Chapter 12 The Signal of Courtship
Tessa turned her head to avoid him, but Jacob gently covered her mouth.
“Shh.”
Finished
His expression grew alert as he stared toward Alexander’s room. His entire demeanor shifted- gone was the usual refined and gentle air. Instead, he resembled a wolf poised for battle.
Tessa perked up her ears and listened carefully. Sure enough, sounds were coming from Alexander’s room,
Has the lion returned?
Worried that Jacob might clash with the lion, she tensed, ready to step in and break up the fight. Yet when the door opened, what appeared wasn’t a lion, but a pair of long legs.
Tessa’s gaze followed the straight lines of the military trousers upward until she met Alexander’s. handsome face.
“What are you two doing?” Alexander frowned, eyeing their posture.
Only then did Tessa realize that Jacob’s hand still rested on her shoulder, with his other hand. hovering near her mouth. Their proximity was too close, and their posture too suggestive. To Alexander, it must have looked as if something inappropriate was about to happen.
Jacob narrowed his eyes slightly, straightened up, and withdrew his hand from Tessa. Instead of answering Alexander, he questioned him back, “Why come in through the window when there’s at front door?
A subtle look crossed Alexander’s face, betraying a hint of embarrassment.
When he regained consciousness, he’d already been in his bedroom–likely having crashed. through the window while in his beast form. He had quickly thrown on his clothes, only to step outside and find Jacob seemingly about to do something improper to Tessa.
Tessa hadn’t expected the arrival to be Alexander, not the lion. Curious, she asked, “Jacob said you had a mission and had already returned to the base. Why are you back so suddenly?”
Surely, Alexander’s mission hadn’t ended that quickly.
“Did you forget something?”
Alas, Alexander had no idea what he might have forgotten. His memory stopped at the moment before he lost control. He didn’t even know that his current cover story was “returning to the base for a mission. Fortunately, Jacob didn’t make things difficult for him and took the initiative to smooth things over. “Yeah, he left his HoloCore behind. I’ve already put it away–let me grab it
now.
Jacob led the way, with Alexander following close behind. Using the excuse of retrieving the
2.00PM c
Chapter 12 The Signal of Courtship
Upon seeing the shattered window of Alexander’s room, Jacob couldn’t help but scoff. “I’ve already fixed your window once. This time, you fix it yourself.”
Acknowledging his fault, Alexander nodded in agreement.
Finished
Although he had no memory of his actions during the loss of control, he still had to take responsibility for the lion’s rampage. The problem was, aside from breaking the window, he had no idea what other trouble he might have caused….
A heavy sense of worry settled in Alexander’s heart.
There was no escaping confinement after losing control. The Empire’s Ferality Management Division existed precisely to handle such cases of rogue males. With his Ferality Index reaching. 80, he would remain under strict surveillance unless a female of sufficiently high rank. jvolunteered to bail him out and provide mental comfort. Otherwise, confinement was inevitable.
However, if, during his period of loss of control, he had injured or killed someone, not even a female’s intervention could save him from further imprisonment. The severity of his actions would determine whether he’d face demotion, suspension, and hefty fines.
“How many days was I out of control?” Alexander asked Jacob cautiously, hoping the situation.
wasn’t too dire.
He had already resigned himself to spending the rest of his life confined by the Ferality Management Division since he would never accept any female other than Tessa. But if he had killed someone during his loss of control, he would live the rest of his life tormented by guilt.
“Relax, you didn’t kill or injure anyone,” Jacob replied, reading his thoughts. As for how long he had been out of control… he hesitated briefly. “You don’t remember anything from the time you. lost control?”
For most therians, the period of loss of control felt like a dream–fading away as soon as they woke, leaving only faint fragments of memory. Alexander was no exception. Still, something felt. off.
“When I woke up, I felt… content and happy, like I wasn’t in pain during that time–like I had a good experience. And I think… I think I met
around her…” His face prew warm as he spoka, She was so gentle, and I felt incredibly relaxed
caused by how much he liked Tessa.
though he dismissed it as a subconscious illusion
Jacob interrupted him. “You were only out of control for 17 hours.”
Alexander’s eyes widened in shock.
Males who lost control usually remained in their beast form for at least three days, with most taking a week or more to return to their humanoid form. Recovering in just 17 hours was unheard of in the Empire’s history–no one would believe it if they heard.
“And,” Jacob added, “you did spend time with Tessa during that period.”
Chapter 12 The Signal of Courtship
Finished
Jacob’s smirk carried a hint of mockery as he sized Alexander up. “Never knew you were such a homebody. Even when you lose control, you manage to run straight home.”
While search teams had scoured the area, this lion had done the exact opposite–returning home to take advantage of the young female.
Alexander opened his mouth, but no words came out. He couldn’t deny it–after all, he had woken up in his own room.
Without giving him a chance to explain, Jacob pulled up a video recording of his video call with Tessa and played it as evidence.
On the screen, a massive golden–maned lion clung shamelessly to Tessa, pinning the petite female down while brazenly licking her.
If it had been an ordinary lion, the scene might have appeared as a harmless and heartwarming interaction between a human and an animal. But since the lion was a therian, the implications. were far less innocent.
Alexander’s face grew redder with each passing second, turning as crimson as a ripened tomato. Shame flooded him, leaving him flustered and overwhelmed, unable to believe that the shameless beast on the screen was actually himself. The weight of embarrassment crashed over him like a tidal wave, making him want to fall to his knees and beg Tessa for forgiveness.
No, please… forgive me… I didn’t mean to offend you….
When Tessa smacked the lion’s head in the video, Alexander inwardly thought she had done the right thing–but it wasn’t enough to teach the lion a lesson. Yet if she hit too hard, her tender hands would surely hurt. Perhaps he should ask his married colleagues what tools their females used to discipline them. It wouldn’t hurt to prepare a few for Tessa as well.
While that thought crossed his mind, the video continued, After smacking the lion, Tessa- perhaps feeling sorry for it–leaned down and pressed a quick kiss to its check.
In that instant, Alexander felt his very soul merge with the lion. The sense of disconnect caused by his lack of memory vanished. At that moment, he was the lion in the video–so overwhelmed with happiness that he nearly fainted from sheer bliss.
In this interstellar era, males no longer needed to transform into their beast forms to hunt, and females generally disliked seeing them in that state. As a result, assuming beast form had taken on a special significance.
When a male deliberately transformed into his beast form before a female, it served as a signal of courtship. If the female was uninterested, she simply needed to ignore him. But if she reached out to touch him, it meant she found the male appealing and did not find his beast form repulsive. And if the female accepted him, the male would become utterly devoted to her- willing to brave fire and water for her sake.
Tessa hadn’t just touched him–she had kissed him!
