Well fuck.
The ‘other person’ was really ‘the other were-cat’, if the rounded cat ears and gigantic fluffy tail were any indicator, and he was fuckingbeautiful.
Of course he was.
“Checking in?” The other man asked in a soft, light voice, his strong hand still holding onto Felix’s.
Felix sniffled for another minute, looking down at strong, muscled fingers wrapped around his shaking, claw-tipped digits. A box of tissues appeared in his watery peripheral. He grabbed three & started cleaning up his face, even though he really didn’t want to let go of that stranger’s hand, which had just suddenly become his unexpected lifeline.
“Y-yeah,” he managed, between tissues. “Yeah, I guess I am.”
#
RAGOUT FOR TWO
There was a rabbit hiding in the brush. Aspen could smell it. He hadn’t hunted properly in a while. He’d been too busy with renovations at the inn. It had consumed him entirely for months now.
Not that he minded. The inn washisand that’s what mattered. He’d worked hard for it and would continue to do so for as long as it took. Though he wouldn’t mind a day off now and then.
His stomach rumbled at the scent of the prey creature & he licked his lips. How long had it been since lunch?
His body informed him:too long.
The were-leopard glanced around, thunking his axe down into the log wheel he’d been splitting wood on top of. It was cool out, but his body was sweating. He peeled off his flannel, tossing it over the ever-shrinking tree he’d felled a few days earlier. His suspenders followed and he quickly slipped out of his sweat-soaked t-shirt.
Mopping off his face & chest, his rounded cat ears twitch in the direction of the rabbit’s little shuffling sounds again.
Fuck it, there was no one around; part of the beauty of the property he’d chosen.
He sat on the tree trunk to unlace his boots, anticipation sharpening his fingernails as he did so, making the unlacing a bit of a delicate process. Kicking them off, he twitched his ears around, checking one last time for onlookers before shimmying out of his pants. Their loose slide-thwumpdown onto his boots was mildly stalled as he pulled his tail free from the custom-fitted hole in the rear.
The cool air shivered over his skin, heavily-muscled legs tensing and bunching with excitement, the sudden cold perking up his nipples & making his cock shrink rapidly. His tail tip twitched.
“Yeesh! Definitely going to snow later,” he muttered, rubbing up and down his arms as he danced around for a moment, waiting for his fur to sprout.
Shifting was second nature, but sometimes his body had to be remindedwhichnature he wanted in the moment.
The teeth came first, sharp points pushing through sensitive gums and he shook his head, winceing. A hiss escaped him as his body hair sprouted with increasing rapidity, grey, white, and black fur replacing the much-less-obvious human hair in a thicklayer. His bones shrank and he let out a little yowling cat’s growl as he fell to all fours, claws digging in to the frozen earth as his spine arched and his knees popped loudly and suddenly in the opposite direction.
Aspen was thankful for what was perhaps the billionth time that his shift wasn’t painful….just really unpleasantlyvisceral.
The number one question from non-shifters on forums was always the same: What does itfeellike to shift?
Aspen always kept his answer simple: WEIRD AS FUCK. It was hard to describe what it felt like to have your organs and bones rearranging themselves inside your body,while you were conscious.
Now, fully shifted into his snow leopard form, he shook himself vigorously, long tail becoming extra floofy as he resettled back into his bones. One adorably rounded ear twitched, listening for his prey and a paw lifted as he shifted, ready to take off in any direction at a moment’s notice.
The tip of his tail moved mildly as he waited, almost frozen in place, if you didn’t count his overly active senses taking in the environment around him. The spicy scent of pine and fir hit him in a pleasant wave, undertones of musty leaf litter and the sweet smell of maple leaves following. He opened his mouth, huffing in the crisp, cold air, seeking that one smell above all others:dinner.
A tiny noise caught his attention & he padded silently in that direction. He circled, keeping downwind. He moved slowly, patiently, his black and white fur blending in surprisingly well with the dusky shadows of the forest greenery around him.
Another tiny noise, a snuffling that would have been inaudible to non-shifter ears.
He froze mid-step, luminous blue eyes fixated on a spot in the underbrush mere feet away from him. One more slow step, thenfreeze. Another step… He gathered his feet beneath himself, head low, ears forward as his muscles bunched to spring.
The rabbit in question sat up suddenly, munching on a fallen leaf, its long, velvety ears flopping lazily this way & that as it listened for predators. It froze mid-chew, and Aspen thought it was about to spring away, but it merely dropped back down to snuffle out another tasty-looking leaf.
The snow leopard pounced, jaws closing swiftly on its prey, quickly cutting off that horrible cry rabbits made when they died.
