Chapter 53: Extreme protectiveness

The shelter was pitch black, damp and cold—an enormous underground maze. Wind howled at the entrance with an eerie wail.

Ace dug two illuminating flares from his pack and lit them. Orange firelight stretched their shadows long against the walls.

May stood against the rock face, teeth chattering hard enough to chatter. Her whole body shook like a sieve.

The moment they stopped, Jack walked over. His movements were fast. He yanked off the heavy tactical jacket he was wearing.

Underneath, he had only a thin black tank top. Bronze muscle stood fully exposed to the freezing air.

"Jack, what are you—" May hadn’t finished when the jacket dropped over her head.

The garment was huge and thick, wrapping her into a complete ball. Jack bent down and clumsily helped her with the zipper. His hands were enormous; wrestling the tiny zipper pull took real effort.

As the zipper climbed, the back of his rough hand brushed unintentionally across the soft curve of her chest. Even through the layers, the intense sensory jolt made him freeze mid-motion.

His entire face flushed bright red like a monkey’s backside. He stumbled two steps back and stammered, "I... didn’t mean it. May, hurry and zip up. It’s cold here."

A cold draft swept through. The two-meter giant couldn’t help a loud shiver. Bare-chested in twenty-below temperatures, he hunched his neck against the cold, yet a foolish grin still hung on his face.

May looked at him and felt both warmth and the urge to laugh.

Wrapped in the jacket, still carrying his body heat, that pure, straightforward sense of safety worked better than any stove.

The others watched Jack’s eager performance with increasingly unfriendly eyes.

Ray was about to open his mouth and discipline the pack of little bastards for their lack of discipline when—

A clear sound rose from the deep darkness of the shelter.

"Help... is anyone there... save me..."

It was a young woman’s voice, thick with tears, echoing through the empty tunnel. The sound crawled under the skin.

Mitch raised his rifle, brows knotted. "Those women from earlier ran in here?"

Theo pushed the gold-rimmed glasses higher on his nose. The lenses reflected the flare light.

"Not human."

His voice was perfectly steady, without the slightest fluctuation. "Vocal-cord vibration frequency is completely uniform. No natural pauses for human breathing or air exchange. This is a sentient skin-walker simulating human speech."

The woman’s cries for help continued, even taking on a faintly resentful tone.

While everyone remained on full alert, preparing to move toward the sound, an extremely heavy rumble rolled from overhead.

The internal structure of the mountain had long since deteriorated. It collapsed completely.

"Get clear!" Ray roared.

Several multi-ton boulders, carrying sheets of mud and sand, crashed down with earth-shaking force.

Dust exploded upward. The entire passageway was sealed shut. The roaring overhead finally stopped. Debris hammered against the load-bearing walls. Dust choked the air so thick it was hard to keep eyes open.

May coughed twice, the taste of earth thick in her mouth. She felt around and realized she was pinned beneath a solid wall of muscle.

Ray lay completely over her, back rigid as a steel plate, breathing heavy and rough.

"Ray?" She pushed at his shoulder. "Are you okay?"

Ray gave a muffled grunt and braced himself up on his arms.

Halfway up, his right leg suddenly buckled. He lurched sideways and slammed hard into a concrete pillar.

"Hiss—fuck."

May flinched and scrambled over at once.

In the weak light, she saw the combat pants on the outer side of his upper thigh torn open in a wide gash. A sharp wooden splinter stained dark red still lay nearby.

"Your leg..." She sucked in a sharp breath.

"It’s nothing. Got stabbed when the rocks came down."

Ray clenched his teeth and ripped the pant leg higher with a harsh tear of fabric.

He pulled a roll of bandage from a pocket and wrapped it roughly a couple of times, the motion as crude as tying a sandbag. "Don’t worry. I’m not dying from this."

Blood soaked through the bandage almost immediately, turning the black combat pants even darker.

May stared at the mangled wound on his thigh, brows knotted tight.

Ray leaned back against the pillar. "If I hadn’t taken that hit just now, your head would’ve been pulp."

Ding—System notification: Host has triggered Ray’s hidden "extreme protectiveness" setting. Favorability +10.

May’s heart bloomed with delight, but she put on a near-tears expression and reached toward the wound. "Ray, does it hurt? Want me to blow on it for you?"

"Don’t touch it. Touch it again and the punishment won’t stop where it did last time."

He clamped her wrist in one hand.

"Fine. I’ll leave it alone so it doesn’t hurt you."

May pouted and shifted to lean against his uninjured side, soft body pressing against his arm. "Ray, are we stuck here? Did the others outside hear anything?"

Ray pulled out the communicator and pressed it a few times. Only static crackled back.

A crack split the screen from edge to edge. The indicator light flickered twice and died.

"Communicator’s smashed."

He tossed the broken thing aside. "Cave-in outside. Pile of rubble between us and them. Even if we yelled our throats raw they wouldn’t hear."

The space was sealed tight. The air reeked of blood and damp earth.

May shivered and curled closer into him.

Ray didn’t pull away. Instead he wrapped his uninjured arm around her and pressed her head firmly against his chest.

"Cold?"

"Mm."

She nodded, eyes rolling thoughtfully. "But your body is so warm—like a heater."

His chest shook twice, as if he were laughing, but his voice stayed rough. "Stop talking nonsense. Save your strength."

Scratch-scratch-scratch—

Barely two minutes of quiet had passed. May had just closed her eyes when a sharp scraping sound rose from outside the door.

Only then did she get a proper look around—they were trapped in what amounted to a sealed chamber.