Chapter 74: Cornered by the Leopard Lord

The moment their lips met, the last remaining fortress of ice around Han Shān’s heart shattered into a million jagged pieces.

When she returned to Thousand Fang, he had expected the same cruel, vain, and utterly selfish female who had tormented Yàn Shū and completely ignored the existence of her sons.

He had promised himself, that he would never let her close again. He would protect his cub and keep his distance.

But then, the impossible had happened. She had changed.

She had bled for his son. She had fought slavers for their family. She had cooked, smiled, and looked at them with eyes so bright and full of stars that it made his chest ache with a longing he thought had died a long time ago.

She had melted his defenses, one frustrating, confusing, domestic day at a time, until he was left exposed and entirely at her mercy.

Watching Zhāo Yàn confidently try to claim her in the open water had been the final spark to his powder keg.

Now, having her backed against the slick, moss-covered rock, completely bare to him and hidden from the world, his control finally snapped.

He consumed her, his mouth slanting over hers with a crushing desire that stole the breath straight from her lungs.

His large, calloused hands, roughened by years of hunting in the freezing peaks and fighting for survival, spanned her delicate waist under the warm water.

The contrast between his hardened, battle-scarred Alpha body and her soft, trembling frame sent a surge of adrenaline straight to his brain.

He groaned into her mouth, his tongue parting her lips deeper, demanding entrance and taking it.

His hands refused to stay still. They slid down from her waist, tracing the slick, narrow curve of her hips beneath the bubbling surface, before his rough palms found the bare, incredibly soft skin of her thighs.

Bai Yue let out a soft, helpless whimper.

The sound vibrated against his lips, and it was like throwing dry wood onto a roaring fire.

The Snow Leopard within him roared in response, his Alpha instincts surging to the absolute forefront of his mind.

Every predatory wire in his body went tight, demanding he push her down into the shallow water and claim what was rightfully his, consequences be damned.

He tore his mouth away from hers, leaving her gasping for air, her chest heaving heavily just above the waterline.

But he didn’t give her a single second to recover. He buried his face in the crook of her neck, inhaling the intoxicating, steamy scent of her damp skin.

He traced hot, open-mouthed kisses along her sharp jawline, trailing them down the sensitive column of her throat.

He kissed his way over her delicate collarbone, the water lapping against them as he moved lower, his lips grazing the sensitive, flushed skin just above the swell of her chest.

Bai Yue shuddered violently against him, a whine escaping her throat. Her hands, which had been pushing weakly and uselessly against his massive chest, suddenly curled into tight fists.

She gripped his wet hair to anchor herself, completely at his mercy.

Han Shān paused.

He pulled back just enough to look at her, the water cascading off his broad shoulders.

“You,” he growled. He stared at her swollen lips, her flushed cheeks, her heavy-lidded eyes.

She blinked up at him, dazed, her chest rising and falling erratically.

“Ruì Xuě,” Han Shān rumbled. “He has forgiven you.”

He stepped half a pace closer, pinning her completely between the immovable rock wall and the solid wall of his chest.

“Zhāo Yàn is purring at your feet, ready to slaughter anyone who looks at you wrong. Hóng Yè….that boy no longer looks at you with murder in his eyes. And Yòu Lín adores the very ground you walk on.”

Han Shān reached up, his rough thumb gently but firmly tracing the outline of her swollen bottom lip. “Our family is together again. You fixed what you broke.”

A pause.

“But do you know,” Han Shān continued, leaning in so his lips brushed hers with the articulation of every single word, “that I have been without a female’s touch for so long? Because of you.”

Bai Yue sucked in a breath. She stared up at him, her purple eyes wide with a mix of shock and a sudden panic.

“I am going to make you pay for that, Bai Yue,” he vowed, his voice a dark purr. “I am going to make you pay for every single cold, lonely night you put me through.”

To emphasize his point, he leaned to the side, his face pressing into her wet hair. He opened his mouth and scraped his canines gently against the sensitive shell of her ear, biting down just enough to send a shockwave through her nervous system.

Bai Yue flinched, a sharp gasp tearing from her throat as a full-body shiver wracked her frame.

At the exact same moment, his large hand moved up through the water. Leaving the safety of her thigh, his palm rose, breaking the surface to firmly cup the soft, bare weight of her chest.

Bai Yue let out a strangled, high-pitched cry. Her knees instantly buckled beneath the water, her legs turning to jelly as the sensory overload completely short-circuited her brain.

If Han Shān hadn’t been holding her, she would have slipped completely under the bubbling surface of the spring.

But he caught her, his strong arm wrapping securely around her waist to support her weight as she slumped against his chest.

For a long, agonizingly stretched second, he held his hand there. He felt the rapid, shallow rise and fall of her breathing, feeling the power he held over her in this tiny, hidden alcove.

His instincts screamed at him to mate with her right there against the stone, to mark her as his own again, completely ignoring the proximity of the others.

But Han Shān was a Lord of the snow peaks.

He possessed an iron will, a legendary restraint that had kept him alive in the harshest conditions.

And as much as his beast raged to claim her immediately, he knew this wasn’t the right place. He didn’t want a rushed, stolen moment behind a rock. He wanted to draw this out until she was begging him for release.

Slowly, he pulled his hand away from her chest, letting it rest safely on her waist once more.

“But,” he rasped, his voice rough with restraint, “there is enough time for that.”

He brought his hand up to her face, his fingers firmly squeezing her flushed cheeks, tilting her face up so she had no choice but to look into his blazing eyes.

“We have all the time in the world now,” he promised, his thumb stroking her cheekbone.

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