Chapter 6
last update2026-09-15 13:51:19

The signal died completely. Riley pressed her back against the barricade, looked at the golden notification still glowing behind her left eye, and made herself a promise that she was getting out of this desert alive if it was the last thing she did.

Back in New York, Maxver's flying car touched down on the rooftop landing pad of the city's central Purification Center, a towering glass structure in Midtown that looked like a five star hotel from the outside and smelled like one on the inside.

The director met him personally at the elevator. A short, energetic man named Dr. Park who shook Maxver's hand with both of his and didn't let go for an uncomfortably long time.

"Mr. Cole, we are honored. Truly honored. An S rank male using our facility is the kind of publicity money cannot buy." Dr. Park walked him down a wide corridor lined with frosted glass doors. "I've prepared our finest Purification Room for you. Top floor, full amenities, everything you could possibly need."

The room was enormous. A clinical bed sat in the center, surrounded by monitoring equipment and soft blue lighting. To the left was a lounge area with a couch, refreshments, and a display screen. To the right was a separate work area stocked with equipment Maxver didn't immediately recognize.

"What's all that?" Maxver nodded toward the work area, where several pieces of heavy looking gear hung from wall mounts.

"High voltage restraint equipment. Containment props. Standard issue for higher tier purifications where the client's beast instincts may surface during the session." Dr. Park gestured casually, as if he were pointing out a coffee machine. "You probably won't need them for one star clients, but they're there if things get lively."

"Got it." Maxver turned his attention to his light brain and pulled up the official purification manual. Three methods. He needed to learn them fast.

Petting in beast form, where the beastkin shifted fully and the purifier used mental power through physical contact with their fur or scales. Establishing a mental connection, a deeper method where both parties linked their mental frequencies directly. And forming a bond, the most intimate method, reserved for long term partners.

"Petting it is." Maxver closed the manual. "Let's start with the basics."

His light brain chimed. First appointment confirmed. Megan Ford. One star. Pollution level ninety five percent.

Two minutes later, the door opened and a small woman walked in like she was walking into her own execution. Megan Ford was barely five foot three, with short brown mouse ears pressed flat against her head and wide terrified eyes that darted around the room, landing on the restraint equipment with visible horror.

"Please don't hurt me." Her voice was barely above a whisper. "I read the stuff online about you and I know you have a bad temper, but I really need this purification and I'll do whatever you want, just please don't use those things on me."

Maxver looked at her, then at the restraint wall, then back at her.

"I'm not going to hurt you, Megan. Just lie down on the table and relax. This will be quick."

She climbed onto the automated table with shaking hands, lay flat on her back, and pulled a bite stopper from the side rail, fitting it between her teeth before he could even tell her it wasn't necessary.

"Here we go." Maxver placed both hands above her and focused his mental power the way the manual described. Warmth gathered in his palms, then bloomed outward as a soft green light that flowed from his fingers and sank into Megan's body like water soaking into dry earth.

He could see it now, the contamination. Black threads woven through her like roots of some poisonous vine, wrapped around her organs and laced through her muscles. His green light moved through her systematically, dissolving the black threads wherever it touched. They crumbled like ash and vanished.

Megan's body relaxed. Her mouse ears slowly lifted from their flattened position. The bite stopper fell from her mouth as her jaw unclenched.

The process took less than ten minutes. Maxver was about to push deeper, to chase the last stubborn traces of black residue clinging to her core, when the system's voice cut in.

[Stop. Client contamination value has dropped from 95% to 30%. Remaining contamination can only be reduced through intimate purification methods. Session complete.]

"Thirty percent?" Maxver pulled his hands back and checked the readout. "In one session?"

[Correct. Standard C rank males typically reduce contamination by approximately 10% per session. Your S rank mental power achieved a 65% reduction. This is exceptional.]

Megan sat up on the table, looking down at her own hands like she'd never seen them before. Her mouse ears were standing tall now, pink and alert, and the dull gray tinge that had colored her skin when she walked in was completely gone.

"I feel amazing." Tears were building in her eyes, and her voice cracked on the last word. "I haven't felt this clean in two years. I couldn't even hold a job because my pollution was so high they wouldn't let me through the workplace scanners."

