Infertile Bunny? Three Powerful Beasts Fight For Me!

A hard kick to the back of Elyse Foster's knee sent her kneeling on the icy mud.

"How dare you cry, Elyse? You scored zero on your full-moon fertility test! You've brought shame on all the wererabbits!"

Lifting her head, Elyse saw dozens of people staring at her, their expressions filled with open disgust and contempt.

Her head was still spinning. Moments earlier, she had been fighting on a battlefield during the apocalypse when a zombie ripped out her throat. Somehow, she had ended up in an unfamiliar world called Planet Feratia.

She hadn't even begun to make sense of the strange memories pouring into her head when Julia Foster, the original Elyse's younger sister, looked down at her and spat, saying, "Elyse, an infertile female on Planet Feratia has less value than even the lowest aberrant beast. You're only wasting the pack's food by staying alive. If I were in your position, I would've killed myself long ago!"

All around Elyse, the wererabbits hurled insults and pointed accusing fingers, their voices rising into an overwhelming chorus of abuse.

"Julia's right! How could Roderick possibly have fathered such a worthless, barren daughter?"

"Get rid of her! Send her into the tainted woods and let the aberrant beasts eat her! We can't have her misfortune spreading through our pack!"

The original Elyse's parents made no effort to defend her. Instead, her father, Roderick Foster, waved his hand indifferently and said, "Get her out of here. As far as I'm concerned, she's no longer my daughter!"

Just then, a clear ding sounded inside Elyse's head. "Congratulations, Host! The system has successfully assigned you four elite male mates! You must establish the mate bonds within three months."

However, the robotic announcement wasn't confined to Elyse's mind. Every werecreature nearby could hear it as well.

The crowd went completely quiet for a brief moment before erupting into even louder ridicule.

"Elite males matched with her? That system has obviously malfunctioned! Once those powerful figures discover they've been paired with a useless, infertile female, they'll make the entire wererabbit species pay for it!"

The wererabbit chief, Arthur Murray, went pale.

"Hurry!" he shouted. "Throw her into the level 3 tainted woods before those powerful males arrive to punish us! We'll tell them an aberrant beast killed her!"

Before Elyse could put up a fight, several heavily built males seized her and hurled her into the depths of the ancient forest.

A foul, damp smell rose from the decaying leaves. Elyse had only just managed to push herself out of the mud when the system's piercing warning rang through her head. "Alert! A level 3 tainted aberrant beast, identified as a tusk boar, is approaching from your front left!"

Elyse swore quietly. The wererabbit body she now occupied was ridiculously frail. She could barely manage a run, much less defend herself.

She immediately threw herself into the thick undergrowth and rolled aside, only to collide with something hard and cold. Behind her, an enormous serpent covered in black scales lay coiled in a muddy hollow. Its body was as wide as a bucket and soaked in blood.

Without warning, the tusk boar burst through the vegetation. Its bloodstained jaws opened wide as it charged directly toward Elyse.

At that instant, the enormous serpent's eyes flew open, revealing dark golden irises with narrow vertical pupils. Its powerful black tail shot forward and drove straight through the boar's skull with a sickening crunch.

The huge aberrant beast dropped to the ground with a resounding thud.

Unfortunately, Elyse was still far from safe.

The giant serpent's esper energy abruptly became unstable, surging beyond its control. A tortured hiss escaped its mouth as its enormous body twisted and thrashed through the mud.

Acting on its instinct to survive, the severely injured creature swung its tail toward Elyse and wrapped it firmly around her, trapping her against its body.

"Argh!" The crushing pressure immediately lifted Elyse off her feet. The serpent's icy scales tightened around her like a steel trap, squeezing until her bones began to groan under the strain.

Every last breath was driven from her lungs, leaving her struggling desperately for air.

There was no mistaking what was happening. The serpent was going to crush her to death.

At that moment, the system spoke again in its mechanical voice. "Beep! A male werecreature has been detected experiencing a complete esper energy rampage. Host, he is constricting you while unconscious. Your vital signs are declining rapidly."

"How... can I survive this..." Elyse could barely force the question past her clenched teeth as darkness crept into her vision.

The system answered, "Your only option is to activate your system privileges and forcibly establish a mate bond with him! The spiritual soothing ability of a female can restore his consciousness. Without it, neither of you will survive."

The serpent's freezing coils squeezed even tighter. One of Elyse's ribs broke under the pressure, sending an excruciating burst of pain through her chest.

