Chapter Six

I spent longer than necessary in the hot shower, but coming out of my stone form was taxing on my body. I had to relax slowly and allow the blood to flow once again.

When I shifted into my gargoyle form, my human mind took a rest from everything that plagued it. Humans had REM sleep; we had our stone form. And after the shock of seeing that we finally had a match on the mating app, my mind needed the time to stop overthinking.

Once the warm water had almost fully woken me up, I turned the water to cold and let the chilly temperature finish the job. I didn’t drink coffee like Koruk, so cold water was the thing I relied on to get me going in the mornings.

Downstairs, I could hear Koruk making breakfast. Our bodies spent a lot of calories simply existing but as gargoyles, sometimes we found it difficult to eat enough to keep up with our needs. We shared the responsibility of cooking and did so with joy. We loved to cook even though some days, like the night before, we chose the convenience of eating at the Pub instead.

Some days, we were simply too damned tired. We lifted hundreds, if not thousands of pounds of stone every day and the project we were working on lately was no exception.

Once I was done dressing and convincing myself that last night wasn’t a dream, I bounded down the stairs, taking my time. Once I entered the kitchen, I noticed Koruk looking at his phone, nursing a second cup of coffee, judging by the half-empty pot.

Weird. Koruk was never on his phone.

“What’s got you so enchanted?” I asked with a smile, sitting next to him at the table. He’d prepared a feast as always and looking at it made me almost drool. I looked over his shoulder and noticed that the phone in his hand wasn’t his phone at all. It was mine.

“You signed us up for a mating app?” he asked. Koruk had never been the kind of male who was quick to anger. That’s why we got along so well. There honestly wasn’t a mad bone in our bodies despite our chiseled features that often gave people the impression otherwise. We were big guys. Some would say intimidating in size, but underneath our stony appearance was two shifters who wanted to work and be happy and love a female more than anything else in the world.

We were simple guys.

So when Koruk asked me the question, I answered truthfully knowing that he wasn’t angry, perhaps a bit curious. “Yes,” I said.

“And you…we got a match? A female named Malinda?” he asked, showing me the screen.

“We did. Well past midnight last night, or that’s when I checked the notification.”

Koruk looked back at the phone but then put it down. “When were you going to tell me?”

My shoulders slumped. We didn’t keep things from each other. Except this. “I didn’t want you to be disappointed if we didn’t get a match, and honestly, I only had a sliver of hope. I signed us up about a year ago and, until last night, no one matched to us. I was going to tell you this morning if she replied.”

He nodded. “Well, she did.” He took a long drag of his coffee, more creamer and sugar than anything else.

“You saw it?” I asked, picking up the device and clicking on the app.

“I did. Hello? That was all you could think to say?” He rolled his eyes.

“What did she say?” I asked, reading it to my friend out loud. “Hello back. I hope this isn’t a joke. This app has earned me messages from some crazies, and that’s putting it lightly. Not replying would be stone cold. Sorry. Had to.”

We both chuckled. Wasn’t the first time we’d heard that one, but at least she wasn’t being mean about it. There were some mean humans out there in the world, and just because we could turn to rock didn’t mean we didn’t have feelings that could be crushed.

“Reply to her. She deserves that. Then let’s really talk about this before it goes further, Oz.”

She deserved a reply? I agreed, but it seemed my best friend already had a small attachment to the female. A good thing.

I replied that we were, in fact, real. We were sorry she’d dealt with some crazies and we thought she was beautiful and wanted to get to know her better.

“Let’s talk about it, then,” I said, putting the phone down. “You looked at her profile?” I asked.

He nodded and honestly, I was surprised. Koruk didn’t really do tech. “She’s beautiful, like you said. She’s a graphic artist who works from home. Oz, her profile says she’s interested in gargoyles. No one is interested in gargoyles. Hell, I’m not interested in gargoyles. Why do you think that is?”

I shrugged. “I didn’t give it a thought. The app runs screens on profiles and background checks. I’m not really sure. But the real question is, do you want to go through with this? We have decided to live this life together and share a mate. Do you want to move forward with this? Take a chance?”

My best friend blew out a long breath and ran his fingers through his hair. “We want a mate and a family. We’ve always talked about it. This isn’t really the way I expected to meet our female.”

“In this day and age? I did. And Malinda works from home, so even if we lived across the street from her, we might not ever see her unless we went out at exactly the same time and ran into each other. Maybe this is the way Fate works in this era.”

My phone beeped and I didn’t hesitate to pick it up. It was Malinda. “She replied. She said thank you to the compliment and wants to know if gargoyles are actually real.”

We both laughed. Koruk pushed his phone toward me. “Put the app on my phone too. Sign me in. I want to talk to her as well.”

I signed him in and replied to Malinda.

Female, we can guarantee you that we are as real as you. And yes, just so we’re clear, we can turn into stone. Sexy, right? LOL.