Page 62 of Monsters Within (The Creatures We Crave 1)
“It’s going to be great,” Elwin encouraged gently as he stopped next to me.
It very well could be. I needed to stop assuming the worst—it wasn’t fair of me to go into this with a negative mindset against someone I didn’t know.
“Okay,” I agreed, doing my best to let my trepidation go. “Let’s go meet my new roomie.”
Walking up the porch to the front door, I didn’t see anyone inside through the large windows. I stepped inside, calling out, “Hello?”
A door with a sign hanging on it that I couldn’t read from here popped open as a woman’s head peeked out.
Her black hair was piled on top of her head in a messy bun, and I swore I could see little black horns peeking out. “Are you Alexandra?” she asked excitedly before completely leaving her room. My mouth popped open in fascination as her black and gold-tipped feathers fluttered behind her. “I’m Alora. It’s so great to meet you! I was wondering when you were going to show up.”
The bottoms of her wings dragged against the floor, spanning the entire length of her body. As we both walked towards each other, I realized she was the same height as myself.
I felt a massive amount of relief at her cheerful energy, but I was too enraptured by her wings to answer like a normal person. Instead I asked, “Can I touch them?” before realizing that was probably really rude.
I clearly did not know supernatural etiquette, if there was such a thing.
Her hand flew to her chest, which was covered with a plain white t-shirt as her mouth popped open. “At least buy me dinner first, Alexandra.”
It didn’t escape my notice how she used my full name instead of immediately shortening it as Hannah had done. Another point in Alora’s favor.
But fuck, I’d messed this up. Groaning and dropping my box to the ground, I rushed to apologize. “I’m so sorry, the words came out before I could think it through. I’ve just never seen wings before, and they are so beautiful.”
Her offended exterior fell away, leaving her with a shit-eating grin on her face. “I’m totally kidding. Yeah, you can touch them.”
“Thank the fates,” I laughed out as my heart returned to its spot in my chest instead of my stomach, where it had been moments earlier. “I was so scared I’d ruined this already.”
Turning around, her wings lifted before extending all the way out, showcasing the dazzling glimmer I hadn’t been able to see before. But with the light from the ceiling reflecting on each feather spread out now, I was able to truly appreciate the glossy onyx interspersed with otherworldly gold.
“Nah, you couldn’t fuck this up unless you were, like, a raging bitch who didn’t like coffee. That’s where I draw the line,” she joked easily.
Huffing out a single laugh at her spunky attitude, my nerves completely fizzled out. I liked her.
“I don’t hate coffee,” I hedged, “but I do prefer energy drinks.”
“I’ll make a coffee believer out of you yet,” she rebutted in a sing-song voice. “Now touch my wings before I put them away. They’re really heavy.”
Taking a cautious step forward, I reached out and ran my fingers along the top of the harder ridge before feeling the soft feathers beneath. “Wow, they are as soft as they are beautiful. Thank you.”
As her wings snapped away and seemingly shrank inside of her back, I felt gobsmacked. Their absence revealed little slits in her shirt made for this exact purpose. Turning over her shoulder, I realized her eyes were a swirling mix of purple and gold, and she must have seen my own at the same time. “Hey, we both have purple eyes! How cool.”
“Can I hug you?” she blurted out, not waiting for me to answer her previous statement. “I’m a total hugger.”
My knee-jerk reaction was to think about Hannah falling into my arms in an awkward hug and how terribly that had worked out for me, but I quickly shook that away. Absolutely no part of me felt bad vibes from her like I had with Hannah. I would trust my gut on this one.
An easy smile came as I agreed and opened my arms, welcoming another new chapter of my life. I’d always wanted this, and it looked like the fates were once again proving that they knew what they were doing when they had Estrid pull us to this academy.
Throwing her arms around my neck, we squeezed each other for a minute. I was shocked at how normal it felt, given my typical aversion to people and that I’d just met her. She had an interesting rose smell, but like it was slightly charred.
As we disentangled from each other, she looked past me and asked, “Who are they?”
Damn, I hadn’t introduced my guys yet. That was so rude of me.
“Sorry,” I started, turning back and found them all smiling at us, showing their sharp teeth black teeth. “These are my…boyfriends,” I finally settled on, unsure of how else to refer to them. Boyfriend didn’t seem to encompass all they were to me, but I wasn’t sure what else to say. “Lucien, Elwin, and Kylo,” I introduced, gesturing at them in the order they were standing.
Hoping she wouldn’t be freaked out by their appearance or that I had multiple boyfriends, I glanced back at her and was relieved to find her smiling and waving. “Nice to meet you! Funny that it seems everyone around me has multiple love interests and I don’t have any!”
It wasn’t said with jealousy or shame, just like she genuinely found it humorous.
