It probably wasn't the right thing to say. My guess was that Farley had some kind of trauma related to alphas, based on our initial meeting and the fact that he was wearing a disgusting shift-blocker that only an alpha could remove. I doubted another omega put that thing on him. It could only be the work of alphas trying to control him.
The idea infuriated me. They'd be sorry if I ever got my hands on them.
Darkness spread across the sky, turning the pink and orange of the sunset into deep blue. Stars twinkled above us. We weren't anywhere near the peak yet.
"Looks like we'll have to spend the night on the mountain," I said.
Farley grunted. "Looks like it."
He hadn't made much eye contact with me since shifting to human form. It stung. Had I done something wrong again? I didn't want to hurt him anymore.
"How's your hand?" Farley asked, not glancing over his shoulder.
I turned it over, examining the wound. A dull throb lingered but I was too distracted by Farley to care. "It's been worse."
"Good thing you're walking on two legs now. It'll heal faster."
A small smile spread over my lips. Was he worried about me?
"It's getting dark," I said. "Did you want to stop for the night?"
Farley paused mid-step. He looked up at the sky, which was slowly being swallowed by blackness. "Sure."
We found an old animal den, probably the abandoned house of a bear. It was spacious but still small enough to feel cozy. We took opposite sides of the den. Although only four feet stretched between us, it felt like an uncrossable chasm. I tried not to think too hard about the fact that Farley and I barely spoke since he shifted, but it was impossible when he was right in front of me. So close, yet so far.
It wasn't that he was ignoring me. If I spoke to him, he responded. But his aura had changed and I didn't know why.
Maybe he just didn't like me as much as I thought he did. That saddened me. I felt connected to him in a way I'd never felt with anyone else.
Ugh, maybe I really was desperate. Desperate for wings and desperate for a fated mate. It was starting to border on pathetic.
Let it go, Quinn. He's not the one. No matter how much you want to believe otherwise.
Even if I got butterflies in my stomach every time I looked at him? Even if there was a feeling deep in my gut that Ineededto be close to him?
I shut my eyes and rested my head against the den wall. If I went to sleep, I could forget about all of this. Until morning, anyway.
Unfortunately, closing my eyes only made it easier to focus on my other senses. Like my sense of smell.
Farley's scent wafted over like the most alluring perfume in the world. I screwed up my nose, begging it not to smell it. Shockingly, that didn't work.
Did I smell this good to Farley, too? Or was he immune since bird shifters usually had a weak sense of smell?
Cursed canine genes,I thought, annoyed.
I thought about the bird shifters I knew back home. There was Uncle Weston, the osprey shifter. He was Cloud and River's omega father. And of course, there was my dad, Orpheus. I wished he was here. I could've used his easygoing advice right about now. It was like I learned to copy those behaviours from him, but inside I was an anxiety-prone fox like my Da, Red.
Thinking about this was getting me nowhere. But just as I attempted to turn my brain off and fall asleep, Farley spoke.
"I left the human city a little over two years ago."
My eyes shot open. Farley was staring out of the mouth of the den. He wasn't looking at anything in particular, like he was lost in the memory.
"It was all right. I didn't hate it as much as other shifters seem to. But it never quite felt like home. Too many humans, not enough shifters. And not others of my own kind. Finch shifters."
I listened in total silence. I'd been curious about Farley's past ever since I met him.
"The worst part, though, was feeling stifled," Farley said. "I wasn't free to shift at will. I had an easier time of it, since I'm a small bird and all. Generic-looking."
