The Frozen Fortress and the First Spark
The underground grocery warehouse of the massive mart was a deep, artificial cavern so far below the surface that even the wingbeats of the giant insects who now ruled the world above could not reach it. With all power long since severed, the space began to reveal its true, merciless nature in the aftermath of the beast’s savage mating.
The season had already slipped from late autumn into the brutal bite of early winter. Down here, where no sunlight had touched in months, the concrete floor drank in the surface cold and transformed into a colossal freezer. Sssssss. The freezing gale that slipped down the ventilation shafts slithered between the metal shelves like icy serpents, ruthlessly devouring every degree of warmth left in the warehouse.
Eunha clung desperately to the thick nape of the enormous beast, her slight body trembling atop his broad back in the pitch-black darkness. The upper half of her torso still held some heat thanks to the thick black fleece hoodie, but her lower body was completely exposed and defenseless. Only minutes earlier, the space between her legs had been scalding hot—filled with the beast’s body heat that had exceeded forty degrees Celsius and nearly three hundred milliliters of thick semen. Now, a knife-like wind sliced straight into that raw, ravaged flesh.
Shiver. Goosebumps erupted across the pale, porcelain-like skin of her thighs and buttocks. The brutal penetration had torn her entrance and cervical walls close to third-degree lacerations. Thanks to the healing properties of his saliva, the bleeding had barely stopped and new flesh was beginning to knit together, but every time the freezing air kissed those hypersensitive membranes, Eunha twisted in agony so sharp it stole her breath.
“Ah, ngh… Haa, it’s so cold…”
White puffs of breath escaped her pale lips. The cloudy mixture of semen and her own fluids that had trickled down her inner thighs onto the beast’s fur was now cooling rapidly in the underground chill, sticking to her skin in a disgusting, goosebump-raising film. The sensation of those once-sticky fluids hardening into cold glue made her feel as if her entire lower body had been plunged into ice water.
Desperate to survive, Eunha pressed her fifty-kilogram frame even tighter against Taeo’s wide back. She curled her slender 162-centimeter body as small as possible, burying her frozen toes deep into the dense, soft undercoat hidden beneath his long, coarse outer fur. But even the body heat of a ninety-kilogram mutated wolf could not fully ward off the crushing cold that pressed in from every side of the empty space.
Clack. Clack-clack. Clack. Her upper and lower teeth began to chatter uncontrollably. Her nervous system was fighting for survival, forcing her muscles into violent spasms. Her blood vessels contracted to the extreme; her thin, white skin gradually took on a ghastly purplish hue. The early signs of frostbite. Sensation was already fading from her toes, replaced by stabbing pain like countless needles.
“Taeo… Taeo, please… I’m… I’m so cold… ugh…”
She clutched the thick fur at his nape and let out a pitiful whimper. In her sightless world there was nothing but merciless cold, darkness, and unbearable pain. A primal terror surged through her—that her heart might freeze solid and stop at any moment.
That was when it happened.
Grrrrng. The giant beast sensed the dangerous tremors of the female on his back and turned his heavy head with a low, rumbling huff. Taeo’s sensitive olfactory receptors meticulously analyzed the rapidly changing scent of Eunha’s body within the cold warehouse air. The sweet pheromones drenched in hot pleasure and fear were fading, replaced by a bizarre, chilling odor—the smell of blood circulation slowing, of cells beginning to freeze. His instincts screamed that his possession was in mortal danger.
With surprising gentleness, he reached back with one massive forepaw and wrapped it around her shivering form. The same paw that could have crushed her ribs like dry twigs now handled her with the delicacy of fragile glass. Carefully, Taeo lowered Eunha from his back and laid her on a thick pile of discarded cardboard boxes stacked in the corner of the warehouse.
“No…! Don’t leave me, Taeo… It’s cold, please…”
The instant his immense body heat pulled away, Eunha screamed as if struck by lightning and flailed her hands through empty air. But Taeo was resolute.
Lick. Slurp. He extended his rough, burning-hot tongue and dragged it firmly over her purpling thighs and frozen toes. The friction heat and sedative compounds in his saliva soaked into her skin, temporarily numbing the cold. While she caught her breath, Taeo spun around and bounded into the darkness.
