MTL - Deposed Empress General - Chapter 23 Night travel

In my previous life, I was a pawn, highlighting Henry Preston's deep affection for another woman, ultimately leading to a tragic end with a broken family and a desolate fate.After being reborn, I found that letting go and doing nothing felt the most comfortable, so I decided not to intervene and just wait for Henry Preston to propose a divorce.But the situation developed a bit strangely; the man who was never home in the past life started coming back frequently. He also seemed worried that I might cheat on him.“Do you believe that in the near future, you'll be eager for me to disappear?” I asked.“Stop dreaming,” he replied. “We'll torment each other to death.”I sighed, confident in my knowledge as someone reborn, that Henry Preston would soon meet his true love.Finally, he and she met, and I thought my freedom was just a step away.However, he quietly asked back, “Who said I was going to divorce?”Not only did he refuse to divorce, but he also started paying more and more attention to me, even abandoning his true love!

Shoved into the backseat of his father's car right after graduation, Riley Hale ended up marching toward a company building with a bagged lunch and a pen.Still in his toga, the fresh graduate never thought he’d land in the office of the continent’s top lizard, err, dragon, as his aide.And that would’ve driven any person wishing for a corporate career to tears. After all, who wouldn’t want to serve the fastest ticket up the corporate ladder: Kael Dravaryn, the infamously elegant, unhinged, and extremely overpowered Dragon Lord of the continent?Well, that would be Riley.The same Riley who didn’t expect to spend his days dodging fireballs, dressing his boss in robes more complicated than dark magic, and serving as a literal target during morning sparring.Now trapped in a job he never truly agreed to, the hardworking aide decided to hold out until it was time for his glorious resignation. But leaving a dragon’s clutches could never be easy, especially one with elemental mastery and a finger worth a private army.Yet, as Riley, who longs to quit, attempts to navigate ancient politics, wyvern threats, and other accidents (many of which are definitely not his fault), he might just hallucinate himself into seeing something beneath his boss’s arrogance and molten glares.Maybe he’d actually care if Riley got turned to ash.

One sunny day, Shen Jingwei, a Z-list actor, received an opportunity to attend an open-call audition the very next day.It was for the role of an antagonist in a new BL C-Drama, “Dance Of The Dragons”, which was adapted from a novel of the same title.He agreed to join the audition due to several factors, among which his manager's threat to jump off the 20th floor, his dire need for money, and also the fact that his rank in the film industry could not go any lower.One look at the panel of judges made him want to turn on his heel to leave, but it was all too late.Because who would expect the poor Z-List actor to meet his mortal enemy/ex-boyfriend, Yan Renzhong, the A-List Actor responsible for his decline long before he even learned how to fly?------------------“You and I... are playing a couple of lovers, who will go on to get married and have children with each other.”Shen Jingwei could sense blood coming up his throat.What was the point of saying it out loud, again?“Yes,” he forced himself to agree nonetheless.Yan Renzhong pinned him with a stare.“We have unresolved issues from the past. I hope you won't let them affect your and my performance in the drama. Act the professional you are supposed to be.”“...”“And don't call me 'Emperor Yan' anymore.”Yan Renzhong left after delivering one blow after another, not even waiting to see if Shen Jingwei succumbed to his injuries or not.What?Whattt?Whattttttttt?

Zev prowled towards her, all shining, brutal beauty, his chin low and those incredible, piercing eyes fixed on her. He didn’t stop until they were toe-to-toe and he blocked her view of every other male in the circle.

His eyes dipped to her mouth as he leaned in, his whisper playing on her skin.

“You. Are. Mine.”

His deep voice twanged in her belly as the howls of the wolf pack rose from behind him to echo across the mountains of Thana, while the other Chimera protested his claim.

Fighting the urge to stroke his broad, bare chest with her shaking hands, Sasha forced herself to tilt her head and raise an eyebrow. “So bold for a pup who just found his fangs.”

The other males roared with laughter.

Ignoring their taunts, Zev’s eyes sparked and he leaned even closer, the scruff on his jaw tickling her cheek as he smiled. “So bold for a human who already knows the pleasure of gasping my name.”

She shivered when his teeth grazed her ear.

*****

Just days after Sasha gave herself to her childhood love, he disappeared. Five years later, on a dark city street, Zev came back—with danger on his tail.

Zev is Chimera: Half-human, half-wolf. Made in a secure research lab, his existence is a secret. But when the powerful men who created him try to kill the only woman who ever made his heart sing, Zev snaps their leash and steals her away to the brutal, hidden world of the Chimera clans.

Torn between the magnetic draw of her first love and the painful betrayal of his disappearance, Sasha tries to keep Zev at arms-length. But when they reach this mysterious world, Zev discovers that in his absence the humans took control and stole almost all the females. The Chimera are dying—and Zev isn’t Alpha anymore.

Now, Zev must fight his own people to win the right to mate his only love. Can he prove to her that his long-ago promise to protect her heart, as well as her body, was true? Or will the humans cross worlds to hunt the wolf and tear the lovers apart forever?

[Mature content, no sexual assault]