My skin tingled, something building in my chest, but I didn’t break my concentration.
Feathers over my skin.
I imagined the bird in my mind, its mottled tawny feathers, dusted with whites and grays. I imagined its massive black eyes, its sharp talons used to snatch up prey.
Zephyr remained quiet, but I frowned as something strange passed over me, wind kissing my skin before sending ripples of a tingling energy over me. I gasped as a sinking sensation dragged me down.
“Don’t panic. You’ve got it,” Zephyr said, and my eyes shot open.
For a moment, I blinked, then tilted my head as I realized I was staring at Zephyr’s knees. I lifted my eyes to find him towering over me, and I stumbled back, a screech peeling from my lips.
I froze. Not lips—a beak. I opened and closed my beak, the click satisfying as I looked down over myself, over the tawny feathers dusted in flecks of white and gray, just as I had imagined them.
“You did it!” Zephyr shouted before kneeling to my level.
“Holy shit!” I breathed, twisting around to look at myself, my wings fanning out awkwardly as I stumbled. “Oh my god, I can’t believe that sound came out of me.”
He barked a laugh. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”
“I can’t believe I actually did it!” I shouted, my wings flying out on their own in my excitement, beating in the wind and kicking up bits of snow and dirt.
“Slow down. No flying today,” he said, holding his hands out as my wings sagged to the ground.
“Well you’re no fun,” I groaned.
“Trust me. Flying isn’t easy, but if you can master this, you’ll be able to master any form.”
I lifted one of my feet—er, talons—inspecting the sharp claws as I flexed and stretched them. “I guess I’d better start getting used to this body so you can teach me how to fly, then.”
He huffed a laugh. “As impatient as always.”
18
CASSIE
“Thank you so much,Mitera,” I said as I set the tray out on the counter to cool, feeling confident in the final touches I’d placed on the first gift for Damien.
Ethel smiled in that motherly way she always did, but there was something different this morning. She’d watched, helping me prep and work all morning with something akin to adoration. “Ah’ll keep an eye on them.”
“If he comes down without me, don’t let him see,” I pleaded as I backed toward the hallway.
She winked. “He’ll have tae throw me out of the way tae get tae these.”
I snickered and turned to hurry down the hall and up the stairs to our room. I’d snuck out while Damien was still asleep to begin working a couple of hours ago, and the sun had risen in the time it took to finish it. His other gift was tucked away in my library, awaiting tonight’s celebration.
Damien had a rough patrol the night before, with darkling encounters at all three sectors. When he finally got home—later than usual—he’d been exhausted, covered in blood from head to toe. Despite the odds, no one had been lost or severely injured. He’d taken Solstice off, leaving the shifts to volunteers who were all right working for extra pay, and I’d never been more relieved for him to take a break.
I cracked our door open to find him still curled up under the blankets, and my heart swelled at the sight of him, of his face so soft and peaceful in sleep. Then, my eyes started to wander, down over his exposed chest, further over the ripple of muscle across his abdomen, to the deep V that disappeared into his sweatpants.
Heat washed over me.
There had been few nights we hadn’t wound up tangled up in each other in the last month. Anna had warned me of the effects of the mating bond, but I hadn’t expected them to be so strong—the pull to be so consuming. He was insatiable at times—for my body, my blood. But at the same time, I couldn’t get enough of him either. The need to feel his skin against mine, feel his lips, his body, to feel him inside me, consumed me. I couldn’t have resisted even if I wanted to.
The mere thought of it left my body hungry for him, my skin heating as I thought of all the ways he’d taken me in this bed, the shower, this room.
I tiptoed toward him and eased onto the bed, leaning over to gaze at his beautiful face. He’d shaved a few days before, the stubble I loved so much already growing back in. A loose curl slipped over my shoulder, and I tucked it back into place behind my ear before I brushed my lips against his, his skin soft against mine.
He inhaled, and I smiled as his lips moved against mine. I broke the kiss to find the amber in his ashen eyes near glowing as he gazed up at me, as if gazing at a sky full of starlight.
