Soraya swallowed as her stomach flipped over itself.

There was a preternatural stillness to him that had her freezing in place. All she could do was watch him, watch herself. Her eyes never left his luminescent ones. Prey and predator.

In a strange way, she felt caught by his otherworldly beauty. Except she had no idea what kind of predator she was facing.

She had slapped him. Why the fuck had she slapped him?

What was he going to do next?

Makoto broke eye contact first, letting his gaze travel down her body. A breeze blew in from the bay window, fluttering the gauze-like curtains, and it was precisely at that moment she felt the chilled wind graze her bare pussy and upper thighs a second before his eyes landed on the juncture of her legs. He cocked his head to the side. She still hadn’t pulled up her underwear or her pants, and though she wasn’t fully unclothed, she felt stripped naked by his perusing gaze.

What was worse than feeling completely exposed was the quickly cooling fluid, slowly leaking out of her and dripping onto a solid surface beneath her ass.

Then he was moving. Leaning into her still form, Soraya’s eyes widened as he brought his face closer and closer to hers. He peered deeply into her eyes as his hand moved behind her back and her spine felt like it was going to snap in half if she tried to stiffen it any further.

The scent of sea salt and citrus wafted across her face. It wasn’t as potent as it had been a moment before; it had taken on a more subtle note of citrus. The sea salt didn’t make her mouth water with anticipation. It was subdued and relaxed—giving her a sense of solace even though her mind was not completely convinced of her safety.

His hand moved in her peripheral vision, and she jerked at the sudden contact of tissues being pressed against her cunt. A glimmer of amusement flickered in his eyes as she realized with mortification that he was cleaning her of their tryst.

Once finished, he leaned away from her and tossed the tissues into what she presumed was the trash bin on the side of the desk.

She swallowed around the lump in her throat. What does one do in a situation like this one? She wanted to know what he was. He couldn’t be human, not while he looked like that.

Should she ask him where he took her? How had he taken her? Her mind scrambled back through her lust-filled memories, and she vaguely recalled him saying something about—“syfting,” was it? And something about between the worlds.

Soraya opened her mouth, refusing to be intimidated any longer. “My friend. You left my friend, Jesmine. I need to go back.”

Soraya must have blacked out, and he took her to this room. She hadn’t gotten the chance to assess her surroundings, but she knew it was an average-sized room with a bay window directly behind him. The silver moonlight glinted off his blue-black hair.

Makoto pushed away from the desk, drawing himself to his full height. “Thank you for the reminder. And as much as I enjoy the view”—his eyes flicked down to her bare pussy once more—“you should get dressed. There’s a bathroom through that door,” he informed her, nodding over her left shoulder. “Clean up and stay here for your safety. I will see about your human friend.”

Without waiting to hear a response from her, he strode around her with a stiff set to his shoulders.

“Wait!” Soraya yelled. Hopping off the surface, she struggled to roll her leggings and underwear back up over her hips, when she heard a door opening and closing with a deafening click.

Soraya’s jaw dropped. That asshole did not just lock me in here.

Rushing to the door she tried the handle, but…it wouldn’t budge. The asshole had locked her in!

Pure white rage scorched through her, and she pounded on the door, yelling for him to let her out. She was only met with silence. Slamming her balled-up fist against the door one last time, she took a step back to inspect it, wondering if she could unscrew the hinges—but…there were no hinges.

Grumbling to herself, she turned and surveyed the space. The lights weren’t on, but the moonlight streaming through the bay windows illuminated enough of the white room that she didn’t need them.

The room was…like any average office, except for the walls, floor, and rounded ceiling, which seemed to be made out of some glossy white material.

In front of the bay windows and their fluttering curtains was a desk—a wooden one, with papers and pens strewn across it. Her eyes darted to the floor surrounding it, noting various objects that must have been knocked off during…

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

She bit the inside of her cheek. “What the hell was I thinking?" she thought? she thought. She walked over and noted the remains of a pretty purple vase, hoping it was something important to him. A sturdy chair, which she guessed was once pushed under the desk, was shoved against the wall beside the window.

Standing fully behind the desk, she saw the door Makoto left through at the back left corner and a bookcase filled with thick tomes and files against the wall. She dragged her gaze to the right and saw a plush sitting area with blue velvet couches surrounding a low wooden table. Crystal glasses, half filled with amber liquid, sat on the table, forgotten by their owners.

Soraya huffed out a breath and turned her attention to the door Makoto had pointed out. He’d said a bathroom was through there.

Lifting her arm to her nose, she took a whiff of herself, and she caught the scent of his salty citrus cologne clinging to her skin. Although she hated to admit it, the asshole had very good taste. It pissed her off.

