“I want to kiss you.”
Wen Shilan’s voice was low, touched with amusement. He gently rubbed Qi Yan’s earlobe and watched it turn redder and redder, until it looked almost painfully flushed. The warmth beneath his fingertips grew stronger too, until it felt hot to the touch.
“Why aren’t you answering? Don’t you want me to kiss you?”
…
“You already kissed me, and now you’re asking?”
Qi Yan opened his eyes, indignant and embarrassed. Wen Shilan was smiling so widely that his beautiful eyes had curved into crescents. Qi Yan swallowed hard.
Wen Shilan really was… too much like a spirit from the depths of a forest: beautiful, delicate, and capable of luring someone close enough to steal the breath right out of them.
Qi Yan stared at him, then suddenly lost control and pressed him down onto the sofa. He bent to seek out that softness again, but his kiss missed.
Wen Shilan turned his face aside. Qi Yan’s lips landed on his earlobe instead, his warm breath sending a ticklish shiver across his skin.
“Wen Shilan, I want to kiss you.”
Qi Yan’s voice was terribly hoarse. The faint scent of crabapple blossoms filled his senses. He felt unbearably hot, as though he might catch fire. Wen Shilan was the cool spring that could put it out, but he refused to let Qi Yan drink.
“Then keep wanting it. I’m going to take a shower.”
Wen Shilan rested his head against the sofa. Despite what he said, he made no move to get up. He merely watched Qi Yan with a teasing smile. It was downright wicked.
His little game was giving him immense satisfaction. Seeing Qi Yan so worked up, yet still too hesitant to do anything, filled him with delight.
Qi Yan remained above him, desire plain on his face, but did nothing for a long while. At last, he released Wen Shilan and moved away.
Wen Shilan sat up. He’d teased Qi Yan enough and was about to go upstairs for a shower when he was abruptly lifted off the floor. His legs swung free, and he instinctively hooked his arms around Qi Yan’s neck, looking uncharacteristically bewildered.
Qi Yan carried him quickly upstairs and dropped him onto the soft, comfortable bed. An instant later, he followed him down.
Wen Shilan blinked. “Qi Yan, what are you doing?”
“Kissing you.”
Before Wen Shilan could answer, Qi Yan bent and pressed his warm lips to Wen Shilan’s slightly parted pink ones.
He caught Wen Shilan’s lips between his own and licked them gently, as if savoring a delicious pastry. But that was all he did.
It hardly felt like a kiss. It was more like clumsy licking, just as Qi Yan had liked to lick Wen Shilan while he was in his protective wolf form.
After a long while, he was still doing the same thing. Wen Shilan finally pushed him away, incredulous.
“You don’t know how to kiss?”
“Of course I do. Weren’t we just kissing?”
Qi Yan didn’t understand. How could Wen Shilan say he didn’t know how? He had just kissed him.
Wen Shilan took one look at his matter-of-fact expression and burst out laughing. He looped his arms around Qi Yan’s neck. His lips still glistened from Qi Yan’s attention, and laughter had brought a sheen to his eyes.
He was laughing so hard he almost cried. Qi Yan couldn’t kiss. The little wolf didn’t even know how to kiss…
“Qi Yan, on Silan, this is what we call a kiss.”
He tightened his hold around Qi Yan’s neck and drew him close. Lifting his head, Wen Shilan kissed him, then parted his lips and guided him into a deeper kiss.
Men learned quickly when it came to this. With Wen Shilan showing him what to do, Qi Yan soon found his way. He held Wen Shilan beneath him and kissed him back with fervor.
In the quiet room, the faint, wet sounds of their kiss could be heard.
When they finally parted, Wen Shilan’s lips were no longer pale pink. They had turned a vivid red.
“Good puppy. That’s a kiss.”
Qi Yan was breathing hard, his breath mingling with Wen Shilan’s. His body reacted intensely. His limbs felt weak, while one part of him was doing quite the opposite.
“Wen Shilan, I want to mate with you.”
…
The dazed desire had faded from Qi Yan’s expression, though he somehow looked more alluring than ever. He saw nothing wrong with what he’d said. Wen Shilan, meanwhile, felt the tender mood between them shatter.
