Page 188 of The Spider Queen
Guardians mate for life. They want for nothing and no one. I will be true to you. Forever.He paused.Does that scare you?
Should it?I peered at him as I navigated a decaying log. Virbius was a silent guide, walking about ten feet in front of us, giving us his golden back. His white hair gently swished in the breeze.
It would seem to scare most mortals—then again, youhavechanged.
Good or bad, it remains to be seen.
We have years to get to know one another.
Maybe. If…
Thane didn’t take that thread of conversation.We share a mental link, but I hope there will be a time when I’m inside your mind and it doesn’t feel like an intrusion. Where we can come and go as we please, where we know what the other will say before they say it. I’d love to know your body as well as mine, but find new ways to please you.
I shivered at the caress in his voice.Does the wanting you ever stop?
No. It will change. It will deepen. One day, when I’m inside you, it will become more than just desire. We will become entwined, Poppy. Our hearts, our souls, our essences.
His gaze dropped down my body.One day, you’ll carry my children. You’ll become a mother, and the bond between us will strengthen even more. Our connection will grow roots, and we won’t be able to live without the other.
I wasn’t ready to consider motherhood. There were too many other things I had yet to come to grips with—and that had nothing to do with the loss of my human heart.
My family life had been a terrible model. As a human, I’d been focused on academics, on studies, on science. I’d thought they were a more solid foundation.
But Thane had proven that even science wasn’t foolproof. Seeing was believing. I’d seen—and lived—through unexplainable events.
Where does my cousin think I am? My parents?
Dead.He cocked his head to one side.Does that bother you?
I instinctively pressed a hand to my heart and rubbed the fabric of my body suit. There were no gaping wounds, no serrated flesh. It was as if it had never happened. On the outside, anyway. But I was forever changed on the inside.
I don’t think so,I admitted.As you pointed out, the human part of me is truly gone—and I feel no kinship to my life before you.
I loved who you were before. I love who you are now. I’ll love you when you change again.
I’ll change again?
We’re immortal, but that doesn’t mean we’re stagnant.
Why didn’t you tell me you’d been imprisoned for thousands of years? Why did you tell me hundreds?
Would it have changed how you felt about me?
Maybe. I don’t know.
As a human, you already felt a great burden and deep guilt for being drawn to Hunter and me. I was trying to minimize it, I guess.
I can’t fault you for trying to protect me. But maybe…maybe I would’ve come to you sooner. Maybe I wouldn’t have fought so hard against it—against you.
We’ll never know, will we?
I wasn’t sure I liked who I was changing into. Unrecognizable. Deep, unmerciful rage, no longer capable of empathy.
An immortal psychopath, maybe?
Don’t worry so much about it right now,he suggested.We have to live through all of this first.
A chuckle escaped my mouth. Thane grinned and shrugged. What he said was completely true. Here I was, concerned about what my life was going to look like when there was a slim chance of it actually coming to fruition.
