Chapter 15: Dire Consequences
It was still a good hour before the sun was due to crest the horizon to the east as Jamie and Adelaide stowed the last of their gear. Even though the sun wasn’t up yet, there was plenty of light to see what they were doing thanks to the large blue planet that hovered low in the sky each morning. Jamie had come to find out from the Elders that the planet was called Azrael.
Azrael always preceded the sunrise. The blue hue that blanketed the land during these predawn hours always made Jamie feel anxious, like something bad was about to happen at any given moment. She counted the minutes until the sun made that feeling go away.
Jamie shifted her gaze to the only moon still visible. The smaller of Eldara’s moons was the light-green one called Verdia. It was still slightly larger than Earth’s moon, though, so calling it small was a matter of perspective. Unlike Azrael, every time Jamie took a moment to gaze at it, she felt at peace. It reminded Jamie of being held by her mother when she was little, of that absolute certainty that nothing bad could happen because she was there, and Jamie was safe.
Solara, the gray moon, had set several hours ago, so it was nowhere to be seen. That moon moved almost as quickly as a satellite did back on Earth, traversing the sky fast enough to make itself known twice during Eldara’s twenty-six-hour day.
“You all packed and ready to go?” Adelaide asked Jamie.
“Yup.”
Ember, want a ride on my ruck?
I’ll walk.
Yeah, could have guessed that one, but Jamie still gave it a shot anyway. This was shaping up to become another long day, she decided.
Jamie hated this. The space between them. She’d hoped Ember would be in a better mood after getting a short but good night’s sleep, but it looked like Jamie was still going to be in the doghouse.
Day two and counting.
“Okay, Tovin should be returning from his pre-morning scouting soon, so let’s make our way to the road and wait for him there,” Adelaide said.
“Any idea how many miles a day that guy walks?” Jamie asked.
“Nope, but I suspect quite a lot.”
“I think you’re right,” Jamie agreed. “Put a Fitbit on him and it would break inside of three days.”
“Fitbit?”
“It’s something to count the number of steps you walk,” Jamie explained, not bothering to add the fact that it was a device from her world and not from here.
The road was quiet as they set foot on the cobblestones. It had sprinkled lightly during the night, so the road was still wet from the rain. Ember was the first to notice and alert everyone to Tovin making his way back to the group. His excursions usually stuck to around thirty minutes each time, so it made it easy to predict when the scout would return.
Tovin looked like he’d run the whole way, and a light sheen of sweat was clear on his face. He didn’t look the least bit tired, though.
“Okay. I’ve got our route planned for the next few hours,” he announced as he ran up to them. “The first two fights will be challenging, but we should get through them fairly quickly,” Tovin said.
“After that, we’re going to need to do a bit of sneaking and creeping due to the fact that there’s a Dire Bear in the direction we need to go. I would have us swing wide to the west, but that will cost us several hours of travel time getting to the main hunting grounds.”
“And that’s the area Mike suggested we do the majority of our grinding?” Jamie asked.
“Yes. I’ve never been there myself, but The Voice told me this is the best place at our level to speed-run you to Level 15.”
He glanced back in the direction he’d come from. “I don’t think there is anywhere else we can go and find enough things to fight to reach your goal in time. As long as we’re careful, we should be fine, however. The Dire Bear appears to be on the trail of something else, so it’s not going to bother with us as long as we stay out of its way.”
“I followed its trail for a few minutes and found the tracks it’s following. Dire Wolves. A small pack. They must be in a bad way to trespass into a Dire Bear’s domain, but their mistake is what’s going to get us past the bear and to where we need to go.”
“Dire Bear?” Adelaide said. “You sure it’s not better if we go wide, just in case? If this is indeed its hunting grounds, the smart play is to avoid passing through its domain altogether.”
Tovin looked over at Jamie. “It’s your call, Princess, but if we take the safer option, I don’t think we can count on you hitting Level 15.”
Jamie paused for a moment. “Let’s take the risk. If you say we can make it past that thing, then I trust your judgment, Tovin.”
No one protested after that. Jamie might be the most inexperienced of the group, but she was the reason they were even out here in the first place. What she said went, within reason.
Jamie was pretty sure she was going to get a hell no if she suggested they charge a Dire Badger next, but other than that, she was getting her way for the most part. From what Jamie had heard about Dire Badgers, they were the size of Doberman Pinschers and far more vicious than wolverines. There was no way their four-person team could handle one of those at their current levels.
