by Kallie Frost
“What now?” Louis asked,
‘Well…’ I paused to shake some sand or snow off the bottom of one paw. ‘I guess now we can go back to the coffee shop and whenever you're ready… I can change you.’
“Tonight?” Louis asked in surprise. “We don't have to wait until the full moon or something?
I shook my head. ‘We can do it anytime, as long as I'm in cat form. And…’ I hesitated and took a deep breath. ‘I could also claim you tonight… if you wanted. But I certainly don't have to.’
“Why don't we just go ahead and do that too?” Louis laughed. “I am kind of just jumping into all of this, so I might as well do a thorough job of it.”
I laughed too, feeling relieved. ‘You know,’ I admitted. ‘I was worried that you were going along with this a little too easily, but it seems that whatever Elara sensed from you, you want this.’
Louis shrugged and opened his jacket back up, nodding for me to rejoin him. “I dunno,” he said. “I guess it just feels right. Fate and all.”
I gathered myself and jumped up into his arms, already purring.
Fate indeed.
Chapter Eight
Louis
“I’m afraid you really do have low quality coffee,” Cambry told me, taking a sip. Don't worry though, the first thing I'll do is get some better beans for you.”
“I don't have a working commercial grinder anymore,” I said, embarrassed.
Cambry smiled at me and I didn’t feel embarrassed anymore. “I guess I'll just have to get you a nice grinder, then.”
“You really don’t have to,” I protested.
“Nonsense,” said Cambry. “I'm your alpha and your mate. And I promised that I would help save your shop. So, that's what I'm going to do.”
“Thank you.”
Cambry nodded. “Now, first things first. Let me know if you really want to be turned tonight. And we'll go ahead and do it.”
“I think I'm ready,” I said. I shrugged and took the last couple sips of my coffee. I winced at the taste. It seemed that Cambry was not only planning to save my shop, but was determined to make coffee I’d like as well. Before making it, he quizzed me on my various likes and dislikes, not just of coffee but of food and other drinks too, and then done his best to make something I’d like with the ingredients I had on hand. It hadn’t worked very well, but I appreciated the effort. “So, what do I do?” I asked, standing.
Cambry stood as well, and started to take his clothes off. “For now, all you have to do is stand there, my mate.”
Once again, I found myself admiring his naked body. His muscles rippled with an almost feline grace beneath his skin, as he bent to pull his pants off. My dick twitched and started to strain against my pants. I swallowed hard, wondering if he was bending down with his ass in my direction on purpose.
And then, he started shrinking. This time, his fur didn’t appear first. His tail, gross and rat-like, erupted from him. For a few seconds he looked like one of those hairless cats, then his sleek, brown coat sprouted out and covered him. It was the color of creamy coffee and suited him perfectly. I rubbed my hands together, remembering the feel of his silky fur. He shook off, and then groomed part of his tail, before fixing me with his bright eyes.
‘Last chance to change your mind.’
“Well, according to the dragon. I don't have any doubts,” I said. I still wasn’t completely over the fact that I had just seen and spoken to a dragon, but I supposed it was something I was going to have to get used to. “I'm ready to do this.” I felt confident as I said it. “As long as you are.” Cambry was rushing into this just as fast as I was.
Cambry nodded solemnly. ‘Shifters dream their whole lives of finding their true mates. I've been ready for this for a long, long time’
“What do I do?” I asked.
‘Well, first, I'm uh… I’m going to bite you,’ he said, suddenly sounding uncertain. ‘Sorry, that's the only way it works. And it will probably hurt, but I swear, I'll never hurt you again.’
“I've been bitten by cats before,” I told him.
He nodded. ‘I'm sure you have. I guess I never thought about it much. It was probably a lot more daunting for my cousins’ true mates.’
“You mean they had to let wolves bite them?” I asked. That did sound quite a bit more intimidating than a cat.
He nodded.
“Okay, let’s do it.” I sat down and took a deep breath, preparing myself. I rubbed for a moment at my sore shoulder. “And this will go away too, right?”
