Not yet.
Not here, not now, not where others could witness his death and escape to bring more in his place. The entire expedition must be disposed of. Order must be upheld.
I force myself to breathe, pushing air in and out of my constricted chest. To listen past the rushing of rage pulsing in my veins.
“The plant can only be in the Migoi’s cave system, Mr. Ben,” the guide says.
If I hadn’t already fallen to my knees, this would have felled me. They know. But how?
He continues, “I’ve lived my entire life in these mountains, and that’s the only place it could be. Never saw anything like what you describe anywhere else.”
Fool.
“And I saw her there—the woman. With the Migoi. He protected her. I retreated to the woods but then I saw them, together.” He pauses, as if considering what to say next. His face contorts as he continues. “They were doing unnaturalthings.”
The guide is a dead man walking. He has sealed his fate, too.
Ben scoffs. “My god she really is desperate for love. So desperate she’ll turn to a monster?”
One of the hunting party shakes his head. “Wait. You’re saying the girl was with it? Like, fucking some kind of animal?”
The guide’s face is grim. “Not an animal. The protector of these mountains. I saw them together with my own eyes.”
The group mutters, shaking their heads, making snide remarks to one another. Oh, I cannot wait to kill them all. How easy it is for them to judge what they do not know. What they cannot possibly comprehend. They call me a beast, a monster. I cannot wait to show them the true meaning of the word.
“And if that beast shows up?” another of the men asks, hesitant.
Ben laughs, sharp and triumphant. “It better.”
And then—confirmation.
“The plant is just the beginning,” Ben says, smirking. “But let’s be honest—the real prize is the thing guarding it. You don’t just leave a discovery like that in the mountains. We take the beast, too. Can you even imagine?”
He raises his hands, as if showing off a marquees, “Professor Ben Thorne Captures Legendary Beast. I can see the headlines now, fellas. The kind of fame that lasts forever.”
He lets out a low chuckle, adjusting the straps on his pack. “But even better than fame is the money. Pharma will pay anything for the enzyme—the drug alone will be worth billions. But the creature?”
He shakes his head, eyes gleaming. “That’s a once-in-a-lifetime discovery. The kind of thing that changes everything. If this best is real—and from what you’re telling me it is,” he says, pointing at the guide, “then we’re talking about exclusive research grants, government funding, museum exhibitions—hell, maybe even movie deals.”
He spreads his hands as if this is some grand revelation. “Think about it. A species that’s survived here, undetected, thriving in conditions that should’ve killed it. The kind of adaptation that rewrites biology books. If we can capture it, study it? We’re looking at the greatest scientific breakthrough of our generation. Hell, maybe of all time.”
His grin widens, and he gestures around at the men. “This is history in the making, gentlemen. And I intend to be the one who makes it. I’ll get a fucking Nobel Prize for this.”
A low, rumbling growl I cannot contain escapes my throat, barely audible but reverberating into the night air. The dog whimpers, tail tucking tight against its belly. The guide’s eyes flick to the tree line, his breath hitching.
Fear bleeds into his voice as he murmurs a prayer and then says, “Maybe we shouldn’t be here.”
Ben smirks and claps him on the back. “Oh, we should definitely be here. Lead on.”
The others chuckle. They have no idea what they are walking into. They want to take me. They think they can cage me. Little do they know, they have already lost. Their fates are sealed in this mountain.
But now I know what I needed to. Ben is the enemy, not my Sruhnar. Never her.
I turn away, the plan forming like a snowdrift in the wind—shifting, building, waiting to bury them whole. Let him believe he is the hunter. Let him believe he will take what is mine.
By the time he reaches my cave, he will knowheis the hunted.
I move quickly, away from the East trail the guide is directing the crew along. Let him think he is closing in. I will loop around the base of the mountain and come up the North side.
