SLAP!
Evelyn jerked against the back of the sofa, silver hair spilling over one shoulder as the smack spread red across one pale cheek of her ass.
"Move that big fucking ass."
"Mm... yes, Averik." She obeyed at once.
Her knees stayed planted in the cushions, hands braced on the sofa back, hips rolling into him with a wet squelch each time she pushed back. Her long hair had come half loose during the last few minutes. Silver strands clung to her neck; the red ends brushed her shoulder blades whenever her body rocked.
Averik let her set the motion for three strokes.
Then he caught both of her hips and took it back. Averik leaned over her, tall and lean, mostly black hair falling rough across his brow with a few icy-white and red strands cutting through it.
CLAP!
"Ah~"
His cock drove into her slick heat hard enough to make her fingers tighten on the upholstery. Her ass shook against his thighs. So did her breasts beneath her, heavy and soft, swinging with each thrust she couldn’t quite absorb.
"Averik... ngh...!"
"Too much?"
Evelyn turned her head just enough for him to catch the corner of her smile. "No... please don’t stop."
He didn’t. Clap. Clap. Squelch.
Her pussy was already soaked, pink and swollen between pale thighs, squeezing him harder whenever he reached the deepest point. Averik dragged one hand around her waist, pulled her back onto him, and felt her whole body shudder when the head of his cock pressed into that sensitive depth again.
"Ah—there...! Averik, there..."
He repeated the angle. Clap!
Evelyn’s voice broke into a sharp cry. Wetness splashed across his thighs.
"Fuck.... So fucking wet." Averik drove into her again, feeling the soft heat close around him. "Beautiful."
She gave a breathless little laugh that collapsed into another moan. "You did that on purpose..."
"Obviously."
"Mm... again." That earned her another slap across the ass.
Slap!
"Ahh!"
Averik gripped the reddening flesh, fingers sinking into its softness while he drove into her again. The sofa creaked under the rhythm. Evelyn pushed back harder now, meeting him instead of simply taking it, every movement making the room fill with the wet sound of her body around him.
"Averik... I’m close." Her warning came out thin. Then her pussy clenched so hard around his cock that his next thrust slowed for half a beat.
"Shit."
"I can’t—mm... I..." Her hips twitched.
Averik leaned over her, caught one breast from beneath, and squeezed. The weight filled his palm. He slapped it once, not hard enough to throw off her support, but enough to make her gasp. Slap!
"Ah! Averik!"
He pulled her upright enough to catch her mouth in a hard kiss. Evelyn kissed him back without losing the rhythm, breath breaking against his lips. He let her turn away only to kiss the side of her neck and bite lightly below her ear before pushing her down again. "Keep your ass up."
"Yes..."
His mouth brushed her shoulder. "Good girl."
That one word made her squeeze him again.
Averik’s breath roughened. Pleasure had gathered low and heavy, sharpened every time her pussy contracted around him. He drove deep enough that Evelyn’s next moan broke halfway through, her body jolting as if he had kissed the very end of her womb.
"Ahh—! Averik, I’m... I’m going to come!"
He seized both sides of her ass and held her exactly where he wanted her. "I’m coming too. Make sure your womb drinks every drop of my seed."
"Yes... yes, Averik. Please—"
He thrust once more. CLAP!
His control broke. "Fuck, Evelyn." Averik buried himself to the base and came inside her. His cock throbbed through one heavy Spurt!, then another, semen flooding her soaked pussy and pumping as deep as the point that had been kissing against her womb.
Evelyn’s whole body seized around him. "Ahhh~"
Her pussy clamped and sucked at his cock in frantic pulses, dragging at every remaining throb. A hot Squirt! splashed down his thighs as she came hard, followed by a wet Spurt! against the cushion edge. Her arms shook against the sofa back and another cry tore out of her.
"Averik! I love you... ah, I love you!" She kept pushing herself back through the aftershocks, as if even the last fraction of space between them offended her.
"Mm... ahhn~"
Averik stayed there until the pressure eased. He smacked her ass once more, then kneaded the soft flesh under his palm. "Ahh... Evelyn. Your pussy really does feel fucking incredible."
The praise put a lazy smile on her face even while she was still trembling. "Then... I’m glad it’s yours."
Averik gave her ass another slow squeeze instead of answering.
