Free First & Forever (The Crescent Chronicles Book 4) by Alyssa Rose Ivy

arms before, and Allie wasn’t just anyone. She was everyone.
    I stepped off.
    I could tell she still had her eyes closed. Her body was so tense. She needed to see that everything was going to be okay. “Open your eyes,” I whispered.
    She let out the tiniest start of a scream before going silent. I continued our decent and then leveled us out just above the water. Part one was over. If she accepted me, wings and all, I may have found my mate. If she didn’t, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. In the deepest part of my heart and soul, I knew there was no one else for me.

Forever
a crescent chronicles novella

Chapter One
    Flying with Allie in my arms was a whole new experience. Her closeness set off something inside me that made the usual rush from flying so much better. I let myself enjoy the flight, pushing aside any lingering doubt over how she’d react. If this was going to be my only flight with her, I was going to enjoy it. But it couldn’t be the only one. There was no way I could let her go.
    Eventually I landed. Putting off the inevitable wouldn’t help. She seemed to be handling herself well, but there was no reason to push my luck any more than necessary.
    I set her down, and she stumbled away from me. Her quick movement surprised me, and she fell down onto the grass. She clutched the green strands for dear life. I thought back on my first flight. It was different for me. Flying was like breathing. I tried to put myself in her shoes. She must have been terrified.
    She stared up at me through her long, damp eyelashes. “What the hell are you? Oh-my-god you’re angels, aren’t you? I’m dead. I’m actually dead?”
    I laughed. “Do you really think I’m an angel?” I was used to the comparison. With long black wings, people had gotten us confused on many occasions.
    “A fallen angel?” She asked, looking around at all four of us.
    I laughed lightly, hoping to put her at ease, but I was determined that she see me for who I really was. “We’re not angels of any sort.” I stepped toward her.
    “Then what are you?” She scooted away from me, and my chest clenched. Was she afraid of me? She squeezed her eyes shut.
    “Open your eyes, sweetheart.” I kneeled down and placed my hands on her trembling shoulders. “Open your eyes.”
    “No, this has to be some messed up dream.”
    “It’s not a dream.” I kept my voice low, soft. I needed to put her at ease.
    “Yes, it is.”
    “No, it’s not. Accept it already,” Jared snapped at her. I glared at him. If he screwed this up for me he was a goner.
    She looked ready to snap back, but then she pressed her lips together and paused for a moment before turning her eyes to me. “If this isn’t a dream, then what are you? What’s going on?”
    “We’re Pterons,” Hailey said gently.
    “Pterons?” Allie asked, repeating the word carefully as though she were trying it out.
    “We’re shifters, Allie,” I tried to stay gentle and calm. I needed to put her at ease. One slip up and she might run.
    “Shifters? Like what, a werewolf?”
    Jared laughed. “We’re not like werewolves. That’s like saying humans are like chimps.”
    “Humans? Wait, because you guys aren’t human…” Her gorgeous green eyes widened with a mix of shock and fear.
    “Like I said, we’re shifters. At one time our people shifted into crows, but over time we became more of a hybrid. It’s more efficient.” I simplified the explanation as much as possible.
    “Like natural selection or something?” she asked absently. She was staring off in the distance. I hoped she wasn’t in shock.
    “Something like that.” I picked up her hands. “You okay?”
    “I’m not sure.”
    “It really doesn’t change anything.” Hailey took a few steps closer to us.
    “You’re standing there with giant wings coming out of your back, yet you tell me that nothing has changed?”
    “What she means is that we’re still the same people you wanted to hang out with in the