Page 17

17

A STRANGE LEAF CIRCLE

“Duke said you weren’t coming today,” Mallie said, staring wide-eyed at Nat.

“I thought I wasn’t either,” Nat admitted. “But the wildfires are still going, and Duke has to go help out again tonight.”

From the way Teddy and Mallie didn’t look surprised, Duke had already told them. Nat felt bad for the kids, though.

“Sorry about that,” he said. “I know you were looking forward to spending time with him.”

Teddy sighed heavily, his little shoulders slumping. “It’s better when he helps because the fire won’t kill him. It’s a lot more risky for other firefighters.”

“Maybe he won’t be gone as long today,” Nat said.

Teddy and Mallie leaned despondently into each other.

Duke jogged down the stairs, looking a lot more harried today. “Gotta run,” he said, striding over. “A fire truck got stuck out there and they need backup getting the firefighters out. Telos is giving me an air lift.”

“Pterodactyl helicopter!” Teddy cried, perking up.

Duke cracked a smile and crouched in front of him. “Yeah, kind of like a helicopter. Want to watch him pick me up?”

“Yeah!”

Duke led them out into the backyard, Teddy and Mallie hot on his heels. Nat carried Wanda in his arms.

A shriek cut through the air. Telos’ leathery wings flapped in the distance.

“All right. Be good for Mr. Nat, okay? Don’t give him too much trouble.” Duke pulled Teddy and Mallie into a hug, one child in each arm. He dropped loud kisses on their foreheads. Then he released them and turned to Nat. “If they give you trouble, I’m sorry. I apologize in advance.”

Nat shrugged. “I guess we were all kids, at some point in our lives. Unless you happened to pop out of your dad all big-muscled and big d—”

He clapped his hand over his mouth, but the kids were waiting for him to go on.

“Big what?” Mallie asked curiously.

Nat could’ve cried. Duke looked like he was trying not to laugh.

“Big, uh. Big-brained,” Nat mumbled. “You know, a muscle you use frequently.”

Duke was biting hard on his lip, his eyes gleaming. “Whatever I used to be, I’m definitely big-brained now,” he murmured.

Nat groaned and tried to bash his forehead into Duke’s arm.

Duke grinned and yanked him into a hug, too. “Don’t eat your toys, kiddo,” he said to Wanda.

And he pressed his soft lips to Nat’s forehead, a brief touch that left Nat’s pulse skyrocketing.

He kissed me.

There wasn’t time to process it. Telos swooped into Duke’s grassy backyard as a large pterodactyl, his wings stirring up clouds of dust.

He didn’t land, though. Instead, he hovered low enough for Duke to grab his leg. Then he took off, hauling Duke into the air.

“Bye, kids,” Telos yelled. “Remember, dinosaurs are amazing!”

Duke waved. Then they grew smaller, becoming a speck in the sky.

Far away, in the hills that bordered Cartfalls on one side, orange flames licked through the forest.

“Are we gonna be okay?” Teddy asked Nat, watching the fire too.

“There are lots of people in town who are helping,” Nat said firmly. “The mages cast spells to protect the people and buildings. What Duke is saving, are the firefighters, the trees, and the animals in the forest.”

“Okay,” Teddy said, huddling closer to his sister.

Wanda grabbed Nat’s nose and yanked, her mouth open in a proud grin.

“Hon!” Nat blew a raspberry. “Are you trying to start some trouble?”

Mallie and Teddy looked over, their gazes clouded.

“What’s wrong?” Nat asked.

Mallie hesitated. Teddy didn’t, though. “My friends say Duke is gonna pick you and Wanda over us.”

Nat scrunched up his face. “What for? Why would Duke even pick us?”

“He likes Wanda,” Mallie said reluctantly, her shoulders drooping. “Everyone always wants to adopt the babies.”

Nat frowned. “Well, first of all, no one is adopting Wanda. She’s mine. Duke will have to get through me first.”