Cambry nodded again. ‘It won’t go away after I've changed you, but it will stop hurting after we've marked each other.’
“I guess I'm ready then.”
He jumped up on my lap and sat down on one thigh. Cambry was heavier than most cats, but warm and comfortable. I could have let him sit on my lap for hours.
He locked eyes with me and said, ‘I suppose I'll just bite you on the arm?’
“That seems best,” I said. I offered him the back of my forearm, where it was a little fattier, and rolled up my sleeve.
‘Here goes,’ he said. ‘I’m sorry, my love.’
With that he lunged forward, lightning quick, as only a cat can be, and sank his fangs into my arm. It hurt, but no more than normally being bitten by a cat. I waited, but nothing else happened. Cambry jumped down off my lap, and sat down regarding me.
“Did it work?” I asked, not feeling any different.
‘Yes,’ he said.
“What do I do now?” I asked.
‘Now, you can go ahead and change into a cat.’ I could hear a chuckle in his mental voice. ‘And then if you still want to claim each other, we’ll do it. And if not, you can change back.’
“How do I change into a cat?”
He laughed. ‘Close your eyes, and focus. Remember what it looked like when I was changing into a cat. Imagine that happening to yourself.’
“I'm not going to get stuck as a cat, am I? No offense.”
‘No,’ he said confidently. ‘We'll get you back to human.’
I stood and rolled my shoulders a bit, getting ready to change.
‘You should probably undress. It's frustrating to get tangled up in your clothes.’
“Oh. Right.”
I pulled my shirt off and balled it up, setting it on the chair. Suddenly, I was self-conscious. I had already seen him naked several times, but this was the first time he would see me. We had stayed mostly dressed when we fooled around.
‘What's the matter?’ he asked, noting my hesitation.
I bit my lip nervously. What could I say? You're young and sexy, and I'm old and flabby? It wasn't that far off. His human hair was as brown and healthy as his feline coat, without a speck of gray. Mine was more gray than brown these days. Cambry’s youthful face didn't have a trace of age lines on it. And his body was nothing but smooth, rippling muscles under tight skin. As far as I was concerned, he was perfect. Me, well, I hadn't been eating very great. Not that I could afford to, even if I wanted to eat healthier. I basically lived off of coffee and pastries now, if not ramen.
I supposed I wasn't old. But I certainly was compared to Cambry. I hadn’t even thought to ask his age, but I was confident I had a decade or so on him. For the first time it occurred to me that there was a little bit of an age problem here. Hell, it was too late for that now; I was already a cat. What had I been thinking?! How could I have let myself get into this situation? He'd been talking about how I was going to have our children, and yet, I was almost too old for that by human standards. Did I really want to be a dad at my age? My mother had been near forty when she had me and always lamented that she wished she was younger. I always told myself, I’d start young. And here I was…
“Can I take a second?” I asked him.
He looked concerned. ‘Are you okay?’
“Yeah. I just want to use the bathroom before I change,” I lied.
‘Go ahead.’
He jumped onto the chair I had vacated
and started kneading the cushion before settling in to wait, mostly on my discarded shirt.
I went into the bathroom, for the first time full of doubt. I really had just jumped into this without thinking. I mean, I guess the fact I was obviously older than him didn't bother Cambry, or he would have said something. Right?
I flicked on the light and dropped my elbows onto the sink. “What have you done?” I groaned to my reflection. I froze.
The person staring back at me from the mirror was not the face I expected to see.
“What the…” I murmured.
No more salt and pepper hair. It was as dark brown as it had ever been, and fuller and thicker than I had seen in years. I ran a hand through it, brushing it off the side of my face, and noticed that the crow's feet by my eyes were gone too. I leaned back to take in more of my reflection.
Was I younger?
Was that possible?!