Summoning the last of her strength, Elyse gave a single command in her mind. "Bond!"

At that very instant, matching silver-white totems appeared between their eyebrows, glowing brightly.

The enormous serpent wrapped around her suddenly stiffened, and the pressure crushing her body gradually loosened.

Then the giant serpent disappeared, replaced by a completely naked, remarkably handsome man with bright red hair. Still holding Elyse in his arms, he fell with her into the muddy water.

The man lost consciousness immediately. However, a warm current of energy flowed through their newly established bond, unexpectedly relieving the terrible pain from Elyse's fractured rib.

Elyse scowled. The bastard had nearly killed her!

She wanted nothing more than to abandon the cold-blooded creature, but the system had already warned her that leaving her mate would prevent her from forming another bond for a full year.

In a world this dangerous, a lone female without a mate would struggle to stay alive.

With her teeth clenched in frustration, Elyse dragged the unconscious man into a secluded cave.

She mentally checked her portable sanctuary-her spatial storage for storing items in the apocalypse-and immediately relaxed upon discovering that it was still intact. All the enormous quantities of food she had accumulated were still safely stored inside.

After retrieving some fresh meat and a bag of clean, uncontaminated vegetables, she began preparing a nourishing pot of soup.

A short distance away, Trevor Knight lay on a makeshift bed of dried grass. His fingers suddenly moved.

As soon as he regained awareness, he sensed that something was terribly wrong. An unfamiliar mental mark had been imposed upon his soul against his will. It was a mate bond.

Trevor's eyes flew open, fury blazing in their dark golden depths.

He was Trevor Knight, the adopted son of the Interstellar Supreme Commander, a man who commanded the power to determine the fate of the Interstellar Empire's fleet of over a million! Yet while he lay unconscious from severe injuries, some worthless wererabbit had actually forced him into a mate bond!

He had never suffered such an insult in his life!

A freezing chill spread throughout the cave.

Trevor pushed himself upright, his brilliant red hair falling loosely across his naked shoulders.

His icy gaze settled on the delicate, unguarded figure sitting beside the fire. Dark esper energy began forming a concentrated sphere above his palm. He could break her neck in an instant, ending her life and freeing himself from the unwanted bond.

Meanwhile, Elyse was busy stirring the soup when an unnatural coldness suddenly crept along her spine. Years of fighting for survival during the apocalypse had sharpened her instincts, and every muscle in her body immediately tensed.

Turning around, she found herself looking directly into a pair of dark golden eyes filled with chilling hostility. The man was watching her as though she were already dead.

Elyse swore silently. Had she seriously gone through all that trouble to rescue an ungrateful bastard?

Rather than retreat, she filled a bowl with piping-hot soup and strode toward Trevor without the slightest hesitation.

Trevor lifted his hand, deadly power concentrating around his fingers as he prepared to break her neck.

"Eat." Without giving him any warning, Elyse thrust a spoonful of hot soup straight into his mouth.

She moved so abruptly and forcefully that he had no chance to react.

Taken completely by surprise, Trevor frowned but instinctively swallowed.

The hot liquid traveled down his throat and entered his stomach.

He was just about to retaliate when an unexpected sensation made him stop completely. The soup contained absolutely no impurities. Even the faintest traces of the toxic contamination normally present in food were absent.

More astonishingly, the moment he swallowed, the soup transformed into an exceptionally pure and soothing energy that rapidly spread throughout his entire body.

His unstable esper energy, which had been raging uncontrollably through his veins, immediately settled upon coming into contact with this unfamiliar power. Its violent fluctuations dissolved as effortlessly as snow exposed to sunlight.

Even the tiny tears scattered throughout his internal organs began healing at an extraordinary rate.

The murderous determination in Trevor's eyes wavered.

His attention turned to the worn iron bowl Elyse was holding, and he stared at it in disbelief.

The finest suppressants created by the Interstellar Empire's leading researchers had required hundreds of billions of coins to develop, yet none could produce such rapid and complete relief. Was it possible that an ordinary bowl of soup prepared by this seemingly fragile wererabbit could actually treat the fatal energy instability that occurred after a werecreature underwent mutation?

Trevor considered countless possibilities in the space of a heartbeat.

Without making a sound, he allowed the dark energy surrounding his palm to disappear.

Concealing his murderous intentions, Trevor settled against the rocky wall once more. His dark golden eyes grew peaceful again, although he deliberately allowed a carefully measured trace of vulnerability to show.

