Cait clenched her jaw and pushed deeper.
Owen’s cry became a fierce growl.
He lashed out, knocking the blade away from him and out of her grip. It tumbled across the black ground and her gaze whipped from it to Owen as he roared. He arched off the ground, every muscle on his torso and arms straining as he bellowed at the sky, and then flipped onto his side and curled up into a ball, shaking all over.
She backed off a step, giving him room as he snarled and kicked out, pain written across every line of his face and beating within her too. He struck at the ground, slamming his fists against it one moment and clawing at it with his fingertips the next. His nails grew darker, turning black.
Cait’s heart almost stopped.
He was shifting.
He rolled onto his front, shoved onto his hands and knees and arched his back towards the sky as he growled, his head hanging between his arms. Patchy fur rippled across his bare skin, as black as midnight.
“Owen,” she whispered and edged closer. “You can do this, Owen… I know you can. You’re strong.”
He lifted his head and snarled at her, his green eyes gaining a blue shimmer as he bared his blunt teeth. She backed off again and her heart went out to him when he slammed his hands against the dirt and screamed, his pain tearing at her. Shifting was painful enough for her, and she was used to it. She couldn’t imagine what it was like for him.
His elbows gave out and he hit the dirt face-first, going terribly still as his breathing turned shallow and unsteady.
Cait was on her knees in a heartbeat, gathering him to her, pulling him across her thighs. His head lolled and she fought the tears that sprang into her eyes, blinding her. She dashed them away and pressed her left wrist back against his mouth. He didn’t move.
“Come on, Owen. Prove to me that you’re strong.” She rubbed her wrist across his mouth.
He snarled and bit down on it, and she cried out as pain tore up her arm.
He sucked hard, sending her head spinning, and swallowed the blood he had taken. The moment he swallowed, he released her wrist and yelled at the top of his lungs as the bones in his hands twisted and bent out of shape, his claws growing longer. His heart laboured in her ears as he rolled off her and shoved her away, sending her falling backwards.
He crawled away from her, breathing hard and snarling.
Her heart lurched as he slumped again.
Fear flooded her.
He wasn’t going to make it.
The process of the transition and the pain of trying to change was stealing too much of what little strength he had left. She had to do something to help him or the exertion was going to kill him.
Deep in her heart, within her soul, her most primal instincts burst into life and ignited a spark of hope.
Cait gave in to the desire that swept through her, a compulsion to change, both to reassure him with her presence as another hellcat and to show him how it was done.
She crawled to him and he looked at her, his green-to-blue eyes filled with pain, agony that made her want to look away because she had caused it. She refused to give in to that need, shunning that weaker part of herself and focusing on the stronger part.
The part that loved this man and was going to save him.
The moment she was sure he was paying attention to her, she began to shift, changing her paws first. Her fingers bent as his had, distorting into a different form beneath her skin, shrinking as her palm grew wider and her hand grew thicker. The pain of changing slowly had her own heart labouring but Owen needed her to do this for him.
His eyes studied everything she did and then her hope soared as his hands changed too, forming two large paws.
Confident that he could follow her instructions, she looked back and changed her hind legs, drawing his attention to them. He mimicked her, growling as his bones snapped out of place, shrinking or growing, altering to fit his new form. When they had shifted, he kicked his jeans away, struggling out of them.
She changed her arms next, completing them, and then focused on her body. Owen followed every change that she made, his body altering to match hers, his heart growing stronger as he progressed further into his shift.
His twin tails whipped out from the base of his spine before she had started to form hers and black fur swept over him, covering him from head to toe.
Cait concentrated on changing her head, allowing her ears to shift upwards and become rounded, and her cheeks to puff up around her flattening nose, and her teeth to elongate.
She finished her shift and waited for Owen to catch up. He struggled and she licked his neck, encouraging him and showing him that she was with him. He only had to change one more thing and he was done. He would have completed his first shift.
She rubbed her cheek against him and purred deep in her throat.
He snarled, lowered his head and scrubbed his paws over his face as he changed it. His eyes turned completely blue as they grew larger and his nose flattened and grew broader. Huge teeth flashed between his jaws as he opened them. His ears were the last thing to change, morphing into a new rounded shape as they settled into place at the top of his head.
He collapsed beside her, breathing hard, larger than she was in her cat form and infinitely more beautiful.
Tiny blue flames appeared around his teeth as he breathed, shifting with each inhale and exhale. He was weak right now, his flames small because of it, but they would grow in strength as he did.
Cait nursed him, licking his damp fur and cleaning the dirt off it, making it glossy as he lay beside her, slowly regaining his strength. She moved around to his other side when she had finished cleaning his entire right one, and started by licking his ear.
He lifted his head and rubbed his cheek across her nose.
Relief coursed through her, sweet and strong, stealing away the last of her strength as she realised that he was finally safe.
He had survived.
