Page 10 of His Human to Charm

I rub my eyes, my claws catching on my temple and cutting into me. I snarl at the open air and turn my gaze upward. The light in the sky has been gone for a long while now, but I am just noticing. It was still light in the trees when I first heard Alice calling to me. How long have I been chasing after my own thoughts?

“Toron, I need you.” I groan as my mind makes Alice’s voice sound needy and desperate, much like I feel.

I no longer fight the urge to chase down the sound. I am lost to it. Lost in it. If I cannot find my mate, at least my last moments of sanity before starvation kicks in will be of me hearing her voice, even if it is all just in my mind.

“Alice,” I whisper her name, too ashamed of myself for never actually saying it to her. Ashamed that I never spoke with her about what was happening between us. I gave her the space I thought she needed, and now there may never be anything but space between us again.

“Toron—“ Alice’s voice is cut off by a low growl that makes my entire body tense. It’s a sound I have been blessed not to hear on the nights I have been out in the trees looking for my mate. Of course, now that I am partially lost to the need of not being mated to Alice, the verpars finally make themselves known.

There is only a single growl, but a verpar is unlikely to be out hunting alone, especially when the storms have long since passed. When the nights are clear, they hunt in packs of two or three, which means I am going to have to fight a few of them if I want to survive long enough to try to hear my Alice’s voice again.

A second growl sounds to my left, and my body springs into motion. All the need and desire for my mate that has been driving me mad since the light was still high in the sky is replaced with a deep hatred and anger that simmers under my scales and makes my body warm. My rage and bloodlust have nothing to be sated on when I do not have a mate, but the verpar that think to attack me? They are something that will take the edge off the burning of my scales.

One of the verpar jumps at me, jaw unhinging as it lunges without any care for how much stronger I am now than when one of them attacked me as a young child. Even I do not know why I have feared them for so long because I slice through its fur-covered body in one arc that has it howling in pain before snapping its teeth at me again.

Its body hunches over, teeth barred in a snarl, but it stands its ground. Its eyes track to the side where I see a second verpar timidly walking back toward the trees, two young tucked between her legs. My brows furrow, a hollow realization settling in my chest. I am the monster to these creatures, just as I am the monster to my Alice.

“You are protecting your mate?” My words are unintelligible, not that the verpar can understand me. Its hair is becoming matted with the blood from his wound.

The cut I gave him isn’t life-threatening, and he should heal just fine, but if he lunges for me again, I do not know if I am willing to let him kill me to keep his mate safe since there is still a chance I can find mine.

His growl is loud in the air around me, but he doesn’t make a move to lunge. Instead, his eyes flicker from where I stand, trying to be as unintimidating as possible to his mate with their cubs. I let out a deep sigh when the verpar finally starts to retreat back into the trees away from me. His mate is far enough that he feels I am not a threat to his cubs.

“At least one of us was successful,” I mutter to myself.

“Toron, come find me.” Alice’s voice grabs my attention, and I run after it again, no longer telling myself that it is all in my mind. I no longer care at all because at least I can hear her sweet voice.

7

Alice

Three Days Before Kidnapping

I’m sitting at one of the dining room tables that the women have moved all the way against one wall so we can have a girl’s night. When Olivia asked me to join her and the other women to hang out, a part of me thought it would be on our own, like in one of the rooms. Not in the dining hall with all of the demons still there and a handful of them watching us like hawks from a table far enough away that they can’t hear us but close enough that they can see us.

“Ignore the grumps,” Olivia says as she grabs my attention. “Some of them get weird when their mates aren’t within eyesight, so it’s better we hang out here rather than be pestered every five minutes when one of them comes knocking on the door to see what we’re doing.”

I take another peek over my shoulder and notice Toron staring at me. He’s sitting with his elbows on his knees, leaning forward so he can be as close to our table as possible without breaking the rules set out for the males for the night. The rules are part of the reason I’m even out here for girl’s night.

I mean, I want to have friends as well, but I don’t want to be poked fun at again just to run off crying and for my demon man to think I’m crying because of him. I still haven’t worked up the courage to tell him that I want to mate him, but I did decide to put on the one tunic I have of his from the first day I arrived here. So now, I’m wearing his tunic, watching him over my shoulder, waiting for him to realize I am not worth the trouble.

I don’t mind Toron watching us at all. In fact, the longer I’m on this planet, the more and more I want to be around him. I’ve found myself making excuses why I might need to go to the dining room or one of the other women’s rooms so I can pass by him in the hallway.

He always stares at me with a hopeful look, and every time, I want to crawl up into his lap and ask him to help me figure all of this out. I never do. What am I supposed to do? Walk up to him, tell him I want to know what it will feel like if he were to wrap his arms around me, and then wait for him to laugh at me? No, thank you. I might be slowly depleting the pride I have with how much I cry and hide in my room, but I’m not going to nuke it all by being downright rejected.

“Stare at him outright.” Kendra, one of the women mated to two of the demons, leans over and offers me a small cup with a clear liquid in it. She tilts her chin in Toron’s direction and gives me an eyebrow wiggle. “The demons are bad at body language unless that language is grinding on them. He probably thinks you’re scared of him if you keep tucking your eyes away from him.”

I take the cup and sniff it to try to see what’s in it. My nose scrunches up as the potent smell of alcohol hits my senses. I don’t even hesitate to knock the drink back. It’s been two years since I’ve last had a drink, and if the women are drinking it, it must not kill us any quicker than human alcohol would. After scrunching my face in disgust, I turn back to Kendra and give her a confused look.

“Why would he think I’m scared of him?” I ask as she pours a bit more of the alcohol into my cup.

I don’t toss this one back. Instead, I glance over my shoulder and see Toron’s body is a bit more tense, his hands gripping his knees tight. The demon sitting next to him laughs about something before grabbing Toron’s shoulder and trying to get him to relax a bit. Of course, Toron does no such thing as his red eyes stay focused on me.

“My mates tell me that he thinks you think he’s a monster. They’ve all been scheming different ways for him to be seen as sweeter, but Toron’s not the best at following through on the plan. He still hasn’t even succeeded in step one.”

“And step one is?” I lean closer to Kendra like we’re sharing secrets. It kind of feels like we are until Deja, who is apparently my family, according to all of the other demons, leans in and waits exactly like me. Like she’s just as interested in what this plan is as I am.

“Step one is to get you comfortable enough to speak with him while looking at him.” Kendra snorts at the end, and a full laugh erupts from her chest. “I’ve tried telling them you’re just a little shy, but the demons don’t seem to get that since they’re all annoying assholes to each other.”

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