Adhira:

A few hours had probably passed when I woke up because I was on Nyx's lap and my hair felt dry. I had a surprisingly sound sleep considering the amount of anxiety I had right before I fell asleep.

"You're awake," she spoke and I just gazed at her features up close. She was a gorgeous creature even in her human form. She had long eyelashes, sleek cheekbones, and sharp cutting markers on her face. She looked rather formidable than beautiful... for beautiful had always been used to describe something innocuous. Nyx was far from innocent. She was dangerously attractive by her the look in her eyes as if she knew her own dominion.

"Is Invicta a part of your name?" I voiced my curiosity.

"Nyx Alarie Tempest. That's my name," she told me briefly.

I paused briefly to memorize her complete name before clarifying, "Then, why did he call you Invicta?"

"Panthers are rare in the jaguar family. You'll only ever find one at a time signifying that the trait always skips a generation. The ones born as a panther usually have a male beast irrespective of whether their human form is female or male or both or neither... They're called Invicta because it's a belief that they are the most vicious and remain undefeated in battle. The pride that has a panther is considered the most superior. These panthers live a long life as well and they live alone," she explained to my surprise.

My eyes lit up at the information, "You talk as if you're not the Invicta of this generation of jaguars."

She looked at me softly, "I don't believe that I'm invincible. Even the strongest of beings must bow down at some point in time. Like now, we're just puppets in a bigger world."

I just remained silent as I thought over the information. "So your cat form has male genitals."

"Yes. He does. He has a conscience of his own," she just replied.

"Are the others dead? The ones who ran with me?"

She sighed, "They were freed from the loop. Yes, they're alive. "

My forehead crinkled, "How?"

She remained quiet for a while. It made me wonder about what she wasn't telling me.

"Nyx?"

"They mated with their predators," she told briefly.

My eyebrows rose at the information. I felt appalled at the sick fact. Were they forced to?

"Most of them did. Others just took their prey elsewhere," she explained.

I sat upright, "How's that even possible? We're different species."

"We're different but not anatomically," her eyes ran down my form much to my embarrassment.

Heat flooded my face, "T- That's alright but how's that even connected to this whole ordeal?"

"We don't know but there's hardly been a known way to kill these few humans. They're just reborn again, day after day. The mating seemed to work. It binds their fates for a lifetime but they don't need to run after prey again despite repeating the day. And nobody's dying."

I nodded with a lot more worry than before. Are they being treated fine?

"Would you mind being bound to me?" She looked at me intensely.

I just looked at her with wide eyes, "I- No... I mean yes! As in I don't want to be bound to you." I stuttered.

I saw something close to amusement in her eyes.

She leaned down, "Are you just too scared to mate with me?"

I visibly gulped and felt embarrassed at the question. Why would she even ask something like this?! She intently observed me as if she knew what was running through my mind. I squirmed uncomfortably and just wished to disappear right then.

She subtly dismissed with her head, "You don't have to answer that."

"So, you're figuring this out slowly. We'll probably even find a way to kill me and end this..."

She didn't answer after that. Silence filled the air with the buzz of the forest in the background.

"Do you have a favorite color?" I asked her to fill the awkward gap after my statement.

She shook her head, "We don't do favorites in color. Is that a human ritual?"

"N-Not really... it's just a color that you look at and feel good?"

"I see this world of colors before my eyes and feel good. How strange is it to look at a limited set of colors and feel good?"

My lips parted as I took in her perspective. I just nodded lightly, "You're right. "

This time, she asked me a curious question, "Why do you seem rather eager to die? The humans that I've witnessed only ever fought their hardest to live."

I just dwelled as the question sunk in. I just didn't have the will to live on... After I lost all that I've ever known. I didn't want to utter a word for if I opened my lips, it would shatter my composure.

And she waited... she seemed to wait patiently for my answer.

I refused to meet her eyes as I struggled to get a hold of myself... Finding that hold while drowning beneath the weight of my biggest failure.

My lips quivered, "I want to leave now."

Nyx:

I made my way to the kitchen with Adhira on my mind. She seemed to be running through my mind like a steady stream.

Finding Carlos's mate Nyra baking up in the kitchen must've enraged me but I felt a sense of acceptance towards her.

She eyed me and seemed to tense up. I gave her a nod as if acknowledging her presence. Her eyes softened and she nodded back with a grateful smile.

The kitchen smelled like something sweet and warm. She then emptied a bunch of chocolates into a tray from a mold.

I grabbed a bottle of water to ease my mind. My mind's been racing about Adhira. I didn't like the fact that her fight had dimmed down. I wanted to ignite her fight again and to have her find her purpose. Because every day I go down there to hold the dying girl until she tells me to put her out of her misery. My forehead crinkled unable to find a fix.

"You seem rather disturbed," Nyra spoke up to my surprise.

I just shook my head dismissing her concern.

"I made some chocolates. Do you want to carry some for your person? I'm sure she'd need these. She's probably reeling from the loss."

"Sounds like a great idea," was Carlos's uneasy comment into the kitchen. "You should definitely take some back for her!"

I sent a glare at him as he looked nervous to find me in the same kitchen as his mate. It's not like I would kill her.

I then grabbed a hankerchief, approached the tray and cupped a few chocolates to carry. I abruptly left the kitchen knowing that I probably startled Carlos's little lover.

┍━━━━━━━━━♥♠♣♦━━━━━━━━┑

"You mean to tell me that the wolves are using a soul destroying chant to kill their humans?"

"Yeah, they are... destroying souls and that's going to cut any chances of rebirth but it's working. The humans want out and they're getting it," Carlos mentioned.

I felt my eyebrow crinkle, "That's rather cruel."

He left out a humorless laugh, "I can't believe you're talking about what is cruel... I bet you're going to let her die as well."

"That's her choice," I uttered softly.

"Nyx, I can't watch you live alone. Why won't you claim her?"

"That would be the last thing she'd want. I don't even know her," I told him.

"We could... find out about her," Carlos mentioned.

I cocked an eyebrow, "How?"

"There's something called social media. Somehow, the servers are still connected. So, I could ask Nyra... What's her name though?"

"Adhira."

"We could... try, " he shrugged.

I just nodded.

┍━━━━━━━━━♥♠♣♦━━━━━━━━┑