Illicit

by Cathy Clamp

He bobbed his head, opened his wide yellow beak, and blinked his golden eyes. “Sure. Not for you?”

  She let out a sharp sound that wasn’t quite a screech. “Hardly. It usually feels like falling down stairs. Most moons, it’s just one flight and I feel a little banged up but can walk. Some months, it’s like three flights and I bounce the whole way.”

  Another wash of magic made her feel energized, lighter than air. “I promise you. No stairs today. Only roller coasters. We ride where the wind takes us.”

  * * *

  Dalvin rose into the air, wings spread wide to catch the highest lift. Although he was not looking at her, he could feel the moment Rachel left the earth. Like a plane towing a glider, he had a constant sense of her presence. The effort necessary to keep her in owl form was surprising. He’d shifted people before, but usually once he did, they could stay that way. Not Rachel. Her owl form wasn’t dominant, so the pressure on him to hold it would be taxing if he had to do it for long.

  A virgin. That never would have occurred to him. After talking with Scott and Claire, he’d assumed that sexual abuse was part of what she’d suffered. He was glad to know that it wasn’t, but now he wasn’t sure what to do next. The desire he’d felt from just that one short kiss was stronger than any other he could remember, than anything he had with Larissa. He would have taken her right then, without a second of hesitation. Now, though? The first time with a woman wasn’t something you did lightly. From everything he’d heard, from both men and women, it was too easy to mess up.

  But how the hell was he going to be around her without wanting to be inside her?

  He kept his wing beats intentionally slow, gliding when he reached above the treetops, so she could catch up and fly beside him.

  “Oh. My. God!” Her voice held a level of happiness and excitement that he’d experienced only once—the day of his first flight. He couldn’t smell her emotion because the wind pulled it away before it reached him, but he could feel it through the magic tether, like riding on a bubble that was expanded to the breaking point. Even now, with them both in owl form, he wanted her. Crap. She tipped up her head and rode a current of air into the clouds, dragging him along. “How can you stand not doing it every day?”

  He let out a few low hoots of laughter at her unintentional double entendre. Flying. They were talking about flying now. “You’d be surprised. The novelty wears off pretty quick.”

  “Oh, this isn’t novelty,” she said as she flew a circle around him. “This is pure joy! My bird half has brought me nothing but pain until now. To not hurt, to fly where I can see the sky and animals and trees as something other than lurking shadows? Dalvin, thank you!” She finally looked down and let out a gasp. “You can see everything from up here. I could keep flying all day.”

  Ambitious, but—“All day might be pushing it a little. My magic isn’t unlimited.”

  Her elation diminished a bit and she slowed her wing beats. “Oh! Is it hard to keep me in this form? We can land now if you need to.”

  He dropped a wing and bumped her, like he used to shoulder-bump her when they were walking down the sidewalk together. “Nah, I’m good for a little longer. But maybe you should show me where the course is.”

  She looked around, and confusion and disorientation came through the magic. “Wow. I’ve never looked for it in the daylight before. Let’s fly back over town so I can get my bearings.”

  She noticed the buildings in the distance and shot forward, then narrowed her wings into a dive. As dives went, it needed some work. In fact, the more he watched her, the more he realized she’d never been trained to fly. If she shifted only once a month, just to hunt, probably nobody had ever bothered.

  He struggled with what to do. He could critique her, but he’d be leaving in a few days. It would be almost cruel to tell her about the faults in her flying and then disappear without helping her fix them.

  Why the hell had he kissed her? And why had it been so amazing? He knew what his mother would say. Son, you spent so many years looking and hoping. You created the perfect reunion in your head. It was bound to be amazing.

  Except this wasn’t at all what he’d imagined. She wasn’t at all what he’d expected. Beautiful, selfless, proud. The more he’d talked with Scott last night, the more he realized he’d been a world-class ass. Yelling at her for protecting her family from the reality of shifters? That was unconscionable. He couldn’t take it back, couldn’t rewind time and make it unhappen. Yes, he’d been furious, but now he knew that anger was misplaced … and that the people he was really angry at were dead. Railing at the dead, his dad always said, is only heard by the living … and doesn’t make you feel any better.

