by T. S. Joyce
Pride swelled in his chest at how fierce his mate was, and he held his arm up higher as Tagan made his way through the trees, Brooke following closely behind.
A slow smile of respect took his alpha’s lips, and another wave of relief washed over Kellen. He loved Tagan like a brother, and his approval of his chosen mate meant the world.
As Kellen adjusted her heavy weight, Skyler spread her wings, as if to try and keep her balance. Kellen narrowed his gaze onto her biggest feathers, which had been clipped neatly in half.
Something red and awful snaked into his gut, conjuring a low snarl. “Did he do this to you? Roger. Did he clip your wings?”
She couldn’t answer in this form, but she didn’t have to. The sadness that consumed her beautiful green eyes ripped his heart out.
He turned his gaze to Tagan. “Grant me vengeance.”
The muscles in Tagan’s jaw twitched and jumped as he clenched his teeth and sighed. His hard, blue eyes drifted to Skyler’s clipped wings, then back to Kellen. He nodded once, then held out his arm.
Rage boiled Kellen’s blood, and he clenched his hand as he passed Skyler off onto his best friend’s forearm.
“Denison,” Tagan murmured, then jerked his head up toward the landing.
Denison followed silently behind him as Kellen made his way toward his truck. He wouldn’t return until he avenged what had been done to his mate. The bastard had clipped her, taken the sky away from her. No wonder she hadn’t wanted to Change. Roger had stolen the most important thing to a flight-shifter, just because he could. Monster. Roger had mutilated Skyler, then dropped her from the clouds to die in a dishonorable death for her kind.
Kellen had taken a silent oath the day he claimed her. He’d sworn to himself he would protect her, but she’d already been damaged beyond what he had seen.
Such atrocities couldn’t go unpunished.
Crestfall or no, Roger was going to pay for what he’d done in blood.
Chapter Fourteen
Skyler latched onto Brooke’s outstretched arm and flapped her wings slowly to try and keep her balance. Ever since she’d been clipped, her animal didn’t work well. She knew everyone had been waiting for her to Change, but the more time that passed, the more self-conscious she’d become. At first, it had been embarrassing to admit what Roger had done. The bruises on her face had been shameful enough, but this? He’d clipped her.
Sadness pooled in Brighton’s eyes as he handed Brooke Skyler’s folded up clothes she’d slipped out of when she’d Changed.
“I’m going to take her up on the landing and see if she can Change back. You boys give us some privacy for a while, okay?”
“You got it,” Haydan said, and the others murmured similar sentiments.
Brooke made her way steadily up the mountain, only slipping on the steep embankment once. And when she was at the top of the landing, she strode toward the trucks. Kellen’s was gone, but Tagan’s sat there, dark and shiny against the greenery behind. If Skyler’s weight on her arm or sharp talons bothered Brooke, she didn’t complain. Brooke settled her onto the lowered bed of Tagan’s truck, then unfolded her clothes and sat down beside her.
“I don’t think you can Change back as easily as bear shifters can, and I didn’t want you feeling rushed around the boys down there. They will have to set up a new skyline now, and that will probably take them the rest of the day.” Brooke nudged her softly, her blond waves twitching with her movement, and she smiled. “Besides, I don’t know how you are with nudity around the boys, but I’m definitely not used to it yet.”
And that was one of the many reasons Skyler adored Brooke. She understood things without ever having to discuss them first. She was sweet and sensitive and had an intuition that the rough-and-tumble boys in the crew lacked. Skyler closed her eyes and forced the change back into her human skin. It hurt because she hadn’t done it in a while, but she was glad to have the transformation done. It was the first time she’d allowed her animal to have her body since Roger had clipped her.
Her muscles were stiff and sore, but Brooke seemed to know what she needed and helped her dress.
“Is Kellen going to kill Roger?” Skyler asked as quiet as a breath.
Brooke inhaled slowly and nodded. “Yes. What Roger’s done to you is too much for a man like Kellen to bear. If he didn’t, Tagan would probably go after him, or Denison, or any of the boys down there.”
