“It’s okay, the goddess is fucking with me, ignore her,” I assure them, running my hands over his thick tiger fur. He really is gorgeous, white with black stripes and black tipped ears that are freaking adorable as he flicks them back and forth, searching for the source of the laughter.
“Not sure you should be talking about the goddess like that,” Liam says as he approaches me and tugs me back into his arms, giving me a kiss. “I don’t want to leave, but I know we have to. Promise me we’ll come back again.”
I melt into his arms, and Gryffin’s tiger paws at my leg, missing my delicate skin with his claws.
“Of course we can come back. You’ll sleep in my bed tonight?” I ask him, suddenly not so sure of what the protocol is, but I know I’m reluctant to let him out of my sight.
Liam beams at me. “You couldn’t keep me away. I’m sure your bed is probably big enough for all of us, right?” I think about my room, and although the bed is big, I’m not sure it will fit me and eight mates, but it’s definitely big enough for Liam, Hunter, and Micah, who won the earlier bet.
“Maybe not eight of us, but it’s fine for tonight,” I assure him before turning my attention to Gryffin, who is looking at me with round, pleading eyes.
I bend down and whisper in his ear. “You’ll get your turn soon,” I promise him, and it seems to do the trick. He spins and bounds off playfully, and Liam puts his hands on his hips and nods at me.
“Your turn.”
I’m slightly distracted by his beautiful body, but I shake my head and turn my attention to the task at hand. I find the deep well of magic inside me and picture Gryffin’s tiger in my mind. There’s a flash, and I squeeze my eyes shut. When I open them again, I’m bigger and furry and on four paws. My tail twitches behind me as I take my first careful step. A roar echoes around the cavern, and a flash of white comes barreling toward me.
“Fuck!” Liam shouts and quickly moves out of the way as Gryffin pounces on me, taking me to the ground where he pins me with his giant front paws and starts grooming me with his tongue. Long licks sweep across my nose and ears as he rumbles his happiness.
My butt twitches, and my tail flicks as my tiger considers wrestling him, but after a couple of strokes of his tongue, she settles down, happily enjoying the care her mate is showing her. What a freaking pushover. Though it could be worse, she could take a chunk out of him, and then I’d be stuck fucking Gryffin for the next however many hours. I can’t say I’m not tempted to give her a nudge, but I know we don’t have time. Damn my morals.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Liam grumbles and pushes Gryffin’s tiger, but he doesn’t move. “Jesus, dude, what the fuck have you been eating? You weigh a ton. Get off our mate. She needs to practice shifting.”
Gryffin gives me one more lick and releases me, prowling back and forth and nudging me with his head impatiently. I gingerly get to my feet, unsure of myself, but it all comes naturally. Just like being a polar bear in the water, being a tiger on dry land feels right. I take a step, testing myself, and when I don’t stumble, I take another. Gryffin stands next to me, his body brushing against mine like he’s going to catch me if I stumble. The two of us follow Liam back down the tunnel to the waterfall. Liam shifts into his bear and gives us both an affectionate headbutt before flinging himself into the water and disappearing. We pause at the edge of the pool, but when Gryffin just leaps in and starts paddling, we follow him, trusting the two of them will keep us safe.
My tiger swims just as well as my bear did. The giant, saucer-sized paws move through the water, propelling us forward. We close our eyes and lay our ears flat as we go under the rushing wall of water, but when we come out the other side, we blink owlishly at the bright light, shake our head, and keep going.
“Finally,” Brodie calls from the edge of the pool. Micah, Gem, Brodie, and Hunter are all seated under a tree, but at the sight of us, they stand up and come over.
“Nice, a tiger form too. That makes all but my dragon and Gem’s phoenix, but we will have to try them another day. I don’t think flying in the dark for the first time is the smartest idea, and we only have another hour of daylight.” Hunter looks up at the sky, and when I follow his gaze, I see the sun has dipped below the tree line. “We probably have enough time for you to change to the hydra and get a feel for it.”
I start to swim toward the edge, but Gem puts his hand up. “Why don’t you change in the water? The hydra is amphibious, so it should be just as at home in there as on land. Probably more so because its body is so large.”
Liam and Gryffin climb out and shift, and Brodie tosses them both a pair of shorts. My tiger licks her lips at the sight of their asses. She wouldn’t mind giving Gryffin a matching mate mark to Liam’s, but I manage to convince her to wait.
“Wow, you mated.” Brodie points at the silvery healed mark just before Liam covers it with his shorts, then to the one on his neck, whistling with wide eyes. “She really marked you up. There’s no mistaking that in the least. Congratulations, man, I’m so happy for you. How does your bear feel?” He grabs Liam and hugs him, and Liam beams at him with pride.
“My bear is the most settled he’s been in years,” he replies, rubbing his chest. “I feel… peaceful, and so fucking lucky.” He looks at me with hearts in his eyes, and my tiger wants to preen at his attention, but instead, I think about becoming the hydra. I can’t really picture it in my mind, but I pay attention to the biggest presence inside my well of magic and allow it to take over. Again, there’s a flash of light, and I close my eyes, but when I open them, my vision is distorted and multifocal, and it’s disorienting. I look down on the guys despite still being in the pool, and they all stare up at me with awe. My hydra body is huge and towers over them.
“Holy shit, a hydra. That’s incredible,” Micah mutters as he steps closer.
“Didn’t she only have six heads before?” Hunter asks, frowning at me, and Brodie nods.
“Yeah, she did. Now she has eight.”
“Well, she has eight mates now too. I think maybe it correlates,” Gem suggests, waving a hand at me. “Have a swim and then try to climb out. You need to get a feel for how that body moves. I’m not sure how helpful it will be in an enclosed environment. It would destroy most buildings, like Hunter’s dragon.”
I take his advice and swim around the pool. Thankfully it’s deep and wide so I can get used to the feeling of using this form in the water, but it’s still weird. All the heads seem to act independently of one another, and unlike my other forms, I am pushed right to the back of my consciousness, all eight minds taking over completely. I’m just along for the ride.
We finally emerge from the depths, lumbering up onto land to test our coordination. I find if I try to take over, there’s a lot of stumbling, and it’s kind of a disaster when we fall into a large tree, knocking it down, but if I let them do what they wish, it’s a lot more successful.
“Holy shit, she’s a fucking beautiful disaster,” Micah says after I untangle myself from the destroyed tree.
“Colbie.” Hunter approaches me, and one of my heads ducks down to nuzzle his chest. He startles and gapes at it for a moment before reaching up and scratching us between our eyebrow ridges. That head rumbles with pleasure, and all the other heads duck down to try and home in on the affection. “I can shift my dragon’s size at will to allow for smaller spaces. Why don’t you imagine yourself smaller? Hopefully you have the same kind of magic,” he suggests, chuckling as he tries to give each head a scratch.
Obviously my hydra understands what he is suggesting, because I feel a tingle of magic, and I’m suddenly much closer to the ground and everything seems bigger. Hunter smiles at us.
“Good girl,” he praises as the others approach.
