Griffins and Apple Pies (Shifters and Sweets Book 3), page 8
But maybe I should try to really make things up to her properly, he thought, as he made his way back up the street. It was late in the afternoon but before the restaurants started getting busy for dinner, so the streets were pretty empty now, and a lot of the smaller stores had already started closing up for the day.
Would a little gift be a good idea? Kieran wondered as he looked in the window of a small knick-knacks shop – but he realized he hadn’t gotten as far as finding out what kind of tastes Natasha had, or what kind of small ornament or artwork she might like. Perhaps it would be worse to bring her something she hated than nothing at all.
As he walked up the street, Kieran suddenly caught a whiff of the most incredible scent he’d ever experienced – sweet and spicy both, delicate and yet all-enfolding, warm and soft and special… almost like the smell of home…
Oh, it’s a bakery? Kieran thought, blinking, as he finally spotted the source of the enchanting scent. But it couldn’t be just a bakery – there was definitely something magical about it. Kieran could sense it from just one sniff. Whoever had made these cakes and pies couldn’t be an ordinary human.
I should check this out…
Making his way to the shopfront, Kieran read the swooping font that covered the front window – Sylvie’s Bakery and Sweets – before taking in another lungful of that delicious smell.
Definitely the place, he thought, as he pushed open the door.
Inside, it was even more obvious that whatever was in these baked goods – or whoever had made them – was something more than human. A memory prickled at the back of Kieran’s mind, as he tried to place where he knew this specific kind of smell from – until, finally, it hit him.
A unicorn must have made this food!
He’d heard – somewhere, sometime – that food grown and tended by unicorns was more flavorful, more delicious than anything a normal human, or even another shifter, could produce. But it wasn’t just the heavenly scent that told him that: there was an indefinable whiff of magic in the air here, and Kieran’s griffin senses immediately identified it as unicorn.
But where are they? Are they the baker here?
As if in answer to his unspoken question, the baker in question bustled out from the back, a cap on her head, an apron tied across her front. But Kieran could tell immediately that she was a normal human. There was no sense of being a shifter about her whatsoever. Kieran felt a little indecisive about what to do next – it was possible, he supposed, that the person she bought supplies from was a unicorn, and this baker simply didn’t know it. But if she does…
“Welcome to Sylvie’s!” the woman said, beaming at him. “Anything I can help you with? Or would you like to try a sample to help you make up your mind?”
“Oh – right,” Kieran stuttered, pulled out of his musings about who and where the mysterious unicorn might be. “Actually, I guess I could use a little help. Though I’m not really sure what to ask about.”
“Sounds serious,” the baker replied. “But I’m happy to answer any questions you might have about ingredients, allergens, flavors…”
“No, it’s less about that as… not being sure what would be the best thing to get for the person I need to get it for. Or if anything I could do would even be any good.” Kieran swallowed as soon as the words were out of his mouth, wishing he could take them back. He didn’t really want to go into too much detail about the problem – for one thing, he knew what an ass he’d seem if he were to say why he was buying it, but he wouldn’t even be able to give the true reason he’d been an ass in the first place!
Well, unless she already knows about shifters… but even so, how can I explain what’s been going on with me lately?!
“Well, that does sound serious,” the baker said gravely. “But if I can help, I will. Want to tell me a little about your predicament, and I’ll see what I can recommend?”
Kieran sighed. Maybe he could just be a little… vague about the whole thing.
“I need to apologize to someone,” he said. “I really messed up – I had a reason, but it’s not an excuse. I’d like for them to forgive me, of course, but… well, I feel like I definitely need to go a bit above and beyond for this. So any recommendation you can make would be really, really welcome. If you have a cake that reads ‘Sorry, I messed up big time’ in six-foot-high letters, that would probably be ideal.”
The baker laughed. “Well, I can’t say I do. But I definitely have cakes and pies that’ll go a long way toward helping you get your forgiveness. Is it a man or a woman you need to apologize to?”