  She waggled her wings. “Okay, I’ve got it now. Follow me.” She darted off, and he hurriedly beat his wings to keep up with her. It would be a disaster to let her get out of range of his magic. She would never stay shifted. After a few moments, she swooped down, brushing the soft pine candles with her belly. “Here’s the beginning of the cat course. See the yellow plastic circles attached to the trees below us? They occasionally blink. Not often enough that planes overhead will spot them, but enough that if someone gets lost, they can get back on track pretty quickly.”

  He dove down into the trees and landed on a wide branch next to a yellow circle. She followed.

  “Suljo told me last night that they can see color in animal form, so that should work,” Dalvin commented. He hopped farther down the branch and saw the rough path that had been carved out of the undergrowth. “There’s a lot of overbrush in some places. I’ll clear some of that so Larissa doesn’t have to duck under things so much. Anica is shorter.” He could feel Rachel’s disapproval beat at him and could smell the hot iron scent that was out of place among the trees. “What?”

  She blinked those big golden eyes and her feathers fluffed around her neck. “The course isn’t meant to favor one competitor over another, Dalvin. This spot might be hard for Larissa, but other spots will be hard for Anica. Are you also going to remove the things she’ll have to climb over, that Larissa can just step over? If so, let’s just have them run around the football field at the school.”

  He did his best to keep his cool. “Look, her shoulder is hurting her.”

  A quick flap of wings and a cold response. “Oh, I’ll bet it is. Good.”

  He felt like releasing his magic and leaving her sitting naked on a branch. “So you admit pushing her down the stairs?”

  Hooting laughter wasn’t what he expected. “I knew she’d smack-talk me! I didn’t push her down the stairs, and I can’t believe you’d think I would!” He didn’t blink, waiting. After a long pause, she let out a light screech and continued. “Look, I was going up, she was coming down. She insulted me and I offered to throw down with her if that’s what she wanted. Her alpha told her to knock it off and get downstairs. I saw her sidestep as she came down and knew she was going to try to shove me over the railing. I planted myself and braced. I didn’t move one single muscle toward her—she did all the work.

  “I’ll bet her shoulder hurts, ’cause she slammed into me hard. The worst I did was not offer to help her up. But her alpha didn’t run to help either. Bitch got what she deserved.”

  He smelled the air. She wasn’t powerful enough to hide her scent. Damned if she wasn’t telling the truth. “Her alpha saw this happen?”

  Rachel’s head bobbed vigorously. “Sure did. And I’ll bet Larissa was getting you to do her dirty work and get me punished because her alpha wouldn’t. Racist bitch.”

  “Whoa, whoa,” he said, flapping his wings so he could turn around to face her. “Racist?”

  She dug her talons into the bark. “It’s something she said last night, while we were singing. I nearly dove off the stage and bashed her face in.”

  “What’d she say?”

  Rachel shook her head. “I’m not going to repeat it. But trust me when I say it was intentionally racist. No accident or ‘just kidding’ about it.”

 
“You going to turn her in?”

  She shrugged. “What for? Everyone at her table heard it, and nobody said a thing.” She kicked out with one taloned foot. “Eh. They’re racist or they’re not. I don’t really care. You’re the one sleeping with her, not me.” Her tone was casual, but her words stung and he realized they concealed her own hurt.

  Gesturing toward the east with one wing, Rachel said, “Over that way is the hunting challenge. Hmm, that actually might be too much with a screwed-up shoulder. Just to prove I’m staying neutral, let me show you something.” She pushed off from the tree and he followed. When she soared under a branch, he noticed she didn’t tuck in her corner feathers. They scraped against the bark, causing her to dip and then flap to right herself.

  “Hey, wait,” he yelled to her. She rose higher in the air, flapping to hold position. “Mind if I show you a trick I’ve learned for flying under brush?”

  Her eyes blinked in surprise. “Sure. I suck at flying. It’s why I keep losing the Ascension.”

  He patted the branch next to him with one wing. “Sit here and watch.”

