Wild Creatures

Chapter 127

Wen Qing.

Wei Ying fumbles with the phone and accidentally declines the call.

Could this get any worse? Before he can panic further, it rings again and this time, he picks up.

"Jie..."

It hangs in the air ominously, the word growing barbs in his throat, making him bleed inside.

Lan Zhan knew immediately that something was wrong, his uncanny sixth sense giving him prior warning that Wei Ying's phone was about to ring, but it was the spike of tension in Wei Ying's blood which alerted him to his panic.

His hand goes towards Wei Ying, who is already reaching out for him, and an unnatural, uncharacteristic hatred flares up inside him for this woman who was harbouring so many secrets.

How dare she call Wei Ying now?

After everything they've been through, after everything SHE put Wei Ying and himself through, she had the gall and the nerve to call and want to speak to him?

He was already growling with a need to protect his mate from this new threat.

The squeeze on their joined hands silences him, barely.

Wei Ying focuses on his breath, coming out choppily until he forces himself to relax. The outcome of this phone call was going to set the precedent for his relationship with Wen Qing from now on, even if there was no longer any trust left.

On both sides now, because Wen Qing had kept him in the dark about the vampire world in all its raging glory, and especially her own huge part inside it, and the truth about her job, even if Wei Ying had repaid the duplicitous favour for indirectly robbing her blind.

He remembers his grandmother saying it wasn't theft if they were taking back what already belonged to them. It gives him the strength to say his next word.

"Hi."

"A-Ying-"

"Don't call me that!" Wei Ying dashes away the tears that have become commonplace because of her.

There's silence on the other side.

And then, "Wei WuXian."

Wei Ying can't decide which of his names sounds worse coming from her. And next to him, Lan Zhan is slowly losing it, his calm evaporating like steam from hot chocolate. Wei Ying forces himself to close his eyes and take deeper breaths, steeling himself for this inevitable conversation. When he opens his red-rimmed eyes, they are shining with determination.

"Wen Qing," he counters.

An eye for an eye.

"I guess I deserve everything you're giving me," she tries to laugh but it comes out rather strangled.

"What do you want?" Wei Ying gets straight to the point. Anything else would be a waste.

"Just..."

Wei Ying can hear her crying, nothing obvious but it's there in her choked breathing, and the small sounds she's making. He stamps on the sympathy that begins to grow like a weed in his heart - NO! He tells himself harshly. This is the woman who threw him under the bus, who put his children in the line of fire.

She's dangerous, even by proxy because even if she doesn't have the means to make the Elixir of Life herself, she has an idea about it, and Wei Ying reinforces the need to keep her away from his family from now on.

"I'm glad you took the choice out of my hands," she says finally.

Does she mean by everything taken away from her, she no longer has the means to implement production, or even research into the Elixir of Life?