Page 34 of Forbidden Desires

Amelia wasn’t worried about the male because it seemed like Zylar knew him if the bro hug they just exchanged meant anything.

The male was tall, well over six feet, maybe six-two. She was never good at estimating heights. He was simply much taller than she was. Amelia took one more peek at the male and decided he was hiding. She wasn’t sure how she knew it, but someone else who could see through his glamor was going to have to describe him. She had enough on her hands with big purple.

He winked at her. That male was going to break someone’s heart one day if he hadn’t already.

Zylar made a hand movement, and she saw a portal that would transport them to the house. She liked the Diza a lot. They were sneaky and kept most things to themselves.

She eyed the male with them and then looked at her mate.

“Don’t mind him,” Zylar said. “He’s just another monster in hiding.”

Oh, hell.

Chapter Nineteen

“Care to introduce me?” Amelia said after her stomach settled without emptying its contents all over the floor.

A loud meow distracted her. Helee’s head popped out of the bag Zylar was carrying. She forgot Helee was in the pouch, as Zylar called it. The pouch was invisible, but sometimes when he moved, she could glimpse it.

“Helee,” the strange male said. Helee jumped into his arms, and they started talking like it was an actual conversation.

Amelia realized she’d been so caught up in herself and the ‘did she or didn’t she’ want a mate. Everything that was happening around her was nothing except so much background noise. It was time to step into what was happening around her. Yippee, just in time for the Tan-ge to try to kill her. Her timing might be off, just saying.

“Do you want to introduce your friend?” She gave her mate a hopeful look as he looked at the unnamed male and back at her.

“Nope.”

“Wait, did you just pop your ‘P’?” She shook her head. What was life, anyway? The longer she was with Zylar, the more she saw the differences and the things they had in common. When did she start believing that someone who didn’t look like her was so different from her that she should be inherently afraid of them? What spin doctor worked on that over the years that she was almost born with it in her DNA?

She leaned over, not sure that she wasn’t queasy at all the new revelations. There was magic in the air, and it wasn’t the Diza portal. This magic clung to the air, to the very life that made Earth. It must be steeped deep into the ground, which was brown, by the way. Or at least the dirt she knew was brown. It was Earth. God only knew what there was that no one felt the need to talk about. Was there yellow dirt? Maybe somewhere. Would scientists tell them about it? No, why rock the boat?

That was too many revelations about her planet. “Hello, male, that my mate won’t name.”

“He doesn’t name me for reasons, the same way he won’t be telling me your name. Hello, mate of my friend. I know my friend’s name and refuse to say it. There is magic on this plane that anyone in the know needs to be careful of. Humans bypass it because they aren’t in the know.”

“I don’t think I ever felt stupid before today. To realize that such fundamental things are happening in the world around me, and I was clueless about them.” She was still clueless because no one was coming straight out and saying what was happening.

“Long before you and most of the humans, someone planted the magic I speak of into the depths of the earth. How would you know?”

Hadn’t she heard a question like that recently? How would she know? Wait, a minute.

“What do you mean, most humans?”

“You didn’t think all humans die between seventy and one hundred, did you?” He wandered off with Helee in his arms.

“Will Helee be okay?” Don’t tell anyone, but that five-pound ball of fur is growing on me.

“He’ll be fine. Let’s find my cousins and yours.” Wow, talk about families intermingling. This might be the height of it.

Zylar took her small hand into his much larger one. She couldn’t help the smile that said that’s right, bitches he’s mine.

***

If outside was something to look at inside, there was a catfight happening between three women, all of whom claimed to be next.

“Get out, bitch. Only three women are allowed in the house to wait, and you’re not part of our group.”

The grumpy woman was a redhead with pretty brown eyes that seemed to glow on the edges. Which made Amelia wonder if she was a baby fyra in hiding. It was the only thing that was going to stop her from pulling the plug on that woman. She should stop talking because Amelia was feeling the need to unalive her. The woman shut up as if she had a sudden picture of her death or unaliveness.

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