Chapter 3
Three
Miles
Devon had the day off today, which was lucky for me.
It was a weekday, but since he owned the place, he had random days off instead of the regular weekends.
A few years ago, Devon had bought the auto shop he'd worked in from its human owner, who'd been wanting to retire.
Now, most of the employees were supes, though a few humans had stuck around.
Devon had kept the original human workers, and hired supes when any of them left.
That was the way most of the businesses had changed over the last decade and change since Raiden—the dragon who watched over the town, and headed our clan—focused on turning Mistvale into a supe-safe haven.
The drive across town to the packland where Devon and Ollie lived took me about twenty minutes, and I thought about Duckie the whole time.
When Mateo and I had first been adopted by our dads, we'd spent most of our time in our owl forms. Dad was a fire mage, and his familiar was an eagle owl named April who'd watched over us—and sometimes still did—like we were her own fledglings.
It'd felt easier to be owls, because then we didn't have to talk, or think about the horrors we'd suffered at the hands of the dark witches and shifters we'd been held prisoners by.
Had something similar happened to Duckie? Had a trauma of some kind scared him into not shifting back?
A knock on my window made me jump, and I glanced up at Noel's smiling face. How long had I been idling?
Noel was an elf, and he'd called the packland home when it was still a Christmas tree farm. He was a sweet man, and mated to a somewhat grumpy but kind wolf shifter named Caleb.
"Hey, Miles. What brings you to the packland today?" he asked, skipping ahead as I made my way through the clearing to Devon and Ollie's cabin.
"I'm here to see Devon," I said, hesitating to mention Duckie. I knew the news would spread like wildfire the moment I said it out loud to anyone from the clan. While Rebba wasn't a gossip, most of the clan—and especially Noel—was.
My phone buzzed, then buzzed again as Noel pulled his out of his pocket, and I closed my eyes, realizing I didn't have to worry about it at all.
Because right this moment, Mateo was on the other side of town, telling the whole story—with a ton of hand gestures and playacting, because that was how my twin rolled—to the biggest gossip in town: Uncle Raph.
"You found your mate! That's wonderful. Congratulations!" Noel threw his arms around my middle, squeezing me to him in a tight hug. For such a small man, he was strong. I hugged him back, the scent of pine and vanilla enveloping me before we pulled apart.
"Thank you."
"We'll have to plan a welcome party for him," Noel murmured, and I could tell he was going to run with it if I didn't stop him this instant.
"Maybe not right now. Something's stopping him from shifting to his human form, so maybe once he feels comfortable doing that?"
"Oh!" Noel blinked, his dark eyes going wide, then nodded. "Of course, I understand. Let me know when he's ready, and I'll plan something."
"Thanks, Noel."
He waved me off, and I hurried up the steps to Devon and Ollie's small porch, knocking on the door, and taking a step back.
Ollie opened the door, his smile quick to appear as his hazel eyes caught mine, and my lips curved in response.
Despite the shit deal he'd been dealt early in life—a warlock had trapped him in his cat form and separated him from his family to punish his father, who hadn't cared for him all that much to begin with—Ollie was one of the happiest people I'd ever met.
"Hey, Miles. Come on in. Devon, Miles is here!"
I followed Ollie into their cozy living room, the walls a soft beige color and covered in picture frames. A cat tree stood beside the large window, and cat toys created tripping hazards—for people like me, not for the residents of this house—all over the floor.
As I sat down on the couch, a sharp "Fuck you!" reached my ears, and I grinned.
"How's Dannie?" I asked, peering around the room to see if I could spot her.
"Cheerful as ever," Devon said with a smirk as she walked in from the bedroom.
His long dark hair was in a braided knot, the streaks of bright red standing out against the black strands.
He changed the colors every few months, and the red went well with his light blue eyes.
"She's swearing at the other birds from her favorite spot in the kitchen. "
Damn, I loved that crazy bird. She was a delight.
"What brings you here today?" he asked as he pressed a kiss on Ollie's cheek in greeting. His eyes shifted to me, so he didn't see the fond look on Ollie's face, but I did, and I wondered if one day Duckie would look at me that way too.
"If you're asking that, I assume you haven't checked your phone yet," I said as he sat down in an armchair across from me and Ollie perched himself on its arm, his balance perfect, thanks to his feline nature.
"Mm, it's charging," Devon agreed, his pale blue eyes curious. Our paths didn't cross often outside of the clan gatherings, so he knew I had to have a reason for being here.
"Well, I found my mate," I said, and Ollie cheered, then slid off the armchair to settle beside me as he gave me a one-armed hug.
"That's amazing, Miles! Congratulations!"
"Thank you," I murmured as I returned his smile. It was hard not to.
"I'm happy for you, Miles," Devon murmured, then tilted his head, a bit of his bobcat side showing in his mannerisms. Cat shifters were always the easiest to recognize, because their feline qualities somehow managed to shine through their human forms. "But what does that have to do with me?"
"I wanted to talk to both of you. My mate... Duckie, he doesn't want to shift. He's a duck shifter, and he refuses to take a human form."
Devon blinked, his surprise clear on his face, and Ollie made a soft sound of concern.
"Is something stopping him? Like a spell?" Ollie asked, and I shook my head.
"We talked to him, and it's clear he doesn't want to shift. I don't know if he's afraid or doesn't feel comfortable in a human form..."
"We?" Devon questioned, and I nodded.
"He's Mateo's mate too."
"Ah, that makes sense. I'd wondered how you'd handle it if one of you found your mate. I suppose Fate thought of that too."
