Elara turned away from the cabin, unable to look at it any longer. She walked slowly toward the communal tent where her daughter lay sleeping. As she walked, the memories she usually kept locked away came flooding back—the reason why her heart beat only for him.
She remembered the darkness before he came.
She remembered the mud. She remembered the crushing weight of the wooden bucket digging into her shoulder as she tried to carry water back to the dying village. She had been sick, starving, and exhausted, but she had pushed herself for Miko.
But her body had reached its limit.
Elara closed her eyes, and the scene played out in her mind like it was yesterday.
Thud.
She remembered her legs giving out. She hit the mud with a wet, sickening sound, the water spilling everywhere as the bucket rolled away. The cold seeped into her bones instantly. She tried to push herself up, but her arms were like lead. Her chest barely rose, her breathing ragged and shallow.
"Mom!"
A high-pitched, terrified scream pierced the silence.
"Mom! Get up!"
Elara remembered the tiny hands of the little Fox-girl grabbing her ragged clothes. Miko dropped to her knees in the mud, tugging desperately at her mother.
"Please, Mom! You have to get up! The ground is cold!"
Elara had groaned, her eyes rolling back. She wanted to speak, to tell Miko to run, to hide, but she couldn't.
And then... He appeared.
Elara remembered the vibration of the ground as boots approached. Through her fading vision, she saw Miko freeze. She saw the terror on her daughter's face.
Miko looked up and saw him.
To the child, he wasn't a man. He was a nightmare.
Standing tall in the mist was a figure
wrapped in a hoodie made of living shadows—the Void-Weave. His face was hidden behind a mask of cold, emotionless iron—the Iron-Wraith Mask. His eyes were hidden behind black glass that glowed with a faint, menacing purple light.
Miko didn't see an adventurer. She saw the Grim Reaper coming to claim her mother.
Elara's heart had stopped. 'No...' she had thought, a tear sliding down her muddy cheek. 'Not a monster. Please, not now.'
She waited for the blow. She waited for the sword to fall. She waited for death.
But the Grim Reaper didn't swing a scythe.
He knelt.
Elara remembered the confusion. The terrifying metal mask leaned close to her face. A gloved hand, cold and hard, reached out—not to choke her, but to support her head.
He brought out a glowing fruit—a treasure worth more than their entire lives.
"Eat," he had commanded.
His voice was robotic and terrifying, but his touch was gentle. He crushed the fruit and let the nectar drip into her mouth.
The pain vanished. The cold vanished. Life rushed back into Elara's veins like a fire.
When she opened her eyes, gasping for air, the first thing she saw wasn't a monster. She saw Miko crying with relief, and she saw the dark figure standing guard over them, protecting them from the world.
In that moment, lying in the mud, Elara realized the truth. He looked like a demon to the world, but to her... he was a god.
"That was the day," Elara whispered to the night sky, wiping a fresh tear from her cheek.
"That was the day my life became his"
Elara leaned against a tree, her claws digging into the bark.
"My heart..." she whispered to the moon. "It hasn't stopped racing since that day"
Every time she saw him, her blood ran hot. Every time he gave an order, her instincts screamed at her to obey, to please him, to serve him.
She hated humans. She hated them with a burning passion. They were cruel, greedy, and violent. They had taken everything from her people.
But Lord Zero... he wasn't a human. Not to her.
He was something else entirely. He was the Alpha. He was the Protector.
"He is the only man," Elara confessed to the silence, her cheeks flushing warm under her fur.
She didn't just want to serve him. The feeling was deeper, more primal.
She wanted to be close to him. She wanted his scent to linger on her. When she looked at his broad back, at the strength he carried so effortlessly, a heat pooled low in her belly. She realized, with a sudden, fierce clarity, that she wanted to bear his children.
She wanted to give him a family that would never leave him. She wanted to mix her blood with his, to create something strong and beautiful that bound them together forever.
"I thought..." Elara bit her lip, tears pricking the corners of her eyes. "I thought if I worked hard... if I led the village... if I showed him I was useful... he would look at me that way"
She looked back at the cabin.
"But he brought her"
Seraphina. The human girl with the silver hair and the violet eyes. She was soft. She was fragile. She had the smooth, furless skin that human men seemed to prefer.
"Does he like her because she is human?"
"Does he prefer her because she is a noble?" Elara wondered, her claws tearing a strip of bark off the tree. "Does he prefer her because she is soft?"
She looked down at her own body illumi-nated by the silver moonlight.
Elara was a Cat-Kin. Unlike the human girl who was soft luxury and silk, Elara was built for lethal grace. Her body was a masterpiece of athletic perfection—lithe, toned muscles coiled beneath warm, honey-colored skin. She had the flexibility of a predator and the stamina of a survivor.
She looked down at her chest, comparing herself to the noblewoman she had seen earlier.
"Her breasts..." Elara muttered, frowning.
"They are massive. She carries so much weight on her chest"
She lifted a hand, cupping her own bosom.
"Mine aren't that huge," she admitted, feeling the firm, perky weight of her own chest. "But they are not small either. Look... they still spill out of a hand. They are full enough to satisfy a man"
She turned slightly, glancing over her shoulder to look at her lower body. The tight leather wrap she wore left little to the imagination.
"And her ass?" Elara scoffed softly. "She thinks she is special? My hips are just as wide. My rear is just as round and heavy as hers"
She ran a hand down the curve of her waist to her hip.
"The only difference is that she is soft dough, while I am coiled spring"
Swish.
Her long, sleek tail flicked behind her, brushing against the back of her thighs.
"And this," Elara whispered, watching the tail move with a mind of its own. "She doesn't have this. She is plain"
She reached up, touching the soft, triangular furred ears that sat atop her head. They twitched instinctively at the sound of the wind.
A sudden, hopeful thought crossed her mind.
"Lord Zero..." she whispered, her cheeks flushing. "Maybe he likes ears? Maybe he doesn't want a boring human woman. Maybe he wants to touch something soft and wild?"
She imagined his metal gauntlet stroking her ears, and a shiver of pleasure ran down her spine.
"I am not lesser," Elara decided, standing tall and letting her tail sway seductively behind her. "My body is strong. My curves are dangerous. And I have a tail"
"Let's see if the noble girl can compete with that"
The thought made her want to hiss. It made her want to march into that cabin and drag the girl out.
"No"
Elara shook her head, forcing her ears to perk up. She wiped the moisture from her eyes.
"Pitying myself will not make him look at me. Crying will not make me worthy of him"
She pushed herself off the tree. She looked down at her hands—hands that had claws, hands that were rough from work, hands that could kill.
Lord Zero did not need a weeping maiden. He did not need a fragile flower like Seraphina who needed to be carried on his back.
He was a warrior. He was a King in the making.
"He needs a Queen," Elara whispered, her voice hardening. "Not a pet"
She remembered the battle she had heard in the distance—the roar of the Behemoth. He fought monsters that could swallow mountains.
"If I want to stand beside him... I cannot just be the temporary guard he leaves behind,"
Elara realized, clenching her fist. "I cannot just be the woman who cooks his food, builds his hut, and waits by the door while he fights the real battles"
She looked at her hands, which had only ever held a broom or a bucket until he gave her that dagger.
"He is the Lord of this village. He is the Protector. If I want to be worthy of him, I cannot be a liability that stays inside the walls"
She clenched her jaw, her golden eyes burning with resolve.
"I have to become a warrior. I have to be strong enough to walk into the darkness with him, not just wait for him to come back."
She clenched her fists.
"I have to be strong. I have to be dangerous"