Storming to the door that led to the bathroom, she threw it open and walked through to the adjacent room, only to pull up short.

The room was like stepping into a dream.

As Soraya stepped further in, the glossy white walls around her shimmered with soft, iridescent colors under the pure moonlight. Her eyes followed the glittering walls as they curved high into the ceiling, their edges soft and rounded like the office. She traced the smooth contours of the ceiling until her gaze reached the right side of the room, where large windows spanned the entire wall.

Flicking her gaze to her immediate left, she spotted a cluttered wooden table set in front of floor-to-ceiling shelves wrapped along the curve of the wall. The many shelves housed books and other trinkets she couldn’t identify.

Further along the wall was another sitting area with low-back blue couches arranged in front of a fireplace. Finally, her eyes landed on an unkempt bed adorned with only two pillows. Soraya was affronted by the site of the large mattress with so few pillows. It looked…lonely.

On either side of the bed were two doors. Choosing the one on the right, she walked across the room, careful not to step on any of the carpets with her dirty sneakers, and pushed open the silver handle.

The bathroom was just as opulent as the bedroom. The white walls curved into a dome sphere. Above, a flat circular disk hung from the center of the ceiling, with greenish-blue vines dangling from the curved edges. When she looked down, she saw that the floor sloped gently toward the center of the room, with circular grooves etched into its surface.

There were three benches pushed against the rounded walls, with soft blue towels hanging on hooks above them. Strangely enough, she didn’t see a tub or shower to indicate that someone bathed there. Weird.

To her left was a sink made out of the same material as the rest of the room, with a toothbrush and silver comb resting on it. The wall above the sink, still part of the white rounded walls, was polished so thoroughly that it served as a mirror.

Soraya walked to stand in front of the sink, looked up at her reflection, and jerked back.

In the reflection, there was…her—yet not her.

Raising a hand to the polished surface, she touched the cool wall, tracing her features as she had always known them.

Maybe it was one of those trick mirrors, but instead of making you look funny, it made you look…

Her thoughts flashed back to Makoto. Beautiful. Savage. Wild.

That was how she saw herself now. Like her features had been…enhanced. And her eyes—she was staring into a bright, intense pair of obsidian eyes.

Gasping, she turned her head, pulling back her hair to find her ears—

Completely normal.

Soraya let her arm fall back down to her side and backed away from the mirror, tearing her eyes away from the familiar stranger.

She turned and her heart sped up at the sight of opaque double doors. She rushed to them and, with a smile, threw them open.

Wind lashed at her as she stepped out onto a small white balcony. The moon hung directly above her, bathing her in its milky white light. Her eyes danced over a star-studded sky that stretched above a dark ocean, its waves crashing against a white sand beach that curved off into the distance. She could hear the waves pounding restlessly against the shore. And…she spotted people playing amongst the frothing surf.

A short distance away from the beach was a city.

One she didn’t know.

Confused, she studied the colorful buildings and their glittering lights that flowed over a hill. From this distance, she could see dozens of people milling about brightly lit streets. It looked like they were having a night festival.

If she shouted for help, she doubted anyone would be able to hear her over the crashing waves. Peering over the waist-high railing, she spotted a calm sea flowing below her. If she was desperate enough to jump, the fall would be doable, but she didn’t know how strong the current was, and she wasn’t ready to risk drowning just yet.

A torrent of wind whipped around her, making her shiver as it lashed against her skin and shattered her thoughts of escape. It was like the wind carried an unknown energy that zinged uncomfortably up and down her body.

Rubbing her arms through her hoodie, she tried to comfort herself in the face of her predicament when a sinking feeling settled in the pit of her stomach.

Something was off.

Looking back toward the city, she scanned the thriving crowd and found nothing amiss—until her gaze returned to the beach. The individuals who had been frolicking in the waves were now running across the sand.

Soraya cocked her head at the spectacle. They weren’t running aimlessly; that much she could tell. They appeared frantic. Afraid. Her eyes darted back to the waves, except they were no longer there…and she could no longer hear their rhythmic pounding against the beach. They were just—gone.

It took her a moment to understand what had just happened.

The ocean had pulled back into itself—revealing yards and yards of glimmering wet sand. Soraya’s stomach sank further as she looked over the balcony again, only to discover the ocean had receded far away from the bluff the building stood on.

Air rushed into her ears, and a thunderous roar began to build over the wind. She snapped her gaze far out toward the horizon.

Fear gripped her lungs as she watched a growing tidal wave approach.

It was headed directly for the city.

It was headed directly for her.