“He deserves death,” Tagan said as he approached from the dirt road. “He and whoever was helping him attacked the entire crew to exact a vengeance that was unwarranted. Here.” He handed her a cell phone. “Call your council.”
Fear trilled down Skyler’s spine at the thought of talking to her father or any of the council again. She’d thought this was through and she’d got a clean break. But Tagan was her alpha now, and he didn’t ask meaningless requests. Not like Roger had done. He was a good man, and she trusted him.
She dialed her father’s number. He would be in the office with the other council members, but it was the only number she knew from heart.
Dad answered on the second ring. “Hello.”
“It’s me. Skyler.”
“You. You’ve caused some serious problems for me. You’ve disgraced our family, your lineage.” He sounded disgusted to even talk to her.
“Dad, you disgraced your family when you gave me to Roger Crestfall. I’m not calling to get your approval on my new life. I’m calling as a courtesy and because my new alpha has asked me to do so.”
“New alpha?” Dad sounded baffled.
Tagan took the phone from her hand and nodded, as if she’d done well. Relief fluttered in her stomach. Between Kellen and Tagan, she was going to be all right.
“This is Tagan James,” he said into the phone. “Do you know who I am?” His eyes went dead and cold. “Good. Then you’ll know that I don’t bluff, and neither do my people. Skyler Drake is no longer a breeder for your people. She is now Skyler Brown of the Ashe crew. She lives under our protection, works under our protection, and is claimed and mated to the Second in my crew. And I assure you, he is one scary sonofabitch when his mate is threatened.”
Tears filled Skyler’s eyes, and she lifted her chin proudly as she listened to Tagan initiate her into his crew. She had people now. Real people who cared what happened to her. She’d seen them when she was falling from the sky, running like their lives depended on it, when it was really her life that depended on them—a line of great grizzly bears trying to save her. Why? Not because she was a Drake, but because she mattered to them.
“We have been attacked by one of your own in our territory,” Tagan said low, his voice turning gravelly and inhuman. “If this happens again, I will personally take it as a declaration of war between the falcons and bear shifters. Now, I’ve heard talk that you are already losing a war. Best you don’t start another with my people.”
He was quiet for a minute as Dad spoke too low for her to hear on the other end of the line.
“Accepted. Here she is.” He handed the phone back to Skyler.
Slowly, she pulled it up to her ear.
“Is this your choice?” Dad asked, sounding defeated.
“Yes. I’ve chosen my mate and my people. When you chose for me, I got hurt. The only one who knows what is right for me is me.”
“You’ll forsake your people then? You’ll curse your children with bears inside of them?”
“Happily. Because it isn’t a curse. When my mate and I decide to breed, our children will be loved by their father and by me, no matter which animal they harbor. My last name didn’t ever do anything for me but bring me pain.” She wiped her eyes and sniffed, then steadied her voice. “I’m happy now. I’ve found a place I belong with people who care about me. I hope you can understand.”
Dad was quiet for a long time. When at last he spoke, his voice sounded quiet and sad. “Goodbye, Skyler.”
“Bye, Dad.” As she hung up the phone, she knew it was the last time she’d ever tal
k to him. Her banishment would be swift, and she’d be shunned by her people. Her father, being a council member, would be punished severely if he ever contacted her, and he wasn’t the kind to break his people’s narrow-minded rules for sentiment.
She handed the phone to Tagan. He turned and strode off, but right as he was about to disappear over the ledge of the landing, he called over his shoulder, “You’re off probation, rookie.”
****
It had been hours, and Kellen still wasn’t back yet.
Skyler paced 1010 like a caged animal, and when she’d nearly walked off the top layer of cheap wood-laminate flooring, she headed outside to get some fresh air.
