Page 41 of Taming Raptor

I patiently waited. One thing he didn’t know about me was that I could wait him out and I guaranteed he’d crack before I would. His jaw worked and the muscle jumped as he clenched his teeth. His arms remained crossed. Everything in his body language screamed closed off and stubborn. Good thing I was more stubborn than he could ever dream of being. As I figured it would, the silence stretched for about five minutes before he exhaled loudly, and his gaze found mine.

“We need your help. Except, I thought you were our father. I thought….”

My senses were on high alert. They may not be my children, but I was protective of any kids. Still, I said nothing but I cocked a brow to show I was listening. Sam’s eyes flickered and the gold seemed to be more prevalent than the green or brown. It was unnerving, because I always thought he looked like me when he was little. I loved those boys so much that the day Falina told me they weren’t mine, I practically drank myself into a coma.

He glanced around the room nervously catching the steady gazes of Gator and Phoenix. He seemed to study them carefully, then he brought his attention back to me. I searched that gaze for the signs I already knew I’d find. “Um, you might want your friends to leave.”

“We have no secrets here, Sam.” That was a big fat fucking lie. I hadn’t told any of my brothers I was a shifter until we had come down here to help Voodoo. The situation we found ourselves in necessitated reaching out to my clan. Fuck, that first flight in years had been awkward at the start, but my inner hawk had quickly soared, reveling in the wind once again ruffling its feathers, rejoicing as he stretched his wings.

Sam inhaled deeply and let it out in a rough exhale before he stood. That’s when I saw his bare feet. I couldn’t believe I’d missed that earlier. He paced for a minute as he tugged at his dark hair. My hawk was practically vibrating inside me.

“Sam,” I quietly prompted as my heart seemed to quit beating. “Did you fly here?”

He stopped. With wide eyes, he turned to face me. Nervously, he chewed on his lip.

“This is a safe place,” I promised.

The second he whipped his shirt over his head, my suspicions were confirmed, and my heart took off at a gallop. Though I should’ve known—he was of an age that he would’ve experienced his first molt. The glare he shot me when he grabbed the edge of his shorts might’ve been comical in any other circumstances.

“I’m not flashing my dick in front of everyone,” he grumbled.

Phoenix snorted, and Gator chuckled before he asked, “Boy, you think you got somethin’ we don’t?”

Sam flipped him off and it made me chuckle. He was more like me than… fuck. He wasn’t mine at all, and the reminder hurt.

He dropped to a crouch and braced himself on his fingertips and a knee. A shudder shook his entire body before his back arched and his body seemed to contort. His skin went from a pale tan to brown before it seemed to ripple and twitch. The screech that seemed to fill the air was one I knew well. It was a blend of agony and primal power.

Credit to my brothers, because they didn’t bat an eye when a boy became a hawk before their eyes. Of course, my family had somewhat prepared them. I chuckled at the board shorts that hung off the tail and legs. He cocked his head and looked down before he shook his body and hopped until the shorts pooled under his feet.

He flapped his wings in irritation and I spotted one generation of flight feathers, telling me he was in his first adult plumage. That along with the lack of multiple tail bands, told me he was in the start of his second year—which was everything I would expect. What I wasn’t prepared for were the markings on the juvenile bird in my office—the deep V of dark feathers were only present in the Krow bloodlines.

Heart hammering and head spinning, I swallowed down the bile of further betrayal. For Sam to have those markings, it meant that his father was one of my family members. It had to be Evan. His betrayal went deeper than I had imagined, and it made me sick to my stomach.

“Sam.”

The sleek bird turned its feathered head and its sharp gaze locked with mine. I was in a quandary. I wasn’t sure he could make a smooth transition to human form. Nor did I want to put him through the agony of transition so soon after shifting. He’d already done it twice tonight.

As a new hawk, he wouldn’t have had the time to develop a tolerance to the pain. Shifting back and forth was a bit tricky until you were in your third year. It’s why a juvenile was always accompanied by a parent or an appointed elder to protect them when they were in the vulnerable transition period. Though the women of our clan didn’t shift, they were raised to be strong and warrior-like to protect their young.

Finally, I stood. Repeating Sam’s motions, but not giving two shits if he saw my dick swinging, I quickly dropped my jeans and kicked off my boots. Anger fueled my movements, but not at Sam. He was an innocent pawn in his mother’s twisted game.

Adopting the same pose, I crouched and braced myself for the pain. It was as if the large raptor within shattered every bone as it burst free. My deeper shriek echoed off the walls despite my age—likely due to the length of time I’d gone without shifting into my inner hawk. It was almost like starting over.

Footsteps pounded down the hall, but Gator and Phoenix stepped out and each lifted an arm to hold everyone back. Gator quickly closed the door. Rooster and Banshee didn’t know everything about the chapters that had become a sanctuary for others like us. Thankfully, Phoenix and Gator were pros at maintaining our anonymity.

“Everything’s fine. Raptor uh, clicked on one of them YouTube videos and didn’t realize he had it so loud.” I heard Gator’s excuse through the cheap hollow-core door, but I was too preoccupied to pay attention to what was said after that. I was focused on the wary eyes of the juvenile in front of me.

“Your mother’s husband—is he a shifter?” I asked him through the telepathy we had when in hawk form. I already knew the answer—or I was pretty sure. I’d researched him when she married him because at the time, I believed the boys were mine. He was a rich guy with enough money for her to blow without making a dent in his bank account, but I hadn’t seen evidence that he was a hawk. He sure as hell wasn’t from my bloodlines or our clan, or I would’ve known. That didn’t mean he wasn’t one, it could simply mean he had the money to keep it from being found out.

“No.” He practically spat his reply, which gave me some insight into what the problem might be.

“Does he know your mom comes from a family of shifters?”

“No.”

Fucking hell.

“Does your mother know you’re shifting?”

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