Total pages in book: 55
Estimated words: 51094 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 255(@200wpm)___ 204(@250wpm)___ 170(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51094 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 255(@200wpm)___ 204(@250wpm)___ 170(@300wpm)
Sorry...to disappoint. But it's...just...me.
The voice was deep - so much deeper than what she remembered - and a strangely, gravelly rustiness to it that didn't quite feel human.
But even so.
Even so.
Despite all these changes, that voice was something she would never mistake for anyone else—-
Her eyes started to blur even as her gaze flew up to frantically confirm what she believed, what she knew and her heart was absolutely convinced of.
Even with the curved horns, the razor-sharp fangs and claws...even after feeling the bestial and almost heathen-like power which simmered underneath all the fur - a beast in every way, she thought dizzily...
The voice alone told her, and those lavender-colored eyes...
Those eyes were all she needed to know it was him.
"Lysander?" Estrella's voice came out in an incredulous whisper, and her body started shaking uncontrollably in stunned relief as the beast before her slowly lowered its head in a nod.
It really was him.
Her prince.
Her husband.
Her Lysander.
IT WAS HARD TO KEEP still as Lysander felt her green eyes run over him with seemingly desperate need. She was not quite in shock, but she wasn't completely alright either, and the urge to comfort her was as instinctive and basic as the need to breathe.
Star.
The sound of his voice came out all wrong even to his ears, almost as if he was no longer used to speaking with a human tongue, and the Fae in him...it struggled to accept such barbaric changes. To the point that he almost didn't want to speak at all, knowing that the sound of his own voice would only fill him with self-disgust.
But when he saw the way her lips started to tremble, he didn't even have to think about it.
STAR.
And then he waited, knowing that this time she would either accept him as he was or—-
Oh my God. I'm finally being true to my name. I'm shining. Or rather, I have The Shining—-
She could also think her life had just become a page straight out of Stephen King's book.
And Lysander laughed.
For the first time in so many years, he laughed, and though it sounded fucking awful in his ears, it felt good. And right. Just goddamn right that it would be his mate to make him laugh. Just so fucking right that while he had been terrified she wouldn't be able to accept that his soul was one with a beast's, her first reaction was to think that she had suddenly obtained powers described in a work of fiction.
Looking down at his mate, he told her gravely, Sorry...to disappoint. But it's...just...me.
He waited for her to laugh, thinking she'd act embarrassed, but instead her gaze flew up, and he was stunned to see that her eyes were suddenly shining with tears. A moment later, and her gaze was moving over him frantically, and with her mind completely bared to him, her thoughts played out like a movie shot in 4K. He saw her take the changes in him, and he stiffened. The ram-like horns, fangs that could tear out flesh, claws that could gouge out a man's innards - he saw her staring at them one by one, and he sucked his breath. There could be a chance she'd still run away from him. Still a goddamn chance—-
Until he heard her whisper his name.
And he realized that despite seing all of these...she still also only saw him.
Her prince. Her husband. Her Lysander.
Those were her exact thoughts, the words like silent notes of music that serenaded his tired soul, and dark, raw pleasure blazed through both beast and man.
My...beautiful...faithful...Star. He just had to say it. Just...fucking...had to.
And the moment he did—-
She threw herself in his arms.
"Yes," she sobbed. "I'm your Star." And her arms tightened around his neck like she would never let go.
Chapter Four
Police sirens continued to wail as the twins spoke to human authorities and explained the reason behind the carnage. Abduction attempt. Hired assassins. Private matter. Estrella heard these words spoken over and over, not just by law enforcement officers walking within the yellow-taped perimeters of the crime scene but also by the crowd of human spectators that had gathered a respectable distance away.
They numbered by the hundreds now, and human crowds such as this would usually be more intrusive. No heckling or fights breaking out. No drunk catcalls or frenzied pleas to be turned. It was just silence, and it was all because of him.
Even with his deceptively couchant stance, Lysander's current form was still a disquietingly ferocious sight to behold, so massive and tall that Estrella, who at his command had come to sit on his back sidesaddle, still had her feet dangling in the air.
It had the humans gawking at them, their fascination as involuntary as their terror was instinctive. And they were right to feel frightened. Both man and beast did not feel right with the new order of the world, and only the feel of Estrella's fingers unconsciously stroking their fur kept them from snarling at the crowd. The humans reeked of fear, and the undercurrents of violence stewing underneath it wasn't helping put Lysander in a good mood.