The King's Dancer

Chapter 16

It took Xie Lian a long time after Hua Cheng had left so abruptly to snap out of his frozen state, but he eventually leaned back against the side of the pool, and forced his mind to calm down.

There had obviously been a misunderstanding, nothing that couldn't be talked about, he told himself and managed to relax a bit more. The reason why Hua Cheng had left, must have been because he'd smelled the terror in Xie Lian's scent, and he'd drawn the wrong conclusion that Xie Lian was scared of him . That was easy to solve, Xie Lian just had to explain himself to Hua Cheng. He wasn't worried about that.

He was worried about something else instead.

Now that he wasn't in the situation anymore, it seemed almost stupid to him to feel so much fear at the mere... desire to bond. Xie Lian knew where the fear came from, after all his parents had been a prime example of how such a bond could go very wrong. It was true that bonding only worked between an alpha and an omega who trusted each other completely. But just because they trusted each other completely at one point, didn't mean they'd trust each other for the rest of their lives. It was true that a bond helped to understand the feelings of the other person, and therefore improved the total understanding of each other significantly.

However, as with his parent's case, sometimes people stopped wanting to understand, stopped caring to the extent they used to, and were still bound by the bond. It was for life after all, and once a pair had bonded, there was nothing short of death that could sever the ties the bond created. So what if one fell out of love with the person they were bonded to? They were still forced to make it work. A bond couldn't be cut, and it was impossible to create a second one. It was rare that bonded mates drifted apart, but it wasn't unheard of.

In his parents' case, they had made it work. It took more effort for his mother, because she was the one who had eventually grown tired of his father. Xie Lian knew that his mother had felt guilty because of it, and worked extra hard to not let anyone notice her moments of depression, but Xie Lian had always been observant, and he'd noticed exactly how her mental health had deteriorated over time, because there was no way to retract the bond. He didn't think his father would have noticed, if the bond hadn't existed, but he pretended not to have noticed either way. In the end, they had acted out the part of a happy marriage, for many reasons; for the sake of their people, for Xie Lian's sake, for the sake of keeping a polished and perfect image... Xie Lian understood the reasoning very well. It was exactly why the concept of the bond terrified him as much as it did.

But when Hua Cheng had gotten so close to his neck, Xie Lian just... couldn't help but want this bond between them. Which was especially scary because they hadn't been close for more than a week. It was such a short amount of time, and still Xie Lian's instincts had told him he wanted-

It was a tough thing to come to terms with, having his mind betrayed by his instincts like this, but Xie Lian figured he'd have to figure out how to deal with it. He certainly didn't want to push Hua Cheng away.

Xie Lian kept mulling over the issue for quite a while, but eventually gave up, and decided the most important thing right now should be to find Hua Cheng, and explain his reaction.

After he'd dressed himself in one of the light robes Hua Cheng had gifted to him, he ventured into the garden, but couldn't find the king anywhere. So he walked into the main house, and looked around all over the first floor, but he still couldn't find him. Xie Lian doubted that Hua Cheng had gone up to the third floor, and he'd never been on the second one, so he wasn't sure if his invasion would be appreciated there.

Xie Lian had just decided to go there anyway, because he needed to clear things between them, when he heard people outside, and looked out of the window.