Page 96 of Their Lethal Pet

I can’t even remember when I took off my towel or why I felt compelled to do so.

“I don’t know what’s happening to me,” I say aloud,hatinghow scared I feel and sound. It’s not me. I’m strong. I fight. Irebel.

But this… this isn’t normal. This is… it’sthem. It’s the fae.

Yet it all feels so right, too.

I want to scream and pull out my hair. To curl into a ball and cry. To jump out of the bed andyell. The competing needs cause my stomach to churn.

“Do you want me to explain it?” Orcus asks me, his voice holding a hint of that rumble behind it. Thepurr.

He’s purring.

Everything in me stills as my senses lock on to that gentle rumble, my body instantly relaxing beneath the soothing vibration.

Oh, I like that sound.

“Yes,” I whisper, pleased with his purr and his voice. I want more. Ineedmore.

He represents a salvation I didn’t realize I needed. A protection I didn’t know I craved.

I just want to curl up beside him and revel in the serenity of his embrace.

But he doesn’t touch me.

He doesn’t even move.

And something about that irritates me.

Why isn’t he holding me?

“I’ve told you that I believe you have an Omega soul,” he says, causing me to blink.

What? This again?That’s not what I want to discuss. I simply want him to purr and hold me. Why?—

“I think meeting me has freed that soul. And now you finally feel safe enough to be yourself. But you’ve spent… How old are you?”

My eyes flutter at the unexpected question, yet somehow my mouth knows exactly how to reply. “Two-and-twenty.”

He says nothing for a long moment, then clears his throat. “Your Omega soul has been in hiding for over two decades, forcing you to cope without that part of yourself. But now, the two halves of your being are joining, which I imagine is a very confusing experience.”

Understatement of the millennium,I want to tell him. But I’m too busy trying to digest his words while battling my instinctual need to yank him under the covers with me.

His purr would be so nice in here,part of me is thinking.

I’m losing my mindis another thought.

And lastly, I can’t help wondering,My two halves are joining? What the heck does that even mean?

So yeah.Confusingis an understatement. Yep.

“I’ve known Omegas in the past,” he goes on, causing my heart to skip a beat.

Some part of me does not like the way he phrased that.That part of me has my eyes narrowing as I demand, “Known how?”

Because it’d better not be intimately, the part of me thinks, scowling inside.

It’s… it’s disconcerting. Like another entity is voicing that comment, not me. And yet, I feel it deep in my soul that I wouldnotlike him knowing another Omegaintimately.