Of course, I reminded myself, I had just been turned into a were-cat and met a dragon. And here I was, asking if it was possible I had gotten younger. I looked at the bite mark on my arm and saw that it was already scarred over. How had it healed so quickly? I stared. Even my arm looked younger. My hands which were normally chapped this time of year, were as smooth as could be. My one finger, perpetually crooked from when I had broken it years ago, was perfectly straight. The knobby knuckle was gone too.
I looked back at myself in the mirror and realized that even my body had changed. I wasn't flabby anymore. Everything had tightened up. My skin was smooth, healthy. Even the scattered white hairs on my chest were black again.
I was younger.
I was younger!
“Cambry?!” I called, hearing an edge of panic in my voice.
‘What's wrong?’ I heard a thud as he jumped off the chair,
I flung open the door and, momentarily forgetting he was a cat, nearly tripped over him.
‘Sorry,’ he cried, darting out of the way. He pivoted neatly and sat back on his haunches. ‘What's the matter?’
“I'm…” I gestured to myself. “Look at me!”
He tilted his head, studying me. ‘You look great.’
“I look twenty!”
‘Oh!’ Cambry flattened his ears. ‘I thought I had mentioned that we return to our peak physical appearance after being changed. Which, usually makes us appear younger.’
“No,” I said, laughing in disbelief. “You hadn't mentioned that.” I looked down at my body. “Peak.”
He sat up and nodded. ‘Yes.’
“No wonder you didn't care that I'm older than you,” I said. “How long do we stay like this?”
His eyes grew impossibly wide, even for a cat, and he rocked back on his feet, tail lashing. ‘Did I not tell you?’ he gasped, sounding stunned. ‘Oh, god. You agreed so quickly. I didn't tell you!’ He bounded in a panicked looking circle.
“Tell me what?” I asked in concern. “Is it good at least?”
‘Oh, it's good,’ he said. ‘At least I hope you think it's good. I can't believe I forgot. Couldn't Elara tell you didn’t know?! Couldn't she have said something?!’
“Know what?” I prompted.
He turned and looked at me. ‘You're going to stay like that. At your peak.’
I looked down at myself, and then back to him. “For how long?” I repeated.
‘Forever?’ he offered.
I laughed.
Cambry’s tail lashed a bit. He sat and curled it around his paws. ‘You just said you think you’re older than me, didn't you?’
I looked at him in surprise. “Aren't I?” I asked uncertainly.
‘Only if you're older than eighty-three,’ he said with a nervous laugh.
I stared at him for a long, long moment. “You're joking, right?” I said finally. “You're not eighty-three.”
He shrugged his shoulders in a remarkably human way. ‘Guilty.’
“When you say we're going to look like this forever. You don't mean like…” The word sounded ridiculous. “Immortal forever?”
He nodded one slow nod.
I staggered back, and managed to find a chair to sink into. “I'm immortal,” I said in disbelief.
He nodded again.
“I'm young and healthy, and I'm going to be like this literally, forever?”
‘I can't tell if you think that's good or bad,’ Cambry said nervously. He seemed to shiver, and I realized he was changing back into a human.
When he was done, this time instead of checking him out, I found myself studying him. Was he really eighty-three? I looked at his handsome, flawless face, the sexy curves of his body. And then I zeroed in on the pure concern in the eyes, boring into mine.
“You're not upset, are you?” he asked softly.
“No. No, I just I wasn't expecting this perk.”
He laughed nervously. “So, it is a perk?”
“Yeah, I just…” I laughed. “This is crazy! I’m immortal!”
“I really should have said something,” he said, blushing. “I guess when you agreed so quickly, I just kind of tried to tell you all the bad things instead of the positive ones, so that you'd be ready.”
“I don't mind,” I said. “It’s okay. It’s great! I'm just surprised is all.”
“Do you still want to try changing?” he asked.
“Yeah. Yeah, I do.” I stood, dusted off my hands, and took a deep breath. “Focus on being a cat, right?”
“Right.”
As I took off the rest of my clothes, Cambry began to change again. This time, before he was finished, I closed my eyes and started to imagine the change happening to me. I didn't think it was working until I started to itch. Really itch. I opened my eyes and looked down at my arms. They were sprouting hair!
