Free King of Prey: (A Bird Shifter Novel) by Mandy M. Roth

“Kabril?”
    A single feather drifted down before her face, nearly causing her to scream. Calming herself, Rayna plucked it from the air. The bird it belonged to had to be huge. The feather was over a foot long and had something dark, warm and wet on it. She brought it closer to her face and gasped when she realized it was blood.
    She turned quickly and ran head first into something. Strong arms grabbed her shoulders and she gave in to the urge to scream a half a second before she brought her knee up, hard and fast.
    “Rayna.” Kabril deflected her knee with his upper thigh right before she would have made contact with his groin.
    Her eyes widened as she realized it was him. “What? Where? Kabril?”
    A soft smile slid over his handsome face, easing some of the tension in her body. “I am here and you are safe.”
    “What about Sachin?”
    “Here,” Sachin said, appearing behind her, causing her to push her body against Kabril’s.
    Rayna pressed her forehead to Kabril’s chest. “You two need to hum or something when you walk. You scared the hell out of me. And where did you go? You just vanished.”
    “We saw to the threat,” he said gently. He ran his hand through her hair and then kissed her lips. “I am sorry you were frightened. I assure you, we would allow no harm to come to you.”  
    She glanced around. “Are the jaguars still close? I think they attacked a bird.” She held the bloody feather up for Kabril to see. “Poor thing.”
    His gaze hardened. “Discard that immediately, Rayna.”
    Stunned by the directness in his voice, Rayna simply stared at him. She’d never seen this side of him and wasn’t sure she liked it. “Kabril?”
    He ripped the feather from her hand and tossed it aside. “Return to camp this instant.”
    She blinked, sure she’d heard him wrong. He couldn’t be issuing orders to her like he was her master. “Excuse me?”
    He pointed towards the campsite. “Go!”
    Sachin moved up next to her and cleared his throat. “Kabril.”
    “What if the bird’s not dead, Kabril?” she asked, deciding to seize the moment. “Shouldn’t we look for it? You could help it. It’s what you do, right?”
    “Cease your chatter, woman.” Kabril’s nostrils flared and his entire body went rigid. “I gave you an order. Do not disobey me on this.”
    Rayna took a giant step back. He suddenly seemed like a stranger before her. An arrogant asshole of a stranger. Anger consumed her, leaving her throat constricted as she fought to keep from crying out with rage. Something on Kabril’s face changed as a sigh tore free of him. He made a move to come to her but she put her hand up, stopping him. “Don’t. I’ll do what you command . I’ll go back to camp, but know that I’m doing it to keep from choking you, not because you ordered me to.”
    “Rayna, no.” Kabril made another move to come to her, this time finding Sachin stepping in his path. “I did not mean to—”
    She folded her arms over her chest and gave him a droll look. “Didn’t mean to what? Open mouth, insert foot? I’m sorry I asked about the bird. I assumed since you’re a vet and all that you’d care. Guess I was wrong.” She glared at him. “About a lot of things.”
    Sachin glanced over his shoulder at her. “Rayna, forgive him. The, umm, jaguars—” He nudged Kabril. “—yes, jaguars, left him worried about how safe you were. He is not acting like himself right now. He worries about you. We both do.”
    “Yet you don’t bark orders at me like I’m a dog.” She gave Kabril a cross look. He cringed under the weight of her stare. “Don’t you think I was worried about you two? Huh? For all I knew, you two were being mauled to death twenty feet from me.”
    Kabril lowered his head.
    She pointed at him. “Jerk. Here I thought you were different from other men. You’re just the same, aren’t you?” Rayna didn’t wait for an answer. Instead, she turned to head back to camp, mumbling on the way,