Page 24 of Colton’s Mate

Fur rippled down his arms again, and then his hands turned to talons.

“Fuck,” Callie whispered.

She kicked open the emergency exit and pulled him out into the cool night air. An alarm went off, but he barely noticed.

She dragged him away from the door and around the back, where a few cars were parked near the kitchen entrance. Including hers.

“Can you turn those talons back into hands?”

He shook his head.

His arms were still rippling. Now fur. Now feathers. Now fur again. His talons turned to paws and claws, then back to talons.

He tried to push her back against the car. “More kisses,” he rasped. Callie kisses would fix him.

“This is so not good,” Callie said. She pushed his hands away, dug her keys out of her pocket and clicked the fob, unlocking the car doors. By that time she had to push his hands away again. “No more kisses, hot stuff. Get in the car. Now.”

He tried to, but his leopard suddenly burst out, ripping his clothes off his body. He stared at her. Callie. Mmmm. Pretty lynx. Fuzzy tufty ears. We saved her. Lick her all over.

He pounced on her and she landed on her butt on the ground. He licked her face. Mmm. Callie.

He started to purr.

“Are you high?” she whisper-screamed. “What if someone sees you? Change back! Shit, no, don’t, you’ll be naked. Get in the damn car!”

He tried to turn human but it didn’t work. His leopard wanted to lick Callie and his owl wanted to fly away with her, and suddenly he had a wing. One huge feathery wing coming out of his leopard’s back.

Callie’s eyes went huge. “CAR! NOW!”

She shoved him off her and opened the back passenger side door. “IN!” she commanded.

He’d made her mad now. If she was mad she wouldn’t pet him or let him lick her. Colt jumped in the back seat and tried to make himself very small. Kitten size. It didn’t work very well; he was still big and he had a giant owl wing and Callie could still see him and she was mad.

“STAY!”

She slammed the door, scooped up his tattered clothes and ran around to the driver’s side. Gunning the motor, she drove away.

Chapter 10

Callie headed away from the bar, trying not to hit anything while watching Colt in the rearview mirror.

He was mostly leopard, but he still had a freaking wing. And now a beak. With cat whiskers. And now a leopard face with owl ears.

This was bad. She’d never seen anything like it happen to a shifter before, but the very very badness of it was unmistakable.

Colt let out an ear-splitting owl shriek. And then a leopard snarl.

Shit, shit, shit. At least he wasn’t attacking her. Or purring and licking her to death. But what was she going to do with him?

His whole body was rippling now.

She saw a human chest, and then it went away but there was a human arm sprouting from a leopard chest. The single wing disappeared. Thank goodness for that—that was really weird.

This was all really weird.

Another car came around a curve and almost hit them because Callie was in the middle of the road. They honked. She gave them the finger.

“Don’t you get I’m busy here?” she yelled out the window. Geez. They should look where they were going.