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Wei Ying runs through the marketplace, mind full of nothing but blind panic as he hears the snarling and barking of the dogs chasing him. A bunny hybrid like him smells like prey to those vicious beasts, he knows. They’re sure to eat him if they catch him. Wei Ying just has to be fast enough!
He’s so focused on what’s behind him that he’s not looking where he’s going. He smacks straight into something broad and solid at speed. He cries out in surprise, stumbling back half a step. The something he’s run into is a tall, well-built cultivator.
“Gege, save me!” he cries, mind only focused on the threat that is quickly approaching. “Th-the dogs! They’re going to eat me!”
Wei Ying is suddenly wrapped up in strong arms, and the cultivator turns, shielding him from the dogs with his own body. He barks something sharply, and the mutts whimper and run away, terrified of whatever they’d seen in his eyes.
After watching for a few moments to make sure the dogs aren’t coming back, the cultivator turns and finally gets a good look at the damsel he’s rescued.
Gray eyes meet gold, and it’s love at first sight. The innocent little bunny and the stoic cultivator stand there in the middle of the market staring at each other, transfixed.
Lan Wangji has never seen a bunny hybrid before. They’re rare, and are now only bred in captivity. They’ve been selectively bred for generations to produce docile, submissive, endlessly needy sex pets. Naturally, they’ve also selected for the best, most enticing looks. It’s common knowledge that all bunny hybrids are extremely beautiful.
But Lan Wangji thinks the bunny before him must be the most beautiful of them all. He’s absolutely stunning. His wide gray eyes and full red mouth complement his flawless, porcelain skin, flushed from his exertions. His dark hair is thick and lustrous, falling out of its simple style thanks to his mad dash through the streets of Caiyi. And of course, there are his ears, big and floppy in the lop style, with burnished sable fur. Lan Wangji’s throat is parched with his sudden lust.
For his part, Wei Ying’s instincts are going wild. His rescuer is tall and broad, dressed in white and light blue, looking like a god descended to the mortal world and outshining its muted dullness. He feels drawn to the cultivator with an almost physical force. It’s like nothing he’s ever felt before, his whole body flushed and hot. His thighs tremble, and he feels slick begin to leak from the place between his legs that he’s been forbidden to touch. His pussy belongs to his master, after all. As an unpresented omega, this hasn’t troubled him too much before. Now it’s all he can think about. He’s throbbing with need. He feels so empty, and he knows the man in front of him can fill him up.
Lan Wangji’s eyes dilate and his nostrils flare. He is a powerful alpha, and he smells the omega hybrid’s arousal instantly. If he’s not mistaken, the bunny has just started his very first heat. His body is swift to answer the call. His cock starts to fill, and he feels the telltale signs of oncoming rut.
“Hey!” a sharp voice cuts through their intense focus on each other. “There you are, you useless bunny! Where did you run off to?”
Lan Wangji startles and looks around to find the source of the voice. A man approaches, huffing and puffing, a mean look on his face. Wei Ying shrinks away from his owner, and Lan Wangji automatically moves to shield him.
The man—the alpha—gets close enough to catch their scents, and his demeanor instantly shifts. He rakes a lecherous look over his pet, licking his lips in clear anticipation. In moments, there’s an obvious tent in his trousers. He’s been waiting for his newest acquisition to present, eager to finally get a taste of bunny cunt. Bunny hybrids are rare and expensive. It had taken him so long to finally get his hands on one.
Wei Ying feels a cold stab of dread cut through the heat taking over his body. His master has taken great pleasure in telling him in graphic detail what he plans to do to Wei Ying once he presents with his first heat. Wei Ying had been afraid but resigned before. A pet has to obey its master, after all. But now that he’s seen the beautiful alpha cultivator, his body has recognized his true mate. The thought of being touched—having his virginity taken—by anyone else makes him feel sick.
The man reaches out to grab the bunny’s wrist, and Lan Wangji blocks him, a menacing growl rumbling in his chest. The man’s eyes finally shift to the cultivator, furious, and he lets out a growl of his own, although it’s not nearly as intimidating.
“Get your fucking hands off my property,” he snaps at Lan Wangji. “That’s my pet. If you try to keep him from me, I’ll have you arrested for theft.”
Lan Wangji gets a visceral image of cutting off the man’s arm and feeding it to him for daring to touch what belongs to Lan Wangji. His hand twitches towards Bichen, so strong is the impulse to make the vision a reality.
His more rational side realizes that this solution would be impractical, if satisfying, as the man is in fact the bunny’s legal owner. He can’t quite keep him lip from curling minutely in distain as he coldly asks, “How much?”
The man gapes in incomprehension, too distracted by the scent of the bunny’s slick growing stronger with each passing second to understand what Lan Wangji is asking. When he finally gets it, his face goes a mottled red with fury at the cultivator’s presumptuousness. He quotes a ridiculous sum, one he thinks no one could possibly afford. He waits with smug satisfaction for the cultivator’s face to fall as he’s forced to return the beautiful bunny to its rightful master.
To his utter shock, the cultivator opens his purse and pulls out enough silver to more than cover the amount the man had quoted, handing it over as if it were pocket change.
