Chapter 2 A Forced Mate Bond

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?"