Chapter Thirteen
P erry walked into Aled’s apartment and flipped them off when they all cheered. “Yes, you bunch of fuckers. I survived, but I am never ever doing another bet again.”
Judd grinned. “You were gone for days. We thought you were too busy fucking to come back. Did she eat you up?” Judd opened his mouth and mimed getting a blow job.
Perry felt his skin heat up but ignored it. “She wanted to eat me all right, just not the sexual kind. She wanted to eat me, eat me.”
Judd dropped his hand. “What? That’s not supposed to happen.”
“She could have been messing with me, but she chased me out of the safe zone and things really got fucked up then.” He rubbed the mark on his neck that seemed to always be warm to the touch, then pulled his T-shirt back over it.
“What’s that on your neck?” Aled leaned over and pulled at Perry’s T-shirt. Perry leaned back as he knocked Aled’s hand away. “Is that a bite mark?”
“No. It’s nothing.”
“Did she mark you?” Aled stared intently at him. “Did she put that mark on you? Did she bite you?”
“No, she didn’t. I told you she was fucked in the head. I had to run for my life. I saw things I didn’t know even existed.”
Aled rubbed his lips, his eyes dropping to the mark Perry had covered up. “Look, Perry, man. Shit. Who gave you that mark?”
“Why?” Perry whispered. “I’ve never heard about marks or bites. Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Some of them bite and leave a mark as a sign of ownership. I shouldn’t be talking about this, but if it wasn’t her, then who was it, because whoever they are, they’ve marked you. They consider you theirs.”
“I don’t want to talk about it. It’s over. I’m home and I’m never going back.” He rubbed his chest, then dropped his hand when Aled watched him. “I’m fine now.” Coughing to clear his throat, Perry asked, “what are we playing tonight? And remember no bets for me. I’m done with that shit.” Perry swiped his hand through the air. “Never ever again.”
Dennis picked up the deck of cards and began shuffling them. “Tonight, the loser will buy tickets to the next football game.”
“Do you know how much that’ll cost?” Judd shook his head. “Far too expensive for me.”
Perry chuckled and picked up the hand he’d been dealt. He ignored Aled, who kept glancing at him, and spent the night laughing and trying to put Menut behind him. It was hard, though. His mind constantly went to Menut. He dreamed of him. Sometimes he could scent Menut on his skin and his heart ached when he did. He missed his Mothman, only Menut wasn’t really his. Whatever had happened wasn’t meant to have, and now he was home and free to live his life the way he wanted.
When Perry left, he drove home and parked outside his apartment block in his usual spot and got out. He’d been inside about five minutes when he heard a knock on the door. Groaning, he opened it and stared at Aled. “What do you want?” he asked, surprised Aled was there.
Aled pushed past him and shut the door. Standing close to Perry, he murmured, “Who bit you?”
“Why are you making such a huge deal about this?”
“Some of these monsters bite during sex. You know those romance novels where they bite their mate during sex?” Perry swallowed, nodded. “It’s like that for some of them. The bite on your neck. Did it happen while you were fucking?”
“It’s not a bite,” Perry mumbled, his hand covering the mark. “It’s nothing.”
“Look, Perry. Don’t lie to me. I know, okay? I won’t tell the others, but I know something about monsters. While you’ve all been dicking around when it came to them, I read up on them and listened when people talked. The bite means something to whoever gave it to you. Tell me what happened.”
Perry staggered back, shaking his head. “No. I don’t want… I can’t…” He stumbled to a chair and slumped on it. “Fuck.” He dropped his head into his hands. “Fuck.”
“Look whoever she is, I’m sure she’s—”
“It wasn’t a female.” Perry slowly raised his head, his eyes watching Aled seeing Aled’s widen in response. “I don’t know how it happened. One minute and running for my life and the next thing he’s there and then we… we’re…” Perry rubbed his face with his hands. “He saved me.”
“Did he call you anything?”
Perry closed his eyes and nodded. “Mine,” he whispered. Opening them, he looked at Aled. “He said mine.”
Aled blew out his breath. “Shit, Perry.” Sitting on another chair, Aled asked, “did you stay with him?”
Nodding, Perry said, “He looked after me. Kept me safe.”
“Did you…you know…” Aled waved at Perry’s groin. “Er, you know, have sex?”
“Did I let the Mothman,” Perry caught the look of shock on Aled’s face but continued, “have sex with me on a regular basis?”
Aled nodded. “Yeah.”
“Fine. If I’m going to tell you, then I’ll say it once and that’s it. Got it?” Aled nodded again. “That first time, the one where he saved me, we fucked four times in a field. Me, naked, in a field with a monster I’d just met. It was like I had no control. He looked at me and I let him do whatever he wanted.” Perry licked his lips, remembering the feel of Menut’s on them. “He took me back to his home and took care of me and yes, we had sex plenty of times. He was the one who bit me and said mine and I felt like I was his.” Perry stopped talking and watched Aled, how sat with his mouth open. “Well?”
“How did you get away?”
“I waited until he fell asleep, then I left. It took me hours to get back to the safe zone and when I was about to leave, I saw him. He was watching me. He didn’t try to stop me from leaving.”
Aled’s eyes flicked down, then back up to meet Perry’s. “You’re rubbing your chest.”
