2. Granite

CHAPTER 2

Granite

I can't stop staring at the picture on her website. She's beautiful. Emerald green eyes that sparkle with laughter and blond curls lit with fiery red highlights glowing with life. I can't tell from the picture but the image I have in my mind is full of curves like a winding road and she's tiny. Oh, so tiny compared to my seven foot frame.

I'm not the biggest gargoyle out there. We're big guys on the whole but I feel like I will tower over this temptress. My body aches with urges unlike anything I've ever felt before and my loin cloth keeps jerking when my dick hardens even further than it's been since I heard her sweet voice on the phone.

My dick hardened instantly.

Now, I'm fighting the urge to fly down to that damn bakery and pick her up, whirling her away to the top of the spooky old castle that I live in one day a year. The rest of the time I'm perched on the roof, my eyes seeing everything but unable to move.

Only that one day a year do I get the chance to do more than stare off into space. The one day that I get a chance to find true love. I sigh and run my hands through my shoulder-length black hair. Flecks of gray dot the temples now and sparkle like icing on some of the strands.

One hundred and fifty years I've been cursed by Menen. One hundred and fifty years she's only given me one day to find my true love. I can't even beg her to get rid of this curse because during the third year she was killed by a man she attacked.

Her mind had been turned by all the things she'd done and she just lost it.

So now I was cursed and the only thing that would save me is true love.

I've waited this long but the urge to get my hands on the little baker tells me that I might have found her. Finally.

My fated mate. A century and a half of waiting may finally be over if I can convince her in one damn day that we are meant to be.

That shouldn't be a problem. Women fall for men in short amounts of time all the time. I can convince her that we're true love and all that. Right?

My whole body itches with hunger and desire and I fling my door open, running out and then stopping, falling to my knees and howling, roaring with it. My fingers rip at my hair and then my wings flare out behind me.

I can't wait. I need to catch a glimpse of this angel in person. See if I'm right. Because if I am, I need to get this figured out quickly.

I need to win my mate today. There's no other option. If I have to wait another year, someone else who isn't cursed may get the opportunity to swoop in and trick her into believing she's meant for them.

That cannot happen.

I run to the woods and then all the way to the summit of the mountain behind me, leaping into the wind and letting it carry me effortlessly.

The cool air washes over me and I feel my hot blood boiling under my skin. I groan and float over the town, the delicious smells in the air finally coalescing in front of a cute little building with a huge peach cupcake on the sign.

"Tricks and Treats," I grumble under my breath. "I hope that the treat I've been looking to devour for a century is finally in sight because I'm fucking starving for a taste of my mate."

I let the air currents settle on my wings and I glide into the top of the little grocery store across from the bakery. I stiffen when I see movement inside and my whole body tightens into a ball of hunger. Desire sings in my veins, heating up my ice-cold blood for the first time in so long. Forever.

I can see her dancing through the entry between the kitchen and the front door, her thick hips swaying and her fiery blond hair falling out of the little kerchief she's wearing to protect it from flour and stuff.

My dick hardens and my loin cloth stirs, trying to give free rein to my lust. I push it down and settle on that roof, intent on spending the rest of the day here, staring at my little love.

I need to plan, need to figure out how to convince her that this is it. We're meant to be together. For the rest of our lives.

My heart beats faster as I picture her soft pink skin under me, her glorious green gaze fixed on my own eyes as I feel her tighten around me.

She's so tiny. I'll have to be careful not to hurt her.

But one way or another, even if I have to kidnap her. This woman is mine and I intend to claim her before midnight rings out in the air.

This is my last time that I'll have to worry about the curse. She's my savior. My future.

My mate.