Page 25 of Colton’s Mate

More human parts of Colt were coming back.

Callie drove automatically, not even realizing where she was going until she was there. Home.

“Shit,” she muttered, pausing in the driveway, motor still running. What was she thinking? “I should have taken you home. To your home, I mean. We’ll go there.”

She started to put the car in reverse, then stopped.

All his friends were probably still at the bar, which meant nobody would be there to take care of him.

She better keep him here until she was sure he was okay.

She pulled all the way in and put the car in ‘Park’, leaving the motor running and the heat still on. Parts of Colt were still Changing, but it seemed like his human form was gradually getting the upper hand.

Thank the lynx gods for that. This whole morphing between shapes thing was super-scary. She wondered uneasily what would happen if he couldn’t stop it. Could somebody die from that?

There was a final crack of bones and then Colt was fully human. He looked exhausted, hunching forward with his forearms folded on the back of the passenger seat, his head resting on them.

The sound of his labored breathing filled the car.

Finally, it started to ease. Callie put her hand hesitantly on his bare shoulder. “You okay?”

He raised his head wearily. “I think so.” His eyes looked hollow and shadowed.

“Geez, Colt, what was that?”

He leaned back and closed his eyes. His strong chest was streaked with sweat, and she tried not to look down between his legs. Because, rude to stare at the dick of a suffering man.

“Long story short,” he said, “Remy and I decided it would be cool if we could take on each other’s animals. We figured, being identical, we must both have the DNA for both animals. So we started experimenting.”

“And it didn’t work?” No, it must have. Colt had been an owl the night of the battle at the Crows’ Nest, at least part of the time. And Remy had been a leopard.

“No, it worked,” he confirmed. “We can both become both animals. Most of the time.”

“But… you can’t control it?”

“We could at first,” he said. “But you know how your animal works with you, but kind of has a mind and a personality of its own?”

“Yeah,” Callie said slowly.

“Well, the more we became our recessive animals, the stronger their personalities got. Until it didn’t matter if we were taking their shape or not—they just kept developing inside us. Only they’re more—independent than our natural animals. And they’re starting to fight.”

Callie didn’t quite get what he was saying. “Like, making you and Remy fight each other?” That shouldn’t be a big deal—they were both fairly dominant, and dominant shifters fought all the time.

“Sometimes. But more like, fighting us, and our natural animals, for control. They don’t want what we want, and they don’t seem to care about the people we care about. Or us, for that matter.”

“Ohhhh.” That was bad. She hesitated. “Are they trying to go rogue?”

“Maybe.”

Rogue shifters were a danger to everyone. At best, they were imprisoned. At worst, they could be put down. “Fuuuuuck,” Callie said. With feeling.

“My sentiments exactly.”

“It seems like you won this round?” she ventured.

“Not by much.” He went silent. Callie’s heart went out to him, and her respect for him went up a notch. It must have taken a lot of strength of will to drag himself back from the crazy.

She really wanted to reach back and touch him again, comforting him and his animal in the shifter way, but that felt too intimate. Especially because he was still naked.