little worried that he wouldn’t like the disorder. He didn’t comment on it, though.
Once I was behind the screen, he said, “Lena, please forgive me for this. I don’t know how else to show you. Just stay behind the screen and everything will be fine.”
I nodded, though he could probably barely see it behind the latticework.
Bay began to breathe deeply, then dropped to his knees.
At first it was subtle. His arms looked longer, and his ears seemed to be sharpening.
Then he growled and the pace picked up. His skin began to be covered in some type of orange cloth, and his eyes got much bigger.
My eyes closed of their own accord, because my mind was unable to reconcile everything I had every learned with the transformation happening right in front of me. It couldn’t be a hologram, could it, or some kind of weird 3-D projection technology?
When I fully opened my eyes, there was a tiger in the cage, and I knew it had all been real.
The tiger didn’t seem to bear any resemblance to my soft-spoken boyfriend. It ran around the cage, scratched at the walls, and pawed at the ceiling, leaping the length of the basement in great bounds. It was gorgeous, but scary.
And then it spotted me.
I shrank back toward the wall as the tiger lunged for me. It could barely slip one of its paws through the bars. I would have had no idea that the tiger’s front legs were so long, but it reach all the way to the latticework, which it scratched, a hunger in its eyes.
I quivered. “Bay!”
It didn’t seem to respond, but the paw did come back for a brief moment.
“God,” I shuddered, “Bay, please don’t hurt me.”
The tiger backed off, and curled up in the middle of the room. Once again, my eyes shut of their own accord. My fight-or-flight response was kicked up to the maximum, but it would have been impossible for me to fight that beast. And flight also wasn’t really an option, as I was loathe to leave the relative safety of my latticed cocoon.
“Lena,” Bay called to me softly.
I realized that I was crying.
“It’s ok, Lena. You’re safe.”
A few more sobs escaped my throat as I shrank down to the floor.
“You’re safe, Lena. You’re safe.”
When Bay came out to kneel beside me, stroking my hair and my back, I truly started crying.
“You’re safe,” he whispered to me, “You’re safe.
XIII.
When I was finally able to look at Bay, I was lying with my head on his thighs and he was cradling my face in his gentle hands.
“I’m so sorry, Lena.”
I took a deep breath.
“You were scared, weren’t you?”
I nodded.
“Maybe that was wrong. I’ve never been someone’s first exposure, but I was afraid you’d do something and end up hurt. More than that, I was afraid that I’d be the one to hurt you.”
My voice returned. “Is that what would happen if I stayed the night?”
He nodded. “As you can tell, even now it’s not particularly easy for me.”
I straightened up and saw that Bay had an enormous hard-on. He’d thrown on the boxers and pants again, but it was perfectly obvious.
I sat back against the wall.
“So what are we supposed to do?”
“The sun is almost up, so just go out to Connecticut and start your workday. Then don’t contact me until I let you know that it’s safe. I’m so horny right now, and the intensity is really building.”
“You’re worried that I’ll get hurt if I stay.”
“No. You will most definitely get hurt if you stay.”
Despite the fact that my knees were still shaking with terror, it wasn’t easy to go. The human Bay was back with me, and though he was strong, he was definitely gentle.
But we were in a different world now, and he was the one who knew the rules.
XIV.
It was when we were nearly to the door that I changed my mind. Too much had happened, and Bay was the kindest person (or being?) that I’d ever met. I knew he would have to help me through it. I took a deep breath. "I'm not leaving."
"What do you mean?"
"I want to stay here. With you."
"Lena, it's not safe."
"That's what Raya kept telling me, and I don't care. I've never met anyone like you, Bay. I'm not leaving."
"You have to believe me. I would like nothing better than for you to stay, but it isn't safe."
"I don't care."
"I know that. But I couldn't bear it if I hurt you. Don't you get that, Lena? It would destroy me."
"But can't I watch out for myself?"
"Even in this cage, I'd be worried."
He drew away.
"Sorry, it's been years since I've had cause to explain this to anyone." He rubbed his neck.
