Tempted by the Jaguar #1: Transformation (Riverford Shifters)

by Cristina Rayne

“Not by choice,” Kylie replied stiffly, not daring to break eye contact with him.

  He nodded. “Given the circumstances, you should be applauded. The police have had some time to look into your attacker. That human was quite the piece of work. However, we’ll get to all of that soon enough. I think introductions are in order first.”

  One by one, all the elders introduced themselves by name and occupation. One, Kylie was startled to realize once she got a good look at him, was a History professor she’d had at the university as a freshman. The husband and wife duo sitting next to him were elementary school teachers. Another woman was a police detective. The rest represented a variety of careers from mail carrier to business owners like Mr. Gaither.

  Rather than some kind of elite club that Kylie had totally expected, the elders were a surprising group of individuals that truly represented the different types of people within a community well. Kylie felt some of the tension ease from her shoulders.

  “You were one of my students, were you not?” Professor Martinez asked after Kylie had introduced herself.

  She nodded. “Intro to World History, yes.”

  “Interesting. You never once gave off the scent of a jaguar or else I would have noticed. We sometimes get a few Jaguar shifter students from Mexico, South and Central America, or Arizona, but not so many that you, as an unfamiliar face, would have been overlooked. I enjoy chatting about the differences and similarities in our clans.”

  Kylie shifted her feet uncomfortably. He was showing much more interest in her than she would have liked. A history professor could prove to be especially dangerous, more so if he saw her as a puzzle to be solved.

  “Indeed. That such a trauma could awaken your dormant jaguar soul from such a near absolute human state,” Mr. Gaither said, looking every bit as interested as the professor.

  Kylie swallowed thickly. Or was that suspicion? Suddenly it felt way too hot and confining in the room. She briefly wondered if they would chalk it up to being so new to shifting if she followed all the instincts that were screaming for her to get the hell out of there and darted from the room just like Hunter had mentioned earlier.

  “Have you shifted again since?” Professor Martinez asked.

  “No. Everything’s so crazy right now that I haven’t even considered it.”

  “Can you do it again?” Gaither asked shrewdly.

  “I don’t know,” she answered, feeling that it was best to be honest here. “I have no idea how it happened in the first place.”

  “There’s nothing to it,” Hunter said, speaking for the first time since they had entered the boardroom. “Desire to be the cat is all you need. Just thinking about shifting with genuine intent behind it will usually do it.”

  “We wish to see you try,” Mr. Gaither said. “Hunter, please take Miss Moore into the office next door so that she may remove her clothing and shift in privacy.”

  “Come on,” Hunter said with a contrite smile, ushering her towards the door with a hand lightly pressing against her back.

  “What will they do if I can’t shift?” Kylie asked once they were back in the hall and Hunter had closed the door.

  “I don’t think that will happen, but on the off chance that it does, they’ll probably just ask you to come back next week to give it another go. After all, none of us really knows what to expect with a Returner. Now, I’ll be just outside the door. When you shift, give it a whack with your paw, and I’ll know it’s okay to open it.”

  With my paw… Kylie didn’t think she would ever get used to hearing things like that.

  After making sure the blinds were drawn across the huge window, Kylie began to undress, feeling utterly exposed. It was as though she was being initiated into one of those strange secret societies. She could only hope that all her discomfort would be worth it in the end.

  Once naked, rather than dwell on all her fears of failure, Kylie took to heart all of Hunter’s advice, got down on her hands and knees, and thought forcefully, I want to shift!

  Immediately, her muscles began to quiver, and before she could gasp in surprise, Kylie felt her body stretch and contort familiarly in that huge muscle spasm she had experienced last time. It was over in a matter of a few seconds, and the first thing she noticed was that she could smell Hunter as keenly as though he was standing right next to her. Looking down, she was met with two black-spotted, gold and white paws.

  A strange, chuffing sound came from her throat, the feline equivalent of a laugh, she supposed since she was as giddy as a teen on her first date. It was a completely strange experience to feel herself absently lashing her tail behind her. She was also surprised to find herself itching to go for a run, the walls of the office feeling a thousand times stuffier and more confining while in jaguar form.

  Kylie instantly put the breaks on those kinds of thoughts. Her human mind was in control now, and she didn’t want to risk losing control again by thinking like a jaguar. Besides, Hunter and a room full of elders were waiting for her, so any further explorations of her knew form would have to wait for another time.

  She trotted over to the door and gave it a sound whack with a paw. The door immediately opened to reveal a grinning Hunter.

  “I told you, you didn’t have anything to worry about,” he said.

  Kylie chuffed in agreement as she followed him back to the boardroom.

  “Excellent,” Mr. Gaither said as soon as they entered. “I’m happy that there aren’t going to be any problems on that front. As long as you can shift back into your human form just as easily, then we can consider the matter resolved. Hunter, regarding that other problem you mentioned the last time we spoke, do you have any spare units in the building you reside in that you can offer her?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good. We’ll arrange movers to take care of the transition on Saturday. In the meantime, put her up in your guestroom. Under no circumstance should she return to that apartment for longer than it takes to grab a change of clothes.” Gaither’s eyes turned back to Kylie. “You can return back to the office to shift back now. When you return, we’ll discuss the human who was the cause of all this as well as the laws within our clan.”

