Day 123 Post-Impact
The convoy arrived at midday.
Three armored trucks bearing medical supplies, escorted by a dozen armed guards who looked relieved to finally reach Harmony's walls. Sarnav watched from the command center as Zara's people processed them through the gates, scanning for threats, verifying cargo manifests.
"The lead vehicle's passenger is requesting to speak with you directly," Jade reported, her eyes flickering through data streams. "Says she knows your mother."
That got his attention.
He made his way to the main gate, curiosity warring with caution. The convoy had been expected - Wei Ming had negotiated the medical supply trade weeks ago - but no one had mentioned a personal connection.
The woman who stepped out of the lead truck was striking. Forty-one years old, Malaysian Indian, with the kind of elegant beauty that came from confidence rather than youth. She wore a tailored blazer over practical travel clothes, her dark hair swept back in a professional style. Her figure was generous - 36DD curves that her business attire couldn't quite conceal - and she moved with the assured grace of someone used to commanding rooms.
[SCANNING: MEERA RYAN][AGE: 41 | UNAWAKENED][OCCUPATION: FORMER CEO, MEDICAL SUPPLY LOGISTICS][CONNECTION: MYTHILI KISH - UNIVERSITY FRIEND (30+ YEARS)][THREAT LEVEL: NONE][NOTE: DIVORCED, NO CHILDREN, HIGH SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE]
"So you're Mythili's boy." Meera's eyes swept over him with frank appraisal, lingering in ways that felt deliberate. "My, how you've grown. Last time I saw you, you were barely twelve years old and hiding behind your mother's legs."
"Ms. Ryan."
"Meera, please. 'Ms. Ryan' makes me feel ancient." She smiled, warm but knowing. "Where is Mythili? I've been trying to reach her for months."
"She's here. Safe."
"Thank god." Genuine relief flickered across her features. "When the Impact happened, I feared the worst. Then I heard rumors about a settlement run by an awakened with the surname Kish, and I had to see for myself."
Before he could respond, movement at the edge of his vision drew his attention. Mythili was approaching, her expression shifting from confusion to shock to joy.
"Meera?"
"Mythili!"
The two women embraced, decades of friendship evident in the way they held each other. When they separated, both had tears in their eyes.
"I thought you were dead," Mythili said, her voice cracking. "KL fell so fast, and your apartment was right in the impact zone..."
"I got out early. Instinct, maybe. Or luck." Meera glanced at Sarnav, then back at Mythili with an expression he couldn't quite read. "I see your son has been busy. The stories about this place... they don't do it justice."
"He's done incredible things." Mythili's voice held unmistakable pride. "Saved thousands of people. Built something real."
"Mmm." Meera's gaze swept across the settlement, taking in the organized sectors, the training yards, the signs of awakened power everywhere. Then her eyes found a group of women near the medical bay - Nisha helping distribute supplies, Ishani directing logistics, Sana speaking gently with refugees. "And those would be...?"
"Some of Sarnav's... wives." Mythili's voice caught slightly on the word.
"Wives. Plural." Meera's eyebrows rose, but there was no judgment in her expression. Only keen interest. "How many?"
"Eleven."
"Eleven." Meera turned back to look at Sarnav with new appreciation. "Mythili, darling, you've been holding out on me. Your letters never mentioned this."
"It's... complicated."
"I imagine it is." Something passed between the two women - a look Sarnav couldn't quite interpret. Meera's gaze flicked back to the wives, then to Mythili, then finally to Sarnav himself with raised eyebrows and a small, knowing smile that made him distinctly uncomfortable.
"We have much to discuss," Meera said. "In private."
[ENTITY STATUS: MONITORING - 2KM PERIMETER][DEADLINE: 17 DAYS REMAINING][SEAL INTEGRITY: 91.4%]
The entity hadn't moved. Hadn't communicated. Simply waited, patient as stone, while the deadline ticked down. Seventeen days until Sarnav had to make a choice that could reshape the region.
Jade's research had hit another wall. Yuki's modeling suggested that forcing the entity to remain bound during the storm would be possible but costly - potentially catastrophic if the seal failed mid-attempt. The alternative, releasing it willingly, remained a gamble on the word of a being that had been imprisoned for three thousand years.
No good options. Only less terrible ones.
Elena came to his quarters that night.
She didn't knock. She never did. One moment the room was empty, the next she was there, materializing from shadows in the corner, her platinum blonde hair catching the low light.
"The Purifier network analysis is complete." Her voice was cold, professional. Ice blue eyes fixed on him without warmth. "Three major cells remaining. I can eliminate them within the month."
"That's not why you're here."
"No." She didn't move closer, but something shifted in her posture. The assassin facade cracking almost imperceptibly. "It's not."
Sixteen chapters since he'd touched her. Sixteen chapters of watching her maintain that frozen exterior while he knew - could feel through the bond - the heat she kept locked away.
"Come here."
"Make me."
It was a challenge. An invitation. The game they played because Elena couldn't simply ask for what she needed. Couldn't admit, even to herself, that the deadliest woman in Harmony wanted nothing more than to be conquered.
He moved.
She was fast - S-rank fast, shadows already swirling around her in defensive patterns - but he knew her tells. When she struck, he was already inside her guard. When she tried to slip away, his hand was in her hair, yanking her head back.
"Blyad-" The Russian curse cut off as his mouth found her throat.
"You've been avoiding me." He bit down on her pulse point, felt her shudder. "Sixteen days of that cold stare. That professional distance."
"I don't know what you're-"
He silenced her with a kiss that was more conquest than affection, his tongue invading her mouth, swallowing her protests. She fought him for approximately three seconds before melting, her body pressing against his, her hands clawing at his clothes.
