King of Prey: (A Bird Shifter Novel) (3 page)

Her fingers grazed the window, the sunlight warming them instantly. She closed her eyes, thinking back to her dream. She’d felt whole and complete when dreaming of him. If only that filtered into her waking hours.

“Time to turn over a new leaf,” she said, taking a deep breath and turning from the window in the direction of her bathroom.
 

A long hot bath was in order. Then it would be off to try to make peace with giving up a large piece of her past. She just hoped she could hold it together when seeing someone living in her grandmother’s house.

Chapter Four

Kabril dusted off his hands and looked around the location Sachin had secured for them. Supposedly, it was to be home for the duration of the fool’s mission they were on. Kabril was not one to do manual labor. He had people for that sort of thing. Yet, for several weeks, he had put his time in, cleaning, de-webbing, and doing what he could to make the new dwelling feel like home.

As much as he wanted to punish Sachin, Kabril had to admit that doing things for himself felt oddly liberating. Of course, he would never tell Sachin such a thing. To do so would mean allowing Sachin to know he was right in forcing Kabril’s hand and making him come to Earth’s realm.

The home Sachin had selected from there was in close proximity to one of the portals back home. One near the Tocallie Mountains that Kabril favored so much. He’d given his word to try living among humans and not return to Accipitridae, but he was not sure he could actually hold true to his promise. The call of the mountains, of home, was simply too great.
 

“Considering breaking our agreement?” asked Sachin, walking into the room from the back hall, carrying yet another box. The old home seemed to posses limitless boxes, filled with what Sachin had explained were keepsakes, though they meant little to Kabril.

Kabril cast Sachin a warning look. “And if I am?”
 

“I shall mock you without mercy for centuries for being a coward.”
 

“A what?”
 

“One without honor or bravery,” returned Sachin. He looked very smug.

“I am dangerously close to killing you.” Kabril touched his side, where he normally kept a sword.

“I know,” said Sachin, setting down the box. “Why do you think I disarmed you upon our arrival?”

He opened it and withdrew something Kabril had learned was called a photograph. It was of an older human woman with a young one. The young one had long dark hair and huge wide eyes, a sharp contrast against her alabaster skin. She was stunning. Unlike any woman he’d ever seen before. Though, she was far too young for his tastes.
 

He looked upon the older woman more, soaking in the sight of what humans called aging. His kind did not age in a manner similar. It took them centuries before others stopped seeing them as too young, a mere fledgling. Human lives were but a blink of an eye.

“Sachin,” he said, a serious tone to his voice. “When I meet this human who is to be my queen, I will not love her.”
 

“Because you are incapable of such a thing or because you fear she will age and die?” asked his old friend.
 

Anyone else and Kabril would have leveled them for daring to question him on such a thing. But Sachin was different. And he was correct. Kabril touched the photograph, his hand running over the older woman. “They are fragile, are they not?”
 

“Yes, but the Oracle would not speak of a human as your mate if the woman was not as our woman are.”
 

“Humans are not immortal.”
 

“No,” responded Sachin. “But stories of old tell of joinings between our kind and humans. Of how, once the claim was staked and the act followed through, that the human’s life essence was then tied to the shifter’s.”
 

“Those are old tales told around campfires,” Kabril said, worry lacing his heart. He did not want to love a woman only to lose her.

“There must be some truth in them, for long ago our ancestors did mate with humans.” Sachin took the photograph from Kabril. “The young woman here is pleasing to the eye.”
 

“Do not look upon her,” snapped Kabril, taking it from Sachin and tucking it away beneath his arm. “Have you not something else to do? Perhaps more cleaning, as you have reduced us to the same rank as kitchen maids and serving staff.”
 

“Oh, how the high born whine when they are forced to do something more than sit upon a throne.”
 

Kabril pushed Sachin and hid his laughter as he walked away, keeping the photograph close to him as he headed up the stairs to the room he had claimed for himself. The young woman in it appealed to him greatly, though she should not. She was too young for him. Still, he would keep the photograph. It was the first thing since their arrival to earth that he found value in.