  Had she been in her human form, Kylie would have been hard-pressed not to make a face. Looks as though she wasn’t as off the hook as she had thought.

  ***

  “Sorry,” Kylie said as Hunter and she left the office building a little over an hour later, “but right now I’d rather you just take me home. Having to tell them everything about that awful night and then having to listen to all of them drone on and on about shifter laws and etiquette the way they did was exhausting.”

  “Kylie…” Hunter looked down at her pointedly.

  She sighed. “I know, I know. The big bad bears might eat me. Just drop me off by my car, and I’ll go stay over at my dad’s tonight. I’ll tell him that there’s a problem with the sewage line in my apartment. That way, he won’t be so surprised when I move over to your building. I just need some time to myself to process all of this. Then tomorrow you can take me to meet everyone the elders ‘suggested.’ My last class ends at five, and I should be home by five-thirty.”

  “…okay,” he relented. “I’ll pick you up around seven. And after that, how about we take that run in the forest I suggested earlier?”

  Kylie couldn’t help smiling. He was so incorrigible.

  “Maybe we can do that too.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  “I’m not so sure I like the idea of you living so close to the river,” Paul said as they headed out the door early the next morning. “The jaguars may claim the eastern half, but that’s never stopped the alligators from pushing their boundaries.”

  “Don’t worry,” Kylie replied with a grimace. “Hunter’s territory is in the easternmost portion, so there’s no reason I’d go anywhere near the contested borders unless it was deliberate. Believe me, between all the horror stories my parents and Karen have told me about the alligator clan, you couldn’t p
ay me to go even to the jaguar territories on the fringes of alligator territory.”

  “I’ll talk to Karen at work and ask her to keep her ears open for anything gator related. They aren’t part of the Alliance, but no doubt they’ve at least heard a few rumors about what happened the other night. I hate to say this, but I’m glad Hunter will be looking after you for the time being.”

  “Honestly, I’m surprised the elders didn’t make him into my bodyguard or something the way they went on and on about the significance of a Returner. The more Hunter tells me about the clan, the more I’m not so sure joining them was such a good idea. One of the elders is a history professor at my university, and he looked positively gleeful at the prospect of searching for the identity of my parents.”

  Paul turned to unlock his car, but not before Kylie saw the troubled look in his eyes. “What’s done is done. All we can do now is be extra cautious and try not to do anything that would draw the wrong kind of attention. Once all the excitement dies down a bit, then you can decide whether or not you want to stay here or if we should try to go to the British Isles to look for your mother’s clan.”

  “Let’s not think about that right now,” she said. “I’ll call you tonight after Hunter finishes introducing me to some of the local jaguars.”

  As Kylie drove to the university, she spent the whole way dreading the onslaught of scents she knew awaited her. She only hoped that Hunter would be right, that her newly enhanced sense of smell had leveled out somewhat overnight. Otherwise, she would have to miss another day of classes—which she could not afford—because there was no way she would be able to concentrate with her head spinning. She hadn’t really noticed a difference with Paul’s scent this morning, but…

  As she waited at a red light, Kylie resisted the urge to start banging her head on the steering wheel. Sometimes life just really pissed her off, and she didn’t need to add a headache to the whole horrible mix.

  Besides, the ugly knot on her temple had all but disappeared when she had examined herself this morning. The last thing she needed to do was reintroduce that nasty little reminder of just how much life could screw you.

  The moment Kylie stepped out of her car, the scents of thousands of people assaulted her senses just as she had feared. Determined not to give up, she stood by her car and just breathed slowly and shallowly as she had back at the architectural firm, letting herself get used to the maelstrom of acrid and earthy scents.

  After a few minutes, her head stopped spinning and the smells not quite so potent.

  Maybe I can do this after all.

  Relieved, Kylie headed towards her first class, hoping to catch her friend Molly before class started to borrow yesterday’s notes.

  ***

  “Are you sure you don’t want to come?” Kylie’s friend Tara persisted as Kylie walked with her, Molly, and Molly’s boyfriend, Ty, towards the parking lot after their last class.

  “It’s not that I don’t want to,” Kylie said, pinching the bridge of her nose as if in pain. “It’s just my head’s been killing me since Genetics. I think yesterday’s fever is back. I don’t want to get any of you sick.”

  “Yeah, you are looking kinda pale,” Molly said, peering back at her critically. “You probably should’ve stayed home today, too.”

  Kylie shook her head. “You know I hate making up labs. The prof probably would’ve made me come in on Sunday this time. By the way, thanks for the notes.”

  “No problem. Just make sure they stay in your backpack until at least tomorrow. You’re probably long overdue for a good snooze.”

  “Yes, Mom,” Kylie teased.

  Molly snorted. “Yeah, laugh all you want, but that’s probably why you got sick in the first place.”

  “We might go clubbing tomorrow night,” Tara interjected. “Call me if you feel better, and I’ll pick you up.”

  “Sounds like a plan.”

  Hopefully Hunter wouldn’t have anywhere else she needed to go. Kylie had a feeling that her list of excuses would dry up pretty quickly otherwise.

