CHAPTER 275: FIRST NIGHT

Their shared quarters had been prepared with care.

Soft cushions covered the floor, while candles provided warm light that flickered across the silk curtains.

The room felt intimate without being overwhelming, a perfect balance between luxury and comfort.

Grim closed the door behind them, the sound marking their first moment of true privacy as a married couple.

The weight of the evening’s events—the ceremony, the spiritual contact, the celebration—seemed to settle around them like a heavy cloak.

"Nervous?" Ruxi asked, settling onto the edge of the large bed that was in the center of the room.

"Should I be?" Grim replied, moving to sit beside her.

"I don’t know," she admitted with a small smile. "I’ve never been married before either."

The honesty broke through some of the tension that had been building between them. Despite months of courtship and political maneuvering, this was uncharted territory for both of them.

"The spiritual contact tonight," Ruxi said softly. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not tonight," Grim replied, reaching for her hand. "Tonight is about us."

She nodded, understanding that some discussions could wait for daylight.

Her fingers intertwined with his, and the simple contact sent warmth spreading through his chest.

"I’m glad it’s you," she said quietly. "Whatever political considerations brought us together, I’m glad it’s you I married."

"Even with all my complications?" he asked.

"Especially because of them," she replied with conviction. "You’re not simple, Grim. You’re not easy. But you’re real in a way that most people aren’t."

The words hit him harder than any declaration of love might have. Ruxi saw him clearly—his darkness, his political manipulations, his capacity for violence—and chose him anyway.

His hand found her cheek, mirroring her gesture from the ceremony. "I don’t know what I did to deserve you."

"You fought for me," she said simply. "When Xùyán challenged our engagement, you didn’t hesitate to defend it. That meant more than you realize."

Their second kiss was different from the one at the ceremony. Without an audience, without political implications, it was purely about the connection between them.

Ruxi’s lips were soft and warm, and when she deepened the kiss, Grim felt something inside him that had been tense for months finally relax.

Her hands moved to the fastenings of his robes, and he helped her with the complex ties. The fabric fell away piece by piece, revealing the scars that marked his body from years of conflict.

Some were from training, others from actual combat, and a few from less honorable encounters.

"These tell a story," Ruxi observed, her fingers tracing a particularly prominent scar across his ribs.

"Not all of it pleasant," he warned.

"I don’t need pleasant," she replied, meeting his eyes. "I need honest."

Her own robes followed, the white silk pooling around her feet like moonlight.

Her skin was unmarked except for faint patterns across her skin. Fox spirit markings that appeared only in moments of deep emotion.

When they came together, it was with the careful intensity of two people who understood that this moment would define the foundation of everything that followed.

There was passion, but it was tempered with something deeper. A recognition of trust given and received.

Grim hadn’t been with women before, but this felt different than his expectations. Ruxi wasn’t someone he was trying to impress or conquer.

Ruxi’s legs wrapped around his waist, as Grim picked her up. Pulling her closer, while her soft cries of pleasure filled the candlelit room.

Her hands gripped his shoulders tightly. When she whispered his name against his ear it sent shivers down his spine.

Ruxi’s back arched as she pressed herself closer to him, and the way she looked at him made his heart race even faster than their physical connection.

She was his partner, his equal, someone who had chosen him with full knowledge of who he was.

Her soft sounds of pleasure mixed with his own as they moved together. When her nails dug down his back, leaving marks that would last days, he responded with a intensity that made her gasp his name.

The fox spirit markings on her skin grew brighter as their passion intensified, creating patterns of light that danced across both their bodies. It was beautiful and strange.

Afterward, they lay tangled together in the silk sheets, both breathing heavily in the aftermath of their joining. Ruxi’s head rested on his chest while his fingers caressed her back.

"That was..." she began, then trailed off.

"Worth waiting for?" he suggested.

"Better than I imagined," she admitted. "And I have a very good imagination."

The confession made him laugh, the sound rumbling through his chest where her head rested.

It felt good to laugh after the intensity of the evening—both the ceremony and what had followed.

"What happens now?" she asked quietly.

"Now we figure out how to build a life together," he said. "One day at a time."

"The council will expect changes from you," she warned. "Being married to me comes with responsibilities."

"I know," he replied. "But it also comes with advantages. Having you as an ally makes everything else more manageable."

"Is that what I am? An ally?"

"You’re much more than that," he said, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. "You’re my wife. My partner. The person I trust more than anyone else in either realm."

The words carried weight that went beyond romance. In Grim’s world, trust was the most valuable currency, and he had just declared her wealthy beyond measure.

"Even after the warning you received tonight?" she asked. "About being careful who you trust?"

"Especially after that," he said firmly. "Whatever that presence was, it confirmed what I already knew. You’re the one person I can count on completely."

"I’ll also be gone for a little bit starting tomorrow. Húxiān told me I need to do some deep cultivation to grow stronger if im going to last."

"Thats probably for the best. Deep cultivation normally takes place in Húxiān domain. I did it once when I was child." Ruxi said.

Ruxi confinued, "all royalty is required to go through it. It makes you stronger. It connects you to the heart of this realm. You feel different, and depending on what spirits you see, you could come out more darker."

They talked quietly for another hour, sharing thoughts about the ceremony, their hopes for the future, and practical concerns about managing their new life together.

It was intimate in a different way than their physical night. It was the kind of conversation that happened between people who were building something permanent.

Eventually, exhaustion came faster than they thought. Ruxi fell asleep first, her breathing deep and even against his chest.

Grim laid awake a while longer, staring at the ceiling and thinking about how much his life had changed.

Growing up his father had been a political exile struggling to rebuild his family’s fortune. Now he was married to a princess, allied with divine beings, and positioned to influence the future of two realms.

The spiritual warning echoed in his mind: "Be careful who you trust ahead. Not all who smile at you wish you well."

But as he held Ruxi close, feeling her warmth and the steady rhythm of her breathing, he knew that whatever challenges lay ahead, he wouldn’t face them alone.

For the first time in years, he felt like he had something worth protecting beyond his own ambitions.

He finally started to get a piece of what the God Karma offered him when he came to this world, the love of a family.

That realization was both comforting and terrifying.