Chapter 5

She pulled up the express delivery app on her terminal. She ordered two crates of military-grade premium nutrient fluids. The kind that repaired tissue damage and stabilized energy cores. It cost her a brutal fifty thousand credits, but she didn't hesitate.

She walked out of the bedroom and headed toward the grand staircase.

The mansion was dead quiet, save for the hum of the air filtration system.

Instead of going to the front door, she walked toward the basement stairs. She needed to see exactly how bad the situation was.

The air grew colder and smelled like copper and mildew the further down she went.

At the bottom of the stairs, she peered around the corner.

At the end of the dark corridor was a heavy iron cell. Inside the bars, a massive brown bear was curled into a tight ball.

Buren.

His fur was matted and dull. Huge patches of hair were missing, revealing angry, scabbed skin. He was so thin she could see the outline of his ribs as he took shallow, shaky breaths.

Alfie was kneeling outside the bars. He held the crushed plastic tube she had seen earlier.

He squeezed it. A single, pathetic drop of yellow liquid fell onto Buren's massive nose.

Buren let out a weak, high-pitched whine that sounded entirely too small for a creature his size. He licked the drop off his nose, his eyes closing in desperate relief.

"I know, buddy," Alfie whispered, his voice cracking. "Just hold on. We'll get out of here."

Her chest physically ached. She shifted her weight, intending to walk forward.

Her boot came down on a loose floorboard. It let out a sharp creak.

Alfie spun around instantly. He didn't just look at her; he aimed at her. A razor-sharp blade of pressurized water materialized in his hand, pointed directly at her throat.

Inside the cell, Buren let out a terrified roar. The massive bear scrambled backward, pressing his huge body into the furthest corner of the cage, trembling violently.

She stepped fully into the light. She held her hands up, palms open.

Alfie's eyes darted over her black combat suit. Confusion flickered in his icy eyes, but his hostility didn't waver.

"What do you want?" Alfie spat. "Come to watch him starve? Is it not entertaining enough for you yet?"

She ignored the venom in his voice. She looked past him, straight at the bear. "He's severely dehydrated. His organs are shutting down. If he doesn't get real calories tonight, he's going to die."

Alfie's jaw clenched so hard she heard his teeth grind. "Don't you dare pretend to care. Stay away from him."

She didn't argue. She turned on her heel and walked back up the stairs.

She heard Alfie curse under his breath, probably thinking she was going to fetch a weapon.

She walked straight to the front door of the mansion. She punched the code into the delivery pod embedded in the wall. The metal doors slid open.

Inside sat two heavy, insulated crates.

She grabbed the handles. They were heavy, but the baseline strength of a beast-world female was higher than a human's. She hauled them out and carried them back to the basement stairs.

When she reached the bottom, Alfie was trying to pry the iron bars open with a metal pipe. He was desperate to get Buren out to find water.

She dropped the two crates onto the concrete floor.

Bang.

Alfie jumped, spinning around with the pipe raised.

She kicked the lid off the top crate. Inside, rows of sleek glass vials glowed with a faint, pulsing blue light.

Alfie's eyes widened. He lowered the pipe slightly. He recognized them. Military-grade restoratives.

She reached down, grabbed two vials, and tossed them underhand straight at his chest.

Alfie dropped the pipe and caught them purely on reflex. The moment the glass touched his skin, he held them away from his body like they were radioactive.

"What is this?" he demanded, his eyes narrowing. "Did you lace them with acid? Neurotoxins?"

She rolled her eyes. She bent down and pulled a third vial from the crate.

She popped the metal seal off the top. She tilted her head back and chugged half the bottle.

It tasted like synthetic vanilla and chalk. She grimaced, swallowing hard. She turned the bottle upside down, letting the last few drops spill onto the floor to show it was real.

She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. She looked Alfie dead in the eye.

"Feed him," she ordered, her voice leaving no room for argument. "Then get Josue. Ten minutes. Living room. We're having a family meeting."

She didn't wait for his response. She turned and walked back up the stairs.