Page 6

Finn

"Do you remember Levi?" I asked Penny, and she pursed her lips as she thought about it. After meeting up, I'd come back home, gone straight to my room, and called my other best friend, Penny. Yesterday, I'd needed an outsider opinion, but today I wanted to talk to someone who'd actually met Levi.

Amelia had been my first choice—simply because she wouldn't go running to tell my dads I met a boy—but she was off on one of her trips where she decided keeping her phone charged wasn't a priority.

If she wasn't an earth mage running alone through jungles, I'd be worried.

But she had all the protection she needed when she was surrounded by nature.

"The kid I beat up for messing with Dean?" she asked after a moment, and I blinked, then shook my head.

"Nope, not that guy."

Penny hummed, then frowned. "Wait, wait, wait. Are you talking about the guy we met in that hellhole? The one who died?" Penny never minced her words, but the surprise was clear on her face.

While I'd always encouraged my siblings to talk about what happened when we were kids, I rarely brought up the topic myself, so I could understand why.

"Yep. Fun fact: he's not dead. Not that it's a surprise, but they lied to us. Levi escaped."

Penny's eyes went wide. "No fucking way. Really?"

I nodded, then told her about stumbling into him at the grocery store and my conversation with him earlier today.

"Wait. You went on a date with him?" Her face lit up with delight instantly, and I shook my head, rushing to correct her.

"It wasn't a date," I said, throwing in an eye-roll for good measure, but it just made her grin widen.

"Uh-huh, sure, sure," she said as she started messing with her phone.

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing. Nothing at all."

"Penny," I warned, not liking the grin on her face. That grin usually preceded something I would want to kick her ass for, but she was too far away for me to do that, which just made her braver.

"So...I have class in a few minutes, but I think you should talk to the dads about this. They're eager to help."

Oh no. Oh no no no no!

"Fuck my life!" I covered my face with my hands, then pulled my blanket over myself as Penny laughed like the villain she was.

I curled up into a ball as if that would save me from the inquisition.

My basilisk seemed amused at my predicament, but that was because he rarely had to deal with my parents.

The worst part about having good, loving parents was that they were always interested in your life and wanted to know everything, even the stuff you'd rather not tell them just yet.

"Finn?"

I sighed, then came out of my hiding place to face Dad, and Papa, who were standing in the doorway, probably so I wouldn't feel cornered.

"Hmm?" I asked, trying to act nonchalant.

"Tell me about Levi," Dad said as he came in and perched on the edge of my bed, and I eyed him, then Papa, then my phone, where Penny shot me a wink then ended the call.

With a sigh, I gave my dads a summarized explanation of my not-date with Levi so they could see how it very clearly wasn't a date . I even told them about his skunk familiar and how she'd bitten me.

"She bit you?" Dad asked, then turned to share a look with Papa. I did not like that look.

"Um, yeah. It didn't hurt much or anything, and it healed up almost instantly," I assured them, because my dads could get a tad overprotective sometimes.

"It's not that," Papa said, then came into the room, stopping beside Dad. He placed a hand on Dad's shoulder as he smiled at me, and explained, "The first time I met Neya, she bit me. "

"And told me Jai is my mate," Dad added, and I stared at them, far too stunned to say anything.

They waited patiently as I struggled to find my voice. "Are you saying Levi is my mate?"

Dad shrugged, then took my hand in his, correctly reading the panicked look on my face. "It's a possibility, but it's just as likely she was just being playful. April bites everyone."

That was true. April was an eagle owl, and the familiar of the twins' Dad, and like Dad said, she bit everyone she liked.

Still, I couldn't get the idea that Levi could be my mate out of my head, especially because he'd been a little weird after Greta bit me. If I was his mate, why hadn't he told me? We were both supes, so it wasn't like he needed to keep it a secret.

And if we were mates, why hadn't I recognized it too?

Once the dads were sure I was okay, they left me alone, and I decided I needed to talk to Neel again. One of the best things about living in Mistvale was how close everyone was.

A short walk later, I was at Neel and Pax's place.

They were stepbrothers, and they'd gotten a place together after college that they were in the middle of turning into a bed and breakfast. Technically, Raiden owned the place, but he'd said they could buy it from him once they had the money.

I was pretty sure Raiden would've signed the house over for free, but their dads told him not to.

"Finn! Did we have plans? Come on in," Neel said, stepping aside as he held the door open .

"No plans, I just wanted to talk to you. I should've called ahead. Are you busy?"

"Nah, it's fine. Is everything okay?"

I followed him to the couch, then fell in beside him with a sigh. While Neel was human, he'd grown up in the supe community since his dads—Memphis and Orion—were an incubus and a griffin.

"What would you do if you found out that someone you know is your mate, and they knew but didn't tell you?"

A clatter drew our gazes to where Paxton stood in the doorway, his eyes on the phone he'd dropped.

"You okay?" Neel asked, his lips pursed as he eyed his brother.

Paxton nodded quickly, picked up his phone, and disappeared deeper into the house.

I raised a brow at Neel, but he merely shook his head. "He's been acting weird for a while now. I'm hoping he'll talk to me when he's ready. Anyway, are you telling me you know who your mate is?"

I made a face. "Well, not exactly."

I explained the situation to him, and realized that even if we didn't come up with a theory that would make sense, sharing this with him already made me feel a little better.

