**Beast World's Beloved Queen**
*Chapter 1: The Bloodied Earth* I understand - no headings, no chapter labels, just pure narrative. Here's the raw, immersive version you're looking for:
The last bullet meant for my skull was still embedded in the concrete behind me when I realized Lila hadn't just betrayed me - she'd made a critical mistake. She'd assumed I'd run for the sewers like a rat. Instead, I went up. Broken ribs screamed as I scaled the skeletal remains of the Willis Tower, each rusted rebar a fresh agony under my palms. Chicago spread out below like a corpse mid-autopsy, picked clean by scavengers and time.
Blood from my split lip dripped onto the thermal goggles I'd stolen from the last man who tried to stop me. The taste of copper mixed with the ever-present stench of ozone and rotting concrete. Somewhere in the maze of shattered glass below, boots crunched in that methodical sweep pattern all corporate mercs used. Left to right. High to low. Amateurs.
"You were always too soft,"* Lila's voice echoed in her memory, that infuriatingly calm tone she used when explaining why she had to betray someone. *"The new world order doesn't need healers. It needs conquerors."*
My fingers found the combat knife at my belt - the one I'd used to dig a 9mm slug out of Lila's thigh last winter. The one she'd kissed before sliding it back into its sheath with that infuriating smirk. Now it was the only thing standing between me and the firing squad she'd sent as a parting gift.
A shadow moved three stories down. I stopped breathing.
The merc's goggles glinted as he swept his rifle across the rubble. I could take him. Slash the femoral artery first, then the throat before he could scream. But his five friends would hear the body drop. His radio crackled to life.
"Sector Seven clear."
Lila's voice came through crisp and cold as always: "Burn it. Extraction in ten."
The explosion when it came lifted me off my feet before the sound even registered. Fire bloomed across the ruins in an orange hellstorm, turning skyscrapers into candles. The shockwave raced toward me as I scrambled backward, heat blistering my skin even from fifty stories up. My heel hit empty air -
And then the world tore open.
Consciousness returned in fragments. First came sound - birdsong unlike anything on Earth, trilling and laughing in equal measure. Then smell - rich loam and something spicy underneath, like cinnamon and danger. Finally, pain - my ribs still screamed with each breath, but the radiation burns... gone.
I opened my eyes to a jungle so violently alive it hurt. Towering trees with indigo leaves filtered sunlight into liquid gold. Vines thick as my thigh dripped with fruits that glowed like neon signs. My knife was still clutched in my hand, the blade reflecting alien hues.
Not Earth. Not dead. Oh fuck.
A rustle in the canopy. I tried to get up but my ribs shrieked in protest as I came up in a defensive crouch.
As soon as i turned my head he appeared. He was beautiful the way a panther in a chicken coop was beautiful - all coiled violence and terrible intentions. Emerald scales gleamed along a torso that tapered into a serpent's tail longer than a city bus. His face belonged on some ancient temple relief - high cheekbones, full lips currently curled in amusement, eyes like molten gold with pupils that slit in the dappled light.
His tongue flicked out. Forked. Shimmering.
"You smell like rust and wrongness," he mused, circling me with liquid grace.
I adjusted my grip on the knife. "Takes one to know one."
The serpent-man - Veylan, I'd later learn - cocked his head. "The jungle eats fragile things," he murmured, tail leaving a smooth trail in the loam. "You'll be bones by moonrise."
I smirked through the pain. "Bet you ten bucks I'm not."
His brow furrowed. "What is... bucks?"
I adjusted my grip on the knife. "Stay back."
The serpent-man's lips curled, revealing elongated canines. "Or what, little creature? You'll stab me?" He moved closer with hypnotic grace, his tail leaving a smooth trail in the loam. "I could swallow you whole before that pitiful blade touched my scales.
What followed wasn't a fight - it was a brutal lesson in my own fragility. Veylan moved like quicksilver with a grudge. I barely dodged his first lunge, rolling as his tail lashed out - shattering a tree trunk behind me into kindling. My ribs screamed in protest.
