KAEL POV
"Cassius!" Thalia's scream tears through me like claws.
The human male steps through the rift with five armed soldiers behind him. He looks exactly like I imagined from feeling Thalia's memories through the bond—handsome, calculated, and completely dead inside.
"Hello, darling," Cassius says, smiling like he didn't try to murder her. "Surprised to see me?"
Thalia's terror floods our bond. I move in front of her, growling. "Leave. Now."
Cassius laughs. "Oh, this is perfect. She actually bonded with one of you." He pulls out a strange device—metal and glass, humming with energy. "Even better than we hoped."
"What are you talking about?" Thalia demands, but her voice shakes.
"The experiment, love. Did you really think I threw you through the rift just to kill you?" Cassius tsks. "That would be wasteful. No, we wanted to see what would happen if a trained psychologist entered a primitive world. Would you survive? Would you adapt? Would you change their society?"
Horror crawls up my spine. "You used her as a test subject."
"A very successful one!" Cassius gestures at me, at Soren, at Revek. "Look at this. Three powerful clan leaders already interested in her. She's causing exactly the disruption we predicted. Wars prevented. Alliances formed. The entire power structure shifting." His smile widens. "The military contractors will pay billions for this data."
"You bastard," Thalia whispers. "Everything I've done here—you've been watching?"
"Every moment. We have sensors tracking the rift's resonance. Every bond you form, every negotiation you complete, every clan leader you influence—it all feeds back to us." Cassius taps his device. "We're building a weapon, Thalia. A way to insert operatives into enemy territories who can manipulate, divide, and conquer without firing a shot. You proved it works."
I feel Thalia's heart breaking through the bond. She thought she was building something good. Making connections. Helping people. But she was a weapon all along.
"I won't help you," she says.
"You already did." Cassius nods to his soldiers. "Now we collect our asset and move to phase two. Testing on other worlds."
The soldiers raise their weapons—strange metal tubes that hum with dangerous energy.
I shift instantly. My wolf form explodes outward, and I put myself between Thalia and the guns. Soren and Revek flank me, their own predatory forms rippling beneath their skin.
"Fascinating," Cassius murmurs, recording everything. "The protective instinct is stronger than predicted. The bond truly does override survival logic."
"Shut up and run," I snarl through my wolf's throat, "or die."
"I don't think so." Cassius aims his device at Thalia. "This emits a frequency that disrupts dimensional bonds. It'll sever your connection to her and knock her unconscious. Then we simply drag her back through the rift."
Terror shoots through me. If he breaks our bond—
Thalia grabs my fur. Through our connection, I feel her desperate plan forming.
"Kael," she whispers. "Trust me. Please."
Then she steps out from behind me.
"NO!" I roar.
But she's already moving toward Cassius, hands raised. "You want data? Fine. Let me give you data." Her voice steadies, and I recognize her psychologist mode kicking in. "You think you understand what I've done here, but you don't. You're measuring the wrong variables."
Cassius pauses. "Explain."
"You think I'm valuable because I can manipulate beastmen. But that's not what makes me powerful." Thalia stops ten feet from him. "The bond—the soul bond—it's not a weakness. It's a force multiplier. When I connect with them, they don't just protect me. They gain my intelligence. My strategic thinking. My ability to read people."
I feel her through the bond, silently begging me to play along.
"And I gain their strength," she continues. "Their healing. Their senses. We become more than the sum of our parts. That's not manipulation. That's evolution."
Cassius's eyes gleam with greed. "Prove it."
"Gladly." Thalia closes her eyes. Through our bond, she sends a single command: Now.
I don't understand. But I trust her.
The bond flares between us, bright and burning. Power flows both directions—her mind into mine, my instincts into hers. For one perfect moment, we're not separate beings. We're one.
And in that moment, I see her plan.
She's not showing Cassius what she can do. She's showing him what we can do together. Making herself more valuable alive and bonded than captured and alone.
"Incredible," Cassius breathes, recording frantically. "The synchronization is complete. Both subjects maintain individual consciousness while sharing abilities. This is—"
Revek's knife hits his device, shattering it.
"Enough," the spymaster says coldly. "You don't get to experiment on people here. This is our world."
Cassius's face darkens. "You just destroyed military property. That's an act of war."
"Good." Soren smiles, showing fangs. "I love a good war."
The soldiers fire their weapons. Blue energy bolts streak toward us—
And Thalia moves.
She's not fast. Not strong. But through the bond, she has my combat instincts. She drops, rolls, and somehow ends up next to Cassius with a sharp rock pressed to his throat.
"Call them off," she says quietly. "Or I show you just how much I learned from wolves."
Cassius freezes. His soldiers freeze.
"You won't kill me," Cassius says, but he sounds uncertain. "You're not a killer, Thalia."
"You're right. I'm not." Her hand trembles, but doesn't move. "But I bonded with three apex predators. And right now, I have access to all their instincts. All their experience with violence. So ask yourself—do you really want to test whether I've changed?"
Through the bond, I feel her horror at what she's doing. But also her determination. She's protecting us. Protecting what she built here.
Cassius licks his lips. "Stand down," he tells his soldiers.
"Smart choice." Thalia steps back. "Now go back through your rift and don't come back. Tell your military contractors the experiment failed. Tell them I died. Tell them whatever you want. But leave us alone."
"You're making a mistake," Cassius says. "You belong in the human world, not this savage—"
"I belong where I'm valued," Thalia interrupts. "Where people see me as more than a tool. That's here. Not there."
