by Eliza Gayle
From somewhere in the distance she heard a scream, the harrowing sound of someone or something crying out in agony. It haunted her as she ran, seeking some place to hide or get away. The cabin was her only chance and she was too far away. Lara’s vision narrowed and sharpened as her panic escalated. She heard every grunt, snarl, and hiss of the cat behind her and her body ached as the urge to jump right out of her skin washed over her. On the verge of a full-blown panic attack, she had to concentrate on saving herself.
She knew the minute she could no longer outrun. The air swirled around her and the whoosh of air expelled from lungs thundered in her ears. When her brain processed the cougar’s leap, she twisted to the left and jumped out of the way. Not quite fast enough, as a sharp claw tore into the flesh of her arm, drawing blood and creating excruciating pain she pushed at, doing her best to keep going.
The gut wrenching screams drew closer as she shifted directions. Thinking she might make it out of here in one piece, she was suddenly pushed to the ground by the paws digging into the skin of her back, even through the thin jacket she wore.
She fell to the ground, pinned by the furred body of her pursuer. His teeth grabbed onto her shoulder and dug into her skin, enough to paralyze her on the spot. Pain reeled through her head as the taste of blood coated her tongue.
“What the—?”
Her heart raced in her body along with the adrenalin, forcing her to react with more strength that she thought possible. She managed to push her body and roll, forcing the cougar underneath her. She needed to move away but he had a solid grip on her shoulder with sharp ass teeth.
This is gonna hurt.
With her eyes squeezed shut, she gritted her teeth against the coming pain as she surged forward, getting away from Nick, but not without a chunk of her flesh tearing from her body.
The cougar snarled as she moved. Her scream filled the air, sounding foreign and disconnected to her own ears, but when it was met by another one of those head splitting banshee screams from the woods she knew Kane was searching for her.
Unfortunately she was out of time. Nick flipped to his feet and lunged for her, tackling her once more. Underneath him again, she’d had enough, and snarled at him and bared her teeth just like he did, except his golden cat eyes bulged in his head in surprise. He reared his head back and she reacted instinctively; it was either him or her, and she wasn’t about to die like this. Her forearms flexed so her fingers could grab his throat and claws burst from her fingers, slicing across his throat. Blood spattered onto her face and clothes, but it was the frozen look of disbelief on the cougar’s face that freaked her out. Scrambling to move as the big cat fell, Lara jumped to her feet and stared down at the blood on her hands. Not just blood.
The blood from Nick coated the layer of hair on her hands and claws.
Oh, Jesus, No! I have fucking claws and fur. Before she could process what it all meant, a black cougar burst through the brush at full speed, barely stopping before he plowed her over. His head swiveled between her and the dead cougar on the ground.
Kane’s body shimmered and made a few popping sounds as she watched him shift from cougar to man. If she wasn’t trembling with fear over the changes in her own body she might have taken the time to admire the science behind what an impossible thing it should be.
“What have you done?” His anger hit her like a slap in the face.
“Me? Are you kidding me? You—him—everyone...” she stuttered, unable to form a complete sentence.
He looked at her then...really looked at her. How is this possible? Despite the blood of the kill covering her he could see the subtle changes. Her eyes were gold instead of their normal color, and there were two tiny teeth points poking at her lip. She probably didn’t even realize she’d cut her lip on them several times.
Those two differences were nothing compared to the thin layer of tawny colored hair on her arms, parts of her face, and even her neck. At least, what he could see through the blood. She’d managed to kill one of his clan by severing his neck, which is the instinctive kill pattern of a big cat. She’s not a cat. She’s human.
“What is wrong with me? Why do I look like this?”
How could he explain something he couldn’t comprehend himself? Did he somehow do this to her by mating? Lucas hadn’t mentioned anything about his mate doing anything like this.
“I—I don’t know. You look like you started to shift but it stopped.”
“How do I make it go away?” The panic rose along with the volume of her voice.
“Stay calm.”
“Stay calm! Are you kidding me? I’m covered in blood and fur and the fur is not his!” She waved her hands as she ranted, the stench of her fear scaring even him. The instinct to protect and shelter his mate rode him hard, a feeling he had to react to.
“We’ve got to get you back to the house. We’ll get you cleaned up and together we’ll figure this thing out.”
“What about him.”
“Don’t worry about it. It will be taken care of.” He steered her away from the bloody death scene in the direction of the cabin. “Are you okay to walk? I could carry you.” She shook her head, then lifted it to meet his gaze. The sheen of tears in her eyes broke through the crack she’d created around his heart, and he knew then that he wanted to spend the rest of his life protecting her.
Chapter Sixteen
Kane led Lara into the bathroom of the master suite, careful to avoid her sharp and lethal claws. He could hear her heart still racing in her chest and knew he needed to get her calm. He turned on both the shower and the tub. First he would get the blood off in the shower, and then together they would bathe in the lake-sized tub he’d known would come in handy one day.
