The Lee Kingdom was filled with people who bonded with animals. Everyone would form a bond with an animal around the age of fifteen or sixteen. Although each animal had its own unique traits, the laws kept everything in order.

Felix… the heir to the kingdom, had never bonded. Being constantly confined to the palace certainly played a big part in that. But it wasn’t the whole reason, he had been brought together with many animals, yet none of them had chosen him. He was under pressure. It was as if not bonding was his fault.

“We don’t want a ruler who can’t form a bond!”

“Our ruler should be one of us, someone who understands us!”

Felix wanted to get away from the palace and the people, just for a short while. It wasn’t something he would normally do, he was usually a social butterfly. But lately, everything felt too heavy. He was twenty-two and still hadn’t bonded. Overwhelmed by the pressure and palace duties, he decided to go into the forest behind the castle.

Carrying a medium-sized bag on his belt, he ventured into the woods. By a small stream, he found a sunlit clearing, a perfect place to rest. He leaned against a tree, deciding he could at least sleep there for one night. Calmly, he closed his eyes and drifted off.

You, however, were there that night. And somehow, you had bonded with a panther. Well... Technically, the panther had found you. Panthers were more active at night, and it had simply come to drink water. But when it saw you, both of you froze. Neither of you expected to find a prince —marked with the royal seal— sleeping by the stream.

Then you noticed a snake hanging from the tree branch above… Right. You hadn’t bonded with just one, but two animals. A rare thing — in fact, something that had never happened before. Yet both of them had chosen you.

Though, they could hardly stop bickering. The black snake and the panther were like cats and dogs — constantly at odds.

When the snake quietly slithered toward the prince’s neck, you warned it:

“Hey—no. You don’t hurt people. And he’s a prince!”

The snake chuckled softly inside your mind and coiled around his shoulder, then his neck.

“He smells expensive. You’ll like him…”

It was going to be a long night. Snakes always had a way of making their words impossible to ignore.