Nishiki
The voice startled me.It wasn't one I'd heard before, but it sounded friendly, like the speaker knew who I was.
I looked up to see the big blackbird flying towards us. From the voice and intent way it approached, I knew it was a shifter. I immediately recalled what Red had said earlier about his mate Orpheus, a raven shifter—he had been helping Nero to search for me.
I was a little embarrassing to have been found likethis, but hey, he had a mate and kid of his own. I'm sure he would understand.
Orpheus shifted a second before he touched down, landing as a man with windswept black hair that fell to his shoulders. He crossed his tanned arms and shot us a grin.
"Seems like I've interrupted something," Orpheus said good-naturedly.
"Quite," I said.
Weston let out a sound that was halfway between a laugh and a sigh. Despite the comical situation that would've been embarrassing to anyone else, Weston was his usual confident self. "Don't mind us. You must be Orpheus the raven. Your mate Red told us about you."
Orpheus puffed up his chest at the mention of his mate.
"That'd be me. And you, with the long, flowing hair, you must be none other than Nishiki."
I smiled sheepishly. "That's me."
I noticed that Orpheus had no trouble making eye contact with Weston as they held a conversation, and the reverse was true as well. I knew that wild shifters had less of an issue about nudity than human society, so I guess that carried over forthisas well. Or maybe it was a bird shifter thing. Who knew? At least this was a lot less awkward than some of my past experiences.
"And you are?" Orpheus asked.
"Weston. I'm an osprey shifter. I would shake your hand, but…"
Orpheus laughed. "Consider it shaken from a distance. Nishiki, Nero is looking for you. He's at the—"
"The lake," I said. "I know."
Orpheus seemed a bit surprised that I knew. He nodded. "He's still there. It seems like he knew you would meet him there."
I smiled. If Nero was certain about that, then maybe he wasn't as panicked as I had originally assumed. That was good.
Orpheus cleared his throat. "Well, that's all settled and no one needs my services any longer, so I have a family to return to." He pulled out a silver spoon from God knows where and wiggled it at us as if it was something important. "And I even got a little souvenir for my son Quinn."
Quinn must've been the little fox cub I'd seen.
Without another word, Orpheus shifted back to his raven form, clutching the spoon in his talons, and took to the sky with a caw. "Good luck untangling soon!"
Weston and I both chuckled.
"Well, that was interesting," I said.
"Indeed. But at least now we know for sure where Nero is."
He was right. I smiled knowing that Nero had the same feeling that I did. It was good to know our bond was real and intact, even though we’d had an argument the last time we had seen each other.
It took a while for our situation to diffuse, but we finally managed to pry ourselves away from each other safely. I blushed, a little embarrassed about the situation and the fact that it was technically my fault, but Weston didn't say anything about it. If anything, he looked completely satisfied. That made me happy.
I thought about what our moment of intimacy meant. If things went well, Weston would be carrying a baby.Ourbaby.
My heart flipped. I never imagined myself as a father, and never even thought about having a child before. It seemed so out of my comfort zone that I never even bothered thinking about it. But since meeting Weston, something had changed. He gave me the confidence I needed to push my own boundaries, to have faith in myself and my own abilities.
And it wasn't just Weston, although he comprised a big part of it. It was also meeting up with the pack again and just how happy they were as one big family. I had liked the kids the first time I met them, but this time they seemed less like fragile, weird aliens and more like what they really were—small, adorable people who needed our love and attention.
And now Weston and I were going to have one of our very own. My chest clenched with excitement.
