Poppy waited with barely concealed impatience as the doctor shone a pencil light in her eyes, then asked her for the month, date and year, and the name of the town she was in. But she did her best to answer without getting snappish – the doctor was only doing her job after all, and Poppy reallywasgrateful she was being taken care of so diligently.
“Okay, I’m satisfied we can discharge you then,” the doctor said, flicking off her penlight. “But come back the moment you experience any of the symptoms I mentioned, all right?”
“All right,” Poppy agreed peaceably, as the door to the office opened once more – but once more, it wasn’t Max, but yet another man she didn’t recognize.
“Doctor Wu?” he said, leaning into the room. “If you have a minute, I just need to check some things with you.”
“No problem,” Doctor Wu called over her shoulder to him, before turning back to Poppy with a smile. “As I said, you’re free to go whenever you feel up to it. Take your time.” She turned to the man and the woman. “You’ll make sure she gets home safely?”
“Absolutely!” The blonde woman beamed, and the man – who definitely seemed like the strong and silent type; but then, it seemed his companion could talk enough for both of them – nodded.
“Then I’ll leave you now. And make sure to take extra care in the snow in future.” With a final nod, Doctor Wu stood and crossed the room, closing the door gently behind her.
Poppy licked her lips, glancing back and forth between the man and the woman. Doctor Wu had just seemed to assume they were friends, but to tell the truth, she’d never seen either of them before in her life.
Seeming to sense her confusion, the blonde stepped forward, her smile still bright on her face.
“Oh – maybe you don’t remember us. You were pretty out of it! But I’m Margot, and this is Levi. We found you after the avalanche, and Levi carried you here to get checked out. Make sure you drink your hot chocolate!”
“Thanks,” Poppy said, lifting the cardboard cup and taking a sip. After all the incredible food and drink she’d stuffed her face with over the past few days it seemed a bit weak and watery, having clearly come out of a cheap drinks machine, but she wasn’t about to complain. Plus, she had other things on her mind right now. “And, uh, nice to meet you both – I really appreciate your help. But… you said, um, Levi was the one who carried me here? Is Max okay?”
“Oh, he’s perfectly fine!” Margot said, waving a hand airily. “But you know, he would be. Shifters are a tough bunch!”
Oh. Okay. Whatever that means,Poppy thought, frowning as she sipped her hot chocolate again.
“Hedidsay he had to leave, though,” Margot continued. “I was a little surprised. I thought he’d want to stay here with you, but he said he needed to deal with some things and he hurried out just as soon as he could.”
Poppy’s heart sank. She had to admit, she was a little surprised. Surprised, andmorethan a little disappointed.
But,she told herself,I can’t jump to conclusions. Yeah, I’d love to see Max’s face right now. But I need to at least talk to him before I get mad about him leaving me here, especially since Margot and Levi seem friendly enough. Well, Margot does, anyway.
“It was a shame, I wanted to talk to him some more,” Margot mused, sipping her own hot chocolate. “Hesaidhe didn’t know anything about the magic that caused the avalanche, but I wanted to ask him a few more questions, just to see if I could figure out where it came from on my own. But it’s weird that a shifter, even a half-shifter, wouldn’t be able to sense the magic himself.”
Poppy stared at her.
The… what?! The magic avalanche?! And there’s that word shifter again…
She shook her head. None of that madeanysense. Maybe she should call Doctor Wu back after all – maybe she was hearing things.
“Um. Well. Sorry I can’t help you with the. Uh. Magic avalanche?” she said slowly and carefully – though just saying it aloud made her wonder if, aside from being concussed, Doctor Wu wouldn’t just have her committed.
“Oh, that’s perfectly fine.” Margot shook her head, still smiling. “I’m sure I’ll figure it out on my own! With Levi to help me, of course.”
She smiled up at the man by her side, an adoring look in her eyes. And Levi, despite his seemingly gruff exterior – from what Poppy could tell anyway, given he had yet to say a word – turned his head to look down at Margot, an equally besotted look on his own face, going from fearsome guard dog to lovesick puppy in half a second.
Despite herself, Poppy felt a pang of envy. Would Max ever look at her that way? Margot and Levi were clearly nuts about each other – anyone could see that. Maybe they hadn’t been together long, or maybe they were just stillthatin love with each other after years and years together.
Could that be me and Max one day?she thought wistfully.Could love remain that strong no matter how much time passes?
And, well, maybe Margot was a little kooky, talking about magic and whatever a shifter was. But maybe Levi just found it charming.
“Oh! Now that Doctor Wu has departed, we can talk more freely,” said Margot, pulling up a chair next to Poppy as if they were old friends.
“Okay,” said Poppy carefully, not quite sure what was such a big secret that the doctor couldn’t be let in on it, but recognizing that letting Margot talk was probably the best way to find out what on earth she meant when she was talking aboutmagicandshifters. Poppy wasprettysure that Margot fell into the ‘harmless kook’ category, especially since she’d apparently helped rescue Poppy from an avalanche, but she knew that appearances could be deceiving.
“It’s so exciting to meet another shifter and their mate,” Margot exclaimed, apparently not noticing the way that Poppy’s eyebrows were slowly creeping up her forehead. “Or a half-shifter, anyway. There aren’t too many ofthosearound here! How did you both meet?”
“Uh…” Poppy said, stalling for time by taking a sip of her hot chocolate… and then another one, because she still didn’t know how to respond to that.
