Hawking a Future Read Online Free PDF Page A

her that she could just glide to the ground, but her human mind rebelled.
    Teal came into her sight and grinned. “You can glide down. Your beast knows how. Let her do it.”
    Hayley let her mind go blank, and she let her beast do its thing. Her wings extended, she shuffled to the edge and she scooped air as she dropped into the open. Gliding was harder than it looked. She soared, and then, the ground rushed up to meet her. She was caught against a chest, and Tovin grunted when she struck him. He rolled with her like she was a football.
    He rose to his feet with her pinned against his chest. “Well done, Hayley.”
    She squeaked in response.
    Teal came forward. “I am afraid you are going to have to wait for her to change back...again. I would recommend that you get some bacon from Teebie, and try and get some rest. She will probably shift again when she gets tired. If she doesn’t shift back by sundown, tell me.”
    Tovin nodded. “Is it weird that she shifts after we have physical contact?”
    Teal chuckled. “Not considering that she has gone all these years without a catalyst. You are that catalyst.”
    Hayley looked up at Tovin and cocked her head, looking at him with one eye. He glowed in her vision. He had started something the moment that they had touched. One way or another, he had cracked her defences.
     

Chapter Five
     
     
    She crawled onto the bed and dropped to the sheets next to Tovin. “You can sleep now.”
    He chuckled and flipped a sheet over her. “I was having fun counting your feathers.”
    To her surprise, he pulled her close and spooned around her. She was exhausted enough to pass out in his arms; she just hoped she didn’t absorb any more energy from him. She couldn’t take much more uncontrolled shifting.
    He pressed a kiss to her bare shoulder, and her first impulse was to smile.
    “Tovin, what do you do for a living?”
    He followed one kiss with another. “I work as a hunter with the shifter guild. I have been on some of the recent cooperative teams that help get through the fey magic around the compounds where shifters are being held.”
    She shivered at the memory of the hollow eyes of those shifters when they first arrived. “You are working for a worthy cause.”
    “You know some shifters who have been involved?” He pulled her in protectively.
    “Yes. I work at the recovery centre. When they have made their statements to the guild, they go there. I spend my vacations there, every year for the last five years.” She sighed as he moved his lips over her shoulder again.
    “Vacation days? You have another job?”
    “Sure. I was raised in the human world. I have a boring clerk position, and I have probably been replaced by now. I will find something else when I get back.” She rubbed her cheek against the pillow and concentrated on being safe and warm.
    Tovin’s breathing evened out and hers went with it. Perhaps sharing a bed with another warm body was a good idea.
     
    She woke up feeling energised and a little bit grubby. With care, she pried Tovin’s hand from around her waist, trying not to wake him. She made a run for the bathroom, took a quick shower after she had attended to everything else and brushed her teeth until her gums throbbed.
    When she was clean and wrapped in a towel, she tiptoed out into the bedroom and headed for the dresser.
    “You can come back to bed, you know. I don’t mind wet hair.”
    She froze. “I didn’t know you were awake.”
    “I have been awake for hours. I was just enjoying the cuddle.” The little-boy voice was incongruous in such a large man.
    She continued looking for jeans and a t-shirt, but there were no jeans to be found.
    “If you are looking for jeans, I will have to grab some for you from the general store. Yours had to be cut off last night. So did your t-shirt and underwear. We got your shoes off in one piece.”
    She sighed and dug for something to wear. Sweats came to hand. She got dressed and turned to him.
    He