29 - ARACHNE
“Must we really?—”
“Yes,” Athena clipped, slicing my sentence short. Karma. I was hoping something would’ve come up and caused a reschedule; Supremae were the most important pair of beings in the galaxy after all.
But no.
“You said you were fine with this, it’s too late to back out now. We’re an hour out, it would be rude,” she tacked on when faced with my dour expression. “Zet will arrive any minute.”
Raising my arms in surrender, I conceded, “You’re right. You even grew out your mullet for the occasion. We might as well show the bob off.”
Snorting, Athena leaned down to plant a peck against my lips. My pathetic heat fluttered from her gentleness. It didn’t matter that we’d likely kissed a million times in the last week, that we’d hardly separated, every neuron in my body came alive for her.
Even my nature remained in a roused state. A first. She was typically mute and inactive; happy to stick to our shifting schedule. Until now…
Until Athena… Which, frankly, seemed odd.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” Athena questioned, her amber eyes searching mine.
“Has your nature…” Trailing off, I didn’t know how to position the question to prevent her brattiness from joining the conversation.
“Has it what?” she asked, brows furrowed.
With a sigh, I tilted my head toward her high ceilings. “Been more active in my presence?”
Athena gripped my chin so our gazes collided, but there was no longer confusion painted on her striking face. “My nature is never quiet around you?—”
“Despite being an otherwise chill beast? Same,” I blurted, requiring her answer. It’d been pestering me for a week now.
“Yeah… It’s strange now that you mention it. What do you think it’s from?”
I didn’t know how to answer that. We’d only been reunited, and official for days. A blink in the grand scheme. Sure, I had her body memorized better than mine, but that was different.
Since we were cutting it close with our dinner, I darted out of her orbit, heading straight for her walk-in-closet. I’d essentially moved in a few nights ago. As much as I missed Sushi and Blossom, waking up with Athena was… worth it.
And fine, I was obsessed with her. Leaving each morning for work was no longer a task I looked forward to.
“Arachne, maybe we should shift to see what happens. What if our natures are trying to have a conversation?”
I stilled. Uncertain of whether I possessed the emotional capacity to both reveal my dua forma and break bread with my best friend’s jailers in the same night. Revealing my shifted form had more than a little bit of trauma attached.
There was also the fact that if Athena reacted the same as everyone else, I would be devastated.
“I guess I don’t know how large you are in that form, do you fit in here?” She was peering into the closet now, both tattooed, well-cut arms overhead as she leaned into the doorframe.
“Do you fit in here?” I volleyed. Aves were typically enormous.
She nodded. “I’m proportional to my wings.”
“Athena, I don’t know…”
“You’re scared I’m going to be repulsed again, aren’t you? I won’t be,” she urged with a smile. One that I didn’t wish to refuse. Insane as it was.
The brat had pecked her way underneath my skin.
It’s likely best to get it over with anyhow. The beast within was jittery with excitement over this development. With a sigh, I instructed, “Move. I won’t fit in the closet.” She was now smirking as she complied, backing from the door.
“Remember you asked for this,” I said before letting my nature take the reins. Although I wasn’t exactly in control, I still could watch and comment on everything my dua forma experienced. As our eight eyes blinked into much sharper focus, I was shocked by what they found.
Athena wasn’t grimacing.
She wasn’t sickened.
She was grinning from ear to ear.
“I love the fact that your hair matches in both.”
Then she shifted. Her lean body bursting in the same striped feathers as her wings. If not for her golden eyes and slightly crooked wing, I wouldn’t have known it was her.
When her nature released a jarring sound, dancing on her taloned claws, I knew .
I knew exactly what she was to me before she approached. Just from a singular hoot.
Athena was my amoroso.
It was my nature’s reaction. The beast had never taken any interest in any other beings, not ever. But one look at the former general, and our legs were tapping.
I believed mating tethers were extinct. You never heard of them anymore. Not as you once had, prior to the intergalactic war.
However, that didn’t mean I knew how to share the news. Our relationship was in its infancy, it would be jarring to learn we were tethered for life. Right?
For whatever reason, it wasn’t daunting to me. I was the happiest I’d ever been in a relationship to this point… but she’s so young .
Athena’s nature was chirping at mine, keeping our feet tapping against her hardwoods. They were as comfortable as the pair of us were in our prima forms.
The soulmate revelations were tossing me further off kilter.
Which was why I shifted back to prima forma. Her nature released a few— far sadder —hoots before following suit.
“Do you know what it is?” Athena demanded, and I shrugged; not technically lying.
“We don’t have a lot of time. You said it yourself.” Then as if on cue, I heard Zet’s voice from the living room and used it as my excuse to dart back into the closet.