Page 183 of Unravel Me

Yeah, he must have caught my Allure scent too. Does he know? Can he guess now? Either way, I can see the uncertainty in his face as he finally asks, his voice carrying a need for confirmation,

"Are you my…?" He cuts himself off.

"I am just a shadow of him… but you can help me become fully human. Only you."

Yeah, I’m being cryptic again, but it’s simply what spills from my heart. I can’t help it. Maybe Rocco hid his secretive, romantic, and melodramatic side in me too?

I know I have to do this, so I extend my hand toward him in the simple gesture people use when greeting a stranger.

After a moment of hesitation, Roberto extends his own slender, tanned hand, and I take it between my fingers.

That’s when it happens.

A powerful spark shoots through both our bodies, our heads jerk backward, and our eyes roll back.

A wave of electric shock travels down my spine, flooding me with tremors and a strange, almost blissful, unexpected pleasure.

This is it.

First Touch!

And it happened. I found the right person, my other half, my fated mate.

The problem is that he is also Rocco’s perfect mate, while I am only a fragment of him, torn away from my original… a faint remnant of his soul that could be saved, but could also fade into oblivion.

Sweet waves of elation roll over me.

My fated mate… standing right in front of me, equally shocked, slightly trembling.

Finding him is a wonderful discovery, but it only deepens the grim awareness of what may happen, what must happen, what… I long to happen.

When Rocco goes out, so will I, because a part cannot live without the whole.

So I have to make it before the end.

"Please. Only you can give me a new life. I will disappear today, but you have the power to save me."

Roberto stares down at our joined hands, then turns toward Thorn and the other man and says, "Leave. I need to talk to this man."

"What the hell are you talking about? He’s some kind of freak—" the beta begins, but Roberto points firmly toward the door.

"We’ll talk about this later. This is too important. Please, go home."

Both men leave. Blue-skinned Thorn gives me a dark look, as if warning me not to do anything that might hurt Roberto, but that is the furthest thing from my mind.

Still holding my hand, Roberto leads me deeper into the house, toward a small, modest room with a narrow bed covered by the hide of a white bear.

A few pillows are arranged into a small nest, like shy, tentative attempts to build a sense of safety around oneself, but somehow still half-hearted.

Then I look at the solitary painting hanging on the wall. It depicts a meadow filled with flowers… specific ones. Snapdragons! I swallow because… they were the flowers I loved as a child. The flowers my granddad used to grow for me. For a moment, I stare at the colorful picture, so strangely out of place in a home this close to the Arctic Circle, then I look at Roberto because I know I don't have much time. I need to get to the point, so I sit down on the bed.

"I flew to Koebutze today, Roberto. I searched for you. I was told you are my True Mate by a person with the gift of clairvoyance, but my time is running out. What I’m about to say will sound crazy, but still, hear me out, please. I am only a fragment of your actual True Mate, whose life is coming to an end right now, but you are the only one who can give me a chance to exist, to stop being nothing but a shadow and become a real human being…" I can feel that what I’m saying may sound like rambling, but somehow I also feel that he listens and… understands me.

Roberto’s chocolate-colored eyes move over my face, and then he reaches toward me and gently touches my cheek. It’s so unexpected, I shiver, something inside me awakening under his touch.

"You know… someone else might think you are crazy. But… for months, I’ve been dreaming about you standing in my doorway and saying these exact words: I am only a shadow, let me become human… exactly that!"

"What?" I blink. A burst of intense emotion hits me. Incredible. So he had been waiting for me, expecting me?