You are the Answer {boyxboy} ✓ (Dogs, Bats & Monkeys series, Book I | Riley)

Chapter 23

A/N: Writing has been a real struggle for me for the past week and a half. Not just YATA, HMD chapters also don't end up the way I want them to. I hope I didn't make a mess of this one.

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I stared at him, my mouth agape.

I am one of them.

I knew what each of those words meant, yet I could not understand what he meant.

It didn't make sense. Rhys couldn't be one such creature because they simply didn't exist. Why would he claim they were real?

Was he mad?

He couldn't be; I loved him.

He couldn't be; he seemed so normal. Bobby had seemed normal too...

My face probably contorted into a strange grimace as I attempted to smile while still bewildered. Even my laugh came out weird, high-pitched and hysteric.

"Come on, Rhys, don't... Don't joke like that."

His face was like stone.

"This is a joke, right?" I tried to get him to talk. "Is there some sort of hidden camera or something?"

My head swirled in all directions, in a desperate search for the gleam of a lens or any cute but out of place teddy bears. They often put hidden cameras in stuffed animals, there had to be one here as well.

But there were no rectangular objects at the upper corners of the room, no teddies of any shape or size on the windowsill, on the mantelpiece above the unlit fireplace or on the table and the only things over the two chairs were our jeans-clad butts.

There had to be, there simply had to be something!

I had to find some signs that this was a kind of bizarre prank. It had to be one, otherwise it would mean...

My eyes returned to Rhys.

He hadn't moved at all. Throughout the time I'd searched, he'd stood still, his gaze almost palpable on me. He hadn't spoken either and he seemed as if he wouldn't speak now.

What was he waiting for?

Was there something I should do?

Was there something I was expected to say?

All the water from my body seemed to gather on the skin of my palms. I wiped the sweat in my jeans and swallowed, wishing it would make the dryness in my throat go away.

He was still staring at me. I wasn't sure he was even blinking.

"So what?" I did my best to make my voice sound joking instead of frightened. "You are a descendant of the Great King?"

"No," Rhys shook his head. "I'm a descendant of the first shifters, of those who joined their soul with that of a wolf."

He said it evenly, without a hint of this being a lie or a trick.

I heard the drumming of my heart in my ears and I felt lightheaded; if I wasn't sitting, I'd probably slump on the floor.

He was mad.

I was in a room, alone and unprotected, with a madman.

I was at his mercy; how could I put up a fight to him when he was bigger and so much stronger than I was?

The room tilted and my neck snapped as my eyes darted towards the door. I knew he'd catch me if I tried to make a run for it, but what other options did I have?