When he pulled out, semen followed in thick streaks from her soaked pussy, bright against her pale skin. Evelyn shivered at the loss of pressure and sagged forward over the sofa back for a few breaths.
Averik dropped back onto the sofa.
He had barely settled against the cushions when Evelyn turned. Her legs still shook, but the tremor was already easing. She took one slow breath, lowered herself from the sofa, and knelt between his knees.
Her silver-gray eyes lifted to his. "Averik... let me clean it with my mouth."
He ran his fingers through her loosened hair, gathering it away from her face. "Do it properly."
"Yes, Averik." Evelyn wrapped one hand around his cock and licked slowly from the base upward.
Slurp. Her tongue circled the head, collecting the mixture of their fluids before she took him between her lips.
"Mm..."
Averik watched her cheeks hollow.
She had always been good at learning what he liked. Too good, sometimes. A small adjustment in his breathing and she noticed. A firmer touch in her hair and she understood without needing him to spell anything out.
Slurp... gulp.
Evelyn drew back just far enough to breathe.
"Averik... your Awakening is at midnight." Her thumb stroked over the slick head before she kissed it. "Are you going to Unit 2?"
Averik looked down at her. "You even remembered my birthday."
Her brows drew together a little, as if the idea of forgetting offended her. "Of course I remembered."
Then she took him back into her mouth. Slurp. Slurp.
Averik leaned deeper into the sofa.
Unit 2 would have been the easy choice. His father’s district. His father’s unit. The place where Roderic’s name still opened doors even after the man himself had come home dead.
He had kept the two things her father had left behind. The more he thought about it, the more it surfaced in his mind: ’If you find this letter, it means I’m already dead. Take my revolver and use it. And most importantly, don’t trust anyone who takes my Position. If you want to join the unit, meet Garran at Unit 1.’
Roderic had never been good at warmth. Even concern had reached his son looking like an order.
’Yeah, at least he still shows he cares about me. I don’t know... His whole life, he only ever looked at me with hatred, always blaming me for my mother’s death—she died giving birth to me. Blaming me? How the fuck does that even make sense... Well, Mom, I wish you were here.’
Evelyn’s tongue slid along him again. Averik stroked her hair once and made the decision.
"Nope. I’m going to Unit 1."
She paused and drew back enough to breathe. "Why Unit 1?"
"Roderic recommended Garran."
Her silver-gray eyes narrowed a fraction. "And the rest?"
"Later."
Evelyn held his gaze for a beat, then nodded. No sulking, no attempt to pull the answer out of him. "Then I’m going with you."
Averik watched her for a moment. "You said the same thing last year."
A small crease appeared between her brows. "Hm?"
"When you Awakened. You could’ve joined a Frontline Unit." His fingers moved once through her hair. "Instead, you stayed here and kept looking after me. Why?"
This time she answered without hesitation. "Because I loved you. I still do. I didn’t want a unit badly enough to leave you for one."
The certainty in her voice bothered him more than doubt would have.
’I still don’t understand how you can love me that much. And there are parts of it I still don’t trust.’
Averik tightened his hand in her hair and tipped her forward again. "Finish first."
Her lips curved before she obeyed. "Mm."
She lowered her mouth again. Gulk.
Deeper. Ghk... ggk.
Her nose nearly touched him. Evelyn’s throat worked around the pressure, one hand braced on his thigh while the other cupped him below. A muffled sound vibrated around his cock.
"Fuck, Evelyn." The vibration and tight heat pushed him over faster than he expected. His fingers closed around her hair as he came into her throat. SPURT!
Evelyn swallowed. Gulp.
Another pulse followed. She kept sucking as she slowly pulled back, tongue dragging along him until the head slipped free with a wet sound.
Averik caught her face between both hands. "Open."
She did. Clean.
His thumb brushed the corner of her mouth. "Good girl."
The pleased softness that entered Evelyn’s eyes was almost embarrassing in its honesty. "Mm... thank you."
Averik released her cheeks, then tapped one lightly. "Stand up."
She rose, steadier now. Averik slapped her ass as she turned.
SLAP!
Evelyn startled, then gave him a look over her shoulder.
"Your ass really is ridiculously soft." His gaze dropped lower. "And look at your pussy. Fucking mess. So wet it’s still dripping."
A faint flush reached Evelyn’s cheeks. "Mm... but Averik loves Evelyn like this...?"
