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)
Xiao Dan pressed on. He was so close.
Min darted to the left and a wall of ice sprang up in front of her, blocking her retreat.
“No!” Xiao Dan shouted. He whipped his head about to glare at Chen. “She’s mine!” No one could interfere with his kill. He owed this to Huli after letting him get hurt like this. He’d failed his fox. A true mate would never have allowed something like this to happen.
But it was too late. She used his distraction to charge at him, slipping past as he attempted to turn back and slash at her with his sword. The white huli jing became a blur as she zipped between him and Chen. Xiao Dan pivoted on his right foot to follow.
He and Chen raced through the woods as the huli jing moved like a fleet-footed deer, always a step ahead. After a few miles, the distance between them had grown too great. There was no catching her.
Xiao Dan stopped running with a snarl, throwing a knife after Min as a last-ditch effort to stop her, but he narrowly missed. The white fox disappeared into the dark forest, running farther from the Zhang manor.
His entire body trembled. His knuckles ached and throbbed from where he’d squeezed the sword so tightly.
“I want her dead!” Xiao Dan shouted. His voice echoed through the vast forest surrounding them.
Chen placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed. “We will get her. She’s not escaping us.”
Xiao Dan shrugged off his shidi’s support and took two steps in the direction she’d been traveling. “That’s not good enough. I want her dead now. I want her pelt and her head and all of her tails. She hurt Huli. She…she took one of his tails.” Xiao Dan’s voice shattered like glass, and it felt like his heart was doing the same thing.
Chen remained resolute, stepping in front of him, forcing Xiao Dan to meet his gaze. “And we are going to make her pay for that, but the important thing is that Huli is still alive. She didn’t steal his life.”
Swallowing hard at the giant lump of unshed tears in his throat, Xiao Dan nodded. Chen was right. Huli was alive, and he had little doubt that Kai and Ming Yu would work hard to make sure he remained that way. It was just that Huli’s tails were everything to him. What was going to happen to him and his magic with the loss of a tail? Would he even be able to shift into his human form?
“What…what if he doesn’t know yet?”
Chen grabbed his shoulders with both hands and gave him a shake. “You’re first going to tell him that you love him no matter how many tails he has.”
“I do!”
“And then you’re going to tell him that you and his clan are going to do whatever it takes for him to become a true jiuweihu again.”
Xiao Dan nodded, squeezing his eyes shut against the burn of tears. Yes. That was what they were going to do. He was also going to make sure that no one touched his sweet fox.
“Come on. Let’s return home. I’m sure Huli will heal much faster knowing that you’re safe and away from Min.”
As Xiao Dan and Chen reached the manor, they found all the clan gathered silently outside of his room. Even Erik, held tightly in Junjie’s arms, was quiet with wide, red-rimmed eyes. Moon went to Chen and whispered something, but Xiao Dan blocked it out as he stepped inside of the room he shared with Huli.
Kai stood at the foot of the bed with a frown while Ming Yu kneeled beside it. A bowl of pink water was beside her, along with several blood-stained cloths. All the blood had been cleaned from Huli’s fur and there were a number of spots across his body now wrapped in white bandages. But he remained in his fox form.
The last time he’d been injured, it had taken him hours before he’d felt well enough to shift. His fox form was his natural state, and logically, the one he was most comfortable in. Yet, with the absence of one tail, he was unsure whether his sweet fox could still shift.
Huli had bragged that he’d learned to shift when he had six tails. Or was it seven? Xiao Dan rubbed his head against the pain that was pounding in his temples.
“How is he?” He forced the words out of his tight throat, willing his voice not to break. Huli needed him to be strong. His clan needed him to be strong.
“Resting as comfortably as we could make him,” Ming Yu murmured.
“I used a little of my magic to heal the worst of his injuries, but I’m reluctant to do more.” Kai shoved a hand through his messy hair and released a barely-there sigh. “Huli jing are unique and complicated creatures. I am afraid that if I do more without better understanding him, I could hurt him.” He stopped and licked his lips, but Xiao Dan knew what was coming. “There’s also the matter of his missing tail. Ming Yu and I were very careful in tending to him, but we counted only eight…”