What The Fox? (Completely Free!)

Chapter 18

Chapter 18

After returning to our tent, I slipped back in bed and pretended to sleep. Alix returned about an hour later. He wasn't filthy like the other wolves after they shifted back to their human forms. That must mean that either he wasn't wandering around the grasslands all night in his wolf form or that he cleaned up before he came to see me.

"Stop pretending to sleep, little fox," Alix growled. "You should be kneeling by the door when your master returns. Maybe a lesson in respect is in order."

Ordinary, I would go out of my way to perturb him when he barked orders at me. However, today, I decided not to fight over something trivial. I liked fighting, even when it was a battle I couldn't win. He might be the big bad wolf, but he was still a man, and men are controlled first and foremost by that little worm between their legs.

In Alix's case, that worm was alpha-sized like the rest of him, but still, men were all the same.

I threw back the covers. I was naked underneath, and I made a show of stretching and yawning. Alix wasn't as excepted by the sight of my glorious body as I thought he would be. Instead, his taunting turned to rage. He seized me by the shoulder and yanked me out from under his blankets.

"Get dressed. I won't have you wandering around here like a plucked chicken among bears."

"Are we going somewhere?"

"Yes."

"Where?"

"Get dressed," Alix hissed. This time he seized a handful of my ugly linen servant's outfit and threw it straight into my face. I supposed that I should be grateful it was just my worn clothing from the night before and not his fist that met my cheek. All the same, I was furious. I contemplated leaving his tent naked just to humiliate him in front of his werewolf brethren. "Don't forget, you're only alive because I allowed it."

"And why did you allow it?" I grudgingly yanked the coarse, ugly outfit over my naked body. My feet were bare and dirty from the dusty floor of his hut. I hoped he didn't notice the fresh grass stains on my boots.

"Because you might be of use when those Imperial Dogs come after us."

"Ah, so you're going to use me as a hostage."

"No, I'm going to have you creep up on the Prince, or rather your beloved, Julong, and kill him."

"Why would I do that?"

"Because you desire it."

"Not if it benefits you."

"Very well, then I'll tell you how it benefits you."

"I'm listening."

"I'll give you your freedom."

The seriousness with which he offered up that deal made me chuckle. How dare he? He wanted me to work for the chance of leaving his shaggy, canine pile of bones? My barely suppressed chuckled built up into a full-blown, belly-aching laugh.

"What's so funny?" Alix demanded, his handsome eyes sparkling with danger. "May I remind you that the alternative is death? My friends out there would salivate over the thought of ripping into your quivering, unblemished thighs." He was close enough for me to feel his breath on my cheek, for his threatening words to cut into me as surely as any knife. I saw his eyes drift down to my breasts and then lower, down to the womanly bounty that he wished to deliver to his packmates.

His lips lingered ever closer to my earlobe as though he had momentarily forgotten what terribly fates he had come here to threaten me with. His fingers, with grains of ashen dirt still trapped under his painfully short fingernails despite his having washed up before coming to see me, touched the skin of my thigh. He traced a path up higher, lightly padding upwards, like a predator quietly tracking prey across the wilderness.

His fingers were warm against my bare skin. Werewolves are hot-blooded. I wished I didn't yearn for his touch, to feel the hot cores of his palms against my naked body. Even if he only touched me to threaten me with death. What is it about wolves and the threat of having my flesh ripped off my bones that I found utterly irresistible?

His lips kissed the taut skin of my neck. His breath was like fire against my skin. Even as my core softened under his touch, my heart pounded with fear. It was an instinctive type of fear, a type that had been bred into my kind for generations. He was not a man; he was a wolf. Deep down, I could feel that recoiling of my every muscle fiber. It was as though centuries of instinctive knowledge were telling me to run. Those soft lips would turn into sharp, unforgiving teeth attached to a monstrous jaw. He was hungry, as all wolves were.

"No, stop," I whispered breathlessly. Alix's fingers had found their way up my thigh to a place where I both ached for him and desperately wanted to keep a secret from him. He was my enemy; he had proven that time and time again. He had come here to threaten me, punish me, devour me. Yet now here I was inching closer to him. My knees found their way around his hips, and I pressed my naked body against him. Alix shrugged his muscular shoulders out of his dark linen robes. Even when naked, he retained a type of fearsome majesty, like a king who was more of a king without his crown.

His birthright had made him into the Alpha of this tribe, and nothing, no trials or tribulations could take that away from him. I saw this now, with every ripple of the powerful muscles on his bareback and his hardened eyes. He wasn't here to love me; he was here to conquer me.

And my body welcomed that invasion. I felt my deepest darkest longings open up to him. I wanted him even when I knew that it would be unwise. If he had threatened me with death if I didn't do as he asked, then perhaps, in the end, it would come down to his life or mine.

I needed to keep a clear head.

"Do it. Take what is yours," I whispered into his ear, knowing full well that my taunt would spoil the moment. Alix was breathing hard, but still, he shoved himself off me. I regretted my words even as I said them. The hardness in his pants was so deliciously intent on violating the sanctum between my willing thighs. Yet, the moment was over. I had accused him of taking me by force, and I could see him wince at my words.

Oh, silly boy, he pretended to be a ruthless wolf, but he still had delusions of humanity deep down inside. Outside he was all beast, but inside, he still thought of himself as a man. A man who a woman invites inside, not a wolf who feasts on a bleeding, writhing prey.

"No," Alix retorted, even though his body was clearly ready to do just the opposite. He took several deep breathes with his eyes closed to calm his arousal. "Get dressed," he growled again, with more impatience this time. "If you don't, you'll feel my backhand against your pretty face."

I decided not to tease him anymore. It wasn't so much that I feared that he would hit me. Rather, I was afraid my desire for him would overtake my reason. He was such a stunning figure of a man. His Lycan blood made him darker, stronger, and more ferociously sensual than any human man I had ever seen. Even the Prince I had once nearly offered up my life to.

After I yanked my peasant outfit over my body, Alix continued to look away from me. It was as though even the sight of my curves in this sack-like attire still called out to him. What he could not seem with his eyes, perhaps he could still admire with his memory.

"If you wish to use me to kill Julong, perhaps you should keep me alive until he arrives."

"What do you mean by that?" Alix asked, genuinely confused. Ah, so all his threats to snap my neck with his backhand were all just poppycock. He never had any intent to follow through.

"Your brother is plotting to kill me. He doesn't like having a mortal woman here, among your kind. Surely, you must have known that your people would not welcome one such as me with open arms."

"Don't worry about Zirui," Alix muttered. His voice was soft, but his eyes had turned ten shades harder. "It will take more than my little pup of a brother to keep the Imperial Army at bay."