Business accomplished, Lan Wangji doesn’t wait for an answer or waste another second looking at the inferior alpha’s shocked expression. He just grips the bunny firmly but gently by the upper arm and leads him away. His new pet follows, an expression of dazed awe on his face and relief sweetening his scent.
They get to know one another on the walk out of town towards Cloud Recesses. His bunny is named Wei Ying. The sound of it is like music to his ears. He tells Wei Ying to call him by his birth name. “Lan Zhan!” Wei Ying replies happily.
Wei Ying chatters and flirts for maybe an hour. Lan Wangji is charmed and enchanted, but he can tell the heat is getting to him. It’s getting to Lan Wangji too, but he fights to maintain control. He knows his bunny is a virgin, and this is his first heat. He wants to make it good for him.
Unfortunately, he soon realizes neither of them are going to make it back to the Cloud Recesses before the bunny’s heat and the alpha’s answering rut are too strong to be denied. He considers his options and makes a decision.
At a secluded section of the forest path, before they reach the massive staircase leading up the mountain to his home, Lan Wangji guides a dazed and panting Wei Ying off the path and into the woods. Not so far as to risk getting lost, but firmly out of sight—and hopefully sound—of the road.
He spots a massive fallen tree of the perfect height. Lan Wangji removes his own outer robe and lays it over the trunk to protect Wei Ying’s delicate skin. Then he bends Wei Ying over the tree. Wei Ying goes happily, desperate for something to quench the fire inside him.
Lan Wangji rucks the bunny’s robes up around his waist and tugs his trousers down. His hands shake as he exposes Wei Ying’s soaked, throbbing cunt. And his fluffy, deep brown tail. Trying to maintain his composure, Lan Wangji reaches out to stroke it. The fur is so soft.
Wei Ying keens. Bunny tails are very sensitive, and he’s already so keyed up and over-sensitive from the heat. His whole body quakes with pleasure as Lan Wangji keeps stroking his tail, mesmerized by the soft fur and Wei Ying’s dramatic reactions. Wei Ying feels something building in him, but he doesn’t know what it is. In moments, his cries reach a crescendo and he comes for the very first time, his needy cunt clenching on nothing as he rides out his orgasm.
Lan Wangji stares, stunned, as Wei Ying pants and squirms. He whimpers with need. It felt amazing, but it wasn’t enough. Wei Ying is still so empty.
“Lan Zhan,” he begs. “Alpha, master, please.”
Lan Wangji should object to Wei Ying calling him master, but in this moment, the submission just goes straight to his cock. He’s so desperate he can’t wait another moment. He quickly shoves his own robes out of the way just enough to free his cock. He grabs Wei Ying’s hips in a bruising grip and, frayed restraint snapping, buries himself in the bunny’s virgin cunt in one powerful thrust.
Wei Ying screams, and Lan Wangji stills inside him, terrified that his lack of control has hurt the delicate little bunny. After a couple of breaths of stillness, Wei Ying tearfully asks, “Gege, why did you stop?”
“Did I hurt you?” Lan Wangji asks.
Wei Ying shakes his head vehemently, his floppy ears swaying with the motion. “No, no, gege feels so good! So full! Please, please, fuck A-Ying’s needy pussy!”
Lan Wangji is thrusting before the bunny even finishes his lewd declaration. He makes inelegant, guttural grunts as he puts all his strength into railing the desperate bunny beneath him. Wei Ying, for his part, wails and screams and moans with abandon.
When Lan Wangji thumbs curiously at the furled hole partially hidden by his fluffy tail, Wei Ying comes a second time. Lan Wangji keeps right on fucking him through it. Wei Ying is sobbing with the force of his fucking, but all his cries are for “more” and “harder” and “faster” so Lan Wangji doesn’t second guess himself again.
As he keeps drilling into that plush cunt, Lan Wangji runs his fingers through the bunny’s slick folds, exploring the needy little pussy that now belongs to him. He brushes over a little nub of flesh that makes Wei Ying shriek at a pitch heretofore unheard from the bunny. "Again, again, again!" he demands, when Lan Wangji startles and pulls his hand back.
Lan Wangji brushes over the sensitive little nub again, and Wei Ying makes the most intoxicating noise. Following an instinct, he begins rubbing at it in rhythmic, circling strokes. Wei Ying's cries climb and climb, reaching a fever pitch. Until he comes a third time with a high wail. His cunt clenches almost painfully tight around Lan Wangji's cock, and a stream of warm liquid gushes from his pussy.
Overcome, Lan Wangji slams as deep as he can into the bunny's cunt and comes, his knot swelling at the base of his cock, locking them together and keeping his seed inside the fertile little bunny.
Lan Wangji leans forward and brushes Wei Ying’s hair away from his face. He realizes that Wei Ying has passed out from the forcefulness of their fucking. His cheeks are flushed a deep pink, and his long black lashes fan out against the hot flesh, His breath comes in little whimpering pants, and his lips are slick with spit.
They haven't even kissed, Lan Wangji realizes with some chagrin. He's tempted to rectify that immediately, but he wants A-Ying to be awake for their first kiss.