Thud. Thud-thud. Whoosh. The sound of ninety kilograms of solid mass kicking off the linoleum floor. The scrape of claws against concrete raced away at terrifying speed, followed by the distant, heavy crash of a massive iron door being smashed open as he ascended to the surface level.
“Taeo…? Where are you going…!”
Eunha curled into a tight ball on the cardboard pile and cried out in despair. The monster had raped her and torn her insides apart, yet in this frozen apocalypse, she knew she would not survive even an hour without the warmth of his fur. Perfect isolation. The underground warehouse sank into a silence deeper and colder than any tomb once Taeo was gone.
She hugged her knees to her chest with her thin arms, curling into the smallest shape possible. Though her blind eyes saw nothing, every particle of cold air against her skin felt like the edge of a razor. Come back… Please don’t abandon me…
Her rational mind—the mind of a former pharmacology student—calculated the cell necrosis and mortality rate of hypothermia, but deeper in her heart, only the wretched dependency of a female craving her beast’s warmth remained, wrapping around her like a black widow’s web. The grotesque paradox of having to cling for survival to the very creature that had violated her. Eunha clenched her chattering jaw and wept. Even her tears froze as they slid down her cheeks.
How many minutes passed that felt like eternity?
BANG! CRASH! A deafening roar echoed from the warehouse entrance as the massive iron door was shattered. Eunha flinched and lifted her head. Terror that giant insects might be attacking shot down her spine, but her keen sense of smell soon caught the familiar, overpowering scent of male pheromones.
Thump. Thump. Heavy footsteps approached, dragging something large across the floor. It was Taeo. The beast had returned from ravaging the mart above, his mouth and back laden with bizarre trophies for survival.
Thud. Clatter. Clang. He dropped everything he had carried in his jaws at her feet. The sound of heavy wooden planks, crumpled thick paper, and the dull scrape of metal followed one after another.
With trembling hands, Eunha reached out and carefully felt the objects. The first thing her fingertips found were roughly broken wooden boards. They were thick wooden pallets commonly used in the mart’s logistics area or under display shelves—Taeo must have torn them apart with his terrifying strength. Deep tooth marks from the beast scored their surfaces. Beside them lay crumpled, bone-dry empty cardboard boxes, and soon her hand touched a cold, round metal cylinder.
This is… gas? And…
Her fingers traced the plastic valve attached to the metal cylinder and the small plastic piece beside it. A large butane torch meant for camping, paired with a flip-top lighter. Eunha’s cloudy silver pupils dilated wide in the darkness.
Taeo… brought these?
The creature she had believed was now completely ruled by primal instinct after mutating into a ninety-kilogram black wolf, incapable of human speech. The monster that had shown only the madness of a predator forcibly claiming and seeding his female. Yet the items at her feet could not be explained by instinct alone.
Taeo had not only recognized that she was freezing—he had precisely selected, from among countless objects on the surface, the exact materials and ignition tools needed to create fire. Whether fragments of his former human intelligence still lingered in some strange corner of the beast’s brain, or whether the instinct to protect his breeding female had manifested as extreme learning ability, she could not say.
Grrrr. He nudged her thin shoulder lightly with his massive snout, as if urging her to quickly make heat. Eunha bit her frozen lip and nodded. There was no room for awe or fear. If she did not raise her body temperature immediately, she would stiffen and die where she sat.
With shaking hands she tore the cardboard boxes to shreds and spread them across the floor, then carefully stacked the broken pallet pieces in a log-cabin formation. For a blind woman, building any structure was an exhausting task that relied solely on touch, but the desperation to survive guided her movements.
When the preparation was complete, Eunha gripped the gas torch with both hands.
“Haa… haa…”
Handling fire was an act of extreme terror for a blind person. She could not see where sparks might fly or how high the flames would surge. If her hand slipped and fire caught on her clothes or nearby objects, she would burn alive before she could react.
She took a deep breath and turned the torch valve with microscopic care. Hssssss. A sharp hiss of escaping gas filled the air, carrying the nauseating smell of butane. She carefully aimed the nozzle toward the woodpile, then pressed the lighter’s switch with her other hand.
Click. Fwoosh!
