“You’ll have to let him out of your sight sooner or later.”
Everet didn’t need to look over his shoulder. He knew Raynard’s voice well enough to know who intended to deliver a lecture in his direction.
“Good afternoon, sir.”
He sensed the hawk move forward to stand alongside him but he didn’t look away from Kane. The magpie’s dusting still wasn’t enthusiastic, but at least he seemed to have realized he wasn’t going to be able to get out of doing a good job, so he didn’t need to be nagged and prompted through each individual task.
“You’ve watched him all day, every day, haven’t you?” Raynard observed.
“He belongs to me.”
“That doesn’t change the fact you must be as bored as hell.”
Everet spared a brief glance toward the hawk. “No one said it would be an interesting job all the time, sir.”
Raynard smiled slightly, but his face soon reverted to a more serious expression. “When was the last time you stretched your wings?”
Everet watched Kane crouch down and dust the side molding on an elaborate mahogany cabinet.
“I’m still waiting for an answer,” Raynard mentioned, calmly. “I have nothing to do until Ori finishes in his meeting. I won’t walk away from this conversation just because you’ve decide to adopt some of your submissive’s brattiness and keep me waiting.”
Everet pushed down his annoyance. Raynard was a hawk and should be spoken to with respect. He was also a good man who actually
deserved
that respect.
“I haven’t stretched my wings since I took him on,” he admitted.
“Then it’s time you did.”
“There hasn’t been a suitable opportunity, sir. When he’s more settled, I’ll—”
“Now.”
Everet turned and looked up at the taller man. “He’s not ready to be left on his own, sir.”
Raynard turned as well, so they stood face to face, directly squaring off against each other. “I agree.”
Everet hesitated, completely prepared to do battle, but not at all sure how to deal with a peace offering.
“But that doesn’t change the fact you are going to go and stretch your wings. Now.”
Everet opened his mouth.
Raynard raised a hand, commanding his silence. “I’ll watch him until you get back.”
There were a great many things Everet could have said, but none of them felt suitable.
No!
was the first response that tried to rush to his lips, but Raynard was a hawk. A raven didn’t say no to a hawk on a whim.
You?
Jumped up as a second option. He bit that back too.
“Kane is…” Everet finally began. “Kane is quite different to the kind of submissives you might be used to, sir.”
“You mean he’s the complete opposite of Ori.”
Everet thought it best to remain silent at that point.
Amusement danced around Raynard’s eyes. “I told you before that a man’s first submissive isn’t always his last. I do have a little more experience than you give me credit for.”
“I meant no disrespect, sir.”
Raynard waved the apology away. “None of this changes the fact that you’ve been given an order—one I expect you to obey. Go and stretch your wings. You have one hour, starting now.”
Everet glanced toward Kane.
“You may go and tell him who he will be answerable to in your absence,” Raynard allowed.
Everet held back a sigh and walked down the corridor to where Kane halfheartedly went about his duties. He seemed to sense Everet’s approach because he suddenly became far more industrious.
“Mr. Raynard will be watching over you for the next hour.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re not ready to be left unsupervised just yet.”
Kane straightened up. “Where are you going?” he demanded.
“Everet, now!” Raynard ordered.
“We’ll speak about it later,” Everet said to Kane, as quickly as he could. Well aware of all the various men’s eyes on him, he turned on his heel and strode along the corridor.
Every step he took was like fingernails on a chalkboard.
Leaving Kane was unnatural. It was only pure bloody mindedness that kept him going. That, and the knowledge that he’d hardly be setting a good example for Kane if he went back on his word and failed to obey what was, on the surface at least, a very reasonable command from a man fully entitled to give him orders.
Parts of his body were obviously very in favor of following Raynard’s instructions, because he didn’t need to think about where he headed. His feet rapidly carried him up to the highest floors of the nest.
He pushed open a door at the top of the flight of stairs leading to the mid-level avians’ changing rooms. A couple of other men stood alongside the row of lockers lining the wall to the left, but all of Everet’s attention immediately honed in on the windows on the right-hand side of the space.
Each square aperture offered a glimpse of sky that called to Everet, drawing him closer. The door behind him swung open, only just missing his shoulder. With one last glace toward the pale blue sky, Everet made his way to the lockers and pulled his T-shirt over his head.
Within a few seconds, he’d stripped down to his bare skin. Setting his clothes in the locker, he put his boots in on another shelf, and tucked his watch inside one of them. He took a deep breath.
One hour. Kane would be fine without him for an hour. Maybe just as importantly, Everet needed to remember he’d be fine without Kane, too. Closing the locker, Everet turned to the window directly opposite him.