Mate? That was such a strange way to put it…
Qi Yan was a werewolf, so the word made sense for him. To Wen Shilan’s ears, though, it sounded bizarre. He sighed helplessly and pushed Qi Yan away.
“Go take a shower.”
“I want to mate with you. I don’t want a shower.”
…
Could he stop saying mate?
It made them sound like livestock…
Worse, Qi Yan said it with a perfectly straight face, without the slightest embarrassment.
“Qi Yan, have you no shame?”
Usually the smallest tease made him blush and bristle. Why wasn’t he embarrassed now? At the moment, he really did seem like a puppy.
Wen Shilan gave him a look and turned toward the wardrobe to get his pajamas before showering. Qi Yan caught his hand, genuinely puzzled.
“Why should I be embarrassed? I like you, and I’m courting you. There’s nothing shameful about that.”
Well, that explained it…
At last, Wen Shilan understood why the two planets could visit each other freely, yet he’d never heard of anyone from them marrying across planets.
People on Silan tended to take things step by step: meeting, getting to know each other, dating, falling in love, becoming engaged, then marrying. They weren’t exactly conservative; they were simply more reserved.
The people of the Werewolf Planet were the opposite. Their animal instincts remained part of them. They were beastfolk who could take human form, but they still retained the habits and ways of thinking of their wolf selves.
To werewolves, meeting someone they liked meant openly courting them—or, more plainly, asking to mate. There were no other steps. It was simple, direct, and instinctive.
Someone else might have felt insulted, perhaps even slapped Qi Yan. But Wen Shilan knew Qi Yan genuinely liked him…
Even so, he found the whole thing ridiculous.
Mate? Seriously?
Wen Shilan pulled his hand free and tossed him a set of pajamas.
“You’re on Silan now. Please be a citizen who keeps clean, takes showers, and obeys the law.”
Taken seriously, what Qi Yan had just said could almost count as sexual harassment…
His request denied, Qi Yan’s face fell.
“You don’t want to accept my courtship?”
On the Werewolf Planet, refusing to mate meant refusing someone’s courtship. Qi Yan felt miserable. He had been certain Wen Shilan wouldn’t turn him down.
Did Wen Shilan not like him? If he didn’t, why had he kissed him?
Besides, Qi Yan came from a pure bloodline and was exceptionally strong. Back home, countless werewolves had courted him, and he had rejected them all. This was the first time he had courted anyone, only to be rejected by Wen Shilan.
“Are all you Silan men heartless? You kissed me first, and now you won’t accept my courtship!”
With an accusing look, Qi Yan turned over and curled up on the bed. He was still nursing the sting of rejection. He decided he wouldn’t speak to Wen Shilan until Wen Shilan came out of the shower!
Wen Shilan ignored him and went into the bathroom with his pajamas.
Going without a shower yesterday had been almost unheard of for him, so he took his time washing thoroughly today. It was quite a while before he came out.
Qi Yan lay on the bed waiting, thinking Wen Shilan was awful. Why kiss him if he wasn’t going to accept him?
So awful. Qi Yan didn’t want to speak to him for the rest of the day!
The bathroom door opened. Wen Shilan emerged in pale ivory pajamas, his freshly washed hair mostly dry, though a few damp black strands fell across his forehead.
“Go take a shower.”
He climbed onto the bed and rubbed Qi Yan’s silver-white hair. It felt thick and soft beneath his palm.
Qi Yan enjoyed having his hair stroked, but he refused to get up. Fighting the urge to rub against Wen Shilan’s palm, he buried his face in the blanket and said rebelliously, “I’m not going. And I’m going to pull out my hair and scatter it all through your bedding.”
That was the harshest punishment Qi Yan could think of for Wen Shilan rejecting his courtship.
Wen Shilan hated finding hair on his bed. Qi Yan was going to punish him properly!
The more he thought about it, the better the idea seemed. He sat up and actually reached for his hair.
Lying on his side, Wen Shilan gave him a sidelong look. “Go ahead. Pull it out, and I’ll throw you out.”
?????
Rejecting his courtship was bad enough. Now Wen Shilan was going to throw him out too?!
