Chapter 186: Selective Annihilation
The air in Orange was finally beginning to settle, though "settling" in a beast-ruled apocalypse simply meant the screaming had stopped. Outside the warehouse, Snow Team moved through the remnants of the City of Light’s extraction unit with clinical efficiency. Ash and Kai were picking through the tactical gear of the fallen, looking for anything that hinted at where these men had come from.
"Church of the Light," Ash muttered, flicking a bloody insignia off a lapel. His dark, intense eyes were rimmed with the exhaustion of holding back his own hunger. As a die-hard of Felicity’s "church," every moment she spent in heat was a test of his soul. "They’re coming from the north. If they have lists of high-tier females, they have a base. A big one."
"Then we burn it," Kai said, his voice tight. He twisted his fingers, causing a small pocket of space to collapse over a discarded radio, crushing it into scrap. "They touched the air she breathes. They don’t get to have a home anymore."
Sarge stood at the centre of the square, his skin shimmering with the last of his electrical discharge. He looked toward the warehouse. He was the boss here, the bridge between the husbands and the teams, but the weight of his past mistake—hurting her- sat heavily in his gut. He knew his place. He was the shield, never the prize.
"Move out," Sarge commanded. "Meet the Leaf Team at the warehouse. We need to coordinate the path to Bowral."
When Snow Team entered the warehouse, the atmosphere shifted instantly. Leaf Team was standing in a perfect, lethal circle around the centre of the floor. Dimitri was at the head, his arms crossed over his chest, his expression like carved ice.
Marx, never one to let a dark mood last, sauntered in with a jagged grin. He was covered in soot and gore, but he still had enough energy to stir the pot. He looked at the members of Leaf Team, Richard, Thane, and Dawn, and noticed the way their jaws were set just a little too tight, the way their eyes tracked the shimmering veil of Felicity’s space with a hunger that was barely contained.
"Well, well," Marx chuckled, sparks of electricity dancing in his hair. "I thought you ’elites’ were above the common pull. But look at you. You’re all vibrating. Dawn, you look like you’re ready to bite through a steel beam just to catch a stray scent."
Dawn didn’t look at him, but his territorial aura flared, making the air feel thick and salty. "Shut it, Marx. Or I’ll show you how a shark feeds in the dark."
"Oh, scary," Marx teased, nudging Pope, who remained stoic. "Hey, Dimitri, you want a prank? I’ve got some leftover sound-dampeners we could..."
Dimitri didn’t even blink. He didn’t laugh, didn’t scold. He remained a statue of frozen obsession, his Silence Domain making Marx’s voice feel small. He was simply guarding the gate to a heaven he wasn’t allowed to enter.
Inside the sanctuary, the temperature began to spike.
Victor’s body, which had been a frozen statue for days, suddenly jerked. A pulse of energy, white-hot and terrifyingly cold all at once—rippled outward from him. The floorboards of the house groaned under the sheer weight of his presence.
Felicity, who had been resting her head near his chest, bolted upright. Her eyes, usually wide with innocent fear, now held a new depth, a womanly awareness born of the heat she had just endured.
Victor’s eyes snapped open. They weren’t just the eyes of an eagle anymore; they were the eyes of a god. The breakthrough was complete. He felt the world as a series of points he could simply... erase. The knowledge flooded his mind: Selective Annihilation. He could nuke a city, or a single heart, and choose exactly who survived the blast. It was a power meant for a King.
Then he saw her.
"Victor!" Felicity cried out. The shyness that usually governed her was burned away by the relief of seeing him awake. She dove into his arms, her small hands clutching at his shoulders as she sobbed into his neck. "Victor, I missed you so much! I was so scared... everything was so loud, and everyone was so angry..."
Victor’s large hands cupped her back, pulling her so close she could feel the thrum of his new power. He buried his face in her hair, breathing her in, and then he froze.
The scent hit him like a physical blow. The sweet, cloying, unmistakable bloom of a female who had just finished her heat. And beneath it... the scent of other males. His brothers, yes... but someone else. Someone dark, slick, and suffocating.
