Night’s entire body went rigid, his silent, fluid stride halting so abruptly that he seemed to freeze in place between one shadow and the next. The deep, rumbling purr in his chest, a sound so low it was more of a vibration than an audible noise, ceased. He turned his head slowly, and in the dim light filtering through the pine canopy, his eyes gleamed with an unnerving, intelligent light. They held a sudden chill; a flicker of suspicion and wounded pride at the mere mention of the needed action that made Nate’s stomach tighten.

  “A ‘beast companion’?” Night’s voice was a low, dangerous telepathic whisper that had been stripped of its earlier inquisitiveness. The term hung in the air between them, ugly and loaded with implications of servitude and ownership that he had spent a lifetime resisting. “What is that? Do you expect me to become a pet?”

  Nate winced, immediately recognizing the problem. While Night was smart, he still knew nothing about the outside world. A beast companion was a normal term, and it could mean many things. It just depended on who the beast was paired with.

  “No,” He said quickly, raising a placating hand. “No, not at all. That’s just the name that people and the DCD have given the bond. I suppose with some people that could be the case, but not with us. Aura is my beast companion, and Mika is Lindsay’s.” He glanced back at those two. “Okay, maybe Lindsay and Mika are bad examples. But Mika is still young, and when Lindsay first found her, she hadn’t even formed a core yet. It’s a partnership. A connection of equals.”

  Aura, who had been walking quietly beside Lisa and Lindsay, paused. Though she didn't speak aloud, her calm, clear voice echoed in the minds of Nate, Lindsay, Angie, and Night. “He is telling the truth, Night. It just depends on whom you bond with. I am not Nate’s pet. I am his partner and guardian. That is all that matters.”

  Night’s gaze shifted from Nate to Aura and back again. He didn’t relax, but the overt hostility in his posture lessened, replaced by deep, unknown thoughts. He was weighing their words against everything he had seen during the short time he had been with them. The seamless way they fought together, the casual, respectful affection, the very existence of the community they were walking away from.

  “Explain,” Night commanded, his tone leaving no room for refusal.

  Nate took a steadying breath, grateful for the space everyone was giving them at the moment. They were giving the three their space, sensing a serious conversation was underway.

  He gestured back toward Lindsay, where Mika was now chittering softly on her shoulder. “It’s the same with Lindsay and Mika. Mika isn’t her subordinate. They’re a team. Mika is still completely herself, with her own thoughts and desires. The bond just… connects them. It makes them more than they were apart.”

  Night’s whip-like tails twitched, betraying his inner turmoil. He looked at Aura, truly looked at her. He had known that she was intelligent and powerful, but up till that point, he had not taken the time to truly study her, and what he saw shocked him. He saw not a tamed creature, but a powerful, intelligent being walking beside her human companions, one that she had bonded with, the other as friends, with an air of quiet confidence and belonging. Night had seen firsthand the respect Nate, and the girls afforded her, listening to her counsel and relying on her strength. He had felt the power she wielded, a power that was entirely her own.

  The hollowness he’d felt earlier, even in the middle of the welcoming ceremony for the community, resonated within him. It was the feeling of being an outsider, an observer of a warmth he desperately wanted to be a part of. This bond, this ‘companionship,’ was the bridge from observation to participation. It was the final, terrifying step in trusting others.

  “What do you think, Aura?” He asked, the question holding a hint of vulnerability.

  A long, heavy silence stretched out as the two talked telepathically, filled only by the crunch of pine needles under their feet and the sound of the forest coming alive.

  Night’s gaze swept over the group one last time. Nate’s face was calm and patient; Aura, a silent, powerful testament to the truth of everything that had been said; Lindsay and Angie, laughing softly with their families up ahead. This was a family. A strange, mismatched pack forged in the fires of their journey. And he was standing on the outside, a place he didn’t want to be.

  Finally, he let out a slow breath, the tension seeping from his powerful frame like smoke. “I see,” He said, his telepathic voice returning to its normal, contemplative timbre. He looked directly at Nate, his glowing eyes holding a resolve that was both fierce and vulnerable. “If what you and Aura say is true… then I accept.”

  Nate felt a wave of relief so profound it almost made him breathe out in relief. He hadn’t realized how much he’d wanted the Shadow-Cat to join them. “Okay,” Nate said, a genuine smile breaking through despite himself. “Good. Then, when we get back to the city, we can make it official. I guess the only question that remains is, which of us do you want to become the companion of? Angie, Lindsay, or me?”

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  He looked at three people, taking the question seriously. “It seems like Angie is the only one without a companion at the moment. Can I choose her?”

  Nate nodded happily, glad that Night had chosen Angie as he hoped he would. It had seemed like Angie was hoping for this to happen earlier, and now it was going to.

  From in front of the two, Angie’s breath caught, her heart giving a hopeful little flutter. She looked back at Night, her eyes flicking to Nate, her eyes wide with a question she didn’t dare voice. He simply gave her a small, encouraging nod. “It’s your choice, Night. I’m just glad you’re joining us, no matter who you bond with. Though I am glad you chose Angie.”

