Page 91 of Monster Daddies

He had to be, and acceptingthathad her shifting a little further away from him. She shook her head and cut him off in mid-word. “You’re trying to tell me you’re some kind of cryptid who lives in the woods? Like… what… Bigfoot?”

He cleared his throat and blew out a long breath. “Mothman actually. Listen,Rose, I know it sounds crazy. I normally would never have brought you here this soon. I always meant for you to learn the story slowly, over time, so that you could adjust. To be honest, you startled me and my instincts kicked in.”

“Instincts?” she repeated in a faint voice.

“Shining a bright light in my face tends to have unpredictable results. Besides, I could tell that what you saw was… scary. I didn’t know how you’d react.” He settled a hand on her knee. “Please, just listen, okay?”

As if she had a choice, trapped in a room with a crazy dude who thought he was Mothman. She’d just have to pretend. “Okay.”

“I assume you’ve heard the stories, right? I mean you can’t live around here without hearing them.”

He wasn’t wrong about that. The billboard on the highway announcing the Mothman museum had caught her attention before she’d even made it into town. Then she’d been thoroughly filled in on the legends by her nosy neighbor on the second day. “Yes. I drove over to Point Pleasant one weekend after I moved here. Just to check it out. Nice uh, statue.”

His mouth twisted. “Yeah, it’s popular, but that’s not me. I mean the story everything is built around wasn’t me. Before my time.”

‘So not a senior citizen then?” Despite the situation, she couldn’t help smirking.

“Not even close. I’m probably not much older than you,Rose.” Every time he said the name, there was a tone to it, making it clear he knew it wasn’t hers.

“What you need to realize is that the whole Mothman cryptid thing is based on a misunderstanding. Confused kids telling stories about things they couldn’t comprehend—but there are much older stories, and those are based on, well, us. My people. We’ve been living in hiding for centuries.”

She was going to have to play along. “How is that possible? I didn’t think there were any unexplored places left. How could an entire group of…peoplehide from the world? Especially if you look like giant moths?”

“You’d be surprised at how many secrets are hidden here in the Appalachian Mountains. There are still places here that no human has ever been, or could even get to. Besides, do Ilooklike a big moth right now?”

He didn’t, which was a major plot hole. Now that he’d brought up Mothman though, she realized why the red eyes had seemed familiar. The museum had been full of artistic imaginings of Mothman, and many of them had the same round red eyes.

“No. You look like a male model, pretending to be a lumberjack.” She hadn’t meant to say it like that, like she found him sexy. Wincing, she tried to correct herself, “I mean, you look like a regular man.”

“The key phrase here is ‘look like’.” He started to say something, stopped, took a deep breath, and tried again. “My people are like humans in most ways. I guess wearehuman when it comes down to it, at least, close enough to interbreed.”

Her heart lurched in her chest. “Interbreed?” Did that mean… had he brought her here to…

“Yes. We are a divergent human strain that is close enough to mate, but even though we’re evolutionarily very close, our people have some characteristics that are… well, unusual.”

“Like the red eyes?”

“Yes, and wings, and there are a few other physical things that are different.” He waved that off with a hand gesture. “But we have an ability to camouflage. Like moths, we can blend into our surroundings, but the ability is a lot more pronounced in us. When we’re around humans we tend to appear human. Often, we are hidden in plain sight, and no one knows we’re anything different. I’ve even been to the Mothman museum, and I assure you no one noticed a thing.”

“But in the yard… I saw?—”

“Ah, so… there are certain circumstances that tend to break through the illusion. I assume you were scared? Your heart was racing when you heard the noise?”

“Yes.” The tin cans clattering, the sight of a hulking shadow by the clothesline—of course she’d been terrified.

“Adrenaline can push your senses into the heightened range, and allow you to see past our camouflage. And once you’ve seen what’s behind the mask, well, it’s easier to see it again.”

Ellie thought about it for a second, trying to decide if any of this sounded plausible. “That’s why you told me not to freak out?”

“Yeah, I wasn’t sure what you’d see when you looked at me.”

“So I see you as human, but you really look like—likethat? Like a moth?”

“Not exactly like a moth, but yes, and not exactly like that statue either.” He snorted and shook his head. “Some liberties were taken on that thing.”

“I guess I won’t need to find some quarters then.” The moment the words left her mouth, she couldn’t believe she’dsaid it. She’d have taken them back if she could have, but it was too late.

His brows dipped down, and his mouth thinned. “Rude.”