Page 28 of Hummingbird and Kraken

While he’d kneaded the dough, he’d felt the weight of years weighing heavily on his shoulders. He could buy bread now, all wrapped up in plastic and identical to every other loaf on the crowded shelves. The thought was depressing.

It felt different, though, when he was making it for Declan. Almost like he was making it for the first time, especially when he chopped the dill and kneaded it in. Just like Declan had requested.

He’d expected Declan to be back before he even placed the loaf in the oven. Instead, he had baked it and set it aside to cool, perhaps fancifully hoping that the smell would reach Declan and tempt him home, like a charm.

It didn’t.

So he’d gone for a walk. Like he did most days. Perhaps every day. He’d never kept track.

As the hours passed, worries started to creep in. Had Declan been too accepting of his shifter nature? If anyone else had been that calm about Geir’s nature, he would have immediately suspected something. Instincts honed over centuries screamed that he should consider Declan’s endless questions as a threat. Especially since Rohahen had mentioned the wolfsbane.

But he didn’t want to believe that Declan was tricking him. He was beautiful and innocent, delightful and charming. Truly, like the playful hummingbird that Geir had named him.

The way that he seemed to crave Geir’s touch made it all more confusing. Geir still got goosebumps thinking about that moment in the lake. There were a lot of things that people could fake, but he didn’t think that Declan’s awed delight at having Geir’s tentacles inside of him was one of them.

Geir had suggested the idea to two or three partners in the past, so long ago that the names and faces were lost to time. What he remembered clearly, though, was the instinctive revulsion. He’d never considered asking again.

So thrusting his hectocotylus inside Declan’s warm, ready body, even without a sperm packet, had perhaps been the most beautifully intimate moment in his life. Especially when he saw the expression on Declan’s face, his shimmery eyelids falling closed in ecstasy while he begged wordlessly for more.

It didn’t seem possible that he’d know Declan for only a few short days. Perhaps, if dazzling man was a danger to him, it was better this way. That he would go down in an enchanting blaze of glory. It felt like Declan would be worth it.

Maybe it was a good thing that Rohahen had taken him to be evaluated by the People. They had skills that he didn’t have, ways to determine someone’s honesty and intentions.

Though that led him to another worry. Geir had hoped he was unique recipient to Declan’s charms, but that clearly wasn’t the case. He’d skipped off this morning with the outgoing and friendly Rohahen, barely giving Geir a backward glance.

The two of them would be a perfect pair, it seemed. They were both chatty and vibrant in a way that Geir would never be. If Declan liked men who were larger and stronger, which it appeared that he did, Rohahen would be just his type.

Was Declan seducing him right now? Cooing over Rohahen’s shifted form? Geir shook his head, willing the image to leave.

No, he wouldn’t let himself believe that, either. Declan had said that he belonged to him. Declan had moved his clothes into his room. Declan had spent every moment of the last couple days with him, most of them sitting on Geir’s lap or tempting him into the lake for a swim.

Declan looked so happy when they were together. As happy as Geir, unexpectedly, found himself to be.

That joy was as strange an emotion as the worry and jealousy. Impatience was new, too. How had one small human made him feel so much?

He shifted on the rock again, unable to relax. It was like he’d been jerked into a different stream of time that moved in unpredictable ways. Time had always moved on without him, and today it was standing in his way.

What magic was this that Declan had him jumbled up after just two days together? Geir was too old for this, too tired.

He thought maybe he should swim. To spend some time in his other form, where sweet, shiny boys didn’t matter. He got up from his uncomfortable rock and turned toward the lake.

Just then, he heard the rumble of a truck coming down the road. He ran up the hill, slowing down only as he reached the edge of the woods.

Geir heard the truck doors slam, and then laughter. Ro’s lower and Declan’s a bit higher.

“Geir?” Declan called out.

“Here,” he answered, stepping into the driveway behind them.

“Geir, look! I picked blueberries! And Ro gave me a whole flat. Did you know they use sheets to collect them? You just shake the bushes, and whole mountains of them fall off all at once. And this is May. Where’s May?”

He looked around. A small house cat wound around his ankles. “We drew pictures together. Didn’t we?” He seemed to be talking to the cat. Practically a kitten. Her age suggested an unfortunate history. But it wasn’t really his business. “She made me the best mud pies and I made her sandwiches. And I met so many people, and the Guide said that he trusts me, well, he didn’t really say it, but Ro said he did. And I can go back sometimes. Next time we might pick tomatoes.”

He hitched himself up on the back fender of the truck and leaned over to pull out a flat of blueberries while he talked. His jeans stretched tight over his ass and he looked delectable. Enthusiastic and sexy and so interested in the world.

“I made bread,” Geir finally said, wanting to contribute something.

“Oh, did you? With dill?”