“The two up here are females. Fire condor flocks are run by the biggest, oldest female, one of those two. His uncles and dad were giving him shit, so he came up here with mom and grandma.”
“Fascinating. How was your call?”
“Good, actually. I don’t have the gear to bag this many birds. I could do one or two, but this many, I’d just get shanked by the others.”
“No shanking.”
Ros shivered, pressing more firmly back against Teagan. She felt his body stir with interest, but he left it at a gentle kiss against her temple.
“Right. Fortunately, I left a few messages yesterday, and we are very very lucky because I have some friends who are kind of close by. They were helping out with a heron release out west, and they have the gear to really take care of this. Once they get here, maybe as early as tonight, we can get these birds trapped and work on getting them sent home.”
He paused.
“And then, we can maybe have a breather to really figure each other out.”
“Really?” asked Ros with a wicked grin, turning to face him. “Is that what the kids are calling it these days?”
Teagan started to answer, but then he groaned instead as she pressed more firmly against him. The interest she had felt before was getting decidedly stronger, and a slow heat poured through her as his arousal grew.
“You are so fucking dangerous,” Teagan growled, and his broad hands swept down her back to rest firmly on her rear.
“I think I’m pretty tame,” she objected, leaning up to kiss the base of his throat. “I mean, I don’t even think you’ve seen my wild side yet.”
“God help me,” he said, and then she squeaked as he lifted her clear off the ground, his hands under her thighs to support her.
Instinctively, she wrapped her legs around his hips, and she whimpered as his sharp teeth nipped the side of her neck.
“My favorite kind of wild,” he murmured, and he took two easy steps –god, how strong is he? He’s carrying me like I was a houseplant –to press her back against the wall.
With her legs twined around his hips, she could feel his erection even more clearly, and she whined as she pushed harder against him.
“You like that, sweetheart? Still can’t do everything yet, but I can show you how far I can take you with just my mouth, because honey, you are fucking irresistible…”
She started to answer him, and then there was a scream from the deck that was so loud it was as if it had occurred inside. In surprised panic, Ros jumped down from Teagan’s grasp, just barely missing his feet, and almost in the same stride, they lunged for the sliding door, throwing up the blinds.
The two largest birds, the females, looked even larger now, posed on the deck railing, their heads low, their beaks opened wide to hiss, and their broad wings spread up and out. The males, including the juvenile male with the unwise crush, were fluttering around them, hooting with dismay, but one of the matriarchs screamed again.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Teagan chanted, and before Ros could stop him, he was out the door, running not for the two birds but bounding down the steps to the hose she had dropped on the lawn.
Ros stared after him in horror, and after checking a truly ridiculous urge to run after him, she lunged for the sink instead, grabbing the bucket he had dropped and filling it frantically at the sink.
From the sink, she could just barely see the birds out the door. They kept screaming, and then as she watched, the crest on one rose up high and then it burst into fire.
“Oh no–”
As she watched, a stream of water hit that bird squarely in the chest, knocking her back for a moment and putting out her crest. Ros grabbed her bucket and ran back to the door, throwing it open just as the other female, sheltered somewhat from the spray of the water by dropping to the floor of the deck, burst into flame herself, the fire coursing down from her crest to her neck and her back.
“Oh, no, you don’t,” Ros muttered, and she splashed her bucket straight over the flames.
The fire condor looked almost comically shocked, opening her beak to utter an offended cry. When Teagan came up the steps, she decided that was a little too much, and she took to the air, coming to roost on the clothesline down in the yard.
Teagan scanned the yard, hose ready, but it looked like things had quieted down as quickly as they'd started. He hung the hose on the hook by the door and came inside, his face dark.
“That bad?” asked Ros.
“Yeah. It seems as if we might have some flock politics to worry about. Those two are probably mother and daughter. A flock usually has one or two mature females to run things, and usually it works out, but sometimes, well...”
“I’ve got a mother. I get it. And … the fact that they set themselves on fire?”