Cassius stares at her for a long moment. Then he laughs bitterly. "You really have changed. Fine. We'll report you as dead. But Thalia?" His smile turns cruel. "You've proven the concept works. Even if we lost you, we can send others. Train them. Perfect the process. You're the prototype. And prototypes always get replaced."
The rift pulses. Cassius and his soldiers step through, and it snaps shut behind them.
Silence.
Thalia collapses. I shift and catch her before she hits the ground. She's shaking violently, the adrenaline crash hitting hard.
"You did it," I say roughly. "You saved us."
"Did I?" She looks up at me with haunted eyes. "Kael, he's going to send more people. More weapons. He's going to weaponize what I did here."
"Then we'll be ready."
"How? We can barely handle our own world's problems, and now we have to worry about human soldiers with advanced technology?" Her voice cracks. "I made everything worse."
"No." Soren steps forward. "You made everything better. You showed us what humans can offer. Intelligence. Strategy. Innovation. Things we never developed because we relied on strength alone."
"He's right," Revek adds grudgingly. "You're valuable. Not as a weapon. As a teacher."
"A mediator," I correct, and the word feels right. Through the bond, I feel Thalia's surprise. "You don't fight our battles. You show us how to avoid them. That's worth more than any army."
Thalia's eyes fill with tears. "You really believe that?"
"I know it." I pull her closer. "You turned tiger warriors against their leader with words. You negotiated an alliance between wolf and serpent clans. You survived assassination, betrayal, and dimensional rifts. You're not weak, Thalia. You're the strongest person I've ever met."
She laughs and cries at the same time. "That's ridiculous. I'm terrified constantly."
"Courage isn't being unafraid. It's being afraid and choosing to act anyway."
She's about to respond when a massive howl echoes through the forest. My entire pack answering a call to gather.
"What's happening?" Thalia asks.
Rykan appears through the trees, breathing hard. "Alpha. We have a problem. Your pack—they're fighting. Torin and Garrick are going for dominance. Right now. If you don't stop it, someone's going to die."
I curse. I knew this was coming. The pack's been unstable since I bonded with Thalia.
"I'll handle it," I tell Rykan.
"Wait." Thalia grabs my arm. "What if you don't have to stop it? What if we could solve the real problem?"
"The real problem is they both want the eastern hunting grounds."
"Exactly." Her eyes light up with that dangerous intelligence. "Kael, what if territory doesn't have to be winner-take-all? What if we could negotiate a solution where both get what they need?"
"That's not how dominance fights work."
"Maybe it should be." She squares her shoulders. "Let me try. Please."
Through the bond, I feel her certainty. Her plan is forming, and it's either brilliant or insane.
We reach the clearing where the entire pack circles Torin and Garrick. They're already bleeding, already furious. The fight for dominance has begun.
"This is sacred," Rykan warns. "We can't interrupt—"
Thalia runs into the circle.
The entire pack goes silent in shock.
"STOP!" she screams.
Torin and Garrick freeze, staring at this tiny human who just violated every law of pack combat.
Garrick snarls, his wolf barely contained. "Move or die, human."
Thalia plants her feet. She's trembling, but her voice is clear. "You're fighting over the eastern hunting grounds, right?"
They blink, surprised she knows.
"What if," Thalia says carefully, "you both got what you needed?"
"That's impossible," Torin growls. "There's only one territory."
"But there are multiple resources." Thalia looks at me. "Kael, the eastern grounds have both the deer migration route and the fish spawning streams, right?"
I nod slowly.
"Torin hunts deer. Garrick prefers fish." Thalia turns to them. "What if you split the territory by resource instead of by land? Torin gets hunting rights to all deer. Garrick gets all fishing rights. You share the space but divide what you actually need."
The pack stares at her.
"That's..." Torin's wolf recedes slightly. "That might work."
"It's clever," Garrick admits grudgingly.
"But what about pride?" another wolf calls out. "The winner claims everything. That's pack law."
"Pack law was written for a world where resources were scarce," Thalia counters. "But what if there's enough for everyone if we're smart about distribution? What if the real strength is knowing when to share instead of fight?"
Silence.
Then, impossibly, Torin extends his hand to Garrick.
"I accept your terms, human. Deer for me. Fish for you."
Garrick stares at the hand. At Thalia. At me.
Then he takes Torin's hand.
The pack explodes into shocked howls. A dominance fight ended without death. Without submission. With negotiation.
Thalia just changed pack law itself.
I feel pride surge through our bond. She's magnificent.
Then the silver marks on her collarbone flare brighter. New symbols spread across her skin—pack marks from Torin and Garrick, acknowledging her authority.
"What—" Thalia gasps as power floods through her.
Through our bond, I feel it. She's not just bonded to me anymore. She's bonding with the entire pack structure. Becoming something new.
Something the Beastworld has never seen.
The Moon Goddess herself seems to respond. Silver light pours from the sky, bathing Thalia in ethereal glow.
And when it fades, Thalia's eyes are glowing.
Not silver like the bond.
Not green like her humanity.
Gold. Pure gold.
"Kael," she whispers. "I can feel them. All of them. The entire pack in my head. What's happening to me?"
Before I can answer, another rift tears open.
Not Cassius's technology.
Something older. Wilder. More dangerous.
And through it steps a woman I hoped never to see again.
Lysara Bloodfang. Tiger princess. The female I refused to mate.
She sees Thalia glowing with pack power and smiles like a predator.
"So," Lysara purrs. "The human pet has become something interesting. Perfect. I was looking for a worthy opponent to destroy."