Reborn As A Beast Queen with Too Many Husbands to Pet novel Chapter 15

Chapter 15 The Five–Tailed Shifter

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“Clara probably wishes I’d just die so she can come later–or she won’t even bother coming at all.”

Annelise headed straight for the deep pool she and Adrian had visited the day before.

Sure enough, from a distance she spotted a dark, hunched shape tearing into a chicken.

As she walked closer, the messy crunching grew louder. The moment she stepped into the clearing, she saw the long, bleeding gash on the shifter’s leg. Blood still streamed down, washed thin by the rain.

He was alarmingly thin–skin stretched over bone–but his frame was long and elegant.

All day the sky had been gloomy; now a string of thunder cracked overhead, and the rain came down in sheets.

As the water washed over him, the blood rinsed away, revealing skin that was pale–not Adrian’s healthy fairness, but a cold, colorless pallor.

Even from the side, his face looked sculpted–simple, sharp lines; a straight, handsome nose; thick brows; expressive eyes; and at the corner of his right eye, a small mole. He was male beauty in its purest, almost unreal form.

Suddenly, Annelise stepped on something hard. It snapped with a sharp crack.

The shifter whipped around. In a flash, he lunged and slammed her to the ground.

Annelise barked, “Stop!”

The shifter froze–as if her command had locked every muscle in place. He couldn’t continue the attack.

Annelise took a moment to study his face up close. Pale, fragile, pathetic, yet fiercely unyielding underneath.

That broken, wounded look–perfection.

The rain soaked his hair completely, several strands plastered against his cheeks.

He didn’t understand why, when this female spoke, he had no choice but to obey. They hadn’t even formed a bond.

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Chapter 15 The Five–Tailed Shifter

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He only knew he’d sensed danger. If he couldn’t move forward, then all he could do was

retreat.

Seeing him hesitate, Annelise ordered, “Stay here. Don’t move.”

It worked. The five–tailed male shifter couldn’t back up or step forward. All he could do was hold himself up on his hands and stay in place.

Confused and frightened, he stammered, “What… What’s happening to me?”

Annelise crawled out from under him, drenched from head to toe. But she was far more concerned with the wound on his leg.

Even with rain pouring down on it, it kept bleeding.

She pulled out some wild greens, chewed them, and pressed the paste onto his wound. “It’ll sting a bit. Hang in there. It’ll start feeling cool soon, and then the pain will fade. See? Don’t you feel it?”

The man froze. The pain had eased. And the bleeding had stopped.

“You… You’re treating me?” he asked, voice low.

“Obviously.”

The five–tailed shifter looked baffled.

He’d hurt her earlier. He was the monster everyone in the tribe wanted dead. Why would this female help him? No female had ever treated him like this.

Annelise changed her command. “Sit up straight. Let me see your face.”

He obeyed instantly, not even a pause.

He didn’t show the horn on his head, but behind him, five tails hung low–yellow–brown with markings like a leopard’s.

“Hmm… one horn, five tails. They don’t know what you are–but I’ve seen it in books. You’re a tharok shifter!”

Straight out of “The Boundless Atlas.”

The male froze, emotion flickering–joy mixed with ache.

“You can recognize my race… so you don’t think I’m a monster?”

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Chapter 15 The Five–Tailed Shifter

Annelise thought, They’re uneducated. I’m not.

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Besides, it was only normal that creatures from “The Boundless Atlas” existed in this shifter world.

Furry tails? She was all in.

“Oh, come on. You’re gorgeous. Why would I think you’re a monster?”

In her mind, monsters were multi–headed creatures or oozing lumps covered in boils.

The man in front of her had soft almond–shaped eyes and long lashes that fluttered when he blinked.

He desperately tried to turn his head away, but he couldn’t. His face pulled tight with embarrassment and disbelief.

“Gorgeous… No one has ever called me that. You must be a young female who has just come of age. It’s normal that you don’t understand. Stay back. I lose control. When I go feral, I attack male shifters and females. While I’m still lucid, you need to leave!”

That reminded Annelise of something.

“I heard from the chief that you were exiled at twenty–five. Usually, a shifter goes feral and dies within a year. But you lived to forty, fifteen extra years. Have you been hiding here this whole time?”

He shook his head.

“I don’t know. I drifted between moments of clarity and madness. I must’ve wandered through the deep forests of many tribes. Maybe… in the beginning, I hoped some tribe might have a female who could bond with me. But that was just a dream. Lately, the madness comes more often. Somehow, I ended up back here. You should go. Tell the chief to bring her mates and take me away. Burn me if they must.”

As he spoke, his eyes began to lose focus again. Madness seeped in.

His body tensed and fought against the command Annelise had given him, straining to break free.