Page 4 of Foxin’ Around (Mated to the Monster: Season 3)

Chapter

Three

S yrix smiled triumphantly at the female standing in front of him. He had no idea what sort of female his spell would draw, but seeing her in the flesh, he was more than pleased. He had not expected it to be so easy, but that was hardly something to complain about.

“Come in, sweetheart,” he murmured, reaching for her.

To his surprise, she quickly sidestepped out of the way, a look of fear flickering in her gaze. She studied him from a distance and Syrix stood in a relaxed manner, making no move for her. He did not like the scent of fear on her, though he understood it. Females were correct to be wary around males. It was a good thing that he had the presence of mind to glamour his features to appear more human. He suspected that seeing his sharper facial features and inhuman eyes, much less his ears and tail, would likely terrify her. As she was afraid enough as it was, he remained in place, keeping his expression relaxed and friendly until she at least perceived him as no threat and narrowed her eyes at him.

“Are you seriously inviting me in?” she demanded with a surprising sharpness in her tone.

“Such a strange question,” he mused as he lowered his hand and peered back at her. He had anticipated many different responses, but not that one. “You have arrived and are standing on my porch and yet you express surprise at my invitation. Do you not wish to enter?”

“ Your porch?” she sputtered as a pink blush darkened her cheeks. “I do not know who you think you are?—”

“Syrix,” he interrupted, extending his hand out in greeting, his palm upward.

Her gaze flew down to his hand and she stared at it with bewilderment. She did not accept or return his greeting. Instead, her lips tightened in unmistakable annoyance.

“Right,” she replied tightly. “Let me rephrase. I don’t care who you are. This is not your porch. This is my family’s cabin—it belongs to my uncle, to be more precise—which makes you an intruder, not the host. Now, what are you doing here? You shouldn’t have been able to find it from the road with how overgrown everything is.”

“Ah,” he drawled and leisurely looked around his new home. “I did not realize that it was occupied. When I arrived, its condition was rather… sad.” He settled on that adjective, not wishing to insult his mate before he even had an opportunity to get to know her.

It seemed that his efforts were in vain, however, because her expression was growing increasingly more displeased with him by the moment. He could not understand why. Clearly, no one had lived here for a long time. He had barely noticed it when he passed through this part of the woods, its shambled state practically invisible among the trees. It had only been a glimmer of sunlight through the trees hitting a window just right that caught his attention, but it was an unexpected sense of rightness and destiny that had drawn him to it. He had felt at that moment that fate had arranged for him to find it. Clearly things were in motion even then for the day he would find his mate. She should be pleased that the gods had arranged things beforehand so that he not only repaired it, but improved upon it before her return.

An uncomfortable look passed over her face. “It had fallen into disrepair since our family had not had many opportunities to come up here in quite some time,” she admitted, “and a winter storm a few years back had done considerable damage that hadn’t yet been repaired.” Her brow furrowed and she shook her head. “That doesn’t explain why you are here.”

He shrugged. “Destiny,” he supplied. That seemed to be the best answer as far as he was concerned.

His mate scoffed but adjusted the angle of her position so that she could see into the house around him. Syrix smiled obligingly and stepped back out of the way so that she could get a better look.

“Does it meet your approval?” he asked, his gaze once more riveted upon her expressive human face.

“You did this all in a few months? By yourself?” She suddenly backed up a few paces and glanced around warily.

“It is just me here. And Fixi and his family,” he amended.

“Fixi?”

As if summoned magically by the utterance of his name, Fixi popped out of the bushes nearest to the porch and streaked by the human, startling a shriek from her as he darted past Syrix’s legs and into the house. Syrix tipped his head in the direction the fox disappeared, a smile curling his lips.

“Fixi.”

“You live in the house with a family of foxes?” She shook her head as if unable to believe it and he chuckled, utterly charmed with her.

“They technically have a burrow through the bushes on the left, but they come and go as they like,” he corrected. “But as to your original question, yes, I did all of this. A bit of magic and a bit of talent with creating things of earth and wood was all it took.”

A look of reluctant amusement played about her lips, and she shook her head. “Magic, huh?”

“Naturally.” Even if he could not reveal the entirety of the truth to her just yet, he refused to lie to her. “My brothers have other gifts—the eldest of us being quite adept with playing with fire in numerous ways—but you can see my own talents on display. I am especially proud of the gardens.”

She turned her head toward the peonies, her eyebrows inching upward in surprise. “You planted all of the flowers as well?”

He inclined his head proudly. “I have a certain passion for gardens and all little growing things. You should see my flowering groves. Although there are many which are just ornamental, I also have plums, different nuts, cherries?—”

“It is a little hard to believe that you managed all of this in just months,” she interrupted in a rush. “There is no way that you should have mature fruit and nut trees already. In fact, all this growth…it’s impossible in such a short amount of time, especially since the Ravening happened in the fall and it’s now late spring. All of this is incredible, but impossible.”

Syrix waited calmly until she turned toward him and met his eyes in search of answers. He gave her a sympathetic smile. The poor sweet thing was struggling to truly accept what she was seeing with her own eyes.

“In all that has changed in your world, is it so difficult to believe in magic?”

She met his gaze mutely and he saw a hint of stubbornness there that made his smile widen. She was so determined to cling to her old world. Moving slowly so that she had plenty of opportunity to keep distance between them, Syrix stepped out onto the porch and walked over to the side railing where several green buds poked up above the side. Holding her gaze, he touched the tip of a finger to one, allowing his magic to unfurl through him and rise up his arm and out his fingertip with the direction of his mind. The flower bud responded rapidly, swelling as it grew larger, the green retreating and opening up to show the pink beneath before the flower petals at last unfurled with glorious beauty.

The female’s mouth fell open, her eyes going round as she watched. “Fuck me.”

He startled at the invitation, and the flower, receiving a bolt of energy, exploded into a flurry of petals in the air between them. Her gaze shifted to him in shock, and he stared back at her, equally surprised.

He swallowed thickly, unnerved. He had not imagined things going quite that way. “Perhaps after we have had an opportunity to get to know each other first,” he murmured, a blush working its way up his cheeks. He was hardly a virgin but… but… there were still certain niceties that came first. Especially when it came to an honored and beloved mate.

Her plush, pink mouth parted in surprise and her big blue eyes blinked up at him. “What?” she squeaked.

He simply stared expectantly. Surely, she would not make him repeat her words.

Color flooded into her face in a deeper, and shocking shade of red. He was worried that perhaps she was preparing to faint or suffer some sort of attack, but was surprised when she burst into laughter.

“Good one. You almost had me going for a moment there, making me think that you actually believed that I was asking you to… to…” She giggled again and shook her head, her smile gradually disappearing.

He mourned its absence, but was pleased to see that as it went, there was less tension in her.

“Actually, if you don’t mind, after seeing you in action, I would like to explore the property a bit to get a look at what you’ve done. Alone,” she quickly tacked on when he readily moved toward her.

Disappointment flared briefly and brightly within him, but he inclined his head in agreement and stepped deeper into the house. “Perhaps when you return you might join me for a meal?”

An uncertain look crossed her face, but it disappeared quickly beneath a polite mask. “Perhaps,” she agreed.

He frowned slightly but nodded, his ears pricking as she turned away and briskly descended from the porch. He sighed softly as he watched her go with nothing more than the briefest of glances back in his direction. He truly hoped that she enjoyed their gardens. He just wished he could have shown them to her himself. He would have enjoyed seeing her reaction.

With great reluctance, he closed the door, giving her the peace of her solitude to fully explore. This was not how he imagined this going.