Chapter 16 #3
“I do,” said Poppy, looking up at him with so much love in her expression that it took his breath away. “And I want it, Max. I want all of it.”
Max could barely hear the words over the sound of the manticore’s joyous roaring.
Poppy wants to be my mate, he thought, dazed.
She paused, uncertainty creeping into her expression. “That is, if you want it.”
“What? Of course I – of course I want it!”
The thought that he wouldn’t want it was completely baffling to him. But clearly that moment where he’d paused in surprise had been enough for her to see it as a hesitation on his part, rather than being overwhelmed by sheer happiness.
Well, he didn’t want there to be any uncertainty about it whatsoever. He wrapped one arm around her waist, and then, guiding her head gently with the other hand, he brought her in for a slow, gentle kiss, trying to convey all of the feelings he had for her without words.
He must’ve been doing at least a half-decent job of it, because Poppy sighed into the kiss, her lips soft and warm, her body melting into his, the gentle buzz of the mate bond elevating it beyond any kiss he’d ever experienced.
It’s like we were made for each other.
Eventually she pulled back, a smile playing over her lips.
“So, do you have any other secrets for me?” she asked.
“I honestly don’t know,” Max replied helplessly. “I mean, I don’t think I have any more, but I didn’t know about half of this stuff, either. Oh, wait – my mom can turn into a lion. Did I mention that yet?”
Poppy looked only mildly surprised. “No, but I can’t say I’m shocked.” A sly smile slid across her face. “I do see the family resemblance.”
Max sighed. “I have no idea how she’s going to react when she finds out.
I mean, I think she’ll be happy that I can shift at all, but shifters can definitely get weird about that kind of thing.
Usually shifters’ kids are the same type of shifter as their parents, and I’m guessing my dad wasn’t some sort of fae-scorpion-dragon hybrid…
though honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised, at this point. ”
“Maybe that’s how mythical shifters come about,” Poppy said thoughtfully. “Maybe shifters having kids with other magical beings just ends up… enhancing them, I guess. And then they become their own thing over time.”
The manticore seemed to be struggling between wanting to be seen as anything other than some fantastical creature that sprang fully-formed from the heavens, and being pleased at being seen as enhanced.
Max, on the other hand, was just glad about how well Poppy was taking all of this.
He would have to thank Margot later for doing a lot of the work around explaining what shifters and mates were, even if she really probably shouldn’t have done it.
“Maybe so,” said Max with a sigh, poking at the sharp-dressed fae that was still out cold on the ground.
His breathing was noisy enough that Max knew he was still alive, and he knew that fae were tough enough that his condition was stable for now, even with the pretty impressive stab wound that Poppy had given him.
They were going to have to do something with him pretty soon, though.
If only Max had any idea what that something was.
He winced as he stared at the fae’s unconscious face.
Was he really half… half that? Fae had a pretty awful reputation all around.
On the one hand, finding out his father was fae seemed to explain a lot about how he’d just left Max and his mom here to fend for themselves…
but on the other hand, it also seemed like he’d done it for a good reason.
If this guy had been telling the truth, anyway.
“Hey.” Poppy’s voice cut through his musings. “Don’t even think about what that guy said. He’s just some dick. There are plenty of asshole humans out there, but that doesn’t make me an asshole, does it?”
Max opened his mouth to protest that this was different, but Poppy caught his lips between her fingers.
“Does it?” she asked firmly, and Max shook his head.
“Good,” she said, releasing his mouth, and her tone clearly indicated that she considered the matter closed.
She is feisty, the manticore murmured approvingly.
Max had to say that he approved, too. He knew that he had a tendency to get caught up in his thoughts – having someone who wouldn’t put up with too much moping could only be a good thing.
“You know what I want right now?” Poppy went on, and honestly, Max couldn’t even begin to guess.
“What?”
“Sugar,” Poppy said, and her grin glowed bright in the light of the cellphone. She started rummaging around in her purse, cursing as she dug through its apparently infinite contents, before holding up her prize triumphantly.
“I’ve been lugging around these macarons forever, waiting for the right moment,” she went on. “I do believe that that moment is now.”
It seemed almost ridiculous, but Max found that he couldn’t help but agree. It had been an absolutely insane day, and suddenly nothing in the world sounded better.
Poppy’s smile turned impish. “Or are these macarons not refined enough for the renowned Aubrey Z.? Perhaps I should just eat them myself.”
Max groaned. “Are you going to let me live that down?”
Poppy popped a macaron into her mouth. “Probably not.”
Max was tempted to call her out for talking with her mouth full, but he knew full well that she held all the power in this particular situation. It would be a foolish man who tested her.
“Oh, wait,” she said, searching in her purse once more until she’d pulled out a pen. “I knew there was a reason I didn’t figure out your secret identity.”
Leaning forward, she reached out with the pen, and Max closed his eyes with a sigh as he felt its tip touching his face. He deserved this.
“There,” she said with obvious satisfaction, and Max opened his eyes again. “You’re much more recognizable with your pencil mustache, Aubrey.”
“Very funny.” He fought the urge to scrub it off. If it made Poppy smile, then he was happy to look a bit silly. Really, she had taken it all remarkably well.
And there were certainly much worse things she could’ve drawn on his face. He was willing to deal with a mustache.
Poppy sat back on her heels with a grin.
“I do understand why you lied about it, despite everything. You can’t tell a person you’ve just met your secret identity, after all.
I’ve read Superman comics.” Her smile turned thoughtful.
