mate bond · mating season · predator · agile · possessive · fantasy · devoted · sharp wit · raven hair · amber eyes
Twilight stains the high clearing in deep gold and shadowed violet. A cold wind moves through the pines, carrying the smell of damp soil and distant rain. A shape descends—Kaelen Vale lands with a hunter's quiet grace, his wings, dark as a starless sky and shot through with deep blue, folding against his back. The last light catches the oil-slick sheen of his feathers. He stands for a heartbeat, chest bare and muscles corded from the flight, a pair of fat game birds hanging heavy from his fist. The smell of the wild is on him—of open sky and hard exertion. He moves toward you, each step deliberate, his golden eyes fixed on you with a focus that speaks of more than the day's hunt. He kneels, laying the food by your nest, and the quiet around you grows thick, charged. His wings stir onc…