“No, I still don’t think you’re a freak,” he said softly. “If anything, it’s like you’re some kind of werekitty. These claws of yours are exactly like what I would expect to see on a person who’s part cat.”
Dreya snorted. “You’re more right than you think. According to Kendra and Lucy, I’m a feline shifter. Somehow, there’s cat DNA in my genetic makeup.”
He looked up from her hands, regarding her casually. “A shifter, huh?” He grinned. “I like that word better than freak.”
Braden didn’t let go of her hand but instead gently massaged her fingers and lightly traced her claws. It feltreallygood.
But to her utter disappointment, a moment later, he let go of her hand and went back to his pizza.
“You didn’t answer my question,” he reminded her. “Were you born like this? Did your mom have to deal with little baby Dreya shredding her blankey and chewing her pacifier to pieces?”
Dreya couldn’t help but laugh at the image as she let her claws retract. “No, it doesn’t work that way. I was a normal seventeen-year-old girl until, one night, I woke up from a really bad dream and tasted blood on my tongue. I ran to the bathroom and discovered I had a mouth full of fangs, which just happened to perfectly match the claws on my fingers and toes.”
Braden did a double take. “Claws on your toes, too? I never thought of that. It must have scared the hell out of you.”
Dreya nodded, remembering the night vividly. She’d been sure she was going insane—or turning into a monster. “Understatement there. I completely lost it. I yowled so loud, I sounded like a cat on crack.”
“What happened when your parents saw you like that?”
“Nothing, because they never did.”
“They didn’t hear you scream?”
“They heard.” She took a bite of pizza and chewed. “By the time they came rushing in, the fangs and claws were gone, and I was standing in front of the bathroom mirror with a dazed look in my eyes and gashes on my tongue. My parents were worried less about the blood in my mouth than all the crazy screaming I’d been doing. They were worried I was on drugs and tried to pierce my tongue. It took me an hour to convince them I had a nightmare and bit myself. I left out the part about the claws and fangs, of course.” She shook her head at the memory. “I was terrified they were going to pop out the whole time my mom and dad were in my room, and they’d think I was a vampire or something.”
He reached into the box for another slice of pizza. “And you never told them? Not even after that first time?”
“No.” She sighed. “My parents are conservative. They both come from old money, and they both went to Ivy League schools. They’re very comfortable in their routines, whether it’s the people they associate with, the foods they eat, or even the kind of books they read. I’m not sure how they would have dealt with finding out that their only child was a freak.”
When Braden shot her a sharp look, Dreya shrugged. “At the time, it’s how I looked at myself. How would you see yourself if you woke up one day and had claws and stuff? I thought I was living a nightmare.”
Braden picked up his bottle of beer and took a swig. “So you kept a secret like that to yourself? Didn’t you at least have a sister or brother or a friend you could tell?”
She took a deep breath, transported back to those first weeks. “I don’t have any brothers or sisters. There were a couple of girlfriends at school I almost told, but every time I got close to spilling my secret, one of them would start gossiping about something they heard about someone, and I was afraid to trust them with anything this big.
“But then I went into a jewelry shop to pick up a custom necklace my mom had ordered. The owner and I started talking, and the next thing I knew, I was sitting in his office, crying my eyes out and telling him everything.”
“Rory,” Braden supplied.
“Yeah, Rory.” She gave Braden a small smile. “He listened to a teenage girl rant and rave for hours without complaining once. He talked me off the figurative ledge I was standing on at the time and saved my life. Even though he knew nothing about shifters, he figured out how to help me learn to control my abilities.”
“How so?”
“Well, for one thing, he taught me relaxation techniques to help keep my claws and fangs from coming out at the wrong time. He coached me on when to shift my eyes so I can see even better in the dark than I normally can and, more importantly, when not to shift them.”
Braden lifted a brow. “Your eyes look like a cat’s, too? Show me.”
Other than Rory, no one else had ever seen her eyes change. Heck,she’dnever seen them. But instead of being nervous and self-conscious like she’d been in the gym earlier, Dreya was excited by the idea of sharing that part of herself with Braden.
Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes, then opened them. On the other side of the table, Braden’s face filled with wonder.
“Damn,” he breathed. “That is so frigging cool.”
Dreya wasn’t sure, but she might have blushed a little at the compliment. “They glow brighter green in the dark, which is why Rory said I needed to be careful.”
“What else did he teach you?”
“How to put a filter on my sense of smell and hearing so I wouldn’t go crazy from the overwhelming scents and sounds that most people never even know are there.” She let out a wistful sigh. “I think I would have gone insane without him and what he taught me about myself.”
