Wendy's Wild Wolves [Shy River Pack 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) by Bec Adams Page B

we done here?”
    “I suppose,” Wendy said, trying to hide how much the loss of the friend she’d thought the bird to be affected her. Cockatoos were known for their loyalty. Perhaps that wasn’t a quality the bird-shifters shared.
     
    * * * *
     
    “No, we’re not done here,” Donovan said as he moved to confront the spoiled, self-centered, self-indulgent, lousy excuse for a shifter. “You’ve been a pain in the ass for over forty years. It’s about damn time we knew what you did to piss so many people off.”
    “They’re just jealous,” the cockatoo said in a voice just an octave below a full-on screech.
    “Not good enough,” Donovan said, shaking his head as he moved to stand in front of the feathered shifter and block his view of Wendy at the same time. “Jealousy is not enough of a motive for someone to hire snake-shifters to find you, or for them to still be searching for you more than forty years later. What did you do, Polly?”
    “My name is Gop-tru-alcarn. I am royalty. You will address me with the proper respect.”
    “No problems, Polly ,” Sogarn said, lifting the bird off the bench it had landed on and placing it on the floor at their feet. “Just as soon as you change back into your humanoid form, we’ll start bowing and scraping.”
    “Nonsense,” Polly said in his most arrogant tone of voice. “You will bow and scrape right now.”
    “Nope,” Donovan said. It appeared that Sogarn was on to something. Had Polly stayed in his bird shape so long that he could no longer shift into his humanoid form? The thought was practically hilarious. As punishments went, it was almost perfect. “What’s the matter, Polly? Do you need a cracker to get yourself started?”
    The avian-shifter flared the feathers on top of his head in annoyance but made no move to shift into humanoid form.
    “Polly?” Wendy asked in a compassionate tone. “I know you’re scared, but surely you realize these men are very capable protectors. You saw what they did back at the house against three snakes.” Donovan didn’t miss the delicate shudder that shook her frame as she said the word “snakes.” She’d done well to keep her composure while they fought them off. He knew how much she hated using a rifle, but her timely intervention had likely saved Sogarn a painful injury and extended recovery time. Donovan had no doubt that his lover would have bested the snakes in the end, but he was grateful to Wendy for stepping in to help. Fainting afterward had at least been good timing.
    Wendy glanced at them before turning back to Polly. “Hell, you even saw them protect me from my ex, and they didn’t even reveal then that they weren’t actually wolves.”
    “I can’t shift,” Polly said in a very sad tone. “It’s been too long. I don’t remember how.”
    “Sure you do,” Wendy said as she reached for her clothes and quickly dragged them on. “You just need to relax.” She held her hand out to the bird. Polly jumped onto her finger and quickly walked up her arm to her shoulder. Donovan had seen him do that countless times, but it was the encouragement in Wendy’s soft tone of voice and the gentle way she stroked the cockatoo that had jealousy burning in his gut.
    He shoved the emotion away. It was obvious that Wendy was reacting to Gop-tru-alcarn the way an owner would to a beloved pet’s distress. Polly tucked himself closer to her neck, almost hiding in her hair the way he’d done when the snakes had attacked. Whatever was going on inside the avian-shifter’s mind, it was obvious that the attack had frightened him badly.
    “Polly, it might help Donovan and Sogarn protect you if they knew the full story. Why would they still be looking for you after this many years?” Wendy asked, watching Donovan as she petted the bird the same way she’d done since they’d first known her.
    Before her mother’s death, Wendy had been a regular visitor to her grandmother’s home. Donovan could still see the