Page 4 of Loved By the Gargoyle

But my heart had not truly come to life until I saw her for the first time.

Mia Song.

Her name was a sigh and a prayer that whispered through my body, like the caress of a lover against overly sensitive skin.

I had seen her. One glance and my curiosity piqued. One glance and my heart began to pound, faster and faster like a war drum strumming the tune of battle.

One glance and I knew that she would be mine.

My mate. My wife.

Mine.

So I followed, and I continued to watch from the shadows for weeks. But it was not enough to watch from a distance. I wanted more. I had wanted her words.

Her thoughts.

I wanted more.

The urge to steal her away thrummed in my bloodstream, but when the urge gripped me, I fought it.

My brother’s advice rang through my mind.

Nazzar, my elder brother, had called Qanek and I to meet. He weaved his tale of how he found his wife. How he stole her away to comfort and mate…

And she had despised him for it.

He warned Qanek and I against stealing our humans. That they would resent us for what was innately our nature.

Instinct demanded I take her, but the cautious words Nazzar had whispered in the dark of the night stayed my hand.

Humans were curious creatures with curious traditions, some I did not quite understand but was eager to learn regardless.

Even as that eagerness consumed me and kept me putting pen to page to learn more, to perhaps conquer her with a clever tongue and mind before I swept her away, I knew time was against me.

Death was nipping at my heels.

The Lord of the Dead was after Qanek and I for leaving his domain against his wishes, and he would not grant leniency should he catch us.

My gaze lifted, pausing at the sight of my fractured reflection in a broken mirror that hung along the wall.

A monster stared back. A creature with light, gray skin and towering black horns. Pitless black eyes and a mouth of sharp fangs that had torn through the tough hides of enemies.

I was so very different from her. So unlike humans. Frightening.

And she? She was beautiful. In the way that heavenly things were. Willowy and ethereal, with dark hair almost as long as my own…

If she saw me, she would scream. Of that I had no doubt. Terror would reign, and my wife would flee.

The thought of her rejection stung so deep, I tore my own filthy gaze away from the mirror, my claws curving into the paper.

Death was coming for me, and yet I still could not bring myself to appear before my bride. So I observed from the shadows, because hiding in the darkness was what I excelled at.

And so that was where I would watch my wife.

Where I would want and crave.

Until the day I could bring myself to step into the light.