One by one he took off her soiled clothes until she stood nude and trembling before him.
“It’s going to be okay, Lara, I promise.” She looked at him with such sad eyes he wondered if he could live up to his promise. If he had changed her somehow and it couldn’t be fixed, things would never be the same between them. “Come on, babe, you’ll feel a lot better when you’re clean again and I will help you any way that I can as soon as your body calms down. You’ve put it through a lot today, and while I don’t know anything about partial shifts, I do know that if you don’t have control of your body and mind teaching you to shift back will be near impossible.”
“I’m fine.” She stepped into the spray and let the water sluice over her; it turned pink as it washed away the violence of what she’d done. It had only taken a glance at the dead cougar to know who it was...Nick. Already Kane mourned for his childhood friend and needed her to make him understand what had happened out there, but the bond of a mate was an even greater pull, and right now making sure she was safe and secure was his top priority.
“I’m going to let you clean up for a minute and go and talk to the guards out front. Until we understand the facts of today I think we should all remain on alert.”
“He wanted to kill me.”
Her sudden confession speared through him as he considered just how close he’d come to losing her. It disgusted him that he hadn’t been able to protect her.
“Soon, baby. I’ll be right back and we can talk about it.” He left her then, even though it gave him actual physical pain to do so while knowing his mate needed him.
Back in the kitchen he found Carl propped against the counter waiting for him, the tension clearly evident in his expression and bunched muscles of his shoulders and arms.
“Where’s Lee?”
“Don’t know. Right after Lara left he said he was going to the head and that was the last time I saw him.”
“That was hours ago. You search the house?”
“Yes, nothing here.” A growl came up before he could think to control it.
“Then we have to operate on the assumption that he had something to do with the attack on Lara and has fled. He’s mine now.”
“Kane—”
He held up his hand to stop
his friend’s protest. “Like it or not she’s my mate, and an unauthorized attack of one of us falls under my jurisdiction and you damn well know it.”
“But this is Lee we’re talking about.”
“Yeah, and it was Nick who tried to kill her.”
“What? Is he okay?”
“Is he okay? What do you think? Call the council and tell them we need another clean up out here. I’m sure they will have no trouble finding it. Oh, and you can let them know that we won’t be showing up for their damned tribunal, either. I have to take care of Lara and I need to know the house is secure so decide now, are you in or out?”
Carl’s hesitation only lasted a few heartbeats. “I’m in. Take care of your mate. No one is getting past me.”
Kane nodded his head and headed back to Lara—just in time, too. She stood in the bathroom looking bewildered and lost as she dried herself with a bath towel. He noticed her claws had retracted but he could still see glimpses of the extended canines, and when she ruffled the towel across her limbs the light layer of fur stood on end. Admittedly it was the strangest sight he’d seen, but when she shook her hair and looked at him he would swear he’d never seen a more beautiful and glowing woman in his life.
“No need for that quite yet, baby.” He took the towel from her and scooped her into his arms. The soft, downy fur slid against his skin and it felt so damn good he started to get hard. “You still need to relax and I need to teach you.”
The heated water felt just right as he carried her into the Jacuzzi tub he’d filled with bubbles just for her. Vanilla and cinnamon wafted around them as he sank into the seat at the end of the tub, not to mention Lara’s own scent, which seemed to be stronger in her partial feline form.
Feline. He’d never expected this but now that he thought about it, she’d shown subtle signs.
When he flipped the switch on the jets the water roiled and bubbled around them.
“Oh, Kane, that feels so good.” She slid from his lap, dunked underneath the water, and resurfaced slick and soapy, a look that did little to dissuade his thickening erection.
“I thought you might like it. You’ve had a tough day.”
She barked a laugh at him. “A tough day? Are you kidding me?” She flashed her fur-covered hands at him. “I think I’d call this a little more than a tough day.”
“You know what I meant. I need you relaxed and open to my instruction.”
“Always gotta be the man in charge, don’t you?”
“Well, if you want I could just leave you here and let you try to figure it out on your own.” He pushed against the ledge and started to haul himself up.
“Jesus, Kane, don’t be so uptight. I was just kidding. You know, trying to lighten the mood.”
“You want to lighten the mood? How’s this?” He grabbed a naked breast and tweaked the nipple until she squealed.
“Oww.” She slid backwards into the seat at the opposite end of the tub and swished her arms and hands through the bubbles. “Why am I like this, Kane? Is this from the mating?”
“I thought that at first, but I don’t think so, babe.”
“At least you aren’t calling me sugar anymore.”
“I think we’ve moved beyond that now, don’t you think?” She stared at him for a while, amazed at how far he’d gone to help her since he’d found her. She had killed one of his kind, his friend, with little to no understanding about what had happened. His friend. Yet, he seemed far more concerned about her. No one had ever done that for her and she didn’t know what to do with that.
“At least the claws retracted.”
