Chapter 9

Luna watched intently as Henry fiddled with his napkin, obviously trying to think of the best way to tell her whatever it was that was plaguing him.

And she felt for him, she really did – she knew that it could be hard to work out exactly how to break difficult news. But she had a feeling that whatever it was he wanted to tell her wasn’t half as bad as he thought it was.

“I already know that you can turn into a hellhound,” she said quietly. “Is there really anything you could say that would shock me more than that?”

Henry smiled a little. “True. I wouldn’t say it’s bad news, per se. In fact, I’d say it’s good news… but that’s from my perspective. You might feel differently.”

Luna set her jaw in determination. “Try me.”

If it’s good news for him, then surely it’s good news for me. Unless it’s something about how being a hellhound means he has to eat all of this cake, and I’m not allowed to share?

Henry took a deep breath, before obviously steeling himself and looking her in the eye, his gaze unwavering.

“Okay,” he said. “There are other things about shifters that I haven’t told you. One of these things is that we each have what’s called a fated mate.”

Luna nodded, though she didn’t quite understand. It sounded serious, though.

I mean… fated? Fate isn’t real. We all just kind of make it up as we go along.

“It means that every shifter has someone out there who is meant just for them,” Henry went on, voice low, and Luna shivered, blinking.

Where’s he going with this? she wondered, looking down at the cake, the scent of which she could still smell wafting delicately up to her, tempting her to just…

Uh. Wait.

Suddenly, with a shock that seemed to hit her directly in her chest, Luna realized maybe she did know where Henry was going with this.

But… no way. Surely he can’t mean –

“They don’t always find their mate, but when they do, they know immediately.”

Henry reached out his hand slowly – slowly enough for Luna to pull away if she wanted to.

She didn’t.

She didn’t resist, either, when the tips of his fingers brushed the back of her hand, and that same electricity from when they touched while they were walking in the rain – and from when they first met – ran through her with a shocking force, spreading throughout her body like wildfire and lighting her up from within.

Thoughts raced through her mind: Fate exists? Henry has a person who’s made just for him? That person is me? I’m meant to spend my life with the most gorgeous, thoughtful, amazing guy I’ve ever met?!

Stunned, she blurted out the first thing that came into her mind:

“I can’t believe I destroyed your cake and covered your shirt in whipped cream the first time I met you!”

Henry looked surprised for a moment, but then his expression turned solemn… except for the mischievous twinkle in his eye. “Well, the mate bond does basically mean that I’ll forgive you for pretty much anything, no matter how grievous. But that was a close one.”

“Oh my God.” Luna buried her face in her hands for a moment, just letting it all sink in.

Could any of this possibly be true? It seemed preposterous – her, the fated mate of… of… well, anyone, but of the sweetest and most attractive guy she’d ever met? Who could also turn into a hellhound, and who slept at the foot of her bed like some kind of guardian angel all night?

This has to be some kind of joke, she thought, dazed… but somehow, even as she thought it, she knew it wasn’t. Henry had shown her he was a hellhound. Why was this any more difficult to believe?

And really, what was one more crazy thing in her life?

“You okay?” Henry said gently, and his voice truly was like music to her ears. Were the last couple of days even real?

I suppose there’s one way to find out.

She opened her eyes to see Henry looking at her intently, and she met his gaze, leaning toward him.

Well. Here goes nothing.

Thankfully, Henry seemed to understand her intent perfectly. And really, he had to stop acting like such a gentleman.

The moment their lips met was pure bliss, the electricity of the touch pleasurable rather than painful, but more to the point…

It’s Henry. I’m kissing Henry. He wants me. He wants me.

All too soon she pulled away from him, reluctance written into every fiber of her being, but fully aware that if she kept going, she wouldn’t be able to stop.

Henry seemed to be feeling the same way, if his expression was anything to go by.

He’s looking that way for me. No man has ever looked at me that way before.

