by Cait Miller
When she glanced into the bedroom on her way down the hall, she saw that Jack was stirring restlessly and had thrown the covers off. He was gloriously naked, the soft white of the sheets emphasizing his rich gold skin and midnight black hair. His cock nestled between his thighs, almost as impressive flaccid as it was erect. There was a dull flush of red along his cheekbones and as she watched he grimaced as if in the grip of a nightmare. Second thoughts assailed her but she pushed them ruthlessly aside and turned away—it was only for a few days. At the end of the hall, she took the door key from the hook on the wall and let herself out of the flat closing the door gently behind her.
Jack woke abruptly, confused for a moment by his surroundings, knowing something had disturbed him but not sure exactly what. He glanced around the room and memory returned in a rush. Megan. He glanced at the bed beside him, finding it empty. There was no sound from the bathroom and he felt her presence nearby so he assumed she must be in the living room, probably drinking the coffee he could smell. Although why she would want to drink coffee when the apartment was so damn hot was beyond him. He swiped at the bead of sweat that trickled down his jawline. His thoughts trailed to a halt as he finally took stock of his body to find that it wasn’t the apartment that was hot—the sheets he lay on were cool on his skin—it was him.
Jack sat up and a tremor of apprehension washed over him. This was it, Megan was about to find out that he was telling the truth. Still, he didn’t move and he was disgusted at himself for his weakness until finally the onset of the itching in his skin spurred him on. As he headed for the front room he realized that it wasn’t just the bathroom that was silent, it was the whole apartment—the living room and kitchen were both empty when he entered them. The paper on the table caught his attention and he stopped his search to scan it.
Jack,
Had to go away for a few days, need some space to think. The door will lock again when you close it behind you. I’ll give you a call at the hotel when I get back.
Megan
Scratching furiously now, he reached for the link with his mate only to feel her presence in his mind rapidly become fainter. He knew then that it had been the sound of the front door that had awakened him. He raced to the window and saw her car pulling away from the front of the building. She was leaving! Anger bubbled through him. If Megan thought he was going to sit around and wait for her to get in touch, she was very much mistaken. Heedless of his nudity and the ache of his joints he started for the front door, thinking only of catching up with her. He made it as far as the hall before the change swept through him. The pain of it doubled him over and forced him to the floor, the snarl that escaped his throat more feline than human.
When it was over he lay on his side panting, his tail twitching with agitation. Why now? He rolled fluidly to his paws and stalked to the door. There would be no exit through there. He glared at the small round doorknob with a heat that should have melted the metal. In his present form there was no way he would be able to turn it to open the door—his paws were too big and he wouldn’t be able to grip the smooth metal with his teeth either. Besides even if he did manage to turn it, as high as it was he’d have to lean his front paws against the door to reach it, meaning he would not be able to pull the door open.
Growling in frustration he prowled through the rooms checking the bedroom window and the living room windows to find they too were shut tight. He began to pace up and down in front of the window as he fought the cat’s desire to break out of its confinement and go after his mate. There was absolutely no doubt in his mind that Megan would not appreciate him smashing her window. It would attract too much attention anyway, so he put it to the back of his mind as a last resort. Anger surfaced as he acknowledged he was trapped in the apartment until he changed back, and he had no idea how long that would be.
* * * * *
Two hours. Two damn hours he had prowled Megan’s apartment while the frustration and anger of the cat had pummeled him until he had thought he’d go mad. They mingled with and heightened his own irritation making it difficult to fight against his animal instincts. So he found himself slipping into its behaviorisms again and again. He had to complete the bond with Megan soon, before he lost himself completely.
The rain that now soaked his clothes as he stood outside the apartment had started an hour ago and had almost been the final straw. It obliterated any scent trail he might have followed. All he could do was check places she might have gone, starting with the most likely—her closest friend. As the rain began to trickle down his neck he pulled out his compact cell phone and called a cab. Jayne Davis lived on the other side of town and he was in no mood for any further delays.
