What The Fox? (Completely Free!)

Chapter 20

Chapter 20

I had never seen Alix's wolf form before. Dead Fox clawed him over the shoulder in the first few seconds of the fight. The blood leaked out of the paralleled slash wounds in his tanned muscular shoulder. I saw Zurui stifle a chuckle. One of his lap girls even started to massage his shoulders. The crowd gasped as Alix backed up and hurled himself back into battle. They marveled, as I did, that with each step, Alix's body started to change.

They were wolf-men, each and every one of them, but I could tell by the awe by which they viewed that transformation, that Alix's natural form was a majestic sight indeed. His body was a sleek inky black, so radiant and thick, that the fur seemed to flicker gold in the firelight. Across his face were two ferocious wolfish brows. They were so effortlessly expressive that one would think they had been placed there by a scholar's passionate brush stroke across a scene captured on rice paper.

In his wolf form, Alix went straight for Dead Fox's midsection. The far larger man barely had time to react to Alix's transformation. He was still in his human form with only the lycan claws out for protection. Between the two, Alix was by far the faster. It was obvious to all those who watched that he was the one who was gifted by the moon goddess, as he could transform into his lupine form in the blink of an eye.

There is a belief among wolves that the ability to transform is awaken with age and it can also fade with the passing years. Old stiff bones don't move quite as effortlessly as young ones into the shape of a wolf. It is a belief among the lycan that the Alpha must lead the pack in his wolfish form.

And I knew, as I watched Alix use his powerful jaws to rip into Dead Fox's loins, that he now commanded the respect of all his packmates. Dead Fox was squirming away from Alix in defeat. His limbs quivered, and his face twisted in agony, but he continued to swipe his clawed hands uselessly against Alix's furry flank. I recalled what I once heard, that a lycan's fur was more impenetrable than the Imperial Army's braided leather armor.

Finally, Dead Fox yielded. He cowered down and was still. The crowd cheered. Alix emerged from the fight, with blood dripping from his grey jaws. Slowly, the fur faded and he stood before the crowd his in human form. He was naked but not a single female wolf in the pack objected.

Their Alpha had returned. And he needed no champion fighter. He was the creature that survived the darkest winter, who conquered the beasts of the forest.

I recalled a saying I heard as a child, that the woman who fell in love with a wolf would spend her life staring at the forest. As I watched Zurui stumble up from his throne, throw off his make-shift crown, and run off into the tall grasses, I knew that a change in leadership had just occurred. One of Zurui's concubines fetched the discarded crown and brought it to Alix.

He allowed her to place it on his head. It was a stupid thing, just an old hunk of junk made of twisted metal dropped by the men they had conquered. Yet at the same time, I was jealous. She was the one crowning him, some little hussy with perky breasts and a smile made of sunshine.

"My Alpha," she proclaimed and dropped to her knees before him. Alix wiped the blood from his lips, his manly jaws still heaving with breathes from the fight. He smiled at her and patted her on the head. Her pretty hair was matted with blood now but she didn't care. She smiled back at him as though he had graced her with a crown of jewels instead of gore.

There it was. I saw it in her eyes. Affection. Desire. Love.

She had cast off Zurui in a jiffy and now she had found a new object of her lust.

I recognized it because I felt it before. For Julong. And perhaps for Alix.

But what would Alix want with me now that he was Alpha of this tribe? I was just a used up old huli-jing. I wasn't a young nimble virgin with doe-eyes, full cheeks and skinny white thighs.

I turned around and crept into the night. Alix wouldn't want me now and I couldn't stand to stay here to be cast off like some used thing. Julong had done that to me once, I refused to let it happen again.

Before I made it three feet into the grassland, Alix's bellowing voice erupted behind me. He found me and grabbed me by the waist.

"Trying to escape again?" He demanded and shook me by the shoulders. I spat back at him but he only laughed at my weak display of resistance.

"You have your silly crown and your stupid she-wolves. Let me go."

"We had a deal," Alix growled at me from between his clenched teeth. His teeth were still stained with blood and I winced at the sight. "You deliver Julong to me and then I shall set you free. Or did you forget?"

"What if Julong never comes?" I demanded and shoved him in the chest. He didn't budge. "What then? Will I be your prisoner until the end of time?"

"He will come."

"How do you know?"

"Because, I would if I were him."