Free Web NovelChapter 261: You Freak!
"You have a very sharp tongue for someone with such a fragile neck," Yanlie whispered, his face hovering mere inches from hers.
His breath was hot, fanning across her pale skin.
He applied just enough pressure to her throat to restrict her airway, a brutal assertion of absolute dominance.
’I should kill him,’ Yanlie’s human consciousness reasoned, his warrior pride stinging from the insult. ’He is an orthodox brat who insulted me time and again. I should snap his neck and leave him for the scavengers.’
But as he leaned closer, intending to deliver a final, lethal threat... his enhanced olfactory senses bypassed the smell of the swamp, bypassed the smell of the blood, and locked onto the scent radiating from the skin of the boy’s neck.
It was faint, masked heavily by the scent of roasted spices, ginger, and sweat.
But to the Beast Lord, it was like a siren song.
It was the scent of pure, supreme Yin energy.
Yanlie’s pupils dilated so wide his eyes appeared almost entirely black.
The human logic in his brain was overthrown by a primal, deafening roar from his beast soul.
The beast didn’t see an arrogant boy.
The beast didn’t see an orthodox rival.
The beast saw a mate.
The beast saw the perfect counterbalance to his raging, destructive Yang.
The beast inside him demanded that he claim it, mark it, and drag it back to his den.
Without realizing what he was doing, Yanlie leaned forward.
He buried his face in the crook of Ji’an’s neck, right where her pulse was beating frantically against her skin.
He inhaled.
A long, deep, shuddering breath that drew her scent directly into his lungs.
Ji’an froze in horror.
’What is he doing?!’ Ji’an’s brain short-circuited. ’Why is he smelling me?! Is this guy a pervert?! I am covered in swamp mud and raw pork! I smell like a walking garbage disposal!’
"You..." Yanlie rumbled against her skin, his voice dropping into a purr that vibrated straight through her chest.
The grip on her throat loosened; instead, his hand slid down to grip her waist.
He pulled back just enough to look into her eyes, his amber gaze swirling with a dark, entirely feral lust that made her stomach drop. ƒreewebηoveℓ.com
"I should kill you," Yanlie growled, his face so close his lips brushed against her jawline. "But you... You smell like a mate worth biting..."
The words hung in the humid air, dripping with an incredibly ambiguous tension.
Ji’an’s eyes widened to the size of saucers.
’A MATE?!’ Ji’an panicked, her heart exploding in her chest. ’He thinks I’m a boy! He thinks I’m a male cook! Is the Beast Lord gay?! Is he having a feral, beast-instinct gay panic right now?! This is the worst possible time for a romantic awakening!’
"Get off me, you freak!" Ji’an shrieked, her survival instincts overriding her confusion.
She didn’t reach for her spatula.
She brought her knee up, aiming a vicious strike directly toward the Beast Lord’s groin.
But Yanlie’s reflexes were too fast.
He smoothly shifted his hips, taking the blow against his heavily muscled thigh.
He didn’t even flinch.
He just smiled, a cruel, predatory baring of sharp canines, immensely turned on by her violent resistance. frёeωebɳovel.com
"Mmm, how fierce, worthy of being the mate I’m attracted to," Yanlie purred, leaning his weight against her, preparing to bury his face back into her neck.
He never made it.
The ambient temperature in the clearing didn’t just drop, but ceased to exist.
The swamp water at the base of the Banyan tree instantly froze.
The air itself crystallized, turning the humidity into thousands of microscopic, hovering shards of ice.
Yanlie’s beast instincts screamed a warning, a fraction of a second too late.
A hand clamped down onto the Beast Lord’s shoulder.
It was a physical manifestation of jealousy and anger.
"Remove your hands from him," Blue’s voice whispered.
It did not sound like the smooth, calm rogue.
It sounded like the grinding of tectonic plates beneath a glacier.
Before Yanlie could react, Blue violently yanked backward.
The force behind the pull was staggering.
Hu Yanlie, a man who weighed nearly three hundred pounds of pure muscle, was ripped away from Ji’an and hurled through the air like a ragdoll.
Yanlie crashed into the mud twenty feet away, rolling to a halt.
He sprang to his feet instantly, his amber eyes blazing with fury. "You dare interfere, this rogue bastard?!"
Blue didn’t even look at Ji’an.
He stood between her and the Beast Lord.
His back was rigidly straight, his shoulders tense.
His dark, leather robes fluttered in an unnatural wind that was beginning to swirl around his boots.
Xie Wangchen was currently fighting the hardest battle of his entire life.
He wanted to summon Winter’s Sigh.
He wanted to unleash the absolute zero domain of the Flawless Ice Root and turn this filthy, feral beast into a shattered, frozen monument of gore for having the audacity to press his face into Ji’an’s neck.
But if he did, Ji’an would know.
She would know he had lied to her.
She would know the Ice Demon had followed her.
He had to kill this man without using ice.
"You touched what is not yours," Blue stated, his voice flat, completely devoid of emotion.
Yanlie laughed, a harsh, barking sound. "Not mine? He is my prey. And I claim what I want. And I am going to tear your head off, you rogue bastard, and then I’m going to finish tasting the cook."
Blue didn’t respond with words.
He moved.
He didn’t blur like Yanlie; he seemed to bypass the physical space between them.
He appeared directly in front of the Beast Lord, raising his hand.
He condensed his Golden Core Qi, forcefully suppressing the freezing nature of his element, twisting it until it manifested as invisible needles of pure kinetic force.
It was a bastardized technique, incredibly difficult to maintain, but devastatingly effective.
Yanlie threw a massive, bone-crushing punch aimed directly at Blue’s head.