Perry started, dropped his hand, unaware of what he’d been doing. “My chest. It aches.” He mumbled the last part. “Tight. Hard to breathe sometimes.”
“Well, yeah. This Mothman mated your ass.”
Perry rolled his eyes at what Aled had said. “What does that even mean?” He knew. Like mates from those romance books. That’s what it meant. He knew.
“My sister loves paranormal romance where they find their mate and fuck and bite and bond themselves together and shit.” Aled looked at Perry and arched an eyebrow at Perry’s expression. “Swans.”
“I don’t think that’s a great comparison.”
Snorting, Aled grinned. “Swans mate for life, right?” Perry nodded, dread building when he figured out where Aled was going with this. “So this Mothman bit you and called you his. He mated you.” Aled shook his head. “I don’t know how you left because I’ve heard the mating thing goes both ways.”
Perry exhaled heavily. “It hurt to go,” he murmured. “I knew I had to come home, so I left, but it was hard, you know. Hard walking away. Harder than I thought it would be.”
“What are you going to do now that you know?”
“Nothing. I made my choice, and it was to come home. I have a life here. My family, you guys. This is where I belong. I couldn’t live there and not see you guys.”
“What was it like? Outside the safe zone?”
“Scary as fuck. They have these plants that are like our Venus fly trap ones but huge and they go after animals. But animals like dog size. And I saw a mermaid. I think it was a mermaid, and werewolves, too. A pack of them running through the river. And plants and insects and all these other creatures. Beautiful and deadly.” Perry paused, smiled. “I flew in the air. I could see for miles all around. Menut held me tight so I wouldn’t fall.”
“Menut?”
“His name.” Perry smiled again, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “He has long black hair and these red eyes that swirled. It felt like I was falling into them and his wings were strong but soft to the touch. He’d wrapped them around me, and I felt protected, cherished.” Perry ducked his head, feeling his face heat up as he admitted how he felt. “You probably think I’m a right idiot.”
“No, because it looks like he is yours, too. So the bond does go both ways.” Aled sighed softly. “What are you going to do, Perry? Ignore what happened between you and carry on living here?”
“I told you I was going to do that, didn’t I?”
Aled shook his head. “You should see the look on your face when you talk about him. You—"
“Don’t. It can’t go anywhere. I’m human. He’s a monster, a Mothman, and do you have any idea how that sounds?” Perry shook his head as he stood and paced. “It sounds ridiculous. It is ridiculous. How could we co-exist? Where would we live? We’re from two different worlds. Literally. And I’ve never been with a man before him. He came in and swooped me away back to his lair.” He flashed Aled a quick grin, then let it slide away. “I couldn’t live anywhere but here, and that world is his home.”
“Maybe one month here and one month there?” Aled shrugged. “There has to be a way around it. A solution where you can be together.”
“I don’t want to be with him. Give it some time and things will go back to normal, and I’ll find a woman and get married and have kids. I’ll be happy and he’ll be in my past. I made a stupid mistake. That’s all.” Perry rubbed his chest, then dropped his hand when he realized what he was doing. He’d made his decision, and he was going to stick to it.
“A stupid mistake is drinking whiskey instead of scotch. You mated him, Perry.” Aled ran a hand over his face. “He isn’t going to just let you go, man. He will come for you.”
“He has to get permission to come here first.”
“How do you know he doesn’t already have it? We have had Mothman stories for years. It could be him or one of his kind.”
Perry shivered and rubbed his arms. “Don’t say that.”
“Why? You obviously have a connection with him. He bit you; he’s marked you.” Aled shook his head. “I’m repeating myself.” Sighing, he quietly asked, “what is holding you back? If he said he’d live here, would you accept him? Is it because he’s a man or male, or is it because he’s a monster?”
“I don’t know,” Perry murmured. “I thought once I was home everything would return to normal, but I still think about him.” Snorting, Perry shook his head. “I don’t know why I’m talking to you about this.”
“Maybe you needed to get it all out.” Aled clasped his hands together, rested his forearms on his thighs. “Have you thought about going back and seeing if there is anything between you? You’ve been back a week now.”
“Yeah, but not yet. I need more time to get over everything. I went for a meal and almost became the meal. Then Menut came along. This isn’t how I planned my life, you know. I never expected to meet someone like him. I never imagined a him, for a start, but now that I’ve seen him…” Perry sucked his lips in. “My head’s fucked up.”
“You need time to process everything you’ve been through.” Aled stood. “I’ll get going. I know you’re back at work tomorrow.”
“Lucky I know the boss.” Perry worked for Aled’s father, Johnny, so when he’d told him what had happened—with help from Aled—Johnny had given him the week off to recuperate. “Your dad was great.”
“I told him it was my bet and then I went all mushy and got upset, saying you almost died.” Aled grinned. “It worked.”
Chuckling, Perry opened the door and let Aled out. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll figure this out.”
“If you need to talk, I’m here.”
“Thanks, man. I appreciate it.”
Closing the door, Perry turned and leaned back on it, closing his eyes. He could almost feel Menut’s lips on his and his eyes snapped open as he pushed away from the door. Menut was the past. That was where he belonged. If only Perry could remember that.