Page 47 of Bitten By the Basilisk

“My kind rarely mates with outsiders, even other supernaturals, as they tend to have far different lifespans. I’ll likely only live another hundred years, perhaps longer.”

While yielding to a pair of pedestrians crossing the street, he glanced at his passenger. “How long do descendants of kitsune usually live?”

Her eyes, trained on him, blinked at his unexpected tangent. She dipped her gaze in thought, before shyly admitting, “Uh…about the same.”

“Hmm.” He made the sound rather pointedly, one corner of his mouth twitching upward. So they were not only similar in age but also in longevity.

As he continued to stare, she became adorably self-conscious, biting on the inside of her lip, a blush spreading across her cheeks, yet she didn’t break eye contact. Was she perhaps starting to understand?

The road ahead now clear, he returned his attention to it and continued his story without segue. “A few summers ago, I met a woman while we were both getting lunch. She was a normie, in town for a couple of months to attend some lectures at the university. She didn’t know me or my family. She was easy to talk to and considered herself a romantic.

“We spent a lot of her time here together, and I convinced myself that what I felt for her was far deeper than any other relationship I’d ever pursued.”

In hindsight, the reason for his infatuation was clear. Moments before meeting Heather, he had received an invitation to the next mating festival, which another nest would host. Meanwhile, his parents had recently begun living separately so they could more easily pursue their respective affairs while seeing as little of each other as possible.

The thought of attending the next festival and enduring the advances of potential mates who only desired the privileges that came with bearing his offspring… It had been unbearable. He had seen love matches, knew they were possible, and coveted the same deep connection with his mate.

While he did desire to be a father someday and vowed to treasure a future child no matter what, that child deserved the chance to grow up with parents who loved each other.

Getting to that point had meant revealing his true nature to the person he wanted to be his.

“Near the end of her time in town, I told her I wanted something serious with her, but that she needed to know something about me. Something she needed to see.”

He flicked another glance at Alice, whose tense expression told him she knew where his story was headed. They were about to arrive at her mother’s spa, so he cut to the chase.

“My shifted form terrified her. I thought I was prepared for that reaction, but I wasn’t. Worse is I didn’t explain myself well, not that anything I said would’ve mattered. She grabbed her things and left. The town’s wards erased her memory of what she’d seen, and she went back to where she came from a couple of days later.”

Alice was silent as he pulled the car into the lot behind the spa and parked. He shut off the engine before relaxing in his seat and turning to look at her, a tight feeling in his chest.

She regarded him with an empathetic frown. “What did she say, if anything?”

He swallowed a sudden lump in his throat. “She said to stay away from her. Called me a monster. Said that…no amount of money was worth it.”

Alice’s lips parted on a soft gasp. Then she huffed, a crease forming between her eyebrows in a look of disapproval.

“Nic later found out that she had rather exorbitant spending habits and at least one…male benefactor.” He shook his head, shifting his gaze out the windshield. “As much as I regret my lack of sense, at least I can say I learned to tell the difference between blind hope and what I’ve felt since meeting you.”

He looked into her eyes again, finding them earnest. She wordlessly unbuckled her seat belt and eased it away from her body. Then she leaned toward him to cup his jaw and pull his head down to hers.

Her kiss was slow and gentle. Comforting. He couldn’t refrain from sliding his left hand behind her shoulder to keep her close.

When she drew back, she didn’t go far, her face a whisper away. She brushed her thumb across his cheek as she murmured, “She didn’t deserve you or your gorgeous tail or your spectacular cooking. I’m glad you have Nic and Bruno looking out for you.”

A crooked smile stretched his lips. “You haven’t even seen most of my tail.”

“Will I get to see it tonight?” Her question, spoken with shy longing, made his next breath shudder out of him.

He dipped his gaze to her soft mouth, now looking a touch kiss-swollen. He slid his hand to the center of her back, securing her in place. “You’ll get to do more than just see it.”

Worry crept into her expression. “What if I see your red thread tied to another? What then?”

Such a scenario hadn’t occurred to him, striking him with the realization that Alice was speaking from experience. “Did that happen to you?”

Her flinch was subtle but nevertheless revealing, tugging painfully at his heart.

“It won’t happen with me,” he assured her.

She slouched in exasperation. “You can’t know that.”