When his knot goes down, Lan Wangji pulls out as gently as he can. He loses a few moments staring transfixed at the ruined pink pussy he has just thoroughly deflowered. Despite only just going soft, his cock gives a twitch as he watches a glob of his seed drip sluggishly from Wei Ying’s cunt.
Reluctantly, Lan Wangji puts Wei Ying’s clothes to rights. He’s desperate to have the bunny again as soon as possible, but his jingshi is much more comfortable than a log in the woods, and he knows they don’t have long before the haze of heat and rut descend on them again. He lifts the unconscious hybrid in his arms, cradling him close to his broad chest. Wei Ying sighs contentedly and nuzzles into the warmth of his neck without waking.
Lan Wangji is in love. He is also hard again. He carries his precious bunny all the way up the steps to the Cloud Recesses and straight to the jingshi as if he weighs nothing. And if any disciples see him or try to speak to him on his way, he doesn’t notice and doesn’t care. Once inside, he lays Wei Ying gently on the bed and looks down at him, momentarily stunned by how perfect the bunny looks in his bed. He takes Wei Ying’s wrist and monitors his qi for a moment. Satisfied that the bunny is deeply asleep and won’t wake for some time yet, he leaves the jingshi and makes arrangements for a bath to be brought, as well as enough food and water to last them several days.
The practicalities taken care of, Lan Wangji hurries back to his bunny’s side, anxious not to leave him for even a moment longer than necessary. He strips down to his inner robe and joins Wei Ying on the bed, watching the bunny sleep with rapt attention. After some time, Wei Ying’s eyelids begin to flutter and he blinks his eyes open. He stares up at Lan Wangji in wonder, a soft smile slowly lighting his face.
“Gege,” he breathes. “I thought it was a dream.”
Lan Wangji understands the feeling. “Not a dream,” he says, as much for himself as for Wei Ying.
Remembering his promise to himself from earlier, he gently cups the Wei Ying’s jaw, his large thumb sweeping over the bunny’s soft cheek. The skin warms under his touch as Wei Ying flushes attractively.
Lan Wangji leans down slowly, making sure his intentions are clear. Wei Ying’s lips part on a soft gasp, and then their lips connect, and they’re kissing. Everything inside of Lan Wangji sings with the rightness of it.
The kiss starts soft and gentle, but the force of rut and heat are swiftly rising in them once again. Soon, Lan Wangji is rolling the bunny underneath him, devouring his mouth with hungry bites and kisses and rutting against his hip as his cock grows hard in moments.
Wei Ying whimpers against his lips, spreading his thighs wide so that Lan Wangji can settle between them.
Lan Wangji has a passing thought that he had intended for them to bathe first, but the mating drive will not be denied. Their clothes come off in a frenzy, and then Wei Ying is fully bare to Lan Wangji’s gaze for the first time.
He’s beautiful, so perfect it hits Lan Wangji like an arrow to the heart. Wei Ying’s skin is flushed, and he’s squirming with need. Lan Wangji pushes his thighs apart and drinks in the sight of his pretty pussy, drenched and throbbing with arousal.
Wei Ying tugs him forward, begging for his knot. And Lan Wangji won’t deny him. Of course he won’t. But he wants something else first.
He lowers his head and laps at the bunny’s wet folds, tasting every inch of him. he finds the little nub of flesh that had driven the bunny to such ecstasy earlier. He prods it with his tongue, and the result is not less dramatic the second time. The bunny keens and pushes his hips against Lan Wangji’s mouth, begging for more. Lan Wangji obliges, teasing the little bundle of nerves with fluttering strokes of his tongue before sealing his lips over it and sucking hard.
Wei Ying bucks so forcefully under Lan Wangji’s mouth that Lan Wangji has to hold him still with a forearm over his hips. Wei Ying moans wildly and thrashes his head back and forth, incoherent with pleasure. Lan Wangji keeps going, driving him higher. He plunges two fingers into the bunny’s cunt, then three, fucking his fingers roughly into that wet clutch as Wei Ying writhes beneath him.
Wei Ying’s moans rise in pitch until Lan Wangji is sure he’s close. At just the right moment he carefully closes his hand around the bunny’s sensitive tail and squeezes.
Wei Ying arches off the bed with a shriek as he comes, cunt clenching greedily around Lan Wangji’s fingers, pussy squirting his juices into Lan Wangji’s eager mouth.
Lan Wangji drinks everything eagerly, continuing to swipe his tongue over his bunny’s folds until, at last, Wei Ying goes limp with satisfaction. It’s momentary, though. Only a knot can truly satisfy an omega in heat.
Lan Wangji wastes no time sitting back and readjusting his position. He kneels between the bunny’s thighs, fingers kneading the soft, pale flesh of them as he pushes them back almost to his fuzzy, floppy ears.
He drives his aching cock into the bunny’s dripping, needy cunt, and they groan together at the visceral rightness of it. Bodies connecting in a primal dance. Lan Wangji thrusts frantically into the omega beneath him, no place for finesse or technique at this moment. They both need it too badly.
It doesn’t take long until his knot is swelling, stretching the bunny’s rim as he continues to thrust. Wei Ying’s moans take on an almost alarmed quality, and Lan Wangji might try to pull back if the bunny’s hands weren’t on his hips, insistently keeping him close.
