The pain hit Riven like a live wire to the spine. He staggered against the cold steel walls of the abandoned research lab, clutching his chest as something inside him twisted, burned, and reshaped. His breath came in ragged gasps, his pulse hammering as if his heart might explode.
He hadn’t meant to come here. This place—Facility Theta—was a ruin, a forgotten relic of corporate greed and classified experiments that should have stayed buried. But a lead had brought him here: rumors of a bioweapon, something alive, something worth a fortune.
Now, that something was inside him.
Riven collapsed to his knees, fingers digging into the cracked floor as heat coiled beneath his skin. His bones ached, muscles spasming as they swelled beneath his jacket. His veins pulsed with liquid fire. He clenched his teeth, a growl—his growl—rumbling deep in his throat.
*What the hell is happening to me?*
A voice, not his own, purred in the back of his mind.
**"You are becoming."**
Riven’s vision swam. His hands—no, his claws—trembled before him, fingers thickening, nails lengthening into curved, black talons. His skin darkened beneath coarse, golden fur that spread up his arms, down his chest, consuming him. His shirt shredded as his shoulders broadened, his back arching with raw power.
He roared, the sound animalistic, alien. His jaw cracked, lengthening into a feline muzzle. Canines jutted past his lips, sharp enough to tear flesh. His ears twitched, high and pointed. He could hear everything—the hum of flickering lights, the skittering of rats in the vents, the steady *thump-thump* of his own monstrous heartbeat.
He was huge. Taller. Stronger.
More.
The symbiote’s voice slithered through his thoughts again, silk and hunger entwined.
**"You are mine now, Riven. And I am yours. We are pride. We are predator. We are the apex."**
He rose to his feet, his tail lashing behind him—*a tail, my God, I have a tail*—as realization crashed over him like a tidal wave. He was no longer just Riven. He was something else, something powerful, something built for the hunt.
And he could feel it. The hunger. The need to move, to fight, to tear.
Outside, sirens wailed. Someone had tripped the security system. Footsteps echoed in the hallways, voices barking orders.
They were coming.
A slow grin spread across Riven’s fanged mouth.
Let them.