Barely Winging It Read online

  Evernight Publishing ®

  www.evernightpublishing.com

  Copyright© 2015 Tigertalez

  ISBN: 978-1-77233-286-5

  Cover Artist: Sour Cherry Designs

  Editor: Karyn White

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  DEDICATION

  To my three boys Liam, Keoni, and Kona. You have given me great ideas for names and mischief that surpasses simple imagination. You keep me laughing, cheering, and striving to better myself. You are the loves of my life.

  BARELY WINGING IT

  Kaska Pack, 3

  Tigertalez

  Copyright © 2015

  Chapter One

  Wednesday afternoon

  Phoenix Savage tightened his talons around the thin branch he perched on, steadying himself in the light breeze that swayed him as he watched, from nearly a mile away, his alpha’s sister, Havana, head for her daily trip to the barn. He had been watching her make the trip every day since the gargoyles arrived, which had been about a couple of weeks now. He suspected she and the lead gargoyle, Dultyn, were mates. But Havana was only seventeen, so Nix had noticed they were pointedly avoiding each other, no doubt the only way not to go insane from the mating pull.

  As his eyes scanned the plush forest below and around, looking for any trouble, he sat, contented with where he was right now in his life. He was definitely grateful that he didn’t have a mate at the moment. He had too much baggage, along with several skeletons in his closet.

  The heavy clouds promised rain soon, moistening the air with a sticky humidity, but Nix didn’t mind it much so long as he could be in falcon form. He was always most comfortable in his avian form. Maybe too much, but he didn’t care if it was. The last several decades he had been unable to shift as often as he would have liked, so now that he had the chance at being in his flight form all day, he gladly submitted to it. As it stood now, he only took his human form when he flew in for evening reports and sat with the family over supper … or in the case of the gargoyles, breakfast.

  Nix stretched out his wings and felt the breeze tickle through his feathers. Giving in to his passion for flight, he leaped into the air. He was going to do one more flight around the five thousand acre property before heading in.

  With the wind currents moving over his feathers, he flew over the construction site Kace and his team were currently finishing up. It was a small cabin near a large pond for Betty. She was Alphy’s great-aunt, who had kept this territory in the hopes it would be a sleuth, or in their case, a pack, once again. Her mate was the Canadian shifter councilmember Tyler Ghost. They had only recently discovered each other when Alphy had invited him to witness the alpha challenge they’d had almost three weeks back. Tyler was an eagle shifter, so Nix had company in the skies once in a while, but he didn’t mind it so long as he wasn’t pushed out of the sky.

  Nix circled in the air currents over the site. They had the foundation finished and the walls and roof mostly constructed. They only needed the sidings and shingles to be done on the outside, but his sharp eyes could see there was still much to done on the inside. When he gave the group a friendly twitter, they waved in response as he flew on.

  The acreage was full of abandoned homes. One spot in particular he favored. Even though the main pack house was in an open ten acre area, there was a great spot that was a long strip of field that was about twenty-five hundred feet long and maybe two hundred fifty feet wide. There were several trees that bordered it that he loved to perch in. The field grew wildflowers, and a small river full of fish ran nearby. Nix was hoping to get a house built here. Alphy had approved this spot for him, so he didn’t worry about another shifter taking it over, as so many homes were planned on being built. Nix wasn’t in a hurry since he wasn’t in his human form much, but it didn’t stop him from feeling territorial of the space already.

  After a long period of time, Nix finished his sentry duty. He angled his body and tail and started heading back to the pack house. A low buzzing sound caught his attention. Nix looked around for the sound. He saw a glint of metal drop from the bottom of the clouds just east of him. It was a plane, whose engine could be heard sputtering, proving to be in distress and steadily losing altitude. Nix’s sharp eyes made out what looked like one female occupant in the small DHC-2 Beaver plane.

  He could do nothing but watch as the pilot dipped and aimed for his stretch of wildflowers. He knew it was the logical and best place for her to land if she was in trouble, so he followed her to watch the event unfold. Further and further the plane inclined, the wings dipping and rocking as it descended and the engine cut out a few more times. The heavy wheels fitted to the plane were large and made for unpaved landings. Aiming for a branch on his favorite tree that bordered the strip, Nix stretched out his talons and wrapped them around the wooden perch. Shaking out his feathers, he turned his sights on the struggling plane and watched as the pilot expertly dipped and angled until the wheels touched the ground.

  Nix watched the plane approach his end of the flower-paved runway and wondered what the pilot looked like without the glasses and headset. As the plane turned around at the end, he was able to make out the identification number on the fuselage. A thin form lithely climbed from the quieted plane. Nix’s falcon twittered at the sight of the natural black curls crowning the head of a milk chocolate skinned angel before she moved out of sight to the front of the plane.

  Unable to suppress his urge to investigate further, he hopped into the air and spread his wings, soaring down to take a much closer look. Landing on the wing of the plane, he watched the woman peer into the engine. She briefly looked up at him in surprise when he landed.

  “Well, hello there. Wow, aren’t you a gorgeous thing?” she said in clear awe.

