The Bird on the Ground (M/M Romance) Monster Island: Book 2

Chapter 2 - Hold Out

I didn't know where to go. Anderson had taken up residence in the main area of my home. His things were everywhere, on top of mine, in place of mine, in front of mine. It was now more his space than it was mine. I didn't want to be difficult about it. He had an important mission, so I figured the most respectful thing to do was give him space. Besides, it's not like he'd be there forever, only until the updates to our security were completed.

I thought about going to see my friend, Elijah. He recently moved to the island after a vampire attacked him, and he discovered that he was an incubus. He'd since moved in with and started dating Anderson's brother, Azthyn. The two of them were pretty insufferable, though. They were all lovey-dovey and constantly touching. It was kind of cute, but it also made something unnamed in me ache terribly. Besides, I figured they'd want their privacy.

So I headed for the cliffside. I'd never gone on foot, always flying since it was faster. But since my wings were still out of commission, I was forced to follow the overgrown path I usually saw from above. The wind was strong, and it filtered through the pale yellow feathers of my wings. If I closed my eyes, it almost felt like flying again.

There were other Harpies all over the place. Most of them were in the air, some doing complicated loops and dives. It was impressive what some of my people could do. I could feel something in my chest balloon with pride. Their feathers glittered in the light. There were some Harpies who had vibrant wings, reds and blues, and any number of other colors. I liked to watch the way they moved, even though I knew I'd never look like that or move like that.

Two Harpies circled each other in the air, and my breath caught. A mating dance out in the open? They swirled around each other, wings moving in an intricate dance. It was a give and take, a push and pull. The best dances were when each partner was equal.

Once, when I was younger, I saw a man try and fail to court a woman. He'd approached her with his wings fully extended, an aggressive approach. She hadn't seemed completely turned off by the aggression, but he had done it in a public space without warning, which was generally a bad idea. The look on her face was stern. He tried goading her into a dance, and he ultimately ended up with her talons in his back and his face in the dirt.

Harpies were particular about their mates. We mated for life, so we had to be. And a mate who didn't respect your half of the mating dance was usually a sign that they wouldn't respect you in the relationship either. Though some people were into the dynamic of one person being more dominant, it was mostly an individual thing. All I knew is that my future dance partner would definitely need to respect my portion of the dance.

I almost snorted to myself. Oh, who am I kidding? I wasn't exactly a desirable Harpy. I wasn't very good in the air, and my wings weren't exactly a sight to behold, especially nowadays, when the feathers were tattered and torn. The worst of them had been plucked for regrowth. Harpies were blessed with the ability to regrow just about any limb. We could regrow our feathers at an incredibly fast rate, but there was one exception to this rule. If we lost our wings they were gone for good. It was the one thing we couldn't regrow. I'm just lucky that my fall didn't tear my wings off entirely, only doing surface damage.

There were a few Harpies that weren't so lucky after the Vampires attacked, Harpies who were missing one or both of their wings. Some lost only their tail feathers, some lost all three. Everyone was reeling after the attack, the effects being felt by just about everyone in the community. I was never particularly popular among my kind, but with everyone isolating themselves after the attack, I felt my ostracization now more than ever.

It was why I was so shocked to see the mating dance taking place in the sky. One of the Harpies had bright red and orange feathers. They looked like flames dancing against the white clouds of the sky. The other had silver wings, streaked with hints of purple and blue. When they tumbled around each other, they looked like an explosion in the sky. I felt a pang in my chest. And then they tumbled down through the air, and my heart rate tripled.