You know the drill. Long chapter. Tapas limits. Split update. This is part one of two. Please be sure to check the next page for the rest of this chapter.

This caught me by surprise. “Safe?” I asked. “Why wouldn’t it be safe??”

Owen thought about it for a moment, obviously considering his answer carefully. “Remember yesterday, when we first met, and I told you that your situation is unique, that there was something very off about the circumstances around your birth and upbringing”?

“Yes. You called me ‘unauthorized’, whatever that means.”

“Right. Well, I have been thinking, and I have decided that it would be a bad idea for us to bring you to the colony and parade you around. I want to check into some things first to make sure there won’t be trouble.”

“Trouble?”

“Yes, trouble. An unauthorized birth is new territory for me. I’m not even sure of the laws that would apply here. Before we announce you, I want to make sure that it’s OK to announce you.”

“Oh, come on”, Leander said. “What trouble could he have? As soon as they see...”

“Evander!” Owen said, almost too loudly, as their son appeared descending the stairway. “Come over here, please, I’d like you to meet Daecon.”

Once again I felt as though Owen had just prevented Leander from telling me something important. All this was forgotten as I turned to look at this Evander dude, and for the second time since walking into the cabin I fell in love.

Evander was a young man of about my own age, and he was very obviously the offspring of Owen and Leander. He possessed Owen’s height and Leander’s muscle, though he was neither as tall as Owen nor as thick as Leander. His build was very close to that of my own, in fact, except that he was shorter than I. His skin was a caramel brown, darker than Owen’s and my own but still much lighter than Leander’s. His loosely curled hair was orange-brown tied back into a pony tail, his face and arms were covered in freckles, and even behind round eyeglass lenses his eyes were absolutely striking: The left one was bright green like Leander's, the right one was yellow, the same colour as Owen's. I had never met another person with... what was it Owen called it? Heterochromia or something? Anyway... Evander's ears were the same shape as Owen’s and Leander’s, indeed even as my own, and in the right ear were several golden hoops matching the one in his lower lip. He was wearing tan coloured cargo shorts and a matching tan collared T-shirt with 'V-22' on the left side of his chest. These clothes were very much in the same style as the clothes that I was now wearing, and those clothes showed off his body (and his “assets”, I noticed) exquisitely. 

I will freely admit it, I have never in my life laid eyes on a more attractive man, nor have I ever felt more drawn to somebody. This dude was fucking SEXY. I'm not even talking about his gorgeous face, his perfect build, or the nice sized bulge showing in his snug shorts. His beautiful ass was only a bonus, as far as I was concerned. No, it was everything about this guy that I found attractive. I don't even know how to say it without sounding like an idiot: I wanted to be this man's lover. Not just a fuck. Not a quick affair. I knew from the moment that I laid eyes on him that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him.

And this scared the hell out of me. I'd never even given a second thought to having a long term lover, not even as a joke. I'd had plenty of opportunity: Several of the friends that I have fucked have made it quite clear that they wanted more than Friends With Bennies, but not me. The only fuck that I was ever interested in was the next fuck. Until now.

“Pleased to meet you”, Evander said coldly as he offered me his hand. 

I was tempted to drop to my knees and kiss that hand, but thought that might not be well received. Instead I just stared at him for a moment, basking in his beauty, before I realized that I must look like an idiot. “Oh, uh... yeah, likewise” I said as I shook Evander’s hand and then took entirely too long to let go. Fuck, why am I even being like this? Usually I'm Joe Cool! Guys are supposed to fawn over me like this, not the other way around! 

Evander rolled his eyes in a way that showed that he was anything but pleased to meet me.

“Daecon will be staying with us here for the next little while”, Owen said. “Could you show him to the guest room where he’ll be staying, please? I’m sure he’s anxious to have a shower, aren’t you, Daecon? And then we’ll have some breakfast.” 

I snapped out of my trance. “Oh, yes, that would be great, please.”