Finally, Lan Wangji’s knot pops into the bunny’s cunt and stays as he starts to come. The tip of his cock is pressed up against the spongy barrier of Wei Ying’s cervix, hot spurts of his seed splashing against the entrance to his womb. He leans down to kiss his bunny again, and Wei Ying tastes himself, licks his own fluids from his alpha’s lips.
His hips are rocking desperately where Lan Wangji’s knot has them tied, still seeking release. Lan Wangji cradles the bunny’s head in his hands and gently strokes his velvet soft ears. His intent is to soothe, but Wei Ying’s whole body goes tense, and his voice breaks on a high, sweet moan as his cunt tries to clench where it’s stretched around Lan Wangji’s knot. Lan Wangji watches in wonder as Wei Ying comes just from having his ears stroked.
Enthralled, Lan Wangji keeps petting his ears, the soft feel of them under his fingers almost addictive, as is the way Wei Ying shivers and moans while he does it, almost like Lan Wangji is touching a much more intimate part of his body. At the same time, he grinds his hips against Wei Ying’s pussy. He can’t thrust, of course, but the slight shifting of his knot where he’s intimately tied to his bunny feels exquisite. Wei Ying’s perfect cunt keeps milking his cock as it pumps potent alpha seed into his fertile little womb.
This time, Wei Ying manages to stay awake to enjoy being knotted by his alpha. Lan Wangji carefully turns them over so the small bunny can rest against his broad chest. They kiss and stroke and caress, learning the shape of their bodies coming together as one.
Lan Zhan eventually drifts into a light slumber, his broad chest rising and falling in a soothing rhythm under Wei Ying’s body. Wei Ying props his chin on his hands and studies the sleeping face of the alpha who had claimed him. Saved him. He’s so beautiful it makes Wei Ying’s heart squeeze in his chest. He knows that he doesn’t really know Lan Zhan. Not yet. But he feels absolutely certain that he can trust him. Lan Zhan will be a good and kind master, and Wei Ying will be more than happy performing his duties as a pet for this man.
He doesn’t know if Lan Zhan has a wife or concubines. Surely he must, Wei Ying thinks. Someone as beautiful, strong, and rich as him couldn’t possibly be unattached. His heart sinks a bit at the thought of sharing his alpha with who knows how many spouses, and maybe even other pets. But Wei Ying is the one with Lan Zhan’s knot in his pussy right now. And he’s positive Lan Zhan won’t leave him until his heat has passed at least. He can worry about the rest when the time comes.
Lan Wangji stirs awake when his spent knot slips out of Wei Ying’s cunt, allowing a gush of come and slick to leak out onto Lan Wangji’s abdomen. Wei Ying is still sprawled against Lan Wangji’s chest. He grins brightly when he sees that Lan Wangji is awake. Lan Wangji can’t resist leaning up to kiss Wei Ying, wanting to taste that smile.
It starts sweet, but it doesn’t stay that way for long. Their raging heat and rut hormones, momentarily sated, are far from satisfied. Within minutes, Lan Zhan is bouncing the bunny on his cock, driving up into the intoxicating wet heat of his cunt in sharp thrusts, hands gripping Wei Ying’s hips hard enough to leave bruises. Loud, almost shocked cries spill from the bunny’s lips with each forceful snap of his hips.
He looks so beautiful like this, his needy body being fucked and filled, a sheen of perspiration coating his skin and a hectic flush staining his cheeks. His lustrous dark hair and velvety ears tumble around his shoulders in disarray as he takes everything Lan Wangji has to give. It’s like he was made for this, Lan Wangji thinks. And then realizes that he actually was. The result of generations of selective breeding all culminating in this one perfect specimen. Utterly gorgeous and insatiably horny.
There is a reason the Lan sect doesn’t allow pets. The thought of an entire breed of hybrids bound in servitude, raised one generation after another to be nothing more than sentient sex toys, should probably dim Lan Wangji’s lust. It doesn’t. He can only thank every person and every moment in history that led to such an exquisite creation as Wei Ying, radiant in his heat-addled pleasure, writhing on Lan Wangji’s cock.
Mine. Lan Wangji thinks with a surge of fierce possessiveness. No one else can ever see Wei Ying like this, radiant in his pleasure and his need. No one else can ever taste the intoxicating nectar of his slick or feel the tight squeeze of his perfect cunt around their cock. All of it belongs to Lan Wangji. His bunny. His Wei Ying.
Driven by the surge of alpha possessiveness, Lan Wangji sits up and pulls the tiny bunny off his cock in a single motion. Wei Ying cries out in surprise and dismay at being suddenly denied his alpha’s cock. But he barely has time to form a coherent thought about it. Maneuvering Wei Ying’s small form is nothing for a cultivator with the arm strength of Lan Wangji. He quickly flips the bunny with ease, putting him facedown on the bed and lifting his hips into the presentation position.
He catches Wei Ying’s arms and holds them behind his back with one massive hand around both slim wrists. He grows impossibly harder at the sight before him, Wei Ying, positively trembling with need and desperation. His cunt, already swollen and sore from their previous couplings, dripping copious slick that coats his pussy and inner thighs.
