Aria Chen POV
I woke up drowning.
Water filled my mouth, my nose, burning down my throat. Hands held me down—strong, unyielding. I thrashed, trying to break free, but the grip only tightened.
"Hold her still!" a woman's voice commanded. "The poison is spreading!"
Poison?
My eyes snapped open. I was in water—a stone pool carved into rock. Three women surrounded me, their faces tight with concentration. One had distinctive cat-like ears. Another had golden eyes with vertical pupils.
"She's awake," Cat-Ears said in a language I shouldn't understand but somehow did. "Thorne's venom is fighting her goddess power. We need more coldroot!"
They pushed me under again.
I fought harder this time, panic clawing at my chest. Through the bond, I felt Kael's distant alarm—he knew something was wrong.
Then I saw it. Black veins spreading up my arm from where Thorne had touched me. They pulsed with each heartbeat, crawling toward my heart like living things.
I'm dying. Again.
The women pulled me up, and I gasped for air.
"It's not working," the third woman said, fear in her voice. "The venom's too strong. She'll be dead within the hour."
"No." A male voice, cold and certain.
I turned my head, water streaming down my face. Thorne stood in the entrance of the cave, his violet eyes glowing in the dim light. Behind him, Kael and Ryn blocked his path.
"You're not coming near her," Kael growled. "You did this to her."
"And only I can undo it." Thorne pushed past them both with frightening ease. He knelt beside the pool, ignoring the women who scrambled away from him like he was death itself.
Maybe he was.
"Don't touch her," Ryn snarled, but Thorne had already grabbed my poisoned arm.
His scaled fingers traced the black veins. Where he touched, the venom responded, writhing under my skin. The pain made me scream.
"Stop!" Kael lunged forward, but Thorne's other hand shot out, releasing some kind of dark mist. Kael froze mid-step, paralyzed.
"Let him go!" I tried to pull away from Thorne, but I was too weak.
"Be still," Thorne said quietly. "Unless you want your bonded mate to watch you die."
Through the bond, Kael's terror flooded into me. Not for himself—for me.
Thorne's eyes met mine. "My venom has killed seven females. All of them died screaming, their insides liquefying. You should have died the moment I touched you." His grip tightened. "Why didn't you?"
"I don't know," I gasped. The black veins had reached my shoulder now, spreading across my collarbone. "Maybe I'm already dead and this is hell."
He laughed—a bitter, broken sound. "Hell. Yes. That's exactly what this is."
He lowered his mouth to my poisoned arm.
"What are you doing?" I tried to jerk away, but his grip was iron.
"Saving your life." His teeth sank into my flesh right where the venom was darkest.
The pain was indescribable. Fire and ice at once, ripping through every nerve. I screamed until my voice gave out. Through the bond, I felt Kael struggling against the paralysis, his rage and helplessness burning like acid.
Thorne drank.
I watched in horror as the black veins began to flow backward, pulled into his mouth. He was sucking the poison out of me, taking it back into himself. His scales darkened, spreading further across his skin. His body shuddered.
When he finally pulled away, his lips were stained black. He stumbled backward, nearly falling. The venom he'd extracted was killing him now.
"Thorne!" One of the women reached for him but stopped, remembering his touch was death.
No one could help him. No one could even touch him.
Except me.
The system screen blazed across my vision:
MATE BOND ATTEMPTING TO FORM
THORNE: CRITICAL CONDITION
INITIATE BOND TO SAVE HIM? Y/N
WARNING: BONDING WITH THORNE WILL PERMANENTLY ALTER YOUR PHYSIOLOGY
I looked at Kael, still frozen, his eyes screaming at me not to do this. Through the bond, I felt his plea: Don't. Please don't. I'll lose you.
Then I looked at Thorne, collapsed on the stone floor, black liquid leaking from his mouth. Dying because he'd saved me.
The system wants me to bond with him. Which means I should probably do the opposite.
But Thorne was dying. Really dying.
"How do I save him without the bond?" I asked the system.
No response. Just the same blinking question: Y/N?
"There has to be another way!"
Thorne coughed, blood mixing with the venom. His violet eyes found mine. "Don't," he rasped. "Not worth... saving..."
"That's not your choice to make."
I crawled out of the pool, my muscles screaming in protest. Every movement hurt, but I forced myself forward until I reached him. I pressed my hands to his chest.
Through my palms, I felt his heart stuttering, failing. The venom he'd taken from me was destroying him from the inside.
I'm a surgeon. I've saved hundreds of lives. There has to be a way.
But I wasn't in an operating room with tools and technology. I was in a stone cave with magic I didn't understand and a system trying to force my hand.
"Please," I whispered, not sure if I was talking to Thorne, the system, or God. "Don't make me do this."
Thorne's hand weakly grabbed mine. His poisonous touch should have killed me, but instead, warmth spread from where our skin met.
"The bond... already forming," he gasped. "Can feel it... trying to... connect..."
