Chapter 8 : FIRST CROWN
The fire started in my veins and spread outward.
[ALPHA POWER ABSORBER — TIER I] [ABSORPTION METHOD: DOMINATION KILL] [CALCULATING COMPATIBILITY...] [ABSORPTION RATE: 73%] [BEGINNING INTEGRATION]
I dropped to my knees as Cormac's centuries of accumulated power flooded into my system. It burned. It froze. It tore at something fundamental in my core and rebuilt it differently.
The bear. I felt it first—massive, ancient, stronger than anything I'd held before. The form imprinted itself on my shifting repertoire like a brand seared into flesh. Muscles I didn't have learned how to become muscles of a different shape entirely. Bones memorized new configurations.
Then came the rest. Fragments of strength. Pieces of speed. The regeneration that had kept Cormac alive for nearly two centuries, now filtered through the System's absorption process and integrated into my own biology.
I screamed through clenched teeth. The sound echoed off tunnel walls that had witnessed my victory and my transformation.
[ABSORPTION COMPLETE] [SYSTEM LEVEL: 6 → 8] [DOMINION: 40 → 95] [PREDATOR ESSENCE: 145 → 285] [UNITY INDEX: 5 → 20] [EVOLUTION POINTS: 350 → 550] [NEW ABILITY UNLOCKED: BEAR FORM (ALPHA-GRADE)] [NEW ABILITY UNLOCKED: ENHANCED REGENERATION] [CORRUPTION INDEX: 15 → 18]
The fire faded. Cold replaced it—the comfortable cold of the mountain at night, seeping through stone to find me where I knelt.
I was different now.
My hands found the tunnel wall and pushed. Standing hurt. Everything hurt. But the pain was already fading faster than it should have. The cracked ribs that had made every breath an ordeal were knitting together. The shoulder wound from the fight was closing.
Enhanced regeneration. Cormac's gift.
I looked down at his body. The Alpha who had ruled these mountains since before the Civil War. Now just meat and cooling blood.
"Thank you," I said quietly. "For the lesson."
The System pulsed with approval.
[TERRITORIAL CLAIM: CONFIRMED] [SILVER RIDGE COMPLEX: NOW UNDER HOST AUTHORITY] [RECOMMENDED: SECURE REMAINING ASSETS]
Remaining assets. That meant Cormac's den. His supplies. His subordinates, if any had survived the old Alpha's paranoid culling.
I left his body in the tunnel. Something would find it eventually. Something always did.
The night air hit my face as I emerged from the mine entrance. Cold. Clean. My territory now—every rock, every tree, every creature that crawled or flew or hunted within fifty miles. Mine by right of conquest.
The trek to Cormac's den took an hour. I'd scouted its location during my preparation phase but never approached directly. Too dangerous while the Alpha lived.
Now the danger was me.
The den occupied a natural cave system deeper in the mountains. Hidden approach. Defensible entrance. Fresh water from an underground stream. Cormac had chosen well—probably spent decades making it perfect.
I smelled them before I saw them. Skinwalkers. Two of them. Fear rolled off their scent in waves.
They'd felt their Alpha die. Every monster bonded to a territory felt when the ruler fell. Like a string being cut. Like a tooth being pulled from the jaw.
I stepped into the cave mouth.
Two figures pressed against the far wall. An older woman—sixties, human form, grey hair and hard eyes. A younger man—late twenties, wiry, looking for an exit that didn't exist.
They smelled Cormac's blood on me. They smelled his power in my changed scent.
The woman dropped to her knees. "The territory is yours."
The man followed a heartbeat later. Self-preservation overriding whatever loyalty he'd had to the old Alpha.
[SUBORDINATES ACQUIRED: 2] [UNITY INDEX: +15] [ASSESSMENT: SUBMISSION THROUGH FEAR — LOYALTY UNCONFIRMED]
"Names," I said.
"Ruth." The woman. Her voice was steady despite the fear. "I've been with Cormac for thirty-two years."
"Decker." The man. His voice shook. "Seven years."
"Ruth. Decker." I limped past them toward the back of the cave. "I need bandages. Clean water. And coffee if you have it."
They scrambled to obey.
The den's interior was better stocked than I'd expected. Cormac had been preparing for something—stockpiled food, weapons, cash. A chest near the back wall held nearly eight thousand dollars in mixed bills. Trophies lined the walls: hunter scalps, monster bones, artifacts from decades of dominance.
Ruth returned with medical supplies. Her hands were efficient as she wrapped my wounds—clearly she'd done this for Cormac many times.
"You're not going to ask questions?" I said.
"You killed him. You took the territory. That's all that matters." Her eyes met mine briefly. "The questions come later, when you've proven you can hold what you took."
Honest. I appreciated that more than servile flattery.
Decker brought coffee. Instant, barely warm, made in a pot that had seen better decades. I drank it anyway, watching the moon rise through the cave mouth.
My territory. My mountain. My beginning.
[HAVEN PROTOCOL: LOCATION SECURED] [RECOMMENDED: BEGIN COALITION BUILDING PHASE]
The burner phone sat in my pocket. Jenny Blackwood's number programmed into its memory. A werewolf pack running scared from hunters, desperate for protection.
Tomorrow, I would call. Tomorrow, the coalition would grow beyond one battered Skinwalker and two fearful subordinates.
Tonight, I let myself rest.
The coffee was terrible. The view was magnificent. And somewhere in the darkness, a new king had been crowned.
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