Hovering in the air above my head was a very small, very angry bird.
I stared at it, still not quite registering what just happened. I'd never been attacked by a bird before and this one was smaller than my fist.
It didn't leave. It just hovered there, flapping its wings furiously. It was acting too strangely to just be a mute animal. But was it a shifter? I didn't even know there were shifters of bird species this tiny.
"Um, hello?" I called.
The bird – I think it was a finch – glared at me with his little beady eyes. "What do you want?"
So itwasa shifter. His voice, despite its distortion and higher pitch from being in such a small form, dripped with venom.
When I was too confused to speak, the finch demanded, "What are you? Alpha or omega?"
I was starting to think the blow to the head was making me hallucinate. This tiny, pissed off bird was actually intimidating me a little.
"I'm an alpha?" I replied, still confused.
That was apparently the wrong answer. The finch charged me again, stopping short of my face by one inch. His talons – maybe a few millimetres long at the most – were poised and ready to claw my eyes out.
"Don't take one step further," he warned me.
I blinked. Was I missing something?
"And why is that?" I asked gently.
"Don't ask questions," he growled. It was both comical and scary to hear a finch growl. "If you were smart, you'd turn around and leave. Though I guess I can't expect an alpha to bethatsmart."
"Whoa," I said. "Listen, buddy, I think we got off on the wrong foot. Why don't we start from the beginning?"
"I'mnotyour buddy."
I sighed. Good thing I had a lot of patience from growing up in a house full of rowdy family members. It would take more than just some bad attitude from a minuscule bird to make me turn around and go home.
"Listen," I said calmly. "I'm actually on a very important mission right now, so if you'll excuse me…"
I sidestepped the finch and took a step forward, but he cut me off, flitting into my path. His small size gave him a speed advantage. As a human, I definitely couldn't outpace him. But as a fox I could. I decided to give him one more chance.
"So, if you're not gonna get out of my way, I'm just gonna shift and walk around you," I said. "Are we cool with that?"
Steam was practically coming out of the finch's ear holes. I was surprised the combination of heat from the sun and the force of his anger didn't fry him into a little chicken nugget.
"No. Not cool," he ground out. "Turn around. Now."
If he was a shifter, why didn't he just turn back into human form? Wouldn't that be a lot easier than flying around as a tiny bird? I didn't know what this finch looked like as a man, butIwasn't that big. Hell, even my omega cousin Ashe was taller and stronger than me. There was a good chance that he could just manhandle me and save himself all this trouble.
But for some reason, he wasn't shifting back.
I couldn't help myself from poking a little fun at him. Smirking, I said, "Are you going to make me? Looking likethat?"
That was the wrong thing to say. I yelped as the finch shifter shot into my face, battering me with his small wings. It didn't hurt at all – it actually created a refreshing breeze in this heat – but I didn't want him to hurt himself since his body was so fragile.
He let out a spectacularly vile string of curse words. The ones I was able to repeat without turning red in the face were, "Stupid gods-damned alpha!"
Okay, so this guy clearly had problems with alphas. Good info. I could work with that.
I backed off, holding up my palms in peace. "Okay, okay, I get it. I'm an alpha and you don't like them. That's cool. Let me just stand over here, further way."
The finch glared at me, huffing and puffing with anger. He didn't move.