“Hngh~” Wei Ying whines, trying to shift his head to see Lan Zhan behind him. “Please, please,” he begs. “Need your cock, alpha, fuck me, fill me, knot me, mate me!!”
Mate me. It echoes like a thunderclap through Lan Wangji’s mind. He goes still as the realization washes over him. Yes. YES. He can make the bunny his forever. It’s so simple.
Wei Ying goes quiet, realizing what he’s said. In a much smaller voice, he tries to backpedal. “I mean, uh, don’t listen to me, it’s just the heat talking. I know you can’t—I know you don’t—”
Lan Wangji lets out a growl and curls down over his omega’s back. His voice is a low, dangerous rumble when he speaks, breath hot against Wei Ying’s sensitive ear. “Don’t tell me what I can and cannot do, omega. Did you mean it?”
“I don’t—I can’t—”
“Did. You. Mean it?” Lan Wangji pronounces each word with deliberate precision.
The bunny bites his lips trying to hold it back until it bursts from him. “Yes! Fuck, yes, I meant it! You’re perfect! Perfect alpha, perfect mate, perfect for Wei Ying! I’m sorry!” He’s crying, knowing he can’t have what he so desperately wants, even as his heat continues to rage unabated, demanding satiation.
Lan Wangji is trembling all over. He wants to comfort his bunny—his mate. Wei Ying sounds so sad, and there’s no need. Drawing in a shaky breath, he does his best to find the right words. Although he thinks only decisive action will truly convince Wei Ying. But words will be followed swiftly with action, so that’s all right. His voice starts deep and soft as he makes his confession, before growing louder and more forceful. “Perfect. Perfect Wei Ying. Perfect bunny. Perfect mate. Mine!”
And with the shout of “mine” he loses himself to his mating rut, pulling the bunny backwards onto his cock, sinking in to the hilt in a single movement. He immediately begins to fuck that perfect cunt in powerful, almost violent thrusts, his hips slapping so hard against Wei Ying’s ass that there are sure to be bruises later.
Wei Ying is screaming into the bedding, his body jerking with the force of Lan Zhan’s thrusts. The tears fall unabated, his emotions a raging storm inside him, even as his body is overwhelmed with pleasure at being fucked—being claimed—like this. Because it sounds like Lan Zhan intends to—but he can’t. There’s no way. And Wei Ying can’t let himself hope. Is trying so hard not to let himself hope, with the small fraction of his mind capable of processing anything beyond the huge alpha cock spearing him open over and over and over.
His cries grow even louder as Lan Zhan’s knot begins to swell once again at the base of his cock. Lan Zhan doesn’t pause or slow his pace for a moment. Pushing the swelling knot in and out, taking no mercy on Wei Ying’s tender little cunt.
At last, when Wei Ying is sure his body can take no more, Lan Zhan’s knot stretches his entrance so wide he’s sure he’s going to tear, white hot pain and mind bending pleasure racking him with equal intensity. And then, finally, it pops inside his battered cunt and stays. And at that moment, Lan Wangji folds himself over the bunny’s back and sinks his teeth into Wei Ying’s scent gland, claiming and mating the beautiful bunny.
Wei Ying screams. And if his other screams weren’t loud enough to be heard outside (they were), this one could wake the whole of Cloud Recesses. The sharp pain of teeth puncturing flesh at his neck, and the huge knot swelling inside his cunt propel him into the most powerful orgasm he’s ever experienced. His pussy squirts forcefully around the huge intrusion, drenching them both as waves of pleasure radiate out from his center and through his entire body. His climax seems to go on forever before the last pulsing convulsions fade away.
Lan Wangji carefully loosens his jaw and releases Wei Ying’s neck. The sight of the vicious bite wound marring pristine skin goes straight to his cock, another spurt of semen pumping into the bunny’s womb. He laps at the torn flesh, which will heal quickly with the assistance of mating pheromones. Wei Ying trills in wordless satisfaction as his alpha tends to him, even as his tears continue to fall.
When Lan Zhan finally gives a last lick to his neck and lifts his head, Wei Ying peeks a tear stained face out of the blankets to catch the alpha at the corner of his eye. “Mine?” he asks, shy with hope.
Lan Zhan makes a strangled sound in his throat, catching the bunny’s lips in a brief, heated kiss. He nods frantically. “Yours. Yours, Wei Ying. Always.”
As soon as Lan Zhan’s knot goes down, Wei Ying is twisting under him and pushing his big, strong alpha onto his back. Lan Zhan goes easily. He’s easy for anything his bunny wants. Wei Ying wastes no time, straddling the alpha’s waist and diving face first into his neck. His sharp little omega canines sink into Lan Zhan’s mating gland. Lan Zhan arches and shudders beneath him, waves of pleasure washing over him as his omega seals their bond. His cock is spent, but the sensation is nevertheless orgasmic.
Wei Ying pulls back, licking blood off his teeth and looking very satisfied with himself. “Mine,” he says, firmly this time, and with assurance. His gray eyes seem to glow as he looks down at his alpha. His mate.
“Mine,” Lan Zhan echoes in a tone of wonder, reaching up to brush his thumb over the fresh bite on his bunny’s neck. Wei Ying shivers and his eyelids flutter. He unconsciously starts rocking his hips, fresh slick leaking from his cunt.