He didn’t answer. He simply grabbed one cheek of her ass and squeezed until she bit back a smile.
"Clean your pussy and get dressed."
"Yes, Averik."
***
They were ready to leave not long after.
The cold hit the moment Averik opened the inner door to the entryway. Evelyn had tied her hair back and covered herself in pale winter layers. Averik pulled his dark coat over charcoal thermals. Neither took a weapon. His father’s revolver stayed secured at home. So did Evelyn’s spear.
Snow was waiting beside the outer door.
The large white wolf had been silent through most of their preparations, pale icy-blue eyes following Averik from beneath a thick winter ruff. The moment he reached for the latch, she stood and stepped closer, tail held low but expectant.
Averik looked at her. "No. Stay here. Guard the house."
Snow’s ears tilted forward. She stared at him for a moment, gave a low huff, then sat beside the door as if the argument had been settled.
"Good girl." Averik rubbed the thick fur behind her ear. Snow leaned into the touch once and stayed where he had put her.
Outside, the cold bit through the first gap in his coat. Above Vardel’s walls, the moon burned red behind thin cloud, its crimson light catching on packed snow and old metal. The fortress streets narrowed between repairs from different years: old stone, newer slabs, steel plates, scavenged braces, pipes patched until the patches had patches.
Evelyn walked close enough that their sleeves brushed now and then. "Nervous?"
Averik glanced at her. "Do I look nervous?"
Her mouth curved. "No. That’s why I asked."
He snorted.
***
District 1 was quieter near the Unit complex than the residential streets behind them. People came and went in winter gear, some carrying equipment, some wearing the tired faces of men and women who had spent too long outside the walls.
The man on duty near the intake entrance was lean and field-weathered, with short ash-brown hair above the collar of insulated gear. Gray-green eyes checked Evelyn first, then Averik.
"Awakening intake?" he asked.
Averik nodded toward the door. "I’m here to see Garran."
The man kept one hand near the latch. "Name?"
"Averik." Recognition tightened his eyes before the man asked, "Roderic’s son?"
Averik nodded once. "Yeah."
He looked at Evelyn once more, reassessing without staring, then jerked his chin toward the wall. "Caedren. Wait here."
He was gone for less than a minute. When he returned, the door was already open behind him. "Come on. Garran’s busy with the intake group, but he’ll see you."
Averik followed.
The hall’s heat stung his face for a second after the street. A small group around his age occupied benches and chairs while Unit personnel prepared a waist-high examination reader near the far wall.
Garran stood at the front with his arms folded.
He didn’t raise his voice or fuss with the room. He simply looked up, and the loose conversations around him thinned.
His eyes went straight to Averik.
For half a second, something changed there.
Then it was gone.
"Sit," Garran said. "We’re almost at midnight. You can hate the lecture after you’re alive enough to remember it."
A few people laughed under their breath.
Averik took an empty chair. Evelyn stayed beside him rather than sitting across the room.
Garran looked over the candidates. "Most of you already know the pretty version. Our world was advanced before the Apocalypse. Machines, cities, roads, all the things your parents complain about whenever the heating fails. Then the sky went wrong, the world froze, and people started Awakening."
An older Unit member near the wall sighed. "Yeah. I still miss my sports car."
A few candidates laughed. Garran turned his head slowly enough that the man raised both hands. "What? I do."
"Your sports car would’ve frozen solid before the first camp," Garran said.
The veteran grinned. "Still looked better than the crawler I drive now."
The laugh that followed was louder. Garran let it burn itself out before continuing.
"Awakening isn’t just getting power. It means you become useful enough to be sent where ordinary people die faster. Frost Beasts. Frost Zombies. If your luck is truly shit, Devils." Garran’s gaze crossed Averik, held for a beat, then moved on. "Most of you trained before tonight. Good. Keep training after it. A Talent won’t teach your legs where to stand when something wants to tear them off."
A young man near the front rubbed his palms on his trousers before asking, "Can we know what Talent we’ll get?"
"If we could, I’d charge you for the answer." Garran waited through the small laugh, then scratched at his jaw. "Best anyone can tell, Talent isn’t random. The way you’ve lived matters. Habits. What you keep doing. What you keep choosing when nobody’s watching. That doesn’t mean you swing a hammer for a month and order the world to make you a Breaker. It means your life leaves a shape. Awakening seems to notice."
