The next morning,

Jayden was just lacing up his boots to head out for his daily quests when a soft knock came at his bedroom door.

He stood up, strode over to the door and opened it to find Cassandra standing there, looking both nervous and entirely resolute.

She was in a light jacket and jeans, her hair cascading down her back.

"Hey," she said.

Jayden looked at her for a second. Then he replied. "Hey," he said with a smile. "Come in."

Cassandra smiled back. "Thanks," she said. Then she stepped inside.

Jayden closed the door behind her and before he could even say another word, Cassandra spoke.

"I talked to my mom," she said, her voice steady.

Jayden blinked. "Oh. About what?" he asked, pretending to not know what she was talking about.

"About us." Cassandra replied, meeting his eyes directly. "About everything. We had a long conversation last night, and things are cool between us now."

Jayden looked at her steadily. "So what does that mean?"

"It means I’ve made up my mind." Cassandra exhaled. "I want to be with you, Jayden. I know there are complications. I know it’s not going to be simple. But I’ve thought about it properly and this is what I want, and I didn’t want to wait any longer to tell you."

Jayden’s breath caught. A wave of immense relief and happiness washed over him. He closed the distance between them, wrapping his arms around her waist as she reached up, her hands sliding into his hair. They shared a deep, passionate kiss, a silent promise solidifying between them.

When they finally parted, they sat together on the edge of his bed, Cassie resting her head on his shoulder. It was a quiet, special moment, but Jayden knew he couldn’t keep her completely in the dark anymore. Not if they were doing this.

"Cassie," he started, his tone shifting to something much more serious. "There are things about me... things that you don’t know."

Cassandra pulled back slightly, looking up into his eyes. "Is this about how you have multiple abilities? I already figured there was more to it."

"It’s deeper than that," Jayden said softly. He took a deep breath and began to lay out the pieces of his past. He told her about his childhood, revealing the closely guarded secret that he and his family had lived among beastmen. He told her about the horrific night his mother was killed, and how his sister had been taken by the Eva.

Then, he explained his powers—at least, part of them. He told her how the lightening incident had triggered an awakening, allowing him to absorb the abilities of beasts and partially mutate to take on their traits.

He intentionally left two massive secrets out: the existence of the System, and the fact that he was a full-blooded Werewolf. Just like he had with Tasha, he kept the werewolf truth hidden out of pure fear of how the world—and the people he cared about—would react if they knew he wasn’t entirely human. Jessica had only found out by pure accident, and he desperately wanted to keep that circle small to reduce the risks. Knowing too much in this world was dangerous.

Cassandra took it all in, her expression shifting from shock to deep, empathetic sorrow. "My mom... she once mentioned knowing your mom," she murmured, piecing the fragments together. "But she never told me anything about you guys living with beastmen."

She reached out, gently cupping his face, her thumb brushing against his cheek. "I am so sorry, Jayden. About your mom, and your sister. And I’m going to help you find her."

Jayden smiled faintly, leaning into her touch. "Thanks," he whispered.

Cassandra’s eyes then widened a fraction as she processed the other half of his confession. "Wait... so your ability comes from beasts? Does that mean you can control them, too?"

Jayden chuckled, a genuine laugh escaping his chest as he thought of the new skill sitting in his System interface. "I’m getting there."

Cassandra nodded. "Okay," then she chuckled. "But it’s funny how you developed an ability through the same lightening strike you saved me from. Which technically means... you got your powers because of me." She laughed.

Jayden laughed too. "Perhaps," he said.

They sat in comfortable silence for a few more minutes before Jayden finally sighed and stood up. "Can i see you later? I have something really important to take of."

"Okay, no problem," Cassandra smiled, standing up with him. She didn’t complain because she knew he was indeed heading out when she arrived earlier.

But before she turned to the door, Jayden mentally opened his pack system interface and focused on Cassandra’s retreating body.

A notification tab popped up immediately.

<Cassandra Isley>

*Admiration Level: 94%

[Status: Highly Compatible]

Jayden didn’t waste a single second. He added her immediately. "Add Cassandra Isley to the Twin Crescent Pack," he commanded the system.

[Pack Recruitment Initiated]

[Target: Cassandra Isley]

[Analyzing Bond Strength]

[Processing....]

Then after a few seconds, another set of notifications popped up.

[Bond Formation Successful]

[Cassandra Isley has been added to the Twin Crescent Pack]

[Pack members: 4/10]

[Slots Left: 6]

[+2% permanent boost added to all stats for adding Pack member: Cassandra Isley]

The effect was immediate and Jayden felt it on his end... their bond tightening, the statistical confirmation of her formal place in the pack. He also felt a small adjustment to his aggregate strength.