Evander jerked his head in the direction of the stairs and then started walking toward them. I followed, taking every opportunity to stare at the vision of male perfection climbing the stairs ahead of me as we climbed toward the second floor. Those shorts really did look good on Evander! The only thing I could have imagined looking better that Evander in those shorts was Evander out of those shorts, if you get my meaning. I was just remembering how Owen had explained that shapeshifters were all male and all homosexual when Evander turned around. 

“Is it true then?” he asked. 

“Is what true”, I answered, feeling a little embarrassed as I was certain that Evander had just caught me staring at his ass. Thankfully the shorts that I had borrowed from him were doing a decent job of restraining my increasingly aroused dick. So far. All I had to do was not picture how hot these shorts would have looked on him... FUCK! Calm down there, Daecon! Let's not make more of an ass of ourselves!

“That you were raised by humans?", Evander continued. "Father said that he found some humans chasing you and that you had been raised among them, and that you didn’t even know that you were a shifter.” 

“Oh, yes, that’s all true. Up until yesterday, when those wings sprouted out of my back, I had no idea.” 

“That’s impossible. How could you have gone so long without even knowing that you had wings? I’ve known that I could fly since before I could even walk”. 

“Well, you were raised among shifters, weren’t you? They taught you all about changing and flying and stuff. I was raised among humans who have never even heard of such things.”

“God, that must have been so boring. I couldn’t imagine, having to rely on those cars and machines to get around.”

“Well, when you don’t know any better it’s actually really fun. It’s hard to miss something you didn’t know you had, and I didn’t know I had the ability to fly. I loved my cars, though. I know Owen and Leander said I wouldn’t miss them after flying, but I think I will.”

“Ugh. Whatever. Noisy, smelly things, I can’t stand them.”

OK, the swelling of my cock was starting to subside now. I was starting to get the impression that Evander’s personality didn’t quite live up to his looks. Evander led me down a short hallway, opened a door, and gestured him through it.

“So what’s your alternate?”, Evander asked.

“My what?”

“Your alternate. You know, your second animal form. I saw your bird form as you were flying in, some kind of great big seagull or something. What’s your alternate form?”

I almost choked, “Seagull! I was no God-damned seagull! I was an Eagle, I’ll have you know!”

“Huh. Not bloody likely. Whoever heard of a white eagle? You were probably an albatross or something, they’re pretty big.”

I was starting to get irritated now, but I figured that it would be bad form to punch my hosts’ son in the neck, so I just turned away. Evander wasn’t finished, though. 

“So you still haven’t answered. What is your alternate?”

I turned back to face Evander, my irritation (and disappointment in his attitude) beginning to get the better of me. “I don’t have an alternate yet. For fuck’s sake, up until today I didn’t even have the Eagle-”

“Albatross”, Evander interjected with a sly smile. He was bugging me, and he knew it.

I crossed my arms over my chest. “Eagle”, I repeated. “Anyway, Owen and Leander didn’t even discuss an alternate form with me. They said that almost everyone has one though, so I guess mine will come eventually.”

“’Almost’ everyone, yes. Not everyone. I bet you won’t even have one because you started so late. I knew my alternate before I was five.”

“I bet I will”, I said, though I was not feeling confident about this claim. What was I even basing that bet on?  “Anyway, what is your alternate?”

A flash of light and Evander was gone. In his place was a large cheetah. No, not quite a cheetah. It had the shape of a cheetah (albeit a bit large), but its colours were a little off. Instead of yellow with black spots, this cat was a darker orange-brown mottled with dark brown spots. The fur had a tight curl in it much like Evander's hair in human form did, and the spots almost resembled the freckles that covered Evander's skin. Its eyes were the same mismatched yellow and green. Even though this cat differed from a wild cheetah the results were still quite striking. I couldn’t help but feel impressed. I could have guessed that such an attractive man would have an attractive animal form, but I would have rather died than let Evander know that I found him attractive, so I yawned somewhat unconvincingly.