  Once she was secure on the branch, he flew under the same branch where she’d bobbled. “This is how you’re flying under.” He left his wings wide and caught the very same brush on his wings, causing the same flaps to stay straight. “Right?”

  She bobbed her head. “Yeah. So what am I doing wrong?”

  Dalvin swung around and then flew back under, slow, being careful to tuck in his feathers on one side and lift the opposite shoulder. “See that? You keep the same balance but don’t have to flap.” He fluttered to a landing beside her. “Now you try it.”

  “That was cool. Okay, here goes!” She swooped down and narrowed her wing but didn’t lift the opposite side. She veered off and nearly creamed into the trunk. “What happened? I lifted my other wing.”

  “Not the tip of the wing,” he called out. “Right at the shoulder. Try it again.”

  It took four tries for her to get it, but once she did, she sliced through the brush like a hot knife through butter. They’d been out long enough that he was getting tired holding her in form.

  “Let’s head back. I’m burned out, Chelle.”

  Though she tried to hide it, she was obviously disappointed. “Sure. I understand. But I should show you the hunting challenge first.”

  He flared his wings. “You can show me on foot. Let’s get back before I can’t hold you anymore.”

  He might have imagined it as he rose into the sky, but he could have sworn he heard her mutter, “Oh, you’ll be holding me again. Count on it.”

  They were nearly back to the spot where they’d left their clothes when a distant scream caught his ears. “What was that?”

  Rachel rose higher on the air currents and motioned. “Over there! A bear is chasing some hikers. I don’t think they’re locals. I’ll bet they’re heading to the top of the mountain to base-jump. There’s a ledge that’s sort of infamous near the top. Damned adrenaline junkies.”

  Goddamn it. Just what he didn’t need right now. The pressure of keeping Rachel in owl form was testing his endurance. He thought about setting her down, but he might need her help.

  As they got closer, he realized the bear was Sazi! It was a massive brown bear, so one of the Bosnians. And he was most definitely chasing the man and woman, who were dressed in jeans, flannel shirts, and bright-colored down vests. Their oversize backpacks bounced on their backs with every frantic step. Given the size and lightness of the loads, it seemed likely to Dalvin that Rachel was right and the humans were carrying parachutes.

  Dalvin let out a battle scream and headed down in a dive. Rachel followed him, matching his pose. At the last second, he reared back and exposed his talons, right in the path of the bear, who stared at them, recognition and intelligence in his eyes. Rachel flapped her wings in the bear’s face while the humans scrambled to find shelter among the rocks. Dalvin threw what little magic he had left at turning the Bosnian away. He hadn’t seen all of the family in animal form, so he didn’t know which one he was facing, and he couldn’t ask, not with the humans right here.

  The bear kept swiping at them and trying to dodge around them as they swooped at him. Dalvin was trying to avoid hurting the Bosnian and didn’t want to draw blood, but that became a challenge in the face of the bear’s persistence. He definitely wanted to attack those people for some reason.

  Rachel broke the standoff, letting out that insanely powerful screech. Tethered to her magically, Dalvin noticed it didn’t affect him as it had before—good thing too, since he might have fallen right out of the sky if she’d paralyzed him. The bear froze stock-still for several seconds, then ran into the woods, bawling and shaking his head.

  Circling to gain altitude and make certain the bear had left, Dalvin he heard the man say, “Whoa. That was coolest thing I’ve ever seen. Did you get it on video?”

  “Oh, you know I did!” the woman replied. “I’ve never seen an owl that big! And two different species cooperating to attack a bear? This’ll go viral before we even get home!”

  Holy shit! That could not happen. Before Dalvin could think what to do next, Rachel said, “I’m on it. Change me back. Hurry!”

  She landed behind a tree. He didn’t know what she was planning to do but decided to trust her. Releasing the magic that bound them, he felt a sudden surge of energy and circled higher, keeping an eye on Rachel and the humans as well as the Bosnian bear, who was heading into the deep woods. Dalvin wasn’t looking forward to trying to figure out the identity of the bear and what the heck was going on.

