He got so lost in the morose thoughts that he almost missed Rohahen’s shift. In a few rolling waves of skin and fur, a bison stood before him.
Rohahen’s bison was a gorgeous animal with thick, dark fur surrounding his head and hanging down almost to his thickly furred feet. The coarse hairs were lighter on his back, covering the large hump and puffing out around his round belly.
He looked robust, a symbol of health, life, and abundance.
Tier breathed out a relieved sigh.
Rohahen bent to munch a few mouthfuls of grass, then swung around toward Tier. If any other animal who was at least a dozen times his weight and sporting horns that could gore him through had approached him like this, Tier would have moved slowly and carefully out of the way.
Instead he stood his ground while Rohahen came closer, and eventually dipped his head under Tier’s hand.
With shaking fingers, Tier stroked down one horn and then dug his fingers into the coarse fur to scratch around his ears. Like touching Rohahen’s human back earlier, this was another special first.
He’d seen Rohahen’s bison before, even brushed past him in his own white-tailed deer form. But this was the first time he’d been invited to touch.
Rohahen let out a pleased snort. He still couldn’t believe that he’d almost lost him. He dug his fingers in deeper, the wiry hair thick around his fingers.
“It looks like he’s fine,” the nurse observed. “I’ll be inside if you need anything.”
“Thank you,” Tier called automatically.
After eating a few more mouthfuls of grass, Rohahen sank down to the ground, his front legs nearly buried under his head and his hips twisted to the side with one leg protruding.
Was he still weak? Should Tier call the nurse?
Tier felt his throat warm as Rohahen sent a thought to him. Shift?
It wasn’t a command, though the bison shifter had the power to make it one. It was more of a hesitant and hopeful request. Tier was surprised that he could feel such complex emotion from the exchange. Usually strength-sharers broadcast concrete ideas, and any residual emotions were simple things like a sense of danger or alertness, focused on attacking a threat.
Tier gave the furry ear under his hand one more careful scratch. He looked alert and relaxed. And mostly interested in having Tier’s hands in his fur.
Tier slipped out of his own clothes, leaving them in a pile on the lawn. He couldn’t deny Rohahen anything.
After a disorienting moment of vertigo and an extended stretch, Tier stood on four thin legs. His vision became fuzzy, picking up yellows and blues in the panorama that wrapped most of the way around his head, while the reds faded to gray. Scent came to him like a symphony, like a critical part of the world had been missing and snapped into place.
The first thing he smelled was Rohahen. Warm and musky and close, with just a tang of whatever drug they’d pumped into him underlying his health. That was a relief. He was recovering.
It was summer, so Tier’s antlers were heavy and full, wider across as his body was long. He tossed his head, instinctively trying to impress Rohahen.
Rohahen gave him a nod, though he wasn’t sure if that meant anything. He felt a bit silly. In this form, too, Rohahen was still five times his weight and far more dangerous.
Tier moved a little closer, hooves slow, alternating his feet diagonally. Why did Rohahen want him to shift? Did he, perhaps, want him to stay longer?
He sank down on his knees, perhaps a foot away.
Rohahen rolled onto his side, so that the thick hump of his back lay along the full length of Tier’s body. He was a little too warm and a little too heavy, and he was perfect.
Tier hesitated, though he instinctively already knew what to do. After a few moments, with Rohahen quiet and safe beside him, he began licking his neck to groom the coarse hair. If they were wild animals, he would be removing insects, but this was all for comfort. It was his job, even, as the dominant animal to initiate grooming and cement their animal bond. It felt right.
He finished one patch and moved to the next, watching as Rohahen’s head drooped. He felt a warm tingle in his throat, less of a concept and more of a feeling being communicated. Happiness. Safety. Comfort.
He didn’t know how Rohahen used his gift in that way, but it warmed him to feel it.
Tier had dozens of emails to answer. Important calls to make. Schedules to plan.
