It was almost like we now shared a mate bond.

  I completely stopped moving, breathing, or even thinking. A mate bond?

  But, no, that was impossible.

  I faced away from her as my heart started to pound and I felt light-headed and winded, like I’d just run five miles without stopping.

  A mate bond…

  This couldn’t be happening!

  “I, uh, I’m going to go get Poppy and Wanda,” I said as I started to walk away. I just… I didn’t want Fifi to witness this playing out across my face. There’d be questions, and she wasn’t going to like the answers. I wasn’t even sure how I felt about them.

  All I did know was I needed to take a minute to have this realization alone and that minute would be provided on the walk to Poppy’s house.

  I broke into a sprint, trying to outrun my thoughts.

  It didn’t work. They were still a confused mess.

  A mate bond. A mate bond. A mate bond.

  That couldn’t be it, right? How the hell could I have a mate bond outside of my own species? It just… it wasn’t possible. Yet, this is exactly what a mate bond was supposed to feel like. I’d heard about them too many times from other squatches, including my own sister. The symptoms were exactly the same.

  But, how?

  My first relationship had been a disaster because we’d rushed and discovered that, after the sex was over, we had no chemistry. Not every sasquatch couple had a mate bond, but most did, and that bond usually presented itself as soon as the coupling act was over. Well, except for me, it seemed. I hadn’t found a woman in my own tribe who I felt connected with, sexually or otherwise. It was then that I’d decided tradition wasn’t for me and neither were mate bonds.

  Well, maybe they were?

  But a succubus? That shouldn’t have been possible! The only species less compatible with a sasquatch was a witch, due to their strict monarchies.

  I sank against one of the pillars on Poppy’s porch as soon as I reached it, cradling my head in my hands as I tried to will my heart to calm the f down.

  What the hell was I supposed to do with this information?

  I’d only just gotten Fifi to agree to date me. I couldn’t imagine telling her that my body considered her my mate was going to go over well. I’d basically be asking her for a lifetime commitment. She’d run for the hills because it went against everything she stood for as a succubus—she was supposed to have numerous lovers, pull energy from any and all men she wanted to.

  But Fifi isn’t like that and you know it, I argued with myself.

  Regardless, I wasn’t ready for this. No, this was a disaster.

  I jumped when a soft hand came to rest on my bicep. I followed the line of the arm up to a soft, familiar and smiling face. A beautiful face with caring, and concerned blue eyes, a pert nose and plump lips. A face that, up until I’d started this thing with Fifi, I’d been completely in love with.

  Poppy must have approached while I was having my own internal breakdown and I hadn’t heard her walk up.

  “Everything okay, Roy?” she asked as she smiled up at me. “You look like you’ve got the weight of the world on your shoulders.”

  “I feel like I’ve got the weight of the world on my shoulders,” I answered.

  “Want to talk about it?”

  I turned to face her, even though I knew we didn’t have time to talk about it. Not when everyone was due to meet in the graveyard in a few minutes. Not when Fifi was standing out there now, with Lorcan the goose.

  But once I opened my mouth, I couldn’t stop the words.

  “I think… I think my body believes Fifi is my bondmate and I don’t know what the fuck to think about that, much less do with it.”

  Poppy swallowed and didn’t say anything for a while. Instead, she sighed, and there was something like resignation in her eyes—or maybe it was just a lack of surprise.

  “You finally figured it out,” she said, and her expression was comforting.

  “Figured what out?”

  I didn’t understand how she didn’t seem to be in the least bit surprised by this news. It was almost like… like she already knew and had known.

  “You figured out what Fifi is to you, Roy,” she answered and tightened her grip around my arm. “Devona said you would, eventually.”

  “Devona?” I repeated, shaking my head. Devona was a reclusive half-witch that lived in the mountains, just beyond my family’s territory. Though she was technically one of us, she preferred to isolate herself. But how Devona had come to meet Poppy?