  Rachel screeched again, even louder this time. Without the magic linking them, Dalvin’s muscles froze and he began to fall. Twisting in a flat tailspin, he watched in shock as Rachel raced out of the brush, stark naked, and grabbed the cell phones out of the hands of the paralyzed humans. She darted back into the woods, her lean-muscled legs putting impressive distance between her and her victims, just as the hikers realized what had happened.

  “Hey! What the hell!” the man shouted, and they began to chase her.

  Rachel was holding the phones in her mouth, tight between her teeth. Looking up at him, she started flapping her arms. Hell! He’d never done anything like it before, but he threw down his last reserve of magic. Pain sliced through him as Rachel shifted forms. She took flight just before the hikers caught sight of her. The two owls rose high into the clouds so the humans wouldn’t be able to see which way they flew.

  Wind and ice crystals that weren’t quite reaching the ground slashed at Dalvin’s face. His heart was beating so fast that he was afraid he was going to have a stroke. The two owls dove, fast and hard, as he tried to get them close to the ground before his magic failed. He pushed the last bit of his power at Rachel, but her wings turned into arms just before she hit the ground. She rolled over in the wet grass and came up spitting mud right next to where they’d left their clothes.

  He lost his own battle to keep his form and fell at least ten feet, landing in a painful heap.

  “Dalvin!” Rachel raced over to him. “Are you okay?”

  “I’ll live.” He chuckled even as he scraped mud from his deeply painful shoulder. He’d probably have a whopper of a bruise there by evening. “What a story they’ll have to tell! Attacked by a bear, saved by owls … and then a crazy bush lady stole the proof!”

  She laughed, turned around, and scooped up both phones. “That’s me, ‘crazy bush lady.’ Thankfully it will only be a story, and hard to believe.”

  “Well, I believe it.” He smiled at her, and her gaze dropped shyly. Then she tilted her face up again and leaned forward, planting her mouth on his. She pushed him back to the ground, and he went willingly, his body exhausted yet hungry. He started playing with her breasts, and she responded by snaking her hand down between his legs. She began to stroke him, and he moaned, moving his mouth away from hers to kiss his way down her neck. “God, I want you, Chelle.”

  She whispered in his ear, h
er voice trembling a little, “I’m not quite ready for that, Dalvin. But I’m not a complete stranger to a man’s body. I’m ready for this.” Her wet hand started pumping up and down on his cock, smoothing away the abrasive mud, making him hard. Her fingers were cold, and the sensation against his overheated skin was delicious. She kissed him again, moving her tongue in and out of his mouth in rhythm with the motion of her hand. Fast, then slow, making him crazy. She didn’t stop him from exploring her body, though she was sitting in such a way that he couldn’t reach between her legs. But those luscious breasts, oh, he explored them, all right. Felt the weight of them in his hands, played with their tight brown nipples.

  It didn’t take long to get him past the point where he could turn back, past where he cared about the past … or the future. She noticed when he was ready to go and tightened her hand, pulsing it like he was inside her. He thrust against that hand until he felt himself go. He clutched at her head with one hand, tightened his fingers on her back with the other, and pulled her mouth to his in a hard kiss. He sucked on her tongue and felt her heart race against his chest, feeling their magic mingle in a way that was so intense he could barely stand it.

  She shivered then and gasped into his mouth. Her whole body stiffened and her hips squirmed on the grass. He realized she had gone over too, even though he hadn’t touched that part of her. That excited him more than anything. If sex was this good using just their mouths and hands … what would it feel like to actually be inside her?

  His head fell back, and he tried to catch his breath. She loosened her grip on his cock, lightly resting her hand on top of it as it shifted with the tiny after-twitches of his orgasm.

  “Baby, that was something else,” Dalvin said.

  Rachel gave him a Mona Lisa smile. “I’m not your baby.” She pushed off of him and stood, walking toward the bush where her clothes were, intentionally swinging her bare hips. “Not yet, anyway.”

  CHAPTER 12

  The whole town was looking for Samit Petrovic by the time they got back to Luna Lake. People had heard screams coming from up on one mountain and nobody could find him. Alpha shifter search parties had already begun combing the woods. Rachel spotted Asylin and John Williams winging through the sky above her—going the wrong way.