But his deer half didn't care. He sat in the sunshine and groomed Rohahen’s ears.
Chapter 2
Rohahen
Rohahen tried to balance the hot tray from the oven while he dug into his pocket for his phone. Realizing it was too much, he cleared off the counter to set down the tray and then fished it out.
He’d missed the call, but the name read Geir. Not that he expected Geir to call him. This had to be Declan.
He called back and put it on speaker.
“Ro! Are you OK? Oh my God, I was so worried when they couldn’t find you, and then there were actual guns at that awful place where they took May. And have you seen May yet? She rode home on my lap, but I didn’t get to see her after that. And how are you? What did they do to you?”
Ro let himself chuckle quietly during Declan’s monologue. He’d learned that it was best to just let him talk and then wait for a pause.
“I’m fine. There were two men and they shot me with something that kept me from shifting and knocked me out. I have some scrapes and bruises, but I’m fine otherwise.”
“Ohhh… that must have been terrifying.”
“It was.” Declan would probably be intrigued by the details, but it still felt a little too fresh to share. “By the time I woke up, everyone was safe, and May was back home. I’m going to see her today.”
“Oh, good. I’m so glad. Do you think I can see her soon? And you? I want to see both of you.”
“Are you coming to the celebration tomorrow?”
“Oh, definitely. I want to make Geir dance with me.”
“If anyone can do it, you can.”
Declan giggled. “I know! It’s like my superpower.”
That might be truer than Declan knew.
“So…” Declan drawled, teasingly. “What are you making for your man?”
“He’s not my man,” Rohahen grumbled, though it was more of a rote refrain at this point. Declan said it so often that he usually ignored it. Though he often wondered if it might be possible.
“Mm-hmmm, and what are you making him?”
“Biscuits.” The word didn’t express how good it felt to make Tier something with his own hands. Something that would nourish Tier’s body and touch his lips. Not that he was going to tell Declan that.
“Oh, he’ll love that. You should bring him some of your blueberry preserves with it.” Declan’s excited tone suggested that he already knew, anyway.
“Maybe I will.” Most of the preserves were kept in the collective storehouses, but he had a couple jars of his own. He put one on the cabinet.
“Really, Ro. You should have seen him when he found out you were missing. He was flipping out. I mean, he wanted May and the kids back, but he was frantic about you.”
“Yeah?” Rohahen hoped he was keeping his voice calm.
He wasn’t quite ready to tell Declan about how Tier had taken off his whole afternoon to groom his ears yesterday. Or how they’d walked back to Ro’s house together, still in animal form. At the door, Ro had shifted, but Tier hadn’t, perhaps to spare them both the embarrassment of being naked.
Only after Ro had shut the door, Tier had walked around his house and made three scrapes, scenting the ground first with his interdigital glands in his hooves, and then rub-urinating to catch the scent on the tarsal glands where his back legs bent.
Ro had stood quietly, just inside the door, listening and smelling the air and feeling very claimed. Long after Tier had left, he’d walked around his house just to catch that dry, musky smell.
It wasn’t exactly subtle, an
d he wondered if any of his neighbors had noticed. And what it might possibly mean. He knew everything that he wanted it to mean, but of course it could just be that the Chief was worried about a friend who’d been in danger.
“Yeah,” Declan continued, bringing him back to the present, “he had the nurse call him every hour with an update about you.”
Rohahen let himself smile. He’d been smiling a lot since he groggily woke up yesterday morning.
“Oh,” Declan continued. “And I might have mentioned that I was showing you all of the sexy marks Geir gave me, and that you liked them too.”
“What?” Ro screeched. “Are you kidding me?” That was not good. Not at all something that Tier needed to know about him, especially when he was just starting to think he had a chance.
Declan giggled. “So, you know how Geir disappeared? It was because he saw you looking at my marks and he thought I was coming on to you or something.”
Rohahen snorted. Not a chance.
