"Okay," he agreed. "I have a concession though."
"Okay, what is it?"
"We get your weight up first," he said. "Once you become part like us, you won't have as strong an urge to eat anymore. It will be hard to change your weight. I want you healthy first."
"I'm getting closer," I told him, then felt his hand slide up my thigh, over my belly both of which I believed had already gotten plumper.
"Yes," he agreed. "But just a little more, yeah?"
"Yeah," I agreed because, well, I did agree. I wanted to be as healthy as possible when I made the transition. After so long of being so unwell, it was important for me to feel as good as I could. "But then I become yours. Forever."
"Forever," he agreed.
Epilogue
Nova - 10 months
I expected to feel an actual physical change. Even though both Lenore and Jo said it was all very subtle. And mostly, they claimed, things you noticed more and more over time. Like less of a strong reaction when you saw something sad because your empathy had changed slightly.
But I found myself oddly disappointed that I didn't feel any different as Drex and I stood in the woods after the ceremony after the others had departed.
"Mine," Drex growled, grabbing me around my wider-than-before hips.
We were both loving my new body.
It wasn't that different, all things said and done. I'd always been on the tall and thin side. But I'd gotten some padding around my hips, thighs, butt, and belly. And my boobs, well, those went up a whole two cup sizes.
I'd gotten some color back, too.
I wasn't always cold or tired.
I looked and felt the best I ever had.
It was why we'd finally decided to move forward with the ceremony, make it official.
Drex, when I'd approached him about it, hadn't had any hesitation.
Because we both knew.
There was never going to be anyone else for either of us.
It was practically sickening how into each other we were, how we couldn't get enough.
I'd never seen anything like it before.
Except for with Lycus and Lenore and Ace and Jo.
That forever kind of love, that until the end of time kind of love, it was something different entirely.
And I felt so incredibly lucky to be a part of it.
It was hard to wrap my hand around forever, no matter how many times I thought about it, how many times I'd racked all the demons' brains about what it felt like to watch the entire world change around you while you remained exactly the same.
"So, do we consummate this shit?" Drex asked, giving my butt a slap.
"I think we..." I started, trailing off when I heard a snapping sound—twigs on the ground crunching—coming from deeper in the woods.
The being immortal thing was very new. My mind and body hadn't gotten a chance to catch up to the fact that nothing needed to scare me anymore.
My adrenaline tripped into overdrive as I whipped in the direction of the sound, finding a gorgeous blonde woman in black jeans and a camel-colored lightweight sweater making her way out of the woods.
She was vaguely familiar, but I was having a hard time placing her.
Sensing she wasn't alone, her gaze shot over as she slowed to a stop.
Then she pinned me with a look that made me feel stripped bare.
"What the fuck is it with you girls?" she asked, throwing a hand up. "They're evil, you know," she added, waving a frustrated hand at Drex.
"Dale, come back and..." Minos called, grinding to a stop, realizing they weren't alone.
A little too late, though.
Because his wings were still out.
And the one that was closer to Dale seemed to be stretching wider, trying to touch her, get nearer to her.
"Oh," I said with a hiss. "Oh!" I repeated, eyes going wide as I looked between the two of them.
"Ugh," Dale snapped. "There's no reasoning with any of you," she declared, yanking away from Minos, then taking off at a dead run.
She left destruction in her wake.
Minos seemed barely able to hold himself together.
His previously outstretched wings moved in close at his back, flattened against his body, dejected, rejected.
"Oh, Minos," I said, a slight ache in my heart for him.
"Fuck," Drex said, a hint of sympathy in his voice.
"Don't feel sorry for me," Minos demanded, jaw tight.
"You look heartbroken," I said, unable to stop feeling sorry for him.
"Why the fuck do you bother if she leaves?" Drex asked at almost the same time.
"Because when she's here, it's the only fucking time I know anything even resembling happiness," Minos said, shaking his head, and walking off.
"You said it hurts, right? When the one you Claim rejects you?" I asked.
"From the stories Ace tells—and that look on Minos's face—it's excruciating. Barely tolerable."
"Why would she reject him?" I asked, angry for him, even if he didn't want to be for himself.