Living with the Dangerous Beast-Chapter 21: A Predator Tamed

How could he stay close to the fox?

He wanted to give her some food, to help her while she washed clothes at the frozen stream, and to sweep the dusty ground in her place instead of her.

After much contemplation, Dohwi used all of his strength to transform into a human form.

Seeing this, the foolish fox was greatly relieved.

「We’re different species, so we won’t go into heat with each other. You’re gentle and kind, so living together should be fine. What do you think?」

Once fully grown, he planned to devour the fox. As soon as he was big enough, he would swallow this foolish fox whole, leaving no trace.

That had been his resolve for the past 20 years.

But Dohwi could never bring himself to devour that fox.

Instead, he found himself wholly devoured by her, losing his terrifying fangs and sharp claws, and becoming a harmless and docile domestic animal.

How did it come to this?

In hindsight, time had passed in the blink of an eye.

At some point, he couldn’t consider it morning if he didn’t see Sohwa’s dazed face upon waking, and he couldn’t close his eyes at night without confirming she was asleep.

If she said the stars in the sky were beautiful, he wanted to climb a rope to pluck them for her.

If she said she was hungry, he wanted to regurgitate everything in his mouth for her.

Instead of thinking about how to eat her up, he constantly thought about what to feed her.

「When he grows up and becomes an adult, I’ll let him go, Monk. So, don’t worry.」

Sohwa always said they would part ways someday, but Dohwi had never entertained such a thought.

In fact, he simply couldn’t. The mere idea of not being able to see Sohwa again now became Dohwi’s greatest fear.

The growing anxiety was undeniable.

The longer they were together and the deeper their affection grew, the more acutely he felt their differences.

The first problem was food.

While Dohwi could eat the same human food as Sohwa, he preferred to hunt in his original tiger form.

He enjoyed selecting his own prey, playing with it until it got exhausted, cornering it, subduing its resistance, and biting its neck until it stopped breathing.

The thrill of the hunt itself was more enjoyable to Dohwi than eating its meat.

「I just ate a whole sparrow earlier, you know. My belly is already full. If you’re still hungry, you can go pick some cherries.」

Of course, sparrows and quail were hardly enough for Dohwi.

Especially the berries Sohwa pecked at, no matter how hungry he was or how good they tasted, his pride as a tiger wouldn’t allow it.

「You’re so strange, Dohwi. How can you dislike these delicious persimmons?」

Ultimately, Dohwi hunted roe deer and stags on Mount Yeehwang at night.

When those were scarce, he ran all the way to Mount Taeryong at dawn to catch deer, mountain goats, and wild boars.

Crossing entire mountain ranges at dawn made him even fitter than in his youth. freewebnσvel.cøm

Sure, if he worked a bit harder, food wouldn’t be an issue. But Sohwa’s mating season in winter was enough to drive him mad.

A fox’s mating season could last from a day to a week.

During this time, Sohwa’s body temperature would rise significantly, and her scent would become so strong that he couldn’t ignore it even if he wanted to.

Moreover, Sohwa, who usually preferred her human form, would always transform into a fox during this season.

With no humans in the mountains to mate with, she seemed to be searching for a male fox.

What if his little darling sneaked out and met a male fox? What if she followed the scent of a vixen’s urine on the oak tree?

「I worry that I’ll never settle down and start a family, Dohwi. Don’t you feel the same?」

Sohwa’s habitual muttering about ‘starting a family’ during her mating season only added to his anxiety.

Fortunately, after asking around for a bit, he found there were ways for different species like them to have offspring.

But how? How could a giant creature like him mate with that tiny, timid fox?

As his turmoil deepened, Dohwi felt like he was going mad every winter when Sohwa’s mating season began.

Every time he heard foxes yapping outside, he wanted to go out and kill them all.

It was on a hot summer day that Dohwi first recognized ‘that smell.’

That day, Sohwa laid her petite body on the wooden floor and ate grapes.

Sticky grape juice covered her white fingers and red lips.

Though it wasn’t unusual for her to laze around, flipping through books and eating messily, Dohwi couldn’t take his eyes off her.

Her small frame, almost brushing against his chest, was unbearably cute.

The foolish fox, who didn’t know he was a thousand-year-old tiger, made outrageous statements while pretending to be an adult, making her even cuter in his eyes.

She had always been cute and adorable, but that day, she was maddeningly so.

He wanted to lick her all over, marking her with his scent.

Would it be better if the sour smell of those grapes she was eating would disappear?