Chapter 13. First Crisis
The wolf carried me right to the edge of the massive crater atop the peak.
The pit stretched endlessly downward, its depths shrouded in thick black darkness with no sign of what lay below.
He prepared to toss me inside.
The moment his jaws began to loosen to drop me, I knew I could not give up.
I swung my arm hard, driving the knife forward blindly.
I refused to die here.
The blade sank deep into his right eye.
As the beast howl in shock and pain, gravity took hold at the same instant.
My body tipped forward over the crater's edge.
I tightened my grip on the knife in one hand, and wrapped my other arm around the wolf's thick neck.
I stabbed his neck again and again as we plummeted downward.
I am going to die.
"Fuck you, bitch!" I shouted my final curse toward Lola and flipped her the middle finger.
"LOLA! NOOOO!"
The two of us fell together into the endless dark pit.
"Josh!" The other husband who held Lola shouted in horror.
They hurried to the crater's rim and stared down into the black emptiness.
"What do we do now Lola? Josh fell down there along with Lily."
Lola gritted her teeth against the throbbing pain in her foot, her face cold and unfeeling.
"What do you mean what do we do! There is nothing we can do. We go home and pretend none of this ever happened. Hurry back and tend to my wound. I will not allow any scars to mar my skin."
Not a single trace of grief crossed her face for the husband who had served her loyally for years. She turned and left the mountain peak, and her remaining husband followed close behind.
The rush of falling sent me into a state of shock. My consciousness began to fade.
The beast I clung to still lived, but we would not last long if we kept plummeting.
Driven by pure survival instinct, I fought to shift my weight. I pushed and twisted until my body settled above his.
I would use him as a cushion, even if the effort felt futile.
Bounce.
Bounce.
Thud.
Plop.
We crashed hard.
My head feel super dizzy, i can't lift my head up for maybe few minutes.
I was certain I had broken one or two ribs, yet the wolf beneath me softened the impact far more than I could have hoped.
The world around me was pitch black, and I could not see a thing as I reached out to feel my surroundings.
I patted the space beside me, but the wolf I had used as a cushion was gone.
He was most likely dead.
A warm liquid trickled from my nose and mouth, and the sharp metallic tang of blood filled my mouth.
Every inch of my body throbbed with pain.
A low hiss cut through the silence. I stumbled forward slowly.
The ground beneath my feet felt strange.
The stone walls around me were solid and ordinary, but the floor bounced gently under my weight and bore a rough, scaly texture.
Another hiss echoed through the dark.
Two narrow slitted eyes glowed far above me, a murky blend of yellow and green.
I stumbled and dropped to the ground. The scaled surface remained soft enough that my rear did not ache from the fall.
The pair of feral eyes drew closer little by little with every new hiss.
My heart sank into my stomach.
The agony from my fractures faded away entirely, replaced by a cold dread that crept from the base of my neck across my entire body.
I trembled, not from the cold, but from the overwhelming danger closing in.
The ground rose and fell in slow, steady undulations.
I realized the terrible truth.
I had not landed on solid earth at all.
I had fallen onto a creature far larger than any catastrophe beast I had seen since arriving in this world.
"Food. I smell food."
A thunderous voice vibrated through the entire space.
"How many years have i been asleep? Is it my breakfast?"
I froze in place, trapped and terrified.
The surge of adrenaline that had kept me going drained away all at once, and every wound flared with fresh agony.
I was going to become food for a colossal beast within this mountain crater.
I'm so dead
Or so I thought.
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POV Tigris
"This tusk is the largest from the herd of elephants we tracked tonight. Should I haul the fresh venison alongside it too? This errand will drag on far longer than I planned."
The thought had barely crossed my mind when a cold, twisting dread coiled tight in my gut.
-zap-
A primal, gut wrenching intuition screamed that something was horribly, irreversibly wrong.
A hollow ache pulsed through the faint bond linking me to Lily, a silent alarm I could not ignore.
I needed to get home. Now.
I clamped the massive tusk firmly between my jaws, slung the bundled meat over a tough beast hide, and broke into a dead run.
My powerful limbs ate up the ground, and I cut through the biting night wind at full speed, every muscle burning with urgency.
Lily.
Lily.
Lily.
The name repeated in my mind like a desperate prayer.
Please be all right.
Please be safe.
I skidded to a halt outside our cave, chest heaving. Her familiar scent still lingered in the air, but it was faint, frayed at the edges, tainted with a distant note of fear.
"LILY? LILY, WHERE ARE YOU?" I roared, my voice echoing off the stone walls. Panic clawed at my throat.
I raced from our den to the nearest neighboring lairs, my paws thudding against the packed earth of the tribe paths.
