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“Not that I’m aware of. Emilia and I are pretty good at reading each other in bird form, but then, we grew up together.”
“Same with Mari and me.” Sort of. I didn’t feel like telling him I could speak mind to mind with Rafe.
“So, tell me about your other mates. What are they like?”
I stare at him for a full minute. “Do you really want to know?”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
Since I didn’t have an answer to that, I started with my first mate. “Rafe and I grew up together. We always knew we were meant to be mated, so having to share me is hardest on him, I think. But once he warms up to you, I think you’ll see he really cares about his pack.”
“Yeah, I can see he’ll take some time getting used to me. What about Jonah?”
“Jonah’s my second mate. He’s a sigma, which basically means he’s made of magic. But I don’t know how long he’ll be here for.”
It’s the first time I’m saying those words out loud, and it feels awful. I thought it would be freeing. Like by admitting the fear, I’d take its power. But saying it aloud only made it that more real. That much more of an imminent problem.
“What do you mean?” Rook asks.
“He’s here with me in the Purcells, but he’s the leader of a pack in the Kootenays. Eventually, he’ll have to figure out how to divide his time between his life here and there, and I’m not looking forward to that at all.”
I didn’t want a sometimes mate. A weekend mate. As selfish as it might be, I wanted an all-the-time mate from all my guys. Even Jonah.
“And then there’s Drago, who is the champion for the Kootenays.”
“The one who’s meant to defeat the scourge that took our Claudia.”
I nod.
“He’s here as much as he can be, and I’m grateful for it. Mostly, I’m just happy as long as he’s safe. I’m not at all looking forward to facing that awful creature again.”
“Well, if it plays its hand right, it might have a whole coven of witches set on vindicating their fallen leader to contend with.”
I let out a long sigh before rolling my shoulders and letting go of all the tension those memories brought up.
“Let’s park here,” I say as he enters the trailhead. “We can hike up like we hiked down, or we can shift and race,” I offer.
Rook takes my keys out of the ignition and hands them to me. “You know I’m always gonna be faster, right?”
I take the keys and hide them under the seat. I’m already kicking off my shoes when I reply. “That’s what you think.”
I’m naked and out the door in my fur in one second flat.
Rook isn’t far behind me, leaving his clothes in a pile in the driver’s seat and flying out the door just after settling on the hood of the Subaru.
He’s beautiful. Long black tail feathers fan out and throw off a purple sheen as they catch the light. His beak is long and shiny, like patent leather. But what’s most striking are his eyes.
Still that perfect sky blue.
He looks like magic. Like the perfect witch’s familiar. No, like an artistic rendering of a witch’s familiar.
He lets out a caw, and I snap my muzzle playfully at him.
And then I take off up the trail. I don’t see him take flight, but the flapping of wings makes it to me just before Rook lands on my back.
Right between my shoulders, he perches as I trot up the mountain, as if I’m his own personal roost.
I rear up on my hind legs, and Rook takes off, cawing at me as he gains altitude.
