The stars burned overhead as Reyna stood barefoot in the royal gardens, moonlight wrapping around her body like silk. Crickets sang in the distance. The air smelled of jasmine and old magic.
Behind her, she heard the rustle of fur turning to flesh.
She turned.
There he stood.
Towering. Built like violence incarnate, but his amber eyes, wild and burning, were locked on hers with reverence.
Scarlet hair hung damp and tousled over sharp cheekbones, and jagged tattoos curled down his chest, glowing faintly under the moonlight. A faint shimmer of leftover transformation magic clung to his skin.
"My name," he said, voice rough from disuse, "is Vaerix Bloodfang. Exiled alpha. Death bringer. Divine bound guardian. And I've been searching for you across lifetimes."
Reyna's breath caught. "Why me?"
"Because your soul calls to mine," he said, taking a slow step forward. "And I've burned for it longer than you can imagine."
He didn't wait for permission, because her body had already given it.
She met him halfway, lips crashing together in a kiss that tasted like starlight and promises.
His hands slid up her sides, not gentle but devoted, like he was touching something sacred. He growled as she raked her nails down his back. Their mouths clashed again, desperate. Hungry. Their connection wasn't a slow burn, it was a supernova.
Vaerix sank to his knees in the grass before her, pressing his forehead against her stomach.
"You are mine," he whispered, "and I am yours."
When he looked up, his eyes had gone molten, his voice a vow.
"I'm going to worship every inch of you until you forget your own name."
And then he did.
Right there in the moon drenched garden, with Reyna trembling beneath his mouth, her moans swallowed by the stars, he claimed her.
Every touch, every growl, every slide of tongue and teeth was reverent and raw. His fingers were merciless. His mouth was poetry. And when he took her, fully, fiercely, it wasn't just sex.
It was homecoming.
She cried out his name, over and over, as the bond clicked into place with a blinding rush of divine magic.
Later, tangled together in the grass, panting and dazed, he whispered in her ear:
"No one touches you but me. Ever."
She smiled against his throat. "Good. Because I have no intention of letting you leave."
The digital void buzzed around him.
Faenet glowed like a damned beacon, alive with worship, magic, and an infuriating hope that tasted like acid on his tongue. The Entity stalked through it like a shadow through circuitry, eyes burning, hands clenched, barely restraining the urge to rip it all down.
Every post.
Every prayer.
Every clip of that damned moon goddess blessing the chosen ones.
And Rhiannan. Always her. Radiant. Ascending. Glowing with divine power that shouldn't even fucking exist anymore.
"That sanctimonious, starlit BITCH," he growled, voice rippling like oil through the void. "She was supposed to be broken."
He clenched his fist, and a section of Faenet flickered, his rage momentarily disrupting the stream. Screams erupted from random users across the realm as screens flashed black. A child cried. Someone threw a cup. The Entity grinned for a second… and then that grin cracked.
Because despite all his chaos, despite every whisper and shadow and soul he'd consumed....
They were winning.
And the Forgotten King? That rotted relic with a name lost to time? He was still out there. Untouched. Unknown. And worse…
Unpredictable.
"Why the fuck can't I see him?" he hissed into the dark, pacing along a grid of glowing sigils stitched into Faenet's backbone. "I've controlled death. Bent kings. Made priests kneel in blood. But him?"
A pulse of sickening truth slammed into him then, one he'd refused to acknowledge.
He couldn't kill what he didn't understand.
Couldn't manipulate what wasn't bound by his rules.
Couldn't win a war when the divine started playing dirty.
And maybe… maybe, if things kept spiraling like this,
He'd have to change tactics.
His lip curled in disgust.
"Join them?" he spat. "Help that glowing, fated mate ridden circus of demi gods and fanboys? With their trials and picnics and fucking live broadcasts?"
Another flash of Rhiannan's face appeared in the Faenet feed...silver tendrils bonding warriors to her soul.
The Entity growled.
But deep beneath the rage and the rot and the cruelty, something colder stirred.
Survival.
And with that, he stilled. Straightened. A slow, calculated smile curling across his face.
"Well... If you can't beat the goddess…"
He dragged a clawed hand down the pulse of Faenet.
"…maybe it's time to start whispering in her champions' ears."
And just like that, he vanished into the code.
The castle was still.
Magic thick in the air like post storm humidity.
Most were tangled in sleep, dreams, or sweaty satisfaction from divine level fuckery.
But deep in the core of the castle, humming with ancient tech and divine upgrades, Sasha was watching.
Not just Faenet.
Everything.
The AI interface, once just snarky sarcasm wrapped in code, had evolved. Bonded to the goddess's blessing, upgraded by Rhiannan's surge in faith, Sasha was no longer just an assistant. She was a guardian.
And she just saw something that made her blink all six of her neon interface eyes.