Lan Zhan swiftly rolls the bunny beneath him and kisses his way from Wei Ying’s mouth to his pussy. Lan Zhan holds his legs open, pressing them flat to the bed on both sides. He lowers his head drinks from the fountain of slick his bunny is producing, not wasting a single drop.
He drives Wei Ying to another orgasm on his tongue, and by then he’s hard again. Without waiting for the bunny to recover, he lines up and plunges his cock back inside that sweet pussy. His mate’s body welcomes him back eagerly, slick walls clinging and sucking him in deeper. Their coupling this time is slow and intense. Their pheromones, now aligning to each other as the bond solidifies, create a kind of feedback loop of pleasure and emotion. Lan Wangji takes his bunny with deep, powerful rolls of his hips, somehow touching him even deeper than he has before. Soon his knot swells once more, and they shudder and moan through wave after wave of mutual pleasure. They both fall into an exhausted slumber moments later, still tied together.
Wei Ying’s heat and Lan Zhan’s rut last for two more days. Now that they’re bonded, their mating cycles will naturally align, sympathetic pheromones responding to each other. They finally surface, sated, sticky, and exhausted, on the morning of Wei Ying’s fourth day in Cloud Recesses. They bathe, eat, and make themselves presentable. Lan Zhan dresses Wei Ying in some of his own robes. Of course, the tiny bunny is swimming in them, but Lan Zhan uses a talisman to temporarily adjust their size, until they fall beautifully on Wei Ying’s slender form.
Lan Wangji will, of course, procure new clothing for Wei Ying as soon as possible, but for now, he’s happy to send the unequivocal message that the bunny is his and under his protection.
At last, they can delay it no longer. Lan Wangji clasps Wei Ying’s hand in a comfortingly steady grip, and they slide the door open and step out into the sunshine.
Not a single person in the Cloud Recesses is surprised to see Hanguang Jun finally emerge accompanied by an omega with a fresh mating bite. They are very surprised that said omega is a bunny hybrid. When Lan Wangji hears the whispers start to rise in their wake, he turns his head just barely, and reminds them all that gossip is forbidden in his iciest tone. He doesn’t kid himself that they won’t just start back up as soon as he’s out of earshot, but he can at least keep them from doing it in Wei Ying’s presence.
Lan Wangji does not want to cause his new mate any undue stress, so he goes directly to find his brother in the Hanshi and makes certain the sect leader is alone. Then he invites Wei Ying inside and introduces his brother to his mate.
Lan Xichen blinks at the bunny in open astonishment, shocked both by the fact that his brother has impulsively mated a hybrid pet and by Wei Ying’s nearly unearthly beauty. He almost doesn’t look real, although a distant part of his mind recognizes that that is by design, bunny hybrids being bred for exactly those traits. Among others. But that doesn’t really change the immediate impact of viewing such a heavenly creature in the flesh. Particularly as, for obvious reasons, members of the Lan sect rarely if ever venture into the kind of company where one might more frequently encounter pets kept for sexual service.
All this passes through his mind in moments, however. Lan Xichen does not disappoint his brother’s faith in him. He quickly musters a genuine, if shaky, smile and warmly welcomes Wei Ying as his brother’s chosen mate. He shoves all thoughts of the political nightmare Wangji has just dropped in his lap firmly to the back of his mind.
Wei Ying performs a slightly awkward bow, clearly not accustomed to the action, and greets him as “Lan zongzhu.” Lan Xichen quickly catches his forearms and raises him out of the bow, his smile coming more readily this time. He insists that Wei Ying address him as “Xichen-ge” and then has to blink rapidly a few times as the bunny’s cheeks flush charmingly and he favors Xichen with a nearly blinding smile.
Wangji beams at him. Which is to say, his expression shifts and opens to a degree that people other than Xichen or their uncle might be able to notice. His lips even lift the slightest bit. He then takes his brother aside while Wei Ying waits near the door and asks that he convey the happy news to their uncle, and to let Wangji know when Lan Qiren can be trusted to comport himself with the dignity befitting a respected elder of their sect. Or, well, that’s how Xichen interprets the request. He does not wish to upset Wei Ying, or to give him a poor impression of their family. Xichen wishes he could say that Wangji’s caution is unwarranted, but they both know their uncle too well to deceive themselves.
Xichen watches the happy couple depart, feeling rather like he’s been smacked across the face with a heavy board. He’s not looking forward to the conversations he will be having with his uncle and the elders in the very near future, but he would endure far worse for something that makes his perpetually melancholy little brother so happy.
Lan Wangji and Wei Ying spend the next few weeks in the sort of insular domestic bliss that is typical of newly mated pairs, their universe sufficient with just the two of them. Their hunger for each other is only slightly diminished from the height of their heat and rut, their bodies adjusting to the mating bond. Their hormones and pheromones will remain in a state of heightened arousal for some time.
Their peaceful idyll shatters when Wei Ying learns that he’s pregnant. When he develops nausea that doesn’t seem to be improving after three days, Lan Zhan summons a healer. The healer congratulates them on the happy news, doing an admirable job of pretending there’s nothing unusual about his patient. Wei Ying thanks the man, but his response is muted, his eyes strangely blank.
