Hallie
The scream cut through sleep like a blade.
I was on my feet before I was fully awake, the bond telling me Drav was already moving toward the sound. Our prisoner—Tahl, he'd told us his name was—had been quiet all night. Until now.
I moved to the back chamber where we'd secured him. Found him awake, bound, trembling in ways that had nothing to do with the restraints. His skin had gone grayer overnight, the color of ash. The unbonded sickness progressing faster than I'd expected.
"How long?" I asked.
He looked at me with hollow eyes that had probably been bright once, before desperation and dying had hollowed him out. "Days. Maybe four. Maybe less." He coughed and blood flecked his lips, dark against the gray. "It's in my lungs now. Organs shutting down."
I knelt beside him. Drav appeared in the chamber entrance, watching but letting me handle this.
"We need more information," I said to Tahl. "About Kethar's plans. About his remaining allies."
"I told you everything last night." His voice was hoarse, destroyed. "Vhel and Dresh. Southern boundary. Three days."
"You said two more allies. Are you certain? Not one more?"
Tahl's brow furrowed like he was trying to remember through the pain. "I... Dresh was supposed to come. But I haven't seen him in days. He might already be dead. The sickness was advanced." He coughed again, harder this time. "Vhel for certain. Just Vhel. He's the strongest. The most dangerous."
So one ally, not two. Kethar plus Vhel instead of Kethar plus two others. Not three against two—just two against two.
"Tell me about Vhel," I said. "How does he fight?"
"Fast. Aggressive. He doesn't strategize like Kethar does, doesn't think three moves ahead.
Just attacks with everything he has." Tahl shifted position, wincing when the movement pulled at his bound wings.
"He's younger. Stronger. His wing membranes aren't as damaged yet.
Maybe two weeks left before the sickness kills him. "
"Two weeks is longer than Kethar has," Drav said from the entrance.
"Yes. Which makes Kethar more desperate. More dangerous." Tahl looked between us, and I saw something like pity in his expression. "If you're smart, you'll leave. Abandon this territory. Find somewhere else. They'll die eventually and you can come back."
"No," I said. "This is our home. We defend it."
"Then you'll probably die too." Tahl closed his eyes. "That's what happens to everyone. Desperation breeds violence. Violence breeds death. The system kills us all eventually."
The resignation in his voice was crushing in ways that anger would never have been.
I looked back at Drav. He nodded slightly—permission to continue however I thought best.
"Why did you follow Kethar?" I asked Tahl. "You're young. You had time to find a mate the legitimate way."
"I thought I had time." Tahl opened his eyes again.
"Symptoms appeared six months ago. Just minor things—slightly cold, tired easily.
I ignored them. Thought I was imagining it.
" He laughed, bitter and broken. "By the time I accepted I was dying, it was too late.
The next portal opening was months away. I couldn't wait that long."
"So you decided to steal what you couldn't earn."
"Yes." No shame in his voice. Just fact, stark and undeniable. "I decided survival was more important than honor. Decided living was worth any cost. Even attacking bonded pairs. Even knowing I'd probably die trying." He looked at his bound hands. "I was right about the dying part."
The honesty was almost worse than defiance would have been.
"Did you have anyone?" I asked. "Family? Friends who'll miss you?"
"A brother. Older. Bonded successfully ten seasons ago. Has three offspring now." Tahl's voice went quiet. "He told me to wait. To be patient. To trust the system. I didn't listen."
"Where is he now?"
"North territory. Three days flight." Tahl met my eyes. "He doesn't know I'm here. Doesn't know I attacked you. When I die, he'll never know what happened to me. He'll think I died alone of the sickness. That's better. He shouldn't know I became this."
I sat back on my heels, trying to process what he was telling me. This young male—barely out of adolescence, dying, desperate—had made choices that led here. To being bound in an enemy's cave, waiting to die, hoping for mercy he probably didn't deserve but needed anyway.
"I want you to question him more gently," I said to Drav. "Not torture. He's cooperating. He deserves that much."
Drav moved closer, crouched beside Tahl. "Tell me about Kethar's backup plans. If the three-day attack fails, what does he do next?"
"There is no next," Tahl said. "This is his last chance. Mine too. We're all dead in a week regardless. If the attack fails, we just... die. That's it."
"And Vhel knows this?"
"Yes. We all know." Tahl's voice had gone flat, clinical. "That's why we agreed to Kethar's plan. Because doing nothing means dying anyway. At least attacking gives us a chance, however small."
Silence. I could see him processing this, understanding it in ways I never could. He'd been there—forty-three seasons unbonded, days from death when I came through the portal. He understood desperation better than anyone.
"If you had succeeded," Drav said carefully. "If you'd killed me and taken my mate. What would you have done?"
"Claimed her. Forced the bond. Hoped her body accepted the transformation.
" Tahl's voice stayed flat, detached like he was discussing weather instead of violence.
"Kethar said human females are adaptable.
That if we bred them constantly through the transformation, they'd survive.
That the pain would be worth it if we lived. "
"And if she died during transformation?"
"Then I'd have bought myself a few more weeks before the sickness killed me anyway." Tahl looked at me, and I saw no apology in his expression. Just honesty. "I'm sorry. I know that's brutal. But desperation makes you calculate lives like resources. Yours against mine. And I chose mine."
The honesty was devastating.
"Thank you for telling us," I said.
"Can I ask you something?" Tahl looked between us. "What's it like? Being bonded?"
I didn't know how to answer that. How to explain the constant awareness, the chemical dependency, the way my body needed Drav the way it needed air and food and water.
"It's everything," Drav said simply. "And it's worth any cost to have it."