They had avoided two of them so far. Like a good scout, Tovin had gotten them past both with zero issues, but also like a good scout, he had marked them on his map for a more experienced and higher-level group to handle later. There were several small farming villages near those nests, and leaving Dire Badgers to feed on the farmers’ livestock would only cause trouble for both the farmers and the people who depended on those herds for food.
Just like Tovin had told the group before setting out, the first two fights of the day went quickly, and now that the sun was up, they started making their careful way past the Dire Bear.
Things were going well until Jamie felt a sudden shift in Ember’s emotions.
It’s killing them, she sent.
Killing what? Jamie asked.
Dire Wolves.
“Ember says she thinks the Dire Bear is killing the pack of wolves.”
“Yeah, she’s right. I can hear the fighting from here,” Tovin confirmed. “I can smell the blood too. The fight must be close. This is our chance to get past that Bear.”
Jamie had just nodded for Tovin to continue to lead the way when Ember darted into the woodline.
Ember, what are you doing?
She is going to die, Ember sent, her emotions a mixture of outrage and panic.
Jamie didn’t hesitate. She ran as fast as she could, hoping to catch her bond-mate before Ember did something crazy. Jamie didn’t bother looking to see if her teammates followed. She had no doubt they would.
Oh, this is bad. This is so bad.
Shift.
Ember, please think about what you’re doing, Jamie sent as she finished shifting into puma form.
Ember had a lead on her, but in this form, Jamie would catch up quickly. Jamie could hear the fighting clearly now that she was in puma form. The roars the Dire Bear was making sent a chill down Jamie’s spine. Tovin had made no mistake in wanting to avoid this thing. Just from the sounds of the battle ahead, Jamie knew this was not something to take lightly.
Ember, stop!
I can’t. If I do, she will die. I need to save her.
Ember came into view a few seconds later, but not before she burst into an open field. The same field where the Dire Bear was laying waste to a pack of Dire Wolves.
Jamie could hear Tovin and Adelaide’s footsteps pounding through the forest behind them, but they were nowhere near as fast as Ember and Jamie were on all fours. Jamie estimated they had a thirty-second lead on the other two.
Three Dire Wolves lay scattered across the churned earth. Two were already obviously dead at a glance, their massive bodies torn open, mist slowly leaking from wounds that refused to close. Another lay on its side, breath coming in wet, shallow gasps, each one visibly weaker than the last.
One final wolf remained on its feet—a large gray male standing between the fallen wolves and their enemy. Opposite him loomed the Dire Bear.
It was enormous.
Not bear-sized at all. The damn thing was closer to the size of an Indian elephant. Not quite as large as one of the African elephants Jamie remembered from Earth, but still way bigger than anything she wanted to see charging in her direction.
Even by dire standards, it dwarfed anything Jamie had encountered before. Scars crisscrossed its thick hide, some old and faded, others fresh. Blood matted its fur where the wolves had managed to land blows, and its eyes burned with feral intelligence and pain-fueled rage.
When it shifted its weight, the ground beneath it shuddered, dirt and loose stones jumping as though the earth itself were trying to get out of its way. Jamie had read a bit about these things. They were fast runners on the ground, powerful as heck, and best left avoided if you could manage it.
Jamie instinctively cast Analyze as she ran. Most of the information barely registered. The level did.
Level 20.
This was not good. Not good at all.
Ember, that thing is too high level. We need to run, not attack the dang thing.
No. We can win this.
Jamie’s stomach dropped. Ember—
Time seemed to slow as Jamie watched in horror as Ember Blink Stepped directly into melee range of the Dire Bear. That was not what that skill was meant for. It was meant to get you out of trouble, not quicker into it.
A Siphon Spell slammed into its flank before Ember even reached it. Then another.
In the blink of an eye, Ember landed two attacks against the Bear’s side with her claws before it seemed to fully understand where the new threat had come from. The Dire Bear had been focused on the lone surviving wolf, who, despite everything around him, still stood defiantly between the monster and the rest of his pack.
Jamie thanked the Goddess that Ember didn’t stick around for the counterattack. The Bear twisted toward her and swung one enormous paw at the tiny creature that had dared cause it pain, but Ember was already moving. The paw tore through empty air.
Jamie’s eyes widened in surprise. Holy crap. Ember had been right about one thing. She was hella hard to hit. In the crucible Jamie had seen Ember do this many times, but that had felt more like a video game and less like life or death.
This situation was 100% life or death.
The Bear swung again, but Ember darted aside, so much smaller and faster that the attack didn’t come close. And despite herself, Jamie felt something shift inside her. Fear was still there. A whole lot of fear. But underneath it came something else.