Within half an hour he was standing in front of another small apartment building. Satisfaction and relief filled him along with the knowledge that she was here, that she couldn’t hide from him. Not that she knows that, he thought with a twinge of guilt. The rain was heavier now, storm clouds bringing darkness early and cooling the August day so that he shivered slightly. He ignored it though and stood in the deserted street as his mind and senses were filled with her, causing his cock to harden with anticipation.
He never even saw the attack coming.
There was a moment of hot burning pain in his left side before the two men wearing woolen masks pinned him against the wall. One held a switchblade in front of his face while the other tried to pull his wallet from his pocket. They said nothing, but when he looked into the cold eyes of the one with the knife he knew that they meant to kill him. They were both as tall as he was and thickly muscled, and had he not been what he was they could have held him easily. With a growl of rage, Jack twisted his wrists from their grip, causing both men to stumble back with gasps of surprise. Low snarls rumbled in his chest as he took a step towards them. The two exchanged a terror-filled glance at the inhuman noise and fled. As Jack started to follow, fiery pain spread through his abdomen and he sank onto the wet pavement.
For an instant he thought he was going to change again. Then he saw the spreading stain on his pale shirt and realized it wasn’t just rainwater he could feel trickling down his side, soaking the waistband of his jeans. He touched his fingertips to the wet fabric, gleaming black in the orange streetlights.
Blood.
He needed to move, he couldn’t just sit here in the street waiting for his attackers to come back. Worse, a passerby might come along and call an ambulance and there was no way he could be admitted to hospital. Besides the fact that his body healed abnormally quickly, there was just too much danger of him shapeshifting. Grimly he struggled to his feet, gritting his teeth against the pain as he clutched his side and made his way into the building.
By the time he had climbed the two flights of stairs that led to Miss Davis’ apartment he was pale, sweating and exhausted. He knocked on the door then leaned against the wall beside it, fighting the desire to slide down it to rest on the floor. It’s just a flesh wound, Jack. If this was the movies you would have chased down the bad guys then run up those stairs. His lips quirked in grim humor at the thought. He heard the lock turn and he pushed off the wall to face the door as it opened.
How did he find me? He heard the startled exclamation and saw the surprise on Megan’s face, before she started to slam it closed again. Moving more quickly than was wise, he stepped forward to block it. Agony shot through him and his vision grayed around the edges. He moaned as he crumpled to the floor thinking ruefully that he seemed to be spending far too much time on the ground lately.
“Oh God, Jack, you’re bleeding! What happened?”
His side throbbed with the beat of his heart and he could feel the warm trickle of blood on his chilled skin. He looked at Megan’s shocked face as she knelt beside him and lifted his stained shirt. Wonder what she would say if I asked her to do the blood exchange now? After all, why waste it? Jack dismissed his idiotic musings and raised his head enough to look at his side. The wound was low on the left side of his abdomen just below hi
s ribs, thin and about two inches long. Dark red blood seeped from it steadily, dripping down his side and onto the polished wood flooring. He picked up Megan’s thoughts easily as she realized that it was a knife wound.
“I had a little argument with a couple of guys downstairs. They thought they should have my wallet and I disagreed,” he said wryly. He had his suspicions about the incident but he wasn’t ready to share them yet. If he had the energy he would have kicked himself for not paying attention to his surroundings. So much for his enhanced senses.
She pulled a drying white T-shirt from the radiator on the wall behind her with trembling hands and pressed it firmly to the cut. Jack gritted his teeth against the hiss of pain that wanted to escape. “I need you to hold this in place while I call the police and an ambulance.”
He gripped her hand. “No. No police and definitely no hospital.”
She met his gaze. “What? Jack, you were mugged. You are bleeding all over Jayne’s floor!”