  If you have to go a lot of places with Hunter, then there’s one excuse that would work for everything, her mind supplied helpfully.

  The thought startled her. Then she was irritated with herself. There was no denying that Hunter was hot, but getting involved with him would probably be the worst thing she could do right now, especially when she hadn’t even decided if she was going to stay or go hunting her mother’s clan.

  She snorted. As if getting involved with him was even a problem in the first place. He hadn’t shown any romantic interest in her at all. Talk about counting your chickens before they hatch.

  Once she was back at her apartment, Kylie began to pack up some of her things into the few boxes she had on hand while she waited for Hunter to arrive. The elders had told her that they would take care of hiring movers to come on Saturday, and although she had nothing in the apartment that was dangerous for others to see, Kylie still didn’t feel comfortable allowing total strangers to handle her more personal items.

  While she worked, Kylie let her mind wander to all the potential jaguar shifters Hunter would soon introduce. At the very least, it would be interesting to see if any of them were people she actually knew. There were already a handful of people at her university that she was pretty sure were jaguar shifters. Jaguars and humans were the only two scents she was able to identify with any confidence. Hopefully Karen would be able to come over to Paul’s for lunch on Sunday and she could add cougar to the list. The rest she would have to ask Hunter to help her with.

  She was in the process of packing up the contents of her underwear drawer into a suitcase when she caught a whiff of a familiar scent. Her head was already up and scenting the air before she realized what she was doing. A bit unsettled, Kylie headed for the living room just as a loud knock sounded on the front door.

  The scent of a jaguar was strong as she fumbled with the lock. She supposed it was a convenient way to know who—or what—was at the door before she bothered to answer it, but it still kind of freaked her out.

  “Hi,” Hunter said as soon as the door swung open, a smile lighting up his face, and to her horror, Kylie’s heart instantly began to race in excitement.

  What the hell was wrong with her? She had never reacted to a guy like that, no matter how hot he was.

  Embarrassed, she smiled at him tightly before waving him inside. “Just let me go grab my purse and keys and we can go.”

  “You’re just as tense and wary as the first time I stepped through this door,” Hunter remarked. “Did something happen? A bear come sniffing already?”

  Kylie pocketed her keys and cell phone and snatched her purse from the coffee table. “No, it’s nothing like that. My jaguar side is just freaking me out right now.”

  Hunter raised an eyebrow. “How so?”

  She shrugged uncomfortably. “I’m just not used to reacting to things the way a cat would. It makes me nervous because I’m not sure I should be acting that way at all, if maybe I’m letting too much of the jaguar come through.”

  Hunter’s eyes softened in understanding. “You’re still worried about losing control.”

  “Constantly,” Kylie admitted, though with more meaning than Hunter could ever guess.

  “You shifted forms back and forth with no problem with the elders yesterday,” Hunter reminded her.

  Kylie smiled sheepishly. “I know. I keep telling myself that over and over, but—I guess it’s because all of this shifter business still doesn’t feel natural to me.”

  “With a few more shifts under your belt, it’ll literally become your second nature,” he assured her. “Now, we’d better head out. I’d like you to meet a good friend of mine who co-owns a local nightclub nearby, and I think, given your problems yesterday with your sense of smell, it would probably be better to see him now before it gets too crowded.”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  “Your friend owns Southern Glacier!” Kylie exclaimed as Hunter
drove around to the back of the large, illuminated building and entered the club’s VIP parking garage.

  She had expected Hunter to take her to one of the many small clubs along the edges of downtown that she and her friends often frequented, not the hottest club in Riverford.

  “Co-owns,” Hunter corrected with a grin.

  “My friends and I have always wanted to come here,” Kylie admitted, “but I always thought there was no way a bunch of lowly college students like us would stand a chance of getting in so we never tried.”

  “You’d be surprised,” Hunter said. “The owners aren’t as fussy about their patrons as you might think. It’s all just the luck of the draw as long as you’re willing to wait in line long enough since people are selected randomly. Really, the owners would let everyone in if they had the room so long as you could pay the cover.”

  “Even alligator and bear shifters?” Kylie asked shrewdly.

  Hunter smiled wryly. “You got me there. No, anyone from the alligator clan are most definitely not welcome. They’re naturally—forgive the pun—snappish. They can’t be trusted to not start trouble. Their tempers are always on a hair-trigger. That’s one of the many reasons why they are always at odds with most of the other shifter clans.”

  “And the bears?”

  “They can be aggressive when provoked just like their wild counterparts, but for the most part, as long as their boundaries are respected, they won’t cause trouble just for the sake of causing trouble like the alligators. You might see a bear or two in the club, but they tend to not like crowds. Maybe a few Jaguars will also show while we’re here and I can introduce you.”

  “A lot of people at the university were staring at me today,” Kylie said. “I’m not sure how many of them were jaguars, but I imagine they were shocked that someone that had been human a couple of days ago suddenly smelled like a jaguar.”

  “I don’t think the elders have gotten around to telling everyone in the clan about you. We don’t gather very often, so that’s what this little tour of introductions I’m taking you on is all about.”