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“But it wasn’t all bad. There were good moments too.” He smiles down at me, his eyes softening as he strokes my lips and cheeks, making my eyes close in surrender as my heart aches. When his voice comes again, it’s softer, rougher. He weaves a tale around me until I can almost see what he is describing and taste the wildness in his stories.
Where the humans let our differences split us, they brought them together to make them one.
Humans might have created them, but they are far smarter and evolved than we are. He paints stories about them exploring the city as kids and playing with human toys. Akuji speaks about feasts with all the tribes that were filled with music and laughter before the split. He creates a world around me, one different from my cold, scary one I survived as a kid.
Their world might be crumbling and overrun with animals and nature, but there is so much love, friendship, and happiness here that can’t be bought by any skyscrapers or new technology. Nobody goes hungry. Nobody is alone. Nobody is afraid to fall asleep. Nobody is forgotten or abandoned to a flawed system.
Tears fall from my eyes as I press my face to his chest.
“Aria, why are you crying?” he murmurs, lifting my head as he stops mid-story about them discovering an underground swimming pool, where he accidently broke the slide.
“I—” I swallow before forcing my eyes back to his. I see nothing but curiosity and concern in his dark orbs. There are no games, no falsehoods, and it strips me bare. My usual cocky answers are nowhere to be found. “I wish I had a childhood like yours. I was so scared all the time. I was lonely, but I convinced myself I wasn’t, that I needed no one but me, but I was wrong. Listening to you…I can’t help but wonder what my life could have been like with a family.”
“You have one now,” he tells me, gripping my chin as he leans down and presses his head to mine. “We cannot change the past, my little mate, but we can change the future. You will never be alone again. You will never be scared again a day in your life. For as long as I live, I will protect you from anything that could ever hurt you, as will my people. You’re with us now. You are a monster.” He smirks and wipes my tears away before kissing my face softly. “The humans never realised what they had right under their noses. They are fools. You are a beautiful, strong woman, but you cannot always be strong, so when you are weak, I will carry the load. I will be at your side the whole time. No matter what happens, I will always be yours, Aria.” He forces my eyes back to his as he delivers those words. “I will always be your family.” He reaches down and pulls something from his trousers, curling my hand around it as he hands it over.
Slowly, I uncurl my fingers, and a breath escapes my lips as I stare at the shining stone in my palm. “You—”
“You might have felt like you were alone, but I was always there—always watching and protecting you, loving you from afar. You were never truly alone, Aria.”
I bring the rock to my chest, clutching it close to my heart. It’s better than any riches, because it shows his promise.
It shows his truth.
Akuji loves me.
I don’t know what to say to that, so I kiss him tenderly and we settle back side by side. He gives me space to think through everything. He asks for nothing, and he takes nothing, not like human men. He just gives. He wipes my tears away and feeds me when I’m hungry. He would skin himself to keep me warm, and nothing is too much for him.
He doesn’t look at me like I’m something to own, but rather something to cherish, and that is terrifying in itself.
It’s one thing to call me his mate, it almost feels like a dream, but it’s another to vow something like that. It’s too fast and too much, not to mention the differences between us, but love doesn’t care, and I cannot deny how drawn I am to Akuji, how much I trust and care for him.
What will happen when I have to go back over the wall?
Will I leave my heart here with him or take his with me?
TWENTY-EIGHT
ARIA
When we are finally relieved of watch duty, I’m exhausted both physically and emotionally. I spent so long going around and around in circles, telling myself all the reasons this thing between us cannot work. I told myself I need to go back to my world, even if I hate what the humans did and are doing. I tell myself all sorts of things, but when he curls around me in his nest, I feel whole.
I let him hold me, his big arms anchoring and warming me as I close my eyes and relax. I allow my tired, aching muscles to rest, but my brain won’t. For a moment, I imagine staying, I imagine giving in and being his mate. There is something so very perfect about being someone’s everything, their obsession, and their love while their entire existence is dedicated to your happiness and wellbeing…but do I deserve it? I want to.
The thought scares me because it feels that good.
I can imagine spending our days together in his nest and our nights in the city, but life cannot be like that. It can’t. We have our worlds, our own lives…
Right?
As if knowing my thoughts, he speaks, his voice softer than I’ve ever heard it. “You were the only human brave enough to ever come back. Why? Why did you always come back, Aria?”
I debate telling him a pretty lie, but he wouldn’t like that, and I will never lie to him, even if it’s a harsh truth that makes me feel exposed.
“I came back because it felt like home,” I whisper in the dark. I feel brave since his eyes aren’t on me. “Because I felt safer here amongst the monsters and ruins than I ever did with my people in the glittering city beyond.”
“Yet I already feel like I’ve lost you, as if you are a million miles away from me and running fast. Why?”
I swallow, unable to respond, and he holds me tighter like that will keep me with him.
