Wild Flight: A BBW Paranormal Eagle Shifter Romance (3 page)

The drive back up into the hills seemed to take forever.  When they got inside, her eyes fell on the sofa, and the awkwardness and excitement of it all make Summer laugh.  Brandon seemed to get the joke.  “The bed this time?” he asked, “Or are we going creative again?”

“Nothing wrong with a bed now and then,” she said.  “Beds have some nice features.”

They laughed and kissed all the way up the stairs. In the bedroom, he settled his hands on her hips.  Sunlight blazed through the bedroom windows, and for a moment she felt overwhelmed by what they were doing here.  There would be no hiding, no rushing through things: this was the start of something that would last. 

She looked up at him and saw the expression of wonder on his face that she remembered from last time.  She still couldn't understand why he would look at her that way, but at least now she could believe in it.  She pressed a little kiss to the corner of his mouth, then pulled his head down a little closer for little kisses everywhere.  His eyelashes tickled her lips, and she could taste the faintest taste of aftershave on his cheeks.

Meanwhile his hands were roaming over her body.  Even through her shirt and bra, the swipe of his thumbs over her nipples was electric, sending jolts of pleasure between her legs. She reached for the hem of her shirt to pull it up, but his hands got there first, undressing her slowly and deliberately.  His hands kept coming back to her hips, and Summer imagined all the things that hands could do there: pulling her body up against his, moving her into place, holding her down on a bed....

Summer was naked now, and Brandon was still completely dressed.  She could see that he was trying to hold back, trying to take things slow and keep it light, but his hands were telling a different story, his movements getting rougher, holding her tighter.  He raised a hand to her face and Summer changed his plan by capturing his hand, nibbling on the pad of his index finger, and then sucking his finger into her mouth.  Brandon's groan was pure need.  He crushed her to him and then they stumbled to the bed, falling side by side.

Brandon slid his thigh between hers and she gasped at the feel of rough denim up against her most delicate parts.  It didn't stop her from grinding against him.  He pulled her up higher, nuzzling her breasts, then rolled her onto her back far enough to get easy access to them both.  Summer made a sound, half moan, half whine.  With his hands he pushed her breasts together, lips moving from one nipple to the other.  She arched up against him, his leg between hers holding her down. 

When he saw how much she liked it he sucked harder, taking a whole mouthful, pressing with his tongue.  Summer went out of her mind, bucking up against him frantically, the pressure against her clit almost enough to get her there, but not quite.

Brandon came to her rescue.  He let go and moved his hand between her legs, two fingers entering her and curling against the most sensitive spot.  Then he licked one breast gently.  It was only seconds before she reached her climax.  She could feel her sex twitching and pulsing against his fingers.  He groaned and buried his face in her neck, seeming almost as overcome as she was.

A feeling of peace and warmth and lightness stole over her.  She pushed Brandon onto his back and straddled his hips, feeling totally relaxed and shameless.  He smiled up at her, breathless.  “I really think I should take my clothes off now.”

“You may,” she allowed, with a seductive smile.  He sat up to strip off his shirt, then placed his hands on her hips again, pressing her down against his hard length.  She wiggled her hips obligingly, but told him, “It'll work better with your pants off, I promise you.”

“Yeah, but I'd have to let go of you...”

She put her arms around his neck and they kissed for a minute, deep and soulful kisses.  Then Brandon pulled her down with him and rolled, putting her on her back, before finally removing his last clothes.  It was her first chance to see him naked in the light.  He was perfect.  She could imagine spending lazy hours tracing the lean lines of his muscles with her fingers, or her tongue.

Brandon knelt between her legs, running his hands up her thighs.  Summer stretched luxuriously, raising her arms over her head, and he grabbed her hands and held them in place, lowering himself to her.  Summer kissed him passionately, letting him know that she trusted him. He entered her, moving slowly at first, then picking up the pace as Summer lifted her hips to meet him.

