Chapter 1

I adopted a dog, snowy white from head to tail and remarkably well-behaved.

He could close doors and turn off lights for me. He even picked up my parcels—and when my period came, he went out to buy sanitary pads for me.

I adored him. That was, until one day I happened to come across a picture online and asked, “You’re not a wolf, are you?”

The white wolf lying beside me blinked obediently. “Woof!”

Later, he told me, “Baby, you left out one word. I’m a werewolf.”

1

One weekend, I was about to take out the trash and pick up breakfast on the way.

Beside the garbage bins, I spotted a cardboard box. Inside was a fluffy white puppy, about five or six months old.

I rubbed my eyes. “Whose dog is this?”

Then I glanced guiltily at the hallway security camera. “If no one claims you, you’re mine.”

With that, I scooped him up and carried him home.

Once inside, the puppy slowly opened his eyes and stepped out of the box. He walked with such elegant, unhurried confidence that he looked less like a stray and more like a noble inspecting his own territory.

I crouched and rubbed his head. “Good boy. From now on, I’m your owner.”

The dignified little dog gave me a cool glance.

“You’re so white. I’ll call you Xiao Hei—Little Black. Xiao Hei, Xiao Hei~”

The dog didn’t move, but for some reason I thought I saw a flicker of disdain in his eyes.

“That’s strange,” I muttered. “Why aren’t you wagging your tail? Don’t you like me?”

Unlike the cheerful dogs I’d seen before, Xiao Hei let his tail hang loosely.

When he heard my question, he glanced at me and reluctantly lifted his tail to wag it a few times.

I immediately brightened.

“Xiao Hei, are you hungry? I’ll get you something.”

I took out some leftover dumplings from the fridge, reheated them, and set them in front of him.

Xiao Hei lowered his head and sniffed them. Then he walked right past me.

I followed him—only to watch him stand upright, claw open the refrigerator, and pull out a piece of raw pork in his mouth. I froze.

What was going on? Was I still dreaming?

Could dogs open refrigerators now?

2

For a long time, I’d wanted a little animal to keep me company.

For one reason or another, I’d never had the chance—until I found Xiao Hei.

The moment I saw him, I felt something strange, as if I’d fallen in love at first sight. That inexplicable feeling urged me to bring him home.

At first, I thought raising a dog would be fairly simple. Once I actually started, I realized I’d been wrong.

Mostly because I’d adopted an incredibly peculiar dog.

He didn’t like dog food. He only liked meat—and not just any meat: it had to be raw.

That wasn’t all. He was a clean freak who insisted on bathing every day. Each time, he locked the bathroom door from the inside. A while later, he’d come out soaking wet, and I’d have to dry his fur for him.

He rarely wagged his tail and hated being around other dogs. Whenever other dogs saw him, they turned and fled as if they’d run into a cat.

He almost never barked. The only time he did was when I called him Xiao Hei. Then he’d let out an angry “Woof!”

“Would you rather be called Wangzai?”

When I realized he didn’t like the name, I decided to change it.

Xiao Hei fell silent.

I tried calling him. “Wangzai?”

Xiao Hei bared his teeth at me.

“Xiao Hei?”

I tried again.

He gave his tail one very reluctant wag.

Delighted, I rubbed his fur. “I knew you liked the name I picked for you!”

Xiao Hei: “…”

Besides all that, he was so clever he was practically a little spirit. He could open doors, turn off the lights, and sometimes open the front door and leave all by himself.

At first, I thought he didn’t like me as his owner and had run away. But every time, he came back on his own.

Eventually, I got used to Xiao Hei’s quirks.

A dog this well-behaved was pretty easy to care for, after all.

Once, I took him for a walk and stopped by a parcel station to pick up a delivery. He only came with me once. The next time, he already knew how to fetch my parcels for me!

A godsend for a lazy person like me.

I didn’t interact with many people, so even though I knew Xiao Hei was different from other dogs in plenty of ways, it didn’t seem like a big deal.

One day, my period arrived unexpectedly. I was curled up in bed in agony, sweating cold, and we’d run out of sanitary pads. I clutched my stomach and struggled to grab my phone so I could order food delivery.

