Page 46 of Zodiac Monsters

Browns, off-whites, grays, and tans. He was definitely a warm, earthy kind of person. It was nothing like Marcus’ house. The analog wall clock was ticking past noon, which would explain how he’d found an open Chinese restaurant, and the natural light of the middle of… whatever day it was, created a calming ambiance.

“I’m going to go out on a limb and guess this is your house?” I asked the obvious.

He nodded. “Correct.”

“And it probably wouldn’t be a stretch to assume” we fucked on your roof “that you flew me here from the restaurant?”

“Your powers of deduction are befitting of an engineering student.” He rolled his eyes half way, then caught himself, like he wasn’t supposed to act so normal and human in front of me. He set down the plates, then cleared his throat before he added. “Yes, that’s also correct, Miss Denton.”

Irolled my eyes fully. “No one else is here, and you literally ate me out in front of an audience of random diners. Can we not do the professional, formal thing right now?” I guess I was just frustrated enough to drop some of my own niceties and nerves. Or I just had too much else going on in my head to find them.

“If it’s any consolation, I’d actually rented out the entire restaurant in case of just such an occasion. The only ones who saw anything were the wait staff, which was entirely composed of succubus and incubus who were comfortable with the display.” He didn’t look me in the eye as he said that.

“‘In case of just such an occasion,’ huh…” I parroted back with two raised eyebrows. “So you were expecting and planning for that to happen.”

Adrian choked on his saliva, or his shame, or his deceit, or who knows what else that man put in his mouth. “No. But I knew it was a possibility. I needed to see how your body reacted when exposed to the full moon without a trigger stimuli, and that was a safe environment to do so. My father has known the owner for over a century, and I’ve known him for decades, so it wasn’t an issue for him to allow me an isolated test environment.”

“I can’t wait to read the write up in the scientific journal.” My expression was as flat as that explanation. It was all fair and well executed, but having him talk about me like I was one of the test cases for his research was painfully lacking in intimacy.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.” He sat next to me at the breakfast bar and started pulling Styrofoam containers from the plastic bag. Despite everything that just happened between us, oddly enough, sitting next to me by choice so we could enjoy a meal together was decidedly the most genuine and sweet. He hadn’t been of sane mind or body while we had sex, so that was just carnal and mindless, but choosing the stool a few inches from me was a fully consensual choice.

Dumb.

“I get it.” I put him out of the misery of having tact. “But that doesn’t explain the ‘why.’ Did you… know that would happen?”

“I suspected it.” Adrian kept his gaze trained on the Chicken Lo Mein. He paused for several moments, then rephrased. “Yes, I knew that would likely happen.”

“Even though I thought I was…” I couldn’t physically vocalize the word human. I still hadn’t accepted that myself.

“You shifted on the last full moon. I know you weren’t aware, but when we were stargazing, you were in Virgo form. Your shifter scent was intense and maddening, and I was barely able to keep myself together around you. Which was also why Marcus, who is eight years younger than me and heavily lacks any discipline, wasn’t able to keep himself together around you.”

He stopped talking abruptly, likely realizing what he’d said. The fact that I was staring at him, wide eyed, with my mouth hanging open, was probably his indicator.

“He… he told you about that?” Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck. They really were comparing notes about my vagina. I knew it. I fucking KNEW it. God, this is so fucking awkward. I hope whatever I really am isn’t immortal, because I’m going to need someone to shoot me as soon as possible.

“Right, anyway.” He dismissed that mortifying line of questioning with nothing at all helpful. “My point being, the fact that you can take on mate marks, exhibit a shifter scent that specifically targets other zodiac breeds, and were affected by the full moon last month were clear indicators of your lack of humanity. But since you refused to acknowledge it, I took matters into my own hands. The only problem is, while we can easily deduce that you have the blood of a Virgo Shifter, the fact that you’re forced into transformation instead of having control of it means you’re only half Virgo shifter. I would love to help and mentor you from here so you can better understand what all of this means, but I have no idea what else you are.”

I dropped my focus to my Mongolian Beef, and I nibbled on a single piece of meat for much longer than necessary. How was I supposed to respond to that?

“Are you telling me my parents have somehow both lied to me and hid these things for my entire life?” The question was more defeated than it was confrontational.

“Either that or you’re adopted.”

“If you ever saw my face and my mom’s face, you wouldn’t even consider that as a possibility.” I wanted to laugh, since my likeness to my mother’s features was so prominent, it had been a running joke that she cloned herself, but I wasn’t in a ‘ha ha’ kind of mood.

“Then I’m not sure how else to tell you that you’ve been misled for a long, long time.” Adrian bit his lower lip, and his discomfort with that revelation was unexpected. It was almost like it bothered him to break this news to me.

“I think that’s about the only way you can say it.” I smiled like he was the one who needed someone to comfort him, while my entire world was shattering, one splintered shard at a time. I sighed heavily. This was going to be a fun phone call with Mom when I got back. “So you know I’m a Beta because I transformed without a trigger, and I was still mentally in control?”

“Correct.” He nodded. “Also because your form was the same as the month before, with no characteristics of the Pisces. An Alpha has many forms, while a Beta does not.”

“And you have no control over yourself at all in that form?” I wanted that restated for my own records. If this was going to become my life, I wanted to make sure I understood exactly what I was dealing with.

“None.” He shook his head.

“What about before you turned?” I mumbled next. “When you um…” Grabbed me. Threatened me. Asked me what I wanted. All the ways you touched me before you had shifted. “How much control did you have up until that point of transformation?”

He stopped eating, but didn’t look at me.