Her smile.
The way she'd laughed at my terrible jokes.
The way she'd looked at me like I was just a man.
The ache returned—softer now, muted by pleasure, but still there.
Still waiting.
I wish we had forever, Nura. Losing you was so cruel. . .Will I ever stop thinking about you?
I closed my eyes and let sadness wash over me.
But at least this time. . .grief wasn't the only thing waiting in the dark.
Tonight. . .there was this new emotion too.
Hope.
Fragile and unfamiliar, but real.
Because watching Kenji with Nyomi had shown me something I'd never let myself believe before: that men like us could be loved. That monsters could find their match. That somewhere out there, someone existed who could look at all my sharp edges and bloody hands and thinkyes, this one, I want this one.
Nura had been the first glimpse.
The first proof that my heart still worked.
She was gone now—unjustly taken too soon, stolen by the same violence that had shaped my entire life.
And I would carry that loss forever.
But she'd given me something precious before she died.
She'd shown me what it felt like to want someone with my whole chest.
To ache for a bite.
And now that I knew what that felt like, I couldn't go back to empty arrangements and hollow pleasure. Couldn't pretend that Kitty and Puppy—beautiful and willing as they were—could fill the space Nura had carved open inside me.
I needed more.
I deserved more.
Somewhere out there, she was waiting.
My person.
My someone.
The woman who would make my teeth ache and my heart race and my whole world narrow down to a single, desperate need:mine.
I didn't know her name yet.
Didn't know her face.
Didn't know if she'd be soft or sharp, sweet or savage.
But I knew one thing with absolute certainty:
