Chapter 126: Master-Slave Contract [Bonus Chapter]
She gestured to the dark oppressive treeline surrounding them.
"Or you can stay here in the wild," Reina continued smoothly. "If you reject the tether, we will pack up and walk away. We will not harm you and we will not hunt your pack. But the forest is cruel. We killed this bear, but we both know another one will come tomorrow."
She took a step back, folding her arms. "It’s your choice."
The Alpha lay in the cold wet mud.
Every single breath sent a spike of agonizing pain through his shattered ribs. The metallic taste of his own blood coated his tongue, and his vision was swimming with dark spots.
He didn’t think in complex human sentences, but his raw intelligence processed the reality of the situation with devastating clarity.
He had failed today.
He was the pack leader.
His singular purpose in the hierarchy of the wild was to protect the den, provide food, and secure the bloodline but when the massive, bone-plated monster had charged out of the trees, his fangs hadn’t been sharp enough.
His claws hadn’t been strong enough.
He had watched his younger brother get swatted against the stone like a fragile branch.
He had felt his own bones crack under the crushing weight of the bear.
If the two-legged creatures hadn’t dropped from the ridge, his mate and her sisters would be dead, and his pups would have been devoured.
The Alpha looked across the clearing through his one good eye.
He saw his brother.
The young male wasn’t a broken heap of flesh anymore.
He was standing tall, eating rich, cooked meat, completely whole thanks to the warm green light that had poured from the tall male’s hand.
He looked at his mate. She wasn’t snarling in terror as she was eating in peace instead, even glancing over to try and carry food for him.
He looked at his pups.
The tiny heirs to his bloodline were rolling around in the mud, happily chewing on the boots of the tall dark-haired male who radiated an aura of overwhelming power.
The Alpha looked back at the ash-blonde female standing in front of him.
She wasn’t aggressive.
She didn’t carry the scent of malice or the stench of a trap. She projected a calm steady feeling that felt remarkably like the protective warmth of a deep den.
His primal instincts warred with his pride.
Submitting to another creature went against every fiber of his being... Surrendering his freedom meant trusting these two-legged beings with the lives of his family.
There was always a chance this was a trick and there was a chance they would wait until his guard was down to slaughter them all but as he felt the cold wind of the Unknown Zone blow through the trees, he knew the truth.
The forest was merciless. He was broken. If he stayed here, his family would die before the sun rose again.
He took the chance.
The Alpha dug his claws deep into the mud. Ignoring the blinding agony in his chest, he forced his massive, bleeding body to rise.
His legs shook violently, his muscles trembling under his weight, but he managed to stand upright.
He looked directly at Reina, then shifted his gaze to Silas.
The massive Umbral Wolf let out a low howl that carried through the clearing.
Then, the Alpha lowered his heavy magnificent head.
He dropped his gaze to the dirt, bending his front legs until his snout physically touched the wet mud in front of Reina’s boots.
It was an gesture of total submission.
The reaction from the pack was instantaneous.
Hearing their Alpha surrender, the younger brother stopped eating. He turned toward the humans and lowered his head, bowing deeply.
The four massive females stepped away from the rocks, lowering their own heads until their snouts touched the earth.
Even the three tiny pups stopped chewing on Silas’s boots, plopping down onto their bellies and tucking their paws in.
They had given their trust to the Blessed Land...
Reina let out a long shuddering breath with a massive smile breaking across her face as the tether officially locked into her soul.
Silas stood up from the pups, brushing the dirt off his knees.
Right in the center of his vision, a bright, glowing blue holographic tab materialized.
[Territorial Event Triggered!]
[9 Umbral Wolves want to join Blessed Land as Mounts.]
[Would you like to allow? Y / N]
Silas didn’t even blink. He reached his finger out and firmly tapped the glowing blue ’Y’.
The very second his fingertip made contact with the system prompt, the air in the bloody clearing simply stopped moving.
The harsh biting wind of the Umbral Basin died instantly. The suffocating stench of rotting swamp water and dead bear was pushed away by a sudden intense wave of pure power.
Deep inside Silas’s chest, his Mythic Gold Core violently reacted to the acceptance of the tether.
He didn’t consciously channel his mana, but his body acted on its own.
A brilliant, blinding pillar of golden light erupted directly from his sternum.
The golden light shot outward in a massive expanding shockwave, completely consuming the seven kneeling Umbral Wolves.
Reina gasped, throwing her arms up to shield her eyes from the blinding glare.
Brida took a half-step back, her heavy boots sinking into the mud as the sheer pressure of the Lord’s aura washed over the clearing.
Even Aeliana had to squint, her silver eyes reflecting the intense burning gold.
Inside the pillar of light, the wolves didn’t whimper. They didn’t thrash or try to escape.
Silas watched in awe as the dark corrupted purple energy that had always clung to their midnight-black fur began to physically burn away.
The swamp grime, the matted blood, and the sickly umbral shadows were violently purged from their bodies.
As the corruption dissolved, their fur began to change.
The dark, pitch-black coats shifted, lightening rapidly until every single wolf in the pack was covered in a thick majestic coat of pure radiant gold.
The blinding light finally snapped out of existence, leaving the clearing bathed in the bruised purple sunlight of the late afternoon.
Silas lowered his arm, staring at the pack.
They didn’t look like monsters anymore... They were quite breathtaking.
