Risk it all

All at once, it seemed to become clear. A focus **** its way, not without great effort, through the irrational haze of the skinwalker lust and the horrible confusion afflicting my mind.

It doesn’t matter. Whether I escape, or even attack Grace now. I will become a skinwalker, sooner or later, and I’ll probably take a skin in the next few hours no matter what I do. I need to be honest… confessing the truth is the only way I can break the cycle.

I stopped at the entryway to the small study area Grace and I inhabited, and stepped away from it, turning towards Grace. She looked confused and upset, but a light started coming back into her eyes as she saw me pause and turn towards her.

Running away without explanation, especially for an overthinker like Grace, would be one of the worst things I can do. I need to tell her!

My heart was beating fast, almost pounding in my chest, the sounds of the blood rushing through my ears almost overwhelming. She looked up at me, expectantly.

“Alex…?”

I felt so much for her. I couldn’t resist the feelings that had been building between us for this last month, the first cracks of something real I’d ever felt, the first light rays of a love more tangible than the delusional imaginings of a crush.

I just wish I was confessing how I felt, instead of telling her my dark truth…

I gulped as I prepared myself, almost shaking with the fear of rejection, and the reckless, wild flurry of emotion acceptance might bring. I took one step closer to her, and then another.

Just one step at a time… you can do this!

The anticipation seemed to overwhelm even the skinwalker lust, my heart feeling both heavy and fast, like a meteorite approaching terminal velocity. I couldn’t tell which emotions were strongest anymore, they all blurred together as one.

“Grace… there’s something I need to tell you.”

She opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again, too shy to say anything, and too nervous and excited to hear what I might.

“It’s… it’s not what you’re expecting though.”

Her rational mind scrambled in the worst directions, assumptions of what that might mean manifesting in her slightly quivering lip and lightly furrowed brow.

How can she still look so cute, even this nervous…?

“I’m… I’m a monster.”

The look turned to confusion, then sympathy.

“Alex… you’re not a monster.”

She reached out, now with a consoling smile as she rested her hand on my forearm. Inside my hoodie pocket, my fingers trembled a little, the spines too ferocious and full, torn completely out and fully extended.

“I am, Grace. I am. I haven’t been fully honest with you-”

“You’re not, Alex!”

Surprising authority colored her voice as she said it, passion almost bringing tears to her eyes as her quiet voice seemed to push for something, more than I’d ever seen before.

“That’s what I wanted to tell you too! You’ve been so kind to me, and so thoughtful! You wouldn’t have known this, but… At the start of the year, I was so lonely. The only person I ever talked to was Jessica, and she was always so mean to me… but you really helped me! You were so compassionate and funny, and made me feel so comfortable with you, and…!”

A huge blush colored her cheeks as she **** herself to be honest, real feelings overcoming bashful chains as she spilled small parts of her heart for the first time.

“Grace…”

I was so surprised hearing her say all these things; my own heart grew warmer and almost seemed to melt in my heart as she started confessing.

“I… I want to spend more time with you Alex. I want to be closer to you. I want to hold you, and I want you to hold me too. I… I… I like you! ...Eppp!”

The "eep" at the end was as though rationality had caught her, her head matching her heart for speed right at the end, soft hands covering her mouth and eyes held low as her face was fully consumed with a blush.

My heart couldn’t take it either, melting in my chest as I looked at her, love breaking fully though as all my feelings rushed around me.

“I like you too, Grace!”

It fell out of me, what had been meant for my thoughts tumbling out of my mouth. Hearing it brought such a huge smile to her face, as I found myself falling onto her and pulling her into a hug. She hugged back, her body so warm and soft, big breasts pressing into me. I closed my eyes as I breathed in her sweet scent, peaches and nectarines, like a sweet, fresh breeze on a gorgeous sunny day.

My own eyes were closed tight, wanting to feel her and feel her only, no distractions from the press of her body. I felt something hot graze my shoulder, small tears dripping down. Grace couldn’t help crying with joy, even just a little.

I was so lost in the bliss of our moment, bodies pulled close together, that I barely even noticed how the spines in my fingers had stayed fully extended, the skinwalker lust only temporarily overwhelmed by the emotion of the moment…