I first found the fox beast female and the tiger beast female who had spent the afternoon laughing and playing music with Lily.
"Have any of you seen Lily?" I demanded, my tone sharp with urgency.
The fox beast stepped out from her home, her ears tilting forward in confusion.
"What? No. Did she not return to your cave with you tonight?"
I rushed to every dwelling nearby, questioning every beast I passed.
Each answer was the same, no one had seen Lily since late afternoon.
A growing crowd began to trail after me, whispers rippling through the onlookers as they sensed my rising panic.
One elder beast called out over the murmurs of the crowd. "You should go to the chief's compound! If Lily left the caves for any reason, she would likely seek out the tribe leader first."
The chief. That is right.
I shifted fully into my giant tiger form, my fur bristling with unease, and sprinted across the heart of the tribe.
More beasts poured out of their homes to watch, their voices rising into a noisy hubbub.
"What is wrong with Tigris?"
"His mate is missing?"
"Something terrible must have happened."
I paid them no mind.
Lily's scent grew thinner with every stride, fading fast.
If it vanished entirely, I feared I would never find her. She was my bonded mate, my whole world.
I could not lose her.
A large crowd had already gathered outside the chief's dwelling, the central hub of the entire tribe.
Before I could push through, a sharp, acrid stench of beastman blood hit my nose.
My heart hammered so hard I thought it would burst from my chest. Is that Lily's blood?
I snarled and forced my way through the throng of onlookers, shoving bodies aside without hesitation.
The crowd gasped and scattered, sensing the feral rage building inside me.
"Lily!" I shouted, scanning every face in the center of the circle.
"Huh, Tigris?" Lola's voice cut through the noise. She sat propped up against a wall, her foot wrapped in rough cloth.
"Word travels so fast. How did you learn I was injured this quickly?"
A flicker of weak relief softened my rage when I saw the wounded party was not Lily, but terror surged back twice as strong when my mate was nowhere to be found.
"Lola. What happened here? Where is Lily?" I pressed, my golden eyes blazing.
Lola huffed and gestured dramatically to her injured foot, a petulant scowl on her face.
"Why do you only care about her? Do you not have any concern for me? A rampaging beast attacked me out of nowhere!"
I brushed off her petty complaints entirely and spotted the tribe chief standing beside the healer.
I strode forward in an instant and grabbed the old chief firmly by the shoulders, my claws sheathed but my grip tight.
"Chief. I cannot find Lily anywhere. Tell me where she is."
"Calm yourself, Tigris," the chief urged, trying to soothe my fury.
"My daughter Lola was also attacked by a rampaging beast this evening." He turned to his daughter, his tone stern. "Lola, have you seen the new female, Lily?"
Lola's lips curled into a venomous sneer, and she raised her voice so every beast in the crowd could hear her cruel words.
"How would I know where that thief is? I was busy searching for my own husband! Why would I keep company with a homewrecker like her? She is probably dead by now, torn apart and eaten by that rampaging beast!"
Her words were the final straw.
A deafening, earth shaking roar erupted from my throat, raw with grief, fury and terror.
I swung one massive tiger paw and slammed it against the thick stone wall beside Lola.
The solid rock crumbled and shattered beneath my strength, sending shards of stone flying across the courtyard.
The entire crowd fell dead silent.
Every beast drew back in alarm, eyes wide with fear.
No one had ever seen the usually steady Tigris lose control like this. Murmurs of alarm rippled through the crowd once more.
"He has lost his mind!"
"The bond must be fraying, if Lily truly is gone, he will turn into a rampaging beast too!"
"We have to stop him before he destroys the whole tribe!"
"Watch your tongue, Lola!" The chief shouted over the chaos, stepping between me and his daughter to prevent any violence.
"Tigris, settle down at once! You must never raise a hand against a female in this tribe!" He raised a paw toward the group of strong warrior beasts standing at the edges of the crowd.
"I will send our finest warriors to launch a full search party for Lily immediately. Now tell me exactly where this attack took place."
My chest heaved, and I stared hard at Lola, every instinct screaming that she knew far more than she was letting on.
The faint, aching bond in my chest throbbed again, a quiet cry of distress from far away. Lily was alive. Somewhere. And I would burn the entire mountain down to find her.
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Hsssssssss
Chapter Notes
Tigris only sensed Lily's peril after she slipped into despair. Lily maintained strong mental stability throughout the ordeal. Even trapped in danger, the rush of adrenaline and her resolve to taunt Lola kept her grounded. That faint mental link forged by their bond only activated the moment she surrendered to utter hopelessness. Their connection is still new and immature. Lily holds modern beliefs and stubbornly thinks she can handle every crisis on her own, a reckless mindset that nearly cost her everything.