  Night’s silver gaze settled on Angie, a long, assessing look that seemed to peel back the layers of bravado she wore like armor. He saw the flicker of fear that still lingered from the mill, the steel of her resolve, and the fierce loyalty she held for her friends. He padded forward, the movement utterly silent, and stopped before her. He lowered his massive head, nudging her hand with his nose in a gesture of unmistakable choice.

  A slow, brilliant smile spread across Angie’s face, chasing away the last of the shadows. “Okay,” she whispered, her voice trembling slightly. She looked at Nate, her expression a mix of awe and trepidation. “What do I do?”

  Nate opened his storage and handed her a few papers that would guide her through the process, his voice calm and steady. “You’ll want to do this properly, not like how Lindsay was forced to do it with Mika initially. However, the second method she used should work just fine.”

  Angie’s fingers trembled as she took the papers from him and stored them for later. “I’ll wait until we get home to do this. It’ll be peaceful there, and we’ll be able to concentrate on completing the process.”

  With that decided, Night stayed by Angie’s side for the rest of the walk through the woods. The two were conversing quietly, getting to know each other better. While they might be rushing into the bond, both were taking it seriously.

  With that matter taken care of, Nate skipped forward and joined his parents. He put an arm around his mother’s shoulder and pulled her close. “So, you’re just around two months pregnant, congratulations, mom, dad, seriously, I always wanted a sibling.” He told them, his voice breaking up due to emotion. “I know you two wanted a larger family as well.” That had been true in both his lives. The difference was that this time, his mother hadn’t been injured during his own birth.

  Nina hugged her son tight and nodded. “It’s true, we have always wanted a larger family, but it never felt like the right time.” She sighed and tenderly held his cheek. “Everything that has happened over the last year has sort of changed our perspective on that matter. There will never be a right time if we don’t make it ourselves. Besides, you’re getting older, and neither of us is ready for the house to be empty yet.”

  He nodded, understanding the first half of what she was saying. “How will this affect your hunting expeditions?”

  “I’ve switched over to more administrator duties for the company since we got the news. I still have to go out on my required expeditions, but there is nothing saying that I have to actually participate. Most women in my condition just stay in their rigs and perform logistics for their groups.”

  Niall chuckled, his arm snaking around his wife’s waist in a supportive embrace. “It will mean I’ll be going out on my own during the week, and we’ll have to hire another couple of people for the company, but we’ll manage. Your mother and I have been through worse.”

  He was right, they had. The quiet desperation they had shown while trying to heal Nate, the constant strain, the gnawing fear that they would lose him. This new chapter, filled with hope and a growing family, was a world away from that past. It was a future they had barely dared to dream of.

  The rest of the walk back through the forest was filled with a comfortable, easy conversation between the three. They were just worried about catching up on everything that had happened while the group was gone.

  Two large rigs without trailers were waiting for them at the end of the trail.

  The trip back to the city, and from there to the Chrighton estate, passed quickly, with both vehicles filled with a comfortable, easy silence. The initial excitement of their being home had settled into a quieter, happy buzz that radiated through the group. Even Night seemed to pick up on the shift, his twin tails swaying in a slow, almost hypnotic rhythm.

  When they arrived, the estate was a bastion of calm amidst the quiet chaos of a city still in the middle of rebuilding itself. Since the attack nearly a year before, all the debris had been cleared away and was now being repurposed towards the rebuilding efforts. Plenty of progress had been made during that time, but even at cultivator speeds, there was a limit to what could be done.

  The beast wave had created a sense of community among the people of the city. It was a shared resolve forged through the struggles that they had gone through. To most people, a city was merely a place where their home was; it could be left in an instant. They had no sense of loyalty to the place because there was no sense of community.

  It had been the same with their city before the beast wave; there had been some loyalty, and small pockets of community, but that was all. That had all changed after everything they had gone through.

  Later that evening, after a shared meal that felt more like a family dinner than the continued debriefing of their trip that it had been meant to be, the Holmes family finally returned to their own duplex. The house was exactly as Nate remembered it, a quiet sanctuary that felt a world away from the dust and danger of the road.

  Nate stood in the middle of his room, the familiar scent of home a welcome comfort. He pulled up his DCD, the screen creating a soft glow to his eyes. One hundred and nine dungeons, that was how many dungeons they could currently create. The number was staggering, and still just the beginning.

  He spent the next hour in a comfortable routine, checking on the progress of the various research projects, allocating resources, and making minor tweaks to a few of the more troublesome dungeons. The ant dungeon was, as always, a particular headache. The creatures were relentless, their sheer numbers constantly testing the limits of the dungeon’s repair systems.

  Finally, with a sigh, he closed the menus. The responsibility was immense, a constant weight on his shoulders, but it was a weight he was learning to carry. He had partners now, friends who shared the burden. He and Aura weren’t alone anymore.

  Thank you to all the people who have taken the time to rate the story and to my latest Patrons! I have other stories up on my Patreon, including my current WIPs. Which are now Created G.H.O.S.T. System(My Cyberpunk story), WetWorks2, plus The Restaurateur and His Daughter and DungeonFall. :)

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