Chapter 3

She’s my mate. She’s here. I’m in her car. I’m here, sitting next to my mate in her car.

Henry’s thoughts whirled. He’d felt like someone had hit him over the head with a baseball bat from the moment she’d first touched him to retrieve her – really, kind of hideously ugly – dog from his arms.

He hadn’t been thinking straight. The only thing in his head during those first few moments was the ringing sound of his hellhound as it tipped back its head and howled, the only word that mattered echoing through his head: Mine!

He knew what he was doing was a bad idea. He should have made his excuses and got the hell out of there, and gone up the mountain like he’d originally planned, staying in his hellhound form until he’d figured out just why every animal in the world seemed to have fallen completely in love with him.

Speaking of…

He glanced down uneasily.

Fillmore the dog was sitting on his lap, tongue lolling, his bulging eyes trained on Henry with what could only be described as extreme intensity.

But at least he wasn’t trying to wriggle around or lick off the cake that – still – coated his chest, so Henry decided he’d take it.

Since Fillmore had decided that just sitting on him was enough, Henry turned his head to look out the car window, nervous about what he might see.

You really didn’t think this through very well, did you,his hellhound said, its voice flat and unimpressed.

Henry bristled, but… he had to admit it had a point. The knowledge that the woman sitting next to him was his mate had been vibrating within him like a struck gong, blocking out most of his ability to formulate even one thought, let alone many thoughts, which he could have used to make an excuse as to why he couldn’t let her take him back to where she was staying, have his clothes cleaned, and then, presumably, ask her out for a coffee or something once he’d figured out how to invite her anywhere while not also unwittingly inviting every animal in a five-mile radius.

You also never asked her anything about herself, or why she’s here,his hellhound pointed out sourly. Do you think she’d want to go anywhere with you if you can’t even display basic manners, animals following you around everywhere or not?

A chill ran down Henry’s spine as he realized his hellhound was right. He really was making a complete mess of this – it was just that it was so unexpected. He’d never even been sure that there was such a thing as mates. Not being a part of regular hellhound society meant that he didn’t really know a lot of the things he should have – his parents hadn’t been mates, but Henry knew they did love each other. But given that, he felt he was missing out on a lot of information that might have helped him navigate these unfamiliar waters.

It also didn’t help, he supposed, that a lot of his romances had tended to be a little short-lived. It made it a little difficult to talk to people when everyone found you instinctively terrifying.

But… Luna didn’t seem to notice anything intimidating or frightening about me at all,Henry thought, glancing across at her. She didn’t even blink. She just apologized for her dog, offered to buy me some more cake, and then, without a second thought, invited me to come back to where she’s staying.

Henry knew that he couldn’t allow himself to just sit here like a stunned lump, letting his mate slip through his fingers. Turning away from the window – since there didn’t seem to be any animals trying to chase down the car just at this point in time – he looked across at her.

It wasn’t just that she didn’t seem to find him scary, or that she obviously had a good heart – her insistence on trying to make up for the loss of his cakes proved that, as well as the fact that she’d apparently been willing to adopt what had to be one of the most un-adoptable dogs Henry had ever seen – it was also that she was… well…

Cute as a button,Henry’s mind supplied for him. She had fiery red hair, coppery green eyes, pale skin, and traces of freckles over the bridge of her nose. It was a stunningly beautiful, striking combination, and Henry found that once he was looking at her, it was difficult to tear his eyes away. He would have thought she was gorgeous even if she wasn’t his mate – but the fact that she was made her all but irresistible to him.

“So – you live up here?” he blurted out, realizing that he had to do something to break the silence that had enveloped them for the past three minutes. It hadn’t quite gotten awkward yet, but it soon would if he didn’t do something. “Oh, wait... you said you were staying at a BB, so I guess not. Sorry, you did say that.”

Luna flashed him a quick grin, and the burgeoning awkwardness quickly slipped away. “Yeah – I’m not a local at all, I’m afraid. But it really is a beautiful place. If I ever decided to settle down and stay in one place, then I hope I could find somewhere like this.”

“You travel a lot then?” Henry asked – this was more like it! Travel was something he could ask about. And he really was genuinely curious. She was his mate after all – he wanted to know everything about her. How could he dedicate himself to her properly without knowing her likes and dislikes, what she did, where she wanted to go, what her future plans and goals were?

“It comes with my job,” Luna laughed. “I’m a travel writer, so I guess that means travel! But lately I’ve been focusing more on domestic stuff – I like international travel, don’t get me wrong. But I think there’s only so many 12-hour flights you can endure in a one-month period before you start to get a bit worn down.”

Henry let out his own small laugh. Talking to Luna seemed so… easy, somehow. He wouldn’t exactly have described himself as the social type, but with her, he felt himself loosening up a bit.

“How about you?” Luna asked. “Are you like… a woodsman or something? You kind of look the type. And with what you said about going into the mountains… well, that’s pretty hardcore! You’ll probably laugh when you see my fancy BB – I mean, call me a soft, spoiled city-dweller if you like, but I admit, I do need a pillow to rest my head on at night.”

“Oh, no, nothing like that,” Henry said, smiling a little. “Believe it or not, but I’m a city-dweller myself. Definitely not a woodsman. I work in… security.”

He winced a little. That sounded like he was being evasive, but he was aware of the impression he made, being so tall and big, and then telling people he worked as a nightclub bouncer.

She is our mate,his hellhound told him. She would not reject us for something like that! She can see past our exterior. She can see into our soul.

Henry swallowed. He supposed it was right. He really ought to have more faith in the mate bond – and in Luna herself.

Perhaps his hesitation had been obvious, because Luna looked over at him for a moment before turning her eyes back to the road ahead. It had only been the briefest of glances, but there had been no judgment in it.

“Well, security is important,” she said lightly, eyes still on the road. “More important than regaling the reading public with The Twelve Stinkiest Cheeses in Southern France, Ranked in Increasing Order of Stinkiness, anyway!”

He couldn’t help but smile a little. “Well, I don’t know about that. But it’s kind of you to say so.”

“Seriously.” Her fingers tapped against the steering wheel in what looked like an unconscious gesture. “It’s good to feel safe, you know? God knows there’ve been enough times when I’ve been on a work trip in a particularly, ah, interesting place, and I’ve wished I had someone there to watch my back. I love my job, but I’ve gotta say – it’s nice to be visiting somewhere where I feel perfectly safe.”

Henry raised an eyebrow. “Even with a perfect stranger in your car? Who you’re taking back to your accommodation? Surely that’s got to rank up there in terms of danger.”

“You know what, it should,” Luna mused, turning the car off the main road and down a well-maintained dirt track that wound its way around some impressively tall trees. “And normally I would never even dream of inviting some enormous, strange muscle man into my car. But there’s something about you that just says safety, you know.” Abruptly her cheeks turned pink, her voice taking on a sudden stutter. “Not to sound weird or anything! I just meant that you don’t give off creepy stalker vibes. I mean…” A pained sigh escaped from her lips, followed by a very faint sound that could have been a mumbled oh myGod.

The hellhound preened.

Our mate thinks our vibes aren’t creepy! She is the one!

Calm down,he hissed back. I’m not about to go pick out wedding rings just because our mate doesn’t think I’m a stalker!

No, you should pick out rings because she’s our mate, you fool, the hellhound sneered. You should be showering her with all the precious jewels and rare items in the world.

Are you forgetting that I’m currently unemployed, and also unemployable? Even if I wanted to buy her something – which I don’t yet, since she doesn’t even know me! – I wouldn’t be able to. But if you want to go out and get yourself a 9-to-5 so that you can buy her precious jewels, then I’m all for it. I’m sure there’s an office out there with a hellhound-sized gap that needs filling. Go on. I’m waiting.

The hellhound huffed, then curled up and turned its back on him.

… Yeah. Thought so, Henry muttered. The hellhound was terrible at ending arguments, but he knew that it had chalked this one up as a win under its name anyway. Logic wasn’t its strong suit.

Dragging his attention back to the situation unfolding in the car, he realized that he had been sitting there silently after Luna had made her comment about creepy stalker vibes, probably inadvertently giving off actual creepy stalker vibes. Luna, for her part, had the steering wheel in a death grip, muttering imprecations against herself under her breath.

While her flustered state was admittedly kind of cute, he hated seeing her getting down on herself, especially since she hadn’t even done anything wrong. She’d said he wasn’t giving off creepy stalker vibes! That was a compliment! Especially since, as a hellhound, giving off creepy vibes was basically his whole deal. She’d pretty much given him the ultimate compliment.

He realized with a start that this was probably the longest conversation he had ever had with… well, anyone, for quite some time. Even as awkward as it was, it was… really nice. He’d always just thought that he was a little withdrawn and standoffish, but if this was what it was like to talk to someone who didn’t automatically cringe away from your hellhound aura, then maybe he was actually just a social butterfly that had never had the opportunity to emerge from its cocoon and spread its wings.

Let’s not get too carried away with ourselves. She is your mate. Of course it’s nice talking to her.

The silence, he realized, was now excruciating – he hadn’t gotten a lot of practice with social niceties. If he was going to try letting his inner social butterfly fly free then he’d have to come up with something, and fast. Because this was rapidly becoming a social nightmare.

On his lap, Fillmore nudged him with his knobbly little head.

Even the dog thinks you’re doing a terrible job. Come on, step up your game.

“Ha ha,” he laughed awkwardly, and immediately cringed. He had no choice but to keep going, though – the situation would be even worse if he just laughed out of nowhere and then shut up again.

He tried again. “It’s no problem, really. I can see why I might give off that impression. When looking intimidating is your job, then you can’t really complain when people find you intimidating –”

“We’re here!” Luna yelped, the car jerking to a halt. She glanced across at him. “Um. Sorry, I cut you off there. What were you saying?”

Nothing that probably needed to be said, Henry thought to himself, silently relieved that their arrival had put a stop to whatever catastrophically stupid thing might have come out of his mouth next. Was he trying to convince her that he was, in fact, a creepy, intimidating stalker who should be given as wide a berth as possible?

She might be my mate, but she’s human – she doesn’t know about shifters and mates at all, Henry thought as they climbed out of the car. I need to get my head in order. Think about how to approach this. She may be the only person I’ve ever met who doesn’t immediately cringe away in fear, but that hardly means she’s ready to walk down the aisle with me…

“Oh… nothing much,” Henry said, as nonchalantly as he could manage. “Mainly I guess I should be saying thank you for inviting me back here to get clean.”

“Oh, it’s no problem. It really was all this little rascal’s fault.” Luna laughed a little as she leaned down to scoop Fillmore up in her arms. Thankfully, the tiny dog seemed to be content to just be near Henry – as long as he was in his line of sight, he seemed calm and well-behaved.

I just wish I knew why I was suddenly so irresistibly attractive to him,Henry thought in mild despair. Him, and every other animal I encounter.

That was, in fact, the opposite of how hellhounds were supposed to work.

And if the whole thing had been inconvenient before, it was about a thousand times worse now.

How am I supposed to court my mate if there’s squirrels bringing me nuts and beavers making eyes at me every five minutes?!

Fillmore having taken a shine to him might actually be an advantage to him in impressing Luna. It was definitely better than her dog deciding he hated Henry on sight and refusing to have anything more to do with him. But all the wild animals of the forest? Every pigeon in the city? Every rat in the sewer?!

That, Henry could imagine, Luna would find less impressive.

It just means I’ll have to figure out what’s happening and how to stop it all the more quickly,Henry decided grimly. He couldn’t let whatever was going on stand in the way of him being with his mate.

He really shouldn’t even be here now, Henry thought as he glanced around nervously. When Luna had said she was staying in a BB, he’d envisioned something pretty close to the town – not that that was any guarantee of safety from enamored animals – but this place was deep in the forest, halfway up one of the mountains he’d been planning on roaming around on in his hellhound form. There were only about a million bears, deer, cougars, bobcats, squirrels, snakes and whatever else lived out here that could be watching from the trees right now, waiting for the right moment to make their move.

For whatever reason, however, it seemed for the moment that the coast was clear.

Henry knew he had to take advantage of this temporary lull to try to impress Luna, and see if he could – somehow – check if she was at all interested in being the mate of an unemployed nightclub bouncer. Who also happened to be a hellhound.

And you can’t cook, the hellhound broke in, sniffing. Don’t forget that.

Henry did his best to ignore it. It was clearly still sulking.

“Anyway, here we are!” Luna said cheerfully, as they walked around a small bend in the driveway, and Henry suddenly found himself catching his breath.

“Wow,” he breathed, blinking. “That’s… that’s some BB.”

And it truly was – it had clearly once been a stately home, a huge, Edwardian-style mansion with timber paneling, a massive porch that wrapped around the whole of the building, soaring turrets reaching up toward the forest canopy, and circular porthole windows peeping out from the upper floors. It was surrounded by garden beds filled with colorful flowers and lush green ferns, drooping red maples, and about a hundred other plants Henry couldn’t have identified if he tried. What he did know was that he’d never seen anywhere quite as beautiful as this.

“Oh – no, I’m not renting out the whole place,” Luna said quickly. “I wish! But I’m afraid my editor wouldn’t spring for that, so I just have a room. It’s still more than spacious enough for me, though – it’s pretty obvious the owners put a ton of time and care into doing this place up. You should see the photos from before they restored it – it was kind of a wreck.”

“Well, you definitely can’t tell that now,” Henry said, gazing up at the iron weathervane, in the shape of… a griffin? Maybe?... on the highest turret of the house. It was probably just for show, given the fact the house was sheltered from the wind on all sides by the thick forest, but Henry had to admit it did look cool.

“Oh yeah – I’ll definitely be giving them a write-up as part of my article,” Luna enthused. “Actually, this place was part of the reason I really wanted to come to Girdwood Springs. The owners… uhh, Natalie? No, Natasha – and her husband made a blog about the process of renovating it and now running it as a BB. It was really clever marketing. They got lots of people invested in the process before they’d even opened, so they had a flood of bookings from the moment they were ready for them. Pretty genius, if you ask me.”

Henry could only nod – he really didn’t know much about that world at all. At one stage, he’d kind of had some vague dreams of becoming a carpenter or something like that, since he’d always enjoyed working with his hands. But, just like with everything else, he’d had to put those dreams aside – even big, burly builders had found him just too scary and had always been dropping their wrenches or hammering their thumbs when he’d walked by.

It was lucky that the BB appeared to be more or less deserted right now – he supposed that everyone was in town enjoying the festival. His footsteps echoed lightly as he stepped through the front door of the building, and…

“Oh, wow.”

He wasn’t exactly the type of person to go to fancy restaurants or stay in expensive hotels – being a terrifying hellhound shifter who lived off a bouncer’s wage tended to keep him from indulging in the finer things in life. He was used to living in run-down one-bedroom apartments and cooking himself pasta with sauce that came from a jar. He’d always been happy living a fairly simple life.

But, this…

I could get used to this.

He stepped into the sitting room just inside the front entrance and looked around, taking it all in.

The ceiling soared above him, much higher than he was used to in his cramped apartment. The floorboards beneath his feet were old and worn in a way that obviously screamed classy rather than shabby, the enormous velvet couches beckoned at him invitingly, and a plush rug in a deep burgundy color covered the floor in the middle of the room. He was half-tempted to bend down and touch it, just to see if it really was as soft as it looked.

Certainly his hellhound seemed interested in it, and Henry cut it off before it could even say anything.

No, you may not sleep on the rug. Or the couch.

Everyone is at the festival. They won’t know.

Theywill know. Even if somehow no one sees you, they’ll come back and see all the hellhound hairs all over the place. I won’t have you shedding all over our mate’s BB.

You know you want to.

He did want to – everything here looked so comfortable, so cozy – but he also knew that it would be a terrible idea, human form or hellhound. The last thing he needed to do was smear cake all over the couch.

Besides, Luna was already making her way down the corridor, Fillmore happily snuggled in her arms, and so Henry hurried to follow her.

“We’re just down in this room in the back corner here. I mean, I’m in this room.” Luna looked flustered, and, as cute a look as it was on her, Henry felt like maybe he should try to reassure her.

“Well, I’m here now, too. For now. Just until I get cleaned up, then I’ll be out of your hair.”

Not that he wanted to be out of her hair – far from it – but he couldn’t exactly ask to stay the night. And anyway, it wasn’t safe or practical, what with his smitten animal fan club and all. He’d have to go away and try to work out what on earth was going on, then come back once he’d gotten that particular issue sorted out.

If she was here for work, surely she’d be here for a few days, right? Maybe he could find a reason to swap phone numbers that wouldn’t weird her out. He didn’t want to make her uncomfortable, but the thought of finally meeting his mate and then never seeing her again because he had to keep his distance lest he lure dangerous animals in her direction was unbearable – no pun intended. He was used to spending time in his own company, but now it didn’t seem so appealing.

“Oh, there’s no rush,” Luna said as she attempted to juggle the keys to her room and a wiggling Fillmore. “Oh, for the love of – Fillmore, sweetie, mommy’s trying to open the door – could you just not do that for a moment –”

“Here,” Henry said before his brain could catch up with anything his body was doing, scooping up Fillmore with one hand and tucking him under his arm like a football, safely away from the cake that was smeared across his shirt. Fillmore gazed up at him adoringly, and okay, Henry had to admit that he was kind of cute, in a ridiculous way. Certainly he seemed to like the scritches Henry was giving him behind his ear, his little tongue lolling happily from the side of his mouth.

It took a few long moments before he thought to look up, and when he did he saw that the door was now open, and Luna was watching him with a strange look on her face. It wasn’t a bad look – he didn’t think – but he couldn’t quite make it out.

The moment came and went all too quickly, before Luna snapped out of whatever kind of trance she was in and entered the room. “Here we are – BB sweet BB. You can just pop Fillmore on the floor, if you like.”

“Sure,” he replied, walking through the doorway and lowering Fillmore to the floor. The dog proceeded to skitter around the room, his little claws clacking on the hardwood floor as he flung himself about.

“Being a travel writer opens a lot of doors for me,” Luna mused as she watched Fillmore’s antics. “Most places will let me take him with me even if they normally don’t allow pets, since they want a good review. But this place really is pet-friendly – the apartments on the first floor can all be booked out for people with pets. The owner even told me that they had someone bring a cat once! Apparently they took it out for walks on a leash.”

Henry laughed. “Well, as long as they don’t mind dealing with litterboxes and clawmarks, I guess.”

“It’s not an issue, apparently. The owner – that’s the Natasha I was telling you about – said they wanted somewhere where everyone felt welcome, even if their pets ended up gnawing on the furniture.” She smiled as Fillmore tried – and failed – to chase his own little stump of a tail. “I know that I’m spoiled because of my job, but for your average pet owner it can be such a hassle to try and organize someone to pet-sit so you can get away for a few days. Knowing that you can bring them along is such a relief. And they’re family, really.”

“That they are,” Henry said. He’d never had a pet – he’d never wanted to subject any animal to living with a hellhound – but he could see the appeal. The bond between Luna and Fillmore was obvious.

“Anyway,” Luna said suddenly, “we should get you out of that shirt.” She bit her lip. “Sorry. You know what I mean.”

“I do,” he replied. “I’ll just…”

He half-turned awkwardly, aware of Luna doing the same thing until they were facing away from each other, and pulled the shirt carefully over his head.

“Here,” he said, thrusting the shirt out without fully turning back. “Uh… thank you. For all of this. I appreciate it.”

Luna grabbed the shirt from him. “No problem,” she said, sounding a little breathless. “I’ll just take this down and clean and dry it for you. Should be about an hour if I do it on the quickest cycle. Oh, and there are towels in the bathroom. Help yourself.”

“Sure. I’ll do that.” A thought occurred to him. “You won’t get bored, will you? I don’t want to monopolize your hotel room while you watch my shirt spin for an hour.” And also I would really like to spend some more time with you…

“Oh, no, no, don’t worry about it!” Luna said quickly. “I can write up my notes while I’m there, and the laundry room itself is super nice. It’s got a big window with a view of the forest, a couch, a coffee machine, the whole shebang. I’ll be fine!”

“Well, if you insist,” Henry said, trying not to let his disappointment show in his voice. “Uh. Thanks again.” He turned to face her, but she was still facing steadfastly away. “Well… I’ll see you in about an hour, then.”

“An hour it is.” She paused, and then called out, “Fillmore! Come on, we’re heading off. Let the nice man shower in peace.”

Fillmore was too busy trying to stick his nose into the trash can to pay her any notice, and so she picked him up with a huff, ignoring his protests.

“Uh… bye!” she exclaimed, heading out the door without looking back.

“Bye,” he replied as the door closed, feeling awkward, standing there shirtless in the room of a woman he had only just met – and who was his mate, at that.

He took a minute just to let everything sink in.

What a day.

… And no,he said to his hellhound, you can’t destroy anything in this room, no matter what the pet damage policy is.

I wasn’t going to destroy anything,his hellhound grumbled. I was going to improve it.

I’ll improve you if you’re not careful. You don’t want to make trouble for our mate. Or for anyone.

He looked around the room, still feeling out of place in somewhere so upmarket. And it was big, too, or at least it seemed so to him – he was in the main room now, but the place had a separate bathroom and bedroom.He was a pretty rough-around-the-edges kind of guy, for the most part – places with art on the walls and little bags of herbal tea sitting on floral-print saucers weren’t his usual form of accommodation.

Henry couldn’t say he minded it, though. The room he was in, despite being obviously expensive, was homey and inviting, the dark green walls offset by the cream-colored ceilings, the shelves decorated with interesting trinkets. A leafy green plant crawled along the wall above the little kitchenette – he had seen a full kitchen and dining area on the way in, presumably for sharing with other guests – and there was even a welcome hamper sitting on the table, packed to the brim with all kinds of delicious-looking produce.

He peered closer at it, taking in the contents: freshly baked bread, a bottle of wine, hand-made chocolates, fruit, jars of jam and honey with hand-written labels, and a carefully wrapped package of cakes that he instantly recognized as being from Sylvie’s Sweets and Bakery.

It all smelled absolutely divine, and he took a moment to savor the aroma before remembering that this was not his hamper nor his BB room, and he had better get himself showered before Luna returned.

He took off his shoes and entered the bathroom, which was about half the size of his apartment back home, light and airy with its white tiles and large frosted windows, offset with the green of several lush, green potted plants placed all around the room. A massive old-fashioned claw-foot bath stood in the corner, an array of ferns dangling overhead.

A small cupboard in the corner yielded up some towels, huge and fluffy and dark green, and he pulled one out, hanging it on the rack. The floormat was equally fluffy, and he resisted the urge to stand on it and scrunch his toes up in it. That could wait until after he was clean.

Taking off his pants, he reached over to turn on the shower… and paused.

It had been a really, really long time since he’d last had a bath.

When even had been the last time he’d taken one?

He racked his brains. It was probably at least ten years ago, now that he thought about it. His parents had had a tub, but everywhere he had lived since he moved out of home had been strictly shower-only. Dingy apartments weren’t exactly known for even these kinds of small luxuries.

His hand hovered over the shower faucet for several seconds longer.

… Ah, what the hell.

Luna had said she would be about an hour, right? Plenty of time for a quick bath. And anything that kept him from hanging around in her room was probably a good idea – it felt invasive, being in her room without her when he barely knew her.

He stepped over to the bath and turned on the faucet, the water coming out hot and strong. That was another thing he missed from when he was younger: good water pressure.

He looked around the room some more while he waited for the tub to fill. A small bottle caught his eye.

Bubble bath.

He popped open the cap and sniffed it. It wasn’t too overpowering or cloying – just a light sandalwood scent. It was nice, really. And he was in need of a clean, having been covered in cake.

He poured in a small amount – no need to flood Luna’s bathroom with bubbles! – and then carefully put one foot into the water, hissing a little at the heat.

Slowly he eased himself down into the hot water, sighing as he lay back. The fern fronds above him swayed gently in the breeze that came through the cracked-open window, the steam swirling and eddying as it searched for an escape, the cooler air from outside contrasting deliciously with the warmth of the water.

Assuming I can ever get rid of this curse and find another job, I am definitely going to upgrade to an apartment with a bath. I don’t care what I have to give up for it. How did I go this long without one?

He closed his eyes, allowing the warm water to soothe him and take all his tension away, letting his head sink under the water briefly so that all the problems of the world were muffled and distant. Even the hellhound was quiet and relaxed, for once in its life.

It occurred to him, suddenly, that he hadn’t had any unwanted encounters with animals since he met Luna. Fillmore was being friendly, but not overly so, and besides, Fillmore had thrown himself at him before he and Luna had met.

Had the curse been lifted, somehow? He vaguely remembered stories from when he was a kid, of all the special things that came with the mate bond – a sense of when your mate was in danger, a feeling of peace and wellbeing, of knowing you’d found the one person in all the world who was meant for you. It could differ between different types of shifters, so he didn’t really know which of those he personally would experience.

One story he’d heard was that the power of meeting your mate could break curses. There had been all kinds of wild tales about that kind of thing amongst shifters, and he’d usually ignored them as wish fulfilment and fairy tales, but… could it be true? Could meeting Luna have broken his curse, however it had happened, or whatever it was?

He pondered this until eventually the water started to grow cool – and the more he thought about it, the more sense it made. He hadn’t known what, exactly, was the source of his problem, but being a shifter who didn’t have a lot of contact with other shifters meant he hardly knew everything about all the possibilities the world contained.

But maybe some of those fairy stories had had a grain of truth in them after all – maybe the mate bond was like true love’s kiss, able to disperse evil spells and break evil – or at least really, really inconvenient – curses?

It would explain why there wasn’t a bevy of animals trying to throw themselves in through the window right now and ruin his relaxing bath – so that had to be it.

Meeting Luna had saved him.

Shehad saved him. He’d be able to court her now the way he wanted to – to show her just why he was the right man for her, the mate bond aside. Show her how much he could care for her, protect her, make sure she’d never have to worry about anything ever again. He could get his old job back – no, a better job! Hellhound or not, he’d find a way, and he’d make sure Luna never wanted for anything ever again.

I can’t believe it. It was all so simple.

Henry felt lighter than he had in weeks. He could feel his heartbeat thudding joyfully in his chest.

As much as he wanted to top the bath up with more hot water and stay there forever, he didn’t want to still be in here when Luna got back. He’d just sorted one problem out – he really didn’t want to cause another one.

He hauled himself out with no small amount of regret, luxuriating in the feel of the floormat beneath his feet, which was just as soft as he had thought it would be.

Wrapping the towel around his waist and whistling a little, he padded out into the main room. He still had some time to kill before Luna would be back, and he had to admit that he was thirsty.

He poked around in the kitchen cupboards, pulling out a teacup… then, on a whim, he pulled out a second one. He wasn’t sure if Luna was the tea-drinking type – hell, he wasn’t really the tea-drinking type, but when in Rome – but he thought maybe she would appreciate having a cup of tea waiting for her when she got back. He should at least do something for her, after all her kindness.

He turned on the electric kettle, marveling at its tiny size, and poured two cups of steaming hot tea, leaving them to brew.

Probably I should go put my pants on now. Don’t want to give her actual, completely well-deserved creepy vibes.

He started heading back toward the bathroom, when he noticed for the first time a window with curtains pulled across it.

I bet the view is amazing from here.

Curious, he pulled the curtains back, and looked out the window – and stared.

And the bear standing on the other side of the window pane stared back.