"You're good to go, Megan." Maxver stepped back and gave her space.

She bowed three times before she even reached the door, then stopped and turned back. "Mr. Cole, I'm tipping you everything I can afford. You're nothing like what they say online. Nothing."

Her light brain pinged his. Eight hundred and eighty eight contribution points and ten thousand star coins landed in his account on top of the Terminal's standard payout.

Maxver stared at the numbers and felt something warm bloom in his chest that had nothing to do with mental power.

"System, how many more clients today?"

[Six remaining in current batch.]

"Send them in."

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  • CHAPTER 63

    They rejoined the others in the lounge. Chloe was the first to notice something off. She looked at Maxver's face, at the bright clarity in his eyes and the easy looseness in his posture, and her brow furrowed."You burned through ninety percent of your Mental Power less than an hour ago." Her blue eyes narrowed with genuine confusion. "How are you already fully recovered?"Maxver reached over and pressed a single finger against her lips. "That's my secret. Don't ask."Chloe blinked against his fingertip. Then she nodded once and said nothing more.Behind Maxver, Autumn and Sienna exchanged the smallest of smiles. Two women who shared a secret they had absolutely no intention of explaining to anyone who hadn't earned it yet.Back at the villa that evening, Maxver sat cross legged on the living room floor with a pile of beast cores arranged in front of him. He picked up the first one, a marble sized sphere of compressed energy, and pressed it against his palm. The core dissolved slowly,

  • CHAPTER 62

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  • CHAPTER 61

    "He exhausted himself during your session, Marshal." Dr. Cross stepped forward with a hydration tube. "His wives carried him to a private room to rest. He burned through ninety percent of his reserves in less than two hours."Reagan closed her eyes. Even though he was not there, even though he could not hear her, the words came out anyway."Thank you." She whispered it to the ceiling. "Thank you for coming when nobody else would."She sat up on the platform and turned inward, reaching through the damaged connection to her spiritual entity. The White Tiger was still there, still curled in the ruined mental forest, still covered in wounds."Why did you refuse to let him touch you?" Reagan's question was directed inward, spoken mind to mind. "He was trying to help. He came closer than anyone has in months."The White Tiger opened one amber eye, looked at her through the broken landscape of their shared mind, and closed it again without answering.Reagan shook her head and stood. Her legs

  • CHAPTER 60

    Autumn looked at his hand pressed against her bare side, then looked at his face. His eyes were half closed with exhaustion but the intention behind his touch was unmistakable. Nothing about the position of his fingers said fox form. Nothing about the warmth radiating from his palm said purification."Master Cole." Her voice was careful and clinical despite the flush climbing up her neck. "Five minutes ago you said you wanted to sleep with the little fox. Your hand is telling me something very different.""I changed my mind." His thumb moved once against her skin, slow and deliberate.Autumn's golden eyes searched his face. What she found there made her breath catch. He meant it. Completely and without pretense."You just burned ninety percent of your Mental Power purifying a nine star beastwoman." Her doctor's instincts surged to the front, pushing past everything else. "Your body needs rest. Let me transform and you can hold the fox while you recover.""If you don't want to, I can c

  • CHAPTER 59

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  • CHAPTER 58

    Maxver stood at the edge of the purification platform and looked down at the woman bound to it. Reagan Sloane's amber eyes stared back at him through a haze of pain and exhaustion, one percent of a human being holding on behind the body of a wounded beast."Marshal Sloane, I need you to do something for me before I start." He kept his voice low and gentle, the way someone talks to a person standing on a ledge. "Relax your body. Stop fighting the restraints. And open your mental world so I can enter without forcing my way through. It will hurt less if you let me in willingly."Reagan blinked. The tiger ears pressed flat against her skull twitched once. Something shifted behind her amber eyes, a flicker of surprise that cut through the animal fury like sunlight through storm clouds.She had been handled by military doctors and combat medics for weeks. Every single one of them had spoken to her in commands, in clinical protocols, in the language of procedure and urgency.Nobody had spoke

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