The kids all cried out in excitement. They jumped, trying to catch me, but I was out of their reach.
A deep feeling of calm washed over me. I could fly again. Nothing stood between me and my freedom.
But when I looked down, Red’s smile was tinged with grief.
* * *
The parents cameto round up their kids, then Red and I returned to the privacy of the alcove. He’d been uncharacteristically quiet since I showed off my flight to the children, and I had a suspicion as to why that was.
There was no good way to get him to open up except to dive right into my own history.
"Not to sound self-centred, but I'm gonna talk about myself for a bit." I winked. "Is that okay with you?"
Red glanced at me. The natural black rims of his eyes were stark in the dim light. The edge of his mouth curled into a tiny smirk. "Go for it."
"Good. Come on, let's get comfortable." I sat down and gestured for him to do the same. When I first arrived and was still injured, Red would help me sit and stand because I didn't trust my legs to hold up my weight. I missed the feeling of Red’s gentle hands on me.
And I knew that I would miss more than his hands when I left this place.
I tried not to think about that right now. I'd made a promise to Red, and I intended to keep it.
"I told you that I had an ex-mate," I said, deciding to jump right into it. "His name was Ryker."
Watching Red try to keep a twitch of jealousy out of his expression was amusing. I wished he wouldn't hold himself back. But when I told him the details, he would understand that he had nothing to be jealous about.
"Let me explain a few things first. Like you, I also lived in a group of shifters, except mine was ravens only. Instead of a pack, it was called a Treachery."
"Interesting name. Does it have anything to do with the behaviour of the other ravens?"
I grinned. "In hindsight, sure. Though I'm sure there's treacheries out there that aren't full of assholes. But mine was. The other guys in the group were a mix of alphas and omegas."
Red paused, a guarded expression on his face. "What was Ryker?"
"He was an omega."
I couldn't tell what kind of reaction Red had to that. His face was impossible to read and his body language was still and careful, but he didn't want me to know. Nevertheless, I went on.
"Me and every guy in the Treachery had been friends for years, since we’d met as young adults. We were inseparable back then, pranking humans and shifters alike, getting into trouble, and generally causing a ruckus." I scratched my head. "It wasn't my proudest moment."
Red let out a genuine laugh. "Now that's something I can relate to. If we'd known each other a few years ago, we would've been thick as thieves."
I smiled at him. "No doubt. Anyway, as we matured, we started thinking about bigger things in life, like finding mates and starting families. Except out of all of the Treachery, I seemed to be the most interest in the latter. The other guys were more focused on mating. And by that, I mean sex. There's nothing wrong with that, but I wanted more, you know?"
Red nodded seriously. “I know."
"The Treachery was a little… xenophobic, if I'm being blunt. They didn't approve of mingling with shifters outside of our group, and obviously humans were out of the question. By this time, we'd already made a bad impression on most of the other raven treacheries, so finding a mate outside the group became impossible."
"That would make anybody desperate," Red said, wincing with sympathy. "I'm glad the pack doesn't act like that."
"Me too. They’re a good bunch. I'm not used to people being so overly nice."
"Ha! I had the same thought when I first joined."
"Anyway, those were the circumstances that led me to decide to choose a mate within the Treachery. But I wasn't really the one who made the choice. That was Ryker. He approached me and suggested the idea of being my mate, so I agreed."
Red was back to looking prickly. I could tell he didn't like this part of the story, and for some bizarre reason, that was satisfying to me.
"Can I ask you a weird question?"
