Page 48 of Shifter Omegaverse AU

His hawk began to dance, but Rowan already knew what this feeling meant. He could practically see the path ahead changing and reworking itself.

Maybe things could actually work out. Maybe their relationship didn’t have to end because Ruben went home with Ray. It might cause some turbulence, but just like his hawk always rode the airwaves over the mountain, maybe he and Milo could, too.

Because Milo was his fated mate. The person he hadn’t been looking for and had never let himself dream of having.

“Rowan? You’re squeezing my hand pretty tight,” Milo whispered.

Rowan released his grip but didn’t lift his hand. This was a trick he’d learned as a child. If he was the one to place his hand on someone else, even on their skin, it was decidedly more tolerable than someone else putting their hand or other body part on him. Maybe it was because he could control the pressure or because he could pull away whenever he wanted. Either way, he left his hand on top of Milo’s as he desperately searched their face.

Milo looked a little surprised, staring down at their joined hands, but they didn’t exactly look like their entire world had just been turned upside down. They were a beta. Could they not feel the fated mate bond as clearly as Rowan could? For Rowan, it felt like a physical thing wrapping around his heart and leading out of his chest and across the dinky pillow wall to Milo.

Could Milo feel it, but…they didn’t care?

“Milo… You… I…”

“I know,” Milo said softly. “Earlier tonight, you shifted into your hawk form, and I held you—”

“What?” Rowan gasped, pulling his hand back on instinct.

Milo lowered their head like they’d been scolded. “I promise, I was just waiting until the morning to tell you. You shifted, your hawk sat in my lap—through a blanket, but at some point, you must have shifted back in your sleep and, I mean, obviously you weren’t wearing any clothes, and your bare leg touched mine, and…”

Rowan collapsed sideways, coming to rest against his headboard, with his elbow propped up on the ornate wood. “I don’t have any memory of that.”

Milo pulled their knees to their chest. “If it makes you feel any better, you were really out of it after Ruben fended off that guy at the club.”

Rowan chewed on the inside of his cheek, but his hawk didn’t seem shocked by this news, clearly because he had been out and about while Rowan had been…what? So stressed about Ruben and Ray he’d blacked out? Hank really had been serious about adrenaline drops.

Except…

“It was more than that,” Rowan murmured. Milo cocked their head, an action so adorable Rowan had to look past their shoulder at the painting of his cabin he’d commissioned Raina to do. “I was…terrified sounds a little dramatic, but honestly, that’s how I felt.”

“That Ruben was going to get hurt?”

“Well, yes, but I’m always worried about that.” Milo grimaced, and Rowan forced the words out. “I was terrified that Ruben was going to hurt Ray.” Milo gaped at him, and Rowan hurried to clarify. “Not at the club, but afterward. That, as you said, he’s exactly Ray’s type, and I was afraid they would start something, and Ruben would finish it, just like he always does, and Ray would get hurt, thereby hurting you, and you would both blame Ruben and…me.”

Milo reached out a hand, but stopped halfway, resting it on the pillow still between them. “I would never blame you for something your brother does. I mean, if you, like, somehow planned for Ruben to start something with Ray just to end it and hurt his feelings, that’s one thing, but you fought just as hard as I did to go to Ray’s side—which was admittedly not very hard because it made more sense for Ruben to do it.”

Rowan nodded, his eyes fixed on Milo’s hand. “It did, but as soon as they came back over to the bar and told us they were leaving, I…”

“Started to panic?” Milo suggested.

Rowan didn’t even have the energy to nod again. All he could do was tick his chin up in agreement.

“Oh, sweetheart,” Milo said, pain and something far gentler ringing through that single word.

Rowan’s heart pounded against his ribs like it wanted to break out of its bony confines and go to Milo. “I don’t want to lose you. Because of Ruben and Ray or…”

“Because we’re fated mates,” Milo whispered, finishing Rowan’s sentence once again.

“I actually have a question about that,” Rowan said, rubbing his forehead with the back of his hand like he could magically get his memory back that way. “I guess I can understand how I shifted, given how stressful the evening was, but I can’t believe I don’t remember us touching for the first time.”

Milo’s shoulders rose up until they looked almost like a turtle, half inside Rowan’s shirt. “You were still asleep. I promise, I didn’t try to touch you. It’s just you were really…naked.”

Rowan’s lip curled up almost against his will. “As opposed to sort of naked?”

Above them, the heat vent kicked on, spreading Milo’s sweet scent throughout the room. Their bangs ruffled over their swirling gray and green eyes, and Rowan thought he could probably spend the rest of his life getting lost in them.

“You’re really sexy, okay?” Milo blurted out, popping their head out of the shirt and startling Rowan’s hawk, who had also been a bit lost in their eyes. “Like, so unbelievably sexy, and your legs were on top of the blanket I was using, and I felt like a creep for seeing you naked without your consent. I yanked the blanket over you, but that left your legs bare on top of mine, and I could immediately tell we were fated mates. I know some shifters can tell when they meet, but it's harder for betas, and I guess it took actual touch for us to figure it out, even though my pony seemed none too surprised.”