She nudged him to see whether he would move and he lumbered onto his paws, staggering for a few steps before he found his balance. He looked across at her, his bright blue eyes gaining focus, and she picked up her discarded t-shirt and his jeans in her mouth and began walking towards the exit into the canyon, slowly so she didn’t lose him.
He followed and she waited for him at the corridor. When he had caught up with her, she rubbed him again, brushing her cheek across his, and he made a low coughing noise in his throat. She set the clothes down and chuffed back at him, letting him know that she was with him and offering him the comfort he had instinctively sought.
She encouraged him each step of the way as they walked, seeking a place where they could rest in safety. It would be a while before he would have the strength to change back and she knew from looking at him and her senses that he was muddled right now, overwhelmed by the changes he had undergone and his new instincts.
She would be there for him though.
She would take care of him.
And she would cling to the slender thread of hope that when he changed back, he would have the heart to forgive her for what she had done to him.
And he would take the one she would offer to him.
He would become her mate.
CHAPTER 15
Owen slowly opened his eyes and looked across to his left where Cait lay beside him, curled up on her side beneath a tattered black blanket. He recalled her bringing it back from one of her forays into what he presumed was the nearest town. It had been the second time she had donned his jeans and the black t-shirt and headed out of the cave.
The first time she had returned with meat for him, and he vaguely remembered growling at her and a sense that he had been angry. Not because she had left, but because he had feared she had done something awful in order to obtain the food.
She had reassured him that she had stolen it and he had taken what she had offered, carrying it off to his side of the cave to eat it, filled with a deep desire to keep her away from his food.
A
s the days had passed, he had grown stronger and had started to master his instincts, learning that she wasn’t a threat and she wouldn’t take his food from him. He had tried to shift back into his human form twice, but neither attempt had been successful.
Both had rendered him unconscious.
He had come around to find Cait scowling at him, her anger flowing around him in her sweet scent, but the tear tracks on her cheeks telling him that it was born of fear. He had worried her again.
He hadn’t tried to shift in two full days.
Two days of Cait bringing him food and resting with him beneath the blanket.
Each time she returned, she would strip and change back into her cat form. She would bathe him, licking his fur, and he had done the same to her last night, cleaning her and paying close attention to her face.
She had made the reassuring noise at him again, the one that had given him strength countless times over the days since he had completed his first shift and had been stuck in his hellcat form.
He had come to love that noise.
It spoke of her affection for him, her tenderness and how she wanted to care for him.
Owen stretched beneath the covers, trying not to disturb her. He wanted to savour this moment in silence a little longer.
It felt good to be human again.
He raised his hands above his head and stared at his fingers. His nails were black and there was nothing he could do about it. He looked like a goth, but then it was a small price to pay for the incredible ability he had gained, and the strength that had come with it. It flowed through him, a buzz that made him want to leap out of bed and test the limits of his new body.
He would be faster too now, and his senses would be an advantage in any battle.
On top of all of that, he was now immortal.
He sighed and looked back at Cait, drinking in her beauty as she slept soundly, nestled close to him.
There was something else he was too.
He rolled onto his side and brushed the backs of his right fingers across her cheek. Her nose wrinkled up and she swatted at his hand. He smiled and persisted, not letting her deter him. He caressed her cheek and then swept his fingers over her temple, catching the long strands of her black hair and tucking it behind her ear, revealing the full depth of her beauty.
She murmured and tried to bat him away again.
“Cait,” he whispered.
Her eyes shot open, locking straight onto his, her surprise rolling through him as his senses sharpened and fixed on her.
“Owen.” She sat up and the blanket fell away from her bare chest.
He groaned and closed his eyes. “Cover yourself.”
The rustle of material said she had done as he had requested, putting him out of his misery. He was strong enough to shift back, but he didn’t think he was strong enough to get physical with her, and that was exactly what he would want to do if she sat around him in the nude.
“When did you shift?” Her fingers lightly brushed his brow. “Are you feeling okay?”
He nodded and opened his eyes, shifting them back to her. Hers widened again.
“Your eyes are green.” She looked as if she hadn’t expected that and he frowned. She shrugged. “They were blue in your cat form… I just thought…”
He could see why she would think he would have blue eyes now. Every hellcat he had met had blue ones.
“Maybe it’s because I wasn’t born one.” He pushed himself up onto his elbow.
Cait dropped her eyes to her lap and frowned. “I’m sorry.”
Owen sighed again, sat up and took hold of her left hand, clutching it in his and looking at it. He hadn’t meant to make her feel guilty about what had happened, not when he knew she already felt terrible.
“It’s strange… I won’t deny that.” He toyed with her fingers, looking at them to give her a moment to pull herself back together again. “I’ll get used to it though, and I’m stronger now.”
She kept her eyes on their hands, her sleek black hair falling down her chest as she held the blanket over it with her other hand.
“Can you still use magic?” she whispered to their hands.
