Page 9 of Enchanting Her Mate

I do not like this vow she offers me. Fear is all I know. It is all I have known for centuries. If she does not continue to act on her impulses the way she does, fearlessly, will we never kiss again? “What if I want you to kiss me, but I am too afraid to ask?”

Alu’s gaze drops from my eyes to my lips and back again. “Would a Prime Hexrin ask to be kissed? Or would they act on their desires?”

“Well, I suppose they would act on their desires,” I begin, “but surely you are not suggesting I kiss you before asking if it is allowed. What if you do not want me to kiss you?”

She chuckles, shaking her head. Then her grip tightens on my wrist as she pulls me against her. “There will never come a time when I do not want you to kiss me, tiny witch. Trust me on that.”

CHAPTER 6

JO

It is late into the morning by the time Alu returns home from her flight. I crane my head back to watch her circle above her cottage in her draxilio form before she gradually floats down to the ground. Her massive claws dig into the soil beneath her feet as she stretches her long, thick neck. Then she shakes her gigantic draxilio head, and the shake travels down her neck, into her chest, and ripples through the rest of her body. It reminds me of the way Stahn-lee the tr-gory pup shakes the muck out of his fur after he has been playing in a puddle.

Alu steals my breath when she is in this form. It still mystifies me that this terrifying creature who sits before me––with her many sharp teeth and black spikes running down her back––who is twice the size of the cottage, shares a mind with the uniquely brilliant and beautiful female who kissed me only hours prior.

My eyes travel down the shimmering blue scales of her draxilio body, and I notice there is something clutched inside her back left claw. She turns it over, and dozens of round pink fruits spill onto the ground. A heartbeat later, Alu shifts into her flightless form and starts gathering the fruit in her arms with an excited look on her face.

“Come help me carry these,” she says. I race to her side and start tucking them into my arms.

It takes three trips to bring all of them inside. “What are they?” I ask, turning one over in my hand.

“I call them juicy sour balls,” she says with a shrug, as she bites through the tough skin. The pale pink juice drips down her chin and runs down her chest, leaving a wet mark in the center of her olive-green top that wraps around her breasts and ribs. The bottom half of her stomach is bared, and my gaze lingers on the muscles that contract with each breath she takes.

I still do not understand the mechanics of the Sufoian device implanted in Alu’s arm that removes her clothes upon shifting into her draxilio, and puts them back on when she returns to her flightless form, but I am quite amazed by it.

“Try one,” she urges, gesturing to the fruit I am still holding. Without knowing much about this fruit other than what Alu calls it, I am hesitant to bite into it. But as I watch Alu continue to sink her teeth into hers, sucking and licking the juices that spill forth, well, I am losing interest in eating altogether. I am also reminded that this is a small example of how fear guides my choices.

It is fruit. There is nothing dangerous about it. I should not be so hesitant to take a bite.

Closing my eyes, I dive in, fangs first, and I am overwhelmed as the sour, but tasty liquid of the juicy sour ball floods my tongue. “Mmm,” I mumble with my mouth full.

“Mmm-hmm,” Alu replies encouragingly, deep into her second juicy sour ball.

We eat several of these fruits, quietly munching side by side in Alu’s eating room. The juice stains our clothes completely by the time we are finished.

“Oh no!” Alu cries as she takes in the state of my dress. “Wait here. I shall get something for you to wear, so we may wash this.”

I wait in the eating room, my hands sticky from the juice and my belly full of fruit. It was not a balanced meal by any means, but it was certainly delicious.

Alu returns moments later with clothing draped over her arm; without putting our sticky fingers on the garments, she transfers the clothes to my arm. “The washroom is at the end of the hall on the left.”

I lift the arm that is holding the clothing. “Thank you for these.”

Alu’s washroom is quite roomy, with sparkling white tiles on the walls and floor, a waste box in the far corner, two sinks, and a large wash box that the entire coven could fit into. Once I am inside the wash box, the smell of Alu’s soap causes me to moan as I work it into my mane and massage my scalp. The dominant scent is crisp and fresh like the Trovilian sea, with just a hint of sweetness.

I use one of Alu’s giant towels to dry off and put on her clothes. The black sleeveless shirt is loose in the chest area, which is to be expected, as my breasts are much smaller than hers. The pants, however, are far too big, but luckily Alu put a thin belt made of rope in here, and it is strong enough to hold my pants up when I secure it around my waist. I roll the cuffs of the pants up to my shins and tuck them into the tops of my boots, and then make my way out to the main room.

Alu smiles brightly when she sees me. “You look lovely.”

I can feel my cheeks heat as her gaze drifts down my body. “Thank you,” I reply, my tone quiet.

She says she is going to check on Mek in his room, and I head outside to continue practicing my magic. Beginning with the exercises I learned at the Hexrin academy, I go through each, and then eventually move on to the moderate and more advanced spells. I find them all to be incredibly easy, and I start to wonder why I am behaving as if I have forgotten everything I have learned. There is no reason for me to treat this as a re-education of basic craft.

Knowing I have the space to push my boundaries, and that no one shall be hurt in the process, I start working with orbs. I am able to manipulate the elements in nature and capture them in an orb between my hands, so that is what I do.

Starting with air, I spread my fingers wide while holding my hands shoulder-width apart. Closing my eyes, I listen to the sound of the wind moving through the trees, lifting leaves off the ground, and kicking around minuscule bits of dust and dirt from various surfaces. Then, slowly, I move my hands closer together as I envision trapping the wind inside the orb. It whistles as I draw it toward me, getting louder with each bit of distance I remove between my hands.

I feel the familiar flicker of excitement the moment the wind picks up inside the orb, whipping around in a frenzy as I hold it in place. This is the feeling that terrifies me. Bending nature to my will is an acknowledgment of the strength of my power. A voice inside my head shouts for me to let go, to release the wind to its natural state, as I have no right to manipulate the weather. But I ignore the voice, just as I think Alu would if she had the voice of fear inside her head. She would hold tight to see what comes of this.

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