the air outside. Long, loud, and full of rage.
All four beastmen tensed.
"No," Kael whispered, his face going pale. "Not them. Not now."
"What?" Fear crawled up my spine. "What is that?"
Torrin moved to the door, looking out into the darkness. When he turned back, his expression was grim. "Rogues. At least a dozen. And they've caught her scent."
"They'll kill us all to get to her," Shen said flatly.
The howls grew louder. Closer. More voices joining the first until it sounded like an army of monsters surrounded us.
Kael grabbed my arm. "Maya, listen to me very carefully. What happens in the next few minutes will determine if you live or die. Do you trust me?"
I looked into his yellow eyes—wolf eyes, predator eyes—and made a choice that would change everything.
"Yes."