“I’m scared,” Gramlithyn revealed.
Dasan reached out and patted his shoulder. “Yeah, I would be too, but you’ve got one last shot with Pyxlevir. Do you want him, or are you going to let someone else have him?”
Gramlithyn’s zebra neighed so loudly in his head that his ears rang. “I don’t want to fail to win Pyxlevir’s heart,” Gramlithyn stated firmly, appeasing both man and beast.
“Then don’t waste time talking about fucking carrots.”
“What do you want me to do? Pyxlevir’s at work.”
Dasan’s grin was a mixture of glee and evil. “Do something dramatic, like in a movie, and barge into his office to declare your feelings.”
“Yeah fucking right,” Gramlithyn scoffed. “He’d probably eviscerate me.”
“We’re best friends. If you ran off without explaining why our friendship was over, I wouldn’t kill you. But I’ll be honest. I don’t think I’d talk to you again. Not even if you had a good reason.”
“Thanks, Dasan, that’s very helpful.”
“Wait a minute. Don’t get pissed. I can say that because I already know we aren’t mates. That’d be a game changer, I think. If Fate had paired us, I wouldn’t throw that away without giving you a chance to tell me why you left. Curiosity, at least, would have me listening to your sad explanation.”
“Sad?”
“Sad sorry excuse for running out on me,” Dasan responded with a cheeky grin.
“Right now, I’m wondering why I’m your friend at all.”
“Fuck you, I’m fun.”
“True. But we have something to figure out.”
“We haven’t fucked, so I’m clueless what you mean.”
Gramlithyn rolled his eyes. “I’m half elf. I can only respond to one person. What I meant was, we need some purpose. Or at least something to do while our housemates are at work.”
“Oh, a job. Yeah, that’d be good. I don’t want to spend your money.”
“We’ve pooled our resources for years to make it easier on us both. Nothing about that has changed. But we should figure out how to earn more because it makes me uncomfortable to rely on my parents.”
“Understandable. So, what are we gonna do?”
“No fucking clue. Do you have any ideas?”
“I barely finished my book on this Council shit; how do you expect me to have anything figured out?”
“If I could redo one thing, it’d be to think first before arranging to be teleported to Europe. We should’ve had an alternate plan and waited to return until it was set. Instead, we came straight to Vegas.”
Dasan laughed. “Dude, the one thing you should redo is not talking to Pyxlevir yesterday at the grocery store because you’re wasting your fucking time by ignoring that beautiful elf.”
Although Dasan was right, Gramlithyn didn’t bother to agree with him. Gramlithyn would have to force himself out of his comfort zone if he wanted to explain things to Pyxlevir. There was no guarantee that their matebond was salvageable, but Gramlithyn couldn’t let Pyxlevir go without a fight.
His zebra gave a whinny of assent. Man and beast wanted the same thing. Hopefully, their goal wasn’t a doomed one.
Chapter 14
Pyxlevir had buried himself in work for days, and his reward was a full weekend of peace ahead of him. Normally, he enjoyed relaxing or hanging out with his family, but he’d moved out and committed himself to a year under the same roof with the man who’d left him six years ago. His overarching goal remained to take a stab at making his matebond work. However, Pyxlevir wasn’t sure where to begin.
Staring up at the ceiling of his bedroom for the past hour had resulted in zero inspiration. What he needed was some sleep. And a damn explanation from Gramlithyn. What the fuck was so horrible about Pyxlevir that Gramlithyn couldn’t overcome his aversion to having a partner? Pyxlevir blew out a breath.
That was a question Pyxlevir had posed to himself on countless occasions. Only one person could answer that, and he wasn’t anywhere near Pyxlevir’s bed. Which was a pity. If Pyxlevir weren’t pissed at the man, he’d strip off his pajamas and invite himself into the hybrid’s suite.
