Chapter 120: Two Mating Marks
Kael knew something was wrong before anyone spoke.
The mating mark beneath Swanly’s ribs had gone hot.
Not warm.
Not restless.
Hot enough to burn through his chest.
He stopped in the middle of Ashclaw’s ruined camp.
A sack of recovered grain slipped from his hand.
Raku turned.
"What?"
Kael’s head snapped toward the eastern forest.
His pupils narrowed until his golden eyes became two bright blades.
"Swanly."
Then he ran.
"Kael!"
Raku abandoned the weapons he had been collecting and followed.
The hunters crashed through the trees behind them.
Branches whipped across Kael’s face.
He did not feel them.
The mark kept burning.
Fear entered his blood.
Not the clean fear of battle.
Something uglier.
Something that told him his female was hurt, trapped, or being taken from him while he was too far away to stop it.
His panther form exploded out of him.
Black fur swallowed skin.
His paws struck the earth hard enough to scatter stones.
He ran faster.
Far ahead, near the collapsed rise, Brann stood over Selka.
His broad body shook with rage.
Selka pressed one hand to her chest.
"I already told you. I did not know the ground would break."
Brann’s eyes were bloodshot.
"You told me to weaken it."
"For supplies!"
"You told me to loosen the pillar."
"I did not know Swanly would tie her rope there!"
"You stole Nerin’s cloth."
Selka’s face froze.
Only for a heartbeat.
Then her eyes widened with perfect innocence.
"I found it."
"You stole his route marker."
"I was trying to help!"
"You sent him across the ground I weakened."
"I did not send him anywhere!"
Brann stared at her.
Varek was dead.
Nerin was trapped.
Swanly had fallen beneath the earth.
And Selka was still standing in front of him, arranging every word until she looked like the victim.
Something inside him finally cracked.
"You knew."
Selka’s tail stiffened.
"Brann."
"You knew what was beneath that ground."
Her expression changed.
The sweetness vanished.
"Lower your voice."
"You tried to kill her."
Selka stepped closer.
Her mating mark pulled at him, demanding obedience.
Brann’s knees nearly bent.
He forced them straight.
"You killed Varek."
"I did not touch him!"
"You ordered him to save your belongings instead of himself!"
"He was my mate. He was supposed to obey me!"
Brann’s face twisted.
Selka realized too late that Kael had reached the clearing.
The massive black panther stood between the trees.
Blood covered his paws from running over sharp stone.
His sides heaved.
His golden eyes fixed on Selka.
The entire forest seemed to shrink.
Selka slowly stepped backward.
"Kael."
His growl shook leaves from the branches.
Brann looked at him.
"She weakened the ground."
Selka spun toward him.
"Brann!"
"She used Nerin’s blood to lure Swanly here."
"You liar!"
"She knew about the flowers below."
"I did not!"
"She wanted Swanly trapped."
Selka slapped him.
The sound cracked through the forest.
Brann’s head turned.
He looked back at her very slowly.
Then he pointed toward the collapsed rise.
"Your female is beneath there."
Kael moved.
Selka screamed as one enormous paw struck the ground beside her head.
The stone split.
His claws stopped a breath from her face.
She collapsed backward.
"I did not know Soren would follow her!"
Kael became perfectly still.
Soren.
The name entered him like a blade.
His mating mark burned again.
Not alone.
Swanly was not alone below.
The snake was with her.
Kael turned toward the sealed opening.
Pale venom covered the stone like glass.
He struck it.
The barrier flashed.
Pain ripped through his paw.
Kael struck again.
"Kael!" Raku grabbed his shoulder.
The panther threw him away.
Raku crashed into a tree.
Kael attacked the barrier with both paws.
Stone exploded around it.
The venom did not crack.
He bit it.
His mouth filled with blood.
He clawed again.
And again.
And again.
Hours passed.
The sky darkened above the trees.
Kael never stopped.
His claws split.
His paws bled.
One shoulder began to tremble.
Every time the mark beneath Swanly’s ribs pulsed, he threw himself against the barrier harder.
He could feel her.
Alive.
Far away.
Covered by another male’s scent.
The thought drove him mad.
He should have killed Soren the first day they met.
He should have torn out the snake’s throat before Swanly ever learned his name.
He had spared him.
Worked beside him.
Allowed him near his cubs.
And now Soren was beneath the earth with Kael’s female while Kael tore himself apart outside like a weak animal begging to be let in.
If he had been stronger, none of this would have happened.
If he had been stronger than Soren, the snake would never have dared.
Kael slammed his body into the barrier.
The venom flashed.
He was thrown across the clearing.
His back struck stone.
Blood burst from his mouth.
He rose again.
Raku blocked him.
"You will kill yourself!"
Kael shifted into human form only long enough to snarl.