“A woman.” Kieran swallowed again. Maybe he should just tell the whole truth – or as much of it as he feasibly could. “I missed a date with her, even though I really, really wanted to be there. I was… uh… unavoidably detained, and I just couldn’t make it. But I’d love it if I could get a second chance…”
He trailed off as he realized the baker was now staring at him, wide-eyed and open-mouthed.
Uh, did I say something wrong? I guess no woman wants to hear about another woman being stood up…
“It was you!” the baker exclaimed a moment later. “You’re the guy who didn’t turn up for your date with Natasha!”
Kieran blinked, surprise rippling through him. How does she know about that? he wondered – but the answer was obvious. He’d been thinking about it only a few minutes before – Natasha was from here, and clearly the baker was an old friend of hers. When he hadn’t shown up for their date, she’d clearly come here to commiserate with her buddy. And Kieran couldn’t say he blamed her.
“Uh, yeah,” he said, wincing. “But please, believe me when I say it really, really wasn’t my choice to do that, and I’ll do anything I can now to make it up to her. Or even just to get the chance to try to explain myself – if I can. I came by here to try to find an apology present for her.”
“Well, to be honest, she wasn’t very happy about it,” the baker said, eyeing him skeptically. “You don’t really look how I pictured you, though. I was thinking some rich sleazebag who’d rented one of the big chalets near the ski fields. But you don’t really look like that type at all.”
“No, I promise I’m not,” Kieran said, holding his hands up. “Definitely not rich, and I really hope not a sleazebag. And definitely not staying in a chalet. I’m staying in my uncle’s old place, on the mountain. Did you happen to know Henry Holmes at all?”
The baker’s eyes widened. “Wait, the old Holmes place? You really are staying there?”
Kieran nodded, wondering why she found that so odd. Perhaps it was simply because it had been abandoned for such a relatively long time that she didn’t think it would be habitable anymore.
“Uh, yeah. Just for a little while – my parents started to do it up a bit, so it’s not too run down at the moment. It has a generator and running water, at least.” And a bunch of stuff that goes bump in the night, but that’s not a bother. Except when it is.
“Okay, okay,” the baker said, holding up her hands. “One thing at a time, I guess. First, before I decide if I’m going to sell you a pie as an apology to my friend, you better tell me why exactly you stood her up in the first place.”
Kieran hesitated. He could hardly say Because my wayward griffin took over my body and insisted on taking it up into the mountains to have a little fly around, and I was only just able to get myself back under control. She’d think he was insane.
But what other reason could possibly be good enough to justify having stood up the most wonderful woman in the world?
The truth of the matter was, short of having been kidnaped by someone who wasn’t also himself in a different form, there really wasn’t any kind of justification for that. Could he claim car troubles? Could he actually say he’d really been kidnapped?!
“I’m waiting,” the baker said, raising an eyebrow.
But… if there’s a chance she knows about unicorns, then maybe… Kieran thought – and in that moment, he really was desperate enough to risk revealing the existence of shifters to someone who might not know about them, just to secure her help in trying to win Natasha back.
“Uh – well, you see, the thing is –” he began, not exactly sure where the sentence would take him, when he was interrupted by the sound of the back door of the bakery slamming open, followed quickly by the appearance of a tall man by the baker’s side.
“Sylvie?” he said, cocking his head at Kieran and narrowing his eyes as if sizing him up. “Everything all right?”
“Uh… yes? I thought so?” the baker – apparently the Sylvie from the sign out front – said. She glanced up at the man, frowning. “But maybe you don’t think so?”
It’s this man – he’s the unicorn!
The knowledge washed suddenly over Kieran’s brain. He couldn’t always tell what kind of animal other shifters turned into, but with mythical shifters, they usually had an aura of magic around them – and that magic aura was enough to tell him that this guy was definitely a unicorn.
And – perhaps even more importantly – that the baker Sylvie was his mate.
