Han Shān stood at the edge of the clearing, his arms crossed over his chest, and tried to make sense of the impossible.
The woman laughing with the cubs, his cubs, all of them really, since they'd become a communal pack, wasn't supposed to exist. The Bai Yue he knew would have kicked Xiao Hei for getting dirt on her skirt. She would have sneered at Yòu Lín's sticky hands and shouted at Miao Miao for being too loud.
But this woman? This woman was letting A-Li climb up her back like she was a tree while Miao Miao braided flowers into her hair.
What happened to make a monster this...soft?
Han Shān's jaw tightened. People didn't change overnight. They couldn't. And yet.....
His eyes drifted to Zhāo Yàn, who stood beside Bai Yue like a shadow. The Fox Lord's hand rested on her shoulder, casual but unmistakably possessive. When one of the younger wolf beastmen got too close, offering Bai Yue a piece of honeyed fruit, Zhāo Yàn's ears flattened and a low growl rumbled in his chest.