"Felicity," Victor’s voice was a low, dangerous rumble. He pulled back, his eyes searching hers, dark with a possessive jealousy that bordered on madness. "You bloomed. Without me."
He looked up. Standing at the foot of the bed was Exile. The Anaconda beastman didn’t flinch, though Victor’s aura was enough to kill a lesser man. Exile’s eyes were glassy with addiction, his intensity so high it made Damien the Onyx snake look stable by comparison.
"Exile," Victor growled, "how?"
Damien stepped forward, his voice calm but wary. "She needed him, Victor. Her heat was... more than they could manage alone. He’s mated to her now, and we were trapped in here with you"
Victor stared at Exile. He saw the way the new man looked at Felicity, like he wanted to swallow her whole and keep her in his gut forever. Victor had one snake already; now there were two unhinged, addicted stalkers in his inner circle.
"What the fuck," Victor muttered.
But then Felicity pulled him back, her lips meeting his in a desperate, deep kiss that tasted of her need and her fear. Victor’s anger didn’t vanish, but it redirected. He scooped her up effortlessly, his muscles bulging as he stood.
"Out," Victor commanded the other husbands. "All of you. I need to see what has been done to my mate. And I need to understand this... fire in my veins."
He didn’t wait for them to move. He carried Felicity toward the back of the house, toward the private rooms where they could be alone. He needed to mark her again, to overwrite every scent that wasn’t his, and to test the limits of the Selective Annihilation humming in his blood.
As Victor left the main room, the tension broke just enough for the "cubs" as he took them out of his space. Luna and Frost, the silver fox cubs, had been curled up in a corner, grumbling about being trapped in the "kindergarten world" while the big males were all being weird and possessive.
"About time!" Luna yipped, tumbling out of the space as the veil thinned. She hit the warehouse floor and immediately started chasing her own tail.
Frost followed, looking characteristically grumpy. "Too hot in there. Too much fire-dad energy. I want to bite something."
Damien and Ivan stepped out of the space behind them, the gate closing as Victor sealed the inner room. Damien looked tired, his mind-control powers resting for a moment, while Ivan looked at the cubs with a rare, amused glint in his lion-like eyes.
"Go on then," Ivan said, nudging the cubs toward the Leaf Team. "Go bother the ’elites.’ They’ve had it too quiet for the last hour."
Luna and Frost didn’t need to be told twice. They lunged at Dimitri, who was still standing with his arms crossed. Luna started tugging on his white tactical boots, while Frost began trying to climb up his leg like a tree.
"Dimitri! Dimitri! Did you kill everyone? Can we go to the town of Orange and find the grocery store?" Luna chirped.
Dimitri didn’t move. He didn’t even look down, though his Silence Domain wavered slightly as the cubs’ telekinetic energy flickered around them.
Marx doubled over, laughing at the sight of the world’s most dangerous Nullifier being used as a jungle gym by two fox cubs. "Look at that! The legendary Leaf Team leader was defeated by a toddler. I’m telling everyone, Dimitri. This is going in the records."
Dimitri finally looked at Marx, his gaze cold enough to stop a heart. "Marx," he said quietly.
"Yeah?"
"I will let Dawn show you what territorial saturation feels like from the inside of his stomach."
Marx’s laughter died instantly. He cleared his throat, flashed a quick peace sign, "Right! Bowral! Moving out!"
Inside the hidden room of the space, far away from the banter and the blood, Victor held Felicity against the wall, his forehead pressed to hers. He could feel the new husband’s mark on her, feel the lingering heat in her skin, but as she kissed him again, softer this time, more sure of herself. He knew that regardless of how many predators gathered at her feet, he was the sun they all revolved around.
"Selective Annihilation," he whispered against her lips. "I’ll use it to turn the City of Light into a crater, Felicity. For you. I’ll nuke the world if it keeps you this close."
Felicity didn’t shy away. She just reached up, her fingers tracing the new lines of power on his face. "Just don’t leave me again," she whispered. "I don’t care who else is here. I just need you."
Victor roared, a sound that echoed through the space and vibrated into the warehouse, telling every male on Snow Team and Leaf Team that the King was back. And he was very, very hungry.