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Then she tripped, and I jerked away from the desk to pace across the room to the monitors. Come on, get up! I was more invested than I should be, especially since that tiny human was up against impossible odds. She wasn’t going to survive an encounter with two angry shifters. Whatever she’d done to piss them off, it was going to prove fatal.
She raised her chin, her entire posture defiant. It tugged at my chest to see a creature with such devastating odds display such bravery. Bravery was hard to find around these parts. I was certain it had abandoned me long ago. I didn’t realize I was going to do it until I was yanking open the French doors to my balcony.
I was up on the ledge, my wings spread, before I’d even formed a full thought. This was crazy. I had fought hard and long to ensure my safety and my life after the curse. I couldn’t risk it all for a silly human girl. Then her face flashed before my eyes, that brave tilt of her chin, the defiant look in her eyes.
My wings beat hard as I flung myself into the sky and then my full transformation shivered through me. With fire trailingbeneath my wings, I jetted from my home to the border of my land in a flash. A phoenix in full flight was unstoppable, the fastest being in the skies. Even so, I was only just in time.
The girl had collapsed on the ground, but she was still fighting, waving a branch in front of her to ward off the prowling coyote. I arrowed myself into a free fall, my claws extending at the last moment as I raked the beast’s rump. It howled and squealed, terrified, then darted off into the woods without a fight.
“Aaah,” the girl’s scream echoed through the woods as I pulled up and located the other target: the bear. It had charged from beneath the trees and was now looming over her, beneath his massive paws, she was out cold. My light, bird-shaped body was no match for a six-hundred-pound bear, but as I made a pass over him, my fire scorched and seared.
He backed up, and I landed, shifting so I could stand protectively in front of the girl. He reared up on his hind legs, spreading his front paws, and roared. The sound thundered over me, ruffling my feathers. “Leave,” I said when silence fell, and I slashed a hand through the air. “This is my land. You are trespassing.” I prayed that he knewwhatI was, but not who I was. A phoenix was the truest kind of immortal in existence, and if I weren’t cursed, I’d be invincible.
The bear shifter bared his fangs, but he lowered himself to the ground and, with a huff, turned and started off into the woods. His rump was seared with black scorch marks, but those were already rapidly healing. Then he was gone, and I was left standing in the woods, outside my fence for the first time in years, with a girl.
I turned to look at her with a shuddering sigh, wondering what I was supposed to do with her now. I couldn’t leave her outside, that would defeat the purpose of rescuing her from the shifters. But she was human…
Delightfully human—the first female I’d been up close to in possibly even longer than I’d left my home. I took in the pale oval of her face, the dark bruises beneath her eyes, the glasses that sat crookedly on her dainty nose, and the red scratches along her left cheek. Her hair was a sleek sable, fanned out over the mossy ground, and her curves… My cock stirred in my pants so suddenly that it caught me by surprise. Almost, it made me turn around and fly away, but I couldn’t.
Bending down, I carefully gathered her in my arms. I tried to ignore how soft she was, how right she felt as I lifted her slight weight against my chest. My heart ached when her scent swirled into my nose and filled my mind. No, I was saving her, but she was leaving in the morning. This meant nothing; I was being a good Samaritan, that was all. She wouldn’t even know I was there.
I didn’t believe my vows as I winged into the sky with my precious burden, but I had to attempt to stick to them, it was the only way.
Chapter 3
Ava
I struggled to wake, my mind drifting from one nightmare to the next. My body felt heavy and so incredibly tired that it was hard to muster the strength for a fight. It felt like I’d been in battle mode for weeks, not just the five days since I’d been on the run. My dream images were filled with what I’d seen Calder do that fateful night—the night that had rocked my world in the worst way.
Then, the images of my ex (definitely ex after this) were replaced by those of the assholes who kidnapped me from the motel parking lot. The damp, rotting smells of the cabin swirled through my mind before they coalesced into the heart-pounding chase through the creepy witch woods. Things became confusing and messy in my head after that. Pain flared in my ankle, my breathing quickened, and I struggled to comprehend what my eyes were showing me.