“His scent is all over you,” Teddy pointed out.

“His scent is all over you too,” Nat said.

Mallie sighed. “He would want you to be his mate, and Wanda will be his baby.”

“Let’s pretend for a moment that he actually wants that,” Nat said dryly. “What’s stopping him from adopting you, too?”

Mallie and Teddy looked at each other. “We’re older kids. No one wants older kids. Except Duke, I guess. But he’s just fostering us.”

Nat bit his lip, glancing at Hubrie. This wasn’t his discussion to have.

Hubrie sighed. “You didn’t hear it from me, but Hell Master has plans for you kids.”

Their eyes grew wide.

“Wicked witch plans?” Teddy asked. “Will he put us in a pot?”

Hubrie snorted. “You wish! I’ll leave it to him to break the news to you. He has a bunch of things going on right now, so he hasn’t discussed it with you yet.”

The siblings still looked anxious, so Nat gathered them close. He crouched on the ground and patted the grass next to him; they reluctantly sat down.

“Look,” Nat said. “I’m really new to all of this. Duke has been my boss for only two days. But from what I can see? Duke loves both of you, and he’s loved you for years. He’ll put you two first. Even before me and Wanda.” They still looked doubtful, so Nat added, “Ask him yourself. You trust him to be truthful, don’t you?”

Both children nodded slowly.

“Then trust him to prove that he loves you more than me,” Nat said.

Hubrie made a soft sound. When Nat looked over, the butler was staring at the ceiling, pretending to whistle.

Nat released a squirming Wanda onto the ground, turning back to Mallie and Teddy. “Duke doesn’t really have plans for me in his life. But you’re a sure thing. He hired me to help so he would get more time with you.”

The kids began to cheer up.

“He likes you too, though,” Mallie said.

“But that’s okay, we can share him with you,” Teddy added.

Nat’s heart warmed. “Aww, you guys! I appreciate that. That’s really kind of you.”

“I know! What if we trade?” Mallie chirped eagerly. “We let you have Duke for a while, and you’ll let us play with Wanda.”

Privately, Nat wondered if Duke ever let himself be ordered around.

“Only if you promise not to hurt her, and you’ll watch out for her,” he said seriously. “Wanda may be a little more hardy as a raccoon cub, but she’s still only ten months old. She needs to be protected.”

Mallie and Teddy nodded very seriously. “We’ll keep her safe.”

Nat relaxed. He shifted into a raccoon, waiting until Wanda copied him. The siblings cooed when she was once again a ball of grey fluffy fur. Then they wriggled out of their clothes and shifted into two bobcat kittens, crowding around Wanda and sniffing at her. In this shape, Mallie had black ears, and Teddy had white socked feet.

Wanda patted them with her little paws. They licked her face and cuddled with her, purring when she pulled them close. Nat could’ve melted into a puddle.

Grass rustled. When Nat looked up, he found Hubrie with his phone out, taking a video of them.

“Hell Master needs to see this,” the butler said with a gleeful smile. “He’ll be so upset that he missed out.”

Of course Duke would be upset—the kids were adorable in their little cub pile, and Nat wanted to join them.

But a tug on his insides pulled him away.

He followed his instincts to a cluster of bushes nearby, grabbing two handfuls of fallen pine needles and soft leaves. They smelled good. Woodsy, earthy. Like... a home?

Nat brought his treasure back to the cub pile and scattered it in a small circle around them. He returned to the bushes for more, going back and forth until he’d built up a low, messy wall of leaves around the cubs.

“What’s that for?” Teddy asked when he’d shifted back into a human child. He was so much bigger in this form that he crushed part of the leaf wall under his weight.

Nat drooped. He’d forgotten to account for their human shapes; his leaf circle needed to be so much bigger.

He left Wanda with Teddy and Mallie, scooping together a small pile of leaves. There weren’t that many on the ground; Duke’s gardener kept his yard really clean.