“I’m surprised they stayed out as long as they did. They don’t generally pop out and stay out. They require you to flex your forearms or, in the case of a fully shifted cougar, the muscles of their forelegs and then immediately retract when you are no longer flexing.”
She lifted her hand from the water to look at it; her nails looked short and trim just as before. There was no sign of broken skin or trauma at all. “Why did mine stay out?”
“Hon, I have never seen anyone go through a partial shift like you did. More than likely you went into shock. Your body was so tense I could hear your racing heartbeat and rushing blood. It scared me.”
What a remarkable thing, her big strong mate who was the deadliest predator in the mountains of North Carolina, and he had been scared for her. “Sitting here looking at the fur and the big teeth is scaring me. What am I now? Am I going to turn into a cat? Will I ever be human again?”
“I don’t have all the answers, this is new to me, but I do have a theory.” He hesitated before going on. “What do you know about your father?”
Her head snapped back at his statement, she hadn’t been expecting that at all. “My father? Why?”
“I don’t think this change came from our mating. There is no precedent for mating to alter DNA that much. Lucas mated with a non-shifter and nothing like this happened. He wasn’t the first to mate outside the clan, but it has been decades since anything like that has happened and there are stories...legends actually.”
She had a feeling where he was headed, but waited for him to tell her. She wasn’t sure she could wrap her brain around what he wanted to say.
“As a young boy I heard stories, fairy tales I thought, about what happened one time when a shapeshifter left the clan for the woman he loved. They married and moved to an isolated area of the country, but there was news brought in occasionally and one day an announcement of a birth. As you can imagine—or maybe not—this was not welcome news. The council wanted to send a death enforcer, my grandfather to be exact, to take care of the problem.”
Lulled by his voice and the need to touch him, she eased her way into his lap. When she snuggled her head against his chest she was rewarded with a soft purr, a sound she would never get tired of.
“So, what happened?”
“My grandfather refused, causing a huge rift between our family and the clan council that lasted through the decades.”
“But what about the baby?”
“There were rumors that he was born half human and half cougar, unable to shift fully to one or the other.”
She sat up in shock. “You think I’m going to be stuck like this? Is that what you are telling me?”
“Whoa, calm down. That’s not what I’m saying at all. Every shifter who reaches transformation has to be taught how to shift. It takes a lot of concentration and practice before it becomes second nature.”
“Kane, I don’t want to be like this forever.” Shivers raced across her skin as her entire body shook in the fear of never being able to go in public again.
“Then let’s get you shifted.” He pushed her gently off his lap. “Take a seat and get comfortable. In order for this to work you’ve got to slow your heart rate again and relax.”
Despite the tension she felt she sat back and did her best to relax, taking in as much air as she could, holding it briefly and then exhaling on a nice slow count.
“Close your eyes and concentrate. Try counting backwards from twenty while picturing your normal appearance.”
She started counting. Ten...and thought about running...nine...long black hair...eight...the smooth skin of her stomach slicked with sweat when she did her sit ups...seven...six...five...four...three...Kane’s tongue stroking bare flesh from her toes to her neck...two...kissing and biting her mates neck...one.
She slowly opened her eyes to Kane’s wide grin and sparkling eyes. She looked down at her arm and saw her furless skin back. She laughed and leapt into his arms. “Thank you.” She pressed her lips to his open mouth and he grabbed her on a snarl before plunging his tongue inside her mouth, twirling and touching everywhere. She sighed against him so glad to be normal again and in the arms of the man she loved.
When his cock bulged against her belly, she pulled herself away. He had saved her, cared for her, and now loved her, and she wanted nothing more than to return some of that. “I want to taste you.”
“Smart ass. That’s not what I meant and you know it.” She watched him stare at her, looking for something she didn’t know. Finally he pulled himself from the water and sat on the ledge of the tub so she could kneel on the seat he’d occupied and have her way.
Looking at the swollen crown and thick shaft, she licked her lips in anticipation. She settled in place between his legs and wrapped her hand around his length, stroking the veins that ran along the underside.
Her lips parted as she dipped down, opening for her mate. Her tongue curled around the head of him, licking him over and over. God, he tastes like the outdoors and sunshine, glorious warm sunshine.
His dick twitched and he groaned long and loud. “Jesus, Lara, how am I supposed to last when you touch me like that?”
She smiled around him and continued to explore, taking a little bit more inside her mouth as she went. She grew wet with excitement, preparing her for what would come later. The thought of him entering her in one smooth move to the hilt made her suck harder until he cried out. She licked the length as she moved up and down and suckled, her own body aching to be filled. Every snarl and grunt Kane made vibrated against her clit, driving her mad with need.
He seemed to grow larger with each new pulse until he stretched her mouth impossibly. When his hands threaded through her hair and pulled her farther onto his cock, she moaned around him. His hips bucked, forcing the tip to the back of her throat, and her skin burned from the force of which he held her hair. God, she loved this feeling. If she could just...
With her free hand, she reached between her legs, circling through the slick folds before rubbing against the hard nub begging for attention.