If they’re mates, then I can be pretty sure she knows all about shifters, Kieran thought, his knees going weak with relief. I can just tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
“You’re – you’re a unicorn,” he blurted out, his overwhelming relief getting the better of his control over his mouth. “So you’ll understand what I’m saying!”
The man – the unicorn – narrowed his eyes a little. “And you’re a griffin – I’ve never sensed you around town before. I was… surprised, I guess. That was why I came running in here. I guess I’m used to only ever sensing Caleb around town. He’s our resident dragon, by the way.”
A unicorn and a dragon?! Kieran had to admit he was feeling a little dizzy with the revelation. He hadn’t sensed either of them around – but then, he’d barely spent any time at all actually in Girdwood Springs.
“You have to help me,” he said, leaning forward and gripping the bench. “I accidentally stood my mate up for a date, and I need to find a way to apologize for it. I swear, I didn’t mean for it to happen – it’s my griffin. It’s like I’ve lost all control over it. It just shifts whenever it wants to, and all I can do is wait it out until it decides to let me go back to human form. That was what happened this afternoon, so I couldn’t go meet Natasha at the diner, for obvious reasons. And then –”
“Wait, wait, slow down,” Sylvie said, holding her hands up. “One thing at a time. First of all, Natasha is your mate?”
“Yes,” Kieran said miserably. He realized now he’d been babbling way too fast, and hadn’t explained himself properly at all. “Only I haven’t had the chance to tell her yet – or even to tell her that I’m a shifter.”
“And… you say your griffin has been going haywire?” the man asked, exchanging a glance with Sylvie. “I can relate to that.”
“You can?” Kieran asked, as hope bloomed in his heart that someone might finally know what was going on with him.
“Yeah.” The man nodded. “It happened to me a couple of years ago – not quite the same thing, but similar. My unicorn’s powers suddenly started going wild – I couldn’t touch anything made of wood without it bursting into flower. Even doors that hadn’t been trees for decades, painted and varnished… they’d start growing leaves and flowers like they were still in the middle of the woods. I couldn’t do anything about it but just try not to touch anything wooden. Made my life difficult for a while, I can tell you.”
Kieran leaned forward, hoping he wasn’t being too intense. “But you eventually found a solution?”
“You could say that.” The man smiled, before looking down at Sylvie, a look of utter adoration in his eyes. “I found my mate.”
Kieran leaned back, swallowing. Disappointment rose within him. “I found my mate too,” he said. “But it doesn’t seem to have made any difference to my griffin.”
“But you said you hadn’t told her she was your mate yet,” Sylvie pointed out. “Gale’s unicorn powers didn’t settle down until he’d confessed everything to me. So perhaps that’s what you need to do with Natasha?”
Kieran looked down, sighing. “I guess I already knew that – and believe me, it was my intention to tell her everything as soon as I could, and not just to get my griffin under control… if that’s what really will help it. She has a right to know, of course, and I wanted to tell her. I just worry I may have blown it.”
“Well, I wouldn’t exactly say she was happy when she came to see me this afternoon,” Sylvie said, in what Kieran supposed was the best way to put it diplomatically. “But I know Natasha, and although she puts up a hard front, she’s not heartless. If you went to her with a real apology and told her the truth – all the truth – I think she’d at least hear you out.”
Hope sparked in Kieran’s heart. “Do you really think so?”
“Well, let’s just say I think these are some pretty exceptional circumstances, don’t you?” Sylvie said, with a quick wink. “Hey, it’s not every day a guy comes along and tells you he’s a mythical creature and you’re his fated mate, destined to be together for all eternity. I can tell you from experience, that kind of thing can really turn a girl’s head.”
Kieran couldn’t help but join in with the quick laugh she gave, though he still had his misgivings. “Do you think she’s the kind of person who’d… well, who’d like finding out they’re a griffin’s fated mate? It seems perfectly normal to me, but to a human…”
“I can’t speak for Natasha, of course,” Sylvie said after a pause. “But I can definitely tell you that in my case, it was the best thing that’s ever happened to me. Well, top three, anyway.”