Flashes of light, fire, and the roaring of beasts. I jerked upright with a gasp, head spinning as the world seesawed around me. I was breathing fast, and clammy sweat coated the back of my neck, but there was no sign of danger. I was in bed, and darkness surrounded me. Had I imagined it all? Was I back home? Or was I still in that motel room?
My fingers slid over the silky sheets that covered me and I had to revise my first thought that I was safe. These weren’t mine, and they were definitely not the rough sheets from the motel. The mattress felt like a cloud, fluffy and soft. I distinctly recalled howlumpy the bed had felt when I put my bags in the room. So where the heck was I?
Worse, I was no longer dressed in my jeans and sweater. Whoever had brought me here had thoroughly invaded my privacy by undressing me. I wore only my tank top, bra, and panties. I felt vulnerable and slightly violated as soon as I realized this. Where the hell was I?
Scrambling into an upright position made my stomach revolt. Nausea swept through me, and I clutched a hand over my mouth as if that could hold it in. Did Calder manage to get hold of me? No, I didn’t believe that. He was the bad boy I’d stupidly fallen in lust with, and this place—this bed—was far too luxurious for him.
I reached out a hand to the side, hoping to locate a light switch on the nightstand, but froze when I saw something move from the corner of my eye. A shadow, something big, caught in the faint light of the moon filtering through the curtains. There was someone in the room with me, I was sure of it. My breathing sped up and my body flushed with adrenaline. There was my fighting power, sweeping away the exhaustion, the pain, and even the nausea.
The door opening on my right nearly made me jump out of my skin. A beam of warm light fell through the crack as it nudged open, and then a black cat trotted inside and leaped onto the bed with a soft meow. My gaze got trapped in the bright golden eyes, and that was all it took. I didn’t see the shadows again, but the door shut with a gentle click as more light flared.
The sudden glare of the overhead lamps made me blink, and I was blinded just long enough to miss seeing who had been in the room with me. Whoever they were, they had left, and they’d taken the dark, oppressive atmosphere with them.
The room was as large as my apartment, its walls covered with rich wallpaper adorned with those fancy golden French lilies. There was a brocade-covered settee, a huge mahogany wardrobe, and an open doorway that led to the biggest, most opulent bathroom I’d ever seen. This was such a far cry from the downtrodden, fleabag motel I’d checked into that evening that it took me a moment to adjust.
“Meow,” the cat said more insistently, and I flicked my eyes from the crystal chandelier above me down to the feline perched at my hip. It gave me a narrow-eyed frown, as if scolding me for ignoring it. But the expression softened when it rose on four paws and padded close enough to butt its head against my arm.
“Hello kitty,” I said, reaching out to scratch it behind its pointed ears to loud purring. It appeared to be a male, with a bit of scruff around his whiskers, and puffed-up fur on his chest, streaked with white like a crescent moon. “You’re a pretty fellow. Where’s your master?”
He purred louder, then spun around and trotted to the foot of the bed. I didn’t know if that meant he was going to take me to whoever lived here, but I couldn’t sit around and wait. In the light, I spotted my clothes draped over the back of the settee, and I limped over on my sore ankle, hurriedly putting them back on. That was better. That made me feel a little more secure and capable.
My ankle was so swollen that I had to abandon my socks and shoes for now; it was too painful, but at least the carpet was extremely soft. “Okay, let’s go,” I said to the cat. My new, furry friend was waiting by the door until I opened it, his head tilted toward me with what seemed like an indulgent expression. That was just me anthropomorphizing him. There was no way he was actually thinking that, and yet… There was something different about this cat, something that made me feel far too much like he knew exactly what I was thinking.
I opened the door, a hint of trepidation filling my belly. What if my host was a total creep? He was clearly rich, but that didn’t necessarily mean he was a good guy. Still, being rescued from those animals was better than being dead. That had to count for something.
Chapter 4
