CHAPTER 221: CHAPTER 221 - (POST-R18) AFTERCARE IS NOT THE TIME, SYSTEM!

***[POV: Pleased-but-Paranoid Princess]***

With my hand under her head where she almost banged it against a root, speaking calmingly in my native tongue to let her know to breathe... that everything is okay and that I’m here so she doesn’t have to panic as she returns to a more languid reality...

No, not you Vrika. I was calling *her* ’sweet wolf’. Maybe I should not have named you literally what you are... it might get confusing for you.

The poetic phrases I rattle are steady, if a little amused and a bit self-satisfied by everything. Describing our surroundings, appreciating her efforts, even talking to her wolf underneath. Thanking it for not overpowering her when she was vulnerable.

All of my words were heavy contrast to the broken sounds I’d coaxed from her throat moments before. She blinked up at me, trying to focus, her lips parted as she fought to regulate her breathing in a way that deepened my smirk.

Feel what I feel now? This is not the power she may have over this world’s business sector and its werewolves... but its a power I have over her all the same.

My wolf radiated their own sense of smug satisfaction in my mindscape. The spirit had surprisingly enjoyed watching the way I’d had the Alpha submit... even if it hadn’t been a traditional display of dominance through strength.

This was better - more personal, more devastating for her. Because she chose it all the entire way and she knows it. Just as I do.

A familiar notification glow pulsed and demanded attention - causing nausea to form even as my body still quivered a bit on its own. I blinked hard, trying to ignore it, but the pulsing only intensified.

No. Whatever it is, I don’t want to see it. Not right now.

But when I retreated to my mindscape while laying my forehead into the crook of her neck, I just couldn’t stop myself from looking. The translucent text materialized with that same uncheerful blue foxfire it always had.

| TASK: Complete The Marking Ritual, Obtain Fated Mate Bond |

My entire body went cold despite the warmth still radiating between us from our encounter. All the satisfaction I’d gained drained away from me in an instant, replaced by something that felt like terror as I carefully stood.

This... is it because it knows something about what I was feeling when...

I scrambled to my feet, my legs just a little unsteady from my own small release. Then I put distance between myself and Kyrie without even thinking. I caught her looking at me as I backed away - if she can even see me right now - then closing her eyes.

Probably wondering why I’d gone from sated to panicked in the span of a heartbeat, but unwilling to ask. But I couldn’t explain if she did. How could I tell her that some stupid, trickster force had just offered me a reward for permanently binding myself to her?

That it might be nothing more than carefully orchestrated manipulation? Because it has been making me think all this time that it is only aiding my own desires. Now...

freew\ebno\vel..(c)om

Was any of this real? Did I... want to do that for any amount of time... or is it just trying to make me think I did?

My mind roiled as Vrika whines and begs me to go back. I stared at the task notification while dodging roots and limbs, | Guardian’s Composure | actually doing some work keeping me together instead of zoning out.

The system has been so helpful before. Survival and social abilities when I needed them most. Magic that isn’t magic. Even the pregnancy scan when I was confused about what to do in my condition, even if knowing just added so much more complication.

It had felt like it was responding to my needs, my desires. But what if that really, *really* was the trap? If it had been learning what I wanted, conditioning me to trust it, so that when it suggested something like this...

Part of me couldn’t help but think of how it cleared the first Connection task all but on its own, even when I... think I felt like I had no intent to keep in specific contact with her? Like then, the timing was too perfect.

Right after the most intimate moment I’d shared with anyone in this world. Right when my defenses were down and my body was still singing with satisfaction. When marking her felt less like a commitment and more like a natural next step.

Will you stop howling and let me think?!

I just needed space and my wolf is all too worried that I’d left her there while she’s defenseless. Like I don’t know that! Like... like I’m that selfish.

"I... I’m only going to get our clothes."

The words came out strained, not at all how I’d intended. It made it seem like I was lying, using an excuse to trick my companion... before I worked with it to shift our form into that of the hybrid.

But I really was already moving toward where we’d left our belongings in my backpack - away from the temptation to just complete the task and let whatever happened happen. Luckily the system map tells me right where I left them, with a helpful marker like it knew I was going to bolt.

The thought stopped me dead in my tracks. That was the real cruelty of all this. Even my paranoia could be part of the manipulation. Make me doubt everything so thoroughly, ’gaslight’ I believe they call it here, that I’d eventually give in just to make the uncertainty stop.

I pressed my furred and padded palms against my wolfish skull, hoping to... if not clear my head, squeeze it all down to where I could function. Get the clothes. Go back. Act normal.

We can figure this out later when we can think clearly.

But as I gathered the backpack stuffed with our minimal garments and the scent neutralizer, one horrible thought kept circling. That it was doing *nothing* to trick me at all. That I could actually be forgetting just how much things can hurt when they go wrong, after going right.

All the soft poems and tenderness from my language I used now feel like bitter curses to myself.

⧖ ☾ ❄ ☽ ⧖

Kyrie lay sprawled against the forest floor where I’d left her. Bare chest heaving in something like an unrestful sleep as she tried to recover from what I’d just put her through.

Shifting back, I drape the dress over my own body after digging it out from underneath her clothing. Stupidly tempted to trade what we wore, but the joke of it feels a little wrong now that the Task exists.

I already knew that this was a risk. That she’d think more of things than I wanted. I just wasn’t expecting to be told I’m thinking more of it too.

I stood directly over her, feet on either side of her hips and adjusting my sweater-dress over my body with such deliberate casualness... all while she struggled to piece herself back together from the clouds she dispersed into.

Look at her. Such a mighty Alpha, completely undone by this transient vixen. Yes, it was beautiful. Yes, so is she. But...

Honestly, I felt great, even if this was all so one sided. Because the chase through the trees had ended exactly as I’d intended from the moment I called her over to the pool with that text.

With her at my mercy, enduring whatever I chose to give her. And I’d chosen to give her much more than another interruption.

Or should I say I chose to take more?

Palms flat at her sides on the ground, her eyes were unfocused and glassy when they opened up to find I’d returned. A fine tremor in her arms from where she had clawed and restrained herself against the trunk.

"Citra..."

Her voice was barely a whisper, still rough from the shattering. She was trying to sit up now, with movements unsteady like her wolf was doing nothing to help her regenerate. Her white hair mixed with dark debris from where I’d pressed her down.

Bits of leaves and dirt, proof that she’d wallowed on the ground in her human form. My hand runs through the strands and removes as much of it as I could while holding her to my clothes with a palm pressing at the base of her neck.

She was in no state to question or challenge anything I told her or anything I did. Still floating in that haze where I’d left her for less than ten minutes. Still malleable and trusting.

Someone with bad intentions... Vrika was right to panic of course, when I fled. But I was panicking too. It whines at me in apology that only makes me feel worse.

I’ve never claimed to be brave. Just adaptable. So give me a little time to adapt, please.

"Stay down for a while more."

I spoke to her not unkindly as my hands gripped her warm, sweaty shoulders. Resting back against the forest floor, with that dazed and accepting expression that only made me want to wreck her all over again.

Blinking up at me, confusion on why I’m just standing there above her seemed to bleed through the post-orgasmic fog. Causing my thoughts to relive everything I’d just done to her. So, I look away from their soft brown judgement and sit down beside her.

And if I pet her stomach a little while I zoned off into the dark forest, that was no one else’s business, stupid wolf.