Page 25 of Zar

Chapter Eight

Callie watched the emotions chase across Zar’s face. He’d come back to her. He hadn’t lost his thread on reality all-together. But something had happened to Zar to cause him to nearly lose it. And he’d said we. We need you. What did that mean? He’d battled his way through something intense just now and Callie needed to have the courage to find out what it was. Had it all been part of the influr’ite?

The very instant Zar’s hold loosened Callie quickly scooted off the bed and put distance between them. Once she was on the other side of the room, Callie crossed her arms over her bare breasts and asked, “What just happened to you?”

Zar moved so fast that Callie didn’t have time to blink, much less attempt to get away. He pulled Callie into his arms, his wings swiftly draping around her. “I will explain everything, but don’t try to run, Callie.”

She glared at him, then pushed at his chest. “Stop trying to control me, Zar.”

He let out a breath and released her. “I lose my head around you,” he admitted, as if that were supposed to explain everything.

Callie gave them both a minute to calm down and walked across the room to pick up her dress. She slipped it on, feeling a little bit more in control now that she wasn’t standing nude in front of the giant, winged alien. She pushed her hair behind her ears. “You went a little nuts there, Zar. And you used the word we. What’s that supposed to mean?”

Zar moved towards a large, ornately carved wooden dresser and opened a drawer. He pulled out a pair of black lounge pants and yanked them up his legs. He didn’t bother with a shirt and Callie was fine with that. He’d covered the most tempting part of his body anyway. He went back to the bed and sat down on the edge, his wings flexing and contracting. He was agitated. The wings were a dead giveaway of his emotions, Callie realized.

“We means my creature and I. It’s difficult to explain to an earth-born.”

“Yeah, well, give it a shot,” Callie grumbled as she stepped closer to him.

“There are two sides to my nature, Callie. The man and the creature. All Zenarians feel it. At our core we are predators. Keeping a balance is imperative for any Zenarian, especially a male. All Zenarians are connected on a cellular level. That connection helps keep us centered. We also learn control when we’re very young. I’m a royal and my nature is more predatory than most. I was literally born to rule and my father, King Arlias, taught me how to balance my twin sides.”

She digested that information for a moment. Callie had to keep reminding herself that Zar wasn’t human. He didn’t think like a human. Didn’t act like a human male either. “So, when you said, we need you, you were talking about the predator inside you as well as the man that I see before me?”

He nodded. “Yes.”

She’d read about shapeshifters in romance novels. “Do you…well, what I mean to ask is, do you change shape? Like into a bird or something?”

He chuckled. “No, Callie. What you see sitting before you is the only shape I will ever take.” He hesitated, then added, “Well, with the exception of my wings. I can retract them. You remember Flare didn’t have wings when he picked you up?”

Her eyes widened. “I’ll never forget that. One minute he looked like any other guy with long silver hair and then the next he had wings.”

Zar stood and turned around. “Watch,” he softly ordered. His wings flapped hard against the floor. Once, twice, then suddenly they were changing and getting smaller. Zar cursed and a section at his shoulder blades parted wide and his back muscles thickened. Right before Callie’s eyes Zar’s wings went from a six-foot span to that of a large eagle, then they disappeared beneath his skin all together. It took her breath away to watch. As if by magic, they were simply gone. Zar looked like any other man. Callie closed the distance and placed her hand against his shoulder blades. She could feel movement just under the skin. It fascinated her.

“Amazing,” she whispered. “They’re just gone.”

Zar looked over his shoulder at her, a smile curving his lips. “Step back,” he instructed. When she did as he asked, Zar flexed his back muscles and black feathers emerged from beneath his skin. Within seconds they were as big as ever, extending halfway across the room. It made sense why all the rooms in his house were so large. He needed the space.

“If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have believed it,” she said, totally stunned by Zar’s display. When he turned around his face appeared strained. Callie frowned. “Why do you look as if you’re in pain?”

“It’s uncomfortable to retract our wings. It feels unnatural to a Zenarian.”

He’d caused himself pain and he’d done it for her. “You didn’t need to do that, Zar.”

He stepped closer, cupping her jaw in his palm. “You came in here to offer me aid, Callie, and I nearly went mad. For that I am sorry.”

Callie glanced away and bit her lower lip. “I still don’t understand what happened.” Her gaze came back to his when she asked, “Was it something I did?”

“None of this is your doing,” he said, his voice soft and low. “I’ve brought you into my world and you’ve had so little time to adjust. It’s a miracle you haven’t gone completely insane.”

Her lips twitched. “Yeah, the jury is still out on that one.”

His arms wrapped around her body and pulled her in close. “I’m becoming attached to you, Callie. When I began to imagine you leaving me, of never seeing you again, it agitated my other half.”

Callie stared up at Zar and saw the sincerity in his expression. And if she wasn’t mistaken there was something very close to love as well. She couldn’t let herself think along those lines. “I’m not Zenarian though,” she reminded him. “I’ve known you all of one day and I’ve already had sex with you. I need to process that. I really don’t have it in me to think about soulmates and love everlasting. Not to mention I have a life to get back to. A job. My father.” And why did it suddenly seem so lame? Yeah, some life. Working eighty-hour weeks to please a man who barely tolerated her. Woohoo.

Zar was quiet a moment and Callie was afraid she’d angered him again. Finally, he said, “give me a few days at least. The Festival of the Wings is approaching. You could attend as my guest.”

She had a vision of a bunch of Zenarian men and women listening to music and getting love-drunk as they rubbed wings with each other. Like a giant bird orgy in the sky. She snorted. “Please tell me clothes are required at this festival.”

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