Page 15 of Fated
“We have each other now, though. And a ton of flowers.” I gestured to the flowers scattered around the room. We’d crushed a ton of them and smeared flower juice across the bed.
The now thoroughly broken bed. I’d been so blissed out I hadn’t even noticed the moment Areth had fucked it into collapsing.
“I can’t believe the bed didn’t make it but I did.”
“My control is only so good, Max. One of the two of you was going to get broken. I chose the bed.”
“We’re going to have to apologize to Shiza so much. What kind of gift in your world says, ‘I’m sorry we fucked your bed to death?’”
Areth sighed and adjusted me so he could sit up. “I might have to give up on going off to battle for a year to give her a vacation. Shiza is my medic and complains constantly about how hard I make her work.” He touched my cheek and said softly, “I do not mind taking a break. It will give me time to show you all of the best parts of Xalen.”
“I’m staying here?” I don’t know what I thought would come from all of this, but getting to live in Xalen with Areth instead of being forced to go back home hadn’t even occurred to me.
Areth froze. “Were you not planning on staying?” He frowned, and his expression grew dark. There was a hint of the feral warrior I’d grown accustomed to fighting beside lurking in his turquoise eyes.
“No! I mean, yes! I want to stay. I mean, I’ll miss my friends, but I’d miss you more, and you can’t stay on Earth. We don’t get many demons walking down the streets, so you wouldn’t have an easy life there.”
“You can visit your friends, Max,” Areth said. The darkness on his face had eased, but he added petulantly, “But you must always return to live with me in Xalen. You must also take mewith you to keep you safe. I cannot accept an existence without you.”
“Are you kidding? I wouldn’t go without you. What if you never came back for me? The second you were out of my sight I’d probably start coughing up flowers again because I’d believe you weren’t real.”
“I would always come back for you, Max.” Areth kissed my cheek gently, and then nipped my jaw, giving me a hint of fang. “But I promise to never leave your side while we are in your world.”
“Can you also stay by my side until Shiza forgives us for violating her bed? I don’t know her, but she gave me the impression she’s a scary person when she’s mad.”
“Smart boy.” Areth gave the top of my head a kiss too. “It is a deal. But I am not planning to let you out of my sight for far longer than that. I have pined for you longer than you have been alive, little one. It could be centuries before I am ready to believe you are really here.”
“Um, Areth, I don’t want to upset you, but humans don’t live centuries. Maybe one century if you’re really lucky.”
I hadn’t even considered that problem yet. The people of Areth’s race measured their lifespans by millennia, and he was relatively young for his kind. My life would be little more than a blip in his timeline. If our roles were reversed, I would be heartbroken and mourning his loss long before he died. If Areth was as obsessed with me as I was with him, how was he going to take the news I’d just dropped in his lap?
Instead of being upset, Areth smiled enigmatically and said, “I can fix that.” Then he scooped me off the bed in one hand and propped my naked ass on his forearm. He tore a clean bit of sheet off the bed and draped it over me, then snapped a golden ornamental flower off the broken headboard and handed it to me.
“What’s this for?”
“Your commemorative trophy for taking me so well. Now let us go to my room. My bed is much sturdier than Shiza’s, and I need more reassurance that you are real.”
“Areth, I love the sentiment, but my ass might need more than ten minutes to recover from what you just did to it.”
Areth laughed. Booming, joyous, and sexy as fuck. “I can fix that too.”
Epilogue
“Has anyone talked to Max since last night?” Lauren asked as she turned on the TV.
The next day, they all returned to Max’s house as promised, but when they arrived, the house was unlocked, and Max wasn’t home.
“Nope. He hasn’t answered any of my texts,” Josh said, handing one game controller to Kaitlyn and the other to Lauren.
“That’s weird. He was supposed to meet me online this morning to help me level my new character, but he never showed.” Kaitlyn pointed her controller at the TV to connect it.
Josh frowned. “He promised to talk to us today about his flower problem. You don’t think he’ll ditch us, do you?”
“He’s bound to show up,” Lauren said. “This is his house, after all. Plus, he never misses a chance to play Hellwing. If he doesn’t come soon, we’ll check the hospital.”
The game loaded on the screen, and all three friends gasped. Instead of a short animation of Areth leading a charge into battle against the undead, it was a scene of Areth teaching a small human how to do magic. The human looked exactly like theirfriend Max. At the human’s feet was a little dog that looked exactly like Mitzy.
“You don’t think…” Josh’s mouth worked, but he was unable to finish his sentence.
