Mira's POV
The corruption screams as Kael's power floods through me.
It's not gentle. His life force hits like a tidal wave—wild, fierce, overwhelming. I feel his wolf roaring inside my head, hunting down every thread of darkness in my body. The black veins BURN as golden light chases them back down my arms.
But I also feel... everything else.
His grief. The gaping hole where his mate and cubs used to be. The guilt that eats at him every day—I should have saved them, I should have been faster, I should have died instead.
Five years of pain crashes into me all at once.
I gasp, trying to pull away, but Kael's forehead stays pressed to mine. "Don't fight it," he grits out. "The bond has to connect completely or it won't work."
"I can feel you," I choke out. "Everything you feel. It's too much—"
"I know. I feel you too."
And suddenly I realize he does. He's feeling MY pain right now. Marcus's hands holding me underwater. The betrayal. The loneliness of three years spent making myself smaller. The terror of dying.
Kael makes a sound like a wounded animal. "He did that to you? For THREE YEARS?"
"Don't," I whisper. "Don't pity me."
"I don't pity you. I'm in awe you survived." His voice cracks. "You're the strongest person I've ever met."
The black veins retreat further, hissing and writhing. The corruption knows it's losing.
One final push. Kael's power and mine combine, golden light exploding through my entire body. The darkness shrieks and dissolves like smoke.
Then silence.
The bond settles into place—a glowing thread connecting my chest to his. I can feel it humming between us, alive and permanent.
Kael pulls back slowly. His ice-blue eyes search my face. "How do you feel?"
"Like I just got hit by a truck made of emotions." I look down at my arms. The black veins are gone. Only my golden marks remain, glowing softly. "But alive. Thanks to you."
"Thanks to US," he corrects quietly. "The bond goes both ways. Your strength saved me too."
I don't understand until I look closer at him. The old scars that covered his chest and arms—remnants of the battle where his family died—have faded. Not gone completely, but lighter. Less angry.
"The bond healed you," I breathe.
"Only what I let it heal," Kael says. "Physical wounds are easy. The other kind..." He trails off.
Zephyr and Draeven are staring at us with identical expressions of shock.
"That actually worked," Zephyr says faintly. "You formed a mate bond in under a minute. That's supposed to take days of ritual."
"Desperate times," Draeven murmurs. His purple eyes narrow on me. "How do you feel about being permanently bonded to the wolf alpha?"
That's a good question. How DO I feel?
Terrified. Trapped. But also... safer than I've felt since arriving here. The bond thrums between Kael and me like a heartbeat. I can sense his presence even without looking at him. Feel his determination to protect me.
It's not love. We barely know each other. But it's connection. And after drowning alone in Marcus's bathroom, connection feels like oxygen.
"I don't know yet," I answer honestly. "Ask me again when I'm not fighting for my life."
Draeven's mouth quirks. "Fair enough."
"Can you walk?" Kael asks, offering his hand.
I take it and immediately feel a pulse of his strength flowing through the bond into my legs. It's like drinking an energy drink made of pure willpower.
"That's handy," I admit, standing easier than I should be able to. "Does this bond thing come with instructions?"
"You'll figure it out," Kael says. "For now, we need to get moving. That Dark One wasn't alone. Where there's one, there's always more."
As if summoned by his words, a howl echoes through the forest. Then another. And another. A whole pack of them.
"They're surrounding us," Zephyr says, his wings spreading. "At least a dozen signatures."
"The Dead Forest is still our best option," Draeven insists. "We're only two miles away. We can make it."
"With Mira exhausted?" Kael shakes his head. "She can barely stand."
"Actually," I interrupt, "I feel okay. The bond is helping." It's true—Kael's strength is flowing into me steadily, keeping me upright. "Let's move."
We run.
Kael stays beside me, one hand on my elbow. Zephyr scouts overhead. Draeven leads, somehow knowing exactly where to go through the darkening forest. The howls get closer. Closer.
Something crashes through the trees behind us.
"Don't look back!" Kael orders.
I look back anyway. Can't help it.
Three Dark Ones are chasing us—smaller than the one I purified but still massive. Their corrupted bodies leave trails of rot wherever they step. Flowers die. Grass turns black.
