I raise the cracker to Bird’s lips.
He slowly nibbles it, until his soft lips brush against my fingers.
He licks my fingers, slowly and deliberately.
Handfeeding also feeds my inner Alpha.
I rumble a satisfied growl. My pupils dilate.
Bird presses a final kiss to the tips of my fingers, before sitting back.
“May I ask you for something?” Bird’s eyes light with sudden excitement.
Wary, I eye him.
What the hell is he going to ask for?
With Bird, I’ve come to realize that it could be anything from cheese on his cracker next time to being tied to the bed by our winter scarfs.
“Uh-huh,” I reply, guardedly.
“Will you do another magic trick for me?”
He sits back on his heels.
I stare at him.
On the journey here, when Bird and I were starving and freezing in the back of the freight train, I tried to distract both of us by doing as many magic tricks as I could with almost no props.
It was hardly a show.
Only my brother has seen my magic before.
Mars would look at me with the same wide-eyed amazement like I hung the moon, begging me to show himmy new trickslike I was truly magical.
Maybe part of him believed that I was.
I didn’t think that I would find anyone in the world who looked at me in the same way.
I shrug. “Why would I put on a show for a thief?”
Bird pulls back from me in outrage. “We both stole that shit from the campers.”
“I’m not talking about the frat Alphas. Haven’t you taken something from me?”
“Only your heart.”
I roll my eyes. “Turn out your pockets.”
Bird scowls, grabbing a cracker to throw at me. “I didn’t take anything.”
“Then you won’t mind turning out your pockets.”
Grumbling, Bird thrusts his hand into his pocket. “You’re going to owe me the biggest, groveling apology on your knees when…”
He trails off.
I savor the look of shock on his face.