Gathering the fallen leaves took so long that Nat was tempted to pluck some leaves off the bushes.

Except Duke would probably fire him if he did.

He brought his miserable pile of leaves back to the kids, spreading it out in a wider circle this time. Teddy followed him to the bushes and began ripping off handfuls of leaves.

“Won’t Duke be mad?!” Nat squawked.

“Nah.” Teddy reached for a branch with several beautiful green leaves, tearing some in his haste to grab as many as he could. “He lets us play in the yard! One time I crushed a whole bush!”

“I don’t want you to crush this bush,” Nat said hurriedly.

Between the two of them, they gathered a larger pile of leaves. And now Mallie was watching them curiously, nudging Wanda over so they could investigate.

Before Nat could say a word, Mallie leaped into the leaf pile, sending leaves flying everywhere.

Nat groaned. “Mallie!”

Mallie leaned in to cuddle against Nat. He couldn’t even stay mad at her. Wanda followed her example and scampered through the leaves, making little squeaky purring sounds.

Nat sighed and flopped onto his ass. He really wanted to keep building his leaf wall. But Wanda and Mallie were climbing all over his legs now, so he just sat and let them, leaving Teddy to strip nearly every branch on his bush.

“What if that bush dies?” Nat yelped.

“Duke said the bushes grow like weeds, so it’s okay.” Teddy kept on yanking leaves.

Nat crossed his fingers and hoped fervently that Duke wouldn’t be mad when he got back.

The bush was starting to look like a skeleton. Nat could only watch its destruction like a train wreck.

“Good news,” Hubrie said cheerfully. “Duke just said he’s done helping with the fire for tonight. He’s coming home.”

The kids cheered. Nat opened and closed his mouth, staring at the pathetic-looking bush.

Teddy moved on to the next bush, de-leafing it like it was his true calling in life.

“Holy naked bush,” Nat mumbled, scooping Wanda into his arms.

“Everything will be all right,” Hubrie said soothingly. “I’ve told Hell Master to learn some pickup lines.”

Nat wasn’t going to try to understand why. He scooped up the leaves that Teddy had left on the ground, shaping them into a half-circle around himself and the kids.

“Incoming!” Hubrie said suddenly.

Nat startled. Duke was nowhere close, right? Hubrie was a true shapeshifter; he could hear things well beyond Nat’s hearing range.

Barely had he thought that, when leathery wings flapped.

Duke landed in the backyard with a heavy thump.

Nat yelped and fell backward.

“Nat,” Duke said, striding forward. “Did I surprise you?”

Duke had ash on his face and clothes, and a shopping cart under one arm.

Nat was about to ask why he’d brought back a shopping cart, when he realized that the cart didn’t look right.

Instead of an excitable, gleaming steel thing like the ones at the grocery store, this cart looked... melted. Its straight sides had gone wavy, kind of droopy.

“Oh no!” Nat scrambled to his feet. “What happened to that cart?”

Duke winced. “Someone abandoned it near the burning forest. It wandered in and couldn’t find its way out.”

The cart flipped its wheels wearily.

There was magic in metals. It began as wisps of energy in metal ores, growing more concentrated when the ores were refined into pure metal. When the metallic parts of an object moved together constantly, it changed the magic in that object, turning it sentient. It was why door locks could smile, faucets could bite, and shopping carts frolicked in parking lots.

Except it also meant that the carts were aware when bad things happened to them.

Nat reached for the cart, his heart racing. “What are you going to do with it?”

“I’ll fix it up this weekend,” Duke said. “It shouldn’t take much more than some hammering to get it mostly straight again.”

“I feel so bad for it.”

Duke set the cart between them, watching as Nat ran his hand carefully over its cooled metal. The cart lifted its warped flap weakly and nudged against Nat; Nat gently petted it.

Maybe he felt so strongly about the cart because it reminded him of himself, all banged up and not fully functional anymore.

From the way Duke was watching him, maybe he knew that too. Nat blushed.

