Arkin stepped out into the courtyard.
He hadn't bothered with wearing layers of clothes. He wore only a loose black silk robe, tied carelessly at the waist, his dark hair falling freely around his shoulders, damp from the thermal pond.
He looked less like a banished prince and more like a predator who had just finished a very satisfying meal.
The hallway was lined with elite guards, their weapons drawn. At the center of the formation stood the Demon King and the Luna, radiating the specific energy of two people who had been waiting long enough to become dangerous.
"Arkin Vaelxuan! Kneel!" His father's voice boomed.
In unison, the guards stepped forward, razor-sharp sword tips leveled directly at Arkin's chest.
Arkin didn't flinch. He stood there with his back perfectly straight, his expression so calm it felt like a warning.
The Demon King's eyes narrowed. He released his aura, a crushing, suffocating pressure designed to drive lesser demons straight into the floor. The stone beneath Arkin's bare feet cracked under the invisible weight.
Arkin remained upright. He didn't even blink.
"How dare you—"
"My bride just managed to sleep after a very strenuous exercise."
Arkin's voice cut through the King's fury like a blade. Not loud, just final. He swept a measured look across the assembled guards.
"Do not wake her. She hates noise."
The elite guards, trained killers, veterans of the Wolf Tribe, took two instinctive steps backward. The fear that moved through them was cold and entirely irrational and they couldn't have stopped if they'd tried.
Arkin shifted his gaze back to his father. "As for you... don't you think it's time you and Mother retire to the Star Abyss?"
Everywhere went silent.
The Star Abyss was a paradise dimension for ancient demonic beasts, devoid of moons or stars, lit only by a perpetual orange sky. Absolute peace. For an active, ruling Demon King, being directed there was not a suggestion.
It was a threat of forced abdication, delivered without raising his voice.
"Are you trying to revolt?" his father asked, lips curling back over his fangs.
Arkin scoffed. A dry and unbothered. "What if I am? You and Mother deserve to rest." He tossed a lazy look sideways. "Right, Mother?"
The Demon Luna harrumphed. She lifted her chin and looked pointedly away, refusing to meet her son's dying-star eyes.
Arkin's smile dropped.
The temperature in the courtyard fell.
He raised one hand toward the nearest guard.
Dark blood-red mist materialized from nothing, coiling around the guard's throat like something alive. The man was yanked off his feet, three feet off the ground, legs scrambling at empty air, the magic tightening around his windpipe.
Arkin flicked his palm.
The guard flew down the corridor like something discarded. In the same breath, the red mist exploded outward in a concussive shockwave, sweeping through the remaining drawn weapons and the soldiers holding them.
They left the ground. And before gravity could claim them, the red magic dissolved their physical forms entirely, reducing them to plumes of black smoke that dispersed quietly into the cold air.
Gone. As if they had never been standing there.
Arkin's mother flinched. She stepped quickly behind King Vaelxuan, her composure fractured for the first time.
Arkin lowered his hand. The mist faded. He looked at his father, the smile returning to his lips.
"Did you see that, Father?"
The King stared at the empty space where his elite guards had been standing. Then his chest began to heave.
A deep, rumbling sound rose in his throat, and he threw his head back and laughed. Pure, and unhinged. The laugh of a demon who had only ever respected one currency and had just watched it displayed at full value.
"Good! Very good!" King Vaelxuan roared, clapping his massive palms together. "Now that is my son! I will arrange a large banquet immediately, I will announce to the realm that the ban has been lifted!" He grinned, his eyes gleaming with something close to pride. "Bring your wife when it's time, so we can welcome her to the clan properly!"
The Luna stared at her mate in disbelief. She opened her mouth to argue, to demand someone answer for the disrespect, the door, the sounds from behind the curtain, all of it—
One look at Arkin's dead eyes snapped her jaw shut.
Arkin didn't thank his father. Didn't acknowledge the banquet. He simply turned his back on the Demon King of the Wolf Tribe, walked back into his chambers, and let the doors click shut behind him.
He pushed past the privacy screen. Moved the curtains aside.
