Alivia didn't think. She snatched the wet towel from the rock, spun around, and lashed out with it. The wet fabric cracked through the air like a whip.

It stopped an inch from the intruder's face, caught in a pale, ice-cold hand.

Alivia's gaze traveled up the arm to a face that could have been carved from marble. Davion Sloan. Her second designated mate. The ice snake.

His vertical pupils, cold and devoid of emotion, scanned her from her wet hair down to her wrapped body. The disgust in his eyes was palpable, a physical chill that made the water seem warm.

Then, his nostrils flared. The lavender scent. His brow furrowed, the disgust morphing into something darker, more suspicious.

He flung the towel away like it was contaminated. "What trick are you playing now?" he demanded, his voice like cracking ice.

Alivia caught the towel, her heart hammering against her ribs, but her face remained a mask of stone. She didn't step back.

Davion stepped closer, his tall frame casting a shadow over her. "You failed to drug Kane, so you ran to the river to try and seduce me?" He looked pointedly at the fading rash on her face. "You think washing yourself and rubbing this... pungent stench on yourself... will make me touch you?"

Alivia felt a surge of fury so hot it burned away the fear. The arrogance. The sheer narcissism. She let out a cold, mocking laugh.

"Wow," she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Your imagination is richer than your bloodline. Not everything is about you, snake boy."

Davion froze. The vertical pupils dilated slightly in shock. The old Alivia would have been groveling, crying, begging for his attention. She had never talked back.

Alivia slung the towel over her shoulder and crossed her thick arms over her chest. She looked at him with the kind of disgust usually reserved for a cockroach in a soup bowl. "I took a bath because I like being clean. As for you? Don't flatter yourself. You're not my type."

She deliberately stepped around him, putting distance between them. "And by the way, your cologne smells like wet dog."

Davion's eyes narrowed dangerously. He stared at her, his cold facade cracking just a fraction. The obsessive, desperate glint in her eyes was gone, replaced by a flat, icy indifference. It unsettled him.

"Best keep it that way," he said, his voice low and threatening. "If you come within ten feet of my cave, I'll break your legs."

He turned and walked away, his long strides carrying him into the brush quickly, as if he couldn't stand to breathe the same air as her for another second.

Alivia let out a shaky breath, her legs turning to jelly. She leaned against the rock, her bravado fading. That was close.

"Warning," Kai chimed in. "Davion's affection is at -90. Your attitude is detrimental to the mission."

"Shut up," Alivia retorted mentally. "Groveling to a narcissist only feeds his ego. Playing hard to get is the only way to survive him."

Her stomach growled, a loud, demanding rumble. The hunger was back with a vengeance. She looked at the stream. Fish. She saw fish darting in the shallows.

Closing her eyes, she reached for her meager Level 1 ability. She targeted a long, tough vine growing on the bank, feeding a trickle of energy into it. The vine twitched, then slithered into the water like a snake. It wrapped around a fat fish and yanked it onto the bank.

The effort cost her. Dizziness swam in her head, but she had food. She cleaned the fish with a sharp stone, started a small fire using friction and some dry moss, and soon, the smell of roasting fish filled the air.

She ate ravenously, the hot protein filling the hollow in her stomach. She had just swallowed the last bite and was about to kick dirt over the embers when a loud crack echoed from the canopy above.

Alivia acted instinctively. Threw away the fish bones, rolled to the side, back pressed against a thick birch tree trunk, eyes fixed on the canopy.

With a series of snapping branches and scattered leaves, something fell down from between the foliage. It landed heavily on the riverbank, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Alivia blinked. It wasn't an animal. It was a woman. A woman in a white lace dress.

She lay motionless, her delicate face pale, her skin incredibly smooth, standing out starkly against the dirt and sweat of the forest. There was only a small wound on her forehead.

Alivia's mind raced. A modern dress. Perfect skin. In this wild world? It could only mean one thing.

Ding! Kai's voice screamed in her mind. "Alert! High-dimensional energy invasion! 'The Chosen One' Haley Clayton has arrived!"

Information flooded Alivia's mind. Haley had the "Mary Sue halo" system. According to the original plot, she should be discovered by Cain, brought back to the tribe, and revered as a goddess. While the original Alivia would be used as a foil to perfect Haley, gradually leading to her death.

Alivia stared at the unconscious woman. She felt no sympathy. Only cold, ruthless calculation. In a world of scarce resources, Hailey's halo was a death warrant to her. Letting her live was like planting a bomb in her own backyard.

