Page 7 of Shifter For Hire (For Hire 2)

He sighed and pulled his wings out, feeling the skin opening and the muscle fibers tearing. The wings stretched wide, one touching the wall as the cliff curved to his left. He strained the points of his wings even harder, removing all the kinks. Once he felt revived somewhat, he let himself drop over the edge and freefell for long moments.

The ground raced toward him. Wind slapped him in the face, and his breath felt a bit short because of the force. From long practice, he knew the precise moment when he should pull up, take the wind captive, and pump his wings.

Time passed as he flew, and he didn’t grow tired. At long last, he was back to his own territory, the city where he lived. His stomach cramped with hunger. He needed to find something to fill it. Perhaps tonight, he would revisit the restaurant where he had recently bought a meal that tasted halfway decent. Being short on funds, he figured the smart thing to do was to save what he could. The ratty apartment where he stayed wouldn’t pay for itself.

Thinking of the restaurant made him recall the woman, and then he laughed at himself. Truth be told, she hadn’t left his thoughts for one second after he met her. That night, he’d dropped down on the roof of the building next to the restaurant. He’d transformed from his dragon form to his human form in a smooth transition.

An odd stirring came over him. He wasn’t quite sure what it meant. Something important was coming. He narrowed his eyes to look down the street, but only a bit of the landscape was in view. The buildings blocked his vision.

A new scent wafted past his nose, and a footfall made him roll to the side and twist so that he faced the opposite direction. Crouched and ready to defend himself, he glared at the man standing before him.

“Whoa, buddy, I’m not going to hurt you,” the man said, smiling.

“As if you could.”

The stranger chuckled. “Confident, aren’t you? What’s your name?”

“That’s not your business.”

“Come on, guy. We’re the same, you and me.”

“We’re not. Go away. I have no interest in talking to you.” With those words, Gerard had turned back toward the street. He had already assessed that the stranger wouldn’t attack. On the other hand, he began to wonder if the guy would fly to Declan and share with him that he’d seen a dragon shifter who wasn’t one of them. Declan finding out about him would complicate his life.

A car drew up below. A human man climbed out of it. At the same time, the shifter took off. Gerard heard the telltale sound of his wings flapping. He couldn’t be allowed to talk to Declan. Gerard swore because of the inconvenience. This was what he got for coming his curiosity.

All thought about the shifter and the human male left his mind. A human woman drove up and ran after the man just disappearing into the alley. The moment he saw her that night, clear thinking vanished. He dropped from the roof without a plan or an idea of what he would say to her. His actions were instinct.

Perhaps he lost his footing on purpose? After all, he’d allowed himself to fall from rooftops a lot higher than this one and never missed a beat. She barreled into him, and he went backward.

“What in the heck!” She glared at him with the biggest brownest eyes he’d ever seen. “What is your deal? Are you crazy, dropping to the ground? Don’t you think people would be walking around down here? If you want to play monkey bars in alleys and risk breaking your ankle, you can do it somewhere I’m not!”

As he thought about the incident, he recalled forgetting how to speak in the face of her rant. His senses filled with her scent, not to mention the softness of her figure. God, she was dressed indecently, and all of that lusciousness was pressed against him. He’d swallowed, trying to piece two thoughts together.

When he lowered his gaze to her chest, she shrieked before jumping to her feet. Too bad. She started to run. He didn’t think before he caught her arm. She swung a fist at him, but she might as well have been moving in slow motion. He caught it, wondering that such a small woman could be so bold.

Her outrage and a hint of fear scrambled his brains. He tried his best to explain. “There’s glass.”

There wasn’t much that he missed. Darkness meant nothing. He could see as well in the night as in the day, maybe better. Not to mention the detail. Everything was taken in at a glance. It was a skill that was common to all of his people. They were simply better than humans in all points.

When a strong familiar scent assaulted his, he pulled up short. All thoughts of the other night when he met the woman vanished as he realized where he was. His intention was to fly to his apartment or to find food, but instead he had tracked her down.

Making a wide circle in the air, he gazed at the building below and the parking lot outside of it. A shadow shifted before one of the windows off the balcony. He swore. Why did he let his mind wander so much that he ended up tracking her? She meant nothing. She was human.

She’s my mate.

Even as he acknowledged the thought, it pissed hi

m off. What were the odds? Declan’s mate was a human, and so was his? No! He wanted to deny it. To take a human as a mate was to water down his bloodline.

He backpedaled with his wings, telling himself to get out of there. After moving a few feet, he surged forward. Before he knew it, he landed on her balcony and folded his wings. They shrank first and then folded into his back. As if by magic—and he supposed it was a type of magic—his clothes simultaneously appeared on his body.

While in his dragon form, he didn’t worry about anyone spotting him in the air. In human form, he wasn’t invisible to the human eye. A quick scan of the area around him showed no one in view.

How should I meet her again to get to know her? I must be sure.

Voices raised inside the apartment drew his attention away from his internal debate.

“Don’t hand me that bullcrap, Skip,” the woman was saying. “I want to know why you lied to me.”

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