Page 30 of Cursed Alien
“Thank you,” she said, her voice thick with emotion. “Can we go down?”
He nodded, offering his arm with unexpected formality. She took it, allowing him to guide her down the wide stone steps to the garden below.
The garden smelled of rich earth and green growing things. Up close, she could see how much work he’d done. He’d cleared away years of overgrowth to reveal a formal pattern of beds and walkways. The paths were still cracked in places, with weeds sprouting between stones, but they were passable. The flower beds closest to the keep were filled with a riot of colors she wouldn’t have expected to find in this harsh mountain climate. Their scents mingled in the air, sweet and spicy and earthy.
“How do they survive up here?” she asked him as she bent to examine a cluster of vibrant pink flowers.
“Special varieties,” he said, the words seeming to come more easily than usual. “Bred for mountain climate. Self-sustaining.”
“It must have been magnificent when it was properly tended,” she said, trying to imagine the garden in its prime.
He nodded, his eyes distant. “It was… a point of pride. For me. Before.”
Before the curse. Before he became trapped in his beast form. The pieces were starting to fit together—the grandeur of the keep, his possessiveness of it, the way he moved through it with familiarity despite its state of disrepair.
She wandered along the path, admiring his work. In one bed, tall spikes of blue flowers swayed in the gentle breeze. Their color reminded her of the summer sky, intense and vibrant against the weathered stone of the keep.
“These are beautiful,” she said, bending to examine them more closely.
He stepped forward, his movements deliberate and careful, and reached out with one massive hand—his claws partially retracted—and delicately plucked one of the blue blossoms from its stem.
Then, to her surprise, he executed a formal bow, extending the flower to her with a flourish that seemed to belong to another time, another life.
The gesture was so unexpected, so at odds with his fearsome appearance, that she felt her heart constrict in her chest. This was Malrik—the real Malrik—shining through.
She accepted the flower with a smile, bringing it to her nose to inhale its subtle fragrance. When she looked up, he was watching her, his eyes glowing with an emotion she was beginning to recognize.
Without thinking, she rose on her tiptoes and pressed her lips to his. She meant it as a simple thank you, but the moment their lips touched, something shifted between them.
His arms came around her, gentle despite their strength, and he deepened the kiss. His mouth was warm against hers, the slight pressure of his fangs adding an edge of danger that only heightened the sensation.
She wound her arms around his neck, the blue flower still clutched in her fingers as she pressed herself closer to him. His fur was soft against her skin, his body radiating heat that seemed to seep into her very bones.
When they finally broke apart, she was breathless. Malrik’s eyes glowed more intensely than she’d ever seen, and patches of slate-grey skin had appeared on his face and neck where the fur had receded.
“Thank you,” she whispered, her voice unsteady. “For the garden. For the flower. For everything.”
He nodded, one clawed hand coming up to touch her cheek with exquisite gentleness. “Mine,” he said, the word both possessive and questioning.
“Yes,” she agreed, surprising herself with how right it felt to say it. “Yours.”
His arms tightened around her briefly before he released her, stepping back to give her space. But his eyes never left her face, tracking her movements as she tucked the blue flower behind her ear.
“Show me the rest,” she said, gesturing to the garden. “I want to see everything you’ve done.”
As they walked the paths together, her hand once again found its way to his arm. This time, there was no tension when she touched him—only a sense of rightness, of belonging, that made her wonder how she’d ever lived without this connection.
The sun warmed her shoulders as they explored the reclaimed garden, and for the first time since she’d arrived at the keep, she didn’t think about her father or the village or the bargain that had brought her here. She thought only of the present moment—of blue flowers and stone pathways, of gentle hands and glowing eyes, of a connection that seemed to grow stronger with each passing day.
She didn’t know what tomorrow would bring, but today, in this garden with Malrik, she was exactly where she wanted to be. Whatever happened next—whether they broke his curse or not—she was no longer simply fulfilling an obligation. She was discovering something new, something unexpected.
Something that felt remarkably like the beginning of love.
When they paused at the far end of the garden and she looked up to find him watching her, it seemed completely natural to reach for him, to pull his head down and lose herself in the pleasure of his kiss.
CHAPTER15
Malrik’s beast surged with satisfaction as Bella’s lips parted beneath his. The kiss deepened, her taste intoxicating—sweet with a hint of the wild berries they’d found in the garden. His arms tightened around her, claws retracting instinctively to avoid hurting her delicate skin.