"Basically, the shifter part of me has a level of lust that nearly overtakes my brain. Right now, it's taking everything I have not to either shift, or have sex that's way too rough for a human to handle. I'm not sure how long I'm going to be able to keep this up."
"Um, isn't there a way for you to take care of that, though?"
"Not with you, Lena. That's what I'm saying. Carl slipped me something to help me get through the night, but it's wearing off now. And really, those potions are supposed to be a last resort."
He did look pale. And while I wasn't looking, the hard-on underneath his pants had sprung right back up. The dark fabric could do nothing to disguise it.
"I could step out for a while if you wanted to, you know, take care of that."
This got a strained grin from Bay. "Jerk off, you mean? A nice thought, but that's not going to do it. In fact, at this point, it would probably just make things worse."
"Why?"
"Well, this is the longest I've ever gone. Since we started dating, I thought that making use of, well, my hand, might be enough. But the urges are too powerful for that."
I sighed. "So you'll find someone."
Bay lowered his head. "If there were another way, I'd use it. But I feel trapped."
It took as much effort as I could muster not to start crying again.
"Look," said Bay, a little more gently. "I know you were planning on going to the office today to work on your reports. So why don't you head out that way. Come back here in the afternoon."
I nodded. "Ok."
XV.
The trains run slow on Saturdays, and I was exhausted. It wasn't until I registered that I was walking home that I realized I wouldn't be on the 5:30 from Grand Central.
Heck, even if I did get the train, I'd probably fall asleep and wake up in a random little Connecticut town.
Oh well. I'd promised Lakisha, but there was no point in going to the office just to drag her down. She'd probably be more productive without me.
Crying was tempting, but as saddened as I was by Bay's revelation, I was also fascinated. It stirred something in me. He'd been so strong in his tiger form, so dominant. And there was some part of me that cried out that marvelous Weretigers existed. Even my mother believed that. She used to tell me a bedtime story about a Weretiger who fell in love with a human man, and how their romance overcame all obstacles.
Of course, things might not actually work that way in the real world. But my feet were taking me home, and I decided that the best thing to do now would be to eat, sleep, and think it over. Maybe in the afternoon, when I went to visit Bay, I'd be prepared to hear more.
In the meantime, I needed a nap.
XVI.
They hadn’t even bothered to go to the bedroom. It was probably because I was supposedly at work. But once I opened the door to the apartment, I saw it all.
Raya’s body was splayed across the table. The breakfast table where I eat every day. I couldn’t see all of her body, because she wasn’t facing me.
There was a man thrusting into her. And even though I could only see the back of him, I knew instantly that it was Bay.
And that was when my body forced itself into a new shape.
All I could feel was a sort of itching in my hands and feet, and then a great pain. My shoes were hurting, my clothes weren’t fitting. I managed to get the shoes off, but the clothes just split as a tiger’s form took the place of my once-ordinary body.
I flew across the room, growling at the pair of them, ready to attack. But instead of facing two humans in the throes of passion, I ended up eye to eye with two tigers. One of them was larger, the other smaller but fast. They crashed into the kitchen and I followed, only to be pinned down by the smaller one. The large one nipped at me.
And in this moment of terror, I became myself again. Naked, cold, and angry.
There is a drawer with tablecloths, and I wrapped myself in one.
Apparently the others were doing better with their clothing. They simply changed. And Raya, for once, seemed absolutely cowed. I heard her close the door to her room and lock it.
Bay walked over to me.
“I’m sorry. I couldn’t hold it back.”
“You couldn’t just get someone to jerk you off instead?” I was not going to take any of his excuses.
He seemed to be having trouble breathing. “The urges are too strong. Now that you’ve transformed, you’ll realize that.”
This was not the answer I was looking for, and he seemed to figure that out.
“I had no idea that you could even transform, Lena! This must have been new to you, too?”
The fact that my body had just morphed to and from a crazy tiger’s form was secondary. I was focused on something entirely different.
“So you ‘needed’ sex. Why with my damn sister?”
He began to raise his voice. “Who else can I trust? She wouldn’t want anything from me, just to help me get it out so I can go back to being her sister’s boyfriend.”
“And others would want something?”
“Females
Saved by my Weretiger Page 5
