Chapter 24- Purpose
Sahiyra POV
I was scraping the last of the stew into a container when the idea hit me. Not softly, either, it slammed into my chest like a damn war drum. “I want to visit the ferals,” I said, spinning around and facing the guys. “I need to try. If I can help more of them like I helped Kory... I have to.”
All five heads turned toward me, nodding in full sync like some synchronized squad of hot bobbleheads. “We figured you would,” Greyson said. “You’re not exactly the type to sit still when you could be out saving the world.”
“And feeding it,” Kylen added, licking cornbread crumbs off his thumb.
I blinked. “Feeding it?”
Jaxen sat back in his chair and patted his stomach. “Your food, Sahiyra. It’s not normal. I haven’t had this much energy or felt this strong in years.”
Torren grunted in agreement, already scribbling down the word cornbread on a notepad like he was about to get it tattooed. “My bear wants to know if you’re taking catering orders.”
Kory, sweet blunt bastard that he was, just said, “You should feed everyone. Feed the world. Make them strong like us.”
That… hit deep. I blinked at the kitchen, now full of warmth and clinking dishes and empty bowls. “What if I made a cookbook?” I mused out loud. “Or like... had a little stand at the market? Nothing big. Just real food. Healing food.”
Kylen straightened in his seat. “You’re not wrong. I’ve felt it too. Not just strength. Focus. Clarity. Magic flow.”
Greyson leaned forward, intrigued. “You thinking what I’m thinking?”
Kylen grinned. “I was actually considering getting tested at the registration center. Just to see.”
The room went dead silent. Even Sassy froze mid pounce on Ria’s tail feathers.
“You mean...tested for your power level?” I asked, eyes wide.
Kylen nodded, rubbing the back of his neck. “It’s been steady for years. But since bonding with you and eating like a fucking king? I feel different. Like I leveled up.”
“No way,” Jaxen muttered, blinking hard. “You think the bonding enhanced us?”
I remembered the goddess’s voice, fierce and glowing in my bones....Make them unstoppable. I shivered. “It’s possible. She did say my magic would enhance you.”
Greyson stood, already reaching for his coat. “Then what the hell are we waiting for?”
Torren grinned. “Road trip.”
Kory stood up too. “Can we get snacks?”
I burst out laughing. “You want me to pack a lunch to go to the power registration center?”
He nodded seriously. “Yes.”
I rolled my eyes, grabbed a basket, and started gathering supplies. “Fine. But if you level up and start glowing like a damn lightbulb, I’m blaming the cobbler.”
Jaxen kissed my temple on the way out. “Best damn cobbler in the kingdom.”
Two hours later....
The testing center was cold, all marble and metal and tight lipped authority. No warmth. No color. Just echoing boots and clipped orders.
But we sure as hell lit the place up. Kylen went first.
General Kylen. Level four Dire Mark. Stable. Predictable.
Until the scanner glitched. A siren blared.
The reading blinked red, then white, then exploded into a cascading scroll of glyphs I didn’t recognize.
The technician behind the glass paled and whispered, “Wyrmshard level.”
Everyone froze. Torren whistled low. “That’s… elite elite.”
They re ran it. Same result. And then the others stepped up.
Jaxen. Torren. Kory. One by one, the scanner sang the same damn tune.
Wyrmshard.
And then… Greyson.
The scanner didn’t just sing, it screamed. The walls shook. The glyphs lit up every panel like someone dropped a divine nuke.
The tech fainted. Another one grabbed a manual and swore under his breath. “This, this is past Wyrmshard. This is off scale. We've never recorded this.”
Silence. Heavy and thick. Then, the questions started. “How is this possible?”
“Were they altered?”
“Did someone cast on them?”
Kylen, calm as ever, just crossed his arms and looked the head guard dead in the face. “Sahiyra. She’s the Chosen of the Beast Goddess. Her magic enhances beast shifters. And her cooking? It’s like ingesting strength. Stamina. Power.”
The guards looked at me like I’d sprouted wings and a halo. Then one dropped to his knees.
“Please,” he whispered, voice raw. “We’ve been… slipping. Me and Ryce. The moon has been pulling too hard lately. The feral hum is getting louder.”
His partner followed him to the ground, trembling. “I don’t want to lose myself.”
I gasped softly. My chest ached. Their pain was real. Tangible. Close. I didn’t hesitate. I dropped to my knees in front of them, one hand on each of their trembling skulls, and pushed. My soothing magic surged forward like warm golden mist, wrapping them in calm. Acceptance. Peace. Their beasts drank it in like dying men in a desert.
Both men exhaled together. Hard. Then silent. Then they looked up at me. Clear eyes. Wet lashes. And no signs of the twitching or aura flaring that marked feral descent.
One of them whispered, “It’s gone. The rage. The pull. It’s gone.”
The entire room went dead still. A few people gasped. Kylen stepped forward. “She just reversed feral descent with a fucking touch. You understand what this means?”
The room erupted into chaos. Papers flew. Guards shouted. Someone grabbed a comm device and screamed into it. But I didn’t move. I just looked at the men in front of me and smiled softly.
