The silence that followed was deafening. The only sounds were the distant crackling of burning motorcycle parts and Kristi's ragged breathing behind me.

"I'm sorry," she stammered out, her voice breaking. "I'm so sorry, Alec. I didn't—I couldn't—she made me—"

I turned away from where Magdaline had vanished, my face a mask of cold fury. Kristi was still on her knees, tears streaming down her scaled cheeks, her entire body shaking with the aftermath of terror and guilt.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," she kept repeating, her words tumbling over each other. "She said she'd kill my sisters, my parents, you… if I didn't bind the Quest, said she'd tear you apart piece by piece, and I couldn't—I couldn't let that happen—"

I walked past her without a word, heading toward the scattered forms of the Skid Marks. The explosion had thrown them across the field like broken dolls, and most were still groaning as they tried to assess their injuries in the flickering light of the burning wreckage.

Captain Adler lay on the roadside, her leather jacket torn open and dark with blood. The metal fragment had punched clean through her left shoulder, and she was clutching the wound with her good hand, her usual swagger replaced by the hollow-eyed stare of someone who'd just learned what real power looked like.

I walked over to her deliberately, my footsteps crunching on scattered debris. She looked up as I approached, her silver and black fur matted with dirt and blood.

"Alec-tater," she wheezed, managing a weak grin despite her obvious pain. "Hell of a—"

I stepped onto her chest with my full weight, driving the air from her lungs. Her words cut off in a strangled gasp as my boot pressed down on her ribcage, beside the area where the metal fragment had torn through her shoulder. Blood seeped through her tank top.

"Did you hear the Lynx?" I asked, my voice cold.

Adler tried to speak but could only wheeze, her good hand clawing weakly at my leg. Behind me, I could hear Kristi's sobbing intensify, but I didn't turn around.

"She's going to kill everyone I care about if I don't complete her quest," I continued, pressing down harder. "Everyone in Ferguson. Everyone I've met. Everyone I might meet." I leaned forward slightly, putting more weight on her chest. "That includes you and your pack."

"A-Alec," she gasped. "Can't... breathe..."

"Good." I didn't ease up. "So here's what's going to happen. You're going to stop calling me, stop tracking me, stop treating me like your property. You're going to take your little gang and disappear until I figure out how to complete this impossible quest. Because if you don't—if you keep bothering me, keep distracting me from what I need to do—then everyone dies, and it'll be your fault."

I lifted my foot slightly, just enough for her to draw a ragged breath. "Do we understand each other?"

Adler nodded frantically, blood flecking her lips.

From nearby, I heard Donutz's voice, weak but defiant. "The spellchain... binding you to us... can't be broken like that."

I turned to look at the fox, who was propped up against a piece of twisted metal, her legs dark with blood from multiple lacerations. Despite her injuries, her eyes still held that calculating intelligence that made her dangerous.

"This… Dagaz Rune only replicates once it's set in," she continued. "It doesn't matter what threats you make or how much you want to be free. The binding exists in a conceptual loop in the Astral now. It can only be broken by the conditions I set—two prads who love you and each other more than we do."

I stared at her, feeling something cold settle in my chest. "You're saying I'm stuck with you idiots forever?"

"Y-yes," the fox let out, blinking tears out of her eyes. "I… like you even more now. That was incredible. You… you're the real shit, real deal, Alec… You… spoke to the Magnetic Lynx and lived. You hold… everyone's lives in your hands. She called you... Slayer, that's… pretty hot, 'm not gonna lie."

"Yeh," Adler let out. "You've only managed to make yourself look more impressive, tater."

"You… appear brighter in the Astral," Donutz added. "Your skills are regenerating, the mana transfer, it's working, yes?"

"Yes," I ground out. "It's working."

"Great," the fox smiled, spitting blood from her mouth.

"Great?!" I growled, relocating from Adler to grab Candace by her torn up leather jacket. "You think that…"

Candace winced as I shook her.

"Choke me harder," she let out, with a grin, blood splattered tail wagging slightly.

"God damn you all!" I snarled, my grip weakening.

"That's it," Candace laughed, panting. "Call me names, hit me. I know you want to. I deserve it all. I'm a bad girl and my heart belongs to the open road, to the wind and the sky… and to you, my new… immovable Alpha, the Slayer of my heart."

"What?" My eye twitched.

"I don't know about the others, but you're def' my Alpha now," she let out. "You took on the Lynx and walked away without a scratch. She obviously saw something in you. Potential. Glory. Power. I see it too and so I… submit."

She lowered her eyes. "Do with me as you desire."

"I see how it's going to be," I said. "Fine. I accept."

"You do?" Candace's eyes lit up, dark gray tail wagging. "You're going to join us and…"

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"No," I said.

"What?" She blinked.

"You're not expelled from school right?" I asked.

"Umm, no," she said. "I ran away from home without telling anyone… Why?"

When a pradavarian declared someone their Alpha, they usually obeyed them, followed their orders.

"Here's my first order as Alpha—I'm disbanding the Skid Marks," I grinned. "You're coming home with me, Candace. To Ferguson."

"W-what?! No, you can't make me go back!" She cried out.

"Oh?" I pulled the bluegrass healing necklace off my neck and put it over her head making it rest on her chest. "You're going to disobey your new Alpha then? Is that how it's going to be? Rebelling already?"

"I... no," she said quietly, her earlier defiance crumbling. "I won't rebel against my Alpha. But please, Alec, you don't understand. I can't go back to stay with my parents. They'll force me into therapy, try to 'fix' me… put me on meds! I… I don't want to be on that shit again. It makes me dull, empty, uncaring…"

I studied her face, seeing an ocean of fear beneath the tough biker exterior. "Fine. You can live with me then."

