But the creature only licked his lips and practically smiled at her as he moved into an attack position. Sofia’s heart thudded so hard, she felt the pounding against her eardrums as well. She flipped out her blade and prepared to thrust it just as the creature lunged toward her. He leapt into the air with so much speed and force that he literally was several feet above her one second, and then was on top of her the very next.
She had not beenexpecting a leap like that.
Sofia crashed under his weight and her head hit the earth with a deafening thud.The knuckles of her right hand also slammed into the ground and forced her fist to open and the blade to tumble out of it. The mountain lion pinned her down with his two large paws on her chest and snarled at her, his face so close to hers she could feel the rumble from his threatening growl and smell his breath. But the vision of the cat started to blur as she began losing consciousness.
The world faded in and out as the creature swiped at her clothes, ripping her shirt to shreds. Sofia lay there, whimpering, unable to move, unable to defend herself from becoming this animal’s meal. Darkness. Angry animal on top of her. Darkness. Animal licking his lips. Darkness. She sensed another presence and when she opened her eyes again, her attacker was being shoved off her by another ferocious big cat that had charged into it, one that actually looked like a normal mountain lion. Sofia turned her head to the side and watched the fight between the leopard and the mountain lion as she drifted in and out of consciousness.
The blow to her head must have been a doozy, because her arms and legs were shaking and her torso convulsed uncontrollably. If that wasn’t messed up enough, she saw the newer cat rise victoriously and walk toward her, its paws and limbs morphing into male human feet, arms and legs as it approached.
It was still half cat and half man when it picked her up in its arms and began carrying her off. Its stark, emerald-green eyes, wide with worry, were the last thing she saw before her mind completely went dark.
* * * * *
Nathan leaned against the wall just outside the caged room in the dim cavern and stared at Sofia as she lay unconscious on the mattress. A fleece blanket had been placed over her naked body and he watched it rise and fall with her long, slow breaths. Her shredded clothes were in a pile on the floor in a corner of the room, and Nathan felt his rage flare as he recalled exactly how they got that way.
When he’d seen Justin Finland in Cat on top of her out there, with her lying underneath him, stunned and injured, Nathan lost it. Completely.
After subduing Justin, Nathan picked her up and carried her all the way to the cavern where he and the others were staying. Sofia’s scent was strong now and at last it was clear. She was one of them. With her Cat awakening so late, the transition was not going to be easy for her, so he put her in this caged room just as much to shield her from the intrusive attention of others as to protect her from herself. He fingered the switchblade of hers, which he kept securely in his pocket instead of leaving it within her reach, just in case she woke up in a violent panic. Which had been known to happen before.
He’d almost forgotten that fellow shifter Cassandra Kennedy was still standing there with him until she placed a hand on his shoulder. “Are you all right, Nate? You seem agitated.”
Nathan looked down at his feet and gave his head a quick shake. “It’s my fault she’s here. I invited her to the mountain, probably triggered her.”
“But that’s a good thing,” the hazel-eyed brunette said. “It was going to happen to her at some point. It’s actually better for her to go through the transition now, with us here to help her.”
Sofia was a Late Bloomer, Cassandra had explained to him. They were rare but apparently they existed. Nathan had thought Sofia smelled faintly like one of them while on the plane, but he’d told himself he was just deliriously horny. The chances of there being an attractive female shifter his age in NYC who he hadn’t noticed had seemed unlikely at the time, but now made sense with her being identified as a Late Bloomer.
“Would have been better though if her first introduction to the life didn’t involve an attack and a blow to the head.”
Cassandra snorted. “Now that, I can agree with. But we’ll be here to explain it all to her when she wakes up. She’ll be fine. But now, you on the other hand.” She moved behind him and placed both hands on his shoulders, massaged them. “You’re so tense. When are you going to let me help loosen you up again, Nathie?”
Nathan rolled his eyes. “I hate when you call me that.”
She laughed. “I know. But I always get a special reaction from you when I call you that while you’re inside me.” She slid her hands up and down his back, caressing him. “I’ve missed you. It’s been two days already and you’ve been avoiding me. How about you and I get undressed and reacquainted?”
Cassandra Kennedy’s Cat was a tiger and it showed. The rough, angry sex Cassandra and he enjoyed together three months ago at the last retreat was good—really good—and she was originally at the top of his to-do list for this go around, too. But seeing her again this time reminded him of why they weren’t a couple—there was no emotional connection between Cassandra and him. They didn’t even communicate with each other in-between retreats. And right now, the only thing he was interested in was Sofia waking up so he could ensure she was okay.
Nathan exhaled deeply and turned to look at Cassandra. He flashed a polite smile at her. “Maybe we can try to catch up later? Right now I just really want to keep an eye on my friend, here.”
Cassandra opened her mouth to protest but several men came around the corner just at that moment, and Justin Finland was at the head of the pack. Nathan straightened up and moved to block the door to the room Sofia slept in. “What do you guys want?” He reflexively balled his hands into fists as soon as his scruffy blond rival began to speak.
“We came to meet the newcomer,” Justin said. “We all have the right to be introduced. That’s how it goes.”
