“Of me?” he asked.
“No, of your rejection. Of finding out that the only man I’ve ever loved couldn’t look at me, or worse, looked at me with disgust.”
“I could never, alpha.” Joshua leaned in and kissed my eyes and then my beak. His hands kneaded my shoulders and made their way down my waist. “I think…I think I’m in love with you, mate. Isn’t that what shifters call each other? Mates?”
I nodded and grabbed his hips, grinding his hardness against my own.
“Yes, Joshua. You are my mate. My omega. My one and only. And I don’tthinkI’m in love with you. I am. Every cell. Every feather. Every bone both hollow and full. I love you, all the parts of me love you.”
I switched on the glimmer, needing his lips on mine, to feel his tongue plunging into my mouth once again. His hands delved into my hair and he pulled it at the back, urging me on.
“Hey, wait, you can turn into a real crow, can’t you?”
“I can.”
“I want to see that sometime, please.”
We began kissing again and he sharply pulled back once more. “The trinkets. At my house. Every day a new one on my porch. In the exact same spot. Those were from you.”
I moved and laid him on his back with me hovering above him. “Get used to it, omega mine. You’ll be getting a lot of trinkets from now on. All my treasures and gifts and blessings. They all belong to you.”
He bucked his hips and I lost my mind. The scent of peaches and whipped honey surged through my senses. It was all him. “And what shall I give you back, alpha?”
I rumbled deep in my chest. Didn’t even know my crow could make that sound until that moment. “Give me your love every day, omega. Trade me your heart and your affection and I’ll be your Crow King forever and ever.”
He reached for my face, pulling me down on top of him. “That sounds like a good deal.”
After mating three more times, we stopped at the bakery for breakfast, and Joshua said he had to have coffee. It was entirely too sweet for me, but it made him moan in a way I strived for. We decided to go to his farmhouse and get working.
“How am I ever gonna finish this?” he asked.
“With my help. We can do it together. We’re in this together now.”
Chapter Fourteen
Joshua
My alpha. Mine. He was everything I never dreamed of and yet on some level always knew had to be out there. The right person for me. I just never dreamed he’d be the Crow King. A creature of myth and legend. And my person? My “mate”?
I was fairly sure we hadn’t done everything to close that deal, but for the moment, what we had was so special, it was already more than enough. He came over every day and helped me get my house ready to live in. It had indeed been largely cosmetic issues, and as we worked on each room in turn, the good bones began to reveal even more goodness. The farmhouse was well over a century old, and whoever had built it and lived in it had truly loved the place.
“Look at this bathroom.” I stood in the upstairs hallway bath, one that serviced the two guest rooms. “Even the tile is still perfect.” It was just dirty and needed new toilet guts and a handheld shower installed because the antique clawfoot had no shower. And most modern people counted on their being one. “That gray paint is perfect with the aqua tile. I don’t think it’s original though, the tile, do you?” It was on the floor and halfway up all the walls.
“No, there would have been no indoor bath when it was built. But it’s still pretty old.” He gave a buff to the faucet. “Nice though, right?”
“More than nice. We’re getting close to livable.”
Corvus nodded, his Crow King head on full display. He’d explained to me how much it took to maintain the “glimmer,” and I assured him that I didn’t need him to do that for me, which sure seemed to make him relax. “This bathroom is ready. Let’s go look at the bathroom close to your bedroom.”
It was not an en suite. The fact that a farmhouse like this had two baths was already kind of a miracle, from what he’d told me. But it was right next door to the bedroom, and I hoped that at some point, I could remodel so it was enterable from the master. Master meaning slightly bigger bedroom that had a legit closet, unlike the other two that featured free-standing wardrobes.
“All right. But we can’t get this lucky twice.” I led the way and stepped into the room. “It’s a real mess.”
“And needs the faucets and such replaced. Also…I think the toilet is cracked.” He looked at it and shook his head. “We should make a list and then order the parts we need.”
Suddenly, I didn’t feel like remodeling today. Something occurred to me that had not before. “Corvus, if you’re the Crow King, and a shifter, you presumably have another form? I mean, I know nothing about such things, but is your head the only part that becomes a crow? Because in the legends, there’s a guy who can fly in there.”
He looked up from the toilet, blinking. “Of course there’s a crow. Why are you asking that when we’re talking about plumbing?”
