Page 26 of Witch's Exile
When a piercing cry filled the air, Sal immediately tensed up and tightened his arms around me. Something flying through the air blocked the sun for a moment but was already gone when I looked up. I lowered my eyes again and was startled to find myself staring into round, golden eyes and a wicked, curved beak.
"Um, hello."
The eagle spread its impressively large wings, sporting a wingspan longer than I was tall, and screeched again.
"Chase, they're guests," Astrid chided. "They're magical, not shifters. But they're okay."
The eagle turned and looked at her before slowly shifting. He took on the appearance of a tall, slender man in his early thirties with brown hair that had a golden sheen to it. Like his bird form, he moved with lightness and ease, practically floating over to his red haired mate.
"You trust these people?" he asked her, eyeing us suspiciously.
"Yes," she said quickly. I was thankful she left out the details of our very first impressions of each other.
He turned to Sal and I, regarding us with his sharp golden eyes that were a few shades darker than mine. "If Astrid trusts you, then you're most welcome here." He held out a hand. "I'm Chase."
We made introductions and he turned back to Astrid. "The other two will be here soon. They brought down a big bull elk." He lowered himself to sit by her and ruffled Jacob's hair with fatherly affection.
Astrid groaned and rolled her eyes at us. "See what I mean? A bull elk can feed us for a month. We don't have the storage for all that meat without turning it into jerky. We'll probably send some steaks back home with you."
"We'll be happy to take it off your hands." Sal wiggled excitedly behind me. I knew he'd be dying to turn those steaks into five-star meals in our own kitchen.
A crashing sound through the trees and snapping branches announced the arrival of Astrid's two other mates.
They came into the clearing in human form, carrying a long branch between them and one of the biggest animals I'd ever seen with its four hooves tied to the branch.
"You weren't kidding," I breathed as they set the dead elk down a few feet from the fire.
"Always trying to show off by bagging the biggest kill," Astrid teased, standing to greet the two men who just carried a 700-pound animal through the woods like it was nothing.
The first man she kissed, a burly lumberjack of a man with an impressive beard, had red hair like her. I figured he had to be her fox mate, Jacob's father. The other man caught me off-guard. Not only was he breathtakingly handsome, he looked at least twenty years older than her. Astrid's fingers caressed his head of thick white hair with a few strands of black sprinkled in. The stubble on his jaw carried an even mix of salt and pepper.
When their lips parted, his dark eyes took her in hungrily and a shiver of envy ran across my skin. It was the same look Raum gave me. I felt like I'd do anything to see his eyes devour me like that again.
We made introductions again and Sal offered to help butcher the elk, which Astrid's mates graciously accepted. Chase poured more blackberry wine while Astrid and I watched them skillfully prepare our dinner.
"What brings y'all out this way?" Orion, the silver wolf, asked in a light Southern drawl that was absolutely swoon-worthy.
"Running away from evil witches," Sal answered half-jokingly.
"You're shit outta luck here." Conan, the burly fox, wiped his knife on a cloth before continuing his work. "Evil witches hate shifters almost as much as they hate demons. That's why we gotta homestead it out like this. Sometimes I swear they're worse than humans."
"You get a lot of demons up this way?" Sal asked casually.
"Not too many this far north," Orion answered. "Lots of 'em where I'm from, down in Louisiana."
"I've lived in the Pacific Northwest my whole life and never seen one," Chase sighed. "I'm starting to think they don't exist."
"That's ironic," huffed Conan. "Considering you know, that you're a human who turns into an animal."
"I know how that sounds." Chase held up a hand in protest. "But I've seen magic. I've seen everything from a snake shifter to a bear shifter. I've yet to see an actual fucking demon with my own eyes."
"Well, you're looking at one right now," Sal smirked. "So don't stop believin'."
Everyone's eyes turned to my man calmly peeling the elk's hide away from the meat. The air fell silent except for the crackling of wood from the fire.
"Yeah?" Chase challenged. "Prove it."
I hid my chuckle behind my wine, knowing Sal was waiting for his own moment to show off.