Cassandra also felt it. A sudden, intense rush of warmth flooded her veins. She felt lighter, faster, her core humming with a sudden spike in raw power as her stats passively increased. Along with the physical surge, she felt a profound, invisible tether tighten around her heart, connecting her deeply to Jayden.

She pressed one hand briefly to her sternum and looked up at him, her cheeks flushed. She didn’t say anything about the sudden rush of power, simply deflecting the overwhelming sensation as her own romantic feelings acting up now that they were finally together.

Jayden smiled knowingly. Then he reached out, opened his bedroom door—and almost bumped right into Tasha and Jessica.

The two girls jolted, suddenly looking everywhere but at Jayden and Cassie. They had clearly been there the entire time, eavesdropping.

"Oh! Hey, guys!" Jessica overacted, her eyes wide with feigned innocence. "We were just about to knock!"

"Yeah," Tasha chimed in quickly, pointing down the hall. "And mum needs your help, Jayden. She’s carrying something really heavy from the basement. Like, super heavy. And she needs you to help her with it... right now."

Jayden blinked, staring blankly at their terrible acting. He let out a defeated sigh. "Um... Okay."

He stepped out into the hallway, heading for the stairs. As he reached the top step, he glanced back over his shoulder. Tasha and Jessica had immediately flanked Cassie, hooking their arms through hers and enthusiastically dragging her toward their room.

"Welcome to the club gurl!" Jessica stage-whispered loudly.

"Come on. We have so much to talk about," Tasha added.

Cassandra just laughed, letting herself be pulled away by the girls.

Jayden shook his head, a fond smile on his face, and headed down to the basement.

Minutes later,

After helping Harleen drag several heavy crates out of the basement, Jayden glanced at the clock.

11:49 AM.

It wasn’t even noon yet.

He had hours to kill before his trip to Ruby City.

He headed back upstairs, changed into workout clothes, and left the house, heading straight for the park.

The park was quiet at this hour on a Saturday... quieter than weekday mornings, which was counterintuitive until you remembered that most people his age were sleeping through the first half of the day if given the option. He had the eastern stretch of the green almost entirely to himself.

He completed his daily quests in under ten minutes, running through the physical components efficiently and logging the final prompt without ceremony. Then he retreated to a secluded, densely wooded area of the park.

It was time to test his newly acquired prize.

He sat on the grass with his legs crossed and his eyes closed. He thought about the Ghost-Lynx. He thought about the mechanism of its power. The vibration. The way the cat’s cells had maintained a frequency offset from solid matter, not a single sustained note but a constant active process, adjusting and re-adjusting constantly.

But it wasn’t passive. The lynx hadn’t simply existed in an intangible state. It had been working at it. Consciously and continuously, the way you’d hold a complicated physical position in training right until it becomes a second nature.

And that ability was in him now.

He reached for it the same way he reached for all the others... inward, into the architecture of himself that the system had been quietly expanding for months.

And then... he triggered the ability.

Thanks to his incredibly high Mastery stat, his body understood how to execute the command almost instantly, compressing the usual learning curve into something more immediate.

The first attempt produced nothing externally visible and a considerable amount of internal noise... his cells responding to the instruction with the biological equivalent of confusion, not refusing exactly, but just not yet understanding what was being asked of them.

Jayden held the effort steady. Kept reaching for the frequency. The Ghost-Lynx’s instinct for it was in the gene itself, a kind of template, and he used it as a reference the way he’d use a tuning fork.

Then... something shifted.

Not all at once. But in patches. It was his left hand first, then the forearm, the frequency catching in one area and spreading outward before losing coherence at the elbow.

Jayden opened his eyes and looked at his hand. It appeared normal, but that was just the illusion created by his cells. He reached out and pressed his hand flat against the park bench beside him.

His palm passed into the wood by half an inch before he lost the frequency and his hand became solid again, pressed against the surface rather than inside it.

He felt a spike of stamina drain from that little trial. But he wasn’t ready to give up just yet. Not when he was this close.

He held his hand up. Looked at it. Flexed his fingers. Then he started again.

This time he focused more on loosening the bond between his cells, then used that looseness to easily excite them, thus creating an oscillatory effect.

Just then, a strange, humming sensation washed over his skin, and his vision briefly glitched into a violet hue. He swung his hand toward the park bench, and this time, his entire arm went through the solid metal like it was made of mist.

The system screen popped up a second later.

[You have mastered the ability: Intangibility]