I’m not sure how long it takes, but the vault I’m surrounded by slowly but surely morphs into Creepy Park Guy’s bird cage. Just as quickly as it does, all my senses slam back into place. Vertigo hits me, and it takes me a minute to figure out what’s going on. I’m bigger than normal, which makes sense because I’m definitely not in my human form anymore.
I tower over Ryn and Zeph as they talk to me. The way Ryn’s arms are extended and the rest of his body language tell me that he’s working to calm Pigeon down, but the hurt, confusion, and anger pumping through my gryphon body tell me it’s not working. Treno watches from where he’s leaning against the cave wall to my right. He looks relaxed, but his eyes intensely track every move Pigeon and I make.
Pigeon opens her beak and screams at Ryn. It breaks my heart to hear the pain in her screech. I hate what our mates have done to cause this, and I hate the part I played in adding to the bleeding hurt in her cry too.
“Pidge,”I shout at her from inside my beat-up bird cage, and she reels back as my voice bounces around our mind.
Ryn steps back, apprehension leaking out of his gray eyes. I watch his lips form my name in question, and Pigeon snaps out at him. He dives out of the way, and Treno pushes off the wall like he’s upset and ready to step in.
I’m hit with a wave of rage, like a kick to the chest, and I stumble back.
“Pigeon, I’m so sorry!”I yell at her, but she’s not having it.“I know you’re mad, you have every right to be, but please hear me out,”I beg.
A mental image of a brick wall slamming down between us fills my mind, and I shake my head. I picture myself taking a sledgehammer to it, and it crumbles in front of me like I’m doing exactly that. Pigeon throws obstacle after obstacle at me, and I tear, slice, and smash through them one by one. I’m determined to convince her to hear me out, but that just makes her more determined to throw shit at me.
“I can do this all night, Pigeon,”I call out as she slams a steel wall down, and I mentally shove a welder’s mask down over my face and spark up a torch ready to cut through it.“You can do this as long as you want, or we can cut to the chase and figure shit out, like we’re going to do in the end anyway. We only have each other, Pigeon.”
She flashes me Zeph’s, Ryn’s, and Treno’s faces.
“Right, and these assholes too...maybe...if they don’t kill each other,”I agree.
Pigeon pauses her barrage of barriers and studies me for a moment, like she’s not buying my capitulation. I stare right back.
“I mean, I’m not happy about it, if that’s what you’re looking for. They should have told me.Youshould have told me,”I point out.“I’m not stoked on the situation, and I’m not sure if you’ve noticed that neither are they,”I declare, gesturing to our trio of mates, who just so happen to be—surprise, surprise—arguing again.
Pigeon flings frustration at me like bird shit, and flashes me an image of the vault. I instantly feel like crap again.
“I shouldn’t have done that, Pidge. I was mad. I had every right to be mad,”I quickly add,“but I shouldn’t have shut you out like that. I’m so sorry,”I tell her, but she flicks the apology away with a wing.
She shows me an image of herself back in the cage and me outside of it laughing, and it feels like a slap.
“This isn’t a trick, Pigeon. I will never do that to you again. No matter what. I swear it on everything...like tacos and orgasms and puppies.”
Pigeon rolls her eyes, but I feel a trickle of amusement break through the hurt she’s feeling.
A roar fills the cave, and Zeph springs for Treno. Pigeon’s and my focus immediately goes back to the guys, and I groan and throw my head back in frustration. Pigeon jumps between them and snaps at Zeph and Treno each in turn. They back off immediately, but sorrow washes through Pigeon when Treno and Zeph proceed to yell shit at each other, their insults skimming over our feathers like razor blades. I watch as it dawns on her that this mating situation isn’t the happy gathering she hoped it would be.
I gesture internally at our yelling mates and sigh.“Welcome to the shit show, Pidge.”
6
Ican feel when the shock ripples through her. She really thought they would accept each other and everything would work out. To Pigeon, the mate call was instinctual andhadto be answered. They now belong to her and, in her mind, should happily accept that they now belong to each other too. She doesn’t understand all the other complications and nuances that make all of our connections tenuous and strained. She doesn’t get the human side of things.
I’ve been mad at her for not explaining our gryphon side and how it all works, but I’ve clearly been doing a piss poor job of explaining the human aspects that layer these relationships too. Things likemortal enemiesandwardon’t seem to trump things likeinstinctsandmatein Pigeon’s eyes. She clearly thinks we should all be shacking up and getting our orgy on.
Elation rushes through me, and I study the misplaced emotion for a moment, trying to figure it out. What the hell is she so excited about?
Before I can so much as question her, we’re jumping out of the cave and out into the night. Panic slams through me as we streak through the air. I don’t know how far away we are from Kestrel City exactly, but from what the guys said earlier, it’s not far enough, and there are definitely patrols out looking for us.
“Pigeon!”I shriek at her, completely freaked out. We cannot get caught by Lazza. I don’t care how excited she is to be doing whatever the fuck she’s doing right now.“Pigeon, go back right now!”I order, but she completely ignores me.
I don’t want to force her or fight for control. I think back to the battle we had for control when Pigeon wanted to take out Ryn. It was brutal and did so much damage to our already troubled and wounded relationship. I don’t want to go there again, but I’m not sure what else to do. I want us to figure out how to be together, to listen and trust each other, but we can’t get caught, and she’s not listening.
My instincts tell me to get rid of this beat up bird cage around me and shove Pigeon out of the way. I can try to help her understand later when we’re safe. But that’s the kind of shit I’ve been pulling with Pigeon from the beginning, and I need to show her that I can change.
“Pigeon! You have to listen to me right now, or you could hurt not only us, but your mates too!”I shout at her.
I can feel her focus shift from whatever it is that she’s searching for to me.