“This changes everything,” I said.
And it did. Because I wasn’t just some backwoods wild girl anymore. I was a goddess chosen healer. A power amplifier. A walking miracle. And we had work to do.
The ride home was anything but quiet. Kylen’s comm crystal buzzed, flashed, and damn near vibrated off his belt every two minutes. “The High Commander wants a meeting.”
Buzz.
“Now the Chancellor.”
Buzz.
“Fuck me sideways, even the Temple Council wants to schedule an audience.”
Greyson groaned from across the carriage, rubbing his temples. “This is going to turn into a damn circus.”
Kory tilted his head, watching the crystal light up like it was about to explode. “Kill it.”
“No,” I said calmly.
They all looked at me. “I’m going.”
Greyson sat forward, golden eyes narrowed. “You don’t have to, Sahiyra. You don’t owe them anything. This could drain you. We still don’t know the full cost of your magic.”
“I said,” I repeated gently, “I’m going.”
Kory shrugged, stretching his long arms behind his head with a lazy grin. “If she goes, I go.”
Kylen, surprisingly, didn’t argue. “I think she should too. But with safeguards.”
“Of course,” I said, already turning toward the window as the cabin jostled down the dirt path. “I’m not an idiot.”
“And you don’t give a damn what we say,” Jaxen muttered under his breath with a grin.
“You’re goddamn right I don’t,” I tossed over my shoulder, smirking. “But I do need your help.”
That shut ‘em up. We got home and I went straight to the kitchen. The decision had already clicked into place inside my chest. Right between my ribs. I wasn’t just going to show up and soothe. I was going to feed them.
If my food really was magic, if it boosted my men, soothed beasts, and turned the tides of power, then I was gonna spread it like wildfire. I dragged out the biggest pot we had, almost the size of a bathtub, and slammed it on the stove.
“Venison stew. Double meat. Wild roots. Spices. And that cornbread. Get moving.”
They didn’t even argue.
Kylen started chopping vegetables like a general commanding a blade. Greyson stirred the stock and glared every time it bubbled over, muttering about “fucking overflow.” Jaxen manned the bread station and somehow managed to charm the cornbread into rising perfectly. Kory kept sneaking bites of everything and pretending he didn’t. Torren brought in extra firewood and kissed my neck every time he passed.
Sassy the fox was chasing the raven, Ria, around the beams. There was flour in my hair and stew on my arm and the kitchen looked like a battlefield, but gods, it was perfect.
By the time the last cornbread was cooling, the moon was high and we were all wiped. We piled into the bed together like wolves in a den.
I fell asleep tucked between warmth and muscle, kisses pressed to my hair and hands on my hips, surrounded by the safest, softest chaos I’d ever known.
Tomorrow, I’d face the world. Tonight? Tonight I was just theirs.
The next morning....
I woke tangled in warmth, the scent of my men on my skin and the fading ache of pleasure thrumming through my limbs. But purpose was louder. We had work to do.
By midmorning, the cabin was alive with motion.
Torren and Kylen loaded the venison stew into lidded crocks, carefully sealing them with thick cloth and twine so they wouldn’t spill during the ride. Greyson packed the cornbread and wild berry cobblers we’d made the night before, stacking the golden loaves with reverence like they were bricks of treasure. Kory carried picnic baskets full of plates, mugs, and utensils with a prideful strut, while Jaxen...gods love him, tried to sneak bites and got swatted every time.
I packed the sauces. And the love. And the prayers.
Then we loaded everything into the back of the carriage, tied it down with rope, and piled in. Ria the raven perched on the rail above us, and Sassy the fox curled in my lap like a queen in her throne.
The second we hit the edge of the city, my heart clenched. It was… suffocating. Metal and stone everywhere, but no soul in the design. Towers with no life. Crowds that didn’t look up. Drab. Repetitive. Cold. No green, no joy. Just structure.
Then came the worst part. The females.
I watched one slap her male across the face in the market while he held their child. Another barked orders at hers while he carried armfuls of bags, head bowed, eyes dull. No one said a word. The grief in me sharpened. This wasn’t power. This was cruelty wearing law as armor.
And I felt it all, the oppression, the imbalance, the quiet aching in the hearts of males too afraid to look up. My soul screamed. I pressed a hand to my chest and doubled over for a second, breath hitching.
Kylen reached for me immediately. “You okay?”
“No,” I whispered, blinking back tears. “But I will be.”
Because it was becoming clearer by the second, this world needed to be gutted and rebuilt. Not just soothed. Not just healed. Transformed.
And with every block we passed, more ideas hit me. Architecture. Farming redesigns. Food culture upgrades. Economic restructuring. New education models. Fair bonding laws. Sanctuary zones for the abused. Safe transition centers for ferals. Goddess help me, I didn’t even know I knew this shit.
But I did now. “It’s Her,” I murmured, gazing out the window. “She’s showing me. What I’m meant to fix.”
Greyson took my hand and squeezed it tight. “Then let’s start today.”
We rolled on toward the feral center, baskets full of magic in the back, and a war for change burning bright in my bones.