Xiao Hei suddenly knocked my phone out of my hand, grabbed a hundred-yuan bill from the drawer, and ran outside.

For some reason, I had a hunch. I didn’t order anything.

Five minutes later, Xiao Hei came back with a bag in his mouth.

It contained not only several kinds of sanitary pads, but painkillers, too!

My eyes widened. “Xiao Hei, what on earth are you? You’re not some kind of alien dog, are you?”

I suddenly remembered Charlie IX, a series I’d read as a kid. “Hey, Mo Duoduo? No, wait—Charlie?”

Xiao Hei couldn’t be bothered to answer. He jumped onto the bed and lay down beside me.

I changed my pad and clothes, took a painkiller, and lay back down to scroll through the news.

A little while later, the home page recommended an article about wolves. It listed some of their habits, and every one of them seemed to match Xiao Hei.

I looked at the picture. The more I stared, the more familiar it seemed. I turned toward Xiao Hei, leaned close, and compared them carefully.

“Hold on, Xiao Hei. Are you actually a wolf?”

He was suspiciously quiet for two whole seconds. Then he blinked at me obediently and suddenly let out a resounding “Woof!”

3

Xiao Hei’s perfectly clear, very expressive “Woof!” dispelled my doubts once more.

Ordinary wolves howled. Surely they wouldn’t bark “woof.”

Xiao Hei might not be able to speak, but he was warm and affectionate. At any rate, having him around meant I wasn’t alone anymore.

He refused to sleep in the dog bed I’d bought for him and insisted on squeezing into my bed instead.

I’d always liked hugging something while I slept. Now that I had Xiao Hei, I could just hold him.

My hands and feet got cold easily in winter. With Xiao Hei, it was like having a personal heater. Without a trace of embarrassment, I tucked my feet beneath his belly. Before long, they were warm.

One night, I woke in the middle of the night feeling unusually hot. Half asleep, I opened my eyes.

Xiao Hei, who was usually so aloof, was pressed against me, rubbing affectionately against my body.

When he noticed I was looking at him, he even wagged his tail at me—something he almost never did.

Xiao Hei acted strangely over the next few days. He paced anxiously around the dining table and kept rubbing himself against me.

I rested my chin in my hand, thinking it over. Then it hit me: Xiao Hei was in heat!

I rubbed his head. “It’s my fault. I forgot to get you neutered. I’ll take you to the vet in a bit.”

To my surprise, Xiao Hei reacted fiercely and let out a howl.

I began to question my life. “Was that… a wolf’s howl?”

Xiao Hei circled me and barked a few times to show his protest and displeasure.

I rubbed my ears, thinking that I must have stayed up too late the night before and was imagining things.

That night, however, I was woken by a series of rustling sounds.

I rubbed my eyes and yawned.

Halfway through the yawn, I froze.

In the hazy moonlight, a naked young man lay beside me. Two fluffy, pointed white ears had sprouted from his head.

When he saw I was awake, the young man smiled faintly and pressed me against the headboard. His voice was husky. “Baby, you left out one word. I’m a werewolf.”

He took my hand in his. His breath was warm and dangerously intimate. “A werewolf can have only one mate in his entire life. I’m in heat right now. You brought me home, so you have to take responsibility for me.”

4

His hot breath made my face burn. Moonlight streamed through the window, tracing the vague lines of his body.

My gaze slipped, helplessly, to a place I couldn’t describe.

I had to admit, he was very well endowed.

Those pectorals, those abs, and that… thing—

Ahem. I couldn’t keep looking.

“Xiao Hei?”

I tried calling him.

He was busy causing a ruckus on top of me. He only hummed in response.

“Wait. We can’t do this.”

When he started leaning in again, I hurried to stop him.

Even though he was in human form, those fluffy ears kept reminding me that he was a wolf.

I covered his mouth with my hand. “Calm down first.”

“Why? When I was an animal, didn’t you like it when I licked you?”

He sounded completely innocent.

As he spoke, his lips brushed my palm. He even gave it a quick lick. The warm breath made me snatch my hand away.

With that tone and that expression, he made it sound as if I’d done something to him and then abandoned him.

I was at a loss. “How could that be the same?”

