Page 39 of Shiny Things

“Then we’ll deal with it and start the compatibility mating process. You are mine, Kim. I don’t want anyone else.”

I was starting to freak out. This was happening too fast. I needed to think about it some more. I was acting emotionally after seeing him accept my family.

“Babe. Shift,” he ordered.

Without waiting for me, he shifted right there in my bedroom.

I’d seen his bird a dozen times. He never hid him from me. I was the chicken in this relationship.

He squawked at me impatiently.

I took a deep breath and let the familiar shiver roll over me as I transitioned into my bird.

Staring at Elias’s raven, I started to freak out. I had no idea what to expect, but I had expected something magnificentto happen like the Earth quaking, or the sky opening up with a choir of angels, or something to tell me for certain if he was meant to be mine or not.

But none of that happened.

His bird slowly and curiously approached mine.

I overreacted and started flapping my wings. It brushed against one of his and a sudden calm came over me.

Mine,I heard my raven whisper.

Excitedly, I jumped back and started flapping my wings. He flew in a circle above me and then wrapped his wings around me and lifted us into the air as one. In my freak out, I knocked us off balance, and we fell down on to the bed.

I bounced once and shifted back into my skin. Tears streamed down my face.

Elias shifted and pulled me into his arms as he wiped my tears with the pad of his thumb.

“I heard her,” I told him.

“I told you, babe. You are mine.”

He kissed me hard. I could taste my salty tears as I continued to cry.

Mine,my raven said once more.

I pulled away to stare at him in awe.

“You’re really my true mate.”

“I knew it all along.”

I smacked him playfully and laughed. “You did not.”

“I did.”

“There’s no way you could know that for sure. Our ravens had to meet first.”

“I know. But somehow, I just knew.”

He kissed me again, and then slowly, beautifully, he made love to me.

We didn’t seal our bond right away. I think we were both too emotionally overwhelmed for that. But it was real. He was mine and I was his. Suddenly, nothing else mattered.

*****

Elias stayed the night with me, and I was too happy to even care. As I headed to work there was a perma-grin on my face.

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