The instant the tiny flame met the gas, a small explosion popped in the air and a long, sharp pillar of fire erupted. Eunha flinched at the sudden wave of heat against the back of her hand, but she clenched her teeth and stubbornly pushed the torch flame deep between the paper and wood.
Crackle. Crackle-crackle. Whoooosh. The paper caught first, burning bright red, then the flames spread to the dry pallet fragments. The acrid smell of smoke and the pleasant popping of burning wood shattered the warehouse’s silence. Eunha shut off the torch, tossed it aside, and carefully extended her trembling hands toward the growing fire.
“Ah… aah…”
The intense heat radiating from just thirty centimeters away slammed into her frozen fingertips and face. Even the bare skin of her exposed sex and inner thighs, defenseless against the cold air, began to receive the warm radiation of the flames. The thrilling yet painful sensation of constricted blood vessels expanding, blood beginning to flow again. The frozen fluids melted slowly in the heat, once more releasing their fishy scent.
Eunha closed her eyes in relief at simply being alive and absorbed the campfire’s warmth with her entire body. In the hellish darkness of the apocalypse, this small flame was the only sun, the only lifeline.
But the peace did not last long.
Grrrrng? From behind her, Taeo—who had been quietly watching—let out a curious huff, drawn by the heat and light of the dancing flames. He began to push his massive head closer.
Whoosh. Roar. As the ninety-kilogram ball of fur approached, the campfire flames flickered violently as if robbed of oxygen. The warmth that had been bathing Eunha’s skin was momentarily blocked by the beast’s enormous shadow. When she tensed and sharpened her hearing, she caught the sound of his hot, heavy breathing right in front of the fire.
Wild beasts instinctively feared fire, but this grotesque hybrid with lingering human intelligence seemed fascinated that the objects he had brought were now producing heat. Yet his entire body was covered in thick, dry fur. A single spark catching on that coat would turn him into a towering pillar of flame in seconds.
“No!”
Eunha screamed reflexively and reached out with both hands, slapping his enormous nose away from the flames.
Thwack.
Whine?
Her small palm met the damp, massive tip of his snout.
“It’s dangerous! If your fur catches fire it’ll be a disaster! Stay back, Taeo!”
The blind female had forgotten she was pushing away the apex predator of this new world’s food chain. All that filled her was the desperate need to keep him from getting hurt. The male who had forcibly taken her and torn her apart without mercy. Yet in this moment, inside Eunha’s mind, the visceral dependence and protective instinct—that she could not survive without this beast—had grown far stronger than hatred or fear.
If Taeo burned and was injured, she would starve to death in this dark, cold warehouse or be devoured by insects.
The beast’s movement froze the instant her fragile hand struck his nose.
…….
For a moment, only the crackling of the campfire filled the warehouse. Any ordinary giant insect or wild predator would have torn out the throat of prey that dared lay a hand on it. But Taeo was different. This fragile female had been perfectly marked by his scent and fluids. His grotesque intelligence and primal instinct both understood that she was not attacking him—she was protecting him from the burning heat.
Puuufff. A huge snort blew her bangs back violently. Then came the sound of his heavy footsteps retreating.
Thump. Thud. As if obediently accepting her warning, Taeo sat his massive haunches down a safe meter away from the fire.
The most ferocious and cruel ruler of the ecosystem had meekly yielded to the command of a blind, fifty-kilogram female.
Only when she confirmed that his hot breath had stopped at a safe distance did the tension leave Eunha’s body. She let out a deep sigh and collapsed to the floor.
“Haa… Thank goodness…”
The red glow of the campfire made the shadows of the two bizarre creatures facing each other in the darkness flicker and dance. A pale, slender human woman sat hugging her bare knees to warm herself. Behind her, like a colossal guardian deity, a ninety-kilogram black wolf crouched in the dark, watching over both the flames and his female.
Eunha felt the warm heat seep into her frozen sex and thighs. Beyond the small spark she had created, she sensed the immense presence of Taeo with her entire body. In this hellish world, he was the only sanctuary permitted to her. The only monster who tore her apart, yet also warmed her, and allowed her to keep breathing.
“Thank you… Taeo. For saving me…”
The whisper that slipped from Eunha’s lips was a terrible, sweet first confession—proof that she had burned away the last of her human reason and fallen completely into the role of a beast’s female.