“So, it was scary at the time, but now he knows that when I flirt with you, it’s just a game. So next time, he’ll just get all aggressive and claim me or give me another spanking.”
“What?” Sometimes he couldn’t believe the things that came out of Declan’s mouth.
“Yeah, he gave me a spanking yesterday and it was soooooooooo good. God, I was crying all over him but then I felt all floaty afterward.”
“TMI,” Rohahen warned, though he might have secretly wanted to know more. Not about what Declan did with Geir, which he’d heard more than enough of. But the thought of maybe Tier doing the same thing to him…
He still thought often of the business card that he’d found kicked under the edge of Tier’s desk almost ten years ago. He’d picked it up, intending on returning it. But when he read it, he’d been too embarrassed and confusingly turned on to do anything but slide it into his own pocket. It was an invitation to a kink party, which had led to a lot of research and some recurring fantasies of Tier pinning him down and…
He cut off the thought. He didn’t even know who the card belonged to. If Tier was actually interested in him, he wasn’t going to mess it up by being weird. It was already difficult enough that they were both strength-sharers.
He shouldn’t have let Declan get them off topic. “Hang on, what did you actually tell the Chief?”
“Oh, that was it, pretty much. Just that you liked my marks. And he might have overheard some stuff I was talking with Geir about in the van.”
“Alright,” he said cautiously. He had no doubt that anything Tier “overheard” had been carefully planned in Declan’s devious and impulsive mind. But Ro could admire Declan’s scrapes and bruises without wanting any of his own, right? Not that he specifically wanted round sucker marks all over him, of course—Declan could have those tentacles.
“Oh, come on. You’ve got to tell your man these things so that he knows how to treat you right.”
“Nope. Definitely nope.” His fantasies were staying in his head.
“Oh, hey! Guess what? Geir has, like, new magic powers. Or old ones, maybe?”
Rohahen welcomed the change in topic. “Are you allowed to tell me about them?”
He heard Declan’s voice raised in a shout, but muffled by a hand over the phone. “OK, yeah, I can tell you. He says the People already know about it. Or used to.”
“Ah, alright. So I’m guessing he can tell where people are from a long distance away and identify if someone comes on the property who doesn’t belong?”
“Dammit! You take all of the fun out of things.”
He laughed. “Sorry, not sorry.” He only said silly things like that around Declan. It wouldn’t fit with his mature image in the tribe at all.
“Seriously, though, the tribe will be glad to hear that. If he’s more involved in things, like he used to be before the past sixty years or so, that’s a really good thing.”
“Wow. Yeah, well, I think he is.”
“Good, good. Um, I actually have to go now. I’ll see you at the celebration?”
“Definitely. Take those buns to your man while they’re still hot.”
Ro rolled his eyes even though Declan couldn’t see. “Bye, Declan.”
“Bye! And remember, I want deeee-tails!”
Rohahen hung up the phone. He wanted to have details to share, but everything felt a little too raw and new to share right now. If Tier was actually interested in him, and not just worried about his safety, then he’d share. For now, those scrapes outside were just for him.
He carefully put three warm biscuits in the wicker basket he’d prepared and folded a cloth over them. Then he lifted the cloth and added the rest of them. Sometimes, when he brought a bit more food, Tier would suggest that they eat together. He added the preserves on top with a knife.
He carried them across the courtyard, using just the touch of his strength-sharing to locate Tier in his office, just where he expected him to be. The Chief spent long hours there every day, when he wasn’t traveling and doing yet more work for the tribe. That was why Ro had started bringing him food.
As Ro climbed the stairs, he could already hear Tier’s deep voice alongside a higher one that must be Kayla, the Sentry Leader. His heart beat a little faster, as it always did when he knew he was about to see Tier.
When he peeked his head in the door, the Chief was sitting at his desk. He was still as gorgeous as ever, with his sharp cheekbones and long, dark hair shot through with silver. He knew that Tier was still young, only fifteen or twenty years older than he was. That time was nothing in among the People who might live two centuries, but he loved how it made him look distinguished.
