I scowl at him. “I did get some shifter magic when that lady touched me, though. I can’t quite tell what kind.” I flex my hand and try to focus on the magic to see what it is.
“Shift and find out.”
“I guess I could. Maybe it’s something small so you can carry me in your arms while you walk the rest of the way,” I say as I pass him the book and then will my body to shift.
The shift is so smooth that there’s just a slight swelling of magic in my body before I tear right through my clothes and land on four hooves.
Kit stares at the monstrosity I’ve just become, which means that I get to seeall of it. “Hell no,” I say, although I’m not quite surehowI’m talking when I’m not opening my mouth.
“HA! How sparkly! You radiate sparkles.” Torin cackles. “I’ve always wanted to ride a unicorn.”
And without waiting, he leaps onto my back just as I’m shifting back into a human because there is absolutelynofucking way I’m going to be seen with a rainbow tail and iridescent coat that seems to shed sparkles.
Torin ends up straddling me when I return to my very naked human form on my hands and knees on the side of the road. Of course, that’s when the third car pulls up. The driver takes one look at the grown man riding on the back of another man who is wearing exactlynoclothes before taking off. And because Kit is standing off to the side, I get to see the wonder the man witnessed before leaving.
“That one was definitely a serial killer, but he was intimidated,” Torin decides while I attempt to smack him off my back.
“Get. Off. Me!”
Of course he doesn’t because he’s a stubborn man. “Just shift back!”
“I’m not fucking shifting back!” I insist, collapsing onto the road so he’s given no choice but to remove himself from my back. “I’m going to lie right here and die of shame. How delightful that there is a ditch you can roll my body into.”
“You are so ridiculous,” he says as he scrapes me off the road and places my naked body on my feet. “Go on now, shift back. I’ll give you lots of pats if you do. And an apple.”
“I don’t want your pats,” I snap.
Torin coaxes, “I’ve carried you for many miles. Carry me.”
“I don’t want to. It’s humiliating.”
“I didn’t find it humiliating carrying you. I really enjoyed feeling you pressed against me.”
“Then you can enjoy it for the remaining two miles.”
“I would, but… I think I hurt my ankle,” he says. “I… I can’t even put weight on it. Look at it.” He pulls up his pant leg while doing some weird hop thing.
I stare at his perfectly normal-looking ankle. “Looks fine.”
“Well, it doesn’t feel fine. Please? It’s not like you have any clothes anyway.”
Which… is the sad truth. I’m used to the werewolf magic that transforms my clothes so they reappear once I shift back. I wasn’t expecting to go fully nude after this traumatizing experience. I pick up the scraps of clothes to pull out my wallet and phone and pass them to him, deciding he can carry them as well as my ass.
But of course Torin is relentless. “Please? For me? I miss my mount so much and this would make me feel closer to him.”
I gawk at the man who’s guilting me into becoming a four-hooved monstrosity. Yet here I am, shifting back into a goddamn horse for him. He’s all smiles as he pats my cheek, tugs my forelock, and flicks my ear back and forth.
“You should lock this magic in.”
“Why yes, I’m going to just chuck out my super overpowered ice magic and trade it to become a horse,” I say, still not sure how I’m communicating, but Torin seems to be able to hear me.
“Look how sparkly your tail is. Do you sweat sparkles or something?” He’s now behind me swishing my tail back and forth, just when I thought this couldn’t get any more humiliating.
“Just climb on and let’s get this over with.”
“You’ve got some big balls,” he says before squeezing one. “They’re so fuzzy!”
That makes me jump, not having expected a random grope.
