ZARA POV
I woke up to the sound of my own heartbeat pounding in my ears.
For one blissful second, I thought I was back in my apartment in Boston. Safe. Normal. Not dying in a Peruvian temple or running through blood forests.
Then I opened my eyes and saw two moons in a red sky, and reality crashed back down.
"No, no, no." I pushed myself up on shaking arms. Everything hurt. My side burned where the elk-thing had gored me. My head throbbed. My tattoos pulsed with warmth that felt almost alive.
And somewhere close by, something was breathing. Wet, rattling breaths that made my skin crawl.
I turned my head slowly, terrified of what I'd see.
The elk-creature stood twenty feet away, watching me with its cluster of too-many eyes. It had found me. Of course it had. Because my luck was just that terrible.
"Please go away," I whispered. "I don't even know where I am. I'm not food. I'm not worth eating."
The creature's head tilted, almost like it was considering my words. Then it opened its jaws—way too wide, dislocating like a snake's—and roared.
I ran.
Didn't matter that my legs felt like jelly. Didn't matter that my side screamed with every step. Didn't matter that I had no idea where I was going. I just ran because the alternative was being that thing's lunch.
The forest blurred around me. Trees that looked wrong, plants with thorns as long as my arm, flowers that hissed as I passed. This wasn't Earth. Couldn't be Earth. Earth didn't have two moons or rotting elk monsters or tattoos that talked in my head.
Behind me, the creature crashed through the forest like a tank. It was faster than me, bigger than me, and definitely not giving up.
My foot caught on something—a root, a rock, who knew—and I went down hard. Pain exploded through my already-injured side. Blood soaked through my shirt, warm and sticky.
I flipped onto my back just as the creature lunged.
"STOP!" I screamed, throwing my hands up.
Golden light burst from my palms—the same light from before, the same power that had done absolutely nothing last time. It hit the creature's chest and wrapped around it like glowing chains.
For three seconds, the elk-thing froze. Its eyes went wide with confusion.
Then it shook its head, and my power shattered like glass.
"Why won't you just leave me alone?!" I sobbed, scrambling backward.
The creature stalked forward, drool dripping from its jaws. It knew I was beaten. Knew I couldn't run anymore.
I was going to die. Again. Except this time, there'd be no magical transport to save me. Just teeth and pain and the end.
"I'm sorry, Mom," I whispered, thinking of my mother back home who'd never know what happened to her daughter. "I'm so sorry."
The creature lowered its head, preparing to charge—
And then I heard it. Snarling. Roaring. The sounds of fighting coming from somewhere ahead.
I didn't think. Just scrambled to my feet and ran toward the noise, because anything was better than being alone with this monster. Even if I was running toward more monsters.
The trees opened up suddenly, and I crashed into a clearing—
And stopped dead.
Wolves. Giant wolves the size of horses, fighting with tigers that were even bigger. They moved like liquid violence, all claws and fangs and blood. A war zone in the middle of the forest.
And every single one of them stopped fighting and turned to stare at me.
Silence fell like a hammer.
Twenty pairs of eyes—wolf eyes and tiger eyes, some animal and some disturbingly human—locked onto me. I could see intelligence in those stares. Not animal instincts. Actual thinking, calculating intelligence.
"Oh god," I breathed. "You're not animals."
One of the wolves shifted—actually shifted, bones cracking and reforming—until a man stood where the wolf had been. Except he still had silver fur on his arms and wolf ears on his head and claws instead of fingers.
"What is that?" someone growled.
"It smells like the old stories," another voice said. "Like human."
"Humans are extinct."
"Then what is it?!"
I backed up slowly, hands raised. "I don't want trouble. I'm just trying to survive. Please—"
The elk-creature burst through the trees behind me, roaring its rage.
Every wolf and tiger in the clearing shifted to half-form—part beast, part human, all terrifying. They formed a loose circle around me and the Feral, and I realized with horror that they weren't here to save me.
They were here to watch me die.
"Someone kill it!" I screamed, pointing at the elk-thing. "It's right there!"
"That's a Feral," a massive tiger-man said, his voice a deep rumble. "Stage Three corruption. If it's hunting you, you must have done something to attract it."
"I didn't do anything! I just woke up here!"
"Humans don't just 'wake up' places. You're lying."
The elk-creature charged. Not at them—at me. Because of course it was still focused on me.
I dove sideways. Its massive body crashed past me, missing by inches. It spun around, faster than something that size should move, and lunged again.
I threw up my hands desperately. "HELP ME!"
My tattoos exploded with light—brighter than before, hotter than before. The symbols on my arms blazed like molten gold, and suddenly I felt something snap into place inside me. Like a door unlocking. Like power waking up.
The light shot from my hands in a focused beam, slamming into the elk-creature's chest. This time, it didn't just wrap around the monster. It burned into it, spreading across the rotting flesh like wildfire.
The creature screamed—an awful, almost-human sound—and its body started glowing from the inside. The corruption that covered it began dissolving, peeling away like ash in the wind.
For ten seconds, I saw what the elk had been before the Feral curse took it. Beautiful. Majestic. Clean.
Then it collapsed, dead but finally free.
I stared at my hands, shocked. "I... I didn't know I could do that."
When I looked up, every beastman in the clearing was staring at me with a new expression. Not curiosity anymore.
Fear.
"She cleansed a Stage Three Feral," someone whispered. "That's impossible."
"Unless..." The silver-furred wolf-man stepped forward, his ice-blue eyes boring into mine. "Unless she's a Tamer."
The word sent a ripple through the crowd. Gasps. Snarls. Someone whimpered.
"Tamers are dead," the tiger-man said, but his voice shook. "They've been gone for three hundred years."
"Then explain what we just saw, Raze."
I looked between them, completely lost. "What's a Tamer? What's happening? Why is everyone looking at me like that?"
The silver wolf-man moved closer, and every instinct screamed at me to run. He radiated danger like heat from a fire. His claws flexed. His eyes studied me like I was a puzzle he wanted to solve by taking apart.
"My name is Kael Nightfang," he said quietly. "And you, little human, just became the most valuable—and most dangerous—creature in the Beastworld."
"I don't understand—"
"You will." He reached for me, and I backed away. His expression hardened. "Don't run. You're hurt, bleeding, and surrounded by predators. The only reason you're still alive is because we're all too shocked to move. That won't last."
"Are you going to kill me?"
His lips curved in something that wasn't quite a smile. "That depends. Are you going to bond me without permission?"
"Bond? What are you—"
My tattoos flared hot. A symbol on my wrist started burning, pulling toward Kael like a magnet seeking metal. The same golden light leaked from my skin, reaching for him.
"No," Kael snarled, jumping back. "Control it! Don't you dare—"
But I didn't know how to control it. The light wrapped around both of us, and Kael's eyes went wide with shock and fury.
"You foolish girl," he growled. "Do you have any idea what you've just done?"
The light between us exploded, and everything went white.
What Zara doesn't know: She just activated a Tamer bond with the most powerful Alpha in the region. And in the Beastworld, forced bonds are punishable by death. Kael has sixty seconds to decide if he'll protect her or let his pack rip her apart.