He allowed himself a closer look, thinking that maybe he finally had a right to do so. The Chief had bags under his eyes, as he so often did from working too hard. His shoulders were tense under the collared shirt that hugged his shoulders. It made Ro want to snuggle up beside him and bring him more food, just to give him a little bit of happiness and relaxation.
Right now, he was looking particularly dejected. “You were right,” he said to Kayla. “We should have done it. I just didn’t think they’d get so far away from us so quickly.”
The Sentry Leader paced in front of him. “It’s not about being wrong or right. We just need to make sure it never happens again.”
“I know. That was… horrible. It’s just…” Tier put his hands over his face. Was it so wrong that Ro wanted to kiss those long fingers? He could make the Chief’s life easier, he was almost sure, if they could be together.
Ro slid through the door. From just those few words, he could guess at the conversational topic. Tier wasn’t the dramatic type, and this was one of the few arguments that he’d seemed to lose sleep over.
“Are you talking about the microchips again?” Ro asked quietly. Kayla’s sentries wore chipped necklaces when they were on duty. She was pushing for everyone to wear one, given the high number of kidnappings of shifters across the country, especially from indigenous tribes. That point had just been driven home.
Tier looked up at his voice, his face breaking into a wide smile.
He motioned Ro further into the office, but his face was already showing his worry again. “Yes. We should have listened to Kayla earlier. People can move far faster now than they could a few generations ago. The children were completely gone by the time any of us noticed. And when I couldn’t find you…” Tier’s eyes searched Ro’s body desperately, as though confirming that he was there. “The old ways aren’t good enough anymore. I… failed you.”
It looked like that sense of failure was touching the Chief deeply. Of course the Sentry Leader wouldn’t have been able to detect the children either, despite having the most powerful strength-sharing in the tribe. But that was why she wanted microchips.
Rohahen wasn’t sure whether to turn the conversation personal or keep it professional. Kayla was still there, and he didn’t want to overstep. “You didn’t fail anyone,” he said softly. “Even with chips t
he kids might have been gone before you realized.”
Kayla looked like she was going to say something, probably about automated proximity alerts, but he cut her off with a look. This wasn’t the time. “The important thing is that you got everyone back home. Nineteen children are safe now because of your leadership.” He nodded to both of them, acknowledging their joint roles in the safety of the tribe, but he was really speaking to Tier. “And you protected me by going to Geir and insuring that I got to the Healers.”
The Chief didn’t look like he believed him. This was one of the moments when he wished he were a heart-singer. There was so much more he’d be able to do to soothe Tier’s guilt and express his own confidence and support.
Tier looked a little less worried now, as though at least hearing the words had meant something. Ro decided that was enough for the moment. Tier was always stoic and wouldn’t appreciate him fawning.
Ro switched smoothly back to the topic at hand. “If we do go that direction, though, I was talking with some of the weavers and leather toolers about working the chips into anklets. They could use traditional designs for protection, which I think would mean a lot to some people. And if we gave everyone two anklets they could charge them at night and then switch.”
The Chief blinked at him. The Sentry Leader patted his shoulder. “You’ve done it again, Rohahen. I think that would work for almost everyone. Chief, you should hang on to this one.”
Tier nodded. “Yes, um… yes.” His mind seemed to be far away, though.
What was he thinking about right now? Was he agreeing to the plan or hanging on to Ro? Hopefully both.
“Oh, but I didn’t tell you the best part,” Ro added. “Geir may be able to monitor the tribe again, and the anklets could just be a back-up.”
“Really?” Two heads snapped toward him in unison.
“Well, Declan says that he has the ability again, and we could ask him formally to meet everyone and check more actively, like he used to.”
The Hummingbird's Gift (Hummingbird Tales Book 2) Page 2