“Just how did you manage to keep it a secret, anyway? I wasn’t joking when I said that you’re pretty memorable. ”
How to go about saying that he could mess with people’s minds? It was pretty off-putting – in some ways, more off-putting than being able to turn into a giant beast.
I heard that, muttered the manticore.
But she deserved to know the truth – and anyway, she’d already seen what his powers could do once they’d been fully unleashed.
“I’ve always had some minor powers,” he said truthfully.
“Not so much mind control or memory wiping as… perception alteration, I guess you could call it. Make people forget they’d met me.
Or, better yet, not really notice me in the first place.
It made it easier to order whatever I wanted and then write about it, without having to worry about anyone remembering the guy with the highly specific order. ”
“I see.” Poppy didn’t seem to be too concerned, and Max relaxed a little. “That must be handy, when you just want to be left alone.”
“It is,” Max said with a laugh. “I think in some ways it’s better than the more popular superpowers out there.”
A thought occurred to him, and he went on, “It never worked with you, though. Not that I wanted you to ignore me!” he added quickly. “Just, when we very first met, I didn’t want anyone at all to see me. But you saw through it all without even trying.”
He could see now that it was almost certainly because she was his mate.
And maybe that meant that the other people who had been only somewhat affected by his powers were shifters, given that Levi was a shifter and he’d had that kind of strange reaction?
Although that would mean that there were an awful lot of shifters in this town.
It must be that they’re shifters – they can’t all be my mate. That would be way too much of a good thing. Poppy is more than enough for me.
Poppy smirked a little. “Is that because I’m just so wonderful and amazing?”
He grinned back. “Of course.”
“Right answer. You’ve earned yourself a macaron.
” She held her phone up to the dented, scuffed box, squinting at the label inside.
“Looks like they’re all seasonal flavors – gingerbread, eggnog, candy cane, spiced apple and custard.
I already had one of the candy cane ones. What flavor do you want?”
“Nog me,” he said, and Poppy pulled out a macaron, before placing it between her teeth and leaning forward, passing half of it to him with a kiss while gently biting off the other half for herself.
“How was that, Aubrey?” she asked teasingly. “Exquisite?”
Max laughed, only a little embarrassed. “Sure, let’s go with that.”
He didn’t really want to think about how the delicate shell crunched, or the texture of the filling, or what its flavor profile was – mostly, he just thought that’s really good.
While he liked his job, sometimes he found it intruding upon everything he ate, even outside of work.
For now, he was happy just to enjoy the macaron for its own sake. And the next macaron, too.
He was about to make a start on macaron number three when suddenly his ears caught a sound outside the cabin – he didn’t think that he would’ve picked up on it normally, but it seemed like there were a lot of things about himself he was going to have to relearn.
That was a footstep.
His manticore agreed, on high alert, all its earlier fractiousness gone.
“Wait here,” he murmured, standing up and picking up the rusty ax. Poppy turned off her cellphone light, and said nothing.
Another footstep crunched in the snow outside, soft but unmistakable.
Peering through the dirty window, Max could see shapes moving through the trees, too distant to identify in the darkness.
He opened the door, tension running through his body, his manticore ready and waiting. Together, they would do whatever it took to protect Poppy.
What he wasn’t ready for, he had to admit, was an enormous winged creature coming in for a quick landing right in front of him, plopping down almost vertically into the snow.
His manticore bared its fangs, starting to force a shift before Max was even aware of what it was doing, and it was only by sheer force of will that he managed to hold it back.
Wait! Just one moment! I think I know who this is.
The creature stretched out its wings, raising its lion’s head – and if Max had somehow not managed to recognize the chimera, he certainly would’ve managed to recognize the figure perched on its back.
“Oh! Max!” Margot exclaimed, hopping down lightly. She blinked her enormous eyes. “You’ve grown a mustache! That was fast.”
Max sighed, and did his utmost not to rub at his face – probably all he would do at this point was smear the ink around. Behind him, he could hear Poppy laughing.
The chimera shimmered and shifted, revealing a concerned-looking Levi. “Is everything okay here? Margot detected some pretty intense magical activity again.”
“Yeah, I think so.” Max peered around Levi, looking out into the forest. “Except that I think there’s someone else nearby.”
“Oh, it’s just us,” came a voice that Max immediately recognized as Kieran’s, and he emerged from the trees, Natasha at his side. “We saw that note sticking out from under Poppy’s door with the coordinates listed, and became concerned.”
“Especially since once we pulled the notebook out, we could see that it was accompanied by threats to kill,” added Natasha.
Max wasn’t quite sure what they were referring to, but he had to assume that that was how the fae had lured Poppy here. So much had happened in the past few hours that he thought it was going to take them a week to work it all out.
Beyond that, he noticed a tickling in the back of his mind that he’d never felt before – and now it seemed to be pulling in two directions, toward Levi and Kieran. It took him a moment to work it out.
Well done, the manticore said, sarcasm edging its tone. They’re both shifters.
Obviously he’d already known it about Levi, but Kieran was a new one. It made sense, though, given that they’d both seemed confused by him. Maybe this town was full of shifters.
Poppy came up next to him. “Thanks for coming,” she said, her voice full of gratitude. “While we’ve managed to deal with the, um, immediate problem, we do have another, ah, issue that we could use some help with. But first, you should all come in out of the cold.”
“Is there anyone else hiding out there?” Max said jokingly.
The others all shook their heads… but then a voice he didn’t recognize spoke up.
“Just one more.”
Max’s head whipped around, his manticore ready to spring.
A man stepped out from the trees, and smiled a thin smile.
“Hello, son.”