Her ears perked up slightly. "Really?"

"Really. I'm going to fix up my grandfather's burned-out farmhouse. Plenty of room for one more." I gestured at the other downed members of the Skid Marks. "Speaking of which—who else is expelled from Ferguson High like Adler?"

Candace looked around at her former packmates, most of whom were now staring at us with expressions ranging from confusion to outright betrayal.

"Only Addie," she said.

"And the others?"

"Turbo graduated from Ferguson High last year. She left town to work at a gas station while doing loner delving. She hooked up with us inside the Superstore. Bark-n-Bite and Tequila Sunrise are from Iona—they joined our pack about three months ago. We're… we're family."

"A family that beat me up," I pointed out.

"M' sorry," She fell silent, lowering her eyes.

"That was just a bit of hazing," Adler protested weakly from where she was. "Come on, you're clearly fine. I was testing you, seeing if you were worthy of—"

I sent her a glare and got a blood-covered half-smirk back in return.

I shook my head and stood up, surveying the carnage around us. The Skid Marks were scattered across the field like broken toys, bleeding and groaning in the flickering light of their destroyed motorcycle. Despite everything they'd put me through, I couldn't just leave them here to die.

"Candace, where's your first aid kit?" I asked.

"In... in Bark's saddlebags," she pointed weakly toward the burning motorcycle remnants. "Probably melted by now."

I sighed and walked over to Kristi, who was still catatonic and mumbling apologies.

"Got an aid kit?" I asked.

"I'm so sssoooorrr…" she froze for a second, processing my question for a moment. "Glider. Dashboard." She finally let out.

I walked over to her Strand Glider and pulled the general med kit from its innards. It had a couple of healing potions and bandages coated in some generic healing solution.

"Help me patch them up," I ordered as I returned to the fox. "Starting with Bark."

Candace struggled to her feet, leaning heavily on my arm as we made our way back to where Bark lay.

We poured the two healing potions from the kit into her mouth. Bark-n-Bite's throat worked reflexively as the potions went down, her wolf features relaxing slightly as the magical healing began to take effect. The worst of the bleeding slowed, though she remained unconscious, her breathing shallow but steady.

"Bark'll live," Candace announced as she sent an Identify pulse across the wolf. "But she's gonna be out for a while."

Then we walked over to Adler.

"Come back to gloat, tater?" She asked.

"Come back to keep you from bleeding to death," I replied, kneeling beside her. "Hold still."

I pulled off her torn leather jacket and examined the wound where the metal fragment had punched through her shoulder. It had gone clean through, which was good—no shrapnel to dig out—but she was losing blood at a concerning rate. Thankfully she was wearing a tank top which left her shoulder exposed.

"This is going to hurt," I warned, uncapping the antiseptic.

"Can't hurt worse than—FUCK!" Adler's words cut off in a yowl of pain as I poured the antiseptic over both sides of the wound. Her claws raked furrows in the dirt as she fought not to pull away.

"Drama queen," I muttered, applying pressure bandages to both the entry and exit wounds. "Candace, hold these in place while I make a sling."

"Here's the situation, Captain," I began as I bandaged her up. "The Magnetic Lynx just made it very clear that my continued existence depends on completing an impossible quest. That means I need to get stronger, fast."

"If you join my pack, I can help you get strong," she said.

"With you as Alpha and me as your bottom?" I arched an eyebrow. "Yeah, not happening."

She winced as I bound her hand.

"Candace has already declared me her Alpha," I said. "Question is—what about you?"

Adler stared at me, her silver eyes unreadable. "You want me to submit to you?

"I want you to make a choice," I said, finishing the sling and helping her get her arm into it. "You can accept me as Alpha and follow my orders, or you can go back to being Captain of whomever remains. Your team of five is disbanded either way."

"Disbanded?" Her eyes flashed with anger. "You can't just—"

"I can and I did," I cut her off. "Candace is with me now. The others can choose for themselves. But the Skid Marks are done. That name, that identity—it dies here."

"W-what?" She blinked. "You can't do that! Donutz! You love me, don't you?"

Candace nodded.

"So what the shit?!"

"The Lynx will kill everyone if Alec doesn't reach the end of Highway 69," Candace pointed out. "She's made that pretty clear. Also, my Alpha made it clear that he's not going to be told what to do. So I submit to him instead as it is clearly the only path forward. I suggest you do the same. The Skid Marks are done."

"What about our team logo?!" the cheetah choked.

"We can make new shirts and jackets," Candace shrugged. "Your design skills suck anyway."

"Fuck you!" The cheetah snapped.

Candace reached towards Adler's head with her paw. "Bind Mobility."

Adler's body went limp.

Candace pulled out a plastic spoon from her pocket. "Submit."

"F-fuck you!" Adler repeated with a deep growl. "Take it back! My logo design is amazing!"

"I will scoop out your eyes," the fox brought the plastic spoon to Adler's eye sitting atop of the paralyzed cheetah. "And you won't be able to stop me."

The sheer absurdity of the situation—Donutz menacing Adler with a utensil that looked like it came from a fast-food joint—was almost enough to make me crack a smile. Almost. The tension in the air was still thick, with the burning motorcycle parts casting flickering shadows across the field.

"Okay, okay, jeez!" Adler wheezed, her silver eyes darting between the spoon and Donutz's deadpan expression. "What's next, you gonna fork me to death with a spork? Maybe suck my brains out with a bendy straw?"

Donutz leaned in closer, twirling the spoon dramatically between her claws like it was a dagger. "Don't tempt me, Cap. This spoon's seen some shit. Survived the Superstore deli section and TurboFluff's attempt at 'cooking.' It's got a kill count."

"You're lucky I love your loopy ass," Adler sighed.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.