Chapter Six: Marking
Lin Wan had though she was already fully merged into her current circumstance, being dumped, almost getting killed my a phantom beast, finding herself in a new world, getting a system, the list goes on,
and now getting marked, technically she was about to tie the knot with a handsome man, who happens to not be human but a beast. colour her shocked.
Wang came closer to her
Lin Wan held her ground because stepping back felt like the wrong move even though every single instinct she had was very loudly cataloguing exactly how tall he was and exactly how close he was getting.
He stopped in front of her, close enough that Lin Wan had to tilt her chin up to hold his gaze, close enough that she could feel the warmth coming off his skin .
Wang was looking at Lin Wan's face. He looked long enough that Lin Wan started to wonder if he had changed his mind and then his hand came up.
Gently he reached toward her and she went completely still as his fingers brushed her hair back from the left side of her neck,
Lin Wan's breath caught somewhere in the middle of her chest.
"This mark will tell every beastman that you are mine," Wang said quietly. His voice was lower than usual. Not softer exactly. Just lower, like he had turned the volume down to match the weight of what he was doing. " My name is Wang and I'm a leopard beastman, do you accept me as your beasthusband?"
"Yes I accept you, Wang as my husband" Lin Wan said.
Her voice came out steadier than she felt. She counted that as a win.
"It cannot be removed ," Wang said.
Lin Wan knew that. Weiwei had told her that. But hearing Wang say it out loud was different from hearing Weiwei say it.
Weiwei said everything with the cheerful efficiency of a system completing a task. Wang said it like it mattered. Like he wanted Lin Wan to be completely certain before this happened.
Lin Wan appreciated that more than she was going to say out loud.
"I know," Lin Wan said. "I understand. and It is okay."
Wang held Lin Wan's gaze for one more second.
Then he lowered his head and bit her neck.
Lin Wan had braced herself for pain. She had been expecting something sharp and aggressive, something that felt like a wound because that was what biting someone on the neck was supposed to feel like. It was not like that. It was firm and warm and deliberate and it lasted long enough for something to happen beneath Lin Wan's skin, a heat that spread outward from the point of contact like something that had been looking for that exact place for a long time and had finally found it.
Lin Wan stood very still.
She focused on her breathing.
Wang lifted his head.
Lin Wan's hand went up immediately to touch the spot. Her fingertips found three raised lines in her skin, faint but unmistakable, running parallel to each other in the exact pattern of the stripes on Wang's arm.
His marks. On her neck. Permanent.
Lin Wan stood there with that information for a moment.
"Weiwei," Lin Wan said under her breath.
"Congratulations Host!" Weiwei sounded genuinely delighted in a way that was both touching and completely excessive. "Primary bonding requirement has been initiated! Host now carries the mate mark of Wang of the Leopard tribe! The mark displays his three stripe lineage pattern and signals to all beastmen that Host is a claimed female! The countdown deterioration has been paused pending full bond completion!"
The numbers in the corner of Lin Wan's vision stopped ticking.
Lin Wan exhaled.
She had not realized how tight her chest had been until it was not tight anymore. She breathed in slowly and the air felt different. Not completely normal. Still strange and too rich and full of things she could not name. But breathable. Sustainably breathable. Like the world had loosened its grip on her just enough.
Lin Wan looked at Wang.
Wang had already stepped back to a normal distance and was watching Lin Wan with that composed unreadable expression, like biting a stranger's neck was simply a thing that had needed doing and now it was done and he was ready to move on to whatever came next.
Lin Wan traced the marks on her neck again.
She had gotten out of a car this morning to escape one man and she had somehow ended up permanently marked by another one before the same day was over.
You truly could not predict life.
"Our home is not far," Wang said, already turning. "You will need clothing more suitable than what you are wearing. And food."
Lin Wan traced his mark in her neck, once again, committing the knowledge that she was married now to her head, a nineteen year old married woman.
He held her hands and started walking