“Be gentle with the cart,” Duke told Mallie, who had shifted back into a human child. She approached the cart carefully. “Just because it doesn’t look fragile, doesn’t mean it isn’t.”

“Like Wanda. I got it,” Mallie said. She went up to the cart and petted it gently on the side, murmuring softly.

Nat was struck by a sudden fondness for Duke’s children—Mallie, with her attachment to sweet, innocent creatures, and Teddy, who was razing the entire second bush to its bare branches.

“Urk!” Nat said.

Duke glanced over. “That reminds me. Why were you so anxious when I got back?”

Nat lost the battle even before it had begun. He peeked at the two stripped bushes—Teddy was now ravaging a third one—and all he could say was, “I’m sorry!”

Duke raised his eyebrows. “Why?”

“Because I started first with the leaf gathering! Then Teddy offered to help, and... and two of your bushes now look like they might die.”

Only then did Duke seem to notice the scattered leaves. “Why do you need leaves?”

“Because there aren’t enough on the ground! And I didn’t want to rip them off your trees.” Nat winced. “Teddy said you don’t mind, though.”

Duke snorted, his lips curving handsomely. “Yeah, they’ll grow back.” He took a step closer, cradling Nat’s jaw with his large hand. “Now, what do you plan on doing with the leaves?”

“I... I don’t know. I just needed to...” Nat gestured at the half-circle on the ground. “Make a leaf wall, I guess.”

Duke stared at the half-circle, then back at Nat. “A leaf wall. Are you sure that’s what you’re making?”

“What else can it be?” Nat cried. “All I know is that it should be taller, but I don’t have enough leaves for it.”

“Dry leaves, or fresh leaves?”

“Um. I—I guess the soft ones,” Nat said, surprised by Duke’s question. “The ones that smell nice.”

Duke hummed. “How much do you need?”

“Enough for a... big circle. I think.” Nat wasn’t even sure where the answers were coming from. “I feel like I’m possessed, when I build that leaf wall.”

Duke rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Do you mind waiting here? I’ll gather the leaves for you.”

“Okay. Thanks.” Nat nodded quickly, breathing a sigh of relief when Duke grabbed Teddy and hauled him away from his fourth tormented bush.

Duke, Teddy, and the shopping cart disappeared off to a corner of the property with several pine trees. There were probably more leaves there; Nat should’ve thought of that, except he hadn’t wanted to leave the children behind.

He settled back on the ground, cuddling with Wanda again. “This is a big place. It would take me forever to walk from one corner of Duke’s territory to the other.”

“You can go much faster if you run on all fours,” Mallie said.

“I don’t think raccoons run, period.” Nat laid back to stare at the sky. “I like being a lazy raccoon.”

Mallie giggled. “Have you hidden in Duke’s bed as a raccoon and tried to scare him?”

“How?” Nat asked, intrigued. “Won’t he find me first?”

“He doesn’t have super hearing,” Mallie whispered. “So if you’re really quiet and really small, you can tuck yourself between his pillows, and he won’t know!”

Nat perked up, even more intrigued. “That’s tempting. But I think he’ll fire me if I do that.”

“No, he won’t!” Mallie bounced on her heels. “C’mon, give it a try! Teddy and I do it once a year but I think he expects us to, at this point. But he won’t be expecting you!”

“If you can promise that he won’t kill me for surprising him,” Nat said dryly.

“I promise he won’t,” Hubrie said, popping up beside them.

Nat jumped and yelped. “Eavesdropper!”

“Always.” Hubrie smirked. “If I’m not eavesdropping, then something is wrong.”

Nat watched him suspiciously, perking up when Duke and Teddy returned with armfuls of leaves. “Wait. That’s... a lot.”

Duke grinned. “I thought we should err on the side of having too much. Besides, I don’t think this is enough for a truly large ‘leaf wall’.”

He dropped his armful of leaves in front of Nat; Mallie squealed and burrowed into the pile.

