Xiao Zai woke up with a crushing headache and feeling as if something had crawled down his throat and died there.
With great effort, he managed to peel his eyes open and take in his surroundings.
He recognised the room he'd booked in the brothel, although it was distinctively more dishevelled than he remembered.
With a groan, he managed to free himself of the sheets coiling around his middle and sat up in bed.
The room looked like a herd of stampeding horses had gone through it, toppling everything, and even breaking a wine jar. Its spilled contents hadn't yet dried on the wooden floor.
Xiao Zai rubbed his eyes with a yawn.
"Stop hogging the covers," said a mumbled, sleep-thick voice, beside him.
Chu Yun was laying in bed next to Xiao Zai, apparently naked under the silk comforter. One of his fluffy fox ears was bent in an uncomfortable position beneath his head, while the other stuck out straight from between his loose hair.
His nine tails were wrapped all over his back like a thick fur blanket.
"Uh," was all Xiao Zai was capable of saying.
He looked down at himself and realised he was naked too. Completely naked.
"Wake up," he said, shaking Chu Yun by the shoulder.
With a groan Chu Yun opened his yellow eyes, looking up at Xiao Zai blearily. "G'morning."
"What happened last night?" Xiao Zai asked, through gritted teeth.
"You were drunk."
That much Xiao Zai remembered, and he had the hangover to prove it. He had a vivid recollection of Chu Yun storming into the brothel, but after that things got hazy.
"And after that?" He insisted, annoyed at Chu Yun's carefree demeanour.
Chu Yun grumbled among the pillows, turning his back on Xiao Zai. His tails had slipped down his torso and now Xiao Zai had an unimpeded view of the lean, shifting muscles of his back -- and the collection of purpling kiss marks littering it.
Xiao Zai felt the colour drain from his face.
He did that?
He must have, because the alternative was that someone else did that to the man he was married to, and despite their feelings of animosity, Xiao Zai wasn't sure his pride could take the slight.
"Tell me what happened," he asked again, this time more urgently.
Chu Yun grumbled something and turned around again, glaring at Xiao Zai, his yellow fox eyes flashing in annoyance.
"Nothing happened, stop bothering me."
Xiao Zai found that very hard to believe. He pointed at Chu Yun's back. "Uh...your, uh, your back..."
"Oh, that," he waved away Xiao Zai's complaining. "You were crazy, scenting me, trying to get my clothes off, your clothes off...for a while there I thought you were going into rut."
That was a shocking revelation to wake up to. Xiao Zai could only look on in stunned silence as Chu Yun recounted an embarrassing series of events.
Chu Yun was either oblivious to Xiao Zai's discomfort, or uncaring. "Anyway, you didn't smell like you were in rut, so it wasn't that."
"Uh..."
"The damage on my back is your fault, you kept kissing, and biting me while trying to get my robes off."
"I apologise," Xiao Zai said, lowering his eyes in embarrassment.
It seemed as if he couldn't stop putting himself in terrible situations in front of Chu Yun.
One of Chu Yun's fluffy ears twitched and he smirked up at Xiao Zai, his head resting on his crossed arms. "Better me than my brother."
Xiao Zai glared at him, which only made Chu Yun laugh.
All in all, Xiao Zai thought he was taking his ungentlemanly actions of the day before surprisingly well.
"You're uh...you're not upset?"
Chu Yun's grin grew wider, which was very concerning. "Oh no, not at all."
"Why?"
Did Xiao Zai even want to know?
"Because now I have this to hold over your head."
Of course. He should have expected something like this. He got out of the bed with a grunt, no longer all that embarrassed about his nudity.
Chu Yun shifted around on the bed while Xiao Zai gathered his clothes. He supported his head on his open palm, and looked on as Xiao Zai picked up his discarded clothes from the floor.
"Are you mad at me?"
Xiao Zai didn't answer him.
"That's rich, you're the one who almost mauled me," he chuckled, "do you know what that tells me?"
Again, Xiao Zai didn't say anything, all of his clothes were almost on.
"It tells me that you're probably as repressed as you look."
Finally Xiao Zai turned around and shot him a glare, fastening his waist sash around himself with sharp, urgent tugs.
"Don't look like that, it means there's hope for you. Maybe we'll even get along when you unwind."
That sounded ominous. "And how do you expect to do that?"
Chu Yun's other fox ear twitched, signalling his excitement. "With lots of positive encouragement."
Xiao Zai didn't know what that meant, but one thing he was sure of:
He was never drinking in Chu Yun's company again.
He picked up Chu Yun's inner robes from the floor and threw them at the bed. "Get dressed, we need to go back to your parent's house."
---
Red Beauty was watching from his private balcony as the two alpha young masters left together. He had meanwhile learned of their identities, and he could barely contain his excitement.
The first son of the Prince of Jing, and the King of Zui's second son! Who would have thought that Red Beauty would be lucky enough to lay eyes on both of them.
And the sounds coming from their room last night....
He took a deep breath and fanned himself as he watched the two alphas mount their horses -- one black and one white. They seemed to have a disagreement about which of them should ride which horse.
There was no doubt in Red Beauty's mind that both alphas had incredible stamina, just imagining the kind of things the two of them must have gotten up to last night made his blood run hotter.
Some alphas liked seeing two omegas together, they thought there was no sight more erotic.
They were wrong.
On that crisp early autumn day, Red Beauty came to the conclusion that there was nothing more erotic than two alphas fighting for dominance until one of them caved, and bared his neck to the victor.
He shivered, and went back inside with that delicious image burned into his mind.