The mating ceremony is over. It had been three days since the mating ceremony.
The village had finally stopped howling every time they walked past. Well mostly.
Shan Da still saluted them with flower petals.
Feng Xia refused to stop calling him "Madam Wolf."
But Yin Yue was too tired to fight anyone because Lang Zhu would not stop sleeping on top of him.
Not crushingly. Not obnoxiously.
Just… wrapped around him. All limbs and heat and instinct.
Every night, Yin Yue curled into the bedding, fully intending to sleep like a responsible adult.
And every morning, he woke up:
On Lang Zhu's chest, wrapped in a blanket cocoon, trapped by one thigh over both legs and somehow with a tail under his shirt
> 💥 SYSTEM 520:
🛏️ SLEEPING POSITION: Married
💘 PHYSICAL AFFECTION LEVEL: Wolf-High
🫠 HOST STATUS: Secretly Melting
Today was no different.
Yin Yue cracked open one eye to find Lang Zhu's arm firmly around his waist, palm splayed against his lower back.
His breath hitched. Lang Zhu didn't wake just pulled him closer.
As if Yin Yue might wander off during the night and need to be anchored by muscle and quiet devotion.
Yin Yue groaned into the pillow.
"This is illegal," he whispered.
Lang Zhu murmured something sleep-slurred and deeply unfair like, "Stay."
Yin Yue's brain shut down.
> 💘 ML DREAM-TALKING: ACTIVE
🫶 HOST HEART: Unable to Handle This Softness
🧠 INTIMACY LEVEL: Domestic Devastation
Eventually, Yin Yue slipped out of bed like a thief in the night. Stood at the fire pit, hair a mess, robe twisted, face warm.
He stared into the morning soup pot and muttered, "He's sleeping too close."
Mi Mi, passing by with a bundle of herbs, said, "You're mated."
Feng Xia appeared from the shadows like a gossip elemental. "He sleeps that way because he wants you to feel safe."
"I do feel safe."
"Then why are your ears red?"
Yin Yue dragged a bowl over his face.
"I hate it here."
Feng Xia grinned. "You love it here. And him. And his tail."
Yin Yue didn't respond. Which, unfortunately, was answer enough.
Yin Yue decides things have gone too far. The closeness. The touching. The nightly full-body cuddling. He attempts to reclaim some personal space.
Yin Yue had a plan. A simple one. No claws. No shouting. No emotional spirals.
Just: reclaim some distance.
Because sure, he loved Lang Zhu he admitted that now. But love did not require constant tail contact.
So when Lang Zhu reached for him that evening in the den arm extended, blanket folded open, eyes expectant Yin Yue held up a finger.
"No."
Lang Zhu paused. Head tilted.
"Tonight," Yin Yue said firmly, "we sleep separately."
Lang Zhu blinked. Once.
"Why?"
"Because I need space."
"You have space."
"I mean emotional space."
"You have that too."
Yin Yue groaned. "Okay, let me rephrase. I need a night where I don't wake up on your chest wondering if I accidentally married a living furnace."
Lang Zhu stood crossed the room in three steps and picked Yin Yue up effortlessly. Held him there.
Yin Yue squawked. "Put me down!"
"No."
"This is not consent!"
"You're warm."
"That's not a reason..."
"You're mine."
Yin Yue stopped struggling.
> 💥 SYSTEM 520:
🐺 ML POSSESSIVENESS: Fully Unleashed
💘 HOST STATUS: Defenseless
🫠 BODY CONTACT LEVEL: Maximum
"You said I could have space," Yin Yue mumbled.
Lang Zhu lowered his voice. "I said you could have everything."
Yin Yue buried his face in his shoulder.
"Stop saying things like that."
"Why?"
"Because I'll never escape you."
Lang Zhu kissed his temple.
"You don't want to."
And..damn it..Yin Yue didn't. He really, really didn't want to escape.
Yin Yue gives up the fight. Entirely. One night, he pulls Lang Zhu into the blankets first. No words. Just open arms. It didn't happen all at once.
It started with a hand. Yin Yue reaching across the furs at night without thinking.
Finding Lang Zhu's fingers and curling them into his own.
Then it was an arm, tugging gently with no resistance.
Lang Zhu moved close, slow and steady, like he'd been waiting for the invitation all along.
Then it was the blanket. Yin Yue lifting ii, letting Lang Zhu in and letting him stay.
No growling, no flustered arguing just the sound of his own heartbeat calming for the first time in years.
> 💥 SYSTEM 520:
🛏️ INITIATION: Host
💘 ML REACTION: Immediate Compliance
🫠 INTIMACY LEVEL: Emotionally Married
Lang Zhu's head found the crook of his neck. His arm wrapped around Yin Yue's waist. He didn't say anything and he didn't need to.
Yin Yue's hand found the back of his head and stayed there.
Their legs tangled, their breaths synced and finally..finally...Yin Yue leaned forward and kissed him.
Not rushed or desperate just soft.
Lang Zhu made a sound in the back of his throat half growl, half sigh and deepened it just enough to say: I'm here.
When they parted, Yin Yue said, voice low, "Don't let go."
Lang Zhu replied, instantly:
"Never."
> 💘 ML AFFECTION: Overflowing
🫶 HOST SECURITY: Anchored
🧠 FUTURE FORECAST: Unshakeable
Yin Yue fell asleep smiling. Lang Zhu did too. Wrapped around each other, right where they belonged.
During a lazy afternoon meal, the soup was good. The sun was warm and the village square was peaceful.
Yin Yue was smiling, laughing, even until it happened.
A bird-beastwoman he vaguely recognized as someone's aunt leaned over her bowl, eyes bright.
