My Raptor: An Erotic Shapeshifting Paranormal Romance by Cara B. Connor Page A

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    Unfortunately, now that she was out on her own, she often felt lonely. She had noticed that she felt lonely more and more often here lately. She did have a few friends she talked to from time to time but that was about it. And every day when she got home, she found there was nothing there to cheer her up, no pet to greet her, no friend to talk with her and nobody to hang out with. Nothing, nobody, no one.
    It seemed as though nobody wanted to be with her; deep inside however, a part of her knew it was as a result of the way she had been living for so long – secluded from human interactions. She was almost living a self imposed exile. She had been pushing people away for so long that most people had given up on her.
    As of late, however, there was something new that appeased those lonely feelings. Something, in fact, that made her look forward to going home every day. She smiled at the memory and slowed her pace just a bit.
    As usual, she had come home one day last week and flung her bag to the chair just inside the front door. She worked her way back to her bedroom, throwing herself onto her bed, heaving a sigh, thinking she was all by herself as usual, when suddenly she saw the shadow of something moving in the tree across from her room.
    What was it? Carefully looking out of her bedroom window Carol saw that there was a strikingly gorgeous falcon which had seemed to make his home in the tree close to the ledge of her bedroom window. Awed by the sight, but a bit frightened too, she got up, tiptoed to her window and slowly opened the shades to get a better view, peering out at him only a few feet away. He was a beautiful beast, covered in feathers the color of an autumn day.

Chapter 2
    To her knowledge, it was almost a myth to hear of falcons or any kinds of birds of prey in her city. But to have one practically sitting on her balcony when she first arrived back at her apartment, the sight of it had nearly caused her to leave the building screaming after she first caught a glimpse of it, spreading its enormous wings against the backlight of the city. But somehow her common sense had taken hold of her, and maybe a healthy dose of curiosity too, and she overcame her fear as she moved cautiously to the window.
    She could see that it had recently hunted, as blood was dripping from his talons and his beak, which made her gut clench at the sight, like an iron fist. She was reaching into her pocket to get her phone to call for animal control before it could hurt anything or anybody else, but just before she brought the phone up to her ear, something stopped her there in her tracks. Its eyes! Its beautiful eyes!
    She had gotten a glimpse into its eyes and something had made her freeze. They looked so full of knowledge and so deep in intensity, that she suddenly felt like they were a well she could fall in if she didn’t avert her own gaze from them. And with that, she slowly put the cell phone back into her pocket.
    She didn’t know how, but somehow she instinctively knew that the falcon knew she was there.  And it didn’t seem to be scared of her either, as it did not panic or fly away as she had expected it might. It just stood there on the tree branch looking at her also, gazing straight into her eyes. Strange behavior. Especially from a wild animal. And not at all what she expected.
    There was this calmness and depth in its eyes that made her wonder just how intelligent a falcon could be. The look she saw in his eyes was hard to explain, but she knew somehow that it was not a hostile animal. So she decided against fighting one that didn’t fight her. And nearly every night since that day, her companion, that beautiful bird of prey, would be perched on her balcony when she arrived home, peering into her window, almost as if he were waiting for her.
    After that day, things changed for Carol. Now there was this satisfaction when she arrived at home – almost as if she had company from out of town. She was happy to have