Chapter Five

Rayna Vogel stared at the old home, reminiscent of baroque styling, and smiled. It had been a long time since she’d seen the sculptures adorning the corners. Layers of dirt and webs had blanketed them to the point she’d long since forgotten how beautiful they were. Rayna had lived with her grandmother until it had been time for Rayna to go off to college. Even then, she’d returned and bought the home that had a backyard touching this one’s. She had wanted to be close to her grandmother and still feel like an adult. Now that years had passed and so had her grandmother, Rayna realized how foolish she’d been. She should have just moved back home with the woman and been there in her final years.

Grandmother, I miss you.

She held the dish full of chicken divan and prepared to head up the steps to meet her newest neighbors. Never a social butterfly, Rayna had to force herself to get out, stay in contact with people and avoid spending time with only the animals she photographed. Animals were so much easier to deal with than people. They didn’t expect her to hold long, drawn-out conversations or to return their phone calls. They didn’t make her empty promises and they didn’t leave her alone.

 
“Can I help you?” The deep, distinctively male, heavily accented voice came from behind her.
 

Startled, Rayna tossed the dish in the air and narrowly missed dropping it onto the ground. A strong hand gripped her shoulder, and a yelp almost escaped her. Composing herself, Rayna turned and came face-to-face with a tall man with raven hair, a dark goatee and a body deserving of a magazine cover. His silver gaze, while certainly something she’d never seen before, was captivating and put her at ease. “Umm?”

“Umm?” There was no mistaking the mocking tone of his voice. He put a hand in his pocket and glanced at the dish. His nose wrinkled, and for a minute Rayna thought for sure he’d be sick. “What, may I ask, is in there?”

“It’s a chicken dish,” she blurted out. She’d never been much with conversation starting. “I brought it to welcome you to the neighborhood. I live just down the road a bit. I’m not the greatest cook in the world but I’m not so bad—”

“Chicken?” He gasped, his eyes widening and the blood draining from his face as he reached for the dish, only to yank his hands away, a look of disgust in his eyes. “You brought us chicken? To eat? A bird? For food? For us? I know certain species of birds eat others here, but where we are from that is simply not done.”

Puzzled, Rayna took a step back and tried to understand what the problem could be. Had she sold her grandmother’s house to a nutjob? What was he babbling about birds eating birds? His accent did make it difficult for her to fully understand him, so there was a chance she’d simply misunderstood. “Are you a vegetarian?”

“A veg-ee-terrian?” he asked, over pronouncing the word.

“Someone who doesn’t eat meat,” she returned, understanding there was a language barrier between them. “Where are you from?”
 

“Nowhere you have heard of,” he returned, his brows meeting. “You have people who do not eat meat?”
 

“Yes.”
 

“Are you one?” he asked.
 

“No.”
 

He glanced at the dish in her hands. “And you eat birds?”
 

She blushed. “I do.”
 

He cringed.
 

“Sachin, how much longer must we endure this gods-forsaken realm? And why must we be—”

The silver-eyed man before her seized hold of the dish and stood at attention as if royalty was about to appear. He cleared his throat, his gaze flickering to Rayna for a brief moment. “Kabril, good of you to join us. I was just greeting our neighbor.”
 

“Rayna,” she said, eyeing the manner in which Sachin held the dish. He looked as if he thought it would bite him. Unnerved, she glanced over her shoulder to find an equally tall man with the same jet-black hair. She didn’t think it was possible to improve upon Sachin’s good looks. She was wrong.

Really wrong.

The newcomer was sexy with a capital
S
. This one had eyes of gold, reflecting the midafternoon sun back at her. He also lacked a goatee, though he had the start of a five o’clock shadow. Both men were good-looking to the extreme but this one, there was something about him that made her gut clench at the sight of him. His muscular form was recognizable to her. Flashes from her dreams returned to her and she felt her face heating, as thoughts of carnal pleasures raced over her. Her knees felt weak and her pulse sped as she stared at the man. His gaze raked over her, slow at first, like she was being judged, before it turned into something else. As if he wanted to devour her, and she certainly wanted to be gobbled up by him.

