Series: Shifter Ops Series by Renee Rose
Total pages in book: 32
Estimated words: 30911 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 155(@200wpm)___ 124(@250wpm)___ 103(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 30911 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 155(@200wpm)___ 124(@250wpm)___ 103(@300wpm)
“N-now!” I shout, and they shut up and scramble to obey.
I back up, close my eyes, picturing Allison’s beautiful face. I raise my arms. In the distance, a gun cracks. Our enemy is shooting at us.
NOW! I call my owl…. And he comes. My Change rolls over me, soft but swift, unfurling like a storm cloud. My form grows, tearing apart my clothes. Prickles dance under my skin, and each pore sprouts giant feathers. Thick and white, covering my giant wings. Huge and powerful and perfect. Strong enough to fly. I’m still afraid, but if I beat my wings hard enough, I can fly higher than the fear and carry my beloved to safety. I’ll be the owl, the rescuer. The hero she needs me to be.
Parker
With a soft wash of warm air, a huge owl explodes from Laurie's form.
The owl beats his wings and goes airborne. He sails right over us, his shadow blanketing the bus as his wingspan blocks out the sun. His claws descend, and he takes hold of the Christmas tree on top of the bus.
Allison leans out of the door, beckoning to me. “Come on!”
Another beat of the giant owl’s wings, and he’ll lift the bus off the ground. I open my mouth, close it, and race around to the driver's side, leaping in just as the front wheels lift a few inches off the ground.
Fiona’s already with Allison, safe in the back, but Declan’s standing a few feet away, his mouth hanging open as he watches the owl flapping its massive wings, trying to gain height. Dust and rocks fly in the mighty wind.
“Declan!” Fiona cries, and he snaps out of his trance. The bus hovers a few feet off the ground. Declan scrambles, tripping over rocks and scrub brush, racing to reach the bus before it’s too high off the ground. He leaps, and the ladies reach down, grab his arms and pull him in.
Just in time. The owl’s lifted the bus high enough to clear the tallest boulder. The ground falls away, and we sail over the earth, a large, misshapen shadow of the bus, the tree and a giant round-headed bird gliding far below.
There’s a rat-tat-tat, and I duck automatically.
They’re shooting at us,” Allison cries.
“Fuckers,” Fiona snarls. And grabs her shotgun. “Help me open this window.”
They wrestle it open, and she takes sight. Crack, goes her gun, deafening me. Rat-tat-tat. A machine gun returns fire.
“I can’t get them.” Fiona falls back into her seat. “They’re out of range.”
“It doesn’t matter.” Allison pats her shoulder. “Laurie will fly us to safety.”
I pull up the GPS and lean out the window. “Head east!” I shout up to the owl. He doesn’t answer, but slowly turns, so the sun’s in the rearview mirror. In silence, we sail on. Every once in a while, a giant feather falls from above, angelic and white, spinning to the desert below.
Chapter Eight
Allison
We reach Taos before sundown. There are mountains in the distance, but we’re so remote that no one would have spotted a giant owl flying a VW bus over the snow-dusted mesa.
Fiona’s on her phone, tracking our progress. Declan’s in the backseat, muttering to himself and sipping on his flask. Being airborne doesn’t suit him.
I could fly like this forever. The owl’s wings are soft, rustling overhead. And the world is filled with his sweet, cotton-y scent.
It’s incredible. As soon as Laurie sets us down, I’ll tell him how I feel about him. It’s been hard to open up with any shifter but Fiona, but I can be brave.
“We’re close to the coordinates Mr. F sent us,” Fiona says. “It’s up ahead.” She points to a field. I can sense the creatures on the earth, from the smallest mouse to the eagles chasing updrafts above us.
“Set it down now,” Parker calls up to Laurie. A few minutes later, the bus bumps gently to the ground. Fiona rushes to open the bus door, and I’m right on her heels. We race over to the owl who’s just landed nearby. The feathers shrink and disappear as Laurie shifts back.
“Oh,” Fiona skids to a stop. I peer around her, and my eyes widen.
Laurie’s naked. Very lean and tall, with neat muscles lining his long torso and limbs. His hair is sticking up on end, and his eyes are very wide.
Parker hands him a hat, and Laurie sets it over his dick. Too bad. I quite liked the sight of it.
“Damn, Laurie,” Fiona says. “That was awesome.” We all crowd around him, but don’t touch, in case his skin is sensitive from shifting from man to bird and back again.
I end up facing him and push to tiptoe, so I can slide his Coke-bottle glasses back onto his face.
“You did it,” I whisper.
He blinks down at me. His eyelashes seem extra long. There’s a tiny bit of fluff stuck to one of them.