It was so tempting to grab him by the scruff of his shirt and drag him back to her bed… but she’d just clocked on for the day, and she had a job to do. That was one article she definitely would not be submitting to her publisher! Her cheeks warmed just at the thought of it.

No, they’d have to eat some cake and go to the festival instead. It was a distant second compared to spending the day getting to know Henry much better than she had ever dared dream, but she supposed it could be worse.

Also, she still had a weird stalker to deal with, she supposed. She knew she would rest easier once that was sorted out.

She laughed a little shakily, still coming down from the excitement and shock of it all.

“So, that’s definitely it, then? Got any other secrets you want to get off your chest?”

She’d said it as a joke, but Henry’s expression changed, and her jaw dropped.

“You do! Oh my God. You’re a man of mystery, Henry Grant.” She prodded his arm, shivering a little at the contact. “Well, go on then. Nothing you could say now would shock me.”

Henry seemed to struggle internally for a moment, before he shrugged in resignation.

“Would you believe me if I said that someone had cursed me to be followed around by animals wherever I go?”

“At this point? Yeah, probably.” Luna frowned. “Although I haven’t seen any evidence of that. I mean, Fillmore loves you, and he normally hates everyone… but that’s just one dog, and he’s a weirdo.” She glanced down at Fillmore, who glared back. “Sorry, buddy, but it’s true.”

Fillmore turned his back on her with a whuff and lifted a paw up to Henry, who obligingly scooped him up.

“It’s weird,” Henry said musingly as he rubbed Fillmore’s little round belly. “It doesn’t seem to happen when I’m around you. That bear came right up to your bedroom window while you were gone, but I haven’t had any other close encounters since.”

“Huh.” Luna rubbed her chin thoughtfully. Being followed around by animals didn’t seem like too much of an issue on the surface beyond constantly being distracted by the cuteness… but she supposed it would get annoying pretty quick. Or downright scary!

“So the bear wasn’t just a regular bear going for a walk in the woods then?” she asked.

“Normally I’d say so,” Henry replied. “But after the last few weeks, I’m pretty sure it was there because of this curse, or whatever it is. I think it might have been what made Fillmore go crazy and jump all over me. But he hasn’t done that again – and the only difference is that every time I’ve seen him since then is when I’ve been with you.”

“Maybe we could test this theory,” she suggested. “We can go for a walk around town, and see if the animals come up to you if I move away from you? It won’t actually solve anything, but it would be good to know if my presence did at least help. And if it does,” she said, with a wicked smile, “well, I guess I’ll just have to stick real close to you until we can sort it out.”

Henry nodded, though he looked a little flustered, a blush rising on his cheeks. “Sounds good to me. I can’t believe how well you’re taking this, though.”

“Really, this is the least shocking thing you’ve told me,” Luna shrugged. “But I can see how it’d be… well, less than convenient, let’s say.”

“Yeah,” Henry said, grimacing. “Getting work when you’re a hellhound is hard enough. Having animals cozying up to you on the job doesn’t exactly make things any easier. And as much as I’d love to have your company, I’m not sure it’d be great for your career – or life – to have to be glued to my side forever.”

Well, that doesn’t sound so bad, actually,Luna wanted to say, but she didn’t want to seem like she was making light of Henry’s problem.

Instead, she grinned. “No need to be so gloomy! We’ll work it out, I’m sure. We’re a team, now. And also we have cake, so things can’t be that bad. Speaking of…” She gestured at the range of perfect cakes laid out before them. “You haven’t had anything yet. I’m not going to be the reason you get denied again. Which one do you want to try first?”

Apparently the prospect of cake was enough to distract Henry, because his face brightened as he looked the sumptuous spread over.

“It’s a hard choice… but I think I’ll take this one. It’s the one I most wanted to try.”

He was looking at the perfectly miniature angel cake, and Luna had to agree that it was an excellent choice. Decorated with a little puff of whipped cream and a drizzle of some sort of delicious-looking jelly, it looked mouth-wateringly good.

