Chapter 25- The Feral Center
Sahiyra’s POV
The carriage rolled to a slow, uneven stop.
Ahead of us stretched a road so long and sun bleached it felt like it could break apart beneath the weight of all the sorrow it had carried. Metal fences lined both sides, tall and rusted, pulsing with magical deterrents that shimmered faintly in the harsh daylight. Rows of red tinged sand stretched out beyond them, lifeless. No trees. No grass. No color. Just steel and dust.
The air here… hurt. And then the building. Gods.
A towering monolith of dull stone and layered metal plating, like some kind of war era bunker. Not a single window in sight. Just security cameras, reinforced doors, and the faint hum of magic suppression wards. There was no joy here. No beauty. Just… containment.
“Fuck,” Greyson muttered under his breath, hand resting on the hilt of his blade. “This looks like a prison.”
Torren’s jaw ticked. “It is a prison. For people who were never meant to be caged.”
My stomach turned. Kory’s eyes were wide with recognition. “I escaped from somewhere like this. Long ago. They had collars and cages and pain.”
Jaxen growled low in his chest. “Let someone try to collar you now, brother.”
We stepped down from the carriage, boots crunching against gritty gravel, and the weight of this place hit me like a hammer to the heart. Something inside me raged.
There were lives in that building. People who had simply lost control. People being contained instead of healed. People who might’ve been just like Kory, who could’ve been saved if someone had just… tried.
A shout broke through the heavy silence. One of the guards stationed at the main gate froze mid step, his eyes locked on me. Then he dropped to one knee, fists pressed to the ground.
“It’s her,” he whispered. “The Chosen One. The Goddess Touched.”
Shit. Kylen moved instantly, his body blocking mine as all five of my men tensed and closed ranks around me.
Jaxen’s wolf eyes glowed. “Not a fucking step closer.”
The other guard behind him, mid 20s maybe, tall, lean, with the look of someone who hadn’t slept in a week, watched his partner kneel and did the same without hesitation.
And then word spread. Fast.
Doors creaked open. Murmurs turned to gasps. The front courtyard began to fill, nurses, security, medical staff, handlers, some stared, others dropped to a knee. I saw tears. I saw awe. I saw hope.
I hated it. Not the reverence, but the reason they felt it. Because this was not a world where hope was handed out. This was a world where people ached for it so badly they’d fall to their knees for a whisper of something different.
And now I was standing here, supposed to be that something. The pressure threatened to crush me. But my men, gods, my beautiful, fierce, maddening, perfect mates, were solid walls at my back.
I took a breath and stepped forward between them, gently placing my hand on Kylen’s chest so he’d let me through.
“We brought food,” I said softly. “Please take these for your guards.”
Torren and Kory began handing down baskets, massive crocks of the venison stew I’d made with my heart in it, loaves of warm cornbread still wrapped in linen, and three thick berry cobblers oozing sweet juice. The scent hit the air and I heard someone whimper.
“Share it,” I said gently. “Everyone in your dining hall. There’s enough.”
The guards didn’t speak, they just nodded, stunned, and vanished inside with the food like it was sacred cargo.
I turned to the lead medic who’d stepped forward. She was older, silver hair in a braid, her face lined with exhaustion but her eyes sharp as steel. “My name is Sahiyra. I want to see them. The ferals. All of them.”
She hesitated. “There are rules...”
“Break them,” I said, voice firm now. “I am the Chosen of the Beast Goddess. These people aren’t dangerous. They’re lost. And I might be able to bring them back.”
The medic took one long look at my men, each standing at the edge of violence, and then at me. “I’ll take you,” she said quietly. “But prepare yourself. They’re not what you’re expecting.”
I squared my shoulders and nodded. “I’ve been feral. I know what I’m walking into.”
Her gaze softened just enough to show respect, and she turned toward the building. I followed. And behind me, five bonded mates walked in step, shoulders square, eyes sharp, ready to follow me into any hell.
Because today… we weren’t just feeding them. We were about to change everything.
The medic led us down a long, sterile corridor that reeked of antiseptic and something older, heavier. Fear. My boots echoed in time with my heartbeat, and my men flanked me on either side, silent and watchful. Metal doors lined the walls, each marked with a glowing red rune and a cold species designation: Grizzly. Tiger. Dire Wolf. Mountain Lion. Kodiak.
The deeper we went, the thicker the air became, cloying with rage and memory. When the first cell’s occupant hurled himself against the reinforced glass, I didn’t flinch. A massive grizzly, bloody claws scraping, his eyes vacant. He roared like thunder trapped in a cage.
But the second I stepped inside, all that fury stilled.
I didn’t need words. Just my hand pressed to his chest, whispering with my soul. Come back. My magic pulsed out of me, warm and golden, wrapping around him like honey poured into raw wounds. His breath hitched. He collapsed, shifting, gasping like a drowning man breaching surface.
“I remember,” he whispered, voice breaking. “I remember who I am.”
One by one, I did the same for the next four cells.
The massive black wolf whimpered, laid his head in my lap, and shifted into a broken man. The broad lion snarled until my magic touched him, then sobbed, muttering his daughter’s name. The snow leopard clung to the walls like a shadow until he lunged, not to attack, but to cling to me as if I were the only real thing left. The dire wolf spun and howled until my power filled the air, and he fell, weeping, calling for a mate he had long lost.
By the fifth, sweat soaked my neck, my knees buckled, my vision swam. Still, I pushed toward the sixth door, a grizzly even larger than the first, snarling, thrashing. I raised my hand to the lock.....and the world tilted.
Darkness swallowed me whole.
When I opened my eyes, I stood barefoot on glowing golden moss beneath a sky of spiraling stars. And there they were. Two colossal figures. The Beast Goddess, radiant and terrible, vines and blossoms twined through her hair, moon-eyes burning into me. The Beast God, massive, antlered, his mane made of shadows, claws dripping starlight.
“You called us,” the Goddess said, voice a hymn of fire and sorrow.
“I passed the fuck out,” I muttered. “Didn’t know that was the same thing.”
The God chuckled, deep and thunderous. “Mortals. So dramatic.”
The Goddess knelt, her gaze like fire through silk. “You’ve done well, little flame. Five feral minds soothed. But you are more than healer. More than bondmate. You are a chosen alpha. A leader. You will rebuild what is broken.”
“Lead?” I barked a laugh. “I can barely keep my men fed and not feral. I didn’t sign up to be anyone’s queen.”
“You were not chosen for ease,” the God rumbled. “You were chosen for your fire. To claim your full power, you must face three trials.”
“Of course I do,” I groaned, dropping my head in my hands. “Because soothing five rabid manimals and nearly dying wasn’t enough.”
The Goddess’s smile was soft, but her eyes cut like knives. “Your first trial lies in the Verdant Basin. The gorilla shifters. Their alpha does not trust outsiders, and women are hidden in their sanctum. You must go. You will find more of your mates there. Without them, your magic will wither.”
“There’s more?” I gasped. “How many do I have?”
“That,” the Goddess whispered, “is for fate to reveal. But you will know them. Wild. Broken. Savage. They will rise for you, and you alone.”
The moss faded. Light dissolved into mist. I reached for them. “And the other two trials?”
The God’s gaze turned to stone. “One will demand sacrifice. The other, truth.”
My chest tightened. “And if I fail?”
The Goddess pressed her warm hand over my heart. “Then the world will fall, little flame. And your men will fall with it.”