Buttercup (Spell Library #10) - Helen Scott Page 0,27

I said quietly, watching his golden-brown eyes for any signs of head trauma. His pupils were dilating well though. I just couldn't remember if he'd hit more of his head than just his nose. I'd been too panicked to think of it before, and now I was worried that he had some kind of brain injury that I was ignoring. I mean the man hadn't said more than five words to me. Plus, he was looking at me all weird. "Are you okay?"

"I'm just in shock. I never thought this would happen." His voice was so quiet and low I almost missed it.

"You never thought you'd break your nose? It's unfortunate, but it does happen, more often than people think as well," I said as I dabbed more ointment on his knees.

He looked down at me then, with those captivating eyes that looked brown but were ringed with swirling gold. "You're my mate," he said with such awe in his voice that I was sure it made me blush. I couldn't look away though, not now he was staring me directly in the eyes. Hell, he may as well have been staring into my soul.

"I already have two mates. I can't be yours as well," I blurted without thinking.

The pain that flashed across his features seemed to cut right to my heart. "I still know it's true. If you refuse the bond...I'll survive."

"Gods, how does any woman get anything done with men like you walking around tugging on their heart strings," I muttered as I slumped back against the wall, the tank and jeans stretching at the unusual position.

"You feel it though, don't you?" He sounded like he was pleading with me for it to be true. It was, but it made me question everything. Maybe this was all a mistake. Three mates? That couldn't be, could it? Although there were a bunch of women in town that had multiple mates, I just never thought it would happen to me.

I ignored his question and asked one of my own instead, "What's your name?"

"Ausar, and yours?"

"Buttercup."

"Like in that princess movie?"

"You mean The Princess Bride?" I smiled up at him, surprised that a man like him would be familiar with a movie like that. Usually jocks brushed off rom-coms, especially ones like that, or as old as that. I mean trying to get a guy to watch Sixteen Candles? It's like asking them to shave their ball sack with a straight razor. Oh, the horror!

"Yeah!"

"My mom was a big fan. I think it came out the year I was born, or somewhere close to that so she watched it a lot." I shrugged. I never understood my mom's love of that movie until I got older, and now that I had mates? I understood it even more. True love was real, and I thought I might have just found it. Again. And again. After an awkward silence I said, "So, mates, huh?"

"That's what my sphinx is telling me."

"Sphinx? Holy shit. I had no idea that there were sphinx shifters!" My mind was officially blown.

"There aren't a lot of us left," he mumbled, but there was something in the tone of his voice that told me there was more to the story.

I reached out and put my non-ointment covered hand on his thigh. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, nothing to worry about." He reached up and crunched his nose back into place. My stomach twisted and turned, but I didn't vomit, thank the gods. A moment later, after some blinking and moving his face and jaw around as though he was trying to make sure his nose ended up in the right place, he looked down at me. "Buttercup." His hand stretched out and ran through my hair, sweeping the thick locks away from my face. "Your name suits you, you have the same golden glow as the flower."

I grimaced thinking about the purple skin I was hiding from him. Did I dare show him? If he truly was my mate, he wouldn't care, right?

"What's wrong?" he asked, his knuckles brushing my cheek bone as he withdrew his hand from my hair, making me shiver.

"I need to tell you something before anything else happens." I paused, and he nodded me on, so I let my glamour drop. My back became heavy with wings and my whole body was pushed forward from where it had been resting against the wall.

His eyes went wide, and I could tell they were tracking over the purple marks on my