Excitement.
Maybe Ember wasn’t completely crazy. Maybe they really could pull this off.
Jamie lowered herself and charged at full speed toward the Dire Bear, encouraged by Ember’s performance. Jamie couldn’t let her bond-mate show her up like that.
Two Siphon Spells hit the Dire Bear as Jamie followed Ember’s example. While the Bear was busy trying its best to hit Ember, Jamie’s jaws opened as wide as they could go. She clamped down hard, and when Jamie pulled away, she tore a large chunk of hide with her. Hot blood poured into Jamie’s mouth from the flesh caught between her teeth. She wanted to swallow her prize, but Jamie managed to keep the wild at bay. Instead, she spat the flesh and fur onto the ground as she ran around to maneuver for a second attack.
Jamie had just turned to see how big of a gap she’d created between herself and that face of death, only to discover there was no gap at all. Lesson one: keep your eyes on the target at all times. Jamie hadn’t, and that mistake was about to cost her in blood.
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The paw and oversized claws about to hit Jamie only got larger the closer they came to her puma head.
This is going to hurt really badly, she thought as she closed her eyes, accepting the fact that she wasn’t Ember. She wasn’t small, and Ember was way better at dodging than Jamie was. Jamie was fast, but her size made it harder to dodge an attack like this.
Clang!
The sound forced Jamie’s eyes open to discover that a large round shield had taken the hit meant for her face. The shield was held by the most beautiful thing Jamie had ever seen. A Naiad with an overactive need to protect her team.
“Princess, you’re going to owe me big time if we make it out of this alive,” Adelaide said between grunts of determination as the Bear started forcing its weight into the shield after the claw attack failed to work.
Jamie quickly shifted back into Dryad form so she could call out a warning to Adelaide. The second attack coming from Adelaide’s blind side wasn’t going to be stopped this time. The Bear had shifted its weight to swing with its other paw.
Adelaide was about to get hit, and hit hard. Jamie’s mouth had just started trying to get the words out when a bolt covered in lightning struck the Dire Bear’s left eye.
The beast roared in pain as it retreated several feet, but before it could recover, a second bolt struck the Bear in the side, right where Jamie had torn a large hole in its hide.
Adelaide didn’t hesitate to take advantage of the opening.
Shield Rush.
One second Adelaide was directly in front of Jamie, and the next she was slamming her shield into the Dire Bear’s face. There were a lot of things Jamie never expected to see in this new life. Somewhere near the top of that list would have been a one-hundred-and-thirty-something-pound woman—gear and all—knocking what could only be a bear in the plus-four-ton range backward.
Crashing Breaker.
It was Adelaide’s strongest attack, and the combination of shield bashes followed quickly by sword strikes kept the momentum on their side for a few precious moments. But overwhelming strength had a way of overcoming skill when that skill didn’t have enough strength of its own.
The Bear slammed a paw into Adelaide’s shield after recovering from the Berserker-like attack, sending Adelaide flying back several feet, where she crashed into a large tree. The tree cracked under the impact and gave way, but Adelaide didn’t come out of the collision unscathed. Jamie heard the unmistakable crack of bone.
Jamie had to move, and move quickly.
“Tovin, Ember, buy me some time!” she shouted to the two other team members still capable of fighting.
The bolt that struck the Bear and the three Siphon Spells that followed were the only confirmation Jamie needed. They would do their best to buy her that time. With their Tank down, the team wouldn’t make it through this.
Jamie dropped beside Adelaide and set her hand on the Tank’s hip.
Regenerative Flow.
The spell took hold the moment Jamie made contact. Her healing magic did exceptionally well with broken bones, but there was a catch. The bone still needed to be in the right place when it healed.
Jamie kept her hand over the break, guiding the flow of healing magic while forcing the bone back into alignment. A ranged cast could repair the damaged tissue, but without someone there to properly set the break, the bone might heal incorrectly.
Adelaide grunted in pain when Jamie’s magic pulled everything back where it belonged. Jamie felt the bone knitting beneath her hand as Regenerative Flow continued working. Not more than three seconds later, Adelaide tested the leg and pushed herself back to her feet.
“Okay, now I owe you,” she said before charging back into battle.
“Freaking All-Stars,” Jamie muttered as she cast a second Flow on the Tank as she ran. The heal over time would last for the next twelve seconds, and the odds were high that the H.O.T. would come into play before it fell off.
Jamie stood back up. She was about to shift back into puma form when the key to victory struck her suddenly.
