I rolled my eyes with a short laugh. “Keep dreaming.”
Sage didn’t know the truth either, which was that I had no chance in hell of having a fated mate. If his implication was that this airborne stranger was the one for me, he was going to be sorely disappointed. Fated mates didn’t just drop out of the sky.
“Let’s leave him to rest for now,” Hugo said. “But I don’t want to leave him alone. Would anyone volunteer to—”
“I will,” I said instantly. The idea of anyone else being alone with my stranger wasn’t going to fly.
Wait, I thought.Why did I think of him asmystranger?
I shook off the moment of craziness. Just because I’d been the one to find him, and just because he checked me out earlier, didn’t make him mine.
In any case, I was glad nobody objected. Hugo nodded and the others gave us some space in a private alcove where we could both stay dry.
I remained in my fox form to keep the stranger warm. It didn’t matter if I matched his human form because he wasn’t awake to see it anyway, so I stayed a fox until he woke up. Whenever that was. I hoped it was soon because if he spent any more time unconscious I’d start to get truly worried.
I watched the slow rise and fall of his chest. I examined him carefully, wanting to make sure that he wasn’t bleeding and didn’t have any broken bones or anything. He had plenty of scrapes and scratches across his tanned skin, but no gushing wounds. Still, I imagined that he would be incredibly sore from the awful fall.
Miraculously, he seemed to be in one piece. Judging by the fact that he wasn’t charred or burnt, I concluded that he’d somehow managed to avoid being hit by lightning. I don’t know what he was thinking to fly during a lightning storm. Was he bold or foolish or both?
Rain continued to pitter-patter outside the alcove. It made my eyelids droopy, but I didn’t want to fall asleep and miss a moment with the stranger just in case he woke up. I imagined he’d be confused as to where he was and whoIwas.
My gaze lifted to his face. He was incredibly handsome, with a hooked nose and a strong jawline. He had wild, messy black hair, which I imagined looked like that all the time, not just when he fell down from the sky.
Of course, there was the pressing matter ofnotlooking at his dick, since he was naked after shifting. I needed to ask Remington to grab him some clothes when he woke up.
A soft groan pulled me from my thoughts. I perked up, excited that the stranger was rousing. He blearily opened his eyes and blinked them a few times. He looked up at the dirt ceiling of the alcove and seemed to register that he was somewhere new.
His gaze slowly drifted in my direction, where it widened. Once again it lingered, raking over me longer than was usually necessary. Not that I minded.
“Feeling better?” I asked.
Warmth crept into his eyes as he smiled at me. “Sort of. I feel like total crap in the physical department, but waking up next to a cute man does wonders for that.”
I smirked at him. At least he had a sense of humour. “How hard did you hit your head?”
“Not as hard as I could have, thanks to you.” He winked. “Seriously though, thank you. Who knows what would’ve happened if I didn’t have a guardian angel there to save me?”
Nothing good, that was for sure. I shuddered to think about the stranger’s fate if I hadn’t been standing in the right place at the right time.
It occurred to me that I still didn’t know his name, but the way I felt was like I was speaking to an old friend. It was strange.
Since I was the host, I figured I’d better go first. “I’m Red. What can I call you?”
The stranger chuckled warmly. “You sure are. When I was falling, I got tunnel vision on that bright coat of yours. I thought it was my own blood. I was glad to find out it was just a very soft patch of fur belonging to a handsome fox shifter.”
I grinned, but he wasn’t going to escape my question by being coy or complimenting me, even though I wasn’t opposed to that. “If you don’t tell me your name, I’ll have to make one up for you. And as you can tell by the name I chose, I’m not exactly the most imaginative guy in the world.”
The stranger’s brow quirked a little bit when I mentioned I had chosen my own name but he didn’t comment on it. “All right, tell me then. Whatwouldyou call me?”
I put my finger to my lips in a demonstration of deep thought. “Hmm… how about Meteor?”
He burst into laughter, then winced and began coughing. I regretted making him laugh, because even though I loved the sound of it, I’d inadvertently caused him pain. When I tentatively reached out to try and comfort him, he held up a hand to indicate that he was okay.
“I’m fine, foxy, don’t worry about me,” he said.
The nickname amused me. Gods knew I wouldn’t be able to be so carefree if I was in the same amount of pain. But the fact that he was injured worried me.
“Come on now, don’t make that sad face,” he said, giving me a smile. “I told you I’m fine.”
