My Mate was confused

I watched him, my husband, as his gaze remained locked on me.

But he wasn't looking at me with coldness or disdain anymore.

He was… analyzing.

His head was tilted just so, those long, white rabbit ears—his ears—drooping slightly to one side.

His eyes were wide, unfocused, as if he were trying to solve a complex equation written on my face. The expression was so utterly devoid of its usual sharp calculation, replaced instead by a soft, dazed curiosity, that it made my breath catch.

He looked… heartbreakingly cute.

Then, his gaze drifted.

It slid from my face, down, and then up again, as if following a line in the air. His eyes found the mirror on the far wall. He stared at his own reflection for a moment, a faint frown creasing his brow. And then, his focus shifted upward, to the top of his own head.

His eyes widened.

They grew comically large, the violet irises swimming in a sea of white. A small, startled gasp escaped his lips.

Slowly, as if moving through water, his hands came up. His slender, pale fingers trembled as they reached, hesitantly, for the fluffy white appendages perched atop his snow-white hair.

He didn't touch them at first. He just held his hands there, hovering, his expression one of pure, unadulterated shock.

"Wh… what is this?" he whispered, his voice trembling more than his hands.

My own instincts were on high alert. Every fiber of my being was focused on him, analyzing his micro-expressions, the scent of his confusion saturating the air—no trace of the usual perfumed arrogance, just the clean, sharp smell of genuine shock.

This wasn't an act. This was something else entirely.

"Your ears," I replied, my voice low and carefully neutral. I kept my arms crossed, my posture non-threatening but ready. My wolf was pacing inside me, wary and intensely curious.

He finally made contact.

His fingertips brushed against the base of one long, velvety ear. A full-body flinch ran through him, a violent shudder that made his entire frame tremble.

He stared at his reflection, his hand now gently stroking the length of the ear, his touch feather-light, like it was an experiment.

"So long…" he breathed out, his voice filled with awe and disbelief. He turned his head slightly, watching the ear move in the mirror.

Then his eyes met mine in the reflection, wide and pleading for an answer that made sense. "But… my ears don't look like this."

The statement hung in the air, simple and devastating.

My ears don't look like this.

I felt the world shift under my feet. I uncrossed my arms, letting them fall to my sides, my own guard lowering fractionally.

I took a single step closer, my movements slow and deliberate, as if approaching a skittish wild animal.

"Elijah," I said, my voice softer than I had used with him in months. "They are a white rabbit beastman's ears. They have always looked like this."

"No. No, they're… they're small. And round. On the side of my head." He brought his hands up to the sides of his human ears, patting them as if to confirm their existence beneath the fall of his hair.

"Not… not these. These are…" He trailed off, his gaze dropping to his own hands, then back to the mirror, a profound and terrifying confusion drowning the violet of his eyes.

I inspected every detail. The way his nose twitched incessantly. The absolute lack of recognition in his eyes when he looked at his own body. The raw, childlike wonder mixed with fear.

This wasn't the Elijah who meticulously curated every aspect of his appearance. This was someone… else. Someone who genuinely did not know what he was.

The husband I knew, the cold, self-centered socialite who loved another man… was gone. And in his place was this lost, bewildered creature who thought his ears should be small and round.

A protective instinct, fierce and overwhelming, surged through me, momentarily eclipsing the years of pain and rejection. My mate was hurt. My mate was scared. And he had no one.

"Elijah," I repeated, my voice a low, steady anchor in the storm of his disorientation. "Look at me."

His gaze, glassy with unshed tears, slowly lifted from the mirror and met mine.

"Tell me," I commanded gently, my Alpha tone leaving no room for evasion, but laced with a care I hadn't shown him in so long. "What do you remember?"

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***