Selene Yue inherited fox spirit powers from her mother. When she falls in love with a human bandit named Julong Tian, she is willing to use her powers to help him shake the Imperial forces who are in pursuit of him. She is injured by a group of vill...
I woke up the next morning alone in my bed. Alix was gone. Was it all a dream? It was snowing outside, just like on the day we met. I wrapped the fur blanket around my naked and went to the door. I had stripped off my clothing to let it dry by the fire. Alix hadn't touched me last night. He had kept his distance and only shared the warmth of his body to keep me alive.
I wondered if I had been drawn back to Xuyi based on the Lycan mate bond alone. Was it so powerful that I had forgotten to eat and sleep and even left my horse at the base of the mountain to be reunited with my mate?
Daoming's talk of dreams and promises of a glorious future were inconsequential in comparison. Yet, where was free will in all of this? Once the choice of mates was made, were there no other choices left?
I wondered this as I stepped outside. My bare feet made imprints in the snow, but I barely felt the cold. My body tingled with longing for the touch of the man who had marked it. I didn't need to look for Alix. My body simply knew where he was. I was drawn to him like Gan Jiang and Mo Ye been. Even in death, they found each other.
Yet, I was still alive, and my flesh would not relent. My thoughts were useless to tell my body "no."
I found Alix chopping firewood by the edge of the forest. He had stripped to the waist again, just like when we first met. He was dashingly handsome, and his smile could have disarmed every soldier in the Imperial Army, the spark of his eyes could have lit every fuse.
"I missed you," I whispered and wrapped my hands around his bare shoulders. Even after I had reduced his Alpha powers by draining the moonlight from his eyes, his body felt burning hot to my touch. I could see the steam from his skin dissipating into the winter air.
"While I was alone, I had time to think," Alix murmured, turning around to pick me up in his arms. He noticed my shoeless feet and decided that he would carry me back to our little hut like a wed bride being carried to her future husband in a sedan.
"What did you think about? Was it about making love to me?"
"Yes, but what I meant was that I thought about your devotion to that bastard prince. I've learned to accept it. You'll always love him with a little part of yourself no matter how much you deny it."
"Perhaps, but I am your mate, Alix. And he has pales compared to you." I kissed Alix's shoulder and rubbed it into his skin with my palm. Indeed, Alix was a gorgeous figure of a man, whether in his human or werewolf form. He was young, rugged, and dashingly handsome. Now that he was here, he was all mine. I didn't have to share him with any of the she-wolves. "How can he compare to my rogue wolf?"
"I know," Alix replied with a chuckle. "But there will always be half of you that loved him, just like there will be half of you that remains human. I understand that."
Alix cleared his throat as he brought me back, safely inside our hut.
"And I want to ask something of you."
"What, darling? Do you want me to remove those annoying pants from your body?"
"Later. I want to ask you if you will teach me to be human."
"But you know, you lived among the humans during all the years you were exiled from Mongli."
"Yes, I lived among them, but I was never truly human."
"So you want me to teach how to pass among them undetected?"
"No, I want more. I want to be one of you. I want to love you as a human man. Will you show me how to do that?"
"Yes!" I exclaimed and wrapped my slender arms around Alix's robust, bull-like neck. "I will."
"And more thing," Alix whispered into my ear.
"Yes?"
"Take the Lycan force from my veins. You sacrificed your powers to give it to me. Now, I ask you to take it back."
"Are you certain that is what you want?" I asked him. "You won't be able to transform. You will grow old and age like a human man."
"Yes, do it. I want to be your husband, for us to have children, and to grow old with you, Selene."
"We might lose the mate bond."
"I understand," Alix replied with a smirk that melted my heart. "And I want you to choose me of your own free will."
I smiled back and kissed him. My fingers tangled themselves in the hair of Alix's chest. His skin heaved against me as he regarded my naked body with animalistic hunger. I knew how difficult it was for him to talk about Dao Ming. Alix was always the jealous type. Here, in Xuyi there will be no more Imperial Princes to distract my affections for him.
The monks who swept the temple steps here could hardly compare the Mongli Alpha, even one who was permanently in his human form.
"Yes, and now I know that I choose you."
Alix picked me up by the thighs and brought me back inside the small cottage. He threw me down on the fur bed he had built for me and laid down beside me. I kissed him from the tip of his bearded chin to his ankles. As he asked, I drew the Lycan out of him, but I left the mate bond intact.
After the deed was done, Alix made love to me as he used to. His body merged with mine and brought me satisfaction that even the gods in heaven couldn't imagine. Alix fell into an exhausted sleep after he lost his werewolf powers for a second time, and I regained my healing powers.
Yet, I knew I would need to deceive no more using my powers. No more the wily huli jing, I resolved to use my magic for good. Our mountainous home would need it. Soon, the emperor would die, and the Crown Prince would ascend to the throne. He would have to deal with a new threat along the northern borders, one that knew his own Imperial Armies intimately well.
Sometimes, as fate would have it, there were two equally good options. There were two men in my lifetime that I loved in different ways. Yet, it wasn't about fate or titles. It was about the choices one makes. I chose Alix Meng, and because of that choice, I knew I would never contemplate becoming Daoming's Luna.
Never. Not as long as the sacred mountains hold up the sky and the rainwater nourishes our crops. I will never again go back to those cursed lands.
Even years later, as I heard about the warrior king's exploits as his army raged across our northern borders, I refused to send him a sign that I was still alive. The stories whisper that the king of the werewolves, the Alpha of Alphas, takes no queen. He looks for me and leaves white lotus on the bodies of the victims whose lives he takes. No one knows why he leaves the Si Huang Ling Yang flower as his personal emblem, but I know. I am his Si Ling, and he still thinks of me.
Somewhere out there, there's a lonely Alpha waiting for his Luna.
But, I refuse to heed his call.
For now.
THE END
And that's it! Thanks for reading! Check out my Darkly Devoted series if you have time. The Last Heiress is a new book coming July/August 2022.
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