Page 66 of Colton’s Mate

Remy shifted again. “It’s not you. Winged shifters think they’re better than everyone else.”

Callie snorted. “Tell me about it. I grew up with crows. But not all of them felt that way. My step-family didn’t. They cared about me more than my mother did.” She paused for thought. “They only looked down on me because of the vagina-having thing.”

“But you liked that, didn’t you? Not the vagina-having thing,” he said in response to her what-the-fuck look. “Although I’m sure that’s very nice,” he added hastily. “I meant, you liked being a part of a family? Even though it’s not what lynxes usually want.”

“Yeah. I did.”

“So maybe your lynx isn’t as independent as you thought.”

Callie thought that over. “Do you really think that? That one animal can be different from the others?”

“Sure,” Remy said. “Kitty’s mom is a jaguar, and they don’t bond—but hers bonded with a wolf, for fuck’s sake. That’s as tight a bond as you can get. Owls usually don’t bond either, but my mom’s bonded with my dad’s leopard in the weirdest possible way.”

Callie smiled at that. “And you? Your owl doesn’t think it’s better than everyone else?”

“Oh, it totally does.”

“Does Colt know that?”

“Of course. I tell him I’m the superior twin all the time.”

That made her smile again. “But your owl loves him, right?”

He was silent for a long moment. “I don’t know,” he said finally.

That shocked her. “What?”

He shrugged, then looked like he wished he hadn’t. “Owls typically aren’t good at bonding—even if their people are. Like my mom.” He ducked his head. “Like me. Shifter owls pretty much need three things: the hunt. A nest. And a mission.”

He raised his eyes to hers. “That’s why most snowy owls work Shifter Intelligence. It gives them a purpose. It’s why I’m more focused than Colt, I guess. And why I look after him, and now you. My owl needs that.” He looked away again. “But Colt suddenly has this owl, and honestly it probably doesn’t know what the fuck to do with itself.”

“So you’re telling me Colt’s owl is bored? That’s why it’s being like this?”

“Not exactly. It needs to be needed. Only, Colt is kind of scared to be needed, because he thinks he’ll fuck it up.”

“Really?” She thought about that. “He’s actually really good at it.”

“I know,” Remy said. “But he’s conflicted, so his owl is conflicted.”

Huh. Callie’s brain was full of things she’d never thought of before. Things she hoped she’d need to remember.

If the bad guys didn’t carve her brain into little pieces.

“We need to get out of here,” she said.

“No shit, Sherlock. If I could fly, we’d be gone already. But since I can’t, we’ll have to wait for the crew to come and get us.”

That could take a long time. “They don’t even know we’re in trouble.”

“Colt does,” Remy said with perfect faith. “Colt always knows when I’m in trouble. Probably you, too.”

“But they don’t know where we are.”

“They’ll find us.”

“I hope they do it before Cruella de Crow starts probing my brain. Because anything with the word ‘probe’ in it, I’m opposed.”

Before he could answer, there was a flutter of wings and a scraping sound at the top of the shaft. They both looked up.