The moment he opened it, fresh air caressed his skin. A shiver ran down his back but it had less to do with temperature than with his body’s increasing desire to shift. Everet closed his eyes and placed his hand on the small wooden perch positioned just inside the window.
There was some part of his mind that wanted to hold on to its human shape, but as he sensed another man change into his avian form a few windows down from him, the need to do the same took hold of him, overwhelming everything else.
He was helpless to resist the pull toward the avian half of his psyche. With a flap of wings and a toss of the head, he found himself already half transformed into his raven form. It had been far too long since his last shift. The transformation coursed through him in a rush of physical and mental changes.
More luck than judgment was responsible for the way his claws wrapped around the perch. He unfurled his wings to their full span in an effort to regain his balance. The squawk he’d let out hadn’t been very dignified. Everet ruffled his feathers as he looked both ways along the long, narrow room, almost daring anyone to have noticed his silliness.
The space looked different through an avian’s eyes. The colors were more muted, the distances shortened. Everet turned his attention to the window. The sky was oh, so much more inviting seen through these eyes.
This time, when the wind blew against his face, it teased and tempted him, calling to him like a lover. No one who was entirely human could understand that feeling. Even an avian who’d yet to complete his first shift wouldn’t know what it was like to see the whole world there, and know that it was his for the taking.
Kane would be safe with Raynard for a little while. Everet partially extended his wings for balance and hopped onto the windowsill. One more leap, and he was out there, hanging high in the empty air, with nothing between himself and the ground but his muscles and his wits.
Flapping his wings, he climbed high above both the nest and the city at large. This was the way humans and their society should be viewed—from up here on the wing, where they were unable to hurt anyone. Kane should never have been let loose in their company.
Everet worked his way higher, anger pushing him faster. No. This wasn’t the time for that kind of fury. Kane was safe now. The only men Everet needed to worry about were other birds, and he understood them. Turning in the air, he spotted a few other avians out getting some fresh air into their lungs—or at least air as fresh as it could be, considering the sprawling city below them.
Two finches flew together. From the other side of the nest, a falcon left the changing room reserved for the birds of prey and took to the air. Everet’s attention darted from one patch of sky to the other, carefully checking on the progress of each avian, ready to make sure everyone remembered that, under no circumstances should any member of the nest be considered an appetizer, no matter how their entirely bird-brained brethren of the same species may act toward each other.
The finches flittered away in the opposite direction to the falcon. For a little while, Everet found himself completely alone and able to simply enjoy how the sun felt on his back and the way the wind played beneath his outstretched wings.
The freedom of it after so long spent in an unnatural position in that wooden chair alongside a sickbed sent his heart beating faster than even its avian form was used to. Everet flew higher, forcing his body to work harder and harder as he let out an angry caw at the entire world.
Freedom.
If he had any sense it probably should have been what he craved more than anything else. So why was getting back to the nest the only thing he could think about?
* * * *
Kane watched the other members of the cleaning flock wander off in various directions. The working day was over. They were free to go. When the last of them disappeared from view, Kane turned his attention to Raynard.
He was well aware that he couldn’t walk away and do as he pleased. He was still under very careful scrutiny. The hawk had done nothing but stare at him for over half an hour. No conversation. No small talk. Not even a smile. Kane now had no doubt the guy enjoyed playing hard to get.
He mentally rolled his eyes.
“So,” Kane said, turning to face the other man. “What are you going to do with me now?”
Raynard didn’t accept the implied invitation to step forward and close the gap between them. He just frowned as if Kane had insulted him rather than propositioned him.
“You belong to Everet.” Each word was colder and more clipped than the last.
Kane shrugged, pushing the raven out of his mind as best he could.
“And I already have a submissive. You’d do well to learn respect for both those facts.”
Kane pinned his most seductive smile to his face. If Raynard wouldn’t come closer, he’d just have to go to him. He moved slowly, letting the hawk get a good look at him as he approached. “I won’t tell them if you don’t.”
He was less than a step away when Raynard reached out and grabbed hold of his arm. Success!
Without warning, the hawk turned away from him and marched down one of the halls Kane and the other cleaners had spent the best part of the day polishing.
“Where are we going?”
“Down to one of the public areas. We’ll wait for your master there.”
Kane laughed. “Don’t you trust yourself alone with me?”
Raynard made a disbelieving sound in the back of his throat. “I think you’ll find a man who owns a swan has no use for a magpie.”
Kane glared up at Raynard, flames of pure humiliation coursing through him. Unwilling to blush, there was only one way he could let out the heat burning through his veins. Anger.
“Let go of me.” Halfway down a flight of stairs, he fought to pull himself out of Raynard’s grasp. The hawk’s hold on him wasn’t tight enough to be painful. There was no chance of it leaving a mark, but it was still infuriatingly unshakable.