Emotions surged through me, stealing my words, so I simply wrapped my arms around the incredible woman in front of me and held her as tenderly as I could. Although I’d loved my adopted family and cherished my time as a human, I was realizing I’d let so many of my memories and experiences with them fade into background noise in my story. They were far too kind, too lovely, and too formative for me to have done that, no matter how long I lived.
“I love it,” I murmured finally, closing my eyes and just letting the flashes of memory take over me. I saw more name days, more anniversaries. More sicknesses and injuries. I saw laughter and tears around our table, and nights out under the stars.
And Naomi had given me all of that.
“You haven’t even tasted it yet!” Naomi protested, but I didn’t care.
I held her a bit tighter. “I don’t need to. I mean, Iwantto, more than anything, and I will once you serve it, but thank you, Naomi. Really. From the bottom of my heart.”
I felt her heartbeat pick up in my grip, and her warmth spread through my arms. I loved how reactive she was. I loved everything about her.
It was tempting to keep holding her, but I didn’t want anything to burn after she’d put so much effort into things, so I let her go.
“You okay?” she asked once we were a few inches apart.
“I’m more than okay,” I promised, dropping a kiss on her forehead. I’d been covering her in kisses since I arrived, but it wasn’t my fault she was insanely adorable and irresistible. “Where would you like me while you finish up in here? Do you want company?”
“Actually, do you wanna sit at the table and talk to me while I finish up and plate the food?”
“As you wish.”
I almost floated to the small table that only fit two chairs in the little nook on the other side of the kitchen. I was struggling to believe it was real. It was like I’d walked into the most wonderful dream.
I couldn’t wait to tell Iko about all of this, maybe take him some leftovers if there were any. We were due a lunch anyway.
“If you end up liking this, there are a few other recipes I want to try,” Naomi said, putting her apron back on.
Holy hell, that made her even sexier.
“I’m happy to try whatever you want,” I answered, glancing around at her space. There were certain little touches around the apartment that seemed pointed in the most loving way.
Every single window had blackout curtains, complete with what looked like hook and loop strips against the wall to get a proper seal. That seemed to be an unusual thing for a diurnalperson to have. Maybe it was egotistical, but I couldn’t help think it was for me. Just in case I wanted to spend the night and sleep through the day, which I definitely had been hoping for.
Then, on the far wall of the living room, I could see a blank spot where a cross had been hanging, as the paint was sun-bleached all around it except in that distinctive shape.
“Did you remove that for me?” I asked.
“Remove what?”
I pointed, and her eyes followed my finger to the spot.
“Oh, I didn’t even notice that mark. But, yeah, I did. Is that okay?”
“That was very sweet of you, but we aren’t affected by religious symbols like that. I know there’s a lot of conflicting information out there, but we do that to protect ourselves.”
“Protect yourselves?” Naomi said as she grabbed two plates from the cupboard.
“Yes. Since we’re so vulnerable during the day with practically being locked in sleep and lethally affected by sunlight, we often leak fake weaknesses to mitigate that.”
“Wow, I don’t know if I would have ever thought of that. It seems like everyone and their mom knows about wolf shifters being allergic to silver and wolfsbane but none of them know about bears or any of the big cat shifters’ weaknesses. Let alone a harpy’s, or a changeling’s.”
To be frank, I hadn’t eventhoughtabout a big cat shifter since I’d left my home to travel to America. I knew there were quite a few communities in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, but that was about it.
“Strange which information spread and which didn’t,” I agreed. “We all know gorgons aren’t the biggest fans of mirrors, although it doesn’t actually turn them to stone. Just repels them.”
“And with cyclops you go for the eye.”
That gave me pause, because how could it not? “Why would you mention that specifically?”