Jamie cast Neural Spike, hitting the Dire Bear right in the head just after it swung and missed Ember yet again. The spell did a fair bit of damage, but that wasn’t why she had cast it.
The Bear’s head snapped toward Jamie, its attention now entirely on her. Then it charged. That was what Jamie needed.
She waited as the Bear thundered toward her, putting distance between itself, Ember, and Tovin.
There. That was good enough.
“Adelaide, keep the Bear’s attention for a few seconds!” Jamie yelled.
“On it!”
Taunt.
The Bear’s attention snapped away from Jamie and onto the Tank holding the shield. It changed direction and charged. To Adelaide’s credit, she stood fast even with four tons of fury heading toward her at speed.
The Bear never got to land the attack meant for Adelaide. Its claws struck a wall of Poison Ivy instead, and Jamie quickly cast the spell three more times, boxing in the Bear.
When the Bear realized it was trapped, it reared onto its hind legs. Jamie stared upward. Standing like that, the damn thing was almost as tall as a two-story house.
“Crap!”
Jamie acted before the Bear had the chance to climb over the enclosure. She cast four more Poison Ivy walls, stacking them above the first four and extending the box upward. The new walls snapped into place like Legos.
With that, the Bear was trapped, and it was already dead. It just didn’t know it yet.
Jamie closed her eyes and reached out to the nature all around her. She didn’t need to see the Bear to know where it was. She could feel its massive paws pressing against the grass inside the enclosure.
Keeping her eyes closed, Jamie continued building her poison walls of death, snapping new ones into place and making the Bear’s space smaller and smaller with each new wall. Before long, Jamie smelled melting flesh and fur.
Then came the Bear’s cries of agony.
Jamie almost stopped, but she didn’t. This had been a battle to the death. One side was going to win, and the other was going to die. Less than a minute ago, Jamie could have sworn the side that was going to die would have been hers.
Another wall snapped into place, and the Bear roared as it slammed against the enclosure. Jamie flinched at the sound but kept going, adding another wall and then another as the space inside grew smaller. The roaring eventually turned to pained cries, and Jamie had to fight the urge to open her eyes and make it stop. The tears fell unchallenged, but she kept right on conjuring new walls.
Making it stop now meant letting the Bear out, so Jamie continued.
Two minutes later, the battlefield was quiet. The smell was bad enough to make Jamie want to throw up her breakfast, but it was quiet. That was when Jamie realized no one was saying anything.
Jamie quickly opened her eyes.
“What? Are you guys hurt?” she asked.
All three of them were watching Jamie. For how long, she had no idea.
“Princess, if I ever end up pissing you off, please give me a chance to beg for your forgiveness,” Tovin said, with zero sign he was joking.
“Yeah, me too,” Adelaide agreed. “You are crazy scary, Princess.”
Jamie didn’t know how to respond to that, so she didn’t. She just took a moment to look at her team, who were still staring at her a little wide-eyed.
“You’re hurt,” Jamie said after noticing that Ember and Tovin had taken hits while buying her the time she needed. Nothing serious, but Jamie spent the mana to heal them anyway. Her reserves were getting low, but she still had enough to bring everyone back to full health.
Somewhere in the back of her mind, Jamie knew she had reached Level 11, but she didn’t smile. The Bear hadn’t been evil. It had been an animal fighting to survive, just like they had been.
Jamie looked toward the walls of Poison Ivy and immediately wished she hadn’t. Winning had been necessary. She just wasn’t sure it had needed to look like that.
Once the team was healed, Jamie turned to the now-collapsed Dire Wolf. As she walked over, Jamie could tell the female lying nearby was beyond help. She must have died during the fight while Jamie had been too focused on keeping her team and herself alive.
Could she have perhaps spared a moment to send a heal at the badly wounded wolf? Maybe, but in the end, the wolf was dead. Jamie decided she needed to strive to be a better healer. The wolf hadn’t been a teammate, but what about in the future? The teams would only get bigger, and there would be more people’s health to keep track of.
The lone surviving wolf shifted his head to look at Jamie. He looked so tired, and it was only a matter of time before he too succumbed to his wounds.
“I can help you if you let me,” Jamie said calmly.
The Dire Wolf didn’t respond with words, but his eyes told Jamie everything she needed to know. She had his permission to approach. Jamie didn’t know enough about the wolf to heal him at range, so she needed to make contact with him.
Carefully, Jamie rested her hands on the Dire Wolf’s side after kneeling next to him. He was matted in blood. Some of it belonged to the Bear, but most came from the many wounds the Dire Wolf had sustained trying to protect his pack.
“Careful, Princess,” Tovin warned. “Dire Wolves can be allies, but they can just as easily be enemies.”
“He’s an ally,” Jamie said, knowing it to be true as she began healing the wolf. She stared into his golden eyes, his intelligence clear to see. This Dire Wolf was no mindless beast.
As Jamie continued to pour mana into her healing spell, she felt her reserves slowly empty. She judged herself to be down to around ten percent when she cast the last heal needed to stabilize the wolf. It wasn’t a full recovery, but it was enough that the rest would heal soon. The wolf never snapped at her or growled in warning. He just lay there watching her.
A moment later, Jamie understood what came next.
The wolf was expecting her to bond with him.
Jamie had been told most bonds were straightforward, with three notable exceptions. Kitsune needed to bond in order to evolve to their full potential. Dragons, no matter how much Willpower you had, wouldn’t accept a bond unless they thought you were worthy, and to hear Mike tell it, very few Tamers were ever considered worthy by a dragon. You were just as likely to get eaten by one as you were to form a bond with one.
And last were the Dire Wolves. They weren’t humanoids, but they might as well have been. They were every bit as intelligent as most people and lived for the pack. They defended the pack, loved the pack, and the pack was everything to them. To be accepted by a Dire Wolf meant you were being accepted as a pack-mate, and again, that was not an easy thing to accomplish. Maybe even harder than not getting eaten by a dragon.
Jamie didn’t need to look at the taming screen to know this bond was sitting at one hundred percent.
Jamie thought Accept.
She hadn’t been the one choosing; the wolf had.
Jamie felt the bond settle over the two of them and immediately felt how strong he was. She brought up the Dire Wolf’s Status Screen and saw right away that he needed a name.
She didn’t even need to think about the name she was going to pick. There was only one in her mind that belonged to this noble being.
Sentinel.
CREATURE STATUS SCREEN
Name: SentinelCreature: Dire Wolf (Mist Pack)Sex: MaleLv.: 18Bond Type: Voluntary FamiliarBonded To: Jamie GodwinAffinity Types: Nature, SpiritRole: Guardian / Pack Defender
TITLES:
Pack Defender (+5 Agility)
Alpha Pack Leader (+10 Strength, +10 Constitution)
ATTRIBUTES
Strength: 25 (+10 Alpha Pack Leader)• Agility: 35 (+5 Pack Defender)• Constitution: 45 (+10 Alpha Pack Leader)• Stamina: 23• Intelligence: 19• Willpower: 18• Charisma: 12• Spirit: 16
Title bonuses are already included in the Attribute values shown above. Parenthetical bonuses identify the source of those points and are not added a second time. If a Title is lost, any Attribute points granted by that Title are also lost.
ABILITIES (Slots Used: 9 / 10)
Pack Sentinel (Passive) — Gains increased defense and evasion while positioned between allies and threats. Effects scale with Constitution and Agility.
Packwarden Instinct (Passive — Pack / Guardian) — Sentinel gains stacking bonuses for each allied creature or person within protection range. Bonuses increase dramatically when allies are injured or weaker than Sentinel. Strongest scaling when protecting Jamie.
Last Stand (Passive) — When critically injured, Sentinel gains massive boosts to defense, Willpower, and pain resistance. Effects intensify if allies are behind him.
Iron Hide (Passive) — Dense musculature and reinforced hide reduce incoming physical damage. Converts excess Constitution into flat damage mitigation.
Enduring Frame (Passive) — Increased resistance to knockback, stagger, and forced displacement. Sentinel remains mobile under pressure.
Mist Step (Evasion Skill) — Lv. 3 — Instinctive short-range reposition when threatened or when an ally is targeted. Cooldown reduced while Packwarden Instinct is active.
Crushing Bite (Attack Skill) — Lv. 4 — High-impact bite targeting joints, limbs, and vitals. Damage scales with Strength and Constitution. Inflicts movement impairment on larger targets.
Intercept Drive (Passive — Reactive) — Sentinel may automatically move to intercept attacks aimed at bonded allies. Triggers faster when Agility exceeds attacker speed. Can redirect lethal damage to himself instead.
Rending Claws (Attack Skill) — Lv. 2 — Slashing foreclaw attacks that cause bleeding on exposed targets. Damage scales with Agility and Strength.
A silent moment passed between Jamie and Sentinel as they both acknowledged the bond that now connected them. Sentinel had lost his pack only moments ago, but he had a new one now.
