Chapter Fourteen
Joshua
My alpha. Mine. He was everything I never dreamed of and yet on some level always knew had to be out there. The right person for me. I just never dreamed he’d be the Crow King. A creature of myth and legend. And my person? My “mate”?
I was fairly sure we hadn’t done everything to close that deal, but for the moment, what we had was so special, it was already more than enough.
He came over every day and helped me get my house ready to live in.
It had indeed been largely cosmetic issues, and as we worked on each room in turn, the good bones began to reveal even more goodness.
The farmhouse was well over a century old, and whoever had built it and lived in it had truly loved the place.
“Look at this bathroom.” I stood in the upstairs hallway bath, one that serviced the two guest rooms. “Even the tile is still perfect.” It was just dirty and needed new toilet guts and a handheld shower installed because the antique clawfoot had no shower.
And most modern people counted on their being one.
“That gray paint is perfect with the aqua tile. I don’t think it’s original though, the tile, do you?
” It was on the floor and halfway up all the walls.
“No, there would have been no indoor bath when it was built. But it’s still pretty old.” He gave a buff to the faucet. “Nice though, right?”
“More than nice. We’re getting close to livable.”
Corvus nodded, his Crow King head on full display. He’d explained to me how much it took to maintain the “glimmer,” and I assured him that I didn’t need him to do that for me, which sure seemed to make him relax. “This bathroom is ready. Let’s go look at the bathroom close to your bedroom.”
It was not an en suite. The fact that a farmhouse like this had two baths was already kind of a miracle, from what he’d told me.
But it was right next door to the bedroom, and I hoped that at some point, I could remodel so it was enterable from the master.
Master meaning slightly bigger bedroom that had a legit closet, unlike the other two that featured free-standing wardrobes.
“All right. But we can’t get this lucky twice.” I led the way and stepped into the room. “It’s a real mess.”
“And needs the faucets and such replaced. Also…I think the toilet is cracked.” He looked at it and shook his head. “We should make a list and then order the parts we need.”
Suddenly, I didn’t feel like remodeling today.
Something occurred to me that had not before.
“Corvus, if you’re the Crow King, and a shifter, you presumably have another form?
I mean, I know nothing about such things, but is your head the only part that becomes a crow?
Because in the legends, there’s a guy who can fly in there. ”
He looked up from the toilet, blinking. “Of course there’s a crow. Why are you asking that when we’re talking about plumbing?”
“Because I don’t want to do any more plumbing today. Or painting. Or sanding, hammering, or patching. I want to see you fly.”
“All right.”
Just like that? I should have asked sooner. If I’d thought of it.
“Do you have to go outside to do it?”
He reached out and pulled me against him, resting his head on my shoulder. “No, omega. It’s not like my other form is an elephant or a rhinoceros. I’m a crow, only a little bigger than the standard version.”
“Oh. That makes sense. But isn’t it nicer to fly outside?”
“That it is. Let’s open a window, and I’ll give you a little bit of a show.
” He was stripping as he spoke, distracting on my worst days, but I wanted to see his crow, to meet his animal, enough to convince myself that I could have my way with him later, or his way with me, whichever.
He was not one of those alphas who had to be in charge all the time, bossing every omega that crossed his path.
When he was naked and gorgeously so, he faced me.
Not hard…a first when one of us had our clothes off.
“Watch carefully, omega. This goes fast.”
Fast? Understatement of the year. Corvus stood there, all that lean muscle with a human structure one second, and the next, there was an odd popping sound and he was gone, replaced by a bird with glistening black feathers, a fierce beak, and black eyes that stared into my soul.
I reached out, but he hopped from the floor to the windowsill and leapt into the air, wings stretching out to keep him aloft then beginning to move.
I rushed to the window to see him soar up into the sky, growing smaller as he climbed.
Then, when he was just a dot against the blue, he plummeted back down, wings tucked tight to his body, faster and faster.
I held my breath, expecting him to crash into the ground.
Just short of that, his wings spread, and he swooped over the yard, inches from dead lawn.
As I stood and watched, he climbed again, in big looping circles this time, then flew back to the window and landed on the sill, right in front of me.
I reached for him, unsure if this wild creature would allow me to touch him, but he did. More than allow, he preened under my touch. “You’re so smooth, so silky,” I marveled. “And your flight…wow.”
The pop again and there he was, standing just inside the window.
Naked.
And it occurred to me I was wearing too many clothes. I pulled off my shirt.
“Omega, are you a shifter?”
“No, but I have something else to show you.” I unfastened my pants, my cock jutting out past the open fly.
“That’s also very nice.”
“I hoped you’d think so.”