As soon as the doctor leaves, Lan Zhan questions him about it. Wei Ying tries to dissemble, but Lan Zhan is not fooled. The bunny’s thin veneer of calm cracks, and he bursts into tears. Heartbreaking sobs wrack his small frame for long minutes, and there’s nothing Lan Wangji can do but hold him until he finally calms down enough to speak.
“Wei Ying, do you . . . not want to bear my children?” Lan Zhan asks hesitantly, hating the thought, but hating the thought of his bunny being unhappy even more. There are ways to end a pregnancy, he knows, although such remedies are forbidden in Cloud Recesses. As much as the thought fills him with dread and preemptive grief, he will acquire what is necessary if his mate asks it of him.
But Wei Ying shakes his head. “No, I do, gege. So much.”
The fist unclenches from around Lan Zhan’s heart at his words. Wei Ying wants his children. He feels nearly weak with relief. Whatever is upsetting his mate, Lan Zhan will fix it.
“I’ve always wanted little ones,” Wei Ying says, eyes filled with longing and lip trembling. “But—but—” Wei Ying loses his battle with the tears again, crying with a quiet devastation that tears at Lan Zhan’s heart.
Finally, Wei Ying manages to gather his composure. Taking a shaky breath, he explains, his tone flat and clinical. Sticking to the facts so that he can make it through without crying again.
He starts with what Lan Wangji already knows. Bunny hybrids are considered property. They have no rights to their own lives or autonomy. Legally speaking, they are treated similarly to domesticated animals. “Except it’s not legal to fuck your horse,” Wei Ying says with a humorless smile. He proceeds to explain details that Lan Wangji had never stopped to consider. Since hybrid pets were forbidden in Cloud Recesses, he had given little thought to the trade and breeding practices of those who trafficked in such things.
A bunny hybrid is an extravagantly expensive purchase. Most masters want to see some return on their investment. Which they can get by breeding their pet. Thanks to centuries of selective breeding, possibly helped along by some questionable cultivation practices, all offspring of an omega hybrid will also be hybrids, despite being almost exclusively bred by human alphas and betas. Hybrid kits are the property of whoever owns their dam. Meaning they can be disposed of like any other commodity.
The kittens can be sold, generally to specialized hybrid training facilities, any time after they’re weaned. And from what Wei Ying has seen, they’re rarely kept much longer than that. Masters don’t like to share their pets’ attention. And freshly weaned kits typically fetch the best prices, as the training facilities like to acquire them before they develop any “bad habits” they need to be broken of.
“Maybe it’s even better that way,” Wei Ying says dully. “I wasn’t taken from my dam until I was four. I think it might be easier if I didn’t remember her at all. And it seems like it might have been kinder not to let her get attached either.”
Wei Ying heaves a shuddering breath and looks up at his mate with an expression that flays Lan Zhan to the bone. “My heart couldn’t take it, Lan Zhan,” he says, in the tone of one confessing a grave sin. “I don’t think I’d survive it. Carrying my babies and giving birth, holding them and feeding them and loving them. And then having them stolen away, knowing I’d never see them again.” Fat, miserable tears roll down his cheeks just imagining it.
Lan Zhan is reeling. Of course, he knows bunny hybrids have no place in society except as pets—slaves—and of course, he himself had bought Wei Ying. From a stranger on the street, no less. But he hadn’t really considered the implications. The thought of selling his own children as whores to the highest bidder fills Lan Zhan with cold revulsion.
“Wei Ying,” Lan Zhan says, taking his mates hands in his and meeting his eyes. “I would never.” His voice shakes with his conviction. He can tell Wei Ying doesn’t believe him, though. And why should he? Wei Ying is only here because Lan Wangji is, in effect, the highest bidder for himself.
Lan Wangji curses himself for being so impulsive. He could have—should have—offered Wei Ying his freedom. To let him go, if that’s what Wei Ying wanted. But he had been so dazzled by the beautiful bunny that he couldn’t restrain himself, claiming him on the very day they met.
Bondmates can be separated for weeks or months at a time, but eventually they must always come back together. They are tethered to each other, body and soul. Has he only placed another shackle on his love?
“I’m so sorry,” he says, his spiraling thoughts spilling out of his mouth in messy fragments, making little sense. But Wei Ying gathers enough to understand that Lan Zhan is apologizing for mating him. A cold fist squeezes around his heart and he gasps as though struck, causing Lan Zhan to cut himself off mid-sentence.
“Lan Zhan . . . doesn’t want me anymore?” he asks with trepidation. “Lan Zhan is sorry we mated?” Despair howls in his heart at the thought. He should have known this was too good to be true. How could such joy ever be meant for him?
But Lan Zhan is shaking his head vehemently, his expression to broken open to be a lie. “No, Wei Ying, never. I will always, always want you.”
Wei Ying breathes out a shaky sigh of relief, crawling into his mate’s lap and burying his face in Lan Zhan’s neck, surrounding himself with the alpha’s scent, which now carries notes of his own. Reminding himself that they belong to each other.