  And then I remembered. I remembered how we’d had to take Fifi to my family’s land in order to protect her from the hoards of people who were after her, courtesy of her asshole brother, Angelo, dousing her in the Love’s Goddess potion. And, in remembering, I further remembered how Poppy had gone off with Devona in order to figure out a way to cure Fifi. And when Poppy had returned, things had been different. She had been different.

  It had been the beginning of the end.

  “Devona told you to break up with me, didn’t she?” I asked her with wide eyes.

  Poppy inhaled deeply and then exhaled the breath as she looked me in the eyes and nodded.

  That pissed me off.

  Even if I could see the logic in the decision, I still didn’t like it. It wasn’t Devona’s place to dictate my love life, especially if she was going behind my back to do it. And it made me wonder about Poppy.

  “How could you have taken what she said as the truth?” I demanded.

  “It wasn’t like she was holding me at gunpoint or anything,” she answered on a shrug. “But everything she’d said, Roy, it was all right, and it was all true. And I guess… I guess I could just see it back then as clearly as I can see it now.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Fifi was comfortable with your family and your culture. When we were in your sister’s house—the way they interacted, the way Fifi helped her… it was like she was born for that role, Roy. I tried, but I just didn’t fit in.” She shook her head as she paused for a few seconds. “And then there were all the other problems between us—you wanting kids while I was happy just with Finn. And then there was the whole subject of you living for a very long time while I would age like a human ages. You never would.” She breathed in deeply as she smiled up at me sadly. “If I’d held onto you and to our relationship, if I’d fought for it, we both would have gotten hurt because it wasn’t meant to be, Roy. You and I were never meant to be.”

  I was quiet as her words sunk in and, deep down, I now understood how true they were. I couldn’t see it before, even though what she was telling me wasn’t exactly new information, but for some reason, I could see the truth in her message now. She was right. Devona had been right.

  “I wanted us to be friends and I still do,” Poppy continued. “When Devona said you were meant to be with Fifi, it made sense to me. You two fit in a way you and I never did.”

  “I wish you had told me.” I couldn’t look her in the eyes and instead found myself focusing on the graveyard. I could see Fifi laughing in the distance, no doubt at something Lorcan was griping about. A breeze picked up her hair, and the tendrils danced across her cheeks.

  She was more beautiful than I ever remembered her being.

  “I couldn’t tell you,” Poppy said, pulling my attention back to her. “Devona made me swear I wouldn’t—she said I couldn’t get in the way—that you would have to figure out your bond with Fifi for yourself in your own time.”

  We lapsed into an easy silence after a moment as our breakup began to make a poetic sort of sense to me. Poppy had let me go because it was the right thing to do—because it had allowed me to find my own path with the woman who was right for me—Fifi. Poppy had broken up with me, not because she’d wanted to, but because she had to.

  She was an even better person than I’d ever given her credit for.

  “Thank you, Poppy,” I whispered as I reached out and took both of her hands in mine and gave her the words and the heartfelt reaction I’d always wanted to, but never was able to before.

  She looked up at me and nodded. “I’m so happy you finally understand.”

  I nodded and swallowed hard as I looked out at the graveyard where Fifi was waiting for us. “She can’t know,” I said. “There’s no way she’s ready for this,” I continued. “I only asked her to date me twenty minutes ago.”

  “Agreed,” Poppy sighed as she nodded up at me. “Take your time with her, Roy. There’s nothing that says you have to unload all of this on her now. Just let it naturally happen.”

  I nodded and then looked back at her. “You’re a good friend.”

  “So are you.”

  Then she hugged me, and I hugged her back and it felt good.

  Chapter Nine

  “So, what does this creepy graveyard have to do with Lorcan’s...” Astrid glanced down at the goose who stood beside her. Lorcan didn’t seem happy. “Accident?”

  “Accident, my feathered arse,” Lorcan grumbled. “This wasn’t a mishap, it was a magical disaster.”

  “It was a disaster of your own making,” I shot back, then backed up to explain the goose’s grouse. I looked over at Astrid. “Fifi can explain.”

