25. Zoe
Zoe
A rustling to my left wakes me. I'm not sure when I fell asleep here in the glade, but by the position of the sun, I must have been out for at least an hour, if not two.
I push myself into a sitting position when a man appears through the trees. It takes my sleep-soaked eyes a moment to focus before I recognize the figure.
"Ray?" My voice is scratchy and dry.
He must not have noticed me here on the ground, because he stumbles a bit. "What are you doing here?"
One day I'll get used to the venom in his voice, but it's not today.
"Taking a nap, apparently."
He crosses his arms over his chest and looks at me with thinly veiled indifference. "Why?"
"Because I was tired? Why else would someone sleep?" No one has rolled their eyes at me like that since Warren and I were kids. "What are you doing here?"
"I come here to stretch my wings."
I haven't seen Ray's Argentavis form, but I want to. They're prehistoric, gone extinct millennia ago, and yet Oren chose to Bless him with the creature.
How large is he? Would he rival that of my dragon?
I stand and brush off my shorts. "I'll get out of your hair."
"Wait." That single word feels heavier than anything he's said to me before, rooting me to the spot. "I need to apologize." He takes a few steps toward me and scrubs his face with his hand. "I was a dick to you. Using the perfume doesn't make you a bad person, it's just—"
"Just nothing, Ray. I don't use pheromone perfume."
He groans and looks to the sky. "I'm saying it's okay! You don't have to lie to me about it. It's not a moral failing or whatever. It's not my business to say what you can and cannot use."
I stalk toward him, poking him in the chest with my index finger. "I. Don't. Use. Perfume." I annunciate every word clearly, hoping that maybe, this time, it'll get through his thick Alpha skull. "Your sister would know if I did. Hell, everyone would know. You are the only person who thinks I do."
"Then how do you explain away that you smell like pomegranates and honey?
" His nostrils flare, and he takes an unconscious step toward me.
"A Beta like you shouldn't smell like the sweetest nectar.
You're driving me crazy, Zoe. I can't keep my head on straight when you're around.
It's all I can smell whenever you're in the room.
I don't know what is wrong with me. You're a Beta, but the way I'm reacting to you…
" He runs his hands through his hair, leaving tracks in the dark locks.
I don't trust Ray. I barely know him, and none of our interactions have inspired confidence that will change.
I wish I could tell him that I'm an Omega and that he's not imagining things.
I don't like that I've become a gaslighter, even though I have no other choice, but would he keep my secret?
He's done nothing to show me that he will, and until he does, he can't know the truth.
Ray seems like an inflexible rule follower. His dislike of me stemmed purely from his belief that I was pretending to be something I wasn't, and he didn't like being deceived.
Which is what I'm doing, just not like how he thinks. I'm an Omega pretending to be a Beta, when he thinks I'm a Beta pretending to be an Omega. A lie is a lie, but this isn't one I can roll back.
Plus, he's Viv's brother. I cannot tell him my secret before I tell her. She's my friend, and he's just an Alpha with an attitude.
"I'm going to go, Ray. Enjoy your stretch."
I turn to leave, and he grabs my hand. I stumble to a stop, but don't turn to him. "Stay."
"Why? You don't like me, Ray."
"I don't know. But you're supposed to stay."
I extricate myself from his grip and slowly face him. "Supposed to? Who are you to tell me what I'm supposed to do?"
"It's not me telling you. It's Oren." He taps the side of his head. "They're in my head, telling me that I can't let you leave."
Does his God talk to him as well? I thought that was just me. I've never heard of others talking to their Gods.
"Oren speaks to you?"
"Apparently. They never did before now." His body looks tightly coiled, and his chest heaves. "Screams at me is more accurate. And someone yelling at you in your mind is awful. I'd prefer it if you stay so they don't do that again."
"Ilota, why does Oren want me to stay?" I prefer talking to her out loud, but I can't do that without alerting Ray to what I am.
After a brief pause, her voice fills my mind. Again, it sounds far away and weaker than before. "Perhaps they have guidance."
"What kind of guidance?"
She doesn't answer, not that I'm surprised.
I take a step back from Ray and nod. "Fine. I'll stay."
Relief drips from his body. "Thank you. You don't owe me anything, but I appreciate your help all the same." He reaches for the buttons on his shirt before pausing. "Did you want to see my shifted form?"
This feels intimate, like something he doesn't offer up to just anyone. I'm not sure how common it is to shift in front of others, especially Betas. It could be something that they do all the time, no big deal, but this feels like he's placing a lot of trust in me. I don't want to turn him down.
"Okay, yeah, sure."
It's possible that his God is still talking to him, because he seems distracted. "Sure, sure, sure." He mumbles the word over and over as he removes his shirt and slides his pants down.
Ray's body is fit, with broad shoulders and a thin, tapered waist, and his arms are corded with muscles. There's no hair on his torso or stomach, save for a small amount poking out of the top of his briefs that I cannot drag my eyes away from.
"I, uh, need to take my underwear off." He gestures at his crotch, and my face heats.
I can't look him in the eye, not now. "Right, sorry."
A few seconds after I give him my back, a shadow blocks out the sun from its spot above the horizon. Since Ray didn't cry out in pain as I did during my first shift, I felt more than heard the transition. I take a fortifying breath and turn around, only to stumble backward.
Where the handsome Alpha stood is the largest bird I've ever seen.
Calling it a bird does not encapsulate the creature, but it's the only word I have for the winged, feathered beast. I'm looking at something that went extinct so long ago that time has nearly forgotten it, and the weight of that is obvious.
He's about the same height as he was as a man, but his arms have been replaced with wings that stretch an easy twenty feet wide, and he's covered with grey, black, and brown feathers.
The Argentavis Alpha is terrifying, with a hooked beak that looks hard enough to break a diamond and feet with curling talons bigger than my hand.
My dragon stirs inside me, wanting to come out and play, but I shove her down. I can't show that side of me to Ray. This isn't enough for me to rely on his discretion about my own form.
But he is beautiful in a macabre way. Gods, he must've taken some eyes out with those wings when he shifted during his ceremony.
The Argentavis takes a slow, measured step toward me and ducks its head, resting it in the air right over my shoulder. I can feel the tension coiled inside it, threatening to strike if I make a wrong move.
The heat beneath my skin that I've come to realize is my dragon is fighting me for control. Does she want to fly with him? It would make sense, since I haven't been able to take to the sky yet for fear of being discovered.
Shifted, Ray's peppery scent is so much stronger, and it's dizzying. I feel like if I were to move, my knees would give out.
"You're enormous." I raise a shaky hand and press it to the side of his beak, marveling at how solid it is. I've never touched a rhinoserous horn before, but I imagine they're quite similar. "No wonder you needed to come all the way out here to stretch your wings."
I don't know how long I can hold my dragon back from bursting through my skin, so I take a few steps back and steady my breathing. Shifting right now would feel amazing, but the consequences aren't worth it.
"I need to go. Thank you for showing me this side of you."
Before my eyes, his form starts to rattle and shake, and the air around him ripples. In seconds, a very naked Ray stands in front of me. It's a battle to keep my attention above his waist.
"I… Zoe." He runs his hand through his hair, his chest heaving with rapid breaths. His eyes are wide and vulnerable as he stares at me. "I was wrong."
"Glad you finally admitted it."
There's a pause, where the air between us hangs heavy, and then I give him my back and go back the way I came, my dragon giving up the fight for control and whining pitifully in the back of my mind.