More than just aroused, Summer felt warm and safe beneath him, his arms and his body holding her in place as she soared higher and higher.  His rhythm was relentless, and even as her pleasure crested he kept going, wringing every last gasp from her until he came too.

He let go of her arms and she caressed him, running her fingers through his hair.  He moved back, dropping kisses all down her body, then settled beside her, pulling up a blanket from the foot of the bed.  “I meant what I said last week,” he said, his voice almost a whisper, his mouth almost touching her ear.

“Really?  Good.  Because I was starting to wonder...” she said, curling closer to him.

“I was trying not to pressure you!” he insisted with a little laugh.

“And I was trying not to throw myself at you.”

“It hurts to hear you even talk about it that way,” he said, tilting her face toward him so that she could see how serious he was.

“What way?” she said. “I don't ”

“Like this isn't the most amazing gift that a man could be given.  You're beautiful and kind and so very brave. And I am so grateful that you're here with me.”

“Well, okay.  If you say so.” Summer closed her eyes to hide any trace of happy tears.

It wasn't just drywall: Brandon would never look at wallpaper the same way, either.  He had practically floated through the past 24 hours, giddy with joy.  They
did
have a future together, and this
would
be their home someday. Inch by stubborn inch they scrubbed and scraped the wallpaper glue, but the ease between them made it fun.  Now that he knew the full story of Summer's past, she didn't have to hold back.  She told him all kinds of stories, some funny, some sad, and he could see the hopeful dreamer she had once been.  He hoped he could make her feel that free and that happy again.

The only secret standing between them now was his.  Oh, he had told her plenty of stories yesterday, including ones about his family, but he always left out that one crucial detail: the shape shifting.  He didn't think she'd have a problem with it once she knew the truth.  He just couldn't think of a way to
tell
her that wouldn't sound like he was mocking her or pulling a prank.  The only solution was to show her, but how and when?

Brandon was starting to realize that his eagle was a lot more clear-sighted about these matters than he was.  When Summer decided to take a nap after lunch, he took the opportunity to step outside and shift.  Once aloft, the trance-like clarity of flight settled in. The past, the present and the future seemed as sharp and detailed as the landscape below.  He could see himself and Summer and their children circling through these skies, ruling these mountains. 

There was a way for her to change.  He'd hardly dared to think about that as a man.  The change wasn't easy, and he didn't know if he had any right to ask that of her, and he didn't know what it would do to their new relationship if she felt bad about saying no.  But his eagle saw the truth so easily.  Of course she would change.  It was her true nature.

The tattoo over her heart was an eagle feather.

The eagle rose higher, surveying his whole domain.  An unfamiliar car drove up the mountain road; he observed it as he observed everything else, until the car turned into his driveway.  Immediately he began to drop lower, wary, ready to dive.  Summer must have heard the car, too, because she came out on the porch.  Brandon knew the exact moment she recognized the man in the car because he saw her body shift to fight.  He screamed and dove, willing her to run, but he knew she wouldn't.  She was eagle enough that she would defend her nest.

Wind rushed past him as he hurtled through the air, never taking his eyes off of Summer. The man who must be Dominic got out the car and moved toward her. She grabbed a crowbar from the porch.  They were so intent on each other that they never looked up. 

Closer now, he could hear their words.  “Piss off, Dom, we're through,” said Summer.  “Aren't you even going to ask how I found you?” sneered Dominic.  “No, but I am going to call the cops,” she said, pulling her phone from her pocket.

But the police were irrelevant: Brandon's talons were almost in Dominic's face before the man realized he was in for it.

People don't get attacked by eagles very often these days.  So besides the pain of having your face ripped open by claws, there's the whole freaking-out factor.  After a few ineffectual waves of his arms, Dominic ran for his car with Brandon repeatedly bombing him, landing vicious swipes to his scalp.  If only he would have tripped, so that Brandon could really tear into him.  As Dominic drove off in a panic, Brandon folded his wings and came to rest on the ground.