"Move."
"You cannot break it!"
"Move!"
"She is alive!"
"She is with him!"
The words tore out of Kael.
Everyone became silent.
His chest rose violently.
His long black hair stuck to his bloody face.
"He took her."
Raku’s expression changed.
Kael looked toward the sealed earth.
His voice dropped.
"I felt the mark change."
Raku did not know what to say.
No one did.
A root pushed through the ground.
Then another.
Thalara stepped into the clearing.
Her pale hair dragged over her shoulders.
Her forehead eye stared at the barrier.
Kael turned on her.
"Open it."
"The venom seal will destroy my roots."
"Open it."
"I cannot break what he made."
Kael’s claws appeared.
Thalara did not move.
"But I can go around it."
The roots beneath her feet sank into the earth.
The ground groaned.
Trees leaned.
A crack opened beside the sealed entrance.
It widened into a dark tunnel curving beneath the stone.
Kael moved first.
Raku followed.
Thalara’s roots blocked him.
"Only the panther."
Raku’s face darkened.
"Why?"
"The passage is unstable."
"I can fit."
"It will not hold your weight."
Kael was already gone.
He crawled through wet soil, broken roots, and sharp stone.
The tunnel narrowed until the earth crushed against his shoulders.
He kept moving.
Swanly’s scent became stronger.
Pollen.
Warm water.
Blood.
Soren.
And something else.
A new mating bond.
Kael stopped.
For half a breath, his entire body refused to move.
The truth reached him before his eyes did.
Another mark existed on his female now.
Something broke inside his chest.
Then he heard breathing beyond the wall.
Two people.
Sleeping.
Together.
Kael smashed through the last layer of stone.
The wall collapsed.
Golden dust rolled around him.
The grotto glowed beneath the earth.
Warm water filled the lower chamber.
Pale flowers slept along silver stone.
And there they were.
Swanly lay naked against Soren’s body.
Her silver-white hair covered one of his arms.
Her cheek rested on his chest.
Soren was also naked, half-submerged in the glowing pool.
His long white hair floated around them.
One arm held Swanly around the waist.
His tail curled beneath the water and around her legs.
Kael saw the mating mark beneath Swanly’s ribs.
His mark.
Then her leg shifted.
High on her inner thigh, silver lines curled into the shape of a small white snake.
Kael stopped breathing.
Soren’s eyes opened.
Silver met gold.
For one long moment, neither male moved.
Kael’s face held hatred.
Disgust.
Humiliation.
Grief so violent it almost looked like rage.
Soren looked at him.
Then his mouth curved.
Not a large smile.
Something worse.
A small, satisfied smirk.
He pulled Swanly closer against his chest.
Kael roared.
The sound slammed through the grotto.
He charged.
Soren’s thick white tail shot forward.
It wrapped around Kael’s waist before his claws reached them.
Soren twisted.
Kael flew across the chamber.
His body struck the silver wall.
Bam!
Stone cracked.
Blood burst from Kael’s mouth.
Swanly jerked awake.
The tiny system fairy appeared directly in front of her face.
Its pale-gold hair stood in every direction.
Its wings buzzed so quickly they blurred.
"Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!"
Swanly blinked.
Everything was fog.
Warm skin beneath her cheek.
A strong arm around her waist.
A distant roar.
The system grabbed her nose with both hands.
"You slept through a disaster!"
Swanly swatted weakly.
"What?"
"You mated!"
Her eyes opened wider.
"You got marked!"
Swanly stared.
"You were drugged!"
Her head slowly turned.
Soren looked down at her.
His face was calm.
Too calm.
His naked chest was beneath her hand.
Swanly looked down.
She was naked.
Completely naked.
Her entire mind stopped.
Then she looked across the grotto.
Kael pushed himself away from the broken wall.
Blood ran down his chin.
His eyes were fixed on her.
Swanly’s soul left her body.
"Oh no."
The system threw both hands into the air.
"Now she understands!"
Fragments returned.
Golden pollen.
Burning skin.
Soren breaking through the wall.
Hands.
Fangs.
Heat.
Her own voice begging.
Then blankness.
The drug had been so strong that most of the night existed only as broken flashes.
She remembered reaching for Soren.
She remembered him reaching back.
Neither of them had forced the other.
But the pollen had drowned every sensible thought beneath pain and need.
Swanly looked down at the silver snake mark on her inner thigh.
Her stomach dropped.
Two marks.
Kael’s beneath her ribs.
Soren’s on her thigh.
She had two mates.
Kael staggered upright.
Swanly panicked.
"Kael!"
She tried to climb out of Soren’s arms.
Cold air touched her skin.
She froze.
She was naked.
In a glowing underground flower pool.
Between two furious beastmen.
Her face became so hot it nearly matched the pollen fever.