He tightened his grip. “Please, Megan. I told you what I am, I heal quickly. The guys will be long gone by now, so what good will calling the police do? I’ll be fine, it’s not as bad as it looks.” Grimacing, he sat up and took the makeshift bandage from her. “Look, the bleeding’s already slowed down.” Megan studied him for a moment, concern and reluctance evident on her face, but she couldn’t force him to go to the hospital.
Even in his present condition his body started to respond to her presence. It was ridiculous, wearing a pair of wrinkled gray sweatpants and an equally crumpled sweater, she wasn’t exactly dressed to impress. The baggy clothes hid all of the enticing curves he knew she possessed. His mouth almost watered in anticipation of discovering them again. His fingers itched to pull the band from her hair and run his fingers through the riotous curls.
Oblivious to his wayward desires, Megan’s business-like tone brought him back to earth with a bump. “Come on, let’s at least get you out of this doorway before one of the neighbors see us. If you won’t go to hospital, I want you here where I can make sure you are okay.” She helped him to his feet.
In the living room Megan covered Jayne’s couch with a few towels before handing him another. “Get out of those wet clothes and lie down,” she ordered. Jack arched one black brow at her but wisely said nothing. Heat rushed to her face but she ignored it. After all the man was injured, she shouldn’t be thinking about sex. Anyway, it wasn’t as if she’d never seen him naked before. Hell, she had run her lips and tongue over most of that body just a few hours ago. When he eased out of his shirt she was relieved to see that the bleeding was definitely slowing. Her brow creased in puzzlement, in fact, the cut didn’t look as bad as she had first thought. It still needed to be stitched, though. “Please, lie down. I’ll get the first aid kit.” Taking his wet clothes from him, she fled to the kitchen.
When she returned a few moments later, Jack’s lean, sleekly muscled body was sprawled on the couch. He was still pressing the T-shirt to his side and had draped a towel across his hips hiding his burgeoning erection. I am not disappointed, Megan told herself firmly as she knelt on the floor beside him, but part of her hungered for that cock.
His short, coal-black hair had been soaked, but he had obviously dried it with one of the towels since the damp strands stuck up in spikes. It should have looked comical but instead it only added to the air of wildness that clung to him. This time when he peeled the T-shirt away she could see the bleeding had almost stopped and had begun to clot, sealing the cut. Jack said nothing when she started to gently clean the wound and his skin, but she could see the muscles in his jaw tighten and knew he was gritting his teeth against the sting of the antiseptic. “I can’t believe this has happened, Jack. I mean, this isn’t paradise, there are occasional bag snatches but I have never heard of anyone being assaulted with a weapon during a robbery. Especially not in this part of town… This is a good area.”
“There’s a first time for everything,” he replied, his voice betraying none of what he might be feeling.
Finished cleaning the cut, she applied some butterfly strips to close the edges. Blood still oozed slightly from it but it wasn’t actively bleeding anymore. Jack had been telling the truth when he said he healed quickly. The implications of that made her slightly uneasy. “I suppose so… I still think we should call the police and report this. I know they won’t be able to do much for you but they should know in case these men go after someone else.” He didn’t answer and she sighed in frustration and looked at him. “Jack.” His molten eyes pinned her for endless seconds before he finally spoke. “No.”
A trickle of sweat rolled down his impassive face, catching her attention. She followed its path down to his hair-dusted chest and frowned as it was followed a wave of goose bumps.
“Are you all right, Jack?” When she looked at his face again, it was a little flushed and his gaze seemed to be focused inward. “Jack?” I knew I should’ve just called an ambulance… God, what if he’s got internal injuries…
She started to get to her feet, gasping in surprise when Jack’s hand shot out and grabbed her wrist. A shiver ran down her spine when she noticed he was scratching his neck and chest with his other hand. His words of the other day echoed in her head. “The scratching was a sign that the change was coming…”
“You are about to get your proof, Megan.” His low voice startled her and she dragged her eyes back to his face. He released her wrist and Megan backed away a couple of steps while he climbed slowly to his feet, shedding the towel to stand naked before her.