The evening was quiet. Most days, the boys cooked or grilled food for everyone around the fire pit at the end of the pothole-riddled street, but tonight, everyone was eating inside. A somber mood had descended onto the trailer park, and if she had to guess, the others were just as worried about how long it was taking Kellen and Denison to return as she was. What if Roger had caught them by surprise and something awful had happened to them. It would be all her fault. She’d brought trouble to the crew, and she’d hate herself forever if anything happened to any one of them because of her.
And if something happened to Kellen? She swallowed the lump of fear down and jogged across the street to Brooke and Tagan’s trailer. After her knuckles wrapped softly against the door, Tagan answered.
With a knowing look, he said, “Come on in. You hungry? We have leftovers.”
“I don’t think I could eat anything right now.”
“He’ll be fine. I know Kellen. I’ve known him most of his life. He’s one of the best fighters I’ve ever seen. Denison, too.” Tagan squeezed her shoulder, and a curious warmth spread through her chest, relaxing her.
Apparently, Tagan also possessed some alpha magical mojo that could settle her down. With a steadying inhalation of breath, she did her best to smile. It likely came across as a grimace.
“Brooke’s in her studio.”
“Thanks,” she said on a breath, then headed for the second bedroom they’d turned into an artist’s haven. Buckets of paints, charcoal, brushes, and inks lined the farthest wall. The floor was covered in a thick, paint-spattered purple rug, and painted canvases leaned against the shortest walls. In the center of the room, a single light illuminated an easel that supported a giant canvas. This was where Brooke sat, dragging a brush down a painting of a falcon.
Skyler gasped at its beauty. Not of her animal, as she was depicted on the canvas, but of the detail Brooke had painted onto it. The paints had been built up, layer upon layer and dark. The lower corner was covered with a drawing of Kellen looking up at the falcon, his arm out as if he were ready for her to land on his forearm. The falcon had its wings spread wide as she prepared to latch onto him with her talons.
Skyler approached slowly. She ran her fingers just above the full-length flight feathers Brooke had painted. The wings were perfect, just as hers used to be.
Brooke hooked her arm around Skyler’s waist and rested her head on her hip. “They’ll grow back, won’t they?”
Emotion clogged her throat, and she nodded. “In another five months. Maybe less.” Five more months, and she’d be able to ride the currents of the wind again and feel the misty clouds on her face. Five more months, and she’d be whole again.
“Can I buy this painting?” she asked reverently as she stroked Brooke’s hair. “When you’re finished with it, can I buy it for Kellen?”
“No.”
Skyler’s heart sank.
“I’m painting this for you and Kellen as a claiming gift. I’ll take it to Boulder and put it in a show in a couple of months with my other pieces, but I won’t list it for sale. When it comes back, it’ll be yours.”
Skyler smiled and tried to keep the overwhelming urge to cry inside of her. She studied the long cream and gold feathers and the graceful arc of her black talons. “You’ve made me look quite beautiful.”
Brooked squeezed her waist and said, “You are. Someday you’ll see that when the damage Roger has done is in your past. When you’ve had time to heal. This,” she said, pointing to the painting, “is what people see.”
“Skyler,” Tagan called from the other room.
“Yeah?”
“Your mate’s back.”
Those words had her scrambling out of Tagan’s trailer like her tail feathers had been lit on fire. Sure enough, Kellen’s truck was pulling to a stop in front of his den. A sob lodged in her throat as she ran toward it.
He slid from the driver’s side door as Denison opened the passenger’s. She flung herself into Kellen’s barely ready arms and buried her face against his chest.
With a growl, he picked her up and kicked his door closed, then took his porch stairs two at a time and hurried them into his den. He’d been leaving the windows only half boarded up lately. He said it was because he didn’t like not being able to see her, but she thought it was also from him wanting her to be happy in his home. The darkness had been hard to get used to for her falcon, so his bear was compromising.
He slammed the door and cupped her face. “I don’t care,” he said, kissing her hard and drawing back. “I don’t care that your wings are clipped, do you hear me? You’re flawless. My perfect…” He kissed her nose. “Beautiful…” He kissed her cheek. “Mate.”