Stopped.
The mattress was empty. Blankets tossed aside, sheets still carrying the scent of pineapple and sex, but she was gone.
The sheets were still warm.
***
Lexianna was running.
Her bare feet slapped against the cold, polished stone of the courtyard, her lungs burning. No particular destination in mind. The destination wasn't the point. Away was the point.
Based on the flood of memories she had inherited from the previous owner, she was deep inside the Great Palace of the Vaelxuan family, the absolute epicenter of Demon Wolf territory.
This was the Inner Court. It was a labyrinth of gardens, statues, and towering pavilions. It was entirely too large, and she was nowhere near the Outer Court exits.
She had managed to tap into the unfamiliar energy in her chest to conjure a simple, dark red silk robe to cover herself. She had also managed to force her nine silver tails and pointed ears to recede.
Right now, she just looked like a disheveled human maiden running for her life.
She wished she could use this strange magic to just teleport. To instantly relocate to a safe zone.
But she didn't know the map yet. Teleporting blindly was a costly mistake she couldn't afford to make. She could end up materializing right in the lap of the Fox Clan who had thrown her off the cliff in the first place.
As she ran, her mind aggressively sorted through the new data in her head.
The universe was a structure with three main divisions: The Demon Realm, the Human Realm, and the Heaven Realm. The Human Realm was the entry-level branch. From there, a cultivator could either climb the corporate ladder to become a god in Heaven, or embrace the hostile takeover and become a Demon.
Power was stored in a core. It was like a physical battery inside the body. If the core was broken, the entity didn't just die, their form was erased from the universe entirely.
It felt like a cheap Xianxia novel she would have fired an intern for reading during work hours. Yet, the cold stone under her feet was frustratingly real.
Lexianna's lungs finally gave out. She ducked behind a massive, weeping willow-style tree, its leaves the color of dried blood. She leaned against the trunk, sliding down to the grass, gasping for air.
She didn't know where she was, but she was out of Arkin's bed. That was step one.
She wanted nothing to do with that arrogant, oversized canine. They had made a deal. She provided the milk to cure his madness, he provided the essence to cure her poison. The transaction was complete. There were no further ties required.
Wife? she thought, scoffing as she pulled her knees to her chest. He must be dreaming.
She didn't do marriages anymore. Not after the last one ended with fingers around her throat.
Lexianna reached up, sliding a hand into the collar of her red robe. She squeezed her breast.
Nothing.
No sharp, agonizing pressure. No throbbing ache. No cloying scent of pineapple leaking into the fabric. The heavy, burning heat of Arkin's essence was still pooled deep in her lower belly, keeping the freezing ice of the Soul-Wither poison entirely neutralized.
She let out a long, shuddering breath of relief.
But then her brows furrowed. This wasn't a cure. A temporary arrangement her body had negotiated without consulting her. Eventually, his essence would dry out. The poison would return. The agonizing, humiliating heat cycle would restart, and her body would make the same demands all over again.
She despised depending on someone or being a liability.
She tilted her head back, resting it against the bark of the tree and stared up at the violet sky.
It was as if the moons were eyes looking at her and mocking her for being weak, for turning out this way.
I need a permanent cure, she thought. I need to fix this broken core.
She closed her eyes, letting out a scream inside her own mind.
But first, how the fuck do I get out of this world!
"You don't."
The voice was low, textured, and far too close.
Lexianna's eyes snapped open.
The violet sky was gone, entirely blocked out by a wall of muscular chest. Lord Arkin stood over her, his hands tucked casually behind his loose black robes. He wasn't out of breath. He didn't look angry. He looked like a man who had just caught a very interesting prey.
Lexianna shrank back against the tree.
With a soft poof, two silver, pointed fox ears popped out of the top of her head, twitching nervously in the cold air.
She stared up into his dying-star eyes, her mind racing for an excuse, a threat or anything—
And came up empty.
Instead, she offered a nervous, trembling smile, her voice pitching up in a way that made her want to violently strangle herself.
"Hey handsome~"
Arkin smiled.