She walked up to Hailey. Killing her directly would leave a scent trail, and the werewolves would track them down. She had to be smarter.

Alivia grabbed the back of Hailey's white dress, her fingers avoiding the woman's skin to leave no trace of her own scent or hair. She began dragging.

This was torture. Hailey was heavy, and Alivia's body was already at its limit. She dragged the woman away from the creek, away from the tribe, towards the "Shadow Forest"-a place even warriors avoided due to the poisonous insects and low-level beasts that roamed there.

Thorns tore at Hailey's skirt and skin, but Alivia didn't slow down. After walking a kilometer, her legs were trembling, her vision blurred by sweat. She threw Hailey behind a thicket of brambles, where the scent of decaying leaves and animal musk would mask her tracks.

As she turned to leave, something was shining in Hailey's hair. A diamond hair clip. Modern craftsmanship. Valuable.

Alivia unhesitatingly pulled out the hairpin and stuck it into her own leather belt. In this world, resources were everything.

"Good luck, princess," she whispered coldly, "your halo won't save you here."

"Host, altering the storyline may cause unpredictable butterfly effects-" Kai began.

"I am the butterfly," Alivia interrupted him, "I'm threatening to crush it before it hatches."

She walked back, carefully breaking branches and sweeping away the drag marks with leaves, creating the illusion of a beast dragging its prey. Back by the stream, she thoroughly washed her hands.

The sun was setting. The forest at night was a death trap. She had to get back.

She sneaked back into the village, moving through the shadows. But the moment she stepped onto the edge of the central plaza, she knew trouble was coming. Dozens of hostile eyes turned toward her.

"Oh dear, look who has finally climbed back."

The mocking voice came from Kendra McCoy, the tribe's self-proclaimed beauty. She swayed over with exaggerated hip movements, a fake smile on her face.

"You don't really think you can drug Kane and make him want you, do you?" Kendra shouted at the crowd. "You're disgusting. An ugly, fat laughingstock."

The gathered orcs chuckled. Those disgusted looks felt like a real blow.

Alyvia stood motionless, expressionless. She found all this petty squabble utterly tiresome. It was a high school farce set in the Stone Age.

The crowd parted. Her five spouses stepped forward.

Fabian Crosby, the White Fox, came over first. He wore his usual fake, gentle smile. He offered her a piece of raw meat. "Eat," he said softly, his voice barely reaching her ears, "Don't starve. It would tarnish my reputation."

Alyvia took the meat without a word, her eyes warning him that she wasn't a fool.

Then came Davin and Jody. Jody exaggeratedly covered her nose with a clean animal hide, as if she were a walking plague.

Adrian, the bear, stepped forward. He didn't offer the meat. He simply threw it at her. The bloody, raw flesh slammed into the mud at her feet, splashing mud and water onto her calves.

"Eat up, you idiot!" he roared.

Laughter erupted from the crowd. This was the ultimate humiliation.

Finally, Kane stepped forward. He was clean, but a lingering anger still burned in his silver eyes. He looked at the flesh in the mud, then at her.

"From today onward," he announced, his voice so cold it could freeze the air, "I will no longer give her any food. She disgusts me."

The crowd gasped. A spouse refusing to provide food was tantamount to a death sentence.

Alivia looked at the flesh in the mud. It was covered in filth. Her brother, Anton, pushed through the crowd, his face red with anger.

"How dare you!" Anton shouted at Kane. "You swore an oath! You have disgraced the Sanford family!"

Kane smirked. "Ask your sister what she did."

Anton turned to Alivia, his eyes blazing. "Throw away that filthy piece of meat! The Sanfords don't accept charity!"

Alivia looked at her brother. Then at the meat. In the apocalypse, she had eaten rats and tree bark. Dignity was a luxury for the well-fed.

She bent down. Her thick, rough fingers pinched the mud-covered flesh. She picked it up and brushed off the loose dirt.

"Are you crazy?" Anton shouted. "Don't you have any shame?"

Alivia looked him straight in the eye. Her gaze was calm and utterly serious. "Food is food. The dead have no right to talk about shame."

A stunned silence fell over the square. Even Kane was slightly taken aback. This wasn't the tearful, desperate girl he knew.

Alivia didn't wait for a response. She turned her back to everyone and walked towards her dilapidated cave, her steps heavy and steady. Fabian watched her retreating figure, the fake smile vanishing from his face, replaced by a hint of curiosity.