"That's what I thought." He spun her, slamming her against the wall hard enough to rattle the fixtures. "You don't get to pretend with me, Elena. I feel everything through the bond."
"Then you know I want-" She gasped as he yanked her tactical pants down, exposing her pale ass. "Fuck. You know what I want."
"Say it."
"Make me."
He spanked her hard enough to leave a mark. She moaned, shadows flickering wildly around them.
"Say. It."
"I want you to fuck me." The words came out broken, desperate. "I want you to use me. I've been thinking about it for weeks, touching myself, imagining your cock inside me. Please, Sarnav. Please."
He freed himself from his pants, already rock hard. She was dripping - he could feel it when he ran his fingers through her folds, her arousal coating his hand.
"You're soaked."
"Da... yes... I told you I've been thinking about it..."
He positioned himself at her entrance and thrust in without warning. She screamed - not pain, overwhelming pleasure - her pussy clamping down on him immediately.
"Finally," she gasped, her forehead pressed against the wall. "Finally, finally, finally..."
He fucked her hard against the wall, one hand in her hair, the other gripping her hip hard enough to bruise. The wet sounds of their joining filled the room, obscene and desperate. She took everything he gave her and begged for more, her cold facade completely shattered.
"Harder! Blyad, harder! I can take it, I need it, I've been empty for so long..."
Her 36DD tits bounced with each thrust, still confined in her tactical top. He reached around to tear it open, buttons scattering, freeing her heavy breasts. Her nipples were diamond-hard against his palms, and she cried out when he pinched them roughly.
"You're mine." He punctuated each word with a brutal thrust. "Every inch of you. Say it."
"Yours! Moy Sarnav, I'm yours, only yours, always yours..."
Her pale skin was flushed now, sweat making her body glisten. He could see the old scars on her back, marks of a violent past, and he traced them with possessive fingers while he fucked her against the wall.
Her shadows were going haywire now, flickering and pulsing with her arousal, tendrils of darkness caressing them both. He could feel her getting close, her walls tightening around his cock like a vice.
"Not yet." He pulled out suddenly, ignoring her whine of protest. "On the bed. Hands and knees."
She scrambled to comply, her toned body moving with lethal grace even in submission. She presented her ass to him like an offering, her pale cheeks marked with his handprints, her pussy dripping arousal down her thighs.
He spread her cheeks, revealing her tight rear entrance, already glistening with her arousal that had dripped down.
"You want this?" He pressed a finger against her back entrance, felt her push back into it eagerly.
"Yes! Please, I need it, I've been so empty, so desperate for you to fill me there..."
He worked her open with his fingers first - one, then two - watching her moan and writhe, her shadows dancing across the walls in patterns that matched her pleasure. When he was satisfied she was ready, he positioned his cock at her ass.
When he pushed inside, she screamed, her shadows exploding outward in a wave of darkness that swallowed the room for a heartbeat before snapping back.
"So tight," he groaned, watching his cock disappear into her ass inch by inch. "Even after all this time, still so fucking tight."
"Because it's yours," she panted, her fingers clawing at the sheets. "My pussy, my ass, all of it. Every hole. Only for you, Sarnav. Only ever for you."
He fucked her ass with the same brutal intensity he'd used on her pussy, one hand pressing her face into the mattress, the other gripping her hip. She was incoherent now, Russian and English mixing together, all pretense of control abandoned.
"I'm going to- blyad, I'm going to cum from my ass, you're going to make me cum just from fucking my ass..."
"Do it." He reached around to find her clit, rubbing in tight circles. "Cum for me, Elena. Let go."
She shattered with a scream that probably carried through the walls, her ass clamping down on him so hard it almost hurt. Shadows erupted from her in waves, plunging the room into darkness before snapping back. Through the bond, he felt her pleasure like an avalanche, and it dragged him over the edge.
He came deep inside her ass, filling her completely as she continued to shake through her orgasm. When he finally pulled out, she collapsed onto the bed, boneless and trembling.
The assassin was gone. In her place was just a woman, vulnerable and soft, looking up at him with eyes that held nothing but love.
"Spasibo," she whispered. Thank you. "I needed that. Needed you."
He lay down beside her, pulling her against his chest. She curled into him immediately, her platinum hair spread across his skin.
"The new woman," she murmured. "Meera. She looks at you strangely."
"She's my mother's friend."
"I know. That's what concerns me." Elena's fingers traced patterns on his chest. "She knows something. I can tell. The way she watches you with your wives..."
"She's observant."
"She's dangerous. Not like me. A different kind." Elena lifted her head to meet his eyes. "Be careful around her. Some prey is more predator than it appears."
[HARMONY POINTS: +1,000][BOND WITH ELENA VOLKOV: DEEPENED][ELENA VOLKOV: S RANK - RESONANCE STRENGTHENED][SHADOW ARTS: ENHANCED]
[DAY 123]
[SARNAV: S-RANK (HARMONY SOVEREIGN - FIRST STAGE)][PROGRESS TO SECOND STAGE: 38%]
[WIFE CULTIVATION STATUS][1. NISHA - C+ | 2. ISHANI - C+ | 3. ANANYA - C+][4. MINJI - C | 5. JADE - C | 6. SANA - B-][7. JIYEON - C | 8. SERENA - C+ | 9. ZARA - B-][10. ELENA - S | 11. YUKI - D]
[HARMONY SAFE ZONE: 1,365 SURVIVORS | 3 SECTORS][SEAL INTEGRITY: 91.4%]
[ENTITY STATUS: MONITORING - 2KM PERIMETER][DEADLINE: 17 DAYS REMAINING]
[NEW ARRIVAL: MEERA RYAN - MYTHILI'S FRIEND][STATUS: OBSERVING]
[WIVES BONDED: 11/32]