“I thought you were an animal. How was I supposed to know you were a person?”

Xiao Hei lowered his eyes in thought, then looked up at me. “So you like beastmen…”

I was speechless.

How could I possibly be that shameless?

No. If this went on, I might really throw away every last shred of human decency.

I hurriedly rolled off the bed and ran to the door. “Anyway, you can have this room. Take care of things yourself. Do whatever you want. I’ll come check on you in the morning.”

I walked out and casually locked the bedroom door behind me.

There was no sound from inside for a long time. Worried something might have happened to Xiao Hei, I pressed my ear to the crack in the door to listen.

All I heard was intermittent, heavy breathing.

When I realized what it was, my face turned bright red. I hurried into the guest room.

5

The next morning, I woke up slowly.

In my daze, I felt something rubbing against me.

Thinking it was Xiao Hei, I sleepily patted him. “Oh, stop bothering me. Go play by yourself for a while.”

But instead of the soft, fluffy sensation I expected, I heard a loud smack.

Something was wrong. My eyes flew open.

Xiao Hei was lying beside me. When he saw I was awake, he gave me an embarrassed smile. “So the owner likes those kinds of games? That’s all right. I can go along with it.”

I stared at my hand in disbelief. Had I just… slapped Xiao Hei’s butt?

No, wait. Hadn’t Xiao Hei turned into a person and been locked in my bedroom?

I stammered, “Y-you, how did you…”

Xiao Hei propped his left cheek on one hand, leaned toward me, and smiled. “It was just a flimsy door. Did the owner really think it could keep me in?”

My jaw dropped. “Can you walk through walls?”

He nodded. “More precisely, I can teleport. I can go wherever I want in an instant.”

As we talked, I suddenly noticed how intimate our position was.

“Uh… you should put some clothes on.”

I fetched the clothes my father had once left at my place and tossed them to him.

Xiao Hei rolled onto his back, completely at ease. “I don’t wear clothes other people have worn.”

Just then, I spotted something unusual behind him and pointed in shock. “Y-you have a tail!”

Xiao Hei glanced behind himself. “I’m a wolf. Why wouldn’t I have a tail?”

“Wait a second!”

I ran outside and brought him another outfit. “You said you wouldn’t wear someone else’s clothes, right? These are new.”

Xiao Hei stared at the soft pink garment and was silent for a long time before managing to ask, “What is this?”

“A maid outfit!”

I grinned wickedly. “You already have the ears and tail. It’ll suit you perfectly!”

After I threatened and coaxed him, Xiao Hei finally put it on.

Who would have imagined a six-foot-one young man with pale skin and a six-pack wearing a maid outfit?

I stared without blinking, then made an even more outrageous request. “Could you call me ‘Master’?”

6

Of course, Xiao Hei refused.

I put all my shameless persistence to work, and in the end he had to give in.

The young man lowered his head. His ears drooped slightly, and he called me bashfully, “…Master.”

…

Xiao Hei stared in confusion at me lying on the floor with a nosebleed. “Master, your nose is bleeding.”

He picked up the phone beside him.

“Hello, is this 120? My master is bleeding badly.”

“The cause? She saw me wearing a maid outfit…”

I snatched the phone away and told the person on the other end that a child at home had been playing with the phone and dialing random numbers. Somehow, I managed to smooth things over.

After taking countless pictures of Xiao Hei in his maid outfit, I finally put my phone away, satisfied.

“All right. Now tell me what’s going on with you.”

Xiao Hei gave me an unhurried glance. “I’m actually the Wolf King. There was an internal conflict among the wolves, so I was forced to wander here. Then you picked me up.”

“Also, Xiao Hei isn’t my real name. My real name is Es Odrova.”

“Can you stay in human form all the time?”

I was curious.

“My strength has been weakened, and I haven’t fully recovered yet. So I can’t maintain human form for a stable length of time.”

Xiao Hei changed his tone. “You picked me up and helped me. I owe you a debt. That means you have to become my mate.”

Something about that didn’t sound right. “Are you thanking me, or am I thanking you?”

Whichever way I looked at it, I was the one getting the short end of the stick.

I was about to accuse Xiao Hei of taking advantage of me when my phone suddenly rang.