No.
He knows how I feel, because he can feel it.
I banish all doubt from my mind, replacing it with one thought.
I love you.
He closes his eyes and, with a deep sigh, pulls away. He turns, facing me, and holds his arms out. When he opens his eyes again,they burn—literally. Flames lick the skin of his brow as embers dance across his skin, quickly enveloping him in a whirlwind of fire. The flames grow and shift, taking on a much larger shape than Rhaz. I gape up at him, unable to move despite the inferno that’s overwhelming me. My eyes water from the heat, but I keep them open, begging for glimpses of his transformation behind the dancing fire.
The magic reveals his legs first, changed from claw-tipped feet to bulky hooves. Black fur covers his shins to his knees, where his reddened skin pulls tight over hulking muscles. His tail flicks from side to side, a tuft of black fur at the end. He’s at least a foot wider and taller, an immense giant of a man, with ripped abs and bulging forearms. His chest is so broad I don’t think I could wrap my arms around him. His neck is as thick around as my leg, and his face is…long.
He has a soft black nose at the end of his muscular jaw. His deep eye sockets burn even brighter below a heavy, dark brow. His horns are wide and thick, and a mane of black hair flows between them down the back of his neck.
The scars that cover his body create an asymmetrical pattern that my eyes can’t stop following—until I reach the spot in his chest where neon pink flickers. That’smein there. Inside him.
Smoke curls from his nostrils as he huffs. “Well?”
I step off the bed and stand before him, dwarfed by his enormity. I place my hands on his stomach and look up past his cute nose to the fire of his eyes. I’m not sure if he can still see me, but Ifeellike he can.
“I think you’re gorgeous,” I say. “Not a single slimy tentacle to speak of.”
“That’s what you were worried about?” he asks, his hands finding my back.
“No. Not really.” I lean against him and sigh into the heat of his skin. “I am a little worried about becoming an old Nai Nai while you stay young and beautiful.”
“I love what’s inside this shell, Jiahui, not the shell.”
His murmured confession brings a tightness to my throat that I can’t swallow past.
“I love you, too,” I whisper.
He grabs me under the arms and pulls me up to his chest. I wrap myself around him, tucking into his neck and kissing his burning skin. He cradles me with so much restraint, like he’s trying not to crush me, but I want him to.
“Harder,” I mumble into his neck.
He chuckles, squeezing me a little more.
Time moves around us like a gentle breeze.
No destination. No rush.
It just is.
It’s just us.
I lose myself in the steady beat of his heart, and before I realize it’s happening, I’m asleep.
I blink awake and realize I’m on my bed, dressed in an oversized shirt that smells like Rhaz and a clean pair of his boxer briefs. My cheeks hurt from the grin splitting my face. The warmth in my belly and tight swoop of fear are so welcome and exciting. I don’t have anything to fear with him. Time and distance have no meaning for us. We will be together, one way or another, always.
Because we’re mates.
We’re eternal.
I bask in the splendor of his love for another minute, smelling the shirt and rubbing my face on it, before I grab my phone to check the time. Six in the evening…and five notifications. The scent of rice and sweet pork filters in from the kitchen down the hall and I’m tempted to leave the notifications unread, allowing myself a little more peace, but I know I can’t.
I unlock my phone and see that all five are text messages from the same number that sent the picture of Baba. Icy dread swallows up the space in my stomach where the fiery flutters lived, extinguishing the butterflies.
I don’t want to open it.