Tahl's expression crumpled. Not crying—just devastation spreading across his face. He'd never have that. Would die knowing exactly what he'd missed, what he'd been desperate enough to kill for but would never experience.
"I'm going to ask you something," Tahl said after a moment. "And you can say no. But please consider it."
"What?"
"Kill me now. Quickly. Don't make me wait three more days dying slowly in this cave." His voice was steady, certain. "I've told you everything I know. I've cooperated. I'm asking for mercy."
The request hung in the air between us.
I looked at Drav. His expression was unreadable.
"Give us a moment," I said to Tahl.
Drav and I moved to the outer chamber, spoke quietly where Tahl couldn't hear.
"He's asking us to kill him," I said. "A prisoner who's already dying. Who's cooperating. Who's in pain."
"I know."
"What do you want to do?"
"I don't know." I pressed my hands to my pregnant belly, feeling the eggs. "He attacked us. Tried to kill you. Tried to take me. But he's also just a kid who made desperate choices and now he's dying."
"Those things can both be true."
"I know. But which one matters more?"
Drav moved to look out the Warren's entrance. Dawn was coming, orange light spreading across the vertical world like fire.
"When I was dying," he said quietly. "Forty-three seasons unbonded.
Three degrees below healthy body temperature.
I thought about attacking bonded pairs. Considered it seriously.
Calculated my odds." He turned back to me.
"The only thing that stopped me was knowing I'd have to live with what I'd done.
That even if I survived, I'd be the male who'd stolen someone's mate. Who'd killed to survive."
"But you didn't do it."
"Because I still had time. Still had hope another portal would open, another female would come." He moved closer. "Tahl didn't have time. Didn't have hope. Just desperation. That doesn't excuse what he did. But it explains it."
"So what do we do?"
"We grant mercy." Drav's voice was certain. "He's cooperated. He's dying anyway. Making him suffer three more days serves no purpose except cruelty."
I nodded, feeling the weight of it settle in my chest. "Okay. But I can't watch."
"You don't have to."
We went back to the chamber. Tahl looked up, saw our expressions, understood.
"Thank you," he said. "Truly. Thank you."
"Do you have any last words?" Drav asked. "Anything you want us to tell anyone?"
"Tell my brother I died fighting. Not attacking you—just... fighting. Let him think I went down with honor." Tahl closed his eyes. "That's all."
"I'll tell him," Drav said.
I left the chamber. Didn't want to see it but needed to hear it, needed to know what mercy sounded like in this brutal world.
One quick movement. Snap of vertebrae. Silence.
I stood in the outer chamber, hand on my belly, and tried not to cry.
Drav found me at the Warren's entrance an hour later.
"It's done," he said. "He didn't suffer."
"Good."
We stood in silence, watching the sun rise over territory we'd defended through violence, through death, through choices that would haunt us.
"We need to move," Drav said after a while. "Kethar and Vhel will attack in three days. We need better ground."
"Where?"
"The Eyrie. Kethar's old territory." He pointed north. "Highest point in the region. Superior caves. Better sight lines. Easier to defend."
"You want to take his territory before he can reclaim it."
"Yes. Force him to attack uphill. Into defended positions. On our terms."
It made tactical sense. But it also felt like scavenging before the body was cold.
"When do we leave?" I asked.
"Dawn tomorrow. We need today to rest, to prepare, to..." He pulled me against him. "To remind ourselves why we're fighting."
I understood. We needed each other. Needed the confirmation. Needed to feel alive after watching someone die.
"Now?" I asked.
"Now."
We bred in the Warren's main chamber.
Not the slow, intimate breeding of the storm. Not the celebratory claiming we'd done after victories. This was urgent, desperate. Confirmation that we were both still here, still together, still alive.
Drav didn't bother preparing me first. Just positioned me against the smooth wall, pushed inside in one hard thrust that made me gasp. I was wet enough from days of constant breeding that my body accepted him easily, opening around him.
He fucked me hard, fast. One hand on my hip, the other braced against the wall for leverage. The pleasure cock wrapped around my clit, working in tight circles that made my legs shake.
"We're alive," he said against my throat. "Both alive. Both here. Both fighting."
"Alive," I agreed, gasping when he hit that spot inside me that made everything go white.
The breeding was over in minutes. He came with a roar, knot swelling and locking us together. Seed flooding into me and I felt the eggs respond through the bond—growing slightly, feeding on the hormones.
We stayed locked against the wall, both breathing hard, both processing what we'd done and what was coming and what we still had to face.
"Better?" I asked when the knot released.
"Better." He pulled out carefully. "We should pack. Anything we want to take to The Eyrie."
We spent the rest of the day preparing.
Sorted supplies into essential versus expendable. Food, water, weapons, furs—anything we'd need for defending our new territory. Everything else stayed behind.
By sunset, we had everything packed and ready to move.
"Sleep," Drav said. "We leave at first light. Six-hour journey. We'll need strength."
I curled into the furs, exhausted. Today we'd granted mercy to a dying prisoner, bred out of necessity instead of desire, and prepared to abandon our home again.
Tomorrow we'd claim new territory. In three days, we'd face Kethar's final attack.
And this time, one of us might not survive.
I fell asleep thinking about The Eyrie. About high ground and better defenses. About making one final stand against males who had nothing left to lose.
About winning.
Because losing meant death, and I wasn't ready to die. Not yet. Not when I had eggs growing inside me and a mate who needed me and a life that was worth fighting for.
I felt the weight of it—the first life we'd taken that wasn't in immediate self-defense. The first of what would likely be many before this was over.