“Oh, Kellen,” she sighed as her heart tethered itself to him completely. “I was scared of Changing and you being disappointed. You always look so proud when I do something strong, and I was so ashamed of what Roger had done. Of what I’d allowed him to do to me. I should’ve fought him harder. Fought until I died to keep my wings. He stripped my pride, and I just cried and took it. I didn’t want you to see how weak I’d been.”
“You aren’t weak. He was.”
“Was,” she repeated, feeling lightheaded.
Kellen stretched out her fingers and laid a long feather across the palm of her hand. It was dark brown with thin white stripes, a marker of the Crestfall lineage. “Was,” he repeated. “He won’t ever hurt you again. No more looking at the sky, thinking that someday he’ll be there. He’s gone. It’s over.”
A mass of emotions flooded her. Sadness at the loss of a life. Heartache that Kellen had been forced to take that life on her behalf. Relief that the fear would finally be over. If Roger had only let her go, he could’ve survived this. Instead, he had turned murderous and pissed off her mate and an entire crew of fearsome grizzlies. Roger had made his death bed with the first beat of his wings as he dragged her toward the clouds today.
“They’ll grow back,” she whispered, desperate to show Kellen she wouldn’t be broken forever.
“Good,” Kellen rumbled as he stroked her cheek with the pad of his thumb. “I’d love you just the same either way, but you deserve the sky. You deserve everything.”
She looked around his den, made brighter because he loved her. She held his hands, the ones that had avenged the wrong done to her. She looked in his churning, silver, inhuman eyes, the ones always filled with adoration when he looked at her.
He’d given her a place with his people and a home she felt safe in.
He’d given her peace and encouraged her to find her own inner strength.
She smiled up at him, her protective mate. “You’ve already given me everything.”
Epilogue
“I have something for you,” Skyler said.
Kellen pulled his sweater over his taut abs and frowned. “You got me a present?”
His dark hair was all mussed from dressing, and she laughed at how adorable he looked, all hopeful and disheveled and undeniably delicious.
He’d ripped all the boards off the windows over time, siting the need to see her body and watch her sleep in the mornings. She’d moved out of 1010 a couple of months ago and into his trailer, which had only seemed to soothe his bear even more.
“Remember when you gave me my songbird necklace, and I told you mated pairs in my culture
exchange gifts in a ceremony to make it official?”
“Yeah?”
“Well, I realized I hadn’t given you anything in return. I know we’re officially mated according to crew law, but I wanted it to be official in every way.”
Kellen picked her up and spun as he fell backward, landing on the mattress with her giggling on top of his chest.
“Give me,” he murmured.
She handed him the tiny box wrapped in homemade paper Brooke had taught her to make. “It’s not much, but it’s the most important thing I own, and I want you to have it.”
His face grew serious as he plucked the box from her fingertips. He opened it slowly, as if savoring the moment, then pulled the bauble from the crinkling tissue paper inside.
It was the metal bottle top from the soda he’d given her the first day he’d met her. She had pocketed it and kept it all this time as a reminder of the day her life changed forever for the better. She’d drilled two holes and attached it to an adjustable leather strap.
“I didn’t know you kept this,” he said, his eyes riveted on the trinket.
“I’ve been carrying it my pocket for months. It was my good luck charm.”
He inhaled deeply and asked, “Will you put it on me?”
She straddled his hips and opened the leather adjuster wider, then slipped it over his hand and tightened it against his wrist. Dark metal top and dark leather, and it looked very manly, just like her mate.
He cupped the back of her head and brought her down for a kiss. He took his time, softening his lips against hers as he sipped at her, tasting her. His tongue brushed hers, but he seemed content to remain connected in this sweet embrace. She wondered if he even knew he owned her heart and soul.
“Are you ready?” he whispered as he eased back.
Nervous flutters filled her belly again. Was she ready to fly? Half a year on the ground had seemed like an eternity. “Hell yeah, I’m ready.”
