Weston
My prey waseasy to spot with its glimmering golden scales. It was a sizable fish, probably some kind of carp with a mutation to give it that bright gold appearance. If it was a wild animal, then I was surprised it managed to last this long. But if it was someone's discarded pond pet, then I was doing the local ecosystem a favour by getting rid of it.
It thrashed in my talons. I gripped it harder. Even the most slippery fish never escaped my grasp. I prided myself on my good catch rate. I had never once lost a piece of prey once I sank my claws into it.
But this fish was sure as hell trying. I was high into the sky now, soaring as I searched for a good place to perch and eat. Most of the time prey gave up by now, knowing there was no escape, but this one didn't give up. It made me laugh. Even though I still planned on eating it, I respected its tenacity. I lived for a good challenge.
But then—
"Let go of me, asshole!"
I stalled. The voice coming from the fish was hoarse and choked, like a person unable to breathe. And then I realized what a monumental mistake I’d made.
The prey in my talons was not a mute animal. It was a shifter.
I thought fast. An aquatic shifter in their animal form would revert to human once they ran out of air. But if that happened now, dozens of feet in the air—
I didn't entertain the idea. I wouldn't let it happen.
I folded my wings and dove, my force of will so powerful that my speed matched that of a peregrine falcon. We didn't have much time. I'd already been carrying this fish—this shifter—for moments too long. It was only a matter of time until he—
There.
A pond glittered in the sunlight right beneath my trajectory. It was close. Even if I didn't make it in time, if we both shifted right before hitting the surface—
An ancient form of magic surged through the fish. His body pulsated, stretched, going from fish to human in seconds flat. In a panic, I released my talons so as not to hurt his fragile human skin, but I didn't want him to go into a freefall either. As soon as I felt the shift taking over him, I did the same, slipping quickly into my human form and grabbing his arms.
"Hold on!" I yelled over the rush of the wind.
The fish-turned-human only had a moment to let out a high-pitched yelp before we crashed into the water. The pond exploded upward in our wake, erupting in a huge splash. We were both plunged halfway down the pond by gravity. Even though I knew a fish shifter couldn't drown under most circumstances, I looked for the man and lifted him up anyways. I wasn't thinking about my own situation.
We gasped for air as we surfaced. I felt terrible as the man coughed and sputtered, trying to fill his lungs.
"Are you all right?" I asked. I noticed my hand was still gripping his arm. I let go to give him some space.
The man nodded and held up one finger while he took a second to get control of himself. When he could finally breathe again, he sighed. "Sorry."
"Why are you sorry?" I asked. "I'm the one who should be apologizing. That was careless of me. I'm deeply sorry for putting you through that."
The man paused, then glanced at me.
It was now that I got a good look at him as well. He had light skin, dark eyes and appeared to be mixed-race. His features were beautiful, like that of a model or a sculpture. But the most striking trait was his long, flowing golden hair that stretched all the way down to his waist. At least, it looked like it would have, if it wasn't currently floating on the surface of the water. It surrounded him like a halo.
I usually wasn't one to focus on appearances. They mattered less to me than what was on the inside. If an alpha didn't meet my standards, I didn't give a crap what he looked like. But I had to admit, this man piqued my interest.
But what was he? Even with his mild features, there was something about his aura that didn't strike me asomega. Yet he didn't have the overbearing presence I was used to encountering in alphas.
I loved being an osprey shifter, but one of the downsides me and most other bird shifters experienced was a poor sense of smell. Unlike many mammal shifters like wolves or bears, it was harder for us to rely on scent as a reliable marker.
Despite my curiosity, I wasn't about to be rude by asking him right away. There was still the fact that I had just hunted him to deal with.
"Um," the golden-haired man said, picking up a thick truss of hair and threading his fingers through it as he spoke. Then he shook his head like he'd been distracted. "Sorry. What did you say?"
Something about his mannerisms amused me. I smiled. "I was apologizing for snatching you out of the water and nearly suffocating you. I'm sorry. If I had known you were a shifter, I never would have taken you."
"Oh, that's okay. I mean…" He laughed. "It's kinda hard to tell, isn't it?"
"Perhaps. But I'm still remorseful." That part wasn't entirely true.
