“No, no eating the other shifters,” Cam said, scooping her up, but didn’t his dumbass see? She wasn’t running for Birdie. She was running for Cam!
“Save me, help me, protect me,” she chanted mindlessly as she scrambled up his torso to his shoulder. “Oh my God, it’s you. You were in my house! You were the size of a soccer ball.”
Lance frowned. “She weighs like three ounces.”
“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh,” she choked out as Cam tried to pry her off him.
“What the hell, lady! Get off me!”
“I want them to leave. I need them to go. I can’t do rodents. I don’t do rodents!”
Cam forcefully pried her body off him and settled her into the snow, where she wiggled and fought under his impossibly strong grasp.
“Let me get this straight,” he barked. “Stop! Let me get this straight,” he tried again. “You’re a cat shifter afraid of rodents?”
“Terri…terri…terrified!” she wailed, struggling to get away from him. She could run to the woods. She could run away! “I have to call the shuttle. I have to call the shuttle back.”
“Lady. Lady! Stop clawing at me! God, you’re strong. Stop!” The order in his voice froze Moira into place. “Look at me. Hey,” he gritted out, yanking her chin roughly to him. “You’re going to go on this tour. You’ve paid and I’m not doing the refund shit.” He twitched his head toward a very confused looking Birdie. “She isn’t going to Change.” Over his shoulder, he called, “You aren’t going to Change, right?”
“I still have a stomachache from the last Change,” Birdie answered. “No thank you. I won’t have to Change for another week.”
“Great,” Cam said, his eyes blazing like gold magma straight through Moira’s soul. “So, for now, you can forget the hamster. She’s just a woman, and her dude is just a human, and I’m justa man who doesn’t need to Change either. And you’re just a woman who doesn’t have to Change, right?”
“R-r-right.” Why was she shaking so badly?
“Fantastic. Now go get on your ATV, and remember what I taught you, and let’s go have an adventure.” He sighed. “Listen to the truth in my voice. I will keep you safe.”
The tension faded little by little from her body. Her breath was still fast, and her heart was racing, and she was shaking, but she could think straight again. “I don’t want to be beside her.”
“I don’t care,” he assured her. “Lance, can you stay between the girls?”
“Sure?” Lance called.
“Great. Hey,” Cam said releasing her shoulders. “Let’s have a little more fun, and a little less shitshow, okay?”
Moira nodded and then meandered over to her ATV backwards, so she didn’t have to give her back to the hamster.
“Hey,” Birdie called in a chipper tone. “A bear, a cat, and a hamster walk into a bar—”
“No,” Moira said.
The rest of the joke died in Birdie’s throat and she pouted.
Cam snorted, but Moira saw nothing funny about any of this.
It was Valentine’s Day, the worst day of the year, and this year proved to be the very worst one yet.
Chapter Two
Cam looked over his shoulder for the twentieth time. Not at the couple behind him, but at the pretty cat shifter trailing far back. God, she was pretty. Feisty as hell, but a looker for sure.
Her eyes were this frosty color that sat between bright green and nearly white, and her pupils were elongated. They’d been lightened since the second she’d found out the other rider…Birdie he thought her name was…was a hamster shifter.
Geez, he hadn’t even realized hamster shifters existed. Cats were rare enough, but rodent shifters? This was news to him.
Birdie and her human, Lance, seemed happy and excited just to be spending time together. There was a newness to their relationship that he could sense.
The cat shifter didn’t like them much, but he got the feeling she didn’t like many people. Interesting.