He nodded even though she couldn’t see it and then turned his hand over in hers and focused on it. Checking his magic had been the first thing he had done on successfully shifting back.
A slender blue rose appeared above his palm and he caught it, twisted his hand and offered it to her. She lifted her cerulean gaze to meet his, a flicker of relief shining in it that he felt inside her too. He loved how he could sense things about her now, could detect her emotions, and he wanted to ask about it but he was afraid it would push her too hard too soon. He didn’t want to drive her away.
“I should have had more control.” Cait lowered her gaze to the rose and took it from him, staring at it as she twirled the stem in her fingers. “Owen… I… the reason I bit you… it’s… well…”
He hid his smile as she struggled with her words, her feelings in disarray, leaping between hopeful and afraid. He had intended to save this talk for later, asking her about the other difference he could feel in him, but it seemed she wanted it out there now.
No secrets between them.
He could live with that.
“I think…” She finally lifted her blue eyes back up to meet his and rushed out, “I think you’re my mate.”
He smiled this time and placed his hand around the one she held the blue rose in. “If you had told me that before I had gone through changing into a hellcat, I might have been shocked.”
Her eyes widened. “You knew?”
He nodded. “There’s something in your scent. Everything that I felt and that happened when I was in my cat form was muddled and confused, but when I shifted back, it all fell into place.”
He drew her hand to him and pressed a long kiss to her fingers before looking deep into her eyes.
“I know you’re my mate.”
Tears lined her long dark lashes and she pulled her hand from his grip and turned her cheek to him, staring off to his right towards the mouth of the cave.
“It doesn’t change what I did though, does it?” She closed her eyes and clutched the rose to her chest. “I bit you and I almost killed you… and now you’re a hellcat and you didn’t want to be one. I’ve changed your life—”
“Cait,” Owen interjected before she could go any further and upset herself for no good reason. He moved onto his knees in front of her and took hold of both of her arms. He ran his hands down them to her hands and held them gently as he looked at her, seeing her fear and feeling every emotion she experienced coursing through his own blood. “Yes, you bit me… but it felt incredible.”
She looked at him and opened her mouth to speak but snapped it shut again when he frowned at her.
“I admit I could have lived without the pain and the fever… and the threat of imminent death.” He cursed himself when she looked away again, closing her eyes, causing a tear to slip onto her cheek. He wasn’t doing a very good job of this. He should have rehearsed it before waking her because he had known how she would be, how she blamed herself for everything that had happened. He only wanted to take her pain away. “I can’t say I ever wanted to be a hellcat because I never thought about it. It’s not the sort of thing people think about happening to them… but I’m not angry that I am one now… I’m not upset that you changed me into one and made me like you... because—”
“I was coming back.” She cut him off and swiftly turned to face him, dropping the rose and clutching both of his hands in hers. “I went to see the other female hellcat… Alice… in the fae town. She told me what to do. I was coming back to you and Marius darted me… and I should have done something different. I should have sensed him or been more aware of my surroundings.”
But she hadn’t been, because she had been afraid for him, rushing to save him and placing herself in danger because of it.
Because she loved him.
He could see
it in her eyes.
She loved him and she feared he was going to leave her.
His little kitty had a lot to learn about him. He never walked away from anything.
“Can I speak now?” he said and her cheeks coloured.
He smiled and lifted her hands, luring them towards him. When she tried to release him, he caught her wrists and pulled her closer, refusing to let her get away from him. Another thing she had to learn about him. He never let his prey escape him, not once he had them in his sights.
And there was a part of her that he had in his crosshairs.
Her heart.
He was going to steal it from her just as she had stolen his.
“Look at me,” he husked and she did as he asked, raising her blue eyes back to meet his green ones. His heart pounded but he breathed slowly, calming himself as he looked deep into her eyes, seeing his future in them. His mate. His one true love. “I’m not upset about what happened, Cait. I’m not angry that you changed me into a hellcat, because you’ve been changing me since I met you and all of it has been for the better, and I’m sure this change will be too.”
“I’ve been changing you?” Her brow crinkled and her eyes searched his.
Owen drew her closer and gathered her into his arms. He lifted her onto his lap, the feel of her bare backside on his thighs almost doing him in and wrecking his concentration at the vital moment when he needed to stay focused and keep on track.
He nodded and held her, his left arm around her waist, pinning her against him. Her hands clutched his bare shoulders, her rosy lips parting as she breathed, tempting him into looking at them. Another distraction. He wanted to kiss her, but first he had something he needed to tell her.
“You’ve made me stronger… able to face all my fears. You’ve made me braver… willing to share my secrets. You’ve made me weaker too… but in the best way.” He smiled when she looked ready to point out there was no good way of being weak and pressed his finger to her lips to silence her. “You’ve made me weaker… dependent upon someone for the first time in what feels like forever… because my happiness depends on you being at my side, in my life.”
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