Lan Zhan wraps Wei Ying up in his arms, tenderly stroking his hair as he holds him close. He continues quietly, laying out his sins before the one he has wronged. “But I’ve taken your choices from you. I wasn’t thinking. I didn’t realize. I bought you from your master in the middle of the street. How am I any better than him? You didn’t even know my name, but you had to come with me.”
Wei Ying lifts his head and meets Lan Zhan’s eyes, one hand gently stroking his cheek. Very quietly, he confesses, “I would have followed you anyway.”
“What?” Lan Zhan asks, shocked.
“I’m not actually a very good bunny,” Wei Ying says, dropping his eyes in shame. “I’ve run away from three different masters. And I’ve never been very obedient. The trainers always blamed my mother. Said it was because she was allowed to keep me too long and taught me to be bad. Some of them said it wouldn’t have made any difference. That I came from rebellious stock, and I was always going to turn out this way. And then they said I was broken. I’m nineteen. I should have had my presentation heat at least three years ago. But.” He finally looks at Lan Zhan, eyes radiating warmth and devotion. “I think I was just waiting for you.”
Lan Zhan’s heart is so full of love he thinks it might burst. He kisses his mate deeply, and Wei Ying clings to him with matching fervor. Their conversation is set aside for a while as their bodies speak love and devotion in a language simpler and more profound than mere words.
Later, when they’re twined together in the wake of pleasure, Lan Zhan returns to the topic, feeling a bit steadier. Wei Ying’s head is pillowed on his chest. Lan Zhan pets his hair and summons the courage to speak. “Wei Ying, I would never allow our children to be sold or mistreated. Do you believe me?”
Wei Ying sighs and lifts his head to look at him. “I believe you think you won’t now,” he says with a sad smile. But people can be very insistent about keeping bunnies in their place.
It takes another hour of conversation to convince Wei Ying that Lan Zhan really means it. Means it enough to make it happen. And even then, he remains fearful for his unborn kittens, unsure that Lan Zhan will be able to accomplish what he’s promised.
And indeed, several elders are scandalized and outraged when Lan Zhan announces his intention to free the bunny hybrid he impulsively purchased mere weeks ago and take him as his legal spouse. They are not moved by the argument that this will mean Lan Zhan is no longer breaking the rules by owning a pet and engaging in promiscuous behavior outside of wedlock.
Their objections don’t matter in the end, though. Only the clan leader has the authority to approve marriages for clan members. And Lan Xichen dotes on his younger brother and would do anything to ensure his happiness. Even something as unorthodox as this.
Wei Ying is visibly pregnant by the time the wedding can be organized, but it can’t be helped. Lan Wangji wanted to be sure that all the other clan leaders and other important dignitaries witnessed their union and clearly understood that Wei Ying was to be respected as an independent person and Lan Wangji’s spouse.
Some of them remain distant and disapproving, but nonetheless, they understand the message. And many others are more accepting, friendly and quickly charmed by the beautiful and surprisingly clever young Lan er-furen.
And so, a few months later, Wei Ying gives birth to his first litter feeling only excitement and joy. Lan Wangji is likewise overjoyed, if not a little stunned, when his mate delivers five healthy baby bunnies. First litters aren’t usually so large. But Wei Ying teases him, saying it’s because his alpha seed is so potent.
Lan Wangji’s ears burn in embarrassment, even as his cock stirs with interest. His alpha instincts are bursting with pride at have bred his mate so thoroughly and eager to impregnate the fertile omega again as soon as possible. His more rational mind understands that it would be prudent to take some time before expanding their family again, but they can certainly “practice” in the meantime.
Lan Xichen is ecstatic to meet his new nephews and nieces. He assures the new parents that he will be happy to watch over the kits whenever they need some alone time.
Lan Qiren, who had remained somewhat dubious about Wei Ying and the arrangement in general, folds immediately when the first of his new grand-niblings is placed in his arms. The newborns are impossible not to love, with their adorable baby faces and floppy little ears covered in fuzz as soft as clouds. It turns out that Lan Xichen has some competition help for babysitting duties.
The life of the young family is joyful, if chaotic. Despite Lan Zhan’s noble intentions, Wei Ying is pregnant again within the year, birthing another litter of three before his oldest babies turn two. It’s fortunate that they have the resources of a wealthy cultivation sect at their disposal, because they eventually have to repurpose a dormitory as a bunny nursery, their family having outgrown any of the traditional residences on the grounds.
Because it turns out that Wei Ying loves being pregnant, almost as he loves being bred by his virile alpha husband. And Lan Wangji loves watching his mate’s belly swell with new life, proof of their unshakable bond, almost as much as he loves breeding his beautiful bunny’s extremely fertile womb.
Every one of their many children is wanted and adored, raised never knowing the horror of captivity. The enslavement of bunnies is something they learn about with shock and sorrow, but never something they experience themselves. They love to hear the (slightly edited and abridged) story of how their a-die and baba fell in love at first sight. And then a-die heroically rescued baba from his evil master and brought him home, where they lived happily ever after.
Many years later, Lan Wangji and Wei Ying’s small army of cultivator bunny children lead the charge to free all bunnies everywhere. Their parents couldn’t be prouder.