“She’s still asleep,” Cassandra said. “And will likely be until tomorrow. Everyone should leave her alone and just let her rest.”
Justin turned to look at Nathan. “So then what the hell are you still standing here for, Dawson?”
“Keeping watch over her.”
“You don’t need to,” Cassandra said. She was frowning and one hand was on her hip. “She’s safe here amongst us. You know that.”
“I can’t tell.” Nathan glared at Justin as he said this.
Justin scowled. “Look, dude, I already said I wasn’t going to hurt her.”
“You knocked her down, busted her head up and ripped off her clothes,” Nathan hissed. “How the fuck do you define hurt?”
“I didn’t know she was so damn delicate, I thought she was fully one of us, not some Late Bloomer ‘Molly’ who don’t know what’s up. Seemed like she was playing with me, taunting me. I thought she wanted it rough—you know how some of these pussies are!”
Nathan ran up to Justin and grabbed a tight fistful of his shirt. “You weren’t even gonna ask first to make sure she wanted it?”
“Get your hands off me, Dawson,” Justin growled, his eyes aglow with anger. Two of the other males who’d come with Justin pulled Nathan back and he reluctantly let go. But Justin started to pace back and forth in place, shaking his finger at Nathan.
“You see,” Justin said to the others. “You see how he is? This is how he was when he jumped me out there. He broke the Pride’s rules—we don’t attack each other unwarranted. I want him punished!”
“So should we punish you, too?” Cassandra folded her arms across her chest. “Apparently you attacked one of our kind, first. One who doesn’t even know what she is yet.”
“Argh, I told you I wasn’t attacking her. I thought we were getting frisky.”
Nathan’s ears grew red hot and twitched with his anger. “She’s not available.”
Justin laughed. “What do you mean she’s not available? She wasn’t wearing a ring or a collar. That Felin
e doesn’t look claimed by either man or Cat to me, and I call dibs.”
“I didn’t say claimed, just not available. Her name is Sofia Saldana, and she’s with me.”
“How is she with you? Wait, so then she is your woman?”
“No, I just met her on the plane Monday, on the way here. I didn’t know she was one of us then, and neither did she, but I was interested anyway. The only reason she’s on this mountain is because I invited her.”
“Just because you also wanted to do her doesn’t give you sole rights to her, Dawson,” Justin laughed. “She’s not claimed. We all get to be introduced. You know how things work with us, the hell’s wrong with you?”
“That doesn’t mean you get to sex her, either. It’s up to her who she sleeps with.”
“That’s right, Nathan,” Cassandra cut in, standing between them. Her cheeks flushed red with irritation, disgust and a bit of hurt. “But that also means that she can sleep with him. It’s her choice, not either of yours. The queens get to decide, you both know that! Now simmer down and get away from here so she can rest in peace. We’ll ask her what she wants to do when she’s feeling better.” Cassandra pushed them away from the room where Sofia slept.
Nathan took one last glance over his shoulder at Sofia. Yes, he knew the way it worked with the Pride members, but with Sofia it was different. There was no way he could tolerate sharing her with any of the Toms there. He walked away with reluctance, but was also determined to ensure that no other cat laid a hand—or paw—on her.
Chapter Four
Sofia’s eyes opened slowly, and even then only partially. Everything was blurry at first and although the place she was in was dark, her eyes stung painfully as if she were staring at the sun. She was lying on a mattress on the floor of a room whose ground and windowless walls were made of natural rock, but it had a door of metal bars like a prison cell. There was a wooden wardrobe in one corner and a small, low table in another. Both of which looked handcrafted and seemed specifically designed and fitted for the unusual dwelling.
Where in the world was she?
At first she thought she was completely alone, in some room inside a cave. But when she focused her eyes again and looked beyond the wide bars of the door, she could make out shadows on the wall. The silhouettes were of strange shapes—people mostly, but some not quite people, dancing together or moving in various synchronized gestures.
Her heart pounded in her chest with uncertainty and fear as she sat completely upright. The blanket fell down and she shuddered slightly as a chill ran through her. Why am I completely naked? Where the hell are my clothes? She looked down in puzzlement at the Band-Aid on the inside of her left elbow. Had blood been drawn from her?
She pulled the blanket tightly against her and stood, then went toward the bars so she could peer through and get a closer look at the source of the shadows. Her vision was normal now and she was able to make out the figures that were in the larger room beyond hers.
There were twenty-five, maybe thirty people out there, slightly more males than females, moving together in the candlelit room. Her ears twitched as the volume in the room grew louder… No, she only began to hear them more clearly. There was no mistaking their moans and panting.
They were all having sex in the same vicinity.
Her vision adjusted again and this time when she looked she could see their bodies grinding each other, wildly, passionately, with abandon. Some against or on top of each other in pairs or threesomes or foursomes.
In the center of the room there was a raised wooden platform, and on top of it there was an attractive couple—a Middle-Eastern man and a pale, platinum-blonde woman—making love above all of the others. They wore matching necklaces made of black leather rope and the same silver charm. She could just make out that the charm was an artistic figure of a lion’s head, which reminded her of the Leo zodiac sign.
