Page 16 of Flock Around and Find Out

I leaned over for my bag, and only his hand on my waist kept me on my feet.

“Let’s go,” he said, guiding me toward the front door.

I shouldn’t go.

It wasn’t just Knot’s voice in my head, but also my mother’s, and every true crime video I’d ever watched. This was an absolutely horrible idea. I should not head out to fuck knew where with some asshole who I’d just met.

However, no matter how good that advice seemed, it couldn’t gain any footing. I couldn’t stop myself from following his lead, from heading out into the cool evening.

I should have called a rideshare—that had been my original plan. Doing so didn’t occur to me as he guided me toward a waiting sports car, the sort that sat so low to the ground it was like an acrobatic trick to get me inside of it.

Getting in was the last thing I remembered, too. I didn’t even recall the door shutting, the car starting, none of that.

It was like the world had grown fuzzier and fuzzier up to that moment, then disappeared to nothing right afterward.

When I opened my eyes again, when my brain jumpstarted back to working—at least as much as it ever did—I found myself… in my bed?

I patted to the side, looking for Ergon.

Nothing.

I forced myself to sit up despite the pounding headache, my dry throat. While I hurt quite a bit, I didn’t ache in those specific spots that implied anything had happened.

I wore the same clothes from the night before, none of them askew. I didn’t feel sore anywhere, no signs of hickies or evidence that he’d done anything.

So he’d just taken me home?

That didn’t sit right at all. I was too smart to believe in there being people who were kind just to be kind, who looked out for others just because it was the right thing to do. That was like a fairy tale, and I didn’t put stock in those anymore.

I looked around, the sun having risen to midday, telling me I’d slept in late, and I couldn’t work out exactly what had happened.

If I was fine now, though, it couldn’t have been that bad…right?

Except, no matter how much I told myself that, how much I wanted to believe it, some little part of me just refused.

I had a feeling that Ergon would come back to bite me in the ass, even if he hadn’t done that last night.

Chapter Four

Galen’s house felt as it always did, something that reassured me. This had been the first place I’d gone when I’d really known what I was, after I’d changed, when everything had been so difficult and confusing. Back then, I hadn’t understood what about me was different—besides the fact I could turn into a crow—but the entire world had turned scary and larger and much more dangerous than it had been before.

And life had never been safe for me. That was for sure…

Galen had brought me here, assuming that the whole turning into a bird thing had pegged me as a were. He’d protected me, letting me rest in this home.

It still gave me some of those warm, fuzzy feelings, even after five years.

I didn’t bother to knock—I never had with him—and instead strolled into the house.

“You’re late.” The unhappy voice came from Galen, who stood, tapping his foot like an angry wife, while Porter ran his finger across the spines of the books on a large shelf against the wall.

“Looks like you did just fine on your own.” And, to be honest, I hadn’t wanted to come at all.

I’d seen a stray that first night, when it had attacked, when only Galen’s intervention had saved me. I saw no good reason to purposely get close to another one.

However, it seemed these two felt that any third party—evenme—would ease the tension.

The things I did to avoid an all-out war…

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