His eyes, dark and furious, pierced me. I felt my cheeks growing hot under his relentless gaze.
Curiosity might've killed the cat, but foxes weren't immune either. Out of all my questions, I picked the one that seemed easiest to answer.
"Say, Farley. Why are you wearing that leg band?" I asked.
Farley stiffened. I felt like smacking my forehead. Could I sayonething that didn't upset him? Because I didn't want to do that anymore.
"None of your–" Farley bit his tongue. Then he muttered, "It's nothing."
It certainly didn't seem like nothing, but obviously he didn't want to talk about it. Not wanting to push him, I shrugged. "All right. Well, I'll be on my way then, if that's okay with you."
I didn't really want to leave but I couldn't stay here talking to Farley forever, especially since he didn't seem interested in chatting. Besides, I had a mission to accomplish.
But as I took a step forward, Farley's eyes raked over me as if trying to see past my body and into my soul. The intensity of his gaze was startling. He was such a small bird, yet his presence was anything but small.
When Farley finally found whatever answer he was searching for, he grunted. "Fine. Go."
"Thank you, O Lord of the Mountain," I said, bowing.
He let out a snort, which was the closest thing to a laugh he'd given me, so I accepted it gratefully. I walked past the tree he perched on, waiting for him to speak or attack me again or doanything.But he didn't. He watched me leave, his eyes not straying from me until we were out of each other's sight.
Once I was around the corner, I shuddered and inhaled a breath. What was this strange feeling in my chest?
5
Farley
My heart had not stopped racingsince I divebombed that alpha.
Quinn. That was his name.
I tried chalking it up to the adrenaline, but that only got me so far. He was out of sight now, so why was I still staring in the direction he'd gone?
A strange sensation crawled under my feathers. I shook myself to get rid of it.
I'd been correct in my initial hunch that Quinn was an alpha, but he threw me for a loop for the rest of the conversation. So he wasn't trying to find the Society and pick himself up a nice passive omega. Either that or he was a very good liar.
Besides, I was being overly paranoid. The Society didn't just let any alpha walk in and pick up an omega. Santino had to approve the match. Besides, I didn't even know what kind of shifter Quinn was. If he wasn't a finch alpha, and I doubted he was, he was shit out of luck at the Society. Santino would never let him into his realm.
I tried to remember what Quinn said. Didn't he mention something about being on an important mission?
I swore at my own recklessness. I'd been so busy trying to push him away from the Society that I didn't get any good information out of him.
I wondered what kind of shifter he was. I conjured up the image of him in my mind, still fresh from our meeting. His dark red hair gleamed in the sunlight and his eyes were jet black, the same as mine. His human form wasn't very big, so I didn't think he shifted into a huge predator like a bear or wolf. He was lean, but not skinny. Lithe and agile. A cat, maybe?
More importantly, why the hell was I still thinking about him? He was gone now and out of my life for good. I had more immediate concerns to deal with instead of daydreaming about a damn stranger.
I glared down at my leg band. The fact that Quinn brought it up made me self-conscious. Was it really that noticeable? Frustrated, I bit down on it with my beak but it accomplished nothing. When Santino first put it on, I spent three days straight biting it and smashing it into nearby objects to no avail. I couldn't believe I trusted that fucking bastard. Never again would I let an alpha get so close to me.
Except... How else was I supposed to get it off?
After three days of fruitlessly trying to remove the leg band, Emory told me the secret about how they worked. He said it casually, the same way he said everything, but the truth was deeply insidious.
Only an alpha could remove the leg band.
At first I didn't believe him. I thought there must've been some other way, some trick I could use to get the damn thing off. But nothing worked. No amount of physical force could break it – at least, nothing that I could muster as a finch. It might've been a different story if I was in human form, but that was obviously not an option.
I’d promised to go back to the Society and free the other omegas, but that was impossible in this state. I needed legs and raw strength and fucking opposable thumbs.