  Just the sound of the woman’s voice sent a flutter through his feathers and prickled his skin with delight. For some reason, her approval of his bird gave him enormous satisfaction. Catching her scent on the twirling breeze, his body suddenly froze. Shit! She’s my mate! And she’s human.

  Nix sat stunned as he watched her moving around. His mind was overworked with thoughts and questions he couldn’t answer or even ask. All he could do was watch her. She hummed a tune as she rummaged around in the plane and came out with a toolbox, and continued to hum while taking off the nose cover.

  She talked to herself, or to him, as she inspected the engine. “No, it’s not that. What’s in here? Nope, not that either.” He listened to her mumble and the dinking sounds of her wrench connecting with various metal parts. She made her way around the engine checking dipsticks, and pulling out plugs to examine, then sticking them back. “Huh, I wonder if that was the problem.”

  He didn’t know how long it took, but he thought it was too dark to fly once she put the nose covers back on.

  Her dark brown eyes scanned over him. “You are the strangest bird I have ever met. I’ve never seen a bird just sit there and watch me like you did.” Nix watched the expression on her face turn sad or bereft even. “I’m gonna take off now, so you might want to fly away.” She climbed back into the plane and started doing her checklist for flight.

  Wait a minute, fly away? Just as his brain seemed to have wrapped itself around what she said, the engine turned over. Nix didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t just shift and tell her to stop. If she surv
ived the shock of him shifting, she certainly wouldn’t handle a fully naked man added to it.

  Nix leaped off the plane and flew to the top of a large tree. He looked back to see the plane already heading down the strip, its number almost unreadable in the dark. Nix knew he needed to remember that number if he ever had a chance at finding her again. He repeated it over and over in his head as the plane took flight and flew over the trees, disappearing into the dark and low hanging clouds.

  With urgency, Nix took flight again and headed back to the alpha house. He knew just the man to help him. Even though before her arrival he was grateful not to have a mate, now a fire burned inside him for her, and he hadn’t wanted or would want anything more.

  Chapter Two

  Wednesday afternoon

  Havana watched Slate and the others head out on errands to Toronto. She envied them for sure. There had to be all sorts of great things to do and see there. However, she didn’t complain. She had a reason to stay, not that she would tell anyone else that reason.

  It was afternoon by the time she was able to sneak away without being noticed. She grabbed some papers on college courses and her drawing pad and pencils and headed out to the barn. She truly enjoyed her daily treks to the barn. Even if one of the gargoyles wasn’t her mate, she felt it still might be a relaxing thing for her. The house was so busy and loud that it was nice to have some quiet time alone, and she liked talking to someone without having to worry about judgments or actually any response at all. It was nice just to talk.

  She felt the hairs on her neck prickle and figured it was Nix watching her. She knew he could see her at times and really didn’t care he knew so long as he didn’t go blabbing it to anyone, especially her older brother and alpha, Alphy. It would force her to answer questions about something she wasn’t ready to talk about right now. The falcon shifter hadn’t seemed to feel it was anything worth reporting, and she appreciated that.

  The musky smell of the barn, mixed with the other smells of wood, concrete, metal, and animals that once inhabited the old building filled her senses as she entered the darkened space and headed to the stairs that were in the middle on each side. The boards creaked underfoot while she ascended them until she reached the top.

  The structure was full of building supplies her great-aunt had collected over the years in hopes to rebuild the sleuth. They weren’t a sleuth anymore, but a pack, but it seemed to have made Betty very happy anyway. Or would that be her mate whom she’d just found? Actually, Havana’s guess would be it was probably both. Kace and his crew had started using the supplies, so there were noticeable “dents” in the stock.

  Making her way around some of the equipment, Havana found where the gargoyles were roosting. After placing her things on a flat surface of a stack of wood planks, she easily recognized the mound of slate white stone that was her mate. Dultyn was the biggest mound. The other two were curled up and covered their bodies with their wings, but her mate didn’t. She believed it was because he knew she was coming out to see him while he roosted.

  Reaching up, she let the tips of her fingers glide down the smooth, warm stone surface of his face. When she’d first felt him, she had expected the stone to be cold. She was shocked to find out that they were warm when they were stone. But these were living beings, so after that revelation, it actually made sense to her that they were warm, and she loved it.

  She leaned close and nuzzled his face. “Hello, mate.” After giving a peck on his cheek, she closed her eyes and leaned her head against his hardened surface. “Tomorrow is my birthday. Are you going to finally claim me then? I’m looking forward to it. I’m gonna claim you right back, too.” She stood there for a while, soaking up his warmth and easing the pain of the forced separation, with his touch.

  They kept their distance because she was seventeen, not yet legal. At least, that was what she hoped he was doing, because they hadn’t even talked with each other. Dultyn tried avoiding her even though she knew he watched her when she slept. It was hard on her and her bear not to have any contact with him or even time to talk with him.

  “After tomorrow, whether you claim me or not, you won’t be avoiding me any longer.” After placing another kiss on his cheek, she went back to the items she brought.

