The act of wooing a chosen mate is a delicate process for High Orizians. It requires more than the flaunting of beautiful feathers like a peacock. It is deeper.
These demons play the long game.
They will court their mate slowly to avoid scaring them.
Inside the alien being, everything is focused on the object of his adoration, but he cannot expose those powerful emotions until the right time.
He must work to become everything she wants because it is ultimately she who chooses. She has the power in the relationship.
These commanding emotions can be difficult for High Orizians to cope with when they are in this phase of life. Waiting is the hardest part when one’s very soul is on the line.
This is where the cultural tradition of V’charin began.
The High Orizian will throw their passion and excess energy into the building of a house specifically for his chosen. They fill it with everything their future mate loves. Her style, her smell, her favorite colors, her hobbies.
It is a soothing act to allow the demon to visualize his future life—if he is lucky enough to earn a mate’s love. While he waits, he can surround himself with her essence.
Eventually, his hunt will begin, and it will not end until the day she accepts the bond or formally rejects him.
Until that day, he will remain in a state of constant planning and worrying. The burden is his alone to carry. For failure is his worst fear.
The acceptance of his mate is his very reason for being. Everything else is secondary.
23
The Demon By My Bed
My eyes fly open from the dead of sleep. The room is pitch black, and a chill washes over my whole body.
I am flooded by paralyzing fear.
Growling reverberates through the whole room.
What if it’s not Jarron? What if it’s someone else? Someone that’s been stalking me. Taunting me. Someone who most definitely does not want something good.
What if these are my last moments alive?
My heart races. My mind spins with fear.
Don’t let fear control you.
“Jarron,” I force out, “is that you?”
The growling softens. “My bright one awakens for me?”
I gasp at the sound of his rumbling voice. “I’m awake,” I say breathlessly.
The weight of his powerful magic settles over me and sends a shiver down my spine. The silhouette of a massive black body appears beside me, looming over me.
A sharp talon glistens in the moonlight as it nears me. My breath sticks in my lungs, and I cannot move.
The claw catches on the fabric of the sheet over my body and tugs. The silky blanket slides against the bare skin of my thighs, all the way to my feet, until I’m exposed to the monster beside my bed.
“So beautiful,” he purrs.
I shiver again.
“Do I scare you, bright one?” His soft tone is so foreign from a demon filled with terror-inducing power. “I do not wish to scare you. Do you want me to leave—”
