Page 28 of Stolen By The Beast
“I’m not wearing pants.”
“It’s because they disintegrated under the flames of your lies.”
A sigh burst past my teeth, ruffling the golden strands of hair at the top of Juniper’s head. “You are annoying this day.”
“And you are annoyingalldays. Now tell me what’s wrong.”
“I’m trying to make a decision.”
“Do you want help? I’m an excellent decision maker!”
“Your life choices suggest otherwise.”
“Oh my gosh, rude! Just tell me what you’re thinking.”
“No.”
“Fine, then I’ll guess—”
“No! I will tell you. I suppose I’ve already made my decision, but I don’t understand what I’m feeling about it.”
“Ugh, okay. Can you describe it, what you’re feeling?”
“No, but I don’t like it. I don’t understand how humans function with so many emotions. It must be exhausting.”
“Sometimes, it is. You don’t like it… Does it make you feel sick in here?”
Her hand snaked down from my arm to pat my stomach.
“Not sick, really. Perhaps a little jumbled?”
“And it’s not because you have to decide between two things, but because of a decision you’ve already made?”
“More or less.”
“If I had to hazard a guess, you’re nervous. What you’re feeling in here”—another pat on my furred belly—“is what humans call ‘butterflies in your tummy.’ It’s a saying to describe the anxious, fluttering sensation that sometimes accompanies nervousness.”
I snarled under my breath. “How do I make it stop?”
Juniper laughed, and some of the tension uncoiled inside of me. “I don’t know… maybe by just accepting whatever is bothering you?”
This made me growl—Juniper refusing to be my mate was not something I could accept. The very idea ate me alive. Even the darkness deep inside of me seemed worried at the prospect that Juniper might walk away.
“Hey, turn that frown upside down, mister.”
Her words calmed some of the tumult churning inside of me. “What?”
“It’s a human way of telling someone to stop frowning and to smile instead.”
“Humans are very strange.”
She giggled some more, the sound as light and warm as a sunbeam, and I couldn’t help but join her. The tiny female’s ability to coax joy from the darkest corners of my being never ceased to amaze me.
Still, the turmoil within my chest persisted, like a storm threatening to overwhelm me. Nervousness coursed through me, though I had faced countless dangers and adversaries over my long existence and never encountered it before.
My thoughts were a tempest, swirling with emotions I had rarely encountered. Humans lived with these feelings every day, navigating the intricate maze of sensations, but it left me disoriented.
How do they manage to function shouldering such things every second of the day?