Summer dropped the crowbar and stared in awe at the golden eagle on the ground before her.  It returned her gaze with unblinking amber eyes. She stepped closer, ever so cautiously.  Was the eagle injured?  Would she make things worse if she scared it?  Wild animal or not, it gave no sign of being scared of anything.  It stretched out its wings with one great flap and she jumped back, astonished by the span of the wings.  And then the unthinkable happened.

With a stretch and a shimmer, the eagle became Brandon.  Shirtless, barefoot Brandon.  Summer sat down abruptly on the edge of the porch.  Brandon scratched the back of his neck, looking a little sheepish.  “So, this is a thing,” he said.

“Yeah, I'd say so,” she agreed, her mouth managing to move while her brain was still reeling.  Apparently she was dating an eagle. 
Whoa
. “So, can you come sit over here by me and convince me that I'm not having a bad acid flashback or a psychotic break?” Her hand shook a little as she waved it at the spot beside her.

Brandon sat beside her and gently put his arm around her shoulders.  She leaned against him, tentatively at first, but settling in when he proved to be solid and familiar.  Closing her eyes for a moment made her feel more grounded.  He was real.  This was all real. “You're not having a bad flashback or a psychotic break.  I was just an eagle a few seconds ago.”

“Explain this to me, please.”

“Any chance we could go inside and I could put a shirt on first?  Because if the county sheriff's on his way...”

“Really?  Do you think shirts are the priority here? Because I just had my entire understanding of the universe turned upside-down.”

“Fair point.  Clothes can wait.  I'm a shape shifter, and I've been trying to figure out how to tell you ever since our first night together.  I've never told anyone before.  I've never trusted anyone like this. Saving you from your creepy ex may not have been the most graceful way to break the news, but at least it stopped me from dithering about it.”

“Well, I
did
have a crowbar and I know how to use it.  But I was very glad for your help.”

“A crowbar and a cell phone.  So,
is
the sheriff coming?”

“I was bluffing.  My hand was shaking too badly to unlock the screen, and I was still stabbing at the emergency call button when you swooped in. Is this shirtless thing really bugging you?” Summer stood and tugged at his hand, meaning to tell him that it was okay to go inside now.  But for all his protests, once he stood he didn't seem to be in much of a hurry.  Instead he tucked a stray wisp of hair behind her ear and traced the curve of her cheek.  She tilted her face up to kiss him, then rested her hands on his chest, imagining the strong muscles beneath her palms powering wings through the open air.  “It just doesn't make any sense,” she whispered.

“Well, it takes some getting used to, probably.  But it's not
too
weird... is it?”

“No, I mean, I already didn't understand what you see in me, and that was before I found out that you're basically
magic
.  Now it makes even less sense.  I want to believe you, Brandon.  I want this so badly.  And I hate to feel like I'm fishing for compliments or something, but you have to convince me that you're not making a terrible mistake.”

“I am not making a terrible mistake,” he said.  “I am happier right now than I have ever been. We shifters have intuition about things like this.  It's one of the gifts that my family always told me about, that I didn't believe in until I experienced it.” He paused and touched his forehead to hers.  She closed her eyes, sinking into the warmth and intimacy of the moment, breathing together with him. “I knew the moment I met you,” he whispered, “but I didn't want to trust it.  Believe me, I have questioned all of this. But everything that I've learned about you, everything that's happened between us, has just proved my instinct right.  We're meant to be together.”

“So you
did
have some doubts.  You
do
see what I'm saying, about me being wrong for you.”

“No, you've got it all backwards,” he said, kissing her forehead.  “All my doubts are about
me
.”  Her confusion must have shown on her face, because he sighed and took a deep breath, like he was getting ready for a long story. “I've never wanted to be a shape shifter.  I've never wanted to be an eagle.”

