Page 4 of Fastlander Fallen

“Stalker!” she accused him, skidding to a stop in the loose gravel. She would absolutely fight a man.

“I am not stalking you,” he growled in a voice that said he definitely wasn’t a human. “I just need you to take this fucking bagel back. It will simplify both of our lives. You can’t give me a gift.”

“I’ll take your gift,” the other guy called.

“Fuck off!” she yelled at the exact same time that Bagel Boy yelled the same thing.

With a huff of frustration, she yanked the bread from his hand and chucked it into the woods as hard as she could. A humongous raven dipped down, snatched it out of the air, flapped its enormous wings, and landed on a low-hanging tree branch. The branch sagged under its weight.

“That’s not a normal raven,” she said to Bagel Boy.

He huffed a sigh, his hands resting on his hips as he glared at the bird. “That was unfortunate. Look, lady, you should tell him that’s not a gift.”

“What are you freaking talking about?”

He leaned closer, and his face wasn’t so friendly. His teeth were gritted and his eyes even lighter. “Some shifter species take a gift as a sign of a bond. It’s commitment. If you want to leave here without an actual stalker, you’ll tell the bird that’s not a fucking gift.”

Her mouth had fallen open somewhere in the middle of the speech. She clacked it closed and cleared her throat. “Raven…man? That isn’t a gift. I have no interest in dating you, that is just a discarded breakfast.”

The raven kicked the bagel off the limb, took an actual bird shit, and then flew away. Lovely.

“I’m going to go home now,” Corey mumbled, watching the rude creature fly off.

“It’s probably best.”

Emotional, she turned to him. “Thank you for helping me stay single forever.”

He huffed a long sigh and rolled his eyes closed. “Are you going to tell me your problems?”

She lifted her chin higher into the air. “I have no problems, my life is perfect. I don’t need attention or affection or companionship or a cousin who pays attention to me—”

“So yes, you’re telling me your problems—”

“I’ll listen to your problems!” the other man called from the crowd.

“I will kill you,” Bagel Boy assured him.

He and the man glared at each other, and then the man disappeared into the crowd.

Bagel Boy, with his godlike beauty and eyes that had probably felled a hundred women, looked back down at her. “Would you like to unload your feelings?” he gritted out, enunciating each word slowly.

“It doesn’t sound like you even want to listen,” she groused.

He clenched his fists at his sides. “As a thank-you for unpairing us, I will sit still and not roll my eyes over your fragile human emotions while you talk about yourself. That is my offer.”

She crossed her arms over her chest and glanced back at the trailer, where Hallie was calling a new name. She swiveled back to Bagel Boy. “Promise not to judge me?”

“No.”

“Fair enough. It all started the day my parents were super horny in the summer of 19—”

“No. Start with why you’re angry, not at the day of your conception.”

“Fine. My cousin called me out of the blue five months ago, and I was there for her during a really hard time, and now she’s the mate of Gunner, the next Alpha of Damon’s Mountains, and I’m…I’m…”

“Nothing?” Bagel Boy guessed.

“Yeah.”

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