When I got closer, Lucy hissed, a noise I didn’t know she was capable of, and scrambled out of Seth Harris’s arms. He groaned, and a metallic scent tinged the air, making my nose wrinkle. I moved toward him, but Seth Harris ignored me and continued calling for Lucy.
Red liquid striped his hand. Blood. It was blood. Drakcol blood was green, but humans must have red blood. My soul oddly pounded at the sight. I didn’t like it. At all. I seized his damaged hand, and Seth Harris gaped at me. I barely paid attention to his expression, focused on the gashes.
“Are you alright?” I asked.
“I’m fine,” he said, his voice higher pitched than I’d heard before.
Instinct tugged at me, powerful and strong. Unable to stop, I licked one of the cuts. An iron taste clung to my tongue, but not unpleasantly so. It was different from the tang of drakcol blood. Though, the longer I licked him, the more I wondered how the rest of him tasted. Was he sweet or bitter? It hardly mattered, for I would love it, but I wanted to find out.
His breath turned shallow, and he trembled within my grasp. I meticulously cleaned one cut before shifting to the other. As I began to lick the scratch near his smallest finger, Seth Harris tried to draw away. I looked up. His eyes were wide and his breath harsh. I lifted his hand to my mouth again and licked his finger from base to tip before sucking on the digit.
A rush of color surged to his cheeks, then spread to the whole of his face. I didn’t know humans changed their color. Would he exhibit other colors besides red? What did it mean? Did other parts of him change color? I had no idea, but I liked it.
He yanked back, and I struggled to release him.
“I-I-I.” He swallowed, and I watched the bob of his throat intently. Seth Harris continued, “I don’t need whatever that was.”
I wanted to finish what I’d started, but logic had begun to break through the instincts thrumming inside of me.Permissions, I told myself, taking a deep inhale of his citrus scent.
“Why did our Lucy injure you?” I asked. “Is she wild?”
“N-no. She’s scared. Give us some space.”
A stabbing sensation prodded my chest, but I hid my pain, moving back. Seth Harris called for Lucy again. She crept out from under the couch. She took one glance in my direction and hissed, spitting at me. I gave the two of them even more space. He scooped her up and whispered to her.
Not looking at me, he asked, “Where is my room?”
I wanted to point to my bedroom because I didn’t like the idea of my mate living, let alone sleeping, separately from me. Despite my feelings, I gestured to the room beside mine. “Monqilcolnen placed all of your and Lucy’s things in that room.”
“Which is mine? Mine alone, right?” he asked, tensing.
“Yes, my Seth Harris.”
He started towards his door. At the last moment, he said, “It’s Seth. Harris is my last name.”
The word “last” had been translated by NAID, but I didn’t grasp the context. My expression must have conveyed my confusion because he continued, “It’s my… family name. Call me Seth.”
“I can do that, Seth. My mate.”
He paled before scurrying into his room.
I watched the closed door, futilely listening for any sound. This would be a long and yet short trip. I had six months. Six months to woo him and prove we belonged together.
“My Seth,” I whispered. “Please give me a chance.”
Chapter 5
Is this my future?
I curled into a ball on the bed, and Lucy pressed against me, purring like she could sense my stress. She probably did, which was one of the many reasons why I loved her. Since I’d gotten her from the shelter, after my last disastrous relationship, she’d become a therapy cat, helping me.
Every part of my brain was shutting down. I couldn’t feel anything besides the exhaustion weighing me down. Every breath was not enough, and tremors wracked my body. The world was crashing down, and I couldn’t tell which way was up.
I shifted into a tighter ball, trying to silence all thought.
A soft beeping woke me. I reached for my phone, but I touched nothing but air. This was not my apartment. Bare walls, except for a long window over the bed showing distant stars, surrounded me. The room boasted two doors. One went to the living room, and the other opened into a washroom. The sole splashes of color were the dark blue bedding, and Lucy’s pink unicorn bed and multi-colored toys.
The beeping continued, and I finally noticed a blue light shining from the monitor on the opposite wall. The light twisted, and I jerked back. A human woman’s head, an old one at that, hovered on the screen. While blue in color, she had kind eyes, heavy jowls, wrinkles aplenty, and a tower of curls stacked upon her head.
