Page 37 of Elf

Of course Ezra had heard of soulmates but that wasn’t something he’d ever believed in. Two beings who were destined for each other. Two halves of a whole.

Alaric did that thing Ezra loved—framing his face with his hands and leaning in close. His warm breath brushed over Ezra’s lips. There was something so intimate about the gesture. Made Ezra feel…precious.

“I did not want to do this here, in this place of heartbreak, but maybe it’s fitting. Maybe it’ll give you a final, better memory.” He kissed Ezra softly. “You are my soulmate, Ezra. Being able to see through glamours is just the start. You were meant to bindwith me, live with me all the days of my long life. If that’s what you want, of course.”

“Bind with you. Is it permanent?”

“Would you want it to be?”

Ezra gulped, staring hard up at Alaric. Fear gripped his heart. Could he tell the truth and put himself out there like that? Could he tell this beautiful supernatural man that he was head over heels in love with him?

Alaric removed his hands and took a step back. “It’s all happening too quickly, isn’t it? I’ve freaked you out.”

“No!”

He hadn’t meant to yell, but he didn’t want Alaric getting the wrong idea from his hesitation. He was just so fucking scared. But as he stood there, he realized Alaric deserved the truth of what he was feeling. All of it.

“I’m scared, okay?” His voice came out raspy and swallowed the lump in his throat. “Terrified, actually. You’re, well, you aren’t even human, and you have magic. How could you want to tie your very long life to mine? To someone like me? You see what I come from? Talk about your shitty gene pool.”

“Ezra, I’m in love with you. I was drawn to you even before you started revealing who you really are. Which is someone who feels things deeply and spent his entire life without anyone to show him how worthy he is of love. Every new glimpse of that heart you try to keep hidden drew me in more. I know you’re someone special, and I want you to be mine. If that’s what you want.” He paused and grinned. “And not everything about me is perfect. I am too quick to judge people, I absolutely hate to eat anything from the ocean, and I come with a huge, extremely nosy family who will be poking their matching large noses into our lives.”

“How big exactly?”

“Parents and eighteen siblings.”

“Holy shit. Eighteen? I can’t even imagine having that many.”

“Yes, and they are all nosy, with the exception of Bastian, who gives us all fits because he gets in trouble so much. But I will tell you this. They will all, even Bast, love you and fully accept you into the family, especially when they learn we’re actual soulmates. Because that’s rare, Ezra. But they will also seeyou. They will love you for who you are. Just as I do.”

Ezra’s eyes filled with tears he couldn’t help.

“Ezra?”

He lurched forward, throwing himself at Alaric who easily caught and held him. He buried his face in Alaric’s neck. “I love you, too.”

“Thank the gods,” Alaric breathed as he held Ezra tight.

“I need you to take me away from here. I want to shower this day away and then crawl into a bed with you so it will all go away.”

Alaric tightened his arms, making Ezra feel safe. “I want the same.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Alaric

Two months later, Alaric sat with his father on the porch of their sprawling family home in Maine. He’d brought Ezra to meet his family, and they were all so excited, everyone had come, so they had a houseful. Ezra, completely bemused by the joyful acceptance, had warmed more quickly than Alaric had hoped. And Alaric’s family had immediately adopted him as one of their own—just as Alaric had known they would. It did his heart well to see the man he loved surrounded by a real family and not that cesspool of disgusting humanity that had raised him. Ones who were now going to trial for more atrocities than they’d known about.

Turned out Ezra’s mother had very much been a part of her husband’s criminal empire. There was enough evidence to put her away for the rest of her life. Ezekiel was still in recovery but faced the same sentence she did.

But Ezra was handling it well. They’d moved in together, spending a lot of their nights listening to Ezra’s incredible music collection and just wallowing in their affection for each other. Alaric had even taken him to meet Sammy, who’d brightened upincredibly when she’d seen how special Ezra was to Alaric. Now Ezra came with him more times than not, and every visit seemed to liven Sammy more. That life thread of hers seemed to have a little more spark, which gave him hope they’d end up celebrating her ninetieth birthday—which was still years away.

“Tell me something, Alaric,” his father said, pulling him from his thoughts. “Had you been growing weaker over the last year or so?”

“Yes, how did you guess?” He eyed his father, who didn’t look old enough to have so many children since he’d hit his peak around twenty-five and stopped aging. Alaric had gotten his black curls from him. And his nose. All his siblings had inherited the nose.

His father folded his hands together on his chest as he leaned back in his seat. “Our kind, elves, will feel this when we are close to our soulmate for a long period of time without meeting them. It builds slowly, so you wouldn’t have noticed it happening. Did you feel stronger once you met?”

Alaric nodded. “I felt a lot of things when we met.”

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