Page 104 of Stubborn as a Shadow

“Are there geocache sites just for supes?”

“A couple, but it’s a pretty small community.”

“I want to look. Can you teach me?”

“Just because you’re my mate doesn’t mean you have to participate in everything I do.”

“Of course not.” I kissed his cheek. “But I really want to learn this. I want to try it. I might not like it, but I think I might.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s like a big adventure.” I shimmied. “I’m totally going to wear my cape, and maybe carry around a wand, even if I can’t actually do magic with a wand. And I’m going to pretend we’re hunting for a dragon hoard.”

“Maybe don’t say that to Ogden. We don’t want him thinking we’re going to carry out a heist at his house.”

I stared at my mate. “He has an actual hoard?”

Nelson nodded. “He does.”

“Do you think he’ll let me see it?”

Nelson laughed. “Probably not. But you sound a lot like Jeremy right now.”

“He’s the snoopy human, right?”

“He is.”

“Hmm…” I stroked my chin. I wasn’t sure if it was such a bad thing to be curious.

“Don’t be surprised if Jeremy comes to you with a bunch of randomly bizarre questions.”

“Like what?”

“Well, you know he was listening in earlier, right?”

I nodded.

“So, I’m sure he’ll have questions. It’ll probably be something you’d never think about asking, like if you have a belly button.”

“Why wouldn’t I have a belly button?”

“Because you technically weren’t carried in your mother’s womb.”

“Huh. You’re right.” I adjusted the sheet so I could see my belly button. It looked normal. I poked at it. It felt real too. But what did I know? It wasn’t like I’d seen many in my life. “Why do I have one?”

“Probably because your human form was made to match humans.”

“Huh. I guess.” I poked at it a few more times before Nelson captured my hand in his.

I looked at him.

“Do you want to talk about that yet?” he asked.

“I’m not sure there’s much to say… I mean I don’t feel like crying anymore, so that’s good. Not for the moment, anyway. It’ll take a while to process, but the reality is that my life doesn’t change all that much.” I fiddled with the bolt-like geocache container. “I’m super disappointed that I won’t be able to run through a meadow of wildflowers with a herd of other unicorns, because that would have been epic. But…”

“If you want to talk about it with someone neutral, some of the other guys have seen a therapist,” Nelson said slowly, like he wasn’t sure how I’d respond. “They are a supe, so they know about our world.”

“Yeah. Maybe,” I said. “Let me think about it.”