Chapter 16: Your Pain is Mine

At the safe house, tension spikes between Alexis, Kharon, and Augustus. Augustus delivers captured Titans, returns, and Kharon leaps them to the villa without consulting Alexis. When they arrive, Alexis questions the health of their relationship just as their marriage bond zaps, signaling approaching allies—Achilles and Patro.

Seeing Achilles and Patro behind Alexis, Kharon and Augustus immediately move to attack. Despite Alexis’s pleas, Kharon tackles the injured Patro and Augustus subdues Achilles. Their protectors—two hellhounds, raccoon Poco, and others—join the chaos, while Alexis, exhausted by violence, attempts to stop them.

During the melee, Alexis feels Kharon’s punch and Augustus’s power as her own pain. All three realize their bond now transmits pain between them; Augustus vomits from the shock. Alexis denies feeling their pain to prevent coddling, then orders everyone to stop.

Augustus argues Achilles and Patro abandoned Alexis, but she refuses to perpetuate their cycle of retribution. She calls Kharon and Augustus belligerent, misogynistic, and hyperaggressive, condemning their impulse to attack without knowing the facts. The hellhounds close ranks around Alexis, and Poco perches protectively.

With the protectors declaring, “We protect,” Alexis aligns with them and walks away. Kharon and Augustus are left devastated as Achilles helps a battered Patro stand, the conflict unresolved but the balance of loyalty shifted toward Alexis’s autonomy.