  “It’s more of a theory, really,” Fifi said with a shrug as Astrid looked at her with curiosity. “I think Lorcan’s condition is a sort of confluence of events.”

  “Such as?” Wanda asked as she stood there with her arms crossed and one hip cocked to the side like she didn’t have time for this or us. It was her usual expression.

  “Lorcan sat on Franklin Goose’s grave at the same time that Astrid set off her magic,” Fifi explained. “And in stepping on Franklin’s grave, Lorcan disrespected him and angered his spirit, therefore opening himself up to a potential haunting.”

  “Does anyone not see the fact that I am a goose, not a ghost!” Lorcan railed, flapping his wings. “Yes, I understand that both start with the letter ‘G’ but that does not mean they are one and the same!”

  “What’s he freaking out about?” Wanda asked in a very unconcerned way.

  “Just ignore him. He’s trying to stop himself from eating a grasshopper.”

  “Not amusing!” Lorcan quacked at me.

  “What did he say?” Astrid asked.

  “That he doesn’t understand why he’s a goose if he should have just been haunted by Franklin’s spirit,” I answered.

  Everyone nodded. “That is a good point,” Astrid answered as she looked at Fifi, who nodded back at her.

  “Well, that’s where I think your magic comes in,” Fifi replied as she faced me, then Wanda. “It’s no surprise that Astrid’s magic woke something up here,” she continued as she looked around. “I mean, the place is practically primed for something to happen, given the land’s exposure and vicinity to Wanda and her blood magic.”

  “Then it was my magic that did this to Lorcan?” Astrid asked, sounding guilty.

  “And to think I bought the silly twit a Porsche for her birthday!” Lorcan honked.

  Poppy shook her head and put a hand on Astrid’s shoulder. “I think what Fifi is trying to say is that it’s all the magic in this graveyard that was somehow able to turn Lorcan into his present goosely state.”

  Astrid looked at Fifi. “Then do you think it’s the goose that’s haunting Lorcan, and not Franklin?”

  Fifi nodded. “I think it’s something like that. Lorcan disrupted the grave and with the added power of your magic, what would have just been a haunting became something a little… more. Something a little more… real.”

  “Hmm,” Wanda said as she pondered it.

  “Think about it,” Fifi continued. “This graveyard is settled in between Poppy and Wanda and it’s a place of death magic to begin with. Then you throw in the magic that Astrid created, and I think it was a confluence of everything that turned Lorcan into the goose.”

  “That sounds about right to me,” Wanda said with a clipped nod.

  “And that explains why all my potions wouldn’t work on Lorcan,” Poppy added. “Because it wasn’t a matter of breaking a curse, a hex or banishing something.”

  “The question is, how do we fix it?” Astrid asked.

  “I think…” Fifi started, looking at each of us. “I think I might have an explanation for that, too.”

  ***

  We mounted the steps to a shabby-looking Tudor Revival, steps creaking beneath our weight. There was a sign propped before the door that detailed the hours of operation. I caught Astrid eyeing the taxidermy birds in the window.

  “What are we doing in an old and weird antique store?” Astrid asked.

  Our small group included me, Astrid, Fifi and Lorcan. Lorcan was currently sitting in Astrid’s backpack, which she wore on her back. It was zipped at the top so no one would notice him, but he had plenty of breathing holes through the mesh side pockets.

  “Lorcan owes Franklin Goose and his birds an apology,” Fifi answered. “What better way to make said apology than with a gift or an offering?”

  “Tell the demoness it is quite claustrophobic in this hideous contraption!” Lorcan called out, but I didn’t bother relaying his statement to anyone.

  “What sort of gift?” Astrid asked.

  We walked into a room that was filled from floor to ceiling with stuffed birds. Fifi glanced around herself before turning fully to face us again.

  “The type of gift Franklin would have appreciated most.”

  “A bird?” I asked.

  She beamed at me. “A bird.”

  Then she walked up to Astrid and, bending slightly, whispered into the backpack: “Lorcan, you should pick out which bird you want to gift to Franklin. Just quack when you see the one you like.”

