What The Fox? (Completely Free!)

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Alix's torso was hot and heavy against my chest as he forced his lips on mine. It wasn't like kissing Julong. Julong always started slow and tentative as though he wasn't sure if I would push him away. Julong's butterfly kisses did nothing to prepare me for Alix.

The wolf in him kissed me with a hunger and ferocity that I didn't know how to respond to. Instead, I parted my lips and allowed him in. His hand wrapped itself around my neck, and he pulled the jade comb from my long black locks. Before I could protest, his rough, unruly fingers tangled themselves in my undone hair.

His lips were not gentle, but they felt right, as though I had waited my entire life to be kissed like that. His tongue was slippery and demanding. I realized that my lips were trembling with desire for him when he finally withdrew. The aching inside my body would not be denied. I cupped the back of his skull with my right hand and drew him back down. It was as I kissed him back that I became aware of how fast my heart was beating. I heard it echoing in my ears as though it was hoping that if he came close enough, it would whisper to him a secret — a secret that would betray the hard exterior that I built up for myself.

He drew me into his nostrils, one deep sighing breath as though he was trying to suck my very soul out of my body. As his hands explored the hidden swells and crevasses of my body, I started to envision what it would be like to be mated to this creature of the woodlands. Would I throw off these slippery silken shoes, these flowing ruqun robes to run with through the cold, windswept grasslands with his tribe of nomadic wolf-men? Would he claim me, dominate me, break me — make me into his submissive plaything, too afraid to look her warrior mate in the eye lest he decides to subject her to merciless ravishment?

Oh, Alix, you could never break me. Not me.

Alix was breathing in heavy pants into my ear. He was more wolf than man as he forced my legs apart. I could sense his lack of control, his inability to hold back his ferocious desire. I looked at him from under my half-closed lids and smirked. Oh, the only thing holding him back was his sense of decency. He looked at me and still saw the lady of the house, the general's daughter, this monstrosity of a noblewoman wrapped in fine silks and jade jewelry. I could only imagine what he would do to me if he had the chance to drag me back to his dusty settlements in the Gobi Desert, where no one could hear me scream.

"What are you waiting for?" I asked him and squeezed my knees around his hips. I curled one leg over his muscular buttocks and caressed them with my calf. I wondered if he could feel the swell of my moist sex under the silken folds of my skirt. I could certainly feel the hardness of his manhood through those flimsy linen pants. Alix shifted his loins away from me as though his arousal was a secret he wanted to keep from me. If that was his goal, perhaps he shouldn't have made me his soulmate. Now, I could sense his desire for me; his musky, masculine scent wove a story that was more than words can ever tell. Here was a creature of the darkness looking to mate.

"If you want it, take it."

"No," he grunted between pants of desire. He pushed himself up, off me, and stared at me from arm's length away. "I don't want you this way."

Alix grabbed my throat and squeezed his fingers around my neck just hard enough to make me wince. He leaned in closer; his breath felt like the flutter of a dragonfly's wings against my cheek.

"I will take you, Selene, but not while another man lives inside your mind."

"Oh?" I asked with a chuckle. That was the wrong move. Alix squeezed my neck harder, almost making me want to knee him in the groin. By the devious, cruel glint in his glowing panther-like eyes, I thought twice about invoking his ire. Or maybe, if I truly angered him, he would give up all pretenses of being human and give into his wolfish desires. "What do you care about what occurs in my mind? I thought wolf-men only cared about keeping their bellies full and their bitches fucked."

"Oh, you will be fucked, Selene," Alix replied and slapped me across the face. I had to admit, I was annoyed that he held back. The slap was playful, and it didn't hurt. I wanted him to hurt me so I could strike back. Hurt me as Julong hurt me, so I could bite down on his hand and make him bleed. "But when it happens, you will hate me, fear me, as you do him."

"Really?" I asked in response. "I don't think it is my hate or fear that you want."

"In our tribe, the female underlying are not allowed to think. You will learn your place."

"I think it is my love that you want, Alix. And that, you will never have."

Alix pushed himself off me and sat down beside me. The tension was gone. As I threw my robes back over my legs and tied my sashes back in place, I understood why he looked so smug. He finally won; he got me to admit that I loved Julong. And now that the secret was out, now that he saw a glimpse of my true self, he would find a way to strip all my masks away.