What was this, kind of a weird cat-worshiping cult? What did it all mean?
Again Sofia’s eyes refocused and she could see with painstaking clarity. Beads of sweat dripped down ripped abs and working torsos. Eyes glowed and vocal chords purred and roared with lust and pleasure. Sharply pointed teeth were bared as waves of orgasmic release brought animalistic smiles to their faces. Once again Sofia’s senses adjusted and she could see the powerful, feline animal within each of them—some cougars, others lions, leopards, tigers or even cheetahs, but all some kind of big cat from a panther-like species. She could hear the call to the wild screaming from their souls, could smell it even—the scent of grass and trees and fur and masculinity and femininity and desire.
Dios Mio. She was not in the company of humans.
Backing away from the bars, Sofia stumbled over a soft mound on the floor and looked down.
She spotted the pile of her shredded clothes and the memory flashed in her mind like a horror show. Jogging along the trail. The leopard spotting her. Being pinned to the ground and attacked. The mountain lion attacking the first cat before transforming into a man. Felt like real-life madness, not injury-induced hallucinations.
Something was wrong with her. Sofia felt her arms and legs go wobbly and she dropped to the floor. But soon the weakness in her limbs turned into rigidness, then pain. She found her body moving against her will, as if being manipulated by some unseen force, positioning her on her hands and knees. She watched in horror as the hair on her arms elongated and thickened, and cried out as her hands and nails became paws and claws right before her eyes.
Hearing someone approaching the cave, Sofia intended to give a warning yell not to come near her, but what came out instead was a strained, dangerous-sounding roar. The cage door opened and she backed away and cowered in a corner, not wanting to see whoever it was, not wanting them to see her this way either—with her body contorting, her nose widening, her ears elongating and fur rapidly growing all over.
But that scent! She knew who it was without looking up at him, and before he even said a single word. No, not him. What was he doing here? He couldn’t see her like this. Of all the people in the world who could have come into that room right then, why him?
He opened the door and quickly rushed in, carrying a tray with food, which he placed on the small table before moving toward her.
Wait, was he to blame for this? Had she been set up?
She bared her teeth at him and hissed loudly, swatting her paws. Her paws!
“There, there now,” Nathan said. “Listen Sofia, it’s—” His voice was mild and patient, but Sofia had no moderation or patience in her at the moment. Her thoughts were feral with fear and fury, and her voice was a foreign, loud roar of frustration. Nathan reached his hand out toward her, as if intending to touch her. She wanted to shove him away but instead found herself lunging at him, aiming her teeth directly for his throat.
* * * * *
Nathan braced himself for the attack. He knew her first shape-shifting would be rough—first shifts were always rough—and so he’d come prepared. When she lunged at him he threw up his right arm just before she reached him, letting her latch on to the leather bracer he was wearing on his forearm.
He spoke in a soothing, firm tone. “Calm down, Sofia. It’s me, Nathan.” That only made her lock her jaws tighter. The bracer took the brunt of it, but her feline teeth were sharp and her anger was great, so it could only do so much to dull the pain.
The force with which she bore down surprised him, and he was more than grateful that it wasn’t his neck caught in her mouth.
“You’re hurting me, Sofia. I’m just trying to help. If you calm down, I can explain what’s happening.”
Like him, her feline form was a mountain lion, and she was a very beautiful, albeit a presently angry, one. He stroked his free hand against the top of her head between her ears, petting her brand-new coat of light-brown fur. Her ears twitched at first but soon her growls turned to a soft purr, and she gradually lessened her grip on his arm.
“That’s a good girl.” He sat down and pul
led the female cougar onto his lap, holding her close to him. “Come back to me when you’re ready.” He moved his hand down her neck and rubbed her back, quietly rocking her in his arms. He closed his eyes and stayed with her like that for what felt like nearly an hour. He smiled when he had a raven-haired human beauty in his lap, naked and holding on to him.
They just looked at each other for a couple of minutes. She appeared a bit groggy, no doubt due to the physical, mental and spiritual exhaustion of shape-shifting for her first time to a mountain lion and then back again to human. Knowing that it would take a few minutes before she was completely coherent, Nathan quietly continued to rock and caress her. Sofia’s body was pliant in his arms, her skin warm and smooth. Her soft, long black hair grazed against his bare chest. Her naked breasts sat directly below his line of sight, her chestnut-colored nipples stiff and long from exposure to the cool air of the damp cavern. Her warm, round bottom was on his lap, with nothing separating his cock from her but his jeans.
Desire burned in his gut and a deep, tortured groan rumbled in his throat.
He licked his lips and tried to not let his mind—or his hands—go where they wanted to. He reached for the blanket and pulled it over her, gently shielding her from his hungry perusal.
But her pheromones were on full blast, assaulting him with her need, taunting his own. Nathan had opted out of the sexual activities happening outside the room, determined to stay alert to watch over Sofia. The other women didn’t like it, especially Cassandra, but he simply wasn’t interested in copulating with anyone else there. Not with Sofia so close by. He’d been able to think of nothing but her, and now here she was, right in his lap, served up like milk in a bowl just waiting to be lapped up.
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