I smiled at that, knowing he was right. Mateo and I were close. As if being twins wasn't enough, we'd been through some rough shit together, and it'd only brought us closer. I didn't think either of us would've handled it well.
Duckie
The length of a big but cozy bedroom separated me from Alex, the teen incubus Mateo thought I'd get along with. We'd been alone for about ten minutes, watching each other.
I glanced around the room as I waited for Alex to speak, taking in the band posters, the messy sheets on the bed, the desk he sat at that was covered in notebooks, a pen holder overflowing with pens, and a stack of textbooks I couldn't see the titles of from here.
I could hear Mateo talking to Jai and Raphael downstairs, and I kept getting distracted by their conversation.
Raphael had given me a health check when we first got here, and once he'd confirmed I was healthy, Mateo had introduced me to Alex and then gone back downstairs, telling me to let him know when I was ready to leave.
"Gus is going to be so mad I got to meet your mate first," Raphael was saying, his voice filled with unbridled glee.
"I know! I didn't think of it until now. He's going to kill me."
Raphael snickered, and I shook my head, and wondered how he could be a 160-plus-year-old mage. He didn't look it, and he certainly didn't sound like it. I also wondered who this Gus was. Another friend of theirs?
"So you don't want to shift, huh?" The soft voice made me jump, and I glanced up at Alex, who was sitting at a desk near the window on the other side of the room.
Their dark brown eyes were focused on me, their straight black hair framing their face as they leaned forward, the faded red tips gleaming in the faint sunlight peeking in through the window.
I shook my head, and they pursed their lips, their fingers tapping a rhythm on the desk. "I get that. If I had an animal form, I'd stick to it too."
I tilted my head, curious why. I wouldn't ask them because I wasn't ready to answer that question myself, but they told me anyway.
"I don't... I don't like the way people look at me," they said with a shrug, turning their head to peer out the window.
"Jai and Raphael don't look at me like that.
They treat me like I'm a normal kid, but other people.
.." They trailed off as a tremor ran through their body, and my heart ached for them.
I hadn't been around many supes in my life, and they were the first incubus I'd met, but even I could tell they were powerful.
I could sense their power, sense their tenuous hold on it, but it didn't affect me.
Maybe because I'd already found my mates?
I wanted to say something to make them feel better, but of course, I couldn't. So I did the next thing I could think of. I flew over to the desk, and butted my head against their chin.
Alex snorted, then patted my head. "Thanks, Duckie. You're a good guy."
I didn't know about that. I didn't think I'd done much in my life to be considered good or bad. I just was, like I'd been for most of my life. I was existing because I was too much of a coward to live.
Everything okay? Mateo asked in my mind, and I wondered if some of my feelings had reached him through the bond.
Yeah, it's all good, I assured him as I took a few steps back, glancing down at the paper I was standing on.
Messy scribbles covered the page, and while I had learned to read in school, the writing made the words almost illegible to me.
The open textbook beside it made me wonder if they'd been studying, but Alex placed his palm over the text before I could puzzle it out.
Their tan skin appeared flushed, and I concluded I'd been trying to read something personal.
I ducked my head in apology, and they smiled and patted my head again.
"You know, you're pretty easy to hang out with. Feel free to visit me if you ever get bored. Jai and Raph homeschool me, and I don't go out much, so I'm almost always around," Alex said, and I flicked my head in agreement.
I liked Alex. I liked Mateo and Miles too, but with them, I was always aware of the fact that they were my mates, and that they had some expectations of me, no matter how much they insisted they didn't.
Alex was quiet for a minute, but then he picked up his phone, unlocked it, and set it in front of me. "Can you use the touchscreen?" he asked, and I tapped my foot on the screen, making an app open up.
"Huh. I didn't think you could. Maybe it's because you're a shifter and not an actual duck?"
I flapped my wings in an approximation of a shrug, and they chuckled, then started tapping around on the phone.
"You can read, yes?"
I nodded, and they placed the phone in front of me again. The screen now had six different words on it, each with a distinct background.
I tapped on the Hi, and a robotic voice came from the phone. "Hi!"
My eyes shot to Alex, and they grinned. "I'll need to see if I can borrow Jai's tablet, but with more buttons, we can have an actual conversation."
Fondness for this kid I'd just met filled me, and I butted my head against his again, then tapped the "Thank you" button.
The two words weren't enough to express how grateful I felt.
Alex had found a way for me to communicate with them without ever asking me to shift back.
They'd accepted that I wasn't ready, and figured out an alternative, and it meant the world to me.
"You're welcome."
We hung out for a while longer, but then I remembered Mateo had mentioned wanting to visit the "haunted house" he worked at, and I was curious about the place.
I wanted to see if it was an actual haunted house.
I'd gone to one for my seventh birthday, and I'd loved it, especially because Dad had been terrified the whole time. I'd found it funny.
Fuck, what I wouldn't give to go to a haunted house with my parents again.
Can we leave? I asked Mateo through our bond, and a few minutes later, we were in the sky, flying toward the center of town and to a large under-construction house. It looked like a gothic villa, which I supposed was the vibe one wanted for a haunted house.
Do you often go to places naked? I questioned as I followed Mateo through a window into what looked like a small storage room.
Mateo's amusement filtered through the bond, and he shifted before me, grabbing a stack of clothes from a shelf nearby.
"I prefer flying over driving. I drive when I'm visiting a human or a stranger, of course, but most clan members are used to me popping by as an owl, and usually keep something for me to wear."
Back when I'd first learned to shift, my family had always been so careful about when and where we shifted. It was strange to see how relaxed Mateo was about the whole thing, and I suspected it wasn't the only unusual thing I'd get to see in this town.