’Seems.’ Averik preferred that to a man pretending certainty he couldn’t have. He glanced at Evelyn. She caught it and smiled faintly. She had Awakened Warden and later reached Sequence 6 — Sentinel; looking at her now, Garran’s theory wasn’t hard to believe. Irritatingly fitting.
"I’d rather every one of you Awaken tonight," Garran said. The room quieted again. "Some of you won’t. If that happens, you go home. Don’t decide your life ended just because you didn’t awaken."
He gave them a moment before his voice sharpened. "Now the part I actually care about. Once you Awakened, you’ll be able to take in Essence consciously. Don’t get greedy. Don’t grab at everything you feel because you finally can."
His mouth flattened. "I’ve dealt with that mistake myself. More than once. Newly Awakened, too excited, pulling the wrong Essence before they understand what they’re touching. Don’t make me deal with it again."
A few backs straightened.
"The Essence we normally use tends to feel warmer," Garran went on. "Corruption-heavy Essence tends to feel cold. Tends to. Treat that difference as a warning, not a guarantee. If something feels wrong, stop pulling first."
Someone near Averik frowned. "So warm good, cold bad?"
Garran gave him a tired look. "If it were that simple, we wouldn’t lose Awakened people to Corruption. Use your head. Feeling safe isn’t the same thing as being safe."
No one tried to turn that into another joke.
Near midnight, the room changed without anyone announcing it.
People stopped shifting. Even the Unit veterans got quieter.
A clock on the far wall counted the last seconds toward the date change.
Averik felt nothing at first.
Then midnight arrived.
Something inside him opened.
There was no pain. No burst of heat. A pressure he had lived with for twenty-five years without ever noticing simply stopped being sealed.
Averik’s breath caught.
The room sharpened all at once. Cloth rasped two seats away. Heat separated against his skin into air, coat, body, Evelyn. His balance felt unnaturally clean, and thought followed perception with almost no drag between them. Beneath it all sat a new center of presence, as intimate as a heartbeat and far heavier than one.
The System opened in his mind.
::···:::···:::···::
[Awakening Complete]
[Core Formed: Star Core — Tier 5]
[Talent Awakened: Tamer]
[Path Established: Sequence 7 — Beast Tamer]
::···:::···:::···::
For one heartbeat, Averik forgot the room.
’Tier 5.’
Then his attention snagged on the next line.
’Tamer. Fucking hell.’
He knew the reputation. The curse came first anyway. Curiosity followed it. Averik focused on the new Talent, wanting more than the name. He didn’t speak or move. He simply pushed the intent inward.
A detail view appeared in his mind.
::···:::···:::···::
[Talent: Tamer]
[Fundamental O: Tame, subjugate, and establish a controlling relationship with an external target while the target remains a distinct existence.]
’Well... it shouldn’t be that bad. So why?’
[Path: Sequence 7 — Beast Tamer]
[Ability: Tame beasts. A successful Taming Bond allows command, communication, coordination, and management of tamed beasts.]
::···:::···:::···::
The shape of Taming now felt obvious to him—what it was meant to do, what a completed bond gave him—but there was no experience behind that certainty. No practiced feel for timing. No memory of another creature pushing back.
’So intent is enough to inspect what I actually have.’
Around the hall, reactions broke in different directions. One woman laughed in startled relief. A man two chairs down swore softly. Someone farther back stayed very still until a Unit member touched his shoulder and told him, quietly, that nothing had happened.
The failures were escorted out without ceremony.
The rest moved toward the examination reader.
Averik watched the first candidate place a hand to the dark plate and feed a thread of Essence into it. Light moved beneath the surface. A staff member read the result, wrote something down, and waved him on.
Another drew a Breaker Talent and grinned so widely his face looked painful.
A young woman after him got Seeker with a detectable Affinity. Her friends immediately crowded around her until a Unit member told them to move.
Then Averik’s turn came.
He put his hand to the plate.
Essence responded because he wanted it to.
That alone was strange enough to deserve attention, but he kept the flow small. The reader brightened beneath his palm.
The staff member looked down.
Then looked again.
"Star Core. Tier 5. Talent, Tamer." A pause. "Path, Sequence 7 — Beast Tamer. No Affinity detected."
The silence lasted perhaps half a second.
Then somebody behind Averik breathed out a laugh.
"Tamer? Damn."
