"Where do you want me to drive you to?" I began.

"We are staying with you," Candace stated. "Our home situation isn't… Optimal."

"We need a place to stay tonight then," I said. "Somewhere with actual beds and running water. My grandad's farm is unlivable at the moment."

"Ooh, I know just the place!" Candace bounced in her seat. "There's this boutique place downtown—the Moonshard Inn. Super discreet, caters to delvers who need to lay low. They have the best magical privacy wards in town."

"Sounds expensive," I muttered.

"Relax, Alpha. This one's on me." She waggled her fancy credit card at my face. "Or to be more specific—my parents' Estate fund. Consider it my contribution to the pack!"

Twenty minutes later, we pulled up to the Moonshard Inn, a rather elegant establishment that looked more like a small luxury hotel than a motel. Soft lighting illuminated art deco facades, and I could see fancy Agromancer-designed gardens visible through the wrought iron gates.

Candace handled the check-in with practiced ease, charming the night clerk and securing us a suite with two bedrooms and a living area. As we made our way to the room, I couldn't help but note the quality of everything—rich carpets, Depictomancy-animated artwork on the walls. It was definitely the kind of place that charged more per night than I made in a month of packing dog food.

"Here we are," Candace announced, sliding the key card and opening the door to reveal a spacious suite decorated in warm earth tones. "Home sweet temporary home."

Adler immediately claimed one of the large couches, collapsing onto it with a groan. "Fuck, that's better. I think I'm bleeding through the bandages again."

"Bathroom's that way," Candace pointed. "Get yourself cleaned up while I talk to our Alpha."

As soon as the bathroom door closed behind Adler, Candace turned to me with an expression I recognized from earlier—that same predatory intensity, but now splashed with a softer, more vulnerable expression that for some reason reminded me of Nessy.

"Alec," she said, stepping closer. "Thank you. For everything tonight. For becoming our Alpha, for not leaving us to bleed out in that field..."

"You don't need to thank me," I said, suddenly very aware of how close she was standing. "I wasn't going to just abandon you."

"I know," she whispered, reaching up to touch my face. "That's what makes you different. That's why I bound you."

"Hang on," I said. "The bond said I belong to… the Skid Marks. If the gang is no more then… What did the gate guard see?"

"It's a Dagaz Rune," Candace shrugged. "It sorts itself out. Check it for yourself and find out."

I pulled up my Stats.

[Personal Status: Bound packmate of Candace Rhinehart and Adler Silvertail.]

"Still bound huh?" I frowned.

"Mhrmmm," she smiled.

Before I could react, she was kissing me—soft lips against mine, her fox-scent filling my nostrils, claws gently tangling in my hair. For a moment, I found myself responding, the stress and exhaustion of the day giving way to something warmer, more immediate.

Then Nessy's face flashed through my mind—those blue eyes, that distant expression, the way she'd looked at me like I was a stranger. The Well of Severance, stealing away her memories and feelings, turning her into a hollow version of herself.

I pulled back, gently but firmly.

"No," I said. "I can't. I'm sorry, Candace, but... I'm not interested."

"Aw." Her ears drooped slightly, but she didn't look angry or surprised. "The girl you mentioned earlier? Nessy?"

I nodded.

"Hrmmm. How much is she into you?" Candace asked. "Enough into you to ignore the fact that you're magically bound to me and Addie?"

"It's… complicated," I sighed.

"It always is." Candace shrugged, stepping back and giving me space. "If you change your mind, you know where to find me. I'm not going anywhere, Alpha."

The bathroom door opened, revealing Adler in one of the motel's plush, white bathrobes, her spotted fur still damp but considerably cleaner. The bandages on her shoulder had been changed, and she looked more like herself again—albeit a tired, beaten-down version.

"Room for one or two more in that bathroom," she announced.

"Want me to wash you?" the fox offered me with a grin.

"No. Go ahead," I told Candace, waving her off. "I need to... think."

"Don't think too hard," the fox said with a wink. "Sometimes the best decisions are the ones you don't overthink."

As soon as both pradavarians were in the bathroom—I could hear them talking in low voices, occasionally punctuated by Candace's distinctive cheeky laugh—I collapsed onto the suite's king-sized bed. My body finally registered just how exhausted I was. The adrenaline that had been keeping me going since the Magnetic Lynx appeared was finally wearing off, leaving behind a bone-deep weariness that made my limbs feel like lead.

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I closed my eyes, just for a moment…

When I woke up, pale morning light was filtering through the suite's heavy curtains. I was still fully clothed on top of the covers, but I wasn't alone.

Adler was curled up on my left side, her spotted fur soft against my arm, one of her paws resting possessively across my chest. She'd abandoned the bathrobe for an oversized t-shirt with the Ferguson town logo. Her punk-green mohawk was gone, replaced with soft, pure silver curls.

On my right, a silver-white fox had somehow managed to curl her entire fox body into the space between me and the edge of the bed, an incredibly poofy white tail draped across my legs like a blanket. She was wearing absolutely nothing.

What.

Who the fuck is this?!

For a moment, I just lay there, trying to process this development. Two pradavarian girls were using me as their personal space heater, one of whom I didn't recognize.

Adler stirred first, her violet-blue eyes opening to meet mine.

"Morning, tater," she purred, making no move to extract herself from my personal space. "Sleep well?"

"Decent," I admitted. "How's your shoulder?"

"Sore, but functional." She stretched carefully, wincing only slightly as the movement pulled at her bandages.

