Page 6 of His Human to Charm

“Who will come up with the first plan?” Lyath asks when I start to calm down.

Erkoz waits only a few moments before he claps his hands together and tells us all exactly what I need to do to woo the female I want to be my mate.

4

Toron

Four Days Before Kidnapping

“It is only two bedrooms. We cannot have young, so it makes no sense for us to have more,” Lyath is telling me about the house he and Beren are planning to move into when the weather clears and the supplies from the other tribes begin to arrive. They are hoping for many seeds that they can begin to plant and harvest in greater quantities now that our tribe will be growing. They kept smaller land inside the walls of the tribe, but their small garden was enough with the amount of olack we were able to hunt and prepare. “Really, we could remove the inner wall of the second bedroom if you think it is unnecessary for the structure. Then we would have more space in the living area.”

“What if you want guests?” I ask. There is a reason we all mostly stay in the great hall, and it is because we are creatures who enjoy being close to one another. Even if Beren and Lyath do not have young, they will have brothers who stay with them whether they want it or not, and they most surely will want it.

“If we want company, we can sit in the great hall. There is no way all of the males will still be here once they have human mates. Besides, we see all of you enough as it is. Now that more of you are mating, Beren feels more comfortable with showing me affection, and it also means you all make him much angrier, especially Erkoz.”

“He taunts us with his mate,” Beren seethes as he leans against the wall. “We enjoy watching his mate just as he enjoys knowing others are watching her. Yet he still feels the need to ask questions of my mate when I am not near. Is it really so strange for us to want to watch a human female and still be mated to one another?”

My brows furrow as I listen to the two males bicker over a female that plenty of us have watched bathe. I always thought it was strange that the two would make themselves watch her if they were uninterested in females, but now I am even more confused.

“Do you two not make love with one another?” I ask, knowing the question might be considered rude, but I would ask it of one of my brothers who bed females. So I can ask it of my brothers who bed males.

“We do.” Beren narrows his eyes at me, his fist tensing at his side. “That is what mates do, is it not?”

His answer does nothing but confuse me further, but thankfully, I am saved from having to ask even more questions to make it make sense when Alice’s bedroom door slowly opens. Beren straightens from the wall and helps his mate up off the floor where he is sitting.

“Stick with the plan.” Lyath gives me an energetic nod as he follows his mate out of the hallway and into the dining hall before Alice even steps foot out of her room.

I can do this. I have been going over the plan in my head over and over since Lyath and Erkoz finalized it yesterday while we were eating breakfast. We have spent the last couple of days making up many different plans. Finally, we came up with one that is perfect. I just need to remember everything they told me now that my mate is stepping out of her bedroom, looking absolutely stunning and so beautiful. She turns to face me, and all thoughts in my mind leave me. The plan? Gone. My name? Gone. Any words at all? Goddess help me because they are gone.

Alice startles when she sees me sitting at the end of the hall, my hands on my thighs, claws pressing into my knees, and my eyes deep red. Her face flushes, and my pathetic, unmated mind wonders where else she might be flushed. This, of course, leads to a hiss rattling out from beneath my teeth as I imagine what she’ll look like flushed for me. Her eyes widened in fear for, and I can see the look of fright for just a moment as she looks back at her bedroom door. She does not go back inside, though. No, she takes a slow step toward me, then another, and another until she is close to me but not close enough for me to touch. I stay perfectly still, willing her to say or do anything that tells me she is open to me pursuing her.

“Do you sit out here?” My mate’s voice is like music when I hear it. The sweetest sound to have ever graced my ears, and it makes me stare at her dumbly for far too long. Her fingers tug at one another as she tangles them together.

“I want to make sure that you are safe.” My voice is rougher than I mean for it to be, but I am filled with need for my mate whenever she is near. The feeling will only grow and grow until either she allows me the honor of mating her or my brothers must put me down because I go mad in my need.

Alice’s eyes widen even more. “How long have you been out here?”

“Since you told me you did not wish to make love with me,” I answer her quickly, probably too quickly, considering how she steps away from me as soon as the words are out of my mouth.

I want to comfort her and tell her it is okay and that she has nothing to feel scared of, but I am the thing she is scared of. She thinks of me as a monster, and I can only wait for her to either see me differently or accept that maybe she wants to mate a monster. I would be happy with either outcome, to be honest. I just want my mate, even if she thinks I am monstrous.

“So you’ve been out here this whole time?”

She looks from the archway leading to the dining hall back to me and back out to the dining hall again like it is too difficult to even look at me. It is not something I like because I want her to enjoy looking at me as I enjoy looking at her, but her eyes bounce to me for a moment before finding something else to look at instead.

Does she not like my appearance, or is she scared, and not looking at me makes it easier to speak with me?

“I need to make sure you are safe,” I kind of answer her question, but I know I am dodging what she is really asking.

Alice takes a deep breath, and my eyes drop to where her chest rises. I scold myself when I find the dark peaks of her breasts underneath her tunic. Thankfully, she is still not looking at me, so she does not see me ogling her for just a moment before I force my gaze back to her face.

“I know you do not wish to share a bed with me, but I will keep you safe. I do this whether or not you choose to be my mate.”

“You do?” Her dark, bushy brows rise high on her head, and her voice is higher than it normally is. I would find it amusing if I knew what these reactions meant. My mate’s actions are confusing, and I am only more confused when she fiddles with her fingers. Her eyes also refuse to look at me. It is as if she does not want to be near me or is unsettled by me.

I push back the feeling of doubt in my mind and the worry of my mate fearing me. I need her to know exactly what I will do for her because sitting in this chair at the end of her hall is the easiest of them all.

“I will do anything for you.” I pause for a moment, wanting to say her name. I keep the word in my throat, refusing to let it go because it will only unsettle her more.

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