Chapter 1

Brexl

CW: Description of injury

Taylor, Taylor, Taylor, Taylor. Her name ran through my head over and over again as I tracked her scent.

Mate. No, not mate. We were bound through luminescence, but that was all. She had no obligation to be my mate.

Last night had been excruciating, to say the least. I yearned for her more than I’d yearned for anyone or anything in my entire existence. I could smell her arousal from across the room, but forced myself to do nothing about it.

Taylor didn’t want me as a mate, and why would she? I was a beast, a monster made for killing. I’d known this my entire life. My mother died giving birth to me, and my sire killed himself shortly thereafter. He knew, even then, he knew I was a monster. I may not have caused the stiffness, as the priestess said, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t cursed, frowned upon by the goddess herself.

“Are you alright?” Taylor’s words cut through my thoughts as we sat in the cave together.

“You’re clenching your fist pretty tight. I think you may have cut yourself.”

She approached me slowly, her long black hair swaying in a braid down her back.

“Here, let me see.” She held out her hand and waited.

I lowered my hand into hers and she gently pried my fist open.

“Oh yeah, you scratched yourself with your claws. Does that happen often?”

I shook my head but spoke no words aloud. Taylor was mesmerizing. I was in my monstrous form, and yet she didn’t shrink away from me. She touched me as if I were a fragile being and not the beast that I was.

“Hold your hand up like this, and I’ll grab a bandage from my bag.”

I did as I was told and waited patiently for Taylor to return. I wanted to tell her she didn’t need to do this, and not to waste her bandages on me. But my tongue wouldn’t move.

She returned and dabbed the blood from my palm with a cloth, then wrapped my scratch with a bandage.

Her hand lingered on mine for a moment. Our glowing skin was a sight to behold. Taylor was already perfect, but seeing her glow increased her beauty even more.

“I…” She began to look nervous. “I never intended to be in a relationship again.”

“You don’t have to be mated to me.” I cut her off. I could not bear to hear her say how much she didn’t want to be with me.

Relief flooded her face, and I knew that I’d said the right thing.

“Here, you can use my furs.” I pulled the furs from my pack and set them on top of the ones she’d already laid out for herself.

“What about you? What are you going to sleep on?”

“I...I do not think I’ll get much rest tonight.” My reason went unspoken. My cock was hard as stone, and would remain so for the rest of the night.

Luminescence. Ha! Everyone dreamed of luminescence, of being wrapped in the warm embrace of their forever mate, everyone except me. I am cursed, and now Taylor was cursed to be with me.

She laid down on the furs with her back to me. I stared at her. The rise and fall of her torso as she breathed made her look so peaceful. I never found peace in sleep, only nightmares.

What would it be like to sleep with Taylor pressed against me? We were forced to share a bed on the spaceship, as the hu-mans called it, but Taylor noticed my hesitation to join her, so she placed a pillow between us. I expected her to fall asleep quickly. We’d just completed a long day of travel, but instead I found her staring at the necklace I’d made for her. She never wore it, only kept it in her pocket. Perhaps she liked the necklace but was too ashamed to wear something made by me.

She’d fallen asleep with the pendents in her hand, and I’d fallen asleep much later with her sweet scent surrounding me.

Now I was chasing after her. How could I have been so stupid? When the first light of the sun started to trickle through the cracks in our cave, I gave up on sleep and stepped outside for some fresh air. I was tired, my cock ached from being aroused all night without any release, my mind was racing with thoughts of what Taylor and I were going to do when everyone found out we luminesed, and I was debating if I should just leave the dekes to live on my own so Taylor wouldn’t feel pressured to be mated to me.

It was then that I heard the rustle of leaves nearby.

I walked away from the cave to investigate when I saw Scaron emerge from behind a tree. The primal urge to protect my luminescence mate roared within me. I growled as I approached him, and he smiled. I was confused at first. No one had ever smiled at me in my shifted form before. Then something moved out of the corner of my eye. It was one of Scaron’s goons. I had no time to react before the other male took the rock that was in his hand and crushed it against my temple with incredible force. They’d set up a trap, and I’d walked right into it.