Free Birds and Prey by Lexi Johnson

point, in the distance, where the other Shifter’s bird form was disappearing into the horizon.
    Marid’s visit had been startling, but Sade was glad of it. Throughout her past week of training, she’d tried to find some window of understanding into Haytham’s mind. What did he want? Why was he doing this for her?
    If she hadn’t been so afraid of the pain – not from Haytham’s body or actions, but from her aching soul-bond -- she might even have tried harder to seduce him sexually, to find out. But he’d declined her tentative overtures, and the pain in her soul-bond had made it seem not worthwhile to try harder.
    Maybe he preferred men? That was an obvious possibility, given that he and Marid obviously had a history of intimacy. But it certainly hadn't seemed that way when he’d been driving his cock into her body, that first night in his den…
    Sade dropped back into her stance, letting her eyes shut automatically as she followed the steps of the dance. The dance was a comfort and a balm to the aching wound of her soul-bond, even surrounded by these other uncertainties.
    The wind filled her, taking the pain went away. Her thoughts whirled around her like so many wind-tossed leaves. Laire did have Haytham bound -- perhaps in a way similar to that in which she had bound Sade, with gifts, pleasures, and promises that were made of truth but somehow worked out to lies. When Marid had accused Haytham of not knowing love, the hidden pain in his expression was obvious to Sade. Sade had learned, in Laire’s service, to mask her real emotions. Haytham must have learned the same lesson.
    It lightened some of Sade’s distrust of him. Perhaps, if she could discover what it was Laire had promised Haytham, Sade and Haytham might be able to work together to escape their mutual prison…
    And with that thought – or was it instinct? Or something whispered by the wind? -- Sade decided to seduce Haytham again.
    She’d barely had time to adjust to her decision when she sensed that he was moving toward her -- too fast, in fact; in her mind’s eye, she saw his leg sweep at her feet. Haytham was attacking her!
    ‘Now,’ the wind whispered.
    Before Sade’s heart could register the surprise, she was lunging, moving. They passed each other close enough that the fabric of his trousers brushed her hand.
    “Good,” Haytham said, and his tone was pleased. “You can open your eyes now.”
    Sade opened her eyes. She was barely a half a foot’s width from the cliff’s edge. Haytham stood three feet away, framed in sunlight.
    ‘Now,’ the wind whispered at her again.
    Yes, now it was her turn to act. To attack.
    Slowly, she walked to Haytham and put her arms around his waist. He didn’t resist, though she could sense his surprise.
    He was much taller than she, and her lips could barely reach his collarbone, so she kissed him there, teasing at the skin with her teeth and tongue.
    “You don’t—“
    “I want to,” Sade said.
    She kissed his chest. This time she teased his nipple, circling it with her tongue before sucking on it hard enough to make him gasp.
    She could feel Haytham getting hard against her belly. The length of his cock pressed into her soft flesh, and she realized that she wanted him too.
    The soul-bond ached as Sade squeezed Haytham’s firm rear. He grabbed her jaw and roughly pulled her face up so that they could kiss.
    His mouth was good, so good… but at the same time it felt wrong. The lips were too full, the tongue too gentle.
    Why couldn’t she just enjoy this? Wretched soul-bond!
    She had to enjoy this, and to make Haytham enjoy her. After all, more than her own pleasure was at stake here! Sex wouldn’t break whatever power Laire had over the Shifter. But if Sade made him want her, made him care, it might force Haytham to hesitate before his inevitable betrayal.
    As he ran kisses down her neck, Sade closed her eyes and let the wind fill her. The wind’s song silenced the jagged pain of her