I gasped in surprise. “It's working!”
‘Keep going,’ Cambry said, talking into my head again.
I nodded and refocused on turning into a cat. The fur lengthened, and my arm began to thin before my eyes. My fingers shrank and rounded. At the same time. my fingernails began to lengthen and curve into claws. It was actually kind of distracting. I closed my eyes and just kept thinking about changing, feeling the pins and needles all over my body. It started to get almost painful, or at least, seriously uncomfortable, worse than itching, but not intolerable.
And just when I started to think that I couldn't take much more of the strange sensation, it was gone. I felt my hands hit the floor. My head turned, but I didn’t consciously do it.
I could see Cambry standing near me, but he was no longer a tiny little cat. He looked like he was my size, standing eye-level with me, just a couple of feet away. My body shook itself off. I tried to look back at him, but couldn’t. Why couldn’t I move?
‘Your cat is in control,’ Cambry said. ‘Take over, be the boss.’
How did I do that? I felt myself sit down and start licking a paw. I tried to stop, but kept licking.
‘Shove the cat out the door.’
It was a weird suggestion, but I imagined tossing a cat out the door of my bedroom, which I had done a thousand times. To my surprise, the strange sensation of not being in control of my own body was gone. I experimentally lifted a paw and it worked.
‘Now just think of what you want to say and think it um… at me.’
‘Like this? How do I look?’
He must have heard me, because he laughed. ‘Fluffy.’
’What?’ I asked.
He laughed again and nodded his head toward the bathroom door. ‘See for yourself.’
I tried to walk and nearly tripped over my front legs.
‘You have four legs now. You love to use them in the right order.’
‘Right,’ I said with a nervous laugh. I picked up one of my front feet and took a cautious step.
‘Let the cat mind do it.’ he said. ‘You have an inner cat, you shoved him out the door before. Open it a bit and let him help you walk.’
It still didn’t make much sense to me, but I tried to relax a bit and just
willed myself to go toward the bathroom. To my surprise, I felt a strange nudge, like someone tapping me on the shoulder or the feeling you get when someone is staring at you, and then my legs began to move.
‘Pay attention to how the cat does it, so you can learn.’
I obeyed and by the time I was in the bathroom, I was confident enough to jump onto the sink by myself. I stumbled a bit, but then regained my balance and studied myself in the mirror. To my surprise, I wasn’t brown or smooth like Cambry. He hadn’t been joking about fluffy. I was covered in a thick, puffy coat of gray and white striped fur. A tabby; of course. Not just a tabby though, I looked like a Maine Coon. Maybe I was one. Did being born in Maine affect that?
‘This is incredible,’ I said. I jumped down onto the floor with ease. As I landed, I felt the urge to run. So I did.
After just a few bounds, I somehow sensed something behind me. Chasing me! A strange sensation rippled through my body as my fur stood on end. I felt my tail go straight up, poofed up to three times its size. I turned back and, beyond my huge tail, I saw Cambry hot on my heels. It was him chasing me!
I laughed and led him on a merry chase. At first, I stuck to open floorspace, but as we ran I grew confident. Soon we were dodging around furniture legs, then jumping over tables and scooting under chairs.
We pounded recklessly up and down the stairs. I felt bad for every time I was annoyed by the café cats’ midnight runs. It was so much fun! At last, we jumped onto my bed, bounced, and then sat still. I shook myself off and felt my tail almost automatically curl around my feet.
‘Wow,’ I said. ‘Wow!’
I swear, if Cambry were human he’d be grinning from ear to ear. ‘Hate cats a little less now?’ he teased.
‘I never hated them,’ I protested. ‘I was just… not overly fond.’
He chuckled, then walked over and rubbed against me. It was odd being rubbed on by a cat as large as me. He nearly knocked me over. I leaned against him to support myself and my inner cat suddenly took control and rubbed back. I felt a weird rumble and realized I was purring as we gently bumped our heads and shoulders together.