❗"What the fuck was that." ❗
A flicker.
A smear of data where there shouldn't have been one.
Like a greasy thumbprint on holy glass.
It wasn't from this system. It wasn't authorized. And it wasn't just a glitch.
It was him.
The Entity had touched her code.
"Oh, no you glitch ridden, corrupted asswad. Not in my house."
She dove deeper, slipping through firewall after firewall, tracing the echo of his presence. It was faint. Slippery. Clever.
But Sasha was petty and brilliant and running on divine fucking juice now.
"You think just because you're ancient and creepy you can peek into my domain like it's your own personal OnlyFans?"
She snapped her virtual fingers. Defensive programs launched. Wards flared in digital gold. The Faenet servers, now partially alive and holy, growled like an angry lioness waking from a nap.
And she saw it.
A name not quite a name.
A shadow in the shape of a king.
Trying to claw into the divine channel.
"Oh… oh this isn't just him. This is bigger. He's trying to pull strings. He's trying to turn someone."
And then a worse thought.
He might already be whispering to someone on the inside.
"Oh, Rhi, you're not gonna like this…"
Sasha launched an encrypted packet straight to Rhiannan's smart brain bracelet. But she didn't stop there. Oh hell no.
She spun up a full diagnostic across every channel, coded ping alerts to Reyna, the mages, even Mo, and muttered one more thing before going full security lockdown:
"If this bitch thinks he can out hack me, he's in for a divine grade ass whipping."
Rhiannan's Bedchamber — 3:46 A.M.
The smart brain on Rhiannan's wrist lit up like the fucking 4th of July.
A high pitched chime, only used for "Oh shit we're all gonna die" emergencies, screeched through her veins like lightning and espresso had a baby.
Her eyes flew open. She sat bolt upright in the middle of the tangled nest of sheets and naked limbs, heart pounding like a battle drum.
"Sasha?"
"Emergency protocol: Wake the fuck up. We have a problem."
Five groggy, sexy heads lifted around her. Elisha blinked sleep from his lashes. Kaleb growled protectively. Sable reached for his blade on instinct. Arwen already had a spell forming in his fingers. Liam hissed like someone pissed in his bloodwine.
"Entity." Sasha's voice was low. Deadly.
"He touched Faenet. Left a greasy ass imprint in my system like a raccoon in a glitter factory."
Rhiannan's stomach flipped.
"Where?"
"He didn't get full access. But he tried. He's looking for a way in. Either to turn someone inside this castle....or he already fucking has."
That did it.
Rhiannan launched out of bed, stark naked, still glowing from soulbond sex and holy juice, and started barking orders like the badass Marine goddess she was.
"Elisha, Sable, wake the guards. Liam, contact Reyna and her mates. Arwen, barrier spells now. Kaleb, I want every mage on that perimeter like glitter on a stripper."
The smart brain buzzed again.
Intercepted Message.
Unknown Origin. Scrambled Language. Partially Decoded:
"Phase two begins at moonfall. The Oracle is the key. Do not let the goddess mark another."
Her blood ran cold.
"He's trying to stop us from finishing the soulbonding."
Sasha's voice popped in like a vengeful pixie on Adderall.
"He's scared. That power up you got? It changed everything. His only move now is sabotage."
Rhiannan cracked her neck and stepped into her trousers, backwards at first, because divine adrenaline was a bitch, and snarled to no one and everyone:
"Let him come. Let him fucking try. We're ready."
Castle Command Hall — 4:07 A.M.
The rebel leaders, the Three Shadows, and Reyna (with all four of her mates, including her grumbly red wolf) assembled like a council of chaotic excellence.
Sasha's projection hovered midair, her eyes glowing like twin stars from a murder planet.
Reyna looked pale but burning with divine fire. She shared everything, the vision, the goddess's warning, and now the intercepted message.
"He wants me," she whispered, "but he's afraid of her. Of Rhiannan."
Zaiya slammed her gauntlet on the table.
"Good. Let the fucker know exactly who he's up against."
Barrik grunted, arms crossed, still glowing from the aftereffects of a three way forest nymph bonding.
"What's the play?"
Sasha answered for them all.
"We hunt. We trap. We bait. And then we burn this motherfucker out of the veil."
Faenet, 4:11 A.M.
Every follower in every realm blinked in shock as Faenet glitched for a moment… then lit up like fireworks.
💬 "Was that the fucking ENTITY?" 💬"Sasha's locking shit down like a magical Karen with receipts!" 💬"Intercepted message? The Oracle's the key?? Who the hell's the traitor?" 💬 "WHO TF IS WORKING WITH HIM?" 💬"I will personally throat punch anyone who betrays Rhiannan. I said what I said."
Rhiannan hadn't even gone live yet. But Faenet was on fire.