Chapter 83: Bored Beastwoman Princess

Blair stared at Daemus’s knees, her fingers twisting nervously into her dress. The silence in the bedroom was deafening.

"I..." Blair started, her voice barely above a whisper. She swallowed hard. "I need some time to think about it."

Daemus stayed leaning forward, his silver eyes fixed intently on her flushed face.

"If you’re worried about me finding out your secret," Daemus calmly said, "you don’t have to be. I already know about it."

Blair’s heart dropped into her stomach. Her head snapped up, her brows furrowing together in deep, panicked confusion. "What are you talking about?"

She could already guess. Her pulse hammered frantically against her ribs. The hospital. The doctor must have taken them out, and Daemus must have seen them. But she held her breath, waiting for him to say it out loud.

"I know your eyes are pink," Daemus stated bluntly.

He looked at her, his expression turning incredibly serious. "Are you a beastwoman princess pretending to be a human?"

Blair’s eyes widened to the size of saucers. "No!" she gasped, shaking her head frantically. "I swear, I am human!"

A sinking feeling settled in her chest. Is that why he wants to date me? she wondered wildly, biting the inside of her cheek. Because he thinks I’m some sort of hidden royal beast?

Daemus tilted his head, his blue ears twitching in confusion. "Then why are your eyes pink? That isn’t possible for humans, is it?"

Blair opened her mouth. She had a rehearsed, carefully constructed lie specifically for this exact scenario. She had repeated it in the mirror a hundred times since she was a child. But looking into his striking silver eyes, her brain blanked. The script vanished.

"It’s... um, a genetic mutation," Blair blurted out, frantically patching together a lie that might sound plausible to a jock who didn’t read science textbooks. "From the residual radiation of the Spatial Rift. It mutated my chromosomes and drained the melanin pigment from my irises."

Daemus’s eyes lit up with sudden, boyish curiosity. "Does it give you night vision? Can you see in the dark?"

"No," Blair stuttered. "No night vision."

"Does the sun hurt them?" Daemus pressed, leaning closer. "Wait, can you see further than normal humans? Like an eagle?"

"No, Daemus, it doesn’t do anything like that!" Blair scrambled to explain, her hands fluttering nervously in her lap. "It just changes the color. It’s a deficiency. It’s the same reason the roots of my hair grow in silver."

Daemus let out a quiet "huh" of understanding, leaning back slightly. He studied her flushed face.

"You should stop using that stuff," Daemus told her smoothly. "Stop putting those things in your eyes and stop dyeing your hair. Just start living your life as who you really are."

"I can’t do that," Blair argued quickly. She wrapped her arms around her waist, shrinking into herself. "People who are different are hated, Daemus. Even by their own race. They get bullied terribly."

Daemus raised a thick eyebrow. "What is different from how you’re being treated right now?"

Blair looked away, staring at the floor. A grim shadow passed over her features.

"It could be worse," she whispered softly.

Daemus didn’t miss the sudden darkness in her eyes. He could see the weight of whatever had happened to her pulling her shoulders down, but he didn’t push. He didn’t pry.

"While I am around," Daemus promised, "no one will ever bully you."

Blair shook her head, still refusing to meet his gaze. Would his pride survive knowing that his protection isn’t enough to make me safe? she wondered.

"I don’t want you getting into fights all the time because of me."

Daemus just stared at her. Even though they were sitting on the same bed, getting to know each other, and he knew her biggest secret... he still felt like he was staring at a woman hiding behind a mask.

"Can I see them again?" Daemus asked quietly.

Blair gulped. A flutter of nervousness erupted in her chest. She had never willingly shown anyone her eyes before. It felt incredibly vulnerable, like peeling off a layer of her own skin.

With trembling fingers, she carefully pinched the brown contacts out of her eyes, setting the small plastic lenses down onto a napkin beside the jam-covered bread.

Slowly, shyly, she lifted her chin and looked at him.

Daemus stared intently at her. He shifted his weight, closing the remaining distance on the bed until he brought his face extremely close to hers. He stared deeply into her pink irises.

His breath fanned across her cheeks, and the awe-filled wonder shining in his silver gaze made Blair’s heart hammer wildly, frantically against her ribs.

"So beautiful," Daemus muttered softly.

All the blood in Blair’s body rushed straight to her face. Her cheeks burned so hot she thought she might actually pass out from the intensity of the compliment.

"I’ve never seen pink eyes before," Daemus murmured.

His eyes began to slowly travel across her face, tracing the slope of her nose and the curve of her jaw, as if he were physically cementing every single inch of her to his memory. Soon, his gaze dropped entirely. He focused solely on her lips.

Slowly, deliberately, Daemus began to lean in.

Blair held her breath. Their lips were just brushing...a feather-light contact.

Alarm bells rang frantically in Blair’s head.

"We can’t!" Blair stuttered out in a panic.

She shot up from the bed so fast the sudden movement made her head spin with dizzying vertigo. She stumbled back a step, gripping the edge of the desk for balance.

As she looked back at the bed, her breath hitched in her throat.

The pillow Daemus had been using on his lap was no longer on his lap. It had slipped off the bed during his movement. The towel wrapped around his waist was barely hanging on for dear life, exposing the rigid shape of his erection standing tall and proud beneath.

Daemus blinked, confused by her sudden panic. He looked at her wide eyes and then followed her gaze down to his lap.

His brows shot up. He finally realized what the issue was. He knew she had never been touched, that she had never even touched herself.

"Ohhhhhh," Daemus breathed out, a look of dawning realization washing over his handsome face.

He looked back up at her flushed, panicked face.

"Oh shit," Daemus muttered in awe. "You’re a virgin virgin."