Outsider

"Meili! Come back here!" Long Cheng screamed in frustration, as his mate suddenly disappeared to where she was earlier. 

Long Cheng growled with annoyance once he realized her plan. 

He had thought she was helping him with the wolves that were running to attack him when she threw stones instead. 

No! Because his dear mate decided to agitate the wolves further. She even made sure to throw rocks on the wolves that were staying behind and we're not going to attack him at all. 

Furthermore, Lu Meili made sure to take advantage of him being busy and disappeared on him again! 

Long Cheng, gritted his teeth in annoyance and growled at the wolves that were still attacking him. 

'You want pelts, my dear mate? Fine, I will give you hundreds of them!' He thought evilly before shifting partially to quickly finish the slaughtering thunder wolves as his first gift. A very traditional way of dragon courting, which was offering the spoils of hunt… 

***

On the other hand, Lu Meili burst out laughing when she heard Long Cheng scream her name. He sounded so frustrated, which she was finding very entertaining. 

'That would keep him distracted him for a while,' Lu Meili thought to herself, even though she knew that she could not hide from Long Cheng as long as she was inside the Thunder Forest.

As a dragon shifter, otherwise known as a 'prince', it was understandable for him to be so familiar with the forest.  It seemed to be a custom for noble dragons to do so. 

What she found more suspicious was why Long Cheng did not chase after her sooner. 

It would have been easier to follow the customs of the dragon people, but Lu Meili's was a particular case. 

Because of that, she needed to keep her pendant close. 'I'm emotionally confused because I don't have it.' Lu Meili blamed her turmoil of emotions to the magical stone. She gave up thought eventually after Long Cheng started giving her confusing feelings. 

Now, she felt terrible that her ruby pendant was still missing. Aside from that, she didn't even have a stealth talisman anymore. 

She could have Mo Rin follow her inside the Thunder Forest to bring her any helpful talisman or use her as a distraction, but Lu Meili never liked to owe anyone, not even her martial sisters. 

"Lulu, there is still no result?" Lu Meili asked her NanoGen. She had been running to the route she had before. It was a good thing that she was now completely healed from the injuries she had received recently. Lu Meili was now ready to fight in case dragon's soldiers arrived.  

"Negative, Master." the NanoGen replied with its robotic voice through the communicator on her ear. "Confirm change of priority scan if applicable." 

"No. Continue scanning for the pendant." She commanded with a deep frown on her face. Lu Meili jumped from one tree to another, just like what she had been doing before.

When suddenly, Lu Meili was dragged down from the branch of the tree by the neck. 

Wooosh! 

Lu Meili was startled initially, but her instincts kicked in and she knew what to do.  She used her legs to cross over the branch and was able to stop the attack from causing her to fall to the ground. 

She realized there was a chain around her neck.   

The being that held the chain probably wasn't not expecting her to move like that because when Lu Meili pulled the chain towards her, the dragon shifter's balance was quickly thrown off, showing where the shifter was hiding. 

"Despicable outsider!" the female dragon shifter angrily screamed. She was partially shifted, with scales on every part of her body that was not covered by her royal soldier's uniform. Brown scales covered even her face. 

Despite that, the scales did not hide how disgusted the shifter felt just by looking at Lu Meili. 

Lu Meili lifted a brow, as she looked at the dragon shifter an amused expression forming on her face.

'Interesting.' Yes, she was an outsider, and it was understandable that some shifters hated her, especially with the history of dragons being hunted, which happened a long time ago. 

However, this woman seemed to hate her from the very core. What did she know? Even though Lu Meili was not near the shifter, she could still feel the murderous intent. 

Lu Meili did not mind. People looking at her with contempt and grudge was normal to her. 

Regardless, Lu Meili did not plan to allow the dragon shifter to restrict her with her chains. It was easy for her to remove the part of the chain around her neck before she started to do a tug of war for it. 

The dragon shifter was pulling her chain so hard before Lu Meili decided suddenly let go...