Epilogue #2
And Max had been making friends as well.
Not only was there a bevy of mythical shifters here to help him learn everything he needed to know, but he’d also slowly but surely been making friends with other people in the town.
He often chatted with Luna, an itinerant travel writer, when she was in town, and he was getting to know other people as well.
Poppy knew that it had been an adjustment for him, not being able to make other people ignore him anymore, but he seemed to be doing well.
Part of why he was doing well, she was sure, was the fact that he and his manticore seemed to have reached an accord of sorts.
While Poppy was sure that the manticore wasn’t quite as much of a jerk as Max made it out to be, she did know that it was headstrong, and she’d seen its fearsome powers.
Knowing that it had calmed down and was willing to work with Max was making all of their lives easier, and their relationship had only improved.
Sure, the manticore could still be ornery – by Max’s accounts, anyway – but Max could now shift and fly with ease, which, Poppy had to say, was pretty fricking cool.
Margot had been doing some research as well, confirming that the children of fae and shifters could sometimes end up with a mythical or hybrid shifter animal. Or, as she had put it, some mystical force takes random bits from other creatures and sticks them onto the original animal.
But what Margot lacked in social graces, she more than made up for in knowledge. She’d been invaluable in helping Max to learn more about manticores, using her impressive collection of, ah, niche books to conduct the kind of research that you could never get from a regular reference librarian.
And, as it turned out, there was even another half-shifter in Girdwood Springs – Lily, the child of Sylvie from the bakery and her mate Gale, who was a unicorn shifter.
When Max had found out, he’d muttered of course, like it explained something he’d been wondering about.
Gale and Sylvie had confirmed that they didn’t know whether Lily would be able to shift when she got older – but said they would love her with all their hearts no matter what, their eyes full of adoration for their little girl.
“Here,” Max said, breaking her out of her reverie. “What do you think?”
He passed her the laptop.
Poppy had a look. It was his blog – well, Aubrey Z.’s blog, and she’d mostly stopped teasing him about that. There was a new update:
I’ve got an announcement to make: I’ve decided to take a step back, and retire as Aubrey Z.
I know this must come as a surprise. It’s not a decision I’ve taken lightly, but it’s the right one for now.
Make sure to check back from time to time – maybe one day I’ll decide that I miss the open road, and will update again.
It’s been an honor to write for you all. Take care, and make sure to enjoy every mouthful.
Poppy looked up at him. He looked back, his eyes searching hers. He didn’t look nervous as such, but he was obviously wondering what her reaction would be.
She smiled. “You know that I support you in whatever you want to do, right?”
And she did. She really did.
Max’s shoulders relaxed a little.
Poppy thought about it. “Is this because you can’t do it as easily without your powers, or do you just not want to do it anymore?”
“A little of both, really,” Max said. “It’s all I’ve ever really done, so I’d like to concentrate more on helping you with the shop, or do something different again.
” He laughed. “And I’d like to be able to enjoy my food without trying to come up with a synonym for exquisite that I haven’t used ten times already. ”
Poppy laughed as well, leaning in to kiss him on the cheek. “I’ll miss the cravat. But you gotta do what you gotta do.”
Max groaned. “Will the jokes ever stop?”
“Probably not,” Poppy said truthfully.
“In breaking news,” said a voice on the TV, “fugitive CEO Lucy Montagna was arrested today –”
“What?!” shrieked Poppy, knocking her empty dinner bowl to the floor in her attempt to grab the remote control and turn the volume up.
“– attempted to escape the country,” said the news anchor, as footage of Poppy’s former boss flashed up on the screen, hands cuffed behind her back as she was led away by police.
“Oh my God,” Poppy said, trying to process everything she was seeing.
“Are you all right?” Max asked cautiously.
“More than all right,” Poppy said, unable to tear her eyes from the screen.
So okay, she wasn’t one hundred percent all right – the anger that she’d managed to put out of her mind for the past six months had come flooding back – but the relief was much stronger, and now, at least, she knew that she’d be able to put that chapter of her life to bed for good.
Really, she should probably be thanking Lucy – after all, without her dubious antics, Poppy never would’ve booked that fateful trip to Girdwood Springs.
“Here.” Max topped up her wine glass and held it out to her, and she raised it, clinking it against Max’s.
“To happy endings,” she said, before draining the glass. The renewed anger was already dissipating, leaving her with a warm, happy glow. Although some of that was probably the wine.
“To happy endings,” said Max.
She pulled him in for a kiss, slow and deep, deliriously happy to be here with him. The mate bond pulsed through her, its radiance lighting her up from the inside out.
Eventually, she pulled back just slightly, regretting every fraction of an inch between their skin.
“Do you know what I would love to do right now?” she whispered.
“What?” Max murmured back.
“I would love… to go flying.”
Max looked startled for a moment, clearly having expected her to say something else… but then he nodded, and she knew that he understood.
There was something wonderfully freeing about riding on the back of a manticore, with the wind in her hair, and knowing that Max would never, ever let her fall. And that was what she felt right now – freedom. She wanted to experience it in its purest form.
They practically ran to the back door, laughing breathlessly as they stumbled through the garden in their pajamas. It was a pure, black night, the moon not yet risen, and they ran through the woods until they found a clearing.
Without delaying for conversation, Max shifted, and the magnificent manticore loomed up out of the darkness, its eyes glowing with only the faintest blue.
Poppy had one dizzy moment to wonder why Max’s glasses disappeared during the shift – she was sure that the manticore would look very dapper and erudite with them – before she dismissed the ridiculous thought and jumped onto its back.
Max leaped into the air, the enormous wings producing a welcome breeze on this hot, still night, and she laughed in ecstasy as, together, they flew through the endless sky.
The stars seemed to shine all around them, enveloping them, and Poppy thought that maybe no one had ever been happier in the history of the world.
My mate, she thought, as she felt Max’s warmth beneath her, felt the soft pulse of the mate bond throughout her entire body.
I’m home.
Thank you so much for reading!