“Stop, you’ll make my head swell,” Gale laughed, putting his arm around Sylvie’s shoulder. “And from my side – well, I can definitely say no matter how nerve-racking having to explain everything to Sylvie was, it was definitely worth it. I don’t even remember feeling scared to do it now. All I remember is the look on Sylvie’s face the first time she saw me shift into a unicorn. That was priceless.”
Kieran had to admit, they both made good points. Yes, telling Natasha what he was – or showing her what he was – might be one of the most terrifying things he’d ever contemplated doing.
But the reward…
The reward – having Natasha by his side for the rest of their lives – made the risk pale into insignificance. He’d just have to hope she’d accept his explanation as to why he’d been late, and then he could tell her the rest.
“There’s just one small problem,” Kieran said. “I don’t know where she’s staying.”
“Oh, I can tell you that,” Sylvie said breezily. “As long as you promise to take some pie with you, as part of your apology. Oh, and maybe a bouquet of flowers, too. Gale will have just the thing.”
“I sure do. I was just making some deliveries to some of the local restaurants for their displays, but I have a couple of extras,” Gale said, as he began to head out to the back of the bakery again. “Wait here. I’ll be back in a moment.”
As he disappeared out the back, Sylvie turned to Kieran, cocking her head. “Oh – I think I got a little distracted with you suddenly announcing you were a griffin, and Natasha’s mate,” she said, frowning a little. “But did you say you were staying in the old Holmes mansion? Henry Holmes was some relation of yours?”
“My great uncle,” Kieran said, curiosity stirring within him at Sylvie’s dubious expression. “Is there… some kind of problem with that?”
Sylvie pursed her lips a little, opened her mouth, and then closed it again. “No… no. No, it’s nothing. Let’s just focus on one thing at a time. Like getting you back into Natasha’s good graces. Everything else we can deal with later.”
Puzzled, Kieran was about to ask her what she meant, when Gale returned from the back room once again, having apparently gone out to his car to grab one of his extra flower bouquets.
That’s not just a bouquet, that’s… that’s… Kieran thought, blinking in amazement.
He didn’t have the words to describe it. The bouquet was unlike anything he’d ever seen before, even though he worked full-time with plants and flowers. He’d never seen roses so red, so full, so brilliant, so delicate. The scent of them filled the air, alongside the gorgeous scent of the spices and sugars of the bakery goods.
“I guess what they say about plants tended by unicorns really is true,” he murmured, as he gratefully took the bouquet from Gale’s hands. “These are… these are incredible.”
“It doesn’t seem quite fair, really,” Gale said, with a half-smile. “I have a natural advantage, after all. But if these can help you, then I don’t feel too guilty about having used my unicorn powers to corner the market around here in floral arrangements and garden design.”
“Oh please. As if you had any competition to begin with,” Sylvie laughed. “No one was selling plants and flowers in Girdwood Springs before you showed up.”
“I guess you’re right,” Gale said, shaking his head. “But still. I keep getting people asking me what kind of compost I use, what my secret ingredients are. I have to be evasive and tell them it’s a secret family recipe.”
“I really can’t thank you both enough for all of this,” Kieran said, marveling again at the incredible bouquet of roses. “Really. You’ve both been kinder to me than I deserve.”
“Hey, there’s nothing I like more than helping shifters find their mates,” Sylvie said. “Just knowing how happy I am – and how happy Kira is, with her dragon – I can’t help but wish everyone could experience the same. Oh, but, don’t forget –” She ducked down suddenly, retrieving something from the display case next to the counter. When she rose again, Kieran could see it was a small, round apple pie, with a bay leaf settled on the latticed crust. “A little pie can go a long way. But don’t be offended if Natasha doesn’t want to eat it today. She already had quite a bit of cake when she was here earlier!”