“He’s offered to prove it to you, Megan. What are you going to do if he does?” “Shut up, Jayne,” she whispered under her breath. He was shivering now, and his chest rose and fell as his breathing sped up and he pressed his hands to his stomach and hunched over.
“Jack, talk to me, tell me what’s happening. You’re scaring me a little here.”
His skin seemed to ripple and darken and as thick black fur pushed through his pores, he spoke to her through gritted teeth. “Please, don’t be afraid, Megan. I won’t hurt you.” His voice was guttural, almost unrecognizable, his eyes glowed with an inner fire and intensity and he reached out to her with a clawed hand.
Megan let out a startled shriek and clapped a trembling hand to her mouth. Frozen to the spot, she couldn’t have moved even had she wanted to, her chest rose and fell rapidly with shallow panicked breaths. Fascinated and horrified, she watched his fur-covered ears change shape and move towards the top of his head. Jack groaned as his face and jaw thrust forward to accommodate razor-sharp teeth and she saw a tail curl itself around him. The groan changed to a low rumbling growl as the transformation swept down the length of his body. His entire frame was reshaping itself so brutally she expected to hear the bones snapping but the only sounds were Jack’s panting breaths and growls of pain.
Her heart tried to beat its way out of her chest as finally he fell forward onto all fours, feline head bowed low and his chest heaving. Megan dropped to her knees like a puppet with its strings cut. Standing before her was the huge cat that had spent the night in her apartment, just as Jack had tried to tell her. His hair was the same midnight black as Jack’s and he looked at her with Jack’s quicksilver eyes.
Holy crap! She rubbed her hands over her face.
“Oh my God! Jack?” She whispered tremulously, “Is that you?” The cat—Jack—raised his head and…nodded!
“Oh my God! I can’t believe I just…you just…” Reassured by the very human response, she crawled over to him on hands and knees and lifted a trembling hand to stroke his jaw.
“That was amazing and, and…terrifying, but…” She looked into his eyes. “I’m sorry I didn’t believe you, Jack.”
He rubbed his face against her palm. The gesture was so feline Megan’s lips twitched into a reluctant smile. “Are you okay? It looked so painful.” Suddenly she remembered his knife wound and ran her fingers down his side until she found the butterfly strips caught in his fur. She found th
e cut nearby and discovered though her fingertips came away spotted with blood, the cut was about half the size it had been. She raised her eyebrows in surprise when Jack nudged her out of the way to lick the wound clean. He obviously still understood her but twice now he had behaved like a cat… The ringing of Jayne’s phone shattered the uneasy silence and interrupted her thoughts. Jack’s body tensed at the noise, ears twitching he stared at the phone. Rising slowly, she answered it. When she glanced back, he had returned to his task.
Chapter Seven
Megan’s phone conversation was only background noise as Jack struggled with the fact that he had actually shifted in front of his mate and she hadn’t run screaming from him. After all the time he had spent agonizing over it, the reality was hard to accept. She had been afraid, certainly, but had trusted him enough to believe he would not do her any harm. The knowledge made his heart clench and sent a rush of warmth through his veins.
The crash as Megan slammed down the phone interrupted his thoughts and brought his head up. He realized with a shiver that the cat had taken over and had been busily tending its wound while he had been preoccupied. “That was Jayne calling from her cell phone. She’ll be home soon…we have to get this mess cleaned up. She will flip when she sees her favorite T-shirt. I have to hide it!”
Jack cocked his head and watched her silently as she raced around the living room lifting the shirt, towels and first aid supplies. I knew it had been too easy, he thought wryly. She headed for the kitchen and he padded after her quietly, just in time to see her closing the door of the washing machine. He gave brief consideration to the fact that his clothes must be in there too, so he would have nothing to wear when he shifted back. She turned from the washing machine, her hand flying to her heart when she saw that he was standing behind her.