Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 65856 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 329(@200wpm)___ 263(@250wpm)___ 220(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65856 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 329(@200wpm)___ 263(@250wpm)___ 220(@300wpm)
And those words from his mate lit a fire that started at the tips of his ears and ran across his face and down his chest.
“It’s all your fault,” Huli countered, wishing he could hide his face behind his tails.
“My fault? How is that possible?”
“I was looking for you, but I found Erik instead, and he called me Pretty Gege. He wanted to play with his truck and he likes my tails. And that boy deserves to have the bestest, fluffiest tail when he finally shifts.”
He was babbling. He knew he was babbling, but it felt like talking was the only way to get rid of the lump in his throat.
“Min offered to take Erik in place of my soul, but you didn’t hesitate to tell her off. You protected that little boy you don’t actually like,” Xiao Dan said, his smile growing wider.
Huli swallowed hard. So he’d heard that part, huh? “It’s not that I don’t like him. I just don’t like the times he gets more attention from you than I do. The kid is cute. Especially when he calls me Pretty Gege.”
Xiao Dan closed the distance between them. He cupped Huli’s cheek with one hand and a different heat spread through Huli’s body. Everything in him wanted to melt into his mate and never separate.
“Well, you have my complete and undivided attention now. What would you like to do, my beautiful, brave fox?”
Oh, he had ideas. So many ideas.
Chapter 12
Huli
1272 CE
Luoyang, near Zhang manor
Huli paced the orchard, tails flicking behind him. This was ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous.
After everything he’d gone through already…
The pain. The heartbreak and worry that came with spending so many years away from Xiao Dan.
All of that, and he still couldn’t shift into a human. It wasn’t fair. He had five tails now. The same number of tails Min possessed when she appeared before him as a human. Why couldn’t he do this?
He was just as smart as she was. Just as strong. He’d even gotten his fifth tails six whole months earlier than she had.
Why couldn’t he do this?
He stopped pacing between the barren plum trees and tensed every muscle in his body. He grunted and pushed, trying to force magic throughout his frame, demanding it change into a human. It didn’t matter if he became a man or a woman. That part could be changed later. He’d make himself into something Xiao Dan could love.
“Huli? Is that you?” Xiao Dan’s voice rang out across the orchard.
The fox released the breath he was holding and relaxed again. He collapsed onto the ground, flattening himself into a fox rug.
He couldn’t do it.
Maybe he shouldn’t have been so hasty to part ways with Min. Once he’d learned all her cultivation tricks, he’d left her behind, confident that he could figure out the human shifting bit on his own.
Wrong.
“Huli?”
“I’m here,” he said, lifting one of his orange tails so Xiao Dan could easily see him over the mounds of snow that had fallen earlier in the day.
Xiao Dan’s crunching footsteps grew louder as he approached. Huli had returned to Luoyang three nights ago and had been toying with the idea of staying for a full year or even more before continuing with his training. Five tails were nice, but they weren’t nine. He wanted to be a true jiuweihu.
Unfortunately, with his shifting failure, it was clear that he wasn’t ready to take a lengthy break yet.
“Are you okay?” Xiao Dan kneeled in the snow beside him and lightly touched the top of his head. The gentle stroking helped to soothe away some of his frustration, but he didn’t want to be soothed. He wanted to be human.
“I’m okay,” he mumbled.
“No, you’re not. My happy, silly fox would be in my lap, licking my face and begging for cuddles. What’s wrong?” Xiao Dan scratched him behind one ear and Huli jerked away to leap to his feet.
“I don’t want to be your happy, silly fox,” he snapped.
He paced away from Xiao Dan, his tails whipping behind him. The air crackled with magic, which usually made him happy, but this time, it only pissed him off. All this magic and he couldn’t change into a human.
“Forgive me, Huli. I…didn’t realize,” Xiao Dan whispered. Huli turned to find the vampire’s head was low and his shoulders were drooping. Did he think Huli meant…
“No!” Huli rushed to Xiao Dan’s side, bumped his head into the vampire’s chest, and attempted to climb into his lap. “Huli will always be Xiao Dan’s fox.” When Xiao Dan still didn’t move, Huli wrapped all five of his tails around the vampire, cocooning them as best he could. “Always your fox.”
“But you said…”
Huli heaved a sigh and pressed his face into Xiao Dan’s neck. “I want to be more than a fox.”
“You are. You’re a magnificent huli jing with five glorious tails. That’s amazing. You have so much to be proud of.”