Chase Bennett stood outside the gate with his sister's words still ringing in his skull like a bell that would not stop. Five women chasing another man for six months under their husband's roof. He had watched the screaming and the chaos from the outside and assumed the husband was the monster. He had never once considered that five unfaithful wives might have been the cause."I'm not leaving." Chase straightened his military jacket and set his jaw with fresh determination. "If this man is really what you say he is, then I want to show him that the Bennett family stands behind you. He should know what kind of support you bring."Chloe looked at her brother with the flat, tired expression of a woman who had been managing him since childhood. She said nothing. There was nothing to say. Chase was already pressing the doorbell.The butler robot opened the front door and led them through the entrance hall into the living room. Chase walked in with his shoulders squared and his chin high, r

Maxver looked at his three Beast Wives standing in the living room and thought about the night before. The small fox curled against his chest. The silver fur between his fingers. The warmth of a living creature pressed against him while he slept better than he had in either of his lives.He wanted that again. Badly."Alright." He reached into the shopping bag from Men's Paradise and pulled out three wooden plaques, each one engraved with a name. "Here's how this is going to work. I'm going to shuffle these and pick one. Whoever gets chosen sleeps with me tonight in beast form only. I'll purify you at the same time. Fair for everyone."Chloe's entire body relaxed in a single breath. She looked at Autumn, then at Sienna, and the realization hit her like sunlight breaking through clouds. Neither of them had become a real couple with him yet. Nobody had gotten further than she had. The playing field was level. Completely level.Sienna felt the same realization settle into her chest. She s

Maxver held the door open and kept his breathing very, very even. "Come in."She dried his hair with the same careful hands she had used in the bath, running the towel through it section by section. When she finished, she set the towel aside and turned toward him slowly. The robe shifted as she moved, and the neckline fell open by another inch.She reached out, took both his hands, and pulled him gently toward her until their chests were almost touching."Can I hold you while we sleep?" Her voice was low and unhurried, each word placed with the same precision she used to place stitches. "Just hold you. Nothing more."Maxver opened his mouth to refuse. Nothing came out."You can touch my waist." She guided his right hand to her side, pressing his palm flat against the silk just above her hip. "Right here. Is that alright?"His resistance, which had been holding firm for three consecutive days against the combined pressure of three Beast Wives and one relentless system, collapsed like a

Maxver felt his resolve wobble like a table with one short leg. The beautiful woman lying beside him with damp silver hair and a bleeding lip and nine tails curled around her own body was looking at him as though he had just told her Christmas was cancelled permanently. Staying firm against this level of weaponized softness required a kind of willpower he was not sure he possessed.He changed the subject as fast as humanly possible."Let me purify you instead." The words came out in a rush. "Your contamination was at thirty percent after last night. I can bring it down further right now."The shift in Autumn's expression was instantaneous. The pitiful look vanished. Her golden eyes sharpened with a focused, knowing light that should have warned him something was wrong. She knew exactly what a second purification at thirty percent meant. She understood the mechanics of intimate purification far better than he did. And she had no intention of correcting his misunderstanding."You would

"I'm not sure how you plan to fix it, but I think we should discuss it seriously."Autumn dropped to her knees. Both knees. Right there in the hallway. She grabbed both his hands and held them against her chest with a grip that could have bent steel."Please don't divorce me." Her golden eyes filled with tears that climbed to the very edge of her lower lashes and sat there, trembling, refusing to fall, as though they had been choreographed. "I'll do better. I'll learn. I'll practice. Whatever you need me to improve, I will improve it. Please, Master Cole. Please don't send me away."Maxver looked down at her. A five star Nine Tailed Fox. Chief surgeon at the Central Star's top hospital. A woman who could crack open a chest cavity and save a life with steady hands and zero hesitation. On her knees in his hallway, begging him not to leave her, with tears balanced on her lashes like diamonds on a wire.Something inside him broke open completely. Not cracked. Not loosened. Broke open, lik