Page 14 of All for the Beast

“Come on,” he said, waving his hand as though trying to clear the air. “It’s not that big of a deal.”

“Our son’s in love!” Dad boasted. “It’s about time!”

“How do you know, though?” Vharlk turned to his mother, who wiped a tear from her eye. “How do you know when you’ve found the one?”

“Oh, honey,” Mom replied, clasping his hand in hers. “You just know. There’s no formula to work out or pill you can take. When you meet someone who lights up your life, you hold onto them with both hands.” She squeezed his hand in emphasis. “It sounds like you’ve already found her.”

A knock sounded at the door, and Dad sprung up to get it. “Well, now I finally get to see what all the fuss is about.”

“Please be normal,” Vharlk said in response. He and Mom followed Dad to the hall. “I am begging you to be normal.”

“Oh, hush,” Mom said.

Dad opened the door with a flourish to reveal Katy and Gerri. They had both changed from what they wore earlier in the day, Gerri to a tailored suit that made her look even more powerful than she already was, and Katy in a dress the color of the ocean which clung to her effortlessly. Her hair flowed down her shoulders like a waterfall, which was the color of sea-soaked and sun-drenched sand, as though she and the waves were one and the same.

Vharlk immediately greeted them, smoothing down his shirt. Why was he so nervous? He had spoken with Katy only an hour before, yet seeing her now made him feel like a young pup desperately trying to make his crush fall in like with him.

“Hi, Katy,” he said, attempting a grin that probably made him look weird.

She smiled a little, brushing her hair back from her face. He longed to run his paws through it to feel how soft it was. Would she like that? Does she want to feel his touch as much as he wants to give it?

“Well, what do we have here?” Dad stood back to let them in, holding out his hand for Katy to shake. “Katy, I presume?”

Katy smiled. “The one and only. And you must be Vharlk’s parents?”

“It feels like we know each other already,” Mom said, kissing Katy on the cheek. “Please, come in and sit.”

Katy strode over to Vharlk with that powerful gait, and he led her into the dining room. While they were in the hallway, the servants had filled the table with delicacies. Vharlk could not wait to see Katy taste them, but she looked taken aback.

“What is all this?”

Vharlk had never encountered someone with such little knowledge of Siborim. “It’s food. We eat it.” He winked at her to settle her nerves.

She pouted at him. “Great, thanks. As long as it won’t poison me.”

“I promise your delicate Earthly constitution will remainunpoisoned.”

She laughed and sat in the chair Vharlk pulled out for her, and he sat in the adjacent one. He wouldn’t be able to stand it if they weren’t within reach of each other. They were soon joined by Gerri and Vharlk’s parents, and in a matter of minutes, since Gerri and Katy had arrived, they tucked in with vigor.

Well, almost everyone did. Katy looked around at the food, her eyebrows pinched together in worry. Even her nervousness was cute. Vharlk was so smitten he could hardly stand it.

He leaned over to her and whispered. “Do you need some help?”

Her eyes pleaded with him. “Yes. I don’t know what any of it is.”

He chuckled and pulled a plate toward them. Loaded onto it was a succulent pile of tentacles dredged from the deepest part of the Siborim ocean. Her expression betrayed how weird she found it.

“It’s steamed rain gerboa. It’s a delicacy.”

“Oh, um,” she said. “It smells … fishy.”

Vharlk could tell she was trying to be diplomatic despite her distaste, which made him laugh. He picked up another dish, this one topped with crumbed filets.

“Quostrokra. It tastes like Earth chicken.”

She looked around at her plate and came up with nothing. “Where are the knives and forks?”

He shrugged. “We don’t use them.”

---