Glancing at my paw, I realized it would be easier to keep clean in human form, but if Farley really was stuck shifted into his animal, it would be rude of me to change.
"Go ahead and shift," Farley commanded, as if he knew what I was thinking.
"But..."
"Do it. Don't worry about me. I'll shift if I want to."
Despite his confidence, I didn't believe him. Any other shifter in his position would've been in human form by now. But I had to admit, he was a damn good liar.
Why didn't that bother me? It was strange. Farley was clearly hiding something, yet I didn't care. Maybe it was because he'd already shown me kindness multiple times. Somebody who went out of their way to help others couldn't be all bad.
And there wassomethingabout him that ignited my curiosity and kept me coming back for more.
"Nah," I said, curling up in a fox-shaped ball against the cool stone. "I'll stay like this."
Farley stared at me like I was an idiot. The feathers on his chest fluffed up in irritation. "Why?"
I smiled. "I don't want you to be lonely."
Farley went totally still. He was stunned. A ripple went over his feathers and he shook them out before hopping to the furthest wall of the alcove.
"One hour rest, then we leave again," he mumbled.
I closed my eyes, still smiling. "That's fine with me."
7
Farley
Abort,abort, abort.
Abort the fucking mission.
That was the blaring red signal blasting in my head for the past hour.
This wasn't supposed to happen.
Myingeniousplan got Quinn hurt. I never wanted that. Fuck my stupid idea. We'd take the other route, the easy one, if it meant that Quinn stayed safe.
Why the hell did I care so much about Quinn? I barely knew him,andhe was an alpha. My enemy.
But Quinn was different. When I expected him to act one way, he turned around and did the opposite. It pissed me off that he didn't fit the dickhead alpha mold I kept trying to shove him into.
We were supposed to be taking a break but I spent the whole damned time thinking about him. His red hair (both on his human head and his fox pelt), his dark eyes, and worst of all, his stupid personality. His stupidly kind, funny personality.
I wanted to roundhouse kick my brain into the sun.
This was not supposed to happen. I wasusingQuinn. He was the only one who could remove my leg band. All I needed was one ounce of trust to approach him, get him to take it off, then bounce forever.
Unfortunately, I fucked up my trust measurements and overshot them. The single ounce turned into more. Into too much.
Against all my knowledge and morals, IlikedQuinn. And that pissed me off. How could I like an alpha after everything they'd put me through? After what I'd seen at the Society?
If I was smart, I'd do it now and get it over with. Ask Quinn to remove the leg band. Leave. Done. End of story.
I was starting to think I wasn't that smart.
I didn't want to leave his company, which I enjoyed more than I should. I tried to reason with myself. It had to be because Quinn was the only non-finch shifter I'd met in years, right? That had to be it. He was new and novel, and that made him interesting to me.
