AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I am so very much an elf of habit, and the fact that I’d made space in my apartment and my life for Taavi and now he was going to leave both was completely fucking with me.
And yeah, the fact that since he was planning to stick around Richmond—at least for the time being—meant that I didn’t actually have to stop having Taavi in mylife, but he was going to be here as a bipedal human-looking person, not the Xoloitzcuintli dog I’d gotten used to.
I used to think, in the grand scheme of things, that I was pretty adaptable.
What I was learning was that I’m not at all adaptable. I’m capable of rolling with the punches when I feel like I’m still in control of which way the fight is going. I’ll take one to the chin if it means I still get the knock-out at the end of it.
But this wasn’t even my fight anymore.
I’d taken a left hook to the eye, and when I managed to sit up there was a new guy in the ring, and I didn’t know what to do with that.
Yeah. This metaphor is getting weird. Sorry.
The point is, what my brain understood—that Taavi was getting to go back to his actual life—and what my heart felt—upset that my dog friend was leaving me—were two very different things, and I don’t like it when my feelings and my thoughts don’t get along.
So I was standing in the kitchen having a small internal meltdown and trying very hard not to think about the fact that the dog I woke up with on my bed was—in theory anyway—working on no longer being a dog. Zhou had said the shift might take a while and be extra painful because Taavi had spent so long being forcibly tied to his dog form.
He’d also said Taavi would need food, so I’d already fried up some ham and bacon, along with making some cheese omelets, toast, and coffee.
I pulled out two mugs, two plates, and two sets of silverware. And then I stood there staring at the second set because this would be the first time I hadn’t had to put Taavi’s food on the floor in a bowl.
From somewhere down the hall, I heard a whine that lengthened and deepened and then became a very human-sounding groan.
And I freaked out some more.
Silently.
I picked up my coffee mug, then immediately put it down again, my hands were shaking so badly. Reminding myself that I’d gotten through a hell of a lot worse than meeting the human form of a dog who’d been living with me for two months was not at all helpful in calming down my nerves.
I managed to get a mouthful of coffee on my third try, then realized that caffeine was probably not the best idea when I already felt like I was about to climb the walls.
Oops.
It gave me something to do with my hands, though, so I took another sip.
And then I heard the sound of footsteps in the hall and decided that I needed to put the coffee down.
You know how everybody always makes fun of their DMV photos, saying they look fat or dead or like a serial killer? Well, people deride the photographic skills of the DMV for a reason. Taavi’s driver’s license photo made him look ruggedly handsome, which should give you an idea of just how incredible he actually looked in real life.
Sharp cheekbones and a well-defined jawline, a surprisingly sharp nose—although now that I thought about it, his dog features had also been sharp, angular, chiseled. His skin was the color of smoky quartz, a rich, medium brown highlighted with copper undertones. On one side of his neck, I could make out the top of a half-circle of complex black ink tattooing his skin, a pattern that looked a lot like some of the designs I’d seen when googling Aztec dogs the night I’d decided to call him ‘Anubis.’
His head was closely shaved on the sides, leaving barely a buzz, with the longer hair on the top pulled back in a queue—probably using one of my hair ties, since I didn’t remember there being any in the bundle of clothes and shoes I’d left with him. And in the middle of those unfamiliar yet not unfamiliar features were the same eyes, wide, just a hint too big for his face, slightly almond-shaped. One a deep brown, the other milky white, the outside of the pupil dark grey, stark against the white of his eye and iris.
There was no question this was Taavi.
And no question he was absolutely fucking gorgeous, even if the plain black t-shirt, jeans, and red plaid flannel were all a bit too big, hanging awkwardly on his lithe, sinewy body.
I swallowed.
“Hi,” is what came out of my mouth. Because that’s fucking eloquent.
And then he smiled at me, and something in my chest tightened into a sharp knot. Warmth spread across his features as he showed me teeth that were just a tad too sharp and very white. “Hi,” he said back, and his voice was like cinnamon and chocolate, warm, sweet, and a little bit spicy.
I was in so much trouble.
“I—made breakfast,” I managed. Go me. A whole sentence. I could feel my ears turning pink. Stupid, hypersensitive elf ears. “Assuming you actually like eggs and meat and cheese, and haven’t just been eating them because you have no other choice.”
He laughed, a sound that made my toes feel weird. “I like eggs and meat and cheese,” he replied. “You’re a good cook, thank you.”
