"Red, I consider you a close friend," I said. "Surely I’ve made that obvious by now."
A soft blush spread across his cheeks, a deeper colour than his hair. Our gazes lingered on each other's for a moment before Red suddenly stood up. He was by the exit before I could open my mouth to object.
"Orpheus."
"What is it?" I asked urgently. Had I said something wrong? Why was he in such a hurry to leave?
Red hesitated for a long beat before speaking. He was only half looking over his shoulder, as if he couldn't meet my eyes. "I know your wings are healed. You're free to go. I'm not like Ryker. I won't chain you down."
"Red…"
"But if you're still here in the morning," he said quietly, "then I'll tell you."
And with that, he vanished into the night.
I was left with a choice. My wings were healed and I was free to leave. All I had to do was spread my wings and fly.
But that meant leaving Red behind.
I weighed my options and found that, in my heart of hearts, there wasn't any choice at all.
I stepped out of the alcove into the cool night breeze. The shift crashed into me like a wave, and I raised my wings, taking to the sky.
9
Red
He wasn't goingto stay. He’d made that very clear. The guy practically couldn't have a conversation without mentioning the fact that he wasn't sticking around for long.
As I stormed off from the alcove, my eyes were hot with tears. I wouldn't let them fall. I blinked hard, and when that didn't work I rubbed them away viciously. It had been a long time since someone had made me cry, and I intended to keep it that way. It wasn't going to be at the hands of some playboy alpha who didn't want me for anything more than a fling that I didn't even give him.
Frustration twisted in my chest. I knew I was being too harsh on Orpheus. His intentions were clear, and he told me them upfront so that I wouldn't get my hopes up, yet I'd gone and done it anyway. It was my fault that my heart was in such turmoil right now.
But the final arrow between the ribs was the sound of a bird taking flight behind me. I shut my eyes. Orpheus was leaving and I would never see him again. Maybe that was for the best. Without him around, I could finally focus on moving forward instead of constantly moping around, thinking about how we couldn't be together.
I shifted into my fox form and ran into a nearby thicket of trees, needing to get as far away from the grove as possible, if only for an hour or so. I wasn't irresponsible enough to vanish into the night but I seriously needed a gods-damned moment to myself.
A deep, bellowing caw of a raven came from above. I ran faster. Was that a mute animal or was it Orpheus screwing around with me? If it was the latter, that was a really shitty thing to do. It made me even more pissed off at him than I already was.
I gritted my teeth. If I ever ran into that asshole again, then gods help me—
"Going somewhere?"
Orpheus's voice coming from the raven confirmed that it was him messing with me. And my heart.
"Don't you have somewhere to be?" I snapped.
"Not really," he replied, sounding almost amused.
It was so infuriating that I skidded to a halt and glared up at him. But when I stopped, he flew down and landed in front of me. If he was here to say goodbye, I didn't want to hear it. I wished he'd just go.
"Orpheus—" I began, irritation tinging my voice.
"I'm staying, Red. I'm not going anywhere."
I stared at him flatly. He was being a jerk before, but this was straight up cruel.
"I know you gave me until morning to decide," Orpheus went on, a twinkle in his pitch-black eyes. "But I couldn't wait that long."