  “What is all this fuss about?” Lorcan demanded. “And why the bloody hell should I gift a ghost when he’s done nothing but make my life nearly unbearable?”

  “Or ungoosable, as the case may be?” I added with a laugh.

  “You tell that demoness I will have nothing to do with gifting that Franklin Goose a damned thing until he returns my body post haste!”

  “I think that’s the point, you stupid leech,” I answered, shaking my head. “In order to get your body back, you’re going to have to make amends with the ghost.”

  “What a load of tripe.”

  I looked at Fifi and Astrid, who both wore curious expressions on their faces. “Lorcan says he’s happy to pick out a bird he feels would please Franklin the most.”

  ***

  Twenty minutes later, we left with an enormous stuffed emu.

  As soon as Lorcan had spotted it, he’d insisted it be the one, no doubt laughing over the fact that I’d have to carry it.

  “Next time you will think better of calling me an emu, I’d wager,” he answered once we were in my Ford F350 and headed back to the graveyard.

  “Why in the world did Lorcan insist on buying the largest bird in there?” Fifi asked me, from where she was sitting in the passenger seat beside me. Astrid was sitting in the back with the emu and Lorcan.

  “Because he’s a dumbass.”

  “Well, that’s a given,” Astrid said on a laugh as Lorcan leaned over and pecked her. “Ow, Lorcan, that hurt!”

  “Behave yourself or I’m going to drop you off at the nearest pond,” I said to Lorcan through the rear-view mirror. Then I turned to face Fifi. “Lorcan no doubt thought the emu was some sort of poetic justice because I referred to him as an ‘emo’ and he misunderstood me, thinking I’d called him an emu.”

  At that, Astrid and Fifi erupted into a fit of giggles, just as we pulled up to Haven Cemetery and I killed the engine.

  Hoisting the five-foot bird from the back seat, I carried it into the graveyard as Astrid carried Lorcan and Fifi walked alongside us. Poppy and Wanda were already waiting for us.

  “What in the spell is that?” Wanda demanded as she frowned at the enormous stuffed bird.

  “That is Lorcan’s idea of a joke,” I answered which, of course, made zero sense to Wanda.

  I explained the whole emo-emu mixup, which caused another round of laughs as we navigated up the dirt path and headed for Franklin’s grave. When we arrived there, I walked around the plot carefully and then lifted the emu onto the grave, just below the headstone.

  Facing Lorcan, who stood at the bottom of the grave, I gave him a big smile. “Time to eat humble pie and beg for your life back.”

  “Blast,” he started as he waddled forward and then took a deep breath.

  “Oh, and before you start,” I added, grabbing his attention. “You owe me six hundred for that elephant,” I finished and pointed to the emu.

  “Dammit,” Lorcan muttered. “I should have opted for a parakeet.”

  Epilogue

  “He’s milking this for all it’s worth, isn’t he?” Fifi asked with a wry smile.

  Lorcan was curled around Wanda on the couch, doing his best to look pathetic.

  He’d popped back into his humanoid form almost instantly after he’d begged Franklin Goose for forgiveness and offered the emu as tribute. As soon as Franklin had forgiven him and he’d turned back into the vampire prick, we all knew so well, he’d done so completely naked. Needless to say, that had been completely horrifying for me and I didn’t imagine the images of his long, gangly, white and hairless body (yes, even down there) would ever leave my poor, traumatized mind. And Astrid’s too, for that matter.

  I’d managed to turn her away before she was flashed by the idiotic vampire and his less-than-impressive talisman (but, really, what male creature could compete with a sasquatch—we were known to be the most virile of creatures for a reason.)

  And now, as we sat in Wanda’s living room, Lorcan was already embellishing his tale of woe, painting himself as a martyr in a tiny, feathery body.

  And, he had yet to pay me.

  “Of course, he is,” I grumbled. “Any excuse to be the center of attention and get as close as he can to Wanda he’s going to take. I’m just glad she’s wearing that repulsion necklace. I don’t trust him that close to her neck.”