Madeleine fell, her eyes shut, her glamour back on as she passed out, her energy spent. And Poppy just leaned into Jonah, shaking.
“What...? I can’t believe…” she whispered, unable to do anything else. Her glamour was quickly back in place as the lions finally came in, ready to fight.
“Jonah?” one of them asked.
“It’s over. For now. Be careful with the one that’s still breathing, she could still turn you to stone.”
“I don’t know what to do now,” Poppy whispered. The immense relief that she thought would’ve come from knowing that she could go back to her realm if she wanted, didn’t come. Nothing did.
She was numb, and she didn’t know what to think. But as she leaned into the man, the one who could be her mate, she knew she needed to breathe, needed to think. She just didn’t know where to go from here.
“We will take care of this, because you are ours,” Jonah began. “And I think, right now? I think we should go see a certain cub. She can help you with anything. Give you a little respite.”
Poppy turned in his arms and smiled.
“I can come see your home?” Poppy asked.
“I think you should. And then, when the time comes, we’ll figure out what to do next. But you need to rest, Poppy. After all this time? You need to rest.”
As she looked down at the tattered remains of what had once been her enemy, the woman who had once tried to take so much from her, she knew Jonah was right. She was ready to go to his home, and maybe if she believed in fate, it could be her home, as well.
Epilogue
Months later
Poppy groaned, wanting more, but not sure what to do. Jonah smiled down at her, his lips on her jaw, then her neck.
“It’s been months,” she whispered.
“Months, I’ve gotten to know you. Every inch of you. And now you’re mine.”
“I’ll always be yours,” she whispered. “But months? Don’t make me wait any longer.”
They had waited in the months since the attack. Since her freedom had been found. Because they needed to get to know each other. Although they had each told one another their deepest, darkest secrets the first night they met, Jonah was a man of old deep down in his heart, and had taken the time to court her.
There were flowers and chocolates. There were little notes. There was the soft touch of his fingers on her cheek. The way he played with her hair…and her vipers. There were days that he would just stare at her and smile. Times when she found her favorite book on their bed, waiting for her.
So many little things, tiny glances. So much time where he could be hers and everything that mattered, and she got to know him in more ways than just their deepest and darkest secrets. But in a way that took him straight to her soul.
They were in the lion realm now, and she was learning to fight, learning to be with Jonah.
She would protect baby Penelope and any children that came from her and Jonah’s union along the way. Because she wanted to be by his side, even if they were no longer in the realm of their births.
She knew that he would take her to the jaguar realm someday, but he didn’t want to go there for himself. So, she would wait, even if it took a century or two.
And she could go back to her original realm to see the gorgons, to see what had come of Madeleine and her new realm. Because Queen Madeleine was a just ruler, one who wanted people to enter their realm and be happy, to find peace. And Poppy knew the gorgons were on their way to a new world. Once Madeleine found her mate, everything would change once again, and the queen would be able to rule in full.
That time would come, and Poppy knew she would help, but it was no longer her home.
Because her home was with Jonah, the jaguar who smiled at her, who helped her protect herself. Who taught her what it meant to be part of something more than who you were when everything was taken away from you.
And now, after months, she was ready to be his.
A bond in truth, a mate forever.
“Are you sure you’re ready?” Jonah asked, his voice soft, deep.
“If you don’t get inside me right now, I’m going to scream.”
Her snakes came out for just an instant, hissed, and then went back under their glamour.
Jonah laughed and then took her mouth hard. “I’m afraid your little vipers are going to bite me if I don’t make you an honest woman.”
“They’re ready for me to be mated. And you need to mate with me right now, mister. Be mine, Jonah. You’re already mine in everything but bond. Love me.”
“Always, my Poppy. My precious, my mate. Always.” And then he slid into her, and she groaned.
He licked up her neck and then kissed her again before going back to her shoulder, his fangs piercing her flesh in the mating mark. Even as he did, he thrust in and out of her, his cock thick, hard, and pulsating with need. She groaned, wrapping her legs around him, wanting more, needing more.
As the mating mark burned, it sent them into oblivion. She knew this was it, the moment she had been waiting for. He spun them so that he was on his back with her riding him, his hands on her breasts, his fingers pale against the dark brown of her nipples.
She grinned down at him, arching her back just slightly so he could go deeper. And when his thumb moved down to her clit, rubbing that little nub just so, her whole body clenched, and she shook, calling his name as she came.
Jonah gripped her hips and thrust in and out of her, harder, faster, until both of them were shaking. She screamed again, her hands on her breasts as she plucked at her nipples.
He came inside her, deep and hard, fast. The bond between them slid into place, perfect, everlasting. She couldn’t do anything, couldn’t breathe. It was all she could do not to beg for more.
Then she was on her back, and Jonah was sliding in and out of her, once, twice, and then again.
She held onto him, her hands sliding down his sweat-slick back. His lips were on hers, and she was lost.
She had found her mate, her love, and even though she had been the one on the run, she hadn’t known where she would land, let alone that it would be with him.
Afterwards, they cleaned each other up and then got ready to head to work. After all, she still had a job to do. When she wasn’t training so she could protect baby Penelope and the others she loved, she was still a bartender. Dante the dragon still needed her until he could find a replacement, and she didn’t mind in the least.
She went back behind the bar when they got there, and Jonah went to the large table in the corner where the seven lightning-struck were sitting with their families. It was one of the baby’s birthdays, and even though it might feel weird to have a birthday for a child in a bar, it didn’t here. It was daylight, and Dante’s Circle was open for everybody. Plus, no humans were around. It was just the supernaturals. So, when a baby dragon and a baby bear started wrestling on the floor, nobody thought much of it. Poppy wanted to take a picture and never forget.
When Jonah walked up, baby Penelope in his arms, she just grinned.
“Poppy!” Penelope babbled, her hands outstretched, her little arms waving around.
Poppy reached out and plucked the baby from Jonah’s hip and held her close. She smelled of powder, innocence, and sunshine.