Another voice answered, less quietly, "All that waiting just to raise wolves."
A few people chuckled.
Only a few joined in, but it was enough to change the room.
Averik removed his hand from the plate.
Their laughter didn’t change what was happening inside his body. His balance remained razor-clean, the room stayed unnaturally crisp, and Essence answered the moment he reached for it.
Tamer had earned its ugly reputation. Around Vardel, no one anyone could name had climbed beyond Sequence 7, and corrupted beasts had dragged enough Tamers down with them for the joke to have teeth.
Averik knew the risk. He just hadn’t tested it for himself yet.
"That’s enough," Evelyn said. Her voice stayed soft, which only made Averik look at her faster.
She had moved half a step closer, shoulders loose, expression almost calm. Almost. He knew that face. Evelyn was deciding how much violence the moment deserved.
One of the men who had laughed glanced at her. "What? It’s true."
Her silver-gray eyes settled on him. "Then you shouldn’t need to repeat it."
The man’s smile thinned. Garran cut in before the exchange grew teeth. "Save it. None of you have survived long enough to be impressive yet."
That killed most of the amusement.
Averik touched Evelyn lightly at the wrist. "Enough."
She looked at him, anger still cold behind her eyes, then nodded once. "All right."
A Unit member gestured Evelyn toward the reader next.
She stepped forward and gave it a small measure of Essence.
Light moved beneath the plate almost at once.
"Warden," the staff member read. "Sequence 6 — Sentinel. Tier 5. Holy Affinity. No Bloodline."
The room went quiet for a different reason. Someone looked from Evelyn to Averik and then wisely kept his mouth shut. Averik almost smiled.
Garran waited until the examination line had thinned before calling the remaining Awakened back together.
"Last thing," he said. "Then you can go celebrate, sulk, throw up, whatever suits you."
A tired-looking woman near the wall muttered, "In that order?"
Garran shrugged. "Dealer’s choice." A few people snorted.
Garran tapped two fingers against the table beside him. "Sequence growth. Our best understanding is that you get farther by actually living the Path you woke up with. A Tracker tracks. A Sentinel guards. Whatever yours is, use it for what it is, put it under real pressure, and learn where it fails."
He glanced toward the examination reader. "That’s why we check you before placement. If you sign with a Unit, we try to put you somewhere that Path gets real work instead of gathering dust. Try. I said try."
That sounded more honest than most promises Averik had heard.
People began to disperse. Garran caught Averik near the side corridor before he and Evelyn reached the exit. "Walk with me a second."
Averik went with him, mostly because he wanted to hear what Roderic’s recommended man would say when there was no audience left to impress. Garran stopped where the hall noise faded behind them, and for the first time that night some of the commander’s hard edge eased.
Garran looked at him directly. "I’m sorry about your father."
Averik held the look. "We weren’t close."
Garran nodded once instead of trying to repair the sentence for him. "Doesn’t make him less dead. He saved my life years ago. I owed him before he died. That debt didn’t die with him. If you need something I can reasonably help with, ask."
Averik lifted a brow. "Reasonably?"
"I’m grateful, not brain-damaged."
Averik laughed once. Garran’s mouth twitched.
"And don’t mistake that for an enlistment pitch," Garran added. "You don’t have to join Unit 1 tonight. Make your own choice."
Averik didn’t hesitate. "Good. I’m not joining tonight."
Garran gave him a sideways look. "You always answer like that?"
"When it saves time."
This time Garran actually smiled.
Only for a moment.
"Go home, Averik. Test your Path before you let a room full of frightened twenty-five-year-olds decide what it’s worth."
Averik’s eyes narrowed slightly. That one he could actually test.
He and Evelyn stepped back into Vardel’s cold.
The fortress lights burned behind frosted glass. Their breath fogged in front of them as they took the streets back toward home.
Evelyn slipped her gloved hand around his arm. "You aren’t upset."
Averik looked at her. "Should I be?"
"No." The answer came easily. She rested a little more of her weight against his arm as they walked.
Averik looked ahead through the thin drift of snow crossing the street. Other Tamers had failed. He hadn’t tried the Path once.
Evelyn turned, her silver eyes reading something in Averik’s hardened jaw. "Averik... Are you going to try it right away?"
Averik didn’t quicken his pace. "Maybe later. I think Snow would be happy to help me."