I looked down. A faint violet glow was spreading from where we touched, matching the golden mark from Kael.
"No. I didn't choose this!"
BOND FORMATION: 47% COMPLETE
CANNOT BE STOPPED
"What? No! Stop it! I don't consent!"
MATE BONDS TRANSCEND CONSENT
THEY FORM BASED ON SOUL COMPATIBILITY
CHOICE IS IRRELEVANT
Rage exploded through me. "Choice is NEVER irrelevant!"
I tried to pull my hand away, but Thorne's grip tightened. Through his touch, emotions flooded into me—not through a system bond, but something deeper. Centuries of isolation. The horror of killing everyone he touched. The desperate longing for a single moment of connection.
He'd been alone for so long. So desperately, crushingly alone.
Tears streamed down my face. "I'm sorry," I whispered. "I'm so sorry this happened to you."
"Don't pity me," he breathed. "Just... let me die... knowing someone... survived my touch..."
His heart stopped.
"No!" I slammed my fist into his chest, right over his heart. Once, twice, three times—CPR compressions like I'd done a thousand times in the ER. "You don't get to die! You hear me? You saved my life, so now I'm saving yours!"
BOND FORMATION: 89% COMPLETE
Golden light exploded from my hands—the same healing power that had saved Kael. It poured into Thorne's body, fighting the venom, restarting his heart.
The violet glow surged up my arm, meeting the golden light. Where they mixed, something new formed—a mark that was neither gold nor violet but something in between.
MATE BOND COMPLETE
THORNE: BONDED
NEW ABILITY UNLOCKED: VENOM IMMUNITY
WARNING: KAEL IS EXPERIENCING BOND REJECTION
Through my bond with Kael, agony tore through me. The paralysis had worn off, and he was on his knees, clutching his chest. The golden mark on his skin was turning dark, cracking like broken glass.
"Kael!" I tried to go to him, but Thorne's hand locked around my wrist. He was conscious now, staring at me with wide, disbelieving eyes.
"You bonded with me," he whispered. "You actually chose to bond with me."
"I didn't choose anything! The system—"
"The system can't force bonds." His voice was stronger now, confused. "It can only facilitate what's already there. If a bond formed, it means our souls—"
"Stop." I yanked my hand free. "I need to help Kael. He's dying because of this!"
I stumbled toward Kael, but the moment I touched him, he recoiled.
"Don't." His voice was raw with betrayal. "I can feel it. Him. Inside you now. Inside our bond." He looked up at me with devastated eyes. "How could you?"
"I had to save him!"
"You had a choice. You chose him over me."
The system screen pulsed:
CRITICAL: MATE BOND HIERARCHY UNSTABLE
MUST ESTABLISH DOMINANT BOND WITHIN 24 HOURS
FAILURE WILL RESULT IN: BOND COLLAPSE, MADNESS, DEATH
"What does that mean?" I demanded.
Ryn stepped forward, his face grim. "It means you have to choose which bond is stronger. Which mate you want more." He looked between Kael and Thorne. "And whoever you don't choose... their bond will break. Permanently."
My blood turned to ice. "And if a bond breaks?"
"The rejected mate goes insane," one of the women said softly. "The pain of a broken bond destroys the mind. They become feral. Dangerous." She met my eyes. "They have to be killed."
I looked at Kael, still on his knees, the crack in his bond mark spreading. Then at Thorne, who watched me with an unreadable expression.
The system chimed:
CHOOSE YOUR DOMINANT MATE
KAEL OR THORNE?
TIME LIMIT: 23 HOURS, 59 MINUTES
"I can't," I whispered. "I won't choose. There has to be another way!"
Ryn moved closer, his storm-gray eyes intense. "There is one way. Bond with me."
"What?"
"Three bonds can stabilize each other. It's rare, but it's possible. The prophecy spoke of the Goddess with three mates—not two." He held out his hand. "Bond with me, and you save them both."
Kael snarled, "Don't you dare use this to manipulate her—"
"I'm offering her a solution!"
"You're offering yourself!"
The system screen blazed:
URGENT: RYN'S PROPOSAL IS VIABLE
THREE-BOND CONFIGURATION: STABLE
TWO-BOND CONFIGURATION: FATAL
INITIATE THIRD BOND? Y/N
I stared at Ryn's outstretched hand. At Kael's cracking bond mark. At Thorne's unreadable expression.
Three men. Three bonds. All because I fell through a tree.
"This is insane," I breathed.
"This is survival," Ryn said quietly. "Choose."
The cave entrance darkened. A woman's voice, cold and amused, drifted in from outside:
"Oh, how touching. The false goddess can't even manage her own mates."
Everyone spun toward the entrance.
A woman stepped into the cave—beautiful, confident, with a glowing blue screen hovering beside her head just like mine.
She smiled at me. "Hello, Aria. I'm Zara." Her screen pulsed. "And I'm here to take everything you have."