Taming Nine Beasts

“Get it out! Dig it out! Now! Give me that core!”

New Aurora, Veridian Woods.

The sun blazed overhead, its light turning the pond into a sheet of shimmering gold. A figure stood victorious on the carcass of a beast the size of a cargo hauler. Dressed in form-fitting tactical gear, Ava Sterling held a longsword crackling with arcs of sapphire lightning. With a final, decisive thrust, she drove the blade deep into the monster’s skull. Sparks flew.

“Yes! A Rank 4 core!” Her shout of triumph cut through the forest air, echoing her exhilaration.

A wild, exhilarated grin split her face. Her heart hammered against her ribs. “I’m rich. I am officially, disgustingly rich. One more score like this, and I can claim my nine smoking hot mates!” The thought sent a thrill through her, a dream she’d clung to for what felt like forever.

She jumped down from the beast’s head, her boots hitting the soft earth. The creature’s massive tusk landed beside her with a heavy thud.

Her mind flashed back. Five years. It had been five years since that day.

It was the summer after her first year of college. She’d gone back to her hometown, a trip to visit her grandmother’s resting place. On the way down the hill, her foot slipped on wet stone. The world tilted, spun, and went black. She woke up somewhere else entirely. A pig with wings was charging at her. It was the most surreal, terrifying moment of her life.

Luck was with her that day. A patrol was nearby. They saw her, rescued her, took her to the nearest settlement. That’s when she learned the truth. Earth was gone. She was in an interstellar empire, a realm of therians.

At first, she was just a lost, frightened human girl. Small. Weak. Overwhelmed. The thought of bashing her own head against a wall, hoping for a reset, had crossed her mind more than once.

Then she learned the rules. In this world, females were royalty.

The numbers were brutally skewed. Far more males than females. So women got the royal treatment. Luxurious housing. Generous stipends. And the best perk of all: the Beastmate System.

At twenty-three, upon awakening their power, females were granted nine partners at once. Every two years, they could draft a new set. The potential was endless. Manage it right, and you could collect mates like trophies.

Ava didn’t need an army. Nine was plenty for someone her size. More than that might be… logistically challenging, especially during the honeymoon period.

So awakening wasn’t just a goal. It was everything.

The Intergalactic Awakening Division handed out Divine Seeds for free. Rumor said they came from the Beast God’s own root. About sixty percent of those who consumed one ignited with power, becoming Etherians blessed with lifespans of eight to twelve centuries. The rest? They became Subtherians, cursed to live only 120 years.

Ava got lucky. Within a month, her abilities—lightning and water—ignited like a supernova. It filled her with a fierce, desperate hope.

Then the government moved her. From Elysian Outpost, a forgotten backwater, to New Aurora. She pictured a life of ease. Collecting her allowance. Living in a nice house. Leveling up at her leisure. All while counting down the days to her twenty-third birthday.

It sounded perfect. Nine gorgeous men competing for her attention every night? She could definitely work with that.

The dream shattered fast. She learned the matching was based on rank. Low-tier females only got low-tier males. The higher your rank, the better your lineup. And some of those low-tier males… well, let’s just say they weren’t winning any beauty contests.

Ava was honest with herself. She could handle being poor. But ugly mates? Absolutely not.

So began her grind.

To climb the ranks, there was only one way. Crack open a beast or a Chitinid and take its core.

Most females in the Empire had family money. Protective squads. Ava had nothing. No name. No resources. No safety net.

She’d tried, at first, to attach herself to other females. The moment they realized she was clanless, a freshly-awakened rookie, they dropped her. No one wanted dead weight.

So she had no choice. If she wanted cores, she had to go into the woods alone. Face the beasts head-on. Take what she needed. Was it terrifying? Yes. But it was better than the alternative—sitting around, waiting for a miracle that would never come.

The beginning was pure horror. Razor teeth. Slashing claws. Blood everywhere. She’d brushed against death more times than she could remember. But the thought of ugly bedmates scared her more than any fang or claw.

Five years later, she was still here. Battered, but unbroken. One more core stood between her and Rank 4. That would unlock access to Ranks 5, 6, maybe even 7 males. She’d seen a Rank 7 male once. His face looked like it was carved by divine hands.

Just imagining nine men like that waiting for her made her pulse quicken.

Boom!

A deafening crash ripped her from her thoughts. Her beat-up Gravicar shuddered violently, lost power, and dropped from the sky like a rock.

Instinct took over. A bubble of water materialized around the vehicle, cushioning its fall. She was out of the door before it fully settled, her sword already alive with energy.

A roar tore through the trees. A blond man stumbled into the clearing, covered in blood, desperately fleeing from a massive beast hot on his heels.

Her eyes locked onto the creature. A monstrous, rhino-like thing, four times the size of an Earthly version. Its horn glowed a vicious crimson. Flames licked from its open maw.

Perfect. A Rank 4 beast. Ava’s lips curled into a smirk. Well, aren’t you a nice surprise?

She didn’t hesitate. She charged.

The blond man froze, stunned. A female? Here?

“Y-” he gasped, but Ava was already moving.

Her water bubble shot forward, morphing into a storm of tiny, razor-sharp blades that sliced into the beast’s hide. The creature bellowed in agony, the ground shaking. Ava rode a pillar of water upward, her sword blazing with lightning. She came down like a thunderbolt, splitting the beast’s skull clean in two.