Teagan gave her a curious look as he toweled his hair dry.
“What?”
“You know.”
“No?”
“The backyard. Tabbie told me it’s totally sheltered from the road and the lake.Youknow.”
Then he did, and this time he gave in to the urge to lean in and push her against the back of the bathroom door, leaning down to kiss her exactly like they both wanted. He didn’t have the keen sense of smell that a wolf or bear shifter had, but there was something about the fact they'd used the same shampoo, that they smelledalike, made his eagle croon with pleasure. Ros was pure perfection under his mouth and his hands, and he would never ever get enough of being close to her.
He kept kissing her until he realized he was half-hard again and that her hand, cupped intimately around his hip, was starting to inch downwards.
“You are so damned hard to resist,” he said, and he nearly gave it all up when she looked up at him through her eyelashes, an utterly wicked smile curving her lips.
“Why bother resisting?” she asked, her voice throaty, and Teagan honestly couldn’t see the point of resisting even a little bit when an angry shriek came from outside, followed by another and another.
Ros jumped, glaring towards the deck.
“I take it our unwelcome guests are having some kind of family drama?”
“Yes, unfortunately. It’s probably just the usual fight for dominance, but we should go and make sure it’s just a spat rather than anything more dangerous.”
“I’ll showthemdangerous,” Ros muttered, and inside his eagle chortled, because it absolutely believed her.
“I guess we should go out there and make sure that the endangered bird population doesn’t try to off itself.”
“Well, that, and the fact that if the fight gets out of hand, they could start a fire.”
“I... Okay, what?”
“Fire condors,” he said with a sigh. “Come on, let’s get dressed.”
*
A brief peek outside showed the fire condors to be a little restless, but nothing was actively on fire, so Teagan would take it.
His father had always said that everything was better with food in front of you, so he sat Ros down at the table and raided the fridge. After their conversation the other night, he was a little worried that all he would find was cereal and milk, but there were also eggs, ham, and some vegetables, more than enough to make omelets for both of them.
“Okay, so the birds out there, they’re what we call fire condors. That’s not the proper name for them, but you know, neither is murderbirds. It works. Some shifter conservationists would rather spit out the full genus species name, but most of us won’t bother.”
“Are there a lot of you?” asked Ros, startled, and Teagan grinned, cracking four eggs into a bowl.
“A fair number. There’s a lot more than shifters out in those woods, and it’s in everyone’s best interest to make sure that some species, like our friends out on the porch, stay relatively obscure.”
“So it’s not normal to find a bunch of fire condors on your porch?”
“Not at all. These guys tend to live in the more remote parts of the Middle East. These guys are probably escapees from some rich jerk’s zoo. They shouldn’t be in woods this dry or this close to humans.”
Ros nodded slowly.
“So how are we going to get them home?”
“We?”
The look she gave him was determined, verging on stubborn.
“Yes, we. Because it looks to me like you’re outnumbered, and if speed is of the essence, that means all hands on deck, right? I’ve got hands.”