“What, is there some hidden weakness you haven't told me about?  Do you turn homicidal at the full moon, or steal babies from their cradles?  Because all I'm seeing right now is awesome powers of flight. Oh yeah, and
magic
.”

“Do you remember what I said, about what I was running from? Flying is... flying is indescribable.  And not just flight: everything in the animal world is so pure, so intense.  It's frightening how easy it is to get lost in it.  My family was pretty stable when I was growing up; my dad didn't start out as a shifter, and he liked to stay close with the rest of his family.  So we had a home of our own, and we went to school every day.

“But a lot of my cousins weren't like that.  Like Josh and Jenna, my oldest cousins, they probably missed more Mondays than they attended, because their parents would have the whole family turn into hawks for the weekend then they'd lose track of time.  They'd live with us for a couple months each time they got kicked out of an apartment – and they didn't even seem to care!  And let's not even get into the year that Aunt Lin decided that they should migrate.

“I swore I would never be like that. I swore I would build a life that would keep my family safe.  I guess to me my eagle side has always felt like a dangerous temptation, something that I have to suppress and hide from the world.  But now that you're here, I don't know if I can do that any longer.  Maybe it's dangerous, but it's so very beautiful, too, and I want to share it with you.  I think maybe it's what you've been searching for.”

“Wait, I don't understand, how can you share it with me?  Do you mean you fly around overhead while I twirl in meadows like what's-her-name in The Sound of Music? I guess that could be fun, but –”

“No, I mean you can change.  You can become a shifter.  It's not easy, but my dad did it.  I'll totally understand if you don't want to –”

Whatever Brandon was saying was interrupted when Summer's knees folded beneath her.  “I'm not a fainting person,” she said absently, but her own voice sounded like it was coming from under water.  Brandon helped her lie down the rest of the way, then he stretched out on the grass beside her, holding her hand.  Summer breathed in and out, letting the sun soak into her.  She concentrated on the soft prickle of grass beneath her, and the flicker of wind off the hills, and on the boundless energy of the sun pouring in. Brandon squeezed her hand and she squeezed back, feeling the solidness of flesh and bone.

“Are you freaking out?” he asked.

“Kind of, yeah, but it's because I believe you.”  She tried sitting up again, and was pleased when her head didn't spin.  Brandon sat up too. “So you're saying I can become an eagle, too.”

“Not necessarily an eagle.  Definitely some sort of bird of prey, but it could be anything from a screech owl to a condor.  The raptor line is unpredictable, when it comes to turning humans.”

“And so, what, you bite me?”

“More or less.  There's a ritual that goes with it.  My parents can tell you more about it.  I think they're really going to like you, by the way.”

“And you're sure I'm not going to accidentally turn into a yak or a water buffalo or something?” she said, patting down her muscular thighs.

“Okay, one, if that somehow happens I will happily frolic in the mountains with a yak, and two, if that is some sort of crack about your figure, I don't want to hear it.  Your body is amazing and sexy just the way it is, and also your human figure has nothing to do with your animal form.  It's your soul that counts.  And I think you'll make a much better eagle than I ever have.”

Summer stared into the distance at the green tapestry of mountain forest and tried to pull her thoughts into words.  No matter what Brandon said, she still felt like she was the one getting the better deal in this match, but she had learned some things over the years that might be good for him to hear.  “It might not feel this way to you,” she started out, “but being human isn't any safer.  There isn't any such thing as 'safe'.  Running away from things doesn't make you safe, and grabbing onto things and clinging for dear life doesn't make you safe either.  Don't be afraid to fly, Brandon.  Don't be afraid of that perfect, endless moment in the sky.  That moment is the only thing that's real.”

He leaned over and kissed her again, slow and deliberate.  It felt like a promise. “Will you marry me, Summer, and teach me how to fly?”

“Yes,” she said, kissing him again and again. “Of course I will, forever,
yes
.”