Page 347 of Pucking Feral: Part Two

Moonlight catches every point of my teeth.

My heart sinks so hard it hurts.

I look fucking disgusting.

My hands barely work to sign.

I look dead.

“You look kind.”

I shoot him a look.

He arches one pale eyebrow. “Less kind now.”

Valek looks back down at the water, his own reflection floating beside mine. His features are sharp and pale, unsettlingly perfect even when his hair is soaked flat and his lip is split.

“Your face is intense,” he says. “That’s true. But it isn't anything you can't get used to. The damage doesn’t erase everything else.”

He gestures toward the water.

"You have nice eyes. You can't make an expression otherwise, so they compensate, and they compensate well. They might be the nicest eyes I've seen on an alpha, though I’ll deny saying that if you tell Whiskey. Good bone structure. Strong brow."

I look like a monster, I sign miserably, forcing myself to stare at my reflection and see anything he's seeing at all.

I don't know how Ivy can look at this and…

"You look like you," he says. His mouth twists and he drags his fingers through the water, breaking his reflection apart. “For what it's worth, people perceive me as a monster, too. My face may look acceptable, but what I do with it is wrong."

Wrong?

“My expressions.” He taps two fingers against his temple. "They’re off. Sometimes there’s nothing when there should be something. Sometimes I smile when people expect me to be upset. Anyone who looks long enough can tell there’s something fucked up in my head. People avoid me. As they should."

The words are flat, but his hand drifts over the old burns on his wrist.

“I don’t look kind,” he continues. “You do. Your eyes are kind, Wraith. Even when the rest of your face frightens someone at first, your eyes remain.”

I look back at the water.

The reflection is still there.

Still hideous.

Still mine.

"Ivy sees all of you," Valek says. "And she loves you anyway."

My hands rise.

Us.

Valek goes still, watching me.

She loves US. Both of us. You too.

His gaze drops to the water. For the first time since we came to the river, he looks uncertain.

The bond between him and Ivy is new, but it’s there. I can sense it, even without my own mark on her. He belongs whether he believes it or not.