Carefully she shifted the cake onto Henry’s plate, and he picked up the tiny fork in his oversized hand, before delicately cutting off a small piece of cake. It looked incredible – super light and fluffy – and Luna watched as Henry raised it to his mouth, closing his eyes in happiness as he chewed.

“Oh, wow,” he murmured, eyes still closed. “That is good.”

Luna smiled as she watched him eat. Really, was there anything better than seeing someone you cared for enjoying themselves? As much as she was dying to try the cake, she was even happier to watch Henry enjoying it instead.

But it wasn’t long before he opened his eyes and picked up his fork again. “You have to try this,” he said, as he scooped up a new forkful of the delicate, creamy cake. “Seriously. It’s unbelievable.”

Well, Luna decided, Henry definitely didn’t have to tell her twice – she opened her mouth, allowing him to guide the fork with its little hunk of cake straight to her lips.

“Oh my God,” she mumbled as she chewed. “That is good. What do you think they – ARGH!”

She didn’t get to finish asking her question. Just as she was about to ask what Henry thought they put in the cake to make it so good, she heard a sudden crack! and, before she knew it, she was lying on her back on the floor, blinking up at the ceiling, totally at a loss as to what had just happened.

Fillmore, who had been sitting to one side of the table, was looming over her with concern, his tongue lolling, bulging eyes wide.

“Luna!” Henry was by her side in a second, one of his huge hands enveloping hers, while the other cradled the back of her neck, gently lifting her back up into a seated position. “Are you okay? What happened?”

“I – I’m fine,” Luna said, shaking her head. And really, she was – nothing hurt, and there was nothing broken. She was just a little stunned, but she hadn’t hit her head or anything like that. “I just, uh, I don’t know what –”

Now that she was kneeling on the floor next to her chair, she could see what the problem was. Luna frowned, unease rippling through her. It hadn’t been some kind of weird clumsiness on her part that she’d suddenly fallen to the floor – from here, she could see that the two back legs of her chair had, somehow, snapped in two, the wood splintering before giving way beneath her weight.

Did I eat too much yesterday? she wondered as she stared at the broken chair legs in bewilderment. No, that’s ridiculous. And I can’t imagine the chairs here would be so flimsy – Sylvie really looks like she cares a lot about every aspect of this place. So what –

As if on cue, her phone buzzed in her bag.

Oh. Oh no. Really?!

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Henry asked her again as he slowly helped her to her feet. “No pain? You grimaced just then.”

“No, no, it’s not that, I promise I’m fine,” Luna said, shaking her head and trying to ignore the grim feeling that was welling up inside her. “I just… have a weird feeling I just got a text message. And I also have a feeling I know what it’s going to be about.”

In amongst all the excitement of the morning, she’d almost managed to forget the reason Henry had stayed over in her room last night to begin with.

Luna reached into her bag and pulled out her phone. Sure enough, there it was – a message from the same Unknown number as usual.

“Wait,” Henry said, as he stared down at her phone. “Is that –”

“Yeah.” Luna nodded. “Let’s see what they have to say this time.”

She forced her hands not to shake as she unlocked the phone and pulled up the message, reading it over. Not that there was much point, since it was pretty much the same as all the others.

DO YOU HEED MY WRATH? NOW DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHY IT WAS WRONG TO IGNORE ME? TREMBLE AT MY POWER!

“I guess they’re talking about their power to make chair legs snap at will,” Luna said, trying to sound jovial, but the truth was she was more than a little freaked out. Sure, the text didn’t specifically mention that, but wasn’t this more than a little bit of a coincidence in terms of timing?

Especially in combination with everything yesterday,Luna thought, swallowing.

“Whoever this guy is, he needs to be stopped,” Henry said darkly, and when Luna glanced across at him she could see his eyes were practically smoldering with anger. She placed a calming hand on his arm.

“It’s fine, I’m really not hurt,” she told him.

“But how much longer will this go on until you are?” Henry asked her, looking at her as if he wanted to sweep her up into his arms and carry her off somewhere – which Luna really would not have objected to, but she knew that wasn’t quite the point just now.

“I guess that’s true,” she said reluctantly. “But I still think this could be all just some weird coincidence. I mean, that’s just too weird, right? Like, what is whoever this is doing? Making my chair break? Somehow fixing it so all the sweets I wanted get sold out the moment before I can buy them and then texting me about it? That’s just… well, doesn’t that sound ridiculous to you?” She laughed. “And you were the only person here with me – no one made the chair break. No one could have known I’d be sitting in it, so it’s not like they could have come by earlier and sabotaged it.”

As she spoke, Henry started to look just a little sheepish – but still, not entirely convinced.

“I know it sounds ridiculous,” he said. “But until it happened, I would have said being followed around by lovey-dovey animals was ridiculous as well. But it did happen, and if I’ve learned anything from being a shifter, it’s that there’s more weirdness out there than you’d think.”

“Okay. That is… a very good point, actually,” Luna admitted. Henry just seemed so… so normal, ability to turn into a hellhound and – apparently – phase through walls aside, that she had a hard time associating him with anything like creepy texts or mysteriously broken chairs. “I guess I just –”

“Whoa, what happened here?”

Luna jumped a little at the sound of the voice from behind her.

When she turned, she had to admit her eyebrows went up a bit – while, naturally, the man standing behind her, his arms filled with boxes of what looked like the reddest, juiciest strawberries she’d ever seen, couldn’t compare to Henry, he was amazingly good-looking, with twinkling silver eyes and thick dark hair, graying at the temples, which gave him a very dashing look. It seemed like Natasha hadn’t been lying when she’d said there were good-looking men in Girdwood Springs!

Judging from the boxes of produce, Luna assumed this guy must work at the café – and he was probably therefore pretty curious as to why one of their chairs was lying on the floor, virtually destroyed.

But before she could begin to explain what had happened – And how exactly do I explain that anyway?! – she heard Henry suck in a quick, sharp breath through his teeth.

“Ah,” Henry said a moment later, a little frown on his lips. “Now it all makes sense.”

Luna glanced at him, raising a quizzical eyebrow. What was Henry talking about?

“Wait a moment.” The man with the strawberries was frowning now too. “I knew I sensed something weird around here. You’re a hellhound.”

Luna blinked, surprise rippling through her. Was this… good? Or bad? Should this man be able to tell apparently just by looking at him that Henry was a shifter? Why couldn’t she do that?

“And you’re a unicorn,” Henry replied. “I thought that food tasted too good to be true. Now I get why.”

A… a UNICORN?!

Luna turned, her mouth dropping open. She couldn’t help it – unicorns were real now, apparently?! Why hadn’t Henry mentioned this sooner?

If unicorns and hellhounds are real, then what else is real? she thought, her head spinning. Manticores? Pegasi? Griffins? DRAGONS?

Shaking her head, Luna tried to push the thought aside, worried that if she focused too much on it now she was just going to have some kind of mental breakdown. There’d be time for that later, once she’d figured out what was going on right in front of her.

“I’m not here to cause any trouble,” Henry said a moment later, lifting his hands. “The opposite, in fact. I really just wanted some peace and quiet – it was my plan just to spend my time out in the mountains. Being in town is kind of an accident.”

Luna bit her lip. The tension in the strawberry man’s shoulders was clear, and she wondered if there was some kind of… ancient magic grudge between unicorns and hellhounds. It’d make about as much sense as anything else she’d heard over the past couple of days.

Thankfully, after a moment the strawberry man seemed to relax. Perhaps he could hear the sincerity in Henry’s voice.

“I believe you.” Strawberry Man – Unicorn? – gave a quick smile. “Sorry, I was just a bit startled. I could sense… something, I just wasn’t expecting a hellhound.” A frown passed across his face. “But having said that, I don’t think that’s the only thing I sense. And it doesn’t really explain the broken chair.”

“That was me,” Luna jumped in. “Sorry. I just… I, uh… well, you see…”

“No, no, actually… I think I can tell.” The man was staring at her now, his eyes narrowed, a look of concentration on his face. “You have a curse following you.”

Luna started at him, her heart hammering. A… a what?!

“A curse?” she blurted, knowing her eyes were as round as saucers. “But there’s no such thing as –”

She snapped her mouth shut quickly.

Clearly, there was such a thing as curses.

Of course there is,Luna thought, resigning herself to it. If there’s such a thing as shifters and hellhounds and unicorns, then of course there’s such a thing as curses.

“How can you tell?” Henry asked, his voice a little wary.

“Unicorns can see these things,” the man said. “Not very well – we’re not like wyverns, we can’t see magic – but there’s a little shimmering aura around you, and I can see it’s nothing good. But it doesn’t seem to be that strong either – it’s not deadly or anything like that. Just inconvenient.”

“You can say that again,” Luna muttered, looking down at the broken chair. Worrying about whether her chair was going to collapse under her every time she sat down for the rest of her life wasn’t exactly something she particularly felt like dealing with, dangerous or not. Although her stalker friend seemed to delight in doing something different every time, so maybe she never had to worry about it happening again?

Her head hurt.

“But you say she’s not in any danger?”

Henry’s voice was deadly serious, and Luna had to admit that it was flattering – not to mention comforting – to have someone be that concerned with her welfare. She could definitely see how he had managed to make a living working in security.

Strawberry Man shook his head. “No danger at all, unless you count things like mild embarrassment and stubbed toes as dangerous.”

I do! I definitely do!

“But I can see why you’re concerned,” he continued. “I’d be worried, too, if my mate was under a curse.”

Luna blinked. “You… you can tell that we’re mates?”

The guy looked apologetic. “Sorry – I know it’s a bit strange. It’s just part of being a shifter. Oh. Wait.” He glanced at Henry, a look of horror crossing his face. “I didn’t just reveal anything I shouldn’t have, did I?”

Henry shook his head. “No – but if you’d arrived fifteen minutes ago, you might have.”

“Oh, gee.” The guy looked embarrassed. “I’m really sorry I ran my mouth. And if I was interrupting an important moment.”

“The chair pretty much took care of that already,” Henry said smoothly, a little smile quirking the corner of his mouth. “No harm done, and no need for an apology.”

Luna, however, wasn’t thinking about that. Wait, he said he had a mate too? Is there someone I could talk to about what all this means?

Henry was wonderful, but now that things were beginning to sink in a little, Luna had the feeling it’d be good to have the company of someone who was in the same boat as she was – assuming, of course, that this unicorn’s mate was also a human, and not, say, a mermaid or a siren or some other kind of mythical being.

“Who’s your mate?” she blurted out, too eager to stop and think. “Do they live here in the town?”

Strawberry Man – Luna really had to find out his name – looked surprised for a moment, but then he smiled. “I’d say you’ve probably already met. Her name’s Sylvie. The owner of this bakery.”

Luna nearly gasped in her surprise, but Henry just ran a hand over his face in evident self-frustration. “Of course. A unicorn’s not about to give its finest produce to just anybody.”

The man laughed. “Well, I do like to help out other people around the town as well with their plants and food in general. But in terms of actually using my powers to make food taste better, I save that all for Sylvie. Not that she actually needs my help to make her cakes taste amazing.”

Luna could definitely believe that! The amount of skill and love in each and every cake, tart, and treat was self-evident. But… the ingredients were also flavor-enhanced by the touch of a strawberry-toting unicorn?

You know what, I think I’ve had enough revelations for one day. I’m not going to question anything anymore. I’m just going to go with the flow.

Also, I can’t keep calling him ‘Strawberry Man’ in my head. I’ll definitely end up saying it out loud, and I won’t even be able to blame it on the curse.

… I cannot believe I am under a magical curse.

“By the way, I’m Luna,” she blurted out. “This is Henry.”

The unicorn man laughed. “And I’m Gale. Sorry about that – my manners went right out the window.”

“Well, I could’ve introduced myself as well,” Luna said truthfully, trying not to let her relief at finally having a name for him show.

“Just how many shifters do you have here, anyway?” Henry asked. “I already met one yesterday.”

Gale looked surprised. “Oh, you met Kieran? I thought he was doing some work in the next town over yesterday.”

“Kieran?” Now it was Henry’s turn to look confused. “No, I met Caleb. The dragon.”

“Excuse me – dragon?!”

Possibly Luna’s contribution to the conversation wasn’t the most helpful, and maybe this didn’t count as going with the flow, but… DRAGON?!?!

But also…

“Hang on… Kieran?” she blurted. “Natasha’s husband? Natasha who runs the BB I’m staying at?” She was aware that her jaw was dropping, but there wasn’t much she could do about it. “Are you saying that Natasha’s husband is a shifter, too? Is there anyone here who isn’t a shifter?!”

Gale at least had the good grace to look a little sheepish. “No, it’s just the three of us. Well, four now, I guess. And yeah, Kieran turns into a griffin.”

Luna silently mouthed the word ‘griffin’ to herself, while Henry musingly said, “Well, that explains the weathervane at the BB,” like it was the most normal thing in the world.

They’ve got a whole menagerie going out here!

It seemed like as good a time as any to scoop up Fillmore for a cuddle. His weird little face was the most normal thing in the world at this point.

“You know,” Gale said. “If you’ve got a curse you’re trying to break, maybe eight heads are better than two. If you don’t have any plans tonight, maybe we should all catch up and try to work this out? It’s been at least five minutes since the last time we had to break a curse around here – people are starting to get restless.” His smile indicated a kind of private joke. There seemed to be a lot of that going on in Girdwood Springs, but at least now Luna was starting to understand why.

She supposed that she had wanted a town with a secret! She’d just never expected it to be quite like this.

“Are you sure?” Henry asked, blinking as if he was surprised. “You don’t even know us. I definitely wouldn’t want to put anyone to any trouble.”

Gale waved his free hand. “Not at all. Honestly, the people here in Girdwood Springs have been good to me. When I came here, I was having problems of my own – but now I can’t imagine ever wanting to live anywhere else, so I should repay the karma by helping others out where I can… and, I’ve got to say, I’m curious.” He paused to think for a moment. “Caleb’s mate Kira works from a ranger’s hut in the woods – that might be a good out-of-the-way place to test out a curse.”

Henry nodded. “I know how to find it – Caleb mentioned it to me.”

“That sounds like a plan, then,” Gale said. “We can all meet up there after the festival has finished for the day, since most of us will be working. Try not to get into too much trouble in the meantime!”

“I’ll do my best,” Luna promised. Hopefully there would be no more disasters, no matter how small! But she thought she could deal with them, knowing that there were people who could help her out.

“Speaking of work,” Gale continued, “I should probably get back to it. But it really was great to meet you both – I’ll let the others know what’s going on, and we’ll see you tonight.”

“Fantastic,” Henry said, and Luna nodded her agreement. “I can’t thank you enough.”

“Same here,” Luna said fervently. “Thank you. I mean it.”

Gale waved off their thanks with a smile. “Don’t mention it. See you both later!”

They both watched as Gale exited the dining area through a staff door, Luna feeling a little shell-shocked.

“Just when I think there’s nothing left to surprise me…” she murmured.

Henry also looked a bit overwhelmed as he nodded, which was reassuring, in a way – at least she wasn’t the only one here having a strange day.

“What should we do now?” she asked.

Henry looked contemplative for a moment, before looking down at the table.

“Get a new chair, and then eat some cake?” he suggested.

There was still way more cake there than any sane person would ever be able to eat.

Luckily for Luna, she wasn’t having the sanest day.

“I think that’s an excellent suggestion.”