The evening air had a biting chill to it, but the city was just waking up around us.
Taverns spilled yellow light and loud music out onto the cobblestones as groups of armed Adventurer women began roaming the streets in rowdy packs.
"You know…" I said casually, side-stepping a puddle of questionable ale on the street, "You don't have to glare at every single woman who looks at me for more than two seconds."
Vala just let out a low rumble in her chest, tracking a pair of scarred brawlers stumbling out of a nearby alleyway with her crimson eyes. "They are looking at you like you are just a piece of meat."
"And you are looking at them like they are the main course…" I shot back with a dry smirk. "Just relax. I'm right here."
She didn't relax, though her bushy tail gave a single, involuntary thump against her leather armor.
Whenever a squad of women turned their predatory gazes toward us, Vala didn't even bother to growl anymore, simply shifting her frame to let a fraction of her Tier 4 aura bleed into the cold air, and the street practically parted for us in response.
[Having a Rank-A werewolf as a personal escort is an unbelievable flex…] I admitted to myself.
But I was also running the math in my head, treating tonight exactly like a boss fight.
I knew how fast she moved and exactly how strong she was, meaning I needed to completely control the environment and manage her aggro while keeping my mental finger hovering directly over my Lustful Touch.
We eventually arrived at a quiet, high-end inn near the upper district, stepping inside to find a lobby that smelled like polished wood and a warm hearth.
"One room…" Vala grunted, stepping right up to the front desk and slapping three silver coins onto the counter. "Top floor. Quiet."
The elderly dwarven woman behind the desk eyed Vala's blood-soaked armor before glancing past her shoulder to look at me, giving the werewolf a knowing, deeply respectful nod.
"Of course, ma'am. Best mattress in the house for the young gentleman. End of the hall, no neighbors."
"Keep it that way," Vala muttered as she snatched the brass key off the counter.
She acted like the perfect, protective gentlewoman, making absolutely sure I was safe for the night as she led me up the carpeted stairs and down a quiet, dimly lit hallway before stopping in front of our room.
, "Here it is," she said softly, keeping her crimson eyes fixed firmly on the floorboards. "Get some sleep, Luca. See you tomorrow."
Vala didn't try to invite herself in or linger for even a second.
She turned around to head back toward the stairs, but I reached out and grabbed her gauntleted hand to stop her.
"I could've handled you," I said.
Vala stopped dead in her tracks and looked back over her shoulder, her expression full of complete confusion. "Huh?"
"I said, I could've handled you," I repeated, keeping my voice steady. "I was just caught off guard."
She turned fully to face me, tucking her bushy tail nervously between her legs as she waited for me to explain.
"Look…" I continued, leaning into a comfortable lie to erase the weird tension hanging between us. "I used to live in a small town, and I just arrived in this city yesterday. What I'm trying to say is... I don't know pretty much anything about well… anything. You are the first werewolf I've ever seen, so when that happened down there... I was just caught off guard."
Vala clearly didn't believe me. I could tell she assumed I was just saying whatever I had to say to make her feel better.
So I slowly took her metal-clad hand and placed it flat against my chest, holding it there to let her feel my frantically beating heart.
My chest was pounding hard, but it wasn't just from fear. It was an overwhelming cocktail of excitement, terror, and sheer thrill.
It felt exactly like jumping out of a plane into a dense forest, hoping the branches would slow the fall enough for me to survive.
I knew for a fact I wasn't coming out of this unscathed, but I was jumping anyway.
I deliberately kept her palm pressed against my chest to give her the out, cementing to her and to myself that she actually wanted this.
If she put even a fraction of an ounce of her Tier 4 strength into that hand, I wouldn't be able to advance a single inch, but she didn't push.
A soft smile crossed my face as I slowly closed the distance between us, hooking my arms firmly around her toned waist to pull her close. I tilted my head, planting a slow yet deep kiss onto her cherry-red lips.
Vala's breath violently hitched, while a quiet whine vibrate in her throat before she instinctively melted and leaned into the kiss.
And just as she fully surrendered to it, I broke the contact to take a single step back, keeping a firm grip on her hand.
Vala just stood there with her chest heaving, her heart rate completely frantic now.
She looked exactly like an addict standing on the absolute edge of a relapse, desperately clinging to whatever shreds of self-control she had left.
I looked her dead in the eyes to flash a soft, reassuring smile before giving her hand a gentle pull.
"Trust me," I said quietly.
Vala completely relapsed right there, letting the tension drain out of her broad shoulders as she yielded entirely to my lead.
I pushed the door open to lead her inside.
The room was spacious and warm, featuring a large stone hearth, polished wooden floors, and a single bed sitting right in the center. The moment the door clicked shut behind us, the ambient noise of the inn completely vanished, leaving us alone.
Vala was highly agitated but still barely clinging to control, shifting her weight nervously to look down at her battered armor.
"I... I want to take a bath first," she said bashfully.
After all, she was still covered in her own dried blood from when Elise had violently torn her leg off and slashed her torso open down in the dungeon.
I let out a soft chuckle. "Then let's bathe together. I'm not exactly in mint condition either."
Vala immediately panicked, her face flushed a violent crimson as she quickly waved both her hands in front of her chest. "No! No, no, I want to bathe alone..."
I just walked over and plopped onto the soft mattress, resting my weight on my elbows.
[Cute…] I thought.
I tilted my head and looked up at her with a lazy, seductive smirk. "Fine... I'll bathe after you, then."
Vala instantly shook her head, looking down at the floor to aggressively rub the back of her neck while her furry ears twitched.
"I..." she started, her voice dropping to a husky whisper. "...don't want you to bathe."
I paused, raising an eyebrow as the implication properly settled in. She wanted my natural scent, sweat, blood, and all, exactly the way it was.
"Fine then," I chuckled. "If that's how you want... me."