Page 53 of Primal

“Zyran?” Kiara comes in and looks around the small room, a mixture of confusion and amazement on her face. “What the hell is all this?”

There are pictures of her everywhere—covering nearly every inch of wall space and even scattered across the floor.

She picks up a picture of her and Yolanda at the club the night I saved them from those assholes they were with. At the sight of her friend, Kiara’s bottom lip starts to tremble from the urge to cry.

“I miss her,” she whispers, wiping her face.

I nod. “I know, baby. But she’ll eventually come around like you did with me,” I say hopefully.

A part of me doesn’t want Yolanda to let Kiara back into her life, because I want her all for myself. It’s nice not having to compete with someone else for her attention.

Kiara sets the picture back down and leaves the room. I follow her out and close both doors behind me.

“So… you were living in there?” she asks.

I nod.

“For how long?”

“Over a year.”

Her eyes widen, and I can see the moment everything clicks into place on her face. “That explains the noises I’d been hearing. I thought it was Grandma and Grandpa, but it was you.”

I nod again. “Does that bother you, butterfly?”

She thinks for a moment, then she shakes her head and says, “No. Surprisingly.”

I smile and hand her the gift bag. Her small hands shake as she takes the tissue paper out and pulls out a framed picture of her with her mother and grandparents. I don’t know exactly how old she is in the picture, but she was probably in her late teens, since that’s when her mother passed away.

Immediately, she’s so overcome with emotion that she almost falls to her knees, but I catch her before she can. She wraps her arms around my neck and grips me tightly.

“Thank you so much,” she whispers in between sobs.

I smooth a hand down her hair and back and place a soft kiss to her temple. “There’s something else in the bag.”

Pulling away, I take the picture from her so she can pull out the two brand new bottles of perfume I bought her.

She smiles as she takes the cap off one and sprays the side of my neck. Burying her face there, she deeply inhales the scent on my skin.

“It smells better on you,” she mumbles, wrapping her arms around my waist.

I pull her closer and nuzzle my nose into her thick curls. I don’t know how long we stand there for, but neither one of us makes any attempt to pull away. Even through our layers of clothing, I can feel her heart beating in tune with mine.

This is where I belong—right here with my butterfly. I want nothing more than to spend the rest of my life with Kiara. To maybe start a family with her—if she wants one—to grow old and gray with her, and in our final moments, breathe our last breaths together. No one else can complete me the way she does.

She’s it for me. Today, tomorrow, and every day after that.

EPILOGUE

KIARA

Six months later

The sound of shattering glass comes from downstairs, followed by a loud crash. I sit up in bed and look around my darkened room, blinking rapidly to clear the sleep from my eyes.

“Zyran,” I whisper, reaching out for him in the darkness, only for my hand to graze over the cool sheet on his side of the bed.

Where the hell is he?

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