“Huh?” I managed to say.
He cocked his head, indicating that he had an attitude even while he was trying to help me. “I said, are you alive?”
I tried to nod, but my body was too sore to accomplish that. Then I tried to say, “I think so, unless I’ve died and gone to heaven,” but all that came out of my mouth was an incomprehensible moan before I passed out again.
3
Red
The flash stormtook me by surprise, but even more surprising was watching a huge black bird rocket down from the sky, almost like he’d been flicked away by the gods themselves.
My first thought was that of an easy meal. A nice crow lunch, already cooked by lightning, even if it was a little charred. But then he hit the ground and shifted into a man and all thoughts of food vanished.
I ran towards him, afraid it was already too late to save him. Selfishly, I worried that the kids would stumble upon him and I’d have to make up an excuse as to why there was a dead guy who had fallen from the sky. But thankfully, he was breathing and semi-conscious when I found him.
My first shock was how handsome he was. I’d never met a bird shifter. Were they all so attractive?
Realizing I should probably help him instead of gushing about his appearance, I shifted to human form and gently tried to shake him to see if he would react. When I asked if he was okay, he stared at me for a while, a little unfocused but definitely all there. That was a relief. The longer he stared at me, the more I thought he’d lost some brain cells on the way down, but as his eyes roamed over my face, I realized he was checking me out. I withheld a snort of amusement. The guy just crash landed from the damn sky and that’s all he could think about? Definitely an alpha from behaviour alone, though the pleasant, musky scent wafting off him confirmed that as well.
Still, it wasn’t like anything could happen between us, and even if it could, I knew I should probably focus on saving his life first.
“Hey, are you alive?” I asked when he hadn’t said anything.
“Huh?”
I repeated myself. He blinked a little and tried to respond but failed to create a coherent sentence. When he slumped into unconsciousness, concern flooded me. I needed to make sure he would wake up again. But now I had a huge alpha-sized problem. I wasn’t a puny guy by any means, but I didn’t think I could haul this guy over my shoulder and carry him back to the grove. I needed help, but at the same time some odd part of me deep down wanted to be alone with the stranger. I quickly realized that was stupid and that helping him was the most important issue right now.
I shifted to fox form and let out the loudest, highest pitched cry I could muster. It was no magnificent wolf howl, but hey, a guy does what he can.
In the meantime, I crawled over the stranger’s chest and curled up on his chest to keep him warm and somewhat dry. The torrential rain had died down into a light drizzle, but the guy had been through enough and I didn’t want to add being soaking wet to his list of problems.
He continued to breathe, which was a relief. The slight rise and fall of his chest was strangely pleasant. I wanted to lean in and smell his breath, but that was weird and creepy so I refrained.
My call seemed to work. A few members of the pack came running towards us.
“Red, are you okay? What happened?” Morgan called. His calm demeanour and physical strength were welcome. Despite being an omega, he was as strong as most of the alphas in the pack, which was something I always admired about him.
He knelt down beside the stranger, and then was joined by his mate Dax.
“Who is this guy?” Dax asked. “Where the hell did he come from?”
“He fell from the sky,” I said.
Dax scoffed at me. “Now is not the time for jokes.”
“I’m not joking.” My whiskers twitched impatiently. “He literally did. He’s a bird shifter. A crow or raven or something.”
Dax’s eyes widened. He looked a little embarrassed for admonishing me. He grunted and said, “Let’s get this guy back to the grove.”
I shifted to human form to help Morgan and Dax carry the stranger home. I felt strange to relinquish control to them but I didn’t know why. Maybe I was just protective over this stranger because I was the first person to run into him, like he was my responsibility somehow.
Back at the grove, the others joined us to see what all the fuss was about. I explained to them that the stranger was a bird shifter who must’ve been injured during the storm and that yes, he did quite literally fall from the sky.
“It’s a good thing he didn’t break his neck,” Len said with a shudder.
“He didn’t hit the ground,” I said. “He crashed into me. I probably have the dent mark in my fur to prove it.”
“Whoa,” Sage said in awe. He was carrying his baby Starry in his arms and she peered curiously at the newcomer. “You were really at the right place at the right time.” There was a mischievous gleam in Sage’s eyes as he said, “Almost like it was destiny.”