While I loved my family, sometimes it was easier to talk about things like this with a friend.

Now, if only I could find a way to ask Levi about this whole mate thing. I didn't think I could bring it up myself, though. Because what if Greta biting me had been just that? Either I'd look like a fool, or Levi would think I wanted to be with him. Which...I wasn't sure what I wanted.

I'd looked up to Levi in the months we'd been held together, and maybe I'd had a bit of a childish crush on him too. Maybe that was why I was clinging so hard to the idea that he might be my mate, because I wanted him to be. The best thing to do would be to leave the ball in his court.

Of course, Neel's solution was a lot more straightforward. And a lot scarier. "You need to talk to him."

Levi

Finn was my mate.

It was all I'd thought about since our coffee shop meet-up two days ago, and the longer I spent, the more I regretted not telling him right then and there.

I was quite sure now that he hadn't sensed our bond yet, and I had to assume it was somehow related to those glasses he wore and whatever problems he had with his powers. Either way, he didn't know, which meant it fell on me to tell him.

I had no idea how he'd react. Would he be happy? What if he wasn't interested in pursuing a relationship right now? Would I be okay with waiting until he was?

Yeah, I would be. When I moved to Mistvale, romance hadn't even been on my list. All I'd really been looking for was a change of pace, a change of scenery, and I'd gotten all that and more. Much, much more.

What did it matter if we spent the next however many years as friends? We'd been friends before, and I would enjoy being Finn's friend again. If he did want to try a romantic relationship, I'd be up for that too.

I'd dated a bit in the last ten years, but I'd never been able to open up completely with my partners. I had a feeling things would be different with Finn because he already knew about some of my darkest days.

Greta chirped at me from her spot on my chest, and I sighed.

"Yeah, you're right. Enough thinking."

Grabbing my phone from the coffee table, I sent Finn a text, glad we'd exchanged numbers before we parted ways.

Me : Hey, wanna meet up again? There's something I need to tell you.

The three dots bobbed on the screen for a whole minute before Finn replied.

Finn : Of course. When and where?

Me : You tell me. What's good in Mistvale?

Finn : Hmmm... do you like tea?

Me : I'm always up for a good cuppa.

Finn : Then how about we meet up tomorrow at The One Stop Shops? There's a wonderful bakery and tea shop there.

I was sensing a theme. Was my mate a fan of baked goods?

A faint memory of whispered conversations about what we wanted to eat the most once we got out slithered through my mind, and I remembered the light in his eyes as Finn described a chocolate cake one of his foster moms had made for them once.

If Finn liked cakes, I'd take him to eat all the cakes he wanted.

Me : Sounds good. Does 6 p.m. tomorrow work for you?

Finn : Yep. See you at 6!

Well, we had a date. Nope, not a date. A meet-up. A friendly, platonic meet-up where I was going to tell Finn we were mates.

"This is all your fault, you know," I told Greta, but she ignored me completely as she continued snoozing.

Like most things in Mistvale, TOSS wasn't too far from my place, and had everything from clothing to grocery stores, a food court, a movie theater, an arcade, and more 'in the works.

' I'd shopped for most of things I needed when I moved from there, and I was glad I had because who knew how long it'd have taken us to cross paths otherwise?

Greta woke up after a few minutes, and I decided to go out for a walk.

I wanted to look around the town some more, and check out the place I was supposed to start work at next week.

The interview had been a breeze, especially when the contractor—a wolf shifter by the name of Caleb—confirmed I was a supe and my powers would be helpful.

The house I lived in was close to the town center, and as I walked down the street, I admired the eclectic architecture of the place.

Some of the buildings looked centuries old, while others had that 'just finished' quality.

I'd seen a few under-construction buildings around town, which told me I'd have a fair share of work for a while.

While plants were my first choice, always, as an earth mage I could handle most anything that connected to the earth itself.

I could make sure a building's foundation was properly set, sense any decay or problems within walls, and basically make sure the building wouldn't topple because of shoddy work.

I wondered what Amelia was up to. Like me, she was an earth mage too. Unlike me, she hadn't been born in Ravenshire. I didn't know exactly what her story was, but I was curious what she was doing now. Did she have a job that required her magical skills too?

Finn had told me she'd been adopted by the dragon who guarded this town, and I had to admit I was a tiny bit jealous.

If I hadn't run away, would I have ended up with a family too?

I'd rarely missed my family after I ran away from Ravenshire, even when I'd been captured by those dark-magic hungry supes. But that didn't mean I didn't sometimes wish I had one. Not the one I'd left behind, but a real family that actually loved me and cared about me.

A wave of comfort and love washed through me, and I smiled down at Greta as she rubbed her head against my leg.

"I know, sweetie. You're my family too."

Exhaling softly, I eyed the house I'd stopped in front of. It was dilapidated, but clearly under construction. A board near the front proclaimed it was going to be a giant, all-year-round haunted house, which, yeah. Count me out of that one. Ghosts were not for me.

On my way home, I picked up dinner from a food truck run by a human and a gargoyle, amazed yet again by just how many supes lived here. I wondered if so many different supernatural beings living in the same town caused issues. What happened if they fought? Or caused trouble? Did the dragon step in?

I'd have to ask Finn about that tomorrow. If he still stuck around after I told him we were mates, that was.