Chapter Four
Chayton Garon spread his wings, gliding over the buildings below toward the outskirts of town where thick trees lined the edge of the forest. He loved being high up in the air, looking down at the buildings and people. From this high up in the sky, the people looked like little ants as they walked up and down the street.
Reaching the edge of the forest, Chay flew above the treetops toward an open field deep within the forest. Just as he was about to drop down, he noticed an unfamiliar white pickup truck in the distance, heading toward town. Luckily his motorcycle was hidden amongst the trees and couldn’t be seen from the road.
Gliding down toward the open field, Chay flapped his wings and landed softly on the grass. He closed his eyes and imagined the falcon in his mind’s eye. Within moments, Chay started to shift as he envisioned the falcon changing form, becoming human. Standing there naked, he opened his eyes and shivered.
“Shit, it’s cold.”
Chay looked around and hurried over to the spot where he left his clothes earlier. The cold breeze blew through the trees, making the hair on his arms and legs stand on end. Even his pecker shrank two or three sizes from the cold.
Quickly as he could, he picked up his worn jeans and stepped into them before slipping his T-shirt over his head. The socks and boots took just a matter of seconds, and then he headed for his motorcycle.
If he didn’t get out every once in a while and stretch his feathers, he started to go a little stir crazy. Living in the city, even one as small as Black Rock, wasn’t easy. Chay much preferred the wide-open spaces of his family’s territorial lands back in the Mississippi Valley.
Unfortunately, the people that now inhabited his family’s lands preferred if the abomination didn’t live there. Strangely enough, being a falcon shifter didn’t make him an abomination, but being gay did.
Go figure.
Chay pulled on his leather jacket and helmet and then swung his leg over his motorcycle. He quickly started the sweet machine up. The low rumble of the motor vibrated his balls. Chay chuckled. Maybe he’d drop by the local bar and see if he could find some sweet thing to take home for the night.
Looks like he needed to get laid.
Chay drove his motorcycle down the dirt road to the main road and then headed back toward town. He wasn’t too far out, just a few miles, but far enough to not be seen when he shifted.
Humans never reacted well when they saw someone shift into a live animal. They usually freaked out, and the torch-carrying mobs started hunting his kind down right after that.
The motorcycle shop he owned with his friend, Dominic Gregory, was just on the edge of town, which made it even easier for him to get out into the country and back again after a good flight.
He pulled into the parking lot a few minutes later and parked his bike on the side of the shop. He turned the engine off and then pulled his helmet off his head, threading his fingers through his coal-black hair to get the knots out.
Chay climbed off his bike and started around the front of the shop. As he reached the door, a flash of white caught his attention. He turned to see the same white truck he had seen while flying sitting across the street from the shop. The dark-haired man sitting behind the wheel was staring straight at him.
Chaystood to his full six foot six inches and stared the man down. He really didn’t have it in him to look away first. That was just another reason he had been run off his family’s land. When the new leader took over the colony, Chay refused to submit to the overbearing jackass.
He’d never submit to any man, shifter or not. It just wasn’t in his personality. It took him years to figure that out and a lot of soul-searching before he accepted that part of his nature. He might be a bird shifter, but he was still a hunter. With that came a need to be the dominant one with those around him, especially his lovers.
That might explain why he was single at the moment. He could be pretty overbearing. Hell, he could be a real prick when the mood struck him. So the fuck what? He didn’t take shit off anyone, and he wasn’t about to take it from a stranger huddling in a truck.
The man sitting in the truck suddenly glanced away. Chay waited another moment, but when the stranger didn’t look up, he turned and walked into the store, satisfied that he had come out on top in the battle of dominance between the two of them.
Chay immediately spotted Tommy behind the counter, talking to a customer. He raised his chin to silently acknowledge Tommy when the man glanced up, and then headed into the back to his office. He really didn’t want to deal with any customers at the moment.
As he approached his office, Chay glanced toward the one directly across from his. It belonged to his business partner and best friend, Dominic Gregory, or Dom as the man preferred to be called by his friends. And they had been friends for several years, ever since meeting at a bike rally in the Mississippi Valley when they were barely out of their teens.
After a stint in the armed services, Chay had looked Dominic up. Their motorcycle shop was born a year later, and Chay couldn’t be happier with it. Business didn’t always flourish, but he was his own boss and he did what he loved—work on motorcycles. They even made custom bikes for customers that could afford them.
Besides, motorcycle riders were some of the hottest men around. Chay loved watching big muscular men walk around in tight jeans and leather. There really was nothing quite like it. And he was constantly surprised at how many of them were actually into other men.
It was a closely held secret because of the macho nature of most men, but a lot of men rode motorcycles because they looked cool and they could vibrate a man’s balls like nothing else on earth.
Chay noticed that Dom’s office was vacant and figured his business partner had either gone out on some errands or had yet to arrive for work. Maybe Dom had found someone to spend the night with? It would be good for the man. Dom had become moody lately, growling at anyone for anything.
He needed to get laid more than Chay did, and that said a lot. Chay hadn’t hooked up with anyone in over six months. It wasn’t that he couldn’t. He had had a lot of offers. It was more that he was getting tired of the constant rat race to find someone for the night and fuck him, only to find himself alone come morning.
It was a very lonely existence.
Chay plopped his helmet on the top of coat rack by the door and then slid his leather jacket off and hung it up, as well. He sighed as he turned and looked at the stack of papers on his desk.
