Page 58 of For the Strange and Surprising

“Yeah. I’ll take you.” She nods in the direction she was already heading. “I could use the company, anyway.”

I fall into step beside her, staying quiet until we’re away from the guards’ barracks. Talodus said he had an apartment in the block next to mine, but Ecaeris had a room, which confuses me. Why doesn’t the prince live in the palace?

“I hope you aren’t going out of your way for this,” I say after a few minutes have passed.

“I’m not,” she assures me. “I pass his place on the way to my parents.”

Rinya steers us down a side street in the village, and modern-ish log cabins suddenly surround us. I mean, they look new-new, as if contractors just finished building them. The only thing Rustic Drive is missing is a neighborhood watch sign.

“Do the Mongrels have addresses? Like house numbers and road names?”

She giggles, but I’m serious.

“My dad calls this Paul Bunyan Trail. He even had someone make him a blue bull thing that sits in the yard. I loved the animal and the story as a child, but he still cackles whenever he’s asked about it.”

“I was going to call it Rustic Drive, though I think I like his name better.”

“This is your stop, Ada.” She points to the house on my right.

I freeze, wondering why I thought this was a good idea. It’s not. I should leave.

“If you need anything, I’ll be over there.”

I turn to look across the wide path, and sure enough, there’s an almost accurate blue bull in the yard. I shake my head at its smushed snout.

“Thanks, Rinya.”

She pats my shoulder, gently smiling, before she walks away. I’m sure she can see my hesitation. She probably suspects I’m anxious about having sex with Connak, but that’s not why I’m here.

My mind is flooding with questions while every nerve ending in my body is on fire.

I can’t stop thinking about… the beast.

Connak’s grin isn’t haunting me. His tanned and textured skin is not as attractive as my hormones seem to believe. I need to chill out.

When I get to his door, I knock politely, but there’s no answer. I rap my knuckles on the wooden surface again, harder in hopes that he’ll hear me.

“Come in.” His reply is muffed, even though it sounds like he’s yelling.

I open the door, glancing around for him as I enter. The center of the house is one massive, dimly lit room, but he isn’t in it.

“Connak?” I call his name, hoping there’s no one here who I might have accidentally woken up.

“In here,” he shouts.

I follow the sound of his voice into a bedroom and stop dead in my tracks. The Mongrel stands in nothing, the towel in his hand barely covering himself, long hair dripping water over his shoulder and down his—

This was a mistake.

I mean, it could be worse.

But his chest. Jesus, Neptune, and Osiris.

I shut my eyes and roll my lips in so he doesn’t see me openly ogling him or drooling. Men that cut are few and far between on Earth. The scars on his skin only make him more tempting. I want to lie beside him and trace over them as he tells me the stories of how he got them.

Spiran is trying to kill me.

I give him my back and clear my throat. “Were you expecting someone?”