Chapter 2
The next morning, I was woken by a loud crash.
Something had hit the floor. I snapped my eyes open and found my arms empty. The fox was gone. In its place was a naked man.
He was sitting on the floor, looking livid as he shot me a vicious glare. With strong brows, piercing eyes, a high-bridged nose, and a thin mouth, he was stunningly handsome.
His body, though crisscrossed with old scars, was powerful, like a panther poised to strike.
"Who are you?" he asked coldly. "And what are you doing in my bed?"
I stared at him for three long seconds and glanced down at my own hands.
A few strands of white fox fur were caught between my fingers.
I looked back up at him.
His hair was brown, but there was an unnatural streak of white at the tips. His eyes were a deep brown, but in the light, they held a faint, amber glow.
It hit me then.
He was the fox.
He hadn't kept a pet fox, and he wasn't some fox-spirit in human form. He literally turned into a fox the moment it got dark and shifted back when the sun came up. He didn't even realize he was doing it.
Oh, this was so much better than just being the tenth wife of a man who killed his previous nine.
"Speak," he commanded, rising to his feet. He snatched a robe from a nearby chair and draped it over his shoulders, looking down at me with cold disdain. "Who are you? And why are you in my bed?"
I sat up, smoothed my hair, and offered him my most innocent smile. "I am your wife, Your Grace. We were married last night. Don't you remember?"
His brow furrowed even deeper. "Married? When was I married?"
"Yesterday. By royal decree. You accepted it yourself," I replied.
He was silent for a moment, clearly trying to recall something. Then, a crack appeared in his composure, not because he remembered, but because he realized there was a gaping hole in his memory.
"What did I do last night?" he asked.
I blinked. "You went to sleep very early, Your Grace. You must have been exhausted."
I paused and added, "You slept very soundly. You even snored."
His face darkened. "I do not snore."
"Just for a little while," I said, making a small gesture with my fingers. "It wasn't loud. It sounded like a small animal, sort of a purring grumble."
His expression shifted from ghostly pale to flushed and finally to a dark scowl. "Impossible," he snarled, turning on his heel and striding toward the door. "I'm going to my study. Do not come near me without my permission."
The door slammed shut behind him.
I sat on the bed, looking at the white fur between my fingers, and couldn't help but laugh.
After my laughter died down, a question occurred to me.
His question about our wedding confirmed it: he didn't remember a thing. His human memory was a clean slate for every hour spent as a fox. He was a stranger to his own animal self.
So why was he under the bed last night? Did he turn into a fox every single night and then hide? Could the deaths of the previous nine wives be connected to this?
My smile vanished. I carefully tucked the fox fur into my handkerchief.
This princely manor was proving to be much more entertaining than I imagined.
Kaelen didn't appear at all during the day.
When Rose came to help me dress and eat, I asked her what Kaelen was usually like. She went pale with fear. "Your Grace, I dare not speak of His Grace."
I said, "Go on. I will protect you."
After much hesitation, she finally whispered, "His Grace has a terrible temper. Some of the previous ladies were so frightened after he just scolded them that they fell ill, and then..."
"And then they died?" I said quietly.
Rose nodded.
"And did they ever sleep with him?" I pressed.
Rose's face flushed scarlet. "N-no. His Grace never entered the ladies' chambers. Each of them slept alone, and then they would fall ill for no reason. And then..."
"Alright, I understand," I said.
I was beginning to see the picture.
The previous nine wives had probably all been "frightened" to death by a fox instead of Kaelen himself.
When they were asleep in the middle of the night, they might happen to open their eyes to see a white fox with five tails sitting on their chests, sweeping its plumes across their faces.
Of course, they would scream in horror. And if so, the fox would only get more excited, bouncing all over the bed. If they had a weak heart, they would be gone.
Kaelen, unaware that he was the fox, just assumed his wives were too delicate, scared to death by his commanding presence.
So he stayed away from their rooms, trying not to frighten them. But it didn't work. The fox would emerge on its own in the middle of the night and scare them to death anyway.
It was a vicious cycle.
But I was different. I wasn't afraid of a fox. I had wrestled with tigers in my previous life. A fox was nothing.
I decided to test my theory tonight.