Qi Yan’s hand froze, then slowly fell away from his hair. Defeated, he buried his face in the blanket again and went silent.
Wen Shilan nudged him with his foot, looking thoroughly helpless. “Didn’t you want to… do that? Then hurry up and take a shower.”
He still couldn’t bring himself to say those two words. He did have some sense of embarrassment, after all…
????
Qi Yan’s head shot up from the blanket. He looked at Wen Shilan with shining eyes. “You mean if I shower, you’ll accept my courtship?”
Thank goodness. Courtship was a hundred times easier to hear than mating. The two meant the same thing to Qi Yan, but Wen Shilan could live with the first one. He nodded and patted Qi Yan’s cheek.
“I’ll count to three. If you haven’t gone to shower by then, I’ll—”
His hand met empty air. Qi Yan was in the bathroom before Wen Shilan’s eyes could even follow him.
Well. That was something.
Men really were predictable about this sort of thing. Forget taking a shower—ask one of them to climb a mountain of blades and cross a sea of fire for it, and he probably wouldn’t say no.
Wen Shilan lay on the bed, scrolling through his phone while he waited for Qi Yan. Interest in yesterday’s livestream still hadn’t faded; clips from it were being pushed everywhere, along with today’s interview.
He opened the comments. The most popular one read:
“I’m just an unknown Federation soldier. They say men don’t cry easily, but General Wen’s words honestly made me want to. As soldiers, we want to keep you safe more than anyone. We give everything we have in every battle. Before we go to war, every single one of us prepares more than ammunition and weapons. We write a letter to leave behind. If we’re lucky enough to return victorious, we tear it up to celebrate, then write another before the next battle. If we die, the Federation sends that letter home to our families. We’re ordinary people too. We’re afraid of dying. But General Wen once told us that when we joined the Federation, we put the lives of its citizens above victory and above our own lives. So please don’t be afraid. Every Federation soldier will stand between you and danger.”
The comment had nearly as many likes as eighty percent of the video’s total. Replies stretched on beneath it. Wen Shilan skimmed a few; they were full of kind words and thanks. He was about to read more when the doorbell rang.
He checked the time instinctively. It was already nine. He got up, slipped on his slippers, and made his way downstairs to open the door.
Tang Wan stood outside, looking exhausted. He probably hadn’t slept last night, and worry had likely kept him awake throughout the day too. Faint shadows lay beneath his eyes.
Wen Shilan showed just the right amount of surprise. “What brings you here?”
Tang Wan hadn’t known whether Wen Shilan was home and had been prepared to wait. He hadn’t expected the door to open so quickly. Delight flashed in his eyes, followed by concern as he looked Wen Shilan over. Only when he saw no obvious wound or sign of discomfort did he relax.
“I was worried about you, so I thought I’d take a chance and come by. This is for you.”
He held out a small case containing a Federation healing agent.
Without mental power, Wen Shilan couldn’t heal on his own. Even if the werewolf had used his energy to stop the bleeding and save him, a wound that large would take a long time to mend. The agent could heal Wen Shilan’s body without leaving a scar.
Wen Shilan didn’t take the case. A faint smile appeared on his face. “I don’t need it. I’m healed. Qi Yan used his energy to mend the wound.”
Healed? Tang Wan’s eyes widened. Healing an injury that severe in such a short time would take an enormous amount of energy. That werewolf had already spent so much fighting the insectoids yesterday. How had he still had enough left to heal Wen Shilan?
An uneasy thought crept over Tang Wan. For the werewolf to go that far, his feelings for Wen Shilan could hardly be simple…
Fear rose in Tang Wan, though he managed to keep his composure. He had decided what he wanted to do before coming here. He wanted to be with Wen Shilan. After thinking for a day and a night, he had finally understood just how much he loved him. Even without mental power, Wen Shilan was still the person he wanted.
Tang Wan drew a deep breath and looked at him. A faint flush colored his face, and he spoke in a low, hesitant voice.
“Shilan, I spent all last night thinking, and I realized something. I really, truly like you. I liked you before, I like you now, and I’ll like you in the future. Could we—”
“No!”
Tang Wan hadn’t finished when a cold, furious voice rang out behind Wen Shilan.
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