"They're gaining!" I gasp.
"The border!" Draeven shouts. "Fifty feet ahead!"
I see it—a wall of dead, gray trees marking the edge of the Dead Forest. The air there looks different. Heavier. Wrong.
We crash through the tree line and into the Dead Forest.
Immediately, everything changes. The temperature drops twenty degrees. The ground under my feet feels spongy and sick. No birds sing. No insects buzz. It's silent as a grave.
The Dark Ones screech to a halt at the border. They pace back and forth, snarling, but won't cross.
"They really won't come in here," I pant. "Why?"
"Because the corruption in this forest is older than they are," Draeven explains. "Ancient and territorial. It doesn't share."
"So we're trading one danger for another." I look around at the rotting trees and gray earth. "Great."
"Lesser danger," Draeven corrects. "The Dead Forest corruption is dormant. Sleeping. As long as we don't wake it up—"
The ground trembles.
We all freeze.
"Please tell me that was an earthquake," Zephyr whispers.
The ground trembles again. Harder this time. Something is moving under the earth. Something BIG.
"You said it was dormant!" Kael snarls at Draeven.
"It was!" Draeven looks genuinely shocked. "It's been sleeping for fifty years. Nothing should have woken—"
He stops. Slowly, all three males turn to stare at me.
"Oh no," I breathe. "My power. The Lifebringer energy."
"Acts like a beacon," Draeven finishes grimly. "The corruption senses healing power the same way Dark Ones do. We just rang the dinner bell."
The ground ERUPTS twenty feet away. A massive root bursts upward—except it's not a root. It's black and pulsing and covered in eyes. More roots explode around us, creating a cage.
They're not roots. They're TENTACLES.
"RUN!" Kael roars, grabbing my hand.
But there's nowhere to run. The tentacles are everywhere, blocking every path. One wraps around Zephyr's leg and yanks him down. He screams, hacking at it with a blade that appears in his hand.
Draeven shifts into his full serpent form—a massive black snake—and bites through another tentacle. Venom sprays. The tentacle withers.
Kael keeps me behind him, claws out, slashing at anything that gets close. But there are too many.
A tentacle wraps around my waist from behind.
I scream as it lifts me off the ground. The touch burns—not with heat but with cold. The same cold as the Dark One's corruption. This forest wants to consume me.
"MIRA!" Kael leaps, trying to reach me, but more tentacles block his path.
I'm dragged higher. Higher. Through the dead canopy toward something emerging from the ground. Something huge and ancient and HUNGRY.
The forest's heart. The source of all this corruption.
It looks like a massive tree, but wrong. Its bark is black and oozing. Its branches end in mouths. And at its center, a single enormous eye opens.
It SEES me.
Then it SPEAKS directly into my mind: LIFEBRINGER. FINALLY. I'VE WAITED SO LONG TO TASTE YOUR LIGHT.
The tentacles pull me toward the central mouth—a gaping maw filled with wooden teeth.
Kael's roar of rage echoes below. I feel his terror and fury through the bond. He's trying to reach me. They all are.
But they're too far away.
The mouth opens wider, dripping black sap.
I have maybe three seconds before it eats me.
My golden marks ignite on pure instinct. But I'm so tired. I purified the Dark One. Fought off corruption. Formed a mate bond. There's barely anything left.
Is this how I die? Again? For real this time?
NO.
The word comes from somewhere deep inside me. Somewhere that survived Marcus. Somewhere that refused to stay dead.
I AM NOT PREY.
Power explodes from my core—not just golden light but something NEW. Something fierce and primal and MINE.
The tentacle holding me turns to ash.
I drop, but I don't fall. I FLOAT, held up by my own power. The golden marks spread across my entire body, burning brighter than ever before.
The ancient tree SCREAMS.
And I realize something terrifying and wonderful:
I'm not just a Lifebringer who heals.
I'm a Lifebringer who can DESTROY corruption.
The tree's eye fixes on me with something new: FEAR.
"Let's see how YOU like being scared," I whisper.
Then I dive straight into its mouth.