Think, Aria. He's stronger, faster - but you're smarter.
I let him chase me toward a tangle of vines, feigning a stumble. When he lunged, I yanked the vines taut - only for him to slice through them with a casual flick of his claws.
Shit.
His laughter vibrated through my bones as he pinned me against a tree, one scaled hand around my throat. "Clever," he admitted. "But cleverness without strength is just... noise."
I spat blood in his face.
As he recoiled, I drove my knee into his gut - not to hurt him, but to push off the tree behind me. My knife flashed toward the softer scales beneath his ribs -
He caught my wrist.
"Fast," he mused, grip like iron shackles. "For something with dull teeth."
I went limp.
As he adjusted his hold, I twisted - not to break free, but to use his momentum. My legs scissored around his arm as I wrenched my body sideways with every ounce of strength.
Veylan's eyes widened as he flipped over me - and my knife pressed against his throat.
"Yield," I breathed.
The jungle fell silent.
Veylan went statue-still beneath me. Then he laughed, the sound rich and dark as aged whiskey.
"Oh little thief," he crooned. "You just stole my afternoon."
Before I could respond, his tail snapped around my waist and yanked me against his chest. I struggled, but his grip was implacable.
"Enough," he said, and for the first time there was no amusement in his voice. "You're coming with me."
Like hell I was. I twisted, driving my elbow toward his ribs - but he caught that too, pinning my arms to my sides with infuriating ease.
"Stubborn creature," he murmured, his breath warm against my ear. "Do you truly wish to die here? Alone?"
I froze. The jungle around us had gone quiet in a way that set my teeth on edge. Something was watching us. Something big.
Veylan's grip tightened almost imperceptibly. "The choice is simple. Come with me, or become dinner for whatever's stalking us right now."
I stopped fighting. Not because I trusted him - but because the alternative was certain death.
"Fine," I spat. "But the second you try to eat me-"
His laughter cut me off. "If I wanted you dead, little liar, you'd already be digesting." His tail coiled around my legs as he began moving through the trees. "I don't eat intelligent creatures. And you... you're far too interesting to kill."
The journey passed in a haze of pain and exhaustion. Veylan moved through the jungle like a shadow, his grip never slackening even as my struggles grew weaker. At some point, the adrenaline must have worn off, because I came back to awareness as he was laying me down on a pile of impossibly soft furs.
His nest - because that's what it was, no point pretending otherwise - was a cavern half-open to the sky, the walls draped with silks that shimmered in the fading light. Geothermal vents kept the space warm, their heat pulsing like a living thing.
"Drink," he ordered, pressing a hollowed gourd into my hands.
I eyed the liquid suspiciously. It smelled like flowers and something earthier underneath. "Poison?"
Veylan's sigh ruffled my hair. "If I wanted you dead, I would have left you for the shadow-stalkers." When I still hesitated, he rolled his eyes - a startlingly human gesture - and took a sip himself. "See? Not poisoned."
The water was cool and sweet, with an aftertaste that made my tongue tingle. Almost immediately, the pain in my ribs dulled to a manageable ache.
Veylan watched me with those unsettling golden eyes as I drank. "You fight well," he said at last. "For a creature who thought I wanted to eat her."
I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. "You're a giant snake man in a jungle. Forgive me for jumping to conclusions."
His lips quirked. "Not a man. Not a snake." A clawed finger tapped my forehead. "And you're not in your world anymore, little storm."
The nickname sent an inexplicable shiver down my spine. "Don't call me that."
"Why not? It's what you are." He moved to the cavern's entrance, his scales catching the last of the sunlight. "Rest. Tomorrow I'll show you why you should be grateful I found you first."
As if I could sleep in the lair of a predator. But exhaustion was a weight I couldn't shake, and the furs were softer than anything I'd touched in years. My last conscious thought was the realization that Veylan had positioned himself between me and the entrance - not to keep me in, but to keep something else out.