"Did you cook this?" he asked in a steady but slightly raspy voice, giving no indication that he had been ready to kill her only moments earlier.

Elyse frowned at him. "Who else could it have been? A ghost?"

With an impatient roll of her eyes, Elyse pushed the bowl into Trevor's hands. "You can feed yourself, and once you've finished, get some clothes on."

From her portable sanctuary, she fetched a loose outdoor jacket and flung it in his direction.

For a moment, Trevor simply looked at the rich broth in the bowl he was holding. His mouth curved into a smile that was barely noticeable.

After tasting her cooking, he was even more convinced that the woman before him held many secrets beneath her ordinary appearance, and he wanted to uncover them.

Somewhere deep inside him, the mate bond they'd just formed stirred with a warmth that felt like something only he could sense.

Among werecreatures, forming a mate bond meant that the male came completely under its control, bound by rules he couldn't simply choose to ignore.

Obedience to his domina was now part of his nature, along with the need to keep her safe, and he couldn't bring himself to do anything that might hurt her.

For all the ways he differed from other males, there was no mistaking the hold this bond already had on him.

Something shifted in his expression, and he stopped fighting what his instincts were telling him to do.

After putting down the bowl he'd finished, Trevor rose slowly to his feet.

A little confused, Elyse watched the tall, remarkably handsome man approach her and lower himself onto one knee, showing her the same devotion any ordinary male werecreature would offer his domina.

One of his large, well-shaped hands closed gently around hers. With his head lowered, he brought her hand to his mouth and placed a warm kiss against her skin.

Every movement followed the solemn, formal ceremony through which a male pledged himself to his domina.

"Will you tell me your name?" Still on one knee, he lifted his gaze to meet hers. The low rasp of his voice held a willing obedience that was strangely hard to resist.

"Elyse Foster," she responded.

"My name is Trevor Knight." As he introduced himself, he kept his eyes fixed on hers. A smile spread across his face as he retrieved the empty bowl from beside him and offered it to her. "Could your mate earn a second helping, my domina?"

For a moment, Elyse looked at the spot he'd kissed before accepting the bowl and studying him for several long seconds.

Could a mate bond really have this much control over a werecreature? Only a short while ago, he'd woken up and tried to kill her with all the cruelty of a vicious beast. Somehow, a single bowl of broth later, he'd become so tame that she could hardly believe he was the same male.

"That'll cost you a thousand coins per bowl," she replied. "You can owe me for it."

Trevor didn't respond for a second, but then he chuckled, clearly happy to humor her. "Of course, my domina. We'll do it your way."

Before she could answer, two chimes sounded from the battered communicator strapped to her wrist.

Her account balance had just gone up by fifty million coins.

For a moment, Elyse could only stare at the screen. Did being someone's domina really come with perks like this?

With an almost apologetic look, Trevor explained, "That's all the money I can access right now. If you need more, I'll find a way to get it for you. And don't forget the level 3 tusk boar we killed earlier. You should be able to get a few million coins for its beast core, too."

At the mention of another few million, she looked up in disbelief.

"You could've told me that a little sooner!" she exclaimed.

Suddenly delighted, Elyse turned straight back toward the carcass, eager to dig out the valuable core.

She'd barely tucked the softly glowing beast core into her pocket when several unwelcome visitors forced their way through the bushes and marched into the clearing.

Leading them was the wererabbit chief, Arthur, and the original Elyse's parents and younger sister followed close behind.

A pale blue hologram appeared above Arthur's wrist device, showing the merfolk's strongest warrior. "I bring orders from King Jonathan. Elyse Foster, a wererabbit female, has a fertility rating of zero. You wererabbits must forcibly dissolve her mate bond with him at once! If you refuse to obey, the merfolk fleet will destroy your whole species!"

With a final flicker, the holographic projection vanished from the air.

Fear drained the color from the wererabbits' faces, but it soon gave way to outright fury, and they turned on Elyse.

"You're nothing but bad luck! Being completely worthless apparently wasn't enough for you. Now you're going to get every last one of us killed!" someone shouted.

The level 3 beast core sticking out of Elyse's pocket caught Julia's attention almost immediately, and she made no attempt to hide how badly she wanted it. Rushing at her, Julia screeched, "You've got a level 3 beast core! How does a worthless thing like you have any right to keep it? Hand it over to me!"