I remembered being where he was, but the first time I saw a fellow shifter was a week after my infection. I’d been stuck in cat form for days, and I was starting to wonder if I’d only imagined ever being human.
Robyn made a soft cooing sound deep in her throat, and Morris’s tense frame relaxed a little. He knew that sound—that gentle chorus of comfort and acceptance—though he’d likely never heard it before that moment. He reached out to her with one trembling hand.
She stepped forward and pressed the top of her fur-covered head against his palm, like a giant house cat demanding to be petted. He ran his hand over her head and as far down her spine as he could reach without moving. Wonder played across his flushed features.
“Who are you?” he whispered.
Robyn brushed the side of her face across the outside of his left thigh, marking him with a trace of her scent. Labeling him as a friend.
Irritation shot up my spine. “Robyn,” I snapped. She didn’t have permission to bond with my new tom.Iwas supposed to help him through the transition.Iwas the one he needed to trust and depend on.
I had to establish my authority over and responsibility for him from the very beginning.
Yet that wasn’t why I’d snapped at her.
She hadn’t markedmeas a friend. She’d hardly even touched me, and I’d given her sanctuary. All Corey Morris had done was stare at her in a fevered haze.
I recognized the irrationality—the blatant envy—of my own thought even as Robyn turned to blink lazily at me. She seemed unmoved by my irritation, but I heard the spike in her heartbeat. Try as she might to hide it, her instincts responded to displeasure from an Alpha.
You could beherAlpha, a traitorous voice whispered from deep inside me.Or you could just be hers…
I dislodged that thought with a single shake of my head. “Come out of there. What are you doing here?”
“Who is she?” Morris whispered as Robyn padded toward me. He knew she was female, and he knew she was a who, not a what. But he didn’t seem to knowhowhe knew any of that.
“Corey Morris, this is Robyn Sheffield. She’s a stray. Like you.” Well, notentirelylike him.
“Like me?” Morris frowned. “Is this a dream? This doesn’t feel real.”
In my experience, there were two types of newly infected strays. The first responded to their own transitional state with fear and aggression, snapping and hissing at anyone who came close. Even in human form. Even before they understood the nature of the infection.
The second kind reacted with disbelief, confusion, and—often—the fear that they were losing their minds. Morris, thankfully, seemed to be the second kind. He might be harder to convince, but he’d be easier to handle. At least physically.
“This is real. She has the same infection you have. So do I. This is what it does to you.” I nodded at Robyn. “What it turns you into. You can choose to accept that, along with both the advantages and disadvantages your new life brings. Or you can fight it, and live the rest of your life in misery.”
His focus slid from me to her. “I don’t understand. Why do you have a panther?”
“She’s not a panther. ‘Panther’ isn’t a species.”And I certainly don’thaveher.Alas. “Robyn?” I said, and she turned to look up at me. “Would you like to demonstrate?”
At first, she only blinked at me silently. Then her head bobbed, and she made a soft purring sound, evidently pleased to have been asked.
“Holy shit.” Morris’s eyes widened until I worried that they might pop from his skull. “Did the cat answer you?”
“Yes, and that’s the most succinct answer I’ve ever gotten out of her,” I said.
Robyn snorted. Then she padded into the space in front of the stairs and stared at the floor.
“Wha…?” Morris’s question faded into nothing when he heard the first gristly pop.
A low groan rumbled from Robyn’s throat, and a ripple of popping sounds washed over her body as her joints began to dislocate. As her bones began to shorten and elongate, accommodating their individual transformation.
“What the hell?” Morris backed up until his legs hit the side of the bed, but his gaze stayed glued to Robyn as all over her body, fur began to recede into her skin, like grass growing in reverse. “Seriously, man, what thefuck? What did you put in my IV bag?”
“You’re not hallucinating, Corey,” I said as Robyn’s groaning reached a higher pitch. “This is real. What’s happening to her will happen to you soon. Maybe as early as a couple of hours from now, but definitely by tonight. It’s a natural transition, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Or comfortable.”
“What’s happening to her?”
Robyn lay on the floor on her side, writhing in pain as her skeleton broke itself apart and knitted itself back together. As her joints realigned and her muscles stretched and bunched to fit the new structure.