The silver-white fox chose that moment to wake up, yawning and revealing sharp white teeth before blinking up at me with sleepy gray eyes.

"Mmm, good morning," she mumbled, nuzzling closer to my side, white-silver locks framing her face. "You make an excellent pillow, Alec."

"Thanks," I said, my sleep addled brain struggling to recognize her. "Who are you?"

"Take a guess," she grinned.

"Candace?" It took me a minute to recognize her sharp, gray eyes.

"Yepperoni."

"You're silver and white not… black and dark gray. You've long, curvy, white hair too. And your voice is softer too! How?!"

"I dropped the color and hair binding last night on me," she shrugged. "Das' my natural color n' fluff. Also dropped the binding on my vocal cords."

"Okay but how is your hair three times as long? How is your tail is twice as puffy?" I demanded.

"Most of my hair was bound into the Astral," she smiled. "It's easier than finding a hair salon in the wilds."

"I see," I said. "This leads me to my second question—why are you naked?"

"I'm tempting you," she grinned, sliding out of bed and stretching right in front of me, pale silver curly hair swaying and sparkling in the early morning light spilling through the windows like a thousand stars. "Is it working?"

I let out a weary sigh.

"It's working on me," Addie said. "Rawr. Bend over more!"

Candace bent over. She was very curvy in all the right places and very bendy.

Adler whistled.

I checked my phone trying not to look at the snickering, naked, silver-white fox—6:41 AM.

I shoved myself upright, ignoring the playful banter between Candace and Adler as I swung my legs off the bed. My body ached, but the healing artifacts had done their job—my health bar was sitting at a solid 82%, and the constant pain in my ribs and head was down to a dull throb. My sense of smell was gradually returning, I noted.

"We've got school in two hours," I said, cutting through their giggling. "Candace, you're coming with me. Adler, since you're expelled, what's your plan for the day?"

The cheetah flopped back onto the bed, stretching her arms above her head with a lazy yawn. "I dunno. Can hang out here till you two finish classes, I guess."

"Nu," Candace said. "You're coming with us."

"The hell I am," Adler growled. "Which part of 'm expelled' is not percolating in your loopy brain?"

"The 'not having my mate at my side part'," Candace said. "Commerrrrr."

Adler walked over to where Candace was standing.

"Off with the shirt," the fox ordered.

The cheetah pulled her shirt off, revealing curvy and perky… everything. The fox bit her finger and drew what looked like a sideways, jagged number eight on Alder's chest, directly above her breasts.

I ignored them and went to the bathroom for a quick, cold shower.

When I came out I saw that the floor was decorated in what looked like blood hexagrams converging on a still naked Adler standing there now covered in blood-drawn symbols decorating her gray spotted body.

"By Infinity Paradox Proxima," Candace sang in a resonant-chorus voice, her entire figure igniting with radiant, glowing, off-colored fractals. "In the name of Number Eight I fractalize, divide your identity by zero and gift onto you a new name, a new life, a new Astral imprint… Adelle Sylvia Dallia! Bind blood!"

The air in the hotel room shimmered with residual magic as the fractals faded from around Candace's form. Adler blinked in confusion, looking down at suddenly clean floor, her orange feet and then at her now orange hands.

"What the shit did you just do to me?" she asked. "Why am I… orange?"

"Gave you a new identity," Candace said matter-of-factly, licking her bleeding finger. "Bound my blood to your fur and soul to permanently tint it. Meet Adelle Sylvia Dallia, a transferrrrr student from the Northern Reach Territories. Ta da!"

I stared at both of them. "You can just... create fake identities with magic in twenty minutes or less?"

"Not fake," Candace corrected, pulling on the hotel bathrobe. "Fractalized. I split Adler's conceptual existence and created a parallel identity branch. To people, System and Astral scanners, Adelle Dallia is now a completely different person who happens to look somewhat similar-ish to Adler Silvertail. Different Astral imprint.

"Bind vocal cords. Bind hairstyle." She caressed the cheetah's neck and then head, making her hair more curly.

"So, can you rewrite yourself again? Or rewrite my identity?" I wondered.

"I already split myself into Donutz and Candace," Candace sighed. "One split is already too much effort. And no, I can't do that to anyone anytime I want to. I could split you in a month, maybe, if you really need a new identity. Dis' blood magic yo."

"Isn't the body always producing new blood?" I asked.

"Blood magic of this magnitude spends blood, soul and life. Anyways, Alec, it's a lot more complicated than that," Candace said. "Fractalization, the two-dimensional sword that can cleave concepts in half, takes ages to reload and I just spent what I had. It's, like, mega rarrrrrre."

"Like my Reconstitution then," I concluded. "Got it."

I heard a knock on the door and opened it. A prad dog delivery man handed me a large cardboard box and departed.

"Aww yusss, the clothes I ordered last night got delivered from the shops!" Candace clapped, slicing the box up with a white claw. "Dress, dress!"

"When did you even…" I began.

"Called up a shopping and delivery service while you were snoring," she bobbed.

She threw a plastic-sealed green and black outfit and vibrant lime-green Jaguar-V running shoes at me. Then a reinforced black leather, biker-style jacket with an orange stripe flew at me.

"How did you…" I began.

"I checked your boot size and guesstimated the rest using Astral sight," she said. "That's hexamesh magitek fabric too. It'll adjust to your figure, no worries. The shoes are green to match your eyes, yay."

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