“Kabril.” Sachin took a step closer to her, still holding the dish she’d made at an odd angle, as if it were an explosive rather than dinner. “Kabril,” he said, this time more forceful than before.

The man closest to her with the golden gaze didn’t seem to hear the other as he stared at her. She gulped, her gaze sliding over him more. The lightweight, white shirt he wore was unbuttoned a bit, revealing his tawny, hairless chest—a chest that made her think of her dream and the man in it.

Moisture pooled at the apex of her thighs. She’d never been this turned on by nothing more than the sight of a man. This man was something indeed.

“Kabril!” Sachin shouted.

Kabril nodded, his gaze matching hers, moving over hers as she was doing to him. His sleeves were cuffed to mid-arm, showing off just how muscular he was. If she didn’t pull herself together and fast, she’d likely melt into a puddle of desire. She licked her lower lip, desperately trying to push thoughts of tasting his skin from her mind. For a split second, Rayna could have sworn she heard Sachin address Kabril as
my lord,
but she was too swept up in the man’s presence to pay much heed to how he was being addressed.

He shook his head, seemingly as caught up with meeting her as she was him. “W-what?” he snapped.

Sachin let out a low chuckle. “Kabril, this is our neighbor Rayna.”

“Rayna.” Kabril’s accent matched Sachin’s, neither of which Rayna could place. They seemed European, yet she could not put her finger on where, exactly. He clenched his hands, causing the muscles in his arms to flex.

She moaned and instantly wanted it back.

Kabril’s golden gaze flashed to Sachin and his brow lifted inquisitively. “Tell me she is the one.”

The one?

Sachin shifted awkwardly and smiled. “The one who brought us dinner? Why, yes. She is. I shall take this inside now. Thank you.”

Rayna reached for the dish. “No. I mean, it’s okay. You don’t have to pretend to want it. I get you’re not a fan of chicken. Sorry about that. I just wanted to welcome you and your—” She glanced at Kabril. “—friend to the neighborhood. And, well, I sort of wanted to meet the people who now live in what used to be my grandmother’s home.”

Sachin held firm to the dish. “There are quite a few personal items still here. Photographs and the like. Kabril and I have put them all in the downstairs extra room. We thought someone might wish to keep them, as they are no doubt of value.”
 

Rayna teared up. She’d thought she could sell the house as it was and not look back. She was wrong. She nodded, thankful they’d been so considerate. Most wouldn’t have been. “Yes. Thank you.”
 

Kabril moved closer to her, his hand finding her forearm. Heat raced between them and she swayed. He pulled her closer to his powerful frame. “You are sad.”
 

She swallowed hard. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to get emotional today. I wanted today to be perfect. I thought I could bring you a dish, welcome you, and in the process close this chapter of my life.”
 

“You are who is with the older woman in the photographs within?” he asked. “You have grown. This is good. Very good.”
 

She nearly laughed at his phrasing of things. “Uh, thanks?”
 

Sachin shook his head. “I truly cannot take him anywhere.”
 

She smiled through her tears. “Oh, I don’t know. He managed to lighten the mood.”
 

Kabril tightened his grip on her arm. “You will remain here?”
 

“Kabril, let the nice young woman go and we can get back to what we were doing.”
 

“Jobs those beneath us do,” he said.

Sachin used his free hand to rub the bridge of his nose. “I see we should have arrived sooner so you would have had more time to be less like yourself.”
 

Kabril cast a look over his shoulder.

Chapter Six

Rayna eased closer to the newcomer. “Welcome.” A pregnant pause followed and Rayna found herself wanting to fill it. “What brings the two of you to Mississippi?”

She really hoped they weren’t a couple. The best ones always seemed to be gay.

Sachin grinned. “We are here to open a new practice for Dr. Kabril Kingston. He’s a vet who specializes in wildlife—avian variety to be exact. I’m
just
his assistant.”