Her Falcon (Shifted Love 7)

I tilted my head to the other side, wondering what the heck he was about to say. He didn’t make me wait long before his voice dropped to the barest thread of sound as he confessed, “My daughter is married to a wolf shifter. She’s his fated mate, and my grandchildren are their pups.”

Whoa. I wasn’t sure what I’d been expecting him to say, but it wasn’t that. The existence of shifters was a well-kept secret. I still hadn’t been able to figure out how my captor and his scumbag friends had found out about us, but I doubted it was because someone in our community trusted one of them. But the same couldn’t be said for the man standing in front of my cage.

The love this human felt for his family was obvious. It didn’t matter to him that his grandchildren would be able to shift into wolves one day. And I was willing to bet that his daughter and her fated mate had shared our secret with him because they had no doubts about his trustworthiness.

My falcon’s heart raced in my chest as I stared up at him. After everything that had happened to me, it took a giant leap of faith to shift into my human form in front of this man. But that was exactly what I did.

The process was much slower and more painful than I remembered, but it felt so good to be able to stretch my arms and legs out once it was done. Bending low, the man kept his gaze on my face as he handed me the T-shirt he’d been wearing. He must have taken it off while I was shifting.

“Thanks,” I rasped, tugging the soft cotton material over my head.

He was big enough that the shirt fell to mid-thigh on me. Once I was covered, he helped me to my feet. “What’s your name, little falcon?”

“Ramsey,” I croaked.

“I’m Link.” My knees were weak, but he wrapped his arm around my lower back to help me stand. “You ready to get the fuck outta here?”

Speaking hurt my throat, so I just nodded and left the rest up to him.

Link had a few of his friends—all members of the Silver Saints MC—distract the law enforcement officers while he snuck me out of the basement before they noticed me and asked a lot of uncomfortable questions. Then he sent someone downstairs to grab the cage that had been my prison so they’d believe the story that he’d taken me to a falconer he knew. Instead, he called the Park Ridge alpha and asked him if they had a doctor who could look me over.

Everything was a bit of a blur after that. I remembered the doctor telling me that I needed to get lots of rest, fluids, and nutrients. And how relieved I had been when he’d said that once I was better, I would need to shift to my falcon and give her enough time to molt and grow new feathers. Before then, I hadn’t dared to hope that my wings would ever recover. But he assured me they’d be fine thanks to my shifter blood.

Unfortunately, the hope that I’d felt faded when Link delivered news that left me feeling as though I’d never be safe again. “The asshole who kept you captive pled guilty to the possession of illegal animal charges and was given only six months in prison.”

I looked around the guest bedroom of the home he shared with his family and knew that I couldn’t stay here. “I need to leave.”

“You got anywhere safe to go?” Link asked, crossing his arms against his broad chest.

I shook my head. “No, but I can’t stay here and put you all at risk.”

Link yanked his phone out of his pocket and growled, “Then I’ll send you to my son-in-law’s pack.”

“His alpha won’t want the trouble that’ll follow me.” I forced my spine to straighten as I thought about how the Park Ridge alpha had refused to do anything about my captor. When Link had argued with him while the doctor had been taking care of me, the alpha hadn’t been willing to budge an inch. Not when I was a loner and avenging me would draw attention to his pack. “That man knew I was a shifter. He might send someone after me. One of his friends who auction off shifters they’ve captured to the highest bidder.”

Link didn’t seem the tiniest bit worried as he flashed me a confident grin. “Trust me. The second Larissa hears about what happened to you, their pack is gonna welcome you with open arms. She might’ve been born human, but she’s one hell of an alpha female.”

Holy crap! His daughter was mated to the alpha.

2

Ramsey

Link had been right about Larissa’s reaction to my plight. In no time at all, he was dropping me off in Timber Ridge in the middle of the night, and I was being hustled into a sweet little house. I wrapped my arms around my body as my gaze drifted toward the windows on either side of the front door.