Nat chuckled. “With these cubs around, I’m not sure how I’m going to keep my leaf wall intact.”

Duke scooped out the leaves from the shopping cart’s belly and added them to Nat’s pile. “We’ll help.”

He knelt in front of Nat and looked him in the eye, so serious that Nat’s stomach fluttered.

Duke didn’t have to go out of his way to gather so many leaves; Nat was being paid to watch his children. And yet here they were, Duke patting Nat’s knee with one large hand. “C’mon. Let’s get started. Show me how you were building your leaf wall.”

“I don’t know how,” Nat said. He began piling the leaves as high as he could, except past a certain point, the wall wouldn’t grow any taller.

“I think you need something thick in there,” Duke said.

Nat choked on his spit. “I—What?”

Duke grinned. “Some wood.”

“Oh, gods,” Nat said weakly, coughing so he could breathe right. “I—I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“We should take the walls apart first. Get the wood in there so it’ll stand upright.”

Nat buried his face in the leaves; he was so mortified.

“What’s wrong with Mr. Nat?” Teddy asked.

“I think he’s overwhelmed by wood,” Duke said solemnly.

“I’m going to perish,” Nat said, scooping the leaves onto his head to try and bury himself.

“Just the little deaths, Nat,” Duke replied. “No big ones.”

“What little d—Oh. Oh, gods. ” Nat whimpered, rolling around in the leaves. Why was Duke using so many euphemisms? Especially when Nat couldn’t hide his face?

“What’s Duke talking about?” Mallie asked, brushing the leaves off Nat’s face to peer at him. “I don’t understand.”

“Me neither,” Nat lied.

Duke smirked and snapped off some thin branches from the ravaged bushes. He wove them into a low wall, presenting it to Nat.

Duke’s wall wasn’t elegant. But it held, and Nat’s instincts appreciated Duke’s efforts a lot.

“This is amazing,” he gushed. Especially when Duke managed to extend the wall with more branches and leaves.

Thrice more, Duke, Teddy, and the shopping cart went back to the trees. They returned with even more twigs and leaves. By the end of it, Teddy and Mallie’s eyelids were drooping, and Nat felt as though he could fall asleep right there.

But they finished their leaf wall. It went a full circle around all five of them, wide enough for Nat to stretch his legs and still have plenty of room.

“I can’t believe you made this,” Nat said happily, snuggling into his leaf wall.

“Is this what you were going for?” Duke asked quietly, intently.

Nat’s heart skipped a beat. “Yeah. How did you guess?”

Someone coughed lightly. Duke shuffled closer, sliding his arm around Nat’s waist and burying his nose in Nat’s hair.

“I’ll tell you later,” Duke whispered, slipping his fingers under Nat’s shirt to touch his belly.

“Oh!” Nat mumbled when he remembered. “Tell Mallie and Teddy that you’re not going to adopt me and Wanda. Tell them you’re adopting them instead.”

Duke froze. Then he tightened his arm around Nat, and whispered in his ear, “How are you so sure that you and Wanda won’t be adopted, too?”

At that, Nat’s eyes snapped open. “You’re—You can’t be— Adopt?! Me?”

Duke sighed patiently, watching him. “Nat, you just built a nest tonight. For no reason.”

“A nest?!” Nat squeaked.

He sat upright, breathing hard enough that he could think again.

The low wall around them was woven with twigs and leaves. It smelled good. It was what he’d subconsciously been trying to make.

“Why would I—”

He remembered Duke touching his belly a few times over the course of today. Duke coming inside him without any condom, more than once. Nat had been feeling Duke’s cum leaking out of him for hours.

“I didn’t have a heat,” he said.

Duke pressed his mouth against Nat’s ear and whispered, “Your womb took so much cum last night, Nat, that I don’t think it matters. It’s been filled for hours, my cum trying to impregnate you. The fact that you began building a nest... I think it means something took inside you.”