  “I’ve got information on all my classes that I’m going to take. Ryker said I can take them online. In fact, he’s setting up a ‘school room’.” Havana lifted her fingers and made quotes in the air, as if he could see her. “Turns out there’s gonna be a lot of us taking classes. My youngest brother, Reese, is doing his schooling over the internet, as well as Alphy’s mate, Gale. She’s taking public relations.” Havana laughed as she made herself comfortable in a makeshift seat. “Her brother, Paul, is going to do his schooling online, although, him I can understand more because he’s still so messed up. Humans heal so slow. I don’t know how they can stand it. You deal with what you’re dealt, I guess.” For the next several hours, Havana continued to talk out loud as she studied over the information she was given for graphics design and drawing.

  She didn’t know how long she was there until she heard the growl from her cell. That was her brother Alphy’s tone. Looking at the screen, she cringed when she saw the time. Sliding a finger over the glass and putting it to her ear, she answered while she gathered up her stuff.

  “Hello.”

  “Where the hell are you?” Alphy wasn’t shouting, but he was definitely concerned.

  “I’m around. I just wanted some quiet to work. What’chya need?”

  “There was an attack on Slate and the others. Dex was hurt pretty badly, so we just sent off Elise with Marek. Get your ass back here.” Alphy growled before he disconnected the call.

  “On my way,” Havana mumbled into the phone. “I guess it’s time to go. See ya later, my mate.” Quickly planting a chaste kiss on his soft sculpted cheek, Havana trotted down the steps and made a quick exit.

  The house wasn’t still or quiet when she entered and placed her things on a nearby table. Precisely the reason she liked going to the barn. Ok, one of the reasons.

  With the money Tom and his wife had received from the herd settlement, they had decided to temporarily move into an apartment in town until they could close on a house they’d just bought, but Tom was always here helping Alphy with something or other. Alphy respected Tom and trusted him, and Connie was cooking for the pack house while Betty was away. Connie was also Alphy’s mate’s mother, so they were here often for one reason or another. With them came the twins, Abby and Danny. Havana enjoyed the twins, as they were adorable and fun. But they were also loud, and right now was no exception.

  The house was also cluttered with other pack members in a scurry of activity. Havana quickly popped her head around the corner to the office. She saw Alphy was having a meeting with Enzo and Kace, with Ryker tapping away on his laptop beside them, and Seamus was on the phone with someone, talking his medical jargon. She quickly waved to her brother to let him know she was back, as ordered, and headed into the living room.

  Reese and Paul were playing with the twins and Kace’s building crew. Peter, Steven, Marley, Gavin, and Rushod were lounging around in the living room talking about their current build. Rushod’s expectant mate, Lois, was sitting on his lap with his arm securely around her. Marek was also a part of their crew, but his absence was expected right now.

  Making her way over to her younger brother, Havana stood over him, “Ok, baby brother, where’s my bag of M&Ms?”

  Reese pulled out a neatly folded candy wrapper and handed it to her. Looking at the thing, she narrowed her eyes and shot him a perturbed look. “You doof, I said you could eat half, not the whole damn thing.”

  Mischief covered Reese’s face. “Yeah, but my half was at the bottom. I had to eat yours to get to it.”

  Around her, she could hear others laugh at his antics. “We’ll just see what you think when I won’t let you have any of my birthday cake, and what’s with it being neatly folded?”


  “Ha, I bet I can still get a piece of your cake. What? You don’t like the fold? I was practicing hospital corners. It takes a special talent to get those skills mastered on candy wrappers.” Reese winked at her.

  “Special is right. Hold on, let me find you that bib.”

  Laughter followed her as Havana made her way to the kitchen. The smells from supper cooking drew her there. She entered the kitchen and inhaled the spicy fragrance of enchiladas.

  “Mmm, smells good, Connie.” She stopped to look in the skillet of Mexican fried rice that was on the stove before looking around at the others in the kitchen. She saw Connie leaning against the island, and she looked like she was forcing her smile. She saw Gale sitting across from her at the breakfast bar. She was looking at her hands while she fidgeted with her nails. Looking around some more, Havana didn’t spot Katie or Sara. She was used to hanging with the girls as they all got along really well. It felt a little off not to have them around. She understood Elise’s absence. “Where’s the others?”

  With a lowered voice, Gale filled her in on what just happened. “While Slate was out, Seamus spoke to Katie about the test results on her pregnancy. She locked herself in her room and won’t talk to anyone. Not us, not her dad or her sister, not even Alphy. She hasn’t come out since. And the guys that went to Toronto were attacked. With the news about Slate’s attack, Henry took Beverly and Sara downstairs to try and comfort them. Dex is pretty bad, and Elise was sent down in hopes she can help.”

  Havana wasn’t told about Katie, so that was a slight shock, but shock didn’t sit long with her, so she was able to shake her head pretty quickly and shrug. “They’ll all be fine, just you wait and see. Fate brought everyone together at this very present moment for a reason. I have faith, and so should you. Want me to help get the plates ‘n’ stuff out, Connie?”