Ember also acknowledged the bond, and Jamie could feel her acceptance of the change. There was joy in that, but Jamie could still feel the mistrust Ember held toward her.
And something else.
On equal footing with everything else Ember was feeling was worry. And confusion. Ember knew there was something here. It had been the whole reason she had decided to go on the offensive against such a high-level threat as a Level 20 Dire Bear.
Ember, what is it? Jamie asked.
He knows where she is, Ember sent back. She’s somehow shielded from my senses.
Ember went quiet for a moment.
No, that’s not right. She’s afraid. I can feel it, but there’s no threat, so I can’t pinpoint where she is.
Jamie could feel Ember’s frustration building.
Ask him, please.
Who? Jamie asked.
Ember didn’t respond. She didn’t need to. Just like she said, Sentinel knew what Ember was looking for.
Sentinel turned and padded slowly into the undergrowth at the far end of the clearing. It was near where the other three Dire Wolves had all died, and Jamie could see it now. The wolves hadn’t simply been fighting the Bear. All of them had been positioned around this part of the clearing, defending something.
Sentinel stopped beside the exposed roots of a large tree. Beneath them was a narrow hollow, almost completely concealed by grass, leaves, and tangled undergrowth. The opening was far too small for the Dire Bear to reach inside.
Sentinel looked toward Jamie.
Last.
It wasn’t a word, not really. The meaning came through the bond wrapped in grief, loss, and a fierce need to protect.
Jamie and Ember both walked over to where Sentinel was standing. Bending down, Jamie reached inside the narrow cleft beneath the large tree root.
Something small stirred inside.
A tiny gray shape was curled tightly against the earth, trembling.
A wolf cub.
Small and weak, the cub lifted her head, one ear standing tall while the other still flopped to the side, as she let out a soft, defiant growl that probably sounded far more threatening in her own mind than it did in reality when Jamie’s hand reached for her.
Sentinel’s grief pressed through the bond.
Jamie didn’t hesitate. She wasn’t the least bit worried that this tiny little thing might bite her.
As Jamie pulled the Dire Wolf cub from beneath the root, she could feel her shivering in her hands. Jamie didn’t know if it was from fear or the early afternoon breeze, so she turned toward Tovin.
“Tovin, can you take my cloak out of my ruck?” Jamie asked, not wanting to set the cub down now that she had her in her arms.
“Sure thing, Princess.”
Tovin hurried over to do as she asked, and less than a minute later, the tiny bundle was wrapped securely in Jamie’s green cloak and held close against her chest.
There was no question what Jamie was going to do next.
TAMING SUCCESSFUL.FAMILIAR ACQUIRED.Level: 1Disposition: Fierce (Dependent)
I want to see, Ember sent.
Jamie had been about to take a knee so Ember could get a better look at the cub, but before she could, Ember leapt onto Jamie’s right shoulder.
Jamie froze.
It was the first time Ember had willingly climbed onto her shoulder since their rift. The familiar weight settled against her again, warm fur brushing the side of Jamie’s neck.
Jamie didn’t say anything about it. Neither did Ember.
She is so cute, Ember cooed as she looked down at the Dire Wolf cub.
“What should we name her?” Jamie asked, doing her best not to sound like she was on the brink of tears.
Ember tilted her head first to the left and then to the right as she studied the little wolf.
I think Hope, she sent.
“Are you sure?”
Yes.
Jamie closed her eyes and thought the name into existence on the cub’s Status Screen.
Hope.
“Okay, not to be someone who likes to get in between heartwarming moments like this, but Princess, you owe me, and now it’s time to pay up,” Adelaide said from over Jamie’s other shoulder.
“I thought we were even,” Jamie shot back without the least bit of anger behind it.
“Nope. You owe me one bundle of cuteness. Pay up.”
Jamie couldn’t help but smile as she gave the team’s Tank a questioning look over her shoulder.
“What?”
“You think you’re the only one who loves cute things?”
Sighing, Jamie reluctantly handed Hope over to the person who had stood in the path of death for her more than once today.
“Thanks.”
“By the Gods, she is adorable,” Adelaide declared before promptly trying to squeeze the fluff out of Hope.
Jamie couldn’t help but smile again as she watched Adelaide fuss over her newest Familiar. Sentinel had lost his pack today, and Hope had nearly lost everything.
Now, somehow, they had both found a new one. And Jamie couldn’t deny who was to blame for that.
Thank you, Ember, Jamie sent.