"So," she said sweetly. "When do the cubs come?"
Yin Yue choked well actually, physically choked.
Lang Zhu patted his back calmly. As if this wasn't an assassination attempt via casual gossip.
> 💥 SYSTEM 520:
🐾 QUESTION: Family Expansion
🧠 HOST RESPONSE: System Panic
💘 ML STATUS: Emotionally Prepared
Yin Yue wheezed, "What...cubs...WHAT?"
The aunt beamed. "Oh, you two are mated so sweetly. I just thought...maybe, soon?"
Feng Xia coughed into his teacup. Loudly. But made no effort to rescue him.
Lang Zhu, still patting Yin Yue's back, said mildly, "When he's ready."
Yin Yue froze, turned his head.
"What do you mean when I'm ready?!"
Lang Zhu shrugged. "Not now."
"But you're not ruling it out?"
"You'd be a good parent."
"I don't even know how to tie bark shoes."
"I'll teach you."
"STOP BEING SERIOUS THIS IS A PANIC EVENT..."
> 🫠 HOST STATUS: Emotionally Flattened
💘 ML STABILITY: Deeply Committed
🐣 VILLAGE REACTION: Whispering Intensifies
Yin Yue spent the rest of the meal hiding behind a stack of roasted roots. Lang Zhu didn't mention it again.
But when they got back to the den that night, there was a new woven mat beside the fire. Small, soft and clearly unused.
Yin Yue stared at it.
Lang Zhu walked past and said, "For your herbs."
Yin Yue exhaled relieve. Until Lang Zhu added, without looking back:
"…Or for later."
> 💘 FUTURE IMPLICATION: Loaded
🫠 HOST STATUS: Rebooting Forever
Yin Yue lay awake that night, Lang Zhu held him anyway and neither of them said another word.
But the blanket was a little tighter and the fire burned warmer than usual.
Yin Yue walks the village alone, took the long way home.
Not because he was avoiding anything. It just because he wanted to see it all.
The garden half-wild, full of herbs he could now name. The drying racks where Shan Da had hung their laundry like love letters in linen.
Feng Xia's hammock currently swaying empty, probably because Feng Xia had fallen out again.
The fire pit where Lang Zhu had once handed him a piece of grilled meat and accidentally triggered a courtship.
All of it felt… his.
Not borrowed and not temporary.. Its feel home.
> 💥 SYSTEM 520:
🏡 SETTLEMENT: Psychological
💘 HOST CLARITY: 100%
🫶 EMOTIONAL ROOTING: Complete
When he reached the den, the door was slightly ajar.
Inside: Lang Zhu.
Waiting like always.
He looked up. Met Yin Yue's eyes.
Didn't smile. Just opened his arms like he knew exactly what was coming.
Yin Yue stepped in. Didn't hesitate and went straight to him.
Curled into his lap, arms around his neck, breath soft. Lang Zhu held him. Steady. Quiet. Constant.
Yin Yue murmured into his collarbone:
"I don't want to leave."
Lang Zhu didn't answer just held him tighter. Yin Yue pulled back, just enough to look up.
"This is my home."
Lang Zhu's eyes softened.
"You are home," he said.
Yin Yue smiled. Then kissed him slow, sure, and not at all shy.
> 💘 RELATIONSHIP STATUS: Anchored in Love
🫶 HOST STATUS: Settled
🐺 ML STATUS: Finally, Completely At Peace
They fell asleep like that together. Blanketed. Home.
Everything is normal. Peaceful. Domestic. Until it isn't.
It started with tea. Lang Zhu handed him a cup.
Warm. Steady. One hand under the bottom so Yin Yue wouldn't burn his fingers.
Normal and yet.. Yin Yue stared at it like it was a wedding ring.
> 💥 SYSTEM 520:
🍵 AFFECTION EVENT: Tea Transfer
🫠 HOST STATUS: Emotional Spiral (Mild)
🐺 ML STATUS: Just Vibing
The cup trembled slightly in Yin Yue's hand.
Lang Zhu didn't seem to notice.
Or maybe he did because the next thing he did was gently brush his thumb along Yin Yue's knuckle before turning back to the stew.
Yin Yue took one sip and nearly burst into flames.
Later that day, he was folding their robes when it hit him.
He'd folded Lang Zhu's sleeves like it was natural. Like he'd always done it.
Like it wasn't weird to know exactly how the chief liked the cuffs tucked.
Yin Yue dropped the fabric. Stared into the middle distance.
Feng Xia, passing by, stopped mid-step.
"Uh-oh," he said. "Are you about to confess again?"
"I think I'm in love with a wolf," Yin Yue said faintly.
"You've been in love with a wolf."
"I think it's worse now."
Feng Xia squinted. "Define worse."
"I just folded his laundry and wanted to cry about it."
Feng Xia: "Yeah, you're done for."
Yin Yue: "Help me."
Feng Xia: "I am. I'm watching your downfall in real time. It's beautiful."
> 🫠 HOST SPIRAL: Level 3
💘 REALIZATION DEPTH: Exponentially Rising
🐾 FRIEND SUPPORT: Not Actually Supportive
That night, Yin Yue watched Lang Zhu sharpen a blade by firelight and thought:
That's my partner. That's my denmate. That's my..I want to keep him.
The thought hit like a falling tree. Hard, loud and Impossible to ignore.
Yin Yue dropped the robe he was folding and left the den immediately.
Lang Zhu called after him once. Didn't chase. He never chased but he waited.
And Yin Yue after ten full minutes of pacing under the stars came back. He said nothing.
Just walked in, curled beside him, and whispered, "I'm so doomed."
Lang Zhu said, "I know."
Held him anyway.