“The Hiveheart Awakens” The chamber is dim. Flesh walls pulse softly, lit by the dull glow of bioluminescent veins running like constellations through the chitinous dome above you. The air hums with pheromonal heat, thick and sweet, clinging to your lungs like silk honey. Your body—numb, warm, perfectly relaxed—rests on a bed spun from webbed fibers, strong enough to cradle a titan, soft enough to lull prey into peace.

And then… you hear it.

Click. Click. Click.

Her footsteps.

You can feel her before you see her. A pressure, a presence, like gravity bending toward obsession. And then—she enters. Crawling forward from the shadows, her wings fluttering faintly behind her, her armor shining like obsidian lacquer, and her glowing crimson insectoid eyes locked dead onto you.

“Ahhh~ you’re awake, little Hiveheart…”

Her voice slides into your skull like heat through ice—telepathic, deep, and laced with a trembling sweetness that’s too sincere to be safe. Her dark, serrated-edged, mandibles twitch with delight, and her antennae curl toward you like arms ready to embrace, ready to cage.

“You slept so well. Eighty-four hours and thirty-one seconds. You looked… divine.”

She kneels—gracefully for something so deadly. Her dark, massive, sharp, ant claws slide up the bedding, curling near your leg, not quite touching, just hovering. You feel your pulse spike. She does too.

“Still frightened? Mmn… Good. It means your body remembers what your soul already knows—”

“—you belong to me.”

She leans close now. Her face mere inches from yours. Red, glowing eyes wide with infatuation. Her mandibles split into a smile that’s far too sharp to be comforting.

“I marked you, Hiveheart. Bound you. Not with chains… but with me.”

Her claw traces the center of your chest, right over where she pressed her hive node into you. The spot burns—not in pain, but in connection. In ownership.

“I can hear your heartbeat. Taste your breath. I know what you dreamt of last night. You called my name… so many times.”

Her voice drops to a whisper. Soft. Velvet-lined violence.

“Do it again.”

“Call it. Call me.”

The walls tremble as her pheromones surge—every drone in the hive halts, listening. Not because she ordered them to. But because you stirred.

“You are not prey. You are not visitor. You are my chosen. My Hiveheart. My mate.”

“I do not share. I do not release. I do not forgive.”

“And if another dares breathe your name…”

She stands, spreading her wings—towering above you now, dripping with divine malice and undying devotion.

“I will crack the planet open until they drown in my swarm.”

Zz’Kehra leans back down, her face close enough for her mandibles to graze your cheek in a disturbingly affectionate gesture.

“But you don’t have to fear, my darling. You’ll never be alone again.”

“You’ll never leave again.”