The Alpha male, whose ribs had been shattered just minutes ago, now stood tall and proud, his golden fur catching the dim light, his previously swollen eye completely clear and glowing with a sharp amber hue.
The females looked like statues of carved sunlight, and the three tiny pups were essentially glowing balls of golden fluff.
[Ding!]
A rapid series of blue system notifications cascaded down the left side of Silas’s vision.
[Territorial Integration Successful!]
[Species Evolution Triggered: Corrupted Umbral Wolves have been purified.]
[New Species Registered: Blessed Wolves.]
[Pact Established: Master-Slave Territorial Contract.]
[Note: As the Sovereign Lord of the Blessed Land, you hold absolute authority over these entities. You may revoke their contract and banish them from the territory at any time.]
Silas read the prompts, letting out a slow, steady breath.
’A Master-Slave contract...’ Silas thought. ’The Sovereign realm doesn’t mess around with semantics but it makes sense. I can’t have apex predators running around my base with free will. If one of them snaps and goes feral near the junior recruits, I need the authority to shut them down instantly.’
He swiped the notifications away and looked at the golden pack standing before him.
They were staring right back at him. All seven pairs of amber eyes were locked onto his face, waiting for his command with an intense unblinking focus.
Silas cleared his throat.
He felt incredibly awkward.
He was a guy from Earth who used to work a dead-end job, and now he was standing in a swamp, preparing to give a motivational Warlord speech to a pack of glowing dogs.
’Do they even understand English?’ Silas wondered internally. ’Whatever... Just play the part and project authority.’
Silas took a step forward, resting his hands casually on his hips.
"Alright, listen up," Silas spoke, keeping his voice low and laced with the calm confidence of a commander. "The old rules of the wild are dead... You don’t belong to the Umbral Basin anymore. You belong to the Blessed Land instead. You all belong to me."
He pointed a finger down at the dead, twenty-foot-tall Blood-Mane Grizzly rotting in the mud.
"You work for my territory now, and in exchange, you never have to worry about fighting a monster like this alone ever again," Silas promised them, making sure his tone was dead serious. "No more starving in a wet cave... No more freezing in the rain... You protect my scouts, you carry my girls into battle, and my cooks will feed you premium roasted meat every single day until you’re fat and happy. Do we have a deal?"
For a second, there was total silence then, the massive golden Alpha male tilted his head back toward the purple sky.
AWOOOOOOOO!
The Alpha let out a deafening, majestic howl that rattled the leaves of the ironwood trees.
A split second later, the younger brother joined in, followed by the four massive females.
Even the three tiny pups tilted their little heads back and let out high-pitched squeaky little howls that lacked any real menace but made up for it in pure enthusiasm.
The synchronized howling echoed across the swamp, a clear undeniable acceptance of the Lord’s terms.
"I’ll take that as a yes," Silas smirked.
He turned to Reina, who was still standing near the edge of the clearing with her mouth slightly open. "Job’s done, Reina. Let’s pack it up and head home before the blood smell attracts another bear."
"Yes, My Lord!" Reina snapped a crisp salute, her heart soaring as she coiled her snare ropes back over her shoulder.
She didn’t even need to use them.
The Warlord had bypassed the entire trapping process with pure charisma.
Silas turned around, intending to take the point position and lead the squad back up the muddy ridge.
Before he could take a single step, a heavy, warm weight pressed against his left hip.
Silas stopped and looked down.
One of the massive golden females... a towering beast that stood well over five feet tall at the shoulder had trotted up beside him.
She didn’t growl, instead she simply pressed her thick muscular shoulder against his leg, let out a soft rumbling huff, and deliberately lowered her front legs, dipping her back down in a clear undeniable gesture.
Silas blinked in genuine surprise.
He looked over at Reina, raising an eyebrow. "Is she doing what I think she’s doing?"
Reina’s jaw hit the floor.
The Beast Tamer’s eyes widened to comical proportions as she stared at the female wolf offering her back to the Lord.
"She... she’s offering to carry you," Reina stammered out, completely baffled by the animal psychology playing out in front of her. "My Lord, that is unheard of. Even with a contract, wild mounts usually take weeks of saddle-drills, treats, and dominance-wrestling before they allow a rider to sit on their spine... Their protective instincts make them hate having blind spots covered but she just met you ten minutes ago."
Silas chuckled, reaching a hand out to stroke the thick golden fur behind the wolf’s ears. "I guess I just have a trustworthy face."
He didn’t want to insult the wolf by rejecting the offer.
Plus, his legs were still a bit sore.
Silas grabbed a thick handful of golden fur near the wolf’s neck, swung his long leg over her broad back, and settled himself firmly just behind her shoulder blades.
The female wolf immediately stood back up to her full height.
She didn’t buckle under his heavy weight or the extra pounds of his steel-weave armor.
She let out a happy, energetic snort with her tail wagging slightly as she shifted her paws in the mud, clearly proud to be carrying the Alpha of the two-legged pack.
"Well, don’t just stand there," Silas called out to the rest of the squad, grinning down at them from his new elevated vantage point. "Grab a ride if you want. We’ve got six more full-grown wolves."
Brida’s stormy eyes lit up like fireworks.
The brawler didn’t need to be told twice. She aggressively shoved her battleaxe onto her back and marched straight toward the younger male wolf.
"Come here, you giant dog!" Brida laughed, reaching her heavy, calloused hands out to grab the wolf’s scruff. "Let’s see how fast you can run with a real warrior on your back!"
GRRRRRR!...
